In Europe
In the spring of 1524 Tyndale left England for continental Europe, perhaps staying first in Hamburg, before possibly traveling on to Wittenberg. There is an entry in the matriculation registers of the University of Wittenberg mentioning the name "Guillelmus Daltici ex Anglia", and this has been taken to be a Latinisation of "William Tyndale from England". Tyndale began translating the New Testament at this time, possibly in Wittenberg, completing it in 1525 with assistance from Observant Friar William Roy.
In 1525 the publication of the work by Peter Quentell in Cologne was interrupted by the impact of anti-Lutheranism. A full edition of the New Testament was produced in 1526 by printer Peter Schöffer the Younger in Worms, a free imperial city then in the process of adopting Lutheranism. More copies were soon printed in Antwerp. The work was smuggled from continental Europe into England and Scotland by putting pages in between other legal books. The translation was condemned in October 1526 by Bishop Tunstall, who issued warnings to booksellers, bought up all the available copies, and had them burned in public. Marius notes that the "spectacle of the scriptures being put to the torch... provoked controversy even amongst the faithful." Cardinal Wolsey condemned Tyndale as a heretic, first stated in open court in January 1529.
From an entry in George Spalatin's diary for 11 August 1526, it would appear that Tyndale remained at Worms for about a year. It is not clear exactly when he moved to Antwerp, where he stayed at the house of Thomas Poyntz. The colophon to Tyndale's translation of Genesis and the title pages of several pamphlets from this time purported to have been printed by Hans Lufft at Marburg, but this is patently false, since Lufft, the printer of Luther's books, never operated a printing press at Marburg.
Henry VIII asked Emperor Charles V to have the writer apprehended and returned to England under the terms of the Treaty of Cambrai; however, the emperor responded that formal evidence was required before extradition. In 1531 he asked Stephen Vaughan to persuade Tyndale to retract his heretical opinions and return to England. Vaughan tried to persuade Tyndale, and forwarded copies of his books, but this did not satisfy the king.
Tyndale developed his case in An Answer unto Sir Thomas More's Dialogue.
In 1530, from exile, he wrote The Practice of Prelates, opposing Henry VIII's desire to secure the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon in favour of Anne Boleyn, on the grounds that it was unscriptural and that it was a plot by Cardinal Wolsey to get Henry entangled in the papal courts of Pope Clement VII.
Historian Bruce Boehrer writes that for Tyndale the issue related to the perspicuity of literal scripture: "I suspect he (Tyndale) undercut the arguments of both Church and King because he found both to be based upon an objectionable premise: that the word of God should be subject to the final arbitrament of a single man."
Eventually, Tyndale was betrayed by Henry Phillips to ducal authorities representing the Holy Roman Empire. He was seized at the English House in Antwerp in 1535, situated in the same block of houses as the world's first stock exchange and held in the castle of Vilvoorde (Filford) near Brussels.
Following the insurrections of the Albigensians, the Lollards, the Hussites, the German Peasants' War, the Münster Anabaptist rebellion, etc., heresy was connected by states with sedition and possible regicide; it carried, at worst, the death penalty of burning at the stake. The Church could usually protect someone accused of heresy from being charged by the state, if that person satisfied the appointed theologian inquisitor, in a formal process, that they did not (now) hold heretical views.
In Tyndale's case, he was held in prison for a year and a half: his Roman Catholic inquisitor, Jacobus Latomus, gave him the opportunity to write a book stating his views; Latomus wrote a book in response to convince him of his errors; Tyndale wrote two in reply; Latomus wrote two further books in response to Tyndale. Latomus' three books were subsequently published as one volume: in these it can be seen that the discussion on heresy revolves around the contents of three other books Tyndale had written on topics like justification by faith, free will, the denial of the soul, and so on. (See Latomus' report of Tyndale's beliefs below.) Latomus makes no mention of unauthorized Bible translation; indeed, it seems that in prison, Tyndale was allowed to continue making translations from the Hebrew. Thomas Cromwell was involved in some intercession or plans such as extradition.
When Tyndale could not be convinced to abjure, he was handed over to the Brabantine secular arm and tried on charges of Lutheran heresy in 1536. The charges did not mention Bible translation, which was not illegal in the Netherlands.
He was found guilty by his own admission and condemned to be executed. Tyndale "was strangled to death while tied at the stake, and then his dead body was burned". His final words, spoken "at the stake with a fervent zeal, and a loud voice", were reported later as "Lord! Open the King of England's eyes." The traditional date of commemoration is 6 October, but records of Tyndale's imprisonment suggest that the actual date of his execution was some weeks earlier. Foxe gives 6 October as the date of commemoration (left-hand date column), but gives no date of death (right-hand date column). Biographer David Daniell states his date of death only as "one of the first days of October 1536".
Within four years of Tyndale's death, a sequence of four English translations of the Bible were published in England at the king's behest, revising Tyndale's versions of the New Testament and Pentateuch with various objectionable features removed: Miles Coverdale's, Thomas Matthew's, Richard Taverner's, and the Great Bible.
