Quotable

Tyndale wrote, “The Scribes and Pharisees had thrust up the sword of the word of God into a sheath of glosses.... Now, O God, draw this sharp sword from the scabbard. Strike, wound, cut asunder the soul and flesh, so that man...may be in peace with thee to all eternity!”

The [Roman Catholic] Bishop of London was bitter, complaining that the word of God in the common language of the people would “infect and contaminate” them....He preached against the translation...the King having decreed that the version must be destroyed by fire, and that all those who kept or read it must be punished....In 1527 the Archbishop...set up a fund, to which the bishops contributed, to buy as many copies as possible and then destroy them by fire....The profits of the merchants, the printers and booksellers now soared, which in turn led to the printing of more and more copies. By this means England was flooded with the New Testament in English....

One of the reasons why Rome had managed to hold Europe in the grip of superstition through the long Dark Ages, was that the common people could not read the Scriptures for themselves. They had to rely on the priests to tell them what the Latin Bible said, even though many priests could not read the Latin. ...Tyndale...gave the people of England the opportunity to read the New Testament for themselves...[and they] seized the opportunity...with both hands.

—David Gay, Battle for the Church: 1517-1644, pp. 35-37