Theme: What is the Ideal Society?
In certain respects, the Renaissance was a golden age - a time of relative peace and prosperity, a time of amazing advances in the arts and sciences. Yet people of the day began to question their society, examining its failings and asking themselves how it could be improved. Sir Thomas More even created a fictional "perfect world" that he called Utopia - a world ruled by reason. What do you think a perfect society might be like?
Before you answer the question from the paragraph, read below. Take in consideration the background information provided by the instructor when answering the question at the end of the first paragraph.
Thomas More
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(Redirected from Sir Thomas More)
For other uses, see Thomas More (disambiguation).
| Sir Thomas More | |
|---|---|
Sir Thomas More,
by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1527 | |
| Lord Chancellor | |
| In office October 1529 – May 1532 | |
| Monarch | Henry VIII |
| Preceded by | Thomas Wolsey |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Audley |
| Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | |
| In office 31 December 1525 – 3 November 1529 | |
| Monarch | Henry VIII |
| Preceded by | Richard Wingfield |
| Succeeded by | William FitzWilliam |
| Speaker of the House of Commons | |
| In office 16 April 1523 – 13 August 1523 | |
| Monarch | Henry VIII |
| Preceded by | Thomas Nevill |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Audley |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 7 February 1478 London, England |
| Died | 6 July 1535 (aged 57) London, England |
| Resting place | Church of St Peter ad Vincula,London, England 51.508611°N 0.076944°W |
| Spouse(s) | Jane Colt (m. 1505) Alice Harpur (m. 1511) |
| Children | Margaret Elizabeth Cicely John |
| Alma mater | University of Oxford Lincoln's Inn |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Signature |  |
Sir Thomas More (/ˈmɔr/; 7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated by Catholics as Saint Thomas More,[1][2] was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a councilor to Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532.[3]
More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther and William Tyndale. He also wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an imaginary ideal island nation. More opposed the King's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and beheaded.
Pope Pius XI canonized More in 1935 as a martyr. Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the "heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians."[4] Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr.[5] The Soviet Union honored him for the Communistic attitude toward property rights he expressed in Utopia.
Campaign against the Reformation
More supported the Catholic Church and saw the Protestant Reformation as heresy, a threat to the unity of both church and society. Believing in the theology, polemics, and ecclesiastical laws of the church, More "heard Luther's call to destroy the Catholic Church as a call to war."[24]
His early actions against the Reformation included aiding Wolsey in preventing Lutheran books from being imported into England, spying on and investigating suspected Protestants, especially publishers, and arresting any one holding in his possession, transporting, or selling the books of the Protestant Reformation. More vigorously suppressed the travelling country ministers who used Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament.[citation needed] It contained controversial translations of certain words—for example Tyndale used "senior" and "elder" rather than "priest" for the Greek "presbyteros"—and some of the marginal glosses challenged Catholic doctrine.[25] It was during this time that most of his literary polemics appeared.
Rumors circulated during and after More's lifetime regarding ill-treatment of heretics during his time as Lord Chancellor. The popular anti-Catholic polemicist John Foxe, who "placed Protestant sufferings against the background of... the Antichrist"[26] was instrumental in publicizing accusations of torture in his famous Book of Martyrs, claiming that More had often personally used violence or torture while interrogating heretics. Later authors, such as Brian Moynahan and Michael Farris, cite Foxe when repeating these allegations.[27] More himself denied these allegations:
However, in More's "Apology," published in 1533, he writes that he only applied corporal punishment to two heretics: a child who was caned in front of his family for heresy regarding the Eucharist and a "feeble-minded" man who was whipped for disrupting prayers. During More's chancellorship six people were burned at the stake for heresy; they were Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbery, Thomas Dusgate, and James Bainham.[12]:299–306 Moynahan has argued that More was influential in the burning of Tyndale as More's agents had long pursued him, even though this took place over a year after his own death.[29] Burning at the stake had long been a standard punishment for heresy—about thirty burning had taken place in the century before More's elevation to Chancellor, and burning continued to be used by both Catholics and Protestants during the religious upheaval of the following decades.[30] Ackroyd notes that More explicitly "approved of Burning".[12]:298 After the case of John Tewkesbury, a London leather-seller found guilty by the Bishop of London, John Stokesley,[31] of harboring banned books and sentenced to burning for refusing to recant, More declared: he "burned as there was never wretched I when better worthy."[32]
Modern commentators are divided over More's religious actions as Chancellor. While biographers such as Peter Ackroyd, a Catholic English biographer, have taken a relatively tolerant view of More's campaign against Protestantism by placing his actions within the turbulent religious climate of the time, other eminent historians, such as Richard Marius, an American scholar of the Reformation, have been more critical, believing that persecutions—including More's zealous and well-documented advocacy of extermination for Protestants—were a betrayal of More's earlier humanist convictions.[28]:386–406 Some Protestants take a different view—in 1980, despite being a fierce opponent of the English Reformation that created the Church of England, More was added to the Church of England's calendar of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church, jointly with John Fisher, to be commemorated every 6 July (the date of More's execution) as "Thomas More, Scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535".[5] When honoring him by making him patron saint of statesmen and politicians in October 2000 Pope John Paul II stated: "It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience... even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time".
