Thomas More, the Heart of the Matter

Yesterday we celebrated the feast of Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher, sixteenth-century English martyrs. I was reminded of this powerful passage from Robert Bolt’s play, A Man for All Seasons , the basis of the acclaimed film . Bolt, I think it interesting to add, was neither a Catholic nor a recusant-sympathizer, and the actions of his Thomas More often seem admirable not for their prudent fidelity to the moral good, but for their strident fidelity to his own conscience. Here, though, we glimpse something deeper in More—more than the stubborn Tudor statesman, more than shrewd humanist lawyer, more than the self-fashioned Renaissance individual. Here we glimpse “the king’s faithful servant, but God’s first”:

MORE You want me to swear to the Act of Succession?

MARGARET “God more regards the thoughts of the heart than the words of the mouth.” Or so you’ve always told me.

MORE Yes.

MARGARET Then say the words of the oath and in your heart think otherwise.

MORE What is an oath then but words we say to God?

MARGARET That’s very neat.

MORE Do you mean it isn’t true?

MARGARET No, it’s true.

MORE Then it’s a poor argument to call it “neat,” Meg. When a man takes an oath, Meg, he’s holding his own self in his own hands. Like water. (He cups his hands) And if he opens his fingers then-he needn’t hope to find himself again. Some men aren’t capable of this, but I’d be loathe to think your father one of them.

MARGARET In any State that was half good, you would be raised up high, not here, for what you’ve done already. It’s not your fault the State’s three-quarters bad. Then if you elect to suffer for it, you elect yourself a hero.

MORE That’s very neat. But look now . . . If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly. And we’d live like animals or angels in the happy land that needs no heroes. But since in fact we see that avarice, anger, envy, pride, sloth, lust and stupidity commonly profit far beyond humility, chastity, fortitude, justice and thought, and have to choose, to be human at all . . . why then perhaps we must stand fast a little-even at the risk of being heroes.

MARGARET (Emotionally) But in reason! Haven’t you done as much as God can reasonably want?

MORE Well . . . finally . . . it isn’t a matter of reason; finally it’s a matter of love .

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