MORE, SIR Thomas, English statesman and author: b. London, 7 Feb. 1478; d. there, 6 July 1535. In 1492-94 he studied at Canterbury Hall, now Christ Church, Oxford, and in 1494 was a student in Lincoln's Inn. At 21 he obtained a seat in Parliament, and distinguished himself with spirit in opposition to a subsidy de manded by Henry VII. After being admitted to the bar he enjoyed great reputation as a pleader. In 1516 he accompanied the commis sioners sent to renew the alliance between Henry VIII and Charles, then Archduke of Austria, and showed much ability. In 1516 he published his celebrated political romance Cardinal Wolsey pressed him to re ceive a pension, which he refused as incon sistent with his official duties; but he was induced to accept the place of master of re quests. He was shortly after knighted, and taken into the Privy Council. In 1521 he was appointed treasurer of the exchequer, and in 1523, at the instance of Wolsey, was elected speaker of the House of Commons. He was joined with Wolsey in a mission to France in 1527 and on his return made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. In 1529 he succeeded the cardinal as Lord High Chancellor, which office he filled for three years with scrupulous in tegrity, but he was severe in his punishments for heretical opinions. Unable to acquiesce in the king's wishes respecting his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, he obtained permission to resign the seals. The affront rankled in the mind of Henry, and was further inflamed by his refusal to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn. An attempt made to implicate him in the practices of Elizabeth Barton altogether failed; and he also perfectly cleared himself of the charge of inducing the king to publish the book against Luther, in which the Pope's authority was held forth — a doctrine now found inconsistent with the intended attack on the Roman See. The king was declared su
preme head of the Church in 1534; but More steadily refused to recognize any other head than the Pope, declined to take the oath of supremacy and was consequently committed to the Tower and indicted for treason. After an imprisonment of 12 months, he was brought to trial, and despite his eloquent defense con demned and sentenced to be hanged and quar tered. The king altered the sentence from hanging and quartering to beheading, and this act of grace More received with his usual vein of humor. While in prison he wrote a logue of Comfort against Tribulation> and a treatise on Christ's passion. At his execution he comported himself with dignity and with a great degree of good humor. The news of his death startled Catholic Europe, and British ambassadors were instructed to explain that all was done by due legal process. More's learning was varied and extensive, his wit abundant and his elocution ready and agree able. He wrote elegant Latin prose and verse, and a terse and simple English. His 'Utopia' is a classic of literature, and he, one of the brightest spirits of the Renaissance. The sec ond degree of beatification, that of Blessed, has been conferred on More by the Roman Catholic Church. His English works were published collectively, in 1557, and his Latin in 1567. (See UTOPIA). Consult the 'Life> by Roper (1626, reprinted 1716), and Stapleton's 'Tres Thomae) (1588), the principal sources; and the biographies or studies by Bremond (Eng. trans. with bibliography, London 1904); Bridgett (ib. 1891); Campbell's of the Chancellors' (ib. 1845-48) ; Sir Sidney Lee's Englishmen of the 16th (ib. 1904) ; Manning's (Household of Sir Thomas More' (ib. 1851) and Book of Sir Thomas More' in (Malone Society Reprints' (ib. 1911).