Alexander Nowell

, the second Son of John Nowell of Great Meerley in Lancashire, was born in that County in 1511. and at 13 years of age became a Commoner of Brasmose college, where profiting much in Grammar, Logick, and Philosophy, took the degree of Bach. of Arts in 1536. He was afterwards Fellow of that house, Master of Arts, and grew very famous for Religion and Learning. In the Reign of Ed. 6. and perhaps before, he taught School at Westminster, where he very zealously trained the Youth up in Protestant principles; but when Q. Mary began to Reign, he, among other Divines, much averse to the R. Cath. Religion, did leave the Kingdom. for Conscience sake, and lived, as opportunity served, in Germany. Upon the coming of Q. Elizabeth to the Crown, he returned, and was made the first Canon of the seventh Stall in the collegiate Church of St. Peter in Westminster, an. 1560. and soon after about the beginning of the year 1561. he was made Dean of St. Pauls Cathedral in the place of Will. May, L. L. D. Master of Trin. coll. in Cambr. (the same, who in 1549. had a hand in compiling the first Edition of the Common Prayer, and in correcting the the third Edit. in 1559.) So that Nowell, being settled in the Deanry of Pauls, resigned Westminster, and afterwards became a frequent and painful Preacher, and a zealous writer against certain English Catholicks that had fled their Country upon account of Religion. For 30 years together he Preached the first and last Sermons in the time of Lent before the Queen, wherein he dealt plainly and faithfully with her, without dislike. In 1594. Apr. 28. he was installed Canon of Windsor, in the place of Rich. Reve Bach. of Div. deceased, in the year after, Sept. 6. he was elected Principal of Brasnose coll. and in oct. following he was actually created D. of Divinity, with allowance of Seniority over all the Doctors then in the University, not only in regard had to his age, but Dignity in the Church. He was, in the time he lived, a learned Man, charitable to the poor, especially if they had any thing of a Scholar in them, and a great comforter of afflicted Consciences. His Works are,

A reproof of a book intit. A proof of certain Articles in Religion, denied by Master Jewel, set forth by Tho. Dorman Bach. of Div. Lond. 1565. qu.

Reproof of Mr. Dormans proof continued, with a defence of the chief authority of Princes, as well in causes Ecclesiastical, as Civil, within their Dominions, by Mr. Dorman maliciously impugned. Lond. 1566. qu.

Confutation as well of Mr. Dormons last book intit. A defence, &c. as also of Dr. Saunder’s Causes of Transubstantiation. Lond. 1567. qu.

Catechismus, sive prima institutio disciplinaque pietatis Chistianae, Latinè explicata. Lond. 1570, 71, 74, 76. qu. There again 1590. 1603. &c. oct. Translated into English by Tho. Norten, Lond. 1571. and into Greek by Will. Whittaker, an. 1575. &c.

Catechismus parvus pueris primum, qui ediscatur, proponendus in Scholis. Lond. 1574. 78. oct. &c. Written in Lat. and Greek. Translated also into English by another person.—Lond. 1587. oct. &c. and into Hebrew by Anon; but this last I have not yet seen.

Conference had with Edm. Campian Jesuit, in the Tower of London, ult. Aug. 1581. Lond. 1583. qu. See more in Joh. Redman under the year 1551. This reverend Dr. Nowell died in a good old age, on the 13. Feb. in sixteen hundred and one,1601-02. and was buried in the Chappel of the Virgin Mary within the Cathedral of St. Paul. Soon after was a comely Monument set over his Grave, with an inscription thereon in Prose and Verse, a copy of which you may see in Jo. Stow’s Survey of London, and elsewhere: And of his benefaction to Brasnose coll. and other matters you may read in Hist. & Antiq. Vniv. Ox. lib. 2. p. 214. b. 225. b. In his Deanty of St. Paul succeeded Joh. Overhall, the King’s Professor of Div. in Cambridge, a general learned Scholar, preferred to it by the commendations (to the Queen) of Sir Fulk Grevill his Patron.