SAINT JOHN FISHER (1547)

Distinguished Humanist, martyr and prelate who devoted to the pope and to the Roman Catholic Church bravely resisted King Henry VIII of England by refusing to recognize royal supremacy and the abolish of papal jurisdiction over the English Church.

Ordained priest in 1491 he distinguished himself as scholar, preacher and administrator and won the patronage of Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII of England. He became her confessor in 1497 and persuaded her to found a professorship of divinity (1503) at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and to found Christ´s College (1505) and St. John´s at Cambridge. After her death in 1509 he took over at St. John´s effecting its final establishment in 1511.

In 1504 he was appointed chancellor of Cambridge and bishop of Rochester, Kent.

He encouraged Hebrew studies and in 1511 influenced his friend the great Humanist Desiderius Erasmus to teach at Cambridge. Much of Fisher´s work there was directed toward the training of scholarly priests and preachers.

With the advent of Lutheranism inn the 1520s Fisher began his work as a controversialist. His books in Latin against Lutheranism and allied doctrines considered heretical by the Roman Catholic Church gave him a European reputation as a theologian; he dramatically preached against contemporary heresies at St. Paul´s Cross in 1520 and in 1526. 

In the House of Lords he strongly opposed any state interference in church affairs urging that the church should reform itself. When the validity of the marriage between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon was first openly questioned in 1527 Henry and Cardinal Wolsey consulted Fisher; he incurred the King´s wrath when he defended Catherine in 1529, later publishing his defense and preaching in London on the Queen´s behalf. In 1531 he vehemently opposed the granting to Henry of the title Supreme Head of the Church and Clergy of England thus becoming an enemy of the Supremacy Act of 1534.

After Henry VIII´s marriage to Anne Boleyn had been declared valid in 1533 the English ecstatic Elizabeth Barton (the nun of Kent) uttered outspoken prophecies that agitated public disquiet over Henry´s matrimonial policy. Being among Elizabeth´s devotees Fisher was attacked by the King for supposedly not reporting her subversive prophecies and was thus condemned (March 17, 1534) for concealment of treason; a fine of 300 pounds was made in lieu of imprisonment. By this time the celebrated Humanist and ecclesiastic St. Thomas More, Fisher´s friend and colleague, had also fallen out of royal favour.

In March 1534 the Act of Succession declared Henry´s marriage to Catherine void and that with Anne valid. On the following April 13 Fisher and More jointly refused to take the oath required by the Act on the grounds that while willing to accept the succession as a proper matter for Parliament, they could not accept the rest of the Act, especially because it repudiated papal authority. They were imprisoned in the Tower of London; Fisher was already seriously ill.

The passing of the Supremacy and Treason acts at the end of the year made denial of the royal titles treasonable. On May 20, 1535 Pope Paul III created Fisher a cardinal which enraged Henry VIII and destroyed all hope for Fisher. He was called several times before councillors but refused to speak about the supremacy. In a conversation that was disguised as privileged the solicitor general Sir Richard Rich reportedly tricked Fisher into confiding that the king was not and could not be supreme head of the Church of England.

He was tried on June 17, condemned for treason and executed on Tower Hill. His head was displayed on London Bridge and the stripped body was removed from the scaffold and buried in the churchyard of All Hallows near the Tower. When More was similarly executed on July 6, Fisher´s body was removed and with that of More was reburied in the Church of St. Peter-ad-Vincula within the Tower.

Fisher was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886 and canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1935. His feast day is July 9.