The Yale Edition of The Complete Works of St. Thomas More: Volume 5, Responsio ad Lutherum, Parts I and II

Yale Edition of The Complete Works of St. Thomas More #5

by Thomas More, John M. Headley (Editor), John Headley (Editor)

The Responsio ad Lutherum , written by Thomas More under the pseudonym of Guillielmus Rosseus, represents an important phase of the violent controversy that developed between Luther and Henry VII after the publication in 1521 of the King's Assertio Septem Sacrementorum. Here, for the first time, More entered the field of polemical, religious warfare, beginning a career as Catholic apologist which he was to continue in his English works during the next ten years, The present edition is based on the 1523 Rosseus text, with full collations from the earlier, and unique, Baravellus issue and from the 1565 Louvain printing. For the first time, More's racy diatribe is fully translated into English, with the Latin and English texts printed in parallel.The editor's Introduction traces the background of the controversy and analyzes at length More's important revisions in his text as he worked out his view of the papal primacy. The Commentary traces the nature of the conflict between More and Luther, emphasizing the shades of development in Luther's though. Historical, biblical, and patristic allusions in the text are explicated and analyzed. The Responsio should no longer, in view of this volume, occupy the position which it has held for so long—the most neglected of all More's major works.Mr. Headley is associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina. The translator, Sister Scholastica Mandeville of the Order of Sisters Adorers of the Most Precious Blood, teaches at the Provincial Motherhouse, Ruma, Illinois.

1058 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Sir Thomas More (1477-1535), venerated by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He was a councillor to Henry VIII and also served as Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532.

More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther and William Tyndale. He also wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an imaginary ideal island nation. More opposed the King's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and beheaded.

Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr. Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the "heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians." Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr. The Soviet Union honoured him for the Communistic attitude toward property rights expressed in Utopia.