A Man For All Seasons - Preface

Henry VIII, who started with everything and squandered it all,

He had the physical and mental fortitude to endure a lifetime of gratified greeds

gratified greeds

the monstrous baby whom none dared gainsay

the monstrous baby whom none dared gainsay

We recognise in him an archetype, on eof the champions of our base nature, and are in him vicarously indulged

We recognise in him an archetype, on eof the champions of our base nature, and are in him vicarously indulged

We recognise in him an archetype, on eof the champions of our base nature, and are in him vicarously indulged

Against him stood the whole edifice of medieval religion, founded on piety, but then as moneyed, elaborate, heaped high and inflexible as those abbey churches

plagued with many heresies.

The pope dispensed with the Chistian law forbidding a man to marry his brother's widow

Prince Henry ascended the English throne as Henry VIII

The motives for Henry's wish to divorce his wife are presumably as confused, inaccessible and helpless in a King as any other man

she had not been able to provide Henry with a male child and was now presumed barren

If that son was to be Henry's heir, Anne would have to be Henry's wife

England asked the Pope to declare the marriage with Catherine null

on the grounds that it contravened the Christian law which forbade marriage with a brother's widow

To the ferment of a lover and the anxieties of a sovereign Henry now added a bad conscience

The threatened penalty was exactly what had befallen him, the failure of mail heirs

Vicar of God

The Bishops of Rome had succeeded over the centuries in setting up a rival reign within the reign, a sort of long drawn usurpation

The Bishops of Rome had succeeded over the centuries in setting up a rival reign within the reign, a sort of long drawn usurpation

The Bishops of Rome had succeeded over the centuries in setting up a rival reign within the reign, a sort of long drawn usurpation

The economy was very progressive, the religion was very reactionary

The economy was very progressive, the religion was very reactionary.

Setting aside Henry as a colourful accident, the collision was inevitable.

Thomas More is a man with an adamantine sense of his own self.

He knew where he began and left off, what area of himself he could yield to the encroachment of his enemies, and what to the encroachments of those he loved.

More was a very orthodox Catholic and for him an oath was something perfectly specific

the consequence of perjury was damnation

But though few of us have anything in ourselves like an immortal soul which we regard as absolutely inviolable, yet most of us still feel something which we should prefer not to violate

But though few of us have anything in ourselves like an immortal soul which we regard as absolutely inviolable,

It may be that a clear sense of the self can only crystallize round something transcendental in which case, our prospects look poor, for we are rightlt committed to the rational

How indeed was it possible a man so utterly absorbed in his society, at one point disastrously part company from it? Unless there was some sudden aberration

The English Kingdom was subservient to the larger society of the Church of Christ.

I took it as a metaphor for that larger context which we all inhabit, the terrifying cismos.

Terryfying because no laws, no sanctions, no mores obtain there

Cromwell's contemptuous shattering of the forms of law by an unconcealed act of perjury showed how fragile for any individual is that shelter.

a poetic image

He wears from head to foot black tights which delineate his pot-bellied figure

His face is crafty, loosely benevolent

His face is crafty, loosely benevolent

But the life of the mind in him is so abundant and debonair that it illuminates the body

But the life of the mind in him is so abundant and debonair that it illuminates the body

only in moments of high crisis does it become ascetic

In consequence, Alice More was troubled by and defiant towards her society and her husband

a beautiful girl of ardent moral fineness

A stiff body and an immobile face.

A stiff body and an immobile face.

Cardinal Wolsey. An almost megalomaniac ambition unhappily matched by an excelling intellect.

The King. Only the levity with which he handles his absolute power foreshadows his future corruption