John Bale

John Bale

John Bale (born November 21, 1495 in Cove near Dunwich , Suffolk , † November 1563 in Canterbury , Kent ) was an English clergyman and playwright . He is considered to be one of the first to write the historical drama .

At the age of 12 he came to the Carmelite Convent in Norwich and later went to the Jesus College in Cambridge , where he graduated in 1529. He showed himself more and more as a declared opponent of the Roman Catholic Church , which often led him to questioning his bishops.

Bale represented his point of view in his sermons, but also in mystery plays , some of which are drastic parodies of the monarchy and the church. At that time was Thomas Cromwell under King Henry VIII. In charge of church affairs ( Vizegerent ) and a supporter of the independence of the English church from Rome. Cromwell saw Bale as a useful tool for spreading his ideas and protecting him from attacks by the clergy.

After Cromwell's execution on July 28, 1540, his followers, including Bale, had to flee. Bale went to Flanders with his family and did not return until King Edward VI ascended the throne . Back in 1548. He became Bishop of Ossory in Ireland in 1552 and had to flee again after Edward's death in 1553. He tried to escape to Scotland , fell into the hands of a Dutch adventurer who was shipwrecked on the English coast, so that Bale was imprisoned and charged with treason. After his release, he fled to Basel via Frankfurt am Main . During these trips he wrote.

After Queen Elizabeth I's accession to the throne , he returned and got a job in Canterbury, Kent. John Bale died in Canterbury in November 1563.

Bale's most important work is the Illustrium majoris Britanniae scriptorum, hoc est, Angliae, Cambriae, ac Scotiae Summarium ... ( Ipswich and Wesel , 1548, 1549), which spans five centuries of British history.

Other works

He attacked the papacy in dramatic poems, four of which (printed outside England in 1538) are better known, notably Gods promises an Old Testament stiff mystery play , and the very violent Temptation of our Lord .

According to his own statement, he wrote a total of 19 pieces, most of which have therefore been lost. The drama Kynge Johan (London 1838), only recently made famous by Collier, is remarkable because of its mixture of story and allegory .

literature

• Peter Happé: John Bale. New York: Twayne [u. a.] 1996, ISBN 0-8057-7048-8 (English)
• Klaus Sperk: Medieval tradition and Reformation polemics in the games of John Bale. Heidelberg: Winter 1973, ISBN 3-533-02273-0
• John Arden : Books of Bale. A Fiction of History , novel. Methuen, London 1988, ISBN 0-4134-0310-6
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Bale, John. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 355.

Web links

• Literature by and about John Bale in the catalog of the German National Library