More than a Memory

The Discourse of Martyrdom

and the Construction of Christian Identity
in the History of Christianity

Edited by

Johan Leemans

With the collaboration of

Jiirgen Mettepenningen

PEETERS
LEUVEN - PARIS - DUDLEY, MA
200 5

Can Translating the Bible Be Bad for Your Health?

William Tyndale and the Falsification of Memory

Contents

Gergefy Juhdsz and Paul Arblaster'

Johan Leemans
Introduction

XI

....................................... .

l. Late Antiquity

Boudewijn Dehandschutter
A Community of Martyrs: Religious Ideutity and the Case of the
Martyrs of Lyons and Vienue .......................... .

Sabine v"n Den Eynde

. '

"

"A Testimony to the Non-Believers, A ~lesslllg to th~ ~ehevers

The Passio Perpetuae and the Construction of a ChnstIan Iden~ ...............................................

Johan Leemans

Martyr, Monk and Victor of Paganism: An AnalYSIS of BaSIl of

Caesarea's Panegyrical Sermon on Gordius ................ .

45

Gerard Rouwhorst
The Emergence of the Cult of the Maccabean Martyrs in Late
Antique Christianity ................................. .

Josef Lossl

An Early Christian Identity Crisis Triggered by Changes III the

Discourse of Martyrdom: The Controversy between Jerome
of Strido and Vigilantius of Calagurris ................... .

Jonathan Yates

81

97

Augustine's Appropriation of Cyprian the Martyr-BIshop agarnst

the Pelagians ....................................... .

II9

William Tyndale was one of the founding figures of the English

Protestautism from which the modern religious and iutellectual traditions of the English-speaking world were, until recently, in large part
derived. His body ;vas reduced to ashes in September 1536, but his
memory is still a presence in the culture of the English-speaking world.
Tyndale himself would have been dismissive, at the very least, of the
suggestion that he could now in any substantive sense be <more than a
memory'. He denied not only Purgatory and the invocation of saiuts,
but even an individual judgemeut preceding the General Resurrection.
Although subsequent Protestant beliefs were seldom so radical, such
views abour the afterlife made the memorialization of the dead particularly problematic.
Despite this, the main root of the historical self-consciousness of the
religious tradition which Tyndale did so much to shape is the record of
its martyrs. Because he was the first translator of the Bible into modern
English, there is also a metaphorical sense in which Tyndale is still a living presence not only for Anglo-American Protestautism, but for the
English-spealcing world as a whole. There has been a consistent tendency to conflate the two aspects of his life by claiming or suggesting
that he died for translating the Bible into the vernacular. Increasingly he
has come to stand metonymically for the (vernacular) Bible, as a figure
who transcends doctrinal divisions. In the electronic age his stature has
grown even greater in relation to his contemporaries, so that in the popular imagination he now stands as the sole face and leading figure of
early English Protestantism. The conflarion of a lifetime's acllievement
and a martyr's death has first to be disentangled before it can become
dear how the memorialization of Tyndale has both falsified memory
and contributed to particular Christian identities.

* The authors wish to thank Stevcn Gunn, Timothy Mawson, Raphael Ingdbien,
Amanda Piesse, John Dudley and Johan Leemans for their constructive criticism. This
article would not have been written without the support of Guido Latee. Any errors
naturally remain our own.

WILLIAM TYNDALE AND THE FALSIFICATION OF MEMORY

GERGELY JuHAsz & PAUL ARBLASTER

printed without license in Worms, already a Lutheran city, whence it

1. Tyndale's Life and Achievement

William Tyndale was an English priest, an Oxford graduate, who

became enamoured of the ideas propagated by Erasmus.' In January
15 , in the epistle to the reader prefaced to his Pa,:aphrasis in Evan:
22
gelium Matthaei, Erasmus called for vernac~lar translatIons of the. BIble.
Sooner than he probably had expected, thIS call was answered m Germany by Luther who published his first New Testament translatIon m
September 15 22 . In the same year, Cuthbert Tu~stall, whom Erasmus
had earlier written of in terms of praIse, became bIshop of London. Tyndale was impelled to respond to Erasmus's call, and applied to Tu.ns~all
for patronage.' This meant not only funding, but also formal permI~s!On
and protection: ever since the time of John WyclIffe the EnglIsh hIerarchy had regarded vernacular translations of Sacre~ ~Crlpt~re WIth SUSpIcion' unlicensed new translations had been prohIbIted smce 1408 , and
the ~irculation of existing translations was controlled as tightly as possible.' Tunstall's patronage was not forthcoming, but while in Lond?n
Tyndale found a friend in Humphrey Monmouth, a merchant WIth
international contacts and strong leanings towards German Lutheranism. Luther now became the Pole Star ofTyndale's firmament.
Probably at Monmouth's expense, Tyndale travelled to Germany and
after a false start at Cologne' had his translation of the New Testament
For accounts of Tyndalc's life. see Andrew

J. Brown, Willi~m 7jllda/~

on Priests
6
and Preachers: With New Light on His Early Career (London: I?s.cnptof Impn~ts, 199 );
Robert Demaus, William 7jlldale: A Biography (London: ReligiOUS Tract Society, ~87I;
1.

much reprinted); J. F. Mozley, William Tyndale (London/NewY~rk: SPCKlMacm!11an.

1937; reprinted 1971); David Daniell, Witliam 1jndale: A BIOgraphy (New Haven,
eT/London: Yale University Press. 1994)

317

2. Desiderius Erasmus, Opera Omnia. val. 7 (Leiden: ~etru~ :Vander Aa, 170?) slg.
**2v_**4v, esp. **2v. See toO the "Paradesis," introducing hiS cdmon and t~ns~atlon ?f
v
the New Testament, in val. 6 (1705) sig. *3 r_*4v, esp. *3 ; in English tr~~slatlon III ChrIStian Humanism and the Reformation: Desiderius Erasmus, Selected Whtmgs, ed. John C.
Olin (New York: Harper and Row, 1965) 93- 106, esp. 96 -97.
.
3. An appeal recounted in his own words. in his ?re~ace to GenesIs, The Fyrst Boke of
Moses Called Genesis (n.p. [Antwerp]' r53 0 ) Slg. [A3 -fufl.
.
4. Peter McNiven, Heresy and Politics in the ~eign ?f Henry. IV ~Woodbndge: The
Boydell Press, 19 87) 1I4-1I6; Concilia Magnae Brlta1l1ltae et H!bern~ae: a synodo Verolamiensi, A.D. 446, ad LOl1dinensem, A.D. IJI7, vol. 3, cd. Davld Wllkins (Lond?~,. R.
Gosling, F. Gyles, T. Woodward and C. Davis, 1737; repr. Brussels: Culture et ClVllIsarion, (964) 3'4-3'9, esp. 317
.'
. .
. (5 V'
5. Joannes Cochlaeus. Commentaria de Actis et scnptts Marttm Luthen ,t- ,lctor
near Mainz: Frands Behem, September 1549) 132-135; A. ~, .Pollard, Th~ BegUlIlmg of
thl' New Testament 1imlSlated by William
IPS: Facstmtle of the Umque Fragment
- Ijmdale
,~.
,
--- /\

was sm~ggled int? England. 6 Although banned and burned in England,

Tyndale s translatIOn was repeatedly reprinted in Antwerp.'
Tyndale was himself soon in Antwerp. Although the central authoritIes 111 the Low Countries had initiated the persecution of Lutheranism

~~rning two Augustinians as heretics in Brussels in 1523, the city author~

mes of A:'rn:erp were averse both to upsetting foreign merchants and to

any outs~de 1I1terfe.rence in their jutisdiction.' This meant that Tyndale
was relatIvely safe 111 Antwerp despite his opinions and his dear breach
of English ecde~iastical law: in the Low Countries there was no legal
restnctlOn ~n BIble. translation as such, and there was certainly never
a~y

suggestIon. that It :vas not a perfectly orthodox activity. Among the

BIble translatlO~s pnnted 111 Antwerp there were those showing
Lutheran, Erasmlan, and more conservative Catholic beliefs.'
In Antw~rp Tyndale translated the Pentateuch and Jonah, and revised
hIS translations of the New Testament and of Genesis, at the same time

producing a series of exegetical and polemical tracts. At some point he

completed his translation of the rest of the Old Testament as fat as
Nehemiah, but this was not printed in his own lifetime. His translations
are the foundation of the modern English tradition of Bible translation
long dominated by the Authorized (or King James) Version of 16u and
most recently culminating in the New Revised Standard Version of
1989.'" His other writings" made Tyndale the leading vernacular
6. Recently.reissued as The New Testament Translated by William 1Jndale.' The Text of
tke Worms EdttlOll of 1S26 in Original Spelling, ed. W R. Cooper (London: The British
Llbr~ry: 2000): The sole copy to survive entire is held by the Wilrnembergische Landesblb1to[h~k III S~u[[!?art (see E?erhard Zwink, "The Stuttgart Copy of the 1526 New
Testa.ment 111 ~?gIls~, ReformatIon 3 [1998] 29~48). A partial copy is on permanent display 111 the Brmsh Library (see below).
7. A. G. Johnston and J.~F. Gilmont, 'Timprimerie et la Reforme a Anvers" La
Rtforme et le livre: L'Europe de l'imprime (ISI7-V.IS70), ed. J.~F. Gilmont (Paris: Editions
du Cerf, 1990) 196.
8. See Andrew Hope's contributions in 1jndale's Testament cd. Paul Arblasrer
Gergely Juluisz and Guido Lane (Turnhout: Brepols, 2002) 35-38, '151-153.
'
9. Paul AI:blaster, "Totiu;, Mundi Emporium: Antwerp as a Cenne for Vernacular
BI~le Translations, 1523-1545, The Low Countries as a Crossroads of Religious Belieji, cd.
Ane~Jan Gelderblom, Jan L. de long and Marc Van Vaeck, Intersections: Yearbook of
Early Modern Studies, 3 (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2004) 9-31.
10, Bruce M. Metzger, "To the Reader," The New Oxford Annotated Bible, ed. Bruce
M. MeC2g<:r and, RO,la~d E. Murphy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991) ix.
n. BesIdes hiS biblIcal translations, Tyndale published a reworked version ofLuther's
Vorrede au)fdie Epistel S. Paul:. an die Romer under the tide A Compendious Introduccion,
Prologue, or P~'efoce unto :he Pl$:l~ of St. p.,aul to the RomaYlls (Antwerp, 1530). His other
works are ,?amly pol~mIcal :-V.rmngs agamst the tradition, teachings, and members of
the Cathohc Church In a militantly abusive tone. These comprise: The Parable of the

GERGELY JUHAsz & PAUL ARBLASTER

31 8

WILLlAM TYNDALE AND THE FALSIFICATION OF MEMORY

the first generation of English Protestants, a position

spo1{esman of
IfS
"I
given particular weight by his status a~ the trans ator 0 cflpmre. n
the spring of 1535 Tyndale was arrested 111 the str~et 111 An;welp by ducal
officers and imprisoned in Vilvoorde castle. HIS exeCUtion took place
almost a year and a half later. '3
II. Tyndale's Trial
cause of TYlldale's martyrdom is generally misrepreThe precIse
da!
sented particularly at a popular level. The usual attitude to Tyn es
death ~an be found in many places. In one of the clearer statements:
1

T ndale was tied to a stake, strangled w~th a. rope and to:ched outs~de
a ~astle near Brussels on Oct. 6, 1536. HIS cnme: Tra~slatmg the SCrIptures from Greek and Hebrew into vernacular Engltsh so that, com-

the Bible for themselves, rather than havmg

to

maners couId read

ffi .al L . Vi 1
14
depend on the church hierarchy to interpret the 0 lCl
atm u gate.

