Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr.[7]Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him thepatron saint of statesmen and politicians.[8][9][10] In his proclamation the pope stated: "It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience... even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time".[8]
Born in theCity of London, on 7 February 1478, Thomas More was the son ofSir John More[11] (a successful lawyer and later a judge[3][12]) and his wife Agnes (née Graunger). John More lived for "the most part of his life" inMilk Street, London and, from this, many biographers (starting with More's great grandsonCresacre More in the seventeenth century) have asserted, without confirmation, that this was the place of Thomas More's birth. No contemporary biographer recorded this.[13] He was the second of six children. More was educated atSt. Anthony's School, then considered one of London's best schools.[14][15] From 1490 to 1492, More servedJohn Morton, theArchbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, as a household page.[16]: xvi
Morton enthusiastically supported the "New Learning" (scholarship which was later known as "humanism" or "London humanism"), and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More had great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at theUniversity of Oxford, either inSt. Mary Hall orCanterbury College, both now defunct.[17]: 38
More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education. Studying underThomas Linacre andWilliam Grocyn, he became proficient in both Latin and Greek. More left Oxford after only two years—at his father's insistence—to begin legal training in London at New Inn, one of theInns of Chancery.[16]: xvii [18] In 1496, More became a student atLincoln's Inn, one of theInns of Court, where he remained until 1502, when he wascalled to the bar.[16]: xvii
A noted linguist, More could speak and banter in Latin with the same facility as in English, and had competency in Greek and several other languages.[19] He wrote and translated poetry.[20] He was particularly influenced byPico della Mirandola and translated theLife of Pico into English.[21]
According to his friend, the theologianDesiderius Erasmus ofRotterdam, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become amonk.[22][23] Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near theCarthusian monastery outside the walls of London and joined in the monks' spiritual exercises. Although he deeply admired their piety, More ultimately decided to remain a layman, standing for election toParliament in 1504 and marrying the following year.[16]: xxi
More married Joanna "Jane" Colt, the eldest daughter of John Colt of Essex in 1505.[25] In that year he leased a portion of a house known as the Old Barge (originally there had been a wharf nearby serving theWalbrook river) on Bucklersbury,St Stephen Walbrook parish, London. Eight years later he took over the rest of the house and in total he lived there for almost 20 years, until his move to Chelsea in 1525.[17]: 118, 271 [26][27]Erasmus reported that More wanted to give his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and tutored her in music and literature.[17]: 119 The couple had four children:Margaret,Elizabeth,Cecily, and John. Jane died in 1511.[17]: 132
Going "against friends' advice and common custom," within 30 days, More had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends.[28][29] He choseAlice Middleton, a widow, to head his household and care for his small children.[30] The speed of the marriage was so unusual that More had to get a dispensation from thebanns of marriage, which, due to his good public reputation, he easily obtained.[28]
More had no children from his second marriage, although he raised Alice's daughter from her previous marriage as his own. More also became the guardian of two young girls: Anne Cresacre who would eventually marry his son, John More;[17]: 146 andMargaret Giggs (later Clement), who was the only member of his family to witness his execution.[note 1] An affectionate father, More wrote letters to his children whenever he was away on legal or government business, and encouraged them to write to him often.[17]: 150 [31]: xiv
More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education as his son, an unusual attitude at the time.[17]: 146–47 His eldest daughter, Margaret, attracted much admiration for her erudition, especially her fluency in Greek and Latin.[17]: 147 More told his daughter of his pride in her academic accomplishments in September 1522, after he showed the bishop a letter she had written:
When he saw from the signature that it was the letter of a lady, his surprise led him to read it more eagerly[...] he said he would never have believed it to be your work unless I had assured him of the fact, and he began to praise it in the highest terms[...] for its pure Latinity, its correctness, its erudition, and its expressions of tender affection. He took out at once from his pocket a portague [A Portuguese gold coin][...] to send to you as a pledge and token of his good will towards you.[31]: 152
More's decision to educate his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favourable once he witnessed their accomplishments.[17]: 149
A large portrait of More and his extended family,Sir Thomas More and Family, was painted byHans Holbein the Younger; however, it was lost in a fire in the 18th century. More's grandson commissioned a copy, of which two versions survive. TheNostell copy of the portrait shown above also includes the family's two pet dogs and monkey.[note 2]
Musical instruments such as a lute and viol feature in the background of the extant copies of Holbein's family portrait. More played the recorder andviol,[32]: 136 and made sure his wives could join in the family consort.[note 3]
Concerning More's personality,Erasmus gave a consistent portrait over a period of thirty five years.
Soon after meeting the young lawyer More, who became his best friend[note 4] and invited Erasmus into his household, Erasmus reported in 1500 "Did nature ever invent anything kinder, sweeter or more harmonious than the character of Thomas More?".[33] In 1519, he wrote that More was "born and designed for friendship;[note 5] no one is more open-hearted in making friends or more tenacious in keeping them."[34] In 1535, after More's execution, Erasmus wrote that More "never bore ill-intent towards anyone":[33]
We are 'together, you and I, a crowd'; that is my feeling, and I think I could live happily with you in any wilderness. Farewell, dearest Erasmus, dear as the apple of my eye.
When More died I seem to have died myself: because we were a single soul as Pythagoras once said. But such is the flux of human affairs.
— Erasmus to Piotr Tomiczki (Bishop of Kraków), August 31, 1535[36]
In a 1532 letter, Erasmus wrote "such is the kindliness of his disposition, or rather, to say it better, such is his piety and wisdom, that whatever comes his way that cannot be corrected, he comes to love just as wholeheartedly as if nothing better could have happened to him."[37]
In a 1533 letter, Erasmus described More's character asimperiosus – commanding, far-ruling, not at all timid.[38]
For his part, "Thomas More was an unflagging apologist for Erasmus for the thirty-six years of their adult lives (1499–1535)."[39]
In 1504 More was elected to Parliament to representGreat Yarmouth, and in 1510 began representingLondon.[40]
More first attracted public attention by his conduct in the parliament of 1504, by his daring opposition to the King's demand for money. KingHenry VII was entitled, according to feudal laws, to a grant on occasion of his daughterMargaret Tudor's marriage toJames IV of Scotland.[41] But he came to theHouse of Commons for a much larger sum than he intended to give with his daughter. The members, unwilling as they were to vote the money, were afraid to offend the King, until the silence was broken by More, whose speech is said to have moved the house to reduce the subsidy of three-fifteenths which the Government had demanded to £30,000. One of the chamberlains went and told his master that he had been thwarted by a beardless boy. Henry never forgave the audacity; but, for the moment, the only revenge he could take was upon More's father, whom upon some pretext he threw into the Tower, and he only released him upon payment of a fine of £100.[42] Thomas More even found it advisable to withdraw from public life into obscurity.[25]
Henry died in 1509 and was succeeded by his son KingHenry VIII.
As secretary and personal adviser to King Henry VIII, More became increasingly influential: welcoming foreign diplomats, drafting official documents, attending the court of theStar Chamber for his legal prowess but delegated to judge in the under-court for 'poor man's cases'[46]: 491, 492 and serving as a liaison between the King and Lord Chancellor Wolsey. More later served asHigh Steward for the Universities ofOxford andCambridge.
AfterWolsey fell, More succeeded to the office ofLord Chancellor (thechief government minister) in 1529; this was the highest official responsible for equity andcommon law, including contracts and royal household cases, and some misdemeanour appeals.[47]: 527 He dispatched cases with unprecedented rapidity. Putting into effect his proposals for public sanitation that he had first suggested inUtopia, in 1532 he was responsible for introducing into law theStatute of Sewers (23 Henry VII, cap.5).[43]
As Lord Chancellor he was a member (and probably the Presiding Judge at the court when present, who spoke last and cast the deciding vote in case of ties)[48]: 61 of the Court of theStar Chamber, an appeals court on civil and criminal matters, including riot and sedition, that was the final appeal in dissenter's trials.[note 6]
Noforeign wars were fought in the time he was Lord Chancellor.
