Transcriber's Notes:
There are wide variations in spelling, spacing and punctuation. In addition some of the blackletter type is worn and difficult to interpret.
Unambiguous spelling has mostly been retained. Apparent errors that have been changed are noted at the end of the text. Uncertain spelling has been transcribed according to the sense of the text. The King James Version (which incorporated most of Tyndale's translation) has also been consulted.
Spacing and punctuation have mostly been retained. Apparent errors that are inconsistent with the text have been corrected. Ambiguities have been transcribed according to the sense of the text.
Inverted or displaced type has been corrected.
Abbreviating lines over letters have been transcribed as tildes (e.g. "ã"). Superscript letters also indicate abbreviations. Some paragraphs and chapter titles begin with a "¶": these have been retained. Sidenotes begin with a "*" and refer to the "*" in the adjoining paragraph. The text of some of them (identified below) is uncertain. Ligatures (e.g. for "ll") have been ignored. Slanted bars (virgulae suspensivae) are equivalent to modern commas.
W. T. To the Reader.
WHen I had translated the newe testament/ I added a pistle vnto the laiter ende/ In which I desyred them yt were learned to amend if ought were founde amysse. But oure malicious and wylye hypocrytes which are so stubburne and hard herted in their weked abhominaciõs that it is not possible for them to amend any thinge atall (as we see by dayly experience when their both lyvinges and doinges are rebuked with the trouth) saye/ some of them that it is unpossible to translate the scripture in to English/ some that it is not lawfull for the laye people to have it in their mother tonge/ some that it wold make them all heretykes/ as it wold no doute from many thinges which they of longe tyme haue falsly taught/ ãd that is the whole cause wherfore they forbyd it/ though they other clokes pretende. And some or rather every one/ saye that it wold make them ryse ageynst the kinge/ whom they them selves (vnto their damnatyõ) never yet obeyed. And leste the temporall rulars shuld see their falsehod/ if the scripture cam to light/ causeth them so to lye.
And as for my translatiõ in which they afferme vnto the laye people (as I haue hearde saye) to be I wotte not how many thousande heresyes/ so that it cã not be mẽded or correcte/ they haue yet taken so greate payne to examyne it/ & to compare it vnto that they wold fayne haue it and to their awne imaginations and iugglinge termes/ and to haue some what to rayle at/ and vnder that cloke to blaspheme the treuth/ that they myght with as litle laboure (as I suppose) haue translated the moste parte of the bible. For they which in tymes paste were wont to loke on no more scripture then they founde in their duns or soch like develysh doctryne/ haue yet now so narowlye loked on my translatyon/ that there is not so moch as one I therin if it lacke a tytle over his hed/ but they haue noted it/ and nombre it vnto the ignorant people for an heresy. Fynallye in this they be all agreed/ to dryve you from the knowlege of the scripture/ & that ye shall not haue the texte therof in the mother tonge/ and to kepe the world styll in darkenesse/ to the ntent they might sitt in the consciences of the people/ thorow vayne superstition and false doctrine/ to satisfye their fylthy lustes their proude ambition/ and vnsatiable covetuousnes/ and to exalte their awne honoure aboue kinge & emperoure/ yee & above god him silfe