Iurisdiction beganne now neuer before thought of to be inuested from God immediately vpon the Imperiall Crowne of England but this not all at once yea he grew afterwards vnto such height of malice that he caused the name of Pope to be raized out of euerie booke that could be found either printed or written He caused S. Thomas of Canterburie to be attaynted of high treason after he had bene three hūdred yeares accoūted a blessed Martyr of the whole Church yea so acknowledged by king Henry the second who was cause of his death but this king most strangely cast his sacred bones out of his renowned shreene after numbers of miracles and caused them to be burnt This was the strange passe king Henry was brought vnto doting on Anne Bullen though God knowes she had no qualities wherefore he should so doate on her as appeared euidently when for fowle matters he after a short time cutt of her head and proclaymed himself in open Parlement to be a Cuckolde which no doubt he neuer had bene if he had kept himself to his first vertuous wife Q. Catherine but all these things happened a good while after and manie other extreame violences and ensuing miseries as we doesee and feele as yet 3. Whilst those things were a doing as is before sayd about the king's diuorce and nothing yet brought to anie conclusion the king sent Tunstall bishopp of Durham Sir THOMAS MORE Embassadours to Cambray to treate of a peace betweene him and the French king and Charles the Emperour in which iourney Sir THOMAS so worthily behaued himself that he procured in our league with the sayd Princes farre more benefitts to our realme then at that time was thought possible by the king and all his Councell insomuch that his Maiestie caused it afterwards openly to be declared to the people when he was made Chancellour how much all England was bound to Sir THOMAS MORE And now at his returne the king againe was verie earnest with him to haue him agree to his second marriage for which cause also it is thought and Cardinall Poole te stifyeth it in a letter he made him the rather Lo Chancellour telling him that though the dispensation was good in respect of the lawes of the Church yet now it was found out to haue bene against the lawe of nature in which no dispensatiō could be had as Doctour Stokeley whome for that quirke foūd out he had lately preferred to the Bishopricke of London was able to instruct him with whome he willed Sir THOMAS to conferre in that point But for all the conferences he could haue with him Sir THOMAS could no way induce himselfe to change his former opinion therein Yet the Bishopp relating to the king their Conference so fauourably reported of Sir THOMAS MORE' 's carriage therein that he sayd he found him verie toward and desirous to finde out good matter wherein he might truly serue his grace to his contentment but yet he could not This Bishopp hauing bene lately by the Cardinall in the Starre-Chamber openly disgraced and awarded to the Fleete not brooking this contumelie sought by all meanes to wreake his anger against the Cardinall and picked a quarrell at him to the king because he beganne to waxe colde in the diuorce For so it was that Wolsey was sent ouer into France to treate a marriage betweene king Henry and the king of France's sister and finding their willing acceptance it was likelie to come to that issue which he hoped for Yet God so wrought to crosse him that this verie inuention which he had first plotted to reuenge himself on Charles the Emperour this same was the pitt wherein he fell and whereby all his dignitie creditt and wealth was taken away so that of him it may well be sayd incidit in foueam quam fecit For whilst he was contriuing for the king a marriage in France the king himself little to his knowledge had knitt the knott in England with a meane woman in respect of a prince a priuate knight's daughter and of meaner conditions then anie gentlewoman of worth Wherefore Wolsey returning and finding his embassage crossed beganne to repine at the king for disgracing him so much and now wished that he had neuer beganne to putt such scruples into Longlands head which Stokeley soone finding and himself hauing deuised a new knott in a rush to bring the king in better liking of himself for his forwardnesse and into more dislike of the Cardinall so wrought with his Maiestie that he sent for the Cardinal back being now on his way gone to be enstalled in the archbishoprick of Yorke so that by Sir William Kinston he was arreasted of high treason hauing confiscated all his goods before so that he that had bene one of the greatest prelates of Christendome had not now one dish to be serued in at the table who yf he had loued God halfe so well as he adored his prince could neuer haue come to such miserie for that he dyed either with sorrowe or poisō shortly after But the king caused in his place of Chancellourshipp Sir THOMAS MORE to be placed that with that bayte saith Card Poole corrupted he might the more easily be brought to the bente of the king's bowe who behaued himself so excellently in the place as one may say that none euer before him did better although he was the first lay man that euer possessed that roome as Card Poole noteth yea VVolsey himself hearing that Sir THOMAS MORE should haue it though he was very loath to leese it himselfe and withall bore Sir THOMAS no more good will then needes he must yet professed he to manie that he thought none in England more worthie of it then Sir THOMAS such was his fame that none could enuie it though it were neuer so vnaccustomed a case 4. The manner how Sir THOMAS MORE was installed in this high Office how the king did extraordinarily grace him therein and how modestly notwithstanding he accepted therereof is very remarkable For being lead betweene the Dukes of Norfolke and Suffolke through VVestminister hall vp to the Starre chamber and there honourably placed in the high Iudgement-seate of Chancellour the Duke of Norfolke who was the chiefe peere and Lo Threasurer of England by the king's order spoke thus vnto the people there with great applause and ioy gathered togeather The king's Ma.tie vvhich I pray God may proue happie and fortunate to the vvhole realme of England hath raised to the most high dignitie of Chancellourshipp Sir THOMAS MORE a man for his extraordinarie vvorth and sufficiencie vvell knovven to himself and the vvhole realme for no other cause or earthlie respect but for that he hath plainely perceaued all the guifts of nature and grace to be heaped vpon him vvhich either the people could desire or himself vvish for the discharge of so great an office For the admirable vvisedome
great miserie for poore suiters first he caused M. r Crooke chiefe of the Six Clarkes to make a Dockett containing the whole number of all Iniunctions as either in his time had already past or at that time depēded in anie of the king's Courts at Westminster Then bidding all the ludges to dinner he in the presence of them all shewed sufficient reason why he had made so manie Iniunctions that they all confessed that they rhemselues in the like case would haue donne no lesse Then he promised them besides that if they themselues to whome the reformation of the rigour of the law appartained would vpon reasonable consideracions in their owne discretion as he thought in conscience they were bound mitigate and reforme the rigour of the lawe there should then from him no Iniunctions be granted to which when they refused to condescende then sayd he for as much as yourselues my Lords driue me to this necessitie you cannot hereafter blame me if I seeke to relieue the poore people's iniuries After this he sayd to his sonne Rooper secretly I perceaue sonne why they like not this for they thinke that they may by a verdict of a lurie cast of all scruple from themselues vpon the poore Iurie which they account they chiefe defence Wherefore I am constrayned to abide the aduenture of their blame He tooke great paines to heare causes at home as is sayd arbitrating matters for both the parties good lastly he tooke order with all the atturneys of his Courte that there should no sub poenas goe out whereof in generall he should not haue notice of the matter with one of their hands vnto the Bill and if it did beare a sufficient cause of complaint then would he sett his hand to it to haue it goe forward if not he would vtterly quash it and denye a sub poena And when on a time one of the atturneyes whose name was M. r Tubbe had brought vnto Sir THOMAS the summe of the cause of his Client requested his hand vnto it Sir THOMAS reading it and finding it a matter friuolous he added in steede of his owne hand thereto these wordes A tale of a Tubbe for which the atturney going away as he thought with Sir THOMAS his name vnto it found when his Client read it to be only a ieaste 6. Shortly after his entrie into the Chancellourshipp the king againe importuned him to weighe and consider his great matter thinking that now he had so bound him vnto him that he could not haue gainesa yde him but he valüing more the quiett of his conscience and the iustice of the cause then a nie prince's fauour in the world fell downe vpon his knees before his Maiestie and humbly besought him to stande his gracious Soueraigne as he had euer found him since his first entrance into his princelie seruice adding that there was nothing in the world had bene so grieuous to his hart as to thinke that he was not able as he gladly would with the losse of one of his chiefest limmes to finde anie thing in that matter whereby with integritie of his conscience he might serue his Grace to his contentment And he alwaies bore in minde those most godlie wordes that his Highnesse spoke vnto him when he first admitted him into his royall seruice the most vertuous lesson that euer prince gaue vnto his seruant whereby he willed him First to looke to God and after God to him as in good fayth he sayd he did and would or else might his Maiestie accounte him for his most vnworthie vassall whereto the king courteously answered that if he could not therein with his conscience serue him he was contented to accept his seruice otherwaies and vsing the aduise of other his learned Councell whose consciences could well agree thereto he would notwithstanding continue his accustomed fauour towards him and neuer with that matter molest his conscience after but how well he performed his promise may be seene by the discourse following And indeede there is no prince be he bent to neuer so much wickednesse but shall finde counsellours enough that will alwaies seeke to please his humours but to finde anie one that will not agree to what that king is bent to haue wrongfully brought to passe these are verie rare and therefore most to be admired THE SEAVENTH CHAPTER A VIEW OF SOME especiall and most remarkeable virtues of SIR T. MORE in middest of his Honours 1. Incredible pouerty in so eminent a personage signe of vnmacheable integrity 2. Admirable zeale in cause of catholike religion against all heresie 3. Cheerfull myrthe in all occasions ioined vvhith grauity 4. Solid deuotion and reuerence in diuine seruice 5. Patience resignation in temporall losses 6. Contempt of vvorldly honour declared in deposing of the dignity of Chauncellour 7. A resolution to liue poorly neuer like seen in a great states man 8. With vvhat deep ponderation he resigned vp that high honour 1. ABout this time it happened Sir Iohn More to fall sick of a surfeit of grapes as I haue heard who though he was verie olde yet had he till then bene more lustie then his yeares afforded him In his sicknesse his sonne whome now he had seene Lo Chancellour often came visited him vsing manie comfortable words vnto him and at his departure out of this miserable world with teares taking him about the necke most louingly kissed and embraced him commending his soule deuoutly to the merciefull hands of his Creatour and redeemer so with a heauie hart departed from him who lest him now bettered with a verie small encrease of estate because his chiefe house and lands at Gubbins in Hartfortdshire his last wife enioyed who outliued Sir THOMAS some ten yeares and therefore Sir THOMAS neuer enioyed almost anie inheritance from his father insomuch that he affirmed in his apologie which he wrote about this time that all his reuenues and pensions except that which had bene granted by letters patents from the king of his mere liberalitie to witt the mannours of Duckington Frinckford and Barlyparke in Oxfordshire all the rest he saith amount not to aboue Fiftie pound by the yeare as those which he had from his father or by his wife or by his owne purchase Surely a rare saying that one of the king's Counsell who had gone through manie offices for almost twentie yeares should not be able to purchase one hundred pound land when as now a priuate Atturney by his owne practise wil leaue his childe fiue hundred pound land of in heritance Therefore in so great an officer this sheweth an admirable contempt of worldlie commodities a bountiefull hand to spende liberally and abundantly vpon the poore his owne kinsfolke and familie the Church and vpon hospitallitie And as for readie monie he had not in all the world when he gaue vp his office aboue one hundred pound either in golde or siluer which is as strange as the former All
God He knovveth the deceauer and him that is deceaued he vvill bring counsellours to a foolish ende Iudges into amazement he vnlooseth the belte of kings guirdeth their loynes vvith a rope Thus writeth Cocleus 4. Paulus Iouius Bishop of Nuceria amōgst the praises of diuerse learned men writeth thus of Sir THOMAS MORE' 's vniust death Fortune sickle vnconstant after her accustomed manner and alwaies hating vertue if euer she played the parte of a proude and cruell dame she hath lately behaued herself most cruelly in Englād vnder Henrie the Eight casting downe before her Thomas More whome the king whilst he was an excellent admirer of vertue had raised to the highest places of honour in his realme that fom thence being by fatall maddenesse changed into a beast he might suddenly throwe him downe againe with great crueltie because he would not fauour the vnsatiable Iust of that furious tyrant and for that he would not flatter him in his wickednesse being a man most eminent for the accomplishment of all partes of Iustice and most Saintlie in all kinde of vertues For when the king would be diuorced frō his lawfull wife marrie a Queane and hasten to disinherite with shame his lawful daughter Marie MORE Lo Chancellour was forced to appeare at the Barre guiltie only for his pietie and innocencie and there was cōdemned most wrongfully to a most cruell and shamefull death like a Traytor and murtherer so that it was not lawfull for his friends to burie the dismembred quarters of his bodie But Henrie for this fact an imitatour of Phalaris shall neuer be able to bereaue him of perpetual fame by this his vnlawfull wickednesse but that the name of MORE shall remaine constāt and in honour by his famous Vtopia He speaketh of his death as his sentence did purporte 5. Now lett vs ioyne to these viz an Englishman a Low Countrie man a German and an Italian a French man also that we may see how all Nations did lamente Sir THOMAS MORE' 's death and what creditt the king and his Councell therevnto gott by it William Paradine writeth thus The troubles and ciuile dissensions in England now hath lasted a yeare or two whē in the moneth of Iuly Iohn Fisher Bishopp of Rochester was committed prisonner in London because he seemed to disallowe the king's diuorce the lawe newly made against the Pope's Supremacie Of that resolution was also Sir THOMAS MORE partaker being Sheriff of London a man famous for eloquence and in all manner of learning aboue the reache of all Courtiers most expert and skillfull most faultlesse in all deedes These two purposing rather to obey God then man and confirming their mindes with constancie were cōdemned to death from which constancie they could be drawen neither by entreaties hope of rewardes faire promises nor by anie threates whatsoeuer which corporall death both of thē receaued most patiently and stoutely Finally euerie writer of that age lamentably deplored the vniust death of Sir THOMAS MORE Rouerus Pontanus a German in his Index of memorable matters Laurence Surius a Low-Countrie-man vpon the yeare of 1538. Iohn Fonta yne a Frenchman in his French historie Onuphrius Patauinus in Paulo III. an Italian Nicolas Cardinall of Capua in his French letters Iohn Secundus of Hague yea Carion and Sleidan himselfe speake honourably of Sir THOMAS MORE' 's death 6. But of all Protestants Iohn Riuius speaketh most passiionately of K. Henrie's cruell fact and Sir THOMAS'S pietie in these wordes lib. 2. de