In both cases the fear was not that the translation might encourage heresy but that the heresies of the translators, not to mention the hidden agenda of the editors, might infiltrate the text.

This book offers perspectives on the work of those English Reformers in twelve scholarly papers which bring new information to light and re-examine much that has been taken for granted, occasionally disturbing one or two cherished notions.

Invaluable for libraries and important for those who assume an unquestioned and straightforward line from Vulgate to vernacular, resisted only by a few old die-hards and marred by one or two outstanding persecutions. But what, I wonder, did the people of the Reformation really think of it all and how might their perspective differ from that of the learned scholars, both then and now?