Joseph Hall (Bishop)

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Joseph Hall after an engraving by John Payne (1628)

Joseph Hall (born July 1, 1574 in Ashby-de-la-Zouch , Leicestershire , England ; died September 8, 1656 in Higham , Norfolk , England) was an Anglican theologian , philosopher , satirist, and moralist .

life and work

Joseph Hall was trained under the influence of Puritanism at Ashby School and Cambridge University. He was successively Rector (Pastor) of Hawstead in Suffolk , Prebendary (Beneficiary) of Wolverhampton and Dean of Worcester . He was Bishop of Exeter from 1627 to 1641 and of Norwich from 1641 to 1656 .

He was known to his contemporaries as a devotional writer and a high-profile polemicist in the early 1640s. In ecclesiastical politics, he tended to take a middle course, advocating a mild Anglicanism , but turning polemical against Rome several times in his writings .

A contemporary, the historian Thomas Fuller , judged Hall's work in his The Worthies of England :

“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. "/ Dt .: He was generally called our English Seneca because of the purity, simplicity and richness of his style. Not unhappy in controversies, happier in comments, very good in his characters, better in his sermons, best of all in his meditations. "

Hall wrote under various pseudonyms . His works (Works) were in London from Pavier published (1625). A more recent ten-volume edition of his works: The works of the Right Reverend Joseph Hall was published by the English cleric Philip Wynter (1793–1871).

His collection of character sketches , the Characters of Virtues and Vices (1608), which - standing in the tradition of the characters of the ancient Greek philosopher Theophrastus - are regarded as a forerunner of those of the French writer La Bruyère , have received lasting attention . His utopia Mundus alter et idem (An old world and a new) can be considered one of the classics of utopian literature .

His edification books were highly valued in England in the 17th century , and his writings were also of great influence on German Pietism . In the Bibliotheca Dilherriana alone, for example, ten German translations were available.

His treatise The Art of Divine Meditation (first 1606) on the art of meditation was also published in German and was one of the most successful English books on the German book market.

The German Reformed theologian Heinrich Schmettau had translated three smaller tracts (Drey Tractätlein) by Joseph Hall during his time in Liegnitz , 1665–1669 he followed his Biblical Faces / Or Considerations of the Biblical Histories, an extensive Bible commentary . The Rostock Lutheran theologian Theophil Großgebauer translated The Olde Religion (London 1628) into German (Die Alte Religion) . Also Bernardus Ancumanus supplied transmissions.

Works (selection)

  • 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).
  • 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 Tranquility of Mind (1606).
  • Occasional Meditations (1630).
  • Henochism; or a Treatise showing how to walk with God (1639).
  • The Devout Soul; or Rules of Heavenly Devotion (1644).
  • The Balm of Gilead (1646, 1752).
  • Christ Mysticall; or the blessed union of Christ and his Members (1647).
  • Susurrium cum Deo (1659).
  • The Great Mysterie of Godliness (1650).
  • Resolutions and Decisions of Divers Practical all cases of Conscience (1649, 1650, 1654).

various editions and translations

  • Hall, Joseph: Today's New Old World = Mundus alter et idem . With an afterword and bibliography by Heiner Höfener. Hildesheim: Gerstenberg, 1981, reprint of the Leipzig 1613 edition (classics of utopian literature; vol. 2)
  • Hall, Joseph: Contemplations sur l'histoire de l'Ancien Testament . Nouvellement tirees de l'Anglois de M.Ioseph Hall, docteur en theologie, & doyen de Wigorne. Par Theodore Iaquemot. Geneve, Pierre Aubert, 1628. (An early French translation.)
  • Hall, Joseph: Useful use of the Holy Scriptures, or the right drilled into Christians, in the custody and use of the same . Initially described in English. Hanover, Frankfurt and Leipzig, Hauenstein 1684
  • Hall, Joseph: Night - songs or joy in the Creutz . Translated into German by H. Koch. Helmstedt and Gardelegen, Lüderwald 1683.
  • Hall, Joseph: Friedends - Altar translated by H. Koch. Helmstedt and Gardelegen, Lüderwald 1678
  • Joseph Hall: A Common Apologie of the Church of England, Against the Unjust Challenges of the Overjust Sect, Commonly Called Brownists… together with A Serious Disswasive from Poperie Loose Leaf . 1620
  • Characters of Virtues and Vices (1608), in: A Book of Characters , edited by Richard Aldington , London 1924
  • Mundus alter et idem (An old world and a new) , edited by HJ Anderson, London 1908.
  • Marks of virtue and vice. GP Harsdorffer. Bremen 1696

