I. THE LIFE OF SIR THOMAS MORE

Thomas More was born in London, February 7,
1478, the son of a lawyer in but moderate circum-
stances, who in 1517 became a judge in the Court of
Common Pleas and three years later was transferred
to the King's Bench. After he had attended a free
school in London, the boy, when about twelve, was
placed in the household of Cardinal Morton, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, as a page ; and at once made a
great impression on his patron. William Roper, who
became More's son-in-law, says in his Life of More:
"Though he was young of years, yet would he at
Christmas-tide suddenly sometimes step in among the
players, and, never studying for the matter, make a
part of his own there presently among them, which
made the lookers-on more sport than all the players
beside. In whose wit and towardness the Cardinal
much delighting, would often say of him unto the
nobles that divers times dined with him, < This child
here waiting at the table, whosoever shall live to see it,

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will prove a marvellous man.' " The feeling of More
towards his patron is shown in the eulogy that he
goes somewhat out of his way to introduce into the
Utopia (31 and 32).

That the boy's natural abilities might be developed
by education, the cardinal sent him, about 1492, to
one of the colleges of Oxford. Here he remained two
years, devoting himself to Latin, the newly introduced
Greek, history, mathematics, and music. Young as
he was, he became known as one of the foremost
champions of "the New Learning."

As More's father wished him to follow his own
profession, he withdrew him from the university when
he was about sixteen and entered him as a student
in one of the legal associations of London. After
studying equity for two years at New Inn, an " inn of
chancery," he entered Lincoln's Inn, an " inn of court,"
for the study of the common law. So able and dili-
gent was he that erelong he was appointed reader on
law at one of the inns of chancery, and as such gave
so great satisfaction that the appointment was renewed
" three years or more."

Notwithstanding his success, More was not, how-
ever, whole-heartedly devoted to his profession; but
had a great longing for the "religious," even the

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monastic, life. At one of the London churches he
delivered a series of lectures on St. Augustine's City
of God, to which "all the chief learned of the city of
London " resorted ; and for about four years he " gave
himself to devotion and prayer" among the Carthu-
sian monks in the Charterhouse, subjecting himself,
though without a vow, to their austerities, fasting,
wearing a hair shirt next his skin (a practice he never
entirely gave up), and even scourging himself. Find-
ing, however, that his longing for a family life was too
great to be overcome, he gave up all thought of becom-
ing a monk, a Franciscan friar, or a priest; and de-
voted himself unreservedly to his profession.

Meanwhile, about 1498, he met the great Dutch
scholar Erasmus, and a warm and enduring friendship
grew up between them. "They were united," writes
Guthkelch, " not only by their love of classical litera-
ture, but also by the likeness of their characters —
their love of truth, their hatred of all shams and
hypocrisies, their kindliness; above all, perhaps, by
the possession of that kind of humor which pierces to
the reality lying beneath the pomps and shows of the
world." This friendship with Erasmus, who was
thirteen years his senior and already had a European
reputation as a scholar and writer, was of the greatest

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possible benefit to More in developing his genius and I
determining the character of his work.

In 1504 More became a member of Parliament, and
at once made his influence felt. Henry VII. had asked
for certain grants in connection with the marriage of |
his daughter to the King of Scotland that to More
seemed excessive ; he therefore led the opposition and
succeeded in having the amount granted cut down to
but a little over a quarter of that asked for. " He is
the first person in our history," writes Sir James
Mackintosh, " distinguished by the faculty of public i
speaking." Great was the king's amazement on hear-
ing that his ministers had been outwitted and his |
expectations disappointed by a beardless boy, and so
sore was his displeasure that More found it prudent
to retire to private life. I

In the spring of 1505 More married Jane, or Joan,
Colt, the daughter of a gentleman of Essex. Erasmus,
who later in the year was again in England and was
for some time a guest in More's home, writes that, as
she was a country-bred girl, " he took care to have her
instructed in learning, and especially in all musical
accomplishments, and had made her such that he
could have willingly passed his whole life with her,
but a premature death separated them." During their

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five years of happy married life she gave More three
daughters and a son.

