Thomas More

== Scholarly and literary work ==

=== ''History of King Richard III'' ===
Between 1512 and 1519 More worked on a ''History of [[Richard III of England|King Richard III]]'', which he never finished but which was published after his death. The ''History'' is a Renaissance biography, remarkable more for its literary skill and adherence to classical precepts than for its historical accuracy.{{sfn|Wegemer|1996|p=218}} Some consider it an attack on royal tyranny, rather than on Richard III himself or the [[House of York]].<ref>{{cite journal | last = Meyer | first = Jürgen | author-link =  | title = An Unthinkable ''History of King Richard the Third'': Thomas More's Fragment and his Answer to Lucian's ''Tyrannicide''| journal = [[Modern Language Review]] | series =  | date = 2014 | volume = 109 | issue = 3 | pages = 629–639 | doi = 10.5699/modelangrevi.109.3.0629}}</ref> More uses a more dramatic writing style than had been typical in medieval chronicles; Richard III is limned as an outstanding, archetypal tyrant—however, More was only seven years old when Richard III was killed at the [[Battle of Bosworth]] in 1485, so he had no first-hand, in-depth knowledge of him.

The ''History of King Richard III'' was written and published in both English and Latin, each written separately, and with information deleted from the Latin edition to suit a European readership.<ref name = Logan168>Logan (2011) p168</ref> It greatly influenced [[William Shakespeare]]'s play ''[[Richard III (play)|Richard III]]''. Modern historians attribute the unflattering portraits of Richard III in both works to both authors' allegiance to the reigning [[Tudor dynasty]] that wrested the throne from Richard III in the [[Wars of the Roses]].<ref name = Logan168/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bate |first1=Jonathan |author1-link=Jonathan Bate |title=Soul of the age : the life, mind and world of William Shakespeare |date=2008 |publisher=Viking |location=London |isbn=9780670914821 |page=268}}</ref> According to [[Caroline Barron]], Archbishop John Morton, in whose household More had served as a page {{See above}}, had joined the 1483 [[Buckingham's rebellion|Buckingham rebellion]] against Richard III, and Morton was probably one of those who influenced More's hostility towards the defeated king.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schwyzer |first1=Philip |author1-link=Philip Schwyzer |title=Shakespeare and the remains of Richard III |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199676101 |page=4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Barron |first1=Caroline M. |author1-link=Caroline Barron |editor1-last=Logan |editor1-first=George M. |title=The Cambridge Companion to Thomas More |date=2011 |isbn=9780521888622 |chapter=The making of a London citizen|publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> [[Clements Markham]] asserts that the actual author of the chronicle was, in large part, Archbishop Morton himself and that More was simply copying, or perhaps translating, Morton's original material.<ref>{{cite book|first=Clements|last= Markham|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36451 |title=Richard III: His Life and Character, reviewed in the light of recent research|year=1906|publisher=[[Smith, Elder & Co.]]|pages=168–171| author-link=Clements Markham}}</ref><ref>Yoran, H. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/24413094?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=richard&searchText=iii&searchText=history&searchUri=/action/doBasicSearch?Query=richard+iii+history&prq=richard+iii+historicity&group=none% ''Thomas More's Richard III: Probing the Limits of Humanism.''] Renaissance Studies 15, no. 4 (2001): 514–37. Retrieved 1 December 2015.</ref>

=== ''Utopia'' ===
{{Main|Utopia (More book)}}
[[File:Insel Utopia.png|thumb|A 1516 illustration of Utopia]]
More's best known and most controversial work, ''[[Utopia (More book)|Utopia]]'', is a [[frame narrative]] written in Latin.<ref>{{cite book |last1=More |first1=Thomas |editor1-last=Lumby |editor1-first=J Rawson |title=More's Utopia |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=vii |edition=1952 |chapter=Introduction|date=31 October 2013 |translator-last1=Robynson|translator-first1=Raphe|translator-link1=Ralph Robinson (humanist)|isbn=978-1-107-64515-8}}</ref> More completed the book, and theologian [[Erasmus]] published it in [[Leuven]] in 1516. It was only translated into English and published in his native land in 1551 (16 years after his execution), and the 1684 translation became the most commonly cited. More (who is also a character in the book) and the narrator/traveller, Raphael Hythlodaeus (whose name alludes both to the healer archangel [[Raphael (archangel)|Raphael]], and 'speaker of nonsense', the surname's Greek meaning), discuss modern ills in [[Antwerp]], as well as describe the political arrangements of the imaginary island country of Utopia (a Greek pun on 'ou-topos' [no place] and 'eu-topos' [good place]) among themselves as well as to [[Pieter Gillis]] and [[Hieronymus van Busleyden]].<ref>Logan (2011) pp 39, 142, 144</ref> Utopia's original edition included a symmetrical "[[Utopian language#Writing system|Utopian alphabet]]" omitted by later editions, but which may have been an early attempt or precursor of [[shorthand]].

