UTOPIA   Sir Thomas More, b. Feb. 6, 1478, a leading English intellectual and statesman, was executed for his adherence to the Roman Catholic faith. The son of John More, a prominent jurist, Thomas was educated at Oxford and at Lincoln's Inn, where he studied law. His humanist philosophy was shaped by the " new learning " of the Renaissance and by his friendship with the scholar Desiderius Erasmus. As speaker of the House of Commons in 1523, More helped establish the parliamentary privilege of free speech. He refused (1527) to endorse King Henry VIII's plan to divorce Catherine of Aragon. Nevertheless, after the fall (1529) of Thomas Wolsey, More became lord chancellor. His work in the law courts was exemplary, but he resigned in 1532, citing ill health and probably feeling that he could not in conscience serve a government that was interfering with the church. Two years later he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for refusing to acknowledge Henry as supreme head of the Church of England. He was found guilty of treason, on evidence that was probably perjured, and was beheaded on July 6, 1535. More was canonized in 1935. Utopia (written in Latin, 1516; Eng. trans., 1551), More's most noted book, assails the inequitable social and economic conditions in Europe and describes an ideal state based on reason. His other writings include a history of the reign of Richard III and a number of religious treatises intended to refute the views of Martin Luther and other Protestant theologians. A complete edition of his works (1963-) has been undertaken under the auspices of Yale University. Feast day: June 22 (with Saint John Fisher; formerly July 9).