VOLUME 3

AN ANSWERE VNTO SIR THOMAS MORES DIALOGE

LOCATION
KEY Commentary Side Textual Bibliographic Scriptural

vs / he wolde not so dyspute. And yf there were no imperfectenesse in oure ladies dedes / whi did christ rebuke hyr Ihon .ij. when he ought rather to haue honoured hys mother / and why did he make hir seke him .iij. dayes. Chrisostimus dare saye / that our lady was now & then taken wyth a litle vayne glorie. She loked for the promises off hym that shulde come and blesse hyr / from what? She beleued to be saued by christ / from what? Thys I graunt / that our lady / Ihon baptiste / Isaac / Iacob / Ioseph / Moses and many lyke / dyd neuer consent too synne / to folow it: But had the holy gost from the bygynnynge.

Neuer the later whyle they folowed the spirite and wrought theyr best / yet chaunces met them by the waye and temptacyons / that made theyr werkes come some tymes vnperfectely too passe / as a potter that hath hys craft neuer so well / meteth a chaunce now and then / that maketh hym facyon a pott amisse. So that I thinke the perfectest of them all as we haue ensamples off some / were compelled to saye wyth Paull / that good that I wold / I doo not and that euell that I wolde nott / that I doo. I wolde not sweere on a boke that yf our lady had bene let slipp as woother were and as harde apposed wyth as present deeth before hyr eyes / that she wolde not haue denyed some thynges that she knewe true. Ye but she was preserved by grace that she was not. No but though she were kepte by grace from the outwarde dede / yet yf theyr were soch wekenesse in hyr flesh / she had synne. And the grace was / that she knew it and was meke too beleue in chryst / too haue yt forgeuen hyr and too be preserued that yt shulde not bud forth. Ihon the euangelyst / when he was as