5 March 1518 A.D. Thomas More learned of Luther’s 95 Theses from Erasmus, an old hand, former Cambridge Professor, and drifter on the Continent.
5 March
1518 A.D. Thomas
More learned of Luther’s 95 Theses from
Erasmus, an old hand, former Cambridge Professor, and drifter on the
Continent.
Clebsch,
William. England’s Earliest Protestants:
1520-1535. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press, 1964. It is available at: http://www.amazon.com/Englands-earliest-Protestants-1520-1535-publications/dp/B0007DK7XA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377565405&sr=8-1&keywords=william+clebsch+england%27s+earliest+protestants
More’s involvements.
Beyond Fisher, Thomas More replied to Johannes Bugenhagen’s open and
publicized letter to Englishmen, albeit done in Latin. Prof. Clebsch again notes that More may have
been the “ghost writer” of Henry’s Assertio.
On 5 March 1518, More
learned of Luther’s 95 Theses from
Erasmus, an old hand, former Cambridge Professor, and
academic-drifter-publisher (of international fame) on the Continent. More began his studies of Luther.
In 1520, he read Luther’s De
Captivitate babyolinica ecclesiae. http://www.lutherdansk.dk/Web-babylonian%20Captivitate/Martin%20Luther.htm#_Toc58730612.
More used Fisher’s patristic work and sources and citations
from St. Augustine to undermine Luther. Luther was published in Latin and
German in the interests of exposing Luther’s vehemence and danger—the opposite
obtained. Interest and debate result.
According to Prof. Clebsch, More published pseudonymously and
in London a tract against Luther’s
Contra Henricum Regum Angliae.
Luther’s trumpet-blast was put out on 15
July 1522. Luther: “Nor is
it much if I despise and bite this earthly King…”
This response to Luther to an English
King received very wide circulation.
More signed the volume on 15 October 1523.
More hated Luther’s “curtness” to the
English King.
It was 400 pages, a “mountain of prose”
(32).
More copiously cited Luther’s letter, but
also The Babylonian Captivity, itself
published in early October 1520.
Result
by October 1523: wide dissemination of Luther in England with
a hat tip to More.
More’s “ferocity” was on view.
Views on More ranged from “easy and
popular” to “scurrilous” to “too bitter and scathing to quote” (33).
More called Luther and sympathizers
“cacangelists,” a play on the Greek words for “bad news men.” They were “evil,”
“arrogant,” “licentious,” “capricious,” and that sola fide was a “rationalization for theological license and
personal license” (33).
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