William Tyndale (1494-1536)

by: SJH, 2008

William Tyndale had a burden for translating the Bible into English so people could read it and see that the Catholic church was wrong. He started translating in England, but soon realized that the Pope did not like it at all. So he went to Hamburg, Germany. Even in Hamburg, his life was not safe because the English Catholic bishops and priests were very angry with him. They even hired spies to try to stop him. Tyndale went to a printing press in Cologne where the printers were ready to help. He tried to keep his work a secret because of the English bishops. One day, Tyndale got a warning to flee for his life. A drunken printer had told a Catholic priest that the Bible was almost done. The priest had come to arrest him. William took the Bible and fled to Worms. This is where the Bibles were printed. They were sent to England with cloth, with articles for sale, in sacks of flour, and in many other ways. The Catholic bishop of England decided to buy all the Bibles and burn them. Only one problem, he tried to buy them from Tyndale's friend. Tyndale's friend sold them at a good price and gave the money to Tyndale who needed it to pay the printer and to keep on printing Bibles. Not long after, the Pope found him and sent some men to get him. He was later strangled and burned. William Tyndale made it possible for us to own and read the Bible.