Thomas Harding (1516–1572)

Thomas Harding (1516 at Combe Martin, Devon[2] – September 1572 at Leuven) was an English Roman Catholic priest and controversialist.

[3] He went to New College, Oxford, in 1534, was admitted a Fellow in 1536, and took his master's degree in 1542, in which year he was appointed Regius Professor of Hebrew by Henry VIII.

He at first embraced the Reformed opinions, but on the accession of Mary he declared himself a Catholic, despite the upbraidings of his friend Lady Jane Grey.

Harding retorted with "A Detection of Sundrie Foule Errours, Lies, Sclaunders, corruptions, and other false Dealinges, touching Doctrine and other matters uttered and practized by M. Jewel" (Louvain, 1568).

In 1566, Pope Pius V appointed Harding and Nicholas Sanders as Apostolic delegates to England, with special powers of giving faculties to priests and of forbidding Catholics to frequent Protestant services.