Durham (cf. Surtees, Durham, i. 233; other branches were settled in London, cf. Visit. London, Harl. Soc.) He became a lay brother of the Greyfriars, and was educated at Oxford at Henxey or Hincksey Hall, whence he graduated B.C.L. on 8 May 1531. When in 1535 Henry VIII's commissioners established a civil law lecture at Oxford, Story, as ‘a most noted civilian and canonist of his time,’ was appointed to the post. In 1537 he was elected principal of Broadgates Hall, afterwards Pembroke College, but resigned the post in 1539. On 29 July 1538 he graduated D.C.L. (Reg. Univ. Oxon. i. 164), and in the following year he was admitted an advocate of Doctors' Commons. In 1544 he is said to have ‘performed excellent service at the siege of Bologne in Picardie in the administration of the civil law under the lord marshal there;’ but he must be distinguished from the John Story, a knight of the order of St. John (Letters and Papers, vols. xi–xiv. passim), and also from the ‘Captain Story’ who was killed at Bologne in 1546 (State Papers, xi. 4). As a reward for his services he received a fresh patent for his office at Oxford, and, dating from this time, he is reckoned as the first regius professor of civil law at the university (cf. Le Neve, iii. 511).
Story is one of the instances selected by Nicholas Sanders (De Origine ac Progressu Schismatis, ed. 1877, p. 200) to illustrate the persecution of Roman catholics under Edward VI. He recanted his romanist opinions in the first few months of the reign, and on 19 Nov. 1548 the council ordered the continuance of his salary as reader in civil law at Oxford and the payment of his arrears (Acts P.C. ed. Dasent, ii. 229). He sat for Hindon, Wiltshire, in the parliament which met in November 1547. During its second session, in November 1548, he created a sensation by his vigorous opposition to the act of uniformity, and by exclaiming, ‘Woe unto the land whose king is a child!’ For this conduct the house ordered his imprisonment on 21 Nov. and drew up articles of accusation against him. Story remained in the Tower until 2 March 1548–9, when, having made his submission, the house ordered his release. This is the first recorded instance of the House of Commons punishing one of its own members (Hallam, i. 271). Story now retired to Louvain, where he remained until Mary's accession, spending a large portion of his time, it is said, in prayer and meditation with the Carthusians of that town. On 21 Feb. 1549–50 he made over to Sir William Herbert (afterwards first Earl of Pembroke) [q. v.] a lease of the prebend of Tottenhall in St. Paul's Cathedral (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1547–81). In 1552 he was excepted from Edward VI's pardon.
Story returned to England about August 1553, and his patent as regius professor was renewed. He resigned it, however, before the end of the year to William Aubrey [q. v.], to become chancellor of the dioceses of London and Oxford and dean of arches. As chancellor to Bonner, Story became a bitter persecutor of the protestants; he was the most active of all the queen's agents in bringing heretics to trial and the stake, and Foxe, who gives many instances of his cruelty, pronounces him even worse than Bonner (Actes and Mon. ed. Townsend, passim, esp. viii. 743–5). In 1555 Story was appointed queen's proctor for the trial of Cranmer (Strype, Cranmer, pp. 534–5 et seqq.), and in February 1556–7 he was placed on a commission to discover a ‘severer way of dealing with heretics’ (Burnet, ed. Pocock, ii. 556). Nevertheless in parliament (where he represented East Grinstead 25 Sept. 1553; Bramber, March 1553–4; and Ludgershall, 6 Oct. 1555) he opposed, on 20 Nov. 1555, the admission of papal licenses into England; the commons reported this offence to the queen, but Story, on expressing regret, was pardoned in consideration of his zeal for religion (Commons' Journals, i. 44–5).
On Elizabeth's accession, however, Story took the oath renouncing all foreign jurisdictions, and was not for the time molested. He was returned to parliament for Downton, Wiltshire, on 17 Jan. 1558–9, but soon fell once more under the displeasure of the House of Commons. On 23 March it was reported to the house that he had appeared before the lords as counsel for Richard White (d. 1584) [q. v.], bishop of Winchester, though a bill depriving the bishop had already passed the commons. Story again acknowledged his fault, and escaped with a reprimand from the speaker. In the same session he made a speech glorying in what he had done in Mary's reign, and regretting only that they had ‘laboured only about the young and little twigs, whereas they should have struck at the root’ (Strype, Annals, I. i. 115). On 20 May 1560 he was sent to the Fleet prison (ib. p. 220), but seems to have been again at liberty soon afterwards. In April 1563 he was arrested in his barrister's robes in the west of England and imprisoned in the Marshalsea (Parkhurst to Bullinger, 31 May, Zurich Letters); before the end of the month a commission was issued for his trial (Cal. Simancas Papers, i. 322–3). Story, how-
