SAINT THOMAS MORE
Martyr
(1487-1535)
Saint Thomas More naquit à Londres, le 7 février 1478. Son père remplissait la fonction de juge, dans la capitale. Thomas passa quelques-unes de ses premières années en qualité de page, au service du cardinal Morton, alors archevêque de Cantorbéry et chancelier d'Angleterre. A l'âge de quatorze ans, il alla étudier à Oxford où il fit de sérieuses études juridiques et suivit les conférences sur la Cité de Dieu, de saint Augustin.
En 1501, Thomas More était reçu avocat et élu membre du Parlement trois ans plus tard. Après quelques années de mariage, il perdit sa femme et demeura seul avec ses quatre enfants: trois filles et un fils. Il ne se remariera que beaucoup plus tard, avec une veuve. En père vigilant, il veillait à ce que Dieu restât le centre de la vie de ses enfants. Le soir, il récitait la prière avec eux; aux repas, une de ses filles lisait un passage de l'Ecriture Sainte et on discutait ensuite sur le texte en conversant gaiement. Jamais la science, ni la vertu, ne prirent un visage austère dans sa demeure; sa piété n'en était cependant pas moins profonde. Saint Thomas More entendait la messe tous les jours; en plus de ses prières du matin et du soir, il récitait les psaumes quotidiennement.
Sa valeur le fit nommer Maître des Requêtes et conseiller privé du roi. En 1529, Thomas More remplaça le défunt cardinal Wolsey dans la charge de Lord chancelier. Celui qui n'avait jamais recherché les honneurs ni désiré une haute situation se trouvait placé au sommet des dignités humaines. Les succès, pas plus que les afflictions, n'eurent de prise sur sa force de caractère.
Lorsque Henri VIII voulut divorcer pour épouser Anne Boleyn, et qu'il prétendit devant l'opposition formelle du pape, se proclamer chef de l'Eglise d'Angleterre, saint Thomas More blâma la conduite de son suzerain. Dès lors, les bonnes grâces du roi se changèrent en hostilité ouverte contre lui. Le roi le renvoya sans aucune ressource, car saint Thomas versait au fur à mesure tous ses revenus dans le sein des pauvres. Le jour où il apprit que ses granges avaient été incendiées, il écrivit à sa femme de rendre grâces à Dieu pour cette épreuve.
Le 12 avril 1554, l'ex-chancelier fut invité à prononcer le serment qui reconnaissait Anne Boleyn comme épouse légitime et rejetait l'autorité du pape. Saint Thomas rejeta noblement toute espèce de compromis avec sa conscience et refusa de donner son appui à l'adultère et au schisme. Après un second refus réitéré le 17 avril, on l'emprisonna à la Tour de Londres. Il vécut dans le recueillement et la prière durant les quatorze mois de son injuste incarcération.
Comme il avait fait de toute sa vie une préparation à l'éternité, la sérénité ne le quittait jamais. Il avoua bonnement: «Il me semble que Dieu fait de moi Son jouet et qu'Il me berce.» L'épreuve de la maladie s'ajouta bientôt à celle de la réclusion. Devenu semblable à un squelette, il ne cessa cependant de travailler en écrivant des traités moraux, un traité sur la Passion, et même de joyeuses satires.
L'intensité de sa prière conservait sa force d'âme: «Donne-moi Ta grâce, Dieu bon, pour que je compte pour rien le monde et fixe mon esprit sur Toi.» Il disait à sa chère fille Marguerite: «Si je sens la frayeur sur le point de me vaincre, je me rappellerai comment un souffle de vent faillit faire faire naufrage à Pierre parce que sa foi avait faibli. Je ferai donc comme lui, j'appellerai le Christ à mon secours.»
On accusa saint Thomas More de haute trahison parce qu'il niait la suprématie spirituelle du roi. Lorsque le simulacre de jugement qui le condamnait à être décapité fut terminé, le courageux confesseur de la foi n'eut que des paroles de réconfort pour tous ceux qui pleuraient sa mort imminente et injuste. A la foule des spectateurs, il demanda de prier pour lui et de porter témoignage qu'il mourait dans la foi et pour la foi de la Sainte Église catholique. Sir Kingston, connu pour son coeur impitoyable, lui fit ses adieux en sanglotant. Il récita pieusement le Miserere au pied de l'échafaud. Il demanda de l'aide pour monter sur l'échafaud: «Pour la descente, ajouta-t-il avec humour, je m'en tirerai bien tout seul.» Il embrassa son bourreau: «Courage, mon brave, n'aie pas peur, mais comme j'ai le cou très court, attention! il y va de ton honneur.» Il se banda les yeux et se plaça lui-même sur la planche.
Béatifié par Léon XIII le 29 décembre 1886, sa canonisation eut lieu le 19 mai 1935.
Tiré de: Frères des Ecoles Chrétiennes, Vies des Saints, Edition 1932, p. 234-235 -- Marteau de Langle de Cary, 1959, tome II, p. 37-42.
LETTRE APOSTOLIQUE
EN FORME DE MOTU PROPRIO
POUR LA PROCLAMATION DE SAINT THOMAS MORE
COMME PATRON DES RESPONSABLES DE GOUVERNEMENT
ET DES HOMMES POLITIQUES
JEAN-PAUL II
EN PERPÉTUELLE MÉMOIRE
1. De la vie et du martyre de saint Thomas More se dégage un message qui traverse les siècles et qui parle aux hommes de tous temps de la dignité inaliénable de la conscience, dans laquelle, comme le rappelle le Concile Vatican II, réside «le centre le plus secret de l’homme et le sanctuaire où il est seul avec Dieu dont la voix se fait entendre dans ce lieu le plus intime» (Gaudium et spes, n. 16). Quand l’homme et la femme écoutent le rappel de la vérité, la conscience oriente avec sûreté leurs actes vers le bien. C’est précisément pour son témoignage de la primauté de la vérité sur le pouvoir, rendu jusqu’à l’effusion du sang, que saint Thomas More est vénéré comme exemple permanent de cohérence morale. Même en dehors de l’Église, particulièrement parmi ceux qui sont appelés à guider les destinées des peuples, sa figure est reconnue comme source d’inspiration pour une politique qui se donne comme fin suprême le service de la personne humaine.
Certains Chefs d’État et de gouvernement, de nombreux responsables politiques, quelques Conférences épiscopales et des évêques individuellement m’ont récemment adressé des pétitions en faveur de la proclamation de saint Thomas More comme Patron des Responsables de gouvernement et des hommes politiques. Parmi les signataires de la demande, on trouve des personnalités de diverses provenances politiques, culturelles et religieuses, ce qui témoigne d’un intérêt à la fois vif et très répandu pour la pensée et le comportement de cet insigne homme de gouvernement.
2. Thomas More a connu une carrière politique extraordinaire dans son pays. Né à Londres en 1478 dans une famille respectable, il fut placé dès sa jeunesse au service de l’Archevêque de Cantorbéry, John Morton, Chancelier du Royaume. Il étudia ensuite le droit à Oxford et à Londres, élargissant ses centres d’intérêts à de vastes secteurs de la culture, de la théologie et de la littérature classique. Il apprit à fond le grec et il établit des rapports d’échanges et d’amitié avec d’importants protagonistes de la culture de la Renaissance, notamment Didier Érasme de Rotterdam.
Sa sensibilité religieuse le conduisit à rechercher la vie vertueuse à travers une pratique ascétique assidue: il cultiva l’amitié avec les Frères mineurs de la stricte observance du couvent de Greenwich, et pendant un certain temps il logea à la Chartreuse de Londres, deux des principaux centres de ferveur religieuse dans le Royaume. Se sentant appelé au mariage, à la vie familiale et à l’engagement laïc, il épousa en 1505 Jane Colt, dont il eut quatre enfants. Jane mourut en 1511 et Thomas épousa en secondes noces Alice Middleton, qui était veuve et avait une fille. Durant toute sa vie, il fut un mari et un père affectueux et fidèle, veillant avec soin à l’éducation religieuse, morale et intellectuelle de ses enfants. Dans sa maison, il accueillait ses gendres, ses belles-filles et ses petits-enfants, et sa porte était ouverte à beaucoup de jeunes amis à la recherche de la vérité ou de leur vocation. D’autre part, la vie familiale faisait une large place à la prière commune et à la lectio divina, comme aussi à de saines formes de récréation. Thomas participait chaque jour à la messe dans l’église paroissiale, mais les pénitences austères auxquelles il se livrait n’étaient connues que de ses proches les plus intimes.
3. En 1504, sous le roi Henri VII, il accéda pour la première fois au parlement. Henri VIII renouvela son mandat en 1510 et il l’établit également représentant de la Couronne dans la capitale, lui ouvrant une carrière remarquable dans l’administration publique. Dans la décennie qui suivit, le roi l’envoya à diverses reprises, pour des missions diplomatiques et commerciales, dans les Flandres et dans le territoire de la France actuelle. Nommé membre du Conseil de la Couronne, juge président d’un tribunal important, vice-trésorier et chevalier, il devint en 1523 porte-parole, c’est-à-dire président, de la Chambre des Communes.
Universellement estimé pour son indéfectible intégrité morale, pour la finesse de son intelligence, pour son caractère ouvert et enjoué, pour son érudition extraordinaire, en 1529, à une époque de crise politique et économique dans le pays, il fut nommé par le roi Chancelier du Royaume. Premier laïc à occuper cette charge, Thomas fit face à une période extrêmement difficile, s’efforçant de servir le roi et le pays. Fidèle à ses principes, il s’employa à promouvoir la justice et à endiguer l’influence délétère de ceux qui poursuivaient leur propre intérêt au détriment des plus faibles. En 1532, ne voulant pas donner son appui au projet d’Henri VIII qui voulait prendre le contrôle de l’Église en Angleterre, il présenta sa démission. Il se retira de la vie publique, acceptant de supporter avec sa famille la pauvreté et l’abandon de beaucoup de personnes qui, dans l’épreuve, se révélèrent de faux amis.
Constatant la fermeté inébranlable avec laquelle il refusait tout compromis avec sa conscience, le roi le fit emprisonner en 1534 dans la Tour de Londres, où il fut soumis à diverses formes de pression psychologique. Thomas More ne se laissa pas impressionner et refusa de prêter le serment qu’on lui demandait parce qu’il comportait l’acceptation d’une plate-forme politique et ecclésiastique qui préparait le terrain à un despotisme sans contrôle. Au cours du procès intenté contre lui, il prononça une apologie passionnée de ses convictions sur l’indissolubilité du mariage, le respect du patrimoine juridique inspiré par les valeurs chrétiennes, la liberté de l’Église face à l’État. Condamné par le Tribunal, il fut décapité.
Au cours des siècles qui suivirent, la discrimination à l’égard de l’Église s’atténua. En 1850, la hiérarchie catholique fut rétablie en Angleterre. Il fut alors possible d’engager les causes de canonisation de nombreux martyrs. Thomas More fut béatifié par le Pape Léon XIII en 1886, en même temps que cinquante-trois autres martyrs, dont l’évêque John Fischer. Avec ce dernier, il fut canonisé par Pie XI en 1935, à l’occasion du quatrième centenaire de son martyre.
4. De nombreuses raisons militent en faveur de la proclamation de saint Thomas More comme Patron des Responsables de gouvernement et des hommes politiques. Entre autres, le besoin ressenti par le monde politique et administratif d’avoir des modèles crédibles qui indiquent le chemin de la vérité en une période historique où se multiplient de lourds défis et de graves responsabilités. Aujourd’hui, en effet, des phénomènes économiques fortement innovateurs sont en train de modifier les structures sociales; d’autre part, les conquêtes scientifiques dans le secteur des biotechnologies renforcent la nécessité de défendre la vie humaine sous toutes ses formes, tandis que les promesses d’une société nouvelle, proposées avec succès à une opinion publique déconcertée, requièrent d’urgence des choix politiques clairs en faveur de la famille, des jeunes, des personnes âgées et des marginaux.
Dans ce contexte, il est bon de revenir à l’exemple de saint Thomas More, qui se distingua par sa constante fidélité à l’autorité et aux institutions légitimes, précisément parce qu’il entendait servir en elles non le pouvoir mais l’idéal suprême de la justice. Sa vie nous enseigne que le gouvernement est avant tout un exercice de vertus. Fort de cette rigoureuse assise morale, cet homme d’État anglais mit son activité publique au service de la personne, surtout quand elle est faible ou pauvre; il géra les controverses sociales avec un grand sens de l’équité; il protégea la famille et la défendit avec une détermination inlassable; il promut l’éducation intégrale de la jeunesse. Son profond détachement des honneurs et des richesses, son humilité sereine et joviale, sa connaissance équilibrée de la nature humaine et de la vanité du succès, sa sûreté de jugement enracinée dans la foi, lui donnèrent la force intérieure pleine de confiance qui le soutint dans l’adversité et face à la mort. Sa sainteté resplendit dans le martyre, mais elle fut préparée par une vie entière de travail dans le dévouement à Dieu et au prochain.
Mentionnant des exemples semblables de parfaite harmonie entre la foi et les œuvres, j’ai écrit dans l’exhortation apostolique post-synodale Christifideles laici que «l’unité de la vie des fidèles laïcs est d’une importance extrême : ils doivent en effet se sanctifier dans la vie ordinaire, professionnelle et sociale. Afin qu’ils puissent répondre à leur vocation, les fidèles laïcs doivent donc considérer les activités de la vie quotidienne comme une occasion d’union à Dieu et d’accomplissement de sa volonté, comme aussi de service envers les autres hommes» (n. 17).
Cette harmonie entre le naturel et le surnaturel est l’élément qui décrit peut-être plus que tout autre la personnalité du grand homme d’État anglais : il vécut son intense vie publique avec une humilité toute simple, marquée par son humour bien connu, même aux portes de la mort.
Tel est le but où le conduisit sa passion pour la vérité. On ne peut séparer l’homme de Dieu, ni la politique de la morale; telle est la lumière qui éclaira sa conscience. Comme j’ai déjà eu l’occasion de le dire, «l’homme est une créature de Dieu, et c’est pourquoi les droits de l’homme ont en Dieu leur origine, ils reposent dans le dessein de la création et ils entrent dans le plan de la rédemption. On pourrait presque dire, d’une façon audacieuse, que les droits de l’homme sont aussi les droits de Dieu» (Discours du 7 avril 1998 aux participants à la Rencontre universitaire internationale UNIV’98).
Et c’est précisément dans la défense des droits de la conscience que l’exemple de Thomas More brilla d’une lumière intense. On peut dire qu’il vécut d’une manière singulière la valeur d’une conscience morale qui est «témoignage de Dieu lui-même, dont la voix et le jugement pénètrent l'intime de l'homme jusqu'aux racines de son âme» (Encyclique Veritatis splendor, n. 58), même si, en ce qui concerne l’action contre les hérétiques, il fut tributaire des limites de la culture de son temps.
