For the Faith | Page 5

rooms of
the colleges and halls whence they came.
Dr. Langton himself, being a man of liberal views and sound piety,
would very gladly have welcomed some reforms within the church,
which he, in common with all the early Reformers, loved and venerated
far more than modern-day Protestants fully understand. They could not
bear the thought that their Holy Mother was to be despoiled, and the
Body of Christ rent in pieces amongst them. No; their earnest and
ardent wish was that this purging of abuses, this much-needed
reformation, should come from within, should be carried out by her
own priests, headed up, if possible, by the Pope himself. Such was the
dream of many and many a devout and earnest man at this time; and
John Clarke's voice always softened with a tender reverence as he
spoke of the Holy Catholic Church.
So now his eyes lighted with a quick, responsive fire, as he turned them
upon his host.
"That is just what I am ever striving to maintain--that it is not the
church which is in fault, but those who use her name to enforce edicts
which she knows nothing of. 'Search the scriptures, for in them ye have
life,' spoke our Lord. 'Blessed is he that readeth the words of the
prophecy of this book,' wrote St. John in the latter days. All men know
that the Word of God is a lamp to the feet and a light to the path. How
shall we walk without that light to guide us?"

"The church gives us the light," spoke Hugh Fitzjames softly.
Clarke turned upon him with a brilliant smile.
"She does, she does. She provides in her services that we shall be
enlightened by that light, that we shall be instructed and fed. We have
little or nothing to complain of in that respect. But there are
others--hundreds and thousands--who cannot share our privileges, who
do not understand the words they hear when they are able to come to
public worship. What is to be done for such? Are their needs
sufficiently considered? Who feeds those sheep and lambs who have
gone astray, or who are not able to approach to the shepherd daily to be
fed?"
"Many of such could not read the Scriptures, even were they placed in
their hands," remarked Fitzjames.
"True; and many might read them with blinded eyes, and interpret them
in ignorant fashion, and so the truth might become perverted. Those are
dangers which the church has seen, and has striven against. I will not
say that the danger may not be great. Holy things are sometimes defiled
by becoming too common. But has the peril become so great that men
are forced to use such methods as those which London is shortly to
witness?"
There was a glow in Clarke's eyes which the gathering gloom could not
hide. Magdalen seemed about to speak, but Dalaber was before her.
"They say that the Tyndale translations are full of glaring errors, and
errors which feed the heresies of the Lollards, and are directed against
the Holy Church."
"That charge is not wholly without foundation," answered Clarke at
once, who as a scholar of the Greek language was well qualified to give
an opinion on that point. "And deeply do I grieve that such things
should be, for the errors cannot all have been through accident or
ignorance, but must have been inserted with a purpose; and I hold that
no man is guiltless who dares to tamper with the Word of God, even

though he think he may be doing God service thereby. The Holy Spirit
who inspired the sacred writers may be trusted so to direct men's hearts
and spirits that they may read aright what He has written; and it is folly
and presumption to think that man may improve upon the Word of
God."
"But there are errors in all versions of the Scriptures, are there not--in
all translations from the original tongue?"
Magdalen was now the speaker, and she looked earnestly at Clarke, as
though his words were words of the deepest wisdom, from which there
was no appeal.
"Errors in all--yes; but our Latin version is marvellously true to the
original, and when Wycliffe translated into English he was far more
correct than Tyndale has been. But it is the Tyndale Testaments which
have had so wide a sale of late in this country, and which have set
London in commotion--these and the writings of Martin Luther, which
the men from the Stillyard have brought up the river in great quantities.
But be the errors never so great, I call it a shameful and a sinful thing,
one that the Holy Church of olden days would never have
sanctioned--that the Word of God should be publicly burnt, as