medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
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>Reply-To: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
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>Subject: [M-R] translations and heresy
>Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 07:01:54 EDT
>
>medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
>I'm afraid this is rather an idiot question, but I hope you will bear with
>me.
>
>I've just watched the tape of a recent tv programme on Tyndale and his
>translation of the Bible into English. The implication was that the
>translation itself was considered heresy - I was under the impression that
>it
>was the interpretations of the Bible a translation could lead to and the
>consequent challenges to the authority of the Church that were the real
>cause
>of concern? Hadn't large parts of the Bible been translated into Old
>English
>under King Alfred? I know Waldes got into trouble - but wasn't that
>because
>of unauthorised preaching based on the translations of the Bible he
>commissioned? Did attitudes towards translating the Bible harden over the
>Middle Ages?
Waldes got into trouble more for preaching, as you say, and was already
firmly established as a heretic in the church's eyes before he attempted to
create a vernacular bible. For Tyndale, it would be better to look at
Wycliffe and the Lollards; a few years after Wycliffe's death the Lollards
pieced together a vernacular bible, and while not illegal or particularly
heretical at the time, it was made illegal and heretical in England to own,
carry or make a vernacular bible. The church at the time didn't like
vernacular bibles in any shape or form, though the Christian humanist bible
(Erasmus, I believe) was a Greek text rather than the latin Vulgate bible
commonly used.
Nick
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