8 Answer to Sir Thomas Morels Dialogue

Turks are to love, and to leave nothing unsought to win him unto the lamented for knowledge of the truth, though with the loss of our lives. He their igno-supposeth that he loveth his neighbour as much as he is bound, trine and if he be not actually angry with him ; whom yet he will not help gSSTife,0* freely with an half-penny, but for a vantage, or vain glory, or hatedand6 for a worldly purpose. If any man have displeased him, he £“cle£xviii. keepeth his malice in, and will not chafe himself about it, till he see an occasion to avenge it craftily ; and thinketh that well enough. And the rulers of the world he obeyeth, think eth he, when he flattereth them, and blindeth them with gifts, and corrupteth the officers with rewards, and beguileth the law with cautels and subtilties.

we do noAnd because the love of God and of his neighbour, excneptwwe’do which is the spirit and the life of all laws, and wherefore frornapure all laws are made, is not written in his heart, therefore in all inferior laws and in all wordly ordinances is he beetle blind. If he be commanded to abstain from wine, that will observe unto the death too ; as the Charterhouse monks lever die than eat flesh. And as for the soberness and chastising of the members, will he not look for; but will pour in ale and beer of the strongest, without measure, and heat them with spices, and so forth. And the holy-day will M.C. ixxix. he keep so strait, that if he meet a flea in his bed, he dare not kill her ; and not once regard wherefore the holy-day was ordained, to seek for God^s word : and so forth in all laws. And in ceremonies and sacraments, there he cap- in. c. ixxx. tivateth his wit and understanding to obey holy church, without asking what they mean, or desiring to know ; but only careth for the keeping, and looketh ever with a pair of narrow eyes, and with all his spectacles upon them, lest aught be left out. For if the priest should say mass, baptize, or hear confession, without a stole about his neck, he would think all were marred, and doubt whether he had power to

M. c. ixxxi. consecrate, and think that the virtue of the mass were lost, and the child not well baptized, or not baptized at all, and

M c. ixxxi that his absolution were not worth a mite. He had lever that the bishops should wag two fingers over him, than that another man should say, ” God save him ;” and so forth.

The world Wherefore, beloved reader, inasmuch as the Holy Ghost for^S of rebuketh the world for lack of judgment; and inasmuch judgment. ^Q as faQfr jgnorance js without excuse, before whose faces

PREFACE TO THE READER. 9 enough is set to judge by, if they would open their eyes to see, and not captivate their understanding to believe lies;

and inasmuch as the spiritual judgeth all thing, even the M. c. ixxxm very bottom of God’s secrets ; that is to say, the causes of ~~ the things which God commandeth ; how much more ought we to judge our holy father’s secrets1, and not to be as an ox or an ass, without understanding !

Judge, therefore, reader, whether the pope with his be Judge by

. . these things, the church ; whether their authority be above the scripture ; wl”^jj™ whether all they teach without scripture be equal with the ^c.°ixxxiv scripture ; whether they have erred, and not only whether ~vl1* they can. And against the mist of their sophistry take the ensamples that are past, in the old Testament and authentic M.C.IXXXVU. stories, and the present practice which thou seest before thine eyes. Judge whether it be possible that any good should M. c. come out of their dumb ceremonies and sacraments into thy soul. Judge their penance, pilgrimages, pardons, purgatory, Judge what praying to posts, dumb blessings, dumb absolutions, their ?hf fopVs5 m dumb pattering, and howling, their dumb strange holy gesa tures, with all their dumb disguisings, their satisfactions and m justifyings. And because thou findest them false in so many things, trust them in nothing ; but judge them in all things2. Mark at the last the practice of our fleshly spiritualty and Note the their ways, by which they have walked above eight hundred years; how they stablish their lies, first, with falsifying the scripture ; then through corrupting with their riches, whereof they have infinite treasure in store; and last of all, with the sword. Have they not compelled the emperors of the earth, and the great lords and high officers to be obedient M. c.

p Meaning the pope ; styled our holy father by papists in serious ness, but here ironically.]

[2 Sir Thomas More has the credit of being a more polished writer than Tyndale ; and his confutation of the above three sentences is as follows : ” Judge, good Christian reader, whether it be possible that he be any better than a beast, out of whose brutish beastly mouth cometh such a filthy foam of blasphemies against Christ’s holy ceremonies and blessed sacraments, sent into his church out of his own blessed body side. And for because ye find this fellow so frantic and so false in the railing and jesting against the sacraments of Christ, ye may well judge that whoso can delight or be content with his blasphemous ribaldry, hath great cause in himself to fear that his Christian faith beginneth to fail and to faint.” Conf. p. Ixxxviii.]

10 Preface to the Reader

unto them, to dispute for them, and to be their tormentors ; and the Samsumims1 themselves do but imagine mischief, and inspire them ?

The papists Mark whether it were ever truer than now, the scribes, fogSrered Pharisees, Pilate, Herod, Caiaphas and Anna2, are gathered fflt together against God and Christ : but yet, I trust, in vain ; and he that brake the counsel of Achitophel shall scatter outstay theirs. Mark whether it be not true in the highest degree, crfte?ST *hat for the sin of the people hypocrites shall reign over M. c. xci. them. What shews, what faces and contrary pretences are made, and all to stablish them in their theft, falsehood, and damnable lies, and to gather them together for to contrive subtilty, to oppress the truth, and to stop the light, and to keep all still in darkness ! Wherefore it is time to awake, M.C. xdiand to see every man with his own eyes, and to judge; if we will not be judged of Christ, when he cometh to judge. And remember that he which is warned hath none excuse, if he take no heed. Herewith farewell in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose Spirit be thy guide, and doctrine thy light3, to judge withal. Amen.

[i See Deut. ii. 20.] [2 Annas.]

[3 The collated editions of Tyndalehave thy guide, and doctrine, and the light ; but Sir Thomas More’s Confutation gives the reading intro duced into our text.]

---

← 1. Introductory Notice to the Answer to · Contents · 3. An Answer unto Sir Thomas More’s →