Critique of England and the Sheep Passage

From Utopia by Thomas More
Raphael's famous indictment of English society, particularly the enclosure movement, where he declares that sheep have become so greedy they 'devour men,' and his argument against capital punishment for theft.
Book I, the sheep passage

Contains the iconic line: 'Your sheep, that were wont to be so meek and tame and so small eaters, now, as I hear say, be become so great devourers and so wild, that they eat up and swallow down the very men themselves.'

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Book I, dinner at Cardinal Morton's

Raphael argues hanging thieves is unjust and ineffective when society itself creates the conditions for theft.

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