XIX. - The Center for Thomas More Studies

Moreana XIX. 75-76 (Nov. 1982). 5-24

*WAS THOMAS CROMWELL A MOREAN ?

'a THOSE TWO MIGHTY OPWSITFS. THOMAS CROMWELL AND THOMAS MORE. w

Although much progress has been made in revising the tradition-
al views of More the,Catholic martyr and of Cromwell the strict adher-
ent of Machiavelli, the two statesmen are still considered to be repres-
entatives of two conflicting ideologies. R.W. Chambers played up this
conflict, depicting More as the last great medieval man, the (( consistent
opponent of the new ideas which found literary expression in The
Prince, and were embodied in the person of Thomas Cromwell. ))
Much ha$ been made of the Cromwell-Machiavelli question, with T.M.

'Parker concluding in 1950that Cromwell was the tc purest example ))of

Machiavelli's (( drab outlook upon ihe world. ))
But a cc drab outlook )) did not separate More from Cromwell,

and if, indeed, Cromwell was a (( Machiavellian, )) it was not,puce Par-

ker, because of a (( cynical view of politics. ')) For what the two men

shared was a belief in the possibility of improving the social and econo-
mic life of this world, through public institutions guided by human
intelligence and effort. Whether Cromwell read The Prince or not has
been the subject of controversy for years, with A.G. Dickens wisely
deciding that the question was irrelevant, for anything that book had to
teach, Cromwell could have learned first-hand during his years in Italy
(from 1503 to 1514) ; no one seems to have raised the issue of
Cromwell's acquaintance with Machiavelli's Discourses. Whether
Cromwell had read More's Utopia has seldom, if ever, been asked, but
in any case, that fact itself is not so necessary to this discussion as is
Cromwell's use of More's ideas. For, whether or not Cromwell had read
any of More's many works, he was not only acquainted with their ideas
but espoused many of them himself. In philosophy of reform, i n theo-
ries of justice and the law, and in specific plans for social and economic
reform, the two men were much more in agreement than is generally
believ.ed. The last years of More's life notwithstanding, both men belie-
ved, most of all, in the necessity and feasibility of improving, through
law, their world, Cromwell attempting to translate into action some of
the ideas of More.

6 LESLEY RIMMEL WAS CROMWELL A MOREAN ? 7

Counsel to the government, which in those days meant counsel to maintained them both, along with other poor scholars. l6 Reginald
the prince, is the first problem that appears in the Utopia ; Morus and Pole's humanist group at Padua was thus well-represented i n the
Peter Giles are trying to convince Raphael Hythloday that he should government of his royal cousin, Henry VIII ; Starkey had even asked
apply his vast experience and knowledge of the world to government Pole to come back to England to use his learning in the service o f the
service, and Morus laments, (( What a distant prospect of happiness government, (c where it will bear fruit. )) l 7 Pole's Paduan tutor, Nic-
there will be if philosophers will not condescend even to impart their colo Leonico Tomeo, who had once paid tribute to Starkey's
counsel to kings ! )) (Indeed, the real More is described as having learning, l8 was corresponding with More in 1525, and, after having
(c steadily worked toward the goal of royal service. )) 7, Heretofore most read Utopia, wrote, (( Would that in some place or other there might
of the advisors of English kings had been clerics and scholastics, but really exist a true republic of philosophers. )) l9 Ten years later Thomas
More did not have clerical philosophers in mind as the best possible Croinwell was doing his best to realize that Morean wish.
government advisors. When Hythloday sees (( no room for philosophy
with rulers, )) Morus answers : More and Cromwell, then, shared a belief in the power of law to
help save society from the effects of human inadequacies. Reform in
That is true -- not for this academic philosophy which thinks that every- Utopia was political and social, not moral and religious. *O Like Crom-
well's reforms (which were, nevertheless, coated with religious defenses
thing is suitable to every place. But there is another philosophy, more prac- and explanations), More's were concerned with this world, with human
tical for statesmen, which knows its stage, adapts itself to the play in hand, society. The bettering of society had to come through law and not
and performs its role neatly and appropriately. This is the philosophy which through individual conscience reformed through c( p i o u s
you must employ. (Ulopia. p. 99/11-16) exhortation. )) 21 Thus More and CromweIl were optimistic that reform
was possible. Furthermore, they were both realistic about the politics of
Thus Morus espouses the idea of professional politicians advising the
king. power ; they knew that reforms had to come from above -- from the
highest authorities in the land -- else they could not be enforced. 22
More could hardly have chosen more accurate words to describe
Cromwell and his advisors ;indeed, being able to adapt himself (( to the Reforms initiated from below would have no chance of succeeding.
play in hand')) was Cromwell's forte. He himself was not Parker's Hence More wrote Utopia in Latin, for the educated people, while
(( happy Philistine, )) and, even more significantly, he was responsible Cromwell framed his reforms in the authority of king and parliament.
for promoting great numbers of scholars to government, for which he And, as both knew, simply to advise the king was not enough. Being a
earned the praise of Bishop Hugh Latimer. loNever before had so many councillor or a judge was not as effective as working directly with laws
men come to influence in the government solely on the basis of their and institutions ; both men's careers bear this out.
merits as scholars ;now learning was not only for (( the ivory tower but
for the market place. )) I ' Cromwell even entrusted a special secretary, Moreover, More and Cromwell believed that internal reform was
Anthony Bellasis, with recruiting cr learned pens. )) l2 Two of these (not not only possible, but also necessary, and that internal concerns should
recruited by Bellasis) were those members of the Padua group, Thomas
Starkey and Richard Morison. Learning of the possibilities for men of outweigh any external meddlings. Although there were exceptions --
talent in Henry VIII's court, they both wrote to Cromwell, Starkey in Utopians could conquer unused lands (Utopia, p. 127/7-11) -- generally
1535 and Morison in 1536,offering their services, explaining their moti-
both men did not favor imperialism or war. Hythloday would have told
''ves, and even sending samples of their writing. Their quest was not the French king that he had cc better look after his ancestral k~ngdom

