Many Chinese have studied the history of socialist development and should know that the author of " Utopia ", which is the one who issued a complaint about "sheep eat people" against capitalism . In theory, Thomas More seems to be a radical revolutionary, but in Britain in the early 16th century, he was a conservative person and even died because of it. More is a good person, thoughtful, literary and capable, but unfortunately died due to a series of reactions caused by Henry's marriage.
More was born in London in 1487 and his father is a lawyer. When Moore was thirteen or fourteen years old, he was introduced to the then Archbishop of Canterbury to be a servant. At that time, this was a rare opportunity for young people to advance. When the Archbishop saw More smart and thought the child had a future, he recommended him to study , Oxford University , to study classical culture. After two years in Oxford, Moore's father asked his son to return to London to study law. A few years later, he took the license and became a lawyer.
More was a man with ideals since childhood. While studying law, he kept thinking about whether he should become a monk and become a priest. But Moore was a practical person and thought that such things should not be decided rashly, so he moved to a monastery to live, live according to the monk's lifestyle and see what he had. After a period of experimentation, Moore felt that he was more suitable for secular life and would make greater contributions to society. Although More did not become a monk, his pursuit of ideals later accompanied him for the rest of his life.
gave up the idea of becoming a monk, and Moore soon became a relative, and his wife, Jenny Colt, was the daughter of a farmer. According to one of Moore's later son-in-law, the process of Moore's love for his lifelong partner was also quite strange. When someone introduced him to that family, he visited him. There were several daughters in the family, and the one who introduced him to the eldest lady in the family. When Moore saw that the eldest lady looked average and the second lady was quite beautiful, he liked it more. But he thought about it again, if he chose the second lady like this, the eldest lady would be so sad. So he felt that he shouldn't have changed his mind halfway, so he accepted the eldest lady and became a kinship with her. This matter seems to be contrary to the nature of a man, but we should also consider that just a year ago, Moore had considered becoming a monk, so his values may be different from those of ordinary people.
More became a relative. Seeing that his wife had a low level of education, he patiently taught her about culture. Now some people say that if a woman is not educated, I can teach her; if a woman is ugly, I really can’t do anything about it. Moore married a bad-looking woman as his wife and taught her about culture. His level was so high. His realm may be higher than that of Zhuge Liang , because I heard that Zhuge Liang’s wife is also quite ugly, but I haven’t heard that Zhuge Liang taught his wife to learn culture.
More lived with Jenny for six years, and his wife gave birth to four children for him, and then died of illness. Less than a month after his wife passed away, Moore remarried, which was unceremonial at the time, so Moore applied for a charter from the church to get married as soon as possible. At that time, Moore had four young children around him, the oldest being five years old, so Moore was eager to settle things down. Moore's remarried wife is a widow, four years older than Moore. She brought a daughter and had no other child with Moore. Later, the family adopted two more daughters.
More carefully educated the children at home, including several daughters, which was a very progressive approach at the time. So, in many ways, Moore is not so conservative, but a Renaissance humanist person. It is precisely because of this that he became good personal friends with the humanist thinker Erasmus . Moore's conservatism was reflected in his later differences with the British king on religious issues.
More was more successful in being a lawyer, and then he entered the political field. He was elected as a member of Congress and became a city official in London. More was a fledgling man, good at eloquence and dared to speak out. He once criticized the father of Henry VIII in Congress for collecting taxes randomly.Under pressure, the king had to cut the levy, but he was not polite to Moore. He found a reason to arrest his father, Moore, and did not release the person until his family paid a fine.
is also considered acquaintance. Moore's extraordinary ability in law and government affairs has gradually been recognized by all parties. After Henry VIII took office, he recruited Moore as a talent around him and used it with great trust. Moore, who was a diplomat, had been on mission to Flanders, and his observations of the early local capitalist economy inspired his simple socialist ideas and gave birth to his book Utopia. In the book published in 1516, More meets a widely experienced Flanders navigator who tells him about the special social life on an island overseas. There, everyone has similar property, and every citizen works, six hours a day, and there is no difference between poor and rich. There is no currency on the island, and the products are placed on the market casually, and everyone can get them according to their needs. Outside of labor, all people receive education, create and appreciate art. Islanders believed in the existence of God and opposed atheism, but they understood that people had different understandings of religion and allowed freedom of faith.
More described a communist way of life in "Utopia", showing his reflection on the social situation in Europe at that time, and his considerations in religious concepts are also worth noting compared to his own experience in his later years.
King Henry admired Moore's diligence and talent very much, promoted him repeatedly and gave him a jazz status. By 1529, More was appointed Justice of England, the king's chief minister, responsible for national legal affairs and presided over the House of Lords of the Parliament. Unfortunately, during this period, Henry was eager to get rid of Queen Catherine who had not given birth to a prince in order to marry his new love, Anne Bolin, and the Holy See refused to approve Henry's divorce request, causing Henry to take measures to free the British church from the leadership of the Pope. As we said above, in many ways, Moore is a new-class figure, but he believes that Henry should not kidnap the religious life of the people because of his own private affairs, which is unacceptable to Moore.
The differences between Moore and Henry are becoming increasingly serious. In 1530, British church staff and British nobles, who were intimidated by Henry's authority, jointly wrote a letter to the Pope, asking the Holy See to approve Henry's abolition of his marriage, and Moore refused to sign the appeal. Seeing that the Holy See refused to approve its request, Henry declared that the Church of England was independent, and he was the head of Christianity in England. Moore felt that his differences with the king were irreconcilable, so he resigned from the position of chief minister in 1932.
After Moore resigned, Henry did not punish him immediately. A year later, Henry abolished his marriage to Katherine , married Anne Bolin, and held a grand coronation ceremony for the new queen. Moore refused to attend the celebration, which made Henry angry and began to take punishment actions against him. More was accused of corruption, colluding with opposing royal powers, and eventually accused of treason because he had been refusing to sign an oath to recognize the king's right to rule over the British church. In April 1534, Moore was arrested and imprisoned in Tower of London .
More was in trouble, and people kept lobbying him, urging him to take a step back and bow to the royal family. The Duke of Norfolk, the uncle of the new queen, once warned Moore, "The king's anger is enough to be fatal." Moore replied, "In this way, I will die today, and you will die tomorrow."
In July 1535, a special committee held a trial of Moore, and among the trial committee members were three relatives of Anne Bolin, including her father, uncle and younger brother. Faced with the accusation of treason, Moore defended himself that although he had never signed or signed the oath, he had never made any comments against related matters. He cited a legal concept that was commonly used at the time, that is, "a silent person seems to agree." Accordingly, he himself did not violate the law. But, under the circumstances, silence was not gold, but sin. The jury in the special court convicted Moore after only fifteen minutes of collaborating.
Because Moore's charge was treason, the court ruled that his execution was to strangle, drag or split. These are criminal laws against civilians and are usually not imposed on nobles. King Henry, out of love, changed Moore's method of death to beheading.
July 6, 1535 is the last day of Moore's life, and the execution ground is on a small slope outside the Tower of London. When Moore walked up to the execution platform, the temporary shelf creaked. Moore said to the prison guard beside him: "Thank you for taking care of me, it's my own business to come down." His last sentence before his death: "I served the king diligently, but I am first of all, the servant of God."
Less than a year after Moore's death, Henry's relationship with Queen Anne Bolin broke down, and Anne Anne was beheaded. His younger brother was also killed with her. He once participated in the sentence of death as a judge. "I die today, and you die tomorrow," wouldn't you believe it.
What survived was the ideal shown in "Utopia".
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