WILLIAM TYNDALE

Evening Star, Issue 22460, 3 October 1936, Page 12

WILLIAM TYNDALE

“THE APOSTLE OF ENGLAND" ("Written by “ H.H.D.,” for the ‘ Evening Star.’) English-speaking people the whole world over are paying grateful homage this month to the immortal memory of William Tyndale. His solitary title to imperishable fame is that he gave to our people four centuries ago the New Testament and part of the Old in a version which has never been surpassed. He was a master of languages. He had exquisite taste in the use of words and unrivalled skill in the framing of sentences. No one has ever excelled him in the difficult art of translating great ideas from one tongue into another. Familiar with the Hebrew of the Old Testament and_ the Greek of the New, he succeeded in transferring them into our mother tongue with an accuracy and a musical sweetness which have commanded the admiration of all competent critics ever since his great work was finished. And as this is the quater-centenary of his martyrdom attention may approximately be drawn to his unique contribution to our national literature. Early in life Tyndale determined that he would produce a version of the Bible so popular in its style that the very boy who drove the plough should learn more from it than many priests and prelates knew. When ho found it impossible to carry out his purpose in England, he fled to the Continent, and at Hamburg, Cologne, Wittenberg, and Worms pursued his plan with undeviating steadfastness. He well knew the danger he incurred. Spies were ever on the alert to denounce him to the authorities. He was forced to hurry from place to place with his precious manuscripts and printed pages. When he had succeeded in getting his version printed it was still contraband and liable to be confiscated and destroyed. It could only be smuggled into England by favour of London merchants who

permitted the books to he hidden in their bales of merchandise. As many copies as the ecclesiastical authorities could lay hands on were ruthlessly burnt. Thus it comes about that of the earliest editions issued between 1525 and 1528 only three incomplete copies are now known to exist. And Tyndale knew that his enemies were eager to burn him as well as his books. His life was everywhere imperilled. Yet no danger deflected him from his noble aim. Ho was bent on doing for England what Luther had done for Germany—giving the people a vernacular version of tho Scriptures. He probably met the great Reformer and caught something-of his inspiration and enterprise. At any rate, their names are inextricably linked as the greatest literary . benefactors of their respective nations. Luther’s version did much to fix the language of Germany, and certainly Tyndale’s version has had a marvellous influence in enriching and refining our English speech. The masters of our opulent literature are ever ready to admit their indebtedness to the well of English undefiled ” which they find in our Authorised Version. They praise it as the very summit of literary attainment. They regard it as the highest of excellence and quote its musical sentences as matchless in their beauty. And at least _BO per cent, of this treasured version is due to Tyndale s genius and' industry. He was not only a scrupulous translator, studious to give as precise and accurate an equivalent as possible of the original tongues in which the Scriptures were written, but after his first version had been circulated he applied himself with most meticulous care to revise it in order that it might ho as perfect as human skill could make it. It is reckoned, indeed, that no fewer than a thousand alterations were made in the final edition, many of them, of course, trivial, but “ trifles make perfection and perfection is no_ trifle.” Tyndale’s standard was high, his love of beauty keen, his zeal for truth ardent, and his industry unremitting. His character matched his genius. He was not soured by his poverty or depressed by his difficulties. He was no gloomy ascetic or embittered controversialist. He was genial, gracious, and amiable, and carried his weight of learning lightly. Of all _ the Reformers of the stirring times in which his lot was east he was probably the most winsome. He left the world an unstained reputation as well as a peerless literary bequest. Few of our famous benefactors are more worthy of grateful remembrance.

It/is pathetic that a life so rich in noble service should have been ended by a cruel martyrdom. Denounced by vigilant enemies, Tyndale was flung into one of the prisons of Vilvorde Castle, and after 16 months of incarceration was strangled, and his body burnt, on October 6, 1536. He was only 46 years of age when this merciless fate befell him. Happily there is no proof that either King Henry VIII. or Thomas Cromwell or any of the English bishops had any share in the great crime. Fqxe, in his ‘ Book of Martyrs,’ to which we owe much of our knowledge of Tyndale’s life, lays no charge against Englishmen for his terrible doom. He tells us that the great scholar’s last loud cry was: “ Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.” That prayer was promptly answered, for only a year elapsed before royal sanction was given to the circulation of the Coverdale and the “ Matthew ” Bibles, both of which were closely associated with Tyndale’s version. It has been well said that our Bible could spare neither the strong virility of Tyndale nor the gentle tenderness and resourcefulness of Coverdale. The “ Matthew ” Bible, too, was really the work of John Rogers, whom Tyndale had made his literary executor and to whom he had entrusted the unfinished MSS. of his translation of the Bible from the Book of Joshua to ll.' Chronicles. Thus the work for which Tyndale laid down his life was continued by his friends. His memory has been worthily perpetuated. A splendid tower, surmounted by a cross has been erected in his honour on Nibley Knoll, England, and a magnificent Window of Thanksgiving, with Tyndale as its central figure, adorns the Bible House, London, from which millions of Bibles in multitudinous languages are sent all over the worldevery year. And whercever our English tongue is spoken his name and the sublime service he rendered to our race will be reverently recalled on the 400th anniversary of his martyrdom.