VOLUME 3

AN ANSWERE VNTO SIR THOMAS MORES DIALOGE
The Independent Works
Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Commentary
Side notes
Textual notes
Bibliographic notes
Scriptural notes
Display all notes
Hide all notes
Show volumes [] (+/-)
Volume 4
Volume 5
Volume 6

Full Word   Starts With
LOCATION
< PreviousNext >
KEY Commentary Side Textual Bibliographic Scriptural

ges and reliques they can not proue but that it is abhominable / as longe as the pore are dispised and vncared for and not first serued / for whose sakes and to fynd preachers / offeringes tithes / londes rentes and all that they haue was geuen the spiritualtie. They will saye we maye do both. Maye or not maye / I se that the one most necessary of both / is not done: But the pore are bereued of the spiritualtie of all that was in tyme passed offered vn to them. Morouer though both were done / they shall neuer proue that the sight of gold and siluer and of preciousstones shuld moue a mans hert to dispice soch thynges aftir the doctrine of Christe. Nether can the riche cote helpe to moue thy mind / to folow the ensample of the saint / but rather if he were purtrayde as he sofred / in the most vngoodly wise. Which thinge taken awaye / that soch thynges with all other seruice / as stekynge vpp candels / moue not thy mynde to folow the ensample of the saint / ner teach thy soule any godly lernynge: then the image serueth not the / but thou the image / and so art thou an Idolater / that is to saye in English / a serueimage. And thus it appereth that youre vngodly and bely doctrine where with ye so magnifie the dedes of youre ceremonies and of youre pilgremages and offerynge for the dede it selfe / to please god and to obtayne the fauoure of deed saintes (and not to moue you and to put you in remembraunce of the law of god & of the promises which are in his sonne and to folow the ensample of the saynte) is but an exhortynge to serue images / and so are ye imageseruers / that is / Idolaters / And finally the more deuocion men haue vn to soch dedes / the lesse they haue vn to gods commaundement /

the riches that is bestowed on images. Tyndale argues that prelates are wrongly diverting contributions meant for the poor into supplying precious ornaments for statues. Lollard polemics against images had argued in this manner, cf. Hudson 83/1–86/ 121. Such a critique of images of the saints had also been sounded by Erasmus, Andreas Karlstadt, and Martin Bucer, cf. Eire 44f, 9of.

Riches bestowed on images or reliques [1531]

Obiection [1531]

Solution [1531]

ensample of the saint. The biography of the Roman deacon and martyr Laurence (d. AD 258) and the West Saxon (?) Witta, who shared wealth, food, and clothing with the poor, served to celebrate the charity of the early church in implicit contrast to the greed of the contemporary church (Prelates B5, 1 John H2r-v). While rejecting the intercession of the saints, Tyndale does agree that their lives provide examples of righteousness. The collects of Stephen and Laurence, for example, recall their enduring faith and love (Obedience I8v, cf. PS 1.231n3). For an illustration of the shrine of St. Candida or Witta, Whitchurch Canonicorum, Dorset, see Duffy (Plate 78). Cf. [E4, “the true life of a saynt”; G3v, “miracles . . . his preachinge”; I8, “collectes of saintes” and commentary note].

To worshyp Images is Idolatry.[[1573]

Idolater . . . serueimage. Tyndale gives similar translations in 1 John G8v: "Idolatre" as "imageseruice," "Idolater" as "imageseruaunt."

promises . . . sonne. Cf. Eph. 3.6.

Ephesians 3.6