frequenting daily their spiritual exercises, but
without anie vow. He had an earnest mind also
to be a Franciscan Fryer, that he might serue God
in a state of perfection ; but finding that at that
time Rjeligious men in England had somewhat
degenerated from their ancient strictnesse, and
feruour of spirit, he altered his minde. He had
also after that togeather with his faythfull com-
panion Lillic a purpose to be a priest ; yet God
had allotted him for another estate, not to hue
sohtarie, but that he might be a patterne to
J
136 BLESSED THOMAS MORE
married men, how they should carefully bring vp
their children, how dearely the}' should loue their
wiues, how they should employe their endeauour
wholy for the good of their countrie, yet excel-
lently performe the vertues of religious men, as
pietie, charitie, humilitie, obedience, and conjugall
chastitie.
" He heard an entire Masse euerie day, before
he undertooke anie worldlie bussinesse ; which
custome he kept so religiously that being on a time
sent for to the King, whilst he was hearing Masse,
he would not once stirre, though he were twice
or thrice sent for, vntill it was wholly finished,
answering them that vrged him to come quickly,
that he thought first to perfourme his dutie to
a better man than the King was. . . . Neither was
King Henric any whitt angrie at that time with
Sir Thomas More, but rather highly pleased with
this his small neglect.
" He vsed euerie day to say our Ladle's mattins,
the seauen psalmes and letanies, and manie times
the Gradual psalmes, with the psalme Bcati im-
maculaii in via, and diuerse other pious praiers,
which he himselfe composed ; he selected also
manie sentences of the Psalmes, imitating therein
S. Hierome's psalter, which are extant in the latter
ende of his English Workes.
" But finding his bodie for all his austeritie
readie still to endanger his soule, although at all
times he shunned idleness more than anie other
man, he determined to marrie ; and therefore he
propounded to himselfe, as a patterne of life, a
BLESSED THOMAS MORE 131
singular lay-man loJm Picus, Earle of Mirandula
who was a man famous for virtue, and most
eminent for learning; his life he translated, and
sett out, as also manie of his most worthie letters,
and his twelve precepts of good life ; which are
extant in the beginning of his English Workes.
" For this ende he also wrote a treatise both
learned, spiritual, and devout, of the Foure last
things of man, though he left it vnperfect, being
called by his father to other studies."^
More however never lost his fondness for the
religious life. When he was a prisoner in the Tower,
says Harpsfield, " he told his daughter Margaret
that his short penning and putting up did little
grieve him, for if it had not been for respect of
his wife and children, he had voluntarily ere that
time shut himself in as narrow or narrower room
than that was." However now, to use Harpsfield's
quaint phrase, " he fell to marriage."
He chose a young lady named Joan or Jane
Colte, daughter of an Essex gentleman. It is
said that his fancy fell first on her younger sister,
but that considering that the elder would feel
slighted if her younger sister were married before
her, "he then of a certain pity framed his fancy
to her and soon after married her."- This was
early in 1505.
Erasmus gives us a pretty picture of the young
couple. More took pleasure in moulding his wife to
his own ideal, and had her instructed in all kinds
' Cresacre More, pp. 15 — 19. - Roper, p. 28.
132 BLESSED THOMAS MORE
of learning and accomplishments, especially music,
" and made her such so that he could willingly have
passed his whole life with her, but a premature
death separated them." More always cherished a
great love for the wife of his youth, and in his
epitaph written more than twenty years after her
death, he speaks of her as uxorada Mori, — More's
dear little wife. From this marriage sprang four
children, Margaret the eldest, born late in 1505 or
early the next year, Elizabeth, Cecily, and John the
youngest, born in 1509. After about six years of
happy wedded life, Joan More died. In spite of
the caustic jests More was rather fond of making
and repeating about women, it was not long before
he took another wife. Indeed to our modern
notions it is rather a shock that he consoled himself
so speedily. But he doubtless found the care of
four little children incompatible with a busy
life like his, and in his second choice he looked for
one who would be a mother to his motherless
children rather than a helpmate for himself. Thus
it was that within a month ^ after his first wife's
death he came to his parish priest, John Bouge (or
Bonge), " on a Sunday night late, and brought a
dispensation to be married the next Monday without
any banns asking."
But we must not anticipate. More lived with
his first wife in Bucklersbury, close to the Poultry,
Cheapside, in the parish of St. Stephen Wallbrook.
