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{{Short description|Anglican bishop in Ireland}}
{{other people}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| type = Bishop
| name = John Bale
| image = Bale1.JPG
| church = [[Church of Ireland]]
| see = [[Bishop of Ossory|Ossory]]
| appointed = 22 October 1552
| enthroned = 2 February 1553
| ended = September 1553
| predecessor = Milo Baron, [[Order of Saint Augustine|OSA]]
| opposed = 
| successor = John Tonory, [[Order of Saint Augustine|OSA]]
| other_post = <!---------- Personal details ---------->
| birth_date = 21 November 1495
| birth_place = [[Covehithe]], [[Suffolk]], [[Kingdom of England]]
| death_date = November 1563 (aged 67-68)
| death_place = [[Canterbury]], [[Kent]], Kingdom of England
| nationality = [[England|English]]
| religion = [[Catholic Church]], [[Protestant]] [[Christianity]]
| occupation = Churchman, historian and controversialist.  Wrote ''Illustrium majoris Britanniae scriptorum, hoc est, Angliae, Cambriae, ac Scotiae Summarium'' (1548&ndash;49)
| alma_mater = [[Jesus College, Cambridge]]
| honorific_prefix = [[The Right Reverend]]
| consecration = 2 February 1553
| consecrated_by = [[George Browne (archbishop of Dublin)|George Browne]]
}}

'''John Bale''' (21 November 1495 – November 1563) was an English churchman, historian controversialist, and [[Bishop of Ossory]] in [[Ireland]]. He wrote the oldest known historical [[verse drama]] in English (on the subject of [[King John of England|King John]]), and developed and published a very extensive list of the works of British authors down to his own time, just as the monastic libraries were being dispersed. His contention that [[Joseph of Arimathea]] had brought a  proto-Protestant faith to Britain that was purer than [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]] was to have far-reaching ramifications; but his unhappy disposition and habit of quarrelling earned him the nickname "bilious Bale".

== Outline of his life ==
He was born at [[Covehithe]], near [[Dunwich]] in [[Suffolk]].<ref>The core of this article is taken from the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' of 1911 (see {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Bale, John}}). A short biographical outline is in [[Alfred W. Pollard]] (Ed.), ''English Miracle Plays, Moralities and Interludes'' (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1914), 218-219. See also ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]''.</ref> At the age of twelve he joined the [[Carmelite]] [[friars]] at [[Norwich]], removing later to the house of "Holme", (possibly the [[Carmelites|Carmelite]] [[Hulne Priory]] near [[Alnwick]] in [[Northumberland]]). Later he entered [[Jesus College, Cambridge]], and took his degree of B.D. in 1529.<ref>{{acad|id=BL528J|name=Bale, John}}</ref>

He became the last Prior of the [[Ipswich Whitefriars|Ipswich Carmelite]] house, elected in 1533.<ref>B. Zimmerman, 1899, '[[Ipswich Whitefriars|The White Friars at Ipswich]],' ''Proc. Suffolk Institute of Archaeology'' 10 Part 2, 199.</ref> He abandoned his monastic vocation, and got married, saying, "that I might never more serve so execrable a beast, I took to wife the faithful Dorothy". He obtained the living of [[Thorndon, Suffolk]], but in 1534 was summoned before the [[Archbishop of York]] for a sermon against the invocation of saints preached at [[Doncaster]], and afterwards before [[John Stokesley]], [[Bishop of London]], but he escaped through the powerful protection of [[Thomas Cromwell]], whose notice he is said to have attracted by his [[miracle play]]s.

In these plays, Bale denounced the monastic system and its supporters in unrestrained language and coarse imagery. The prayer of ''Infidelitas'' which opens the second act of his ''Three Laws'' is an example of his profane parody. These somewhat brutal productions were intended to impress popular feeling, and Cromwell found in him an invaluable instrument. When Cromwell fell from favour in 1540, Bale fled with his wife and children to [[Antwerp]]. He returned on the accession of King [[Edward VI of England|Edward VI]], and received the living of [[Bishopstoke]], [[Hampshire]], being promoted in 1552 to the Irish see of [[Bishop of Ossory|Ossory]]. He refused to be consecrated by the [[Roman Catholic]] rites of the Irish church, and won his point, though the Dean of [[Dublin]] made a protest against the revised office during the ceremony. He also quarrelled bitterly with the aged and respected judge [[Thomas St. Lawrence (judge)|Thomas St. Lawrence]], who travelled to [[Kilkenny]] to urge the people to reject his innovations.

