Stokesley was born at Collyweston in Northamptonshire, and became a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1495, serving also as a lecturer.
[1] In 1529 and 1530 he went to France and Italy as ambassador to Francis I and to gain opinions from foreign universities in favour of the king's divorce from Catherine of Aragon.
[3][1] His later years were troubled by disputes with Archbishop Cranmer; Stokesley opposed all changes in the doctrines of the church,[4] remaining hostile to the English Bible and fought to maintain all seven traditional sacraments, shrines and pilgrimages.
[1] In May 1538, the King's attorney took out a writ of Praemunire against Stokesley and, as accessories with him, against the Abbess Agnes Jordan and the Confessor-General of Syon Abbey.
Stokesley acknowledged his guilt, implored Thomas Cromwell's intercession, and threw himself on the King's mercy.