For the Faith | Page 3

of Martin Luther had found their way into the country,
despite the efforts of those in authority to cheek their introduction and
circulation. And with these books came also portions of the Scriptures
translated into English, which were as eagerly bought and perused by
vast numbers of persons.
Martin Luther was no timid writer. He denounced the corruptions he
had noted in the existing ordinances of the church with no uncertain
note. He exposed the abuses of pardons, pilgrimages, and indulgences
in language so scathing that it set on fire the hearts of his readers. It
seemed to show beyond dispute that in the prevailing corruption, which
had gradually sapped so much of the true life and light from the Church
Catholic, money was the ruling power. Money could purchase masses
to win souls from purgatory; money could buy indulgences for sins
committed; money could even place unfit men of loose life in high
ecclesiastical places. Money was what the great ones of the church
sought--money, not holiness, not righteousness, not purity.
This was the teaching of Martin Luther; and many of those who read
had no means of knowing wherein he went too far, wherein he did
injustice to the leaven of righteousness still at work in the midst of so
much corruption, or to the holy lives of hundreds and thousands of
those he unsparingly condemned, who deplored the corruption which
prevailed only less earnestly than he did himself. It was small wonder,
then, that those in authority in this and other lands sought by every
means in their power to put down the circulation of books which might
have such mischievous results. And as one of Martin Luther's main

arguments was that if men only read and studied the Scriptures for
themselves in their own mother tongue, whatever that tongue might be,
they would have power to judge for themselves how far the practice of
the church differed from apostolic precept and from the teachings of
Christ, it was thought equally advisable to keep out of the hands of the
people the translated Scriptures, which might produce such heterodox
changes in their minds; and all efforts were made in many quarters to
stamp out the spreading flames of heresy in the land.
Above all things, it was hoped that the leaven of these new and
dangerous opinions would not penetrate to the twin seats of learning,
the sister universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
Cardinal Wolsey had of late years been busy and enthusiastic over his
munificent gift of a new and larger college to Oxford than any it had
possessed before. To be sure, he did not find all the funds for it out of
his private purse. He swept away the small priory of St. Frideswyde,
finding homes for the prior and few monks, and confiscating the
revenues to his scheme; and other small religious communities were
treated in like manner, in order to contribute to the expenses of the
great undertaking. Now a fair building stood upon the ancient site of
the priory; and two years before, the first canons of Cardinal College
(as Christ Church used to be called) were brought thither, and
established in their new and most commodious quarters. And amongst
the first of these so-called Canons or Senior Fellows of the Foundation
was Master John Clarke, a Master of Arts at Cambridge, who was also
a student of divinity, and qualifying for the priesthood. Wolsey had
made a selection of eight Cambridge students, of good repute for both
learning and good conduct, and had brought them to Oxford to number
amongst his senior fellows or canons; and so it had come about that
Clarke and several intimate associates of his had been translated from
Cambridge to Oxford, and were receiving the allowance and benefits
which accrued to all who were elected to the fellowships of Cardinal
College.
But though Wolsey had made all due inquiries as to the scholarship and
purity of life and conduct of those graduates selected for the honour

done them, he had shown himself somewhat careless perhaps in the
matter of their orthodoxy, or else he had taken it too much for granted.
For so it was that of the eight Cambridge men thus removed to Oxford,
six were distinctly "tainted" by the new opinions so fast gaining ground
in the country, and though still deeply attached to the Holy Catholic
Church, were beginning to revolt against many of the abuses of the
Papacy which had grown up within that church, and were doing much
to weaken her authority and bring her into disrepute with thinking
laymen--if not, indeed, with her own more independent-minded priests.
John Clarke was a leading spirit amongst his fellows at Cardinal
College, as he had been at Cambridge amongst the graduates there. It
was