for honor or money (although Morison constantly seemed to be in need and make it as prosperous and flourishing as possible ... and have no
of the latter), but, as Starkey wrote, (( Our prince is set on the restitu-
tion of the true common weal, and I think I could in some part help the- designs upon other kingdoms since what he already possessed was more
reunto if you will set forward my purpose. )) l4 Morison, likewise, offe- than enough for him )) (Utopia, p. 91/25-29). This statement anticipates
red to cc come to England if I can serve my country. )) l 5 Cromwell by seven years Cromwell's well-known (and perhaps never-delivered)
speech to the Parliament of 1523, at which More was Speaker. Seeming
to echo Hythloday, Cromwell wrote of France's c( insatiable appetite
to extend their bound, )) but of the ct most lamentable cries,

8 LESLEY RIMMEL WAS CROMWELL A MOREAN ? 9

and sorrowful wringing of hands, )) which would occur if England Furthermore, there were technical problems in England's admi-
should go to war. 23 He adeptly conceded that war might be necessary, nistration of justice, concerning procedure, recipients, and the adminis-
but that the king should not go in person to fight it, for it would be an trators themselves in an unclear and uncodified system. More may have
irreplaceable loss to the country if he were to die. Scotland, the future been a lawyer (( above all else )) ; 27 he nevertheless criticizes the present
minister felt, would be a more important gain than France, since it was legal system in allowing Hythloday to exclude lawyers from Utopia :the
part of the same island. What he was really saying about a war with Utapians
France was that a subsidy would hurt the poor people the most, and that
in the end, not armed confrontation but cr brains and money )) would absolutely banish from their country all lawyers, who cleverly manipulate
win victories, 24 an idea employed by Edward IV and Henry VII, and by cases and cunningly argue legal points. They consider it a good thing that
More's Utopians : they are shameless bribers, and every man should plead his own cause and say the same to t h e judge as he
would tell his counsel. (Utopia, p. 195/15-19)
They boast themselves as having acted with valor and heroism whenever
their victory is such as no animal except man could have won, that is, by In his own life, as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, More often let
strength of intellect. (Utopia, p. 203/21-24) the defendents present their cases themselves, while he personally heard
them, as in the Richard Townely case. 28 Starkey, who had read Utopia,
Peace and no bloodshed were the conditions under which progress and also suggested that the number of lawyers be decreased, 29 and Crom-
reform could be made. When, at the openin'g of the 1529 Parliament, well twice put in his remembrances, in 1535 and 1536, plans t o diminish
Chancellor More made his speech about the need for reform in the both the number and ~ o w eorf lawyers, (( which persons be t h e cause of
realm, Cromwell was listening ; for with the'August 1529 Treaty of great plea and dissention. )) 30 The great number of lawyers needed t o
Cambrai peace had come, and it was time t o initiate great changes. 25 explain the incomprehensible laws had in turn rendered the laws useless.
(( The untrained judgment of the common people cannot attain to the
However, not only were the philosophies of reform that More meaning )) of such laws, More lamented ;(( since all laws are promulga-
and Cromwell embraced similar, but many specific reforms that they ted to. remind every man of his duty, the more recondite interpretation
advocated and got enacted were also similar. In the field of justice, for reminds only very few )) (Utopia, p. 195/36, 28-30). J.A. G u y suggests
instance, there were glaring problems, and, as More wrote, cr These two that More the chancellor may have been inspired by his own Polylerites
evils, favoritism and avarice, wherever they have settled in men's judg-
ments, instantly destroy all justice, the strongest sinew of the common- ''in his effort to simplify and make more equitable the English legal

. wealth )) (Utopia, p. 197/13-15). This sinew was definitely at the brea- system. But England's laws were on the whole not any clearer twenty
years later, according to Starkey, who noted that because of their ambi-
king point, especially in regard to the relition of crime and punishment. guous wording and their infinite interpretations, litigation was protrac-
More complained particularly of the folly of punishing theft by death,. ted far beyond the time necessary to decide a case, to the detriment of all
again saying through Hythloday that involved, especially poorer litigants. l2 The same year that Starkey was
finishing his Dialogue between Lupset and Pole, Cromwell was mulling
Since the robber sees that he is in as great danger if merely condemned for over the very problem of people having t o wait in prison so long, neither
theft as if he were convicted of murder as well, this single consideration society nor the accused gaining in the process. 33 The first actual attempt
impels him to murder the man whom otherwise he would only have robbed. at codification did not occur until the next century, under Sir Edward
(Utopia, p. 75/7-10) Coke ; 34 yet Cromwell tried to improve the availability as well as the
quality of justice by creating the Courts of Augmentations a n d Wards
The death penalty served no purpose;for the object of public anger is and by reorganizing the Courts of Star Chamber and Requests. 35 That
to destroy the vices but to save the persons )) (Utopia. p. 79/12-13). there were pressing problems in the field of justice was obvious to most
Likewise, Cromwell's secretary Stephen Vaughan had written to him people, but few except Cromwell were in a position to effect a n y chan-
pointing out that torture and harsh punishment of religious dissenters ges.
only encouraged them t o flee the realm and perhaps then harm England
from abroad, while in the end not changing their beliefs a t all. 26 Would
not Mary Tudor have been more effective if she had reconsidered the
use of torture and death ?

