AN ANSWERE VNTO SIR THOMAS MORES DIALOGE

VOLUME 3

AN ANSWERE VNTO SIR THOMAS MORES DIALOGE

The Independent Works

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KEY Commentary Side Textual Bibliographic Scriptural

ne / but only a signe and token / that at the repentaunce of the hert / thorow an offeringe to come and for that seedes sake that was promised Abraham / their synnes were forgeuen them.
And in like maner the ornamentes and all other ceremonies were eyther an open preachynge or secrett prophisies and not satisfaccions or iustifienges. And thus the workes did serue them and preach vnto them and they not the workes ner put any confidence therin.	114/9 plucked . . . Christe. Cf. Rom. 11.17. 114/9–10 bilt . . . prophetes. Eph. 2.20.
¶False worshepynge
But what did the children of Israel and the Iewes? They latt the significacions of their ceremonyes goo and lost the meanynge of them and turned them vn to the workes to serue them / sayenge that they were holy workes commaunded of god and the offerars were therby iustified and obtayned forgeuenesse of synnes and therby became good: as the parable of the pharesey and publican declare Luke .xviij. and as it is to se in Paul and thoroute all the Byble: and became captiue to serue and put their trust in that which was nether god ner his worde. And so the better creature agenst nature did serue the worse. Where of all likelyhode god shuld haue accepted their worke by the reason of them / if their hertes had bene right / & not haue accepted their soules for the bloudes sake of a calfe or shepe / for as moch as a man is moch better then a calfe or shepe / as Christ testifieth Matth. xij. For what pleasure shuld god haue in the bloud of calues or in the light of oure candeles? his pleasure is onlye in the hertes of them that loue his commaundementes.	114/11–12 the heretikes . . . mistical bodi. Cf. CWM 6/1.207/11–12. Cf. other early uses of this name for the church: "crystys mystycall body" in Supplication of Souls, 1529 (CWM 7.202/17); "the mystycall body of our mother holy chirche," in "Sermon against Luther, 1521" (Fisher 322/8–9). 114/13 misticall body . . . mist. For a pun on the "misticall sens" of Scripture, cf. 110/14–15n. 114/13–14 will not . . . light. Cf. John 3.20. 114/17–18 heretikes . . . abiure. Cf. CWM 6/1.208/31–33. Tyndale responds to More's generalization on inconstancy among reformers with a fourfold classification. Exemplars of the first, steadfast, type would be the priests Thomas Hitton, Thomas Benet or Dusgate , and the Benedictine monk and book smuggler Richard Bayfield . The second class, providentially saved from arrest, would not have any notoriety. Third, those who once recanted under judicial pressure but returned to their new faith and then suffered martyrdom , would include the lawyer Thomas Bilney, the leather-seller John Tewksbury, and the lawyer James Bainham. In the fourth class, those who rejected the Reformation, would be Thomas Arthur and Edward Crome (CWM 8/3.1170, 1251). For Hitton, cf. 112/12n; for Bilney, cf. 146/12–13n, for all the heretics who were executed during More's chancellorship, cf. 213/17–19n. (JW) 114/22 Peter. Cf. Matt. 26.69–75, Mark 14.66–72, Luke 22.55–62, John 18.17,25–27. 114/24–25 fleshly liberte. Cf. Gal. 5.13, 1 Pet. 2.16.