.. the man said, "We are better to be without
God's laws than the pope's." Master Tyndale, hearing this, replied,
"I defy the pope and all his laws;" and added, "If God spare my life,
ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough to know
more of the Scripture than thou dost." (Foxe, Book of Martyrs)
At that time, printing had just been invented, although translating
the Bible was considered heretical. These were dangerous times for
Scripture translations. Even still, Tyndale said, "It is impossible
to establish the lay people in any truth, except the Scriptures be
laid before their eyes, in their mother tongue." He fled to Germany
in 1524, later to Belgium. He continued his work, translating the New
Testament from the original tongue; and first began to print his
first edition with marginal notes in a quarto edition at Cologne, but
he was compelled to halt the printing and flee the city to avoid
arrest. {Only a single copy of it (as far as Matthew chapter 22)
survives, now in the British Museum.} Tyndale was forced to leave
England and finish his work in Worms, Germany, and in the year of our
Lord 1526, he printed the version (anonymously) in smaller octavo
format. The shrewd religious authorities knowing that they could not
stop this version from reaching England's shores, planned to buy up
all the copies and burn them.
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