{{short description|Master of University College, Oxford}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Thomas Caius''' (aka '''Thomas Key''',<ref name="boarse1887">{{cite book| last=Boarse | first=C. W. | title=Oxford | series=Historic Towns | editor-first1=E. A. | editor-last1=Freeman | editor-first2=W. | editor-last2=Hunt | publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co. | location=London | year=1887 | chapter=The Renaissance and the Reformation | pages=127–128 }}</ref> died in Oxford, May 1572) was an Oxford academic and administrator. He was Fellow and Master of University College, Oxford.<ref>{{cite book| last=Carr | first=William | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hzBc2Ur_9YIC&q=Thomas+Caius | title=University College | publisher=Routledge | year=1998 | isbn=978-0-415-18632-2 | chapter=VI: The Sixteenth Century | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hzBc2Ur_9YIC&q=Thomas+Caius&pg=PA74 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last=Darwall-Smith | first=Robin | title=A History of University College, Oxford | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2008 | isbn=978-0-19-928429-0 | chapter=Thomas Caius | pages=104–108 }}</ref>
Caius was Registrar of the University of Oxford from 1535 to 1552. He was rejected as Master of University College in 1552, but was elected in 1561. In 1560, he was appointed a prebendary of Salisbury Cathedral. In 1563, he became Rector of Tredington in Worcestershire.
Thomas Caius was interested in the history of Oxford. He wrote a treatise entitled ''An Assertion of the Antiquity of Oxford University'', strengthening the claim that King Alfred founded University College in particular and Oxford University in general.<ref name="boarse1887" /> This was prompted by a visit of Queen Elizabeth I to Cambridge in 1564, when she heard speeches on the age of the University there. In 1568, John Caius (no relation of Thomas), the refounder and Master of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, wrote a long rebuttal entitled ''On the Antiquity of the University of Cambridge''.
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{{start box}} {{s-aca}} {{succession box | title=Master of University College, Oxford | years=1561–1572 | before=James Dugdale | after=William James }} {{end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Caius, Thomas}} Category:Year of birth missing Category:1572 deaths Category:16th-century English educators Category:16th-century English Anglican priests Category:16th-century English historians Category:English male non-fiction writers Category:16th-century English male writers Category:Fellows of University College, Oxford Category:Masters of University College, Oxford Category:Registrars of the University of Oxford
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