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

'30XVII. (c) A DIALOGUE CONCERNING HERESIES. 183into latine, or out of hebrue into any of them both ; as, by25 many translacio/zs which we rede already, to them that belearned appereth. Now as touching the harme that maygrowe by suche blynde bayardes as will, whan they readethe byble in englishe, be more busy than will become them :They that touche that poynt harpe vpon the right string, &touche truely the great harme that wer likely to growe tosome folke : howebe it, not by the occasion yet of theenglish translacion, but by the occasion of theyr own lewdnesand foly, whiche yet were not in my mynde a sufficientecause to exclude the translacion, and to put other folkefrom^5 the benefite therof : but rather to make prouision agaynstesuch abuse, & let a good thing goe furth. No wise mannewer there that woulde put al weapo;^s away because manquellersmisuse them. Nor this letted not, as I. .sayd, the scnpture to be first writen m a vulgare ought to be put.T' ^ ^ r,No g-ood thi?tgawaye because40 tong. roT scripture, as I said before, was not ofthe.mssevsewriten but in a vulgare tonge, suche as the wholepeople vnderstode, nor in no secrete cyphers, but suchcommon letters as almost euery man could rede. For neitherwas the hebrue nor the greke tong nor the late;z, neither45- any other speche, than such as all //ze peple spake. Andtherfore, if we shold lay that it wer euil done to translate //lescripture into our tong, because it is vulgare and comen toeuery englishe man, than had it been as euill done to translateit into greke or into latin, or to wryte the new testament50 first in greke, or the old testament in hebrew, because boththose tonges wer as verye vulgare as ours. And yet shouldthere, by this reason also, not onely the scripture be kepteout of oure tong, but, ouer that, shoulde the reading therofbe forboden, both al such ley people and all suche priestes55 too, as can no more than theyr grammer, and verye scantlythat. All which com-psmye, though they can vnderstande