TYNDALE, tin'dal. LLIA ( ?-1536). An English translator of the Bible. Ile was born on the borders of Wales. between 1490 and 1495, and was educated at Oxford and Cambridge. After leaving Cambridge (about 1522) he be came tutor nml chaplain in the home of Sir John Walsh. a knight of Gloucestershire. Ile preached frequently and, his opinions differing from those of the clergy of the neighborhood, he became in volved in religious dispute, and an accusation was made against him before William of :Mal vern, chancellor of the diocese, who censured him for his boldness and indiscretion. As a result of his experience, Tyndale became determined to translate the New Testament into English. He went to London in 1523, but, failing to obtain help, he retired to Germany the following year. The New Testament was printed at Worms in 1525 and carried to England, and, though de nounced by the Government, several reprints were produced within the next few years. Tyndale remained on the Continent writing tracts in ad vocacy of the reformed doctrines. chief orig inal work, The Obedience of a. Christian Man and How Christian Rulers Ought to Gorern, appeared in 1528. In 1530 lie published a translation of the Pentateuch, and in 1531 one of the Prophet Jonah. He engaged in 'a controversy with Sir Thomas More (q.v.) concerning the supreme
authority of the Church on the Scripture. Dur ing this period Tyndale associated with Luther, John Frith, Patrick Hamilton, John Rogers (qq. v.), and other leading reformers. He adopted the Zwinglian doctrine of the Lord's Supper, and separated himself from the other English reform ers by opposing the divorce of Henry VIII. from Catharine of Aragon. lie was the subject of nmeh annoyance from the authorities and changed his abode from time to time. In 1535 he was treacherously arrested at Antwerp. and, after a confinement of sixteen months in the Castle of Vilvorde. near Brussels, the State prison of the Low Countries, he was publicly strangled and burned as a heretic August 6, 1536. Tyndale was a man of both learning and talent ; his transla tions were made directly from the Hebrew and Greek. He had a gave) style and was devoted to his work. His New Testament has been fre quently reprinted (in facsimile by Francis Fry, London. 1862) ; his Pentateuch was edited by Mombert (New York. 1884) ; and his miscella neous writings were published by the Parker Society (London. 1848-50). The hest biography is by Denial's (London, 1871; 2d ed. BM).