Conscientia He that is in a Prince's Courte ought freely yf he be asked his Iudgement rather to tell his minde plainely what is most behoofefull for his Prince's good then to speake placentia tickeling his eares with flatterie neither ought he to praise things which are not prayse worthie nor to dispraise matters that are worthie of high commendations yea although he be in danger of getting no fauour by perswading it but rather punishment and disgrace for gainesaying men's appetites then bringing Papinianus that great lawyer for a liue lie example thereof who chose rather to dye then to iustifye the Fmperour Caraculla's killing of his owne brother against his owne conscience he addeth Such a man was lately in our memorie that singular and excellent for learning and pietie yea the onlie ornament and glorie of his Countrie THOMAS MORE who because he would not agree nor approue by his consent against his owne conscience the new marriage of the king of England who would needes be diuorced from his first wife and marrie another he was first cast into prison one that had singularly well deserued of the king himselfe and of England and when he constantly continued in his opinion which he truly thought to be most iust most lawfull and godlie emboldened to defende it by a sincere conscience he was putt to death by that wicked parricide that most hatefull and cruell tyrant a crueltie not heard of before in this our age Oh ingratitude and singular impietie of the king's who could endure first to consume and macerate with a tedious and loathsome imprisonment such a sincere and holie good man one that had bene so careful of his glorie so studious of his Countrie 's profitt he that had perswaded him alwaies to all lustice and honestie dissuaded him from all contraries and not conuinced of anie crime nor found in anie fault he slew him oh miserable wickednesse not only being innocent but him that had deserued high rewardes and his most faythfull and trustie Councellour Are these thy rewardes o king is this the tankes thou returnest him for all his trustie seruice and good will vnto thee doth this man reape this commoditie for his most faythfull acts and employments But oh MORE thou art now happie and enioyest eternall felicitie who wouldest leese thy head rather then approue anie thing against thine owne conscience who more esteemest righteousnesse iustice and pietie then life it selfe and whilst thou art depriued of this mortall life thou passest to the true and immortall happinesse of heauen whilst thou art taken away from men thou art raysed vp amongst the numbers of holie Saints and Angells of blisse 7. Last of all I will recounte what the good Emperour Charles the Fift sayd vnto Sir Thomas Eliott then the king's Embassadour in his Court after he had heard of Bishopp Fisher and Sir THOMAS MORE' 's martyrdomes on a time he spoke of it to Sir Thomas Eliott who seemed to excuse the matter by making some doubt of the reporte to whome the Emperour replyed It is too true but yf we had had two such lights in all our kingdomes as these men were we could rather haue chosen to haue lost two of the best and strongest townes in all our Empire then suffer ourselues to be depriued of them much lesse to endure to haue thē wrongfully taken from vs. 8. And though none of these should haue written anie thing hereof yet the matter
graue speache brought forth such vrgent arguments why these exactions were not to be granted that herevpon the King's demaunde was crossed and his request denyed so that one M. r Tiler one of the King 's priuie Chamber went presently from the house and tolde his Maiestie that a beardelesse boy had disappointed him of all his expectation wherevpon the king conceaued great indignation against him and could no way be satisfyed vntill he had in some sorte reuenged it But for as much as he hauing yet but a litle could not loose much the king deuised a Causelesse quarrell against Sir Iohn More his most innocent father and clapt him vp in the Tower of London keeping him there prisoner vntill he had forced him against all Iustice to pay one hundred pounds as a fyne for a Causelesse offence Manie also then counselled Sir THOMAS MORE to aske the king mercie that his father might be released amongst whome was Doctour Fox then Bishopp Winchester one of the king's priuie Councell who pretended great loue towards M. r More purposing indeede to gett the king thereby a better meanes to reuenge his displeasure against him But when Sir THOMAS had asked the Bishop's Chaplaine Doctour Whittford a verie holie and graue man afterward a Father of Sion he that translated the Follovving of Christ into English what he were best to doe he requested him for the passion of Christ not to follow his Lord's aduise saying moreouer that the Bishop would not sticke to agree to the death of his owne father if it were to serue the king's turne For which cause he returned no more to my Lo of Winchester but determined to haue gone ouer sea thinking he could not liue in England without great danger standing now in the king's displeasure and therefore he studied the French toung at home sometimes recreating his tyred spiritts on the violl where he also perfected himself in most of the Liberall Sciences as Musike Arithmetike Geometrie and Astronomy and grew to be a perfect historian his chiefe helpe in all these labours being his happie memorie of which he modestly speaketh thus I would I had as good a witt and as much learning vt memoria non vsquequaque destituor as my memorie doth not altogeather fayle me But king Henrie dying shortly after and his sonne king Henrie the Eighth striuing at the beginning of his raigne to winne the applause of his people cast Emson and Dudley into prison and attaynted them of high treason for giuing pernicious counsell to his father their prince and when they were going to execution Sir THOMAS asked Dudley whether he had not donne betterthen they to whome with a sorrowfull hart he answered O M. r MORE God was your good friend that you did not aske the king for giuenesse as manie would haue had you donne for if you had donne so perhaps you should haue bene in the like case with vs now So that to shunne present dangers by offending God or our Countrie is not alwaies the safest way euen for our bodilie good the contrarie turning oftentimes to our great fame glorie and profitt 5. These great partes of nature and diligence which euerie one noted in Sir THOMAS MORE coming to the yong king's eare vvho was at that time greedie to entertaine all rare men into his seruice he caused Cardinal VVolsey then Lo Chancellour to moue him to come to the Court and albeit the Cardinal laboured earnestly with him to effect it alleadging how deare his seruice would be to his Maiestie who could not with his honour allowe him lesse then he should loose by changing his former estate but rather would enlarge his meanes and recompence him fully yet loath to change his estate which was certaine made such meanes to the king by the Cardinall as that his Maiestie was at that time satisfyed to forbeare him Yet did the king vse him in diuerse Embassages first sending him in to France to challenge certaine debts which the king of England demaunded to be due vnto him that had bene there vniustly kept back in which charge he satisfyed both the kings fully such was his wise demeanour and sufficiencie After this he was also sent Embassadour into Flanders to confirme a league betwixt England and Burgundie which he happily finishing the king offered him at his returne a yearelie pension which Sir THOMAS refused as he writeth to Erasmus in these words VVhen I returned from my embassage of Flanders the king's Maiestie vvould haue giuen me a yearlie pension vvhich surely if one vvould respect honour and profitt vvas not to be little esteemed yet haue I as yet refused it and I thinke I shall refuse it still because either I should be fayne to for sake my present meanes vvhich I haue alreadie in the Cittie and I esteeme it more then a better or else I must keepe it vvith some dislike of the Cittizens betvveene vvhome and his Highnesse if there should happen anie controuersie as sometimes it doth chance about their priuiledges they might suspect me as not sincere and trustie vnto them in respect I am obliged to the king vvith an annuall stipende 6. About this time he compounded his famous booke of Vtopia in latine so much praised and extolled by all the learned men of that age about the yeare of our Lord 1516. being six and thirtie yeares of age This booke was of all Nations so much applauded that very shortly after it was translated both into French Italian Dutch and English The iudgement of 〈◊〉 learned men concerning which worke I thinke good to sett downe here in English as Doctour Stapleton reciteth them in his Three Thomases in Latine And first Budaeus a singular writer in those daies sayth thus of it in an epistle to Lupsetus VVe are beholding to Thomas More for the discouery of Vtopia vverein he hath diuulged to the vvorld in this our age a patterne of a happie life and a perfect rule of good behauiour This age and our posteritie shall haue this historie as a Seminarie of most holesome doctrine and profitable instructions from vvhence they may transporte and accommodate euerie one to their ovvne Citties and Countries these excellent ordinances and decrees Iohn Paludan to Peter Giles speaketh thus thereof you may see in Vtopia as in a looking-glasse vvhatsoeuer belongeth to a perfect Communion VVealth England truly hath manie excellent learned men For what may we coniecture of the rest if More alone hath perfourmed so much being first but a yong man and then full of businesses both publike and domesticall and lastly professing anie thing rather then learning Peter Giles also to Hierome Buslidian speaketh thus and giueth it this praise So manie vvonders doe here meete togeather that I am in a doubt vvhich first to admire vvhether his most happie memorie vvhich could almost vvord for vvord relate so manie different things againe hauing but heard them once tolde
or his vvisedome for marking and setting forth all the fountaines from vvhence either the happinesse or mischiefes of anie Common vvealth do arise or the elegancie and force of his stile vvho hath vvith such pure Latine and such vigour of speach comprized so manie and sundrie matters especially one that is so much distracted both vvith publike and priuate affayres Buslidian a great Counsellour of Charles the Fift Emperour in a letter to Sir THOMAS sayth In the happie description of your Vtopian Common-vvealth there is nothing missing vvhich might shevv most excellent learning togeather vvith an absolute knovvledge of all humane things For you excell in sundrie sciences and haue such great and certaine knovvledge 〈◊〉 besides that you affirme euerie matter in writing as though you had tryed euerie thing by experience before and you write most eloquently vvhat soeuer you affirme a maruelous and rare happienesse and the more rare by hovv much the fevver can attaine therevnto And further in the sayd letter he affirmeth that this Vtopian Common wealth farre exceedeth the Lacedemonian the Athenian yea euen that of the Romans it selfe in that it seeketh not so much to make manie lawes as it laboureth to prouide good and vpright Magistrates by whose prototypon that is the patterne of their honestie the example of their manners and behauiour and the pourtraicture of their Iustice the whole state and true gouernement of euerie perfect 〈◊〉 wealth may be framed Paulus louius in his booke of the praises of learned men speaketh thus Mores fame vvill alvvaies laste in his Vtopia for he therein hath described a kingdome vvell gouerned vvith holesome lavves and much flourishing vvithriche peace she vving hovv he loathed the corrupt manners of this vvicked age and endeauouring by a pleasant fiction to leade the right pathe to a blessed and most happie life c. Finally Hutten Uiues Grapheus and Lacius affirme that Sir THOMAS had an incomparable witt greater then a man's witt pene diuinum yea almost diuine About this time he also wrote for his exercise the historie of king Richard the third both in Latine and English which is so well penned that if our Chronicles of England were halfe so well sett out they would entice all English men to reade them ouer often These his workes sett out at that time when he was most employed in other mens affayres shew how diligent and industrious he was For thus he writeth in his Vtopia VVhilst I daily either pleade other mens causes or heare them sometimes as an arbiter othervvhiles as a Iudge vvhilst this man I visite for friendshipp another for businesses and vvhilst I busie my selfe abroad about other mens matters all the vhole day I leaue no time for my selfe that is for studie For vvhen I come home I must discourse vvith my vvife chatte vvith my children speake vvith my seruants and seing this must needes be donne I number it amongst my affaires and needefull they are vnlesse one vvill be a stranger in his ovvne house for vve must endeauour to be affable and pleasing vnto those vvhome either nature chance or choice hath made our companions but vvith such measure it must be donne that vve doe not marre them vvith affabilitie or make them of servants our maisters by too much gentle entreatie and fauour vvhilst these things are doing a day a moneth a yeare passeth VVhen then can I finde anie time to vvrite for I haue no yet spoken of the time that is spent in eating and sleeping vvhich things alone bereaue most men of halfe their life As for me I gett only that spare time vvhich I fleale from my meate and sleepe vvhich because it is but small I proceedst vvly yet it being somevvhat I haue novv at the length preuailed so much as I haue finished and sent vnto you Peter my Vtopia Besides all this to shew the more his excellent partes of readie vtterance pleasant conceipts and sharpenesse of witt euen to the admiration of all men he read a lecture in S. Laurence church at Lothburie where Sir Iohn More his father lieth buried out of S. Augusten's bookes De Ciuitate Dei not so much discussing the points of Diuinitie as the precepts of morall philosophie and historie where with these bookes are replenished And he did this with such an excellent grace that whereas before all the flower of English youthes went to heare the famous Grocinus who was lately come out of Italie to teache Greeke in the publike vniuersitie vnder whome as also that famous Grammarian Linaore Sir THOMAS himself had profited greatly of whome he had Aristotle's workes interpreted in Greeke now all England almost left his lecture and flocked to heare Sir THOMAS MORE 7. It fortuned shortly after that a shippe of the Popes arriued at Southampton which the King claimed as a forfeyture yet the pope's legate so wrought with the king that though it was seysed on yet he obtained to haue the matter pleaded by learned Councell For the Pope's side as their principall man was chosen Sir THOMAS MORE and a day of hearing being appointed before the Lo Chancellour and other the chiefe Iudges in the Starre-chamber Sir THOMAS argued so learnedly and forcibly in defence of the pope's parte that the afore sayd forfeyture was restored and he amongst all the audience so highly commended for his admirable and wittie arguing that for no intreatie would the king anie longer forbeare to vse him Wherefore he brought him perforce to the Court and made him of his Priuie Counsell as Sir THOMAS testifyeth himselfe in a letter to that worthie prelate Iohn Fisher Bishop of Rochester saying I am come to the Court extreamely against my vvill as euerie bodie knovveth and as the king himself often tvviteth me in sporte for it And hereto do I hang so vnseemely as a man not vsing to ride doth sitt vnhansomely in his saddle But our Prince vvhose speciall and extraordinarie fauour tovvards me I knovve not hovv I euer shal be able to deserue is so affable and courteous to all men that euerie one vvho hath neuer so little hope of himselfe may finde somevvhat vvhereby he may imagine that he loueth him euen as the Cittizens vviues of London doe vvho imagine that our ladies ' picture neare the tovver doth smile vpon them as they pray before it But I am not so happie that I can perceaue such fortunate signes of deseruing his loue and of a more abiect spriut then that I can persvvade myselfe that I haue it already yet such is the vertue and learning of the king and his daily increasing industrie in both that by hovv much the more I see his Highnesse increase in these kinglie ornaments by so much the lesse troublesome this Courtier 's life seemeth vnto me And indeede king Henrie's Court for the first twentie yeares was a seate of manie excellent witts a pallace of rare vertues according as Erasmus Wittnesseth thereof in an
