00:00Suddenly, Wolsey, suddenly, not subtly or insidiously, but suddenly, we have the scriptures
00:08in English everywhere! Suddenly, Wolsey, we have a rage of bishops! Suddenly, Wolsey,
00:18we hear of the world's end, and I am not told of it. Why? Is it because I am only the king?
00:29Is my majesty so light a thing? Who is William Tyndale?
00:35Some low-born priest, sir.
00:38And is this the same low-born priest of whom my ambassador to Spain warned me twelve months
00:44since?
00:45Yes.
00:46And is this the same low-born priest who, it is said, had undertaken to translate the
00:52whole of Scripture?
00:54The same.
00:56And when is my command that he be found and stopped?
00:59I have men, even now, in France and Germany and Flanders, who have not paused in their
01:07search for him without success. He moves from place to place.
01:12Oh, printing the scriptures on the back of a travelling mule, perhaps? Eh, Thomas, sir?
01:19It is not a subject for jest, sir.
01:23You tell me it is not jest. What blind, half-witted man have you commissioned to make the search?
01:32John Hackett.
01:33Oh, John Hackett! And where has John Hackett looked?
01:37Wherever Tyndale has been sighted or word of him reported. Hamburg, Cologne, Worms,
01:43Marburg, even Wittenberg.
01:45Wittenberg?
01:46Yes.
01:47He is in league with Luther?
01:48Without question.
01:49Then he is indeed a heretic. You will find him and you will burn his books. You will
01:55arrest him and bring him to me.
02:07William Tyndale, the King of England has somewhat against you for crimes committed in that realm.
02:15These do not concern us. You have been arrested and stand charged with heresy in that, first.
02:25You maintain that faith alone justifies. Second, you maintain that to believe in the forgiveness
02:34of sins and to embrace the mercy offered in the gospel is enough for salvation. Third,
02:42you aver that the traditions of men cannot bind the soul. Fourth, you affirm that neither
02:51the virgin nor the saints pray for us in their own person. And fifth, you assert that neither
02:59the virgin nor the saints should be invoked by us. How do you answer?
03:08I answer thus with a clear conscience before God and man that I have never maintained,
03:17affirmed, averred or asserted anything contrary to the plain meaning of God's holy scriptures
03:25on these alone. And these alone I stand.
03:29Would you say then that faith alone justifies and not works?
03:35The fruit that grows on the tree does not make the tree good or bad. It only makes known
03:40whether the tree is a good tree or a bad tree. And works do not make a man good or bad. They
03:48only make it plain to other men whether he who performs those works is good or bad. A
03:55man is reconciled before God by faith alone. And works have only to make this justification
04:02known before men. Such is the contention of the Apostle Paul as it is written.
04:11By grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of
04:19God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
04:27When Tyndale died, there were already two Bibles circulating in England. Each effectively
04:34contained Tyndale's translation of the New Testament, and much of his work had been used
04:39for the Old Testament. When one of them, Coverdale's version, was presented to Henry VIII, he was
04:46assured by the bishops that they could find no errors in it.
04:50Then if there be no errors in it, then in God's name we shall be saved.
04:55If there be no errors in it, then in God's name let it go abroad among the people.
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