JOHN FISHER, Saint. - B. at Beverley (Yorkshire) ca. 1469, d. in London on 22 June 1535. After completing his studies at the school of William of Melton in the University of Cambridge, he became magister artium in 1491 and shortly afterward was ordained a priest. In 1501 he was elected vice-chancellor of the University, in 1504 chancellor and immediately afterward bishop of Rochester (Roffensis). With the favor of Queen Margaret he gave a new ordering to the University of Cambridge, according to the humanistic spirit and method. Erasmus of Rotterdam, honorably hosted by F., wrote: « (Cantabrigia) sic effloruit, ut cum primis huius saeculi scholis certare possit » (Ep. ad Bovillum a. 1516, ed. B. Allen, II, Oxford 1910, p. 328).
A passionate cultivator of the Bible and the Fathers, he gathered in his episcopal palace a rich library, among the best of the time. His writings reflect his many-sided culture, predominantly positive, though tinged with speculations of a Scotist hue, according to the Cambridge traditions. A perfect Christian humanist, he was not distracted in his great offices, nor did he take advantage of the favor of the court and the friendship of Henry VIII, but, a rare example in those times, he devoted himself to preaching in his diocese, which, though among the poorest, he never wished to abandon. Constant mortification, sustained by a singular fervor of spirit and joined to the hardships of study and of the apostolate first and of imprisonment afterward, made F. a walking skeleton, who could barely climb the scaffold of execution. A man of this temper could not yield to the threats of Henry VIII (v.) in the famous question of the divorce. F. resisted together with St. Thomas More (v.), suffered the harsh confinement in the Tower of London, where the news of his creation as cardinal reached him, and shortly afterward adorned the purple with his blood, a true martyr in defense of the Roman pontificate.
He wrote: Treatyse concernynghe the fruytfull sayings of Davyd the Kunge and Prophete in the seven penytencyall Psalmes (London 1505): a series of discourses given at Rochester, London, Cambridge and published at the wish of Queen Margaret. This little work, inspired by the treatise Super psalmos of St. Augustine, had many editions, was translated into Latin, and established F.'s fame for its intimate and penetrating unction; Sermon at the funeral of Henry VII (ibid. 1509): a broad program of civil and ecclesiastical reforms; A mornynghe remembrance had at the Moneth Mynde of Margarete countesse of Richemoude and Darbye (ibid. 1509): exaltation of Margaret's merits with regard to the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford; De unica Magdalena (Paris 1519); Eversio munitionis quam Jodocus Clichtoveus erigere moliebatur adversus unicam Magdalenam (ibid. 1519); J. Fisher Roffensis ep. confutatio secunda I. F. Stapulensis de Magdalena (ibid. 1519): polemical little works, against the Parisian humanists, in which he upholds the identity of the three Marys of the Gospel; The Sermon made agaynst the pernicious doctryn of Martin Luther: a close-knit confutation of Luther's principal errors (indulgences, Sacraments, authority of the Church, primacy of the Pope), delivered on 12 May 1521 in the square of St. Paul's in London, the day on which Luther's works were solemnly burned; by order of Henry VIII it was immediately translated into Latin by S. Pace; Concio in Io. 15, 26 habita Londini, eo die quo Lutheri scripta flammis commissa sunt (London 1521); Assertio septem Sacramentorum contra Martinum Lutherum (ibid. 1521); a detailed confutation of the De captivitate Babylonica, which Luther himself and German historians attribute to F., while English authors consider it the work of Henry VIII, to whom F. would have supplied the material and given the final form, Assertio omnium articulorum per novissimam bullam Leonis X damnatorum (Paris 1523): with the title: Assertionis Lutheranae confutatio: it rebuts all the articles that Luther had opposed to the Leonine bull, dwelling on those concerning free will and the pontifical primacy; Assertionum regis Angliae de fide catholica adversus Lutheri Babylonicum captivitatem defensio (Cologne 1525): in 12 chapters it confutes Luther's innovations, insisting on the sacraments of the Eucharist, of Order and of Matrimony; Conculatio calumniarum Ulrici Veleni Minhonensis, quibus Petrum numquam Romae finisse cavillatur (Paris 1525): a polemical sally against the pseudo Ulrich Velenus on Peter's coming to Rome; Sacri sacerdotii defensio contra Lutherum (Antwerp 1525: new critical edition in the Corpus Catholicorum [n. 9], Cologne 1925): it is a masterly confutation of Luther's De abroganda Missa privata and in it he demonstrates, with arguments that have become classic, the sacrificial character of the Mass; De veritate corporis et sanguinis Christi in Eucharistia (Cologne 1527): a vigorous defense of the real presence against Oecolampadius. It is F.'s masterpiece, De causa matrimonii Angliae regis liber (Salamanca 1530): a limpid demonstration of the validity of the marriage of Catherine of Aragon with Henry VIII.
Posthumous works: Opusculum de fiducia et misericordia Dei (Cologne 1556); Psalmi seu preecationes (Lyons 1572); A godly treatise declaring the benefits, fruits and commodities of prayer. A spiritual consolation tho by sister Elizabeth (London 1577): an exhortation addressed to his sister from prison in 1535; His sermon upon this sentence of the Prophet Ezechiel: Lamentationes, Carmen (s. n. r.). The edition of the Opera omnia (incomplete) was published at Würzburg in 1597; I. E. B. Mayor published the 1st vol. of the English works (London 1876).
These works place him among the first and most valiant anti-Lutheran polemicists: his writings were cited with honor (e.g., by Card. Mendoza) and valued throughout the 16th century, also in the Council of Trent. St. Charles Borromeo, who displayed his portrait in his room, considered him as the model of bishops; Paul III judged him «decus et ornamentum» of the clergy and of the English Kingdom, Pius XI canonized him (1935), invoking for the Holy See the heavenly protection of F. and More with the celebrated Ambrosian expression: «tales ambio defensores».
Bibliography8 works
On his theological thought: M. Lepin, L'idée du sacrifice de la Messe d'après les théologiens depuis les origines jusqu'à nos jours, 2nd ed., Paris 1926, pp. 254, 284; M. Alonso, El sacrificio eucarístico de la Última Cena del Señor según el Concilio Tridentino, Madrid 1929, pp. 38-40; M. De la Taille, Mysterium Fidei, 3rd ed., ibid. 1931, passim; P. Polman, L'élément historique dans la controverse religieuse du XVIe siècle, Gembloux 1932, pp. 353-356, 442-44 and passim; F. Peralta Bellabriga, De doctrina b. I. F. in operibus adversus Lutherum conscriptis, Rome 1934; F. Giancane, Il pensiero di s. G. card. F. intorno al sacrificio di Cristo, Lecce 1935; A. Humbert, s. v. in DThC, V, coll. 2555-61.