Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vane, Thomas
VANE, THOMAS (fl. 1652), divine and physician, received his education at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he proceeded to the degree of D.D. He became chaplain extraordinary to the king and rector of Crayford, but resigned those preferments in consequence of his conversion to the Roman catholic faith. According to ‘Legenda Lignea’ (1653, p. 152) he carried a handsome wife with him to Paris, where he practised as a physician. He appears to have been created M.D. by some foreign university.
His works are:
- ‘An Answer to a Libell, written by D. Cosens against the great Generall Councell of Laterane under Pope Innocent the Third,’ Paris, 1646, 8vo, dedicated to Sir Kenelm Digby.
- ‘A Lost Sheep returned Home; or, the Motives of the Conversion to the Catholike Faith of Thomas Vane;’ 2nd edit., Paris, 1648, 12mo; 3rd edit., with additions, Paris, 1648, 12mo; 4th edit. 1649, 24mo. Dedicated to Queen Henrietta Maria. The ‘approbation’ prefixed to the book is dated 2 April 1645. A reply to this book was published by Edward Chisenhale under the title of ‘Catholike History,’ 1653.
- ‘Wisdome and Innocence, or Prudence and Simplicity, in the examples of the Serpent and the Dove, propounded to our Lord,’ 1652, 12mo.
[Addit. MS. 5884, p. 5; Birchley's Christian Moderator, 1652, ii. 20; Bramhall's Vindication of himself against Baxter, p. 25; Carier's Missive to King James, 1649, pref. pp. 7, 29; Dodd's Church Hist. iii. 70; Foulis's Romish Treasons and Usurpations, pp. 78, 105, 106.]