WILLIAM TYNDALE ON THE TRANSLATION OF THE SCRIPTURES (1528).
Source.—Tyndale's Obedience of a Christian Man and how Christian Rulers ought to Govern, 1528, p. 12.
That thou mayest perceive how that the Scripture ought to be in the mother tongue, and that the reasons which our spirits make for the contrary are but sophistry and false wiles to fear thee from the light, that thou mightest follow them blindfold and be their captive to honour their ceremonies and to offer to their belly.
First God gave the children of Israel a law by the hand of Moses in their mother tongue, and all the prophets wrote in their mother tongue, and all the psalms were in the mother tongue. And there was Christ but figured and described in ceremonies, in riddles, in parables and in dark prophecies. What is the cause that we may not have the Old Testament with the New also, which is the light of the old, and wherein is openly declared before the eyes that there was darkly prophesied? I can imagine no cause verily, except it be that we should not see the work of Antichrist and juggling of hypocrites. What should be the cause that we which walk in the broad day should not see as well as they that walked in the night, or that we should not see as well at noon as they did in the twilight? Came Christ to make the world more blind? By this means, Christ is the darkness of the world, and not the light as he saith himself, John viii.
Moreover, Moses saith, Deutero. vi, "Hear, Israel, let these words which I command thee this day stick fast in thine heart, and whet them on thy children, and talk of them as thou sittest in thine house and as thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up, and bind them for a token of thine hand, and let them be a remembrance between thine eyes, and write them on the posts and gates of thine house." This was commanded generally unto all men. How cometh it that God's word pertaineth less unto us than unto them? Yea, how cometh it that our Moseses forbid us and command us the contrary, and threat us if we do, and will not that we once speak of God's word? How can we whet God's word (that is put in practise, use and exercise) upon our children and household, when we are violently kept from it and know it not? How can we (as Peter commandeth) give a reason for our hope, when we wot not what it is that God hath promised or what to hope? Moses also commandeth in the said chapter: if the son ask what the testimonies, laws and observances of the Lord mean, that the father teach him. If our children ask what our ceremonies (which are no more than the Jewses were) mean, no father can tell his son. And in the xi chapter he repeateth all again, for fear of forgetting.
They will say haply "the Scripture requireth a pure mind and a quiet mind. And therefore the lay-man, because he is altogether cumbered with worldly business, cannot understand them." If that be the cause, then it is a plain case that our prelates understand not the Scriptures themselves. For no lay-man is so tangled with worldly business as they are. The great things of the world are ministered by them. Neither do the lay people any great thing but at their assignment.
"If the Scripture were in the mother tongue," they will say, "then would the lay people understand it every man after his own ways." Wherefore serveth the curate but to teach them the right way? Wherefore were the holidays made but that the people should come and learn? Are ye not abominable schoolmasters in that ye take so great wages, if ye will not teach? If ye would teach, how could ye do it so well and with so great profit as when the lay people have the Scripture before them in their mother tongue? For then should they see, by the order of the text, whether thou juggledest or not. And then would they believe it because it is the Scripture of God, though thy living be never so abominable. Where now, because your living and your preaching are so contrary and because they grope out in every sermon your open and manifest lies and smell your unsatiable covetousness, they believe you not when you preach truth. But alas, the curates themselves (for the most part) wot no more what the New or Old Testament meaneth than do the Turks. Neither know they of any more than that they read at masse, matins, and evensong, which yet they understand not. Neither care they but even to mumble up so much every day (as the pie and popinjay speak they wot not what) to fill their bellies with all. If they will not let the lay-man have the word of God in his mother tongue, yet let the priests have it, which, for a great part of them, do understand no Latin at all; but sing and say and patter all day with the lips only that which the heart understandeth not.
ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE BURNT (1529).
Source.—Edward Hall's Henry VIII. Grafton's Edition, 1548.[41]
Here is to be remembered, that at this present time, William Tindale had newly translated and imprinted the New Testament in English, and the Bishop of London, not pleased with the translation thereof, debated with himself, how he might compass and devise to destroy that false and erroneous translation, (as he said). And so it happened that one Augustine Packington, a Mercer and Merchant of London, and of great honesty, the same time was in Antwerp, where the Bishop then was, and this Packington was a man that highly favoured William Tindale, but to the bishop utterly showed himself to the contrary. The bishop desirous to have his purpose brought to pass, communed of the New Testament, and how gladly he would buy them. Packington then hearing that he wished for, said unto the bishop, my Lord, if it be your pleasure, I can in this matter do more, I dare say, than most of the Merchants of England that are here, for I know the Dutchmen and strangers, that have bought them of Tyndale, and have them here to sell, so that if it be your lordship's pleasure, to pay for them (for otherwise I cannot come by them, but I must disburse money for them) I will then assure you, to have every book of them, that is imprinted and is here unsold. The Bishop thinking that he had God by the toe, when indeed he had (as after he thought) the Devil by the fist, said, gentle Master Packington, do your diligence and get them, and with all my heart I will pay for them, whatsoever they cost you, for the books are erroneous and naughty, and I intend surely to destroy them all, and to burn them at Paul's Cross. Augustine Packington came to William Tyndale and said, William I know thou art a poor man, and hast a heap of new Testaments and books by thee for the which thou hast both endangered thy friends, and beggared thyself, and I have now gotten thee a Merchant, which with ready money shall dispatch thee of all that thou hast, if you think it so profitable for yourself. Who is the merchant, said Tyndale. The bishop of London, said Packington. O that is because he will burn them, said Tyndale. Yea Mary, quod Packington. I am the gladder, said Tyndale, for these two benefits shall come thereof, I shall get money of him for these books, to bring myself out of debt, and the whole world shall cry out upon the burning of God's word. And the overplus of the money that shall remain to me, shall make me more studious, to correct the said New Testament, and so newly to imprint the same once again, and I trust the second will much better like you, than ever did the first: And so forward went the bargain, the bishop had the books, Packington the thanks, and Tyndale had the money. Afterwards, when more new Testaments were imprinted, they came thick and threefold into England. The bishop of London hearing that still there were so many New Testaments abroad, sent for Augustine Packington and said unto him: Sir, how cometh this that there are so many New Testaments abroad, and you promised and assured me that you had bought all? Then said Packington, I promise you I bought all that there was to be had: but I perceive they have made more since, and it will never be better, as long as they have the letters and stamps; therefore it were best for your lordship, to buy the stamps too, and then are you sure: the bishop smiled at him and said, Well Packington, well. And so ended this matter.