Thomas More

Thomas More was born in London in 1478 and trained as a lawyer, but he moved in the circle of the humanists and became a close friend of Erasmus. He served as a diplomat and legal adviser to Henry VIII, and in 1529 he was made lord chancellor of England.

He wrote Utopia in 1516, a book that describes an imaginary island with no private property and rational, humane institutions, and that leaves the reader to decide how far the satire cuts against England itself. He also wrote polemics against the reformers and spent years arguing for the unity of the church.

When Henry repudiated the pope's authority over his marriage, More resigned his office and refused to swear the oath that recognized the king as head of the church. He was imprisoned in the Tower, tried for treason, and beheaded in 1535, saying that he died the king's good servant but God's first. He was canonized in 1935.

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