Friday, July 20, 2018

Book Burning of May, 1531

Wow, an institution on the pages of history that burned the Word of their God in the open...wow..... And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; ...because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
Revelation 2:18,20

"The first English transltion of the New Testament, 12 mo., from the original Greek was printed in Antwerp, (1,500 copies) in 1526. Bishop Tunstall and Wolsey, went abroad to destroy the nest, as
they thought, of this viper's brood.

At Antwerp, an English merchant offered them all they wished to buy, even to the last copy. The Bishop caught at the bait. "Gentle Mr. Packington," he replied, "do your diligence, and get them; and with all my heart I will pay for them, whatever they cost you; for the books are naught, and I intend surely to burn them at St. Paul's Cross."

So the books were burned in great quantities at St. Paul's Cross the same year. But a single copy of this edition is believed to be extant, and that in the Baptist Library in Bristol, England.

In 1529-30 other copies were printed which found their way into England to such an extent that Dr. Stokesly, then Bishop of London, caused all the New Testaments and many others of Tyndale's works which he bought up should be brought to St. Paul's Churchyard and there burned, which was done in May, 1531."
BLB