Thomas More

===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>