On May 6, 1536 King Henry VIII mandated that a Bible be printed and chained to every church in England (kind of like they do pens at the bank – use them while you are here but don’t think about taking them with you). They were known as the Great Bibles. We shouldn’t have in our mind that Henry was some type of evangelist. Six months later, following on orders from Henry, the most influential Bible-into-English translator William Tyndale would be burned at the stake for his translation work. This is a picture of one of the 14″ thick Great Bibles.
