This well-known portrait of St. John Fisher was painted by German Renaissance artist Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543). (Public Domain/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)
June 22
(CNA) — John was the eldest son of merchant Robert Fisher and his wife Agnes in Beverley, Yorkshire, England in 1469. His early education was probably received in the school attached to the collegiate church in his native town. In 1484 he moved to Michaelhouse, Cambridge, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1487 and a master’s degree in 1491. That year he was elected a fellow of his college and was made Vicar of Northallerton, Yorkshire. In 1494 he resigned to become proctor of his university, and three years later he was appointed master of Michaelhouse and became chaplain and confessor to Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, the mother of King Henry VII. In 1501 he earned a doctorate and was elected vice-chancellor of Cambridge University. Under Fisher’s guidance, Lady Margaret founded St. John’s and Christ’s Colleges at Cambridge, and also the two “Lady Margaret” professorships of divinity at Oxford and Cambridge, Fisher himself being the first occupant of the Cambridge chair.
Fisher was appointed bishop of Rochester Oct. 14, 1504 and was elected chancellor of Cambridge University that same year. He would go on to be re-elected annually for 10 years before being appointed for life. Around this time, he also is said to have acted as tutor to the future King Henry VIII. As a preacher, his reputation was so great that in 1509, when King Henry VII and the Lady Margaret died, Fisher preached the funeral for both; these sermons are still extant. In 1542 Fisher was nominated as one of the English representatives at the Fifth Council of Lateran, then sitting, but his journey to Rome was postponed and finally abandoned. Besides his share in Lady Margaret’s foundations, Fisher gave further proof of his genuine zeal for learning by inducing Erasmus to visit Cambridge. The latter indeed (Epist., 6:2) attributes it to Fisher’s protection that the study of Greek was allowed to proceed at Cambridge without the active molestation that it encountered at Oxford. He has also been named, though without any real proof, as the true author of the royal treatise against Luther “Assertio septem sacramentorum (Defense of the Seven Sacraments),” published in 1521, which won the title “Fidei Defensor (Defender of the Faith)” for Henry VIII. Before then, Fisher had denounced various abuses in the Church, urging the need of disciplinary reforms, and in 1521 he preached at St. Paul’s Cross when Luther’s books were publicly burned.
(USCCB)
Saturday, June 22: Memorial of Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher
Pray that, like Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher, we might have the wisdom and the courage to be good servants of our country, though always servants of God first.
Reflect: Religious Freedom Week is a fitting time to reflect not only on religious liberty, but on what it means to be both American and Catholic. Perhaps somewhat ironically, two English saints point us in the right direction. We remember the martyrs Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher, in part, because they were steadfast in the truth, and thus exemplify courage in the exercise of conscience. They also show us what patriotism means for Christians. They loved and served their country. Thomas More carried out his lay vocation as a civil servant, while John Fisher lived out the clerical vocation as a most faithful bishop. At the same time, when forced to choose between the king of England and Christ the King of the Universe, they adhered to Jesus and His Church. We need the fortitude and wisdom to animate the Church today, as we navigate these tumultuous times. Sts. John Fisher and Thomas More, pray for us!
When the question of Henry’s divorce from Queen Catherine
arose, Fisher became the queen’s chief supporter and most trusted counselor. In
this capacity he appeared on her behalf in the legates’ court, where he
startled his hearers by the directness of his language and, most of all, by
declaring that, like St. John the Baptist, he was ready to die on behalf of the
indissolubility of marriage. This statement was reported to Henry VIII, who was
so enraged by it that he himself composed a long Latin address to the legates
in answer to the bishop’s speech. Fisher’s copy of this still exists, with his
manuscript annotations in the margins which show how little he feared the royal
anger. The removal of the cause to Rome brought Fisher’s personal share to an
end, but the king never forgave him for what he had done. In November 1529, the
“Long Parliament” of Henry’s reign began its series of encroachments on the
Church. Fisher, as a member of the upper house, at once warned Parliament that
such acts could only end in the utter destruction of the Church in England. On
this the Commons, through their speaker, complained to the king that the bishop
had disparaged Parliament. Dr. Gairdner (Lollardy and the Reformation, I, 442)
says of this incident “it can hardly be a matter of doubt that this strange
remonstrance was prompted by the king himself, and partly for personal uses of
his own”.
The opportunity was not lost. Henry summoned Fisher
before him, demanding an explanation. This being given, Henry declared himself
satisfied, leaving it to the Commons to declare that the explanation was
inadequate, so that he appeared as a magnanimous sovereign, instead of Fisher’s
enemy.
