In anticipation of tomorrow's feast, I found this beautiful entry from a blog called VULTUS CHRISTI ('the face of Christ')
vultus.stblogs.org/
whose epigram is the psalm
Tibi dixit cor meum, quaesivi vultum tuum, vultum tuum, Domine, requiram: ne avertas faciem tuam a me (Ps 26:8,9
("My heart hath said to thee: My face hath sought thee: thy face, O Lord, will I still seek. Turn not away thy face from me")
which is rightfully on the back cover of the Italian edition of JESUS OF NAZARETH but not to be found in the English edition.
John the Baptist
and the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Joy and Gladness Shall Be Thine
Today is the Vigil of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist: eight days after the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
John the Baptist, while yet an infant hidden in Saint Elizabeth's womb, was the first to experience the sweet mediation
of the Virgin Mother's Immaculate Heart.
It was the God-bearing Virgin's Heart, full of solicitude for her cousin Elizabeth, that moved her to "arise and go with haste
into the hill country, to a city of Judah" (cf. Lk 1:39). There the Mother of God bearing her Son beneath her Immaculate Heart,
"entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth" (Lk 1:40).
The Light of the Real Presence Shining in Her Eyes
This was, in a sense, the first mission of the Immaculate Heart of Mary: to carry the hidden Christ to the "little child"
(Lk 1:76) destined to be the Friend of the Bridegroom (Jn 3:29), the Prophet of the Most High (Lk 1:76).
With the flame of love burning in her Immaculate Heart and the light of the real presence shining in her eyes, Mary "became
in some way a 'tabernacle' - the first tabernacle in history" (John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, art. 55).
With the arrival of the Virgin-Tabernacle enclosing within her the 'Dayspring from on high' (Lk 1:78), John the Baptist was
sanctified, washed clean of original sin, and quickened by the Holy Spirit.
Jubilation
The birth of John the Baptist was an occasion of jubilation. Having already been touched by the Heart of Mary, the Cause of
our Joy, the Baptist comes into the world as the Herald of Joy. His prophetic ministry, even as he advances toward a cruel death,
is illumined by a supernatural joy.
"He who has the bride is the bridegroom; the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the
bridegroom's voice; therefore this joy of mine is now full. He must increase, but I must decrease (Jn 3:29-30).
The Infallible Sign of the Presence of God
For what gift does the Church make us ask in the Collect of tomorrow's solemnity? For 'the grace of spiritual joys'.
Already by his birth, Saint John the Baptist teaches us that the first of these spiritual joys is a living, personal contact
with the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
At every moment, the Mother of God is ready to grace us with her presence. She comes always to reveal the Face of her Son,
hidden now in the Eucharist as He was hidden in the tabernacle of her womb when she visited Elizabeth.
The fruit of that mysterious encounter between the Infant Christ and the Infant Forerunner had the unmistakable taste of
divine joy, the joy that Blessed Abbot Marmion called 'the infallible sign of the presence of God'.
BOTTICELLI, Madonna and Child and the Young St John the Baptist, 1490-95
Tempera on canvas, 134 x 92 cm, Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence
Look at this marvelous painting by Botticelli depicting the Mother of God, the Child Jesus and His little cousin, the Baptist.
What I find most striking is that at the very center of the painting is the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
The Virgin is holding her Child; he appears heavy in her arms. She bows low to allow the little Baptist to give her Jesus a hug
and a kiss. The small boys appear to be about two years old. The Baptist has to stretch to reach the Face of Jesus; he is
lready dressed in his desert garb and carrying his little wooden staff. The top of the staff has the form of the Cross;
the Cross thus appears directly over the head of the Infant Christ, a portent of His sacrifice.
The Mother of God wears a blood red gown; something about her posture suggests an outpouring of blood, an effusion of
the heart. Just behind the Virgin is a rose bush in full bloom: a symbol of spiritual joys.
