Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/165

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English council applied to the ruling powers of the Spanish Netherlands to suppress the college of Douai, the Doctor and his assistants were received under the protection of the house of Guise. Afterwards Doctor Allen, on being appointed canon of Rheims, established another seminary in that city. At that time perhaps no one was more admired and revered by the Catholic party abroad, and detested by the Protestant subjects of England, than William Allen. He was even accused by his countrymen at home of having traitorously instigated Philip II. of Spain, to attempt the invasion and conquest of England, and although he strenuously denied any agency in that matter, it is certain that after the defeat of the Armada, he wrote a defence of Sir William Stanley and Sir Rowland York, who had assisted the enemy. In 1587, he was made cardinal of St. Martin in Montibus by Pope Sectus V., and a little later was presented by the king of Spain to a rich abbey in Naples with promises of still higher preferment. In 1588 he published the "Declaration of the Sentence of Sixtus the Fifth," which was directed against the government of the British queen, whom he declared an usurper, obstinate and impenitent, and for these reasons to be deprived. As an appendix to the work he issued shortly afterwards an "Admonition to the Nobility and People of England and Ireland," in which he pronounced the queen an illegitimate daughter of Henry VIII. Although the effect of these publications on the English nation was not, as he hoped, to arouse the people to open rebellion, or in any way to advance the Catholic cause, the efforts of the cardinal were so far appreciated by the king of Spain that he promoted him to the archbishopric of Mechlin. He lived at Rome during the remainder of his life in great luxury and magnificence. On October 6th, 1594, this remarkable man expired at his palace, in the 63rd year of his age, and was buried with great pomp at the English church of the Holy Trinity in the ancient imperial city.


BUTLER OF RAWCLIFFE HALL.

The name of Butler, or as it was formerly written Botiler, belonged to an office in existence in earlier times, and was first assumed by Theobald Walter, who married Maud, the sister of Thomas á Becket, on being appointed Butler of Ireland.