Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897 edition. Excerpt: ... had no share in the treachery. The most that can be said against him is that he took no steps to procure Tyndale's release. Cromwell used his influence to some extent; but from the moment of the arrest, the prisoner's fate was certain. Charles V. had set himself to crush heresy by stringent laws; and there was no doubt that, from Charles's point of view, Tyndale was a heretic. After a long imprisonment at Yilvorde, in Belgium, he was brought to trial, and in October 1536 he suffered martyrdom by strangling at the stake and burning, praying with his last words, "Lord, open the King of England's eyes." Before his arrest Tyndale had once more revised his New Testament, which passed through the press during his imprisonment. This edition, which appeared in 1535, differs little from that of 1534, and the same may be said of other reprints which appeared in 1535 and 1536. These cannot have been supervised by Tyndale himself, and the eccentricities in spelling which distinguish one of them are probably due to Flemish compositors. We shall see in the following pages how his work lived after him, and how his translation is the direct ancestor of our Authorised Version. The genius of Tyndale shows itself in the fact that he was able to couch his translations in a language perfectly understanded of the people and yet full of beauty and of dignity. If the language of the Authorised Version has deeply affected our English prose, it is to Tyndale that the praise is originally due. He formed the mould, which subsequent revisers did but modify. A specimen of his work may fitly close our account of him.* It is his version of Phil. 2. 5-13 as it appears in the edition of 1534, and readers will at once recognise how much of the wording is familiar to us in...
