The Bishop of Rochester was, of course, Fisher. He was both learned
and pious. Burnet says he strongly disliked Wolsey, because of the
latter's notoriously immoral life. Fisher, though in his unflinching
conservatism he regarded the proceedings of Luther with hostility,
was anxious, as were More and Erasmus and Colet, for reformation on
Catholic lines. He, like them, favoured the new learning, and even
declared that the Continental reformers had brought much light to
bear upon religion. But he opposed the King's divorce, and refused to
acknowledge his supremacy over the Church, and was beheaded on Tower
Hill, June 22nd, 1535. There was no act of Henry which more thoroughly
excited popular horror.
When Charles V. came to England, in 1522, Wolsey again said Mass at
St. Paul's, with twenty bishops to cense him. It was on this occasion
that he changed the meeting-place of Convocation from St. Paul's to
Westminster, that it might be near his own house. Skelton, the poet,
who hated Wolsey, thereupon wrote the following distich:--
"Gentle Paul, lay down thy sword,
For Peter, of Westminster, hath shaven thy beard."
In 1524, Francis I. was taken prisoner at the battle of Pavia,
whereupon the sympathy of England for his successful rival was shown
by a huge bonfire in front of St. Paul's, and the distribution of many
hogsheads of claret. On the Sunday following, Wolsey sang Mass, and
the King and Queen, with both Houses of Parliament, were present. Once
more (Shrove Tuesday, 1527) the great Cardinal came in dignity; it was
to denounce the translation of the Bible and to condemn the Lutherans.
Certain "heretics" were marched through the cathedral in penitential
dresses, and carrying faggots, which they threw into the fire by the
great rood at the north door, in which Testaments and Lutheran tracts
were also burned. On this occasion, also, Fisher preached the sermon.
A few years later (1530), there was a similar holocaust, at which the
Bishop (Stokesley) presided.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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