William Tyndale, who in some ways ranks next in importance to Henry VIII himself as a prime mover of the English Reformation, was a gifted scholar in languages at Oxford when he discovered Erasmus’s Greek New Testament. This discovery redirected his life; he became proficient in his knowledge of the Bible and began to give lectures. Before long he met opposition from the religious authorities. He moved to Cambridge, where there was considerable underground interest in the Lutheran Reformation, but was driven by the threat of arrest to the west of England. Here he became a tutor in the house of Sir John Walsh in the tiny Cotswold village of Little Sodbury. His famous words spoken to an arrogant prelate expressed his dangerous plan: ‘If God spare my life, I shall cause the boy that driveth the plow to know more of the Bible than thou dost!’
Through a friend of Sir John Walsh, Tyndale secured a preaching post at St Dunstan’s-in-the- West, London, and a rich merchant, Humphrey Monmouth, who heard him there allowed him to work in his home. For six months Tyndale, assisted by his Cambridge friend John Frith, worked on New Testament translation in London. But again, persecution caught up with him, and in 1524 he fled England to spend the last twelve years of his life in Europe. He first went to Hamburg, then to Wittenberg to confer with Luther, then to Cologne, where printing was finally commenced on the first edition of his New Testament. He was followed here by an English spy who notified the religious authorities, and Tyndale barely escaped to Worms with his unfinished sheets. In Worms the first completed New Testaments, around 6,000, came off the press by the end of 1525.
In order to get the books back into England Tyndale enlisted the help of several sympathetic merchants, and the New Testaments were packed into barrels, sacks and crates and hidden by other merchandise. In four years, 15,000 copies were circulating all over Great Britain. In desperation, the bishop of London engaged an agent named Packington to buy all the remaining copies to burn at Paul’s Cross. But this plan backfired as Packington went straight to Tyndale who recognized it as an excellent opportunity to finance a new edition. A deal was struck, and as John Foxe says in the Book of Martyrs, ‘the bishop of London had the books, Packington had the thanks and Tyndale had the money’.
Tyndale moved to Marburg then to Antwerp, for a time escaping the spies of Cardinal Wolsey who were hunting for him throughout Europe. He completed the translation of the first five books of the Old Testament, and a number of papers and tracts. During his stay in Antwerp he had a special copy of his New Testament printed on vellum and illuminated, and sent this as a gift to Queen Anne Boleyn. It was this that she later carried with her and read while awaiting execution in the Tower of London (it may be seen in the British Library). Eventually, in 1535, Tyndale was trapped by a spy named Henry Philips who had gained his confidence. For sixteen months he was confined in the dungeon of Vilvorde Castle. On 6 October 1536, he was strangled and burned, his last words being a prayer, ‘Lord, open the king of England’s eyes.’