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Simon Fish, William Tyndale, and Sir Thomas More's ‘Lutheran Conspiracy’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Steven W. Haas
Steven W. Haas
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara, U.S.A.
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Extract

As Sir Thomas More reflected upon the religious atmosphere during the first months of 1528, he could not conceal his dismay that the situation was steadily deteriorating. Indeed, he thought the popular orthodoxy so weak that any ‘senseless clown’ could gain wide support for an attack on the Church. Within the year, Simon Fish's Supplication of the Beggars had made More a prophet, forcing the busy new chancellor of England to reply to Fish with The Supplycacyon of soulys. Historians have hesitated to label Fish senseless or a clown, for the tremendous impact of his short tract upon Henry vm and the English Reformation is generally recognised. While it is manifest that the Supplication was a rabble-rousing piece of anti-clericalism, perhaps another measure should be taken of Fish before closing off the subject of his significance from discussion. Specifically, if evidence should place Fish and his writings within that group identified with William Tyndale, more credence would be lent to chancellor More's repeated assertions that a number of ‘evangelicall brethren’ existed to propagate Tyndale's beliefs.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , April 1972 , pp. 125 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

page 125 note 1 Rogers, Elizabeth, St. Thomas More: Selected Letters, New Haven 1961, 168Google Scholar: More to John Cochleaus, 1528.

page 125 note 2 Fish, Simon, A Supplicationfor the Beggars, ed. Arber, E., London 1878 (AMS reprint edition N.Y., 1967Google Scholar); Sir Thomas More, The Supplycacyon of soulys, London, W. Rastell, 1529.

page 125 note 3 Scarisbrick, J. J., Henry VIII, Berkeley 1968, 247–8Google Scholar; Chambers, R. W., Thomas More, Ann Arbor 1958, 3–4Google Scholar; Clebsch, William A., England's Earliest Protestants, New Haven 1964, 242–3Google Scholar, 295; Pineas, Rainer, Thomas More and Tudor Polemics, London 1968, 172Google Scholar; Dickens, A. G., The English Reformation, London 1964, 99–101Google Scholar; Elton, G. R., The Tudor Constitution, 1968, 318Google Scholar; Ogle, Arthur, The Tragedy of Lollard's Tower, Oxford 1949, 4411Google Scholar.

page 125 note 4 See, More, ThomasThe Apologye of Syr Thomas More, Knyght, ed. Taft, Arthur I. (Early English Text Society) London 1930, 6–11Google Scholar, 30–42, 84–5.

page 125 note 1 Fish, Simon, The Summe of the holye scripture, ? Hoochstraten, J., Antwerp 1929Google Scholar: see below, 135 n.2 for reprints; Wilkins, David (Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hibemiae, London 1737, iii. 730–2Google Scholar) lists 92 heresies in the Summe as declared by the assembly of bishops, 27 May 1530.

page 126 note 1 Clebsch, op. cit. 245–51 see also Jones, Whitney R. D., The Tudor Commonwealth, 1529–1559, London 1970, 95Google Scholar, 101, 125. First to notice this source was Weiss, N., ‘Le Premier Traits Protestant en Langue Franchise: La Summe de l'Escripture Saincte, 1523’, Société de l'Histoire du Protestantisme Francais Bulletin, 68, fifth series, xvi (1919), 70–9Google Scholar.

page 126 note 2 Foxe, John, Actes and Monuments, ed. Pratt, Josiah, London 1870, iv. 656–64Google Scholar.

page 126 note 3 Mozley, J. F., William Tyndale, London 1937, 151Google Scholar; an exact statement of Foxe about Fish's wife is given in Ogle, Lollards Tower, 280: ‘Ex certa relatione, vivoque testimonio propriae ipsius conjugis’.

page 126 note 4 Foxe, Actes, iv. 657.

page 126 note 5 Foxe Actes, iv. 666; Fish, Supplication, xiii (intro.); J. S. Brewer, Letter and Papers: Foreign and Domestic, iv, iii, 5416; Papers of George Wyatt, ed. D. M. Loades, Camden Fourth Series, v, London 1968, 24–30.

page 126 note 6 Franck, Klagbrieff oder Supplication der Amen diirfftigen in Engenlandt an den Kb'nig daselb gestellet, n. pi. 1529, preface, copy at Yale University Library; Simon Fish, Supplicatoris libellus pauperum et egentium, London 1530 (BM 1019. g.l).

page 126 note 7 Foxe, Actes, iv. 664.

page 126 note 8 Pineas, op. cit., 218–19; Ogle, Lollard Tower, 102n., 158.

page 127 note 1 More, Supplycacyon, sigs. AIIv, CIVv, DI, DIIIv, DIV, EIII-EIV, GIv; Pineas, op. cit., 163–4.

