tation 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.]
COLE, THOMAS (1627?–1697), independent minister, a native of London, was born about 1627. William Cole, his father, was a man of some property, and sent him to Westminster School, whence, in 1646, he was elected student of Christ Church, Oxford. He proceeded B.A. in 1649, and M.A. 8 July 1651, and in 1656 became principal of St. Mary Hall. As a tutor he had ‘some eminent divines’ for pupils, among whom was John Locke. The restoration of Charles II was followed by the ejection of Cole from his position at Oxford. He then opened an academy at Nettlebed, Oxfordshire, and one of those under his charge was Samuel Wesley, the father of the founder of methodism. Samuel Wesley was the son of an ejected minister, but having entered the church, he attacked his former tutor, whose character was cleared by Samuel Palmer in his ‘Vindication of the Dissenters.’ In February 1674 Cole succeeded Philip Nye as minister of the now extinct independent congregation of Silver Street, London. He was also one of the ministers of the merchants' lecture at Pinners' Hall. His church, after leaving Silver Street, met at Tallow Chandlers' Hall, Dowgate Hill, and afterwards at Pinners' Hall, where he preached his last sermon 22 Aug. 1697. Cole is described by Palmer as ‘a man of a most innocent and spotless life in his usual conversation.’ Beyond three sermons in the ‘Morning Exercises,’ 1674, and one in the ‘Casuistical Morning Exercise,’ 1690, his writings are: 1. ‘The old Apostolical Way of Preaching: a funeral sermon for Rev. Edward West,’ London, 1676. 2. ‘Discourses on Regeneration, Faith, and Repentance,’ London, 1689. 3. ‘The Incomprehensibleness of imputed Righteousness for Justification by Human Reason, till enlightened by the Spirit of God,’ London, 1692. 4. ‘Discourses on the Christian Religion,’ London, 1700. A manuscript copy of some of his sermons, including his last, with an account of his deathbed conversation, is described by Wilson, who gives from it an account of his decease, 16 Sept. 1697, in the seventieth year of his age. A copy of verses by him is prefixed to Cartwright's poems in 1653, and there is another in the Oxford collection on the peace in 1654. He is buried in the upper ground of Bunhill Fields, but the precise spot is not known.
[Wilson's History of Dissenting Churches in London, iii. 79–80; Jones's Bunhill Memorials, p. 29; Welch's Alumni West. pp. 125, 126; Wood's Fasti, ii. 120, 166; History and Antiq. iii. 672.]
COLE, WILLIAM, D.D. (d. 1600) president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 1568–1598, dean of Lincoln 1598–1600, a native of Lincoln, 'ortu Lincolniensis' (Registers of C.C.C.), was admitted at Corpus Christi 28 July 1545. He proceeded to the degree of B.A. in 1548, M.A. 1552, and became fellow of his college. Having embraced reformed doctrines, and taken rank as one of the leaders of the protestant cause in the university of Oxford, on the accession of Queen Mary in 1553, he found it necessary to seek safety by flight, forming one of the large band of scholars and divines who took refuge in various towns of Germany and Switzerland till the storm of persecution had passed. The place of refuge selected by Cole and his companions was Zurich, of which the celebrated Bullinger was then chief pastor. Cole's name appears in the signatures to the letter addressed oy the protestant exiles on their arrival at Zurich in 1554 to the magistrates of the town, stating the cause of their banishment, and requesting permission to reside there, and praying to be protected from all violence (Zurich Letters, iii. 752, Parker Society). Zurich, we are told, attracted 'the greatest scholars' among the refugees (Fuller, Church Hist. iv. 206). Among Cole's companions were Pilkington and Home, afterwards respectively, bishops of Durham and Winchester, and Home's wife Margery. Their request was readily acceded to by the civil authorities of the town, and the exiles found a congenial home at Zurich, where they were treated most hospitably by the leading inhabitants, until the death of Mary allowed them to return to England. Cole with eleven others, including Laurence Humphrey, afterwards regius professor of divinity at Oxford, and Parkhurst, afterwards bishop of Norwich, were received in the house of Christopher Froschover, the celebrated protestant printer, who had been
