Click
here to read about the More Family Painting by Rowland Lockey
In
1733, Charles Waterton (Walton branch), grandfather of
the Squire, married Mary Cresacre-More, she was
seventh in descent from "Blessed Thomas, the martyred chancellor". (From The Catholic Encyclopaedia).
~~~~
More
was a passionate defender of Catholic orthodoxy
- writing pamphlet after pamphlet against heresy, banning and
confiscating unorthodox books, and even taking personal responsibility,
when Chancellor, for the interrogation, whipping and burning of
English heretics. BBC History, Historic Figures 2004.
As
chancellor it was his duty to enforce the laws against heretics
and, by doing so, he provoked the attacks of Protestant writers
both in his own time and since. The subject need not be discussed
here, but More's attitude is patent. He agreed with the principle
of the anti-heresy laws and had no hesitation in enforcing them.
As he himself wrote in his "Apologia" (cap. 49) it was
the vices of heretics that he hated, not their persons; and he
never proceeded to extremities until he had made every effort
to get those brought before him to recant.
How successful he was in this is clear from the fact that only
four persons suffered the supreme penalty for heresy during his
whole term of office. (Catholic Encyclopedia)
~~~~
The
English Reformation
- Church and Reformation
Henry
VIII's need for an heir triggered the English Reformation, which
brought about widespread change.
Despite the zeal of religious reformers
in Europe, England was slow to question the established Church.
During the reign of Henry VIII, however,the tide turned in favour
of Protestantism, and by the 1600s the new Church held sway over
the old.
There
is no evidence of any great hostility towards the church and its
institutions before the Reformation; on the contrary, both the
English episcopate and parish clergy seem to have been, by the
standards of other European lands, both well-trained and living
without scandal. The
English Reformation By Professor Andrew Pettegree, BBC Church
and Reformation, 2004.
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A
Brief Life
Sir Thomas More (1478 - 1535) was a
scholar, author and statesman. He rose to prominence early in
the 16th century as Under-sheriff of London and one of Henry VIII's
most effective and trusted civil servants. He acted as the King's
secretary, interpreter, speech-writer, chief diplomat, advisor
and confidant. In 1521 he was made the Kingdom's Undertreasurer
and knighted. He served the king well as a Privy Councillor prior
to his election as speaker of the House of Commons in 1523.
In
1529, More succeeded Cardinal Wolsey as Lord Chancellor, but three
years later he resigned that office over the issue of King Henry’s
divorce from Catherine of Aragon. He refused to subscribe to the
Act of Supremacy, making the King head of the Church of England,
and for this he was found guilty of high treason and beheaded.
He was beatified in 1886 and canonized in 1935 by Pope Pius XI
on the four-hundredth anniversary of his death. His feast day
is the 22nd June.
More
built up a reputation as one of Europe's leading scholars. He
was close to the radical catholic theologian Erasmus, but argued
against Martin Luther and the protestant reformation. Around 1515
he wrote The History of Richard III which established
that king's reputation as a tyrant. In 1516 published his most
important work Utopia - a description of an imaginary
communist republic ruled by reason and intended to contrast sharply
with the strife-ridden reality of contemporary Europe politics.
"Pluck
up thy spirits man, and be not afraid to do thy office; my neck
is very short; take heed, therefore, that thou strike not awry,
for saving of thy honesty." [Paying the man a gold coin,
these were More's words to his seemingly hestitant executioner,
from The Life and Death of Sir Thomas More, by Nicholas
Harpsfield]
Opposing Views of Thomas More |
One
view - he was not a liberal or reformer
Although a leading free-thinker of his day (and, of course,
a man of his day - not ours), More was no
liberal-minded reformer or champion of the common folk.
As Lord Chancellor he was opposed to the Scriptures being
translated into English for the common people. More favoured
the repression and extermination of heresy. but his days
as a persecutor were cut short by Henry VIII's vengeance.
Even Henry VIII, not concerned too much with the lives of
the peasants, was enlightened enough to wish to assent to
the publication of the Scriptures in our native tongue,
and the publication of an English Bible in Miles Coverdale's
translation was first achieved in 1536, a year after More's
death.
He
imposed censorship and forbade the import of books in English.
Printing of religious books in England required the consent
of a bishop. It was a case of one law for the rich and educated
and another for the poor. (Sources include The Oxford
Illustrated History of Britain and BBC Historic Figures,
2004)
Not
for the common folk
Thomas More was the leading lay opponent of the commissioning
of a Bible in the English language: "It is not necessary
the said Scripture to be in the English tongue and in the
hands of the common people, but that the distribution of
the said Scripture, and the permitting or denying thereof,
dependeth only upon the discretion of the superiors, as
they shall think it convenient".[1]
(Proclamation 22 June 1530, p.242,Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, ed. Kenneth O. Morgan, OUP, 1984) |
An
alternative view
However, the view St Thomas More expressed above is not
universally shared and an alternative view is that as a
Judge of the Common Pleas, he did not have the authority
to impose censorship or forbid the import of books. Even
as Chancellor of England, his role was fiscal and not cultural
and to endow him with such views is extremely suspect. Perjury
and fabrication brought this honourable man, who displayed
an inordinate amount of integrity considering the mores
of his era,to the scaffold. (David Alexander Richard Waterton-Anderson , 2004)
Joseph
Addison wrote in the Spectator (No. 349) "that
innocent mirth which had been so conspicuous in his life,
did not forsake him to the last . . .his death was of a
piece with his life. There was nothing in it new, forced
or affected. He did not look upon the severing of his head
from his body as a circumstance that ought to produce any
change in the disposition of his mind". |
Some
Thomas More links:
St. Thomas More in the Catholic
Encyclopedia.
Sir
Thomas More and the Princes in the Tower - The conventional
and unconventional symbols in the portrait of Sir Thomas More
and his Family (Artist: Rowland Lockey after Holbein the Younger,
Nostell Priory, Nr. Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England)
The
Story of Thomas More, by John Farrow
The
More Family Portrait
by Rowland Lockey (after Hans Holbein the Younger)
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