While Erasmus was More's guest, the two friends
utilized their leisure by translating from* Greek into
Latin some of the dialogues of Lucian, the second-cen-
tury satirist (cf. note on 152 : 7), More selecting as his
share the Cynicus, Menippus, and Philopseudes ; a
work which was published in 1506. On a third visit to
England, in 1508, Erasmus, while again More's guest,
composed in his home what became his most famous
work, The Praise of Folly, the Latin title of which,
Encomium Morice, has an intentional joke on the name
of his host. In the same year, 1508, More made his
first visit to the Continent. Nothing is known concern-
ing it save his statement that he visited the universi-
ties of Paris and Louvain and took pains to ascertain
what was taught in them and by what methods.

The year 1510 was a noteworthy one in More's life :
his first wife died and he married again, his second
wife being Alice Middleton, a widow some years older
than himself ; he published a translation of a Life of
John Picus, Earl of Mirandola, with letters and other
writings by that famous scholar of the Italian Renais-
sance ; and he was made under-sheriff of London, an
office that required him once a week to act as judge

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in civil cases. He had won great fame as an able, up-
right lawyer, who would plead no cause that he con-
sidered unjust and took no fees from widows, orphans,
or the poor< he soon gave no less satisfaction and won
no less renown as a judge than he had attained as a
barrister. Roper states that there was no important
case in which he was not engaged, and that by his
private practice and his official position he made not
less than £400 a year, which at the present time
would equal an income of nearly $25,000.

In 1513 More composed his History of Richard IIL,
which he did not complete and which was not published
until long after his death. He wrote it not only in
Latin but also in English, and thus became " the first
Englishman who wrote the history of his country in
its present language."

Naturally Henry VIII., who succeeded his father
in 1509, wished to have such an able and popular law-
yer in his service. Loath to give up his freedom, More
refused to be tempted ; but later circumstances forced
him to yield. Trouble that had arisen between the
London merchants and the association of foreign mer-
chants there resident made necessary a meeting between
representatives of the King of England and those of
the Archduke of Flanders, and the Londoners asked

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that More be appointed one of the English embassy
of five. The king consented, and on May 12, 1515,
More left his native country for the second time.

Owing to hitches in the negotiations, they lasted
much longer than was expected. More was abroad
over six months ; and during his enforced leisure he
wrote, at Antwerp, a great part, if not the whole, of
the second part of the Utopia,

The English ambassadors returned home crowned
with success, and for his part therein More was re-
warded with a pension of £100 a year for life. The
ability in diplomacy that he had shown led to his ap-
pointment on another embassy in 1517, when, with
two others, he was sent to Calais to settle some dis-
putes with the French that had arisen. Shortly after
this occurred the incident that led to his definitely giv-
ing up his private practice and entering the king's ser-
vice. A ship that belonged to the Pope was obliged
to put into Southampton, and was claimed by the king
as forfeited. The papal legate demanded, however,
that the case be tried, and asked the services of a
skilled English lawyer. More was appointed to rep-
resent him, and so ably did he present his case and
so convincingly did he argue that it was decided in
his favor. Henry was thereupon more determined

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than ever to have him in his service, and would not
be denied. Though he made a considerable pecuniary
sacrifice by so doing, More was obliged to yield ; and
early in 1518 became the king's Master of Requests,
and in the summer of the same year arprivy councillor.

As a courtier More was no less honorable than he had
been as a lawyer and as a judge, refusing all gifts for
his influence and decisions. " Happy the common-
wealth," wrote Erasmus, " where kings appoint such
officials ! * * * You would say that he had been ap-
pointed the public guardian of all those in need."

Henry, though in 1518 a man of twenty-seven, as yet
gave little indication of what he was later to become ;
but was, More writes, a prince " so affable and courteous
to all men that each one thinks himself his favorite."
For the forty-year-old More he had a liking that proved
embarrassing to his councillor. So charmed was he
by his character and conversation that he could hardly
bear him from his sight. At their supper the king
and queen commonly had him present to make them
mirth ; and at night and on holidays Henry discoursed
with him on geometry, astronomy, divinity, and such
weighty subjects. Hardly once in a month could More
get leave to absent himself from the court to visit his
family, nor could he be away two consecutive days

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without being sent for. In self-defence, therefore, he
was obliged to dissemble somewhat; he became less
mirthful and therefore less entertaining, and "was
of them," says Roper, " from thenceforth no more so
ordinarily sent for."

