[1] In 1563, being in England, he was summoned by the Anglican bishop William Barlow to repudiate the pope's authority, but refused and was deprived of the prebend of Woodhorne in Chichester Cathedral, conferred on him in 1558.

Meanwhile, his fame as a theologian had spread to Rome and Pope Clement VIII thought so much of his theological writings that he caused them to be read aloud at his table.

It was generally believed that he would be created cardinal, a suggestion which was disapproved of by Alfonso Agazzari, S.J., rector of the English College, and obstacles were put in the way of his journey to Rome (Eley, "Certaine Briefe Notes", p. 254).

All his works were republished in four folio volumes in Paris in 1620, with an autobiography of the author in Latin verse and Henry Holland's "Vita Thomæ Stapletoni".

A critical, annotated edition of Stapleton's correspondence with the Flemish printer Jan Moretus was published in Humanistica Lovaniensia in 1996.