More’s Musings While Awaiting Martyrdom

During a protracted incarceration in the Tower of London for the crime of keeping his own counsel on the affair of King Henry VIII, St. Thomas More penned The Sadness of Christ. He delves into Christ’s agony, probing into the manifestation of His bloody sweat and considering thoughts and objections to this physical revelation of Christ’s spiritual struggle. The picture More paints as he examines the various martyrs reveals his own interior landscape as he endured imprisonment and torture and faced his final days. More opined that martyrs “who do not rush forth of their own accord, but who nevertheless do not hang back or withdraw once they have been seized” merit the same honors accorded to martyrs “who freely and eagerly exposed themselves to death.” (More, The Sadness of Christ, page 41) St. Thomas More resisted King Henry’s usurpation of papal authority with his silence and refusal to sign the Oath. He retired from his position of Lord Chancellor, returned to his home, and no doubt hoped that he would live out his days peacefully, away from political entanglements and thorny issues. When he was seized, penned up in the Tower of London, questioned, and tortured, More obstinately refused to yield ground; he retained his reticence. Upon his condemnation and imminent sentence of death, More held forth; he opened his mind to the Court, boldly speaking the Truth they had all abandoned. St. Thomas More did not hold back from martyrdom when the judge and jurors pronounced the sentence of capital punishment upon him.

St. Thomas More speaks eloquently of the “weariness, fear, and anguish” (More, Sadness, page 43) welling up within a soul faced with the imminent demise of the body. When death was escapable only by compromising his faith, More broke his silence. He would not save his body from a “ghastly death” by denying the Church as Jesus founded it, with a universal Pope; he would not admit that a king could be a pope in his own kingdom. More musing on Jesus’ anguished prayer in the garden while His Apostles slept must have been a source of comfort and reassurance for him. He writes: “whoever is utterly crushed…and is tortured by the fear…consider this agony of Christ…meditate on it constantly…drink deep and health-giving draughts of consolation from this spring.” (More, Sadness, page 44) More, a man accustomed to spending hours in the company of God as he prayed, would take courage by following the example laid before him by our Lord.  Jesus’ earnest prayer to the point of sweating blood before the shackles, lashes, and nail shed that Precious Blood furnished a salutary example for those who face martyrdom with mortal dread. Jesus provided His future martyrs with a fitting prayer: “Yet not my will, but Thine, be done.” (NABRE Mk 14:36)

More presents the sleeping Apostles in stark contrast to the traitor, alert and actively bringing the troops to arrest Jesus; he draws a comparison to the bishops and clergy who betrayed Christ by abandoning their post as hirelings. The corruption in the clergy cried out for correction in More’s day; he favored reform from within. More’s consideration of clerical vices encompassed both dereliction of duty and destructive desires, that is, sins of omission and sins of commission. The sorrow of the drowsy disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane eventually led to repentance and conversion; whereas Judas and More’s contemporary bishops despaired of God’s mercy. The avarice in the clergy who “preach false doctrine…for sordid gain” (More, Sadness, page 48) recalls the thirty pieces of silver and the kiss of Judas. More exhorts his readers (and himself) to seek the Lord in prayer and penitence, as Peter did when he “went out and wept bitterly.” (MT 26:75)

Jesus’ admonition to “sleep on now and take your rest” while Judas and the mob approached prompted in More’s mind a meditation on some specific prayers:  not to fall into temptation, not to desert Jesus, and not to cause great scandal. More knew that he cut quite a public figure although he had been silent and had retired from the Court; he knew the scandal he could cause in the faithful if his courage deserted him and he gave way to his mortal terror. He takes to heart Jesus’ command to arise and pray; he collects his mind in the silence of the night. He prays not only for himself, but for others to imitate his prudential stewardship of his life and his ultimate witness to the Truth.