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Biography

Thomas More is Notable.

Sir Thomas More (7 February 1477/8 – 6 July 1535) was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important counsellor to Henry VIII and Lord Chancellor from October 1529 to 16 May 1532. More opposed the Protestant Reformation and the King's separation from the Catholic Church, and refused to accept him as Supreme Head of the Church of England. Tried for treason, More was beheaded on 6 July 1635.

Education

Born in Milk Street in London, on 7 February 1477/8, Thomas More was the eldest son of Sir John More, Justice of the King's Bench, and his first wife Agnes (née Graunger).^[1] Sir John More educated his son for the law, sending him at first to St Anthony's school in Threadneedle Street, a place with a strong reputation for scholarship. About 1590, he placed him for two years in the household of John Morton, Chancellor of England and Archbishop of Canterbury. The boy Thomas is said to have impressed Morton with his promise, and under his influence, he was entered at Oxford - either at Balliol or Canterbury College, the admissions records having been lost. Morton may have intended to introduce his protege to a religious career, but John More was intent on the law. Thomas More did not take an Oxford degree, and he was next enrolled at the New Inn, an Inn of Chancery, from which, on 12 February 1495/4, he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn, as "son of John". By 1501, he had been called to the bar.^[2][3][4][5]

More would practice law, but he did not quite abandon the call of the religious life, and after leaving Lincoln's Inn spent the next four years with the Carthusian monks at the London Charterhouse, though not taking vows. It was probably at about this time that he began the practice of wearing a hair shirt, which his favorite daughter Margaret would later care for.^[6] He finally succumbed to the urges of the flesh and decided to take a wife, as "he would rather be a chaste husband than a licentious priest."^[7]

Householder

More married Jane Colt, eldest daughter of John Colt, gentleman of Netherhall, near Roydon, Essex, in 1505. She was age 16, nearly ten years younger than More. He established his household in a large house at Bucklersbury in the parish of St Stephen Walbrook, where the couple had four children before Jane died in 1511: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John. Within thirty days of Jane's death More had married the rich widow Alice (Harpur) Middleton as his second wife.^[8] More had no children from his second marriage, although he raised Alice's daughter from her previous marriage,Alice Middleton, as his own. He also raised orphaned wards Margaret Gills and Anne Cresacre. The girls were all given a humanist education, schooled in Latin and Greek, and the eldest daughter Margaret in particular, More's favorite, was widely esteemed for her learning.^[9][10][11] They largely married within the household: John More to Anne Cresacre, Cicely More to More's ward Giles Heron; Margaret More's husband William Roper of Lincoln's Inn lived in the More household as "son Roper" for years after their marriage. More's only son John appears to have been advanced to no particular schooling or profession.^[12] Justice John More, revered by his son, died in 1530, naming Thomas and his son John in his 1526 Will.^[13]

Humanist

More's home school reflected his growing attachment to the new Humanist learning based on classical antiquity, as when he assisted his fellow-alumnus of St Anthony's, John Colet, in founding St Paul's School.^[14] This New Learning was epitomized by the Dutch scholar [Erasmus], also patronized by Colet. Erasmus first met More and Cole when he visited England in 1499 and again in 1505, but notably in 1509 - the year of the accession of Henry VIII to the English throne, from whom he hoped for an appointment, as the new king was himself an eager scholar. Erasmus stayed on his arrival in More's household, where, at More's encouragement, he wrote his masterful satire "The Praise of Folly", dedicated to More, and believed by some to have inspired More's best-known work,Utopia.^[15][16]

This work seems to owe more to Plato than to the satire of Erasmus.^[17] It is firstly a critique of European laws and governance and secondly a speculative ideal society designed as a conceivable remedy for those ills - which has been seen by some critics as worse than the ills themselves. The work is ironical - it is apparent that More does not conceive this polity as a plausible ideal. As his biographer Marius states, "We cannot tell where irony ends and literal recommendation begins."^[18] But it is most notable that the state of Utopia is not a Christian one and that the Utopians practice religious toleration - even to the point of including atheists. Taken literally, these views might well be considered heresy - which for More was anathema.

Law and Governance

Unlike his friend Erasmus, More's primary business was not scholarship, but the practical affairs of governing the state. He was first elected to Parliament in 1504, near the end of the reign of Henry VII, during which term he argued successfully against an excessive tax demand from the king.^[19][20] In 1509, he was admitted to the Mercers' Company, for which he was then an advocate. He was later that year chosen by them as one of the MPs for London. He was also named under-sheriff of London.^[19] In this capacity, his stand against rioters in 1517 soon earned him a place on Henry VIII's Privy Council, as well as the office of Master of Requests.^[21] He was knighted in 1521, when he was named Under Treasurer of the Exchequer.^[19] He was also, at that time, in the favor of the actual ruler of the realm:Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. In consequence, he gained advancement.