In 1523 More bought a large tract of ground on the
river bank at Chelsea, then a small detached village a
few miles up the Thames from Westminster, and built
there a large, commodious house in which to spend
with his family all the time that he could escape from
court. In' course of time his family included not only
his wife, his daughters and their husbands, and his son
•and his wife, but also eleven grandchildren and a con-
siderable number of servants and retainers. For his
private use, therefore, he erected "the New Building,"
in which were his library, his study, and his domestic
oratory. In this home the king sometimes visited
More in an easy, informal manner, " to be merry with
him," as it is expressed by Roper, who draws a pretty
picture of the familiarity of their relations. "On a
time unlooked for," he writes, " he came to dinner,
and after dinner, in a fair garden of his, walked with
him by the space of an hour, holding his arm about his
neck. As soon as his Grace was gone, I, rejoicing,
told Sir Thomas More how happy he was whom the

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I

king had so familiarly entertained, as I had never seen
him do to any before except Cardinal Wolsey, whom I
saw his Grace once walk with arm in arm. ' I thank
our Lord, son/ quoth he, 6 1 find his Grace my very
good lord indeed; and I do believe he doth as singu-
larly favor me as any subject within this realm.' "
But that More was not blinded by this show of far
miliar affection as to Henry's selfishness is shown by j
the remainder of his speech : " 6 Howbeit, son Roper,
I may tell thee that I have no cause to be proud thereof,
for if my head would win him a castle in France, it |
should not fail to go.' " ,
More was in the king's service some fourteen years, '
from 1518 to 1532, and rose by degrees to be, next the |
king, to quote his own words, " the highest officer in
this whole realm." In 1521 he was made under-
treasurer, " an office which corresponds in some respects
with that of Chancellor of the Exchequer at the present
day " ; and in the same year he was made " a gilded |
knight," as the phrase then was. In 1523, through the I
influence of Wolsey, he was made Speaker of the House '
of Commons, and thus, as was then the custom, the man- |
ager of the king's business in the House. But if the i
Lord Chancellor expected to find the new speaker merely
a tool in his hands, he was grievously disappointed. |

I

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The same independence and regard for his conscience
that brought about his martyrdom led him to oppose
what seemed to him unreasonable demands for subsi-
dies, though Wolsey in person urged the House to
grant them. " Would to God you had been at Rome,
Mr. More," exclaimed the exasperated cardinal, " when
I made you speaker!" "Your Grace not offended,"
cheerfully answered More, " so would I too " ; and
adroitly changed the subject. Wolsey's resentment
must have been short-lived, however, for an extant
letter from him to the king speaks in the highest
terms of More's services in this parliament, and sug-
gests that an extra allowance of £100 be made him.

In 1525 the position of Chancellor of the Duchy of
Lancaster was added to More's other offices, and in
the same year he was appointed with the Bishop of
Ely to confer with the envoys of France as to the con-
ditions of a truce between that country and England.
In the following year and again in the next he was a
member of similar commissions, and in 1527 he ac-
companied Wolsey to France as councillor on the
embassy that concluded the negotiations. In 1529 he
was again sent to the Continent on an embassy, one
of his colleagues being the Cuthbert Tunstall, at this
date Bishop of London, who had been with him on his

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first embassy and of whom lie speaks so highly in the
opening of the Utopia.