''Utopia'' is structured into two parts, both with much [[irony]]: Book I has conversations between friends on various European political issues: the treatment of criminals, the [[enclosure movement]], etc.; Book II is a remembered discourse by Raphael Hythlodaeus on his supposed travels, in which the earlier issues are revisited in fantastical but concrete forms that has been called ''mythical  idealism''. For example, the proposition in the Book I "no republic can be prosperous or justly governed where there is private property and money is the measure of everything."<ref name=nyers>{{cite journal |last1=Nyers |first1=Peter |title=The Politics of Enclosure in Thomas More's Utopia |journal=Problematique |date=2000 |volume=6 |url=http://www.yorku.ca/problema/issue06.html}}</ref>

''Utopia'' contrasts the contentious social life of European states with the perfectly orderly, reasonable social arrangements of Utopia and its environs (Tallstoria, Nolandia, and Aircastle). In Utopia, there are no lawyers because of the laws' simplicity and because social gatherings are in public view (encouraging participants to behave well), communal ownership supplants private property, men and women are educated alike, and there is almost complete religious toleration (except for atheists, who are allowed but despised).

More may have used [[Monasticism|monastic communalism]] as his model, although other concepts he presents such as legalising [[euthanasia]] remain far outside Church doctrine. Hythlodaeus asserts that a man who refuses to believe in a god or an afterlife could never be trusted, because he would not acknowledge any authority or principle outside himself. A scholar has suggested that More is most interested in the type of citizen Utopia produces.<ref name=nyers/>

Some take the novel's principal message to be the social need for order and discipline rather than liberty. Ironically, Hythlodaeus, who believes philosophers should not get involved in politics, addresses More's ultimate conflict between his humanistic beliefs and courtly duties as the King's servant, pointing out that one day those morals will come into conflict with the political reality.

''Utopia'' gave rise to a literary genre, [[Utopian and dystopian fiction]], which features ideal societies or perfect cities, or their opposite. Works influenced by ''Utopia'' included ''[[New Atlantis]]'' by [[Francis Bacon]], ''[[Erewhon]]'' by [[Samuel Butler (novelist)|Samuel Butler]], and ''[[Candide]]'' by [[Voltaire]]. Although [[Utopianism]] combined classical concepts of perfect societies ([[Plato]] and [[Aristotle]]) with Roman rhetorical finesse (cf. [[Cicero]], [[Quintilian]], [[epideictic]] oratory), the Renaissance genre continued into the [[Age of Enlightenment]] and survives in modern science fiction.

=== Religious polemics ===
In 1520 the reformer [[Martin Luther]] published three works in quick succession: ''An Appeal to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation'' (Aug.), ''Concerning the Babylonish Captivity of the Church'' (Oct.), and ''On the Liberty of a Christian Man'' (Nov.).<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|225}} In these books, Luther set out his doctrine of salvation through faith alone, rejected certain Catholic practices, and attacked abuses and excesses within the Catholic Church.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|225–6}} In 1521, Henry VIII formally responded to Luther's criticisms with the ''Assertio'', written with More's assistance.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hDq-DwAAQBAJ |title = The Defence of the Seven Sacraments|isbn = 978-1-5380-9202-6|last1 = O'Donovan|first1 = Louis|date = 5 November 2019| publisher=Dalcassian Publishing Company }}</ref> [[Pope Leo X]] rewarded the English king with the title "''Fidei defensor"'' ("Defender of the Faith") for his work combating Luther's heresies.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|226–7}}

