St Thomas More -

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One of my favorite saints in the way he courageously defended the Church in the face of certain death and was martyred for it, plus his dignity, his intelligence especially in his apologetics works, and his sense of humor even up to his execution.

I read somewhere he was also behind the ban of Tyndale’s bible translation - is this right?
 
More and others didn’t just object to the fact that Tyndale translated the Bible into English, it was also that he changed a lot of the terms in translation to promote anticlericalism. For example, “church” was changed to “congregation” and “priest” was changed to “senior” or “elder”. Tyndale also removed four books of the Bible that Martin Luther had decided weren’t the word of God. In short, there were good reasons to oppose Tyndale.
 
In a garden near the Tower of London, my son and I looked down with emotion at this plaque.

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My European trip was a gift from my sons and their wives.
 
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Sbee0 said:
I read somewhere he was also behind the ban of Tyndale’s bible translation - is this right?
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He definitely rallied support against Tyndale. Tyndale had written a book entitled _An Answer unto Sir Thomas More’s Dialogue _. More responded with Confutation of Tyndale’s Answer. I’ve yet to find anything concrete that More influenced the later decision to burn Tyndale, More did have a hand in burning six other heretics, so it’s within the realm of possibility.
 
I know More fiercely defended the Church against the threat of the Reformation and then later his own friend in Henry VIII.

There isn’t historical evidence that he was a participant in burning of heretics- that was the state that did that. The Church did condemn people with heresy but the crown convicted people of it and carried out these savage sentences. The Church wasn’t involved with that. I know many Protestants historically view him as an enemy, and the way he was portrayed in the Tudors was a result of that, but reading his Utopia book (which was indirectly a commentary on England in his time) makes me believe he shunned all of that and that’s not how he thought.

It’s also interesting how “liberal” Utopia would seem to be taken today.
 
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Here’s what St. Thomas More had to say on the punishment of heretics by the state:

Dialogue Concerning Heresies
If the heretics had never started with the violence, then even if they had used all the ways they had ways they could to lure the people by preaching, even if they had thereby done what Luther does now and Mohammed did before – bring into vogue opinions pleasing to the people, giving them licence for licentiousness – yet if they had left violence alone, good Christian people would perhaps all the way up to this day have used less violence towards them than they do now. And yet heresy well deserves to be punished as severely as any other sin, since there is no sin that more offends God. However, as long as they refrained from violence, there was little violence done to them. And certainly though God is able against all persecution to preserve and increase his faith among the people, as he did in the beginning, for all the persecution inflicted by the pagans and the Jews, that is still no reason to expect Christian princes to allow the Catholic Christian people to be oppressed by Turks or by heretics worse than Turks.

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We read that in the time of Saint Augustine, the great theologian of the Church, the heretics in Africa called the Donatists resorted to force and violence, robbing, beating, torturing and killing those whom they seized from the true Christian flock, as the Lutherans have done in Germany. For putting a stop to which , that holy man St Augustine, who had for a long time with great patience borne and endured their malice, only writing and preaching in refutation of their errors, and not only had done them no temporal harm but also had hindered and opposed others would have done it, did yet at last, for the peace of good people, both permit and exhort Count Boniface and others to supress them with force and threaten them with corporeal punishment.

… For here you shall understand that it is not the clergy who endeavour to have them punished by death. It may well be, since we are all human beings and not angels, that some of them may sometimes have too hot a head, or an injudicious zeal, or perhaps, an irascible and cruel heart, by which they may offend God in the very same deed by which they would otherwise gain great merit. But certainly what the Church law on this calls for is good, reasonable, compassionate, and charitable, and in no way desirous of the death of anyone. …
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One of my favorite things about St. Thomas More was what he said when the judgment was pronounced against him (from William Roper’s biography of him):
More have I not to say my lords, but like as the blessed Apostle St. Paul, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, was present, and consented to the death of St. Stephen, and kept their clothes that stoned him to death, and yet be they now both twain holy saints in Heaven, and shall continue there friends for ever, so I verily trust, and shall therefore right heartily pray, that though your lordships have now here in earth been judges of my condemnation, we may yet hereafter in Heaven merrily all meet together to everlasting salvation.
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I really have a great affection for Sir Thomas More. I enjoy that he was a family man and liked gadgets , nick nacks for his home. But when it came to his faith, he gave up everything . He was prayerful, smart, witty, and kind.
 
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"But if you live the time that no man will give you good counsel, nor no man will give you good example, when you shall see virtue punished and vice rewarded, if you will then stand fast and firmly stick to God, upon pain of my life, though you be but half good, God will allow you for whole good. "
—Thomas More, The Life of Sir Thomas More
 
Thomas More was a big advocate for the education of females.

His daughters were tutored to a standard that was only expected of men.
 
Sbee0 said:
There isn’t historical evidence that he was a participant in burning of heretics- that was the state that did that.
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Yes there is such evidence. He was the state. He was not a Church official. He burned people for their beliefs.
 
I think you might like to read these links for facts.
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St Thomas More - Spirituality
Here’s what St. Thomas More had to say on the punishment of heretics by the state: Dialogue Concerning Heresies If the heretics had never started with the violence, then even if they had used all the ways they had ways they could to lure the people by preaching, even if they had thereby done what Luther does now and Mohammed did before – bring into vogue opinions pleasing to the people, giving them licence for licentiousness – yet if they had left violence alone, good Christian people would p…
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catholicism.org

Saint Thomas More: His Times and Ours

No layman of equal status from Medieval Times until this very day presents such an epitome of tradition and progress with such sanity and balance as the sixteenth century saint and martyr, Thomas M…
catholicism.org
 
This is correct. He wasn’t a member of the church heirarchy. He was a lawyer that reached to become Lord Chancellor. Basically the right hand of the king.

He was a holy and learnered man. But let’s not rewrite history and pretend he didn’t do some things we now find morally reprehensible

He was instrumental in burning heretics. In fact many more were burned when he was in the position compared to his counterpart Cardinal Wolsey (who was also church)
 
I would need to see exactly where you have these facts, link etc…until then…and it will need to come not from a non catholic source…I shall wait …
 
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