The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

CHAPTER FIVE: Tyndale and Frith Testify: Ethiopia and India Support

WILLIAM TYNDALE (c. 1490-1536), greatest of the English Reformers, eminent linguist, and first translator of the New Testament from Greek into English, was recognized as one of the finest classical scholars of his time. Trained at both Oxford and Cambridge, he was thus linked to both universities. He entered Oxford, from which he received his B.A. and M.A. degrees, with a yearning for spiritual things and a bent toward languages. There he became a master in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, and skilled in Spanish, French, and English. At Oxford he was influenced by John Colet’s lectures in New Testament Greek, which broke with tradition and revolutionized Bible study. ¹ (Pictured on page 96.) CFF2 88.1

Tyndale then went on to Cambridge in 1516. There Tyndale, Frith, and Bilney all studied the Scripture—revealed provisions of regeneration. And there the Book spoke to Tyndale’s heart, and he found God in its pages. It was a time of new beginnings, when his inward convictions began to find outward expression. Groups of students gathered to read the Greek and Latin Gospels of Erasmus. Having taken priest’s orders in 1521, Tyndale became tutor-chaplain to Sir John and Lady Walsh, of Old Sodbury. There he preached to eager listeners who filled the sanctuary, also in surrounding villages and towns, and at Bristol on the college green. His preaching stirred great interest, but the hostility of the priests was aroused and numerous disputes resulted in which Tyndale used the Greek text with telling effect. CFF2 88.2

He was soon denounced by priests and dignitaries. Quickly the storm broke into the open, and a real struggle was on. The chancellor convoked a conference of the clergy, and Tyndale was severely reprimanded for his growing “heresies.” The crisis had come. His course was clear, as arrest and condemnation faced him. He must seek asylum on the Continent. CFF2 89.1

Rome was then at the pinnacle of its power in Britain, and a pall of midnight darkness, corruption, and superstition covered the land. This Tyndale felt had been brought about by taking away the Key of Knowledge—the Holy Word. There was only one hope for Britain and the world, and that was to restore the Key. Distressed by the ignorance of the priests and monks, he determined to provide the remedy by translating the New Testament into the English vernacular, thus lighting a torch in the midst of the spiritual darkness. From thenceforth he made this noble resolve his life mission. He rebelled against the common concept that the pope’s laws were above God’s, and declared that if God spared his life, before many years he would “cause a boy that driveth the plow” to know more of Scripture than the monks and priests that swarmed the land. CFF2 89.2

He began his task. But no place was open locally for translation work, so he moved to London. He had hoped for assistance from other scholars, particularly from the bishop of London. But the bishop refused, as did Sir Thomas More, the chancellor. Then a wealthy cloth merchant of London opened his home to him for a year and a half. Tyndale also began to champion many of Luther’s positions, and Tyndale’s friendship with John Frith deepened. But his increasing sympathy with the teachings of Continental Reformers made further stay in England hazardous. So, because of priestly opposition, he sought asylum in Germany, never to see his native land again. CFF2 89.3

Arriving in Hamburg, he unpacked his precious Greek text and resumed his task. Later he went to Cologne, where he began to print the Gospels of Matthew and Mark first. Interruptions forced him to complete the task at Worms, where Luther made his brilliant defense before the Diet, and then at Antwerp. For twelve years he was hounded and hunted. Forbidden in one city, he fled to another—Wittenberg, Cologne, Hamburg, Worms, Strasbourg, Marburg, and Antwerp—to evade his oppressors. In 1524 he reached Wittenberg in Saxony, where the Reformation had made great progress. There he met Luther and was inspired by his strong faith and dynamic action. Under such environment he joyfully entered upon the completion of his great task. His translation was ready within a year. CFF2 90.1

Again, a London merchant furnished the funds to secure a printer, and six thousand copies were struck off. But an interdict was issued to prevent copies from entering Britain under pain of excommunication. Although the English ports were guarded, thousands of copies were smuggled into England, concealed in bales and boxes of merchandise, and were quickly circulated everywhere. Church officials seized and burned many, and the bishop of London and Sir Thomas More fought and exposed the translation. But Tyndale brought out a revised edition, and there were seven more printings in the next ten years, all speedily sold. Cardinal Wolsey, who had sought to prevent copies from entering England, ordered Luther’s and Tyndale’s books burned. And a great bonfire, kindled outside St. Paul’s, consumed all the Tyndale Testaments that could be gathered up. ² But other editions replaced those that were burned, and many were sold on the Continent, as well. CFF2 90.2

