WellBeing at the Moment of Death

1
Well-Being at the Moment of Death

• Sir Thomas More,
• Margaret More Roper,
• Antigone (once again)

2
Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)

• Lord Chancellor of England under Henry VIII
• Humanist thinker, author of Utopia
• Refused to legitimate Henry VIIIs divorce and
  break from Rome
• Executed by Henry VIII after a year imprisonment
  in the Tower of London

3
Utopia Dystopia

• Utopia (means no place) imagined religious
  tolerance, relative equality between men and
  women, and pre-marital sex to test for
  compatibility
• Sir Thomas More, as Lord Chancellor, guided
  religious persecution of early Protestants
• Sir Thomas More was a devoted family man, and
  ensured that his daughters were educated
  similarly to his sons.

4
Imprisonment, Trial, and Death

• Sir Thomas More objected to Henry VIIIs
  arrogating religious power to himself. More was
  imprisoned, for over a year, as a high profile
  resistor to Henrys policies.
• At his trial, More protested that when the King
  asked his opinion, he felt honored to be asked
  for his honesty.
• Condemned to death for defying the King, More
  used humor to lighten the mood of those around
  him, including his jailors, who had grown fond of
  him.

5
Mores Strategy Death as Theater

• Out of shape from his imprisonment, More asked
  for help up the scaffold steps, but noted that he
  would shift for himself on the way down!
• After his year of imprisonment, More had grown a
  beard. He joked with his executioner, asking if
  he could keep the beard out of the way, since it
  had never committed treason.
• Knowing what a skilled speaker and thinker he
  was, Henry VIII had sent orders that More not be
  allowed to give a speech. More knew this, but
  started to give a speech anyway, so that the
  guards would have to publicly stop him, making
  the power relations clear.

6
Burying the Body

• People who were executed in Tudor England had
  their heads displayed on London Bridge
• Mores daughter Margaret famously (and
  dangerously) saved her fathers head before it
  was cast into the waters below
• Remind you of anyone?

7
Well-being

• How does well-being manifest when one is near to
  death?
• What does the martyrs well-being consist of?
  Think back to Antigone as well
• What qualities are worth fighting, and dying for,
  rather than to live without? For you? For most
  people now? In other cultures, societies,
  histories?
• Did Thomas More experience well-being at the time
  of his death?