MORE MOREA. 



enjoyed, gre.it reputation as a pleader. In 151G, he 

 accompanied the commissioners s-eiu to renew the 

 alliiince between Henry VIII. and Charles, then arch- 

 duke of Austria, and showed so much ability, that 

 the king was desirous of engaging him in his parti- 

 cular service. In 1518, he published his celebrated 

 political romance of Utopia, which engaged him in a 

 correspondence with Erasmus, with whom he had 

 previously contracted an intimacy while in England; 

 as well as with several other eminent men of letters. 

 Cardinal Wolsey pressed him to receive a pension, 

 which he refused, as inconsistent with his official 

 duties; but after a while he was induced to accept 

 the place of master of requests. He was shortly 

 after knighted, and taken into the privy council ; 

 and, the king becoming delighted with his conversa- 

 tion, he was received into the highest degree of 

 familiarity. In 1520, he was appointed treasurer of 

 the exchequer, and, in 1523, at the instance of Wol- 

 sey, elected speaker of the house of commons, in 

 which capacity, having done much to frustrate an 

 oppressive subsidy, he highly exasperated the cardi- 

 nal. If he gave any personal offence to the, court by 

 this conduct, it was not of long duration, as, in 1527, 

 he was joined with Wolsey in a mission to France, 

 and on his return was made chancellor of the duchy 

 of Lancaster. In 1530, he succeeded the disgraced 

 cardinal as lord high chancellor, which office he filled 

 three years with scrupulous integrity. Unable to 

 acquiesce in the king's wishes respecting his divorce 

 from Catharine of Arragon, he obtained permission 

 to resign the seals. The affront rankled in the vin- 

 dictive mind of Henry, which was still further in- 

 flamed by his refusal to attend the coronation of 

 Anne Boleyn. An attempt was made to implicate 

 him in the practices of Elizabeth Barton, which alto- 

 gether failed ; and he also perfectly cleared himself 

 of another singular charge, which was that of in- 

 ducing the king to publish the book against Luther, 

 in which the pope's authority was held forth a 

 doctrine that was now found inconsistent with the 

 intended attack on the Roman see. At length the 

 oath of supremacy being required by act of parlia- 

 ment, Sir Thomas More was cited before the council 

 to take it ; and in spite of all the sophistry of Cran- 

 mer and others to induce him to compliance, he 

 no1)ly persisted in a refusal to act in opposition to the 

 dictates of his conscience, and was consequently 

 committed to the Tower, and indicted for treason. 

 After an imprisonment of twelve months, during 

 which time he resisted all attempts, both public and 

 private, to induce him to retract, he was brought to 

 trial, and, after an eloquent defence, condemned, and 

 sentenced to be hanged and quartered. He received 

 this barbarous sentence with his usual composure, 

 which was disturbed only by the circumstance of a 

 singularly affecting interview with his favourite 

 daughter, Mrs Roper, on his return to the Tower. 

 The king changed the sentence from hanging and 

 quartering to beheading ; which act of grace he 

 received with his usual vein of humour, and also ac- 

 quiesced in the tyrannical mandate, " that he should 

 not use many words at the scaffold." His execution 

 took place July 6, 1535, when he deported himself 

 with a degree of good humour, which, in another sort 

 of man, might be termed levity, but which Addison 

 attributes to the satisfaction arising from conscious 

 integrity, and lord Byron, to a species of tempera- 

 ment too strong even for the control of circumstance, 

 and which conceals a sense of misery without destroy- 

 ing it. Thus died Sir Thomas More, at the age of 

 fifty-five, than whom a character of more disinterest- 

 edness and integrity is scarcely to be met with in 

 either ancient or modern history. His learning was 

 various and extensive, his wit abundant, and his 



elocution ready and agreeable. Except his intoler- 

 ance towards those whom lie considered heretics 

 indeed, the qualities of his mind were most happily 

 blended and tempered. His English works were 

 published collectively by order of queen Mary, in 

 1557, and his Latin in 1567, at Basle. His Utopia 

 has been translated by bishop Burnet and doctor 

 Warner. See the life of More by Sir James Mack- 

 intosh in Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopssdia. By his first 

 wife Sir Thomas More had three daughters and one 

 son. Margaret, his eldest and favourite daughter, 

 married William Roper, Esq. of Eltham, in Kent, 

 who wrote the life of his father-in-law, published in 

 1716. She was mistress of the Greek and Latin 

 languages, and composed with elegance both in 

 English and Latin. Her reverence and affection for 

 her father were unbounded. After his head had 

 been exposed fourteen days on London bridge, she 

 contrived to obtain it, and carefully preserved it; 

 and when she died, it was, at her dying request, 

 buried in her arms. 



MOREA (Manias); the modern name of the Pelo- 

 ponnesus (q. v.); a peninsula forming the southern 

 part of Greece, between lat. 36 23' and 38 20' N., 

 and Ion. 21 5' and 23 30' E. It is connected by 

 the isthmus of Corinth with Continental Greece, or 

 Livadia, from which it is separated in other parts by 

 the gulf of Lepanto or Corinth and the gulf of A thens. 

 To the south-west, it is washed by the Ionian sea, to 

 the east by the archipelago. It is about 160 miles in 

 length and breadth, with a superficial area of 7225 

 miles. The population of the ancient Peloponnesus 

 has often been estimated at 2,000,000, but it probably 

 never amounted to half that number. Before the late 

 revolution, the Morea contained, according to Soutzo, 

 the Greek historian, 460,000 inhabitants, of whom 

 50,000 were Turks ; at present they do not exceed 

 280,000. The coast is much indented, forming on 

 the south the gulfs of Kolokythia or Laconia,and the 

 gulf of Coron or Messenia, and on the east, the gulf 

 of Argos or Nauplia. The surface of the country is, 

 in general, mountainous ; the northern half, however, 

 presents a fruitful plain, intersected, in some parts, 

 by the Cyllenian mountains. The most southern 

 promontory, Maina, is separated from the rest of the 

 peninsula by the different branches of the Taygetus. 

 The rivers are numerous, but not large ; the principal 

 are the Alpheus and the Eurotas. The climate is 

 mild, though less so than formerly, on account of the 

 destruction of the forests. The spring and autumn 

 are delightful, but the summer is hot, and the winter 

 is attended with frequent storms and rain; the soil is 

 fruitful, producing corn, wine, oil, and fruits, honey, 

 figs, silk, and cotton. The chief article of export is 

 the small raisins, called currants, from the city of 

 Corinth. The long oppression of the Turks dis- 

 couraged the progress of the mechanical arts, and 

 the devastations of the Greek revolution swept 

 away almost every establishment for manufactures. 

 Excellent ports, such as Navarino and Napoli di 

 Romania, will facilitate the commerce of the country, 

 The population is at present almost entirely com- 

 posed of Greeks ; they are vigorous, well made, 

 active, and intelligent, but cunning, artful, inconstant, 

 and superstitious. Under the Turkish dominion, the 

 Morea was divided into two sangiacks, that of Morea 

 or Tripolitza, and that of Mistra or Misitra. Since 

 the liberation of Greece, it has been divided into 

 seven provinces, in which, as also in respect to other 

 places, the Greeks have attempted to revive the 

 ancient names. 'They are Argolis, Achaia, Elis, 

 Arcadia, Upper Messenia, Lower Messenia, and 

 Laconia. Formerly adorned with a hundred cities, 

 it now hardly contains any thing that deserves the 

 name. Tripolitza, Coron, Modon, Misitra, Calatnata, 



