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{{Short description|English politician, author and philosopher (1478–1535)}}
{{Redirect|Sir Thomas More|the play|Sir Thomas More (play){{!}}''Sir Thomas More'' (play)}}
{{Other people}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Thomas More
| image               = Hans Holbein, the Younger - Sir Thomas More - Google Art Project.jpg
| honorific_prefix = [[Sir]]
| caption             = ''[[Portrait of Sir Thomas More (Holbein)|Sir Thomas More]]'' (1527)
| office              = [[Lord Chancellor]]
| term_start          = October 1529
| term_end            = May 1532
| monarch             = [[Henry VIII]]
| preceded            = [[Thomas Wolsey]]
| succeeded           = [[Thomas Audley]]
| office1             = [[Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster]]
| term_start1         = 31 December 1525
| term_end1           = 3 November 1529
| monarch1            = Henry VIII
| preceded1           = [[Richard Wingfield]]
| succeeded1          = [[William FitzWilliam, 1st Earl of Southampton|William FitzWilliam]]
| office2             = [[List of Speakers of the House of Commons of England|Speaker of the House of Commons]]
| term_start2         = 15 April 1523
| term_end2           = 13 August 1523

| monarch2            = Henry VIII
| preceded2           = [[Thomas Nevill]]
| succeeded2          = [[Thomas Audley]]
| birth_date          = 7 February 1478
| death_date          = 6 July 1535 (aged 57)
| birth_place         = [[City of London]], [[Kingdom of England]]
| death_place         = [[Tower Hill]], London, Kingdom of England
| death_cause         = Execution by beheading
| resting_place       = {{Plainlist|
* [[Church of St Peter ad Vincula]] (body)
* [[St. Dunstan's, Canterbury|St Dunstan's Church, Canterbury]] or Chelsea Old Church (head)
}}
| spouse              = {{Plainlist|
* {{marriage|Jane Colt|1505|1511|end=d}}
* {{marriage|[[Alice More|Alice Middleton]]|1511}}
}}
| children            = {{ubl|[[Margaret Roper|Margaret]]|[[Elizabeth Dauncey|Elizabeth]]|[[Cecily Heron|Cecily]]|John}}
| parents             = {{ubl|[[Sir John More]]|Agnes Graunger}}
| signature           = Thomas More Signature.svg
| module              = {{Infobox philosopher|embed=yes
|region           = [[Western philosophy]], [[Catholic]]
|era              = {{ubl|[[Renaissance philosophy]]|[[16th-century philosophy]]}}
|school_tradition = {{ubl|[[Christian humanism]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://marcolearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/AP-EURO-Study-Guide-Topic-1-3.pdf|title=Topic 1.3: The Northern Renaissance}}</ref>|[[Renaissance humanism]]}}
|main_interests   = {{ubl|[[Social philosophy]]|[[Criticism of Protestantism]]|[[Equity (law)|Legal equity]]|[[Conscience#Medieval|Conscience]]}}
|notable_ideas    = [[Utopia]]
|notable_works    = {{ubl|''[[Utopia (More book)|Utopia]]'' (1516)|{{lang|la|[[Responsio ad Lutherum]]}} (1523)|''[[A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation]]'' (1553)}}
}}
| education           = {{ubl|[[University of Oxford]]|[[Lincoln's Inn]]}}
}}
'''Sir Thomas More'''<!-- Please do not change this to "Saint" --> (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), [[venerated]] in the [[Catholic Church]] as '''Saint Thomas More''',<ref>{{Cite web|title=St. Thomas More|url=https://www.savior.org/saints/saint-thomas-more/|access-date=2024-05-29|website=savior.org}}</ref> was an English lawyer, judge,<ref name=":0" /> social philosopher, author, statesman, theologian, and noted [[Renaissance humanist]].<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Moreana|url=https://doi.org/10.3366/more.1980.17.1-2.3|doi=10.3366/more.1980.17.1-2.3|title=Thomas More as a renaissance humanist |date=1980 |issn = 0047-8105 |last1=Kristeller |first1=Paul Oskar |volume=17 (Number 65-6 |issue=1–2 |pages=5–22 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> He also served [[Henry VIII]] as [[Lord Chancellor]] from October 1529 to May 1532.<ref>{{cite web|last=Linder|first=Douglas O.|url=http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/more/morechrono.html|title= The Trial of Sir Thomas More: A Chronology |work= University Of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School Of Law}}</ref> He wrote ''[[Utopia (book)|Utopia]]'', published in 1516, which describes the [[political system]] of an [[utopia|imaginary]] island state.<ref name="Margaret-L-King01a">{{cite book|last=King|first=Margaret L.|author-link=Margaret L. King|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a63xAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA157|title=Renaissance Humanism: An Anthology of Sources|date=2014|publisher=[[Hackett Publishing]]|isbn=978-1-62466-146-4|page=157}}</ref>

More opposed the [[Protestant Reformation]], directing polemics against the theology of [[Martin Luther]], [[Huldrych Zwingli]] and [[William Tyndale]]. More also opposed Henry VIII's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as [[supreme head of the Church of England]] and the annulment of his marriage to [[Catherine of Aragon]]. After refusing to take the [[Oath of Supremacy]], he was convicted of treason on what he stated was false evidence, and was executed. At his execution, he was reported to have said: "I die the King's good servant, and God's first."

[[Pope Pius XI]] canonised More in 1935 as a martyr.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.thomasmorestudies.org/rep_canonization.html |title=Homily at the Canonization of St. Thomas More |website=The Center for Thomas More Studies at the University of Dallas|access-date=14 April 2012 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304125607/http://www.thomasmorestudies.org/rep_canonization.html |url-status=dead |date=2010 |quote=Recorded in The Tablet, June 1, 1935, pp. 694–695.}}</ref> [[Pope John Paul II]] in 2000 declared him the [[patron saint]] of statesmen and politicians.<ref name=JP2PatronSaint /><ref>[https://www.vatican.va/jubilee_2000/jubilevents/jub_jubilparlgov_20001026_thomas-more_en.html#BIOGRAPHY Jubilee of parliament and government members, proclamation of Saint Thomas More as patron of statesmen] vatican.va</ref><ref name="CofEholyDays">{{cite web|url=http://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/worship/texts/the-calendar/holydays.aspx|title=Holy Days|work=Worship – The Calendar|publisher=[[Church of England]]|year=2011|access-date=20 April 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225084824/https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/join-us-daily-prayer|archive-date=25 December 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref> In his proclamation the pope stated: "It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience{{nbsp}}... even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time".<ref name=JP2PatronSaint />

== Early life ==

{{Catholic philosophy}}
Born in the [[City of London]], on 7 February 1478, Thomas More was the son of [[Sir John More]]<ref>Jokinen, A. (13 June 2009). [http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/morebio.htm "The Life of Sir Thomas More."] Luminarium. Retrieved 19 September 2011.</ref> (a successful lawyer and later a judge<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last1=Glenn |first1=Garrard |title=St. Thomas More As Judge and lawyer |journal=Fordham Law Review |date=1 January 1941 |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=187 |url=https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr/vol10/iss2/2/}}</ref>{{sfn|House|2008|loc=More, Sir Thomas}}) and his wife Agnes (''née'' Graunger). John More lived most of his life in [[Milk Street, London]] and, from this, many biographers (starting in the seventeenth century with More's great-grandson Cresacre More (1572–1649),<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Family and Descendants of Sir Thomas More |url=https://thomasmorestudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Descendants_John.pdf |last=Wood |first=Martin |date=2008-11-18 |website=Thomas More Studies}}</ref> the youngest son and eventual heir of Thomas More II) have asserted, without confirmation, that this was the place of Thomas More's birth. No contemporary biographer recorded this.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Paul |first1=Joanne |title=The Mystery of Thomas More's Birthplace |journal=[[History Today]] |date=July 2024 |volume=74 |issue=7 |url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/mystery-thomas-mores-birthplace}}</ref> He was the second of six children. More was educated at [[St. Anthony's Hospital, St Benet Fink|St. Anthony's School]], then considered one of London's best schools.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.biography.com/people/thomas-more-9414278|title=Sir Thomas More|work=The Biography Channel website|year=2014|access-date=30 January 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://tudortimes.co.uk/people/thomas-more-always-a-londoner |title=Thomas More: Always a Londoner |website=tudortimes.co.uk |date=24 September 2016 |access-date=1 May 2019}}</ref> From 1490 to 1492, More served [[John Morton (cardinal)|John Morton]], the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] and Lord Chancellor of England, as a household page.<ref name="Rebhorn">{{cite book|editor-last=Rebhorn|editor-first=Wayne A|title=Utopia|place=New York|publisher=Barnes & Noble|series=Classics|year=2005|chapter=Introduction}}.</ref>{{rp|xvi}}

Morton enthusiastically supported the "[[New Learning]]" (scholarship which was later known as "humanism" or "London humanism"), and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More had great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at the [[University of Oxford]], either in [[St. Mary Hall]] or [[Canterbury College, Oxford|Canterbury College]], both now defunct.<ref name="Ackroyd">{{cite book|last=Ackroyd|first=Peter|title=The Life of Thomas More|place=New York|publisher=Anchor Books|year=1999}}.</ref>{{rp|38}}

More began his studies at Oxford in 1492. He received a classical education studying under [[Thomas Linacre]] and [[William Grocyn]], and he became proficient in both [[Latin]] and [[Greek language|Greek]]. More left Oxford after only two years—at his father's insistence—to begin legal training in London at New Inn, one of the [[Inns of Chancery]].<ref name="Rebhorn" />{{rp|xvii}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Harpsfield|first=Nicholas|title=The Life and Death of Sr Thomas More|place=London|publisher=Early English Text Society|year=1931|pages=12–3}}</ref> In 1496, More became a student at [[Lincoln's Inn]], one of the [[Inns of Court]], where he remained until 1502, when he was [[called to the bar]].<ref name="Rebhorn" />{{rp|xvii}}

A noted linguist, More could speak and banter in Latin with the same facility as in English, and had competency in Greek and several other languages.<ref name=sylvester/> He wrote and translated poetry.<ref>{{cite book |last1=More |first1=Sir Thomas |title=Delphi Collected Works of Sir Thomas More (Illustrated) |date=10 December 2018 |publisher=Delphi Classics |isbn=978-1-78877-995-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iVN-DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT2287 |access-date=28 August 2023 |language=en}}</ref> He was particularly influenced by [[Pico della Mirandola]] and translated the ''Life of Pico'' into English.<ref name=Seebohm/>

== Spiritual life ==
According to his friend, the theologian [[Desiderius Erasmus]] of [[Rotterdam]], More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a [[monk]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Erasmus|first=Desiderius|author-link=Desiderius Erasmus|contribution=Letter to Ulrich von Hutten|editor-last=Adams|editor-first=Robert M.|title=Utopia|year=1991|url=https://archive.org/details/utopiarevisedtra00more|url-access=registration|location=New York|publisher=WW Norton & Co|page=[https://archive.org/details/utopiarevisedtra00more/page/125 125]|isbn=9780393961454}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Erasmus to Ulrich von Hutten|work=The Center for Thomas More Studies. Biographical Accounts: Erasmus' Letters about More|url=https://thomasmorestudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Erasmus-to-Ulrich-von-Hutten.pdf}}</ref> Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near the [[London Charterhouse|Carthusian monastery]] outside the walls of London and joined in the monks' spiritual exercises. Although he deeply admired their piety, More ultimately decided to remain a layman, standing for election to [[Parliament of England|Parliament]] in 1504 and marrying the following year.<ref name="Rebhorn" />{{rp |xxi}}

More continued ascetic practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a [[hair shirt]] next to his skin and occasionally engaging in [[self-flagellation]].<ref name="Rebhorn" />{{rp |xxi}} A tradition of the [[Third Order of Saint Francis]] honours More as a member of that Order on their [[calendar of saints]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://taucrossregion.org/calendarfranciscansaints.htm|work=Tau Cross Region of the Secular Franciscan Order|title=Franciscan Calendar|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130505201117/http://www.taucrossregion.org/calendarfranciscansaints.htm|archive-date=5 May 2013}}</ref>

== Family life ==
[[File:More famB 1280x-g0.jpg|thumb|upright=1.6|[[Rowland Lockey]] after [[Hans Holbein the Younger]], ''[[Sir Thomas More and Family|The Family of Sir Thomas More]]'', {{Circa|1594}}, [[Nostell Priory]], [[West Yorkshire]]]]

More married Joanna "Jane" Colt, the eldest daughter of John Colt of Essex in 1505.<ref name=EB1911>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=More, Sir Thomas |volume=18 |page=824 |first=Mark |last=Pattison |authorlink=Mark Pattison (academic)}}</ref> In that year he leased a portion of a house known as the Old Barge (originally there had been a wharf nearby serving the [[River Walbrook|Walbrook river]]) on Bucklersbury, [[St Stephen Walbrook]] parish, London. Eight years later he took over the rest of the house and in total he lived there for almost 20 years, until his move to Chelsea in 1525.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp |118;271}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wood |first1=Alexander |title=Ecclesiastical Antiquities of London and Its Suburbs |date=1874 |publisher=[[Burns & Oates]] |location=London|pages=105–6|oclc=18479600}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Reynolds |first1=Ernest E. |title=The field is won; the life and death of Saint Thomas More |date=1968 |publisher=Bruce Pub. Co |location=Milwaukee |isbn=978-0-223-97628-3 |page=54}}</ref> [[Erasmus]] reported that More wanted to give his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and tutored her in music and literature.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp |119}} The couple had four children: [[Margaret Roper|Margaret]], [[Elizabeth Dauncey|Elizabeth]], [[Cecily Heron|Cecily]], and John. Jane died in 1511.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp |132}} 

Going "against friends' advice and common custom," within 30 days, More had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends.<ref name= Wegemer>{{cite book|title=Thomas More: A Portrait of Courage| first= Gerard B. |last= Wegemer| year=1995|publisher=Scepter Publishing}}</ref><ref name= Wagner>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R_c_md3gMpwC |title=Encyclopedia of Tudor England |first1= John A.|last1= Wagner |first2= Susan |last2= Walters Schmid |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-59884-299-9 |pages=769–770}}</ref> He chose [[Alice More|Alice Middleton]], a widow, to head his household and care for his small children.<ref>{{cite book | editor-last= Maddison| editor-first= The Rev. Canon| title= Lincolnshire Pedigrees| publisher= Harleian Society| place= London| year= 1903| page= 5}}</ref> The speed of the marriage was so unusual that More had to get a dispensation from the [[banns of marriage]], which, due to his good public reputation, he easily obtained.<ref name= Wegemer />

More had no children from his second marriage, although he raised Alice's daughter from her previous marriage as his own. More also became the guardian of two young girls: Anne Cresacre, who would eventually marry his son John More, and [[Margaret Giggs]] (later Clement), the orphaned daughter of his biological daughter's [[wet nurse]].<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|146}}<ref>{{Cite ODNB|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/5604|title=Clement [Clements; née Giggs], Margaret (1508–1570), adopted daughter of Sir Thomas More}}</ref><ref name=JG>{{cite book |last1=Goodrich |first1=Jaime |editor1-last=Levin |editor1-first=Carole |title=A biographical encyclopedia of early modern Englishwomen: exemplary lives and memorable acts, 1500-1650 |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon, England |isbn=978-0-7546-6900-5 |page=303}}</ref> An affectionate father, More wrote letters to his children whenever he was away on legal or government business, and encouraged them to write to him often.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|150}}<ref name="Rogers">{{cite book|editor-last=Rogers|editor-first= Elizabeth Frances|first= Thomas|last=More|title=Selected Letters|url=https://archive.org/details/utopia00lumbgoog|place=New Haven and London| publisher= Yale University Press|year=1961}}.</ref>{{rp|xiv}}

More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education as his son, an unusual attitude at the time.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|146–47}} His eldest daughter, Margaret, attracted much admiration for her erudition, especially her fluency in Greek and Latin.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|147}} More told his daughter of his pride in her academic accomplishments in September 1522, after he showed the bishop a letter she had written:

{{blockquote|When he saw from the signature that it was the letter of a lady, his surprise led him to read it more eagerly{{nbsp}}[...] he said he would never have believed it to be your work unless I had assured him of the fact, and he began to praise it in the highest terms{{nbsp}}[...] for its pure Latinity, its correctness, its erudition, and its expressions of tender affection. He took out at once from his pocket a portague [A Portuguese gold coin]{{nbsp}}[...] to send to you as a pledge and token of his good will towards you.<ref name="Rogers" />{{rp|152}}}}

More's decision to educate his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favourable once he witnessed their accomplishments.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|149}}

A large portrait of More and his extended family, ''[[Sir Thomas More and Family]]'', was painted by [[Hans Holbein the Younger]]; however, it was lost in a fire in the 18th century. More's grandson commissioned a copy, of which two versions survive. The [[Nostell Priory|Nostell]] copy of the portrait shown above also includes the family's two pet dogs and monkey.<ref group=note>Erasmus wrote about this monkey in his Colloquy [[Colloquies#Amicitia (Friendship)|Amicitia]].</ref>

Musical instruments such as a lute and viol feature in the background of the extant copies of Holbein's family portrait. More played the recorder and [[viol]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bryan |first1=John |title=Extended Play: Reflections of Heinrich Isaac's Music in Early Tudor England |journal=The Journal of Musicology |date=January 2011 |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=118–141 |doi=10.1525/jm.2011.28.1.118 |s2cid=18594216 |url=http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/10511/ |language=en |issn=0277-9269}}</ref>{{rp|136}} and made sure his wives could join in the family consort.<ref group=note>"Sir Thomas More's first wife was instructed 'in learning and every kind of music'; his second wife, in middle age, was induced 'to learn to play apon the gittern, the lute, the clavichord and the recorders.'" {{cite book |last1=Stevens |first1=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mos4AAAAIAAJ |title=Music & Poetry in the Early Tudor Court |date=1961 |publisher=CUP Archive |language=en}}, p 276</ref>

== Personality according to Erasmus ==
Concerning More's personality, [[Erasmus]] gave a consistent portrait over a period of 35 years.

