West: Great Westerners

Dave Harvey
Political Correspondent, BBC West

If it was not for West country sheep farmers, there would be no English Bible. Politics Show West reports.

Millennium election for the greatest Western politician

An extraordinary claim anywhere, but at Highbridge Sheep market, it left today's farmers baffled.

The man on the rail where the auctioneer usually stands wore a dog collar.

Next to him, a man wearing medieval black from hooded head to pointy shoe jutted his jaw and proclaimed;

I am the Good Shepherd! The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.

Yes, the Great Westerners bandwagon is rolling again.

William Tyndale is the candidate this week, burnt at the stake for translating the Bible.

In 1526 that was radical politics.

The Bible was the highest authority in the land, it was in Latin, and only priests read Latin, and not many of them.

Populace controlled

Control of the Bible gave the Church, and the State, control of the people.

Tyndale insisted, with other Reformers, that the Bible should be open to any common ploughboy.

William Tyndale was executed for translating the Bible

Tyndale was born in Gloucestershire, in North Nibley.

His family worked on the Berkeley estate and he was close to the Cotswold wool traders.

In the 16th century, wool was England's wealth - the woolsack still sits in Parliament as a symbol of economic power.

Those wool traders travelled between Gloucestershire and the Low Countries constantly, and that is where they heard the radical continental ideas that Tyndale had heard.

Fled to Europe

Tyndale attracted the wrath of the Church, notably of Thomas More, Henry VIII's all powerful Chancellor.

He fled to Holland, and the Cotswold wool men hid him in The English House.

There he finished the work, and the first English Bible was smuggled into London, wrapped in Cotswold Wool.

So the man at the sheep market was right.

And listening to him, the sheep farmers of today found a growing admiration for his hero.

One farmer said thoughtfully;

If he was a man of principle, which it sounds like he was, and if what he did has changed as much as you say it has, then maybe I would vote for him, yeah ...

There's more to Tyndale though than just religion. Everyday we use his words, wittingly or not.

Here are just some.

• The Powers that Be
• They are a law unto themselves
• Am I My Brothers Keeper?
• Filthy Lucre
• Let there be light

So is he the greatest?

Remember, Great Westerners runs for six weeks, and Tyndale is only our second contender.

He is up against the man who made North America English, the leader of Parliament in the civil war, and the Bristol docker who became foreign secretary after WWII.

"You must decide for yourself" says David Ireson, Tyndale's champion.

"Each has their merits, and each person must choose.

But only Tyndale stands for your right to form your own opinion, and cast your own vote."

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