Rector’s Reflections
Tuesday 28th January 2025
Why Thomas More Matters
I wonder if you have heard of Thomas More? Thomas was, among other things, Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII. He was charged with high treason and executed on Tower Hill on July 6th, 1535. As well as being a lawyer, Thomas was a writer and a scholar. His life and writings have intrigued subsequent generations, and he was declared to be a Saint by Pope Pius XI in 1935. He is the subject of a play by Robert Bolt, The Man for All Seasons. Perhaps you have seen the play, which was first performed back in 1960. If you haven’t seen the play before, it happens to be on at the Oxford Playhouse between 18th and 22nd February. I would heartily recommend going to see it.
Although Thomas More lived some 500 years ago, his life and writings continue to have relevance for us today. His life raises challenging questions about what it means to try and live as followers of Jesus Christ, and we shall explore some of these questions in the days ahead. But before we do so, let me give a brief overview of More’s life.
More came from a legal background, being the son of Sir John More, an eminent lawyer and judge. He was born in 1478, and as a young man spent a couple of years studying in Oxford. He became very interested in the revival of classical learning associated with the Renaissance, and in due course became a close friend of Erasmus, one of the great scholars of the age. However, the life of a scholar was not for Thomas. He returned to London, and became a successful lawyer. However, Thomas kept up his literary interests, and in 1516 he published his Utopia, a criticism of the social and political evils of early Tudor England.
Like many a lawyer before and after him, Thomas entered Parliament, and in 1523 became Speaker of the House of Commons. Six years later he was appointed Lord Chancellor.
All looked set fair for the continuation of a glittering career. Thomas worked closely with King Henry. Thomas was bright and honest, and a man of integrity. But therein lay the problem. Thomas had a conscience, and a conscience was a dangerous thing to have at the court of Henry VIII. Indeed, many people have found that a conscience comes with a heavy cost. It can certainly be a significant impediment in the search for riches and power.
For Thomas, the problem was that while he was very much in favour of the reform of the Roman Catholic Church, he was not prepared to compromise on the principle of Papal Supremacy. He was also in favour of retaining some of the popular religious practices of late Mediaeval Catholicism, such as practices relating to prayer for the dead and going on pilgrimage. Keen Protestants thought that Thomas didn’t go far enough in his desire to embrace change in the Church. On the other hand, some Conservative Catholics probably thought that he went far too far in his willingness to consider Church reform. Thomas ended up being caught in the middle: he wasn’t radical enough for the Protestants, and he wasn’t conservative enough for the Catholic traditionalists.
The crisis came in 1534. It was no longer sufficient for leaders in Church and State to be in favour of the reform of the Church. It now became necessary to swear an oath renouncing papal supremacy. Henry VIII was insisting that he was now head of the Church in England, and not the pope. Despite much pressure, Thomas refused to take the oath. So he was sent to the Tower of London, and in due course executed for high treason.
For Thomas, this wasn’t about whether or not he was loyal to the King. He protested that he remained loyal to the King – but that his loyalty was limited to political matters. For Thomas, his loyalty to God came first, and his conscience was telling him that it was wrong for him to denounce the supremacy of the pope. Thomas firmly believed that the pope was head of the Church, and he could not bring himself to act contrary to what he believed to be true. It was a matter of conscience, and Thomas was not prepared to put his conscience to the side. And he paid for this decision with his life.
Such is the life of Sir Thomas More in outline. His life raises many moral and religious questions which are of perennial relevance, and we shall look at some of these in the days ahead.