Thomas Stapleton
1535-1598. Roman Catholic apologist. Born in Sussex, he graduated from Oxford, but when Elizabeth became queen he left for Louvain and Paris. In 1569 he joined the English College at Douai, and in 1584 entered the Jesuit Order, subsequently leaving for health reasons. In 1590 he taught theology at Louvain. He was a skilled defender of controversial Roman Catholicism. Among his works is a translation of Bede's History of the Church of England (1565), a life of Thomas More* (1588), and a discourse appended to his translation of Staphylus's Apologie... of holy Scripture (1565). In five million Latin and one million English words, Stapleton warned the English about the folly of abandoning Bede's faith. Like More, he was a persistent opponent of the Reformation.