Let Me Give Thy Son a Kiss
More than my words ever could, Botticelli's painting suggests that the mission of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is to introduce
all of us, as she did the little Baptist, into a reverent and tender intimacy with her Son.
The Mother of God bends over each of us, her garments dyed red in the Blood that flowed on Calvary, the very Blood that won
for us every spiritual joy. Where the Mother of God is present, there charity is poured out and there spiritual joys abound.
Put yourself today in the position of the child John the Baptist. Ask the Blessed Virgin to let you embrace her Son and
offer Him a kiss. Her Immaculate Heart will not refuse you this.
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The blogger is Father Mark, O.Cist. - a Benedictine-Cistercian priest of the Abbey of the Basilica of the Holy Cross of
Jerusalem (Santa Croce in Gerusalemme) in Rome, and I am very glad I discovered his site, as you will be when you visit it.
From another site, here is a recent discussion about the 'historical' John the Baptist from the Redemptorist
Fathers site, written in preparation for June 24. The Sunday homilies on the site are attributed to the "Administrator'
but I have been unable to get his name. For now, I take it on trust that he is quoting recent scholarship accurately.
There is a new interest in the historical John the Baptist. Very recently, in August 2004, some archeologists claimed a discovery of the original cave
of John the Baptist. The evidence so far has not been all that convincing to most scholars, but the jury is still out. It is surely a cave where
devotees of the Baptist honoured him, possibly in slightly later times than his own.
Some recent studies have proposed that John is less a (revivalist) preacher (not an American Southern Baptist!), than a ritualist. He practised a kind of
baptismal ablution like some ceremonies at Qumran. John seems to have acted as if his baptism was the real way of access to the true God,
and thus a better ritual of reconciliation than the Temple cult. He would thus have acted in an anti-Temple vein.
John seems to have been a critic of other Jewish ways of living. He seems to have presented himself as the person in whom the Jews of the day could find
(baptismal) salvation, and, indeed, do so as often as they came to him, with frequent baptisms, and not just one (as has usually been assumed).
John practiced baptism by immersion. [John the Immerser = Jack the Dipper?] He gathered people on the far side of Jordan, as Joshua had gathered the original
chosen people there. They went down to the river. He walked with them through the waters of the Jordan into the Land promised and given to them by the Lord.
John re-enacted this as a land-rights procession in protest against Roman domination of the Land. It is a blatantly political act. Not a pious exhortation, or
'liturgy'. He focused on the radical holiness asked of the people by a Holy God who gave them his own Holy Land. They had to be holy to live there.
John was not like the Pharisees who focused on the ethical implications of the Torah in ordinary civic life. John was a 'desert' man, a real prophet.
But the Pharisees themselves would surely not have been negative to a holiness movement of this kind.
It is not likely that the numbers John attracted where he had been baptizing were very large. Almost no one lived there. Passing travellers, pilgrims en route
to Jerusalem, escapees from the cold of Jerusalem in winter, and the curious (perhaps from Jericho) would have made up his 'audience'. As is obvious, these people
are not 'the poor'.
To go to the people at large, he had to go to more populated areas, that is, to the provinces of Palestine where he had not yet been, Samaria, Judea, and Galilee.
He crossed the Jordan to get to these places. It was itself a re-enactment of the exodus, from desert to the Land. The whole thing was this land-rights
procession, a claim to the Land against the Roman occupation of it. He was telling the people how to live appropriately in this Land that God had given them.
After Jesus was baptized, John's whole operation moved with missionary urgency to the West Bank of the Jordan. John seems to have gone to Samaria
himself, while sending Jesus, his helper(???), to Judea. Jesus worked as a baptist at this time. [Note: he was a Jew]. This means that he worked in the tradition
of John, and preached the message of John.
Jesus himself baptized during this stage of his ministry. This may have been an innovation: someone other than John was doing the baptizing, even though
it was 'with the baptism of John'. Jesus appears to have developed followers of his own, who had, for the most part, been previously followers of the larger
baptist group.
