STAPLETON
249
STAPLETON
pointed him a member of the imperial council. At
the Disputation of Worms in 15.57 he opposed, as
one of the Catholic collocutors, the once venerated
Molanchthon. In his "Theologiae Martini Lutheri
triniembris epitome" (1558) he severely attacked the
lack of union in Protestantism, the worship of Luther,
and religious subjectivism. The treatise called forth
a miiiiber of answers. In 1560 Duke Albert of Bava-
ria, at the request of Canisius, appointed Staphylus
profissor of theology at the Bavarian University of
liiUdktadt after Staphylus had received the Degree
of Doctor of Theology and Canon Law in virtue of
a papal di.spensation, as he was married. As super-
intendent (curator) he reformed the university.
After this he took an active part in the Catholic
restoration in Bavaria and Austria. He drew up
several opinions on reform for the Council of Trent,
as the "Counsel to Pius IV", while he declined to go
to the council personally. In 1562 the pope sent him
a gift of one hundred gulden, and the emperor raised
him to the nobiUty. His learning and eloquence are
frankly acknowledged by his Lutheran fellow-
countryman Hermann Hamelmann. The attempt
i.« now no longer made to trace his conversion to
mercenary motives.
.'^TAPHVI.CS. In causa religionis sparsim editi libri in unum Tolurnfn digesti (Ingolstadt, 1613); Tschackebt, Urkutuienbitch znr Rfformnlionsge^chichte des Herzogtums Prrussen, I and III (Leipzig, 1890), p&saim; Soffner, Friedrich Staphylus (Brealau, 1904).
Klemens Loffler.
Stapleton, Theobald, b. in Co. Kilkenny, Ire- land, but was English by descent, though not con- nected with the Yorkshire Stapletons. Nothing is known of his career, except that he was a priest living in Flanders, and that in 1639 he published at Brussels a book called "Catechismus seu doctrina Christiana latino-hibcrnica", which was the first book in which Irish was printed in Roman type. His object in pub- lishing it was to promote the use of Irish in religious literature, and to further this object he added to the book an appendix in nineteen sections giving direc- tions for reading Irish.
Meehan, Rise and Fall of the Irish Franciscan Monasteries (Dublin, 1870) ; Moore in Did. Sat. Biog.. s. v.
Edwin Burton.
Stapleton, Thomas, controversialist, b. at Hen- field, 8us.sex, July, 1535; d. at Louvain, 12 Oct., 1598. He was the son of William Stapleton, one of the Stapletons of Carlton, Yorkshire. He was educated at the Free School, Canterburj', at Winchester, and at New College, Oxford, where he became a fellow, IS Jan., 1553. On Ehzabeth's accession he left Eng- land rather than conform to the new religion, going first to Louvain, and afterwards to Paris, to study theologj'. In 1563, being in England, he was sum- moned by the Anglican bishop Barlow to repudiate the pope's authority, but refused and was deprived of the prebend of Woodhome in Chichester Cathedral, conferred on him in 1558. He then retired to Louvain with his father and other relatives. In 1568 he joined Allen at Douai and took a great part in founding the English college there, both by lecturing and by devot- ing to its support his salary as lecturer in theology at Anchin College.
His talents were so remarkable that he was soon appointed public professor of divinity, and canon of St. Amatus; and together with Allen he completed the degree of D.D. on 10 July, 1571. In 1.584 he resigned these preferments to enter the Society of Jesus, but did not complete his novitiate, and returned to Douai. Philip II appointed him profe.s.sor of Scripture at l/ouvain in 1.590, to which office a canonry in St. IVter's Church was annexed; and soon after he was made dean of Hilverenbeeck in the Di(X'<'se of Bois- le-Duc. The emoluments of these offices were all Bpent in relieving necessitous English Catholics. Meati-
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while his fame as a theologian had spread to Rome and
Pope Clement VIII thought so much of his theological
writings that he caused them to be read aloud at his
table. Twice he invited Stapleton to Rome in vain,
but his offer to make him prothonotary Apostolic in
January, 1.597, was accepted. It was generally be-
lieved that he would be created cardinal, a suggestion
which was disapproved of by Father Agazzari, S. J.,
rector of the English College, and obstacles were put
in the w.ay of his journey to Rome (Eley, "Certaine
Briefe Notes", p.