epistle to Henrie Gilford a gentleman of an ancient familie For thus he writeth The fragant odour of the most honourable fame of the Court of England vvhich spreades it selfe ouer all the vvorld it hauing a king singularly endevved vvith all princelie excellencies a Queene most like vnto him and a number of sincere learned graue and vvise personages belonging unto it hath stirred vp the prince of Berghes to putt his sonne Antony to no other schoole but that Within a while after the king had created him one of his high Councellours of state perceauing euerie day more and more his fidelitie vprightnesse dexteritie wisedome dubbted him knight and after M. r Weston's death he made him Threasurer of the exchequer a place of great trust of which increase of honour Erasmus writeth to 〈◊〉 saying VVhen you vvrite next to MORE you shall vvish him ioy of his increase of dignitie and good fortune For being before only of the king's priuie Councell novv of late by the beneuolencc and free guift of his most gracious prince he neither desiring nor seeking for it is not only made knight but Threasurer of the king's Exchequer an office in England both honourable and also commodious for the purse Yea king Henrie finding still more and more sufficiencie in Sir THOMAS vsed him with particular affection for the space of twentie yeares togeather during a good parte whereof the king's custome was vpon holie daies when he had donne his deuotions to sende for Sir THOMAS into his Trauerse and there some times in matters of Astronomie Geomitrie and Diuinitie and such other sciences to sitt and conferre with him otherwhiles also in the cleere nights he would haue him walke with him on the leads there to discourse of the diuersitie of the courses motions and operations of the starres as well fixed as the planetts And because he was of a verie pleasant disposition it pleased his Maiestie and the Queene at supper time commonly to call for him to heare his pleasant ieastes But when Sir THOMAS perceaued his wittie conceipts so much to delight him that he could scarce once in a moneth gett leaue to goe home to his wife and children whome he had now placed at Chelsey three miles frō London by the water side and that he could not be two daies absent from the Court but he must be sent for againe he much misliking this restrainte of his libertie beganne therevpon to dissemble his mirth and so by little and little to disvse himselfe that he from thēceforth at such seasons was no more so ordinarily sent for The great respect which the Cittie of London bare vnto him caused the king as a speciall man to sende Sir THOMAS to appease the apprentises which were risen vp in a mutine against the strangers that dwelt then amongst them vpon May day and surely Sir THOMAS had quicted them wholy and soone had not an extraordinarie chance hindred it in S. Martins as Stovve wittnesseth The king vsed also of a particular loue to come on a suddain to Chelsey where Sir THOMAS now liued and leaning vpon his shoulder to talke with him of secrett counsell in his gardin yea and to dine with him vpon noinuiting 8. In the fourteenth yeare of the raigne of king Henry the eight there was a parlement held and thereof which was a strange thing Sir THOMAS MORE was chosen Speaker for the Lower house being now one of the Prince Counsell who being very loath to take this charge vpon him made a worthie Oration to the King 's Ma.tie not now extant whereby he earnestly laboured to be discharged of the sayd place of Speaker shipp wherevnto his Highnesse would by no meanes giue consent At the beginning of Parlament he made another other Oration the points whereof are very wisely sett downe by my vncle Rooper in his Life of Sir THOMAS MORE and they are these Since I perceaue most redoubted Soueraigne that it accordeth not to your high pleasure to reforme this election and cause it to be changed but haue by the mouth of the right Reuerend Father in God the legate who was then Cardinal Wolsey your high Chancellour therevnto giuen your assent and haue of your benignitie farre aboue that I may be are to enable me and for this office to repute me fitt rather then that you vvould seeme to imputte to your Commons that they had vnmeetely chosen me I am therefore and alvvaies shall be readie obediently to conforme my self to the accomplishment of your high commaunde And then he maketh tvvo humble petitions the one concerning himself the other the vvhole assemblie The first that if he should chance to mistake his message or for lacke of good vtterance by misrehear sall peruert their prudent instructions that his Matie vvould then pardon his simplicitie and suffer him to repayre vnto them againe for their more substantiall aduise His other request vnto the King's Maiestie vvas that is vvould please his inestimable goodnesse to pardon freely vvithout doubt of his dreadfull displeasure vvhatsoeuer it shall happen anie man to say there interpreting euerie man's vvordes hovv vncemely soeuer they vvere couched to proceede of a good zeale tovvards the profitt of the realme and the honour of his royall person 9. Cardinal VVolsey sound himself much grieued at the Burgesses that nothing could be either donne or spoken in both the houses but it was immediately blowen abroad in euerie ale house It fortuned after that a great Subsidie was to be demaunded and the Cardinall fearing it would not passe lower house vnlesse he were there present himself before whose coming it was long debated whether they should admitt him with a few of the Lords as the most opinion of the house was or that they should receaue him with his whole trayne Maisters quoth Sir THOMAS for as much as my Lo Cardinal lately ye woote well layde to our charge the lightnesse of our toungs for things vttered out of this house it should not in my minde be amisse to receaue him with all his pompe with his Maces his Pillers his Polaxes his Crosse his hatt and the Great Seale too to the intent that if he finde the like faulte with vs then we may lay the blame vpon those whome his Grace bringeth with him Vpon which words the House wholy agreed and so he was receaued accordingly There the Cardinal with a sollemne speache by manie reasons proued how necessarie it was that the demaunde there moued should be granted but he seing the companie silent contrarie to his expectation shewing no inclination thereto demaunded of them some reasonable answer but when euerie one still held their peace he spake in particular to M. r Murrey who making no answer neither he asked others also but they all had determined to answer him by their Speaker Who spake therefore reuerently on his knees excusing the silence of the house abashed as he sayd at the sight of so noble
your loue because I see you rather haue testifyed vvhat your loue tovvards me did suggest then the authoritie of a Censor Hovvsoeuer the matter is I cannot expresse hovv much I ioye that you haue cast your vvhole account in liking my doings For I almost persvvade myself all those things to be true vvhich you speake thereof knovving you to be most farre from all dissembling and my self more meane then that you should neede to flatter me and more deare to you then that I should expecte a mocke frō you Wherefore vvhether that you haue sene the truth vnfainedly I reioyce hartily in your Iudgement or vvhether your 〈◊〉 to me hath blinded your iudgement I am for all that no lesse delighted in your loue and truly vehement and extraordinarie great must that loue be vvhich could bereaue 〈◊〉 of his iudgement And in another letter he sayth You deale very courteously vvith me in that you giue me in your letter such hartie thankes because I haue bene carefull to defende the causes of your friendes amplifying the small good turne I haue done you therein by your great bountie but you deate somevvhat too fearefully in regarde of the loue vvhich is betvveene vs if you imagine that you are indebted vnto me for anie thing I haue donne and do not rather challenge it of right to be due vnto you c. The Amber vvhich you sent me being a precious sepulcher of flyes vvas for manie respects most vvellcome vnto me for the matter thereof may be compared in coulour and brightnesse to anie precious stone and the for me is more excellent because it representeth the figure of a a hart as it vvere the hieroglificke of our loue vvhich I interprete your meaning is that betvveene vs it vvill neuer fly avvay and yet be alvvaies vvithout corruption because I see the fly vvhich hathvvings like Cupide the sonne of Venus and is as fickle as he so shutt vp here and inclosed in this glevvie matter of Amber as it cannot flye avvay and so embalmed and preserued therevvith as it cannot perish I am not so much as once troubled that I cannot sende you the like guift againe for I knovve you do not expect anie enterchange of tokens and besides I am vvilling still to be in your debt yet this troubleth me somevvhat that my estate and condition is so meane that I am neuer able to shevv myself vvorthie of all and singuler your friendshipp VVherefore though I cannot giue testimonie myselfe herein before other men yet must be satisfyed vvith mine owne inward testimonie of minde and your gentle acceptance He dedicated one of his bookes vnto him saying in this wise When I considered to vvich of all my friends I should dedicate these my Collections out of manie Authors I thought you most fitt for the same in respect of the familiar conuersation vvhich of long time hath bene betvveene vs as also in respect of the sinceritie of your minde because you vvould be alvvaies readie to take thankefully vvhatsoeuer in this vvorke should seeme gratefull vnto you and whatsoeuer should be barren therein you vvould make a courteous construction thereof vvhatsoeuer might be vnpleasing you vvould be vvilling to pardon I vvould to God I had as much vvitt and learning as I am not altogeather destitute of memorie As for Bishopp Tunstall he was a learned man and wrote a singuler booke of the reall presēce And although during king Henrie's raigne he went with the sway of the time for who almost did otherwise to the great griefe of Sir THOMAS MORE yet liuing to the time of Q. Elizabeth whose Godfather he was when she berayed the fonte in his olde age seing her take strange courses against the Church he came from Durham and stoutely admonished her not to change religiō which if she presumed to doe he threatned her to leese Gods blessing and his She nothing pleased with his threates made him be cast into prison as most of the Bishops were where he made a glorious ende of a Confessour and satisfyed for his former crime of Schisme contracted in the time of king Henrie's raigne Sir THOMAS MORE' 's friendshipp with the glorious Bishop of Rochester was neither short nor small but had long continued and ended not with their famous martyrdomes See how good Bishop Fisher writeth vnto him Lett I pray you our Cambridge men haue some hope in you to be fauoured by the king's Maiestie that our schollars may be stirred up to learning by the countenance of so vvorthie a prince VVe haue fevv friends in the Court vvich can or vvill commende our causes to his royall Maiestie and amongst all vve accounte you the chiefe vvho haue alvvaies fauoured vs greatly euen vvhen you vvere in a meaner place and novv also shevv vvhat you can doe being raised to the honour of knighthood and in such great fauour vvith our prince of vvhich vve greately reioyce and also doe congratulate your happinesse Giue furtherance to this youth vvho is both a good schollar in Diuinitie and also a sufficient preacher to the people For he hath hope in your fauour that you can procure him greate furtherance and that my commendations vvill helpe him to your fauour To this Sir THOMAS MORE answereth thus This Priest Reuerend Father vvhome you vvrite to be in possibilitie of a Bishopricke if he might haue some vvorthie suiter to speake for him to the king I imagine that I haue so preuayled that his Maiestie vvill be no hindrance thereto c. Yf I haue anie fauour vvith the king vvhich truly is but litle but vvhatsoeuer I haue I vvill employ all I can to the seruice of your Fatherhood and your schollars to vvhome I yeelde perpetuall thankes for their deare affections tovvards me often testifyed by their louing letters and my house shall be open to them as though it vvere their ovvne Farevvell vvorthie and most courteous prelate and see you loue me as you haue donne His loue and friendshipp with yong Poole afterwards a famous Cardinal may be seene by their letters he maketh mention of him with great praise in a letter he wrote to his welbeloued daughter Margaret Rooper in this wise I cannot expresse in vvriting nor scarcely can conceyue it by thought hovv gratefull to me your most eloquent letters deare daughter Margarett are Whilst I vvas reading them there happened to be vvith me Reinald Poole that most noble youth not so noble by birth as he is singularly learned and excellently endevved vvith all kinde of vertue to him your letter seemed as a miracle yea before he vnderstoode hovv neare you were besett with the shortenesse of time and the molestation of your vveake infirmitie hauing notvvithstanding sent me so long a letter I could scarce make him belieue but that you had some helpe from your Maister vntill I tolde him seriously that you had not only neuer a maister in your house but also neuer another man that needed not your helpe rather in
builde them vp againe at his owne charge He telleth that heretikes vse to frame Catholikes arguments very weake and friuolous that they may the more easily confute them euen as little children make houses of tyleshardes which they cast downe with great sporte againe presently Of their contumelious speaches against himself he sayth I am not so voyde of reason that I can expect reasonable matter from such vnreasonable men When they sayd his writings were nothing but ieasting toyes he sayth I scarce belieue that these good brethren can finde anie pleasant thing in my bookes for I write nothing in them that may be pleasing vnto them When the heretike Constantine had broken prison in his house he bad his man goe locke the doore fast and see the place mended sure least he should come back againe and when the heretikes reported that he was sone for this that he could not for anger eate in three daies he answered that he was not so harsh of disposition to finde fault with anie man for rising and walking when he sate not at his ease All his English workes were sett out togeather in a great volume whilst Q. Marie raigned by Iudge Rastall Sir THOMAS his sister's sonne by which workes one may see that he was verie skillfull in Schoole-Diuinitie and matters of Controuersie for he argueth sharpely he confirmeth the truth profoundly and citeth both Scriptures and Fathers most aptely besides he vrgeth for the aduerse parte more a great deale then anie heretike euer did that wrote before him But to see how he handleth Luther vnder the name of one Rosse would do anie man good faining that Rosse wrote his booke from Rome against the most ridiculous and scurrilous pāphlett which Luther had made against King Henrie the eighth who of good zeale had sett out with great praise a booke in defence of the Seauen Sacraments the Pope's authoritie for which Pope Leo the tenth gaue him the tile of Defender of the Faith Wherefore in defence of his Soueraigne whome Luther had most basely rayled at calling him often Thomistical asse that he would beray the king's Crowne who was not worthie to wipe his shoes with manie other scurrilous speaches Sir THOMAS painteth out the sowle mouthed fellowe in his liuelie coulours and made him so enraged that it stung him more then anie other booke that euer was sett out against him Finally in euerie one of his bookes whensoeuer he toucheth anie controuersie he doth it so exactly that one may see that he had diligently read manie great Diuines and that he was very well seene in S. Thomas the father of all Diuinitie this may be an euident signe which his Secretarie Iohn Harris a man of sound iudgement and great pietie reported of him that on a time an hereticall booke newly printed and spread abroad was brought to Sir THOMAS which when he read being in his boate going frō Chelsey to London he shewed certaine of the author's arguments with his fingar to M. r Harris saying Loe here how the knaue's argument is taken out of the obiections of S. Thomas in 2. 