Sir Thomas More
Thomas More (February 7, 1478-July 6, 1535)—English lawyer, social philosopher, author, poet, and statesman—was a counselor to Henry VIII and served as Lord Chancellor of England. More opposed the Protestant Reformation and its adherents. When Henry VIII's separated from the Roman Catholic Church, More refused to accept him as the head of the Church of England and resigned from his position of Lord Chancellor. More was tried, convicted, and executed for his defiance of the King. His most famous work, Utopia (1516), written in Latin, is a fictional account of an ideally just and equal island nation. More's finest work written in English, A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation (1534), was written while More was in prison awaiting his execution. More became a Saint of the Roman Catholic Church in 1935.