Thomas More

== Indictment, trial and execution ==
In 1533, More refused to attend [[Coronation of Anne Boleyn|the coronation]] of [[Anne Boleyn]] as [[List of English royal consorts|Queen of England]]. Technically, this was not an act of treason, as More had written to Henry seemingly acknowledging Anne's queenship and expressing his desire for the King's happiness and the new Queen's health.<ref group=note>{{Citation | author-link = Eric Ives| first = Eric W | last = Ives | title = The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn | year = 2004 | page = 47 | quote = [More wrote on the subject of the Boleyn marriage that] [I] neither murmur at it nor dispute upon it, nor never did nor will. ...I faithfully pray to God for his Grace and hers both long to live and well, and their noble issue too...}}</ref> Despite this, his refusal to attend was widely interpreted as a snub against Anne, and Henry took action against him. Shortly thereafter, More was charged with accepting bribes, but the charges had to be dismissed for lack of any evidence.

In early 1534, More was accused by [[Thomas Cromwell]] of having given advice and counsel to the "Holy Maid of Kent," [[Elizabeth Barton]], a nun who had prophesied that the king had ruined his soul and would come to a quick end for having divorced Queen Catherine. This was a month after Barton had confessed, which was possibly done under royal pressure,<ref>{{cite book |title=The Religious Orders in England |volume=3 |author=David Knowles |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1979 |isbn=0-521-29568-8 |pages=188–189|author-link=David Knowles (scholar) }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Women and Religion in England: 1500–1720 |author=Patricia Crawford |publisher=Routledge |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-136-09756-0 |page=29}}</ref> and was said to be concealment of treason.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8J9uNOydymUC&q=thomas+more+elizabeth+Barton&pg=PT594 |title=The Life of Thomas More |author=Peter Ackroyd |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-307-82301-4 |page=342}}</ref> Though it was dangerous for anyone to have anything to do with Barton, More had indeed met her, and was impressed by her fervour. But More was prudent and told her not to interfere with state matters. More was called before a committee of the Privy Council to answer these charges of treason, and after his respectful answers the matter seemed to have been dropped.<ref name="Lee1904">{{cite book|last=Lee|first=Sidney|title=Great Englishmen of the Sixteenth Century|url=https://archive.org/details/greatenglishmen00leegoog|year=1904|publisher=Archibald Constable, Limited|location=London|page=[https://archive.org/details/greatenglishmen00leegoog/page/n84 48]}}</ref>

On 13 April 1534, More was asked to appear before a commission and swear his allegiance to the parliamentary [[First Succession Act|Act of Succession]].<ref group=note>In March 1534, the [[First Succession Act]] passed parliament, "investing Henry VIII with the power to “visit, redress, reform, correct or amend all errors, heresies and enormities;” to define faith; and to appoint bishops.  This law also directed the monies which had previously been paid to Rome to the king's coffers.  The [[Treason Act 1534]] ([[26 Hen. 8]]. c. 13) passed in the same month among other things made it treasonable to deny the king's role as Supreme Head of the Church.' {{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia= Catholic Encyclopaedia |title= St. Thomas More| url= http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14689c.htm}}</ref> More accepted Parliament's right to declare [[Anne Boleyn]] the legitimate Queen of England, though he refused "the spiritual validity of the king's second marriage",<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y5rDAyEoHyAC&pg=PA116 |title=The Cambridge Companion to Thomas More |editor=George M. Logan |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-139-82848-2 |page=122}}</ref> and, holding fast to the teaching of [[papal supremacy]], he steadfastly refused to take the oath of supremacy of the Crown in the relationship between the kingdom and the church in England. More furthermore publicly refused to uphold Henry's annulment from Catherine. [[John Fisher]], Bishop of Rochester, refused the oath along with More. The oath reads in part:<ref>{{cite book|last=Elton|first= Geoffrey Rudolph |title=The Tudor constitution: documents and commentary|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1982|isbn=0-521-24506-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CJZZzoBJOfwC&pg=PA7 | access-date =24 July 2009|location=Cambridge, Cambridgeshire|oclc=7876927|page=7|edition= 2nd | chapter =The Crown| chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=CJZZzoBJOfwC&pg=PA1}}</ref>

{{blockquote|...By reason whereof the Bishop of Rome and See Apostolic, contrary to the great and inviolable grants of jurisdictions given by God immediately to emperors, kings and princes in succession to their heirs, hath presumed in times past to invest who should please them to inherit in other men's kingdoms and dominions, which thing we your most humble subjects, both spiritual and temporal, do most abhor and detest...}}