John, at some point, decided to go to Galilee, the only province not yet touched by his message. Galilee was under direct control of Herod Antipas. Some time
prior to 23 CE, Antipas had dismissed his wife and married Herodias, his brother's wife, who was also his niece. As a Jew, and a Jewish Client-Ruler (even if by
Roman placet), he had publicly violated Jewish law.
Almost immediately on coming to Galilee, John engaged in strong public criticism of Antipas. Perhaps he had done so earlier, while he was still in Samaria
(it, like Judea, was not under the control of Antipas, but under direct Roman administration.) Perhaps he had even done so while he was still on the East side
of the Jordan, in Perea, which was under Antipas' control.
It is possible that his motivation in crossing the Jordan into Samaria was not exclusively spiritual, but also included a measure of political safety
for himself. If this is the case, his going to Galilee was, in the circumstances, a courageous option. When he arrived there, he stepped up his criticisms
against Antipas. His motivation in doing so is interesting. It has little directly to do with the sanctity of Jewish or Christian marriage.
Antipas wanted to be accepted as the true Messiah-King, and wanted to be the Messiah-King who would save the Jewish people by inculturating them into
Roman ways of living. In God's Holy Land! His father was a Jew, but his mother had been a Samaritan of Arab blood. He thought that by dismissing
his foreign wife, and marrying someone of the best Maccabean Jewish blood line, he would be more accepted as this kind of Messiah. John objected strongly.
The dismissed wife of Antipas was a Nabatean princess, the daughter of Aretas IV of Petra. When she was rejected, she engineered a visit to the great
fortress of Machaerus in the south of Perea, overlooking the Dead Sea, (still in the territory of Antipas), and then slipped across the border to her
father in Nabatea. Aretas would seek revenge for the insult offered by Antipas to the Nabatean royal family.
This revenge would normally amount to a border war, in which Antipas would be humiliated. Antipas then was politically and militarily vulnerable, and needed
the support of the Jews of Galilee in a particular way at this time. John's public attack on him, and especially on his Messianic aspirations, alienated them.
Antipas had the Baptist arrested, probably initially at Tiberias. Arrest, in those times and places, amounted to much the same thing as elimination, at least
in due time, and perhaps with undue haste, even if without due process. [There are interesting parallels here with the eventual demise of Jesus].
To forestall the Nabatean invasion of Perea, Antipas then moved south to Macherus, and brought his prisoner with him. There he executed him.
Some accept the basic historicity of Mark's story, repeated in Matthew, of the beheading of John at the request of Herodias' dancing daughter, Salome:
others are more hesitant or even negative about it, because there are parallels to the story in earlier Greek literature. In any event, Antipas had
desired to be rid of John for some time.
Aretas won the small border war, and Antipas retreated to Galilee, to a people who believed in the Baptist, and now blamed Antipas's military defeat and
loss of honour on his refusal to heed the Baptist's warning and on his disposal of the Baptist. The entire movement of the Baptist was now intertwined with
major political, and even international agenda.
How important is John the Baptist? He was the only real prophet to emerge among the Jews for a long time. Jesus bought his message, and joined his band.
At that time, Jesus said that of all those born of women, a greater than John had never been seen. The whole Law and the Prophets lead to John. He was Elijah,
risen from the dead.
John had left behind him the scene in Galilee where Jesus would begin his ministry. John introduced Jesus to the religious and political world of the time.
John was the fore-runner of Jesus. Jesus came to Galilee to pick up where John had left off. [No wonder he takes precedence over the Sunday liturgy!]
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Father Mark's site made me realise also that I totally missed noting the feast of Saints Thomas More and John Fisher on June 22,
and although I noted the feast of St. Aloysius Gonzaga on June 21, I did not find the time to do anything about him. Father Mark
helps me make up for both oversights.
