William Covell
William Covell (died 1613) was an English clergyman and writer.
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[edit] Life
He was born in Chadderton, Lancashire, England, and proceeded M.A. at Queens' College, Cambridge in 1588.[1]
In the 1590s Covell took part in the controversy about how far the newly-reformed Church of England should abandon the liturgy and hierarchy of the past, to which debate he contributed several broadly anti-puritan works. In his later career he allied himself with Archbishop John Whitgift and afterwards with his successor, Richard Bancroft, who like Covell was Lancashire-born.
William Covell died in 1613 at Mersham, Kent, where he was rector.
[edit] Works
Covell's interest to modern scholars now largely depends on one polemical work published in 1595, Polimanteia.[2] In the course of this work, dedicated to the 3rd Earl of Essex, Covell briefly mentioned contemporary authors such as Thomas Nashe, Samuel Daniel and William Shakespeare.
[edit] References
- Stephen Wright, ‘Covell, William (d. 1613)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
[edit] Notes
- ^ Venn, J.; Venn, J. A., eds. (1922–1958). "Covell or Cowell, William". Alumni Cantabrigienses (10 vols) (online ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Polimanteia, or, The meanes lawfull and unlawfull, to judge of the fall of a common-wealth, against the frivolous and foolish conjectures of this age, whereunto is added, a letter from England to her three daughters, Cambridge, Oxford, innes of court, and to all the rest of her inhabitants: perswading them to a constant unitie of what religion soever they are, for the defence of our dread soveraigne, and native cuntry: most requisite for this time wherein wee now live.
