Towards the end of 1533, Sir Thomas More turned to write the last of his harsh rejoinders to a pamphlet attack, printed abroad, on the Catholic doctrine of the eucharist. He did not know who the author was, though he guessed it to be his fierce old adversary William Tyndale, or perhaps George Joye, Tyndale's former friend and collaborator, now his mortal enemy. More's title leaves no doubt about his position: The Answer to the first Part of a poisoned Book which a nameless Heretic hath named The Supper of the Lord. Published a bare three months before he was imprisoned in the Tower on 17 April 1534, it is his last work of religious controversy and shows - as well it might - signs of weariness. It was written by a man troubled with 'a certain sickly disposition of his breast', in reply to a defence against More's retort to an earlier tract by John Frith.

LRB 4 September 1980 | PDF Download