10 LESLEY RIMMEL WASCROMWELLAMOREAN? 11

One final problem was that all subjects were not receiving equal which could be translated into positive action by those in a position to
justice. In discussing treaties, for example, More has Hythloday suggest influence the governing process. Likewise, Cromwell's << formative
years )) in Italy accustomed him to the idea of analytic and realistic think-
that << there are at least two forms of [justice] :the one ... fit only for the ing, as opposed to the scholastic sort. He had already begun help-
ing scholars to finance their studies when he was a member of Cardinal
common sort and ...the other a virtue of kings. )) l6 Related to this pro- Wolsey's household, 4' and during his years in power he was constantly
being asked t o advance learning. 42 His most famous protkgds, Starkey
blem was the abuse of sanctuaries, which in More's view only complica- and Morison, were themselves strong believers in an educated nation.
ted the administration of justice, slowing up prosecution and generally Starkey blamed the errors of the times on the << lack of good teachers
not benefiting society at all. l7 Cromwell felt similarly, and early in 1540 and instructors, )) 43 and, furthermore, wanted education specialized s o
introduced legislation in the Lords that would completely exempt from as to suit each person's abilities, as it was in Utopia, with the bureaucra-
sanctuary protection those accused of murder, rape, burglary, robbery, tic addition of admission officers for << every craft, art, and science )) to
arson, or sacrilege ;this bill became enacted the same year and sought to
take care of those many idle and evil persons << nothing regarding the ensure that people were making the correct career choice. " Dickens
fear of God nor the punishment of the King's laws. )) l8 Gradually the
connection of the clergy with the administration of justice was being claims that the dissolution of the monasteries did little to harm English
broken, perhaps having begun with the choice of layman More, who education, 45 but in any case Starkey, not content t o approve of their
himself was aware of injustices in the Church courts, l9 to the position dissolution, wanted t o convert them into schools and universities. 46
of Lord Chancellor in 1529. But the law never achieved the simplicity Cromwell's men were thus not destroyers of culture and education,
and comprehensibility found in Utopia, for that kind of law could occur while Cromwell himself was eager to promote humanist education as
only in a land without private property. Hythloday contrasted Utopia well.
with nations
In addition, the Cromwellians saw education as an instrument of
where whatever a man has acquired he calls his own private property, but social change. Morison believed that everyone should have an education ;
where all these laws daily framed are not enough for a man to secure or impoverished, unemployed, and papally-inclined persons could not be
even to distinguish from someone else's the goods which each in turn calls forced to obey the government, but rather needed to be educated in a
his own, a predicament readily attested by the numberless and ever new and trade and in the established religion. 47 In his Injunctions of 1536,
interminable lawsuits. (Utopia, p. 103/39-40 ; p. 105/ 1-4) Cromwell commanded the wealthier clergy to support poor university
scholars, 48 while at the same time Archbishop Thomas Cranmer abolish-
With all the inequities involved in administering property and inheritan- ed the custom of having only the sons of noblemen attend t h e Canter-
ces, for example, Cromwell would have done just as well to have wished bury Cathedral School. 49 As Cromwell's, Wolsey's, and More's own
for the abolition of private property, too. At least he took a large step in rise to power exemplified, the time was ripe for the advancement of per-
that direction by abrogating the clergy's extensive hold on property, and sons on the basis of merit without concern for their birth. so Thomas
by abolishing the jurisdiction that the clergy enjoyed over the laity. Howard, Duke of Norfolk, was rebuked by both the king a n d the Privy
Council when he tried to force on them his passionate belief that only
No less fundamental than justice to a good society was educa- nobility should control the realm. Henry refused to allow anyone to dic-
tion, in which Cromwell believed as strongly as More. More's reputa- tate to him on the matter of who should serve him, 5' and the Privy
tion as an international scholar and opponent of scholasticism has not Council told Norfolk that its membership would not be restricted to the
diminished in the centuries since the days of Utopia, but just as impor- nobility. 52 The rebellions in 1536-37, which Norfolk, ironically, had t o
tant is the fact that he was not << elitist )) about education : he believed, subdue, were aristocratic, not << proletarian )) ;the government, publici-
in advance of his time, that everybody should have a certain minimum zing itself in English, showed a concern for the lower classes which was
of learning, which would profit the entire commonwealth. In his para- radical in its day. Social equality was, of course, a long way off (and
dise << all children are introduced to good literature, )) and << a large part perhaps is yet to happen). Even Morison admitted that << lords must be
of the people, too, men and women alike, throughout their lives, devote

to learning the hours which ...are free from manual labor )) (Utopia, p.