Soon after meeting the young lawyer More, who became his best friend{{refn|group=note|Victorian biographer Seebohm commented "Along with great intellectual gifts was combined in the young student (More) a gentle and loving disposition, which threw itself into the bosom of a friend with so guileless and pure an affection, that when men came under the power of its unconscious enchantment they literally {{em|fell in love}} with More."<ref name=Seebohm>{{cite book |last1=Seebohm |first1=Frederic |title=The Oxford Reformers. John Colet, Erasmus and Thomas More |date=1869 |publisher=Longmans, Green and Co |edition=3rd |url=https://reformationchurch.org.uk/book_oxford-reformers_seebohm.php}}</ref>}} and invited Erasmus into his household,  Erasmus reported in 1500 "Did nature ever invent anything kinder, sweeter or more harmonious than the character of Thomas More?".<ref name="BS">{{cite journal |last1=Baker-Smith |first1=Dominic |title=Erasmus and More: A Friendship Revisited |journal=Recusant History |date=May 2010 |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=7–25 |doi=10.1017/S0034193200012607|s2cid=164968766 }}</ref> In 1519, he wrote that More was "born and designed for friendship;<ref group=note>"More held that the experience of friendship is a partial anticipation of the secure friendship of heaven, where we may hope that all will "be merry together"—not just our friends in this life but our enemies too." {{cite journal |last1=McEvoy |first1=James |title=The Theory of Friendship in Erasmus and Thomas More |journal=American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly |date=2006 |volume=80 |issue=2 |pages=227–252 |doi=10.5840/acpq200680243}}</ref> no one is more open-hearted in making friends or more tenacious in keeping them."<ref>{{cite web |title=Brethren of the Christian humanist life, Christian History Magazine |url=https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/ch-145-thomas-more-and-erasmus |website=Christian History Institute |access-date=29 July 2023 |language=en}}</ref> In 1535, after More's execution, Erasmus wrote that More "never bore ill-intent towards anyone":<ref name="BS"/>

{{blockquote|text=We are 'together, you and I, a crowd'; that is my feeling, and I think I could live happily with you in any wilderness. Farewell, dearest Erasmus, dear as the apple of my eye.|source=Thomas More to Erasmus, October 31, 1516<ref>Translated by R.A.B. Mynors & D.F.S. Thomson.</ref>}}

{{blockquote|When More died I seem to have died myself: because we were a single soul as Pythagoras once said. But such is the flux of human affairs.|Erasmus to [[Piotr Tomicki|Piotr Tomiczki]] (Bishop of Kraków), August 31, 1535<ref>Translated by Gerald Malsbary & Mary Taneyhill.</ref>}}

In a 1532 letter, Erasmus wrote "such is the kindliness of his disposition, or rather, to say it better, such is his piety and wisdom, that whatever comes his way that cannot be corrected, he comes to love just as wholeheartedly as if nothing better could have happened to him."<ref>Erasmus to John Faber (later Bishop of Vienna), 1532</ref>

In a 1533 letter, Erasmus described More's character as {{lang|la|imperiosus}} – commanding, far-ruling, not at all timid.<ref>Erasmus to Conrad Goclenius (Chair of Latin, Louvain), 2 September 1535</ref>

For his part, More was an "unflagging apologist" for Erasmus during the course of their lives.<ref name="Thomas More: First and Best Apologi">{{cite journal |last1=Scheck |first1=Thomas P. |title=Thomas More: First and Best Apologist for Erasmus |journal=Moreana |date=June 2021 |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=75–111 |doi=10.3366/more.2021.0093|s2cid=236358666 }}</ref>

== Early political career ==
[[File:Study for portrait of the More family, by Hans Holbein the Younger.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Study for a portrait of Thomas More's family, {{Circa|1527}}, by [[Hans Holbein the Younger]]]]

In 1504, More was elected to Parliament to represent [[Great Yarmouth (UK Parliament constituency)|Great Yarmouth]], and in 1510 began representing [[City of London (UK Parliament constituency)|London]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/more-thomas-i-147778-1535| title=History of Parliament| publisher=History of Parliament Trust|access-date=13 October 2011}}</ref>

More first attracted public attention by his conduct in the parliament of 1504, by his daring opposition to the King's demand for money. King [[Henry VII of England|Henry VII]] was entitled, according to feudal laws, to a grant on occasion of his daughter [[Margaret Tudor]]'s marriage to [[James IV of Scotland]].<ref>Richard S. Sylvester & Davis P. Harding, ''Two Early Tudor Lives'' (Yale, 1962), pp. xvi, 199.</ref> But he came to the [[House of Commons of England|House of Commons]] for a much larger sum than he intended to give with his daughter. The members, unwilling as they were to vote the money, were afraid to offend the King, until the silence was broken by More, whose speech is said to have moved the house to reduce the subsidy of three-fifteenths which the Government had demanded to £30,000. One of the chamberlains went and told his master that he had been thwarted by a beardless boy. Henry never forgave the audacity; but, for the moment, the only revenge he could take was upon More's father, whom upon some pretext he threw into the Tower, and he only released him upon payment of a fine of £100.<ref>Ackroyd (1999) p. 106. Ackroyd, however, regards the tale as "less than plausible".</ref> Thomas More even found it advisable to withdraw from public life into obscurity.<ref name=EB1911/>

Henry died in 1509 and was succeeded by his son, who became King [[Henry VIII]].

From 1510, More served as one of the two [[undersheriff]]s of the [[City of London]], a position of considerable responsibility in which he earned a reputation as an honest and effective public servant. Interested in public health, he became a [[Commissions of sewers|Commissioner for Sewers]] in 1514.<ref name=Krivatsy>{{cite journal |last1=Krivatsy |first1=Peter |title=Erasmus' Medical Milieu |journal=Bulletin of the History of Medicine |date=1973 |volume=47 |issue=2 |page=121 |jstor=44447526 |pmid=4584234 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44447526 |access-date=28 July 2023 |issn=0007-5140}}</ref> More became [[Master of Requests (England)|Master of Requests]] in 1514,<ref>Magnusson (ed.) ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'' (1990) p. 1039</ref> the same year in which he was appointed as a [[Privy Counsellor]].<ref name=rebhorn>Rebhorn, W. A. (ed.) p. xviii</ref>  After undertaking a diplomatic mission to the [[Holy Roman Emperor]], [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]], accompanying [[Thomas Wolsey]], [[Cardinal (Catholicism)|Cardinal]] [[Archbishop of York]], to [[Calais]] (for the [[Field of the Cloth of Gold]]) and [[Bruges]], More was knighted and made under-treasurer of the [[Exchequer]] in 1521.<ref name=rebhorn />

As secretary and personal adviser to Henry VIII, More became increasingly influential: welcoming foreign diplomats, drafting official documents, attending the court of the [[Star Chamber]] for his legal prowess but delegated to judge in the under-court for 'poor man's cases'<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Guy |first1=J. A. |title=Wolsey, the Council and the Council Courts |journal=The English Historical Review |date=1976 |volume=91 |issue=360 |pages=481–505 |doi=10.1093/ehr/XCI.CCCLX.481 |jstor=566623 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/566623 |issn=0013-8266}}</ref>{{rp|491,492}} and serving as a liaison between the King and Lord Chancellor Wolsey. More later served as [[High Steward (academia)|High Steward]] for the Universities of [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] and [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]].

In 1523, More was elected as [[knight of the shire]] (MP) for [[Middlesex (UK Parliament constituency)|Middlesex]] and, on Wolsey's recommendation, the [[House of Commons of England|House of Commons]] elected More its [[List of Speakers of the House of Commons of England|Speaker]].<ref name=rebhorn /> In 1525, More became [[Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster]], with executive and judicial responsibilities over much of northern England.<ref name="rebhorn" />

== Chancellorship ==
After Wolsey fell, More succeeded to the office of [[Lord Chancellor]] (the [[List of English chief ministers|chief government minister]]) in 1529; this was the highest official responsible for equity and [[common law]], including contracts and royal household cases, and some misdemeanour appeals.<ref name=pollard>{{cite journal |last1=Pollard |first1=A. F. |title=Council, Star Chamber, and Privy Council under the Tudors: II. The Star Chamber |journal=The English Historical Review |date=1922 |volume=37 |issue=148 |pages=516–539 |doi=10.1093/ehr/XXXVII.CXLVIII.516 |jstor=552200 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/552200 |issn=0013-8266}}</ref>{{rp|527}} He dispatched cases with unprecedented rapidity. Putting into effect his proposals for public sanitation that he had first suggested in ''Utopia'', in 1532 he was responsible for introducing into law the [[Statute of Sewers]] (23 Henry VIII, cap.5).<ref name=Krivatsy/>

As Lord Chancellor he was a member (and probably the Presiding Judge at the court when present, who spoke last and cast the deciding vote in case of ties)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Howard |first1=George Elliott |title=Review of A Study of the Court of Star Chamber |date=1901 |pages=775–777 |jstor=1834183 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1834183}}</ref>{{rp|61}} of the Court of the [[Star Chamber]], an appeals court on civil and criminal matters, including riot and sedition, that was the final appeal in dissenter's trials.<ref group=note>It seems this court could affirm a conviction that carried the death penalty, but not impose it.{{cite web |last1=Snell |first1=Melissa |title=English Court of Star Chamber: A Brief History. |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/court-of-star-chamber-1789073 |website=ThoughtCo |access-date=16 October 2023}}</ref>

No [[List of wars involving England#16th century|foreign wars]] were fought in the time he was Lord Chancellor.

=== Campaign against the Protestant Reformation ===
[[File:HouseOfMore.JPG|thumb|Sir Thomas More is commemorated with a sculpture at the late-19th-century Sir Thomas More House, [[Carey Street]], London, opposite the [[Royal Courts of Justice]].]]
More supported the [[Catholic Church]] and saw the [[Protestant Reformation]] as [[heresy]], a threat to the unity of both church and society. More believed in the theology, argumentation, and ecclesiastical laws of the church, and "heard Luther's call to destroy the Catholic Church as a call to war."<ref name="Gerard">Gerard B. Wegemer, ''Portrait of Courage'', p. 136.</ref>

{{blockquote|Heresy was the single most time-consuming issue Thomas More dealt with in his chancellorship, and probably in the whole of the last ten years of his life.|[[Richard Rex]], ''More and the heretics: statesman or fanatic?''<ref name=rex/>{{rp|107}}}}

More wrote a series of books and pamphlets in English and Latin to respond to Protestants, and in his official capacities took action against the illegal book trade, notably fronting a diplomatically-sensitive raid in 1525 of the [[Hanseatic League|Hanseatic Merchants]] in the [[Steelyard]] in his role as chancellor of the [[Duchy of Lancaster]]<ref name=rex />{{rp|106}} and given his diplomatic experience negotiating with the Hanse.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Colvin |first1=Ian Duncan |title=The Germans in England, 1066–1598 |date=1915 |publisher="The National Review" Office |location=London |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|150}}

====Debates with Tyndale====
More wrote several books against the first edition of [[William Tyndale]]'s [[Tyndale Bible|English translation of the New Testament]].{{sfn|Mueller|Loewenstein|2002|p=93, (footnote 36)}} More wrote the ''Dialogue concerning Heresies'' (1529), Tyndale responded with ''An Answer to Sir T. More's Dialogue'' (1530), and More replied with his ''Confutation of Tyndale's Answer'' (1532).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chuilleanáin |first1=Eiléan Ní |title=The Debate Between Thomas More and William Tyndale, 1528–33: Ideas on Literature and Religion |journal=The Journal of Ecclesiastical History |date=July 1988 |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages=382–411 |doi=10.1017/S0022046900038392|s2cid=163326083 }}</ref> More also wrote or contributed to several other anti-Lutheran books.

One of More's criticisms of the initial Tyndale translation was that despite claiming to be in the vernacular, Tyndale had employed numerous neologisms: for example, ''Jehovah'', ''scapegoat'', ''Passover'', ''atonement'', ''mercy seat'', ''shewbread''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Words "Fitly Spoken": Tyndale's English Translation of the Bible {{!}} Religious Studies Center |url=https://rsc.byu.edu/prelude-restoration/words-fitly-spoken-tyndales-english-translation-bible |website=rsc.byu.edu |access-date=30 July 2023}}</ref> More also accused Tyndale of deliberately avoiding common translations in favour of biased words: such as using the emotion ''love'' instead of the practical action ''charity'' for Greek {{transliteration|grc|agape}}, using the neologism ''senior'' instead of ''priest'' for the Greek {{transliteration|grc|presbyteros}}{{sfn|Hiscock|Wilcox|2017|p=547}} (Tyndale changed this to ''elder''), and the Latinate ''congregation'' instead of ''church''.<ref>{{cite web |title=William Tyndale's Concept of the Church {{!}} Christian Library |url=https://www.christianstudylibrary.org/article/william-tyndales-concept-church |website=www.christianstudylibrary.org |access-date=30 July 2023}}</ref> Tyndale's Bibles include text other than the scriptures: some of Tyndale's prefaces were direct translations of Martin Luther,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Collinson |first1=Patrick |title=William Tyndale and the Course of the English Reformation |journal=Reformation |date=January 1996 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=72–97 |doi=10.1179/ref_1996_1_1_007}}</ref> and it included marginal glosses which challenged Catholic doctrine.{{sfn|Moynahan|2014|p=}}

One notable exchange occurred over More's attack on Tyndale's use of ''congregation''. Tyndale pointed out that he was following "your darling" Erasmus' Latin translation of {{transliteration|grc|ecclesia}} into {{lang|la|congregatio}}. More replied that Erasmus needed to coin {{lang|la|congregatio}} because there was no good Latin word, while English had the perfectly fine ''church'', but that the intent and theology under the words were all important:

{{blockquote|I have not contended with Erasmus my darling, because I found no such malicious intent with Erasmus my darling, as I find with Tyndale. For had I found with Erasmus my darling the cunning intent and purpose that I find in Tyndale: Erasmus my darling should be no more my darling. But I find in Erasmus my darling that he detests and abhors the errors and heresies that Tyndale plainly teaches and abides by and therefore Erasmus my darling shall be my dear darling still. And surely if Tyndale had either never taught them, or yet had the grace to revoke them: then should Tyndale be my dear darling too. But while he holds such heresies still I cannot take for my darling him that the devil takes for his darling.|source=Thomas More<ref name="Thomas More: First and Best Apologi">{{cite journal |last1=Scheck |first1=Thomas P. |title=Thomas More: First and Best Apologist for Erasmus |journal=Moreana |date=June 2021 |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=75–111 |doi=10.3366/more.2021.0093|s2cid=236358666 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Schuster (Ed) |first1=L.A. |last2=Marius (Ed) |first2=R.C. |title=Thomas More, The Complete Works of St Thomas More, vol. 8, ed. L. A. Schuster, R. C. Marius and J. P. Lusardi |date=173 |location=New Haven, CT |page=177}}</ref><ref group=note name=Martz1990>[[Louis Martz]] points out that More's repeated references to Erasmus as "darling" was his retort to Tyndale's mocking use of the word, being an adroit example of the rhetorical technique of repetition. He quipped that, unlike Erasmus, Tyndale could never be his darling.{{cite book |last1=Martz |first1=Louis L. |title=Thomas More: the search for the inner man |date=1990 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven, CT |isbn=9780300056686|pages=36–37|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R45XD3gZIt0C}}</ref>}}

=== Resignation ===
As the conflict over supremacy between the papacy and the king reached its peak, More continued to remain steadfast in supporting the [[Papal supremacy|supremacy of the Pope]] as [[Apostolic succession|Successor of Peter]] over that of the King of England. Parliament's reinstatement of the charge of [[praemunire]] in 1529 had made it a crime to support in public or office the claim of any authority outside the realm (such as the papacy) to have a legal jurisdiction superior to the king's.<ref name="Kelly_xiv"/>

In 1530, More refused to sign a letter by the leading English churchmen and aristocrats asking [[Pope Clement VII]] to [[Declaration of nullity|annul]] Henry's marriage to [[Catherine of Aragon]], and also quarrelled with Henry VIII over the heresy laws. In 1531, a royal decree required the clergy to take an [[English post-Reformation oaths|oath acknowledging the King]] as [[Supreme Head of the Church of England]]. The bishops at the [[Convocation of Canterbury]] in 1532 agreed to sign the Oath but only under threat of prosecution for praemunire and only after these words were added: "as far as the law of Christ allows".<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Tanner |editor1-first= Joseph Robson |title=Tudor Constitutional Documents: A. D. 1485–1603 |date=1922 |publisher=CUP Archive |page=17 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Q9o8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA17 |access-date=15 June 2021}}</ref>

This was considered to be the final [[Submission of the Clergy]].<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=7biywRf8_DsC&pg=PA140 |title=Thomas More: A Portrait of Courage |author= Gerard Wegemer |publisher=Scepter Publishers |year=1995 |isbn= 1-889334-12-X |page=xiv}}</ref> Cardinal [[John Fisher]] and some other clergy refused to sign. Henry purged most clergy who supported the papal stance from senior positions in the church. More continued to refuse to sign the Oath of Supremacy and did not agree to support the annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine.<ref name="Kelly_xiv"/> However, he did not openly reject the King's actions and kept his opinions private.<ref name= "Richards8"/>

On 16 May 1532, More resigned from his role as Chancellor but remained in Henry's favour despite his refusal.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=31uoDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT23 |title= Defending Royal Supremacy and Discerning God's Will in Tudor England |author=Daniel Eppley |publisher=Routledge |year=2016 |isbn= 978-1-351-94579-0 |page=13}}</ref> His decision to resign was caused by the decision of the convocation of the English Church, which was under intense royal threat, on the day before.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=y5rDAyEoHyAC&pg=PA116 |title=The Cambridge Companion to Thomas More |editor=George M. Logan |publisher= Cambridge University Press |year= 2011 |isbn=978-1-139-82848-2 |page= 116}}</ref>

== Controversy on extent of prosecution of heretics ==
There is considerable variation in opinion on the extent and nature of More's prosecution of heretics: witness the difference in portrayals of More in [[A Man for All Seasons (play)|''A Man for All Seasons'']] as an urbane hero of conscience and in ''[[Wolf Hall]]'' as a "mere dessicated [sic] fanatic."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Rist |first1=Rebecca |title=A Historical Perspective on "Wolf Hall": Thomas Cromwell and Thomas More Revisited |url=https://unireadinghistory.com/2015/02/12/a-historical-perspective-on-wolf-hall-thomas-cromwell-and-thomas-more-revisited/ |website=Reading History |access-date=2 December 2024 |language=en |date=12 February 2015}}</ref> The English establishment initially regarded [[Protestants]] (and [[Münster rebellion|Anabaptists]]) as akin to the [[Peasants' Revolt|Lollards]] and [[Hussites#Hussite Wars (1419–1434)|Hussites]] whose heresies fed their sedition.<ref group=note>The intertwining of sedition and heresy can be seen in [[Henry VIII]]'s pronouncement about the Lutherans' heresy "tending principally and chiefly to the withdrawing of the obedience of the Church of Rome, and also of the governance, regyment and supreme dignity of Princes and all nobility." Luther's attacks on German princes were evidence of the seditious nature of his doctrine. {{cite journal |last1=Baker House |first1=Seymour |title=Richard Rex, ed., Henry VIII and Martin Luther: The Second Controversy, 1525–1527 |journal=Moreana |date=December 2022 |volume=59 |issue=2 |pages=254–269 |doi=10.3366/more.2022.0130|s2cid=254358434 }} Even 150 years later, "one of the assumptions that [[John Locke]] had to deal with in arguing for religious tolerance was that religious assemblies other than those sponsored by the established church invariably gave rise to sedition" {{cite journal |last1=Manning |first1=Roger B. |title=The Origins of the Doctrine of Sedition |journal=Albion |date=1980 |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=99–121 |doi=10.2307/4048812|jstor=4048812 }}</ref>  Ambassador to [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] [[Cuthbert Tunstall]] called [[Lutheranism]] the "foster-child" of the Wycliffite heresy<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ric.edu/faculty/rpotter/statutes.html |title=Documents on the changing status of the English Vernacular, 1500–1540 |access-date=11 March 2008 |publisher=RIC |last=Potter |first=R.}}</ref> that had underpinned [[Lollardy]].

