Morton was impressed with More's intelligence and arranged for him to attend Canterbury College. At Oxford University he studied Greek, which was then unusual, and was thought to show a sympathy with "Italian infidels". The authorities and his father objected, and he was removed from the university and he returned to London. More was now "attracted to the Carthusians, practised extreme austerities, and contemplated joining the order." (4)

More's father was a lawyer, and he decided to follow the same profession. More was admitted on 12th February 1496 to Lincoln's Inn, where he remained for the next five years. More came under the influence of the ideas being promoted by Desiderius Erasmus, John Colet, Thomas Linacre, and William Grocyn. "With them the humanist movement in England - the study of man and his relationship to God - came of age." (5)

In 1499 Erasmus made his first visit to England where he resumed his friendship with Colet, who introduced him to More. John Guy agues that Erasmus had a great influence over More, Cuthbert Tunstall and Richard Pace. However, "Erasmus aspired to 'peace of mind' and 'moderate reform' through the application and development of critical insight and the power of humane letters. He eschewed politics; some said he was a dreamer. Colet, More, Tunstall, and Pace, by contrast, became councillors to Henry VIII: they resolved to enter politics and Erasmus disapproved, predicting the misfortunes that befell those who put their trust in princes." (6)

Religious "humanists" advocated the study of classical history and literature. They were especially influenced by the works of Cicero who expressed his belief in the value of the human individual. "He argued that individuals should be autonomous, free to think for themselves and possessed of rights that define their responsibilities; and that all men are brothers... The endowment of reason confers on people a duty to develop themselves fully, he said, and to treat one another with generosity and respect." The established Church was highly suspicious of humanism as it "threatened to liberate minds" and made attempts to suppress the movement. (7)

In 1504 John More became a member of the House of Commons, and became a leading critic of Henry VII. He was opposed to the king's new taxes and when this campaign was successful, the king was furious and sent him to the Tower of London, releasing him only on the payment of £100. However, he later became a supporter of Henry VIII and after being knighted and was employed by the king as a diplomat. (8)

In January 1505, More married Jane Colt. The couple established a home at the Old Barge, Bucklersbury. Their first daughter, Margaret was born later that year, followed by two more daughters, Elizabeth (1506) and Cicely (1507), and a son, John (1509). More held strong views on education, as he explained to William Gonell, a man who he employed as a tutor to his children: "I have warned my children to avoid the precipices of pride and haughtiness, and to walk in the pleasant meadows of modesty; not to be dazzled at the sight of gold; not to lament that they do not possess what they erroneously admire in others; not to think more of themselves for gaudy trappings, nor less for the want of them, neither to deform the beauty that nature has given them by neglect, nor to try to heighten it by artifice, to put virtue in the first place, learning in the second; and in their studies to esteem most whatever may teach them piety towards God, charity to all, and Christian humility in themselves. By such means they will receive from God the reward of an innocent life, and the assured expectation of it, will view death without horror, and meanwhile possessing solid joy, will neither be puffed up by the empty praise of men, nor dejected by evil tongues. These I consider the genuine fruits of learning. (9)

As Alison Plowden, the author of Tudor Women (2002) has pointed out that More and his humanist friends were all deeply interested in education and anxious to propagate their plans for a wider and more liberal curriculum in the schools and universities. "More was the first Englishman seriously to experiment with the novel idea that girls should be educated too. This may have been partly due to the fact that he had three daughters and an adopted daughter but only one son, and was undoubtedly helped by the fact that the eldest girl, Margaret, turned out to be unusually intelligent and receptive. She and her sisters Elizabeth and Cecily, together and their foster-sister Margaret Gigs, studied Latin and Greek, logic, philosophy and theology, mathematics and astronomy, and Margaret More, who presently became Margaret Roper, developed into a considerable and widely respected scholar in her own right." (10)

More explained: "Nor do I think the harvest will be much affected whether it is a man or a woman who sows the field. They both have the same human nature, which reason differentiates from that of beasts; both, therefore, are equally suited for these studies by which reason is cultivated, and becomes fruitful like a ploughed land on which seed of good lessons has been sown. If it be true that the soil of woman's brain be bad, and apter (appropriate) to bear bracken than corn, by which saying many keep women from study. I think, on the contrary, that a woman's wit is on that account all the more diligently to be cultivated, that nature's defect may be reduced by industry." He then went on to give the example of early Christians such as Augustine of Hippo who not only "exhorted excellent matrons and most noble virgins to study, but in order to assist them, diligently explained the abstruse meanings of Holy Scripture, and wrote for tender girls letters replete with no much erudition, that now-a-days old men, who call themselves professors of sacred science, can scarcely read them correctly, much less understand them." (11)

The notion that women could be equal to men would have been been totally foreign to the Tudor upper classes. A woman, single or married, possessed very few legal rights. A woman's body and her worldly goods both became her husband's property on marriage, and the large allowed him to do exactly as he pleased with them. As Alison Weir has pointed out: "The concept of female education gradually became accepted and even applauded... The education of girls was the privilege of the royal and the rich, and its chief aim was to produce future wives schooled in godly and moral precepts. It was not intended to promote independent thinking; indeed, it tended to the opposite." (12)

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More was appointed Justice of the Peace for Middlesex in 1509, and later that represented Westminster in the House of Commons. The following year he was appointed one of two under-sheriffs for the City of London in 1510. In the summer of 1511 More's wife, Jane, died, and within a month he married Alice Middleton, the widow of John Middleton, a wealthy London merchant. She brought a daughter, Alice, into the More household. "More later wrote that he could not tell which was dearer to him, the wife who bore their children or the wife who raised them, although privately he intimated that his second wife was less intellectually capable than his first." (13)