Long before 1527 Henry had wearied of his queen,
who was six years older than himself and had failed
to give him the son for whom he hoped ; and had cast
longing eyes on one of her ladies-in-waiting, Anne
Boleyn. He therefore sought a divorce or an annulment
of his marriage, on the ground that the Pope had no
right to grant the dispensation that permitted him to
marry Catherine of Aragon, who had been his brother's
wife. By his failure to obtain this, Wolsey lost
Henry's favor, and in 1529 was deprived of his position
as chancellor. Though More had already indicated to
the king that he considered his contention untenable,
he was appointed Wolsey's successor. "Every one is'
delighted at his promotion," wrote the imperial envoy,
"because he is an upright and learned man, and a good
servant of the Queen." His old friend Erasmus was
naturally delighted to hear of his elevation, though,
he wrote, "I do not at all congratulate More, nor
literature ; but I do indeed congratulate England, for
a better or holier judge could not have been appointed."

If, as Roper asserts, Henry appointed More chancel-
lor " to move him to incline to his side," he little knew
his man. When, shortly after More's elevation, Henry

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again broached the subject of the divorce to him,
More fell on his knees and expressed his regret that
his conscience would not permit him in this matter to
serve his Grace's pleasure, and reminded the king of
what he had said to him when he first entered his ser-
vice, that he was "first to look unto God, and after
God unto him."

More was chancellor until May 16, 1532, when he
resigned and retired to private life. Only indirectly
did the divorce question bring about his resignation.
Henry came to feel that a breach with the Pope was
inevitable, and began to prepare for it by strengthen-
ing his hold on the church in England. In 1531 the
clergy was forced into recognizing him as " Protector
and Supreme Head of the Church in England, so far as
the law of Christ allows " ; and in the following year
into agreeing to hold no convocation without his license
nor to pass any ordinance without his assent. More
was much mortified by the first act, and counselled
the king against the second. As Henry paid no
attention to his advice, he asked to be relieved of his
office, alleging, as his reason for desiring to give it
up, the state of his health, which was indeed bad.
According to Roper, the king still had great affection
for More ; and when he received from him the great

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seal praised him for having worthily discharged the
duties of his high office and promised that "for the
good service he before had done him, in any suit which
he should after have unto him, that either should con-
cern his honor, ... or that should appertain unto his
profit, he would find his Highness a good and gracious
lord unto him."

Though his iucome after he had entered the king's
service, even when he was chancellor, was no greater
than it had been before, his expenses had been decid-
edly increased ; and More left office a comparatively
poor man. His cheerfulness did not desert him, how-
ever. It was his great desire to keep his large family
together, and this he proposed to do ; for he humor-
ously said to them, " May we yet, with bags and
wallets, go a-begging together, and, hoping that for
pity some good folks will give their charity, at every
man's door to sing ( Salve Begina,' and so still keep
company merrily together."

During the remainder of 1532 and the whole of the
following year he busied himself in writing books,
chiefly in opposition to those of the Protestants that
had arisen in Germany and England. This was en-
tirely a work to which he felt called by his conscience,
for from these works he derived no pecuniary profit

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whatever. To express their appreciation, the clergy,
knowing his straitened circumstances, collected a fund of
£5000 and tendered it to him ; but, though this would
have yielded him an income ten times as great as the
modest one that was then his, he steadfastly refused to
accept the fund, saying that he looked to God alone
for his reward ; and the money had to be returned to
the contributors.

Meanwhile Henry, having prepared all his plans,
proceeded to act. In January, 1533, he secretly
married Anne Boleyn ; and ordered the Archbishop of
Canterbury to try in his archiepiscopal court the ques-
tion of the validity of his former marriage. As Cran-
mer, the archbishop, was his tool, the verdict was what
the king desired. Anne was proclaimed queen, and on
June 1 was publicly crowned. Though More had
become a private citizen, so great was the influence of
his example that an especial endeavor was made to
have him present at the coronation : he was invited to
attend with his old friend Tunstall, at that time
Bishop of Durham, and two other bishops ; but he de-
clined. The new queen and her relatives, among whom
were some of the most powerful nobles in England,
resented this slight, and exerted themselves to disgrace
the former chancellor. He was tried on various

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charges, but so uprightly had he acted and so circum-
spectly had he spoken that he came from the examina-
tions with increased honor.

