1520s: Peek at Cranmer's Education, Library & Early Views of Martin Luther

MacCulloch, Diarmaid. Thomas Cranmer: A Life. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996.

It is available at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-Life-Diarmaid-MacCulloch/dp/0300074484/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1378262768&sr=8-6&keywords=diarmaid+macculloch

In 1503, Mr. Cranmer took the standard Arts program. It took 8 years to complete, a “surprisingly long time.” It’s 1511 when he graduates at age 22. He worked in classical texts. In his 3rd year of the program, he had logic and the 4th philosophy. The emphasis on the classics “was precisely what annoyed Tyndale in 1530, impatient as he was to turn education toward the text of the Bible” (19).

Mr. Cranmer’s “embryonic library” was founded on “medieval texbooks” which he kept “amidst his magnificent later collections” (19).   Mr. MacCulloch's word, "magnificent" begs for elaboration, but we must move on. Some volumes:

• Peter of Spain’s Summulae Logicale, a text on logic
• Peter Tartaret’s commentary on Aristotle’s logic and philosophy
• Other commentaries on Aristotle
• Duns Scotus’ Questiones subtilissme. Mr. Cranmer’s volume was a 1497 edition. Unsurprisingly, it had “copious annotations” with “responses and objections” (20).

By graduation day for the B.A., he is listed with other notables: Thomas Goodrich, Hugh Latimer, John Lambert, Richard Astall and Richard Horne—the latter two becoming chaplains to Mr. Cranmer during his regency at Canterbury.

Of note, John Lambert would be burned at the stake in 1538 for being a “sacramentary,” that is, denying cannibalism (our fair word for it) at Holy Communion. This event would cause Cranmer's “admirers much embarrassment and heart-searching” (21). Indeed. 

The question lingers long: what did Cranmer believe, affirm and/or deny and when?  And here, more narrowly, what about Cambridge and the 1520s?

On the day of Mr. Cranmer’s graduation, another famous person would enter the story: Stephen Gardiner. (Gardiner will be buried as a Bishop inside Winchester Cathedral with a regal service during Mary’s burning times while Cranmer would go to the stake.) Gardiner will also be the man at the fateful meeting at Waltham in 1529, but we get ahead of ourselves.  Gardiner is another man warranting investigation.

In 1515, Mr. Cranmer completes his M.A. He was 26 years old. He studied arithmetic, music, geometry, Faber, Erasmus, and some “good Latin authors” (21). Another volume is in his library: the “mathematical treatise by the humanist polymath Jacques Lefevre d’Etaples" (Faber). Shortly after getting the MA, he was elected as a Fellow to Jesus College, although the exact date is “uncertain” (21).

The interlude with his first marriage occurs, an “abrupt trespass on a conventional career” (21). He was not ordained, but it caused his dis-Fellowship at Jesus. It was a “definite step down in the status-conscious world” (21). There is some obscurity on dates, including whether this was forced marriage or inconvenient pregnancy. But, she and the child died. Had she lived, Mr. Cranmer’s entry to the ministry would have been foreclosed.

“Snobbishly malicious glee” would characterize the imputation of being an “ostler,” or one living in an Inn. But, whatever that means, he returns to Jesus College and is re-admitted as a Fellow.

At this point, his life takes a “decisive turn for the future” (22). His post-graduate work is now theology. This would be about the same time that Luther’s writings “on indulgences were beginning to work themselves out on the international scale” (22).

Undoubtedly, Mr. Cranmer would learn of the conflict. “Cranmer considered `what great controversy was in matters of religion’ and ‘applied his whole study three years into the Scripture. After this he gave his mind to good writers both new and old…This kind of study he used till he was made Doctor of Divinity” in 1526” (22).

If our dates and information are correct, Mr. Cranmer is an MA from 1515 until 1526.  That means eleven years of labors in theology. By 1526, he is 37 years old when made a Doctor of Divinity. Commendable.

As an aside, we wonder what the requirements were for doctoral degrees at Cambridge in 1526?

Some things can be said:

• He did not study canon law. We offer this: Mr. Anthony Deane, another biographer, wrongly asserts that he [Cranmer] was a “canonist.”   Mr. Deane, an Honorary Canon of Worcester, offers no footnotes in his little volume.  We must dismiss this claim; it is unlikely that Mr. Cranmer was a "canonist." The school’s charter forbad “canon studies.”

• Rather, his specialty was biblical and theological studies. The “biblical character of theological study in Jesus was underlined by the provision of the college theological lectureship endowed for a Fellow of the College in 1512 by the civil servant Sir John Rysley” (23). The lectureship was “restricted to the Old and New Testaments” (23) and Mr. Cranmer held that lectureship.

