The break with Rome part 2 (16)

Thomas More

• 2 weeks after Fisher's execution, More followed
• His case was much more complicated
• More was reluctantly willing to accept the change in succession as it had a lready happened and to do otherwise would have been pointless
• However, he would no compromise his conscience by swearing to the idea that the King of England had always been Supreme head of the Church of England, and that parliament was simply re-asserting Henry's right to something which had always been the case
• He was held in the Tower alongside Fisher, until the Treason Act (passed later in 1534) made it possible for the government to strike
• More was a dangerous opponent for Henry in that he was one of the most respected humanists in Europe
• He was legally trained and a scholar of some fame
• The publication of 'Utopia' in 1516 had advanced his reputation even further
• It was not long before he came into the notice of the royal court and he helped Henry write a tract against the emerging Lutheran threat in Europe
• He subsequesntly showed himself to be a merciless persecutor of heretics 
• 1529, he was in many ways the obvious candidate to replace Wolsey as Lord Chancellor
• His appointment surprised many as…