6
October 1536 A.D. Mr.
(Rev.) William Tyndale strangled and burned.
See David Daniell’s book.
Prof. David Daniell is
Emeritus Professor of English at the University College London. He is an honorary Fellow of Hertford and St.
Catherine’s colleges, Oxford. He has authored articles and books on Shakespeare
and the Arden edition of Julius Caesar. He edited the Penguin edition of William
Tyndale’s Obedience of a Christian Man. Yale
University Press published his editions of Tyndale’s
New Testament and Tyndale’s Old
Testament. He is also the author of
that magnum opus: William Tyndale: A
Biography. The latter is a
must-read.
Chapter 9, William Tyndale,
1494—1536, pages 133-159
Again, this is long, but
should be digested and memorialized. One
saying is worth memorializing from Tyndale:
Rome is afraid of the Bible and the Bible will pull down the Pope (whom
we call the Italian head-priest in Rome).
Prof. Daniell’s’ book is
divided in “pre-printing” and “post-printing” periods in England. In the pre-print period: (1) Bible in Britain
to AD 850, (2) the Anglo-Saxon Bibles and glosses, (3) Wyclif and Lollards, and
(4) the 14th-15th centuries of severe Parliamentary,
Canterburian, and Anglo-Italian repressions of the English Bible. In the
“post-print” period, Prof Daniel’s discussed: (1) Erasmus’ Greek NT, 1516, with
the Continent-wide explosion of vernacular Bibles, (2) the effects in the
English Reformation and, now, chapter 9, (3) William Tyndale, AD 1494-1536.
By way of introduction, Prof.
Daniell covers the: (1) significance of the printed Bible in England, (2)
Tyndale’s early years, (3) Tyndale in Gloucestershire, (4) Tyndale in London,
(5) Tyndale in Cologne, AD 1525, (6) Tyndale’s 1526 Worms NT, (7) Tyndale’s Parable of Wicked Mammon and The Obedience of the Christian Man, (8)
Tyndale’s Pentateuch, (9) Tyndale, More and The
Practice of Prelates, (9) Tyndale NT expositions, (10) Tyndale’s 1534 NT,
(11) Tyndale and Frith, (12) Tyndale’s arrest and imprisonment, (13) the
Inquisition (of the Italian agents = Popes and facilitators), (14) Tyndale’s
Martyrdom, and (15) Tyndale’s legacy.
SIGNIFICANCE
OF PRINTED BIBLE IN BRITAIN, 134-139.
The story of the Tudor Bibles
used to be told as sacred history. But, in 20th century scholarship,
for some, the Bible was “the foundation of monarchial authority…the textbook of
morality and social subordination” (134).
(Hill, Christopher. The English Bible and the
Seventeenth Century Revolution. New York: Penguin Books, 1995, 5 Available at: http://www.amazon.com/The-English-Bible-Seventeenth-Century-Revolution/dp/0140159908/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386629716&sr=8-1&keywords=christopher+hill+the+english+bible.) We would add that there is truth here,
especially with the Goateed-Goat of Canterbury, Billy-goat Laud; old Billy-goat
could never preach a sermon without extolling Royal Absolutism; he never saw a
communion table that he didn’t idolize like an idolater, unfortunately, the
constant impulse to power has always been an uncorrected and ugly proclivity in
Anglican DNA. On the other hand, the Bible was also the handbook for
challenging monarchial absolutism. As Horace Greely would say centuries later,
“It is impossible to subjugate a Bible-reading people.” Add in the martyrs of the 2nd and
3rd centuries, loyal to their governors, but not willing to yield on
the sovereignty of the Risen Redeemer.
Hear! Hear!
In the late 20th
century, the latest twist is the denial of the Bible’s role. The Anglo-Italians, or English-Italian types,
have argued that there was no Reformation except for the “high-powered destroyers”
(135). The English Reformation was a
“failure.”
