VOLUME 3

AN ANSWERE VNTO SIR THOMAS MORES DIALOGE

LOCATION
KEY Commentary Side Textual Bibliographic Scriptural

as sone as they be rebuked / they repent: even so here / assone as they were better taught / they shuld immediatly knowlege their erroure and not resiste.

But they which maliciously maynetene opinions agenst the scripture / or that that can not be proued by the scripture / or soch as make no mater vn to the scripture and saluacion that is in christ whether they be true or noo / and for the blinde zele of them make sectes / breakinge the vnite of christes church / for whose sake they ought to suffre all thynge / and rise agenst their neyboures / whom they ought to loue as them selues / to slee them / soch men I saye are fallen from christe and make an Idole of their opinions. For except they put trust in soch opinions and thought them necessarie vn to saluacion / or with a cankred conscience went about to disceaue / for some filthie purpose / they wold never breake the vnite of faith or yet slee their brethern. Now is this a playne conclusion / that both they that trust in their awne workes / and they also that put confidence in their awne opinions / be fallen from Christe and erre from the waye of faith that is in christes bloude / and therfore are none of christes church / because they be not bilt vppon the rocke of faith.

80/30–31 yet . . . only. Cf. 2 Cor. 12.14.

81/1 The deuel . . . god. Cf. Lev. 20.2–5.

81/5 wenisdaye . . . S. katerine. Some fasted on Wednesdays in honor of John the Baptist, Catherine of Alexandria, Christopher, or Margaret of Antioch for the grace to receive the last sacraments before they died. See Here begynneth a lytel treatyse that sheweth how every mon & woman ought to fast and absteyne them from flesshe on the Wednesday (1500), STC 24224 (Duffy 319–20 and n48).

81/6 fast sayntes euens. Medieval Christians were required to fast on the day before the following feasts: Christmas, Pentecost, Birth of John the Baptist, Laurence, Assumption, All Saints; also on the vigils of the Apostles except Philip and James in the Easter season and John the Evangelist during Christmas week (Duffy 41). Tyndale mocks this heavy discipline by extending it to the vigils of lesser saints: Anthony the Hermit, Patrick, and Brendan ( Matthew 15).

¶Faith is ever assayled and fought with all.