1
F. REFORM AND REFORMATION:
THOMAS MORE’S ENGLAND
Paul Cavill
Pembroke College
[email protected]
Contents
Overview
Course themes
Classes
Primary sources
Background reading (class-by-class)
General bibliography
Appendix: using EEBO
Overview
This Special Subject explores the political and religious culture of early Tudor England. The
accession of Henry VII in 1485 marks the beginning of the paper; the break with Rome,
completed by 1535, its end. This half-century has long been seen as a pivot of English
history, one that marks the conclusive rupturing of the medieval worldview and the origins of
an insular, Protestant, or Atlantic national identity. The period has attracted outstanding
scholars seeking to stamp their interpretation on the ‘great men’ – Henry VIII, Wolsey,
Cromwell – who defined the era. This Special Subject, however, resists the recruitment of the
early Tudor England to the grand march of history: instead, the paper emphasizes its
ambiguity and complexity. No figure better captures the period’s ironies than Sir Thomas
More: a man whose career and interests characterized the age, but the manner of whose death
affirmed his singularity. The enigmatic More – humanist, lawyer; family man, politician;
philosopher, polemicist; persecutor, martyr – embodies early Tudor England. The paper
eschews the hagiographical approach defined by More’s son-in-law, the Protestant tradition
enshrined by Foxe, and the psychological revisionism of modern secular writers. Rather, the
paper treats More’s life and work as an entry point into the controversies of early Tudor
England. More wrote extensively over four decades in a number of genres, in tones of both
wry detachment and furious partisanship. His work could be innovative, polished, and
epigrammatic, or imitative, earthy, and prolix; it is always richly rewarding to read.
Reform was the idiom that defined the political and religious culture of early Tudor England.
Reform meant the reconstruction of a kingdom weakened by civil war: it meant princes better
equipped to rule and counsellors better qualified to advise, and it meant confronting
individuals and institutions that compromised royal authority. Reform entailed the renewal of
religion, both in a corporate sense and in a pietistic one. Yet reform produced conflicts over
definition and implementation. In pursuit of reform, kings, ministers, and self-appointed
advisors challenged long-held liberties; they also ran the risk of putting self-interest ahead of
the commonwealth, the definition of tyranny. Sometimes, reforming ambitions appeared
contradictory: how could the Church serve an increasingly demanding laity better, while also
withdrawing from the world? Reform implied a turning back to something better, to a lost
2
golden age. No one felt that sensibility more deeply, or expressed it more precisely, than did
the humanists. They appropriated the classical past to undermine orthodoxies concerning the
virtues of the old nobility, chivalry, and the cloistered life. Because education was seen as
vital to the commonwealth, humanists and their patrons founded colleges in the universities
and also schools, for which they designed new curricula. In order to implement their ideals,
scholar-statesmen such as More entered royal service, setting aside an intellectual preference
for classical republican forms of government.
Humanists invoked royal authority to overcome resistance to their own ideas, but themselves
faced the difficulty of counselling the king. They were sharply critical of the institutional
Church and scoffed at the intellectual pretensions of churchmen. Most audaciously, they
exposed the errors in the standard Latin translation of the bible and re-edited and retranslated
the text. Luther and other radical reformers drew on this humanist technique. Their emphasis
on the indisputable authority of the bible and on the corruption of the Church resonated with
some in England in the 1520s. More ghost-wrote Henry VIII’s retort to Luther, pursued
heretics, and – uniquely – published treatises in English attacking their ideas. Yet a very
humanist scruple led the king to campaign for the annulment of his marriage. Frustrated by
the papacy, Henry became receptive in the early 1530s to anticlerical or even evangelical
notions of reform. To what extent these reforms expressed popular sentiment remains
debatable; so is the question of who devised these policies, for, despite More’s opposition,
humanist methods and scholarship underpinned the break with Rome. More’s stance and his
self-construction as a martyr thus set him apart from the majority, who welcomed, accepted,
or acquiesced in an event whose meaning remained contested for a long time thereafter.
Course themes
1. The impact of humanism and classical learning on politics and religion
2. Theories of kingship and tyranny
3. The practice of politics: ministers, courtiers, factions, lawyers
4. The strengths and weaknesses of the pre-Reformation Church
5. The nature of lay piety, including Lollardy
6. The validity of anticlericalism as a concept
7. The methods and significance of biblical translation
8. Official and individual responses to Lutheran ideas
9. The origins and principles of the royal supremacy
10. Reactions to the break with Rome
These themes will inform the long essay questions. Suggested reading is given in the
Bibliography below.
Classes
The Special Subject will have sixteen substantive classes in Michaelmas and Lent terms on a
weekly basis, as listed below. These classes adopt a loosely chronological order. In
Michaelmas term, the focus is on ‘reform’ in the 1510s. In Lent term, the focus shifts to
‘reformation’ in the 1520s (that is, Lutheran and other radical religious ideas) and then to
their interaction with domestic policy up to the break with Rome. Each class will combine
analysis of set primary sources with wider discussion of related historiographical issues,
informed by secondary reading. In addition, an initial workshop will be arranged in order to
3
help students read works in sixteenth-century English and to use Early English Books Online.
Gobbet practice classes will be part of the Easter-term schedule.
Michaelmas term
M1. Renaissance humanism. Introduces different ways of conceptualizing humanism.
Discusses contemporary ideas about education, knowledge, and scholarship.
M2. The Renaissance prince. Examines ideas about kingship. Focuses on contemporary
commentary on Henry VII and responses to Henry VIII’s accession.
M3. Humanist historiography. Compares More’s Richard III with chronicles and also with
classical exemplars. Considers innovation in technique.
M4. Church, crown, and laity. Analyses relations between three elements through case-study
of Richard Hunne affair. Introduces concept of ‘anticlericalism’. Discusses Lollardy.
M5. Royal service. Contextualizes debate in book 1 of Utopia about limits of counsel.
Considers More’s later career in this light.
M6. The perfect state. Explores book 2 of Utopia with reference to other ‘commonwealth’
ideas for reform, especially civic ones. Discusses Wolsey’s ministry in this light.
M7. Humanism and the Church. Examines criticisms of the Church, especially of higher and
regular clergy, and of scholasticism. Compares this evidence with that of other source-types.
M8. Biblical translation. Discusses Erasmus’s edition and translation. Studies defences and
attacks upon this work.
Lent term
L1. The Lutheran challenge. Analyses theological content of Lutheranism (especially
‘justification by faith alone’) and its implications for Catholic doctrine.
L2. The reception of evangelical ideas within England. Considers attraction, extent of appeal,
social profile of recipients, and means of dissemination (especially print).
L3. The bible in English. Focuses on impact of Tyndale’s New Testament. Covers access to
vernacular bibles before Tyndale. Considers increasingly literate lay devotion.
L4. The king’s ‘Great Matter’. Elucidates campaign for annulment of marriage. Examines
international and domestic aspects, including attack on Church.
L5. Polemic and persecution. Examines responses to Lutheran ideas from the fall of Wolsey.
Compares More’s polemical writings with his opponents’. Analyses prosecution of heresy.
L6. The royal supremacy. Covers the events leading up to the break with Rome and the ideas
behind it. Studies arguments for and against in the ‘battle of the books’.
4
L7. Responses to the royal supremacy. Explores and contextualizes More’s ‘martyrdom’.
Considers implications of responses for previous themes.
L8. More’s posthumous reputation. Covers preservation and publication of texts. Addresses
his presence in Catholic martyrologies, in Protestant works, and in London’s folk memory.
In Easter term, revision classes will prepare for the examination.
Primary sources
Please note: There are 1450 pages of set primary sources. These sources are divided up
week-by-week in the classes for Michaelmas and Lent terms. Undertaking the reading for
each of these sixteen classes means that you will cover all of the set primary sources. A
maximum of 100 pages of reading is set for each class. Figures for page numbers count only
the pages of text in English. Pages containing parallel text in Latin or images are excluded;
they will not be set as gobbets. Any foreign phrases embedded in English texts will be
translated in the exam. Set passages usually begin and end at obvious points in the text, such
as chapter numbers, section breaks, or paragraphs. Where the beginning and/or the end are/is
not obvious, a precise reference is given to a particular phrase in the text. Where possible,
cross-references are given to different editions of the same work.
Passages marked with an asterisk (*) have been digitized for this course and can be accessed
via Moodle.
The following abbreviations are used below:
Correspondence
The Correspondence of Sir Thomas More, ed. E. F. Rogers (Princeton,
1947) [letters in square brackets are in Latin only without translation]
CW
The Complete Works of St. Thomas More, 15 vols., several in parts
(New Haven, 1963–97) [for a breakdown, see the Bibliography below]
CWE
Collected Works of Erasmus, in progress (Toronto, 1974– ) [including
his correspondence]
EEBO
Early English Books Online [see the Appendix below]
History
St. Thomas More, The History of King Richard III and Selections from
the English and Latin Poems, ed. R. S. Sylvester (New Haven, 1976)
Letters
St. Thomas More, Selected Letters, ed. E. F. Rogers (New Haven,
1961)
Sourcebook
A Thomas More Source Book, ed. G. B. Wegemer and S. W. Smith
(Washington, DC, 2004)
STC
Short-Title Catalogue number [for use with EEBO]
TMS
www.thomasmorestudies.org/library.html [for online editions]
5
M1. Renaissance humanism [88 pp.]
More’s Latin poems [6 pp.]:
CW iii/2.
History, pp.
pp. 73–7
no. 250 (p. 263)
no. 252 (p. 265)
no. 276 (p. 299)
127–30
–
155–6
–
More’s letters [27 pp.]:
Correspondence, nos.
[2]
[3]
[8]
[16]
[63]
[101]
[107]
Letters, nos. (pp.)
1 (1–3) *
2 (3–6) *
3 (6) *
5 (64–73)
20 (103–7)
29 (145–7)
32 (149–51)
Sourcebook, pp.
–
175–7
–
–
197–200
201–2
202–3
Verses
Henry Medwall, Fulgens and Lucres, ll. 441–705, in The Plays of Henry Medwall, ed. A. H.
Nelson (Cambridge, 1980), 78–84 [7 pp.] *
John Skelton, ‘Speke Parrott’, ll. 140a–182, in The Complete English Poems, ed. J.
Scattergood (Harmondsworth, 1983), 234–5 [2 pp.]
Cambridge and London
Erasmus, letters, nos. 225, 227, 230, 231, 237 (correspondence with Colet in 1511), in CWE
ii. 168–71, 173–5, 183–7 [11 pp.] *
‘What shall be taught’ at St Paul’s School, in English Historical Documents, v: 1485–1558,
ed. C. H. Williams (London, 1967), part 6, section f, no. 155 (extract): pp. 1043–4 [2 pp.] *
(Available online as e-resource ‘English Historical Documents Online’)
Oxford
More, Letter to Oxford, in CW xv. 131–49 (also Letters, no. 19, pp. 94–103, and Sourcebook,
pp. 204–11) [10 pp.]
Erasmus, letter no. 948 (to Mosellanus in 1519), in CWE vi. 316–17 (extract: ‘But how
foolish’ to ‘preach at court.’) [2 pp.] *
Erasmus, letter, no. 990 (to Claymond in 1519), in CWE vi. 405–7 [3 pp.] *
6
Descriptions of More
Erasmus’s letters, nos. 999 (to Hutten in 1519)*, and 1233 (Budé in 1521), in CWE vii. 15–
25, viii. 294–9 (also Sourcebook, pp. 3–13, 221–6) [16 pp.]
