Thomas More's ‘Utopia’ and Protestant Polemics
The only references by Reformers to More's Utopia listed in R. W. Gibson's St. Thomas More: A Preliminary Bibliography (New Haven, 1961) are two by Tyndale and two by Foxe. Actually Tyndale makes five direct references to Utopia and a large number of indirect references. At least two other Reformers besides the two listed who refer to Utopia are John Frith and William Roy. Each of the direct and indirect references to the Utopia made by Reformers is polemical. The usual point made is that since More has once passed off fiction as truth, he is quite capable of continuing to do so—especially in religious controversy.Tyndale uses More's authorship of the Utopia to attack both More himself and the Catholic Church in general. For instance, he very conveniently dismisses an entire chapter of More's Dialogue by saying that it ‘is as true as his story of Utopia & all his other Poetrie….’ Here the reference serves as shorthand; it saves Tyndale from the necessity of entering into extended argument.