Short answers, pulled from the story.
Thomas More was executed by beheading on the 6th of July 1535 at Tower Hill. He was convicted of treason for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy acknowledging Henry VIII as Supreme Head of the Church of England, and for refusing to support the annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
At his execution, More declared that he died "the King's good servant, and God's first." As he mounted the scaffold, finding it unsteady, he also told the waiting official: "I pray you, master Lieutenant, see me safe up and for my coming down, let me shift for my self."
Utopia, published in 1516, is a Latin frame narrative describing the political arrangements of an imaginary island country where communal ownership replaces private property, there are no lawyers because laws are simple, men and women are educated alike, and religious toleration is nearly universal. The book gave rise to the literary genre of utopian and dystopian fiction.
Pope Pius XI canonised Thomas More on the 19th of May 1935 for his martyrdom, describing him as a leader of those who resisted religious change with unflinching spirit. Pope John Paul II later declared More the patron saint of statesmen and politicians on the 31st of October 2000.
As Lord Chancellor from 1529 to 1532, More was the first point of contact for those arrested on suspicion of heresy in London and can be connected with proceedings against around forty suspected or convicted heretics. Six people were burned at the stake for heresy during his chancellorship, and More commented approvingly on at least three of the London cases.
Erasmus, who called More his best friend and lived in his household, documented More's character consistently over thirty-five years, describing him in 1500 as the kindest and most harmonious person nature ever invented and after More's death writing that the two had been "a single soul." Erasmus also defended More's character as more pure than any snow, a description that anchored More's reputation for saintliness long after his death.