Lever, Thomas

Lever, Thomas an eminent English divine, was born in Lancashire in the early part of the 16th century. He was ordained a Protestant minister in 1550. On the accession of Mary (1553) he retired to the Continent. He afterwards dissented from the Anglican Church from a partiality to Calvinism. He died in 1577. No man was more vehement in his sermons against the waste of Church revenues, and other prevailing corruptions of the court, which occasioned bishop Ridley to rank him with Latimer and Knox. Besides a number of sermons, he published a Meditation on the Lorde's Prayer (1551): — Certayne Godly Exercises: — and a Treatise on the Danger from Synne, etc. (1571-1575). See Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Authors, vol. 2, s.v.; Thomas, Biog. Dictionasry, s.v.