In the early sixteenth century in northern Europe there was almost no figure at work in the areas of biblical scholarship/translation and church reform who was not indebted to the overwhelming presence and example of Erasmus, and to his editions, translations, treatises or satires. Not only did Tyndale translate Erasmus's "Enchiridion" (published in 1533), but in his "Obedience" he also refers directly to Erasmus's "Preface to the Paraphrase of Matthew" (1522); and John Foxe reports that Tyndale wished to place the Scriptures in the hands of every plow-boy behind his plow, in a direct allusion to Erasmus's "Paraclesis" (1516). Moreover, some of Tyndale's jabs at Julius II appear to recall "Julius Exclusis" (1513); and several of Erasmus's "Colloquies" were mined by Tyndale for anti-clerical satire. As a biblical translator, Tyndale borrows Erasmus's theological perspectives, on repentance, for example, and on congregation (as opposed to 'ecclesia' or 'church'); and as a satirist of the unreformed church, he focuses (as did Erasmus) on the absurdities of scholastic language, on the plethora of pointless religious rules and regulations, and on the laziness and ignorance or over-fed monks. Yost (1969) and Trinterud (1962) have emphasized Tyndale's debt to Erasmus and to Northern Humanism in general, but others (notably Goldrick in 1979) have described the relationship as casual, or coincidental, or indeterminate.

This paper will examine some of the specific linguistic and theological links between the two men (Tyndale imitated Erasmus as a reformer in several crucial ways, and borrowed from the Dutch humanist through dozens of intriguing allusions), but Tyndale also roundly criticized Erasmus -- precisely as he did Thomas More and for the same reasons in similar terms! -- for having sold his soul to the religious/political establishment for money and preferment, and for having cozied up to the rich and powerful. But such criticism did not stop Tyndale from learning from Erasmus the secret of the enigmatic Dutchman's literary power: the methods by which a reformer could construct a voice and 'persona' that were sly, ironic, passionately determined, and politically indirect. The core of Tyndale's belletristic genius derives ultimately from the model of Erasmus as writer and critic.