By Dr Craig Paterson, Provost of JHPCU and Professor of Christian Humanities
In 1408, following express instructions from the Crown in The Constitutions of Oxford, the English polity prohibited all vernacular translations of the Bible. John Wycliffe’s earlier 1380’s English manuscript edition of the Bible had been subject, over the years, to many purges by the authorities. For well over 100 years, oral transmission, in effect, became the safest way to pass on the New Testament to the common people, whose English text many Lollards (followers of John Wycliffe) memorized and recited in large sections.
It is upon this scene, of religious unrest and ferment, spurred on by the availability of radical Lutheran works, either translated into English from the German or read in German, that an Oxford scholar, William Tyndale (Tindale; Tyndall; Tindall), was to make a deep and lasting mark, further spreading the desire for change in the English Church in a manner that was already being seen on the Continent of Europe.
Martin Luther’s writings had already fueled desire for change in Europe with his dissenting theological texts and his publication in 1522, in Basel, of his German New Testament, translated directly from the Greek. Luther’s German New Testament was a “publishing phenomenon” in every sense. Several of Europe’s growing network of printers, who were forward thinking enough to perceive demand, and prepared to undertake personal risk, sought to prepare an edition of the text. Some eighteen editions of Luther’s German New Testament appeared in print between 1522 and 1525.
Tyndale’s background in scholarship at Oxford University, allied to an adventurous and ardent temperament, were ideally suited to the task of eventually translating the New Testament into English. When the new humanist learning reached Oxford towards the end of the reign of Henry VII, the university became a center of Greek studies for eager young scholars from every quarter of the Kingdom. Tyndale studied under the tutelage of gifted scholars like William Grocyn, Thomas Linacre, William Latimer, and John Colet. He had a natural gift for languages, and by the age of 21, in 1515, he had mastered eight languages, including Hebrew and Greek. It was during his Oxford years that the young Tyndale became a Lollard sympathizer and supporter of religious reformation. Tyndale believed strongly in the principle of sola scriptura—that the basic truths of Christianity are so clearly expressed in the Bible that all believers should be able to read and interpret it for themselves in their native languages.
In 1521, having taken holy orders, Tyndale became tutor to the family of Sir John Walsh, a Lollard sympathizer, and used his time there to study Reformation texts, especially the writings of Luther, and also Erasmus’s scriptural exegesis.
Tyndale left Walsh’s Gloucestershire home in 1523 to move to London and to thereby seek to preach dissenting doctrines. He also moved to London with the hope of finding backers for his unfolding plan to publish a translation of the Bible in English. Although Sir Henry Monmouth became a key benefactor of Tyndale’s while in London, it proved impossible to advance the project in England, even with Monmouth’s financial assistance, for the Bishop of London, Cuthbert Tunstall, openly opposed any such publication plan.
Unlike other parts of Europe, the printers in England, at the time, were far fewer in number, and none dared defy the civil and ecclesiastical authorities that had unambiguously placed a strict ban on any such printing. It would certainly have cost a printer his livelihood, or even his life, to so defy the English authorities in such a way. Spies would likely have detected and reported any attempt at surreptitious printing. Such was the grip of the authorities over printing in England that there was thus no practical possibility of Tyndale printing his vernacular translation in England.
Unable to find the resources to support his efforts to translate and publish an English New Testament, in England, Tyndale travelled to mainland Europe in 1524. He studied in Hamburg and then Wittenberg. It was during his stay in Wittenberg that Martin Luther encouraged Tyndale to forge ahead with his own ambitious translation project. It was through Tyndale’s association with Luther, with financial backing from England, that Tyndale was able to finish his translation work in 1525 and persuade German printers to take on board the task of publishing the text. They were subsequently smuggled into England.
Why are there so few copies left of Tyndale’s early printings in existence? The English authorities hatched several tactics to try and thwart the dissemination of the text. First, some copies were intercepted at the ports. Second, some texts were surrendered on fear of punishment by the authorities. Third, Cardinal Wolsey ordered that a search be made in many places where copies were suspected to be hidden, requiring that London, Cambridge, and Oxford be thoroughly searched. Fourth, the authorities went over to the Continent and tried to close down the distribution of the text. In February 1526, Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey addressed letters to various authorities in Antwerp, Barrow, Zealand, Ghent, Bruges, Brussels, and Louvaine, asking them to pursue and destroy all copies of Tyndale’s New Testament. Fifth, Wolsey, acting through front men, decided to use money to purchase a large consignment of the text and had them prominently burned outside St. Paul’s Cathedral.
During the late 1520’s and the early 1530’s the text was continuously hunted down and destroyed. Henry and his Cardinal were incensed at Tyndale’s publication, more so when Tyndale took to writing charged polemical texts against the Church and the King. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to arrest him while in Germany and the Low Countries.
Tyndale’s, forthright, and yet deeply poetic, translation of the New Testament brought to the very front of political discourse the significance of textual interpretation for the whole future and direction of the English Church. It is difficult to imagine any more important book, in the whole history of the English language, that carried with it such politically charged implications.
Tyndale was a dangerous figure to the authorities because the printing of his translation threatened the interests of the established order. Consequently, he became a man hunted in the manner of a fugitive, and, despite being supported and respected by many Reformers, could not escape the reach and wrath of the English king and his supporters forever. In 1536, he was eventually betrayed for a reward, arrested, tried, and finally burned for heresy at Vilvorde, near Brussels, at the behest of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (a strong supporter of Papal authority in Church governance). Tyndale’s dying words were recorded by Fox as, “Lord! open the king of England’s eyes”.
Few texts have engendered so much passion and controversy. Tyndale had embarked upon a course of action from which there could be no going back. Tyndale’s achievement was considerable and his legacy ran very deep, for his work did not die with him. His translation was reprinted many times (for example, in a bi-glot printing using Erasmus’s Latin text) and other translators, following him, borrowed extensively from his text.