Thomas More

The Right Honourable  Sir Thomas More
Lord Chancellor
In office October 1529 – May 1532
Preceded by	Thomas Wolsey
Succeeded by	Thomas Audley
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office 31 December 1525 – 3 November 1529
Preceded by	Richard Wingfield
Succeeded by	William FitzWilliam
Speaker of the House of Commons
In office 16 April 1523 – 13 August 1523
Preceded by	Thomas Neville
Succeeded by	Thomas Audley
Born	7 February 1478 City of London, London Kingdom of England
Died	6 July 1535(1535-07-06) (aged 57) Tower Hill, Stepney, London Kingdom of England
Signature

Sir Thomas More (pronounced /ˈmɔr/; February 7, 1478^[1] – July 6, 1535), also Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, and statesman. He is also recognised as a saint within the Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion^[2]. During his life he gained a reputation as a leading Renaissance humanist, an opponent of the Protestant Reformation, of Martin Luther and of William Tyndale.  For three years toward the end of his life he was Lord Chancellor.

More coined the word "utopia" - a name he gave to the ideal, imaginary island nation whose political system he described in Utopia, published in 1516. He was an important counsellor to Henry VIII of England. Later, in 1535, Henry VIII had him tried and executed for treason by beheading for denying that the king was the Supreme Head of the Church of England, a title the king had given himself through the Act of Supremacy of 1534. More had been in prison in the Tower of London since 1534 for his refusal to take the oath required by the First Succession Act, because the act disparaged the power of the Pope and Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. More was beatified by the Catholic Church in 1886 and canonised, with John Fisher, in 1935. In 1980, he was added to the Church of England's calendar of saints.

Early life

Born in Milk Street, London, on the 7 February 1478, Thomas More was the eldest son of Sir John More, a successful lawyer, and his wife Agnes (née Graunger). More was educated at St Anthony's School, then considered one of the finest schools in London, and later spent the years 1490 to 1492 as a page in the household service of John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and lord Chancellor of England.^[3] Morton was an enthusiastic supporter of the 'New Learning' of the Renaissance, and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More showed great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at Canterbury College, Oxford, where More began his studies in 1492.^[4] More received a classical education at Oxford, and was a pupil of Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, becoming proficient in both Greek and Latin. He left Oxford in 1494, after only two years at the insistence of his father, to begin his legal training in London at the New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery.^[5] In 1496 he became a student at Lincoln’s Inn, one of the Inns of Court, where he remained until 1502, when he was called to the bar.^[6]

According to Erasmus, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career in order to become a monk.^[7] Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near the Carthusian monastery outside the walls of London, and joined in the monks' spiritual exercises. Although he deeply admired the piety of the monks, he ultimately decided on the life of a layman upon his marriage and election to Parliament in 1504.^[8] In spite of his choice to pursue a secular career, More continued to observe certain ascetical practices for the rest of his life, wearing a hair shirt next to his skin and occasionally engaging in flagellation.^[8]

Family life

More married his first wife, Jane Colt, in 1505.^[9] She was nearly ten years his junior, and was said by More's friends to be of a quiet and good-natured disposition.^[10] Erasmus reported that More had taken an interest early on in giving his young wife a better education than she had previously been given at home, and became a personal tutor to her in the areas of music and literature.^[11] More had four children with Jane: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John.^[12] When Jane died in 1511, More remarried almost immediately, choosing as his second wife a rich widow named Alice Middleton. Alice More did not enjoy the reputation for docility that her predecessor had, and was instead known as a strong and outspoken woman, derided by More's friend Andrew Ammonius as a "hook-nosed harpy", although Erasmus attested that the marriage was a happy one.^[13] More and Alice did not have children together, although More raised Alice's daughter from her previous marriage as his own. More also became the guardian of a young girl named Anne Cresacre, who would eventually marry his son, John More.^[14] More was an affectionate father who wrote letters to his children whenever he was away on legal or government business, and encouraged them to write to him often.^[15][16]

More took a serious interest in the education of women, an attitude that was highly unusual at the time. Believing women to be just as capable of academic accomplishment as men, More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education given to his son.^[17] The academic star of the family was More's eldest daughter Margaret, who attracted much admiration for her erudition, especially her fluency in both Greek and Latin.^[18] More recounted a moment of such admiration in a letter to Margaret in September 1522, when the Bishop of Exeter was shown a letter written by Margaret to More:

