Thomas More

Hayley Jury

Focused Essay 1

2/6/14

A monastery is a community for monastics to live in including their domestic rooms, workplaces, and areas for worship. Monasteries can vary in size depending on the monastic order, location, and facilities they provide. Life in the monastery is typically quiet, calm, and simple. The days will include prayer and daily duties which depend on the person’s role at the monastery. Typically these roles are different jobs that need to be done around the monastery or throughout the community.

Utopia could be considered similar to a monastery for various reasons. In a monastery there is no classes present and all people are equal. Utopia had no real class distinctions in the same way as monasteries. As a result of this, there was no poverty, no greed, and no excessive want for gold. This contributed to more peaceful and considerate behavior. Monasteries and Utopia both have very little crime or immoral behavior. This also allowed for Utopia to have little inclination or reason to go to war. Utopia did not have enemies or alliances. Thomas More states, “The Utopians call those nations that come and ask magistrates from them Neighbours; but those to whom they have been of more particular service, Friends; and as all other nations are perpetually either making leagues or breaking them, they never enter into an alliance with any state. They think leagues are useless things, and believe that if the common ties of humanity do not knit men together, the faith of promises will have no great effect;” (Utopia). This closely relates to a monastery because they have no reason for war at all and do not have any need for war. The idea of communal property is presented in Utopia and monasteries. Raphael states "persuaded, that till property is taken away there can be no equitable or just distribution of things, nor can the world be happily governed: for as long as that is maintained, the greatest and the far best part of mankind will be still...