Manley grants too much, however, to More's critics. Though some like Elton may be taken in by Anthony's garrulity, it would be textually and rhetorically naive to confuse the talkativeness of the old man in the dialogue with the mind of the author. Anthony is clearly meant in some ways to be an embodiment of the 'holy fool' or 'wise fool,' like Moria in The Praise of Folly and Hythloday in Utopia.[5] Louis Martz, Manley's co-editor, comes closest (in discussing More's 'art of improvisation') to the mark: "The whole movement... is characteristic of More's mode of apparently extemporaneous chattering which leads the audience by irony and indirection into the very heart of the issue" (CW 12, lxiii). Elsewhere, Martz argues that More's use of indirection and exploratory digression in his late works is very Augustinian.[6] Without in any way minimizing Martz's fundamental insight, I wish to point out that such a method of improvisational and exploratory digression is not incompatible with having a coherent outline of the whole work already planned in one's mind, before ever putting pen to paper. Underneath the apparently chaotic surface, the work is actually very carefully organised. There are no loose ends, at least none that I can {219} find---points are often made, as in real conversations, that are not pursued, but it is always clearly indicated that they are being dropped. In the best Horatian manner, More is never more artful in the Dialogue of Comfort than when he appears most artless.

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6.2 Textual History

5. Thomas More wrote A Dialogue of Comfort in Tribulation in 1534/35, while he was in the Tower of London awaiting execution. The final period of More's life lasted from his imprisonment in the Tower of London in April 17, 1534 until his execution on July 6, 1535. The works that More produced in this period are collectively known as "The Tower Works," and are published in Volumes 12 to 14 of the Yale Edition. Besides the Dialogue of Comfort, during that short time More managed to compose the De Tristitia, a profound and moving meditation, written in Latin, on Christ's Agony in the Garden, of which the autograph manuscript survives,[7] the English Treatise on the Passion (partly written before More's imprisonment),[8] a short meditation on the Eucharist, A Treatise to Receive the Blessed Body, some prayers and meditations,[9] and More's "Prison Letters."[10] This was an extraordinary achievement for a man in More's circumstances, and at least in the case of the Dialogue of Comfort, he managed to produce an acknowledged literary and spiritual masterpiece, perhaps the finest of his English works.

6. After More's death the Dialogue of Comfort circulated in manuscript form. The most important surviving manuscripts are the Corpus Christi Manuscript, Bodleian Library, Ms. C.C.C. D.37; and British Library, Ms. Royal 17 D.XIV. There are at least two other sixteenth-century manuscripts in existence, which were overlooked by the editors of the recent Yale Edition: British Library, Harley 1634; and Glasgow University Library, Hunter V.2.19. A fifth manuscript was also recently acquired by Yale University Library.[11] The Dialogue of Comfort was first published in 1553 by Richard Tottel during the reign of Queen Mary. Four years later in 1557, it was included by William Rastell in his folio edition of More's English Works, and it was published again in Antwerp in 1573 by the English Recusant printer John Fowler. Fowler based his edition on the 1553 and 1557 editions, {220} together with some emendations of his own (cf. CW 12, xxii).

7. The first modern edition (based on the 1553 edition) was published by J. Warrington in the Everyman series, together with the Utopia, in 1910.[12] It was reissued with modernised spelling in 1951.[13] It was edited again in a slightly abridged and modernised form (omitting about twenty percent of the text) by Leland Miles in 1963.[14] In 1976, Louis L. Martz and Frank Manley published the first genuinely critical edition of the Dialogue of Comfort as Volume 12 of the Yale Edition of the Complete Works of St. Thomas More. The Yale edition was based on the Corpus Christi Manuscript, together with variant readings from British Library, Royal 17 D.XIV, and the 1553, 1557 and 1573 editions. Martz and Manley did not make use of the Harley or Glasgow University manuscripts; however, the variants in these manuscripts are not substantive enough to necessitate re-editing the text.[15]

8. It is necessary to describe the Corpus Christi manuscript briefly because of an important editorial decision made by the Yale editors. The Yale edition is the first modern edition to take seriously into account the manuscript evidence, all previous editions being based on the early printed editions. The Yale editors distinguish up to five different hands (CW 12, xxii--xxviii), of which the most important are the basic scribal hand A, described as "a secretarial hand of the first half of the sixteenth century" (CW 12, xix), and hand B, the chief correcting hand, dating from the middle of the sixteenth century, tentatively identified by the Yale editors as that of William Rastell (CW 12, xlvi--xlix).

9. In an extensive discussion of the two hands (CW 12, xxviii--xliii), the Yale editors argue for the priority of the A text over all other versions (including British Library, MS. Royal 17 D.XIV, and the early printed editions). This conclusion is not significantly altered by the new manuscript finds (see Figure 6.1 for Revised Stemma).[16]

{221}

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{220} The manuscript was extensively revised by hand B (Rastell), probably with an aim to publication.[17] Many of the corrections made by B are clearly editorial in nature (cf. CW 12, xxxvi); however, it became obvious to the Yale editors from the many parallels with the other surviving textual witnesses that B also had another manuscript available to him, possibly even More's {222} holograph.[18] The Yale editors were then faced with the difficult task of reconciling the claims of the two hands. They chose to be as conservative as possible in following the A text.[19] However, they also included the words and phrases added by B in the text, printed within half-brackets (cf. CW 12, clxv). (I have used triangular brackets in my quotations instead.)

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6.3 Genre, Audience, Background, and Structure

10. The form of the work is that of a literary dialogue between two speakers, though, unlike Utopia and A Dialogue Concerning Heresies, there are no prefatory letters and no real introductory material either. The two speakers are an uncle named Anthony and a nephew named Vincent.[20] The Dialogue of Comfort is divided into three books. In the dialogue of Book I, Vincent visits his uncle to ask him to describe the nature of comfort in tribulation, the central theme of the work. The dialogues in Books II and III take place about a month later, supposedly on a single day, with only a break for dinner between Books II and III.

11. In the Dialogue of Comfort More presents us with the vision of a society on the verge of collapse. The fictional setting of the dialogue is in Hungary in the years 1527--1528, about seven to eight years before the actual time of writing, after the disastrous defeat of the Hungarian army by the Turks in 1526 at the Battle of Mohács, and before the final Turkish invasion of Hungary by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1529, which led to a permanent Turkish occupation (cf. CW 12, cxx--cxxxv). The fictional setting of the Dialogue of Comfort proves to be integral to the structure of the work. It would be too easy to read the work as a mere 'allegory' in the modern sense of the word. While undoubtedly there are clear parallels between Henry VIII and the 'Grand Turk', and between the fate of Hungary at the hands of the Turks and that of the Roman Catholic Church in England at the hands of Henry VIII, a careful reading of the work should suggest, as Manley points out, that the dialogue cannot be read on one level only.[21]

12. The Dialogue of Comfort works on several levels: sometimes the 'Grand Turk' is the literal historical figure of Suleiman the Magnificent, at other times he may represent a {223} veiled reference to Henry VIII, and at other times to the Devil himself.[22] In the same way without being a formal allegory, the 'Turkish invasion' also can either represent the literal historical event, or the chaos caused by the English Reformation and the ensuing persecution of English Catholics,[23] or, on a larger, more universal scale, all the forces of chaos, evil and destruction that threaten the Christian here in this life.[24]

13. There is clearly a very personal dimension to the work. One has a strong sense in reading through the Dialogue of Comfort of the author struggling to come to a final acceptance of his own death. His serenity at the time of his execution is well-known. What is not so well-known is how much it cost him personally to come to that point. Part of More's genius was his ability to universalize his own situation and see it sub specie aeternitatis. By doing so he was able to objectify his own position and stand apart from it, and become detached without giving in to resignation, though, in the course of the Dialogue of Comfort, More makes it clear that he was no stoic and that martyrdom did not come easily to him.

14. At the same time it is obvious that the Dialogue of Comfort was also meant to be a "Handbook for Christian Martyrs." Though the nominal setting of the Dialogue of Comfort was Hungary, it is clear that More was partly writing to strengthen and comfort his own family and those of his friends who were to remain faithful to the old religion and who in the process would likely suffer imprisonment and torture, exile or death at Henry VIII's hands. More did not offer any false comfort to them by trying to deny the horrors they might face, but rather tried to give them courage and strength to face these horrors.

15. However, the Dialogue of Comfort was clearly not concerned solely with the English situation either. More seems also to have been genuinely, deeply concerned about the tragic fall of Hungary, and the terrible vulnerability of a theologically divided Christendom to the incursions of the Turks.[25] "The Grand Turk" sometimes is clearly identified with the literal Ottoman Emperor, sometimes Henry VIII, and at other times with the Devil: in fact, the Grand Turk is a symbol of all the forces of chaos and destruction at work in the world, including tyrannical kings and rulers.[26] In the end, the Dialogue of Comfort deals not just {224} with contemporary religious conflicts, but more universally with the problem of suffering and of how the good or devout man should face this suffering.

