Thomas More: biography of this English politician and intellectual

Thomas More was an English humanist thinker that witnessed the founding of the Church of England, an institution that simply by opposing it would mark the beginning of its end.

Considered a martyr and saint by the Catholic Church, the figure of this theologian has greatly influenced the humanism of the sixteenth century, penetrating deep into the Catholic world. His criticism of tyranny and his defense of the Catholic faith led the Vatican to even grant him a public holiday in his honor.

Next we will go into more depth about the life and work of this intellectual through a biography of Thomas More, in which we will see among other things how he thought, what was his relationship with King Henry VIII of England and with what great figures of his time he rubbed shoulders.

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Brief biography of Thomas More

Thomas More, in Spanish Tomás Moro and in Latin Thomas Morus, venerated by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, He was an English thinker, theologian, politician, humanist and writer

. In addition to having published works in which he addressed religious and legal aspects, he is also credited with having written several poems, since he was a man of artistic concerns. He came to serve as lord chancellor to Henry VIII and also taught law and worked as a civil business judge.

Among his most notable works we have "Utopia", a text so important that it has been considered the forerunner of the utopian genre in the modern novel. It is a text that describes what a perfect country would be like, an ideal society. In addition to this text, several books are also famous in which he was harshly critical of the new ideas about Christianity promoted by Martin Luther and William Tyndale.

Despite the fact that at first he was a good friend of Henry VIII, his position contrary to him to the nullity of the royal marriage and aversion to the Anglican reform would end up causing him to be prosecuted, accused of other treason against the king and for not having taken the antipapist oath when the Church of England emerged.

He wanted the marriage with Catalina de Aragón to continue, and did not sign the Act of Supremacy in which full religious powers were given to the king. This would be what would take Thomas More to the grave, becoming a Catholic martyr.

Early years

Thomas More was born in the heart of London, England, on February 7, 1478. He was the eldest son of Sir John More, steward of Lincoln 's Inn, one of the four City of London bar associations, jurist and later knighted and judge of the royal curia. His mother was Agnes More, née Graunger.

In 1486, after having completed five years of elementary school at the old and prominent Saint Anthony's School, he was driven to Lambeth Palace, following the custom carried on by good families Londoners. There she served as page for Cardinal John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, defender of the humanistic ideas of the Renaissance.

John Morton ended up having a high regard for young Moro, hoping that he could develop his intellectual potential. and that is why he decided in 1492 to suggest the admission of Thomas More to Canterbury College of the University of Oxford, the young man being just fourteen years old. There he would spend two years studying scholastic doctrine and perfecting his rhetoric, being a student of English humanists such as Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn.

Early adulthood

Despite the above, Thomas More ended up leaving without graduating and, at the insistence of his father, he devoted himself to studying law in 1494 at the New Inn in London. He would later do it at Lincoln's Inn, where his father had worked. Shortly after, he began to practice law before the courts and it would be at this time that he would learn French, since it was necessary to work in the English courts of justice and exercise diplomacy.

In 1497 he began to write some poems, which were done with intense irony, something that earned him some fame and recognition. In fact, thanks to this, he would have his first encounters with the precursors of the Renaissance, meeting the very Erasmus of Rotterdam and John Skleton. Thomas More and Erasmus would end up becoming a very strong friendship.

Arrived in 1501 Moro entered the Third Order of San Francisco, living as a layman in a Carthusian convent until 1504, although taking advantage of those years to dedicate himself to religious study. At this time he would translate various Greek epigrams into brass and commented "De civitate Dei" of Saint Augustine of Hippo.

Thanks to several English humanists he was able to have contact with Italian Renaissance ideas and arts, knowing the figure of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola from whom he translated his biography in 1510. Although he would end up leaving his ascetic lifestyle, it is fair to say that from this time he would retain some acts of penance, wearing a hair shirt on his leg all his life and occasionally practicing the flagellation.

When he left the Carthusian convent in 1505, he married Jane Colt, and his daughter Margaret was born that same year. In 1506 his second daughter, Elizabeth, would be born, in 1507 his third, Cicely, and in 1509 his son John was born. By leaving the Carthusian order behind he was able to practice law successfully, thanks to his concern for justice and equity and his extensive knowledge of law. Later he would be a civil lawsuit judge and law professor.

In 1506 he translated Luciano de Samosata into Latin with the help of Erasmus. At that time he was a pensioner and butler at Lincoln 's Inn, where he lectured between 1511 and 1516. He also participated in negotiations between large companies in London and Antwerp, Flanders and he would learn firsthand many of the views spread across the continent about the nature of man and how he should be a sovereign respectful with the people.

In 1510 Thomas More was appointed Member of Parliament and Vice Sheriff of London, although this joy would be overshadowed by the death of his wife Jane a year later. Even so, he got the strength to marry Alice Middleton, a widow seven years older than him and with a daughter, little Alice.

Political life

Being a member of parliament from 1504, Thomas More was elected judge and sub-prefect in the city of London and began to express his opposition to some measures imposed by Henry VII. With the arrival of Henry VIII, son of the previous king, seen as a "protector of humanism and science", Thomas More was part of the first Parliament convened by the king in 1510.

