VOLUME 3

AN ANSWERE VNTO SIR THOMAS MORES DIALOGE

LOCATION
KEY Commentary Side Textual Bibliographic Scriptural

no lust in the burnt offeringes of youre rammes or in the fatt of fatt beestes or bloud of calues / lambes or gottes: offer me no moare soch false sacryfyce. And therto youre swete cense ys an abhominacion vnto me. And thus he said because of the false fayth and peruertynge the ryght vse of them.

116/20–22 put . . . for him. Cf. CWM 6/1.215/22–25.

And for their false fastinge / not referrynge theyr fast vnto the tamynge and subduynge of theyr flesh vnto the spirite / when they complayned vnto god iustifienge them selues and saynge / how happeneth it / that we haue fasted and thou woldest not loke vppon it / we haue humbled oure soules and thou woldest not know it. God answered them by the prophete Esayas in the .lviij. chaptre / behold / in the daye of youre fast / ye doo youre awne lustes and gather vpp all youre dettes. And how soeuer ye fast / ye neuer the later striue and fight and smyte with fyste cruelly. I haue chosen no soch faste and humblynge of soule, &c. But that ye louse weked bondes and lett the oppressed goo fre / and to breake breed vnto the hongrye and to cloth the naked and so forth.

116/26 euen . . . saintes. Cf. CWM 6/1.215/29–31 and n. More alluded to a miracle in which a man was cured by touching a coat which had belonged to someone then in purgatory. Cf. Gregory the Great, Dialogues, Bk. 4 (Ch. 40 in PL 77.396–97; Ch. 42 in FOTC 39.249–50).

116/28 said masse in his gowne. While Luther was in hiding at the Wartburg, his associate Andreas Karlstadt (1486–1541), wearing his professor's gown instead of liturgical vestments, publicly celebrated a simplified Lord's Supper in Wittenberg at Christmas 1521. He recited the words of consecration in German without reference to sacrifice and urged the people to take the bread and cup in their own hands (OER 1.178–80). Even though Karlstadt was largely implementing Luther's position in Babylonian Captivity, 1520 (WA 6.512/26–35; LW 36.36), the latter charged his colleague with rushing things, before the people were well-instructed and able personally to grasp and appropriate the changes. At this time, Luther published a tract against coercive and violent reforming actions, A Sincere Admonition to All Christians to Guard against Insurrection and Rebellion (WA 8.676–87; LW 45.57–74). (JW)

116/32 the collectes of saintes. The collect is the prayer of petition said by the celebrant to close the opening rites of Mass. Many saints' days have their own collect, which is also said at the close of each hour of the divine office. Tyndale's general assertion about the prominence of the merits of the saints is, however, not borne out by the collects of the Missale of 1508 enshrining the form used in the Roman curia. Of some ninety collects for saints, from Andrew the Apostle (30 November) through the Beheading of John the Baptist (29 August), only six appeal to God with reference to the merits of the saint. More frequently, the collects pray for God to be gracious and bless by the intercession, patrocinium or suffragia of the saint of the day. (JW)

And concerninge the temple / Esaias sayth in hys last chaptre. What housse wyll ye bild for me or in what place shall I rest? heuen is my sete and the erth my fote stole. As who shuld saye I am to greate for any place that ye can make / and (as steuen sayth actes .vij. and paul actes .xvij.) I dwell not in a temple made with handes.

117/4 Christ . . . true. Cf. Gal. 2.21.

117/5–6 saintes . . . only. In Dialogue More does not discuss the saints' merits or the possibility of sharing in them in Bk. 2, Ch. 8, but he claims in Bk. 3, Ch. 2 that Eutyches, the sleeping youth who fell out the upper-story window, was raised from the dead by the "merites of saynt Powle" (cf. Acts 20.9–12) (CWM 6/1.259/ 19).

¶How ceremonies sprange amonge vs