2. in such and such an article but the lewde fellow might haue seene the solutions which are presently added there He maintayned also in a learned Disputation with Fa Atphonsus the Franciscan Q. Catherin's ghostlie Father Scotus his opinion of Attrition and Contricion as more safely to be followed then that of Occhamus by all which it may be gathered that he had great in sight in the diuersitie of Scholasticall opinions He wrote also a booke in Latine against Pomeran the heretike and indeede laboured very much rather to reduce such men vnto the Catholike Faith then to punish them for their reuolte yet in his epitaphe he sayth of himself that he was to theeues murtherers and heretikes grieuous and Simon Grineus a Luther an boasteth in his translation of Produs dedicated to my grandfather how courteously Sir THOMAS his father vsed him whē he was in Englād THE FIFTH CHAPTER K. HENRIES FIRST scruples in his Mariage Sir THOMAS MORES care in the education of his children 1. The ambition of Cardinall Wolsey occasion of K. Henry his fall 2. K. Henry communicates his scruple about his marriage with S. T. More 3. S. T. Mores pradiction of the fall of England from religion 4. He reduceth his sonne Roper miraculously from heresy 5. He obtaineth his daughter Margarets health of God by prayer 6. S. T. Mores domestique schoole 7. His delight and contentment in the studies of his children 8. How his daughter Margaret proued excellent for her sex in learning 1. VVhile Sir THOMAS MORE was Chācellour of the Duchie the Sea of Rome chanced to be vacant and Cardinall Wolsey a man of vnsatiable ambition who had crept vp in the fauour of Charles the Fift so that the Emperour still writing vnto him called him Father and the other called him sonne hoped now by his meanes to attaine to the popedome but perceauing himself of that expectation frustrate and disappoynted because the Emperour in the time of their election had highly commended another to the whole Colledge of the Cardinalls called Adrian who was a Flemming and had bene sometime his schoole maister a man of rare learning singular vertue who therevpō allthough absent and little dreaming of it was chosen Pope and then forth with going from Spayne where he was then resident came on foote to Rome Before he entred into the Cittie putting of his hose and shoes barefoote and bare leggd he passed through the streetes towards his pallace with such humilitie deuotion that all the people not without cause had him in greate reuerence and admiracion but as I sayd Cardinall Wolsey a man of contrarie qualities waxed therewith so wroth and stomacked so the Emperour for it euer after that he studyed still how he might reuenge himselfe anie wates against him which as it was the beginning of a lamentable tragedie so the ende thereof we cannot yet see although there haue bene almost one hundred yeares sithence This VVolsey therefore not ignorant of King Henrie's vnconstant mutable disposition inclined to withdrawe his affections vpon euerie light occasion from his owne most noble vertuous and lawfull wife Q. Catherine the Emperour 's owne aunte and to fixe this amourous passions vpon other women nothing comparable vnto her either in birth wisedome vertue fauour or externall beautie this irreligious prelate meaning to make the king's lightnesse an instrument to bring about his vnconscionable intent endeauoured by all the meanes he could to allure the king to cast his fancie vpon one of the French king's sisters the king being fallen in loue alreadie he not suspecting anie such thing with the ladie Anne Bullen a woman of no nobilitie no nor so much as of anie worthie fame This French matche he thought to plott to spite the Emperour because at that time there was great warres
vvhat notable experience vvhat a prosperous and fauourable fortune he had for a great space and hovv at the last he had a most grieuous fall and dyed inglorious I haue cause enough by my predecessours example to thinke honour but slipperie and this dignitie not so gratefull to me as it may seeme to others for both is it a hard matter to follovv vvith like paces or praises a man of such admirable vvitt prudence authoritie and splendour to vvhome I may seeme but as the lighting of a candle vvhen the sunne is dovvne and â—â—â—â—â—he sudden and vnexpected fall of so great a man as he vvas doth terribly putt me in minde that this honour ought not to please me too much nor the lustre of this glistering seate dazel mine eyes VVherefore I ascende this seate as a place full of labour and danger voyde of all solide and true honour the vvhich by hovv much the higher it is by so much greater sall I am to feare as vvell in respect of the verie nature of the thing it selfe as because I am vvarned by this late fearefull example And truly I might euen novv at this verie first entraÌ„ce stumble yea faynte but that his maiestie's most singular fauour tovvards me and all your good vvills vvhich your ioyfisll countenance doth testifye in this most honourable assemblie doth somevvhat recreate and refresh me othervvise this seace vvould be no more pleasing to me then that svvord vvas to Damocles vvhich hung ouer his head tyed only by a hayre of a horse's tale vvhen he had store of delicate fare before him seated in the chayre of state of Denis the Tirant of Sicilie this therefore shal be alvvaies freshin my minde this vvill I haue still before mine eies that this seate vvill be honourable famous and full of glorie vnto me if I shall vvith care and diligence fidelitie and vvisedome endeauour to doe my distie and shall persvvade myself that the enioying thereof may chance to be but short vncertaine the one vvhereof my labour ought to perfourme the other my predecessour's example may easily teache me All vvhich being so you may easily perceaue vvhat great pleasure I take in this high dignitie or in this most noble Dukes pruising of me All the world tooke notice now of Sir THOMAS'S dignitie whereof Erasmus writeth to Iohn Fabius Bishopp of Vienna thus Concerning the new increase of honour lately happened to THOMAS MORE I should easily make you belieue it if I should shew you the letters of manie famous men reioycing with much alacritie and congratulating the king the realme himself and also me for MORE' 's honour in being made Lo Chancellour of England 5. Now it was a comfortable thing for anie man to beholde how two great roomes of VVestminster hall were taken vp one with the sonne the other with the father which hath as yet neuer bene heard of before or since the sonne to be Lo Chancellour and the father Sir Iohn More to be one of the ancientest Iudges of the king's Bench if not the eldest of all for now he was neare 90. yeare olde Yea what a gratefull spectacle was it to see the sonne aske the father blessing euerie day vpon his knees before he sate in his owne seate a thing expressing rare humilitie exeÌ„plar obedieÌ„ce submissiue pietie Shortly beganne euery one to finde a great alteration betweene the intolerable pride of the precedent Chancellour VVolsey who would scarce looke or speake to anie and into whose onlie presence none could be admitted vnlesse his fingars were tipped with golde and on the other side this Chancelour the poorer and the meaner the suppliant was the more affably he would speake vnto him the more attentiuely he would hearken to his cause and with speedie try all dispatche him for which purpose he vsed commonly euerie afternoone to sitt in his open hall so that if anie person whatsoeuer had anie sute vnto him he might the more boldely come vnto him and there open to him his complaints VVhich his open manner of extraordinarie fauour to all my vncle Dauncy his sonne in law seemed merrily on a time to finde faulte with saying that when Card VVolsey was Chancellour not only diuerse of his inner chaÌ„ber but such as were but his doorekeepers got great gaines by him and sith I haue married one of your daughters I might of reason looke for some commoditie but you are so readie to doe for euerie poore man and keepe no doores shutt that I can finde no gaines at all which is to mee a great discouragement whereas else some for friendshipp some for profitt some for kindred would gladly vse my furtherance to bring theÌ„ to your presence now yff I should take anie thing of them I should doe them great wroÌ„g because they may freely preferre their causes to you themselues which thing though it is in you Sir very commendable yet to mee I finde it nothing profitable which word Sir THOMAS answered thus I do not mislike sonne that your conscience is so scrupulous but there be manie other waies wherein I may both doe yourself good and pleasure your friends for sometimes by my worde I may stand your friend in steede sometime I may helpe him greately by my letter if he hath a Cause depending before me I may heare him before another man at your intreatie yf his Cause be not all the best I may moue the parties to fall to somereasonable ende by arbitrament but this one thing I assure thee on my fayth that if the parties will at my hands call for iustice and equitie theÌ„ although it were my father whome I reuerence dearely that stoode on the one side and the diuell whome I hate extreamely were on the other side his cause being iust the diuel of me should haue his right What saying was this to expresse the loue to Iustice which he alwaies bore and his deedes shewed it so that no malitious toung euer could picke the least quarrell against him for the least toach of iniustice as shal be more at large spoken of when euerie light matter came to be sifted narrowly after he fell from the king's fauour and that he would for no respect of alliance digresse one iotte from equitie well appeared by another sonne in law of his my vncle Heron for when he hauing a Cause in the Chancerie before Sir THOMAS and presuming to much on his fauour because he euer shewed himself the most affectionate father to his children that was in the world by reason whereof he would by no meanes be perswaded to agree to anie indifferent order at last Sir THOMAS made a flatt decree against him Wherein he liuely expressed the practise of his former saying Now at his coming to this Office he found the Court of Chancerie pestered and clogged with manie and tedious Causes some hauing hung there almost twentie yeares Wherefore to preuent the like which was a
the Tower when as he went thither wearing a chaine of golde about his necke Sir Richard Winkefield who had the charge of his conueyance thither aduised him to sende home his chaine to his wife or some of his children nay Sir sayd he that I will not for if I were taken in the fielde by mine enemies I would they should fare somewhat the better for me rather choosing to haue it lost in the Tower then that king's officers should gett it at home when he should leese all or else esteeming nothing lost but gayned which was lost for Christ. At his lāding M. r Lieftenant was readie to receaue him at the Tower-gate where the porter demaunded of him his vpper garment marry porter sayd he here it is and gaue him of his cappe saying I am sorie it is not better for thee Nay Sir quoth he I must haue your gowne which forthwith he gaue him and then was conueyed to his lodging where he called vnto him Iohn Wood his man there appointed to attende him who could neither write nor reade and sware him before M. r Liefetenant that if he should heare or see him at anie time speake or write anie thing against the king the Councell or the State of the realme he should open it to Mr Lieutenant that he might straightwaies reueale it againe to the Councell This was his peaceable and constant carriage in aduersitie bearing all his troubles with great alacritie that both God was much pleased with his willingnesse euerie man admired much his patience For if aduersitie will trie mens wisedome and true fortitude surely Sir THOMAS was a most wise man that nothing happened vnto him which he did not in a manner foresee and truly stoute that nothing could daūte his courage or abate his magnanimitie 3. When he had remained with great chearefullnesse about a moneths space in the Tower his daughter Margaret longing sore to see her father made earnest sute and at last gott leaue to goe to him at whose coming after they had sayde togeather the Seauen Psalmes and Letanies which he vsed alwaies after to say with her when she came thither before he would fall in talke of anie worldlie matters to the intent he might commende all his wordes to almightie God's honour and glorie amongst other speaches he sayd thus vnto her I belieue Megg that they who haue putt me here thinke they haue donne me a high displeasure but I assure thee on my fayth mine owne good daughter that if it had not bene for my wife you my children whome I accounte the chiefe parte of my charge I would not haue fayled long ere this to haue closed myselfe in as strayte a roome as this and strayter too now since I am come hither without mine owne deserte I trust that God of his goodnesse will discharge me of my care and with his gracious helpe supply the want of my presence amongst you and I finde no cause I thanke God to recken myselfe here in worse case then in mine owne house For me thinkes God by this imprisonment maketh me one of his wantons and setteth me vpon his lappe and dandeleth me euen as he hath donne all his best friends S. Iohn Baptist S. Peter S. Paule and all his holie Apostles martyrs and his most especiall fauorites whose examples God make me worthie to imitate By which discourse of his it appeareth most euidently that all the troubles which euer happened vnto him were no painefull punishments but by his admirable patience and alacritie most profitable exercises My aunte Rooper contrariewise either because she would haue more familiar accesse vnto her father or else because in deede she would really perswade him to follow the king's fancie beganne to diuerte him from such zealours discourses and forcibly to vrge him with manie reasons and motiues to the taking of this oath that they might enioy his presence at his house at Chelsey first because he was more bounde to the king then anie man in England and therefore ought the rather to obey his will in a case that was not euidently repugnant to Gods lawe secondly it seemed not credible that so manie wise and learned men as were in England should all impugne the will of God thirdly that he should beware how he pinned his soule vpon Bishopp Fisher being one of the meanest bishops in England fourthly that there were so manie Bishops Doctours and learned men that had taken it so that he being a lay man seemed bound in her iudgement to accommodate his conscience to theirs and lastly euerie one thought him bound in conscience to approue that which a whole parlement of the realme had so vniformely enacted for which reasons manie haue condemned you Father sayd she either of in consideration rashnesse or obstinacie To the first Sir THOMAS answered as may appeare by a letter of my aunte Rooper's yet extant which contayneth all this their discourse and by that letter of Sir THOMAS his written to M. r Cromevvell that he had not slightly considered of this matter but for these seauen yeares space since the time that king Henry had vvritten against Luther he had diligently read ouer all the Fathers both Greeke Latine vvho all from Ignatius S Iohn Euangelist's disciple euen to these late Diuines vvith one consent doe agree of the Popes Supremacie which hath bene also accepted of throughout all Christendome these thousand yeares and more and he savv not hovv one member of the Church as England was could vvithdravv itself from the vvhole bodie yet when he saw this controuersie beganne to be disputed of he alwaies had tempered his speaches against Tindall that exprofesso he neuer argued vpon that theame but now being putt to his choice whether he should offende his Conscience or the king whether he should fall into temporall danger or eternall hazard of his soule I cannot saith he resolue otherwise then anie wise man would To the second he sayde he would not condemne anie bodie for taking it for some saith he may doe it vpon temporall hopes or feare of greate losses for vvhich I vvill neuer thinke anie hath taken it for I imagine no bodie is so fr aile and fearefull as myselfe some may hope that God vvill not impute it vnto them for a sinne because they doe it by constrainte some may hope to doe pennance presently after and others are of opinion that God is not offended vvith our mouth so our heart be pure but as for my parte I dare not ieoparde my selfe vpon these vaine hopes To the third he saith it was altogeather improbable because he refused this oath before it was tendered to Bishopp Fisher or before he knewe whether he would refuse it or no. To the fourth though there vvere neuer so manie learned prelates vvithin this realme that should take it yet being manie more in other partes of Christendome
