s
generally seized, and which nothing but an entire uniformity, as will as
a steady severity in the administration, could be able to repress.
There were some Englishmen, Tindal, Joye, Constantine, and others, who,
dreading the exertion of the king's authority had fled to Antwerp;[*]
where the great privileges possessed by the Low Country provinces
served, during some time, to give them protection. These men employed
themselves in writing English books against the corruptions of the
church of Rome; against images, relics, pilgrimages; and they excited
the curiosity of men with regard to that question, the most important in
theology, the terms of acceptance with the Supreme Being, In conformity
to the Lutherans and other Protestants, they asserted that salvation
was obtained by faith alone; and that the most infallible road to
perdition[**] was a reliance on "good works;" by which terms they
understood as well the moral duties as the ceremonial and monastic
observances.

* Burnet, vol. i. p. 159.

** Sacrilegium est et impietas velle placere Deo per opera
et non per solam fidem. Luther adversus regem. Ita vides
quam dives sit homo Christianus sive baptizatus, qui etiam
volens non protest perdere salutem suam quantiscunque
peccatis. Nulla enim peccata possunt eum damnare nisi
incredulitas. Id. de Captivitate Babyloniea.

The defenders of the ancient religion, on the other hand, maintained
the efficacy of good works; but though they did not exclude from this
appellation the social virtues, it was still the superstitions gainful
to the church which they chiefly extolled and recommended. The books
composed by these fugitives, having stolen over to England, began to
make converts every where; but it was a translation of the Scriptures
by Tindal that was esteemed the most dangerous to the established faith.
The first edition of this work, composed with little accuracy, was found
liable to considerable objections; and Tindal, who was poor, and could
not afford to lose a great part of the impression, was longing for
an opportunity of correcting his errors, of which he had been made
sensible. Tonstal, then bishop of London, soon after of Durham, a man of
great moderation, being desirous to discourage, in the gentlest manner,
these innovations, gave private orders for buying up all the copies that
could be found at Antwerp; and he burned them publicly in Cheapside. By
this measure he supplied