THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 46
all these positions Dr. Tyler was successful; and though much of his public life was spent in theological controversy, his Christian character was recognized even by his opponents, while his friends testify as to his genial temper, unaffected candor, genuine humility, and cheerful piety.
Dr. Tyler’s name was conspicuous in connection with a theological controversy among the Congregationalists of Connecticut, which was occasioned by a discourse of Nathaniel William Taylor (q.v.; Concio ad clerum, General Association, 1828), professor in the divinity school of Yale College. Ona visit to Connecticut in 1829 (he was then pastor at Portland), Dr. Tyler began a correspondence with Dr. Taylor (who had been a classmate at Yale), which passed into a public discussion, continuing for years, and finding its practical issue in the formation of the Pastoral Union of Connecticut (Sept. 10, 1833), and the establishment of the Theological Institute.
The germ of the controversy was the position, attributed to Dr. Taylor, “‘ that no human being can become depraved but by his own act, and that the sinfulness of the race does not pertain to man’s nature.” In connection with this, regeneration was regarded as the act of man’s own will or heart; and the primary cause of this right choice was found in self-love, or a desire for the greatest happiness. (Some of these positions have been disclaimed by Dr. Taylor and his friends.) He claimed to be in accord with the New England Calvinism, represented by the two Edwardses, Bellamy, Hopkins, and Dwight. His position on the doctrine of original sin was not Augustinian: over against Dr. Taylor he asserted depravity of nature and the federal headship of Adam, but did not accept immediate imputation. He denied the self-determining power of the will, or the power of a contrary choice, and would not limit the definition of sin to voluntary transgression of known law. He accepted the distinction of Edwards between natural and moral ability, and denied most resolutely the ‘‘ happiness theory.” By discriminating between an unlimited atonement and limited redemption, he sought to preserve the doctrine of individual election. Regeneration he regarded as “ effected, not by moral suasion, or by the efficiency of any means whatever, but by the direct agency of the Holy Spirit, changing the moral disposition, and imparting a new spiritual life to the soul.’’ The controversy, as was usual at that time, was carried on with speculative and dogmatic weapons, though both parties appealed to Scripture.
In later times Dr. Tyler became engaged in discussion with Dr. Bushnell, and his own orthodoxy was called in question before the Pastoral Union in 1856. From this charge he was almost unanimously exonerated.
Dr. Tyler contributed largely to the theological controversy above named; published many sermons and addresses, and contributed many articles to the religious periodicals of the day. Mention may be made of his Hist. of the New Haven Theology (Hartford, 1837); Memoir of Rev. Asahel Nettleton (1844); Treatise on the Sufferings of Christ (New York, 1845); Treatise on New England Revivals
47 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Tyerman Tyndale
(1846); Letters to Dr. Horace Bushnell (1847-48), and the posthumous Lectures on Theology, with Memoir by N. Gale (Boston, 1859). His style is forcible and clear, and his matter always manifests the old Puritan faith in a personal God of holiness. M. B. Rippie. BrstiocraPHy: See New EncLanp THEoxoey, v., § 1, and consult: the Memoir by N. Gale, ut sup.; E. A. Lawrence, in New Englander, 1859; A. H. Quint, in Congregational
Quarterly, 1860; A. E. Dunning, Congregationalists in
America, pp. 312, 388, New York, 1894; W. Walker, in
American Chureh History Series, iii. 358-361, 366, New
York, 1894; idem, New England Leaders, pp. 400-436,
New York, 1901; F. H. Foster, New England Theology, pp.
386-393, Chicago, 1907.
TYMMS, THOMAS VINCENT: English Baptist; b. at Westminster, London, Jan. 5, 1842. He was educated at Regent’s Park College, London. He held Baptist pastorates at Berwick-on-Tweed (1865- 1868), Accrington (1868-69), and Downs Chapel, Clapton, London (1869-91). From 1891 until his retirement from active life in 1904 he was president and professor of theology in Rawdon College, Leeds. He was Angus lecturer in Regent’s Park College in 1903, and has written The Mystery of God (London, 1885), the essay on “‘ Christian Theism ”’ in The Ancient Faith in Modern Light (Edinburgh, 1897); The Christian Idea of Atonement (London, 1904) ; and The Private Relationships of Christ(1907).
