More’s Confutation of Tyndale and its readers

Following the work of G. R. Elton (1921–94), scholars have tended to dismiss More’s Confutation of Tyndale’s Answere (1532–33) as endless, tedious, aesthetically unpleasing, lacking in the poetry of Utopia, and thus among the worst works of More’s oeuvre. This thesis derives from the writing of sixteenth-century authors, especially John Foxe (1516–87), who juxtaposed Utopia with More’s polemical works to dismiss him. This article surveys early reader response to the Confutation to reveal a much wider interpretative range, including its early use by Henrician government agents, conservative reading of the book as a compendium against heresy, weaponizing the work in later religious disagreements, and discontinuous browsing of various kinds, including commonplacing and aphoristic reading. It demonstrates how the continuing influence of the Elton thesis has prevented scholars from gaining a full understanding of the Confutation’s place within More’s cultural influence

Close reading · Compendium · Government (linguistics) · Period (music) · Poetry · Reading (process) · Utopia · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Utopian, Dystopian, and Speculative Fiction