It seemed providential that the Church marked the martyrdom of two of the greatest medieval English saints the day before
Tony Blair was to visit Pope Benedict XVI.
July 22
Saints John Fisher and Thomas More
Men of Fire and of Light
by Father Mark, Vultus Christi
Today is the feast of two martyrs, one a bishop and the other a husband, father, lawyer, statesman, and philosopher:
Saints John Fisher and Thomas More.
Both were men of fire and of light. Both fought manfully and suffered the martyrdom of John the Baptist, the Friend
of the Bridegroom of whom Our Lord said, He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while
in his light (Jn 5:35).
The Sun Snatched from the Universe
Saint John Fisher was alone among all the bishops of the realm to stand against Henry VIII in the great affair of
his divorce and against the Act of Supremacy by which the King repudiated the jurisdiction of the Pope over the Church
in England. The Church in England was to become the Church of England.
Protestantization would follow and, above all, the suppression of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered according to the
rite of the Church of Rome. Concerning Holy Mass, Bishop John Fisher had written: "He who goes about to take the Holy Sacrifice
of the Mass from the Church, plots no less a calamity than if he tried to snatch the sun from the universe."
An entire national body of bishops save one broke the bond of their communion with Peter and fell into schism and heresy.
A sobering lesson! There is no security in the Catholic faith apart from a loyal attachment to the See of Peter expressed
in a joyful communion of mind and heart, and in an effective obedience. Today, the Anglican Communion worldwide is torn
and broken apart into factions, and factions of factions. In the absence of a supreme magisterium nothing remains but
opinions and options.
Imitating Saints John Fisher and Thomas More, may we spurn the temptation to prefer 'our way' to The Way and also,
like them, cheerfully and resolutely put nothing before the love of Christ who says: "I came to cast fire upon the earth; and
would that it were already kindled" (Lk 12:49, Magnificat Antiphon at First Vespers of the Sacred Heart).
ST. JOHN FISHER, Bishop and Martyr
Died on Tower Hill, London, on June 22, 1535
Canonized in 1935
Feast day formerly on June 13 (Roman calendar) and July 9 (locally).
"Had you but tasted one drop of the sweetness which inebriates the souls of those religious from their worship of
this Sacrament, you would never have written as you have, nor have apostatized from the faith that you formerly professed.
- John Fisher, writing to the bishop of Winchester
The son of a textile merchant who died while John was still a boy, Saint John Fisher was a Catholic of high ideals. He was
equally distinguished as a humanistic scholar, a fosterer of sound learning in others, and a faithful bishop. Educated at
Michaelhouse at Cambridge (since merged into Trinity) from age 14, forever afterwards he was connected with the life of
the university. Fisher was ordained a priest under a special dispensation at the age of 22. He became a doctor of divinity,
master of Michaelhouse, and vice chancellor.
In 1502, he resigned his mastership to become the chaplain of the king's mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, countess of Richmond
and Derby. Under his direction, Lady Margaret founded Christ's College and Saint John's College at Cambridge, and established
there and at Oxford a Lady Margaret divinity chair. Because of this and other princely gifts, she has come to be regarded as
Cambridge's greatest benefactress.
Fisher's contributions have not been as readily recognized. He was the first to fill the divinity chair at Cambridge. But more
important than that, he himself endowed scholarships, provided for Greek and Hebrew in the curriculum, and engaged his friend,
the famous humanist, Erasmus, as a professor of divinity and Greek at a time was the school's scholarship was at its lowest ebb.
Before that no Greek or Hebrew was taught, and the library had been reduced to 300 volumes. In 1504, Fisher was elected
chancellor of the university. As such he did much to further the growth and progress of his alma mater, of which he may
justly be considered the second founder.
