John Hooper (Bishop and Martyr)

His Times, Life, Death and Opinions

By: J. C. Ryle

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

In a day of religious controversy, no one is so useful to his generation as the man who contributes a little “light.” Amidst the din and strife of ecclesiastical warfare, amidst the fog and dust stirred up by excited disputants, amidst assertions and counter-assertions, a thinking man will often cry with the dying philosopher,—“I want more light: give me more light.” He that can make two ears of corn grow where one grew before, has been rightly called a benefactor to mankind. He that can throw a few rays of fresh light on the theological questions of the day, is surely doing a service to the Church and the world. Thoughts such as these came across my mind when I chose the subject of this biographical paper: “John Hooper, the martyred Bishop, of Gloucester: his times, life, death, and opinions.” I chose it with a meaning. I have long felt that the lives and opinions of the English Reformers deserve attentive study in the present day. I thought that a picture of John Hooper would throw useful light on points of deep interest in our times. We live in days when the Romish Church is making gigantic efforts to regain her lost power in England, and thousands of English people are helping her. None are doing the work of Rome so thoroughly as those English Churchmen, who are called Ritualists. Consciously or unconsciously, they are paving the way for her advance, and laying down the rails for her trains. They are familiarizing the mind of thousands with Romish ceremonial,—its millinery, its proces¬sions, its gestures, its postures, its theatrical, sensuous, style of worship. They are boldly preaching and publishing downright Romish doctrine,—the real pre¬sence, the priestly character of the ministry, the necessity of auricular confession and sacerdotal abso¬lution. They are loudly proclaiming their desire for re-union with the Church of Rome. In short the battle of the Reformation must be fought over again. Ritualism is nothing but Romanism in the bud, and Romanism is Ritualism in flower. The triumph of Ritualism will be the triumph of Romanism and the restoration of Popery. Now before we go back to Rome, let us thoroughly understand what English Romanism was. Let us bring in the light. Let us not take a “leap in the dark.”