The Life of Thomas More (29 page)

John More, the son of Thomas More; the large nose and thin lips are also characteristic of the father in whose shadow he always lived. (
Illu. 14.9
)

Henry VII: the astute, if autocratic, founder of the Tudor dynasty in whose long reign More established a lucrative and successful career. (
Illu. 14.10
)

Richard III: Thomas More was five years old when this ‘malicious, wrathfull, enuious … euer frowarde’ king began his short reign. (
Illu. 14.11
)

Elizabeth of York, wife of Henry VII, upon whose death More wrote a lament eschewing ‘worldly joy and frayle prosperitie’. (
Illu. 14.12
)

The young Henry VIII, whose princely virtues encouraged More to enter public service for the benefit of ‘the comon welthe’. (
Illu. 14.16
)

Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII, who at the time of their separation asked him, ‘Wherein have I offended you?’ She considered that More, of all the royal councillors, ‘alone was worthy of the position and the name’. (
Illu. 14.14
)

Anne Boleyn, the king’s mistress and second queen, who had woven into her livery the motto which, translated from the French, reads: ‘It will happen, whoever grudges it’. (
Illu. 14.15
)

Yet testimony does not come from outsiders only. More, when away from home, sent several letters to his young scholars which manifest the nature of his interest; he composed them in Latin, as a model of style, and expected his children to reply in the same spirit. Each of them was supposed to write to him once a day, preparing their letters in advance so that they would be ready for the messenger. He urged them to continue their practice of verse composition and of disputation; he expected them to make constant progress in their essays and in their reading, at one point particularly recommending Sallust; he advised them to write in English and then translate their sentiments in Latin, remaining alert to solecisms and faulty constructions. On one occasion he sent his
‘schola’
a Latin poem. It was again meant as an exercise, in part, but also it is a charming expression of his deep and tender love for them;
³⁸
he recalls how he often took them in his arms, how he fed them cake and pears, how he dressed them in silken garments. Now, he said, they combined learning and eloquence with all their childhood charms. He was particularly interested in the skills of his eldest daughter, Margaret. He continually praised her virtue and her erudition; when he showed her letters to various dignitaries, they were uniformly surprised by the purity and dignity of her Latin style (one of them even insisted on presenting her with a gold coin). He wanted her to pursue her studies in philosophy and classical literature, but urged her to concentrate her attention at some point upon medical learning and sacred scripture. This might seem an odd combination of subjects but it was a sensible division of skills and scholarship: other members of More’s household were to become known for their medical ability as well as for their piety, at a time when practical learning was considered to be an aspect of Christian revelation.

There are also in the letters various allusions to the tutors whom More employed for his children; they tended to be young men who went from More’s famous household, where they had in a sense been trained, to administrative service or university teaching. The first of
them, John Clement, had been educated at St Paul’s School and may well have entered More’s household on the recommendation of John Colet. After his service to More, he was taken into the employment of Cardinal Wolsey and eventually lectured on rhetoric at the newly created Cardinal College in Oxford. His is a perfect example of a late medieval career based upon preferment as well as scholarship, on households as well as books, and it is charmingly embellished by the fact that Clement married one of More’s wards. There were at least four other tutors after his departure—two of whom had been known by Erasmus before they entered the More household. No doubt he suggested them, and their presence suggests the scholar’s continuing interest in the education of the young family. More’s own interest, of course, was profound and permanent. He had turned his household into a form of the community with which he was most comfortable, part monastery and part school, but it is impossible not to notice the amount of deliberation and control which entered his choice. In certain respects he resembles the inhabitants of his imaginary island, who are convinced of the efficacy of what in a later time would be called social engineering. In Utopia the priests are responsible for the training of children, applying to their still unformed minds the principles of order and good government as well as the precepts of learning. But once he had created his school of love and duty, More in a sense remained apart. There were few occasions when he divulged his true feelings and beliefs; it was only by accident, for example, that one of his children realised that he wore a hair shirt. There would also soon come a time when he was weeks, even months, away from home.

CHAPTER XV
KINGS’ GAMES