British Martyrs

Once King Henry VIII loved nothing better than to throw his arm about the neck of the author of Utopia and stroll with Sir Thomas More in his garden by the Thames. Of his sovereign, Sir Thomas said: ''If my head should win him a castle in France, it should not fail to go.'' But More's head went for a different purpose. Becoming Chancellor of England in 1529, this pious Catholic scholar and lawyer opposed Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon, his plan to make himself head of the English church. Gentle Sir Thomas was tried, condemned and executed for treason in 1535. His head was parboiled, exposed on London bridge and would have been thrown into the Thames had not his daughter rescued it.

Placed in St. Dunstan's Church (now Anglican) in Canterbury, the head of Sir Thomas More became an object for Catholic veneration. Lately Anglicans have discussed turning it over to the Catholic Church, for the good reason that Sir Thomas, beatified in 1886, is soon to be a saint. In February Pope Pius XI approved his canonization, publicly welcomed the Blessed Thomas into the company of 140 Englishmen and Scotsmen who, the Church believes, were martyred for the Faith. This week at a semi-public consistory in Vatican City, Catholic bishops and archbishops are to give perfunctory approval.

Canonized along with Blessed Thomas will be his colleague John Cardinal Fisher who joined him in defying Henry VIII and losing his head. Canonization date: the Feast of St. Ives (May 19), patron of lawyers.

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