Sir Thomas More
and Religious Liberty
Gary B. Doxey
International Center for Law and
Religion Studies at BYU
June 13, 2012
Sir Thomas More, 1478-1535
The Medieval World
The Renaissance—a Rebirth of Learning
Inspired by Greece and Rome
The Medieval Skyline
Medieval Reformers
Waldo of Lyon
(1140-1218)
John Wycliffe
(1328-1384)
Jan Hus
(1369-1415)
Desiderius Erasmus, 1466-1536
The Praise of Folly, 1511
Martin Luther, 1483-1546
“Erasmus laid an
egg, and Luther
hatched it.”
--Popular saying of the day
The Division of Christendom
1530-1648—A Century of War
Desiderius Erasmus, 1466-1536
Rise of Nation State
• Emergence of strong rulers in 15th and 16th
centuries
• “National churches”
• Economic prosperity and new royal revenues
• Standing armies not dependent on feudal
nobility
• Bureaucratic government institutions
Henry VIII,
1509-1547
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, 1473-1530
More’s Life and Career
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Born in London, 1478
Studied classics at Oxford, 1492-1494 (age 15)
Clerk at New Inn and later Lincoln’s Inn
Called to bar, 1502 (age 24)
Elected to Parliament, 1504
Joined Privy Council, 1514
Utopia, 1516
Thomas More, the Religious Man
William Tyndale, 1492-1536
“Lord, open the king of England’s eyes.”
John Foxe, 1517-1587
Foxe’s Acts and Monuments aka
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, 1563
The Context--Summary
• Renaissance—the new learning of humanism
• Reformation—conflict and schism, a danger to
the powers who ruled the status quo
• Rise of modern nation state—stronger, more
centralized government
Context Continued
• More was at the center of all these
developments as a high governmental officer
and confidant of the king; one of his special
assignments was to bend his considerable
intellectual and legal authority to put down
Protestant subversives and insurgents who
threatened the king’s stability
An Additional Element
Dynastic Problems
Wars of the Roses, 1455-1485
Anne Boleyn
Clement VII, 1523-1534
Thomas Cromwell, 1485-1540
Thomas Cranmer, 1489-1556
Key Events in his Later Life
• 1527—Henry first expresses doubts about his
marriage
• 1529—Wolsey falls from grace and Henry
appoints More as Lord Chancellor
• 1531– Convocation of Canterbury grants
Henry title of Supreme Head of the English
Church “as far as the law of Christ allows.”
• 1532—More resigns as Lord Chancellor
Key Events in his Later Life
• 1533—More refuses to attend coronation of
Anne Bolyn
• 1534—More refuses to affirm the oath of
succession. He is placed in custody.
• 1535—More is tried and executed for treason
Tower Hill, July 6, 1535
William Roper
“He spoke little before his execution. Only
he asked the bystanders to pray for him in
this world, and he would pray for them
elsewhere. He then begged them earnestly
to pray for the King, that it might please
God to give him good counsel, protesting
that he died the King’s good servant but
God’s first.”
-- Paris Newsletter, July 1535
“Had we been master of such a servant, we
would rather have lost the best city of our
dominions than such a worthy counselor.”
--Charles V, HRE
“…more pure than any snow…such as
England never had and never again will
have.”
--Erasmus
A Man for All Purposes?
The Religious Freedom Legacy?
• Perception is reality? A martyr for conscience
• Whose conscience? A deeper debate than
meets the eye
• Practical reality: an example of the painful
nature of Europe’s conflict with pluralism and
the practical accommodations that eventually
led to begrudging toleration.