vvhich thinke as I doe I am not boūd to cōforme my selfe to these alone hauing the Doctours of the Church on my side vvho could not be dravven neither for hopes nor feares Finally to the last he wisely answered that although to denye the decree of a generall Councell vvere a damnable acte yet to vvithstande a statute of one realme's making vvhich contradicteth the constant opinion of the vvhole Church is neither a rash deede nor an obstinate but most laudable and Christianlike All which disputation my aunte Rooper sett downe in a letter to her sister Alington printed togeather with Sir THOMAS his letters After all this my aunte Rooper sought to fright him with the danger of death which might perhaps moue him to relente when he cannot hinder his mishappes but now he might preuēt all being yet not too late wherevnto how hūbly he speaketh of his owne frailtie and how confidently he relyeth vpon Gods mercie may be seene at large whose wordes are so humble so zealous so godlie that they are able to pierce anie mans hart that will reade them in the latter ende of his workes they breathe out an Angelicall spiritt farre different from the presumptuous speaches of either heretike or desperate man Lord helpe me yf God for my manie and grieuous sinnes vvill suffer me to be damned his Iustice shal be praised in me but I hope he vvill procure for me that his mercie shall haue the vpper hand nothing can happen but that vvhich God pleaseth and vvhat that is though it should seeme euill vnto vs yet it is truly the best 4. At another time when he had questioned with my aunte Rooper of his wife childrē and state of his house in his absence he asked her at last how Q. Anne did In sayth Father sayd she neuer better there is nothing else in the Courte but dancing and sporting Neuer better sayd he alas Megg alas it pittieth me to remember vnto what miserie poore soule she will shortly come these dances of hers will proue such dances that she will spurne our heads of like foote bals but it will not be lōg ere her head will dance the like dance And how prophetically he spoke these words the ende of her Tragedie proued it most true M. r Lieutenant coming into his chamber to visite him rehearsed the manie benefitts and friendshipps that he had often receaued from him and therefore that he was bound to entertaine him friendly and make him good cheare but the case standing as it did he could not doe it without the king's displeasure wherefore he hoped that he would accept of his good will of the poore fare he had whereto he answered I verily belieue you good M. r Lieutenant and I thanke you most hartily for it and assure yourselfe I doe not mislike my fare but whensoeuer I doe then spare not to thrust me out of your doores Now whereas the oath of Supremacie and marriage was comprized in few wordes in the first Statute the Lo Chancellour and M. r Secretarie did of their owne heads adde more wordes vnto it to make it seeme more plausible to the king's eares and this Oath so amplifyed they had exhibited to Sir THOMAS and others of which their deede Sir THOMAS sayde to his daughter I may tell thee Megg that they who haue committed me hither for refusing an oath not agreable with their owne statute are not able by their owne law to iustifye mine imprisonment wherefore it is great pittie that anie Christian prince should be drawen to followe his affections by flexible counsell and by a weake Clergie lacking grace for want of which they stande weakely to their learning abuse themselues with flatterie so shamefully Which wordes coming to the Councell's eares they caused another Statute espying their ouersight to be enacted with all these conditions Another time looking out of his windowe to beholde one M. r Reynolds a religious learned and vertuous Father of Sion and three monkes of the Cbarterhouse going forth of the Tower to their executiō for now king Henry beganne to be fleshed in bloud hauing putt to death the Nunne and diuerse others and manie after for the Supremacie and his marriage Sir THOMAS as one that longed to accompanie them in that iourney sayde to his daughter thē standing besides him Loe doest not thou see Megg that these blessed Fathers be now as chearefully going to death as if they were bridegroomes going to be married whereby good daughter thou maist see what a great difference there is betweene such as haue in effect spentall their daies in a straight hard and penitentiall life religiously and such as haue in the world like worldlie wretches as thy poore father hath donne consumed all their time in pleasure and ease licentiously For God considering their lōg continued life in most sore and grieuous pennance will not suffer them anie longer to remaine in this vale of miserie but taketh them speedily hence to the fruitiō of his euerlasting deitie whereas thy sillie father who hath most like a wicked Caytife passed forth most sinfully the whole course of his miserable life God thinketh him not worthie to come so soone to that eternall felicitie but leaueth him still in the world further to be plunged and turmoiled with miserie By which most humble and heauenlie meditation we may easily guesse what a spirite of Charitie he had gotten by often meditation that euerie sight brought him new matter to practise most heroicall resolutions Within a while after this M. r Secretarie coming to him from the king who still gaped more for Sir THOMAS his relenting then all his other subiects pretended much friendshipp towards Sir THOMAS and for his comfort tolde him that the king was his good and gratious Lord and minded not to vrge him to anie matter wherein he should haue anie cause of scruple from thenceforth to trouble his consciēce As soone as M. Secretarie was gone to expresse what comfort he receaued of his words he wrote with a coale as he did vsually manie other letters because all his Inke had bene taken from him by the king's expresse commaundement certaine wittie verses which are printed in his booke All the while Sir THOMAS was in the Tower he was not idle but busied himself in writing with a coale for the most parte spirituall treatises as the Three bookes of Comfort in Tribulation where in a dialogue manner vander the names of two Hungarians fearing the Turkes running ouer their Countrie who had made great preparations therefore he paynteth out in liuelie coulours both the danger that England stoode then in to be ouerwhelmed with heresie and how good Catholikes should prepare themselues to loose libertie life and lands and whatsoeuer can be most deare vnto them rather then to forsake their fayth It is a most excellent booke full of spirituall and forcible motiues expressing liuely Sir THOMAS his singular resolution to apply all those
holesome medicines to himself now being readie to practise in deede whatsoeuer he setteth downe in wordes 4. When he had remained a good while in the Tower my Ladie his wife obtained leaue to see him that he might haue more motiues to breake his conscience who at the first comming to him like a plaine rude woman and somewhat worldlie too in this māner beganne bluntely to salute him What the good yeare M. r More I maruell that you who haue bene hitherto alwaies taken for a wise man will now so play the foole as to lie here in this close filthie prison and be content to be shutt vp thus with mice and ratts when you might be abroad at your libertie with the fauour and good will both of the king and the Councell if you would but doe as all the bishopps best learned of his realme haue donne and seing you haue at Chelsey a right fayre house your librarie your bookes your gallerie your gardine your orchard and all other necessaries so handsome about you where you might in companie of me your wife your Children and housholde be merrie I muse what a Gods name you meane here still thus fondly to tarrie After he had a good while heard her he sayd vnto her with a chearefull countenance I pray thee good M. ris Alice tell me one thing What is that sayth she Is not this house as neare heauen as mine ovvne she āswering after her custome Tillie vallie tillie vallie he replyed how sayst thou M. ris Alice is it not so indeede Bone Deus man will this geare neuer be left Well then M. ris Alice if it be so I see no great cause vvhy I should much ioye either of my fayre house or anie thing belonging therevnto vvhen if I should be but seauen yeares buried vnder the ground and rise and come thither againe he might haue sayd but seuaen moneths I should not fayle to finde some therein that vvould bid me gett me out of doores and tell me plainely that it vvere none of mine what cause haue I then to like such a house as vvould so soone forgett his Maister Againe tell me M. ris Alice how long doe you thinke may we liue and enioye it Some twentie yeares sayd she Truly replyed he yf you had sayd some thousand yeares it had bene somewhat and yet he vvere a very bad marchant that vvould putt himself in danger to leese eternitie for a thousand yeares hovv much the rather if vve are not sure to enioy it one day to an ende And thus her perswasions moued him but a little thinking of those wordes of Iob to his wife tempting him quasi vna exstultis mulieribus locuta est Not long after this came there to him at two seuerall times the Lord Chancellour the Duke of Norfolke and Suffolke with M. r Secretarie and certaine others of the Priuie Councell to procure him by all meanes and policies they could either to confesse precisely the king's Supremacie or plainely to deny it Here may we see that those verie men which seemed to crye before vnto him O sanna benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini say here tolle tolle crucisigeeum this is the ficklenesse of the worldlie men But to this as appeareth by the examinations sett out at the ende of his English Workes they could neuer bring him because he was loath to aggrauate the king's displeasure against himselfe saying only that the Statute was like a two-edged sworde if he should speake against it he should procure the death of his bodie and if he should cōsent vnto it he should purchase the death of his soule 6. After all these examinations came M. r Rich afterwards made the Lo Rich for his good seruice donne in this point then newly created the king's Sollicitour S.r. Richard Southvvell and one M. r Palmer M. r Secretarie's man were sent by the king to take away all his bookes M. r Rich pretending to talke friendly with Sit THOMAS sayd thus vnto him as it proued after of sett purpose For as much as it is well knowen M. r More that you are a man both wise well learned in the lawes of this realme in all other studies I pray you Sir lett me be so bolde as of good will to putt vnto you this Case Admitt there were an act of Parlement made that all the realme should take me for king would not you M. r More take me for king Yes Sir said Sir THOMAS that I would I putt the Case further sayd M. r Rich that there were an act of Parlement that all the realme should take me for Pope would not you then take me for Pope For answer sayd Sir THOMAS to your first Case the Parlement may well M. r Rich meddle with the state of Temporall princes but to make answer to your other Case suppose the Parlement should make a lawe that God should not be God would you then M. r Rich say that God should not be God No Sir sayd he that would I not For no Parlement can make such a lawe No more reported he that Sir THOMAS should say but indeede he made no such inference as he auouched after to M. r Rich his face could the Parlement make the king supreame head of the Church and vpon this only reporte of M. r Rich Sir THOMAS was shortly after indited of high treason vpon the new Statute of Supremacie At this time M. r Lieutenant reported that M. r Rich had so vile a smell about him that he could scarce endure him which Sir THOMAS also felt 7. He had a little before this begunne a diuine treatise of the passion of Christ but when he came to expounde those wordes of the Ghospell And they layde hands vpon him and held him these gentlemen tooke from him all his bookes Inke and paper so that he could write no more Which being donne he applyed himselfe wholy to meditation keeping his chamber windowes fast shutt and very darks the occasion whereof M. r Lieutenant asking him he answered when all the wares are gone the shoppe windowes are to be shutt vp Yet still by stealth he would gett little peeces of paper in which he would write diuerse letters with a coale of which my father left me one which was to his wife which I accounte as a precious Iewell afterwards drawen ouer by my grandfathers sonne with inke 8. What respect Sir THOMAS had not to displease the king in anie of his deedes or answers may be seene by his discreete behauiour in all his proceedings For first in his bookes he neuer handled exactly the Popes Supremacie though vrgent occasion were giuen him by the bookes which he tooke in hand to confute secondly whatsoeuer writing he had touching that Controuersie he either made them away or burnt them before his troubles as also a booke which the Bishopp of Bath had written of that matter thirdly he would
neuer take vpon him to aduise any man in that point though much vrged thereto by letters especially of Doctour Willson his fellow prisoner in the Tower knowing himself being a lay man not to be bound to perswade a Clergie man much lesse a Doctour of Diuinitie Fourthly when he was brought from the Tower to Westminster to answer his Inditement therevpon arraigned at the King's-Bench-barre where he had often asked his father's blessing he openly tolde the Iudges that he would haue abidden in law and demurred vpon the Inditement but that he should haue bene driuen thereby to confesse of himselfe that he had denyed the kings Supremacie which he protested he neuer had donne And indeede the principall faulte there Layde to his charge was that he maliciously traiterously and Diabolically would not vtter his minde of that Oath Whereto Sir THOMAS pleaded not guiltie reserued to himselfe aduantage to be taken of the bodie of the matter after verdict to auoyde that Inditemēt adding moreouer that if only those odious tearmes were taken out he saw nothing that could charge him of anie Treason THE TENTH CHAPTER THE ARRAIGNEMENT condemnation of Sir THOMAS MORE 1. Sir Thomas Mores arraignement at the kings-benche 2. His vvorthy resolute and discreet ansvver to his inditement 3. Maister Riche his false oath against Sir Thomas cleerly reiected 4. The Iurours verdict excepted against by Sir Thomas vvith a noble confession of ecclesiasticall supremacy 5. Sentence of condemnation pronounced against Sir Thomas 6. He deliuereth fully plainly his iudgemēt touching the act and oath of supremacy 1. AFter that the king had endeauoured by all meanes possible to gett Sir THOMAS his consent vnto his lawes knowing that his example would moue manie being so eminent for wisedome and rare vertues and could by no meanes obtaine his desire he commaunded him to be called to his Arraignemēt at the kings-bench barre hauing bene a prisoner in the Tower somewhat more then a twelue-moneth for he was Committed about midde-Aprill and this happened the seauenth of May 1535. the yeare following He went thither leaning on his staffe because he had bene much weakened by his imprisonment his countenance chearefull and constant his Iudges were Andley the Lo Chancellour Fitz Iames the Lo Chiefe Justice Sir Iohn Baldvvin Sir Richard Leister Sir Iohn Port Sir Iohn Spilman Sir Walter Luke Sir Antonie Fitzherbert where the king's Attornye reading a long odious Inditement contayning all the crimes that could be layd against anie notorious malefactour so long as Sir THOMAS professed he could scarce remember the third parte that was obiected against him but the speciall faulte was that of the refusall of the oath as is before spoken for proose whereof his double examination in the tower was alleaged the first before Cromevvell Thomas Beade Iohn Tregunnell c. To whome he professed that he had giuen ouer to thinke of titles either of Popes or Princes although all the whole world should be giuen him being fully determined only to serue God the second before the Lo Chancellour Duke of Suffolke Earle of Wiltshire and others before whome he compared that Oath to a two-edged sword for if he should take it his soule should be wounded yf he refused it his bodie That he had written letters to Bishopp Fisher to perswade him therein because their answers were alike vpon all which it was concluded that Sir THOMAS was a traytour to his Prince and realme for denying the king's supreme Iurisdiction in ecclesiasticall gouernement presently after this Inditement was read the Lo Chancellour and the Duke of Norfolke spoke to this effect vnto him you see now how grieuously you haue offended his Maiestie Yet he is so merciefull