VOLUME 3

AN ANSWERE VNTO SIR THOMAS MORES DIALOGE

LOCATION
KEY Commentary Side Textual Bibliographic Scriptural

rish / because they conceyued not loue vn to the trouth / to besaued by / & therfore shall god send them stronge delusion or gyle / to beleue lies: the texte must also pertayne vn to a multitude gathered to gether in Christes name of whych one parte & nodoute the gretter / for lacke of loue vn to the trouth that is in Christe / to liue therafter / shall faull in to sectes & a false faith vnder the name of Christe & shalbe induratt and stablished therin with false miracles to perish for their vnkyndnesse. The pope first hath no scripture that he dare abyde by in the light / nether careth / but blasphemith that his word is truer then the scripture. He hath miracles with out gods worde / as all false prophetes had. He hath lyes in all his legendes in all preachinges and in all bokes. They haue no loue vn to the trueth. Which appereth by their greate synnes that they haue sett vpp aboue all the abhominacion of all the hethen that ever were / & by their longe continuaunce therin: not of frailte: but of malice vn to the trueth & of obstinatt lust & selfe will to synne. Whych appereth in .ij. thynges: the one / that they haue gotten them with wiles & falsehed from vnder all lawes of man & even aboue kinge & emproure / that no man shuld constrayne their bodies & brynge them vn to better ordir / that they maye synne frely with out feare of man. And on the other syde / they haue brought gods worde aslepe / that it shuld not vnquiet their consciences / in so moch that if any man rebuke them with that / they persecute him immediatly and pose him in their false doctrine & make him an heretike and burne him and quench it.

151/7 prestes . . . multitude. Cf. CWM 6/1.301/1–2.

151/10 a man . . . synne. More does not examine the coexistence of intellectual consent to the truth of faith with a life of sin in Dialogue Bk. 3, Ch. 12, but in Bk. 3, Ch. 1 he discusses Noah's contemporaries and his own, who had faith but lacked charity, cf. 70/1n and CWM 6/1.252/22–24 on unformed and formed faith.

151/14–15 S. Ihon . . . vntrulye. Cf. 1 John 4.20.

151/22 few . . . tyme. Cf. CWM 6/1.301/17–19.

151/24 the lawes of the church. The proliferation of laws by local churches, regional and ecumenical councils, and the papacy led to successive codifications. The collection by Gratian, Concordia discordantium canonum (c1140), had wide influence in the Western Church and was supplemented by further collections before the Reformation (NCE 4.348). Luther's colleagues organized a ceremonial burning of canon law books at the Elster Gate of Wittenberg on 10 December 1520. Luther tossed into the flames the copy of the papal bull Exsurge Domine that he had received on 10 October and that gave him sixty days to recant the erroneous teachings listed therein. Cf. Luther's account in Why the Books of the Popes and his Disciples Were Burned (WA 7.162–82; LW 31.383–95). (JW) For the medieval British church, William Lyndwood (1375?—1446), Bishop of St. David's in Wales, compiled Provinciale, (seu Constitutiones Angliae), a digest with gloss of the constitutions of the province of Canterbury from 1207 to 1443, first printed at Oxford in 1483 (cf. CWM 6/2.691). More as Mentor to the Messenger cites from this collection the constitution of 1409 requiring episcopal permission to translate the Bible into English (cf. 167/21–22n; CWM 6/1.316/16–17).

151/24–25 if . . . better. Cf. CWM 6/1.302/4–7. Tyndale changes More's clause "Luther & Tyndall wolde haue all broken" (6/1.302/ 4–5) into "Luther wold haue burnt" (151/25).

And Paul saith .ij. Timothe .iij. in the later dayes there shalbe perelous times. For ther shal