THE publication by the Clarendon Press of the facsimile of the fragment of Tyndale’s first translation of the New Testament is a fitting memorial to the beginning of a tremendous enterprise, to which the pioneer gave his life. Dominions and Powers were leagued against William Tyndale; he defied them, and they slew him in the end, but not before he accomplished his work, which was nothing less than the English Bible. For although Tyndale’s Bible was succeeded by the Great Bible of 1539, the Geneva Bible of 1560, the Bishops’ Bible of 1572, the Jesuit version of 1582, and the Authorised Version of 1611, which is read to-day, in that version ninety per cent. is the original translation of William Tyndale. Thus the magnificent style of that notable scholar and incomparable artist
survived the ordeal of the scrutiny of the most learned men in Europe, and remains unsurpassed and (as the Revised Version shows) unsurpassable. Incidentally, the immortality of Tyndale’s version proves once again that a work of art must always be the achievement of one man, and that it can never be attained by a committee. Nor is Tyndale’s towering genius more remarkable than his heroic tenacity. Delated by the clergy of Gloucestershire for heresy, Tyndale told one of his opponents that “If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough should know more of the Scripture than thou dost.” And within seven years of Tyndale’s martyrdom, King Henry VIII. had ordered the Great Bible to be placed in every parish church in England.
Finding, as he said, there was no place in all England in which he could translate the Bible, Tyndale, in 1524, went to Germany. During the next year he was supervising the printing of his translation of the New Testament at Cologne. Thence he was compelled to flee to Worms. Eight of the sheets printed at Cologne reposed in the British Museum. Of that unique relic Mr Alfred W. Pollard gives an interesting account in his introduction to the Clarendon Press publications. The sheets are in quarto, with marginal notes, which Tyndale added that “the laye people” might “se the processe, ordre and meaninge of the texte.” Tyndale’s annotations were used by his enemies as evidence of his Lutheran and heretical tendencies. The Worms (octavo) edition of the New Testament was published in 1526. It would appear that a printer of Antwerp, one Christoffel van Endhoven, pirated the Worms edition and smuggled it into England at a lower price. That adventure seriously annoyed the merchants who had supplied Tyndale with money to defray the cost of printing, and who perceived their profits vanishing into the pocket of Christoffel van Endhoven. As for Tyndale, he went resolutely on with his translation of the Old Testament. Harassed alike by friends and foes, perpetually in danger, this extraordinary man, in spite of all, completed the greatest monument in English literature. In 1536 Tyndale was arrested and cast into prison at Vilvorde. Thomas Cromwell tried to save Tyndale from execution. The King, it appears, would do nothing. Foxe asserts that Tyndale’s last prayer was—”Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.” So died a hero, bequeathing to the English people the greatest treasure they possess.—”Morning Post” (26th February 1926).