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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 · Reformation and missions · 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.

Patron of Thomas More: statesmen and politicians3

01Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher

Scraps of paper

More still managed to write to his wife and his favorite daughter, Margaret, on scraps of paper, using a burnt stick or a lump 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

Drawing after Holbein of St. John Fisher, an elderly, thin-faced man in a dark hood.
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.

Live it this week

Be honest when it costs you

More lost his job, his house and finally his life rather than swear to something he knew was false. This week, at work or school, tell the truth once in a moment where a small lie would be easier, and do it with good humor, the way More did.

Notes

How we know · 3 sources for this page
  1. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “St. Thomas More”. New Advent edition. newadvent.org
  2. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “St. John Fisher”. New Advent edition. newadvent.org
  3. St. John Paul II, Apostolic Letter proclaiming St. Thomas More Patron of Statesmen and Politicians (2000). vatican.va. vatican.va

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: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. 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 errorCorrections.