St. Thomas More

[Genesis315]

I don’t find that an answer and much of what I was referring to are his writings about Luther. Now, I am not a fan of Luther, in fact I consider him one of the most silly and damaging individuals in all of history, however, More’s attacks on him were so disgusting its almost embarassing to read. They were nearly pornographic in their ugliness. I cannot look past that. I had come to him, believing him to be grant, based mainly on A man for all Seasons, I finished the biography, and looked beyond and found it to be accurate. I still respect his stance against Henry, but I deeply am appalled at his hatreds.

I’ve seen the passage you are referencing in Responsio ad Lutherum and a few points should be made about it.

It is in response to Luther’s “Contra Henricam regem,” a “refutation” of Henry VIII’s defense of Catholicism in which Luther misquotes him, lies about the work, etc. This work by Luther was basically his most scurrilous, obscene, and abusive work of all (and that is saying A LOT). A lot of the more colorful language is simply More using Luther’s own words against him (for example, Luther said the latrines should be emptied on the King’s crown and More then turns it around on Luther).

Also of note, a lot of the words sound worse today. “Pimp” in this time period merely meant a rascal or knave. Likewise, “sh**” was simply synonymous with dung, filth, or excrement. It could also mean something or someone obnoxious–it didn’t become a taboo “bad word” until the 17th century, 100 years after More’s work was written. The translation I used to have (which is a pretty old one) uses words like “filthy,” “dung,” and “dungheep.”

Anyway, the King felt personally responding to Luther’s garbage was beneath his dignity so he commanded More to do it. More himself didn’t want to be associated with that kind of junk either so he wrote it under the pseudonym of William Ross (an Englishman who wandered Italy and died in Rome–this persona may or may not have been based on a real person). More’s son-in-law and biographer, William Roper, never even mentions that More wrote this work. Because of this, historically there has been some controversy as to the actual authorship of the Responsio ad Lutherum, although it is pretty well settled now that it is from More.