Thomas More

Sir Thomas More is commemorated with a sculpture at the late-19th-century Sir Thomas More House, Carey Street, London, opposite the Royal Courts of Justice.

More supported the Catholic Church and saw the Protestant Reformation as heresy, a threat to the unity of both church and society. More believed in the theology, argumentation, and ecclesiastical laws of the church, and "heard Luther's call to destroy the Catholic Church as a call to war."[33]

His early actions against the Protestant Reformation included aiding Wolsey in preventing Lutheran books from being imported into England, spying on and investigating suspected Protestants,[34] especially publishers, and arresting anyone holding in his possession, transporting, or distributing Bibles and other materials of the Protestant Reformation. Additionally, More vigorously suppressed Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament.[35]

The Tyndale Bible used controversial translations of certain words that More considered heretical and seditious; for example, it used "senior" and "elder" rather than "priest" for the Greek "presbyteros", and used the term congregation instead of church;[36] he also pointed out that some of the marginal glosses challenged Catholic doctrine.[37] It was during this time that most of his literary polemics appeared.

Many accounts circulated during and after More's lifetime regarding persecution of the Protestant "heretics" during his time as Lord Chancellor. The popular sixteenth-century English Protestant historian John Foxe was instrumental in publicising accusations of torture in his Book of Martyrs, claiming that More had often personally used violence or torture while interrogating heretics.[38] Later authors such as Brian Moynahan and Michael Farris cite Foxe when repeating these allegations,[39] although Diarmaid MacCulloch, while acknowledging More's "relish for burning heretics", finds no evidence that he was directly involved.[40] During More's chancellorship, six people were burned at the stake for heresy; they were Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbury, Thomas Dusgate, and James Bainham.[19]^{: 299–306} Moynahan argued that More was influential in the burning of Tyndale, as More's agents had long pursued him, even though this took place over a year after his own death.[41]

Peter Ackroyd also lists claims from Foxe's Book of Martyrs and other post-Reformation sources that More "tied heretics to a tree in his Chelsea garden and whipped them", that "he watched as 'newe men' were put upon the rack in the Tower and tortured until they confessed", and that "he was personally responsible for the burning of several of the 'brethren' in Smithfield."[19]^: 305 Richard Marius records a similar claim, which tells about James Bainham, and writes that "the story Foxe told of Bainham's whipping and racking at More's hands is universally doubted today".[42] More himself denied these allegations:

Stories of a similar nature were current even in More's lifetime and he denied them forcefully. He admitted that he did imprison heretics in his house – 'theyr sure kepynge' – he called it – but he utterly rejected claims of torture and whipping... 'as help me God.'[19]^{: 298–299}

More instead claimed in his "Apology" (1533) that he only applied corporal punishment to two heretics: a child who was caned in front of his family for heresy regarding the Eucharist, and a "feeble-minded" man who was whipped for disrupting prayers.[43]^: 404

Burning at the stake had been a standard punishment for heresy: 30 burnings had taken place in the century before More's elevation to Chancellor, and burning continued to be used by both Catholics and Protestants during the religious upheaval of the following decades.[44] Ackroyd notes that More zealously "approved of burning".[19]^: 298 Marius maintains that More did everything in his power to bring about the extermination of the Protestant "heretics".[42]

John Tewkesbury was a London leather seller found guilty by the Bishop of London John Stokesley[45] of harbouring English translated New Testaments; he was sentenced to burning for refusing to recant. More declared: he "burned as there was neuer wretche I wene better worthy."[46] After Richard Bayfield was also executed for distributing Tyndale's Bibles, More commented that he was "well and worthely burned".[19]^: 305

Modern commentators are divided over More's religious actions as Chancellor. Some biographers, including Ackroyd, have taken a relatively tolerant view of More's campaign against Protestantism by placing his actions within the turbulent religious climate of the time and the threat of deadly catastrophes such as the German Peasants' Revolt, which More blamed on Luther,[47][48][49] as did many others, such as Erasmus.[50] Others have been more critical, such as Richard Marius, an American scholar of the Reformation, believing that such persecutions were a betrayal of More's earlier humanist convictions, including More's zealous and well-documented advocacy of extermination for Protestants.[43]^{: 386–406}

