POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY THE DAILY TELEGRAPH'S CHRISTOPHER HOWSE
I enjoyed 'A Man for All Seasons' at the time.
Who would not with wonderful actors like Paul Schofield and Robert Shaw?
But the real Thomas More was not a pretty figure.
He took fierce joy in burning alive people he regarded as heretics.
If you say he was only going by the standards of the day, then he is first reduced to a figure that does not stand out from the crowd.
Second, is he went by the standards of the day, why did he play quibbling lawyer with his king?
He put God's rules above man's, you say?
But even in his day, many, many did not regard the Catholic Church as representing God's rules.
Quite the opposite in some cases because its immense, ugly corruption was widely known.
In the end, More is not an admirable man to be held up as an example, despite the entertaining fairy tale of 'A Man for All Seasons.'
