Born in Gloucester, England
The time in which William Tyndale lived was considered "dark". There was a movement away from the rule of the Catholic Church and its religiosity taking place, and it cost many men their lives in the process. Some were killed for reciting the Lord’s prayer out loud, some for teaching the truth of God's word, and some for refuting the Church's teachings on matters of infant baptism, baptism as a rite of salvation, a priest's power to forgive sin, and transubstantiation of the communion bread and wine.
Persecution came from both the Catholic Church (The Church of England) which was extremely powerful and influential in England at the time, as well as from Protestant Reformers.
The radical arm of the Reformers was called the Anabaptists. Felix Manz, Michael Sattler, George Wagner, Balthasar Hubmaier, George Blaurock, and others, were persecuted by the Reformers, such as Zwingli, for their beliefs in believer's baptism, and that a commitment to follow Christ meant more than just belief, but also practice.
After losing a debate with Zwingli regarding these differences at the city council, a law was implemented forbidding the Anabaptists to teach, meet or have fellowship together. The Anabaptists broke this new law and met four days later to pray. At this meeting, they baptized each other. These were crimes against the state which led to their arrests, and deaths. Some were burned at the stake, while others like Felix Manz were weighted down and thrown into the lake to drown, or like Michael Sattler, who was sentenced to having his tongue cut out, his body chained to a wagon and torn twice with hot tongs there, and five times more before the gate, then his body burned to powder as an arch-heretic.
The Catholic Church taught (and still teaches) that salvation comes only through the Church. Because of this, priests were viewed as the "passport to heaven", giving them extreme power over the congregation. The Church believed that the Latin Vulgate Bible, translated by Jerome, was the only true version of the Bible, and to translate it from Latin was forbidden. This kept the people from reading the Bible for themselves, thus giving the Church a way to lord their power over the people.
Anyone who disagreed with the Catholic Church, as the Protestant Reformers did, were considered heretics, and were burned at the stake.
William Tyndale strongly opposed the Church's stance on the Bible, and felt that everyone should be able to read what it says for themselves in their own language, without having a priest interpret it for them. He called this the Bible "for the people."
He set to translate a Bible into English from the original Greek and Hebrew languages, which was a dangerous crime against the state. He was denied permission to translate it, however his work was financed by a business man who heard his message and his passion to translate the Bible into English, "so accurate, that an Englishman could depend on it, learn from it, and find God's voice in it."
He went to Germany, where he translated the New Testament in 1525. From there he went to Antwerp, where he translated and printed the first five books of the Old Testament.
Tyndale was betrayed by his friend Henry Phillips, who turned him in for a bounty. He was imprisoned in the Castle at Vilvoorde near Brussels for eighteen months before standing trial for "maintaining that faith alone justifies... that to believe in the forgiveness of sins, and to embrace the mercy offered in the gospel, was enough for salvation." Other charges included direct attacks on Church teachings, including "neither the Virgin nor the Saints should be invoked by us."
In August 1536, Tyndale was condemned a heretic and sentenced to die at the stake. From the time he was arrested, he worked to complete the translation with help from a sympathetic prison warden. He completed the New Testament (and revised it a couple times), the Penteteuch, the historical books, and Jonah, in the Old Testament before his death.
After being secured to the stake, he was heard praying, "Lord, open the King of England's eyes." Then he was strangled by his executioner before being engulfed in flames.
Two years later, King Henry authorized the distribution of the Matthew Bible, which contained much of Tyndale's work. In 1539, the king ordered all printers and sellers of books to provide "free and liberal use of the Bible in our own maternal English language". Seemingly, Tyndale's final prayer was answered.
Note - Wycliffe had earlier translated the Bible into English, but his translation was from the Latin Vulgate.
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There are a lot of parallels that can be drawn between the Protestant Reformation period and the church today. One is that some sects of the Church view the institutional church as the Mother Church, much like the the Catholic Church did. In their eyes, Christians who depart from the institution in order to go back to a more Biblical model, or to find real fellowship, are defectors - non-conformers.
Similar to what the Catholic Church believed during the Reformation period, they believe that only an ordained minister can properly interpret the word of God, preach His message, baptize, and distribute Communion. Ironically, Reformed theology who has its roots in the Reformation, is among the top denominations to hold this view. Tyndale's vision for translating the Bible was that everyone would be able to read it, and properly interpret it for themselves, which is very different from what their view is.
Closely associated to this is the fear of heresy being taught to the Church. The Catholic priest was the only one competent enough to hear from God and present His message, therefore it was much more difficult for heresies to spread. Or was it? Catholics believe and teach that priests are the mediator between God and man, and that they must pray to Mary and to the saints. They believe that salvation only comes through the Catholic Church. Is this not heresy? Though Catholics believed that they were protecting their flock from heretical teachings by keeping the Bible in Latin, the popes and priests were the false teachers who were spreading false doctrines throughout the Church.
The same thing happens today. Men and women go to seminaries of different denominations, being taught what their denomination believes, whether Biblical or not. They graduate as an "ordained minister" of the Word, teaching their denominational views to tens, hundreds, thousands, millions of people, all the while fully believing that what they are teaching is true.
Meanwhile, another person graduates from seminary of a different denomination with totally different doctrines, as an ordained minister of the Word, teaching their denominational views to the same amount of people.
Both people went to seminary and graduated as an "ordained minister", but which one, if either, is correctly teaching the Word? At least one of them wrong, if not both, and their false teaching is reaching the ears of many people, just like the Catholic Church during the Reformation.
This begs to question, what is heresy? To many Christians, it is when someone adheres to a doctrine that differs from their own, or what their denomination teaches. But, is that really what heresy is? If a church leader or denomination demands that you adhere only to their teachings, that is a cult. Mormons and Jehovas Witnesses are good examples of this, although there are mainline Christian denominations who demand the same from their people.
There are some subjects in the Bible which have no definitive answer, leaving room for more than one interpretation. That's why there are over 40,000 different denominations. Even with that being the case, some churches will not allow anyone to join or sometimes even attend, unless they agree with their doctrine. Worst case scenario, they will say that you're a heretic because you do not believe their doctrines. This is exactly what Luther, and the other Reformers went through with the Catholic Church, and what the Anabaptists went through with the Reformers and the Catholic Church. The Reformers and Anabaptists were viewed as heretics by the other groups because they viewed things differently from them. Unfortunately, it is still going on in our churches today.
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We commonly hear, how much worse things are today, than they ever used to be. Learning stories of our history makes me wonder if things really are worse today. Here in America, Christians are not burned at the stake or torn apart by a wagon for disagreeing with another Christian's doctrine. Maybe that happens in other countries, but not here. In some other countries, Christians are persecuted every day, but that has been going on for hundreds of years, it is not new today.
I wrote an article before about this, and how things appear to be from our own perspective. From our perspective in America, the culture is going to hell in a hand basket, and appears to be worse than its ever been. From the perspective of a Iranian Christian, we in America have it easy, and take for granted our freedom and liberty.
Yes it's true that we Americans are in jeopardy of losing our freedom and liberty. Yes, our government sucks, and unjust laws are being legislated, but are we being persecuted or martyred for believing in Jesus Christ? No!
Christians in other countries see our freedom and liberty as a hindrance to our faith, and they pray that we will lose them so that we will be the church as Christ intended it to be.
So consider, God is answering the prayers of His faithful church, as we fight against them to keep our freedom and liberty. If we fight against the church's prayers which God is saying "Yes" to, are we fighting against God?
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