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KEY Commentary Side Textual Bibliographic Scriptural
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How be it let it be the holy gost that
was in the maide of kent. Then I praye you what thinge
worthy of so greate prayse hath oure ladye done? Our lady
hath deliuered her of the holy gost & emptyed her of
moch hie lerninge which as a goodly poetisse / she vttered in rimes. For appose her now of christ / as scripture testifieth of him
/ and thou shalt finde her clene with out ryme or reason.
The mayde was at home also in heuenly pleasures / and our
lady hath deliuered
her out of the ioyes of Orestes and brought her
in to the miseries of
middell erth agayne.
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ioyes of
Orestes. The Furies drove Orestes mad after he killed his
mother Clytemnesta for murdering his father Agamemnon; cf. Euripides,
Orestes (408 BC). Erasmus calls the
conservative Catholic
Edward Lee "raving mad, like Orestes in the
play." From Ep. 1113, To Philippus
Melanchthon, Louvain, [before 21 June
1520] (Allen 4.287/12; CWE 7.313/11–12). More quotes Persius (Satires 3.118) on "mad Orestes": Ep. 15, To
Martin Dorp, Bruges, 21 October <1515> (CWM 15.32/28);
Ep. 86, To Germanus Brixius, n.p., 1520 (CWM 3/2.604/24); Responsio ad Lutherum, 1523 (CWM 5/1.252/31).
false . . .
agayne. Cf. CWM 6/1.104/18–24. For the Good Samaritan, cf.
Luke 10.35.
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xvij.
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As for dulia / yperdulia and latria / though he shew not
with
which of them he worsheped the cardinalles hatt
/ ys answered vnto hym all ready.
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xviij.
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In the .xviij. where he wold faine proue that
the popes church can not erre / he allegeth thynges wherof
he myght be asshamed / yf he were not past shame / to proue
that the bisshopes haue auctorite to lade vs with tradicions
nether profitable for soule nor body. He bringeth a false
allegorie vppon the ouerplus that the Samaritane if it were
layde out / promised to paye when he came agayne / for the
bysshopes tradicions. Nay M. More / besydes
that allegories which
euery man maye fayne at his pleasure can proue
nothynge / Chryst interpreteth it him selfe / that it
betokeneth a kynde mynde and a
louinge neyboure / whych so loued a straunger /
that he neuer left carynge for hym / both absent as wel as
present / vntyll he were full hole and comen out of all
necessite.
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allegories . . . can
proue nothynge. Cf. CWM 8/1.81/2–3.
It was a scholastic principle that allegorical
interpretations of biblical passages had no probative value
in theology (Summa I, Q. 1, Art. 10, Reply to
Obj. 1).
In the Enchiridion (1503), Erasmus frequently
allegorizes classical literature ; e.g, he compares the
creation of humans out of clay by Yahweh and Prometheus (Gen. 2.7;
Plato, Protagoras 320D-322A): "if you read the
poetic fable in an allegorical sense, it will be more profitable than
the scriptural account if you do not penetrate the outer covering"
(Holborn 70/29–30; CWE 66.68). In his Annotations on the NT,
Erasmus repeatedly analyzes the literal meaning of the Greek; in the
Paraphrases he draws pastoral applications from NT events for the
individual reader. See Manfred Hoffmann, Part Three, "The
Allegorical Nature of Scripture," Rhetoric and
Theology: The Hermeneutic of Erasmus (U of Toronto P, 1994)
95–133.
Tyndale refers contemptuously to the practice of quoting "a fabell of
Ovide," rather than the Scriptures to support a "poynte of fayth" (Obedience R5). In his preface to the Pentateuch
(1530), Tyndale scoffs at the distrust of the literal meaning of
Scripture shown by Erasmus but without naming him, "[S]ome which seme to
them selves great clarkes saye: they wott not what moare profite is in
many gestes of the scripture if they be read with out an allegorye, then
in a tale of robenhode" (Mombert 11/7–10;TOT 8).
Chryst . . .
neyboure. Cf. Luke 10.36–37.
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It signifieth that the prelates / if they were
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