Common errors were corrected. But the bishops were incensed, for Tyndale had used “repentance” for “penance,” “acknowledge” for “confess,” “image” for “idol,” “congregation” for “church,” and “love” for “charity”—basing his translation on Erasmus’ Greek text and borrowing from Luther’s arrangement. Wyclif’s Bible was largely obsolete and inaccessible, and had been taken from the faulty Latin Vulgate. Tyndale’s was a simple, honest, straightforward translation, shunning the ornate, euphemistic style of the times. The Bible was now available to all and exerted a powerful influence on the English Reformation, as well as setting the pattern upon which most later revisers worked. Indeed, 90 per cent of the Authorized Version of 1611 is attributable to Tyndale. His great learning had been made to serve a great cause. He is thus rightfully established among the literary immortals of England—his style characterized by tenderness, simplicity, and grandeur of phrasing. Indeed, the persistence of Tyndale’s work has been called the “miracle of English letters.” CFF2 90.3

In 1528 Tyndale wrote on justification by faith, under the Parable of the Wicked Mammon, with several editions following. With him there was one uniform principle—the infallible authority of Holy Scripture as the rule of faith and practice and the test of all teaching. This he set forth in The Obedience of a Christian Man, in which he sought to restore Holy Scripture to its proper place in the hearts of men, holding that the true sense of the Bible—contrary to the scholastic emphasis of the day—is its literal meaning. His view was therefore much more in accord with the view of our day than with that of his own time. Thus the two great principles of the Reformation were brought sharply to the forefront. So while Luther had opened a closed Bible in Germany, Tyndale had done the same for Britain. And his The Practice of Prelates was an unsparing indictment of the Roman hierarchy. CFF2 91.1

In 1529 Tyndale repaired to the Low Countries to translate the Pentateuch. In this he was assisted by Miles Coverdale, who virtually completed the translation. By this time Tyndale had rejected both Catholicism’s transubstantiation and Luther’s consubstantiation, regarding the celebration of the Lord’s Supper as purely commemorative and symbolic. CFF2 91.2

Beginning in 1527, Tyndale crossed swords with Sir Thomas More, ³ and a literary war followed. Back and forth the battle surged. In 1529 More produced his Dialogue of Sir Thomas More, attacking the positions of Luther and Tyndale, and defending Rome. This dealt with the doctrines that divided Christendom—Tyndale championing the Scripture, and More, the church. This Tyndale answered in 1531 with satiric force. More soon issued The Confutacyon of Tyndale’s Answers. The exchange became the classic controversy of the English Reformation. (More pictured on page 96.) CFF2 91.3

The bishops had burned Tyndale’s books. Now they resolved that he too must burn at the stake. This Tyndale had anticipated. Meantime, Cromwell had become privy councilor, and Tyndale was invited to return to England from the Continent, under safe-conduct. But this he felt to be unsafe because of high ecclesiastical resentment. Then Henry VIII turned against him, denounced his writings, and sought to bring him to trial. He asked Charles V to deliver him, but the emperor refused to do so. CFF2 92.1

Tyndale had found refuge in the home of an English merchant in Antwerp, and thought he was safe. But he was lured from home by an English acquaintance, actually an agent for his enemies in England. Decoyed into another jurisdiction, he was seized by the authorities of Brussels in the name of the emperor, and conveyed to the castle of Vilvorde, near Brussels. Here, under arrest, he languished in prison for about seventeen months through a protracted trial for heresy. Finally, on October 6, 1536, he was taken outside the castle to suffer death at Brussels, in Flanders. Fastened to a stake, he was strangled by the executioner, who then burned his body. CFF2 92.2

He had expected just that, and his last words were the prayer, “Lord, open the eyes of the King of England.” Significantly enough, the very next year the public reading of the Word of God was authorized by royal decree. And five years later a Bible, allegedly translated by various “learned men,” reached the desk of Henry VIII, who ordered that every church in the kingdom be provided with a copy. Tyndale had triumphed. He had left England an unknown exile, and had lived abroad in poverty, obscurity, and danger; yet before his death his name had become a household word in England and was widely known on the Continent. And the Bible had become known in the common tongue of the people. Truth was established. CFF2 93.1