Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/451

Rh  from the Latin of Pico's nephew, Giovanni Francesco Pico (Venice, 1498). More's dedication was addressed to his ‘sister in Christ, Joyeuce Leigh,’ possibly a nun. At the close is a paraphrase in English verse, from Pico's Latin prose, of ‘Twelve Rules of a Christian Life.’ An admirable reprint, edited by J. M. Rigg, esq., appeared in Nutt's Tudor Library in 1890.

More's incomplete ‘History of Richard III,’ with the life of Edward V, is said by his nephew Rastell to have been completed in 1513 (English Workes). It first appeared in an incorrect version in Grafton's continuation of Hardyng's ‘Chronicle’ (1543), and was largely used in Hall's ‘Chronicle’(1548). It was first printed by Rastell from an authentic copy in More's ‘Workes’ in 1557, where the narrative ceased with the murder of the princes by Richard III. A Latin version appeared in the collected edition of More's Latin works in 1566. Between the English and Latin renderings are important differences, and the Latin seems to be the original, of which the English is a paraphrase. The tone is strongly Lancastrian, and often implies that the writer was a contemporary witness of some of the events described. This More could not have been, and the theory that Cardinal Morton wrote the work in Latin, which is inferior in style to More's authentic Latin prose, and that More supplied the English version, deserves careful consideration. Sir John Harington, according to his ‘Metamorphosis of Ajax’ (1596), heard that Morton was the author; while Sir George Buc [q. v.], in his ‘History of Richard III’ (1646), says that Morton wrote ‘a book in Latin against King Richard, which afterwards came into the hands of Mr. More, sometime his servant.… This book was lately in the hands of Mr. Roper of Eltham.’ Sir Henry Ellis (1777-1869) [q. v.] believed, with less reason, the English version to be by Morton and the Latin by More. The English work was edited by William Sheares, completing the reign of Richard III, mainly from Hall's text, in 1641. Mr. Singer reprinted it from Rastell's text in 1821, with a continuation from Grafton and Hall, and it was edited by Dr. Lumby in 1883 for the Pitt Press Series. It also appears in Kennett's ‘Complete History,’ 1706, fol. vol. i. (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. i. 105, by Mr. James Gairdner).

More's English controversial works—all of which were published by his brother-in-law, John Rastell, or his nephew, William Rastell—began with ‘A dyaloge of Syr Thomas More, knt., one of the council of our sovereign lord the king, and chancellor of his duchy of Lancaster. Wherein be treatyd divers matters, as of the veneration and worshyp of Ymagys and relygues, prayyng to sayntys and goyng on pylgrymage, wyth many othere thyngys touchyng the pestylent sect of Luther and Tyndale, by the tone bygone in Saxony, and by the tother laboryd to be brought into England. Made in the year of our Lord 1528,’ London, 1529, 4to (by John Rastell), and again, 1530 (Lambeth Libr. and Brit. Mus.), and ‘newly oversene,’ 1531 (by William Rastell). In form it was a report of a conversation taking place in More's library at Chelsea, between More and a young man studying at a university, who was attracted by Lutheran doctrine as set forth by Tindal. The youth had been sent by a friend to More, to be drawn to the right path. It is in four books. The first two defend the theory and practice of Catholicism, the third denounces Tindal's translation of the New Testament as heretical, the fourth is a personal attack on Luther.

There followed ‘Supplycacyon of Soulys,’ London, by W. Rastell, n.d. fol. (1529? Lambeth Libr. and Brit. Mus.), a reply to the ‘Supplycacyon of the Beggars’ by Simon Fish [q. v.] The clergy had been represented by Fish as idle ‘thieves’ and responsible for the distress prevailing among the English labouring classes. The ‘souls of the dead in purgatory’ debate in More's treatise the law of mortmain, currency questions, the evil of a general confiscation of church property, and defend the doctrine of purgatory and prayers for the dead (cf., iv. 664 sq.)

‘The Confutacyon of Tyndale's Answere’ [to More's ‘Dyaloge’], London, by Wyllyam Rastell, 1532, fol. (Brit. Mus.), contains three books of More's reply to Tindal's ‘Answere.’ Six more followed in ‘The second parte of the Confutacyon of Tyndal's Answere, in which is also confuted the Chyrche that Tyndale deuyseth and the Chyrche also that Frere Barus deuyseth,’ London, by W. Rastell, 1533, fol. (Brit. Mus.) In the last book More dealt with the writings of Robert Barnes [q. v.]

In ‘The Apologye of Syr Thomas More, Knyght, made by him Anno 1533 after he had geuen over the office of Lord Chancellour of Englande’ (by W. Rastell), 1533, 16mo (Brit. Mus.), More defended himself against attack on the grounds of undue length and excessive personal abuse in his controversial writing; he renews the attack on Tindal and Barnes and on the anonymous author of ‘The Pacifier of the Division between the Spirituality and the Temporality,’ and defends a rigorous treatment of heretics.

This 'was answered in an anonymous treatise entitled ‘Salem and Bizance,’ to which