John Tewkesbury
John Tewkesbury
Introduction
« John Tewkesbury, merchant and martyr » is an excerpt from The Reformation in England by the Swiss pastor and historian of the Reformation Jean Henry Merle d’Aubigné. The book was originally written in French however was appeared in English for the first time in 1853 in The History of the Reformation of the Sixteen Century. H. White Ph.D. translated the book and revised it.
The author’s angle seems to have been that John Tewkesbury was a humanist as Tyndale who was a precursor of the Anglican reform in England under the administration of the king Henry VIII in 1534.
Part I
First John Tewkesbury was a merchant in London and an admirer of the Scriptures in England. Fascinated by the Bible and more precisely by a manuscript copy of it, he had attentively studied it and when Tyndale’s New Testament (a translation of the Bible in vernacular language) appeared, he read it and studied it carefully.
After his works, the bishops wanted to ruin him because he criticized openly the Church. In April 1529, the officers entered in his house to arrest him and led him to the bishop’s of London chapel. The bishops wanted to change Tewkesbury’s point of view (“Renounce these error”) but he did not want to change (“I find no fault in the book”). For his defence he said that there was a disagreement between the Church and the New Testament. Surprised by his answers, the bishops could not conquer him by arguments so they decided to torment him. He was transferred to the Tower to be torture there. His limbs were compressed and because of it, he promised at the last to renounce Tymdal’s book. He could go to his house.
Before long, he was arrested and tortured again because he asserted again his theses on the Church. Nevertheless, this time they could not obtain from him the recantation they desired. For his revelations against the Church and his will to reform the English Church, the bishops ordered his excommunication and
Introduction
« John Tewkesbury, merchant and martyr » is an excerpt from The Reformation in England by the Swiss pastor and historian of the Reformation Jean Henry Merle d’Aubigné. The book was originally written in French however was appeared in English for the first time in 1853 in The History of the Reformation of the Sixteen Century. H. White Ph.D. translated the book and revised it.
The author’s angle seems to have been that John Tewkesbury was a humanist as Tyndale who was a precursor of the Anglican reform in England under the administration of the king Henry VIII in 1534.
Part I
First John Tewkesbury was a merchant in London and an admirer of the Scriptures in England. Fascinated by the Bible and more precisely by a manuscript copy of it, he had attentively studied it and when Tyndale’s New Testament (a translation of the Bible in vernacular language) appeared, he read it and studied it carefully.
After his works, the bishops wanted to ruin him because he criticized openly the Church. In April 1529, the officers entered in his house to arrest him and led him to the bishop’s of London chapel. The bishops wanted to change Tewkesbury’s point of view (“Renounce these error”) but he did not want to change (“I find no fault in the book”). For his defence he said that there was a disagreement between the Church and the New Testament. Surprised by his answers, the bishops could not conquer him by arguments so they decided to torment him. He was transferred to the Tower to be torture there. His limbs were compressed and because of it, he promised at the last to renounce Tymdal’s book. He could go to his house.
Before long, he was arrested and tortured again because he asserted again his theses on the Church. Nevertheless, this time they could not obtain from him the recantation they desired. For his revelations against the Church and his will to reform the English Church, the bishops ordered his excommunication and