The success More enjoyed in educating his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favourable towards the idea once he witnessed the accomplishments of More's daughters.^[20]

Early political career

Study for a portrait of Thomas More's family, c. 1527, by Hans Holbein the Younger

From 1510, More served as one of the two undersheriffs of the City of London, a position of considerable responsibility in which he earned a reputation as an honest and effective public servant. More became Master of Requests in 1517; the same year in which he entered the king's service as a counsellor and personal servant and became a Privy Counsellor.^[21] After undertaking a diplomatic mission to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, accompanying Thomas Wolsey to Calais and Bruges, More was knighted and made under-treasurer of the Exchequer in 1521.^[21]

As secretary and personal adviser to King Henry VIII, More became increasingly influential in the government, welcoming foreign diplomats, drafting official documents, and serving as a liaison between the king and his Lord Chancellor: Thomas Wolsey, the Cardinal Archbishop of York.

Recommended by Wolsey, More was elected the Speaker of the House of Commons in 1523.^[21] He later served as High Steward for the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. In 1525 he became chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, a position that entailed administrative and judicial control of much of northern England.^[21]

Scholarly and literary work

Woodcut by Ambrosius Holbein for a 1518 edition of Utopia. The traveler Raphael Hythloday is depicted in the lower left-hand corner describing to a listener the island of Utopia, whose layout is schematically shown above him.

Between 1512 and 1518, Thomas More worked on a History of King Richard III, an unfinished work, based on Sir Robert Honorr's Tragic Deunfall of Richard III, Suvereign of Britain (1485),, which greatly influenced William Shakespeare's play Richard III. Both Thomas's and Shakespeare's works are controversial to contemporary historians for their unflattering portrait of King Richard III, a bias partly due to both authors' allegiance to the reigning Tudor dynasty that wrested the throne from Richard III with the Wars of the Roses. More's work, however, little mentions King Henry VII, the first Tudor king, perhaps for having persecuted his father, Sir John More. Some historians see an attack on royal tyranny, rather than on Richard III, himself, or on the House of York.

The History of King Richard III is a Renaissance history, remarkable more for its literary skill and adherence to classical precepts than for its historical accuracy. More's work, and that of contemporary historian Polydore Vergil, reflects a move from mundane medieval chronicles to a dramatic writing style; for example, the shadowy King Richard is an outstanding, archetypal tyrant drawn from the pages of Sallust, and should be read as a meditation on power and corruption as well as a history of the reign of Richard III. The 'History 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.

Utopia

More sketched out his most well-known and controversial work, Utopia (completed and published in 1516), a novel in Latin. In it a traveller, Raphael Hythloday (in Greek, his name and surname allude to archangel Raphael, purveyor of truth, and mean "speaker of nonsense"), describes the political arrangements of the imaginary island country of Utopia (Greek pun on ou-topos [no place], eu-topos [good place]) to himself and to Pieter Gillis. At the time, most literate people could understand the actual meaning of the word "utopia" because of the relatively widespread knowledge of the Greek language. This novel describes the city of Amaurote by saying, "Of them all this is the worthiest and of most dignity".

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, with communal ownership of land, private property does not exist, men and women are educated alike, and there is almost complete religious toleration. Some take the novel's principal message to be the social need for order and discipline rather than liberty. The country of Utopia tolerates different religious practices, but does not tolerate atheists. Hythloday theorizes that if a man did not believe in a god or in an afterlife he could never be trusted, because he would not acknowledge any authority or principle outside himself.

More used the novel describing an imaginary nation as a means of freely discussing contemporary controversial matters; speculatively, he based Utopia on monastic communalism, based upon the Biblical communalism in the Acts of the Apostles.

Utopia is a forerunner of the utopian literary genre, wherein ideal societies and perfect cities are detailed. Although Utopianism is typically a Renaissance movement, combining the classical concepts of perfect societies of Plato and Aristotle with Roman rhetorical finesse (cf. Cicero, Quintilian, epideictic oratory), it continued into the Enlightenment. Utopia's original edition included the symmetrical "Utopian alphabet" that was omitted from later editions; it is a notable, early attempt at cryptography that might have influenced the development of shorthand.

Utopia ironically points out, through Raphael, More's ultimate conflict between his beliefs as a humanist and a servant of the King at court. More tries to illustrate how he can try and influence courtly figures including the king to the humanist way of thinking but as Raphael points out, one day they will come into conflict with the political reality.

