No, the Church didn’t kill people for having non-Latin translation Bibles. The Bible was translated by the Church into vernacular languages before Tyndale or Luther. The Church banned Catholics from reading false translations/ones from which books of the Bible or parts of books were taken out by Protestants because such “Bibles” were misleading and harmful to people’s faith. Remember, the Bible is the Church’s book, therefore she has the right and duty to protect it, disseminate it and to keep the faithful from being fooled by false translations. Tyndale’s translation was one of these false translations.
I just want to reiterate what Della said and try to put some of it into simpler terms.
The Church did not kill people for having non-Latin Bibles.
The Church excommunicated some people, it did not kill them, for having
unapproved Bibles, not for having non-Latin Bibles.
There were approved non-Latin Bibles, and there have been for the Church’s entire history. Greek is the most obvious example, since Greek Bibles were more common than Latin Bibles for much of the early Church. But there were also approved Spanish Bibles, approved French Bibles, approved German Bibles, and others, and people were not excommunicated or killed for owning those.
As for Mr. Tyndale, the Church excommunicated him, it did not kill him, for spreading heresies, not for having a non-Latin Bible. He did translate the Bible, but since he was a heretic, and since he filled his translation with heretical notes, his translation was not approved by the Church. Not long after him, the Church produced an
approved English Bible so that Catholics would have an alternative to the Protestant bibles. This was called the Douay-Rheims Bible.
Please let me know if that helps.
