The Author

William Tyndale, "Angliae Apostolus", humanist, translator, and Protestant martyr, was born about 1494 in Gloucestershire. He was educated at Oxford and Cambridge. About 1522 he planned to translate the Bible. After church authorities in England prevented him from his project he went to Germany in 1524. He landed at Hamburg and soon left for Wittenberg where he was registered under an assumed name (Guillelmus Daltin ex Anglia) at the university. Despite some controversy there is now little doubt that he met Martin Luther who was also in the city at that time. From Wittenberg he moved to Cologne where he completed his New Testament translation in 1525. The printing was begun at Cologne but, when Catholic authorities suppressed it, carried out at Worms in 1526. The first copies were smuggled into England in the same year. Church authorities burned all the copies they could trace. Of the Cologne edition only a single fragment has survived, of about 6000 copies of the Worms edition, only three (British Library, St. Paul's Cathedral Library, Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart). Tyndale never returned to England and spent the rest of his life in Antwerp where he began the translations of the Pentateuch, Jonah and the historical books (from Joshua to the Second Book of Chronicles). Tyndale's translation was the basis for the King James Version of 1611. In 1535 he was accused of heresy and imprisoned at Vilvorde near Brussels. There he was strangled and burned at the stake in 1536.

The Work

The New Testament

(p. Cologne 1525)

The New Testament

(p. Worms 1526)

The Parable of the Wicked Mammon

(p. 1528)

The Obedyence of a Christen Man,
and how Christen Rulers Ought to Governe

(p. 1528)

Exposition on Corinthians vii.,
with a Prologue, wherein all Christians
are exhorted to read the Scriptures

(p. 1529)

The Practyse of Prelates:
whether the Kynges Grace may be
separated from hys Quene, because
she was hys Brothers Wyfe

(p. 1530)

A Compendious Introduccion,
Prologue, or Preface unto the
Pistle of St. Paul to the Romayns

(1530)

Translation of the Pentateuch

(1530)

The Fyrst Boke of Moses called Genesis
with a preface and prologue
shewinge the use of the Scripture

(p. 1530)

An Answere unto
sir Thomas More's Dialoge

(p. 1530)

The Prophet Jonas

(p. 1531)

Translation of the historical books
of the Old Testament from Joshua
to the Second Book of Chronicles

(about 1531)

The Exposition of the Fyrst Epistle of Seynt John,
with a Prologge before it by W. T. (ed. Donald J. Millus)

(p. 1531)

The Supper of the Lorde after the true Meanying
of the Sixte of John and the xi. of the fyrst Epistle
to the Corinthias, whereunto is added an Epistle
to the Reader, and incidentally in the Exposition
of the Supper is confuted the Letter
of Master More against John Fyrth

(ascribed, p. 1533)

An Exposicion upon the v., vi., vii. Chapters
of Mathew, whych three chapiters are the Keye
and the Dore of the Scripture, and the restoring
again of Moses Lawe, corrupt
by the Scribes and Pharisees, etc.

(p. 1533)

The Manual of the Christian Knight,
translation of Erasmus'
Enchiridion militis Christianae

(ascribed, p. 1533)

The newe Testament
dylygently corrected and
compared with the Greke
by Willyam Tindale

(p. 1534)

A Pathway into the Holy Scriptures

(p. 1534)

The newe Testament
yet once agayne corrected
by Willyam Tindale

(p. 1535)

The Testament of Master William Tracy, Esq.

(p. 1535)

Tyndale's letter from prison

(1535)

A Briefe Declaration of the Sacraments
expressing the fyrst Originall,
how they come up and were institute, etc.

(posth. p. 1548)

Appendix

Tyndale's portrait
John Foxe, Book of Martyrs, Chapter XII
Donald J. Millus' Tyndale site.
The Tyndale Society
Friends of William Tyndale
Tyndale at the Württembergische Landesbibliothek
Reprint of William Tyndale's Bible
Sources/Colophon