Religious polemics

In 1520 the reformer Martin Luther published three works in quick succession: An Appeal to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation; Concerning the Babylonish Captivity of the Church; and On the Liberty of a Christian Man.^[22] In these works Luther set out his doctrine of salvation through faith alone, rejected the sacraments and other Catholic practices, and attacked the abuses and excesses of the Catholic Church.^[23] In 1521, Henry VIII responded to Luther’s criticisms with a work known as the Assertio, written with the editorial assistance of More. In light of this work, Pope Leo X rewarded Henry VIII with the title Fidei defensor (“Defender of the Faith”) for his efforts in combating Luther’s heresies.^[24]

Martin Luther then attacked Henry VIII in print, calling him a “pig, dolt, and liar”.^[25] At the request of Henry VIII, More set about composing a rebuttal: the resulting Responsio ad Lutherum was published at the end of 1523. In the Responsio, More defended the supremacy of the papacy, the sacraments, and other church traditions. More’s language, like Luther’s, was virulent, and he branded Luther an “ape”, a “drunkard”, and a “lousy little friar” amongst other insults.^[26]

This confrontation with Luther confirmed More’s conservative religious tendencies, and from then on his work was devoid of all criticism or satire that could be seen as harmful to the authority of the Church.^[27] In 1528 More produced another religious polemic, A Dialogue Concerning Heresies. This work again asserted that the Catholic Church was the one true Church, whose authority had been established by Christ and the Apostles, and that its traditions and practices were valid.^[28] In 1529, the circulation of Simon Fish’s Supplication for the Beggars came to the attention of More, who responded with a polemic entitled The Supplication of Souls.

In 1531, William Tyndale wrote An Answer unto Sir Thomas More’s Dialogue as a response to More’s earlier Dialogue Concerning Heresies. After having seen Tyndale’s work, More wrote his half-a-million word long Confutation of Tyndale’s Answer over the next several months. The Confutation is written as a dialogue between More and Tyndale, in which More responds to each of Tyndale’s criticisms of Catholic rites and doctrines.^[29] These literary battles convinced More, who valued structure, tradition, and order in society above all else, 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.^[30]

Chancellorship

After Wolsey fell, More succeeded to the office of Chancellor in 1529. He dispatched cases with unprecedented rapidity. At that point fully devoted to Henry and to the cause of royal prerogative, More initially co-operated with the king's new policy, denouncing Wolsey in Parliament and proclaiming the opinion of the theologians at Oxford and Cambridge that the marriage of Henry to Catherine had been unlawful. But as Henry began to deny the authority of the Pope, More's qualms grew.

Campaign against the Reformation

More supported the Catholic Church and saw heresy as a threat to the unity of both church and society. More believed that heresy had to be eradicated for the sake of peace and stability in society, and saw heresy as dangerous to the existing order. Therefore he "heard Luther's call to destroy the Catholic Church as a call to war."^[31]

His early actions against the Reformation included aiding Wolsey in preventing Lutheran books from being imported into England. During this time most of his literary polemics appeared.

Sir Thomas More is commemorated with a sculpture at the late 19th-century Sir Thomas More House, opposite the Royal Courts of Justice, Carey Street, London.

In June 1530 it was decreed that offenders were to be brought before the King's Council, rather than being examined by their bishops, the practice hitherto. Actions taken by the Council became ever more severe. In 1531, Richard Bayfield, a graduate of the University of Cambridge and former Benedictine monk, was burned at Smithfield for distributing copies of Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament, which contained some translations which challenged Catholic doctrine and practice.^[32]

Rumours circulated both during More's lifetime and posthumously regarding the treatment of heretics during his time as Lord Chancellor. The popular anti-Catholic polemicist John Foxe, who "placed Protestant sufferings against the background of ... the Antichrist"^[33] was instrumental in spreading rumours of torture in his famous Book of Martyrs, claiming that More had often personally used violence or torture while interrogating heretics: more current Protestant authors, such as the amateur historians Brian Moynahan and Michael Farris, continue to cite Foxe as a source when repeating these allegations in their own respective works.^[34] More himself, however, took pains to refute these charges, as recounted by British historian Peter Ackroyd in his biography The Life of Thomas More:

