2005 marks the 450th anniversary of the martyrdom of John Hooper. Hooper was a fervent Puritan and one of the first bishops arrested when the Catholic Queen Mary came to the English throne. John's strong opposition to Roman Catholic practices was well known.
However, he proved himself a worthy leader when he was finally made bishop of Gloucester. He would have been bishop sooner, but he refused to wear the appropriate gown. As bishop, he worked with great zeal. He examined all of his clergymen and found that some did not even know the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments or the Apostles' Creed. He set out to remedy this, and to educate the people, preaching every day, often up to four or five times. He was known for his kindness to the poor. The people of Gloucester loved him. In spite of that, under the new government, his marriage cost him his position as bishop; and his views on the Lord's Supper and other doctrines, cost him his life.
When he arrived at the stake, John knelt and prayed yet again. He was shown what was said to be a pardon from the queen: his--if only he would change his religious opinions. 'If you love my soul, away with it!' he exclaimed.
He died an agonising death but he did so for the sake of Christ and the gospel John Hooper was, says Fuller in his Worthies of England,
“A great scholar and linguist who had double dignity and treble diligence, painfully preaching God's Word, piously living as he preached, patiently dying as he lived.”
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Gordon Dane is the minister of Crossgar Free Presbyterian Church in Northern Ireland which was the first congregation of the Free Presbyterian denomination. He is a graduate of Aston University Birmingham and also of the Theological Hall of the Free Presbyterian Church and of...
