His uncle Thomas Rainolds held the living of Pinhoe from 1530 to 1537, and was subsequently Warden of Merton College, Oxford, and Dean of Exeter.

John Rainolds appears to have entered the University of Oxford originally at Merton, but on 29 April 1563 he was elected to a scholarship at Corpus Christi College, where two of his brothers, Hierome and Edmond, were already fellows.

[5] In the early 1580s, in the aftermath of Edmund Campion's strenuous defence of Catholic principles, Francis Walsingham sent the Jesuit John Hart to Rainolds for an extended discussion.

[6] Unable to agree with the president of Corpus, William Cole, Rainolds then gave up his fellowship in 1586, and became a tutor at Queen's College.

[7] By this time he had acquired a considerable reputation as a disputant on the Puritan side, and the story goes that Elizabeth I visiting the university in 1592 "schooled him for his obstinate preciseness, willing him to follow her laws, and not run before them.

[1] The chief events of his subsequent career were his share in the Hampton Court Conference, where he was the most prominent representative of the Puritan party and received a good deal of favour from the King.

Despite being afflicted by failing eyesight and gout, Rainolds continued the work of translation to the end of his life, even being carried into the meeting room.

[1] On his deathbed he earnestly desired absolution according to the form of the Church of England, and received it from Dr. Thomas Holland (translator), whose hand he affectionately kissed.