The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

III. Hooper-Prophetic Terms Permeate His Writings

JOHN HOOPER, sometimes spelled Hoper, or Houper (c. 1495-1555), martyred bishop of Gloucester and Worcester, was born in Somerset. After his education at Oxford he embraced monastic life, entering the Cistercian Order. He was first turned to the Protestant faith by studying the writings of Zwingli and, Bullinger’s commentaries on St. Paul’s epistles, and finally renounced his allegiance to Rome. When the Act of the Six Articles was enforced by Henry VIII, the clerics were stirred against him. He withdrew to the Continent to escape persecution for heresy, residing in Zurich in association with Bullinger. There he studied history and wrote. After the accession of Ed ward VI, Hooper returned to England, in 1549. He preached to large congregations in London and took an active part in the Reformation proceedings. ²¹ In parting from Bullinger, Hooper had assured him that he would write, but had added, with a pre monition: PFF2 380.2

“But the last newes of all I shall not be able to write: for there, said hee, (taking M. Bullinger by the hand) where I shall take most paines, there shall you heare of mee to be burned to ashes: and that shall be the last newes which I shall not be able to write unto you, but you shall heare it of me.” ²² PFF2 380.3

Hooper had common ground with Cranmer and Ridley, but felt they did not go far enough, and during the time of this brief variance he was rebuked by them for his impetuosity. But in 1551 Hooper was consecrated bishop of Gloucester after a year’s struggle over his objections to an oath by the saints, and to the wearing of some of the priestly vestments, which he felt sprang from Rome. He was also made bishop of Worcester in 1552, and the two dioceses soon became one. He urged that tables be substituted for altars in the churches, and helped to lay the foundation for the Puritan movement. PFF2 380.4

On the accession of Mary, in 1553, when the Papacy was restored, Hooper was one of the first to be sent for. He was thrown into Fleet prison for a year and a half. During this time he wrote extensively. False rumors of his recantation were circulated. ²³ Deprived of his bishopric, he was treated with severity. “Of the one side of which prison is the sink and filth of all the house,” he wrote, “and on the other side the town-ditch; so that the stench of the house hath infected me with sundry diseases. During which time I have been sick.” ²⁴ Finally Hooper was degraded, along with John Rogers, ²⁵ and ordered burned at Gloucester. The basis of his death is clear. PFF2 381.1

“I come not hither as one enforced or compelled to die (for it is well known I might have had my life with worldly gain), but as one willing to offer and give my life for the truth, rather than to consent to the wicked papistical religion of the bishop of Rome, received and set forth by the magistrates in England, to God’s high displeasure and dishonour.” ²⁶ PFF2 381.2

A throng of seven thousand gathered, many weeping. While he knelt and prayed, a box said to contain his pardon contingent upon his recantation was placed before him. But he spurned it, saying, “Away with it!” ²⁷ He was bound to the stake with an iron hoop. Piles of reeds were placed about the stake, but the fagots put above the reeds were green and did not burn freely. In the slow agony he cried, “Let me have more fire!” His limbs were burning while his body was almost untouched. Though his tongue was swollen, as long as he retained the power of speech he employed it in prayer. A bag of gunpowder placed between his legs, and one under each arm, did not kill him, and as he prayed he beat his hands upon his breast, falling forward after three quarters of an hour of anguish. ²⁸ PFF2 381.3

1. PAPAL ANTICHRIST SAME AS BEAST OF APOCALYPSE

Hooper complains that the “ungodly bishops of Rome attribute unto themselves to be the heads of Christ’s church,” and adds, “Thus is true, the see of Rome is not only a tyranny and pestilence of body and soul, but the nest of all abomination.” ²⁹ Then comes his identification of the prophesied Antichrist and Beast of the Apocalypse: PFF2 382.1

“Because God hath given this light unto my countrymen, which be all persuaded, (or else God send them to be persuaded I) that the bishop of Rome nor none other is Christ’s vicar upon the earth; it is no need to use any long or copious oration: it is so plain that it needeth no probation; the very properties of antichrist, I mean of Christ’s great and principal enemy, is so openly known to all men, that are not blinded with the smoke of Rome, that they know him to be the beast that John describeth in the Apocalypse.” ³⁰ PFF2 382.2

