fuller means of information open to us than had
even contemporary historians, and we know that
the idea sprang up in the heart of Henry himself,
and was prompted more by his evil passion for
Anne Boleyn than by the more avowable desire
of securing a successor for the throne.^ Wolsey
was certainly greatly to blame in that he encouraged
the idea, with the view of revenging himself on the
Emperor, who had disappointed his hopes of
gaining the Papal throne, and of throwing his
royal master into the arms of France, He found
out too late that Henry's passion for Anne was
no transient amour, and that the fatal result of his
policy would be his own overthrow as well as that
of the Papal Supremacy. His frantic diplomatic
efforts to save England to the Holy See, by forcing
the Pope to grant the divorce proved, as we know,
utterly unavailing, and the great Cardinal lived
^ Van Ortroy, pp. 157, 158, note and 159, note, where all the
authorities are quoted.
M
178 BLESSED THOMAS MORE
to utterly rue the day on which he entered into
this dark and dishonouring intrigue against a
defenceless woman, ^
More seems not to have fully understood the
matter when the King first broached it, but to
have been deceived by his master's hypocritical
pretence of an anxious conscience, and to have
thought that some difficulty had been raised by
outsiders as to the wording of the Bull of dispensa-
tion.- He was therefore surprised, when on his
return in September, the King suddenly mooted
the question again as they were walking in the
gallery at Hampton Court, and told him that
he had found his marriage was in such wise
contrary to the divine law, " that it could in no
wise by the Church be dispensable."" He "sore
pressed" More for an answer, laying the Bible
open before him, and reading him the passages
1 Wolsey may fiave had real doubts as to the power of the Pope
to dispense an impediment of affinity in the first degree. Fisher
himself admits that there was a great difference of opinion among
theologians as to whether such a marriage were not prohibited
by the divine law: and Julius II., before granting Henry the dis-
pensation to marry Catherine, discussed the matter seriously with
his Cardinals. But this does not justify Wolsey's conduct; he
should have resigned his post.
- See his letter to Cromwell, March 5, J 534.
•* Henry at this very time was living on the most intimate terms
with Anne at Richmond, and it was in her presence, in defiance
of all etiquette, that Wolsey had to expose the results of his mission.
(Friedmann,^«K^ J9o/^j;(, i. pp.58, 59.) At this time too he was writing
love-letters to her in which he complained that she had made him
languish with desire for more than a year. She appeared first at
the English Court in 1522. (Cf. Ehses, Die pdpstliche Decvetale in
dem Schcidunf^s-Pwzesse Heinrichs VIII. pp. 223, et seq.)
BLESSED THOMAS MORE
179
in Leviticus and Deuteronouiy. After excusing
himself as long as he could, Sir Thomas at last
agreed to confer with the Bishops of Durham and
Bath, and taking with him the passages from
Scripture, with which the King had supported his
argument, compared them with "the exposition
of divers of the old doctors." On returning to the
King he told him plainly that neither the Bishops
nor himself were meet counsellors in a matter
of such importance, inasmuch as they were his
own servants and bound to him by so many obliga-
tions of gratitude, and that he should rather take
counsel from those who w-ould not be inclined from
human fear or respect to deceive him, such as the
old Catholic Doctors St. Jerome, St. Augustine,
and the rest. The King was not over-pleased, but
in the end he took the reply in good part, and still
continued to confer with Sir Thomas on the matter.
The blessed martyr however already clearly
foresaw the terrible and far-reaching consequences
of this unhappy business.
"It fortuned," says Roper, "before the matter
of the said matrimony [was] brought to question,
when I in talk with Sir Thomas More (of a certain joy)
commended unto him the happy estate of this realm,
that had so Catholic a prince that no heretic durst
show his face, so virtuous and learned a clergy, so
grave and sound a nobility, and so loving obedient
subjects all in one faith agreeing together, ' Troth
it is indeed, son Roper,' quoth he, and in all degrees
and estates of the same went far beyond me in
I So BLESSED THOMAS MORE
commendation thereof, 'and yet, son Roper, I pray
God,' said he, ' that some of us as high as we seem
to sit upon the mountains treading heretics under
our feet hke ants, Hve not the day that we would
gladly be at league and composition with them to
let them have their churches quietly to themselves,
so that they would be contented to let us have
ours quietly to ourselves.' After that I had told
him many considerations why he had no cause to
say so, ' Well,' said he, ' I pray God, son Roper,
some of us live not till that day,' showing me no
reason why he should put any doubt therein.