Mr. MacCulloch asserts what other biographers note: “…there is so much that is not known about Cranmer’s nigh-on three decades at Cambridge” (emphasis added, 23). Ergo, efforts at filling the gaps are problematic (just as Mr. MacCulloch proceeds to fill the gap).

Again, we are talking about 1503-1529, but, more notably the 1520s, the days of intense and widening conflict over Lutheranism.

Enter Chancellor/Bishop John Fisher—a man who valued Aquinas, Scotus, “alongside those of modern humanist giants like Lorenzo Valla [who debunked the Papal Constantinian forgeries], Erasmus, and Pico della Mirandola” (23). Mr. Fisher is important because Cranmer will carefully study Mr. Fisher’s tango over Lutheranism. More below.

Mr. MacCulloch briefly suggests--interestingly--that Mr. Stephen Gardiner [faithful Marian Bishop of Winchester] may have had “more reformist” sympathies than Mr. Cranmer during the 1520s at Cambridge:

• In Feb., 1526, Gardiner helped the early English Reformer, Robert Barnes, an Augustinian Prior, craft a sophisticated “abjuration of Lutheran sympathies” (25). This needs further research.

• Further, Gardiner spoke up for another early English Reformer, George Joye, when “Wolsey’s officers” were investigating Lutheranism. So, we clearly infer that Lutheranism was becoming-big-time-problematic. We are getting some good details here from Mr. MacCulloch. We recollect that later Mr. Joye was a Bible translator who would tango with Tyndale on the Continent, but that postdates Mr. Gardiner’s intervention at Cambridge.

• Gardiner forewarned another early English Reformer, George Stafford, of an “impending prosecution” (25). Again, evidence that Lutheranism was roiling the environment in the 1520s.

Mr. MacCulloch notes Mr. Cranmer’s silence as over against Mr. Gardiner.

But we must be cautious about the conclusions.

Mr. MacCulloch does critique--perhaps justifiably so--admirers who conferred “retrospective honorary membership” to Mr. Cranmer for involvement in the White Horse Inn, e.g. Alfred Pollard, William Clebish, and Philip Edgcumbe Hughes (the latter being my revered Church of England professor).  We will continue to weigh this.

 Mr. MacCulloch then does a wonderful, albeit far too brief, service in reviewing Mr. Cranmer’s marginalia or annotations on Mr. Fisher’s attack on Luther in Fisher's Assertionis Lutheranae Confutatio.  This scholarly review is worth the price of the book (as well as his stated friends-list in the bibliography).

We are on track to get Mr. Fisher’s volume and review it, Deo volente. Mr. Cranmer’s edition of Mr. Fisher’s was dated 1523; this edition was published in Antwerp.  No doubt it was published in Latin and no doubt for review by Continental Romanists.  Mr. Fisher was an international scholar. So, what did Cranmer know, believe, affirm and/or deny and when? 

Clearly, Mr. Cranmer is studying Lutheranism. 1523 is the very earliest date for Cranmer's work on Mr. Fisher's volume; also, notably, although we digress, Mr. Tudor is pleased with Fisher's anti-Lutheran polemics (until his fall from Henry's good graces and you know what that means).

Some notes from Mr. MacCulloch on the marginalia by Mr. Cranmer on Mr. Fisher writing about Luther (did you get that sequence?):

• Cranmer uses “black ink” and “red ink,” indicating two different periods of time

• Cranmer critiques Fisher for an interpolation to Chrysostom’s text “suggesting that St. James the Great received his bishopric of Jerusalem from St. Peter” (26). Fisher gratuitously inserted the comment and Cranmer calls him on it, if only privately.

• The “red ink” offers “consistent criticisms of Fisher.” Mr. MacCulloch is not clear here. The suggestion is that the red ink is a later date.

• The “black ink” offers “gentle criticisms” of Fisher

• But, Cranmer offers “furious and horrified condemnations of Luther’s arguments”

• Mr. MacCulloch notes that it’s not so much Fisher’s arguments but Luther himself “which provokes Cranmer’s greatest emotion” (27)

• Cranmer says “Luther wantonly attacks and raves against the Pontiff” and “this malice grows worse” (27). We would add that Mr. Cranmer may be a bit late to the ballgame. Mr. Luther has been in the fight since 1517, had been banned, condemned by Emperor and Pope, and was battling for his very life.  Mr. Cranmer is Mr. Luther's junior by six years. But, it is here that the intersection between Mr. Cranmer and Mr. Luther must be explored.

