Powell, Edward, Dd

Powell, Edward, D.D.

a learned English Roman Catholic divine, who flourished early in the 16th century, was educated at Oxford, and considered one of the ornaments of the university. He was made fellow of Oriel College in 1495. After taking holy orders, divers prebendships were bestowed on him, and he was received among the canons of Salisbury and of Lincoln. So great was his fame that Henry VIII employed him to write, in refutation of Luther, the work Propugnaculum summi sacerdotii evangelici ac septenarii sacramentorum numeri (Lond. 1523, 4to). There is extant a letter addressed to the king by the University of Oxford to express their gratification at his excellent choice of a defender of the faith. But Henry could not forgive him for defending Catharine of Aragon in his book De non dissolvendo Henrici regis cum Catharina matrimonio (which was printed, but of which no copy is known); and for his advocacy of the supremacy of the Holy See he was arrested, and executed at Smithfield June 30, 1540. See Wood, Athenae Oxon.; Dodd, Church Hist.; Perry, Hist. of the Church of England.