Thomas More's Typology
Thomas More is known for his 1516 book Utopia and for his untimely death in 1535, after refusing to acknowledge King Henry VIII as head of the Church of England. He was canonized by the Catholic Church as a saint in 1935. Born in Milk Street in London, on 7 February 1478, Thomas More was the son of Sir John More, a successful lawyer and later judge, and his wife Agnes. More was educated at St Anthony's School, then considered one of London's finest 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
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at Oxford University. More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education. Studying under Thomas Linacre and William Gracin, 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. According to his friend, 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. In spite of his choice to pursue a secular career, more continued ascetical practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin and occasionally engaging in flagellation. A tradition of the Third Order of St. Francis honors more as a member of that Order on their calendar of saints. More married Jane Colt in 1505. She was 5 years, 1 month younger than her husband, quiet and good-natured. 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 before Jane died in 1511: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John. Going "against friends' advice and common custom," within thirty days more had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends. He chose a rich widow, Alice Haripur Middleton. The speed of the marriage was so unusual that more had to get a dispensation of the banns, which due to his good public reputation he easily obtained. Alice More lacked Jane's docility; More's friend Andrew Ammonias derided Alice as a "hook-nosed harpy." Erasmus, however, called their marriage happy. 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 a young girl named Anne Cesare, who would eventually marry his son, John More. 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, a highly 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 accomplishment in September 1522, after he showed the bishop a letter she had written. When he saw from the signature that it was the letter of a lady, his surprise led him to read it more eagerly he said he would never have believed it to be your work unless I had assured him of the fact, and he began to praise it in the highest terms for its pure Latinity, its correctness, its erudition, and its expressions of tender affection. He took out at once from his pocket a portage to send to you as a pledge and token of his good will towards you. More's decision to educate his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favorable once he witnessed their accomplishments. A portrait of more and his family was painted by Holbein, but it was lost in a fire in the 18th century. More's grandson commissioned a copy, two versions of which survive. In 1504 more was elected to Parliament to represent Great Yarmouth, and in 1510 began representing London. 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. More became Master of Requests in 1514 the same year in which he was appointed as a Privy Councilor.[23] 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 King Henry VIII, More became increasingly influential: welcoming foreign diplomats, drafting official documents, 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. More supported the Catholic Church and saw the Protestant Reformation as heresy, a threat to the unity of both church and society. Believing in the theology, polemics, and ecclesiastical laws of the church, more "heard Luther's call to destroy the Catholic Church as a call to war." His early actions against the Reformation included aiding Wolsey in preventing Lutheran books from being imported into England, spying on and investigating suspected Protestants, especially publishers, and arresting any one holding in his possession, transporting, or selling the books of the Protestant Reformation. More vigorously suppressed the travelling country ministers who used Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament. It contained controversial translations of certain words for example Tyndale used "senior" and "elder" rather than "priest" for the Greek "presbyters" and some of the marginal glosses challenged Catholic doctrine. It was during this time that most of his literary polemics appeared. Sir Thomas More is commemorated with a sculpture at the late-19th-century Sir Thomas More House, opposite the Royal Courts of Justice, Carey Street, London. Rumors circulated during and after more’s lifetime regarding ill treatment of heretics during his time as Lord Chancellor. The popular anti-Catholic polemicist John Foxe, who "placed Protestant sufferings against the background of... the Antichrist" was instrumental in publicizing accusations of torture in his famous Book of Martyrs, claiming that More had often personally used violence or torture while interrogating heretics.
Later authors, such as Brian Moynihan and Michael Farris, cite Foxe when repeating these allegations. More he denied these allegations: Stories of a similar nature were current even in More's lifetime and he denied them forcefully. He admitted that he did imprison heretics in his house ‘their sure keeping' he called it but he utterly rejected claims of torture and whipping ‘so help me God. However, in More's "Apology," published in 1533, he writes that he only applied corporal punishment to two heretics: a child who was caned in front of his family for heresy regarding the Eucharist and a "feeble-minded" man who was whipped for disrupting prayers. During More's chancellorship six people were burned at the stake for heresy; they were Thomas Hatton, Thomas Birney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbury, Thomas Dugite, and James Bainham. Moynihan has argued that more was influential in the burning of Tyndale as More's agents had long pursued him, even though this took place over a year after his own death. Burning at the stake had long been a standard punishment for heresy about thirty burnings had taken place in the century before More's elevation to Chancellor, and burning continued to be used by both Catholics and Protestants during the religious upheaval of the following
decades. Acaroid notes that more explicitly "approved of Burning". After the case of John Tewkesbury, a London leather-seller found guilty by the Bishop of London, John Stokesley, of harboring banned books and sentenced to burning for refusing to recant, More declared: he "burned as there was neuter wretched I wine better worthy.” Modern commentators are divided over More's religious actions as Chancellor. While biographers such as Peter Acaroid, a Catholic English biographer, have taken a relatively tolerant view of More's campaign against Protestantism by placing his actions within the turbulent religious climate of the time, other eminent historians, such as Richard Marius, an American scholar of the Reformation, have been more critical, believing that persecutions including More's zealous and well-documented advocacy of extermination for Protestants were a betrayal of More's earlier humanist convictions. Some Protestants take a different view in 1980, despite being a fierce opponent of the English Reformation that created the Church of England, More was added to the Church of England's calendar of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church, jointly with John Fisher, to be commemorated every 6 July as "Thomas More, Scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535. When honouring him by making him patron saint of statesmen and politicians in October 2000 Pope John Paul II 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.
