Regarding Dr James Campbell’s letter (The Tablet, 21 February) the one matter on which, perhaps, naivety could be laid at Thomas More's door is that of his hope for universal peace between the warring Christian princes of his time.
So dear was this cause to him that More refers to the Peace of Cambrai and his own role in it in the epitaph he had carved for his parish church in Chelsea. But, then, how many peace treaties have soon been dashed, or have failed to live up to expectation? In fact, everything in More's public life, both as a lawyer and public servant in the court of Henry VIII, and especially in the contents of his vast literary output, demonstrates More as a realist and as a consummate master in the study of human character.
More's deep perceptions also gave a truly prophetic character to much of what he said, examples of which are many. Whilst in imprisonment in the Tower, on the occasion of a visit by his daughter Meg, More enquired how Queen Anne did. Upon receiving the reply " never better", More responded with compassionate words for one who had done him so much harm. "It pitieth me to remember into what misery, poor soul, she will shortly come."
It was at More's encouragement, in better days, that he urged Erasmus to write Praise of Folly, which puns on More's own name in the title, and which Erasmus composed in More's home, also dedicating the work to him. The subject of human folly is a constant refrain in More's own writings, in particular in an early work, the Latin poems, More's Epigrams. Here, he treats with typical humour, the contradictions, irrationality, absurdity and pride contained in human behaviour.
More's Richard III was read and admired by Shakespeare, so much so that More's Richard is Shakespeare's Richard. Shakespeare also had a hand in the writing of the Elizabethan play Sir Thomas More.
More was himself an actor – an actor on the stage of national and international politics and on the more theatrical stage, as his son-in-law William Roper recalls in his biography. More, in his youth, would make a part of his own in the Christmas plays in Cardinal Morton's household. Throughout his life, More observed at close hand the great figures of his time.
After resigning the office of Chancellor, Thomas Cromwell came to Chelsea to visit More. Commenting on Cromwell's entry into royal service, More said to him: "If you will follow my poor advice you shall, in counsel given to his Grace, ever tell him what he ought to do, but never tell him what he is able to do, so shall you show yourself a true faithful servant, and a right worthy counsellor. For if a lion knew his own strength, hard were it for any man to rule him." This is the wisdom of a statesman. Indeed, More was proclaimed Patron of Statesmen and Politicians by John Paul II, in the year 2000. If Cromwell had heeded More's "poor advice", English history might look a little different. More naïve? I think not.
Fr Anthony Wild, SS Peter and Paul Church, Newport, Shropshire
Whatever St Thomas More's other merits and demerits, he wrote, and presumably frequently used, some most beautiful and intimate prayers, such as: “The Perfect Lover longeth for to be / In presence of his love both night and day, / And if it haply so befall that he / May not as he would, he will yet as he may / Ever be with his love.” (from Twelve Properties of a Lover)
Who has not asked, in their own words a reflection of More's plea after he was condemned to death: “Take from me good Lord, this lukewarm fashion, or rather key-cold manner of meditation”, and “The things, Good Lord, that I pray for, give me Thy grace to labour for.”
Ann Hales-Tooke, Chesterton, Cambridge
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