page 127 note 2 Brewer, L. & P., vi, ii, 4028; Thomas More, Workes, London, W. Rastell 1557, 228, 246, 249, 283; Mozley, Tyndale, 350–1; Foxe, Actes, iv. 657.

page 127 note 3 More, Workes, 283, 341–2.

page 127 note 4 Ibid., 343, 286–7.

page 127 note 5 John Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials, Oxford, 1822, i. 175–7; William Tyndale, Obedience of a Christian Man, in Doctrinal Treatises and Portions of the Holy Scripture, ed. H. Walter, Parker Soc, 1848, 33, 42, 129; Mozley, Tyndale, 134.

page 127 note 6 More, Workes, 105, 310; Fish, Supplication, viii-x; William Tyndale, Practice of Prelates (in Expositions and Notes on Sundry Portions of the Holy Scriptures, ed. H. Walter, Parker Soc, 1849, 344) states that Obedience was written ‘well toward three years agone'; Apology of More, ed. Taft, xxv.

page 128 note 1 Tyndale, Obedience, 180–8, 234–43, 249, 324, 338; Fish, Supplication, 5–9; Pineas, Thomas More and Tudor Polemics, 53–68.

page 128 note 2 Fish, Supplication, 6–7, 9–10, 13; Tyndale, Obedience, 189–98, 249–50; More, Supply-cacyon, sigs. BIII-BV sees Luther behind Fish.

page 128 note 3 Tyndale, Obedience, 249–50, 338–9, 285–8; Fish Supplication, 6, 9; Gairdner, L. & P., vi. 109; Pineas, op. cit., 63, 68, 155, 165, 167.

page 128 note 4 Tyndale, Obedience, 236–7, 245–56, 263–4, 341–42 (confession), 219–34, 272–3 (use of Latin, fees, and ceremonies); Fish, Supplication, 3–5, 8, 10, 12–13; Walter, Obedience, points out identical passages of Tyndale's Obedience (237) and Fish's Supplication (4).

page 128 note 5 Tyndale, Obedience, 203–5, 224–6) 241–3; Tyndale, Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue, ed. H. Walter, Parker Soc, 1850, 146, 166: defends Fish's use of the Hunn e case.

page 128 note 6 Tyndale, Obedience, 185–8, 203, 230–7, 245–51, 242, 296, 335–9; Fish, Supplication, 8–12.

page 128 note 7 Pineas, op. cit., 53; ibid. 154–5.

page 128 note 8 Franklin Le Van Baumer, The Early Tudor Theory of Kingship, New Haven 1940, 41–6, 65, 86–121; Ballads from Manuscripts: Ballads on the Condition of England in Henry VIII'sReign, ed. F. J. Furnivall and W. R. Morfill, London 1869–72, passim; C. S. Lewis, Oxford History of English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, Oxford 1954, 48–9.

page 129 note 1 Weiss, ‘Le Premier Traite,’ 70 (referred to above, 126 n.i); Clebsch, Protestants, 246–9; Martin Luther, Werke, Weimar ed., xi. 229–81, or for specific passages in English translation see Luther's Works, ed. H. Lehman, Philadelphia 1962, xlv. 85–117.

page 129 note 2 Fish, Summe, fols. lxxii, lxxxv-lxxxvii; Tyndale, Obedience, 160–95, 200–4, 240–50.

page 129 note 3 Fish, Summe, fob. lxxiii-lxxviiiv, lxxxv.

page 129 note 4 Fish, Summe, fols. lxxxix, Chap, xxix; Tyndale, Obedience, 190–3, 197–8.

page 129 note 5 Fish, Summe, fols. lxxii, lxxvi-lxxviv; Tyndale, Obedience, 175–88, 193–5.

page 129 note 6 Fish, Summe, xxiv, xxviii, also fols. lxxxv-lxxxii; Tyndale, Obedience, 190–3, 197–8.

page 129 note 7 Fish, Summe, fols. xvi, xxvii-xxviii, lxxvi-lxxxiiv; Tyndale, Obedience, 185–95, 207–8, 240.

page 129 note 8 Preserved Smith, ‘Englishmen at Wittenberg in the Sixteenth Century’, English Historical Review (1921), 422; Original Letters illustrative of English History, ed. Henry Ellis, London 1846, third series, ii. 71–6; Mozley, Tyndale, 52–3; Tyndale, Obedience, 189, 209.

page 130 note 1 More, Supplycacyon, preface, sigs. CIv-RIV, book ii., passim.

page 130 note 2 Fish, Supplication, 10.

page 130 note 3 Wilkins, Concilia, 733.

