Letter to the Editor: Saint Was God’s Servant First

Published: September 13, 2007

To the Editor:

In his letter to The Georgia Bulletin (Sept. 6), David P. Shaffner, Esq., asserts that St. Thomas More “suffered martyrdom for the immutable principle that the pope was the Vicar of Christ.” That’s a stretch.

Popes, in More’s time, were often themselves petty tyrants under the thumb of one or another European potentate. Consistently, More favored the convening of general councils for the authoritative formulation of Church policy, and when he spoke of the Head of the Church (as he often did), he was referring not to the pope but rather to Christ himself—the common “head” of the indivisible body of Christians. More is said to have declared himself, at his death, the king’s “good servant, but God’s first.” No mention of the pope!

Charles C. Doyle, Ph.D., Athens