R. S. Sylvester (ed.), ‘The “Man for All Seasons” Again: Robert Whittington’s Verses to Sir
Thomas More’, Huntington Library Quarterly, 26 (1963), 147–54, at pp. 151–2 [2 pp.]
M2. The Renaissance prince [79 pp.]
Henry VII’s later years
The Great Chronicle of London, ed. A. H. Thomas and I. D. Thornley (London, 1938), pp.
334–9 (‘And this yere’ to ‘shortly afftyr.’) [5 pp.] *
The accession of Henry VIII
Proclamation of 23 April 1509, in Tudor Royal Proclamations, i: The Early Tudors (1485–
1553), ed. P. L. Hughes and J. F. Larkin (New Haven, 1964), 79–81 [3 pp.]
Letters of Richard Fox, 1486–1527, ed. P. S. and H. M. Allen (Oxford, 1929), nos. 29, 35,
pp. 43–4, 52–5 [6 pp.] *
William Blount, Lord Mountjoy, letter to Erasmus no. 215, in CWE ii. 147–8 (extract: to
‘present hopes.’) [2 pp.] *
More’s coronation ode, in CW iii/2. no. 19, pp. 97–113 (also in History, pp. 130–6, and in
TMS under ‘Poems’, but without the important preface) [9 pp.]
NB image of the manuscript in S. Doran (ed.), Henry VIII: Man and Monarch
London, 2009), cat. no. 49
John Skelton, ‘A Lawd and Prayse Made for Our Sovreigne Lord the Kyng’, in The Complete
English Poems, ed. J. Scattergood (Harmondsworth, 1983), 110–12 [3 pp.]
NB image of manuscript in Man and Monarch, cat. no. 48
Mirrors for princes
Stephen Baron, De Regimine Principum, ed. and trans. P. J. Mroczkowski (New York, 1990),
65–105 [21 pp.]
Edmund Dudley, Tree of Commonwealth, ed. D. M. Brodie (Cambridge, 1948), 21–4, 27–40
[18 pp.]
‘The Petition of Edmund Dudley’, ed. C. J. Harrison, English Historical Review, 87 (1972),
82–99, at pp. 86–90 [5 pp.]
More’s early writings on kingship
More, Epigrams [7 pp.]:
7
CW iii/2. nos. (pp.)
History, pp.
Sourcebook, pp.
80 (145)
109–12 (163–5)
114–15 (165)
120–1 (169)
198 (229–31)
201 (231–3)
137–8
140–1
141–2
142–3
152–3
153–4
–
235–6
236–7
237
237–8
238
M3. Humanist historiography [99 pp.]
More, History of Richard III, in one of the following editions [94 pp.]:
History, pp. 3–96 – contemporary English text, modernized [set edition]
CW ii. 1–93 – Latin text and contemporary English text
CW xv. 314–485 – Latin text (revised) with modern translation
TMS under ‘Works’ – contemporary English text, modernized
(Compare this work with Tacitus, Annals, book 1, chs. 1–13. Many editions of the Annals are
available, including online: http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/tac/. Tacitus is not included in
the set primary sources; no gobbet will be set on this text.)
A civic chronicle
Cotton MS Vitellius A XVI, in Chronicles of London, ed. C. L. Kingsford (Oxford, 1905;
repr. 1977), 189–193 [5 pp.] *
M4. Church, crown, and laity [67 pp.]
Lay perspectives on the Church
Edmund Dudley, The Tree of Commonwealth, ed. D. M. Brodie (Cambridge, 1948), 24–6,
42–4, 56–7 [8 pp.]
More, ‘A Merry Jest’, in History, pp. 99–113 (also CW i. 15–29) [15 pp.]
Report of the Venetian ambassador, Sebastian Guistinian, 3 July 1515, in Four Years at the
Court of Henry VIII, ed. Rawdon Brown, 2 vols. (London, 1854), i. 102–3 (extract: single
paragraph) [2 pp.] *
Documents relating to the Hunne affair and its aftermath
S. F. C. Milsom, ‘Richard Hunne’s “Praemunire”’, English Historical Review, 76 (1961), 80–
2, at p. 82 (indented quotation) [1 p.]
8
E. J. Davis, ‘The Authorities for the Case of Richard Hunne (1514–15)’, English Historical
Review, 30 (1915), 477–88, at pp. 484–7 (appendix no. 1) [4 pp.]
The coroner’s inquest, from Hall’s Chronicle (1548), in English Historical Documents, v:
1485–1558, ed. C. H. Williams (London, 1967), part 5, sect. a, no. 80(i), pp. 660–4 [5 pp.]
(Available online as e-resource ‘English Historical Documents Online’)
J. Fines, ‘The Post-Mortem Condemnation for Heresy of Richard Hunne’, English Historical
Review, 78 (1963), 528–31, at pp. 529–31 [3 pp.]
John Caryll, Reports of Cases, ed. J. H. Baker, 2 vols., Selden Society, 115–16 (1999–2000),
ii. 683–92 [10 pp.]
The bishops’ defence of 1515, in Records of Convocation, ed. G. Bray, xix: Introduction
(Woodbridge, 2006), 135–8 [4 pp.]
More’s later commentary on the Hunne affair
More, Dialogue concerning Heresies, book 3, ch. 15, in CW vi/1. 316–30 (also TMS under
‘Works’) [15 pp.]
M5. Royal service [95 pp.]
More, Life of Pico, in CW i. 51–75*, 84–8 (also with modern spelling in TMS under ‘Works’,
pp. 3–26, 34–7) [30 pp.]
More, Utopia, book 1 – available in many editions, including:
Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought, ed. G. M. Logan and R. M.
Adams (rev. edn., Cambridge, 2002), 8–40 [set edition] [33 pp.]
CW iv. 47–109
TMS under ‘Works’ (Gilbert Burnet’s translation of 1684)
More’s epigrams [4 pp.]:
CW iii/2. nos. (pp.)
162 (205)
207 (237–9)
243 (257)
244 (257–9)
History, pp.
Sourcebook, pp.
148–9
–
155
–
231
–
239
239
More’s letters [28 pp.]:
Correspondence, nos. (pp.)
[20]
[22]
Letters, nos. (pp.)
6 (73–5)
7 (75–6)
9
[26]
[31]
[57]
115 (275–8) *
126 (298–9) *
136 (311–14)
141 (321–2) *
144 (365–8) *
9 (78–81)
13 (88–9)
18 (93–4)
–
–
37 (158–61)
–
–
Erasmus, letter, no. 389 (from Ammonio in 1516), in CWE iii. 239 (extract: last paragraph) [1
p.]
M6. The perfect state [100 pp.]
More, Utopia, book 2 – the main text available in many editions, including:
Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought, ed. G. M. Logan and R. M.
Adams (rev. edn., Cambridge, 2002), 41–107 [set edition] [67 pp.]
CW iv. 111–247
TMS under ‘Works’ (Gilbert Burnet’s translation of 1684)
Perspectives on Wolsey’s ministry
John Skelton, ‘Why Come Ye Not to Courte?’, ll. 1–445, in The Complete English Poems,
ed. J. Scattergood (Harmondsworth, 1983), 278–90 [13 pp.]
George Cavendish, The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, in R. S. Sylvester and D. P.
Harding (eds.), Two Early Tudor Lives (New Haven, 1962), 3–19 (to ‘unto his service.’) [17
pp.]
Polydore Vergil, Anglica Historia (1555), book XXVII, paragraphs 20, 27, 46–7, online at
http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/polverg/contents.html [equivalent to 3 pp.]
M7. Humanism and the Church [100 pp.]
More’s early writings on the subject
More, Latin Poems [5 pp.]:
CW iii/2. nos. (pp.)
History, pp.
176 (213)
178 (213)
202–3 (233)
204 (235)
260 (273)
150–1
–
–
–
–
Colet and Erasmus
10
Erasmus, Enchiridion, in The Erasmus Reader, ed. E. Rummel (Toronto, 1990), 140–54 (also
in CWE lxvi. 65–84)* [15 pp.]
John Colet’s convocation sermon of 1512, in English Historical Documents, v: 1485–1558,
ed. C. H. Williams (London, 1967), part 5, section a, no. 79, pp. 652–60 [9 pp.] *
(Available online as e-resource ‘English Historical Documents Online’)
Erasmus, letter, no. 1211 (to Jonas in 1521), in CWE viii. 232–44 (extract: from ‘Such was
my friend’) [12 pp.] *
Criticism of clergymen
Erasmus, Praise of Folly, in The Erasmus Reader, ed. E. Rummel (Toronto, 1990), 156–68
(also CWE xxvii. 86–153) [13 pp.] *
Erasmus, Julius Exclusus, in Erasmus Reader, 216–38 (also CWE xxvii. 168–97) [23 pp.] *
More, Letter to a Monk, in Letters, no. 26, pp. 119–41 (also CW xv. 259–305) [23 pp.]
M8. Biblical translation [98 pp.]
Erasmus, Paraclesis, via EEBO: STC 10493 (= Eng. trans. of 1529), images 3–6 (‘Nether do
I’ to ‘comen to all men’) [7 pp.]
More, Letter to Dorp, in Letters, no. 4, pp. 6–64 (also CW xv. 1–127) [59 pp.]
More, Letters, nos. 9, 12, pp. 78–81, 85–8 (= Correspondence, nos. [26], [30]) [8 pp.]
More, Letter to Lee, in CW xv. 159–75 [9 pp.] *
Erasmus, letters, nos. 1126 (to Buschius in 1520), 1127a (to Luther in 1520)*, in CWE viii.
7–17, 19–23 [15 pp.]
L1. The Lutheran challenge [99 pp.]
Luther’s case
Luther, The Freedom of a Christian (1520), extract, in Luther’s Works, ed. J. Pelikan et al.,
55 vols. (American edn., 1955–86), xxxi (subtitled Career of the Reformer, i), 343–58 (to
‘justified by them.’) [16 pp.] *
(also available online at www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/luther-freedomchristian.html)
Compare with More, The Four Last Things, in CW i. 156–8 [3 pp.]
Luther and Erasmus
Erasmus, letters [19 pp.]:
no. 1113
to Melanchthon 1520
CWE vii. 312–15
[3 pp.] *
11
no. 1219
no. 1367
no. 1451
no. 1493
to Mountjoy 1521
from Tunstall 1523
to Warham 1524 (extract)
to Henry VIII 1524
CWE viii. 259–63
CWE x. 24–8
CWE x. 270–3
CWE x. 373–4
[5 pp.] *
[5 pp.] *
[4 pp.] *
[2 pp.] *
Erasmus, The Freedom of the Will, preface and intro., in Luther and Erasmus: Free Will and
Salvation, ed. and trans. E. G. Rupp et al. (London, 1969), 35–46 [12 pp.] *
Luther, The Bondage of the Will, pt. 1 (review of Erasmus’s preface: extract), in Luther and
Erasmus, 105–17 [13 pp.] *
Early reaction in England
Bishop Fisher, 1521 sermon against Luther (extract), in English Works of John Fisher,
Bishop of Rochester (1469–1535), ed. C. A. Hatt (Oxford, 2002), 77–8 (to 1st instruction),
83–6 (2nd instruction) [6 pp.] *
Henry VIII, Assertion of the Seven Sacraments, in Assertio Septem Sacramentorum, trans. T.
