More took his stand only a decade after Martin Luther had declared the Pope to be "the Antichrist," leading to Luther's excommunication and trial. While More and Henry debated the Pope's power, most of northern Germany was in the process of turning Lutheran. Powerful historical currents were in play. From Henry's standpoint, the proceedings to gain the annulment of his marriage to Catherine continued at a frustratingly slow speed and with no tangible results.
In the summer of , as London confronted outbreaks of the plague and sweating sickness, the Pope dispatched Cardinal Campeggio from Rome to convene a legatine court in London that would decide the matter. For his part, Thomas More occupied himself aggressively pursuing heretics, who he viewed as a much greater threat to England's well-being than the King's marriage controversy. On May 31, , at the Dominican house of Blackfriars in London, an inquest into the King's "great matter" convened.
In the real event, the proceeding opens with the cry, "King Harry of England, come into the court! Henry, in response, stated that were it not for his love for her, he would have acted sooner on his religious doubts--and pledged to abide by the court's conclusions concerning the lawfulness of his marriage.
In a speech that followed, Henry made the case for annulment and acknowledged--at Wolsey's request--that he, and not any member of the clergy, was the "chief mover" of the inquest. In a moment of drama that portended another date with the executioner's block, John Fisher, the Bishop of Rochester and a main supporter of Catherine, rose to make clear that he had not, as the King had implied, joined with other bishops in signing a document urging the King to take the matter of his marriage to the Pope.
The inquest produced no results; Catherine chose to make no more appearances, nor to recognize its authority to decide the validity of her marriage. Instead, in July, she appealed the matter directly to Pope Clement--who then announced that the decision would be made in Rome, not England. While the court at Blackfriars continued in session, Thomas More traveled to Cabrai, where negotiations involving major European powers to take place.
More played England's cards well, winning separate peace agreements with Francis and Charles V. The agreements, which would hold the peace in Europe for fifteen years, rank among More's proudest achievements. More chose to remember the accomplishment on his tombstone at Chelsea along with just one other: he noted that he had always been "molestus" troublesome to heretics. The failure of Cardinal Wolsey to secure a Church decision annulling his marriage did not sit well with King Henry.
In October , Henry ordered Wolsey arrested for treason and stripped him of the title of Lord Chancellor, the highest appointed office in England and a position he had held for fourteen years.
In his place, Henry chose Thomas More. The choice was widely acclaimed. Wolsey called his replacement "the aptest and fittest man in the Realm. During his tenure, More would ban heretical texts, search the home of heretics, and prosecute--and even burn--those persons he believed to be undermining Church authority.
Thomas Cranmer , who would become a sort of scholar-in-residence for Henry, wrote a treatise, Collectanea satis copiosa , that demonstrated the unlawfulness of the marriage between Henry and Catherine.
The King added his own handwritten comments in the margins. The report circulated to faculties of England's universities which duly--under some pressure--issued declarations that the King's scruples were probably justified. In the middle of June, Henry convened a meeting of lords and prelates, who were persuaded to send a letter to Pope Clement asking that the King's annulment be granted.
More's signature was conspicuously absent from the letter sent to the Pope. In the month after the meeting, the King's attorney general charged fourteen prelates including Bishop John Fisher who had sided with Catherine in the dispute with violations of praemunire laws.
Clement's answer to the King's letter could not have made Henry happy; the Pope reminded the King that his refusal to send a delegate to Rome was the principal cause of the delay in resolving his "great matter. In September, Henry issued a proclamation that prevented enforcement of any papal bull inconsistent with his own view of his marriage's lawfulness. Henry's direct attack on Vatican authority upset Thomas More, who openly expressed his disagreement with the King's action.
The King's movement away from Rome continued. Intellectual support for the move came in the form of an influential argument by a lawyer, Christopher St. German, who wrote that the law of the realm should trump ecclesiastical law. In November , a man who would become an eager proponent of the St. German's view, Thomas Cromwell , became a member of the King's inner council. In time, Cromwell--cunning, cynical, intelligent, ambitious, resourceful--would prove to be More's chief nemesis.
A case could be made for Cromwell. His efforts prevented mass bloodshed in England and his pragmatic nationalistic politics seem a better fit for the time than More's campaign to preserve the medieval order. By insisting that English law was supreme to what More called "God's law," Cromwell helped pave the way for an England that could chart its own destiny.
In the process, he also eliminated Rome's annoying drain on England's economy. Henry's impatience became obvious in The angry King summoned the clergy to Westminster, where he demanded that they reimburse the Crown for the costs of sending a delegation to Rome on a failed mission to secure his annulment. But his demands did not stop there. He insisted that the convocation issue a statement recognizing him as "the sole protector and supreme head of the English Church and clergy.
While a formal decision on his marriage hung in the balance, Henry took direct action. In May, at his request, a group of royal councilors met with Catherine and urged her to drop her opposition to the annulment. The mission failed. Henry, however, had waited long enough. On July 11, , Henry and Catherine separated. By late the following year, Anne Boleyn was pregnant and, in early , Henry and Anne Boleyn secretly married.
While the King and Anne Boleyn shared a bed, Henry's advisers stepped up pressure on Rome and domestic opponents of his annulment. A young Cambridge graduate, Richard Rich, to whom More has promised a position, is waiting for More as he docks at home.
Rich desires a place at court, but More offers him the post of teacher. Rich declares that Cromwell may help him if More will not. More gives Rich the cup as a gift.
William Roper, a young Lutheran, asks for More's daughter's hand in marriage. More refuses since he disagrees with Roper's religious beliefs. Months later. A dying Cardinal Wolsey nominates More to succeed him as Chancellor. The King visits More to ask for his support in obtaining a divorce, but More angers the King by declaring it a matter for the Pope.
Rich, again rejected for employment by More, visits Cromwell about to become secretary to the Council in order to gain a position. Rich tells Cromwell that the cup he was given by More was a bribe from a litigant with a case in the Court of Requests. Henry desperately wanted a son and argued that his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, with whom he had a daughter, was not lawful.
He asked Wolsey to use his influence in Rome to get a papal annulment of Henry's marriage so that he could remarry. Wolsey was unable to accomplish this, partly because Catherine's nephew, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, dominated the pope at the time.
Wolsey's failure to arrange an annulment for Henry was quickly followed by his downfall. Wolsey was arrested near York in November and accused of treason.
He died on 29 November of the same year at Leicester on his journey south to face trial. Search term:. More thinks that he can escape execution by keeping his trap shut, but Rich betrays him by falsely claiming in court that More said treasonous things. And that's it—More is beheaded in the final moments of the play. We close things out with a character named Common Man long story warning the audience members to not make trouble, or they'll risk ending up like our headless hero.
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