16th-century English writers: divines, theologicans, bishops, priests, clergymen

John Addison D.D. (fl. 1538), was an English divine,
Henry Airay (c. 1560 – 6 October 1616), was an Anglican priest, theologian, and academic.
Robert Aldrich or Aldridge (died March 1555) was Bishop of Carlisle in the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary.

• Epistola ad Gwielmum Hormannum
• Epigrammata varia
• Several Resolutions concerning the Sacraments
• Answers to certain Queries concerning the Abuses of the Mass

Oliver Almond was a Roman Catholic priest and writer,and he is conjectured by Gillow to have been the writer of a work entitled, The Uncasing of Heresies, or the Anatomie of Protestancie, written and composed by O.A. (Leuven/Louvain?) 1623, 8vo.

Lancelot Andrewes (1555 – 25 September 1626) was an English bishop and scholar, who held high positions in the Church of England during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. During the latter's reign, Andrewes served successively as Bishop of Chichester, Ely and Winchester and oversaw the translation of the Authorized Version (or King James Version) of the Bible.

John Angel (fl. 1555), chaplain to King Philip and Queen Mary I. He published a work on the Real Presence under the title The Agreement of the Holy Fathers, 1555.

Thomas Archer (1554-1630?), was an English divine.
Richard Argentine alias Sexten, M.D, (died 1568), was an English physician and divine.

• Certeyne Preceptes, gathered by Hulricus Zuinglius, declaring howe the ingenious youth ought to be instructed and brought unto Christ, Ipswich, 1548, 8vo; a translation from the Latin.
• A ryght notable Sermon made by Doctor Martyn Luther upon the twentieth chapter of Johan of absolution and the true use of the keyes, full of great comforte, Ipswich, 1548, 8vo; a translation,
• Sermons of the ryght famous and excellent clerke Master Bernardine Ochine, Ipswich, 1548, 8vo; a translation.
• De Præstigiis et Incantationibus Dæmonum et Necromanticorum, Bâle, 1568, 8vo.
• Ad Oxonienses et Cantabrigienses pro lingua Arabica beneficio principum restituenda; MS. in the Bodleian library.
• Observations about Rome and the popes.

Thomas Arthur (died 1532) was an English divine and dramatist.

• Microcosmus, a tragedy. 
• Mundus plumbeus, a tragedy. 
• In quosdam Psalmos. 
• Homeliæ Christianæ. 
• a translation of Erasmus, De Milite Christiano.

John Bale (21 November 1495 – November 1563) was an English churchman, historian and controversialist, and Bishop of Ossory. He wrote the oldest known historical verse drama in English (on the subject of King John), and developed and published a very extensive list of the works of British authors down to his own time, just as the monastic libraries were being dispersed.

• Kynge Johan (c.1538)
• Illustrium majoris Britanniae scriptorum, hoc est, Angliae, Cambriae, ac Scotiae Summarium... ("A Summary of the Famous Writers of Great Britain, that is, of England, Wales and Scotland") published at Ipswich and Wesel for John Overton in 1548 and 1549.
• The Image of Both Churches was published by John Bale in 154

Robert Bale  (died 1503), was an English Carmelite friar and scholar.

• Annales Ordinis Carmelitarum (Bod. Arch. Seld. B. 72).
• Historia Heliæ Prophetæ
• Officium Simonis Angli (i.e. of St. Simon Stock, the first English Carmelite friar and a major figure in the establishment of the Carmelite Order).

James Balmford (1556–after 1623) was an English clergyman.

• 1594 Short and Plaine Dialogue concerning the unlawfulness of playing at cards.
• 1603 A Short Dialogue concerning the Plagues Infection.
• 1607 Carpenter's Chippes, or Simple Tokens of unfeined good will to the Christian friends of J. B., the poor Carpenter's sonne.
• 1607 A Shorte Catechisme summarily comprizing the principal points of the Christian faith

George Bancroft (died 1573?) was an English clergyman and translator.

Thomas Barbar  (fl. 1587), was an English divine.He is probably the author of a translation of Fr. du Jou's ‘Exposition of the Apocalypse’ (Cambridge, 1596), and of a ‘Dialogue between the Penitent Sinner and Sathan’ (London, without date).

