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The Death of Thomas More, Secular Priest, Great-Grandson of St. Thomas More
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 September 2015
Extract
After the death of the Archpriest George Birkhead the secular priest John Colleton and his fellow assistants wrote to the Pope on 28 July 1614, to submit a list of suitable condidates from whom a bishop for England might be chosen. The names put forward included those of William Bishop and Richard Smith, who were each later to receive the appointment, and William Harrison, who in fact was made Archpriest in 1615. The list of suggestions ended thus: “Lastly we should like to add ... the name of Mr. Thomas More, our Agent, a most acceptable man, both because of his own merits and because of the most glorious memory of his great-grandfather, the famous More, who with the Cardinal elect of Rochester, first suffered an illustrious martyrdom for refusing the oath of supremacy: were it not that he is the only man we have or can hope to have who can afford from his own resources to act for us out there.” It was a name to be proud of and a relationship he did not hesitate to proclaim. When, with his brother Henry, he arrived at the English College in Rheims in 1583, aged 18 years, they were registered as “Thomas and Henry More, brothers, great grand-children of the most holy martyr Thomas More.” He went on to Rome in 1587, but the registers of the English College there and those of Valladolid, where he arrived in 1591, contain no reference to his ancestry. After some sixteen years of activity on the English Mission he accompanied Richard Smith out to Rome in 1609 intending to put the case for the appointment of a bishop to rule once more the church in England in place of an archpriest. He swore he would not return until they had succeeded, and he kept his oath. He spent the next seven years in Rome as Clergy Agent, and a further five years in Spain, trying to get help for the seminaries and eventually helping to establish the new seminary in Lisbon. When in 1623 William Bishop was appointed bishop for England, Thomas More was made by him Archdeacon of Hertfordshire and Northamptonshire, and he may have then returned home to England, but in May 1624, after the death of William Bishop he was made special agent to go to Rome for the purpose of securing the appointment of another bishop, and was back in Rome in August. He died there in the following year. The story of his last illness and death is considered worth telling now for the first time because it is so extraordinarily well documented by manuscripts in the Westminster Archives, the Archbishop of Birmingham's Archives and the Archives of the Old Brotherhood.
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References
Notes
1. Resident Agent in Rome for the secular clergy in England.
2. Tierney-Dodd 5: App. 167. Colleton & Assistants to the Pope, July 28, 1614. “… . Nominavimus igitur D. Gulielmum Bishop, Richardum Smith, Antonium Champney, Gulielmm Harrison, omnes quatuor sacrae theologiae doctores, quibus et alios quatuor doctorem Worthingtonum, doctorem Kellisonum, D. Thomam Fitzherbert et D. Thomam Morum libenter vellemus adjungere, nisi ob rationes subsequentes … D. Thomas Morus, agens noster, quanquam gratissimus, tum ob sua in nos merita, tum ob gloriosissimam memoriam proavi sui, magni illius Mori qui cum electo cardinale Roffensi, primus, ob juramentum primatus non praestitum, martyrium nobilissime pertulit, is tarnen solus est quem vel nunc habemus, vel habere speramus, qui suis sumptibus res nostras illic curet …”
3. Douai Diary II (ed. Knox), p, 193: “1583, Februarius 1° … Eodem die ex Anglia venerunt Thomas et Henricus Mori, fratres, sanctissimi Martyris Thomae Möri pronepotes.” Henry More was baptised at Barnburgh on March 15, 1566. He was confirmed while at the College in 1583, received Minor Orders the same year, but in September 1584 left to join the Minims (Douai Diary II pp. 196, 198 & 202). He was professed in the convent of Nijeon-les-Paris on October 28, 1585 and died there at Whitsun 1597 (L. Dony d'Attichy, Histoire Generale de l'Ordre sacré des Minimes, Paris 1624, p. 419). I am grateful to Mr. John Bossy for this information.
4 Liber Ruber No. 200— CRS.xxxvii.66; Valladolid Registers in CRS. xxx.16; Seville Registers 1593 in CRS. xiv, 12, 17. Arrival in England in CRS. v, 260, 264.
5. cf. A. C. Southern's edition (1954) of Richard Smith's Life of the Lady Magdalen Viscountess Montague (pp. 42-3).
6. Tierney-Dodd 4, App. 219. Dr. Singleton to Fr. Floyd, S.J. of April 9, 1609. “… There is at this time come over about bishops, Dr. Smith and Thomas More … They are desperate, for they give out that they will not return homewards to England again unless they prevail. It is thought that they are accompanied by my lord Montacute's letters (and God grant not others) to deal for the removing the fathers out of England and are to make large offers, from those which never intend to perform any of them, to compass what they desire. These men are yet but at Paris in their journey: with them Mr. Doctor Norton is to encounter who for that purpose is either gone or is to go presently from Pont-a-Mousson to Rome. We here in Flanders provide to prevent their intended plots by our letters with the first post.”
7. cf. Tierney-Dodd, 4, App. 258. March 19, 1622, Don Pedro de Coutinho to Cardinal Farnese.
