Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lever, Christopher
LEVER, CHRISTOPHER (fl. 1627), protestant writer and poet, was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, but did not graduate (Cooper, Memorials of Cambridge, ii. 39). From the dedications of his various works it appears that though he had taken orders he was unable to obtain a benefice. He wrote: 1. ‘Queene Elizabeth's Teares; or, her resolute bearing the Christian Crosse inflicted on her by the persecuting hands of Steuen Gardner, Bishop of Winchester, in the bloodie time of Queene Marie,’ 4to, London, 1607, a curious but long and dull poem. 2. ‘A Crucifixe; or, a Meditation upon Repentance and the Holie Passion,’ 4to, London, 1607, another poem of the same mediocre quality. Reprinted by the Rev. A. B. Grosart in the ‘Fuller Worthies Library,’ 1870. 3. ‘Heaven and Earth, Religion and Policy; or the maine difference betweene Religion and Policy,’ 8vo [London], 1608. 4. ‘The Holy Pilgrime, leading the way to heaven … In two bookes. Written by C. L.,’ 8vo, London, 1618. 5. ‘The Historie of the Defendors of the Catholique Faith. Discoursing the state of Religion in England,’ &c., 4to, London, 1627. Copies of all these works are in the British Museum.
[Corser's Collectanea (Chetham Soc.), viii. 355–62; Hunter's Chorus Vatum (Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 24, 491), v. 182; Lever's Works.]