To whom I said, ' By my troth, sir, it is very
desperately spoken ' (that vile term, I cry God
mercy, did I give him). Who by these words,
perceiving me in a fume said merrily unto me, ' It
shall not be so. It shall not be so.' "^
Again Roper tells us, that " on a time walking
along the Thames side at Chelsea, in talking of
other things, he said to me : ' Now would to our
Lord, son Roper, upon condition that three things
were well established in Christendom, I were put
in a sack and here presently cast into the Thames.'
' What great things be those, sir,' quoth I, ' that you
should so wish ? ' ' Wouldst thou know, son Roper,
what they are ? ' quoth he. ' Yea marry, with a
good-will, sir, if it please you,' quoth I. ' In faith,
son, they be these,' quoth he. ' The first is, that
^ Roper, pp. 51, 52. He adds the significant testimony that all
the sixteen years he had lived in More's house, he had never once
known him to be in a passion.
BLESSED THOMAS MORE i8i
whereas the most part of Christian princes be at
mortal wars, they were all at universal peace. The
second, that where the Church of Christ is at this
present sore afflicted with many errors and heresies,
it were settled in perfect uniformity of religion.
The third, that where the matter of the King's
marriage is now come in question it were to the
glory of God and quietness of all parties brought to
a good conclusion.' Whereby, as I could gather,
he judged that otherwise it would be a disturbance
to a great part of Christendom. Thus did it, by his
doings throughout the whole course of his life
appear, that all his travails and pains, without
respect of earthly commodities either to himself
or any of his, were only upon the service of God,
the prince and his realm wholly bestowed and
employed, whom I heard in his latter time to say
that he never asked of the King for himself the
value of a penny." ^
\\'olsey now approached his fall. At the Council
held as usual to prepare business for Parliament,
the King had treated him with contempt, yet the
Cardinal clung to office. But on the igth of October,
1529, he was forced to resign the great seal, and
three days later it was transferred to Sir Thomas
More.
His appointment as Lord High Chancellor of
England marked an epoch in the public history of
this country. Hitherto the holders of that exalted
office had, with very few exceptions, been eccle-
1 Koper, pp. 43, 44.
i82 BLESSED THOMAS MORE
siastics ; henceforth they were to be, with equally
few exceptions, laymen. On Tuesday, October 26,
1529, More took the oaths in the great hall at
Westminster in presence of the Dukes of Norfolk
and Suffolk and many laymen. The appointment
was received with the greatest rejoicings on all
sides, and even Wolsey in his misery declared that
there was no man in England so worthy of it. He
made a speech, characteristically modest, in which
he declared himself unfit for such a post, especially
to succeed so great a prelate, whose fall warned him
not to rejoice overmuch in his own elevation. As
to the praises which the Duke of Norfolk had
lavished on him, in the King's name, for his virtues
and services, they were far above his deserts, for he
had only done his duty.^
Erasmus wrote, on hearing the news : " I do
indeed congratulate England, for a better or holier
judge could not have been appointed."- But Henry
made it plain that More's political power was to be
very limited ; the general direction of affairs was
mainly in the hands of the Duke of Norfolk, the
President of the Council, " According to Cardinal
Pole, More owed his elevation to the King's desire
' This is the substance of what passed according to Roper, who
confesses that the speeches made on the occasion were " not in his
memory" Stapleton has composed two, which must be considered
imaginary, as must the account of Hall the chronicler, who
accuses More of having attacked his fallen predecessor, an
ungenerous act alien to his character. Mr. Hutton points out that
the last rests wholly on Hall's authority, and Hall was a bitter
partizan.
- EpistoLs, 1034.
BLESSED THOMAS MORE 183
to win his support in the proceedings he had begun
for his divorce from Queen Catherine. But More
never swerved in his devotion to the Papacy, which
had championed her cause. ' He is,' wrote Chapuys,
at the time of his promotion, ' an upright and
learned man and a good servant of the Queen. '"^
"That his greatness was thrust upon him,
no one who knows anything of his character can
doubt. Long before, he had seen the nature of the
King's confidence, and it can hardly be doubted
that he foresaw, if not the circumstances, yet
certainly the result of his taking office. His onward
path was no ' blindfold walking ; ' he well knew that
* behind him stalked the headsman.' His acceptance
of the great seal, rightly estimated, seems one of
the noblest and most conscientious acts of a noble
and conscientious life."-
His first duty as Chancellor was to open the
new Parliament, at Blackfriars, on November 3,
1529. This was that Parliament which has been
truly described as "the most memorable that ever
sat. It was the assembly which transformed old
England — the England of Chaucer and Lydgate —
into modern England."^ One by one, it was to cut
the ties which bound England to the See of Rome,
and leave her to drift into schism and heresy.
