Battle of the Bibles - Present Truth

With Erasmus's translation, Tyndale knew that he now had a tool which had not
been available to his predecessor, John Wycliffe, who some one and a half centuries
earlier had questioned the infallibility of the pope and given to the English a Bible in their
own language. Being a bald translation of the Roman Catholic Vulgate, it contained most
of the errors of the Alexandrian line. His Bible preceded the invention of printing, so,
being very expensive, it could only be read by a privileged few.
Although Wycliffe has been justly called "The Morning Star of the Reformation",
the world only caught a glimmer of the daybreak as his translation from a text favoured
by the papal hierarchy was not able fully to penetrate the all-pervading fog of the Dark
Ages.
Tyndale knew that his cherished task would not be easy. England was still
Roman Catholic. The reigning monarch, Henry VIII, was a Catholic and a staunch
defender of ritualism. The pope had conferred on him the title, "Defender of the Faith"
which the British sovereigns carry to this day. He had no time for Protestantism. Yet
even he had been influenced by criticisms of the papacy by Colet and Erasmus
When he eventually quarreled with the Roman hierarchy, it was more over
political differences than religious ones. He was quite happy to maintain the ritualism
and pomp of Catholic worship, but he refused the notion of papal authority over both
church and state. Later, in 1534, the English parliament abrogated papal supremacy in
favour of the King.
The High Church of England even to this day reflects Henry's attitudes in that it is
content to retain many Roman practices and beliefs, yet it does not acknowledge, at
least outwardly, the authority of the pope.
Henry VIII had done nothing to hinder the church's hostility to Wycliffe's English
Bible and made no secret of his aversion to reformers like Luther. Tyndale realised that
Henry would give him no support in a likely confrontation with the Catholic clergy.
But in Germany, things were different. The invention of printing in Mainz in 1440
enabled cheap and wide distribution of ideas. Already Luther's pronouncements and
writings against the papal system were bearing much fruit. In 1522, Luther had been
successful in bringing out his German-language New Testament. Tyndale determined to
enhance his chances of producing an English Bible by exiling himself in Germany. In
1524 he left his beloved homeland and settled down in Hamburg to the work of
translation.
But the tentacles of Rome were long and strong. No sooner had Tyndale
arranged to have his Bible printed in Cologne than he was forced to hurriedly gather up
his precious manuscripts and flee with them to Worms. There, in 1525, he was
successful in having the New Testament printed, but he still the problem of getting the
Bibles into England where Catholic bishops had been influential in obtaining a blockade
what was regarded as dangerous merchandise. And so it was− and remains to this day -
in the eyes of popery.
In order to circumvent the blockade, Tyndale's helpers were forced to invent
ways to secrete the Bibles among items of merchandise. In this way, most of the Bibles
eluded seizure and the consequent sacrilege of a public burning. Indeed, one such
burning took place in 1530 when the Bishop of Long supervised an auto da fe' type of
ceremony in the church yard of St Paul's Cathedral. By 1534 Tyndale had not only
produced an amended edition of his New Testament, but had translated much of the Old
Testament. ("Auto da fe" is a Spanish term meaning "Act of faith", the name given by
Rome to the ceremony of the public burning of heretics.)
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