St. Thomas More
Posted on June 23, 2019 by admin No comments
Born: 7 February 1478 at London, England
Died: beheaded on 6 July 1535 on Tower Hill, London, England• body taken to Saint Peter ad Vincula, Tower of London, England, his head was parboiled and then exposed on London Bridge for a month as a warning to other “traitors”; Margaret Roper bribed the man whose was supposed to throw it into the river to give it to her instead in 1824 a lead box was found in the Roper vault at Saint Dunstan’s Church Canterbury, England; it contained a head presumed to be More’s
Venerated: in Catholic Church; Church of England; some other churches of the Anglican Communion
Beatified: 29 December 1886, Florence, Kingdom of Italy, by Pope Leo XIII
Canonized: 19 May 1935, Vatican City, by Pope Pius XI
Major shrine: Church of St Peter ad Vincula, London, England
Feast: 22 June (Catholic Church), 6 July (Church of England), 9 July (Catholic Extraordinary Form)
Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a councillor to Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532. He wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an imaginary, ideal island nation.
More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther, Henry VIII, John Calvin and William Tyndale. More also opposed the king’s separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and executed. Of his execution, he was reported to have said: “I die the King’s good servant, and God’s first”.
Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr. Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the patron saint “of Statesmen and Politicians”. Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr. The Soviet Union honoured him for the purportedly communist attitude toward property rights expressed in Utopia.
Early life
Born on Milk Street in London, on 7 February 1478, Thomas More was the son of Sir John More, a successful lawyer and later a judge, and his wife Agnes (née Graunger). He was the second of six children. More was educated at St Anthony’s School, then considered one of London’s best schools. From 1490 to 1492, More served John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, as a household page. Morton enthusiastically supported the “New Learning” (scholarship which was later known as “humanism” or “London humanism”), and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More had great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at the University of Oxford (either in St. Mary Hall or Canterbury College, both now gone).
More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education. Studying under Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, he became proficient in both Latin and Greek. More left Oxford after only two years—at his father’s insistence—to begin legal training in London at New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery. In 1496, More became a student at Lincoln’s Inn, one of the Inns of Court, where he remained until 1502, when he was called to the Bar.
Spiritual life
According to his friend, theologian Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk. Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near the Carthusian monastery outside the walls of London and joined in the monks’ spiritual exercises. Although he deeply admired their piety, More ultimately decided to remain a layman, standing for election to Parliament in 1504 and marrying the following year.
More continued ascetic practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin and occasionally engaging in flagellation. A tradition of the Third Order of Saint Francis honours More as a member of that Order on their calendar of saints.
Family life
More married Jane Colt in 1505. Erasmus reported that More wanted to give his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and tutored her in music and literature. The couple had four children before Jane died in 1511: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John.
Going “against friends’ advice and common custom,” within thirty days More had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends. He chose Alice Harpur Middleton to head his household and care for his small children. The speed of the marriage was so unusual that More had to get a dispensation of the banns of marriage, which, due to his good public reputation, he easily obtained.
More had no children from his second marriage, although he raised Alice’s daughter from her previous marriage as his own. More also became the guardian of two young girls: Anne Cresacre would eventually marry his son, John More; and Margaret Giggs (later Clement) would be the only member of his family to witness his execution (she died on the 35th anniversary of that execution, and her daughter married More’s nephew William Rastell). An affectionate father, More wrote letters to his children whenever he was away on legal or government business, and encouraged them to write to him often.
More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education as his son, a highly unusual attitude at the time. His eldest daughter, Margaret, attracted much admiration for her erudition, especially her fluency in Greek and Latin. More told his daughter of his pride in her academic accomplishment in September 1522, after he showed the bishop a letter she had written:
When he saw from the signature that it was the letter of a lady, his surprise led him to read it more eagerly … he said he would never have believed it to be your work unless I had assured him of the fact, and he began to praise it in the highest terms … for its pure Latinity, its correctness, its erudition, and its expressions of tender affection. He took out at once from his pocket a portague [A Portuguese gold coin] … to send to you as a pledge and token of his good will towards you.
More’s decision to educate his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favourable once he witnessed their accomplishments.
