Kathye on Thomas More

Thomas More (Kathye Macias-Ramirez)

Thomas More was born on February 7, 1478, in London and died July 6, 1535, at the age of 57. More attended St. Anthony’s in Threadneedle Street and was also educated in the household of John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury, who had a high reputation in the first half of Henry VII’s government. He continued his education at Oxford where he studied Latin and then continued his studies back in London in 1494 where he studied law. While a member of the Lincoln's Inn, a legal society, he sought a vocation as a monk in the Carthusian monastery for four years. More, however, then went on to marry Joan Colt in either late 1504 or early 1505 but, over all of this time, and until the end of his life he was devoted to center his life around God, thru reading and practice. In 1510 he became one of the two undersheriffs of London and remained in that position until July 1518. During this time, in 1511, his wife passed, leaving behind four children which passed on to the care of Alice Middleton who married More weeks later. Middleton had a daughter, but her and More had no children together. Also during his time as an undersheriff, in 1516 he published his most recognized work ‘Utopia’. Utopia illustrates a “communist city-state in which the institutions and policies are entirely governed by reason” which were meant to contrast the reality of European politics while also discussing the topics of “penology, state-controlled education, religious pluralism, divorce, euthanasia, and women’s rights” (Marc’hadour). In 1521 he was knighted and made under-treasurer, in which he “welcomed foreign envoys, delivered official speeches, drafted treaties, read the dispatches exchanged between the king and Wolsey, and answered in the king’s name” (Marc’hadour). Two years later he was elected speaker of the House of Commons. After his move to Chelsea in 1524, he was given the title of chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster and later lord chancellor in 1529. In November, a month later, More opened Parliament which held discussions over the divorce and remarriage of Henry VIII and by 1531 the clergy decided that the king was allowed to go ‘as far as the law of Christ allows’ (Marc’hadour). This then leads the church of England to give up their power to “legislate” if it did not have the assent of the king. More did not attend the ceremony but was asked to declare “the king’s marriage with Catherine void and that with Anne valid” his refusal to go along with the king cost him his freedom and his life (Marc’hadour). His objections only made the testimony of Thomas Cromwell more plausible, in which he states that More “denied the king’s title as supreme head of the Church of England” (Marc’hadour). Before being beheaded he told the crowd that “he was dying.... ‘in the faith and for the faith of the Catholic Church, the king’s good servant and God’s first’” (Marc'hadour). Throughout his life, More was seen as a pure religious man that is described by Erasmus as a ‘man of all seasons’ and is now known as a saint for his actions.