Thomas More
1478–1535
Feast: July 9 (proper calendar of England and Wales)
Patron of: Politicians
You are someone who judges with a clear head and then stands firm, precisely when everyone around you gives way. That is Thomas More: brilliant lawyer, humanist, family man, and Lord Chancellor of England. Then Henry VIII demands an oath that More cannot square with his conscience. One word would have saved him; he never says it. He loses his office, his freedom, and at last his life: the Tower, then the scaffold. He dies, as tradition has it, “the King’s good servant, but God’s first.” In 1935 the Church declares him a saint; today he is honoured as the patron of politicians. And you: if a single convenient word could save you, would you say it?
From his life
- brilliant lawyer, humanist, family man
- refuses the oath of Henry VIII
- the Tower
- “the King’s good servant, but God’s first”, according to tradition
„I die the King’s good servant, but God’s first.“
Source: Überliefert; früheste Quelle: Paris News Letter, 4. August 1535
The bridge to tradition
Fidelity of conscience against the spirit of the age, the patron of politicians died for it.