A portrait of More and his family, Sir Thomas More and Family, was painted by Holbein, but it was lost in a fire in the 18th century. More’s grandson commissioned a copy, of which two versions survive.
Indictment, trial and execution
In 1533, More refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn as the Queen of England. Technically, this was not an act of treason, as More had written to Henry seemingly acknowledging Anne’s queenship and expressing his desire for the King’s happiness and the new Queen’s health. Despite this, his refusal to attend was widely interpreted as a snub against Anne, and Henry took action against him.
Shortly thereafter, More was charged with accepting bribes, but the charges had to be dismissed for lack of any evidence. In early 1534, More was accused by Thomas Cromwell of having given advice and counsel to the “Holy Maid of Kent,” Elizabeth Barton, a nun who had prophesied that the king had ruined his soul and would come to a quick end for having divorced Queen Catherine. This was a month after Barton had confessed, which was possibly done under royal pressure, and was said to be concealment of treason.
Though it was dangerous for anyone to have anything to do with Barton, More had indeed met with her, and was impressed by her fervour. But More was prudent and told her not to interfere with state matters. More was called before a committee of the Privy Council to answer these charges of treason, and after his respectful answers the matter seemed to be dropped.
On 13 April 1534, More was asked to appear before a commission and swear his allegiance to the parliamentary Act of Succession. More accepted Parliament’s right to declare Anne Boleyn the legitimate Queen of England, though he refused “the spiritual validity of the king’s second marriage”, and, holding fast to the teaching of papal supremacy, he steadfastly refused to take the oath of supremacy of the Crown in the relationship between the kingdom and the church in England. More furthermore publicly refused to uphold Henry’s annulment from Catherine. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, refused the oath along with More. The oath reads:
…By reason whereof the Bishop of Rome and See Apostolic, contrary to the great and inviolable grants of jurisdictions given by God immediately to emperors, kings and princes in succession to their heirs, hath presumed in times past to invest who should please them to inherit in other men’s kingdoms and dominions, which thing we your most humble subjects, both spiritual and temporal, do most abhor and detest…
In addition to refusing to support the King’s annulment or supremacy, More refused to sign the 1534 Oath of Succession confirming Anne’s role as queen and the rights of their children to succession. More’s fate was sealed. While he had no argument with the basic concept of succession as stated in the Act, the preamble of the Oath repudiated the authority of the Pope.
His enemies had enough evidence to have the King arrest him on treason. Four days later, Henry had More imprisoned in the Tower of London. There More prepared a devotional Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation. While More was imprisoned in the Tower, Thomas Cromwell made several visits, urging More to take the oath, which he continued to refuse.
The charges of high treason related to More’s violating the statutes as to the King’s supremacy (malicious silence) and conspiring with Bishop John Fisher in this respect (malicious conspiracy) and, according to some sources, for asserting that Parliament did not have the right to proclaim the King’s Supremacy over the English Church. One group of scholars believes that the judges dismissed the first two charges (malicious acts) and tried More only on the final one but others strongly disagree.
Regardless of the specific charges, the indictment related to violation of the Treasons Act 1534 which declared it treason to speak against the King’s Supremacy:
If any person or persons, after the first day of February next coming, do maliciously wish, will or desire, by words or writing, or by craft imagine, invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to the king’s most royal person, the queen’s, or their heirs apparent, or to deprive them or any of them of their dignity, title, or name of their royal estates …
That then every such person and persons so offending … shall have and suffer such pains of death and other penalties, as is limited and accustomed in cases of high treason.
The trial was held on 1 July 1535, before a panel of judges that included the new Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Audley, as well as Anne Boleyn’s father, brother, and uncle.
More, relying upon legal precedent and the maxim “qui tacet consentire videtur” (“one who keeps silent seems to consent”), understood that he could not be convicted as long as he did not explicitly deny that the King was Supreme Head of the Church, and he therefore refused to answer all questions regarding his opinions on the subject.
William Frederick Yeames, The meeting of Sir Thomas More with his daughter after his sentence of death, 1872
Thomas Cromwell, at the time the most powerful of the King’s advisors, brought forth Solicitor General Richard Rich to testify that More had, in his presence, denied that the King was the legitimate head of the Church. This testimony was characterised by More as being extremely dubious.