that yf you will lay away your obstinacie and change your opinion we hope you may obtaine pardon of his highnesse Whereto the stoute Champion of Christ replyed Most noble Lords I haue great cause to thanke your Honours for this your courtesie but I beseech Almightie god that I may continue in the minde I am in through his grace vnto death by which three words he exercised the actes of three vertues humanitie 〈◊〉 and fortitude shewing himself a Ciuile man a godlie Christian and a noble Confessour of Christ's truth 2. After this he was suffered to saye what he could in his owne defence and then he beganne in this sorte When I thinke hovv long my accusation is and vvhat haynous matters are-layed to my charge I am stroken vvith feare least my memorie and vvitt both vvhich are decayed togeather vvith the health of my bodie through a long impediment contracted by my imprisonmēt be not novv able to ansvver these things on the suddaine as I ought and othervvise could After this there was brought him a chaire in which when he was sate he beganne againe thus There are foure principall heads yf I be not deceaued of this my Inditement euerie of vvhich I purpose God vvilling to ansvver in order To the first that is obiected against me to vvitt that I haue bene an enemie of a stubbernesse of minde to the king's second marriage I confesse that I alvvaies tolde the king my opinion therein as my conscience dictated vnto me vvhich I neither euer vvould nor ought to haue concealed for vvhich I am so farre from thinking myself guiltie of high treason as that of the contrarie I being demaunded my opinion by so great a prince in a matter of such importance vvherevpon the quietnesse of a kingdome dependeth I should haue basely flattered him against mine ovvne cōscience and not vttered the truth as I thought then I should vvorthily haue bene accounted a most vvicked subiect and a persidious trayter to God yf herein I had offended the king if it can be an offence to tell one's minde plainely vvhen our prince asketh vs I suppose I haue bene alreadie punished enough for this falte vvith most grieuous afflictions vvith the losse of all my goods and committed to perpetuall imprisonment hauing bene shutt vp alreadie almost these 15. monethes My second accusation is that I haue transgressed the Statute in the last parlement that is to say being a prisonner and tvvice examined by the Lords of the Councell I vvould not disclose vnto them my opinion of a malignant perfidious obstinate and trayterous minde vvhether the king vvere supreame head of the Church or no but ansvvered them that this lavv belonged not not to me vvhether it vvere iust or vniust because I did not enioye anie benefice from the churche yet I then protested that I neuer had sayd or donne anie thing against it neither can anie one vvord or action of mine be produced to make me culpable yea this I confesse vvas then my speach vnto their Honours that I hereafter vvould thinke of nothing else but of the bitter passion of our blessed Sauiour and of my passage out of this miserable vvorld I vvishe no harme to anie and
euidently shewed in that Edvvard Thomas Bartholomevv my father's bretheren being borne after Sir THOMAS my great Grandfather's death and hauing not this blessing so directly as my father and my vncle Augustine had they haue both degenerated from that religion and those manners which Sir THOMAS MORE had left as it were a happie depositum vnto this Children and familie For although mine vncle Bartholomevv dyed yong of the plague in London and therefore might haue by the grace of God excuse and remorse at his ende yet Thomas the yonger's courses were farre different from all the rest for he liued and dyed a professed minister and for all that very poore bringing vp his children whereof his eldest sonne is yet liuing in no commendable profession as for mine vncle Edvvard who is yet aliue although he were endowed with excellēt guifts of nature as a readie witt toung at will and his penneglibbe yet God knowes he hath drowned all his Talents in selfe conceipt in no worthie qualities and besides is buried aliue in obscuritie for his forsaking God for his base behauiour My father only right hevre of his father and Grandfather though he not long enioyed anie of their Lands was a liuelie patterne vnto vs of his constant fayth his worthie and vpright dealings his true Catholike simplicitie of whome I haue a purpose to discourse vnto my children more at large that they may knowe in what hard times he liued and how manfully he sustayned the combatt which his father and Grandfather had left vnto him as their best inheritance For all their land was takē away by two Acts of Parlement immediately after Sir THOMAS'S death the one Acte was to to take away the lande which the king had giuē him and this was somewhat tolerable the other most violent tyrannicall to frustrate vtterly a most prouidēt Conueyance which Sir THOMAS had made of all his lands and inheritance which he had settled vpon my father being a childe of two yeares olde or more without anie fraude or coum euen when as yet no Statute had bene made about the Oath of Supremacie and therefore before Sir THOMAS could committ such a faulte against such a Statute much lesse Treason hauing reserued to himself only an estate for tearme of his life yet all this was taken away contrarie to all order of lawe and ioyned to the Crowne but that land which he had conueyed to my vncle Rooper and mine aunte for tearme of their liues in recompence of their marriage monie that they kept still because that was donne two daies before the first Conueyance The ladie More also his wife was turned out of her house at Chelsey immediately and all her goods taken from her the king allotting her of his mercie a pension of twentie pounds by the yeare a poore allowāce to maintaine a Lo Chancellour's Ladie My grādfather was committed also to the Tower and for denying the same Oath was condēned yet becanse they had sufficiently fleeced him before and could now gett no more by his death he gott at last his pardon and libertie but liued not manie yeares after leauing my father to the education of his mother called before her marriage Anne Cresacre the last of her familie by whose match he enioyed after a competent liuing to keepe him out of needie life Mine aunte Rooper because she was a woman was not so hardly dealt withall but only threatened very sore both because she kept her father's head for a relike and that she meant to sett her father's workes in printe yet for all that after a short imprisonment she was at last sent home to her husband Thus all his friends felt in parte the king's heauie anger for his vndaunted courage 8. Sir THOMAS was of a meane stature well proportioned his complexion tending to phlegmatike his coulour white and pale his hayre neither black nor yellow but betweene both his eies gray his countenance amiable chearefull his voyce neither bigg nor shrill but speaking plainely and distinctly it was not very tunable though he delighted much in musike his bodie reasonable healthfull only that towards his latter ende by vsing much writing he complained much of the ache of his breast In his youth he drunke much water wine he only tasted of when he pledged others he loued salte meates especially powdered beefe milke cheese eggs and fruite and vsually he eate of corse browne bread which it may be he rather vsed to punish his taste then for anie loue he had thereto for he was singular wise to deceaue the world with mortifications only contēting himselfe with the knowledge which God had of his actions pater eius qui erat in abscondito reddidit ei THE TWELFTH CHAPTER THE IVDGEMENT vvhich all nations made of the death of Sir THOMAS MORE 1. Cardinall Pooles lamentation vpon his death 2. Erasmus of Roterdam in Holland 3. Doctour Iohn Cochlaeus of Germanie 4. Paulus Iouius Bishop in Italy 5. William Paradin a learned historian of France 6. Iohn Riuius a learned Protestant 7. Charles the fift Emperour K. of Spanie 8. Circunstances vvorthe ponderacion in his death 9. An apology for his mery apophthegmes and pleasaunt conceipts 10. The first lay man martyred for defence of 〈◊〉 iurisdiction 1. NOw lett vs see what most of the learned men of Christendome not only Catholikes but euen Protestants thought and wrote of king Hērie for Sir THOMAS MORE' 's death who were not likelie being free from all partialitie but to speake their mindes sincerely not fearing him as his subiects nor hating him for anie priuate respects First Cardinall Pole then liuing in the Courte of Rome and writing to the king in the defence of Ecclesiasticall vnitie sayth thus by the figure of Apostraphe of the complaints of other men Thy father Oh England thy ornament thy defence was brought to his death being innocent in thy sight by birth thy childe by condition thy Cittizen but thy father for the manie benefits donne vnto thee for he shewed more euident signes of his fatherlie loue towards thee then euer anie louing father hath expressed to his onlie and truly beloued childe yet in nothing hath he more declared his fatherlie affection then by his ende for that he left his life for thy sake especially least he should ouerthrowe and betray thy saluation Wherefore that which we reade in the ancient stories of Greece as touching Socrates whome the Athenians condemned most vniustly to take poyson so thou hast now seene thy Socrates beheaded before thine eies a while after his death when in a playe there was recited out of a Tragedie these wordes You haue slayne you haue slayne the best man of all Greece Vpon these their words euerie man so lamented the death of Socrates calling to minde that iniustice although the Poet himselfe dreamed least of him that the whole theater was filled with nothing else but teares and howling for which cause the
people presently reuenged his death by punishing grieuously the chiefe authours thereof those that were of them to be found were putt to death presently and they that could not be found out were banished There was also a statua erected in his honour in the verie markett place Yf they therefore at the only hearing of these wordes vpon the stadge tooke an occasiō to be reuenged of that most innocent man's slaughter what more iust cause mayst thou London haue of compassion and reuenge hearing the like words to these not pronounced only by anie stage-player at home but by most graue and reuerende men in all places of Christendome when as they speake most seriously exprobrating often vnto thee thine ingratitude saying You haue slayne you haue slayne the best English-mā aliue This spoke this learned and wise Cardinall who could testifye this of his knowledge by reason he conuersed often with the greatest States of Christendome being a man famous amongst them for his nobilitie of bloud for his dignitie his learning and excellent vertues for which none haue cause to suspecte him to be partiall 2. Erasinus as may be easily guessed by the stile although he wrote it not in his owne name because he had then manie friends in England sayth thus This is Euident that neither MORE nor the Bishopp of Rochester erred yf they haue erred at all of any malice they had against the king but for sincere conscience sake This they perswaded themselues wholy this was infixed in their marrowes that the matter which they defended was good and lawfull and honourable for the king and holesome for all the whole kingdome Yf it had bene lawfull for them to haue dissembled it they would haue donne it willingly but they tooke their death most patiently peaceably praying to God for the king and the whole realme's safetie In haynous offences a simple and pure conscience and a minde not desirous of hurting anie but of well deseruing excuseth much the faulte besides due respect honour hath bene alwaies had euen amōgst barbarous nations to eminent learning and excellent vertue The verie name of a philosopher rescued Plato from being beheaded by the Aeginetes hauing transgressed the lawes of their Cittie Diogenes without anie feare came into Philipp king of Macedonia's armie and being brought before him for a spye of their enemies freely reproched the king to his face of madnesse that being not content with his owne kingdome he would cast himselfe into danger to leese all yet was he sent away without anie harme at all donne to him and not only so but had a great rewarde giuen him for no other cause but that he was a philosopher And as the courtesies of Monarches shewed vnto learned men doe gett them greate fame so to haue vsed such men hardly hath bene occasion that they haue bene much hated and enuied For who doth not hate Antonie for hauing Cicero's head cutt of who doth not detest Nero for putting 〈◊〉 to death yea Octauius in curred some in famie for Ouid's bannishment amongst the Getes When Levvis the Twelueth of France now being peaceably settled in his kingdome would haue bene diuorced from his wife the daughter of Lewis the eleauenth this matter displeased manie good men amongst them Iohn Standock and his schollar Thomas spake of it in a sermon desiring the people to pray to God that he would inspire the king to doe for the best they were therefore accused of seditiō as men that had committed a faulte against the king's Edict yet for all this they had no other punishment but banishment they kept and enioyed all their goods and when the controuersies were ended they were called home againe with honour by this his mildenesse the king both satisfyed his Edict gott no greate hatred for molesting two men both Diuines both accounted holie men But euerie man bewayleth the death of Sir THOMAS MORE euen they who are aduersaries vnto him for religion so great was his courtesie to all men so great his affabilitie so excellent was his nature Whome did he euer sende away from him yf he were anie thing learned without guifts or who was so gregt a stranger vnto him whome he did not seeke to doe one good turne or other Manie are fauourable only to their owne countriemen Frenchmen to Frenchmen Scottishmen to Scotts This his bountie hath so engrauen MORE in euerie man's hart that they all lamente his death as the losse of their owne father or brother I my selfe haue seene manie teares come from those men who neuer saw MORE in their liues nor neuer receaued anie benefitt from him yea whilst I write these things teares gushe from me whether I will or no. How manie soules hath that axe wounded which cutt of More 's head c. And a little after pulling of his vizard he sheweth himself Erasmus in these wordes Therefore when men haue congratulated me that I had such a friend placed in such high dignities I am wont to answer that I would not cōgratulate his encrease of honour before he should commaunde me to do so 3. Iohn Cochleus a most learned German and a great Diuine writing against Richard Sampson an English-man who defended king Henrie the eight for this fact sayth much of Sir THOMAS his praises at last speaking of his death he sayth thus to king Henrie's Councellours What prayse or honour could you gett by that crueltie which you exercised against Sir THOMAS MORE he was a man of most knowen and laudable humanitie milde behauiour affabilitie bountie eloquence wisedome innocencie of life witt learning exceedingly beloued and admired of all men in dignitie besides highest Iudge of your Countrie and next to the king himselfe famous from his youth beneficiall to his Countrie for manie Embassages and now most venerable for his gray head drawing towards olde age who hauing obtained of the king an honourable dismission from his office liued priuately at home with his wife children and nephewes hauing neuer committed the least offence against anie burdensome to no man readie to helpe euerie bodie milde and pleasant of disposition You haue giuen counsell to haue this so good a man drawen out of his owne house out of that sweete Academie of learned and deuoute Christian Philosophers for no other cause but this that he would not iustifye your impieties his guiltlesse Conscience resisting it The feare of God and his soule 's health withdrawing him from it Doe you belieue that this your wicked fact hath euer pleased anie one of what nation sexe or age soeuer or euer will please anie it will not surely you haue hurt yourselues murderers and guiltie of shedding most innocent bloud him haue you made most grateful to God to the cittizens of heauē to all iust men on earth a most renowned Martyr of Christ he liueth and raigneth without all doubt with Almightie God you will neuer be able to blott out this fault and infamie It is written of
