Tyndale was condemned as a heretic, degraded from the priesthood, and
delivered to the secular authorities for punishment under the laws of
the Inquisition.
T h e "C r i m e s" o f W i l l i a m T y n d a l e:
First:.... He maintains that faith alone justifies.
Second :... He maintains that to believe in the forgiveness of sins and
to embrace the mercy offered in the Gospel, is enough for salvation.
Third :.... He avers that human traditions cannot bind the conscience,
except where their neglect might occasion scandal.
Fourth :... He denies the freedom of the will.
Fifth :.... He denies that there is any purgatory.
Sixth :.... He affirms that neither the virgin nor the saints pray for
us in their own person.
Seventh :. He asserts that neither the virgin nor the saints should be
invoked by us.
.{note: According to the Scriptures Mary was only a virgin till she
conceived.
'The birth of Christ was on this wise, when his mother Mary was married
unto Ioseph, before they came to dwell together, she was found with
child by the holy ghost.' Matthew j.
Common sense would say that every generation from hence forth should
call her 'blessed' as she so said in Luke chapter j.
Mary was also blessed with many children:
"Is not this the carpenters son? is not his mother called Mary? and his
brethren be called, Iames and Ioses and Simon and Iudas? and are not
his sisters all here with us?"
Matthew xiij. & Mark vj., also see Matthew xij., Mark iij., & Luke
viij.
Howbeit some still fanatically believed and even hold today that Mary
remains a virgin; or worst that she and the saints could even be
invoked. What they are assuming and accusing Tyndale of, is the heresy
that they themselves hold; and will be justly judged so according to
the word of God. The Lord himself so loved us that he warned way in
advance:
'It is enough for the disciple to be as his master is, and that the
servant be as his lord is. If they have called the lord of the house
beelzebub: how much more shall they call them of his household so? Fear
them not therefore. There is nothing so close, that shall not be
opened, and nothing so hid, that shall not be known. What I tell you in
darkness, that speak ye in light. And what ye hear in the ear that
preach ye on the house tops. And fear ye not them which kill the body,
and be not able to kill the soul. But rather fear him, which is able to
destroy both soul and body in hell.' Matthew x.
Thus far there is only a son of man that God rose from the dead, and
according to the Scriptures only HE must be invoked:
'Iesus said unto him I am the way, the verity, and life. No man cometh
unto the father, but by me.' John xiv.
Diligence in reasoning, and utmost obedidience to the word of God must
be taken very seriously, unless one finds himself zealously striving
against the faith first given to the Saints, yea, against THE MAKER,
and learn the hard lesson like king Saul according to the Old Testament
(see I Samuel chapter 28)
"Woe be unto him that chideth with his maker, the potsherd with the
potter: Sayeth the clay to the potter: What makest thou? or thy work
serveth for nothing?" Isaiah 45:9 (Coverdale's Bible)
..Therefore I say hereto that he was martyred also because he held the
word of God above and over all traditions & doctrines of men. And Lo,
the LORD asks those that accuse and persecute his children still today
the same question:
'Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God, thorow your
traditions?' Matthew xv. also see Mark vij.}.
At last, after much reasoning, when no reason would serve, although he
deserved no death, he was condemned by virtue of the emperor's decree,
made in the assembly at Augsburg. Brought forth to the place of
execution, he was tied to the stake, strangled by the hangman, and
afterwards consumed with fire, at the town of Vilvorde, (morning of 6
October) A.D. 1536; crying at the stake with a fervent zeal, and a loud
voice, "Lord! open the king of England's eyes."—Foxe's Book of Martyrs
A couple of years after Tyndale's death, Miles Coverdale's Bible was to
be used in every parish in the land. This was largely based on
Tyndale's Bible. In 1539 Tyndale's own edition of the Bible became
officially approved for printing. The Great Bible was the first Bible
ever authorized for public use.
William Tyndale's translation is the foundation of all reformed English
versions published for three centuries afterwards: Coverdale's Bible
New Testament is a revision of Tyndale 1534; Matthew's Bible is a
revision of Tyndale 1535; Taverner's Bible and the Great Bible are
revisions of Matthew's Bible; The Bishops' Bible is a revision of the
Great Bible, and also the N.T. of the "Geneva Bible" is mainly a
revision of Tyndale 1535.
(Although also unacknowledged, much of his work appears in the so
called 'Authorized' (or 'King James') version of the Bible whose
translator's were to abide by rule 1 which demanded merely a revision
of the Bishops' Bible; The version is not said to be "authorized"; yet
"appointed to be read in Churches" (not on the title page of the New
Testament) could be interpreted to mean that as successor to the
Bishops' Bible, which was thus appointed, it (the N.t.) might be
regarded as "authorized"; moreover the Bishops' Bible was the
legitimate successor of the expressly "authorized" Great Bible.)