Knight, Lord Chancellor of
England, author and martyr,
born in London, 7 February
1477-78.
Thomas More was born in Milk
Street, London, son of Sir John
More, a prominent judge. He
was educated at St. Anthon’s
School in London. As a youth
he served, as a page in the
household
of
Archbishop
Morton, who anticipated More
would become a “marvelous man.” More went on to study
at Oxford under Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn.
During this time he wrote comedies and studied Greek and
Latin literature.
Around 1494 More returned to London to study law, was
admitted to Lincoln’s Inn in 1496, and became a barrister in
1501. Yet More did not follow in his father’s footsteps. He
was torn between a monastic calling and a life of civil
service. While at Lincoln’s Inn, he determined to become a
monk and subjected himself to the discipline of the
Carthusians, living at a nearby monastery and taking part
of the monastic life. The prayer, fasting, and penance
habits stayed with him for the rest of his life. More’s desire
for monasticism was finally overcome by his sense of duty
to service his country in the field of politics. He entered
Parliament in 1504. One of More’s first acts in Parliament
had been to urge a decrease in a proposed appropriation
for King Henry VII. In revenge, the King had imprisoned
More’s father and not released him until a fine was paid
and More himself had withdrawn from public life.
After the death of the King in 1509, More became active
once more. In 1510 he was appointed one of the two
undersheriffs of London. In this capacity he gained a
reputation for being impartial, and a patron to the poor.
During the next decade More attracted the attention of King
Henry VIII. In 1515 he accompanied a delegation to
Flanders to help clear disputes about the wool trade. In
1518 he became a member of the Privy Council, and was
knighted in 1521. More helped Henry VIII in writing his
Defence of the Seven Sacraments, a repudiation of Luther,
and wrote an answer to Luther’s reply under a pseudonym.
More had garnered Henry’s favor, and was made Speaker
of the House of Commons in 1523 and Chancellor of the
Duchy of Lancaster in 1525. As Speaker, More helped
establish the parliamentary privilege of free speech.
He refused to endorse King Henry VIII’s plan to divorce
Katherine of Aragón (1527). Nevertheless, after the fall of
Thomas Wolsey in 1529, More became Lord Chancellor,
the first layman yet to hold the post.
While his work in the law courts was exemplary, his fall
came quickly. He resigned in 1532, citing ill health, but the
reason was probably his disapproval of Henry’s stance
toward the Church. He refused to attend the coronation of
Anne Boleyn in June 1533, a matter that did not escape the
King’s notice. In 1534 he was one of the people accused
of complicity with Elizabeth Barton, the nun of Kent who
opposed Henry’s break with Rome, but was not attainted
due to protection from the Lords who refused to pass the