VOLUME 3

AN ANSWERE VNTO SIR THOMAS MORES DIALOGE

LOCATION
KEY Commentary Side Textual Bibliographic Scriptural

de by his boke & to dispute / which he might well doo / sith he had his safe conducte that he shuld haue no bodyly harme. T. o mercifull god / how fome ye out youre awne shame? ye can not dispute excepte ye haue a man in youre awne daunger to doo him bodyly harme / to diote him aftir youre facion / to tormente him and to murther him. Yf ye might haue had him at youre pleasure / ye wold haue disputed wyth him: first wyth sophistrie and corruptynge the scripture: then with offerynge him promocions : then with the swerde. So that ye wold haue bene sure / to haue ouercome him with one argument or other.

sith] sithens 1573

fome] come 1573

M. He wold agre on no Iudges. T. What iudges offered ye him / saue blynde bisshopes & cardenales / enimies of all trouth / whose promocions and dignites they feare to be plucked from them / if the trouth came to light / or soch Iudases as they had corrupte with money to mayntene their secte? The appostles might haue admitted as well the hethen bisshopes of Idoles to haue bene their iudges as he them. But he offered you autenticke scripture and the hertes of the whole worlde. Whych .ij. iudges / iff ye had good consciences and trust in god / ye wold not haue refused.

Iudges] 1573, Iugdes [1531]

iiij.

iiij.] The iiij. Chapter. 1573

The fourth chapter is not the first poetrie that he hath fayned.

V.

v.] The v. Chapter. 1573

In the ende of the fifte he vntrulye reporteth / that Marten saith / no man is bound to kepe any vowe. Lawfull promises are to be kepte and vnlawfull broken.

are] 1573, arte [1531]

vnlawfull] 1573, vnlawfulll 1531; broken] to be broken 1573

vj.

vj.] The vj. Chapter. 1573

In the beginnenge of the . vj. he discrybeth marten aftir the ensample of his awne nature / as in other places he discribeth god aftir the complexion of popes cardenals and worldly tirantes.

awne] ed., a awne 1531, own 1573

M. Marten will abyde but by the scripture only. T. and ye will come at no scripture only: And as for the old doctours ye wyll heare as litle / saue where it pleaseth you / for all youre crienge / old holy fathers. For tel me this / whi haue ye in englonde condemned the vnion of doctours but because ye wold not haue youre falshed disclosed by the doctrine of them.

M. they saye / that a christen man is discharged of al lawes spirituall and temperall saue the gospell. T. ye iugle / we saye that no christen man ought to bynde his brother violently / vn to any lawe wher of he coude not geue a reason out of christes doctrine and out of the lawe of loue. And on the other syde we saye / that a christen man is called to sofre wronge and tiranny (though no man ought to bynde him) vntill god rid vs therof: so fer yet as the tiranny is not directly agenst the law of god and faith of Christe / and no further.

M. marten was the cause of the destruccion of the vplondish people of germanie. T. that is false for then he coude not haue escaped him selfe. Marten was as moch the cause of their confusion / as Christ of the destruccion of Ierusalem. The duke elector of saxon cam from the warre of those vplondish people and other dukes with him / in to Wittenberge where Marten is / with .xv. hundred men of armes / so that Marten if he had bene gyltie / coude not

destruccion] ed., destrucciou 1531, destruction 1573

haue] 1573, hahaue 1531

haue gonne quite. And therto all the dukes and lordes that cleaue vn to the worde of god thys daye / were no lesse combred with their comen people then other men.

Then after the lowdest maner he setteth out the cruelnesse of the emproures soudioures whych they vsed at Rome: but he maketh no mencion of the treason which holy church wrought secretly / were with the men off warre were so set on fire.

viij.

viij.] The viij. Chapter. 1573

M. what good dede will he do / that beleueth marten / how that we haue no frewill to do any good with the helpe of grace? T. O poete with out shame.

M. what harme shal he care to forbere / that beleueth luther / how god alone / with out oure will worketh all the misheue that they doo. T. O naturall sonne of the father of all lies.

misheue] mischiefe 1573

M. what shall he care / how longe he liue in synne that beleueth luther / that he shall after thys life / fele nether good ner evell in bodye ner soule vntyll the daye of dome? T. Christ and hys appostles taught no nother / but warned to loke for christes cominge agayne euery houre. Which cominge agayne / because ye beleue will neuer be therfore haue ye fained that other marchaundice.

M. Martens bokes be open / if ye will not beleue vs. T. Naye / ye haue shutt them vpp and therfore be bold to saie what ye liste.

liste] luste 1573

M. they liue as they teach and teach as they liue. T. but nether teach ner liue as other lye on them.

ix.

ix.] The ix. Chapter. 1573

M. though the turke offer pleasures vn to the receauers and deeth vn to the refusers of his