VOLUME 3

AN ANSWERE VNTO SIR THOMAS MORES DIALOGE

LOCATION
KEY Commentary Side Textual Bibliographic Scriptural

will he gape while thou puttest sonde as holysalt in his mouth / if thou shewe him no reason therof. He had as lefe be smered with onhalowed butter as anoynted with charmed oyle if his soule be not taught to vnderstonde some whate therbye / and so forth.

7/8–13 the preast . . . oyle. Cf. CWM 8/1.58/31–33.

7/11–13 holysalt . . . oyle. Used in the sacrament of Baptism, cf. 19/3. For material objects used in religious rites, cf. 70/23–24n.

7/5–14 and so . . . forth. CWM 8/1.76/10–18.

But the worlde captyvateth his witte and aboute the lawe of god maketh him wonderful imaginacions vnto which he so fast cleaveth that ten Iohan Baptistes were not able to dispute them out of his hed. He beleveth that he loveth god because he is readie to kille a turcke for his sake that beleveth better in god then he / whom god also commaundeth vs to loue and to leave nothinge vnsought / to winne him vnto the knowlege of the truth / though with the losse of oure lyves. He supposeth that he loveth his neyghboure as moch as he is bounde / if he be not actuallye angrye with him / whom yet he wil not helpe frelye with an halfpenye but for avantage / or vayneglorye or for a wordlie purposse. If any man haue displeased him / he kepeth his malice in and will not chafe him silfe aboute it till he se an occasion to avenge it craftelye and thinketh that well ynough. And the rulars of the worlde he obeyeth thinketh he / when he flatereth them and blindeth them with giftes and corrupteth the officers with rewardes and begyleth the lawe with cautels and sotiltyes. And because the loue of god & of his neyghboure which is the spirite and the liffe of all lawes and wherfore all lawes are made / is not writen in his harte / therfore in all inferioure lawes and in all worldlye ordinaunces is he betell blinde. If he be commaunded to absteyne from wyne / that will he observe vnto the deeth to / as the charter house monkes

2 CORINTHIANS: 10.5: 7/15, 8/9, 8/23, 139/13,140/28, 141/16–17, 143/24–25, 143/29, 144/16, 145/9–10, 198/15–16, 212/9, 212/10–11, 212/19–20

7/15 captyvateth his witte. Cf. 2 Cor. 10.5. Tyndale taunts More with this clause fourteen times.

7/15–17 But . . . hed. CWM 8/1.121/11–14.

7/18 turcke. Tyndale associates Turks with papists in their erroneous belief in justification by works, not faith. Thus, Answer has more references to the Turks than any other of the independent works. Cf. Mammon I1; Obedience C7v, D2v, I3v; Prelates B5; Matthew a3v, f3v, 02, 06. By opposing killing Turks in the name of Christianity, Tyndale echoes the final section of Erasmus' 1515 account of the adage Dulce bellum inexpertis; "Wars are sweet to them who know them not," Tilley W58. Cf. Adagia 4.1.1 (LB 2.966D-970A; not yet in ASD or CWE); Margaret Mann Phillips, The 'Adages' of Erasmus (Cambridge UP, 1964) 344–52. Rather than arms or scholastic philosophy, Erasmus offers the philosophia Christi as a better way to overcome the Turks in the preface to a new edition of the Enchiridion. Cf. Ep. 858, To Paul Volz, Basel, 14 August 1518 (Allen 3.364/78–366/154; CWE 6.75/85–77/165; also found in Holborn 5/14–7/20; CWE 66.10–12). Because of the moral failures of Christendom, Erasmus was pessimistic about a victory over the Turks in his 1530 "consultation," De bello Turcis inferendo. See the introduction to De bello by A.G. Weiler (ASD 5/3.20–27; not yet in CWE). Early in his career, Luther had denounced collecting indulgence money, not only for the supposed release of the souls in purgatory, e.g. Thesis 27, but also for a crusade against the Turks, Resolutions of 1518 (WA 1.535/29–39; LW 31.91–92). Gradually his position became more nuanced. In his On War Against the Turk, 1529 (WA 30/2.107–48; LW 46.161–205), and again in Eine Heerpredigt wider den Türken, 1529 (WA 30/2.160–97; not in LW), Luther affirmed the right of the emperor to make a military defense against the Turks. (JW) Writing in the Tower of London in 1534–35, More sets his Dialogue of Comfort (CWM 12) in Hungary between the Muslim victory at Mohács (August 1526) and the unsuccessful siege of Vienna (October 1529). The Great Turk is at once Suleiman the Magnificent and Henry VIII. See Brandon H. Beck, From the Rising of the Sun: English Images of the Ottoman Empire to 1715, American University Studies, Series IX, History 20 (New York: Peter Lang, 1987).

7/19–20 whom . . . loue. Cf. Matt. 5.44, Luke 6.35.

