VOLUME 3

AN ANSWERE VNTO SIR THOMAS MORES DIALOGE

LOCATION
KEY Commentary Side Textual Bibliographic Scriptural
¶An answere to Master Mores seconde boke

159/2 M. More . . . dyd. Cf. CWM 6/1.105/4–7.

In the first chapter ye may not trie the doctrine of the spiritualtie by the scripture: But what they saye / that beleue vndoutedly and by that trie the scripture. And if thou finde the playne contrary in the scripture / thou maist not beleue the scripture / but seke a glose and an allegorie to make them agre. As when the pope saith / ye be iustified by the workes of the ceremonies and sacramentes and so forth / and the scripture saith / that we be iustified at the repentaunce of the hert thorow Christes bloude. The first is true playne / as the pope saith it and as it stondeth in his texte / but the second is false as it appereth vn to thine vnderstandinge and the literall sens that kylleth . Thou must therfore beleue the pope and for Christes doctrine seke an allegorie and a misticall sens: that is / thou must leaue the clere light and walke in the miste. And yet Christ and his appostles for all their miracles required not to be beleued with out scripture / as thou maist se Ihon .v. and Actes .xvij. and bi their diligent alleginge of scripture thorow out all the new testament.

159/7–8 The pope . . . wales. During the first half of the 12c, the four Welsh sees (Llandaff, St. David's, Bangor, and St. Asaph) pledged their obedience to Canterbury. After the last Celtic Prince of Wales was killed in 1283, both Edward I (king, 1272–1307) and the Archbishop of Canterbury visited the country the next year. During the first decade of the 15c, a Welsh rebellion against Henry IV (king, 1399–1413) was led by Owen Glendower, who offered to recognize the anti-pope in return for establishing Wales as an independent ecclesiastical province with St. David's as its metropolitan see. The Lancastrians harshly repressed this revolt, thus further alienating Tyndale, who already blamed them for the murder of Richard II (king, 1377–99) and the persecution of the Lollards. See Glanmor Williams 2–3, 41–44, 225–28.

159/10–19 And yet . . . spiritualtye. Tyndale argues that the laity should have given their consent to the imposition of celibacy because of their rightful concern for the virtue of their priests and the chastity of their womenfolk. He argues in a manner akin to the well-known procedural rule of medieval canon law that what affects all should be discussed and approved by all. Yves Congar showed the broad span of applications made of this norm adopted from the Code of Justinian (2d ed., AD 531) even by popes as conscious of their own authority as Innocent III (pope, 1198–1216) and Boniface VIII (pope, 1294–1303). See "Quod omnes tangit, ab omnibus tractari et approbari debet," Revue historique de droit français 36 (1958) 210–59; rpt. as Study III in Droit ancien et structures ecclésiales (London: Variorum, 1982). More recently, Constantin Fasolt has treated William Durant the Younger's appeal to the principle in his Tractatus de modo generalis concilii celebrandi (1311), as requiring consultation with those who would be affected by innovations changing the already existing laws governing their lives and action. See "Quod omnes tangit, ab omnibus approbari debet: the Words and the Meaning," in In Iure Veritas, Festschrift Schafer Williams, ed. Steven Bowman (U of Cincinnati School of Law, 1991). (JW)

And in the ende he saith for his pleasure / that we knowlege / that noman may ministre sacraments but he that is deriuede out of the pope. How be it this we knowlege / that noman coude ministre sacramentes with out significacion which are no sacramentes saue soch as are of the popis generacion.

159/22–23 Paul . . . ministre. Cf. I Tim. 5.11–12.