Like his counterpart Erasmus of Rotterdam, Sir Thomas More became a significant humanist philosopher. His fictional Utopia, published in Latin, depicted a perfect government that promoted harmony and hierarchical order. However his description could be construed as a polemical attack on the powers that be. More’s defense of Catholicism would later lead to his execution on the orders of England’s King Henry VIII. Jefferson also owned the 1743 English-language edition of Utopia, printed in Glasgow by Robert Foulis.