[2] He was appointed Bishop of Oxford on the accession of James I of England, and took part in the Hampton Court Conference, in 1604.
[2][3] A Defence of the Government Established in the Church of England for Ecclesiastical Matters (1587) was a controversial work, expanded to 1400 pages from a Paul's Cross sermon, aimed at the theories of church polity of Thomas Cartwright, Laurence Chaderton and Walter Travers in defence of the current Church of England settlement.
[2][4][5][6] He was formerly considered a possible author of Gammer Gurton's Needle, now attributed to William Stevenson.
[7] He is known to have coined the phrase, "a fool and his money are soon parted," originally written in the 1587 Defence treatise.
If they pay a penie or two pence more for the reddinesse of them..let them looke to that, a foole and his money is soone parted.