William Tyndale
The Early Years
yndale was born 1484, in Gloucestershire, in the village of North Nibley, England. In 1512, he was sent to Oxford to learn grammar, logic, and philosophy and in 1515, he moved to Cambridge University. It was at Cambridge that he met Thomas Bilney and John Fryth. The three of them strengthened each other in the reading and studying of the Scriptures, as well as preaching the Gospel to others in the University.
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Tyndale departed from Cambridge and became a tutor for the family of Sir John Walsh. Here he taught the Scriptures to their children as well as Sir Walsh and Lady Walsh. The family became friendly to the teaching of the Gospel and grew apart from the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church heard of this “heretical” teaching and became enraged toward Tyndale. He was brought before the chancellor, but nothing could be proved to convict him as a heretic as of yet. However, John Foxe records him saying, “I defy the Pope and all his laws.” And he further added, quoting the great Erasmus saying “if God would spare my life, I will cause a boy that driveth a plough to know more of the Scriptures than the Pope.” And later he said, “Which thing only moved me to translate the New Testament. Because I had perceived by experience, how that it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth, except the Scriptures were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue, that they may see the process, order, and meaning of the text.”
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Cambridge University
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