Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rainolds, William
RAINOLDS, WILLIAM (1544?–1594), Roman catholic divine, second son of Richard Rainolds, farmer, and elder brother of John Rainolds [q. v.], was born at Pinhoe, near Exeter, about 1544. His name is variously spelt Rainolds, Raynolds, Reynolds, and Reginaldus. He was educated at Winchester School and New College, Oxford, of which he was elected probationer fellow in 1560, and perpetual fellow in 1562. He graduated B.A. on 17 June 1563, and proceeded M.A. on 4 April 1567. Having taken holy orders in the church of England, he held for a time the rectory of Lavenham, West Sussex. In 1572 he resigned his fellowship, and went into residence as a commoner at Hart Hall. Becoming a convert to Roman catholicism, he migrated to Louvain, thence to Douay, and eventually visited Rome, where he was received into the Roman catholic church in 1575. His change of faith is attributed partly to a study of the controversy between John Jewel [q. v.] and Thomas Harding (1516–1572) [q. v.], and partly to the influence of William, afterwards Cardinal Allen. Returning to Douay, he matriculated at the English College there in 1577. He also entered the English College at Reims on 9 April 1578, but returned to Douay to receive priest's orders in 1580, and there lectured on St. Paul's Epistles in April 1581. He afterwards held the chair of divinity and Hebrew in the English College at Reims, where he collaborated with Dr. Gregory Martin [q. v.] in the preparation of his version of the New Testament. He spent the last few years of his life as priest of the Beguines church at Antwerp, where he died on 24 Aug. 1594. His remains were interred in the Beguines church, on the south side of the chancel.
His works are as follows: 1. ‘A Refutation of sundry Reprehensions, Cavils, and false Sleightes, by which M. Whitaker laboureth to deface the late English translation, and Catholic Annotations of the New Testament, and the Book of Discovery of heretical corruptions,’ Paris, 1583, 8vo. 2. ‘De Justa Reipublicæ Christianæ in reges impios et hæreticos Authoritate’ (published as by G. Gulielmus Rossæus, but ascribed by Pits to Rainolds), Antwerp, 1592, 8vo. 3. ‘Treatise conteyning the true Catholike and Apostolike Faith of the Holy Sacrifice and Sacrament ordeyned by Christ as His Last Supper, with a Declaration of the Berengarian Heresie renewed in our Age,’ &c., Antwerp, 1593, 8vo. 4. ‘Calvino-Turcismus, i.e. Calvinisticæ Perfidiæ cum Mahumetana Collatio, et utriusque sectæ Confutatio,’ Antwerp, 1597, and Cologne, 1603, 8vo [see Gifford, William, D.D., (1554–1629)]. Some unpublished works are also ascribed to Rainolds by Pits.
[Pits, De Illustr. Angl. Script. an. 1594; Kirby's Winchester Scholars, p. 133; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 613; Magn. Brit. et Hibern. v. 177; Cotton's Rheems and Doway, p. 13; Dodd's Church Hist. ii. 67; Records of the English Catholics, ed. Knox; Fuller's Church Hist. ed. Brewer, v. 201, 537; Bodl. Cat.; Brit. Mus. Cat.]