VOLUME 3

AN ANSWERE VNTO SIR THOMAS MORES DIALOGE

LOCATION
KEY Commentary Side Textual Bibliographic Scriptural

.vj. or seuen yeres olde / their elders brought them vnto the preest or deacon in euery parish / which officer taught the children what their baptim ment & what they had professed therin: that is to wete / the law of god & their dutie vn to all degrees / and the faith of oure sauioure. And then because it shuld not be neglecte or lefte vndone / an hier officer as the archdeacon (for it hath not bene I suppose in the bisshopes handes all waye as now / nether were it mete) came aboute from parish to parish / at tymes conuenient. And the prestes brought the children vn to him at .xj. or .xij. yere olde / before they were admitted to receaue the sacrament of Christes body haply. And he apposed them of the law of god & faith of Christe / and axed them / whether they thought that law good / and whether their hertes were to folow it. And they answered ye.

And he apposed them in the articles of oure faith / and axed them / whether they put their hope and trust in Christ / to be saued thorow his deeth and merites. And they answered ye. Then confirmed he their baptim sayenge: I confirme you / that is / I denunce and declare / by the auctorite of gods worde and doctrine of Christ / that ye be truely baptised within in youre hertes and in youre spirites / thorow professynge the lawe of god and the faith of oure sauioure Iesu / which youre outwarde baptim doeth signifie / and thervppon I put this crosse in youre forehedes that ye goo and fight agenst the deuell / the world and the flesh / vnder the standarde of oure sauioure / in the name of the father / the sonne / and the holy gost. Amen. Which maner I wold to god for his tender mercie were in vse this daye.

the deuell / the world and the flesh. Patristic and medieval exegetes paired the three temptations of Christ (bread into stones, kingdoms of the earth, pinnacle of the Temple in Luke 4 and Paradise Regained) with concupiscientia carnis, et concupiscientia oculorum, et superbia vitae of the Vulgate (1 John 2.16). Cf. Gregory's homily on Matt. 4.1–11 against gluttony, avarice and vainglory (PL 76.1136); the three winds of the World, the Flesh, and the Fiend which buffet the Tree of Charity in Piers Plowman (Passus XVI, line 48). See Patrick Cullen, Infernal Triad: The Flesh, the World, and the Devil in Spenser and Milton (Princeton UP, 1974). In his 1516 NT, Erasmus renders he epithumia tes sarkos, kai he epithumia ton ophthalmon, kai he alazoneia tou biou as concupiscentia carnis . . ., & concupiscentia oculorum, fastus facultatum [pride of resources]. Following Erasmus' Latin, Tyndale translates the Greek as "the lust of the flesshe, the lust of the eyes, and the pryde of goodes" (Wallis 488/23–24; TNT 339C), cf. [P7v, “flesh . . . worlde . . . fendes” and commentary note].