William Tyndale: A Great Martyr

It's always a little frustrating that you can't know all that I have learned about a subject. But the fact is, we must both be content with sharing a little of the books and articles that are read. And so, I come to this book about William Tyndale and Sir Thomas More (there's not enough space to discuss him as well) without knowing exactly how to take so little out of it, and make it palateable and worthwhile. Brian Moynahan's interesting book--God's Bestseller--has almost 400 pages; the chapters begin with Tyndale's youth and go through  political and social situations to his death. Even Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn were  involved!

Just about the time that Tyndale was through with Cambridge, Martin Luther, in his native Germany, was having an enormous effect on the minds of sincere and thoughtful priests and preachers. Luther was preaching the faults of the Catholic Church--"its greed and decadence, its shameless use of the 'threat of the stake and the shame of heresy' to terrify its critics, and the 'loose blabber' of its priests, prevented the faithful from understanding the manifest things of God." And the struggle to reach this conclusion caused Luther to "ponder his insights," and he said that he felt "as though I had been reborn altogether and had entered Paradise."


He then wrote that "the face of the whole of Scripture became apparent to me." Part of the truth he realized was that men did not need the clergy to tell them what the scripture said, when they could read it for themselves. With the help of the printing press, Luther began to publish his tracts and brochures on the differences in what the scripture said, and what the Catholic Church was doing. And with Gutenberg's printing of the Vulgate Bible in 1455, the ball was rolling toward a day of enlightment--not just with what the scripture said, but that anyone could access its truths without the aid of the clergy. Of course, this was heresy to the Catholic Church. This view of Luther shows the influence which he may have had on Tyndale.

Many thousand pamphlets written by Luther came off the German presses, and soon flooded into England. This alarmed the English Church, and they began to have book burnings. Now, pamphlets by Luther were not only plentiful, but cheap. Sir Thomas More rose up to defend the faith in England, just as Tyndale was at the beginning of his decision to translate the Latin Bible into English, so that every man could read God's word for himself. Luther was a reformer heard by many. Tyndale wasn't only a supporter of the kind of reforms Luther was proclaiming, but would live his life hidden and desperate to change the structure and influence of the Catholic Church for the good of the common man, and would eventually end his life at the stake. But not before presenting the world with the Bible in English.

To read the intrigues of Tyndale, More and the Catholic Church, you'll have to read the book. But you'll see that from a rather innocent beginning, where Tyndale attempted to get help from religious men, so that he could concentrate on his translating, to the awakening of the Catholic Church to the damage he could do is a long and arduous journey, involving the King of England and his mistress.

The pertinance of this became serious when Henry VIII asked the pope to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Moynahan says of this situation: "Henry VIII's long infatuation with Anne Boleyn--the king's 'great matter'--was of great good fortune to the evangelicals. The pope's refusal to annul Henry's marriage with Catherine of Aragon led to a break with Rome, and undermined Wolsey and More. Anne was herself reform minded. She had a copy of Tyndale's banned New Testament, and she marked passages, with her fingernail, in his book The Obedience of a Christian Man that she wished Henry to read, and 'besought his grace most tenderly to reade them'. But Tyndale failed to make use of her sympathy."

When the pope decided against Henry, their relationship fell apart and a new church was born. Sir Thomas More was arrested and put in prison, because he would not swear to serve the new church and its leader. But he was allowed books, pen and paper, along with as much freedom as a prison can afford. Moynahan believes that even after his imprisonment, More went after Tyndale.

Tyndale was eventually arrested, found guilty of heresy and stripped of his priestly dignity in August 1536. Moynahan gives this description under a woodcarving of Tyndale's death on October 6, 1536: "The execututioner strangles Tyndale moments before burning him at the stake in Vilvoorde. His last words--'Lord ope the King of England's eyes'--became part of Protestant mythology. Contemporaries noted no such words, however, only that the strangling was bungled and that he suffered terribly."

Throughout his adult life, Tyndale fought to give the scripture to the common people. Translating first the New Testament, and then parts of the Old Testament, he sought ways and means to get his translations published and into the hands of the people. His existence was spent with a single focus: to translate the Latin Bible into the English language--one the common people could understand. From his humble vision of translating the Bible to his betrayal, through the horrific conditions of his prison cell, and onto a stake where he was burned for telling the truth, Tyndale was a great martyr. We should thank God for him, and for all the men who gave their lives for us to read the Bible.

Just take what you can from this tribute to the martyrs and see their suffering and sacrifice as a price they paid for us. Brian Moynahan has given this book the vitality of a fiction writer, and it isn't at all dry. I enjoyed it very much, especially as it caused a change in my life. I hope you'll take a look at it.

Blessings...Mimi