Tyndale’s Translation and More’s Resistance
More helped to cement the Catholic Church’s opposition to Protestantism
in the early years of the Reformation.
ET
It is correct to state that it’s unlikely that Thomas More had a direct hand in the execution of William Tyndale, since More was himself in prison and no longer Lord chancellor of England when Tyndale was arrested (“St. Thomas More and the Reckoning of History,” Letters, April 1). Yet it is certainly conceivable that, even from his prison cell, More would have done anything he could to see Tyndale put to death. If not dispatched by More himself, the men responsible for Tyndale’s execution were perfectly in sync with the militant and intolerant outlook that consumed More during his tenure as chancellor.
More helped to cement the church’s opposition to Protestantism in the early years of the Reformation. He wasn’t merely “carrying out the policies of Henry VIII.” Rather, More embodied the latest expression of the Catholic Inquisition in England, devoting himself to extinguishing what he considered to be heretical views. He presided over at least a half-dozen executions.
More himself seemed tormented, such was his obsession with Tyndale and everything he represented. As David Daniell, a Tyndale scholar and former professor at University College London, summarizes their correspondence: “More gave us three quarters of a million words of scarcely readable prose attacking Tyndale. Tyndale outraged More by giving us the Bible in English, England’s greatest contribution to the world for nearly five hundred years.”
Joseph Loconte
New York