Le Concile œcuménique Vatican II, dans la constitution Gaudium et spes, remarque que, dans le monde contemporain, grandit «la conscience de l’éminente dignité qui revient à la personne humaine, du fait qu’elle l’emporte sur toute chose et que ses droits et devoirs sont universels et inviolables» (n. 26). L’histoire de saint Thomas More illustre clairement une vérité fondamentale de l’éthique politique. En effet, la défense de la liberté de l’Église contre des ingérences indues de l’État est en même temps défense, au nom de la primauté de la conscience, de la liberté de la personne par rapport au pouvoir politique. C’est là le principe fondamental de tout ordre civil, conforme à la nature de l’homme.
5 Je suis donc certain que l’élévation de l’éminente figure de saint Thomas More au rang de Patron des Responsables de gouvernement et des hommes politiques pourvoira au bien de la société. C’est là d’ailleurs une initiative qui est en pleine syntonie avec l’esprit du grand Jubilé, qui conduit au troisième millénaire chrétien.
En conséquence, après mûre considération, accueillant volontiers les demandes qui m’ont été adressées, j’établis et je déclare Patron céleste des Responsables de gouvernement et des hommes politiques saint Thomas More, et je décide que doivent lui être attribués tous les honneurs et les privilèges liturgiques qui reviennent, selon le droit, aux Patrons de catégories de personnes.
Béni et glorifié soit Jésus Christ, Rédempteur de l’homme, hier, aujourd’hui, à jamais.
Donné à Rome, près de Saint-Pierre, le 31 octobre 2000, en la vingt-troisième année de mon Pontificat.
IOANNES PAULUS PP. II
© Copyright 2000 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
INTRODUCTION
Thomas More écrivit en latin et en anglais. Au début de sa carrière, il semble hésiter entre les deux langues. La Vie (inachevée) de Richard III existe dans une version latine et dans une version anglaise. On a de lui des poésies en anglais et d'autres en latin. Puis, le latin l'emporte. C'est en latin qu'il écrit l'Utopie, commencée aux Pays-Bas pendant l'été de 1515, achevée à Londres l'année suivante, imprimée pour la première fois à Louvain par Thierry Martens en 1516. L'ouvrage eut un tel succès qu'on pouvait s'attendre à voir l'auteur continuer dans cette veine, et dans la langue qui faisait de l'Europe humaniste une seule et même patrie intellectuelle. Il n'en est rien. Dès 1520, il revient exclusivement à la préoccupation essentielle de sa jeunesse, qui avait été toute tournée vers la vie religieuse, à telle enseigne qu'il avait songé à entrer dans les ordres. À 42 ans (il est né en 1480), More est l'un des premiers avocats de Londres, très apprécié de Henry VIII qui a 29 ans et qui est encore un fervent catholique, au point de vouloir ferrailler contre Luther. Ce dernier ayant publié la Captivité de Babylone, le roi y répondit par une Défense des Sept Sacrements, à laquelle More a probablement collaboré. Sous le nom de Gulielmus Rosseus, More publia encore une Réponse aux injures de Martin Luther, où il se montre aussi peu modéré que son adversaire. C'était le ton en usage à cette époque. Toutes ces polémiques sont en latin. Elles expriment mal le génie véritable de More. Celui-ci n'était nullement fait pour la querelle, fût-elle théologique. Il était fait pour s'adresser aux gens de son pays, et pour leur exprimer, avec toute sa courtoisie, toute sa gentillesse naturelle, ce qu'il pensait de la religion du Christ et du rôle qu'elle devait jouer dans la vie de chacun.
Le désir de propager une doctrine religieuse a joué un rôle capital dans le développement des langues que l'on appelait alors, par opposition au latin, les langues vulgaires. C'est pour atteindre le peuple que Luther a écrit en allemand, Calvin en français, que Tyndale, bientôt passé à l'hérésie, traduisit la Bible en anglais. Si Érasme avait suivi le mouvement, toute l'histoire des lettres néerlandaises aurait été modifiée. Thomas More, dès 1522, renonce au latin et il écrit en anglais, ce qui revient à dire qu'il préfère toucher les simples plutôt que de rester dans le cercle des doctes. Ce choix a fait de lui un des fondateurs de la prose anglaise. Il écrit une série d'œuvres, souvent conçues sous forme de dialogues, qui circulèrent certainement de son vivant, au moins en manuscrits. Mais, à partir de 1530, les rapports se tendirent entre Henry VIII et le pape. Le roi voulait divorcer d'avec Catherine d'Aragon pour épouser Anne Boleyn et le pape s'y opposait. More, dans l'intervalle, était devenu Sir Thomas et chancelier d'Angleterre. Il ne pouvait admettre que l'on désobéît au pape, et il finit par remettre au roi sa démission de chancelier. Puis, ce qui était plus grave, il refusa le serment d'obéissance en matière religieuse, que le roi exigeait. Cela lui valut d'être jugé, condamné pour trahison envers son souverain, enfermé pendant quinze mois à la Tour et finalement décapité, sa tête plongée ensuite dans l'eau bouillante pour qu'elle ne pût devenir objet de vénération. Cela se passait le 6 juillet 1535. Henry vécut jusqu'en 1547. Les œuvres religieuses de Thomas More ne purent donc pas être imprimées à Londres avant la parenthèse catholique marquée par le règne de Marie Tudor. Elles parurent en 1557. C'est un gros volume en lettres gothiques où figurent seulement les textes anglais.
Ces ouvrages, le Traité des fins dernières, le Dialogue concernant les hérésies et plusieurs sujets religieux, la Supplique des âmes du purgatoire, la Réfutation contre Tyndale, le Dialogue sur le réconfort dans les tribulations enfin, tous ont les mêmes qualités. Une bonhomie, une humanité charmantes s'y marquent constamment, le goût le plus simple et le plus vif pour la vie quotidienne observée d'un regard amusé et pénétrant. Le Dialogue concernant les hérésies traite de diverses matières telles que la vénération des images et reliques, les prières aux saints, les pèlerinages, toutes questions brûlantes puisque la propagande protestante portait précisément sur ces points. On y trouvera aussi, dit le titre, « bien d'autres choses touchant la pestilentielle secte de Luther et Tyndale ». Voilà, semble-t-il, une déclaration de guerre. Mais ouvrons le volume. L'auteur suppose qu'un de ses amis lui communique par l'intermédiaire d'un messager certains doutes concernant le catholicisme orthodoxe. More reçoit le messager, l'écoute attentivement, cherche à comprendre son point de vue et le réfute fermement, mais jamais sans se déprendre d'une parfaite tolérance. En cours de route, il raconte des anecdotes, comme celle du faux miraculé Saint-Alban, que Shakespeare a repris dans la seconde partie Henry VII (II, I). On trouvera dans le présent ouvrage plus d'un intermède de ce genre, empreint tantôt de la gaillardise des fabliaux, tantôt de la sagesse populaire des contes d'animaux. Voyez la charmante fable de l'Âne et du Loup qui s'en vont à confesse. More semble bien y avoir réuni deux histoires différentes : l'Âne avec son sage confesseur et le Renard confesseur du Loup, aussi peu recommandable que son pénitent. Elles s'accordent vaille que vaille pour illustrer cette morale qu'il n'est pas bon d'avoir, trop de scrupules, mais que cela vaut mieux encore que de n'en avoir point du tout.
Partout rayonne le profond, le tonique optimisme de More en matière de religion et de morale, sa confiance dans la raison humaine et dans la bonté de Dieu.
« Ces luthériens sont fous qui voudraient maintenant tout balayer, excepté l'Écriture, toute science, laquelle me paraît devoir être et avoir toujours été rangée opportunément au service de la théologie. Et, comme l'a dit saint Jérôme, les Hébreux ont bien pris les dépouilles des Égyptiens, les sages du Christ ont pris des auteurs païens la richesse, la science et la sagesse que Dieu leur avait données et les ont employées au service de la théologie pour le bénéfice des enfants choisis par Dieu en Israël pour être l'Église du Christ, païens au cœur dur devenus enfants d'Abraham » (English Works, p. 154).
Pour More en effet, la tradition chrétienne n'est pas seulement constituée par l'Écriture, comme le veulent les protestants, mais aussi par toute l'interprétation qu'en a donnée et qu'en donne encore l'Église éternelle, et, enfin, par la foi vécue et pratiquée à l'intérieur de la communauté chrétienne. C'est pourquoi celui qui veut retourner aux sources de la vie religieuse ne peut se dispenser de lire, avec les deux Testaments, les Pères et les Docteurs. Contre l'orgueil des mystiques qui prétendent trouver Dieu dans un élan autonome venu du fond de leur être, More établit la nécessité des études et l'utilité de la raison mise au service de la foi. Puis, toujours, il revient à la vie quotidienne et tire de l'expérience des leçons modestes et justes.
Parmi tous les ouvrages religieux de More en langue anglaise, le Dialogue du réconfort contre la tribulation occupe une place toute particulière. More l'a écrit à la Tour en 1534, pendant la longue et pénible captivité qui devait se terminer par son supplice. On pouvait difficilement imaginer une tribulation plus accablante et moins méritée. Nul doute qu'il n'ait souvent pensé à lui-même et demandé à Dieu la grâce de faire servir l'épreuve à son salut. Et cependant, nulle part n'affleure la moindre préoccupation personnelle, la moindre revendication, la moindre aigreur. Repris comme au temps de l'Utopie par le goût de la fiction, More veut que l'ouvrage ait été écrit en latin par un Hongrois, traduit du latin en français puis du français en anglais, après quoi il parle de Budapest le plus sérieusement du monde, comme s'il y avait été. Il avait un certain mérite à monter cette mystification dans les conditions où il était. Au cours de tout le traité, sa malicieuse bonhomie est aussi allègre que dans ses livres précédents. La Tour était cependant un séjour terrible et le prisonnier ne gardait aucune illusion sur le sort qui l'attendait. C'est bien l'homme qui écrivait à sa fille, à la fin de sa détention :
« Le Seigneur me garde véridique, fidèle et loyal. Sans cela, je le prie de tout mon cœur de ne pas me laisser vivre. Car pour ce qui est d'une longue vie, comme je vous l'ai souvent dit, Meg, je ne l'ai jamais envisagée ni désirée et je suis prêt à m'en aller si Dieu m'appelle d'ici demain. Et grâce à Dieu je ne connais aucune personne vivante que je voudrais voir affligée d'une chiquenaude pour ma vie sauve : de cela je suis plus heureux que de tout le reste. »
Et ailleurs il lui donne rendez-vous dans le ciel, « pour y être tous gais ensemble », « merry together »... Jamais il ne perdit cette sérénité.
Le Dialogue n'est pas la dernière des œuvres qu'il écrivit pendant sa captivité. Au cours des dernières semaines de sa vie, il rédigea des méditations sur la Passion du Sauveur. Pour cette Expositio Passionis, il revint au latin de ses jeunes années. Il ne put terminer l'ouvrage. Les dernières lignes qu'il écrivit sont des réflexions sur le moment où les soldats s'emparent de Jésus après la nuit au Mont des Oliviers. Il faut s'imaginer Sir Thomas interrompu à cet endroit, posant la plume, se levant et suivant, avec sa courtoisie habituelle, les soldats qui l'emmènent vers le bourreau et le supplice.
Marie Delcourt. « Introduction » à SAINT THOMAS MORE. Dialogue du réconfort dans les tribulations
Saint Thomas More
( 1478 - 1535 )
Saint Thomas More naquit à Londres, le 7 février 1478. Son père remplissait la fonction de juge, dans la capitale. Thomas passa quelques-unes de ses premières années en qualité de page, au service du cardinal Morton, alors archevêque de Cantorbéry et chancelier d’Angleterre. A l’âge de quatorze ans, il alla étudier à Oxford où il fit de sérieuses études juridiques et suivit les conférences sur la Cité de Dieu, de saint Augustin.
En 1501, Thomas More était reçu avocat et élu membre du Parlement trois ans plus tard. Après quelques années de mariage, il perdit sa femme et demeura seul avec ses quatre enfants : trois filles et un fils. Il ne se remariera que beaucoup plus tard, avec une veuve. En père vigilant, il veillait à ce que Dieu restât le centre de la vie de ses enfants. Le soir, il récitait la prière avec eux ; aux repas, une de ses filles lisait un passage de l’Ecriture Sainte et on discutait ensuite sur le texte en conversant gaiement. Jamais la science, ni la vertu, ne prirent un visage austère dans sa demeure ; sa piété n’en était cependant pas moins profonde. Saint Thomas More entendait la messe tous les jours ; en plus de ses prières du matin et du soir, il récitait les psaumes quotidiennement.
Sa valeur le fit nommer Maître des Requêtes et conseiller privé du roi. En 1529, Thomas More remplaça le défunt cardinal Wolsey dans la charge de Lord chancelier. Celui qui n’avait jamais recherché les honneurs ni désiré une haute situation se trouvait placé au sommet des dignités humaines. Les succès, pas plus que les afflictions, n’eurent de prise sur sa force de caractère.
Lorsque Henri VIII voulut divorcer pour épouser Anne Boleyn, et qu’il prétendit devant l’opposition formelle du pape, se proclamer chef de l’Eglise d’Angleterre, saint Thomas More blâma la conduite de son suzerain. Dès lors, les bonnes grâces du roi se changèrent en hostilité ouverte contre lui. Le roi le renvoya sans aucune ressource, car saint Thomas versait au fur à mesure tous ses revenus dans le sein des pauvres. Le jour où il apprit que ses granges avaient été incendiées, il écrivit à sa femme de rendre grâces à Dieu pour cette épreuve.
Le 12 avril 1554, l’ex-chancelier fut invité à prononcer le serment qui reconnaissait Anne Boleyn comme épouse légitime et rejetait l’autorité du pape. Saint Thomas rejeta noblement toute espèce de compromis avec sa conscience et refusa de donner son appui à l’adultère et au schisme. Après un second refus réitéré le 17 avril, on l’emprisonna à la Tour de Londres. Il vécut dans le recueillement et la prière durant les quatorze mois de son injuste incarcération.
Comme il avait fait de toute sa vie une préparation à l’éternité, la sérénité ne le quittait jamais. Il avoua bonnement : « Il me semble que Dieu fait de moi Son jouet et qu’Il me berce. » L’épreuve de la maladie s’ajouta bientôt à celle de la réclusion. Devenu semblable à un squelette, il ne cessa cependant de travailler en écrivant des traités moraux, un traité sur la Passion, et même de joyeuses satires.