In addition to refusing to support the King's annulment or supremacy, More refused to sign the 1534 [[Act Respecting the Oath to the Succession|Oath of Succession]] confirming Anne's role as queen and the rights of their children to succession. More's fate was sealed.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AQtmzR9TXncC&q=thomas+more+resigned&pg=PA305 |title=A Thomas More Source Book |editor1=[[Gerard Wegemer]] |editor2=Stephen W. Smith |publisher=The Catholic University of America Press |year=2004 |isbn=0-8132-1376-2 |page=305}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YU_UDAAAQBAJ&q=thomas+more+refusal+coronation&pg=PT173 |title=Thomas More's Utopia: Arguing for Social Justice |author=Lawrence Wilde |publisher=Routledge |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-317-28137-5 |pages=112–113}}</ref> While he had no argument with the basic concept of succession as stated in the Act, the preamble of the Oath repudiated the authority of the Pope.<ref name="Richards8">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lXi7AAAAQBAJ&q=thomas+more+++king%27s+great+matter&pg=PT8 |title=Utopia |author=Thomas More |others=Translated by G.C. Richards, William P. Weaver |publisher=Broadview Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-4604-0211-5 |pages=8–9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C6o5AAAAIAAJ&q=thomas+more+oath+of+succession+not+agreeable&pg=PA223 |title=Policy and Police: The Enforcement of the Reformation in the Age of Thomas Cromwell |author=G. R. Elton |publisher=CUP Archive |year=1985 |isbn=0-521-31309-0 |page=223}}</ref><ref>{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z0c-AQAAMAAJ&q=thomas+more+oath+of+succession+not+agreeable&pg=PA556 |title=The Twentieth Century, Volume 30 |publisher=Nineteenth Century and After |year=1891 |page=556}}</ref>

===Indictment===
His enemies had enough evidence to have the King arrest him on treason. Four days later, Henry had More imprisoned in the [[Tower of London]]. There More prepared a devotional ''[[A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation|Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation]]''. While More was imprisoned in the Tower, Thomas Cromwell made several visits, urging More to take the oath, which he continued to refuse.

In his unfinished ''History of the Passion'', written in the Tower to his daughter Meg, he wrote of feeling favoured by God: "For methinketh God maketh me a wanton, and setteth me on his lap and dandleth me."<ref>{{cite journal |title=Review of Book: St Thomas More's History of the Passion |journal=The Downside Review |date=April 1942 |volume=60 |issue=2 |pages=230–232 |doi=10.1177/001258064206000211|s2cid=220418917 }}</ref>

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The charges of [[high treason]] related to More's violating the statutes as to the King's supremacy (malicious silence) and conspiring with Bishop [[John Fisher]] in this respect (malicious conspiracy) and, according to some sources, included asserting that Parliament did not have the right to proclaim the King's Supremacy over the English Church. One group of scholars believes that the judges dismissed the first two charges (malicious acts) and tried More only on the final one, but others strongly disagree.<ref name="Kelly_xiv">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oj67cj8f-rIC&q=thomas+more+refused+to+support+annulment&pg=PR14 |title=Thomas More's Trial by Jury: A Procedural and Legal Review with a Collection of Documents |editor1=Henry Ansgar Kelly |editor2=Louis W. Karlin |editor3=Gerard Wegemer |publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-84383-629-2 |pages=xiv–xvi}}</ref>

Regardless of the specific charges, the indictment related to violation of the [[Treasons Act 1534]] which declared it treason to speak against the King's Supremacy:<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kXkkCAAAQBAJ&q=thomas+more++executed+++Lieutenant+see+me+safe+william+roper&pg=PA170 |title=Voices of the Reformation: Contemporary Accounts of Daily Life |author=John A. Wagner |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-61069-680-7 |page=170}}</ref>

{{blockquote|If any person or persons, after the first day of February next coming, do maliciously wish, will or desire, by words or writing, or by craft imagine, invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to the king's most royal person, the queen's, or their heirs apparent, or to deprive them or any of them of their dignity, title, or name of their royal estates …

That then every such person and persons so offending … shall have and suffer such pains of death and other penalties, as is limited and accustomed in cases of high treason.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://home.freeuk.net/don-aitken/ast/h8a.html#149|title=Annotated original text|date=November 2017}}</ref>}}

