Bishop John Fisher and Thomas More, by Hadley Arkes

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*Image: Statues of Sts. John Fisher and Thomas More (both canonized in 1935) flank the names of forty martyrs of the English Reformation canonized in 1970 [Church of Our Lady of Victories in Kensington, London]

By Hadley Arkes, The Catholic Thing, March 8, 2021

Hadley Arkes is the Ney Professor of Jurisprudence Emeritus at Amherst College and the Founder/Director of the James Wilson Institute on Natural Rights & the American Founding. …

Hadley ArkesThe remarkable John Fisher entered Cambridge at the age of 14; he was ordained a priest in 1491 at the age of 22; and ten years later he became vice-chancellor, rising to chancellor of his beloved university in 1504.  The same year, he was named the Bishop of Rochester.

He would be confessor to the mother of King Henry VII, and possibly also a tutor to the prince who would become Henry VIII – and order Fisher’s execution.

When Henry sought to end his marriage with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, a hearing was held at the Legatine Court.  Bishop Fisher served as counsel to the queen.  …

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