Sir Thomas More is commemorated with a sculpture at the late-19th-century Sir Thomas More House,Carey Street, London, opposite theRoyal Courts of Justice.
More supported theCatholic Church and saw theProtestant Reformation asheresy, a threat to the unity of both church and society. More believed in the theology, argumentation, and ecclesiastical laws of the church, and "heard Luther's call to destroy the Catholic Church as a call to war."[49]
Heresy was the single most time-consuming issue Thomas More dealt with in his chancellorship, and probably in the whole of the last ten years of his life.
— Richard Rex,More and the heretics: statesman or fanatic?[50]: 107
More wrote a series of books and pamphlets in English and Latin to respond to Protestants, and in his official capacities took action against the illegal book trade, notably fronting a diplomatically-sensitive raid in 1525 of theHanseatic Merchants in theSteelyard in his role as chancellor of theDuchy of Lancaster[50]: 106 and given his diplomatic experience negotiating with the Hanse.[51]: 150
More wrote several books against the first edition ofTyndale'sEnglish translation of the New Testament.[52] More wrote theDialogue concerning Heresies (1529), Tyndale responded withAn Answer to Sir T. More's Dialogue (1530), and More replied with hisConfutation of Tyndale's Answer (1532).[53] More also wrote or contributed to several other anti-Lutheran books.
One of More's criticisms of the initial Tyndale translation was that despite claiming to be in the vernacular, Tyndale had employed numerous neologisms: for example,Jehovah,scapegoat,Passover,atonement,mercy seat,shewbread.[54] More also accused Tyndale of deliberately avoiding common translations in favour of biased words: such as using the emotionlove instead of the practical actioncharity for Greekagape, using the neologismsenior instead ofpriest for the Greekpresbyteros[55] (Tyndale changed this toelder), and the Latinatecongregation instead ofchurch.[56] Tyndale's Bibles include text other than the scriptures: some of Tyndale's prefaces were direct translations of Martin Luther,[57] and it included marginal glosses which challenged Catholic doctrine.[58]
One notable exchange occurred over More's attack on Tyndale's use ofcongregation. Tyndale pointed out that he was following "your darling" Erasmus' Latin translation ofecclesia intocongregatio. More replied that Erasmus needed to coincongregatio because there was no good Latin word, while English had the perfectly finechurch, but that the intent and theology under the words were all important:
I have not contended with Erasmus my darling, because I found no such malicious intent with Erasmus my darling, as I find with Tyndale. For had I found with Erasmus my darling the cunning intent and purpose that I find in Tyndale: Erasmus my darling should be no more my darling. But I find in Erasmus my darling that he detests and abhors the errors and heresies that Tyndale plainly teaches and abides by and therefore Erasmus my darling shall be my dear darling still. And surely if Tyndale had either never taught them, or yet had the grace to revoke them: then should Tyndale be my dear darling too. But while he holds such heresies still I cannot take for my darling him that the devil takes for his darling.
As the conflict over supremacy between the Papacy and the King reached its peak, More continued to remain steadfast in supporting thesupremacy of the Pope asSuccessor of Peter over that of the King of England. Parliament's reinstatement of the charge ofpraemunire in 1529 had made it a crime to support in public or office the claim of any authority outside the realm (such as the Papacy) to have a legal jurisdiction superior to the King's.[60]
In 1530, More refused to sign a letter by the leading English churchmen and aristocrats askingPope Clement VII toannul Henry's marriage toCatherine of Aragon, and also quarrelled with Henry VIII over the heresy laws. In 1531, a royal decree required the clergy to take anoath acknowledging the King asSupreme Head of the Church of England. The bishops at theConvocation of Canterbury in 1532 agreed to sign the Oath but only under threat of prosecution for praemunire and only after these words were added: "as far as the law of Christ allows".[61]
This was considered to be the finalSubmission of the Clergy.[62] CardinalJohn Fisher and some other clergy refused to sign. Henry purged most clergy who supported the papal stance from senior positions in the church. More continued to refuse to sign the Oath of Supremacy and did not agree to support the annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine.[60] However, he did not openly reject the King's actions and kept his opinions private.[63]
On 16 May 1532, More resigned from his role as Chancellor but remained in Henry's favour despite his refusal.[64] His decision to resign was caused by the decision of the convocation of the English Church, which was under intense royal threat, on the day before.[65]
There is considerable variation in opinion on the extent and nature of More's prosecution of heretics: witness the difference in portrayals of More inA Man for All Seasons as an urbane hero of conscience and inWolf Hall as a "mere dessicated fanatic."[66] The English establishment initially regardedProtestants (andAnabaptists) as akin to theLollards andHussites whose heresies fed their sedition.[note 8] Ambassador toCharles VCuthbert Tunstall calledLutheranism the "foster-child" of the Wycliffite heresy[67] that had underpinnedLollardy.
Thomas More, as lord chancellor [1529–1532], was in effect the first port of call for those arrested in London on suspicion of heresy, and he took the initial decisions about whether to release them, where to imprison them, or to which bishop to send them. He can be connected with police or judicial proceedings against around forty suspected or convicted heretics in the years 1529–33.[note 9]
Torture was not officially legal in England, except in pre-trial discovery phase[68]: 62 of kinds of extreme cases that the King had allowed, such as seditious heresy. It was regarded as unsafe for evidence, and was not an allowed punishment.
Stories emerged in More's lifetime regarding persecution of the Protestant "heretics" during his time asLord Chancellor, and he denied them in detail in hisApologia (1533).
Many stories were later published by the 16th-century English Protestant historianJohn Foxe in his polemicalBook of Martyrs. Foxe was instrumental in publicizing accusations of torture, alleging that More had often personally used violence or torture while interrogating heretics.[69] Later Protestant authors such asBrian Moynahan andMichael Farris cite Foxe when repeating these allegations.[70] BiographerPeter Ackroyd also lists claims from Foxe'sBook of Martyrs and other post-Reformation sources that More "tied heretics to a tree in his Chelsea garden and whipped them", that "he watched as 'newe men' were put upon the rack in the Tower and tortured until they confessed", and that "he was personally responsible for the burning of several of the 'brethren' in Smithfield."[17]: 305
HistorianJohn Guy commented that "such charges are unsupported by independent proof."[note 10] Modern historianDiarmaid MacCulloch finds no evidence that More was directly involved in torture.[note 11]Richard Marius records a similar claim, which tells about James Bainham, and writes that "the story Foxe told of Bainham's whipping and racking at More's hands is universally doubted today".[note 12]
More himself denied these allegations:
Stories of a similar nature were current even in More's lifetime and he denied them forcefully. He admitted that he did imprison heretics in his house – 'theyr sure kepynge'[note 13] – he called it – but he utterly rejected claims of torture and whipping... 'as help me God.'[17]: 298–299
More instead claimed in hisApology (1533) that he only applied corporal punishment to two "heretics": a child servant in his household who was caned (the customary punishment for children at that time) for repeating a heresy regarding the Eucharist, and a "feeble-minded" man who was whipped for disrupting the mass by raising women's skirts over their heads at the moment of consecration, More taking the action to prevent a lynching.[71]: 404
Burning at the stake was the standard punishment by the English state for obstinate or relapsed, major seditious or proselytizing heresy, and continued to be used by both Catholics and Protestants during the religious upheaval of the following decades.[72] In England, following theLollard uprisings, heresy had been linked to sedition (seeDe heretico comburendo andSuppression of Heresy Act 1414.)
Ackroyd and MacCulloch agree that More zealously approved of burning.[17]: 298 Richard Marius maintained that in office More did everything in his power to bring about the extermination of heretics.[73]
More took a personal interest in the three London cases:[50]: 105
John Tewkesbury was a London leather seller found guilty by theBishop of LondonJohn Stokesley of harbouring English translated New Testaments; he was sentenced to burning for refusing to recant.[75] More declared: he "burned as there was neuer wretche I wene better worthy."[76]
Richard Bayfield was found distributing Tyndale's Bibles, and examined by BishopCuthbert Tunstall. More commented that he was "well and worthely burned".[17]: 305
James Bainham was arrested on a warrant of Thomas More as Lord Chancellor and detained at his gatehouse. He was examined by Bishop John Stokesley, abjured, penalized and freed. He subsequently re-canted, and was re-arrested, tried and executed as a relapsed heretic.
