For his failure and eventual refusal to swear to the Act of Succession and the Act of Supremacy, Thomas More was forced to resign and imprisoned in the Bell Tower at the Tower of London. During More's imprisonment, Henry tortured and executed monks at Tyburn and martyred other men of high rank in the church and the state. In prison, More wrote theological tracts, including the Dialogue of Comfort, which he dedicated to his wife. More's beloved daughter Margaret Roper, visiting her father in prison, urged him to sign oath, but to sign either Act would have been against More's conscience. Not only did he oppose Henry's second marriage, but he also could not accept a secular head to the Church.

More finally fell prey to the Act of Treason, which allowed his reluctance to swear to be interpreted as an act of malice against the king. Refusing to swear to the Act of Supremacy, More lost his books and visiting privileges.

On July 1, 1535 More was tried for treason. Accused by Sir Richard Riche, he was taken from the Tower to Westminster by boat to face eighteen judges, including Anne Boleyn's father and Charles Brandon, the king's best friend. Among the charges, which centered around More's unwillingness to sign either the Act of Succession or the Act of Supremacy, was this statement that Riche claimed to have heard More make: that the Act of Supremacy is a "two-edged sword"; to accept it means to save the body and kill the soul, while to reject it is to kill the body and save the soul. More's defense on this point was silence, although he defended himself vigorously in the trial. More also attacked the integrity of his accuser, Riche, asking:

Can it therefore seem likely to your honorable lordships that I would, in so weighty a cause, so unadvisedly overshoot myself as to trust Master Riche, a man of me always reputed for one of so little truth as our lordships have heard, so far above my sovereign the lord the King or any of his noble counsellors, that I would unto him utter the secrets of my conscience touching the King's Supremacy? . . . . Can this, in your judgments, my lords, seem likely to be true?" (Marius 506).

Convicted of treason, More was executed at the Tower. His daughter Margaret, waiting at Tower Wharf, pushed through the crowd, threw her arms around More and kissed him. More was said to be so choked with tears that he could not respond.

On the scaffold at Tower Hill, More appeared dressed in his best clothes. By tradition, the executioner kneeled and asked More's forgiveness. More kneeled in turn and asked the executioner's blessing. As he ascended the scaffold, More told the Lieutenant of the Tower, in a joking way, "I pray you, Master Lieutenant, see me safe up, and for my coming down, let me shift for myself." According to More's son-in-law Roper, More then asked the people to bear witness that he should "now there suffer death in and for the faith of the Holy Catholic Church." Because the block was low, he stretched himself across it with difficulty. His eyes were bound, his head laid on the block. Lying on his stomach, More arranged his beard, grown long and ragged from his imprisonment, across the block and died.

For a wonderful tour of the Tower of London, the site of More's imprisonment and death, see The Tower of London Virtual Tour.

Source: Richard Marius, Thomas More: A Biography (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1985).