Thomas More

=== 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>