Witnesses Richard Southwell and Mr. Palmer both denied having heard the details of the reported conversation, and as More himself pointed out:
Can it therefore seem likely to your Lordships, that I should in so weighty an Affair as this, act so unadvisedly, as to trust Mr. Rich, a Man I had always so mean an Opinion of, in reference to his Truth and Honesty, … that I should only impart to Mr. Rich the Secrets of my Conscience in respect to the King’s Supremacy, the particular Secrets, and only Point about which I have been so long pressed to explain myself? which I never did, nor never would reveal; when the Act was once made, either to the King himself, or any of his Privy Councillors, as is well known to your Honours, who have been sent upon no other account at several times by his Majesty to me in the Tower. I refer it to your Judgments, my Lords, whether this can seem credible to any of your Lordships.
Beheading of Thomas More, 1870 illustration
The jury took only fifteen minutes, however, to find More guilty.
After the jury’s verdict was delivered and before his sentencing, More spoke freely of his belief that “no temporal man may be the head of the spirituality” (take over the role of the Pope). According to William Roper’s account, More was pleading that the Statute of Supremacy was contrary to the Magna Carta, to Church laws and to the laws of England, attempting to void the entire indictment against him. He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered (the usual punishment for traitors who were not the nobility), but the King commuted this to execution by decapitation.
The execution took place on 6 July 1535. When he came to mount the steps to the scaffold, its frame seeming so weak that it might collapse, More is widely quoted as saying (to one of the officials): “I pray you, master Lieutenant, see me safe up and [for] my coming down, let me shift for my self”; while on the scaffold he declared that he died “the king’s good servant, and God’s first.” After More had finished reciting the Miserere while kneeling, the executioner reportedly begged his pardon, then More rose up merrily, kissed him and gave him forgiveness.
Relics
Another comment he is believed to have made to the executioner is that his beard was completely innocent of any crime, and did not deserve the axe; he then positioned his beard so that it would not be harmed. More asked that his foster/adopted daughter Margaret Clement (née Giggs) be given his headless corpse to bury. She was the only member of his family to witness his execution. He was buried at the Tower of London, in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in an unmarked grave. His head was fixed upon a pike over London Bridge for a month, according to the normal custom for traitors.
More’s daughter Margaret later rescued the severed head. It is believed to rest in the Roper Vault of St Dunstan’s Church, Canterbury, perhaps with the remains of Margaret and her husband’s family. Some have claimed that the head is buried within the tomb erected for More in Chelsea Old Church.
Among other surviving relics is his hair shirt, presented for safe keeping by Margaret Clement. This was long in the custody of the community of Augustinian canonesses who until 1983 lived at the convent at Abbotskerswell Priory, Devon. Some sources, including one from 2004, claimed that the hair shirt was then at the Martyr’s church on the Weld family’s estate in Chideock, Dorset. The most recent reports indicate that it is now preserved at Buckfast Abbey, near Buckfastleigh in Devon.
Canonization
Roman Catholic Church
Pope Leo XIII beatified Thomas More, John Fisher and 52 other English Martyrs on 29 December 1886. Pope Pius XI canonised More and Fisher on 19 May 1935, and More’s feast day was established as 9 July. Since 1970 the General Roman Calendar has celebrated More with St John Fisher on 22 June (the date of Fisher’s execution). On 31 October 2000 Pope John Paul II declared More “the heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians”. More is the patron of the German Catholic youth organisation Katholische Junge Gemeinde.
Anglican Communion
In 1980, despite their opposing the English Reformation, More and Fisher were jointly added as martyrs of the reformation to the Church of England’s calendar of “Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church”, to be commemorated every 6 July (the date of More’s execution) as “Thomas More, Scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535”.
More is also listed in the calendars of saints of some of the other churches in the Anglican Communion including:
The Anglican Church of Australia has “July 6: John Fisher and Thomas More, martyrs (died 1535)”.
The Anglican Church of Brazil has “July 6: Thomas More, Martyr, 1535”.
The Anglican Church of Canada has “July 6: Thomas More died 1535 Commemoration” in its Book of Alternative Services Calendar, and has “July 6: The Octave Day of St Peter and St Paul, and Thomas More, Chancellor of England, Martyr 1535.” in the July section of its Book of Common Prayer Calendar.