UTOPIA
Sir Thomas More
Note: The characters of More, Giles, and Morton all correspond in biographical background to actual historical people, Sir Thomas More (author of Utopia), the Humanist thinker Peter Giles, and former Chancellor of England Cardinal John Morton. The fictional characters of the book, however, should not be considered to be direct translations of these historic personalities to the page. In particular, the character of More should not be taken to hold the same views as Sir Thomas More himself. For the purpose of the following Summaries and Commentaries, the name More will refer to the fictional character while Sir Thomas More refers to the author.
Summary
More travels to Antwerp as an ambassador for England and King Henry VIII. While not engaged in his official duties, More spends time conversing about intellectual matters with his friend, Peter Giles. One day, More sees Giles speaking to a bearded man whom More assumes to be a ship's captain. Giles soon introduces More to this new man, Raphael Hythloday, who turns out to be a philosopher and world traveler. The three men retire to Giles's house for supper and conversation, and Hythloday begins to speak about his travels.
Hythloday has been on many voyages with the noted explorer Amerigo Vespucci, traveling to the New World, south of the Equator, through Asia, and eventually landing on the island of Utopia. He describes the societies through which he travels with such insight that Giles and More become convinced that Hythloday would make a terrific counselor to a king. Hythloday refuses even to consider such a notion. A disagreement follows, in which the three discuss Hythloday's reasons for his position. To make his point, Hythloday describes a dinner he once shared in England with Cardinal Morton and a number of others. During this dinner, Hythloday proposed alternatives to the many evil civil practices of England, such as the policy of capital punishment for the crime of theft. His proposals meet with derision, until they are given legitimate thought by the Cardinal, at which point they meet with great general approval. Hythloday uses this story to show how pointless it is to counsel a king when the king can always expect his other counselors to agree with his own beliefs or policies. Hythloday then goes on to make his point through a number of other examples, finally noting that no matter how good a proposed policy is, it will always look insane to a person used to a different way of seeing the world. Hythloday points out that the policies of the Utopians are clearly superior to those of Europeans, yet adds that Europeans would see as ludicrous the all-important Utopian policy of common property. More and Giles do disagree with the notion that common property is superior to private property, and the three agree that Hythloday should describe the Utopian society in more detail. First, however, they break for lunch.
Back from lunch, Hythloday describes the geography and history of Utopia. He explains how the founder of Utopia, General Utopus, conquered the isthmus on which Utopia now stands and through a great public works effort cut away the land to make an island. Next, Hythloday moves to a discussion of Utopian society, portraying a nation based on rational thought, with communal property, great productivity, no rapacious love of gold, no real class distinctions, no poverty, little crime or immoral behavior, religious tolerance, and little inclination to war. It is a society that Hythloday believes is superior to any in Europe.
Hythloday finishes his description and More explains that after so much talking, Giles, Hythloday, and he were too tired to discuss the particular points of Utopian society. More concludes that many of the Utopian customs described by Hythloday, such as their methods of making war and their belief in communal property, seem absurd. He does admit, however, that he would like to see some aspects of Utopian society put into practice in England, though he does not believe any such thing will happen.
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