John Hooper – Martyred, Feb. 9, 1555

“Imprisonment is painful, but liberty, on ill conditions, is worse. The prison stinks, yet not so much as the sweet houses where the fear of God is wanting. I must be alone and solitary; it is better so to be, and have God with me, than to be in bad company. The loss of goods is great, but the loss of grace and the favor of God is greater. I cannot tell how to answer before great men, and learned men; yet is it better to do that, than to stand naked before God’s tribunal. I shall die by the hands of cruel men; but he is blessed who loseth his life, and findeth life eternal. There is neither felicity nor adversity in the world that is great, if it be weighed with the joys and pains of the world to come.”

                                                – Reported to be from a letter Hooper penned in prison.

John Hooper was martyred this date, 2/9/1555.  Some time after receiving his Bachelor of Arts from Cambridge he was converted to Christ by the writings of the German reformers.  At one point he felt obliged to flee to France and was briefly associate Huguenots. Later he was associated with Bullinger (Zwingli’s successor).  He returned to England and under Edward VI, was made Bishop of Gloucester.

In the providence of God Edward died.  He was followed by Queen Mary and she as a Roman Catholic required Hooper’s death.  Thus the “Father of the Puritans” was burned at the stake in the 60^th year of his life. He was born c. 1495, at Somersetshire, England.

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Edward Perronet – death, Jan. 2, 1792

“All Hail the Power of Jesus Name”

All hail the power of Jesus’ Name! Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown Him Lord of all.
Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown Him Lord of all.

Let highborn seraphs tune the lyre, and as they tune it, fall
Before His face Who tunes their choir, and crown Him Lord of all.
Before His face Who tunes their choir, and crown Him Lord of all.

Crown Him, ye morning stars of light, who fixed this floating ball;
Now hail the strength of Israel’s might, and crown Him Lord of all.
Now hail the strength of Israel’s might, and crown Him Lord of all.

Crown Him, ye martyrs of your God, who from His altar call;
Extol the Stem of Jesse’s Rod, and crown Him Lord of all.
Extol the Stem of Jesse’s Rod, and crown Him Lord of all.

Ye seed of Israel’s chosen race, ye ransomed from the fall,
Hail Him Who saves you by His grace, and crown Him Lord of all.
Hail Him Who saves you by His grace, and crown Him Lord of all.

Hail Him, ye heirs of David’s line, whom David Lord did call,
The God incarnate, Man divine, and crown Him Lord of all,
The God incarnate, Man divine, and crown Him Lord of all.

Sinners, whose love can ne’er forget the wormwood and the gall,
Go spread your trophies at His feet, and crown Him Lord of all.
Go spread your trophies at His feet, and crown Him Lord of all.

Let every tribe and every tongue before Him prostrate fall
And shout in universal song the crownèd Lord of all.
And shout in universal song the crownèd Lord of all.

Edward Perronet died this date, 1/2/1792, at Canterbury, Kent, England.  He was a son of an Anglican minister who was descended from good stock, the French Huguenots.

Perronet was a co-worker of John and Charles Wesley.  John Wesley tried to get Edward to preach, but he (perhaps in awe of Wesley) always wanted Wesley to preach instead. John Wesley was a determined man (could not have done what he did without being) and one day, in the middle of a meeting simply said, “Brother Perronet will now speak.”

Perronet stood up before the crowd and announced, “I will now deliver the greatest sermon ever preached on earth.”  (What do you think Wesley thought then?)  Perronet proceeded to read the Sermon on the Mount.  When he finished reading it he sat down.

It has been said that Perronet spent much of his life attacking abuses within the Church of England.  Be that as it may, today he is remembered as author of the hymn of praise, “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name,” the first stanza of which appeared anonymously in The Gospel Magazine, November 1779.

Edward Perronet was born in Sundridge, Kent, England, 1726.

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St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, Aug. 24, 1572

This is the date, 8/24/1572, that thousands of French Christians called Huguenots were massacred in France.  Roman Catholic conspirators apparently acting under orders of Catherine de Medici, killed those they would have called “Protestants.”  (Catherine de Medici was advisor to her son, King Charles IX.)   

Known also as the “St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre,” it saw the slaughtering of thousands.  These men and women had added to the intellectual, educational and financial reserves of the French – France became a poorer nation because of this terrible day/night.

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