• Cranmer says “…he [Luther] accuses a whole council of madness; it is he who is insane.” “He calls a most holy counsel impious; oh, the arrogance of a most wicked man” (27).

• Mr. MacCulloch throws these two gems out: “…a clutch of Cranmerian cheers from the sidelines as Fisher scores points against this hapless German opponent” so “here is Cranmer the papalist” (27). Clearly, we need much more from Mr. MacCulloch here for a full review of the marginalia; or, we need it from other scholars. Perhaps it is out there?

• These annotations are no later than 1532 and, by definition of the date in Cranmer's own volume, are no earlier than 1523.

• These are not “the emotional jottings of a youth” but from a “man who is at least thirty-four years old and more probably in his late thirties” (27). This is a weighty point by Mr. MacCulloch. We might add that this could have been done during his doctoral studies leading up to 1526?

• A summary of the black ink: these comments are reserved for Luther’s comments about Councils.

• On Councils, Mr. MacCulloch offers this note that “From then on, Cranmer’s sympathy for Luther is gone” and he has “provoked Cranmer to a fever pitch” (29). That is quite a summary: a “fever pitch.”

• Fisher entirely “side-steps the possibility of a clash between Popes and Councils”

• Cranmer was, at a minimum, a “Concilarist” a commitment that would later inform his 1552-letters to Wittenberg, Zurich and Geneva, rather than Rome, in an effort to put together a Council “for a defense against Trent” (29)

Mr. MacCulloch also points us to the classic imbroglio between Erasmus and Luther. Erasmus shot across Luther’s bow with De Libero Arbitrio.  Cranmer’s edition is 1524 and was published in Antwerp. Mr. Luther, on our view, entirely demolished Eramus with his must-read Bondage of the Will, 1525. Mr. Cranmer has copious notes as summaries and believes that “Luther’s argument about the will is dangerous because they touch on secret matters” (29). We would add Mr. Cranmer, if fairly characterized by Mr. MacCulloch, is seriously behind the power-curve on this question. But, he will mature as The Thirty-nine Articles show. It also suggests some lack of exegetical saavy.

Mr. Cranmer offers this:

“…we go on swiftly to better things…or if we are entangled in sins, let us strive with all our might and have recourse to the remedy of penance…and what evil is in us, let us impute to ourselves, and what is good, let us ascribe wholly to divine benevolence, to which we owe our entire being, and for the rest, whatever befalls us in this life, whether joyful or sad, let us believe it to be sent by him for our salvation.”

Mr. MacCulloch calls it “reverent agnosticism” (29).  We call it weak.  Mr. Luther "ruled that school" on this issue.

In the closing section of this chapter, Mr. MacCulloch offers an important note that Cranmer went to Spain on a minor diplomatic mission. Date: Summer, 1527. While school was recessed?  We don't know.  He points to some diplomatic correspondence. On this view, Cranmer may have had a brief audience with Mr. (Henry VIII) Tudor upon his return from Spain; this, Mr. MacCulloch tells us, “completely re-dates the relationship between the two men” (37). In other words, Mr. Cranmer may not have been entirely unknown to Mr. Tudor. (By the way, Mr. Cranmer had a rough ride by sea from Spain back to England—thirteen days at sea.)

But largely, upon return from Spain to England, Mr. Cranmer returned to Cambridge until 1529.   And the story of Lutheranism is far from over.  And Mr. Tyndale is busily at work too.

Mr. MacCulloch closes this chapter with: “Within two years of the Spanish mission, he would leave the university for good…and at the age forty, he committed himself to a new, spectacular, and infinitely more dangerous life” (37).  Indeed, Mr. Cranmer's quiet academic life would turn into a life of servitude--er, service--to Mr. Tudor.

Wiki-bio on Early English Reformer (1495-1553): George Joye

George Joye

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Joye

George Joye (also Joy and Jaye) (c. 1495 – 1553) was a 16th-century Bible translator who produced the first printed translation of several books of the Old Testament into English (1530–1534), as well as the first English Primer (1529).

