[136/21 to end]

136/21 so they be iij. See above, 136/8-10 and n.

138/7-8 no sonne . . . lighte. The spelling "sonne" for "sun" is already rare in the sixteenth century, except in Scotland (OED). But "sonne" for "son" was still common, however, and thus the progression from "son" to "sun-shining" (sunshine) to the comparison to "vncleane byrdes" is not forced. Cf. Lev. 11:13-19 for a list of inedible and forbidden birds of prey which includes some noctural hunters such as the owl and screech-owl (barn owl). Read "they" as the subject of "hate" (138/8).

138/15-16 Ro. viij. Rom. 8:16.

139/1 we haue the petitions. I.e., "we are sure that our prayers will be answered." Tyndale's NT has "we shall have the peticions that we desyre of him."

139/2-4 Christe . . . it you. Matt. 7:7 and John 16:23.

140/l7-18 affirminge . . . Beelsabub. Cf. Matt. 10:25 and 12:24, Luke 11:15, and Mark 3:22. All the passages mention the charge made against Jesus that he worked miracles through the power of the devil, Beelzebub.

140/20-21 can otherwise . . . prayed. I.e., "can pray in any other way than as Paul did."

140/21 .ij. Tim. the last. 2 Tim. 4:14.

141/1 go backe. I.e., "revert to their former condition." The earliest example of this use of the adverb cited by the OED (6) is from 1535.

141/5 Heb. vj. and x. Heb. 6:4-6 and 10:26.

141/5 Balam. See above, 75/13 and n.

141/12-14 thirde . . . them. 1 John 3:9. See above, 99/16-18 and 100/11-14.

141/22-142/2 armure . . . meditation. Cf. Eph. 6:11-18 and I Thess. 5:8. Erasmus's Enchiridion militis Christiani (1518) had been translated by Tyndale (cf. Mozley, pp. 28-29) and may well have strengthened Tyndale's notion of the Christian as armed by Christ.

143/7-9 a man . . . therfore. See above, 66/6-7 and n.

143/9-10 the blynde . . . blynde. Cf. Matt. 15:14. Tyndale's translation has "Let them alone. They be the blynde leaders of the blynde."

144/1O Little . . . ymages. The rest of the Exposition is concerned, occasionally quite tenuously, with a development of this text. Thus Tyndale regards ceremonies, saints, and the sacraments as revealing certain types of "image" worship, but he also lays the blame for some of the political problems of the realm on his opponents.

144/18 in their rowmes. I.e., "in the places" or "in place of "the images."

145/11 loste . . . forgoten. For the absolute use of the past participle to express attendant circumstances, cf. Visser, 2, 1268 f. Visser (2, 1269) cites an example from 1534: "Whosoever dyd breke the lawe of Moyses, wytnesse had of two or thre sholde dye without mercy."

145/13-14 & to purchase . . . present. I.e., "and to get something from him in return for the value or beauty of the gift."

145/17-18 horse of a sticke. The term "hobby-horse" is not recorded before the middle of the sixteenth century (OED).

145/19 bolle of bloude. As in the ritual sacrifices of the Old Testament.

146/3-4 of grease . . . bootes? Perhaps as polish or in order to make the leather more pliable. OED ("grease." 1) cites Caxton (1481) Reynard: "Reynard thenne

dyde grece his shoes . . . and dyd hem on."

146/6 that has . . . flotesse. I.e., "who enjoys the smell of burnt fat." For "smell to" see above, 12/15 and n. "Flotesse" is the fat which floats on the surface of a liquid, as in skimmed fat or drippings (OED).

146/7 curtesye. I.e., "a courteous expression or token [of tribute],"

147/1 loue day. A day set aside for the settling of disputes. The earliest instance of this term cited by the OED is dated c. 1290.

147/2-3 couenauntes were rehersid. I.e., "the terms of the agreements were reviewed."