Some Protestants take a different view. In 1980, More was added to the Church of England's calendar of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church, despite being a fierce opponent of the English Reformation that created the Church of England. He was added jointly with John Fisher, to be commemorated every 6 July (the date of More's execution) as "Thomas More, scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535".[13] Pope John Paul II honoured him by making him patron saint of statesmen and politicians in October 2000, stating: "It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience ... even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time".[12]

As the conflict over supremacy between the Papacy and the King reached its peak, More continued to remain steadfast in supporting the supremacy of the Pope as Successor of Peter over that of the King of England. Parliament's reinstatement of the charge of praemunire in 1529 had made it a crime to support in public or office the claim of any authority outside the realm (such as the Papacy) to have a legal jurisdiction superior to the King's.[51]

In 1530, More refused to sign a letter by the leading English churchmen and aristocrats asking Pope Clement VII to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and also quarrelled with Henry VIII over the heresy laws. In 1531, a royal decree required the clergy to take an oath acknowledging the King as Supreme Head of the Church of England. The bishops at the Convocation of Canterbury in 1532 agreed to sign the Oath but only under threat of praemunire and only after these words were added: "as far as the law of Christ allows".[52]

This was considered to be the final Submission of the Clergy.[53] Cardinal John Fisher and some other clergy refused to sign. Henry purged most clergy who supported the papal stance from senior positions in the church. More continued to refuse to sign the Oath of Supremacy and did not agree to support the annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine.[51] However, he did not openly reject the King's actions and kept his opinions private.[54]

On 16 May 1532, More resigned from his role as Chancellor but remained in Henry's favour despite his refusal.[55] His decision to resign was caused by the decision of the convocation of the English Church, which was under intense royal threat, on the day before.[56]

Sir Thomas More family's vault

Another comment he 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.[88] More asked that his foster/adopted daughter Margaret Clement (née Giggs) be given his headless corpse to bury.[89] She was the only member of his family to witness his execution. He was buried at the Tower of London, in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in an unmarked grave. His head was 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.[90] It is believed to rest in the Roper Vault of St Dunstan's Church, Canterbury,[91] perhaps with the remains of Margaret and her husband's family.[92] Some have claimed that the head is buried within the tomb erected for More in Chelsea Old Church.[93]

Among other surviving relics is his hair shirt, presented for safe keeping by Margaret Clement.[94] 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 hair was then at the Martyr's church on the Weld family's estate in Chideock, Dorset.[95][96] It is now preserved at Buckfast Abbey, near Buckfastleigh in Devon.[97][98]

Between 1512 and 1519 More worked on a History of 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.[99] Some consider it an attack on royal tyranny, rather than on Richard III himself or the House of York.[100] 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.[101] It greatly influenced William Shakespeare's 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.[101][102] According to Caroline Barron, Archbishop John Morton, in whose household More had served as a page , had joined the 1483 Buckingham rebellion against Richard III, and Morton was probably one of those who influenced More's hostility towards the defeated king.[103][104] 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.[105][106]

A 1516 illustration of Utopia

More's best known and most controversial work, Utopia, is a frame narrative written in Latin.[107] More completed and theologian Erasmus published the book in Leuven in 1516, but 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 (also a character in the book) and the narrator/traveller, Raphael Hythlodaeus (whose name alludes both to the healer 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.[108] Utopia's original edition included a symmetrical "Utopian alphabet" omitted by later editions, but which may have been an early attempt or precursor of shorthand.

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 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.

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. Early works influenced by Utopia included New Atlantis by Francis Bacon, Erewhon by 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.