at Oxford University. More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education. Studying under Thomas Linacre and William Gracin, 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. According to his friend, 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. In spite of his choice to pursue a secular career, more continued ascetical practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin and occasionally engaging in flagellation. A tradition of the Third Order of St. Francis honors more as a member of that Order on their calendar of saints. More married Jane Colt in 1505. She was 5 years, 1 month younger than her husband, quiet and good-natured. 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 before Jane died in 1511: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John. Going "against friends' advice and common custom," within thirty days more had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends. He chose a rich widow, Alice Haripur Middleton. The speed of the marriage was so unusual that more had to get a dispensation of the banns, which due to his good public reputation he easily obtained. Alice More lacked Jane's docility; More's friend Andrew Ammonias derided Alice as a "hook-nosed harpy." Erasmus, however, called their marriage happy. 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 a young girl named Anne Cesare, who would eventually marry his son, John More. 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, a highly 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 accomplishment in September 1522, after he showed the bishop a letter she had written. When he saw from the signature that it was the letter of a lady, his surprise led him to read it more eagerly he said he would never have believed it to be your work unless I had assured him of the fact, and he began to praise it in the highest terms for its pure Latinity, its correctness, its erudition, and its expressions of tender affection. He took out at once from his pocket a portage to send to you as a pledge and token of his good will towards you. More's decision to educate his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favorable once he witnessed their accomplishments. A portrait of more and his family was painted by Holbein, but it was lost in a fire in the 18th century. More's grandson commissioned a copy, two versions of which survive. In 1504 more was elected to Parliament to represent Great Yarmouth, and in 1510 began representing London. 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. More became Master of Requests in 1514 the same year in which he was appointed as a Privy Councilor.[23] 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 King Henry VIII, More became increasingly influential: welcoming foreign diplomats, drafting official documents, 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. More supported the Catholic Church and saw the Protestant Reformation as heresy, a threat to the unity of both church and society. Believing in the theology, polemics, and ecclesiastical laws of the church, more "heard Luther's call to destroy the Catholic Church as a call to war." His early actions against the Reformation included aiding Wolsey in preventing Lutheran books from being imported into England, spying on and investigating suspected Protestants, especially publishers, and arresting any one holding in his possession, transporting, or selling the books of the Protestant Reformation. More vigorously suppressed the travelling country ministers who used Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament. It contained controversial translations of certain words for example Tyndale used "senior" and "elder" rather than "priest" for the Greek "presbyters" and some of the marginal glosses challenged Catholic doctrine. It was during this time that most of his literary polemics appeared. Sir Thomas More is commemorated with a sculpture at the late-19th-century Sir Thomas More House, opposite the Royal Courts of Justice, Carey Street, London. Rumors circulated during and after more’s lifetime regarding ill treatment of heretics during his time as Lord Chancellor. The popular anti-Catholic polemicist John Foxe, who "placed Protestant sufferings against the background of... the Antichrist" was instrumental in publicizing accusations of torture in his famous Book of Martyrs, claiming that More had often personally used violence or torture while interrogating heretics.
Later authors, such as Brian Moynihan and Michael Farris, cite Foxe when repeating these allegations. More he denied these allegations: Stories of a similar nature were current even in More's lifetime and he denied them forcefully. He admitted that he did imprison heretics in his house ‘their sure keeping' he called it but he utterly rejected claims of torture and whipping ‘so help me God. However, in More's "Apology," published in 1533, he writes that he only applied corporal punishment to two heretics: a child who was caned in front of his family for heresy regarding the Eucharist and a "feeble-minded" man who was whipped for disrupting prayers. During More's chancellorship six people were burned at the stake for heresy; they were Thomas Hatton, Thomas Birney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbury, Thomas Dugite, and James Bainham. Moynihan has argued that more was influential in the burning of Tyndale as More's agents had long pursued him, even though this took place over a year after his own death. Burning at the stake had long been a standard punishment for heresy about thirty burnings had taken place in the century before More's elevation to Chancellor, and burning continued to be used by both Catholics and Protestants during the religious upheaval of the following
decades. Acaroid notes that more explicitly "approved of Burning". After the case of John Tewkesbury, a London leather-seller found guilty by the Bishop of London, John Stokesley, of harboring banned books and sentenced to burning for refusing to recant, More declared: he "burned as there was neuter wretched I wine better worthy.” Modern commentators are divided over More's religious actions as Chancellor. While biographers such as Peter Acaroid, a Catholic English biographer, have taken a relatively tolerant view of More's campaign against Protestantism by placing his actions within the turbulent religious climate of the time, other eminent historians, such as Richard Marius, an American scholar of the Reformation, have been more critical, believing that persecutions including More's zealous and well-documented advocacy of extermination for Protestants were a betrayal of More's earlier humanist convictions. Some Protestants take a different view in 1980, despite being a fierce opponent of the English Reformation that created the Church of England, More was added to the Church of England's calendar of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church, jointly with John Fisher, to be commemorated every 6 July as "Thomas More, Scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535. When honouring him by making him patron saint of statesmen and politicians in October 2000 Pope John Paul II 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.