(1505-1555) an English clergyman, Bible translator and commentator and was the first English Protestant martyr under Mary I of England (Bloody Mary) who was determined to restore Roman Catholicism. Very little is known or recorded concerning the first 30 years of his life. After his conversion, he was ordained to the ministry and became a scholar at Oxford, then settled on the European continent for a greater part of the next 22 years, after which he returned to England. Rogers then gave himself to the English translation of the Bible and perhaps ought to be given rank along side William Tyndale and Coverdale as being one of the authors of the first English translation.
Born about 1505, Rogers was educated at Cambridge. He became a Catholic priest and accepted a position in the church at the time that the Protestant Reformation was in full swing. His conscience told him that certain teachings of his established Church were wrong and he resigned, moving to Antwerp, Holland, where he ministered to English merchants.
In Holland, he became friends with William Tyndale, a reformer who was translating the Bible into English. Tyndale converted Rogers to Protestant views and Rogers married. Nine months later, Tyndale went to prison; he would be executed as a heretic. But Tyndale left a precious manuscript in John Rogers’s keeping. This was his English translation of the books from Joshua to Chronicles which had not yet been printed.
Rogers was determined to see that Tyndale’s valuable work was not lost. For the next twelve months he labored to put together a complete Bible. Its text was based on Tyndale and Coverdale, and its two thousand notes were borrowed from the writings of dozens of different reformers who were active on the Continent.
Tyndale had been declared a heretic, and his name could not go on the Bible. Rogers could not honestly claim the work as his own, and so he used a pseudonym–Thomas Matthews. When Bishop Cranmer saw a copy of the new Bible, he was so excited that he asked Chancellor Thomas Cromwell to see if the king would license it. Henry VIII did, and the Matthew Bible became the first officially authorized version in the English language.
After sickly Edward VI became king of England, John Rogers returned from the continent, fetching his wife to England. He was given high positions in the Church of England. Regretably, he was one of those who agreed to burn poor, insane Joan of Kent to death (some of her claims were blasphemous). He was urged to show her mercy because some day he might need it himself, but did not listen.
Edward VI died. Mary, a Roman Catholic, became queen. John Rogers preached a stirring message, urging his congregation to remain loyal to Reformation principles. Mary’s Catholic bishops questioned him about this sermon, but he answered well and was released.
However, when a Catholic was appointed to speak at Paul’s Cross, churchgoers rioted. The Mayor was present and could not restore order. The mob attacked Bishop Bonner, an eminent supporter of Queen Mary. Rogers shouted to the crowd to calm down and helped hustle Bonner to safety. Although no harm was done, the Queen’s council was upset. They instructed the Mayor to prove he could keep order, or said he must give up his office. The Mayor arrested Rogers, the one who had saved Bonner’s life. Rogers spent over a year in prison, questioned several times about his beliefs by Lord Chancellor Stephen Gardiner.
According to Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, when the sentence of death was passed, Rogers begged Gardiner to let him speak a few words to his wife. Gardiner refused, telling Rogers he was not legally married because he had once been a priest.
When the time came for his execution, he was brought by the sheriffs of Newgate to Smithfield, where the following conversation took place.
One of the officers ask Rogers if he would revoke his abominable doctrine and his evil opinion of the sacrifice of the mass. “That which I have preached, I will seal with my own blood,” Rogers replied.
“Then,” said Clergy Woodroofe, “Thou are a heretic.” “That shall be known,” said Rogers, “at the day of judgment.”
Rogers was then brought to the stake, quoting a Psalm as he came, with the people who witnessed his testimony wonderfully rejoicing at his constant firmness in the face of the fire. His own wife and 11 children met him on the road as he went to the stake, the youngest of the children being a nursing infant in its mother’s arms and whom he had never met. His wife was not allowed to visit him at all at the prison and apparently he suffered severe treatment from the jailers.
When he was attached to the post, the fire was put under him, and when it had taken hold of his legs and shoulders, he, as if feeling no pain, washed his hands in the flame, as though it were cold water. So says recorded history.
After lifting up his hands to heaven, not removing them from the fire until the flames had devoured them, mildly and firmly this happy martyr yielded up his spirit into the hands of his Heavenly Father. Even a few moments before his death, a written pardon was brought to him if he would recant, but he refused.
John Rogers was the very first of the English martyrs who died under the reign of Bloody Mary. J. C. Ryle says that before Roger’s death, there was no example of a Protestant of the Church of England enduring death rather than recanting his convictions. Rogers was the first in England to “break the ice” for the gospel and prove that the grace of God was sufficient to sustain a believer even in the fire.
On the day Rogers was burned, Noailles, the French Ambassador to England, wrote to Montmorency these words: “This day was performed the public and solemn sacrifice of a preaching doctor named Rogers, who has been burned alive because he persisted in his opinions. As he was conducted to his death, the greatest part of the people were not afraid to make him many exclamations to strengthen his courage. Even his children assisted him, comforting him in such a manner that it seemed as if Rogers was being led to a wedding.”
Bibliography:
- Chester, Joseph Lemuel. John Rogers; the compiler of the first authorized English Bible… London: Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, 1861. Source of the image.
- Foxe, John. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Various editions.
- Loane, Marcus L. Pioneers of the Reformation in England. London: Church Book Room, 1964.
- “Rogers, John.” Dictionary of National Biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. London: Oxford University Press, 1921 – 1996.
Sources:
- https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1501-1600/john-rogers-1st-of-many-martyrs-11629985.html
- https://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2005/john-rogers-of-england/
Chronological History of Events Involving John Rogers
