A Man For All Seasons

“MARGARET. Do you like Master Cromwell, Master Rich?

ALICE. He’s the only man in London if he does!

RICH. I think I do, Lady Alice!

MORE. (pleased) Good…Well, you don’t need my help now.

RICH. Sir Thomas, if only you knew how much, much rather I’d yours than his!”

More does not outright voice his disapproval for Cromwell and only vaguely alludes to his true feelings. Rich, by associating with Cromwell, cannot hope to gain More’s support or patronage because More will have nothing to do with Cromwell.

“STEWARD. […] My master Thomas More would give anything to anyone. Some say that’s good and some say that’s bad, but I say he can’t help it—and that’s bad […] because some day someone’s going to ask him for something that he wants to keep; and he’ll be out of practice. (Puts cloth with papers, ink, etc., on table.) There must be something that he wants to keep. That’s only Common Sense.”

The steward, Matthew, points out that More’s flaw is his willingness to give things away to others. Eventually, when Henry asks More to give him his ultimate loyalty, More cannot, because he feels he owes his ultimate loyalty to God alone.

“WOLSEY. Do you favour a change of dynasty, Sir Thomas? D’you think two Tudors is sufficient?

MORE (starting up in horrified alarm). —For God’s sake, Your Grace—!

WOLSEY. Then the King needs a son; I repeat what are you going to do about it?”

Wolsey warns More of the dangers of having a king without an heir: Without a clear successor for Henry, the country could be plunged back into another war of succession. The horrors of the War of the Roses, which ended barely 40 years prior, are still fresh in people’s minds.

“WOLSEY. No, Catherine’s his wife and she’s as barren as brick. Are you going to pray for a miracle?

MORE. There are precedents.”

More’s response alludes to the virgin birth of Jesus Christ and other miraculous pregnancies in the Christian faith, like the pregnancy of Saint Rachel. He knows that it will take a miracle for Catherine to have a son but is not above hoping for one.

“MORE. Well […] I believe, when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties […] they lead their country by a short route to chaos. (During this speech he relights the candle with another.) And we shall have my prayers to fall back on.”

More’s personal principles are of the utmost importance to him, above the importance he places on his public duties as a statesman. He demonstrates his piety through his belief in the power of prayer.

“ROPER. From a heretic Church! Church? It’s a shop—Forgiveness by the florin! Joblots now in Germany! […] Mmm, and divorces.”

The conflict between Catholic and Protestant Beliefs is explained here by Roper’s objections to the Catholic Church. Specifically, he objects to the practice of selling indulgences. This belief makes him a heretic among Catholics; in his view, it is Catholicism that is heretical.

“ALICE. Drink it. Great men get colds in the head just the same as commoners.

MORE. That’s dangerous, levelling talk, Alice. Beware of the Tower. (Rises) I will, I’ll drink it in bed.”

Alice tries to tell More that he is not any different from ordinary people, especially when it comes to his constitution and health. More rejects this equivalency on the basis that his actions are more scrutinized than a common man’s: His words and actions can have him sent to the Tower of London.

“CHAPUYS. Sir Thomas is a good son of the Church!

CROMWELL. Sir Thomas is a man.”

Cromwell does not attach the same kind of awe and worship to More as men like Chapuys do. To Cromwell, More is not a saint or a paragon of immovable virtue but a man who can be swayed and persuaded to do what the King desires.

“MORE (eagerly). Then why does Your Grace need my poor support?

HENRY. Because you are honest. What’s more to the purpose, you’re known to be honest. […] There are those like Norfolk who follow me because I wear the crown, and there are those like Master Cromwell who follow me because they are jackals with sharp teeth and I am their lion, and there is a mass that follows me because it follows anything that moves—and there is you.”

Henry desires More’s support because he knows that More will not simply tell him what he wants to hear. He values More’s principles and honesty, despite the fact that More does not agree with him on the matter of his divorce.

“MORE. No, sheer simplicity. The law, Roper, the law. I know what’s legal not what’s right. And I’ll stick to what’s legal.

ROPER. Then you set Man’s law above God’s!

MORE. No far below; but let me draw your attention to a fact—I’m not God. The currents and eddies of right and wrong, which you find such plain-sailing, I can’t navigate, I’m no voyager. But in the thickets of the law, oh there I’m a forester. I doubt if there’s a man alive who could follow me there, thank God. […] (He says this to himself.)”

More believes in the ultimate Power of the Law as a means by which he can understand and move through the world. This passage also illustrates the symbolism of the land and the water.

“CROMWELL (not liking his tone, coldly). If they’ve any sense they get out of its way.

RICH. What if they haven’t any sense?

CROMWELL (the same). What none at all? Well, then they’re only fit for Heaven. But Sir Thomas has plenty of sense; he could be frightened.

RICH (looks up, his face nasty). Don’t forget he’s an innocent, Master Cromwell.”

Cromwell believes that because More has sense, he will see the reality of his situation and be frightened into voicing support for Henry’s divorce. Rich, however, echoes Cromwell’s earlier estimation of More as an “innocent,” implying that he would not notice the danger that he is in because he believes that the law is immutable and natural.

“ROPER (is startled). You are denying the Act of Supremacy!

MORE. No, I’m not; the Act states that the King—

ROPER. —is Supreme Head of the Church in England.

MORE. Supreme Head of the Church in England—(Underlining the words.) ‘so far as the law of God allows.’ How far the law of God does allow it remains a matter of opinion, since the Act doesn’t state it.”

