Thomas More Studies : Library

Historical Documents:

--Life of Thomas More by William Roper (More's son-in-law), 1556, modernized version
    Part 1
    Part 2
    Part 3

--Erasmus's Letters about More
    To Ulrich Von Hutten, English
    To Ulrich Von Hutten, Latin
    To William Bude, Latin
    To John Faber, Latin



Original Works of Thomas More

--The Four Last Things, c. 1522
    Part 1--The Remembrance of Death
    Part 2--Of Pride and Envy
    Part 3--Of Covetousness, Gluttony, and Sloth

Original Works of Thomas More: Prison Writings

--Sadness of Christ, 1535
    Part 1
    Part 2
    Part 3
    Part 4
    Part 5

--Instructions and Prayers
    A Godly Instruction [on How to Treat Those Who Wrong Us], c. 1534
        modernized version
    Prayers from the Treatise on the Passion, c. 1534
    Final Poem on Detachment ("A Godly Meditation")
    A Devout Prayer [before Dying], July 1535
    Prayer to Thomas More PDF format

Sir Thomas More Reader, edited by Rudolph E. Habenicht

I. Satire of Domestic Scenes
    Part 1
    1.    The Wife who would Rule the Roost
    2.    The Carpenter’s Wife that would be Killed
    3.    The Rich Widow that would be a Martyr
    4.    The Carver that would be Crucified
    5.    The ‘Paciefier’ who would Meddle in a Family Quarrell
    Part 2
    6. The Riddle of the Wife of Culnam
    7.    A Bridegroom’s Ring
    8.    A Wife’s Comment on a Sermon
    9.    The Witch who prescribed Medicines
    10.    Evensong and Matins
    11.    A Husband tries to Teach his Wife the Nature of the Universe
    Modernized version of selections 1-4, 9 above

II. Countryfolk Stories and Animal Fables
    Part 1
    12.    The Tiller who Taught a Maid how to Bear Water in a Sieve
    13.    The Poor Man who Feared for his Life, and the Farmer who was given                Good Advice
    14.    The Fools and the Rain
    Part 2
    15.    The Old Sage of Sandwich Haven
    16.    Sandwich Haven, Revisited
    17.    A Stumbling Horse
    18.    Wilkin’s Wager with Simkin
    19.    Filthy Hogs and Fierce Dogs
    20.    The Man who would Kill All Bandogs
Part 3
    21.    Geese and Glosses
    22.    The Tale of the Lion, the Boar and the Fox
    23.    Aesop’s Ape and Crow: An Analogy
    24.    Jupiter and the Snail
    25.    The Old Hart that fled from a little Bitch
    26.    The Fond Tale of Mother Maud: The Confessions of an Ass and a                     Wolf
    Modernized version of selections 3, 13-15 above

III. Historical Portraits and Vignettes
    27.    King Edward IV
    28.    King Richard III
    29.    Jane Shore
    30.    The Sultan of Syria
    31.    The Savage Turk
    32.    Of Those who must Act a Role
    Modernized version of selections 4-5 above

IV. Historical Tales and Commentaries
    Part 1
    33.    Livy’s Tale of the Capuan Senators
   34.    Heretics in the Time of Henry IV and Henry V
    35.    Duke Humphrey’s Tale
    Part 2
    36.    The Duke of Buckingham’s Oration
    Part 3
    37.    The Murder of Edward V and his Brother, The Duke of York
    38.    The Duke of Bourbon and the Sack of Rome


V. Clerical Satire and Apocrypha
    Part 1
    39.    Sickness in Heretics
    40.    Lutherans: Wise as Wild Geese
    41. Of Luther and his Leman
    42.    Friar Frappe and Kit Cate his Mate
    43.    Lutheran Preachers in England
    44.    Talkative Heretics
   45.    A Protestant Rhetorician
    Part 2
    46.    Tyndale and Luther: Goodly Golden Eagles
    47.    William Tyndale, Translator
   48.    Tyndale, a Schoolmaster
    49.    Tyndale’s Sleeping Elect
    Part 3
    50.    A Tale of Robin Hood and William Tyndale
    51.    David and his Sling
    52.    Hidden Faces
    53.    A Masker’s Blushing Face
    54.    Of Simon Fish and the Marriage of Priests
    55.    Of Priests who Marry
    56.    Friar Barnes, Doctor of Divinity
    Part 4
    57.    Friar Barnes and the Hostess of the ‘Sign of the Bottle,’ at Buttolphe’s             Wharf
    Part 5
    58.    An Over-familiar Priest
    59.    The Friar and the Wife in a Red Hood
    60.    A Talkative Nun and a Quarrelsome Housewife
    61.    Pilgrimages to Holy Shrines
    62.    A Pilgrimage to Walsingham
    Part 6
    63.    Special Cures at Saint Walery’s in Picardy and the Veneration of Saints
    64.    A Loud Preacher in Saxony
    65.    A Vainglorious Lutheran Bishop
    Modernized version of selections 1, 7, 16, 22, 26-27 above

VI. Essays on Manners and Morality
    Part 1
    66.    What makes a Man Black or White?
    67.    The Rich Man and the Beggars
    68.    The Rich and the Poor
    69.    Covetousness
    70.    Gluttony
    71.    Envy
    Part 2
    72.    Sloth and Lechery
    73.    Lechery
    74.    Deception
    75.    Scrupulous Conscience
    76.    Pride
    77.    The Physician who Cures all but Himself
    Part 3
    78.    Sickness and God (Our Chief Jailor)
    79.    God, Our Great Physician
    80.    Suicide
    81.    Merry Tales serve for Sauce, not Meat
    Modernized version of selections 2-3, 8, 10-16 above

VII. Memorabilia: Personal Remembrances
    Part 1
    82.    Sir Thomas More and the Pacifier
    83.    Erasmus, my Darling
    84.    Lincoln’s Inn
    Part 2
    85.    George Constantine’s Escape from the Stocks
    86.    The Perjury of Richard Webbe
    87.    Segar, a Bookseller from Cambridge, and False Detractors
    88.    Certain Heretics and False Rumors
    Part 3
    89.    A Child-servant is Whipped
    90.    The Bedlam Rogue
    91.    Mad Cliff
    92.    Davy, the Dutchman
    Part 4
    93.    The Examination into Richard Hunne’s Death
    94.    Richard Hunne: Murder or Suicide?
    95.    Witnesses that do not Lie
    Part 5
    96.    The Miracle of the Woman in Walbrook Ward
    97.    Evil Days in London
    98.    Sir Thomas More and the Oath of Obedience
    99.    The Court of ‘Pie-Sir-William-Pounder’ at Bartholomew Fair
    Modernized version of selection 13 above

VIII. Meditations on Death
    Part 1
    100.    Our Last Stage-play
    101.    Two Criminals Condemned to Death
    102.    The Dance of Death in Saint Paul’s
    103.    A Dead Man Looks Back
    Part 2
    104.    An Old Man Speaks with Death
    105.    The Cruel Hangman, Death
    106.    Christ in His Passion
    107.    Three Farewells
    Modernized version of selections 1-4, 7 above