Thomas More's Trial by Jury : A Procedural and Legal Review with a Collection of Documents

There have been innumerable studies about Thomas More and his eventual downfall at the hands of Henry VIII. The trial in which More was convicted of treason has long been denounced as a typical political miscarriage of justice. However, more recently the trial has been taken seriously as a carefully prepared and executed judicial process. This book disagrees with this consensus and makes the case for reassessment. The book opens with a procedural review of More's trial for treason in 1535 by Ansgar Kelly. Since the 1960s historians have agreed that the judges accepted More's objections against the first parts of the indictment. Kelly concludes that, on the contrary, the indictment as a whole was presented to the jury, and that More was found guilty of the whole. The judges should be found guilty of bowing to political pressure and convicting More against the clear intention of Parliament. R. H. Helmholz analyzes More's options from the point of view of sixteenth-century natural-law theory, while Louis Karlin and David Oakley describe More's trial procedures in light of modern juridical practices. Elizabeth McCutcheon analyzes More's accounts of the attempts of the King's Council to intimidate him during interrogations before the trial. This is followed by discussions of the trial by four practicing judges. The book concludes with an edition of the pertinent documents of the trial. An appendix gives a dramatic reconstruction of the trial in light of the above analyses. HENRY ANSGAR KELLY is Professor Emeritus of English, UCLA. LOUIS J KARLIN is Research Attorney Los Angeles and Fellow of the Center for Thomas More Studies, University of Dallas. GERARD B. WEGEMER is Director at the Center for Thomas More Studies, Department of English, University of Dallas.

Henry Ansgar Kelly is past Director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, UCLA. Louis W. Karlin is an attorney with the California Court of Appeal and Fellow of the Center for Thomas More Studies, University of Dallas. Gerard. E. Wegemer is Director of the Center for Thomas More Studies.