Moro traveled through Europe and was influenced by different universities. In fact, It would be on his travels across the continent that he would write his poems for the newly crowned king, poetry that would come into the hands of the new monarch who called him. Thus, a strong friendship between the two would be born, although not unbreakable.

Between 1513 and 1518 he wrote his "History of King Richard III" written in Latin and English, although he could not finish the version of him in his mother tongue and ended up being imperfectly printed in English in Richard Grafton's "Chronicle" (1543). This text would be used by other chroniclers of the time, such as John Stow, Edward Hall and Raphael Holinshed, thus transmitting material that would later be used by the famous William Shakespeare in his play "Ricardo III".

In 1515 Tomás Moro was sent with a commercial embassy to Flanders, being that same year in which he would write "Utopia", the full version of which was first published in Leuven. In 1517 he went to work for King Henry VIII and was named "Master of requests", becoming a member of the Royal Council. The king used his diplomacy and tact, trusting in the figure of Thomas More some of the most important diplomatic missions in all kinds of European countries.

In 1520 he helped Henry VIII write "Assertio Septem Sacramentorum" ("Defense of the seven sacraments"). This was followed by the appointment of him to different positions and the decoration of him with different honorary titles. In the year 1521 he was honored with the title of knight and appointed as Vice Chancellor of the Treasury. That same year his eldest daughter, Margaret, would marry William Roper who would be the first biographer of Thomas More.

In 1524 he was appointed "High Steward", title of censor and administrator of the University of Oxford, institution of which he had been a student. In 1925 he would also receive such an honor from Cambridge University and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. In 1526 he became the judge of the Star Chamber and moved his residence to Chelsea, place where he would write a letter to Iohannis Bugenhagen in which he explicitly defended papal supremacy.

In 1528 the bishop of London allowed him to read heretical books with the intention of refuting them, in order to thus prevent the new and dangerous Lutheran ideas from diminishing the power of the Holy See in land Anglican. Finally, in 1529 he was appointed Lord Chancellor, he being the first lay chancellor after several centuries.

However, despite being a secular man and faithful to the king, he was more so to the pope and the Catholic faith, starting the controversy in 1530. That year a letter of names and prelates was published in which the pope was asked to annul the royal marriage between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, a letter which Moro refused to sign. This naturally caused the relationship between the king and the thinker to change and the enmity of Henry VIII was won.

In 1532 he resigned as chancellor and two years later he refused to sign the Act of Supremacy, in which the king was declared the highest head of the new Church of England. This Act established the sentence to those who did not accept it, and on April 17 of the same year Moro ended up being imprisoned..

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Campaign Against the Reform

Thomas More saw the Protestant Reformation as a full-blown heresy that threatened the unity of the church and society. His first actions against the Reformation included helping Cardinal Wolsey get rid of Lutheran books that had been smuggled to England. He also set about spying on and investigating suspected Protestants, especially publishers, and arresting all person who was in possession, transported or sold books that apologized to the reform Protestant.

Given his actions, it is not surprising that rumors circulated, both in life and after his death, that spoke about all kinds of mistreatment of heretics when he served as Minister of Justice. The criticism came from many anti-Catholics, including John Foxe, alleging that Moro frequently used torture and violence when questioning alleged heretics.

During his time as Chancellor, six people were burned at the stake for heresy: Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbery, Thomas Dusgate, and James Bainham. Burning heretics at the stake was almost a tradition at the time. In fact, some thirty bonfires had burned in the century before Moro served as chancellor, and he continued being used by both Catholics and Protestants during the turbulent times of Europe in full reform religious.

Nevertheless, historians are very divided regarding the religious actions that Moro carried out as chancellor. Some biographers, such as Peter Ackroy, attribute to him a moderate and even tolerant position in the fight against Protestantism. Others, like Richard Marius, are more critical, arguing that Moro himself came to promote the extermination of the Protestants, ideas clearly contrary to their supposed convictions humanists.

Another case is that of Peter Berglar. Berglar indicated that during the twelve years of the influence of Thomas More as Vice Chancellor of the Treasury (1521), spokesman for the House of Commons (1523), Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1525), Judge of the Star Chamber (1526), ​​adviser to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey on numerous matters Until his appointment as Lord Chancellor on October 26, 1529, not a single death sentence for heresy was pronounced in the diocese of London.

Instead, It was during the fall from grace of Thomas More shortly before his resignation as Lord Chancellor that the executions of heretics began, attributed to the influence of John Stokesley, new bishop of London and leader of the newly founded Church of England.

Condemnation and death

As we mentioned, King Henry VIII fell out with Tomás Moro due to discrepancies about the validity of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Tomás, as Chancellor, supported the union to go ahead and was not in favor of nullity. Henry VIII had asked the pope not to consider his marriage to Catherine, and the refusal marked the beginning of England's break with the Church of Rome, proclaiming himself the king as head of the Church of England.