In 1515 Thomas More had a meeting with his good friend, Pieter Gillis, secretary to the city of Antwerp, and discussed the content of a novel he was writing called Utopia ("Utopia" is Greek for "nowhere"). The following year he sent the novel to Gillis: "I am almost ashamed, my dear Peter Giles, to send you this little book about the state of Utopia after almost a year, when I am sure you looked for it within a month and a half. Certainly you know that I was relieved of all the labour of gathering materials for the work and that I that I had to give no thought at all to their arrangement." (14)

More's book had been influenced by the writings of Plato, especially his book, The Republic (c. 375 BC). In the book he attempts to describe the ideal society. "Plato proposes a thoroughgoing communism... The guardians are to have small houses and simple food; they are to live as in a camp, dining together in companies; they are to have no private property beyond what is absolutely necessary. Gold and silver are to be forbidden. Though not rich, there is no reason why they should not be happy; but the purpose of the city is the good of the whole, not the happiness of one class. Both wealth and poverty are harmful, and in Plato's city neither will exist." (15)

Plato applies his communism to the family. Friends, he says, should have all things in common, including women and children. He admits that this presents difficulties, but thinks them not insuperable. One way of dealing with this problem is for women to have complete equality with men. For example, all girls are to have exactly the same education as boys, learning music, gymnastics, and the art of war along with the boys. "The same education which makes a man a good guardian will make a woman a good guardian; for their original nature is the same." (16)

The book tells of a seaman who has discovered an island called Utopia. The work begins with written correspondence between Thomas More and several people he had met on the continent. He used the names of real people to increase the plausibility of his fictional land that is located in the southern hemisphere. "The island of Utopia is in the middle two hundred miles broad, and holds almost at the same breadth over a great part of it, but it grows narrower towards both ends. Its figure is not unlike a crescent. Between its horns the sea comes in eleven miles broad, and spreads itself into a great bay, which is environed with land to the compass of about five hundred miles, and is well secured from winds. In this bay there is no great current; the whole coast is, as it were, one continued harbour, which gives all that live in the island great convenience for mutual commerce. But the entry into the bay, occasioned by rocks on the one hand and shallows on the other, is very dangerous. In the middle of it there is one single rock which appears above water, and may, therefore, easily be avoided; and on the top of it there is a tower, in which a garrison is kept; the other rocks lie under water, and are very dangerous. The channel is known only to the natives; so that if any stranger should enter into the bay without one of their pilots he would run great danger of shipwreck." (17)

More tells the reader he was told about Utopia by a traveller Raphael Hythlodaeus (Greek for "expert in nonsense"), whom he met in Belgium. The people on this island live in a completely different way from the people of Tudor England. In his book people elect their government annually by secret ballot; wear the same kind of clothes and only work for six hours a day. There is no money or private property on the island. Free education and health care is available for all. All goods are stored in large storehouses. People take what they want from the storehouses without payment. Hythlodaeus explains that for the people of the island "the end is the pursuit of virtue for its own sake". Public service is the noblest of callings and that "everyone takes delight in individual and collective virtue the state is at peace externally and internally". (18)

More explains: "When Raphael Hythloday had thus made an end of speaking, though many things occurred to me, both concerning the manners and laws of the people, that seemed very absurd, as well as their way of making war, as in their notions of religion and divine matters, together with several other particulars, but chiefly what seemed the foundations of all the rest, their living in common, without the use of money, by which all nobility, magnificence, splendor, and majesty, which, according to the common opinion, are the true ornaments of a nation, would be quite taken away." (19)

As Bertrand Russell has argued, Utopia was very different from the society that More lived in: "Everybody - men and women alike - works six hours a day, three before dinner and three after. All go to bed at eight, and sleep eight hours. In the early morning there are lectures, to which multitudes go, although they are not compulsory. After supper an hour is devoted to play. Six hours' work is enough, because there are no idlers and there is no useless work; with us, it is said, women, priests, rich people, servants, and beggars, mostly do nothing useful, and owing to the existence of the rich much labour is spent in producing unnecessary luxuries; all this is avoided in Utopia. Sometimes it is found that there is a surplus, and the magistrates proclaim a shorter working day for a time... The government is a representative democracy, with a system of indirect election." (20)

More seemed to approve of Utopia: "I have described for you as accurately as I can the structure of the commonwealth of Utopia, which I believe to be the only the best social order in the world, but the only one that can properly claim to be literally a commonwealth. Everywhere else people talk about the public good but pay attention to their own private interests. In Utopia, where there is no private property, everyone is seriously concerned with pursuing the public welfare. Both here and there people act with good reason, for the outside Utopia there can't be anyone who doesn't realize that unless they take care of their own welfare they may die of hunger, no matter how much the commonwealth prospers." (21)

People living in Utopia had unusual marriage arrangements: "As for marriage, both men and women are sharply punished if not virgin when they marry; and the householder of any house in which misconduct has occurred is liable to incur infamy for carelessness. Before marriage, bride and groom see each other naked; no one would buy a horse without first taking off the saddle and bridle, and similar considerations should apply in marriage. There is divorce for adultery or 'intolerable waywardness' of either party, but the guilty party cannot remarry. Sometimes divorce is granted solely because both parties desire it. (22)

One of the main differences between England and Utopia concerned religious tolerance: "There are several sorts of religions, not only in different parts of the island, but even in every town; some worshipping the sun, others the moon or one of the planets. Some worship such men as have been eminent in former times for virtue or glory, not only as ordinary deities, but as the supreme god... And, indeed, though they differ concerning other things, yet all agree in this: that they think there is one Supreme Being that made and governs the world, whom they call, in the language of their country, Mithras . They differ in this: that one thinks the god whom he worships is this Supreme Being, and another thinks that his idol is that god; but they all agree in one principle, that whoever is this Supreme Being, He is also that great essence to whose glory and majesty all honours are ascribed by the consent of all nations." (23)

The important point was that despite having different religions, all of them were tolerated. "Almost all believe in God and immortality; the few who do not are not accounted citizens, and have no part in political life, but are otherwise unmolested.... Women can be priests, if they are old and widowed. The priests are few; they have honour, but no power... Raphael Hythloday relates that he preached Christianity to the Utopians, and that many were converted when they learnt that Christ was opposed to private property. The importance of communism is constantly stressed." (24)

