Thomas More invented the word utopia and imagined an island with no lawyers, communal property, and religious tolerance. In real life he was a wealthy lawyer who hunted religious dissenters, burned banned books, and was beheaded for refusing to compromise his faith. This episode unpacks that contradiction, starting with his birth in London in 1478, his placement as a page in the household of Archbishop John Morton, his humanist education at Oxford, and his father's demand that he abandon scholarship for law. We explore his 1503 spiritual crisis living beside a Carthusian monastery, his decision to remain a layman, and the hair shirt and self-flagellation he practiced in secret for the rest of his life.

We then look at the surprisingly joyful Chelsea household where More gave his daughters the same classical education as his son, kept a pet  ...