159/10-14). Moreover, he was interested in practical learning, learning

12 LESLEY RIMMEL For the economic problems of the times were particularly difficult
and everywhere apparent. More correctly identified two of the major
lords, commons must be commons, )) 53 but he believed that social rank reasons for the great deal of begging and unemployment as enclosures
would soon be limited only by one's abilities, people's chances for rising and price increases, especially in wool, grain, and meats (Utopia, pp.
in rank being enhanced by their being able to choose their own occupa- 67-69). In Utopia, Hythloday was convinced that economic inequality
tions. Slowly Norfolk's ideas would have to give way to Cromwell's, but did not have to exist, but, rather, that cc commonwealths )) of the time
not until after the duke had enjoyed a symbolic victory in the death of were cc nothing else than a kind of conspiracy of the rich, who are
his low-born rival. aiming at their own interests under the name and title of the common-
wealth )) (Utopia, p. 241/27-29). The rich, by their greed, swindled the
Nevertheless, social and economic inequality remained a reality, poor publicly as well as privately, inventing tax laws which harmed
and the government could not ignore it o r its implications for a society those people who deserved the most from the commonwealth, but got
based, in theory, upon law and order. In the face of poverty, disease, the least. Furthermore, contrary to common belief, a king would not be
illiteracy, and other disturbing problems, the government could choose more powerful if the gulf between his wealth and that o f his subjects
to be callous, but both More and Cromwell firmly wanted it to be char- were greater, or, in the words of Hythloday, cc It is not consistent with
itable and compassionate. Throughout his writings More stressed char- the dignity of a king to exercise authority over beggars but over prospe-
ity, seeing it, and not faith, as the highest Christian virtue. 54 His philo- rous and happy subjects )) (Utopia, p. 95/11, 32-33). A r t h u r S. Mac-
sophy of compassion inspires Hythloday's remark that the Utopians Nalty suggests that, had More been given time, he would have (( in his
cc judge it cruel that a person should be abandoned when most in need
of comfort )) (Utopia, p. 189/36-67). In his Dialogue of Comfort, he wisdom and humanity ...devised a sound system of poor relief. *)) But
denounced the inhumanity of (( casting out comfortless )) the retainers
who had fallen ill during the term of their service ; people were being although More's name was never attached to any of the poor legislation
exploited for their labor value, and then when they could no longer be that emerged, his specific ideas as well as his spirit of reform were incor-
used, they were left poor and helpless. 55 In Utopia there was no such porated into the plans of the Cromwellians, who enacted the first
problem ; the government took care of all those unable to work, the serious poor-relief measures and laid the groundwork for t h e first really
labor of their youth earning them security, rather than poverty. Pace comprehensive poor laws.
Elton, 56 a similar philosophy is at work behind Cromwell's reforms,
and the draft of a proposed poor law written during the years of the The economic welfare of the country was one o f Cromwell's
Secretary's rise to influence reads much like More : most important concerns, even up to his last months when, as usual, he
was overwhelmed with pressing business. But he was in a position to
... some have fallen to such misery through the defaJt of their masters
understand and make the necessary changes in the economy -- he.had
which have put them out of service in time of sickness and left them wholly engineered, for example, the valor ecclesiasticus -- and his advisors and
without relief or comfort. 57
other reformers trusted in his ability and desire t o d o the j o b . 62 At the
Cromwell himself was known to have fed more than two hundred per- heart of many complaints about poverty and idleness were enclosures.
Repeated attempts at making and enforcing anti-enclosure laws had
sons at his door every day, and orison praised him strongly as a bene- been ineffective ;at least five proclamations were made before 1535 on
the problem. 63 In 1534 the government adopted a new tactic -- fimiting
factor of poor scholars -- cc who known to you will not have felt a few of the number of sheep one could possess t o two thousand. 6.1 The @.earn-
ble of the Act shows concern and pity for those who have taken to crime
your benefits ? )) 58 because economic conditions beyond their control have prevented them
But the Cromwellians had more in mind than just personal char- from earning an honest living :

ity, an idea which certainly did not derive from their own age. Rather, ... whereof a marvelous multitude and number of the people of this Realm
the state was t o be made an instrument of care and charity for the com- be not able to provide meat ... but be so discouraged with misery and
mon weal ;the whole idea of a common weal was, in fact, to be empha-
sized. Vaughan appealed t o Cromwell in 1534 t o cc help the common ''poverty that they fall daily to theft, robbery and other i~lconbenience,or
causes of the realm, )) 59 and the latter was, by then, in a position t o
influence the realm's social and economic events. pitifully die for hunger and cold.

14 LESLEY RIMMEL WAS CROMWELL A MOREAN ? 15

The preamble goes on to accuse greedy landowners of coveting profit at ''must leave London and return to their place of origin, but both statu-
the expense of so many other persons. This Act was a step in the right
direction, but it was only after overcoming much resistance from the tes and proclamations had been, for the most part, ineffective. It was
Lords (who had a great deal of vested interest in enclosed lands) that not laws against non-productive use of time that were going to solve the
Cromwell succeeded in getting an enclosure act (27 Henry VIII, c. 22) idleness problem, but rather the constructive offering of employment to
which dealt with the causes as well as with the symptoms of the evil. The those unable (or unwilling) to find it themselves.
act made sheep farming less profitable by setting a maximum on the
number of sheep one could own, and it distinguished between (( legiti- It is in the area of public employment where Starkey's and Mori-
mate )) and (( anti-social )) pasturing, which no previous acts had ever son's advice sounds so much like More's, and where Cromwell was most
done. 66 NO further enclosure legislation was enacted during the reign, receptive to reform -- and most thwarted in it. Starkey suggested that
and this particular law was still being used a century later. Sheep grazing every child, from the age of seven, should be brought up in a trade or in
did not stop, nor would its elimination have been beneficial to the letters, with none being allowed to engage in the service of the nobility
country, but at least further enclosures, and consequent price rises, were as a career. l2 One of his specific suggestions was for the government to
discouraged. For the enclosure movement and the resultant decline of employ more people in the linen industry, a proposal which Cromwell
agricultural production had encouraged grain-hoarding a's well as the
formation of confederations of grain-growers, who set high prices for was working on during his last year. '' Another of his proposals could
their grain, which was, because of scarcity, already expensive. Thus
before the enclosure law, the government had to issue several proclama- have been taken directly from Utopia : And as to articles of export,
tions forbidding hoarding and price-raising, '6 but after the enclosure the Utopians think it wiser to carry them out of the country themselves
act was passed no more such proclamations were made until Edward VI, than to let strangers come to fetch them D (Utopia, p. 185/10-12). Star-
whose proclamation simply confirmed and enforced earlier statutes and key wrote that forcing English merchants to use English shipping would
proclamations. help solve the problems of unemployed mariners. l4 If he had lived two
years longer, he would have seen his -- and More's -- suggestion made
But there still remained the problem of idleness and vagabon- into law as the nation's first navigation act. l5 Likewise, Morison, in his
dage. In the 1539 Offical Account of the Reformation, )) the (( States Remedy for Sedition, understood the need to train the poor for
of the Realm n described themselves as having (( by a law, provided to jobs : (( it should be much better to find a way, that none might have
avoid idle people and vagabonds, to cherish and sustain the poor impo- will to rebel, than to truss up rebellious people. )) l6 The rebels of the
tent, and live so that the works of charity are observed better than northern uprising blamed Cromwell for theirhconomic problems, when
ever. s 69 Under Cromwell, they had certainly tried. More had railed in fact he was at that very time working on poor relief legislation com-
prehensive enough to be effective, and his defender, Morison, was
against the idleness of three major groups of people -- the nobility, symbolic of what a poor but talented person could become.

