Thomas More

sweeter and happier than the genius of Thomas More? All the birds come to him to be fed. There is not any man living so affectionate to his children as he, and he loveth his wife as if she were a girl of fifteen." But More faced perjury which could convict him. "In good faith, Mr. Rich, I am more concerned for your perjury than my own danger," he rebutted. "I must tell you that neither myself nor anybody else to my knowledge ever took you to be a man of such reputation that I or any other would have anything to do with you in a matter of importance. I am sorry I am forced to speak it (but) you always lay under the odium of a very lying tongue." More's efforts to discredit Rich were part of the package the jury of 12 took with them to consider. But they soon returned with a verdict: guilty. The Lord Chancellor began to read the sentence when More interjected. "My lord, the practice in such cases was to ask the prisoner before sentence whether he had any thing to offer why judgment should not be pronounced against him." The Lord Chancellor abruptly stopped his sentence reading and asked More what he was "able to say to the contrary." More was now on borrowed time. He protested against the charge as best he could. "A son is only by generation. We are by regeneration made spiritual children of Christ and the Pope." The sentence for treason was then handed down: "That he should be carried back to the Tower of London and from thence drawn on a hurdle through the City of London to Tyburn there to be hanged till he should be half dead; that then he should be cut down alive, his privy parts cut off, his belly ripped, his bowels burnt, his four quarters set up over four gates of the City, and his head upon London Bridge." When the sentence was read out, More said he may as well speak freely now and revealed that he was totally unable to see the sense of the oath of supremacy. To this, the Lord Chancellor replied that why, then, had so many bishops and academics taken the oath of supremacy? "I am able to produce against one bishop which you can produce, a hundred holy and Catholic bishops for my opinion; and against one realm, the consent of Christendom for a thousand years." And upon those desperate words, More rejoined that "albeit your lordships have been my judges to condemnation, yet we may hereafter meet joyfully together in Heaven to our everlasting salvation." Thomas More was then led back to London Tower, but this time with the Tower's axe before him, pointed edge leading the procession and towards the convict as was the custom. Henry the 8th later commuted the sentence to a quick beheading. The day of execution was July 6, 1535 and the procession left London Tower at nine in the morning. This was a big spectacle for Londoners, a parade of sorts. Persons who had lost law suits before him when he was Lord Chancellor, seized the opportunity to heckle the condemned man. To one wretched woman he yelled back: "I very well remember the case and if I were to decide it now, I would make the same decree." Brought up to the scaffold, Thomas More said to his executioner. ""Pluck up thy spirits, man, and be not afraid to do thine office. My neck is very short. Take heed, therefore, thou not strike awry for saving thine honesty."

Sir Thomas More was no more.

His head was stuck on London Bridge where it stayed for several months (his daughter later bought it). When news came of More death, King Henry abruptly left his game of cards and scowled at his new wife Anne Boleyn: "Thou art the cause of this man's death." But Henry the 8th, then 44 years old, was still a child and as good an argument one can make against monarchy as can be found in history. He quickly confiscated all of More's property and forced More's wife and family to start anew. He even negated special legal assignments that More had devised to provide for his family in case he was executed.

Anne Boleyn was beheaded eleven months after More, on charges of adultery. Henry the 8th went on to marry four more wives, another of which was also beheaded. Henry died in 1547. During his rein, there had been an average of 120 executions a month in England. More was named a Catholic saint in 1866.

A Chronology of More's Life

1477, Feb. 7 - Born in London to John and Agnes More

1484-1489 - Attends St. Anthony's School, London (More's age: 7-12)

1489-1491 - Page for Archbishop and Chancellor Morton (12-14)

1491-1493 - Student at Oxford (14-16)

1493-1495 - Pre-law student, New Inn, London (16-18)

1496-1501 - Law student, Lincoln's Inn; called to bar (18-23)

1499 - Meets Erasmus for the first time (22)

1501-1504 - Frequents Charterhouse (Carthusians) (24-27)

1501 - Lectures on St. Augustine's City of God; begins Greek (24)

1503-1506 - Reader at Furnival's Inn (26-29)

1504 - Elected to Parliament (27)

1505 - Marries Jane Colt; Margaret born (28)

1506 - Studies intensely; visits Coventry; Elizabeth born (29)

1507 - Financial secretary of Lincoln's Inn; Cecily born (30)

1508 - Visits universities at Paris and Louvain (31)

1509 - Member of Mercers' Guild; John born; Henry VIII crowned (32)

1510 - Elected to Parliament (33)

1510-1518 - Undersheriff of London (33-41)

1511 - After Jane's death, marries Alice Middleton; Autumn Reader at Lincoln's Inn (34)

1512 - Governor and treasurer of Lincoln's Inn (35)

1513 - Henry VIII leads an army against France; to Henry, Erasmus dedicates his translation of Plutarch's essay on flattery (36)

1514 - Elected to Doctors' Common; serves on sewers commission (37)