16. The Dialogue of Comfort like many of More's other major works also represents a hybrid of several different literary genres. On the one hand it draws heavily on the classical consolatio tradition, of which the most famous example is Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy.[27] However, the work also has strong connections with the specifically Christian tradition of comfort that found expression in the many popular "books of comfort" that were produced in the later Middle Ages.[28] Unlike in the classical consolatio, including Boethius, reason is clearly subordinated to faith in More's Dialogue of Comfort which can perhaps be best described as a consolation of theology or of the theological virtues, rather than of philosophy (cf. CW 12, cxix). More seems to be quite unique in combining the classical tradition of consolatio with that of the Christian tradition of comfort. This is part of what gives the work its tremendous resonance.[29]

17. Frank Manley, in the introduction to the Yale Edition, on "The Argument of the Book" (CW 12, lxxxvi--cxvii), analyses the threefold division of the Dialogue of Comfort into three books in terms of the three Theological Virtues: Faith, Hope, and Charity. However, Manley's analysis does not go far enough. The Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation is a treatment not only of the theological virtues, but also of their polar psychological and spiritual opposites: doubt, fear, tribulation, despair, suicide, pride, pusillanimity (timidity), hate, persecution, and martyrdom. The work is an exploration of all the ways in which the tribulations of this life, culminating in persecution for the faith and Christian martyrdom, can undermine the workings of divine grace, and of the remedies provided by the theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity. Thus, paradoxically, More's "Book of Comfort" is in places a very dark book---it has as much to do with doubt and fear as with faith; as much with pride and despair and excessive scrupulosity as with hope; and as much with hatred, persecution and martyrdom as with love or charity.

18. Alongside the tripartite structure, there is another parallel structure consisting of a {227} more or less traditional "book" of comfort and consolation, comprising all of Book I and the first twenty odd pages of Book II, which I will call Comfort A (see Figure 6.2 for a schematic analysis of the structure of Comfort A),[30]

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{227} followed by an extended meditation on Psalm 90 (91), especially verses five and six, that runs through the second two-thirds of the work from page 102 onwards to the end of Book III, which I will call Comfort B.[31] After a brief discussion of Psalm 90(91): 1--4 in Chapter 10, on page 105 in Book II, Chapter 11, Anthony goes on to quote verses 5 and 6 of the same Psalm:

Scuto circumdabit te veritas eius / non timebis a timore nocturno / a sagitta volante in die, a negocio perambulante in tenebris, ab incursu & demonio meridiano: The trouth of god shall compasse the about with a pavice [shield], thow shalt not be aferd of the nightes feare, nor of the arrow fleyng in the day, nor of the bysynes walkyng about in the darknesses / nor of the incursion or invacion of the devill in the mydde day. (CW 12, 105/17--23).

As Louis Martz points out, "the great central text from Psalm 90... runs like a refrain through the rest of Book II and on throughout Book III, forming the basis for a sustained set of considerations on the comfort to be found in "the truth of God".[32] Martz goes on to show how the four temptations of Psalm 90: 5--6 provide an architectural framework for the rest of the Dialogue of Comfort.[33] My own "model" of the structure of Comfort B (see Figure 6.3) is essentially a refinement of that provided by Martz and the somewhat complementary analysis of Martz's co-editor Frank Manley (cf. CW 12, xcv--cxvii), though I have not agreed in every detail with their divisions of the text.

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{227} As Martz and Manley point out (cf. CW 12, lxxiv--v, ci--civ) the first three temptations of Psalm 90 provide the framework for much of Book II: the first temptation, "the night's fear," the temptation of fear and despair, is dealt with in Chapters 12--16 (107--57), and the second and third temptations, "the arrow flying in the day" and "the business walking in the darkness", the temptations of pride and prosperity, and of the frantic pursuit of worldly goods and wealth respectively, in Chapters 16--17 (157--87), while the fourth temptation, "the noonday devil," persecution for the faith and {228} the threat of martyrdom, takes up all of Book III.

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6.4 The Function of Psalm 90

19. Before turning to an analysis of the text of the Dialogue of Comfort, it is necessary briefly to discuss the main exegetical traditions surrounding Psalm 90 (91): 5--6, since this will be crucial for correctly understanding the structure of Comfort B.[34] There are two main traditions, one, found mainly among the Desert Fathers, which interprets the "noonday devil" of Psalm 90: 6 as the spirit of acedia or "accidie", and the second, originating with St. Augustine and St. Jerome, which interprets the daemon meridianum as the persecution of tyrants or the seductions of heretics.

20. The clearest statement of the first view is in Cassian's Institutes, Book 10, Chap. 1:[35]

Our sixth combat is with what the Greeks call acedia, which we may term weariness [taedium] or distress of heart [anxietatem cordis]. This is akin to dejection [tristitia],[36] and is especially trying to solitaries, and a dangerous and frequent foe to dwellers in the desert; and especially disturbing to a monk about the sixth hour [i.e. noon], like some fever which seizes him at stated times, bringing the burning heat of its attack on the sick man at usual and regular hours. Lastly, there are some of the elders who declare that this is the "midday demon" spoken of in the ninetieth Psalm.[37]

Cassian goes on to describe the effects of "accidie" in the next chapter: the monk afflicted by accidie becomes disgusted with his cell, and feels disdain and contempt for his monastic brothers. He becomes lazy and sluggish, and cannot bear to stay in his cell and read, but "often groans because he can do no good while he stays there, and complains and sighs because he can bear no spiritual fruit."[38] He imagines that life in other monasteries is better, and that he will never be well if he stays in that place, unless he leaves his cell:

Then the fifth or sixth hour [i.e. noon] brings him such bodily weariness and longing for food that he seems to himself worn out and wearied as if with a long journey, or some very heavy work,... Then besides this he looks about anxiously this way and that,... and often goes in and out of his cell, and frequently gazes up at the sun, as if it was too slow in setting, and so {229} a kind of unreasonable confusion of mind takes possession of him like some foul darkness, and makes him idle and useless for every spiritual work....[39]

The rest of Book 10 of the Institutes goes on to provide a detailed analysis of "The Spirit of Accidie" and its remedies.[40] Accidie "in its most complicated and most deadly form, a mixture of boredom, sorrow and despair"[41] clearly provides the inspiration, if not framework, for much of the discussion of the "First Temptation" in Book II, culminating in the "Counselling of the Spiritual Man of Cassian's Collations" (in Book II: 16).

21. This tradition of interpretation of Psalm 90 (91): 5--6, put forward by Cassian and other Desert Fathers, was in turn later taken up and modified and developed further by St. Bernard and others. St. Bernard commented on Psalm 90 (91) in a series of Lenten sermons, the In Psalmum XC, and in Sermon 33 of the Sermons on the Song of Songs.[42] While St. Bernard does at one point describe the attacks of the noonday devil in terms strikingly reminiscent of Cassian's description in the Institutes,[43] he also, unlike Cassian, stresses the element of fear or pusillanimity:

Our common experience tells us that it is fear which disturbs us at the beginning of our conversion, fear of that dismaying picture we form for ourselves of the strict life and unwanted austerities we are about to embrace. This is called a nocturnal fear.... Beginners on the way to God, therefore, must in particular watch and pray against this first temptation, or they will be suddenly overcome by pusillanimity of spirit as by a storm, and unfortunately recoil from the good work they have begun.[44]

St. Bernard's interpretation of the "night's fear" provided the basis for More's treatment of Pusillanimity in Book II, Chapters 13--14, while Cassian's discussion of "accidie" provided the basis for More's treatment of spiritual despair, and of the desire to commit suicide, in Book II, Chapters 15--16.

22. More's interpretation of the second and third temptations of Psalm 90 (91), in terms of the temptations of the "active life," namely temptations of pride and prosperity, and of the frantic desire to acquire wealth and material possessions, seems also to be derived rather {230} freely from St. Bernard and Nicholas of Lyra.[45] St. Bernard interprets the second temptation, "the arrow that flies by day", as vainglory:[46]

This arrow is none other than vain glory, which is why it does not attack the wavering [pusillanimes] and the careless. It is those who appear more fervent who must look out for themselves; they must be afraid on this score, and be extremely cautious never to leave the invincible shield of truth [cf. 90:4]... For, unless I am mistaken, a man cannot easily be misled by someone who praises him during his lifetime, and thus become top-lofty, if he carefully examines himself within in the light of truth, Surely if he thinks about his own condition, he will say to himself, 'How can you, who are but dust and ashes, be proud?' Surely, if he considers his own corruption, he must necessarily admit that there is no good in him.[47]

St. Bernard goes on to interpret the third temptation as hypocrisy and ambition: "the pestilence that stalks about in the darkness,... is hypocrisy. For this has its source in ambition, its dwelling in darkness."[48] In this temptation the tempter says: "He has spurned vain glory because it is vain. Maybe he will conceive a fondness for more solid food: honors, perhaps, or maybe riches."[49] St. Bernard goes on to show how because of this temptation "a foul corruption permeates the whole body of the Church":[50]

For they even pursue their nefarious quest and the business of darkness in running after positions of ecclesiastical dignity, and in this they are seeking not the salvation of souls, but the extravagance of riches.... Today people scrap shamelessly to get archbishoprics and archdeaconries in order to dissipate church revenues in wanton waste and vain pursuits.[51]

Those who, led on by this temptation, seek to become prelates in the Church, attain to these positions not "by way of merit, but through this agency that works in the darkness."[52] In Book II, Chapters 16--17 (CW 12, 157--87), More by and large follows St. Bernard, except that as a pious layman, he expands St. Bernard's description of the "Third Temptation" to include also the temptations of public office.