A year later (1530) the continued encroachments on the
Church moved the bishops of Rochester, Bath and Ely to appeal to the Apostolic
see. This gave the king his opportunity. An edict forbidding such appeals was
immediately issued, and the three bishops were arrested. Their imprisonment,
however, could have only lasted a few months, because Fisher was present at the
February 1531 Convocation. It was there that the clergy were forced, at a cost
of £100,000, to purchase
the king’s pardon for having recognized Cardinal John Wolsey’s authority as
legate of the pope and, at the same time, to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head
of the Church in England, to which phrase, however, the addition “so far as God’s
law permits” was made, through Fisher’s efforts.
A few days later, several of the bishop’s servants were
taken ill after eating some porridge served to the household, and two actually
died. Popular opinion at the time regarded this as an attempt on the bishop’s
life, although he himself chanced not to have taken any of the poisoned food.
To disarm suspicion, the king not only expressed strong indignation at the crime
but caused a special Act of Parliament to be passed, whereby poisoning was to
be accounted high treason, and the person guilty of it boiled to death. This
sentence was actually carried out on the culprit, but it did not prevent what
seems to have been a second attempt on Fisher’s life soon afterwards.
Matters now moved
rapidly. In May 1532, Sir Thomas More resigned the chancellorship, and in June,
Fisher preached publicly against the divorce. In August, William Warham,
Archbishop of Canterbury, died, and Thomas Cranmer was at once nominated to the
pope as his successor. In January 1533, Henry secretly went through the form of
marriage with Anne Boleyn; Cranmer’s consecration took place in March of the
same year, and, a week later, Fisher was arrested. It seems fairly clear that
the purpose of this arrest was to prevent his opposing the sentence of divorce
which Cranmer pronounced in May, or the coronation of Anne Boleyn which
followed on June 1, because Fisher was set free again within a fortnight of the
latter event, with no charge being made against him. In the autumn of 1533,
various arrests were made in connection with the so-called revelations of the
Holy Maid of Kent, but as Fisher became seriously ill in December, proceedings
against him were postponed for a time. In March 1534, however, a special bill
of attainder against the Bishop of Rochester and others for complicity in the
matter of the Nun of Kent was introduced and passed. By this Fisher was
condemned to forfeiture of all his personal estate and to be imprisoned during
the king’s pleasure. Subsequently a pardon was granted him on payment of a fine
of £300.
This stained-glass window of St. John Fisher is found at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria, Illinois. A Yorkshire draper’s son, John was one of the “new men” of Tudor England, a distinguished scholar at Cambridge University who was ordained at age 22. Privately austere, John held several high offices: chaplain to a king’s mother, vice chancellor and chancellor of Cambridge, bishop of Rochester and counselor to Catherine of Aragon during King Henry VIII’s divorce proceedings against her. But John steadfastly refused to accept Henry as head of the Church in England and was imprisoned. The pope named him a cardinal, which further enraged Henry, who ordered John’s beheading. He shares this feast with his friend and fellow martyr, Thomas More; their heads were impaled on London Bridge two weeks apart. (CNS)
In the same session of Parliament the Act of Succession was
passed, by which all who should be called upon to do so were compelled to take
an oath of succession, acknowledging the issue of Henry and Anne as legitimate
heirs to the throne, under pain of being guilty of misprision of treason. Fisher
refused the oath and was sent to the Tower of London April 26, 1534. Several
efforts were made to induce him to submit, but without effect, and in November
he was a second time attained of misprision of treason, his goods being
forfeited from the previous March 1, and the See of Rochester being declared
vacant from the following June 2. A long letter exists, written from the Tower
by the bishop to Thomas Cromwell, which records the severity of his confinement
and the sufferings he endured.
In May 1535, the new pope, Paul III, elevated Fisher as Cardinal
Priest of St. Vitalis, his motive being apparently to induce Henry by this mark
of esteem to treat the bishop less severely. The effect was precisely the
reverse. Henry forbade the cardinal’s hat to be brought into England, declaring
that he would send the head to Rome instead. In June a special commission for Fisher’s
trial was issued, and on June 17 he was arraigned in Westminster Hall on a
charge of treason, in that he denied the king to be supreme head of the Church.
Since he had been deprived of his bishopric by the Act of Attainder, he was
treated as a commoner and tried by jury. He was declared guilty and condemned
to be hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, but the mode of execution was
changed, and, instead, he was beheaded on Tower Hill. The martyr’s last moments
were thoroughly in keeping with his previous life.
He met death with a calm dignified courage which
profoundly impressed all present. His headless body was stripped and left on
the scaffold till evening, when it was thrown naked into a grave in the
churchyard of Allhallows, Barking. Thence it was removed a fortnight later and
laid beside that of Sir Thomas More in the church of St. Peter ad Vincula by
the Tower. His head was stuck upon a pole on London Bridge, but its ruddy and
lifelike appearance excited so much attention that, after a fortnight, it was
thrown into the Thames, its place being taken by that of Sir Thomas More, whose
martyrdom occurred the following July 6.
With More, he is a patron saint of Religious Freedom, and
their joint feast day kicks off the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
Religious Freedom Week.