01 



BALE, JOHN. 



BALEN, HENDRIK VAN. 



02 



in the monastery of Carmelites at Norwich, whence he was afterwards 

 sent to Cambridge, and entered of Jesua College. In 1529 he is 

 mentioned as prior of the Carmelites of Ipswich. (Strype, ' Annals,' 

 Append., No. 25.) Hi education, of course, was in the Romish 

 religion ; but sometime subsequent to 1529, at the instigation of the 

 Lord Wentworth, he turned Protestant, and gave proof of having 

 renounced one, at least, of the rules of the Catholic religion (the 

 celibacy of the clergy) by immediately marrying. This, as may be 

 conjectured, exposed him to the persecution of the Romish clergy, 

 against whom however he was protected by the Lord Cromwell. An 

 original letter from Bale to Lord Cromwell occurs in the Cottonian 

 volume (' Cleop.,' E. iv. 134), complaining of poverty, persecution, and 

 imprisonment, and asking favour and deliverance, in which he styles 

 him.-elf doctor of divinity and " late parysh prest of Thornden in 

 Suffolk." After Cromwell's death, Bale retired to the Low Countries, 

 where be remained eight years, busying himself chiefly with his pen. 

 He was then recalled into England by king Edward VI., and obtained 

 the living of Bishopstoke in Hampshire, and in 1552 the bishopric of 

 Ossory. Bale's zeal for the Protestant religion rendered him so 

 unpopular, that upon the arrival of the news of Edward VI.'s death, 

 his life was endangered : five of his servants were killed by the kernes, 

 who attacked his house at Holmes Court, near Kilkenny; and he 

 himself was obliged to be escorted to Dublin by a hundred horse and 

 three hundred foot soldiers. Here also he found himself insecure, 

 and behj assaulted in Dublin by the lioman Catholics, he at last made 

 his escape on board a trading vessel of Zealand in mariner's apparel 

 After being captured and plundered by a Dutch man-of-war, and 

 running several rUks, he got at last to Holland, where he was kept a 

 prisoner three weeks, and then obtained his liberty on the payment of 

 thirty pounds. From Holland he retired to Basle in Switzerland, and 

 continued abroad during the short rtigu of Queen Mary. On the acces- 

 sion of Queen Elizabeth he returned to England, but not to his bishopric 

 in Ireland ; preferring a private life, and contenting himself with a 

 prebend in the cathedral church of Canterbury, to which he was pro- 

 inotfd on the let of January, 1559-60. (' Rym.'Foed.,' ton), xv. p. 563.) 

 He died in November, 1563, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, at 

 Canterbury, and was buried there in the cathedral. 



Bishop Bale's fame now principally rests on his valuable collection 

 of British biography, first published under the title of 'Illustrium 

 Majoris Britannia; Scriptoruin, hoc est, Angliec, Cambriae, et Scotize, 

 Summarium,' 4to, 1548. He has himself in this very work preserved 

 a long list of hi* other writing-', in Latin, which Fuller has translated 

 iu his ' Abel Redivivus.' Bale divided them into, 1, those which he 

 had compiled while yetapapi-t; 2, those which he wrote after he 

 had renounced popery ; 3, his comedies in English, in various kinds of 

 verse ; 4, his works iu English in prose : adding that he had written 

 and translated many others which he could not bring to recollection. 

 The subjects only however of his writings are enumerated in this list, 

 and not their actual titles, so that it is impossible to ascertain distinctly 

 from it which among them are his printed works, and which were 

 tho<e remaining in manuscript. 



The following is the list of Bale's printed works, with their successive 

 editions, as far as they have been discovered. They are, most of them, 

 very rarely met with : 



1. 'A new Comedy or Interlude, concerning thre Lawes, of Nature, 

 Moises, and Chriate,' 8vo, Lend. 1538, 4to, Lond. 1562. 2. 'A brief 

 Comedy or Interlude, conceruynge the Temptatyon of our Lord,' 8vo, 

 1538. 3. ' A Tragedie or Enterlude manifesting the chief Promises of 

 God unto Man,' 8vo, Lond. 1538, 4to, 1577. 4. ' Yet a Course at the 

 Romysh Foxe,' against Kdmond Bonner, Bishop of London (under the 

 name of John Harrison), 16mo, Zurich, 1543. 5. 'A brefe Chronycle 

 concerning the Examination and Death of Sir John Oldecastell, Lord 

 Cobham,' 8vo, Lond. 1544 ; 12mo, Lond. W. Seres, n.d. Svo, Loud. 

