Tyndale

Tyndale, or TYNDALL, WILLIAM (1484-1536), translator of the Bible, was born in Gloucestershire and studied first at Oxford and afterwards at Cambridge. In 1523 he came to London, but next year left it for Hamburg. Two years later, while in Cologne, he begun the printing of his English New Testament. The work was interrupted, but a new edition was executed at Worms, which in 1526 found its way to England. By 1530 six editions had been printed, but they were seized by the Church authorities, and copies are now exceedingly rare. In the same year an English version of the Pentateuch was printed at Marburg. At Antwerp, where Tyndale spent his last two years in hiding, part of the Old Testament and Apocrypha appeared in English in 1534, and in the next year a revision of the New Testament. In 1535 Tyndale was treacherously seized and burnt by order of the Emperor, who had made a treaty with Henry VIII. for the suppression of Lutheran books. According to tradition, he translated the Old Testament as far as the Book of Chronicles while in prison. This portion was printed with the Pentateuch and New Testament in Matthew's Bible. Tyndale's translation forms the basis of the Authorised Version. He also wrote Obedience of a Christian Man (l528), and engaged in controversy with Sir Thomas More.