Abstract

The concept of justice in commonwealth is analyzed initially in More's pre-Utopian writings: his correspondence, poetry, translations, and historical drama that manifest an Augustinian awareness of the destructiveness of pride, a Lucianic skill in ironic and satirical writing, and a humanist hope in an enlightened monarch. To set the stage for More's Utopian critique, the second chapter traces the keen perception of European injustices More attained in his legal and religious training and his friendships with humanists. ;The Utopian ideology of justice, a subject oddly neglected in Morean studies, is then the focus in chapter three. As a moral counterpoint to the "wealth of miseries" in sixteenth-century Europe, justice in More's Utopia was a complex virtue based on common property, with goals of fellow-feeling and a pervasive civic commitment. The primacy of justice meant that everyone owned everything and shared labor with everyone in a harmonious familial order. Common ownership in Utopia meant that its citizens avoided the causes of injustices in sixteenth-century European societies, namely, cash values, greed, and pride. In other words, the Utopians achieved social harmony not only by institutionalizing virtues but also by overcoming injustices on traditional Catholic grounds. Laws, accordingly, could be reduced to a few commonly understood standards of commonwealth. This analysis confirms Skinner's conclusion that the commonwealth discourse is a humanist critique of Erasmian humanism; however, it specifies that critique in terms of justice rather than Skinner's generalized virtuous nobility. ;A final chapter will discuss More's controversies to demonstrate that his later ideology of justice was a combination of Catholic tradition and political expediency. His voluminous and repetitive defense of social ranks and unchanging traditions was far removed from Utopia's novel egalitarianism. More's view of social order now expressed itself in loyalty to one's superiors, while it also acknowledged the need for equity in law, tempered by mercy and conscience