John Fisher

Roman Catholic
Motto	faciam vos fieri piscatores hominum ("I shall make you fishers of men")
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Sainthood
Feast day	22 June (Catholic Church) 6 July (Church of England) 9 July (Catholic pre-1969)
Venerated in	Catholic Church, Church of England, some of the other Churches in the Anglican Communion
Title as Saint	Bishop, cardinal and martyr, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyr
Beatified	29 December 1886 Rome, Kingdom of Italy, by Pope Leo XIII
Canonized	19 May 1935 Vatican City, by Pope Pius XI
Patronage	Diocese of Rochester, Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester; Rochester, New York

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John Fisher (c. 19 October 1469 – 22 June 1535) was an

John Fisher was born at Beverley, Yorkshire in 1469,^[2] the son of Robert Fisher, a prosperous mercer of Beverley, and Agnes, his wife, who had produced four children. Robert Fisher died in 1477, buried in St.Mary's, the parish church; in his will, he bequeathed to his children and various poorhouses, churches, priests, and Masses.^[3]

John, who was then 8 years old, subsequently watched his mother remarry her second husband, a man named White, from which also emanated four children.^[4]

Fisher seems to have had close contacts with his extended family all his life. Fisher's early education was probably received in the school attached to the collegiate church in his home town.

University of Cambridge

Acknowledging Fisher's aptitude for learning, and being financially well-off, his mother assented to his admission into the University of Cambridge. In the 1482, at the age of twelve or thirteen, he left Lincoln for Cambridge.

The University of Cambridge had regressed and stagnated academically. In an oration done before Henry VII in 1506, he recalled:

"At the time when your majesty first showed your concern for us, learning had begun to decline among us—this may have been the result of constant litigation with the town, or of the frequent plagues that beset us so that we lost many of our leading scholars, or of the lack of patrons of learning.^[5] Whatever the cause, we should indeed have been reduced to despair had not your majesty shone down upon us like the rising sun itself."^[6]

Fisher studied at the

Also in 1491 Fisher received a papal dispensation to enter the priesthood despite being under canonical age.[8] On 17 December 1491 he was ordained into the priesthood, and appointed (nominal) Vicar of Northallerton, Yorkshire.

In 1494 he resigned this benefice to become proctor of the university and three years later was appointed master debater, about which date he also became chaplain and confessor to Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, mother of King Henry VII.

On 5 July 1501, he became a

Fisher's strategy was to assemble funds and attract to Cambridge leading scholars from Europe, promoting the study not only of Classical Latin and Greek authors, but of Hebrew. He placed great weight upon pastoral commitment, above all popular preaching by the endowed staff. Fisher had a vision to which he dedicated all his personal resources and energies. He managed despite occasional opposition to administer a whole university, one of only two in England. He conceived and saw through long-term projects.

Fisher's foundations were also dedicated to prayer for the dead, especially through chantry foundations. A stern and austere man, Fisher was known to place a human skull on the altar during Mass and on the table during meals.^[9]

Erasmus said of John Fisher: "He is the one man at this time who is incomparable for uprightness of life, for learning and for greatness of soul."^[10]

Bishop

By papal bull dated 14 October 1504, Fisher was appointed the bishop of Rochester at the personal insistence of Henry VII.^[11] Rochester was then the poorest diocese in England and usually seen as a first step on an ecclesiastical career. Nonetheless, Fisher stayed there, presumably by his own choice, for the remaining 31 years of his life.

At the same time, like any English bishop of his day, Fisher had certain state duties. In particular, he maintained a passionate interest in the University of Cambridge. In 1504 he was elected the university's chancellor. Re-elected annually for 10 years, Fisher ultimately received a lifetime appointment. At this date he is also said to have acted as tutor to the future king, Henry VIII. As a preacher his reputation was so great that Fisher was appointed to preach the funeral oration for King Henry VII and the Lady Margaret, both of whom died in 1509, the texts being extant. Besides his share in the Lady Margaret's foundations, Fisher gave further proof of his zeal for learning by inducing Erasmus to visit Cambridge. The latter attributes it ("Epistulae" 6:2) to Fisher's protection that the study of Greek was allowed to proceed at Cambridge without the active molestation that it encountered at Oxford.^[2]

Despite his fame and eloquence, it was not long before Fisher came into conflict with the new King, his former pupil. The dispute arose over funds left by the Lady Margaret, the King's grandmother, for financing foundations at Cambridge.

