Anne Boleyn ‘the new Herodias’

 

 

by

Damien F. Mackey

 

 

Henry VIII was the new Herod

Ann Boleyn was the new Herodias

John Fisher was the new John the Baptist

 

Parallel lives abound!

 

Thus, for instance, we read at: http://catholicism.org/anne-boleyns-hatred-of-saints.html

Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s immoral mistress, was so filled with diabolic
hatred for Saint John Fisher, that after the king had ordered the holy
Bishop decapitated, she took his head by the hair and slapped his face
cutting her finger on the saint’s teeth. The wound never healed. Her
punishment was condign for she later suffered the same fate of being
beheaded by order of her insatiable royal lover. The story reminds one
of the martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist. Remember how Herod’s
unlawful wife Herodias had asked her daughter Salome, whose indecent
dance had so pleased her father-in-law, to request as a gift the head
of the Baptist on a dish, because St. John had reprimanded the king for
his sinful relation with Herodias. The punishment of Salome was even
more graphically condign than Anne Boleyn’s for, while dancing on a
frozen lake, she fell through the ice and the water instantly refroze,
severing her head from her body. ….

 

Dr. Taylor Marshall, for his part, will write of:

http://taylormarshall.com/2012/06/parallel-between-st-john-fisher-and-st.html

 

The Parallel between St John Fisher and St John the Baptist

 

Saint John Fisher was born in Beverley, Yorkshire, England in 1469, the eldest son of Robert Fisher, a modestly prosperous merchant of Beverley, and Agnes Fisher. He was named after Saint John the Baptist.

He was the only bishop in England who faithfully defended the Pope against the adulterous tyranny of King Henry VIII. All the other English bishops apostatized. John Fisher, even more valiantly than Thomas More, defended the valid marriage of Henry to Catherine of Aragon and vehemently opposed Henry VIII’s assumption of the title “Supreme Head” of the English Church.

As early as 1530 Saint John Fisher began to preach that he was willing to die like Saint John the Baptist in defense of the sacrament of matrimony. You’ll remember that John the Baptist received martyrdom for protesting King Herod Antipas’ adulterous marriage to Herodias.

 

Henry VIII was the new Herod

Ann Boleyn was the new Herodias

John Fisher was the new John the Baptist

 

When John Fisher was convicted of “treason” he was, of course, sentenced to death.

 

Henry, as Head of the Church” had already defrocked John Fisher and deposed him of his bishopric. Pope Paul III responded by naming John Fisher as a cardinal of the Catholic church. This infuriated Henry VIII who said that the Bishop of Rome did not need to send the cardinal’s hat to Fisher – Henry would instead send the Fisher’s decapitated head to Rome!

Accounts say that Fisher was sentenced to die on June 23 or 24. However, June 23 is the vigil of St John the Baptist and the 24th is the feast of Saint John the Baptist. Englishmen began to snicker at the irony. John Fisher truly was a new Saint John the Baptist and would even share a feast day with him.

Henry VIII panicked and had the sentence moved up to June 22 so that the parallel would not be obvious. This is the day of Fisher’s glorious death for the sake of Christ.