He was born in Warwickshire, at Coventry, but at an early age entered Magdalen College School, Oxford, where he was for some time a pupil of John Harley, afterwards Bishop of Hereford.
On the accession of Mary Palmer was restored to his fellowship, but a perusal of Calvin's ‘Institutes’ began to unsettle his religious opinions, and his orthodoxy was further shaken by reading Peter Martyr's ‘Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians’ and by witnessing the execution of Ridley and Latimer, which he strongly denounced.
He now became as vehement a Protestant as he had before been Roman Catholic, absented himself from mass, and made a point of walking out whenever obnoxious ceremonies occurred in the church service.
He was not long left in peace, for his study was searched by some of his enemies, and various anti-Roman catholic manuscripts discovered, including a poem called ‘Epicedium,’ written in answer to an epitaph on Gardiner by Peter Morwen.
He now apparently obtained letters from the president of Magdalen, Arthur Cole, recommending him for a mastership in a school in Gloucestershire; but an incautious visit to Reading to secure his manuscripts and arrears of pay led to his arrest.