Essay about Sir Thomas More the Martyr

Source 9 and 7 disagrees with the statement and tells us that Henrys wish to divorce Catherine of Aragon was the driving force in the break from Rome. Source 9 is a letter written by Eustace Chapuys it tells us of his suspicions to why Cranmer was promoted to Archbishop of Canterbury, “to the great astonishment of everybody”. He tells us that it is suspected that Cranmer has been made Archbishop as he “may authorise the new marriage in this parliament and can grant the necessary divorce”. Promoting Cranmer to Archbishop so hastily without consulting the Pope shows a clear break and the cause is shown to be the Henrys haste to gain the “necessary divorce”. Source 7 says about the Act in Restraint of Appeals that “in earlier drafts of the act, specific reference was made to the King’s divorce and the problems of succession”, this shows that one of the main pieces of legislation surrounding the break from Rome contained the personal matter of the King’s divorce, showing it was an important factor. However the validity of Source 9 is questionable as it is written by the ambassador to Charles V. Charles V was Catherine of Aragon’s nephew so Chapuys would probably place Catherine’s importance, in the break with rome, first.

Discovered in the twentieth century, The Gospel of Thomas was founded by peasants that were digging for fertilizer close to the village of Nag Hammadi, Egypt. The peasants revealed a container containing thirteen leather-bound manuscripts that were buried in the fourteenth century. The container contained fifty-two tractates that represented “heretical” writings of Gnostic Christians. Dated back to 200 A.D., there was not much known about the Gospel of Thomas besides that there were only three small fragments from Oxyrynchus. The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of literary works that contains 114 ‘opaque sayings’ of Jesus that were collected and written down by St. Didymus Jude Thomas, but nobody knows if St. Didymus Jude Thomas wrote the

In the beginning of A Man for All Seasons, Sir Thomas More is introduced as a profoundly religious man focused on adhering to the laws of his country and faith. As the play progresses the audience sees More putting further faith into his belief that by abiding to the present laws and withholding his opinion about King Henry VIII’s divorce he will be protected from prosecution. The issue starts when the King wishes to divorce his brother’s wife, who initially he had taken as his own through a special papal dispensation, in order to wed Queen Anne and produce a male heir. More, being a devoutly religious man, realizes this goes against the laws of the Church. He refuses to give his willing approval based on the fact it is not morally or

A defining feature between these two men’s fate is Richard’s dependence on good fortune through divine intervention, whereas Henry and Machiavelli rely on free will, what they themselves can do to manipulate the situation. Richard calls upon God to defend him, thinking that he can manipulate God’s will to fit his desires, “angels fight, weak men must fall, for heaven still guards the right” (III.ii pg 409) This idea of unearthly abilities that allow him to manipulate nature itself, even England is stupid and shows how incompetent he is. Compared to Henry in this play, he is someone who wants to serve England, not how England can serve them; in other words what you can do for your country. Machiavelli states that “so long as fortune varies, and men stand still, they will prosper while they suit the times, and fail when they do not”, Richard in all ways fills this statement, his reliance on fortune seals his fate in the end (Machiavelli 148). Shakespeare shows this antiquated idea to show how much England needed a change of leadership and rule, the end of medievalism and the rise of Machiavellianism.

Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation when he nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517. It contained a series of 95 complaints that the once monk had with the church. He was steadfast in his efforts to get the church to change. Even refusing to repeal his complaints when threatened with excommunication.

Henry VIII's Reformation In 1529 Henry VIII started to reform the Catholic Church in England, however there are different opinions as to why he began these controversial changes. The orthodox view concurs that there was a vast anti-clerical feeling in 16th century England; the corrupt church was unpopular with the masses. However the revisionist view claims that the reformation was actually due to politics. Henry needed a male heir and therefore needed a divorce.