Some people claimed that in the book More was describing his vision of what England should be like. Others claimed that More had written a book that was supposed to make people laugh because he thought it was a ridiculous idea. More's biographer, Raymond Wilson Chambers, pointed out the irony of the fact that the word "Utopia" has come to mean an ideal society which is incapable of realisation, whereas More's Utopia is "a sternly righteous and puritanical State where few of us would feel quite happy" but has many features which have been applied in practice in the twentieth century. (25)

Jasper Ridley has argued: "More's Utopia was exactly what the word has come to mean today. He knew that it was not practicable to introduce such a system into the Europe of 1516, but he believed that it was the perfect society - or rather, that it was the kind of society which pure reason would lead him to believe was the perfect society if pure reason was the only factor involved, which he knew was not the case." (26) Anthony Grayling takes a different view: "More himself ends on a note of doubt about such a complete system of communism... He does not end by endorsing this latter view outright; he says he would himself like to see in his own country many of the things Hythloday describes; but he leaves open which things he would not like to see." (27)

More wrote Utopia in Latin, as he intended it to be read by the intellectuals of Europe, not by the common people. (It was not translated into English for another 35 years.) When it was published it was "acclaimed by scholars throughout Christendom". According to More, some readers took it so seriously that they believed that the island of Utopia really existed, and one of them suggested to More that missionaries should be sent to convert the Utopians to Christianity. (28)

Lacey Baldwin Smith, the author of Treason in Tudor England (2006) has argued that More lacked empathy. In his book Smith discusses More's reaction to the May Day Riots of 1517. Smith argues that modern historians explain the disturbances on domestic economic distress caused by fast rising prices. However, More blames it on agents provocateurs and conspirators. "Once the Reformation broke out, conspiracy took on more sinister and far more cosmic proportions, but nevertheless the conviction prevailed that heresy and its uglier stepsister sedition were the product of tiny groups of conspiring individuals determined upon private profit. Despite the extraordinary speed with which Protestant ideas spread and their obvious association with the basic economic, political and psychological needs of the century, More... continued to view the religious upheaval as the work of a handful of evil men and women set upon corrupting innocent but, alas, gullible subjects." (29)

Henry VIII was impressed by Thomas More and by 1518 "More acted in effect as the King's secretary". (30) It is claimed by his biographer, Nicholas Harpsfield, that More was reluctant to join the government. (31) In July 1519, Desiderius Erasmus described his friend, Thomas More, to Ulrich von Hutten. "He is not tall, without being noticeably short … his complexion tends to be warm rather than pale … with eyes rather greyish-blue, with a kind of fleck in them, the sort that usually indicates a gifted intelligence… His expression shows the sort of man he is, always friendly and cheerful, with something of the air of one who smiles easily, and… disposed to be merry rather than serious or solemn, but without a hint of the fool or the buffoon." (32)

In 1520 the doctrines of Martin Luther were deemed to be heretical and his books were banned. The following year, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, in a great ceremony burned Luther's texts on a pyre set up in St Paul's Churchyard. It was already too late to staunch the flow of the new doctrines. Thomas More complained that the heretics were "busily" at work in every alehouse and tavern, where they expounded their doctrines. More had pointed out that he had seen young lawyers were "wont to resort to their readings in a chamber at midnight". (33)

Wolsey was pleased by the support he received from More and this led to a series of important posts such as Treasurer of the Exchequer (1521) and Chancellor of Lancaster (1525). He also served as Speaker of the House of Commons and sent on foreign missions to France, Spain and Italy. "More assumed the position of sole royal secretary until 1526 and several times afterwards - largely because during these years of political upheaval Wolsey felt he could trust no one else. Despite acting as an intermediary between the lord chancellor and the king, More was among the most active participants in council meetings and dealt with the full range of councilor activity." (34)

In 1527 More was painted by Hans Holbein. It has been argued by the art historian, Helen Langdon: "Holbein presents the public figure, robed in authority (for all his saintly reputation More was ferocious enough to condemn heretics to be burnt.) The determined severity of countenance betrays little of the retiring scholar, although this is suggested in the figure's slight sloop. More was certainly concerned with the impression he made, insisting on having the flamboyant cuffs on his official costume replaced by ascetic plain ones." (35)

After reading More's book people might have thought that he would be in favour of religious toleration. However, since More had written Utopia there had been a rapid growth in Protestantism. More was a strong supporter of the Catholic Church and he was determined to destroy the Protestant movement in England. In March 1528, Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall decided to commission More to mount an attack on those heretics producing religious books in English. Tunstall explained to More that heretics were "translating into our mother tongue some of the vilest of their booklets and printing them in great numbers" and by these means they were "striving with all their might to stain and infect this country." (36)

In 1528 Simon Fish published A Supplication for the Beggars. It was only 5,000 words long and took up only fourteen small pages and was written by a "layman for layman". (37) It could be read in an hour and was easy to conceal as it was not published legally. It was also cheap enough to distribute free of charge. "The language was straightforward too, addressing laymen's issues in laymen's words." (38) Fish argued that the clergy should spend their money in the relief of the poor and not amass it for monks to pray for souls. (39) Fish claimed that monks were "ravenous wolves" who had "debauched 100,000 women". He added that the monks were "the great scab" that would not allow the Bible to be published in "your mother tongue". (40)

J. S. W. Helt has pointed out: "This short and violently anti-clerical tract challenged the existence of purgatory and presented cruel and wildly exaggerated accounts of clerical abuses done in the name of the souls, and in doing so introduced new strategies for controversial debate into the early stages of the English Reformation." It has been claimed by John Foxe that Anne Boleyn presented a copy of the book to Henry VIII who "kept the book in his bosom for three or four days" and who then embraced Fish "with a loving countenance" when he "appeared at court, took him hunting for several hours, and gave him a signet ring to protect him from his enemies". (41)

