The Story of the English Reformer Thomas Bilney

In the early 16^th century Tyndale’s English Bible was the precise tool that the pioneer reformers needed. Thomas Bilney, who was the initiator of the reformation in England, undoubtedly relied on this precious translation of the Bible. In 1527 he was arrested while preaching from it in Ipswich, England.

They put him in a cell in the tower of London, but they left the door open. The officials played a very subtle game with him. They let his friends come in and out to try and dissuade him from becoming a martyr. His friends were able to do just that. On December 7, 1527, he signed an abjuration before the officials who had arrested him.

The following day was a Sunday. They walked him that morning through public thoroughfare all the way from the Tower of London to St. Paul’s Cathedral. When he got there, he listened to a sermon that denounced his heresy. Just outside the cathedral doors, they had a stack of Tyndale’s Bibles. It would be his job to ignite the Bibles and burn them. That event shattered Bilney’s soul. It demented his spirit. He made up his mind that he was going to get arrested again. 

In 1531 in Norwich England, he accomplished that. Though he was tried in London he was sentenced to be executed in the city of Norwich, because it was there that he held his greatest influence. On August 8,1531 he spent his last night on earth in a dark damp cell in a prison that was built in 1407. 

They had a table spread where he was sitting, eating his last meal. Five of his closest friends came to him to try to and comfort and console him. They were led by Matthew Parker, who was later to become the Archbishop of Canterbury under the reign of Elizabeth I. They gave him words to try and fortify him. He didn’t need fortification. He was totally committed to die for Christ.

Had they offered him a pardon, it would only have disappointed him. They spoke about the flames being cooled by the Spirit of God as he quietly finished his meal. When he was done, he pushed his plate away and pulled his Bible over to where they were sitting. In their dumb silence, unexplained, he simply rested his elbow on the table, extended his index finger and held it over the open flame of a candle. He held it there until he burnt his finger to the bone.

He then looked down at the open Bible he had just been reading, and read aloud the passage from Isaiah 42:2. “When thou walkest through the fire you shalt not be burnt.” He commented that to burn for any other reason than dying for Christ would burn. But with Christ in the flames they wouldn’t burn. It was in that frame of mind he spent his last night on earth.

The next day as they took him from the cell, they crossed the Bishop’s Bridge and he ran to embrace the stake. There, he thanked God for having a second opportunity to die for Christ. He was a noble example for his contemporaries. First, he taught the reformers how to live for Christ. Then he taught them how to die for Him.

Like Thomas Bilney, many of us have turned our back on God’s call and purpose for our lives for one reason or another. We have not seized initial opportunities that God has given us and in that, we failed to fulfill the calling we have. But with the same determination Thomas Bilney had, we too may set our sites on serving Jesus Christ once again.

(Partially transcribed as told by Ken Connolly in the “The Indestructible Book” 1999 Bridgestone Productions)