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2. English Fifth-monarchy man; b. at Messing (43 m. n.e. of London) in 1627; d. probably in London in 1665. His father Nehemiah was a devout Anglican minister, loyal to Charles I. and Archbishop Laud. Religiously awakened when ten years of age by the terrific preaching of the Puritan William Fenner and later by Stephen Marshall, one of the Presbyterian preachers to the Long Parliament, and by the reading of H. Drexelius' Considerations upon. Eternity (in Latin, Cologne, 1631), his reason was dethroned so that he had to be tied hand and foot in bed where his continuous cry was, " I am damned I I am damned ! I am sure I can not be saved! it is impossible I Oh, hell I hell I fire about me l The devils are at me 1 " As dreams of torment drove him mad, so a dream of heavenly mercy and comfort restored his reason. After he had associated himself with the Roundheads (1642), his father cast him off in the midst of winter. He made his way by begging to Cambridge, where he had studied for awhile before, hoping to support himself by labor or to secure a scholarship. Failing in this he came near starving, subsisting for some time on refuse, and even eating leather, feathers, and grass. He was sorely tempted to eat his own flesh and to commit suicide. Just in the nick of time a position as tutor in a gentleman's family was offered him (1643). Soon afterward he felt called to preach and realized that he possessed the necessary gifts and graces in multiplied abundance. He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister (1647 or 1648) and became rector of Burleigh. In less than a year he renounced Presbyterianism and became Independent lecturer at St. Thomas Apostle's in London. In 1650 he was chosen by parliament one of six ministers to preach in Dublin at a salary of £200 a year. Christ Church cathedral was assigned to him and Governor Hewson was a member of his congregation. He did not hesitate to join with Hewson in military service when there was need. His ministerial work was seriously disturbed by Thomas Patient, also a parliamentary preacher, who convinced many of Rogers' parishioners of the unseripturalness of infant baptism and the duty of believers' baptism. Rogers' defense of infant baptism alienated half of his constituents and his advocacy of toleration and the rights of women the other half. His position having thus become untenable he returned to London after six months in Dublin and resumed his lectureship. In his Bethshemish: Epistle to the Churches (London, 1653) he gives a highly colored account of the annoyances and persecutions that he suffered in Dublin and reveals much of the spirit of his ministry. He also polemizes sharply against the Presbyterian clergy, whom he compares with Romanist priests in point of bigotry and intolerance. In his Sagrir: or Domesday Drawing Nigh, with Thunder and Lightning to Lawyers (1654), he denounces the lawyers as the archenemies of true Christianity and sets forth his views respecting the approaching end of the Fourth Monarchy with its laws and lawyers and the inauguration of the Fifth Monarchy " with those godly laws, officers, and ordinances that belong to the legislative power of the Lord Jesus." The Sagrar contains a letter " to the Right Honorable the Lord

General Cromwell, the People's Victorious Champion in England, Ireland, and Scotland." He seeks to convince Cromwell that he has been chosen by the Lord to lead the hosts of the redeemed against the Roman Catholic and Protestant persecutors of the continent, " to break in pieces the oppressor and to deliver the poor and needy." In the " Epistle to the Reader " he declares himself the champion of Christ against Antichrist and polemizes fiercely against the tithing-law and any connection of Church and State. He claims recently to have been treated contemptuously and violently by a committee of parliament while presenting his objections to tithing and State-Churchism. He predicts that the Fifth Monarchy, " where Christ and his saints shall rule the world," will begin in 1656. "As in Noah's flood, after the doors were shut up there was no mercy, though they came wading middle-deep, so let this be an aIarum to all men to make haste while the door of the ark is open. In a few years they will find it shut, and then though they wade through and through much danger, whether Parliament men, Army men, Merchant men, Clergy men, Lawyers, or others, they may find it too late." His demand was that Cromwell first of all lead an English army into France for the overthrow of the Bourbon dynasty and the relief of the persecuted Huguenots. Germany and Austria, were to be conquered by the English with the help of the Huguenots and the-persecuted in those countries. Last of all Rome should be taken and the hierarchy destroyed. He assures the English army and statesmen that " if they will not take their work abroad they shall have it at home, as sure as God lives and is righteous. For when the kingdom of Christ comes there is no such thing as bounds, or limits, or rivers, or seas, that shall cap up or confine the fervent zeal and flaming affections of an Army, Representative, or People spirited for the work of Christ." His exhortations are based upon the most sanguinary passages in the Old Testament and the Apocalypse. The forcible dissolution of the Barebones Parliament by Cromwell (Dec., 1653) because of its abolition of tithes and of the court of chancery and other radical measures infuriated the Fifth-monarchy men, one of whose leaders, Major-general Harrison, was highly influential in this legislation. Harrison, Rich, and Carew, lay members of the party, were imprisoned or sent into involuntary retirement. Rogers, Feak, Vavasor Powell, and Simpson, Fifthmonarchy preachers, violently denounced Cromwell and his supporters and were one by one on various pretexts imprisoned, Rogers at Lambeth in July, 1654. In February preceding he had published his Fifth Epistle to Cromwell, entitled Mene, Tekel, Perez: or a Little Appearance of the Handumiting . . against the Powers and Apostles of the Times. While in prison at Lambeth Rogers published Morning Beams: or the Vision of the Prison Pathmos (1654). This writing throws much light on the spirit of the Fifth-monarchy movement. An interview with Cromwell Feb. 6, 1655, resulted in no better understanding. Two months later he was removed to Windsor Castle. His sufferings at Windsor he recorded in Jagar Sahadutha: An Oiled Pillar. Released in Jan., 1657, he returned to Lon-