“William Tyndale was executed, not by the Catholic Church, but by the city fathers of Antwerp at the behest of the Protestant King of England, Henry VIII.”
False. Tyndale was found guilty of heresy by the Catholic Church, which was convenient because the penalty for heresy was death. The civil authorities killed Tyndale by strangling, then burning, by the decision of the Catholic Church.
Tyndale fled England because it was more dangerous to translate there than in Europe, since in 1408, the Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury had made it illegal to translate into the vernacular without permission. And until Thomas More fell from favor, it was deadly to be a Protestant in England - “Saint” Thomas More pursued ‘heretics’ and had them tortured and killed at an unprecedented rate.
However, with his fall from favor, King Henry VIII was not inclined to kill Tyndale. In fact, in August of 1535, Cromwell was given permission to write letters asking for clemency for Tyndale by the King’s authority. The appeal was turned down.
Sorry, but the responsibility for Tyndale’s death lies as the feet of the Catholic Church.
The penalty for heresy in both Protestant and Catholic jurisdictions was, technically, death.
Tyndale believed himself to be safe in Antwerp for two reasons:
(1) Antwerp was a city where Catholics and Protestants mingled fairly freely, had an absentee ruler (the Duke of Brabant was also the Holy Roman Emperor and was not too focused on the day-to-day administration), and was governed by the city's assembly - which was more interested in commerce than theology.
(2) Antwerp was ruled by Charles V who, while no fan of Protestantism, had no desire to track down and kill the enemies of Henry VIII - whom he despised for divorcing his aunt, Queen Catherine.
Tyndale had written several pamphlets attacking the King's personal life and his Erastianism and was considered to be not just a heretic by England's new Protestant ascendancy, but also a personal enemy of the King.
However, with his fall from favor, King Henry VIII was not inclined to kill Tyndale. In fact, in August of 1535, Cromwell was given permission to write letters asking for clemency for Tyndale by the King’s authority. The appeal was turned down.
That is the spin - but Henry VIII and Cromwell wanted Tyndale dead while not offending his English supporters. So, unofficially, Cromwell sent his agent Henry Philips to inform on Tyndale to the authorities and threatened to expose the city fathers to punishment from the Emperor if they did not uphold the letter of the law. Then, officially and publicly, Cromwell cried out for leniency for Tyndale.
It was pure politics.
Cromwell knew that as long as no formal charges were made against Tyndale, the city and the emperor would not have lifted a finger against him. So Cromwell came up with a very clever solution in which the council and the emperor would have to execute Tyndale or look like they had lost all authority in their own lands. Great statecraft.
Around the same time that Cromwell was pretending to mourn Tyndale, he was having William Exmew drawn, quartered and disemboweled while still living for the "heresy" of recognizing the Pope.
“Saint” Thomas More pursued ‘heretics’ and had them tortured and killed at an unprecedented rate.
That's also completely false, by the way. Put under house arrest, absolutely. Tortured or killed? He had neither the legal authority to do so, nor has a single piece of evidence ever been put forward that he ever did such a thing.
Both before and after More, it was deadly to be of any religion which differed from the King's own in England. When the King's religion became Protestant, it was deadly to be a Catholic. It was also deadly to be more Protestant than the King.