Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

XVI.WILLIAMTYNDALE.A.D. 1528.William Tyndale was born about 1477, or later, and wasburnt at Antwerp in October 1536, after a long imprisonment,for heresy.His beautiful translation of the New Testament isone of the finest works in our language :our present AuthorizedVersion owes very much to it. His tracts, such as his Obedience'of a Christian Man,' his dissertation on the parable of The'Wicked Mammon,' and his Practice 'of Prelates,' are written ina clear, bold, vigorous style. The extract here printed is fromthe first of these, viz. ' The Obedience of a Christen man, andhow Christew rulers ought to governe,' printed in 1528. It isa very interesting passage, and contains a splendid defence of the\\ isdcm of translating the Scriptures into a tongue ' understandedof the people.' This piece should be carefully compared withthe extracts from the works of Sir Thomas More, Tyndale's greatopponent. Tyndale's version of the New Testament was printedin quarto in 1525, and in octavo in 1525 or January 1526. Afacsimile edition of the latter was produced in1862, by Mr. Fry,of Bristol ; and of the extant fragment of the former, by Mr.Arber, in 1871. See 'The Gothic and Anglo-Saxon Gospels inparallel columns, with the versions of Wycliffe and Tyndale,'edited by Dr. J.Bosworth, 1865, pp. xxiii-xxix, and p. 584: alsothe remarks on Tyndale's version by Mr. Marsh, in the Student's'Manual of the English Language,' ed. Smith, pp. 84 and ^46 ;INIr. Arber's Preface.and