AN ANSWERE VNTO SIR THOMAS MORES DIALOGE

VOLUME 3

The Independent Works

LOCATION

KEY Commentary Side Textual Bibliographic Scriptural

ges and reliques they can not proue but that it is abhominable / as longe as the pore are dispised and vncared for and not first serued / for whose sakes and to fynd preachers / offeringes tithes / londes rentes and all that they haue was geuen the spiritualtie. They will saye we maye do both. Maye or not maye / I se that the one most necessary of both / is not done: But the pore are bereued of the spiritualtie of all that was in tyme passed offered vn to them. Morouer though both were done / they shall neuer proue that the sight of gold and siluer and of preciousstones shuld moue a mans hert to dispice soch thynges aftir the doctrine of Christe. Nether can the riche cote helpe to moue thy mind / to folow the ensample of the saint / but rather if he were purtrayde as he sofred / in the most vngoodly wise. Which thinge taken awaye / that soch thynges with all other seruice / as stekynge vpp candels / moue not thy mynde to folow the ensample of the saint / ner teach thy soule any godly lernynge: then the image serueth not the / but thou the image / and so art thou an Idolater / that is to saye in English / a serueimage. And thus it appereth that youre vngodly and bely doctrine where with ye so magnifie the dedes of youre ceremonies and of youre pilgremages and offerynge for the dede it selfe / to please god and to obtayne the fauoure of deed saintes (and not to moue you and to put you in remembraunce of the law of god & of the promises which are in his sonne and to folow the ensample of the saynte) is but an exhortynge to serue images / and so are ye imageseruers / that is / Idolaters / And finally the more deuocion men haue vn to soch dedes / the lesse they haue vn to gods commaundement /

Obiection 1531

Solution 1531

110/9–10 we . . . bloude. Cf. Rom. 5.9.

110/14–15 thou . . . miste. Cf. John 3.20. Tyndale makes a pun on "misticall sens" of Scripture and "miste." For a pun on "Mystical Body of Christ," cf: 114/ 13n.

110/16 required . . . scripture. Cf. John 5.39 and Acts 17.11.

110/19–21 we . . . pope. Cf. CWM 6/1.192/20–23. Tyndale here makes no comment on the theme of Dialogue Bk. 2, Ch. 2, the departure of the reformers from the Church of Rome. He discusses this topic in the Foundational Essay (40/5–9) and again under Bk. 2, Ch. 5 (114/6–8).

EPHESIANS: 3.6: 61/25

110/26 how beestly he imageneth of God. More holds that some of the reprobate can be found inside the visible church and that some of the elect can be found outside it, "and bothe the one and the other without reason or good cause why" (CWM 6/1.197/33–34). Perhaps for this statement, Tyndale thinks that Dialogue Bk. 2, Ch. 3–4 presents God as a monster (cf. 110/29). Later, Tyndale claims that the doctrine of purgatory makes God into a tyrant for punishing a soul already forgiven (143/30–144/3). Dialogue claims (6/1.403/1) that Lutheran teaching on predestination casts God as a tyrant (187/21–22n). For God as an unapproachable monarch, cf. 119/6–7n and 120/12.

110/27–28 naturall man . . . spirite of God. Cf. 1 Cor. 2.14.