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| Sir Thomas More |
‘When morality comes
up against profit, it is seldom that profit loses’ but ‘Sir Thomas More offers the fundamental lesson of flight from success and
easy compromises in the name of fidelity to irrevocable principles’. History is full of people who
place profit before morals, of people who betrayed their country for a pay
cheque, of a disciple who betrayed his leader with a kiss on the cheek for
thirty silver coins, politicians who stole hospital development funds for their
healthy bank accounts, of business people who sell poisonous food, to fatten
their bank accounts and the list goes on. Once in a while we see people who
stand for what they believe in and they change history forever, Sir Thomas More
is one such person. And as G. K. Chesterson would write that Thomas More “was
above all things historic; he represented …, a turning point and an ultimate
destiny. If there had not happened to be that particular man at that particular
moment, the whole of history would have been different." In short, Thomas
More changed the course of history.
The year is 1529,
King Henry VIII, King of England is in desperate need of a son to inherit the throne.
His current wife Queen Catherine of Aragon is likely past prime child bearing
years, presumably barren and the King is unwilling to leave the throne to a
female, his daughter Princess Mary I. The sons Queen Catherine had birthed were
either stillborn or died at early age.
The King, maybe out
of lust or desperation came up with a plan to declare his marriage to Queen
Catherine unlawful and therefore null. By so doing his daughter will be illegitimate,
therefore disinherited the throne. Secondly, the annulment of the Marriage will
enable him to marry a new mistress,Anne Boleyn and maybe get a son with her to
inherit the throne.
The king decided to
question his 18 year old marriage to the queen. He claimed that since Queen
Catherine was initially married to Arthur, his elder brother; that’s the reason
God was punishing him with no son. To support this, King Henry VIII quoted the
bible, the Book of Leviticus 20:21: "If a man shall take his brother's
wife, it is an unclean thing...they shall be childless."
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| King Henry VIII |
At the time the King
married Queen Catherine of Argon, the Catholic Church had a great say in the Kings
Marriages. To allow King Henry VIII to marry his Brothers alleged wife the
Catholic Church has issued a dispensation from the injunction found in the
Bible's Leviticus on grounds that Catherine had been briefly married to Arthur but
the marriage had not been consummated. Therefore, Pope Julius II blessed the
marriage.
Now, King Henry VIII
was again approaching the Pope, now Pope Clement VII the successor of Pope
Julius II who had since died, to dispense and annul the same marriage the
Church had issued a dispensation and blessed. The Pope was uncomfortable with this
since it would make the church dispensation to appear as a switch which could
be turned on and off the provisions of the Bible to meet an individual
interest. The church refused.
Since the Pope
refused to issue a dispensation and actually affirmed the marriage to Queen
Catherine as valid, the King was outraged and decided to declare himself
"the sole protector and supreme head of the English Church and
clergy." And due to the church refusal to annul the marriage, the King
aggressively and directly attacked the authority of the Church. With his
authority as the supreme head of the church, the church would only exercise its
authority with the consent of the King. With his new authority, the King
declared his marriage to Anne Boleyn valid.
To secure his
authority, The Act of Succession was passed that required all people in the
realm to take oath and declare that they acknowledge the marriage to Queen
Catherine as invalid and that King Henry VIII “most dear and entirely beloved
lawful wife Queen Anne, begotten and to be begotten… to the heirs of our said
sovereign” and that the King is Supreme head of the church. Anyone who failed
to do so was considered to have committed a treasonable act and the penalty was
death.
Sir Thomas More was
Lord Chancellor of the Realm and was widely respected and influential in the
Kingdom, due to his unfailing moral integrity, his constant ‘fidelity to
legitimate authority and his unconditional and benevolent dedication to justice’.
He placed his service to the public especially to the weak and poor that his
fellow citizens called him “Patron of the Poor”. He was a firm and staunch believer
in the Catholic Faith. He was a rare combination of a powerful public servant
and spiritual human. He portrayed a harmony of the supernatural and the human,
of political commitment and moral conviction. He believed that ‘when statesmen
forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties they
lead their country by a short route to chaos’ and that government is above all an exercise of virtue.
During his tenure as Lord Chancellor, he
viciously and vigorously pursued and persecuted heretics who spoke against the
Catholic Church. But he resigned, when
his principles clashed with the powers of the king due to King Henry VIII
continuous attack on the church and the King’s marriage to Anne Boleyn
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| Thomas More Defending the Liberty of the House of Commons |
The King needed Sir Thomas to take the oath due
to his former position as Lord Chancellor, his wide respect and influence. His
great reputation as a honest man made him the prominent figure to promote and
sanctify the King’s agenda. By Sir More taking the oath would act as ratify the
oath as lawful and right and it would face minimal resistance among the people
in the kingdom. Sir More was therefore summoned to take the oath and on reading
its content, he refused to take the oath. When asked to disclose the reason of
refusing the oath he said “his conscience would not allow him to take it”. Even
after ‘much cajoling and threats of imprisonment’ from the commissioners for
failure to take oath he said he refused to betray his conscience.