147/8 holde vp . . . handes. The practice of signalling an offer to sell or buy by using the fingers may still be observed at art auctions and, despite computerization, commodity exchanges. The earliest instance cited by the OED of clapping hands to signal a bargain is from 1599 (OED "clap," 7). See also below, 155/9 and 158/8.

147/9-10 must haue had. I.e., "had to have."

147/11 ringe . . . Bible. I.e., "a ring woven of a rush, as may be seen in the Bible." The first instance of the term "rush-ring" cited by the OED is from 1579. There are numerous references to rings in scripture, many of them being used as tokens for bargains (cf. Esther 3:10 and 8:2), and to the need for tokens and signs (Joshua 2:12 and 1 Cor. 1: 22), but I have not been able to find any references to a ring made of a rush or other plant. "As it is to se in the Bible" may simply refer back to "they must haue had a token or remembraunce" (147/9-10) with the mention of a rush-ring as a parenthetical addition.

147/19-20 for suche . . . to defye. I.e., "because of the things of the world which we have professed to reject."

147/21 to folowe thensample. I.e., "in order to follow the example [of the saints]."

147/22-148/1 fast . . . to obtayne. I.e., "fast on the eves of their feast days and go barefoot to their shrines and suffer pain in order to obtain [etc.]." All three verbs ("fast," "go" and "take") are coordinate, governing "to obtayne." "Take payne" does not mean "go to the trouble of" or "see to it that" but refers to accepting or performing physical penance in reparation for sin, as in Tyndale's Obedience: "to make them thinke that they must take payne and doo some holy deades to make satisfaction for their synnes" (Sig. M₆v) Also see above, 40/6, "payne takinge." The devotional practice of climbing the steps of a shrine on one's knees is still observed at Catholic shrines today. A recent notable instance is the spectacle of Imelda Marcos making her way up the center aisle of New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral on her knees.

148/9-10 then did . . . serue vs. I.e., "then our fasting and pilgrimages would be useful to us."

148/16 Saincte White. Probably Tyndale's invention, a "straw saint" of sorts. The most complete account of a St. Candida or St. Wite (St. Gwen?) is contained in The Lives of the Saints, S. Baring-Gould and John Fisher (London, 1911), 3, 169-171. The relics of this obscure saint were discovered at the church of Whitechurch-Canonicorum in Dorset in the nineteenth century, but there is no evidence to connect her with the kind of popular devotion that Tyndale describes here. It seems more likely, therefore, that Tyndale made up the name to describe a typical patron saint (cf. below, 150/13-14), perhaps "White" because of the object of her patronage, dairy products.

148/17 greatest sorte. I.e., "largest kind," but see OED ("sort," 20) meaning "portion." The phrase is parenthetical, and the following "which" refers to the saint.

148/18-19 First that . . . eyes. I.e., "First of all, we see with our eyes that this is not true," a reference to the claim that "It shalbe giuen vnto the poore" (148/17-18).

149/6 chappeleyn. A chaplain was a priest assigned to a chapel or altar (OED). Here, to the chapel of "St. White."

149/9 despisinge couetousnes. I.e., "[how one should] treat covetousness with contempt." See below, 151/21.

150/5 any gods worde. I.e., "any word of God."

150/11 warde. Cf. above, 3/11 and n., and 115/19.

150/13-14 And like . . . sainctes. I.e., "and a similar argument applies to all other saints." See above, n. to 148/16.

151/8 no thoughe . . . amysse. I.e., "even though something goes wrong."

151/12 doo . . . negligentlye. I.e., "act so carelessly again."

152/16 lordis sowper (as Paul callith it). Cf. 1 Cor. 11:20.

152/16-18 the congregation . . . hed. 1531 has marginal glosses here referring to 1 Cor. 10:16 and 12:12, and Eph. 1:22.

153/4 because. I.e., "in order that." Tyndale's NT uses the word in the same way: "And they axed him sayinge: ys it lawfull to heale apon the saboth dayes? because they myght acuse him" (Matt. 12:10).

153/9-10 Corinthian . . . amende. Cf. 1 Cor. 5:1-6.