clergymen, and women (Utopia, pp. 63, 131). In words which he The Poor Law enacted in 1536 ''is considered the first realistic and
perhaps later regretted, he cautiously allowed a fool in Utopia to say
that friars (( are the greatest vagabonds of all )) (Utopia, p. 83/23-24). comprehensive attempt to deal with poverty, yet had Crornwell been
With noblewomen being perhaps the only idle women, )) there were able to push through a different draft, the results might have been revo-
actually two basic groups of vagabonds, )) those who did not work lutionary. The original author of this draft could have been William
simply because they had no desire to, and those who were ill or who Marshall, a disciple of Marsiglio of Padua and a pamphleteer for Crom-
were left jobless due to circumstances beyond their control. Cromwell, well. He had also been associated with More ;the latter made an inter-
like More, had solutions for both of these groups, although exofficio he
was more concerned with the economic plight of the latter than with the ''cessiun for him to have the office of Secretary of Compter in 1529.
moral position of the former. Numerous proclamations had been made
to enforce statutes against vagrancy, one simply saying that vagabonds Guy, as noted, credits St. German with the draft. l9 In any case, the
draft distinguished between those who were unemployed by choice,
those who would like to work but could not find a job, and those who
were physically unable to work, and dealt with each group accordingly.
It prooosed that work projects in a certain area be proclaimed a week in
advance, and all unemployed able-bodied persons in that area be requi-

16 LESLEY RIMMEL Nor was this extravagance limited t o a social class : cc Not only the ser-

fea t o report for the job, which would bring them cc reasonable wages bb vants of'noblemen but thecraftsmen and ... in fact all classes alike, are

as well as cc meat and drink bb The punishments for refusal to report given to much ostentatious sumptuousness of dress a n d to excessive
were comparatively light, as Elton has shown, and vagabonds were indulgence at table )) (Utopia, p. 69/30-33). and it was suggested that
given two chances to become a part of the working force. The drafter of people be legally restricted to a certain amount of land and income
the bill was obviously more concerned with employing people and (Utopia, p. 105). This was partially attempted in the enclosure act of
making them useful than with punishing them. This aspect o f the bill 1535, which, as previously explained, restricted grazing land t o two
solved two problems at once by offering employment, while working t o thousand acres per farm. 85 A sumptuary law did appear in 1532, and
solve some of the realm's physical problems, such as bad roads and des- was re-enforced in 1534 by a proclamation. 86 The 1532 cc A c t for Refor-
troyed towns. Begging was discouraged ;begging children were to be appren- mation of Excess in Apparel )) ascribed t o extravagance, as More had,
ticed, and the impotent poor were to be maintained a t the public expense, cc the utter impoverishment and undoing of many inexpert a n d light per-
partly by a graduated income tax and partly by alms collected at the sons inclined to pride, mother of all vices. )) It was n o t completely
parish church. Those too ill t o work would have medical attention, in Morean in that it restricted .persons to a certain degree o f clothing in
the hope of curing them so that they would be able to work again. The keeping with their socioeconomic status (cc states, pre-eminences, digni-
stress is again on the positive. The most innovative aspects of the draft ties, and degrees ,>),and thus accentuated, rather than obliterated, class
were, first, the full-time censors, appointed by the Council, whose job it differences. But the egalitarianism of apparel in Utopia had one major
was t o seek out and employ or punish vagabonds, and to find the impo- exception which, interestingly, is almost repeated in the 1532 statute :
tent and sick poor and have them brought to hospitals, and secondly, the priests in Utopia wore beautiful, multicolored coats, anything simi-
the graduated income tax, which was to finance the public works. This lar to which was not allowed for the rest of the population (Utopia, p.
latter revolutionary arrangement most likely doomed the bill, which met 239/19-29), just as only the king of England was allowed t o wear pur-
great opposition in parliament, for, as More had said, cc all gatherynge ple. The differences in apparel allowed by More and Cromwell were
significant statements ofrheir realization that no matter how equal i n a
of money ... is the onlye thynge that withdraweth the heartes of society one's opportunities for economic prosperity might be, there
would still exist certain differences, especially intellectual ones, between
Englyshmenne f r o the Prince. bb O2 Elton sees tc not the slightest link be- people.
tween this draft and More's Utopia. )) Yet it was, like Utopia, not a
long sermon on poverty, but a practical, administrative measure which Starkey and Morison are the best examples of those who,
because of their intellectual powers, were able to become directly invol-
"dealt with the cure and prevention of the problem. Inspired by states- ved in governing the realm. Zeeveld sees the two men as the heirs o f the
tc More-Pole tradition u of humanist-scholars employed in government
men from More to Starkey, the economic plan was not enacted until service, and Franklin Baumer finds evidence of Starkey's having read
near the end of Elizabeth's reign, and then not even in so complete a Utopia. Again it is useless t o decide whether or not Starkey actually
form as was this draft. A truly Cromwellian statement of intent to
remedy an ever-increasing problem, this remedy had to be postponed had read it -- o r whether the exiled Pole was only trying to h a r m Crom-
because of the changes in religious institutions taking place.
well's reputation by associating him with Machiavelli, since Morison,
The reverse problem --excessive wealth --was even more difficult who most probably had read the Florentine's works, had written under
to legislate against, but Cromwell, like More, recognized that people a pseudonym and therefore was not susceptible to attacks. But some
were impoverishing themselves by their extravagance. Hythloday, in points about Starkey, one of Cromwell's chief pamphleteers, deserve
accents reminiscent of More's other assaults o n pride (superbia), said attention. Like More, he believed that, despite the built-in limitations of
that the job of advising a king, people with abilities and experience to offer
should nevertheless welcome the opportunity to, benefit t h e common
avarice and greed are aroused in every kind of living creature by the fear of weal in whatever way possible, in planning for the best under the cir-
cumstances :
want, but only in min are they motivated by pride alone -- pride which

