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John Hooper Biography

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HOOPER, John (c.1495–1555). An English prelate and martyr. He was born in Somersetshire and educated at Oxford. He became a Cistercian monk and when the monasteries were dissolved went to London to live. He was converted to the Zwinglian form of Protestantism and, advocating his new views, had to flee to the Continent (1540) and spent some time in Switzerland under the influence of Bullinger. Some time after the accession of Edward VI he returned to England (1549) and became a preacher in London. In 1550 he was appointed Bishop of Gloucester, but his objections to wearing the episcopal vestments caused delay and even imprisonment. In 1552 he received the bishopric of Worcester in commendam. On the commencement of Mary's reign in 1553 he was committed to the Fleet, where he remained for 18 months, being frequently examined before the Council, was condemned as a heretic, and burned at the stake at Gloucester, Feb. 9, 1555. He was the author of numerous sermons and controversial treatises, of which a collected edition appeared at Oxford (1855). The account of his death appears in John Foxe's Acts and Monuments, books x, xi (London, 1838).