sufficient rigour. The author was twice banished, and finally was
compelled to make a public retractation in the Church of Notre Dame, for
having spoken against the king and the truth, and to be exiled to Mont-
Saint-Michel.

Translators of the Bible fared not well at the hands of those who were
unwilling that the Scriptures should be studied in the vulgar tongue by
the lay-folk, and foremost among that brave band of self-sacrificing
scholars stands William Tyndale. His life is well known, and needs no
recapitulation; but it may be noted that his books, rather than his work
of translating the Scriptures, brought about his destruction. His
important work called _The Practice of Prelates_, which was mainly
directed against the corruptions of the hierarchy, unfortunately contained
a vehement condemnation of the divorce of Catherine of Arragon by Henry
VIII. This deeply offended the monarch at the very time that negotiations
were in progress for the return of Tyndale to his native shores from
Antwerp, and he declared that he was "very joyous to have his realm
destitute of such a person." The _Practice of Prelates_ was partly written
in answer to the _Dialogue_ of Sir Thomas More, who was commissioned to
combat the "pernicious and heretical" works of the "impious enemies of the
Church." Tyndale wrote also a bitter _Answer_ to the _Dialogue_, and this
drew forth from More his abusive and scurrilous _Confutation_, which did
little credit to the writer or to the cause for which he contended
Tyndale's longest controversial work, entitled _The Obedience of a
Christian Man, and how Christian Rulers ought to govern_, although it
stirred up much hostility against its author, very favourably impressed
King Henry, who delighted in it, and declared that "the book was for him
and for all kings to read." The story of the burning of the translation of
the New Testament at St. Paul's Cross by Bishop Tunstall, of the same
bishop's purchase of a "heap of the books" for the same charitable