As Ackroyd surmises, since More rejected the rumoured reports of torture as false, 'so helpe me God': "He was not a man falsely to invoke the deity and it can be believed that the heretics whom he detained and interrogated suffered 'neur . . . so mych as a fylyppe on the forhed.'" ^[35] Ackroyd, however, notes that More "approved of Burning"^[36] For example, after the case of John Tewkesbury, a London leather-seller found guilty by More of harboring banned books, and who was sentenced to be burnt to death at the stake for refusing to recant, More declared: he "burned as there was neuer wretche I wene better worthy."^[37] In total, there were six heretics burned at the stake during More's Chancellorship: Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbery, Thomas Dusgate, and James Bainham.^[38] Burning at the stake was considered a standard punishment for unrepentant heretics at the time, accepted even by more moderate people like Erasmus and many Protestants — about thirty burnings had taken place in the century leading to More's elevation to Lord Chancellor.^[39]

Historians have been long divided over More's religious actions as Chancellor. While respected historians such as Ackroyd have taken a relatively tolerant view of More's campaign against Protestantism by placing his actions within the turbulent religious climate of the time, other eminent historians, such as Richard Marius, have been more critical, believing that such persecutions were a betrayal of More's earlier Humanist convictions. As Marius writes in his biography of More, "To stand before a man at an inquisition, knowing that he will rejoice when we die, knowing that he will commit us to the stake and its horrors without a moment's hesitation or remorse if we do not satisfy him, is not an experience much less cruel because our inquisitor does not whip us or rack us or shout at us."^[40]

Resignation

In 1530 More refused to sign a letter by the leading English churchmen and aristocrats asking the Pope to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine; he also quarrelled with Henry VIII over the heresy laws. In 1531 he attempted to resign after being forced to take an oath declaring the king the Supreme Head of the English Church "as far as the law of Christ allows"; he refused to take the oath in the form in which it would renounce all claims of jurisdiction over the church except the sovereign's. In 1532 he asked the king again to relieve him of his office, claiming that he was ill and suffering from sharp chest pains. This time Henry granted his request.

Trial and execution

Rowland Lockey after Hans Holbein the Younger, The Family of Sir Thomas More, c. 1594

In 1533, More refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn as the Queen of England. Technically, this was not an act of treason, as More had written to Henry acknowledging Anne's queenship and expressing his desire for the king's happiness and the new queen's health.^[41] 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 patently false charges had to be dismissed for lack of any evidence. In early 1534, More was accused of conspiring with the "holy maid of Kent," Elizabeth Barton, a nun who had prophesied against the king's annulment, but More quickly produced a letter in which he had instructed Barton not to interfere with state matters.

On April 13, 1534, More was asked to appear before a commission and swear his allegiance to the parliamentary Act of Succession. More accepted Parliament's right to declare Anne Boleyn the legitimate queen of England, but he steadfastly refused to take the oath of supremacy because of an anti-papal preface to the Act asserting Parliament's authority to legislate in matters of religion by impugning the authority of the Pope, which More would not accept; he also would not swear to uphold Henry's divorce from Catherine. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, refused the oath along with More. The oath reads:

... 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;^[42]

Four days later More was imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he prepared a devotional, Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation. While More was imprisoned in the Tower, he had a few visits from Thomas Cromwell who urged More to take the oath, but More persistently refused to do so.

On July 1, 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. He was charged with high treason for denying the validity of the Act of Succession. More believed he could not be convicted as long as he did not explicitly deny that the king was the head of the church, and he therefore refused to answer all questions regarding his opinions on the subject. Thomas Cromwell, at the time the most powerful of the king's advisors, brought forth the Solicitor General, Richard Rich, to testify that More had, in his presence, denied that the king was the legitimate head of the church. This testimony was almost certainly perjured (witnesses Richard Southwell and Mr. Palmer both denied having heard the details of the reported conversation), but on the strength of it the jury voted for More's conviction.

More was tried, and found guilty, under the following section of the Treason Act 1534:

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. ^[43]

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". 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 July 6, 1535. When he came to mount the steps to the scaffold, he is widely quoted as saying (to the officials): "I pray you, I pray you, Mr Lieutenant, see me safe up and for my coming down, I can shift for myself"; while on the scaffold he declared that he died "the king's good servant, but God's first."^[44] Another comment he 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.^[45] More asked that his foster daughter Margaret Giggs be given his headless corpse to bury.^[46] He was buried at the Tower of London, in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in an unmarked grave. His head was fixed upon a pike over London Bridge for a month, according to the normal custom for traitors. His daughter Margaret (Meg) Roper then rescued it, possibly by bribery, before it could be thrown in the River Thames.