John Fisher lived in the last days of Catholic England and reached high office under Henry VII. After serving as chaplain
to his patron Margaret Beaufort, he was appointed bishop of Rochester in 1504. He was only 35 years old, young to be
a bishop. He accepted the office warily, as it added greatly to his responsibilities (he was still university chancellor until
his death). It was the smallest and poorest diocese in England, but so great was his love for it that, later, he refused
the richer sees of Ely and Lincoln, saying he "would not leave his poor old wife for the richest widow in England."
The climate was so damp and the state of his palace so ruinous that Erasmus, when staying with him, was appalled;
yet for 30 years Fisher chose to remain there and was one of the most faithful of the English bishops of the period.
Fisher was a zealous and thorough pastor. He regularly made visitations, administered confirmation, disciplined his clergy,
visited the sick poor, and distributed alms with his own hands. His personal life was strict and simple. "He kept a good table
for every one but himself." He was such an articulate preacher that when King Henry VII died in 1509, he preached the funeral
sermon, as he did for Lady Margaret in her turn.
He discharged his public offices with dignity and courage. His reputation both at home and abroad was that of a great and
distinguished figure. In the words of Erasmus: "There is not in the nation a more learned man nor a holier bishop." Henry VIII,
before Fisher had roused his vindictive rage, openly gloried "that no other prince or kingdom had so distinguished a prelate."
During this time, he continued to write books and pursue his own studies, beginning to learn Greek at age 48, and Hebrew at 51.
Fisher lived austerely, sleeping and eating little, and he kept a skull in front of him at meals to remind himself of his
mortality. He formed one of the most exceptional libraries in Europe with the intention of bequeathing it to the university.
Fisher fully realized the urgent need of reform in the church, from popes and bishops downwards, but was opposed to Lutheran
ideas of reform and wrote four weighty volumes against them. He preached at Paul's Cross in defense of Christian doctrine
when Luther's books were banned and burned. Yet he preferred prayer and example before controversy.
With the utmost boldness and not without justification, Fisher censured the clergy at a synod in the presence of Cardinal
Wolsey himself for their corruption, vanity, laxity, and love of gain. Most of the higher clergy had won their preferments
through secular service to the state or by private interest. As a member of the House of Lords, Fisher vigorously opposed
the government's policy of war and criticized the measures against the clergy that were being forced through the Commons.
He uttered another great protest in convocation when that assembly was called upon to agree that Henry VIII was the head
of the Church of England. He did suggest adding to the oath the words, "So far as the law of Christ allows" which smoothed
the path of many who signed. But boldest of all was his uncompromising attitude to the scandalous divorce of
Catherine of Aragon by Henry.
As Queen Catherine's confessor, he appeared on her behalf before the commissioners at Blackfriars in 1529 and also spoke
and wrote vigorously against it. This infuriated the king and when, later, Fisher refused to take the Oath of Supremacy
acknowledging the king to be head of the English Church, he was deprived of his bishopric and committed to the Tower.
The warnings of friends and the threats of his enemies were not necessary to bring home to Fisher the danger he now ran
by his opposition to the ruling powers. Despite being imprisoned for two short periods, and being the object of poisoning and
a shooting attempt, Fisher persisted in espousing his views. Thomas Cromwell unsuccessfully tried to link him with Elizabeth
Barton, the 'Holy Maid of Kent,' a nun who had trances and made personal attacks upon Henry for trying to divorce the queen.
He was summoned to Lambeth, despite being so ill that he fainted on the road between Rochester and London, to sign the oath
of the bill of succession. He refused, because it was in essence an oath of supremacy. He was at Rochester at the time he was
arrested, and from the country round people flocked into the city to bid him farewell. After settling his affairs and making gifts
to the poor, he rode bareheaded through the streets giving his blessing to the crowd.
On his arrival in London, when confronted with the Oath he replied: "My answer is that forasmuch as mine own conscience
cannot be satisfied, I do absolutely refuse the Oath. I do not condemn any other men's consciences. Their consciences may save
them, and mine must save me." In April 1534, the 66-year-old prelate began a 15- month imprisonment in the Tower of London,
his property was confiscated, and he was stripped of his offices. A confidential messenger from Henry asked him to declare,
for the king's ears alone, his opinion on royal supremacy. His negative opinion sealed his conviction.