Education

He was born Salpho Bury, Renhold, Bedford, Bedfordshire, England, around 1495. He studied at Christ’s College, Cambridge where he graduated as Bachelor of Arts 1513 or 1514).^[1] In 1515 he was ordained priest.^[2] In 1517 he obtained the degree of Master of Arts, was elected Fellow of Peterhouse and became “inceptor in arte.”^[3] In 1525 Joye graduated as Bachelor of Divinity. During his years in Cambridge, he came into contact with several people who later became prominent figures of the Protestant Reformation. Under their influence Joye also embraced Luther's ideas.^[4] In 1526, when the premises of the university were searched and Joye's copy of Chrysostom’s exegetical sermons on the Book of Genesis in Johannes Oecolampadius’ translation was discovered, Stephen Gardiner's intercession saved Joye from the authorities, but the following year (1527) he had less luck. When John Ashwell, Augustinian Prior of Newnham Priory, denounced him as a heretic to John Longland, bishop of Lincoln, chancellor of Oxford and confessor to King Henry VIII, Joye was summoned before Cardinal Wolsey at Westminster together with Thomas Bilney and Thomas Arthur.^[5] Joye waited for several days in Wolsey’s antechamber to be received by the Cardinal, and witnessed the interrogation of Bilney and Arthur, which made him realize that it was safer for him to flee to the Continent.

First exile in Antwerp

It is sometimes thought that he went first to Strasbourg,^[6] but in 1529 at the latest he must have moved to Antwerp, where many other English Protestants took refuge (e.g. William Tyndale, Thomas Hitton, Robert Barnes, William Roye, and Myles Coverdale). Like Coverdale, Joye was probably also employed in the printing business as proofreader, translator, and author of religious books.

His first, now lost publication was a Primer, the first Protestant devotional book ever published in English.^[7] Based on contemporary accounts, it probably contained the translation of the seven penitential psalms, “Mattens and Euensong” with the Commendations (Psalm 119).^[8] The book was criticized by Thomas More for omitting the Litany of the Saints, the hymns and anthems to the Blessed Virgin, and the Dirge.^[9]

After the publication of his Primer, containing perhaps as many as thirty psalms, Joye set out to translate the rest of the Book of Psalms, which appeared in 1530. Joye used Martin Bucer’s recent Latin translation of the Hebrew text, which was published under the pseudonym Aretius Felinus. In the same year Joye produced a revised version of his earlier primer with the title Ortolus animae. The garden of the soule.

In 1531, Joye's translation of the Book of Isaiah appeared, which seems to have been intended as a twin volume to Tyndale's translation of the Book of Jonah.^[10] In 1531 Joye also published a defence countering the charges of heresy put against him by Ashwell in 1527.

By 1532 he married.^[11] Butterworth and Chester suggest that Joye published the translations of the Book of Proverbs and of Ecclesiastes in 1533 in Antwerp, of which only later London reprints have survived.^[12] It is now also believed that Joye is the author of an anonymously published treatise entitled The Souper of the Lorde, which was earlier attributed to Tyndale.^[13] In this Joye described his position on the Eucharist, based on that of Zwingli.

Joye’s translation of the Book of Jeremiah, of Lamentations, and a new translation of the Psalter followed (this time from the Latin Psalter of Zwingli, whose Latin commentaries and translations had also served as source texts for Joye’s translations of the other books of the Old Testament). All these translations were the first of these books ever printed in English.

In 1534 Joye undertook the proofreading of Tyndale’s New Testament edition that had been reprinted three times without any English-speaking corrector by the Flemish printing firm of the family Van Ruremund. Joye, however, not only corrected the typographical errors, but he also changed the term "resurreccion" as found in Tyndale’s text by expressions such as "the lyfe after this" in some twenty occurrences of the word.^[14] Joye believed, as he later explained, that the original term in the Bible in those places did not refer to the bodily resurrection but to the intermediate state of the soul.^[15] At the same time, Joye retained Tyndale's original formulation at the some 150 other occurrences of the word, where he agreed with Tyndale that the term did refer to the bodily resurrection.^[16] Tyndale reacted by bringing out his own revised version of his New Testament in November 1534, in which he inserted a second foreword attacking Joye and his editorial work. Tyndale accused Joye of promoting the heresy of the denial of the bodily resurrection and causing divisions among Protestants. After an inconclusive attempt to reconcile the parties, Joye published an apology to refute Tyndale's accusations in February 1535.

Return to England, second exile in Antwerp and final years again in England

In April 1535, Tyndale was betrayed by Henry Phillips, who also wanted to have Joye and Robert Barnes arrested, but Joye escaped and returned to England through Calais. Apart from the publication (1535) of an English translation of a Latin pamphlet, published a year earlier in Antwerp, there is nothing known about his years in England. Around the same time when Coverdale sought refuge again on the Continent, Joye, too, fled to Antwerp. During his second exile, he published apologetic works on various subjects, among which is a defense of the clergy's right to marry, against Stephen Gardiner.^[17] In several of his works, he emphasizes that Christ's true Church has always been persecuted. Joye, as many of his contemporaries, was convinced that they lived in apocalyptic times and that the Return of Christ was not far away. After Henry’s death (1547), Joye returned to England. In May 1548, he published a translation of a book by Andreas Osiander about conjectures of the end of the world, in which he projected the end of the world between 1585 and 1625. In 1549, Joye debated the question of the preferred punishment of adulterers with John Foxe. In September 1549, Joye was given the Rectory of Blunham, Bedfordshire by Sir Henry Grey of Flitton, and in 1550 he was appointed Rector of Ashwell, Hertfordshire. George Joye died in 1553.

