TOMMASO MORO (THOMAS MORE), saint. — Born in London on 7 February 1477 or 1478 into a family of respectable standing; died there on 6 July 1535.
At about thirteen, as a page in the service of the Lord Chancellor, Archbishop Morton, he was sent by him to Canterbury College, Oxford (1492), for humanistic studies; in 1494 he turned to the study of jurisprudence and was appointed a law reader at Furnival's Inn. Meanwhile, T. did not abandon literature, combining meditation on the Fathers of the Church with the reading of the classics; with William Lily he translated epigrams from the Greek Anthology. His meeting with Erasmus in 1499, when the latter, travelling to Oxford, stopped in London, gave rise to esteem and mutual affection, which never waned.
(from R. W. Chambers, T. M. Noora York, BBS)
TOMMASO MORO, saint — Portrait by H. Holbein — Windsor Castle, Library.
Uncertain whether to become a religious, and following Colet’s advice, he remained in the lay state, while preserving to the end a sincere admiration for the Carthusian life. Elected a member of Parliament in 1504, he opposed the excessive levy demanded by Henry VIII on the occasion of his daughter’s marriage to the King of Scotland: the House of Commons reduced the sum requested by the King to about one quarter; but the latter, enraged, had T.’s father arrested on frivolous charges and kept him in the Tower until he had paid a heavy fine. In 1505 T. married Jane Colt, by whom he had four children: Margherita, Elisabetta, Cecilia, and Giovanni. After Jane’s death, in 1511, he contracted a second marriage with Alice Middleton, a widow older than himself. In 1510 he was appointed undersheriff of London; in 1515 he was sent to Flanders as ambassador to defend English commercial interests; in 1516 he received a life pension of 100 pounds, and the following year he was appointed ambassador to Calais. The King then chose him as a member of the Privy Council and subsequently as Master of the Requests (perhaps in 1518). Elected Speaker of the House of Commons in 1524, in 1525 he received the title of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. When, toward the end of 1527, Henry VIII asked T. for his opinion concerning the annulment of his marriage to Caterina d'Aragona, he encountered firm opposition; nevertheless, determined to pursue his purpose, in 1529 he forced Wolsey to surrender the chancellorship because he had failed to bring the Pope round to the King’s designs; he then offered this office to T., perhaps in the hope of making him change his position. T. accepted reluctantly and was the first layman to hold this office (25 October 1529); invited to reconsider the question of repudiating Caterina, he maintained his attitude and confined himself to the strict duties of chancellor. When, subsequently, at the beginning of 1531, Henry demanded to be recognized as supreme head of the Church of England, T.’s position became increasingly delicate; he avoided expressing himself publicly and, on 30 March 1531, in reporting to Parliament the King’s justifications of his conduct, went no further than the purely formal task of serving as spokesman. On 12 May 1532, Archbishop Warham, under royal pressure, presented the act of the clergy’s conditional submission; on the same day T. resigned for reasons of health, retiring to live with his family in Chelsea, where Henry left him in peace for eighteen months, though determined to bend him. The former chancellor, counted among the adherents of Elisabetta Barton, who had prophesied misfortunes for Henry if he attempted another marriage, was interrogated on 6 March 1534 by a commission, but did not yield; returning to Chelsea, he defended himself, also in writing, against all the accusations. On 13 April he was summoned to swear to the Act of Succession: he declared himself willing to swear to the succession of Bolena’s offspring, but not to the remainder, which implied recognition of the divorce and repudiation of papal authority. Imprisoned in the Tower, he remained there until 1 July 1535,
when, tried for high treason, he was condemned to death by beheading. He was beatified by Leone XIII in 1886 and canonized by Pio XI in 1935 Giovanni Fisher (v.).
Among T.’s writings, the best known is the Latin dialogue Utopia. T., who had had occasion to take to heart the political and social questions that were beginning to agitate the world of the Renaissance—the emergence of modern nations presented to a Catholic attentive to historical reality the necessity of ideal solutions to the problem of organizing the earthly «community»—alluded to them in his Life of Edoardo V and the Duke of York. He supposes the dialogue to have taken place in Antwerp among three figures: T. himself; Pietro Gillea, his friend and that of Erasmus; and an imaginary Raffaele Itlodeo, an old navigator who plays the principal part by recounting what he had seen on his voyages to very distant lands. The first book of the work, an open critique of the customs of European politics, inspired by straightforward Machiavellianism, and of English social organization, where wealth was concentrated in the hands of an oligarchy, has its central point in the question: faced with a scrupleless politics, can a «philosopher»—that is, a «Catholic»—participate in the direction of the State, knowing that his moral counsels will not be well received? The answer that emerges is that it is not right to withdraw merely because one cannot convert rulers to one’s own conceptions; rather, by adapting oneself to circumstances, one must rectify what is possible, without compromising the whole through rigid intransigence. In the second book, R. Itlodeo describes the laws and customs of an imaginary island, Utopia, where he had stopped for some time and where a pre-Christian society inspired by the dictates of natural reason flourished.
On the basis of a community of goods—the society without property was created by T. M. to emphasize the economic injustices of his homeland and as a superterrestrial aspiration toward a life that would be as fraternally «communal» as possible—the author evidently wishes to show the degree of civilization attainable by human reason alone. Certain «Utopian» institutions would be worth adopting in Europe, while others would not, as he himself declares at the end of the work, where subtle wit and irony often culminate in satire. Utopian society is no more than one great family governed by magistrates who call themselves, and are, fathers. All activity is regulated by the senate, where debates are held on every question of common interest; in particular circumstances, the entire island population is consulted. Although different religious professions exist, a large part of the population believes in an eternal and immense divinity whom it calls father. All, moreover, are convinced of the existence of a single supreme being, creator and providential ruler of the universe, called Mitra. If anyone wishes to lead others to his belief, he uses persuasion alone; otherwise, he is exiled or enslaved. No one, however, is free to deny providence and reward after death. In that case, he is excluded from public offices and may defend his opinions only privately before priests and wise men, because in this way he might perhaps change them. As soon as they learned of the Christian faith, brought by Raffaele and his travelling companions, many Utopians converted, while continuing to respect the freedom of others. The priests (men and women) in Utopia, holy and few in number, are charged with advising and admonishing; they nevertheless remove the impious from office, and, if they do not show repentance, refer them to the judgment of the senate.
Divorce for adultery or incompatibility of character is permitted, as is self-euthanasia in certain cases of illness. In international relations the utopians do not conclude treaties, because nature already makes them brothers sufficiently; in war they buy enemies to eliminate their prince, or urge his relatives to usurp his power, or neighboring peoples to occupy his lands—in this the T. repeats, veiled in irony, the critique of Machiavellianism—but they detest war and are exceedingly sparing of the blood of their own citizens.
The other writings of T. may be grouped into works of humanistic erudition (such as the translation of epigrams from the Antologia greca and of Dialoghi by Luciano, and the Vita di Pico della Mirandola); works of religious meditation, among which the Dialogo del conforto contro la tribolazione, written in English during his imprisonment in the Tower, is also noteworthy artistically; works of religious polemic against heretics, likewise written in English for practical reasons; finally, his letters to relatives and friends and the interesting Apologia, written after his resignation, stand apart. T. contributed considerably to the formation of English as a literary language, especially in prose.
In the complex figure of T. M., the balance between Catholic orthodoxy and the need for renewal, between politics and religion, and between humanism and the Renaissance is concentrated; his extraordinarily refined culture is itself an expression of the constant harmony of his life.