Henry VIII

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(Ruled 1509–47)

Henry VIII was still a Roman Catholic and married to his first wife, Catherine, when the English reformer and priest William Tyndale moved to Europe to translate the Bible into English. As Tyndale labored abroad, the English religious authorities called him a heretic for his unauthorized translations and burned whatever contraband copies they could find.

Tyndale’s book Obedience of a Christian man (1528), which argued for the supremacy of princes over the church in matters of state, met with a different reception from the king. When his future second wife Anne Boleyn showed him a copy, Henry famously commented, “This book is for me, and all kings to read.”

When Henry broke with the Roman Catholic Church in 1533 to marry Anne Boleyn, English Bible translations had a major change of fortune. The Coverdale Bible, an expatriate English Bible that was produced by Miles Coverdale in 1535, praised Henry in its dedication and included his picture on its title page.

In 1536, Tyndale was put to death near Brussels for heresy. The next year, his once-banned translations reappeared as part of Matthew’s Bible, an anonymously produced Bible credited to “Thomas Matthew.” Matthew’s Bible, which included both Tyndale’s work and part of the Coverdale Bible, was licensed in England and distributed to some parishes.

Under Henry, the 1539 Great Bible, a revised edition of Matthew’s Bible, became the first authorized English Bible. The woodcut at right, one of many in the Great Bible, is from Exodus. Moses, who was conventionally drawn with horns, is seated like an English shepherd with his flock as God speaks from a burning bush. Click on the woodcut to see the full page of the Great Bible in which it appears.