254). He accord-
ingly remained at
Louvain till his
death in the follow-
ing year. He left
his books and man-
uscripts (now lost)
to the English Col-
lege at Douai. An
original painting of
Stapleton is pre-
served at Douai
Abbey, Woolhamp-
ton, England.
His first works were translations: Ven. Bede's "His- tory of the Church in England" (Ant- werp, 1556), the "Apology of Sta- phylus" (Antwerp, 1565), and Hosias on "The Expresse Word of God " (1567). His original works were very numerous: "A Fortress of the Faith" (Antwerp); "A Return of Untruths" (Antwerp, 1566); "A Counterblast to M. Home's vain blast" (Louvain, 1.567); "Orationes fu- nebres" (Antwerp, 1577); " Prtncipiorum fidei doctri- nalium demonstratio " (Paris, 1578); "Speculum pra- vitatis heereticae" (Douai, 1580); "De universa justificationis doctrina" (Paris, 1582); "TresThomEe" (Douai, 1588); "Promptuarium morale" in two parts (Antwerp, 1591, 1592); "Promptuarium Catholicum in Evangelia Dominicalia " (Cologne, 1.592); "Promp- tuarium Catholicum in Evangelia Ferialia" (Cologne, 1594) and "Promptuarium Catholicum in Evangelia Festorum" (Cologne, 1592); "Relectio schola-stica " (Antwerp, 1.592); "Authoritatis Ecclesia-stioa; circa S. Scripturarum approbationem defensio" (Antwerp, 1592); "Apologia pro rege Philippo 11" (Constance, 1592), published under the punning pseudonym of Didymus Veridicus Henfildanus, i. e. Thomas the Stable-toned [truth-speaking] Henfieldite. "Antidota Evangelica", "Antidota Apostolica contra nostri Temporis Hsereses" (both at Antwerp, 1.595); "Anti- dota Apostolica in Epistolam Pauli ad Romanos" (Antwerp, 1595); "Triplicatio inchoata" (Antwerp, 1.596); "Antidota Apostolica in duas Epistolas ad Corinthios" (Antwerp, 1.598) ; "Orationes catechetics" (Antwerp, 1.598); "Vere admiranda, seu de Magni- tudine Romanse Ecclesiie" (Antwerp, 1,599); "(Ora- tiones academicae miscellaneie " (Antwerp, 1602); "Oratio academica" (Mainz, 1608). All his works were republished in four folio volumes in Paris in 1620, with an autobiography of the author in Latin verse and Henry Holland's " VitaThomae Stapletoni".
Holland, VHa Thonur Stapletoni, prefixed to the Opera Omnia. (Paris. 1620): Pitts, De illustribus Anylice scriptnribus (Paris. 1619) ; DODD, Church History. II (Brussels tere Wolverhampton, 1739-42); Laity's Directory (London, 1S12). with engraved por- trait; Cooper, in Diet. Nat. Biog., s. v.; Gillow, Bibl. Did. Eng. Cath., s. v.: Douay Diaries (London, 1878); Letters and Mem- orials of Cardinal Allen (London. 1882); Eley, Certaine Briefe Notes (Paris. 1603); DoTHlLLCEtjL, Bihl. Dauaisienne (Douai, 18.1,^-38); MoLANOs, Hisfovre de /.oarniii (Brussels, 1861); Fos- ter. Alumni Oionienses (Oxford, 1891), k Wood, Alhence Ozoni- en.'es (London, 1813-20).
ICdwin Burton,
