SIR THOMAS MORE

Thomas More was born into an affluent, well-connected City of London family that was ascending socially. His father was a lawyer who became a judge and then a member of the king's council. Young More was academically and socially precocious. He studied law but also developed a considerable intellectual hinterland and became a leading humanist scholar.¹ His early literary compositions included A History of Richard III (1513), which was in essence a study of tyranny. He represented the Mercers Company in various legal concerns and developed expertise in matters of international trade. He came to the notice of the uppermost levels of the government and was recruited to act on the state's behalf in several diplomatic negotiations.

In his early twenties, More became an intimate friend of the Dutch humanist theologian and author Desiderius Erasmus. In 1515 the young lawyer was sent to Bruges to negotiate an international treaty. There was a lull during the talks. He used this time to visit an associate of the scholar who was working in Antwerp. While there, the Englishman conceived of the idea for a book.

In Utopia (1516), the character of More is in the West Flanders city. There, he encounters Hythlody, a traveller who has returned from a recently discovered land, who tells him about it. The book was written in Latin. This enabled it to become a pan-European sensation. The text made clear that More understood that state service could potentially involve having to compromise humanist ideals and that in order to retain one's greater virtue it might be necessary to engage in subtle strategies when dealing with political realities. However, the work was essentially optimistic. It argued that it was possible to be virtuous.

More was appointed to be a member of King Henry VIII's council in 1518. He became one of Cardinal Wolsey's most trusted lieutenants. The archbishop promoted the lawyer's interests within the monarch's service.

Participation in the state's uppermost ranks was fraught with dangers when the monarch was as capriciously-inclined as Henry was. Three years later the 3^rd Duke of Buckingham was executed. His grace's principal crime appears to have been to make a number of imprudent comments. For the counsellor, this development would have had echoes of the despotism of Richard III's reign.

In the mid-1520s Protestantism began to establish a presence in England. The University of Cambridge became one of its homes. Copies of William Tyndale s translation of The New Testament started to be smuggled into the country. More committed himself to trying to suppress what he took to be a heresy. In this line of action there was a secular element. It was apparent that Germany was suffering severely from the military conflict that was being waged between the Protestant princes and the Catholic Emperor Charles V.

Henry fell in love with Anne Boleyn. However, he was married to Queen Catherine of Aragon. He looked to Wolsey to secure him a divorce. International politics made it highly improbable that the king would be granted his wish by The Vatican. This was because the queen's nephew was the emperor. The cardinal was unable to secure what the monarch desired. He fell from power. Henry appointed More to be his new Lord Chancellor. The commoner informed the sovereign that it would be against his conscience to try to secure the marriage's annulment. The monarch accepted that his servant held this stance.

Protestantism started to make major inroads at court, in the Church itself, and amongst England's ruling classes. When Parliament met in 1529, it soon became apparent that the legislature desired that it should improve the condition of the Church. Henry was receptive to this development. More was not. As a result, he lost much of his influence within the king s counsels. The minister devoted energy to trying to quash the reformist movement. Despite his humanist background, he was prepared to use the state's most repressive powers to do so.

A new attitude coalesced within the court. A religo-political agenda that More disliked was fostered. Those who were associated with promoting it included Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, Thomas Cromwell, and the Earl of Wiltshire, who was Anne Boleyn's father. Henry was open to the changes that these men advocated. In 1531 the king informed Parliament that he was going to end Rome s authority over England. The legislature was receptive to this development.

More found himself presenting opinions to the assembly that had been generated by the prelate in order to justify the proposed divorce. The chancellor appears to have given serious thought to resigning from his office. However, he chose not to take this line of action. He seems to have opted to remain near to power and to try to mount rearguard actions both to forestall the divorce and to preserve the church in the form to which he was devoted. Events moved inexorably on. Therefore, the following year More stood down from the Lord Chancellorship. This action was taken to be an adverse criticism of what had been occurring. It ended his good relations with the monarch, who was to become increasingly hostile towards him.

As a private citizen, More continued to oppose Protestantism. He wrote a series of works that made plain his antagonism towards its doctrines. In 1533 Cranmer declared that Henry and Catherine's marriage was void. This made it possible for Boleyn to become queen. More declined to attend her coronation. The following year the vehemence of the king's antipathy towards him became apparent when the sovereign tried to have the former minister's name inserted into a Bill of Attainder. The monarch's counsellors pointed out to him that doing so would probably make it much harder to secure the measure's passage through Parliament than it would if the former Chancellor was not one of the item's provisions. Therefore, it was not included in them. It was also contended that if More could be persuaded to endorse the recent changes such would help to embed them. A sustained effort was made to try to induce the man to change his beliefs. He resisted all of the arguments that were addressed to him to do so. An element of light-heartedness was evident in some of his responses to them.

More appreciated how distant he had become from the prevailing ethos within the state. However, he does not appear to have promoted his own persecution; he did not seek martyrdom. He signalled to Cromwell that he was prepared to become mute.

The Act of Succession To The Crown contained an oath that both recognised as valid the marriage of Henry and Anne and declared that their future offspring would be the king's rightful heirs. The formulation contained a rejection of papal authority. In spring 1534 More was required to swear it. He refused to do so. As a result, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. There he continued to write. During the summer of the following year he was put on trial for high treason. A jury convicted him. He was sentenced to be executed. His having served as Lord Chancellor led to his being granted the courtesy of being beheaded. His death was an event that was noted across Europe.²

In 1935 the Roman Catholic Church declared More to be a saint. In 2000 Pope John Paul II declared that the statesman had become the patron saint of politicians.

Location: Danvers Street, SW3 5AN. (More acquired a riverside property. There, he was visited by figures such as Erasmus and the painter Hans Holbein. The king was given to calling upon him without giving prior warning. The property became Beaufort House.) (purple, red)

¹. More was to be someone who believed that his daughters should be educated as well as his son.

². The poet John Donne (d.1631) was a great-great-grandnephew of More. He converted to Anglicanism and rose within the Church of England to become the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral.

David Backhouse 2024