A Man for all Seasons
This is a fragment of the play called A Man for all Seasons, written
by Robert Bolt in 1960. He was an English playwright and a two-
time Oscar-winning screenwriter, ones of them with this play itself.
The play set in turbulent times. Henry VIII wanted to have a
male heir; he was worried that he had only one surviving child, Mary,
to show for his marriage to Catherine. So the king asked Cardinal
Wolsey, he wanted to cast off his catholic wife in favour of the
younger and livelier Anne Boleyn to get an heir. But in the process of
doing so, he had to server links with Rome, causing his chancellor
sir Thomas More and many other churchmen to examine their
consciences. More becomes an irritating thorn in the king´s side.
Henry was excomunated by the Pope and the English reformation
began. After Wolsey’s downfall, Thomas Cromwell became Henry’s
chief minister by helping him to break with Rome and establish
Henry VIII as head of the Church of England in 1533. He demanded
that both bishops and parliament renounce all allegiance to the Holy
See. This act also brought him much needed wealth through the
dissolution of the well-funded monasteries. Over four years,
Cromwell ordered that 800 monasteries be disbanded and their
lands and treasures taken for the crown. Thomas more quietly
resigns his post as chancellor rather than accept the new order.
More was interrogated on his opinions by Cromwell but he refuse to
answer, taking into account his right under the law of England
In this fragment we can see firstly the moment when Cromwell
and More have that conversation. Since lines 1 to 27 Cromwell and
Norfolk ask more if he had ever seen a document which was the Act
of Succession and he also asked More swear the Act. But Thomas
refused to do. Then, since lines 29 to 40, Cromwell declared that
Henry saw more as a traitor. He had been unable to find any
apology that allowed it to take the oath. Sir Thomas more was tried
for high treason. And finally, since lines 42 to 57, more took the
opportunity to speak out and declared that no temporal man may be
the head of spirituality. More was then sentenced to be hanged until
half dead, then disemboweled and burned in the tower of London
(6TH July, 1535). Many years later, Thomas more was beatified in
1886 and canonized in 1935, by the Catholic Church. He is
considered a saint and martyr.