But though More was charged to announce that it
was summoned "to reform such things as had been
^ Dictiunaiy uf National Biogvaphy, p. 434, from Letters mid Papers,
iv. n. 6026.
'^ Ilutlon, p. 171. ^ Dixon, i. p. 2.
1 84 BLESSED THOMAS MORE
used or permitted by inadvertence or b}' changes of
time had become expedient,"' even his prophetic eye
could not foresee the sweeping nature of the revolu-
tion which it was destined to effect.
Needless to say, that the Chancellor had no
share in penning the Royal proclamation which
ordered the clergy to acknowledge Henry Supreme
Head of the Church (February ii, 1530-1).
On the contrary, according to Chapuys, he
proffered his resignation as soon as he heard of the
King's usurpation of a title hitherto reserved to the
Pope.^ But the King had hopes of More, and he
remained in office. He still pressed him to
reconsider his "great matter," and Sir Thomas
again obediently undertook an examination of the
distasteful subject. He studied the matter most
attentively, taking for his instructors or advisers
those whom the King selected, the Archbishops
of Canterbury and York (Warham and Lee), the
almoner Dr. Fox, and Dr. Nicholas de Burgo, an
Italian friar. But in spite of his desire to serve
his royal master, he could not bring his conscience
to assent to the King's views, and on his humbly
declaring this, his Majest}' was pleased to leave him
free from any participation in the affair, and allow
him to employ himself in other business. He
thenceforward studiously refrained from discussing
the matter, and refused to read books on either
side.
In March, 1531, he had to announce to Parlia-
ment the opinions of the Universities respecting
^ Lcttcis and Papers, v. n. 112.
BLESSED THOMAS MORE 185
the divorce, but refused to express his own private
opinion. When the bill to suspend the payment
of Annates (or first-fruits of bishoprics) to the
Papacy was brought into Parliament, More brought
his influence to bear against the bill, and vigorously
opposed it in Council^ (May 13, 1532).
He also opposed the King's proposal that the
laws against heresy should be relaxed.- The King
showed signs of anger, and More, perceiving his
position to be impossible, resigned his ofiice three
days later, in the gardens of York Place. He had
held it little more than two years and a half.
It is needless here to dwell in detail on the Way
he had fulfilled his duties as judge, especially as
no authentic account of any case tried before him
has yet been brought to light. We know, how-
ever, from various anecdotes, that he " displayed
his never-failing integrity, reason, learning, and
eloquence."^ He sat every afternoon " in his open
hall to the intent that if any person had any suit
unto him they might the more boldly come unto
his presence, and there lay open complaints before
him. . . . Whensoever he passed through West-
minster Hall to his place in the Chancery by the
Court of the King's Bench, if his father (being one
of the Judges thereof) had been sat ere he came, he
would go into the same court, and there reverently
' This bill was professedly passed in the interest of the clergy,
but the " Supreme Head " soon showed his true solicitude for their
welfare, by annexing for his own benefit, not only the first-fruits of
bishoprics, but those of all ecclesiastical benefices !
- Cf. Spanish Calenduy, iv. i. 446.
'* Sir James Mackintosh, Life of Mure, p. 125.
i86 BLESSED THOMAS MORE
kneeling down in the sight of them all, duly ask his
father's blessing." ^
So indefatigable was he in the exercise of his
office that on one occasion, when he called for
the next case, he was answered that the list was
exhausted. He ordered the fact to be put on
record, " and deservedly so," says one of his
modern biographers, "as it is probably the only
miracle of the kind mankind will ever witness.""^
Even the judges who had once complained of some
of his "injunctions," were forced, after receiving
his explanations, to confess that they in his place
could not have acted otherwise. These injunc-
tions were issued in favour of people whom he
considered to have been injured by a too harsh
interpretation of the law.
