Joseph Hall (bishop)
Joseph Hall | |
---|---|
Bishop of Norwich | |
Diocese | Diocese of Norwich |
Appointed | 1641 |
Term ended | 1646 |
Predecessor | Richard Montagu |
Successor | Episcopacy abolished |
Personal details | |
Born | 1 July 1574 Prestop Park, Leicestershire, England |
Died | 8 September 1656 Heigham, near Norwich | (aged 82)
Buried | Norwich Cathedral |
Nationality | English |
Spouse | Elizabeth Bambridge |
Children | Six |
Previous post(s) | Bishop of Exeter (1627–1641) |
Alma mater | Emmanuel College, Cambridge |
Joseph Hall (1 July 1574 – 8 September 1656) was an English bishop, satirist and moralist. His contemporaries knew him as a devotional writer, and a high-profile controversialist of the early 1640s. In church politics, he tended in fact to a middle way.
Thomas Fuller wrote:[1]
He was commonly called our English Seneca, for the purenesse, plainnesse, and fulnesse of his style. Not unhappy at Controversies, more happy at Comments, very good in his Characters, better in his Sermons, best of all in his Meditations.
Hall's relationship to the
Early life
Joseph Hall was born at Bristow Park, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, on 1 July 1574. His father John Hall was employed under Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, president of the north, and was his deputy at Ashby. His mother was Winifred Bambridge, a strict puritan (Perry 1890, p. 75),[a] whom her son compared to St. Monica.[3]
Hall attended
Priesthood
Having taken holy orders, Hall was offered the mastership of Blundell's School, Tiverton, but he refused it in favour of the living of Hawstead, Suffolk, to which he was presented (1601) by Sir Robert Drury. The appointment was not wholly satisfactory: in his parish Hall had an opponent in a Mr Lilly, whom he describes as a "witty and bold atheist",[3] he had to find money to make his house habitable, and he felt that his patron Sir Robert underpaid him. Nevertheless, in 1603, he married Elizabeth Wynniff of Brettenham, Suffolk (see "Family" below).[3]
In 1605, Hall travelled abroad for the first time when he accompanied Sir
Hall's devotional writings had attracted the notice of
In 1612,
In the next year Hall was chosen as one of the English deputies at the
Career at Exeter and Norwich
In a sermon Columba Noæ of February 1624 (1623
In spite of his Calvinistic opinions, Hall maintained that to acknowledge the errors which had arisen in the Catholic Church did not necessarily imply disbelief in her catholicity, and that the Church of England having repudiated these errors should not deny the claims of the Roman Catholic Church on that account. This view commended itself to
In 1641 Hall was translated to the
Retirement
On his release, Hall proceeded to his new diocese at Norwich, the revenues of which he seems for a time to have received, but in 1643, when the property of the "malignants" was sequestrated, Hall was mentioned by name. He was deprived of his See by Parliament on 9 October 1646, as episcopacy was abolished for the duration of the Commonwealth and the Protectorate.[15][16] Mrs Hall had difficulty in securing a fifth of the maintenance (£400) assigned to the bishop by the parliament; they were eventually ejected from the palace, and the cathedral was dismantled.[1] Hall describes its desecration in Hard Measure:
Lord, what work was here! what clattering of glasses and beating down of walls! what tearing up of monuments! what pulling down of seats! what wrestling down of irons and brass from the windows and walls...[17]
Hall described the triumphal procession of the Puritan iconoclasts as they carried vestments, service books and singing books to be burned in the nearby market place, while soldiers lounged in the despoiled cathedral drinking and smoking their pipes.[17]
Hall retired to the hamlet of
He bore his many troubles and the additional burden of much bodily suffering with sweetness and patience, dying on 8 September 1656.[1] In his old age, Hall was attended upon by the doctor Thomas Browne, who wrote of him:
A person of singular humility, patience and piety: his own works are the best monument, and character of himself, which was also very lively drawn in his excellent funeral sermon preached by my learned and faithful friend Mr. John Whitefoot, Rector of Heigham.[19]
Hall was buried at St Bartholomew, Heigham,[20] but the church was bombed in 1942, and in 1975 his remains were moved to the cathedral cloisters. The location of the re-burial was then 'forgotten' only to be re-discovered in 2012 by David Berwick using photographs of the ceremony taken for the Eastern Daily Press.[21][22]
