10/27–30 we . . . imagininge. Cf. CWM 8/1. 149/28–31.

11/2 Kinge wyllyam. By presenting himself as a defender of the church, the Duke of Normandy won support for invading England from Alexander II (pope, 1061–73) (Prelates F2v) (NCE 14.918–19). As William I (king, 1066–87), he confiscated gold and silver from monasteries. Cf. Bk. 7, Ch. 1 of Polychronicon Ranulphi Hidgen Monachi Cestrensis together with the English Translations of John Trevisa and of an Unknown Writer of the Fifteenth Century, ed. Joseph Rawson Lumby (London, 1879) 7.256–57. William also placed bishoprics and abbeys holding baronies under military rule, conscripted soldiers from dependents of religious houses, and exiled many ecclesiastics who resisted his decrees. Cf. Roger of Wendover, Flowers of History, 2 vols., tr. J.A. Giles (London, 1849) 1.338.

11/4 Kinge Iohan. Omitting references to the contract with the barons in Magna Carta (1215), Tyndale notes the struggles of John (king, 1199–1216) with the church: the contested election of Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury (Prelates F3v), his prohibition of appeals to Rome (Matthew b7), and the papal interdiction of England (Mammon H5v; Obedience L6, V5v). In 1209 Innocent III (pope, 1198–1216) excommunicated John, and later ordered Philip II Augustus of France (king, 1180–1223) to depose John and ascend his throne. In response, John promised to accept Langton and restore confiscated church property. In May 1213 he surrendered the kingdoms of England and Ireland to the legate Pandulph and received them back as papal fiefdoms with the obligation to pay a yearly tribute to Rome (NCE 7.1023–24). By the end of the 13 c, the custom of paying feudal dues to the pope was dying out; it was paid only once in the 14c: by Edward III (king, 1327–77) in 1333. In 1366 Parliament repudiated John's offer of tribute because it had been given without its consent, a decision accepted by UrbanV (pope, 1362–70), cf. Lunt, Papacy 66–70. In The Supplication of Souls, 1529, More denied King John had the power to surrender sovereignty to the pope (CWM 7.129/1–7). The Folger copy of Answer to More was once owned and autographed by "Iohan bale." Tyndale's anti-papal feeling thus influenced Bale's proto-history play King Johan (c1540–63), and indirectly Shakespeare's King John (performed 1596, published 1623).

11/9 Thomas bekett. Becket (archbishop, 1162–70) was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral at the wish of Henry II (king, 1154–89) (NCE 2.212–14). In Prelates Tyndale depicts Becket as a corrupt role model for Wolsey (D3, F1v—F2). Tyndale disapproved of clerical exemption from civil law, a cause for which Becket died (G3v).> Fifty years after Becket's death, his relics were transferred from the crypt to the Trinity Chapel above it on 7 July 1220. Cf. John Butler, The Quest for Becket's Bones (New Haven: Yale UP, 1995) 20,45. In his last letter More comments on 6 July, the day set for his execution : ".. . it is S. Thomas evin, and the vtas [octave] of Sainte Peter and therefore to morowe longe I to goe to God. . . ." From Ep. 218, To Margaret Roper, Tower of London, 5 July 1535 (More, Correspondence 564/19–21). In Colloquies, Erasmus describes a visit to Canterbury CI512, in which Colet contrasts Becket's alms to the poor with the bejewelled shrine, "A Pilgrimage for Religion's Sake," February 1526 (ASD 1/3.470–94; CWE 40.644/1–23). The spoliation of this shrine in September 1538 prompted the long-delayed excommunication of Henry VIII in December. See J.J. Scarisbrick, "Fisher, Henry VIII and the Reformation crisis," in Bradshaw and Duffy 155–68.

