If we knew our history better, we would think much less of Thomas More

As Gene Veith- and Hillary Mantel- point out, Thomas More may have been a Roman Catholic saint. But he was not a very nice person. For one thing, one of his favorite dishes was roasted Protestant. He was quite an accomplished bigot and persecutor of "heretics."

The man was a murderer, to put it bluntly.

Nor was Thomas Cromwell- though no saint himself- nearly as much a Machiavellian monster as he is often painted as being.