When the accession of [[Mary I of England|Queen Mary]] inaugurated a violent reaction in matters of religion, he was forced to get out of the country again. He tried to escape to Scotland, but on the voyage was captured by a [[Netherlands|Dutch]] man-of-war, which was driven by bad weather into [[St Ives, Cornwall]]. Bale was arrested on suspicion of [[treason]], but soon released. At [[Dover, England|Dover]] he had another narrow escape, but he eventually made his way to the Netherlands and thence to [[Frankfurt]] and [[Basel]].  Bale's intent in his autobiographical ''Vocacyon'' was to write a polemical account of his escape from Ireland in parallel with the life of [[St Paul]].<ref name=Phillpott>[https://reviews.history.ac.uk/review/1175 Phillpott, Matt. Review of The many lives of John Bale, (review no. 1175), Reviews in History]</ref>  Although ''Vocacyon'' is a broadly true account, Bale possessed a "self-dramatizing tendency".<ref name=Phillpott/>

During his exile, he devoted himself to writing. After his return, on the accession of [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth I]], he received (1560) a [[prebendal stall]] at [[Canterbury]], where he died and was buried in the cathedral.

== Mysteries, Miracle Plays, ''Kynge Johan'' ==
John Bale attacked his enemies with vehemence and scurrility, much of which was directed strongly and forcibly against the [[Roman Catholic]] Church and its writers: but this cavil does not significantly diminish the value of his contributions to literature. (The Roman Catholic sympathiser and antiquary [[Anthony Wood (antiquary)|Anthony Wood]], a man of "uncouth manners" and a condemned libeller, described him as "foul-mouthed Bale" a century afterwards.) Of his mysteries and [[miracle plays]] only five have been preserved, but the titles of the others, quoted by himself in his ''Catalogus'', show that they were animated by the same political and religious aims. The ''Three Laws of [[Nature]], [[Moses]] and Christ, corrupted by the [[Sodom and Gomorrah|Sodomytes]], [[Pharisees]] and [[Papist|Papystes]] most wicked''<ref>Printed in ''Anglia'', Bd. v.: source cited in Pollard 1914, 219.</ref> (produced in 1538 and again in 1562) was a [[morality play]]. The direction for the dressing of the parts is instructive: "Let [[Idolatry]] be decked like an old witch, [[Sodomy]] like a monk of all sects, Ambition like a bishop, [[Seven deadly sins#Greed|Covetousness]] like a Pharisee or spiritual lawyer, False Doctrine like a popish doctor, and [[Hypocrisy]] like a gray friar." {{lang|enm|A Tragedye; or enterlude manifesting the chief promyses of God unto Man}},<ref>Printed in [[Robert Dodsley]], ''Select Collection of Old Plays'' (12 vols., 1744; 2nd edition with notes by [[Isaac Reed]], 12 vols., 1780; 4th edition, by [[William Carew Hazlitt]], 1874–1876, 15 vols.), volume 1.</ref> ''The Temptacyon of our Lorde'',<ref>[[Alexander Balloch Grosart|A. B. Grosart]] (Ed.), 1870, ''Miscellanies of the Fuller Worthies Library'', vol. i.</ref> and {{lang|enm|A brefe Comedy or Enterlude of [[John the Baptist|Johan Baptystes]] preachynge in the Wyldernesse, etc.}}<ref>''[[Harleian Miscellany]]'' volume i.</ref> were all written in 1538.

===''Kynge Johan''===
{{main|King Johan}}
Bale is a figure of some literary-dramatic importance as the author of ''Kynge Johan'' ({{circa|1538}}),<ref>J. P. Collier (Ed.), ''John Bale's "The Tragycall Historie of Kynge Johan"'', ([[Camden Society]], 1838). See a long extract in Pollard 1914, 146-154.</ref> which marks the transition between the old [[morality play]] and the English [[historical drama]]. It does not appear to have directly influenced the creators of the chronicle histories (such as ''[[The Troublesome Reign of King John]]'' (1591)), but it is remarkable that such a developed attempt at historical drama should have been made twenty-three years before the production of ''[[Gorboduc (play)|Gorboduc]]'' in 1561. ''Kynge Johan'' is itself a polemic against the Roman Catholic Church. [[John I of England|King John]] is represented as the champion of English church rites against the [[Holy See]].

