Educated at Wykeham's School, then New College, Oxford, before becoming ordained as a Catholic priest in Rome.
After living in Madrid for several years, he travelled to Ireland in 1579 to help ferment opposition to the Anglican Elizabeth I of England.
Best known for his unsubstantiated claims about Anne Boleyn, which were reworked and published after his death (De origine et progressu schismatis Anglicani, 1585). He was the first to claim in print that Anne was deformed, giving her the features of a witch. There is no contemporary evidence to support such allegations, and they are believed to be entirely fictitious.