VOLUME 3

AN ANSWERE VNTO SIR THOMAS MORES DIALOGE

LOCATION
KEY Commentary Side Textual Bibliographic Scriptural

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.

Our Lady dyd the mayde of Kent small pleasure.[1573]

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).

Orestes [1531]

false . . . agayne. Cf. CWM 6/1.104/18–24. For the Good Samaritan, cf. Luke 10.35.

] Luke

xvij.

xvij.] The xvij. Chapter. [1573]

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.

xviij.

xviij.] The xviij. Chapter. [1573]

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.

Tradycyons [1531]

Allegory [1531]

besydes] ed., b sydes [1531], besides [1573]

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).

] Genesis

Chryst . . . neyboure. Cf. Luke 10.36–37.

] Luke

whych] ed., whych / [1531], which, [1573]

It signifieth that the prelates / if they were