THOMAS, bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, was born at Sherbourn, in Yorkshire, in the year 1518, and educated in Magdalen College, Oxford. He took the degree of bachelor of arts in 1543; in 1546 was admitted perpetual fellow, and proceeded master of arts the following year, which was that of Edward VI's accession to the crown. He now threw off the mask of poverty, which, during the equivocal reign of Henry VIII, he had worn with reluctance. On the accession of Mary he was deprived of his fellowship by her visitors, and prudently retired to Basel in Switzerland, where for some time he expounded the Scriptures to the English exiles in that city; but, having been solicited by some Protestants in London, he returned 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 Lichfield and Coventry. He died at Eccleshall in Staffordshire in 1578, aged sixty-five, and was buried in the chancel of the church there. 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, London, 8vo; 3. Epistle to M. Parker, manuscript; 4. The Psalms, Ezekiel, and Daniel, translated into English in Queen Elizabeth's Bible.