Christopher Haigh is one such
chap. Haigh, Christopher. English Reformations: Religion, Politics,
and Society under the Tudors. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993. Amazon.com offers the following: “`English Reformations’ is the new approach to the study of the
Reformation in England. Christopher Haigh's reportedly disproves the facile
assumption that the triumph of Protestantism was inevitable, and goes beyond
the surface of official political policy to explore the religious views and
practices of ordinary English people. With the benefit of hindsight, other
historians have traced the course of the Reformation as a series of events
inescapably culminating in the creation of the English Protestant
establishment. Haigh sets out to recreate the sixteenth century as a time of
excitement and insecurity, with each new policy or ruler causing the reversal
of earlier religious changes. This is a scholarly and stimulating book, which
challenges traditional ideas about the Reformation and offers a powerful and
convincing alternative analysis.”
Available at: http://www.amazon.com/English-Reformations-Religion-Politics-Society/dp/0198221622/ref=pd_cp_b_2. Talk about facile. On Haigh’s view, the English Reformation was
“wished on a reluctant nation by a faction at the Tudor courts” (135), those
Protestant guerillas and bullies. It
avoids Patrick Collinson’s governing and wider question: how did such a ruthlessly and abusively
Anglo-Italian country become so strongly and permanently Anglo-Protestant?
Parishes, throughout the
land, did buy the Bible [Great Bible] and it was read too. The Bible was seeping
into English life. Up to 1539, 50,000 copies of Tyndale’s and Coverdale’s NT
were printed abroad and were for sale in London” (137). In 1535-38, Thomas
Swynnerton, in his handbook on rhetoric noted, “Every man hath a New Testament
in his hand.” While overstated, we feel, it caught a new mood and sense of the
role of the Bible in London—in vernacular, notwithstanding the Anglo-Italian
hostilities for “that pestiferous book.”
As Tyndale repeatedly said: “Rome is afraid of the Bible.”
In the 1530s, English
speakers were an unregarded minority, unlike today with the globalization of
English. What Tyndale bought “in blood and ashes” would one day be
international, but little could he or any other Englishman, King or otherwise,
have foreseen that. While Tyndale was on
the Continent in Germany translating his Bible, a young man in Norwich was
burned alive for having a “piece of paper” on which was written “the Lord’s
Prayer.”
Bishop Westcott, 1868,
noted that Tyndale’s “popular rather than literary” and “simple dialect”
endowed the Bible with “permanence” (136).
Four fifths (4/5s) of the KJV is Tyndale, 85 years later when
“Shakespeare was at his peak” (136).
While Latin was the
language of government, the professions and Anglo-Italians, Tyndale was giving
a “strong direct prose line,” a “Saxon vocabulary and “Saxon
subject-verb-object” word order, with “clarity and simplicity” (146). Tyndale understood the “real source of power
in the English language…verbs at the center of verbal power.” After all, he was a Master of eight languages
(unlike any senior clerks in the ACNA), walking in the fear of the LORD and
with humility, who didn’t impugn ploughboys as “swine.”
WILLIAM TYNDALE—EARLY YEARS,
140-141.
Tyndale was probably born
in 1494 in Gloucestershire. His family
was prosperous and spread over Northamptonshire, Essex and Norfolk. He was
well-connected. Prof. Daniell notes that
Tyndale was—our word, Daniell talks of prosperity and connectedness—better bred
than other Anglo-Italians such as Tunstall, Wolsey, Stokesley and even More. He
took his BA at Magdalen Hall, Oxford in 4 JUL 1512. He took his MA on 2 JUL
1515. He began to read theology, but was appalled that this did not include the
Bible. He and some friends began reading and discussing the Bible. It is to be noted that Magdalen Hall had been
home to Erasmus. Also, Erasmus, the
international scholar, had been the Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at
Cambridge, 1509. In March 1516, Erasmus
was in Basle and his Novum Instrumentum with
explosive Preface was
printed—the volume that motored the Continent-wide flood of vernaculars shortly
thereafter.
