Persecution of the Bible

We are familiar with the fact that the English Reformer William Tyndale was burned at the stake for his labours in seeking to provide a faithful translation of the Scriptures in the English language. In fact, Rome persecuted the translation and circulation of the Scriptures in all the countries of the European Reformation. The persecution was particularly fierce, however, in England and Scotland. The threat of being put to death as a heretic did not extend merely to translating the Scriptures into the English language, but also even to reading or possessing such a translation or any part of it.

As Tyndale translated and published portions of Scripture in English it was eagerly taken up and read. Although many thousands of copies of Tyndale's translation were printed, so fierce was the persecution that only one complete copy of the first edition has survived the systematic destruction ordered by the Romanist clerics. Tyndale knew that the Roman Catholic authorities would go far beyond destroying the printed copies of his translation: 'In burning the New Testament, they did none other thing than I looked for; no more shall they do if they burn me also, if it be God's will it shall so be. Nevertheless in translating the New Testament I did my duty and so do I now…'.

England's Martyrs for the Word of God

The Bishop of London was not content merely with burning Tyndale's Bible; many were hunted down simply for reading the Scriptures that were now available in their own language. In England on 1 May 1532, James Bainham was burned at the stake for possessing such a translation. Addressing the crowd just before the lighting of the fire, he exclaimed: "I come hither, good people! Accused and condemned for an heretic... And these be the articles that I die for, which be a very truth, and grounded on God's Word, and no heresy. They be these: first, I say it is lawful for every man and woman, to have God's Book in the mother tongue…" In 1527, Tyndale himself was hunted down on the continent, seized and ultimately put to death. His dying prayer was "Lord, open the King of England's eyes". Within months of Tyndale's martyrdom, a complete English Bible, two-thirds of it Tyndale's work, and licensed by Henry VIII, was circulating in Britain.

Scotland's Martyrs for the Word of God

In Scotland, however, the persecution continued. In June 1535, the Scottish Parliament declared that all persons possessing New Testaments or 'Heretical' books must 'deliver them up to their ordinary [priest] within forty days, under the penalty of confiscation and imprisonment'. In 1536 the reading of the Scriptures in English was prohibited. In 1538, Walter Stewart was convicted of heresy and fined 'his whole estates, or possessions moveable and immoveable'. In March 1539 five men were burned at the stake in Edinburgh. One of the men in this group, Dean Thomas Forret, vicar of Dollar, had been converted through reading the epistle to the Romans. Forret studied Tyndale's translation from six in the morning until noon. He committed three chapters of the Bible to memory each day, and in the evening he made his servant hear him repeat the portion he had memorised. He also taught his congregation the Lord's Prayer and the Ten commandments in English.

At his trial, he defended himself by quoting a verse from 1 Corinthians chapter 14, to demonstrate that it was necessary to translate the Scriptures into other languages. When asked how he knew the verse, he responded by showing them in the New Testament he carried about with him. The book was snatched from him and waved triumphantly as evidence before the court. "Behold sirs he has the heresy book...know thou heretic that it is contrary to our acts and
express commands to have a New Testament or Bible in English, which is enough to burn thee for". He was sentenced for having and using the New Testament in English. George Crichton, Bishop of Dunkeld was one of those that ensured the execution of Forret. Crichton was heard to say, "I thank God, that I never knew what the Old and New Testament was!" Soon after, two more men were burned one at Glasgow, and another, at Cupar in Fife. Such were 'slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held' (Rev. 6:9).

Rome's Hypocrisy

We should note that it is the height of hypocrisy that Rome can now exhort her adherents to the reading of the Scriptures where previously men were cruelly burned for seeking this privilege. Rome will not so much as apologise now for what she did. The Bibles that the Roman Catholic Church now approves, such as the New Jerusalem Bible, contain notes and introductions to each book that are full of higher critical attacks on the truth, reliability and infallibility of the
Scriptures. Rome's method may have changed but her attacks upon the firm foundation of the Scriptures remain.

Persecution for the Word of God Today

We ought to remember that many people still suffer for the sake of having the Scriptures. They are still 'slain for the Word of God'. In more than 40 nations around the world today Christians are being persecuted for their faith. In some of these nations it is illegal to own a Bible. In 2008 an Algerian Christian was detained five days for carrying a Bible and personal Bible study books. He was fined and given a one-year suspended prison sentence. Eritrean authorities
locked eight high school students in a metal shipping container and burned hundreds of Bibles at Sawa Defense Training Centre. The students were imprisoned in the container after they objected to authorities confiscating and burning 1,500 Bibles taken from new students who arrived at the training centre.

John Foxe writes movingly in his Book of Martyrs of the persecution of the Bible at the time of the Reformation. He shows that it is a testimony to the very power and divine authority of the Scriptures that men 'loved not their lives unto the death' (Rev. 12:11) on their account.

'Yet nevertheless so mightily the power of God's Gospel did work in the hearts of good men, that the number of them did nothing lessen for all this violence or policy of the adversaries, but rather increased in such sort, as our story almost suffereth not to recite the particular names of all and singular such as then groaneth under the same cross of affliction and persecution of those days'.