The Life and Work of William Tindale

Excerpt: Contemplation of the published work has suggested to the author that greater significance might have been attributed to the background and environment of Tindale's early manhood. The breaking up of the social and religious structure of his time and the spread of the New Learning over Western Europe were events profoundly affecting the character and career of contemporary English youth. Thus the disintegration and dissolution of the overawing authority of the Church though she retained for decades sufficient power to strike down her foes; the splintered social unity which resulted from the decadence of the Feudal Order with class suspicion and hatred ensuing combined to throw men off their moral balance: and then into this moral confusion came rumours of literatures unknown and ancient which opened to the startled minds of teachers and students knowledge that at once widened and made more wondrous the world which men thought they knew. The discovery of the Greek and Latin literatures excited the imaginations of the younger men. Oxford and Cambridge students in groups crossed the English Channel and enrolled themselves in the Continental Universities that they might gain at first hand the knowledge they desired. Grocyn Linacre and Colet came back eager to teach and guide. But most significant of all was this that Erasmus landed in England.