TYNDALE, tin’dal, WILLIAM: Biblical translator and martyr; b. most probably at North Nibley (15 m.s.s.w. of Gloucester), England, in 1484; d. at Vilvoorden (6 m. n.e. of Brussels), Belgium, Oct. 6, 1536. He was descended from an ancient Northumbrian family, went to school at Oxford, and afterward to Magdalen Hall and Cambridge, and about 1520 became tutor in the family of Sir John Walsh, at Little Sodbury in Gloucestershire. He was in orders; but the record of his ordination has not yet been verified. Having become attached to the doctrines of the Reformation, and devoted himself to the study of the Scriptures, the open avowal of his sentiments in the house of Walsh, his disputes with Roman Catholic dignitaries there, and especially his preaching, excited much opposition, and led to his removal to London (about Oct., 1523), where he began to preach, and made many friends among the laity, but none among ecclesiastics. He was hospitably entertained at the house of Sir Humphrey Monmouth, and also pecuniarily aided by him and others in the accomplishment of his purpose to translate the Scriptures into the vernacular. Unable to do so in England, he set out for the continent (about May, 1524), and appears to have visited Hamburg and Wittenberg; but the place where he translated the New Testament, although conjectured to have been Wittenberg, can not be named with certainty. It is, however, certain that the printing of the New Testament in quarto was begun at Cologne in the summer of 1525, and completed at Worms, and that there was likewise printed an octavo edition, both before the end of that year. From an entry in Spalatin’s Diary, Aug. 11, 1526, it seems that he remained at Worms about a year; but the notices of his connection with Hermann von dem Busche and the University of Marburg are utterly unwarranted conjectures; and,
it being now an established fact that Hans Luft never had a printing-press at Marburg, the colophon to Tyndale’s translation of Genesis, and the title pages of several pamphlets purporting to have been printed by Luft at Marburg, only deepen the seemingly impenetrable mystery which overhangs the life of Tyndale during the interval between his departure from Worms and his final settlement at Antwerp. His literary activity during that interval was extraordinary. When he left England, his knowledge of Hebrew, if he had any, was of the most rudimentary nature; and yet he mastered that difficult tongue so as to produce from the original an admirable translation of the entire Pentateuch,* the Books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings, First Chronicles, contained in Matthew’s Bible of 1537, and of the Book of Jonah, so excellent, indeed, that to this day his work is not only the basis of those portions of the Authorized Version, but constitutes nine-tenths of that translation, and very largely that of the Revised Version. His Biblical translations appeared in the following order: New Testament, 1525-26; Pentateuch, 1530; Jonah, 1531. There is no general title of the Pentateuch; each book has its own title.
In addition to these he produced the following works. His first original composition, A Pathway into the Holy Scripture, is really a reprint, slightly altered, of his Prologue to the quarto edition of his New Testament, and had appeared in separate form before 1532; The Parable of the Wicked Mammon (1527); and The Obedience of a Christian Man (1527-28). These several works drew out in 1529 Sir Thomas More’s Dialogue, etc. In 1530 appeared Tyndale’s Practyse of Prelates, and in 1531 his Answer, etc., to the Dialogue, his Exposition of the First Epistle of St. John, and the famous Prologue to Jonah; in 1532, An Exposition upon the V. VI. VII. Chapters of Matthew; and in 1536, A Brief Declaration of the Sacraments, etc., which seems to be a posthumous publication. Joshua-—Second Chronicles also was published after his death. All these works were written during those mysterious years, in places of concealment so secure and well chosen, that neither the ecclesiastical nor diplomatic emissaries of Wolsey and Henry VIII., charged to track, hunt down, and seize the fugitive, were able to reach them, and they are even yet unknown. Impressed with the idea that the progress of the Reformation in England rendered it safe for him to leave his concealment, he settled at Antwerp in 1534, and combined the work of an evangelist with that of a translator of the Bible. Mainly through the instrumentality of one Philips, the agent either of Henry or of English ecclesiastics, or possibly of both, he was arrested, imprisoned in the castle of Vilvoorden, tried, either for heresy or treason, or both, and convicted; was first strangled,
* The only perfect copy is in the Grenville Library of the British Museum; one in the Public Library, New York, is defective, folios XLIV. and XLV., as well as two of the eleven woodcuts of the volume, are wanting; the missing woodcuts have been supplied in facsimile hy H. Another copy there lacks Genesis. The copy in the Baptist College, Bristol, England, contains Genesis, edition of 1534, the other four books are of the edition of 1530.
Tyndale Tzschirner