Legacy

Joye's translations of Psalms, Isaiah, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Jeremiah and Lamentations, were the first English publications of these books of the Bible ever printed. His translations of the Psalter and his primer were repeatedly republished, and influenced the Anglican Book of Common Prayer and private Protestant devotion. His Biblical translations were used by Myles Coverdale (for the Coverdale Bible), and by others. Some of Joye’s wordings were kept or reintroduced in later versions (e.g. “sauing helthe” (Psalms 67:2), “backslide” (Jeremiah 3:6,12,14,22), “a mess of pottage” (Proverbs 15:17), or the proverb “Pryde goth before a fall/ and a fall foloweth a proude mynde” (Proverbs 16:18). It was also Joye’s translation of Psalms 91:5 in his first Psalter (“Thou shalt not nede to be afrayde of nyght bugges”, where “bugges” refers to bogies or evils spirits), which was copied by Coverdale (1535) and by John Rogers in the Matthew Bible (1537), and which was retained even in the Great Bible (1539). Based on this expression these Bibles are sometimes called the “Bugge Bibles.”.^[18]

Works

• (lost primer) (Antwerp?, 1529).
• Ortulus anime. The garden of the soule: or the englisshe primers, Argentine: Francis Foxe (vere Antwerp: Merten de Keyser), 1530.
• The Prophete Isaye, Straszburg: Balthassar Beckenth (vere Antwerp: Merten de Keyser), 10 May 1531.
• The letters which IOHAN ASHWELL Priour of Newnham Abbey besids Bedforde/ sente secretly to the / in the yeare of our Lorde M.D.xvij. Where in the sayde priour accuseth George Joye that tyme being felawe of Peter college in Cambridge/ of fower opinions: with the answer of the sayed George vn to the same opinions, Straszburg (vere Antwerp: Merten de Keyser), 10 June 1531.
• The souper of the Lorde: wher vnto, that thou mayst be the better prepared and suerlyer enstructed: haue here firste the declaracion of the later parte of the .6. ca. of S. Johan, beginninge at the letter C. the fowerth lyne before the crosse, at these wordis: merely were. &c wheryn incidently M. Moris letter agenst Johan Frythe is confuted, Nornburg: Niclas twonson (vere Antwerp), 5 April 1533.
• The Subuersion of Moris false foundacion: where upon he sweteth to set faste and shoue vnder his shameles shoris/ to vnderproppe the popis chirche: Made by George Ioye, Emdon: Jacob Aurik (vere Antwerp: Catharine van Ruremund), 1534.
• Ieremy the Prophete/ translated into Englisshe: by George Ioye: some tyme felowe of Peter College in Cambridge. The songe of Moses is added in the ende to magnif ye our Lorde for the fallof our Pharao the Bisshop of Rome, (Catharine van Ruremund), Anno. M.D. and .xxxiiii. in the monthe of Maye.
• Dauids Psalter/ diligently and faithfully translated by George Ioye/ with breif Arguments before euery Psalme/ declaringe the effect therof, [Antwerp]: Martyne Emperowr (=Merten de Keyser), 1534.
• An Apologye made by George Ioye to satisfye (if it maye be) w. Tindale: to pourge & defende himself ageinst so many sclaunderouse lyes fayned upon him in Tindals uncheritable and unsober Pystle so well worthye to be prefixed for the Reader to induce him into the understaning of hys new Testament diligently corrected & printed in the yeare of oure lorde .M. CCCCC. and xxxiiij. in Nouember., (Antwerp?), 27 February 1535.
• A compendyouse Somme of the very Christen relygyon: gathered faythfully out of the holy scripture: necessary for all them that rede the olde and new Testament[...] Translated by George Ioye the yere of our lorde. M.D. xxxv. In Septembre, London: John Bydell, 1535.
• A frutefull treatis of Baptyme and the Lordis Souper/ of the vse and effect of them/ of the worthey and vnworthy receyuers of the Souper/ necessary to be knowne of all Christen men/ which yerely receyue the Sacrament, Grunning (vere Antwerp: Catharine van Ruremund), 27 April 1541.
• A very godly defense/ full of lerning/ defending the mariage of Preistes/ gathered by Philip Melanchthon/ & sent vnto the kyng of Englond/ Henry the aight/ tra[n]slated out of latyne into englisshe/ by lewes beuchame, the yere of the Lorde.M.CCCCC.XLI. in Auguste, Lipse: Ubryght Hoff (vere Antwerp: Catharine van Ruremund).
• The defense of the Mariage of Preistes: agenst Steuen Gardiner, Iames Sawtry (vere Antwerp: Catharine van Ruremund), August 1541.
• The exposicion of Daniel the Prophete gathered oute of Philip Melanchton/ Johan Ecolampadius/ Conrade Pellicane & out of Johan Draconite. &c. By George Joye. A prophecye diligently to be noted of al Emprowrs & kinges in these laste dayes, Geneue: G.J. (vere Antwerp, Catharine van Ruremund), 1545.
• A contrarye (to a certayne manis) Consultacion: That Adulterers ought to be punyshed wyth deathe. With the solucions of his argumentes for the contrarye, (London:) George Joye, 1549.

