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 j