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John Rogers: A Disillusioned Fifth Monarchy Man

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2014

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In a letter to Oliver Cromwell in April 1653, John Rogers wrote that his soul was “boiling over into earnest prayers to the Great Jehovah for wisdom, counsel, and courage for you … the great deliverer of His people. …” Rogers perceived in the person of Cromwell another Moses, charged with the duty of liberating the saints of “the Commonwealth of Israel.” Yet in a face-to-face confrontation with Cromwell in February 1655, Rogers warned him, “in the name of the Lord Jehovah,” that his condition was “very desperate,” and that “the next Vial which is to be poured out … the scorching hot one … must fall upon him … [for having] forsaken and betrayed the Cause of Christ.” In less than two years, Rogers had gradually slipped from a summit of hopeful expectation into an abyss of bitter disillusionment, as he watched the man in whom he had placed all trust take for himself the crown that had been reserved for the Lord Jesus.

Born in 1627 at Messing, Essex, John Rogers was the second son of Nehemiah and Margaret Rogers. Nehemiah Rogers, an Anglican clergyman and a firm advocate of the policies of Archbishop William Laud, endeavored to educate his son in a manner that would fit him for service in the Church of England. Early in life, under the tutelage first of his father and later of two Puritan clergymen — William Fenner and Stephen Marshall, John Rogers became acutely aware of contemporary theological controversies and intensely preoccupied with his own religious condition. Later as a minister in Ireland, Rogers recounted various childhood experiences in his quest for some assurance of salvation:

… when I was a schoolboy at Maldon, in Essex, I began to be roused up by two men, viz. Mr. Fenner and Mr. Marshall … hearing Mr. William Fenner full of zeal, stirring about, and thundering, and beating the pulpit, I was amazed and thought he was mad … “Oh”, says he, “you knotty! rugged! proud piece of flesh! you stony, rocky, flinty, hard heart, what wilt thou do when thou art roaring in hell amongst the damned!” … I began now to be troubled, being scared and frighted, and out of fear of hell I fell to duties, hear sermons, read the scriptures … and learned to pray. …

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Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1972

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References

Notes

1 Rogers, Edward, Some Account of the Life and Opinions of a Fifth-Monarchy-Man: Chiefly Extracted from the Writings of John Rogers, Preacher (London, 1867), 49.Google Scholar

2 Ibid., 52.

3 Ibid., 207.

4 Educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge. William Fenner served as the Earl of Warick's chaplain and ministered at Sedgley in Straffordshire until 1627, when he was forced to leave because of his puritan principles. Two years later, Warwick presented Fenner to the living of Rochford in Essex. Until his death in 1640, Fenner remained in Essex where he “was much admired and frequented by the puritannical party.” Bickley, Augustus Charles, “William Fenner,” Stephen, Leslie and Lee, Sidney, eds., Dictionary of National Biography (22 vols., London, 1921-1922), VI, 1183Google Scholar; Wood, Anthony A., in Bliss, Philip, ed., Fasti Oxonienses, or Annals of the University of Oxford (5 vols., London, 1813-1820), I, 224Google Scholar; Rogers, , Life and Opinions of a Fifth-Monarchy-Man, 7Google Scholar. The presbyterian divine, Stephen Marshall, ministered first at Wethersfield and then at Finchingfield in Essex. He was described to Archbishop Laud in 1637 as “a dangerous person, but exceeding [sic] cunning no man doubteth but that he hath an inconformable heart, but externally he observeth all …. He governeth the consciences of all the rich puritans in those parts….” In 1640, shortly after the Long Parliament assembled, Marshall began lecturing at St. Margaret's, Westminster. Thereafter, he was frequently called upon to speak before Parliament as a leading advocate of a reformed episcopacy and was often consulted in religious matters of importance. Clarendon credited Marshall with having greater influence upon Parliament than “the Archbishop of Canterbury had … upon the counsels at Court.” Gordon, Alexander, “Stephen Marshall,” Stephen, Leslie and Lee, Sidney, eds., Dictionary of National Biography (22 vols., London, 1921-1922), XII, 1128-32Google Scholar; Rogers, , Life and Opinions of a Fifth-Monarchy-Man, 7.Google Scholar

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8 Ibid., 15.

9 Ibid., 17.

10 Ibid., 18.

11 Ibid., 25.

12 Ibid., 19.

13 Ibid., 24.

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40 Ibid.

41 Ibid., 77.

42 Ibid.

43 Ibid., 75.

44 Ibid., 85.

45 Ibid.

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61 Ibid., 55.

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65 Ibid., 64.

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76 Quoted in Liu, Tai. “Saints in Power: A Study of the Barebones Parliament” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1969), 257.Google Scholar

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80 Ibid., 110.

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82 Birch, Thomas, ed., A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, Esq; Secretary, First, to the Council of State, And afterwards to the Two Protectors, Oliver and Richard Cromwell (7 vols., London, 1742), III, 136.Google Scholar

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84 Ibid., 117.

85 Ibid., 118.

86 Ibid., 120.

87 Ibid., 118.

88 Ibid., 122.

89 Ibid., 123.

90 Ibid., 123, 124.

91 Ibid., 124.

92 Ibid., 125.

93 Birch, , ed., Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, III, 483.Google Scholar

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95 Rogers, , Life and Opinions of a Fifth-Monarchy-Man, 129-30.Google Scholar

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97 Abbott, , Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, III, 437.Google Scholar

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99 Ibid., 191

100 Ibid.

101 Ibid., 195-96.

102 Ibid., 191.

103 Birch, , ed., Collection of the Slate Papers of John Thurloe, III, 136.Google Scholar

104 Rogers, , Life and Opinions of a Fifth-Monarchy-Man, 201Google Scholar

105 Ibid., 202.

106 Ibid.

107 Ibid.

108 Ibid., 207.

109 Ibid., 212.

110 Ibid., 215.

111 Ibid., 217.