William Tyndale had a new personal mission: to translate the Bible, at the time nearly exclusively in Latin, into common English. He believed the Word of God should be available to all English people, no matter their place in the social hierarchy. John Wycliffe had created such a translation many years before, but his version was hand-copied and inaccurate – it was translated from the Latin Vulgate instead of the original Hebrew and Greek – and nearly unavailable. The church had banned unauthorized translations of the Bible since 1408. Seeking to do things openly, William set out for London to receive ecclesiastical approval for his translation project.

Meet the man who translated the Bible into common English and died a martyr’s death.