HistorianBrian Moynahan alleged that More influenced the eventual execution ofWilliam Tyndale in the Duchy of Brabant, as English agents had long pursued Tyndale. HistorianRichard Rex argues that linking the execution to More was "bizarre".[50]: 93 Moynihan named Henry Phillips, a student at theUniversity of Louvain and follower of Bishop Stokesley, as the man More commissioned to befriend Tyndale and then betray him.[77] However, the execution took place on 6 October 1536, sixteen months after More himself had been executed, and in a different jurisdiction.
Modern commentators have been divided over More's character and actions.
Some biographers, includingPeter Ackroyd, have taken a relatively tolerant[note 14] or even positive[note 15] view of More's campaign against Protestantism by placing his actions within the turbulent religious climate of the time and the threat of deadly catastrophes such as theGerman Peasants' Revolt, which More blamed on Luther,[note 16] as did many others, such asErasmus.[note 17]
Others have been more critical, such as writerRichard Marius, an American scholar of the Reformation, believing that such persecutions were a betrayal of More's earlier humanist convictions, including More's zealous and well-documented advocacy of extermination for heretics.[71]: 386–406 This supposed contradiction has been called "schizophrenic."[50]: 108 He has been called a "zealous legalist[...] [with an] itchy finesse of cruelty".[78]
Pope John Paul II honoured him by making Morepatron saint of statesmen and politicians in October 2000, stating: "It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience[...] even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time".[8]
More's resignation as Lord Chancellor demonstrates also a recognition of the fact that, so long as he held office, he was obliged to conform to the King's law. It is often the fact that judges and lawyers must perform acts which they do not particularly like. In Utopia, for example, More had written that he believed capital punishment to be immoral, reprehensible and unjustifiable. Yet as Lord Chancellor and as councillor to the King, he certainly participated in sending hundreds of people to their death, a troubling thought. Doubtless he saw himself, as many judges before and since have done, as a mere instrument of the legal power of the State.
— "Thomas More, Martin Luther and the Judiciary today," speech to Thomas More Society, 1997[79]
In 1533, More refused to attend thecoronation of Anne Boleyn asQueen of England. Technically, this was not an act of treason, as More had written to Henry seemingly acknowledging Anne's queenship and expressing his desire for the King's happiness and the new Queen's health.[note 18] Despite this, his refusal to attend was widely interpreted as a snub against Anne, and Henry took action against him. Shortly thereafter, More was charged with accepting bribes, but the charges had to be dismissed for lack of any evidence.
In early 1534, More was accused byThomas Cromwell of having given advice and counsel to the "Holy Maid of Kent,"Elizabeth Barton, a nun who had prophesied that the King had ruined his soul and would come to a quick end for having divorced Queen Catherine. This was a month after Barton had confessed, which was possibly done under royal pressure,[80][81] and was said to be concealment of treason.[82] Though it was dangerous for anyone to have anything to do with Barton, More had met her and was impressed by her fervour. However, More was prudent and told her not to interfere with state matters. More was called before a committee of the Privy Council to answer these charges of treason and, after his respectful answers, the matter seemed to have been dropped.[83]
On 13 April 1534, More was asked to appear before a commission and swear his allegiance to the parliamentaryAct of Succession.[note 19] More accepted Parliament's right to declareAnne Boleyn the legitimate Queen of England, though he refused "the spiritual validity of the King's second marriage"[84] and, holding fast to the teaching ofpapal supremacy, he steadfastly refused to take the oath of supremacy of the Crown in the relationship between the kingdom and the church in England. More also publicly refused to uphold Henry's annulment from Catherine.John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, refused the oath along with More. The oath reads in part:[85]
By reason whereof the Bishop of Rome and See Apostolic, contrary to the great and inviolable grants of jurisdictions given by God immediately to emperors, kings and princes in succession to their heirs, hath presumed in times past to invest who should please them to inherit in other men's kingdoms and dominions, which thing we your most humble subjects, both spiritual and temporal, do most abhor and detest...
In addition to refusing to support the King's annulment or supremacy, More refused to sign the 1534Oath of Succession confirming Anne's role as queen and the rights of their children to succession. More's fate was sealed.[86][87] While he had no argument with the basic concept of succession as stated in the Act, the preamble of the Oath repudiated the authority of the Pope.[63][88][89]
The site of the scaffold atTower Hill just north of theTower of London, where More was executed by decapitation
A commemorative plaque at the site of the ancient scaffold at Tower Hill, with Sir Thomas More listed among other notables executed at the site
More's enemies had enough evidence to have the King arrest him on treason. Four days later, Henry had More imprisoned in theTower of London. There More prepared a devotional,Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation. While More was imprisoned in the Tower, Thomas Cromwell made several visits, urging More to take the oath, which he continued to refuse.
In his unfinishedHistory of the Passion, written in the Tower to his daughter Meg, he wrote of feeling favoured by God: "For methinketh God maketh me a wanton, and setteth me on his lap and dandleth me."[90]
The charges ofhigh treason related to More's violating the statutes as to the King's supremacy (malicious silence) and conspiring with BishopJohn Fisher in this respect (malicious conspiracy) and, according to some sources, included asserting that Parliament did not have the right to proclaim the King's Supremacy over the English Church. One group of scholars believes that the judges dismissed the first two charges (malicious acts) and tried More only on the final one, but others strongly disagree.[60]
Regardless of the specific charges, the indictment related to violation of theTreasons Act 1534 which declared it treason to speak against the King's Supremacy:[91]
If any person or persons, after the first day of February next coming, do maliciously wish, will or desire, by words or writing, or by craft imagine, invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to the king's most royal person, the queen's, or their heirs apparent, or to deprive them or any of them of their dignity, title, or name of their royal estates[...] That then every such person and persons so offending[...] shall have and suffer such pains of death and other penalties, as is limited and accustomed in cases of high treason.[92]
The trial was held on 1 July 1535, before a panel of judges that included the new Lord Chancellor SirThomas Audley, as well as Anne Boleyn's uncleThomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, her fatherThomas Boleyn, and her brotherGeorge Boleyn. Norfolk offered More the chance of the King's "gracious pardon" should he "reform his[...] obstinate opinion". More responded that, although he had not taken the oath, he had never spoken out against it either and that his silence could be accepted as his "ratification and confirmation" of the new statutes.[93]
William Frederick Yeames,The meeting of Sir Thomas More with his daughter after his sentence of death, 1872
Thus More was relying upon legal precedent and the maximqui tacet consentire videtur ("one who keeps silent seems to consent"),[94] understanding that he could not be convicted as long as he did not explicitly deny that the King was Supreme Head of the Church, and he therefore refused to answer all questions regarding his opinions on the subject.[95]
Thomas Cromwell, at the time the most powerful of the King's advisors, brought forthSolicitor GeneralRichard Rich to testify that More had, in his presence, denied that the King was the legitimate head of the Church. This testimony was characterised by More as being extremely dubious. WitnessesRichard Southwell and Mr. Palmer (a servant to Southwell) were also present and both denied having heard the details of the reported conversation.[96] As More himself pointed out:
Can it therefore seem likely to your Lordships, that I should in so weighty an Affair as this, act so unadvisedly, as to trust Mr. Rich, a Man I had always so mean an Opinion of, in reference to his Truth and Honesty,[...] that I should only impart to Mr. Rich the Secrets of my Conscience in respect to the King's Supremacy, the particular Secrets, and only Point about which I have been so long pressed to explain my self? which I never did, nor never would reveal; when the Act was once made, either to the King himself, or any of his Privy Councillors, as is well known to your Honours, who have been sent upon no other account at several times by his Majesty to me in the Tower. I refer it to your Judgments, my Lords, whether this can seem credible to any of your Lordships.[97]
Beheading of Thomas More, 1870 illustration
The jury took only fifteen minutes to find More guilty.
