VOLUME 3

AN ANSWERE VNTO SIR THOMAS MORES DIALOGE

LOCATION
KEY Commentary Side Textual Bibliographic Scriptural

quarters of douchlonde and doo dayly.

And when he saith that their church hath many marters / let him shew me one / that died for pardons / and purgatory that the pope hath fayned / and let hym take the mastrie.

161/18 bynd where god lowseth. Cf. Matt. 16.19, 18.18.

And what a doo maketh he / that we saye / there is a church that sinneth not and that there is no man but that he sinneth / which are yet both true. We read .j. Ihon .iij. he that is born of god synneth not. And Eph. v. men loue youre wives as the lorde doeth the church / and gaue him selfe for her / to santifie her and to dense hir in the fountaine of water thorow the worde / and to make hir a glorious church vn to him selfe / with out spott or wrincle.

161/23 helpe . . . holpe. Cf. Matt. 7.12, Luke 6.31.

161/25–162/8 As if . . . breake it. As the laws of the church are limited , so also is the binding power of vows, especially that of celibacy , as Luther had stated in To the Christian Nobility, 1520 (WA 6.441–43; LW 44.177f). For further discussion of the vow of chastity, cf. 189/ 19n. (JW)

And .j. Ihon .j. If we saie / we haue no sinne we disceaue oure selues and make him a lyer and hys worde is not in vs. Master More also wyl not vnderstond that the church ys some tyme taken for the electe only which haue the law of god written in their hertes and fayth to be saued thorow christe written there also. Whych same for all that saye wyth paul / that good which I wold / that doo I not. But that euell which I hate / that do I: so it is not I that doo it but sinne that dwelleth in my flesh.

161/29–30 I maye not ... it selfe. Cf. CWM 6/1.312/21–29.

And Gala. v. the flesh lusteth contrary to the spirite and the spirite contrary to the flesh / so that these two fightynge betwen them selues / ye can not doo what ye wolde. For they neuer consent that synne is good ner hate the law ner cease to fight agenst the flesh / but assone as they be faullen / rise and fight a fresh. And that the church ys some tyme taken for the commen rascall of all