register described him as ‘John Rogers alias Matthew.’ He was now ordered to confine himself to his own house, within the cathedral close of St. Paul's, and to confer with none who were not of his own household. About Christmas-time his wife, with eight female friends, paid a fruitless visit to Lord-chancellor Gardiner to beg his enlargement. He had been deprived of the emoluments of his benefices. The St. Pancras prebend was filled as early as 10 Oct. 1553, and, although no successor was inducted into the vicarage of St. Sepulchre until 11 Feb. 1555, Rogers derived no income from it in the interval. On 27 Jan. 1554 Rogers was, at the instigation of Bonner, the new bishop of London, removed to Newgate.
With Hooper, Lawrence Saunders, Bradford, and other prisoners, Rogers drew up, on 8 May 1554, a confession of faith, which adopted Calvinistic doctrines in their extremest form (Foxe). Thenceforth Rogers's troubles rapidly increased. He had to purchase food at his own cost, his wife was rarely allowed to visit him, and petitions to Gardiner and Bonner for leniency met with no response. In December 1554 Rogers and the other imprisoned preachers, Hooper, Ferrar, Taylor, Bradford, Philpot, and Saunders, petitioned the king and queen in parliament for an opportunity to discuss freely and openly their religious doctrines, expressing readiness to suffer punishment if they failed fairly to establish their position. Foxe states that while in prison Rogers wrote much, but that his papers were seized by the authorities. Some of the writings ascribed to his friend Bradford may possibly be by him, but, beyond his reports of his examination, no literary compositions by him belonging to the period of his imprisonment survive. The doggerel verses ‘Give ear, my children, to my words,’ which are traditionally assigned to Rogers while in prison, were really written by another protestant martyr, Robert Smith.
In December 1554 parliament revived the penal acts against the lollards, to take effect from 20 Jan. following. On 22 Jan. 1555 Rogers and ten other protestant preachers confined in London prisons were brought before the privy council, which was then sitting in Gardiner's house in Southwark. To Gardiner's opening inquiry whether he acknowledged the papal creed and authority, Rogers replied that he recognised Christ alone as the head of the church. In the desultory debate that followed Rogers held his own with some dexterity. Gardiner declared that the scriptures forbad him to dispute with a heretic. ‘I deny that I am a heretic,’ replied Rogers. ‘Prove that first, and then allege your text.’ From only one of the councillors present—Thomas Thirlby, bishop of Ely—did he receive, according to his own account, ordinary civility. Before the examination closed he was rudely taunted with having by his marriage violated canonical law. On 28 Jan. Cardinal Pole directed a commission of bishops and others to take proceedings against persons liable to prosecution under the new statutes against heresy. On the afternoon of the same day Rogers, Hooper, and Cardmaker were carried to St. Saviour's Church, Southwark, before Gardiner and his fellow-commissioners. After a discussion between Rogers and his judges, in which he maintained his former attitude, Gardiner gave him till next day to consider his situation. Accordingly, on 29 Jan. he was again brought before Gardiner, who heard with impatience his effort to explain his views of the doctrine of the sacrament. As soon as he closed his address, Gardiner sentenced him to death as an excommunicated person and a heretic, who had denied the Christian character of the church of Rome and the real presence in the sacrament. A request that his wife ‘might come and speak with him so long as he lived’ was brusquely refused. A day or two later, in conversation with a fellow-prisoner, John Day or Daye [q. v.], the printer, he confidently predicted the speedy restoration of protestantism in England, and suggested a means of keeping in readiness a band of educated protestant ministers to supply future needs. While awaiting death his cheerfulness was undiminished. His fellow-prisoner Hooper said of him that ‘there was never little fellow better would stick to a man than he [i.e. Rogers] would stick to him.’ On Monday morning (4 Feb.) he was taken from his cell to the chapel at Newgate, where Bonner, bishop of London, formally degraded him from the priesthood by directing his canonical dress to be torn piecemeal from his person. Immediately afterwards he was taken to Smithfield and burnt alive, within a few paces of the entrance-gate of the church of St. Bartholomew. He was the first of Mary's protestant prisoners to suffer capital punishment. The privy councillors Sir Robert Rochester and Sir Richard Southwell attended as official witnesses. Before the fire was kindled a pardon in official form, conditional on recantation, was offered to him, but he refused life under such terms. Count Noailles, the French ambassador in London, wrote: ‘This day was performed the confirmation of the alliance between the pope and this kingdom, by a public and solemn sacrifice of a preaching doctor named Rogers, who has been burned
