Thomas More
Sir Thomas More, venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, theologian, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VIII as Lord Chancellor from October 1529 to May 1532. He wrote Utopia, published in 1516, which describes the political system of an imaginary island state.
More opposed the Protestant Reformation, directing polemics against the theology of Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli and William Tyndale. More also opposed Henry VIII's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as supreme head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason on what he stated was false evidence, and was executed. At his execution, he was reported to have said: "I die the King's good servant, and God's first."
Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr. Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the patron saint of statesmen and politicians. In his proclamation the pope stated: "It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience... even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time".
Early life
Born in the City of London, on 7 February 1478, Thomas More was the son of Sir John More and his wife Agnes. John More lived most of his life in Milk Street, London and, from this, many biographers have asserted, without confirmation, that this was the place of Thomas More's birth. No contemporary biographer recorded this. He was the second of six children. More was educated at St. Anthony's School, then considered one of London's best schools. From 1490 to 1492, More served John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, as a household page.Morton enthusiastically supported the "New Learning", and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More had great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at the University of Oxford, either in St. Mary Hall or Canterbury College, both now defunct.
More began his studies at Oxford in 1492. He received a classical education studying under Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, and he became proficient in both Latin and Greek. More left Oxford after only two years—at his father's insistence—to begin legal training in London at New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery. In 1496, More 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.
A noted linguist, More could speak and banter in Latin with the same facility as in English, and had competency in Greek and several other languages. He wrote and translated poetry. He was particularly influenced by Pico della Mirandola and translated the Life of Pico into English.
Spiritual life
According to his friend, the theologian Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk. 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 their piety, More ultimately decided to remain a layman, standing for election to Parliament in 1504 and marrying the following year.More continued ascetic practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin and occasionally engaging in self-flagellation. A tradition of the Third Order of Saint Francis honours More as a member of that Order on their calendar of saints.
Family life
More married Joanna "Jane" Colt, the eldest daughter of John Colt of Essex in 1505. In that year he leased a portion of a house known as the Old Barge on Bucklersbury, St Stephen Walbrook parish, London. Eight years later he took over the rest of the house and in total he lived there for almost 20 years, until his move to Chelsea in 1525. Erasmus reported that More wanted to give his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and tutored her in music and literature. The couple had four children: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cecily, and John. Jane died in 1511.Going "against friends' advice and common custom," within 30 days, More had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends. He chose Alice Middleton, a widow, to head his household and care for his small children. The speed of the marriage was so unusual that More had to get a dispensation from the banns of marriage, which, due to his good public reputation, he easily obtained.
More had no children from his second marriage, although he raised Alice's daughter from her previous marriage as his own. More also became the guardian of two young girls: Anne Cresacre, who would eventually marry his son John More, and Margaret Giggs, the orphaned daughter of his biological daughter's wet nurse. An affectionate father, More wrote letters to his children whenever he was away on legal or government business, and encouraged them to write to him often.
More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education as his son, an unusual attitude at the time. His eldest daughter, Margaret, attracted much admiration for her erudition, especially her fluency in Greek and Latin. More told his daughter of his pride in her academic accomplishments in September 1522, after he showed the bishop a letter she had written:
More's decision to educate his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favourable once he witnessed their accomplishments.
A large portrait of More and his extended family, Sir Thomas More and Family, was painted by Hans Holbein the Younger; however, it was lost in a fire in the 18th century. More's grandson commissioned a copy, of which two versions survive. The Nostell copy of the portrait shown above also includes the family's two pet dogs and monkey.
Musical instruments such as a lute and viol feature in the background of the extant copies of Holbein's family portrait. More played the recorder and viol, and made sure his wives could join in the family consort.
Personality according to Erasmus
Concerning More's personality, Erasmus gave a consistent portrait over a period of 35 years.Soon after meeting the young lawyer More, who became his best friend and invited Erasmus into his household, Erasmus reported in 1500 "Did nature ever invent anything kinder, sweeter or more harmonious than the character of Thomas More?". In 1519, he wrote that More was "born and designed for friendship; no one is more open-hearted in making friends or more tenacious in keeping them." In 1535, after More's execution, Erasmus wrote that More "never bore ill-intent towards anyone":
In a 1532 letter, Erasmus wrote "such is the kindliness of his disposition, or rather, to say it better, such is his piety and wisdom, that whatever comes his way that cannot be corrected, he comes to love just as wholeheartedly as if nothing better could have happened to him."
In a 1533 letter, Erasmus described More's character as imperiosus – commanding, far-ruling, not at all timid.
For his part, More was an "unflagging apologist" for Erasmus during the course of their lives.
Early political career
In 1504, More was elected to Parliament to represent Great Yarmouth, and in 1510 began representing London.More first attracted public attention by his conduct in the parliament of 1504, by his daring opposition to the King's demand for money. King Henry VII was entitled, according to feudal laws, to a grant on occasion of his daughter Margaret Tudor's marriage to James IV of Scotland. But he came to the House of Commons for a much larger sum than he intended to give with his daughter. The members, unwilling as they were to vote the money, were afraid to offend the King, until the silence was broken by More, whose speech is said to have moved the house to reduce the subsidy of three-fifteenths which the Government had demanded to £30,000. One of the chamberlains went and told his master that he had been thwarted by a beardless boy. Henry never forgave the audacity; but, for the moment, the only revenge he could take was upon More's father, whom upon some pretext he threw into the Tower, and he only released him upon payment of a fine of £100. Thomas More even found it advisable to withdraw from public life into obscurity.
Henry died in 1509 and was succeeded by his son, who became King Henry VIII.
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. Interested in public health, he became a Commissioner for Sewers in 1514. More became Master of Requests in 1514, the same year in which he was appointed as a Privy Counsellor. After undertaking a diplomatic mission to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, accompanying Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal Archbishop of York, to Calais and Bruges, More was knighted and made under-treasurer of the Exchequer in 1521.
As secretary and personal adviser to Henry VIII, More became increasingly influential: welcoming foreign diplomats, drafting official documents, attending the court of the Star Chamber for his legal prowess but delegated to judge in the under-court for 'poor man's cases' and serving as a liaison between the King and Lord Chancellor Wolsey. More later served as High Steward for the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
In 1523, More was elected as knight of the shire for Middlesex and, on Wolsey's recommendation, the House of Commons elected More its Speaker. In 1525, More became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with executive and judicial responsibilities over much of northern England.
Chancellorship
After Wolsey fell, More succeeded to the office of Lord Chancellor in 1529; this was the highest official responsible for equity and common law, including contracts and royal household cases, and some misdemeanour appeals. He dispatched cases with unprecedented rapidity. Putting into effect his proposals for public sanitation that he had first suggested in Utopia, in 1532 he was responsible for introducing into law the Statute of Sewers.As Lord Chancellor he was a member of the Court of the Star Chamber, an appeals court on civil and criminal matters, including riot and sedition, that was the final appeal in dissenter's trials.
No foreign wars were fought in the time he was Lord Chancellor.