then thought of embracing the less ascetic career of a priest, but the social element of his nature regained the upper hand. He returned to his profession, after marrying the daughter of Mr. Colt, a gentleman of Essex. Even here his good-nature led him to sacrifice his inclinations. He had fixed his affections upon the second daughter, but out of regard to the feelings of the eldest he married the senior of the two, and had every reason to be satisfied with his choice. At the bar his abilities and industry soon placed him in the foremost rank of his profession, and in 1502 he was appointed under-sheriff of London, a much more important and dignified office then than now. At twenty-four his reputation was so high that he was returned to serve in the parliament of 1604, summoned by Henry VII. to grant a subsidy on the occasion of the marriage of the Princess Margaret to James IV. of Scotland. The marriage seems to have been made a pretext by Henry for a "supply" to himself. More, young as he was, became the chief parliamentary spokesman of the general opposition to the king's exactions. Henry lost his subsidy, and as little was to be got out of More himself, wreaked his vengeance on the father, whom he fined for some imaginary offence. The fear of the king's resentment, however, led him to withdraw into private life until the accession of Henry VIII., when he resumed the practice of his profession. It was, perhaps, during this interval of retirement, passed by him, it is known, in study of various kinds, that More wrote his "History of King Richard III.," which, says Mr. Hallam, "appears to me the first example of good English language, pure and perspicuous, well-chosen, without vulgarisms or pedantry." After the accession of Henry VIII., More was counsel in almost every important case, and his professional income. Lord Campbell thinks, was equivalent to £10,000 a year at the bar of our own day. Henry and Wolsey had now both of them their eyes on More. Henry was present at the hearing in the star-chamber of a case arising out of the seizure of a ship belonging to the pope, in which More was counsel against and defeated the crown. At this stage of his career, the king could not only brook being thwarted in such a matter, but admired More's ability and honesty, and insisted on having his services. In 1514, accordingly, More quitted the bar, was made master of the requests, knighted, and sworn of the privy council. He had lost his first wife and married a second—one considerably less amiable than her predecessor—when at this time he removed from the city to Chelsea, with which are associated the familiar and pleasing pictures of his domestic life. He was now a personal favourite of the king's. Henry often made him take up his abode in the palace, that they might talk together of science, philosophy, and religion, and that his wit might amuse the royal supper table. He had even to feign dulness that he might be allowed to remain at home. Henry's blandishments never deceived him. Later, the king used to go to Chelsea to enjoy his conversation. Once, after a royal visit and dinner at Chelsea, Henry "walked with him by the space of an hour, holding his arm about his neck." When More's son-in-law Roper, who tells the story, congratulated him on this proof of the royal favour, Sir Thomas replied:—"I thank our Lord, son, I find his grace my very good lord indeed, and I believe he doth as singularly favour me as any subject within his realm; howbeit, son Roper, I may tell thee I have no cause to be proud thereof, for if my head would win him a castle in France (for then there was war between us), it would not fail to go." Nor did More, when most the favourite of the king, forget his duties as a citizen. In 1523, at Henry's instance, he was joyfully chosen speaker of the house of commons in the parliament called, after an interval of ten years, to vote no less a subsidy than £800,000. When Wolsey came in state to the house to browbeat and lecture the commons into compliance. More gave the precedent followed by Lenthal long afterwards in the arrest of the five members, and when Wolsey called on the speaker to reply, More excused their silence and refused to answer for the house.
This was in 1523. During nine years previously More had been often employed in missions, chiefly commercial, to the Low Countries. It is at Antwerp, during one of the earliest of these missions, that he lays the scene of the conversations which usher in the description of "Utopia," the title of his best-known work, first printed, in Latin, in 1516. Probably in the description of a "Happy Republic," which he puts into the mouth of an imaginary Portuguese voyager, it is difficult not to recognize More's own views of a perfect society. There is no private property in Utopia; the mildness of its penal code is contrasted with the severity of that of England; and, most significant of all, every religious opinion is tolerated in it. But the "Utopia" was written before the commencement of the Reformation. Luther's first challenge to the papacy was given in 1517; in 1521 he appeared before the diet of Worms. Like Erasmus, More had been friendly to a moderate reform of abuses in the church; but like Erasmus, too, though at an earlier date, the pacific and contemplative More recoiled as the Reformation marched inexorably towards its goal. Before long the philosophical author of the "Utopia" was aiding Henry to arrange what professed to be the king's "Assertio septem Sacramentorum adversus M. Lutherum;" and in 1523 appeared his own "Responsio ad convicia M. Lutheri congesti in Henricum regem Angliæ." In 1519 More had resigned his civic office of under-sheriff; in 1521 the king appointed him treasurer of the exchequer; and in 1525 chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. It was not long after this that the question of divorce began to be mooted, and More was called on to decide whom he would obey, pope or king. He seems for a time to have hesitated, or to have thought that he could serve both masters. "When consulted by Henry," says More's panegyrist. Lord Campbell, "respecting the legality of his marriage with his brother's widow, he said it was a question only fit for theologians; referred to the writings of St. Augustine and the luminaries of the Western church; and never would give him any explicit opinion from himself." The last of his diplomatic missions was undertaken with Tunstall in July, 1529, to negotiate a general peace at Cambray. He discharged his duty with singular and signal success. On his return Wolsey was falling; and on the 25th of October More took the oaths as chancellor. More's treatment of the reformers during his chancellorship is one of the few moot points of his biography. That they were persecuted while he held the seals there can be no doubt; but whether he can be held responsible for the acts of the bishops is a different question. In More's favour we have his own testimony in his "Apology," written after he had ceased to be chancellor, and which, if untrue, could have been easily contradicted. After admitting that he had punished by whipping, under peculiar circumstances, two members of his own household, he goes on to say—"Of all who ever came in my hand for heresy, as help me God, else had never any of them any stripe or stroke given them, so much as a fillip in the forehead." "It is," says Erasmus, "a sufficient proof of his clemency that while he was chancellor no man was put to death." The strongest modern statement against More is that of Mr. Froude (History of England, vol. ii., pp. 73-83), who cites two cases of illegal imprisonment merely; and in one of these he admits that the bishop of London was more to blame than the chancellor. Otherwise More's conduct as chancellor was most admirable. The business of the court was despatched with a speed before unknown; the sternest impartiality was observed in his decisions. The very appearance of bribery ceased. Unlike his predecessor, the haughty cardinal. More was accessible and affable to the humblest claimants of justice. The dulness of legal proceedings was irradiated by More's wit and pleasantry. His father, too, nearly ninety years of age, had become senior puisne judge of the king's bench, and had lived to see More chancellor. "Every day during term time, before the chancellor began business in his own court, he went into the court of king's bench, and, kneeling before his father, asked and received his blessing." After having held the seals two years and a half, More, pressed by the king to hasten on the divorce, resigned his office, 16th of May, 1532; and in the January following Henry married Anne Boleyn. He retired cheerfully to the privacy, the domestic life, and the studies which he was not long to enjoy. He was included in the bill of attainder introduced into parliament (February, 1534) to punish Elizabeth Barton, the nun of Kent, and her accomplices. More had listened to her innocently; and on disclaiming any surviving faith in her and any share in her treasonable designs, he was excused and his name struck out of the bill. He was less fortunate on the next occasion. Soon after the execution of the nun of Kent the act of succession was passed, which declared the marriage with Catherine invalid, that with Anne Boleyn valid, and fixed the succession in the children of the latter. An oath to the same effect was framed: among those who refused to take it were More, and Fisher, bishop of Rochester. To the words which fixed the succession More did not object; but he would not take the oath as a whole. After a few days he was committed to the
