THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
pointed for life. In 1504 he was consecrated to the see of Rochester, but his interest in his universitywas undiminished, and he was active in the foundation both of Christ's College and of St. John's College, in addition to holding the presidency of Queen's College from 1505 to 1508. Though he induced Erasmus to visit Cambridge, Fisher was a faithful adherent of Roman Catholicism, and assailed the teachings of Luther in his Confutatio assertionis Lutherance (Antwerp, 1523) and other treatises, criticizing as well (Ecolampadius and Velenus — the latter maintained that the Apostle Peter never was in Rome.
Fisher lost the royal favor by his opposition to Henry's claim to spiritual supremacy and to the divorce of Queen Catherine, whose confessor he was. His unpopularity was increased by his unfortunate belief in the impostures of Elizabeth Barton (q.v.), the Maid of Kent, who named him one of her confederates. Early in 1534 he was sentenced to be attainted of misprision, to be imprisoned at the king's pleasure, and to forfeit all his goods, although he was released on the payment of £300. On Apr. 13, however, he was cited to appear at Lambeth to take the oath of compliance with the Act of Succession, but though he and Sir Thomas More were willing to admit the succession of the children of Henry and Anne Boleyn, both refused to declare the children of Catherine and the king illegitimate. Three days later Fisher was committed to the Tower, and with the passage of the Act of Supremacy in Nov., 1534, both Fisher and More were again attainted of misprision of treason and the see of Rochester was declared vacant from Jan. 2, 1535. Fisher's doom was sealed by the inadvertent act of Paul III., who on May 20 created him cardinal priest of St. Vitalis, not knowing the extreme clanger in which the bishop stood. Henry, in fury, forbade the hat to be brought to England, and Fisher was trapped into statements which were twisted into treason. On June 17 he was condemned to be executed at Tyburn as a traitor, but the sentence was changed to decapitation at Tower Hill, where it was carried out a fortnight before the execution of More. The chief works of Fisher were his De unica Magdalena (Par s, 1519) and his De eucharistia contra Johannem (Ecolampadium (Cologne, 1527); the greater part of his Latin writings were collected and published at Wiirzburg in 1597 A volume of a projected edition of his English works was edited for the Early English Text Society by J. E. B. Mayor (London, 1876), and a few other writings by him are extant in manuscript. Bibliography: The Life was first written ostensibly by Thomas Bailey, really by Richard Hall, London, 1655, republished, 1835. Consult also: John Lewis, Life of Dr. John Fisher, 2 vols., ib. 1854; J. Gillow, Bibliographical Dictionary of English Catholics, ii. 262-270, ib., 1885; DNB, xix. 58-63.
FISK, PLINY: American Congregationalist, missionary in Syria; b. at Shelburne, Mass., June 24, 1792; d. at Beirut, Syria, Oct. 23, 1825. He was graduated from Middlebury College in 1814 and Andover Theological Seminary in 1818, and with Levi Parsons (q.v.) was appointed by the American Board to the Palestine mission in Sept., 1818. After traveling in the South for a year, raising funds
for the cause of missions, he sailed from Boston for Smyrna on Nov. 3, 1819, accompanied by Parsons. During the next five years he traveled extensively in Greece, Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, learning languages, particularly Greek and Arabic, and distributing tracts and Bibles. In May, 1825 he joined the mission at Beirut. He preached in Italian, French, Greek, and Arabic, published a number of papers in the Missionary Herald and on the day before his death completed an English- Arabic dictionary.
Bibliography: A. Bond, Memoir of P. Fisk, Boston, 1828' R. Anderson, History of the Missions of the American Board, Oriental Missions, vol. ii., ib. 1872.
FISK, "WILBUR: First president of Wesleyan University (Conn.); b. in Brattleboro, Vt., Aug. 31, 1792; d. at Middletown, Conn., Feb. 2, 1839! After his graduation from Brown University (1815) he studied law, but became an itinerant minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1818. He held pastorates at Craftsbury, Vt., and Charlestown, Mass., and was presiding elder of the Vermont district 1823-27, when he was placed upon the superannuated list. For a time he was agent of the Newmarket (N. H.) Academy, where he was chosen to make the address of welcome to Lafayette in 1824. He was chaplain of the Vermont legislature in 1826, principal of the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, Mass., 1826-31, and president of Wesleyan University 1831-39. He had aided materially in the organization of the university, and under his direction it became the most influential educational institution of the Methodist denomination in America. While traveling in Europe in 1836 he was elected bishop, but declined the office. In 1828 he had declined the bishopric of the Canada conference. Besides occasional sermons and lectures, he published The Science of Education (Middletown, 1831; New York, 1832), the inaugural address on the opening of Wesleyan University; The Calvinistic Controversy (New York, 1837); and Travels in Europe (1838).
Bibliography: J. Holdich, Life of W. Fisk, New York, 1842; D. D. Whedon, A Tribute to the Memory of President Fisk, ib. 1839.
FISTULA: A tube, usually of gold or silver, through which the consecrated wine of the Eucharist was administered to the communicant. Its use came up in the sixth century, when the particularly holy character of this wine was generally recognized. The priests had never used it themselves, and so, when the cup was withdrawn from the laity, the fistula was entirely laid aside, except in the papal masses, where to-day the pope receives the Eucharistic wine through a golden fistula.
FITZGERALD, JAMES NEWBURY: Methodist Episcopal bishop; b. at Newark, N. J., July 27, 1837; d. at Hongkong, China, Apr. 3, 1907. He was admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1858, but in 1862 gave up his practise and entered the Methodist ministry. After holding various pastorates in the Newark Conference he was recording secretary of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, from 1880 till in 1888 he was elected bishop. Besides being presiding elder of the Newton, New-