picked out this worthie lay man such as I suppose all Christendome had not the like who should be as his especiall Embassadour for the laytie as was the famous Bishop of Rochester for the Clergie such were these two for learning as they could reache into all matters such for excellencie of witt that no subtile dealing could entrappe them vnawares easily foreseing anie danger such for vertue and integritie of life that God of his great mercie would not suffer such men in so great a poynt as this to be deceaued And lett no man thinke this was no Martyrdome yea rather it was greater then that of those who would not denye the fayth of Christ according as that worthie Bishopp Confessour Denis of Alexandria sayth that that Martyrdome which one suffereth to preserue the vnitie of the Church is more then that which one suffereth because he will not doe sacrifice to Idolls for in this a man dyeth to saue his owne soule in the other he dyeth for the whole Church WHo vvith as curious care should vievve Each vertue of thy breast As vvas thy face pervsed by him Whose pencell it exprest With ease might see much to admire But hard to putt in shapes As Xeuxes could expresse to life The fruitfull bunche of grapes He sooner should his ovvne life ende Then he could finish thine Such store of matter vvould arise And gemmes of vertue shine There must be dravve a brovve Of Shamefastnesse and Grace Then tvvo bright eyes of Learning and Religion therevvith place And then a nose of honour must Be reared breathing svveete fame Tvvo rosie cheekes of Martyrdome With lillies of good name A golden mouth for all men pleades But only for himselfe A chinne of Temperance closely shaued From care of vvorldlie pelfe The more that he shall looke into The more he leaues vnvievved And still more shevves of noble vvorth Wherevvith he vvas endevved But loe the fatall Axe vpreared And at his verie Chinne By enuie hath a seuerance made That More might not be seene MORE like a Saint liued he most worthie Martyr ended MORE fitt for heauen which novv he hath vvhereto his vvhole life tended OF SIR THOMAS MORE' 's Bookes AMong his Latine Workes are his Epigrammes partly translated out of Greeke and partely of his owne making so wittily deuised and penned as they may seeme nothing inferiour or to yeelde to anie of the like kinde written in our daies and perchance not vnworthie to be compared with those of like writers of olde These Epigrammes as they are learned and pleasant so are they nothing biting or contumelious He also wrote elegantly and eloquently the life of king Richard the Third not only in English which booke is abroad in printe though corrupted and vitiated but in Latin also not yet printed He did not perfect nor finish that booke neither anie sithence durst take vpon him to sett penne to paper to finish it neither in the one or other toung all men being-deterred driuen from that enterprise by reason of the incomparable excellencie of that worke as all other paynters were afrayde to perfect finish the image of Venus paynted but imperfectly by Apelles for hisexcellēt workemanshipp therein But the booke that carrieth the price of all his other Latin bookes of wittie inuention is his Utopia he doth in it most liuely and pleasantly painte forth such an exquisite plattforme patience and example of a singular good Common-wealth as to the same neither the Lacedemonians nor the Athenians nor yet the best of all other that of the Romans is comparable full prettily and probably deuising the sayd Countrie to be one of the Countries of the New-found Lands declared to him in Antvverpe by Hythlodius a Portingall and one of the sea-companions of Americus Uesputius that first sought out and found those lands such an excellent and absolute an estate of a Commō Wealth that sauing the people were vn-Christened might seeme to passe anie estate and Common wealth I will not say of the olde Nations by me before mentioned but euen of anie other in our time Manie great learned men as Budeus Ioannes Paludanus vpon a feruent zeale wished that some excellent Diuines might be sent thither to preache Christ's Gospell yea there were here amongst vs at home sundrie good men learned Diuines very desirous to take the voyage to bring the people to the fayth of Christ whose manners they did so well like And this sayd iollie inuention of Sir THOMAS MORE' 's seemed to beare a good countenance of truth not only for the creditt Sir THOMAS was of in the world but also for that about the same time manie strange and vnknowne nations and Countries were discouered such as our forefathers neuer knew especially by the wonderfull nauigation of the shippe called Victoria that sayled the world round about whereby it was foūd that shipps sayle bottome to bottome that there be Antipodes which thing Lactantius and others doe flattely denye laughing thē to scorne that so did write Againe it is found that vnder the Zodiake where Aristotle and others say that for the immoderate excessiue heate there is no habitation is the most temperate and pleasant dwelling and the most fruitfull countrie in the world These and other considerations caused manie wise and learned men nothing lesse to mistrust then that this had bene nothing but an Inuentiue drift of Sir THOMAS MORE' 's owne imagination for they tooke it for a verie sure true storie wherein they were deceaued by Sir THOMAS as too wittie and as well learned as they were In this booke amongst other things he hath a very goodlie processe how there might be fewer theeues in England and a maruelous opinable probleme of sheepe that whereas men were wont to eate the sheepe as they doe in other countries now contrariewise sheepe in England pittiefully doe deuowre men women and children houses yea townes withall Like a most thankefull man he maketh honourable mention of Cardinall Morton Archbishop of Canterburie and Lo Chancellour of England in whose house as we haue sayd himselfe was in his tender youth brought vpp albeit it be by the dissembled name of the sayd Hythlodius whome he imagineth to haue bene in England and to haue bene acquainted with the sayd Cardinall And as this booke in his kinde is singular and excellent contayning and describing a Common wealth farre passing the Common-wealthes deuised and vsed by Lycurgus Solon Numa Plato and diuerse others So wrote he in-another kinde sorte a booke against Luther no lesse singular and excellent King Henry the Eight had written a notable and learned booke against Luther's booke De Captiuitate Babylonica most euidently and mightily refuting his vile and shamefull heresies against the Catholike Fayth and Christ's holie Sacraments which did so grieue Luther to the hart that hauing no good substantiall matter to helpe himselfe withall he fell to scoffing and sawcie ieasting at the king's booke
in his answer for the same vsing nothing throughout the sayd Answer but the figure of Rhetorike called savvce-malepert and played the very varlett with the king To whome Sir THOMAS MORE made reply and doth so discipher and lay open his wily wrested handling of the Sacred Scripture his monstrous opinions and maniefolde contradictions that neither he nor anie of his generation durst euer after putt penne to paper to encounter and reioyne to his reply in which besides the deepe and profound debating of the matter itselfe he so dresseth Luther with his owne scoffing and ieasting rhetoricke as he worthily deserued But because this kinde of writing albeit a meete Couer for such a Cuppe and verie necessarie to represse beate him with his owne follie according to the Scripture Responde stulto secundùm slutitiam eius seemed not agreable and correspondent to his grauitie and dignitie the booke was sett forth vnder the name of one Gulielmus Rosseus only suppressing his owne name He wrote also and printed another proper and wittie treatise against a certaine Epistle of Iohn Pomeran one of Luther's stādard-bearers in Germanie And after he was shutt vp in the Tower he wrote a certaine expositiō in Latine vpon the Passion of Christ not yet printed which was not perfited and is so plainely and exquisitely trāslated into English by his neece M. rs Bassett that it may seeme originally to haue bene penned in English by Sir THOMAS MORE himselfe Some other things he wrote also in Latine which we pretermitt and now we will somewhat talke of his English Workes which all besides the life of Iohn Picus Earle of Mirandula the foresayd life of king Richard the Third and some other prophane things concerne matters of religion for the most parte The first booke of this sorte was his Dialogues made by him when he was Chancellour of the Dutchie of Lancaster which bookes occasioned him afterwards as according to the olde prouerbe One businesse begetteth another to write diuerse other things For whereas he had amongst manie other matters touched and reproued William Tindall's adulterate and vitious translation of the New Testament Tindall being not able to beare to see his new religion and his owne doings withall to haue so fowle an ouerthrowe as Sir THOMAS MORE gaue him after great deliberation with his Euangelicall bretheren tooke in hand to answer some parte of his dialogues especially touching his aforesayd corrupt Translation but what small glorie he wanne thereby is easie to be seene of euerie man that with indifferent affection will vouchsafe to reade Sir THOMAS MORE' 's reply whereof we shall giue you a smal taste but first we will note vnto you the integritie sinceritie and vprightnesse of the good and gracious nature and disposition of the sayd Sir THOMAS MORE in his writing not only against Tindall but generally against all other Protestants First then it is to be considered in him that he doth not as manie other writers doe against their aduersaries all Protestants doe against him other Catholikes wreathe and wreste their wordes to the worst and make their reasons more feeble and weake then they are but rather enforceth them to the vttermost and oftentimes further then the partie himself doth or perhaps could doe And he was of this minde that he sayde he would not lett while he liued wheresoeuer he perceaued his aduersarie to say well or himselfe to haue sayd otherwise indifferently for both to say and declare the truth And therefore himselfe after the printing finding the bookes diuulged and commonly read of the Debellation of Salem and Bizanze albeit manie had read the place and found no faulte therein yet he finding afterwards that he mistooke certaine wordes of the Pacifyer without anie man's controulement meerely of himselfe reformed them The like he counselled his learned friends especially Erasmus to doe and to retract manie things that he had written whose counsell wherein he had a notable president in the worthie Doctour S. Augustine yf Erasmus had followed I trowe his bookes would haue bene better liked of by posteritie which perchance shall be fayne either vtterly to abolish some of his workes or at least to redresse and reforme them Here is now further to be considered in his writings that he neuer hunted after praise or vayne glorie nor anie vile and filthie gaine or commoditie yea so that enuenomed and poysoned bookes might be once suppressed abolished he wished his owne on a light and fayre fyre Yet did the Euangelicall bretheren after he had abandoned the office of Lo Chancellour as they otherwise spread and writt manie vaine and false rumours to the aduancement of their new Gospel and oppressing of the Catholike lay to his charge in their bookes that he was partiall to the Clergie and for his bookes receaued a great masse of monie of the sayd Clergie And Tindall and diuerse others of the good bretheren affirmed that they wist well that Sir THOMAS MORE was not lesse worth in monie plate and other moueables then twentie thousand markes but it was found farre otherwise when his house was searched after he was committed to the Tower where a while he had some competent libertie but after on a suddaine he was shutt vp very close at which time he feared there would be a new more narrower search in all his houses because his minde gaue him that folkes thought he was not so poore as it appeared in the search but he tolde his daughter M. ris Rooper that it would be but a sporte to them that knew the truth of his pouertie vnlesse they should finde out his wiue's gay gyrdle and her goulde beades The like pouertie of anie man that had continued so long a Chancellour with the king and had borne so manie great offices hath I trowe seldome bene founde in anie lay man before and much lesse since his time As for his partialitie to the Clergie sauing the reuerence due to the sacred Order of priests by whome we are made Christian men in Baptisme and by whome we receaue the other holie Sacraments there was none in him and that they felt that were naught of the Clergie that had so little fauour at his hands that there was no man that anie medling had with them into whose hands they were more loath to come then into his but for fees annuities or other rewardes or anie commoditie that should encline him to be euer propēse partiall to the Clergie none cā be shewed First touching anie fees he had to his liuing after that he had left the Chaūcellourship he had not one groate grāted him since he first wrote or begāne to write the Dialogues that was the first booke that euer he wrote in matters of religion And as for all the lands and fees he had besides those of the king's guift was not nor should be during his mother in lawe's life who liued after he relinquished the office of
would say that he was neuer moued with friēdshipp stirred vp with hope of gaine nor wrested by anie threates but still performed his dutie and that he shutt vp alwaies his left eie to all affection of friendshipp and from all briberie Cambden also reporteth of him for proofe of his pleasantnesse of witt that he would compare the multitude of women which are to be chosen for wiues vnto a bagge full of snakes hauing amongst them but one eele now if a man should putt his hand into this bagg he may chance to light on the eele but it is a hundred to one he shall be stung with a snake Manie such like wittie similitudes would he vse in his priuate discourses and in publike auditorie By these his perfections of witt and grace one might guesse that this Childe was likelie to proue singular hauing so good a father but he farre surpassed him in all these and manie more excellencies so that our Familie hath bene much more dignified by this sonne then he anie way drew worth and dignitie from his Anncestours the consideration whereof hath caused manie to thinke and say that SIR THOMAS was of meane parentage and the first of his house yea some haue not stucke to write by birth no gentleman grounding their errour vpon these wordes which he setteth downe in his Epitaphe Thomas More borne of noble familie but of an honest stock which is true as we here in England take Nobilitie and Noble For none vnder a Baron except he be of the Priuie Councell doth challenge it and in this sence he meaneth it but as the Latine word Nobilis is taken in other Countries for Gentrie it was otherwise For Iudge More bare Armes from his birth hauing his Coate quartered which doth argue that he came to his inheritannce by descent and therefore although by reason of king Henries seasure of all our Euidences we can not certainely tell who were Sir Iohn's Anncestours yet must they needes be Gentlemen and as I haue heard they either came out of the Mores of Ireland or they of Ireland came out of vs. And as for SIR THOMAS he was as I haue sayd a Knight's eldest sonne and sole heyre to a Iudge of this realme But whatsoeuer the Familie was or is if Vertue can ennoble anie surely it hath by these two excellent men bene made much more to be respected yet if we as God forbidde we should degenerate from their footestepps we may cause it soone to be base of small reckoning vice being the chiefe stayne that tainteth euen the noblest Families The name of SIR THOMAS his mother was 〈◊〉 of Holicvvell in the Countie of Bedford yet Doctour Stapleton had not heard so much who sayth that her name was vnknowne by reason of which wordes some haue taken greate exceptions as though she had bene a base woman though he doth in the same place tell this reason thereof because she dyed soone after she had brought forth this childe but to haue bene a woman of more then ordinarie vertue that which Doctor Clement reporteth from SIR THOMAS his owne mouth of a vision which she had the next night after her marriage seemeth in my iudgement forcible to argue in which she sawe in her sleepe as it were ingrauen in her wedding ring the number and fauour of all her children she was to haue whereof the face of one was so darke and obscure that she could not well discerne it and indeede afterwards she suffered of one of her children an vntimclie deliuerie but the face of one