Tyndale at 500: Part 1 – The Plowboy’s Perspective

Read the series.

Author’s Note: The following account is fictional, but based on a composite of numerous historical facts. It serves as the backdrop to my forthcoming series in honor of the 500^th anniversary of William Tyndale’s translation and publication of the New Testament in English. I hope you enjoy this letter, written to you today from a 16^th-century plowboy.

Forgive my filthy appearance. I am not used to being in the company of one such as yourself. No one would aspire to be a plowboy. We work long hours in the fields. It is dangerous, irksome, miserable work and leaves little time for schooling. None of us knows letters. You wonder how I can write this message. That brings me mirth! Of course, I cannot do so. I am merely speaking from the heart—so glad to my brother for penning it for you.

He has asked me my thoughts upon the Bible. Assuredly, we go to church each Lord’s Day. May He forgive me, but I find that Mass can be very tedious. There is much reciting in Latin, and I know nothing at all of that. After a grievous week, I struggle just to keep my eyes open. The only joyful part is to see the portraits in the stained glass and the sculptures on the walls. It is the only occasion for a plowboy like me to go out and meet others from the village and discover a bit of repose.

I would love to read and write, and I would love to know more about the Bible. Of course, that is concealed from us, as you know—and we are told we are the better for it!

Talk among some of the boys is that there is a form of New Learning coming here from Germany. I have heard tell of hushed meetings in some of the public houses where these things are debated with great care in private parlors, but a common layman like me could never partake of such fellowship. First of all, I would be tending the horses! But I would be of a mind to know what this is all about. If I apprehend aright, these learned men hold grievances with both church and crown—and crave to teach the Scriptures, even to us peasants! Anyway—it is very dangerous to consort with such a band, or even to know about it.

I had heard talk of an Oxford man, later of Cambridge, who had dreamt of translating the Bible into our tongue—even having the courage to approach Bishop Tunstall, requesting warranted permission of the church. But he was utterly refused, and fled to the continent. No one has heard from the pitiable man since.

You may also recall the humble widow who carried the Lord’s Prayer in her sleeve in English, to teach her own children, and how she was taken away for burning, leaving them orphaned.

Verily, His Majesty King Henry VIII, tells us that he will expound all that we need to know and, if not him, the priest will instruct us. Privily, I have my doubts.

So, no, I cannot conceive that such a thing could ever happen as the Scriptures being written in English—or, if they were, that I should be able to peruse them. But if that dream might ever come true, I would love to receive succor from a scholar such as yourself! But who would ever care for a plowboy to muse upon anything so lofty?

After all, there is so little hope in this life for a plowboy such as me.

Well, I must conclude this pause from my work. But thank you to all who might pore over what I have to say, as this brother has transcribed it.

Godspeed, my friend!

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. (1 Cor. 1:26-29)

“If God spare my life, ere many years pass,
I will cause a boy that driveth the plow
shall know more of the Scripture than thou dost.”*
– William Tyndale, M.A.

*As quoted from Tony Lane; “A Man for All People: Introducing William Tyndale.” Christian History Institute; n.d.; https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/a-man-for-all-pe…; Internet; accessed 16 June 2026. While Lane provides no attribution for his rendering of Tyndale’s life-defining quotation, I found that other credible sources have also relied on his version of it. It is believed that a form of the statement first appeared in John Foxe’s Book of Acts and Monuments of the Christian Church, published in English by John Day in London in 1563.