Renaissance and Reformation Biographies | Thomas More Biography

February 6, 1478
London, England
July 6, 1535
London, England

Humanist, author, statesman

"This means that if they suddenly had to part with all the gold and silver they possess—a fate which in any other country would be thought equivalent to having one's guts torn out—nobody in Utopia would care two hoots."

Thomas More in Utopia.

The life of the English humanist and statesman Thomas More exemplifies the political and spiritual upheaval of the Protestant Reformation, the movement to reform the Catholic Church. Now known for his revolutionary work Utopia, More was beheaded for opposing the religious policy of Henry VIII (1491–1547; see entry).