After the jury's verdict was delivered and before his sentencing, More spoke freely of his belief that "no temporal man may be the head of the spirituality" (take over the role of the Pope). According toWilliam Roper's account, More was pleading that the Statute of Supremacy was contrary toMagna Carta, to Church laws and to the laws of England, attempting to void the entire indictment against him.[60] He was sentenced to behanged, drawn, and quartered (the usual punishment for traitors who were not the nobility), but the King commuted this to execution by decapitation.[note 20]
The execution took place on 6 July 1535 atTower Hill. When he came to mount the steps to the scaffold, its frame seeming so weak that it might collapse,[98][99] More is widely quoted as saying (to one of the officials): "I pray you, master Lieutenant, see me safe up and [for] my coming down, let me shift for my self";[100] while on the scaffold he declared that he died "the king's good servant, and God's first." TheologianScott Hahn notes that the misquoted "but God's first" is a line fromRobert Bolt's stage playA Man For All Seasons, which differs from More's actual words.[101][note 21] After More had finished reciting theMiserere while kneeling,[102][103] the executioner reportedly begged his pardon, then More rose up, kissed him and forgave him.[104][105][106][107]
Another comment More is believed to have made to the executioner is that his beard was completely innocent of any crime, and did not deserve the axe; he then positioned his beard so that it would not be harmed.[108] More asked that his adopted daughterMargaret Clement (née Giggs) be given his headless corpse to bury.[109] She was the only member of his family to witness his execution. He was buried at the Tower of London, in the chapel ofSt Peter ad Vincula in an unmarked grave. His head wasfixed upon a pike overLondon Bridge for a month, according to the normal custom for traitors.
More's daughter Margaret Roper (née More) later rescued the severed head.[110] It is believed to rest in the Roper Vault ofSt Dunstan's Church, Canterbury,[111] perhaps with the remains of Margaret and her husband's family.[112] Some have claimed that the head is buried within the tomb erected for More in Chelsea Old Church.[113]
Among other surviving relics is hishair shirt, presented for safe keeping by Margaret Clement.[114] This was long in the custody of the community of Augustinian canonesses who until 1983 lived at the convent atAbbotskerswell Priory, Devon. Some sources, including one from 2004, claimed that the shirt, made ofgoat hair was then at the Martyr's church on the Weld family's estate inChideock, Dorset.[115][116] It is now preserved atBuckfast Abbey, near Buckfastleigh in Devon.[117][118]
In 1533, More wrote to Erasmus and included what he intended should be the epitaph on his family tomb:
Within this tomb Jane, wife of More, reclines; This More for Alice and himself designs. The first, dear object of my youthful vow, Gave me three daughters and a son to know;
The next—ah! virtue in a stepdame rare!— Nursed my sweet infants with a mother's care. With both my years so happily have past, Which most my love, I know not—first or last.
Oh! had religion destiny allowed, How smoothly mixed had our three fortunes flowed! But, be we in the tomb, in heaven allied, So kinder death shall grant what life denied.[119]
Between 1512 and 1519 More worked on aHistory ofKing Richard III, which he never finished but which was published after his death. TheHistory is a Renaissance biography, remarkable more for its literary skill and adherence to classical precepts than for its historical accuracy.[120] Some consider it an attack on royal tyranny, rather than on Richard III himself or theHouse of York.[121] More uses a more dramatic writing style than had been typical in medieval chronicles; Richard III is limned as an outstanding, archetypal tyrant—however, More was only seven years old when Richard III was killed at theBattle of Bosworth in 1485, so he had no first-hand knowledge of him.
TheHistory of King Richard III was written and published in both English and Latin, each written separately, and with information deleted from the Latin edition to suit a European readership.[122] It greatly influencedWilliam Shakespeare's playRichard III. Modern historians attribute the unflattering portraits of Richard III in both works to both authors' allegiance to the reigningTudor dynasty that wrested the throne from Richard III in theWars of the Roses.[122][123] According toCaroline Barron, Archbishop John Morton, in whose household More had served as a page(see above), had joined the 1483Buckingham rebellion against Richard III, and Morton was probably one of those who influenced More's hostility towards the defeated king.[124][125]Clements Markham asserts that the actual author of the chronicle was, in large part, Archbishop Morton himself and that More was simply copying, or perhaps translating, Morton's original material.[126][127]
More's best known and most controversial work,Utopia, is aframe narrative written in Latin.[128] More completed the book, and theologianErasmus published it inLeuven in 1516. It was only translated into English and published in his native land in 1551 (16 years after his execution), and the 1684 translation became the most commonly cited. More (who is also a character in the book) and the narrator/traveller, Raphael Hythlodaeus (whose name alludes both to the healer archangelRaphael, and 'speaker of nonsense', the surname's Greek meaning), discuss modern ills inAntwerp, as well as describe the political arrangements of the imaginary island country of Utopia (a Greek pun on 'ou-topos' [no place] and 'eu-topos' [good place]) among themselves as well as toPieter Gillis andHieronymus van Busleyden.[129] Utopia's original edition included a symmetrical "Utopian alphabet" omitted by later editions, but which may have been an early attempt or precursor ofshorthand.
Utopia is structured into two parts, both with muchirony: Book I has conversations between friends on various European political issues: the treatment of criminals, theenclosure movement, etc.; Book II is a remembered discourse by Raphael Hythlodaeus on his supposed travels, in which the earlier issues are revisited in fantastical but concrete forms that has been calledmythical idealism. For example, the proposition in the Book I "no republic can be prosperous or justly governed where there is private property and money is the measure of everything."[130]
Utopia contrasts the contentious social life of European states with the perfectly orderly, reasonable social arrangements of Utopia and its environs (Tallstoria, Nolandia, and Aircastle). In Utopia, there are no lawyers because of the laws' simplicity and because social gatherings are in public view (encouraging participants to behave well), communal ownership supplants private property, men and women are educated alike, and there is almost complete religious toleration (except for atheists, who are allowed but despised).
More may have usedmonastic communalism as his model, although other concepts he presents such as legalisingeuthanasia remain far outside Church doctrine. Hythlodaeus asserts that a man who refuses to believe in a god or an afterlife could never be trusted, because he would not acknowledge any authority or principle outside himself. A scholar has suggested that More is most interested in the type of citizen Utopia produces.[130]
Some take the novel's principal message to be the social need for order and discipline rather than liberty. Ironically, Hythlodaeus, who believes philosophers should not get involved in politics, addresses More's ultimate conflict between his humanistic beliefs and courtly duties as the King's servant, pointing out that one day those morals will come into conflict with the political reality.
In 1520 the reformerMartin Luther published three works in quick succession:An Appeal to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (Aug.),Concerning the Babylonish Captivity of the Church (Oct.), andOn the Liberty of a Christian Man (Nov.).[17]: 225 In these books, Luther set out his doctrine of salvation through faith alone, rejected certain Catholic practices, and attacked abuses and excesses within the Catholic Church.[17]: 225–6 In 1521, Henry VIII formally responded to Luther's criticisms with theAssertio, written with More's assistance.[131]Pope Leo X rewarded the English king with the title "Fidei defensor" ("Defender of the Faith") for his work combating Luther's heresies.[17]: 226–7
Martin Luther then attacked Henry VIII in print, calling him a "pig, dolt, and liar".[17]: 227 At the King's request, More composed a rebuttal: theResponsio ad Lutherum was published at the end of 1523. In theResponsio, More defended papal supremacy, the sacraments, and other Church traditions. More, though considered "a much steadier personality",[132] described Luther as an "ape", a "drunkard", and a "lousy little friar" amongst other epithets.[17]: 230 Writing under the pseudonym of Gulielmus Rosseus,[45] More tells Luther that:
for as long as your reverend paternity will be determined to tell these shameless lies, others will be permitted, on behalf of his English majesty, to throw back into your paternity's shitty mouth, truly the shit-pool of all shit, all the muck and shit which your damnable rottenness has vomited up, and to empty out all the sewers and privies onto your crown divested of the dignity of the priestly crown, against which no less than the kingly crown you have determined to play the buffoon.[133]
His saying is followed with a kind of apology to his readers, while Luther possibly never apologized for his sayings.[133]Stephen Greenblatt argues, "More speaks for his ruler and in his opponent's idiom; Luther speaks for himself, and his scatological imagery far exceeds in quantity, intensity, and inventiveness anything that More could muster. If for More scatology normally expresses a communal disapproval, for Luther, it expresses a deep personal rage."[134]
Confronting Luther confirmed More's theological conservatism. He thereafter avoided any hint of criticism of Church authority.[17]: 230 In 1528, More published another religious polemic,A Dialogue Concerning Heresies, that asserted the Catholic Church was the one true church, established by Christ and the Apostles, and affirmed the validity of its authority, traditions and practices.[17]: 279–81 In 1529, the circulation ofSimon Fish'sSupplication for the Beggars prompted More to respond with theSupplycatyon of Soulys.
