The Testament of William Tracy Expounded

By William Tyndale

Thou shalt understand, most dear reader, that after William Tyndale was so Judasly betrayed by an Englishman, a scholar of Louvain, whose name is Philips, there were certain things of his doing found, which he had intended to have put forth to the furtherance of God’s word; among which was this testament of M. Tracy, expounded by himself, whereunto was annexed the exposition of the same, of John Frith’s doing and own hand-writing, which I have caused to be put in print, to the intent that all the world should see how earnestly the canonists and spiritual lawyers (which be the chief rulers under bishops in every diocese, insomuch that in every cathedral church the dean, chancellor, and archdeacon, are commonly doctors or bachelors of law) do endeavour themselves justly to judge, and spiritually to give sentence according to charity, upon all the acts and deeds done of their diocesans, after the example of the chancellor of Worcester, which, after M. Tracy was buried, (of pure zeal and love hardly) took up the dead carcass and burnt it. Wherefore he did it, it shall evidently appear to the reader in this little treatise: read it therefore, I beseech thee, and judge the spirits of our spiritualty, and pray that the Spirit of him that raised up Christ may once inhabit them, and mollify their hearts, and so illumine them, that they may both see and shew true light, and no longer to resist God nor his truth. Amen.

CrossReach Publications

• Language: English
• Publisher: CrossReach Publications
• Release date: Sep 19, 2018

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Introductory Notice

William Tracy, Esq., whose last will and testament gave occasion for the following commentary upon it, and had previously been the subject of a similar commentary by Frith, was the head of a family which had long been seated at Todington, in Glocestershire. Camden assumes without offering any proof, that the William Tracy whose name appears among the brutal murderers of Thomas à Becket was of the same stock. Tyndale’s paternal home was not far from Todington; and we shall find him bearing testimony, that in the days of his youth Mr Tracy was already a learned man, and more conversant with the writings of Augustine than any doctor in England known to our reformer, notwithstanding Tyndale’s long sojourn in the universities. The fruits of this course of reading appear in his will; and especially in his declaring that he would not employ any part of his property to procure any man’s help for his soul after his death. The Romish ecclesiastics had succeeded in establishing it for a rule, that if any person, possessing disposable property, should die without bequeathing part of it to the church, he should be considered as dying without confessing himself a sinner, and consequently as excommunicated, and unworthy to receive Christian burial. This rule had received a check from the lay-courts in France as early as 1409, when that country lay buried in popish darkness; and in the year previous to Mr Tracy’s making his will, the English parliament had been allowed to put a check upon the kindred exaction of mortuaries. Hence, on the one hand, Mr Tracy’s executors appear not to have shrunk from giving publicity to the testimony he had left in their hands, of his regarding masses for the dead as worthless; and on the other the clergy were not slow in manifesting that they regarded the dissemination of that testimony as a mischief which must be vigorously resisted. We shall see that Mr Tracy put his signature to his will in October, 1530; and in Foxe’s extracts from the bishop of London’s registers for that same year, which would extend in ecclesiastical reckoning to March 25th, 1531, we find that ‘Thomas Philip was delivered by Sir Thomas More to bishop Stokesley by indenture,’ when ‘it was objected to him that he, being searched in the Tower, had found about him Tracy’s testament; and in his chamber was found cheese and butter in Lent time. Neither could there anything be proved clearly against him, but only Tracy’s testament, and his butter in Lent.’ And presently afterwards Foxe copies another entry of a similar character, dated 1531, relating to one ‘William Smith, a tailor.’ Foxe, Vol. v. pp. 29. and 38.

Irritated by these discoveries of the extensive circulation of his will, the clergy presently sat in judgment on the deceased testator, and pronounced him excommunicated; for that