Thomas More's Sainthood
Thomas More's sainthood has been under great controversy even after a century of his death. It was not until 1866 that he was declared a saint. This declaration came about after many debates and votes of acceptance both by the people and by the church. While the English Church was still bound by King Henry VIII's Supremacy Act, Thomas More was rumored to have been a deceitful character of the court. He was declared unorthodox who went against the Church (Roper, 1935). He was also said to have gone against the doctrines of the church because he went against the King of England.
In modern times the portrayal of, partially, Richard the III and Thomas More is seen to be compassionate and kind to their people. In many historical books, such as Shakespeare, Richard III was portrayed as evil and cruel. This paper hopes to show both Thomas More and Richard the III's characters through the space of time, and why the people's opinion changed towards them.
THOMAS MORE IN MAN OF ALL SEASONS
Thomas More in Robert Bolt's book A man for All Seasons is shown as a devoted family man, a supporter of the Catholic Church, and scholar. He is also shown to be a strong man of conscience who cannot compromise his faith even to save his life.
In Robert Bolt's play Henry the VIII is the King who wanted to divorce his wife to marry someone else. At the time the Church did not allow divorces, Henry
decided to assign himself as the Supreme order, overriding the Pope. To More what the king was doing was terrible and against Christian Doctrines. He declared that it was against the ethics of the church and will not swear the Supremacy Act:
I'm not God. The currents and eddies of right and wrong, which you
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Bibliography:
WORKS CITED
v Bolt, Robert. A Man For All Seasons. 1996
v Cassidy, Michael. When most I play the devil: An Examination of the
Historical and Theatrical Richard III. 1997
v Cheetham, Anthony. The Life and Times of Richard III. 1972; reprinted
1992.
v Lakowski, Ronald. A Man For All Seasons. Sir Thomas More and the Art
of Dialogue. 1933
v Roper, William. The Life of Sir Thomas Moore, knightedm (London:
Humphrey Milford, Oxford UP,) 1935
v Snider Edward. A Man For All Seasons, review. Published in the Daily
Herald on January 24.
v Sykes, Gary. The Spirit of All Laws, New York. Copyright 1996
v The Washington weekly. letter to the editor of the austin american-
statesman, published on Oct. 12. 1998
v Tey, Josephine mystery novel The daughter of time. 1995
v What is Sainthood? http://www.self-realization.com/sainthood.htm
Thomas More hates war, as do most people. But you must have an army constantly training to avoid war. Having a well-trained army will scare enemies and keep people from attacking them. This is yet another corporate vocation. Everyone in the army has a private vocation to protect the city and the people within so this creates another corporate vocation. The army protects the farmers and religious and the farmers provide food for the soldiers and the religious pray for the army as well as the farmers. So it all comes together into one large corporate vocation. Regarding the book itself, it ends with worship because it is the way to live.
Sir Thomas More, “The History of King Richard III” in Richard III A Source Book, Keith
Reason to defend Sir Thomas More: More is just thinks that his private conscience is more important than his public duties and will do what he thinks is right, not what is convenient. This is not considered High Treason as More is not attempting to betray his country in any way.
In the early 16th century, Thomas More wrote a novel about a fictional society in which humanist ideas were dominant. During this time, European noble power was anything but a Humanist utopia. Europe was not only a mess, but a genocidal mess. Between the reigns of the Tudor Dynasty, and eventually under power of Queen Mary I, English citizens lived in constant fear of their religious rights and their lives. On top of the religious civil wars, the Catholic Church and other clergymen were progressively straying from ‘purity ideas’.
As Henry continued his reign he realized he needed a son to carry on his name and rule. Henry was married to Catherine of Aragon for eighteen years; however, he still had no son to inherit the English throne. Although she had given birth to many children, including several boys, only one girl had survived infancy. Henry went to Pope Clement VII asking for an annulment. This would allow Henry to end his marriage to Catherine, so he could then remarry in hopes of having a son. An annulment is to consider a marriage invalid. In spite of his request, Pope Clement denied Henry’s request. The Pope dallying because Catherine was the aunt of mighty emperor Charles V. The Pope did not intend to offend Charles (Mullett, 2003). Henry would not accept this defeat. Henry built up
Gifted with the darkest attributes intertwined in his imperfect characteristics, Shakespeare’s Richard III displays his anti-hero traits afflicted with thorns of villains: “Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous / By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams” (I.i.32-33). Richard possesses the idealism and ambition of a heroic figure that is destined to great achievements and power; however, as one who believes that “the end justifies the means”, Richard rejects moral value and tradition as he is willing to do anything to accomplish his goal to the crown. The society, even his family and closest friends, repudiate him as a deformed outcast. Nevertheless, he cheers for himself as the champion and irredeemable villain by turning entirely to revenge of taking self-served power. By distinguishing virtue ethics to take revenge on the human society that alienates him and centering his life on self-advancement towards kingship, Richard is the literary archetype of an anti-hero.