W. Gent (London, 1687), access via EEBO: Wing H1468, images 12–16 (epistle dedicatory
and letter to reader), images 18–20 (pp. 4–8: ‘Of the Pope’s Authority’), images 42–3 (pp.
52–5: ‘Of BAPTISM’ [part]), image 47 (pp. 62–3: ‘Of the Sacrament of PENANCE’) [19
pp.]
More, Response to Luther, book 1, chs. 5, 10 (extracts), in CW v/1. 55–61, 117–19 (to ‘of the
wicked.’), 173–81 (to ‘the most absurd?’) [11 pp.] *
L2. The reception of evangelical ideas within England [95 pp.]
Robert Barnes, Supplication to Henry VIII (1531), via EEBO: STC 1470, images 23–25
(preamble and 1st article), 30 (13th art.), 31 (18th art.), 35–6 (24th and 25th arts.) [11 pp.]
John Bugenhagen (1525), Letter to England, in CW vii. 399–405 [4 pp.] *
More, Letter to Bugenhagen, in CW vii. 13–17, 99–105 (from ‘Now as for’) [7 pp.] *
Bp. Fisher, 1526 sermon ‘concerning certain heretics’ (extract), in English Works of John
Fisher, Bishop of Rochester (1469–1535), ed. C. A. Hatt (Oxford, 2002), 145–8 (to ‘our lorde
Iesu.’), 159–60 (2nd collection) [6 pp.] *
Jerome Barlowe and William Roye, Rede Me and Be Nott Wrothe (1528), ed. D. H. Parker
(Toronto, 1992), ll. 110–217, 349–589, pp. 60–3, 67–73 [11 pp.] *
More, Dialogue concerning Heresies, in CW vi/1. [56 pp.]:
Book 1, ch. 1
Book 1, ch. 17
Book 2, chs. 10–11
Book 3, ch. 1
Book 3, chs. 11–12
Book 4, ch. 1
24–35
94–101
226–37
247–55 *
293–303
345–8 *
12
(The text is also available at TMS under ‘Works’.)
L3. The bible in English [71 pp.]
Henry VIII, preface to A copy of the letters wherein the most redoubted mighty prince, our
sovereign lord King Henry VIII ... made answer unto a certain letter of Martin Luther (1527
trans. of 1526 Latin text), via EEBO: STC 13086, images 6–9 (from ‘And with many’ to
‘here your kyng.’) [8 pp.]
William Tyndale, New Testament (1st edn., Cologne, 1525), via EEBO: STC 2823, images 1–
2 (to ‘tydynges are trewe.’) [3 pp.]
Tyndale, The Obedience of a Christian Man (1528): ‘The Four Senses of Scripture’ (extract),
ed. D. Daniell (London, 2000), 156–69 (to ‘our subtle disputers.’) (also in Doctrinal Treatises
... by William Tyndale, ed. H. Walter, Parker Society (Cambridge, 1848), 303–17)* [13 pp.]
(Walter’s edn. online at https://archive.org/details/doctrinaltreatis00tynduoft)
Tyndale, Pentateuch (1530), preface, in Documents of the English Reformation, 33–5 (also in
Tyndale’s Old Testament, ed. D. Daniell (New Haven, 1992), 3–6) [3 pp.] *
More, Dialogue concerning Heresies, in CW vi/1. [44 pp.]:
Book 1, chs. 22–4
Book 3, chs. 8–10
Book 3, ch. 14
Book 3, ch. 16
122–37 *
284–93
314–16
330–44
(The text is also available at TMS under ‘Works’.)
L4. The king’s ‘Great Matter’ [93 pp.]
An account of the years 1529–1532
Hall’s Chronicle, ed. H. Ellis (London, 1809), 753–89 (to ‘was he called.’) [37 pp.]
(available online at http://archive.org/details/hallschronicleco00halluoft)
State Papers Henry VIII, 11 vols. divided into 5 pts. (London, 1830–52) [26 pp.],
correspondence:
1 July 1527
5 July 1527
5 May 1529
4 June 1529
4 Aug. 1529
5 April 1530
22 June 1530
23 April 1531
Wolsey to H8
Wolsey to H8
Bryan to H8
Suffolk to H8
Gardiner to Wolsey
Longland, Fox, Bell to H8
Croke to H8
H8 to Benet
pt. 1, no. 109
i. 194–5
1
pt. 1, no. 110
i. 196–2011
pt. 5, no. 239
vii. 169–70
pt. 5, no. 244
vii. 182–4
pt. 1, no. 175
i. 335–7
pt. 2, no. 1
i. 377–9
pt. 5, no. 275
vii. 241–4
pt. 5, no. 298
vii. 297–9
1
extract: to ‘I have rehersed.’
[2 pp.]
[6 pp.]
[2 pp.]
[3 pp.]
[3 pp.]
[3 pp.]
[4 pp.]
[3 pp.]
13
NB This text is available in Medieval and Early Modern Sources Online (to read
online or download as PDFs) and in State Papers Online (to read as computerized
text, with links to manuscripts)
[Henry VIII], A Glass of the Truth (1532), via EEBO: STC 11919, images 2–5 (preface), 14–
20 (from ‘Syn they take’ to ‘and one heed.’) [18 pp.]
Attacks on the Church
Simon Fish, Supplication of Beggars (1528×1529), in CW vii. 411–22 (also in Foxe’s Acts
and Monuments – www.johnfoxe.org/ in 1583 edn., modern pp. 1038–41) [12 pp.] *
R. W. Hoyle, ‘The Origins of the Dissolution of the Monasteries’, Historical Journal, 38
(1995), 275–305: appendix, pp. 301–5 [5 pp.]
L5. Polemic and persecution [98 pp.]
More justifies persecution and defends his conduct
More, Dialogue concerning Heresies, book 4, chs. 13, 15, 18, in CW vi/1. 405–10*, 415–18*,
428–35 (also in TMS under ‘Works’) [18 pp.]
More, Apology, ch. 36, in CW ix. 116–20 [5 pp.] *
The debate about the heresy laws
The Supplication against the Ordinaries (1532), in Documents of the English Reformation, ed.
G. Bray (Cambridge, 1994; rev. edn., 2004), 51–6 [6 pp.] *
Christopher St German, Treatise concerning the Division (1532), ch. 8, in CW ix. 191–3 [3
pp.] *
More, Apology, ch. 47 (extract), in CW ix. 155–61 (to ‘to so many.’) [7 pp.] *
St German, Salem and Bizance (1533), ch. 15 (extract), in CW x. 355–6 [2 pp.] *
More, Debellation of Salem and Bizance, ch. 14 (extract), in CW x. 83–5 (from ‘And where
as’) [3 pp.] *
More the polemicist
More licensed to read heretical books (1528), in English Historical Documents, v: 1485–
1558, ed. C. H. Williams (London, 1967), part 5, section g, no. 123, pp. 828–9 [2 pp.] *
(Available online as e-resource ‘English Historical Documents Online’)
William Tyndale, An Answer to Sir Thomas More’s Dialogue (1531), ed. H. Walter, Parker
Society (Cambridge, 1850), 11–16, 50–1, 140–3 [12 pp.]
(Available online at https://archive.org/details/tyndalesanswer00tynduoft)
More, Confutation of Tyndale’s Answer, extracts, in CW viii/1. [29 pp.]:
14
Preface
Book 1
7–13
17–28
34–40
177–9
to ‘some calendars marked.’ *
to ‘ordynauns and statute.’ *
from ‘Now to thentent’ *
from ‘Then he asketh’ to ‘so to do.’ *
More, Apology, chs. 1–3, 50, in CW ix. 3–10, 170–2 [11 pp.] *
L6. The royal supremacy [85 pp.]
William Tyndale, The Obedience of a Christian Man (1528): ‘The Obedience of Subjects’
and ‘Against the Pope’s False Power’, ed. D. Daniell (London, 2000), 36–59 (also in
Doctrinal Treatises ... by William Tyndale, ed. H. Walter, Parker Society (Cambridge, 1848),
174–98) [24 pp.]
(Walter’s edn. online at https://archive.org/details/doctrinaltreatis00tynduoft)
The Act in Restraint of Appeals (1533), in The Tudor Constitution, ed. G. R. Elton (2nd edn.,
Cambridge, 1982), 353–8 [6 pp.]
Articles Devised by the Whole Consent of the King’s Most Honourable Council (1533), via
EEBO: STC 9177, images 2–7 (address and articles 1–5 inclusive) [10 pp.]
The Act of Supremacy (1534), in Tudor Constitution, 364–5 [2 pp.]
Thomas Swinnerton, A Muster of Schismatic Bishops of Rome (1534), via EEBO: STC
23552, images 3–9 (to ‘their owne mouthes.’) [13 pp.]
Edward Fox, De Vera Differentia (1534; trans. 1548), via EEBO: STC 11220, images 63–5
(from ‘But nowe we’ to ‘them they do.’), 69 (from ‘besides that in’ to ‘gate and gate.’), 93 (‘a
certen epistle’ to ‘our lordes .&c.’) [9 pp.]
Stephen Gardiner, De Vera Obedientia (1535; trans. 1553), extracts, in Obedience in Church
and State, ed. P. Janelle (Cambridge, 1930), 69–77 (to ‘pleasaunt or delectable.’), 87–109
(from manicule to ‘he had commaunded.’), 115–21 [21 pp.]
L7. Responses to the royal supremacy [83 pp.]
The government
Treason Act (1534), in The Tudor Constitution, ed. G. R. Elton (2nd edn., Cambridge, 1982),
62–4 [3 pp.]
Thomas Swinnerton, A Little Treatise against the Muttering of Some Papists in Corners
(1534), via EEBO: STC 23551.5, images 2–4 (to ‘muste be fled.’), 14–15 (from ‘AND nowe
to’ to ‘of theyr money?’) [8 pp.]
Simon Matthew, sermon preached at St Paul’s on 28 June 1535, via EEBO: STC 17656,
image 27 (from ‘as of late’ to ‘humble your hartis therevnto:’) [2 pp.]
More and the true Church
15
More, Dialogue concerning Heresies, book 1, ch. 25 (extract), in CW vi/1. 143–7 (from ‘And
so was’ to ‘the ryght vnderstandynge.’) (also in TMS) [5 pp.]
Robert Barnes, Supplication to Henry VIII (rev. edn. 1534), extract, in CW viii/2. 1054–7 (to
‘bere I hym.’) [4 pp.] *
More’s trials
More, letters [25 pp.]:
Letters, nos. (pp.)
Correspondence, nos. (pp.)
Sourcebook, pp.
TMS
53 (205–15)
54 (215–23)
64 (249–53) *
199 (491–501) *
200 (501–7) *
216 (555–9)
–
311–15
347–51
–
17.04.34
03.06.35
More on tribulation
More, Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation, book 1, preface and ch. 10, in CW xii. 3–9,
30–7 (also in TMS) [15 pp.] *
More, De Tristitia Christi, extracts, in CW xiv/1. 55–9, 101–5, 251–3 (also in TMS) [8 pp.] *
Other responses
Sir Thomas Elyot, letter to Thomas Cromwell [1534×1536], in K. J. Wilson (ed.), ‘The
Letters of Sir Thomas Elyot’, Studies in Philology, 73/5 [Text and Studies] (1976), no. 10,
pp. 26–8 [3 pp.]
Letter of Abp. Cranmer to Lord Lisle (27 April 1535), in The Lisle Letters, ed. M. St. C.