During this time Pope Paul III named him a cardinal. King Henry was furious, and within a month Fisher was brought to trial in
Westminster Hall, charged with treason in that he had denied the king's ecclesiastical supremacy and found guilty. Some of
the judges cried as "the most holy and learned prelate in Christendom" was sentenced to death on June 17, 1535.
On a June morning a few days later, John was awakened at 5:00 a.m. and told that he was to be executed that day. He asked
to rest a little longer and slept for two hours. So frail and emaciated by illness that he could barely stand, Fisher
was carried in a chair from the Tower to the place of execution.
He courteously thanked his guards for their attentive trouble and pains. Saying that he was dying for he faith, he asked
the people to pray that he might have courage. He carried his little New Testament, and at Tower Gate opened it at the words:
"This is life eternal, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. I have glorified Thee
upon the earth, I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do" (John 17:3-5).
Closing the book, he said: "Here is learning enough for me to my life's end." As he mounted the scaffold, facing the morning sun,
he lifted his hands and cried: "They had an eye unto Him, and were lightened; and their faces were not ashamed." Then kneeling
in prayer, he repeated Psalm 31, In Thee, O Lord, have I put my trust (others say that he died with the words of the Te Deum
on his lips), and was beheaded with an axe.
His friend Thomas More wrote of Saint John of Rochester: "I reckon in this realm no one man, in wisdom, learning, and long
approved virtue together, meet to be matched and compared with him."
John Fisher was buried in the churchyard of All Hallows, Barking, without rites or a shroud. His head was exhibited on London
Bridge for two weeks, then was thrown into the Thames.
In art, Saint John Fisher is shown robed as a cardinal, with haggard ascetic features, or with an axe or his hat at his feet.
ST. THOMAS MORE, Martyr
Born in London, England, 1478
Died there in 1535
Canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1935
as the 'Martyr of the Papacy'
Feast day formerly on July 6.
Fr. Mark says this icon of Saint Thomas More
"is by the graced hand of Brother Claude Lane,
O.S.B., monk of Mount Angel Abbey."
"If I am distracted, Holy Communion helps me become recollected. If opportunities are offered by each day to offend my God,
I arm myself anew each day for the combat by reception of the Eucharist. If I am in need of special light and prudence
in order to discharge my burdensome duties, I draw nigh to my Savior and seek counsel and light from Him."
"These things, good Lord, that we pray for, give us Thy grace to labor for."
"It is a shorter thing and sooner done, to write heresies, than to answer them."
- Saint Thomas More.
Thomas More studied at Canterbury Hall, Oxford, and read law at the Inns of Court, being called to the bar in 1501. Thomas was
happiest in the bosom of his family - three generations living under one roof in Chelsea, and the congenial group of poets,
scientists, and humanists that often gathered in his home, rather than at court.
Henry VIII was a man of rare personal magnetism; even Sir Thomas yielded to his charm. Thomas's daughter Margaret married
Roper, who writes of More's friendship with Henry VIII: when the king had finished his devotions on holy days, he would talk
to More about diverse matters, often far into the night.
More often dined with the king and queen. Thomas would try to get two days per month to spend with his family, but he would be
recalled to court. So Thomas tried to change his disposition before the king to be less likable, until the king started to come
to Chelsea with Thomas and to be merry there. He recognized early that Henry's whims might prove dangerous to Thomas's health
and life.
More had considered the priesthood in his youth, and of joining the Franciscans, but his confessor advised against it. In 1505,
he married Jane Colt, though it is said he preferred her younger sister. She bore him four children: Margaret (married Roper);
Elizabeth, Cecily, and John. In the evening, Jane would study
for an hour or two because Thomas wished her to be a scholar, or she would sing or play the clavichord. Jane died in 1510.