L’intensité de sa prière conservait sa force d’âme : « Donne-moi Ta grâce, Dieu bon, pour que je compte pour rien le monde et fixe mon esprit sur Toi. » Il disait à sa chère fille Marguerite : « Si je sens la frayeur sur le point de me vaincre, je me rappellerai comment un souffle de vent faillit faire faire naufrage à Pierre parce que sa foi avait faibli. Je ferai donc comme lui, j’appellerai le Christ à mon secours. »
On accusa saint Thomas More de haute trahison parce qu’il niait la suprématie spirituelle du roi. Lorsque le simulacre de jugement qui le condamnait à être décapité fut terminé, le courageux confesseur de la foi n’eut que des paroles de réconfort pour tous ceux qui pleuraient sa mort imminente et injuste. A la foule des spectateurs, il demanda de prier pour lui et de porter témoignage qu’il mourait dans la foi et pour la foi de la Sainte Église catholique. Sir Kingston, connu pour son coeur impitoyable, lui fit ses adieux en sanglotant. Il récita pieusement le Miserere au pied de l’échafaud. Il demanda de l’aide pour monter sur l’échafaud : « Pour la descente, ajouta-t-il avec humour, je m’en tirerai bien tout seul. » Il embrassa son bourreau : « Courage, mon brave, n’aie pas peur, mais comme j’ai le cou très court, attention ! il y va de ton honneur. » Il se banda les yeux et se plaça lui-même sur la planche.
Béatifié par Léon XIII le 29 décembre 1886, sa canonisation eut lieu le 19 mai 1935.
APOSTOLIC LETTER
ISSUED MOTU PROPRIO
PROCLAIMING SAINT THOMAS MORE
PATRON OF STATESMEN AND POLITICIANS
POPE JOHN PAUL II
FOR PERPETUAL REMEMBRANCE
1. The life and martyrdom of Saint Thomas More have been the source of a message which spans the centuries and which speaks to people everywhere of the inalienable dignity of the human conscience, which, as the Second Vatican Council reminds us, is "the most intimate centre and sanctuary of a person, in which he or she is alone with God, whose voice echoes within them" (Gaudium et Spes, 16). Whenever men or women heed the call of truth, their conscience then guides their actions reliably towards good. Precisely because of the witness which he bore, even at the price of his life, to the primacy of truth over power, Saint Thomas More is venerated as an imperishable example of moral integrity. And even outside the Church, particularly among those with responsibility for the destinies of peoples, he is acknowledged as a source of inspiration for a political system which has as its supreme goal the service of the human person.
Recently, several Heads of State and of Government, numerous political figures, and some Episcopal Conferences and individual Bishops have asked me to proclaim Saint Thomas More the Patron of Statesmen and Politicians. Those supporting this petition include people from different political, cultural and religious allegiances, and this is a sign of the deep and widespread interest in the thought and activity of this outstanding Statesman.
2. Thomas More had a remarkable political career in his native land. Born in London in 1478 of a respectable family, as a young boy he was placed in the service of the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Morton, Lord Chancellor of the Realm. He then studied law at Oxford and London, while broadening his interests in the spheres of culture, theology and classical literature. He mastered Greek and enjoyed the company and friendship of important figures of Renaissance culture, including Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.
His sincere religious sentiment led him to pursue virtue through the assiduous practice of asceticism: he cultivated friendly relations with the Observant Franciscans of the Friary at Greenwich, and for a time he lived at the London Charterhouse, these being two of the main centres of religious fervour in the Kingdom. Feeling himself called to marriage, family life and dedication as a layman, in 1505 he married Jane Colt, who bore him four children. Jane died in 1511 and Thomas then married Alice Middleton, a widow with one daughter. Throughout his life he was an affectionate and faithful husband and father, deeply involved in his children’s religious, moral and intellectual education. His house offered a welcome to his children’s spouses and his grandchildren, and was always open to his many young friends in search of the truth or of their own calling in life. Family life also gave him ample opportunity for prayer in common and lectio divina, as well as for happy and wholesome relaxation. Thomas attended daily Mass in the parish church, but the austere penances which he practised were known only to his immediate family.
3. He was elected to Parliament for the first time in 1504 under King Henry VII. The latter’s successor Henry VIII renewed his mandate in 1510, and even made him the Crown’s representative in the capital. This launched him on a prominent career in public administration. During the following decade the King sent him on several diplomatic and commercial missions to Flanders and the territory of present-day France. Having been made a member of the King’s Council, presiding judge of an important tribunal, deputy treasurer and a knight, in 1523 he became Speaker of the House of Commons.
Highly esteemed by everyone for his unfailing moral integrity, sharpness of mind, his open and humorous character, and his extraordinary learning, in 1529 at a time of political and economic crisis in the country he was appointed by the King to the post of Lord Chancellor. The first layman to occupy this position, Thomas faced an extremely difficult period, as he sought to serve King and country. In fidelity to his principles, he concentrated on promoting justice and restraining the harmful influence of those who advanced their own interests at the expense of the weak. In 1532, not wishing to support Henry VIII’s intention to take control of the Church in England, he resigned. He withdrew from public life, resigning himself to suffering poverty with his family and being deserted by many people who, in the moment of trial, proved to be false friends.
Given his inflexible firmness in rejecting any compromise with his own conscience, in 1534 the King had him imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he was subjected to various kinds of psychological pressure. Thomas More did not allow himself to waver, and he refused to take the oath requested of him, since this would have involved accepting a political and ecclesiastical arrangement that prepared the way for uncontrolled despotism. At his trial, he made an impassioned defence of his own convictions on the indissolubility of marriage, the respect due to the juridical patrimony of Christian civilization, and the freedom of the Church in her relations with the State. Condemned by the Court, he was beheaded.
With the passing of the centuries discrimination against the Church diminished. In 1850 the English Catholic Hierarchy was re-established. This made it possible to initiate the causes of many martyrs. Thomas More, together with 53 other martyrs, including Bishop John Fisher, was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886. And with John Fisher, he was canonized by Pius XI in 1935, on the fourth centenary of his martyrdom.
4. There are many reasons for proclaiming Thomas More Patron of statesmen and people in public life. Among these is the need felt by the world of politics and public administration for credible role models able to indicate the path of truth at a time in history when difficult challenges and crucial responsibilities are increasing. Today in fact strongly innovative economic forces are reshaping social structures; on the other hand, scientific achievements in the area of biotechnology underline the need to defend human life at all its different stages, while the promises of a new society — successfully presented to a bewildered public opinion — urgently demand clear political decisions in favour of the family, young people, the elderly and the marginalized.
In this context, it is helpful to turn to the example of Saint Thomas More, who distinguished himself by his constant fidelity to legitimate authority and institutions precisely in his intention to serve not power but the supreme ideal of justice. His life teaches us that government is above all an exercise of virtue. Unwavering in this rigorous moral stance, this English statesman placed his own public activity at the service of the person, especially if that person was weak or poor; he dealt with social controversies with a superb sense of fairness; he was vigorously committed to favouring and defending the family; he supported the all-round education of the young. His profound detachment from honours and wealth, his serene and joyful humility, his balanced knowledge of human nature and of the vanity of success, his certainty of judgement rooted in faith: these all gave him that confident inner strength that sustained him in adversity and in the face of death. His sanctity shone forth in his martyrdom, but it had been prepared by an entire life of work devoted to God and neighbour.
Referring to similar examples of perfect harmony between faith and action, in my Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici I wrote: "The unity of life of the lay faithful is of the greatest importance: indeed they must be sanctified in everyday professional and social life. Therefore, to respond to their vocation, the lay faithful must see their daily activities as an occasion to join themselves to God, fulfil his will, serve other people and lead them to communion with God in Christ" (No. 17).
This harmony between the natural and the supernatural is perhaps the element which more than any other defines the personality of this great English statesman: he lived his intense public life with a simple humility marked by good humour, even at the moment of his execution.
This was the height to which he was led by his passion for the truth. What enlightened his conscience was the sense that man cannot be sundered from God, nor politics from morality. As I have already had occasion to say, "man is created by God, and therefore human rights have their origin in God, are based upon the design of creation and form part of the plan of redemption. One might even dare to say that the rights of man are also the rights of God" (Speech, 7 April 1998).
And it was precisely in defence of the rights of conscience that the example of Thomas More shone brightly. It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience which is "the witness of God himself, whose voice and judgment penetrate the depths of man’s soul" (Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, 58), even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time.
In the Constitution Gaudium et Spes, the Second Vatican Council notes how in the world today there is "a growing awareness of the matchless dignity of the human person, who is superior to all else and whose rights and duties are universal and inviolable" (No. 26). The life of Saint Thomas More clearly illustrates a fundamental truth of political ethics. The defence of the Church’s freedom from unwarranted interference by the State is at the same time a defence, in the name of the primacy of conscience, of the individual’s freedom vis-à-vis political power. Here we find the basic principle of every civil order consonant with human nature.
5. I am confident therefore that the proclamation of the outstanding figure of Saint Thomas More as Patron of Statesmen and Politicians will redound to the good of society. It is likewise a gesture fully in keeping with the spirit of the Great Jubilee which carries us into the Third Christian Millennium.
Therefore, after due consideration and willingly acceding to the petitions addressed to me, I establish and declare Saint Thomas More the heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians, and I decree that he be ascribed all the liturgical honours and privileges which, according to law, belong to the Patrons of categories of people.
Blessed and glorified be Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of man, yesterday, today and for ever.
Given at Saint Peter’s, on the thirty-first day of October in the year 2000, the twenty-third of my Pontificate.
IOANNES PAULUS PP. II
© Copyright 2000 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SAINT THOMAS MORE MARTYR, CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND—1535
Feast: July 9
Twice in the history of England there appears the figure of a great martyr who was also chancellor of the realm. Thomas Becket, whose story appears earlier in this volume, gave his life to keep the English Church safe from royal aggression; Thomas More gave his in a vain effort to preserve it from further aggression. Each was a royal favorite who loved God more than his king. The coincidence is striking, although on closer comparison the differences are also striking; first, those of time and status, between the high ecclesiastic of the late twelfth century and the layman of the Renaissance; and, more importantly, the differences in character and way of life.
Thomas More's father was a highly-esteemed citizen of London, Sir John More, lawyer and judge; his mother was Agnes, daughter of Thomas Grainger. He was born on Milk Street, Cheapside, on February 7, 1478. As a child he was sent to St. Anthony's School in Threadneedle Street, whose director, Nicholas Holt, a fine Latin scholar, taught boys of good family their classics. At the age of thirteen Thomas was taken into the household of John Morton, archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor, who was soon to become a cardinal. It had long been a custom for promising youths to be placed in the homes of noblemen and ranking churchmen to learn the ways of great gentlefolk.
Thomas admired Morton and he, fortunately, liked the boy, and was instrumental in having him sent on to Canterbury College, Oxford Sir John More was very strict with his son, allowing him money only for necessities. Later in life Thomas admitted that his father's parsimony during this period had the good effect of keeping him at the studies which he really loved. Linacre, the finest Greek scholar in England, was his tutor and inspired him with such a zest for Greek literature that his father feared for the legal career he had planned for his son, and called him home after only two years at the university. By this time Thomas knew Greek, French, and mathematics, spoke Latin as well as English, and could play the lute and the viol-all proper accomplishments for a young gentleman of that day.
In February, 1496, he was admitted as a student to Lincoln's Inn; in 1501, at twenty- three, he was called to the bar, and for three years thereafter was reader in law at Furnival's Inn; then he entered Parliament. He was already a close friend of the eminent Dutch humanist, Desiderius Erasmus, who had been teaching Greek at Cambridge and Oxford. Among other friends were Colet, the scholarly dean of St. Paul's, and William Lilly, with whom he composed epigrams in Latin from the Greek Anthology. He lectured on St. Augustine's at the church of St. Lawrence Jewry, of which William Grocyn was rector. All in all, Thomas More was a versatile, brilliant, and successful young man, as well as extremely popular and charming. Of his sense of humor, Erasmus wrote, "From childhood he had such a love for witty jests that he seemed to have been sent into the world for the sole purpose of coining them; he never descends to buffoonery, but gravity and dignity were never made for him. He is always amiable and good-tempered, and puts everyone who meets him in a happy frame of mind."
More was seriously perplexed as to his vocation. He was strongly attracted by the austere life of the Carthusian monks, and had some leaning too towards the Friars Minor of the Observance; but there seemed to be no real call to either the monastic life or the secular priesthood. Though he remained a man of the world, he kept throughout life certain ascetic practices; for many years he wore a hair shirt next his skin, and followed the rules of Church discipline for Fridays and vigils; every day he assisted at a Mass and recited the Little Office of Our Lady.
At about this time More met a certain John Colt of Essex, and became acquainted with his family, which included three daughters. More now took the decisive step of marriage, choosing the eldest daughter, Jane. According to his son-in-law, William Roper,[1] he thought the second daughter fairest, "yet when he considered it would be both great grief and some shame also to the eldest to see her younger sister preferred before her in marriage, he then, of a certain pity, framed his fancy towards her, and soon after married her." He and Jane were nevertheless very happy together; he set himself to teach her the literary and musical accomplishments which the wife of a man in More's position needed to have.
Four children were born to them, Margaret, Elizabeth, Cecily, and John. In addition, several children of friends were reared in their household, and here More tried out his original ideas in education. The house was for years a center of learning and culture, and of high good spirits as well. The girls were taught as carefully as the boys, a practice for which More had the authority of "prudent and holy ancients," such as St. Jerome and St. Augustine. At mealtime a passage from the Scriptures, with a short commentary, was read aloud by one of the children; afterwards there was singing and merry conversation; cards and dicing were forbidden. Family and servants met together for evening prayers. More himself built and endowed a chapel in his parish church of Chelsea, and even when he had attained the rank of Lord Chancellor he sang in the choir, dressed in the ordinary surplice.
He was extremely sensitive to the sufferings of others. "More was used," wrote a friend, "whenever in his house or in the village he lived in there was a woman in labor, to begin praying, and so continue until news was brought him that the delivery had come happily to pass.... His charity was without bounds, as is proved by the frequent and abundant alms he poured without distinction among all unfortunate persons. He used himself to go through the back lanes and inquire into the state of poor families.... He often invited to his table his poorer neighbors, receiving them . . . familiarly and joyously; he rarely invited the rich, and scarcely ever the nobility.... In his parish of Chelsea he hired a house in which he gathered many infirm, poor, and old people, and maintained them at his own expense." But if the rich were rarely seen at his house, his friends Grocyn, Linacre, Colet, Lilly, and Fisher, all distinguished for scholarship and virtue, were frequent visitors; and famous men from across the Channel sought him out-Erasmus, whom we have spoken of, and Holbein, who has left us a fine portrait of More as well as a beautiful drawing of the More family group.
The first years of his married life were spent in Bucklersbury. Here in spare time More translated from Latin into English the life of the Italian humanist, Pico della Mirandola, and, with Erasmus, some of the second-century satirist, Lucian of Samosata, from Greek into Latin. In 1508 he was abroad visiting the Universities of Louvain and Paris. He may also have had a hand in Erasmus' most popular work, , written in More's house that same year. More had led the opposition in Parliament to excessive royal taxation, and brought the king's ire down on himself and his father, old Sir John More, who was imprisoned in the Tower for a time and fined a hundred pounds. In 1509 King Henry VII died, and the accession of the youthful Henry VIII meant a rise in worldly favor and fortune for the More family. The following year Thomas was elected a bencher of Lincoln's Inn and appointed undersheriff for the city of London, an office of considerable importance.
