Robert Bolt is not a household name. However, he received an Academy Award, a Tony, and three Golden Globe Awards among his many nominations. Some of his more famous screenplays include The Mission, Lawrence of Arabia, and Dr. Zhivago. His most successful work was A Man for All Seasons, which he first wrote for the stage and later adapted for film. It won an Oscar and five Tony awards.
A Man for All Seasons focuses on the life of Saint Thomas More, primarily on the events leading to his martyrdom. What captivated Bolt, a proclaimed atheist, to write a play about a Saint?
Saint Thomas More was a bit of a Renaissance man. He was a writer, lawyer, and judge, before becoming Lord Chancellor of England. He studied at Oxford and was noted for his linguistic expertise. He was a husband and father, vocations that he treasured. He strongly favored educating his daughters, something that was unusual for his time.
However, for Bolt, he was intrigued by the tension Saint Thomas More lived between public duty and personal conscience. More’s moral integrity to the point of death—a witness of holiness and steadfastness in the midst of a world, for Roman Catholics at the time, of self-preservation—spoke to Bolt. In 1500s England, King Henry VIII ushered in a time of instability as he broke ties with the Roman Catholic Church over his desire to divorce and annul his marriage.
Defender of the Faith?
When he was just eight years old, King Henry VIII met Thomas More. The Catholic faith was something they bonded over in their friendship. King Henry VIII would often seek out More to discuss theology or philosophy, to study the stars, or just meet over a meal. Saint Thomas More helped King Henry VIII write a defense in favor of the Catholic Church as a response to Martin Luther.
However, King Henry VIII’s drive for a male heir led him to disavow the faith of which he had previously been a staunch defender, even to the point of participating in daily holy Mass.
Thirteen years after receiving the title Defender of the Faith from the Pope, King Henry VIII broke ties completely with the Church. In the Act of Supremacy in 1534, King Henry VIII made himself the head of the Church of England, seized wealth from the Church, and closed monasteries.
Test of Friendship
At the time of this schism, Saint Thomas More found himself in the middle of this quagmire. More was serving as Lord Chancellor under King Henry VIII. Not only that, he had been a close friend of the king’s for many years at this point.
Unable to support his lifelong friend, Saint Thomas More tried to walk the narrow line of integrity as a public figure and personal counsel to the king. He eventually resigned his post as Lord Chancellor and tried to keep a low profile, while not compromising the faith.
Then, King Henry VIII imposed the Oath of Supremacy, forcing clergy and public officials to pledge fidelity to the king and to reject other ecclesial authority, including the Pope. Failure to take the oath was considered an act of treason, punishable by death. Over four hundred Catholics would be martyred in ten years. In Bolt’s stage adaptation of the story, he captures the tension of the time eloquently, particularly in this scene between Thomas More and his daughter:
MORE: But look now . . . If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly. And we'd live like animals or angels in the happy land that needs no heroes. But since in fact we see that avarice, anger, envy, pride, sloth, lust and stupidity commonly profit far beyond humility, chastity, fortitude, justice and thought, and have to choose, to be human at all . . . why then, perhaps we must stand fast a little—even at the risk of being heroes.
MARGARET: (Emotionally) But in reason! Haven't you done as much as God can reasonably want?
MORE: Well . . . finally . . . it isn't a matter of reason; finally it's a matter of love.
Betrayed Like Jesus
King Henry VIII ordered his old friend to be arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Thomas More faced the betrayal of his close friend just as Jesus did.
He was imprisoned for fourteen months, during which he underwent an unjust trial. As a lawyer, he must have felt the injustice of the situation acutely. As a friend, the betrayal he experienced must have been wrenching. Yet he sought the Lord in the midst of it. More wrote beautiful letters from his prison cell. In one to his daughter Meg he said, “Nothing can come but what God wills. And I am very sure that whatever that be, however bad it may seem, it shall indeed be the best.”
On July 6, 1535, at 57 years old, Thomas More was killed. His last words before he was beheaded were “I die the King’s good servant, but God’s first.”
Patron of Lost Relationships
Saint Thomas More’s feast day is June 22, and he is the patron Saint of statesmen and politicians. However, I turn to him also as a patron for lost friendships. He knew the heartache of a friend walking away from the faith. He also knew the sorrow of being cut off because of his belief in Church teaching and the sacrifice of putting God first in everything. But above all, he knew the hope of the Resurrection in the truth of the Cross.
Saint Thomas More, pray for us.
Sr. Mary Claire of the Holy Family is a member of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT) and currently serves in Corpus Christi, TX. She loves Jesus and Mary, and her students would say every Saint is her favorite. She graduated with a degree in elementary education and is currently working on a Masters in Theology from her Alma Mater, Franciscan University. A Tennessee girl who could live off Dr. Pepper and popcorn, she loves road trips, especially this one we are on to Heaven.
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