Byrne, 6 vols. (Chicago, 1981), ii, no. 376, pp. 468–9 [2 pp.] *
Reports of treasonable conversations (1534–5), in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic,
of the Reign of Henry VIII, ed. J. S. Brewer, J. Gairdner, and R. H. Brodie, 21 vols. in 36 pts.
(London, 1862–1932) [8 pp.]:
Complaint of Langham
Confession of Edward [Planckney]
Chapman to Cromwell
Examination of Kylbie
Confession of Chansler
Bryan to Cromwell
Thompson and Chapman to Cromwell
vol. vii
vol. vii
vol. vii
vol. vii
vol. viii
vol. viii
vol. viii
no. 145
no. 146
no. 629
no. 754
no. 196
no. 278
no. 727
p. 54
pp. 54–5
p. 244
p. 289
p. 75
p. 114
pp. 272–3
NB This text is available in Medieval and Early Modern Sources Online (to read
online or download as PDFs) and in State Papers Online (to read as computerized
text, with links to manuscripts)
L8. More’s posthumous reputation [100 pp.]
16
‘Paris Newsletter’ (4 Aug. 1535), in Sourcebook, pp. 352–5 (also in TMS under
‘Biographical Accounts’) [4 pp.]
Reginald Pole, De Unitate (1536), extracts, in Pole’s Defense of the Unity of the Church,
trans. J. G. Dwyer (Westminster, Maryland, 1965), 22–3 (from ‘In the opinion’ to ‘attributed
to kings.’), 37–9 (to ‘the supreme head?”’), 238–42 (from ‘There is dissension’ to ‘possession
of truth.’) [10 pp.]
Edward Hall, Chronicle... (1550), in Hall’s Chronicle, ed. H. Ellis (London, 1809), 817–18
(to ‘ended his life.’) [2 pp.]
(Available online at http://archive.org/details/hallschronicleco00halluoft)
More, Utopia, trans. Ralph Robinson (1551), epistle, via EEBO: STC 18094, images 2–4 (to
‘diminished, & appayred.’) [5 pp.]
William Roper, Life of More (c.1557), in R. S. Sylvester and D. P. Harding (eds.), Two Early
Tudor Lives (New Haven, 1962), 197–254 (also in The Lyfe of Sir Thomas Moore, Knighte,
ed. E. V. Hitchcock, Early English Text Society, orig. ser., 197 (1935); Sourcebook, pp. 18–
65; and TMS under ‘Historical Documents’) [58 pp.]
John Foxe, Acts and Monuments (4th edn., 1583), in www.johnfoxe.org/ in 1583 edn.,
modern pp. 1092–3 (from ‘When all other’ to ‘stand them selues.’) [2 pp.]
Raphael Holinshed and others, Chronicles (3 vols., London, 1587), iii. 938–9, in
http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/holinshed/ → under ‘1587 edition’, click on ‘List of regnal
years’; then scroll down list to select ‘27 Henry VIII (1535–6)’: then read from ‘On the
ninetéenth of Iune’ to ‘And thus much of him.]’ (clicking ‘Next’ to move to following page
of computerized text)
Leland’s poem is translated at www.philological.bham.ac.uk/lelandpoems/ (no. 185)
Anthony Munday and others, The Book of Sir Thomas More (c.1592), act 1, scene 2; act 2,
scene 3, in Sourcebook, pp. 78–84, 91–100 (also in the Revels Plays series, ed. V. Gabrieli
and G. Melchiori (1990), pp. 67–78, 93–110) [17 pp.]
Background reading (class-by-class)
M1. Renaissance humanism
Bradshaw, B., ‘Transalpine Humanism’, in The Cambridge History of Political Thought, ii:
1450–1700, ed. J. H. Burns and M. Goldie (Cambridge, 1991), 95–131.
D’Alton, C. W., ‘The Trojan War of 1518: Melodrama, Politics, and the Rise of Humanism’,
Sixteenth Century Journal, 28 (1997), 727–38.
Dowling, D., Humanism in the Age of Henry VIII (Beckenham, 1986), intro. and ch. 1.
Fox, A., ‘Facts and Fallacies: Interpreting English Humanism’, in A. Fox and J. Guy,
Reassessing the Henrician Age: Humanism, Politics, and Reform, 1500–1550 (Oxford,
1986), 9–33.
Starkey, D., ‘England’, in R. Porter and M. Teich (eds.), The Renaissance in National
Context (Cambridge, 1992), 146–63.
17
M2. The Renaissance prince
Anglo, S., ‘Ill of the Dead: The Posthumous Reputation of Henry VII’, Renaissance Studies,
1 (1987), 27–47.
Elton, G. R., Reform and Reformation: England 1509–1558 (London, 1977), ch. 1.
Guy, J., ‘The Tudor Monarchy and its Critiques’, in J. Guy (ed.), The Tudor Monarchy
(London, 1997), 78–89.
Rundle, D., ‘A New Golden Age? More, Skelton, and the Accession Verses of 1509’,
Renaissance Studies, 9 (1995), 58–76.
Rundle, D., ‘“Not so Much Praise as Precept”: Erasmus, Panegyric, and the Renaissance Art
of Teaching Princes’, in Y. L. Too and N. Livingstone (eds.), Pedagogy and Power:
Rhetorics of Classical Learning (Cambridge, 1998), 148–69.
Walker, G., Writing under Tyranny: English Literature and the Henrician Reformation
(Oxford, 2005), intro. and ch. 1.
Watts, J., Henry VI and the Politics of Kingship (Cambridge, 1996), ch. 2.
M3. Humanist historiography
Fenlon, D., ‘Thomas More and Tyranny’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 32 (1981), 453–
76.
Fox, A., Politics and Literature in the Reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII (Oxford, 1989),
ch. 7.
Fox, A., Thomas More: History and Providence (Oxford, 1982), ch. 3
Levy, F. J., Tudor Historical Thought (San Marino, CA, 1967), chs. 1–2.
Yoran, H., ‘Thomas More’s Richard III: Probing the Limits of Humanism’, Renaissance
Studies, 15 (2001), 514–37.
M4. Church, crown, and laity
Bernard, G. W., The Late Medieval English Church: Vitality and Vulnerability before the
Break with Rome (New Haven, 2012), ch. 1.
Cavill, P. R., ‘A Perspective on the Church–State Confrontation of 1515: The Passage of 4
Henry VIII, c. 2’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 63 (2012), 655–70.
Gunn, S. J., ‘Edmund Dudley and the Church’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 51 (2000),
509–26.
Haigh, C., ‘Anticlericalism and the English Reformation’, History, 68 (1983), 391–407;
reprinted in C. Haigh (ed.), The English Reformation Revised (Cambridge, 1987), 56–74.
Marshall, P., ‘Anticlericalism Revested? Expressions of Discontent in Early Tudor England’,
in C. Burgess and E. Duffy (eds.), The Parish in Late Medieval England (Donington, 2006),
365–80.
M5. Royal service
Elton, G. R., ‘Thomas More, Councillor (1517–29)’, in R. S. Sylvester (ed.), St. Thomas
More: Action and Contemplation (New Haven, 1972), 85–122; reprinted in his Studies in
Tudor and Stuart Politics and Government, 4 vols. (Cambridge, 1974–92), i. 129–54.
Fox, A., ‘English Humanism and the Body Politic’, in A. Fox and J. Guy, Reassessing the
Henrician Age: Humanism, Politics and Reform, 1500–1550 (Oxford, 1986), 34–51.
Fox. A., Thomas More: History and Providence (Oxford, 1982), ch. 1.
18
Guy, J. A., The Public Career of Sir Thomas More (Brighton, 1980), ch. 1.
Guy, J., Thomas More (London, 2000), ch. 3.
Skinner, Q., The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, i: The Renaissance (Cambridge,
1978), ch. 8.
M6. The perfect state
Bradshaw, B., ‘More on Utopia’, Historical Journal, 24 (1981), 1–27.
Guy, J., ‘Wolsey and the Tudor Polity’, in S. J. Gunn and P. G. Lindley (eds.), Cardinal
Wolsey: Church, State and Art (Cambridge, 1991), 54–75; reprinted in J. Guy (ed.), The
Tudor Monarchy (London, 1997), 308–29.
Rees Jones, S., ‘Thomas More’s Utopia and Medieval London’, in R. Horrox and S. Rees
Jones (eds.), Pragmatic Utopias: Ideals and Communities, 1200–1630 (Cambridge, 2001),
117–35.
Skinner, Q., ‘Thomas More’s Utopia and the Virtue of True Nobility’, in his Visions of
Politics, ii: Renaissance Virtues (Cambridge, 2002), 213–44.
Walker, G., ‘John Skelton, Cardinal Wolsey and the English Nobility’, in G. W. Bernard
(ed.), The Tudor Nobility (Manchester, 1992), 111–33.
M7. Humanism and the Church
Harper-Bill, C., ‘Dean Colet’s Convocation Sermon and the Pre-Reformation Church in
England’, History, 73 (1988) 191–210; reprinted in P. Marshall (ed.), The Impact of the
English Reformation, 1500–1640 (London, 1997), 17–37.
Kaufman, P. I., ‘John Colet and Erasmus’ Enchiridion’, Church History, 46 (1977), 296–312.
Kaufman, P. I., ‘John Colet’s Opus de Sacramentis and Clerical Anti-Clericalism: The
Limitations of Ordinary Wayes”’, Journal of British Studies, 22/1 (1982), 1–22.
Skinner, Q., The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, ii: The Age of Reformation
(Cambridge, 1978), ch. 2.
Wooding, L. E. C., Rethinking Catholicism in Reformation England (Oxford, 2000), ch. 1.
M8. Biblical translation
Hamilton, A., ‘Humanism and the Bible’, in J. Kraye (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to
Renaissance Humanism (Cambridge, 1996), 100–17.
Kinney, D., ‘More’s Letter to Dorp: Remapping the Trivium’, Renaissance Quarterly, 34
(1981), 179–210.
MacCulloch, D., Reformation: Europe’s House Divided, 1490–1700 (London, 2003), ch. 2.
Rummel, E., The Humanist-Scholastic Debate in the Renaissance and Reformation
(Cambridge, Mass., 1995), ch. 5.
Rummel, E., ‘New Perspectives on the Controversy between Erasmus and Lee’, Nederlands
Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis, 74 (1994), 226–32.
L1. The Lutheran challenge
Headley, J. M., ‘Thomas More and Luther’s Revolt’, Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, 60
(1969), 145–60.
McCutcheon, R. R., ‘The Responsio ad Lutherum: Thomas More’s Inchoate Dialogue’,
Sixteenth Century Journal, 22 (1991), 77–90.
19
Meyer, C. S., ‘Henry VIII Burns Luther’s Books, 12 May 1521’, Journal of Ecclesiastical
History, 9 (1958), 173–87.
Rex, R., ‘The English Campaign against Luther in the 1520s’, Transactions of the Royal
Historical Society, 5th series, 39 (1989), 85–106.
Trevor, D., ‘Thomas More’s Responsio ad Lutherum and the Fictions of Humanist Polemic’,
Sixteenth Century Journal, 32 (2001), 743–64.
L2. The reception of Lutheran ideas within England
Brigden, S., ‘Youth and the English Reformation’, Past & Present, 95 (1982) 37–67;
reprinted in P. Slack (ed.), Rebellion, Popular Protest and the Social Order in Early
Modern England (Cambridge, 1984), 77–107; and in P. Marshall (ed.), The Impact of the
English Reformation, 1500–1640 (London, 1997), 55–85.