Similar turns of phrase proliferate. Another writer states that "Tyndale

was condemned as a heretic. His only CrIme had been that he had
wanted his fellow countrymen to read the Bible."" Examples could be

1528);

Wicked Mammon (Antwerp.

The Ob~dyence. ofa Chl{ste1ld~al1' ~l1;=~hl g:~~~rrl
Rulers Ott ht to Goveme (Antwerp, 1528; available m a popu ar e mon y
,
p
. ~l . 2000)' The Practyse of Prelates: whether the Kynges Grace may be sepa,;~~Ul~m ,:S:IQ:tene be;allse she was hys Brothers tlryfi (Antwerp, 1530): 1n Allswere unto
'. fi as 1-ore 's iJialo le (Antwerp, 1531; available in a
edition by Anne. M.
and Jared
The Independent Works ofWdham Tyndale, 3 [Washlllg:
n DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2000]). He a1s~ wrote twO short .c~m.

~~6:~:1l

:enta~ie~:
(An

sC~l~larly

Wi~ks,

~/~e

se;:~lt~t::te~I~~~::h;;:~~h~:t~hr;~

The exposition of
/yrste EPhistle of
31) and An ExposlCTon upon t e v., VI., VU.
r
'J
chapr;;~~P~r/the Keye and the Dore of the Scripture, and the re~toring again ofMoses. L'!jt:~
corrupt by the Scribes and Pharisees (Antwcrp, 1533). Scc entries 97, 98, 107, 109 111 y}
I

dales Testam '" t, 153~56, I~; ~4-1.67;he Making of the English Protestant 7iwditioll (Cam12. E. G ordon up~, ~ us m
)
, G R Elton "The Reformation in

bridge: Cambridge Ulllvcrsny Prcss, 19 66 47-51, . '

, w Cambdd e Modern
England," The Reformation (Ij20-Ij29), .cd. ~. R. Elton, The Ne 8
g
.
1
(C b'd c' Cambridge Umverslty Press, 1968) 227- 22 .
I Istory, 2. am 1'1 g.
R.i'l
I . f R kenkamer 19662 "Comptes des confiscatIons
13 B~~ssels, Algempeen F J ~ar~ lie :'L e fin de William Tindale," Mtlanges d'histoire
1533-1538, fo, 9v -lrf; au l re ~ncq, a

offirts ltGMI Cpkarlbes Btfn!,~ltt (~~~:~ ~~a(i~1~~) ~~i~fJ~n Spotlights William Tyndale,
14 al Ineerg.
e
'. Bll 61 (
)29
1'1 Martyr" LibraryofCollgresslnformattoll 11 etm 5 12 1?,~7 4 . .
I

n~;~ lChristi;e Farenhorst, "Tyndale: Sweet Singer of ~~g~nd'l In the 0l;!del~o~r;r~l

U-nml 6:1 (1.998), at the url dlttp:llwww.u-turn.ne - >, ast consu f h C nU-Turn "is a ministry of Christ Covenant Church (CCC), a memb e, 0 I' be 11 a.
200 4.
E
r 1 "S ee aIso e.,'
g the Sunday-seh00
u etlll
1
I h'IGLIMPSEFI
federation of Reformed 'vange lca s.
r.:J; ;,~,,_

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.... nlinp

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corn.ner C I

multiplied almost endlessly. Nor are such views limited to Anglo-American catechesis and historiography. From English sources the confusion
has contaminated other histories.'6 Even the finest scholars, not themselves subject to this confusion, can inadvertently encourage it by the
use of such phrases as "Tyndale was the first biblical translator of the
Reformation to die. "17
It is particularly surprising that Tyndale is so often portrayed as a
martyr for the English Bible because all the available evidence speaks to
the contraty. Tyndale's sole surviving piece of handwriting is preserved
in the State Archives in Brussels in the form of a letter from his prison
in Vilvoorde, in which he asks his addressee to intercede with the lord
commissioner to return some of his confiscated goods." He explicitly
mentions his Hebrew Bible, grammar and dictionary. There is a tradition that Tyndale's request was granted and that he translated (at least
some parts of) the historical books of the Bible from Joshua to
Nehemiah in prison. This is in fact quite plausible. David Daniell convincingly shows that the historical books of the Matthew Bible ('537)
are in Tyndale's translation and none of this material was published during Tyndale's lifetime.'" At any rate, if Tyndale's crime had been translating the Bible he would certainly not have requested his Hebrew Bible
and translation aids.
Glimpses/glmps059.shtmb (last consulted 10 April 2004), published by the Christian
History Institute, a US-based interdenominational non-profit organization dedicated to
"showing the parr that Christians and Christianity have played in thc development of
world civilization - how the church has given our planet values, freedoms, and morals
that have made life better for millions."
16. For instance through C. P. Hofstede de Groot's influential Dutch adaptation of
J. A. Wylie, De Geschiedenis van het ProtestaJ1tisme (Amsterdam: Kraay, 1881), which
states that, "WilIem Tindal, bezorgde te Antwerpen eene overzetting des Nicuwen Verbonds in zijne moederraal (.. ,) Tindal boette zijn daad met het Ieven," 194.
17 Diarmaid MacCulloch, Reformation: Europes House Divided I490-I700 (London:
Alien Lane, 2003) 203 Both scholarly and more popular publications do, however.
sometimes set out the facts. See e.g. Donald Dean Smeeton, Lollard Themes in the Reformation Theology ofWilHam 7}ndale, Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies, 6 (KirksvilIe,
MO: Sixteenth Century Journal, 1984) 13; Jeremy Paxman, The English: A Portrait ofa
People (London: Penguin Books, 1999) 274, n. 19.
18. Brussels. Algemeen Rijksarchief, Officie Fiscaal van de Raad van Brabant. liasse
1330. Published with English transladon in Mozley, WiIHam 7jndale, 333-335 and in !jndales Testament, 173 A recently discovered manuscript of a Lollard tract allegedly contains 1yndale's handwriting, see W. R. Cooper. 'Y\. Newly Identified Fragment in the
Handwriting ofWiIliam Tyndale," Reformation 3 (1998) 323-348.
19 Daniell, William 7jmdale, 333-357. Among Tyndale's contemporaries the bibliographer John Bale and the chronicler Edward Hall (see below nn. 54 and 55) both list
translations of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Kings, Chronicles, Esdras and Nehemiah among

h;~ 'W'nrlr",

We have, however, a direct but until recently neglected source as to the

by
exact charges against Tyndale. While in prison, Tyndale was examined
ity
Univers
the
at
gy
three distinguished members of the Faculty of Theolo
of Leuven, one of whom was Jacobus Latomus. W Their task was to establish that Tyndale held heretical views and that he would not abjure them.
During his examination Tyndale had the opportunity to set out his beliefs

was not
in writing. This text was answered by Latomus. Latomus's reply

left unanswered by Tyndale, who apparently produced a book in two

parts. At Tyndale's request, Latomus countered the two parts ofTyndale's
second book in two different writings. TYndale's two expositions are now
in
lost," but Latomus's three Refotations against Tyndale appeared in print
volone
in
ed
publish
and
d
collecte
1550, when his nephew and namesake
ume all the material he could find among the possessions of his late
uncle". Among the previously unpublished matters were the three refutations, preceded by an introductory letter to Livinus Crucius, the parish
n
priest of the Flemish village of Boeschepe. Obviously, Latomus's intentio
'3
others.
of
benefit
was to publish these writings for the
Based on Latomus's refutations and Tyndale's earlier writings, we have
a fairly good idea of Tyndale's position. In fact, Robert J. Wilkinson
made a credible reconstruction of the gist of "William Tyndale's last,
lost, book."'4 It is also clear from Latomus's words that he either did not
)," Grego20. On Latomus see: Jos E. Vercruysse. "Jacohus Latomus {ca. 1475-1544
~urh~r,"
M~af[en
e?
Latomus
rianu1n 64 (1983) 515-538; Leopold Vinken, "Jacobus
gesc':.tede~1S .. Contrtbtttlons
haar
tot
Bijdragen
I797:
I432sis
Lovtlnien
e
Theologia
S.
Facultas
Blbh?the~a Epheto its History. Contributions a son histoire, ed. E. J. M. van El)l,
University Press,
meridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, 45 (Leuven: Peeters/Leuven
tl?ld State:
Church,
'WOrd
Trial,"
Tynd~e's
and
s
"Latomu
ysse,
1977) 299-311; Jos E.Vercru
M.O Donnell
1jndale QJlineentenary Es~ays, ~d. J?hn T. Da~, Enc Lund and Anne
.
(Washington, DC: Catholic UnIversity of Amenca Press, 1998) 197-214.
reta!ned
we[(~
papers
oth,er
~nd
the~
that
believed
21. The martyrologist John Foxe
(who can be i~e~t1fied
as a memorial of the martyr by the daughter ofTyndal~,s keeper
Robert J. Wtlkins~n.
13).
note
ions,
confiscat
des
s
"Compte
see
as Adolf van \Vesele,
Book," Refonnatwn
"Reconstructing Tyndale in Latomus: William Tyndale's Last, Lost,
. .
198-199..
!ria~,"
s
Tyndale'
and
s
"Latomu
se,
Vercruys
1 (1996) 253;

profossortS eelebemmt opera, quae

22. Iaeobi Latomi saerae the%giae apud Lovamenstes
eOl:seripsit,
praecipue adversus hom.m temporum hae.,:eses eruditissime, ae singulari iudicio
Jr (LeuLa(Omus
Jacobus.
ed.
,
repurgata
dtltgenter
,
seatebant
q1l1bus
vitiis,
ab inllumeris

GravlUs, 29 July 1550).

ven: Petrus Phalesius and Martin Rotarius for Bartholomeus
F. Vander Haeghen and
ed.
3,
vol.
Pays-Bas,
des
gtncmle
phie
Bibliogra
Belgiea:
ea
Bibliothe
753-754.
1964)
on,
civilisati
et
M.-Th. Lenger (Brussels: Culture
ros." Latomus,
23. "Sperabamus {amen alios militatem aljque~. e~ ea re esse p.erceptu
.
I (1?96) 345.
Ion
Reformat
III
Wtlhs
A.
J.
by
n
translatio
English
Opera, sig. Hh iiV.
IS
.course,
of
Th.ls,
252-285.
,"
Laton:us
in
24. Wilkinson. "Reconstcucing Tynd,ale
s Ideas IS. correct.
only possible if we accept that Latomus represemanon of Tyndale
a se~lOus and
produ~ed
here
h~s
Latomus
that
doubt
no
Wilkinson argues that "there is
the VIews which La(Oscholarly refutation ofTyndale's work, and that Tyndale did hold
Trial," 201.
mus says he did" (267). Cf. Vercruysse, "Latomus and Tyndale's

know about 'lyndale's tlible translations or took no exception to them.

