St. Thomas More, Martyr Of The English Reformation, Remembered June 22

EWTN.com ^ | 20-June-2011 | Catholic News Agency via EWTN

[Salvation]

20-June-2011 -- Catholic News Agency

St. Thomas More, Martyr Of The English Reformation, Remembered June 22

DENVER, COLO., June 19 (CNA/EWTN News) - On June 22, the Catholic Church will honor the life and martyrdom of St. Thomas More, the lawyer, author and statesman who lost his life opposing King Henry VIII's plan to subordinate the Church to the English monarchy.

Thomas More was born in 1478, son of the lawyer and judge John More and his wife Agnes. He received a classical education from the age of six, and at age 13 became the protege of Archbishop John Morton, who also served an important civic role as the Lord Chancellor. Although Thomas never joined the clergy, he would eventually come to assume the position of Lord Chancellor himself.

More received a well-rounded college education at Oxford, becoming a "renaissance man" who knew several ancient and modern languages and was well-versed in mathematics, music and literature. His father, however, determined that Thomas should become a lawyer, so he withdrew his son from Oxford after two years to focus him on that career.

Despite his legal and political orientation, Thomas was confused in regard to his vocation as a young man. He seriously considered joining either the Carthusian monastic order or the Franciscans, and followed a number of ascetic and spiritual practices throughout his life - such as fasting, corporal mortification, and a regular rule of prayer - as means of growing in holiness.

In 1504, however, More was elected to Parliament. He gave up his monastic ambitions, though not his disciplined spiritual life, and married Jane Colt of Essex. They were happily married for several years and had four children together, though Jane tragically died in childbirth in 1511. Shortly after her death, More married a widow named Alice Middleton, who proved to be a devoted wife and mother.

Two years earlier, in 1509, King Henry VIII had acceded to the throne. For years, the king showed fondness for Thomas, working to further his career as a public servant. He became a part of the king's inner circle, eventually overseeing the English court system as Lord Chancellor. More even authored a book published in Henry's name, defending Catholic doctrine against Martin Luther.

More's eventual martyrdom would come as a consequence o f Henry VIII's own tragic downfall. The king wanted an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, a marriage that Pope Clement VII declared to be valid and indissoluble. By 1532, More had resigned as Lord Chancellor, refusing to support the king's efforts to defy the Pope and control the Church.

In 1534, Henry VIII declared that every subject of the British crown would have to swear an oath affirming the validity of his new marriage to Anne Boleyn. Refusal of these demands would be regarded as treason against the state.

In April of that year, a royal commission summoned Thomas to force him to take the oath affirming the King's new marriage as valid. While accepting certain portions of the act which pertained to Henry's royal line of succession, he could not accept the king's defiance of papal authority on the marriage question. More was taken from his wife and children, and imprisoned in the Tower of London.

For 15 months, More's wife and several friends tried to convince him to take the oath and save his life, but he refused. In 1535, while More was imprisoned, an act of Parliament came into effect declaring Henry VIII to be "the only supreme head on earth of the Church in England," once again under penalty of treason. Members of the clergy who would not take the oath began to be executed.

In June of 1535, More was finally indicted and formally tried for the crime of treason in Westminster Hall. He was charged with opposing the king's "Act of Supremacy" in private conversations which he insisted had never occurred. But after his defense failed, and he was sentenced to death, he finally spoke out in open opposition to what he had previously opposed through silence and refusal.

More explained that Henry's Act of Supremacy, was contrary "to the laws of God and his holy Church." He explained that "no temporal prince" could take away the prerogatives that belonged to St. Peter and his successors according to the words of Christ. When he was told that most of the English bishops had accepted the king's order, More replied that the saints in heaven did not accept it.

On July 7, 1535, the 57-year-old More came before the executioner to be beheaded. "I die the king's good servant," he told the onlonokers, "but God's first." His head was displayed on London Bridge, but later returned to his daughter Margaret who preserved it as a holy relic of her father.

St. Thomas More was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886 and canonized in 1935 by Pope Piux XI. The Academy Award-winning film "A Man For All Seasons" portrayed the events that led to his martyrdom.

[Salvation]

**On July 7, 1535, the 57-year-old More came before the executioner to be beheaded. "I die the king's good servant," he told the onlonokers, "but God's first."**

Indeed, God is always first.

[guido911]

My patron saint.

[Salvation]

Does St. Thomas More’s death illustrate putting God above wife, kin, country, everyone else (including the king)?

Catholic ping!

[Lou Budvis]

A Man for All Seasons indeed.

[presently no screen name]

God is always first.