154/9-10 where . . . is become. I.e., "what has become of the authority of the pastor and of the parish?"

154/11 rounde. I.e., "around," although OED (3c) dates the earliest example of this use of the adverb from 1785. The meaning, however, seems clear from context. Also cf. OED "round," (2), "in a ring or circle."

154/15-16 the pope . . . hell. I.e., the pope who lives with the devil in hell." Skelton used "wonnes at" in a similar vein: "To mastres Anne, that farly swete, / that wonnes at the Key in Temmys strete" (Works, [Dyce], 1, 21). Sailors and merchants from overseas would be among the visitors on Thames Street. See above, n. to 107/18.

154/20 Confiteor. I.e., "I confess," a prayer In Latin, asking forgiveness, said at the beginning of the mass.

155/9-10 clappinge of handes. See above, 147/8 and n. and below, 158/8.

155/10 bowyng. I.e., "bending a coin, as a sign of a bargain." OED ("bow," 9) cites a similar usage in Shakespeare, Henry VIII (1613): "A three-pence bow'd would hire me." Also used to formalize vows to perform a pilgrimage or other service to honor a saint. Cf. Duffy, Eamon, The Stripping of the Altars, Yale University Press, 1992.

155/11-12 after a truse made. I.e., "after [an agreement on] a truce was made."

155/16 all the daye after. I.e., "throughout the rest of that day."

156/4-6 couetouse . . . scripture. Cf. 1 Cor. 5:10-13.

156/7 say . . . speake. "Sing" the mass had been the more common form (OED "mass," 1a), but masses were "said" long before the fifteenth century (OED "say," 9).

156/13 Confiteor. See above, 154/20 and n.

156/16 stil Masse. Although the OED cites this use of "stil" as meaning "soft or subdued," the context (e.g. line 19, "dome and spechles") suggests that "silent" may be an appropriate meaning. Tyndale is implying that there is a contradiction with the practice of the church which required that, at the least, the words of consecration be audible, even in a mass said by a priest without any congregation present.

156/19 he. I.e., "the priest."

156/19-20 in that parte. The beginning of the mass including the "Confiteor" (156/13).

156/20 fructlesse. Tyndale uses this word to refer to the failure to receive profit from the mass. Hence, I have glossed it as "profitless," although the usual sixteenth-century meaning is "unprofitable" or "useless and barren" (OED).

157/3 imagination. A "vain notion" rather than just an idea. See below, 157/6-7, where Tyndale stresses the crass nature of such a view of the mass.

157/17-18 sed ceteris. I.e., "but [this power is given] to priests only, for whom it is fitting, so that they may take and not give to others." Tyndale's version substitutes a negative for a simple "et" before the final verb. In the Office for the feast of Corpus Christi, the composition of which is attributed to Thomas Aquinas, there is a hymn for Matins, beginning "Sacris solemnis," which contains the verse in question: "Sic sacrificium istud instituit, cuius officium committi voluit solis Presbyteris, quibus sic congruit, ut sumant, et dent ceterts" (Opuscula D. Thomae Aquinatis [Naples, 1851], 2, 232). The "Panis Angelicus" verse follows.

157/21 stronge. I.e., "difficult." Although the last instance cited by the OED (13) for this meaning of the adjective is dated 1474, the context ("mocke," 157/19, and moare . . . man to," 157/21-22) seems to indicate that this sense is intended here.

158/6 and apon . . . sacramente. I.e., "and on the basis of that preaching [or teaching] to have administered the eucharist." "Preachinge" seems to be a verbal noun rather than a participle and is modified by "that."

158/8 clappinge of handes. See above, 147/8 and n. and 155/9.

158/12 god become. I.e., "God had become."

158/13 zelouse. The earliest instance cited by the OED of the adjective "zealous" meaning "eager to" is from 1605. Tyndale's use of the word in his translation of Acts 21:20, "zelous over," is also the earliest use for any form of the word cited by the OED.

