The expansive tradition of Renaissance L'homme armé masses often prompts considerations of how composers competed with, imitated or emulated one another. For fifteenth-century settings, written in close chronological proximity, such comparisons have yielded important channels of influence. But they are less effective in explaining L'homme armé masses from the mid-sixteenth century, written after this tradition's heyday and less immediately concerned with proximate influence. This article addresses the relationships between two pairs of L'homme armé masses by composers of two separate generations: Cristóbal de Morales and Josquin des Prez. Besides uncovering close links between these works relating to source tune treatment, mode, texture and overall style, it offers a new contextualisation for these practices. Morales does not compete with, imitate or emulate Josquin; rather, he reanimates the L'homme armé tradition by adapting features from its most renowned practitioner and translating them into a contemporary musical language.