Feast of St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher

St. Thomas More is better known than his fellow Englishman, Bishop John Fisher. The play and film, A Man for All Seasons, have made St. Thomas and his courageous refusal to submit to Henry VIII beloved of many. St. John Fisher, the sole bishop to oppose the king, is another giant of courage. I took the information about him from SperoForum's Saint of the Day. Pray for St. John to intercede for our U.S. bishops many of whom resemble his cowardly confreres on the English bench of bishops. May God prepare us all to be martyrs, even as we pray not to face the trial.

John Fisher of Rochester BM (RM)
Born at Beverley, Yorkshire, England, 1469; died on Tower Hill, London, on June 22, 1535; canonized in 1935; feast day formerly on June 13 (Roman calendar) and July 9 (locally).

"Had you but tasted one drop of the sweetness which inebriates the souls of those religious from their worship of this Sacrament, you would never have written as you have, nor have apostatized from the faith that you formerly professed. --John Fisher, writing to the bishop of Winchester The son of a textile merchant who died while John was still a boy, Saint John Fisher was a Catholic of high ideals. He was equally distinguished as a humanistic scholar, a fosterer of sound learning in others, and a faithful bishop. Educated at Michaelhouse at Cambridge (since merged into Trinity) from age 14, forever afterwards he was connected with the life of the university. Fisher was ordained a priest under a special dispensation at the age of 22. He became a doctor of divinity, master of Michaelhouse, and vice chancellor.

In 1502, he resigned his mastership to become the chaplain of the king's mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, countess of Richmond and Derby. Under his direction, Lady Margaret founded Christ's College and Saint John's College at Cambridge, and established there and at Oxford a Lady Margaret divinity chair. Because of this and other princely gifts, she has come to be regarded as Cambridge's greatest benefactress.

Fisher's contributions have not been as readily recognized. He was the first to fill the divinity chair at Cambridge. But more important than that, he himself endowed scholarships, provided for Greek and Hebrew in the curriculum, and engaged his friend, the famous humanist, Erasmus as a professor of divinity and Greek at a time was the school's scholarship was at its lowest ebb. Before that no Greek or Hebrew was taught, and the library had been reduced to 300 volumes. In 1504, Fisher was elected chancellor of the university. As such he did much to further the growth and progress of his alma mater, of which he may justly be considered the second founder.

John Fisher lived in the last days of Catholic England and reached high office under Henry VII. After serving as chaplain to his patron Margaret Beaufort, he was appointed bishop of Rochester in 1504. He was only 35 years old, young to be a bishop. He accepted the office warily, as it added greatly to his responsibilities (he was still university chancellor until his death). It was the smallest and poorest diocese in England, but so great was his love for it that, later, he refused the richer sees of Ely and Lincoln, saying he "would not leave his poor old wife for the richest widow in England." The climate was so damp and the state of his palace so ruinous that Erasmus, when staying with him, was appalled; yet for 30 years Fisher chose to remain there and was one of the most faithful of the English bishops of the period.

Fisher was a zealous and thorough pastor. He regularly made visitations, administered confirmation, disciplined his clergy, visited the sick poor, and distributed alms with his own hands. His personal life was strict and simple. "He kept a good table for every one but himself." He was such an articulate preacher that when King Henry VII died in 1509, he preached the funeral sermon, as he did for Lady Margaret in her turn.

He discharged his public offices with dignity and courage. His reputation both at home and abroad was that of a great and distinguished figure. In the words of Erasmus: "There is not in the nation a more learned man nor a holier bishop." Henry VIII, before Fisher had roused his vindictive rage, openly gloried "that no other prince or kingdom had so distinguished a prelate."

During this time, he continued to write books and pursue his own studies, beginning to learn Greek at age 48, and Hebrew at 51. Fisher lived austerely, sleeping and eating little, and he kept a skull in front of him at meals to remind himself of his mortality. He formed one of the most exceptional libraries in Europe with the intention of bequeathing it to the university.

Fisher fully realized the urgent need of reform in the church, from popes and bishops downwards, but was opposed to Lutheran ideas of reform and wrote four weighty volumes against them. He preached at Paul's Cross in defense of Christian doctrine when Luther's books were banned and burned. Yet he preferred prayer and example before controversy.