In 1531, a year after More's father died,William Tyndale publishedAn Answer unto Sir Thomas More's Dialogue in response to More'sDialogue Concerning Heresies. More responded with a half million words: theConfutation of Tyndale's Answer. TheConfutation is an imaginary dialogue between More and Tyndale, with More addressing each of Tyndale's criticisms of Catholic rites and doctrines.[17]: 307–9 More, who valued structure, tradition and order in society as safeguards against tyranny and error, vehemently believed that Lutheranism and the Protestant Reformation in general were dangerous, not only to the Catholic faith but to the stability of society as a whole.[17]: 307–9
Most major humanists were prolific letter writers, and Thomas More was no exception. As in the case of his friend Erasmus of Rotterdam, however, only a small portion of his correspondence (about 280 letters) survived. These include everything from personal letters to official government correspondence (mostly in English), letters to fellow humanist scholars (in Latin), several epistolary tracts, verse epistles, prefatory letters (some fictional) to several of More's own works, letters to More's children and their tutors (in Latin), and the so-called "prison-letters" (in English) which he exchanged with his oldest daughter Margaret while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London awaiting execution.[49] More also engaged in controversies, most notably with the French poetGermain de Brie, which culminated in the publication of de Brie'sAntimorus (1519). Erasmus intervened, however, and ended the dispute.[58]
More also wrote about more spiritual matters. They include:A Treatise on the Passion (a.k.a. Treatise on the Passion of Christ),A Treatise to Receive the Blessed Body (a.k.a. Holy Body Treaty), andDe Tristitia Christi (a.k.a. The Agony of Christ). More handwrote the last in the Tower of London while awaiting his execution. This last manuscript, saved from the confiscation decreed by Henry VIII, passed by the will of his daughter Margaret to Spanish hands through Fray Pedro de Soto, dominican confessor of the count of Oropesa ambassador of the Emperor Charles V, that presented to saint Juan de Ribera archbishop of Valencia at that time and founder ofReal Colegio Seminario del Corpus Christi and its museum where it remains in the collection.
It is reported that the canonization ceremony was greeted with a "minimal and hostile" treatment by the British press, and officially boycotted by the parliament and universities.[137]
In 1980, despite their staunch opposition to theEnglish Reformation, More and Fisher were added as martyrs of the reformation to theChurch of England'scalendar of "Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church", to becommemorated every 6 July (the date of More's execution) as "Thomas More, scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535".[10][138] The annual remembrance of 6 July, is recognized by all Anglican Churches in communion with Canterbury, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, and South Africa.[139]
In an essay examining the events around the addition to the Anglican calendar, ScholarBill Sheils links the reasoning for More's recognition to a "long-standing tradition hinted at inRose Macaulay's ironic debating point of 1935 about More's status as an 'unschismed Anglican', a tradition also recalled in the annual memorial lecture held at St. Dunstan's Church in Canterbury, where More's head is said to be buried."[139] Sheils also noted the influence of the 1960s play and filmA Man for All Seasons which gave More a "reputation as a defender of the right of conscience".[139] Thanks to the play's depiction, this "brought his life to a broader and more popular audience" with the film "extending its impact worldwide following the Oscar triumphs".[139] Around this time the atheist Oxford historian and public intellectual,Hugh Trevor-Roper held More up as "the first great Englishman whom we feel that we know, the most saintly of Humanists...the universal man of our cool northern Renaissance."[139] By 1978, the quincentenary of More's birth Trevor-Roper wrote an essay putting More in the Renaissance Platonist tradition, and claim his reputation was "quite independent of his Catholicism."[139] (Only, later on, did a more critical view arise in academia, led by Professor Sir Geoffrey Elton, which "challenged More's reputation for saintliness by focusing on his dealings with heretics, the ferocity of which, in fairness to him, More did not deny. In this research, More's role as a prosecutor, or persecutor, of dissidents has been at the center of the debate.")[139]
The steadfastness and courage with which More maintained his religious convictions, and his dignity during his imprisonment, trial, and execution, contributed much to More's posthumous reputation, particularly among Roman Catholics. His friendErasmus defended More's character as "more pure than any snow" and described his genius as "such as England never had and never again will have."[140] Upon learning of More's execution,Emperor Charles V said: "Had we been master of such a servant, we would rather have lost the best city of our dominions than such a worthy councillor."[141]
G. K. Chesterton, a Roman Catholic convert from the Church of England, predicted More "may come to be counted the greatest Englishman, or at least the greatest historical character in English history."[142] He wrote "the mind of More was like a diamond that a tyrant threw away into a ditch, because he could not break it."[143]
HistorianHugh Trevor-Roper called More "the first great Englishman whom we feel that we know, the most saintly of humanists, the most human of saints, the universal man of our cool northern renaissance."[144]
Jonathan Swift, an Anglican, wrote that More was "a person of the greatest virtue this kingdom ever produced".[145][146][147] Some consider this quote to be of Samuel Johnson, although it is not found in Johnson's writings.[148][149] Swift put More in the company of Socrates, Brutus, Epaminondas and Junius.[150]
The metaphysical poetJohn Donne, also honoured in their calendar by Anglicans,[151] was More's great-great-nephew.[152]
US SenatorEugene McCarthy had a portrait of More in his office.[153]Marxist theoreticians such asKarl Kautsky considered More'sUtopia a critique of economic and social exploitation in pre-modern Europe and More is claimed to have influenced the development of socialist ideas.[154]
In 1963,Moreana, an academic journal focusing on analysis of More and his writings, was founded.[155]
More debated the lawyer and pamphleteerChristopher St. Germain through various books: while agreeing on various issues onequity, More disagreed with secret witnesses, the admissibility of hearsay, and found St Germain's criticism of religious courts superficial or ignorant.[157] More and St Germain's views on equity owed in part to the 15th-century humanist theologian,Jean Gerson, who taught that consideration of the individual circumstances should be the norm not the exception.[158]
A 1999 poll of legal British professionals nominated More as the person who most embodies the virtues of the law needed at the close of the millennium. The virtues were More's views on the primacy of conscience and his role in the practical establishment of the principle ofequity in English secular law through theCourt of Chancery.[160]
William Roper's biography of More (his father-in-law) was one of the first biographies in Modern English.
Sir Thomas More is a play written circa 1592 in collaboration betweenHenry Chettle,Anthony Munday,William Shakespeare, and others, or with multiple script-doctors in view of the dangerous topic. In it More is portrayed as a wise and honest statesman. The original manuscript has survived as a handwritten text that shows many revisions by its several authors, as well as the censorious influence ofEdmund Tylney,Master of the Revels in the government of QueenElizabeth I. The script has since been published and has had several productions.[161][162] One of the verses in the manuscript in Shakespeare's hand has a smallsoliloquy[163] of More that includes:
... But More, the more that thou hast Either of honour, office, wealth, and calling, Which might accite thee to embrace and hug them, The more do thou e'en serpent's natures think them: Fear their gay skins, with thought of their stings,...
