In 1526, books appeared in England that no one had seen before: printed New Testaments in the English language. The public snapped them up. For the first time, people read now-common phrases such as “the powers that be” and “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” But religious authorities condemned the English Bible and burned the copies they could find.
Today, 500 years later, Christians take for granted that anyone should be able to read the Bible in a language they understand. But at the time, vernacular Bibles were associated with heresy. The Catholic Church preferred to use the Latin version of the sacred text.
