John Fisher (circa 1469 - 22 June,1535), controversialist and scholar, born at
Beverley, and educated at Cambridge, entered the Church, and became in 1504
Bishop of Rochester. He wrote in Latin against the doctrines of the
Reformation, but was a supporter of the New Learning, and endeavoured to
get Erasmus to teach Greek at Cambridge Through his influence the Lady
Margaret Professorship of Divinity were founded at both the University by
Margaret Countess of Richmond, and in 1502 he became first professor at
Cambridge, where he was also (1505-8) Head of Queen's College. He was also
instrumental in founding Christ's and St. John's College. For opposing the
divorce proceedings of Henry VIII, he was convicted of treason and beheaded. Made a cardinal in 1535, he was beatified in 1886, and, in 1935 he was canonized.
Saint John Fisher College in Rochester, Monroe County, New York and John Fisher College at the University of Tasmania in Hobart are named after him.
For John Arbuthnot Fisher, British admiral, see Jackie Fisher.
