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Sir Thomas More was born in 1478, in the city of London.  After his earlier education at St. Anthony’s School, he was placed, as a boy, in the household of Cardinal John Morton. Cardinal Morton had been in earlier days that Bishop of Ely whom Richard III sent to the Tower and was a chief adviser of Henry VII, who in 1486 made him Archbishop of Canterbury, and nine months afterwards Lord Chancellor. In his late teens, Thomas More was sent to Canterbury College, Oxford, where he learned Greek from the first men who brought Greek studies from Italy to England—William Grocyn and Thomas Linacre. At the age of twenty-one he entered Parliament, and soon after he was made Under-Sheriff of London.  In 1503 he opposed Henry VII’s proposal for a subsidy on account of the marriage portion of his daughter Margaret. During the last years of Henry VII, More had drawn the ire of the king, and had begun to have thoughts of leaving the country. Henry VII died in 1509, when More was around the age of thirty.  In the first years of the reign of Henry VIII, he rose to large practice in the law courts, where it is said he refused to plead in cases which he thought unjust, and took no fees from widows, orphans, or the poor. In 1513 Thomas More, still Under-Sheriff of London, is said to have written his “History of the Life and Death of King Edward V, and of the Usurpation of Richard III”  The book, which seems to contain the knowledge and opinions of More’s mentor, Morton. In the year 1515 Wolsey, Archbishop of York, was made Cardinal by Leo X, Henry VIII made him Lord Chancellor, and from that year until 1523 the King and the Cardinal ruled England with absolute authority, calling no parliament.  In May of the year 1515, Thomas More was joined in a commission to the Low Countries with Cuthbert Tunstal and others to confer with the ambassadors of Charles V, then Archduke of Austria, upon a renewal of alliance.  On that embassy More was absent from England for six months, and while at Antwerp he established friendship with Peter Giles who was secretary to the municipality of Antwerp. While away from home, More was inspired by long and thought provoking conversations with friends and acquaintances. The product of these thoughts was possibly his best known work, <span style="text-decoration: underline">Utopia</span>. More’s <span style="text-decoration: underline">Utopia</span> was written in Latin, and is in two parts. The second, which describes the place Nusquama, as he called it sometimes in his letters—“Nowhere”, was probably written towards the end of 1515. The first part was most likely written in early in 1516.  The book was first printed at Louvain, in late 1516, under the editorship of Erasmus, Peter Giles, and other of More’s friends.<!--more-->

Utopia is a work of fiction by Thomas More published in 1516. The work reflects More’s political philosophies through the description of a fictional society’s social and political customs. The Renaissance brought forth many new concepts and ideas. In much of Europe where there had once been the strict control of Medieval monarchs and the constraining grip of the Roman Catholic church, innovations such as the printing press were making the the proliferation of new ways of thinking much harder to suppress. These innovations also brought old texts to newly literate masses whom prior to that time had been dependent upon religious leaders and government officials to bestow knowledge upon them. The masses now had access to prints of public records, the Bible, and other literature. This allowed them to take in what they read and form there own ideas about what was happening around them and what was in their best interest.

That time was also marked by the fact that most learned men (women were largely unable to participate in government or clergy) were of a religious background and men of the clergy in many cases were responsible for shaping legislation and counseling the rulers of respective nations. More was part of this reality and used it as best he could to change the status quo for the better of the nation he served. He was unpopular with the authority due to his propensity to be very outspoken and demonstrative about his displeasure with how certain aspects of the governing of England. He did not believe that even a king’s power should go unchecked, especially since the king has the future of his subjects to protect. In 1505 he opposed Henry VII’s proposal for a subsidy on account on the marriage portion of his daughter Margaret. More’s argument in the House of Commons was so persuasive that it is believed that the proposal were likely to have gone through if not for his vehement opposition. When the news of this reached the king, More life was made to be somewhat more difficult. So much so that he considered leaving England (More 4). Our county in particular based our foundation on principles similar to those of Sir Thomas More. For that reason I nominate that this important work should be preserved in our time capsule.

<span style="text-decoration: underline">Utopia</span> begins with his being assigned by Henry VIII to confer with the the ambassadors of a foreign nation in Antwerp to renew an alliance. While there he meets with friends to keep himself occupied and lift his spirits while away from his family. This is unique in that it mirrors his real life so closely. Up to this point of the story, these events closely resemble things that took place around this time in his real life. One of his close friends, Peter Giles, eventually introduces him to a man named Raphael Hythloday who is a well traveled man and considers himself a philosopher. Raphael is obliged to discuss with Peter and Thomas, his travels to distant lands and the governance of those places he has visited. Raphael speaks of an island by the name of Utopia, which he considers the greatest commonwealth he has ever seen. So much in fact that he comes to the conclusion that it may be the only place that deserves to be called a commonwealth.