Given what we know of the attitudes of Leuven theologians of the time,
the latter is mOre likely than the former." At any rate, transhting the
BIble was unmIstakably not a charge laid against Tyndale. Of what,
then, was Tyndale really accused?
In his introdu ctory letter, Latomus relates the occasion of the writ-

ing of his refutations. He states the reason for Tyndale's arrest very
clearly: he was detaine d in Vilvoorde for his Luther an heresy." Further, the Leuven theologian sums up Tyndale's positio n in his three
books. Tyndale's first book was on the theme of justification by faith
s,
alone {sola fides iustificat apud Deum).'7 In this book, writes Latomu
the
to
key
his
because
Tyndale did away with all merit of good works,
salutary unders tanding of the scripture was the premise that God
grants everything to the human person freely. In his second work,
on the
instead of admitt ing his error, Tyndale chose to write more

Same theme, and on other articles of faith, in fuct "virtually all articles in which the Luther ans contrad ict the sound doctrine of the
e's
Church ."" There can be no doubt that Latomus saw Tyndal
offence as Luther an heresy.
As a
Latomus's refutation is "courteous, scholarly, and systematic. "29
e by
Tyndal
to
reply
first
good philosopher and rhetorician, he starts his
disof
points
outlining their commo n ground before turning to the
its
agreement. Latomus shows that Tyndale's belief is unorthodox in
content, because his reasoning is illogical and his methodology is faulty.
For example, he refutes the idea of justification by faith alone, the main
e
issue in Tyndale's first book, by arguing that the passages that Tyndal
state.
ristian
quotes from Romans should be taken to refer to the pre-Ch
Works preceding and following justification are to be distinguished,
s
argues Latomus, and Tyndale fails to make this distinction. Latomu
g
ignorin
and
s
context
their
of
out
also criticizes Tyndale for talong texts
e
passages which might contradict his position. So Latomus faults Tyndal
bijbels in de volks25 Wim Frans:ois. "De Leuvense theologen en de eersre gedrukte
76.
raal (1522-1533): Een feitelijk gedoogbeleid?," 7i-ajeeta II (2002) 244-2
habererur ... "
26. "Cum ob Lutheranam h;eresim Gulielmus Tindalus in vinculis
'
345.
sig. Hh ii~. English translation by J. A Willis in Reformation 1 (1996)
27 Ibd., 345.
28. Ibid.
"He [i.e. LatomusJ
29 Wilkinson, "Recons[ructing Tyndale in Latomus," 259. Cf.
gly cool and comsurprisin
a
in
ts]
argumen
l
exegetica
s
Tyndale'
does it [sc. opposing
voice, as it were, ,.
his
raising
without
way,
'
posed way; we could even say in a 'scientific
Vercruysse, "Latomus and Tyndale's Trial," 213, see also 200.

for referring to Romans I and 3, in order to prove his Lutheran thesis

about the worthlessness of works, but skipping chapter 2 in which Paul
writes just the opposite, namely that at the end of the world everyone
will be judged on the basis of his or her deeds (Rom 2,6).,0
Latomus's second refutation expounds more on the theme of merit of

good works and justification by faith. He accurately presents Tyndale's

position on these matters and then assiduously refutes Tyndale's argumeIHs. On many occasions he qnotes Tyndale verbatim, and from these
direct quotations from Tyndale's work it is evident that Latomus represents Tyndale's views correctly and that these views were very similar to
Luther'sY

Latomus's third book treats the other issues in dispute, setting out the
orthodox position rather than entering into direct argument with Tyndale. These are identifiably snbjects on which Tyndale repeatedly questioned the official teaching of the Church. They indude faith, chariry,
priestly offices, obedience to sinners, religious vows, oaths, fasting, ven-

eration of saints and their images, Purgatory and prayers for the dead,
sacraments and their efficacy, and the authoriry of the pope. Tyndale's
position on these issues is well known from his writings and it is likely
that he repeated his assaults upon the dogmatics, ecclesiology, sacramentology and eschatology of the Church in his last, lost book as well.
These points of Tyndale's theology have already been sufficiently studied." For Ont purposes it will suffice to consider his views on the lot of
the deceased, a question which relates directly to an understanding of
marryrdom.

Ill. The Fate of the Dead

The issue of the dead involves both orthodoxy (e.g. existence of Purgatory, state of the soul after death etc.), and orthopraxis (e.g. venera30 . "Praecermisso cap. 2. ubi habentur quae re a (lla sententia poterant revocare,"

Laromus, Opera, fo. IS3 v.

31. E.g. "Opera inquit, postrema sunt qure requiruntur in lege, nee legem implem
coram Dea. In opere semper peccamus, cogirationesque noSW:e immundre sunt ... ,"
Latomus, Opera. fo. 189r, ef. "And so are Qure dedes euell because we lacke knowledege
v
and loue [0 referre them vu [0 the glorie of God" (Tyndale, Amwere, sig. P6 ), "the faith
of a repentynge soule in Christes bloude doeth iustifie only" (Tyndale, Amwere, sig.
03r), ''And when I say fayrhe iustifyeth, the vnderstandynge is, that fayth receueth the
iustefyenge" (Tyndale, Exposicion upon the v., vi., vii. Chapters ofMathew, fa. Ixxiiiv.) See

above n. 24.
32 . See e.g. John T. Day, "TyndaJe and Frith on Tracy's Will and Justification,"
\film', Church. and State; Richard Y. Duerden, "The Temporal and Spiri(UaJ Kingdoms:

tion ot saints, prayers tor the deceased) and was contentious even

among Protestants. Already in 1528, Tyndale had expressed a distrust of

members of the dergy or of religious orders who profited materially
from the desire "to hire the saints that are dead to pray for us," and in
elaborating the theme spoke of the present futiliry of invoking the
prayers of dead saints "whose prayer was when they were alive that we
might be grounded, es~ablished and strengthened in Christ only."ll Tyndale IS careful not to gIve away that he believes the souls of the dead to
be inactive, but his description of how intercession might work relies on

the hypothetical "If Paul were here and loved me [... ]."34
There is dearer evidence around 1531 that Tyndale shared the young
Luther's idea" that the souls either die (thnetopsychism) or enter into a
passive sleep (psychosomnolence).,6 He is never outspoken on the issue
but his words both in his Exposition of the fYrste epistle ofseynt Jhon and
111 Ius Answere unto Sir Thomas Mores dialoge leave very little doubt
about it.l7 This is :orroborated by the testimony of George Joye, a
fnend and helper WIth whom Tyndale later fell out on this very topic."
Tyndale's Doctrine and its Practice," Reformation I (1996) u8-128; Robin Everitt "Tyndale and Theology," The Tyndale Society Journal 23 (December 2002) 66-67;' Philip
Edgcumbe Hughes, Theology of the English Reformers {Abingdon, TN: Horseradish,
I997);"Donald Dean Smeeton, Lollard Themes. (note 17); Ralph Werrell, "Tyndale'sTheology. The Tyl1d~/e Society Journal 23 (December 2002) 13-19.
33. Th.e Obedunce ofa Christian Man, ed. David Daniell (Penguin Books. 2000) 142.

34. [bd.,

141.

35. Ft1S~e~lpostille IJ25. Evangelium auf den Sonntllg Judicll, in D. Martin Luthers
Werke: k,.tt~sche Gesam:ausgabe, vol. 17: 2 (Weimar: Bohlau, 1853) 235. But see Paul
Airhaus, Du letzten Dmge: Lehrbuch del' Eschatologie (Gutersioh: Bercelsmann. 1956)
146 -147.
. 36. Sin~e Calvin's Psycho?annychia (wr!cten in 1534 but published only in 1542) which
neats th,~e ISSUes. t~1e twO Vle:vs are sometlmes commonly called psychopannychism.
37. 'And what IS done with the soules frame theyr departinge their bodies unto that
~ayel ~oed~e the scripture make no mentionl saue only that they rest in the lorde and
m their faith. Wherfore he that determyneth ought of the state of them that be
depar~edl do~th but teach. the presum~touse imaginations of his awne brayne: Nether
~an Ius doctrine be any arncie of our faIth. What God doeth with them is a secret laide
111 the treasury of God." Tyndale, Exposition of the fyrste epistle of seynt Ihon ((Antwerp:
Mart~n De .Keyser], 1531) sig. E3'. "And I maruell that Paul had not comforted the Thes~al~ntans With t?at doctrine 1 jf he had wist it 1 thac the soules of their deed had bene
111 I.oye 1 as h~ did with the r~surreccion 1 that their deed shuld rise agayne. If the soules
be m heuen 111 as greate glone as the angels aftir youre doctrine 1 shewe me what cause
sl~ulde be of the resurtection." William Tyndale. An answel'e unto Sir Thomas Mores
~laloge ([Antwerp: Symon Cock], 1531) sig. Klr. This last passage is referred to in the
mdex of the book under the heading 'Soules slepe'.
38. "The sowles departyd slepe not nor lye ydle tyll domes daye as Marcyn luther
and the An~baptystes saye and a~ me thinkythe ffrythe and WiUiam tyndall wolde."
George Joyes Letcer to Hugh Latlmec preserved among the State Papers in the Public
Record Office SP 1/75, fo. 210, no. 183.

