{{Infobox Christian leader , type = Bishop , honorific_prefix =

The Right Reverend The Right Reverend (abbreviated as The Rt Revd or The Rt Rev) is an honorific style (form of address), style given to certain (primarily Western Christian, Western) Christian ministers and members of clergy. It is a variant of the more common st ...

, name = John Hooper , honorific_suffix = , title = Bishop of Worcester and Gloucester , image = John Hooper by Henry Bryan Hall after James Warren Childe cropped.jpg , image_size = , alt = , caption = , native_name = , native_name_lang = , church =

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

, archdiocese = , province = , metropolis = , diocese = Worcester and Gloucester , see = , elected = , term = 1552–1554 , quashed = , predecessor = Nicholas Heath , successor = Nicholas Heath ''(restored)'' , opposed = , other_post =

Bishop of Gloucester The Bishop of Gloucester is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Gloucester, England, Diocese of Gloucester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the Gloucestershire, County of Gloucestershire and part ...

(1551–1552) , ordination = , ordained_by = , consecration = 8 March 1551 , consecrated_by =

Thomas Cranmer Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was a theologian, leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He is honoured as a Oxford Martyrs, martyr ...

, rank = , laicized = , birth_name = , birth_date = , birth_place = , death_date = 9 February 1555 , death_place =

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, buried = , resting_place_coordinates = , nationality = English , religion =

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

, residence = , parents = , spouse = Anne de Tscerlas , children = 2 , occupation = , profession = , education = , alma_mater =

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 126 ...

, motto = , signature = , signature_alt = , coat_of_arms = , coat_of_arms_alt = , feast_day = , venerated = , saint_title = , beatified_date = , beatified_place = , beatified_by = , canonized_date = , canonized_place = , canonized_by = , attributes = , patronage = , shrine = , suppressed_date = , module = , module2 = , other = John Roy Hooper (also Johan Hoper; c. 1495 – 9 February 1555) was an English churchman, Anglican

, later of Worcester and Gloucester, a Protestant reformer and a Protestant

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...

. A proponent of the

English Reformation The English Reformation began in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away first from the authority of the pope and bishops Oath_of_Supremacy, over the King and then from some doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church ...

, he was executed for

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Heresy in Christian ...

by burning during the reign of Queen Mary I.

Early life

{{unreferenced section, date=February 2016 In 1538, a John Hooper appears among the names of the Black Friars at Gloucester, and also among the White Friars at

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

, who surrendered their houses to the king. A John Hooper was likewise

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

of Wormesley Priory in Herefordshire; but identification of any of these with the future

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

is doubtful. Rather, he appears to have been in 1538 rector of Liddington, Wiltshire, a

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

in Sir Thomas Arundell's gift, though he must have been a non-resident incumbent. '' The Greyfriars' Chronicle'' says that Hooper was "sometime a white monk"; and in the sentence pronounced against him by

Stephen Gardiner Stephen Gardiner (27 July 1483 – 12 November 1555) was an English Catholic bishop and politician during the English Reformation period who served as Lord Chancellor during the reign of Queen Mary I. Early life Gardiner was born in Bury St Ed ...

he is described as "olim monachus de Cliva Ordinis Cisterciensis," i.e. of the

Cistercian The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...

house of Cleeve Abbey in Somerset. On the other hand, he was not accused, like other married bishops who had been monks or

friars A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders in the Catholic Church. There are also friars outside of the Catholic Church, such as within the Anglican Communion. The term, first used in the 12th or 13th century, distinguishes the mendic ...

, of infidelity to the vow of chastity; and his own letters to Heinrich Bullinger are curiously reticent on this part of his history. He speaks of himself as being the only son and heir of his father and fearing to be deprived of his inheritance, if he adopted the reformed religion.{{sfn, Pollard, 1911, p=675 Prior to 1546, Hooper had secured employment as steward in Arundell's household. Hooper speaks of himself during this period as being "a courtier and living too much of a court life in the palace of our king". He chanced upon some of

Huldrych Zwingli Huldrych or Ulrich Zwingli (1 January 1484 – 11 October 1531) was a Swiss Christian theologian, musician, and leader of the Reformation in Switzerland. Born during a time of emerging Swiss patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swis ...

's works and Bullinger's commentaries on St Paul's epistles, which elicited an evangelical conversion. After some correspondence with Bullinger on the lawfulness of complying, against his conscience, with the established religion, and following some trouble in England c. 1539–40, with

bishop of Winchester The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' the offic ...

to whom Arundell had referred him out of concern for his new views, Hooper determined to secure what property he could and take refuge on the continent.{{sfn, Pollard, 1911, p=675 After living in Paris for an unknown period of time, Hooper returned to England to serve Sir John St Loe,

constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. ''Constable'' is commonly the rank of an officer within a police service. Other peo ...

of Thornbury Castle, Gloucestershire, Arundell's nephew.