Works
Hall contributed to several distinct literary areas: satirical verse as a young man; polemical writing, particularly in defending
Satire and poetry
During his residence at Cambridge, Hall wrote his Virgidemiarum (1597),[b] satires in English written after Latin models. The claim he put forward in the prologue to be the earliest English satirist:
I first adventure, follow me who list
And be the second English satirist.Sir John Davies and others should be burnt, on the ground of licentiousness; but shortly afterwards Hall's book was ordered to be "staied at the press," which may be interpreted as reprieved.[25]Virgidemiarum was followed by an amended edition in 1598, and in the same year by Virgidemiarum. The three last bookes. Of byting Satyres (reprinted 1599). Not in fact the earliest English satirist, Hall wrote in smooth
Southwellis aimed at in "Now good St Peter weeps pure Helicon, And both the Mary's make a music moan"). In Book II Satire 6 occurs a description of the trencher-chaplain, who is tutor and hanger-on in a country manor. Among his other satirical portraits is that of the famished gallant, the guest of "Duke Humfray." Book VI consists of one long satire on vices and follies dealt with in the earlier books.Hall's earliest published verse appeared in a collection of elegies on the death of
pastoral poems, but none of these have survived,[4]although his poem 'A Defiance to Envy' has some pastoral elements. He also wrote:
- The King's Prophecie; or Weeping Joy (1603), a gratulatory poem on the accession of James I
- Epistles, both the first and second volumes of which appeared in 1608 and a third in 1611
- Characters of Virtues and Vices (1608), versified by Nahum Tate (1691)
- Solomon's Divine Arts (1609)
Hall gave up verse satires and lighter forms of literature when he was ordained a minister in the Church of England.
Mundus alter et idem
Hall is credited with writing the
dystopian novel Mundus alter et idem sive Terra Australis antehac semper incognita; Longis itineribus peregrini Academici nuperrime illustrata (1605? and 1607), a satirical description of London, with some criticism of the Roman Catholic Church.[26]Controversy
Hall's initial work of religious controversy was against Protestant
animadversion, for Hall's theological writings. Hall criticised Robinson, the future pastor of the Mayflower congregation, alongside Richard Bernard and John Murton.[27][28]In Hall's Via media, The Way of Peace (1619), he did his best to persuade the two parties (Calvinist and Arminian) to accept a compromise. His later defence of the English Church, and
episcopacyas Biblical, entitled Episcopacy by Divine Right (1640), was twice revised at Laud's dictation.This was followed by An Humble Remonstrance to the High Court of Parliament (1640 and 1641), an eloquent and forceful defence of Hall's order, which produced a retort from the syndicate of Puritan divines, who wrote under the name of Smectymnuus. This was followed by a long controversy to which John Milton contributed five pamphlets, virulently attacking Hall and his early satires.
Other controversial writings by Hall include:
- The Olde Religion: A treatise, wherein is laid downe the true state of the difference betwixt the Reformed and the Romane Church; and the blame of this schisme is cast upon the true Authors (1628)
- Columba Noae olivam adferens, a sermon preached at St Paul's in 1623
- A Short Answer to the Vindication of Smectymnuus (1641)
- A Modest Confutation of (Milton's) Animadversions (1642).
Devotional
Hall's devotional works include:
- Holy Observations Lib. I (1607)
- Some few of David's Psalmes Metaphrased (1609)
- Three Centuries of Meditations and Vowes, Divine and Morall (1606, 1607, 1609), edited by Charles Sayle
- The Arte of Divine Meditation (1607)
- Contemplations on the Historical Passages of the Old and New Testaments (1614)
- Heaven upon Earth, or of True Peace and Tranquillitie of Mind (1606), reprinted with some of his letters in John Wesley's Christian Library, vol. iv. (1819)
- Occasional Meditations (1630), edited by his son Robert Hall
- Henochisme; or a Treatise showing how to walk with God (1639), translated from Bishop Hall's Latin by Moses Wall
- The Devout Soul; or Rules of Heavenly Devotion (1644), often since reprinted
- The Balm of Gilead (1646, 1752)
- Christ Mysticall; or the blessed union of Christ and his Members (1647), of which General Gordon was a student (reprinted from Gordon's copy, 1893)
- Susurrium cum Deo (1659)
- The Great Mysterie of Godliness (1650)
- Resolutions and Decisions of Divers Practicall cases of Conscience (1649, 1650, 1654).
