William Tyndale ( 1492-1536)

The
contributions made by William Tyndale and Thomas Cranmer are especially important to the story of the English Reformation as they steered Protestantism through the turbulent years of Henry VIII, Edward VI , and Mary Tudor.

The introduction of
printing by William Caxton (1422-1491) made available many more copies of  William
Tyndale`s  printed English Bible, first produced in
1525.  This was highly significant as under the church of Rome the
Bible was not freely available, it was in Latin, and interpreted by the
priests, often accompanied by personal (erroneous) interpretation, mysticism and rites.  There had long been attacks on the Lollards who had had the benefit of a Bible in the vulgar tongue (English) since the days of John Wickcliffe. But copies were rare and expensive until printing became available. These were major
milestones in the education of the general populace who, for the first
time, were able to read, interpret, and think for themselves about
religion and its moral values.

Tyndale is thought to have been born in Slymbridge , Gloucestershire, and in 1512 was a graduate of the University of Oxford, apparently attached to Magdalene College. He subsequently moved to Cambridge, where
he met such as Latimer, Cranmer and Bilney who were also intent on spreading the Gospel. John Foxe relates that Tyndale would “read privily to certain students and Fellows of Magdalen College some parcel of divinity, instructing them in the knowledge and truth of the Scriptures.” He graduated B.A. in 1512 and M.A. in 1515.

In 1520 Tyndale accepted the post of chaplain to Sir John Walsh’s household at Little Sodbury where there were frequent visitors, including church dignitaries, which afforded the opportunity to learn of the recently published works of Erasmus and Luther. Erasmus had published his Greek and Latin New Testament which were to be relevant to Tyndale`s own work. Finally he had to leave the place and move on. But not before translating a book, the title of which might be put into English as “The Pocket-dagger of a Christian Soldier.”  But then came his first brush with the prelates when he was arrested for ministering the Word.
In Bristol he sometimes used a location known as St Austin`s Meadow, in
which to preach. On one occasion the priests laid waste to the land in
retribution such was their pettiness. It was about this time that Tyndale
realised the absolute need for an English Bible so that the people could
themselves attack the sophistry of the priests. As it was he was much taken with view of Erasmus that

“even the weakest woman should read the Gospel and the Epistles of St. Paul; that they might be translated into all languages so that the husbandman should sing portions of them to himself as he follows the plough; that the weaver should hum them to the tune of the shuttle, and that the traveller should beguile with their stories the weariness of his journey.”

This was the turning point when he decided to undertake the same task for the English language.

The charge against him was
“for spreading heresy in and around the town of Bristol.” He was
fortunate, given his growing reputation, to get away with a stern
admonishment not to preach publicly any more.

 In the winter of 1522
Tyndale reluctantly left Sodbury to go to London. He had references from Sir John Walsh
to Sir Harry Guildford, the Kings Comptroller, and by him to several
clerics. Tyndale sought the support of Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall one of the
more enlightened bishops, but he was coolly received and not able to
obtain a position. However, he preached at the church of St. Dunstan-in-the-West where a merchant, Humphrey Monmouth,  heard him.
In a new phase of his quest to bring enlightenment Tyndale  preached
that the universal standard was the Scriptures; his justification of faith
that

“The word of God was
the basis of salvation, and the Grace of God its essence”

He explained

” It is the blood of
Christ that opens the gates of heaven and not thy works…  I am
wrong, …. Yes, if thou  will have it so, by they good works shalt
thou be saved. Yet, understand me well . -not by those that thou has done,
but by those that Christ has done for thee. Christ is in thee and thou in
him, knit together inseparably. Thou canst not be damned , except that
Christ be damned with thee; neither can Christ be saved except thou be
saved with him.      

 As a result of
Tyndale`s preaching Monmouth took him home and supported him for over a year.  Tyndale worked  with John Frith, a mathematical scholar who was good at Greek. He joined Tyndale’s cause and helped to translate the New Testament. This they did for about six months before the clerics found them out and they were forced to leave. Tyndale left for Hamburg while his generous host, Monmouth was arrested and sent to the Tower of London. He managed to obtain his release by appealing to Cardinal Wolsey.

