Dear Dr. Lock: In what sense were Thomas Cromwell and Thomas More
"innocent"? In terms of the charges against them? And were these trumped
up as some were in the treason trials in the USSR? Or were they based on
laesa majestatis and/or theology? If either one, they would probably have
been considered just by a normal medieval inquisitor following the
canonization of Frederick II's parallel of treason to heresy by canon law.
Naturally, there were conflicts of jurisdiction, as indeed there was in
this case, when royal authority was set against papal, both, to their
adherents, of divine origin. Doubtless More thought that papal authority
was nearer God's than that of the crown, but what on earth did Cromwell
think? He would, I'd guess, come nearer to the position of some of the
Old Communists bedeviled by Vishinsky's court. As you can probably see, I
know nothing about these cases, having only sketch read More on Luther
within the last decade and the Utopia in Thornike's seminar before the
Great War (!) and none of the evidence of the trials, and never a word of
Cromwell's of any kind. Yours, John Mundy
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