John, dean of St Paul's, the son of Henry Colet, knight, was born in London in the year 1466. His education commenced in St Anthony's school in that city, whence, in 1483, he was sent to Oxford, and probably to Magdalen College. After seven years study of logic and philosophy, he took his degrees in arts. About the year 1493, Mr Colet went to Paris, and thence to Italy, proba- bly with the design of improving himself in the Greek and Latin languages, which at that time were imperfectly taught in our universities. On his return to England in 1497, he took orders, and returned to Oxford, where he read lectures gratis on the epistles of St Paul. At this period he possessed the rectory of St Dennington in Suf- folk, to which indeed he had been instituted at the age of nineteen; and he was also prebendary of York, and canon of St Martin's le Grand in London. In 1502 he became prebendary of Sarum, in 1505 prebendary of St Paul's, and immediately after dean of that cathedral, having pre- viously taken the degree of doctor in divinity. He was no sooner raised to this dignity than he introduced the practice of preaching and expounding the Scriptures; and soon afterwards established a perpetual divinity lec- ture, three days every week, in St Paul's Church; an insti- tution which gradually made way for the Reformation. About the year 1508, Dean Colet formed his plan for the foundation of St Paul's school, which he completed in 1512, and endowed with estates to the amount of L122 and upwards. The celebrated grammarian William Lyle was the first master, and the company of mercers were appointed trustees. The dean's notions of religion were so much more rational than those of the contemporary clergy, that they deemed him little better than a heretic; and on this account he was so frequently molested that he at last determined to spend the rest of his days in peaceful retirement. With such intention he built a house near the palace of Richmond; but being seized with the sweating sickness, he died in 1519, in the fifty-third year of his age, and was buried on the south side of the choir of St Paul's, where a stone was laid over his grave, with no other inscription than his name. Besides the preferments above mentioned, he was rector of the guild of Jesus at St Paul's, and chaplain to King Henry VIII. Dean Colet, though a Catholic, was an enemy to the gross superstitions of the church of Rome. He disapproved of auricular con- fession, the celibacy of priests, and such other tenets and ceremonies as have since been condemned by all protestant dissenters from the church of Rome. He wrote, 1. Abso- lutissimus de octo Orationis partium constructiones Libellus, Antwerp, 1530, 8vo; 2. Rudimenta Grammaticae, London, 1539, 8vo; 3. Daily Devotions; 4. Epistolae ad Brasum; 5. Commentaries on different parts of the sacred books, and a number of works on theology.