George M. Trevelyan has suggested that this work had an impact on the thinking of the King: "The conclusion reached by the pamphleteer (Simon Fish) is that the clergy, especially the monks and friars, should be deprived of their wealth for the benefit of the King and Kingdom, and made to work like other men; let them also be allowed to marry and so be induced to leave other people's wives alone. Such crude appeals to lay cupidity, and such veritable coarse anger at real abuses uncorrected down the centuries, had been generally prevalent in London under Wolsey's regime, and at his fall such talk became equally fashionable at Court." (42)

In March 1528, Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall decided to commission Thomas More to mount a counter-attack. Tunstall explained to More that religious reformers were "translating into our mother tongue some of the vilest of their booklets and printing them in great numbers" and were "striving with all their might to stain and infect this country". Tunstall licensed More to possess and read heretical books, blessed him and sent him forth into battle "to aid the Church of God by your championship." (43)

Thomas More published his reply to Simon Fish in October 1529. His Supplication of Souls was more than ten times the length of A Supplication for the Beggars. Most people agree that " its point-by-point rebuttal, of a kind appropriate to learned debate, although movingly written, failed to attain the rhetorical power of Fish's more populist tract". Fish now came under attack from Archbishop William Warham who charged him with heresy. (44)

More wrote to a friend that he especially hated the Anabaptists: "The past centuries have not seen anything more monstrous than the Anabaptists". His biographer, Jasper Ridley, has argued: "As Thomas More approached the age of fifty, all the conflicting trends in his strange character blended into one, and produced the savage persecutor of heretics who devoted his life to the destruction of Lutheranism. To say that he suffered from paranoia on this subject would be to resort to a glib phrase, not a serious psychiatric analysis; but it is unquestionable that More, like other persecutors throughout history, believed that the foundations of civilisation, and all that he valued as sacred, were threatened by the forces of evil, and that it was his mission to exterminate the enemy by all means, including torture and lies. The worst of all the heretics were the Anabaptists, the most extreme of all the Protestant sects, who were already causing great concern to the authorities in Germany and the Netherlands. They not only rejected infant baptism, but believed, like the inhabitants of Utopia, that goods should be held in common." (45)

Thomas More wrote that of all the heretical books published in England, Tyndale's translation of the New Testament, was the most dangerous. He began his book, Confutation of Tyndale's Answer, with a striking opening sentence: "Our Lord send us now some years as plenteous of good corn we have had some years of late plenteous of evil books. For they have grown so fast and sprung up so thick, full of pestilent errors and pernicious heresies, that they have infected and killed I fear me more simple souls than the famine of the dear years have destroyed bodies." (46)

For several years Henry VIII had been thinking of divorcing Catherine of Aragon. Catherine was in a difficult position. Now aged 44, she found it difficult to compete with Henry's mistress, Anne Boleyn. "Now her once slender figure was thickened with repeated child-bearing, and her lovely hair had darkened to a muddy brown, but visiting ambassadors still remarked on the excellence of her complexion. A dumpy little woman with a soft, sweet voice which had never lost its trace of foreign accent, and the imperturbable dignity which comes from generations of pride of caste, she faced the enemy armoured by an utter inward conviction of right and truth, and her own unbreakable will." (47)

It was suggested that Catherine should agree to annul the marriage. Alison Weir, the author of The Six Wives of Henry VIII (2007) believes that if she agreed to this measure Henry would have treated her well. "Yet time and again she had opposed him, seemingly blind to the very real dilemma he was in with regard to the succession, and when thwarted Henry could, and frequently did, became cruel." (48)

Alison Plowden argues that for Catherine it was impossible to accept the deal being put forward: "Henry's partisans have accused his first wife of spiritual arrogance, of bigotry and bloody-mindedness, and undoubtedly she was one of those uncomfortable people who would literally rather die than compromise over a moral issue. There's also no doubt that she was an uncommonly proud and stubborn woman. But to have yielded would have meant admitting to the world that she had lived all her married life in incestuous adultery, that she had been no more than 'the King's harlot', the Princess her daughter worth no more than any man's casually begotten bastard; and it would have meant seeing another woman occupying her place. The meekest of wives might well have jibbed at such self-sacrifice; for one of Catherine's background and temperament it was unthinkable." (49)

Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was given the task of arranging the divorce. Henry sent a message to the Pope Clement VII arguing that his marriage to Catherine of Aragon had been invalid as she had previously been married to his brother Arthur. Henry relied on Wolsey to sort the situation out. During negotiations the Pope forbade Henry to contract a new marriage until a decision was reached in Rome.

After two years of careful diplomatic negotiation a trial opened at Blackfriars on 18th June 1529 to prove the illegality of the marriage. It was presided over by Wolsey and Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio. Catherine made a spirited defence of her position. George Cavendish was an eyewitness in the court. He quotes her saying: "Sir, I beseech you, for all the loves that hath been betrayed us, and for the love of God, let me have justice and right. Take of me some pity and compassion, for I am a poor woman and a stranger born out of your dominion. I have here no assured friend, and much less indifferent counsel. I flee to you as the head of justice within this realm. Alas, Sir, where have I offended you? Or what occasion have you of displeasure, that you intend to put me from you? I take God and all the world to witness that I have been to you a true, humble and obedient wife, ever conformable to your will and pleasure. I have been pleased and contented with all things wherein you had delight and dalliance. I never grudged a word or countenance, or showed a spark of discontent. I loved all those whom you loved only for your sake, whether I had cause or no, and whether they were my friends or enemies. This twenty years and more I have been your true wife, and by me you have had many children, though it hath pleased God to call them out of this world, which hath been no fault in me." (50)

