Thomas More: A Portrait of Courage: Thirtieth Anniversary Edition: With Latest Sources & Discoveries

Description

recommended by an SSPX priest

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"Thomas More is more important at this moment than at any moment since his death, even perhaps the great moment of his dying; but he is not quite so important as he will be in about a hundred years' time." In 1929, G. K. Chesterton made this claim with acute perception. One of history's greatest lawyers and statesmen and most admired figures of all time, Thomas More was voted "Lawyer of the Millennium" by the Law Society of Great Britain and named "Patron of Statesmen" by John Paul II. He combined immense humanistic learning with an unequaled command of the legal and political traditions of Christendom, forging a profound philosophy of statesmanship and freedom. He possessed the virtues of an exemplary husband, father, and friend and the detachment and interior peace of a saint. He thus emerged from the first great crisis of modern tyranny—a crisis that would claim his life—as the model of a truly free man, whose conscience and character no despot could subvert. Thomas More was canonized in 1935 as Hitler was rising to power and the world needed an example of courage and skill in the face of the greatest of dangers. This book reveals how More prepared himself for the challenges of his life, and how he rose to the demands placed upon him. This 30th anniversary edition includes citations to Scepter's collection of Thomas More writings while incorporating updated sources and information about More's life.

Dr. Gerard B. Wegemer is a professor of literature at the University of Dallas and director of the Center for Thomas More Studies, which he founded in 2000. He assisted in the process that culminated in More's becoming Patron of Statesmen on October 31, 2000, and has served as an editor and member of the research committee of Moreana, the international journal on Thomas More and his times. Wegemer earned master's degrees in political philosophy and in literature from Boston College and Georgetown University and a doctorate in English literature from the University of Notre Dame.

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Introduction

09/21/25Introduction : 20

Socrates’s wise counsel that the “first duty” of a “free person and real ruler” is “to rule oneself and not to be a slave to oneself

3. More’s First Handbook on Spiritual Combat

09/21/253. More’s First Handbook on Spiritual Combat : 59

if we would compare all the pleasures of this world, we would discover that the greatest by far is a clear conscience, that “inward gladness of a virtuous mind.”

4. Husband and Father: New Joys, New Sorrows

09/22/254. Husband and Father: New Joys, New Sorrows : 69

In a letter to a close friend, Francis Cranevelt, he wrote, “I do not think it possible to live, even with the best of wives, without some discomfort.”

🤣

09/22/254. Husband and Father: New Joys, New Sorrows : 69

He also admitted that “generally we make our wives worse by our own fault.”20

09/22/254. Husband and Father: New Joys, New Sorrows : 70

As More colorfully wrote, it is impossible to please everyone, since “while in one house the husband would have fair weather for his corn and his wife would have rain for her leeks!”21

🤣

09/22/254. Husband and Father: New Joys, New Sorrows : 70

More records one of their lively exchanges over their disagreement about positions of authority. In a conversation that probably took place shortly after their marriage, Alice scolded More for his lack of ambition.
“What will you do since you do not wish to put yourself forth as other folk do? Will you still sit by the fire and make designs in the ashes with a stick as children do? Would God I were a man—look what I would do!”
“Why, wife, what would you do?”
“What? By God, go forward with the best! Because, as my mother liked to say—God have mercy on her soul—it is always better to rule than to be ruled. And therefore, by God, I would never be so foolish as to be ruled when I might rule.”
“Here I must say that you have said the truth, because I never found you willing to be ruled yet!”22

🤣

09/22/254. Husband and Father: New Joys, New Sorrows : 72

In time, Lady Alice was able to joke about it herself.

in time... 🤣

09/22/254. Husband and Father: New Joys, New Sorrows : 72

One day, for example, after she returned from confession, she told her husband to be merry because she had just got rid of all her old ill temper—and could now begin to harass him anew!26

🤣

5. The Laughing Philosopher: Early Writings

09/22/255. The Laughing Philosopher: Early Writings : 79

More was the one who inspired Erasmus to write his most famous literary work, In Praise of Folly.

