Henry Phillips

Betrayer of William Tyndale · fl. 1535 · England

Henry Phillips, called Harry, was the son of an English gentleman. Entrusted by his father with a large sum to pay a man in London, he gambled it away.12 Someone in England then paid him to hunt down William Tyndale. Who it was remains unknown. Steven Lawson thinks it was probably John Stokesley, Bishop of London; Timothy George names Stokesley and Thomas More; Merle d’Aubigné blames Stephen Gardiner.1345

In 1535 Phillips appeared at Antwerp, where Tyndale was living in the house of the merchant Thomas Poyntz. He was introduced at dinner as “a person of very agreeable manners,” and Tyndale, charmed, soon had him at his table daily, took him into the house, and showed him his books and papers.54 Poyntz distrusted him from the first. Phillips went to Brussels and returned with the emperor’s officers. On the day of the arrest he borrowed money from Tyndale, then led him down the narrow passage from the house and, standing behind him, pointed his finger over Tyndale’s head as the signal to seize him.5 Tyndale was taken on May 21, 1535, and carried to the castle of Vilvorde near Brussels.6

They pitied to see his simplicity.5 John Foxeof the officers who seized Tyndale, as quoted by Merle d’Aubigné

When Poyntz labored to win Tyndale’s release, Phillips denounced him as a heretic too. Poyntz was held for months, escaped to England, and lost his business.72 Phillips also tried twice to seize Robert Barnes.2 Tyndale was strangled and burned at Vilvorde in October 1536. Phillips spent his last years a fugitive, disowned by his family and country, and he disappears from the record in 1542.8

Catholic Opponents

Sources

  1. Steven J. Lawson, Pillars of Grace (AD 100–1564) (Sanford, FL: Reformation Trust, 2011), “William Tyndale.” ↩
  2. James E. McGoldrick, Luther’s English Connection (Milwaukee: Northwestern, 1979). ↩
  3. Timothy George, Theology of the Reformers, rev. ed. (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2013), “William Tyndale.” ↩
  4. Mark Galli and Ted Olsen, eds., 131 Christians Everyone Should Know (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2000), “William Tyndale.” ↩
  5. J. H. Merle d’Aubigné, History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin, trans. William L. R. Cates, vol. 5 (London: Longmans, Green), bk. 8, ch. 3, drawing on Foxe, Acts and Monuments, 5:121–27. ↩
  6. Joel R. Beeke and Diana Kleyn, Reformation Heroes (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), “William Tyndale.” ↩
  7. J. H. Merle d’Aubigné, History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin, trans. William L. R. Cates, vol. 5 (London: Longmans, Green), bk. 8, ch. 14, on Phillips and Poyntz. ↩
  8. Brian H. Edwards, “Tyndale’s Betrayal and Death,” Christian History 16 (1987), online. ↩