Thomas More

Joanne Paul

• Publisher: Polity
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780745692173, 9780745692166
• eBook ISBN: 9780745692203
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political History & Theory
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Thomas More remains one of the most enigmatic thinkers in history, due in large part to the enduring mysteries surrounding his best-known work, Utopia. He has been variously thought of as a reformer and a conservative, a civic humanist and a devout Christian, a proto-communist and a monarchical absolutist. His work spans contemporary disciplines from history to politics to literature, and his ideas have variously been taken up by seventeenth-century reformers and nineteenth-century communists.

Through a comprehensive treatment of More's writing, from his earliest poetry to his reflections on suffering in the Tower of London, Joanne Paul engages with both the rich variety and some of the fundamental consistencies that run throughout More's works. In particular, Paul highlights More's concern with the destruction of what is held 'in common', whether it be in the commonwealth or in the body of the church. In so doing, she re-establishes More's place in the history of political thought, tracing the reception of his ideas to the present day.

Paul's book serves as an essential foundation for any student encountering More's writing for the first time, as well as providing an innovative reconsideration of the place of his works in the history of ideas.

1
Early Life, Education and Poetry

In his earliest works More develops a distinction between what is temporal, worldly and artificial and what is eternal, divine and ‘real’. This was a division present in many of the authors whom More drew upon – perhaps most notably in Augustine's City of God, which makes a distinction between the city of mortals and the divine city, and in the works of More's friend Erasmus, who emphasized internal piety over outward ceremonies. More expresses this idea by drawing on the metaphor of the pageant or stage play of life, which implies that we are all just actors who play temporary roles here on earth. The play is short and, when it is concluded, we return to the natural equality whence we came. In using this metaphor, More combines a diversity of ideas on the notion of the stage play of life, including those of Lucian, who saw it as a reminder of death, those of Cicero, who saw it as a strategy for active citizenship, and those of early Renaissance humanists, who used it to express the temporary and equal nature of republican political leadership.¹ For More, all of these lessons come together to encourage people to turn away from self-oriented pride and to reflect on their commonality and equality.

Early Life and Education

Thomas More was born in London on the 7th of February 1478, during a relative lull in what we now know as the Wars of the Roses.² Edward IV (1442–83) had been on the throne for the previous seventeen years and, despite various uprisings and rebellions, had more or less managed to hold the throne. The period, however, remained tumultuous. Less than two weeks after More's birth, the king's brother, George, Duke of Clarence (1449–78), was executed for treason, allegedly by being drowned in a barrel of sweet malmsey wine – a story that More himself repeats in his History of King Richard the Third. When More was five Edward IV died and his young son Edward (1470–83) was declared king, as Edward V. Within months, the young king had disappeared into the depths of the Tower of London, along with his younger brother, and their uncle Richard (1452–85) took the throne as Richard III. Richard himself was overthrown just two years later by Henry VII (1457–1509), whose reign saw the end of the Wars of the Roses and established the Tudor dynasty.

This context of division and warfare is important, as it was the one in which More spent his formative years. His father, John More (1451–1530), a London lawyer, had ties to Edward IV; the usurpation of Richard III may have endangered his family's growing success. Nevertheless, after the accession of Henry VII the More family quickly ingratiated itself with the new Tudor monarch and by 1489 Thomas More had entered the household of the second most powerful man in the country, Cardinal John Morton (c. 1420–1500), then Lord Chancellor. More's education at Lambeth Palace included not only the standard medieval primers, but also a pragmatic understanding of the political world. Serving the Lord Chancellor and the visiting lords at mealtimes, More would have picked up information about the innermost workings of politics, perhaps reflections on the reign and overthrow of Richard III, debates over the rebellions of the 1490s and comments on Morton's influential but unpopular tax policies.

These years also furnished material for two of More's best known and most admired texts, The History of King Richard the Third and Utopia, both of which include the figure of Morton himself as a wise man and wily politician, committed to public order. Growing up in the unsettled world of the Wars of the Roses may also have played a role in fostering More's interest in the unity of the commonwealth.

Before entering Morton's household, More was enrolled at one of the best grammar schools in London, St Anthony's, not far from his home in Cheapside. There he learned the fundamentals of Latin grammar, rhetoric and literature as well as English literacy, music and public deliberation. These studies continued at Lambeth Palace, and after spending three years there More had impressed Morton enough to be sent to Oxford at the cardinal's expense.