In Europe in the two centuries after his death, there were at least 50Neo-Latin school plays written about More, performed atJesuit schools.[164]
In 1941, the 20th-century British authorElizabeth Goudge (1900–1984) wrote a short story, "The King's Servant", based on the last few years of Thomas More's life, seen through his family, and especially his adopted daughter, Anne Cresacre More.[165]
More is a man of an angel's wit, and singular learning. I know not his fellow. For where is the man of that gentleness, lowliness and affability? And, as time requireth, a man of marvelous mirth and pastimes, and sometime of as sad gravity. A man for all seasons.[144]
This passage is derived from an exercise inRobert Whittington's 1520 Latin grammarVulgaria (which may have some provenance fromvir omnium horarum — "man for all hours" — in Erasmus's dedication to More of his 1511 essayMoriae Encomium[166][note 22]) that called the student to translate:
Moore is a man of an aungel's wyt and synglar lernyng. He is a man of many excellent vertues (yf I shold say as it is) I knowe not his felowe. For where is the man (in whome is so many godly vertues) of yt gentylnes, lowlynes and affabylyte? And, as tyme requyreth, a man of merveylous myrth and pastymes, and somtyme of as sad gravyte, as who say: a man for all seasons.[19]
In 1966, the playA Man for All Seasons was adapted into afilm with the same title. It was directed byFred Zinnemann and adapted for the screen by the playwright. It starsPaul Scofield, a noted British actor, who said that the part of Sir Thomas More was "the most difficult part I played."[167] The film won theAcademy Award for Best Picture and Scofield won theBest Actor Oscar. In 1988Charlton Heston starred in and directed a made-for-television film that restored the character of "the common man" that had been cut from the 1966 film.
Catholic science fiction writerR. A. Lafferty wrote his novelPast Master as a modern equivalent to More'sUtopia, which he saw as a satire. In this novel, Thomas More travels through time to the year 2535, where he is made king of the world "Astrobe", only to be beheaded after ruling for a mere nine days. One character compares More favourably to almost every other major historical figure: "He had one completely honest moment right at the end. I cannot think of anyone else who ever had one."
Karl Zuchardt's novel,Stirb du Narr! ("Die you fool!"), about More's struggle with KingHenry, portrays More as an idealist bound to fail in the power struggle with a ruthless ruler and an unjust world.
Literary criticJames Wood in his bookThe Broken Estate, a collection of essays, is critical of More and refers to him as "cruel in punishment, evasive in argument, lusty for power, and repressive in politics".[168]
Aaron S. Zelman's non-fiction bookThe State Versus the People includes a comparison ofUtopia with Plato'sRepublic. Zelman is undecided as to whether More was being ironic in his book or was genuinely advocating apolice state. Zelman comments, "More is the only Christian saint to be honoured with a statue at theKremlin."[citation needed] By this Zelman implies thatUtopia influencedVladimir Lenin'sBolsheviks, despite their brutal repression of religion.
Other biographers, such asPeter Ackroyd, have offered a more sympathetic picture of More as both a sophisticated philosopher and man of letters, as well as a zealous Catholic who believed in the authority of theHoly See overChristendom.
More is the focus of theAl Stewart song "A Man For All Seasons" from the 1978 albumTime Passages, and of theFar song "Sir", featured on the limited editions and 2008 re-release of their 1994 albumQuick. In addition, the song "So Says I" by indie rock outfitThe Shins alludes to the socialist interpretation of More'sUtopia.
Jeremy Northam depicts More in the television seriesThe Tudorsas a peaceful man, as well as a devout Roman Catholic and loving family patriarch.[169]
In the years 1968–2007 theUniversity of San Francisco's Gleeson Library Associates awarded the annual Sir Thomas More Medal for Book Collecting to private book collectors of note,[171] includingElmer Belt,[172]Otto Schaefer,[173] Albert Sperisen, John S. Mayfield and Lord Wardington.[174]
In the 2024 video game,Metaphor: ReFantazio, the narrative focuses on a book depicting a fictionalutopia written by a character named More.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia's English translation (1979) described More as "the founder ofUtopian socialism", the first person "to describe a society in which private property ... had been abolished" (a society in which the family was "a cell for the communist way of life"), and a thinker who "did not believe that the ideal society would be achieved throughrevolution", but who "greatly influenced reformers of subsequent centuries, especiallyMorelly,G. Babeuf,Saint-Simon,C. Fourier,E. Cabet, and other representatives of Utopian socialism."[note 24]
Many see More's communism or socialism as purely satirical.[note 25] In 1888, while praising More's communism, Karl Kautsky pointed out that "perplexed" historians and economists often saw the nameUtopia (which means "no place") as "a subtle hint by More that he himself regarded his communism as an impracticable dream".[154]
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the RussianNobel Prize-winning, anti-Communist author ofThe Gulag Archipelago, argued that Soviet communism needed enslavement and forced labour to survive, and that this had been " ...foreseen as far back as Thomas More, the great-grandfather ofsocialism, in hisUtopia".[note 26]
A plaque in the middle of the floor of London'sWestminster Hall commemorates More's trial for treason and condemnation to execution in that original part of thePalace of Westminster.[178] The building, which houses Parliament, would have been well known to More, who served several terms as a member and became Speaker of the House of Commons before his appointment as England's Lord Chancellor.
As More's royal duties frequently required his attendance at the King'sThames-side palaces in bothRichmond andGreenwich, it was convenient to select a riverside property situated between them (the common method of transport being by boat) for his home. In about 1520 he purchased a parcel of land comprising "undisturbed wood and pasture", stretching from the Thames inChelsea to the present-dayKing's Road. There he caused to be built a dignified red-brick mansion (known simply as More's house or Chelsea House) in which he lived until his arrest in 1534. In the bawdy poemThe Twelve Mery Jestes of Wyddow Edyth, written in 1525 by a member of More's household (or even by More himself) using the pseudonym of "Walter Smith", the widow arrives by boat at "Chelsay...where she had best cheare of all/in the house of Syr Thomas More."[179]
In June 1523 More bought the "very large and beautiful"Crosby Place (Crosby Hall) inBishopsgate, London, but this was not a simple transaction: eight months later he sold the property (never having lived there) at a considerable profit to his friend and business partnerAntonio Bonvisi who, in turn, leased it back to More's son-in-law William Roper and nephewWilliam Rastell; possibly this was an agreed means of dealing with a debt between More and Bonvisi. Because of this the Crown did not confiscate the property after More's execution.[181][182][note 27]
Across a small park and Old Church Street from Crosby Hall is Chelsea Old Church, an Anglican church whose southern chapel More commissioned and in which he sang with the parish choir. Except for his chapel, the church was largely destroyed in the Second World War and rebuilt in 1958.[183] The capitals on the medieval arch connecting the chapel to the main sanctuary display symbols associated with More and his office. On the southern wall of the sanctuary is the tomb and epitaph he erected for himself and his wives, detailing his ancestry and accomplishments in Latin, including his role as peacemaker between the various Christian European states as well as a curiously altered portion about his curbing heresy. When More served Mass, he would leave by the door just to the left of it. He is not, however, buried here, nor is it entirely certain which of his family may be. It is open to the public at specific times. Outside the church, facing theRiver Thames, is a statue by British Sculptor,Leslie Cubitt Bevis erected in 1969, commemorating More as "saint", "scholar", and "statesman"; the back displays his coat-of-arms. Nearby, on Upper Cheyne Row, the Roman Catholic Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer & St. Thomas More honours the martyr.
A plaque and small garden commemorate the famed execution site onTower Hill, London, just outside theTower of London, as well as all those executed there, many as religious martyrs or as prisoners of conscience.[184] More's corpse, minus his head, was unceremoniously buried in an unmarked mass grave beneath theRoyal Chapel of St. Peter Ad Vincula, within the walls of theTower of London, as was the custom for traitors executed at Tower Hill. The chapel is accessible to Tower visitors.