D’Alton, C. W., ‘The Suppression of Lutheran Heretics in England, 1526–1529’, Journal of
Ecclesiastical History, 54 (2003), 228–53.
Marshall, P., and A. Ryrie (eds.), The Beginnings of English Protestantism (Cambridge,
2002), intro., chs. 1, 4.
Rogers, E. F., ‘Sir Thomas More’s Letter to Bugenhagen’, in R. S. Sylvester and G. P.
Marc’hadour (eds.), Essential Articles for the Study of Thomas More (Hamden, CT, 1977),
447–54.
L3. The bible in English
Flesseman-Van Leer, E., ‘The Controversy about Scripture and Tradition between Thomas
More and William Tyndale’, Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis, new ser., 43
(1959), 143–64.
Ginsberg, D., ‘Ploughboys versus Prelates: Tyndale and More and the Politics of Biblical
Translation’, Sixteenth Century Journal, 19 (1988), 45–61.
Lawton, D., ‘Englishing the Bible, 1066–1549’, in D. Wallace (ed.), The Cambridge History
of Medieval English Literature (Cambridge, 1999), 454–84.
McSheffrey, S., ‘Heresy, Orthodoxy and English Vernacular Religion’, Past & Present, 186
(2005), 47–80.
Simpson, J., Burning to Read: English Fundamentalism and its Reformation Opponents
(Cambridge, Mass., 2007), esp. intro., chs. 4, 7.
Stewart, A., ‘The Trouble with English Humanism: Tyndale, More and Darling Erasmus’, in
J. Woolfson (ed.), Reassessing Tudor Humanism (Basingstoke, 2002), 78–98.
L4. The king’s ‘Great Matter’
Bernard, G. W., The King’s Reformation: Henry VIII and the Remaking of the English
Church (New Haven, 2005), ch. 1.
Haas, S. W., ‘Henry VIII’s Glasse of Truthe’, History, 64 (1979), 353–62
Murphy, V., ‘The Literature and Propaganda of Henry VIII’s First Divorce’, in D.
MacCulloch (ed.), The Reign of Henry VIII: Politics, Policy and Piety (Basingstoke and
London, 1995), 135–58.
Rex, R., ‘Redating Henry VIII’s A Glass of the Truthe’, The Library, 7th series, 4 (2003), 16–
27.
L5. Polemic and persecution
20
Bradshaw, B., ‘The Controversial Sir Thomas More’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 36
(1985), 535–69.
D’Alton, C. W., ‘Charity or Fire? The Argument of Thomas More’s 1529 Dyaloge’, Sixteenth
Century Journal, 33 (2002), 51–70.
D’Alton, C. W., ‘William Warham and English Heresy Policy after the Fall of Wolsey’,
Historical Research, 77 (2004), 337–57.
Duffy, E., ‘Thomas More’s Confutation: A Literary Failure?’, in P. Clarke and C. Methuen
(eds.), The Church and Literature (Studies in Church History 48, 2012), 133–54.
Elton, G. R., ‘The Real Thomas More?’, in P. N. Brooks (ed.), Reformation Principle and
Practice (London, 1980), 23–31; reprinted in his Studies in Tudor and Stuart Politics and
Government, 4 vols. (1974–92), iii. 344–55.
Elton, G. R., reviews of Complete Works, vols. viii and ix, in English Historical Review, 89
(1974), 382–7, and 95 (1980), 367–9; reprinted in his Studies, iii. 444–54.
Guy, J., ‘Thomas More and Christopher St German: The Battle of the Books’, in A. Fox and
J. Guy, Reassessing the Henrician Age: Humanism, Politics and Reform, 1500–1550
(Oxford, 1986), 95–120; reprinted in his Politics, Law, and Counsel in Tudor and Early
Stuart England (Aldershot, 2000), ch. 8.
Kelly, H. A., ‘Thomas More on Inquisitorial Due Process’, English Historical Review, 123
(2008), 847–94.
L6. The royal supremacy
Davies, C. S. L., ‘The Cromwellian Decade: Authority and Consent’, Transactions of the
Royal Historical Society, 6th series, 7 (1997), 177–95.
Guy, J., ‘Thomas Cromwell and the Intellectual Origins of the Henrician Revolution’, in A.
Fox and J. Guy, Reassessing the Henrician Age: Humanism, Politics and Reformation,
1500–1550 (Oxford, 1986), 151–78; reprinted in Guy (ed.), The Tudor Monarchy (London,
1997).
Heal, F., ‘What can King Lucius do for you? The Reformation and the Early British Church’,
English Historical Review, 120 (2005), 593–614.
Lockwood, S., ‘Marsilius of Padua and the Case for the Royal Ecclesiastical Supremacy’,
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th series, 1 (1991), 89–119.
Rex, R., ‘The Crisis of Obedience: God’s Word and Henry’s Reformation’, Historical
Journal, 39 (1996), 863–94.
Ullmann, W., ‘“The Realm of England is an Empire”’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 30
(1979), 175–203.
L7. Responses to the royal supremacy
Bernard, G. W., The King’s Reformation: Henry VIII and the Remaking of the English
Church (New Haven, 2005), ch. 2.
Elton, G. R., Policy and Police: The Enforcement of the Reformation in the Age of Thomas
Cromwell (Cambridge, 1972), esp. chs. 3–5.
Flesseman-Van Leer, E., ‘The Controversy about Ecclesiology between Thomas More and
William Tyndale’, Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis, new series, 44 (1960), 65–
86.
Marshall, P., ‘The Debate over “Unwritten Verities” in Early Reformation England’, in B.
Gordon (ed.), Protestant History and Identity in Sixteenth Century Europe, i: The Medieval
21
Inheritance (Aldershot, 1996), 60–77; reprinted in his Religious Identities in Henry VIII’s
England (Aldershot, 2006), ch. 5.
Marshall, P., ‘Is the Pope Catholic? Henry VIII and the Semantics of Schism’, in E. H.
Shagan (ed.), Catholics and the ‘Protestant Nation’: Religious Politics and Identity in Early
Modern England (Manchester, 2005), 22–48; reprinted in his Religious Identities, ch. 9.
Shagan, E. H., Popular Politics and the English Reformation (Cambridge, 2003), ch. 1.
L8. More’s posthumous reputation
Bishop, J., ‘Utopia and Civic Politics in Mid-Sixteenth-Century London’, Historical Journal,
54 (2011), 933–53.
Duffy, E., Fires of Faith: Catholic England under Mary Tudor (New Haven, 2009), ch. 8.
Freeman, T. S., ‘Introduction: Over their Dead Bodies: Concepts of Martyrdom in Late
Medieval and Early Modern England’, in T. S. Freeman and T. F. Mayer (eds.), Martyrs
and Martyrdom in England, c.1400–1700 (Woodbridge, 2007), 1–34.
Monta, S. B., ‘The Book of Sir Thomas More and Laughter of the Heart’, Sixteenth Century
Journal, 34 (2003), 107–21.
Questier, M. C., ‘Catholicism, Kinship and the Public Memory of Sir Thomas More’, Journal
of Ecclesiastical History, 53 (2002), 476–509.
Sheils, W. J., ‘Polemic as Piety: Thomas Stapleton’s Tres Thomae and Catholic Controversy
in the 1580s’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 60 (2009), 74–94.
Zeeveld, W. G., ‘Apology for an Execution’, in R. S. Sylvester and G. P. Marc’hadour (eds.),
Essential Articles for Study of Thomas More (Hamden, Conn., 1977), 198–211.
General bibliography
Please note: This Bibliography is not comprehensive. It supplements the recommended
reading for individual classes. The Bibliography concentrates on monographs and collections
of essays rather than on articles, which are the focus of the recommended seminar reading.
The best way to identify other works of potential relevance to a long essay is to search online
the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH), which is accessible via the
eresources@cambridge webpages. Ways of searching BBIH will be demonstrated.
More’s works
This paper aims to illuminate the political, intellectual, and religious culture of early Tudor
England through the works of Thomas More. Humanists never stopped composing, and More
was no exception: imprisoned in the Tower of London, lacking ink, he purportedly wrote
using a coal. This section explains how to make sense of More’s extensive body of work.
Many of More’s works were first printed in the sixteenth century. These editions are the
earliest that you can consult. They are available through Early English Books Online
(EEBO). Each printed work is identified by a unique Short-Title Catalogue (STC) number.
For further advice on using EEBO, see the Appendix below. Modern editions of More’s work
are much easier to read, however. It is recommended that you consult these modern editions
in the first instance.
The standard scholarly edition is The Complete Works of St. Thomas More, published by Yale
University Press in fifteen volumes (sometimes with two or three parts). The edition is
22
abbreviated here as CW; volumes and part numbers are indicated by Roman and Arabic
numerals respectively: e.g. CW iii/1 = Complete Works, volume three, part one. The
Complete Works comprise:
CW i
CW ii
CW iii/1
CW iii/2
CW iv
CW v
CW vi
CW vii
CW viii
CW ix
CW x
CW xi
CW xii
CW xiii
CW xiv
CW xv
English Poems, Life of Pico, Four Last Things
History of King Richard III
Translations of Lucian
Latin Poems
Utopia
Responsio ad Lutherum [= Response to Luther]
Dialogue concerning Heresies
Letter to Bugenhagen, Supplication of Souls, Letter against Frith
Confutation of Tyndale’s Answers
Apology of Sir Thomas More
Debellation of Salem and Bizance
Answer to a Poisoned Book
Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation
Treatise upon the Passion, Treatise to Receive the Blessed Body, Instructions
and Prayers
De Tristitia Christi [= On the Sorrow of Christ]
Letters to Dorp, Oxford, Lee, and a Monk; Historia Richardi Tertii [= History
of Richard III]
Where More wrote in Latin, CW (almost always) provides a modern English translation.
Where More wrote in English, CW reproduces the original text, that is, without modernizing
its spelling, punctuation, capitalization, or grammar. Although such a text can appear
daunting, persevere: the more you read, the easier this will become. Reading the text aloud
can help. There are also glossaries at the back of CW volumes to identify unfamiliar or
obsolete words. The full-scale Oxford English Dictionary (available as an electronic
resource) is also useful.
The Yale project also produced a series entitled The Selected Works of St. Thomas More
(abbreviated as SW), where spellings etc. are (almost always) modernized:
SW i
SW ii
SW iii
SW iv
Selected Letters, ed. E. F. Rogers (1961)
Utopia, ed. E. Surtz (1964)
History of King Richard III and Selections from the English and Latin
Poems, ed. R. S. Sylvester (1976)
Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation, ed. F. Manley (1978)
More’s better-known works – such as Utopia, the History of King Richard III, and the
Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation – are available in other editions, usually with
modernized spelling and punctuation: e.g. the best student text of Utopia is ed. G. M. Logan
and R. M. Adams, Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought (rev. edn.,
Cambridge, 2002). Many of More’s writings are available on-line through the Center for
Thomas More Studies (www.thomasmorestudies.org/library.html). Some texts are
reproduced in their original form, others in modern type. The lengthy introductions and
extensive critical apparatus in CW are valuable, so even if you read another edition, you may
still wish to consult the notes there.