His integrity was above reproach. He decided
a case in Chancery against his son-in-law, the
Venerable Giles Heron, ^ and refuted those of his
enemies who ventured to accuse him of accepting
bribes as triumphantly as St. Athanasius repelled
the accusations of his Arian foes. He retired from
office with a light-hearted glee which amazed even
his family. His way of announcing to them this
serious change in their fortunes was specially
characteristic. It was the custom for one of his
gentlemen to go to his wife's pew in Chelsea Church
on festival-days when Mass was over, and making
an obeisance as he opened the pew-door, say to
^ Roper, p. 58.
â– â– ^ Walter, Life of Move, apud Hutton, p. 177. Cf. Goodman,
Court of James I. (edit. Brewer, 1839), i. p. 277.
•^ M rtyred at Tyburn, 4 August, 1540.
BLESSED THOMAS MORE 187
her, " Madam, my lord is gone." So on the next
holy-day, after his surrender of office, he came
himself to the pew-door, and made the usual
announcement : " Madam, my lord is gone/' The
poor lady took it for one of his usual jokes, till he
told her the truth seriousl}^, when she was by no
means pleased. Indeed it was a serious matter for
the family, for it meant a loss of income that could
ill be spared. Sir Thomas had lost his professional
income and had to depend on no more than ^50
a year, independent of grants from the Crown.
It was impossible of course to maintain his former
household. He found his dependents good positions,
though they declared with tears in their eyes they
would rather serve him for nothing than others for
high salaries. His barge and eight watermen
he gave to his successor. Sir Thomas Audley ; his
fool to the Lord Mayor. Then calling his children
together, he told them how poor he had become,
and asked their advice as how they could best
contrive to continue to live together, since he could
no longer bear the expense of all.
When they remained silent and sorrowful, he
said gaily : " Then will I show my poor mind to
you. I have been brought up at Oxford, at an Inn
of Chancery, at Lincoln's Inn, and also in the King's
Court, and so from the least degree to the highest,
and yet have I in yearly revenues at this present
left me a little above a hundred pounds by the
year. So that now must we hereafter, if we like to
live together, be contented to become contributors
BLESSED THOMAS MORE
together. But by my counsel it shall not be best
for us to fall to the lowest fare first. We will not
therefore descend to Oxford fare, nor to the fare of
New Inn, but we will begin with Lincoln's Inn diet,
where many right worshipful and of good years do
live full well, which if we find not ourselves able the
first year to maintain, then will we next year after
go one step down to New Inn fare, wherewith many
a honest man is well contented. If that exceed our
ability too, then will we the next year after descend
to Oxford fare, where many grave, ancient, and
learned fathers be conversant continually; which if
our ability stretch not to maintain neither, then may
we yet with bags and wallets go a-begging together,
and hoping for pity some good folk will give their
charity, at every man's door to sing Salve Regina,
and so keep company merrily together."^
Indeed the poverty which faced them, though
so cheerfully borne, was no mere reduction of super-
fluities or luxuries. Harpsfield tells us that, " He was
not able for the maintenance of himself and such
as necessarily belonged to him, sufficiently to find
meat, drink, fuel, apparel, and such other necessary
things ; but was enforced and compelled for lack of
other fuel, every night before he went to bed, to
cause a great burden of ferns to be brought unto his
own chamber, and with the blaze thereof to warm
himself, his wife and his children, and so without
any other fire to go to their beds."
It was thus the martyr cheerfully embraced
^ Roper, p. 56.
BLESSED THOMAS MORE
suffering and privation for conscience' sake, and we
are now about to follow him as he mounts further
and loftier heights of self-sacrifice and abnegation,
until he reaches the summit of his Calvar}-.
He lived for some time in complete retirement,
engaged mainly on his controversial writing against
the heretics. But his enemies were sleepless, and
were only waiting for a good opportunity to bring
about his ruin. He could not go to Court, where
Anne Boleyn reigned supreme, and he refused to
attend her coronation (June i, 1533), in spite
of the friendly entreaties of Bishops Gardiner,
Clerk, and Tunstall, lest, as he told them, he should
stain the virginity of his soul. Yet he took care to
avoid any open rupture with the authorities, and
only asked to be left in peace. But both Cromwell
and his master resented More's neutrality, and
Cromwell awaited an opportunity of extorting a
direct expression of opinion on the all-absorbing
topic.
