M O 
a member of the parliament called by Henry VII. for the 
purpofe of demanding an aid for the marriage of his eldeft 
daughter to the king of Scotland. The commons in ge¬ 
neral thought the demand exorbitant, but no one had 
courage to oppofe it, till Mr. More let the example, and 
by his powerful eloquence the motion for complying 
with the king’s wilhes was rejected. This fervice, fo ho¬ 
nourable to his integrity, was unqueltionably attended 
with confiderable hazard. Henry was enraged at the 
oppofition made to his demand; but, not finding in a 
mere lad, who had probably nothing to lofe, a profitable 
objedt of his royal vengeance, he contrived a quarrel 
againlt the father, and threw him into the Tower, where 
he was kept till he opened the dungeon-gate by fubmit- 
ting to a heavy fine. The young man, probably, felt a 
hundred times more for the conlequences inflicted on a 
parent for the exercife of his own virtuous integrity, 
than he would from any perfonal fufferings ;~and, un¬ 
willing to involve his father or friends again in the king’s 
difpleafure, retired from public notice, and palled feveral 
years in privacy, and in the Itudy of the French lan¬ 
guage, of hiltory, and of thofe arts and fciences which 
were deemed the liberal arts. It is fuppofed that during 
this period he filled the office of law-reader at Fumival’s- 
inn, which he held three years; and after this we find 
him living in the neighbourhood of the Charter-houle, 
in the praClice of all the devotional exercil'es and aufteri- 
ties of the rigid order which then inhabited it, but with¬ 
out taking the vow. He had, it is known, a great incli¬ 
nation to enter into the fumSlions of the ecclefiaftical 
Hate; but, either from the perlualions of his father, or 
from an unwillingnefs to be bound by the ftrift rules of 
the church, he abandoned the defign. By the recom¬ 
mendation of his friend dean Colet, he married the 
elded daughter of Mr. Colt, of New-hall, in Eflex. After 
his marriage, he applied himl’elf diligently in his profef- 
fion as a law’yer, in London, and very loon found him- 
felf in pofleffion of an annual income of more than 400I. 
which at that time was confidered no mean fum to be 
derived from a profeffion. His great reputation caufed 
him to be employed by the Englilh merchants as their 
agent in fome important matters of difpute between them 
and the merchants of the Steel-yard, on which occalion he 
went to Flanders. In 1516 he accompanied to that coun¬ 
try the commiffioners lent to renew the alliance between 
Henry VIII. and Charles, then archduke of Aultria; and 
his condufl on this occalion rendered the king very defir- 
ous of engaging him in his particular fervice. Although 
his time mult have been fully occupied, yet in the midll 
of his engagements he found leifure to write, in the Latin 
language, his Utopia, which he dedicated to a gentle¬ 
man at Antwerp. This production made him known to 
the learned abroad; and he engaged in a correfpondence 
with feveral eminent men of letters, among whom was 
the great Erafmus. With this illuftrious fcholar he had 
contracted an intimate friendffiip in 1510, w'hen he vi- 
fited England, which appears alw'ays to have fubfilted 
between them. 
