and he was removed from the university. Thereupon he was attracted to the Carthusians, practised
extreme austerities, and contemplated joining the order. He was deterred from doing so,
apparently by the influence of Erasmus, whom he first met at this time. His father was a lawyer,
and he decided to follow his father's profession. In 1504 he was a Member of Parliament, and led
the opposition to Henry VII's demand for new taxes. In this he was successful, but the king was
furious; he sent More's father to the Tower, releasing him, however, on payment of £100. On the
king's death in 1509, More returned to the practice of the law, and won the favour of Henry VIII.
He was knighted in 1514, and employed on various embassies. The king kept inviting him to
court, but More would not come; at last the king came uninvited to dine with him at his house in
Chelsea. More had no illusions as to Henry VIII; when complimented on the king's favourable
disposition, he replied: "If my head should win him a castle in France it should not fail to go."
When Wolsey fell, the King appointed More chancellor in his stead. Contrary to the usual
practice, he refused all gifts from litigants. He soon fell into disfavour, because the king was
determined to divorce Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn, and More was
unalterably opposed to the divorce. He therefore resigned in 1532. His incorruptibility when in
office is shown by the fact that after his resignation he had only £100 a year. In spite of his
opinions, the king invited him to his wedding with Anne Boleyn, but More refused the invitation.
In 1534, the king got Parliament to pass the Act of Supremacy, declaring him, not the Pope, the
head of the Church of England. Under this act an Oath of Supremacy was exacted, which More
refused to take; this was only misprision of treason, which did not involve the death penalty. It
was proved, however, by very dubious testimony, that he had said Parliament could not make
Henry head of the Church; on this evidence he was convicted of high treason, and beheaded. His
property was given to Princess Elizabeth, who kept it to the day of her death.
More is remembered almost solely on account of his Utopia ( 1518). Utopia is an island in the
southern hemisphere, where everything is done in the best possible way. It has been visited
accidentally by a sailor named Raphael Hythloday, who spent five years there, and only returned
to Europe to make its wise institutions known.