John Hooper, Was born about 1495, and was educated at Oxford.  After taking his degree of Bachelor of Arts, he joined the Cistercian monks, but his attention being directed to the writings of Zwingli, after a diligent study of the Scriptures, he became a zealous advocate of the Reformation.  Knowing the danger to which his opinions exposed him, he went to France.  On his return to England he found the plots were again being laid against his life, and escaped to Ireland, thence to France, and finally to Germany, where he remained some years.  Again returning to England he applied himself to instruct the masses, laboring so successfully that the king, Edward VI, requested him to remain in London to further the Reformation, and created him bishop of Worcester.  On the accession of Mary, however, he was immediately arrested, sent to the Fleet prison, and, after eighteen months’ confinement, was tried for heresy, and condemned to the flames in 1555.  He endured the agonies of the stake with great fortitude, though they were unusually protracted on account of the use of green wood.