Colet, JOHN, born in London about 1467, was the eldest son of a family of twenty-two. His father, Sir Henry Colet, was twice Lord Mayor of London. Colet studied at Oxford with the view of entering the church, and about 1493 made a prolonged visit to the Continent, travelling through France into Italy. While in Italy he became acquainted with the views of Savonarola, which subsequent study and experience led him to regard with increasing approval. Having returned to England in 1496, and been ordained priest, he delivered at Oxford a series of lectures on the Epistles of St Paul, which attracted great attention, his principles of interpretation being at every point opposed to those of the scholastic theologians. In 1498 Erasmus came to Oxford, and it is one of Colet's chief claims to remembrance that he powerfully influenced that scholar's opinions on the proper methods of Scripture interpretation and on the value of the scholastic philosophy. In 1505 Colet was made Dean of St Paul's, London, and in this office still continued to deliver lectures on different books of Scripture, which gave rise to much diversity of opinion. With the large fortune he inherited on the death of his father, Colet founded St Paul's School (q.v.). At this school 153 scholars were received, whose education was conducted in a spirit far in advance of the time. On account of Colet's vigorous denunciation of the ignorance and corruption of the clergy, charges of heresy were brought against him, but Archbishop Warham refused to support them. Colet also spoke out strongly against the French wars of Henry VIII., who, nevertheless, always treated him with regard. In 1518, feeling his end approaching, Colet appointed the Mercers' Company of London as managers of his school—a step of decisive importance, as it was the first example of lay management of an educational institution. He died of dropsy, 16th September 1519.
Of late years it has been conclusively shown that Colet was one of the most striking figures of his time in England. He was not a great scholar, and he left no writings that entitle him to remembrance; but by his clear view of the urgent need of reform in the church, and by the intensity of his religious convictions, he gave an impulse to men like Sir Thomas More and Erasmus, which influenced their whole life-work. At the same time, Colet, though an ardent religious reformer, never entertained the thought of a formal rupture with Rome. His foundation of St Paul's School, and the character he gave to that institution, entitles him to an eminent place among educational reformers. See Seebohm's Oxford Reformers (2d ed. 1869), and the Rev. J. H. Lupton's Life of Colet (1887).