More cannot legally deny that Henry is now the head of the Church of England, since a law has made it so. However, he posits that since no one can say what God’s law says on the matter, he is allowed to question how far the law of God will go in granting Henry true supremacy.

“MORE (hotly). The Apostolic Succession of the Pope is—(Stops: interested.) […] Why, it’s a theory yes; you can’t see it; can’t touch it; it’s a theory. (To Norfolk, very rapid but calm.) But what matters to me is not whether it’s true or not but that I believe it to be true, or rather not that I believe it, but that I believe it […] I trust I make myself obscure?”

According to the Apostolic Succession of the Pope, each Pope that is elected is a spiritual descendant of Saint Peter and the only physical link between humanity and Christ and God. More is deliberately “obscure” about his opinion on this issue. He believes that this ambiguity will keep him safe from legal prosecution.

“ROPER (goes to him: moved). Sir, you’ve made a noble gesture.

MORE (blankly). A gesture? (Eager.) It wasn’t possible to continue, Will. I was not able to continue. I would have if I could! I make no gesture! (Apprehensive, looks after Norfolk.) My God, I hope it’s understood I make no gesture! (Turns back to them.)—Alice, you don’t think I would do this to you for a gesture! That’s a gesture! (Thumbs his nose.) That’s a gesture! (Jerks up two fingers.) I’m no street acrobat to make gestures! I’m practical!”

More is insulted by the suggestion that his resignation is a mere “gesture.” He equates gestures to crude acts and sees his own actions as deeply necessary for his principles, his conscience, and his soul.

“ALICE. Oh, you’d walk on the bottom of the sea and think yourself a crab if he suggested it! (To Roper.) And you! You’d dance him to the Tower—You’d dance him to the block! Like David with a harp! Scattering hymn-books in his path! (To More.) Poor silly man, d’you think they’ll leave you here to learn to fish?”

Alice warns More of the very real danger he faces for opposing the King’s divorce. She does not believe that More will be allowed to retire in peace, but that he will be arrested and executed.

“NORFOLK. But he makes no noise, Mr. Secretary; he’s silent, why not leave him silent?

CROMWELL (patiently). Not being a man of letters, Your Grace, you perhaps don’t realise the extent of his reputation. This ‘silence’ of his is bellowing up and down Europe!”

Cromwell does not see More’s silence as acceptance of Henry’s marriage to Anne. He argues that because of More’s reputation, people will read disapproval into his silence.

“MORE. Oh, don’t you see? (Sits by them) If I’m paid by the Church for my writings—

ALICE. —This had nothing to do with your writings! This was charity pure and simple! Collected from the clergy high and low!

MORE. It would appear as payment.”

More has to be very careful of his actions lest they be perceived to be proof of his position against the King’s authority. Though he and his family now have no income, he cannot accept money from the Church for his writing because this will be seen as him profiting from writing against the King.

“MORE. He’s not the Devil, son Roper, he’s a lawyer! And my case is watertight!

ALICE. They say he’s a very nimble lawyer.

MORE. What, Cromwell? Pooh, he’s a pragmatist—and that’s the only resemblance he has to the Devil, son Roper; a pragmatist, the merest plumber.”

More believes that his position is a defensible one within the bounds of the law: By remaining silent, he has allowed for no evidence to be collected against him. Alice warns him that Cromwell, being a skilled and shrewd lawyer, will be able to use the law against More. This exchange illustrates More’s belief in The Power of the Law.

“MORE. Hear me out. You and your class have ‘given in’ as you rightly call it—because the religion of this country means nothing to you one way or the other.”

More believes that for people like Norfolk, religion is inconsequential because their loyalty is not to God but to the King. More’s religious convictions are much stronger: While he wrestles to maintain loyalty to the King, he cannot compromise his loyalty to God and his religious beliefs to do so.

“MORE. I insult no one. I will not take the oath. I will not tell you why I will not.

NORFOLK. Then your reasons must be treasonable!

MORE. Not must be; may be.

NORFOLK. It’s a fair assumption!”

Norfolk does not believe that More’s silence is not treasonous. More’s position is crumbling; his reliance on the legal precedent that silence is consent is failing him.

“MORE (moved). And when we stand before God, and you are sent to Paradise for doing according to your conscience, and I am damned for not doing according to mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?”

More’s reasons for refusing to compromise his principles are not simply rooted in pride. For More, signing the Act of Succession would mean that he has to disobey God, therefore condemning his soul to Hell.

“CROMWELL. […] Consider, now, the circumstances of the prisoner’s silence. The oath was put to good and faithful subjects up and down the country and they had declared His Grace’s Title to be just and good. And when it came to the prisoner he refused. He calls this silence. Yet is there a man in this court, is there a man in this country, who does not know Sir Thomas More’s opinion of this title? Of course not! But how can that be? Because this silence betokened—nay this silence was—not silence at all, but most eloquent denial.”

Cromwell argues that despite More’s silence, everyone in the country knows his opinion on Henry’s divorce and marriage to Anne. His silence cannot be a legal defense of innocence, since if he approved, surely he would declare so by signing the oath.

“MORE (with some of the academic’s impatience for a shoddy line of reasoning). Not so, Mr. Secretary, the maxim is ‘qui tacet consentire.’ (Turns to Common Man.) The maxim of the law is: (very carefully) ‘Silence Gives Consent.’ If therefore, you wish to construe what my silence ‘betokened,’ you must construe that I consented, not that I denied.

More’s faith that the legal maxim will protect him is unshakable, even during his trial. More believes that the Foreman of the Jury will see through Cromwell’s shaky interpretation of the law and uphold More’s argument instead, as More believes that the law is laid out by God.