Sir Thomas More
(English martyr and saint, 1478-1535)
Historical events work out odd
when they relate to Almighty God.
Take the case of Sir Thomas More.
He made King Henry awfully sore
by refusing Henry’s order to endorse
his wife Catherine’s unlawful divorce.
The matter quickly escalated
to others related and complicated –
namely, Henry’s obsession
for a royal heir and succession,
illegal divorce and adultery
and ecclesiastical supremacy.
Henry’s appetite for sex and sin
had his lusty eyes on Ann Boleyn.
When More learned she was pregnant,
it made him only more indignant.
So Henry, Christian that he was,
manipulated clergymen and laws.
With Cranmer’s conscience dulled,
he had Henry’s marriage annulled.
The pope then quickly acted,
had the king excommuincated.
Henry, now ex-catholic, made himself
“pope” despite the flames of Hell –
another thorn in More’s sore side,
and one which he could not abide.
Henry now showed his full lunacy
by enacting the Act of Supremacy.
The king thus had sovereign reason
to charge poor More with treason,
found him guilty and sent him on
to that dreaded tower in London.
There, with time for contemplation,
More transcribed his Tribulations,
calm with faith – and head – awaited
his day to be decapitated.
And, indeed, he was – on July 6,
1535, one year past his fifty-sixth.
To make light of any tragedy
shows lack of heart and empathy.
But I suppose that in the end,
it was a divorce for both men –
Henry from his barren Catherine,
More from his wicked sovereign.
Copyright © Maurice Rigoler | Year Posted 2020
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