To preach God's word is too much for half a man. And to minister a temporal kingdom is too much for half a man also. Either other requireth an whole man. One therefore cannot well do both.
The book is a landmark of political thought, expounding another fundamental principle of the English Reformation: that the king is the supreme authority of the state. (Tyndale's ideal of royal authority, however, is determined by Scripture's authority: "The most despised person in his realm is the king's brother and fellow member with him and equal with him in the kingdom of God and Christ.") The Obedience of Christian Man includes much rhetoric about obedience of woman to man that now appears archaic and offensive, but its tough-minded description of the uneasy relationship between power and love is timeless. --Michael Joseph Gross