Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/156

 highly that he wrote to the lord treasurer requesting him to recommend to the queen's council that orders should be given to have a copy placed in every parish church, ‘for that the more simple the doctrine was to the people, the sooner might they be edified, and in an obedience reposed’ (, Parker). Other works of his during his occupation of the see of Lincoln were ‘A True and Perfect Copy of a Godly Sermon preached in the Minster at Lincoln 28 Aug. 1575, on Matt. xvi. 26, 27;’ ‘Articles to be enquired of within the Diocese of Lincoln in the Visitation,’ 1574; ‘Injunction to be observed throughout the Diocese,’ 1577; and ‘Certain Sermons wherein is contained the Defence of the Gospel against cavils and false accusations … by the friends and favourers of the Church of Rome,’ 1580. There are twelve of these sermons, on Rom. i. 16; Matt. vii. 15, 16; 1 Cor. x. 1, 3, 5; Matt. xiii. 3, 5; John viii. 46.

In 1584, on the death of Bishop Watson, he was translated to Winchester, which he held for ten years, ‘where,’ says Wood, ‘as in most parts of the nation, he became much noted for his learning and sanctity of life.’ Godwin agrees with this opinion, ‘a man from whose praises I can hardly temper my pen.’ Winchester had been notoriously so rich a see, that a witticism of Bishop Edyngdon had been constantly quoted to the effect that ‘Canterbury had the highest rack, but Winchester had the deepest manger.’ It was repeated to Cooper, who replied that he found that much of the provender had been swept out of the manger—a reference to recent confiscation of church property. On his appointment to this see he issued as visitor certain injunctions to the president and fellows of Magdalen, in which he lamented the infrequency of the administration of holy communion, and ordered that it should be celebrated on the first Sunday in every month, and received by as many members of the society as possible. Remarking on the negligent manner in which the public services of the chapel were performed on Sundays and at other times, he ordered that if any fellow, demy, chaplain, or clerk came late, went early, or misbehaved himself, he should be admonished and punished by the president, vice-president, and dean.

He had not been long in his new see before he was again in controversy, and with a formidable adversary, namely ‘Martin Marprelate.’ Under this name appeared in 1588–1589 a series of seven tracts, attacking the English prelacy with coarse wit and invective. Several answers appeared of the same tone and character, in rhyme and in prose. Cooper also replied, but with such gravity as became his position, in his ‘Admonition to the People of England, wherein are answered not only the slanderous untruths reproachfully uttered by Martin the Libeller, but also many other crimes by some of the brood, objected generally against all Bishops and the chief of the Clergy purposely to deface and discredit the present state of the church,’ 1589. It was published anonymously, but with the initials T. C. at the end of the preface. There is no question of its being Cooper's. Martin retorted in a pamphlet entitled, ‘Ha' ye any work for the Cooper?’

A few manuscripts by Bishop Cooper are in existence. A Latin address of congratulation from the university of Oxford to Queen Elizabeth on her visit to the Earl of Leicester, the chancellor of the university, delivered before her by Cooper himself, is at C. C. C. A document at Corpus Christi, Cambridge, is entitled ‘Thomæ Cooperi Christiana cum fratribus consultatio, utrum pii verbi ministri præscriptam a magistratibus vestium rationem suscipere et liquido possint et jure debeant.’ And there is a book of ordinances and decrees drawn up for Magdalen College, Oxford, by Cooper as visitor in 1585. In the Record Office are also some autographs, one of much interest to local historians, concerning the musters of his diocese, addressed to the Earl of Essex, lord-lieutenant of Hampshire.

Bishop Milner, the Roman catholic historian of Winchester, charges Cooper with the establishment of a cruel persecution of his co-religionists in Hampshire. But this is somewhat hard on Cooper. The increase of persecution was owing to the new act of 1581, and Cooper's appointment to Winchester synchronises with the beginning of hostilities with Spain. Milner, after naming some priests who perished as traitors at Winchester, gives, on the authority of a manuscript by one Stanney, of St. Omer, details of the execution of five laymen. But a letter of Bishop Cooper is in the Record Office in which he recommends ‘that an hundred or two of obstinate recusants, lusty men, well able to labour, might by some convenient commission be taken up and sent to Flanders as pioneers and labourers, whereby the country would be disburdened of a company of dangerous people, and the rest that remained be put in some fear.’ A return made in 1582 states the number of recusants in Hampshire as 132, more than in any county except York and Lancashire, which have 327 and 428 respectively.

Cooper seems also to have exerted himself,