He was quite happy to persecute heretics before the divorce started.
That More meant what he said is shown by three Star Chamber cases brought as a result of the June proclamation. On October 25th, 1530, John Porseck, one Seymour and their associates were sent by More from the Star Chamber to the Tower 'for having books against the King's proclamation'. In addition, they had to perform public penance, wearing humiliating placards while led through London's streets on horseback facing back-to-front. After this, they had to burn their Protestant books on a bonfire in Cheapside. About the same time, John Tyndale (William's brother), Thomas Patmer (a London merchant) and another were reported to More by Bishop Stokesley as distributors of Tyndale's New Testament. Sir Thomas had them arrested and taken before the Star Chamber. They confessed, and More imprisoned them in the Counter. The next market day, they, too, performed public penance on horse-back, being pelted with rotten fruit while wearing coats 'pinned thick' with the proscribed books. After another bonfire at Cheapside, the men were gaoled pending More's assessment of their fine. The third case was heard on October 14th, 1531. John Cook was on that day convicted in Star Chamber of owning an English New Testament, his Bible being confiscated and he himself imprisoned in the Fleet by More.
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Even more controversial was More's role in events leading up to several burnings for heresy. In close co-operation with Stokesley, More arrested George Constantine for heresy in 1531. Constantine was a dealer in Protestant books, who gave away much information about his fellow reformers before escaping in early December. More had had him imprisoned in the stocks at his house in Chelsea, which he kept in his porter's lodge. But Constantine broke the frame, scaled More's garden wall and fled to Antwerp. Sir Thomas joked in his Apology that he must have fed the heretic properly for him to achieve this feat of strength. Yet More's humour was sadly inappropriate. It was on information gleaned from Constantine that Richard Bayfield, a Benedictine monk and book pedlar, was seized, interrogated by Stokesley and burned at Smithfield. Bayfield had been converted to Lutheranism by Robert Barnes, and when caught had in his possession books by Luther and Zwingli. Being a relapsed heretic, More described him in his Confutation as 'a dog returning to his vomit'. Next Sir Thomas caught a leather-seller named John Tewkesbury, who was also held at Chelsea until tried by Stokesley. On sentence, he was handed back to the secular arm and burned on December 20th, 1531. James Bainham, a Middle Temple lawyer, was then reported to More. Examined by Stokesley at More's house, he was found to own books by Tyndale, Frith and Joy. At first Bainham abjured and performed his penance, but later reaffirmed his Protestant faith. He was tried and burned at the stake in April, 1532. More's apologists cannot thus deny that Sir Thomas was personally involved in detecting three out of the six cases of heresy which resulted in burnings during his chancellorship. Neither was he inactive in two of the remaining cases. He railed in the Confutation at Sir Thomas Hitton, burned at Maidstone in 1530, as 'the devil's stinking martyr' who 'hath taken his wretched soul with him straight from the short fire to the fire everlasting'. He also launched a most irregular Star Chamber investigation into the question of Thomas Bilney's supposed recantation prior to his being burned in the Lollards' Pit in Norwich in August, 1531, using his powers as Lord Chancellor inquisitorially and in a style contrary to the Star Chamber's accepted procedure.
http://www.historytoday.com/john-guy/sir-thomas-more-and-heretics
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