Attempts were made to ruin him by bringing
accusations of corruption against his conduct as
Chancellor, but these signally failed. No less
completely were his enemies foiled when they tried
to convict him of writing a book which had been
published by his nephew, William Rastall, defending
the Pope against the King. But an opportunity
better suited to their malice was afforded by the case
of the " Holy Maid of Kent." This was a Bene-
dictine nun named Elizabeth Barton, who was
believed by many to be favoured with divine
revelations and endowed with the spirit of prophecy.
I go BLESSED THOMAS MORE
She had become the instrument of others in
attacking the King's proceedings, and throughout
the year 1533 she had been prophesying his down-
fall if he persisted in the divorce. She was supported
by certain religious (among them some Benedictines
of Christ Church, Canterbury, and Observant
Friars), and man}^ eminent and holy people believed
in her. When she and her principal supporters
were arrested at the end of 1533, More was found to
have had some connection with her, and this was
eagerly seized upon as a pretext for his ruin. In
March, 1534, More wrote Cromwell a long letter
completely clearing himself from the charge of
having been a disciple or supporter of the nun. He
had had one interview with her at Syon House, at
the request of the Fathers of that abbe}', in which
he was impressed by her religious fervour and
recommended himself to her pra}'ers, though at the
same time he was careful to warn her against
meddling with politics.
When at length the nun made her confession
of hypocrisy ^ at Paul's Cross, More gave her
up. He speaks of her as "a wicked woman" and
" a false deceiving hypocrite," and tells Cromwell
that he had done a very meritorious deed in exposing
her.
This candid explanation by no means satisiied
Cromwell or the King : and when the bill of
1 It must, however, be remembered that all we know against the
nun is derived from her published confessions, which are, of course,
inconclusive in point of evidence. But ^lore had the right to
assume that they were trustworthy, especially when writing to
Cromwell.
BLESSED THOMAS MORE 191
attainder against the nun and her adherents was
introduced into the House of Lords, it was found
that, in flagrant defiance of all justice, Mora's name
figured in it as guilty of misprision of treason,
and the Lords also, knowing his innocence, petitioned
to hear him (February 21, 1533). He applied for
permission to plead his cause before the House,
but this would not have suited Henry's purpose,
and he directed a small Commission, consisting
of Cranmer, Norfolk, Audley, and Cromwell, to
exam.ine the ex-Chancellor. But when in their
presence he found he had to meet another and still
graver issue. They asked him why he had declined
to acknowledge the wisdom and necessity of Henry's
recent attitude to the Apostolic See. They taxed
him with the basest ingratitude to his Sovereign,
" inasmuch as he had n:ost unnaturally provoked
the King to put forth his book on the Seven Sacra-
ments and maintaining of the Pope's authority, and
had thus caused him, to his dishonour throughout
all Christendom, to put a sword in the Pope's hand
to fight against himself."'
It can well be imagined that that unlucky book
was a sharp thorn in the royal side, but the baseness
of laying the blame for it on Sir Thomas, moved
him to amazement, well as he knew the King.
He had no difficulty in showing that, far from
urging his Royal master to write it, he had simply
read it through and revised it after it was finished.
" Wherein," he went on, "when I found the Pope's
authority highly advanced, and with strong argu-
ments mightily defended, I said unto his Grace :
192 BLESSED THOMAS MORE
' I must put your Highness in remembrance of
one thing, and that is this — the Pope, as your Grace
knoweth, is a prince as you are, and in league with
other Christian princes. It may so hereafter fall
out that your Grace and he may vary upon some
point of leagues, whereupon may grow breach of
amity and war between you both. I think it best,
therefore, that that place be amended, arid his
authority more slenderly touched.' ' Nay,' quoth
his Grace, ' that it shall not. We are so much
bounden to the See of Rome that we cannot do too
much honour to it.' Then did I farther put him
in remembrance of the statute of Praemunire,
whereby a good part of the Pope's pastoral care
here was pared away. To that answered his
Highness : ' Whatsoever impediment be to the
contrary, we will set forth that authority to the
uttermost, for we receive from that See our crown
imperial ; ' which I never heard of before, till his
Grace told it me with his own mouth. And thus
displeasantly departed they."
" Then took Sir Thomas More his boat towards
Chelsea, wherein the way he was very merry, and
for that," Roper continues,^ " I was nothing sorry,
hoping that he had got himself discharged out of
the Parliament bill. When he was landed and come