The trial was adjourned by Campeggi on 30th July to allow Catherine's petition to reach Rome. This caused serious problems for Wolsey: "This instantly and considerably weakened Wolsey's position, giving the hostile coterie of courtiers who flocked around Anne the leverage they needed to topple him. Nevertheless he fought hard to retain office, and the king's evident reluctance to lose his services enabled him to cling to power until the autumn. It was not until 18th October that Wolsey resigned the great seal, and even then Henry protected him against complete ruin." (51) With the encouragement of Anne Boleyn, Henry became convinced that Wolsey's loyalties lay with the Pope, not England, and in October 1529 he was dismissed from office. (52)

Henry VIII now replaced Wolsey with Thomas More as Lord Chancellor. According to Peter Ackroyd, this was a shrewd political move. "Since More was known to be an avid hunter of heretics, it was evident proof that Henry did not wish to disavow the orthodox Church. In fact, More started his pursuit within a month of taking his position he arrested a citizen of London, Thomas Phillips, on suspicion of heresy... It was the beginning of the new chancellor's campaign of terror against the heretics." (53)

More was opposed to the divorce of Catherine of Aragon but came under increasing pressure from other members of the Privy Council to agree with this policy. (54) When this was unsuccessful, he was excluded from the inner circle of councillors concerned with the divorce proceedings. More now concentrated his energies on persecuting Heretics. In 1530 he issued two proclamations proscribing a number of publications and banned the importation of any foreign imprints of English works. More imprisoned a number of men for owning banned books. More also ordered the execution of three heretics and publicly approved of the execution of others. "The vigour with which More pursued heretics through the courts was mirrored by the relentlessness with which he fought them... The times demanded strictness, he repeatedly argued, because the stakes were so high. No other aspect of More's life has engendered greater controversy than his persecution of heretics. Critics argue that as one of Europe's leading intellectuals, and one with particularly strong humanist leanings, More should have rejected capital punishment of heretics. His supporters point out that he was a product of his times, and that those men he most admired... lamented but accepted as necessary the practice of executing heretics." (55)

Jasper Ridley, the author of The Statesman and the Fanatic (1982) points out that no heretics were burned between 1521 and 1529 when Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was Lord Chancellor. However, things changed when Sir Thomas More replaced Wolsey: "Apart from other factors, these heretics were burned when More was Chancellor because they refused to recant, or, having recanted, relapsed into heresy, whereas in Wolsey's time all the heretics whom he examined recanted at their trial. But there is no doubt that at least part of the reason is that More was a far more zealous persecutor than Wolsey." (56)

More was critical of the tolerant way that the radical preacher, Thomas Bilney, had been treated by Wolsey. In 1527 Bilney's attacks "on the insolence, pomp, and pride of the clergy" drew the attention of the authorities. On 29th November, Bilney was brought before Wolsey and a group of bishops, priests, and lawyers at Westminster. Bilney declared that he had not "taught the opinions" of Martin Luther. Bilney was now handed over to Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall who declared he "was a wicked and detestable heretic". According to John Foxe: "He was sentenced to prison for some time and forced to do penance by going before the procession at St. Paul's bareheaded and carrying a fagot on his shoulder, then standing before the preacher during the sermon." (57)

In 1531 Bilney began to preach in the open air and distributed copies of the English Bible that had been translated by William Tyndale. He was arrested in March and this time More decided he would be burnt at the stake. (58) John Foxe later described his execution at Norwich in August 1531: "Bilney approached the stake in a layman's gown, his arms hanging out, his hair mangled by the church's ritual divestiture of office. He was given permission to speak to the crowd and told them not to blame the friars present for his death and then said his private prayers. The officers put reeds and wood around him and lit the fire, which flared up rapidly, deforming Bilney's face as he held up his hands." Foxe claimed he called out "Jesus" and "I believe". (59)

Richard Bayfield was arrested at a London bookbinder's in October 1531. He was imprisoned, and interrogated by Thomas More. Bayfield was a close associate of William Tyndale and arranged for his English translation of the Bible to be imported to England. It is estimated that during this period 18,000 copies of this book were printed and smuggled into England.

Jasper Ridley has argued that the Tyndale Bible created a revolution in religious belief: "The people who read Tyndale's Bible could discover that although Christ had appointed St Peter to be head of his Church, there was nothing in the Bible which said that the Bishops of Rome were St Peter's successors and that Peter's authority over the Church had passed to the Popes... The Bible stated that God had ordered the people not to worship graven images, the images and pictures of the saints, and the station of the cross, should not be placed in churches and along the highways... Since the days of Pope Gregory VII in the eleventh century the Catholic Church had enforced the rule that priests should not marry but should remain apart from the people as a special celibate caste... The Protestants, finding a text in the Bible that a bishop should be the husband of one wife, believed that all priests should be allowed to marry." (60)

As Andrew Hope points out Bayfield was an important figure in the illegal importation of English books: "Bayfield... took on the role of the main supplier of prohibited reformation books to the English market, a role vacant since the arrest of Thomas Garrett in 1528.... He is known to have sent three major consignments to England, the first via Colchester in mid-1530, the second via St Katharine by the Tower, London, in late 1530, and the third via Norfolk about Easter 1531. The second consignment was wholly intercepted by Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas More, and the third probably partially so." (61)

Richard Bayfield was imprisoned, and interrogated and tortured by Thomas More. "Richard Bayfield was cast into prison, and endured some whipping, for his adherence to the doctrines of Luther... The sufferings this man underwent for the truth were so great that it would require a volume to contain them. Sometimes he was shut up in a dungeon, where he was almost suffocated by the offensive and horrid smell of filth and stagnant water. At other times he was tied up by the arms, until almost all his joints were dislocated. He was whipped at the post several times, until scarcely any flesh was left on his back; and all this was done to make him recant. He was then taken to the Lollard's Tower in Lambeth palace, where he was chained by the neck to the wall, and once every day beaten in the most cruel manner by the archbishop's servants." (62)

According to Jasper Ridley More later attempted to discredit Bayfield by claiming he had two wives. His friends claimed this was untrue. More suggested that Bayfield had relapsed into heresy, "like a dog returning to his vomit" but was "willing to recant again as long as he thought that there was any chance of saving his life". (63)