 1676 and 1729. 6. ' A Mystery of luiquyte contayned within the 

 Hereticall Genealogye of Ponce Pantolabus,' 16mo, Geneva, 1545. 7. 

 'The Actes of Englysh Votaryes,' 1st part, Svo, Wesel, 1546, Svo, 

 Lond. 1548 ; first two parts, 12mo, 1550, 1551, 1560. (No more parts 

 were published.) 8. 'The true Hystorie of the Christen Departing 

 of the Reverend Man D. Martyn Luther,' translated from the Latin of 

 Ju>tus Jonas, Michael Celius, and Johannes Aunl'aber, Svo, Lond. 

 1546. 9. ' The first Examinacion of Anne Askewe, lately martyred 

 in Suiithfield,' 8vo, Marpurg iu Hesse, 1546. 10. ' The lattre Exarni- 

 naciou of Anne Askewe,' Svo, Marp. 1547. 11. 'A brifeand faythfull 

 Declaration of the true Fayth of Christ,' IGino, Lond. 1547. 12. 'Illus- 

 trium Maioris Britannia? Scriptorum, &c. Summarium, in quosdam 

 Centurias divisuui,' 4to, Wesel, 1548 (at theend, ' Gippeuioi in Anglia,' 

 1548), Five Centuries, fol. Bas. 1557 ; Nine Centuries, fol. Bas. 1559, 

 with a second part, carrying the work on to fourteen centuries. A 

 copy of the edition Of 1548, corrected by Bale's own hand, is preserved 

 in the library of the British Museum. 13. ,The laboryouse Journey 

 and Serche of Johan Leylande forEngland^'s Antiquities,' 16mo, Lond. 

 1549, reprinted iu the ' Life of Leland,' Svo, 1772. 14. 'A Dialogue 

 or Communycacyon to be had at a Table betwene two Chyldren, 

 gathered out of the Holy Scriptures by John Bale for his two yonge 

 Sonnes, Johnu and Paule,' Svo, Lond. 1549. 15. ' The Confession of 

 the Synner after the Sacred Scriptures,' Svo, Lond. 1549. 16. 'The 

 Apology of Johan Bale against a rauke Papyst,' Svo, Lond. 1650. 17. 

 ' The Image of both Churches, 2 parts, Svo, Lond. J. Daye ; 3 parts, 



8vo, Lond. T. East (1550); 8vo, Lond. 1584. 18. 'An Expostulation 

 or Complaynte against the Blasphemyes of a frantic Papyst of Ham- 

 shyre,' Svo, Lond. 1552 ; another edition, 1584. 19. ' The Vocacyon 

 of Johan Bale to the Bishoprick of Ossorie in Irelande, his Persecu- 

 cions in the same, and finale Delyveraunce,' 12mo, Lond. 1553. 20. 

 ' A Declaration of Edmonde Bonner's Articles concerning the Cleargye 

 of London Dyocese,' Svo, Lond. 1561. 21. 'Acta Romanorum Ponti- 

 ficum a dispersione Discipulorum Christi usque ad tempora Paul 

 quart!, ex Joannis Bakei Catalogo Anglicorum Scriptorum desumpta,' 

 Svo, Francof. 1567; Svo, Leyd. 1615. 22. 'The Pageant of Popes,' 

 translated from the Latin of Bale, by I. S. (John Studley), 4to, Lond. 

 1574. Bale also himself translated Baptist Mantuan's ' Treatise on 

 Death,' Svo, Lond. 1584. In 1548 he prefixed an epistle dedicatory to 

 the Princess Elizabeth's translation of the ' Meditations of Margaret, 

 Queen of Navarre,' published at London, 8vo, in that year. Wood 

 ('Athen. Oxon.,' edit. Bliss, vol. iii., col. 435) says Bale translated 

 Polydore Virgil's work ' De Rerum Inventoribus ' in the time of 

 Edward VI., but in old and rude English. He does not say whether 

 this translation was published. 



Fox tells us ('Acts and Monuments,' 1st edit., p. 574) that Bale wrote 

 several books under the name of Harrison. Bale's father's name was 

 Henry Bale, and on that account perhaps Bale assumed the name of 

 Harrison. His ' Collectanea ' (in his own handwriting) ' de Religione 

 Carmelitana, et Scriptoribus ejusdem,' 4to, is still preserved among the 

 Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, No. 1819. 