On March 23, 1534, six months after the birth of
Anne's daughter, who became Queen Elizabeth, the Pope
gave his decision that Henry's marriage with Catherine
was legal, and commanded him, under pain of excom-
munication, to take her again as wife and queen. The
answer to this was the passage by Parliament of a bill
limiting the succession to the issue of Anne, and making
it treason to oppose the bill and misprision of treason to
speak against it or to refuse to take an oath to observe
and maintain its whole contents. No form of oath was
prescribed by Parliament, and that formulated by
the commissioners included a preamble that went be-
yond the act by containing a declaration that Henry's
first marriage was invalid and his second valid and a
repudiation of any oath taken "to any foreign authority,
prince, or potentate." When More was asked to take
the oath, he stated that he was willing to give his as-
sent to the act limiting the succession, but that he
could not, for his conscience' sake, swear to the preamble.
He was, therefore, detained in custody until it could
be learned whether this would be acceptable to the
king. Henry proved obdurate ; and on April 17, 1534,

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More was committed to the Tower as guilty of mis-
prision of treason, the penalties for which were perpet-
ual imprisonment and confiscation of all property.

Even under these circumstances his wit and cheer-
fulness did not fail him. The Lieutenant of the Tower,
an old friend, expressed his regret that he could not
provide him with better fare without risking the dis-
pleasure of the king ; More thanked him for his courtesy,
asserted that he did not dislike the fare, and invited
the lieutenant, when he heard of his complaining, to
thrust him out from his doors ! At first he was not
harshly treated in prison; he was allowed to have a
servant to attend him, to receive delicacies from friends,
and to be visited by his wife and his favorite daughter
Margaret, both of whom vainly endeavored to have
him comply with the king's wishes. He spent most
of his time in writing ; composing prayers, meditations,
a treatise on Christ's passion, and a Dialogue of Com-
fort against Tribulation. His illness, however, in-
creased ; and the confinement brought on new disorders
that more than once came near causing his death.
Towards the end of 1534, therefore, his wife and chil-
dren petitioned for his pardon and release, but neither
this nor a second application, made in May, 1535, was
favorably received.

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While More was in prison, Parliament passed the law
of supremacy, which expressly stated that the king
should be " accepted and reputed the only supreme
head in earth of the church of England " ; and followed
this by another law that made it high treason for any
person " maliciously to wish, will, or desire by words
or writing to deprive him of his dignity, title, or name
of his royal estate." On April 30, 1535, commissioners
that met at the Tower asked More his opinion of the
act of supremacy. He replied that he had often ex-
pressed his opinion on its subject both to the king and
his questioner, the king's secretary; and refused to
answer more definitely, saying that, having discharged
his mind of all such matters, he would not dispute of
king's titles or of Pope's, but would give his whole time
.to the study of Christ's passion and meditation on his
own passage out of this world. Two further attempts
were made to induce him "to make a plain and termi-
nate answer whether he thought the statute lawful or
not " ; but they were no more successful than the first
had been. On the 1st of July he was, therefore,
brought to trial on a charge of treason. He asserted
before his judges that he had " never discovered what
was in his conscience to any person living " and that
" the statute could not condemn him to death for keeping

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silent, for neither it nor any laws in the world punish
people except for words and deeds — surely not for
keeping silence." In reply the king's proctor said that
" such silence was a certain proof of malice intended
against the statute " ; and the case was given to the
jury. In fifteen minutes it brought in a verdict of
guilty ; and the sentence of death was then pronounced
by More's successor in the chancellorship.

As he had now nothing more to lose, More spoke
freely, closing with the thoroughly characteristic
speech, " I know Veil that the reason why you have
condemned me is because I have never been will-
ing to consent to the king's second marriage ; but I
hope, in the Divine goodness and mercy, that, as St.
Paul and St. Stephen, whom he persecuted, are now
friends in Paradise, so we, though differing in this
world, shall be united in perfect charity in the other.
I pray God to protect the king, and give him good
counsel." " It will scarcely be doubted," writes Sir
J ames Mackintosh, " that no such culprit stopd at any
European bar for a thousand years. ... It does not
seem that in any moral respect Socrates himself could
claim a superiority."

