Bishop John Fisher Executed
Posted By Claire on June 22, 2010
On this day in history, 22nd June 1535, John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, was beheaded. He was beatified in 1886 by Pope Leo XIII and then canonised in 1935 by Pope Pius XI, and his feast day is celebrated today, the 22nd June, a feast day which he shares with his friend Thomas More. He is seen as a Catholic Martyr because he died for his beliefs.
He was one of the many victims of Henry VIII and was executed for treason, for refusing to take the Oath of Succession and accept Henry as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. He was arrested on the 26th April 1534 and his words to Richard Rich, Cromwell’s right hand man, were used as evidence against him, he said “that the King was not, nor could be, by the Law of God, Supreme Head in earth of the Church of England”. The Pope tried to save Fisher by making him Cardinal-Priest of San Vitale (a member of the College of Cardinals), but this simply provoked the King and Richard Rex, in his book “Henry VIII”, writes of how Henry joked that Fisher would have to wear the Cardinal’s red hat on his shoulders, i.e. he would have no head on which to place it.
What is so chilling about the imprisonment and execution of John Fisher is that he was once a good friend of the King and it was he who, at the King’s command, preached a sermon against Luther at St Paul’s Cross on the 11th February 1526. His undoing was his support of Catherine of Aragon during the Great Matter. He appeared on Catherine’s behalf in the legatine court and spoke out against the King and the divorce, comparing himself to St John the Baptist, saying that he “regarded it as impossible for him to die more gloriously than in the cause of marriage”. Henry could not tolerate opposition, particularly when it came from someone he had once counted as a friend and adviser. He could not and would not forgive Fisher.
John Fisher was kept in the Tower of London from April 1534 until his death in June 1535 and during that time he was denied a priest and had to rely on friends and servants to bring him food. On the 22nd December 1534, Fisher wrote a letter to Thomas Cromwell and this is how it is recorded in the Letters and Papers of Henry VIII’s reign:-
“John [Fisher] Bishop of Rochester to [Cromwell].
Does not wish to displease the King. When last before him and the other commissioners he swore to the part concerning the succession for the reason he then gave, but refused to swear to some other parts, because his conscience would not allow him to do so. “I beseech you to be good master unto me in my necessity, for I have neither shirt nor sheet nor yet other clothes that are necessary for me to wear, but that be ragged and rent too shamefully. Notwithstanding, I might easily suffer that if they would keep my body warm. But my diet also God knows how slender it is at many times. And now in mine age my stomach may not away but with a few kind of meats, which if I want I decay forthwith, and fall into coughs and diseases of my body, and cannot keep myself in health.” His brother provides for him out of his own purse, to his great hindrance. Beseeches him to pity him, and move the King to take him into favor and release him from this cold and painful imprisonment. Desires to have a priest within the Tower to hear his confession “against this holy time;” and some books to stir his devotion more effectually. Wishes him a merry Christmas. At the Tower, 22 Dec.”
This once great man had no bedding or clothes, did not have enough food and was in ill health, and was being denied spiritual guidance from a priest. How awful.
His suffering came to an end on the 22nd June 1535, over a year after he had been arrested and taken to the Tower. Although he had been condemned to be hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, the King, in his mercy, commuted his sentence to beheading. Henry VIII was worried that the people were comparing the bishop to St John the Baptist, a man who had challenged King Herod’s marriage, and he was keen for Fisher to die before the 24th June, the feast day of St John the Baptist. Fisher was beheaded on Tower Hill and his body left on the scaffold for hours before it was thrown into a grave in the nearby church of All Hallows. Fisher’s body was eventually buried at the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, with his friend Thomas More who died on the 6th July, but his head was stuck on a pole on London Bridge as an example to the people of London of what happened to traitors.
Rest in peace Bishop John Fisher, St John Fisher, a man of faith and courage.
Notes and Sources
- L&P vii.1563
- Wikipedia page on John Fisher
- Henry VIII, Richard Rex
Definitely a pity, what happened to Bishop Fisher. Wasn’t he one of the people who had helped Margaret Beaufort in her efforts to make her son Henry (VII, that is) King? Henry (VIII this time) then, is the ultimate ingrate, because he might have owed his very crown to Bishop Fisher.
With regards to Fisher’s treatment prior to his execution, the lack of proper food, clothing and even visits from a priest – was it possible Henry was trying to do away with him in a “kind” fashion, by letting him die before he was executed and bearing the taint of a traitor?
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I think that a worthy memorial to Fisher is St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York, a Catholic college run by the Congregation of St, Basil: a young man I once knew went to St. John Fisher College. Here is the link to the website of the college: http://www.sjfc.edu/
As a Catholic, I will not say “rest in peace” to Fisher. Instead, I say, St. John Fisher, pray for us!
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susan Reply:
June 22nd, 2011 at 5:58 pm
Thank you I am Catholic as well. I don’t know that I would want to be Henry on Judgment Day.
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milady blue, Henry was certainly not being kind to Fisher by letting him go hungry and cold. Starvation is a slow and painful way to die. I think his treatment of Fisher shows how he could not tolerate any opinions that differed from his own,
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I am in no way agreeing with what Henry did by killing his friends, but don’t forget how many people were burned alive by the Catholic people and their beliefs.
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James H Reply:
June 30th, 2012 at 9:48 am
Agreed, but there’s an injustice done to call attention to the people killed for opposing Catholicism, when Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and her brother Edward oversaw the killing of many more people. The misdeeds of Anglican monarchs (who were the Heads of the Church) dwarf those of ‘Bloody’ Mary.
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The treatment of the people that dare say no to the king was diabolical. After they had been arrested it seems that Henry’s, attitude was ‘out of sight,out of mind’. Job done, not bothered about what happens between imprisonment and execution, that is someone elses problem, don’t bother me with the ‘small stuff’ just tell me when the execution has been carried out. After all there was no provision made for a coffin for Anne, his wife and Queen’ So what chance had poor Fisher of adequate provision!
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WilesWales Reply:
June 24th, 2012 at 9:40 pm
Thank you, Dawn for adding the final touch to your comment and that with miladyblue’s and lisaannejane’s comments put it all into place. In your comment about the no coffin for Queen Anne, the crown, and then showing how Henry could not tolerate any opinions that differed from his own about sum this up, and I am also including the unnecessary starving for ove eight months, shows Henry to be what he truly was. Queen Anne said at her already determined and of which she was innocent of all charges said, “We…we shall all be judged in time.” Thank you, WilesWales
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