At almost the same time, his "little Utopia," as More called the family group, was sadly shaken by the death of his dutiful young wife. Since More was preoccupied with many diverse interests and duties, he needed someone to care for the four children. Within a short time, therefore, he married Alice Middleton, a widow seven years his senior, a practical and kindly woman. Erasmus wrote of this marriage: "A few months after his wife's death, he married a widow.... She was neither young nor fair, as he would say laughingly, but an active and vigilant housewife, with whom he lived as pleasantly and sweetly as if she had all the charms of youth. You will scarcely find a husband who by authority or severity has gained such ready compliance as More by playful flattery."
Some years later More bought a new house and garden in Chelsea, then a small country village. It was his home until his death. In 1515 he was away for six months in Flanders, as a member of an English delegation to negotiate new trade agreements with the merchants of the Hanseatic League. In the intervals of leisure between business trips to Antwerp, he now worked on the famous , which he published the following year. There is no space here to discuss fully the significance of this remarkable book. It is proof both of More's thoughtful reading of Plato and of his profound interest in the social, economic, and political problems of his own time. As undersheriff since 1510, he had been brought into contact with much suffering, destitution, injustice, and unemployment. His picture of a commonwealth that was happier and radically different from the realm of England, one that was free from poverty and inequality, was both a challenge to constructive political thinking on the part of the statesmen of Europe and a plea for a better life for people in general. He wrote the book in Latin, that it might be read by the educated everywhere, and since it was both brilliant and provocative, it produced strong reactions- amusement, horror, or admiration. Within three years after its first appearance in Louvain it was published in Paris, Basle, Florence, Vienna, and Venice. It is that gives More his high place in the fields of social philosophy and letters.
The king and Cardinal Wolsey were now set on having More's services at the court.
More had no illusions about Henry or court life, and knew that he could do little to remedy the vices which prevailed in the royal circle. Yet his conscience told him that that was no reason for "forsaking the commonwealth," and that which he could not turn to good, he must "so order that it be not very bad." In the year was published he was obliged to accept from the king an annual pension of a hundred pounds; in 1517 he became a member of the King's Council and a judge in the Court of Requests. As a member of the Council he accompanied Henry to the "Field of the Cloth of Gold," where the kings of England and France vied with one another in magnificence and in making promises that were soon broken. He was taken as Wolsey's confidant on a diplomatic mission to Calais and Bruges. In 1521 he was appointed under-treasurer, and privy-councilor, and raised to knighthood. His awards and honors make a long catalogue: grants of land in Oxfordshire and Kent; Latin orator in 1523, when the Emperor Charles V paid a state visit to London; speaker of the House of Commons, and author of the answer to Martin Luther's attack on the king's book, ;[2] steward of Oxford University in 1524 and of Cambridge University in 1525, and chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; again, in 1527, with Wolsey to France, and two years later with Bishop Tunstal of London to Cambrai to sign the treaty which meant a temporary pause in the wars of Europe. In October, 1529, Henry chose him as chancellor to succeed Wolsey, who had roused the king's wrath by opposing his scheme for nullifying his marriage. Thomas More was the first layman to hold the office.
Erasmus gives us a picture of More at this period: "In serious matters no man's advice is more prized, while if the king wishes to recreate himself, no man's conversation is gayer. Often there are deep and intricate matters that demand a grave and prudent judge. More unravels them in such a way that he satisfies both sides. No one, however, has ever prevailed on him to receive a gift for his decision. Happy the commonwealth where kings appoint such officials! His elevation has brought with it no pride.... You would say that he had been appointed public guardian of those in need." Another tribute from More's confessor speaks of his remarkable purity and devotion. But in spite of his many honors and achievements, the public esteem which he enjoyed, and the many tokens of the royal regard, More knew well that there was no security in his position. "Son Roper," he once said to his son-in-law, "I may tell thee I have no cause to be proud thereof, for if my head would win him a castle in France, it should not fail to go."
Although Henry's relations with the Pope had by this time become strained, More's time and thought were largely taken up with the general movement against Church authority in England. He composed answers to Protestant attacks and dealt with problems of heresy. Tyndale, then the leading English Protestant, was his ablest opponent. This scholar and reformer had left England for the Continent, in order to find freedom for the work he wished to do. At Worms he published the first Protestant translation of the New Testament from the Greek text, and at Marburg a translation of the Pentateuch. Tyndale was a better popular debater than More; the Chancellor was moderate and fair, and could top off his scholarly arguments with a shaft of wit, but his style was less vigorous and trenchant. As a controversial writer his chief work was . . . (London, 1529.) Tyndale replied in 153I, and two years later More published a , a discursive treatise in which he touched incidentally on the doctrine of the Pope's infallibility.
In his and again in (both in 1533) he defended the principle of punishment of heresy by secular power on the ground that it threatened the peace and safety of the commonwealth. As Chancellor it was his duty to administer the civil laws of England, which prescribed the death penalty for obstinate heretics. Nevertheless, during his term of office only four, it seems, were burned, and these were relapsed persons, whom he had no power to reprieve.
Actually, it was heresy and not the heretics that More tried to get rid of.
One of Tyndale's vehement charges against the Catholics was what he called their failure to give the complete Bible to the people in a language they understood. His own translations were being smuggled into England from the Continent and avidly read.
More favored the dissemination of selected books of Scripture in the vernacular; the reading of other books, he thought, should be at the discretion of every man's bishop, who would probably "suffer some to read the Acts of the Apostles whom he would not suffer to meddle with the Apocalypse." More added that some of the best minds among the Catholic clergy were also of this opinion.
When at length the break between King Henry and the Pope became open and the English clergy were commanded by Henry to acknowledge him as "Protector and Supreme Head of the Church of England, . . . so far as the law of Christ allows," More wished to resign his office, but was persuaded to retain it and turn his attention to Henry's "great matter"-his petition for a nullification of his marriage with Catherine of Aragon, on the ground that she had previously been the wife of his dead brother Arthur. The actual reason behind the petition was Henry's desire for a male heir and his infatuation with a young woman of the court, Anne Boleyn. The idea had been mooted first in 1527, and the failure in 1529 of a papal commission under Cardinal Campeggio to grant Henry's request, had been the cause of the downfall of Wolsey, who, the King thought, might have persuaded Campeggio to decide in his favor.
This drawn-out affair, which shook Christendom to its very foundations, was indeed so involved, both as to fact and law, that men of good will might well disagree on it.
More, after much study of Church authorities, had become convinced of the validity of Henry's marriage to Catherine, but, as a layman, had been allowed to refrain from taking sides publicly. When, in March, 1531, he reported to Parliament on the state of the case, he was asked for his opinion and refused to give it. In 1532 came the "submission of the clergy," who were now forced to promise to make no new laws without the King's consent and to submit the laws they had to a commission for revision. Later in the year an Act of Parliament prohibited the payment of annates, or first year's income from Church appointments, to the Holy See. At this More could no longer stand by in silence. To Henry's exasperation, he opposed the measure openly, and on May 16 offered his resignation as chancellor. He had held the office for less than three years.
The loss of his office and its perquisites reduced More to comparative poverty.
Gathering his family around him he cheerfully explained the situation, adding, "Then we may yet with bags and wallets go a-begging together, and hoping that for pity some good folk will give us their charity, at every man's door to sing , and so keep company and be merry together." For the next eighteen months he lived very quietly, occupied with writing. He declined to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn, though by the King's order three bishops wrote asking him to come and sent him money to pay for the necessary robes. He kept the money and stayed at home, explaining to the bishops that his honor would not allow him to grant their request, but that he accepted the money with gratitude and without scruple, since they were rich and he was poor.
More was not permitted to escape the royal displeasure. The case of the so-called "Holy Maid of Kent" served as a means of incriminating him. This woman, a Benedictine nun by the name of Elizabeth Barton, had for some time been creating a sensation by falling into trances and seeing visions, on the strength of which she warned evildoers of terrors to come. Eventually she was prevailed upon to condemn Henry's treatment of Catherine and prophesy his early death. In consequence she was seized, imprisoned in the Tower, and in April, 1534, executed for treason. In the bill of attainder drawn up against her were included, as sharers in her guilt, the saintly bishop of Rochester, John Fisher, and Thomas More. Fisher had been impressed by the nun's revelations, and More had seen and spoken to her, and at first given some countenance to her claims, though he ended by calling her a "false, deceiving hypocrite." The Lords expressed a wish to hear More for themselves in his own defense. Henry, knowing well that More had many stanch friends in Parliament, had the charge against him withdrawn.
In March Pope Clement VII formally pronounced the marriage of Henry and Catherine valid and therefore not to be annulled. A week later an Act of Succession was pushed through Parliament, requiring all the king's subjects to take oath to the effect that his union with Catherine had been no lawful marriage, that his union with Anne Boleyn was a true marriage, and that their offspring would be legitimate heirs to the throne, regardless of the objections of "any foreign authority, prince, or potentate." Opposition to this Act was declared high treason. On April 13 More and Fisher were offered the oath before a royal commission at Lambeth; they accepted the new line of royal succession established by the Act but refused to subscribe to it as a whole, since it was a clear defiance of the Pope's authority to decide a question involving a sacrament of the Church. Thereupon Thomas More was committed to the custody of one of the commissioners, William Benson, abbot of Westminster. Henry's new favorite, Thomas Cranmer, urged the King to compromise, but he would not. The oath was again tendered and again refused, and More was imprisoned in the Tower.
The fifteen months that he spent in prison were borne with a serene spirit; the tender love of his wife and children, especially that of his daughter Margaret, comforted him.
He rejected all efforts of wife and friends to induce him to take the oath and so pacify Henry. Visitors were forbidden towards the end, and in his solitude he wrote the noblest of his religious works, the .
In November he was formally charged with the crime of treason, and all the lands and honors granted him by the Crown were forfeited. Save for a small pension from the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, his family was almost penniless; Lady More sold her fine clothing to buy necessaries for him, and twice she petitioned the king for his release on the plea of sickness and poverty. In February, 1535, the Act of Supremacy came into operation; this conferred the title of Supreme Head of the Church of England, without qualification, on the king, and made it treason to refuse it. In April, Thomas Cromwell, Henry's hardfisted new secretary and councilor, called on More to elicit from him his opinion of this Act, but he would not give it. Margaret visited him on May 4 for the last time, and from the window of his cell they watched three Carthusian priors and one Bridgittine, who would not acknowledge a civil supremacy over the Church, go to their execution. "Lo, dost thou not see, Meg," he said, "that these blessed fathers be now as cheerfully going to their deaths as bridegrooms to their marriage? . . .
Whereas thy silly father, Meg, that like a most wicked caitiff hath passed the whole course of his miserable life most sinfully, God, thinking him not worthy so soon to come to that eternal felicity, leaving him here yet still in the world, further to be plagued and turmoiled with misery." A few days later Cromwell with other officials questioned him again and taunted him for his silence. "I have not," he said gently, "been a man of such holy living as I might be bold to offer myself to death, lest God for my presumption might suffer me to fall."
On June 22 Bishop John Fisher was beheaded on Tower Hill. Nine days later More himself was formally indicted and tried in Westminster Hall. By this time he was so weak that he was permitted to sit during the proceedings. He was charged with having opposed the Act of Supremacy, both in conversation with members of the Council who had visited him in prison, and in an alleged discussion with Rich, the solicitor-general.
More maintained that he had always refrained from talking with anyone on the subject and that Rich was swearing falsely. However, he was found guilty and condemned to death. Then at last he spoke out his mind firmly.
No temporal lord, he said, could or ought to be head of the spirituality. But even as St. Paul persecuted St. Stephen "and yet be they now both twain holy saints in Heaven, and shall continue there friends for ever, so I verily trust, and shall therefore right heartily pray, that though your lordships have now here in earth been judges of my condemnation, we may yet hereafter in Heaven merrily all meet together to everlasting salvation."
On his way back to the Tower he said farewell to Margaret, who broke through the guard to reach him, and four days later, now deprived of pen and ink, he wrote her his last letter with a piece of coal, sending with it his hair shirt, a relic now in care of the Canonesses Regular of Newton Abbot. Early in the morning of July 7, Sir Thomas Pope, a friend, came to inform him that he was to die that day at nine o'clock. More thanked him, said he would pray for the king, and with talk of a joyful meeting in Heaven strove to cheer up his weeping friend. When the hour came he walked out to Tower Hill, and mounted the scaffold, with a jest for the lieutenant who helped him climb it.
To the bystanders he spoke briefly, asking for their prayers and their witness that he died in faith of the Holy Catholic Church and as the king's loyal subject. He then knelt and repeated the psalm Miserere; after which he encouraged the executioner, though warning him that his neck was very short and he must take heed to "strike not awry." So saying, he laid down his head and was beheaded at one stroke. His body was buried in the church of St. Peter-ad-Vincula within the Tower; his head, after being exposed on London Bridge, was given to Margaret and laid in the Roper vault in the church of St. Dunstan, outside the West Gate of Canterbury. There, presumably, it still is, beneath the floor under the organ, at the east end of the south aisle.
More was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886, along with other English martyrs, and canonized in 1935. Had he never met death for the faith he still would have been a candidate for canonization as a confessor. From first to last his life was singularly pure, lived in the spirit of his own prayer: "Give me, good Lord, a longing to be with Thee; not for the avoiding of the calamities of this wicked world, nor so much for the avoiding of the pains of purgatory, nor the pains of Hell neither, nor so much for the attaining of the joys of Heaven in respect of mine own commodity, as even for a very love of Thee."
When we feel us too bold, remember our own feebleness. When we feel us too faint, remember Christ's strength. In our fear, let us remember Christ's painful agony that himself would for our comfort suffer before his passion to the intent that no fear should make us despair. And ever call for his help such as himself wills to send us. And then need we never to doubt but that either he shall keep us from the painful death, or shall not fail so to strengthen us in it that he shall joyously bring us to heaven by it. And then doeth he much more for us than if he kept us from it. For as God did more for poor Lazarus in helping him patiently to die of hunger at the rich man's door than if he had brought to him at the door all the rich glutton's dinner, so, though he be gracious to a man whom he delivereth out of painful trouble, yet doeth he much more for a man if through right painful death he deliver him from this wretched world into eternal bliss.
From which whosoever shrink away, forsaking his faith, and falleth in the peril of everlasting fire, he shall be very sure to repent it ere it be long after. For I ween that whensoever he falleth sick next, he will wish that he had been killed for Christ's sake before....
But to fear while the pain is coming, there is all our trouble. But then if we would remember hell pain on the other side, into which we fall while we flee from this, then should this short pain be no hindrance at all. And we should be still more pricked forward, if we were faithful, by deep considering of the joys of heaven, of which the Apostle saith: ". . . The passions of this time are not worthy of the glory that is to come which shall be shown in us."[4] We should not, I ween, cousin, need much more on all this whole matter than that one text of St. Paul, if we would consider it well. For surely, mine own good cousin, remember that if it were possible for me and you alone to suffer as much trouble as the whole world doth together, all that were not worthy of itself to bring us to the joy which we hope to have everlastingly. And therefore I pray you let the consideration of that joy put all worldly trouble out of your heart, and also pray that it may do the same in me.
