The Trial of Sir Thomas More: An Account

On July 1, 1535, Sir Thomas More went on trial in England charged with treason. An excerpt from the article:

"The trial of Sir Thomas More for treason opened in Westminster Hall on July 1, 1535. Although a jury of twelve men would have the final say, More had to understand that a verdict of guilty was inevitable. Were the jury to have declared otherwise, they might well have faced imprisonment themselves. Reports described More as "weakened by his imprisonment," but having "a cheerful and composed countenance."

The attorney general opened the proceedings by reading the indictment, which consisted of four basic charges. The Duke of Norfolk then offered More a final chance to escape with his life: "You see now how grievously you have offended his Majesty; yet he is so very merciful that if you will lay aside your obstinacy, and change your opinion, we hope you may obtain pardon and favor in his sight." More replied--"stoutly," according to reports--that he appreciated the offer, "but I beseech Almighty God that I may continue in the mind I am in, through his grace, unto death."

Seated in a chair because of his weakness, More attempted to answer each of the charges against him. On the charge of opposing the Henry's marriage, More freely admitted that he had, "according to the dictates of my conscience," told the King his true opinion. To do otherwise, he said, would have "basely flattered" his Majesty and made him "a wicked subject" and "a traitor to God." Giving the King an honest answer, when asked for it, can hardly be treasonous, More contended.

On the second charge of not swearing to recognize the King as the supreme head of the Church when asked about the matter during his Tower interview, that "no law in the world can punish any man for his silence." When told that his silence was "an evident sign of the malice of his heart," More quoted a legal maxim that held that "he that holds his peace, gives consent."

The third charge against More was that, while in the Tower, he wrote letters to Bishop Fisher inciting him to violate the Treason Act. The letters in question, which authorities claimed Fisher burned, could not be produced. More insisted that the letters counseled no violations of law. The letters, he said, merely told Fisher that he had followed his conscience when questioned on the matter of Henry's supremacy of the Church, and that Fisher should "satisfy his own mind"--whatever position that took him to.

The fourth charge, described by More as "the principal crime objected against me," concerned his Bell Tower conversation with Richard Rich a few days before. The indictment alleged that More, responding to a hypothetical question posed by Rich, told his visitor that the Parliament had no more power to enact the Act of Supremacy that it did to pass a law declaring God not to be God. The court called Rich to testify, and the solicitor-general gave his account of the conversation, confirming the charge laid out in the indictment. More emphatically rejected Rich's testimony, saying that if Rich's version were in fact true "then I pray I may never see God's face." More's striking statement, given his intense and sincere religiosity, leaves little room to doubt but that Rich was flat-out lying. More added that he was "more concerned about Rich's perjury" than he was about his own "danger." He said that he had long regarded Rich as a liar, "a great gamester, and of no good name and character." How likely was it, More asked his accusers, that he would choose, among all the people of the Realm, Richard Rich to confide "the secrets of my conscience?" More's powerful answer to Rich's accusation prompted the attorney general to call to other men who were present in More's cell at the time of the supposed conversation to testify. Although neither men would likely risk the King's ire that might come if they supported More's account, they did him the next best favor and testified that they were too busy stuffing More's books and carting them away to have paid any attention to the conversation between Rich and the prisoner.

The jury deliberated for "scarcely a quarter of an hour" before returning with its verdict: Guilty. As the Lord Chancellor began to pronounce sentence, More interrupted to remind him it was customary to allow defendants to speak prior to the imposition of sentence. More, finally with nothing more to lose and free to speak his mind, told the court his indictment was grounded on a law "repugnant to God." Further unburdening himself, More said that the Parliament lacked authority to enact any law inconsistent with the teachings of "Christ's universal Catholic Church." He added that he thought the recently enacted laws also violated the Magna Charta and the King's Coronation Oath. The Lord Chancellor broke in to ask More how he reconciled his opinion with the fact that "all the bishops, universities, and most learned men of the Kingdom" found the Act lawful. More responded that if one were to take account of the views of all of Christendom, and not just England, his view would be favored by "ten to one."

Finally, sentence was pronounced on the man of unbreakable conscience: More should be "drawn on a hurdle through the City of London to Tyburn, there to be hanged till he should be half dead; then he should be cut down alive, his privy parts cut off, his belly ripped, his bowels burnt, his four quarters sit up over four gates of the City and his head upon London Bridge."

After the reading of his sentence, the constable escorted More to an awaiting barge, which carried him the short ways down the Thames toward the Tower of London. The party disembarked the barge at Old Swan Stairs. An armed guard led More, dressed in a coarse woolen gown, up Old Swan Lane and down Thames Street. As More and his guards approached the Tower, his daughter Margaret knelt to receive his blessing, then embraced and kissed him. More then was escorted through the large crowd back to his cell, where he would spend the last six days of his life."