rch disagreed among themselves. Only by the Bible could men
arrive at the truth. "One holdeth this doctor, another that.... Now each
of these authors contradicts the other. How then can we distinguish him
who says right from him who says wrong?... How?... Verily by God's
word."(363)

It was not long after that a learned Catholic doctor, engaging in
controversy with him, exclaimed, "We were better to be without God's laws
than the pope's." Tyndale replied, "I defy the pope and all his laws; and
if God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the
plow to know more of the Scripture than you do."(364)

The purpose which he had begun to cherish, of giving to the people the New
Testament Scriptures in their own language, was now confirmed, and he
immediately applied himself to the work. Driven from his home by
persecution, he went to London, and there for a time pursued his labors
undisturbed. But again the violence of the papists forced him to flee. All
England seemed closed against him, and he resolved to seek shelter in
Germany. Here he began the printing of the English New Testament. Twice
the work was stopped; but when forbidden to print in one city, he went to
another. At last he made his way to Worms, where, a few years before,
Luther had defended the gospel before the Diet. In that ancient city were
many friends of the Reformation, and Tyndale there prosecuted his work
without further hindrance. Three thousand copies of the New Testament were
soon finished, and another edition followed in the same year.

With great earnestness and perseverance he continued his labors.
Notwithstanding the English authorities had guarded their ports with the
strictest vigilance, the word of God was in various ways secretly conveyed
to London, and thence circulated throughout the country. The papists
attempted to suppress the truth, but in vain. The bishop of Durham at one
time bought of a bookseller who was a friend of Tyndale, his whole stock
of Bibles, for the purpose of destroying them, supposing that this would
greatly hinder the work. But on the contrary, the money thus furnished,
purchased material for a new and better edition, which, but for this,
could not have been published. When Tyndale was afterward made a prisoner,
his liberty was offered him on condition that he would reveal the names of
those who had helped him meet the expense of printing his Bibles. He
replied that the bishop of Durham had done mor