Life on the continent

Hooper found it necessary to leave for the continent again, probably in 1544, and he reached

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

by 1546.{{citation needed, date=November 2015 He decided to permanently move to

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

but he first returned to England to receive his inheritance, and he claims to have been twice imprisoned. In Strasbourg again, in early 1547, he married Anne de Tserclaes (or Tscerlas), a Fleming who with her sister had lived in the household of Jacques de Bourgogne, seigneur de Falais. He proceeded by way of

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

to Zürich, where his Zwinglian convictions were confirmed by constant conversation with Zwingli's successor, Heinrich Bullinger. He also made connections with

Martin Bucer Martin Bucer (; Early German: ; 11 November 1491– 28 February 1551) was a German Protestant reformer based in Strasbourg who influenced Lutheran, Anglican doctrines and practices as well as Reformed Theology. Bucer was originally a memb ...

, Theodore Bibliander, Simon Grynaeus, and Konrad Pellikan. During this time Hooper published ''An Answer to my Lord of Wynchesters Booke Intytlyd a Detection of the Devyls Sophistry'' (1547), ''A Declaration of Christ and his Office'' (1547), and ''A Declaration of the Ten Holy Commandments'' (1548).

Chaplain at the centre of power

{{unreferenced section, date=February 2016 It was not until May 1549 that Hooper returned to England. There, he became the principal champion of Swiss

Calvinism Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Christian, Presbyteri ...

, against the

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

s as well as the

Catholics The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, and was appointed chaplain to

Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Viscount Beauchamp (150022 January 1552) was an English nobleman and politician who served as Lord Protector of England from 1547 to 1549 during the minority of his nephew King E ...

, the

Lord Protector Lord Protector (plural: ''Lords Protector'') is a title that has been used in British constitutional law for the head of state. It was also a particular title for the British heads of state in respect to the established church. It was sometime ...

.{{sfn, Pollard, 1911, p=675 Hooper had a hand in the formation of the Zwinglian-inspired Dutch and French Stranger churches in

Glastonbury Glastonbury ( , ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than across the River ...

and London. Hooper enjoyed at this time a friendship with

Jan Łaski Jan Łaski or Johannes à Lasco (1499 – 8 January 1560) was a Polish Calvinist reformer. Owing to his influential work in England (1548–1553) during the English Reformation, he is known to the English-speaking world by the Anglicised form ...

, and served as a witness for the prosecution in Bishop Bonner's trial in 1549. Somerset's fall from power endangered Hooper's position, especially as he had taken a prominent part against Gardiner and Bonner, whose restoration to their sees was now anticipated.{{sfn, Pollard, 1911, p=675 However, John Dudley, Earl of Warwick (subsequently Duke of Northumberland), who now dominated the council, continued Somerset's Protestant religious policies. Hooper now became Dudley's chaplain.

Vestments controversy

After a course of

Lent Lent (, 'Fortieth') is the solemn Christianity, Christian religious moveable feast#Lent, observance in the liturgical year in preparation for Easter. It echoes the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring Temptation of Christ, t ...

en sermons before the king, he was offered the bishopric of

. This led to the prolonged

vestments controversy The vestments controversy or vestarian controversy arose in the English Reformation, ostensibly concerning vestments or clerical dress. Initiated by John Hooper (bishop), John Hooper's rejection of clergy, clerical vestments in the Church of En ...

; in his sermons before the king and elsewhere Hooper had denounced the "Aaronic vestments" and the oath by the saints, prescribed in the new

1550 ordinal The Edwardine Ordinals are two ordinals primarily written by Thomas Cranmer as influenced by Martin Bucer and first published under Edward VI, the first in 1550 and the second in 1552, for the Church of England. Both liturgical books were intend ...

; and he refused to be consecrated according to its rites.

, Nicholas Ridley,

and others urged him to submit. Confinement to his house by order of the Council proved equally ineffectual, and it was not until he had spent some weeks in the

Fleet prison Fleet Prison was a notorious London prison by the side of the River Fleet. The prison was built in 1197, was rebuilt several times, and was in use until 1844. It was demolished in 1846. History The prison was built in 1197 off what is now ...

that the "father of nonconformity" consented to conform, and Hooper submitted to consecration with the legal ceremonies (8 March 1551).{{sfn, Pollard, 1911, p=675

Bishop

Though Hooper had a low view of the role of bishops in the church, he soon set about a visitation of his

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

, which revealed a condition of almost incredible ignorance among his clergy.{{sfn, Pollard, 1911, p=675 Following examinations of 311 clerics, 168 were not able to repeat the

Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (), or the Decalogue (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , ), are religious and ethical directives, structured as a covenant document, that, according to the Hebrew Bible, were given by YHWH to Moses. The text of the Ten ...