In 1524, he removed his family from London to Chelsea on the Thames, as more convenient for meeting the king.^[22] In a chapel in the nearby Chelsea Old Church^[23][24] he built a tomb for himself and his family, removing the remains of his first wife Jane from St Stephens Walbrook. In the lengthy epitaph carved there, he expressed the desire to lie there with both his wives, as "I can not decide whether I did love the one or do love the other more." In the event, following his execution, More was buried in the Tower, and it is not clear if the tomb now holds any others of his family.

Henry VIII had ambitions to make war on France, although in 1520 the two kings had pledged peace atThe Field of the Cloth of Gold, where Thomas More attended. It was a brief peace, and in 1523, More was named Speaker of the House of Commons with the charge of obtaining revenue to finance another war,^[19] which, despite grandiose plans and great expense, came eventually to nothing.^[25] More was one of the chief delegates negotiating theTreaty of Cambrai in 1529.

Heresy

In 1517, the Augustinian friar Martin Luther of Wittenberg published hisNinety-Five Theses condemning corruption in the church. Some scholars considered that he was inspired by the writings of Erasmus, but Erasmus continued within the church and condemned the dissension and violence ignited by Luther's writings. To More, these were flatly heretical and threatened the existence of the church, and thereby all Christian souls. He was doubtless involved in the writing of Henry VIII's 1620 refutation of Luther, which earned the king the title "Defender of the Faith" from the Pope.^[26] Encouraged by Henry, More began to publish additional vituperative attacks, the language of some being so obscene they had to be published under a pseudonym.^[27] His 1529Dialogue Concerning Heresies was a more moderate and rational work.^[28]

The tolerance of the author ofUtopia died. As a member of the Privy Council, he had legal authority for the repression of heretics, the burning of their books, especially the translations of the Bible into English then being smuggled into the country, and he persecuted their translator,William Tyndale. He also made suspected witches a target.^[29] He was known to have imprisoned and interrogated suspect heretics at his house in Chelsea.^[30] Under his administration as Chancellor of England from 1529, a number of respected and popular preachers critical of the church were burned at the stake, notablyThomas Bilney, whose controversial death was defended by More.^[31]

The King's Great Matter

From about 1525, King Henry VIII's attention turned from war and heresy to the matter of his marriage, as his queen Catherine had failed to produce a male heir and was growing too old to do so. He became obsessed with divorcing her to marry the youngerAnne Bolyen, but the Pope refused to grant Henry's request. For his failure in this mission, Cardinal Wolsey lost his post as Chancellor, which was given in 1529 to Thomas More - strangely, as More was a supporter of the queen and loyal to the Papal church. During this period, the king grew increasingly close to the reformers opposed to the control of the Papacy over the English church, putting the king and his Chancellor at odds.^[19][32] Henry's solution to his marriage problem was to place himself as head of the English church and effectively depose the Pope from that role. This, in the end, More could not accept. On 15 May 1532, he resigned as Chancellor.^[33]

Martyrdom

Resignation was insufficient. Henry required active submission to his Will. In 1533, More refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn as the Queen of England, despite the king's explicit order to do so. "This was the point when Henry hardened his heart against him."^[34] In March 1533/4, Henry's Parliament passed theAct of Succession, requiring all subjects to swear to support the legitimacy of Anne Boleyn's issue, on penalty of treason. More refused to swear. His tactic was silence. He did not deny the validity of the Acts; he simply refused to address the question. On 17 April 1534 he was sent to the Tower, where he was when on 3 November 1534 Parliament passed theAct of Supremacy declaring the king the only Supreme Head of the Church of England, all subjects being required by oath to support it. In addition, an Act of Attainder was passed against him, whereby his estates were forfeit.^[35]

On 1 July 1535, More was tried before a panel of judges that included the new Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Audley, as well as Anne Boleyn's father, brother, and uncle. Sources have claimed that the evidence against him was perjured. He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered (the usual punishment for traitors who were not the nobility), but the King commuted this to execution by decapitation. The execution took place on 6 July 1535 at Tower Hill. His last word were claimed to be "I die the King's good servant but God's first."^[19]