page 130 note 4 More, Supplycacyon, sigs. FII, GIv, GUI, JI, JIIv, JIIIv, KIIv, LIIIv.

page 130 note 5 More, Workes, 248–9, 251, 256–7, 283.

page 130 note 6 Tyndale, Obedience, 158–9, 235, 244, 269, 271, 301, 303, 311, 318, 321, 342.

page 130 note 7 Wilkins, Concilia, 728–9.

page 130 note 8 Tyndale, Practice of Prelates, 287–8, 296–8; Tyndale, Answer to More's Dialogue, 27 47, 121, 141–3, 180, 214–15: Walter (ed. cit., 2) points out that these tracts were both written in 1530. The emphasis on purgatory can be seen as a defence of Fish against More's Supplycacyon: W. R. D.Jones, Tudor Commonwealth, 110–11.

page 130 note 9 Tyndale, Practice of Prelates, 297; G. Marc'hadour, Moreana, vi (1965), 107. In explanatory note, Marc'hadour explains Tyndale's characterisation of More.

page 131 note 1 Tyndale, Practice of Prelates, 335.

page 131 note 2 Tyndale, The Supper of the Lord, in An Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue, 218–20; Clebsch, Protestants, 213; W. D. J. Cargill Thompson, ‘Who Wrote ”The Supper of the Lord”?’, Harvard Theological Review, liii (i960), 77–91; Mozley, ‘The Supper of the Lord’, Moreana, x (1966), 11–16, who has the most convincing argument, opts for Tyndale's authorship.

page 131 note 3 Tyndale, An Answer to More's Dialogue, 267–8, with marginal note referring to More.

page 131 note 4 Ibid, 267, cf. 28; More, Supplycacyon, sigs. AIIv, AIIv.

page 131 note 5 Clebsch, Protestants, 245.

page 131 note 6 Henricus Bomelius (tr.), Summa der godliker scriftvren, Oft een duytsche theologie, no p., 1526, chaps, iv-vi, xii-xiii, and prologue, in Monumenta Reformationis Belgicae, ed. J. Toorenenbergen, Leiden 1882, i.

page 131 note 7 Bomelius, Summa, chaps, xiii, xxiii, xxvii (scriptures), xxix (Van ruteren ende orlogen, oftmen sonder sonde mach orloghe aennemen, een informacie na dat Evan-gelium); Fish, Summe, fols. lxxxviiv-lxxxix; Luther, Werke, Weimar ed., xix, 623–52.

page 132 note 1 Fish, Summe, chaps, vi-viii, xxv, and fols. x-xvii, xxiii-xxviii; Weiss, op. cit., 78–9; Clebsch, Protestants, 245–9.

page 132 note 2 Fish, Supplication has the winter of 1529–30 as publishing date, but if Summe was published by Hoochstraten in Antwerp, it is likely that Tyndale saw it previous to publication; Clebsch, Protestants, 247–8; L. J. Trinterud, ‘A Reappraisal of Tyndale's Debt to Luther’, Church History, xx (1951), 33–5, 41–2.

page 132 note 3 Mozley, Tyndale, 348–50; W. Heaton, The Bible of the Reformation, London 191 o, 68.

page 132 note 4 P. Génard, Antwerpsch Archievenblad, Antwerp 1870, vii. 166–78; Brewer, L. & P., iv. 4569, 4693, 4694, 4714.

page 132 note 5 Edward Hall, Hall's Chronicle, London 1809, 719; Fish, Supplication, xi, xii.

page 132 note 6 Fish, Supplication, xiv; Strype, Memorials, 1, ii (1822), 63; Foxe, Actes, iv. 657, cf. 698–9, where Joh n Bainham's library of Tyndale's works and his Lutheran discipleship are described. Soon after Fish's death, Bainham married his widow.

page 133 note 1 Spalatin diary, 10 August 1526: ‘whichever he spoke, you would think it his native tongue’, in Heaton, Bible, 45.

page 133 note 2 More, Workes, 881; Clebsch, Protestants, 244.

page 133 note 3 More, Supplycacyon, sigs. Bill”, AIIv, CIVv, DI, DIII-DIV, EI, EIII, FIv.

page 133 note 4 More, Workes, 340–1.

page 133 note 5 Cromwell to Wolsey, 1530, letter transcribed in Jesus College, Master MSS., fol. 192 (MS. Jesus Coll. C. 74): ‘he [Cromwell] hath discovered lately some, who favour Luther's sect, and read his books and Tindall's, the books he hath taken are the Revelation of Antichrist [Practice ofPrelates'] and Supplication of Beggars'; Wilkins, Concilia, 740; Thomas Becon, The Jewell of Joy, in The Catechism of Thomas Becon, ed. J. Ayre, Parker Soc, 1844, 421.

