Thomas More

Sir Thomas More.

Thomas More (February 7, 1478—July 6, 1535) was briefly Lord Chancellor of England under King Henry VIII and had a European reputation as a humanist author. His most famous work is Utopia (circa 1516) in which he created an imaginary island-kingdom in which some modern scholars have seen an idealized opposite of More's contemporary Europe and in which other modern scholars have seen a wicked satire of the same Europe. One of the features of More's works is that they often use a trope of either an assumed authorial voice (as in the Dialogue of Comfort, ostensibly a conversation between an uncle and nephew) or are highly stylised or both. This, together with a lack of clear direction from More as to his own views - for reasons which will become obvious - means that it is possible to argue practically any view of any of his works.

More was born in London, England. He was attached to Henry's court by 1520 and knighted in 1521. His career as a lawyer is celebrated despite the fact that no evidence of any case he undertook survives. As a scholar he was initially a humanist in the most commonly accepted sense of the phrase. He was great friends with Desiderius Erasmus who dedicated his In Praise of Folly to More — the word "folly" is moria in Greek. Later relations between the two became strained as More was committed to religious orthodoxy while Erasmus sought to test what he saw as entrenched fallacies of Catholic doctrine. More was the author of several lengthy — and at times vicious — treatises attacking religious 'reformers' as diverse as William Tyndale, Christopher St. German, Martin Luther and indeed anyone else who happened to question any area of church doctrine whether it be spiritual (as in the ability of the clergy to remit sin) or temporal, as in the primacy of canon law over common law.

His Chancellorship (1529-32) was distinguished by very little except his persistent pursuit of heretics and their works. The great paradox of More's life being that a man who is regarded today as a libertarian and freethinker was at the same time (as being arguably both) an advocate of rigid religious authority.

Henry VIII's divorce

Thomas Cardinal Wolsey, Archbishop of York, failed to bring about the divorce and annulment Henry had sought and was forced to resign in 1529. More was appointed chancellor in his place, Henry evidently not realizing More's resistance to the matter. Being well-educated in canon law as well as deeply religious - to the point of practising self-scourging - More regarded the annulment of sacramental marriage as a matter within the jurisdiction of the Papacy, and the position of Pope Clement VII was clearly against the divorce.

Henry's reaction was to put himself in charge of the church in England. Only the clergy were required to take the initial Oath of Supremacy declaring the sovereign to be the head of the church. More, as a layman, would not have been subject to this oath, but he resigned his chancellorship on May 16, 1532 rather than serve the new regime.

More escaped an initial attempt to connect him with a treasonous matter, but in 1534 Parliament passed the Act of Succession, which included an oath (1) acknowledging the legitimacy of any children born to Henry and Anne Boleyn, and (2) repudiating "any foreign authority, prince, or potentate." Like the Oath of Supremacy, this was not required of all people, but only those specifically summoned to take it, in other words, those in public office and those under suspicion of not supporting Henry. More was called to take this oath in April of 1535 and, on his refusal, imprisoned in the Tower of London where he continued to write. His policy was to maintain silence on the issue which, in law, could be considered assent without perjuring himself. When this gambit failed he was tried, convicted, and sentenced and then executed on Tower Hill on July 6th. His last words were "I die the king's good servant, but God's first". His head was displayed on London Bridge for a month, then retrieved (after the payment of a bribe) by his daughter, Margaret Roper.

More was canonised as a saint of the Catholic Church in 1935. His feast day is June 22. In 2000, Saint Thomas More was declared "The heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians" by Pope John Paul II. See http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/stt04003.htm.

Much has been made by Ricardians of More's manuscripts of his History of Richard III, from which much anti-Richard propaganda derives, including Shakespeare's play. The work exists in several versions, in both English and Latin, all incomplete. It was not published during More's lifetime, but was found among his papers after his execution, some quarter of a century after it was written. Richard III is a work of history in the sense that it deals with past events at which More was not present. It is however a work of Tudor history (in the classical mould) meaning that it includes a considerable quantity of invented speeches from More's imagination and colourful and allegorical passages. Again, More's opinion of the text is unknown with the result that it has been regarded as a reliable historical source by Alison Weir, a parody by Alison Hanham, and "a literary exercise in the dramatic representation of villainy" by Jeremy Potter--the truth lies, no doubt, somewhere in between. Modern historians have debunked the claim that the text was in fact the work of Bishop John Morton (the man with a fork).

Biographies

Robert Bolt's play "A Man for All Seasons" is about Sir Thomas's losing battle against King Henry's determination to have an English national church that he could control. Two films have been made of that play: the 1966 Oscar winner starring Paul Scofield and a 1988 version starring Charlton Heston. Karl Zuchardt wrote a novel, tellingly called "Stirb Du Narr!" (Die you fool!) about More's struggle with King Henry, portraying More as a humanist idealist bound to fail in the power struggle with a ruthless ruler and an unjust world.

Good recent written biographies include those by Richard Marius and Peter Ackroyd.

Quotes

"...if honor were profitable, everybody would be honorable." (Quoted in [1] (http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20030610-094634-6214r.htm).)

"I die the king's good servant, but God's first." (More's Last Words)

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about Thomas More.

• More and The History of Richard III (http://www.richard111.com/sir_thomas_more.htm)
• Project Gutenberg e-text of Sir Thomas More's Utopia (http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=2130)

de:Thomas Morus es:Tomás Moro it:Tommaso Moro nl:Thomas More ja:トマス・モア pl:Tomasz Morus pt:Thomas More ru:Мор, Томас sv:Thomas More