From Fame to Martyrdom to Saint    

   Thomas More was an author, educator, lawyer, judge and adviser to King Henry VIII. A Christian, he was born in 1478, before the Reformation. 

   Search Henry VIII for more details about a king who considered himself above both church and state...and woe to the person who displeased him.  

   More's first no-no was advising the king that he could not divorce his first wife, who bore no sons. Henry ultimately had had six wives, two of them divorced and two beheaded. 

   More resigned from the House of Commons in 1532, apparently in protest of Henry's attempt to become head of the Church of England. In 1534 he refused to swear to Henry's Act of Succession and Oath of Supremacy. Off to the Tower of London he went. 

Which brings us to today's message. 

More wrote to his daughter, explaining why he was willing to be executed. 

He looked at his earthly duties through the lens of eternal consequence. 

"I die the king's good servant, but God first." 

As for his disloyal friends, he told her, 

"Bear no malice or evil will to any man living. For either the man is good 

or wicked. If he is good and I hate him, then I am wicked. 

If he is wicked, either he will amend and die good and go to God, 

or live and die wickedly and go to the devil.

"Why should I hate one for this while he shall hereafter love me forevermore, and with whom I shall in time be coupled in eternal friendship?

"If he will continue to be wicked and be damned ... then 

I may well think myself a cruel wretch if I would not now 

rather pity his pain than malign his person?"

    From Bella's Gift        

   More was beheaded in 1534 and canonized in 1935. 

             Tomorrow: More about More, and the U.S. Constitution