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa has “July 6: Thomas More, Martyr, 1535”.
Among those on which More is not listed are the calendars of the Episcopal Church in the United States, the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church in Hong Kong and Macau.
Prayer to St. Thomas More
Holy martyr for the Church, you used your talentsto bring God’s love and mercy to earth. Yet yourealized that human fame and glory weremomentary and fleeting.
In your practice of law, you understood and wereloyal first to God’s eternal law spoken through thesuccessors of the Apostles. While a servant ofthe king, you were a servant to the Church first.
Help me to see that loyalty to God’s laws must bethe first part of my ties and responsibilities withothers. Strengthen me to seek out what theChurch teaches. Give me the wisdom to make theright choice, and the fortitude to carry it out. ThisI ask through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
St Thomas More, Pray for Us.
Prayer to St. Thomas More
St. Thomas More, counselor of law and statesman of integrity, merry martyr and most human of saints: Pray that, for the glory of God and in the pursuit of His justice, I may be trustworthy with confidences, keen in study, accurate in analysis, correct in conclusion, able in argument, loyal to clients, honest with all, courteous to adversaries, ever attentive to conscience. Sit with me at my desk and listen with me to my clients’ tales. Read with me in my library and stand always beside me so that today I shall not, to win a point, lose my soul.
Pray that my family may find in me what yours found in you: friendship and courage, cheerfulness and charity, diligence in duties, counsel in adversity, patience in pain—their good servant, and God’s first. Amen.
Prayer of St. Thomas More
Give me the grace, Good Lord. To set the world at naught. To set the mind firmly on You and not to hang upon the words of men’s mouths.
To be content to be solitary. Not to long for worldly pleasures. Little by little utterly to cast off the world and rid my mind of all its business.
Not to long to hear of earthly things, but that the hearing of worldly fancies may be displeasing to me.
Gladly to be thinking of God, piteously to call for His help. To lean into the comfort of God. Busily to labor to love Him.
To know my own vileness and wretchedness. To humble myself under the mighty hand of God.
To bewail my sins and, for the purging of them, patiently to suffer adversity.
Gladly to bear my purgatory here. To be joyful in tribulations. To walk the narrow way that leads to life.
To have the last thing in remembrance. To have ever before my eyes my death that is ever at hand.
To make death no stranger to me. To foresee and consider the everlasting fire of Hell.
To pray for pardon before the judge comes.
To have continually in mind the passion that Christ suffered for me. For His benefits unceasingly to give Him thanks.
To buy the time again that I have lost. To abstain from vain conversations. To shun foolish mirth and gladness. To cut off unnecessary recreations.
Of worldly substance, friends, liberty, life and all, to set the loss at naught, for the winning of Christ.
To think my worst enemies my best friends, for the brethren of Joseph could never have done him so much good with their love and favor as they did him with their malice and hatred.
These minds are more to be desired of every man than all the treasures of all the princes and kings, Christian and heathen, were it gathered and laid together all in one heap. Amen
Prayer of St. Thomas More for good humor
Grant me, O Lord, good digestion, and also something to digest. Grant me a healthy body, and the necessary good humor to maintain it. Grant me a simple soul that knows to treasure all that is good and that doesn’t frighten easily at the sight of evil, but rather finds the means to put things back in their place. Give me a soul that knows not boredom, grumblings, sighs and laments, nor excess of stress, because of that obstructing thing called “I.” Grant me, O Lord, a sense of good humor. Allow me the grace to be able to take a joke to discover in life a bit of joy, and to be able to share it with others. Amen
A morning Prayer of St. Thomas More
Father in heaven, you have given us a mind to know You, a will to serve You, and a heart to love You. Be with us today in all that we do, so that Your light may shine out in our lives.
We pray that we may be today what You created us to be, and may praise Your name in all that we do. We pray for Your Church: may it be a true light to all nations; May the Spirit of Your Son Jesus guide the words and actions of all Christians today. We pray for all who are searching for truth: bring them Your light and Your love.