See also

literature

  • Richard A. McCabe: Joseph Hall: a study in satire and meditation . Oxford: Clarendon Press , 1982
  • Frank Livingstone Huntley: Bishop Joseph Hall 1574-1656. A biographical and critical study . Brewer Ed., Cambridge, 1979
  • BBKL , Volume XV (1999) columns 684-685 Author: Erich Wenneker
  • Konrad Schulze: The satires of Hall: their dependence on the ancient Roman satirists and their real relationships to the Shakespeare period . Berlin: Mayer & Müller, 1910
  • The Atlantic Companion to Literature in English . Ed. Mohit K. Ray, 2007 ( online excerpt )
  • Edgar C. McKenzie: Bibliography on the History of Pietism: A Catalog of British Devotional and Religious Books in German Translation . 1996 ( online excerpt )
  • Gilbert Waterhouse: The Literary Relations of England and Germany . 2015 ( online excerpt )

Web links

Commons : Joseph Hall (Bishop)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Joseph Hall  - Sources and full texts (English)

References and footnotes

  1. ^ Britannica.com
  2. ^ Britannica.com : "Educated under Puritan influences at the Ashby School and the University of Cambridge (from 1589), he was elected to the university lectureship in rhetoric. He became rector of Hawstead, Suffolk, in 1601 and concentrated chiefly on writing books for the money "to buy books."
  3. ↑ hymnary.org , there after: John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
  4. ↑ see also List of Bishops of Exeter
  5. ↑ see also List of the Bishops of Norwich
  6. ^ Reprinted by John Nichols (1811) and PA Nuttall (1840) Vol.1 Vol.2 Vol.3 at books.google. (English)
  7. ↑ spenserians.cath.vt.edu
  8. ↑ cf. portal.dnb.de
  9. ^ Digitized volume 1 ( Oxford 1863) - with an overview of the contents of all volumes
  10. ^ Text , from: A Book of Characters , edited by Richard Aldington , London 1924
  11. ↑ cf. Margot Kruse : Un précurseur de La Bruyère: Joseph Hall et ses "Characters of Virtues and Vices" in France. In: Cahiers de l'Association Internationale des Études Françaises 44/1992, ISSN  0571-5865 , pp. 245-260.
  12. ^ Text , edited by HJ Anderson, London 1908. - In a German translation: Today's new old world .
  13. ↑ Renate Jürgensen: Bibliotheca Norica: Patricians and scholars' libraries in Nuremberg between the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment . 2002, p. 395 (see note 1556) ( online excerpt ; table of contents ( memento of the original from April 15, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / tocs.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de
  14. ^ Digitized version (1863)
  15. ↑ Johannes Wallmann : Pietism and Orthodoxy: Collected Essays III . 2010, p.421 ( online excerpt ), based on: Sonthom, Bayly, Dyke and Hall: Studies on the Reception of English Devotional Literature in Germany in the 17th Century , Dissertation University Bochum, Mohr, Tübingen 1987, ISBN 3-16-145100 -7 , p.83 ( online excerpt ).
  16. ↑ cf. Digitized
  17. ↑ cf. Digitized copies of the individual volumes
personal data
SURNAME Hall, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English Anglican bishop and satirist
DATE OF BIRTH July 1, 1574
PLACE OF BIRTH Ashby-de-la-Zouch , Leicestershire , England
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 1656
Place of death Higham , Norfolk , England