GERGELY JUHASz & PAUL ARBLASTER

Tyndale denied that the souls departed "be all. re~di:, in th~ full glori~
that Christ is in I or the elect angels of god are m. 39 For If It so wele,
Tyndale argued, "then the preachinge of the re~urreccion of the flesshe
were a thinge in vayne."40 For him the resurrection of the body and the
immortality of the soul are mutually exclusive ideas.", Tyndale, as Joye
pointed our, also believed that the teaching of the Immortaltty ~f the
soul was not yet held by the Jews: "this doctrine was not then 111 the
worlde."4' But if there is no immortal soul, there can be no Purgatoty,
and the saints cannot already be in heaven, reasoned Tyndale. And If
there is no immortal soul, saints and martyrs cannot posSlb!y be anything more than a memory. His oppositio~

WILLlAM TYNDALE AND THE FALSIFICATION OF MEMORY

32 5

the memory of saints may be set before us, that we may follow their
faith and good works c. .. ). But the Scripture teaches not the invocation of saints or to ask help of saints, since it sets before us the one
Christ as the Mediator, Propitiation, High Priest, and Intercessor. 46

More radically, article

Articles of 1563, reads:

22

of the Anglican equivalent, the Thirty-Nine

The Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory, Pardons, worshipping

and adoration as well of Images as of Relics, and also Invocation of
Saints, is a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture; but rather repugnant to the word of God.

the veneration of the

This does leave open the possibility of uninvoked intercession by the

saints is thus based on his denial of the SurVIVal of the soul at death, as

saints in heaven, and at a strained reading even of a 'non-Romish' doc-

well as on more standard Protestant arguments. 43

trine of veneration and invocation, bur historically this article discouraged any notion of solidarity between the dead and the living. 47 It is
almost a paradox that Tyndale, who among other reasons was executed

to

Although he believed that Christ's true Church was always persecuted and her members were all martyrs," Tyndale could, gIven hIS
anthropology, hardly do otherwise than write that "The saints a.re but
an example. "45 This has rClnained the mainstream, Prate.stant VIew of

saints and martyrs. Although English ProtestantISm dId not adopt

Tyndale's psychosomnolent vie",:s wholesale, there" remamed senous
obstacles to considering "the samts that are dead membe~s of the
Church who can pray for us in the same way as fellow Chnstlans who
have not yet died. Article 21 of the Confession of Augsburg explamed

precisely for his opposition to the veneration of saints and martyrs, has

himself grown to be one of the most revered martyrs of Protestant hagiology. Let us now consider the ways in which Tyndale was and is an
example, a particularly precious memory, and a 'living' presence."

rv. Tyndale's Memory

that:
39. The /Jewe Testament, transl. William Tyndalc, ((Antwerp: Marten De KcyscrJ,

1535) sig.

**W

40. The newe Testament, sig. **W

. '
d
41. '~d agaync, if the saules be in hcuen, tcH me, whl they, be ~ot to as goo ca~e
as the angelles be? And then what cause is there of the resurrecclon? Tyndale, Answe",

sig. !~r. Gcorge Joye, An apologye made by George Joye, to sa~isJj (if it maye ~e) w. TinJ:zle
(Antwer : Cathcrine van Endhoven, 1535) sig. AG'. Joye gives here a pre~lse quotation
from Ty~dale's Answere, where Tyndale writes: "(More] steleth aw:ye Chnstes ~rgum7nt
where with he proueth the resurreccion I that Abraham and all sal~ltes shuld l~te"a~Ine
& not that their souIes were in heuen which doctrine was not y~t In the ;-vor e.
yn~
dale Answere, sig. 18 Tyndale believed that the idea of the Immortal.lty ?f the s?~l
originated in pagan philosop~y, an~ that "the pope" (sic) had mingled It wah Chnsts
teaching. (Tyndale, Answere, SIg. 08 .)
43. Cf. Tyndale, Amwere, sig. PIf.
44. Cf. Tyndale, Amwere, sigs C4r~5r, H7', hV.
.
.'
".
45. Obedience, (note 33) 142 n. b (marginal note 111 ongmal). Elsew~lere, th~ mtrades done at saintes tombes, were done for [ ... ] to prouoke vn to the ~alth of
theIr doc~
v
trine, and not to trust in bones or in tI~e saint" ,,(Tyndale, Amwere, Slg. G3 ); lthe m~r;,
ginal note in the 1573 edition reads at tillS place: Dead bones may not be wors lyppe .
See also Tyndale, Amwere, sigs 18', PI'.
V) .

Accounts ofTyndale's life took shape before his death, in the writings
of himself, of his disciple John Frith, and of his opponents, among
whom the foremost was Thomas More. Tyndale saw himself as an Apostle, mimicking St Paul's epistles in the epistolaty prefaces to his own
writings, and explicitly claiming that having once received "the full
46. See "The Confession of Faith Which Was Submitted to His Imperial Majesty
Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg in the Year 1530 by Philip Melancthon (1497-1560),"
7Ng/ot Concordia: The Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, trans. E
Bente and W H. T. Dau (St. Louis, MO: Concordia, 1921) 37~95.
47. For a humorous reflection on the openness of the Thirty-Nine Articles to differ~
ent interpretations, see Newman's novel Loss and Gain (London, 1848) especially pt 2,
ch. 10, in which an Anglican ordinand is accused of having been "debauched by [... J
sophristries and jesuitries" for holding the opinion that although the Articles proscribe
the invocation of saints, intercession is left an open question.
48. But to be a memory is surely itself considerable, for "Memory defines who we
are and shapes the way we act more closely than any odler single aspect of our personhood," and collective memory "serves purposes which transcend the individual, welding
together human societies by imposing shared understandings, interpretations, ideolo~
gies." Steven Rose, The Making ofMemory (London: Anchor, 1992) I, 327.

GERGELY JuH!\SZ & PAUL ARBLASTER

knowledge of Christ [... ] I am as safe as Paul, fellow with Paul, joint

.
f G d "49
heir with Paul of all the promises 0
o.
dal "I' h
. 1 d up by Frith who wrote that Tyn e lvet,
T h eth erne was p'C(e
,
.
Ch'
well content with such a poor apostle's life, as god gave hiS SO? . nst,
and his faithful ministers in this world."'o Frith shared Tyndale~ exIle III
Al
and even when imprisoned on charges of heresy e malllh' h would have been very
ltwerp,
. h or, d I
mined a correspondence WIt .lyn a e w le

.
'f discovered." For More, conversely, Tyndale -:vas so
compromlslllg 1
.
r
d
that it IS more
fD d up with the poison of pnde, ma Ice, an envy,
.
f
~:ane marvel that the skin can hold together."" From More'~ POlllt 0
.
Lord Chancellor, Tyndale was the criminal mastermllld at ~he
view as
.
d ' the basis of Chnstlan
k D h' b d
heart of an international conspuacy to un ermllle I
.
. E I nd As a humanist, he took Tynda e to taS or IS a
society III ng a .
h I"
I ical con
d-f
faith in rendering certain Greek words wit a lenatlld,g'hetyllnl~ og
. "
. , 'love' an
ea t 1 111stea 0
structions such as 'congregation, se111or,
. "
the familiar English 'church', 'priest', 'charity' and'salvatlon.5J
Mter Tyndale's death, his first biographer was hiS clos~ contemporary
John Bale (1495-1563), a renegade Carmelite who wrote hlghiy pole~'~~1
lays and literary history. Tyndale's life and works .found a pace III ~ es
jllustrium Majoris Britanniae Scriptorum (first pnnted 154~-1.549). ow
he was not just Apostle of Christ, but also martyr for ChrISt.
'11 I
l'yndale seu Hichyns, ad multorum in Christo salutem
GUl le m u s ,
d" . []b
bonas literas
t s Oxonij ab adolescence stu IJS lllCll m ens,
I .
n~ U
h liSlt Graece ac Latine peritus. Grandescens. pau, atIm
~o~~llus h:c I:su Christi Apostolus. ,eruditione, fide, ac Ultae 1ll1lOcentia clarus, in Anglica regione pnmus l:a~ebatur. post ~oanne~
Vuicleuum, qui diuinae ueritatis contra ImquoS ~ala~ml~as p[ to]

de

opulum recta erga Deum fide mstltueret. ..'

moueret eaUsaffi, ae P
. .
R bb"
.
Vilfordiae tandem in Brabantia, LoUat1l~nsl.um a morllm tyra~
'd . . tus CI,risti martyr ut aurum m 19ne probatus, oeeubUlt,
'
nl e, mUle

'4'

See too Stephen Greenblatt, Renaissance Se/fFashtoning

49 Ob edu n a ,
,
8 ) 108
(Chicago, ILlLondodn:bUnjivhersit,r. ?rhf ep~;s~~~e~. ~~es:;JeI9to~er oi Londoll ('Monster' [vele

50. A boke ma e ry 0 11 rH
M
D K yse[~] 1533) unnumbered page.
.
. RI
Antwer p : Aer~:bsc~l ;ngla~/d's Earliest Protestants, I520-I535, Yale Publications III e 1W
jr.
..
,
cl 8)
Ion n (Westport, CT: Greenwoo ,~9 0 II3
M C Lawler Germain
g 5~; A Dialogtle ~OllCell~lg:,~~~;,e~~I:~;ie i~itT~~o:t~he Co~plete WOlks of St.
Marc hadour, and Richard . eTI L cl . Yale Universiry Press, 1981) pt. I, 4 24.

TllOmas M ore, 6 (New Haven ' 6 6'on Gon. nblatt

Reltaissance SeIf"
-rasI'
Jto11lng, 95;
53 See 7jl1dale's Testament, 1 4-1 7, ree
' I d D '(lma Oxford History
C S 'Lewis English Literattire in the Sixteenth Century Exc tl) mg ~ . Eiiean Ni Chuil(0 ~ Id Clarendon 1968; 11954 170-19,
. . . '.
of English L1terature, 3
x o.
M' d W'W m Tyndale, 1528-33: Ideas on
I "n "The Debate between Thomas ore an
I la
{~~;~t~re and Religion," journal ofEccles1l1sttcal History 39 (19 88) 382-4II .

WlLLlAM TYNDALE AND THE FALSIFICATION OF MEMORY

anno ab eadem Christo incarnata 1535 [recte 1536], in Septembri,

Henrico Octauo regnante. H

The chronicler Edward Hall, in his posthumously printed The Union of

the Two Noble Families ofLancaster and York (1550), recounts how Tyndale "to the honour of God and proffite of his native countrey of England" suffered exile and eventually martyrdom to bring the light of the
Gospel to a people "who altogether wer wrapped in errours. "55 Although
to the modern reader this might already suggest a view of Tyndale as a
martyr for translation, neither Bale nor Hall, nor later John Foxe, saw
the 'light' or 'truth' of the Gospel as synonymous with its translation,
which was merely instrumental. For them, the issne was still doctrine.
Bale and Hall laid the foundations of an English Protestant historiography in which Tyndale was a key figure. Their yonnger contemporary John Foxe gave this its most lastingly influential statement in his
Actes and Monuments (1563).'6 Popularly known as the 'Book of Martyrs', this was an official publication, approved by the bishops and with
orders that it be set up in every cathedral. It was heavily revised and reissued in '570, and by 1610 had gone through six folio editions. Large
portions were translated into Dutcb in 1612 and these were incorporated
into the definitive version of the standard Dutch Reformed martyrology,
Joannes Gysius's 1633 edition of Adriaan van Haemstede's De Gheschiedenisse ende den doodt der vromer Martelaren (first published 1559).57
For Foxe, as for Bale and Hall, Tyndale's importance went far beyond
his martyrdom. In the 1570 edition Tyndale's story was retitled "The
Life and Story of the True Servant and Martyr of God, William Tyndale, Who, for His Notable Pains and Travail, May Well Be Called the
Apostle of England in This Our Later Age."" Besides heavily 'resculpt-

54. John Bale, Scriptorum Iflustrium Maioris Brytmmiae Catalogus: Basle 1557, 1559,
val. 1 (repr. London: Gregg, 1971) 658-659.
55. Edward Hall, The Union of the Two Noble Families of Lancaster and York. 1550
(repr. Menston: Scolar Press, 1970) Henry VIII, CCxxvii.
56. On which see John Foxe and the English Reformation, cd. David Loades (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1997); John Foxe: An Historical Perspective, ed. David Loades (Aldershot:
Scolar Press, 1999); John Foxe and His W0rld, cd. Christopher Highley and John N. King
(Aldershot: Scolar Press, 2002); J. F. Mozley, John Foxe and His Book (London: SPCK,
1940; repr. New York: Octagon Books, 1970).
57. Paul Arblaster, "John Foxe in the Low Countries, 1566-1914," John Foxe at Home
and Abroad, cd. David Loades (Aldershot/BurIington, VT: Ashgate, 2004) 141-143, 149.
On the interrelationship of early Protestant martyrology more generally, Brad S. Gregory, Salvation at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge,
.tvWLondon: Harvard University Press, 1999) 16-26, 139-196.

