Sir Thomas More

Sir Thomas More (Saint Thomas More), 1478-1535, English statesman and author of Utopia, celebrated as a martyr in the Roman Catholic Church. He received a Latin education in the household of Cardinal Morton and at Oxford. Through his contact with the new learning and his friendships with Colet , Lyly , and Erasmus , More became an ardent humanist. As a successful London lawyer, he attracted the attention of Henry VIII , served him on diplomatic missions, entered the king's service in 1518, and was knighted in 1521. More held important government offices and, despite his disapproval of Henry's divorce from Katharine of Aragón , he was made lord chancellor at the fall of Wolsey (1529). He resigned in 1532 because of ill health and probably because of increasing disagreement with Henry's policies. Because of his refusal to subscribe to the Act of Supremacy, which impugned the pope's authority and made Henry the head of the English Church, he was imprisoned (1534) in the Tower and finally beheaded on a charge of treason.

A man of noble character and deep, resolute religious conviction, More had great personal charm, unfailing good humor, piercing wit, and a fearlessness that enabled him to jest even on the scaffold. His Utopia (published in Latin, 1516; tr. 1551) is a picture of an ideal state founded entirely on reason. Among his other works in Latin and English are a translation of The Life of John Picus, Earl of Mirandula (1510); a History of Richard III, upon which Shakespeare based his play; a number of polemical tracts against the Lutherans (1528-33); devotional works including A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation (1534) and a Treatise on the Passion (1534); poems; meditations; and prayers. More was beatified (1886) by a decree of Pope Leo XIII, canonized (1935) by Pius XI, and proclaimed (2000) the patron saint of politicians by John Paul II.

Bibliography: See his complete works (16 vol., 1963-85) and his correspondence, ed. by E. F. Rogers (1947), which contains all his letters except those to Erasmus. The biography of More by his son-in-law William Roper (ed. by E. V. Hitchcock, 1935) has been the principal source of later biographies, particularly the standard modern biography by R. W. Chambers (1935). See also biographies by R. Marius (1985) and P. Ackroyd (1998); studies by R. Pineas (1968), R. Johnson (1969), E. E. Reynolds (1965 and 1969); G. M. Logan (1983), and A. Fox (1985).

More, Sir Thomas (1478–1535) English statesman, humanist scholar, and writer of Utopia (1516). Henry VIII knighted More in 1521. Despite his opposition to Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon, More succeeded Cardinal Wolsey as Lord Chancellor in 1529. He resigned in 1532, following policy disagreements with Henry. More's principled refusal to sign the Act of Supremacy (1534), which made Henry head of the English Church, led to his imprisonment and execution for treason. Utopia portrays an ideal state founded on reason.

More, Sir Thomas, a play based on Hall's Chronicle and biographies of More, surviving in an incomplete transcript with additions in various hands which was submitted to Sir Edmund Tilney, Master of the Revels, probably about 1593. The scribe, Munday, is likely to have been at least part-author of the original play. Tilney required major changes before granting permission to perform. The revisions (which may date from 1593–4 or 1603–4) are in five different hands, probably including those of Chettle, Heywood, Dekker, and a playhouse scribe known to have worked for both Strange's Men and the Admiral's Men. The fifth (‘Hand D’) has been claimed, with strong support, as Shakespeare's. If so, this is his only surviving literary manuscript. A scene of three pages, it depicts More, as sheriff of London, pacifying apprentices in a May- Day rebellion against foreigners. More was first printed in 1844. The first known professional performance was in London in 1954.