John Hopton

For the British sports shooter, see John Hopton (sport shooter).

The Right Reverend John Hopton
Bishop of Norwich
Diocese	Diocese of Norwich
Term ended	1558 (death)
Predecessor	Thomas Thirlby
Successor	John Parkhurst
Other posts	Chaplain to the Lady Mary (c. 1547–c. 1553)
Orders
Consecration	28 October 1554
Personal details
Died	December 1558
Buried	Norwich Cathedral
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Alma mater	University of Bologna, Italy

John Hopton (died 1558) was a 16th-century bishop of Norwich.

He was a member of the Dominican Order by 1516, in Oxford. He was educated at the University of Bologna in Italy and at Oxford University, where he took a doctorate in theology.

During the reign of Edward VI, Hopton was Chaplain to the Lady Mary, later Queen Mary I, and was summoned before the Privy Council in 1549 and ordered to stop celebrating the Catholic Mass.

When Mary acceded to the throne, Hopton was appointed Bishop of Norwich, 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 and Dunning were mainly responsible for the burning of 31 protestants in Norwich during their tenure.

Hopton died in December 1558, and he is buried in Norwich Cathedral.

References

Church of England titles
Preceded by Thomas Thirlby	Bishop of Norwich 1554–1558	Succeeded by John Parkhurst