WILLlAM TYNDALE AND THE FALSIFICATION OF MEMORY

GERGELY JUHASZ & PAUL ARBLASTER

ing' his account ofTyndale's life and work in the second edition of his
Book of Martyrs, Foxe wenr on to edit a volume entitled The Whole

workes ofW. Tjmdall, John Frith, and Doct. Barnes, three worthy Martyr;,
and principal! teachers of this Churche ofEngland (~ondon, 1573)" Foxe s
Acts and Monuments was reprinted throughout his hfe and many tlmes
.
after his death, often at moments of confessional strife.
Although Foxe so emphasized Tyndale's importanc~,. and Foxe himself was in general SO influential, Tyndale has not traditionally been the
foremost hero of mainstream Anglicanism, either as Bible translator or
as martyr. These have been, rather, Miles Coverdale, himself a Bible
translator:o and the martyr-bishops Hugh Latimer, Nlcholas Ridley ~nd
Thomas Cranmer!' All remain heroic figures of great and lasting
achievement, but the weighting given to them relative to one, another m

accounts of the English Reformation has often reflected the hnes of tension within the Anglican and Protestant t raditions.

62

Despite these ten:

sions within Anglicanism, all Anglicans can look upon Tyndale s

achievement as their own foundation and thus Tyndale's memory brings
about a broader unity amidst diversity. Tyndale transcends even more
fundamental divisions, for to the full spectrum of non-Anglican Protes58. On the significance of this, see John N. King. '''The

Ligh,~ ofPr~nting': William

Tyndale, John Foxe, John Day, and Early Modern Print Culture, Renaissance Quarterly
54

(ZOOI)

53- 85.

"Th Ft .

59. Entry 120 in Tjmdale's Testament. 177; see also Elizabc(h. Evenden.
e eCIn
Dutchmen? The Influence of Dutch Immigrants upon the Pnnt Shop of John Day,
John Foxe at Home and Abroad, 63- 6 4.
.
.
60. During Tyndale's imprisonment Coverdale produced the firs~ ~om?,le(e BI~le In
English (see G. Law!, "The 1535 Coverdale Bible and Its An~erp Onglns, The Btble as
Book: The Reformation, ed. Orlaith O'Sullivan ;vim the aSSIstanCe of E~len. N. Herron
[London: The British Library, 2000] 89-102); Ius last work was a contribution. to martyrology, in the Certain most godly, fmitful, and co"!fortable le~te~s ofs.uch true Samtes an~

hory Martyrs of God, as in the late bloodye persecutton here wlthm thIS Realn;e, gaue theIr
ryues for the defence ofChristes hory gospel (London: John Day, 156 4); on which see Susa~

Wabuda, "Henry Bull, Miles Coverdale, and the ~al~ng of Foxes .Book of Martyrs, .
Martyrs and Martyrologies, ed. Diana Wood, Studies In Church HIStory, 30 (Oxford:
Blackwell, 1993) 245-258, On Coverdale more generally, J. F. Mozley, Coverdale and HIS

Bibles (London: Lutterworth, 1953)

61. As one of the main drafters of the Book of Common

Pr~yer and of ,the Book of

Homilies, Cranmer, as much as Coverdale and Tyndale, had an 1I1~porta.nt mfluence on
the development of modern literary English. On Cranmer, see Dmrmald M~cCulloch,
Thomas Cranmer: a Life (New Haven, eT: Yale Un~versity Pres~, 19:,6); DavJd Loadcs,
"John Foxe and the Traitors: the Politics of the Manan Persecution, Martyrs and Martyrologies, 23 1- 244; W H. Auden, "The Martyr as Dramatic Hero," Secondary Worlds
(London/Boston: Faber, 1984; 11968) esp. 21.
..'
62. On the vicissitudes of Cranmer's posthumous repuratlon see DIarmald MacCulloch, "Cranmer's Ambiguous Legacy," History Today 46 (199 6) no. 6, 22ff.

ta~ts in the English-speaking world he is a foundational figure shared

with then Anghcan counterparts.
The main lines of sixteenth-century historiography were continued
into the seventeenth and even eighteenth centuries with reprints of
Foxe, and the reworking of details tal,en from Foxe and Bale in such
compilations as Henty Holland's HerwologiaAnglica (Arnhem: J. Jansz.,
16zo) and Donald Lupton's The History of the Moderne Protestant
Divines (London: N. & John Oal,es, 1637).6, The earliest point at which
Tyndale's translation, rather than teachings, is held to be me cause of his
death seems to be 1674, when a Quaker pamphlet made the case that
Tyndale's teachings provide a basic, foundational Protestantism with
which the tenets of the Society of Friends more closely agree than do
those ~f any other Protestant group.64 Sometimes it was alleged that
Cathohc doctrine Viewed vernacular Bible translation in itself as a
heresy.6,
Tyndale, however, only came to the forefront of a broader Protestant
historiography of the Reformation at the time of the nineteenth-century
Evangelical Revival, which sought to reconnect with the heroes of the
Reformation. 66 With some justice George Offor could write in 1836 that
"Rich as the literature of this country is in biography, the memory of
63. Lupto~'s History, ,an ~daptation .of Jacobus Verheiden's Praestantium aliquot theO(ogo~llm, qtU ROJ~, anttchmtum p1'lleapue Opptt$'wrunt, .effigies: qllibus nddita elogia,
Itbr~1tt:nq. Catalogt ~The Hague: Beuckel Cornellszoon Nteulandt, 1602), is available in
facsI~l1lle (The EnglIsh Experience 959; Amsterdam and Norwood NJ: WaIter J. Johnson me., Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1979)'
64. "WilIiam Tindal [ ... ] .Translate~ rh: Bible [ .. ,] which made the Romish Clergy
so angCf (who wou~d have stIll hoodwmckd the People in Ignorance) that they ceased
?ot untIl they got lum bur~~, who suffered Martyrdom for the Truth, in West Flanders,
I,n the days of Queen Mary, George Keith, A Looking-glllSs for all those called Protestants

m these Three Nations. Where~l1 they may see, who are True Protestants, and who are degmthe TestImony and Doctrine of the Antient Protestants. And hereby it
IS made to appear, .that t~e People, called in derision Quake1'S, are tme (yea the truest} Protestants, be~ause tketr Testlm~Jly agreeth with the TestimoJlY of the Antient Protestants in the
mos~ weighty thmgs l~herem t~e. Lord .called them/orth in that day. Particularly, with the
Testlmony and Doctrme of Wtlltam Tmdal who IS called a WOrthy Martyr, and Principal
Teacher. of the Church of England; Faithfidly Collected out of his W0rks (London: s.n.,

~rated and gone ji-om

1674) .Slg, A3 t .... C~nsulted as made available by the Early English Books Online Text
Creation Pa~~nershlp, Th; l~tter pan of the full tide is part!cularly significant.
65. E.g. Such as call cl It Heresy, to make any Translation at all of the Bible into a
vulgar Language, (which indeed is the general Doctrine of the Romish Church) [" .]," A
Short Account ofthe Lives and Sufferings ofSeveral Godry Persons (Dublin: S. Hyde, 1730)
13
, 66. See, for instance, J.-H. Merle d'Aubigne, Histoire de la Refimnation dtt seizie,ne
s~~cle, vo!. 5, (Bru.ssels/Livorno/Leipzig, 41853); Albert van Toorencnbergen, Schetsen uit de
IlJde1lSge~c1J1edeflls del' Protestamsche Apostolisch-Katholieke Kerk, vol. I (Amsterdam:
C. L. Brmkman, 1854); J. A. Wylie, The History ofProtestantism, vol. 3 (London: Cassell,
Petter & GaJpin, 1877).

WlLLIAM TYNDALE AND THE FALSIFICATION OF MEMORY

GERGELY JU!iASZ & PAUL ARBLASTER

33 0

TYNDALE has hitherto been singularly neglected," and ninety year~, later
the Anglican bishop of Durham could say with equal Justlce ~hat Tyndale's reputation is better maintained than that of most of hlS conte~. "'7 It was in the course of this period that the cause for which
poranes.
.c d ' h h'
I
Tyndale had died became commonly misidentlne Wit
is wor: as a
translator, so that he could become an emblem of the broader umty of
'Bible-based' Protestantism.
.'
With an interdenominational Protestantism. bemg

a~

,ess:lltlal
ingredient in many nineteenth-century constructions of Bntlsh. Id~n

tity, the memory of Tyndale could again be depl~yed as a br~dgl11g

factor. With the intermingling of natlOnal and re!tglOus ide.nt~tles .it
is. however, never clear whether the ai~ is ~o encourage patrIotism In

Protestants, or Protestantism in patrlots.' As one schoolboy poet

declaimed:"
We read God's word in blood of mar~r5 traced,

Warmed with rhe life rhey yielded for rrs sake,

In glowing letters ne' er to be effaced!

G Th ~ Tt tament afOur Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: Published in 152 6. Being
the first -lral1;~ti:~ from the Greek into English by that Em~nent Scho~a: and Martyr,

William 7Jndale. Reprinted verbatim with a Memoir of His Life ;;~. Wh~lgd
Geo:;~
'!ffo (L d . Samuel Bagster 1836) iii; H. Hensley Henson, 1 ram yn a e. c. I
Hodder and Stoughton, n.d.) 46 . T?e
Fah a
celebrate the fourth centenary, in 1926, of the publIcation 0 t e

me~~

~atter

Exam les of such language include "Englishmen should

fY
;;~:%~ ~~:e~!t~~

nev~r for~et d~at

the

pticcl~ss boo: ?f an 0t~

Bi~~, ::1~11,;: ~;~:~~~Jta~~Je ~;I~~\;;'i;:~~al~~:;;;e(L~~~
y

success, wasNP.albd fo&r C y~90)e viii, ''A civilised nation without its Bible in the mother
don' James IS et
0."
d
to honour
Id b . a itiable and degenerate state, an we can never cease
.
ngue wOi I cl lt~e !ay in securing this noble boon for the British people." G. Bar-

tr

~~edtt~tt~ l~il/~n[Il;~)~ .a~:~:~:h~;~:~~:t";t~t~,E~f~;: t~/:s(~~en~~~;e:; :~ralodtf

trr

ge

0.,

n. .

