This was treason, though probably the government that sent him to the tower was ignorant of the act.

When Paul III rewarded Fisher by creating him a cardinal [Sidenote: May 20, 1535] Henry furiously declared he would send his head to Rome to get the hat.
[Sidenote: June 22] The old man of seventy-six was accordingly beheaded.
[Sidenote: Sir Thomas More executed, July 6] This execution was followed by that of Sir Thomas More, the greatest ornament of his country.

As More has been remembered almost entirely by his noble _Utopia_ and his noble death, it is hard to estimate his character soberly.

That his genius was polished to the highest perfection, that in a hard age he had an altogether lovely sympathy with the poor, and in a servile age the courage of his convictions, would seem enough to excuse any faults.

But a deep vein of fanaticism ran through his whole nature and tinctured all his acts, political, ecclesiastical, and private.