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.).[19]^: 225 In these books, Luther set out his doctrine of salvation through grace alone, rejected certain Catholic practices, and attacked abuses and excesses within the Catholic Church.[19]^: 225–6 In 1521, Henry VIII formally responded to Luther's criticisms with the Assertio, written with More's assistance.[109] Pope Leo X rewarded the English king with the title "Fidei defensor" ("Defender of the Faith") for his work combating Luther's heresies.[19]^: 226–7

Martin Luther then attacked Henry VIII in print, calling him a "pig, dolt, and liar".[19]^: 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",[110] described Luther as an "ape", a "drunkard", and a "lousy little friar" amongst other epithets.[19]^: 230 Writing under the pseudonym of Gulielmus Rosseus,[32] 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.[111]

His saying is followed with a kind of apology to his readers, while Luther possibly never apologized for his sayings.[111] 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."[112]

Confronting Luther confirmed More's theological conservatism. He thereafter avoided any hint of criticism of Church authority.[19]^: 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.[19]^: 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.[19]^: 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.[19]^: 307–9

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.[33] 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.[37]

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.

Pope Leo XIII beatified Thomas More, John Fisher, and 52 other English Martyrs on 29 December 1886. Pope Pius XI canonised More and Fisher on 19 May 1935, and More's feast day was established as 9 July.[113] Since 1970 the General Roman Calendar has celebrated More with St John Fisher on 22 June (the date of Fisher's execution). On 31 October 2000 Pope John Paul II declared More "the heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians".[12] More is the patron of the German Catholic youth organisation Katholische Junge Gemeinde.[114]

In 1980, despite their opposition to the English Reformation, More and Fisher were added as martyrs of the reformation to the Church of England's calendar of "Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church", to be commemorated every 6 July (the date of More's execution) as "Thomas More, scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535".[13][115] The annual remembrance of 6 July, is recognized by all Anglican Churches in communion with Canterbury, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, and South Africa.[116]

In an essay examining the events around the addition to the Anglican calendar, Scholar William Sheils links the reasoning for More's recognition to a "long-standing tradition hinted at in Rose Macaulay's ironic debating point of 1935 about More's status as an 'unschismed Anglican', a tradition also recalled in the annual memorial lecture held at St. Dunstan's Church in Canterbury, where More's head is said to be buried."[116] Sheils also noted the influence of the 1960s popular play and film A Man for All Seasons which gave More a 'reputation as a defender of the right of conscience".[116] Thanks to the play's depiction, this "brought his life to a broader and more popular audience" with the film "extending its impact worldwide following the Oscar triumphs".[116] Around this time the atheist Oxford historian and public intellectual, Hugh Trevor-Roper held More up as "the first great Englishman whom we feel that we know, the most saintly of Humanists...the universal man of our cool northern Renaissance."[116] By 1978, the quincentenary of More's birth Trevor-Roper wrote an essay putting More in the Renaissance Platonist tradition, and claim his reputation was "quite independent of his Catholicism."[116] (Only, later on, did a more critical view arise in academia, led by Professor Sir Geoffrey Elton, which "challenged More's reputation for saintliness by focusing on his dealings with heretics, the ferocity of which, in fairness to him, More did not deny. In this research, More's role as a prosecutor, or persecutor, of dissidents has been at the center of the debate.")[116]

William Roper's biography of More was one of the first biographies in Modern English.

Sir Thomas More is a play written circa 1592 in collaboration between Henry Chettle, Anthony Munday, William Shakespeare, and others. In it More is portrayed as a wise and honest statesman. The original manuscript has survived as a handwritten text that shows many revisions by its several authors, as well as the censorious influence of Edmund Tylney, Master of the Revels in the government of Queen Elizabeth I. The script has since been published and has had several productions.[132][133]

The 20th-century agnostic playwright Robert Bolt portrayed Thomas More as the tragic hero of his 1960 play A Man for All Seasons. The title is drawn from what Robert Whittington in 1520 wrote of More:

More is a man of an angel's wit and singular learning. I know not his fellow. For where is the man of that gentleness, lowliness and affability? And, as time requireth, a man of marvelous mirth and pastimes, and sometime of as sad gravity. A man for all seasons.[120]

In 1966, the play A Man for All Seasons was adapted into a film with the same title. It was directed by Fred Zinnemann and adapted for the screen by the playwright. It stars Paul Scofield, a noted British actor, who said that the part of Sir Thomas More was "the most difficult part I played."[134] The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Scofield won the Best Actor Oscar. In 1988 Charlton Heston starred in and directed a made-for-television film that restored the character of "the common man" that had been cut from the 1966 film.