Sir Thomas More's body was buried in the church of St Peter ad Vincula within the Tower, where his name is on a plaque commemorating others who were executed, but his head was spiked on London Bridge as a traitor's.^[36] His favorite daughter Margaret Roper bribed a guard to retrieve it, and she kept it with her as a relic until her own death in 1644.^[37] It eventually was placed with her in the Roper family vault at St Dunstan's, in Canterbury.^[38]

Thomas More was beatified on 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII, and canonised on 19 May 1935 by Pope Pius XI. The feast day of St Thomas More is June 22, and he is the patron saint of adopted children lawyers, civil servants, politicians, and difficult marriages.^[39]

Sources

1. ↑ Foster, Joseph.Pedigrees of the County Families of Yorkshire, "Pedigree of More, of Barnborough Hall". vol. 2. London: The Compiler, 1874.Pedigree
2. ↑The Records of the Honorable Society of Lincoln's Inn, vol. 1, folio 34b, p. 27.p. 27
3. ↑ "More, Sir Thomas (St Thomas More) (1478–1535)Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 23 September 2004.[1]
4. ↑ Marius, Richard.Thomas More: A Biography, pp. 14-33. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1984.
5. ↑ Ackroyd, Peter.The Life of Thomas More, pp. 17-64. Doubleday: Nan A Talese, 1998.
6. ↑ Stapleton, Thomas.The Life and Illustrious Martyrdom of Sir Thomas More, pp. 41-2. Philip E Hallett, trans, Katherine Stearns and Emma Curtis, eds. CTMS Publishers at the University of Dallas © 2020PDF
7. ↑ "Letter of Erasmus to Von Hutten, 1519", Black, Walter J, ed.The Utopia of Sir Thomas More, pp. 207-282. The Classics Club, 1947.
8. ↑ Ackroyd, pp. 14-147.
9. ↑ Scott, Mary.The Female Advocate; a poem occasioned by reading Mr. Duncombe's Feminead. p. 7. London: Joseph Johnson.p. 7
10. ↑ Ballard, George.Memoirs of several ladies of Great Britain, who have been celebrated for their writings or skill in the learned languages, ... p. 54. Oxford: W Jackson.p. 54
11. ↑ Ackroyd, pp. 248-250.
12. ↑ Wood, Martin. "The Family and Descendants of Sir Thomas More", 2008.PDF
13. ↑ "Will of Sir John More, Justice of the King's BenchPROB 11/23/381 proved 5 December 1530
14. ↑ Ackroyd, p. 133.
15. ↑ Huizinga, Johann.Erasmus and the Age of Reformation, pp. 67-78. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1957.
16. ↑ Ackroyd, p. 133.
17. ↑ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Thomas More, 2014.Utopia
18. ↑ Marius, p. 185.
19. ↑^{19.019.119.219.319.419.5} History of Parliament Online: More, Thomas (1477/78-1535)HOP
20. ↑ "Roper's Life of More", Black, Walter J. Ed.,The Utopia of Sir Thomas More, p. 213. The Classic Club, 1947.
21. ↑ Ridley, Jasper.Statesman and Saint, pp. 77-78. New York: Viking Press, 1982.
22. ↑ "Landownership: More's estate". A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 12, Chelsea. Ed. Patricia E C Croot(London, 2004), , British History Online. Web. 2 November 2024.[2]
23. ↑ "Religious history: The parish church". A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 12, Chelsea. Ed. Patricia E C Croot(London, 2004), , British History Online. Web. 2 November 2024.[3]
24. ↑ Daniel Lysons. "Chelsea: (part 1 of 3)". The Environs of London: Volume 2, County of Middlesex. (London, 1795), , British History Online. Web. 3 November 2024.More
25. ↑ Ridley, pp. 139-160
26. ↑ Ackroyd, pp. 264-291.
27. ↑ RIdley, pp. 131-135
28. ↑ Marius, pp. 338-340.
29. ↑ "Essex Institute Historical Collections" (1886) Vol. 23, Page 155-56.p. 155
30. ↑ Marius, p. 232.
31. ↑ Marius, pp. 396-401.
32. ↑ MacCulloch, Diarmaid.Thomas Cromwell pp. 160-161. New York:Viking, 2018.
33. ↑ Marius, pp. 407-417.
34. ↑ Ackroyd, p. 342.
35. ↑ Ackroyd, pp. 359-383.
36. ↑ Ackroyd, pp. 405-6.
37. ↑ Ridley, p. 283.
38. ↑ Albin, H. O. (1979), "Opening of the Roper Vault in St. Dunstan's Canterbury and Thoughts on the Burial of William and Margaret Roper."Roper Vault
39. ↑ St Thomas More, Catholic Online, World Catholic LibraryCatholic.org accessed 19 December 2023

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