23. For his treatment of the "Fourth Temptation," More drew on the second tradition of the interpretation of Psalm 90 (91): 5--6, mentioned previously. The clearest statement of this second tradition is to be found in Cassiodorus's Expositio Psalmorum:[53] {231}

The terror of the night, then, is the cloudy persuasion of heretics. The arrow that flieth by day is open persecution by tyrants. The business in the dark is the debased study by which the mental eye of right believers is blinded. The noonday devil is the massive danger ignited by the heat of persecution, in which destruction is often feared and human weakness overcome....[54]

Cassiodorus was in turn conflating two earlier traditions of exegesis, going back to Augustine[55] and Jerome[56] respectively.

24. For St. Jerome the noon-day devil is the teaching of heretics, philosophers, and Jews. The two sermons that St. Jerome preached on Psalm 90 (91) (Homilies 20 and 68) closely parallel one another. In the first temptation (Homily 20) the devil lurks in the darkness and shoots at the guileless and the innocent who are his secret target. "You shall not fear the terror of the night" means that "even though you are in the terror of the dark night, nevertheless, you will not be afraid because you are armed with the shield of truth."[57] The second, third and fourth temptations are interpreted (Homily 68):

Nor the arrow that flies by day?... is the teaching of the heretics that flies hither and thither throughout the day---throughout all God's law---in their anxious search to gather testimony against us that they may rob us of all truth by their interpretation. Not the pestilence that roams in the darkness. He did not say stands, but roams, for the heretics are never constant in their convictions, but are forever changing their opinions, shifting back and forth. Nor the devastating plague at noon.... No less than the saints, who have a midday light where they pasture their flocks and give them rest, the devil, transformed into an angel of light, has his servants disguised as false ministers of justice.... Some inexperienced and credulous men think that there is a real midday demon that has more power to attack men at that time; we, however, shall interpret the noonday devils as the heresiarchs who, while simulating angels of light, preach dogmas of darkness.[58]

St. Jerome's interpretation of Psalm 90 (91) provides evidence for reading the attempts of the "Great Turk" in Book III of the Dialogue of Comfort to force Christians to renounce their faith as an allegory of the English Reformation under Henry VIII. However, St. Jerome's interpretation is implicit rather than explicit in Book III of the Dialogue of Comfort. The main source for More's exegesis of the "Fourth Temptation" of Psalm 90 (91): 5--6 in {232} Book III is to be found in St. Augustine's Expositions on the Book of Psalms: "The demon that is in the noon-day, represents the heat of furious persecution."[59] St. Augustine then recalls the earlier persecution of Christians. At first the emperors and kings of the world thought they could destroy the name of Christ by simple execution; the emperor's decree: "'Whoever professes himself a Christian, let him be beheaded;' was as the arrow that flieth by day. The devil that is in the noonday was not yet abroad, burning with a terrible persecution, and afflicting with great heat even the strong."[60] However, when the emperor saw so many hastening to martyrdom, and the number of fresh converts increasing in proportion to the martyrs:

The sun then began to blaze, and to glow with a terrible heat. Their first edict had been, Whoever shall confess himself a Christian, let him be smitten. Their second edict was, Whoever shall have confessed himself a Christian, let him be tortured, and tortured even until he deny himself a Christian.... Many therefore who denied not [under the first edict], failed amid the tortures; for they were tortured until they denied. But to those who persevered in professing Christ, what could the sword do, by killing the body at one stroke, and sending the soul to God? This was the result of protracted tortures also: yet who could be found able to resist such cruel and continued torments? Many failed: those, I believe, who presumed upon themselves, who dwelt not under the defence of the Most High, and under the shadow of the God of Heaven [cf. 90:1]; who said not to the Lord, "Thou art my lifter up:" [v.2] who trusted not beneath the shadow of his wings [v.4], but reposed much confidence in their own strength. They are thrown down by God, to show them that it is He that protects them, He overrules their temptations, He allows so much only to befall them, as each person can sustain.[61]

St. Augustine's interpretation of the noonday devil as "symbolizing the stormiest period of persecution experienced by the early Church,"[62] clearly provides the foundation of Book III of More's Dialogue of Comfort. However, More reverses the psychological movement of St. Augustine's sermon: More's analysis of the daemon meridianum in Book III begins with the loss of outward goods, and persecution for the faith, and moves progressively to its inner psychological and spiritual culmination at the end of Book III in the joys of Christian martyrdom. A detailed account of the structure of Book III, the subdivisions of the "Fourth {233} Temptation" (see Figure 6.3), is reserved for the appropriate sections of the "Analysis of the Text" which follows.

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6.5 Analysis of the Text

6.5.1 Introduction to Book I (I:Preface)

25. The opening of the dialogue, like so many of More's other works, is very carefully structured. Unlike several earlier works, there are no prefatory letters, only the brief title. The two speakers are not introduced in any formal way, except by the alternation of the names in the text. The opening is almost casual, certainly muted and low-key. There is no real introduction. We hear Vincent, the nephew, speaking immediately:

Who wold haue went / O my good vnckle / afore a few yeres passed, that such as in this countrey wold visit their frendes lying in desease & siknes, shuld come (as I do now) to seke & fetch comfort of them / or in gevyng comfort to them, vse the wey that I may well vse to you / For albeit that the prestes and freres be wont to call vppon sik men to remember deth / yet we worldly frendes for feare of discomfortyng them, haue euer had a gise in hungarye / to lyft vp their hartes and put them in hope of lyfe / But now my good vnckle the world is here waxen such / & so gret perilles appere here to fall at hand that me thynketh the gretest comfort that a man can haue, ys when he may see that he shall sone be gone. And we that are lykely long to lyve here in wrechidnes, haue nede of some comfortable councell agaynst trybulacion / to be gevyn vs by such as you be good vnckle, that haue so long lyvid vertuously, & are so lernyd in the law of god, as very few be better in this countrey here.... (CW 12, 3/9--23)

26. Anthony replies with the conventional Christian answer that Vincent must look for comfort from God and not from him. The young man is not so easily put off by his uncle, and comments that Anthony's words "make me now fele & perceve, what a mysse of much comfort we shall haue, when ye be gone" (5/17--18). Anthony for his part still seems to be reluctant to reply to Vincent's request for comfort, and suggests that God himself will give him comfort. This time Vincent begs his uncle more urgently for words of good counsel and comfort:

And sith that I now se the lyklyhod, that when ye be gone, we shalbe sore {234} destytute of any such other lyke / Therfor thynketh me / that god of dewtie byndeth me to sew <to> you now good vnckle, in this short tyme that we haue you, that yt may like you agaynst these grete stormes of tribulacions / with which both I & all myne are sore beten alredy / And now vppon the comyng of this cruell Turke, fere to fall in ferre mo / I may lern of you such plentie of good councell & comfort, that I may with the same layd vp in remembrauns, gouerne and staye the ship of ower kyndred, & kepe yt a flote from perill of spirituall drounnyng. (CW 12, 6/5--14)

Vincent next describes in gruesome detail the cruelties and atrocities committed by the Turks, during the invasion of Hungary in 1526. After mentioning some of the past victories of the Turks, Anthony mentions that there is something worse even than the evils committed by the Turks, namely the pains of Hell. However, Anthony is so moved by Vincent's words, that he finally agrees to Vincent's request.

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6.5.2 Comfort in Tribulation (I:1--I:12)

27. Anthony first defines tribulation as "some kynd of grefe eyther payne of the body or hevynes of <the> mynd" (10/6--7). He then briefly alludes to the classical tradition of consolation derived from ancient moral philosophy, only to point out its inadequacy without faith. Faith is the necessary foundation without which comfort is impossible. Vincent then asks Anthony to proceed further in describing the nature of spiritual comfort. Anthony then defines the first kind of comfort as the desire and longing to be comforted by God. God both can and will give man comfort. Vincent interjects:

But <by> this I se wel / that woo may they be, which in tribulacion lak that mynd, & that desierith not to be comfortid by god / but are eyther of slouth or impacyence discumfortles / or of foly seke for their cheef ease & cumfort eny where elles. (CW 12, 17/8--11)

Anthony replies that the very tribulation itself that God sends serves ordinarily as a means for man's amendment.

