Thomas More

=== Torture allegations ===
Torture was not officially legal in England, except in pre-trial discovery phase<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hanson |first1=Elizabeth |title=Torture and Truth in Renaissance England |journal=Representations |date=1991 |issue=34 |pages=53–84 |doi=10.2307/2928770 |jstor=2928770 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2928770 |issn=0734-6018}}</ref>{{rp|62}} of kinds of extreme cases that the King had allowed, such as seditious heresy. It was regarded as unsafe for evidence, and was not an allowed punishment.

Stories emerged in More's lifetime regarding persecution of the Protestant "heretics" during his time as [[Lord Chancellor]], and he denied them in detail in his ''Apologia'' (1533).

Many stories were later published by the popular sixteenth-century English Protestant historian [[John Foxe]] in his polemical ''[[Foxe's Book of Martyrs|Book of Martyrs]].'' [[John Foxe|Foxe]] was instrumental in publicizing accusations of torture, alleging that More had often personally used violence or torture while interrogating heretics.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rex |first1=Richard |author1-link=Richard Rex |editor1-last=Logan |editor1-first=George M. |title=The Cambridge Companion to Thomas More |date=2011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-82848-2 |page=93}}</ref> Later Protestant authors such as [[Brian Moynahan]] and [[Michael Farris (lawyer)|Michael Farris]] cite Foxe when repeating these allegations.<ref>{{cite journal|first= Michael| last= Farris | title = From Tyndale to Madison|year=2007}}</ref> Biographer [[Peter Ackroyd]] also lists claims from Foxe's ''Book of Martyrs'' and other post-Reformation sources that More "tied heretics to a tree in his Chelsea garden and whipped them", that "he watched as 'newe men' were put upon the rack in the Tower and tortured until they confessed", and that "he was personally responsible for the burning of several of the 'brethren' in Smithfield."<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp |305}} <!-- However, the rack was not introduced to England until after More's death, wasn't it, apart from one unusual case? -->

Historian [[John Guy (historian)|John Guy]] commented that "such charges are unsupported by independent proof."<ref group=note>"Serious analysis precludes the repetition of protestant stories that Sir Thomas flogged heretics against a tree in his garden at Chelsea. It must exclude, too, the accusations of illegal imprisonment made against More by John Field and Thomas Phillips. Much vaunted by J.A. Froude, such charges are unsupported by independent proof. More indeed answered them in his Apology with emphatic denial. None has ever been substantiated, and we may hope that they were all untrue." {{cite book |last1=Guy |first1=John |last2=More |first2=Thomas |title=The public career of Sir Thomas More |date=1980 |publisher=Harvester Pr |location=Brighton, Sussex |isbn=085527963X}}</ref>  Modern historian [[Diarmaid MacCulloch]] finds no evidence that he was directly involved in torture.<ref group=note> "[More]…turned to waging implacable war on enemies of the Church whom he could crush without inhibition. […]He had a positive relish for burning heretics. […]Claims […]that he personally tortured heretics have no evidence to back them up. {{cite book |last1=MacCulloch |first1= Diarmaid |author-link1=Diarmaid MacCulloch |title=Thomas Cromwell : a life |date=27 September 2018 |isbn=978-1-84614-429-5 |pages= 160–62|publisher= Penguin Books }}</ref>   [[Richard Marius]] records a similar claim, which tells about James Bainham, and writes that "the story Foxe told of Bainham's whipping and racking at More's hands is universally doubted today".<ref group=note name="Marius406" >Marius suggests that the rumours of More's cruelty started with renegade priest John Constantine, who was arrested, betrayed Bayfield, and escaped from More's house to stay with a friend in Antwerp who he also later betrayed. p.404</ref>

More himself denied these allegations:

{{blockquote|Stories of a similar nature were current even in More's lifetime and he denied them forcefully. He admitted that he did imprison heretics in his house – 'theyr sure kepynge' – he called it – but he utterly rejected claims of torture and whipping... 'as help me God.'<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp |298–299}}}}

More instead claimed in his "Apology" (1533) that he only applied corporal punishment to two "heretics": a child servant in his household who was caned (the customary punishment for children at that time) for repeating a heresy regarding the Eucharist, and a "feeble-minded" man who was whipped for disrupting the mass by raising women's skirts over their heads at the moment of consecration, More taking the action to prevent a lynching.<ref name="Marius">Marius, Richard (1999). Thomas More: A Biography, Harvard University Press</ref>{{rp |404}}