23
One way of distinguishing between More’s works is by chronology: when did he write them?
c.1496–1504
c.1496–1516
c.1504–5
c.1505–6
c.1513
1515
1516
1518
1519
1520
c.1522
1523
1526
1529
1531
1532
1533
1534–5
English Poems
Latin Poems
Life of Pico
Translations of Lucian
History of King Richard III
Letter to Dorp
Utopia
Letter to Oxford
Letter to Lee; Letter to a Monk
Letter to Brixius
Four Last Things
Response to Luther
Letter to Bugenhagen
Dialogue concerning Heresies; Supplication of Souls
Dialogue concerning Heresies (2nd edn.)
Confutation of Tyndale’s Answer, books 1–3; Letter against Frith
Confutation of Tyndale’s Answer, books 4–8; Apology; Debellation of
Salem and Bizance; Answer to a Poisoned Book
Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation; Treatise upon the Passion;
Treatise to Receive the Blessed Body; Instructions and Prayers; On the
Sorrow of Christ
Care is needed here, however: the date of composition is not always certain, and – as we see
in a moment – the date of composition is not the same as the date of publication. More also
revised some of his works in subsequent printings.
More’s works can also be categorized by genre:
1. Humanistic works: Translations of Lucian; Life of Pico; Latin Poems; History of King
Richard III; Letter to Martin Dorp; Utopia; Letter to Oxford University; Letter to Edward
Lee; Letter to a Monk; Letter to Brixius
2. Controversial works: Response to Luther; Letter to Bugenhagen; Dialogue concerning
Heresies; Supplication of Souls; Confutation of Tyndale’s Answer; Letter against Frith;
Apology; Debellation of Salem and Bizance; Answer to a Poisoned Book
3. Devotional writings: English Poems; Life of Pico; Four Last Things; Dialogue of Comfort
against Tribulation; Treatise on the Passion; Treatise to Receive the Blessed Body;
Instructions and Prayers; On the Sorrow of Christ
Another way of distinguishing More’s works is through language. Sometimes More wrote in
English, sometimes in Latin. Utopia, for instance, was not translated into English until 1551.
Uniquely, More seems to have written simultaneous Latin and English versions of the History
of King Richard III.
Another distinction is whether works were printed in More’s lifetime. Some of More’s works
were first published in the edition prepared by More’s nephew William Rastell in 1557 called
24
The Englysh Workes (STC 18076). The Center for Thomas More Studies divides this long
work into sections (www.thomasmorestudies.org/library.html: listed as ‘Complete Works’).
The publication history of More’s works and also their reception can be traced through:
Boswell, J. C. (ed.), Sir Thomas More in the English Renaissance: An Annotated Catalogue
(Binghamton, NY, 1994).
Cave, T. (ed.), Thomas More’s Utopia in Early Modern Europe: Paratexts and Contexts
(Manchester, 2012).
Gibson, R. W. (ed.), St. Thomas More: A Preliminary Bibliography of His Works and of
Moreana to the Year 1750 (New Haven, 1961).
Works on More
The earliest life of More was written by his son-in-law William Roper in around 1557. First
printed in 1626 (as The Mirrour of Vertue in Worldly Greatnes), it is now available in several
editions, including:
The Lyfe of Sir Thomas Moore, Knighte, ed. E. V. Hitchcock, Early English Text Society,
orig. ser., 197 (1935) – original spelling.
‘The Life of Sir Thomas More by William Roper’, in R. S. Sylvester and D. P. Harding
(eds.), Two Early Tudor Lives (New Haven, 1962), 195–254 – spelling modernized.
‘Roper’s Life of Sir Thomas More, Knight’, in A Thomas More Source Book, ed. G. B.
Wegemer and S. W. Smith (Washington, DC, 2004), 16–65 – spelling modernized.
www.thomasmorestudies.org/library.html – spelling modernized.
Roper’s work was purportedly prepared as an aid for an ‘official’ biography that the More
family commissioned Nicholas Harpsfield, archdeacon of Canterbury, to write around 1557.
The manuscript was completed by New Year Day’s 1559, but – following the accession of
Elizabeth I – was not printed. The work was first published as The Life and Death of Sir
Thomas Moore, Knight, sometymes Lord High Chancellor of England, written in the Tyme of
Queene Marie, ed. E. V. Hitchcock, Early English Text Society, orig. ser., 186 (1932).
The next life of More, written by Thomas Stapleton, was published at the English recusant
centre of Douai in France in 1588. This life, written in Latin, formed the final part of a trilogy
of Thomases – Tres Thomae – with the Apostle Thomas and St. Thomas Becket. It was
translated as The Life and Illustrious Martyrdom of Sir Thomas More, ed. P. E. Hallett
(London, 1928). Seventeenth-century lives of More by English Catholics are: The Lyfe of Syr
Thomas More, sometymes Lord Chancellor of England, by Ro. Ba., ed. E. V. Hitchcock and
P. E. Hallett, Early English Text Society, orig. ser., 222 (1950); and Cresacre More, The Life
of Sir Thomas More, ed. J. Hunter (London, 1828).
There are many more modern biographies, including:
Ackroyd, P., The Life of Thomas More (London, 1998) – emphasizes M. as Londoner.
Bridgett, T. E., Life and Writings of Blessed Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England and
Martyr under Henry VIII (3rd edn., London, 1904) – originally published to mark M.’s
beatification in 1886.
Chambers, R. W., Thomas More (London, 1935) – classic liberal view.
Guy, J., Thomas More (London, 2000) – M.’s reputation reassessed.
25
Guy, J., A Daughter’s Love (London, 2008) – M. and Margaret Roper.
Kenny, A., Thomas More (Oxford, 1983) – concise.
Marius, R., Thomas More: A Biography (New York, 1984) – revisionist; emphasizes M.’s
late-medieval piety.
Martz, L. L., Thomas More: The Search for the Inner Man (New Haven, 1990) – antirevisionist.
McConica, J., Thomas More: A Short Biography (London, 1977) – stresses M.’s humanism.
Other major studies are:
Betteridge, T., Writing Faith and Telling Tales: Literature, Politics, and Religion in the Work
of Thomas More (Notre Dame, 2013) – emphasizes M.’s ‘medieval’, rather than
‘Renaissance’, outlook.
Fox, A., Thomas More: History and Providence (Oxford, 1982) – M.’s inner life
reconstructed through his writings.
Guy, J. A., The Public Career of Sir Thomas More (Brighton, 1980) – law and politics,
principally 1529–32.
Kelly, H. A., L. W. Karlin, G. B. Wegemer (eds.), Thomas More’s Trial by Jury: A
Procedural and Legal Review with a Collection of Documents (Woodbridge, 2011) – more
for lawyers than historians.
Logan, G. M. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Thomas More (Cambridge, 2011) –
themes and five works (Utopia, Richard III, Dialogue concerning Heresies, Dialogue of
Comfort against Tribulation, and De Tristitia Christi).
Moore, M. J. (ed.), Quincentennial Essays on St. Thomas More (Boone, NC, 1978) –
important conference proceedings.
Pineas, R., Thomas More and Tudor Polemics (Bloomington, Ind., 1968).
Sylvester, R. S., and Marc’hadour, G. P. (eds.), Essential Articles for Study of Thomas More
(Hamden, CT, 1977) – incl. many articles from journal Moreana.
Sylvester, R. S. (ed.), St. Thomas More: Action and Contemplation (New Haven, 1972) – the
other great collection of conference proceedings.
More and his times are also the subject of the journal Moreana. First published in 1963, the
journal is available in the UL and also online from 2001 onwards.
Primary sources
Consulting additional primary sources could greatly enhance a long essay. Many primary
sources for the early Tudor period are manuscripts, however. The principal governmental
collection – called the State Papers – is held at at the National Archives (formerly the Public
Record Office) at Kew. These records have been digitized as State Papers Online, 1509–1714
(SPO). SPO is available online via the eresources@cambridge webpages. SPO reproduces the
document as images. It links each document to a calendar entry and sometimes provides a
transcript as well, so you may not need to decipher the original.
Documents in SPO and many others have been calendared and partly transcribed in Letters
and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, ed. J. S. Brewer, J. Gairdner,
and R. H. Brodie, 21 vols. in 36 pts. (London, 1862–1932), which is usually abbreviated as
LP. Another collection provides transcripts of some of the reign’s principal documents: State
Papers Henry VIII, 11 vols. divided into 5 pts. (London, 1830–52). Individual volumes of
Letters and Papers and State Papers can be downloaded as PDF files through Medieval and
26
Early Modern Sources Online (MEMSO), which is accessed via the eresources@cambridge
webpages.
The following collections of modern primary sources may also be helpful:
Catholic England: Faith, Religion and Observance before the Reformation, ed. R. Swanson
(Manchester, 1993).
Documents of the English Reformation, ed. G. Bray (Cambridge, 1994; rev. edn., 2004).
English Historical Documents, v: 1485–1558, ed. C. H. Williams (London, 1967) [available
online via the eresources@cambridge webpages]
The Tudor Constitution: Documents and Commentary, ed. G. R. Elton (2nd edn., Cambridge,
1982).
See also works listed under ‘Literature and politics’ for authors of the early Tudor period.
Surveys and works of reference
Brigden, S., New Worlds, Lost Worlds: The Rule of the Tudors, 1485–1603 (London, 2000) –
strong on literature.
Britnell, R. H., The Closing of the Middle Ages? England, 1471–1529 (Oxford, 1997).
Davies, C. S. L., Peace, Print and Protestantism, 1450–1558 (London, 1977).
Dickens, A. G., The English Reformation (2nd edn., London, 1989) – Haigh’s target.
Elton, G. R., Reform and Reformation: England 1509–1558 (London, 1977).
Guy, J., Tudor England (Oxford, 1988) – strong on government.
Haigh, C., English Reformations: Religion, Politics, and Society under the Tudors (Oxford,
1993).
Heal, F., Reformation in Britain and Ireland (Oxford, 2003).
For More’s contemporaries, in the first instance consult:
Bietenholz, P. G., and T. B. Deutscher (eds.), Contemporaries of Erasmus: A Biographical
Register of the Renaissance and Reformation, 3 vols. (Toronto, 1985–7) – for Europeans.
Matthew, H. C. G., and B. Harrison (eds.), The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 60
vols. (Oxford, 2004), which is also available as an electronic resource – for Britons only.
Literature and politics
Betteridge, T., Literature and Politics in the English Reformation (Manchester, 2004).
Burrow, C., ‘The Experience of Exclusion: Literature and Politics in the Reigns of Henry VII
and Henry VIII’, in D. Wallace (ed.), The Cambridge History of Medieval English
Literature (Cambridge, 1999), 793–820.
Cummings, B., and J. Simpson (eds.), Cultural Reformations: Medieval and Renaissance in
Literary History (Oxford, 2010) – ruminations on what did and did not change c.1500.
Fox, A., Politics and Literature in the Reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII (Oxford, 1989) –
covering Skelton, Barclay, Hawes, Wyatt, Surrey.
Greenblatt, S., Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare (Chicago, 1980).
Hellinga, L., and J. B. Trapp (eds.), The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, iii: 1400–
1557 (Cambridge, 1999) – covers manuscript and print.
House, S. B., ‘Literature, Drama and Politics’, in D. MacCulloch (ed.), The Reign of Henry
VIII: Politics, Policy and Piety (Basingstoke and London, 1995), 181–201.
27
Lewis, C. S., English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, excluding Drama (Oxford, 1954).
Norbrook, D., Poetry and Politics in the English Renaissance (rev. edn., Oxford, 2002).
Pincombe, M., and C. Shrank (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Tudor Literature, 1485–1603
(Oxford, 2009).
