ST.THOMAS MORE, "The King's Good Servant, But God's First."

Fr. Joseph Santiago CMF - Wed, Jun 22nd 2016

ST.THOMAS MORE

(7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535)

"The King's Good Servant, But God's First."

Martyr

Prologue

Sir Thomas More was an English lawyer, Social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist.

He was an important councillor to Henry VIII and Lord Chancellor from October 1529 to 16 May 1532.

Thomas More resigned in 1532, at the height of his career and reputation, when Henry ignored church teaching and declared his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled so he could marry Anne Boleyn.

Thomas More refused to render allegiance to the King as the head of the Church of England and remained loyal to the supremacy of the Pope. This cost his position, his wealth, and ultimately, his life.

As a result, in 1534, he was arrested and confined to the Tower of London. Fifteen months later, he was tried, convicted of treason and beheaded. Just before his execution on July 6, 1535, he told the crowd of spectators: “I die as the King's true servant, but God's first." His statement is an inspiration to us, who serve many “kings” in our lives — to make sure we serve God first.

He was executed for refusing to recognize henry VIII's Divorce and the English Church's break with Rome.

He was executed for refusing to recognize Henry VIII's divorce and the English church's break with Rome.

Four hundred years later in 1935, Thomas More was canonized a saint of God. He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on 29 December 1886. Pope Pius XI canonized More in 1935 as a martyr of the schism that separated the Church of England from Rome; Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared More the "heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians".

22 June, 2014 is the feast day of St. Thomas More, martyr and patron of lawyers, civil servants, politicians, statesmen, and "difficult marriages".

The Life of Sir Thomas More

Family background

He was born in Milk Street in London, on 7 February 1478. Thomas More was the son of Sir John More and Agnes. His father was a prominent judge who later was named a judge on the King’s Bench.

Childhood

More was educated at St Anthony's School, then considered one of London's finest schools. From 1490 to 1492, More served John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, as a household page.

Education

Thomas received the best education available in London. More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education. At the age of thirteen, Studying under Thomas Linacre and WilliamGrocyn, he became proficient in both Greek and Latin.

During this time, he wrote comedies and studied Greek and Latin literature. One of his first works was an English translation of a Latin biography of the Italian humanist Pico Della Mirandola. It was printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1510.

By education and temperament he was cordial and jovial.

Seminary Life

As a youth, he attended daily mass, and practiced a strict discipline of prayer. More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk. Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near the Carthusian monastery outside the walls of London and joined in the monks' spiritual exercises.

Member of Parliament

He studied law at Oxford and embarked on a legal career which eventually took him to Parliament at the age of 22.

Marriage

More married Jane Colt in 1505. She was nearly ten years younger than her husband, quiet and good-natured. More wanted to give his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and tutored her in music and literature. The couple had four children before Jane died in 1511: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John.

More married again very soon after his first wife's death, his choice being a widow, Alice Middleton. She was older than he by seven years, a good, somewhat commonplace aoul without beauty or education; but she was a capital housewife and was devoted to the care of More's young children. On the whole the marriage seems to have been quite satisfactory

Utopia

In 1516 wrote his famous book "Utopia". More's best known and most controversial work, Utopia is a novel written in Latin. More wrote in his book about the political system of an ideal and imaginary island nation. Utopia is a work of fiction and political philosophy by Thomas More published in 1516 in Latin. The book is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs.

More coined the term "utopia" which is a pun meaning both "good place" and "no place." More's Utopia is discovered on a voyage to the newly discovered Americas. It is thus one of the first books to invoke the analogy between the great voyages of discovery and discoveries of the mind. Plato's Republic and the Laws provide models for More's reflections on the good citizen and the good state, but More's Utopia is significantly different from these models and blends a variety of philosophical influences. In contrast to the Platonic Republic, More's society is a communistic democracy and not an aristocracy with communism confined to the ruling elite.