(, Everyman Edition.)
Consider well that both by night and day While we most busily provide and care For our disport, our revel, and our play, For pleasant melody and dainty fare, Death stealeth on full slily; unaware He lieth at hand and shall us all surprise, We wot not when nor where nor in what wise.
When fierce temptations threat thy soul with loss Think of His Passion and the bitter pain, Think on the mortal anguish of the Cross, Think on Christ's blood let out at every vein, Think on His precious heart all rent in twain; For thy redemption think all this was wrought, Nor be that lost which He so dearly bought.
Endnotes
1 Roper was the husband of More's beloved eldest daughter, Margaret. As a boy he was one of those brought into the More home to be educated, and later he wrote an admiring life of his father-in-law.
2 Martin Luther, the German monk who became leader of the Protestant movement in Europe, had published in 1520 three tracts in which he denounced the current corruption of the clergy, papal government in general, and the sacramental system of the Church. The following year Henry VIII, with advice from More, brought out an answer to Luther's argument, the . Luther in turn replied to King Henry.
3 was written by More during the last few months of his life, when already he envisaged what was before him. It is in the form of a conversation between two Hungarian Christians, an old man and his nephew, preparing themselves to face the invasion of the Turkish army, which then threatened Eastern Europe. None who read the little book could fail to see in the Moslem Grand Turk ordering Christian captives to abjure their faith on pain of death the figure of the English king ordering his subjects to betray what they felt was Christ's church. It was published in 1553, the year in which Henry VIII's Catholic daughter Mary came to the throne.
4 Romans viii, 18.
Saint Thomas More, Martyr, Chancellor of England. Celebration of Feast Day is July 9.
Taken from "Lives of Saints", Published by John J. Crawley & Co., Inc.
Provided Courtesy of: Eternal Word Television Network. 5817 Old Leeds Road. Irondale, AL 35210
Saint Thomas More
Saint, knight, Lord Chancellor of England, author and martyr, born in London, 7 February, 1477-78; executed at Tower Hill, 6 July, 1535.
He was the sole surviving son of Sir John More, barrister and later judge, by his first wife Agnes, daughter of Thomas Graunger. While still a child Thomas was sent to St. Anthony's School in Threadneedle Street, kept by Nicholas Holt, and when thirteen years old was placed in the household of Cardinal Morton, Archbishop ofCanterbury, and Lord Chancellor. Here his merry character and brilliant intellect attracted the notice of thearchbishop, who sent him to Oxford, where he entered at Canterbury Hall (subsequently absorbed by Christ Church) about 1492. His father made him an allowance barely sufficient to supply the necessaries of life and, in consequence, he had no opportunity to indulge in "vain or hurtful amusements" to the detriment of his studies. At Oxford he made friends with William Grocyn and Thomas Linacre, the latter becoming his first instructor inGreek. Without ever becoming an exact scholar he mastered Greek "by an instinct of genius" as witnessed by Pace (De fructu qui ex doctrina percipitur, 1517), who adds "his eloquence is incomparable and twofold, for he speaks with the same facility in Latin as in his own language". Besides the classics he studied French, history, and mathematics, and also learned to play the flute and the viol. After two years' residence at Oxford, More was recalled to London and entered as a law student at New Inn about 1494. In February, 1496, he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn as a student, and in due course was called to the outer bar and subsequently made a bencher. His great abilities now began to attract attention and the governors of Lincoln's Inn appointed him "reader" or lecturer on law at Furnival's Inn, his lectures being esteemed so highly that the appointment was renewed for three successive years.
It is clear however that law did not absorb all More's energies, for much of his time was given to letters. He wrote poetry, both Latin and English, a considerable amount of which has been preserved and is of good quality, though not particularly striking, and he was especially devoted to the works of Pico della Mirandola, of whose life he published an English translation some years later. He cultivated the acquaintance of scholars and learned men and, through his former tutors, Grocyn and Linacre, who were now living in London, he made friends with Colet,Dean of St. Paul's, and William Lilly, both renowned scholars. Colet became More's confessor and Lilly vied with him in translating epigrams from the Greek Anthology into Latin, then joint productions being published in 1518 (Progymnasnata T. More et Gul. Liliisodalium). In 1497 More was introduced to Erasmus, probably at the house of Lord Mountjoy, the great scholar's pupil and patron. The friendship at once became intimate, and later onErasmus paid several long visits at More's Chelsea house, and the two friends corresponded regularly until death separated them. Besides law and the Classics, More read the Fathers with care, and he delivered, in the Church of St. Lawrence Jewry, a series of lectures on St. Augustine's De civitate Dei, which were attended by many learned men, among whom Grocyn, the rector of the church, is expressly mentioned. For such an audience the lectures must have been prepared with great care, but unhappily not a fragment of them has survived. These lectures were given somewhere between 1499 and 1503, a period during which More's mind was occupied almost wholly with religion and the question of his own vocation for the priesthood.
This portion of his life has caused much misunderstanding among his various biographers. It is certain that he went to live near the London Charterhouse and often joined in the spiritual exercises of the monks there. He wore "a sharp shirt of hair next his skin, which he never left off wholly" (Cresacre More), and gave himself up to a life of prayer and penance. His mind wavered for some time between joining the Carthusians or the Observant Franciscans, both of which orders observed the religious life with extreme strictness and fervour. In the end, apparently with the approval of Colet, he abandoned the hope of becoming a priest or religious, his decision being due to a mistrust of his powers of perseverance. Erasmus, his intimate friend and confidant, writes on this matter as follows (Epp. 447):
Meanwhile he applied his whole mind to exercises of piety, looking to and pondering on the priesthoodin vigils, fasts and prayers and similar austerities. In which matter he proved himself far more prudentthan most candidates who thrust themselves rashly into that arduous profession without any previous trial of their powers. The one thing that prevented him from giving himself to that kind of life was that he could not shake off the desire of the married state. He chose, therefore, to be a chaste husband rather than an impure priest.
The last sentence of this passage has led certain writers, notably Mr. Seebohm and Lord Campbell, to expatiate at great length on the supposed corruption of the religious orders at this date, which, they declare, disgusted More so much that he abandoned his wish to enter religion on that account. Father Bridgett deals with this question at considerable length (Life and Writings of Sir Thomas More, pp. 23-36), but it is enough to say that this view has now been abandoned even by non-Catholic writers, as witness Mr. W.H. Hutton:
It is absurd to assert that More was disgusted with monastic corruption, that he 'loathed monks as a disgrace to the Church'. He was throughout his life a warm friend of the religious orders, and a devoted admirer of the monastic ideal. He condemned the vices of individuals; he said, as his great-grandson says, 'that at that time religious men in England had somewhat degenerated from their ancient strictness and fervour of spirit'; but there is not the slightest sign that his decision to decline themonastic life was due in the smallest degree to a distrust of the system or a distaste for the theology of the Church.
The question of religious vocation being disposed of, More threw himself into his work at the Bar and scored immediate success. In 1501 he was elected a member of Parliament, but as the returns are missing his constituency is unknown. Here he immediately began to oppose the large and unjust exactions of money which King Henry VII was making from his subjects through the agency of Empson and Dudley, the latter being Speaker of the House of Commons. In this Parliament Henry demanded a grant of three-fifteenths, about 113,000 pounds, but thanks to More's protests the Commons reduced the sum to 30,000. Some years later Dudley told More that his boldness would have cost him his head but for the fact that he had not attacked the king in person. Even as it was Henry was so enraged with More that he "devised a causeless quarrel against hisfather, keeping him in the Tower till he had made him pay a hundred pounds fine" (Roper). Meanwhile More had made friends with one "Maister John Colte, a gentleman" of Newhall, Essex, whose oldest daughter, Jane, hemarried in 1505. Roper writes of his choice: "albeit his mind most served him to the second daughter, for that he thought her the fairest and best favoured, yet when he considered that it would be great grief and some shame also to the eldest to see her younger sister preferred before her in marriage, he then, of a certain pity, framed his fancy towards" the eldest of the three sisters. The union proved a supremely happy one; of it were born three daughters, Margaret, Elizabeth, and Cecilia, and a son, John; and then, in 1511, Jane More died, still almost a child. In the epitaph which More himself composed twenty years later he calls her "uxorcula Mori", and a few lines in one of Erasmus' letters are almost all we know of her gentle, winning personality.
Of More himself Erasmus has left us a wonderful portrait in his famous letter to Ulrich von Hutten dated 23 July, 1519 (Epp. 447). The description is too long to give in full, but some extracts must be made.
To begin then with what is least known to you, in stature he is not tall, though not remarkably short. His limbs are formed with such perfect symmetry as to leave nothing to be desired. His complexion is white, his face rather than pale and though by no means ruddy, a faint flush of pink appears beneath the whiteness of his skin. His hair is dark brown or brownish black. The eyes are grayish blue, with some spots, a kind which betokens singular talent, and among the English is considered attractive, whereas Germans generally prefer black. It is said that none are so free of vice. His countenance is in harmony with his character, being always expressive of an amiable joyousness, and even an incipient laughter and, to speak candidly, it is better framed for gladness than for gravity or dignity, though without any approach to folly or buffoonery. The right shoulder is a little higher than the left, especially when he walks. This is not a defect of birth, but the result of habit such as we often contract. In the rest of his person there is nothing to offend . . .He seems born and framed for friendship, and is a most faithful and enduring friend . . .When he finds any sincere and according to his heart, he so delights in their society and conversation as to place in it the principal charm of life . . .In a word, if you want a perfect model of friendship, you will find it in no one better than in More . . .In human affairs there is nothing from which he does not extract enjoyment, even from things that are most serious. If he converses with the learned and judicious, he delights in their talent, if with the ignorant and foolish, he enjoys their stupidity. He is not even offended by professional jesters. With a wonderful dexterity he accommodates himself to every disposition. As a rule, in talking with women, even with his own wife, he is full of jokes and banter. No one is less led by the opinions of the crowd, yet no one departs less from common sense . . . (see Father Bridgett's Life, p. 56-60, for the entire letter).
More married again very soon after his first wife's death, his choice being a widow, Alice Middleton. She was older than he by seven years, a good, somewhat commonplace soul without beauty or education; but she was a capital housewife and was devoted to the care of More's young children. On the whole the marriage seems to have been quite satisfactory, although Mistress More usually failed to see the point of her husband's jokes.
More's fame as a lawyer was now very great. In 1510 he was made Under-Sheriff of London, and four years later was chosen by Cardinal Wolsey as one of an embassy to Flanders to protect the interests of English merchants. He was thus absent from England for more than six months in 1515, during which period he made the first sketch of the Utopia, his most famous work, which was published the following year. Both Wolsey and the kingwere anxious to secure More's services at Court. In 1516 he was granted a pension of 100 pounds for life, was made a member of the embassy to Calais in the next year, and became a privy councillor about the same time. In 1519 he resigned his post as Under-Sheriff and became completely attached to the Court. In June, 1520, he was in Henry's suite at the "Field of the Cloth of Gold", in 1521 was knighted and made sub-treasurer to the king. When the Emperor Charles V visited London in the following year, More was chosen to deliver the Latin address of welcome; and grants of land in Oxford and Kent, made then and three years later, gave further proof ofHenry's favour. In 1523 he was elected Speaker of the House of Commons on Wolsey's recommendation; became High Steward of Cambridge University in 1525; and in the same year was made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, to be held in addition to his other offices. In 1523 More had purchased a piece of land in Chelsea, where he built himself a mansion about a hundred yards from the north bank of the Thames, with a large garden stretching along the river. Here at times the king would come as an unbidden guest at dinner time, or would walk in the garden with his arm round More's neck enjoying his brilliant conversation. But More had no illusions about the royal favour he enjoyed. "If my head should win him a castle in France," he said to Roper, his son-in-law, in 1525, "it should not fail to go". The Lutheran controversy had now spread throughout Europe and, with some reluctance, More was drawn into it. His controversial writings are mentioned below in the list of his works, and it is sufficient here to say that, while far more refined than most polemical writers of the period, there is still a certain amount that tastes unpleasant to the modern reader. At first he wrote in Latin but, when the books of Tindal and other English Reformers began to be read by people of all classes, he adopted English as more fitted to his purpose and, by doing so, gave no little aid to the development of English prose.
In October, 1529, More succeeded Wolsey as Chancellor of England, a post never before held by a layman. In matters political, however, he is nowise succeeded to Wolsey's position, and his tenure of the chancellorship is chiefly memorable for his unparalleled success as a judge. His despatch was so great that the supply of causes was actually exhausted, an incident commemorated in the well-known rhyme,
When More some time had Chancellor been
No more suits did remain.
The like will never more be seen,
Till More be there again.
As chancellor it was his duty to enforce the laws against heretics and, by doing so, he provoked the attacks of Protestant writers both in his own time and since. The subject need not be discussed here, but More's attitude is patent. He agreed with the principle of the anti-heresy laws and had no hesitation in enforcing them. As he himself wrote in his "Apologia" (cap. 49) it was the vices of heretics that he hated, not their persons; and he never proceeded to extremities until he had made every effort to get those brought before him to recant. How successful he was in this is clear from the fact that only four persons suffered the supreme penalty for heresyduring his whole term of office. More's first public appearance as chancellor was at the opening of the new Parliament in November, 1529. The accounts of his speech on this occasion vary considerably, but it is quite certain that he had no knowledge of the long series of encroachments on the Church which this very Parliament was to accomplish. A few months later came the royal proclamation ordering the clergy to acknowledge Henry as "Supreme Head" of the Church "as far as the law of God will permit", and we have Chapuy's testimony that More at once proferred his resignation of the chancellorship, which however was not accepted. His firm opposition toHenry's designs in regard to the divorce, the papal supremacy, and the laws against heretics, speedily lost him the royal favour, and in May, 1532, he resigned his post of Lord Chancellor after holding it less than three years. This meant the loss of all his income except about 100 pounds a year, the rent of some property he had purchased; and, with cheerful indifference, he at once reduced his style of living to match his strained means. The epitaph he wrote at this time for the tomb in Chelsea church states that he intended to devoted his last years to preparing himself for the life to come.
