CHAPTER XXXI. LIFE OF SIR THOMAS MORE FROM THE ACCESSION OF HENRY VIII. XXXI. MORE hailed the commencement of the new reign in a Latin CHAP. poem, which contained lines not only praising the good qualities of the youthful sovereign, but reflecting with great April 22. bitterness on the oppression from which the nation had 1509. escaped : "Meta hæc servitii est, hæc libertatis origo, Tristitiæ finis, lætitiæque caput. Nam juvenem secli decus O memorabile nostri Nemo quod taceat, quodve susurret, habet." Little did the poet foresee that this was to be the most tyrannical and bloody reign in the annals of England, and that he himself was to be doomed to a cruel death by him whose clemency he celebrates.* Meanwhile, More resumed his profession, and rose in Westminster Hall to still greater eminence than he had before attained. "There was at that time in none of the Prince's Courts of the laws of this realm, any matter of importance in controversy wherein he was not with the one party of counsel." † "He now gained, without grief, not so little as 4007. by the year," an income which, considering the relative * A poem on the union of the red and white roses, entitled "De utraque Rosa in unum Coalita," written by him soon after, he thus prophetically concludes (whether through accident or second sight, I know not): More re sumes his practice at the bar. CHAP profits of the bar and the value of money, probably indicated as high a station as 10,000l. a year at the present day. XXXI. Introduced and Wol sey. He was ere long introduced to the young King and to to the King Wolsey, now the prime favourite rising rapidly to greatness. They were both much pleased with him, and were desirous that he should give up the law for politics, and accept an office at Court, the Cardinal thinking that, from his retired habits and modest nature, he never could be dangerous as a rival. More long resisted these solicitations, truly thinking his situation as an eminent barrister more independent as well as more profitable. Counsel for the Pope in a great cause. Enters the service of He was about this time engaged in a cause célèbre, of which a circumstantial account has come down to us. A ship belonging to the Pope having been seized at Southampton, as forfeited to the Crown for a breach of the law of nations, the Pope's Nuncio at the Court of London instituted proceedings to obtain restitution, and retained More, "at which time there could none of our law be found so meet to be of counsel." The hearing was in the Star Chamber before the Chancellor, the Chief Justices, the Lord Treasurer, and other officers of state. To plead against the Crown before such a tribunal was rather an arduous task; but More displayed great firmness and zeal, and, availing himself not only of his own learning, but of the authorities and arguments furnished to him by his client (himself a great civilian), he made such an unanswerable speech for his Holiness that the judgment was in his favour, and restitution was decreed. The King was present at the trial; and to his credit be it the King. spoken, instead of being mortified by the loss of his prize, and indignant against the counsel who had been pleading against him, he joined all the hearers in praising More for "his upright and commendable demeanor therein; and for no entreaty would henceforth be induced any longer to forbear his service." * In the early part of his reign, Henry VIII. was one of the most popular Sovereigns that ever filled the throne of Eng land, and deserved to be so; for, beyond his fine person, his manly accomplishments, his agreeable manners, and the contrast he presented to his predecessor, he showed a disposition to patronise merit wherever it could be found; and his Court was the resort of the learned and the witty, as well as the high born and chivalrous. More still retained his office in the city, but was prevailed upon to give up his practice at the bar. He was made Master of the Requests, knighted, and sworn of the Privy Council.* CHAP. XXXI. A.D 1514. bar. Leaves the the Re- at Chelsea. wife. He now removed from Bucklersbury, and took up his His house residence at Chelsea, in what might then be considered a country-house, which he built for himself, and where he amused himself with an extensive garden and a farm. To his inexpressible grief, he had lost his first wife after she had brought him four children; and he had entered into a second His second matrimonial union, not of sentiment but convenience, with Mrs. Alice Middleton, a widow lady, "of good years, and of no good favour or complexion." She was seven years older than himself, and it is to be feared not always of the sweetest disposition. "This he did because she might have care of his children; and she proved a kind step-mother to them." Erasmus, who was often an inmate in the family, speaks of her as a keen and watchful manager, with whom More lived on terms of as much respect and kindness as if she had been fair and young. "No husband ever gained so much obedience from a wife by authority and severity, as More by gentleness and