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M. Marten will abyde but by the scripture only.
T. and ye will
come at no scripture only: And as for the old
doctours ye wyll heare
as litle / saue where it pleaseth you / for all youre
crienge / old holy fathers. For tel me this / whi haue ye in
englonde condemned the
vnion of doctours but because ye wold not haue
youre falshed disclosed by the doctrine of them.
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Marten . . .
only. Cf. CWM 6/1.367/11.
vnion of
doctours. See also 213/22. This handbook in Latin contains
brief biblical quotations in roman type which introduce longer passages
from the Fathers in italic. Unio gives passages
on the main topics of early Reformation controversy: original sin,
infant baptism, justification, the law, grace, faith and
works, confession , fasting, indulgences, the Eucharist,
venerating saints, and the Antichrist. Unio
quotes approximately 570 passages from Christian authors from the 2c to
12c. Nine Fathers cited by Tyndale, most in Answer and a few in Obedience, are
found in Unio: Augustine (42%), Jerome (14%),
Chrysostom (10%), Origen (6%), Ambrose (5%), Cyprian (3%), Prosper of
Aquitaine (3%), Gregory the Great (2%), Bede (1%), and the church
historians Eusebius, Socrates Scholasticus, and Sozomen (1%). Unio quotes other theologians (13%) whom Tyndale
never names: Clement of Rome, Tertullian, Athanasius, Hilary, Cyril of
Alexandria, Lactantius, Fulgentius, Theophylactus, and Bernard.
The editor of the two-part Unio Dissidentium gives
his name as Hermannus Bodius, probably a pseudonym. The
earliest surviving edition (in two parts) was printed supposedly at
Cologne but actually at Antwerp by Martin de Keyser, March
and July 1527. In the Folger copy, both parts were supposedly printed at
Cologne with Part 1 dated "1527, Decimo Kalendas Decembris" [22 November
] and Part 2, "1527, X. Kalen. Augusti" [23 July]. Cf.
J.M. De Bujanda et al., Index de l'Université de Paris: 1544,
1545, 1547, 1549, 1551, 556, Index des Livres Interdits 1
(Sherbrooke, Québec: Editions de l'Université de Sherbrooke, 1994)
144–46.
After examining twenty-four editions of Unio
Dissidentium, Robert Peters reports that editions published in
and after 1531 contain material from Pseudo-Augustine, De Essentia Divinitatis (PL 42.1199–1206). Since the Folger
copy includes extracts from this short work (UD 2.S3r—S8v), the ascribed
date of 1527 cannot be correct. Cf. "Who Compiled the Sixteenth-Century
Patristic Handbook Unio Dissidentium?" Studies in
Church History 2, ed. G.J. Cuming
(London: Nelson,
1965) 237–50, esp. 237,239. Robert Peters tentatively
identified the anthologist as the Strassburg reformer
Martin Bucer because of Unio's emphasis on church discipline administered
in a loving spirit. Cf. ibid., esp. 245. Later, Peters
suggested that the compiler is the Basel reformer Johannes Oecolampadius
because of Unio's choice of texts on the
Eucharist as a mere sign of Christ's presence. Cf. "The Enigmatic Unio Dissidentium : Tyndale's
'Heretical' Companion?" Reformation 2 (1997)
233–40, esp. 237.
On 24 October 1526 Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of London, promulgated an order for confiscating
dangerous books, including Unio Dissidentium
(Foxe 4.667). Other prohibitions followed in the Netherlands, France, Spain, and Rome.
Tyndale must have used other patristic sources besides Unio, but it would have given him an extensive though partisan
survey of the Fathers. As editor of Whole Works,
John Foxe added the marginal note in 1573,
"The union of doctors a good booke" (338b).
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