ALLEN, I ILLIAM English cardinal, was born at Rossall, Lanes, and died in Rome Oct. 16, 1594. He was edu cated at Oriel College, Oxford, and became principal of St. Mary Hall. Although he was deprived for refusing the oath of su premacy at Elizabeth's accession, he remained in the University until 1561. He then went to Louvain, but soon returned to Eng land and lived in hiding until 1565. After two years spent in lecturing at the Benedictine college in Malines, he went to Rome and began working on his scheme for the establishment of a Catho lic college where English students could be trained in theology. With the help of friends, notably of the Benedictines of neigh bouring he founded (Sept. 29, 1568), with papal approval and under the patronage of the king of Spain, the Eng lish seminary at Douai. He himself became regius professor there. The seminary at Rome, established in the old English hospice there, was also founded by his advice. In 1578 the Flemish insurgents against Spanish rule expelled the English stu dents from Douai, and Allen moved his seminary to Reims, where the translation of the Bible known as the Douai version was begun under his direction.
In 1577 he began to correspond with Robert Parsons, the Jesuit, one of the directors of the many plots against Elizabeth. Under the advice of Parsons the seminary at Rome was handed over to the Society of Jesus to train men for the Jesuit mission to England. Allen left Reims in 1585 for Rome, where he spent the rest of his life. Although he was in reality only the leader of a group of emigres, Allen was regarded on the Continent, quite wrongly, as the authorized representative of the English Catho lics. In this assumed capacity he wrote to Philip II. of Spain after the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, urging him to invade England and to punish Elizabeth, "that woman hated by God and man." After much negotiation, he was made cardinal by Sixtus V. Aug. 7, 1587. One of his first acts was to issue, under his own name, two violent works for the purpose of inciting the Catholics of England to rise against Elizabeth : "The Declaration of the Sentence of Sixtus V." a broadside, and a book, An Admonition to the nobility and people of England (Antwerp 1588). On the failure of the Armada, Philip nominated him to the archbishopric of Malines, but the canonical appointment was never made. Gregory XIV. made him librarian at the Vatican; and he served on the commission for the revision of the Vulgate. He took part in four conclaves, but never had any real influence after the failure of the Armada. Before his death he found reasons to change his mind concerning the wisdom of the Jesuit politics in Rome and England.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-T. F. Knox, Letters and Memorials of Cardinal Bibliography.-T. F. Knox, Letters and Memorials of Cardinal Allen (London, 1882) ; A. Bellesheim, Wilhelm Cardinal Allen and die englischen Seminare auf dem Festlande (Mainz,1885) ; First and Second Diaries of the English College, Douai (London, 1878) ; Nicholas Fitz herbert, De Antiquitate et continuatione religionis in Anglia et de Alani Cardinalis vita libellus (Rome, 1608) ; E. Taunton, History of the Jesuits in England (London Igo') ; Teulet, vol. v. ; the Spanish State Papers (Simancas), vol. iii. and iv. A list of Allen's works is given in J. Gillow, Biographical Dictionary of English Catholics vol. i. under his name.