" He proved a model husband,'" writes Mr. Sidney
1 Eimllsli Historical Revietr, vii. pp. 712—715. Letter of Dom John
Bouge, a Carthusian of the Charterhouse of Axholme, below, p. 155.
BLESSED THOMAS MORE 133
Lee, " delighting in domesticity, and dividing his
leisure between the care of his household and
literary pursuits."
Soon after his marriage he invited the celebrated
Erasmus to stay with him, and they amused them-
selves by translating some of Lucian's dialogues
into Latin. More's friendship with Erasmus dated
from 1498, when they met for the first time at the
house of William Lord Mountjoy, with whom
Erasmus was sta}'ing. They at once became great
friends, although More was ten years younger than
the great humanist, and had indeed only just
reached the years of manhood. Erasmus delighted
in praising his friend. " Did nature ever frame a
sweeter, happier character than that of More?"^ he
cries enthusiastically. Their friendship lasted to
the end, and when More died a martyr's death, none
lamented him more sincerely than the scholar of
Rotterdam. Father Bridgett avows that he cannot
find the very slightest foundation for the assertion of
Stapleton and Cresacre More that in the course of
time their friendship cooled. It is not here the
place to discuss the character of Erasmus. Dom
Gasquet in his Eve of the Reformation has done this
at some length and with much learning. He takes
a favourable view both of the man and his works,
whereas the great German historian, Janssen, is
disposed to be more severe. We should be inclined
to say that the chief testimony in favour of Erasmus
is that he enjoyed the life-long friendship of both
Blessed Thomas More and Blessed John Fisher.
1 Ep. 14.
134 BLESSED THOMAS MORE
It is indeed difficult to believe that these great
champions and martyrs of the Faith would have
cherished the friendship of one who was in reality
its foe.
In 1508 More went abroad and visited the
Universities of Louvain and Paris, which he found
in no way superior to Oxford or Cambridge. In the
same year Erasmus paid him another visit, and wrote
under his roof his famous Moricv Enconiiuin — " The
Praise of Folly," the title of which was intended as
a pun on his host's name, to whom indeed the work
was dedicated. This book, which was a pungent
satire on the ecclesiastical abuses of the day, became
later on a favourite arsenal for heretics who had not
wit to devise weapons of their own. But at the
time of its publication it does not appear that it
was considered to be dangerous or revolutionary. It
was written in Latin, and intended for the learned,
not for the ignorant, and More welcomed it as likely
to help on the work of a Catholic Reformation for
which all good men longed. It must be remembered
that at this time all Europe was Catholic, and that
Luther had not yet begun to attack the Faith. But
Blessed Thomas, who was to become one of that
Faith's most ardent defenders, well understood that
a book which might be perfectly harmless under
certain conditions, might become very dangerous
in quite different circumstances. For as he wrote
later against the heretic Tindale,^ " In these days in
which Tindale hath with the infection of his
contagious heresies so sore poisoned malicious and
1 English Works, p. 422.
BLESSED THOMAS MORE 135
new-fangled folk, ... in these days in which men
by their own default, misconstrue and take harm out
of the very Scriptures of God, until men better
amend, if any man would now translate Moria into
English, or some works either that I have myself
written ere this, albeit there be no harm therein,
folk 3-et being given to take harm of that which
is good, I would not only my darling's [i.e.,
Erasmus's] books, but mine also, help to burn
them both with mine own hands, rather than folk
should (though through their own fault) take any
harm of them, seeing that I see them likely in these
days so to do."
More was naturally inclined to jest and satire,
and stupidity greatly tried him. He could never
resist poking fun at people like the friar of Coventry,
who taught that whoever said daily the fifteen
mysteries of the Rosary would undoubtedly be
saved, however badly he lived ; or the Oxford theo-
logians who thought the study of Greek next door
to heretical ; or the theologians of Louvain who
exalted the subtilties of the' later scholastics above
the dissertations of the ancient Fathers — preferring
even "these kitchenmaids to the most holy Bible,
the Queen of all books," or the religious who seemed
to make Christianity itself consist in the observ-
ance of the minuter precepts of their rule. For such
he had no mercy. But every page of his writings,
to say nothing of his life and death, testifies to his
passionate loyalty for the Church of God.