'd b

h E r 1 speaking peoples of the wor ,

the British Commo?wealth
William 71yndale: An Apostle ofEngland (London: Worlds Evan-

Engl~s~~ ~l:~~ :~:tt~~~g::i~l~OO~ thee:~e~l:t ~ol~~~~~~her

anfd

o N atlons,

"I ac Foot
sa

geli~a91 ~~~~:'~ittia~3;~;i:~~nd,

William Tyl1dale: A

Priz~ Poem Recitedd at ~~;o~

A footnote directs tlle rea er to

est
Sch~oIH'ftll;~ 1~?9 (Rd~~l(re~d ~n~ ~f~~~n~e:tr~1 ~onclusions of that work (first pub~ish~fd
carts Istory, an
I f
d
't In this toO It dl1868) is that "the English Bible has ( ... , the sea 0 martyr om upon 1 . d b mar rdom
.

fers

W B'U'

d)

fro;w~~~~~e~at~~~ed~~~;~nV~h~0!~:~h[~'~1 ~~cll~h:11;:s~fr~:~;rs/Broo~ Foss

;~s;!~tt,

Or earlier, from the more purely English perspective: 70

Rome thundred death, but Tyndale's dauntless eye

Looked in death's face and smiled, death standing by.

In spite of Rome, for England's faith he srood,
And in rhe flames he sealed it with his blood.
Another aspect of the new awareness of the Reformation martyrs in the
nineteenth centUlY was the reaction to 'popery', both as an internal and
an external threat to the nation's Protestantism. Here the commemora-

tion of martyrs, including Tyndale, was not an aspect of broader unity

but a weapon to be wielded in internal struggles. The High Church
came a step closer to Catholicism in the mid-nineteenth century, as the

Oxford Movement sought to reaffirm the importance of Sacred Tradition in a Church which by its historical traditions was largely antagonistic to the concept. The most lasting public answer of what was then
mainstream Anglicanism was Martyrs' Memorial, erected on a major

This boast his countrymen alone can make:

~ 1;;6 (r:n~:~l:

331

A General Overview of the I!ist01Y of the English BIble. tlmd cd. revIsed by

William Aldis Wright (London: Macmlllan and co., 1905) 281-282.

thoroughfare in Oxford in 1843 in commemoration of Cranmer, Ridley

and Latimer.7' Later still, at the height of controversy against the emerging Anglo-Catholic party within the Church of England, the Anglican
bishop of Liverpool wrote of "the light which the burning of our
Reformers throws on the Church of England at the present day. "7' The
danger he warned against was the "disease" of Ritualism, and in particular he emphasized that "our martyred Reformers went to the stake
rather than admit the real presence" and "that the doctrine of the
extreme Ritualistic school about the Lord's Supper can never be reconciled with the dying opinions of our martyred Reformers."73
Tyndale's first public memorial, a structure on Nibley Knoll in
Gloucestershire (in the approximate area of his reputed place of birth),
was formally inaugurated on 6 November 1866.74 A statue in the Victoria Embankment Gardens followed in 1884, designed by]oseph Boehm
70. The New Testament of Our Lord al1d SaviottrJesus Christ, 83.
71. On statuary and monuments as one index of efforts at identity-formation see
E.]. Hobsbawm. "Mass-Producing Traditions: Europe. 187-1914," The Invention ofTradition, ed. E. ]. Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1983) 263-307. esp. 271-276. A convincing case has recently been put that the
memorial was in conception as much, or more, anti-Catholic as anti-Tractarian; see
Andrew Atherstone, "The Martyrs' Memorial at Oxford," Journal ofEcclesiastical History
54 (2003) 278-3 01 .
72. J. C. Ryle, Light fi'0111 Old Times; or, Protestant Facts and Men (Welwyn: Evangelical Press, 1980; '1890) 46.
73. Ibid., 46-54> esp. 51.
74. Wilfiam Tyndale: The Bible Martyr, and His Memorial (Gloucester: )0110 Bellows,
Steam Press, 1866).

WlLLIAM TYNDALE AND THE FALSIFICATION OF MEMORY

GERGELY JUHASZ & PAUL ARBLASTER

332

and cast by the Morris Singer foundry. Another memorial was unveiled
in Vilvoorde in 1913, with a Liberal emphasis on Protestantism and
Progress, as against clerical cruelty and obscurantism." Most recently,
William Tyndale became one of the four sons of the West Country to be
cast in bronze on Bristol's New Millenium Square (the others be1l1g the
Qualeer William Penn, the poet Thomas Chatterton and the performer
Cary Grant).

their courage, with judgement on their theological views held in

abeyance.?'
This is a trend apparent even among Christians. In James E. Kiefer's
Biographical Sketches of Memorable Christians of the Past, William Tyndale and Thomas More are treated jointly, along with John Fisher, as
men who shared the Christian fundamentals and were willing to die
rathe.r than compromise on their understanding of them. 79 This High
AnglIcan source even provides the prayer:
Al~~ghty God, who gave your servants Thomas More, John Fisher, and
WIll.lam Tyndale boldness [0 confess the name of our Saviour Jesus
Chnst before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith:
~r.anr that we may also be ever ready to give a reason, for the hope that

V. Remembering Tyndale in the Electronic Age

The Bristol statue shows how in the 'heritage' approach to history

Tyndale has become one figure in a mishmash of 'great men and

IS 111

tongue~

BBC poll does demonstrate that William Tyndale has some sort of a
place in the British historical imagination. 77

Another repository of national memory, the Bntlsh Library, lIsts

Tyndale's 1526 New Testaluent among its 'treasures' on permanent
display in the John Ritblat Gallery, alongside Magna Carta, the Lindisfarne Gospels, Beowu/f, Caxton's edition of Chaucer, a First Folio of
Shakespeare's plays, and the lyrics to the Beatles' "Ticket to Ride." So
Tyndale is certainly a part of British (historical) identity, but the
question remains to what extent this historical identity is Christian in
a post-Christian society. Tyndale and More can both be admlted for

75. Entries lO~U in Tyndale's Testament, 62-65

76. Lisa O'Carroll, "Great Britons - Says Who?," Guardian, 21 August 2002, .
77. The historical foreshortening to be expected in,any such popular ~urvey (wah 22
of the 'top 100' nominees not yet dead) m.akes Tyndal~s presence on ~,he Itst al~ th~, more
remarkable. Discounting rulers, Tyndale IS chronologically the first great Bnton a~ter
Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English poetry, and William Caxton, the first English
printer. Among his contemporaries, Tyndale has the company only of Thomas More
and Henry VIII. In the BBC's "List of top 100 Britons" Wi~liam ~yndale. thus s[~nds
synecdochally for the achievements of the Protestant Reformation, With no sign of either
Cranmer or Coverdale. In Coverdale's case this is less surprising, given the remarkable
trend to reduce his status to that ofTyndale's amanuensis or "disciple;" see e.g. Yvonne
French, "Courage and Genius," Library of Congress biformatioll Bulletin 56 (1997) no. 12,

and endowed him with the gift of powerful and graceful

expresSIon and WIth strength to persevere against all obstacles: Reveal

to us your saving Word, as we read and study the Scriptures [ ... ].

of who was thought to be "The greatest ever Briton!" Over thirty thousand votes were cast by radio listeners and television viewers.7 Tyndale
came in twenty-sixth place. However unscientific in its composition, the

us, and to suffer gladly for rhe sake of our Lord [... ]. Almighty

God., who p~anred m ~he heart of your servant William Tyndale a consUffimg pasSIOn to bnng the Scriptures to the people in their native

women'. In 2002-2003 the BBC, as part of an exercise to present itself

as the reflective consciousness of national identity, conducted a survey

25 2 .

333

This, it will be noted, is a prayer of comprecation, in which the "memorable Christians" serve as models of virtues to be asked of God rather
than as heavenly patrons whose intercession might be requested. so
Tyndale, who regarded the liturgical commemoration of the saints as
a~ abuse, has of late years even obtained a liturgical commemoration of

own. As an appendix to the first edition of his Actes and Monuments

(1563), John Foxe published a calendar to rival that of Catholic feastdays, listing Tyndale on 6 October (simply as the sixth martyr in his torIllS

78. To some ext~nt this may even be true of the Victorian function ofTYlldale as a
moral e~e~p.lar, as .In such sentiments as: "if we are told, as perhaps we shall be, that
?uch ~ lIfe IS .'~rosslble now, [ ... ] let no one conclude from this that to lead a heroic life
IS an .lmp?~Slbdlty. Read what Charles Kingsley says of the qualities - the self-sacrifice,
the sl~phclty, the m?desty, the unco~sci~usness, that go to make up the true hero, the
~od-hke man. And .If such. uno~truslve virtues as these are still to be found among us,
It cannot ~urely be l~pOSSlbl:, In the most common-place circumstances, and in the
most memai occupatlO~s. to live worthy of our heavenly birthright, and to imitate the
her~es who were t~le kms~e~ of the gods." C. E. Heisch, William 1}l1dale (London:
Society for P:omotlllg Chnsnan Knowledge, n.d. [copyright deposit 1884]) 60-61.
79. On-lme at the url dlttp:lljustlls.anglican.orglresources/bioh60.htmb, lasr consulted 16 February 2004.
80. Since Kiefer operates with the rubric 'memorable Christians', rather than saints
or martyrs in any strict sense, it i.s possible co. give a more or less equal footing to John
Huss.and Joan of Arc, Joh.n Calv1l1 and IgnatlUs Loyola, James Hannington and Father
Damlen - even C. S. Lewls and Thomas Merton - in line with the declared aim of the
Society of Archbishop JUStllS (which provides the wehspace) of "using the Internet to
fostcr and further unity among Christians, especially Anglicans." It should be remarked
chat none of these are treated as a 'set' in the way that Tyndale and More are.

GERGELY jUHAsz & PAUL ARBLASTER

WILLlAM TYNDALE AND THE FALSIFICATION OF MEMORY

ical chronological order thought to have died in that month, the dates
in Foxe's calendar deliberately avoiding exact correspondence with supposed dates of death)." This calendar had no liturgical force, came
under heavy criticism, and was nor reprinted in later editions of the
Book of Martyrs. But without invoking saints, there have always been
it
elements of Anglican liturgy that commemorate them. For a Catholic
arose
e
might seem odd that the liturgical commemoration of Tyndal
only in the second half of the twentieth century, bur the sensitivity of
d
the issnes of the fate of the dead and their relation to the living, ontline
the
in
saints
of
n
moratio
above, have made the history of the comme
82
Anglican communion a difficult one.
For the first hundred years the only Anglican feast days to have a distinctive liturgical component were those recalling biblical figures and
83
events in the life of Christ. In the 1549 Book of Comm on Prayer, the
first vernacular liturgy in English, the collect proper to the Feast of St
Step hen reads: "Grant us, 0 Lord, to learn to love our enemies, by the
example of thy martyr St Step hen, who prayed to thee for his persecu
tors; which livest and reignest, etc." In time other feasts were added,
first and famously that of Charles I, beheaded in 1649 during the Civil
War. Since 1662 the feast of "Charles, Icing and martyr," has been liturgically commemorated on 30 January, and until 1859 this was a formal
8
day of expiation for the nation's sins. The Prayer Book of 1662
remained essentially unchanged for three hundred years.

