I cannot locate this quotation of Thomas More using the
parenthetical citational "Dialogues III". I live in a town
with a soya bean on the water tower. Our 1965 complete
works of Thomas More is missing more volumes than it has.
I want to see the context of this quotation to determine
the weight of its polemical tone. I find no documentary
witness to verify the statement, though my history of the
English Translation of the Bible through Wycliffe will
have nearly 80 online manuscript facsimiles. Please direct
me to something online if possible.
Bruce Metzger and many other credible scholars believe
Wycliffe's was the first whole-Bible English translation.
"The
whole Bible long before Wycliff's day was by virtuous
and well-learned men translated into the English tongue,
and by good and godly people with devotion and soberness
well and reverently read" (Dialogues III).