- In More's letters, he has more than one reference disparaging superstition [1]. One of which says that the historical proofs are only hurt when mixed up with fables.
- In Praise of Folly was written while Erasmus lived under More's roof.
- Erasmus and More felt they were taken completely out of context after events exploded and many works they had no intention of publication were leaked. Still More writes that Erasmus was merely indignant at those who treated their vices as virtues.
- Related: More has a story about a man of the cloth whose real job was just to debate. A merchant tricked him by making up Biblical passages to the watch the man "gift of gab" around them and make up his own sources of commentaries -- this is the type of man M argues E limits his criticisms to.
- More is given props for good cheer if not affection in 2nd marriage. She is described as "one of the most loquacious, ignorant, and narrow minded of women" by an outsider. Bridgett questions this degree of censure, which the author's prerogative.
- Just a great letter by More on educating his children. It is clear that his stance is virtue in a way so more clearer than nearly anyone was capable of before or since. Virtue, not pride. Virtue, not consumption. More sees that few really work on Pride, and they don't start early and systematically, and implicitly teach that praise is the reward of virtue, which makes you study what most people want and ashamed to be part of the few. The letter in question was copied to his children and several copies come down to posterity.
- Henry VIII had More's daughters perform a philosophical dispute for his amusement -- seeing the fruit of More's experiment in education. This was years before he put More to death.
- Mind, Catholic author, but stated that Luther's reply to Henry VIII's The Defence of the Seven Sacraments was such a way a King or Prince had "never" been addressed before, and this is why More wrote such nasty Latin in reply (to the reply, to The Bablyonian Captivity.)
- Henry could not reply to this, and in fact Luther actually issued an apology for the language at a later date. Our author characterizes this apology as insincere.
- "Neither business nor literature, nor the wiles of diplomacy, nor the pomps and pleasures of courts, had robbed him of his mirth or dimmed his vision of eternity."
Related thing I learned by looking through Bridgett's other works: England was one called her lady's (ie mother Mary's) dowery, a title gained under Richard II.
[1] I really want to trace the idea of anti-superstition in the West. This lecture (the series, speaker, and university for giving out free content -- since 1597! -- is great) indicates that the groundswell against superstition came before the Reformation, and so there were built in groups to divide when the schism started.
