VOLUME 3

AN ANSWERE VNTO SIR THOMAS MORES DIALOGE

LOCATION
KEY Commentary Side Textual Bibliographic Scriptural

And when he saith / the scripture selfe maketh vs not to beleue the scripture but the church teacheth vs to know the scripture : for a man might reade it and not beleue it. And so I saye / that a man might heare you preach and yet beleue you not also. And I saye therto / that youre church teacheth not to know the scripture: but hideth it in the latine from the comen people. And from them that vnderstond latine they hide the true sence with a thousand false gloses.

185/8 blaspheme ... saintes. Cf. CWM 6/1.359/31–33, 8/1.314/15–16.

185/12 they . . . salue regina. Cf. CWM 6/1.359/34–35, 8/1.314/ 12–13. Erasmus agrees with the executed heretic Louis de Berquin that the title, spes et vita nostra or "our hope and life," belongs properly to Christ not Mary. Cf. Ep. 2188, To Charles Utenhove, Freiburg, 1 July 1529 (Allen 8.212/103–5; not yet in CWE). After his resignation from the chancellorship, More teased his family that, as a last resort, they could support themselves on alms by stopping "at euery mans doore to singe salue Regina" (Roper 54/11). In Ch. 9 of his biography, Thomas Stapleton relates that More's household customarily recited Pss. 50/51, 24/25, 66/67, 129/130, and the Salve Regina as part of their evening prayers. Cf. The Life and Illustrious Martyrdom of Sir Thomas More, tr. Philip E. Hallett, ed. E.E. Reynolds (New York: Fordham UP, 1966) 88–89.

185/13 christ is our hope and life. For "hope," 1 Tim. 1.1; for "life," cf. John 14.6.

And I saye morouer that the scripture is the cause why men beleue the scripture / as well as a preacher is the cause why men beleue his preachinge. For as he that first told in Englonde that the Rodes was taken / was the cause whi some beleued it / euen so might writynge sent from those parties be the cause that some men which red it beleued it. Master More wyll saye / that letter had his auctorite of the man that sent it / and so hath the scripture his auctorite of the church. Naye / the scripture hath hir auctorite of him that sent it / that is to wete of god / which thynge the miracles did testifie / and not of the man that brought it. He wyll saye / thou knowest the scripture by their shewenge. I graunt at the begynnynge I doo.

185/16–18 they saye . . . our lady. Cf. CWM 6/1.360/1–3.

185/18–20 his mother . . . wyll. Cf. Matt. 12.50, Mark 3.35.

185/21–23 blessed . . . kepe it. Luke 11.27–28. Answer has "Naye" (185/22), while NT has "Ye[a]" (Wallis 154/29; TNT 110D).

185/24–27 I haue . . . rewarde. 1 Cor. 9.16–17. The two clauses of v. 17 are given in reverse order.

Then wyll he saye / why shuld ye not beleue them / in all their other doctrine besydes the scripture and in all their exposicions of the scripture / as well as ye beleue them / when they tell you that soch and soch bokes ar the scripture. May they not shew you a false boke? yes / and therfore at the begynnynge I beleue all a like. Euery lye that they tell out of their awne braynes we