Notes

1.  ^ Venn, J.; Venn, J. A., eds. (1922–1958). "Joye, Gee, George". Alumni Cantabrigienses (10 vols) (online ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

2.  ^ Charles C. BUTTERWORTH, & Allan G. CHESTER, George Joye (1495?–1553). A Chapter in the History of the English Bible and the English Reformation, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1962, p. 17.

3.  ^ Charles C. BUTTERWORTH, & Allan G. CHESTER, George Joye (1495?–1553). A Chapter in the History of the English Bible and the English Reformation, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1962, p. 19.

4.  ^ Charles C. BUTTERWORTH, & Allan G. CHESTER, George Joye (1495?–1553). A Chapter in the History of the English Bible and the English Reformation, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1962, pp. 23–31.

5.  ^ John F. DAVIS, The Trials of Thomas Bylney and the English Reformation, in The Historical Journal 24 (1981), pp. 775–790.

6.  ^ Charles C. BUTTERWORTH, & Allan G. CHESTER, George Joye (1495?–1553). A Chapter in the History of the English Bible and the English Reformation, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1962, pp. 47–50.

7.  ^ Charles C. BUTTERWORTH, The English Primers (1529–1545). Their Publication and Connection with the English Bible and the Reformation in England, Philadelphia (PA): University of Pennsylvania Press, 1953, p. 2.

8.  ^ Charles C. BUTTERWORTH, The English Primers (1529–1545). Their Publication and Connection with the English Bible and the Reformation in England, Philadelphia (PA): University of Pennsylvania Press, 1953, pp. 1–10.

9.  ^ Thomas More, Confutacyon of Tyndales answere, sig. Bb2.

10.              ^ Paul Arblaster, Gergely Juhász, Guido Latré (eds) Tyndale's Testament, Brepols 2002, ISBN 2-503-51411-1, pp. 138–139.

11.              ^ "George Iay the preste, yt is wedded now” (Thomas More, Confutacyon of Tyndales answere, sig. Bb2r. (CWTM VIII, p. 11)).

12.              ^ Charles C. BUTTERWORTH, & Allan G. CHESTER, George Joye (1495?–1553). A Chapter in the History of the English Bible and the English Reformation, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1962, pp. 135–143.

13.              ^ Orlaith O’SULLIVAN, The Authorship of The Supper of the Lord, in Reformation 2 (1997), pp. 207–232.

14.              ^ Gergely Juhász, “Some Neglected Aspects of the Debate between William Tyndale and George Joye (1534–1535)”, in Reformation 14 (2009), pp. 1–47.

15.              ^ Paul Arblaster, Gergely Juhász, Guido Latré (eds) Tyndale's Testament, Brepols 2002, ISBN 2-503-51411-1, pp. 159–161.

16.              ^ Gergely Juhász, "Translating Resurrection. The Importance of the Sadducees’ Belief in the Tyndale–Joye Controversy", in Reimund Bieringer, Veronica Koperski & Bianca Lataire (eds.), Resurrection in the New Testament, FS Jan Lambrecht, (Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium 165), Leuven: University Press – Peeters, 2002, pp. 107–121.

17.              ^ Helen L. PARISH, Clerical Marriage and the English Reformation. Precedent Policy and Practice, (StAndrews), Aldershot, Burlington, Singapore and Sydney: Ashgate, 2000, p. 58.

