IN the reign of Henry VIII., God raised up William Tyndale, who gave the English the printed Bible in their mother-tongue. Comparatively little is known of this great man; the place and year of his birth cannot be stated with certainty, and we must be content with “somewhere on the borders of Wales" for the former, and between 1484 and 1490 for the latter. Much of his life was spent abroad, in willing exile from his native land, in order that he might carry out his great scheme for printing the Word of God in English, and it cannot be said with certainty where he often hid himself the better to carry on his work. But if the story of his life cannot be very clearly written, WILLIAM TYNDALE'S MONUMENT exists in the hearts of English-speaking people all over the world, in our beloved English Bible, which in great part is in the very words of his translation.
William Tyndale was of a good old English stock, and as a young man showed promise and learning in the University of Oxford. There, for some ten years, he studied Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and there he learned to abhor the manner in which men were then trained for the Church. "In the universities," he says, "they have ordained that no man shall look at the Scripture until he be nursed in heathen learning eight or nine years"; and he laments how men were sworn to hold no opinions condemned by the Church, while being ignorant of what such opinions were; and further, that when at length divinity came to be studied, it was "locked up with false expositions, and with false principles of natural philosophy.”
During his course of study he came to Cambridge University, and there he was imbued with the desire to translate the Scriptures into English.
Scripture truth had entered into his soul; and when he was ordained priest he was in constant conflict with the dignitaries of the Church because of his love of Bible teaching, and presently he was opposed to the Pope and his prelates.
The great battle of the Reformation was at that time in progress, and he saw, by the enlightenment of God, the only way by which England should be freed from error. "I perceived," he said, "how that it is impossible to establish the lay people in any truth, except the Scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother-tongue, that they might see the process, order, and meaning of the text." In his "Preface to the Pentateuch," he declares that the determination of the priests to "drive" the people "from the knowledge of the Scripture," "to the intent they might sit in the consciences of the people, through vain superstition and false doctrine," in order to serve their own base, ends, had led him to give the Bible to the English. These are his words on the matter: "which thing only moved me to translate the New Testament.”
The struggle of the Reformation is still the conflict of today. Every people should have “the Scripture plainly laid before their eyes in their mother-tongue." And all lovers of God's Word are called to arise and circulate the Scriptures over Christendom, and to send the word of truth to the ends of the earth.
It seems strange to find in England many ready to praise the great persons who, in Tyndale's days, were his enemies simply because he was determined to give the people the pure Word of God in plain English. Yet it is not really strange, because such as denounce the Reformation as a Deformation, hate the light of God's truth, after the manner of their forefathers, who persecuted Tyndale, and at last, as we shall see, procured his martyrdom.
Finding it impossible to conduct the translation of the Bible into English in England, much less to print the volume, Tyndale in 1524 sailed from England to prosecute his work on the Continent. The Reformation had laid hold of various parts of the Continent, and in cities of Germany he found a refuge. But he was pursued in different towns, yet God preserved him until his work was done. In 1526 early editions of his work reached England despite the King and the prelates, and it was said that the English "were so eager for the Gospel as to affirm that they would buy a New Testament even if they had to give a hundred thousand pieces of money for it.”
The Scriptures and also some of Tyndale's tracts had entered England before the ecclesiastical authorities were aware; and no laws prohibiting men to read the Word of God could prevent their doing so.
The authorities endeavored to destroy the books—indeed, all the lay and spiritual powers "were publicly committed to oppose the circulation of the New Testament as translated by Tyndale," but in vain. Cardinal Wolsey set to work to buy up the books, and Archbishop Warham, in 1527, announced that he had got into his hands all the copies. But this effort only turned to good account, for the large purchase put considerable funds into Tyndale's hands, who was eager to improve and revise his early edition. The end of these ill-advised efforts was to place heavy sums of money into the hands of the printers, who produced fresh editions.
The revised edition of 1534 will ever remain Tyndale's monument; and as we read our New Testament today, it is no slight joy to recall the great man who gave so very much of it to us in his simple, but noble, English.
A few of Tyndale's sentences respecting the Scriptures will prove interesting. He says: "God worketh with His Word, and in His Word; and where His Word is preached, faith rooteth herself in the hearts of the elect; and as faith entereth, and the Word of God is believed, the power of God looseth the heart from the captivity and bondage under sin, and knitteth and coupleth him to God and to the will of God— altereth him, changeth him clean, fashioneth and forget him anew.”
“I call God to record against the day we shall appear before our Lord Jesus, to give a reckoning of our doings, that I never altered one syllable of God's Word against my conscience, nor would this day, if all that is in the earth, whether it be pleasure, honor, or riches, might be given me.'
The absolute "evangelical" character of his faith is well expressed in the following words of his: “Remember that Christ is the end of all things. He only is our resting-place, and He is our peace. For as there is no salvation in any other name, so is there no peace in any other name. Thou shalt never have rest in thy soul, neither shall the worm of conscience ever cease to gnaw thine heart, till thou come to Christ. If thou trust in thy works, there is no rest... If thou trust in confession, thou shalt think, 'Have I told all?' ... Likewise in our holy pardons and pilgrimages thou gettest no rest... In Christ put thy trust, and in the pardon and promises that God has made thee for His sake; and on that rock build thine house and there dwell." Such words attest his faith in Christ, and all who have like faith love the Scriptures and seek their circulation. Pardon sellers, pilgrimage makers, and the like do not love the Bible, and in all ages the men who have given it to their fellow men have been those of truly evangelical faith.
King Henry VIII. in course of time was favorable to the reading of the Bible by the people, and perhaps William Tyndale would have fared better had he returned to England. But he distrusted the King, and knew too well how his life was sought by many in his native land. It was the will of God that he should wear the martyr's crown in 'the coming day of glory, and his enemies in England were chiefly guilty of his death. Through them he was betrayed and given over to the enemies of the Gospel on the Continent.
At the time of his betrayal Tyndale was living in Antwerp, where, so long as he remained in a certain part of the city, he was perfectly secure. Antwerp being close to England, he' could prosecute his work there to advantage; but a Henry Philips from England, "not without the help and procurement of some of the bishops" of England, enticed him from his place of security. Philips set two officers to watch for the victim as he led him up a narrow passage, pointing with his finger over Tyndale's head as a sign. Philips was the means of bringing Tyndale before a tribunal of enemies of the Reformation, by whom he was tried as a heretic. He was committed to a prison, from which he wrote a touching appeal for a "warmer cap" and "warmer coat," and also "a piece of cloth to patch my leggings," for he suffered terribly from the cold during the winter. "I wish also for permission to have a candle in the evening... But, above all, I entreat and beseech... to have my Hebrew Bible, Hebrew grammar, and Hebrew dictionary, that I may spend my time with them at study." It would appear that his prayer was granted.
After some months of imprisonment, the various arguments for and against Tyndale came to an end, and he was condemned to die. He was tied to a stake and strangled, and afterward his body was burned. His last words were: "Lord, open the King of England's eyes." This was in October, 1536, and before that year was gone Tyndale's own version of the New Testament was issued from the press of the King's printer.