Love Under Fire

Tyndale Translates the New Testament Into English

Driven from home by persecution, Tyndale went to London and for a while worked there undisturbed. But again the Catholic officials forced him to leave. All England seemed closed against him. In Germany he began the printing of the English New Testament. When he was forbidden to print in one city, he went to another. He finally made his way to Worms, where Luther had defended the gospel before the assembly a few years before. There were many friends of the Reformation in that city. Three thousand copies of the New Testament were soon finished, and another edition followed. LF 105.7

The Word of God was taken to London secretly and circulated throughout the country. Catholic officials tried to suppress the truth, but they failed. The bishop of Durham bought a bookseller's whole stock of Bibles in order to destroy them, thinking that this would harm the work. But the money this provided bought material for a new and better edition. Later, when Tyndale was taken prisoner, he was offered freedom if he would reveal the names of those who helped him with the expense of printing his Bibles. He replied that the bishop of Durham had done more than any other person by paying a large price for the books left in stock. LF 106.1

Tyndale finally witnessed for his faith by a martyr's death, but the weapons he prepared enabled other soldiers to do battle through the centuries, even down to our own time. LF 106.2

Latimer said from the pulpit that the Bible ought to be read in the language of the people. “Let us not take any side paths, but let God's word direct us. Let us not walk after ... our forefathers, nor seek not what they did, but what they should have done.”⁵ LF 106.3

Barnes and Frith, Ridley and Cranmer, leaders in the English Reformation, were men of learning, highly regarded for zeal or piety in the Catholic religion. They opposed the papacy because they knew the errors of the “holy see.” LF 106.4