12 June 1509 A.D. Mr. (Bp) John Fisher Publishes Psalms for Penitents (Luther’s English
Nemesis in 1520s)
Mr. Graves offers some hagiography mixed with some
facts. We would add that Mr.
(Canterbury) Cranmer brewed over Mr. (Bp) John Fisher’s trumpet blasts against
Bruder Martin, but we return to Mr. Grave’s account of John Fisher. Fisher did the heavy lifting for Henry VIII,
theologically, but later lost his head for failure to support Henry’s marital
regime.
Graves, Dan. “Fisher’s
Psalms for Penitents.” Christianity.com. May 2007.
http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1501-1600/fishers-psalms-for-penitents-11629911.html. Accessed Apr 28, 2014.
There was in the realm "no
one man in wisdom, learning, and long approved virtue ... to be matched and
compared with him," wrote Thomas More of John Fisher. Like More, John
Fisher was beheaded for opposing the King Henry VIII's assumption of authority
to head the English church. Fisher met his death with dignity and piety. An old
man at the time, he had contributed much to his nation's intellectual and
spiritual life.
Although Fisher took his degree late in life, his
qualities advanced him rapidly at Cambridge College. The school was at the time
in a stupor. He revitalized its curriculum. It was Fisher who brought Erasmus
and Greek learning to the University. The two became close friends and Erasmus
wrote, "He is the one man at this time who is incomparable for uprightness
of life, for learning, and for greatness of soul." To Fisher also we owe
the founding of St. John's College and Christ College, Cambridge.
Like Thomas More, John Fisher resisted the
Reformation. Unwaveringly Catholic, he read Luther and praised some of his
ideas, but publicly burned the works, calling them heretical overall. He
preached a sermon casting off the reformer John Barnes (who was burned at the stake).
Yet, as Bishop of Rochester and Chancellor of Cambridge, Fisher sought to
revitalize English Christianity. He did this through sermons and
writings and by appointing twelve university priests to preach throughout the
nation in the English tongue, leading "revival" services. His prayers
sometimes show deep Christian piety, as when he wrote: "O my blessed
Savior Lord Jesus, thou asketh my love, thou desirest to have my heart ...
[and] since it is thy pleasure to have it and thy goodness doth ask it of me
saying: Give me thy heart, I freely give it to thee..."
Most of Fisher's writings were in Latin. One which
is not is his Seven Penitential Psalms. John was confessor of Henry VII's
mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort. At her request he prepared this work. It was
published on this day, June 12, 1509,
the year she died. The sermons went through several editions in his lifetime.
These seven psalms had a long tradition in church history. Consisting of Psalms 6, 32, 38,
51, 102, 130, 143, they were recited during Lent.
No man may doubt of this: that by the aspersion of
blood of beasts before the Incarnation was signified and represented the blood
of Christ for our redemption, which blood of our Savior without doubt is of
much more strength incomparable to do away sins than was the blood of beasts.
Bibliography:
1. Castle, Tony. The New Book of
Christian Prayers. New York: Crossroad, 1986.
2. Fisher, John. The English Works
of John Fisher Bishop of Rochester. Editor John E. B. Mayor. London: Published
for the Early English Text Society by Humphrey Milford, Oxford University
Press, 1935, 1876.
3. "Fisher, John."
Dictionary of National Biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee.
London: Oxford University Press, 1921 - 1996.
4. "Fisher, John, St." New
Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Thomson, Gale, 2002-.
5. "Fisher, St. John" and
"Seven Penitential Psalms." The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian
Church. Edited by F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone. Oxford, 1997.
6. Mangan, John Joseph. Life,
Character and Influence of Disiderius Erasmus. New York: Macmillan, 1927.
Last updated April, 2007.
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