While
at university William
Tyndale became
very interested in the ideas of John
Wycliffe
and the Lollards. Tyndale became convinced that the church had become
corrupt and selfish. Like Wycliffe, Tyndale thought it was important
that people had the opportunity to read and interpret the Bible for
themselves. Tyndale wanted to translate the Bible into English but
at that time Henry
VIII and
the English church were very much against the idea.
In
1524 Tyndale went to Hamburg where he met Martin
Luther and the following year moved to Cologne where he managed
to arrange for his translation of the Bible to be printed in English.
The translation owed much to the work of Desiderius
Erasmus. During the next few years 18,000 copies of this bible
were printed and smuggled into England.
In 1530 Henry
VIII gave
orders that all English Bibles were to be destroyed. People caught
distributing the Tyndale Bible in England were burnt at the stake.
This attempt to destroy Tyndale's Bible was very successful as only
two copies have survived.
In
1535 William
Tyndale was
betrayed by Henry Phillips and arrested in Antwerp and imprisoned
in a castle near Brussels. He was found guilty of heresy and on 6th
October, 1536, he was strangled and burnt at the stake.
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