The Root of American Religious Liberty - July 3, 2011

The freedom we celebrate every July 4 th has roots deep in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, despite modernist efforts to attribute “American liberty” to the enlightened views of tolerant secular humanists. Indeed, the essence of the idea that every person is endowed with certain inalienable rights was embodied by William Tyndale (1492-1536), who first translated the Bible from Greek into English.

Tyndale's heart is encapsulated in this quote, attributed to him by Foxe's Book of Martyrs as a response the young Tyndale once made to a Catholic priest: “If God spare my life many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of Scripture than you do.” This was not mere youthful braggadocio, but a justifiable aim on Tyndale's part. A 16th century survey of priests by the Bishop of Gloucester found over half could not name the Ten Commandments (can you?) and one in ten could not name the author of the Lord's Prayer! Indeed, common literacy was scant, let alone Biblical literacy, in no small part because the only authorized Bibles were in Latin and their study was limited to priests, many of whom were not very literate themselves. English copies of the Bible had been illegal since 1408 in reaction to an earlier (1384), error-ridden English translation from the Latin by John Wycliffe, which the church outlawed to prevent commoners from reading it for themselves. In short, the Roman Catholic church was all about holding onto power and maintaining its vast holdings, a great source of revenue.

Before Tyndale's dream could be realized it was necessary for King Henry the VIIIth to separate England from Rome's control, a feat not originally sought by Henry but eventually precipitated by his compulsion to secure a male heir for his throne. Henry had married Anne of Aragon, daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella (who sent Columbus sailing in 1492), in a marriage arranged by Henry's father when Henry was 17 and Anne was 23. This “treaty marriage”, customary among royals of the time, was intended to secure an alliance between England and Spain. That goal failed, and so did Henry's mission to sire a son. Despite giving birth six times, none of Anne's three sons survived and Henry began to search for a new wife. However, he had to secure a legal divorce from the Pope which the Pope was not disposed to grant, in part due to church law but also because the Pope was living in the custody of Anne's Spanish nephew at the time, who was the Holy Roman Emperor.

While Henry VIII was maneuvering politically to secure his divorce, a great war of words broke out between Henry's greatest Catholic defender, Thomas More, and William Tyndale. More wrote six angry volumes condemning Tyndale's efforts to make an accurate Bible available in English to “every man.” Tyndale consistently rebutted More by quoting Scripture in defense of the universal right of all men and women to read the Bible for themselves after the manner of the Bereans, who searched the Scriptures daily (Acts 17:11).

Henry finally got his divorce in 1533, and had himself decreed head of the English church. When Thomas More was asked to recognize Henry's spiritual authority, More refused, was arrested and ultimately lost his head in1535. In his own defense, More had argued that “no temporal man may be the head of the spirituality” of another man, clearly missing the irony of his own persecution of the spiritually motivated Tyndale. Meanwhile, Tyndale was also arrested by authorities in Belgium in 1535, and tried for heresy against Catholicism. Condemned, he was martyred in October 1536.

The cruelest irony is that Henry VIII soon found it expedient to make the Bible available in English to bolster his newly claimed religious authority. Within four years of Tyndale's death, four different versions of an English Bible became available – all based fundamentally on Tyndale's original work. Tyndale's translation was so compelling that his words still comprise over 75% of the King James Version of the Bible, published nearly a century later (1611). Many of our most familiar Bible phrases were first translated by Tyndale. (View some of those phrases here.)

Tyndale's Bible ignited flames of religious liberty that spread like wildfire throughout the Reformation, ultimately culminating in the American Declaration of Independence . Take note that freedom of religious expression is secured by the First Amendment to our Constitution found in the Bill of Rights, authored by James Madison, who many scholars believe to be a direct descendant of Tyndale's. Modern efforts to construe the First Amendment as giving everyone the right to be freefrom religion are false and miss entirely the profoundly spiritual root of American liberty based on the principle of freedom of religion first championed by William Tyndale. Click here to see important Bible verses about "liberty" quoted by many of the early reformers.

Most of the players in the Tyndale story did NOT defer to Scripture as Tyndale himself did. Most deferred to worldly authority, whether that of the King or the Pope or their emissaries. Conclusions from this saga still relevant to us today include:

• Don't underestimate the ability of those in political power to re-arrange religion to suit their own needs.
• Don't underestimate the power of Government to define the rules of marriage the way they want.
• Don't underestimate the power of Government or religious bodies to exercise lethal judgment over their enemies.
• Watch for the purposes of God to prevail in the hands of common men devoted to the living Word of God through Christ Jesus!

For a detailed study about the origins of American religious freedom, read: From Tyndale to Madison: How the Death of an English Martyr Led to the American Bill of Rights , by Michael Farris (B&H Books, 2007).

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