WILLIAM
TYNDALE—GLOUCESTERSHIRE AGAIN, 141-142.
Tyndale became a tutor to
the children of Sir John and Lady Walsh at the Little Sodbury Manor. He may
have started his translation activity at this point. For the family and to
their growth toward reform themselves, Tyndale translated Erasmus’ Encchiridion militas christiani. It became a matter of family discussion. He
came to be in popular demand, preaching at St. Mary’s in Bristol. Bristol was a
center for Lollardy with a strong commitment to the Bible. Tyndale was accused
of heresy and was brought before the chancellor of the senior Anglo-Italian
priest. Several accounts of the meeting survive, including Tyndale’s. Tyndale
recalls the incident in his Prologue to Genesis, 1530: Tyndale said he was “threatened
grievously…reviled…and he treated me as a dog” (141). Other accounts survive. Even Thomas More in
London heard about it. There was “a lot of shouting,” but little else appears
to have developed insofar as documentation. One man in Bristol told Tyndale
that “the pope is the very antichrist” and “if you continued preaching the
Scriptures it will cost you your life” (141).
Well…the old man had it right…he understood official policy…it was the
policy of the King, Parliament, and the Anglo-Italians in Canterbury, York,
Norfolk, London and other sees rooted in Parliamentary and Church law—no
preaching with or from English vernacular “pestiferous” Bibles. Furthermore,
not even possession of vernacular Scriptures.
WILLIAM TYNDALE—LONDON, 142—143
Tyndale sought but was
denied permission to begin a vernacular translation after the fashion of
Erasmus’ recommendations in the explosive
Preface. Explosive as an idea—vernacular Bibles. Cuthbert Tunstall had been supportive of
Erasmus. But, he didn’t support Erasmus on this—no “pestiferous” vernaculars.
This part of Erasmus’ regime for renewal was not in the Anglo-Italian’s
program, however. He met with the Anglo-Italian in London about spring of 1523.
Letters of recommendation were sent from Sir John Walsh, but a response
indicated that “…there is no room in my lord of London’s palace to translate
the new testament [sic]” (141). No room
in a bishop’s “palace” to translate the NT?
Sound like “no room in the Bethlehem Inn for the birth of the Incarnate
Word. Who the hell believes that crock of brewing and juicy crap in the
crockpot of this Anglo-Italian?
Remember, Luther’s fame was widespread by this point and his German
“September Bible” had rolled off the presses in 1522. Tyndale was a master of
eight languages: Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, English, French and
German. No room in the palace? Yet, the Anglo-Italian had room at his palace
for horses and carriages. Room for a
bunch of horses, but not enough room for a translator of the Greek NT to
English. Welcome to Cuthbert Tunstall of
later fame as a burner of human beings.
Welcome to the Anglo-Italian Church of England in 1523.
Tunstall was preoccupied
with Parliament in 1523, the occasion of its first meeting in 8 years. Meanwhile, Tyndale was preaching at and
making connections with St. Dunstan’s-in-the-West on Fleet Street, London. The church hosted numerous prosperous
merchants in the textile business, including Humphrey Monmouth, who gave
residence to Tyndale. Tyndale “studied
most of the day and most of the night at his book” (143). Tyndale realized that
translating the Greek NT into the vernacular would not be allowed in London or
anywhere in England. The only option was
the Continent in some haven of safety and greater liberty…away from the hostile
Anglo-Italianate policy of the Church of England, Canterbury and London. In early 1524, Tyndale left for Germany with
support from Monmouth. Monmouth himself
would later run afoul of the Anglo-Italians in London in 1528.
WILLIAM TYNDALE—COLOGNE, 143-144
1516—Erasmus’ Greek NT is
printed with several print-reruns afterwards. By 1517, Luther is opposing the
senior clerk in Rome. In 1522, Luther’s “September Bible” was hot off the
press. By 1525, Tyndale is in Cologne, Germany.
