John Earle (bishop)

The Right Reverend

John Earle
The Right Reverend; John Earle
Bishop of Salisbury
	Portrait of John Earle, circa 1660
Installed	1663
Term ended	1665
Predecessor	Humphrey Henchman
Successor	Alexander Hyde
Other post(s)	Bishop of Worcester
Orders
Consecration	30 November 1662; by Gilbert Sheldon
Personal details
Born	1601; York, England
Died	17 November 1665; Oxford
Denomination	Church of England
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford

John Earle (c. 1601 – 17 November 1665) was an English cleric, author and translator, who was chaplain to Charles II. Towards the end of his life he was Bishop of Worcester and then Salisbury.

Life

He was born at York, but the exact date is unknown. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, but moved to Merton, where he obtained a fellowship. In 1631 he was proctor and also chaplain to Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke, then chancellor of the university, which led in 1639 to incumbency of the rectory of Bishopston^[1] in Wiltshire.^[2]

His fame spread, and in 1641 he was appointed chaplain and tutor to the future Charles II of England. In 1643 he was elected one of the Westminster Assembly, but his sympathies with Charles I of England and with the Anglican Communion were so strong that he declined to sit. Early in 1643 he was chosen chancellor of Salisbury Cathedral, but he was soon deprived of this position as a "malignant." After the final Royalist defeat at the Battle of Worcester, Earle went abroad, and was made Clerk of the Closet (1651–1664) and chaplain to his former student Charles II.^[2]

He spent a year at Antwerp in the house of Izaak Walton's friend, George Morley. He then joined the Duke of York (the future James II) in Paris, returning to England at the Restoration. He was appointed dean of Westminster, and in 1661 was one of the commissioners for revising the liturgy. He was on friendly terms with Richard Baxter. In November 1662 he was consecrated Bishop of Worcester, and was translated, ten months later, to the see of Salisbury, where he conciliated the nonconformists. He was strongly opposed to the Conventicle Act and Five Mile Act. During the Great Plague of London in 1665 – 1666, Earle attended to Charles II and his Queen consort Catherine of Braganza at Oxford, and there he died.^[2]

Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, in his Life, wrote "Dr Earle was a man of great piety and devotion, a most eloquent and powerful preacher, and of a conversation so pleasant and delightful, so very innocent, and so very facetious, that no man’s company was more desired and loved. No man was more negligent in his dress and habit and mien, no man more wary and cultivated in his behaviour and discourse. He was very dear to the Lord Falkland, with whom he spent as much time as he could make his own."^[2]

Works

Earle's chief title to remembrance is his witty and humorous work, Microcosmographie, or a Peece of the World discovered, in Essayes and Characters, which throws light on the manners of the time. First published anonymously in 1628, it became very popular, and ran through ten editions in the lifetime of the author. The style is quaint and epigrammatic: "A university dunner is a gentlemen follower cheaply purchased, for his own money has hyr'd him." Several reprints of the book have been issued since the author's death; and in 1671 a French translation by James Dymocke appeared with the title of Le Vice ridicule.^[2]

Earle was employed by Charles II to make the Latin translation of the Eikon Basilike, published in 1649. A similar translation of Richard Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity was accidentally destroyed.^[2]

Notes

^ Baggs, A. P.; Critall, Elizabeth; Freeman, Jane; Stevenson, Janet H. (1980). "Parishes: Bishopstone". In Crowley, D. A. (ed.). A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 11. Victoria County History. University of London. pp. 3–19. Retrieved 12 January 2022 – via British History Online.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Earle, John". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 796.

References

Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1888). "Earle, John (1601?-1665)" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 16. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
Spurr, John. "Earle, John (1598x1601–1665)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8400. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

External links

Church of England titles
Preceded by Richard Steward	Dean of Westminster 1660–1662	Succeeded by John Dolben
Preceded by John Gauden	Bishop of Worcester 1662–1663	Succeeded by Robert Skinner
Preceded by Humphrey Henchman	Bishop of Salisbury 1663–1665	Succeeded by Alexander Hyde

[1] Baggs, A. P.; Critall, Elizabeth; Freeman, Jane; Stevenson, Janet H. (1980). "Parishes: Bishopstone". In Crowley, D. A. (ed.). A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 11. Victoria County History. University of London. pp. 3–19. Retrieved 12 January 2022 – via British History Online.

[EB1911-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Earle, John". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 796.

[1]

[2]

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Early modern	Silvestro de' Gigli Girolamo Ghinucci Hugh Latimer John Bell Nicholas Heath John Hooper, Bishop of Worcester and Gloucester Nicholas Heath Richard Pate Edwin Sandys Nicholas Bullingham John Whitgift Edmund Freke Richard Fletcher Thomas Bilson Gervase Babington Henry Parry John Thornborough John Prideaux Episcopacy abolished (Commonwealth) George Morley John Gauden John Earle Robert Skinner Walter Blandford James Fleetwood William Thomas Edward Stillingfleet William Lloyd John Hough Isaac Maddox James Johnson Brownlow North Richard Hurd
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see at Sherborne	see erected from Winchester St Aldhelm Forthhere Herewald Æthelmod Denefrith Wigberht Eahlstan St Heahmund Æthelheah Wulfsige Asser Æthelweard Wærstan Æthelbald Sigehelm Alfred Wulfsige II Ælfwold I Æthelsige I Wulfsige III Æthelric Æthelsige II Brithwine I Ælfmær Brithwine II St Ælfwold II Herman see united with Ramsbury and removed to Old Sarum
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