Thomas Cooper (or Couper; 29 April 1594) was an English bishop,
lexicographer
Lexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries. It is divided into two separate academic disciplines:
* Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionary, dictionaries.
* The ...
, theologian, and writer.
Life
Cooper was born in
Oxford
Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town.
The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
, England, where he was educated at
Magdalen College
Magdalen College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and one of the strongest academically, se ...
. He became Master of
Magdalen College School and afterwards practised as a physician in Oxford.
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...
was greatly pleased with his ''Thesaurus'', generally known as ''Cooper's Dictionary''; and its author, who had been ordained about 1559, was made
Dean of Christ Church, in 1567.
[ Two years later, on 27 June 1569, he became ]Dean of Gloucester
The Dean of Gloucester is the head (''primus inter pares'': first among equals) and chair of the chapter of canons - the ruling body of Gloucester Cathedral - and senior priest of the Diocese of Gloucester. The dean and chapter are based at Glouce ...
; he was elected Bishop of Lincoln
The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.
The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of Nort ...
on 4 February 1571, consecrated a bishop on 24 February 1571, then translated to Winchester
Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...
on 12 March 1584.
Cooper was a stout controversialist
Polemic ( , ) is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called polemics, which are seen in arguments on controversial to ...
; he defended the practice and precept of the Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
against the Roman Catholics
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
on the one hand and against the Martin Marprelate
Martin Marprelate (sometimes printed as Martin Mar-prelate and Marre–Martin) was the name used by the anonymous author or authors of the seven Marprelate tracts that circulated illegally in England in the years 1588 and 1589. Their principal ...
writings and the Puritans
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...
on the other. He took some part, the exact extent of which is disputed, in the persecution of religious recusant
Recusancy (from ) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation.
The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign of Elizabeth I, and temporarily repea ...
s in his diocese, and died at Winchester
Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...
on 29 April 1594.[
]
Works
Cooper's literary career began in 1548, when he compiled, or rather edited, ''Bibliotheca Eliotae'', a Latin dictionary by Sir Thomas Elyot. In 1549 he published a continuation of Thomas Lanquet's ''Chronicle of the World''. This work, known as ''Cooper's Chronicle'', covers the period from AD 17 to the time of its writing.[ Following Robert Crowley's 1559 altered and updated version of the Chronicle which Cooper denounced, he issued an expanded and updated version in 1560 and 1565 that removed or altered most but not all of Crowley's changes and additions. In 1565 appeared the first edition of his greatest work, ''Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britannicae'', and this was followed by three other editions.][
]John Aubrey
John Aubrey (12 March 1626 – 7 June 1697) was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He was a pioneer archaeologist, who recorded (often for the first time) numerous megalithic and other field monuments in southern England ...
in ''"Brief lives"'', gave the following glimpse into the creation of this dictionary
A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...
:
''Dr. Edward Davenant told me that this learned man had a shrew to his wife, who was irreconcileably angrie with him for sitting-up late at night so, compileing his Dictionarie, (Thesaurus linguae Romanae et Britannicae, Londini, 1584; dedicated to Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, and Chancellor of Oxford). When he had halfe-donne it, she had the opportunity to gett into his studie, tooke all his paines out in her lap, and threw it into the fire, and burnt it. Well, for all that, that good man had so great a zeale for the advancement of learning, that he began it again, and went through with it to that perfection that he hath left it to us, a most usefull worke.''
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
is believed to have used Cooper's ''Thesaurus'' in the creation of his many poems and plays. (Evidence of this comes from a close statistical inspection of Shakespeare's word usage.)
Cooper's ''Admonition against Martin Marprelate'' was reprinted in 1847, and his ''Answer in Defence of the Truth against the Apology of Private Mass'' in 1850.[ (This latter work was answered by the Jesuit controversialist Fr. ]John Rastell
John Rastell (or Rastall) (c. 1475 – 1536) was an English printer, author, member of parliament, and barrister.
Life
Born in Coventry, he is vaguely reported by Anthony à Wood to have been "educated for a time in grammaticals and philosophi ...
in 1565.)
Styles and titles
*–1559: Thomas Cooper Esq.
*1559–1567: ''The Reverend
The Reverend (abbreviated as The Revd, The Rev'd or The Rev) is an honorific style (form of address), style given to certain (primarily Western Christian, Western) Christian clergy and Christian minister, ministers. There are sometimes differen ...
'' Thomas Cooper
*1567–1571: ''The Very Reverend
The Very Reverend (abbreviated as The Very Revd or The Very Rev) is an honorific style (form of address), style given to certain (primarily Western Christian, Western) Christian clergy and Christian minister, ministers.
The definite article "t ...
'' Thomas Cooper
*1571–1594: ''The Right Reverend
The Right Reverend (abbreviated as The Rt Revd or The Rt Rev) is an honorific style (form of address), style given to certain (primarily Western Christian, Western) Christian ministers and members of clergy. It is a variant of the more common st ...
'' Thomas Cooper
References
External links
Pollux
(Specify "Cooper, Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et brittanicae (experimental)")
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Thomas
1510s births
1594 deaths
Clergy from Oxford
People educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford
Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford
Bishops of Lincoln
Bishops of Winchester
Deans of Christ Church, Oxford
Deans of Gloucester
16th-century Church of England bishops
16th-century English writers
16th-century English male writers
English theologians
English lexicographers
16th-century English medical doctors
Schoolteachers from Oxfordshire
Vice-chancellors of the University of Oxford
16th-century English educators
16th-century Anglican theologians
Year of birth uncertain