Thomas More is commemorated by a stoneplaque nearSt Katharine Docks, just east of the Tower where he was executed. The street in which it is situated was formerly called Nightingale Lane, a corruption of "Knighten Guild", derived from the original owners of the land. It is now renamed Thomas More Street in his honour.[185]
St Dunstan's Church, an Anglican parish church in Canterbury, possesses More's head, rescued by his daughterMargaret Roper, whose family lived in Canterbury down and across the street from their parish church. A stone immediately to the left of the altar marks the sealed Roper family vault beneath the Nicholas Chapel, itself to the right of the church's sanctuary or main altar.St Dunstan's Church has carefully investigated, preserved and sealed this burial vault. The last archaeological investigation revealed that the suspected head of More rests in a niche separate from the other bodies, possibly from later interference.[186] Displays in the chapel record the archaeological findings in pictures and narratives. Roman Catholics donated stained glass to commemorate the events in More's life. A small plaque marks the former home of William and Margaret Roper; another house nearby and entitled Roper House is now a home for deaf people.
^Giggs died on the 35th anniversary of More's execution, and her daughter would go on to marry More's nephewWilliam Rastell.
^Erasmus wrote about this monkey in his ColloquyAmicitia.
^"Sir Thomas More's first wife was instructed 'in learning and every kind of music'; his second wife, in middle age, was induced 'to learn to play apon the gittern, the lute, the clavichord and the recorders.'"Stevens, John (1961).Music & Poetry in the Early Tudor Court. CUP Archive., p 276
^Victorian biographer Seebohm commented "Along with great intellectual gifts was combined in the young student (More) a gentle and loving disposition, which threw itself into the bosom of a friend with so guileless and pure an affection, that when men came under the power of its unconscious enchantment they literallyfell in love with More."[21]
^"More held that the experience of friendship is a partial anticipation of the secure friendship of heaven, where we may hope that all will "be merry together"—not just our friends in this life but our enemies too."McEvoy, James (2006). "The Theory of Friendship in Erasmus and Thomas More".American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly.80 (2):227–252.doi:10.5840/acpq200680243.
^It seems this court could affirm a conviction that carried the death penalty, but not impose it.Snell, Melissa."English Court of Star Chamber: A Brief History".ThoughtCo. Retrieved16 October 2023.
^Louis Martz points out that More's repeated references to Erasmus as "darling" was his retort to Tyndale's mocking use of the word, being an adroit example of the rhetorical technique of repetition, culminating in the quip that, unlike Erasmus, Tyndale could never be his darling:Martz, Louis L. (1990).Thomas More: the search for the inner man. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. pp. 36–37.ISBN9780300056686.
^The intertwining of sedition and heresy can be seen inHenry VIII's pronouncement about the Lutherans' heresy "tending principally and chiefly to the withdrawing of the obedience of the Church of Rome, and also of the governance, regyment and supreme dignity of Princes and all nobility." Luther's attacks on German princes were evidence of the seditious nature of his doctrine.Baker House, Seymour (December 2022). "Richard Rex, ed., Henry VIII and Martin Luther: The Second Controversy, 1525–1527".Moreana.59 (2):254–269.doi:10.3366/more.2022.0130.S2CID254358434. Even 150 years later, "one of the assumptions thatJohn Locke had to deal with in arguing for religious tolerance was that religious assemblies other than those sponsored by the established church invariably gave rise to sedition"Manning, Roger B. (1980). "The Origins of the Doctrine of Sedition".Albion.12 (2):99–121.doi:10.2307/4048812.JSTOR4048812.
^There were a succession of policies towards heretics, from theWolsey/John Fisher approach of persuasion, the 1529–1531William Warham approach of reform and counter-propaganda, to More's brief approach of capital punishment of key networkers, to the subsequent Tudor policy of torture and terror. SeeD'Alton, Craig (1 August 2004). "William Warham and English heresy policy after the fall of Wolsey".Historical Research.77 (197):337–357.doi:10.1111/j.1468-2281.2004.00213.x. p.345
^"Serious analysis precludes the repetition of protestant stories that Sir Thomas flogged heretics against a tree in his garden at Chelsea. It must exclude, too, the accusations of illegal imprisonment made against More by John Field and Thomas Phillips. Much vaunted by J.A. Froude, such charges are unsupported by independent proof. More indeed answered them in his Apology with emphatic denial. None has ever been substantiated, and we may hope that they were all untrue."Guy, John; More, Thomas (1980).The public career of Sir Thomas More. Brighton, Sussex: Harvester Pr.ISBN085527963X.
^"[More][...] turned to waging implacable war on enemies of the Church whom he could crush without inhibition.[...] He had a positive relish for burning heretics.[...] Claims[...] that he personally tortured heretics have no evidence to back them up.MacCulloch, Diarmaid (27 September 2018).Thomas Cromwell: a life. Penguin Books. pp. 160–62.ISBN978-1-84614-429-5.
^Marius suggests that the rumours of More's cruelty started with renegade priest John Constantine, who was arrested, betrayed Bayfield, and escaped from More's house to stay with a friend in Antwerp who he also later betrayed. p.404
^Peter Ackroyd (1998).The Life of Thomas More. Chatto & Windus. p. 244.ISBN1-85619-711-5.(Chapter 22)[...] Already, in these early days of English heresy, he was thinking of the fire. It is a measure of his alarm at the erosion of the traditional order that he should, in this letter, compose a defence of scholastic theology—the same scholasticism which in his younger days he had treated with derision. This was no longer a time for questioning, or innovation, or uncertainty, of any kind. He blamed Luther for the Peasants' Revolt in Germany, and maintained that all its havoc and destruction were the direct result of Luther's challenge to the authority of the Church; under the pretext of 'libertas' Luther preached 'licentia' which had in turn led to rape, sacrilege, bloodshed, fire and ruin. (Online citationhereArchived 27 September 2018 at theWayback Machine)
^Joanne Paul (2016).Thomas More.John Wiley & Sons.ISBN978-0-7456-9220-3.Princes were 'driven by necessity' by the 'importune malice of heretics raising rebellions' to set 'sorer and sorer punishments thereunto' (CTA, 956). In other words, the heretics had started it: 'the Catholic Church did never persecute heretics by any temporal pain or any secular power until the heretics began such violence themself' (CTA, 954). More had in mind violent conflicts on the continent, such as the German Peasants' War (1524–5) and the Münster Rebellion (1532–5).[page needed] (CTA=Confutation of Tyndale's Answer)
^"...civil chaos will surely follow" (691–93). This prediction seemed to come true very quickly, as More noted in his next polemical work,A dialogue Concerning Heresies. There he argued that the Peasants' Revolt in Germany (1525), the Lutheran mercenaries' sack of Rome (1527), and the growing unrest in England all stemmed from Luther's inflammatory teachings and especially the lure of false freedomWegemer 1996, p. 173
^Wegemer, Gerard (31 October 2001)."Thomas More as statesman"(PDF). The Center for Thomas More Studies. p. 8. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 10 March 2017. Retrieved27 September 2018.In the Peasants' Revolt in Germany in 1525, More pointed out, 70,000 German peasants were slaughtered – and More, along with Erasmus and many others, considered Luther to be largely responsible for that wildfire.
^Ives, Eric W (2004),The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, p. 47,[More wrote on the subject of the Boleyn marriage that] [I] neither murmur at it nor dispute upon it, nor never did nor will.[...] I faithfully pray to God for his Grace and hers both long to live and well, and their noble issue too...
^In March 1534, theFirst Succession Act passed parliament, "investing Henry VIII with the power to "visit, redress, reform, correct or amend all errors, heresies and enormities;" to define faith; and to appoint bishops. This law also directed the monies which had previously been paid to Rome to the King's coffers. TheTreason Act 1534 (26 Hen. 8. c. 13) passed in the same month among other things made it treasonable to deny the King's role as Supreme Head of the Church.'"St. Thomas More".Catholic Encyclopaedia.