== Summary of the Famous Writers of Great Britain ==
Bale's most important work is ''Illustrium Maioris Britanniae scriptorum, hoc est, Angliae, Cambriae ac Scotiae summarium'' ("Summary of the Famous Writers of Great Britain, that is, of England, Wales and Scotland"), published at [[Ipswich]] by John Overton in 1548,<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Balaeus |author-first=Ioannes |date=1548 |title=Illustrium Maioris Britanniae scriptorum, hoc est, Angliae, Cambriae ac Scotiae summarium |language=la |publication-place=[[Ipswich|Gippeswici]]<!--fictitious place?--> |publisher=per Ioannem Overton<!--fictitious publisher?--> |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dWFUAAAAcAAJ}}</ref> and at [[Wesel]] by Derick van der Straten in 1549. This first edition contains authors through five centuries. Another edition, almost entirely rewritten and containing fourteen centuries, was printed at [[Basel]] by [[Johannes Oporinus]] with the title ''Scriptorum illustrium Maioris Brytanniae, quam nunc Angliam & Scotiam vocant, catalogus'' ("Catalogue of the Famous Writers of Great Britain, which now they call England and Scotland") in 1557,<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Baleus |author-first=Ioannes |date=1557 |title=Scriptorum illustrium Maioris Brytanniae, quam nunc Angliam & Scotiam vocant, catalogus |language=la |publication-place=Basileae |publisher=apud Ioannem Oporinum |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3BtPAAAAcAAJ&pg=PP7}}</ref> completed by a latter part in 1559.<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Baleus |author-first=Ioannes |date=1559 |title=Scriptorum illustrium Maioris Brytanniae posterior pars, quinque continens centurias ultimas |language=la |publication-place=Basileae |publisher=apud [[Johannes Oporinus|Ioannem Oporinum]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4xFhAAAAcAAJ}}</ref>

This chronological catalogue of British authors and their works was partly founded on the ''De uiris illustribus'' of [[John Leland (antiquary)|John Leland]]. Bale was an indefatigable collector and worker, and personally examined many of the valuable libraries of the [[Augustinians|Augustinian]] and [[Carmelite]] houses before their [[Dissolution of the Monasteries|dissolution]]. His work contains much information that would otherwise have been hopelessly lost. His autograph note-book is preserved in the [[John Selden|Selden Collection]] of the [[Bodleian Library]], [[Oxford]]. It contains the materials collected for his two published catalogues arranged alphabetically, without enlargement on them nor the personal remarks which colour the completed work. He includes the sources for his information.<ref>Critical annotated edition: [[Reginald Lane Poole]] and Mary Bateson, ''Index Britanniae Scriptorum quos... collegit Ioannes Baleus'' ([[Clarendon Press]], 1902), ''Anecdota Oxoniensia'', Part IX.</ref> He noted: "I have bene also at Norwyche, our second citye of name, and there all the library monuments are turned to the use of their grossers, candelmakers, sopesellers, and other worldly occupyers... As much have I saved there and in certen other places in [[Norfolk|Northfolke]] and [[Suffolk|Southfolke]] concerning the authors names and titles of their workes, as I could, and as much wold I have done throughout the whole realm, yf I had been able to have borne the charges, as I am not."

== Other writings and catalogues ==
John Bale's written works are listed in ''Athenae Cantabrigienses.''<ref>''Athenae Cantabrigienses'', Vol. i. pp. 227 ff.</ref> While in Germany he published an attack on the monastic system entitled ''The Actes of Englysh Votaries'',<ref>cit. in Pollard 1914, 219.</ref> three ''Lives'' as ''The Examinations of [[Sir John Oldcastle|Lord Cobham]], William Thorpe and Anne Askewe, &c'',<ref>Edited by [[Henry Christmas]] for the [[Parker Society]] in 1849.</ref> and the ''Pageant of Popes''. ''The Actes of Englysh Votaries'' is chiefly significant for its appropriation of the legend of [[Joseph of Arimathea]] for the Protestant cause. Joseph's alleged early arrival in Britain had already been gleefully exploited by theologians and diplomats to enhance  English claims to precedence. Bale's innovation was to contend that the faith which Joseph brought, was also purer than that of Rome: "the Brytaynes toke the christen faythe at the verye sprynge or fyrst goynge forth of the Gospell, whan the churche was most perfyght, and had most strengthe of the holye ghost". It was a claim that was enthusiastically taken up by English Protestants, including Queen [[Elizabeth I|Elizabeth]].<ref>Stout, Adam (2020) ''Glastonbury Holy Thorn: Story of a Legend'' Green & Pleasant Publishing, pp. 23–24  {{ISBN| 978-1-9162686-1-6}}</ref> While Rector of Bishopstoke he produced ''The Image of Both Churches'', and after his stormy association with Ossory he printed an account of his "Vocacyon" to that see.<ref>Pollard 1914, 219.</ref> ''The Resurreccion of the Masse'', purporting to be written by one Hugh Hilarie, is generally attributed to Bale.<ref>Christina Garrett, 'The Resurreccion of the masse: By Hugh Hilarie—or John Bale (?)', The Library, 4th series, xxi (1940–41), pp. 143–159.</ref><ref>Rainer Pineas, 'The Authorship of The Resurreccion of the Masse', 5 Library XVI (1961), 210–213.</ref><ref>Rainer Pineas, 'The English Morality Play as a Weapon of Religious Controversy', in 'SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900', Vol. 2, No. 2, Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama (Spring, 1962), pp. 157-180.</ref><ref>Rainer Pineas, 'John Bale's Nondramatic Works of Religious Controversy' in 'Studies in the Renaissance', Vol. 9 (1962), pp. 218–233.</ref>

