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Biography of Sir Thomas More.

He was born in Milk Street, London February 7th 1478. Educated at St. Anthony School on Threadneedle Street, in the household of Cardinal Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury, and at Oxford. His father, who intended for him a lawyers career, took him out of Oxford before he had received his degree, and entered him at New Inn for a two years course. In 1496 he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn. At about the age of twenty he was seized with a violent sense of religious feeling, and subjected himself to the discipline of a Carthusian Monk, becoming absorbed in religious studies and exercises, with the desire to enter a monastery. But his acquaintance with Erasmus, that prince of letters, whom he met about 1499, revived in him the spirit of the New Learning, and he returned with ardour to the study of Greek, which he had begun at Oxford. At the same time, however, he continued his study of the law and in 1502 was appointed under Sheriff of the City of London. For a few years after 1504 and until the death of Henry VII in 1509 he retired to private life and study. Then returned to the practice of his profession and devoted himself extensively to politics and diplomacy. He entered Parliament in 1514. It was not long before he attracted the attention of Henry VIII and Wolsey, then Lord Chancellor of England, and in 1518 was made Master of the Bequests and Privy Councillor. In 1521 he was knighted and appointed Treasurer of the Exchequer. He was elected Speaker of the House of Commons in the Parliament of 1523. For several

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