The “imagined community” of the church as a means of resistance and comfort in the Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation

Abstract

Faced by pressure to take the Oath of Supremacy, More grounded his resistance to Henry VIII in his argument that he had the consensus of the “whole corps of Christendom” on his side. In this article, I argue that More accessed that consensus through acts of the imagination. In the Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation, More imaginatively evokes the community of the church through his creation of a fictional frame that encompasses multiple generations, nations, and languages and demonstrates his ample vision of the church. Through his use of Psalm 91 as an organizing device for the Dialogue, More identifies the shared experience of suffering as an identifying feature of the church. Connecting himself to this community through acts of the imagination, I argue, helped More to resist Henry VIII, find comfort in his imprisonment, and prepare himself for death.