St. Thomas More is one of the famous layman Saints. He was alive at a time when the Church and Europe were going through a crisis. It was the time of the Protestant “Reformation” (which was really a revolution), during which many people were leaving the Church to join the ranks of the Protestants. There were many different reasons that people were doing this; some left because they did not agree with the Catholic Church, others because they thought that the beliefs of Protestantism were easier to practice; but the majority of people left for a different reason. Many times, when the ruler of an area changed his religion, those who lived in his territory also changed their religion, in order to remain in good standing with him. Sometimes those who would not change their religion were threatened with death, or the usurpation of the land, possessions, and even the dispersion of their family sometimes. It was a very difficult time for Catholics to stay Catholic without being molested by the Protestant authorities. It was a time when many ordinary people became great Saints, because they held on to their beliefs, even in the face of death.

St. Thomas More was born on February 6, 1478, the son of Sir John More. As a boy, Thomas received the finest of education; going to St. Anthony’s school and later studying at the Archbishop of Canterbury’s palace. Later, he studied at Oxford for two years; and by the age of 18 was studying to become a lawyer. In 1504, he had entered Parliament, which was the body of men that decided what the king was and was not allowed to do. Thomas was certainly a brilliant young man, and quite successful too; but he had for some time been unsure of his vocation in life. But feeling himself not called to the religious life, and unworthy of the priesthood, he married in the early months of the year 1505 to Jane Colt. They lived happily together, having four children: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cecilia, and John. His household was very much one of learning and of prayer. All of the family and the servants met for night prayers, and during dinner a story from the bible was read by one of the children, followed by an explanation. He saw to it that all of his children were well educated; and he himself wore a hair shirt under his clothing and practiced other acts of mortification regularly. Even though he was well off financially, he was always concerned with the welfare of the poor. He often invited the poorer of his neighbors to his house to dine, receiving them to his house as familiarly as if they were his close friends. He rarely, though, invited the rich to his house, but those who were religiously minded and learned he welcomed to his home always.

In 1509, King Henry VII died, and with the crowning of Henry VIII, many honors and riches were heaped upon More. But at the same time, his beloved wife Jane died. A few weeks later he had married again; this time to Alice Middleton. She was a widow, and seven years older than he was; but Thomas was not looking for someone attractive to replace his first wife. He was a man of sense, and since he had four young children with no mother to look after them, he married someone who had some experience with taking care of children and other household duties.

After completing a book called Utopia in 1516, the king was determined to have Thomas’ services at court. Thomas was not exactly pleased with the proposition of being in the king’s service at his court, for he knew that those who wished to live good lives did not often exist or stay long at court. But he did not entirely refuse, and after receiving a rapid succession of promotions, he was given the position of Lord Chancellor. The life of the court, however, did not affect Thomas, for he remained an upright and decent man; always dealing out judgment with fairness and prudence. He would never take any bribes, or any payments for his decisions. He would be very serious in giving advice to those who needed it and in discussing important matters; and yet he quite knew how to amuse the king and those around him with the funniest of jokes and conversation.

Around the time that Thomas was made Lord Chancellor, he was engaged in battling the heresies of Protestantism. He wrote many works battling these errors; always taking care to battle the heresy itself, and not the heretics who believed it. But soon things began happening that made it difficult for Thomas to remain chancellor. King Henry VIII had been married to Catherine of Aragon for many years now, and as of yet they had not been blessed with a son. Now, it was very important for a king to have a son, for it was to this son that all of the king’s possessions and the position of king itself were passed on to. Now, if King Henry had trusted in God, and amended his life some; and prayed to God to give him a son, he certainly would have gotten one. But he didn’t; he took matters into his own hands. He had taken measures to secure that his first marriage “invalid,” so that he could marry another woman, Anne Boleyn. Thomas had always, by his own asking, remained out of the controversy. When asked about his opinion, More always refused to give it. When the King had asked the Pope to declare that his first marriage had been invalid, the Pope then appointed some bishops in England to look into the matter, thus staying out of the matter. When things did not come to a conclusion fast enough for the king, guessing the Pope’s position in the matter, he started taking measures to strengthen his power over the clergy in England. More, who had for some time seen all of this coming, had tried to resign from his office of Lord Chancellor, but had been advised to stay. Now, when the king was making laws that gave him greater authority over the Church in England, Thomas opposed these laws openly. This greatly angered King Henry, and so soon afterwards he accepted Thomas’ resignation from office on May 16, 1532.