Matt. 5.44, Luke 6.35: 7/19–20

7/18–22 He beleveth . . . lyves. CWM 8/1.123/26–29. Cf. CWM 8/2.810/17–24.

MATTHEW: 5.22: 7/23

7/23 angrye with him. Cf. Matt. 5.22.

wordlie] worldly 1573

7/25 wordlie purposse. Tyndale frequently makes a pun on "wordly " and "worldly": e.g., 48/6n, 63/23, 72/31; Mammon A6v etc., Obedience A7 etc., 1 John F4v etc.

Deut. 6.5, Matt. 22.37, Mark 12.30, Luke 10.27: 5/30, 7/31, 20/24, 64/30, 99/5, 134/7–8

Lev. 19.18, Matt. 19.19, Matt. 22.39, Mark 12.31, Luke 10.27, Rom. 13.9, Gal. 5.14, Jas. 2.8: 6/3, 7/31, 20/24, 27/29–30, 54/30, 56/7, 56/19, 64/30, 77/2, 96/15, 99/4–5, 148/17–18, 153/14–15, 153/18, 156/17–18, 161/23, 178/3–4, 181/16–17

PSALMS: 8:7/32–33

PSALMS: 68.6: 7/32–33

PSALMS: 148: 7/32–33

JEREMIAH: 31.33: 7/32–33,12/27, 49/19,52/29–30, 53/22, 53/34, 54/16–17,64/15–16, 85/26,97/15–16, 111/7, 112/29, 113/21–22, 113/28, 113/32–33, 137/32, 139/15, 151/27, 170/17–18, 175/14, 183/9–10, 195/22–23, 205/27–28

MATTHEW: 16.18: 7/32–33, 29/3–4, 131/22, 131/26–27

MATTHEW: 18.20: 7/32–33

MATTHEW: 28.20: 7/32–33

JOHN: 16.13: 7/32–33, 104/31–32, 135/25–26

JOHN: 20.30: 7/32–33

7/32–33 writen in his harte. Cf. Jer. 31.33, Heb. 8.10, Heb. 10.16. This is the most frequently quoted biblical text in Answer, twentythree times in all. For an examination of this text in relation to Tyndale's emphasis on justification by faith and as a foreshadowing of covenant theology, cf. O'Donnell, "Scripture versus Church," Moreana 106–7, "Biblical Interpretation in the Age of Thomas More: Numéro spécial William Tyndale" (July 1991) 119— 30, esp. 120 and n7. Marc'hadour discusses Jer. 31.33 (cf. Bible 3.194–96), quoted in Heb. 8.10 and Heb.10.16, as one of seven major biblical texts frequently used by More. His other key texts are Matt. 16.18, Matt. 18.20, Matt. 28.20, John 16.13, John 20.30, and Ps. 67.7 in Vulgate (Ps. 68.6 in KJV) (cf. Bible 4.117). Following the Hebrew text, the numbers of the psalms in the KJV are usually one digit higher than the Septuagint and the Vulgate after Ps. 8 and before Ps. 148 (NCE 11.935). Since the KJV does not count the heading as a verse, within individual psalms its numbers are often one digit behind the Vulgate.

7/22–34 He supposeth . . . blinde. CWM 8/1.124/36–125/11. Tyndale opposes the legalistic definition of charity as the mere absence of irate feeling and ill-will. Such teaching is exemplified by Silvester Prierias in his treatment of love of enemies in the frequently reprinted Summa summarum de casibus conscientiae (Bologna , 1514), s.v. charitas. Luther had rejected a similar reduction of charity to an obligation to give help only in cases of dire necessity , in the earliest extant disputation that he chaired in Wittenberg, September 1516 (WA 1.149; not in LW). (JW)

7/34 betell blinde. Cf. 140/29 and Tilley B219.

8/1–2 charter house monkes. The Carthusians were founded in the French Alps by St. Bruno in 1084. They never eat meat (Obedience O4v), and keep silence except for a period on Sundays and major feasts (NCE 3.162–67; OER 1.266–69). Tyndale satirically advises the husband of a garrulous wife to buy silence from the Charterhouse (Obedience Q8v). Erasmus contrasts a veteran with a monk who meditates on the Bible and Fathers in "The Soldier and the Carthusian," August 1523, Colloquies (ASD 1/3.314–19; CWE 39.328–43). According to his son-in-law, More lived without vows in the London Charterhouse before finally deciding to marry (Roper 6/9— 11). On 4 May 1535, two months before his own death, More and his daughter Margaret watched three Carthusian priors leave the Tower on their way to execution (Roper 80/9ff). Among the fifty persons who died under Henry VIII for rejecting the royal supremacy, the Carthusians were the largest group with a total of eighteen, followed by eleven diocesan priests including Fisher, seven laypeople including More, seven Benedictines, five Franciscans, one Austin friar and the Bridgittine Richard Reynolds (NCE 9.318–32, 17.36).