18.              ^ Charles C. BUTTERWORTH, & Allan G. CHESTER, George Joye (1495?–1553). A Chapter in the History of the English Bible and the English Reformation, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1962, pp. 139–142; p. 145. n. 25. Gerald HOBBS, "Martin Bucer and the Englishing of the Psalms: Pseudonimity in the Service of Early English Protestant Piety", in D.F. WRIGHT (ed.), Martin Bucer. Reforming Church and Community, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp. 169–170.)

Further references

• Gergely Juhász, "Translating Resurrection. The Importance of the Sadducees’ Belief in the Tyndale–Joye Controversy", in Reimund Bieringer, Veronica Koperski & Bianca Lataire (eds.), Resurrection in the New Testament, FS Jan Lambrecht, (Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium 165), Leuven: University Press – Peeters, 2002, pp. 107–121.

External links

• George Joye, a Son of Renhold, (c.1492–1553); author of the first Prayer Book printed in English and of the first English Psalter
• Gergely Juhasz's research on the Tyndale-Joye controversy
• Bibliography on George Joye

"Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" Between 2 English Reformers: Tyndale and Joye

William Tyndale and George Joye
"The Gunfight at the O.K Corral"

Bray, Gerald, ed. Documents of the English Reformation. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1994.

A 2005 edition is available at: http://www.amazon.com/Documents-English-Reformation-Revd-Gerald/dp/0227172396/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374785087&sr=1-1&keywords=gerald+bray+english+reformation

We get a "shoot-out" between two Bible translators and early English Reformers: Mr. (Rev.) William Tyndale and Mr. (Rev.) George Joye.

The latter, Mr. Joye, is getting increased visibility in the inquiries.

Here's the "shoot-out" at the "Not-So-OK-Corrale."

Mr. William Tyndale has a conflict with Mr. George Joye. We’ll cover Mr. Tyndale’s remarks in his further notes “To a Christian Reader” (28). Below, we'll attach a Wiki-bio on Mr. Joye, an early English Reformer of the 1520s and early 1530s.

Mr. Tyndale notes of his translation: “...I had taken in hand…compared to the Greek,” but that Mr. Joye “took in hand to correct” Mr. Tydnale’s work without consultation. Off hand, it looks like a peeing contest, but we'll hold a conclusion in suspension.

This was not, according to Mr. Tyndale, “the office of an honest man.” He was publishing his own version of Tyndale “without his name,” that is, Tyndale’s or Joye’s. According to Tyndale, Mr. Joye was playing “boo peep” (28) along with mistranslations that Tyndale did not approve.

Mr. Tyndale objected to Mr. Joye’s translation of the word “resurrection” uniformly throughout the Gospels and Acts.

Ανάστασις, or “resurrection,” was being “translated and published” by Mr. Joye as “the life after this life.” We'll enlarge momentarily.

Mr. Joye had been circulating “these things for a while” (29). He had been sending “secret letters on that side of the sea” that “caused great division among the brethren” (29).

The upshot was that Mr. Joye was, apparently, playing an ancient Docetic card (our word for it, not Tyndale’s or Bray’s), denying the "bodily resurrection of Christ" or the "future resurrection of believers and unbelievers."

Mr. John Frith, an early English Reformer, while in the Tower of London, wrote, according to Tyndale, a “letter before his death that we should warn him and desire him to cease.” Apparently, Mr. Joye was getting a following with his denials.

Mr. Tyndale offers this "textus classicus." For example, John 5.28-29:

28 Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice 29 and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

For those who read Greek, we append the following (as an aside, a recent conversation with a TEC cleric of one of their serious seminaries embarrassingly noted that he'd never studied Hebrew, Greek or Latin, but to preserve peace, I held mine and now returning to the point):

28μὴ θαυμάζετε τοῦτο, ὅτι ἔρχεται ὥρα ἐν ἧ πάντες οἱ ἐν τοῖς μνημείοις ἀκούσουσιν τῆς φωνῆς αὐτοῦ 29καὶ ἐκπορεύσονται, οἱ τὰ ἀγαθὰ ποιήσαντες εἰς ἀνάστασιν ζωῆς, οἱ δὲ τὰ φαῦλα πράξαντες εἰς ἀνάστασιν κρίσεως.

Mr. Tyndale states that Mr. Joye is “thrusting clean out this word `resurrection’” (29). He “mocks out the text” (29). Mr. Joye has translated it "life after this life," implying a spiritual departure but no bodily resurrection.

Mr. Tyndale then asserts his public view of the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection to come. It's a vintage and classical statement.