Richard Bayfield was convicted as a relapsed heretic, degraded, and "burnt with excruciating slowness" at Smithfield, on 27th November, 1531. (64) According to one source More stamped on Bayfield's ashes and cursed him." (65) The following month, on 3rd December, Thomas More issued a proclamation denouncing William Tyndale as a "spreader of seditious heresy". (66)

As a writer, More was aware of the power of books to change people's opinions. He therefore drew up a list of Protestant books that should to be banned. This included the English translation of the Bible by William Tyndale. More attempted to make life difficult for those publishing such books. He introduced a new law that required the name and address of the printer to be printed in every book published in England. People caught owning Protestant books were sat facing back-to-front on a horse. Wearing placards explaining their crimes, these people were walked through the streets of London. More also organized public burnings of Protestant books. People found guilty of writing and selling Protestant books were treated more harshly. Like those caught making Protestant sermons, they were sometimes burnt at the stake.

One of Tyndale's associates, John Frith arrived in England in July 1531 to help distribute Tyndale's Bible. Frith was arrested when he was suspected that he might have stolen goods hidden in his bag. When the bag was opened they discovered that it contained English Bibles. After the authorities discovered his real name he was sent to the Tower of London. While in the Tower he wrote an extended essay where he explained his arguments against Catholic ideas such as transubstantiation. It was smuggled out and read by his supporters. (67) "He argued first that the matter of the sacrament was no necessary article of faith under pain of damnation. Next, that Christ had a natural body (apart from sin), and could not be in two places at once. Third, that 'This is my body' was not literal. Last, that what the church practised was not what Christ instituted." (68)

Thomas More obtained a copy of the essay. Catholics like More upheld the doctrine of transubstantiation, whereby the bread and wine became in actual fact the body and blood of Christ. It is believed because it is impossible, it is proof of the overwhelming power of God. Frith, a follower of Martin Luther, who believed in the real presence of Christ in the sacrament, but denied that he was there "in substance". Luther believed in what became known as consubstantiation or sacramental union, whereby the integrity of the bread and wine remain even while being transformed by the body and blood of Christ. (69)

According to John Foxe, Frith and More were engaged in a long debate on two main issues: "While there (in the Tower of London), he and More wrote back and forth to each other, arguing about the sacrament of communion and purgatory. Frith's letters were always moderate, calm, and learned. Where he was not forced to argue, he tended to give in for the sake of peace." (70)

Bishop Stephen Gardiner suggested to Henry VIII that an example should be made of John Frith. Henry ordered Frith to recant or be condemned. Frith refused and he was examined at St Paul's Cathedral on 20th June 1533. (71) His examinations revolved around two points: purgatory and the substance of the sacrament. Frith wrote to his friends, "I cannot agree with the divines and other head prelates that it is an article of faith that we must believe - under pain of damnation - that the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of our Savior Jesus Christ while their form and shape stay the same. Even if this were true, it should not be an article of faith." (72)

Henry discovered that Anne Boleyn was pregnant. As it was important that the child should not be classed as illegitimate, arrangements were made for Henry and Anne to get married. King Charles V of Spain threatened to invade England if the marriage took place, but Henry ignored his threats and the marriage went ahead on 25th January, 1533. It was very important to Henry that his wife should give birth to a male child. Without a son to take over from him when he died, Henry feared that the Tudor family would lose control of England. Thomas More was careful to make it clear that despite his growing opposition to the King's church policies, he accepted Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn as being part of God's providence, and would neither "murmur at it nor dispute upon it", since "this noble woman" was "royally anointed queen". (73)

Elizabeth was born on 7th September, 1533. Henry expected a son and selected the names of Edward and Henry. While Henry was furious about having another daughter, the supporters of his first wife, Catherine of Aragon were delighted and claimed that it proved God was punishing Henry for his illegal marriage to Anne. (74) Retha M. Warnicke, the author of The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn (1989) has pointed out: "As the king's only legitimate child, Elizabeth was, until the birth of a prince, his heir and was to be treated with all the respect that a female of her rank deserved. Regardless of her child's sex, the queen's safe delivery could still be used to argue that God had blessed the marriage. Everything that was proper was done to herald the infant's arrival." (75)

In December 1533 Henry VIII gave Thomas Cromwell permission to unleash all the resources of the state in discrediting the papacy. "In one of the fiercest and ugliest smear campaigns in English history the minister showed his mastery of propaganda techniques as the pope was attacked throughout the nation in sermons and pamphlets. In the new year another session of parliament was summoned to enact the necessary legislation to break formally the remaining ties which bound England to Rome, again under Cromwell's meticulous supervision." (76)

In March 1534 Pope Clement VII eventually made his decision. He announced that Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn was invalid. Henry reacted by declaring that the Pope no longer had authority in England. In November 1534, Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy. This gave Henry the title of the "Supreme head of the Church of England". A Treason Act was also passed that made it an offence to attempt by any means, including writing and speaking, to accuse the King and his heirs of heresy or tyranny. All subjects were ordered to take an oath accepting this. (77)

Sir Thomas More and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, refused to take the oath and were imprisoned in the Tower of London. More was summoned before Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell at Lambeth Palace. More was happy to swear that the children of Anne Boleyn could succeed to the throne, but he could not declare on oath that all the previous Acts of Parliament had been valid. He could not deny the authority of the pope "without the jeopardizing of my soul to perpetual damnation." (78)

Elizabeth Barton was arrested and executed for prophesying the King's death within a month if he married Anne Boleyn. Henry's daughter, Mary I, also refused to take the oath as it would mean renouncing her mother, Catherine of Aragon. On hearing this news, Anne Boleyn apparently said that the "cursed bastard" should be given "a good banging". Mary was only confined to her room and it was her servants who were sent to prison. (79)