By this time, Tyndale has been accused of being an “arch-heretic
Lutheran” (143). Mozley believes Tyndale met Luther. (Mozley,
J.F. Coverdale and His Bibles. James Clarke and Co., 2004. http://www.amazon.com/Coverdale-his-Bibles-J-Mozley/dp/0227172388/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386639887&sr=8-1&keywords=mozley+coverdale+and+his+bibles and William Tyndale. London: Society for the
Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1937. http://www.amazon.com/William-Tyndale-J-F-Mozley/dp/B0010K2T4O/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1386640490&sr=1-4).
Prof. Daniell is not convinced, however.
Tyndale did have Miles Coverdale and the Observant friar William Roy as
assistants. He may have been joined by
John Frith. Peter Quesnell, an eminent publisher who would print any
respectable volume of any persuasion, including Tyndale, took to too much wine. “Under the influence” Quesnell told Cochlaeus
(John Dobneck), a vitriolic and virulent anti-Lutheran, “the secret by which
England was to be brought over to the side of Luther” (143). Palace intrigue inside the Anglo-Italian
house, as it were. The print shop was raided by Imperialists. Tyndale and Roy
escaped up the Rhine to a safe-city, Worms, Germany, home and center for famous
rabbinic studies and Hebrew Bibles.
Cochlaeus reported that the print-run of 3,000—6,000 volumes had
happened. Matthew 1—22 made it into
England, including the Prologue to Matthew, largely (about 2/3s) a translation
of Luther with Tyndalian flourishes.
WILLIAM TYNDALE—THE 1526 WORMS NT, 144-146
In
late 1525, both Tyndale and Roy were in the Lutheran-safe city of Worms. The NT
was completed in 1526, an “octavo pocket-size” and handy edition without
prologues or marginal notes. These published editions were smuggled down the
Rhine and into English and Scottish ports. This “alarmed English authorities”
(144). Our Anglo-Italian friend, the senior clerk in London (called a
bishop), Tyndale’s friend who had no room in his palace for a NT translator or
translation…old Cuthbert Tunstall…issued his infamous proclamation in October
1526. It was a “prohibition of the
book,” Tyndale’s book, a book “in the English [sic] tongue that pestiferous and
most pernicious poyson [sic] dispersed through all of our dioces [sic] of
London in great number [sic]” (144).
Booksellers were warned. As a public gesture of his serious intent, by
the deities of Rome, on 27 Oct 1526, he held a book-burning with a sermon, including
the imputation of over 2000 errors to Tyndale’s work (not surprising since
Tyndale was working from the Greek, not Latin).
Of course, “errors” was Tunstall’s term. One consequence was that
Tunstall put forward money to buy the 1526 NTs from the printer in
Antwerp. Tunstall had a chaplain in the
Low Countries who reported that many had been burned “both heir [sic] and
beyond the see” (144). In coordination and concurrence with the
anti-Tyndale-policy, the Anglo-Italian clerk of Canterbury, William Warham,
wrote all the diocesans of England to send money in order to buy up Tyndale’s
NT. Richard Nix, the senior cleric of
Norwich, on 14 JUN 1527, sent 10 marks, promising more money, and
congratulating the Archbishop for “the blessed deed” (144). In NOV 1527, Wolsey arrested the Cambridge
scholar, Thomas Bilney. A new onslaught
was at hand. Things tightened up.
“Records of depositions of many of the arrested people” reveals they had been
reading Tyndale’s NT. Englishmen knew of
Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter and Whitsuntide by “fractions” of the Bible—and
that in Latin—but had never had exposure to the Bible, especially Paul’s
epistles. The Anglo-Italian Church of England had permitted “Gospel Harmonies”
to circulate, but many words of Jesus and all the epistles were largely
excluded. What was entirely new
also—this was the first time England had a translation directly from the Greek.
The complete letters of St. Paul—new. Romans and justification by faith alone
was new. And—“most of parts of the country had groups of people meeting to read
and hear the Word so newly arrived” (145).
