Bentham, Thomas

Bentham, Thomas bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, was born in Yorkshire about 1513. He became a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1543, and distinguished himself in Hebrew. He early sided with the Reforming party, and became prominent as a zealous opponent of the superstitions of popery. On the accession of Mary, he disdained to conceal or retract his sentiments, and he was deprived of his fellowship in 1553 and compelled to go abroad. At Zurich and Basle he preached to the English exiles. Even during the height of Mary's persecutions he returned to London to take charge of a Protestant congregation. In the second year of Queen Elizabeth he was raised to the see of Lichfield and Coventry, and was consecrated in 1559. Had Bentham been supreme, the English Reformation would have been far more thorough than it was, and the Christian Church would have avoided much evil. He died Feb. 19,1578. He translated the Psalms, Ezekiel, and Daniel in the "Bishop's Bible." — Hook, Ecclesiastical Biography, 2, 249.