Thomas More

Thomas More was an English lawyer, humanist scholar and statesman who rose to become Lord Chancellor under Henry VIII. A close friend of Erasmus, he wrote Utopia (1516) in Latin: a dialogue in which a traveller describes an island commonwealth with no private property, where citizens work six hours a day, hold goods in common and tolerate different religions. Whether More meant it as a blueprint, a satire on European society or a puzzle is still debated. He refused to accept Henry as head of the English Church, was executed for treason in 1535, and was canonised in 1935.

Key ideas

• Much crime and misery arise from unjust social conditions, such as enclosures that drove the poor off the land.
• Private property and money breed pride and inequality; Utopia imagines a society that does without them.
• Reason alone, without Christian revelation, can work out a just social order, as the pagan Utopians do.
• A counsellor faces a hard choice between serving princes and keeping his integrity.

Major works

• Utopia (1516)
• The History of King Richard III (c. 1513)
• A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation (1553)

In the Book corner

• Utopia 1516 · Beginner
  A short work of fiction in Latin, written by the English lawyer and humanist Thomas More and published at Leuven in 1516.…

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