counts it a personal glory to excel others by superfluous display of posses-
sions. (Utopia, p. 139/5-9)

18 LESLEY RIMMEL WASCROMWELLAMOREAN? 19

Like as there is some respect to be had of time for the abstaining from the ferred to use (( hospitality and persuasion >) with the noble a n d power-
entreaty of matters of the common weal, so there is much more of taking ful ;97 he undoubtedly knew that an excessive show of pride would only
the time when it is, and taking occasion when it offereth itself. n9 endanger the revolution he was so carefully trying t o bring about. Thus
he allowed himself to take a lot of abuse (which, indeed, h e got) ; his
Also like More (and Marsiglio of Padua, from whom he derived many (( low birth )) prevented him from wasting time and energy defending
of his ideas), Starkey believed that the state was a (( natural phenome- his dignity n and position. Norfolk's pride, however, destroyed one
non n, and that the active, civic life was more natural than the contem- of the commonwealth's greatest destroyers of pride -- Thomas Crom-
well.
plative one. *' This led to their belief in the power of the laws. Not that
T o make the earthly world more livable, to give intellectual
laws by themselves are perfect ;they had to be (( perfected by Christian
reformers more influence and access to government -- these were the
polity. )) ''The man who developed the idea of the via media had an
goals of Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell who, despite their
honest desire to serve the king, for neither money nor honors (neither of obvious differences, believed and acted similarly in regard t o many of
which he got). V' With Morison he represented the Morean ideal of intel-
lect serving the country -- practical intellect listened to and advice put the most important issues of the time. Parker's assertion (quoted above,
into action. As previously discussed, many of Starkey's suggestions p. 5) that the latter had a (( cynical view of politics )) cannot b e accepted
were enacted, or at least seriously considered by the government. 93 in view of Cromwell's attempts and successes at reform. Morus, respon-
More's words of encouragement to a would-be advisor prophecy the via ding t o the sermo of Hythloday, concluded his discourse with a sigh of
media philosophy that would soon dominate the religious settlement, pessimism : I readily admit that there are very many features in the
thanks to Starkey : Utopian commonwealth which it is easier for me t o wish for in our
countries than to have any hope of seeing realized u (Utopia, p. 245/39 ;
You must not abandon the ship in a storm because you cannot control the p. 247/1-3). But through Cromwell's efforts England really did try to
winds. On the other hand, you must not force upon people new and strange imitate some of those (( very many things, )) and was pushed closer t o
ideas which you realize will carry no weight with persons of opposite con- her own Utopia. Roger Ascham, secretary to Morison in 1550-53, wrote
viction. (Utopia, p. 99/34-38) that the opposite of a Catholic was a Machiavellian, and that both were
dangerous. 98 Somewhere between those extremes were More a n d Crom-
Indeed, Cromwell's advisors were worthy successors to the intellectual well, but is it necessary t o classify the two reformers ? Where Elton calls
tradition of More, with the added attributes of practicality and applica-
bility. Cromwell both (( victim and victor u of his reforms, * he could have

But to return to More and Cromwell. Of all the ideas they sha- been referring to More, who had been just as much an inspiration to the
red, most pervasive was their hatred of pride. More described pride as new order as he was a martyr to it.
the sin which, above all others, impedes human progress :
New York Lesley A. RIMMEL
This serpent from hell entwines itself around the hearts of men and acts like
the suckfish in preventing and hindering them from entering on a better NOTES
way of life. (Utopia. p. 243/39 ; p. 245/1-2)
* The author wishes to thank Deans Herbert M. Atherton and Eva S. Balogh,
Cromwell had occasion enough to be proud, and show it, but he wisely
avoided the ostentatious display that had made Wolsey so hated, and Professors John S. Beckerman and the late Richard S. Sylvester, and F r . Germain
was content t o ser've his prince without trying to maintain factions. Marc'hadour and James P. Warren for their help and encouragement on this project.
Elton gives several examples of Cromwell's preference for promoting
peace and justice over the advancement of his own interests and those of I. R.W. Chambers, Thomas More (New York : Harcourt, Brace, & Co., 1939,
his supporters. Y4 Indeed, he ascribes ~ r o m w e l l ' s fall to his being p. 292.
(( insufficiently ruthless, )) Y5 not punishing dangerous enemies when he
had the opportunity. Y T r o m w e l ldid not hate Gardiner and Norfolk as
they hated him ;Norfolk's noble pride was insulted by the influence that
the shearman's son had over the king. Dickens says that Cromwell pre-

