An Answere unto Sir Thomas Mores Dialoge (review)

An Answere vnto Sir Thomas Mores Dialoge. By William Tyndale. Edited by Anne M. O'Donnell, S.N.D., and Jared Wicks, S.J. [The Independent Works of William Tyndale, Volume 3.] (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press. 2000. Pp. xlix, 496. $79.95.)

Whose side are you on in the debate between Sir Thomas More and the translator of the Bible, William Tyndale? Today, More and Tyndale enthusiasts are joining hands in academic partnership. Such collaborations would have infuriated the two gentlemen in question, were they alive today. Could it be, though, that their scholarly descendants know them best?

In this new edition of Tyndale's "Answer," students of the Reformation will find a wealth of fascinating material; the editors have done their homework, and their explanations of Tyndale's text are detailed, lucid, and admirably fair.

We know Tyndale first and foremost as a translator; and as he describes them in the "Answer," his dilemmas over terminological choice (i.e., finding the right English words, with the right degree of generality or specificity) will strike a chord with linguists everywhere.

Better still, the "Answer to More" lets us hear Tyndale the translator speaking to us in his own authorial voice. As always with this writer, spotting early appearances of cherished English idioms ("pick a quarrel," "safe and sound," "go to pot") gives much pleasure. Some of Tyndale's spellings ("axe" for "ask," "kinge of Englonde") hint intriguingly at Tudor pronunciation.

But more than a translator or writer, Tyndale is showcased here as a preacher and Reformer (the "Answer" contains nearly a thousand biblical references). And Tyndale and More are not pen-pals, but two Scriptural scholars in a fight to the death.

Some of Tyndale's insults draw blood (quite literally). With vivid verbs of action ("There [More] biteth /sucketh / gnaweth . . ."), he depicts More as an animal, consumed with anger ("he rageth . . ."), a legalistic Cerberus snarling at Hell's gate. On a more serious note, whereas modern More biographers describe him as a man independent of the Papacy, Tyndale begs to differ with that. Who, do you suppose, is closest to the truth?

Time and again, however, Tyndale leaves controversy aside and returns to the importance of keeping the Commandments, and embracing the shedding of Christ's blood in memory of Him (in today's jargon, we might say that Tyndale "stays on message"). And yet, despite his single-minded focus, Tyndale is always pushing the argument away from tit-for-tat, and in the direction of broad universalizing principles, as the following paragraph shows:

And the herte here begynneth to mollyfye and wax softe and to receaue health and beleueth the mercy of God and in beleuynge is saued from feare of euerlastynge deeth and made sure off euerlastynge lyfe / and then beinge ouercome wyth thys kindnesse / begynneth too loue agayne and to submitte hyr selfe un to the lawe of God to lerne them and to walke in them. (p. 196)

At first glance the More/Tyndale controversy yields little of the psychological insight that modern readers yearn for. What does come across plainly, however, is Tyndale's clinical aversion to members of the priesthood, the "oiled and shaven" ones, from whose ranks he sprang. When we read of the abuses of Catholic ritual, including auricular confession ("filthy priapish confession which ye spew in the eare"), we can only wonder: what did Tyndale witness, or personally experience, that made him feel so strongly about this, and from an early age?

In "Answer" we observe the use of the first person singular ("I feel," "I believe"), as Tyndale describes a feeling faith that is also deeply personal. This inward focus is to be expected from a fugitive living in enforced isolation far from home. A man once so outspoken in England, he must now behave circumspectly in his adopted countries.

Tyndale argues that women may preach in emergencies. Are...