The skull is believed to rest in the Roper Vault of St. Dunstan's Church, Canterbury, though some researchers have claimed it might be within the tomb he erected for himself in Chelsea Old Church (see below). The evidence, however, seems to be in favour of its placement in St. Dunstan's, with the remains of his daughter, Margaret Roper, and her husband's family, whose vault it was. Margaret would have treasured this relic of her adored father, and legend is that she wished to be buried herself with his head in her arms.

In addition to writing in defense of the Church of Rome, More also wrote about the more spiritual aspects of religion. This is how he wrote Treatise on the Passion (Treatise on the Passion of Christ), Treatise on the Blessed Body (Holy Body Treaty), Instructions and Prayers o Tristia Christi (The Agony of Christ) the latter of which reads his own hand in the Tower of London at the time he was confined before his beheading on July 6, 1535. This last manuscript, saved from the confiscation decreed by Henry VIII, passed by the will of his daughter Margaret to Spanish hands and through Fray Pedro de Soto, confessor of Emperor Charles V, went to Valencia, home of Luis Vives, a close friend of More. Now kept in the collection of Real Colegio Seminario del Corpus Christi Museum in Valencia, Spain.

Canonisation

Statue of Thomas More by Leslie Cubitt Bevis in front of Chelsea Old Church, Cheyne Walk, London.

More was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886 and canonised, with John Fisher, on 19 May 1935 by Pope Pius XI. His name was added to the Roman Catholic calendar of saints in 1970 for celebration on 22 June jointly with Fisher, the only remaining Bishop (owing to the coincident natural deaths of eight aged bishops) who, during the English Reformation, maintained, at the King's mercy, allegiance to the Pope.^[47] In 2000, Pope John Paul II declared More the "heavenly patron of statesmen and politicians".^[48] In 1980, More was added to the Anglican calendar of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church, jointly with John Fisher, More is commemorated on 6 July.^[49]

Influence and reputation

The steadfastness and courage with which More held on to his religious convictions in the face of ruin and death and the dignity with which he conducted himself during his imprisonment, trial, and execution, contributed much to More's posthumous reputation, particularly among Catholics.

More's conviction for treason was widely seen as unfair, even among some Protestants. His friend Erasmus, himself no Protestant, but broadly sympathetic to reform movements within the Catholic Church, declared after his execution that More had been "more pure than any snow" and that his genius was "such as England never had and never again will have." When he knew of the execution, Emperor Charles V said: "Had we been master of such a servant, we would rather have lost the best city of our dominions then such a worthy councillor."

More was greatly admired by Anglican writers Jonathan Swift and Samuel Johnson. Johnson said that ""He was the person of the greatest virtue these islands ever produced".

Winston Churchill wrote about More in the History of the English-Speaking Peoples: "The resistance of More and Fisher to the royal supremacy in Church government was a noble and heroic stand. They realized the defects of the existing Catholic system, but they hated and feared the aggressive nationalism which was destroying the unity of Christendom. [...] More stood as the defender of all that was finest in the medieval outlook. He represents to history its universality, its belief in spiritual values and its instinctive sense of other-worldliness. Henry VIII with cruel axe decapitated not only a wise and gifted counselor, but a system, which, though it had failed to live up to its ideals in practice, had for long furnished mankind with its brightest dreams."

Roman Catholic writer G. K. Chesterton said that More was the "greatest historical character in English history".

Popular culture

More was portrayed as a wise and honest statesman in the 1592 play Sir Thomas More, which was probably written in collaboration by Henry Chettle, Anthony Munday, William Shakespeare, and others, and which survives only in fragmentary form after being censored by Edmund Tylney, Master of the Revels in the government of Queen Elizabeth I (any direct reference to the Act of Supremacy was censored out).

As the author of Utopia, More has also attracted the admiration of modern socialists. While Roman Catholic scholars maintain that More's attitude in composing Utopia was largely ironic and that he was at every point an orthodox Christian, Marxist theoretician Karl Kautsky argued in the book Thomas More and his Utopia (1888) that Utopia was a shrewd critique of economic and social exploitation in pre-modern Europe and that More was one of the key intellectual figures in the early development of socialist ideas.