28. Vincent thinks his uncle's counsel is very good, but asks if the desire to have the tribulation taken away is not also a desire for God's comfort. Anthony responds that "A {235} man may many tymes well & without synne, desier of god the tribulacion to be taken from hym / but neyther may we desier <that> in euery case" (19/26--28). Anthony next describes various kinds of tribulations:

trybulacions are / ye wot well / of many sundrye kyndes / some by losse of goodes or possessions, & some by the siknes of oure selfe / & some by the losse of frendes / or by some other payne put vnto our bodies / some by the drede of the losyng of those thynges that we fayne wold save / vnder which feare fall all the same thynges that we haue spoken before.... (CW 12, 19/29--20/5)

We may pray for relief from hunger, sickness and bodily hurt, but we may not pray for the taking away of every kind of tribulation. When it comes time for a man to die and depart to God, he should show himself content to do so. If it is God's will for us to suffer, then we must pray that God will send us the spiritual comfort to bear it gladly, or the strength to suffer it patiently. Anthony then claims that:

euery tribulacion which any tyme falleth vnto vs / ys eyther sent to be medicinable yf men will so take yt / or may become medicynable yf men will so make it / or is better than medicynable but yf we will forsake yt. (CW 12, 23/22--25)

Vincent, however, is a bit puzzled. Anthony now tries to clarify his earlier position by stating that every tribulation comes either, first, because of our own sinful deeds, or else, secondly, is sent by God to man as a punishment for past sins or to preserve us from falling into sin, or, thirdly, to prove our patience or increase our merit.

29. Vincent finds Anthony's arguments somewhat dark and obscure, and asks for further clarification. In the first case, Anthony explains, many make a virtue of necessity and turn to God in their tribulations. In the second, the tribulation is medicinable for our past sins, if accepted in the right spirit, or as a preservative against sins to come. Vincent asks about the third kind of tribulation and raises the following objection:

yet can I not see by what reson a man may in this world, where the {236} tribulacion is suffrid, take any more comfort therin, then in any of the tother twayne that are sent a man for his syn / sith he can not <here> know, whether yt be sent hym for synnes before commyttid or sinne that els shuld fall, or for increase of merite & reward after to come.... (CW 12, 30/23--28)

Anthony acknowledges Vincent's objection, but points out that some men can justly claim, as Job did, that they did not deserve the sufferings they endured. Their sufferings were clearly meant to test their patience. Anthony includes in the third group any man who falls into tribulation for the sake of justice, or in defence of religion. Their sufferings are better than medicinable since they lead to salvation.

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6.5.3 On the Necessity of Tribulation (I:13--I:20)

30. Anthony then suggests paradoxically the need for tribulation, if we are to find comfort:

Cosyn it were to long worke to peruse euery comfort that a man may well take in tribulacion / for as many comfortes ye wot well may a man take therof, as there be good comodities therin / and that be there <surely> so many, that it woldbe very long to reherse & treat of them / But me semeth we can not lightly better perceve what profit & comoditie & therby what comfort they may take of it that haue yt, than yf we well consider what harm the lak ys, & therby what discumfort the lak therof shuld be to them that neuer haue yt.... (CW 12, 40/22--41/3)

Anthony declares that man cannot have continual prosperity both in this world and in the next. Vincent objects that many preachers promise their hearers that they can experience continual happiness in this world and the next. Anthony replies that they do it either for gain or out of fear. Vincent further objects, first, that the Church in its various collects and other liturgical prayers prays for princes and prelates that God grant them perpetual health and prosperity; secondly, that if prosperity is indeed so perilous, we should not then pray for continual health and prosperity; thirdly, some of the Old Testament patriarchs, such as Solomon, Job, and Abraham enjoyed prosperity; fourthly, that there are many good men who are rich and many of the poor who are as evil as they are wretched. Anthony then {237} clarifies his earlier statement:

Eyther I said not Cosyn, orels ment I not to say, that for an vndoutid rule / worldly pleasure were alwey displesaunt to god / or tribulacion euermore holsome to euery man. For well wote I that our lord giveth in this world, vnto euery sort of folke eyther sort of fortune. (CW 12, 48/4--8)

God gives both good fortune and sorrow. There are some who in prosperity cannot creep forward to God, but who run quickly to him in tribulation. Anthony defines tribulation as everything which troubles or grieves a man, either in body or in mind. Significantly, he does not minimize the pain of mental anguish:

And surely Cosyn the prik that very sore priketh the mynd / as far almost passeth in payne the grefe that payneth the body / as doth a thorn that stikketh in the hart, passe and excede in payne the thorn that is thrust in the hele. (CW 12, 50/21--24)

He argues that, if one includes mental anguish, then there are more kinds of tribulation than had been previously thought, and that "sith euery kynd of tribulacion is an interupcion of welth / prosperitie which is but of welth another name, may be discontynued by mo wayes than you wold before haue went" (51/1--3).

31. The fourth objection is dismissed out of hand by Anthony. Anthony then replies to the first and third of the previously raised objections, that to pray for perpetual health is childish, and that it is equivalent to praying that one never experiences any temptations or trials in this life; and, that Solomon, Job, and Abraham all experienced tribulations of one kind or another, and therefore did not experience continual prosperity. Vincent insists, however, that the second objection still stands. Anthony replies that the same God who teaches us that tribulation is profitable also teaches us to pray for relief, and that God even sometimes sends tribulation to make us pray to him for help.

32. Vincent accepts Anthony's arguments, but returns to the fourth previously raised objection, and reformulates it: that if both tribulation and prosperity are neither good nor {238} bad in themselves why put a greater value on tribulation than on prosperity? He points out that:

a welthy man well at ease, may pray to god quietly & meryly with alacrite & grete quietnes of mynd / where as he that lieth gronyng in his grefe, can not endure to pray nor thynk almost vppon nothyng but vppon his payne. (CW 12, 65/3--6)

Anthony replies to Vincent's objections by insisting that the two forms of prayer do not have equal merit:

For in tribulacion which commeth you wot well in many sondry kyndes / any man that is not a dull best or a desperat wretch, callith vppon god, not houerly [lightly] but right hartely, & settith his hart <full> hole vppon his request / so sore he longeth for ease & helpe of his hevynes. (CW 12, 65/17--21)

He gives the example of the martyrs who made no long prayers aloud: "but one ynch of such a prayour so prayd in that payne, was worth an hole ell & more evyn of their own prayours prayd at some other tyme" (66/6--8). The greatest of Christ's own prayers were those he made "in his grete agony & payne of his bitter passion" (67/2--3).

33. Anthony then denies that the man in prosperity experiences true comfort, which derives from "the consolacion of good hope, that men take in their hart / of some good growing toward them" (68/13--14), and not the pleasures of the body. Anthony concludes that we should consider:

tribulacion as a graciouse gyfte of god: A gyfte that he specially gaue his speciall frendes / the thyng that in scripture is highly commendid & praysid / A thyng wherof the contrary long contynued is perilous / A thyng which but yf god send <it,> men haue nede by penaunce to put vppon them selfe and seke it / A thyng that helpith to purge our synnes passid / A thyng that preserueth vs fro sinne that els wold come / A thyng that causeth vs set les by the world, A thyng that excitith vs to draw more toward god, A thyng that much mynysheth our paynes in purgatory, A thyng that mych encreseth our fynall reward in hevyn, The thyng by which our saviour entrid his own kyngdome / The thyng with which all his apostelles folowid hym thether, The thyng which our saviour exortith all men to / The thyng without which (he sayth) we be not his dicyples, The {239} thyng without which no man can get to hevyn. (CW 12, 75/11--24)

After Anthony's comfortable peroration, Vincent apologizes for disturbing him with his importunate objections. They agree to meet again. Vincent then prays for Anthony that God send him comfort, and Anthony in turn replies by praying for "the same good for you, & for all our other frendes that haue nede of comfort" (77/19--20). With this note of consolation Book I closes, and Vincent goes off to relay Anthony's words of comfort to their relatives and friends.

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6.5.4 The Beginning of Book II (II:Preface--II:9)

34. Book II takes place about a month after the events of Book I. Vincent returns again to visit Anthony and half-jokingly apologizes for tiring him out at their first meeting:

yet after my departyng from you, remembring how long we taried together, and that we were all that while in talkyng / And all the labour yours in talkyng so long together without interpawsyng betwene / & that of mater studiouse & displesaunt, all of desease & siknes & other payne & tribulacion: I was in good fayth very sory & not a litell wroth with my selfe for myn <own> ouer sight, that I had so litell considerid your payne.... (CW 12, 78/10--16)

Anthony good-humoredly accepts Vincent's apology:

Nay nay good Cosyn / to talke mych / except some other payne let me / ys to me litell griefe / A fond old man is often so full of wordes as a woman. It is you wot well / as some poetes paynt vs / all the lust of an old foles lyfe / to sit well & warm with a cupp & a rostid crabb & dryvill & drinke & talke. (CW 12, 78/22--26)

He goes on to reassure Vincent that their previous conversation was a great comfort to him, and to assert that the main focus of their previous discussion had been not tribulation itself, but the comfort that can be found in tribulation. Vincent tells Anthony that he has reported to their mutual friends the counsels that Anthony had imparted to him at their previous meeting. Vincent in turn asks Anthony to remember his own comfort, and to be ready to dismiss him when he (Anthony) wishes to leave. Anthony apologizes for speaking so much {240} at the last meeting:

