View source for Alexander Nowell

{{short description|Anglican priest and theologian  (c. 1517 – 1602)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2018}}

{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix      = [[The Very Reverend]]
| name                  = Alexander Nowell
| honorific_suffix      = 
| image                 = File:British - Alexander Nowell - Google Art Project.jpg
| caption               = Alexander Nowell
| office                = [[Member of Parliament]] for [[West Looe (UK Parliament constituency)|West Looe]] 
| term_start            = September 1553
| term_end              = October 1553
| alongside             = Ralph Clive
| monarch               = [[Mary I of England|Mary I]]
| predecessor           = [[John Astley (courtier)|John Astley]]
| successor             = [[William Bendlowes]]
| birth_date            = {{Birth date text|1517}}
| birth_place           = [[Read, Lancashire|Read]], Lancashire
| death_date            = {{Death date|1602|2|13}}
| death_place           = [[London]], Middlesex
| nationality           = [[England|English]]
| parents               = {{hlist | John Nowell | Elizabeth Kay }}
| spouse                = {{hlist | (1) Jane Mery| (2) Elizabeth Hast }}
| relations             = [[William Whitaker (theologian)|William Whitaker]] (nephew)
| children              = 
| alma_mater            = [[Brasenose College, Oxford]]
{{hlist| ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] | [[Master of Arts|MA]] | [[Doctor of Divinity|DD]]) }}
| occupation            = {{hlist| Clergyman | Theologian}}
| module             	= {{Infobox clergy |child=yes
| religion           	= Christianity ([[Anglican]])
| church             	= [[Church of England]]
| ordained           	= 
| congregations      	= 
| offices_held       	= [[Prebendary]] of [[Westminster Abbey]] (1551–4, 1560–4)<br>[[Archdeacon of Middlesex]] (1560)<br>
[[Dean of St Paul's]] (1560–1602)<br> [[Rector (ecclesiastical)|Rector]] of [[Saltwood, Kent]] (1560)<br>[[Rector (ecclesiastical)|Rector]] of [[Much Hadham]], Hertfordshire (1562–89) }}
}}

'''Alexander Nowell''' ({{circa|1517}}{{snd}}13 February 1602), also known as '''Alexander Noel''', was an Anglican priest and theologian<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofalexander00chur|title=The Life of Alexander Nowell, Dean of St. Paul's|publisher=The University Press|last=Churton|first=Ralph|year=1809|location=Oxford|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lifeofalexander00chur/page/38 38]}}</ref> who served as [[Dean of St Paul's]] during much of [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]]'s reign, and is now remembered for his catechisms, written in [[Neo-Latin|Latin]].<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|id=20378|title=Nowell, Alexander|first= Stanford|last=Lehmberg}}</ref>

==Early life==
Alexander Nowell was the eldest son of John Nowell of [[Read Hall and Park|Read Hall]], [[Read, Lancashire]], by his second wife Elizabeth Kay of Rochdale, and was the brother of [[Laurence Nowell (priest)|Laurence Nowell]], who became [[Dean of Lichfield]].<ref name="ODNB"/> His sister Beatrice was the mother of [[John Hammond (died 1589)|John Hammond]];<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=12159|first=P. O. G.|last=White| title = Hammond, John}}</ref> Another brother, Robert Nowell, became Attorney of the [[Court of Wards and Liveries|Court of Wards]].<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=29228|first=C. S.|last=Knighton|title=Whitaker, William}}</ref>

Nowell was educated at [[Middleton, Greater Manchester|Middleton]], near [[Rochdale]], [[Lancashire]] and at [[Brasenose College, Oxford]]<ref>[https://www.british-history.ac.uk/alumni-oxon/1500-1714/pp1050-1083 Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714, Nabbes-Nykke]</ref>  where he is said to have shared rooms with [[John Foxe]] the [[martyrology|martyrologist]]. He was awarded his [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] in 1536, [[Master of Arts|M.A.]] in 1540, later a [[Doctor of Divinity|D.D.]] in 1578 and was elected fellow of Brasenose in 1526, spending some 13 years in Oxford.<ref name="ODNB"/>

==In London==
In 1543 Nowell was appointed master of [[Westminster School]], and, in December 1551, prebendary of [[Westminster Abbey]]. During this period he became involved in a controversy with [[Thomas Dorman]], over the views of the late [[John Redman (Trinity College)|John Redman]], which ran on in different forms for many years.<ref name="ODNB"/>

Nowell was elected in September 1553 as Member of Parliament for [[West Looe (UK Parliament constituency)|West Looe]] in Cornwall in [[Mary I of England|Queen Mary]]'s first parliament. In October of that year, however, a committee of the house reported that he could not sit in the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] because as prebendary of [[Westminster Abbey|Westminster]] he had a seat in [[Convocation of Canterbury|Convocation]]. He was then also deprived of his [[prebendary]], in 1554.<ref name="ODNB"/>