pleasantry. Though verging on old age, and not of a yielding temper, he prevailed on her to take lessons on the lute, the cithara, the viol, the monochord, and the flute, which she daily practised to him." + Yet from some of their conjugal dialogues, recorded by members of the family, we are made to doubt whether the sweetness of their intercourse was not occasionally flavoured with a little acid. He would say of her, " that she was pennywise and pound-foolish, saving a candle's end and spoiling a velvet gown." She rated him for not being sufficiently CHAP. XXXI. His domestic life. ambitious; and, because he had no mind to set himself forward in the world, saying to him, "Tillie vallie! Tillie vallie! Will you sit and make goslings in the ashes: my mother hath often said unto me, it is better to rule than to be ruled."—"Now, in truth," answered he, "that is truly said, good wife; for I never found you yet willing to be ruled.”* He had soon a very numerous household; for, his daughters marrying, they and their husbands and their children all resided under his roof, and constituted one affectionate family; which he governed with such gentleness and discretion that it was without broils or jealousies. The course of his domestic life is minutely described by eye-witnesses. "His custom was daily (besides his private prayers with his children) to say the seven psalms, the litany, and the suffrages following; so was his guise with his wife and children, and household, nightly, before he went to bed; to go to his chapel, and there on his knees ordinarily to say certain psalms and collects with them."† Says Erasmus, "You might imagine yourself in the academy of Plato. But I should do injustice to his house by comparing it to the academy of Plato, where numbers and geographical figures, and sometimes moral virtues, were the subjects of discussion; it would be more just to call it a school and exercise of the Christian religion. All its inhabitants, male or female, ap Rop. More. In the metrical inscription which he wrote for his own monument, there is a laboured commendation of Alice, which in tenderness is outweighed by one word applied to Jane, the beloved companion of his youth: "Chara Thomæ jacet hic Joanna uxorcula Mori." On the other hand the following epigram, which he composed after his second marriage, shows a bitter feeling towards Alice as a shrew: † Roper. "Some man hath good, But children hath he none; Some man hath both, But he can get none health; Some hath all three, But up to honor's throne Can he not creep by no manner of stealth. To some she sendeth children, Riches, wealth, Honour, worship, and reverence, all his life, But yet she pincheth him With a shrewd wife. Be content With such reward as fortune hath you sent." Sir Thomas More. XXXI. plied their leisure to liberal studies and profitable reading, CHAP. although piety was their first care. No wrangling, no angry word was heard in it; no one was idle; every one did his duty with alacrity, and with a temperate cheerfulness."* to Peter Giles. But the most charming picture of More as a private man His letter is carelessly sketched by himself in a hurried Latin letter to Peter Giles, his friend at Antwerp, lamenting the little time he could devote to literary composition: "For while in pleading, in hearing, in deciding causes, or composing disputes as an arbitrator, in waiting on some men about business, and on others out of respect, the greatest part of the day is spent on other men's affairs, the remainder of it must be given to my family at home; so that I can reserve no part to myself, that is, to study. I must gossip with my wife and chat with my children, and find something to say to my servants; for all these things I reckon a part of my business, unless I were to become a stranger in my own house; for with whomsoever either nature or choice or chance has engaged a man in any relation of life, he must endeavour to make himself as acceptable to them as he possibly can. In such occupations as these, days, months, and years slip away. Indeed all the time which I can gain to myself is that which I steal from my sleep and my meals, and because that is not much I have made but a slow progress."‡ His time was now more than ever broke in upon by visits from distinguished foreigners, who were eager to see him from his great reputation abroad, and whose opinion of him he still farther exalted by the charms of his manner and con versation. with the To his great grief he was often obliged to lodge in the Intimacy palace, and his favour with the King and the Court threatened King. utterly to interfere with all his domestic enjoyments, and to ruin his literary projects. "The King's custom was, upon holydays, when he had done his own devotions, to send for Sir Thomas into his traverse, and there, sometimes in matters of astronomy, geometry and divinity, and such other faculties, * Eras. Ep. He curiously adapted his conversation to the different members of his establishment. "Cum uxore fabulandum est, garriendum cum liberis, colloquendum cum ministris," &c. Morus Aegedio. |