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Sir Thomas More, son of Sir John More, a justice of the Kingâs Bench, was
born in 1478, in Milk Street, in the city of London. After his earlier education
at St. Anthonyâs School, in Threadneedle Street, he was placed, as a boy, in
the household of Cardinal John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord
Chancellor. It was not unusual for persons of wealth or influence and sons of
good families to be so established together in a relation of patron and client.
The youth wore his patronâs livery, and added to his state. The patron used,
afterwards, his wealth or influence in helping his young client forward in the
world. Cardinal Morton had been in earlier days that Bishop of Ely whom
Richard III. sent to the Tower; was busy afterwards in hostility to Richard;
and was a chief adviser of Henry VII., who in 1486 made him Archbishop of
Canterbury, and nine months afterwards Lord Chancellor. Cardinal Mortonâ
of talk at whose table there are recollections in âUtopiaââdelighted in the
quick wit of young Thomas More. He once said, âWhoever shall live to try it,
shall see this child here waiting at table prove a notable and rare man.â
At the age of about nineteen, Thomas More was sent to Canterbury
College, Oxford, by his patron, where he learnt Greek of the first men who
brought Greek studies from Italy to EnglandâWilliam Grocyn and Thomas
Linacre. Linacre, a physician, who afterwards took orders, was also the
founder of the College of Physicians. In 1499, More left Oxford to study law
in London, at Lincolnâs Inn, and in the next year Archbishop Morton died.
Moreâs earnest character caused him while studying law to aim at the
subduing of the flesh, by wearing a hair shirt, taking a log for a pillow, and
whipping himself on Fridays. At the age of twenty-one he entered Parliament,
and soon after he had been called to the bar he was made Under-Sheriff of
London. In 1503 he opposed in the House of Commons Henry VII.âs proposal
for a subsidy on account of the marriage portion of his daughter Margaret;
and he opposed with so much energy that the House refused to grant it. One
went and told the king that a beardless boy had disappointed all his
expectations. During the last years, therefore, of Henry VII. More was under
the displeasure of the king, and had thoughts of leaving the country.
Henry VII. died in April, 1509, when Moreâs age was a little over thirty. In
the first years of the reign of Henry VIII. he rose to large practice in the law
courts, where it is said he refused to plead in cases which he thought unjust,
and took no fees from widows, orphans, or the poor. He would have preferred
marrying the second daughter of John Colt, of New Hall, in Essex, but chose
her elder sister, that he might not subject her to the discredit of being passed
over.
In 1513 Thomas More, still Under-Sheriff of London, is said to have
written his âHistory of the Life and Death of King Edward V., and of the
4
zurĂŒck zum
Buch Utopia"
Utopia
- Titel
- Utopia
- Autor
- Thomas Morus
- Datum
- 1516
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- PD
- Abmessungen
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Seiten
- 86
- Schlagwörter
- Utopia, State, Religion, English
- Kategorien
- International
- Weiteres Belletristik