For the next eighteen months More lived in seclusion and gave much time to controversial writing. Anxious to avoid a public rupture with Henry he stayed away from Anne Boleyn's coronation, and when, in 1533, his nephew William Rastell wrote a pamphlet supporting the pope, which was attributed to More, he wrote a letter to Cromwell disclaiming any share therein and declaring that he knew his duty to his prince too well to criticize his policy. Neutrality, however, did not suit Henry, and More's name was included in the Bill of Attainder introduced into the Lords against the Holy Maid of Kent and her friends. Brought before four members of the Council, More was asked why he did not approve Henry's anti-papal action. He answered that he had several times explained his position to the king in person and without incurring his displeasure. Eventually, in view of his extraordinary popularity, Henry thought it expedient to remove his name from the Bill of Attainder. The incident showed that he might expect, however, and the Duke of Norfolk personally warned him of his grave danger, adding "indignatio principis mors est". "Is that all, my Lord," answered More, "then, in good faith, between your grace and me is but this, that I shall die today, and you tomorrow." In March, 1534, the Act of Succession was passed which required all who should be called upon to take an oath acknowledging the issue of Henry and Anne as legitimate heirs to the throne, and to this was added a clause repudiating "any foreign authority, prince or potentate". On 14 April, More was summoned to Lambeth to take the oath and, on his refusal, was committed to the custody of the Abbot of Westminster. Four days later he was removed to the Tower, and in the following November was attainted of misprision of treason, the grants of land made to him in 1523 and 1525 being resumed by the Crown. In prison, though suffering greatly from "his old disease of the chest . . .gravel, stone, and the cramp", his habitual gaiety remained and he joked with his family and friends whenever they were permitted to see him as merrily as in the old days at Chelsea. When alone his time was given up to prayer andpenitential exercises; and he wrote a "Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation", treatise (unfinished) on thePassion of Christ, and many letters to his family and others. In April and May, 1535, Cromwell visited him in person to demand his opinion of the new statutes conferring on Henry the title of Supreme Head of the Church. More refused to give any answer beyond declaring himself a faithful subject of the king. In June, Rich, the solicitor-general, held a conversation with More and, in reporting it, declared that More had denied Parliament's power to confer ecclesiastical supremacy on Henry. It was now discovered that More and Fisher, the Bishop ofRochester, had exchanged letters in prison, and a fresh inquiry was held which resulted in his being deprived of all books and writing materials, but he contrived to write to his wife and favourite daughter, Margaret, on stray scraps of paper with a charred stick or piece of coal.
On 1 July, More was indicted for high treason at Westminster Hall before a special commission of twenty. More denied the chief charges of the indictment, which was enormously long, and denounced Rich, the solicitor-general and chief witness against him as a perjuror. The jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to be hanged at Tyburn, but some days later this was changed by Henry to beheading on Tower Hill. The story of his last days on earth, as given by Roper and Cresacre More, is of the tenderest beauty and should be read in full; certainly nomartyr ever surpassed him in fortitude. As Addison wrote in the Spectator (No. 349) "that innocent mirth which had been so conspicuous in his life, did not forsake him to the last . . .his death was of a piece with his life. There was nothing in it new, forced or affected. He did not look upon the severing of his head from his body as a circumstance that ought to produce any change in the disposition of his mind". The execution took place on Tower Hill "before nine of the clock" on 6 July, the body being buried in the Church of St. Peter ad vincula.
The head, after being parboiled, was exposed on London Bridge for a month when Margaret Roper bribed the man, whose business it was to throw it into the river, to give it to her instead. The final fate of the relic is somewhat uncertain, but in 1824 a leaden box was found in the Roper vault at St. Dunstan's, Canterbury, which on being opened was found to contain a head presumed to be More's. The Jesuit Fathers at Stonyhurst possess a remarkable collection of secondary relics, most of which came to them from Father Thomas More, S.J. (d. 1795), the last male heir of the martyr. These include his hat, cap, crucifix of gold, a silver seal, "George", and other articles. The hair shirt, worn by him for many years and sent to Margaret Roper the day before his martyrdom, is preserved by the Augustinian canonesses of Abbots Leigh, Devonshire, to whom it was brought by Margaret Clements, the adopted child of Sir Thomas. A number of autograph letters are in the British Museum. Several portraits exist, the best being that by Holbein in the possession of E. Huth, Esq. Holbein also painted a large group of More's household which has disappeared, but the original sketch for it is in the Basle Museum, and a sixteenth-century copy is the property of Lord St. Oswald. Thomas More was formally beatified by Pope Leo XIII, in the Decree of 29 December, 1886. Note: St. Thomas More was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1935.
Writings
More was a
ready writer and not a few of his works remained in manuscript until some years after his death, while several have been lost
altogether. Of all his writings the most famous is unquestionably the Utopia, first published at Louvain in 1516. The volume recounts the fictitious travels of one Raphael
Hythlodaye, a mythical character, who, in the course of a voyage to America, was left behind near Cape Frio and thence wandered on till he
chanced upon the Island of Utopia ("nowhere") in which he found an ideal constitution in
operation. The whole work is really an exercise of the imagination with much brilliant satire upon the world of More's own day. Realpersons, such as Peter Giles, Cardinal Morton, and More himself, take
part in the dialogue with Hythlodaye, so that an air of reality pervades the
whole which leaves the reader sadly puzzled to detect where truth ends and fiction begins, and has led not a few to take the book
seriously. But this is precisely what More intended, and there can be no doubt that he would have been delighted at entrapping William Morris, who
discovered in it a complete gospel of Socialism; or Cardinal Zigliara, who denounced it as
"no less foolish than impious"; as he must have been with his own
contemporaries who proposed to hire a ship and send out missionaries to his
non-existent island. The book ran through a number of editions in the original Latin version and, within a few years,
was translated into German, Italian, French, Dutch, Spanish, and English.
A collected edition of More's English works was published by William Rastell, his nephew, at London in 1557; it has never been reprinted and is now rare and costly. The first collected edition of the Latin Works appeared atBasle in 1563; a more complete collection was published at Louvain in 1565 and again in 1566. In 1689 the most complete edition of all appeared at Frankfort-on-Main, and Leipzig. After the Utopia the following are the most important works:
He was the sole surviving son of Sir John More, barrister and later judge, by his first wife Agnes, daughter of Thomas Graunger. While still a child Thomas was sent to St. Anthony's School in Threadneedle Street, kept by Nicholas Holt, and when thirteen years old was placed in the household of Cardinal Morton, Archbishop ofCanterbury, and Lord Chancellor. Here his merry character and brilliant intellect attracted the notice of thearchbishop, who sent him to Oxford, where he entered at Canterbury Hall (subsequently absorbed by Christ Church) about 1492. His father made him an allowance barely sufficient to supply the necessaries of life and, in consequence, he had no opportunity to indulge in "vain or hurtful amusements" to the detriment of his studies. At Oxford he made friends with William Grocyn and Thomas Linacre, the latter becoming his first instructor inGreek. Without ever becoming an exact scholar he mastered Greek "by an instinct of genius" as witnessed by Pace (De fructu qui ex doctrina percipitur, 1517), who adds "his eloquence is incomparable and twofold, for he speaks with the same facility in Latin as in his own language". Besides the classics he studied French, history, and mathematics, and also learned to play the flute and the viol. After two years' residence at Oxford, More was recalled to London and entered as a law student at New Inn about 1494. In February, 1496, he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn as a student, and in due course was called to the outer bar and subsequently made a bencher. His great abilities now began to attract attention and the governors of Lincoln's Inn appointed him "reader" or lecturer on law at Furnival's Inn, his lectures being esteemed so highly that the appointment was renewed for three successive years.
It is clear however that law did not absorb all More's energies, for much of his time was given to letters. He wrote poetry, both Latin and English, a considerable amount of which has been preserved and is of good quality, though not particularly striking, and he was especially devoted to the works of Pico della Mirandola, of whose life he published an English translation some years later. He cultivated the acquaintance of scholars and learned men and, through his former tutors, Grocyn and Linacre, who were now living in London, he made friends with Colet,Dean of St. Paul's, and William Lilly, both renowned scholars. Colet became More's confessor and Lilly vied with him in translating epigrams from the Greek Anthology into Latin, then joint productions being published in 1518 (Progymnasnata T. More et Gul. Liliisodalium). In 1497 More was introduced to Erasmus, probably at the house of Lord Mountjoy, the great scholar's pupil and patron. The friendship at once became intimate, and later onErasmus paid several long visits at More's Chelsea house, and the two friends corresponded regularly until death separated them. Besides law and the Classics, More read the Fathers with care, and he delivered, in the Church of St. Lawrence Jewry, a series of lectures on St. Augustine's De civitate Dei, which were attended by many learned men, among whom Grocyn, the rector of the church, is expressly mentioned. For such an audience the lectures must have been prepared with great care, but unhappily not a fragment of them has survived. These lectures were given somewhere between 1499 and 1503, a period during which More's mind was occupied almost wholly with religion and the question of his own vocation for the priesthood.
This portion of his life has caused much misunderstanding among his various biographers. It is certain that he went to live near the London Charterhouse and often joined in the spiritual exercises of the monks there. He wore "a sharp shirt of hair next his skin, which he never left off wholly" (Cresacre More), and gave himself up to a life of prayer and penance. His mind wavered for some time between joining the Carthusians or the Observant Franciscans, both of which orders observed the religious life with extreme strictness and fervour. In the end, apparently with the approval of Colet, he abandoned the hope of becoming a priest or religious, his decision being due to a mistrust of his powers of perseverance. Erasmus, his intimate friend and confidant, writes on this matter as follows (Epp. 447):
Meanwhile he applied his whole mind to exercises of piety, looking to and pondering on the priesthoodin vigils, fasts and prayers and similar austerities. In which matter he proved himself far more prudentthan most candidates who thrust themselves rashly into that arduous profession without any previous trial of their powers. The one thing that prevented him from giving himself to that kind of life was that he could not shake off the desire of the married state. He chose, therefore, to be a chaste husband rather than an impure priest.
The last sentence of this passage has led certain writers, notably Mr. Seebohm and Lord Campbell, to expatiate at great length on the supposed corruption of the religious orders at this date, which, they declare, disgusted More so much that he abandoned his wish to enter religion on that account. Father Bridgett deals with this question at considerable length (Life and Writings of Sir Thomas More, pp. 23-36), but it is enough to say that this view has now been abandoned even by non-Catholic writers, as witness Mr. W.H. Hutton:
It is absurd to assert that More was disgusted with monastic corruption, that he 'loathed monks as a disgrace to the Church'. He was throughout his life a warm friend of the religious orders, and a devoted admirer of the monastic ideal. He condemned the vices of individuals; he said, as his great-grandson says, 'that at that time religious men in England had somewhat degenerated from their ancient strictness and fervour of spirit'; but there is not the slightest sign that his decision to decline themonastic life was due in the smallest degree to a distrust of the system or a distaste for the theology of the Church.
The question of religious vocation being disposed of, More threw himself into his work at the Bar and scored immediate success. In 1501 he was elected a member of Parliament, but as the returns are missing his constituency is unknown. Here he immediately began to oppose the large and unjust exactions of money which King Henry VII was making from his subjects through the agency of Empson and Dudley, the latter being Speaker of the House of Commons. In this Parliament Henry demanded a grant of three-fifteenths, about 113,000 pounds, but thanks to More's protests the Commons reduced the sum to 30,000. Some years later Dudley told More that his boldness would have cost him his head but for the fact that he had not attacked the king in person. Even as it was Henry was so enraged with More that he "devised a causeless quarrel against hisfather, keeping him in the Tower till he had made him pay a hundred pounds fine" (Roper). Meanwhile More had made friends with one "Maister John Colte, a gentleman" of Newhall, Essex, whose oldest daughter, Jane, hemarried in 1505. Roper writes of his choice: "albeit his mind most served him to the second daughter, for that he thought her the fairest and best favoured, yet when he considered that it would be great grief and some shame also to the eldest to see her younger sister preferred before her in marriage, he then, of a certain pity, framed his fancy towards" the eldest of the three sisters. The union proved a supremely happy one; of it were born three daughters, Margaret, Elizabeth, and Cecilia, and a son, John; and then, in 1511, Jane More died, still almost a child. In the epitaph which More himself composed twenty years later he calls her "uxorcula Mori", and a few lines in one of Erasmus' letters are almost all we know of her gentle, winning personality.
Of More himself Erasmus has left us a wonderful portrait in his famous letter to Ulrich von Hutten dated 23 July, 1519 (Epp. 447). The description is too long to give in full, but some extracts must be made.
To begin then with what is least known to you, in stature he is not tall, though not remarkably short. His limbs are formed with such perfect symmetry as to leave nothing to be desired. His complexion is white, his face rather than pale and though by no means ruddy, a faint flush of pink appears beneath the whiteness of his skin. His hair is dark brown or brownish black. The eyes are grayish blue, with some spots, a kind which betokens singular talent, and among the English is considered attractive, whereas Germans generally prefer black. It is said that none are so free of vice. His countenance is in harmony with his character, being always expressive of an amiable joyousness, and even an incipient laughter and, to speak candidly, it is better framed for gladness than for gravity or dignity, though without any approach to folly or buffoonery. The right shoulder is a little higher than the left, especially when he walks. This is not a defect of birth, but the result of habit such as we often contract. In the rest of his person there is nothing to offend . . .He seems born and framed for friendship, and is a most faithful and enduring friend . . .When he finds any sincere and according to his heart, he so delights in their society and conversation as to place in it the principal charm of life . . .In a word, if you want a perfect model of friendship, you will find it in no one better than in More . . .In human affairs there is nothing from which he does not extract enjoyment, even from things that are most serious. If he converses with the learned and judicious, he delights in their talent, if with the ignorant and foolish, he enjoys their stupidity. He is not even offended by professional jesters. With a wonderful dexterity he accommodates himself to every disposition. As a rule, in talking with women, even with his own wife, he is full of jokes and banter. No one is less led by the opinions of the crowd, yet no one departs less from common sense . . . (see Father Bridgett's Life, p. 56-60, for the entire letter).
More married again very soon after his first wife's death, his choice being a widow, Alice Middleton. She was older than he by seven years, a good, somewhat commonplace soul without beauty or education; but she was a capital housewife and was devoted to the care of More's young children. On the whole the marriage seems to have been quite satisfactory, although Mistress More usually failed to see the point of her husband's jokes.
More's fame as a lawyer was now very great. In 1510 he was made Under-Sheriff of London, and four years later was chosen by Cardinal Wolsey as one of an embassy to Flanders to protect the interests of English merchants. He was thus absent from England for more than six months in 1515, during which period he made the first sketch of the Utopia, his most famous work, which was published the following year. Both Wolsey and the kingwere anxious to secure More's services at Court. In 1516 he was granted a pension of 100 pounds for life, was made a member of the embassy to Calais in the next year, and became a privy councillor about the same time. In 1519 he resigned his post as Under-Sheriff and became completely attached to the Court. In June, 1520, he was in Henry's suite at the "Field of the Cloth of Gold", in 1521 was knighted and made sub-treasurer to the king. When the Emperor Charles V visited London in the following year, More was chosen to deliver the Latin address of welcome; and grants of land in Oxford and Kent, made then and three years later, gave further proof ofHenry's favour. In 1523 he was elected Speaker of the House of Commons on Wolsey's recommendation; became High Steward of Cambridge University in 1525; and in the same year was made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, to be held in addition to his other offices. In 1523 More had purchased a piece of land in Chelsea, where he built himself a mansion about a hundred yards from the north bank of the Thames, with a large garden stretching along the river. Here at times the king would come as an unbidden guest at dinner time, or would walk in the garden with his arm round More's neck enjoying his brilliant conversation. But More had no illusions about the royal favour he enjoyed. "If my head should win him a castle in France," he said to Roper, his son-in-law, in 1525, "it should not fail to go". The Lutheran controversy had now spread throughout Europe and, with some reluctance, More was drawn into it. His controversial writings are mentioned below in the list of his works, and it is sufficient here to say that, while far more refined than most polemical writers of the period, there is still a certain amount that tastes unpleasant to the modern reader. At first he wrote in Latin but, when the books of Tindal and other English Reformers began to be read by people of all classes, he adopted English as more fitted to his purpose and, by doing so, gave no little aid to the development of English prose.