Edward Hall’s Chronicle tells
of Cuthbert Tunstall, London’s Inquisitor, in Antwerp with the design to buy up
and burn Tyndale’s NT. “Parkington, the printer, had the thanks and money. Tunstall had the books. Tyndale had his cut
on the profits” for another print re-run. Let’s say that “demand was high” and
Tyndale’s popularity and unpopularity was on the rise.
Parable
of Wicked Mammon and The
Obedience of the Christian Man, 146—149.
Tyndale
was probably living in or near Antwerp.
On 8 MAY 1528—you guessed it. The Parable of Wicked Mammon was printed
in the customary small octavo, pocket-sized edition. Handy. Stealthy. Easily hidden. And dangerous since the
Anglo-Italian Empire feared exposure of the corruptions and abuses—de fide (doctrine), worship and
practice. The interrogations, however, by the Anglo-Italian Inquisitors in
England, Prof. Daniell tells us, were “much-sharpened” (146). It was officially
banned—again—as “heretical” on 24 MAY 1530. The Devils were screeching in
dioceses.
The
most influential was The Obedience of the
Christian Man, published on 20 OCT 1528. The enemies of Tyndale and other
English Reformers were howling “sedition,” “heresy” and “treason.” Tyndale was wont to make two points
typically: (1) the supreme authority of the Bible in the church and (2) the
supreme authority of the King in the state.
A usual refrain for Tyndale was that, from the Pope down to the friar,
the “church was selling for money what Christ gave freely.” Tyndale takes the
time to attack the “dueling” and “competing” schools of metaphysics. It was widely read. The senior clerics
(called bishops) imputed “fifty-four articles of heresy” to Tyndale (146). These matters, Prof. Daniell tells us,
emerges in the interrogations of “humble people.” Ann Boleyn read the
publication. Henry VIII read it too, saying, “This is a book for me and all
kings to read” (146). So much for the
Anglo-Italian bishops in their Roman armor—the King of England put a dent in
the armor.
THE PENTATEUCH, 147—149
Rabbinic
schools flourished in Europe, notably at Worms. Tyndale may have learned his
Hebrew or more fully developed it there.
Worms was “the main centre of Jewish learning” (147). There were only 2
Hebrew scholars at Cambridge and they were not interested in translation
activity—hah, it would have violated church and state law. In JAN 1530, the English version of “The
First Book of Moses Called Genesis” with a Prologue was off the press; it also
included Exodus to Deuteronomy.
Incidentally, Tyndale was aged 36 and Cranmer was 47, laboring away
quietly in his Cambridge home while Tyndale was a fugitive. The Prologue spoke
of the need to “read day and night” but not just to “read and talk,” but to
“desire God day and night instantly to open our eyes” (148). Tyndale constantly warned about “disputers
and brawlers about vain words…ever gnawing upon the bitter bark” (148). He again opposes “barren scholastic
metaphysics” (148). This volume had 6
marginal notes for Genesis compared to Luther’s 72 for his German vernacular
edition; there 132 marginal notes for the Pentateuch; the senior priest in
Rome, the Pope, got 24 mentions; “The Pope’s bull slayeth more than Aaron’s
calf at Ex. 32.”
TYNDALE, MORE AND THE PRACTICE OF PRELATES, 149—150
By
1528, Thomas More—as well as the Anglo-Italian bishop, John Fisher—was a
seasoned enemy of Luther. Cranmer was
still digesting Fisher’s works.
By way
of digression.