When More on his return from his trial at West-
minster landed at Tower wharf, his daughter Margaret,

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with her husband, was awaiting him to receive his
final blessing. " As soon as she saw him," in Roper's
own words, " after his blessings on her knees reverently
received, she, hasting towards, without consideration
of care of herself, pressing in amongst the midst of the
throng and the company of the guard that with hal-
berds and bills were round about him, hastily ran to
him and there openly in the sight of all them embraced
and took him about the neck and kissed him, who
well liking her most daughterly love and affection
towards him gave her his fatherly Blessing and many
godly words of comfort besides ; from whom after she
was departed, she not satisfied with the former sight
of her dear father, having respect neither to herself
nor to the press of the people and multitude that were
about him, suddenly turned back again and ran to him
as before, took him about the neck, and divers times
together most lovingly kissed him, and at last with a
full heavy heart was fain to depart from him : the be-
holding whereof was to many of them that were present
thereat so lamentable that it made them for very
sorrow to mourn and weep."

Early on the morning of July 6 he was informed
that the king had decided that he was to be executed
before nine o'clock of that same morning. He received

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the tidings with calm equanimity, and proceeded to
array himself in a rich silken gown that had been
sent him by a friend. As this would be the perquisite
of the executioner, the Lieutenant of the Tower pre-
vailed on him to change it for one less valuable ; but
More insisted on giving the headsman a piece of gold
in addition to his ordinary garments for doing him
" so singular a benefit " (cf . note on 57 : 9). Even at
the scaffold his calmness and wit did not desert him ;
as the flimsily constructed steps swayed, he jestingly
called out to his friend, "I pray you, I pray you,
Mr. Lieutenant, see me safe up ; and for my coming
down let me shift for myself." As was customary,
the executioner asked pardon for what he was about
to do : More kissed him, and said cheerfully, " Pluck
up thy spirits, man, and be not afraid to do thine
office. My neck is very short ; take heed, therefore,
thou strike not awry for saving of thine honesty."
Having asked all present to pray for him and to bear
witness that he died in and for the faith of the holy
Catholic Church, he knelt and recited the psalm
Miserere, which had been his favorite prayer. Accord-
ing to his great-grandson Cresacre More, when he
had laid his head on the block he bade the executioner
stay a moment, and, moving out of the way of the axe

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!

the long white beard that had grown during his con- j

fineinent, murmured, " That at least has not committed |

treason." A moment later the axe fell, and what ,

Lord Campbell, one of More's successors in the chan- I

cellorship, termed "the blackest crime that has ever |

been perpetrated in England under the form of law " .

was consummated. !

Commenting on the jesting good humor with which I

More met death, which " would be frenzy in one who '

does not resemble him as well in the cheerfulness of I

his temper, as in the sanctity of his life and manners," |

Addison writes : " His death was of a piece with his '

life. There was nothing in it new, forced, or affected. |

He did not look upon the severing of his head from i
his body as a circumstance that ought to produce any
change in the disposition of his mind ; and as he died
under a fixed and settled hope of immortality, he
thought any unusual degree of sorrow and concern

improper on such an occasion as had nothing in it |

which could deject or terrify him." i

The news of More's execution filled Europe with I

horror. When the Emperor Charles V., of whose |

diplomats his simple directness and sturdy honesty :

had so often got the better, heard of it, he sent for '

the English ambassador and asked him concerning it. I

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But the ambassador had heard nothing. "Well,"
said the emperor, "it is very true; and this will we
say, that if we had been master of such a servant, of
whose doings ourselves have had these many years no
small experience, we would rather have lost the best
city of our dominions than have lost such a worthy
counsellor."

Faithful even unto death, More has been beatified
by the church for whose faith he suffered, an honor
that would have meant more to him than any that
could have been bestowed by any temporal prince.
But, however much they may differ from them in
doctrine, Protestants have vied with Catholics in
paying tribute to the equable temper, calm fortitude,
and lofty character of this great and good man. In
its essentials the Utopia is a mirror of his mind.
" He thus simply performed great acts, and uttered
great thoughts, because they were familiar to his
great soul."