BY WILLIAM HOLDEN HUTTON, B.D. FELLOW, TUTOR, AND PRECENTOR OF 8. JOHN BAPTIST COLLEGE, Ars utinam mores animumque effingere possit: SECOND EDITION METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C LONDON PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION It is now twelve years since I began to study the life and writings of the great hero of conscience whom this book commemorates. The work has been often laid aside, but never wholly abandoned, and in spite of the demands of a laborious profession I have been able, I think, to become acquainted with most of the literature which describes and illustrates More's beautiful life. With the exception of Mr. S. L. Lee's admirable, and, for its length, exhaustive, contribution to the Dictionary of National Biography, which cannot be obtained in a separate form, and Father Bridgett's valuable biography, which is concerned primarily with the life of More as a defender of the Papal Supremacy, there are no modern works which have made use of all the material that is at the disposal of students of this period. Much interest attaches to the earlier biographies from the circumstances connected with their composition and publication. When England, under Mary, had returned to the Roman obedience, William Roper wrote the life of b DA 334 ма H& 1900 his father-in-law; Rastell, his nephew, published the great folio of his English Works; his friend, Ellis Heywood, composed his Italian memorial Il Moro, and Nicholas Harpsfield the biography which is still in manuscript in the Library of the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth. In 1555 and 1556 the Latin works were published at Louvain with introductory verses and eulogies. When Roman projects were most rife under Elizabeth additions were made to the literature of the subject. Stapleton published his Tres Thomae when the Armada was about to sail; and an anonymous life, also in the Lambeth Library, was written in 1599. After the marriage of Charles L., Roper's biography was published abroad, and Cresacre More's in England. Hoddesdon's compilation appeared in 1662, when secret negotiations were being carried on between the Papacy and the Monarchy of the Restoration; and Stapleton's life was reprinted under James II. Roper wrote almost entirely from personal knowledge and from memory. Thus, his work, in spite of its deep interest, is occasionally inaccurate. Stapleton added to the statements of Roper much that he had himself heard from members of More's household, and also collated many of his letters. The anonymous life published by Dr. Wordsworth1 is apparently based on those of Roper and Harpsfield. It has been attributed to More's nephew, Rastell; and a chance reference in Lord Herbert of Cherbury's 1 Ecclesiastical Biography, vol. ii, |