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William Tyndale   (Continued)
1494 – 1536

TYNDALE ABROAD

It appears that Tyndale went abroad sometime in 1524 or 1525. Foxe reports that he first went to Hamburg but our first definitive information concerning his activities places him in Cologne. With the aid of William Roye, Tyndale set about printing the New Testament in English at the print shop of Peter Quentell. The layout and format of the book followed Luther's September Testament that had been printed in a quarto format in 1522. Tyndale also included a long prologue emphasizing the doctrine of justification by faith. We are not exactly sure how far the printing had proceeded before the print shop was raided, and Tyndale and Roye were forced to flee. From that initial printing of the New Testament in English only one fragment, known as the Cologne Fragment, survives. It is Matthew chapters one to twenty-two and is located in the Grenville Collection at the British Library.

Gathering what sheets they were able to secure, Tyndale and Roye fled to Worms. Finally, in 1526 the first printing of the entire New Testament in English was completed. It is known as the Worms New Testament and was printed in an octavo format rather than the quarto size of the Cologne Fragment. It is believed that the press run was three thousand copies, only three of which survive today.

The New Testaments were then bundled in bolts of cloth or hidden in barrels of flour and smuggled into England. Willing workers distributed the books to colporteurs who sold them throughout the country. It was not long before Bishop Tunstall learned of what was taking place and intercepted a number of them. In November 1526 Tunstall preached at St. Paul's against Tyndale's translation and copies of it were burned.

Sometime later Tyndale shifted his activities to Antwerp to continue the work of Bible translation and printing. During this time he learned Hebrew and translated the first five books of the Old Testament into English. It remains a mystery how Tyndale was able to acquire his skill in the Hebrew language but there remains no doubt that his translation was magnificent. Much of it is carried over into the Bibles of today. Like the New Testaments, these books were also smuggled into England.

There is an amusing story connected with the printing of the revised New Testament of 1534 that merits telling. Bishop Tunstall was busy in London seeking to intercept and destroy the Bibles as they entered England. As part of his official duties, King Henry VIII sent him to the continent on state business. To accomplish this it was necessary for him to pass through Antwerp where he learned that copies of the New Testament were for sale. Reasoning that if he could purchase and destroy them in Antwerp, he could slow the flood of Bibles entering England. In the course of events, he met Augustine Pockington, an English merchant, who reportedly knew where copies of the Scriptures could be located.

Pockington, known for his shrewdness, agreed to sell the New Testaments to the Bishop for four times the normal rate. Thinking, as Foxe states it, " that he had God by the toe when he had the devil by the fist," Tunstall agreed. He bought the Bibles and had them burned in Antwerp. What the bishop did not know was that Pockington had secured these Bibles from Tyndale himself who was revising the New Testament for a second edition. Thus the story goes: the Bishop got the Bibles, Pockington got the thanks, and Tyndale got the money. With the Bishop's money, Tyndale was able to finance the printing of his revised edition. Such a story seems too pat to be true except we have it on the authority of John Foxe and with supplementary evidence provided by no less a person than Sir Thomas More, the Lord Chancellor of England.

During the time that Tyndale was occupied with the translation and printing of the Scriptures, he was also involved in writing theological treatises. Tyndale has primarily received fame for his translation work, and deservedly so. However, he was just as concerned that the Scriptures be applied to the doctrines and practices of the church to bring about a true reformation.

One of his first productions, which had originally been part of the Cologne fragment, was revised and printed under the title of A Pathway into Scripture. The reader will remember that the Prologue dealt with the doctrine of justification by faith, in Tyndale's understanding, the key doctrine to understand the Word of God.

Another treatise written by Tyndale was entitled The Parable of the Wicked Mammon. This was an exposition, loosely based on a parable found in Luke 16 that dealt with a wicked and slothful servant whose actions, although unrighteousness in themselves, were commended by his master. The tract was another defense of the doctrine of justification by faith. Tyndale denied that the doctrine of justification by faith led to a life of unbridled licentiousness as charged by Sir Thomas More and others.

In The Obedience of a Christian Man, written in October 1528, Tyndale defended the reformers from the charge of being rebels against lawful authority. The Peasant Revolt in Germany in 1525 had lent substance to this accusation. Tyndale demonstrated from the Scriptures that lawful obedience was enjoined on every person in his proper relationships. Tyndale went so far as to state that even the Bishop of Rome and his officials were to be in obedience to the King. It is no wonder that Henry VIII, when shown a copy of the book, exclaimed, "This is a book for me and for all princes to read!" However, when Henry VIII learned that Tyndale wrote it, it was placed on the list of prohibited books.

In 1530 Tyndale published a scathing attack against the clergy entitled The Practice of Prelates. At this time the question arose whether or not Henry VIII was lawfully married to Catherine of Aragon. She had been married to Henry's brother, Arthur, and when he died, Henry received a special dispensation from the Pope to marry her. In the book Tyndale directly addressed this question. He believed the marriage was legitimate on the basis of Deuteronomy 25:5 because Henry had married Catherine after the death of his brother and, therefore, had no grounds to divorce her. This was an unpopular position because it agreed with neither the King, who wanted to divorce Catherine and marry Anne Bolyn nor the Church officials who had issued the dispensation on financial, not Scriptural, grounds.

Later Tyndale became involved with a dispute with Sir Thomas More. In an uncharacteristic manner, More attacked Tyndale with charges of heresy. More was especially incensed with Tyndale's translations where he used words such as congregation, love, and senior rather than the ecclesiastical words of church, charity, and priest. Tyndale's reply, An Answer to Sir Thomas More, was moderate in tone and sought to disprove More's charges. In an even more virulent reply, More expended nearly three quarters of a million words in invective and abuse of Tyndale. Tyndale did not even acknowledge or answer More's book.

It was during this time that attempts were made to have Tyndale return to England. Although the exact details may never be known, Stephen Vaughn was commissioned to accomplish this task. Vaughn carried out his instructions and even secured an interview with Tyndale. During their conversation, Tyndale offered to return to England if Henry VIII would permit the Scriptures to circulate freely and Henry could do with Tyndale whatever he pleased. This offer of Tyndale was summarily rejected and Tyndale recognized that he would face certain death if he returned. In the midst of these activities Tyndale finished a revision of the New Testament that was published in 1534 and continued his work on the translation of the Old Testament. We know that he translated and published Jonah and was working on a third edition of the New Testament at the time of his arrest.

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