Sir More considered
that the oath required him to state that he recognized the king to be Supreme
head of the church, implying that the Kings authority supersedes that of the
Church and that the marriage to the mistress was therefore
right. Sir More considered taking such an oath a betrayal to his principles and
conscience. He questioned the authority of the King to enforce laws that were
inconsistent and violated the teachings of Christ, law of God, Universal
Catholic Church, the Magna Carta that provided that “that the English Church shall be free, and shall
have its rights undiminished, and its liberties unimpaired” and the King’s Coronation Oath.
To Sir More an oath, was
not something you take to please the authority and silently disregard. To him
an oath was a definite contract, ‘an invitation to God, an invitation that God
would not refuse to act as a witness and judge’ and that a man ‘takes an oath
when he wants to commit himself quiet exceptionally to the statement, when he
wants to make an identity between the truth of it and his own virtue, he offers
himself as guarantee.’ Therefore, Taking the oath was repugnant his principles
and conscience.
On being persuaded to
take the oath a friend brought a list of names to him and said, “look at those
names… You know those men! Can’t you do what I did, and come with us for
fellowship?” the man was telling him to just compromise and sway with the public
opinion to please the authority and take the oath and it does not really matter
his personal view on the oath. More answered, “And when we stand before God and
you are sent to paradise for doing according to your conscience, and I am
damned for doing according to mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?” He
was arrested and imprisoned in The Tower of London; the most terrifying and
horrifying prison in London at the time.
His family including wife and children took
the oath but not Sir Thomas More, he could not be swerved from the path of
truth and virtue. In matters of conscience Sir More was more burden to be loyal
to his conscience than to any other thing, even on the face of death.
He was offered pardon
before trial would start if he would repent and revoke his “willful and obstinate
opinion” but he graciously declined and said that God would grant him “good, honest and upright
mind even to the last hour and extreme moment “ of his life.
Sir More would stand
a trial for his life that would test his all legal experience as a lawyer,
judge and Lord Chancellor. The trial was before a jury that guaranteed a guilt
penalty since it was made up of relatives of Kings Mistress, Anne Bolyne; all
who has strong interest to convict Thomas More.
‘Finally, the sentence
was pronounced on the man of unbreakable conscience: it read that ‘More should
be "drawn on a hurdle through the City of London to Tyburn, there to be
hanged till he should be half dead; then he should be cut down alive, his privy
parts cut off, his belly ripped, his bowels burnt, his four quarters sit up
over four gates of the City and his head upon London Bridge."
On the execution
dated, saying his last words, he said ‘he was the King’s good servant, but God
first.’ He knelt down, laid his head
upon the block, and stretched his arms out in front of him. One blow of the
execution's axe took off his head. The executioner raised the head for the
crowd to see: and said "Behold the head of a traitor!” A traitor who was
loyal to his conscience and principles.
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| Sir Thomas More with daughter after Sentence to death |
In October 31, 2000,
Pope John Paul II Proclaimed, Sir Thomas More a Saint and Patron of Statesmen
and politicians. The Pope said that “What enlightened [Sir
More] conscience was the sense that man cannot be sundered from God, nor
politics from morality… And it was precisely in defense of the rights of
conscience that the example of Thomas More shone brightly.” He is venerated as
an imperishable example of moral integrity.
In 1999 the Law Society of Great Britain's Gazette
featured Lawyer of the millennium,
to recognize outstanding and a most distinguished lawyer. Sir Thomas More topped the Lawyers’
polls as ‘the most significant legal figure of the second Millennium’. Others
who came close to such a reputation included, Lord Denning, Nelson Mandela,
Gandhi, Henry II, Sir Edward Coke, William Blackstone and William Wilberforce.
Sir More is celebrated as the freedom fighter for Freedom of religion and
primacy of individual conscience over the power of the state.
We may not all be
celebrated the day we stand for our principles or conscience but Sir More set
the example to all people, that we can all create the seldom moment when Morals
and virtue triumph over Profit, conscience over public opinion and fear, truth
over power, integrity over corruption and Goodness over utility and for sure
our actions will be the small hinges that turn the great doors of history towards
a society that does not compromise its sacred principles.
In this battle
between principles and powers there is no neutral ground every inch of ground
claimed by principles is counter claimed by profit. The war is waged in your
mind and conscience, you can try and hide from it and say ‘I don’t pick sides’
but at some point life will force you to pick a side. Decide beforehand so that
the day someone will ask you for something that you want to keep, you know what
you can fight or even die for. As John
Bunyan would say, “I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a
butchery of my conscience”