^Anne Manning; Edmund Lodge (1852).The Household of Sir Thomas More. C. Scribner. p. xiii.thomas more sentenced hanged, drawn and quartered.
^Scott W. Hahn; David Scott, eds. (2009).Liturgy and Empire: Faith in Exile and Political Theology. Emmaus Road Publishing. p. 73.ISBN978-1-931018-56-2.I die the king's good servant, but God's first." Footnote 133: "This phrase from Robert Bolt's play 'A Man for All Seasons'[...] is an adjustment of More's actual last words: 'I die the king's good servant, and God's first.'
^Erasmus had set the precedent of using sweetly extravagant praise of More such as "More is inscribed in my heart in letters that no injurious time can erode" for Latin grammatical examples in his 1512De copia.
^ab"The Center for Thomas More Studies Art > Gallery > Moscow". The Center for Thomas More Studies at TheUniversity of Dallas. 2010. Archived fromthe original on 15 January 2019. Retrieved20 December 2014.This monument, suggested by Lenin and built in 1918, lists Thomas More (ninth from the top) among the most influential thinkers "who promoted the liberation of humankind from oppression, arbitrariness, and exploitation." It is in Aleksndrovsky Garden near the Kremlin.
^ab"St. Thomas More".Catholic Encyclopaedia. 1913.The whole work is really an exercise of the imagination with much brilliant satire upon the world of More's own day. ... there can be no doubt that he would have been delighted at entrapping William Morris, who discovered in it a complete gospel of Socialism
^Bloom, Harold; Hobby, Blake (2010).Enslavement Enslavement and Emancipation] and Emancipation.Infobase Publishing. pp. 173–174.ISBN978-1-60413-441-4. Retrieved20 January 2015.Moreover, Solzhenitsyn insists that the Soviet system cannot survive without the camps, that Soviet communism requires enslavement and forced labour. " ...foreseen as far back as Thomas More, the great-grandfather of socialism, in hisUtopia [, the] labor ofzeks was needed for degrading and particularly heavy work, which no one, under socialism, would wish to perform" (Gulag, Vol 3. 578).
^"Homily at the Canonization of St. Thomas More""The Center for Thomas More Studies: Canonization of Thomas More". Archived fromthe original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved14 April 2012. at The Center for Thomas More Studies at the University of Dallas, 2010, citing text "Recorded in The Tablet, June 1, 1935, pp. 694–695"
^Chuilleanáin, Eiléan Ní (July 1988). "The Debate Between Thomas More and William Tyndale, 1528–33: Ideas on Literature and Religion".The Journal of Ecclesiastical History.39 (3):382–411.doi:10.1017/S0022046900038392.S2CID163326083.
^Schuster (Ed), L.A.; Marius (Ed), R.C. (173).Thomas More, The Complete Works of St Thomas More, vol. 8, ed. L. A. Schuster, R. C. Marius and J. P. Lusardi. New Haven, CT. p. 177.
^Daniell, David, ed. (1995).Tyndale's New Testament. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. p. xxix.ISBN0-300-06580-9.[More][...] with the new Bishop of London, burned John Tewkesbury, Richard Bayfield and James Bainham for the heresy of not renouncing what Tyndale had written.
^More, Thomas (1973). Schuster, LA; Marius, RC; Lusardi, JP; Schoeck, RJ (eds.).The Confutation of Tyndale's Answer. Complete Works. Vol. 8. Yale. p. 20.
^Moynahan, Brian (2002).If God spare my life: William Tyndale, the English Bible and Sir Thomas More—a story of martyrdom and betrayal. London: Little, Brown. pp. 325–328, 340.ISBN0-316-86092-1.
^Henry Ansgar Kelly; Louis W. Karlin; Gerard Wegemer, eds. (2011).Thomas More's Trial by Jury: A Procedural and Legal Review with a Collection of Documents. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. p. 189.ISBN978-1-84383-629-2.
^Hadfield, Andrew (2017).Lying in early modern English culture: from the Oath of supremacy to the Oath of allegiance. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 36–38.ISBN9780192844804.
^Barron, Caroline M. (2011). "The making of a London citizen". In Logan, George M. (ed.).The Cambridge Companion to Thomas More. Cambridge University Press.ISBN9780521888622.
^More, Thomas (31 October 2013). "Introduction". In Lumby, J Rawson (ed.).More's Utopia. Translated byRobynson, Raphe (1952 ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. vii.ISBN978-1-107-64515-8.
^"The Calendar".The Church of England. Retrieved27 March 2021.
^abcdefgDavid J. Crankshaw, George W. C. Gross, ed. (2020).Reformation Reputations: The Power of the Individual in English Reformation History. Springer International Publishing.
^abCited in Marvin O'Connell, "A Man for all Seasons: an Historian's Demur,"Catholic Dossier 8 no. 2 (March–April 2002): 16–19onlineArchived 12 May 2008 at theWayback Machine
^Mazour-Matusevich, Yelena (1 April 2017). "Some Aspects of Jean Gerson's Legal Influence in Sixteenth Century England: The Issue of Epikeia".Journal of Early Modern Christianity.4 (1):47–62.doi:10.1515/jemc-2017-0003.S2CID164459672.
^Gneist, Rudolph (1886).The History of the English Constitution [Englische Verfassungsgeschichte]. Vol. 2. Translated by Ashworth, Philip. London:William Clowes. p. 178.
^Long, William B.The Occasion of the Book of Sir Thomas More. Howard-Hill, T.H. editor.Shakespeare and Sir Thomas More; essays on the play and its Shakespearean Interest. Cambridge University Press. (1989)ISBN0-521-34658-4. pages 49–54
^Gabrieli, Vittorio. Melchiori, Giorgio, editorsIntroduction. Munday, Anthony. And others.Sir Thomas More. Manchester University Press.ISBN0-7190-1544-8. Page 1
^Sutter, Nicholas De (June 2022). "Sanctus martyr Thomas Morus : an unknown Neo-Latin More play from the College of Marchiennes".Moreana.59 (1):1–65.doi:10.3366/more.2022.0115.
^Rawlins, Christine (2015).Beyond the snow : the life and faith of Elizabeth Goudge. Bloomington, IN: Westbow.ISBN978-1-4908-8619-0.
^Robison, William B. (2016).History, fiction, and the Tudors : sex, politics, power, and artistic license in the Showtime television series. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 13.ISBN978-1-137-43881-2.
^Thomas More : the saint and the society; addresses and articles on St Thomas More further published to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of the foundation of the St Thomas More Society on 14th August 1945. Sydney: St Thomas More Society. 1995. p. 110.ISBN978-0-646-26104-1.
^Ackroyd (1999) p. 244. BibliographerWilliam Carew Hazlitt in hisShakespeare Jest Book Volume III (OCLC690506548) assigns publication of the work to More's brother-in-lawJohn Rastell, with a date of 23 March 1525.
^Beaver, Alfred (1892).Memorials of Old Chelsea. London:Elliot Stock. pp. 118–138.OCLC499072940.In...1682...Chelsey...was sold to...the first Duke of Beaufort...and henceforth bore [the] name.
^Schulte Herbrüggen, Hubertus (1982).Das Haupt des Thomas Morus in der St. Dunstan-Kirche zu Canterbury. Forschungsberichte des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
Basset, Bernard, SJ (1965).Born for Friendship: The Spirit of Sir Thomas More. London: Burns & Oates.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Gushurst-Moore, André (2004), "A Man for All Eras: Recent Books on Thomas More",Political Science Reviewer,33:90–143.
Guy, John (2000), "The Search for the Historical Thomas More",History Review: 15+
Miles, Leland. "Persecution and the Dialogue of Comfort: A Fresh Look at the Charges against Thomas More."Journal of British Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, 1965, pp. 19–30.online
Thomas More Studies databaseArchived 20 June 2012 at theWayback Machine: contains several of More's English works, including dialogues, early poetry and letters, as well as journal articles and biographical material
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