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 cate of the arches (, Civilians, 36). On 11 Sept. 1540 he was collated to the rectory of Chelmsford, Essex (Lansd. MS. 981, f. 153), and on 5 Sept. following to the prebend of Holborn in the church of St. Paul. This he exchanged successively for other prebends in that church, namely, Sneating on 9 April 1541, and Wenlakesbarn on 22 March 1541-2. On 25 March 1542 he was ordained deacon on the title of his church of Chelmsford, and on 4 Oct. in that year he was elected Avarden of New College. He was instituted, on the presentation of the society of New College, to the rectory of Newton Longueville, Buckinghamshire, on 14 Sept. 1545.

It is said that in the earlier part of the reign of Edward VI he was zealous for the Reformation, that he was a warm admirer of Peter Martyr, that he frequented the protestant service and received the communion according to the new rite, and that he publicly advocated the reformed doctrines in the church of St. Martin, commonly called Carfax, at Oxford (, Vita Juelli, 129-31). He seems, however, to have soon withdrawn from the cause of the reformers, for he resigned the rectory of Chelmsford in or about March 1547-8, the wardenship of New College on 16 April 1551, and the rectory of Newton Longueville in 1552.

On the accession of Queen Mary he entirely threw away the mask, and from that time forward stood firm to the old form of religion. He obtained the archdeaconry of Ely in 1553, and was in the commissions under which Tunstall and Bonner were restored to the bishoprics of Durham and London. In April 1554 he was one of the disputants against Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer at Oxford (, Memorials of Cranmer, 335 folio), and on the 20th of that month he was installed canon of Westminster. On 13 July 1554 he was made provost of Eton College (, Alumni Eton. 7), and seven days afterwards the university of Oxford granted him the degrees of B.D. and D.D. without any exercise for the same.

Queen Mary privately gave Cole instructions to prepare a sermon to be preached at the burning of Archbishop Cranmer at Oxford. On 21 March 1555-6 Cranmer was brought to St. Mary's Church and placed on a low scaffold opposite the pulpit. Cole then began to deliver his sermon, the chief scope of which was a justification of putting the archbishop to death, notwithstanding his recantation. The preacher in concluding his discourse exhorted Cranmer not to despair, and, as an encouragement to hope for eternal salvation, alluded to the example of the penitent thief upon the cross. Cranmer had had no previous direct intimation of his intended execution. Cole has been severely censured for this uncharitable sermon, a sketch of which, written from memory by one of the auditory, is printed by Foxe and Strype (Memorials of Cranmer, 385 folio).

In July 1556 he was one of Cardinal Pole's delegates for the visitation of the university of Oxford, and on 11 Dec. he became dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, on the removal of Feckenham to Westminster. About this time he resigned the archdeaconry of Ely. His name occurs in the special commission against heresy issued 8 Feb. 1556-7, and on the 16th of the same month he was incorporated in the degree of D.D. at Cambridge, being then one of Cardinal Pole's delegates appointed to visit that university, with a view to the more complete re-establishment of the catholic religion. In this capacity he was present at the burning of the bodies of Bucer and Fagius (, Annals of Cambridge, ii. 112-15, 119-22, 125, 126).

On 28 Aug. 1557 Cardinal Pole appointed him his vicar-general in spirituals, on 1 Oct. the same year he became official of the arches and dean of the peculiars ; and in November hewas constituted judge of the archiepiscopal court of audience (Lansdowne MS. 981, f. 153 ;, Eccl. Memorials, iii. 390, 391 folio). Cardinal Pole collated him on 6 July 1558 to the rectory of Wrotham, Kent, and on the 20th of the same month commissioned him to visit All Souls' College, Oxford, ' but the said Dr. Cole, whether by resignation or otherwise under some cloud with the cardinal, was this year divested of the spiritual offices conferred on him the last' (ib. 453). Soon afterwards he was sent to Ireland with a commission for the suppression of heresy. On his journey he stayed at Chester, where he was entertained by the mayor. The mayor's wife being a protestant, and suspecting his errand, opened the box containing the commission, which she abstracted, substituting for it a package of similar bulk and weight. Cole landed at Dublin on 7 Oct. 1558, and announced the object of his mission at a meeting of the privy council, whereupon Lord Fitzwalter, the lord deputy, handed the box to the secretary, who opened it, expecting of course to find the commission enclosed. Great was the consternation when it was discovered that it contained only a pack of cards with the knave of clubs uppermost. The lord deputy said 'Let us have another commission, and we will meanwhile shuffle the cards' (Life of Abp. Browne, ed. 1661, p. 17). Cole hurried back to England, and obtained another commission, but while he was staying for a wind at the waterside the news reached him that