Who killed Tyndale?

[john8791]

A news site that I frequently visit, World Net Daily, is always pushing this Video “The Forbidden Book”.

Its writeup spouts the typical anti-Catholic rhetoric such as:
“You will find that William Tyndale was burned at the stake. His Crime? Printing the Bible in the English language.”

“During the Dark Ages, superstition and ignorance controlled the minds of the masses. A few brave men obeyed God and brought the Scriptures to the world.”

I have read “Where We Got The Bible” along with some articles on Catholic Apologetics websites. While Henry Graham’s book is excellent, it is very sparse on citations to original materials. This makes it hard to use in a debate. Most apologetics sites reference this book as their only source. Of course mainstream History books are slanted towards the Protestant world view.
From what I understand, Tyndale translated the Bible despite denial of approval from the Bishop of London (Tunstall). He included footnotes, etc attacking the magesterium, was condemned by King Henry VIII, Cardinal Wolsey, and Sir Thomas More, and was finally executed in Belgium for heresy in 1536.
What I don’t quite grasp is exactly under who’s authority he was executed and what the Catholic Church’s role was in this?

 

[Randy_Carson]

I think this was an English affair which had nothing to do with the Catholic Church.

 

[slyboots]

Finding that the King, Henry VIII, was firmly set against any English version of the Scriptures…His last words were, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.”
justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/260.html

Henry King of England did not feel he needed any other authority but his own to execute him.

 

[kell0618]

Tyndale’s Heresy from This Rock: December 2002

 

[Contarini]

He was executed by the Holy Roman Empire, I believe. Both the statement “the Catholic Church killed him” and the statement “the Catholic Church had nothing to do with it” are false, though if anything the latter statement is more inaccurate than the former.

Edwin

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

I think this was an English affair which had nothing to do with the Catholic Church.

Tyndale was tried & sentenced by a commission of eight at Vilvorde in the Low Countries (as the region was then called) - Henry VIII had wanted to arrest him, but he escaped to the Continent, was (in due course) betrayed by an associate, & arrested. Three members of the commission were theologians: two of them being Ruard Tapper & Jacques Masson (AKA Latomus) - both of whom have left behind works defending Catholic doctrine​

Ruard Tapper:

www.newadvent.org/cathen/12667a.htm

www.newadvent.org/cathen/11435a.htm

www.newadvent.org/cathen/11756c.htm

As for Latomus:

“John Foxe tells us that during the sixteen months Tyndale was in Vilvorde Castle, from May 1535 to his execution on 6 October 1536,there was much writing, and great disputation to and fro, between him and them of the university of Louvain, in such sort, that they all had enough to do, and more than they could well wield, to answer the authorities and testimonies of the Scripture, whereupon he most pithily grounded his doctrine.[1]Tyndale’s three accusers were all professors and doctors of theology of the University of Louvain: the Belgian archives list them as Ruward Tapper, dean of St Peter’s Church in Louvain; Jan Doye, canon of St Peter’s; and Jacobus Latomus, also canon of St Peter’s.[2] All three were distinguished: Tapper was chancellor of the university, Doye about to be rector. The most significant, however, was Jacques Masson, Jacobus Latomus. Now sixty, he had for nearly twenty years been a leading controversialist against Erasmus, and a chief opponent of Luther and other European reformers. He was a most experienced inquisitor.”

tyndale.org/Reformation/1/wilkinson.html

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

A news site that I frequently visit, World Net Daily, is always pushing this Video “The Forbidden Book”.

Its writeup spouts the typical anti-Catholic rhetoric such as:
“You will find that William Tyndale was burned at the stake. His Crime? Printing the Bible in the English language.”

Those are both facts. They don’t say everything about Tyndale’s actions & death; but that does not make them untrue. So:​

• He was burned
• It was a crime for him to do what he did - which is one of the reasons he was burned
  If those statements
• implied
• or suggested
• or had as their necessary consequence
  that it would be true to say “The CC hates the Bible as such; so it tries to hide it; that, is why William Tyndale was executed” - that would be an untruth, & it would be in some sense anti-Catholic. But so far as those statements about Tyndale go, they say nothing false ##

“During the Dark Ages, superstition and ignorance controlled the minds of the masses”.

It depends what the writer intends by the words “superstition and ignorance”: was the execution of witches “superstitious” ? Innocent VIII did not think so - neither did John Calvin, 60 years later. The Spanish Inquisition, OTOH, was relatively restrained: Spain was not disgraced by the witch-mania that was seen in Germany, Catholic & Protestant. What Richard Dawkins (say) means by superstition, might be very different from what James White would mean by it.​

“A few brave men obeyed God and brought the Scriptures to the world.”

As did not a few Catholics - even before Luther. As has been pointed out by Protestants too. The picture of how the Bible in Europe was (or was not) made available to people at large is much more complex (& interesting !) than controversialists on either side tend to allow.​

I have read “Where We Got The Bible” along with some articles on Catholic Apologetics websites. While Henry Graham’s book is excellent, it is very sparse on citations to original materials.

And he does not say anything (AFAICR) about the details that don’t favour the (somewhat rosy ?) picture he draws. Margaret Deanesly told another side of the story, in her book “The Lollard Bible”. See also:​

[. Ethel M. Wood Lecture delivered before the University of London on 13 March, 1951 London: Athlone Press, 1951. pp.23. Prof. Margaret Deanesly, The Significance of the Lollard Bible (http://www.medievalchurch.org.uk/pdf/lollard_deanesly.pdf)- which is a pdf file

This makes it hard to use in a debate. Most apologetics sites reference this book as their only source.

Of course mainstream History books are slanted towards the Protestant world view. From what I understand, Tyndale translated the Bible

The entire NT, & the first fourteen books of the OT. Miles Coverdale, who was Bishop of Exeter under the Protestant boy king Edward VI (1547-53) completed it.​

despite denial of approval from the Bishop of London (Tunstall). He included footnotes, etc attacking the magesterium, was condemned by King Henry VIII, Cardinal Wolsey, and Sir Thomas More, and was finally executed in Belgium for heresy in 1536.
What I don’t quite grasp is exactly under who’s authority he was executed and what the Catholic Church’s role was in this?

Specifically, he advocated a Lutheran theology - & (IIRC) absolute obedience to the ruler: which had analogies in some of the mediaeval literature favouring unrestricted Papal authority in temporal matters. (The political theology of the Reformation, Protestant as well as Catholic, has roots in pre-Reformation ideas.)​

For a Catholic account of him - catholicculture.org/docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=4749

For a no less biassed, but Protestant (& musical) site, with quotations from his writings - williamtyndale.com/0translatorwilliamtyndale.htm