How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from A Man for All Seasons.
Quote #4
BISHOP: Just so. Sir Thomas, it states in the preamble that the King's former marriage to the Lady Catherine was unlawful... she being his brother's widow and the Pope having no authority to sanction it. Is that what you deny? Is that what you dispute? Is that what you are not sure of?
DUKE: Thomas, ye insult His Majesty and Council in the person of the Lord Archbishop!
MORE: I insult no one. I will not take the oath. I will not tell you why I will not.DUKE: Then your reasons must be treasonable!
MORE: Not "must be." May be.
More refuses to take the oath, and tries to survive on a technicality. Since they don't know that his reasons are treasonous, they can't actually determine that he's treasonous. (However—his reasons actually are treasonous in the king's eyes. So More's persecutors aren't wrong.)
Quote #5
CROMWELL: […] Is there a man in this country [...] who does not know Sir Thomas More's opinion of this title? Yet, how can this be? Because this silence betoken... Nay, this silence was not silence at all, but most eloquent denial!
MORE: Not so. Not so, Master Secretary. The maxim of is "Qui tecat consentere." The maxim of the law is "Silence gives consent." If, therefore, you wish to construe what my silence betokened... you must construe that I consented, not that I denied.
More claims that his silence should be interpreted as consent—even though More really isn't consenting. Although he's a principled guy, he isn't above using a clever and somewhat misleading legal strategy to save his skin.
Quote #6
CROMWELL: Is that in fact what the world construes from it? Do you pretend that is what you wish the world to construe from it?
MORE: The world must construe according to its wits. This court must construe according to the law.
Cromwell gets owned. Here, he's making the somewhat unsophisticated argument, "Hey, c'mon! We all know what More thinks, right?" But More totally beats him down by pointing out that that's not a legally sound argument.