Thomas More's head may be exhumed 500 years after it was put on a pike
St Dunstan's, an Anglican church in Canterbury where the remains of the Tudor lawyer lie in a vault, has applied for permission to have them unearthed to potentially place in a shrine.
Henry VIII's lord chancellor was put to death in 1535, after refusing to recognise the king as head of the Church of England when he declared independence from Rome during the Reformation.
More was martyred by the Vatican in 1935, meaning his remains are considered a holy relic in Catholicism.
The parochial church council (PCC) at St Dunstan's is looking to prepare More's remains in time for the 500th anniversary of his death in 2035, but requires permission from the commissary court in Canterbury, which rules on church buildings and grounds, The Times reported.
More was an influential theologian whose 1516 book Utopia described the political system of an imagined ideal state.
The philosopher was a fierce critic of the Protestant Reformation, and opposed Henry VIII's separation from the Catholic Church.
More, who is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church, was buried in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula at the Tower of London, but his head – after being parboiled – was placed on a pike on London Bridge.
His daughter, Margaret Roper, rescued the head to prevent it from being thrown into the Thames, and is believed to have kept it in spices for the rest of her life.
The head was buried with her when she died in 1544, and when her body was transferred to the Roper family grave at St Dunstan's in 1578 it was brought along.
It has been stored in a vault behind metal bars at St Dunstan's ever since.
Plans to conserve and enshrine
Congregants at St Dunstan's were informed of the church's decision to exhume the remains last Sunday, The Times reported.
A statement said: 'What the PCC has agreed, subject to all the right permissions being granted, is to exhume and conserve what remains of the relic, which will take several years to dry out and stabilise.
'We could just put it back in the vault, maybe in a reliquary of some kind, or we could place the reliquary in some sort of shrine or carved stone pillar above ground in the Roper chapel, which is what many of our visitors have requested. We'd really appreciate your ideas and thoughts.'
The church will seek to raise £50,000 from More's devotees to pay expert archaeologists for the conservation project, it was reported.
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