Some men executed for treason were innocent of any crime other than daring to defy an absolute monarch. A highly religious and intellectual man, Thomas More was the first layman to become Chancellor of England. As a lawyer and judge he was efficient and fair, and in many respects was the sort of civil servant whom Henry VIII ought to have protected. He was a scholar, an M.P., a writer of great originality, and a personal friend of Holbein and Erasmus. But his relations with the King coloured - and eventually ended - his life. The sticking point was the King's determination to divorce Catherine of Aragon, his lawful wife, and to force the clergy to acknowledge him as head of the Church. More would tolerate neither, and resigned the office of Chancellor. His refusal to attend the coronation of Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn, sparked the King's determination to revenge himself upon his one-time adviser and friend. A series of charges were brought against him - of accepting bribes in office and of collusion with a nun who opposed the King's break from Rome - but these were dismissed. More serious was his refusal to compromise his faith over the Supremacy of the Crown Act in 1534. After refusing to swear the Oath of Supremacy, by which Henry VIII was recognised as head of the Anglican Church, he was arrested and sent to the Tower of London. In 1535 he was tried before a specially picked jury, who found him guilty of treason after he openly declared his belief that no parliament could make the King supreme head of the Church. He was beheaded within the Tower precincts on 7 July 1535. He was made a saint four centuries later, in 1935.