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Thomas More

Thomas More

0

Near balanceFormula-derived score

English lawyer, humanist, and Lord Chancellor (1478–1535) whose 1516 Utopia, 1523 Speakership, 1529–32 chancellorship and heresy enforcement, 1532 resignation, 1534 Tower committal, and 1535 trial and beheading reach the public through History of Parliament, TNA, HRP, the Yale More tradition, and Britannica. Offsets: book and conscience refusals. Costs: heresy office and a completed killing.

Utopia as 1516 printchancellorship heresy enforcement as office not as a later saint’s halo1535 Tower death as a dated killing

Impact

Not rated yet: the verified records linked to this person, without a numeric impact.

Editorial assessment (context, not the score)

The page is not a unique author of 1534 statutes and not a marble of unmixed conscience. The heaviest documented costs in public English are the chancellorship’s heresy climate, the 1529 Dialogue, the 1534 Tower committal, the 1 July trial, and the 6 July beheading. The offsets are Utopia, the 1523 Speakership, the 1530 withheld signature, and the 16 May 1532 resignation. He did not file 1935. A later pope did that work. Confidence is high on those dates, medium on unique personal agency in each heresy case.

Indicators affected

Indicators this person’s verified facts reach. No score contribution is assigned; the observed state is the indicator’s own reading.

Accountability & contradictions

Claims against the record, the type of responsibility, and what is disputed.

Claimed

What could change this assessment

  • 5 linked facts have no assessed welfare direction yet.
  • Lifetime coverage has not been assessed: the record reflects stored facts only (1510–1535).

Causal path

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Timeline

The most relevant dated facts, newest first.

Evidence & methodology

How the record is sourced and how the score is derived.

30 of 30 linked facts verified, drawing on 7 distinct sources (1510–1535).

Sources include Historic Royal Palaces, Institute of Historical Research / BHO, The National Archives, Encyclopaedia Britannica, History of Parliament Trust, Yale University Press / Essential More, Project Gutenberg.

The score is formula-derived (Factrail formula v1, version 1.0.0), not an editorial verdict. Read the methodology.

By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed · Sources: 7

Expert analysis

An excerpt; the full analysis opens on request.

The first fact about Thomas More in a public catalog is a Tower death and a heresy office, not a marble of conscience alone. History of Parliament Online at https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/node/51193/ (opens in a new tab) dates Speakership, chancellorship, resignation, trial, and death. HRP at https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/history-and-stories/sir-thomas-more/ (opens in a new tab) presents the Tower killing site. TNA at https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ (opens in a new tab) and British History Online at https://www.british-history.ac.uk/ (opens in a new tab) calendar the paper. Britannica at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-More-English-humanist-and-statesman (opens in a new tab) and Essential More at https://essentialmore.org/ (opens in a new tab) carry the Yale edition’s public face. During 1529–32 he was first port of call for London heresy arrests and wrote in defence of punishment; he did not sit as a heresy judge. That limit is stored, not as innocence and not as a unique six-fire confession. The 1529 Dialogue Concerning Heresies is polarising print against Tyndale. On 17 April 1534 he entered the Tower for refusing the succession oath. On 1 July 1535 a Westminster commission condemned him; Rich’s testimony stays testimony. On 6 July he was beheaded. 1935 canonisation is posthumous and is not a Fact. Offsets are also URLs. Utopia (1516) at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2130 (opens in a new tab) is a public English carrier of the Louvain book. UK Parliament at https://www.parliament.uk/ (opens in a new tab) remembers the 1523 Speaker. The 16 May 1532 resignation after the Submission of the Clergy and the 1530 withheld signature on the Catherine letter are conscience offsets beside the same man’s heresy office. The British Library at https://www.bl.uk/ (opens in a new tab) is a Tudor print heading. What the score must not say: that he drafted the Act of Supremacy; that he personally sentenced every burning of 1529–32; that 1516 cancels 1535; that 1935 is 1535; that Erasmus wrote Utopia. Complex contribution is the honest type. Confidence is high on offices, 16 May 1532, 17 April 1534, 1 July and 6 July 1535; medium on unique personal agency in each heresy case; low on private Tower conversations as a tape. Related people are Erasmus, Henry VIII, Fisher, Roper, Cromwell, Wolsey, Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn. 1516 is a book. 1529 is a seal. 1532 is a resignation. 1535 is a trial and, separately, a death. Keep them unmerged. UK Parliament at https://www.parliament.uk/ (opens in a new tab) and the British Library at https://www.bl.uk/ (opens in a new tab) are institutional headings of the 1523 Speakership and Tudor print. TNA at https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ (opens in a new tab) calendars the 1534 committal. A reader checking this Person should open History of Parliament, HRP Tower, Essential More, Britannica, and the 1535 dates, then stop. Posthumous canonisation, critical editions, and political reception by later states are evidence, not additional acts. A halo is still not a 1535 scaffold. A scaffold is still not a 1516 book. Later parliamentary biographies, Tower pages, and encyclopedia files remain evidence, not additional lifetime acts. Shared work with Erasmus, Roper, and unnamed clerks remains named. He did not file 1935. A pope did that work. Canonisation is not a Fact.

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