page 134 note 1 More, Workes, 340–1; Jerome Barlowe/William Roy, A Proper Dyaloge between a Gentillman and an Husbandman, Antwerp 1530, sig. AI.

page 134 note 2 W. Nijhoffand M. Kronenberg, Nederlandshe Bibliographic, Hague 1940, 4215 (1529 ed.) and 2775 (1530 ed.); Barlowe/Roy, A Proper Dyaloge, sigs. AIII-AVv, AVIF, BI, CVIIP.

page 134 note 3 Barlowe/Roy, A Proper Dyaloge, sig. BI-BII.

page 134 note 4 Ibid., sigs. AVIIIv, BIv, BII.

page 134 note 5 John Frith, A Disputacyon of Purgatory devided into thre bokes, Antwerp 1531 (STC. no. 11388) was reported by George Joye to have been printed with Tyndale's Answer to More's Dialogue (STC. no. 24437) in C. Anderson, Annals of the English Bible, London 1845, i. 279; Tyndale, Answer to More's Dialogue, iii.

page 134 note 6 Frith, Disputacyon, sigs. AVTIv-AVTII.

page 134 note 7 Ibid., sigs. AIIIIv, AVIIIv, JIII-JIIIv, JV (book 1), All, AIII”, AIV (book 2).

page 134 note 8 Ibid., sig. KVIIv; see also JIII, LIII.

page 134 note 9 Nijhoff-Kronenberg, NB., 953 which gives a list of Hoochstraten's imprints.

page 134 note 10 Ibid., 3912; Clebsch, Protestants, 245.

page 134 note 11 Nijhoff-Kronenberg, NB., 3032, 3989.

page 135 note 1 Ibid., 3993 (note) for first identification of Berthelet and Godfray with Tyndale publication; see Tyndale, Parable of the Wicked Mammon, London c. 1535, a t Oxford (Arch, Bodl. B. II. 96) and Obedience of a Christian Man, London c. 1536 (Arch. Ae. 90. i.); Fish, Summe of the Holy Scripture, London c. 1535 (copies at Cambridge University Library, SYN 8.53.45, SYN 8.53.46); see also Simon Matthewe, A Sermon Made in St. Paul's at London, London 1535, sigs. DIII-CII, CVIII-DII, (STC. no. 17656); for commentary see E. G. Duff, Printers, Stationers and Bookbinders of Westminster and London, Cambridge 1906, 157, 228 and Century of English Book Trade, London 1904, 56; M. E. Kronenberg, ‘Forged Addresses in Low Country Books in the Period of the Reformation’, The Library, fifth series, ii (1947), 87; Germain Marc'hadour, L'Univers de Thomas More, Paris 1963, 522–533, 534. For Redman and his connexions with Berthelet, Godfrey, and Cromwell, see Dennis Rhodes, ‘William Marshall’ in The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, lviii (1964), 220–1.

page 135 note 2 Fish, Summe of the Holy Scripture, London 1550, printed by John Wayland: title page has ‘Wm. TindaP as author (BM. C. 53, a. 19); Fish, Summe of the Scripture, London 1548, (BM. 4401 b.2), Tyndale, Obedience of a Christian Man, London 1548, (BM. 1482 a.io ii) another edition (C 25 d. 11) printed by William Hill; Ante's Typographical Antiquities, ed. T. Dibdin, London 1819, 47–9: no. i860 notes John Day as printer of Fish, Summe of the Holy Scripture, London 1547; ibid., 130, describes Day's printing of Foxe's Whole Workes of W. Tyndall, John Frith and Doct. Barnes …., London 1573.

page 135 note 3 More, Workes, 849–50; D. M. Loades, ‘The Press under the Early Tudors: a Study in Censorship and Sedition’, Cambridge Bibliographical Society Transactions, iv (1964), 29–33; Dickens English Reformation, 9–12.

page 135 note 4 Fish, Summe, fol. lxv.

page 136 note 1 Brewer, L. & P., rv. iii, 5416.

page 136 note 2 Calendar of State Papers... Venice, ed. R. Brown, London 1871, iv. 642.

page 136 note 3 Fines, J. S., ‘An Unnoticed Tract of the Tyndale-More Dispute?’ in Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, xlii (1969), 220–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar (BM. Stowe MS. 269, fols. i-xvi).

page 136 note 4 Ibid., 224.

page 136 note 5 Ibid., 222–3; Tyndale, Practice of Prelates, 274–5, 279, 297, 321, 335, 337.

page 136 note 6 Pineas, Thomas More and Tudor Polemics, 215–18.