Richard The Iii Essays - Knights Of The Garter, Dukes Of Cornwall

Richard The Iii INTRODUCTION Thomas Mores sainthood has been under great controversy even after a century of his death. It was not until 1866 that he was declared a saint. This declaration came about after many debates and votes of acceptance both by the people and by the church. While the English Church was still bound by King Henry VIIIs Supremacy Act, Thomas More was rumored to have been a deceitful character of the court. He was declared unorthodox who went against the Church (Roper, 1935). He was also said to have gone against the doctrines of the church because he went against the King of England. In modern times the portrayal of, partially, Richard the III and Thomas More is seen to be compassionate and kind to their people. In many historical books, such as Shakespeare, Richard III was portrayed as evil and cruel. This paper hopes to show both Thomas More and Richard the IIIs characters through the space of time, and why the peoples opinion changed towards them. THOMAS MORE IN MAN OF ALL SEASONS Thomas More in Robert Bolts book A man for All Seasons is shown as a devoted family man, a supporter of the Catholic Church, and scholar. He is also shown to be a strong man of conscience who cannot compromise his faith even to save his life. In Robert Bolts play Henry the VIII is the King who wanted to divorce his wife to marry someone else. At the time the Church did not allow divorces, Henry decided to assign himself as the Supreme order, overriding the Pope. To More what the king was doing was terrible and against Christian Doctrines. He declared that it was against the ethics of the church and will not swear the Supremacy Act: I'm not God. The currents and eddies of right and wrong, which you find such plain sailing, I can't navigate. I'm no voyager. But in the thickets of the law, oh, there I'm a forester. I doubt if there's a man alive who could follow me there, thank God.... [Bolt, 45] To keep himself out of trouble, he decided to keep his mouth shut on the matter. Morally, he was obligated to protect his friend and King for he was the chancellor of the court. Religiously he had a duty to God which he could not deny. He did not want to go against Gods rules; therefore, he chose the middle course. Despite all of this, he was prosecuted and killed. MORES RELIGIOUS BELIEFS There seems to be little doubt that More did consider at one point becoming a priest. In this play More says, Gods my god...But I find him rather too subtle.... I dont know where He is or what He wants. When his sentence was read out, More spoke freely and revealed that he was totally unable to see the sense of the oath of supremacy. I am able to produce against one bishop which you can produce, a hundred holy and Catholic bishops for my opinion; and against one realm, the consent of Christendom for a thousand years. (Bolt, 63) This conflict with the Church, and his feelings towards the holy bishop shows that he was attached to his beliefs. Perhaps the contradiction between the two great men (Richard and More) originated within the church. By not obeying King Henry, he also fell from the kings list of good men. This only made is powerful position is society decrease. Despite all this, he did not allow himself to swear to an oath of allegiance to the king making him the Supreme authority. It also shows that morally, as well as ethically, More was a strict follower of the Christian doctrines. When he was convicted on the basis of perjury, he again did not back away from his original beliefs till the day he was beheaded. Mores Utopia In 1515, Thomas More published Utopia, in which he theorized about the perfect world. In Utopia, More foresaw cities of 100,000 inhabitants as being ideal. In his Utopia, there was no money, just a monthly market where citizens bartered for what they needed. Persons engaged to each other were allowed to see each other naked before marriage so that they