==Marian exile==
Nowell was one of the [[Marian exiles]], Protestants who left England during the Reign of Mary I and Philip II. He left England in 1555, aided by the merchant Francis Bowyer. He went first to [[Strassburg]] and then to [[Frankfurt]], where he became involved in the [[Troubles at Frankfurt|doctrinal and liturgical dispute]] between the exiles. While trying to moderate the discussions, Nowell came to side with [[John Knox]].<ref name="ODNB"/>

==Dean of St Paul's==
Nowell returned to England when [[Elizabeth I]] came to the throne, becoming chaplain to [[Edmund Grindal]] in December 1560. He was given the [[archdeaconry of Middlesex]] at the start of 1561, a canonry at [[Canterbury]], and in November 1561 became Dean of St Paul's.<ref name="ODNB"/> In 1562, [[Edmund Grindal]], [[Bishop of London]] collated him with the Parish of Great or [[Much Hadham]] in [[Hertfordshire]], near the Bishop's residence, [[Much Hadham Palace]].<ref>Churton, Ralph, (1809) Life of Alexander Nowell, Dean of St. Paul's, chiefly compiled from registers, letters, and other authentic evidences p.77 http://scans.library.utoronto.ca/pdf/9/11/lifeofalexander00chur/lifeofalexander00chur_bw.pdf{{Dead link|date=March 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In the [[Convocation of 1563]] Nowell played a prominent part. On its opening day, 12 January, he preached in [[Westminster Abbey]] the sermon for the opening of the concurrent Parliament. In it, he gave offence to the Queen, when he called on her to marry.<ref name="ODNB"/><ref>[[Alison Weir]] ''Elizabeth the Queen'' Pimlico edition 1999 p.137</ref> It was said that she never spoke a friendly word to him again.<ref>Weir p.137</ref> On the following day, [[Matthew Parker]] nominated him as prolocutor of the Lower House of [[Convocation]]. Elected to the post, he was used to keeping the two Houses, the Upper consisting of bishops, in touch with each other.<ref name="ODNB"/>

Friction with the Queen is well attested. On one occasion she rebuked Nowell in the vestry for having given her a prayer book with pictures of saints and angels that smacked of the Church of Rome. On another, in March 1565, she interrupted his sermon, directed against a work ''A Treatyse of the Crosse '' (1564) of [[John Martiall]], telling him to stick to his text and cease slighting the [[crucifix]].<ref name="ODNB"/><ref>{{cite ODNB|id=18171|first=L. E. C.|last=Wooding|title=Martiall, John}}</ref><ref>Greenwood, Walter (1951) ''Lancashire''. London: Robert Hale; pp. 171-72</ref> In 1594 he was appointed [[Dean and Canons of Windsor#Canons of the Eleventh Stall|Canon of the eleventh stall]] at [[St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle]], a position he held until 1602.<ref>''Fasti Wyndesorienses'', May 1950. S.L. Ollard. Published by the Dean and Canons of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.</ref>

==Death and legacy==
Nowell held the deanery of St Paul's for 42 years, until his death on 13 February 1602; and was buried within his cathedral.<ref>"Memorials of St Paul's Cathedral" [[William Sinclair (Archdeacon of London)|Sinclair, W.]] p99: London; Chapman & Hall, Ltd; 1909</ref> With his brother Robert, a lawyer, he re-established the free school at Middleton; and made other benefactions for educational purposes at Brasenose College.<ref name="ODNB"/>

Sometime after his death, he was credited by [[Thomas Fuller]] (and his later revisers), with the accidental invention of bottled [[beer]].<ref>G.S. (1684), Anglorum speculum, or The worthies of England, in church and state</ref><ref>Churton, Ralph, (1809) Life of Alexander Nowell, Dean of St. Paul's, chiefly compiled frem registers, letters, and other authentic evidences p.80-1 http://scans.library.utoronto.ca/pdf/9/11/lifeofalexander00chur/lifeofalexander00chur_bw.pdf{{Dead link|date=March 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> "Without offence it may be remembered, that leaving a bottle of ale, when fishing, in the grass, he found it some days after, no bottle, but a gun, such the sound at the opening thereof : and this is believed (casualty is mother of more inventions than industry) the original of bottled ale in England."<ref>Fuller, Thomas, (1840) The history of the worthies of England : New ed., containing brief notices of the most celebrated worthies of England who have flourished since the time of Fuller. With explanatory notes and copious indexes by P. Austin Nuttall p.204-5 https://archive.org/d Thomas Gresham etails/historyofworthie02fulluoft</ref>

He was also a keen angler, and [[Izaak Walton]] says, "this good man was observed to spend a tenth part of his time in angling; and also (for I have conversed with those which have conversed with him) to bestow a tenth part of his revenue, and usually all his fish, amongst the poor that inhabited near to those rivers in which it was caught; saying often, 'that charity gave life to religion'".<ref>Walton, Izaak, (1897) The Compleat Angler https://archive.org/details/compleatangler00gallgoog</ref>

He is a character in the drama '[[If You Know Not Me, You Know Nobody|If You Know Not Me , You Know Nobody']] by [[Thomas Heywood]], where he plays the role of a conciliator in a land dispute between Sir Thomas Gresham and Sir Thomas Ramsey.

