He came to England in the period 1567-70 and settled there. Having behind him the influence of
William Cecil, he held positions as pastor of the Spanish church in London, 1568–70, and lecturer at the
Temple Church, 1571–4. Later
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester was an important patron. In England, del Corro moved away from Calvinism to more tolerant and even free-thinking positions to become a controversialist. It has been suggested that his qualified acceptance stemmed from political expediency. At the Temple Church, he showed the influence of the
Lutheran theologian
Hemmingius in his preaching. He retreated from the Calvinist view of
predestination. That shift brought him under criticism from
Richard Alvey,
Master of the Temple. Controversy over his views followed him to Oxford, where he did tutoring and catechism work (at
Hart Hall, also at
Oriel College and
St John's College In Oxford, his pupils included
John Donne and
Thomas Belson, a Catholic martyr.
The Spanish Grammar (1590) was an English translation by
John Thorie of a grammar written by del Corro to teach Spanish to French speakers, and published in Oxford in 1586. In his recent work "Silence: A Christian History", Diarmaid MacCulloch has drawn attention (pp 170,287) to "The Life and Works of Antonion del Corro, 1527-91", an unpublished PhD thesis by W.McFadden and to a published work, much indebted to McFadden but with additional material, "Protestant Reformers in Elizabethan Oxford", Oxford 1983, pp 119–122. MacCulloch notes that del Corro made "cautious and unmistakable statements of Unitarianism" but still ended his days "in comfort as a prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral in London". ==Notes==