===Trial===
The trial was held on 1 July 1535, before a panel of judges that included the new Lord Chancellor, [[Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden|Sir Thomas Audley]], as well as Anne Boleyn's uncle, [[Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk]], her father [[Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire|Thomas Boleyn]] and her brother [[George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford|George Boleyn]]. Norfolk offered More the chance of the king's "gracious pardon" should he "reform his [...] obstinate opinion". More responded that, although he had not taken the oath, he had never spoken out against it either and that his silence could be accepted as his "ratification and confirmation" of the new statutes.<ref>Ackroyd (1998) p383</ref>

Thus More was relying upon legal precedent and the maxim "''[[qui tacet consentire videtur]]''" ("one who keeps silent seems to consent"<ref>{{cite book |title=Thomas More's Trial by Jury: A Procedural and Legal Review with a Collection of Documents |editor1=Henry Ansgar Kelly |editor2=Louis W. Karlin |editor3=Gerard Wegemer |publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-84383-629-2 |page=189}}</ref>), understanding that he could not be convicted as long as he did not explicitly deny that the King was Supreme Head of the Church, and he therefore refused to answer all questions regarding his opinions on the subject.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oj67cj8f-rIC&q=thomas+more+trial+qui+tacet+consentire+videtur&pg=PA22 |title=Thomas More's Trial by Jury: A Procedural and Legal Review with a Collection of Documents |editor1=Henry Ansgar Kelly |editor2=Louis W. Karlin |editor3=Gerard Wegemer |publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-84383-629-2 |page=22}}</ref>

[[File:Nb pinacoteca yeames the meeting of sir thomas more with his daughter after his sentence of death.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|[[William Frederick Yeames]], ''The meeting of Sir Thomas More with his daughter after his sentence of death'', 1872]]

Thomas Cromwell, at the time the most powerful of the King's advisors, brought forth Solicitor General [[Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich|Richard Rich]] to testify that More had, in his presence, denied that the King was the legitimate head of the Church. This testimony was characterised by More as being extremely dubious. Witnesses [[Richard Southwell (courtier)|Richard Southwell]] and Mr. Palmer (a servant to Southwell) were also present and both denied having heard the details of the reported conversation.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hadfield |first1=Andrew |title=Lying in early modern English culture : from the Oath of supremacy to the Oath of allegiance |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780192844804 |pages=36–38 |edition=}}</ref> As More himself pointed out:

<blockquote> Can it therefore seem likely to your Lordships, that I should in so weighty an Affair as this, act so unadvisedly, as to trust Mr. Rich, a Man I had always so mean an Opinion of, in reference to his Truth and Honesty, … that I should only impart to Mr. Rich the Secrets of my Conscience in respect to the King's Supremacy, the particular Secrets, and only Point about which I have been so long pressed to explain my self? which I never did, nor never would reveal; when the Act was once made, either to the King himself, or any of his Privy Councillors, as is well known to your Honours, who have been sent upon no other account at several times by his Majesty to me in the Tower. I refer it to your Judgments, my Lords, whether this can seem credible to any of your Lordships.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/more/moretrialreport.html|title=The Trial and Execution of Sir Thomas More|website=law2.umkc.edu}}</ref></blockquote>

[[File:History of the great reformation in Europe in the times of Luther and Calvin.. (1870) (14785678593).jpg|thumb|upright|left|Beheading of Thomas More, 1870 illustration]]

The jury took only fifteen minutes, however, to find More guilty.

After the jury's verdict was delivered and before his sentencing, More spoke freely of his belief that "no temporal man may be the head of the spirituality" (take over the role of the Pope). According to [[William Roper]]'s account, More was pleading that the Statute of Supremacy was contrary to [[Magna Carta]], to Church laws and to the laws of England, attempting to void the entire indictment against him.<ref name="Kelly_xiv"/>
He was sentenced to be [[hanged, drawn, and quartered]] (the usual punishment for traitors who were not the nobility), but the King commuted this to execution by decapitation.<ref group=note>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/householdsirtho00manngoog |quote=thomas more sentenced hanged, drawn and quartered. |title=The Household of Sir Thomas More |author1=Anne Manning |author2=Edmund Lodge |publisher=C. Scribner |year=1852 |page=xiii}}</ref>

