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cata. Authore Alexandro Noello." This was written, as the Dean himself asserts, in his dedicatory address to the Archbishops and Bishops, with not less careful attention to the Latinity, than to the doctrine, in order that the youth, for whose benefit it was especially composed, godly man, Mr. Nowell, Dean of St. Paul's, received and allowed by the Church of England, and very fully grounded and established upon the word of God. There may you see all the parts of true religion received, the difficulties expounded, the truth declared, the corruptions of the Church of Rome rejected.""

Of Dean Nowell's biography, it is said in the same work, chap. xvi. "This eminently pious and learned Dean, (Dr. May,) was succeeded by another eminently pious and learned man, Alex. Nowell, D.D. He was under King Edward, Schoolmaster of Westminster, and Prebendary of that Church, and an allowed preacher by licence from that King: under Queen Mary an exile: and of the ancient family of the Nowells, of Lanca shire......He was forty-two years Dean, and died at ninety, when neither the eyes of his mind, nor of his body, were yet grown dim: dying anno. 1601, February 13."

See also Strype's Life of Parker, B. IV. ch. iii.

"There wanted now nothing but a shorter Catechism, for the use of the younger sort of scholars; which the Dean, in his epistle to the Bishops, promised to draw up, contracting this longer one. And thus the Church was at length furnished, by the Archbishop's furtherance and care, with this good and needful work. This Catechism was printed again in the year 1572; and in Greek and Latin, 1573; and so from time to time had many impressions and was used a long time in all schools, even to

:

might obtain an acquaintance with pure classical language, as well from books of Christian piety, as from the profane, fictitious, sometimes impious and impure fables of the poets. This larger Catechism was translated by Dean Nowell's nephew, T. Norton, and printed by John Day, in 1571, with the title, "A Catechism, or First Instruction and Learning of Christian Religion."

This work of the Dean of St. Paul's will be found, upon comparison, to be framed altogether on the model-to be in fact an enlargement-of the "Short Catechism" of Edward VI. It had been received and approved, it appears, in Convocation of the lower house, in 1562; but having been returned into the Dean's hands, for fair transcription, its presentation to the upper house was delayed so long as till the year 1570, when it was called for by the Archbishops, and published with a dedication to them. It was reprinted more than once.

Besides this Catechism, Nowell published, in the year 1572, a smaller one, an abridgement of the larger above-mentioned work, the translation of which is called, "A Catechism, or Institution of Christian Religion, to be learned of all Youth, next after the Short Catechism appointed in the Book of Common Prayer." This one, and not the larger, as affirmed by Strype, was dedicated to the two Archbishops, and the Bishop of London, Parker, Grindal, and Sandys, by name.

The Church Catechism was also translated by

this learned and industrious Divine, for the use of younger scholars *.

"The which three Catechisms (as he himself declares his object in the dedication prefixed to the middle Catechism,) being purely translated into the Latin tongue, may not only serve young beginners, or more forward scholars in the grammar-schools to the same uses, and to the learning of true religion, and the right use of the Latin speech with one labour; but the last also might seem not unprofitable unto many ecclesiastical ministers for divers good purposes."

It is from the first of these Catechisms, as be

* It is probable that this Translation of the Church Catechism into Latin, was somewhat, though but little, amplified by the Dean; for there is a short English Catechism, which appears to have been re-translated from it, of a fragment of which the Author has been favoured with a sight. The imperfect part contains an Exposition of the Sacraments from which that portion of the Church Catechism, which was added in 1601, seems to be an abridgement. The questions and answers being extremely similar throughout; in some places identically the same. It is followed by some "Godlie graces to be said before and after meate ;" at the end of which stands this curious rhyme :

"This little Catechism learn'd

by hart (for so it ought :)

The Primer next commanded is,

for children to be taught."

Then follows an address “To the Christian Reader ” wbich is dated, “From my chamber, the xxiid of Aprill, 1572. Thine in the Lord. Ed. De."

The date of the edition is, " 1582. Newli imprinted by

ing the most perfect work, and the one most fully explanatory upon all points of faith and practice, that the "Extracts" have been made. They have, indeed, been made so largely, as to leave little, if any matter behind, which might add to the illustration of the subjects treated of in the present work.

This liberal use of Dean Nowell's Catechism, it is presumed, will be amply justified by the opinions expressed by very competent judges of the value of the Catechism itself, and of the sanctions under which it was published. It had, "the exacccording to Bishop Randolph *, press sanction of Convocation." "Jewell's Apology," he adds, "is an account of the grounds of our separation from the Church of Rome, as maintained after that separation had taken place: Nowell's Catechism, of the doctrines of the Church at the same period, when it had been restored and established under Queen Elizabeth. Both these works, as said before, were publicly received and allowed. They have also a claim to the attention of the reader, both for clearness of argument, and for elegance of language.”

The last work referred to, is entitled, "REFORMATIO LEGUM ECCLESIASTICARUM †, ex

vi.

* Enchiridion Theologicum. Oxford, 1812. Preface, + Strype's Life of Parker, B. IV. ch. v. "In this Parliament (in 1571,) was the last effort, I think, to bring into practice in this realm, by authority of Parliament, a body of Ecclesiastical and Civil Laws, that had been

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