Flora Cantábrica

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Sir Thomas More

In 1516 he wrote his famous book «Utopia». He attracted the attention of King Henry VIII who appointed him to various important posts and finally «Lord Chancellor», Chancellor, in 1529. At the height of his career Thomas resigned, in 1532, when King Henry persisted in disowning his wife in order to marry. , for which the king was preparing to break the unity of the Church and form the Anglican Church under his authority.

Moro within his silence chose and valued each word to make one of the most passionate and at the same time serene protests in favor of the freedom of the human spirit, illuminated by the truth. The Christian can live without many things, but he cannot live without freedom.

His passion for the truth must necessarily go hand in hand with his passion for freedom.

Moro entered the Tower to follow the truth of his conscience. He did not adhere to the oath because he disgusted the Christian conscience of it. To do so would have led him to lose his authentic freedom, capitalized, attached to the truth, and consequently to lose himself in order to adhere to authentic freedom. Without that original freedom of the Spirit, the other freedoms can be chains, even if they produce admiration and seem very beautiful. This is what Moro has in mind when speaking in some letters of «respect for his soul

To speak of individual conscience and inalienable freedom, does not mean in any way that it is allowed to take any decision whimsically, but rather, the ability and obligation to seek the truth in any matter, according to the means available. And that is why he went to the torture without making concessions, when it would have been enough for him to accept an equivocal compromise, which everyone expected of him, to find himself again at leisure with dignity [8], or in the lie with a supposed dignity

Moro was not fighting stubbornly in his personal or subjective conception but in defense and love of the truth. He did not aspire to «get his way», but «with God’s.» Moro died for a truth that in his time had been endangered. Moro was a leading intellectual, a top figure in European Renaissance humanism. Thomas More studied the question objectively and made sure of the truth. His conscience was well formed, his faith was reasonable, and his content had known long hours of reflection and study

He did not die for defending a mere opinion of his head or for a whim of his conscience, but for safeguarding his conscience in the revealed objective truth. He opposed a law dictated by the whim of the interests of the moment. His head was cut off because she was what his enemies could not conquer in him [10], and they needed a traitor to infamously accuse him with perjury. It would seem that the truth won out over the lie, but has it been so? Veritas magna et prevalet. The truth is great and prevails (Saint Augustine) [11]. His testimony still continues to this day and commits us.

 The weight of his character, his virile energy, his honesty, his legal training and his fifteen months in prison is overwhelming when it comes to his reasons in defense of the truth, of what things really are, of the good. , of justice. He had maintained with the intelligence and humanistic prestige of him, with the ink of his pen, the faith of always many years before fighting the last battle with the blood of his head [12].

 In a boat before being arrested, speaking with his son-in-law William Ropper about the possibility of losing his freedom, Moro told him: «The battle is won.» The battle is won, there are many interpretations of this expression: Moro’s battle with himself, the battle against temptation, the battle against fears, the battle of good against evil, the battle of truth against lies, battle of death against life, the battle that Christ has already won for us.