Thomas More

=== Campaign against the Protestant Reformation ===
[[File:HouseOfMore.JPG|thumb|Sir Thomas More is commemorated with a sculpture at the late-19th-century Sir Thomas More House, Carey Street, London, opposite the [[Royal Courts of Justice]].]]
More supported the [[Catholic Church]] and saw the [[Protestant Reformation]] as [[heresy]], a threat to the unity of both church and society. More believed in the theology, argumentation, and ecclesiastical laws of the church, and "heard Luther's call to destroy the Catholic Church as a call to war."<ref name="Gerard">Gerard B. Wegemer, ''Portrait of Courage'', p. 136.</ref>

{{blockquote|Heresy was the single most time-consuming issue Thomas More dealt with in his chancellorship, and probably in the whole of the last ten years of his life.|[[Richard Rex]], ''More and the heretics: statesman or fanatic?'' <ref name=rex/>{{rp|107}}}}

More wrote a series of books and pamphlets in English and Latin to respond to Protestants, and in his official capacities took action against the illegal book trade, notably fronting a diplomatically-sensitive raid in 1525 of the [[Hanseatic League|Hanseatic Merchants]] in the [[Steelyard]] in role as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster<ref name=rex />{{rp|106}} and given his diplomatic experience negotiating with the Hanse.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Colvin |first1=Ian Duncan |title=The Germans in England, 1066–1598 |date=1915 |publisher=Associated Faculty Press, Incorporated |location=London |isbn=978-0-8046-1213-5 |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|150}}

==== Debates with Tyndale====
More wrote several books against the first edition of [[William Tyndale|Tyndale's]] [[Tyndale Bible|English translation of the New Testament]]:.{{sfn|Mueller|Loewenstein|2002|p=93, (footnote 36)}} More wrote the ''Dialogue concerning Heresies'' (1529), Tyndale responded with ''An Answer to Sir T. More's Dialogue'' (1530), and More replied with his ''Confutation of Tyndale's Answer'' (1532).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chuilleanáin |first1=Eiléan Ní |title=The Debate Between Thomas More and William Tyndale, 1528–33: Ideas on Literature and Religion |journal=The Journal of Ecclesiastical History |date=July 1988 |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages=382–411 |doi=10.1017/S0022046900038392|s2cid=163326083 }}</ref> More also wrote or contributed to several other anti-Lutheran books.

One of More's criticisms of the initial Tyndale translation was that despite claiming to be in the vernacular, Tyndale had employed numerous neologisms: for example, "Jehovah", "scapegoat", "Passover", "atonement", "mercy seat", "shewbread."<ref>{{cite web |title=Words "Fitly Spoken": Tyndale's English Translation of the Bible {{!}} Religious Studies Center |url=https://rsc.byu.edu/prelude-restoration/words-fitly-spoken-tyndales-english-translation-bible |website=rsc.byu.edu |access-date=30 July 2023}}</ref> More also accused Tyndale of deliberately avoiding common translations in favour of biased words: such as using the emotion "love" instead of the practical action "charity" for Greek {{lang|grc|agape}}, using the neologism ''senior'' instead of "priest" for the Greek {{lang|grc|presbyteros}}{{sfn|Hiscock|Wilcox|2017|p=547}} (Tyndale changed this to "elder"), and the latinate "congregation" instead of "church".<ref>{{cite web |title=William Tyndale's Concept of the Church {{!}} Christian Library |url=https://www.christianstudylibrary.org/article/william-tyndales-concept-church |website=www.christianstudylibrary.org |access-date=30 July 2023}}</ref> Tyndale's bibles include text other than the scriptures: some of Tyndale's prefaces were direct translations of Martin Luther,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Collinson |first1=Patrick |title=William Tyndale and the Course of the English Reformation |journal=Reformation |date=January 1996 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=72–97 |doi=10.1179/ref_1996_1_1_007}}</ref> and it included marginal glosses which challenged Catholic doctrine.{{sfn|Moynahan|2014|p=}}

One notable exchange occurred over More's attack on Tyndale's use of ''congregation''. Tyndale pointed out that he was following "your darling" Erasmus' Latin translation of ''ecclesia'' by ''congregatio.'' More replied that Erasmus needed to coin ''congregatio'' because there was no good Latin word, while English had the perfectly fine "church", but that the intent and theology under the words were all important:

{{blockquote |I have not contended with Erasmus my darling, because I found no such malicious intent with Erasmus my darling, as I find with Tyndale. For had I found with Erasmus my darling the cunning intent and purpose that I find in Tyndale: Erasmus my darling should be no more my darling. But I find in Erasmus my darling that he detests and abhors the errors and heresies that Tyndale plainly teaches and abides by and therefore Erasmus my darling shall be my dear darling still. And surely if Tyndale had either never taught them, or yet had the grace to revoke them: then should Tyndale be my dear darling too. But while he holds such heresies still I cannot take for my darling him that the devil takes for his darling.| source=Thomas More <ref name="Thomas More: First and Best Apologi">{{cite journal |last1=Scheck |first1=Thomas P. |title=Thomas More: First and Best Apologist for Erasmus |journal=Moreana |date=June 2021 |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=75–111 |doi=10.3366/more.2021.0093|s2cid=236358666 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Schuster (Ed) |first1=L.A. |last2=Marius (Ed) |first2=R.C. |title=Thomas More, The Complete Works of St Thomas More, vol. 8, ed. L. A. Schuster, R. C. Marius and J. P. Lusardi |date=173 |location=New Haven, CT |page=177}}</ref>}}