Chapter Tupper to Tytler of T by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

Scripture is the ultimate authority in matters of faith, and the King in matters of civil government. Thereafter, having been at Hamburg and Antwerp, Tyndale returned to Marburg, and in 1530 published his translation of the Pentateuch and The Practice of Prelates, in which he attacked Wolsey and the proposed divorce proceedings of Henry VIII., the latter of whom endeavoured to have him apprehended. Thereafter he was involved in a controversy with Sir Thomas More. In 1533 he returned to Antwerp, Henry’s hostility having somewhat cooled, and was occupied in revising his translations, when he was in 1535 betrayed into the hands of the Imperial officers and carried off to the Castle of Vilvorde, where the next year he was strangled and burned. Tyndale was one of the most able and devoted of the reforming leaders, and his, the foundation of all future translations of the Bible, is his enduring monument. He was a small, thin man of abstemious habits and untiring industry.

Tyndall, John (1820-1893).—Scientific writer, born at Leighlin Bridge, County Carlow, was in early life employed in the ordnance survey and as a railway engineer. He was next teacher of mathematics and surveying at Queenwood College, Hampshire, after which he went to Marburg to study science, and while there became joint author of a memoir On the Magneto-optic Properties of Crystals (1850). After being at Berlin he returned in 1851 to Queenwood, and in 1853 was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Royal Institution, which in 1867 he succeeded Faraday as Superintendent. With Huxley (q.v.) he made investigations into the Alpine glaciers. Thereafter he did much original work on heat, sound, and light. In addition to his discoveries Tyndall was one of the greatest popularisers of science. His style, remarkable for lucidity and elegance, enabled him to expound such subjects with the minimum of technical terminology. Among his works are The Glaciers of the Alps (1860), Mountaineering (1861), Fragments of Science, two vols. (1871), including his address to the British Association at Belfast, which raised a storm of controversy and protest in various quarters, Hours of Exercise on the Alps, etc. Tyndall died from an overdose of chloral accidentally administered by his wife.

Tytler, Alexander Fraser (1747-1813).—Historian, son of William Tytler (q.v.), studied at Edinburgh, was called to the Bar in 1770 and raised to the Bench as Lord Woodhouselee in 1802. He was Professor of History in Edinburgh, and wrote Elements of General History (1801), An Essay on the Principles of Translation (1791), besides various legal treatises.

Tytler, Patrick Fraser (1791-1849).—Historian, son of the above, studied at Edinburgh, and was called to the Bar in 1813. Among his many writings are an Essay on the History of the Moors in Spain, The Life of the Admirable Crichton (1819), History of Scotland (1828-43), and England under the Reigns of Edward VI. and Mary (1839). His History of Scotland, which was the result of 20 years of study and research, is still authoritative.

Tytler, William (1711-1792).—Historical writer, was a lawyer in Edinburgh, and wrote An Inquiry into the Evidence against Mary Queen of Scots, in which he combated the views of Robertson. He discovered the King’s Quhair of James I., and published in 1783 The Poetical Remains of James I., King of Scotland, with a Life.