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FATE OF FISHER AND MORE. 243
bury drew up and sent in a similar declaration.
Several bishops did the like, as emanating from their
respective dioceses, as did also several capitular
bodies, together with four and thirty abbots of the
most important monasteries. The universities of
Oxford and Cambridge likewise expressed their
assent. The number of dissentients was inconsiderable.
Of these the most eminent, amongst ecclesiastics,
was the venerable Fisher, Bishop of Rochester,
who was beheaded soon afterwards, on the 22 nd
June, 1535, upon a charge of high treason. His
main crime was that he refused to take the oath
imposed by the act of 25 Hen. VIH., c. 22, which
maintained the succession of Anne Boleyn's children,
and implied of course the absolute nullity of Henry's
marriage with Katherine of Arragon. The next
victim of the act was Sir Thomas More, who was
beheaded July 6th, 1535.
They were not the only sufferers. The opposition
to the new doctrine of the king's supremacy was
most strenuous on the part of the Carthusians, who,
whatever view may be taken of their conclusions on
that point, were assuredly the jiurest and holiest by
far of all the monastic orders of the period. They
soon found the weight of the king's hand.
Houghton,
the Prior of the Charterhouse, was hanged on April
2 7) 1 535- Two of his monks shared his fate on
June 18, and nine others suffered the penalty of
death on August 4 following.
The way was clear now for the carrying out of
Cromwell's plans as regarded the monastic houses.
They were at the mercy of the king. No longer
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