St. John Fisher studied theology in Cambridge (England) and became Bishop of Rochester. His friend, Thomas More, wrote of him, "I reckon in this realm no one man, in wisdom, learning and long approved virtue together, meet to be matched and compared with him." He and his friend St. Thomas More gave up their lives in testimony to the unity of the Church and to the indissolubility of marriage.

      In 1521 he was asked to study the problem of Henry VIII's marriage. He incurred Henry's anger by defending the validity of the king's marriage with Catherine and later by rejecting Henry's claim to be the supreme head of the Church of England.

      The king, further angered that the pope had made John Fisher a cardinal, had him brought to trial on the charge of high treason. He was condemned and executed, his body left to lie all day on the scaffold and his head hung on London Bridge. More was executed two weeks later.