John Barthlet or Bartlett (fl. 1566), was an English theological writer. In 1566 he published a work entitled the ‘Pedegrewe [Pedigree] of Heretiques, wherein is truely and plainely set out the first roote of Heretiques began in the Church since the time and passage of the Gospel, together with an example of the offspring of the same. London, by Henry Denham for Lucas Harryson.’

Paul Baynes (Bayne, Baines) (c.1573–1617) was an English clergyman. Described as a “radical Puritan”, he was unpublished in his lifetime, but more than a dozen works were put out in the five years after he died.

• A Counterbane against Earthly Carefulnes (1619)
• The Diocesans Tryall (1621)

John Bekinsau (1496?–1559) was an English classical scholar and theologian. His only extant work is a treatise De supremo et absoluto Regis imperio (London, 1546), republished in Melchior Goldast's Monarchia in 1611; this work is dedicated to Henry VIII.

Thomas Bell (fl. 1573–1610) was an English Roman Catholic priest, and later an anti-Catholic writer.

• ‘Thomas Bels Motives: concerning Romish Faith and Religion,’ Cambridge, 1593; 2nd ed. 1605.
• ‘A Treatise of Usurie,’ Cambridge, 1594.
• ‘The Survey of Popery,’ London, 1596.
• ‘Hunting of the Romish Fox,’ 1598. This is entered on the Stationers' Register, 8 April 1598, and Bell himself claims the authorship in his Counterblast. Another work with the same title had been published by William Turner in 1543 (Basle).
• ‘The Anatomie of Popish Tyrannie, wherein is conteyned a Plain Declaration … of the Libels, Letters, Edictes, Pamphlets, and Bookes lately published by the Secular Priests, and English Hispanized Jesuites,’ London, 1603.
• ‘The Golden Balance of Tryall,’ London, 1603, annexed to this is ‘A Counterblast against the Vaine Blast of a Masked Companion, who termeth Himself E. O., but thought to be Robert Parsons, the Trayterous Jesuite.’
• ‘The Downefall of Poperie, proposed by way of challenge to all English Jesuites and … Papists,’ London, 1604 and 1605; reprinted and entitled ‘The Fall of Papistrie’ in 1628. Robert Parsons, Richard Smith, and Francis Walsingham wrote answers to this.
• ‘The Woefull Crie of Rome,’ London, 1605.
• ‘The Popes Funerall: containing an exact and pithy Reply to a pretended Answere of a .. Libell, called the “Forerunner of Bells Downfall.” … Together with his Treatise called the Regiment of the Church,’ London, 1606.
• ‘The Jesuites Ante-past: containing a Reply against a Pretended Aunswere to the Downefall of Poperie,’ London, 1608.
• ‘The Tryall of the New Religion,’ London, 1608.
• ‘A Christian Dialogue between Theophilus, a Deformed Catholike in Rome, and Remigius, a Reformed Catholike in the Church of England,’ 1609.
• ‘The Catholique Triumph: conteyning a reply to the pretended answere of B. C. [i.e. Parsons] lately published against The Tryall of the New Religion,’ London, 1610.

Richard Benese (died 1546), was a canon of the Augustinian priory of Merton.

• 'This boke sheweth the maner of measurynge of all maner of lande, as well of woodlande, as of lande in the felde, newly invented and compyled by Syr Rycharde Benese, chanon of Marton Abbay besyde [L]ondon.' (1547)

Richard Bernard (1568–1641) was an English Puritan clergyman and writer.
Bernard wrote an influential handbook for ministers entitled The Faithfull Shepheard and his practice, which was published in 1607 and 1621. His most popular book was The Isle of Man (1627) which went through 16 printings by 1683.
Robert Bolton (1572 – 16 December 1631) was an English clergyman and academic, noted as a preacher. In his well known book, General directions for a Comfortable Walking with God, Bolton discusses subjects like Idleness, Government of the Tongue, Recreations, Visitations, Sleep, and Marriage. In The Saints Sure and Perpetual Guide, Bolton argued against separation.