Thomas More

The Conscience That Defied a King

By: Gordon J. MacKenzie

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Thomas More served one of the most dangerous kings in English history.

Lawyer, humanist, author of Utopia, devoted Catholic, royal councillor, and Lord Chancellor of England, he stood close to the centre of Tudor power until Henry VIII demanded more than service.

When Henry broke with Rome to secure his marriage to Anne Boleyn and establish royal supremacy over the Church in England, More tried to survive through silence. He resigned from office, avoided open rebellion, and refused to condemn those who submitted. But silence itself became dangerous when the king required an oath.

Thomas More: The Conscience That Defied a King tells the story of a brilliant and difficult man caught between faith and obedience, law and power, conscience and survival. It follows More from London’s legal world and the humanist circle of Erasmus to the court of Henry VIII, the fall of Wolsey, the rise of Cromwell, the break with Rome, imprisonment in the Tower, trial for treason, and execution on Tower Hill.

This is not a simplified saint’s life. More was a man of wit, learning, family devotion, severe religious conviction, public authority, and deep contradiction. He defended Catholic orthodoxy with force, yet died when royal power demanded that he betray the Church he believed true.

A serious, readable biography of conscience, power, law, faith, Tudor politics, and the fatal moment when one of England’s greatest minds refused to say what the king required.