Utopia

He was a trusted aide of Henry VIII, but when he supposedly opposed the monarch's second marriage, he was thrown into prison and executed for treason. More than two hundred years later, he was canonized as the patron saint of statesmen and politicians by the Catholic Church. Philosopher, writer, diplomat, lawyer, Renaissance man, avid gardener, humanist thinker and statesman are only some of the words used to describe him. A lifelong opponent of Protestantism who was rumored to have had heretics imprisoned, murdered and burned at the stake, Thomas More is even today an enigmatic figure.Published in Latin in 1516, Utopia is Sir Thomas More's best known and most debated work. It begins as an apparently real account of one of More's diplomatic missions on behalf of his king. Some of the characters mentioned in this section are contemporary historical figures. In the course of his sojourn on board a ship to Antwerp, he meets a man called Raphael Hythloday who he assumes is the ship's captain. Hythloday, a much traveled raconteur is glad to share stories of his experiences in various exotic lands. He tells of his voyages with the famous Amerigo Vespucci and one of the strange countries he visited was the Island of Utopia...