Edward Ward's Sir Thomas More's Farewell to His Daughter

The end of the Middle Ages, or Medieval period, as it is also called, is considered to be 1485, when William Caxton brought the first printing press to England. Thomas More was seven then. Utopia, which translates roughly as "no place" in Greek, was published in 1516. The book played a key role in the Humanist awakening of the 16th century, which moved away from Medieval otherworldliness toward Renaissance secularism.

Utopia: Pursuing Political Perfection

This illustration shows a map of Thomas More's Utopia, taken from a 1518 edition of More's book.

Written in Latin, Utopia was inspired by Plato's Republic and the accounts of explorers such as Amerigo Vespucci. It is also largely based on the voyages of More himself, specifically to the Netherlands. It was one such voyage — a diplomatic mission from England — that More concocted his ideas about a Utopian society.

A philosophical mariner tells the story. He says he sailed on three of Vespucci 's four voyages, remaining behind with others at a fort built at the farthest point reached. From there, the mariner discovered a strange land named Utopia.

Modern writers have created fictional worlds to critique their own societies — from Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland, to George Orwell's 1984. More had that very much in mind with Utopia. What he wanted to critique was the corruption of European civil life. More felt that property should be held communally, and he shows the benefits of this in his fictional society.

The first part of the book is organized as a dialogue, with the mariner describing his own philosophy and his listeners responding to his assertions. The book's second part is a straightforward description of the island kingdom, where gold and silver are worn only by criminals (as chains), religious freedom is total, and no one owns anything.

Hans Holbein the Younger's portrait of Sir Thomas More

"What evils they avoid," by sharing property, says the mariner. "What a multitude of crimes they prevent!" Obviously speaking for More, the mariner goes on to say, "Pride measures her prosperity not by her own goods but by others' wants. Her happiness shines brightly only in comparison to others' misery, and their poverty binds them and hurts them the more as her wealth is displayed." These were radical thoughts in 1514 — and they still are to many today.

Convicted for his Convictions

More was a principled man. Soon after writing Utopia he rose to the rank of Lord Chancellor under King Henry VIII. When the king broke from the Catholic Church in order to divorce his wife and marry Anne Boleyn, More refused to sign the Act of Succession and Supremacy, which made King Henry the "supreme head on earth" of the English church. Since Henry was now head of both church and government, More's refusal was seen as an act of treason, and he was beheaded.

The execution immediately entered English lore. Placing his head down on the block, More moved his long beard out of the way. The beard, he said, had done the king no offense. Four hundred years later the Catholic Church canonized him, replacing the "Sir" with "Saint": Saint Thomas More. Literary critics, however, remember him as Sir Thomas More, author of the first English science fiction.

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