Ideal society. Sir Thomas More was born in 1478. He studied law, but was also fond of many subjects, including Greek. He wrote a Utopia in the early 16th century, in the early years of the great Renaissance movement, when people advanced new ideals and challenged old beliefs throughout Western Europe. Utopia was published in Latin in 1516, and later translated into English. Sir Thomas More was an influential Advisor to King Henry the 8th, but he obstructed the divorce of the king and refused to recognize him as the head of the Church in England. The king put him in prison for it and ordered to cut off his head. The Roman Catholic Church later canonized him. In his thousands of years on earth, man has constantly dreamed of a better society – a society that will banish evil and hardship, instead of tolerating them. Philosophers and poets describe the ideal society in religious and scientific treatises and in works of art; and few are better known than Sir Thomas More's Utopia. The word utopia, which Thomas More composed of two Greek words "nowhere land", came to the modern language with the meaning of an ideal society. In his book, Thomas More described his conversation with a fictional sailor by the name of Hythloday. The seaman told about his visit to the mythical island called Utopia, where people learned to create a society without hunger, tyranny and exploitation of their brethren. Hythloday compares all the things he has seen in Utopia with the conditions in England at that time; and the contrast clearly shows how much evil people are still ignored. First, the community inhabited on the island of Utopia was not divided into separate social classes. All people enjoyed equal status and rights. There was no private property because the Utopians believed that private property led to envy, hatred, grumpiness and discord. Everyone wore a certain type of clothing, and no one could afford to wear jewelry or outfits that would indicate the superiority of one person over another. There were no idle or useless classes. All worked, although not excessively, 7 hours a day was thought sufficient. No one was allowed to impose their opinion or religious beliefs on anyone other than free debate. All those who tried to change the views of people were forced to be expelled from the island. People were free to marry, a partner was their choice, parents or relatives could not force them to do so. They were free to divorce if the marriage was unsuccessful. If someone was suffering from an incurable disease, he could demand to kill himself. In Utopia, the smartest young people were freed from physical or unskilled work. Instead, they were trained to be sages or philosophers in the community. But they were still as ordinary members of the community, so they were not a privileged class. Members of the government, even the king himself was chosen by philosophers; but the king could be removed from the throne if he showed a tendency to become a tyrant. The king was one with the people, freely engaged in Maritime trade with other lands, modestly enjoying it, all religions were venerable and people shared things. Thomas More's utopia was a remarkable philosophical work, but it was also endowed with many theories and ideas that were hotly debated and even fought for in the centuries that followed, up to modern times.
