IN EXILE: (2) TRANSLATING THE NEW TESTAMENT Tindale's life upon the Continent of Europe can be traced in no more than broken outline. Gaps of space and time are frequent; for, as already indicated, whatever letters or other documents there may have been have long ago disappeared, and we have little more than knowledge of extended residence at certain important points, Hamburg, Cologne, Worms, and shorter visits to the Wartburg, Wittenberg, Antwerp, etc. As Froude aptly says: "His history is the history of his work, and his epitaph is the Reformation." It was in Worms that the famous diet had been held at which Luther braved the Empire in its assembled might, and here it is that Rietschel's monument to the Reformation stands in bronze and granite. Colossal figures, Waldo and Wyclif, Huss and Savonarola, have towering above them the figure of Luther, his right hand clenched and resting on the Bible. Bas-reliefs and medallions carry select details. Where selection was imperative, there could not fail to be regrettable omissions; but one misses also forces that were vital. Gutenberg is not there; nor any symbol of his craft. Without the service rendered by the printing press of recent invention, it is almost inconceivable that there could have been any such world-shaking event as the Reformation proved. Not only was the burning eloquence of the preacher carried by this means far and wide, but the Scriptures themselves in the language of the people were thrown off from scores of presses in the Rhine Valley and dispersed to many lands. Like wildfire knowledge ran. Gutenberg, and Fust with Schoeffer in Maintz, Quentel and Bryckmann in Cologne, were the names most frequent on the title pages of the Bible; and their fame has proved enduring. [Illustration: PRINTING PRESS, 1511. Title page of "Hegesippus", printed by Jodocus Badius Ascensius, Paris, 1511.] In the early decades of the Sixteenth Century, even in Germany printing was still regarded as one of the marvels of the time. But in England, the first quarter of the century had just ended when the authorities took alarm at its power and sought to curb it. They instituted a censorship to kill it. Its development was persistently thwarted for many years. Well did Tindale understand that the English government not merely forbade the translation of the Bible into the native tongue, but were trying to strangle the printing craft in its infancy. Out of England the trade was prospering at many centres.