Autobiographical
Hall's autobiographical tracts are Observations of some Specialities of Divine Providence in the Life of Joseph Hall, Bishop of Norwich, Written with his own hand, and his Hard Measure, reprinted in Christopher Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography.
Editions
In 1615 Hall published A Recollection of such treatises as have been published (1615, 1617, 1621); in 1625 appeared his Works (reprinted 1627, 1628, 1634, 1662).
The first complete Works appeared in 1808, edited by Josiah Pratt. Other editions are by Peter Hall (1837) and by Philip Wynter (1863). See also Bishop Hall, his Life and Times (1826), by Rev. John Jones; Life of Joseph Hall, by Rev. George Lewis (1886); Alexander Balloch Grosart, The Complete Poems of Joseph Hall with introductions, etc. (1879); Satires, etc. (Early English Poets, ed. Samuel Weller Singer, 1824). Many of Hall's works were translated into French, and some into Dutch, and there have been numerous selections from his devotional works.
Family
In 1603, Hall married Elizabeth (died 27 August 1652), daughter of George Winiffe of
Canon of Exeter in 1629, and Archdeacon of Cornwall in 1633.[29] Joseph, the second son (1607–1669), was registrar of Exeter Cathedral. George, the third son (1612–1668), became bishop of Chester. Samuel, the fourth son (1616–1674), was sub-dean of Exeter.[30] It is claimed that his son Richard Hall (1635–1688), emigrated to America in 1670, and patented a large tract of land on each side of the Susquehanna River, about a mile above the mouth of the Ocheraro, just within the limits of Maryland. [31]Authorities
In 1826 John Jones published Bishop Hall, His Life and Times.[32] A recent biography of Joseph Hall is Bishop Joseph Hall: 1574–1656: A biographical and critical study by Frank Livingstone Huntley, D.S.Brewer Ltd, Cambridge, 1979.
Criticism of his satires is to be found in Thomas Warton's History of English Poetry, vol. iv. pp. 363–409 (ed. Hazlitt, 1871), where a comparison is instituted between Marston and Hall.
Notes
- ^ Hall has left among his works two tracts ("Observations of some Specialties of Divine Providence in the Life of Joseph Hall, Bishop of Norwich", and "Hard Measure"), which together form a useful and interesting autobiography (Perry 1890, p. 75).
12mo.[4]References
- ^ a b c d e f Chisholm 1911, p. 848.
- ^ Chew 1950, pp. 1130–1145.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Chisholm 1911, p. 847.
- ^ a b c Perry 1890, p. 75.
- ^ ; ACAD & HL588J; and ACAD & GLBY582N.
- ^ Parry 1981, pp. 232–235.
- ^ Bremer & Webster 2006, p. 117.
- ^ Bryant 2000.
- ^ Patterson 1997, pp. 252–253.
- ^ Norwich 1808, p. 145.
- ^ Perry 1890, p. 77.
- ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 847; and Patterson 1997, pp. 280–281.
- ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 848; Sharpe 1992, p. 307.
- ^ Trevor-Roper 1967, p. 256; Trevor-Roper 2000, pp. 264, 266; and Milton 2002.
- ^ Plant, David (2002). "Episcopalians". BCW Project. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
JSTOR 564164.- ^ a b Hall, Joseph. Bishop Hall's Hard Measure, written by himself upon his impeachment of High Crimes and Misdemeanours for defending the Church of England. pp. 15–16. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
- ^ Hall, Joseph (1660). The shaking of the olive-tree. The remaining works of that incomparable prelate Joseph Hall, D.D. late Lord Bishop of Norwich. With some specialties of ... London: Printed by J. Cadwel for J. Crooke.