In the next eight chapters, Raphael relates the specifics of Utopia’s constitution and culture. The composition of their governing bodies, the make up of their economy, their justice system, military, and religious beliefs are disseminated well if not in great detail. Generally, one could perceive the government of Utopia as communist, but upon closer analysis, the Utopian government would be closer to what we know as socialist. Quentin Skinner writes, “More is fiercely insistent, however, that the rich are usually the least rather than the most deserving of our respect, since their anxiety to protect and add to their possessions generally means that they worry only about their own self-interest, not about the interest of society as a whole.”

More’s idea of a perfect society appears to be one in which the citizens are concerned by the success of the society as a whole as opposed to being preoccupied with their personal well being. More writes:

“[...] in which all things if a sort are laid by themselves; and thither every father goes, and takes whatsoever he or his family stand in need of, without paying for it or leaving anything in exchange. There is no reason for giving a denial to any person, since there is such plenty of everything among them; and there is no danger of a man’s asking for more than he needs; they have no inducements to do this, since they are sure they shall always be supplied: it is the fear of want that makes any of the whole race of animals either greedy or ravenous; but, besides the fear, there is in man a pride that makes him fancy it a particular glory to excel others in pomp and excess; but by the laws of the Utopians. there is no room for this. (More 69)

The ideal of operating as a collective and admonishing greed and materialism is reinforced throughout the work. This aspect of the book is important for our society to keep in mind. While I do subscribe to the idea of capitalism, there is something to be said for having a system that holds everyone that reaps the benefits of our society, accountable for contributing selflessly to ensure the future prosperity of our nation.

Raphael states, “There are several sorts of religions, not only in different parts of the island, but even in every town.” In Utopia, religious freedom is paramount just as it is in our society. With recent outbreaks of violence in the Middle East, which are largely charged by the interpretation of religion, Utopia hold a particular belief that would ensure that the same would not like occur within their domain. Raphael speaks of taking some of the teachings of Christianity to Utopia, and those principles being well received by many of the locals. So much so that one man had so much zeal about his newfound faith that he began to condemn the beliefs of others with a violent tone. Though one of their most ancient laws prohibits a man from being punished for his religion, the man was sentenced to banishment because his inflammatory behavior could potentially incite sedition within the society (More 127). He was removed from the society, not because of the religion he practiced, but because the way he practiced it could have endangered someone within the society.

More and Desiderius Erasmus among colleagues created the Republic of letters, an imagined community that held at its center the ideal of humanism. “As we have seen, More’s Latin text functioned as part of the infrastructure of an imaginary Republic of Letter, and the book’s content represented, in some ways, a version of that ideal Republic. The extensive paratext that surrounds <span style="text-decoration: underline">Utopia</span> helped to bind that community together and also to signal that Thomas More belonged there, as a citizen of that Republic,” wrote Joshua Phillips, a Literary and Cultural Studies Professor at the University of Memphis.

In 1535, More was removed from the world for standing on the same principles that he is praised for now. His conscientiousness and integrity would not allow him to recognize Henry VIII’s divorce from his wife, Catherine of Aragon, and his marriage to his new wife, Anne Boleyn. This was viewed as a crime by the authority. He was then called to recognized Henry VIII as the head of the Church rather than the Pope, and would not. He was then accused of high treason and eventually beheaded (Stephanie Forward). Though he died more than four centuries ago, his legacy lives on in the many thinkers that he inspired. In hopes that we can help his legacy live on, I suggest that we include his work in our time capsule, so that it may inspire the great thinkers of the future.

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<p style="text-align: center">Works Cited</p>
 Forward, Stephanie. “A Taste of Paradise: Thomas More’s Utopia.” <em>The English Review</em> Apr. 2001; 24. <em>Literature Resource Center</em>. Web. 8 Sep. 2012.

 More, Thomas. <span style="text-decoration: underline">Utopia</span>. Project Gutenberg, 2005.

 Phillips, Joshua. "Staking Claims to <em>Utopia</em>: Thomas More, Fiction, and Intellectual         Property." <em>Material Culture and Cultural Materialisms in the Middle Ages and             Renaissance</em>. Ed. Curtis Perry. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2001. 111-138. Rpt.       in         <em>Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800</em>. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg. Vol. 140.             Detroit: Gale, 2008. <em>Literature Resource Center</em>. Web. 4 Sep. 2012.

 Skinner, Quentin. "The Lesson of Thomas More." <em>New York Review</em>. 12 10 1978: n. page. Web. 4 Sep. 2012. &lt;<a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1978/oct/12/the-lesson-of-thomas-more/">http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1978/oct/12/the-lesson-of-thomas-more/</a>&gt;.