As Sir Thomas More notes in his Dialogue Concerning Heresies, pre-Tyndale translations of the Bible were certainly permitted. Considering literacy levels of the time, such translations were largely redundant, since the literate classes could already understand Latin. Most of the general populace couldn't understand written English.
Right, but most of them couldn't afford books, anyway. Books weren't really accessible except to the rich (or those prepared to make financial sacrifices for them) until the relatively cheap process of making paper from wood pulp was developed in, I think, the eighteenth century.