Biographical fiction; Christian fiction; Christian saints -- Fiction; More, Thomas, Saint, 1478-1535 -- Fiction
The King's wrath did not cease with the execution of his faithful
counsellor. Dame Alice More lost all, and had hard stress for the few
years that remained to her of life. Happily his son and his daughters
had all been married before the troubles came. Margaret's marriage was
a happy one. Will Roper was soon weaned from his "Lutheran" fancies,
and lived, thirty-four years after his wife, to write an exquisite
and pathetic memoir of the great Chancellor. When the tyrant was dead
More's family seemed almost sacred in the eyes of the nation. His
memory was cherished, and memorials of all kinds poured forth during
the years of Mary's reign; and when Elizabeth had been twenty years on
the throne Roper died in peace, desiring to be buried with his "dear
wife," where his father-in-law "did mind to be buried."
Margaret Roper herself died in 1544, and was buried in Chelsea Church.
Her monument is, with the Ropers', in S. Dunstan's, Canterbury. In
that ancient city the family of her husband had long dwelt, and the
house itself lasted till this century. Of it Miss Manning very prettily
wrote:--
"My friend, Mrs. George Frederick Young, who was born in the Ropers'
house at Canterbury, tells me that it was of singular antiquity, full
of queer nooks, corners, and passages, with a sort of dungeon below,
that went by the name of 'Dick's Hole,' the access to which was so
dangerous that it at length was forbidden to descend the staircase.
The coach-house and harness-room were curiously antique; the chapel
had been converted into a laundry, but retained its Gothic windows. At
length it became needful to rebuild the house, only the old gateway
of which remains. While the workmen were busy, an old gentleman in
Canterbury sent to beg Mrs. Young's father to dig in a particular
part of the garden, for that he had dreamed there was a money-chest
there. This request was not attended to, and he sent a more urgent
message, saying his dream had been repeated. A third time he dreamed,
and renewed his request, which at length was granted; and, curiously
enough, a chest _was_ found, with a few coins in it, chiefly of
antiquarian value, which, accordingly, were given to an archæologist
of the place. Here my information ceases."
More and his favourite daughter are those of whom we first think when
we try to recall some memories of the "Christian academy;" but their
famous guests must not be forgotten. I cannot speak now of the soldiers
and diplomatists, the priests and scholars, who pass across the scene
so rapidly as we read the letters of the Chancellor himself or the
memoirs of his son-in-law and his great-grandson. But two names stand
out as famous above the rest, and as both among the closest of those
friends whom More delighted to honour,--Erasmus the scholar and Holbein
the painter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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