- ^ Extract from Browne's miscellaneous tract Repertorium. Browne, Sir Thomas (1835). Wilkin, Simon (ed.). Sir Thomas Browne's Works: Repertorium. A letter to a friend. Christian morals. Certain miscellany tracts. Unpublished papers. W. Pickering. p. 18. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
- ^ https://norwichhistory.blogspot.com/2021/03/his-works-his-monument-final-resting.html
- ^ https://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/22379479.story-delinquent-bishop-norwich/
- ^ https://www.edp24.co.uk/lifestyle/21145456.mystery-lost-norwich-bishop-laid-rest/
- ^ Papy 2004.
- ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 847
- ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 847 cites Notes and Queries 3rd series, xii. 436.
- ^ Salzman 2002, p. 39.
- ^ Perry 1890, p. 76.
- ^ Bremer & Webster 2006, p. 216.
- ^ Horn, Joyce M. (1964), Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300–1541, vol. 9, pp. 15–17
- ^ Perry 1890, p. 79.
- ^ The Halls of New England: Genealogical and Biographical by Rev. David B. Hall, A. M. 1887
- ^ Jones, John (1826). Bishop Hall, his life and times, or, Memoirs of the life, writings, and sufferings, of the Right Rev. Joseph Hall, D.D. successively Bishop of Exeter and Norwich : with a view of the times in which he lived, and an appendix containing some of his unpublished writings, his funeral sermon, &c. London: LB Seely. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
Sources
- Bremer, Francis J.; Webster, Tom (2006). "Hall, Joseph (1574-1656)". Puritans and Puritanism in Europe and America: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia. p. 117.
- Bryant, Barry E. (2000). Mattei, Michael (ed.). "Molina, Arminois, Plaifere, Goad, and Wesley on human free-will, divine omniscience, and middle knowledge". Wesley Center for Applied Theology at Northwest Nazarene University. Archived from the original on 12 May 2008.
- Chew, Audrey (December 1950). "Joseph Hall and Neo-Stoicism".
PMLA. 65 (6): 1130–1145.- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- "Hall, Joseph (HL588J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- "Gilbey, Nathaniel (GLBY582N)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- Milton, Anthony (2002). Catholic and Reformed: The Roman and Protestant Churches in English Protestant Thought, 1600–1640. p. 398.
- Norwich, Joseph Hall, Bishop of (1808). The works of ... Joseph Hall, with some account of his life and sufferings, written by himself, arranged and revised by J. Pratt. p. 145.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)- Papy, Jan (23 August 2004). "Justus Lipsius". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
- Parry, Graham (1981). The Golden Age Restor'd. pp. 232–235.
ISBN 9780312331948.- Patterson, W.B. (1997). King James VI and I and the Reunion of Christendom. pp. 252–253.
Perry, George Gresley (1890). "Hall, Joseph". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co.- Salzman, Paul (2002). "Narrative Contexts for Bacon's New Atlantis". In Price, Bronwen (ed.). Francis Bacon's New Atlantis: New interdisciplinary essays. p. 39.
ISBN 9780300056884.- Trevor-Roper, Hugh (1967). Religion, the Reformation and Social Change. p. 256.
ISBN 9781842122020.Further reading
- Berwick, David A. (2012). The Divine 'Delinquent': Bishop Hall of Norwich. Norwich: David A. Berwick.
ISBN 978-0-9572591-0-2.- Hall, David B. (1883). The Halls of New England: Genealogical and Biographical. Albany, New York: Joel Munsell's Sons. p. 715.
OCLC 27325033.- Hall, Joseph (1808). .
ISBN 9780140050660.- McCabe, Richard Anthony (1982). Joseph Hall: a Study in Satire and Meditation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
OCLC 1015088097.- McCabe, Richard Anthony (2008). "Hall, Joseph (1574–1656)".
doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/11976. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)- McCrea, Adriana (1997). Constant Minds: Political Virtue and the Lipsian Paradigm in England, 1584–1650. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 176, 194–196.
ISBN 978-08020-0-666-0.- Wright, Stephen (2008). "Knight, William (d. 1615/1616)".
doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/15739. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)External links
- Works by Joseph Hall at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Joseph Hall at Internet Archive
- Ian Laurenson. Mundus Alter Et Idem: A Satirical Utopia in The La Trobe Library
- Contemplations on the Historical Passages of the Old and New Testaments reprinted 1868
- Portraits of Hall from the website of the National Portrait Gallery, London