On April 21, 1509, an event occurred which
formed a ttu'ning-point in the life of More, as it
136 BLESSED THOMAS MORE
was also to prove in the history of this country.
Henry VII. died, and the young and promising
Prince Henry succeeded to the throne. More had
fallen into disgrace with the old King some four
years before. In the spring of 1504 he had been
elected a member of Parliament. The exactions of
the King, seconded by Dudley and Empson (the
former of whom was Speaker), had already exasper-
ated the young lawyer, and when in this Parliament
a Bill was introduced demanding an aid of three-
fifteenths under pretext of the recent marriage of
the King's eldest daughter Margaret with the
King of Scotland, More led the Opposition so
successfully that the Bill was thrown out. " The
King had to forego the ;^i 13,000 demanded, and
felt bound to surrender ^^'lOjOOO of the £"40,000
offered by the Commons in substitution."^ The
King's anger at being thwarted of his purpose by a
"beardless boy," expended itself on his aged father,
Sir John, who was thrown into the Tower on some
frivolous pretext, until a fine of iJ^ioo had been
extorted from him. The accession of the young
and handsome prince, who united love of learning
with zeal for religion, was hailed on all sides with
unbounded joy, and with the new reign More soon
experienced a change of fortune. He was already
known to Henry, and we have an interesting letter
of Erasmus which tells us how the two friends paid
a visit to the prince when he was a child of nine,
and how More on that occasion presented him with
a poem.
1 Dictionary of National Biography ; Statutes of the Realm, ii. 975.
BLESSED THOMAS MORE
137
But before entering on More's public career we
must return to his domestic life. In 1510, as we
have seen, his first wife died, and within a month
he married again. His second wife was a widow,
Alice Middleton. She was seven years his senior,
and neither beautiful nor well-educated, but she
proved a kind mother to his little ones, and a
vigilant and careful housewife. After his second
marriage More moved to Crosby Place, in Bishops-
gate Street Without, close to the beautiful old church
of St. Helen's. Here he lived for about twelve years,
until in 1523 he built his famous house at Chelsea.
His professional work prospered. He made
about ^^400 a year (equivalent to at least ten
times as much now), and soon after Henry VIH.'s
accession was elected a bencher of Lincoln's Inn,
and was reader there the following year. On
September 3, 1510, he was made Under Sheriff of
London.
In 1515 he was sent on an embassy to Flanders
to represent the London merchants in some dispute
which had arisen with foreign traders of the Steel-
yard, and was absent from home about six months.
The embassy was headed by Cuthbert Tunstall,
afterwards Bishop of Durham, a constant friend of
More's. He only received 13s. 4d. a day for his
expenses, which was insufficient to maintain him,
to say nothing of his wife and children at home,
who, as he playfully complained, were unwilling to
fast during his absence. It was at Antwerp that he
met Peter Giles, or yl^>gidius, a friend of Erasmus,
and found time to sketch his imaginary island of
138 BLESSED THOMAS MORE
Utopia. The work was completed and published
the following year. It is so well known that it is
unnecessary to describe it here. It may be one of
those works of his which More expressed his
willingness to burn, rather than that the new
heretics should make capital out of it. Mr. Seebohm
and other Protestant writers have indeed endea-
voured to seek controversial weapons in this
characteristic jcn d 'esprit of More's. Xo doubt
there was many a truth which the writer sought to
drive home to the Government of the day under
the cloak of playful satire, but it is preposterous
to argue that More at this or at any other period
of his life seriously held up the Utopian religion
with its women-priests and absence of sacrament
and ceremony as an ideal which Catholics would do
well to imitate.
Nor can he have wished to introduce a system of
universal toleration in religion, which he had only
conceived as "Utopian." "His theological tracts
and his personal practice in and out of office
amply prove that he viewed religious toleration in
workaday life as undermining the foundations of
society, and in conflict with laws both human and
divine. More's practical opinion on religion and
politics must be sought elsewhere than in the
Utopia:'^
The embassy to Flanders was the first step in
the ro3'al favour, and others were soon to folloW'
More had presented the King with an Epiihalauiium
1 Sidney Lee, Dictionary of National Biography,^. 443. Particular
cases, however, occurred in which More was most tolerant. See
below, pp. 154, iCi, 164 note 2, 173.