The 20th-century agnostic playwright Robert Bolt portrayed More as the ultimate man of conscience in his play A Man for All Seasons, the title drawn from what Robert Whittington in 1520 wrote of him:

"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."^[50]

In 1966, the play was made into the successful film A Man for All Seasons directed by Fred Zinnemann, adapted for the screen by the playwright himself, and starring Paul Scofield in an Oscar-winning performance. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture for that year. In 1988, Charlton Heston starred and directed in a made-for-television film that followed Bolt's original play almost verbatim, restoring for example the commentaries of "the common man".

Catholic science fiction writer R. A. Lafferty wrote his novel Past Master as a modern equivalent to More's Utopia, which he saw as a satire. In this novel, Thomas More is brought through time to the year 2535, where he is made king of the future world of "Astrobe", only to be beheaded after ruling for a mere nine days. One of the characters in the novel 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 King Henry, portrays More as an idealist bound to fail in the power struggle with a ruthless ruler and an unjust world.

A number of modern historians and writers, mostly Protestants or from Protestant backgrounds, such as Richard Marius, have attacked More for alleged religious fanaticism and intolerance (manifested, for instance, in his persecution of heretics). The historian Jasper Ridley, author of several historical biographies including one on Henry VIII and the other on Mary Tudor, goes much further in his dual biography of More and Cardinal Wolsey, The Statesman and the Fanatic, describing More as "a particularly nasty sadomasochistic pervert," a line of thinking also followed by the late Joanna Denny in her 2004 biography of Anne Boleyn. Brian Moynahan in his book "God's Messenger: William Tyndale, Thomas More and the Writing of the English Bible", takes a similarly critical view of More, as does the American writer, Michael Farris. The novelist Hilary Mantel portrays More as a religious and masochistic fanatic in her 2009 novel Wolf Hall, which is written from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell, whom it portrays favorably. Literary critic James Wood calls him, "cruel in punishment, evasive in argument, lusty for power, and repressive in politics".^[51]

Aaron Zelman's non-fiction book "The State Versus the People" includes a comparison of "Utopia" with Plato's "Republic". Zelman is undecided as to whether More was being humorous towards his work or seriously advocating a nation-state, and comments that "More is the only Christian saint to be honoured with a statue at the Kremlin", implying that his work had influenced on the Soviet Union, despite its general antipathy towards organized religion.

Other biographers, such as Peter Ackroyd, have offered a more sympathetic picture of More as both a sophisticated humanist and man of letters, as well as a zealous Roman Catholic who believed in the necessity of religious and political authority.

The protagonist of Walker Percy's novels, Love in the Ruins and The Thanatos Syndrome, is Dr. Thomas More, a reluctant Catholic and descendant of Sir Thomas More.

More is the focus of the Al Stewart song A Man For All Seasons from the 1978 album Time Passages, and of the Far song Sir, featured on the limited editions and 2008 re-release of their 1994 album Quick.

Jeremy Northam portrays More in the television series The Tudors, where he is shown as a peaceful man, a devout Catholic and family head who unabashedly expresses his loathing for Lutheranism. On the order of King Henry VIII, More commissions the burning of Martin Luther's books. He is later shown exercising his new power as chancellor by burning convicted heretics. The series also shows him engaging in the conversation that Richard Rich testified as having taken place, regarding the king's status as Head of the Church in England, despite it being widely believed that this testimony was perjured.

The opera The Passion of Saint Thomas More, written by composer Garrett Fisher, is available on BIS Records (Sweden).

Institutions named after Thomas More

There are many legal and educational institutions named Thomas More:

• The Thomas More Law Center is a legal aid organization that provides law services for those arguing conservative-aligned issues, especially those dealing with religious liberty and expression.
• Magdalen College School, Oxford's Catholic society is named the St Thomas More Society.
• The Cathedral of Saint Thomas More is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington, which comprises Northern Virginia.
• The Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Tallahassee, Florida, serves the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee and in particular the Catholic community at Florida State University.
• The Thomas More Building at the Royal Courts of Justice in The Strand, London, is an 11 storey office block built in January 1990 containing the courts of the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice. These are known as the Thomas More Courts.
• St. Thomas More College, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, a federated college of the University of Saskatchewan
• Thomas More College, Crestview Hills, Kentucky
• Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, Merrimack, New Hampshire
• The College of Saint Thomas More, Fort Worth, Texas
• St. Thomas More Catholic College, Stoke-on-Trent, England.
• St. Thomas More Primary School, Belgrave, Victoria, Australia.

