THE LIFE OF JOHN FISHER, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER

The little town of Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire, had the honour of giving birth, about the middle of the 15th century, to two of the most learned Prelates and greatest benefactors of Cambridge in that age, John Alcock, and John Fisher, both Bishops of Rochester, the former being from thence advanced to Ely, a preferment which the other declined; and both Founders of famous Colleges, in doing which they each unwarily established a precedent which was afterwards employed for the suppression of the Monasteries. The following Sketch of the latter will more especially regard his connection with Cambridge.

John Fisher was born A.D. 1459. His father was, as we may collect from his will, a somewhat wealthy merchant and a zealous churchman, as he bequeaths several legacies to different convents and churches, and his body to be buried in that ‘of the blessed Mary of Beverley, before the crucifix.’ His widow, though she married again, proved a careful mother to the two sons of her former husband, John and Robert, who were left very young. As soon as they were of an age to go to school, she committed them to the care of a priest of the collegiate church of St. John of Beverley, who taught them their letters and the rudiments of grammar; and as John gave great promise of aptness for learning, it was determined that he should be sent to Cambridge, ‘distant from his native soyle about viij dayes journey southwarde.