24/04/2026
1526 - William Tyndale - 2026
This year marks exactly 500 years since William Tyndale’s English translation of the New Testament (NT) appeared in Worms, Germany. What was remarkable was that, alongside Martin Luther’s German translation and the Latin Vulgate, he also used Erasmus’s edition of the New Testament in Greek. Tyndale’s New Testament was smuggled into England, where it was eagerly received.
A year earlier, in 1525, Tyndale had fled England because his initiative to translate the Bible into the vernacular met with strong opposition. Since the Inquisition was hunting him, he was not safe in Worms, Marburg, or Cologne either. In 1534, he fled to Antwerp, where a great many printers were based at the time. However, after nine months, he was arrested in May 1535.
Tyndale was transferred to the castle of Vilvoorde, the center of Spanish repression of Protestantism in the Low Countries. In 1536, he was strangled, after which his body was burned and his ashes scattered in the river Zenne. Tyndale was sentenced to death because of his Lutheran views, not for translating and distributing the Bible.
Anyone who visits Vilvoorde today will not be able to visit the castle where Tyndale and many other Protestants were imprisoned in the 16th century. The building was demolished in 1774. However, you can visit William Tyndale Park. Since the 1990s, a bluestone memorial to Tyndale has stood there, honoring the man who left his mark on the English language. This monument, which originally stood on the Koemarkt (now Fr. Rooseveltlaan) from 1913 onward, is designated as protected architectural heritage. About one kilometer from the monument, you can visit a small museum dedicated to Tyndale in the William Tyndale–Silo Church, which is affiliated with the United Protestant Church in Belgium.
Now, 500 years after the appearance of Tyndale’s New Testament, the political climate in our country has changed completely. Belgium is independent, and there is freedom of belief. Flanders and the Brussels-Capital Region together count just under 600 Protestant–Evangelical church congregations that are officially recognized at the national level through affiliation with the Administrative Council for Protestant–Evangelical Religion (ACPER). In addition, many other Protestant–Evangelical faith communities have, for various reasons, not joined this body.
Since its founding in 2009, Evadoc - together with other (heritage) organizations and the local congregations themselves - has been committed to documenting, preserving, and making accessible the story of the highly diverse Protestant–Evangelical community. Through our newsletters, we regularly provide updates on this work.
