THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
ton, Elizabeth) and in April, 1534, was committed to the Tower for refusing to take an oath impugning the pope's authority. In spite of entreaties and threats he steadfastly refused to acknowledge the king as head of the Church and July 1, 1535, was indicted of high treason. On his trial he declared that he had made a seven years' study of the history of the papacy and was convinced that it rested on divine law and prescription; he admitted that he had never consented to the king's marriage with Anne Boleyn. He was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged, but wag ultimately beheaded by royal commutation of the sentence.
To continue faithful to principle no matter what it cost, to be honest, kindly, ever active in some good and useful work, were the guiding motives of More's life. When he first entered parliament he successfully opposed extortionate demands of Henry VII., who, so it is said, imprisoned
More as and fined his father in consequence.
a Man. His brilliant success in public life later was won by no compromising selfseeking, and he dared antagonize the powerful Wolsey and his master when duty demanded. In the practise of his profession he gave clients disinterested service and strove to prevent unjust and frivolous suits. As chancellor he despatched the business of his court with an unprecedented rapidity and often settled disputes without trial; he listened to the poor as readily as to the rich and was deaf to pleas of kindred and friends. He advised all judges to temper the rigor of the law with equity. He had invincible courage, an active mind, and ready wit, and was an inveterate jester, and with an element of whimsicality in his character. In 1505 he married Jane Colte of Newhall, near Chelmesford, Essex, who died about 1511. More then married a widow, seven years older than himself, described as " neither beautiful nor well educated, but a good housekeeper." His devotion to duty and strong command over himself made More a good husband and both marriages were happy. Indeed, it is in his family and private life perhaps that he is most winsome. In 1523 he bought land in Chelsea and built there a famous house (demolished in 1740; its site is marked by the present Beaufort Street). More's hospitality was boundless and of the finest and best. He sought eagerly the company of the men of the new learning — Linacre and Grocyn after they came from Oxford to London, John Colet and William Latimer, the grammarian William Lily, and others like them in England. He met Erasmus when the latter first visited England in 1497; thereafter they corresponded regularly. Erasmus was one of the first to be entertained by More in his house after his marriage and he finished his Morim encomium (i.e., " Praise of Folly ") under the same hospitable roof on another visit in 1508; the book is dedicated to More and the title is a play upon his name. At Antwerp in 1515 More met Peter Giles (^Egidius), and he added Buddaeus to the circle of his friends at the field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. Holbein, the painter, introduced by Erasmus, came to the Chelsea house in 1526 and is said to have stayed three years. He painted pictures of More and his
family. More's interest in art was strong and he filled his house with the curious things dear to the collector.
He was scrupulously exact in all religious observances, yet encouraged simplicity in the church service; but he was not insensible to ecclesiastical abuses. He wished, however, for reform of the Church from within, orderly, and guided by the regular and competent authorities. Furthermore, he saw beneath the surface and deprecated removal of one evil by setting up another. As chancellor he pronounced severe judgments in religious cases and has been sharply criticized therefor. But his course herein was consistent with his character and his life, and his motives were correct. He hated heretics, he wrote to Erasmus — their vices, not their persons, he explained in the Apology (chap, xlix.; the work was published in 1533; in it More defends his course in controversy and advocates severe treatment of heretics). More was beatified by Pope Leo XIII. in 1886.
While a law student More wrote verses and comedies " for his pastime." He entered the field of religious controversy in 1523. Henry VIII. (perhaps with More's help) issued an Assertio septem sacramentorum (1521) in answer to Luther's " Babylonish Captivity." Luther replied His vehemently and More then took up the Writings, dispute in an Opus quo refellit Lutheri calumnias (London, 1523) under the pseudonym of William Ross. His first controversial book in English was A Dialogue wherein be Treated Divers Matters Touching the Pestilent Sect of Luther and Tyndale (London, 1529). It was written chiefly against Tyndale and was followed by a series of similar writings which was interrupted only by More's death. His manner in controversy was in no better taste than that of others of the time. His translation (from the Latin) of the life of Pico della Mirandola by the latter's nephew is significant (printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1510) as the Italian philosopher was in a certain sense the model of More's life. An incomplete History of Richard HI. was printed in an incorrect version in 1543 and then from an authentic copy in More's Works (1557); there is a Latin version, which differs somewhat from the English and is thought by some to have been written by Cardinal Morton and served as the basis of the English, in the 1566 edition of More's Latin works. More's famous book, the Utopia, consists of two parts, the second written while he was in the Netherlands in 1515, the first in London the next year. Erasmus arranged for its publication (Louvain, Dec, 1516; 2d ed., Paris, 1517; 3d ed., illustrated by Holbein, Basel, 1518). More relates that in Antwerp he was introduced by Peter Giles to one Raphael Hythloday, a Portuguese, who had just returned from extensive travels in the New World. At the mention of England in the conversation which followed Hythloday criticized its social condition and laws, especially in relation to theft. The land, he said, was overrun by discharged soldiers after the frequent and fruitless wars; an idle gentry maintained idle servants who were liable to lose their places by the death of their masters; and the new