[[John Pitts (Catholic scholar)|John Pitts]] or Pitseus (1560–1616), an English [[Roman Catholic]] exile, founded on Bale's work his ''Relationum historicarum de rebus anglicis tomus primus'' (Paris, 1619), better known by its running title of ''De Illustribus Angliae scriptoribus''. This is really the fourth book of a more extensive work. He omits the [[John Wycliffe|Wycliffite]] and [[Protestant]] divines mentioned by Bale, and the most valuable section is the ''lives'' of the Roman Catholic exiles resident in [[Douai]] and other French towns. He asserts (''Nota de Joanne Bale'') that Bale's ''Catalogus'' was a misrepresentation of [[John Leland (antiquary)|John Leland]]'s work, though in all likelihood he only knew Leland's work through his reading of Bale.

===''The Image of Both Churches''===

'''''The Image of Both Churches''''' was published by John Bale in 1545, and is a detailed commentary on the [[Book of Revelation]], the last book in the Christian Bible. Bale proceeded by taking short passages and following with a detailed paraphrase to explain the meaning and significance of such things as the opening of the seven seals, the first beast, the second beast with two horns, the blowing of the trumpets, and the going forth of the horsemen. Of central concern was the correct identification of the [[Antichrist]].

Bale's central thesis is that the Book of Revelation is a prophecy of how God's word and those who love it (the "saints") would fare at the hands of men and a false Church during the last age, meaning the time between the [[ascension of Jesus]] and the end of the world.

Bale identified two types of churches. First, there was a false church, or Church of Antichrist, which persecutes those who do not bow to its dictates. He did not entirely limit his criticism to the Roman Church but, typical of the Puritans, accused also the young [[Church of England]]. By contrast, the "true Church" loves and teaches God's word truly. He also speaks critically of the Church of Mohammed ("Mahomet"): its tyranny over the people (the "Turks") and persecution of the saints.

==In popular culture==
He is the central figure in the 1988 novel ''Books of Bale'' by the novelist and playwright [[John Arden]]. He also appears in [[C. J. Sansom]]'s quasi-historical novel, ''[[Lamentation (novel)|Lamentation]]'' set in the last part of [[Henry VIII]]'s reign.

==See also==
* [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]]
* ''[[Foxe's Book of Martyrs]]''
* [[Carmelites]]
* [[Ipswich Whitefriars]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Graham, Timothy and Andrew G. Watson (1998). ''The Recovery of the Past in Early Elizabethan England: Documents by John Bale and John Joscelyn from the Circle of Matthew Parker'' (Cambridge Bibliographical Society Monograph 13). Cambridge: Cambridge Bibliographical Society.
*{{Cite book|editor=Carley, James P. |title=De uiris illustribus: On Famous Men |location=Toronto and Oxford |year=2010 }} (esp. introduction).

== External links ==
*{{cite DNB|wstitle=Bale, John}}
*{{Internet Archive author |sname=John Bale}}
*{{PRDL|3869}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bale, John}}
[[Category:1495 births]]
[[Category:1563 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Waveney District]]
[[Category:Carmelites]]
[[Category:16th-century English Roman Catholic priests]]
[[Category:Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Converts to Anglicanism from Roman Catholicism]]
[[Category:Former members of Catholic religious institutes]]
[[Category:16th-century English historians]]
[[Category:English male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:16th-century Anglican bishops in Ireland]]
[[Category:Anglican bishops of Ossory]]
[[Category:16th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:16th-century English dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:English male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Burials at Canterbury Cathedral]]
[[Category:Clergy from Suffolk]]
[[Category:16th-century English theologians]]
[[Category:16th-century Anglican theologians]]
[[Category:Marian exiles]]