The new emphasis on the philosophy of pleasure comes from More's understanding of Epicureanism. From the Stoics More gets the notions that mankind form a natural community and the assumed existence of natural law.

It attracted the attention of Henry VIII who appointed him to a succession of high posts and finally made him Lord Chancellor in 1529.

Life Achievements and golden years

From 1510 to 1518 he was one of the two under-sheriffs of London and in 1517 entered the king's service, becoming one of Henry VIII's most effective and trusted civil servants and acting as his secretary, interpreter, speech-writer, chief diplomat, advisor and confidant. In 1521 he was knighted, in 1523, he became the speaker of the House of Commons and in 1525 chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

At the same time More was building a reputation as a scholar. He was close to the radical catholic theologian Erasmus, but wrote polemics against Martin Luther and the protestant reformation. Around 1515, he wrote 'The History of Richard III' which established that king's reputation as a tyrant and has been described as the first masterpiece of English historiography. In 1516, he published his most important work 'Utopia' - a description of an imaginary republic ruled by reason and intended to contrast with the strife-ridden reality of contemporary European politics

Tragedy

During the time that Thomas was Lord Chancellor, King Henry VIII’s troubles with the church began. When his wife, Catherine of Aragon could produce no male heir for his throne, Henry VIII petitioned the pope to declare the marriage null. Thomas disagreed with Henry’s stand, but took no part in the controversy at first. Henry declared himself”Protector and supreme head of the Church of England.

More resigned the chancellorship

When Henry declared himself 'supreme head of the Church in England' - thus establishing the Anglican Church and allowing him to end his marriage - More resigned the chancellorship. He continued to argue against the king's divorce and the split with Rome and in 1534 was arrested after refusing to swear an oath of succession repudiating the pope and accepting the annulment of Henry's marriage. He was tried for treason at Westminster and on 6 July 1535 was executed on Tower Hill.

More resigned in 1532, at the height of his career and reputation, when Henry ignored church teaching and declared his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled so he could marry Anne Boleyn.

More refused to render allegiance to the King as the head of the Church of England and remained loyal to the supremacy of the Pope.

Trial and execution

He was beheaded on 6 July 1535 on Tower Hill, London, England. His body was taken to Saint Peter ad Vincula, Tower of London, England. His head was parboiled and then exposed on London Bridge for a month as a warning to other “traitors”.

He was Executed for refusing to recognize Henry VIII's divorce and the English Church's Break with Rome.

Saint

Since 1980,the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr. In 2002, he was placed at number 37 in the BBC's poll of the 100 greatest Britons.

Lessons learnt from Thomas More

1. No one was more respected in England than Sir Thomas More, a man of highest personal integrity..

2. He was an English lawyer, scholar, writer, Member of Parliament and chancellor in the reign of Henry VIII.

3. The supreme diplomat and counselor, he did not compromise his own moral values in order to please the king, knowing that true allegiance to authority is not blind acceptance of everything that authority wants.

4. Thomas more’s conscience compelled him to oppose Henry VIII’s increasingly belligerent stand against the Pope. This cost his position, his wealth, and ultimately, his life. While we probably won’t be obliged to make sacrifices that Thomas did, we sometimes are asked to bend our principles for another. Would you be capable of standing up for something that you believe in strongly? Add a prayer to your daily routine asking God to give the strength to defend those beliefs you know to be right.

5. “Thanks to the mercy and might of God. I have never consented to anything that went against my conscience”, said Thomas More

6. What does it avail to know that there is a God, which you not only believe by Faith, but also know by reason: what does it avail that you know Him if you think little of Him? - Saint Thomas More

7. What men call fame is, after all, but a very windy thing. A many things that many are praising him, and talking of him alone, and yet they spend but a very small part of the day thinking of him, being occupied with things of their own. - Saint Thomas More

8. A patron of lawyers, St. Thomas More was a fierce advocate for justice. May we also work for justice for those less fortunate. May we share the courage of conscience that this saint showed in his life.

St.Thomas More, pray for us!