Allen Alan, or Allyn, William, an English theologian, born in Lancashire in 1532, died in Rome, Oct. 6, 1594. Being a zealous Catholic, he left England soon after the accession of Elizabeth, and settled in Flanders, where he published several works in defence of the old faith. In 1568 he founded the famous ecclesiastical college of Douay for the education of English youth, Pope Gregory XIII. assisting him with a subsidy. Ten years later the magistrates ordered it to be closed, and Alan removed the establishment to Rheims, but it was restored to Douay in 1593. Dr. Alan was concerned with other professors of this college in making the English translation of the Bible commonly known as the Douay version. He was deeply implicated in the Catholic schemes for dethroning Elizabeth, and when the Spanish armada was fitted out, Philip II. caused the pope to give him a cardinal's hat, the design being that Alan should accompany the expedition as papal legato. Instead of embarking in person, Cardinal Alan supplied the fleet with copies of a pamphlet against Elizabeth, entitled an "Admonition to the Nobility and People of England." He was made archbishop of Mechlin in 1591, but at the desire of Pope Sixtus V. he continued to reside in Rome.