Martin Luther then attacked Henry VIII in print, calling him a "pig, dolt, and liar".<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|227}} At the king's request, More composed a rebuttal: the ''[[Responsio ad Lutherum]]'' was published at the end of 1523. In the ''Responsio'', More defended papal supremacy, the sacraments, and other Church traditions. More, though considered "a much steadier personality",<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zENJHwQqSy0C |title=The Catholic Church Through the Ages: A History |author=John Vidmar |publisher=Paulist Press |year=2005 |isbn=0-8091-4234-1 |page=184|author-link=John Vidmar }}</ref> described Luther as an "ape", a "drunkard", and a "lousy little friar" amongst other epithets.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|230}} Writing under the pseudonym of Gulielmus Rosseus,<ref name=rebhorn /> More tells Luther that:

:for as long as your reverend paternity will be determined to tell these shameless lies, others will be permitted, on behalf of his English majesty, to throw back into your paternity's shitty mouth, truly the shit-pool of all shit, all the muck and shit which your damnable rottenness has vomited up, and to empty out all the sewers and privies onto your crown divested of the dignity of the priestly crown, against which no less than the kingly crown you have determined to play the buffoon.<ref name=rex102>Rex (2011) p.102</ref>

His saying is followed with a kind of apology to his readers, while Luther possibly never apologized for his sayings.<ref name=rex102/> [[Stephen Greenblatt]] argues, "More speaks for his ruler and in his opponent's idiom; Luther speaks for himself, and his scatological imagery far exceeds in quantity, intensity, and inventiveness anything that More could muster. If for More scatology normally expresses a communal disapproval, for Luther, it expresses a deep personal rage."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=11msvVh_3nMC |title=Learning to Curse: Essays in Early Modern Culture |author=Stephen Greenblatt |publisher=Routledge |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-136-77420-1 |page=95|author-link=Stephen Greenblatt }}</ref>

Confronting Luther confirmed More's theological conservatism. He thereafter avoided any hint of criticism of Church authority.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|230}} In 1528, More published another religious polemic, ''A Dialogue Concerning Heresies'', that asserted the Catholic Church was the one true church, established by Christ and the Apostles, and affirmed the validity of its authority, traditions and practices.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|279–81}} In 1529, the circulation of [[Simon Fish]]'s ''Supplication for the Beggars'' prompted More to respond with the ''Supplycatyon of Soulys''.

In 1531, a year after More's father died, [[William Tyndale]] published ''An Answer unto Sir Thomas More's Dialogue'' in response to More's ''Dialogue Concerning Heresies.'' More responded with a half million words: the ''Confutation of Tyndale's Answer''. The ''Confutation'' is an imaginary dialogue between More and Tyndale, with More addressing each of Tyndale's criticisms of Catholic rites and doctrines.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|307–9}} More, who valued structure, tradition and order in society as safeguards against tyranny and error, vehemently believed that Lutheranism and the Protestant Reformation in general were dangerous, not only to the Catholic faith but to the stability of society as a whole.<ref name="Ackroyd" />{{rp|307–9}}

=== Correspondence ===
Most major humanists were prolific letter writers, and Thomas More was no exception. As in the case of his friend Erasmus of Rotterdam, however, only a small portion of his correspondence (about 280 letters) survived. These include everything from personal letters to official government correspondence (mostly in English), letters to fellow humanist scholars (in Latin), several epistolary tracts, verse epistles, prefatory letters (some fictional) to several of More's own works, letters to More's children and their tutors (in Latin), and the so-called "prison-letters" (in English) which he exchanged with his oldest daughter Margaret while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London awaiting execution.<ref name="Gerard" /> More also engaged in controversies, most notably with the French poet [[Germain de Brie]], which culminated in the publication of de Brie's ''Antimorus'' (1519). Erasmus intervened, however, and ended the dispute.{{sfn|Moynahan|2014|p=}}

More also wrote about more spiritual matters. They include: ''A Treatise on the Passion'' (a.k.a. Treatise on the Passion of Christ), ''A Treatise to Receive the Blessed Body'' (a.k.a. Holy Body Treaty), and ''De Tristitia Christi'' (a.k.a. The Agony of Christ). More handwrote the last in the Tower of London while awaiting his execution. This last manuscript, saved from the confiscation decreed by Henry VIII, passed by the will of his daughter Margaret to Spanish hands through Fray Pedro de Soto, confessor of Emperor Charles V. More's friend [[Luis Vives]] received it in Valencia, where it remains in the collection of [[Real Colegio Seminario del Corpus Christi]] museum.