The reason behind all this was Henry VIII's desire to have a male child, something that the now elderly Catherine of Aragon could not conceive of. The nullity of the marriage would have erased Enrique's infidelity with Ana Bolena, and would have legitimized the children that he could have had with her. Had the royal marriage been annulled, the matter would have been simply an anecdote, perhaps with some diplomatic disagreement between England and Spain but little else.

However, between the fact that the papacy did not grant the nullity and Thomas More was against accepting some of the king's wishes, tempers ended up heating up. Henry VIII strongly antagonized Thomas More and, after breaking with Rome and seeing that Moro refused to pronounce the oath that recognized Henry as supreme head of the Church of England, the monarch ordered that the theologian.

Finally The king, very angry, ordered Moro to be tried, who ended up being accused of high treason and sentenced to death. Other European leaders, admirers of the great thinker who was Moro, among them the Pope and the Emperor Charles I of Spain and V of the Holy Empire asked that his life be spared, but not They were lucky. Thomas More would be executed by beheading on Tower Hill a week after his conviction, on July 6, 1535 at the age of 57.

Despite its unfair and sad ending, it can be said that the death of Thomas More has a certain curiousity. Even knowing that he was going to lose his mind, this did not make him lose his particular sense of humor., especially trusting fully in the merciful God that she would receive him when crossing the threshold of death. While he was climbing the scaffold he went to the executioner and said:

"I beg you, I beg you, Mr. Lieutenant, to help me up, because to go down I will already know how to handle it myself." After kneeling he said: “Notice that my beard has grown in prison; that is, she has not been disobedient to the king, therefore there is no reason to cut her off. Let me put it aside. " Finally, he put his irony aside and addressed those present: "I die being the good servant of the king, but of God first."

Outstanding works

The masterpiece of Tomás Moro is, without a doubt, “Utopia” (1516), a book that many have considered the precursor of the utopian novelistic genre, receiving his name from him. In this play addresses the social problems of humanity and exposes them in a perfect and idealized world, a nation found on an island by the name of Utopia. Thanks to this text, Moro earned the recognition of all the scholars of Europe, having written it during one of his missions assigned by the king in Antwerp. Among his great inspirations was his close friend Erasmus of Rotterdam.

The other works are diverse, but always deal with common themes such as idealism and the condemnation of tyranny. Among them we have his "Life of Pico della Mirandola", which as we have mentioned is a translation of the biography of this Italian humanist, who claimed the primacy of Plato against Aristotle. The figure of della Mirandola may not be very popular outside of Italy, but thanks to Moro's translation it has been able to have a certain repercussion in the rest of Europe.

There is also his "History of Richard III", in which he ruthlessly criticized the tyrant king., who murdered his older brother and the young children of Eduardo IV to assume maximum power. This work was written in English and Latin, although the Latin version is much longer than the English and has been erroneously attributed to Cardinal John Morton. Moro represents the character as a sad antihero, representative of political degeneration and tyranny.

He also composed some poems in English, highlighting tributes to the death of English queens and various epigrams of his youth, poems that emanate an anti-absolutist thought. For Moro, the root of tyranny was found in greed, the greed for wealth and power, which feed and excite each other. Neither can he omit his dialogues and his treatises in defense of the traditional faith, harshly attacking the reformists. We can find “Responsio ad Lutherum”, “A Dialogue Concerning Heresies”, “The Confutation of Tyndale’s Answer” and “The Answer to a Poisoned Book”

In other books he delves into various spiritual aspects, having "Treatise on the Passion", "Treatise on the Blessed Body" and "De Tristitia Christi ”, this last text being drawn up in his own handwriting at the Tower of London when he was confined there until his beheading him. He was later saved from the confiscation decreed by Henry VIII, a text which passed by will of his daughter Margaret from him to authorities Spanish and through Fray Pedro de Soto, confessor of the Emperor Carlos V, he ended up arriving in Valencia at the hands of Luis Vives, a close friend of Moor.

Canonization

For his fight in favor of the Catholic faith, Thomas More was beatified along with 52 other martyrs, including John Fisher, by Pope Leoin XIII in 1886 and was finally proclaimed a saint by the Catholic Church on May 19, 1935 by Pius XI, originally establishing his feast on May 9. July. However, after a series of reforms in the mid-twentieth century, his party was changed in 1970 to be celebrated on June 22. On October 31, 2000, Pope John Paul II proclaimed him the patron saint of politicians and rulers..

As surprising as it may seem, he is also considered a saint and a hero within the Christian Church of England, despite the fact that It was the founder of this institution, Henry VIII, who had him executed for precisely criticizing this new vision of Christianity. He is together with John Fisher within the group of the martyrs of the reform and Moro is commemorated on July 6.

Bibliographic references:

• Ackroyd, Peter (2003). Thomas More. Barcelona: Edhasa. ISBN 84-350-2634-5.
• Berglar, Peter (2005). The hour of Tomás Moro. Alone in the face of power (5th edition). Madrid: Word Editions. ISBN 84-8239-838-5.
• Roper William (2009). The life of Sir Thomas More. University of Navarra. ISBN 978-84-313-1810-9.
• Vázquez de Prada, Andrés (1999). Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England. Madrid: Rialp Editions. ISBN 9788432132476.