, and 31 were unable to state in what part of the Scriptures they were to be found; there were 40 who could not tell where the

Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also known by its incipit Our Father (, ), is a central Christian prayer attributed to Jesus. It contains petitions to God focused on God’s holiness, will, and kingdom, as well as human needs, with variations across manusc ...

was written, and 31 were ignorant of who authored it. Hooper issued an injunction to his clergy, stressing in Article 9 that they "were to teach the Parishioners the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer...word for word as they be written there...." and in Article 10, "that every parson... teach the Ten Commandments out of the twentieth chapter of Exodus, as they stand there, and no otherwise, not taking one word, letter or syllable from them...". Apparently this standard was enforced through much of the visitation. Less than a year after Hooper had been installed in Gloucester, his Diocese was reduced to an archdeaconry and added to the Diocese of Worcester, of which Hooper was made bishop in succession to Nicholas Heath{{sfn, Pollard, 1911, p=675 on 20 May 1552. Hooper believed a bishop should observe a vow of poverty but resigned the profits of the See of Gloucester to the Crown. As bishop, Hooper was also notable for his sense of social justice, and spoke eloquently of the distress caused by the economic crisis of the early 1550s. He wrote to William Cecil pleading for the council to take action on the price of essential goods, for "all things here be so dear that the most part of the people lack ... their little livings and poor cottages decay daily."

Downfall and death

Upon

Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. The only surviving son of Henry VIII by his thi ...

's death, Northumberland tried to supplant Mary Tudor with his own daughter-in-law, Jane Grey. Hooper opposed this plot but this did not improve his situation once Mary had become Queen. As a representative of the radical wing of Protestantism, Hooper was the first bishop to be attacked. He was given sanctuary at Sutton Court, before being sent to the

on 1 September, first on a charge of debt. After Edward VI's legislation on the church was repealed, Hooper was deprived of his

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

as a married man on 19 March 1554. He was kept in prison and, after the revival of the

acts in December 1554, he was condemned for heresy by Bishop Gardiner and degraded by Bishop Bonner on 29 January 1555. Hooper was sent to Gloucester, where he was burnt on 9 February.{{sfn, Pollard, 1911, pp=675–676

Legacy

Hooper represented the radical wing of English Protestantism. While he expressed dissatisfaction with some of Calvin's earlier writings, he approved of the

Consensus Tigurinus The ''Consensus Tigurinus'' or Consensus of Zurich was a Protestant document written in 1549 by John Calvin and Heinrich Bullinger. The document was intended to bring unity to the Protestant churches on their doctrines of the sacraments, parti ...

negotiated in 1549 between the Zwinglians and

Calvinists Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Christian, Presbyterian, ...

of Switzerland. It was this form of religion that he laboured to spread in England and with others, such as Nicholas Ridley,

, and Pietro Martire Vermigli, he influenced the changes in the 1552 edition of the

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the title given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christianity, Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The Book of Common Prayer (1549), fi ...

.Church of England. (1968). ''The first and second prayer books of Edward VI''. Series: Everyman's library, 448. {{ISBN, 9780460004480. The subject had considerable influence on the

Puritans The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

of Elizabeth's reign, when many editions of Hooper's works were published. Two volumes of Hooper's writings are included in the

Parker Society The Parker Society was a text publication society set up in 1841 to produce editions of the works of the early Protestant writers of the English Reformation. It was supported by both the High Church and evangelical wings of the Church of England, an ...

's publications and another edition appeared at Oxford in 1855.{{sfn, Pollard, 1911, p=676 In 1550 he translated book 2 of

Tertullian Tertullian (; ; 155 – 220 AD) was a prolific Early Christianity, early Christian author from Roman Carthage, Carthage in the Africa (Roman province), Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive co ...

's "Ad Uxorem" (To his wife), which is the first English translation of any of Tertullian's works.

References

{{reflist * {{EB1911, wstitle=Hooper, John, volume=13, last1= Pollard , first1= Albert Frederick , author1-link= Albert Pollard , pages=675–676

External links

{{Wikisource, The_Book_of_Martyrs/Chapter_XVI#The_History.2C_Imprisonment.2C_and_Examination_of_Mr._John_Hooper.2C_Bishop_of_Worcester_and_Gloucester, ''John Hooper'' in Foxe's ''Book of Martyrs'' {{Portal, Christianity *{{prdl
Hooper's translation of Tertullian, Ad Uxorem, book 2
This rare little volume (no other copy is known) is held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, and was transcribed for this site.

{{S-start {{S-rel, en {{S-bef, before= John Wakeman {{S-ttl, title=

, years=1550–1552 {{S-aft, after= James Brooks {{S-bef, before= Nicholas Heath, as=Bishop of Worcester {{S-ttl, title= Bishop of Worcester and Gloucester, years=1552–1554 {{S-aft, after=Nicholas Heath ''(restored)'', as=Bishop of Worcester {{s-end {{Authority control {{DEFAULTSORT:Hooper, John Converts to Protestantism from Roman Catholicism English Calvinist and Reformed theologians English Cistercians English evangelicals 16th-century Church of England bishops 15th-century births 1555 deaths Bishops of Gloucester Bishops of Worcester 16th-century Protestant martyrs People executed for heresy People executed under Mary I of England People executed by the Kingdom of England by burning 16th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians Year of birth unknown Protestant martyrs of England 16th-century Anglican theologians