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Historical SummaryHAD Sir Thomas More lived in the America of the furiously rushing nineteen fifties he would have been hounded by frantic agents anxious to obtain his services as a gag-writer for the Bob Hope and Red Skelton radio programs; his appearance at Sherman Billingsley’s Stork Club would titillate New York’s café society; his bons mots would be featured by Columnist Leonard Lyons; his inside information would be exclusively broadcast by Walter Winchell; and he would be guaranteed repeat TV performances on Ed Sullivan’s "Toast of the Town" and Tex and Jinx’s "Close Ups." Any man capable of delivering a wisecrack at his own execution can write his own check in Hollywood. This is not to imply that More was nothing more than a master of the bon mot. His immortal little book, Utopia (in Greek, no place), describes an ideal island commonwealth where toleration reigns and social life is regulated according to the dictates of reason. "They (the Utopians)," his traveler reports to him, "count nothing so much against glory, as glory gotten in war." "When I consider all these commonwealths which nowadays anywhere do flourish, as God help me, I can perceive nothing but a conspiracy of rich men procuring their own commodities," is a further observation. More, appointed to the office of lord chancellor in 1529, was sharply at variance with Henry VIII on the subject of the divorce that sovereign obtained from Catherine of Aragon. Henry wanted a male heir, which Catherine could not provide, and he was smitten by the beauteous, vivacious, and cunning Anne Boleyn, twenty years younger than the homely queen. More’s disapproval angered him. When the chancellor refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn, he really signed his own death warrant. In 1534 Henry extracted from Parliament the Act of Supremacy, stating that "the King, our Sovereign Lord, his heirs and successors, Kings of this realm, shall be taken, accepted, and reputed the only Supreme Head on earth of the Church of England." A reign of terror against pro-Catholic Englishmen followed. Steadfastly refusing to recognize this repudiation of papal authority, Sir Thomas was committed to the Tower. He was found guilty of high treason and beheaded on July 6, 1535. That More’s lively wit did not fail him—even on the scaffold—is shown by this contemporary account, published in Hall’s Chronicles. A satiric mood doubtless sustained this high-minded thinker through those last black days, when the hopelessness of his earlier Utopian dreams was all too clearly revealed.
Key Quote"I pray you let me lay my beard over the block lest ye should cut it."
H. Hall
London
1908
Sir Thomas More Meets Death With a Wisecrack
[1535]
On the sixth day of July Sir Thomas More was beheaded for treason, which, as you have heard, was for the denying of the king’s Majesty’s supremacy. This man was also counted learned, and, as you have heard before, he was Lord Chancellor of England. In that time he was a great persecutor of such as detested the supremacy of the bishop of Rome, which be himself so highly favored that he stood to it until he was brought to the scaffold on the Tower Hill, where on a block his head was stricken from his shoulders and had no more harm.
I cannot tell whether I should call him a foolish wise man or a wise foolish man, for undoubtedly he, beside his learning, had a great wit. But it was so mingled with taunting and mocking, that it seemed to them that best knew him that he thought nothing to be well spoken except he had ministered some mock in the communication. When coming to the Tower one of the officers demanded his upper garment for his fee, meaning his gown, and he answered he should have it and took him his cap, saying that it was the uppermost garment that he had.
Likewise, even going to his death at the Tower gate, a poor woman called unto him and besought him to declare that he had certain evidence of hers in the time that he was in office (which after he was apprehended she could not come by), and that he would entreat she might have them again, or else she was undone. He answered:
"Good woman, have patience a little while, for the king is so good unto me that even within this half hour he will discharge me of all business, and help thee himself."
Also when he went up the stair on the scaffold he desired one of the sheriff’s officers to give him his hand to help him up, and said:
"When I come down again let me shift for myself as well as I can."
Also the hangman kneeled down to him asking him forgiveness of his death (as the manner is), to whom he said:
"I forgive thee, but I promise thee that thou shalt never have honesty of the striking of my head, my neck is so short."
Also even when he should lay down his head on the block he, having a great gray beard, struck out his beard, and said to the hangman:
"I pray you let me lay my beard over the block lest ye should cut it."
Thus with a mock he ended his life.
Chicago: H. Hall, Chronicle, ed. H. Hall in History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, ed. Louis Leo Snyder and Richard B. Morris (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Co., 1951), Original Sources, accessed December 3, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=S11CCXJLT9U9HV8.
MLA: Hall, H. Chronicle, edited by H. Hall, in History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, edited by Louis Leo Snyder and Richard B. Morris, Harrisburg, Pa., Stackpole Co., 1951, Original Sources. 3 Dec. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=S11CCXJLT9U9HV8.
Harvard: Hall, H, Chronicle, ed. . cited in 1951, History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, ed. , Stackpole Co., Harrisburg, Pa.. Original Sources, retrieved 3 December 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=S11CCXJLT9U9HV8.
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