In the 1969 film Anne of the Thousand Days, More is portrayed by actor William Squire.

Catholic science fiction writer R. A. Lafferty wrote his novel Past Master as a modern equivalent to More's Utopia, which he saw as a satire. In this novel, Thomas More travels through time to the year 2535, where he is made king of the world "Astrobe", only to be beheaded after ruling for a mere nine days. One character compares More favourably to almost every other major historical figure: "He had one completely honest moment right at the end. I cannot think of anyone else who ever had one."

Karl Zuchardt's novel, Stirb du Narr! ("Die you fool!"), about More's struggle with King Henry, portrays More as an idealist bound to fail in the power struggle with a ruthless ruler and an unjust world.

In her 2009 novel Wolf Hall, its 2012 sequel Bring Up the Bodies, and the final book of the trilogy, her 2020 The Mirror and the Light, the novelist Hilary Mantel portrays More (from the perspective of a sympathetically portrayed Thomas Cromwell) as an unsympathetic persecutor of Protestants and an ally of the Habsburg empire.

Literary critic James Wood in his book The Broken Estate, a collection of essays, is critical of More and refers to him as "cruel in punishment, evasive in argument, lusty for power, and repressive in politics".[135]

Aaron Zelman's non-fiction book The State Versus the People includes a comparison of Utopia with Plato's Republic. Zelman is undecided as to whether More was being ironic in his book or was genuinely advocating a police state. Zelman comments, "More is the only Christian saint to be honoured with a statue at the Kremlin." By this Zelman implies that Utopia influenced Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks, despite their brutal repression of religion.

Other biographers, such as Peter Ackroyd, have offered a more sympathetic picture of More as both a sophisticated philosopher and man of letters, as well as a zealous Catholic who believed in the authority of the Holy See over Christendom.

The protagonist of Walker Percy's novels, Love in the Ruins and The Thanatos Syndrome, is "Dr Thomas More", a reluctant Catholic and descendant of More.

More is the focus of the Al Stewart song "A Man For All Seasons" from the 1978 album Time Passages, and of the Far song "Sir", featured on the limited editions and 2008 re-release of their 1994 album Quick. In addition, the song "So Says I" by indie rock outfit The Shins alludes to the socialist interpretation of More's Utopia.

Jeremy Northam depicts More in the television series The Tudors as a peaceful man, as well as a devout Roman Catholic and loving family patriarch. He also shows More loathing Protestantism, burning both Martin Luther's books and English Protestants who have been convicted of heresy. The portrayal has unhistorical aspects, such as that More neither personally caused nor attended Simon Fish's execution (since Fish actually died of bubonic plague in 1531 before he could stand trial), although More's The Supplication of Souls, published in October 1529, addressed Fish's Supplication for the Beggars.[136][137] Indeed, there is no evidence that More ever attended the execution of any heretic. The series also neglected to show More's avowed insistence that Richard Rich's testimony about More disputing the King's title as Supreme Head of the Church of England was perjured.

More is depicted by Andrew Buchan in the television series The Spanish Princess.

In the years 1968–2007 the University of San Francisco's Gleeson Library Associates awarded the annual Sir Thomas More Medal for Book Collecting to private book collectors of note,[138] including Elmer Belt,[139] Otto Schaefer,[140] Albert Sperisen, John S. Mayfield and Lord Wardington.[141]

Having been praised "as a Communist hero by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Karl Kautsky" because of the Communist attitude to property in his Utopia,[14] under Soviet Communism the name of Thomas More was in ninth position from the top of Moscow's Stele of Freedom (also known as the Obelisk of Revolutionary Thinkers),[142] as one of the most influential thinkers "who promoted the liberation of humankind from oppression, arbitrariness, and exploitation."[143] This monument was erected in 1918 in Aleksandrovsky Garden near the Kremlin at Lenin's suggestion.[14][144][143]

