This article addresses the general question of the status of Thomas More as a cultural icon by focusing on Robert Southey’s Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society (1829). The discussion emphasizes the role of religion in Southey’s view of history and of More’s character, as well as the ways in which Southey’s work conveys a sense of the traditions of utopianism and implies a particular conception of intellectual authority. It is shown that, whereas authors like Thomas Stapleton, Anthony Munday, Robert Bolt and Hilary Mantel represented More as a man who challenged established opinions and authorities, either wisely or presumptuously, in the name of the authority of his own conscience, Southey was interested in overcoming the oppositional view of More’s character, career and moral legacy. The Colloquies accordingly express the author’s hopes of a future, eschatological state in which religious differences between Catholic and Protestant will be subsumed. It becomes clear that the work is as much a commentary on contemporary society, and especially on the condition of the Church of England, as it is an exercise in self-definition on the part of its author.
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