John Rogers (Bible editor and martyr)

John Rogers, alias Matthew Thomas (* 1500 in Deritend in Birmingham, † February 4, 1555 in London ) was an English Catholic priest and theologian, then a Protestant minister and martyr.

Life

Rogers studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1534 and was chaplain to the English merchants in Antwerp. There he took on William Tyndale and published after his death ( 1536), according to his records, a complete English translation of the Bible ( 1537 ), which he brought out under the pseudonym " Thomas Matthew". The Bible was under this pseudonym, which probably is therefore available for John Rogers himself or for William Tyndale, known as Matthew 's Bible. At this time, Rogers was a Protestant and married the Antwerp citizen Adriana de Weyden. 1537 Rogers and his family lived for several years in Wittenberg to learn German and to study Martin Luther's writings and his theology. He returned to England in 1548 and held theological lectures at Saint Paul's Cathedral. At the beginning of the reign of the English Queen Mary I, he was arrested and charged with heresy. After a year's captivity, he was condemned by the Lord Chancellor Stephen Gardiner. On February 4, 1555 Rogers was then burned as the first Protestant martyr in the reign of Mary Tudor on the execution site Smithfield in London.