Sir Thomas More

“Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish & improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against these evils, and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests & nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance.”

King Henry VIII’s reign was an awakening for many living in England during the sixteenth century. Thomas More was no exception. As a writer, More had the ability to publish his views about the change in politics, society, and religion. As religious views began to shift, and King Henry VIII separated from the Catholic church, Thomas More held firm to his belief in the Catholicism. His views on humanism thrived off of his standing in the Catholic church. He continued to defend humanism and catholicism relying in the knowledge that “...language is directed out to the social community in the effort to stimulate moral or political response” (Baker-smith 1). More hoped to convince the public eye of King Henry VIII’s misuse of power and moral judgement. This was a common idea he continually used throughout the remainder of the renaissance period.

During the next decade, More attracted the attention of King Henry VIII. In 1515 he accompanied a delegation to Flanders to help clear disputes about the wool trade. Utopia opens with a reference to this very delegation. More was also instrumental in quelling a 1517 London uprising against foreigners, portrayed in the play Sir Thomas More, possibly by Shakespeare. More accompanied the King and court to the Field of the Cloth of Gold. In 1518 he became a member of the Privy Council, and was knighted in 1521.

A red light flashes when questioning the authenticity of the Friar. He is distinguished as a festive, merry man who drinks excessively and carouses with several women. He is very money conscious, an excellent beggar, and despises associating himself with the poor or unfortunate. The Friar’s integrity is questioned also by Gower, who writes,

Sir Thomas More was a key proponent of the renaissance Humanist movement during the 16th century. He wrote the work Utopia to critique his own society and take measures to improve their social and political problems by establishing a commonwealth that focused on abolishing private property and individuality. The goal of taking away individualism in society was to provide equal opportunities for all of its citizens. By eliminating discrepancy among individuals, More’s Utopia also eradicates jealousy, greed, poverty and other negative characteristics that currently exist during the same time in English society due to the country’s freedom of individuality. On the surface this seems like a wise idea, but by taking away individualism, More’s Utopia

In (Matthew 6:6 NIV), Jesus explains the merits of praying to the lord God and the reward of inner peace, “But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret: and your father who sees in secret will reward you.” It is through this conversation with God that Christians pursue peace in their lives. Prayer can either be private or communal, spontaneous prayer is one way that charismatic communities can come closer to God. The act of prayer allows believers to have a personal conversation with God; it alleviates stress attributed to the monotony of everyday life. Besides prayer, meditation is another way of attaining inner peace, it is an ancient practice within the Christian tradition, which has undertaken a recent revival, a global group that reaffirms the concept of praying and meditating for inner peace is Taizé. Not as popular as prayer and meditation, Lectio Divina, generally known as bible studies is a way for Christians to feel connected to God and to finally attain inner peace. The studying of the sacred scriptures on a day to day basis and reflecting on prayers also maintain a continual connection with God. It is vital to maintain equilibrium between prayer and service, whereby an individual fathoms the notion ‘ora et labora’, in order to equally partake in both prayer, and the concept of action whereby ora develops inner peace, which is mirrored through the

More’s career was at its peak by 1523 and his friendship with the king was stronger than ever. More was elected speaker of the House of Commons thanks to his influence on Wolsey and Henry. As speaker in the House of Commons, More assisted in establishing the parliamentary privilege of freedom of speech. Not before asking the king for his blessing. “Our most benign and godly King, to give to all your Commons here assembled your most gracious licence and pardon, freely, without doubt of your dreadful displeasure, every man to discharge his conscience…” This had a tremendous influence on the government structure. As a result, Cardinal Wolsey was none too pleased about the new arrangement, debating his issue with More. Nonetheless More prevailed,

Thomas More, born on February 7, 1478 in London, was a son of a successful lawyer. Later he studied at Oxford and actually qualified as a lawyer, but he did contemplate becoming a monk. Thomas More was a man of great talent. He entered Henry VIII’s service by taking position of his adviser, secretary, statesman, his ‘intellectual courtier’ and confidant. It is when the king tried to make More divorce him with lady Catherine of Aragon, that his life started experiencing severe changes. Despite the fact, that the queen could not give a male heir, there was no excuse for leaving one’s true wife, according to the Bible. Sir Thomas More resigned his seat in the House of Commons just 9 years after becoming a speaker there. It can be assumed that the real reason for such behavior was not due to poor health, but because of Henry’s disrespect of the laws of the church, proven by his divorce. Furthermore, More did not attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn (June,

