The Earliest Translations of Luther into English

Abstract

During the 1520's Luther's Latin writings were well known to scholars in England. But the realm was officially as loyal to the Catholic cause as any the popes of that decade might have named. The few clerics and theologians who dedicated themselves to the rediscovered gospel were hunted out and severely punished. Only by escape to the continent might they save their lives, in relative safety study evangelical teachings, and find literary expression for their convictions. Moreover, it was clear by 1525 that only through translating the scriptures and evangelical thought into English might the realm be reformed. Among the small circle of English Protestant writers, William Tyndale led the field by turning the New Testament into his mother tongue (1525–1526). He was guided by Luther's German New Testament not only in framing that translation but also in drafting the prefaces to it and to its individual books. Perhaps Tyndale had translated Bugenhagen's Epistola … ad Anglos into English, and perhaps MS. copies of this translation were circulated, but extant published copies date back only to 1536. Certainly Tyndale was the first translator of a Luther tract to have his work preserved to us.