===Execution===
The execution took place on 6 July 1535 at [[Tower Hill]]. When he came to mount the steps to the scaffold, its frame seeming so weak that it might collapse,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5U0BAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA798|page=798|title=The comprehensive history of England, from the earliest period to the suppression of the Sepoy revolt|author1-first=Charles|author1-last=MacFarlane|author-link1=Charles Macfarlane|author2-first=Thomas|author2-last=Thomson|author-link2=Thomas Napier Thomson|year=1876|publisher=[[Blackie and Son]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/LifeAndWritingsOfSirThomasMore|page=[https://archive.org/details/LifeAndWritingsOfSirThomasMore/page/n470 434]|title=Life and Writings of Sir Thomas More: Lord Chancellor of England and Martyr Under Henry VIII|author-first=Thomas Edward|author-last=Bridgett|author-link=Thomas Edward Bridgett|edition=3|publisher=[[Burns & Oates]]|year=1891}}</ref> More is widely quoted as saying (to one of the officials): "I pray you, master Lieutenant, see me safe up and [for] my coming down, let me shift for my self";<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o6rFno1ffQoC&q=thomas+more++executed+++Lieutenant+see+me+safe&pg=PA531 |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations |editor=Elizabeth M. Knowles |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1999 |isbn=0-19-860173-5 |page=531}}</ref> while on the scaffold he declared "that he died the king's good servant, and God's first." Theologian [[Scott W. Hahn]] notes that the misquoted "''but'' God's first" is a line from Robert Bolt's stage play ''[[A Man for All Seasons (play)|A Man For All Seasons]]'', which differs from his actual words.<ref>{{cite web |title=Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 8, January–July 1535 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol8/pp379-402#anchorn13 |website=[[British History Online]] |publisher=University of London |access-date=26 June 2022}} This is a translation from the archives of [[Michel de Castelnau]], a later French ambassador to England, of an anonymous French eyewitness: Wegemer, Smith (2004), page 357, provides the original text in French: ''"[...]qu'il mouroit son bon serviteur et de Dieu premièrement."''.</ref><ref group=note>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JQTKJsDReLEC |title=Liturgy and Empire: Faith in Exile and Political Theology |editor1=[[Scott W. Hahn]] |editor2=David Scott |publisher=Emmaus Road Publishing |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-931018-56-2 |page=73 |quote="I die the king's good servant, but God's first." Footnote 133: "This phrase from Robert Bolt's play 'A Man for All Seasons' ... is an adjustment of More's actual last words: 'I die the king's good servant, and God's first.{{'"}}}}</ref> After More had finished reciting the ''[[Psalm 51|Miserere]]'' while kneeling,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kYGQAgAAQBAJ |title=Liturgy and Contemplation in Byrd's Gradualia |author=Kerry McCarthy |publisher=Routledge |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-135-86564-1 |page=61}}</ref>{{sfn|Wordsworth|1810|pp=222–223}} the executioner reportedly begged his pardon, then More rose up, kissed him and forgave him.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hohZDgAAQBAJ |title=Pedro de Ribadeneyra's 'Ecclesiastical History of the Schism of the Kingdom of England' |editor=Spencer J. Weinreich |publisher=BRILL |year=2017 |isbn=978-90-04-32396-4 |page=238}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SnxEAAAAcAAJ |volume=IV |title=A Collection of the most remarkable Trials of persons for High-Treason, Murder, Heresy ... |year=1736 |location=London |publisher=T. Read |page=94}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeandletterss00stewgoog |title=The Life and Letters of Sir Thomas More |author=Agnes M. Stewart |publisher=Burns & Oates |year=1876 |page=[https://archive.org/details/lifeandletterss00stewgoog/page/n362 339]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nx86AAAAcAAJ |title=Sir Thomas More His Life and Times: Illustrated from His Own Writings and from Contemporary Documents |author=W. Jos Walter |location=London |publisher=Charles Dolman |year=1840 |page=353}}</ref>

=== Relics ===
[[File:Thomas More Tomb.JPG|thumb|Thomas More's grave, St Peter ad Vincula]]
[[File:Sir Thomas More family's vault in St Dunstan's Church (Canterbury).jpg|thumb|upright|Sir Thomas More family's vault]]

Another comment More is believed to have made to the executioner is that his beard was completely innocent of any crime, and did not deserve the axe; he then positioned his beard so that it would not be harmed.<ref>{{Citation | first = David | last = Hume | title = The History of England | year = 1813 | page = 632}}.</ref> More asked that his adopted daughter [[Margaret Clement]] (née Giggs) be given his headless corpse to bury.<ref>Guy, John, ''A Daughter's Love: Thomas & Margaret More'', London: Fourth Estate, 2008, {{ISBN|978-0-00-719231-1}}, p. 266.</ref> She was the only member of his family to witness his execution. He was buried at the Tower of London, in the chapel of [[Church of St Peter ad Vincula|St Peter ad Vincula]] in an unmarked grave. His head was [[Head on a spike|fixed upon a pike]] over [[London Bridge]] for a month, according to the normal custom for traitors.

