THOMAS, bishop of Litchfield and Coventry, was born at Shirburn in Yorkshire in the year 1513, and educated in Magdalene college, Oxford. He took the degree of bachelor of arts in 1543, and in 1546 was admitted perpetual fellow, and proceeded master of arts the year following, which was that of Edward VI's accession to the crown. He now threw off the mask of Popery, which during the equivocal reign of Henry VIII. he had worn with reluctance. When Mary came to the crown, being deprived of his fellowship by her visitors, he prudently retired to Basle in Switzerland, where for some time he expounded the Scriptures to the English exiles in that city; but, being solicited by some Protestants in London, he returned to London before the death of the queen, and was appointed superintendent of a private congregation in the city. Immediately on the accession of Elizabeth, Bentham was preferred in the church, and in the second year of her reign was consecrated bishop of Litchfield and Coventry. He died at Eccleshall in Staffordshire in 1570, aged 65. He was buried in the chancel of the church there; and a monument was erected, with the effigy of himself, his wife, and four children, with the following inscription:

Hac jacet in tumba Benthamus, episcopus ille Doctus, divinus, largus, pofiens, pius, almus. Ob. 19. Feb. 1578.

Bishop Bentham had the character of a pious and zealous reformer, and was particularly celebrated for his knowledge of the Hebrew language. His works are, 1. Exposition of the Acts of the Apostles; manuscript. 2. A Sermon on Christ's Temptation; Lond. 8vo. 3. Epistle to M. Parker; manuscript. 4. The Psalms, Ezekiel, and Daniel, translated into English in Queen Elizabeth's Bible.