20 LESLEY RIMMEL WASCROMWELLAMOREAN? 21

2. Ibid., p. 360. 19. Ibid., p. 53 (from F.A. Gasquet. Cardinal Pole and His Early Friends,
London. 1927).
3. T.M. Parker, a Was Thomas Cromwell a Machiavellian ? n (The Journal
of Ecclesiastical History, vol. 1, 1950). p. 75. 20. Utopia pp. 157-63 ; Martin Fleisher, Radical Reform andTPoliticai
Peisuasion in the Life and Writings of Thomas More (Geneva : Librairie Droz, 1973).
4. lbid., p. 69. p. 8.

5. See G.R. Elton, Reform and Reformation (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard Uni- 21. J.H. Hexter, cc Thomas More : O n the Margins of Modernity * (The Journal
versity Press, 1977). p. 169 ; A.G. Dickens, Thomas Cromwell and the English Reforma-
tion (London : The English Universities Press, Ltd.. 1959). p. 15 ; R.B. Merriman, Life of British Studies, vol. 1, 1961). p. 35 ;J.H. Hexter, The Vision of Politics on the Eve of
and Letters of Thomas CromweN (Oxford :Oxford University Press, 1902), vol. I, p. 10. the Reformarion (New York : Basic Books. Inc., 1973). p. 104.

6. Thomas More, Utopia, ed. Edward Surtz and J.H. Hexter (The Yale 22. Fleisher, Radical Reform and Political Persuasion, pp. 124, 140.
Edition of the Complete Works o f St. Thomas More, vol. 4 ;New Haven : Yale University
Press, 1965). p. 87/13-15. References henceforth to be given in the text. 23. Merrirnan, Life and Letters of Thomas CromweN 1, 30 ff.

7. J.A. Guy, The Public Career of Sir Thomas More (New Haven : Yale 24. Ibid., I, p. 46.
University Press, 1980). p. 7.
25. Edward Hall, Chronicle, 764, in cc Thomas More. Councillor n (in G.R.
8. Edward 1V was the first to change this trend ; he had many lay. university- Elton. Studies in Tudor and Stuart Politics & Government, vol. I , Cambridge :Cambridge
trained persons in his secretarv's office (J. Otwav-Ruthven, The King's Secretary and the University Press, 1974), p. 153.
Signet Office in the XVIh Century [Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. ]9391., pp.
77-79). But More himself was the first lay Lord Chancellor, and Cromwell the first lay 27. Guy, The Public Career of Sir Thomas More, p. 93. Cf. J . H . Hexter, who
King's Secretary, in decades. maintains that More had a n absolute cc aversion n to committing his time to the practice
of law (cc Thomas More and the Problem of Counsel, n in Quincentennial Essays on St.
9. Parker, n Was Thomas Crornwell a Machiavellian ? M, p. 74. ThomasMore :Selected Papersfrom the Thomas More College Conference, ed. Michael
J. Moore, Boone, N.C. : Albion, Appalachian State University, 1978). p. 58.
10. W. Gordon Zeeveld. Foundations of Tudor Policy (Cambridge. Mass. :Har-
vard University Press, 1948). p. 112. 28. Margaret Hastings, cc Sir Thomas More : Maker of English Law ? n in
Essential Articles for the Study of Thomas More, ed. R.S. Sylvester and G.P.
11. Ibid., p. 46. Marc'hadour (Hamden, Ct. : Archon Books, 1977), p. 112.

12. Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, 29. Thomas Starkey, A Dialogue Between Lupset and Pole, ed. K.M. Burton
ed. J.S. Brewer er 01. (London, 1862-1932, reprinted 1965). xii 11 885, 996, 1175 (hence- (London : Chatto & Windus, 1948), p. 72.
forth cited as LPI.
31. Guy. ThePublic Career of Sir ThomasMore, pp. 122-23. Apparently the Duke
13. Ibid., viii 213. x 372. of Norfolk, also a villain in the Cromwell story, was an obstacle to any Utopian reforms.
Ibid., p. 127.
14. Ibid., viii 213
32. Starkey, Dialogue, p. 113
IS. Ibid., x 372.
34. G.R. Elton, cc Rclorrtl by Stalute )) (1'roc.eedin~soj' the Bri/i.vh Acude~r~y.
16. Ibid., ix 103, x 565. vol. LIV. 1%8), p. 179.

17. /hid.. viii 218 ; luckily S~arkeyW:I\ 1101 nlivc Iwcl~lyyear\ later.