Historian [[Richard Rex]] wrote:<ref name=rex/>{{rp|106}}

{{blockquote|Thomas More, as lord chancellor [1529–1532], was in effect the first port of call for those arrested in London on suspicion of heresy, and he took the initial decisions about whether to release them, where to imprison them, or to which bishop to send them. He can be connected with police or judicial proceedings against around forty suspected or convicted heretics in the years 1529–33.<ref group=note>There were a succession of policies towards heretics, from the [[Wolsey]]/[[John Fisher]] approach of persuasion, the 1529–1531 [[William Warham]] approach of reform and counter-propaganda, to More's brief approach of capital punishment of key networkers, to the subsequent Tudor policy of torture and terror. See {{cite journal |last1=D'Alton |first1=Craig |title=William Warham and English heresy policy after the fall of Wolsey |journal=Historical Research |date=1 August 2004 |volume=77 |issue=197 |pages=337–357 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-2281.2004.00213.x}} p.345</ref> }}

=== Torture allegations ===
Torture was not officially legal in England, except in pre-trial discovery phase<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hanson |first1=Elizabeth |title=Torture and Truth in Renaissance England |journal=Representations |date=1991 |issue=34 |pages=53–84 |doi=10.2307/2928770 |jstor=2928770 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2928770 |issn=0734-6018}}</ref>{{rp|62}} of kinds of extreme cases that the King had allowed, such as seditious heresy. It was regarded as unsafe for evidence, and was not an allowed punishment.

Stories emerged in More's lifetime regarding persecution of the Protestant "heretics" during his time as [[Lord Chancellor]], and he denied them in detail in his {{lang|la|Apologia}} (1533).

Many stories were later published by the 16th-century English Protestant historian [[John Foxe]] in his polemical ''[[Book of Martyrs]].'' Foxe was instrumental in publicizing accusations of torture, alleging that More had often personally used violence or torture while interrogating heretics.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rex |first1=Richard |author1-link=Richard Rex |editor1-last=Logan |editor1-first=George M. |title=The Cambridge Companion to Thomas More |date=2011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-82848-2 |page=93}}</ref> Later Protestant authors such as [[Brian Moynahan]] and [[Michael Farris (lawyer)|Michael Farris]] cite Foxe when repeating these allegations.<ref>{{cite book|first= Michael| last= Farris | title = From Tyndale to Madison| date=2007 |publisher=B & H Publishing Group |location=Nashville, Tennessee |isbn=9780805426113}}</ref> Biographer [[Peter Ackroyd]] also lists claims from Foxe's ''Book of Martyrs'' and other post-Reformation sources that More "tied heretics to a tree in his Chelsea garden and whipped them", that "he watched as 'newe men' were put upon the rack in the Tower and tortured until they confessed", and that "he was personally responsible for the burning of several of the 'brethren' in Smithfield."<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|305}}<!-- However, the rack was not introduced to England until after More's death, wasn't it, apart from one unusual case? -->

Historian [[John Guy (historian)|John Guy]] commented that "such charges are unsupported by independent proof."<ref group=note>"Serious analysis precludes the repetition of protestant stories that Sir Thomas flogged heretics against a tree in his garden at Chelsea. It must exclude, too, the accusations of illegal imprisonment made against More by John Field and Thomas Phillips. Much vaunted by J.A. Froude, such charges are unsupported by independent proof. More indeed answered them in his Apology with emphatic denial. None has ever been substantiated, and we may hope that they were all untrue." {{cite book |last1=Guy |first1=John |last2=More |first2=Thomas |title=The public career of Sir Thomas More |date=1980 |publisher=Harvester Pr |location=Brighton, Sussex |isbn=085527963X}}</ref>  Modern historian [[Diarmaid MacCulloch]] finds no evidence that More was directly involved in torture.<ref group=note>"[More]{{nbsp}}[...] turned to waging implacable war on enemies of the Church whom he could crush without inhibition.{{nbsp}}[...] He had a positive relish for burning heretics.{{nbsp}}[...] Claims{{nbsp}}[...] that he personally tortured heretics have no evidence to back them up. {{cite book |last1=MacCulloch |first1= Diarmaid |author-link1=Diarmaid MacCulloch |title=Thomas Cromwell: a life |date=27 September 2018 |isbn=978-1-84614-429-5 |pages= 160–62|publisher= Penguin Books }}</ref>   [[Richard Marius]] records a similar claim, which tells about James Bainham, and writes that "the story Foxe told of Bainham's whipping and racking at More's hands is universally doubted today".<ref group=note name="Marius406" >Marius suggests that the rumours of More's cruelty started with renegade priest John Constantine, who was arrested, betrayed Bayfield, and escaped from More's house to stay with a friend in Antwerp who he also later betrayed. p.404</ref>

More himself denied these allegations:

{{blockquote|Stories of a similar nature were current even in More's lifetime and he denied them forcefully. He admitted that he did imprison heretics in his house – 'theyr sure kepynge'{{refn|group=note|I.e., "their sure-keeping"}} – he called it – but he utterly rejected claims of torture and whipping... 'as help me God.'<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp |298–299}}}}

More instead claimed in his ''Apology'' (1533) that he only applied corporal punishment to two "heretics": a child servant in his household who was caned (the customary punishment for children at that time) for repeating a heresy regarding the Eucharist, and a "feeble-minded" man who was whipped for disrupting the mass by raising women's skirts over their heads at the moment of consecration, More taking the action to prevent a lynching.<ref name="Marius">Marius, Richard (1999). Thomas More: A Biography, Harvard University Press</ref>{{rp|404}}

=== Executions ===
[[Burning at the stake]] was the standard punishment by the English state for obstinate or relapsed, major seditious or proselytizing heresy, and continued to be used by both Catholics and Protestants during the religious upheaval of the following decades.<ref>Guy, John A. ''Tudor England'' Oxford, 1988. p 26</ref>  In England, following the [[Lollard]] uprisings, heresy had been linked to sedition (see {{lang|la|[[De heretico comburendo]]}} and [[Suppression of Heresy Act 1414]].)

Ackroyd and MacCulloch agree that More zealously approved of burning.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|298}} [[Richard Marius]] maintained that in office More did everything in his power to bring about the extermination of heretics.<ref name="Marius406">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DdAYSzj20t0C&q=Thomas+More++burned+heretics+at+Smithfield&pg=PA406 |title=Thomas More: A Biography |author=Richard Marius |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1999 |isbn=0-674-88525-2 |page=406}}</ref>  Yet Catholic historian [[Eamon Duffy]] notes that "He never presided at a heresy trial (no layman could) and he never condemned anyone to death for their religious beliefs."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Duffy |first1=Eamon |title=More or Less |journal=The Tablet |date=31 January 2015 |url=http://www.thetablet.co.uk/features/2/4525/more-or-less |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20150201225038/http://www.thetablet.co.uk/features/2/4525/more-or-less |access-date=24 September 2025 |archive-date=1 February 2015 |language=en}}</ref> 

During More's chancellorship, six people were burned at the stake for heresy, the same rate as under [[Wolsey]]: they were [[Thomas Hitton]], [[Thomas Bilney]], [[Richard Bayfield]], [[John Tewkesbury]], [[Thomas Dusgate]], and [[James Bainham]].<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|299–306}}  However, the court of the [[Star Chamber]], of which More as Lord Chancellor was the presiding judge, could not impose the death sentence: it was a kind of appellate [[supreme court]].<ref name=maitland>{{cite book|last=Maitland|first=Frederic William|title=The Constitutional History of England: A Course of Lectures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=211LvgAACAAJ|year=1911|publisher=University Press|location=Cambridge}}</ref>{{rp|263}}

More took a personal interest in the  three London cases:<ref name=rex>{{cite book |last1=Rex |first1=Richard |chapter=Thomas More and the heretics: statesman or fanatic? |title=The Cambridge Companion to Thomas More |date=27 January 2011 |pages=93–115 |doi=10.1017/CCOL9780521888622.006|isbn=9780521888622 }}</ref>{{rp|105}}
* [[John Tewkesbury]] was a London leather seller found guilty by the [[Bishop of London]] [[John Stokesley]] of harbouring English translated New Testaments; he was sentenced to burning for refusing to recant.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Daniell |editor1-first=David |editor1-link=David Daniell (author) |title=Tyndale's New Testament |date=1995 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven, CT |isbn=0-300-06580-9 |page=xxix|quotation=[More]{{nbsp}}[...] with the new Bishop of London, burned John Tewkesbury, Richard Bayfield and James Bainham for the heresy of not renouncing what Tyndale had written.}}</ref> More declared: he "burned as there was neuer wretche I wene better worthy."<ref>{{cite book|publisher=Yale|series=Complete Works|first=Thomas|last=More | volume = 8|title=The Confutation of Tyndale's Answer|editor-last=Schuster|editor1-first=LA | editor2-last =Marius|editor2-first=RC|editor3-last= Lusardi|editor3-first= JP|editor4-last = Schoeck | editor4-first=RJ|year=1973|page= 20}}</ref>
* [[Richard Bayfield]] was found distributing Tyndale's Bibles, and examined by Bishop [[Cuthbert Tunstall]]. More commented that he was "well and worthely burned".<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|305}}
* [[James Bainham]] was arrested on a warrant of Thomas More as Lord Chancellor and detained at his gatehouse. He was examined by Bishop John Stokesley, abjured, penalized and freed. He subsequently re-canted, and was re-arrested, tried and executed as a relapsed heretic.

Historian [[Brian Moynahan]] alleged that More influenced the eventual execution of [[William Tyndale]] in the Duchy of Brabant, as English agents had long pursued Tyndale. Historian [[Richard Rex]] argues that linking the execution to More was "bizarre".<ref name=rex/>{{rp|93}} Moynihan named Henry Phillips, a student at the [[Old University of Leuven|University of Louvain]] and follower of Bishop Stokesley, as the man More commissioned to befriend Tyndale and then betray him.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Moynahan |first1=Brian |author1-link=Brian Moynahan |title=If God spare my life: William Tyndale, the English Bible and Sir Thomas More—a story of martyrdom and betrayal |date=2002 |publisher=Little, Brown |location=London |isbn=0-316-86092-1 |pages=325–328, 340}}</ref> However, the execution took place on 6 October 1536, sixteen months after More himself had been executed, and in a different jurisdiction.

=== Modern treatment ===
Modern commentators have been divided over More's character and actions.

Some biographers, including [[Peter Ackroyd]], have taken a relatively tolerant<ref group=note name=Ackroyd-ch22a>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8J9uNOydymUC&q=burned+as+there+was+neuer+wretche+I+wene+better+worthy |title=The Life of Thomas More |author=Peter Ackroyd |author-link=Peter Ackroyd |publisher=Chatto & Windus |year=1998 |page=244 |isbn=1-85619-711-5 |quote=(Chapter 22){{nbsp}}[...] Already, in these early days of English heresy, he was thinking of the fire. It is a measure of his alarm at the erosion of the traditional order that he should, in this letter, compose a defence of scholastic theology—the same scholasticism which in his younger days he had treated with derision. This was no longer a time for questioning, or innovation, or uncertainty, of any kind. He blamed Luther for the Peasants' Revolt in Germany, and maintained that all its havoc and destruction were the direct result of Luther's challenge to the authority of the Church; under the pretext of 'libertas' Luther preached 'licentia' which had in turn led to rape, sacrilege, bloodshed, fire and ruin. }} (Online citation [https://1000vampirenovels.com/pdf-novels/the-life-of-thomas-more-by-peter-ackroyd-free/47-page here]) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180927204114/https://1000vampirenovels.com/pdf-novels/the-life-of-thomas-more-by-peter-ackroyd-free/47-page |date=27 September 2018 }}</ref> or even positive<ref group=note name=JoannePaul2016a >{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KN2qDQAAQBAJ&q=%22thomas+more%22+german+peasants+Revolt&pg=PT140 |title=Thomas More |author=Joanne Paul|publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]]|year=2016 |isbn=978-0-7456-9220-3|quote=Princes were 'driven by necessity' by the 'importune malice of heretics raising rebellions' to set 'sorer and sorer punishments thereunto' (CTA, 956). In other words, the heretics had started it: 'the Catholic Church did never persecute heretics by any temporal pain or any secular power until the heretics began such violence themself' (CTA, 954). More had in mind violent conflicts on the continent, such as the German Peasants' War (1524–5) and the Münster Rebellion (1532–5).}}{{page needed|date=September 2018}} (CTA=''Confutation of Tyndale's Answer'')</ref> view of More's campaign against Protestantism by placing his actions within the turbulent religious climate of the time and the threat of deadly catastrophes such as the [[German Peasants' Revolt]], which More blamed on Luther,<ref group=note>"...civil chaos will surely follow" (691–93). This prediction seemed to come true very quickly, as More noted in his next polemical work, ''A dialogue Concerning Heresies''. There he argued that the Peasants' Revolt in Germany (1525), the Lutheran mercenaries' sack of Rome (1527), and the growing unrest in England all stemmed from Luther's inflammatory teachings and especially the lure of false freedom {{harv|Wegemer|1996|p=173}}.</ref> as did many others, such as [[Erasmus]].<ref group=note name=Wegemer2001a>{{cite web| last = Wegemer| first = Gerard| author-link = Gerard Wegemer| title = Thomas More as statesman| publisher = The Center for Thomas More Studies| date = 31 October 2001| access-date = 27 September 2018| url = http://thomasmorestudies.org/docs/More_as_Statesman.pdf| page = 8| quote = In the Peasants' Revolt in Germany in 1525, More pointed out, 70,000 German peasants were slaughtered – and More, along with Erasmus and many others, considered Luther to be largely responsible for that wildfire.| archive-date = 10 March 2017| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170310165901/http://www.thomasmorestudies.org/docs/More_as_Statesman.pdf| url-status = dead}}</ref>

Others have been more critical, such as writer [[Richard Marius]], an American scholar of the Reformation, believing that such persecutions were a betrayal of More's earlier humanist convictions, including More's zealous and well-documented advocacy of extermination for heretics.<ref name="Marius" />{{rp|386–406}} This supposed contradiction has been called "schizophrenic."<ref name="rex"/>{{rp|108}} He has been called a "zealous legalist{{nbsp}}[...] [with an] itchy finesse of cruelty".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wood |first1=James |title=The Great Dissembler |journal=London Review of Books |date=16 April 1998 |volume=20 |issue=8 |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v20/n08/james-wood/the-great-dissembler |language=en |issn=0260-9592}}</ref>

[[Pope John Paul II]] honoured him by making More [[patron saint]] of statesmen and politicians in October 2000, stating: "It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience{{nbsp}}[...] even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time".<ref name=JP2PatronSaint />

[[Australian High Court]] judge and President of the [[International Commission of Jurists]], Justice [[Michael Kirby (judge)|Michael Kirby]] has noted:

{{Blockquote|More's resignation as Lord Chancellor demonstrates also a recognition of the fact that, so long as he held office, he was obliged to conform to the King's law. It is often the fact that judges and lawyers must perform acts which they do not particularly like. In Utopia, for example, More had written that he believed capital punishment to be immoral, reprehensible and unjustifiable. Yet as Lord Chancellor and as councillor to the King, he certainly participated in sending hundreds of people to their death, a troubling thought. Doubtless he saw himself, as many judges before and since have done, as a mere instrument of the legal power of the State.
|"''Thomas More, Martin Luther and the Judiciary today,''" speech to Thomas More Society, 1997<ref>[https://www.michaelkirby.com.au/images/stories/speeches/1990s/vol40/1997/1444-Thomas_More%2C_Martin_Luther_and_the_Judiciary_Today_%28St_Thomas_More_Society%29.doc Speech to St Thomas More Society, 1997]</ref>}}

== Indictment, trial and execution ==
In 1533, More refused to attend the [[coronation of Anne Boleyn]] as [[List of English royal consorts|Queen of England]]. Technically, this was not an act of treason, as More had written to Henry seemingly acknowledging Anne's queenship and expressing his desire for the King's happiness and the new Queen's health.<ref group=note>{{Citation | author-link = Eric Ives| first = Eric W | last = Ives | title = The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn | year = 2004 | page = 47 | quote = [More wrote on the subject of the Boleyn marriage that] [I] neither murmur at it nor dispute upon it, nor never did nor will.{{nbsp}}[...] I faithfully pray to God for his Grace and hers both long to live and well, and their noble issue too...}}</ref> Despite this, his refusal to attend was widely interpreted as a snub against Anne, and Henry took action against him. Shortly thereafter, More was charged with accepting bribes, but the charges had to be dismissed for lack of any evidence.