Fisher, John. The
English Works of John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester (1469–1535): Sermons and
other Writings, 1520–1535, edited
by Cecilia A. Hatt, Oxford University Press, 2002. It’s a bit pricey, but we believe it will
give insights. Mr. Fisher was an
international scholar. He was vigorously
combatting Luther and Oecolampadius in the 1520s. Where was Cranmer? Available at: http://www.amazon.com/English-Fisher-Bishop-Rochester-1469-1535/dp/0198270119/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376193120&sr=8-1&keywords=english+works+of+john+fisher Another edition
that Ms. Hatt’s is available online: http://www.amazon.com/English-Fisher-Bishop-Rochester-1469-1535/dp/0198270119/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376193120&sr=8-1&keywords=english+works+of+john+fisher Also, available
online, an 1877 edition of Fisher’s works, at: http://books.google.com/books?id=qV4Yv8RxRkEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=bishop+john+fisher&hl=en&sa=X&ei=3GUmUtj0GtC4sASb4oCYBg&ved=0CE4Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=bishop%20john%20fisher&f=false
By 1528, the Anglo-Italian bishop of London, Cuthbert
Tunstall “permitted” More to read “heretical books” in order to attack
Tyndale. And attack he did. More, along with Tunstall, was “determined to
crush heretics if need be by fire” (149).
In JUN 1529, More published More’s
Dialogue Concerning Heresy. In Book
3, Tyndale’s NT was “demolished as heresy.” Tyndale was “worse than Luther”
(149). Tyndale’s offenses: “senior” for
“priest,” “congregation” for “church,” “love” for “charity,” and “repent” for
“do penance.” Tyndale issued a rejoinder in 1531 with An Answer unto sir Thomas More’s Dialogue; he condemns the church
for perversions of the Scriptures and its corruptions, subjects upon which
Tyndale notes More was silent. Then, in
1532, More launches the attack with his massive salvo—Confutation of Tyndale’s Answer. It was 10 books in length with 2000 pages and
over 500, 000 words. Book V impales
Robert Barnes (who’ll later go to the flames).
The other 9 books impale Tyndale.
Bottom-line: GAME ON!
Even Nicholas Harpsfield, an Anglo-Italian cleric, felt
More was “disordered” (148).
A brief digression on Harpsfield.
Even
Harpsfield felt More’s diatribes were over-the-top. Tyndale was, according to
Prof. Daniell, “intemperately pilloried on every page” (148). One example suffices to illustrate the 2000
pages. Tyndale was a “hell-hound in the kennel of the devil…discharging a
filthy foam of blasphemies out of his brutish beastly mouth.” And on and on. More
does follow-ons with Apology and Debellation of Salem and Bizance,” both
produced in 1533.
Tyndale
put out The Practice of Prelates in
1530. The word “practice” in Tyndale’s
time meant “trickery” (149). The Pope’s conspiracy was“ivy strangling the nation’s
tree.” By the way, he also opposed
Henry’s divorce to Catherine, something that would not augur well with a Tudor
despot. Tyndale was 36 years old. Cranmer was 47.
Where
was Cranmer? The Reformation narrative
may need adjustment giving a great role to Tyndale and the Bible. We’ll ponder
it.
NEW TESTAMENT EXPOSITIONS, 150—151
In
1530, Tyndale also expanded his 1525 Cologne Fragment and turned it into a
book: A Pathway to the Holy Scriptures. It
was a guide to reading the NT. Again,
his NT has already landed in English and Scottish ports. He also expounds on
Paul’s Romans, ever a dangerous volume to the Romanists.
In
SEPT 1531, he writes An Exposition upon
the First Epistle of John warning the reader of St. John’s injunction,
“Little children, beware of images…” Tyndale extends mockery to saint-worship
and statutes. Perhaps, Tyndale was
thinking of More’s intemperance, hostility and the burnings that had occurred.
The Devil wasn’t showing any love on English soil or in the souls of English
diocesans, notably, Canterbury and London.
In
1533, he wrote An Exposition upon the V,
VI, VII Chapters of Matthew. He
comments on works that arise from faith as well as corrupt church
practices.
The Brief Declaration of the Sacraments was
published posthumously in 1548 equating “eating” with “inner faith,” a position
for which Frith died earlier. A position
that remains, in terms of the Articles, the official position of the Church of
England 450 years later (amidst the other apostasies in fact). Tyndale notes that he was “saved by the
merits of Christ and not by works, saints or masses” (149).
