HAMILTON SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION 87 



than these do express the desire of Tyndale's heart. Such 

 an order of things had been the dream of his youth, and un- 

 selfish toil to make that dream a reality was to be the passion 

 of his life and glory of his death. 



Tyndale went to London in 1523, hoping that in further- 

 ance of his translation he might be appointed chaplain to the 

 bishop of London. His own words are : "In this bishop of 

 London's house I hoped to have done it." But he was 

 doomed to disappointment. The bishop's house was full ; 

 and Tyndale concluded that in praising Bishop Tunstall 

 Erasmus had been beguiled into "making of little gnats great 

 elephants." After half a year's residence in London with a 

 friendly cloth merchant, Tyndale made up his mind that his 

 plans could succeed only by going to Germany, as there alone 

 he was likely to find printers, help from friendly scholars, 

 and patrons. He was confirmed in his determination by 

 knowledge of the fact that up to the year of grace 1522, when 

 England had not a single printed Bible, no less than sixteen 

 German Bibles, from the Latin, had been printed by various 

 German printers. (Of these John Mentelin printed the first 

 at Strasburg in 1466.) And he also knew that, greater than 

 all the rest, Luther's New Testament had been brought out 

 at Wittenberg in September, 1522, Possibly Tyndale at that 

 time did not know that from the " queasy " times, Melchior 

 Lotter, Luther's printer, though in the safe latitude of 

 Wittenberg, did not venture to put his name to Luther's 

 epoch-making book. 



Tyndale arrived at Hamburg in May, 1524, and was 

 there again in April of the next year. In the eleven inter- 

 vening mouths he is said to have spent some time with 

 Luther. John Dobneck, whose Latinized name was 

 Cochlaeus, wrote the King of the Scots that Tyndale and a 

 companion were at that time at Wittenberg learning the 

 German language so that they could turn Luther's New 

 Testament to account in an English translation they would 

 print. Cochlaeus watched every step taken against the 

 church, and was so fiery a zealot that he once challenged 



