Chapter 14—Later English Reformers
While Luther was opening a closed Bible to the people of Ger-
many, Tyndale was impelled by the Spirit of God to do the same for
England. Wycliffe’s Bible had been translated from the Latin text,
which contained many errors. It had never been printed, and the cost
of manuscript copies was so great that few but wealthy men or nobles
could procure it, and, furthermore, being strictly proscribed by the
church, it had had a comparatively narrow circulation. In 1516, a
year before the appearance of Luther’s theses, Erasmus had published
his Greek and Latin version of the New Testament. Now for the first
time the Word of God was printed in the original tongue. In this work
many errors of former versions were corrected, and the sense was more
clearly rendered. It led many among the educated classes to a better
knowledge of the truth, and gave a new impetus to the work of reform.
But the common people were still, to a great extent, debarred from
God’s Word. Tyndale was to complete the work of Wycliffe in giving
the Bible to his countrymen.
A diligent student and an earnest seeker for truth, he had received
the gospel from the Greek Testament of Erasmus. He fearlessly
preached his convictions, urging that all doctrines be tested by the
Scriptures. To the papist claim that the church had given the Bible,
and the church alone could explain it, Tyndale responded, “Do you
know who taught the eagles to find their prey? That same God teaches
his hungry children to find their Father in his Word. Far from having
given us the Scriptures, it is you who have hidden them from us; it
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is you who burn those who teach them; and if you could, you would
burn the Scriptures themselves.”
Tyndale’s preaching excited great interest; many accepted the truth.
But the priests were on the alert, and no sooner had he left the field
than they by their threats and misrepresentations endeavored to destroy
his work. Too often they succeeded. “Alas!” he exclaimed, “what
is to be done? While I am sowing in one place, the enemy ravages
the field I have just left. I cannot be everywhere. Oh! if Christians
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