In the previous blog, John Hooper had become an ardent evangelical or Protestant reformer. However, further political changes in London were to bring yet more change to his life. Somerset, the Lord Protector, fell out of favour in 1549 and Dudley the Earl of Warwick took his place. Despite this, John Hooper was offered the Bishopric of Gloucester[i].
Hooper initially declined the post, but it was an appointment by Royal order. He therefore had little option but to accept the position, but there was a problem. The ‘Bishop’s Oath’ involved calling on all the saints not just God, and the enthronement also required him to wear episcopal vestments: things which Hooper did not agree with. This caused a major disagreement with the Privy Council and Hooper spent eight months in gaol, but he argued his point with scripture-based reasoning and the young King eventually struck out the offending sentence in the oath[ii]. Nevertheless, the vestments would remain and Hooper was forced to agree to these[iii]. Indeed, some of Hooper’s reforming friends, such as Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr disagreed with him on the issue[iv].
Hooper was ordained as Bishop of Gloucester on the 8th March 1551 and a year later this was extended to include the Bishopric of Worcester[v]. The See at Gloucester had been reduced to an Archdeaconry and thus began a two-and-a-half-year span where he worked at reforming old standards[vi]. Hooper visited both Gloucester and Worcester and preached in both locations[vii]. However, as Worcester was the location of the Bishopric he formally transferred to this location. Worcester had previously been held by conservative Bishop Heath whom Edward VI had imprisoned[viii]. Hooper had therefore in effect been given Heath’s job and Hooper had another enemy who would come back to haunt him. Whilst at Worcester, Hooper opened his Hall daily for the poor of the city who were fed for free after he had made sure that they were familiar with the Lord’s Prayer, Creed, and Ten Commandments[ix].
Edward VI died on the 6th July 1553 and with his death there came to the throne first Lady Jane Grey and then Mary Tudor. Even though the Protestant Lady Jane would have been a much better option for him, Hooper recognised and supported Mary and her claim to the throne. This was a mistake as Mary was a staunch Catholic. His supporters attempted to get Hooper to flee the country but he said:
“Once I did flee, and took to my feet: but now, because I am called to this place and vocation, I am thoroughly persuaded to tarry, and to live and die with my sheep”[x]
Hooper was detained on charges of owing the Crown money. The men appointed to interrogate him were Bishops Gardiner and Heath, both had had dealings with Hooper, and neither agreed with his radical views. In September 1553 Hooper was sent to the Fleet prison where he stayed for 18 months[xi].
Hooper was again interrogated and condemned in January 1555 for amongst other things denying the Papal supremacy[xii]. He was given until 9 am the next day to recant all of his reformist beliefs, but he did not. Therefore, on the 29th January he was condemned to death by burning at the stake in the sight of Gloucester Cathedral. He was stripped of his Bishopric of Gloucester and Worcester and sent to Newgate Prison. During his time at Newgate, he was visited by the Catholic Bishop Bonner, the twice Bishop of London, who pressured him to recant. They even reported that he had done so to tarnish his reputation. Hooper denied this from his cell[xiii].
Hooper arrived in Gloucester on 7th February 1555. He was placed under guard and visited by Sir Anthony Kingston his one-time friend and now the representative of the Queen, who begged him to recant so that he could live[xiv]. Hooper refused stating that he would rather suffer a horrible death than deny the truth of the God’s word and jeopardize his afterlife[xv].
Hooper was led to the stake on the 9th February 1555. Many had come to watch and he prayed continuously, raised his hands and looked heavenward. On his arrival at the stake, he knelt to pray and a pardon from the Queen was laid before him for his signature. Hooper rejected the pardon and continued to pray[xvi]. He was tied to the stake but the fagots were green and so would not burn. The first fire went out. The second fire was set and lit, although this did burn with more vigour it was not substantial enough to kill Hooper, but he was significantly burnt, and Hooper was heard to be calling for Jesus to receive his soul. But the fire went out again. A third fire was lit with more wood, only after Hooper had asked the crowd for more fire, and eventually after forty-five minutes of agony John Hooper died.[xvii]
Bishop Hooper was a man who lived and died according to his beliefs. He was influenced by the writings of many Protestant reformers and believed in a basic and accessible method of worship not the later additions of overly elaborate robes and rituals. He possessed a dedication to the scriptures that was unwavering, whatever the cost.
