Tribute to Sir Thomas More - Thoughts from the Past, Part 1

I wrote many articles before I joined politics. I thought I should share it with you guys. Shall call these articles as "Thoughts from the Past".

This is a tribute to my idol, Sir or St Thomas More (canonized in 1935), the only lawyer canonised in history besides St Ivo, in 1347. Sir Thomas coined the term “Utopia.” He has impacted us much. This is how Robert Whittinton described him : “A man of an angel's wit and singular learning. I know not his fellow. For where is the man of that gentleness, lowliness and affability? And, as time requireth, a man of marvelous mirth and pastimes, and sometime of as sad gravity. A man for all seasons.”

Sir Thomas was once chided by his son-in-law Roper for giving the Devil (Richard Rich) the benefit of law and Roper said that he would cut down every law in England to get the Devil. Sir Thomas then so astutely retorted, “Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down,…, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!”. That was the kind of person Sir Thomas was. He would give the Devil the benefit of law to uphold the rule of law, no matter how absurd or strange or quirky the laws were.

Eventually, Sir Thomas was executed in 1535 for steadfastly holding on to his religious convictions by refusing to approve King Henry VIII’s divorce of Catherine of Aragorn in order to marry Anne Boleyn. In order to divorce Catherine, Henry VIII had to break away from the Roman Catholic Church and made himself the Head of the Church of England, something which Sir Thomas refused to recognise. That explains why, under the reign of Elizabeth I (Henry VIII’s daughter with Anne Boleyn), any person found guilty of "harbouring a Catholic priest" would be tortured or even hanged. Any priest of the Catholic faith who was caught would be hanged, drawn, and quartered (explained below).

The man instrumental in getting Sir Thomas executed was Thomas Cromwell. Flash forward 112 years later. Thomas Cromwell’s great great nephew, Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England. The English Interregnum lasted from 1649-1660. Oliver Cromwell was instrumental in leading the revolt against the monarchy that led to the beheading of King Charles I.

Did you know that celebrating Christmas was illegal in England under Oliver Cromwell? In 1647 (since 1646 England had been ruled solely by Parliament), Christmas festivities were banned by the Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell, who considered feasting and revelry on a holy day to be immoral. During his reign, Oliver Cromwell also banned the eating of mince pies on Christmas day, as the pies were insufficiently Puritan. Ingredients of mince pies were considered pagan in origin, and their consumption a part of ancient fertility rituals. The law dates from the puritan era, the same time that dancing in church, maypoles, and holly and ivy decorations were outlawed. The laws were never officially repealed because upon the restoration of the monarchy, (in the form of Charles II) all laws formed under the protectorate were ignored as invalid. The ban was finally lifted in 1660.

Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England and scourge of the monarchists, died [of malaria?] on 3rd September 1658. 18 months later the monarchy had been restored and the royalists wanted revenge for the regicide of King Charles I. Cromwell was “hanged, drawn & quartered”. Cromwell's corpse was exhumed from his tomb in Westminster Abbey and dragged through the streets of London to Tyburn (“drawn”). He was then given a symbolic hanging. 6 hours later his corpse was taken down from the gallows (“hanged”); Disembowelled, and the genitalia and entrails burned before the victim's eyes; the heart was the last to be removed and was then shown to the victim before the entrails were burned. Beheaded by an executioner and the body divided into four parts (“quartered”). Typically, the resulting five parts (i.e., the four quarters of the body and the head) were gibbeted (put on public display) in different parts of the city or town. His head was then paraded through the streets before being stuck on an iron spike and displayed atop Westminster Hall. A gross but effective way to deter would-be traitors

Coming back to our Sir Thomas More. I have just been given a DVD titled “A Man For All Seasons” by a senior and learned counsel who wants to remain anonymous. It is a 1966 Fred Zinnemann’s movie adaptation of a play by Robert Bolt. The protagonist is one Sir Thomas More, posthumously known as Saint Thomas More.

The movie was plodding along as the character of Cardinal Wolsey (played by Orson Welles) chides Sir Thomas More (played by Paul Scofield) for being a plodder. However, there was never a dull moment as the plot escalates from the first scene, i.e, the confrontation between Cardinal Wolsey and Sir Thomas pertaining to the latter’s opposition. This story is pertinent to us lawyers who should practise without fear or fervour. Sir Thomas More was beheaded for standing on his ground; for refusing to budge in the midst of intense pressure; bowing only to God.

I read the history of King Henry VIII (part of the Tudor era) but nothing beats watching a movie depiction of it. The characters just come alive and you are transported to the era with all its trappings. Dialogues just stick like glue. There were many interesting scenes. The first was the banter in the household of Sir Thomas, where they stated that every other bastard in England was fathered by a priest. However, Sir Thomas was quick to add that in utopia, it would never happen as there the priests are all holy. Then, his dear wife, Alice so sarcastically said that then there would be very few of them (priests) in utopia. Also, there is the dialogue between Cardinal Wolsey and Sir Thomas.

My favourite line from that scene is where the Cardinal tells Sir Thomas that if only Sir Thomas would look at this without the moral squint, then Sir Thomas could become a great statesman. Then there is this scene where Sir Thomas’ son-in-law, William Roper (also a lawyer) argued with Sir Thomas about the laws of the land and the laws of God. Of course, all the above culminated in the court where Sir Thomas was charged for high treason. There, Thomas Cromwell argued with Sir Thomas about the right to silence.

It is interesting to note that King Henry VIII was a writer poet singer in his own right. That explains his erratic behaviour. He was credited for composing the English folk song, “Greensleeves”.

To sum up history in a cynical manner,           we may argue that the Chinese diaspora was the indirect effect of King Henry VIII’s reign, a king who loved wine, women and song. The product of the “unholy” union between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn is Queen Elizabeth I. Elizabeth I reigned from 1553-1603, the “Golden Era” or the Elizabethan era. It was the era of the emerging British imperial power. There was rivalry between Protestant England and Roman Catholic Spain. Then England defeated the Spanish in the Anglo-Spanish war on 8th August 1588. The repulse of the Spanish navy solidified the Protestant cause across Europe and revolutionised naval warfare. England remained true to its Protestant revolution and was now free to pursue its commercial interests in North America. The failure of the Armada to win a quick victory against England meant that Philip I would not be able to concentrate his forces on recovering the Netherlands.

Fifty years after the Armada expedition, the Dutch, who had been steadily increasing their naval power, destroyed Spanish dominance at sea (at the Battle of the Downs in 1639). It was only during the Napoleonic Wars that the British navy finally established its overwhelming mastery at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. All the above were the precursors to the subsequent colonisation of the then Malaya. The imperial “masters” then brought in Chinese labourers in huge numbers to work here.

Sir Thomas More also had an indirect impact, as his idea of “Utopia” became the basis for Karl Marx’s vision of the ideal communist state.

The steadfastness with which Sir Thomas More held on to the rule of law; his religious convictions in the face of ruin and death, and the dignity with which he conducted himself during his imprisonment, trial and execution should serve as an example to us all, now living in a decadent world.

I would like to end with one of More’s quotes “If honour were profitable, everybody would be honourable.”