John Fisher and Thomas More

When Henry VIII broke with Rome and had the Act of Supremacy passed in 1534, declaring him the supreme head of the Church of England, John Fisher and Thomas More refused to take the oath that followed. Fisher had been one of the firmest defenders of the validity of the king's marriage to Catherine of Aragon; More, after having conscientiously served the sovereign, resigned from his office of Chancellor in May 1532, and then kept silent rather than approve the new legislation. Both were imprisoned in the Tower of London starting in April 1534, accused of high treason for having denied the royal supremacy in spiritual matters. Pope Paul III created Fisher a cardinal on May 21, 1535, which only increased the king's anger. Fisher was beheaded at Tower Hill on June 22, 1535. Thomas More, condemned in his turn, was executed at the same place on July 6, 1535. Tradition reports that he declared, on the scaffold, that he was "the king's good servant, and God's first." Their martyrdom, accepted out of fidelity to conscience and to the primacy of the Pope, made them the most famous figures among the Catholic martyrs of England.

The holiness of John Fisher and Thomas More rests on the testimony given, at the cost of their lives, to the primacy of conscience enlightened by faith and to the unity of the Church. Both accepted civil authority and the royal succession, but refused to attribute to the temporal sovereign a jurisdiction over spiritual matters, which they held to be reserved for the Pope. Fisher, a rigorous theologian and exemplary bishop, joined to his learning a life of asceticism and prayer. More, a layman engaged in the world, combined the seriousness of a statesman, the finesse of a humanist, and an intense interior life; during his captivity, he composed the Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation, a meditation on suffering and death faced in peace. Both allied a great serenity of soul with an unshakable firmness. Their example struck their contemporaries: Erasmus praised Fisher as a man "incomparable for the uprightness of his life, for his learning, and for his greatness of soul." This reputation for heroic fidelity never ceased to grow and made them venerated models of English Catholicism.

The cult of the English martyrs of the 16th century was officially recognized by Pope Leo XIII, who beatified John Fisher and Thomas More on December 29, 1886, in the company of fifty-two other martyrs of England. Nearly half a century later, following a request presented by English Catholics and on the occasion of the fourth centenary of their martyrdom, Pope Pius XI canonized them together on May 19, 1935, as representatives of the many Catholic martyrs of England. Their liturgical feast was set for June 22, the anniversary of the execution of John Fisher, and they are commemorated jointly in the General Roman Calendar. Saint John Fisher is celebrated there as bishop and martyr, Saint Thomas More as martyr. Their common memory highlights the bond that unites these two witnesses, a bishop and a layman, in the same fidelity to the Roman Church until the sacrifice of their lives.

John Fisher and Thomas More are among the most venerated saints of English-speaking Catholicism and are regularly invoked as models of fidelity of conscience in the face of power. Thomas More, in particular, has enjoyed a universal influence that transcends denominational boundaries: as an intellectual and statesman, he is studied far beyond the Catholic world, and the figure of the "man for all seasons" has inspired theater and cinema. On October 31, 2000, by an apostolic letter in the form of a motu proprio, Pope John Paul II proclaimed him heavenly patron of statesmen and politicians, presenting his martyrdom as a message on the inalienable dignity of conscience. John Fisher remains honored as a model bishop, a faithful pastor and theologian; his memory is attached to the University of Cambridge, of which he was chancellor and a great benefactor. Numerous parishes, schools, and institutions bear their names today in the English-speaking world, and their shared testimony continues to nourish reflection on the relationships between faith, law, and power.