Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cole, Thomas (d.1571)
COLE, THOMAS (d. 1571), divine, a native of Lincolnshire, was educated at King's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1546, and M.A. in 1550. He held the mastership of Maidstone School in 1552, was dean of Sarum during part of the reign of Edward VI, but emigrated to Frankfort on the accession of Mary. There he made the acquaintance of John Knox. He subsequently removed to Geneva. Having returned to England he was presented to the rectory of High Ongar, Essex, in 1559, collated to the archdeaconry of Essex in the ensuing year, and subsequently appointed commissary of the archbishop in the archdeaconries of Essex and Colchester. In 1560 he was also installed in the prebend of Rugmere in the church of St. Paul. He was present at the convocation of 1562 and subscribed the original Thirty-nine Articles and the petition for discipline presented by the lower house. In 1564 he commenced D.D. at Cambridge, and the same year he was presented to the rectory of Stanford Rivers, Essex. He had a reputation for eloquence and also for a tendency towards nonconformity. He died in 1571. He published: (1) A sermon preached at Maidstone in Lent, 1553 ; and also (2) A sermon preached before the queen at Windsor in 1564. He had a hand in the framing of the Genevan form of worship. He has been confounded with William Cole (d. 1600) [q. v.], president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, one of the authors of the Genevan translation of the Bible.
[Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl.ii. 336, 434, 617 n. ; Hasted's Kent, ii. 1 16 ; Newcourt's Rep. pp. 453, 647 ; Strype's Cranmer (fol.), p. 314 ; Mem. (fol.) m.i. 241; Grindal (fol.), p. 36; Annals (fol.) 1. i. 327, 343 ; Ames's Typogr. Antiq. p. 603 ; Knox's Works (Bann. Club), iv. 13, 30, vi. (pt. i.), 85; Zurich Letters (Parker Soc.), i. 242, 256; Machyn's Diary (Camd. Soc.); Cooper's Athenæ Cant.]