TYNDALE’S 1534 NEW TESTAMENT, 151—152
There
were 4 re-issues of the 1526 Worms NT from Antwerp’s publisher,
VanEndhoven. It is fair to say that the
Continent assisted and helped in the purging England of the Anglo-Italians…over
time. The “demand was high in England”
(151), persecutors notwithstanding. The 1534 edition has a prologue for every
book but Acts and Revelation. Of
interest, he translates Luther’s Prologue to Romans. One of these editions went to Ann Boleyn, the
3-year adulteress with Henry and the mother of an illegitimate child, the
future Queen of England, Elizabeth 1.
83% of
the KJV NT will be the 1534 edition, 77 years later.
TYNDALE AND FRITH, 152
Tyndale
probably knew Frith in England. Frith and his family (married, a novelty for
English Reformers) were definitely with Tyndale in the Low Countries. Foxe will print 2 letters from Tyndale to
Frith in 1531 who, back in the Anglo-Italian diocese of London, is in
jail. Tyndale’s letters are full of
Scripture, exhorting him to fidelity in the face of impending martyrdom
(where’s old Tom Cranmer?). He tells Frith to quote the Bible when the
sacraments are discussed. Frith gets a
letter back to Tyndale saying “he [Tyndale] was more worthy than all the
bishops in England [hint, hint including Cranmer, we must infer]…for his
faithful, clear and innocent heart” (152).
This
brief digression from Wikipedia on John Frith:
“Trial and death
“Frith was tried before many examiners and bishops, and
produced his own writings as evidence for his views that were deemed as heresy. He was sentenced to death by fire and offered a pardon if he answered
positively to two questions: Do you believe in purgatory, and do you believe in transubstantiation?
He replied that neither purgatory nor transubstantiation could be proven by Holy
Scriptures, and thus was condemned as a heretic and was transferred
to the secular arm for his execution on 23 June 1533. He was burned at the stake on 4 July 1533 at Smithfield, London
for, he was told, his soul's salvation. (King Henry VIII
was excommunicated one week later.)
“Aftermath
“Thomas
Cranmer would later subscribe to Frith's views on purgatory, and
published the 42 articles
which explicitly denied purgatory. Frith's works were posthumously published in
1573 by John Foxe.
TYNDALE’S ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT, 153—154
Tyndale was safe in the house of
Thomas Poyntz and his wife. John Rogers had been the chaplain for English
merchants since late 1534. He was near finishing the OT. In spring 1535, a
certain Henry Phillips, a reported bully and ne’er-do-well, insinuated himself
into Tyndale’s circle, including Poyntz.
The Anglo-Italian diocesan, Stokesley, was the alleged
orchestrator-in-the-background.
Phillips, having squandered an inheritance, was “for hire.” On 21 May
1531, imperial officers seized Tyndale.
Poyntz’s home was raided and Tyndale’s books and papers were
confiscated. Fortunately, John Rogers
had the OT papers. Tyndale, however, was
imprisoned in the Castle of Vilvoorde, outside Brussels. He was in jail for 16
months. There was
political-back-and-forth over diplomatic privileges. But the Emperor, Charles V, at court in
Brussels, was not in much of a favorable mood following Henry’s disgraces and
disrespects to his aunt, Catherine of Aragon…not only a divorce, but a most
serious insult. (The Pope would
excommunicate old Henry but who cares about some senior priest’s revilings in
Rome?)
INQUISITION, 154—156
Tyndale was subjected to long
exams. The procurer-general, the
Inquisitor’s office, was Pierre Dufief, a man known “for cruelty” (154). He was known as a “heresy hunter.” He was
driven “by large fees and getting a portion of confiscated properties” (154).
Tyndale’s crime was “Lutheranism.” Tyndale was a “great catch;” his downfall
“would remove heresy from England” (154).
He faced 17 commissioners and 3 chief accusers. He declined counsel and represented
himself. One of the accusers was Jacobus
Latomus, another great “heresy hunter” from the new Romanist University of
Leuven/Louvain. Latomus had been a
long-time opponent of Erasmus as well as Luther. Tyndale defended himself,
quoting Scriptures. Latomus wrote a
“detailed record” published in 1550.
