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Erasmus and the Politics of Translation in Tudor England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2017

Lucy Wooding
Lucy Wooding*
Affiliation:
Lincoln College, Oxford
*
*Lincoln College, Oxford, OX1 3DR. E-mail: lucy.wooding@history.ox.ac.uk.
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Abstract

Desiderius Erasmus was a significant figure in early sixteenth-century England, and many of his works were translated into English during the reign of Henry VIII. In the process of translation the original intention of these works was subverted as Erasmus's reputation was appropriated by his translators and their patrons for their own purposes. His works were recast in English form to serve a variety of different agendas, from those of Henrician conservatives to Protestants pushing for more radical religious reform. This article looks at some of these translations, showing how they illustrate the variations in religious attitudes during these volatile years and the competing claims for validation. In particular, Erasmus's pronouncements on the importance of Scripture translation were annexed and deployed in the debate over the English Bible, demonstrating how his views about translation were in themselves translated to reflect the political and religious needs of the English situation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 53: TRANSLATING CHRISTIANITY , June 2017 , pp. 132 - 145
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2017 

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References

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40 Erasmus, A dialoge or communication of two persons . . . intituled ye pylgremage of pure devotyon (London, 1536?), sigs +iijr, +iiiiv. Usually ascribed to 1535, the reference to the Pilgrimage of Grace means it must have been published in 1536 or 1537.

41 For a contrary claim, see Yost, J. K., ‘Taverner's Use of Erasmus and the Protestantization of English Humanism’, RQ 23 (1970), 266–76Google Scholar. Yost sees Taverner's use of Erasmus to steer a middle way between ‘gospellers’ and ‘papists’ as ‘Protestant moderation’, but his evidence for terming Taverner's views Protestant is shaky, and the works might be better viewed as more distinctively Henrician. Taverner published six translations in 1539–40.

42 The prior, John Ramsay, would surrender his house in 1538, and later became a Protestant; he published two works in 1548, A corosyfe to be layed hard unto the hartes of all faythfull professours of Christes gospel and A plaister for a galled horse.

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60 Erasmus's famous 1519 translation of the first chapter of John using sermo and oratio was faithfully rendered by Princess Mary as ‘word’ and ‘speech’; Pollnitz, ‘Religion and Translation’, 133.