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English statesman who opposed Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragon and was imprisoned and beheaded; recalled for his concept of Utopia, the ideal state

Thomas More [Thomas More]

(1478–1535) an English politician, author and ↑scholar. He became a friend of King ↑Henry VIII, who first employed him as a representative in foreign countries. In 1518 More became a member of the ↑Privy Council, in 1521 he was made a ↑knight, and in 1529 he became ↑Lord Chancellor after Cardinal Wolsey. However, when the king decided that he, and not the Pope, was the head of the Church in England, More refused to accept this decision. For this he was put in prison and then executed. He was made a saint by Pope Pius XI in 1935. Thomas More was also the author of ↑Utopia (1516), in which he described his ideas of a perfect society. The book was very successful all over Europe.