Reed, A. W., Early Tudor Drama: Medwall, the Rastells, Heywood, and the More Circle
(London, 1926).
Simpson, J., The Oxford English Literary History, ii: 1350–1547: Reform and Cultural
Revolution (Oxford, 2002).
Walker, G., Writing under Tyranny: English Literature and the Henrician Reformation
(Oxford, 2005).
Womersley, D., Divinity and State (Oxford, 2010) – on C16 entwining of monarchical
legitimacy and religious orthodoxy, incl. More’s History of Richard III.
Politics and political culture
Anglo, S. (ed.), Chivalry in the Renaissance (Woodbridge, 1990) – incl. humanist critique.
Baumer, F. L. V., The Early Tudor Theory of Kingship (New Haven, 1940).
Bernard, G. W., Power and Politics in Tudor England (Aldershot, 2000) – collected essays.
Bernard, G. W. (ed.), The Tudor Nobility (Manchester, 1992).
Brooks, C. W., Law, Politics and Society in Early Modern England (Cambridge, 2008).
Coleman, C., and D. Starkey (eds.), Revolution Reassessed: Revisions in the History of Tudor
Government and Administration (Oxford, 1986) – on ‘Tudor revolution in government’.
Cromartie, A., The Constitutionalist Revolution: An Essay on the History of England, 1450–
1642 (Cambridge, 2006).
Doran, S. (ed.), Henry VIII: Man and Monarch (London, 2009) – exhibition catalogue.
Elton, G. R., Studies in Tudor and Stuart Politics and Government, 4 vols. (1974–92) –
collected articles and reviews, several on More.
Fox, A., and J. Guy, Reassessing the Henrician Age: Humanism, Politics and Reform, 1500–
1550 (Oxford, 1986).
Gunn, S. J., Early Tudor Government, 1485–1558 (Basingstoke, 1995).
Gunn, S. J., and Lindley, P. G. (eds.), Cardinal Wolsey: Church, State and Art (Cambridge,
1991).
Guy, J., Politics, Law and Counsel in Tudor and Early Stuart England (Aldershot, 2000) –
collected essays.
Guy, J. (ed.), The Tudor Monarchy (London, 1997) – collection of important articles.
Gwyn, P., The King’s Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of Thomas Wolsey (London, 1990).
Hoak, D. (ed.), Tudor Political Culture (Cambridge, 1995).
MacCulloch, D. (ed.), The Reign of Henry VIII (Basingstoke and London, 1995).
Richardson, G., Renaissance Monarchy: The Reigns of Henry VIII, Francis I and Charles V
(London, 2001).
Rose, J., ‘Kingship and Counsel in Early Modern England’, Historical Journal, 54 (2011),
47–71.
Scarisbrick, J. J., Henry VIII (London, 1968) – the standard biography.
Slack, P., From Reformation to Improvement: Public Welfare in Early Modern England
(Oxford, 1999).
Sharpe, K., Selling the Tudor Monarchy (New Haven, 2009) – visual representations of
authority.
Starkey, D., The Reign of Henry VIII: Personalities and Politics (London, 1985).
Starkey, D. (ed.), Henry VIII: A European Court in England (London, 1991).
28
Walker, G., Persuasive Fictions: Faction, Faith and Political Culture in the Reign of Henry
VIII (Aldershot, 1996) – collected essays.
Watts, J., ‘“Common Weal” and “Commonwealth”: England’s Monarchical Republic in the
Making, c.1450–c.1530’, in A. Gamberini, J.-Ph. Genet, and A. Zorzi (eds.), The
Languages of Political Society (Rome, 2011), 147–163.
Watts, J. L., ‘“A Newe Ffundacion of is Crowne”: Monarchy in the Age of Henry VII’, in B.
Thompson (ed.), The Reign of Henry VII (Stamford, 1995), 31–53.
Watts, J. L. (ed.), The End of the Middle Ages? England in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth
Centuries (Stroud, 1998).
Wooding, L., Henry VIII (Abingdon, 2009) – the most readable biography.
The pre-Reformation Church
Arnold, J., Dean John Colet of St Paul’s: Humanism and Reform in Pre-Reformation
England (London, 2007) – see also Gleason below.
Bernard, G. W., The Late Medieval English Church: Vitality and Vulnerability before the
Break with Rome (New Haven, 2012).
Bradshaw, B., and E. Duffy (eds.), Humanism, Reform and the Reformation: The Career of
Bishop John Fisher (Cambridge, 1989) – see also Rex below.
Burns, J. H. (ed.), The Cambridge History of Political Thought, i: c.350–c.1450 (Cambridge,
1988) – for inherited ideas about temporal/spiritual power, conciliarism, etc.
Carleton, K., Bishops and Reform in the English Church, 1520–1559 (Woodbridge, 2001).
Da Costa, A., Reforming Printing: Syon Abbey’s Defence of Orthodoxy, 1525–1534 (Oxford,
2012) – with a Cambridge connection.
Duffy, E., The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400–1580 (New
Haven, 1992; 2nd edn., 2005 [new intro., otherwise unchanged]).
Gleason, J. B., John Colet (Berkeley, Calif., 1989).
Haigh, C. (ed.), The English Reformation Revised (Cambridge, 1987).
Harper-Bill, C., The Pre-Reformation Church in England, 1400–1530 (2nd edn., London,
1996).
Lutton, R., Lollardy and Orthodox Religion in Pre-Reformation England: Reconstructing
Piety (Woodbridge, 2006).
Lutton, R., and E. Salter (eds.), Pieties in Transitions: Religious Practices and Experiences,
c.1400–1640 (Aldershot, 2007).
Marshall, P., The Catholic Priesthood and the English Reformation (Oxford, 1994).
Marshall, P. (ed.), The Impact of the English Reformation (London, 1997) – collected essays.
Rex, R., The Lollards (Basingstoke, 20002).
Rex, R., The Theology of John Fisher (Cambridge, 1991).
Scarisbrick, J. J., The Reformation and the English People (Oxford, 1984).
Swanson, R. N., Church and Society in Late-Medieval England (rev. edn., Oxford, 1993).
Thomson, J. A. F., The Early Tudor Church and Society, 1485–1529 (London, 1993).
Wooding, L. E. C., Rethinking Catholicism in Reformation England (Oxford, 2000).
The European Renaissance
Arnold, J., The Great Humanists: An Introduction (London, 2011) – potted biographies.
Bradshaw, B., ‘The Christian Humanism of Erasmus’, Journal of Theological Studies, 33
(1982), 411–47.
Burke, P., The European Renaissance: Centres and Peripheries (Oxford, 1998).
29
Burns, J. H., and M. Goldie (eds.), The Cambridge History of Political Thought, ii: 1450–
1700 (Cambridge, 1991).
Copenhaver, B. P., and C. B. Schmitt, Renaissance Philosophy (Oxford, 1992).
Eisenstein, E. L., The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communications and Cultural
Transformations in Early-Modern Europe (Cambridge, 1979).
Eisenstein, E. L., The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, 1993).
Goodman, A., and A. MacKay (eds.), The Impact of Humanism on Western Europe (London,
1990).
Grafton, A., and A. Blair (eds.), The Transmission of Culture in Early Modern Europe
(Philadelphia, 1990).
Hankins, J. (ed.), Renaissance Civic Humanism: Reappraisals and Reflections (Cambridge,
2004).
Kraye, J. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Humanism (Cambridge, 1996).
Nauert, C. G., Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe (2nd edn., Cambridge,
2006).
Olin, J. C., Six Essays on Erasmus (New York, 1979).
Pettegree, A., The Book in the Renaissance (New Haven, 2010).
Rummel, E., Erasmus and his Catholic Critics, 2 vols. (Nieuwkoop, 1989).
Rummel, E., The Humanist-Scholastic Debate in the Renaissance and Reformation
(Cambridge, Mass., 1995).
Skinner, Q., The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, i: The Renaissance (Cambridge,
1978).
Whitlock, K. (ed.), The Renaissance in Europe: A Reader (New Haven, 2000).
Humanism in England
Adams, R. P., ‘The Better Part of Valor’: More, Erasmus, Colet and Vives on Humanism,
War and Peace, 1496–1535 (Seattle, 1962).
Amos, N. S., A. Pettegree, and H. F. K. Van Nierop (eds.), The Education of a Christian
Society: Humanism and the Reformation in Britain and the Netherlands (Aldershot, 1999).
Bradshaw, B., and E. Duffy (eds.), Humanism, Reform and the Reformation: The Career of
Bishop John Fisher (Cambridge, 1989).
Carlson, D. R., English Humanist Books: Writers and Patrons, Manuscript and Print, 1475–
1525 (Toronto, 1993).
Dowling, M., Humanism in the Age of Henry VIII (London, 1986).
Ferguson, A. B., The Articulate Citizen and the English Renaissance (Durham, NC, 1965).
Ferguson, A. B., Clio Unbound: Perception of the Social and Cultural Past in Renaissance
England (Durham, NC, 1979).
Fox, A., and J. Guy, Reassessing the Henrician Age: Humanism, Politics and Reform, 1500–
1550 (Oxford, 1986).
Gransden, A., Historical Writing in England, ii: c.1307 to the Early Sixteenth Century
(London, 1982).
Hellinga, L., and J. B. Trapp (eds.), The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, iii: 1400–
1557 (Cambridge, 1999).
Leader, D. R. (ed.), A History of the University of Cambridge, i: The University to 1546
(Cambridge, 1988).
Levy, F. J., Tudor Historical Thought (San Marino, CA, 1967).
McConica, J. K., English Humanists and Reformation Politics under Henry VIII and Edward
VI (Durham, NC, 1965).
30
McConica, J. (ed.), The History of the University of Oxford, iii: The Collegiate University
(Oxford, 1986).
Simon, J., Education and Society in Tudor England (Cambridge, 1966).
Skinner, Q., Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes (Cambridge, 1996), pt. 1 –
humanist curriculum.
Wakelin, D., Humanism, Reading, and English Literature, 1430–1530 (Oxford, 2007).
Woolfson, J. (ed.), Reassessing Tudor Humanism (Basingstoke, 2002).
Zeeveld, W. G., Foundations of Tudor Policy (Cambridge, Mass., 1948).
The Reformation and Protestantism
Arblaster, P., G. Juhász, and G. Latré (eds.), Tyndale’s Testament (Turnhout, 2002).
Brigden, S., London and the Reformation (Oxford, 1989).
Cameron, E., The European Reformation (2nd edn., Oxford, 2012).
Clebsch, W. A., England’s Earliest Protestants, 1520–1535 (New Haven, 1964).
Daniell, D., William Tyndale: A Biography (New Haven, 1994).
Fudge, T. A., ‘Incest and Lust in Luther’s Marriage: Theology and Morality in Reformation
Polemics’, Sixteenth Century Journal, 34 (2003), 319–45 – incl. More’s works.
Gordon, B. (ed.), Protestant History and Identity in Sixteenth-Century Europe, i: The
Medieval Inheritance (Aldershot, 1996).
Gregory, B. S., Salvation at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe
(Cambridge, MA, 1999).
Gunther, K., and E. H. Shagan, ‘Protestant Radicalism and Political Thought in the Reign of
Henry VIII’, Past & Present, 194 (2007), 35–74.
Lindberg, C. (ed.), The Reformation Theologians: An Introduction to Theology in the Early
Modern Period (Oxford, 2002) – incl. More.
Maas, K. D., The Reformation and Robert Barnes: History, Theology and Polemic in Early
Modern England (Woodbridge, 2010) – England’s leading Lutheran.
