More in Valencia: A Holograph Manuscript
of the Latin "Passion"
by Geoffrey Bullough
(The Tablet, 12/21/63)
This is startling news, so startling that many a doubting Thomas will need confirmation of Mr. Bullough's evidence, before admitting that here is More's own hand.
"The manuscript is kept as a relic in the royal College of Corpus Christi at Valencia, a seminary founded in 1586 by Blessed Juan de Ribera. The Passion is heavily corrected, and the final revisions agree closely with the text published in the Latin Works in 1565... On a slip of paper pasted into the volume he (Juan de Ribera) wrote a Latin title Thesaurus absconditus ("Hidden Treasure") and an inscription in Spanish..."
From the inscription it appears that the earliest known link in the chain of transmission was Pedro de Soto, who had been confessor to Charles the V, and was summoned to England by Philip II. Further research may throw light on how the manuscript came into de Soto's hands. Of Mr. Bullough's conjectures, the "more probable" is that he got it "from one of More's family (perhaps Rastell) while in England between 1553 and 1558".
I would like to venture a suggestion. Mary Basset must have been for a long time in possession of the Expositio Passionis, since "she englished it for her pastime" (English Works, p. 1350). If Margaret Roper, at her death in 1544, bequeathed More's head to her eldest daughter Lady Elizabeth Bray (Reynolds, The Trial, p. 164), the Expositio - a more literary relic - would have been a suitable bequest for her more scholarly daughter Mary. Now Mary was "one of the gentlewomen of her majesty's chamber" and her husband James Basset was also in the personal service of Queen Mary; she even sent him on a very delicate errand to King Philip (L'Univers de Thomas More, p. 548, 20 janvier and note). These Court duties may provide a link, whether de Soto received the manuscript directly from the Bassets, or whether he got it through his royal patrons.
The cutting from THE TABLET, - an issue also containing a review of Mr. Morison's The Likeness by Mr. Reynolds - was kindly sent me by Professor Andres Vazquez de Prada, who is all the more interested in the discovery as he is preparing a second edition of his Sir Tomas Moro. In his 17 Jan. answer to my letter, he points out that Juan de Ribera is now a canonized saint. Concerning the manuscript's route from London to Valencia, he writes: "Undoubtly the links are Margaret and the Royal family, I agree with you. Although one cannot discard the possibility of an earlier transmission than the time of Mary Tudor (i.e. through the Emperor and his Ambassador). It is possible that Mary Basset made a copy or used a copy of the original."
We expect further information and more views before our next issue, especially from Garry Haupt, who knows the Expositio by heart. Concerning the state of the autograph, one should not overlook Mary Basset's statement, printed in the margin of 1557 (p.1399): "My grandfather's copy was for lack of leisure never well corrected".
It is noteworthy that Mary Basset, in her will, makes no mention of the Expositio, whereas she bequeathes a ring of More's to her own son Philip (Halletts ed. of the History of the Passion, p. XIV). The chronicles of the Dominican Order might enable us to trace Soto's movements in detail, to find whether and when he visited Valencia, or met its archbishop. The strict religious he was should not be expected to make presents in his own name. He may have acted on behalf of King Philip, or even of Charles V, whose confessor he was from June 1542 to August 1548, and whose counsellor he remained to the end. Had the relic been given to him personally, he would no doubt have beqeathed it to Salamanca where he had studied, or else to Alcala where he was born, or even to Dillingen University, whose first steps he had guided before going to England.
The authority seems to be V.D. Carro, O.P., who wrote his D.D thesis on "el Maestro Fray Pedro de Soto", of which I was able to consult only the 96 p. abstract printed at Madrid in 1927. He also contributed the scholarly entry in the Dictionnaire de Theologie Catholique (XIV, 2431-2443). It appears that Soto left Dillingen - where he had make friends with Cardinal Pole, who might also be involved in the migration of the manuscript - on 28 March 1555, and reached England in the Spring. He was back on the Continent "before September 1556". On his way home, he tarried in Belgium, and his 500 p. Defensio Catholicae Confessionis was printed at Antwerp not later than August 1557. His presence in Spain as Provincial came to an end through his appointment as Pope's theologian for the Council on 9 May 1561. He reached Rome in July, then proceeded to Trent, where he died on 20 April 1563. Since Rastell apparently had little, if anything, to do with the 1565 edition of More's Opera, might it not be Soto who brought the Expositio to Louvain? G.M.
The above article appeared in Moreana No.2 February 1964.