22 LESLEY RIMMEL WAS CROMWELL A MOREAN ? 23

35. G.R. Elton. Reform and Renewal (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. 53. Zeeveld. Foundations, p. 211.
1973). pp. 14142.
54. More, Dialogue Concerning Heresies. in Fleisher, Radical Reform and
36. Utopia, p. 199/11-15. Priests in Utopia, being so few and so holy, were Political Persuasion. p. 118.
never brought to court for their crimes. Ibid., p. 229/24-25.
55. A Dialogue of Comfort Agoins1 Tribulation (in Utopia, p. 319, Commentary
37. Ibid., p. 81/10-11. Treating sanctuaries in Richard Ill (ed. R.S. Sylvester, t o p. 62).
New Haven. Yale University Press, 1963, pp. 29-32), More has the Duke of Buckingham
speak of their abuses, saying that cc Ye shall find it much better t o lack both [the disadvan- 56. G.R. Elton, a An Early Tudor Poor Law, >> (The Economic History Review,
tages and the advantages of sanctuary], than to have both. )> In More's own first year as 2nd series, vol. 7, 1953). p. 66.
Chancellor, parliament did enact legislation t o deal with sanctuary abuse by felons and
murderers (21 Henry VIII, c. 2, in Guy. The Public Career of Sir Thomas More, p. 122). 27. Ibid., p. 57. Cf. Guy, who ascribes the draft t o Christopher St. German
(The Public Career of Sir ThomasMore, pp. 151-55). 1 d o not attempt t o resolve the con-
38. L P xv 438 ;32 Henry VIII, c. 12. Cromwell's statute was much more radical troversy. What is important here is that the socioeconomic ideas were Morean ; that
and comprehensive than the earlier one. Cromwell (pace Guy) could recognize tc good ideas when he saw them, >> in t h a t he kept a
copy of the plan, reinforces the link between More and Cromwell.
39. J.J. Scarisbrick, t( Thomas More : The King's Good Servant >> (in Thought,
vol. LII, no. 206, September 1977), p. 259. 58. Stowe, Survey of London (in Dickens, Thomas Cromwell, p. 38 ;trans. from
Latin by Lin E. Welden) ;G.R. Elton, Policy and Police (Cambridge :Cambridge Univer-
40. Dickens, Thomas Cromwell, p. 14. sity Press. 1972). p. 192.

42. For example, that of Thomas Wynter, L P v i 314. 59. L P v i i 1515.

43. Starkey, Dialogue, p. 130. 60. Arthur S. MacNalty, cc Sir Thomas More as Public Health Reformer, >) (in
44. Ibid., p. 147. Essential Articles), p. 127.

45. Dickens, Thomas Cromwell, p. 29. 61. L P xiv 1 655.

46. Starkey, Dialogue, p. 169. 62. Ibid., xi 1481.
47. Richard Morison, cc A Remedy for Sedition, )) in Zeeveld, Foundations,
p. 218. 63. P.L. Hughes and J.F. Larkin, eds.. Tudor Royal Proclama~ions(New Haven :
Yale University Press, 1964), no. 75 (6Henry Vlll), nos. 1l o a n d 113 (18 Henry VIII), and
48. Dickens, Thomas Cromwell, p. 88. nos. 121 and 123 (20 Henry V111) ; henceforth referred t o as TRP.

49. Zeeveld. Foundations, p. 194. 64. Henry V111, c. 13.

50. Ibid., p. 193. This refers to Richard Pace's forward-looking statement 65. Ibid.
in De Fructu, p. I2 (in L P ii 11 3765).
66. Elton, Reform and Renewal, pp. 103-106.
52. Ibid.. xii 636.
67. T R P no. 121 (20 Henry VIII), nos. 125 and 127 (21 Henry VIll
-- these are attributed to More), and no. I51 (26 Henry VIII).

68. Ibid., no. 373 (5 Edward VI).

69. L P xiv 1 402. 70. T R P no. 131 (23 Henry VIII).

24 LESLEY RIMMEL

71. 3 Henry VIII, c. 3 ;6 Henry VIII, c. 2 ; TRPno. 132 (23 Henry VIII), no. 138
(24 Henry VIII), no. 163 (27 Henry VIII), and no. 183 (30 Henry VIII).

72. Starkey, Dialogue, p. 142. 73. Ibid., pp. 73, 140 ; L P xiv (1) 872.

74. Starkey. Dialogue, p. 159. 75. 31 Henry VIII, c. 14.

76. Morison, cc A Remedy, N in Zeeveld, Foundations, p. 218.

77. 27 Henry VIII. c. 25.

78. Elton, cc An Early Tudor Poor Law, n p. 65 ;L P i v 111 (app.), 133.

79. See above. n. 69.

80. cc An Early Tudor Poor Law, )) p. 58. 81. Ibid., p. 59.

82. More, Richard 111, p. 5. 83. cc An Early Tudor Poor Law, >> p. 66.

84. Starkey, Dialogue, p. 160 ; Elton, cc Reform by Statute, w p. 174.

85. 27 Henry VIII, c. 22.

86. 24 Henry VIII, c. 13 ; T R P no. 143 (25 Henry VIII).

87. 24 Henry VIII, c. 13.

88. Zeeveld, Foundations, p. 16 ; Franklin L. Baumer, cc Thomas starkey and
Marsilius of Padua. >) (Politics, vol. 2,s 1936). p. 191.

89. Starkey, Dialogue, p. 38

90. Baumer, cc Thomas Starkey and Marsilius of Padua, >> (from Marsiglio,
DejPnsor Pacis, I ii), p. 194 ; Utopia, p. 227/16-17.

91, Zeeveld. Foundations, p. 144.

92. L P viii 575, ix 1160. 93. See above, notes 37 and 38.

94. L P xiii 11 935, xi 1216.

95. G.R. Elton, a Thomas Cromwell's Decline and Fall, )> (in Studies in Tudor
and Stuart Politics & Government. vol. I), p. 201.

%. Elton, Policy and Police, 16ff. 97. Dickens, Thomas Cromwell, p. 170.

98. Zeeveld, Foundations, p. 240. 99. Elton. Policy and Police, p. 425.