Or that prelate of the Irish church, whose critical powers were so well employed, in the eventful period of the Reformation, in detecting and exposing Romish frauds and errors, that he gained more credit for labour in this respect than Luther or Vergerio, some account, though limited, may be desirable. John, the son of Henry and Margaret Bale, was born Nov. 21, 1495, at the little village of Cove, near Dunwich, in Suffolk. His parents were in poor circumstances, but found means to send him for the purpose of study to a carmelite convent in Norwich, and to Jesus College, at Cambridge. He afterwards became a sincere convert to the reformed doctrine, and the manner in which he des cribes this change, though somewhat antiquated, shows a spiritual frame and an enlightened understanding.

I wandered in utter ignorance and blindness of mind both at Norwich and at Cambridge, having no, tutor or patron; till, the word of God shining forth, the churches began to return to the pure fountains of true divinity. In which bright rising of the New Jerusalem, being not called by any monk or priest, but seriously stirred up by the illustrious the Lord Wentworth, as by that Centurion who declared Christ to be the Son of God, I presently saw and acknowledged my own deformity, and immediately through the divine goodness, I was

NOV. 1827.

removed from a barren mountain to the flowery and fertile valley of the Gospel, where I found all things built, not on the sand, but on a solid rock. Hence I made haste to deface the mark of wicked Antichrist, and entirely threw off his yoke from me, that I might be partaker of the lot and liberty of the sons of God.'

Convinced that the obligation to lead a single life, enjoined on the Romish clergy, had no foundation in Scripture, he married a pious and amiable lady, whose conjugal attentions through a long course of trials, which he was called to experience from his attachment to a purer faith, proved that in his case, as well as in many others, "a prudent wife is from the Lord." He was much persecuted by those ecclesiastics with whom he had been acquainted before his conversion, and who from conscientious or interested motives, still adhered to the old system; but the protection of Lord Thomas Cromwell, to whom, with the title of Vice-gerent, Henry the Eighth had delegated the supremacy in church matters which he had wrested from the Pope, secured him from the more violent effects of their resentment. But the fall of that nobleman, which put an end to the office of vicegerency, because none of the reforming party chose to succeed to a station so obnoxious and dangerous, from the character of the monarch and the fluctuation of the times, was an event that

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altered the circumstances of such ministers as favoured the new tenets. The opposers of reformation gained strength at Court. The influence of Cromwell had prevented the full operation of the statute of the Six Articles, passed in 1539, which enforced by the severest penalties many doctrines and practices of popery; but that check was no sooner withdrawn, than their indignation burst forth with augmented violence. Doctor Bale effected his retreat into the Low Countries, where he resided seven or eight years, exercising his pen against the Romish superstitions.

He was recalled to England by King Edward the Sixth, and presented to the living of Bishopstoke, in the county of Southampton, where his friendship was cultivated by Poynet, the worthy diocesan of Winchester. Here he lived in great retirement, giving himself up to the duties of his parish. When the young monarch visited Southampton in the year 1552, he was surprised by a sight of the Doctor, who he had been informed was dead, but who had come over from his parsonage, about five miles distant, to offer his duty to his Sovereign. His majesty had a high respect for the learning, piety, and judgment of Bale, and signified his pleasure to the privy-council, to bestow on him the vacant bishopric of Ossory, in Ireland. When he was summoned to attend the Court to receive this token of the royal favour, he declined the offer on account of his age and infirmities, but the King would not admit his excuses, and he went to London about six weeks after, where his election and confirmation were soon dispatched, and without cost, in consideration of his narrow circumstances. On the nineteenth of December he set out for Bristol, where he waited twenty-six days for a passage to Ireland, and embarking with his wife and one servant, arrived in two days at Waterford, whence he departed for Dublin. On

the twenty-fifth of the following March, he was consecrated by the Archbishop of Dublin, assisted by the Bishops of Kildare and Down ; his friend Goodacre being consecrated at the same time to the Archbishopric of Armagh.

Feeling much compassion for the ignorance of the people, he was a frequent and zealous preacher of the gospel of salvation, while he expended nearly the whole of his episcopal revenue in acts of piety and beneficence. But the state of the country rendered it peculiarly unfavourable to the reception of religious truth. His charity and integrity had but little effect in conciliating the natives, encouraged in their opposition by stubborn and bigoted superiors; and though God put honour on his faithful testimony, by bringing many of his hearers to an acquaintance with the word of life, yet he was the object of bitter hatred to the surrounding priesthood, the majority of whom were immersed in profligacy and superstition, and who were irritated at his endeavours to abolish the mass, and introduce the new book of common prayer. On the death of Edward and the accession of Mary, the papists gave a loose to their enmity against their protestant neighbours, and the life of the bishop was frequently endangered. On one occasion, they murdered five of his domestics, who were making hay in a meadow near his house, and would probably have completed the scene of carnage by the assassination of their master, had not the governor of Kilkenny received instant intelligence of the outrage, and galloped off to his assistance with a hundred horse, and a detachment of three hundred foot.

