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

iij.	iij.] The iij. Chapter. 1573
In the thrid chapter and in the chapter folowynge / he vttereth how fleshly minded he is / and how beestly he imageneth of God / as Paule saith .1. corin. 2. the naturall man can not vnderstond the thinges of the spirite of God. He thinketh of God / as he doeth of his cardenall / that he is a monstre / pleased when men flater him / and if of whatsoeuer frailte it be / men breake his commaundementes / he is then raginge mad as the pope is and seketh to be venged. Naye / God is euer fatherly minded toward the electe membres of his church. He loued them yer the world beganne / in Christ. Ephe. 1. He loueth them / while they be yet evell and his enimies in their hertes / yer they be come vn to the knowlege of his sone christe / and yer his law be written in their hertes: as a father loueth his younge sonne / whyle he is yet euell and yer it know the fathers law to consent therto.	1 CORINTHIANS: 2.14: 5/20–24, 110/27–28, 137/17–19 1. Corin. 2. [1531] 159/29 parlamentes. Henry VIII summoned nine parliaments during his reign. As Lord Chancellor, Archbishop Warham successfully persuaded the Commons in 1512 to grant Henry 127,000 pounds for the invasion of France. His successor Cardinal Wolsey asked the Commons in 1523 for 800,000 pounds for the invasion of Scotland and France but settled for 136,256 pounds. More as Speaker of the House assisted in the bargaining process and received a bonus of 100 pounds from a grateful Wolsey. More himself served as Lord Chancellor during the first three sessions of the Reformation Parliament, furthering much secular business but remaining aloof from the king's marital problems. Cf. Jennifer Loach, Parliament under the Tudors (Oxford: Clarendon, 1991) x, 58–61. In Supplication of Souls (1529), More complains that the king intimidates both Lords and Commons (CWM 7.140/6–141/21 and nn). A member of the king's council since 1531, and as rising minister from 1532, Thomas Cromwell (c1485–1540) drafted bills and lobbied Parliament to approve major legislation affecting the church in England, e.g.: Act for the Conditional Restraint of Annates, March 1532, 23 Henry VIII, Ch. 20 (Statutes 3.385–88); Act in Restraint of Appeals to Rome, April 1533, 24 Henry VIII, Ch. 12 (Statutes 3.42 7–29); Act Confirming the Submission of the Clergy, March 1534, 25 Henry VIII, Ch. 19 (Statutes 3.460–61); Act Restraining the Payment of Annates, March 1534, 25 Henry VIII, Ch. 20 (Statutes 3.462–64); Act of Succession, March 1534, 25 Henry VIII, Ch. 22 (Statutes 3.471–74); Act of Supremacy, November 1534, 26 Henry VIII, Ch. 1 (Statutes 3.492); Oath of Succession denying papal primacy, November 1534, 26 Henry VIII, Ch. 2 (Statutes 3.492–93). For the early history of annates in England, cf. 138/7n. Cromwell was not named vicegerent for spiritual affairs until cJanuary 1535. See G.R. Elton, Reform and Reformation: England , 1509–1558 (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1977). Regarding the Act of Succession of March 1534, which rejected papal validation of Henry's marriage to Catherine, More explains that he came to believe that papal primacy was instituted by God after reading the king's Assertio. Cf. Ep. 199, To Thomas Cromwell, Chelsea, 5 March <1534> (More, Correspondence 498/200–499/247). Tyndale disapproved of Wolsey's successful efforts in 1523 to move Parliament to levy high taxes (cf. Obedience E7). As an opponent of Antichrist, he must have applauded the acts severing financial and legal ties with the papacy. Tyndale was guilty of treason, however, for rejecting Henry's marriage with Anne Boleyn, until it was annulled on 17 May 1536, two days before her execution; cf. MacCulloch , Cranmer 158–59. 160/1–2 conceaue . . . child. Cf. Jas. 1.15. EPHESIANS: 1.4: 54/14, 111/4, 211/13–14 ROMANS: 5.8: 111/5, 192/19–20, 199/19 Roman. 5. 1531 JEREMIAH: 31.33: 7/32–33,12/27, 49/19,52/29–30, 53/22, 53/34, 54/16–17,64/15–16, 85/26,97/15–16, 111/7, 112/29, 113/21–22, 113/28, 113/32–33, 137/32, 139/15, 151/27, 170/17–18, 175/14, 183/9–10, 195/22–23, 205/27–28
And aftir they be once actually of his church and the law of God and faith of christ written in their hertes / their hertes neuer synne any moare / though as Paule saith .Roman. vij. the flesh doeth in them that the spirite wold not. And when they synne of frailte / God ceaseth not to loue them styll / though he be angrie / to put a crosse of tribulacions vppon their backes / to purge them and to subdue the flesh vn to the spirite or to al to breake their consciences with threateninge of the lawe and to feare them with hell. As a father when his sonne offendeth him feareth him with the rod / but hateth him not.	Sir Thomas hitton 1531 ROMANS: 7.19: 111/12–13, 208/22–23 Roma. 7. 1531 The pope hath no marters. 1531
God did not hate paul / when he persecuted but had layd vpp mercy for him in store / though he was angre wyth hym to scorge hym and to teach him better. Nether were those thynges layd on his backe which he after sofered / to make satisfaccion for his foresinnes / but only to serue hys brethern and to kepe the flesh vnder. Nether did god hate Dauid when he had synned / though he was angre with him. Nether did he after sofre to make satisfaccyon to god for hys olde synnes / but to kepe his flesh vnder and to kepe hym in mekenesse and to be an ensample for oure lernynge.	ACTS: 9.1–18: 111/20–22 GALATIANS: 1.13–16: 111/20–22 1. Ioan . 3. 1531 160/22 syluer sylogismoses. Good alliteration but not a figure of logic. 2 CORINTHIANS: 12.7: 111/24 COLOSSIANS: 1.24: 111/24 The new life doeth tame the flesh and serue hyr neyboure. 1531 2 SAMUEL: 11–12.1–25: 111/25, 204/16–17 The church is double. 1531
iiij.	iiij.] The iiij. Chapter. 1573
In the fourth saith he if the church were an vnknowen companie / how shuld the infydeles / yf they longed for the faith / come therby?	God seketh vs and we not hym. 1531
O whother wandereth a fleshly minde / as though we first sought out god. Nay / God knoweth his and seketh them out and sendeth his mesingers vnto them and geueth them an hert to vnderstonde. Dyd the hethen or any nacyon seke chryste? Nay / christ sought them and sent hys appostles vnto them. As thou seyst in the storyes from the begynnynge of the worlde and as the parables and similitudes of the gospell declare.	1 JOHN: 4.10:112/1–2, 196/31–32 Matt. 28.19, Mark 16.15, Luke 24.47: 112/4–5 GENESIS: 3.9–24: 112/5–7 JOSHUA: 2.1–21: 112/5–7 RUTH: 1.4: 112/5–7 2 SAMUEL: 11.3: 112/5–7 EZEKIEL: 34.11: 112/5–7 LUKE: 15.4–6: 112/5–7 LUKE: 15.8–9: 112/5–7
And when he saith / he neuer founde ner herd of any of vs / but that he wold forswere to saue his life. Answere / the moare wrath of god will light on them / that so cruelly delite to torment them and so craftely to begyle the weake. Neuer thelesse yet it is vntrue. For he hath hearde of sir Thomas hitton whom the bisshopes of Rochester and caunterbury slew at maydstone and of many that sofered in braband holland and atcolen and in all	vntrue] 1573, vntue 1531