09/22/255. The Laughing Philosopher: Early Writings : 79

More and Erasmus considered comedy, especially satire, a major force in bringing about social reform.

09/22/255. The Laughing Philosopher: Early Writings : 79

staunch opposition they later mounted against the angry approach of Luther and his followers

09/22/255. The Laughing Philosopher: Early Writings : 79

In More’s view, comedy had always been a powerful means of social reform and personal betterment. Why? Because comedy strongly appeals to reason and can therefore defuse passions that would otherwise prevent reason’s engagement.

09/22/255. The Laughing Philosopher: Early Writings : 80

More considered literature, not law, to be the primary civilizing force,

6. Coming to a Leading Citizen’s Understanding of Life: Richard III, Utopia, Latin Poetry

09/23/256. Coming to a Leading Citizen’s Understanding of Life: Richard III, Utopia, Latin Poetry : 103

1523 when he argued for freedom of speech as Speaker of the House of Commons

7. Achieving Professional Success

09/24/257. Achieving Professional Success : 110

In 1504, he served as a member of Parliament, elected by the London merchants whom he and his father knew so well. He soon learned a lesson that was both surprising and sobering, since he almost lost his life in the process—and just for speaking his mind clearly. In light of that experience, it should come as no surprise that twenty years later, when he served as speaker of the House of Commons, the first request he made was for freedom of speech.

09/29/257. Achieving Professional Success : 113

Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall to dedicate his book on mathematics

9. A Reluctant Career Change: From Citizen to Subject

09/25/259. A Reluctant Career Change: From Citizen to Subject : 151

upon joining the king’s service, he was appointed to the Privy Council, the head of which was Cardinal Wolsey. At one of the first meetings More attended, Wolsey proposed to acquire yet another lucrative and powerful office. When he “strongly urged” this proposal, it “was meekly followed by all the Dukes, Counts, and other nobles who formed the King’s Council. No one dared to contradict or to suggest any objection until More’s turn came to speak.” More then gave so many powerful arguments against this proposal that the council eventually changed its mind—much to Wolsey’s displeasure. Afterward Wolsey angrily said to him, “Are you not ashamed, Master More, being the lowest of all in place and dignity, to dissent from so many noble and prudent men? You show yourself a stupid and foolish Councilor.” More’s response was courteous, but bold and unflinching: “Thanks be to God that the King’s Majesty has but one fool in his Council.”20

dissenter like Massie

10. Daring Educator, Artful Parent

09/25/2510. Daring Educator, Artful Parent : 162

In one letter, he writes to his daughters (who have been traveling):
I cannot adequately express, my delightful daughters, how greatly pleased I am by your charming letters and no less by the fact, as I notice, that though you are on the road moving from place to place, you yet abandon none of your habit either of dialectic exercises or of writing themes or composing verse. This fully convinces me that you love me as you ought, since I observe you feel so much concern in my absence that you practice zealously what you know gives me pleasure when I am with you. When I return I shall make you realize that this disposition towards me is as profitable to yourselves as I realize it is pleasurable to me. For believe me, truly there is nothing which refreshes me so much in the midst of this bothersome business as reading what comes from you.

beautiful letter to his daughters

09/25/2510. Daring Educator, Artful Parent : 174

he raised five brilliant daughters (two of them adopted

11. Spiritual Handbook 2: The Four Last Things

09/25/2511. Spiritual Handbook 2: The Four Last Things : 179

he tries to show the truth of that Christian paradox whereby “abandoning and refusing carnal pleasure while pursuing labor, travail, penance, and bodily pain will bring with it to a Christian—not only in the world to come, but also in this present life—real sweetness, comfort, pleasure, and gladness.”

