It backfired, as they bought these
copies from merchants, the money was given to Tyndale to print up
even more copies. And because his enemies did so much carp at it,
pretending it to be full of heresies, he wrote to John Frith, as
followeth, "I call God to record against the day we shall appear
before our Lord Iesus, that I never altered one syllable of God's
Word against my conscience, nor would do this day, if all that is in
earth, whether it be honor, pleasure, or riches, might be given me."
In 1535, Tyndale had planned to complete the translation of the Old
Testament, but was betrayed by a fellow Englishman feigning to be his
friend who was really being paid to betray him. This man enticed
Tyndale to venture into the streets of Antwerp, where he was ambushed
and taken to the prison in the castle at Vilvorde, Brussels. Trials
for heresy in the Netherlands were in the hands of special
commissioners of the self proclaimed "holy roman empire". It took 16
months for the law to take its course. A letter from him during this
time, in Latin, has survived and is translated here:
' I believe, most excellent Sir, that you are not unacquainted
with the decision reached concerning me. On which account, I beseech
your lordship, even by the Lord Iesus, that if I am to pass the
winter here, to urge upon the lord commissary, if he will deign, to
send me from my goods in his keeping a warmer cap, for I suffer
greatly from cold in the head, and am afflicted with a continual
catarrh, which is much increased in this cell.
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