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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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John Fisher
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(1469–1535)
Bishop and saint, who was beheaded two weeks before Thomas *More and on the same charge of treason, for refusing to accept the Act of *Supremacy. Fisher, who had been bishop of Rochester since 1504, was a scholar of European stature, a friend of Erasmus and a leading polemicist against Luther. His support was therefore essential to Henry VIII, but he had been considerably more outspoken than More in rejecting the proposed divorce of *Catherine of Aragon. He was canonized in 1935; his feast day is the date of his martyrdom, June 22.
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