Foster: son of a blacksmith, B.A. from Merton Coll. 5 April, 1527, fellow 1528, M.A. 15 July, 1530, "scriba" or registrar of the university 1532-5, B.D. 13 May, 1536, D.D. 10 July, 1536, vice-chancellor 1555; one of the most celebrated scholars and theologians of the Reformation age, rector of Cuxham, Oxon, principal of St. Alban Hall 1536, prælector of theology at Magdalen Coll., regius professor of divinity 1535-48, 1554-6, 1559-60, and canon of Christ Church 1554, master of Whittington College, London, 1537, canon of St. Paul's, rector of St. Dunstan's-in-the-East, resigned 1557, of St. Michael Royal, London, 1537, adopted the principles of the Reformers and recanted at St. Paul's Cross 15 May, 1547, retired to St. Andrews and afterwards to Louvain, where he became professor of theology, chaplain to Q. Mary, preached at the stake before Ridley and Latimer, lost all his preferments on the accession of Q. Elizabeth, fled to Douay, where he died 9 July, 1563. See Ath. i. 333; O.H.S. iv. 254; & Lansdowne MS. 981, f. 19.
SEE OXFORD DNB: Richard Smyth (1499/1500-1563), theologian.