Saint Sir Thomas More was born on February 7, 1478, and died on July 6, 1535. Saint Thomas More was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, theologian, and noted Renaissance humanist. He was very accomplished. Also, the Cathedral in Arlington, Virginia, is named for him. Saint Thomas More is famous, and he also served English King Henry VIII as Lord Chancellor from October 1529 to May 1532. He wrote Utopia, published in 1516, which describes the political system of an imaginary island state. He was beheaded after telling King Henry VIII to stop getting remarried. He had 8 wives. How many wives can one man have?
Saint Thomas More Biography
Saint Thomas More was born in the City of London on February 7, 1478. He was well-born and the second of six children. He studied at Oxford starting in 1842. In 1496, Saint Thomas More left Oxford after only two years. More became a student at Lincoln’s Inn, where he remained until 1502, when he became a lawyer.
According to his friend, Saint Thomas More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk. More continued religious practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin and occasionally engaging in self-flagellation.
Saint Thomas More married Joanna Colt in 1505. The married couple had four children: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cecily, and John. Jane died in 1511. Now a widower, More married Alice Middleton, a widow. 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 girls: Anne Cresacre and Margaret Giggs. He insisted on giving his daughters the same education as his son, an unusual attitude at the time. He was a friend of the poet Erasmus, and we know a lot about his life because Erasmus detailed it.
In 1504, Saint Thomas More was elected to Parliament, and in 1510 began representing London. From 1510, He served as one of the two undersheriffs of the City, a position of considerable responsibility in which he earned a reputation as an honest public servant. He garnered greater and greater responsibility, and he was knighted and made under-treasurer of the Exchequer in 1521. He became a personal adviser to King Henry VIII.
After Cardinal Thomas Wolsey fell, More succeeded to the office of Lord Chancellor. He supported the Catholic Church and saw the Protestant Reformation as heresy, a threat to the unity of both church and society. In 1533, More refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn as 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. That is where his problems started.
More’s enemies had enough evidence to have Henry VIII arrest him for treason. Four days later, More was imprisoned in the Tower of London. The trial was held on July 1, 1535, and the execution took place on July 6, 1535, at Tower Hill. When he came to mount the steps to the scaffold, More is widely quoted as saying, “I pray you, master Lieutenant, see me safe up and [for] my coming down, let me shift for my self,” while on the scaffold More said that he died “the king’s good servant, and God’s first.”
Conclusion
The effect St. Tomas More had on society as he participated in several noteworthy events. He was front and center, opposing King Henry VIII, who created the church of England, or the Anglican Church. He was canonized because he was a martyr. His fall from grace and his execution were spectacular.
