Thomas More Beheaded: Martyrdom Over Royal Supremacy

Sir Thomas More mounted the scaffold at the Tower of London on July 6, 1535, and reportedly told his executioner, "I pray you, I pray you, Mr. Lieutenant, see me safe up, and for my coming down, let me shift for myself." The wry humor was characteristic of a man who had been Lord Chancellor of England, the most celebrated humanist scholar in Europe, and a friend of kings — until his conscience put him on the wrong side of Henry VIII s religious revolution. More had served Henry VIII loyally for decades, rising through diplomatic and legal posts to become Lord Chancellor in 1529, the highest non-royal office in the realm. He was also a devoted Catholic who had written extensively against the Protestant Reformation, including burning heretics during his time as Chancellor — a fact his later admirers have sometimes preferred to overlook. The crisis came when Henry sought to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn. When Pope Clement VII refused the annulment, Henry broke with Rome entirely, declaring himself Supreme Head of the Church of England through the Act of Supremacy in 1534. More resigned the chancellorship rather than support the break. His silence was deafening — the most prominent intellectual in England refused to endorse the king s new religious order. Silence was not enough for Henry. The Treason Act of 1534 made it a capital offense to deny the king s supremacy over the church. More was imprisoned in the Tower of London for fifteen months, during which he wrote devotional works and maintained his refusal to take the oath acknowledging royal supremacy. At his trial, Richard Rich, the Solicitor General, testified that More had explicitly denied the king s authority in a private conversation. More called Rich a perjurer, but the jury convicted him in fifteen minutes. More was beheaded rather than subjected to the full traitor s death of hanging, drawing, and quartering — a mercy from the king. The Catholic Church canonized him as a saint in 1935, exactly four hundred years after his execution. His book Utopia, written in 1516, gave the English language its word for an ideal society.