In 1512 Fisher was nominated as one of the English representatives at the Fifth Council of the Lateran, then sitting, but his journey to Rome was postponed, and finally abandoned.^[2]

Opposition to Lutheranism

Fisher was "the first theologian to diagnose justification through faith alone as the founding dogma of the Protestant Reformation."^[12]

Fisher has also been named, though without any real proof, as the true author of the royal treatise against

On about 11 February 1526, at the King's command, he preached a famous sermon against Luther at St Paul's Cross, the open-air pulpit outside St Paul's Cathedral in London. This was in the wake of numerous other controversial writings; the battle against heterodox teachings increasingly occupied Fisher's later years.

In 1529 Fisher was called to confirm with Thomas Hitton, a follower of William Tyndale arrested for suspected heresy, that the records of his interviews and forthright admissions to Archbishop William Warham were correct and to convince Hitton to abjure.^{[14]: 1149–1151} Failing this, Hitton was handed to the secular authorities and executed at the stake for heresy. William Tyndale, then living overseas, claimed that Hitton had been tortured by the archbishops,^[15] however Protestant historian John Foxe who was diligent in passing on this kind of claim, does not claim this.^[14]

Defence of Catherine of Aragon

When Henry tried to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Fisher became the Queen's chief supporter.^[16] As such, he appeared on the Queen's behalf in the legates' court, where he startled the audience by the directness of his language and by declaring that, like St John the Baptist, he was ready to die on behalf of the indissolubility of marriage.^[17] Henry VIII, upon hearing this, grew so enraged by it that he 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 margin which show how little he feared the royal anger.^[18] The removal of the cause to Rome brought Fisher's personal involvement to an end, but the King never forgave him for what he had done.

Henry's attack on church prerogatives

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In November 1529, the "Long Parliament" of Henry's reign began encroaching on the Catholic Church's prerogatives. Fisher, as a member of the upper house, the House of Lords, at once warned Parliament that such acts could only end in the utter destruction of the Catholic Church in England. The Commons, through their speaker, complained to the King that Fisher had disparaged Parliament, presumably with Henry prompting them behind the scenes.^[19]: 433 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.^{[citation needed]}

A year later, in 1530, the continued encroachments on the Church moved Fisher, as bishop of Rochester, along with the

Poisoned porridge and canonball

A few days later, several of Fisher's household were taken ill after eating some porridge served to the household and two died: however Fisher was fasting that day. Henry VIII had parliament enact a retroactive bill that allowed the cook, Richard Roose, to be executed by the state by boiling alive for attempted poisoning without a public trial.

On another occasion in 1530, a canonball fired from across the Thames hit Fisher's house, narrowly missing his study.^[20]: 218 This was rumoured to be a warning or assassination attempt from the Boleyn family.^[21]

Intrigues with the Holy Roman Emperor

Fisher also engaged in secret activities to overthrow Henry. As early as 1531 he began secretly communicating with foreign diplomats. In September 1533 communicating secretly through the imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys he encouraged Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to invade England and depose Henry in combination with a domestic uprising.^[22]

"The King's Great Matter"

Matters now moved rapidly. In May 1532, Sir Thomas More resigned the chancellorship and, in June, Fisher preached publicly against the annulment. In August, William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, died and Thomas Cranmer was at once proposed by Henry to the Pope as his successor. In January of the next year, Henry secretly went through a form of marriage with Anne Boleyn. Cranmer's consecration as a bishop took place in March 1533, and, a week later, Fisher was arrested. It seems that the purpose of this arrest was to prevent him from opposing the annulment which Cranmer pronounced in May, or the coronation of Anne Boleyn which followed on 1 June, for Fisher was set at liberty again within a fortnight of the latter event, 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,

The same session of Parliament passed the First Succession Act, 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 imprisoned in the Tower of London on 26 April 1534.^[11] Several efforts were made to induce him to submit, but without effect, and in November he was attained of misprision of treason a second time, his goods being forfeited as from the previous 1 March, and the See of Rochester being declared vacant as of 2 June following. He was to remain in the Tower for over a year, and while he was allowed food and drink sent by friends, and a servant, he was not allowed a priest, even to the very end. A long letter exists, written from the Tower by Fisher to Thomas Cromwell, speaking of the severity of his conditions of imprisonment.