In early 1534, More was accused by [[Thomas Cromwell]] of having given advice and counsel to the "Holy Maid of Kent," [[Elizabeth Barton]], a nun who had prophesied that the King had ruined his soul and would come to a quick end for having divorced Queen Catherine. This was a month after Barton had confessed, which was possibly done under royal pressure,<ref>{{cite book |title=The Religious Orders in England |volume=3 |author=David Knowles |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1979 |isbn=0-521-29568-8 |pages=188–189|author-link=David Knowles (scholar) }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Women and Religion in England: 1500–1720 |author=Patricia Crawford |publisher=Routledge |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-136-09756-0 |page=29}}</ref> and was said to be concealment of treason.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8J9uNOydymUC&q=thomas+more+elizabeth+Barton&pg=PT594 |title=The Life of Thomas More |author=Peter Ackroyd |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-307-82301-4 |page=342}}</ref> Though it was dangerous for anyone to have anything to do with Barton, More had met her and was impressed by her fervour. However, More was prudent and told her not to interfere with state matters. More was called before a committee of the Privy Council to answer these charges of treason and, after his respectful answers, the matter seemed to have been dropped.<ref name="Lee1904">{{cite book|last=Lee|first=Sidney|title=Great Englishmen of the Sixteenth Century|url=https://archive.org/details/greatenglishmen00leegoog|year=1904|publisher=Archibald Constable, Limited|location=London|page=[https://archive.org/details/greatenglishmen00leegoog/page/n84 48]}}</ref>

On 13 April 1534, More was asked to appear before a commission and swear his allegiance to the parliamentary [[First Succession Act|Act of Succession]].<ref group=note>In March 1534, the [[First Succession Act]] passed parliament, "investing Henry VIII with the power to "visit, redress, reform, correct or amend all errors, heresies and enormities;" to define faith; and to appoint bishops. This law also directed the monies which had previously been paid to Rome to the King's coffers. The [[Treason Act 1534]] ([[26 Hen. 8]]. c. 13) passed in the same month among other things made it treasonable to deny the King's role as Supreme Head of the Church.' {{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia= Catholic Encyclopaedia |title= St. Thomas More| url= http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14689c.htm}}</ref> More accepted Parliament's right to declare [[Anne Boleyn]] the legitimate Queen of England, though he refused "the spiritual validity of the King's second marriage"<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y5rDAyEoHyAC&pg=PA116 |title=The Cambridge Companion to Thomas More |editor=George M. Logan |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-139-82848-2 |page=122}}</ref> and, holding fast to the teaching of [[papal supremacy]], he steadfastly refused to take the oath of supremacy of the Crown in the relationship between the kingdom and the church in England. More also publicly refused to uphold Henry's annulment from Catherine. [[John Fisher]], Bishop of Rochester, refused the oath along with More. The oath reads in part:<ref>{{cite book|last=Elton|first= Geoffrey Rudolph |title=The Tudor constitution: documents and commentary|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1982|isbn=0-521-24506-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CJZZzoBJOfwC&pg=PA7 | access-date =24 July 2009|location=Cambridge, Cambridgeshire|oclc=7876927|page=7|edition= 2nd | chapter =The Crown| chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=CJZZzoBJOfwC&pg=PA1}}</ref>

{{blockquote|By reason whereof the Bishop of Rome and See Apostolic, contrary to the great and inviolable grants of jurisdictions given by God immediately to emperors, kings and princes in succession to their heirs, hath presumed in times past to invest who should please them to inherit in other men's kingdoms and dominions, which thing we your most humble subjects, both spiritual and temporal, do most abhor and detest...}}

In addition to refusing to support the King's annulment or supremacy, More refused to sign the 1534 [[Oath of Succession]] confirming Anne's role as queen and the rights of their children to succession. More's fate was sealed.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AQtmzR9TXncC&q=thomas+more+resigned&pg=PA305 |title=A Thomas More Source Book |editor1=[[Gerard Wegemer]] |editor2=Stephen W. Smith |publisher=The Catholic University of America Press |year=2004 |isbn=0-8132-1376-2 |page=305}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YU_UDAAAQBAJ&q=thomas+more+refusal+coronation&pg=PT173 |title=Thomas More's Utopia: Arguing for Social Justice |author=Lawrence Wilde |publisher=Routledge |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-317-28137-5 |pages=112–113}}</ref> While he had no argument with the basic concept of succession as stated in the Act, the preamble of the Oath repudiated the authority of the Pope.<ref name="Richards8">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lXi7AAAAQBAJ&q=thomas+more+++king%27s+great+matter&pg=PT8 |title=Utopia |author=Thomas More |others=Translated by G.C. Richards, William P. Weaver |publisher=Broadview Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-4604-0211-5 |pages=8–9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C6o5AAAAIAAJ&q=thomas+more+oath+of+succession+not+agreeable&pg=PA223 |title=Policy and Police: The Enforcement of the Reformation in the Age of Thomas Cromwell |author=G. R. Elton |publisher=CUP Archive |year=1985 |isbn=0-521-31309-0 |page=223}}</ref><ref>{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z0c-AQAAMAAJ&q=thomas+more+oath+of+succession+not+agreeable&pg=PA556 |title=The Twentieth Century, Volume 30 |publisher=Nineteenth Century and After |year=1891 |page=556}}</ref>

===Indictment===
{{Multiple image
| direction = vertical
| align = right
| width = 250
| image1 = London 01 2013 Tower Hill scaffold 5211.JPG
| image2 = London 01 2013 Tower Hill scaffold plaque 5214.JPG
| caption1 = The site of the scaffold at [[Tower Hill]] just north of the [[Tower of London]], where More was executed by decapitation
| caption2 = A commemorative plaque at the site of the ancient scaffold at Tower Hill, with Sir Thomas More listed among other notables executed at the site
}}

More's enemies had enough evidence to have the King arrest him on a charge of treason. Four days later, Henry had More imprisoned in the [[Tower of London]]. There More prepared a devotional, ''[[Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation]]''. While More was imprisoned in the Tower, Thomas Cromwell made several visits, urging More to take the oath, which he continued to refuse.

In his unfinished ''History of the Passion'', written in the Tower to his daughter Meg, he wrote of feeling favoured by God: "For methinketh God maketh me a wanton, and setteth me on his lap and dandleth me."<ref>{{cite journal |title=Review of Book: St Thomas More's History of the Passion |journal=The Downside Review |date=April 1942 |volume=60 |issue=2 |pages=230–232 |doi=10.1177/001258064206000211|s2cid=220418917 }}</ref>

The charges of [[high treason]] related to More's violating the statutes as to the King's supremacy (malicious silence) and conspiring with Bishop [[John Fisher]] in this respect (malicious conspiracy) and, according to some sources, included asserting that Parliament did not have the right to proclaim the King's Supremacy over the English Church. One group of scholars believes that the judges dismissed the first two charges (malicious acts) and tried More only on the final one, but others strongly disagree.<ref name="Kelly_xiv">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oj67cj8f-rIC&q=thomas+more+refused+to+support+annulment&pg=PR14 |title=Thomas More's Trial by Jury: A Procedural and Legal Review with a Collection of Documents |editor1=Henry Ansgar Kelly |editor2=Louis W. Karlin |editor3=Gerard Wegemer |publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-84383-629-2 |pages=xiv–xvi}}</ref>

Regardless of the specific charges, the indictment related to violation of the [[Treasons Act 1534]] which declared it treason to speak against the King's Supremacy:<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kXkkCAAAQBAJ&q=thomas+more++executed+++Lieutenant+see+me+safe+william+roper&pg=PA170 |title=Voices of the Reformation: Contemporary Accounts of Daily Life |author=John A. Wagner |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-61069-680-7 |page=170}}</ref>

{{blockquote|If any person or persons, after the first day of February next coming, do maliciously wish, will or desire, by words or writing, or by craft imagine, invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to the king's most royal person, the queen's, or their heirs apparent, or to deprive them or any of them of their dignity, title, or name of their royal estates{{nbsp}}[...] That then every such person and persons so offending{{nbsp}}[...] shall have and suffer such pains of death and other penalties, as is limited and accustomed in cases of high treason.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://home.freeuk.net/don-aitken/ast/h8a.html#149|title=Annotated original text|date=November 2017}}</ref>}}

===Trial===
The trial was held on 1 July 1535, before a panel of judges that included the new Lord Chancellor Sir [[Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden|Thomas Audley]], as well as Anne Boleyn's uncle [[Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk]], her father [[Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire|Thomas Boleyn]], and her brother [[George Boleyn]]. Norfolk offered More the chance of the King's "gracious pardon" should he "reform his{{nbsp}}[...] obstinate opinion". More responded that, although he had not taken the oath, he had never spoken out against it either and that his silence could be accepted as his "ratification and confirmation" of the new statutes.<ref>Ackroyd (1998) p383</ref>
[[File:Nb pinacoteca yeames the meeting of sir thomas more with his daughter after his sentence of death.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[William Frederick Yeames]], ''The meeting of Sir Thomas More with his daughter after his sentence of death'', 1872]]

Thus More was relying upon legal precedent and the maxim {{lang|la|[[qui tacet consentire videtur]]}} ("one who keeps silent seems to consent"),<ref>{{cite book |title=Thomas More's Trial by Jury: A Procedural and Legal Review with a Collection of Documents |editor1=Henry Ansgar Kelly |editor2=Louis W. Karlin |editor3=Gerard Wegemer |publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-84383-629-2 |page=189}}</ref> understanding that he could not be convicted as long as he did not explicitly deny that the King was Supreme Head of the Church, and he therefore refused to answer all questions regarding his opinions on the subject.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oj67cj8f-rIC&q=thomas+more+trial+qui+tacet+consentire+videtur&pg=PA22 |title=Thomas More's Trial by Jury: A Procedural and Legal Review with a Collection of Documents |editor1=Henry Ansgar Kelly |editor2=Louis W. Karlin |editor3=Gerard Wegemer |publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-84383-629-2 |page=22}}</ref>

Thomas Cromwell, at the time the most powerful of the King's advisors, brought forth [[Solicitor General for England and Wales|Solicitor General]] [[Richard Rich]] to testify that More had, in his presence, denied that the King was the legitimate head of the Church. This testimony was characterised by More as being extremely dubious. Witnesses [[Richard Southwell (courtier)|Richard Southwell]] and Mr. Palmer (a servant to Southwell) were also present and both denied having heard the details of the reported conversation.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hadfield |first1=Andrew |title=Lying in early modern English culture: from the Oath of supremacy to the Oath of allegiance |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780192844804 |pages=36–38 |edition=}}</ref> As More himself pointed out:

{{blockquote|Can it therefore seem likely to your Lordships, that I should in so weighty an Affair as this, act so unadvisedly, as to trust Mr. Rich, a Man I had always so mean an Opinion of, in reference to his Truth and Honesty,{{nbsp}}[...] that I should only impart to Mr. Rich the Secrets of my Conscience in respect to the King's Supremacy, the particular Secrets, and only Point about which I have been so long pressed to explain my self? which I never did, nor never would reveal; when the Act was once made, either to the King himself, or any of his Privy Councillors, as is well known to your Honours, who have been sent upon no other account at several times by his Majesty to me in the Tower. I refer it to your Judgments, my Lords, whether this can seem credible to any of your Lordships.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/more/moretrialreport.html|title=The Trial and Execution of Sir Thomas More|website=law2.umkc.edu}}</ref>}}

[[File:History of the great reformation in Europe in the times of Luther and Calvin.. (1870) (14785678593).jpg|thumb|upright|Beheading of Thomas More, 1870 illustration]]

The jury took only fifteen minutes to find More guilty.

After the jury's verdict was delivered and before his sentencing, More spoke freely of his belief that "no temporal man may be the head of the spirituality" (take over the role of the Pope). According to [[William Roper]]'s account, More was pleading that the Statute of Supremacy was contrary to [[Magna Carta]], to Church laws and to the laws of England, attempting to void the entire indictment against him.<ref name="Kelly_xiv"/> He was sentenced to be [[hanged, drawn, and quartered]] (the usual punishment for traitors who were not of the nobility), but the King commuted this to execution by decapitation.<ref group=note>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/householdsirtho00manngoog |quote=thomas more sentenced hanged, drawn and quartered. |title=The Household of Sir Thomas More |author1=Anne Manning |author2=Edmund Lodge |publisher=C. Scribner |year=1852 |page=xiii}}</ref>

===Execution===
The execution took place on 6 July 1535 at [[Tower Hill]]. Biographer [[Peter Ackroyd]] reports that family members were excluded from the event, but historian Jaime  Goodrich describes how his daughters Margaret More Roper and Margaret Clement were present.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|394}}<ref name=JG/> When he came to mount the steps to the scaffold, its frame seeming so weak that it might collapse,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5U0BAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA798|page=798|title=The comprehensive history of England, from the earliest period to the suppression of the Sepoy revolt|author1-first=Charles|author1-last=MacFarlane|author-link1=Charles Macfarlane|author2-first=Thomas|author2-last=Thomson|author-link2=Thomas Napier Thomson|year=1876|publisher=[[Blackie and Son]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/LifeAndWritingsOfSirThomasMore|page=[https://archive.org/details/LifeAndWritingsOfSirThomasMore/page/n470 434]|title=Life and Writings of Sir Thomas More: Lord Chancellor of England and Martyr Under Henry VIII|author-first=Thomas Edward|author-last=Bridgett|author-link=Thomas Edward Bridgett|edition=3|publisher=[[Burns & Oates]]|year=1891}}</ref> More is widely quoted as saying (to one of the officials): "I pray you, master Lieutenant, see me safe up and [for] my coming down, let me shift for my self";<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o6rFno1ffQoC&q=thomas+more++executed+++Lieutenant+see+me+safe&pg=PA531 |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations |editor=Elizabeth M. Knowles |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1999 |isbn=0-19-860173-5 |page=531}}</ref> while on the scaffold he declared that he died "the king's good servant, and God's first." Theologian [[Scott Hahn]] notes that the misquoted "{{em|but}} God's first" is a line from [[Robert Bolt]]'s stage play ''[[A Man for All Seasons (play)|A Man For All Seasons]]'', which differs from More's actual words.<ref>{{cite web |title=Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 8, January–July 1535 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol8/pp379-402#anchorn13 |website=[[British History Online]] |publisher=University of London |access-date=26 June 2022}} This is a translation from the archives of [[Michel de Castelnau]], a later French ambassador to England, of an anonymous French eyewitness: Wegemer, Smith (2004), page 357, provides the original text in French: ''"[...]qu'il mouroit son bon serviteur et de Dieu premièrement."''.</ref><ref group=note>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JQTKJsDReLEC |title=Liturgy and Empire: Faith in Exile and Political Theology |editor1=[[Scott W. Hahn]] |editor2=David Scott |publisher=Emmaus Road Publishing |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-931018-56-2 |page=73 |quote="I die the king's good servant, but God's first." Footnote 133: "This phrase from Robert Bolt's play 'A Man for All Seasons'{{nbsp}}[...] is an adjustment of More's actual last words: 'I die the king's good servant, and God's first.{{'"}}}}</ref> After More had finished reciting the {{lang|la|[[Psalm 51|Miserere]]}} while kneeling,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kYGQAgAAQBAJ |title=Liturgy and Contemplation in Byrd's Gradualia |author=Kerry McCarthy |publisher=Routledge |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-135-86564-1 |page=61}}</ref>{{sfn|Wordsworth|1810|pp=222–223}} the executioner reportedly begged his pardon, then More rose up, kissed him and forgave him.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hohZDgAAQBAJ |title=Pedro de Ribadeneyra's 'Ecclesiastical History of the Schism of the Kingdom of England' |editor=Spencer J. Weinreich |publisher=BRILL |year=2017 |isbn=978-90-04-32396-4 |page=238}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SnxEAAAAcAAJ |volume=IV |title=A Collection of the most remarkable Trials of persons for High-Treason, Murder, Rapes, Heresy, Bigamy, Burglary; and Other Crimes and Misdemeanors. |year=1736 |location=London |publisher=T. Read |page=94}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeandletterss00stewgoog |title=The Life and Letters of Sir Thomas More |author=Agnes M. Stewart |publisher=Burns & Oates |year=1876 |page=[https://archive.org/details/lifeandletterss00stewgoog/page/n362 339]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nx86AAAAcAAJ |title=Sir Thomas More His Life and Times: Illustrated from His Own Writings and from Contemporary Documents |author=W. Jos Walter |location=London |publisher=Charles Dolman |year=1840 |page=353}}</ref>

=== Relics ===
[[File:Thomas More Tomb.JPG|thumb|Thomas More's grave, [[Church of St Peter ad Vincula|Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula]]]]
[[File:Sir Thomas More family's vault in St Dunstan's Church (Canterbury).jpg|thumb|upright|Sir Thomas More family's vault]]

Another comment More is believed to have made to the executioner is that his beard was completely innocent of any crime, and did not deserve the axe; he then positioned his beard so that it would not be harmed.<ref>{{Citation | first = David | last = Hume | title = The History of England | year = 1813 | page = 632}}.</ref> More asked that his adopted daughter [[Margaret Clement]] (née Giggs) be given his headless corpse to bury.<ref>Guy, John, ''A Daughter's Love: Thomas & Margaret More'', London: Fourth Estate, 2008, {{ISBN|978-0-00-719231-1}}, p. 266.</ref> He was buried at the Tower of London, in the chapel of [[Church of St Peter ad Vincula|St Peter ad Vincula]] in an unmarked grave. His head was [[Head on a spike|fixed upon a pike]] over [[London Bridge]] for a month, according to the normal custom for traitors.

