Although Sir Thomas More played an active role in politics and the corrupt government of King Henry VIII, he remained grounded in his political and religious beliefs. Famous for his willingness to die rather than betray his ideals, More demonstrated throughout his life a desire to avoid compromising his beliefs. This inner struggle to balance idealistic desires with less attractive but more accessible practical realities was an important theme of More's Utopia. Although More harshly criticized the wrongs of European society in the first Utopia book, he idealistically presented a radical vision of a new society in the second book to force others to consider possible changes in society and make them aware of their own potential by creating better solutions. the problems of the 16th century. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayMore expressed his dissatisfaction with the Church through Raphael's strong condemnation of the institution's hypocrisies and of its members. Preachers “adapted his doctrine to their lives” because “the greater part of his doctrine is opposed to them,” Raphael said (More 23). Raphael believed that the preacher's actions would only make them "more sure of their wickedness" (More 23). More also mocked the smug friar who, angered by a silly joke, declared that "all who mock us are excommunicated" (More 16). He commented with disgust on the advice of the cardinal, who “sincerely applauded those things” that the cardinal only liked “in jest” (More 16). More noted the emphasis of an advisor with “all the formality of a debate” saying, “I will explain the whole matter clearly to you” (More 11). More presented those around the cardinal as arrogant and foolish fools who had little religion or religious knowledge. More disapproved of European government, war, and man because of their devastating effects on society. The government angered More not only because of its own corruption, but also because of its spread of war and its futile quest for land acquisition. More referred to the soldiers as "plague people" who were paid to remain inactive and whose presence was unnecessary (More 8). Soldiers became “weak with ease,” unable to fight and a waste of resources (More 8). Raphael denounced princes who applied themselves more to “affairs of war” than to the “useful arts of peace” (More 5). Although it more severely reprimands establishments that contribute to the worrying state of society, it also punishes individual faults and flaws in human nature. He criticized the "cursed avarice" of a few which causes suffering to many, complaining not only of the upper class, but also of "excessive vanity in matters of clothing" and "high cost in matters of food » among “all categories of people” (10). . More, angered by the irrationality of war and the flaws of human nature, wrote disparagingly about the high costs of these continuing problems. More strongly disapproved of society's treatment of the poor, viewing the advantage of the rich over the poor as a great injustice. To defend the poor, he writes: “They would gladly work, but can find no one to hire them” (More 9). The rich “buy low and sell high,” he said, leaving the poor with no choice but to “beg or steal” (More 10). More showed his extremedisillusionment with the inequalities of society by talking about the gap between the rich and the poor. He accused society of “first making thieves, then punishing them,” a true analysis of the lack of concern of the rich for the troublesome poor (More 11). Added to this was his cry against capital punishment and cruelty. One of his passionate arguments was: "God commanded us not to kill, and will we kill so easily for a little money?" (Plus 11). It is "absurd" that a thief and a murderer should be punished in the same way, he argued, because it would "incentivize" the thief to now kill the man he had only robbed. (More than 12 ). More greatly supported the poor while attacking the rich for their greed. In the second book, More explored new ideas for society, such as the absence of materialism and a community atmosphere of equality and uniformity. More imagined a world in which everyone wore clothes "all of one color, carelessly worn about them" (More 36) and changed houses "by lot" every ten years (More 31). People used gold as a “badge of infamy,” trying to devalue other cultures’ strange emphasis on objects of no real value (More 44). Utopians sent “surplus to their neighbors” (More 30) and “freely” (More 31) welcomed anyone into their homes, showing the true sense of community identity that More envisioned. Agriculture was “universally understood” so that all were able to work in the fields (29). Even the towns themselves were uniform; “he who knows one knows them all” (More 30). More consistently developed on this theme of equality, not even granting the Prince “any distinction” apart from a “sheaf of wheat” (More 61). This lack of class distinction or material value constituted More's main radical social change. More introduced a new religious and moral philosophy of tolerance into utopia and also defended pleasure as a gift from God. Utopians considered “research into happiness” without consideration of “religious principles” to be “conjectural and defective” (More 47). Utopians believed that “to pursue virtue was the maddest thing in the world” (More 48), advocating instead the pursuit of “one's own advantages” (More 49). More advocated the freedom to choose one's religion, provided there was a belief in a “great Essence” (More 72). Utopians believed that it was “indecent and foolish” to intimidate someone into believing something that “did not seem true” (More 73). More held the idea that if there really was a truth, it would “finally burst forth and shine brightly” (More 73). To prevent true religion from being “smothered by superstition,” everyone was free to believe “as they thought necessary” (More 73). The priests were men of “eminent piety” and, although respected, they had few distinctions (More 76). More's new idealistic and tolerant Church was a very different concept from the existing European Catholic Church. More focused much of book two on his ideas about justified war and reasonable slavery. The utopians felt justified in driving the natives off their land if they did not allow them to cultivate the land, since “every man has the right to what is necessary for his subsistence” (38). They believed that there was a "partnership of human nature" and, partly because of this, they hated war as a "very brutal thing" (More 64). The only time they were willing to go to war was if a utopian's life was lost or a neighbor asked for help. Curiously, the utopians did not oppose.