He did however upset and alienate a lot of people in his lifetime, even other reformers such as Ridley and Cranmer found him extreme. Bishop Hooper’s monument was erected in Gloucester on the site of his execution between 1861 and 1863. Ironically the monument depicts Hooper in his Bishop’s robes which he himself would probably not have chosen[xviii].
Julie Martin
Bibliography
Parker Society. Later Writings of Bishop Hooper together with His Letters and Other Pieces; edited for The Parker Society by Revd. Charles Nevinson. 1852. [Online]. Edition: 1852. Cambridge. The University Press. Accessed 17/7/2022. Available from: Archive.org. URL from: https://archive.org/details/laterwritingsofb25hoopuoft/mode/2up
Robert Demaus, Hugh Latimer: A biography. The Religious Tract Society, London 1903.
John Foxe, The Third volume of the Ecclesiastical Historie, Containing the Acts and Monuments of Martyrs etc, The Company of Stationers, London 1641 (Worcester Cathedral Library DF16)
Thomas Fuller, Abel Redevivus or the dead yet speaking, T. Brudenell, London 1652 (Worcester Cathedral library WK4)
Felicity Heal, Oxford History of the Christian Church: Reformation in Britain and Ireland, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005
Joyce M. Horn (ed.), Ely, Norwich, Westminster and Worcester Dioceses fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1541-1857 VII, University of London, Institute of Historical Research, London 1992
Diarmaid MacCulloch, Tudor Church Militant. Edward VI and the Protestant Reformation, Penguin Books, London 2002
Richard Rex, “The friars in the English Reformation” in Peter Marshall & Alec Ryrie’s The beginnings of English Protestantism, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2002.
Ethan H. Shagan, “The Emergence of the Church of England c.1520-1553” in Anthony Milton (ed.), The Oxford History of Anglicanism vol. 1 Reformation & Identity c.1520-1662, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2019.
Encyclopedia Britannica, Archibald Constable & Co., Edinburgh 1823
[i] John Foxe, The Third volume of the Ecclesiastical Historie, Containing the Acts and Monuments of Martyrs etc, The Company of Stationers, London 1641), p.146 (hereafter Foxe, Ecclesiastical Historie)
[ii] Diarmaid MacCulloch, Tudor Church Militant. Edward VI and the Protestant Reformation, Penguin Books, London 2002, pp.35-36
[iii] Ethan H. Shagan, “The Emergence of the Church of Englandc.1520-1553” in Anthony Milton (ed.), The Oxford History of Anglicanism volume 1 Reformation & Identity c.1520-1662, Oxford University press 2019, p.42
[iv] Robert Demaus, Hugh Latimer: A Biography, The Religious Tract Society, London 1903, p.457
[v] WCM B1606c charter dated 8th December 1552
[vi] Diarmaid MacCulloch, Tudor Church Militant. Edward VI and the Protestant Reformation, Penguin Books, London 2002, pp. 106-107
[vii] Foxe, Ecclesiastical Historie, p.148; Felicity Heal, Oxford History of the Christian Church: Reformation in Britain and Ireland, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005, p.188, p.214
[viii] Joyce M. Horn (ed.), Ely, Norwich, Westminster and Worcester Dioceses fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1541-1857 VII, University of London, Institute of Historical Research, London 1992, p.105
[ix] Thomas Fuller, Abel Redevivus or the dead yet speaking, T. Brudenell, London 1652, p.173
[x] The Parker Society. Later Writings of Bishop Hooper together with His Letters and Other Pieces; edited for The Parker Society by Revd. Charles Nevinson. 1852. [Online]. Edition: 1852. Cambridge. The University Press. Accessed 17/7/2022. Available from: Archive.org. URL from: https://archive.org/details/laterwritingsofb25hoopuoft/page/n27/mode/2up
[xi] Foxe, Ecclesiastical Historie, p.150
[xii] Foxe, Ecclesiastical Historie, pp.150-151
[xiii] Foxe, Ecclesiastical Historie, p.151
[xiv] Foxe, Ecclesiastical Historie, p.153
[xv] Foxe, Ecclesiastical Historie, p.153
[xvi] Foxe, Ecclesiastical Historie, p.154
[xvii] Thomas Fuller, Abel Redevivus or the dead yet speaking, T. Brudenell, London 1652, p.173
[xviii] Diarmaid MacCulloch, Tudor Church Militant. Edward VI and the Protestant Reformation, Penguin Books, London 2002, p.166
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