Transcriber's Notes:
There are wide variations in spelling, spacing and punctuation. Inaddition some of the blackletter type is worn and difficult tointerpret.
Unambiguous spelling has mostly been retained.Apparent errors that have been changed are noted at the end of thetext. Uncertain spelling has been transcribed according to the senseof the text. The King James Version (which incorporated most ofTyndale's translation) has also been consulted.
Spacing and punctuation have mostly been retained.Apparent errors that are inconsistent with the text have beencorrected. Ambiguities have been transcribed according to the sense ofthe text.
Inverted or displaced type has been corrected.
Abbreviating lines over letters have beentranscribed as tildes (e.g. "ã"). Superscript letters also indicateabbreviations. Some paragraphs and chapter titles begin with a "¶":these have been retained. Sidenotes begin with a "*" and refer to the"*" in the adjoining paragraph. The text of some of them (identifiedbelow) is uncertain. Ligatures (e.g. for "ll") have been ignored.Slanted bars (virgulae suspensivae) are equivalent to moderncommas.
W. T. To the Reader.
WHen I had translated the newe testament/ I added apistle vnto the laiter ende/ In which I desyred them ytwere learned to amend if ought were founde amysse. But oure maliciousand wylye hypocrytes which are so stubburne and hard herted in theirweked abhominaciõs that it is not possible for them to amend anythinge atall (as we see by dayly experience when their both lyvingesand doinges are rebuked with the trouth) saye/ some of them that it isunpossible to translate the scripture in to English/ some that it isnot lawfull for the laye people to have it in their mother tonge/ somethat it wold make them all heretykes/ as it wold no doute from manythinges which they of longe tyme haue falsly taught/ ãd that is thewhole cause wherfore they forbyd it/ though they other clokespretende. And some or rather every one/ saye that it wold make themryse ageynst the kinge/ whom they them selves (vnto their damnatyõ)never yet obeyed. And leste the temporall rulars shuld see theirfalsehod/ if the scripture cam to light/ causeth them so to lye.
And as for my translatiõ in which they afferme vnto the laye people(as I haue hearde saye) to be I wotte not how many thousandeheresyes/ so that it cã not be mẽded or correcte/ they haue yettaken so greate payne to examyne it/ & to compare it vnto that theywold fayne haue it and to their awne imaginations and iugglingetermes/ and to haue some what to rayle at/ and vnder that cloke toblaspheme the treuth/ that they myght with as litle laboure (as Isuppose) haue translated the moste parte of the bible. For they whichin tymes paste were wont to loke on no more scripture then they foundein their duns or soch like develysh doctryne/ haue yet now so narowlyeloked on my translatyon/ that there is not so moch as one I therin ifit lacke a tytle over his hed/ but they haue noted it/ and nombre itvnto the ignorant people for an heresy. Fynallye in this they be allagreed/ to dryve you from the knowlege of the scripture/ & that yeshall not haue the texte therof in the mother tonge/ and to kepe theworld styll in darkenesse/ to the ntent they might sitt in theconsciences of th