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Sir Thomas More

Nickname/Alias: Saint Thomas More (canonized 19 May 1935; feast day 22 June)

Achievements: Eminent 16th-century writer, humanist and statesman.

Born: February 7, 1477; London, England

Died: July 6, 1535; London, England (Aged 58)

Field & Discipline: Politics; Statesman

Language: English; Latin

Education: St. Anthony's School, London (1485-89); Canterbury College (later

Christ Church), University of Oxford (1492-94)

Major Work:

“Utopia” (1516, English translation 1556)

Life & Times:

In 1494 More was sent by his father to New Inn at the Inns of Court in London, where he began his professional training in law. Two years later, in February 1496, he transferred to Lincoln's Inn, from where he was called to the bar in 1501. Alongside his legal studies, More continued his humanist education, reading the Bible, the Church Fathers, and the classics, and receiving lessons in Greek from Grocyn, now rector of St Lawrence Jewry.  He also began mixing with intellectuals and theologians such as Linacre, William Lily, and John Colet, the latter introducing him to the Dutch humanist [a pal of] Erasmus* in 1499. More and Erasmus quickly became close friends, and it was through him that More was drawn further into the larger circle of European humanist scholars.

Around 1500 he completed a translation into English of the life of the Italian humanist [translated bio of] della Mirandola*, written by Pico's nephew in 1498.  In 1509, the year Henry VIII came to the throne, More was admitted to the freedom of the Mercer's Company, and in September 1510 he was appointed an Under-sheriff of the City of London.  In 1511 he was elected one of the four governors of Lincoln's Inn, in 1514 as a Justice of the Peace, and in 1515 as both Reader at Lincoln's Inn and a member of the prestigious professional society Doctors' Commons.

In May 1515, More accompanied a delegation to Flanders with Cuthbert Tunstall, the future Bishop of London, in order to revise an Anglo-Flemish commercial treaty, and while he was abroad he began working on his literary masterpiece, “Utopia.”  This work, written in Latin and addressed to his humanist friends, is a fantasy describing a pagan and communist city-state on the “Isle of Nowhere,” a mythical island in the New World, which is ruled on the basis of absolute reason and justice, and in which all the evils of contemporary European society - in particular, its inequality of wealth - are attacked and its moral corruption revealed.  Among the topics discussed are penology, state-controlled education, religious pluralism, divorce, euthanasia, and women's rights, and the work, which displayed to the full More's learning, invention, and wit, was soon translated into several European languages (and into English in 1551), and was greeted with acclaim by humanists.

In 1517 he impressed Henry VIII by his successful handling of difficult negotiations with the French at Calais and Boulogne. In early 1518 Henry ordered that More become a Privy Councillor, and from October he was known as Master of the Court of Requests.  More rose quickly in the King's service;  in 1520 he was present with Henry at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, and in 1520-21 he took part in important negotiations with emperor [negotiated with] Charles V* and the Hansa merchants in Calais and Bruges.

In April 1523 More became Speaker of the House of Commons, in which capacity he made an eloquent plea for freedom of speech in Parliament, and in 1524 and 1525 he was named High Steward of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge respectively. In 1525 he was then promoted to Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, which placed a large portion of northern England under his judiciary and administrative control.  In 1527,  Henry first broached the question of his desire for a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, arguing that the marriage was void because she had originally been his brother's wife. Although More tried hard to accept the King's position, his studies confirmed his view that Catherine was the king's true wife. 

By 1529 the King's adviser, Wolsey found himself in disgrace on account of his failure to secure a divorce for the King and of his foreign policy, and he was dismissed in October 1529. A few days later, More reluctantly succeeded Wolsey as Lord Chancellor.  As Lord Chancellor, More carried out his legal duties with the utmost conscientiousness, integrity and honesty, although his judgements against heretics were frequently harsh. However, during the following two years his devotion to the Roman Catholic Church made him increasingly out of step with the King's determination to secure a divorce, and with the anti-clerical movement in Parliament, which was pushing for a national Parliament with the  power to overrule the spiritual supremacy of the Pope.

In 1531, More was obliged, as the King's mouthpiece, to proclaim the opinion (solicited by the Archbishop of Canterbury, [disagreed with] Cranmer*) of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge favourable to the divorce, but he refused to sign the letter of 1530 sent by the English nobles and priests to the Pope urging him to declare the King's marriage void.  Finding his position increasingly untenable, More tried to resign in February 1531, in response to the clergy's official acceptance of Henry as Supreme Head of the Church in England, but the King refused to accept his resignation until 6 May 1532 (the day the governing body of the church delivered to the crown the document by which they promised never to legislate or so much as convene without royal assent, thus effectively placing a layperson at the head of the spiritual order), when with great relief More relinquished his office.

In June 1533 he refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn, angering the King, and from this point the campaign against him began. In February 1534 an attempt was made to implicate More in the case against Elizabeth Barton, who had made prophecies against Henry's divorce, but the charge was dropped.  Then, on 13 April 1534 he was summoned to appear before royal commissioners at Lambeth to agree under oath to the Act of Succession (passed 30 March by Parliament), which declared the legal succession of the children of Anne Boleyn to the English throne.  More refused because he could not in conscience take an oath which questioned the pope's authority.

With More's refusal, Henry now had sufficient cause to arrest him for high treason and send him to the Tower of London. More remained in the Tower awaiting trial for over a year, during which time (despite episodes of torture) he consistently refused to recant and wrote his masterpiece, “A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation” (1534), and treatises on Christ's passion.  His trial took place on 1 July 1535 at Westminster Hall; although he defended himself well, he was convicted on the questionable evidence of the Solicitor General, Richard Rich, who testified that More had in his presence denied the King's title as Supreme Head of the Church of England. More was found guilty and sentenced to a traitor's death ("to be hanged, drawn and quartered"), subsequently changed by the King to beheading. He was executed at Tower Hill.

Extra Connections: He had a written argument with [had disputation with] Tyndale*

Assessment: Sir Thomas More was a 16th-century English scholar, humanist writer and statesman.

Oneliner: Sir Thomas More, Elizabethan humanist

Bibliography:

Wikipedia

Father: Sir John More

Mother: Agnes Granger

Siblings: Johanna (b. 1475); Agatha; Edward; John; Elizabeth (b. 1482)

Spouse: 1) Jane Colt (m. 1505, d. 1511); 2) Alice Middleton (m. 1511)

Children: By Colt: Margaret (b. 1505); Elizabeth (b. 1506); Cecily (b. 1507); John

(b. 1509). Alice (step-child). Margaret Giggs (foster child); John Clement (foster child)