1515 - Embassy to Bruges and Antwerp for commercial treaties; Lenten Reader at Lincoln's Inn; refuses royal pension (38)

1516 - Continues to study history and political philosophy (39)

1517 - Embassy to Calais; counsel to pope's ambassador in England; Evil May Day; Wolsey's Treaty of Universal Peace; Luther's "Ninety-five Theses" (40)

1518 - Joins King Henry's service; Master of Requests (41)

1520 - Field of Cloth of Cold: peace with France (43)

1521 - Knighted; undertreasurer; ambassador to Bruges and Calais; cautions Henry not to exaggerate the pope's secular authority; Margaret marries Roper; Buckingham executed (44)

1522 - Gives public oration welcoming Emperor Charles V; serves as Henry's secretary and cautions against war; war with France resumed (45)

1523 - Speaker of the House of Commons, proposes free speech; leases Crosby Hall; truce with France (46)

1524 - High Steward, Oxford; moves to Chelsea; war with France resumes: "If my head could win [the King] a castle in France, . . . it would not fail to go." (47)

1525 - High Steward, Cambridge; chancellor of Lancaster; Peasants' Revolt; peace treaty with France; Cecily marries Heron; Elizabeth marries Dauncey (48)

1526 - Appointed to royal council's subcommittee of four; urges Erasmus to complete writings against Luther; Turks invade Hungary; Tyndale's New Testament secretly distributed (49)

1527 - Accompanies Wolsey to France; sack of Rome; Henry consults More about divorce; More's daughters' dispute before Henry; Holbein paints the More family (50)

1528 - Tunstall asks More to defend Church in English; Margaret almost dies; More chosen as alternate Master of Revels, Lincoln's Inn; More's three great wishes (51)

1529 - Delegate, Peace of Cambrai; fire at Chelsea; appointed Lord Chancellor; addresses Parliament; John marries Anne Cresacre (52)

1530 - More almost dismissed for his opposition to Henry; Cranmer completes his defense of caesaropapism (53)

1531 - Henry declared Supreme Head of the Church in England (54)

1532 - Counters Cromwell's and St. German's attacks on the clergy; reports universities' approval of royal divorce; Henry enraged by undiplomatic clerics; Submission of Clergy (May 15); More resigns his office (May 16) (55)

1533 - Restraint of Appeals to Rome; England declared an empire (April); Cranmer authorizes royal divorce (May); Anne Boleyn's coronation (June 1); Pope Clement VII condemns the divorce (July); to defend his reputation, More writes to Erasmus (56)

1534 - Henry asks for More's indictment (Feb. 21), but House of Lords refuses three times; More questioned by royal commission (March), interrogated at Lambeth Palace (Apr. 13), and finally imprisoned (illegally) for refusal to take Cromwell's oath regarding the Act of Succession (Apr. 17); Chancellor Audley sends a warning to More (August) (57)

1535 - Margaret visits while monks are led to execution (May 4); More interrogated on May 7, June 3, and June 14; Richard Rich removes writing materials (June 12); More's trial (July 1) and execution July 6) (58)

A Chronology of More's Writings

English poems (c. 1496-1504)

Correspondence (Latin and English, 1499-1535)

Latin verses to Holt's Lac Puerorum (c. 1500)

"Letter to John Colet" (c. 1504)

The Life of John Picus (c, 1504; published 1510)

Translations of Lucian (1505-1506; published 1506)

Latin poems, Epigrammata (1496-1516; published 1518)

Coronation ode (1509)

Epigrams on Brixius (1513)

The History of King Richard III (c. 1513-1518)

"Letter to Dorp" (1515)

Utopia (1516)

Poem and letters to his children, and letter to their tutor (1517-1522)

Letters to Oxford (1518), to a Monk (1519), and to Brixius (1520)

Quattuor Novissima (The Four Last Things] (c. 1522)

Responsio ad Lutherum (1523)

"Letter to Bugenhagen" (1526; published 1568)

A Dialogue Concerning Heresies (June 1529)

Supplication of Souls (September 1529)

A Dialogue Concerning Heresies, 2nd edition (May 1531)

Confutation of Tyndale's Answer I-III (March 1532)

"Letter against Frith" (December 1532; published December(1533)

Confutation of Tyndale IV-VIII (Spring 1533)

The Apology of Sir Thomas More (April 1533)

The Debellation of Salem and Bizance (October 1533)

The Answer to a Poisoned Book (December 1533)

A Treatise upon the Passion; A Treatise to Receive the Blessed Body; A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation; "A Dialogue on Conscience" (1534)

"Imploring Divine Help against Temptation"; "A Godly Instruction [on How to Treat Those Who Wrong Us]'; "A Godly Meditation [on Saving One's Life]"; "A Godly Meditation [on Detachment]" (1534-1535)

De Tristitia Christi (The Sadness of Christ) (1535)

"A Devout Prayer [before Dying]" (July 1535)