Thomas More was an English lawyer, thinker and statesman. He served as Lord Chancellor under King Henry VIII, but was charged with treason and executed for refusing to accept the king as supreme head of the Church. He was later canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church.
His Utopia, published in 1516, depicts an ideal island nation where property is shared and there is no strife, and the word “utopia” (no place) comes from it. The word dystopia, with the opposite meaning, was also formed from utopia.