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia's English translation (1979) described More as "the founder of Utopian socialism", the first person "to describe a society in which private property ... had been abolished" (a society in which the family was "a cell for the communist way of life"), and a thinker who "did not believe that the ideal society would be achieved through revolution", but who "greatly influenced reformers of subsequent centuries, especially Morelly, G. Babeuf, Saint-Simon, C. Fourier, E. Cabet, and other representatives of Utopian socialism."[145]

Utopia also inspired socialists such as William Morris.[146]

Many see More's communism or socialism as purely satirical.[146] In 1888, while praising More's communism, Karl Kautsky pointed out that "perplexed" historians and economists often saw the name Utopia (which means "no place") as "a subtle hint by More that he himself regarded his communism as an impracticable dream".[129]

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Russian Nobel Prize-winning, anti-Communist author of The Gulag Archipelago, argued that Soviet communism needed enslavement and forced labour to survive, and that this had been " ...foreseen as far back as Thomas More, the great-grandfather of socialism, in his Utopia".[147]

In 2008, More was portrayed on stage in Hong Kong as an allegorical symbol of the pan-democracy camp resisting the Chinese Communist Party in a translated and modified version of Robert Bolt's play A Man for All Seasons.[148]

A plaque in the middle of the floor of London's Westminster Hall commemorates More's trial for treason and condemnation to execution in that original part of the Palace of Westminster.[149] The building, which houses Parliament, would have been well known to More, who served several terms as a member and became Speaker of the House of Commons before his appointment as England's Lord Chancellor.

Beaufort House c.1707

Crosby Hall on its Bishopsgate site, c.1885

As More's royal duties frequently required his attendance at the king's Thames-side palaces in both Richmond and Greenwich, it was convenient to select a riverside property situated between them (the common method of transport being by boat) for his home. In about 1520 he purchased a parcel of land comprising "undisturbed wood and pasture", stretching from the Thames in Chelsea to the King's Road. There he caused to be built a "dignified" red-brick mansion (known simply as More's house or Chelsea House) in which he lived until his arrest in 1534. In the bawdy poem The Twelve Mery Jestes of Wyddow Edyth, written in 1525 by a member of More's household (or even by More himself) using the pseudonym of "Walter Smith", the widow arrives by boat at "Chelsay…where she had best cheare of all/in the house of Syr Thomas More."[150]

Upon More's arrest the estate was confiscated, coming into the possession of the Comptroller of the Royal Household, William Paulet. In 1538 it was considered sufficiently impressive to give as temporary accommodation to Louis de Perreau, Sieur de Castillon, the French ambassador to the English court; the delicate matter of choosing a French royal wife for King Henry (after the death of Queen Jane Seymour) was under consideration.[151][152]

In 1682 the property was renamed Beaufort House (after a new owner: Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort). It was demolished in 1712 and the site is now occupied by modern-day Beaufort Street.[153][154][155]

In June 1523 More bought the "very large and beautiful" Crosby Place (Crosby Hall) in Bishopsgate, London, but this was not a simple transaction: eight months later he sold the property (never having lived there) at a considerable profit to his friend and business partner Antonio Bonvisi who, in turn, leased it back to More's son-in-law William Roper and nephew William Rastell; possibly this was an agreed means of dealing with a debt between More and Bonvisi. Because of this the Crown did not confiscate the property after More's execution.[156][157][158]

Parts of the Crosby Hall survived until demolished in 1909 when some elements, including the hammer-beam roof of the Great Hall, part of a musicians' gallery, a postern doorway and some oriel windows, were placed in storage and eventually incorporated into a new building erected by the Thames in Chelsea, near to the original site of Beaufort House.[159][157][153] It is privately owned and closed to the public.

