JOHN
462
JOHN
eral persecution. De Britto and others were taken and
carried to the capital, Ramnad, the Brahmins clam-
ouring for his death. Thence he was led to Oreiour,
some thirty miles northward along the coast, where
his head was struck off, 11 Feb., 1693. He had
wrought many conversions during his life, established
many stations, and was famous for his miracles before
and after death. He was beatified by Pius IX, 21
August, 185.3.
DE ColMBRA, Breve Rela^do do illustre martyrio de V. P. de Britto (1695): Maldonado, Illustre Cerlamen R. P. Joannis de Britto € Societaie Jesu. (Antwerp, 1697); Pereyra de Britto, Historia do Nascimento, Viila e Martyrio do P. Jodo de Britto da Companhia de Jesus (1702; published 1722; republished Lisbon. 1852) : Betrand, La Mission du Madure d'apres des documents inediis (Paris, 1847) ; Lettres edifiantes ei curieuses; LifeofVen. John de Britto in Oratory Series (London, 1851); Prat, Histoire du Bienheureux Jean de Britto (Paris, 1853); Carrez, Atlas Geographicus Societatis Jesu (Paris, 1900).
H. Woods. John Dominic. See Dominici, Giovanni, Blessed. John Duns Scotus. See Duns Scotus, John.
John Eynon, Blessed. See Hugh Faeingdon,
Blessed.
John Felton, Blessed, martyr, date and place of birth unknown; was executed in St. Paul's Church- yard, London, 8 August, 1570, for having, aliout eleven o'clock at night on the previous 24 May, affixed a copy of the Bull of St. Pius V excommunicating the queen to the gates of the Bishop of London's palace near St. Paul's. His daughter, Frances Salisbury, says that this exploit actually took place between two and three on the morning of the next day, on which that year the feast of Corpus Christi happened to fall. The MS. which preserves her narrative contains a blank where the age of her father should be recorded, but she gives us other particulars fully. He was a wealthy gentle- man of Norfolk extraction, and lived at Bermonilsey Abbey near Southwark. He had married a lady who had been maid of honour to Queen Mary and play- mate of Queen Elizabeth, and who was the widow of an auditor of the former queen. He himself " was a man of stature little and of complexion black ". Of the cop- ies of the Bull which he had received at Calais he had given one to WilUam Mellowes of Lincoln's Inn, a special friend of his. This copy was discovered on 25 May, and Mellowes on the rack confessed to having received it from him. On 26 May he was arrested and taken to the Tower, where he was thrice racked, though he from the first confessed and gloried in his deed. He was condemned on 4 August and executed four days later. He was out down alive, and his daughter says that he uttered the holy name of Jesus once or twice when the hangman had his heart in his hand.
Pollen, Acts of English Martyrs (London, 1891). 209; Camm, Lives of English Martyrs, II (London, 1904-5), 1, and xix, n. 2; Cooper in Diet. Nat. Biog., s. v.
John B. Wainewhight.
John Fisher, Blessed, cardinal. Bishop of Roch- ester, and martyr; born at Beverley, Yorkshire, England, 1459 (? 1469); d. 22 June, 1535. John was the eldest son of Robert Fisher, merchant of Beverley, and Agnes his wife. His early educa- tion was probably received in the school attached to the collegiate church in his native town, whence in 1484 he removed to Michaelhouse, Cambridge. He took the degree of B..\. in 1487, proceeded ALA. in 1491, in which year also he was elected a fellow of liis college, and was made Vicar of Northallerton, Yorkshire. In 1494 he resigned his benefice to be- come proctor of lu's univcrsitv, and three years later was appointed Master (jf Mic'liaclhouse, allout which date he became eliaphiiii and confessor to Marg.-iret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, mother of King Henry VIT. In 1.501 he received the degree of D.D., and was elected Vicc-Chancellor of Cam-
bridge University. Under Fisher's guidance the
Lady Margaret founded St. John's and Christ's col-
leges at Cambridge, and also the two "Lady Mar-
garet" professorships of divinity at Oxford and
Cambridge respectively, Fisher himself being the
first occupant of the Cambridge chair.
By Bull dated 14 October, 1504, Fisher was ad- vanced to the Bishopric of Rochester, and in the same year was elected Chancellor of Cambridge Uni- versity, to which post he was re-elected annually for ten years and then appointed for life. At this date also he is said to have acted as tutor to Prince Henry, afterwards Henry VIII. As a preacher his reputa- tion was so great that in 1509, when King Henry VII and the Lady Margaret died, Fisher was ap- pointed to preach the funeral oration on both occa- sions; the.se sermons are still extant. In 1512 Fisher was nominated as one of the English representatives at the Fifth Council of the Lateran, then sitting, but his journey to Rome was postponed, and finally abandoned. Besides his share in the Lady Mar- garet's foundations, Fisher gave further proof of his genuine zeal for leammg by inducing Erasmus to visit Cambridge. The latter indeed (Epi.st., vi, 2) attributes it to Fisher's protection that the study of Greek was allowed to proceed at Cambridge without the active molestation that it encountered at Oxford. He has also been named, though without any real proof, as the true author of the royal treatise against Luther entitled "Assertio septem sacramentorum ", published in 1521, which won the title Fidei De- fensor for Henry VIII. Before this date Fisher had denounced various abuses in the Church, urging the need of disciplinary reforms, and in this year he preached at St. Paul's Cross on the occasion when Luther's books were publicly burned.
When the question of Henry's divorce from Queen Catherine aro.se, Fisher became the queen's chief sup- porter and most trusted counsellor. In this capacity he appeared on the queen's behalf in the legates' court, where he startled his hearers by the directness of his language and most of all by declaring that, like St. John the Baptist, he was ready to die on be- half of the indissolubility of marriage. This state- ment was reported to Henry VIII, who was so en- raged by it that he himself composed a long Latin address to the legates in answer to the bishop's speech. Fisher's copy of this still exists, with his MS. annotations in the margin which show how little he feared the royal anger. The removal of the cause to Rome brought Fisher's personal share therein to an end, but the king never forgave him for what he had done. In November, 1529, the "Long Parliament" of Henry's reign began its series of encroachments on the Church. Fisher, as a mem- ber of the upper house, at once warned Parliament that such acts could only end in the utter destruc- tion of the Church in England. On this the Com- mons, through their speaker, complained to the king that the bishop had disparageil Parliament. Dr. Gairdner (LoUardy and the Reformation, I, 442) says of this incident "it can hardly he a matter of doubt that this strange remonstrance was prompted by the king himself, and partly for personal uses of his own."
The opportunity was not lost. Henry .summoned P'isher before him, demanding an explanation. This being given, Henry declared himself .satisfied, leaving it to t lie Commons to declare that the explanation was in:ide(iuate, so that he appeared as a magnani- mous sovereign, instead of Fisher's enemy. A year later (1530) the continued encroachments on the Church moved the Bishops of Rochester, Bath, and Ely to appeal to the Apostolic see. This gave the king his ojiportunity. An edict forbidding such ap- peals was immediately issued, and the three bishops were arrested. Their imprisonment, however, can