Mr. More was not only a man of the ftriCteft integrity, 
but poflefied a mind incapable of being fwayed by the 
principles of avarice and ambition; and he Iteadily re¬ 
futed a penfion from the king, which was prefled upon 
him by cardinal Wolfey, on the ground that fuch an 
obligation from the court would lhackle him in the per¬ 
formance of his duty as a law-officer of the city, fhould 
any matter of difpute occur between them. At length 
the great credit which he acquired in pleading before 
the Itar-chamber for the releafe of a Ihip of the pope’s, 
which had been claimed as a forfeiture to the crown, de¬ 
termined the king to infill on his accepting the place of 
mailer of requefls. In a Ihort time after this, he received 
the honour of knighthood, was admitted a member of 
the privy-council, and received into a familiarity with 
his mailer, which feemed to entitle him to all the honours 
and emoluments of a chief favourite-; Henry conferred 
R E. 791 
with him on all the topics of literature and philofophy 
with which he wilhed to be generally acquainted, with¬ 
out the labour of Itudy ; and in this way, notwithfianding 
the aflertion of the ancient fage, there does feem to be 
a royal road to fcience. The king likewile amufed hiim- 
felf with the wit and humour of More’s relaxed conver- 
fation ; and often required his attendance at his. private 
fuppers with the queen, for the purpofe of “ making them 
merry.” Sir Thomas was no doubt very much flattered 
by this extraordinary mark of dillin&ion ; but he found 
that it encroached too much upon his leifure and do- 
mellic comforts, and he became grave in the prefence of 
his lovereign, that he might have liberty to be merry at 
home. In 1520, the king conferred upon him the office 
of treafurer of the exchequer; and he removed to a fpa- 
cious houle at Cheliea. In 1523, when the king had 
fummoned a parliament for the purpofe of railing fup- 
plies for the war with France, he procured the nomina¬ 
tion of his favourite, fir Thomas More, to be fpeaker of 
the houfe. On this occalion, his fpeech to the king, on 
being pretented to him for approbation, was unworthy 
his great mind; but he redeemed his character when the 
cardinal came down to the houfe, with all his Hate-dig¬ 
nity, to overawe that afiembly into a compliance with his 
maHer’s wilhes for a fubfidy, by refilling to fend the king 
any anfwer by his minilter, and by granting him only 
the half of what he demanded. If, however, in this in- 
ftance, he gave any perfonal offence to the court, it was 
of no long duration; for in 1526 he was appointed to 
the chancellorlhip of the duchy of Lancalter, and in the 
following year was joined with Wolfey and others in am 
embaffy to the French king. Shortly after this, Henry • 
came to fee him at Chelfea, and walked with him more 
than an hour in his garden with all the marks of partial 
friendlliip, After he was gone, Mr. Roper, fon-in-law to 
fir Thomas, firuck with the high honour, congratulated 
him upon fuch a dillinguilhed mark of the royal favour. 
The prudent fiatelrnan looked beyond the furface, and 
was well aware of his maHer’s capricious and tyrannical 
temper; while therefore he acknowledged that, for the 
prelent moment, he probably poflefied as much of the 
king’s regard as any fubjebl in the kingdom, he added, 
“ Son, I may tell thee that I have-no caufe to be proud 
on that account; for, if my head would win him a caflle 
in France, it would not fail to go off.” 
The opinion of fir Thomas with regard to the intended 
divorce of the queen, was unfavourable to the wilhes of the 
king; neverthelefs, upon the difgrace of Wolfey, Henry 
railed him to the high office of chancellor of England.; 
this was in the year 153Q, and he was the firfl layman 
that ever occupied that flation. He proved himfelf, in 
every relpeft, worthy of the elevated rank affigned him 
by his fovereign ; and the office was never filled by any 
perfon who furpafled him in diligence, honour, and in¬ 
tegrity. The luitors were probably few in number; but 
for-the difpatch of their, caufes lie-fat every afternoon in 
his own hall; and, when he refigned the leals, there was 
not one caule remaining for decilion. Bribes were much 
the falhion of the day, but he rejedled them all, and that 
without any lliow of auflerity, but in a good-humoured 
way, that feemed peculiar to himfelf. Some inllances are 
mentioned very much to his credit. The wife of a man 
who had a fuit in chancery having brought him a gold 
cup as a prelent, he ordered it to be filled with wine, and 
drinking her health, delivered it to her again as a new- 
year’s gift. At another time a lady prefented him with 
a pair of gloves, and forty pounds, in angels,■ in them : 
“ Miilrefs,” laid he,-“ fince it would be unmannerly £0 
refute your gift, I accept the gloves, but utterly refute 
the lining.” In proof of his great impartiality, one of 
his Ions-in-law, Mr. Heron, having a caufe depending, 
was advifed by the chancellor to fubmit to arbitration, 
which he refuted, prefuming probably upon the. favour 
of his great relation; but be had the mortification after¬ 
wards, to .find a decree given dire£lly againH him. . 
Mots 
