John Foxe called William Tyndale "the Apostle of England."

Smith, in his Select Memoirs... of the English and Scottish Divines, writes, "Mr. Tyndale was a man of seraphic piety, indefatigable study, and extraordinary learning... Bishop Bayle says, that 'for knowledge, purity of doctrine, and holiness of life, Tyndale ought to be esteemed the next English reformer to Wickliffe'" (pp. 106-107).

 "Sir Thomas More has for centuries occupied an illustrious and exalted pedestal among those not only of England, but throughout the world. He has been acclaimed as both a scholar and statesman, and in 1935 he was canonized to 'sainthood' by Pope Pius XI. Indeed, upon the news of his death the famous Erasmus eulogized this one 'whose soul was more pure than any snow, whose genius was such that England never had and never again will have its like.' More recently he received notoriety yet again, his famous work, Utopia, playing prominently as a gift to protagonist, Danielle (Drew Barrymore), from her father in the 1998 movie Ever After" (notes Larry Birger).

Regrettably, however, More was also an inveterate Papist who was known to have desired Tyndale's execution. Heaton, in The Bible of the Reformation writes of More, "He thirsted for the blood of those who differed from him in matters of faith, if he did not turn the screw with his own hands to torture them, and jest at his victim's sufferings... Sir Thomas More cast Bainham, a Reformer, into prison within his own house, and was commonly said to have whipped him at a tree in his garden... after which he sent him to be tortured on the rack at the Tower" (p. 90).

In his writings against the Reformers and in his actions and thought one beholds the disgusting spectacle of his blind zeal as a devotee of Antichrist. "To those who objected to the burning of the New Testaments he (More--RB) answered, 'Whoso called these books which were burned the New Testament gave them a wrong name, since they were rather Tyndale's or Luther's Testaments, it being so corrupted and changed from the good and wholesome doctrine of Christ to their own develish heresies as to be quite another thing'" (The Bible of the Reformation, p. 99).

Thus, it is clear at once why the high opinion of Erasmus was not shared by reformer and martyr, William Tyndale. "It was in 1528, that Sir Thomas More, being already regarded as the most accomplished scholar in England, and having before his eyes a near prospect of being invited to fill the chief place in his sovereign's council, was induced to accept bishop Tonstal's permission to read the works of the reformers, that he might be qualified to refute them; nor did he suffer the year to elapse before he had composed, as the first fruits of his consequent researches and zeal, an imaginary dialogue between himself and the confidential messenger of a friend desirous to know his opinions respecting the religious questions which were then forcing themselves into general notice" (from the "Introductory Notice" of the 1850 edition).

Merle d'Aubigne, in his History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century summarizes the dispute between Tyndale and More in this way, "Tyndale soon became informed of More's publication, and a remarkable combat ensued between these two representatives of the two doctrines that were destined to divide Christendom -- Tyndale the champion of Scripture, and More the champion of the (Roman--RB) church. More having called his book a dialogue, Tyndale adopted this form in his reply, and the two combatants valiantly crossed their swords, though wide seas lay between them. This theological duel is not without importance in the history of the Reformation. The struggles of diplomacy, of sacerdotalism, and of royalty were not enough; there must be struggles of doctrine. Rome had set the hierarchy above the faith; the Reformation was to restore faith to its place above the hierarchy" (p. 833).

The scurrility and open heresy of More's Dialogue (which, among other things, rejected Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament [1525-1526], "spirit and letter," cf. The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation, p. 90) evoked a proportionately stiff reply (Titus 1:11-13; 2:15) from Tyndale, making this work lively reading and giving the modern student something of an idea of the stark antithesis perceived and promoted by both Protestants and Roman Catholics in the days of the Reformation.

In sharp contrast to and rebuke of our own modern indifference and (alleged) tolerance, the reformer, like the other champions of truth in those times, realized that nothing less was at stake than the glory of God, the excellency and sufficiency of Christ's work, and the eternal souls of men -- and his writing reflects this.

Tyndale's work displays numerous streams of reformational thought, including the nature of the church (see chapter two, on the being/well-being of the church, in Greg Barrow's Covenanted Reformation Defended, FREE at: http://www.swrb.com/newslett/actualnls/misrep2.htm), the Pope as Antichrist, the meaning and administration of the Lord's Supper, principles of Scripture translation, and much more.

While there are points evidencing errors in need of correction by later reformers (such as Calvin, Knox, and the Westminster divines), this brief and animated reply to More is must reading for the serious student of Reformational history, and will, with the blessing of the Spirit, excite zeal for Christ and holy indignation at the Papal blasphemies -- past and present.

Extensive editorial notation has been added by Rev. Henry Walter (of the Parker Society), including many excerpts of More's replies to Tyndale, making this edition much more useful, and bringing the doctrinal conflicts between the martyr for truth and the vassal of the Dragon into sharper contrast. (As noted above, a treatise on the Supper of the Lord, attributed to Tyndale, and remarks on and defense of the Last Will and Testament of Mr. William Tracy, are also included in this volume).

This book also contains specimens of Tyndale's translations. Tyndale's answer to More was originally published circa 1531, this SWRB reprint is from the 1850 edition of the Parker Society.