Forsoth Cosyn many wordes yf a man were very weke / spokyn (as you said right now) without interpawsyng, wold peradventure at length somwhat wery hym / And therfor wished I the last tyme after you were gone / when I felt my selfe (to sey the trowth) evyn a litell wery / that I had not so told you styll a long tale alone / but that we had more often enterchaungid wordes / & partid the talke betwene vs, with <ofter> enterparlyng vppon your part / in such maner as lernid men vse betwene the persons / whom they devise disputyng in their faynid diologes. (CW 12, 79/18--26)

He promises that he will now let Vincent do more of the talking. Vincent, however, in turn apologizes for having spoken as much as he did, and for having asked so many awkward questions. Vincent starts off by defending the desire sometimes to seek worldly comfort in tribulation, and gives as an example the telling of 'merry tales,' which refresh the mind again after it has become tired from too much study. Anthony feels uncomfortable about the telling of merry tales, but recognises his own weakness for them:

And of trouth Cosyn / as you know very well my selfe am of nature evyn halfe a giglot [wanton] & more / I wold I cold as easly mend my faute as I well know yt / But scant can I refrayne yt as old a fole as I am / how beit so parciall will I not be to my fawte as to prayse it. (CW 12, 83/3--7)

As it turns out Books II and III of the Dialogue of Comfort are full of 'merry tales,' many of them animal fables, which do indeed serve the function of refreshing the reader without distracting him too seriously from the course of the argument.[63]

35. Anthony returns to the main theme of the previous discussion by reiterating that we must find our chief comfort in God, but that honest mirth also has its place. He accepts the necessity of using merry tales as a concession to the weakness of human nature. However, he advises, that these kinds of recreation be as short and be used as seldom as possible. Most people, however, do not need any encouragement to tell idle tales. Our affection for Heaven is so cold that when the preacher speaks of the pains of Hell, his audience prick up their ears, but when he preaches of the joys of Heaven they all wander away.

36. {241} He continues by subdividing tribulations into three different kinds: firstly, those a man willingly takes upon himself, such as acts of penance; secondly, those he willingly suffers; and, thirdly, those he is unable to avoid, such as sickness, imprisonment, loss of goods or friends, or unavoidable bodily harm. Anthony postpones the third kind until later---to be dealt with in Book III. He briefly dismisses the first kind. In this kind of tribulation a man needs no comfort since he has freely taken it upon himself, and will experience comfort in the very act of tribulation. The second kind of tribulation will become the matter of the rest of Book II. However, before turning to this second kind of tribulation, Vincent brings forward a couple of objections concerning the first kind. There are some who remain bold in their sins until the end of their lives, trusting to be saved by deathbed repentance. Anthony replies that they risk being rejected by God in the end. And their place in Heaven will be lower than if they did penance. Vincent raises the further objection that the Lutherans in Germany dismiss fasting and penance as superstitious practises. Anthony in turn defends these practises as justified by scripture and the tradition of the Church.

37. Vincent now asks Anthony to deal with the second kind of tribulation. Anthony then proceeds to subdivide this kind of tribulation into two: the first being temptation and the second such forms of persecution as a man is reluctant to endure but does so to avoid giving displeasure to God. These two kinds are interrelated: in temptation the Devil persecutes us indirectly, and in persecution the Devil tempts us openly.

38. Anthony argues paradoxically that it is a great comfort for every man to be tested by temptation, since, if he wrestles with it, it will become the matter of his salvation. Another great source of comfort is that God has promised us in many places in scripture to strengthen and sustain those who endure temptation. {242}

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6.5.5 Psalm 90 and the First Temptation (II:10--II:16)

39. Anthony goes on in Book II, Chapter 10, to quote from the opening verses of Psalm 90 (91) as an example of God's promises: "Qui habitat in adiutorio altissimi, in protectione dei celi comorabitur: who so dwellith in the help of the hiest god, he shall abide in the proteccion or defence of the god of hevyn" (102/26--103/2). Psalm 90 will provide a framework for much of what follows in the Dialogue of Comfort. After briefly commenting on Psalm 90, Verse 4 (CW 12, 103--104), Anthony goes on in the following chapter, in a passage already cited, to quote verses 5 and 6:

Scuto circumdabit te veritas eius / non timebis a timore nocturno / a sagitta volante in die, a negocio perambulante in tenebris, ab incursu & demonio meridiano: The trouth of god shall compasse the about with a pavice [shield], thow shalt not be aferd of the nightes feare, nor of the arrow fleyng in the day, nor of the bysynes walkyng about in the darknesses / nor of the incursion or invacion of the devill in the mydde day. (CW 12, 105/17--23).

This quotation becomes a sort of leitmotif, or recurring theme, running through the rest of the Book. The structure of the 'Book of Comfort' that More the author has been writing until this point is abandoned in favour of, or perhaps more accurately not abandoned but rather subsumed into an extended meditation on Psalm 90: 5--6. The four temptations of Psalm 90 then provide the framework for the rest of Book II and all of Book III. Anthony then goes on to explicate the text of the Psalm:

here sayth he [the psalmist] farther that the trouth of god shall compase the with a pavice / that is to wit that as god hath faythfully promisid to protect & defend those that faythfully will dwell in the trust of his help / so will he truly perform yt / And the that such one art, will the trouth of his promise defend, not with a litell round buckeler that scant can couer the hed, but with a long large pavice... (CW 12, 106/3--9)

He makes it clear that this "pavice" or shield is Christ himself.

40. Anthony turns next to a consideration of the first temptation of Psalm 90, the night's fear, which he interprets as consisting of those temptations of the devil, which tempt good {243} men to impatience and anger---the sufferings of Job are a clear example of this kind of temptation. This temptation is called the night's fear for two reasons: the tribulation is often dark and unknown, and the dangers of the temptation, like the terrors of the night itself, are often greatly exaggerated. One form this temptation can take is pusillanimity (faintheartedness); another is an overscrupulous conscience. To illustrate this fear Anthony tells one of More's most famous 'merry tales'---the Tale of Mother Maud---about an ass with an overscrupulous conscience and a wolf whose conscience was too accommodating.[64]

41. Anthony then asserts that one of the most serious forms that the temptation of the night's fear or pusillanimity takes is the desire to kill oneself. Vincent replies that those who are tempted to kill themselves can never escape the temptation. To which Anthony responds:

many a good man & woman hath some tyme / ye diuers yeres one after other continually be temptid therto / & yet haue by grace & good counsayle well and vertuously withstand yt, & bene in conclucion clerely deliuerid of hit / & there tribulacion nothyng knowen abrode & therfor nothyng talkyd of. (CW 12, 122/23--123/2)

Vincent is obviously troubled by the problem of suicide, which becomes one of the major themes of Book II.[65] He is not satisfied with Anthony's claim that the desire to kill oneself is an expression of pusillanimity, and goes on to interject that the desire to kill oneself may be an expression of great courage and boldness, and not fear as Anthony had previously claimed. Anthony does not deny that some are driven by anger or pride to kill themselves, but claims that they do not need comfort. Vincent is puzzled by this claim.

42. After this, Anthony tells a merry tale in which a carpenter's wife taunts her husband into chopping her head off. He concludes that "this temptacion in procuring her own deth" was "no tribulacion at all, as far as euer men could perceve / for it liked her well to thynke theron, & she evyn longid therfor" (126/24--27), and goes on to state that she needed to be counselled, not comforted. After telling another merry tale in the same vein, Anthony again {244} concludes: "this kynd of temptacion to a mans own destruccion which requireth counsayle / & is out of tribulacion / was out of our mater that is to treate of comfort in tribulacion" (129/3--5).

43. Vincent and Anthony then discuss (in Chapter 16) the case, taken from Cassian's Collations Book II:5, of a monk who thought it was God's will to kill himself. Cassian's description is as follows:

Remember the old man Hero who was cast down from the heights to the lowest depths because of a diabolical illusion. I remember how he remained fifty years in this desert, keeping to the rigors of abstinence with a severity that was outstanding, loving the secrecy of the solitary life with a fervor marvelously greater than that of any one else dwelling here. After such toil how and why could he have been fooled by the deceiver?... Surely the reason for it was that he had too little of the virtue of discernment and that he preferred to be guided by his own ideas rather than to bow to the advice and conferences of his brethern and to the rules laid down by our predecessors.... This presumptuousness led to his being fooled. He showed the utmost veneration for the angel of Satan, welcoming him as if he were actually an angel of light. Yielding totally to his bondage he threw himself headlong into a well.... He was pulled out half-dead by his brothers, who had to struggle very hard at it. He would die two days later. Worse, he was to cling firmly to his illusion, and the very experience of dying could not persuade him that he had been the sport of devilish skill. Those who pitied him his leaving had the greatest difficulty in obtaining the agreement of abbot Paphnutius that... he should not be classed among the suicides and, hence, be deemed unworthy of the remembrance and prayers offered for the dead.[66]

