  On the title-page of Utopia Thomas More identifies himself as a citizen of the renowned city of London. The city, with its privileges and corporate procedures, was central to his formation and to the style of his political thought. Born in Milk Street, Cripplegate, in February 1478, he was the son of a successful barrister, John More. Thomas began his education at St Anthony's, the outstanding grammar school in the city, but around 1490 he was placed as a page in the household of Cardinal John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor. Morton was evidently struck by More's talents since after two years he was sent on to Oxford, perhaps to Canterbury College. It was probably never intended that he should take a degree, but he must have received some grounding in the subjects of the trivium (grammar, dialectic, rhetoric).  Morton, who died in 1500, would remain a figure of personal significance to More, appearing both in Richard III (in his earlier office as bishop of Ely) and in Utopia, where he serves as the figure of a wise and flexible statesman.