On 15th June, 1534, it was reported to Thomas Cromwell that the Observant Friars of Richmond refused to take the oath. Two days later two carts full of friars were hanged, drawn and quartered for denying the royal supremacy. A few days later a group of Carthusian monks were executed for the same offence. "They were chained upright to stakes and left to die, without food or water, wallowing in their own filth - a slow, ghastly death that left Londoners appalled". (80) Cromwell told More that the example he was setting was resulting in other men being executed. More responded: "I do nobody harm. I say none harm, I think none harm, but wish everybody good. And if this be not enough to keep a man alive, in good faith I long not to live." (81)

In April 1535 the priors of the Carthusian houses, in Charterhouse Priory in London, Axholme Priory in North Lincolnshire and Beauvale Priory in Nottinghamshire, refused to acknowledge the King to be the Head of the Church of England. They were hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on 4th May. (82)

In May 1535, Pope Paul III created Bishop John Fisher a Cardinal. This infuriated Henry VIII and he ordered him to be executed on 22nd June at the age of seventy-six. A shocked public blamed Queen Anne for his death, and it was partly for this reason that news of the stillbirth of her child was suppressed as people might have seen this as a sign of God's will. Anne herself suffered pangs of conscience on the day of Fisher's execution and attended a mass for the "repose of his soul". (83)

Henry VIII decided it was time that Thomas More was tried for treason. The trial was held in Westminster Hall and began on 1st July. Lord Chancellor Thomas Audley presided over the case. Unlike Bishop Fisher, More denied that he had ever said that the king was not Head of the Church, but claimed that he had always refused to answer the question, and that silence could never constitute an act of high treason. The prosecution argued that silence implied consent. As Jasper Ridley, the author of The Statesman and the Fanatic (1982) has pointed out, "while Fisher and the Carthusians, when facing their judges, took their stand for the Papal Supremacy, More rested his defence on a legal quibble". (84)

It was difficult for the prosecution to maintain that anything that More had said or done constituted a malicious denial of the king's title as Supreme Head. Sir Richard Rich, the Solicitor-General, gave evidence that caused Thomas More considerable problems. Rich recalled a conversation that he had with More on 12th June, 1532, when he visited him in the Tower of London. According to P. R. N. Carter: "The two lawyers engaged in a hypothetical discussion of the power of parliament to make the king supreme head of the church.... and Rich testified (falsely) that during their conversation the former lord chancellor had explicitly denied the supremacy. The alternative view is that More relaxed somewhat during the interrogation by Rich in what was a bit of professional jousting, but that Rich did not see or report this as something new. However, someone, possibly Cromwell, saw that More's statements could be used to convict him of denying the royal supremacy. Hence Rich's evidence was not dishonest, merely used in a way he never foresaw." (85)

The verdict was never in doubt and Thomas More was convicted of treason. Lord Chancellor Thomas Audley "passed sentence of death - the full sentence required by law, that More was to be hanged, cut down while still living, castrated, his entrails cut out and burned before his eyes, and then beheaded. As he was being taken back to the Tower, Margaret Roper and his son John broke through the cordon of guards to embrace him. After he had bidden them farewell, as he moved away, Margaret ran back, again broke through the cordon, and embraced him again." (86)

Henry VIII commuted the sentence to death by the headsman's axe. On the night before his execution, Thomas More sent Margaret Roper his hairshirt, so that no one should see it on the scaffold and so that she could treasure that link that was a secret between the two of them. He wrote to her saying: "I long to go to God... I never liked your manner toward me better than when you kissed me last; for I love when daughterly love, and dear charity, hath no leisure to look to worldly courtesy. Farewell, my dear child, and pray for me, and I shall for you and all your friends, that we may merrily meet in Heaven." (87)

On 6th July, 1535, Thomas More was taken to Tower Hill. More told his executioner: "You will give me this day a greater benefit than ever any mortal man can be able to give me. Pluck up thy spirits, man, and be not afraid to do thine office. My neck is very short; take heed, therefore, thou strike not awry for saving of thine honesty." (88)

More's family were given the headless corpse to the family and it was buried at the church of St Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London. Thomas More's head was boiled, as usual, to preserve it and to add terror to its appearance before exhibiting it. It was put on the pole on London Bridge which Fisher's head had occupied for the past fortnight. After a few days, Margaret Roper, his daughter, bribed a constable of the watch to take it down and give it to her. She hid the head in some place where no one found it. (89)

History of Ideas

Thomas More: Discussion Points

Thomas More: Quotations

Sir Thomas More: Saint or Sinner? (Answer Commentary)

Henry VIII (Answer Commentary)

Henry VII: A Wise or Wicked Ruler? (Answer Commentary)

Henry VIII: Catherine of Aragon or Anne Boleyn?

Was Henry VIII's son, Henry FitzRoy, murdered?

Hans Holbein and Henry VIII (Answer Commentary)

The Marriage of Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon (Answer Commentary)

Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves (Answer Commentary)

Was Queen Catherine Howard guilty of treason? (Answer Commentary)

Anne Boleyn - Religious Reformer (Answer Commentary)

Did Anne Boleyn have six fingers on her right hand? A Study in Catholic Propaganda (Answer Commentary)

Why were women hostile to Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn? (Answer Commentary)

Catherine Parr and Women's Rights (Answer Commentary)

Women, Politics and Henry VIII (Answer Commentary)

Historians and Novelists on Thomas Cromwell (Answer Commentary)

Martin Luther and Thomas Müntzer (Answer Commentary)

Martin Luther and Hitler's Anti-Semitism (Answer Commentary)

Martin Luther and the Reformation (Answer Commentary)

Mary Tudor and Heretics (Answer Commentary)

Joan Bocher - Anabaptist (Answer Commentary)

Anne Askew – Burnt at the Stake (Answer Commentary)

Elizabeth Barton and Henry VIII (Answer Commentary)

Execution of Margaret Cheyney (Answer Commentary)

Robert Aske (Answer Commentary)

Dissolution of the Monasteries (Answer Commentary)

Pilgrimage of Grace (Answer Commentary)

