STAPLETON, THOMAS. - Catholic controversialist, born at Hensfield (Sussex) in July 1535, died at Louvain on 12 Oct. 1598. A bachelor at Oxford (Dec. 1556), he obtained a prebend in Chichester Cathedral; when Elizabeth ascended the throne, he continued his studies at Louvain, in Paris and, after a journey to Rome, again at Louvain.
Having returned to England, because he had not abjured Catholicism he lost his benefice, and in 1563 emigrated with his father and some relatives to Louvain. He was subsequently (1569) at the English College of Douai (doctor, 1571); he spent the winter and spring of 1576–77 in Rome; in 1584 he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus, but had to withdraw because of ill health; in 1590 he succeeded M. Baio in the chair of Sacred Scripture at Louvain. In 1596, summoned by Clement VIII to Rome as apostolic protonotary, he did not leave, both because (as was said) powerful political influences, fearing his appointment as cardinal, obstructed his departure, and for other reasons.
He is of particular interest as an advocate of the authority of the Roman Pontiff, alongside Bellarmino; even his Anglican opponents acknowledged his profound learning. Pius V made use of information supplied by him for the bull Regnans in excelsis (1570), in which he condemned Elizabeth. His numerous writings are collected in the Opera Omnia (4 vols., Paris 1624), together with an autobiography in hexameters and a Vita of him, by H. Holland.