Statue of Thomas More outside Chelsea Old Church in west London

Across a small park and Old Church Street from Crosby Hall is Chelsea Old Church, an Anglican church whose southern chapel More commissioned and in which he sang with the parish choir. Except for his chapel, the church was largely destroyed in the Second World War and rebuilt in 1958.[153] The capitals on the medieval arch connecting the chapel to the main sanctuary display symbols associated with More and his office. On the southern wall of the sanctuary is the tomb and epitaph he erected for himself and his wives, detailing his ancestry and accomplishments in Latin, including his role as peacemaker between the various Christian European states as well as a curiously altered portion about his curbing heresy. When More served Mass, he would leave by the door just to the left of it. He is not, however, buried here, nor is it entirely certain which of his family may be. It is open to the public at specific times. Outside the church, facing the River Thames, is a statue by L. Cubitt Bevis erected in 1969, commemorating More as "saint", "scholar", and "statesman"; the back displays his coat-of-arms. Nearby, on Upper Cheyne Row, the Roman Catholic Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer & St. Thomas More honours the martyr.

A plaque and small garden commemorate the famed execution site on Tower Hill, London, just outside the Tower of London, as well as all those executed there, many as religious martyrs or as prisoners of conscience.[160] More's corpse, minus his head, was unceremoniously buried in an unmarked mass grave beneath the Royal Chapel of St. Peter Ad Vincula, within the walls of the Tower of London, as was the custom for traitors executed at Tower Hill. The chapel is accessible to Tower visitors.

Thomas More is commemorated by a stone plaque near St Katharine Docks, just east of the Tower where he was executed. The street in which it is situated was formerly called Nightingale Lane, a corruption of "Knighten Guild", derived from the original owners of the land. It is now renamed Thomas More Street in his honour.[161]

St Dunstan's Church, an Anglican parish church in Canterbury, possesses More's head, rescued by his daughter Margaret Roper, whose family lived in Canterbury down and across the street from their parish church. A stone immediately to the left of the altar marks the sealed Roper family vault beneath the Nicholas Chapel, itself to the right of the church's sanctuary or main altar. St Dunstan's Church has carefully investigated, preserved and sealed this burial vault. The last archaeological investigation revealed that the suspected head of More rests in a niche separate from the other bodies, possibly from later interference.[162] Displays in the chapel record the archaeological findings in pictures and narratives. Roman Catholics donated stained glass to commemorate the events in More's life. A small plaque marks the former home of William and Margaret Roper; another house nearby and entitled Roper House is now a home for deaf people.

• A Merry Jest (c. 1516) (CW 1)
• Utopia (1516) (CW 4)
• Latin Poems (1518, 1520) (CW 3, Pt.2)
• Letter to Brixius (1520) (CW 3, Pt. 2, App C)
• Responsio ad Lutherum (The Answer to Luther, 1523) (CW 5)
• A Dialogue Concerning Heresies (1529, 1530) (CW 6)
• Supplication of Souls (1529) (CW 7)
• Letter Against Frith (1532) (CW 7) pdf
• The Confutation of Tyndale's Answer (1532, 1533) (CW 8) Books 1–4, Books 5–9
• Apology (1533) (CW 9)
• Debellation of Salem and Bizance (1533) (CW 10) pdf
• The Answer to a Poisoned Book (1533) (CW 11) pdf

• The History of King Richard III (c. 1513–1518) (CW 2 & 15)
• The Four Last Things (c. 1522) (CW 1)
• A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation (1534) (CW 12)
• Treatise Upon the Passion (1534) (CW 13)
• Treatise on the Blessed Body (1535) (CW 13)
• Instructions and Prayers (1535) (CW 13)
• De Tristitia Christi (1535) (CW 14) (preserved in the Real Colegio Seminario del Corpus Christi, Valencia)

• Ackroyd, Peter (1999). The Life of Thomas More. ISBN 9780385477093.
• Basset, Bernard, SJ (1965). Born for Friendship: The Spirit of Sir Thomas More. London: Burns & Oates.
• Berglar, Peter (2009). Thomas More: A Lonely Voice against the Power of the State. New York: Scepter Publishers. ISBN 978-1-59417-073-7. (Note: this is a 2009 translation (from the original German, by Hector de Cavilla) of Berglar's 1978 work Die Stunde des Thomas Morus – Einer gegen die Macht. Freiburg 1978; Adamas-Verlag, Köln 1998, ISBN 3-925746-78-1)
• Brady, Charles A. (1953). Stage of Fools: A Novel of Sir Thomas More. Dutton.
• Brémond, Henri (1904) – Le Bienheureux Thomas More 1478–1535 (1904) as Sir Thomas More (1913) translated by Henry Child;
  • 1920 edition published by R. & T. Washbourne Limited, OCLC 1224822, 749455885;
  • Paperback edition by Kessinger Publishing, LLC (26 May 2006) with ISBN 1-4286-1904-6, ISBN 978-1-4286-1904-3;
  • published in French in Paris by Gabalda, 1920, OCLC 369064822