More's daughter Margaret Roper (née More) later recovered the severed head.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/LifeAndWritingsOfSirThomasMore |quote=thomas more head buried. |title=Life and Writings of Sir Thomas More: Lord Chancellor of England and Martyr Under Henry VIII |author=Thomas Edward Bridgett
|publisher=Burns & Oates |year=1891 |page=[https://archive.org/details/LifeAndWritingsOfSirThomasMore/page/n472 436]}}</ref> It is believed to rest in the Roper Vault of [[St. Dunstan's, Canterbury|St Dunstan's Church, Canterbury]],<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KGc_AQAAMAAJ&q=thomas+more++roper+vault+skull&pg=PA142 |title=The Head of Simon Sudbury|journal= Journal of the British Archaeological Association |volume=1 |publisher=British Archaeological Association |year=1895 |pages=142–144}}</ref> perhaps with the remains of Margaret and her husband's family.<ref>{{cite web|title=Lady Margaret Roper and the head of Sir Thomas More|url=http://www.lynsted-society.co.uk/resources_documents_articles_lady_margaret_roper_and_the_head_of_sir_thomas_more.html|website=Insert Logo Here Lynsted with Kingsdown Society|access-date=24 July 2017}}</ref> Some have claimed that the head is buried within the tomb erected for More in Chelsea Old Church.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aGjSAAAAMAAJ&q=thomas+more+skull+buried+at&pg=PA88 |title=Notices of the Historic Persons Buried in the Chapel of St. Peter Ad Vincula: In the Tower of London |author=Doyne Courtenay Bell |publisher=J. Murray |year=1877 |pages=88–91}}</ref>

Among other surviving relics is his [[hair shirt]], presented for safe keeping by Margaret Clement.<ref name="r6">{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia= Catholic Encyclopaedia |title= St. Thomas More| url= http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14689c.htm}}.</ref> This was long in the custody of the community of Augustinian canonesses who until 1983 lived at the convent at [[Abbotskerswell Priory]], Devon. Some sources, including one from 2004, claimed that the shirt, made of [[goat|goat hair]], was then kept at the Martyr's church on the Weld family's estate in [[Chideock]], Dorset.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OpATDQAAQBAJ&q=thomas+more+relics+hair+shirt+Chideock+castle&pg=PT56 |title=Little Book of Dorset |author=David Hilliam |publisher=History Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-7524-6265-3}}{{page needed|date=October 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hjyc9bPITKgC&q=thomas+more+relics+hair+shirt+Chideock+castle&pg=PA42 |title=Shrines of Our Lady in England |author=Anne Vail |publisher=Gracewing Publishing |year=2004 |isbn=0-85244-603-9 |page=42}}</ref> It is now preserved at [[Buckfast Abbey]], near Buckfastleigh in Devon.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/st-thomas-mores-hair-shirt-now-enshrined-for-public-veneration/37221|title=St. Thomas More's hair shirt now enshrined for public veneration |author=Simon Caldwell |date=21 November 2016 |publisher=Catholic Telegraph}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dioceseofshrewsbury.org/news/hair-shirt-worn-st-thomas-enshrined-public-veneration-possibly-first-time|title=Hair-shirt worn by St Thomas More is enshrined for public veneration for possibly the first time|access-date=31 March 2022|publisher=Diocese of Shrewsbury|archive-date=2 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190402084533/http://www.dioceseofshrewsbury.org/news/hair-shirt-worn-st-thomas-enshrined-public-veneration-possibly-first-time|url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Epitaph ===
In 1533, More wrote to Erasmus and included what he intended should be the epitaph on his family tomb:

{{poemquote|
Within this tomb Jane, wife of More, reclines;
This More for Alice and himself designs.
The first, dear object of my youthful vow,
Gave me three daughters and a son to know;

The next—ah! virtue in a stepdame rare!—
Nursed my sweet infants with a mother's care.
With both my years so happily have past,
Which most my love, I know not—first or last.

Oh! had religion destiny allowed,
How smoothly mixed had our three fortunes flowed!
But, be we in the tomb, in heaven allied,
So kinder death shall grant what life denied.<ref>{{cite web |title=Thomas More to Erasmus, 1533 |url=http://people.uncw.edu/atkinsa/388/erasmus.pdf |website=Thomas More Studies}}</ref>}}

== Scholarly and literary work ==

=== ''History of King Richard III'' ===
Between 1512 and 1519 More worked on a ''History of [[King Richard III]]'', which he never finished but which was published after his death. The ''History'' is a Renaissance biography, remarkable more for its literary skill and adherence to classical precepts than for its historical accuracy.{{sfn|Wegemer|1996|p=218}} Some consider it an attack on royal tyranny, rather than on Richard III himself or the [[House of York]].<ref>{{cite journal | last = Meyer | first = Jürgen | author-link =  | title = An Unthinkable ''History of King Richard the Third'': Thomas More's Fragment and his Answer to Lucian's ''Tyrannicide''| journal = [[Modern Language Review]] | series =  | date = 2014 | volume = 109 | issue = 3 | pages = 629–639 | doi = 10.5699/modelangrevi.109.3.0629}}</ref> More uses a more dramatic writing style than had been typical in medieval chronicles; Richard III is limned as an outstanding, archetypal tyrant—however, More was only seven years old when Richard III was killed at the [[Battle of Bosworth]] in 1485, so he had no first-hand knowledge of him.

The ''History of King Richard III'' was written and published in both English and Latin, each written separately, and with information deleted from the Latin edition to suit a European readership.<ref name = Logan168>Logan (2011) p168</ref> It greatly influenced [[William Shakespeare]]'s play ''[[Richard III (play)|Richard III]]''. Modern historians attribute the unflattering portraits of Richard III in both works to both authors' allegiance to the reigning [[Tudor dynasty]] that wrested the throne from Richard III in the [[Wars of the Roses]].<ref name = Logan168/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bate |first1=Jonathan |author1-link=Jonathan Bate |title=Soul of the age : the life, mind and world of William Shakespeare |date=2008 |publisher=Viking |location=London |isbn=9780670914821 |page=268}}</ref> According to [[Caroline Barron]], Archbishop John Morton, in whose household More had served as a page {{See above}}, had joined the 1483 [[Buckingham's rebellion|Buckingham rebellion]] against Richard III, and Morton was probably one of those who influenced More's hostility towards the defeated king.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schwyzer |first1=Philip |author1-link=Philip Schwyzer |title=Shakespeare and the remains of Richard III |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199676101 |page=4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Barron |first1=Caroline M. |author1-link=Caroline Barron |editor1-last=Logan |editor1-first=George M. |title=The Cambridge Companion to Thomas More |date=2011 |isbn=9780521888622 |chapter=The making of a London citizen|publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> [[Clements Markham]] asserts that the actual author of the chronicle was, in large part, Archbishop Morton himself and that More was simply copying, or perhaps translating, Morton's original material.<ref>{{cite book|first=Clements|last= Markham|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36451 |title=Richard III: His Life and Character, reviewed in the light of recent research|year=1906|publisher=[[Smith, Elder & Co.]]|pages=168–171| author-link=Clements Markham}}</ref><ref>Yoran, H. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/24413094?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=richard&searchText=iii&searchText=history&searchUri=/action/doBasicSearch?Query=richard+iii+history&prq=richard+iii+historicity&group=none% ''Thomas More's Richard III: Probing the Limits of Humanism.''] Renaissance Studies 15, no. 4 (2001): 514–37. Retrieved 1 December 2015.</ref>

=== ''Utopia'' ===
{{Main|Utopia (book)}}
[[File:Insel Utopia.png|thumb|A 1516 illustration of Utopia]]
More's best known and most controversial work, ''[[Utopia (book)|Utopia]]'', is a [[frame narrative]] written in Latin.<ref>{{cite book |last1=More |first1=Thomas |editor1-last=Lumby |editor1-first=J Rawson |title=More's Utopia |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=vii |edition=1952 |chapter=Introduction|date=31 October 2013 |translator-last1=Robynson|translator-first1=Raphe|translator-link1=Ralph Robinson (humanist)|isbn=978-1-107-64515-8}}</ref> More completed the book, and theologian [[Erasmus]] published it in [[Leuven]] in 1516. It was only translated into English and published in his native land in 1551 (16 years after his execution), and the 1684 translation became the most commonly cited. More (who is also a character in the book) and the narrator/traveller, Raphael Hythlodaeus (whose name alludes both to the healer archangel [[Raphael (archangel)|Raphael]], and 'speaker of nonsense', the surname's Greek meaning), discuss modern ills in [[Antwerp]], as well as describe the political arrangements of the imaginary island country of Utopia (a Greek pun on 'ou-topos' [no place] and 'eu-topos' [good place]) among themselves as well as to [[Pieter Gillis]] and [[Hieronymus van Busleyden]].<ref>Logan (2011) pp 39, 142, 144</ref> Utopia's original edition included a symmetrical "[[Utopian language#Writing system|Utopian alphabet]]" omitted by later editions, but which may have been an early attempt or precursor of [[shorthand]].

''Utopia'' is structured into two parts, both with much [[irony]]: Book I has conversations between friends on various European political issues: the treatment of criminals, the [[enclosure movement]], etc.; Book II is a remembered discourse by Raphael Hythlodaeus on his supposed travels, in which the earlier issues are revisited in fantastical but concrete forms that has been called ''mythical  idealism''. For example, the proposition in the Book I "no republic can be prosperous or justly governed where there is private property and money is the measure of everything."<ref name=nyers>{{cite journal |last1=Nyers |first1=Peter |title=The Politics of Enclosure in Thomas More's Utopia |journal=Problematique |date=2000 |volume=6 |url=http://www.yorku.ca/problema/issue06.html}}</ref>

''Utopia'' contrasts the contentious social life of European states with the perfectly orderly, reasonable social arrangements of Utopia and its environs (Tallstoria, Nolandia, and Aircastle). In Utopia, there are no lawyers because of the laws' simplicity and because social gatherings are in public view (encouraging participants to behave well), communal ownership supplants private property, men and women are educated alike, and there is almost complete religious toleration (except for atheists, who are allowed but despised).

More may have used [[Monasticism|monastic communalism]] as his model, although other concepts he presents such as legalising [[euthanasia]] remain far outside Church doctrine. Hythlodaeus asserts that a man who refuses to believe in a god or an afterlife could never be trusted, because he would not acknowledge any authority or principle outside himself. A scholar has suggested that More is most interested in the type of citizen Utopia produces.<ref name=nyers/>

Some take the novel's principal message to be the social need for order and discipline rather than liberty. Ironically, Hythlodaeus, who believes philosophers should not get involved in politics, addresses More's ultimate conflict between his humanistic beliefs and courtly duties as the King's servant, pointing out that one day those morals will come into conflict with the political reality.

''Utopia'' gave rise to a literary genre, [[Utopian and dystopian fiction]], which features ideal societies or perfect cities, or their opposite. Works influenced by ''Utopia'' included ''[[New Atlantis]]'' by [[Francis Bacon]], ''[[Erewhon]]'' by [[Samuel Butler (novelist)|Samuel Butler]], and ''[[Candide]]'' by [[Voltaire]]. Although [[Utopianism]] combined classical concepts of perfect societies ([[Plato]] and [[Aristotle]]) with Roman rhetorical finesse (cf. [[Cicero]], [[Quintilian]], [[epideictic]] oratory), the Renaissance genre continued into the [[Age of Enlightenment]] and survives in modern science fiction.

===Epigrams===
Erasmus in Basel collected and had published a book of More's latin epigrams:<ref>{{cite web |title=Thomas More's Utopia (1516) and Epigrammata (1520) {{!}} St John's College, University of Cambridge |url=https://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/library/special_collections/early_books/utopia.htm |website=www.joh.cam.ac.uk}}</ref>  the final 1523 edition ''Epigrammata'' contained 253 of the short poems, described by historian Damian Grace as "Political theory in a poetic idiom."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Grace |first1=Damian |title=Thomas More's Epigrammata: political theory in a poetic idiom |journal=Parergon |date=15 December 2020 |issue=ns 3 |url=https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/ielapa.851101444}}</ref>

In the 1510s, More had the habit of composing these formal paragraphs, variously serious or facetious, for correspondents. Some show a concern about royal tyranny and may suggest a preference for Roman republican government.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brooks |first1=Veronica |title=The Political Theory of Thomas More's Epigrammata |journal=Moreana |date=December 2021 |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=188–205 |doi=10.3366/more.2021.0103}}</ref>

=== Religious polemics ===
In 1520 the reformer [[Martin Luther]] published three works in quick succession: ''An Appeal to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation'' (Aug.), ''Concerning the Babylonish Captivity of the Church'' (Oct.), and ''On the Liberty of a Christian Man'' (Nov.).<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|225}} In these books, Luther set out his doctrine of salvation through faith alone, rejected certain Catholic practices, and attacked abuses and excesses within the Catholic Church.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|225–6}} In 1521, Henry VIII formally responded to Luther's criticisms with the ''Assertio'', written with More's assistance.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hDq-DwAAQBAJ |title = The Defence of the Seven Sacraments|isbn = 978-1-5380-9202-6|last1 = O'Donovan|first1 = Louis|date = 5 November 2019| publisher=Dalcassian Publishing Company }}</ref> [[Pope Leo X]] rewarded the English king with the title "''Fidei defensor"'' ("Defender of the Faith") for his work combating Luther's heresies.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|226–7}}

Martin Luther then attacked Henry VIII in print, calling him a "pig, dolt, and liar".<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|227}} At the King's request, More composed a rebuttal: the ''[[Responsio ad Lutherum]]'' was published at the end of 1523. In the ''Responsio'', More defended papal supremacy, the sacraments, and other Church traditions. More, though considered "a much steadier personality",<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zENJHwQqSy0C |title=The Catholic Church Through the Ages: A History |author=John Vidmar |publisher=Paulist Press |year=2005 |isbn=0-8091-4234-1 |page=184|author-link=John Vidmar }}</ref> described Luther as an "ape", a "drunkard", and a "lousy little friar" amongst other epithets.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|230}} Writing under the pseudonym of Gulielmus Rosseus,<ref name=rebhorn /> More tells Luther that:

<blockquote>
for as long as your reverend paternity will be determined to tell these shameless lies, others will be permitted, on behalf of his English majesty, to throw back into your paternity's shitty mouth, truly the shit-pool of all shit, all the muck and shit which your damnable rottenness has vomited up, and to empty out all the sewers and privies onto your crown divested of the dignity of the priestly crown, against which no less than the kingly crown you have determined to play the buffoon.<ref name=rex102>Rex (2011) p.102</ref>
</blockquote>

His saying is followed with a kind of apology to his readers, while Luther possibly never apologized for his sayings.<ref name=rex102/> [[Stephen Greenblatt]] argues, "More speaks for his ruler and in his opponent's idiom; Luther speaks for himself, and his scatological imagery far exceeds in quantity, intensity, and inventiveness anything that More could muster. If for More scatology normally expresses a communal disapproval, for Luther, it expresses a deep personal rage."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=11msvVh_3nMC |title=Learning to Curse: Essays in Early Modern Culture |author=Stephen Greenblatt |publisher=Routledge |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-136-77420-1 |page=95|author-link=Stephen Greenblatt }}</ref>

Confronting Luther confirmed More's theological conservatism. He thereafter avoided any hint of criticism of Church authority.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|230}} In 1528, More published another religious polemic, ''A Dialogue Concerning Heresies'', that asserted the Catholic Church was the one true church, established by Christ and the Apostles, and affirmed the validity of its authority, traditions and practices.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|279–81}} In 1529, the circulation of [[Simon Fish]]'s ''Supplication for the Beggars'' prompted More to respond with the ''Supplycatyon of Soulys''.

In 1531, a year after More's father died, [[William Tyndale]] published ''An Answer unto Sir Thomas More's Dialogue'' in response to More's ''Dialogue Concerning Heresies.'' More responded with a half million words: the ''Confutation of Tyndale's Answer''. The ''Confutation'' is an imaginary dialogue between More and Tyndale, with More addressing each of Tyndale's criticisms of Catholic rites and doctrines.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|307–9}} More, who valued structure, tradition and order in society as safeguards against tyranny and error, vehemently believed that Lutheranism and the Protestant Reformation in general were dangerous, not only to the Catholic faith but to the stability of society as a whole.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|307–9}}

=== Correspondence ===
Most major humanists were prolific letter writers, and Thomas More was no exception. As in the case of his friend Erasmus of Rotterdam, however, only a small portion of his correspondence (about 280 letters) survived. These include everything from personal letters to official government correspondence (mostly in English), letters to fellow humanist scholars (in Latin), several epistolary tracts, verse epistles, prefatory letters (some fictional) to several of More's own works, letters to More's children and their tutors (in Latin), and the so-called "prison-letters" (in English) which he exchanged with his oldest daughter Margaret while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London awaiting execution.<ref name="Gerard" /> More also engaged in controversies, most notably with the French poet [[Germain de Brie]], which culminated in the publication of de Brie's ''Antimorus'' (1519). Erasmus intervened, however, and ended the dispute.{{sfn|Moynahan|2014|p=}}

More also wrote about more spiritual matters. They include: ''A Treatise on the Passion'' (a.k.a. Treatise on the Passion of Christ), ''A Treatise to Receive the Blessed Body'' (a.k.a. Holy Body Treaty), and ''De Tristitia Christi'' (a.k.a. The Agony of Christ). More handwrote the last in the Tower of London while awaiting his execution. This last manuscript, saved from the confiscation decreed by Henry VIII, passed by the will of his daughter Margaret to Spanish hands through Fray Pedro de Soto, dominican confessor of the count of Oropesa ambassador of the Emperor Charles V, that presented to saint Juan de Ribera archbishop of Valencia at that time and founder of [[Real Colegio Seminario del Corpus Christi]] and its museum where it remains in the collection.