The Alternative Sen',ice Book of 1980 greatly expanded the range of

~he Church of England s calendar, introducing among many others the
blacl~ let.ter" feast of WilIiam Tyndale, celebrated on 6 October.8, The
non-bmd1l1g nature ?f such a feast day is brought out more explicitly in
the case of the Amencan Book of Comm on Prayer (1979) which has the
commemoration of William Tyndale on 6 October as one of th "d
of 0f.rional devotion," with one of the three collects common t~ m::~
tyrs. The Comm on WorshIp that came into force for the Church of
England In 2000 (replacmg the optional use of either the Book of Common Prayer or the Alternative Selvice Book) goes further in giving a collect proper to 6 October:"

334

Dates? ," ]jm81. On the date ofTyndale's execution see Paul Arblaster, ''An Error of
50-5I.
(2003)
25
Journal
dale Society
oration of
82. A key document in this regard was (E. Milner-White et all, Commem
a Commission
Saints and Heroes of the Faith in the Anglican Communion: The Report of
Appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury (London: SPCK, 1957).
Innocents;
83. The Apostles, the Evangelists, All Angels, All Saints, St Stephen, Holy
n, and the
Ascensio
the
ation,
Annunci
the
ion,
Purificat
the
y,
Epiphan
ision,
the Circumc
included
also
which
r,"
"kalenda
the
in
letters
red
in
Nativity. These feasts were printed
the history and
a small number of "black letter days" with no liturgical significance. On
Prayel; ShoUJ~
reform of the calendar see Charles Hole, A Manual ofthe Book of Common
and Others
ing Its HistOlJ and Contents, for the Use of Those Studying for Hoi} Orders,
s of
Principle
Some
Frcre,
Howard
Waiter
51-54;
1887)
n,
Stoughto
and
(London: Hodder
Correspon
His
Frere:
HOUJard
Walter
24-69;
1914)
Liturgical Reforms (London: Murray,
Alcuin Club Col~
dence Oil Liturgical Revision and Construction, cd. Ronald C. D. Jasper,
Communion of
lections, 39 (London: SPCK, 1954) 24, 45, 48, 122; Michael Perham, The
and CalWorship,
Belief,
the
in
Dead
Christiall
Saints: An Examination of Place ofthe
142-159, pp,
endars of the Church, Alcuin Club Collections, 62 (London: SPCK, 1980)
the Post-Reformation
153-154; Friedcr Schulz, "Liturgical Time in the Traditions of
Limrgica, cd.
Churches," Liturgical Time: Papers Read at the 198I Congms of Societas
14 (1982) nos. 2-4,
Litllgica
Studia
of
issue
special
ght,
Wainwri
Geoffrey
and
Vos
Wiebe
52-7), pp. 61- 63.
The Cult ofKing
84. On the history and significance of this feast, see Andrew Lacey,
2003)'
Press,
Boydell
The
idge:
Charles the Martyr (\'ifoodbr

the

335

Lord, give to your people grace to hear and keep your word
that, after the example of your servant William Tyndale,
we may not only profess your gospel
but also be ready to suffer and die for it
,
to the honour of your name;
Lord
our
Son
your
Christ
Jesus
through
'
;Vho is ali."e and reigns with you,
In