Tyndale wrote his defense in a book Sola Fides Justificat Apud Deum, “justified
by faith alone before God.” Latomus was not trying to convict him of heresy;
that had already been decided; rather, the effort was to reclaim him to Italian
theology. According to Prof. Daniell,
Latomus was polite and courteous to the 42-year old translator and fairly
representing Tyndale’s views.
Commendable, gentility and politeness just before the Inquisitors gather
the brush, the logs and the wood for the heretic’s stake.
During the imprisonment, Tyndale asked
for warmer clothes and some light for the evenings. He also asked for the Hebrew Bible, a
grammar, and dictionary (Reuchlin’s German dictionary). The responses to the requests are
unknown. The jail-keeper, his daughter
and her family were converted from Italian to Reformed theology.
Even the generally hostile
procurer-general, Pierre Dufief, said, “Tyndale was a homo doctus, pietus et bonus, a “learned, godly (reverent) and good.”
(155).
Tyndale gave England 2 NTs, a
Pentateuch, other OT books, and pocket-sized books.
The Anglo-Italian senior clerk of
London, Tunstall, was replaced by Stokesley who “restarted the policy of
burning heretics, not just their books” (156).
The Devils were acting on both sides of the English Channel.
Even before Tyndale was arrested, he
had no assurances that his work was making progress. A heavy-curtain kept intel from him. He was
always in hiding. At times, he was always shifting. He was a marked man. He had no idea that 1000s of versions would,
in time, go around the globe. English as
a language was that of an unregarded minority…in one sense. It was not the majority-language of the
Continent. He lived in the dank cell. He
walked by faith alone by God’s grace and might alone.
TYNDALE—MARTYRDOM, 156—157
He was condemned in 1536. He probably,
like Cranmer and his fellow clerks when they went to the stake, was publically
and ceremonially degraded from the priesthood—with the standard rituals. A great assembly gathered on 6 OCT 1536. The stake, the brushwood, and the logs of
wood were gathered. As a scholar, he was
strangled first. Then, he was
burned. Before death, he is said to have
prayed: “LORD, open the King of England’s eyes.”
John Rogers assembled all of Tyndale’s
translations. They were—once
again—printed by Matthew Crom in Antwerp. Since Tyndale was a “heretic” Rogers
retitled the title page with “Thomas and Matthew” (for two disciples). 1500
copies of “Matthew’s Bible” were imported to England and “sold out” (157).
Within 2 months of Tyndale’s martyrdom, the English Bible (2/3rds by Tyndale)
was “licensed by Henry VIII and was circulating” in England (157). In time, the Geneva Bible (1560, 1576, 1599),
ever popular, would come to the English revisers for James 1, 1607-1611,
producing the KJV
WILLIAM TYNDALE: LEGACY, 157-158
Besides the NT, Pentateuch and the
entire Bible in time, 3 volumes really put the squeeze on the Anglo-Italians: Wicked Mammon, Obedience, and his
exposition of Romans. Tyndale’s
importance cannot be overstated. We are
inclined to think that Tyndale was the chief architect of the Reformation, not
the waffled senior clerk in Canterbury, Tom Cranmer. But, that’s under review. What England had
had with “fractions” and “tidbits” of the Bible, Latin-saturated services for
Latin-illiterate throngs, they now had with an “entire Bible.”
On 22 JUN 1530, Henry VIII, in good
Anglo-Italian fashioned served as a ventriloquist for the senior priest in
Rome. Henry said that Tyndale had
“produced pestiferous English books, printed in other regions…to pervert…the
people…to stir and incense them to sedition” (159).
As Tyndale frequently said, “Rome is
afraid of the Scripture… which will pull down papal authority” (160). Luther had said the same thing repeatedly.
But, by and by, the English Bible was
unleashed in England.
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