With the utmost boldness and not without justification, Fisher censured the clergy at a synod in the presence of Cardinal Wolsey himself for their corruption, vanity, laxity, and love of gain. Most of the higher clergy had won their preferments through secular service to the state or by private interest. As a member of the House of Lords, Fisher vigorously opposed the government's policy of war and criticized the measures against the clergy that were being forced through the Commons. He uttered another great protest in convocation when that assembly was called upon to agree that Henry VIII was the head of the Church of England. He did suggest adding to the oath the words, "So far as the law of Christ allows" which smoothed the path of many who signed. But boldest of all was his uncompromising attitude to the scandalous divorce of Catherine of Aragon by Henry.
As Queen Catherine's confessor, he appeared on her behalf before the commissioners at Blackfriars in 1529 and also spoke and wrote vigorously against it. This infuriated the king and when, later, Fisher refused to take the Oath of Supremacy acknowledging the king to be head of the English Church, he was deprived of his bishopric and committed to the Tower.

The warnings of friends and the threats of his enemies were not necessary to bring home to Fisher the danger he now ran by his opposition to the ruling powers. Despite being imprisoned for two short periods, and being the object of poisoning and a shooting attempt, Fisher persisted in espousing his views. Thomas Cromwell unsuccessfully tried to link him with Elizabeth Barton, the 'Holy Maid of Kent,' a nun who had trances and made personal attacks upon Henry for trying to divorce the queen.

He was summoned to Lambeth, despite being so ill that he fainted on the road between Rochester and London, to sign the oath of the bill of succession. He refused, because it was in essence an oath of supremacy. He was at Rochester at the time he was arrested, and from the country round people flocked into the city to bid him farewell. After settling his affairs and making gifts to the poor, he rode bareheaded through the streets giving his blessing to the crowd.

On his arrival in London, when confronted with the Oath he replied: "My answer is that forasmuch as mine own conscience cannot be satisfied, I do absolutely refuse the Oath. I do not condemn any other men's consciences. Their consciences may save them, and mine must save me." In April 1534, the 66-year-old prelate began a 15- month imprisonment in the Tower of London, his property was confiscated, and he was stripped of his offices. A confidential messenger from Henry asked him to declare, for the king's ears alone, his opinion on royal supremacy. His negative opinion sealed his conviction.

During this time Pope Paul III named him a cardinal. King Henry was furious, and within a month Fisher was brought to trial in Westminster Hall, charged with treason in that he had denied the king's ecclesiastical supremacy and found guilty. Some of the judges cried as "the most holy and learned prelate in Christendom" was sentenced to death on June 17, 1535.

On a June morning a few days later, John was awakened at 5:00 a.m. and told that he was to be executed that day. He asked to rest a little longer and slept for two hours. So frail and emaciated by illness that he could barely stand, Fisher was carried in a chair from the Tower to the place of execution.

He courteously thanked his guards for their attentive trouble and pains. Saying that he was dying for he faith, he asked the people to pray that he might have courage. He carried his little New Testament, and at Tower Gate opened it at the words: "This is life eternal, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. I have glorified Thee upon the earth, I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do" (John 17:3- 5).

Closing the book, he said: "Here is learning enough for me to my life's end." As he mounted the scaffold, facing the morning sun, he lifted his hands and cried: "They had an eye unto Him, and were lightened; and their faces were not ashamed." Then kneeling in prayer, he repeated Psalm 31, In Thee, O Lord, have I put my trust (others say that he died with the words of the Te Deum on his lips), and was beheaded with an axe.

His friend Thomas More wrote of Saint John of Rochester: "I reckon in this realm no one man, in wisdom, learning, and long approved virtue together, meet to be matched and compared with him."

John Fisher was buried in the churchyard of All Hallows, Barking, without rites or a shroud. His head was exhibited on London Bridge for two weeks, then was thrown into the Thames (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Gill, Hughes, Reynolds, Surtz, Walsh, White).

In art, Saint John Fisher is shown robed as a cardinal, with haggard ascetic features, or with an axe or his hat at his feet (White.)