William Tyndale

b. c.1494; d. 1536.

English reformer and one of the first to translate the Bible into the common English language.

Educated at Oxford and then Cambridge, he served for a time as tutor to Sir John Walsh's family. Witnessing the deep ignorance of the Bible both among the clergy in the church and the lay person in the street, he became convinced that "it is impossible yo establish the lay people in any truth except the scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue." Receiving no encouragement from the church in England he left for Europe never to return.

There he translated the Bible into plain English. His work was, however, visciously attacked by the Catholic authorities in England, and the first printing of his NT in 1525 was interrupted by a police raid; it was completed later in Worms, Germany. His style, simple, clear and down-to-earth, appealed greatly to ordinary people. The quality and popularity of his translations, often made based on the original languages, was evidenced in the number of occasions when they were piratized. A prolific worker, he also wrote commentaries and expositions propounding the evangelical theology of the Reformation. Two of the works for which he is well-known are The Parable of the Wicked Mammon and The Obedience of a Christian Man.

For a time he found refuge and protection with the English merchants in Antwerp, most of whom were reformationally minded. He was finally betrayed into the hands of the authorities and thrown into jail in 1535. The next year, on 6 October, 1536, he was strangled and burnt at the stake in Brussels.