Thomas More: The Search for the Inner Man

by Louis L. Martz

This book analyzes and studies More's writings as well as Holbein's portraits of More and his family. Louis Martz argues that there is no foundation for reviving the ancient charge that More was a bloody persecutor of heretics, and he questions the view put forth that More suffered from an "inner fury" resulting from sexual repression and a frustrated desire to be a monk. According to Mastz, More's furious attacks against heresy in his polemical writings do not reveal his deep inner self, but are treatises done in the common style of controversy in an era of savage religious disagreements. More's polemics are uncommon only in their wit and sardonic cleverness, says Martz, and they are matched by those of Martin Luther, his only peer in this kind of vitriolic attack. Martz makes his case primarily through exploration of More's mode of the Augustinian "order of the heart" displayed in some of his major works - the "Confutation of Tyndale's Answer", and "Apology", the English treatise on the Passion, the "Dialogue of Comfort", and his last work, the "De Tristitia", his meditation on the agony of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Genres: Biography, Religion

124 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Adam Marischuk · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are two Thomas Mores: The Saint and the Hammer of Heresy

The one is the Saint, the Man for All Seasons and the friend of Erasmus. The other is the man who burnt heretics at the stake, who banned the Bible, wore a hairshirt and ruthlessly pursued Protestants. How do square this circle?

This is the task of Professor Martz. Drawing on plenty of primary sources and the two existent images of More, he attempts to understand More as a man of his time, vindicating him against the modern attack yet falling short of hagiography. More of Utopia shines through.

To give an example of what I mean:

"Thomas Cromwell engaged in vigorous personal persecution of those suspected of continuing to support the papacy, and during those five years 'something like sixty-five' people suffered the 'horrible execution' decreed for treason...By contrast, More was 'personally involved' in persecuting only three out of the six cases of heresy in all of England that led to burning...

My point was not to show that one party was worse than another...My point in simply that the political procedures of the age were cruel..." (p. 5-6)