“Stars are poor books, and oftentimes do miss; This book of stars lights to eternal bliss.” “To recollect a promise of the Bible, _this_ is substance! Nothing will do but the Bible. If I read authors and hear different opinions, I cannot say, ‘_This is_ truth!’ I cannot grasp it as substance; but the BIBLE GIVES ME SOMETHING TO HOLD.”--RICHARD CECIL. HELPED BY LUTHER--FINDING A COMPANION--A BOLD VENTURE--DRIVEN AWAY--BURNING THE BIBLE DOES NOT DESTROY IT. Hamburg, as a centre of commercial activity, afforded a singularly good hiding-place for Tyndale, and it was also a most suitable port from whence he could send the Bible when printed into England. It is indeed, doubtful as to what his movements were; he may have remained for a year in Hamburg, or, as some have supposed, Tyndale may have left it upon a visit elsewhere. Monmouth says that after Tyndale left England, “within a year he sent for his ten pounds to me from Hamburg, and thither I sent it to him.” Foxe supplements this information by the statement that, “on his first departing out of the realm, Tyndale took his journey into the further parts of Germany, as into Saxony, where he had conference with Luther and other learned men.” And Tyndale’s great enemy, Sir Thomas More, said that “Tyndale, as soon as he got him hence from England, got him to Luther straight;” and adds “that at the time of his translation of the New Testament, Tyndale was with Luther at Wittemberg, and the confederacy between him and Luther was well known.” It seems, therefore, probable that almost immediately after his landing at Hamburg, Tyndale made his way to Wittemberg. His admiration of Luther would be a quite sufficient inducement to lead him to take this step, and perhaps also his sense of loneliness and desolation influenced him. Upon the exile himself the effect of the visit must have been most beneficial. Demaus says: “For Tyndale thus to come into contact with the strong, joyous faith of Luther, to hear his lion voice echoing through the crowded University Church of Wittemberg, or to listen to his wonderful table-talk as he sipped his beer in friendly social intercourse, would be to have his whole soul inspired with courage, bravely to do whatever duty God had called him to, and to learn to repose with implicit confidence in the protection of the Divine Master whom he served.” Here, in Wittemberg, Tyndale, it would seem, obtained a companion, one William Roye, who, however, proved to be a fickle, irrepressible bore, a man who must have inflicted acute torture upon his companion. But his help was a necessity if the Bible were to be speedily translated, and Tyndale had no choice whatever; it must be either Roye or no translation; and Tyndale suppressed all personal feeling in the matter. Roye’s part in the translation was, of course, quite mechanical and subordinate, but in the laborious physical work of transcribing Roye was helpful to Tyndale.