Thomas More (1478 - 1535). Sir Thomas More, venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a Chancellor to Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532. He wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an imaginary, ideal island nation. More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther, John Calvin and William Tyndale. More also opposed King Henry VIII's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and executed. Of his execution, he was reported to have said: I die the King's good servant, and God's first. Pope Pius XI canonized More in 1935 as a martyr. Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the patron saint of Statesmen and Politicians. Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr. Praised by Marx and Engels, the Soviet Union in the early twentieth century honored him for the purportedly communist attitude toward property rights expressed in Utopia. Born on Milk Street in London, on 7 February 1478, Thomas More was the son of Sir John More, a successful lawyer and later a judge, and his wife Agnes. He was the second of six children. More was educated at St Anthony's School, then considered one of London's best schools. From 1490 to 1492, More served John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, as a household page. Morton enthusiastically supported the New Learning, and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More had great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at the University of Oxford. More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education.