Brave Martyr

John Hooper, the second Bishop of Gloucester, was burned at the stake in front of his own cathedral all because he was a Protestant when England was officially a Catholic country.

The fire went out 3 times as the reeds and wood were damp. An eye witness recounted:-
....but when he was black in the mouth and his tongue swollen that he could not speak,yet his lips went until they were shrunk to the gums,and he knocked his breast with his hands until one of his arms fell off, and then knocked still with the other, what time the fat,water and blood, dropped at his finger ends, until by renewing of the fire his strength was gone and his hand did cleave fast in knocking on the iron upon his breast.So, immediately bowing forwards he yielded up his spirit .

A brave martyr indeed!