We are to remember that in 1384, a hundred and fifty years before the time of which we are speaking, Wyclif had translated the Bible into English. It was not until 1477 that the invention of printing was introduced into England: but manuscript copies were made in considerable numbers. There were many willing copyists. Nearly two hundred copies survived in the middle of the Nineteenth Century. Yet in Tindale's time there is not a sign that any such translation was in existence. Many English people must have had them in possession; but contemporary life and records rarely show a trace of them, or of any readers turning over their pages in secret. So complete had been the reaction from the joys of first possession; so complete had been the success of the prelates' policy in silencing the Lollard preaching, and in putting out of sight their Bible in the mother tongue. It is almost certain that Tindale had a copy of Wyclif's version: if so, it is certain he would use it for comparison, as he used every text within his reach. Some have overstated this debt to Wyclif. Tindale's own words are emphatic, that his translation is his own. There was no version he could take as model. CHAPTER V. IN EXILE; (1) INTERCOURSE WITH LUTHER Exile by force of circumstance is a sorrow many have endured. To the ardent patriot who sees with far-seeing eye his country's destiny, and who feels he could and will make some contribution to the general good, it is an endless sorrow. Tindale's intense love of country, his high fortitude in the mission he had accepted for himself, his clear vision of the blessing to England the Bible in the native tongue must bring, the unintelligent opposition and hostility obstructing and thwarting his work, in the end menacing his life, made existence for him a prolonged martyrdom. The pathos of his last words echoes all that he endured: "Lord open the King of England's eyes." Tindale and Luther were contemporaries. Their resemblances were as pronounced as their contrasts. Both were apostles of the Word of God. Their own discoveries of its experimental power made reserve or silence impossible. Of their native speech they had so perfect a mastery that it is not too much to say of each of them that their translations were the moulds which determined the ultimate development of their native tongues; and each felt so powerfully the vital value of the revelation as to stamp their translations indelibly with the fire of their own faith. Life-blood flowed in their versions. It was the surge of this personal emotion in their versions which made them the possession not merely of their own generations, but of the four centuries that have followed.