At Oxford More joined other scholars in following the classical trivium, which consisted of grammar, rhetoric and logic.³ Not only was he introduced to the major texts of a classical education; he was also able to hone the skills they taught him through scholarly debates. Like many students, More wrote during his time at school and university. His friend Erasmus (1466–1536) later suggested that some of More's poems dated from this period and that he participated in the composition and performance of plays, which unfortunately – if they ever existed – have not survived.

More's arrival at Oxford coincided with the growth of a movement that challenged the value of the curriculum in which he was enrolled. Humanism had emerged in the Italian city-states in the fourteenth century and arrived in England at the turn of the sixteenth, finding a place especially among scholars at Cambridge and Oxford. Those humanists with whom More would become most closely associated, the ‘civic’ humanists, were concerned to promote the ‘active’ life over the strictly ‘contemplative’ life. In other words, they believed that men (and, very rarely, women) had a duty to contribute their learning to the good of all, to the commonwealth or res publica. This tension between the active and the contemplative life would become one of More's recurrent themes.

More did not finish his degree at Oxford and returned to London, where he followed in his father's footsteps, studying the law. Such a path – interrupted university studies and then the law – was not uncommon for those preparing themselves for public life, and More certainly did not abandon his interest in humanism. Before the turn of the century, More had ingratiated himself with some of England's leading – and pioneering – humanists, such as John Colet (1467–1519), Thomas Linacre (1460–1524) and William Grocyn (1446–1519), who had travelled Europe, absorbed the central tenets of continental humanism in order to bring it to England on their return. Although this group is now generally known as the ‘More circle’, at the time More would have been one of its most junior and insignificant members: a young, albeit bright lawyer in a circle of esteemed scholars and politicians. In 1499 More was able to meet the rising star of the northern Renaissance, Erasmus, and they travelled together to meet young Prince Henry, then second in line to the throne, after his brother Arthur (who died in 1502). More's studies expanded exponentially during this period; in addition to acquiring a mastery of the law, he lectured on Augustine's City of God, which would remain an influence for him throughout his life, and by 1505 he could read and translate ancient Greek. The larger European humanist network of which he had become a part, the ‘republic of letters’ (respublica literarum), was a close-knit community, bound together by the Renaissance ideal of amicitia – love and friendship – as well as by patronage and support.⁴

In all of this it is important, however, not to overlook the importance of More's life as a London lawyer. At the Inns of Court, More not only improved his knowledge of the complexities of English law, but also honed his skills as an orator, rhetorician and polemicist and forged valuable connections with the city elite. By 1500 London was a thriving metropolis, with long-established networks and institutions, many of which were at least nominally democratic.⁵ The basic unit of government was the ward, in which all male householders could participate. There they elected the councilmen and debated matters that had to be determined by higher bodies, such as the Court of Common Council and the Court of Aldermen. Beyond the ward level, those participating in the government of the city were required to be ‘freemen’: they were given ‘the freedom’ by their respective guild or company, and this made them full voting citizens. This meant that it was essentially the guilds that had the power to decide citizenship in the city. Throughout the fifteenth and into the early sixteenth century, the guilds increasingly became the hubs of civil power within London. One of the most important and influential was the Mercers’ Company, with which More began to forge profitable ties from at least 1505. By the start of sixteenth century, the Mercers had taken over much of the export market, largely with the Low Countries. It was on behalf of the Mercers that More mounted his first legal disputes and diplomatic negotiations.

Finally, More also built ties within the religious world of London. After being called to the bar in 1501, More appears to have spent three years living either in or beside the Charterhouse, the London home for Carthusian monks.⁶ Although this arrangement may have been, as was later reported, More's ‘testing’ of the religious life, it might have simply presented him with the opportunity to live away from the business of the city, apart...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Series page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Key Dates
• The Thought of Thomas More
• 1: Early Life, Education and Poetry
• 2: Utopia and ‘Common Things’
• 3: Richard III and the Stage Play of Politics
• 4: The Common Corps of Christendom
• 5: Influence
• Conclusion
• References
• Recommended Reading
• Index
• End User License Agreement