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The saints

Sts Thomas More and John Fisher

A Lord Chancellor and a bishop, both in the Tower, both refusing the same oath.

Feast: 22 June · both died 1535 · London, England

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Hans Holbein the Younger’s portrait of Sir Thomas More, painted in 1527: a man in a dark fur-trimmed robe and the gold chain of royal service.

Hans Holbein the Younger, 1527. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / Sts Thomas More and John Fisher

The Tower of London, 1534

In 1534 Parliament passes the Act of Succession, and everyone called upon must swear the oath.1

Bishop John Fisher of Rochester refuses and is sent to the Tower on 26 April.2

Sir Thomas More, once Lord Chancellor of England, refuses too, and four days after his summons he is in the Tower as well.1

They wrote to each other in prison. When it was discovered, More’s books and pens were taken away.

01Sts Thomas More and John Fisher

Scraps of paper

More contrived to write to his wife and his favourite daughter Margaret on stray scraps of paper with a charred stick or piece of coal.1

In May 1535 Pope Paul III created Fisher a cardinal.2

Fisher was beheaded on Tower Hill on 22 June 1535.2

02Sts Thomas More and John Fisher

Tower Hill

More was beheaded on Tower Hill on 6 July 1535.1

His hair shirt, sent to Margaret the day before his martyrdom, is still preserved.1

Hans Holbein the younger (c.1497-1543) (after) - John Fisher - NPG 2821 - National Portrait Gallery
St John Fisher, after a drawing by Hans Holbein the Younger. Unknown author. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Two men refused to say something they did not believe. It cost them everything, and they did not change their answer.

Notes

  1. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “St. Thomas More”. New Advent edition. newadvent.org
  2. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “St. John Fisher”. New Advent edition. newadvent.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: Douay-Rheims, Challoner revision (public domain). Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an error.