Like Thomas More, Bishop Fisher believed that, because the statute condemned only those speaking maliciously against the King's new title, there was safety in silence. However, on 7 May he fell into a trap laid for him by Richard Rich, who was to perjure himself to obtain Thomas More's conviction. Rich told Fisher that for his own conscience's sake the King wished to know, in strict secrecy, Fisher's real opinion. Fisher, once again, declared that the King was not Supreme Head of the Church of England.^[10]

Cardinalate and martyrdom

In May 1535, the newly elected

However, a public outcry was brewing among the London populace who saw a sinister irony in the parallels between the conviction of Fisher and that of his patronal namesake,

He was executed on Tower Hill on 22 June 1535.^[23] The execution had the opposite effect from that which King Henry VIII intended, as it created yet another parallel with that of the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist, who was also beheaded; his death also happened on the feast day of Saint Alban, the first martyr of Britain.^[23]

Fisher met death with a calm dignified courage which profoundly impressed those present. His body was treated with particular rancour, apparently on Henry's orders, being stripped and left on the scaffold until the evening,

"Catholic piety conventionally explains the scarlet robes that Cardinals wear as a sign of their readiness to shed their blood for the sake of the Christian gospel. This is an edifying thought: but as a matter of fact, in the whole millenium-long history of the cardinalate, only one member of the Sacred College has actually ever suffered martyrdom. That man was John Fisher. (...)

— Eamon Duffy [24]^: 150

Writings

A list of Fisher's writings is found in Joseph Gillow's Bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics (London, s.d.), II, 262–270. There are twenty-six works in all, printed and manuscript, mostly ascetical or controversial treatises, several of which have been reprinted many times. The original editions are very rare and valuable. The principal are:

• Treatise concernynge ... the seven penytencyall Psalms (London, 1508)
• Sermon ... agayn ye pernicyous doctrin of Martin Luther (London, 1521)
• Assertionis Lutheranae Confutatio (Confutation of the Lutheran Assertions) (1523)
• Defensio Henrici VIII (Cologne, 1525)
• De Veritate Corporis et Sanguinis Christi in Eucharistia, adversus Johannem Oecolampadium (Cologne, 1527)
• De Causa Matrimonii ... Henrici VIII cum Catharina Aragonensi (Alcalá de Henares, 1530)
• The Wayes to Perfect Religion (London, 1535)
• A Spirituall Consolation written ... to hys sister Elizabeth (London, 1735)

Legacy

Canonisation

Fisher was beatified by Pope Leo XIII with Thomas More and 52 other English Martyrs on 29 December 1886. In the Decree of Beatification, the greatest place was given to Fisher.

He was

• St John Fisher College at the University of Tasmania in Hobart
• St John Fisher Catholic High school in Bracken Ridge, Queensland^[28]
• St John Fisher Church (Kurnell), Sydney, Australia
• St John Fisher Church (Tarragindi), Brisbane, Queensland^[29]

Canada

• St. John Fisher Catholic School, Scarborough
• Fisher Hall, one of the residence halls at Saint Michael's College at the University of Toronto
• St. John Fisher R.C. School, Forest, Ontario^[30]
• St. John Fisher Parish, Bramalea (Brampton), Ontario^[31]
• St. John Fisher Elementary School, Pointe-Claire, Quebec^[32]