When analyzing Bigger Thomas, Richard Wright’s protagonist in the novel Native Son, one must take into consideration the development of his characterization. Being a poor twenty-year-old Black man in the south side of Chicago living with his family in a cramped one- bedroom apartment in the 1930’s, the odds of him prospering in life were not in his favor. Filled with oppression, violence, and tragedy, Bigger Thomas’ life was doomed from the moment he was born. Through the novel, Bigger divulges his own dreams to provide for his family and to be anything but a “nobody.” Although Bigger struggled to fight through obstacles to pursue his dreams for the future, his chase for a better life came to an abrupt

Despite what many may think, More would rather not get involved or influence the life of the king concerning the divorce. To most people signing the oath is a minor thing. It is something that should be done to appease the King , despite personal beliefs. However, for More his decision to sign the oath must be based on his beliefs. If he were to sign the oath he would lose all self respect. The audience learns this when he says " I neither could nor would rule my King. But there's a little...little, area...where I must rule myself. It's very little-less to him than a tennis court."(Bolt, p 59).

The "Middle" Ages were followed by the Renaissance, a time in which art and literature flourished. Thomas More, the first English humanist of the Renaissance, was born in London during this period. More's style is simple because of its colloquial language but a deeper look into his irony hints at deep dissatisfaction with the current thought and desire for change. "Utopia" (which in Greek means "nowhere") is the name of More's fictional island of perfected society. Thomas More's "Utopia" was the first literary work in which the ideas of Communism appeared and was highly esteemed by all the humanists of Europe in More's time. More uses the main character, Hythlodaeus, as a fictional front to express his own feelings he may have feared to

     But you can not write a play on the excellent character of a man alone and this is another reason why Robert Bolt had to go all the way back to the 16th century. I believe he was also thinking of the setting. This is because the setting is actually a time of political and spiritual upheaval so there is a great deal of conflict for Bolt to make use of. King Henry was a king who abused his power so people had to make sure that they were on his good side, no matter what. Another reason was that More acted differently than everyone else; he believed that you had to earn your status. And the divorce, well, the divorce can be looked at as the King and the Church meeting at a head. It was king versus the church, and for Thomas More, it was his life vs. his spirit.

The success of Parliament during the first phase of the English Civil War can be attributed to Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army. This army consisted of radical Puritans and Independents, who believed they were fighting for God. Cromwell was one of the Independents. The first phase of the war was ended with capture of Charles I. Blinded by his belief in divine right, Charles took advantage Parliament’s troubles and decided to flee to the Scots for protection. The Rump Parliament now accused the king of treason saying that he had acted as a tyrant, traitor, murder, and a public enemy to the good people of the nation. Charles was beheaded for his actions in 1649 and his attempt at absolutism was put an end. This was a great achievement in the rise of absolutism, as Parliament continued to gain more power in England with every passing monarchy. After the death of Charles I, his son Charles II rose to power (during the civil war). The Roundheads, supporters of Parliament, were victorious by the end of the English Civil War. Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector of England and held all executive power; legislative power was given to Parliament. Cromwell came to find that it was difficult to work with Parliament, even more so when members debated his authority. Six years after the death of Charles I, who Cromwell fought so hard to eliminate, Cromwell himself had done the exact same thing as Charles; demolish Parliament.

1.) Thomas Aquinas believes that humans are born with a clean slate in a state of potency and acquire knowledge through sense experiences by abstraction of the phantasms. His view on how man acquires knowledge rejects Plato’s theory that humans are born with innate species. Along with Plato’s theory of humans understanding corporeal things through innate species, Aquinas also rejects Plato’s theory that in being born with innate species, humans spend their lives recollecting their knowledge.

The earliest most famous Protestant reformer, Martin Luther went to the school of Erfurt to study law in 1501, but he quickly became more interested in theology. Luther was exposed to recent humanist writings and read extensively in classical Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. In 1505, he enrolled in an Augustinian monastery. He spent a decade educating and preaching and visited Rome. The Reformation was a religious uprising in Europe in the 16th century, prompted by dissatisfaction with the set Roman Catholic Church, which directed to the formulation of the Protestant branch of Christianity.

Some say the glorious revolution was one of the greatest landmarks in the history of England. The glorious revolution is a very important event in history for multiple reasons. It wasn’t exactly a peaceful occasion but it was one in which no war of fight occurred. This was a pleasant change for England at the time because they had been experiencing plenty of fights over the throne and for once it was a relatively smooth transaction.

Though there was no driving force like Luther, Zwingli or Calvin during the English Reformation, it succeeded because certain people strived for political power and not exactly for religious freedom. People like Queen Elizabeth I and Henry VIII brought the Reformation in England much success, however their reasons were based on self-gain and desire for political power.