The Reformation in England

But the biggest boost to the cause of reform was the translation of the Bible into English. This was something more bitterly opposed by the English Church than it was in almost any other country. So to be a Bible translator was a dangerous business. The pioneer was William Tyndale. He said his life's work was to make sure that an ordinary ploughman would know more of the Bible than the priests he had met. For that cause he went abroad, because translating the Bible in England became too dangerous. He lived on the run. He was involved in "cloak and dagger " work to get his Bible printed. And finally, betrayed by an agent of the English authorities, he was imprisoned and executed. But he had by then translated almost all the Bible into English. And the work he did was well done. So well done that later translators "borrowed" much of his work.

Tyndale was dead, but his translation was sold and read. Reading it helped the cause of reform, because the Church people read about in the English Bible seemed nothing like the Church people saw around them. In addition, when the State began to favour the cause of reform, Henry VIII told scholars to do what he'd once forbidden. He had official Bible translations made … and most of the words in them followed Tyndale's translation.

Which brings us to the second part of the story…