==Veneration==
{{Infobox saint
|honorific_prefix = [[Saint]]
|name            = Thomas More
|image           = File:MEDAILLON.OF.SAINT.THOMAS.MORE.jpg
|imagesize       =
|feast_day       = 22 June (Catholic Church)<br /> 6 July (Church of England)<br /> 9 July (Catholic Extraordinary Form)
|venerated_in    = [[Catholic Church]]<br />[[Anglican Communion]]
|caption         = Portrait of Saint Thomas More, executed on Tower Hill (London) in 1535, apparently based on the Holbein portrait.
|titles          = Reformation Martyr, Scholar
|beatified_date  = 29 December 1886
|beatified_place = [[Florence]], [[Kingdom of Italy]],
|beatified_by    = [[Pope Leo XIII]]
|canonized_date  = 19 May 1935
|canonized_place = [[Vatican City]],
|canonized_by    = [[Pope Pius XI]]
|attributes      = dressed in the robe of the [[Lord Chancellor|Chancellor]] and wearing the [[Livery collar|Collar of Esses]]; [[axe]]
|patronage       = Statesmen and politicians; [[lawyers]]; Ateneo de Manila Law School; [[Diocese of Arlington]]; [[Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee]]; [[Kerala Catholic Youth Movement]]; [[University of Malta]]; [[University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Arts and Letters]]
|major_shrine    = [[Church of St Peter ad Vincula]], London, England
|suppressed_date =
|issues          =
|prayer          =
|prayer_attrib   =
}}

=== {{anchor|Catholic Church}} Catholic Church ===
[[Pope Leo XIII]] [[beatified]] Thomas More, [[John Fisher]], and [[List of Catholic martyrs of the English Reformation#Beatified 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII|fifty-two other English Martyrs]] on 29 December 1886. [[Pope Pius XI|Pius XI]] [[canonised]] More and Fisher on 19 May 1935 pre-eminently for their martyrdom, saying:

{{blockquote|They were, so to speak, the leaders and chieftains of that illustrious band of men who, from all classes of the people and from every part of Great Britain, resisted the new errors with unflinching spirit, and in shedding their blood, testified their loyal devotedness to the Holy See.|source=Pope Pius XI, ''Homily at the Canonization of Thomas More''}}

The British press greeted the 1935 canonisation ceremony, which [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] and universities officially boycotted, with a "minimal and hostile" reception.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Miles |first1=Leland |title=Persecution and the Dialogue of Comfort: A Fresh Look at the Charges against Thomas More |journal=Journal of British Studies |date=1965 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=19–30 |doi=10.1086/385507 |jstor=175180 |s2cid=143128538 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/175180 |issn=0021-9371}}</ref>

More's feast day was established as 9 July.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=Brendan F. |title=St. Thomas More, lawyer |journal=Fordham Law Review |year=1935 |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=375–390 |url=https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1064&context=flr}}</ref> Since 1970 the [[General Roman Calendar]] has celebrated More with St John Fisher on 22 June (the date of Fisher's execution). On 31 October 2000 [[Pope John Paul II]] declared More "the heavenly [[patron saint|Patron]] of Statesmen and Politicians".<ref name=JP2PatronSaint>[[Ecclesiastical letter#Letters of the popes in modern times|Apostolic letter]] issued ''[[motu proprio]]'' proclaiming Saint Thomas More Patron of Statesmen and Politicians, 31 October 2000 [https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/motu_proprio/documents/hf_jp-ii_motu-proprio_20001031_thomas-more_en.html Vatican.va]</ref> More is the patron of the German Catholic youth organisation [[Katholische Junge Gemeinde]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kjg.de/?id=12|title=Thomas Morus|website=kjg.de|access-date=1 July 2016}}</ref>

=== Anglican Communion ===
In 1980, despite their staunch opposition to the [[English Reformation]], More and Fisher were added as martyrs of the reformation to the [[Church of England]]'s [[Calendar of saints (Church of England)|calendar]] of "Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church", to be [[Commemoration (Anglicanism)|commemorated]] every 6 July (the date of More's execution) as "Thomas More, scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535".<ref name=CofEholyDays /><ref>{{Cite web|title=The Calendar|url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/churchs-year/calendar|access-date=2021-03-27|website=The Church of England|language=en}}</ref> The annual remembrance of 6 July is recognised by all Anglican Churches in communion with Canterbury, including Australia, Brazil, Canada and South Africa.<ref name=RefRep>{{cite book|title=Reformation Reputations: The Power of the Individual in English Reformation History|year=2020|publisher=Springer International Publishing|editor=David J. Crankshaw, George W. C. Gross}}</ref>

In an essay examining the events around the addition to the Anglican calendar, scholar [[Bill Sheils]] links the reasoning for More's recognition to a "long-standing tradition hinted at in [[Rose Macaulay]]'s ironic debating point of 1935 about More's status as an 'unschismed Anglican', a tradition also recalled in the annual memorial lecture held at St. Dunstan's Church in Canterbury, where More's head is said to be buried."<ref name=RefRep/> Sheils also noted the influence of the 1960s play and film ''[[A Man for All Seasons (play)|A Man for All Seasons]]'', which gave More a "reputation as a defender of the right of conscience".<ref name=RefRep/> Thanks to the play's depiction,  this "brought his life to a broader and more popular audience" with the film "extending its impact worldwide following the Oscar triumphs".<ref name=RefRep/> Around this time the atheist Oxford historian and intellectual [[Hugh Trevor-Roper]] held More up as "the first great Englishman whom we feel that we know, the most saintly of Humanists...the universal man of our cool northern Renaissance."<ref name=RefRep/> In 1978, the quincentenary of More's birth, Trevor-Roper wrote an essay putting More in the Renaissance Platonist tradition, claiming his reputation was "quite independent of his Catholicism."<ref name=RefRep/> Only later did a more critical view arise in academia, led by Professor Sir Geoffrey Elton, which "challenged More's reputation for saintliness by focusing on his dealings with heretics, the ferocity of which, in fairness to him, More did not deny. In this research, More's role as a prosecutor, or persecutor, of dissidents has been at the centre of the debate."<ref name=RefRep/>

== Legacy ==
The steadfastness and courage with which More maintained his religious convictions, and his dignity during his imprisonment, trial, and execution, contributed much to More's posthumous reputation, particularly among Roman Catholics. His friend [[Erasmus]] defended More's character as "more pure than any snow" and described his genius as "such as England never had and never again will have."<ref>{{cite book|author=Daniel J. Boorstin|title=The Seekers: The Story of Man's Continuing Quest to Understand His World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B35joCqtHIwC&pg=PA154|year=1999|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|page=154|isbn=978-0-375-70475-8}}</ref> Upon learning of More's execution, [[Emperor Charles V]] said: "Had we been master of such a servant, we would rather have lost the best city of our dominions than such a worthy councillor."<ref name=britannica>Quoted in ''Britannica – The Online Encyclopedia'', article: [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/392018/Sir-Thomas-More ''Sir Thomas More'']</ref>

[[G. K. Chesterton]], a Roman Catholic convert from the Church of England, predicted More "may come to be counted the greatest Englishman, or at least the greatest historical character in English history."<ref>{{cite book|author=Chesterton, G. K.|title=The Fame of Blessed Thomas More|year=1929|publisher=Sheed & Ward|location=London|page=63|author-link=G. K. Chesterton}}</ref> He wrote "the mind of More was like a diamond that a tyrant threw away into a ditch, because he could not break it."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chesterton |first1=G. K. |title=The Well and the Shallows |date=9 November 2021 |publisher=Good Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KkNZEAAAQBAJ&dq=mind+of+More+was+like+a+diamond+that+a+tyrant+threw+away+into+a+ditch,+because+he+could+not+break+it.&pg=PT165 |language=en}}</ref>

Historian [[Hugh Trevor-Roper]] called More "the first great Englishman whom we feel that we know, the most saintly of humanists, the most human of saints, the universal man of our cool northern renaissance."<ref name="oconnell">Cited in {{cite journal |first=Marvin |last=O'Connell |title=A Man for all Seasons: an Historian's Demur |journal=Catholic Dossier |volume=8 |issue=2 |date=March–April 2002 |pages=16&ndash;19 |url=http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/politics/pg0078.html}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512092205/http://catholiceducation.org/articles/politics/pg0078.html |date=12 May 2008 }}</ref>

[[Jonathan Swift]], an Anglican, wrote that More was "a person of the greatest virtue this kingdom ever produced".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.online-literature.com/swift/religion-church-vol-one/14/|title=Writings on Religion and the Church, Vol. I. by Jonathan Swift: Ch. 14: Concerning that Universal Hatred|author=Jonathan Swift}}</ref><ref>Jonathan Swift, '' Prose Works of Jonathan Swift'' v. 13, Oxford UP, 1959, p.&nbsp;123</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thomasmorestudies.org/reputation.html|publisher=Thomas More Studies|title=Reputation |access-date=14 April 2011|archive-date=14 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170814194921/http://www.thomasmorestudies.org/reputation.html|url-status=dead}}.</ref> Some consider this quote to be of Samuel Johnson, although it is not found in Johnson's writings.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=7769|author=Kenny, Jack|title=A Man of Enduring Conscience|work=Resource Center|publisher=Catholic Culture via Trinity Communications|year=2011}}</ref><ref name="chambers">{{cite book|author=Chambers, R. W.|title=Sir Thomas More's Fame Among His Countrymen|year=1929|publisher=Sheed & Ward|location=London|page=13|author-link=Raymond Wilson Chambers}}</ref> Swift put More in the company of Socrates, Brutus, Epaminondas and Junius.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gury |first1=Jacques |title=The Image of Thomas More in the Age of Enlightenment |journal=XVII-XVIII. Revue de la Société d'études anglo-américaines des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles |date=1987 |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=53–61 |doi=10.3406/xvii.1987.1353 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/xvii_0291-3798_1987_num_24_1_1353}}</ref>

The [[metaphysical poet]] [[John Donne]], also honoured in their calendar by Anglicans,<ref>{{cite web |title=The Calendar |url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/churchs-year/calendar |publisher=[[Church of England]] |access-date=23 March 2021 |language=en}}</ref> was More's great-great-nephew.<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=7819|title=Donne, John (1572–1631)|orig-year=2004|year=2011|last=Colclough|first=David}}</ref>

US Senator [[Eugene McCarthy]] had a portrait of More in his office.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 30001965|title = Irish Perspectives on the Vietnam War|journal = Irish Studies in International Affairs|volume = 14|pages = 75–94|last1 = McNamara|first1 = Robert|year = 2003| issue=–1 |doi = 10.3318/ISIA.2003.14.1.75| s2cid=153710978 }}</ref>
Marxist theoreticians such as [[Karl Kautsky]] considered More's ''Utopia'' a critique of economic and social exploitation in pre-modern Europe and More is claimed to have influenced the development of socialist ideas.<ref name="Kautsky01a">{{cite book|author=Kautsky, Karl|title=Thomas More and his Utopia Part 3 Chapter 5 The Aim of Utopia|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1888/more/ch13.htm|date=1888|quote=Historians and economists who are perplexed by Utopia perceive in this name a subtle hint by More that he himself regarded his communism as an impracticable dream.|author-link=Karl Kautsky|access-date=23 November 2023}}</ref>

In 1963, ''[[Moreana]]'', an academic journal focusing on analysis of More and his writings, was founded.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Moreau|first=Jean-Philippe|date=1992|title=Review of ''Miscellanea Moreana: Essays for Germain Marc'hadour''|journal=Études Anglaises|volume=45|issue=2|pages=202–204}}</ref>

In 2002, More was placed at number 37 in the BBC's poll of the [[100 Greatest Britons]].<ref>Sue Parrill, William Baxter Robison (2013). "The Tudors on Film and Television", p. 92. McFarland,</ref>

=== Legal ===
More debated the lawyer and pamphleteer [[Christopher St. Germain]] through various books: while agreeing on various issues on [[Equity (law)|equity]], More disagreed with secret witnesses, the admissibility of hearsay, and found St Germain's criticism of religious courts superficial or ignorant.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Curtright |first1=Travis |title=The One Thomas More |date=2012 |publisher=Catholic University of America Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctt284wpm |jstor=j.ctt284wpm |isbn=978-0-8132-1995-0 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt284wpm |access-date=29 July 2023}}</ref> More and St Germain's views on equity owed in part to the 15th-century humanist theologian, [[Jean Gerson]], who taught that consideration of the individual circumstances should be the norm not the exception.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mazour-Matusevich |first1=Yelena |title=Some Aspects of Jean Gerson's Legal Influence in Sixteenth Century England: The Issue of Epikeia |journal=Journal of Early Modern Christianity |date=1 April 2017 |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=47–62 |doi=10.1515/jemc-2017-0003|s2cid=164459672 }}</ref>

Before More, English [[Lord Chancellor]]s tended to be clerics (with a role as [[Keeper of the King's Conscience]]); from More on, they tended to be lawyers.<ref>{{cite book |title=The History of the English Constitution|trans-title=Englische Verfassungsgeschichte|last1=Gneist |first1=Rudolph |author-link1=Rudolf von Gneist |translator-last1=Ashworth |translator-first1= Philip|translator-link1= |date=1886 |publisher=[[William Clowes (printer)|William Clowes]] |location=London |volume=2|page=178}}</ref>

A 1999 poll of legal British professionals nominated More as the person who most embodies the virtues of the law needed at the close of the millennium. The virtues were More's views on the primacy of conscience and his role in the practical establishment of the principle of [[Equity (law)|equity]] in English secular law through the [[Court of Chancery]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Herian |first1=Robert |title=The Conscience of Thomas More: An Introduction to Equity in Modernity |journal=The Heythrop Journal |date=January 2022 |volume=63 |issue=1 |pages=64–75 |doi=10.1111/heyj.13507|s2cid=214203101 |url=https://oro.open.ac.uk/69459/9/69459.pdf }}</ref>

=== In literature and popular culture ===
[[William Roper]]'s biography of More (his father-in-law) was one of the first biographies in Modern English.

''[[Sir Thomas More (play)|Sir Thomas More]]'' is a play written circa 1592 in collaboration between [[Henry Chettle]], [[Anthony Munday]], [[William Shakespeare]], and others, or with multiple script-doctors in view of the dangerous topic. In it More is portrayed as a wise and honest statesman. The original manuscript has survived as a handwritten text that shows many revisions by its several authors, as well as the censorious influence of [[Edmund Tylney]], [[Master of the Revels]] in the government of Queen [[Elizabeth I]]. The script has since been published and has had several productions.<ref name="Long, William B. 1989 pages 49">Long, William B. ''The Occasion of the Book of Sir Thomas More''. Howard-Hill, T.H. editor. ''Shakespeare and Sir Thomas More; essays on the play and its Shakespearean Interest''. Cambridge University Press. (1989) {{ISBN|0-521-34658-4}}. pages 49–54</ref><ref>Gabrieli, Vittorio. Melchiori, Giorgio, editors ''Introduction''. Munday, Anthony. And others. ''Sir Thomas More''. Manchester University Press. {{ISBN|0-7190-1544-8}}. Page 1</ref> One of the verses in the manuscript in Shakespeare's hand has a small [[soliloquy]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Shakespeare |first1=William |title=Sir Thomas More: Act 3, Scene 1 |url=https://www.playshakespeare.com/sir-thomas-more/scenes/1195-act-iii-scene-1 |website=www.playshakespeare.com |language=en-gb}}</ref> of More that includes:

<blockquote><poem>
... But More, the more that thou hast 
Either of honour, office, wealth, and calling,
Which might accite thee to embrace and hug them,
The more do thou e'en  serpent's natures think them:
Fear their gay skins, with thought of their stings,...
</poem></blockquote>

In Europe in the two centuries after his death, there were at least 50 [[Neo-Latin]] school plays written about More, performed at [[Jesuit]] schools.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sutter |first1=Nicholas De |title=Sanctus martyr Thomas Morus : an unknown Neo-Latin More play from the College of Marchiennes |journal=Moreana |date=June 2022 |volume=59 |issue=1 |pages=1–65 |doi=10.3366/more.2022.0115}}</ref>

In 1941, the 20th-century British author [[Elizabeth Goudge]] (1900–1984) wrote a short story, "The King's Servant", based on the last few years of Thomas More's life, seen through his family, and especially his adopted daughter, Anne Cresacre More.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rawlins |first1=Christine |title=Beyond the snow : the life and faith of Elizabeth Goudge |date=2015 |publisher=Westbow |location=Bloomington, IN |isbn=978-1-4908-8619-0}}</ref>

The 20th-century agnostic playwright [[Robert Bolt]] portrayed Thomas More as the [[tragic hero]] of his 1960 play ''[[A Man for All Seasons (play)|A Man for All Seasons]]''.

<blockquote>More is a man of an angel's wit, and singular learning. I know not his fellow. For where is the man of that gentleness, lowliness and affability? And, as time requireth, a man of marvelous mirth and pastimes, and sometime of as sad gravity. A man for all seasons.<ref name="oconnell" /></blockquote>

This passage is derived from an exercise in [[Robert Whittington]]'s 1520 Latin grammar ''Vulgaria'' (which may have some provenance from ''vir omnium horarum'' — "man for all hours" — in Erasmus's dedication to More of his 1511 essay ''[[In Praise of Folly|Moriae Encomium]]''<ref>{{cite conference |last=Miller |first=Clarence H. |date=5 November 2005 |title= A man for all seasons|url=https://thomasmorestudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Miller_on_man_for_all_seasons.pdf |conference=Thomas More Studies Conference |location= University of Dallas |access-date=25 March 2025|author-link= Clarence H. Miller}}</ref>{{refn|group=note|Erasmus had set the precedent of using sweetly extravagant praise of More such as "More is inscribed in my heart in letters that no injurious time can erode" for Latin grammatical examples in his 1512 ''[[Works of Erasmus#De copia (1512)|De copia]]''.}}) that called the student to translate:

<blockquote>Moore is a man of an aungel's wyt and synglar lernyng. He is a man of many excellent vertues (yf I shold say as it is) I knowe not his felowe. For where is the man (in whome is so many godly vertues) of y<sup>t</sup> gentylnes, lowlynes and affabylyte? And, as tyme requyreth, a man of merveylous myrth and pastymes, and somtyme of as sad gravyte, as who say: a man for all seasons.<ref name=sylvester>{{cite journal |last1=Sylvester |first1=Richard S. |title=The "Man for All Seasons" Again: Robert Whittington's Verses to Sir Thomas More |journal=Huntington Library Quarterly |date=1963 |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=147–154 |doi=10.2307/3816811 |jstor=3816811 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3816811 |issn=0018-7895|url-access=subscription }} (modernized puntuation)</ref></blockquote>

In 1966, the play ''[[A Man for All Seasons (play)|A Man for All Seasons]]'' was adapted into a [[A Man for All Seasons (1966 film)|film]] with the same title. It was directed by [[Fred Zinnemann]] and adapted for the screen by the playwright. It stars [[Paul Scofield]], a noted British actor, who said that the part of Sir Thomas More was "the most difficult part I played."<ref>Gary O'Connor (2002), ''Paul Scofield: An Actor for All Seasons'', Applause Books. Page 150.</ref> The film won the [[Academy Award for Best Picture]] and Scofield won the [[Best Actor Oscar]]. In 1988 [[Charlton Heston]] starred in and directed a made-for-television film that restored the character of "the common man" that had been cut from the 1966 film.

In the 1969 film ''[[Anne of the Thousand Days]]'', More is portrayed by actor [[William Squire]].

In the 1972 BBC TV series ''[[Henry VIII and his Six Wives]]'' More was played by [[Michael Goodliffe]].

Catholic science fiction writer [[R. A. Lafferty]] wrote his novel ''[[Past Master (novel)|Past Master]]'' as a modern equivalent to More's ''Utopia'', which he saw as a satire. In this novel, Thomas More travels through time to the year 2535, where he is made king of the world "Astrobe", only to be beheaded after ruling for a mere nine days. One character compares More favourably to almost every other major historical figure: "He had one completely honest moment right at the end. I cannot think of anyone else who ever had one."