of her other she beheld shining most gloriously whereby no doubt Sir THOMAS his fame and sanctitie was foreshened and presignifyed She brought forth before him to Sir Iohn two daughters one called Iane afterwards married to à noble gentleman Mr. Richard Staffretō Elizabeth wife to the worthie gētleman Mr. Iohn Rastall Iudge Rastall's father Sir Iohn after his first wife's death married successiuely two others whereof the last as I haue heard was called Alice one of the Mores of Surrey and great aunte to Sir William More whose sonne now liuing is Sir George lieftennant of the Tower a man little inferiour to his noble Anncestours if his religion were answerable to theirs This Ladie outliued her sonne in law Sir THOMAS dwelling vpon her Iointure in Hartfordshire at a Capitall messuage then called More-place now Gubbons in the parish of Northmimes but being a little before her death thrust out of all by king Henry's furie she dyed at Northall a mile from thence and lieth buried in the church there 2. Sir THOMAS MORE was borne at London in Milke-streete where the Iudge his father for the most parte dwelt in the yeare of our Lord 1480. in the twentieth yeare of Edvvard the Fourth Shortly after his birth God would shew by another signe how deare this babe was vnto him For his nurce chancing to ride with him ouer à water and her horse stepping aside into a deepe place putt both her and her Childe in great danger and ieopardie whose harmes she seeking suddenly to preuent threw the infant ouer a hedge into a fielde neere adioyning and after by God's helpe escaping safe also when she came to take him vp againe she found him to haue no hurt at all but sweetely smiled vpon her that it might well be sayd of him Angelis suis Deus mandauit de te ne fortè offendas ad lapidem pedem tuum and not his foote only but his whole bodie 3. This was no doubt a happie presage of his future holinesse and putt his parents in minde that he was that shining Childe of whome his mother had that former vision wherefore his father had the greater care to bring him vp in learning as soone as his tender age would permit it and so he putt him to the Free-schoole of London called S. Anthonies where he had a famous and learned man called Nicolas Holt for his maister vnder whome when he had rather greedily deuoured then leasurely chewed his Grammar rules he outstripped farre both in towardnesse of witt and diligence of endeauours all his schoole fellowes with whome he was matched And being borne to farre greater matters his father procured him to be placed shortly after in the house of the most worthie prelate that then liued in England both for wisedome learning and vertue whose like the world scarcely had Cardinall Morton Archbishopp of Canterburie and Lord high Chancellour of England whose graue countenance and carriage was such that he easily allured all men to honour and loue him a man as Sir THOMAS MORE describeth him in his Vtopia of incomparable iudgement a memorie more then is credible eloquent in speach and which is most to be wished in Clergiemen of singular wisedome and vertue so that the King and the Common wealth relyed chiefly vpon this mans counsell as he by whose policie King Henrie the Seauenth both gott the Crowne of
England from Richard 〈◊〉 the vsurper and also most happily procured the two houses of Lancaster and Yorke to be vnited by marriage In this famous mans house this youth learned most diligently aboundance of wisedome and vertue and now he beganne to shew to the world what man he was likelie to proue For the Cardinall often would make triall of his pregnant witt especially at Christmas merriments when hauing plaies for recreacion this youth would suddenly steppe vp amongst the players and neuer studying before vpon the matter make often a parte of his owne inuention which was so wittie and so full of ieasts that he alone made more sporte and laughter then all the players besides for which his towardlienesse the Cardinall delighted much in him and would often say of him vnto diuerse of the Nobilitie who at sundrie times dined with him that that boy there wayting on him whosoeuer should liue to see it would proue a maruelous rare man But when this most reuerend Prelate sawe that he could not profitt so much in his house as he desired where there were manie distractions of publike affaires hauing great care of his bringing vp he sent him to the Vniuersitie and placed him in Canterbury-Colledge at Oxford now called Christs-church where in two yeares space that he remained there he profited exceedingly in Rhetorick Logick and Philosophie and shewed euidently what wonders witt and diligence can performe when they are ioyned as seldome they are in one painefull student There his whole minde was sett on his booke for in his allowance his father kept him verie short suffering him scarcelie to haue so much monie in his owne custodie as would pay for the mending of his apparrell euen no more then necessitie required and of his expences he would exact of him a particular accounte which course of his fathers he would often both speake of and praise it when he came to riper yeares affirming that by this meanes he was curbed from all vice and withdrawen from manie idle expences either of gayming or keeping naughtie companie so that he knew neither play nor other riott wherein most yong men in these our lamentable daies plunge themselues too timely to the vtter ouerthrow as well of learning and future vertue as their temporall estates This strictnesse of his father in creased in him also a great reuerence and obedience after vnto him againe in so much that in all his life after he was so dutiefull vnto him that he neuer offended nor contradicted him in anie the least worde or action still shewing towards him admirable deedes of humilitie euen at that time when in the eye of the world he farre surpassed his father in dignitie which may be seene by asking him blessing euerie day duly euen after he was Lord Chancellour of England and when he and his father mett publikely at Lincolnes-Inne or other where he would still offer him the place of precedence though the Iudge by reason of his sonne 's office did still refuse it such was the pietie and submissiue minde of this humble man such againe was the prouident care of the father towards his sonne that one can hardly guesse which of the two were more worthie the father of such a sonne or the sonne of such a father yet I iudge the father more happie that enioyed such an admirable sonne and wish that my Children may imitate in this kinde their vertuous Anncestours 4. When this towardlie youth was come to the age of eighteene yeares he beganne to shew to the world his ripenesse of witt for he wrote manie wittie and goodlie Epigrammes which are to be seene in the beginning of his English Workes he composed also manie prettie and elegant verses of the Vanitie of this life and the inconstancie thereof which his father caused to be sett vp with pictures and pageants which are also in the beginning of his greate English Volume he translated for his exercise one of Lucian's Orations out of Greeke into Latine which he calleth his first fruits of the Greeke toung and thereto he added another Oratiō of his owne to answer that of Lucian's for as he defended him who had slaine a tyrant he opposeth against it another with such forcible arguments that this seemeth not to giue place to Lucian either in inuention or eloquence As concerning his diuerse Latine Epigrammes which he either translated out of Greeke into Latine or else composed of his owne manie famous authours that then liued doe make mention of them with great praise For 〈◊〉 Rhenanus in his epistle to Bilibaldus Pitcheimerus writeth thus THOMAS MORE is maruelous in euerie respect for he compoundeth most eloquently and 〈◊〉 most happily how sweetly doe his verses slowe from him hovv nothing in them seemeth constrained hovv easie are all things there that he speaketh of nothing is hard nothing rugged nothing obscure he is pure he is vvittie he is elegant besides he doth temper all things vvith mirth as that I neuer read a merrier man I could thinke that the Muses haue heaped vpon him alone all their pleasant conceipts and vvittie merriments moreouer his quippes are not biting but full of pleasantnesse and verie proper yea rather anie thing then stinging for he 〈◊〉 but vvithout mordacitie he 〈◊〉 yet vvithout contumelie The like iudgement of his Epigrammes doth that famous Poëte Leodgarius à Quercu publike Reader of Humanitie in Paris giue and that not so much by his words as by his deedes For he hauing gathered of the Epigrammes of diuerse famous men a Collection he hath sett out more Epigrammes of Sir THOMAS MORE' 's then of anie other writer yet because rarenesse of anie excellent qualitie is still enuyed by some man or other one Brixius a German wrote a booke against these Epigrammes of Sir THOMAS MORE' 's which he called Antimorus with such commendation that Eramus earnestly besought Sir THOMAS that he would not ouerwhelme his friend Brixius with such an answer as his rashnesse deserued adding this of this his foolish booke Antimorus I heare vvhat learned men speake of Brixius novv after he hath vvritten his Antimore vvhich as I heare it not vvillingly of him so vvould I lesse vvillingly he are thē so speake of you vvherefore seing I perceaue hovv hard a matter it is to temper an ansvver to so spitefull a booke but that you must giue some scope vnto your passions I deeme it best for you not to regard but vvholy to contemne the matter yet this I vvould not counsell you my best friend to doe if there vvere anie thing in that malitious Antimore vvhich did truly blemish your fame so that it vvere necessarie for you to vvipe it avvay c. Which friendlie counsell Sir THOMAS MORE in some sorte followed for although he had answered Brixius fully in a little treatise which alreadie he had published before Erasmus his letter came to his hands yet vpon the receipt thereof he endeauoured by
it selfe speaketh abundantly that the cause was most vniust the manner thereof most infamous and Sir THOMAS MORE' 's patience most admirable his pietie his learning his vertues incomparable famous was he for his noble martyrdome infamous king Henry for his most vniust condemnation These things doe aggrauate king Henry's faulte First that he killed him by a law wherein he neuer offended either by word or deede and by that which concerned not Temporall policie but religion only not rebellious against the king but fearefull to offende his owne Conscience which though he refused to approue yet did he neuer reproue it or anie other man for taking it Secondly that he putt to death so rare a man so beloued of all so vertuous so wise so courteous and wittie which might be motiues sufficient euer to pardon a guiltie offender Thirdly for beheading a man that had donne him so much seruice yea the whole kingdome such good offices his faythfull Counsellour for twentie yeares togeather his expert Embassadour his just Lo Chancellour the verie flower of his realme Manie things also doe amplifye and in crease Sir THOMAS MORE' 's immortall glorie first in that to all the king's demaunds he had behaued himselfe so sincerely and impartiall opening his minde ingenuously so that the king seemed still to like him though his opiniō were contrarie to his liking Secondly that he had suffered alreadie the losse of all his goods being condemned to perpetual imprisonment and only for silence Thirdly in that he tooke all crosses for the loue of God most patiently Fourthly that he dyed for a controuersie in religion neuer before called in question by anie precedent example Finally that he only of all the Councell would not flatter the king nor keepe either goods dignitie or life with the dāger of the losse of his soule All which proue what a rare man how admirable and vertuous a Christian and how glorious a martyr he is 9. But because one bauld English Chronicler Hall tearmeth him a scoffing man because his writings and doings were full of wittie ieastes calling him a wise foolish man or a foolish wiseman lett vs see by his owne writings the reason why he hath vsed so manie pleasant tales in his bookes and it is this Euen as some sicke men sayth he will take no medicines vnlesse some pleasant thing be putt amongst their potions although perhaps it be somewhat hurtefull yet the phisician suffereth them to haue it So because manie will not willingly hearken to serious and graue documents except they be mingled with some fable or ieaste therefore reason willeth vs to doe the like And in his greate Volume page 1048. he sayth that ieastes are as it were sawce whereby we are recreated that we may eate with more stomake but as that were an absurde bankett in which there were few dishes of meate and much varietie of sawces and that an vnpleasant one where there were no sawce at all euen so that life were spent idely wherein nothing were but mirth and iolitie and againe that tedious and vncomfortable wherein no pleasure or myrth were to be expected Which mirth as it may become all men so most especially did it become such a one as Sir THOMAS MORE was being a married man yea a Courtier end a companion to a Prince of whome that may worthily be spoken which Titus Liuius recounteth of Cato thus In this man there was such excellencie of witt and wisedome that he seemeth to haue bene able to haue made his fortune in what place soeuer he had bene borne he wanted no skill either for the managing of priuate or publike businesses he was skillfull both in Countrie and Cittie affayres some are raysed to honour either because they are excellent lawyers singularly eloquent or of admirable vertues but the towardlienesse of this man's vnderstanding framed him so to all matters that you would deeme him to be borne for one alone In the practise of vertues you would iudge him rather a monke then a Courtier in learning a most famous writer yf you would aske his counsell in the law he was most readie to aduise you the best yf he were to make an Oration he would shew maruelous eloquence he was admirable in all kinde of learning Latine Greeke Prophane Diuine yf there were an Embassage to be vndertooke none more dexterous to finish it in giuing sound counsell in doubtfull Cases none more prudent to tell the truth without feare none more free as farre from all flatterie as open and pleasant full of grace in deliuering his iudgement and that which Cato had not therein was he most happie For Liuie saith that he had a sower carriadge and a toung immoderate free and full of taunting But Sir THOMAS being Christ's schollar and not anie Stoick's was milde and of an humble hart neither sadde nor turbulent and besides of a pleasant conuersation neuer sterne but for righteousnesse a great contemner either of vnlawfull pleasures or of mordinate riches and glorie As Cato had much enmitie with diuerse Senatours so manie of them on the other side did exercise his patience that one can hardly discerne whether the Nobilitie did presse him more or he the Nobilitie but on the contrarie side Sir THOMAS MORE neuer had anie priuate or publike quarrell with anie man yea no man can reckon anie to haue bene his enemie being borne wholy to friendshipp and affabilitie wherefore being nothing inferiour to Cato for grauitie integritie and innocency as exact a hater of all vice and sterne to all wicked men as he yet did he farre excelle him in mildenesse sweetenesse of behauiour and pleasantnesse of witt yea I doe him iniurie to compare him to anie morall philosopher whatsoeuer for he was absolutely well seene in the schoole of Christ endewed with all supernaturall perfections a greate Saint of Christ's Church and a holie Martyr of his fayth and high in Gods fauour which was well testifyed in his daughter my aunte Dauney who being sore sick of that disease of which she after dyed fell into a lōg traunce and afterwards returning to herselfe she professed with abundance of teares that she had felt in that while most grieuous torments and should haue suffered them for euer had not her fathers prayers and intercession begged of God a little longer space to repente her of her former life It was also credibly reported that two of Iohn Haywood's sons Iasper and Ellis hauing one of the teeth of Sir THOMAS MORE betweene them and either of them being desirous to haue it to himselfe it suddenly to the admiration of both parted in two 10. Now to conclude lett vs consider why God culled out this man aboue all other to preserue the vnitie of the Church and to be an illustrious wittnesse of the glorious cause for the which he dyed for least men should thinke that yf only the Clergie had dyed they might seeme partiall in their owne Cause beholde God