Irony of John Rogers's Execution
Before Mary's ascent to the throne, John Foxe, one of the few clerics of his day who was against the burning of even obstinate heretics, had approached John Rogers to intervene on behalf of Joan of Kent, a female Anabaptist who was sentenced with burning in 1550. Rogers, a Protestant preacher and royal chaplain, refused to help, as he supported the burning of heretics. Rogers claimed that the method of execution was "sufficiently mild" for a crime as grave as heresy. Later, after Mary I came to power and converted England to Catholicism, John Rogers spoke quite vehemently against the new order and was burned as a heretic.
Read more about this topic: Marian Persecutions
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