Best known for his satire Utopia (1516), Thomas More was a writer and statesman whose religious courage would result in his canonization by the Roman Catholic Church in 1935. In 1504 More entered Parliament, was made Speaker of the House (1523), and Lord Chancellor of England (1529). A trusted counsellor to Henry VIII, he was imprisoned in 1534 for his refusal to support Henry’s request for a divorce. In 1535 he was beheaded for refusing to acknowledge the king as head of the Church.
