John Rogers

An English chaplain to the merchants at Antwerp who became William Tyndale's friend and received his unpublished translations. Under the name Thomas Matthew he edited Matthew's Bible (1537), which joined Tyndale's work to Coverdale's and was licensed by Henry VIII. Under Mary I he was burned at Smithfield in February 1555, the first Protestant put to death in her reign.

Early life

From Birmingham to Antwerp

John Rogers was born around 1500 at Deritend, near Birmingham. He studied at Cambridge, taking his degree in 1526, and was one of the young scholars Cardinal Wolsey brought to his new college at Oxford. He served briefly as rector of a London parish, and in 1534 he went to Antwerp as chaplain to the English merchants there.

In Antwerp he met William Tyndale, who was living in the English merchants' house, and the two became friends. Under Tyndale's influence Rogers embraced the Protestant faith. When Tyndale was betrayed and arrested in May 1535, his unpublished Old Testament translations came into Rogers's hands. Rogers married Adriana de Weyden, a woman of Antwerp, and they had many children.

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