There are various St. Thomas More Societies for Catholic lawyers.

A rural community hospital in Canon City, Colorado named St. Thomas More Hospital (http://www.stmhospital.org/) The Rule of Benedict directs: "Let care be given the sick, that they may be served as Christ." This was the call the Benedictine Sisters of Yankton, South Dakota heeded when they came Cañon City, Colorado more than 60 years ago. They named the hospital "Thomas More Hospital" in honor of the English martyr who lived according to the teachings of his faith. In 1942, it was renamed Saint Thomas More Hospital.

Historic sites

Westminster Hall

Visitors to the Houses of Parliament at the Palace of Westminster in London will notice a plaque in the middle of the floor of Westminster Hall commemorating More's trial for treason and condemnation to execution in that original part of the Palace. This building would have been well known to More, who served as Speaker of the House of Commons prior to becoming Lord Chancellor of England.

Crosby Hall

More's home and estate along the Thames in Chelsea was confiscated by the Crown from his wife Alice after his execution. But in later times Crosby Hall, which formed part of More's London residence, was relocated to the site in his commemoration and reconstructed there by the conservation architect, Walter Godfrey. Today after further rebuilding in the 1990s it stands out as a white stone building amid modern brick structures that apparently aim to recapture the style of More's manor that formerly occupied the site. Crosby Hall is privately owned and closed to the public. The modern structures face the Thames and include an entry way that displays More's arms, heraldic beasts, and a Latin maxim. Apartment buildings and a park are built over the former locations of his gardens and orchard, and some are named after their former functions: Roper's Garden is the park occupying one of More's gardens, sunken as his was believed to be. Other than these, there are no remnants of the More estate.

Chelsea Old Church

This small park sits between Crosby Hall and Chelsea Old Church, an Anglican church on Old Church Street whose southern chapel was commissioned by More and in which he sang with his parish choir. The medieval arch connecting the chapel to the main sanctuary was commissioned by More and displays on its capitals symbols associated with his person and office. On the southern wall of the sanctuary is the tomb and epitaph he erected for himself and his wives, detailing in a lengthy Latin inscription his ancestry and accomplishments, including his role as peacemaker between the Christian nations of Europe and a curiously altered portion detailing his curbing of heresy. This tomb was probably located here because it was his custom to assist the priest at Mass and 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. Except for his chapel, the church was largely destroyed in the Second World War and was rebuilt in 1958. It is open to the public only at specific times. Outside the church is a statue commemorating him as "saint", "scholar", and "statesman", the back of which displays his coat-of-arms. In the same neighborhood, on Upper Cheyne Row, is the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Saviour and St. Thomas More, which honours him according to the Church he defended with his life.

Tower Hill

More was executed on a scaffold erected on Tower Hill, London, just outside the Tower of London. A plaque and small garden commemorate the famed execution site and all those who were executed there, many as religious martyrs or as prisoners of conscience. His body, minus his head, was unceremoniously buried in an unmarked grave in the Royal Chapel of St. Peter Ad Vincula, within the walls of the Tower of London. It was the custom for traitors executed at Tower Hill to be buried in the mass grave beneath this chapel, which is accessible to visitors to the Tower.

St Dunstan's Church, Canterbury

St Dunstan's Church, an Anglican parish church in Canterbury, possesses More's head, rescued by his beloved daughter Margaret Roper. This is sealed in the Roper family vault beneath the altar of the Nicholas Chapel, to the right of the church's sanctuary or main altar. The stone marking the sealed vault is to the immediate left of the altar below which it lies. St Dunstan's Church has carefully investigated, preserved and sealed this burial vault of the Roper family who lived in Canterbury. The last archaeological investigation of the Roper Vault revealed that the suspected head of More rests in a niche separate from the other bodies there, possibly due to later interference. A few displays in the chapel record the archaeological findings in written accounts and pictures. The walls of the chapel are host to impressive stained glass donated by Roman Catholics to commemorate the events in More's life. Down and across the street from the parish the facade of the former home of Margaret Roper and her husband William Roper survives and is marked by a small plaque.

Other relics

Our Lady Queen of Martyrs and St Ignatius Catholic Church in Chideock, Dorset is said to have the relic of his hairskin shirt frequently worn by him as a form of penance and a reminder of humility underneath his robes of state. Other small relics of the saint are known in Catholic churches, such as St Thomas of Canterbury's in Canterbury, the Tyburn Convent in London and (in the United States) the Cathedral of St Thomas More, in Arlington, Virginia.

