John Hopton

{{for|the British soldier and marksman|John Hopton (soldier)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox Christian leader | name = John Hopton | title = [[Bishop of Norwich]] | diocese = [[Diocese of Norwich]] | ended = 1558 (death) | predecessor = [[Thomas Thirlby]] | successor = [[John Parkhurst]] | other_post = Chaplain to the [[Mary I of England|Lady Mary]] (c. 1547–c. 1553)  | consecration = 28 October 1554  | death_date = December 1558 | buried = [[Norwich Cathedral]] | denomination = [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] | alma_mater = [[University of Bologna]], [[Italy]] | consecrated_by = [[Edmund Bonner]] | honorific_prefix = [[The Right Reverend]] }} '''John Hopton''' (died 1558) was the last Roman Catholic [[Bishop of Norwich]].<ref>{{cite web |author= |date= |title=‘’Will of John Hopton, Bishop of Norwich of Norwich, Norfolk’’, PROB 11/42B/705 |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D947616 |access-date= |website=The National Archives |publisher= |quote=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author= |date= |title=Ancient Diocese of Norwich |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11121a.htm |access-date= |website=New Advent |publisher= |quote=}}</ref>

He was a member of the [[Dominican Order]] by 1516, in Oxford. He was educated at the [[University of Bologna]] in Italy, where he took a [[doctorate]] in theology.<ref name="ODNB">{{cite web |last=Houlbrooke |first=Ralph |date=23 September 2004 |title=Hopton, John |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-13771 |access-date= |website=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher= |quote=}}</ref>

During the reign of [[Edward VI]], Hopton was chaplain to the [[Mary I of England|Lady Mary]], later Queen Mary I, and was summoned before the [[Privy Council (United Kingdom)|privy council]] in 1549 and ordered to stop celebrating the Catholic Mass.

When Mary acceded to the throne, Hopton was appointed Bishop of Norwich,<ref name=ODNB /> and was consecrated on 28 October 1554. [[John Foxe]], in his ''Acts and Monuments'' described him, with [[Michael Dunning]], the "bloody chancellor" of Norwich, as a ruthless persecutor of Protestants, "in such sort, that many of them he perverted, and brought quite from the truth, and some from their wits also". Hopton was mainly responsible for the burning of over thirty Protestants in Norwich during his tenure.<ref name=ODNB />

Hopton died in December 1558, and he is buried in Norwich Cathedral.<ref name=ODNB />

==References== {{reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{s-rel|en}} {{s-bef|before=[[Thomas Thirlby]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[Bishop of Norwich]]|years=1554–1558}} {{s-aft|after=[[John Parkhurst]]}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hopton, John}} [[Category:1558 deaths]] [[Category:Bishops of Norwich]] [[Category:16th-century English Roman Catholic bishops]] [[Category:English chaplains]] [[Category:Catholic chaplains]] [[Category:Year of birth unknown]] [[Category:Burials at Norwich Cathedral]]