==Works==
Nowell is now remembered for his work on [[catechism]]s. His Latin ''Catechismus puerorum'', in manuscript, gained the support of the Lower House in the Convocation of 1563. It was printed in 1570, as ''Catechismus, sive, Prima institutio disciplinaque pietatis Christianae'', with Matthew Parker's approval. It was officially required to be used in schools, in 1571, and [[Thomas Norton]] translated it into English, as ''A Catechism, or, First instruction of Christian religion'' (1570). Abridged versions appeared: the "middle" catechism (1572) and the "shorter" catechism (1573).<ref name="ODNB"/> A Welsh translation, ''Catecism eglwys loegr'' by [[Thomas Jones of Denbigh]], appeared in 1809.<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=15093|first=Huw|last=Walters|title = Jones, Thomas}}</ref>

==Family==
Nowell was twice married, but left no children; his first wife was Jane Mery, widow of Thomas Bowyer, the uncle of Francis Bowyer, and his second Elizabeth Hast, twice widow. He was also the uncle of the theologian [[William Whitaker (theologian)|William Whitaker]], who translated the "middle" catechism into Greek.<ref name="ODNB"/>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
{{Portal|Cornwall}}
{{commons category|Alexander Nowell}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
{{EB1911 poster|Nowell, Alexander}}
*the ''Works of [[John Strype]]''
*the ''Publications of the Parker Society''
*the ''Calendar of State Papers, Domestic''
*{{cite DNB|wstitle=Nowell, Alexander}}
*{{cite book| author=Ralph Churton| author-link=Ralph Churton| title=Life of Alexander Nowell | url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofalexander00chur | place=Oxford | date= 1809 | publisher=Oxford The University Press for the author}}
*{{cite book | author=Gilbert Burnet | author-link=Gilbert Burnet | title=History of the Reformation | url=https://archive.org/details/historyofreforma04burniala | publisher = Clarendon Press | place=Oxford |date= 1865 }}
*{{cite book | author=Richard Watson Dixon | author-link=Richard Watson Dixon | title=History of the Church of England | year=1891 | publisher=G. Routledge and sons | url=https://archive.org/details/historychurchen03dixogoog | place=London }}

{{s-start}}
{{s-rel|en}}
{{s-bef|before=William May }}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Dean of St Paul's|Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, London]]|years=1560&ndash;1602}}
{{s-aft|after= [[John Overall (bishop)|John Overall]] }}
{{s-bef|before= William Chedsey}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Archdeacon of Middlesex]]|years=1560}}
{{s-aft|after= Thomas Watts }}
{{s-par|en}}
{{succession box 
| title=[[Member of Parliament]] for [[West Looe (UK Parliament constituency)|West Looe]]  
| before= [[John Astley (courtier)]]
| before2= [[William Morice (died 1554)]]
| with= Ralph Clive
| years= 1553–1553
| after= [[William Bendlowes]]
| after2=  [[Robert Monson]] }}
{{s-aca}}
{{succession box
|title = [[Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford]]
|years = 1595–1596
|before = [[Richard Harris (college principal)|Richard Harris]]
|after = [[Thomas Singleton (academic)|Thomas Singleton]] }}
{{succession box
|title = [[Westminster School|Master of Westminster School]]
|years = 1543–1555
|before = John Adams
|after = [[Nicholas Udall]] }}
{{s-end}}

{{St Paul's Cathedral}}
{{Archdeacons of Middlesex}}
{{Principals of Brasenose College, Oxford}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nowell, Alexander}}
[[Category:1517 births]]
[[Category:1602 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at Charterhouse School]]
[[Category:Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Principals of Brasenose College, Oxford]]
[[Category:People from Whalley, Lancashire]]
[[Category:16th-century English Anglican priests]]
[[Category:Deans of St Paul's]]
[[Category:16th-century English Christian theologians]]
[[Category:16th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:Marian exiles]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of England for West Looe]]
[[Category:Canons of Windsor]]
[[Category:Canons of Westminster]]
[[Category:17th-century Anglican theologians]]
[[Category:16th-century Anglican theologians]]