And when he maketh so great “difficulty and hardness in Paul’s epistles;” I say, it is impossible to understand either Peter or Paul, or aught at all in the scripture, for him that denieth the justifying of faith in Christ’s blood. And again, it is impossible to understand in the scripture more than a Turk, for whosoever hath not the law of God written in his heart, to fulfil it: of which point, and of true faith too, I fear me that you are void and empty, with all your spiritualty, whose defender ye have taken upon you to be, for to mock out the truth for lucre and vantage.
[4 “I have heard very worshipful folk say, that a man could not]
[hire a few to sit down upon his bible of the old testament.—Whereas]
[we take little regard to sit down on our bible, with the old testament]
[and the new too.”—Dial. Works, p. 246.] [5 Ordinary, or ruler.]]
An Answer to More’s Fourth Book
More:—^ Christ’s church hath the true doctrine already, and the selfsame that St Paul would not give an angel audience unto the contrary.” Tyndale:—But the pope’s church will not hear that doctrine.
More:— Confirmed with such a multitude of miracles, and so much blood of martyrs, and common consent of all Christendom.”
Tyndale: —Who shewed a miracle to confirm his preaching of ear-confession and pardons, with like pedlary? or who shed his blood for them? I can shew you many thousands that ye have slain for preaching the contrary. And again, Grecia, the one half of Christendom, consenteth not unto them; which Greeks, if such things had come from the apostles, should have had them ere ye.
More:— The spiritualty be not so tender-eared, but that they may hear their sins rebuked.”
Tyndale:—They consent not unto the way of truth, but sin of malice and of profession. And therefore, as they have no power to repent, even so can they not but persecute both him that rebuketh them, and his doctrine too, after the ensamples of the Pharisees, and all tyrants that be gone before; namely if the preacher touch any ground whereby they should be reformed, or by what means they maintain their mischief.
The Second Chapter
More:— A friar’s living, that hath married a nun, maketh it easy to know that his doctrine is not good 3.
Tyndale:—The profession of either other is plain idolatry, and deceiving of a man’s soul, and robbing him of his
[1 Not any respect unto his [Luther’s] railing against the clergy]
[is, as some would have it seem, the cause of his condemnation and]
[suppression of his books. For the good men of the clergy be not]
[so sore grieved with them that touch the faults of the bad, nor the]
[bad themselves be not so tender-eared, that for the only talking of]
[their faults they would banish the books that were good in other]
[things beside.”—More’s Works, p. 248.] [2 So C. U. L. ed., D. has begun.] [3 Works, p. 249. This is one of More’s continually recurring]
[sarcasms against Luther’s marriage.]]
good; and taken upon them ignorantly thereto: wherefore, when they be come unto the knowledge of the truth, they ought no longer therein to abide. But the pope’s forbidding matrimony, and to eat of meats created of God for man’s use, which is devilish doctrine by Paul’s prophecy; his giving licence to hold whores; his continual occupying of princes in shedding of christian blood; his robbing of the poor throughout Christendom of all that was given to maintain them; his setting up in Rome a stews, not of women only, but of the male kind against nature, and a thousand abominations too gross for a Turk, are tokens good enough that he is the right antichrist, and his doctrine sprung of the devil.
More:— In penance, Martin saith, there needeth no contrition nor satisfaction.”
. Tyndale:—Call it repentance, and then it is contrition of itself. And as for mends-making with worldly things, that do to thy brother whom thou hast offended; and unto God offer the repentance of thine heart, and the satisfaction of Christ’s blood.
More:— Tyndale saith, that the confessor uttereth the confessions of them that be rich. But yet we see that both rich and poor keep whores openly without paying penny.”
Tyndale:—1f they be very rich, they be suffered, because they may be good defenders of the spiritualty; and if they be very poor, because they have no money to pay; or else they fine with one or other, secretly.
More:— Upon that lie Tyndale buildeth the destruction of the sacrament of penance.”