the umty of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever,

A unique and most curious liturgical commemoration ofTyndale took

p;cedo~,2 September" 2002, at the opening of the exhibition entitled
yn a es Testament hosted by the Plantin-Moretus Museum in
1n~erp. 88 The ope~ing ceremony was held in the magnificent Cathea of O~I Lady In Antwerp, a church little changed in Outward
structure SInce Tyndale's times. The celebrations included an Evensong
at whIch Msgr. Paul Van den Berghe, the Roman Catholic Bishop of
Antwerp, InVited Rev. Geoffrey Rowell, rhe Anglican Bishop in
Europe, to occupy hIS epIscopal throne while presiding at this Angliseems to have
85: The earliest move to a black-letter commemoration of Tyndale
Draft Prayer Book of the Church of Canada . Sec [M'II ner-WhOlte et aL]
been m the 1955
d
. OJ.t's.'
6 8 O' ,
.
COl nmemoratlOIl
C
Faith in the Ami,'ca"
amts an Heroes ot'the
Omm1l111011' 4d -4P . I Fn
6'~'
'j
. S . B00I'cs expansio
the AIternaUve
J
D
C
R
calendar
n of rhe
erVlce
' . . . asper an au"
h
.
A C
Bradsh
ompamon to ~ e Alternative Service Book (London: SPCK, 19 86) -6'
aw, .
the Lesser Festivals and Holy~s ~i
:tn8esses'd' A Co~pal1ion to (London
:h~A~~~.~~'tTh~ ~1~lld;f'00,
: The Alcuin Club 1 82)
I9 0, e . MartIn Draper
l.ve el vice
Prayer Book (Ne~ ~ork:
American
the
on
tary
Commen
86. Mpanon J. )I-Iatchett,
.
Sea b ury ress, 1981 43, 76-77.
h
Someone
of
. 87 Th.e~e is so~e irony in composing a collect in commemoration
lOte
shewewm~
exP!lclldYtgajnst the lise ~f collects: "With which collectes I praye you
if th. tt
vayne
in
died
Christ
that
saye
would
Pa~l
CAhnste?
le ,,::;thdOfl
~~~r~~~nwec" ttr,uc:,
. .l.yn a e, 11Swere, slg. J8r.
re
8
S
88. The exlubmon catalogue was published under the same title . ee n. .

W1LLlAM TYNDALE AND THE FALSIFICATION OF MEMORY

GERGELY JUHJ\SZ & PAUL ARBLASTER

" " the Catholic Cathedral. David Daniell expressed the sig"Tyndale was being honored for the first tIme
can serVIce
mficance 0 t le ~ertc~isho of Antwerp, and for the first tin:e ever,
ebver by thfeTyCnadta~ I~e invifed the Anglican Bishop in Europe mto hIS
ecause 0
,
"8,
al
d
h
cat er"
" I T dale's historical conThe exhibition itself was deSIgned to exp ~~ y~nd that of his fellow
text as a Bible translator" Hhls fame above :~is fi~rd It is in his words,
martyrs still rests on IllS ac Ievements In
d"
that Tyndale
rather than in any on-going interCeSSiOn an patronage,

;u[

""

,0

"I"Ives: "

kb

tie

~ot only did Tyndale'h transl~t~fr:n~u~~~:d[~o~d~ in ilien~:~li~~ l:r?-

lIVe to"':! as ~~:: ~~'uel:i?(Genesisq':3)' <~d the truth shall make

guage: ~eut I 8" 2 ) g<~ I my brother's keeper?" (GenesIS 4:9),:
you free
lln ;,3 (Exodus 5'1) as well as "eat drink and be merry,
"Let my peap e go
., .
"9'

"the powers that be," "signs of the nmes.

"
"
h
I face of early English
Tyndale's curr~ndt pr~In-emp:;:e:ac~h:si~pea:ro:run~~elS such as Louise VerprotestantIsm IS ue
k P" I"
85"
'W'"lf"
1iyndale: Bible Smuggler (Basingsto e: IC cerIng" 19 '
nons wt lam
" H Ed
d Gods Out-

'1967)(~nld
pop~:~ b~r~:dh~:;~~~ a~!~;~~icai
e

s;~76;" mu~h

Pr:::
law" ted WYa~ adapted for the screen in 1988 in a dramatIzat~~n shtIll
repnn ,
"
al" B" Moynauan as
avat"I able on v"Ideo) ." More recently, the Journ 1St nan

" .'
ndale' A Martyr's Memory Heals Old Wounds.
89. Tai Kawabata, Wllh~m Ty
. 1i
h" TheJapftll Times, 22 September
Bible-Translator Brings Cathohcs. Protestants oget er,
2002, 3
..
f h E clopaedia Britanllica, vol. 24 (Cambridge:
90. The classic eleventh edl~lonTo tde ,ncy h" roent as follows: "Though long an
l ac leve
ma[1zes
yn
aes
1"1 R'
"
)
UniverSity Press, I9 1I sum
f the greatest forces of the Eng IS 1 eLorexile from his native land. Tynddale w als onh7 0 d I)"'gh literary power, while they helped
""
I
soun sch0 ars Ip
mation. H "IS wntl11gs
SlOW.
. an
E I d His translation 0 f rh e B"bl
I e was
to shape the thought of.the Pundta~ p~~ 10 f ~b:~q~ent renderings. especially that of
so sure and happy that It forme t le aSlS 0 s
the authorized version of 16n." L' 1 "I al'
dded These are classic examples of the
91. Fineberg. "Let There Be ,g}tL" rb ICS ~ cren' much deeper and stronger in the
I

oted by Jost: am ert, OIl

d
cl II "I expressions whlc
1 penetrate our
impact 0 f trans Iatlons n
. "XII C
. I t d wor s an co oqUla
case of text f ragments, ISO ~Le.
1i anslation and (De)Colonizatlon,
ondiscourse" Oose Lambert,
lteratures. r
gress of the ICLA, Tokyo 1991, ~~).
f ch works as Nice J. Briggs, Isabelles Story: A
92. These continue the tradition 0 su
. h 'ble (London: Robert Culley, 1898)

Tale of the Times o!\Villiart.l !ylldale ~'i, t~ E~g~~ tZ; True Story of a Great Life. Written

and Frances E. Cooke, Wzlltam Tyn a es o~, 1,

Co 188)
for Young People (London: Swan Sonnenschem, Lowrey &
.,
7 .

337

produced another popular biography,9J and the BBC a drama documentary.94

The scholarly assessment ofTyndale's life and work has lagged behind
the renewed interest in his biblical translations" Francis Fry published a
detailed bibliographical description of the editions of Tyndale's New
Testament"" The frequently reprinted nineteenth-century biogtaphy by
Robert Demaus has contributed much to popular knowledge about
Tyndale but is outdated and can hardly be called unbiased." J" F. Mozley's scholarly and more balanced work (1937) is still indispensable but
could be improved upon in the light of more recent scholarship""
There is also a strong awareness of Tyndale's contributions to the
English language, which has been encouraged in recent years by the
"missionary zeal" of David Daniell, a retired professor of literature. 98
Daniell's I994 biography ofTyndale is a work with no pretence of scholarly objectivity" The factual content is derived almost entirely from the
biographies of Demaus and Mozley, with Daniell's own contributions
being emotive: stirring passages of appreciation ofTyndale's translations,
and unsubstantiated abuse of Thomas More and contradiction of mod93. !fGod Spare My Lift: William 7jmdale, the English Bible and Sir Thomas More: A
Story ofMartyrdom and Betrayal (London: Litde, Brown, 2002).
94. Devils W0rds - The Battle for an English Bible, directed by Tim Neil, script by
Peter Ackroyd. Broadcast on BBC2 on 19 March 2003.
95. Francis Fry, A Bibliographical Description of the Editions of the New Testament:

Tyndales Version in English, with Numerous Readings, Comparisons of Texts, and Historical
Notices: The Notes in Ful/from the Edition ofNov. I534 (London: Henry Socheran & Co.,
18 78)"
96. See nore I.
97. See note I.
98. Entry 13 in Tyndale's Testament, 65~66. A considerably earlier attempt to develop
the theme in a scholarly fashion was in S. L. Greenslade. The Work ofWilliam Tyndale,
with an Essay on Tylldale and the English Language by G. D. Bone (London and Glasgow:
Blackie and Son, 1938). Some recent Tyndale scholars like to speak of the undue neglect
of their subject, but it is hard to find a standard work which does not echo A. S. Cook's
chapter in volume 4 of the Cambridge History of English Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961; 11909) 39: "It is agreed on all hands that the English of the
Authorised Version is, in essentials, that ofTindale." The Oxford History of English Lit~
erature (see note 53) gives Tyndale greater prominence than does the Cambridge History.
Excerpts from his Bible translations have always been included in the Norton Anthology
of English Literature (first published in 1962). Geoffrey Hill gives further details in taking to task David Daniell, the editor of the modern-spelling Yale edition of Tyndale's
New Testament, 7hmslated from the Greek by William Tyndale in I534 (New Haven,
CT/London: Yale University Press, 1989). for such phrases as "Tyndale's Bible translations have been the best-kept secrets in English Bible history," contrary to the plain
truths of literary scholarship: Geoffrey Hill, "Of Diligence and Jeopardy," Style and
Faith (New York: Counterpoint, 2003) 21-43, esp. 27. We are very grateful to Raphael
Ingelbien for this reference.

GERGELY jUHAsZ & PAUL ARBLASTER

WILLlAM TYNDALE AND THE FALSIFICATION OF MEMORY

ern historians. The arguments of Donald Dean Smeeton, for instance,

concerning Tyndale's greater indebtedness to the medieval Wycliffite tradition of English nonconformity than to the new Lutheran evangelicalism, are met with an attempt at "guilt by association:"99 Smeeton's doctorate is from the University of Leuven, an institution "opposed to

a college, .a strilcing example of him coming to stand meton micall for

the BIble ltSelE The rationale for the choice of name is robYbl . y h
p a y 111 eac
case altin t I
I' . I
o t 'at exp IClt y presented in the promotional flyer ofW'!I'
I lam
Tyndale College in Michigan,'"' which explains that:

Luther!"
It is typical of the inconsistencies and sectarian tendentiousness of the
work that after detailing pre-Reformation translations into German,
French, Italian, Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch, the author
goes on to claim that "the Church would never permit a complete
printed New Testament in English from the Greek, because in that New
Testament can be found neither the Seven Sacraments nor the doctrine
of Purgatory, two chief sources of the Church's power. ","0 Setting aside
the false suggestion that the Vulgate contains explicit references to the
sacraments and to Purgatory which are absent from the Greek text, it
would be interesting to know why the power of the Church would be
undermined by a translation into English but not by translations into
the languages of Continental Western Europe. The only plausible explanation is that for Daniell, subconsciously at least, 'the Bible' means the
English Bible, of which the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures are but the
sources. Indeed, at one point he refers to Tyndale's translation as "God's
word itself.",Q< This is not an unusual attitude in the English-speaking
world, where sixty years ago an English newspaper editor could write of
the Authorized Version as "the sacred English original."'o,
But there are those for whom Tyndale is still as much a martyr as a
literary giant. In the formation of Christians today he remains an
important exemplary presence, perhaps more so than ever. Schools and
churches are named after him in every part of the English-spealcing
world.'"' In several cases "Tyndale" has replaced "Bible" in the name of
99. Daniell, William 'Ijl1dale: A Biography, 393 n. 24
Ibid" 92-93, 100.
Daniell, \,(/illiam Tyl1dale. A Biography. 19 2.
Quoted by Dorothy L. Sayers, The Mdn Born to Be King (San Francisco, CA:
19natius Press, 1990; 'London: Gollancz. 1943) 12-13. More moderately, see W. Macneile
Dixon, "The English Bible," The English Bible, Essays by Vttrious Write1:>, cd. Vemon F.
Storr (London: Methuen & Co., 1938) 51-52: "The wonder of this translation is that. if
anything. it excels the original."
103. Most notably institutions of higher education and research such as Tyndale
College in Auckland, New Zealand; Tyndale University College and Seminary in
Toronto, Canada; Tyndale House in Cambridge; William Tyndale College in Farmington Hills, Michigan; Tyndale Theological Seminary and Biblical Institute in Fort
Worth. Texas; and a Tyndale Theological Seminary near Amsterdam.
100.
101.
102.

339

6th
The College is named after William l' nd I
who first translated the Bible into E~gli:he, f:01m thcent~r~ sC]h]olar
gu
0 0 b
e ongIna anth age~ n cto er 6, 153 6 he was first strangled and then burned at
<e as an daw because of his desire to provide a translation in
the
e anguage 0 t. e common people. His unrelenting commitment to
o[thers, ]s][fong faIth and extraordinary scholarship provide a standard
exce1 ence
.
Wie conscIously
.
d we
ek hope t .
ImItate.
draw upon his
examp e an se to develop these qualities in our students.

It

t'h

:' d:darerstatemlent ofTyndale's importance in the formation of ChristIan I enuty cou d hardly be desired.

VI. Concluding Remarks

th O~~ re~ent fwriter on early-modern martyrdom boldly generalizes
at. tones 0 . mar;rrdom are always a celebration of a communi
The Ideals descnbed 111 them reflect and affirm the beliefs and doctrin~
held
. th e texts d'Iscussed
th . . by all Its members .","j But even 111
b h'111 common
y t IS au or It IS clear that stories of martyrdom can C
t' . .
aI d b
b
runc IOn 111 111tern h e ..
ares a out the true nature of the commufllty
. .In questIOn
.
emp asmng what divides as much as what unites its member Wo'
would suggest that the uses to which the story of Tyndale's li~ an~
death are put are fivefold.
The first such use is to assert beliefs that are broadly shared b Protestants (sola fi~e, sola sCflptura). In this regard the frequent miss;atement
that Tyndales h:resy was the translation of the Bible into a vernacular is
~ery huse{ut as It deflects attention from any detailed consideration of
l1S t eo ~glcal positions. This enables High Churchmen Evan ]' aI
Presbyrenans, Baptists, Quakers and others to clal'm Ty'ndal ge ICI ~,
.
all k '
e as nelr
own, S111ce
ta e the read111g of the Bible in the vernacular to be cen104 Formerly known as Detroit Bible C II
(6 1 8
Detroit Bible Institute (1945-19 60) S' '1 I ' 0 e~e h 19 0- 9 1), and before that as
was changed to Tyndale Colleg~ ~~l a~ y, III 19~.fr e name of Ontario Bible College
to
h'nour.
J lam :yndale, the early English
reformer whose commitment to m'ak'
to undertake the first English translat~:~ t ~crBIRbtu! res avhadable to al! person~ led him
'!!
0 t e
1 e, at t e cost of hiS own lIfe"
105 An ne D I on, The C011Stl'Uction 01'Marty do
. hE" h
.
Ir:l~-I602 (Aldershot. Lh
)
'J.
r, om m t. e ngus. Catholic Communitll
u.).)
n;; gate, 2002
370.
".I'

34 0

GERGELY JUHASZ & PAUL ARBLASTER

tral to the Christian life. The second use is more controversial, but precisely aimed at divides within the community, to assert positions that
are not shared by alL In Tyndale's case this was initially largely Puritan
and later Evangelical, but it can now also include a Fundamentalist literalism that actually has little in commo n with Tyndale's emphasis on
d
the "literal sense." The third is similarly controversial, bur directe
tors withtowards (external' oppone nts, portray ing Cathol ics as persecu

out entering into doctrinal specifics. The fourth use is

to

identify and

exact
exempl ify Christian virtues, again with great vagueness as regards

"beliefs and doctrines," and even to rhe neglect of Augustine's principle

that "Martyrem fecit causa, non poena." Fifthly, and almost uniquely to
Tyndale, is the way his life and dearh are positioned in a post-Christian
culture to underline the indebtedness of the English language and its literary heritage to Christianity in general and to Protestantism in particvre of
ular, either nostalgically, as a preparatio evangelica, or as a manoeu
wars'.
the Religious Right in the North American 'culture

H. Middle Ages

Barbara Baert
More than an Image: Agnes of Rome: Virginity and Visual Memoty ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ... .

139

Paul Antony Hayward

The Cult of St. Alban, Anglorum Protomartyr, in Anglo-Saxon and
Anglo-Norman England ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... .
Karen A. Winstead
Fear in Late-Medieval English Martyr Legends ...... ...... . .

201

Anneke B. Mulder-Bakker
Medieval Martyrdom. Thirtee nth- C en t UfY L'Ives 0 f
Gendering
I'
H
o y Women 111 the Low Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

22r

HI. Reformation and Counter-Reformation

Dick Akerboom 6- Marcel Cidis

"A New Song Shall Begin Here ... ": The Martyrdom of Luther's
Follo,,:ers among Antwerp's Augustinians on July r, 15 2 3 and
Luther s Response ...... .... . ...... ...... ...... .
Susannah Brietz Monta
Martyrdom in Print in Early Modern England: The Case of Robert Waldegrave ...... ...... . . ...... ...... ...... ..... .

271

Robert Kolb
From Hy?,n to History of Dogma: Lutheran Martyrology in the
Reformation Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
...... ...... ...

295

Cerge/y Juhdsz 6- Paul Arblaster

Can Translating the Bible Be Bad for Your Health? WilIiam Tyndale and the Falsification of Memory ...... ...... ...... .. .
Wim Franrois
Jacob van Liesvelt, Martyr for the Evangelical Belief?

...... ...

341

Iv. Contemporary Period

Ham de Valk
History Canonized: The Martyrs of Gorcum between Dutch
Nationalism and Roman Universalism (1864-1868) ...........

371

More than a Memory

Charles M. A. Caspers
The Living on of Marie-Adolphine of Ossendrecht (t July 9,
1900), One of the 120 Martyrs of China ...................

395

Katharina Bracht
"Your Memory, which Brings us the Way of Salvation, 0 Hierarch
Methodius:" The Martyrdom of Methodius of Olympus/Patara
and Orthodox Identity ................................

The Discourse of Martyrdom

and the Construction of Christian Identity
in the History of Christianity

419

Anna Peterson
Martyrdom and Christian Identity in Latin America (1970-199 0)

435

Lawrence S. Cunningham
Causa non Poena: On the Contemporaty Martyrs
List of Contributors

Edited

by

Johan Leemans
...........

..................................

45

4 65
Wimthe collaboration of

JUrgen Mettepenningen

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