*** ONLY READ WHEN YOU HAVE FINISHED THE BOOK ***

Although Rogers did indeed secretly write up his Examinations, discovered in his cell by his wife Adriana and eldest son Daniel, the notion of a second manuscript recording his whole life and hidden within the ancient walls of Newgate prison is fabricated. This was a creative ruse by the author to be able to tell the story of the Martyr from his own perspective.

The story of the fire in young Rogers' family house is imagined - introducing the elemental fire theme to the reader and stimulating our thoughts around the role it was to play in his final days. Similarly it introduces imagery around the 'fire' of the Reformation which was to blaze through Europe.

Although the specific imagined archery competition is fictional, Henry VIII did indeed decree that all male children should be instructed in archery to create the war ready nation he required.

Whilst the Bishop of Rochester's unfortunate cook was indeed boiled alive at Smithfield in front of a large crowd by order of Henry VIII, there is no record of Rogers being there, much less that this was influential in encouraging him down a conformist path at this stage in his life.

Where Rogers lived when in Antwerp is not known, although it is certainly true that he was Chaplain for the Merchant Adventurers alongside William Tyndale and secretly took on the work of completing the Bible translation that became the Thomas Matthew Bible.

Rogers did indeed meet and marry Adriana de Weyden when living in Antwerp. The dinner with the de Weyden family and exchanges between them - as well as Rogers' exchanges with his imagined friend and landlord Richard Hawkins are purely fictional.

That Rogers moved to Wittenberg and matriculated in November 1440 is known, likely as a result of the pull of the opportunity to work and study with the leading Reformist thinkers of the time as well as the push of increasing danger for Reformists in Antwerp. The detail of that and Adriana's role in the decision is purely fictional. 

Little is recorded or known of Rogers' time as Superintendent of the Lutheran Church in Dietmarsh, based in Meldorf. The lynching of his predecessor pastor is true, although the description of that and subsequent engagements with the congregation is imagined. But the town's sense of communal, corporate guilt for the town must surely have prevailed.

It is not known whether Rogers came back to London in advance of Adriana and family, or whether he was indeed Chaplain to Ridley in the two year period thereafter until appointed to St Margaret Moyes and St Sepulchre's. Although the credo criteria listed in the book he would surely have recognised and approved.

There were indeed reports of minor, mischievous acts of rebellion against the restoration of Roman Catholicism at this time. These included the dressing up of a cat in Papist garb - but it is the author's imagining that the Rogers boys were behind this, to Adriana's horror and Rogers senior's delight. 

The irony here is that the poem at the back of the book was indeed included in the American Primer and used to teach young Americans for many generations - under the heading that the verses were written by John Rogers the Martyr. Foxe wrongly and inexplicably identified the work with Rogers, but it was written in fact by the author of a number of other, similar poems, one Robert Smith., later to be martyred himself. The meeting of the two in Newgate and genesis of the poem is therefore a beguiling fiction.

Rogers' secretly written manuscript of his Examinations were indeed found by Adriana and their oldest son Daniel, when they visited his cell after the execution. This included the heartfelt and heart-wrenching Prayer after his first Examination. But just as there was no secret, second manuscript discovered in the ancient walls of Newgate prison, so too there was no no final love letter to Adriana. 

However, it surely is not hard to imagine that the sentiments expressed were true.