Pope Benedict XVI shocked the world and set off an internet maelstrom on Feb. 10 with news that he would resign the papacy at the end of the month. Countless questions immediately arose about why he had done so and what happens next. At the same time, myriad attempts to define his legacy, some more or less fair, began in earnest. It thus seems an opportune time for lawyers to reflect on one event that will surely be regarded as a defining moment of his papacy: the historic address at Westminster Hall in September 2010.
Westminster Hall, of course, was the sight of one of the most famous trials in history some 475 years earlier. A visitor on July 1, 1535, would have seen a frail, sickly Sir Thomas More the former lord chancellor of England, a lawyer, and one of the most beloved and respected humanists of his day ushered into the great hall to stand trial for high treason.