MacCulloch, D., Reformation: Europe’s House Divided, 1490–1700 (London, 2003).
MacCulloch, D., Thomas Cranmer: A Life (New Haven, 1996).
Marshall, P., Religious Identities in Henry VIII’s England (Aldershot, 2005) – collected
essays.
Marshall, P., and A. Ryrie (eds.), The Beginnings of English Protestantism (Cambridge,
2002).
McGrath, A. E., Reformation Thought: An Introduction (2nd edn., Oxford, 1993).
Parish, H. L., Monks, Miracles and Magic: Reformation Representations of the Medieval
Church (London, 2005).
Pettegree, A., Reformation and the Culture of Persuasion (Cambridge, 2005).
Pettegree, A. (ed.), The Early Reformation in Europe (Cambridge, 1992) – by country.
Pettegree, A. (ed.), The Reformation World (London, 2000).
Rex, R., ‘The Early Impact of Reformation Theology at Cambridge, 1521–47’, Renaissance
and Reformation Review, 2 (1999), 38–71.
Simpson, J., Burning to Read: English Fundamentalism and its Reformation Opponents
(Cambridge, MA, 2007) – on English bible.
Skinner, Q., The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, ii: The Age of Reformation
(Cambridge, 1978).
The Break with Rome
Bernard, G. W., Anne Boleyn: Fatal Attractions (New Haven, 2010) – compare Ives below.
31
Bernard, G. W., ‘The Dissolution of the Monasteries’, History, 96 (2011), 390–409.
Bernard, G. W., The King’s Reformation: Henry VIII and the Remaking of the English
Church (New Haven, 2005).
Bush, M. L., The Pilgrims’ Complaint: A Study of Popular Thought in the Early Tudor North
(Farnham, 2009) – on Pilgrimage of Grace.
Cross, C., D. Loades, and J. J. Scarisbrick (eds.), Law and Government under the Tudors
(Cambridge, 1988) – Act of Appeals, Cromwell, Gardiner, secular colleges.
Davies, C. S. L., et al., ‘The Eltonian Legacy’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society,
6th series, 7 (1997) – esp. Davies and Conrad Russell.
Elton, G. R., Policy and Police: The Enforcement of the Reformation in the Age of Thomas
Cromwell (Cambridge, 1973) – compare Shagan below.
Fox, A., and J. Guy, Reassessing the Henrician Age: Humanism, Politics and Reform, 1500–
1550 (Oxford, 1986) – on intellectual roots.
Freeman, T. S., and T. F. Mayer (eds.), Martyrs and Martyrdom in England, c.1400–1700
(Woodbridge, 2007).
Hoyle, R. W., The Pilgrimage of Grace and the Politics of the 1530s (Oxford, 2001).
Ives, E. W., The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn: The ‘Most Happy’ (Oxford, 2004).
Kelly, H. A., The Matrimonial Trials of Henry VIII (Stanford, CA, 1976) – on canon law.
Lehmberg, S. E., The Reformation Parliament, 1529–36 (Cambridge, 1970).
Levine, M., Tudor Dynastic Problems, 1460–1571 (London, 1973) – with primary sources.
MacCulloch, D. (ed.), The Reign of Henry VIII: Politics, Policy and Piety (Basingstoke and
London, 1995) – incl. divorce literature, Henry VIII’s religion, and local impact.
Marshall, P., Religious Identities in Henry VIII’s England (Aldershot, 2005) – collected
essays.
Rex, R., Henry VIII and the English Reformation (London, 1993; 2nd edn., Basingstoke,
2006 [with new chapter]).
Shagan, E. H., Popular Politics and the English Reformation (Cambridge, 2003).
Shagan E. H. (ed.), Catholics and the ‘Protestant Nation’: Religious Politics and Identity in
Early Modern England (Manchester, 2005).
Sowerby, T. A., ‘“All Our Books do be Sent into Other Countreys and Translated”: Henrician
Polemic in its International Context’, English Historical Review, 121 (2006), 1271–99.
Sowerby, T. A., Renaissance and Reform in Tudor England: The Careers of Sir Richard
Morison, c.1513–1556 (Oxford, 2010) – Henry VIII’s propagandist (and more besides).
Warner, J. C., Henry VIII’s Divorce: Literature and the Politics of the Printing Press
(Woodbridge, 1998).
Appendix: using EEBO
Early English Books Online (EEBO) is a valuable resource for studying early modern printed
works. EEBO effectively provides photographs of the pages of the books. Several set primary
sources are only available through EEBO. The following is intended to provide a brief guide,
which reinforces the practice in workshops.
Access EEBO via the eresources@cambridge webpages. On the EEBO homepage, click on
the search button. You should now be on the ‘basic search’ page. This page allows you to
search the collection.
From this page, you can find More’s works by entering his name (‘More, Thomas’) in the
‘author keyword’. Using the option to the right of the text box (‘Select from a list’), identify
our Thomas More precisely. His exact entry reads:
32
More, Thomas, Sir, Saint, 1478–1535.
You can ‘limit by date’ your search. This enables you, for instance, to find works by More
published between 1529 and 1531. Similar author searches can be conducted for other
contemporary authors.
You can also search for particular works using the title search. Results here are more
unpredictable, as often the modern shorthand title is not the contemporary one. Early modern
titles were very long, and are thus usually abbreviated.
For instance, the Life of Pico is actually entitled:
Here is co[n]teyned the lyfe of Johan Picus erle of Myra[n]dula a grete lord of
Italy an excellent co[n]ning man in all scie[n]ces [And] vertuous of lyuing. with
dyuerse epistles [and] other warkis of the seyd Johan Picus full of grete science
vertew and wysedome. whos lyfe [and] warkys bene worthy [and] digne to be
redd [and] oftyn to to be had in memorye.
You can also find particular works using their Short-Title Catalogue number (STC). The
1510 edition of the Life of Pico, for instance, is STC 19897.7. To bring up this work, enter in
the text box called ‘bibliographic number’ the following:
STC and 19897.7 [the ‘and’ is essential]
– and click the blue ‘Search’ button. On the results screen, view the work by clicking on the
icon of a camera.
Within a work, move between pages and adjust the size of the image using the commands
and the boxes at the top and bottom of the screen. Enter a number in the ‘Go to image
number’ and click ‘Go’ to move to another image. Click on ‘<< Previous image’ or ‘Next
image >>’ to move to the immediately preceding or succeeding image. Use the textbook at
the bottom with a percentage figure to adjust the size of the image that you are viewing. You
can also download and print the image using the commands on this screen.
If you wish to read a whole work, it can sometimes be easier to download the entire text
rather than load each image in turn. To do this, you need to add a work to your ‘marked list’.
Above the image, on the left hand side of the screen, there is an option box (‘Add this record
to your Marked List’). Having ticked this, then click on the ‘marked list’ heading in the top
right of the screen. You will now be given the option of downloading the whole work in
various formats. Downloading the work will enable you to print several pages at one time.
Now you have the images of the work in front of you: but they do not look like a modern
book. EEBO reproduces works as they were printed: it is the equivalent of a facsimile.
Sixteenth-century printers used a Gothic script (black-letter type) which is seldom seen today.
This takes some getting used to, but you will improve with practice.
Printers also used some conventions which may confuse you at first. Here are the most
common:
33
Double ‘ff’ (lower case) – stands for ‘F’ (capital)
The long ‘s’ – looks like a long ‘f’ without the cross bar
The letters ‘u’ and ‘v’ – uery commonly vsed the other way rovnd
The letters ‘i’ and ‘j’ – used interchangeably
The obsolete letter thorn – looks like a ‘y’, but means ‘th’: e.g., most commonly, ye
= the (unless it really is a ‘y’, in which case ye = you) (thorn is occasionally seen
today in the faux-archaic sign ‘ye olde tea shoppe’)
Use of superscript characters with abbreviations – e.g. yt = that
Merging of words – e.g. thexaumple = the example
Omission of letters, esp. ‘m’ and ‘n’ – marked with an accent over the nearest
letter: e.g. instāce = instance
For some works, EEBO additionally provides a full text transcription in modern computer
type. This is accessed from the results page by clicking on a ‘full text’ icon, which looks like
a page, folded on the top right, with text on it.
The following early editions of More’s works (i.e. to 1558) have full text transcriptions:
Merry Jest
Life of Pico
Dialogue concerning Heresies
Supplication for Souls
Confutation of Tyndale’s Answer, pt. 1
Answer to a Poisoned Book
Apology
Confutation of Tyndale’s Answer, pt. 2
Debellation of Salem & Bizance
Letter against Frith
Utopia
Dialogue of Comfort
1516
1525
1529
1529
1532
1553
1533
1533
1533
1533
1551
1553
STC 18091
STC 19898
STC 18084
STC 18092
STC 18079
STC 18077
STC 18078
STC 18080
STC 18081
STC 18090
STC 18094
STC 18082
These transcriptions are computer-generated, however, so many of the features of the original
text remain. The computer cannot always accurately interpret printing conventions – such as
the abbreviation of words – so some of the text is garbled. One way round this problem could
be to read these transcripts and check on the original images where there are problems: the
transcripts provide links to the original image.
You should cite bibliographical details from contemporary printed works in the same way as
you would ordinary printed works: include the author’s name, the title, the place of
publication, and the date of publication. As early modern titles are often excessively long,
you may shorten them appropriately, especially if the work is now known by an abridged
title. It can be a good idea to give the STC number in references (for example, in square
brackets after the place and date of publication).
34
There are three ways of numbering pages in contemporary works:
1. Page numbers: where available, you should use them, obviously.
2. Folio numbers: a folio is two pages. As you look at an open book, the page on your right is
one side of the folio: this is called the recto (abbreviated as ‘r’). If you turn over that page,
the page now on your left is the other side of the same folio: this is called the verso (‘v’).
Your reference would appear as follows:
fo. 2r
fo. 8v
fo. 10r–v [to cite both sides of one folio]
fos. 2–10
fos. 2r, 8v, 10r–v
Other common abbreviations for ‘folio’ are ‘f.’ and ‘fol.’. Their plurals are, respectively, ‘ff.’
and ‘fols.’.
3. Signatures: this contemporary referencing system was designed to help binders assemble
books in the correct order. Signatures usually combined upper- and lower-case letters and
numbers: e.g. ‘Aiij’, which we would write as ‘A3’; or Aaiij (Aa3).
Your reference would appear as follows:
sig. A3r [for recto]
sig. B12v [for verso]
sig. G8r–v [for recto and verso]
sigs. A3–B12
Commonly many pages of a book have no number on them. In such cases you should find the
last preceding page, folio, or signature number and then count forwards from it.
Some parts of a work – particularly introductions and prefaces – will have no numbering
system. In these cases, you should refer instead to the ‘Introduction’ or ‘Preface’ in your
reference.
All three referencing systems commonly use Roman, rather than Arabic, numerals, which can
be written rather differently from the modern manner. For instance: CXCviiij = 199. Note
here the mixing of upper- and lower-case letters; the use of four ones rather than ‘iv’; the last
‘i’ written as a ‘j’.
When taking notes, you may find it helpful also to record the EEBO image number, as this
will allow you to find the page again quickly, if – for example – you wish to check a
quotation. To ensure that you locate set passages correctly, all references to set primary
sources on EEBO use image numbers. References for the long essay, however, should not use
image numbers, but rather one of the contemporary methods outlined above.