More's daughter Margaret later rescued the severed head.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/LifeAndWritingsOfSirThomasMore |quote=thomas more head buried. |title=Life and Writings of Sir Thomas More: Lord Chancellor of England and Martyr Under Henry VIII |author=Thomas Edward Bridgett
|publisher=Burns & Oates |year=1891 |page=[https://archive.org/details/LifeAndWritingsOfSirThomasMore/page/n472 436]}}</ref> It is believed to rest in the Roper Vault of [[St. Dunstan's, Canterbury|St Dunstan's Church, Canterbury]],<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KGc_AQAAMAAJ&q=thomas+more++roper+vault+skull&pg=PA142 |title=The Head of Simon Sudbury|journal= Journal of the British Archaeological Association |volume=1 |publisher=British Archaeological Association |year=1895 |pages=142–144}}</ref> perhaps with the remains of Margaret and her husband's family.<ref>{{cite web|title=Lady Margaret Roper and the head of Sir Thomas More|url=http://www.lynsted-society.co.uk/resources_documents_articles_lady_margaret_roper_and_the_head_of_sir_thomas_more.html|website=Insert Logo Here Lynsted with Kingsdown Society|access-date=24 July 2017}}</ref> Some have claimed that the head is buried within the tomb erected for More in Chelsea Old Church.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aGjSAAAAMAAJ&q=thomas+more+skull+buried+at&pg=PA88 |title=Notices of the Historic Persons Buried in the Chapel of St. Peter Ad Vincula: In the Tower of London |author=Doyne Courtenay Bell |publisher=J. Murray |year=1877 |pages=88–91}}</ref>

Among other surviving relics is his [[Cilice|hair shirt]], presented for safe keeping by Margaret Clement.<ref name="r6">{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia= Catholic Encyclopaedia |title= St. Thomas More| url= http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14689c.htm}}.</ref> This was long in the custody of the community of Augustinian canonesses who until 1983 lived at the convent at [[Abbotskerswell Priory]], Devon. Some sources, including one from 2004, claimed that the shirt, made of [[goat|goat hair]] was then at the Martyr's church on the Weld family's estate in [[Chideock]], Dorset.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OpATDQAAQBAJ&q=thomas+more+relics+hair+shirt+Chideock+castle&pg=PT56 |title=Little Book of Dorset |author=David Hilliam |publisher=History Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-7524-6265-3}}{{page needed|date=October 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hjyc9bPITKgC&q=thomas+more+relics+hair+shirt+Chideock+castle&pg=PA42 |title=Shrines of Our Lady in England |author=Anne Vail |publisher=Gracewing Publishing |year=2004 |isbn=0-85244-603-9 |page=42}}</ref> It is now preserved at [[Buckfast Abbey]], near Buckfastleigh in Devon.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/st-thomas-mores-hair-shirt-now-enshrined-for-public-veneration/37221|title=St. Thomas More's hair shirt now enshrined for public veneration |author=Simon Caldwell |date=21 November 2016 |publisher=Catholic Telegraph}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dioceseofshrewsbury.org/news/hair-shirt-worn-st-thomas-enshrined-public-veneration-possibly-first-time|title=Hair-shirt worn by St Thomas More is enshrined for public veneration for possibly the first time|access-date=31 March 2022|publisher=Diocese of Shrewsbury|archive-date=2 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190402084533/http://www.dioceseofshrewsbury.org/news/hair-shirt-worn-st-thomas-enshrined-public-veneration-possibly-first-time|url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Epitaph ===
In 1533, More wrote to Erasmus and included what he intended should be the epitaph on his family tomb:

<poem>
 Within this tomb Jane, wife of More, reclines;
 This More for Alice and himself designs.
 The first, dear object of my youthful vow,
 Gave me three daughters and a son to know;
 
 The next—ah! virtue in a stepdame rare!—
 Nursed my sweet infants with a mother’s care.
 With both my years so happily have past,
 Which most my love, I know not—first or last.
 
 Oh! had religion destiny allowed,
 How smoothly mixed had our three fortunes flowed!
 But, be we in the tomb, in heaven allied,
 So kinder death shall grant what life denied.<ref>{{cite web |title=Thomas More to Erasmus, 1533 |url=http://people.uncw.edu/atkinsa/388/erasmus.pdf |website=Thomas More Studies}}</ref>
</poem>