Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dorman, Thomas
DORMAN, THOMAS, D.D. (d. 1577?), catholic divine, born at Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire, first studied in the free school there under Richard Reeve, a noted protestant schoolmaster, the cost of his education being defrayed by his uncle, Thomas Dorman of Agmondesham, Buckinghamshire. In 1547, at the request of Thomas Harding, who had a great regard for him, he was removed to Winchester school (Addit. MS. 22136, f. 16 b). He was elected a probationer fellow of New College, Oxford, but in the reign of Edward VI he left that house on account of religion, and consequently never became a complete fellow. After the accession of Queen Mary he was elected in 1554 a fellow of All Souls' College, and studied with indefatigable industry. He took the degree of B.C.L. 9 July 1558 (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 154), but being opposed to the religious changes introduced in the early part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, he went to Antwerp, where he met his old friend Thomas Harding, then in exile, by whose persuasion he proceeded to Louvain and resumed his studies. He graduated B.D. in the university of Douay in June 1565 (Records of the English Catholics, i. 272). In 1569, on the invitation of William Allen, founder of the English college at Douay, he settled there ‘and for a while assisted both with his purse and learning towards that establishment.’ Afterwards he had a considerable benefice, with a pastoral charge, bestowed upon him in the city of Tournay, where he died in 1572, or, as some say, in 1577.
His works are: 1. ‘A proufe of certeyne articles in Religion denied by Mr. Jewel,’ Antwerp, 1564, 4to, dedicated to Dr. Thomas Harding. At the end of these articles are twelve ‘Reasons why the author perseveres in his old catholic religion.’ Alexander Nowell, dean of St. Paul's, published ‘A Reproufe’ of this book, London, 30 May 1565, 4to, and another edition 13 July 1565. Nowell says in his preface that Dorman had never devoted himself to the study of theology until he went beyond the seas, and that he excerpted his book against Jewel from a manuscript which Dr. Richard Smith, just before his death, entrusted to his care. 2. ‘A Disproufe of Mr. Alex. Nowell's Reproufe,’ Antwerp, 3 Dec. 1565, 4to. In this he confidently and in direct words charges his adversary with eighty-two lies. Nowell published a ‘Confutation’ of this book. 3. ‘A Request to Mr. Jewel that he keep his promise made by solemn Protestation in his late Sermon at Paul's Cross, 15 June 1567,’ London, 1567, 8vo; Louvain, 1567, 12mo.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (b. liss), i. 434, 718; Wood's Annals (Gutch), ii. 146; Pits, De Angliæ Scriptoribus, p. 914; Dodd's Church Hist. ii. 88; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 231; Ames's Typogr. Antiq. (Herbert), pp. 938, 967; Douay Diaries, 4, 272; Gough's Gen. Index to Parker Soc. Publications; Gillow's Bibl. Dict.; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Churton's Life of Nowell, pp. 106, 116–25, 131, 305.]