Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/439

Rh (ib.) and at the same time wrote a powerful letter to the university urging the tutors to recognise the necessity of extending the topics of education beyond mediæval limits. In 1520 he defended in a like spirit Erasmus's Latin translation of the Greek Testament and his ‘Morise Encomium,’ both of which had been attacked by a Louvain professor, Martin Dorpion or Dorpius.

As master of requests meanwhile More seized many opportunities of helping poor petitioners, and in 1521 the council, doubtless at his suggestion, put in force the statutes against unauthorised enclosures.

With More's natural grace of manner went a cultivated power of speech, and he was often selected as the spokesman of the court at ceremonial functions. When the legate Campeggio arrived in London in July 1518, More welcomed him in a Latin oration as he went in procession through Cheapside (, i. 281). In June 1520 he was with the king at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, and met at Calais Erasmus, who introduced him to a new friend, William Budée or Budæus, the French king's secretary and the greatest Greek scholar of the age. Budée was already favourably known to More by his writings. With another French attendant on the French royal family More's relations were less agreeable. He had in 1518 published in his ‘Epigrammata’ some severe epigrams on Germain de Brie (Brixius), the French queen's secretary, who had written a poem, ‘Chordigera,’ in celebration of the destruction of an English ship by the French ship Cordelier in 1512. De Brie retaliated in 1520 in a scurrilous pamphlet entitled ‘Anti-Morus,’ Basle, 1520, and More wrote a virulent reply. He showed it at Calais to Erasmus, who deprecated its publication. But at the close of 1520 it appeared in print. More's controversial tone was unfortunately as coarse as was habitual to the scholars and theologians of his time. He declared, however, that, in accordance with Erasmus's advice, he had distributed only seven copies of the impression (, Epist. 571).

In the spring of 1521 More was knighted, and was made sub-treasurer to the king (ib. 605; cf. Letters and Paper's, 1437-1527). A month later he accompanied Wolsey to Calais and Bruges to conduct further negotiations with French and imperial envoys. While he was staying at Bruges a vainglorious student offered to publicly dispute on any subject of human learning. More jestingly challenged him to discuss with him ‘An averia capta in withernamia sunt irreplegiabilia,’ i.e. ‘whether cattle seized under the writ termed withernam were irrepleviable,’ but the student wisely acknowledged himself baffled by the question. More was sent by Wolsey, with Sir William Fitzwilliam, to carry special messages from Calais to Henry VIII (in October 1521), and next June he took part in the elaborate entertainments held in honour of Charles V's visit, welcoming him to London in a Latin speech (, i. 452). In 1522 and 1525 he was granted by Henry large gifts of land in Oxfordshire and Kent.

Wolsey's opinion of More increased with their intimacy; they corresponded repeatedly on official topics, and More, when in attendance at court, very often communicated to the cardinal Henry's advice on current politics (cf., Orig. Letters, 1st ser. i. 195-213, 2nd ser. i. 289-91). In April 1523 Wolsey recommended More's election as speaker of the House of Commons. More ‘disabled himself both in wit, learning, and discretion,’ but Wolsey declared Henry to be well satisfied with the appointment. According to Koper, More's son-in-law, More showed more independence than was agreeable to his patron in his new office. The house evinced reluctance to grant the subsidy demanded by the crown, and when the cardinal came with a long retinue to make a personal appeal to the commons, More (in Roper's narrative) declined on his knees to give any answer until Wolsey's speech had been fully debated. When Wolsey next met More he remarked, ‘Would God you had been at Rome when I made you speaker!’ and recommended that he should be appointed to the embassy at Madrid. More is said to have begged the king to confer the post on another. ‘It is not our pleasure, Mr. More,’ Henry replied, ‘to do you hurt, but to do you good would we be glad’. But Roper's story is contradicted by contemporary accounts of the proceedings of the parliament of 1523. No sign of disagreement between Wolsey and More was at any time apparent there, and More while speaker is represented as joining, contrary to usage, in the debates in order to urge on an unwilling house the duty of granting the full subsidy applied for by the king (, i. 469-80; cf. ). The subsidy was obtained in due course, and Wolsey soon afterwards recommended More, 24 Aug. 1523, for a gratuity of 100l. in addition to the fee of the same amount usually bestowed on the speaker (Letters and Papers, iii. 3270). ‘I am the rather moved,’ Wolsey wrote, ‘to put your highness in remembrance thereof because he is not the most ready to speak and solicit his own cause.’ More thanked Wolsey effusively (MS. Cott. Titus, B. I. f. 323; Letters and Rh