2. THE ANTICHRISTIAN SEAT OF ABOMINATION

Discussing the third of the Ten Commandments, Hooper says: PFF2 382.3

“As the pope, under the title and pretence of God’s ministry, hath gotten himself not only a bishopric, but also the whole monarchy, in manner, of all Europe; a richer kingdom than any prince of the world; which never ceased from his beginning to move Christian princes to most cruel and bloody war, under the cloak and mantle of God’s name. What means and craft hath he found to maintain this whorish and antichrist[ian] seat of abomination; idols, peregrinations, masses, dispensations, absolutions, defensions of all things abominable; tyrannies against virtue, stablishments of his own laws, abrogations of God’s laws, emptying of heaven, and filling of hell, blessing of things exterior, oil, bell, bread, water, with other that be not cursed, and cursing of the souls that Christ redeemed with his precious blood; with a thousand more such abominations, under the name and pre tence of God and his holy church, the which neither the patriarchs, neither the prophets, Christ, neither his apostles, never knew of, as both the Testaments doth bear record.” ³¹ PFF2 382.4

3. REFERENCES TO ANTICHRIST PERMEATE WRITINGS

In a confession of faith, which was printed by Christopher Barker (London, 1550), “Printer to the Queene’s most excellent Maiestie,” Hooper states that the church shall always have enemies, and be tormented with the “thunderings of Antichrist,” Antichrist exercising “great and cruel tyranny upon the faithful children of God.” ³² Such expressions as the “kingdom of Antichrist,” ³³ the “doctrine of Antichrist,” and the “mark” of Antichrist ³⁴ are frequent in Hooper’s writings. There is also reference to the “synagogue of Antichrist.” ³⁵ PFF2 382.5

4. WOMAN OF BABYLON SITS IN SEVEN-HILLED ROME

After evil-disposed persons had for eighteen months attempted to se cure his condemnation as a heretic by false accusations, Hooper boldly wrote: PFF2 383.1

“Of that wicked and pestilent see and chair of Rome, which is indeed the very whore of Babylon that St John describeth in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, sitting upon a seven-headed beast, which St John himself interpreteth to be seven hills, and the children in the grammar-school do know that Rome is called civitas septem montium, the city of seven hills.” ³⁶ PFF2 383.2

5. INTOXICATED EARTH GIVES POWER TO PAPAL BEAST

Again and again the prophetic angle is given in this apology. For example: PFF2 383.3

“Yet, as St John saith, the princes of the earth shall be made so drunken with the cup of the whore of Babylon, that they will deliver their power to the beast: but yet St John saith plainly, although the kings do give to the beast against God’s laws their kingdoms, yet be they none of the beast’s.” ³⁷ PFF2 383.4

6. COMFORT AND GUIDANCE FROM Matthew 24

Finally, in a letter to his wife, Anne, in 1553, exhorting her to patience, Hooper commends the reading of Matthew 24, concerning the last days, “for such as love the coming of our Saviour Christ to judgment,” ³⁸ repeating his admonition in these words: PFF2 383.5

“Read again the 24th chapter of St Matthew, and mark what difference is between the destruction of Jerusalem, and the destruction of the whole world; and you shall see that then there were left alive many offenders to repent: but at the latter day there shall be absolute judgment and sentence, PFF2 383.6

never to be revoked, of eternal life and eternal death upon all men; and yet towards the end of the world we have nothing so much extremity as they had then, but even as we be able to bear.” ³⁹ PFF2 384.1

7. PALE HORSE OF FOURTH SEAL Is PAPAL PERIOD

In a letter, written while in the Fleet, to “Lovers of the Truth” at beginning of their change of religion, Hooper applied the fourth seal to the period of papal persecution. PFF2 384.2

“Read ye the sixth chapter of St John’s Revelation, and ye shall perceive, among other things, that at the opening of the fourth seal came out a pale horse, and he that sat upon him was called Death, and Hell followed him. This horse is the time wherein hypocrites and dissemblers entered into the church under the pretence of true religion, as monkers, friars, nuns, massing-priests, with such other, that have killed more souls with heresies and superstition than all the tyrants that ever were killed bodies with fire, sword, or banishment, as it appeareth by his name that sitteth upon the horse, who is called Death: for all souls that leave Christ, and trust to these hypocrites, live to the devil in everlasting pain, as is declared by him that followeth the pale horse, which is Hell.” ⁴⁰ PFF2 384.3