No character has been more variously represented than Bale's. 

 Gesner, in his ' Bibliotheca,' calls him a writer of the greatest diligence, 

 and Bishop Godwin gives him the character of a laborious inquirer 

 into British antiquities. Similar praise is also bestowed upon him by 

 Vogler. (' Introd. Universal, in Notit. Scriptor.') Anthony a Wood 

 however styles him ' the foul-mouthed Bale.' Hearne (' Pref. to 

 Hemingf.') calls him ' Baleus in nmltis mendax.' And even Fuller 

 ('Worthies,' last edit vol ii., p. 332) says "Biliosus Bahcus passeth for 

 his true character." He inveighed with so much asperity against the 

 Pope and papists that his writings were prohibited by the Church of 

 Rome among those of the first class of heretical books; and his intem- 

 perate zeal, it must be acknowledged, often carried him beyond the 

 bounds of decency and candour. Fuller, in his 'Church History,' 

 cent. ix. p. 68, pleads for Bale's railing against the papists. " Old ae 

 and ill usage," he says, " will make any man angry. When young, he 

 had seen their superstition ; when old, he felt their oppression. The 

 best i, Bale rails not more on Papists than Pits (employed on the sarno 

 subject) on Protestant writers ; and even set one against the other, 

 whilst the discreet reader of both, parmg of the extravagances of 

 passion on each side, may benefit himself in quietness from their loud 

 and clamorous invectives." The greatest fault of Bale's book on the 

 British writers is its multiplication of their works by frequently giving 

 the heads of chapters or sections of a book as the titles of distinct 

 treatises. He has likewise put many persons down as authors who 

 had no claim to such distinction. 



(Biogr. Brit., edit 1778, vol. i. p. 532 ; Fuller, AbelJlcdivivus, p. 502- 

 511; Tanner, Jiibl. Brit. /lib., p. 68; Cole's Manuscript A thenai Can- 

 tabr., lett. B; Granger, Biigr. Hilt., vol. i. p. 139; Strype, Memorials 

 of Cranmer, pp. 206, 360 ; Chalmers, Biog. Diet.) 



BALECHOU, JEAN JACQUES, a very celebrated French engraver, 

 born at Aries in 1715. After having practised some time in the estab- 

 lishment of a seal-engraver at Avignon he went to Paris, and placed 

 himself under the guidance of Bernard L'Epici<5. Soon after com- 

 mencing to engrave on his own account he acquired great celebrity, 

 and his works are still eagerly sought after by collectors : his chief 

 merit however consists in his mastery of the graver. In the repre- 

 sentation of the natural appearances of objects, or iu the imitation of 

 textures, he has been surpassed by many artists. 



Balechou engraved both portraits and landscapes. Among the latter 

 are three from Joseph Veruet, of which the Storm and Calm are very 

 celebrated prints, and they deserve their celebrity. Of his portraits, 

 Balechou's masterpiece is the large upright print of Augustus III., 

 king of Poland, after the picture by Rigaud. It forms the frontispiece 

 to the ' Recueil d'Eatampes apres Its plus ce"lebres Tableaux de la 

 Galere de Dresde.' It was however the cause of Balechou's disgrace 

 at Paris, for he retained some of the impressions, aud even damaged the 

 plate before he sent it to the king, at whose expense it was engraved. 

 His right of election to be a member of the French Academy of Puiut- 

 ing, of which he was agrde, equivalent to our degree of associate, was 

 forfeited in consequence, and he retired to Avignon, where he died 

 iu 1764. 



(Heiueken, Dictionnaire des Artistes, Ac. ; Watelet et Levesque, 

 Dictionnaire de Arts, &c.; Huber, Manuel des Amateurs, &c. ; Strutt, 

 Dictionary of Engravers.) 



BA'LEN, HENDKIK VAN, a distinguished Flemish historic* 

 painter, and the first master of Vandyck and Snyders, was born at 

 Antwerp in 1560. He went early to Rome to study his profession, 

 having acquired the rudiments from Adam van Oort. He was an 

 excellent colourist, a good draughtsman, and painted with great facility. 

 Of his paintings, which are numerous, one of the best is the St. John 

 in the Wilderness, an altar-piece in one of the chapels of the cathedral 

 of Antwerp : the background is by Velvet Breughel, who painted the 

 landscape backgrounds of many of Van Balen's pictures. He died in 



