Derek Barnard investigates John Fisher at Rochester. Featured in The Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Report for 2003-2004.

The year 2004 is one of celebration. The foundation of the Cathedral and diocese (1400 years), the erection of the steeple (100 years) and we must not forget the election of John Fisher as bishop (500 years). The following is but a brief reminder of his time as our bishop.

'In the year of our Lord Fifteen Hundred and Four, Richard Fox, the then Bishop of Winchester, a man held in high esteem by King Henry the Seventh, to whose Council he belonged, and observing the virtuous life and perfect sanctity of Fisher, on the death of the Bishop of London, Richard FitzJames, Bishop of Rochester, being translated thither, so that the latter bishopric became vacant, he solicited the king that Dr. Fisher should be promoted to it.'

The king immediately sent letters to the priory at Rochester desiring that they should elect him, which they agreed without a dissenting vote and Pope Julius II confirmed their choice. The good doctor was surprised at this rapid promotion in the church for he had neither sought nor expected it. Because of his close association with the Countess of Richmond, the king's mother, for whom he had been chaplain, and who he had persuaded to endow a readership in divinity at both Oxford and Cambridge, he believed her purse might have influenced the king in raising him to the episcopal dignity. The king, on hearing this suggestion, is reported to have said, "Indeed the modesty of the man together with my mother's silence speaks on his behalf.

I protest as she has never so much as opened her mouth to me on the subject; his pure devotion, perfect sanctity and great learning, which I have myself often absorbed, and have heard others speak of, are his only advocates."

To the poor Diocese of Rochester, the smallest in the kingdom, he reluctantly came, with an income which scarcely amounted to £300 a year. He took up residence in the Bishop's palace at Rochester, described later by his friend Erasmus, as a dwelling lacking any comforts and a house in which he 'would have a fit of sickness were he to stay in it for more than two hours.' To Rochester and its diocese, this modest, pious, austere living man, caring little for the comforts of life but ensuring, by his own hand, that the needs of the sick and hungry were met out of his limited income, endeared himself to the people in the immediate area. He built an almost unheard-of relationship with the churches in his diocese by holding six visitations and in 1515 he called a Synod of his clergy. He was not idle in his love of education during this time for he continued his work at Cambridge, becoming President of Queen's College and Chancellor of the University in 1505. When the king died in 1509 he consoled his mother, the Countess Margaret, on her son's death and began to compose the sermon he delivered at the king's funeral service. The new king, Henry the Eighth, twice offered Bishop Fisher the rich bishoprics of Lincoln and Ely but he is reputed to have said, "Others may have larger pastures, but I have lesser charge of souls, so that when I shall be called to answer for both, I shall be better able to give an account of them." And, on another occasion, "I would not forsake my poor old wife of Rochester for the richest widow in the land"

In the year 1517 Luther published his Ninety-Five Theses against Indulgences - an event usually regarded as the beginning of the Reformation. Fisher was deeply shocked both by Luther's action and by the spread of Lutherism in England. After an incident at Cambridge University he returned to Rochester and became increasingly involved in theological controversy. He preached the sermon at the public burning of Lutheran books in 1520 and within five years produced five books against Lutherism, supporting his arguments by a wealth of quotations from the Scriptures and Fathers. In 1527 Cardinal Wolsey spent a night at Fisher's palace in Rochester and although aware of some of the rumours regarding the king's divorce, once he was told the full story by the Cardinal, he decided that the marriage to Catherine was contrary neither to the law of nature nor to the law of God. After two years of study on the subject he remained firm in his original view, and you will know from the well documented facts that he never changed his mind and became through the rest of his life more and more despised by the king who once thought him the most knowledgeable and pious man in the land. Bishop Fisher was deprived of his bishopric and the see of Rochester declared vacant as of 2nd January 1535. He was then summoned to appear before commissioners at Lambeth and, weak from his long illness, he settled his affairs and set out for London. The people of Rochester, knowing he would never return, turned out in great numbers to see him ride bare headed through the city and he gave them his blessing.

'There might you have heard great wailing and lamenting...everyone uttering their grief to others as their mind served them.' He was beheaded on Tower Hill on 22nd June 1535.

There can be no doubt of the strength of his religion and his memory has always been treated well in the Cathedral. The very early histories of this most famous of Rochester's bishops consider him an obstinate man, but later ones explain his story with more sympathy, regardless of the religious divide. In 1935, on the 400th anniversary of his death and in response to the requests of many, he was canonised in St Peter's Rome as a Saint in the Catholic Church. Perhaps, in this 500th anniversary of his induction to the see, we could spare a thought for this worthy man.

Derek Barnard

Featured in The Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Report for 2003-2004