VOLUME 3

AN ANSWERE VNTO SIR THOMAS MORES DIALOGE

LOCATION
KEY Commentary Side Textual Bibliographic Scriptural

all that is promised me and christ hath purchased for me / and geue not a straw for them all.

v.

In the .v. chapter he falleth from al that he hath so longe swette to proue & beleueth not by the reason of the miracles / but by the comen consent of the church and that many so beleue. This man is of a ferre other complexion then was the prophete Elias. For he beleued a lone as he thought / agenst the consent by all likelyhod / of . ix. or .x. hundred thousand beleuers. And yet M. Mores church is in no nother condicion vnder the pope / then was that church agenst whose consent Elias beleued a lone vnder the kinges of Samary.

comen consent. CWM 6/1.62/18. Cf. Gogan 96–107, 160–63, 211–13, 217, 298–302.

beleueth . . . beleue. Cf. CWM 6/1.62/13–19.

Elias . . . Samary. Cf. 1 Kings 18.22. Tyndale finds the opposition between Catholics and reformers foreshadowed in Israel's widespread consent to the prophets of Baal, against whom Elijah stood alone as prophet of the Lord.

vj.

In the .vj. chapter & vnto the .xviij. he proueth all most nought saue that which neuer man denied him / that miracles haue bene done. But how to know the true miracles from the false were good to be knowen which we shal this wise do if as we take those for true sacramentes and ceremonies which preach vs gods worde / euen so we count them true miracles only which moue vs to herken therto.

he proueth . . . done. For Dialogue Bk. 1, Ch. 6 thru 18, cf. CWM 6/1.63/4–110/23. More relies on human prudence to recognize false miracles, e.g., by Humphrey Duke of Gloucester (CWM 6/1.86/18ff) and "the kynges moder," either Lady Margaret Beaufort for Henry VII or Elizabeth of York for Henry VIII (CWM 6/1.87/26ff).

xvj.

xvj. Tyndale skips nine chapters on miracles, Bk. 1, Ch. 7–15.

Concerninge his .xvj. chapter of the mayde of Ipswich / I answere / that Moses warned hys Israelites that false miracles shuld be done to proue them / whether their hertes were fast in the lorde. And euen so christ and the apostles shewed vs before that lienge miracles shuld come / to peruerte the very electe / if it were possyble.

mayde of Ipswich. Cf. CWM 6/1.93/13–94/5. Supposedly, the Maid of Ipswich was possessed by the devil and the Maid of Kent [G8, “maide of kent” and commentary note] was inspired by the Holy Spirit, but both experienced the same trances and disfigurements, proving the difficulty of distinguishing between true and false visionaries (Obedience T3v—T4). The authenticity of St. Peter's apparition at Westminster was also doubtful (Obedience T3v, PS 1.326n1; cf. Richard III, CWM 2.27/32–28/6 and n). More's description of the twelve-year-old daughter of Sir Roger Wentworth contains symptoms of an epileptic seizure. Cf. R.E. Hemphill, "Historical Witchcraft and Psychiatric Illness in Western Europe," Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 59 (1966) 891–902; rpt. in Articles on Witchcraft, Magic and Demonology 3, ed. Brian P. Levack, Witch-Hunting in Early Modern Europe: General Studies (New York: Garland, 1992) 314. Diarmaid MacCulloch considers the Maid of Ipswich "a classic case of child hysteria and manipulation," Suffolk under the Tudors (Oxford: Clarendon, 1986) 145. After a cure attributed to Our Lady of Ipswich, Anne Wentworth became a Franciscan nun in London until the closing of the monasteries.

Moses . . . lorde. Cf. Deut. 13.1–3.

lienge . . . possyble. Cf. Matt. 24.24, Mark 13.22.

And therfore we must haue a rule to know the true miracles from the false / or else it were impossible that any man shuld scape vndisceaued and continue in the true