VOLUME 3

AN ANSWERE VNTO SIR THOMAS MORES DIALOGE

LOCATION
KEY Commentary Side Textual Bibliographic Scriptural

that refuse the trouth who shall / god wyll kepe a numbre of his mercye / & call them out of blyndnesse / to testifie the trueth vn to the rest / that their damnacion maye be with out excuse.

god . . . mercye. Cf. Rom. 11.5.

] Romans

The turcke / the Iew and the popish bild vppon frewyll and asscribe their iustifienge vn to their workes. The turke when he hath synned / runeth to the purifienges or ceremonies of Mahomete / and the Iew to the ceremonies of Moses / and the pope vn to his awne ceremonies / to fette forgeuenesse of their synnes. And the christen goeth thorow repentaunce towarde the lawe / vn to the faith that is in Christes bloude.

193/29–31 The Christians seeke helpe of Christ.[1573]

] Romans

And the pope saith that the ceremonies of Moyses iustified not / compelled with the wordes of Paul. And how then shuld his iustifie? Moses sacramentes were but signes of promises of fayth / by whych fayth the beleuers ar iustified / and euen so be Christes also. And now because the Iewes haue put out the significacions of their sacramentes and put their trust in the workes of them / therfore they be Idolaters / and so is the pope for like purpose. The pope sayth that Christ dyed not for vs but for the sacramentes / to geue them power to iustifie. O Antichriste.

Moses sacramentes. Tyndale considers circumcision analogous to Baptism. Cf. Rom. 2.29 "circumcision of the herte" (Wallis 322/17;TNT 227D).

] Romans

signes of promises of fayth. Where the scholastic tradition distinguished sharply between OT rites, such as circumcision and the paschal supper, and the NT sacraments, Tyndale holds a basic similarity, for in both cases justifying faith is to be elicited. The scholastic distinction became papal doctrine at the Council of Florence, in the Decree of Union with the Armenians, cf. p. 297. This document incorporated passages from Aquinas, including the affirmation that while OT sacraments were mere signs of grace to come, the NT sacraments are both signs and causes of that grace in those who receive them worthily (DS 1310; Neuner-Dupuis 1310). (JW)

194/3–4 O abhominable blasphemy.[1573]

The pope ... to iustifie. Commonly, medieval theologians derived the efficacy of the Christian sacraments from the death of Christ, with the water and blood that flowed from his side (John 19.34) signifying Baptism and the Eucharist and signalling the transcending of circumcision and the paschal meal. Cf. Peter Lombard, Sentences, Bk. 2, Dist. 18, Ch. 3; Bk. 4, Dist. 8, Ch. 2. (JW)

] John

xj.

xj.] The xj. Chapter. [1573]

His . xj. chapter is as true as his storie of vtopia and all his other poetrie. He meaneth doctoure Ferman person of hony lane. Whom after they had handelled after their secret maner and disputed wyth secretly and had made him swere that he shuld not vtter how he was dealte wyth / as they haue made many other / then they contriued a maner of dispicions had

chapter . . . poetrie. Cf. CWM 6/1.379/17–383/34. Dialogue Bk. 4, Ch. 11 presents the cross-examination of a preacher with Lutheran leanings within the dialogue between More and the Messenger. For another dialogue-within-a-dialogue, cf. 147/10n.

doctoure Ferman person of hony lane. Dialogue does not name Dr. Forman as the pastor of All Hallows, Honey Lane, Cheapside, but More hints at his identity when he exclaims "what poyson [Lutheran preachers] put forth vnder the cloke of hony" (CWM 6/1.399/31). Cuthbert Tunstall disputed with Forman on 19 March 1528, then forbad him to celebrate Mass and preach publicly under pain of law (Brigden 113n156 citing LP 4/2, no. 4175). Forman also directed a contraband trade in heretical books between London and Oxford. Writing in August 1528, Anne Boleyn asked Wolsey,"I beseech your grace with all mine heart to remember the parson of Honey Lane for my sake shortly" (Brigden 128n225 quoting BL, Cotton MS Vespasian F iii, fo. 15v, paraphrased in LP 4/3, Appendix 197). Through the influence of Anne and Wolsey, the parson was not tried for heresy but let off with a secret penance (Brigden 161). Foxe (4.769, 5.416) names the rector "Robert." He seems to be a separate person from Thomas Forman of Norfolk, who received his BA from Queens' College, Cambridge (1512) and later became its Master. There he protected Lutheran undergraduates and hid Lutheran books from confiscation . Cf. H.C. Porter, Reformation and Reaction in Tudor Cambridge (1958; Hamden, CT: Archon, 1972) 42–43, 46.

Doctor ferman [1531]

dispicions] disputations [1573]