In October, 1529, More succeeded Wolsey as Chancellor of England, a post never before held by a layman. In matters political, however, he is nowise succeeded to Wolsey's position, and his tenure of the chancellorship is chiefly memorable for his unparalleled success as a judge. His despatch was so great that the supply of causes was actually exhausted, an incident commemorated in the well-known rhyme,
When More some time had Chancellor been
No more suits did remain.
The like will never more be seen,
Till More be there again.
As chancellor it was his duty to enforce the laws against heretics and, by doing so, he provoked the attacks of Protestant writers both in his own time and since. The subject need not be discussed here, but More's attitude is patent. He agreed with the principle of the anti-heresy laws and had no hesitation in enforcing them. As he himself wrote in his "Apologia" (cap. 49) it was the vices of heretics that he hated, not their persons; and he never proceeded to extremities until he had made every effort to get those brought before him to recant. How successful he was in this is clear from the fact that only four persons suffered the supreme penalty for heresyduring his whole term of office. More's first public appearance as chancellor was at the opening of the new Parliament in November, 1529. The accounts of his speech on this occasion vary considerably, but it is quite certain that he had no knowledge of the long series of encroachments on the Church which this very Parliament was to accomplish. A few months later came the royal proclamation ordering the clergy to acknowledge Henry as "Supreme Head" of the Church "as far as the law of God will permit", and we have Chapuy's testimony that More at once proferred his resignation of the chancellorship, which however was not accepted. His firm opposition toHenry's designs in regard to the divorce, the papal supremacy, and the laws against heretics, speedily lost him the royal favour, and in May, 1532, he resigned his post of Lord Chancellor after holding it less than three years. This meant the loss of all his income except about 100 pounds a year, the rent of some property he had purchased; and, with cheerful indifference, he at once reduced his style of living to match his strained means. The epitaph he wrote at this time for the tomb in Chelsea church states that he intended to devoted his last years to preparing himself for the life to come.
For the next eighteen months More lived in seclusion and gave much time to controversial writing. Anxious to avoid a public rupture with Henry he stayed away from Anne Boleyn's coronation, and when, in 1533, his nephew William Rastell wrote a pamphlet supporting the pope, which was attributed to More, he wrote a letter to Cromwell disclaiming any share therein and declaring that he knew his duty to his prince too well to criticize his policy. Neutrality, however, did not suit Henry, and More's name was included in the Bill of Attainder introduced into the Lords against the Holy Maid of Kent and her friends. Brought before four members of the Council, More was asked why he did not approve Henry's anti-papal action. He answered that he had several times explained his position to the king in person and without incurring his displeasure. Eventually, in view of his extraordinary popularity, Henry thought it expedient to remove his name from the Bill of Attainder. The incident showed that he might expect, however, and the Duke of Norfolk personally warned him of his grave danger, adding "indignatio principis mors est". "Is that all, my Lord," answered More, "then, in good faith, between your grace and me is but this, that I shall die today, and you tomorrow." In March, 1534, the Act of Succession was passed which required all who should be called upon to take an oath acknowledging the issue of Henry and Anne as legitimate heirs to the throne, and to this was added a clause repudiating "any foreign authority, prince or potentate". On 14 April, More was summoned to Lambeth to take the oath and, on his refusal, was committed to the custody of the Abbot of Westminster. Four days later he was removed to the Tower, and in the following November was attainted of misprision of treason, the grants of land made to him in 1523 and 1525 being resumed by the Crown. In prison, though suffering greatly from "his old disease of the chest . . .gravel, stone, and the cramp", his habitual gaiety remained and he joked with his family and friends whenever they were permitted to see him as merrily as in the old days at Chelsea. When alone his time was given up to prayer andpenitential exercises; and he wrote a "Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation", treatise (unfinished) on thePassion of Christ, and many letters to his family and others. In April and May, 1535, Cromwell visited him in person to demand his opinion of the new statutes conferring on Henry the title of Supreme Head of the Church. More refused to give any answer beyond declaring himself a faithful subject of the king. In June, Rich, the solicitor-general, held a conversation with More and, in reporting it, declared that More had denied Parliament's power to confer ecclesiastical supremacy on Henry. It was now discovered that More and Fisher, the Bishop ofRochester, had exchanged letters in prison, and a fresh inquiry was held which resulted in his being deprived of all books and writing materials, but he contrived to write to his wife and favourite daughter, Margaret, on stray scraps of paper with a charred stick or piece of coal.
On 1 July, More was indicted for high treason at Westminster Hall before a special commission of twenty. More denied the chief charges of the indictment, which was enormously long, and denounced Rich, the solicitor-general and chief witness against him as a perjuror. The jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to be hanged at Tyburn, but some days later this was changed by Henry to beheading on Tower Hill. The story of his last days on earth, as given by Roper and Cresacre More, is of the tenderest beauty and should be read in full; certainly nomartyr ever surpassed him in fortitude. As Addison wrote in the Spectator (No. 349) "that innocent mirth which had been so conspicuous in his life, did not forsake him to the last . . .his death was of a piece with his life. There was nothing in it new, forced or affected. He did not look upon the severing of his head from his body as a circumstance that ought to produce any change in the disposition of his mind". The execution took place on Tower Hill "before nine of the clock" on 6 July, the body being buried in the Church of St. Peter ad vincula.
The head, after being parboiled, was exposed on London Bridge for a month when Margaret Roper bribed the man, whose business it was to throw it into the river, to give it to her instead. The final fate of the relic is somewhat uncertain, but in 1824 a leaden box was found in the Roper vault at St. Dunstan's, Canterbury, which on being opened was found to contain a head presumed to be More's. The Jesuit Fathers at Stonyhurst possess a remarkable collection of secondary relics, most of which came to them from Father Thomas More, S.J. (d. 1795), the last male heir of the martyr. These include his hat, cap, crucifix of gold, a silver seal, "George", and other articles. The hair shirt, worn by him for many years and sent to Margaret Roper the day before his martyrdom, is preserved by the Augustinian canonesses of Abbots Leigh, Devonshire, to whom it was brought by Margaret Clements, the adopted child of Sir Thomas. A number of autograph letters are in the British Museum. Several portraits exist, the best being that by Holbein in the possession of E. Huth, Esq. Holbein also painted a large group of More's household which has disappeared, but the original sketch for it is in the Basle Museum, and a sixteenth-century copy is the property of Lord St. Oswald. Thomas More was formally beatified by Pope Leo XIII, in the Decree of 29 December, 1886. Note: St. Thomas More was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1935.
Writings
A collected edition of More's English works was published by William Rastell, his nephew, at London in 1557; it has never been reprinted and is now rare and costly. The first collected edition of the Latin Works appeared atBasle in 1563; a more complete collection was published at Louvain in 1565 and again in 1566. In 1689 the most complete edition of all appeared at Frankfort-on-Main, and Leipzig. After the Utopia the following are the most important works:
- "Luciani
Dialogi . . .compluria opuscula . . . ab Erasmo Roterodamo et Thoma Moro
interpretibus optimis in Latinorum lingua traducta . . ." (Paris,
1506);
- "Here is conteigned the lyfe of John Picus,
Earle of Mirandula . . ." (London, 1510);
- "Historie of the pitiful life and
unfortunate death of Edward the fifth and the then Duke of York his
brother . . .", printed incomplete in the "English Works"
(1557) and reissued with a completion from Hall's Chronicle by Wm. Sheares
(London, 1641);
- "Thomae
Mori v.c. Dissertatio Epistolica de aliquot sui temporis theologastrorum
ineptiis . . ." (Leyden, 1625);
- Epigrammata...Thomae
Mori Britanni, pleraque e Graecis versa. (Basle, 1518); Eruditissimi viri Gul. Rossi Opus elegans quo
pulcherrime retegit ac refellit insanas Lutheri calumnias (London, 1523),
written at the request of Henry VIII in answer to Luther's reply to the royal "Defensio Septem
Sacramentorum";
- "A dyaloge of Syr Thomas More Knyght . . .of
divers maters, as of the veneration and worshyp of ymages and relyques,
praying to sayntys and goyng on pylgrymage . . ." (London,
1529);
- "The Supplycacyon of Soulys" (London,
1529[?]), written in answer to Fish's "Supplication of the
Beggars";
- "Syr Thomas More's answer to the fyrste
parte of the poysoned booke . . . named 'The Souper of the Lorde'"
(London, 1532);
- "The Second parte of the Confutacion of
Tyndal's Answere . . ." (London, 1533); these two works together form
the most lengthy of all More's writings; besides Tindal, Robert Barnes is
dealt with in the last book of the whole;
- "A Letter impugnynge the erronyouse wrytyng
of John Fryth against the Blessed Sacrament of the Aultare" (London,
1533);
- "The Apologye of Syr Thomas More, Hnyght,
made by him anno 1533, after he had given over the office of Lord
Chancellour of Englande" (London, 1533);
- "The Debellacyon of Salem and Bizance"
(London, 1533), an answer to the anonymous work entitled "Salem and
Bizance", and vindicating the severe punishment of heresy;
- "A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation .
. ." (London,
1553).
- An unfinished treatise "uppon those words of Holy Scripture, 'Memorare novissima et in eternum non peccabis'", dated 1522;
- "Treatise to receive the blessed Body of our
Lorde, sacramentally and virtually both";
- "Treatise upon the Passion" unfinished;
- "Certein devout and vertuouse Instruccions,
Meditacions and Prayers";
- some letters written in the Tower, including his
touching correspondence with his daughter Margaret.
"St. Thomas More." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912.14
Mar. 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14689c.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for
New Advent by Marie Jutras.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. July 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of
New York.
St. Thomas More
St. Thomas More is the patron Saint of politicians, statesmen, and lawyers. He was the son of John More, a prominent lawyer. As a boy he served as a page in the household of Archbishop Morton. He studied at Oxford, and the public affairs. In 1499 he determined to become a in public affairs. In 1499 he determined to become a monk and subjected himself to the discipline of the monk and subjected himself to the discipline of the Carthusians.
During his early manhood, he wrote comedies and spent much time in the study of Greek and Latin literature. One of his first works was a translation of a biography of Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494); he became a close friend with Desiderius Erasmus (ca. 1466-1536) and he, like them, became a great humanist.
More’s sense of obligation to active citizenship and statesmanship finally won out over his monastic inclinations. He entered the parliament in 1504. In 1510, he was appointed undersheriff of London.
During the next decade, More attracted the attention of King Henry VIII, and served frequently on diplomatic missions to the Low Countries. In 1518 he became a member of the Privy Council; he was knighted in 1521.
Two years later, More was made Speaker of the House of Commons. As speaker of the House of Commons in 1523, More helped establish the parliamentary privilege of free speech.
He refused to endorse King Henry VIII’s plan to divorce Catherine of Aragon (1527) and marry Ann Boleyn. Nevertheless, after the fall of Thomas Wolsey in 1529, More became Lord Chancellor of England. He was the first layman to hold the post. His work in the law courts was exemplary, but he resigned in 1532, citing ill health and probably feeling that he could not in conscience serve a government that was interfering with the church.
Two years later he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for refusing to acknowledge Henry as supreme head of the Church of England. He was found guilty of treason, on evidence that was probably perjured. He was beheaded on July 6, 1535 his last words being “”I die the king’s good servant, but God’s first.” St. Thomas More was canonized in 1935.
SOURCE : http://www.ucatholic.com/saints/saint-thomas-more-2/
Thomas More M (RM)
Born in London, England, 1478; died there in 1535; canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1935 as the "Martyr of the Papacy"; feast day formerly on July 6.
(6 luglio: A Londra in Inghilterra, passione di san Tommaso More, la cui memoria si celebra il 22 giugno insieme a quella di san Giovanni Fisher).
Ha imparato a Oxford l’amore per i classici antichi e lo condivide con Erasmo da Rotterdam, spesso ospite in casa sua. Scrive la vita dell’umanista italiano Giovanni Pico della Mirandola; ma sarà più famoso il suo dialogo Utopia, col disegno di una società ideale, governata dalla giustizia e dalla libertà. E’ un umanista che porta il cilicio, che studia i Padri della Chiesa e vive la fede con fermezza e gioia. Quando Lutero inizia la sua lotta contro Roma, il re Enrico VIII d’Inghilterra scrive un trattato in difesa della dottrina cattolica sui sacramenti, ricevendo lodi da papa Leone X e accuse da Lutero. A queste risponde Tommaso Moro, che Enrico stima per la cultura e l’integrità. Spesso lo consulta, gli affida missioni importanti all’estero. E nel 1529 lo nomina Lord Cancelliere, al vertice dell’ordinamento giudiziario. Un posto altissimo, ma pericoloso.
Siamo infatti alla famosa crisi: Enrico ripudia Caterina d’Aragona (moglie e poi vedova di suo fratello Arturo), sposa Anna Bolena, e giunge poi a staccare da Roma la Chiesa inglese, di cui si proclama unico capo. Per Tommaso Moro, la fedeltà esige la sincerità assoluta col re: anche a costo di irritarlo, pur di non mentirgli. E così si comporta. La fede gli vieta di accettare quel divorzio e la supremazia del re nelle cose di fede. Lo pensa, lo dice, perde il posto e si lascia condannare a morte senza piegarsi.
Incoraggia i familiari che lo visitano nella prigione della Torre di Londra e scrive cose bellissime in latino a un amico italiano che vive a Londra, il mercante lucchese Antonio Bonvisi: "Amico mio, più di ogni altro fedelissimo e dilettissimo... Cristo conservi sana la tua famiglia". Bonvisi gli manda in prigione cibi, vini e un abito nuovo per il giorno dell’esecuzione (ma non glielo lasceranno indossare). Davanti al patibolo, è cordiale anche col boia che dovrà decapitarlo: "Su, amico, fatti animo; ma guarda che ho il collo piuttosto corto", e gli regala una moneta d’oro. Poi, venuto il momento, dice alcune parole. "Poche", gli hanno raccomandato: e poche sono. Tommaso Moro invita a pregare per Enrico VIII, "e dichiarò che moriva da suddito fedele al re, ma innanzitutto a Dio".
Quindici giorni prima, per le stesse ragioni, è stato decapitato il suo amico John Fisher, vescovo di Rochester, che sarà canonizzato insieme a lui da Pio XI nel 1931. Ora la Chiesa li ricorda entrambi nello stesso giorno.
