A man for all seasons . . .

A birthday salute to Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), English author, statesman and scholar.

Sir Thomas More (later canonized St. Thomas More) is famous for his book Utopia published in the early 1500s and for his martyrdom (he was beheaded for refusing to sign the Act of Supremacy).  His head was parboiled and posted on a pike on the London Bridge for a month; however, after a month, instead of it being thrown in the river, his daughter Margaret Roper acquired it with a bribe (she pickled it to preserve it). The final fate of the head is uncertain, some say the relic is in Devonshire, England and some say the Roper Vault of St. Dunstan's, Canterbury. 

Note:  Thomas More coined the term "utopia" which is a pun meaning both "good place" and "no place."  

"They wonder much to hear that gold, which in itself is so useless a thing, should be everywhere so much esteemed, that even men for whom it was made, and by whom it has its value, should yet be thought of less value than it is." - Thomas More

“An absolutely new idea is one of the rarest things known to man.” - Thomas More

“The light, that lies In woman's eyes, Has been my heart's undoing” - Thomas More

Thomas More Photo credit (1)