[[Karl Zuchardt]]'s novel, ''[[Stirb du Narr!]]'' ("Die you fool!"), about More's struggle with King [[Henry VIII of England|Henry]], portrays More as an idealist bound to fail in the power struggle with a ruthless ruler and an unjust world.

In her 2009 novel ''[[Wolf Hall]]'', its 2012 sequel ''[[Bring Up the Bodies]]'', and the final book of the trilogy, her 2020 ''[[The Mirror & the Light]]'', the novelist [[Hilary Mantel]] portrays More (from the perspective of a sympathetically portrayed [[Thomas Cromwell]]) as an unsympathetic persecutor of Protestants and an ally of the [[Habsburg monarchy|Habsburg empire]]. The historical accuracy of the books' portrayal of major figures has been questioned by academics.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Rist |first1=Rebecca |title=A Historical Perspective on 'Wolf Hall': Thomas Cromwell and Thomas More Revisited |url=https://unireadinghistory.com/2015/02/12/a-historical-perspective-on-wolf-hall-thomas-cromwell-and-thomas-more-revisited/ |website=READING HISTORY |language=en |date=12 February 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Duffy |first1=Eamon |title=More or Less |journal=The Tablet |date=2015 |url=http://www.thetablet.co.uk/features/2/4525/more-or-less |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20150201225038/http://www.thetablet.co.uk/features/2/4525/more-or-less |access-date=24 September 2025 |archive-date=1 February 2015 }}</ref>

Literary critic [[James Wood (critic)|James Wood]] in his book ''The Broken Estate'', a collection of essays, is critical of More and refers to him as "cruel in punishment, evasive in argument, lusty for power, and repressive in politics".<ref name="Wood2010">{{cite book|last=Wood|first=James|title=The Broken Estate: Essays on Literature and Belief|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JiI8Kwd6j9AC&pg=PA15|year=2010|publisher=Picador|location=New York|isbn=978-0-312-42956-0|page=15}}</ref>

[[Aaron S. Zelman]]'s non-fiction book ''The State Versus the People'' includes a comparison of ''Utopia'' with Plato's ''Republic''. Zelman is undecided as to whether More was being ironic in his book or was genuinely advocating a [[police state]]. Zelman comments, "More is the only Christian saint to be honoured with a statue at the [[Kremlin]]."{{citation needed|date=April 2011}} By this Zelman implies that ''Utopia'' influenced [[Vladimir Lenin]]'s [[Bolsheviks]], despite their brutal repression of religion.

Other biographers, such as [[Peter Ackroyd]], have offered a more sympathetic picture of More as both a sophisticated philosopher and man of letters, as well as a zealous Catholic who believed in the authority of the [[Holy See]] over [[Christendom]].

The protagonist of [[Walker Percy]]'s novels, ''[[Love in the Ruins]]'' and ''[[The Thanatos Syndrome]]'', is "Dr Thomas More", a reluctant Catholic and descendant of More.

More is the focus of the [[Al Stewart]] song "A Man For All Seasons" from the 1978 album ''[[Time Passages]]'', and of the [[Far (band)|Far]] song "Sir", featured on the limited editions and 2008 re-release of their 1994 album ''[[Quick (album)|Quick]]''. In addition, the song "[[So Says I]]" by indie rock outfit [[The Shins]] alludes to the socialist interpretation of More's ''Utopia''.

[[Jeremy Northam]] depicts More in the television series ''[[The Tudors]] ''as a peaceful man, as well as a devout Roman Catholic and loving family patriarch.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Robison |first1=William B. |title=History, fiction, and the Tudors : sex, politics, power, and artistic license in the Showtime television series |date=2016 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York |isbn=978-1-137-43881-2 |page=13}}</ref>

In [[David Starkey]]'s 2009 documentary series ''[[Henry VIII: The Mind of a Tyrant]]'', More is depicted by Ryan Kiggell.

More is depicted by [[Andrew Buchan]] in the television series ''[[The Spanish Princess]]''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Nissen |first1=Dano |title=TV News Roundup: 'The Spanish Princess' Sets New and Returning Cast |url=https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/tv-news-roundup-spanish-princess-casting-real-housewives-of-atlanta-season-12-1203350779/ |work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |date=26 September 2019}}</ref>

In the years 1968–2007 the [[University of San Francisco]]'s Gleeson Library Associates awarded the annual Sir Thomas More Medal for Book Collecting to private book collectors of note,<ref>[http://www.phil-hum-ren.uni-muenchen.de/W4RF/YaBB.pl?num=1242283350 USF perhaps considering to sell rare books], phil-hum-ren.uni-muenchen.de. Retrieved 19 May 2021. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210519071125/http://www.phil-hum-ren.uni-muenchen.de/W4RF/YaBB.pl?num=1242283350 |date=19 May 2021 }}</ref> including [[Elmer Belt]],<ref>[https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/news/sangorski-manuscript-top-lot-pbas-sale-dr-elmer-belts-collection Sangorski Manuscript a Top Lot at PBA's Sale of Dr. Elmer Belt's Collection], finebooksmagazine.com. Retrieved 19 May 2021.</ref> [[Otto Schaefer]],<ref>[[Otto Schaefer]], "Aims in Book Collecting", ''The Record'', Gleeson Library Associates, Number 11, San Francisco: University of San Francisco, 1978.</ref> Albert Sperisen, John S. Mayfield and Lord Wardington.<ref>[https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/6641389.lord-wardington/ Lord Wardington], oxfordmail.co.uk. Retrieved 19 May 2021.</ref>

In the 2024 video game, ''[[Metaphor: ReFantazio]]'', the narrative focuses on a book depicting a fictional [[Utopia (book)|utopia]] written by a character named More.

=== Institutions named after More ===
{{Main|List of institutions named after Thomas More}}

=== Communism, socialism and anti-communism ===
{{anchor|SovietCommunism01a}}Having been praised "as a [[Communist]] hero by [[Karl Marx]], [[Friedrich Engels]], and [[Karl Kautsky]]" because of the Communist attitude to property in his ''Utopia'',<ref name=Margaret-L-King01a /> under [[Soviet Communism]] the name of Thomas More was in [[Alexander Garden Obelisk#Inscribed names|ninth position]] from the top of Moscow's Stele of Freedom (also known as the [[Alexander Garden Obelisk|Obelisk of Revolutionary Thinkers]]),<ref>{{cite book |last1=Valavoi |first1=Dmitry |last2=Lapshina |first2=Henrietta |title=Names on an obelisk |date=1983 |publisher=[[Progress Publishers]] |location=Moscow |oclc=878939730|translator=[[Peter Greenwood]] |pages=8–9}}</ref> as one of the most influential thinkers "who promoted the liberation of humankind from oppression, arbitrariness, and exploitation."<ref group=note name="University-of-Dallas01a">{{cite web|year=2010|title=The Center for Thomas More Studies Art > Gallery > Moscow|url=http://www.thomasmorestudies.org/g-c1.html|access-date=20 December 2014|publisher=The Center for Thomas More Studies at The [[University of Dallas]]|quote=This monument, suggested by Lenin and built in 1918, lists Thomas More (ninth from the top) among the most influential thinkers "who promoted the liberation of humankind from oppression, arbitrariness, and exploitation." It is in Aleksndrovsky Garden near the Kremlin.|archive-date=15 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190115073923/http://www.thomasmorestudies.org/g-c1.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> This monument was erected in 1918 in Aleksandrovsky Garden near the [[Kremlin]] at [[Lenin]]'s suggestion.<ref name="Margaret-L-King01a" /><ref name="Guy2000">{{cite book|last=Guy|first=John Alexander|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lf1lQgAACAAJ|title=Thomas More|publisher=Arnold|year=2000|isbn=978-0-340-73139-0|pages=95–96}}</ref><ref group=note name="University-of-Dallas01a" />

''[[The Great Soviet Encyclopedia]]'''s English translation (1979) described More as "the founder of [[Utopian socialism]]", the first person "to describe a society in which private property ... had been abolished" (a society in which the family was "a cell for the communist way of life"), and a thinker who "did not believe that the ideal society would be achieved through [[socialist revolution|revolution]]", but who "greatly influenced reformers of subsequent centuries, especially [[Morelly]], [[François-Noël Babeuf|G. Babeuf]], [[Henri de Saint-Simon|Saint-Simon]], [[Charles Fourier|C. Fourier]], [[Étienne Cabet|E. Cabet]], and other representatives of Utopian socialism."<ref group=note name="GreatSovietEnc01a">{{cite web| url= https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Thomas+More |title="Thomas More." The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition. 1970–1979. The Gale Group, Inc. |newspaper=Thefreedictionary.com |publisher=[[TheFreeDictionary.com|The Free Dictionary [Internet]]]|date=1979 |access-date =14 September 2021 |quote=The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased. ... More, Thomas ... English humanist, statesman, and writer; founder of Utopian socialism. ... More is especially famous for the dialogue Utopia (1516; Russian translation, 1789), which describes the ideal society on the imaginary island of Utopia. ... He was the first to describe a society in which private property (even personal property) has been abolished, equality of consumption has been introduced (as in the early Christian communes), and production and the way of life have been socialized. ... The family, a cell for the communist way of life, is organized more as a productive unit than as a kinship unit. ... More did not believe that the ideal society would be achieved through revolution. Utopia ... greatly influenced reformers of subsequent centuries, especially Morelly, G. Babeuf, Saint-Simon, C. Fourier, E. Cabet, and other representatives of Utopian socialism. ... The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970–1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.}}</ref>

''Utopia'' also inspired [[socialists]] such as [[William Morris]].<ref group=note name="CathEnc02a">{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopaedia|title=St. Thomas More|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14689c.htm|year=1913|quote=The whole work is really an exercise of the imagination with much brilliant satire upon the world of More's own day. ... there can be no doubt that he would have been delighted at entrapping William Morris, who discovered in it a complete gospel of Socialism}}</ref>

Many see More's communism or socialism as purely satirical.<ref group=note name="CathEnc02a" /><ref>{{Citation |title=Deepening the Irony of Utopia: An Economic Perspective |last=Bostaph |first=Samuel |date=2010-06-01 |journal=History of Political Economy |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=361–382 |publisher=Duke University Press |editor-last=Hoover |editor-first=Kevin D. |doi=10.1215/00182702-2010-006}}</ref> In 1888, while praising More's communism, Karl Kautsky pointed out that "perplexed" historians and economists often saw the name ''Utopia'' (which means "no place") as "a subtle hint by More that he himself regarded his communism as an impracticable dream".<ref name="Kautsky01a" />

[[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]], the Russian [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize]]-winning, anti-Communist author of ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]'', argued that Soviet communism needed enslavement and forced labour to survive, and that this had been " ...foreseen as far back as Thomas More, the great-grandfather of [[Socialism (Marxism)|socialism]], in his ''Utopia''".<ref group=note name="Bloom01a">{{cite book|author1=Bloom, Harold|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s-sVN2COG78C&q=%22Solzhenitsyn+insists+that+the+Soviet+system+cannot+survive+without+the+camps%22+%22Thomas+More%22+%22the+great-grandfather+of+socialism%22&pg=PA173|title=Enslavement Enslavement and Emancipation] and Emancipation|author2=Hobby, Blake|date=2010|publisher=[[Infobase Publishing]]|isbn=978-1-60413-441-4|pages=173–174|quote=Moreover, Solzhenitsyn insists that the Soviet system cannot survive without the camps, that Soviet communism requires enslavement and forced labour. " ...foreseen as far back as Thomas More, the great-grandfather of socialism, in his ''Utopia'' [, the] labor of ''zeks'' was needed for degrading and particularly heavy work, which no one, under socialism, would wish to perform" (''Gulag'', Vol 3. 578).|author-link1=Harold Bloom|access-date=20 January 2015}}</ref>

{{anchor|HK-antiCommunist01a}}In 2008, More was portrayed on stage in [[Hong Kong]] as an [[allegorical]] symbol of the [[pan-democracy camp]] resisting the [[Chinese Communist Party]] in a translated and modified version of [[Robert Bolt]]'s play [[A Man for All Seasons (play)|''A Man for All Seasons'']].<ref name="ChapmanChen01a">{{cite book|author=Chen, Chapman|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S4-MqkBKvg4C&q=%22thomas+More%22+China&pg=PA48|title="Postcolonial Hong Kong Drama Translation" in "Beyond Borders: Translations Moving Languages, Literatures and Cultures"|publisher=[[:de:Frank & Timme|Frank & Timme GmbH]], Berlin|year=2011|isbn=978-3-86596-356-7|editor=Pekka Kujamäki|series=Volume 39 of TransÜD. Arbeiten zur Theorie und Praxis des Übersetzens und Dolmetschens|pages=47–54|access-date=8 January 2015}}</ref>

== Historic sites ==
=== Westminster Hall ===
A plaque in the middle of the floor of London's [[Westminster Hall]] commemorates More's trial for treason and condemnation to execution in that original part of the [[Palace of Westminster]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Thomas More : the saint and the society; addresses and articles on St Thomas More further published to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of the foundation of the St Thomas More Society on 14th August 1945 |date=1995 |publisher=St Thomas More Society |location=Sydney |isbn=978-0-646-26104-1 |page=110}}</ref> The building, which houses Parliament, would have been well known to More, who served several terms as a member and became Speaker of the House of Commons before his appointment as England's Lord Chancellor.

===Beaufort House===
{{main|Beaufort House (Chelsea)}}
[[File:Beaufort House, Chelsea from the series Britannia Illustrata 2020.163.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Beaufort House next to the Thames, {{Circa|1707}}]]

As More's royal duties frequently required his attendance at the King's [[River Thames|Thames-side]] palaces in both [[Richmond Palace|Richmond]] and [[Palace of Placentia|Greenwich]], it was convenient to select a riverside property situated between them (the common method of transport being by boat) for his home. In about 1520 he purchased a parcel of land comprising "undisturbed wood and pasture", stretching from the Thames in [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]] to the present-day [[King's Road]]. There he caused to be built a dignified red-brick mansion (known simply as More's house or Chelsea House) in which he lived until his arrest in 1534.  In the bawdy poem ''The Twelve Mery Jestes of Wyddow Edyth'', written in 1525 by a member of More's household (or even by More himself) using the pseudonym of "Walter Smith", the widow arrives by boat at "Chelsay...where she had best cheare of all/in the house of Syr Thomas More."<ref>Ackroyd (1999) p. 244. Bibliographer [[William Carew Hazlitt]] in his ''Shakespeare Jest Book'' Volume III ({{OCLC| 690506548}}) assigns publication of the work to More's brother-in-law [[John Rastell]], with a date of 23 March 1525.</ref>

Upon More's arrest the estate was confiscated, coming into the possession of the [[Comptroller of the Royal Household]], [[William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester|William Paulet]].

In 1682, the property was renamed ''Beaufort House'' after [[Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort|1st Duke of Beaufort]], a new owner.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beaver |first1=Alfred |title=Memorials of Old Chelsea |date=1892 |publisher=[[Elliot Stock]]|location=London |oclc=499072940 |pages=118–138|quote=In...1682...Chelsey...was sold to...the first Duke of Beaufort...and henceforth bore [the] name.}}</ref>

===Crosby Hall===
{{Main|Crosby Hall, London#Tudor period}}
[[File:Crosby Hall.jpg|thumb|upright|Crosby Hall on its Bishopsgate site, {{circa|1885}}]]
In June 1523 More bought the "very large and beautiful" [[Crosby Place]] (Crosby Hall) in [[Bishopsgate]], London, but this was not a simple transaction: eight months later he sold the property (never having lived there) at a considerable profit to his friend and business partner [[Antonio Bonvisi]] who, in turn, leased it back to More's son-in-law William Roper and nephew [[William Rastell]]; possibly this was an agreed means of dealing with a debt between More and Bonvisi. Because of this the Crown did not confiscate the property after More's execution.<ref>Ackroyd (1999) pp. 234–5</ref><ref name= Weinreb>{{cite book |last1=Weinreb |first1=Ben |last2=Hibbert |first2=Christopher |author1-link=Ben Weinreb |author2-link=Christopher Hibbert |title=[[The London Encyclopædia]] |date=1983 |publisher=Macmillan |location=London |isbn=0-333-57688-8 |pages=219–220 |edition=1993 |chapter=Crosby Hall}}</ref><ref group=note>{{cite book |last1=Norman |first1=Philip |last2=Caroe |first2=W. D. |author1-link=Philip Norman (artist) |author2-link=W. D. Caröe |title=Survey of London Monograph 9, Crosby Place |date=1908 |publisher= Committee for the Survey of the Memorials of Greater London|oclc= 644450239 |location=London |pages=15–32 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/bk9/pp15-32|quote=From the[...] indentures between More and the executors of Sir John Rest[...]More paid to the said executors...£150, and the date was June 1st, 1523.}}</ref>

=== Chelsea Old Church ===
{{Main|Chelsea Old Church#16th century and Sir Thomas More}}
[[File:Chelsea Old Church 14.JPG|thumb|upright|Statue of Thomas More outside [[Chelsea Old Church]] in west London]]
Across a small park and Old Church Street from Crosby Hall is Chelsea Old Church, an Anglican church whose southern chapel More commissioned and in which he sang with the parish choir. Except for his chapel, the church was largely destroyed in the Second World War and rebuilt in 1958.<ref name =RBKC>{{cite web |title=Thomas More Comes to Chelsea |url=https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/vmhistory/general/vm_hs_p02.asp |website=www.rbkc.gov.uk |publisher=[[Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea]] |access-date=19 January 2021 |archive-date=21 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210621225239/https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/vmhistory/general/vm_hs_p02.asp |url-status=dead }}</ref> The capitals on the medieval arch connecting the chapel to the main sanctuary display symbols associated with More and his office. On the southern wall of the sanctuary is the tomb and epitaph he erected for himself and his wives, detailing his ancestry and accomplishments in Latin, including his role as peacemaker between the various Christian European states as well as a curiously altered portion about his curbing heresy. When More served Mass, he would leave by the door just to the left of it. He is not, however, buried here, nor is it entirely certain which of his family may be. It is open to the public at specific times. Outside the church, facing the [[River Thames]], is a statue by British Sculptor, [[Leslie Cubitt Bevis]] erected in 1969, commemorating More as "saint", "scholar", and "statesman"; the back displays his coat-of-arms. Nearby, on Upper Cheyne Row, the Roman Catholic Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer & St. Thomas More honours the martyr.

