JULY 4

William Tyndale was born in England around 1492. Like John Wycliffe, he too was educated at Oxford. The church became upset with Tyndale when he began to teach, what John Wycliffe had taught; namely, that every man should be able to read the Bible for himself.

In condemnation of Tyndale’s perceived heresy, one Catholic priest said, “We had better be without God’s Laws than the Pope’s.” In response, Tyndale made this famous reply, “I defy the Pope and all his laws, and if God spare me, I will one day make the boy that drives the plow in England to know more of the Scripture than the Pope himself.”