Exposition of the Seven Penitential Psalms

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In the morning of June 22, 1535, John Fisher, chancellor of Cambridge University, bishop of Rochester, cardinal of the Catholic Church, was beheaded on Tower Hill in London. At the time, he was considered one of the most holy and learned prelates in all of Christendom and was a great source of inspiration and strength for fellow martyr St. Thomas More, the scholar and statesman who followed Fisher's lead in defending the Catholic faith during the reign of King Henry VIII. The Renaissance humanist Erasmus had the highest regard for Fisher as well, calling him "the best scholar in his nation, and its most saintly prelate." Few people know that Margaret, Countess of Richmond, had on her deathbed entrusted her grandson Henry to the care of the bishop of Rochester, tearfully asking him to advise the young king and urging Henry, if he hoped to be happy in this life and eternity, to listen to this man more than any other.

The exposition of the Seven Psalms was the saint's first publication. It is also of great historical importance in that it appeared in the vernacular and inspired many other impassioned commentaries on the penitential psalms in the course of the Renaissance. It predates all the Protestant expositions, such as Luther's by sever years and can withstand any comparison with them. Moreover, fisher, who desired to revitalize preaching in England, and prepare a clergy that would preach ardently on scriptural texts, deals with the sacrament of Penance in a truly soul-stirring way, something that modern readers hunger for.

This edition is presented in modern English and includes an insightful introduction to Fisher's life and writings by the translator, Anne Barbeau Gardiner, PhD, Professor Emeritus of English Literature, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, a respected Catholic scholar who has long specialized in the writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.