All of the material on Rogers's early life up to his imprisonment in Newgate was already printed in the Rerum (pp. 266-67). The Rerum also contains Rogers's account of his examinations (pp. 268-79). All of this material would be reprinted in every edition of the Acts and Monuments.
In the first edition of the Acts and Monuments, Foxe added the sentence condemning Rogers, taken from official records as well as Rogers's relation of what he would have saidat his examination if it had been permitted. There was also an additional account of Bonner refusing to allow Rogers to visit his wife before he was executed and a 'prophecy' that Rogers made to John Day. (Foxe reports that Day was the source for this). And, in the appendix to the first edition, Foxe printed an anecdote, which he must have heard while the 1563 edition was being printed, of Rogers's opposition, in Edward VI's reign, to clerical vestments.
[Back to Top]In the second edition of the Acts and Monuments, Foxe deleted most of Rogers's account of what he would have written, only producing a short extract from it. He also replaced his earlier account of Rogers's execution with a more detailed one, which was probably obtained from a member of Rogers's family, possibly the martyr's son Daniel. Foxe also added an account of Daniel Rogers discovering his father's writings; this was very probably obtained from the same source. And Foxe moved the anecdote of Rogers's opposition to vestments from the appendix and integrated it into his account of Rogers.
[Back to Top]In the third edition of the Acts and Monuments, Foxe simply reprinted the account of Rogers from the second edition without alteration. In the fourth edition, Foxe reprintedthe account from the second edition, also adding Roger's account of what he would have said at his examination, which had not been printed since the first edition.
[Back to Top]¶ The. 4. daye of Februarye suffered the constant Martir of God, Maister Iohn Rogers, concerning whose lyfe, examinacions, and sufferyng, here foloweth in order set foorth. And fyrst touchyng his life and bryngyng vp.
MarginaliaFebruari 4.IOhn Rogers broughte vp in the Vniuersitie of Cambridge, where he profitablye traueiled in good learning, at the length was chosen and called by the Marchauntes aduenturers to be their Chaplaine at Andwerpe in Brabant, wher he serued them to their good contentacion manye yeares. It chaunced him ther to fal in company with that worthy martir of God Wylliam Tindal, & with Miles Couerdale (whiche both for the hatred they bare to popish Idolatry, and for the loue they bare toward true religion, had forsaken their natiue country). In conferryng with them the scriptures, he came to great knowledge in the Gospel of God, in so much that he cast of the heauy yoke of popery, perceiuing it to be impure & filthy idolatry & ioyned him self with them two in that painful & most profitable labor of trāslating þe bible into the English tongue, which is intituled, The translatiō of Thomas Mathew.
On the identification of John Rogers as Thomas Matthew, see Mozley (1953), pp. 131 and 136-41.
I.e., German
On this period of Rogers's life, see Mozley (1953), pp. 131-34.