8. In the brief of the first Bishop of Chalcedon erecting the Chapter September 10, 1623. Original in Old Brotherhood Archives, printed in Tierney-Dodd 4, App. 282.
9. Westminster Archives, XVII, no. 140, p. 439; ibid. XVIII. no. 65, p. 363; ibid no. 71, October 3, 1624, where he is referred to as “. . in Comitatibus Hartfordiae et Northamptoniae Archidiaconum, virum non minus antiqua nobilitate illustrem quam spectata vita integritate ac prudentia commendabilem …”
10. The many letters addressed to Thomas More in the Westminster Archives were among the original papers of the Roman Agency. The Archbishop of Birmingham's Archives have recently been calendared for the National Register of Archives.
11. Westm. Arch. XIX, no. 11. “Io don Anselmo Inglese monaco di St. Paulo faccio fede per la presente che il Sig.r Tomaso Moro Sacerdote Inglese hoggie da me fu sacramentalmente assoluto. Et in fede di ciò, mi ho sottoscritto, Don Anselmo Inglese qui supra.”
12. Two copies of the Will survive in Westm. Arch. XIX, No. 33 & No. 90 (in Latin). Because in the codicils More left property in both Rome and Flanders, the Will had to be proved twice. The second copy is the one Cresacre More used to obtain Probate in Antwerp on October 30, 1625.
13.
Birm. Arch. C.193. A double sheet of paper, i.e. two leaves 8 in. x 10 
in., endorsed, “Conto del Sig.re Tommaso Morus con li heredi di Giulio Pole e Simmannio Toti” and by Rant, “The Apothecaries Bill - 15s.50.” It is receipted by Simmanio Toti on August 12, 1625.
14. Westm. Arch. XIX, No. 14.
15. Birm. Arch. C.91. Rant jotted two lists of names on what appears to by the fly-leaf or blank leaf of a book. He endorsed it “A note of such as were at his death and buriall.”
16. In his dedication of The Life and Death of Sir Thomas Moore. See infra note 22.
17. The Church Registers are now in the Vatican Archives: San Luigi, Libro dei Morti IV (1601-1657) p. 232 and Sant’ Agostino, Libro dei Morti I (1582-1633), fol. 49. I am also indebted to the staff of the Vatican Archives for assistance in deciphering the apothecaries bill.
18. Westm. Archives XIX, No. 19: headed, “Lista per la Sepoltora dell’ q. Sr. Tomaso Morus Sacerdote Inglese della parochia di S. Agostino sepolto nella chiesa di S. Luigi de’ Francesi,” and it is receipted, “Io sottoscritto sacristano della Chiesa nationale de’ francesi S. Luigi di Roma ho ricevuto dal R. padre Tomaso Rants scuti tredici et baiochi cinquanta cinque per intiero pagamento del conto qui sopra … 14 di Aprile 1625, Ludovico faure di man propria.” It is endorsed by Rant, “Spese della Sepultura di R. Sig. T. More.” A further bill for wax candles is in W.A. XIX, No. 18.
19. cf. note 15 above.
20. Westm. Arch. XIX, No. 28.
21. Westm. Arch. XIX, No. 30.
22. The statement “not before 29 May 1630” made by Allison and Rogers (no. 548) in reference to the date of publication, rests (I am informed by them) on a mention in the dedication of the Queen's “hopeful issue.” This cannot refer to Henrietta Maria's first child, born on 13th May 1629, which died after a few hours, but must refer to the future Charles II, born on 29 May 1630. Joseph Hunter, who reprinted the Life in 1828, prefixed an excellent introduction which solves many problems.
23. Birm. Arch. C.93 (Original in Italian).
24. Westm. Arch. XIX, No. 47: “Io sottoscritto ho ricevuto della mano dell Re. Tomaso Rant per ordine dell Reverend, sig. Io. Baptista Scannarono uno breviario il qual era il Breviario del defunto Tomaso More di bona memoria Sacerdote Inglese et in fede di questo ho scritto la presente, manu propria il dì 9 di Junio 1625, Thomaso Wenman.” Endorsed by Rant, “Mr. Wenman's acquittance for Mr. More's breviary,”
25. Birm. Arch. C.195: “Io Simone Casselo o recuto sino. Tomaso Rant scudi vinti et cinqi di moneta per una lapida fata in San Alvisio di Francesi questo dì 13 di setembre 1625.”
26. The present writer was resident in San Luigi for two years. There is no trace of the tombstone in the church.
27. No transcript of the inscription exists among the copies kept in the archives of the church, but Vatican Archives produced copies in Galletti Cod.Vat.7919, c.13 and in Magalotti, Delle notizie dell Famiglie Italiane et Oltramontane ecc., Cod. Chigi G.V. 144, vol. VI, c. 222. The inscription is printed also by Dodd, by Hunter and by Forcella, Iscrizioni delle Chiese e di altri edificii di Roma … (Roma 1873) vol. 3, p. 39,Google Scholar n. 103.