This chapter represents, as far as I know, together with More's own earlier brief account of suicide in Utopia,[67] the first serious treatment of suicide in English literature, and possibly one of the first such treatments in Western literature since classical antiquity. Unfortunately, it is beyond the scope of this present study to deal with it. However, I will point to one important feature---much of Chapter 16 (CW 12, 129--57) consists of a "dialogue-within-a-dialogue" in which Anthony and Vincent imagine themselves 'counselling' the spiritual man of Cassian's Collations, and consider the different kinds of good advice, comfort and counsel that could be given under the circumstances.[68] {245}

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6.5.6 The Second and Third Temptations of Psalm 90 (II:16--II:17)

44. After Anthony ends his lengthy discussion of suicide, Vincent expresses concern that he has kept him from his dinner. Anthony reassures him that he had already dined before Vincent came. Anthony then goes on (CW 12, 157--66) to interpret the second temptation of Psalm 90, "the arrow flying in the day," as:

the arrow of pride, with which the devill temptith a man / not in the night / that is to wit in tribulacion & aduersite / for that tyme is to dyscomfortable & to fearefull for pride / but in the day that is to wit in prosperite / for that time is full of lightsome lust & corage. (CW 12, 157/20--24)

Anthony then suggests that the temptation to pride in prosperity is a source of tribulation for many good men. This temptation takes the forms of ambitious glory, arrogance, contempt for the poor, oppression and extortion. Many good men in positions of authority are troubled by these temptations. Anthony advises that such men should stay in their offices if possible but should also seek the help of a good confessor. Vincent responds that he likes Anthony's counsels well, and thinks they are very profitable to those in prosperity.

45. Anthony then turns (CW 12, 166--87) to the third temptation of Psalm 90, "the business walking in the darkness":

And now will I touch one word or twayn of the third temptacion (wherof the prophet speketh in these wordes) A negocio perambulante in tenebris: from the besines walkyng in the darknes / & than will we call for our dener levyng the last temptacion that is to wit / Ab incursu & demonio meridiano / from the incursion & the devill of the midd day / till after none / & than shall we therwith god willyng make an end of all this mater. (CW 12, 165/24--30)

Anthony interprets the Negotium of Psalm 90: 6 as a devil that tempts men to much evil business or frantic activity in pursuit of worldly goods and pleasures. The great sin here is the inordinate desire for and attachment to riches. Vincent objects that he cannot see how any rich man can be saved, unless he gives all his riches to the poor. Anthony argues that {246} Christ did not condemn riches as such, but rather inordinate attachment to worldly possessions. We must be ready to renounce all for Christ's sake. The rich man has his place---he can give alms to beggars and serve as an employer to the poor.[69] He should also use his riches to care for his family and his own servants, if they are old or sick. After Anthony has concluded dealing with the third temptation, dinner is brought in. They say grace and then sit down to dinner, and Anthony tells Vincent that he needs to sleep for a while after dinner. Vincent says that he has an errand to run, and will return when it is done.

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6.5.7 The Beginning of Book III (III:Preface--III:1)

46. Book III opens on a sombre note with Vincent apologizing for having tarried too long:

by reason that I was lettid with one that shewid me a lettre datid at Constantinople / by which lettre it apperith that the greate Turke preparith a mervelouse mighty army / And iet whether he will therwith / that can there yet no man tell.... (CW 12, 188/7--11)

Up till now the fictional setting of the Dialogue in Hungary has only occasionally been exploited, but from now on it becomes crucial. We are suddenly and forcefully reminded of the extreme danger facing both Anthony and Vincent---the virtual certainty of a Turkish invasion and of the persecution and suffering that is bound to follow. The first two books naturally have been leading up to this all along, but the reader has been very cleverly beguiled and distracted by the merry tales and banter of much of Book II. All this only reinforces the horror that confronts us in Book III. In a way that parallels the divisions in Utopia, the first two books of the Dialogue of Comfort prepare us and provide a framework for 'the spectre of the abyss,' that More unfolds for us in Book III.

47. When he hears the news, Anthony does not try to offer Vincent any words of false comfort. Vincent is naturally very upset at the imminent prospect of the Turkish invasion. Anthony suggests that the Turk will use cunning, coming with the pretence of giving aid to {247} support one Hungarian faction against another. Vincent starts desperately clutching at straws: "Yet say they vncle that he vseth not to force any man to forsake his fayth" (189/28--29). Anthony reminds Vincent that the Grand Turk

maketh a solempne othe among the ceremonyes of the fest in which he first taketh vppon hym his aucthorite / that he shall in all that he possible may, minysh the fayth of Christ, & dilate the fayth of Mahumet.... (CW 12, 190/3--6)

and goes on to describe the various horrors that the Grand Turk inflicts on Christian populations---that he subjects them to heavy taxes, takes away their lands and their children, and carries many of them off into slavery. Vincent expresses the fear that many Christians will renounce their faith after the Turkish invasion. Anthony offers Vincent no crumbs of false comfort. The Turkish invasion is a punishment for the evils of Christian society, and it is necessary now before it happens to prepare for the worst. It is the duty of every faithful Christian to confess his faith even at the risk of being persecuted.

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6.5.8 The Fourth Temptation (III:2--III:4)

48. Anthony now returns to the fourth temptation of Psalm 90, "the incursion of the noonday devil," which he says is entirely applicable to their present situation:

The fourth temptacion Cosyn that the prophet speketh of in the fore remembrid psalme, Qui habitat in adiutorio altissimi &c ys playne open persecucion / which is touchid in these wordes / Ab incursu et demonio meridiano / And of all his temptacions this is the most perilouse, the most bittre sharpe, & the most rigorouse... (CW 12, 200/5--9)

The distinguishing mark of this temptation of persecution for the faith is that the devil "suffreth hym selfe so playnely be percevid by his fierce maliciouse persecucion agaynst the faythfull christiens for hatrid of christes trew catholike fayth" (200/19--21). In all other temptations: "he stelith on like a fox / but in this Turkes persecucion for the fayth, he runnyth on roryng with assawt lyke a rampyng lyon" (200/31--201/2). This form of {248} temptation is the most perilous because the devil uses both "his allectiue [allurement] of quyete & rest by deliueraunce from deth & payne" and "the terrour & infliccion of intollerable payne and turment" (201/8--11), as a means to persuade the Christian to give up his faith. Vincent replies to his uncle:

The more perilouse vncle that this temptacion is / as in dede of all temptacions the most perilouse it is: the more nede haue they that stand in perell therof, to be before with substanciall advise & good counsayle well armyd agaynst it / that we may with the comfort & consolacion therof, the bettre bere that tribulacion whan yt commeth, & the bettre withstand the temptacion. (CW 12, 201/32--202/5)

Anthony responds: "that of this tribulacion somewhat you be more ferd than I / and of trouth somewhat more excusable it is in you than it were in me, myn age considerid / and the sorow that I haue suffrid al redy" (202/9--11). Vincent does not deny that he is afraid, but expresses concern for their relatives as well. Anthony also expresses concern for their fate.

49. The framework for most of the rest of Book III is laid out in Chapter 3 (203--205). Anthony begins with the Aristotelian dictum that man is made of both body and soul,[70] and that "all the harm that any man may take / it must nedes be in one of these two" (203/7--8). Anthony declares that he will not rehearse any of the harms that may come to the soul except for the case that "by some inordinate love & affeccion that the soule bere to the bodye / she consent to slyde fro the fayth, & therby doth her harm her selfe" (203/12--14). (This possible harm that may come to the soul is postponed to the end of Book III in the discussion of Christian Martyrdom in Chapters 23--27.) Anthony asks Vincent to list the various forms of harm that can come to the body, starting with "outward thynges." Vincent mentions the loss of "mony / plate / & other moveable substaunce / than offices, authorite, & fynally all the landes of his enheritaunce for euer / that hymselfe & his heires perpetually might elles enioy" (203/23--26). These, together with the loss of a good name (not mentioned {249} in the above list), become the matter for Chapters 5--16 (206--44). Vincent declares that the loss of these leads to neediness, poverty, and the shame of begging, which causes much grief to good men. As for the body itself "Now for the bodye very few wordes shall serue vs / For therin I se none other harme but losse of libertie / labour / imprisonament, paynfull and shamfull deth" (204/8--10). This last list of tribulations---interpreted as deportation into captivity and slavery, imprisonment, and being put to a painful and violent death---become the matter of the latter part of Book III, from Chapters 17--22 (244--88). The last of these, a shameful and painful death, becomes subsumed into a treatment of being put to death in the coming persecution for the faith, and of the glories of Christian Martyrdom (288--320), with which Book III finally ends. There is thus, in the course of Book III, a clear psychological and spiritual movement from the "outward" to the "inward," a progressive stripping away of all attachments, until the faithful Christian is finally stripped of life itself---and yet the ending of the book is a joyful and even glorious one, one of the most magnificent "purple passages" in all of More's works.

