Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535) was the Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to May 1532, succeeding Thomas Wolsey and preceding Thomas Audley. More is best known for his 1516 book, Utopia, a work of satire which envisions "perfect" society located on an island. Utopia is an example of Erasmian Humanism, meant to express the value of education, whilst critiquing and skewering the "false hope" of a utopian society.[1]
More was a voracious opponent of the Protestant Reformation, criticising Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, and William Tyndale. More's position in the Privy Council, provided him with the authority to involve himself in the interrogation and prosecution of supposed Heretics and Protestants. He would go on to reject Henry VIII's break from the Catholic Church, refusing to recognise him as head of the Church of England or support the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After declining to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and executed in 1535.
Biography[]
Thomas More was born in 1478 into a prominent and well-connected London family. His father was a successful lawyer and judge, which ensured More a secure place in England’s educated elite. More pursued a legal career and considered joining the priesthood, reflecting his deep commitment to Catholicism. He ultimately remained in law, becoming a member of Parliament in 1504, representing Great Yarmouth.
More's intellectual reputation was solidified with the publication of Utopia in 1516, a philosophical narrative describing an idealised society where citizens shared goods and lived in peace, but under strict moral and religious codes. The work offered sharp criticism of the then-contemporary European society while also imagining a world of social harmony founded on communal values. Despite its title, Utopia revealed More’s belief in harsh punishments for those who defied moral orthodoxy, such as adulterers or atheists.
Politics[]
More rose in royal service under Henry VIII, he proceeded to serve as an undersheriff of London, a privy councillor, under-treasurer of the Exchequer, secretary and adviser to King Henry VIII of England, and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and he succeeded Thomas Wolsey as Lord High Chancellor when Wolsey was charged with treason in 1529. More viewed Protestantism as a form of heresy and believed firmly in enforcing Catholic doctrine. During the Protestant Reformation, he zealously enforced doctrine. In Apology (1533) he admits administered punishment in the case of a child servant in his household who was caned for repeating a heresy about the Eucharist, and a "feeble-minded" man who was whipped for interfering with mass by lifting women's skirts over their heads during the moment of consecration. More took this action to avoid a lynching event. However, More zealously approved of burning: In office More did everything in his power to bring about the extermination of heretics. He had at least six Protestants executed by burning: Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbury, Thomas Dusgate, and James Bainham.
More's relationship with Henry VIII deteriorated as the King sought to break with Rome and annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. More resigned as Chancellor in 1532, unable to accept Henry’s claim as Supreme Head of the Church of England. His moral intransigence culminated in his refusal to attend Anne Boleyn ’s coronation and, crucially, in his refusal to swear the Oath of Succession in 1534, which recognized Anne as the lawful queen and Henry as the head of the church. More’s silence was interpreted as treason. Like Bishop John Fisher, More chose martyrdom rather than betraying his conscience.
Downfall[]
In 1534, He was imprisoned in the Tower of London and, despite pressure from his family and former allies, he refused to recant.; he chose to stay silent on the matter, and he refused his family's requests for him to sign the oath. On 6 July 1535, More was executed by beheading—his sentence of hanging, drawing, and quartering commuted by the King. Before his death, he told the assembled crowd that he died “the King’s good servant, but God’s first.” His executioner reportedly sought his blessing, which More granted, forgiving him.
Thomas More would become a Catholic saint and martyr after his death, and he inspired communists such as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Vladimir Lenin had a monument erected in his honour near the Kremlin in 1918 after the Russian Revolution due to his communist views, but this monument was dismantled by Vladimir Putin in 2013.
In death, More was canonised by the Catholic Church in 1935 and is remembered as a martyr. Yet his legacy is complex. While he inspired later religious and political thinkers, including Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (Vladimir Lenin even erected a monument to him in 1918 near the Kremlin for his perceived early Communist ideals), but he was also a man who used torture and death to preserve his orthodoxy.
Gallery[]
- ↑ Fisher, Elijah. "Satirical or Serious: Interpreting the True Intention's of Thomas More's Utopia." Tenor of Our Times, vol. 12, 2023, article 17. Harding University. https://scholarworks.harding.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1246&context=tenor