Tyndale again moved on to Cologne where he continued his work and had his first type set for printing. However, loose talk led to John Cochleus, a Romanist nicknamed “the scourge of Luther,” latching on to him and Tyndale barely had time to gather his things together before hurriedly moving on. This time he went to the homeland of Martin Luther at Worms. It is probable the two men met and Tyndale would have enjoyed some measure of protection as a result. At his new home Tyndale continued his translation from the Greek to English  probably using  Erasmus’ third edition of the Greek New Testament, and Luther`s German version. 

 In 1525 the first copies  was smuggled into England
by five Hanseatic merchants, hidden amongst their cargo of wheat, since neither Henry VIII nor the prelates desired the free  circulation of the Bible.
These smuggled copies came into the care of an unsung hero of the
Reformation, Thomas Garret, who coordinated their sale and dispersal
throughout the land. A copy was eventually obtained by the Church who, as to be expected, declared it to he heretical and erroneous and ordered it to be publicly burnt. This took place on the 11th of February, 1526, at St Paul`s before a splendid gathering of thirty-six bishops, abbots and priors
arrayed in all their splendour.
The first edition in 1525 had been published anonymously in two sizes,
octavo and quarto, being one of the poorest kept secrets of the age that
it was Tyndales work. The impulse the six thousand copies gave to the
Reformation was very great, with copies smuggled into England mainly
through the east coast ports of Yarmouth, Harwich and Norwich. To
Tyndale`s annoyance  several unauthorised editions  were issued
by Antwerp printers  between 1526 and 1528. In 1534, just as he was
about to issue his own revision, George Joy, a Protestant refugee, issued
a reprint of Tyndale`s New Testament. Frustrating though this no doubt was
to Tyndale the fact was that the English language version was in great
demand throughout Europe. The clerics were particularly irritated by the
side notes and glosses that Tyndale provided which were called `nefarious
and distorted comments` by Archbishop Warham. In a vain attempt to cut out
the smuggled copies the bishops even clubbed together to buy up as many
copies as they could before they left Antwerp. These were ostentatiously
and publicly burned at St Paul`s Cross  in May 1530, duly supervised
by Bishop Tunstall.

D`Aubigne writes in his
History of the Reformation  that Tyndale


 was
“indignant  against those coarse
monks, covetous priests, and
pompous prelates,’ who were waging an
impious war against God.” 
In a doctrinal tract  ” Obedience of a Christian Man”

Tyndale kept up
his assault on them and gained their enmity with criticisms such as :

 “What
a trade is that of the priests.they want money for every thing:
money for baptism, money  for
churchings, for weddings, for buryings, for images, brotherhoods,
penances, soul-masses, bells, organs,
chalices, copes, surplices, ewers, censors,
and all manner of ornaments. Poor sheep! The parson shears,
the vicar shaves, the parish priest
polls, the friar scrapes, the
indulgence seller pares ….. all that you want is a butcher to
flay you and take away your skin He will not leave you long. Why are
your prelates dressed in red? Because they are ready to shed the
blood of whomsoever seeketh the word of
God? Scourge of states, devastators of kingdoms, the priests
take away not only Holy Scripture, but
also prosperity and peace; but of
their councils is no layman; reigning over all, they obey nobody;
and making all concur to their own greatness, they conspire against every
kingdom.”

It was about this time that
Wolsey turned his attention to the perceived problem of Tyndale and the
distribution of the New Testament. Wolsey was not totally opposed to
change or reform particularly if he was to profit from it. But his primary
concern was to maintain the privileges and uniformity of the hierarchy.
His plan now was to seek the capture of Tyndale and wrote accordingly to
the envoy in the Low Countries to bring pressure on the local authorities;
this resulted in the arrest of an Antwerp merchant (Harman) awho was a
principal supporter of Tyndale. He then despatched a Franciscan friar
named John West to track down Tyndale and have him arrested. West came
close to Tyndale on a number of occasions, even being in the same town
together. But he was frustrated in his attempts to seize his quarry and
returned to report his failure to Wolsey. By then the Cardinal had
returned to the problem of Henry`s divorce and trying to get a decretal
from the Pope. It was soon to be Wolsey`s time to depart the scene, cast
out from office and subsequently dying in November 1530.