Poverty in Tudor England (Answer Commentary)

Why did Queen Elizabeth not get married? (Answer Commentary)

Francis Walsingham - Codes & Codebreaking (Answer Commentary)

Hans Holbein's Art and Religious Propaganda (Answer Commentary)

1517 May Day Riots: How do historians know what happened? (Answer Commentary)

(1) Seymour Baker House, Thomas More : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(2) Peter Ackroyd, The Life of Thomas More (1997) page 23

(3) Jasper Ridley, The Statesman and the Fanatic (1982) page 12

(4) Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy (1946) page 504

(5) Roger Lockyer, Tudor and Stuart Britain (1985) page 18

(6) John Guy, Tudor England (1988) pages 18-19

(7) Anthony Grayling, Ideas that Matter (2009) pages 246-249

(8) Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy (1946) page 504

(9) Thomas More, letter to William Gonell (22nd May, 1518)

(10) Alison Plowden, Tudor Women (2002) page 34

(11) Thomas More, letter to William Gonell (22nd May, 1518)

(12) Alison Weir, The Six Wives of Henry VIII (2007) page 5

(13) Seymour Baker House, Thomas More : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(14) Thomas More, letter to Pieter Gillis (October 1516)

(15) Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy (1946) page 127

(16) Plato, The Republic (c. 375 BC)

(17) Thomas More, Utopia (1516) Book I

(18) Anthony Grayling, The History of Philosophy (2019) page 191

(19) Thomas More, Utopia (1516) Book I

(20) Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy (1946) page 505

(21) Thomas More, Utopia (1516) Book II

(22) Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy (1946) page 506

(23) Thomas More, Utopia (1516) Book IX

(24) Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy (1946) page 507

(25) Raymond Wilson Chambers, Thomas More (1935) page 125

(26) Jasper Ridley, The Statesman and the Fanatic (1982) page 71

(27) Anthony Grayling, The History of Philosophy (2019) page 191

(28) Seymour Baker House, Thomas More : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(29) Lacey Baldwin Smith, Treason in Tudor England (2006) page 60

(30) Antonia Fraser, The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1992) page 76

(31) Nicholas Harpsfield, The Life and Death of Sir Thomas More (1557) page 23

(32) Desiderius Erasmus, letter to Ulrich von Hutten (July, 1519)

(33) Peter Ackroyd, Tudors (2012) page 29

(34) Seymour Baker House, Thomas More : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(35) Helen Langdon, Holbein (1976) page 18

(36) David Starkey, Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII (2003) page 379

(37) J. S. W. Helt, Simon Fish : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(38) David Starkey, Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII (2003) page 376

(39) Jasper Ridley, Henry VIII (1984) page 187

(40) Peter Ackroyd, Tudors (2012) page 59

(41) J. S. W. Helt, Simon Fish : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(42) George M. Trevelyan, English Social History (1942) pages 117-118

(43) David Starkey, Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII (2003) page 376

(44) J. S. W. Helt, Simon Fish : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(45) Jasper Ridley, The Statesman and the Fanatic (1982) page 238

(46) Thomas More, Confutation of Tyndale's Answer (June, 1533)

(47) Alison Plowden, Tudor Women (2002) page 54

(48) Alison Weir, The Six Wives of Henry VIII (2007) page 228

(49) Alison Plowden, Tudor Women (2002) page 54

(50) Alison Weir, The Six Wives of Henry VIII (2007) page 200

(51) David Starkey, Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII (2003) pages 430-433

(52) Howard Leithead, Thomas Cromwell : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(53) Peter Ackroyd, Tudors (2012) page 56

(54) David Starkey, Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII (2003) page 391

(55) Seymour Baker House, Thomas More : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(56) Jasper Ridley, The Statesman and the Fanatic (1982) page 253

(57) John Foxe, Book of Martyrs (1563) page 82 of 2014 edition.

(58) David Daniell, Thomas Bilney : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(59) John Foxe, Book of Martyrs (1563) page 83 of 2014 edition.

(60) Jasper Ridley, Bloody Mary's Martyrs (2002) page 4

(61) Andrew Hope, Richard Bayfield : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(62) John Foxe, Book of Martyrs (1563) page 149

(63) Jasper Ridley, The Statesman and the Fanatic (1982) page 265

(64) Andrew Hope, Richard Bayfield : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(65) Melvyn Bragg, The Daily Telegraph (6th June, 2013)

(66) David Loades, Thomas Cromwell (2013) page 67

(67) Jasper Ridley, The Statesman and the Fanatic (1982) pages 258-259

(68) David Daniell, John Frith : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(69) Peter Ackroyd, Tudors (2012) page 141

(70) John Foxe, Book of Martyrs (1563) pages 87

(71) David Daniell, John Frith : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(72) John Foxe, Book of Martyrs (1563) pages 87

(73) Antonia Fraser, The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1992) page 190

(74) Patrick Collinson, Queen Elizabeth I : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(75) Retha M. Warnicke, The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn (1989) page 168

(76) Howard Leithead, Thomas Cromwell : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(77) Roger Lockyer, Tudor and Stuart Britain (1985) pages 43-44

(78) Peter Ackroyd, Tudors (2012) page 82

(79) Antonia Fraser, The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1992) page 210

(80) Alison Weir, The Six Wives of Henry VIII (2007) page 281

(81) Peter Ackroyd, Tudors (2012) page 87

(82) Jasper Ridley, The Statesman and the Fanatic (1982) page 277

(83) Alison Weir, The Six Wives of Henry VIII (2007) page 281

(84) Jasper Ridley, The Statesman and the Fanatic (1982) page 279

(85) P. R. N. Carter, Richard Rich : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(86) Jasper Ridley, The Statesman and the Fanatic (1982) page 282

(87) Thomas More, letter to Margaret Roper (5th July, 1535)

(88) Peter Ackroyd, Tudors (2012) page 87

(89) Jasper Ridley, The Statesman and the Fanatic (1982) page 283