Jaehun Lee 3/7/18 Sir Thomas More as the Victim of the Majority In Democracy in America, Tocqueville warned us against the tyranny of the majority, arguing that while the majority is omnipotent, it lacks omniscience and omnibenevolence, thus tends towards a despotism in which those who differ are ostracized into submission. Sir Thomas More is the minority in A Man for All Seasons, and the majority’s ostracization of him serves to reinforce the dangers of tyranny of the majority that Tocqueville outlined. While the setting of A Man for all Seasons is certainly not a democracy like America, Tocqueville’s analysis of the tyranny of the majority remains relevant because it applies well to nondemocratic governments. In Volume II, he writes, “kings

The definition of a martyr is a person who willingly suffers death rather than renounce his or her religion. When Sir Thomas More died in July of 1535, he became a martyr. In the play A Man for All Seasons, author Robert Bolt shows us his views on how More came to his death . In this play, Thomas Cromwell, Richard Rich, King Henry VIII, and Sir Thomas More himself are responsible for his death. Although it could be argued that many more people in Sir Thomas More’s life had a part in contributing to his death, these four characters had the greatest part in eventually bringing him to his death.

This was the most ostensible service to an ascendant mercantile nation such as sixteenth century England, but due to this discourse’s destination, Roger seems over-concerned with enumerating his other services and successes, often to the point of exaggeration. However, these, alongside concerns about payment are a recurring theme in diplomatic reports of the seventeenth century. Rogers, no different, extolled his successes preventing Danes sailing under Spain as it was ‘against the leagues and intercourses’ as well as minor services like freeing English customs-avoiders from captivity.

Human Nature and society are two very controversial subjects. People can never seem to agree on what is human nature or how society should work. Why you may ask? It is because no one truly knows because everyone has different ideas. Sir Thomas More and Michel de Montaigne are prime examples of how they may seem to have totally different ideas, but they do indeed have some similarities. Although Sir Thomas More and Michel de Montaigne both believe human nature is best in a simpler form; More argues in order to have a simpler life they must be governed through a utopian society, where Montaigne argues the barbaric lifestyle is superior.

The "Middle" Ages were followed by the Renaissance, a time in which art and literature flourished. Thomas More, the first English humanist of the Renaissance, was born in London during this period. More's style is simple because of its colloquial language but a deeper look into his irony hints at deep dissatisfaction with the current thought and desire for change. "Utopia" (which in Greek means "nowhere") is the name of More's fictional island of perfected society. Thomas More's "Utopia" was the first literary work in which the ideas of Communism appeared and was highly esteemed by all the humanists of Europe in More's time. More uses the main character, Hythlodaeus, as a fictional front to express his own feelings he may have feared to

Written by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the fourteenth century, The Canterbury Tales and more specifically it’s prologue, shed a great deal of light on the rising middle class in (fourteenth century) England. Despite the fact that some readers may not know a lot about the time period today, Chaucer’s writing in the prologue elaborates on topics such as occupations, wealth, education, and political power. Scholar Barbara Nolan writes of the prologue, “it is more complex than most…It raises expectations in just the areas the handbooks propose, promising to take up important matters of natural and social order, moral character, and religion and outlining the organization the work will follow” (Nolan 154). In other words, while noting the

Robert Oxton Bolt was an English teacher at a prestigious private school and wrote plays and scripts for radio dramas. The success came in 1957 with the play “Cherry Blossom” and allowed the young playwright to leave the teaching profession and to concentrate on work. His next play, “Man for All Seasons,” dedicated to the life of the famous statesman Sir Thomas More became very popular in the theatrical world. Bolt is a follower of Brechtian epic theater. The play is an example of “pleasurable learning” (Brecht 3) with “alienation effect” provided by the role of Common Man and meaningful decoration such as the ladder. The characters of the play one way or another move up the stairs, which means changes occurring in their minds and souls. Equally successful was the film adaptation of the play, “Man for All Seasons” (1966), directed by Fred Zinnemann. It was included in “The Vatican Film List” of recommended films in 1995. The role of Sir Thomas More in this film brilliantly plays a famous actor Paul Scofield. Events, historically accurate reproduced on the screen, place in England of the XVI century, during the reign of King Henry VIII. The plot is the conflict between King Henry VIII and the Lord Chancellor Thomas More, which leads to the execution of the latter. Despite the protagonists’ being a “hero of selfhood” (Bolt xvii) and his sacrifice of life