Right. He is First as God's Word is The Final Authority.

[Elendur]

“Although Thomas never joined the clergy, “
“More even authored a book published in Henry’s name, “
///
thank you very much for posting this.
i never knew those things, and others.
...he was a far better man than i.
i would hope that any Christian,
could at least respect his faith and dedication to God,
and see in him, a brother in Christ.

[Salvation]

St. Thomas More, Martyr Of The English Reformation, Remembered June 22
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Thomas More for Our Season
Saint Thomas More, Patron of Lawyers and Jurists, Martyr
Dads: Men for All Seasons
( St.) THOMAS MORE AS STATESMAN: A BRIEF SKETCH
St. Thomas More: A Man for This Season
The Martyrdom of St. John Fisher - 22 June 1535 (By Michael Davies) [Catholic Caucus]

Defensor Matrimonii - St. John Fisher
St. John Fisher: "I am come here to die for Christ's Catholic Church"
Life of Thomas More
St John Fisher, 1460-1535[Bishop and Martyr]
St John Fisher, 1460-1535[Bishop and Martyr]
St Thomas More
St. Thomas More and Modern Martyrdom
St. Thomas More Bearing Witness Long After His Death
Saint Thomas More,Martyr, Chancellor of England 1535
St.John Fisher

[SeeSharp]

And who will remember the people Thomas More had burned at the stake? One of them was William Tyndale, whose translation of the bible into English accounts for about 85 percent of the King James version.

[jmacusa]

Yes it does and it’s the reason he went to the block. Henry the VIII was a bastard who placed himself above Gods law.

[RedMDer]

Thanks Salvation. God is always first.

[Campion]

And who will remember the people Thomas More had burned at the stake? One of them was William Tyndale

Really? That's an impressive achievement on More's part, since More was beheaded in London in June, 1535, and Tyndale was burned in Belgium in October of 1536.

[Siena Dreaming]

I had forgotten that More was largely responsible for the burning of Tyndale.

I'll have to read more about that. I believe More had other reformers burned as well.

[Campion]

I had forgotten that More was largely responsible for the burning of Tyndale.

See above. You were wise to forget it, since it's a myth, not to mention an impossibility.

I'll grant you that Tyndale and More didn't like each other when both were alive. One hopes that they are now good friends in heaven.

[jmacusa]

Catherine Parr, the last of Henrys wives and the only one to keep her head , said of More on his death, “Today died a man of great wit. And little sense’’.

[Campion]

the only one to keep her head

Henry only beheaded two of his wives. He divorced two, one died following childbirth, and one -- Parr -- survived him.

[Mr Rogers]

More fell from King Henry’s grace faster than he could catch William Tyndale. It doesn’t change the fact that he bitterly opposed William Tyndale, opposed his excellent translation, and did his best to kill him.

“I find that breed of men absolutely loathsome,” he told Erasmus. “I want to be as hateful to them as anyone possibly can be; for my increasing experience with these men frightens me with the thought that the whole world will suffer at their hands.”

More described his feelings on the fate of the heretic: “The air longs to blow noxious vapours against the wicked man. The sea longs to overwhelm him in its waves, the mountains to fall upon him, hell to swallow him up after his headlong fall, the demons to plunge him into gulfs of ever-burning flames...”

[Mr Rogers]

“You were wise to forget it, since it’s a myth, not to mention an impossibility.”

False. The wheels were set in motion, and no one who reads More’s own words can doubt his hatred from Protestants. More wrote 9 volumes trying to refute Tyndale, and failed miserably.

http://www.archive.org/stream/tyndalesanswer00tynduoft/tyndalesanswer00tynduoft_djvu.txt

[jmacusa]

Thanks. Thought she was the only one.

[Mr Rogers]

The forgotten side of More:

http://tudorswiki.sho.com/page/Sir+Thomas+More+Controversies

[Campion]

It doesn’t change the fact that he bitterly opposed William Tyndale

More was a Catholic, charged by his King to enforce the law in a Catholic kingdom long before freedom of religion existed there or anywhere else ... and Tyndale was a heretic. Protestant rulers of the time behaved precisely the same way toward those who disagreed with them on religious grounds, whether Protestant or Catholic.

However, I should point out that, not only was More quite dead by the time Tyndale was executed, Tyndale lived on the continent from 1524 until his death. More became Lord Chancellor in 1529. His influence began to wane already the next year, and Henry accepted his resignation in 1532. Legally speaking, Tyndale was never under More's jurisdiction.

Tyndale's translation contained plenty of notes and editorial changes supporting his Protestant point of view.