Biblical translations ensured continuity of language: from Tyndale to King James via various intermediary Bibles

The Bible was a sacred text: no other factor caused a variety of language to be so widely respected and circulated

Because certain parts of the text were encountered frequently in Church services or home reading, the language they employed had a greater chance of becoming part of popular linguistic consciousness than in the case of other famous literature

Biblical writing more than anything else consolidated the emerging standard in the sixteenth century

Tyndale's translation was published in 1525-6, and revised in 1534

Tyndale’s influence continued via the widely used Geneva Bible until we reach the King James translation, commonly known as the Authorized Version

Tyndale wanted a translation which ordinary people would understand, including "the boy who plows the field"

It was unauthorized, and the conditions of the 1408 ban on biblical translations applied

It was published in Europe; copies smuggled into England were seized or bought by the authorities and publicly burned

Imprisoned by the authorities in Antwerp, he was executed in 1536