Previous
Thomas Wriothesley/“Call-Me-Risley”
Tyndale translated the Bible into English, even though the Catholic Church believes that the Bible must only be written in Latin. This is why Thomas More brands him a heretic, causing Tyndale to flee from England for his safety. Cromwell secretly owns a copy of Tyndale’s Bible and likes that he has made it accessible to so many people. He has met Tyndale and thinks he is “a principled man,” and he later tries to initiate a reconciliation between Tyndale and Henry so Tyndale can return home to England. However, Tyndale stubbornly refuses to support Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn, which frustrates Cromwell. He decides that More and Tyndale are “mules that pass for men” and deserve each other. Cromwell loses patience with people like them who cling to their beliefs without paying any attention to the consequences of doing so. At the conclusion of the novel, Tyndale is captured by Emperor Charles, and More hints that he had a hand in it.
William Tyndale Quotes in Wolf Hall
The Wolf Hall quotes below are all either spoken by William Tyndale or refer to William Tyndale. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 4: Chapter 2 Quotes
When the Loller was led out between the officers the people jeered and shouted. He saw that she was a grandmother, perhaps the oldest person he had ever seen. The officers were nearly carrying her. She had no cap or veil. Her hair seemed to be torn out of her head in patches. People behind him said, no doubt she did that herself, in desperation at her sin. Behind the Loller came two monks, parading like fat gray rats, crosses in their pink paws. The woman in the clean cap […] balled her two hands into fists and punched them in the air, and from the depth of her belly she let loose a scream, a halloo, in a shrill voice like a demon. The press of people took up the cry.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Wolf Hall LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
William Tyndale Character Timeline in Wolf Hall
The timeline below shows where the character William Tyndale appears in Wolf Hall. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1: Chapter 3: At Austin Friars, 1527
...book before Liz can object to it. He has tried to convince her to read Tyndale’s New Testament, which he keeps locked up in a chest, but she refuses to. Cromwell...
(full context)
...and his clerical friends down when they get enraged about them. Cromwell has even met Tyndale, a serious and principled man who translated the Bible into English, which is against the...
(full context)
Part 2: Chapter 2: An Occult History of Britain, 1521-1529
...there. Cromwell tells him that he takes no interest in “heretics’ books.” More says that Tyndale has been seen in Hamburg, and he wonders if Cromwell knows anything about it. More...
(full context)
Part 3: Chapter 2: Entirely Beloved Cromwell, Spring-December 1530
...“would be a clear mistake on Rome’s part.” Anne agrees. She says she is reading Tyndale’s The Obedience of a Christian Man, in which he argues that a “subject must obey...
(full context)
Part 4: Chapter 1: Arrange Your Face, 1531
...February, a priest named Thomas Hitton is accused by Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, of smuggling Tyndale’s books, and he is burned as a heretic. More works on rounding up more heretics...
(full context)
Cromwell met Tyndale in Antwerp that past spring, and Tyndale had wept, saying he was tired of being...
(full context)
...boy spends time in Antwerp with Cromwell’s connections there. He brings Cromwell a note from Tyndale which has been sewn into the lining of a jacket, in which Tyndale writes that...
(full context)
Part 4: Chapter 2: “Alas, What Shall I Do for Love?”, Spring 1532
...says he knows of Cromwell’s correspondence with Stephen Vaughan, and that he has met with Tyndale. Cromwell asks him if he is threatening him, and More “sadly” admits that he is....
(full context)
Part 6: Chapter 2: The Map of Christendom, 1534-1535
...More in the Tower. As soon as they enter, More says he has heard that Tyndale was arrested in Antwerp by the Emperor’s men, and Cromwell realizes that More orchestrated that...
(full context)