But though he providentially escaped from this attack of the rude peasantry, yet he was so well ascertained of the machinations of the priests, who were conspiring his death, that he withdrew from his

see, and concealed himself in Dublin. Afterwards, endeavouring to make his escape in a small trading vessel, he was taken prisoner by the captain of a Dutch man of war, who rifled him of his money, apparel, and effects. This trial was followed by another still more alarming; for, when the ship was driven through stress of weather into St. Ives, on the Cornish coast, the bishop was apprehended on suspicion of treason, the Irish pilot, who was an unprincipled character, lodging an accusation against him, in hope of sharing the money which had fallen into the hands of the captain. The charge, however, was so preposterous, as not to admit a shadow of support; for on the examination before one of the bailiffs of the town, the pilot was asked on what ground he made it, and knew not what to answer. The bishop having requested the magistrate to demand of his accuser how long he had known him, and of what practices against the government he was presumed to be guilty, that officer put the question in the following shape; "What treason have you known by this honest gentleman? for I promise you he looks like an honest man." "Marry," replied Walter, "he would have fled into Scotland."

Why," said the Bailiff, "know you any impediment why he should not have gone into Scotland? If it be treason for a man, having business in Scotland, to go thither, it is more than I knew before.' The captain and purser entering the room as the examination was prosecuting, deposed in his favour, assuring the bailiff that he was a very honest man as far as they had had an opportunity of knowing him, and that the pilot was totally undeserving of credit. In this event the divine providence was exerted in the release of a servant of God, by overruling the designs of wicked men, and making one plan of dishonesty counteract another; the captain himself carnestly desiring

to put a stop to the investigation, lest the money he had so unjustly obtained should be taken from him.

On the arrival of the same vessel in Dover roads, another false accusation awaited the bishop. Martin, a Frenchman by birth, but an English pirate, persuaded the Dutch captain and his crew, that Bale had been the principal instrument in effecting the abolition of the mass, and in procuring the lengthened detention of the popish champion, Dr. Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, in the Tower of London; adding withal, that he had poisoned the King. Notwithstanding the gross improbability of these charges, especially the latter, in an age when every fabrication was entertained with willing ear, which could by any possibility implicate a Protestant, credit was affected to be given to them. The captain and purser, receiving this information, went ashore, carrying with them the bishop's seal, and two letters sent him from Conrad Gesner and Alexander Ellis, with commendations from several German and Swiss reformers, who desired information on the doctrines and antiquities of the English Church. They also took from him the letter from the council, concerning his appointment to the See of Ossory. It is dif ficult to conceive what confirmation such articles could give to the abominable charges brought against him. Owing, however, to the united influence of ignorance and ill-will, the episcopal seal was construed to be a counterfeiting of the royal signet, the two letters were declared to be manifestly heretical, and the official document bearing the signatures of eight members of his late Majesty's privy council, was adjudged to bear so suspicious an appearance, that it looked very like a conspiracy against the reigning Sovereign. When the Captain returned to his ship, a consultation was held as to the better mode of proceeding with regard to the

person accused of such weighty crimes; and after a discussion on the expediency of carrying the Bishop at once to London, it was resolved to dispatch the purser, and another individual as a witness, with a message to the government. This resolution was at length abandoned, on a strong remonstrance from the injured Prelate, and his consent to pay fifty pounds for his ransom, on his arrival in Holland.

He was conveyed to Zealand, and lodged in apartments belonging to one of the owners of the vessel, who seems to have been an humane person, and who treated him with much kindness. His situation, nevertheless, was perplexing, as only twenty-six days were allowed him for raising the sum agreed to be paid for his ransom, and he was not permitted to quit the place of his confinement to seek his friends and make the necessary arrangements. Meanwhile, as a suspected character, he was sometimes threatened to be thrown into the common goal, sometimes to be brought before the magistrates, sometimes to be left to the examination of the clergy, sometimes to be sent to London, or given up to the British Ambassador at Brussels. It pleased God in this extremity to raise him up a friend in his kind host, who interceded with the captain in his behalf, representing in just colours the unwarrantable nature of his conduct in detaining a subject of the English crown, with which the Dutch were at peace. This argument so far prevailed with the Captain, that he was persuaded to take only thirty pounds for the Bishop's ransom, as he should be able to pay, and so to discharge him. He then retired to Basle in Switzerland, where he continued during the reign of Queen Mary.

It appears from divers passages in his prefatory epistles and dedications, that he found solid satisfaction in the intercourse which he maintained with the reforming

divines and scholars on the Continent. On the accession of Elizabeth he returned to England; but whether he had imbibed some prejudice against episcopacy, or that circumstances hindered the resumption of his See, he contented him. self with a prebendal stall in the Cathedral Church at Canterbury, to which he was promoted on the fifteenth of January 1560, and died in that city in November 1563.

He is chiefly known as an author by an historical work, which he dedicated to good King Edward VI. first published at Wesel, in 1549, and afterwards enlarged at Basle, in 1557. It contains the lives of the most eminent writers of Great Britain; but curiously commences from the immediate post-diluvians. It consists of nine centuries of authors, and was written with this particular view;" That the actions of the reprobate as well as the elect ministers of the Church may historically and aptly correspond with the mysteries described in the Revelation, the stars, angels, horses, trumpets, thunderings, heads, horns, mountains, vials, and plagues, through every age of the same Church." There are Appendices to many of the Articles; also an account of such actions of the cotemporary Popes as are omitted by their flatterers; together with the actions of the Monks, especially the mendicants, whom he considers the locusts of the Apocalypse. To these Appendices is added a perpetual succession both of the holy fathers, and Antichrists of the Church, &c. &c. He wrote between thirty and forty minor works, most of which attacked popish errors, and one was directed against Carpers and Traducers." His style was often too sarcastic and acrimonious for one who ought always to have remembered that his blessed master "endured the contradiction of sinners against himself," and whose heart was full of compassion while he testified against the iniquity of the world.