Having published the first New Testament
in 1526 Tyndale was rejoined by John Fryth ( who had escaped from Oxford)
and they set about further translations, this time of the Old Testament ;
in 1529 they published  Genesis and Deuteronomy that was avidly
seized upon by the people. In the prologue to Genesis they wrote:

 “As thou readest,
think that every syllable pertaIneth to thine own self, and suck out the
pith of the Scripture.”    ,…. We are saved not by the
power of the sacrifice or the deed itself, but by the virtue of 
faith in the promise , whereof the sacrifice  or ceremony 
was a token or sign.”

It was while staying with a  Thomas Poyntz, in 1534, that Tyndale was betrayed by one Henry Phillips, possibly a  papal spy, but definitely a reward seeker,  who delivered him into the hands of the authorities in Brussels,  He was  taken prisoner to the castle of Vilvorde, eighteen miles away from Antwerp. From May to October he remained in prison, where he endured both a terrible trial, and the dank and airless dungeons. Inevitably he was judged guilty of heresy and on October 6th, 1536, was taken from prison, tied to the stake and strangled. Then his lifeless body was burnt to ashes. His last prayer, was, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.” Within a year the English Bible received royal recognition, and a year later every parish church in England was supplied with its own copy.

 In his wake Tyndale left a small core
group of Protestants in positions of great influence at Cambridge
University with Master Stafford, Master Arthur, Master Thistle and Master Bilney among them. The latter was responsible for the conversion of the
zealous Hugh Latimer to the Protestant cause. John Clark, a master of
arts at Cambridge was recruited by Thomas Wolsey for the new college that
he had founded. at Oxford. There, Clark and the young Anthony Dalaber
taught an evangelical, Protestant, faith to the  students eager to
hear them. Following Tyndale `s versions of the New Testament came several
other books. The first complete  printed English Bible was produced
probably in Antwerp, adorned with woodcuts and maps – the work of
Miles Coverdale based on translations
from the Latin Bible of Pagninus in 1528 and the Swiss Bible of 1524-9. It
was 1537 and the third edition, before the much desired statement ” set
forth with the king`s most gracious licence.”  appeared on the title
page.

 In 1537 yet another
version edited by John Rogers, a friend of Coverdale, termed “Matthew`s
Bible” became available. This included translations by Tyndale and
Coverdale to which was added a Protestant commentary and the books broken
down into chapters and  sections and adorned with woodcuts. Despite
having much of the detested translation and notes of Tyndale in it, this
Bible was well received by Henry VIII and he ordered that “it shall be
allowed by his authority to be bought and read within this realm”. The
public acceptance of it was reflected in the sale of over fifteen hundred
copies within a very short time. This version became the basic source for
subsequent revisions of detail during the next seventy five years.

Perhaps the version 
known as “The Great Bible” issued in April 1539, and sometimes as “Cromwell`s
Bible” was the most important to the Reformation because it was by
law distributed throughout England. While it was still in
the printers, Thomas Cromwell issued an injunction requiring the clergy to provide in each parish “one book of the whole Bible of the largest
volume in English,” the cost to be shared between the parson and the
parish. It was further required that it should be set up  in a
convenient place within the church for general reading, and the clergy
should “expressly provoke, stir , exhort, every person  to read the
same.”  At St Paul`s six copies were set up for public use and people
were allowed to read it to an auditory provided it did not interfere with
divine service. This of itself was of great value to those who could not
read, the old and infirm. and even crowds of small boys wanting to hear
the scriptures read. This period of liberty was, however, to suffer again
when Mary Tudor came to the throne.

18/07/2011