Obedience of a Christian Man

William Tyndale's 1528 treatise blasts through the corrupt hierarchies of Rome with the fury of a man who believed scripture had been hijacked by men more devoted to power than to Christ. Written in the vernacular so common people could read it, this book argues that popes, cardinals, and bishops have abandoned true Christian teaching in favor of luxury and political maneuvering, contradicting Scripture while silencing those who would speak it plainly. Tyndale maps out how Christians of every station, servants, masters, rulers, subjects, should conduct themselves according to biblical principle, challenging the idea that any earthly authority stands above God's word. It is a revolutionary document arguing that secular rulers bear responsibility to govern justly, and that blind obedience to corrupt ecclesiastical authority is not Christian virtue but spiritual betrayal. Tyndale would be strangled and burned for this work and others like it, but his words helped ignite a Reformation that reshaped the Western world.