VATICAN CITY

VATICAN CITY / CIVITATIS VATICANÆ - CITTÀ DEL VATICANO.

450th Anniversary of Thomas More execution.
Map of British Islands and Thomas More portrait.
First stamp in a set of 3, issued on 07.05.1985.
Face value: 250 Italian lire.
Design and engraving: Antonello Ciaburro.
Printed by Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, Roma.
Printing: Offset lithography and recess.
Print: 850,000 copies.

Catalogues
- Michel No. 870.
- Scott No. 755.
- StampWorld No. 869.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 829.
- Unificato No. 773.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 773.

Thomas More (London, February 7, 1478 - July 6, 1535) was a prominent English Renaissance humanist who opposed the Protestant Reformation, leading polemics against the theology of Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin, and William Tyndale. He also opposed the separation of King Henry VIII from the Catholic Church, refusing to recognize his status as supreme head of the Church of England, and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was found guilty of treason and executed by beheading. He left some written works, such as Utopia (1516), Life of Pico della Mirandola and Historia Richardi Tertii, and some epigrams. He was beatified along with 52 other martyrs by Pope Leo XIII in 1886, and proclaimed a saint by the Catholic Church by Pope Pius XI on May 19, 1935.