Thomas More and the Problem of Counsel
1978; Appalachian State University; Volume: 10; Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/4048426
ISSN2326-1242
Autores Tópico(s)American Constitutional Law and Politics
ResumoA couple of days back it was, quite likely, the five hundredth anniversary of the birth of Thomas More.' The occasion here today is one of many this year that will celebrate that anniversary in the United States, in Britain, and perhaps at Rome and in Russia. A demimillenial anniversary is a thing all men have had or will have in common with Thomas More; few, indeed, are the men who have had or will have their five hundredth birthday remembered at all, much less in the U.S., Britain, Rome, and Moscow as Thomas More's will be. Who was Thomas More that so many should celebrate his birthday half a thousand years later? There are several answers to that question, but only one correct one. More was a martyr, done to death for refusing to renounce beliefs that he profoundly held. But in the past 1900 years thousands of Christians, both Roman and Protestant, have been done to death for standing by their faith, and few of them have their 500th or 1,000th or 1,500th birthday commemorated. More was also one who held high office in the government of the English realm, ultimately that of Lord Chancellor, the highest office in dignity under the King. But neither outside nor inside the realm of England do people celebrate the birthday anniversary of any other dead Lord Chancellor. No, this year we do not celebrate the birth of a mere official or even of a mere martyr; but a martyr and an official who wrote a particular book, Utopia. More was to write many books, but outside a constricted circle he is remembered only as the author of one. Had he not been the author of Utopia, I doubt that we would be celebrating the 500th anniversary of More's birth today. What I want to do now is to take you back 462 years to 1516, to another birthday of Thomas More's, his thirty-eighth. That is to take you truly in medias res (into the midst of affairs) in two ways. First, into the midst of Thomas More's adult life, just about at midpoint
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