With no official salary, Thomas was reduced to little more than poverty. He had to dismiss many of his servants, for he had no money to pay them with; and had to sell many thing from his estate. And so he lived quietly in this way for eighteen months, writing letters and books. He did not, however, attend the “coronation” of Anne Boleyn; and his enemies certainly harassed him for not attending. But the time for his real trials to begin were soon at hand. On March 30, 1534, the Act of Succession was passed. In this act, it was required that the king’s subjects were to take an oath that said that they agreed with several things: first, that any offspring of Anne Boleyn were the heirs to the throne; second, that his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon was no true marriage, and that his marriage to Anne was; and third, that it did not matter what “any foreign authority” said regarding the validity or invalidity of either marriages. To oppose the act was high treason; but just the week before the Pope had declared that King Henry’s first marriage to Catherine was indeed valid. This caused quite a problem for Catholics living in England. To sign this oath was to consent to the king’s sin of adultery; but if one did not sign, it was certain that they would be executed. On April 13th, Sir Thomas More and another Saint, John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, were shown the oath and asked to sign it. Neither did, so both were imprisoned. Thomas was shown the oath again a short while later and asked to sign, and after refusing again he was sent to the Tower to be imprisoned.

For fifteen months he was held prisoner in the Tower. During this time he wrote as often as he could, for there were times when writing materials were denied him. His family came to him many times, begging him to come to terms with the king; but he always refused to do so. His lands were confiscated from him, and the Lady Alice had to sell some of her clothes just to buy him the necessities that he needed. He was, in the end, quite penniless; the Lady More twice petitioned the king to release him, on account of his sickness and poverty, but these were both denied. On February 1, 1535, the Acts of Supremacy were passed; thus stating that King Henry was now the “Supreme Head of the Church in England”. In April, Cromwell (who was the new Lord Chancellor) asked Thomas to give him his opinion on the Acts, but he wouldn’t give him his opinion. Thomas never did give out his opinion; he never spoke of it to anyone.

On July 1st, nine days after his friend John Fisher had been executed, Thomas was brought to Westminister Hall to be tried for treason. Being very weak from illness and from his long captivity, he was permitted to sit during the trial. He was charged with opposing the Acts of Supremacy when in conversation with certain members of the council while he was in prison; but these accusations were fabricated, for Thomas held that he had never spoken his mind to anyone upon this subject. This was ignored, however, and he was convicted guilty of high treason and condemned to death. Then he spoke his mind, saying that it was impossible for a temporal lord to be the head of a spiritual domain. He also said that although St. Paul persecuted St. Stephen, and yet they are both now saints in Heaven, “... so I verily trust, and shall therefore right heartily pray, that though your lordships have here on earth been the judges of my condemnation, we may yet hereafter in Heaven merrily meet together in everlasting salvation.”

Early on the morning of July 6th, Sir Thomas Pope came to warn Sir Thomas More that he was to be beheaded at 9 o’clock; where upon More thanked him, told him that he would pray for the king, and then comforted his friend, who was weeping. Thomas More then put on his best clothes and walked quietly to Tower Hill, the place of his execution. Upon arriving there, he mounted the scaffold, while he made a joke to the lieutenant. Upon reaching the platform he addressed those who were there to witness his death. He begged them to keep him in their prayers; and he told them that he was dying for the Holy Roman Catholic Church, and that he was, and had always been “the king’s good servant - but God’s first.” After this, he recited the psalm Miserere; then, encouraging the executioner on in his task, he knelt down and placed his head upon the block. With one stroke, the axe severed his head from his body. The whole event that July day in 1535 may have seemed to those present as nothing eventful; but in reality, a victory had been won. Thomas More had triumphed over the world; over the temptation to abandon the Faith in return for his life. For he knew that this life is nothing when compared to eternity; and that the purpose of this life is to earn our eternity of happiness. Thus, Thomas More died, a martyr for the Catholic Faith, and a defender of that Faith for which he had given his life.