More, Sir Thomas

More, Sir Thomas (1478–1535). More, lawyer, humanist, and amateur theologian, held great intellectual and moral ascendancy over Henrician England, until his defence of the Roman catholic cause brought about his downfall. His legal and political career prospered in the 1510s and 1520s: he became under‐sheriff of London (1510), master of requests (1518), and Speaker of the Commons (1523). He was knighted in 1521, and succeeded Wolsey as lord chancellor in 1529. Meanwhile, More became a celebrated enthusiast of humanism, and friend of Desiderius Erasmus. His Utopia, which described an imaginary land whose inhabitants shaped their lives by natural reason, made his literary reputation. The king's first marriage‐crisis placed More in a quandary. He tried to persuade Henry to take Catherine back, and to persecute heretics, until failure forced his resignation from office in May 1532. When required to swear an oath to the new royal succession in 1534, More refused. Swiftly tried and condemned on perjured evidence, More finally spoke out in defence of the papacy, and was executed on 6 July 1535. He was canonized in 1935.