John Fisher was born in Beverley, Yorkshire, …
Years: 1504 - 1504
John Fisher was born in Beverley, Yorkshire, in 1469, the eldest son of Robert Fisher, a modestly prosperous merchant of Beverley, and Agnes, his wife.
One of four children, his father died when John was eight.
His mother had remarried and had five more children by her second husband, William White.
Fisher seems to have had close contacts with his extended family all his life.
Fisher's early education was probably received in the school attached to the collegiate church in his home town.
He had attended Beverley Grammar School, an old foundation claiming to date from the year 700.
In the present day, one of the houses at the school is named in Fisher's honor.
Fisher had studied at the University of Cambridge from 1484, where at Michaelhouse he had come under the influence of William Melton, a pastorally minded theologian open to the new current of reform in studies arising from the Renaissance.
Fisher had earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1487 and in 1491, proceeded to a Master of Arts degree.
Also in 1491 Fisher received a papal dispensation to enter the priesthood despite being under canonical age.
Ordained into the Catholic priesthood on December 17, 1491—the same year that he was elected a fellow of his college—he had also been made Vicar of Northallerton, Yorkshire.
He had resigned his benefice in 1494 to become proctor of the university and three years later was appointed master debator, about which date he had also become chaplain and confessor to Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, mother of King Henry VII.
He became a doctor of sacred theology on July 5, 1501, and ten days later was elected Vice-Chancellor of the University.
Under Fisher's guidance, his patroness Lady Margaret had founded St John's and Christ's Colleges at Cambridge, and a Lady Margaret Professorship of Divinity at each of the two universities at Oxford and Cambridge, Fisher himself becoming the first occupant of the Cambridge chair.
By Papal Bull dated October 14, 1504, Fisher is appointed the Bishop of Rochester at the personal insistence of Henry VII.
Rochester is at this time the poorest diocese in England and usually seen as a first step on an ecclesiastical career.
Nonetheless, Fisher will stay there, presumably by his own choice, for the remaining thirty-one years of his life.
At the same time, like any English bishop of his day, Fisher had certain state duties.
In particular, he maintains a passionate interest in the University of Cambridge.
He is in 1504 elected the university's chancellor.
Re-elected annually for ten years, Fisher will ultimately receive a lifetime appointment.
At this date he is also said to have acted as tutor to Prince Henry, afterwards King Henry VIII.
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Years: 1504 - 1504
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