“Give us, Lord, a humble, quiet, peaceable, patient, tender and charitable mind, and in all our thoughts, words and deeds a taste of the Holy Spirit. Give us, Lord, a lively faith, a firm hope, a fervent charity, a love of You. Take from us all lukewarmness in meditation, dullness in prayer. Give us fervour and delight in thinking of You and Your grace, Your tender compassion towards me. The things that we pray for, good Lord, give us grace to labour for: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Novena to St. Thomas More
(Please recite this novena for 9 days)
First Day
Dear St. Thomas More, in your earthly life, you were a model of prudence. You never thrust yourself rashly into any serious undertaking; instead, you tested the strength of your powers and waited on God’s will in prayer and penance, then boldly carried it out without hesitation. Through your prayers and intercession, obtain for me the virtues of patience, prudence, wisdom and courage. Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory Be…
Glorious St. Thomas More, I beg you to take up my cause, confident that you will advocate for me before God’s Throne with the same zeal and diligence that marked your career on earth. If it be in accord with God’s will, obtain for me the favor I seek, namely _.
V. Pray for us, O Blessed St. Thomas More.
R. That we may faithfully follow you on the hard road that leads to the narrow gate of eternal life.
Second Day
Dear St. Thomas More, in your earthly life, you were a model of diligence. You shunned procrastination, applied yourself with fervor to your studies, and spared no effort in achieving mastery in any skill. Through your prayers and intercession, obtain for me the virtue of diligence and persistence in my preparations for all undertakings. Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory Be… Glorious St. Thomas More…
Third Day
Dear St. Thomas More, in your earthly life, you were a model of industriousness. You threw yourself wholeheartedly into everything you did, and you found enjoyment even in the most serious things. Through your prayers and intercession, obtain for me the grace of always having suitable employment, the grace to find interest in everything fitting, and the fortitude always to pursue excellence in whatever task God gives me to do. Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory Be… Glorious St. Thomas More…
Fourth Day
Dear St. Thomas More, in your earthly life, you were a brilliant lawyer and a just and compassionate judge. You attended to the smallest details of your legal duties with the greatest care, and you were unflagging in your pursuit of justice tempered by mercy. Through your prayers and intercession, obtain for me the grace to overcome every temptation to laxity, arrogance, and rash judgment in my (legal) duties. Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory Be… Glorious St. Thomas More…
Fifth Day
Dear St. Thomas More, in your earthly life, you were a model of humility. You never allowed pride to lead you to take on enterprises beyond your abilities; even in the midst of earthly wealth and honor, you never forgot your total dependence on your Heavenly Father. Through your prayers and intercession, obtain for me the grace of an increase in humility, and the wisdom not to overestimate my own powers. Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory Be… Glorious St. Thomas More…
Sixth Day
Dear St. Thomas More, in your earthly life, you were a model husband and father. You were a loving and faithful husband, and a diligent provider and example of virtue for your children. Through your prayers and intercession, obtain for me the grace of a happy home, peace in my family, and the strength to persevere in chastity according to my state of life. Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory Be… Glorious St. Thomas More…
Seventh Day
Dear St. Thomas More, in your earthly life, you were a model of Christian fortitude. You suffered bereavement, disgrace, poverty, imprisonment and a violent death; yet you bore all with the strength and good cheer for which you were known throughout your life. Through your prayers and intercession, obtain for me the grace to bear all the crosses that God sends me with patience and joy. Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory Be… Glorious St. Thomas More…
Eighth Day
Dear St. Thomas More, in your earthly life, you were a loyal child of God and a steadfast son of the Church, never taking your eyes off the crown for which you strove. Even in the face of death, you trusted in God to give you the victory, and He rewarded you with the palm of martyrdom. Through your prayers and intercession, obtain for me and mine the grace of final perseverance and protection from sudden and unprovided death, so that we may one day enjoy the Beatific Vision in your glorious company. Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory Be… Glorious St. Thomas More…
Ninth Day
Dear St. Thomas More, you spent your whole earthly life preparing for the life to come. Everything you endured prepared you not only for the glory God wished to bestow upon you in heaven, but for your work as the patron of lawyers, judges and statesmen, and steadfast friend to all who call upon you. Through your prayers and intercession, obtain for us aid in all our necessities, both corporal and spiritual, and the grace to follow in your footsteps, until at last we are safely home with you in the mansions our Father has prepared for us in heaven. Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory Be… Glorious St. Thomas More…