The Utopia Tales

So, the story all begins with a man- who is revealed to be none other than Thomas More himself (not sure if that was supposed to be immediately obvious, I didn't pick up on it until one of the other characters called him 'Mr. More') as the main character (I guess the guy never got past his self-insert fan fiction phase)- traveling to Flanders.

Hi-diddly-ho!

Admittedly, my mentioning of this has no real purpose aside from making these bad jokes. Onto my real point.

Somewhat early in the story, More is conversing with another pair of characters, Raphael and Peter.

Further adding to my 'self-insert fan fiction' theory. (I'm sorry for being terribly unfunny.)

As they talk,  Raphael begins to tell a story about time he spent hanging out with the Archbishop of a little place called Canterbury. Now, where have I heard that name before...?

Oh yeah, right.

One night when dining with the Archbishop, an english lawyer who was also dining with them 'who took occasion to run out in a high commendation of the severe execution of justice upon thieves'. Raphael and the Archbishop then have a bit of a debate, in which the Archbishop laments so heavy a punishment on so simple a crime and Raphael defends the killing of lowlifes such as those. They discuss this for quite some time, as Raphael explains that, in essence, killing these people does good for the world as it keeps crime low, prevents food shortages, and stuff like that; if problems like unemployment can't be solved, crime will only rise as people struggle to provide for themselves, so it is vain to lament the death of these people for they do not benefit society. (Or at least, I think that's what he's saying. There's a lot of long-winded fancy talk in this book.)

What I'm getting at is that it seems as though Raphael is trying to teach the Archbishop a lesson by lecturing him about feeling sorry for the thieves. And of course it's not just any Archbishop, it's the Archbishop of Canterbury, that place we just read a book about people going to while also telling stories with morals and such. Much as people like the Wife of Bath and the Pardoner did in the Canterbury Tales, trying to teach the others a moral or a lesson of some kind, Raphael appears to be doing the same thing to the head honcho of the very place all those characters were traveling to.

It seems to me almost like a comedic jab at the Canterbury Tales and Chaucer. I'm not certain if there's a point to it, though- is it just for fun, or is it mocking? Is it some sort of commentary on the Canterbury Tales by More, or just a reference? Or am I just looking too far into things and seeing a reference to other works where there is none? I'm not certain. I feel like there's more to it, but I'm having difficulty reading into it, and I'd love to hear everyone else's thoughts on the matter.