TYNDALE, William, a learned and pious martyr, was born during the latter part of the fifteenth century. He is said, but apparently without foundation, to have been the grandson of Hugh, Lord Tyndale; who having been engaged in the civil wars between the houses of York and Lancaster, lost his honours, together with his estate in Northumberland, and, under the borrow ed name of Hutchins, sought a place of refuge in Gloucestershire, where he retrieved his fortune by marrying the daughter and sole heiress of Hunt of Hunt’s Court. William Tyndale having been early and well initiated in learning, was sent to Oxford, where he was entered of Magdalen Hall. He not only acquired a knowledge of the Latin, but even of the Greek language, which at that period was but little understood in England. He read the Greek Testament to the students of Magdalen College as well as Magdalen Ilall. After having taken his degree in arts, he is said to have passed some time in the university of Cambridge. On the 11th of March 1502, deacon’s orders were conferred upon him by a suffragan of Warham bishop of London, in the church belonging to the priory of St Bartholomew in Smithfield. He was ordained priest to the nunnery of Lambley, in the diocese of Carlisle; and in 1508 he became a friar in the monastery of the Minorites at Greenwich. Even at this period of his life, he appears to have been impressed with the great importance of presenting to the people the sacred Scriptures in their mother tongue; and he had commenced his version of the New Testament so early as the year 1502. He was afterwards engaged as a tutor and chaplain in the family of Sir Jolm Welch, a knight of Gloucestershire, who kept a hospitable table, and was frequently visited by the neighbouring prelates and other clergy. The careful and anxious study of the New Testament had prepared Tyndale for receiving the doctrines of the reformation. As he found it unsale to prosecute his pious labours in his own country, he sailed for Hamburg in 1523, and from that port proceeded to Wittemberg, at that time the residence of Luther. There he completed his version of the New Testament. John Fryth and William Roy, who both suffered martyrdom, lent their aid as his amanuenses. “One edition,” says Mr Offor, “probably of three thousand, was prepared for general circulation: this was quickly followed by a more elegant edition in quarto, with glosses, commenced at Cologne in 1526, und finished at Worms or Wittemberg. The type, cuts, and ornaments of both these books are those used by the German printers on the Rhine.” This version has recently been reprinted under the superintendence of Mr Offor, who has prefixed a memoir of his life and writings. Lond. 1836, 8vo. He likewise undertook a translation of the Old Testament, and having completed his version of the first books in 1529, he began to publish them in separate tracts, ornamented with wood-cuts, and accompanied with notes, which gave no small offence to the bigoted clergy. Having completed the last book of the Pentateuch, be sailed for Hamburg with the view of printing it; but being wrecked on the coast of Holland, be lost his money, bis books, and manuscript. He however continued his journey, and being joined by Coverdale, they again translated the book of Deuteronomy, and, with the assistance of a pious lady named Van Emmerson, printed it in the year 1530. He afterwards translated the book of Jonah. The circulation of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue excited the utmast alarm in England, where many copies of his version of the New Testament were committed to the flames. The king, the cardinal, and the chancellor, made some ineffectual attempts to induce him to return home. He afterwards fixed his residence at Antwerp; and there one of their emissaries, a miscreant named Henry Phillips, circumvented the worthy and unsuspecting man; and having procured a warrant at Brussels, betrayed his confidence with signal baseness, and delivered him into the hands of the officers. He was committed to prison at Vilvoord, a village between Brussels and Malines. By virtue of a decree made at Augsburg, against what was termed heresy, he was condemned to suffer death; and after having been in custody about a year and a half, he was, in September 1536, conducted to a rising ground near his prison, was first strangled, and his body was then consumed by fire. Tyndale, who was a man of learning as well as talents, appears to have translated the Scriptures from the original tongues; and his pious labours gave a great impulse to the progress of reformation. Of the English language, as written at that period, his own works afford an excellent specimen. In his controversy with Sir Thomas More, he had many advantages over his antagonist. His Works, together with those of Fryth and Barnes, were collected into a large volume. Lond. 1572, fol. Dr Geddes has remarked, that although his translation is far from perfect, “yet few first translations will be found preferable to it. It is astonishing how little obsolete the language of it is, even at this day; and in point of perspicuity and noble simplicity, propriety of idiom, and purity of style, no English version has yet surpassed it.”