Autore: Domenico Agasso
SAINT THOMAS MORE. Dialogue du réconfort dans les tribulations : http://livres-mystiques.com/partieTEXTES/Thomas_More/table.htm
Voir aussi : http://www.ibe.unesco.org/publications/ThinkersPdf/moref.PDF
http://www.amici-thomae-mori.com/fr/default.asp?rub=1&s=1
http://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/More_thomas/more_thomas.html
http://fsspx.com/Communicantes/Oct2002/French/Saint_Thomas_More.htm
http://agora.qc.ca/dossiers/Thomas_More
http://www.thomasmorestudies.org/rep_canonization.html
http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/morebio.htm
Thomas More M (RM)
Born in London, England, 1478; died there in 1535; canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1935 as the "Martyr of the Papacy"; feast day formerly on July 6.
"If I am
distracted, Holy Communion helps me become recollected. If opportunities are
offered by each day to offend my God, I arm myself anew each day for the combat
by reception of the Eucharist. If I am in need of special light and prudence in
order to discharge my burdensome duties, I draw nigh to my Savior and seek
counsel and light from Him."
Saint Thomas More
"These things,
good Lord, that we pray for, give us Thy grace to labor for."
Saint
Thomas More.
"It is a
shorter thing and sooner done, to write heresies, than to answer them."
Saint Thomas More.
Thomas More studied
at Canterbury Hall, Oxford, and read law at the Inns of Court, being called to
the bar in 1501. Thomas was happiest in the bosom of his family--three
generations living under one roof in Chelsea, and the congenial group of poets,
scientists, and humanists that often gathered in his home, rather than at
court.
Henry VIII was a
man of rare personal magnetism; even Sir Thomas yielded to his charm. Thomas's
daughter Margaret married Roper, who writes of More's friendship with Henry
VIII: when the king had finished his devotions on holy days, he would talk to
More about diverse matters, often far into the night. More often dined with the
king and queen. Thomas would try to get two days per month to spend with his
family, but he would be recalled to court. So Thomas tried to change his
disposition before the king to be less likable, until the king started to come
to Chelsea with Thomas and to be merry there. He recognized early that Henry's
whims might prove dangerous to Thomas's health and life.
More had considered
the priesthood in his youth, and of joining the Franciscans, but his confessor
advised against it. In 1505, he married Jane Colt, though it is said he
preferred her younger sister. She bore him four children: Margaret (married
Roper); Elizabeth, Cecily, and John. In the evening, Jane would study for an
hour or two because Thomas wished her to be a scholar, or she would sing or
play the clavichord. Jane died in 1510.
Soon after Jane's
death, he married Alice Middleton, an older woman. Margaret, the eldest child,
was five. Alice was unlearned, but had a great sense of humor. Thomas scolded
her for her vanity and she reproached him for his lack of ambition.
More cared strongly
for his children and their education, especially for Margaret. His home was a
menagerie of birds, monkeys, foxes, ferrets, weasels, etc.
More rose rapidly
in public life despite his lack of ambition. He was a renowned lawyer and
elected to Parliament in 1504 (at age 22). In 1510, he was appointed
Undersheriff of London; 1518, Secretary to Henry VIII; 1521, he was knighted;
1523, chosen Speaker of Parliament; 1529, Lord Chancellor in succession to
Cardinal Wolsey. Nevertheless, he continued to read, study, and write, and is
known more as a scholar than as a jurist. Yet he was realistic and wrote in
Utopia (1516), "philosophy had no place among kings....it is not possible
for all things to be well, unless all men were good, which I think will not be this
good many years."
He had a horror of
luxury and worldly pomp. He found the lies and flatteries of court nauseating.
It wearied him to be constantly at the King's command. He felt the scholars
life was conducive to a virtuous life of piety toward God and service of his
neighbor.
Virtue and religion
were the supreme concerns of his life. He considered pride the chief danger of
education. Education should inculcate a spirit of detachment from riches and
earthly possessions, along with a spirit of gentleness.
During Henry's
reign, 12,000 people were put to death for theft. Thomas as Chancellor was
hesitant to apply the death penalty to heretics.
More was a leader
of the humanists, champion of the study of Greek and Latin classics,
sympathetic to the Renaissance, and an advocate of needed Church reform; yet he
was grounded in the Catholic tradition of the Middle Ages. He was also a friend
of Erasmus. In 1527, Erasmus wrote in a letter, "I wrote the Praise of
Folly in times of peace; I should never have written it if I had foreseen this
tempest" of the Reformation.
Again, Erasmus in a
letter to a monk about to leave his monastery, "...I see no one becoming
better, every one becoming worse, so that I am deeply grieved that in my
writings I once preached the liberty of the spirit....What I desired then was
that the abatement of external ceremonies might much redound to the increase of
true piety. But as it is, the ceremonies have been so destroyed that in place
of them we have not the liberty of the spirit but the unbridled license of the
flesh....What liberty is that which forbids us to say our prayers, and forbids
us the sacrifice of the Mass?"
Thomas More did not
think his Utopia, which is written in Latin, could be safely read by the
multitude.
Thomas was imprisoned
in the Tower, because he would not help Henry VIII put away Catherine of Aragon
and supplant the Pope as the head of the Church of England. Thomas More did not
wish to die. "I am not so holy that I dare rush upon death," he
declared; "were I so presumptuous, God might suffer me to fall." But
he could not accept that Henry VIII was supreme head of the church. He resigned
rather than be seen to support the king's divorce.
Thomas More and
John Fisher, two of the noblest men England ever produced, were both sent to
the Tower in 1534 for refusing to take the Oath of Succession, which would
obligate them to recognize Anne Boleyn's children as heirs to the Crown. Both
said they would swear allegiance to any heir the king and Parliament would
agree upon, but this was not satisfactory to Boleyn.
Next Parliament
passed the Act of Supremacy, which made it high treason to refuse to accept the
king as the only head on earth of the Church of England. More was brought to
trial on the perjured testimony of Richard Rich and defended himself against
the inferred act of treason. He was convicted of high treason, and martyred for
his steadfast defense of the indissolubility of marriage and the supremacy of
the pope. After the sentence was issued, he broke his silence. On the scaffold,
he said simply, "I have been ever the king's good and loyal servant, but
God's first" (Benedictines, Bentley, S. Delany)
In art, Saint
Thomas wears a scholar's cap, furred gown, and the chain of the Chancellor of
England. A chalice, Host, and papal insignia may be near him. (There is an
unusual picture of him by Antoine Caron in the Museum at Blois in which he is
represented as an old man with a long beard, surrounded by Roman (sic)
soldiers, embraced by his daughter on his way to execution (Roeder).
The Writing of
Saint Thomas
"Doubtless
Christ could have caused the apostles not to sleep at all, but to stay awake,
if that had been what He wished in an absolute and unqualified sense. But
actually His wish was qualified by a condition -- namely that they themselves
wish to do so, and wish it so effectually that each of them do his very best to
comply with the outward command Christ Himself gave and to cooperate with the
promptings of His inward assistance. In this way He also wishes for all men to
be saved and for no one to suffer eternal torment, that is, always provided
that we conform to His most loving will and do not set ourselves against it
through our own willful malice. If someone stubbornly insists on doing this,
God does not want to waft him off to heaven against his will, as if He were in
need of our services there and could not continue His glorious reign without
our support. Indeed, if He could not reign without us, He would immediately
punish many offenses which now, out of consideration for us, He tolerates and
overlooks for a long time to see if His kindness and patience will bring us to
repent. But we meanwhile abuse this great mercy of His by adding sins to sins,
thus heaping up for ourselves (as the apostle says) a treasure of wrath on the
day of wrath (Rom 2:5).
"Nevertheless,
such is God's kindness that even when we are negligent and slumbering on the
pillow of our sins, He disturbs us from time to time, shakes us, strikes us,
and does His best to wake us up by means of tribulations. But still, even
though He thus proves Himself to be most loving even in His anger, most of us
in our gross human stupidity misinterpret His action and imagine that such a
great benefit is an injury, whereas actually (if we have any sense) we should
feel bound to pray frequently and fervently that whenever we wander away from
Him He may use blows to drive us back to the right way, even though we are
unwilling and struggle against Him.
"Thus we must
first pray that we may see the way and with the Church we must say to God,
"From blindness of heart, deliver us, O Lord." And with the prophet
we must say, "Teach me to do your will" and "Show me your ways
and teach me your paths." Then we must intensely desire to run after you
eagerly, O God, in the odor of your ointments, in the most sweet scent of your
Spirit. But if we grow weary along the way (as we almost always do) and lag so
far behind that we barely manage to follow at a distance, let us immediately
say to God, "Take my right hand" and "Lead me along your
path." "Then if we are so overcome by weariness that we no longer
have the heart to go on, if we are so soft and lazy that we are about to stop
altogether, let us beg God to drag us along even as we struggle not to go.
Finally, if we resist when He draws on us gently, and are stiff-necked against
the will of God, against our own salvation, utterly irrational like horses and
mules which have no intellects, we ought to beseech God humbly in the most
fitting words of the prophet: "Hold my jaws hard, O God, with a bridle and
bit when I do not draw near to you" (Ps 32:9)."
--Saint Thomas More
in The Sadness of Christ
San Tommaso Moro Martire
22 giugno - Memoria Facoltativa
Londra, 1478 - 6 luglio 1535
Tommaso Moro è il nome italiano con cui è ricordato Thomas More (7
febbraio 1478 - 6 luglio 1535), avvocato, scrittore e uomo politico inglese. More ha coniato il termine
«utopia», indicando un'immaginaria isola dotata di una società ideale, di cui
descrisse il sistema politico nella sua opera più famosa, «L'Utopia», del 1516.
È ricordato soprattutto per il suo rifiuto alla rivendicazione di Enrico VIII
di farsi capo supremo della Chiesa d'Inghilterra, una decisione che mise fine
alla sua carriera politica conducendolo alla pena capitale con l'accusa di
tradimento. Nel 1935, è proclamato santo da Papa Pio XI; dal 1980 è commemorato
anche nel calendario dei santi della chiesa anglicana (il 6 luglio), assieme
all'amico John Fisher, vescovo di Rochester, decapitato quindici giorni prima
di Moro. Nel 2000 San Tommaso Moro venne dichiarato patrono degli statisti e
dei politici da Papa Giovanni Paolo II. (Avvenire)
Patronato: Avvocati
Etimologia: Tommaso = gemello, dall'ebraico
Emblema: Palma
Martirologio Romano: Santi Giovanni Fisher, vescovo, e Tommaso More,
martiri, che, essendosi opposti al re Enrico VIII nella controversia sul suo
divorzio e sul primato del Romano Pontefice, furono rinchiusi nella Torre di
Londra in Inghilterra. Giovanni Fisher, vescovo di Rochester, uomo insigne per
cultura e dignità di vita, in questo giorno fu decapitato per ordine del re
stesso davanti al carcere; Tommaso More, padre di famiglia di vita integerrima
e gran cancelliere, per la sua fedeltà alla Chiesa cattolica il 6 luglio si unì
nel martirio al venerabile presule.
(6 luglio: A Londra in Inghilterra, passione di san Tommaso More, la cui memoria si celebra il 22 giugno insieme a quella di san Giovanni Fisher).
Dicono
che tutti gli uccelli di Chelsea (all’epoca sobborgo rurale di Londra) scendano
a sfamarsi nel suo tranquillo giardino. Un indice della sua fama di uomo sereno
e accogliente. Thomas More (questo il nome inglese), figlio
di magistrato, è via via avvocato famoso, amministratore di giustizia nella
City, membro del Parlamento. Dalla moglie Jane Colt ha avuto tre figlie e un figlio; alla sua morte,
si risposa con Alice Middleton.
Ha imparato a Oxford l’amore per i classici antichi e lo condivide con Erasmo da Rotterdam, spesso ospite in casa sua. Scrive la vita dell’umanista italiano Giovanni Pico della Mirandola; ma sarà più famoso il suo dialogo Utopia, col disegno di una società ideale, governata dalla giustizia e dalla libertà. E’ un umanista che porta il cilicio, che studia i Padri della Chiesa e vive la fede con fermezza e gioia. Quando Lutero inizia la sua lotta contro Roma, il re Enrico VIII d’Inghilterra scrive un trattato in difesa della dottrina cattolica sui sacramenti, ricevendo lodi da papa Leone X e accuse da Lutero. A queste risponde Tommaso Moro, che Enrico stima per la cultura e l’integrità. Spesso lo consulta, gli affida missioni importanti all’estero. E nel 1529 lo nomina Lord Cancelliere, al vertice dell’ordinamento giudiziario. Un posto altissimo, ma pericoloso.
Siamo infatti alla famosa crisi: Enrico ripudia Caterina d’Aragona (moglie e poi vedova di suo fratello Arturo), sposa Anna Bolena, e giunge poi a staccare da Roma la Chiesa inglese, di cui si proclama unico capo. Per Tommaso Moro, la fedeltà esige la sincerità assoluta col re: anche a costo di irritarlo, pur di non mentirgli. E così si comporta. La fede gli vieta di accettare quel divorzio e la supremazia del re nelle cose di fede. Lo pensa, lo dice, perde il posto e si lascia condannare a morte senza piegarsi.
Incoraggia i familiari che lo visitano nella prigione della Torre di Londra e scrive cose bellissime in latino a un amico italiano che vive a Londra, il mercante lucchese Antonio Bonvisi: "Amico mio, più di ogni altro fedelissimo e dilettissimo... Cristo conservi sana la tua famiglia". Bonvisi gli manda in prigione cibi, vini e un abito nuovo per il giorno dell’esecuzione (ma non glielo lasceranno indossare). Davanti al patibolo, è cordiale anche col boia che dovrà decapitarlo: "Su, amico, fatti animo; ma guarda che ho il collo piuttosto corto", e gli regala una moneta d’oro. Poi, venuto il momento, dice alcune parole. "Poche", gli hanno raccomandato: e poche sono. Tommaso Moro invita a pregare per Enrico VIII, "e dichiarò che moriva da suddito fedele al re, ma innanzitutto a Dio".
Quindici giorni prima, per le stesse ragioni, è stato decapitato il suo amico John Fisher, vescovo di Rochester, che sarà canonizzato insieme a lui da Pio XI nel 1931. Ora la Chiesa li ricorda entrambi nello stesso giorno.
Autore: Domenico Agasso
SAINT THOMAS MORE. Dialogue du réconfort dans les tribulations : http://livres-mystiques.com/partieTEXTES/Thomas_More/table.htm
Voir aussi : http://www.ibe.unesco.org/publications/ThinkersPdf/moref.PDF
http://www.amici-thomae-mori.com/fr/default.asp?rub=1&s=1
http://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/More_thomas/more_thomas.html
http://fsspx.com/Communicantes/Oct2002/French/Saint_Thomas_More.htm
http://agora.qc.ca/dossiers/Thomas_More
http://www.thomasmorestudies.org/rep_canonization.html
http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/morebio.htm
