Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 27.djvu/352

 and some are printed in the ‘Clarendon State Papers.’ The Tanner MSS. contain several letters from Hopton relating to the Portuguese revolution in 1640 (lxv. 224, 229, 268).

A contemporary (1588?–1614), astrologer, apparently of the Herefordshire family of Hopton, has been confused by Wood with the diplomatist. Wood gives the astrologer the parentage which belongs to the diplomatist, and represents him as graduating from Lincoln College, Oxford, at the dates which apply only to the diplomatist. At Oxford, according to Wood, the astrologer acquired such a reputation that he was called ‘the miracle of his age for learning.’ But it is uncertain whether the astrologer studied at Oxford at all. Entering Clement's Inn, London, the astrologer is said to have become an intimate friend of Selden, and to have been ‘much valued by him and by all the noted men of that time.’ Wood adds that he died in his twenty-sixth year, 1614, in the parish of St. Clement Danes, London.

Hopton, the astrologer, wrote: 1. ‘A Prognostication for this Yeere of Our Lord —referred most especially to the Longitude and Latitude of the worthy Towne of Shrewesbury—authore Arthuro Hoptono,’ London, 1607, and for each year until 1614, printed by the Company of Stationers. 2. ‘Bacvlum Geodæticum siue Viaticum, or the Geodeticall Staffe, in eight Bookes,’ London, 1610, 4to. 3. ‘Speculum Topographicum: or the Topographical Glasse, containing the use of the Topographicall Glasse Theodelitus, Plaine Table, and Circumferentor,’ London, 1611, 4to, dedicated to the ‘Mathematicall Practizer,’ 9 April 1611, and containing many good practical rules in geometry, measurement of distances, heights, sun's altitude and parallax, and a ‘table for calculating annueties.’ 4. ‘Concordancy of Yeeres,’ London, 1612, 1615, and newly augmented 1616, containing ‘a new, easie, and most exact Computation of Time according to the English account; also the use of the English and Roman Kalendar,’ dedicated to Sir Edward Coke, reprinted in 1635 with ‘a plaine direction for the … computing of interest’ and other additions by John Penkethman, under the title ‘Hopton's Concordancy Enlarged.’ 5. ‘Teares or Lamentations of a Sorrowfull Soule,’ London, 1613, to which are prefixed some verses inscribed to ‘my endeared friend and kinsman Sir William Leighton, knt.’ 

HOPTON, JOHN, D.D. (d. 1558), bishop of Norwich, was a Yorkshireman, probably born at Mirfield, the seat of his family. In early youth he joined the Black Friars or Dominicans, and received his education in their house at Oxford, of which he eventually became prior. He made more than one journey to Rome, on one of which he obtained a doctorate in theology at the university of Bologna, and was incorporated at Oxford 17 Nov. 1529. Three years later, however, he proceeded regularly in divinity, and took his degree of D.D. 8 July 1542. He was presented to the rectory of St. Anne and St. Agnes in the city of London by the abbot and convent of Westminster 24 Jan. 1538–9, and held it till his appointment by Princess (afterwards Queen) Mary to the rectory of Fobbing, Essex, 27 May 1548. He also held the benefice of Yeldham Magna in the same county in commendam until his death. The date of his institution does not appear. In Edward VI's reign he was private chaplain and confessor to the Princess Mary. In July 1549 he was summoned before the council, and having professed that he himself ‘allowed’ the new liturgy, was charged with instructions to the princess, requiring her conformity to the new ritual (, Memorials, ii. 238–9). To these instructions Mary paid no heed, and the emperor having made it a question of peace or war between the two countries, Hopton, undaunted by the committal to the Tower of his fellow-chaplain, Mallet, for saying mass to the princess's household, continued to officiate at her house of Copt Hall in Essex. Edward VI says in his journal for 15 Dec. 1550: ‘Ther was lettres sent for the taking of certeine chapelins of the lady Mary for saiing masse, wich she denied.’ The orders of council, 9 Aug. 1551, were repeated more stringently 15 Aug., with the threat that he and his brother chaplains ‘must look for punishment’ if they refused obedience. But, to avoid more serious evils, the illegal service was winked at until the death of Edward, 6 July 1553.

Soon after Mary's accession Hopton was rewarded for his fidelity by the bishopric of Norwich, to which he was consecrated in the chapel attached to the palace of the bishop of London by Bonner, Tunstall, and Thirlby, 28 Oct. 1554. As bishop he signalised himself as one of the most active persecutors of protestants, seconded by his chancellor, one Downing or Duning, who, as Fuller quaintly remarks, ‘played the devil himself, enough to make wood dear, so many did he consume to ashes’ (, Church Hist. iv. 187). ‘They had not their match,’ writes Foxe, ‘for strait-