158/19-22 lest . . . wine. In an eleventh-century reaction to the heresy of the "Utraquists" who claimed that communion under both species was "necessary for salvation," the taking of the chalice by the people was omitted and this omission later justified by the council of Constance in 1415 (New Catholic Encyclopedia, 4, 46).

159/1 al the sacraments. I.e., "the whole sacrament."

159/2 maunchetes. The wafer-thin bread used for the eucharist. See also above, 136/15-16 and n.

159/8-10 to stablish . . . workes. "Eare confession," "merites." "deseruinges," etc. are all parallel, i.e.. "to strengthen the institution of auricular confession, their [custom of] merits, meriting, justification by works."

159/12 other opinion. I.e., concerning auricular confession. Tyndale argues that the assurance of forgiveness given in auricular confession is actually given by God in the eucharist. See above, 158/6-13.

159/19-20 as many heads . . . wittes. The ODEP cites Terence's "Quot homines tot sententiae" and Chaucer's translation (Squire's Tale, 203): "As many hedes, as many wittes ther been."

160/6 only sufficiencie. I.e., "only enough." Cf. OED ("sufficiency," 3) where this is the first instance cited.

160/14-15 thorou . . . kepte. I.e., "through our carelessness [in reminding God through prayer?] He forget us and the agreement [to repay] is not kept exactly." Cf. above, 160/11-12, "lest if he moue not the hartes of our masters."

160/16 lyke abhominacion. I.e., "just as detestable a deed." Cf. above, 160/3-4, where the eucharist is seen as a means to "obteyne worldly thinges." If "lyke" is read as a preposition it would soften Tyndale's argument. Expecting a reward for "bodily seruice" [as opposed to "spiritual"] is not "like" an evil thing, but detestable in itself in Tyndale's view. See also above, 54/21.

161/2-4 Noe . . . water. Cf. Gen. 8:12-17.

161/4-11 Abraham . . . delyueraunce. Cf. Gen. 17:11, 15:18, and 15:13.

161/11-13 Gedion . . . promysed hym. Judges 6:36-40.

161/15 Verely no man. This is the answer to the question beginning "But who cometh thither" (160/17).

161/16-18 laye . . . before vs. "Laye" is used in the sense of "claim" (OED "lay," 26). The Latin phrase is from the Vulgate, Luke 14:23: "Exi in vias, et sepes; et compelle intrare, ut impleatur domus mea." The "prelates" claim to be the ones brought into the feast, but do not bring others in. Tyndale may have had the next verse in mind: "For I saye vnto you, that none of those men which were bidden, shall tast of my supper."

162/10-14 pil . . . coote. The effects of the pill or medicine, i.e., the mass, are to protect the soul from purgatory and to purge the body of its worldly possessions. For "bare" ("poor") see above, 9/17 and n. The proverbial baldness of the coot, a web-footed bird with part of its bill extended back to form a plate on its forehead (OED 2), is first recorded by the ODEP in Lydgate (1430) Chron. Troy., "And yet he was so balde as is a coote."

The American scoter (coot) is a sea-duck.

162/15 subiectis to ryse. In the first sentence of the prologue to the Obedience this charge is turned on Tyndale's opponents (sig. C₅).

162/16-17 ypocrites . . . olde testamente. In the Obedience (see previous note) Tyndale cites Jeremiah 44 (verse 18) as an example of the hypocrites placing the blame for the people's problems on the prophets. Cf. also Ezra 4:12-19.

162/18-19 layed . . . gospel. In the Obedience (sig. c₅v ) Tyndale has "The scribes and the pharises layd also to Christes charge (Luke .xxiii.) that he moved the people to sedicion." The reference is to Luke 23:2.

