Some Catholic Apologists Think They are Doing a Better Job than Me

On FB, I just found a post by Catholics Online Class, third from top right now, which starts out:

DID THE CHURCH CHAIN THE BIBLE AND B-U-RN WILLIAM TYNDALE FOR TRANSLATING IT? 🤔😲

Now, there is good stuff in it, but take a look at this:

WHO EXECUTED WILLIAM TYNDALE?

Here’s the truth that almost no one tells you:

Tyndale was not killed by the Catholic Church.

He was executed by King Henry VIII, the Protestant King of England, in 1536.

Let that sink in.

By then, Henry had already broken away from Rome (in 1534) and founded the Anglican Church, the same church that later produced the King James Version of the Bible.

Tyndale was betrayed by his friend Henry Philips, arrested in Flanders, and condemned by civil authorities loyal to King Henry, not by the Pope, not by any Catholic bishop.

He was strangled and burned at the stake for political rebellion and heresy, not for “translating the Bible.”

So, the claim that “the Catholic Church K!-illed Tyndale” is not just false, it’s historical revisionism.

Now, it is certainly true that he was executed in 1536.

It is also true that by then Henry VIII was schismatic (but not Protestant, though he favoured some personnel who were).

It is also always technically true that a heretic is executed by civil authorities. A heretic burned in the Papal state, would have been judged as heretic by priests, loyal to the then Pope as bishop of all bishops and as first shepherd of the faithful on earth, but he would have been condemned to death by a civil servent, loyal to the same Pope as secular (though theocratic) ruler of the papal state.

However, he was not just arrested in Flanders, he was executed in Flanders. The civil authorities in Flanders were not loyal to Henry VIII, they were loyal to Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, in his quality of Duke of Brabant. You could say, he was loyal to his position and vengeful against rebellious Augsburg league. Or you can say he was loyal to Catholicism. But you cannot say he was disloyal to Catholicism.

Vilvoorde is in Belgium, not in the UK. It was in Brabant, not in England.

And while the process of burning a heretic belonged to secular authorities, the process of judging that he was a heretic belonged to Catholic priests. In this case to one James Latomus. Or "Masson" he was surnamed before joining priesthood.

The story isn't about an angry king who hated the Tyndale Bible. It's about a priest who took great pains to find out what Tyndale believed about justification and good works.

Both Latomus and Tyndale agreed, justification does not depend on previous good works. But Latomus insisted on justification meaning you sign up for good works in the future. Tyndale disagreed. Obviously, Ephesians 2:8—9 give the common ground between them and verse 10 decides for Latomus (they were discussing Romans 3 at this point).

Tyndale wasn't burned for the Bible, but for Free Grace theology. That's what Protestantism was back then. Some Evangelicals love Lordship salvation. Back then it's spelled Latomus and Roman Catholic, not Tyndale nor Lutheran.

Anyway, I tried to look at other sources if any one would say he was burned in England, apart from Catholics Online Class. I didn't find any. But before looking, I actually asked:

Excuse me, but can you substantiate that Tyndale was burned in England under Henry VIII?

Because the common story, accepted not just by fanatical Protestants, but also by secularists is, he died in Vilvoorde, under the Spanish Inquisition.

And not for the translation, but for how he interpreted a verse in Romans 3.

Perhaps these guys in Nigeria overrelied on the story he was executed for the Bible. Perhaps they confused him with someone else who was executed in England for Tyndale's Bible, but that was not Tyndale. But he was executed in Flanders, in a time when an English translation was highly irrelevant there, for his views on justification. By actual Catholics.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Nanterre UL
St. Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort
28.IV.2026

In pago sancti Laurentii ad Separim, dioecesis Lucionensis, sancti Ludovici Mariae Grignion a Montfort, Confessoris, Fundatoris Missionariorum Societatis Mariae et Filiarum a Sapientia, apostolicae vitae forma, praedicatione et devotione mariali insignis, quem Pius Papa Duodecimus Sanctorum catalogo adscripsit.