"Wherefore, concerning the resurrection, I protest before God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, and before the universal congregation that believeth in Him, that I believe according to the open and manifest Scriptures and Catholic faith, that Christ is risen again in the flesh which he received of his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and body wherein He died. And we all shall, both good and bad, rise both flesh and body, and appear together before the judgment seat of Christ, to receive every man according to his deeds. And that the bodies of all that believe and continue in the true faith of Christ shall be endued with like immortality and glory as the body of Christ” (29).

That is a good statement by Mr. Tyndale. This is what he alleges Mr. Joye is denying.

Mr. Tyndale importunes 1000s (his word) to examine his [Tyndale's] translation. He has not, he avers, sought “to draw disciples after me” nor sought to “author a sect” (30). Remember, both of these men are fugitives from England for the faith.

Rather, Tyndale states that he has desired “to weed out all that is not planted of the Heavenly Father and to bring down all that lifteth itself up against the knowledge of the salvation that is in the blood of Jesus Christ” (30).

Mr. Tyndale writes “openly,” puts his name to his work and opinions [unlike Mr. Joye], and asks for all to examine his translation. If he has errors, “I will confess my ignorance openly” (31).

While we will look at Mr. George Joye later, we append a Wiki-bio on him.

Apparently, Mr. Joye--after the brouhaha--apologized for the misunderstanding.

Mr. (Dr. Prof.) William A. Clebsch's "England's Earliest Protestants: 1520-1535"

       Clebsch, William. England’s Earliest Protestants: 1520-1535.  New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1964. It is available at: http://www.amazon.com/Englands-earliest-Protestants-1520-1535-publications/dp/B0007DK7XA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377565405&sr=8-1&keywords=william+clebsch+england%27s+earliest+protestants

An obituary from New York Times on Mr. (Dr. Prof.) William A. Clebsch, Professor of Church History at Stanford University, amongst other duties.

http://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/15/obituaries/prof-william-a-clebsch-60-leader-in-religious-studies.html

A post from the History Society at Stanford University on Mr. Clebsch.

http://histsoc.stanford.edu/pdfST/ST19no3.pdf \

A list of publications by Mr. Clebsch.

http://www.amazon.com/William-A.-Clebsch/e/B001HP9S2S

Outline:

Preface

Abbreviations

1.  Prologue

2.  England’s Initial Repudiation of Luther, 11-23

A.  John Fisher versus Luther

B.  Henry VIII’s Assertion

3.  New Aggressions and Defenses, 24-41

A.  Fisher’s Second Sermon

B.  More’s Latin Libelli

C.  The Royal Correspondence

4.  The Career of Robert Barnes, 42-57

A.  Sermon and Trial

B.  Barnes and Exile

C.  Barnes’ Later Career

5.  Barnes’ Theology, 58-77

A.  Bishops and the King

B.  Works and Faith

C.  Sacraments and the Church

D. Scissors and Paste

6.  John Frith in Exile, 78-98

A.  Patrick’s “Places”

B.  Luther’s “Antichrist”

C.  The Abolition of Purgatory

D. Tyndale’s “Answer”

7.  Frith’s Theology, 99-116

A.  The End of Exile

B.  Trial

C.  Later Writings

D. Theocentric Theology

8.  Frith’s Sacramental Thought, 117-136

A.  Baptism

B.  Lord’s Supper

C.  Influence

D. Frith’s Originality

9.  Tydale as Luther’s Protégé (1524-1529), 137-153

A.  The Translator

B.  The New Testament

C.  Protestant Polemics

10.    Tyndale’s Rediscovery of the Law (1530-1532), 154-180

A.  The Pentateuch

B.  Politics and Prelates

C.  Law in the Old Testament

D. Source of Tyndale’s Legalism

E.  The Silent Years

11.  Tyndale’s Theology of Contract, 181-204

A.  Law and Contract

B.  New Testament and Contract

C.  Tyndale’s Originality

12.    The Practical Piety of George Joye, 205-228

A.  Primers and Translations

B.  Theology

C.  Joye and Tyndale

13.    Protestant Translators and Propagandists, 229-251

A.  William Joye and Jerome Barlowe

B.  Roy as Translator

C.  Roy as Editor

D. Simon Fish, Propagandist

E.  Fish’s Translation of “Sum of Scripture”

14.    Progress at Home: Books and Men, 252-276

A.  Translators and Printers

B.  Humanistic Advocates of Reform

C.  The Battle Against Books

D. Emergence of English Reformers

15.    Thomas More, Defensor Fidei

A.  Hunter of Heretics

B.  Chancellor

C.  Polemicist

D. Religious Thought

E.  Retreat from Humanism

16.    Epilogue

A.  The English Bible

B.  Strategic Success

C.  Sources

D. Impact

Bibliography

Index