Thomas More was born into a prosperous London
family in 1478. When More was twelve years
old, he began working as a page boy in the household of Cardinal
Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and a member of King Henry
VII’s cabinet. He learned about the affairs of church and state,
impressed Morton with his intelligence and wit, and went on to study
Greek and Latin literature at Oxford. In 1501,
he became a lawyer and, in 1504, a member
of the English parliament.
While still very young, More befriended the Dutch philosopher Desiderius
Erasmus, an important figure in a movement known as Humanism. Humanists
championed the revival of Greek and Roman philosophy and literature.
Inspired by ancient thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle, Erasmus
and other humanists tended to regard tradition with skepticism,
arguing that reason and a belief in human dignity should govern
human conduct and the reform of political and religious practices.
In 1516, filled with these ideas, More wrote
his most important work, Utopia, a critical examination
of contemporary English institutions and customs.
More’s life took a dramatic turn when he became an advisor
to King Henry VIII, whose ascension to the English throne in 1509 introduced
a period of political and religious strife. Early in his reign,
Henry began to rely on More’s talents, and in 1521 he enlisted
More’s help in writing the famous Defense of the Seven Sacraments,
an attack on the German theologian Martin Luther. Luther had recently
begun to criticize the Catholic Church on matters of doctrine and
the abuse of church power. A movement was growing around Luther’s
teachings that would eventually lead to the Reformation, a cataclysmic
social upheaval that resulted in the division of the church into
Catholics and Protestants. More was a devout Catholic and feared
Luther’s Reformation would weaken the church.
More defended Catholicism and won Henry’s respect and
trust, and Henry named him Lord Chancellor. However, Henry’s religious allegiances
soon shifted when the pope forbade him from divorcing his wife,
Katharine of Aragon, thus making it impossible for him to marry
his young mistress, Anne Boleyn. Henry married Anne anyway, and
the pope promptly excommunicated him from the Church. In response,
Henry renounced the pope’s authority and appointed himself head
of the church in England, although he never ceased denouncing Luther’s
teachings and continued his persecution of Protestants. The deeply
religious More steadfastly opposed the break from Rome and made
a point of not attending Anne’s coronation. He declined to take
the Oath of Succession and Supremacy, which was required of all
Henry’s subjects as proof of their allegiance to the new queen Anne
and her descendents and also to Henry as supreme head of the new
Church of England. By refusing to take the oath, More committed
treason, a capital offense. In April 1534, he was imprisoned in
the Tower of London, and on July 6, 1535, he was beheaded.
Because of More’s complex character, scholars are divided
as to the true nature of More’s outlook on the world. On one hand,
More seems to belong to the tradition of Renaissance Humanism, a
progressive movement that emphasized the role of individual moral conscience
in matters of politics and religion. Scholars regard More’s greatest
work, Utopia, as a brilliant piece of humanist
political and social critique. Also, More’s resistance to Henry
VIII is often cited as one of the great acts of moral courage in
history, a view of him encouraged by the popular 1966 film A
Man for All Seasons. On the other hand, though More had
much to say about how the church ought to change, he numbered among
the courageous few in England who sided with Rome against the rising
tide of Protestantism, an act that 400 years later would earn him
sainthood in the Catholic Church. More oversaw the cruel persecution
and condemnation of Protestant dissenters in England in the years
before Henry VIII himself turned against the Catholic Church, and
in this regard, More seems to be a defender of tradition and the
status quo.
Besides Utopia, his most famous work,
More is also known for his religious writings, including Latin and
English poetry and a history of Richard III of England, which some
scholars believe inspired Shakespeare’s play. In many of his religious
writings, More directly engages the most prominent figures of the
Reformation, particularly Luther, on matters of religious practice.
More is also noted for his anti-Protestant writings, particularly A
Dialogue Concerning Heresies, which was his first major
attack on the Reformation. He wrote it in 1528, when England was
suffering severe food shortages and outbreaks of the plague and
not long after the bloody Peasant’s War had subsided in Germany.
For More, war and famine were proof of the evils of the Reformation.
He believed these were direct signs not only of God’s disapproval
but also of the destabilizing effects of Protestantism on European
civilization.
During More’s fifteen-month imprisonment in the Tower
of London, he wrote A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation,
an imaginary dialogue between two Hungarians, Anthony and his nephew Vincent,
as they await the Turkish invasion. A Dialogue of Comfort is
a metaphorical treatment of the issues More faced in his final months:
the Turks represent the evils of the Reformation and Henry VIII’s
renunciation of the church, both of which More regarded as a catastrophe
for Christianity. He argues that one can find comfort from such
evil only in Christ and that a person of faith should be prepared
to publicly defend Christ even if to do so means death.