09/25/2511. Spiritual Handbook 2: The Four Last Things : 179

So long as the soul is “overgrown with the barren weeds of carnal pleasures,” it will have “no place for the good wheat of spiritual pleasure.”10

14. Chelsea: A Home of International Fame

09/25/2514. Chelsea: A Home of International Fame : 212

In his determination to prepare his family for the worst, More played what some have criticized as a cruel trick. As Stapleton learned from the family, More “hired one of the King’s officers to come to his house when all the family was at table, to knock suddenly at the door, to come in, and to cite him in the King’s name to appear next day before the royal commissioners.” The result was not surprising. “All,” says Stapleton, “were thrown into confusion by the unexpected message, but while some wept and lamented, others showed a brave resignation.” After this little drama was over, More praised those who had demonstrated bravery, and encouraged the others to accept adversity better.20 Such lessons proved so successful that when the time of arrest actually came, everyone was prepared.21 These lessons also permanently changed the children’s attitude toward adversity.22

Superiors can test their subjects.

09/26/2514. Chelsea: A Home of International Fame : 214

enema

?

15. The Power of Artful Conversation 1: A Dialogue of Sir Thomas More, Knight

09/26/2515. The Power of Artful Conversation 1: A Dialogue of Sir Thomas More, Knight : 224

According to C. S. Lewis, this book is “perhaps the best specimen of [the Platonic dialogue] ever produced in English.”

16. Royal Passion vs. Law and Tradition

09/26/2516. Royal Passion vs. Law and Tradition : 244

Tyndale’s new book.
This book is famous in the history of political thought because it gives the first justification in the English language for the divine right of kings. Up to this point, Henry had conceived of his right to rule as coming from the pope

09/26/2516. Royal Passion vs. Law and Tradition : 244

More had a quite different understanding about the source of political power. Since human beings are free by nature, he said, power to rule comes from essentially self-governing people. As he put it, “The consent of the people both bestows and withdraws sovereignty.”13

17. Lord Chancellor of England

09/26/2517. Lord Chancellor of England : 270

Easter Sunday, March 3

can‘t be that early

09/26/2517. Lord Chancellor of England : 278

Henry would soon burn Becket’s bones and destroy Becket’s shrine, the most popular pilgrimage place in England

19. Imprisonment, Despite the Thickets of the Law

09/26/2519. Imprisonment, Despite the Thickets of the Law : 306

misprision of treason

?

09/27/2519. Imprisonment, Despite the Thickets of the Law : 325

caitiff

?

ref:33.4 "MORE’S TRIAL is one of the most famous since the trial of Socrates."

25. Death with Good Humor: “All to the Good”

09/29/2525. Death with Good Humor: “All to the Good” : 415

Yet how should one act in the face of injustice? Is anger the best response? Or sadness? Or would stoic resignation be most appropriate? But in any event, who would argue that comedy is the most appropriate response?

09/29/2525. Death with Good Humor: “All to the Good” : 416

He had also learned, from the Greek and Roman comedians, that humor is one of the most powerful allies available to cultured human beings in their pursuit of justice, as Socrates proved at his own trial and execution.

26. In Retrospect: A Life of Reformation; A Hero’s Death

09/29/2526. In Retrospect: A Life of Reformation; A Hero’s Death : 431

Irony is to say one thing in order to convey another contrasting meaning.

Lying?

09/29/2526. In Retrospect: A Life of Reformation; A Hero’s Death : 441

Shakespeare scholar Robert Adams

Afterword: More’s Reputation after His Death

09/29/25Afterword: More’s Reputation after His Death : 446

Only in 1850 did that Church have its hierarchy restored.

Appendix 3: Thomas More’s London

09/30/25Appendix 3: Thomas More’s London : 455

Blackfriars: When Parliament met here in 1523, More served as speaker of the house. In his opening address, More argued for freedom of speech—the first such appeal ever recorded.

Notes

09/22/25Notes : 482

The Latin term is princeps, from primo and capere: to capture first place—not by force but by the choice of fellow-citizens based on the leader’s proven service.

09/26/25Notes : 515

Acts of attainder would also be prohibited by the United States Constitution—1.9.3.

09/26/25Notes : 516

James G. Clark, The Dissolution of the Monasteries: A New History (Yale University Press, 2021

09/29/25Notes : 535

R. W. Chambers, The Place of St. Thomas More in English Literature and History (Haskell House, 1964),

might mention Mores absence in Shakespeate’s Henry VIII

Works Cited

09/29/25Works Cited : 547

Wegemer, Gerard. Thomas More on Statesmanship. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1996.