ALLEN, WILLIAM. - Apologist, founder of the seminary of Douai and of the English college of Rome, called "the cardinal of England," b. at Rossal (Lancashire) in 1532, d. at Rome on 16 Oct. 1594. At the age of fifteen he attended Oriel College, Oxford, where in 1554 (the year in which Mary Tudor, the legitimate daughter of Henry VIII, a Catholic, ascended the throne) he obtained a doctorate in philosophy and a chair of logic; and having chosen the ecclesiastical career, he also held a canonry in the cathedral of York, without however yet having received any major Order. The accession to the throne of Elizabeth (1558) and the first threatening anti-Catholic warnings, which immediately arose, advised him to leave England and go over to the continent. He took refuge at Louvain (1561); but already the following year, on the pretext of attending to his health, he secretly returned to his homeland and hid among his own. The pusillanimity of the Catholics who, for fear of penal sanctions, submitted to the persecuting laws and to the rites of the Anglican church, kindled his zeal and his effort to convert them and strengthen them in the faith. The effects were not slow to make themselves felt and drew upon the Catholics of Lancashire and the neighboring counties the suspicious gaze of the government; a pamphlet, moreover, composed while he was the secret guest of the duke of Norfolk, but published at Douai: Certain brief reasons concerning catholic faith (1564) caused him to be sought by the police, and forced him to take the road of exile again, this time to Malines (1565), where he was ordained a priest and taught theology for two years in the college of the Benedictines.
Returning from a journey to Rome (1567), he decided to found at Douai a college for the English Catholics, who wished to carry out their studies in peace; a plan that soon gave way to a second one, namely that of forming young priests for the religious salvation of England. Aided by the Pope and by the king of Spain Philip II, under whom Douai then stood, the college was opened in 1568 and already in 1574 it was able to send to its homeland the first group of priests. Their number grew from year to year; so did the fruit and the flourishing of the faith; because the spirit that A. had known how to instill in the students prepared them for heroic labors and for martyrdom (by the end of 1610, 135 of them had already shed their blood for the faith and the news of their death was received at Douai with the celebration of a solemn Mass).
On a second journey to Rome (1575), A. had the ancient English hospice of the city converted by Gregory XIII into a seminary, where other fervent priests were to be formed under the direction of the Jesuits, well trained for every kind of combat. Returned to Douai, he found that a strong storm had gathered against the college; taking advantage of the revolt of the Netherlands, the anger of Elizabeth had obtained its suppression on the part of the Spanish government. A. transferred it to Reims (1578) under the protection of the cardinal of Lorraine, prince of Guise. On a third journey to Rome (1579) he succeeded in another undertaking: namely, in obtaining that the Jesuits too should take a direct part in the conversions of England; the first expedition, which included fathers Persons and Campion (v.) with 13 other students of the English college, set out on 17 Apr. of the following year.
At this point A. was no longer content to benefit his homeland with the weapons of prayer and of the apostolate; but he thought of turning also to political means. In agreement with the Guises, with Mary Stuart, with father Persons, he adhered to the idea of a Spanish landing in England. Philip II, in order to increase his authority, had him named cardinal (7 Aug. 1587); after the landing, the victory and the coronation of Philip II as king, A. would have been named pontifical legate and archbishop of Canterbury. When everything was ready, A., before the "Invincible Armada" set sail, issued a proclamation to the English and Irish nobility and people to support the attempt of Philip II (28 Apr. 1588). The English Catholics did not follow him; faced with the danger to their nation they forgot the past, united with the others against Spain, and the defeat of the "Invincible Armada" filled them with joy. Every dream of invasion by arms faded. A. remained in Rome; he helped to found two other English colleges: one at Valladolid (1589) and the other at Seville (1592); he received from Philip II the appointment as archbishop of Malines, which however was never confirmed; he was elected apostolic librarian and protector of the English people. But his dream of being on the eve of the conversion of his homeland did not come true. A., who resided in the English college at Rome, died there, as has been said, on 16 Oct. 1594.
Bibliography7 works
(phot. Alinari)
to which he contributed and which is still in use even in recent reprints in England and in the United States. - Studies: G. Constant, s. v. in DHG, II, coll. 599-607, with ample bibl.: H. Quillet s. v. in DThC., I, 885-89, with bibl.: N. Fitzherbert, De antiquitate et continuitate religionis in Anglia et de Alani cardinalis vita libellus, Rome 1608; G. Pits, Relationum historicarum de rebus Anglicis, t. I quattuor partes complectens, Paris 1619; G. Knox, Letters and memorial of card. A., London 1882; G. Constant, La Réforme en Angleterre, II, Paris 1939.