A Minute for the Martyrs: John Hooper

A Minute for the Martyrs: Master John Roy Hooper

John Hooper, bishop of Worcester and Gloucester, was burnt at the stake for defending the gospel at Gloucester, England.

Hooper was one of the first bishops arrested when the Roman Catholic Queen Mary came to the English throne.

When he became bishop He examined all his clergy and found that many didn’t even know the Lord's Prayer or the Ten Commandments.

Hooper set out to remedy this and educate the people by issuing an injunction to his clergy that they "were to teach the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer...word for word as they were written.

He was known for his kindness to the poor.

Because of his popularity, the executioners had strict orders not to allow him to preach to the crowd.

He was charged with heresy by Lord Chancellor Stephen Gardiner.

It was a cold, wet, windy morning which meant the fires would not light very well.

The wood for the first fire was too wet and only the reeds or kindling burned.

The second fire had drier wood, but they didn’t have any reeds left and you can’t just light a log.

The 2nd fire burned at his lower extremities but only burnt his hair and scorched his skin a little up above.

He cried out, “For God’s Love, good people, let me have more fire!”

They kindled a third fire which was stronger but still not fully consuming.

“When he was black in the mouth, and his tongue so swollen that he could not speak, yet his lips went until they were shrunk to the gums: he knocked his breast with his hands until one of his arms fell off, and then knocked still with the other, while the fat, water, and blood dropped out at his fingers' ends, until by renewing the fire, his strength was gone, and his hand clave fast in knocking to the iron upon his breast until his bowels burst forth.

He was in the fires for about ¾ of an hour or more.

He pleaded for his ordeal to end and cried out. 'O Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me and receive my soul.

He was burnt at the stake on February 9, 1555 on the charge of heresy in not believing in transubstantiation and in believing the word of God is of far greater authority than the church.

Dr. Steven A. Hite