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6.5.9 The Loss of Outward Things (III:5--III:16)

50. Anthony begins his account of the harms that can come to the body by arguing that the benefits of worldly possessions have been greatly exaggerated. Often the worst men, such as the Great Turk and his nobles, have the greatest possessions. It is foolish to put our trust in our money or our possessions, when they can so easily be taken away from us by others. Lands and estates offer no more security, since they frequently change hands. Nor is the possession of a good name necessarily a great benefit to us. Often a man is flattered to his face only to be ridiculed behind his back. The possession of great offices and positions of authority likewise brings little benefit. The harm we take at the hands of our superiors often outweighs the benefits we receive from those under us. We cannot keep any of our possessions for very long: in the end we all must die. If we have sought these possessions for {250} worldly reasons, then they will do harm to the soul---puffing a man up with pride and leading him to oppress the innocent.

51. Vincent agrees with Anthony but points out that most men who desire offices and positions of authority pretend that they do so in order to do some good with them. Anthony declares that the Turkish persecution will act like a touchstone separating "faynid" believers who are ready to forsake their faith to keep their goods from "trew myndid" ones, who "shall lese their goodes that will not leve their fayth" (226/26). Vincent expresses his fear that "we shall find few of such as haue much to lese / that shall fynd in their hartes so sodenly to forsake their good" (228/18--19). At this point Anthony asks Vincent to play-act the role of one of these rich men:

And I pray you Cosyn take his person vppon you / & in this case answere for hym / what lettith [hinders] you wold I aske... what lettith I say therfor your lordship that you be not gladly content without any deliberacion at all / in this kynd of persecucion / rather than to leve your fayth / to let go all that euer you haue at ones. (CW 12, 229/2--9)

What follows is another dialogue-within-a-dialogue similar to the one in Book II, Chapter 16. Vincent agrees to accept the role of the "Great Lord," and replies that what prevents him are the many benefits he derives from his possessions. He also thinks that he can outwardly profess belief in the Turk's faith, and still inwardly believe in Christ. Anthony replies "Nay nay my lord / Christ hath not so greate nede of your Lordshippe, as rather than to lese your service, he wold fall at such covenauntes with you / to take your service at halfes, to serve hym & his enymy both" (230/2--5). Such measures will not work with the Great Turk either, since he will force the Christian in the end to renounce Christ completely. Anthony asks Vincent-the-Great-Lord how he knows he will keep his wealth. The Great Turk could very easily deprive him of his wealth even if he does convert, and even if the Great Turk lets him keep his wealth, God himself can deprive the Great Lord of his wealth. Vincent replies "God is graciouse / & though that men offend hym, yet he suffreth them many tymes to live in {251} prosperite long after" (235/29--30). Anthony denies this: how can anyone possess their wealth for long when life itself is short. Though God is patient, he eventually punishes evil doers. God will deprive the Great Lord of his wealth when he least expects it, and will cast the Great Lord's soul into Hell for rejecting his faith. Vincent agrees with Anthony and declares that he will stop play-acting the role of the Great Lord, that he wishes "in this mater to play their part no lenger / but I pray god give me the grace to play the contrary parte in dede" (237/24--25).

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6.5.10 Bodily Pain, Captivity and Imprisonment (III:17--III:22)

52. After finishing their discussion of the "outward" harms that can come to the Christian, Anthony and Vincent turn to the harms that can come to the body itself. Vincent begins by stating that even, if the Turks were to deprive him of all his possessions, he would not forsake his faith in Christ. However, he expresses fear at the prospect of physical suffering: "But surely good vncle, whan I bethynke me ferther on the greefe & the payne that may tourne vnto my flesh: here fynd I the feare that forceth myne hart to tremble" (245/13--15). Anthony reminds Vincent that Christ himself expressed fear at his own sufferings in his Passion. Anthony urges Vincent to meditate on Christ's sufferings. Christ's Passion will then inspire him with strength to face his own sufferings. Vincent finds himself greatly comforted by Anthony's words. Anthony then turns to consider the various forms of physical suffering that the Turks will inflict (repeating the list of tribulations already given in Chapter 3):

Let vs examyne the weyght & the substaunce of those bodely paynes as the sorest part of this persecucion which you rehersid before / which were yf I remember you right / tharldome [slavery] / imprisonment / paynfull & shamfull deth / and first let vs (as reason is) begyn with the tharldome / for that was as I remember the first. (CW 12, 250/16--20)

Vincent replies: "me thinketh vncle that captyuite is a mervelouse hevy thing namely whan {252} they shall (as they most comonly do) cary vs far from home into a staunge vncouth lande" (250/22--25). Anthony reminds Vincent that God is present everywhere:

I am very sure, that whether so euer men convey me / god is no more verely here than he shalbe there /[71] yf I get (as I may yf I will) the grace to set my hole hart vppon hym / & long for nothyng but hym / yt can than make me no greate mater to my mynd / whether they cary me hense or leve me here.... (CW 12, 251/7--12)

Anthony goes on to argue that the pains of captivity seem worse "because we take our formare liberty / for more a great dele than in dede yt was" (252/4--5). He continues by defining captivity as "the violent restraynt of a man, beyng so subdued vnder the domynyon rule & power of an other / that he must do what the tother lyst to commaund hym, & may not do at his libertie such thinges as he lyst hym selfe" (252/7--10). He points out that our liberty is restrained by human laws, and that furthermore every man is under bondage to sin. Since Christ himself took the form of a 'slave' when he became man, we should not be ashamed to be slaves for his sake.

53. Anthony then goes on to define imprisonment as "the retaynyng of a mans persoune, within the circute of a certen space narower or larger as shalbe lymyted vnto hym, restraynyng his libertie fro the further goyng into any other place" (257/21--23). Anthony asks Vincent the seemingly nonsensical question whether he knows of any man "that is at this day owt of prison" (258/16). Vincent replies: "What one man vncle / mary I know almost none other / for surely prisoner am I none acquentid with / that I remember" (258/18--19). More now introduces through the mouth of Anthony the theme of the world as prison that he had earlier on developed in The Four Last Things,[72] a theme that goes back to Plato's Allegory of the Cave in the Republic and Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy:

But now sith you can name me none of them that are in prison / I pray you name some one of all them, that you be as you say / better acquentid with / men I meane that are out of prison / for I know me thinketh as few of them as you know of the tother... (CW 12, 259/9--12) {253}

Vincent interjects: "That were vncle a straunge case / for euery man is vncle out of prison, that may go where he will / though he be the porest begger in the Towne" (259/14--16). Anthony responds with the astonishing assertion that even "the great Turke by whome we so feare to be put in prison [is] in prison all redy hymselfe" (259/25--26), because he may not go where he will. He goes on to argue that neither a king nor a beggar is free to go everywhere they wish (i.e., there are always some places they cannot go to):

but that yf they wold walke in some place / neyther of them both shuld be suffrid but men wold withstand them / & say them nay / therfor yf imprisonment be (as you graunt yt is) a lak of libertie to go where we lyst / I can not se but as I say, the beggar & the prince whom you reken both at libertie, be by your own reason <restraynyd> in prison both. (CW 12, 260/12--17)

Vincent refuses to accept Anthony's argument and replies:

But they may go at the lest wise to euery place that they nede, or that is commodiouse for them / & therfor they do not will to go but where they may go / And therfor be they at libertie to go where they will. (CW 12, 260/29--261/3)

54. Vincent goes on to reject his uncle's arguments, and replies that the claim that "euery man is in prison all redye / be but sophisticall fantasies" (262/16--17). Anthony replies:

Well fare thyne hart good Cosyn Vincent / There was in good fayth no word that you spake syns we talkyd of these matters, that halfe so well liked me as this that you speke now / For yf you had assentid in wordes / & in your mynd departyd vnperswadid / than yf the thing be trew that I say / yet had you lost the frute / & yf it be peradventure false & my selfe decevid therin / than while I shuld wene that yt liked you to / you shuld haue confyrmyd me in my folye / for in good fayth Cosyn such an old fole am I, that this thing, in the perswadyng wherof vnto you I had went I had quyt me well / & whan I haue all done apperith to your mynd but a tryfle / & a sophisticall fantasye / my selfe haue so many yeres taken for so very substanciall trewth.... (CW 12, 262/20--263/1)

Anthony invites Vincent to stand his ground firmly: "And hardely spet well on your handes & take good hold, & give yt not ouer agaynst your own mynd" (263/6--7). They return once more to the argument and Vincent challenges his uncle: "By my trowth vncle / these thinges {254} wold I fayne se well provid" (263/27).

55. With a masterly stroke, Anthony brings forward the case of a man who is attainted for treason and condemned to death but who in the time between his attainder and his execution is free to have the use of his lands, and is given free access to his family and friends, but with this one condition that when he is summoned, he must be ready to go to his execution. Vincent replies that for all the favours shown him, that the attainted man is still a prisoner. Anthony then goes on to develop the image of God as divine judge and executioner:

euery man is here (though he be the greest [greatest] kyng vppon earth) set here by the ordenaunce of god in a place (be it neuer so large) a place I say yet (and you say the same) out of which no man can escape / but that therein ys euery man put vnder sure & safe kepyng to be redely fet [fetched] forth whan god callith for hym, & that than he shall surely dye / And is not than Cosyn by your own grauntyng before, every man a <very> prisoner / whan he is put in a place to be kept to be brote forth / when he wold not, & hym selfe wot [knows] not whyther. (CW 12, 267/12--20)

Vincent finally accepts the force of his uncle's argument that "euery man is in this world a very prisoner" (270/17--18).