=== Tower Hill ===
A plaque and small garden commemorate the famed execution site on [[Tower Hill]], London, just outside the [[Tower of London]], as well as all those executed there, many as religious martyrs or as prisoners of conscience.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Eagle |editor1-first=Dorothy|display-editors=et al|title=The Oxford guide to literary Britain & Ireland. |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford [England] |isbn=978-0-19-861460-9 |page=115 |edition=3rd}}</ref> More's corpse, minus his head, was unceremoniously buried in an unmarked mass grave beneath the [[Church of St Peter ad Vincula|Royal Chapel of St. Peter Ad Vincula]], within the walls of the [[Tower of London]], as was the custom for traitors executed at Tower Hill. The chapel is accessible to Tower visitors.

=== St Katharine Docks ===
Thomas More is commemorated by a stone [[Commemorative plaque|plaque]] near [[St Katharine Docks]], just east of the Tower where he was executed. The street in which it is situated was formerly called Nightingale Lane, a corruption of "Knighten Guild", derived from the original owners of the land. It is now renamed Thomas More Street in his honour.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.exploringeastlondon.co.uk/eel/Stkatharines/Stkatharines.htm#More|title=St Katharine's Dock|publisher=Exploring East London|access-date=4 November 2015}}</ref>

=== St Dunstan's Church and Roper House, Canterbury ===
[[St. Dunstan's, Canterbury|St Dunstan's Church]], an Anglican parish church in Canterbury, possesses More's head, rescued by his daughter [[Margaret Roper]], whose family lived in Canterbury down and across the street from their parish church. A stone immediately to the left of the altar marks the sealed Roper family vault beneath the Nicholas Chapel, itself to the right of the church's sanctuary or main altar. [[St. Dunstan's, Canterbury|St Dunstan's Church]] has carefully investigated, preserved and sealed this burial vault. The last archaeological investigation, conducted in 1982, revealed that the suspected head of More rests in a niche separate from the other bodies, possibly from later interference.<ref>{{cite book|last=Schulte Herbrüggen|first=Hubertus|title=Das Haupt des Thomas Morus in der St. Dunstan-Kirche zu Canterbury|series=Forschungsberichte des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen|year=1982|publisher=VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften}}</ref> Displays in the chapel record the archaeological findings in pictures and narratives. Roman Catholics donated stained glass to commemorate the events in More's life. A small plaque marks the former home of William and Margaret Roper; another house nearby and entitled Roper House is now a home for deaf people. In 2025, St Dunstan's Church announced plans to exhume and preserve More's head.<ref>{{Cite news |date=14 July 2025 |title=Plans in train to exhume holy remains of martyr St Thomas More |url=https://thecatholicherald.com/article/plans-in-train-to-exhume-holy-remains-of-martyr-st-thomas-more |access-date=18 July 2025 |work=[[Catholic Herald]]}}</ref>

== Works ==
Note: The reference "CW" is to the relevant volume of the ''[[Yale Edition of the Complete Works of St. Thomas More]]'' (New Haven and London 1963–1997)

=== Published during More's life (with dates of publication) ===
* ''A Merry Jest'' (c. 1516) (CW 1)
* ''[[Utopia (book)|Utopia]]'' (1516) (CW 4)
* ''Epigrammata'' or ''Latin Poems'' (1518, 1520) (CW 3, Pt.2)
* ''Letter to Brixius'' (1520) (CW 3, Pt. 2, App C)
* ''[[Responsio ad Lutherum]]'' (The Answer to Luther, 1523) (CW 5)
* ''A Dialogue Concerning Heresies'' (1529, 1530) (CW 6)
* ''Supplication of Souls'' (1529) (CW 7)
* ''Letter Against Frith'' (1532) (CW 7) [https://www.thomasmorestudies.org/1557Workes/Letter_Frith.pdf pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160325074541/http://www.thomasmorestudies.org/1557Workes/Letter_Frith.pdf |date=25 March 2016 }}
* ''The Confutation of Tyndale's Answer'' (1532, 1533) (CW 8) Books 1–4, [https://www.thomasmorestudies.org/docs/Confutation5-9_2014-etext.pdf Books 5–9] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809105346/https://www.thomasmorestudies.org/docs/Confutation5-9_2014-etext.pdf |date=9 August 2020 }}
* ''Apology'' (1533) (CW 9)
* ''Debellation of Salem and Bizance'' (1533) (CW 10) [https://www.thomasmorestudies.org/docs/Debellation2014-etext.pdf pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809192651/https://www.thomasmorestudies.org/docs/Debellation2014-etext.pdf |date=9 August 2020 }}
* ''The Answer to a Poisoned Book'' (1533) (CW 11) [https://www.thomasmorestudies.org/docs/AnswerPoisonedBook2014-etext.pdf pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809105504/https://www.thomasmorestudies.org/docs/AnswerPoisonedBook2014-etext.pdf |date=9 August 2020 }}

=== Published after More's death (with likely dates of composition) ===
* ''The History of King Richard III'' ({{Circa|1513}}–1518) (CW 2 & 15)
* ''The Four Last Things'' ({{Circa|1522}}) (CW 1)
* ''[[A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation]]'' (1534) (CW 12)
* ''Treatise Upon the Passion'' (1534) (CW 13)
* ''Treatise on the Blessed Body'' (1535) (CW 13)
* ''Instructions and Prayers'' (1535) (CW 13)
* ''De Tristitia Christi'' (1535) (CW 14) (preserved in the [[Real Colegio Seminario del Corpus Christi]], Valencia)

== Translations ==
* ''Translations of Lucian'' (many dates 1506–1534) (CW 3, Pt.1)
* ''The Life of [[Pico della Mirandola]]'', by Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola (c. 1510) (CW 1)

==Media portrayals==
* ''[[A Man for All Seasons (1966 film)|A Man for All Seasons]]'', 1966 film: More was portrayed by [[Paul Scofield]].
* ''[[Anne of the Thousand Days]]'', 1969 film: More was portrayed by [[William Squire]].
* ''[[God's Outlaw (1986 film)|God's Outlaw: The Story of William Tyndale]]'', 1986 film: More was portrayed by [[Bernard Archard]].
* ''[[A Man for All Seasons (1988 film)|A Man for All Seasons]]'', 1988 made-for-TV film: More was portrayed by [[Charlton Heston]].
* ''[[The Tudors]]'', 2007–2010 TV series: More was portrayed by [[Jeremy Northam]].
* ''[[Wolf Hall (TV series)|Wolf Hall]]'', 2015 TV miniseries: More was portrayed by [[Anton Lesser]].

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== Sources ==
=== Biographies ===
* {{cite book | last = Ackroyd | first = Peter|title= The Life of Thomas More| url = https://archive.org/details/lifeofthomasmore00ackr | url-access = registration |year= 1999 | publisher = [[Chatto & Windus]]| isbn = 9780385477093| author-link = Peter Ackroyd}}
* {{cite book | last = Basset | first = Bernard | title = Born for Friendship: The Spirit of Sir Thomas More|year=1965|location=London|publisher=Burns & Oates}}
* {{cite book | last = Berglar| first = Peter|author-link= Peter Berglar|title= Thomas More: A Lonely Voice against the Power of the State | publisher = Scepter Publishers | location = New York | year = 2009 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=5eAN_FrS2o4C| isbn = 978-1-59417-073-7}} (Note: this is a 2009 translation (from the original German, by Hector de Cavilla) of Berglar's 1978 work ''Die Stunde des Thomas Morus – Einer gegen die Macht''. Freiburg 1978; Adamas-Verlag, Köln 1998, {{ISBN|3-925746-78-1}})
* {{cite book | last = Brady | first = Charles A.| title = Stage of Fools: A Novel of Sir Thomas More | url = https://archive.org/details/stageoffools0000unse | url-access = registration | year = 1953|publisher= Dutton}}
* [[Henri Brémond|Brémond, Henri]] (1904) – ''Le Bienheureux Thomas More 1478–1535'' (1904) as'' Sir Thomas More'' (1913) translated by Henry Child;<br>(Note: Brémond is frequently cited in Berglar (2009))
** [https://archive.org/details/cu31924027960800 1920 edition] published by R. & T. Washbourne Limited, {{OCLC|1224822|749455885}};
** Paperback edition by Kessinger Publishing, LLC (2006), {{ISBN|978-1-4286-1904-3}}
** published in French in Paris by Gabalda, 1920, {{OCLC|369064822}}
* {{cite book | last = Bridgett | first = Thomas Edward | title= Life and Writings of Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England and Martyr under Henry VIII | url = https://archive.org/stream/lifewritingsofsi00brid/lifewritingsofsi00brid_djvu.txt | year= 1891 | author-link = Thomas Edward Bridgett}}
* {{cite book | last = Chambers | first = R. W. |title=Thomas More|year= 1935|publisher= Harcourt, Brace | author-link=Raymond Wilson Chambers}}
* {{cite book | last = Guy | first = John | title = The Public Career of Sir Thomas More|year=1980| publisher = Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-02546-0|author-link=John Guy (historian)}}
* {{cite book | last = Guy | first = John | author-mask = 3 |title=Thomas More|year=2000| publisher = Arnold |isbn = 978-0-340-73138-3}}
* {{cite book | last = Guy | first = John | author-mask = 3 | title = A Daughter's Love: Thomas More and His Daughter Meg|year= 2009}}
* {{cite book|editor1-last=Hiscock|editor1-first=Andrew |editor2-last=Wilcox|editor2-first=Helen |title=The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern English Literature and Religion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HCwpDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA547|year=2017|publisher=University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-165342-1}}
* {{cite ODNB|id=19191|title=More, Thomas|orig-year=2004|year=2008|last=House|first=Seymour B.}}
* {{cite book | last = Marius | first = Richard|title=Thomas More: A Biography| url = https://archive.org/details/thomasmorebiogra00mari | url-access = registration |year=1984 | author-link =Richard Marius| publisher = Vintage Books| isbn = 9780394741468}}
* {{cite book | last = Marius | first = Richard|author-mask = 3 |title=Thomas More: a biography | year = 1999|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-88525-7 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=DdAYSzj20t0C}}
* {{cite book | last = More | first = Cresacre|title=The Life of Sir Thomas More by His Great-Grandson | publisher = W. Pickering | url = https://archive.org/details/lifesirthomasmo00moregoog| page = [https://archive.org/details/lifesirthomasmo00moregoog/page/n414 344] | year = 1828}}
* {{cite book|last=Moynahan|first=Brian |title=God's Bestseller: William Tyndale, Thomas More, and the Writing of the English Bible – A Story of Martyrdom and Betrayal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RgrHAgAAQBAJ|year=2014|publisher=St. Martin's Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-4668-6650-8}}
* {{cite book|editor1-last=Mueller |editor1-first=Janel|editor2-last=Loewenstein|editor2-first=David |title=The Cambridge History of Early Modern English Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J90cWIBoAPcC&pg=PA93|year=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-63156-3}}
* {{cite book | last = Phélippeau | first = Marie-Claire |title= Thomas More|year=2016 |publisher=Gallimard}}
* {{cite book | last = Reynolds | first = E. E. |title=The Trialet of St Thomas More|year= 1964}}
* {{cite book | last = Reynolds | first = E. E. |title=Thomas More and Erasmus| url = https://archive.org/details/thomasmoreerasmu00reyn | url-access = registration |year=1965 | author-mask = 3| location = New York | publisher =  Fordham University Press }}
* {{cite book|last=Ridley|first=Jasper|title=Statesman and Saint: Cardinal Wolsey, Sir Thomas More, and the Politics of Henry VIII|year=1983|publisher=Viking Press |isbn=0-670-48905-0|author-link=Jasper Ridley (historian)|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/statesmansaintca00ridl}}
* {{Citation | last = Roper | first = William | author-link = William Roper (biographer) | title = The Life of Sir Thomas More (1556) | editor1-first = Gerard B. | editor1-last = Wegemer | editor2-first = Stephen W. | editor2-last = Smith | publisher = Center for Thomas More Studies | year = 2003 | url = http://www.thomasmorestudies.org/docs/Roper.pdf | access-date = 5 March 2012 | archive-date = 8 June 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120608192245/http://www.thomasmorestudies.org/docs/Roper.pdf | url-status = dead }}
* {{cite book|last=Roper|first=William |author-link=William Roper|title=The Life of St. Thomas More|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cPL3AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA2|year=2007|publisher=Benediction Classics|isbn=978-1-4092-2795-3}}
* {{Citation | last = Stapleton | first = Thomas | author-link = Thomas Stapleton (theologian) | title = The Life and Illustrious Martyrdom of Sir Thomas More (1588) | url = http://www.thomasmorestudies.org/docs/Stapletons_Life_of_TM.pdf | access-date = 3 January 2016 | archive-date = 29 December 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161229170629/http://thomasmorestudies.org/docs/Stapletons_Life_of_TM.pdf | url-status = dead }}.
* {{cite book| last = Wegemer | first = Gerard | title=Thomas More: A Portrait of Courage| year = 1985 | publisher = Scepter Publishers | isbn= 978-1-889334-12-7|author-link=Gerard Wegemer}}
* {{cite book|last=Wegemer|first=Gerard |author-link=Gerard Wegemer|title=Thomas More on Statesmanship|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RazaAAAAMAAJ|year=1996|publisher=Catholic University of America Press|isbn=978-0-8132-0836-7}}
* {{cite book|last=Wordsworth|first=Christopher |author-link=Christopher Wordsworth|title=Ecclesiastical Biography, Or, Lives of Eminent Men Connected with the History of Religion in England|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_5ppAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA222|year=1810|publisher=Rivingtons|location=London|volume=2}}

=== Historiography ===
* {{Citation | last = Gushurst-Moore | first = André | title = A Man for All Eras: Recent Books on Thomas More | journal = Political Science Reviewer | year = 2004 | volume = 33 | pages = 90–143 }}.
* {{Citation | last = Guy | first = John | url =  | title = The Search for the Historical Thomas More | journal = History Review | year = 2000 | pages = 15+ }}
* Miles, Leland. "Persecution and the Dialogue of Comfort: A Fresh Look at the Charges against Thomas More." ''Journal of British Studies'', vol. 5, no. 1, 1965, pp.&nbsp;19–30. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/175180 online]

=== Primary sources ===
* {{Citation |last = More | first = Thomas | author-link = Thomas More | title = The Correspondence of Sir Thomas More | publisher = Princeton University Press | editor-first = Elizabeth | editor-last = Rogers | year = 1947}}.
* {{Citation | last = More | first = Thomas | author-mask = 3 | title = Yale Edition of the Complete Works of St. Thomas More | publisher = Yale University Press. | year = 1963–1997| title-link = Yale Edition of the Complete Works of St. Thomas More }}
* {{Citation |last = More | first = Thomas | author-mask = 3 | title = The Last Letters of Thomas More | editor-first = Álvaro | editor-last = da Silva | year = 2001}}.
* {{Citation | last = More | first = Thomas | author-mask = 3 | title = Saint Thomas More: Selected Writings | editor-first = John F | editor-last = Thornton | year = 2003}}.
* {{Citation | last = More | first = Thomas | author-mask = 3 | title = A Thomas More Source Book | editor1-first = Gerald B | editor1-last = Wegemer | editor2-first = Stephen W | editor2-last = Smith | year = 2004 | publisher = [[Catholic University of America Press]]}}.
* {{Citation | last = More | first = Thomas | author-mask = 3 | title = Utopia | publisher = Norton | series = Critical Editions | editor1-first = George M | editor1-last = Logan | editor2-first = Robert M | editor2-last = Adams | edition = 3rd | year = 2010}}.

== External links ==
{{Portal|Saints|Biography}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
{{Commons category|Thomas More}}
* {{UK National Archives ID}}
* {{NPG name|name=Sir Thomas More}}
* [https://www.thomasmorestudies.org The Center for Thomas More Studies] at the [[University of Dallas]]
* [http://www.thomasmorestudies.org/library.html Thomas More Studies database]: contains several of More's English works, including dialogues, early poetry and letters, as well as journal articles and biographical material. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120620162041/http://www.thomasmorestudies.org/library.html |date=20 June 2012 }}
* {{cite SEP|thomas-more|Thomas More|Gerard B. Wegemer}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=827}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Thomas More}}
* {{Librivox author |id=2660}}
* {{Citation | url = http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/wood.htm | title = Sir Thomas More: A Man for One Season | type = essay | author-link = James Wood (critic)| first = James | last = Wood}}. Presents a critical view of More's [[anti-Protestantism]]
* {{Citation | url = http://www.marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1888/more/ | title = Thomas More and his Utopia | first = Karl | last = Kautsky | author-link = Karl Kautsky | publisher = Marxists}}.
* [http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/utopia/more1/moreutopia.html Thomas More and Utopias] – a learning resource from the British Library. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201107040338/http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/utopia/more1/moreutopia.html |date=7 November 2020 }}
* {{Citation | url = http://www.thomasmoreinstitute.org.uk/?q=node/34 | title = Integrity and Conscience in the Life and Thought of Thomas More | first = Gerard | last = Wegemer | author-link = Gerard Wegemer}}.
* [https://essentialmore.org The Essential Works of Thomas More] – The Center for Thomas More Studies at the [[University of Dallas]]
* {{CathEncy | wstitle=St. Thomas More}}
* [http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-thomas-more Patron Saints Index entry] – Saint Thomas More biography, prayers, quotes, Catholic devotions to him.
* [https://www.famous-trials.com/thomasmore Trial of Sir Thomas More], Professor Douglas O. Linder, [[University of Missouri-Kansas City]] (UMKC) School of Law
* [http://newsaints.faithweb.com/martyrs/England01.htm John Fisher and Thomas More: Martyrs of England and Wales]
* {{LCAuth|n79056176|Saint Thomas More|186|ue}}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Lumby |editor1-first=J. Rawson |editor1-link=J. Rawson Lumby |title=More's History of King Richard III |date=1883 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://archive.org/download/moreshistoryofki00morerich/moreshistoryofki00morerich.pdf}} (large file)

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[[Category:Executed people from London]]
[[Category:People executed under Henry VIII]]
[[Category:English MPs 1504]]
[[Category:English MPs 1510]]
[[Category:English MPs 1523]]
[[Category:Speakers of the House of Commons of England]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of England for the City of London]]
[[Category:Burials at the Church of St Peter ad Vincula]]
[[Category:More family]]
[[Category:English male poets]]
[[Category:English male novelists]]
[[Category:English politicians convicted of crimes]]
[[Category:Catholic martyrs of England and Wales]]
[[Category:Proto-socialists]]
[[Category:Anglican saints]]