BLESSED THOMAS MORE 139
on the occasion of his marriat^e with Catherine of
Arragon, and he soon won his affection. On his
return from Flanders he was offered a pension,
which he refused at first, but was afterwards forced
to accept. Erasmus feared he would be carried
awa}' by a whirlwind of Court favour, for not only
the King but Wolsey, the omnipotent Minister, did
all in their power to attract him to the Court, but
More's pure spirit valued above all earthly prizes
that freedom of conscience and liberty of action
which the courtier has so often to sacrifice to the
smiles of royalty. This is why he would, if he
could, have refused the pension, and far from
running after promotion and favour at Court, shrank
from it as from a burden and a danger. But
Henry VIII., always imperious, gave him no choice.
We must pass rapidly over the events of the
ne.\t few years, in which More mounted quickly up
the ladder of promotion, till the greatest prize that
England had to offer was in his grasp. The
success with which he repressed the riot in the city
on "the evil May-day," 1517, and even more the
ability with which he refuted the claim of the
Crown to seize a vessel belonging to the Pope which
had put in at Southampton, so impressed the King
that he determined at once to make him an officer
of the Crown.
In 1518 he was made Master of Requests, or
examiner of the petitions which were presented to
the King during his progresses through the country,
an office which entailed his being constantly with
the Court and so absent from the home circle.
I40 BLESSED THOMAS MORE
a loss which he greatly deplored. In the spring
of 1521 he was knighted and appointed Privy
Councillor.
" Being then retained in the King's service,"
says Harpsfield, " the King gave him a notable and
worthy lesson and charge that in all his doings and
affairs touching the King, he should first respect
and regard God, and afterwards the King his master,
which lesson and instruction never was there, I
trow, any prince's servant that more willingly heard
or more faithfully and effectually executed and
accomplished. . . . And in this race of the King's
service he ran painfully, wisely, and honourably
twenty years and above, and neither was there any
one man that the King used more familiarly, nor
with whom he more debated, not only for public
affairs, but in matters of learning withal, taking a
great comfort besides in his merry and pleasant
conceited wit. And he took such pleasure in his
company that he would sometimes upon the sudden
come to his house at Chelsea to be merry with him,
whither on a time unlocked for he came to dinner,
and, after dinner, in a fair garden of his walked
with him by the space of an hour holding his arms
about his neck. Of all of which favours he made no
more account than a deep wise man should do.
. . . Wherefore when that after the King's depar-
ture, his son-in-law, Mr. William Roper, rejoicingly
came unto him, saying these words, • ' Sir, how
happy are you whom the King hath so familiarly
entertained, as I have never seen him do to any
BLESSED THOMAS MORE 141
other except Cardinal Wolsey, whom I have seen
his Grace walk withal arm in arm,' Sir Thomas
More answered in this sort : ' I thank our Lord,
son, I find his Grace my very good Lord indeed,
and I believe he doth as singularly favour me as he
doth any subject within this realm. Hovvbeit, son
Roper, I have no cause to be proud thereof, for if
my head could win him one castle in France, it
should not fail to serve his turn.' "
Thus when another man would have been
dazzled by the rays of royal favour. Blessed Thomas
remained unmoved, never forgetting the divine
warning, " Put not your trust in princes, or in any
child of man, for there is no help in them." And
thus when all around him fell away, he stood
upright, invincible, as little moved by the thunders
of the King's displeasure, as he had been by the
sunshine of his favour.
In 1520 he had to accompany his master to the
famous meeting of the Field of the Cloth of Gold,
and afterwards took part in welcoming the Emperor
Charles V. to England. Next year he was made
Under-Treasurer, "an office which corresponds in
some respects with that of Chancellor of the
Exchequer at the present day." Again he had to
cross the sea on an embassy to Bruges and Calais,
this time in the company of Wolsey himself. The
avowed object of this expedition was to bring about
peace between the Emperor and the King of
France, and as the King specially directed Wolsey
to make More privy to all such matters as should
142 BLESSED THOMAS MORE
be treated of, More no doubt knew that the real
subject of the conferences was the betrothal of
the Emperor to his cousin, the Princess Mary of
England.
It was at Bruges that More characteristically
silenced a vainglorious student who had offered to
publicly dispute on any branch of human learning,
by jestingly challenging him to discuss with him,
An averia capta in ivithernaniia sint irreplegiabilia,
i.e., "whether cattle seized under the writ termed
withernam were irrepleviable," a question the
student was fain to acknowledge himself unable to
solve !
