WYCLIF, NOT TYNDA,LE. : A CORRECTION.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In your excellent article on "The Revision of the Psalms" (March 81st), the following words occur after an
allusion to Coverdale :—
" It was said of that other great translator of the Bible, Tyndale, that when he was burned as a heretic and his ashes were scattered to the winds the river bore them to the sea, and the sea to the ocean, so that they were conveyed to the whole world. Although Coverdale was not burned, the same thing may be said of his influence, Sze."
Surely there is a mistake here. The reference is not to Tyndale but to John Wyelif. True, he was not burned at the stake, but died on December 31st, 1384, in his bed at Lutter- worth Rectory, but in 1428 his remains were exhumed from consecrated soil and cast into the neighbouring brook, the Swift. "Thus," said Thomas Fuller, "the brook hath conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into
the narrow seas, they into the main ocean ; and thus the ashes of Wicliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which now
is dispersed all the world over."—I am, Sir, &c., Lilliesleaf, Roxburghshire. ARTHUR POLLOK SYM.
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