The Four Last Things - by St Thomas More : Preface

Sir Thomas More. Holbein (1527). Frick Collection.

Following recovery from a recent illness, I began reading the Four Last Things, a treatise which Thomas More (1478-1535) wrote in 1522. 

The edition I have is one in modern English by Mary Gottschalk and was published by Sceptre Publishers in 2002. Today I found an online edition by D. O’Connor published in 1903 which is closer to the English original of 1557. When I discovered that D. O’Connor’s Preface was witten on the Feast of St Anselm and I then noted that today is in fact the Feast of St Anselm, I felt encouraged by this sign to begin a series of posts making the 1903 text available to modern readers. The 1903 footnotes are in [ ] and my own are in [ ].   

👈While outwardly he enjoyed a life of comfort, in the privacy of his spiritual life he wore a hair shirt, attended daily Mass, and practised a strict discipline of prayer. He is believed to have become a Third Order Franciscan (and indeed his name is listed in the calendar of Franciscan saints). This may be the significance of the cord shown.

Preface

Nihil obstat :

Dñs BEDA CAMM, O.S.B.

Imprimatur :

+ EDUARDUS Epûs Birmingham.

Die 25 Aprilis, 1903.

The following treatise of Blessed Thomas More may be justly styled unknown, for it is now transcribed for the first time from the black letter type of Rastell’s edition of 1557[1].

Written in 1522, soon after More’s promotion to knighthood, while he was living amidst the splendours of Henry VII I’s court, De Quatuor Novissimis might be the work of a Carthusian monk or of some austere solitary of the desert.

It possesses for us a twofold interest : it illustrates the holy martyr’s general tone of mind even from his early years ; and it remains as a very lofty example of pre-reformation books of devotion. The author’s ready wit and genial humour mingled with his deep consciousness of the vital truths of Christian life make us regret that the treatise is unfinished ; but it is well worth perusal even as it stands. It is the best of More’s ascetical works. The Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation and the Treatise upon the Passion, though of greater length and containing many fine passages, do not possess the peculiar charm of this little treatise.

As the late Father Bridgett appropriately remarked[2], 

“Blessed Thomas More stands quite alone among the ascetic writers of the Church ; for while he is not inferior to the best ecclesiastics in his use of Holy Scripture, his knowledge of the human heart, his analysis of the workings of passion and counter-workings of grace, he considered it his layman’s privilege to use a livelier style and to illustrate his matter with abundance of merry stories.”

Many philological or historical notes would be out of place in the present volume, which is one of a devotional series ; the necessary annotations have therefore been confined to an explanation of the author’s standpoint and of obvious difficulties in the text. Save for the omission of very few phrases more consonant with mediaeval simplicity than with modern refinement, the edition of 1557 is faithfully reproduced in the present form. Those, however, who are interested in the subject will welcome the critical edition by a distinguished French Professor which will be published at an early date, and the reprint of the original text in the library edition of Sir Thomas More’s works which is also in contemplation.

May the spirit of sterling piety which inspired the saintly martyr animate the readers of this book and help to rekindle the Faith which brought such steadfast happiness to this land !

D. O’C.

Belmont Minster,

Feast of St Anselm,

April, 1903.

Footnotes

[1] The Workes of Sir Thomas More, Knyght, sometyme Lorde Chauncellour of Engfland, wrytten by him in the Englysh tongue. Printed at London at the costes and charges of John Cawood, John Waly and Richarde Tottell. Anno 1557. (i vol., in folio, 1458 pages.) De Novissimis begins at p. 72 and ends at p. 102. The numbers from p. 72 to p. 88 refer to the pages ; from p. 89 to p. 102 they indicate the columns ; hence there are 48 columns in all.

[2] Life of Blessed St Thomas More, (1891) p. 385.

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The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen. 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me, shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting. Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) xxiv. 30-31.