More grew daily in favour both with King
and Cardinal. He received grants of land in
Oxfordshire and Kent in 1522 and again in 1525,
and in April, 1523, at Wolsey's suggestion was,
in spite of his protests, elected Speaker of the
House of Commons, where he so satisfied his patrons
that Wolsey recommended him (August 24, 1523)
for a gift of ;f 100, besides the fee usually bestowed
on the Speaker. More, however, maintained his
independence of character. A story is told by
Roper^ of his having opposed the subsidy demanded
in the name of the King by the great Cardinal
in person. He also induced the Council to
reject a scheme of Wolsey's for creating a new
dignity, that of Supreme Constable of the Kingdom,
who should represent the King everywhere. The
Cardinal in his anger exclaimed, " x\re you not
ashamed, Mr. More, being the last in place and
1 P. 39-
BLESSED THOMAS MORE 1^3
dignity to dissent from so many noble and prudent
men? You show yourself a foolish councillor;"
to which More retorted, " Thanks be to God
that his royal Highness has but one fool in his
Council."!
More's shrewd wit could not but see and be
amused by the Cardinal's foibles, especially the
grossness of his appetite for flattery, but though
of characters so different, their relations seem on
the whole to have been cordial.
I" Jill}'' 1525' More was appointed to the Chan-
cellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster, and in 1527
and 1528 was again engaged on embassies abroad.
Writing in 1519, Erasmus draws a beautiful
picture of More as a courtier :'-
" In serious matters no man's advice is more
prized, while if the King wishes to recreate himself,
no man's conversation is gayer. Often there are
deep and intricate matters that demand a grave and
prudent judge. More unravels them in such a way
that he satisfies both sides. No one, however, has
ever prevailed on him to receive a gift for his
decision. Happy the commonwealth where Kings
appoint such officials ! His elevation has brought
with it no pride. Amidst all the weight of state
affairs he remembers the humble friends of old, and
from time to time returns to his beloved literature.
Whatever influence he has acquired by his dignity,
whatever favour he enjoys with his opulent King,
he uses for the good of the State and the assistance
1 Cresacre More, p. 57. 'i Ap. Bridgett, p. 57.
144 BLESSED THOMAS MORE
of his friends. He was ever desirous of conferring
benefits, and wonderfully prone to compassion.
This disposition has grown with his power of
indulging it. Some he assists with money, others
he protects by his authority, others he advances by
his recommendation. If he can help in no other
way, he does it by his counsels ; he sends no one
away dejected. You would say that he had been
appointed the public guardian of all those in
need."
But in order to see More at his best we must
turn to his domestic circle, and study that
beautiful home- life which has been portrayed for
us by Roper and in the letters of Erasmus, as
skilfully as have been the features of its members
upon the great canvas of Holbein. In 1523 he
bought a piece of ground at Chelsea, then a small
village entirely separated from London, and even
from Westminster. Here he laid out a large garden
stretching down to the river, and built himself
a mansion about a hundred yards from the river-
side, " commodious rather than magnificent," says
Erasmus. This house has unhappily disappeared
(Beaufort Row now runs over its site), but it is
at least a consolation to the Catholic to think that
on part of this ground now stands a humble
sanctuary where the Blessed Sacrament of the
Altar is continually exposed in expiation for the
sins of men.
More's household was a large one. It consisted
of his old father, his wife, his daughter Margaret,
BLESSED THOMAS MORE 145
and her husband William Roper, his daughters
Elizabeth and Cecily, his only son John, who was
about thirteen at the time of the removal to Chelsea,
his step-daughter Alice Middleton and her husband;
also Giles Heron, his ward, who afterwards married
Elizabeth More, Margaret Giggs, an orphan relative
whom he brought up as one of his own children,
and her husband John Clement, who was a doctor
of medicine and probably acted as tutor to the
family. Then there was John Harris, More's
secretary, who married Dorothy Colley, Margaret
Roper's excellent lady's-maid. There was also
a " fool," who was a great favourite of Sir Thomas,
by name Henry Patenson. If we add to these the
household and body-servants, of whom there were
a goodly number both of men and women, as More's
position required, it will be seen that Sir Thomas
had no small family to rule.
And well and nobly he ruled it in the fear of
God, learning, and industry. Erasmus writes :