Although Thomas More played an active role in the politics and corrupt government of King Henry VIII, he remained rooted in his political and religious beliefs. Famous for his willingness to die so as not to betray his ideals, More displayed a lifelong desire to avoid compromising his beliefs. This internal struggle to balance idealistic desires with less attractive but more attainable practical realities was a major theme in More's Utopia. Although he sharply criticized the wrongs of European society in the first book of Utopia, in the second book he idealistically presented a radical vision of a new society to force others to consider possible changes in society and to make them realize their own potential in creating solutions best for the problems of the sixteenth century. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayMore expressed his discontent with the Church through Raphael's strong condemnation of the hypocrisies of the institution and those who are part of it. Preachers "adapted His doctrine to their lives" because "the most important parts of His doctrine are opposed" to them, Raphael declares (More 23). Raphael felt that the preacher's actions would only make them "more certain in their wickedness" (More 23). More also mocked the presumptuous friar who, irritated by a fool's joke, declared that "all those who mock us are excommunicated" (More 16). He commented with disgust on the cardinal's advice, who "sincerely applauded those things" that the cardinal only liked "in jest" (May 16). More noted the pomposity of one councilor who with “all the formality of a debate” said, “I will make the whole matter clear to you” (More 11). Others presented those around the cardinal as arrogant, mindless fools who had little religion or religious knowledge. Others disapproved of European government, war, and man because of their devastating effects on society. The government annoyed More not only because of its own corruption, but also because of the propagation of war and the futile pursuit of land acquisitions. More referred to soldiers as a “pestiferous kind of people” who were paid to be idle and whose presence was unnecessary (More 8). Soldiers became “easily weak,” unable to fight, and caused a waste of resources (Other 8). Raphael denounced the principles because they applied more to the "affairs of war" than to the "useful arts of peace" (More 5). Although he most harshly rebuked the institutions that contributed to the disturbing state of society, he also chastised individual faults and the defects of human nature. He criticized the "accursed avarice" of a few which makes many suffer, complaining not only of the wealthy classes, but also of the "excessive vanity in clothing" and the "great expenditure of food" of "people of all classes" (10) . Others, angered by the irrationality of war and the flaws of human nature, wrote disparagingly of the great costs of these continuing problems. Even more strongly they disapproved of society's treatment of the poor, seeing the advantage of the rich over the poor as a great injustice. In defense of the poor he writes: "They would willingly work, but they can't find anyone to hire them" (May 9). The rich “buy low and sell high,” he said, leaving the poor no choice but to “beg or rob” (More 10). More showed his extreme disillusionment with society's inequalities when he spoke about the gap between rich and poor. He accused society of “first make[ing] thieves and then[ing] punish them,” a true oneanalysis of the rich's lack of concern for the troublesome poor (Plus 11). Embedded in this was his protest against capital punishment and cruelty. One of his impassioned arguments was, “God commanded us not to kill, and should we kill so easily for a little money?” (Plus 11). It is "absurd" for a thief and a murderer to be punished equally, he argued, since this will "incite" the thief to kill the man he would only rob.(Plus 12). More strongly supported the poor while attacking the rich for their greed. In the second book More explored new ideas for society, such as a lack of materialism and a community atmosphere of equality and uniformity. More imagined a world in which everyone wore clothes "all of the same color thrown carelessly" (More 36) and changed homes "by lot" every ten years (More 31). People used gold as a “badge of infamy,” trying to devalue other cultures' strange emphasis on objects of no real value (More 44). Utopians sent “excess to their neighbors” (More 30) and “freely” (More 31) welcomed anyone into their homes, displaying the true sense of community identity that More envisioned. Agriculture was "universally understood" so that everyone was able to work in the fields (29). The cities themselves were also uniform; "he who knows one, knows them all" (More 30). More and more consistently he expanded this theme of equality, not even giving the Prince "no distinction" beyond a "sheaf of wheat" (More 61). This lack of class distinction or material value constituted More's major radical social change. More introduced a new religious and moral philosophy of tolerance in Utopia and also defended pleasure as a God-given gift. Utopians considered "research into happiness" to be "conjectural and defective" without considering "religious principles" (More 47). Utopians thought it was “the craziest thing in the world to pursue virtue” (More 48), instead promoting the pursuit of one’s “own advantages” (More 49). More supported the freedom to choose religion, as long as one believed in a "great Essence" (More 72). Utopians believed it was "indecent and foolish" to intimidate someone into believing something that "did not seem true" (More 73). More held the idea that if there really was a truth, “it would eventually break through and shine bright” (More 73). To prevent true religion from being "suffocated by superstition", everyone was free to believe "as they saw fit" (More 73). The priests were men of "eminent piety" and, although respected, had few distinctions (More 76). More's new idealistic and accepting church was a very different concept from the existing European Catholic Church. More focused much of the second book on his ideas about justified war and reasonable slavery. The utopians felt justified in driving the natives from their land if they did not allow them to cultivate the land, since "every man has the right to what is necessary for his subsistence" (38). They felt that there was a "participation of human nature" and, partly because of this, they detested war as a "very brutal thing" (More 64). The only time they were willing to go to war was if a utopian's life was lost or a neighbor asked for help. Oddly enough, the utopians did not object to the use of mercenaries or the welcoming of traitors, believing that the number of lives saved by a quick war compensated for this violation of morality. Their punishment system was also interesting and very different from the European one. More presented contrasting Utopia books to provide such an extreme example of change that people would be more willing to accept reasonable change. More at one point said that the bride and groom.