"A Man for All Seasons" - Sentencing Scene

The scene from "A Man for All Seasons" (Fred Zinnemann, 1966) in which Sir Thomas More is finally convicted of high treason and sentenced to death for refusing to swear an oath that King Henry VIII is the supreme head of the Church in England and that Anne Boleyn is now Queen of England.

I love this scene because More's statement is a perfect summary of the Medieval mindset, which is so foreign to modern viewers but amazing in its completeness, complexity, and other-ness: a self-consistent worldview that is completely foreign from our modern, scientific, post-Enlightenment cosmology. It is also a compelling story to see More's sacrifices for that belief. In a sense, the movie can be read as a story of the conflict between the Medieval and Modern worldview, with More personifying the former and Cromwell and Rich the latter. Vestiges of that battle continue even today.

Here's the transcript of More's statement:

MORE:

Since the court has determined to condemn me, God knoweth how, I will now discharge my mind concerning the indictment and the King's title.

The indictment is granted in an act of Parliament, which is directly repugnant to the law of God and his Holy Church, the supreme government of which no temporal person may by any law presume to take upon him!

This was granted by the mouth of our Savior, Christ Himself, to Saint Peter and the Bishops of Rome whilst he lived and was personally present here on Earth! It is therefore insufficient in law to charge any Christian to obey it.

And more to this: the immunity of the Church is promised both in Magna Carta and in the King's own coronation oath!

CROMWELL:

Now, we plainly see you are malicious!

MORE:

Not so! I am the King's true subject, and I pray for him and all the realm. I do none harm. I say none harm. I think none harm. If this be not enough to keep a man alive, then in good faith, I long not to live.

(pause)

Nevertheless! It is not for the Supremacy that you have sought my blood, but because I would not bend to the marriage!