them, it would have seemed superfluous to publish the work, various lives of the Chancellor having already been written. The limits of this volume have forbidden the publication of more than portions of some of them, on account of their extreme length, but many are given in their entirety; and of the remainder, the pith of each has been extracted, whilst all are reproduced which have appeared in the pages of the old biographer, Cresacre More.

A far better idea of the noble and heroic character of the Chancellor may be gathered from his own epistles than from the words of others; and it is hoped that the present humble attempt at gathering together much that has not appeared in former works may meet with a gracious reception, though some more worthy pen than ours shall perchance write hereafter of this brave English Martyr, collecting together further documents deposited perhaps in Libraries, to which we have not been so privileged as to have access.

The character of Sir Thomas More was great in all its moral aspects, for it was never sullied by ambition or avarice, and whilst bound to Henry by the greatness of the benefits that had been conferred upon him, and entirely loyal at the same time, he was proof against blandishments and threats, and though from the first moment that he thwarted the wishes of the despotic Tudor sovereign he must have been

well aware that life-long imprisonment, or the block, would be the result, he yet stood firm unto the last, steady and true to the voice of his own conscience.

His famous work, the Utopia, won for him the greatest popularity at home and abroad, and one would think that some of the passages with which it abounds must needs have been unpleasant to the Tudor King.

"In the Counsels of Princes," he therein observes,

good advice proves of no avail, because the servant is never consulted by the master, except with the view of gratifying his passions." This great man was far in advance of the times in which he lived, for in his Utopia, written more than three centuries ago, he anticipates Lord Ashley's factory bill, advocating six hours for labour and the rest for recreation and study, and also condemning the heavy punishments then inflicted for small crimes of theft, &c.*

In his imaginary Republic, fathers and grandfathers, with their married sons and daughters, reside together as one family, and if such a style of living be deemed incompatible with family harmony, More's own conduct proved the contrary, for he, like a true philosopher, set the example by practising his own precepts in an exemplary manner.

His contemporaries have left the abundant proof that in More's home at Chelsea there was no strife or discord, but

* Lord Campbell.

that, on the contrary, peace, love, refinement, purity, and all the little courtesies and amenities of life were most tenderly cherished; and that never was master more faithfully served, friend more valued, or father more beloved, than was Sir Thomas More.

In his Utopia, that fairy-land born of his imagination, every man was to be at perfect liberty to follow whatever religion he pleased, and to try to draw others to it by force of argument; but ten years later, after the change of religion brought in by Lutheranism, and branching off into many other sectaries, had desolated Europe, a great change had taken place in the feelings of More, a prophetic fear filled his mind, and he strove by all the means in his power to stem the tide of heresy, and devoted himself with all the energy of his earnest nature to the cause of the Church.

He and the Bishop of Rochester stand foremost in the army of English Martyrs for the supremacy of the Holy See, and many of those who afterwards shed their blood in defence of the same cause declared that courage had been infused into them by their example. More's own parish priest, Dr. Larke, of Chelsea, was so struck by his glorious death, says Stapleton, that he himself shortly afterwards suffered death in the same cause.

Before concluding we must remark that in looking over extracts made from Mr. Brewer's Calendar of State Papers,

from which some abstracts of letters have been taken, we were intensely surprised by observing the following remark, concerning one of More's letters to Erasmus.

"More brings forward various instances to shew that the later Church had departed from the dogmas of the Fathers."

We happened to be in Lancashire when this paragraph was observed, and reference having been made in the Calendar to "Jortin's Erasmus," vol. iii., page 365, we at once went to London to examine this book at the British Museum.

Amongst many Latin letters or rather orations of More's, for such Jortin calls them, we came at once on the letter sought for. It extends to more than thirty pages of closely printed matter, in small type.

A copy was at once made of all that portion of the letter in which the remarks appeared, and, though personally a stranger, the writer took the liberty of applying to the Rev. Father Morris, the learned and accomplished author of "Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers," begging his opinion of the justice of Mr. Brewer's summary. He most kindly responded to her request and the following remarks were made by him after perusing the passages in question :

"No Catholic has ever thought individual fathers to be infallible, or would be surprised to find that there were points on which they differed. This is all that More says,

except in the case of the Immaculate Conception. There he asks whether there was one of the ancient Saints who did not believe that Our Blessed Lady was conceived in sin, if he meant literally what he said, it was of course very wrong, for it is impossible that the Church should ever accept as generally as he says, she accepted in his time, a doctrine, the contrary of which was explicitly taught by the unanimous voice of the holy Fathers and Doctors. But the expression may be regarded as an inadvertent exaggeration in the warmth of argument. If Mr. Brewer attributes to More the statement that the modern Church had departed from the dogmas of the Fathers, such a statement would be an attack by More, not on the Fathers, but on the Catholic Church of his own time-of this there is no trace in the words you have sent me, unless it be deduced from the phrase about the Immaculate Conception; and it would be very illogical from a particular statement, even if literally meant, to deduce so general a conclusion.

"All that can be drawn from the marked passages seems to be that More defended the statement of Erasmus that some of the holy Fathers, whom he mentions in very eulogistic terms, have fallen into occasional errorslapsos alicubi."

"If the errors were on points of doctrine, not at that time decided by the Church, I do not see what difficulty