WILLIAM ALLEN. - Apologist, founder of the seminary at Douai and of the English College in Rome, known as “the cardinal of England,” b. at Rossall (Lancashire) in 1532, d. in Rome on 16 Oct. 1594. At fifteen he entered Oriel College, Oxford, where in 1554 (the year in which Mary Tudor, the legitimate daughter of Henry VIII and a Catholic, ascended the throne) he obtained the doctorate in philosophy and a chair in logic; and having chosen an ecclesiastical career, he also received a canonry in York Cathedral, though he had not yet received any major Orders. The accession of Elizabeth (1558) and the first threatening anti-Catholic measures that immediately followed induced him to leave England and go to the Continent. He took refuge in Louvain (1561); but the following year, under the pretext of restoring his health, he secretly returned to England and went into hiding among his co-religionists. The timidity of Catholics who, out of fear of penal sanctions, submitted to the persecutory laws and rites of the Anglican Church, inflamed his zeal and spurred him to convert them and strengthen them in the faith. The effects were not long in coming and drew the suspicious gaze of the government upon the Catholics of Lancashire and the neighboring counties; an anonymous tract, composed while he was secretly hosted by the Duke of Norfolk but published in Douai: *Certain brief reasons concerning catholic faith* (1564), caused him to be sought by the police and forced him to resume the path of exile, this time to Mechelen (1565), where he was ordained a priest and taught theology for two years in the college of the Benedictines.
After a journey to Rome (1567), he resolved to found in Douai a college for English Catholics who wished to pursue their studies in peace; but this plan soon gave way to a second, namely, to train young priests for the religious salvation of England. With the help of the Pope and King Philip II of Spain, under whose dominion Douai then lay, the college was opened in 1568, and by 1574 it was able to send the first group of priests back to England. Their numbers grew year by year; so too did the fruitfulness and vigor of the faith, for the spirit that Allen had instilled in his students prepared them for heroic labors and martyrdom (by the end of 1610, 135 of them had already shed their blood for the faith, and news of their deaths was greeted in Douai with the celebration of a solemn Mass).
During a second journey to Rome (1575), Allen obtained from Gregory XIII the conversion of the ancient English hospice in the city into a seminary, where other fervent priests, well trained for every kind of combat, could be formed under the direction of the Jesuits. Returning to Douai, he found that a fierce storm had gathered against the college; taking advantage of the revolt in the Netherlands, Elizabeth’s anger had secured its suppression by the Spanish government. Allen transferred it to Reims (1578) under the protection of the Cardinal of Lorraine, the Prince of Guise. On a third journey to Rome (1579), he succeeded in another undertaking: to obtain that the Jesuits should also take a direct part in the conversions in England; the first expedition, Campion (v.) along with thirteen other alumni of the English College, set out on 17 Apr. of the following year.
At this point Allen was no longer content to serve his country with the weapons of prayer and apostolate; he also turned his attention to political means. In agreement with the Guises, Mary Stuart, and Fr. Persons, he adhered to the idea of a Spanish landing in England. Philip II, to increase his authority, had him created a cardinal (7 Aug. 1587); after the landing, the victory, and the coronation of Philip II as king, Allen was to be named papal legate and Archbishop of Canterbury. When all was ready, Allen, before the “Invincible Armada” set sail, issued a proclamation to the nobility and people of England and Ireland urging them to support Philip II’s attempt (28 Apr. 1588). English Catholics did not follow him; faced with the peril to their nation, they forgot the past, united with others against Spain, and the defeat of the “Invincible Armada” was the height of their joy. Every hope of an armed invasion vanished. Allen remained in Rome; he helped to found two other English colleges: one at Valladolid (1589) and another at Seville (1592); he was named by Philip II Archbishop of Mechelen, though this appointment was never confirmed; he was elected Apostolic Librarian and Protector of the English people. But his dream of being on the eve of his country’s conversion was not realized. Allen, who resided in the English College in Rome, died there, as has been said, on 16 Oct. 1594.