United Kingdom

• The University of Cambridge:
  • Fisher House, the Cambridge University Catholic Chaplaincy.^[33]
  • Fisher Building, a student accommodation at Queens' College, where Fisher was president from 1505 to 1508^[34]
  • The Fisher Building, conference centre and meeting rooms in St John's College^[35]
• Schools:
  • St John Fisher Catholic College in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire^[36]
  • St John Fisher Catholic High School in Harrogate, North Yorkshire^[37]
  • St John Fisher Catholic High School in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.^[38]
  • St John Fisher Catholic High School, Wigan, Lancashire^[39]
  • St John Fisher Catholic School in Chatham, Kent.^[40]
  • St John Fisher Catholic Voluntary Academy in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire^[41]
  • Ss John Fisher and Thomas More Roman Catholic High School, Colne, Lancashire^[42]
  • The John Fisher School located in Purley, Surrey^[43]
• St John Fisher Catholic Primary School, Loughton, Essex
• Churches:
  • Saint John Fisher parish, Kidbrooke, London^[44]
  • Saint John Fisher Roman Catholic Church, Harrow, London
  • Saint John Fisher Roman Catholic Church, Shepperton, London
  • Saint John Fisher Roman Catholic Church, Rochester, Kent
  • John Fisher R.C Church, Scarthoe, Great Grimsby, Lincolnshire. (Closed 2017)
  • Saint John Fisher R.C. Church, Priory Crescent, Southend on Sea, Essex
  • Saint John Fisher Church, Cambourne, Cambridgeshire
• Other:
  • St John Fisher House,
    FSSP in England and Wales.^[45]
  • The football teams Fisher Athletic F.C. (1908–2009) and Fisher F.C. (founded 2009) of Rotherhithe, south-east London^[46]

United States

• Fisher is the patron of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester in New York State, so named by Pope John XXIII in 1961.^[47]
• Due to his status as the Bishop of Rochester, Fisher has been adopted as a patron of several institutions in other cities named Rochester, including:
  • St. John Fisher University^[48]
  • Saint John of Rochester Catholic Church in the Rochester, New York area,
  • Saint John Fisher Catholic Church near Rochester, Michigan.
• St. John Fisher Seminary Residence is located in the Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut.
• A number of parishes are dedicated to St. John Fisher including those in: Chicago, Illinois;
  Rancho Palos Verdes, California,^[54] and Portland, Oregon:^[55]
  • St John Fisher Catholic Church in
    Tulsa, Oklahoma
  • St John Fisher Catholic Church near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
  • Saint John Fisher Church, Newtown, Ohio
  • St John Fisher Catholic Church in Marlborough, Connecticut.^[56]

Personal

Portraits

Several portraits of Fisher exist, the most prominent being by

Relic

Fisher's walking-staff is in the possession of the Eyston family of East Hendred, in Oxfordshire (formerly Berkshire).^[57]

Cinematic and television portrayals

John Fisher was portrayed by veteran actor

References

Further reading

• "The English Works of John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester (1469–1535): Sermons and other Writings, 1520–1535," edited by Cecilia A. Hatt, Oxford University Press, 2002.
• B. Bradshaw & Eamon Duffy (ed.) "Humanism, Reform and the Reformation: The Career of Bishop John Fisher," Cambridge University Press, 1989.
• MacNabb, Vincent (2015). St. John Fisher. Mediatrix Press.
  ISBN 978-1953746337
  .
• Vincent Nichols, "St John Fisher: Bishop and Theologian in Reformation and Controversy", Alive Publishing, 2011.
• E.E. Reynolds, "Saint John Fisher," Wheathampstead: Anthony Clarke, 1972.
• Richard Rex, "The Theology of John Fisher," Cambridge University Press
• Edward Surtz, "The Works and Days of John Fisher," Boston: Harvard University Press, 1967.
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz (1990). "Fisher, John". In Bautz, Friedrich Wilhelm (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 2. Hamm: Bautz. cols. 42–43.
  ISBN 3-88309-032-8
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Fisher.

• "St. John Fisher" in the Catholic Encyclopedia

Wikiquote has quotations related to John Fisher.

• John Fisher and Thomas More: Martyrs of England and Wales
• Texts on Wikisource:
  • "Fisher, John". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.
  • Hudleston, Gilbert Roger (1913). "Bl. John Fisher". Catholic Encyclopedia.
  • "Fisher, John". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
  • "Fisher, John", A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, 1910 – via Wikisource
  • Mullinger, James Bass (1889). "Fisher, John (1459?-1535)". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 19.
  • "
    The American Cyclopædia
    . 1879.
• "John Fisher". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney.
• Literature by and about John Fisher in the German National Library catalogue

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Richard FitzJames	Bishop of Rochester 1504–1535	Succeeded by John Hilsey
Academic offices
Preceded by Henry Babington	Vice-Chancellors of the University of Cambridge 1501	Succeeded by Humphrey Fitzwilliam
Preceded by Thomas Wilkynson	President of Queens' College, Cambridge 1505–1508	Succeeded by Robert Bekensaw