Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/285

Frith During this year, while in London, Frith made the acquaintance of Tyndal, whom he assisted in translating the New Testament into English (Biog. Brit.) His success in promulgating the views of the reformers was such that the authorities of the university caused him and some of his friends to be imprisoned in the fish cellar of the college. In 1528 he was released at the request of Cardinal Wolsey, on condition that he should not go more than ten miles from Oxford. He went abroad, however, and resided chiefly at the newly founded university of Marburg, where he made the acquaintance of several reformers, particularly of Patrick Hamilton, a translation of whose ‘Places’ was his first publication. He also assisted Tyndal in his literary labours. He appears to have lived abroad about six years, and during this period to have married and had children. There is evidence that while he was in Holland the king (Henry VIII) was ready to provide for him if he would renounce his opinions, but, although in considerable poverty, he refused, and even wrote a work on the doctrine of purgatory, directed against the writings of Bishop Fisher, Sir Thomas More, and Rastell. About the middle of 1532 he returned to England, leaving his wife and family in Holland, and proceeded to Reading, where he either had business, on which he and Tyndal laid some stress, with the prior of Reading, or had expectation of receiving some relief from him. On his arrival at Reading he was set in the stocks as a rogue and vagabond, and only released at the intercession of Leonard Cox [q. v.], the schoolmaster of that town. Frith then went to London. A warrant for his arrest on a charge of heresy was issued by Sir Thomas More, the lord chancellor, and Frith endeavoured to remain in concealment. His movements were, however, closely watched; he was arrested at Milton Shore in Essex when endeavouring to escape to Holland, and conveyed to the Tower. While there he so gained the confidence of the keeper that he was occasionally allowed to leave the prison at night to ‘consult with godly men,’ and to stay at the house of Petit, a wealthy merchant and member of parliament, who was subsequently imprisoned for favouring the views of the reformers. During his imprisonment Frith formulated his views upon the sacrament. He held (1) That the doctrine of the sacrament was not an article of faith to be held under pain of damnation; (2) that Christ's natural body having the properties of our bodies, except as to sin, it was not agreeable to reason that it could be in two or more places at once; (3) that it was not right or necessary to understand Christ's words in the literal sense, but only according to the analogy of scripture; (4) that the sacrament ought only to be received according to the true and right institution of Christ, and not according to the order then used. After the succession of Sir Thomas Audley to the chancellorship, the rigour of Frith's imprisonment was much softened, and it is evident from manuscripts that the authorities were disposed to treat him with much leniency. A tailor named William Holt, under pretence of friendliness for Frith, obtained a copy of his views on the sacrament, and carried it to More, who printed a tract against Frith's opinions. Frith procured a written copy with considerable difficulty, but did not see a printed copy until his examination before the Bishop of Winchester. While in strict confinement, he wrote an able reply, when one of the royal chaplains attacked Frith in a sermon preached before the king. Frith was then, by the king's orders, examined before Audley, the Duke of Suffolk, the Earl of Wiltshire, Bishops Stokesley and Gardner, and Archbishop Cranmer, when, notwithstanding the arguments and persuasions of Cranmer, he remained firm. On the way to Croydon to be examined before the archbishop he was offered the means of escape, but declined to accept them. As Frith refused to recant, the matter was left to the determination of the Bishops of London, Winchester, and Chichester, before whom he appeared at St. Paul's on 20 June 1533. He continued to deny the doctrines of transubstantiation and purgatory, and, having subscribed to his answers, was condemned by the Bishop of London to be burnt as an obstinate heretic. Frith was now handed over to the secular arm and confined in Newgate. Although loaded with chains so that he could neither quite lie down nor stand upright, he occupied himself in writing continually until, on 4 July, he was conveyed to Smithfield and there publicly burnt. He died with great courage, reaffirming his beliefs at the stake. All contemporary writers agree as to his extraordinary abilities, his great learning, his unaffected piety, and his simple life. He was the first of the English martyrs who maintained the doctrine of the sacrament which was subsequently adopted in the Book of Common Prayer.

Frith's chief works are: 1. ‘Fruitful Gatherings of Scripture,’ 12mo, being a translation of Patrick Hamilton's ‘Places,’ n.d. [1529?], printed by William Copeland. This is printed in Foxe's ‘Acts, &c.’ 2. ‘A Pistle to the Christen Reder; the Revelation of Anti-Christ: Anthithesis wherein are compared togeder Christe's Actes and oure Holye