Tyndale was influenced by the work of Desiderius Erasmus, who made the Greek New Testament available in Europe, and the reformist Martin Luther. He was also influenced by the spread of Wycliffe’s Bible (a translation of a much earlier Latin version of the bible) in the late 14th c. led to the death penalty for anyone found in unlicensed possession of Scripture in English (translations were available in other major European languages at this point in time however).