11/20 monkes / freres / blacke / whit / pied / grey. Cf. 105/28–29. In England and Wales at the end of the period between 1500 and 1534, there were approximately 254 communities of monks, 286 of canons regular, 183 of friars, totaling 723 male religious houses. These contained approximately 3699 monks, 2874 canons, and 2596 friars totaling 9169 male religious. Cf. David Knowles and R. Neville Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales, 2d ed. (NewYork: St. Martin's, 1971) Appendix II, 494. For Haigh's approximate estimate of 10,000 priests in religious communities in the early 1530s, cf. 75/19–20n. For negative critics, the garb and tonsure of monks and friars exemplified self-invented and external ways of serving God, cf. Moriae, 1511, 1514 (ASD 4/3.160/538–52; CWE 27.131). In his Paradise of Fools, Milton will reprise Tyndale's satiric theme when he mocks "Embryo's and Idiots, Eremits and Friers / White, Black and Grey, with all thir trumperie" (Paradise Lost 3.474–75). Benedictines (founded between c530 and 540) were called "Black Monks" (NCE 2.283–85), and Cistercians (1098) were called "White Monks" (NCE 3.885–89) because of the color of their respective habits. A sidenote to 4 Kings 23 from Matthew's Bible (1537) makes a witty reference to the "black monks of Baal" (TOT 537). Similarly, Augustinians were called "Black Canons" (see below) from their black capes. Premonstratensians (1120) were called "White Canons" from their white habits. Cf. J.C. Dickinson, The Origins of the Austin Canons and Their Introduction into England (London: SPCK, 1950) 185; H.M. Colvin, The White Canons in England (Oxford: Clarendon, 1951) 3–4. Dominicans (1216) or "Blackfriars" wore black cloaks over white tunics ; Carmelites (1226) or "Whitefriars" wore white cloaks over brown tunics. Franciscans or Minorites (1223) were called "graye frires" (131/7) from the color of their undyed habits (NCE 6.198). Augustinian canons evolved from diocesan priests living in community who adopted the rule of St. Augustine (1139). Erasmus joined the Austin Canons c1487, but lived outside his monastery for twenty-five years: from his ordination in 1492 until a papal dispensation in 1517 gave him the status of a secular priest of the Diocese of Utrecht. After he left the Canons Regular, Erasmus called them amphibians because of their position between monks and diocesan canons. Cf. "A Pilgrimage for Religion's Sake," February 1526, Colloquies (ASD 1/3.475/157–60; CWE 40.629/7–10). Augustinian friars were formed by the consolidation of groups of hermits (1256) (OER 1.100–1). Luther entered the Observant Augustinians in 1505, living as an exemplary religious at Erfurt and Wittenberg until he was dispensed from his vows by his provincial superior, Johann von Staupitz (OER 4.109–11). Since Tyndale opposed the creation of fictions, we should not be surprised to learn that the Pied Friars were an actual order. The Friars of the Blessed Mary began in Marseilles in mid-13 c, founded houses in London, Norwich, and Cambridge, but died out after small mendicant orders were suppressed by Lyons II (1274). Their black scapular, white mantle, and black hood made them resemble magpies. See Richard W. Emery, "The Friars of the Blessed Mary and the Pied Friars," Speculum 24 (1949) 228–38. Later, Tyndale will dismiss the multiplicity of religious orders because they are "as pied in their consciences as in their cotes" (100/22–23). When the mendicant orders declined from the ideals of their founders, they were given the name of "CAIM" or "Cain," an acronym for Carmelites, Augustinians, Jacobites (from the Dominican house of St. Jacques in Paris), and Minorites. Cf. John Wyclif, Trialogus, Bk. 4, Ch. 25, p. 200, "A Treatise . . . against Orders of Friars," 217–56, in Tracts and Treatises, tr. Robert Vaughan (London, 1845). Chaucer's friar outdoes all other members of "the ordres foure" in "daliaunce and fair langage" ("General Prologue," Canterbury Tales, I [A] 210–11). Continuing this negative criticism of the friars, Tyndale asserts that those who serve their bellies before God should not be trusted with preaching to the parish (Obedience Q6v—Q7). Friars in general are guilty of gluttony and greed, but the Austin friars in London supposedly murdered one of their brethren (Matthew o7v). In the Obedience (Q8r—v), Tyndale singles out the Franciscan Observants , who falsely portray themselves as strict adherents of the rule of poverty. In Prelates (G2), he cites Friar Bungay's encouragement of Edward IV to marry Elizabeth Grey instead of Isabel of Castile. For the hearing of confessions by priests in religious orders, cf. 21/4–5n. The Franciscans, the largest order in the medieval church, are overly devoted to saints, especially their founder, who sits highest in heaven under Christ (Matthew a3v). In Matthew (i3v, o7v) Tyndale 's image of rich and fat friars is a synecdoche for those who place the rules of their orders above the laws of God. Thus, Tyndale Iaments the daily increase in the number of monks, canons, friars, nuns (Obedience R1), who falsely invoke the name of Christ to preach only their own traditions (Obedience I5v).Trust in ceremonies and monastic vows (1 John F3v), wearing a Franciscan or a Dominican habit to the grave (Mammon A8, I1v; Matthew d4v, k8), all seem to overshadow faith in Christ's sacrifice. For burial in the Franciscan habit, cf. "The Funeral," February 1526, Colloquies (ASD 1/3.546/328 to 547/366; CWE 40.774/27 to 775/27); "The Seraphic Funeral," September 1531 (ASD 1/3.687/40 to 688/61; CWE 40.1000/36 to 1001/18).Tyndale's mockery of the orders is explained not only by their moral corruption, but by their theological error in emphasizing works over faith. (JB) Some friars became notable reformers, e.g.: from the Observant Franciscans William Roye (d. c1531), Tyndale's assistant on the first edition of the NT; from the Dominicans Martin Bucer (1491–1551), Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge (OER 1.221- 24); from the Carmelites John Bale (1495–1563), dramatist and historian (OER 1.113–14); from the Augustinians Miles Coverdale (1488–1568), editor of the first complete Bible printed in English (1535) (OER 1.445–46), cf. 167/30–31n. Wearing habits similar to the men of the First Orders with black veils instead of cowls were cloistered women of the Second Orders : Benedictine, Cistercian, Augustinian, Franciscan, Dominican and Bridgittine. In England and Wales at the end of the period between 1500 and 1534, there were 142 communities of nuns and canonesses, containing approximately 1966 members (Knowles and Hadcock, Appendix II, 494). Although some women entered convents without a true vocation, perhaps only five percent of English nuns broke their vow of chastity. Cf. Eileen Power, Medieval English Nunneries, c. 1275 to 1535 (Cambridge UP, 1922) 461. Of special interest is the Dominican convent of Dartford in the Diocese of Rochester. Among its members were Bridget Plantagenet (d. c1517), youngest daughter of Edward IV, and Elizabeth White, half-sister of the local bishop John Fisher (CWM 2.158— 59).The "Rufull Lamentation" (1503) that More composed in the voice of Elizabeth of York bids a special farewell to her Dominican sister (CWM 1.12/74–78). After the nuns were pensioned off in 1539, the monastery became the residence of Anne of Cleves from the annulment of her marriage to Henry VIII until her death (1540–57). Cf. David Knowles OSB, The Religious Orders in England (Cambridge UP, 1959) 3.440.

10/32–11/22 In . . . disgysinges. Answer objects to the misapplication of the term "church" to the hierarchy and clergy alone. Dialogue had already made the same point, "The chyrche therfore must nedys be the comen knowen multytude of crysten men good and bad togyther / whyle the chyrche is here in erth" (CWM 6/1.205/4–7). (JW)