TYNDALE, WILLIAM, was born at Hunt's Court, Nibley, Gloucestershire, of which his,father was proprietor, about the year 1477. He studied at Oxford, and afterwards at Cambridge, and at both places made excellent proficiency ;n all the branches of study then pursued them. He ob tained priest's orders in 1502, and entered the monastery at Greenwich as a friar in 1508. Some time before this he had commenced his translation of the N. T., and had probably imbibed some of tbe notions which were beginning to be circulated in favour of a reformation of the church. In 1520 he became tutor to the children of Sir John Walsh, in whose mansion at Little Sodbury he resided for two years. Here Ile came frequently into conflict with the clergy of the district, and became known as holding the new opinions. This rendered his longer residence there unsafe, and he accordingly came to London, where he was the g-uest of Hum phrey Monmouth, a ivealthy merchant, for a year. Bent on perfecting his translation of the N. T., Tyndale, in the early part of 1524, crossed over to the continent to Hamburg, where he remained for some time ; afterwards he went to Cologne, where he put to press his translation of the N. T. Being interrupted in the printing, he retired to Worms, where greater liberty could be enjoyed ; and there he not only completed what had been interrupted, ' the printing of his first edition in 4to, but printed another edition in 8vo, issued in 1525. A third edition was printed at Antwerp in the y-ear ing. Of the first edition only a fragment survives,
and of the second only two copies, one imperfect, are known to exist. Tyndale now proceeded to the O. T., and issued his translation of the books as they were printed. He proceeded only as far as Deuteronomy in the printing ; but it is believed that he translated the whole O. T., and that Cover dale profited by the use of his MSS. In 1534, he published at Antwerp a revised edition of his translation of the N. T., and with this concluded his labours in this department. The importation of his translation, and of some works which he had written, into England, had excited against hint the hostility of the anti-Reformation party there ; and their bitter hatred was such that the most unwearied efforts were used to destroy him. At Antwerp, where he had resided since 1,530 as chaplain to the company of English merchants, he was, in 1535, seized through the treadiery of an emissary of the English Chancellor, Sir Thoma.s More, and con veyed to Vilvorde near Brussels ; where, after a protmcted imprisonment, he was burnt to death in September 1536. A sacred interest attaches to his name. To him the most Bible-loving nations of the world are indebted for what still, in substance, supplies the version of the N. T. in ordinary use (Anderson's Annals of the English Bible, vol Lond. 1845 ; Offor's edition of Tyndale's .N. T., 1836 (EtiGusx VEusioNs]).—W. L. A.