VOLUME 3

AN ANSWERE VNTO SIR THOMAS MORES DIALOGE

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secte (as the pope doeth) yet he sofereth none to breake their promises of chastite dedicat to god (though haply they vse no soch vowes / and as the pope wyll not excepte it be for monye) but luther teacheth to breake holy vowes.T. luther teacheth that vnlawfull vowes grounded on a false fayth vnto the dyshonourynge of god are to be broken and no nother. And agayne constrayned seruice pleaseth not God. And thridly youre pope geueth licence and his blessynge to breake all lawfull vowes / but with the most vnlawfull of all will ye not dispence.

Then he bringeth forth the ensample of the hethen / to confirme the popis chastite. And no wronge / for the same false imaginacion that the hethen had in theirs / hath the pope in hys. Vnderstonde therfore / If thou vow ane indifferent thynge / to please god in hys awne person / he receaueth not thyne Idolatrie: for hys pleasure and honoure is / that thou shuldest be as he hath made the / and shulde receaue all soch thynges of hys hand and vse them as ferforth as they were nedfull and geue him thankes and be bounde to him: and not that thou shuldest be as thou haddest made thy selfe / and that he shulde receaue soch thynges off the to be bounde to the / to thanke the and rewarde the. And agayne / thou must geue me a reason of thy vow out off the worde of God. Morouer when thou vowest lawfully thou maist not do it precyselye / but all waye excepte / yf thyne awne or thy neyboures necessite required the contrary. As yf thou haddest vowed neuer to eate flesh or drinke wine or stronge drinke / to tame thi flesh / and thou after warde fellest in disease so that thy body in that behalfe were to tame or that there coud no no