The Two-Edged Sword as Image of Civil Power for Fisher and More

Abstract

When Sir Thomas More was questioned about Henry VIII’s Act of Supremacy, he answered that the Statute was like a two-edged sword: if a man agreed to it he would lose his soul, but if he refused it, he would lose his earthly life. John Fisher, the bishop of Rochester, used the same image at his examination. This article examines the image of the two-edged sword in respect of both its use by More and of its Scriptural analogue and suggests reasons why both Fisher and More used it and how their use of it differed.