Thomas More was born in London in 1478. He studied at Oxford where he took a profound love of classical literature. In Utopia, More shows his own skills in humanism. In this story, modeled after Plato's Republic, More examines his culture against a hypothetical culture he invents. His Utopia varies greatly from both his society and our society today. Four ways Utopia differs from our society are social system, attitude towards jewelry, marriage customs, and religion.
In Henry’s reign, the Church had its own courts and any member of the Church could decide to be tried in a Church court rather than a royal court.
Sir Thomas More was born in London to Agnes and John More a lawyer in 1477. Tomas after being a page in the Morton Household was sent to Oxford University and became a successful lawyer. After becoming an MP for the Under-Sheriff of London he started writing the book Utopia and finishing it 1516. After writing the book he was appointed as the privy councilor to King Henry VIII in 1518. He was latter executed in 1535 for refusing King Henry VIII to be the head of the church. Utopia is a fictional book about Mores talk with Raphael Nonsenso and his travels to Utopia.
Written during a time of peace immediately following the conclusion of the War of the Roses between the Yorks and the Lancasters, William Shakespeare’s play Richard III showcases a multi-faceted master of linguistic eloquence, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, a character who simultaneously manages to be droll, revolting, deadly, yet fascinating. Richard's villainy works in a keen, detestable manner, manifesting itself in his specific use or, rather, abuse of rhetoric. He spends a substantial amount of time directly interacting and therefore breaking the fourth wall and orating to the audience in order to forge a relationship with them, to make members not only his confidants of murderous intentions, but also his accomplices and powerless, unwilling cohorts to his wrongdoings. Through the reader’s exploration of stylistic and rhetorical stratagem in the opening and final soliloquies delivered by Richard, readers are able to identify numerous devices which provide for a dramatic effect that make evident the psychological deterioration and progression of Richard as a character and villain.
Shakespeare constructs King Richard III to perform his contextual agenda, or to perpetrate political propaganda in the light of a historical power struggle, mirroring the political concerns of his era through his adaptation and selection of source material. Shakespeare’s influences include Thomas More’s The History of King Richard the Third, both constructing a certain historical perspective of the play. The negative perspective of Richard III’s character is a perpetuation of established Tudor history, where Vergil constructed a history intermixed with Tudor history, and More’s connection to John Morton affected the villainous image of the tyrannous king. This negative image is accentuated through the antithesis of Richards treachery in juxtaposition of Richmond’s devotion, exemplified in the parallelism of ‘God and Saint George! Richmond and victory.’ The need to legitimize Elizabeth’s reign influenced Shakespeare’s portra...
King Henry VIII’s reign before he met Anne Boleyn must be assessed in order to understand why he severed his ties with the Roman Catholic Church, and subsequently instated the Act of
This clearly demonstrates the fact that More knew what he was on about and wasn’t going to go against his beliefs for the sake of living. More strongly believed in the church and the Head of the Church, the Pope. He sustained in doing what you feel right in your heart, not what people tell you. More knew that if he stayed alive, it would have been sufferable, living in jail for the rest of his life, no job and little sight of family. He did what he thought was right. “ I do no harm, I say none harm, I think none harm. And if this be not enough to keep a man alive, in good faith I long not to live”(pg. 97)
Sir Thomas More wrote this story exactly in the time when Europe was religiously being torn apart by conflicts and revolutions such as the reformation, that caused “the separation of the Christians of western Europe into Catholics and Protestant” (khanacademy). Religion as a whole was as a consequence, an important and hot topic to discuss at the time considering all that is going on. I wonder why Hythloday spent so much time and effort discussing that matter with the narrator. It was rather dangerous to talk too controversially about religion during that period. The Author, by expressing himself through a fictional monotheist but laic polity in which the inhabitants all believe in a single Power, God and governed by specific moral code laws
In spite of the weaknesses, Ivanhoe and King Richard demonstrate true chivalric characteristics. They exemplify integrity, loyalty to the king, a love for adventure and bravery. Through this book, the reader learns the meaning of moral guidelines due to the examples set by King Richard and Ivanhoe. These examples challenge us to search for our own moral guidelines. Without these, we have nothing to strive for.