John Rogers (Fifth Monarchist)

John Rogers (1627 - ?) was a Fifth Monarchist preacher of the 1650s, and later a physician.

He was born at Messing in Essex, the second son of the clergyman Nehemiah Rogers, by his wife Margaret. Because of his religious views, he was turned out by his father in 1642. He returned to studies of medicine, as a servitor at King's College, Cambridge. The First English Civil War had broken out, and the servitors were dismissed. Rogers almost starved, but in 1643 he obtained a post in a school in Lord Brudenel's house in Huntingdonshire, and afterwards at the free school at St. Neots.

In a short time he became known in Huntingdonshire as a preacher, and, returning to Essex, he received presbyterian ordination in 1647. About the same time he married a daughter of Sir Robert Payne of Midloe in Huntingdonshire, and became 'settled minister' of Purleigh in Essex, a valuable living. Rogers engaged a curate, and proceeded to London. There he renounced his presbyterian ordination, and joined the Independents. Becoming lecturer at St. Thomas Apostle, he preached violent political sermons in support of the Long parliament.

In 1650 he was sent to Dublin by parliament as a preacher. Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin was assigned him by the commissioners as a place of worship. A schism arose in his congregation owing to the adoption by a party among them of Anabaptist principles; he wearied of the controversy, and returned to England in 1652. In the following year his parishioners at Purleigh cited him for non-residence, and he lost the living.

Rogers was now no longer the champion of parliament. In 1653 Rogers published two controversial works, Bethshemesh, or Tabernacle for the Sun, in which he assailed the presbyterians, and Sagrir, or Doomes-day drawing nigh, in which he attacked the 'ungodly laws and lawyers of the Fourth Monarchy,' and also the collection of tithes. The two books indicate the date of his change of views: Bethshemesh is written from the standard Independent standpoint, while in Sagrir he has developed the characteristics of a fifth-monarchy man. The forcible dissolution of the Long parliament met with Rogers's approval. Besides doctrinal differences, he had personal quarrels with prominent members: Sir John Maynard had appeared against him as advocate for the congregation at Purleigh, while Zachary Crofton had anonymously attacked his preaching in a pamphlet.

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