See also

• English Reformation

Works

NOTE: The reference “CW” is to the relevant volume of the Yale Edition of the Complete Works of St. Thomas More (New Haven and London 1963-1997)

Published during More’s life (with dates of publication)

• A Merry Jest (c. 1516) (CW 1)
• Utopia (1516) (CW 4)
• Latin Poems (1518, 1520) (CW 3, Pt.2)
• Letter to Brixius (1520) (CW 3, Pt. 2, App C)
• Responsio ad Lutherum (1523) (CW 5)
• A Dialogue Concerning Heresies (1529, 1530) (CW 6)
• Supplication of Souls (1529) (CW 7)
• Letter Against Frith (1532) (CW 7)
• The Confutation of Tyndale's Answer (1532, 1533) (CW 8)
• Apology (1533) (CW 9)
• Debellation of Salem and Bizance (1533) (CW 10)
• The Answer to a Poisoned Book (1533) (CW 11)

Published after More’s death (with likely dates of composition)

• The History of King Richard III (c. 1513-1518) (CW 2 & 15)
• The Four Last Things (c. 1522) (CW 1)
• A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation (1534) (CW 12)
• Treatise Upon the Passion (1534) (CW 13)
• Treatise on the Blessed Body (1535) (CW 13)
• Instructions and Prayers (1535) (CW 13)
• De Tristitia Christi (1535) (CW 14)

Translations

• Translations of Lucian (many dates 1506-1534) (CW 3, Pt.1)
• The Life of Pico della Mirandola (c. 1510) (CW 1)

Notes

Biographies

• William Roper, "The Life of Sir Thomas More" (written by More's son-in-law ca. 1555, but first printed in 1626)
• Cresacre More, The life and death of Sir Thomas More, Lord High Chancellour of England (written by his great-grandson), 1630
• Princesse de Craon, Thomas Morus, Lord Chancelier du Royaume d'Angleterre au XVIe siècle (First edition in French, 1832/1833 - First edition in Dutch 1839/1840)
• E.E. Reynolds, The Trialet of St Thomas More, (1964)
• E.E. Reynolds, Thomas More and Erasmus, (1965)
• John Guy The Public Career of Sir Thomas More (1980) ISBN 978-0300025460
• Jasper Ridley, Statesman and Saint: Cardinal Wolsey, Sir Thomas More, and the Politics of Henry VIII (1983) ISBN 0-670-48905-0; published in Great Britain as The Statesman and the Fanatic (1982)
• Richard Marius, Thomas More: A Biography (1984)
• Gerard Wegemer, Thomas More: A Portrait of Courage (1995) ISBN 978-1889334127
• Peter Ackroyd, The Life of Thomas More (1999)
• John Guy, Thomas More (2000) ISBN 978-0340731383
• John Foxe, Foxe's Book of Martyrs
• Brian Moynahan "God's Messenger: William Tyndale, Thomas More and the Writing of the English Bible" (St Martin's Press, 2003).
• John Guy, "A Daughter's Love: Thomas More and his daughter Meg," 2009
• Bernard Basset, S.J., "Born for Friendship: The Spirit of Sir Thomas More," Burns and Oates, London 1965
• Charles A. Brady, "Stage of Fools: A Novel of Sir Thomas More," Dutton 1953

External links

• Thomas More Chambers - The Chambers of Mr Geoffrey Cox QC, MP.
• Thomas More Studies database: contains several of More's English works, including dialogues, early poetry and letters, as well as journal articles and biographical material
• Works by Thomas More at Project Gutenberg
• Sir Thomas More, or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society at Project Gutenberg
• Sir Thomas More by William Shakespeare (spurious and doubtful works) at Project Gutenberg
• Sir Thomas More: A Man for One Season, essay by James Wood. Presents a critical view of More's religious intolerance
• More and The History of Richard III
• Thomas More and his Utopia by Karl Kautsky
• Thomas More and Utopias - a learning resource from the British Library
• Integrity and Conscience in the Life and Thought of Thomas More by Professor Gerald Wegemer
•  "St. Thomas More". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 
• Works by or about Thomas More in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• body and head of Thomas More at Find A Grave
• Patron Saints Index entry - Saint Thomas More biography, prayers, quotes, Catholc devotions to him.
• Trial of Sir Thomas More at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Law

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