56. Anthony then goes on to further develop the image of God as "chiefe gaylour ouer this whole brode prison / the world" (271/21--22). Vincent, however, objects "that poynt most I nedes deny / for I neyther see hym [God] ley any man in the stokkes, or strike fetters on his legges / or so much as shete hym vpp in a chamber eyther" (274/8--11). Anthony responds that unlike other jailers, God uses invisible means to punish man, including disease and sickness, and after enumerating various examples, he concludes: "yf we consider yt well / we shall fynd this generall prison of this whole earth, a place in which the prisoners be as sore handlid as they be in the tother [prisons]" (275/8--11). Anthony goes on to cite the example of Christ as prisoner: {255}

Fynally Cosyn to finish this piece with, our saviour was hym selfe taken prisoner for our sake, & prisoner was he caried, & prisoner was he kept / & prisoner was he brought forth before Annas, & prisoner from Annas caried vnto Cayphas / <than prisoner was he> caried from Cayphas vnto Pilate / & prisoner was he sent from Pilate to kyng herode / prisoner from herode vnto Pilate agayne / & so kept as prisoner to thend of his passhion / The tyme of his ymprisonment I graunt well was not long / but as for hard handlyng (which our hartes most aborre) he had as mich in that short while / as many men among them all in mich lenger tyme.... (CW 12, 279/26--280/5)

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6.5.11 Persecution and Martyrdom (III:23--III:27)

57. Vincent now expresses his deepest anxiety and fear that the Turkish invasion, and the subsequent persecution against the Christian faith, will cause many to renounce their faith out of fear, rather than suffer a shameful death at the hands of the Turks. Anthony responds: "how can that deth be shamfull, that is gloryouse / or how can that be but gloriouse to dye for the fayth of christ, yf we dye both for the fayth & in the fayth ioynid with hope & charite" (288/24--26). He goes on to affirm that any man who suffers for the faith of Christ, however vile and shameful it seems in the eyes of a few worldly wretches, is "approvid for very preciouse & honourable, in the sight of god / & of all the gloriouse company of hevyn" (290/5--7). The act of suffering for Christ's faith:

that we worldly wrechid folys wene [think] were vilany & shame, the blessid apostles rekenid for greate glory / for they when they were with despite & shame scourgid, & there apon commaundid to speke no more of the name of christ / went ther way fro the councell ioyfull & glad, that god had vouchsafed to do them the worship [honour], to suffer shamfull despite for the name of Ihesu.... (CW 12, 290/26--291/3)

Even Christ himself "was not so prowde to disdayne for our sakes, the most vylanouse & most shamfull deth after the worldly compt [reckoning] that then was vsid in the world" (291/22--24). Anthony concludes that since Christ said that the servant is not above his master, and since he himself endured "so many kyndes of paynfull shame / very prowd beastes may we well thynke our selfe / yf we disdayne to do as our master did" (292/4--6). {256}

58. Vincent objects that shame is one thing that can be mastered, but no one can master pain in the same way. Anthony replies that while no one can deny the reality of pain, reason combined with faith and the grace of God will make it easier for a man to bear a painful death here on earth for the sake of achieving everlasting life in Heaven. Vincent responds that though he can find no counter-arguments, nonetheless, he thinks that if the Turks once set upon the Hungarians, they will be so fearful, that many will abandon their faith. Anthony replies that God will give us grace to strengthen us in the midst of persecution. Vincent objects that every man is naturally afraid of pain. Anthony reminds him that the pains of Hell are greater than anything we can endure here. He also points out to Vincent that a natural death from sickness and disease is often more painful and more prolonged than a violent one. He who forsakes the faith of Christ out of fear of a violent death may not only suffer a natural death that is a thousand times more painful, but will also be condemned to everlasting pain in Hell. Anyone who considers this will not be afraid to endure the most terrible sufferings the Turks can inflict rather than be cast into the pains of Hell. Vincent agrees that if we often think of these pains of Hell, that point alone will be enough to make many a martyr in Hungary. Anthony goes on to talk of the joys of Heaven and the Passion of Christ:

Forsoth Cosyn yf we were such as we shuld be, I wold scant for very shame, in exortacion to the kepyng of Christes fayth speke of the paynes of hell / I wold rather put vs in mynd of the Ioyes of heven / the pleasure wherof we shuld be more glad to gete / than we shuld be to flye & escape all the paynes in hell.... (CW 12, 305/5--9)

We should have such a fervent longing for the joys of Heaven: "that we may for attaynyng to them, vtterly set at nought all fleshly delight, all worldly pleasures / all erthly losses, all bodely tourment and payne" (307/1--3). Anthony recommends that we should keep in our minds by reading, in our ears by hearing, in our mouths by speaking, and in our hearts by meditation and thinking: "Those ioyfull wordes of holy scripture / by which we lerne how {257} wonderfull howge & greate those spirituall hevenly Ioyes are" (308/12--14). Anthony then paraphrases the words of St. Paul (1 Cor. 2:9):

For sewerly for this state of this world, the Ioyes of hevyn are by mans mowth vnspekeable / to mans eares not audible / to mens hartes vncogitable / so farforth excell they all that euer men haue hard of / all that euer men can speke of / and all that ever any man can by naturall possibilitie thinke on.... (CW 12, 309/4--8)

After describing the joys of Heaven, Anthony moves on to the theme of identification with the suffering Christ: "Now to this greate glory, can there no man come hedlesse. Our hed is Christ / & therfor to hym must we be Ioynid / & as membres of his must we folow hym / yf we will come thither" (311/15--17). Christ is our guide and we must walk in the same path in which Christ walked. Anthony cites the words of Christ to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:26):

knew you not that Christ must suffre passion, & by that way entre into his kyngdome? Who can for very shame desire to entre into the kyngdom of Christ with ease, whan hym selfe entrid not into his own without payne. (CW 12, 311/24--28)

59. Anthony then suggests to Vincent that he meditate on Christ's passion: "So say I now / for paynefull deth also, that yf we could & wold with dew compassion, conceyve in our myndes a right Imagynacion & remembraunce of Christes byttre paynefull passion" (312/10--13), that this would makes us "not onely content, but also glad & desierouse to suffre deth for his sake / that so mervelously lovyngly lettid not to sustayne so farre passyng paynfull deth for <ours>" (313/5--7). Anthony returns once more to the imagery of Psalm 90:

And therfor Cosyn, let vs well consider these thynges, & let vs haue sure hope in the helpe of god / & than I dowt not, but that we shalbe sure, that as the prophet sayth, the truth of his promise shall so compace vs with a pavise, that of this incursion of this mydday devill / this Turkes persecucion / we shall neuer nede to fere / for eyther yf we trust in god well, & prepare vs therfor / the Turke shall neuer medle with vs / or els yf {258} he do, harm shall he none do vs / but in stede of harme inestimable good.... (CW 12, 315/30--316/8)

Anthony describes the various ways that God strengthens his holy martyrs and points out that the Turks are only instruments of the devil: "The Turkes are but his tourmentours, for hymselfe doth the dede" (317/16--17). He goes on to quote the words of St. Paul (Eph. 6:12):

Our wrestlyng is not agaynst flesh & bloud &c. Thus may we see that in such persecucions, it is the mydday devill hym selfe that maketh such incursion vppon vs, by the men that are his ministers to make vs fall for feare / For till we fall, he can neuer hurt vs. (CW 12, 317/24--27)

If the devill threatens us "let vs tell hym that our capten Christ is with vs, & that we shall fight with his strength that hath vainquyshid hym al redy" (318/16--17). When we feel ready to faint, we should remember Christ's strength. In our fear we should remember Christ's bitter agony: "& than nede we neuer to dowt / but that eyther he shall kepe vs from the paynfull deth / or shall not fayle so to strength vs in yt, that he shall ioyously bryng vs to hevyn by yt" (318/29--32). Anthony ends his long meditation on the Passion of Christ by reaffirming once more the joys of Heaven:

For surely myn own good Cosyn, remembre that yf yt were possible for me and you alone, to suffre as mych trowble as the whole world doth together / all that were not worthy of yt selfe, to bryng vs to the ioy which we hope to haue euerlastyngly / And therfor I pray you let the consideracion of that Ioy, put all worldly trowble out of your hart... (CW 12, 319/25--320/1)

Anthony finally comes to the end of his long discourse: "And evyn thus will I good Cosyn with these wordes, make a sodayne end of myn whole tale, & bid you fare well / For now begynne I to fele my selfe somewhat werye" (320/2--4). Vincent thanks his uncle for all his labours and promises to write down an account of Anthony's "good counsayle." The work ends with a prayer by Anthony for its readers:

And in the meane tyme, I besech our lord to breth of his holy spirite into the readers brest, which inwardly may tech hym in hart, without whome {259} litle availeth all that all the mowthes of the world were able to tech in mens eares / And thus good Cosyn fare well, till god bryng vs together agayne, eyther here or in hevyn / Amen.(CW 12, 320/23--28)