Saint Thomas More
Thomas More was born in London in 1478. He attended Oxford University and practised law in London. After the death of his first wife, Thomas married Alice Middleton who cared for his four small children. Thomas' history is tied up with the history of the King of England, King Henry the Eighth who was prepared to execute those who were originally his advisers and friends. The Church, then and now teaches that people who are married cannot get divorced and remarried unless their first spouse has died. The Church refused to annul the King’s marriages with the result that King Henry decided to split away from the Catholic Church and form the Church of England, or the Anglican Church. In the autumn of 1529 Thomas became Lord Chancellor of England. Thomas disagreed with King Henry on the question of the King dissolving his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Within 2 years Thomas resigned as Lord Chancellor and retired from public life. In 1534 Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy making the King head of the English Church. Thomas was asked to subscribe to the oath... to declare the King greater in power than the Pope. He refused and was charged with high treason by Henry VIII. After a year in prison in the Tower of London he stood trial at Westminster Hall. On July 6, 1535 Thomas was executed on Tower Hill in London. He died with the words I am the King's good servant, but God's servant first . Thomas More was declared a saint and his feast day in kept on June 22.
