William Perkins

William Perkins (1558–1602) was an English Puritan theologian and preacher, a fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, and lecturer at Great St Andrew's Church in the town. He died at the age of forty-four, but in that time became one of the most influential writers of the Elizabethan church.

Perkins wrote on preaching, the Christian life, and the conscience, with a plainness meant for ordinary readers as much as for scholars. Among his best-known works are The Art of Prophesying, a manual on preaching, and A Golden Chain. His Christian Oeconomie, on the household, was written in Latin and translated into English by Thomas Pickering in 1609. His students at Cambridge included William Ames.