significant difference from the Catholic vow of celibacy. This was shocking to the citizens and especially clergy of England and Europe. The idea of a married priest was not something that they were quite ready for but were willing to think about. Another surprising contrast to Christian rule was that in Utopia, women were appointed to the priesthood occasionally. Although there were many contrasts, there was one overwhelmingly similar point among the two religions. In Utopia Atheists were scorned by the public and were not allowed to hold any sort of public office. This was similar to England at the time because of the overwhelming presence of one strict religion. Many found that More was recommending modifications to religion while others thought his writings of religion were fantasy just like the rest of the book. One thing is for certain, it made people think.Community life in Utopia is something very important to More. The citizens live in what are now called communes, which he refers to as families. These families consist of forty men and women that live and work together. However, in Utopia, each of these communes has two slaves and a magistrate who presides over thirty of these homes. The life of a farmer in Utopia was not much different from that of an English farmer in the 1500s with the exception of living with so many other people. Much like in England, the Utopian farmer did not own the land he farmed or the house he lived in. It was simply a question of who owned the place one farmed a rich lord in England or the state in Utopia. What is really different is that there existed an opportunity to change jobs or activities for the Utopians because farm work was more difficult on the body than most city occupations. As More describes it, These husbandmen plow and till the ground, and breed up cattle, and provide and make ready wood which they carry to city either by land or by water as they may most conveniently ...
