Exhibit 498 ยท Printed preface by the translator
William Tyndale, preface to Genesis, 'W. T. To the Reader' (Pentateuch, 1530)
some that it is not lawfull for the laye people to have it in their mother tonge
Tyndale reports that opponents say it is impossible to translate Scripture into English, or not lawful for lay people to have it in their mother tongue, or that it would make them heretics; that he sought a place in the Bishop of London's house, was told it was full, and learned there was no place in England to translate the New Testament; and that he will submit his work to correction if his critics first put forth a more correct translation of their own. He also attributes the opposition to the clergy's wish to keep the people ignorant, which is his allegation.
- Source
- William Tyndale
- Date
- 1530
- Quoted from
- Pollard, Records of the English Bible (1911), Record V, p. 93; compare p. 98 ('there was no place to do it in all englonde')
- Grade
- Primary record
- Document
- https://archive.org/details/recordsofenglish00polluoft
- Accessed
- 2026-11-09
- Cited by
- Findings citing this exhibit
- Note
- Tyndale's statement of his own experience and of his opponents' arguments.