Soon after Jane's death, he married Alice Middleton, an older woman. Margaret, the eldest child, was five. Alice was unlearned,
but had a great sense of humor. Thomas scolded her for her vanity and she reproached him for his lack of ambition.
More cared strongly for his children and their education, especially for Margaret. His home was a menagerie of birds, monkeys,
foxes, ferrets, weasels, etc.
More rose rapidly in public life despite his lack of ambition. He was a renowned lawyer and elected to Parliament in 1504 (
at age 22). In 1510, he was appointed Undersheriff of London; 1518, Secretary to Henry VIII; 1521, he was knighted; 1523,
chosen Speaker of Parliament; 1529, Lord Chancellor in succession to Cardinal Wolsey. Nevertheless, he continued to read, study,
and write, and is known more as a scholar than as a jurist. Yet he was realistic and wrote in Utopia (1516), "philosophy had
no place among kings....it is not possible for all things to be well, unless all men were good, which I think will not be
this good many years."
He had a horror of luxury and worldly pomp. He found the lies and flatteries of court nauseating. It wearied him to be
constantly at the King's command. He felt the scholars life was conducive to a virtuous life of piety toward God and service
of his neighbor.
Virtue and religion were the supreme concerns of his life. He considered pride the chief danger of education. Education
should inculcate a spirit of detachment from riches and earthly possessions, along with a spirit of gentleness.
During Henry's reign, 12,000 people were put to death for theft. Thomas as Chancellor was hesitant to apply the death
penalty to heretics.
More was a leader of the humanists, champion of the study of Greek and Latin classics, sympathetic to the Renaissance, and
an advocate of needed Church reform; yet he was grounded in the Catholic tradition of the Middle Ages. He was also a friend
of Erasmus. In 1527, Erasmus wrote in a letter, "I wrote the Praise of Folly in times of peace; I should never have written it
if I had foreseen this tempest" of the Reformation.
Again, Erasmus in a letter to a monk about to leave his monastery, "...I see no one becoming better, every one becoming
worse, so that I am deeply grieved that in my writings I once preached the liberty of the spirit....What I desired then
was that the abatement of external ceremonies might much redound to the increase of true piety. But as it is, the ceremonies
have been so destroyed that in place of them we have not the liberty of the spirit but the unbridled license of the flesh....
What liberty is that which forbids us to say our prayers, and forbids us the sacrifice of the Mass?"
Thomas More did not think his
Utopia, which is written in Latin, could be safely read by the multitude.
Thomas was imprisoned in the Tower, because he would not help Henry VIII put away Catherine of Aragon and supplant the Pope
as the head of the Church of England. Thomas More did not wish to die. "I am not so holy that I dare rush upon death," he declared.
"Were I so presumptuous, God might suffer me to fall." But he could not accept that Henry VIII was supreme head of the church.
He resigned rather than be seen to support the king's divorce.
Thomas More and John Fisher, two of the noblest men England ever produced, were both sent to the Tower in 1534 for refusing
to take the Oath of Succession, which would obligate them to recognize Anne Boleyn's children as heirs to the Crown.
Both said they would swear allegiance to any heir the king and Parliament would agree upon, but this was not satisfactory
to Boleyn.
Next Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy, which made it high treason to refuse to accept the king as the only head
on earth of the Church of England. More was brought to trial on the perjured testimony of Richard Rich and defended himself
against the inferred act of treason.
He was convicted of high treason, and martyred for his steadfast defense of the indissolubility of marriage and the supremacy
of the pope. After the sentence was issued, he broke his silence. On the scaffold, he said simply, "I have been ever the king's
good and loyal servant, but God's first".
In art, Saint Thomas wears a scholar's cap, furred gown, and the chain of the Chancellor of England. A chalice, Host,
and papal insignia may be near him.
He is the patron saint of lawyers, judges, civil servants, politicians, statesmen, large families and troubled marriages.