163/3-4 These ypocrytes . . . insurrection. A good example of these charges occurs In Cardinal Wolsey's deathbed "speech" as reported by Cavendish (pp. 178 ff.). Wolsey warned against "this neue peruers sekte of the luternaunce" (179/25) and attributed to "wycklyfes heresies" (179/30) a number of insurrections. These included "the peasants revolt of 1381, the ruin of Bohemia, and the rebellion of Sir John Oldcastle" (Pollard, pp. 300-301). In 1529 Thomas More had mentioned the Lutheran-inspired rebellion in "Almain" and added: "And now ys yt to pyteouse a syghte to se the dyspytuous dyspyghtys done there in many placys to god and all good men / wyth y^e meruelous chaunge frome all face and faschyon of crystendom / in to a very tyrannous persecucyon / not onely of all good crysten peple quyck and dede / but also of Cryste hymself" (Dialogue Concerning Heresies, sig. S₅v). Earlier, in 1523, More had spoken of a people who "ne plebei quidem magistratus patiens ex Lutheri dogmate calcatis legibus, anarchos et exlex, sine freno, sine mente lasciuiens, in sese demum conuertet manus" (Responsio ad Lutherum, 690/30-32).

163/5-6 slew the right . . . a rowe. In Tyndale's Exposition of Matthew v-vii he is more precise: "Let Englande looke about them and marke what hath chaunced them sence they slue their right kynge whome God had annoynted ouer them, Kynge Rycharde the seconde" (sig. f₄v). The "false kings" were Henry IV, Henry V. and Henry VI of the house of Lancaster.

163/9-11 M. More . . . at once. Tyndale paraphrases More's Utopia approvingly:

"Oues . . . nunc (uti fertur) tam edaces atque indomitae esse coeperunt, ut homines deuorent ipsos, agros, domos, oppida uastent ac depopulentur" (64/31-66/1). Although no mention is here made of Englishmen eating the sheep, Harpsfield reads this section as Tyndale does "that wheras men were wont to eate the sheepe . . . nowe contrarywise sheepe in Inglande pitifully doo deuoure men, woman, and childe, houses, yea and Townes withall" (The life and death of S^r Thomas Moore, Knight, ed. E. V. Hitchcock [London, 1932], EETS, Original Series no. 186, p. 105).

163/13 God's worde causeth insurrection. A marginal gloss in Tyndale's Obedience reads "The ypocrites laye that to gods word whych they themselves are cause of" (sig. C₅).

163/14-18 ypocrites . . . themselues. This is the reason Tyndale gives for writing the Obedience: "For as moch as oure holy prelates and oure gostly religious / which ought to defende Gods worde / speak evyll of it and doo all y^e shame they can to it / and rayle on it and bere their captives in honde y^t it causeth insurrection" (Sig. C₅).

163/18 tunne out. I.e., "serve up." The verb "tun," "to put into or store in a tun" (OED) is usually employed with the prepositions "up" or "in" or is used absolutely. No example of "tunne out" is cited, but I have glossed it as "serve up" since the meaning seems clear from context.

163/18-19 before the year come aboute. I.e., "before the end of the year." It is sometimes difficult to decide whether a writer of the sixteenth century thought that the year ended on the last day of December or on the twenty-fourth of March. (See W. W. Greg "Old Style-New Style" in Collected Papers, ed. J. C. Maxwell [Oxford, 1966], p. 372.) But Tyndale's Pentateuch was not finished until at least December, 1529 (cf. Mozley, p. 146), but not much later than that; it is dated January 17, 1530 in the colophon: "the yere of oure Lorde .M. / CCCCC. xxx. the. xvij. / dayes of Ianu / arij" (Hume, Bibliography, p. 1074). This seems to indicate that Tyndale followed the custom, prevalent since pagan days, of beginning the year on January 1.

163/20 this dosen yeares. I.e., "these last twelve years." This would approximate the length of Wolsey's complete control of the church that began with his appointment as legate a latere in 1518. (See above, n. to 76/9.) A "dozen" is used elsewhere as a round number (cf. above, 135/1 and n.). It should be clear from the Exposition that William Tyndale did not consider the demise of Cardinal Wolsey as the end of the threats to religion and good order which were fostered by the powers he lumps under the title of "antichrist" and "hypocrites."