"I die the King's good servant, but God's first," declared Sir Thomas More from the scaffold upon his 1535 execution for treason. Condemned to death for his refusal to acknowledge Henry VIII as the Supreme Head of the Church of England, More spent his final months in the Tower of London, writing this message of hope in the face of suffering. The noted Renaissance humanist cast his work of political thought and spiritual reflection in the form of a...

Need to seize a country? Have enemies you must destroy? In this handbook for despots and tyrants, the Renaissance statesman Machiavelli sets forth how to accomplish this and more, while avoiding the awkwardness of becoming generally hated and despised. "Men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be...

More's original writing is presented as well as a later commentary on his work.