(Note: Brémond is frequently cited in Berglar (2009))

• Bridgett, Thomas Edward (1891). Life and Writings of Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England and Martyr under Henry VIII.
• Chambers, RW (1935). Thomas More. Harcourt, Brace.
• Guy, John (1980). The Public Career of Sir Thomas More. ISBN 978-0-300-02546-0.
• ——— (2000). Thomas More. ISBN 978-0-340-73138-3.
• ——— (2009). A Daughter's Love: Thomas More and His Daughter Meg.
• Hiscock, Andrew; Wilcox, Helen, eds. (2017). The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern English Literature and Religion. Oxford: University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-165342-1.
• House, Seymour B. (2008) [2004]. "More, Thomas". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19191. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Marius, Richard (1984). Thomas More: A Biography. Vintage Books. ISBN 9780394741468.
• ——— (1999). Thomas More: a biography. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-88525-7.
• More, Cresacre (1828). The Life of Sir Thomas More by His Great-Grandson. W. Pickering. p. 344.
• Moynahan, Brian (2014). God's Bestseller: William Tyndale, Thomas More, and the Writing of the English Bible—A Story of Martyrdom and Betrayal. St. Martin's Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-4668-6650-8.
• Mueller, Janel; Loewenstein, David, eds. (2002). The Cambridge History of Early Modern English Literature. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-63156-3.
• Phélippeau, Marie-Claire (2016). Thomas More. Gallimard.
• Reynolds, EE (1964). The Trialet of St Thomas More.
• ——— (1965). Thomas More and Erasmus. New York, Fordham University Press.
• Ridley, Jasper (1983). Statesman and Saint: Cardinal Wolsey, Sir Thomas More, and the Politics of Henry VIII. ISBN 0-670-48905-0.
• Roper, William (2003), Wegemer, Gerard B; Smith, Stephen W (eds.), The Life of Sir Thomas More (1556) (PDF), Center for Thomas More Studies, archived from the original (PDF) on 8 June 2012, retrieved 5 March 2012
• Roper, William (2007). The Life of St. Thomas More. Benediction Classics. ISBN 978-1-4092-2795-3.
• Stapleton, Thomas, The Life and Illustrious Martyrdom of Sir Thomas More (1588) (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 29 December 2016, retrieved 3 January 2016.
• Wegemer, Gerard (1985). Thomas More: A Portrait of Courage. ISBN 978-1-889334-12-7.
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• Wordsworth, Christopher (1810). Ecclesiastical Biography, Or, Lives of Eminent Men Connected with the History of Religion in England. Vol. 2. London: Rivingtons.

• Gushurst-Moore, André (2004), "A Man for All Eras: Recent Books on Thomas More", Political Science Reviewer, 33: 90–143.
• Guy, John (2000), "The Search for the Historical Thomas More", History Review: 15+.
• Miles, Leland. “Persecution and the Dialogue of Comfort: A Fresh Look at the Charges against Thomas More.” Journal of British Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, 1965, pp. 19–30. online

• More, Thomas (1947), Rogers, Elizabeth (ed.), The Correspondence of Sir Thomas More, Princeton University Press.
• ——— (1963–1997), Yale Edition of the Complete Works of St. Thomas More, Yale University Press.
• ——— (2001), da Silva, Álvaro (ed.), The Last Letters of Thomas More.
• ——— (2003), Thornton, John F (ed.), Saint Thomas More: Selected Writings.
• ——— (2004), Wegemer, Gerald B; Smith, Stephen W (eds.), A Thomas More Source Book, Catholic University of America Press.
• ——— (2010), Logan, George M; Adams, Robert M (eds.), Utopia, Critical Editions (3rd ed.), Norton.