BALE BALPOUR. 



387 



have lived some years after the accession of queen 

 Elizabeth. 



BALE, John, (in Latin Balaens) ; an English ecclesi- 

 astic, and bishop of Ossory in Ireland, was born at 

 Cove, near Dunwich, Suffolk, in 1495. Although 

 educated a Roman Catholic, the Reformation having 

 found its way into England, he became a Protestant, 

 according to his own account, at the instigation of 

 Lord Wentworth, but possibly impelled by a still 

 stronger incentive, as he immediately afterwards 

 married. In early life he enjoyed the protection of 

 lord Cromwell ; but after that nobleman's execution, 

 his own warmth of temper, and the intolerance of the 

 Popish party, rendered it necessary for him to retire 

 into the Netherlands. On the accession of Edward 

 VI., he returned to England, and was in the first in- 

 stance presented to the living of Bishop's Stoke, 

 Southampton, and soon after nominated bishop of 

 Ossory, in Ireland. Here, on his preaching the re- 

 formed religion, his clergy either oppressed or forsook 

 him ; and so violent was the popular fury against him, 

 that in one tumult five of his domestics were murdered 

 in his presence. The death of Edward VI., and ac- 

 cession of Mary, necessarily added to his .danger ; and 

 quitting his diocese, he lay some time concealed in 

 Dublin. After enduring many hardships he was 

 enabled to reach Switzerland, where he abode until 

 the death of Mary. On his return to England, he 

 made no attempt to recover Ids Irish diocese, but con- 

 tented himself with the calm enjoyment of a preben- 

 dal stall at Canterbury, where he closed his stormy 

 life in 1563, in the sixty-eight year of his age. Bale 

 wrote several small pieces while he was a Romanist ; 

 and after he renounced Popery, his productions, both 

 Latin and English, were still more numerous. Most 

 of his English writings were attacks upon the religion 

 which he had abandoned, to which he was a bitter, 

 and in many respects, it is to be feared, an uncandid 

 and disingenuous enemy, H is " Brief Chronicle con- 

 cerning Sir John Oldcastle," was republished in 1729 ; 

 and he is also the author of many strange productions 

 in English metre, among which are several plays on 

 sacked subjects, a specimen of which may be seen in 

 the Harleian Miscellany. To modern readers they 

 appear extravagant burlesques ; but, as the author 

 himself informs us, they were gravely and piously re- 

 presented in his own days by young men at the market 

 cross of Kilkenny. The only work of bishop Bale 

 which has given him distinction among authors, and 

 is now at all attended to, is his " Scriptorum lllus- 

 trium Majoris Britanniae Catalogus ;" or " An Ac- 

 count of the Lives of eminent Writers of Britain." 

 This account, which, according to the title, com- 

 mences with Japhet the son of Noah, reaches to the 

 year 1557, at which time the author was an exile in 

 Germany. It is compiled from various writers, but 

 chiefly from the antiquary Leland. With considerable 

 allowances for the strong bias of party zeal, this work 

 may still be read with advantage, although not with- 

 out errors in regard to dates, and the needless multi- 

 plication of the titles of books. That his invectives 

 against popery were too indiscriminately vehement, 

 and his exposures of the vices and corruption of the 

 Catholic clergy overcharged, is now very generally 

 admitted, although not to the extent which the party 

 attacked would insinuate. 'With every abatement, 

 however, on the score of the warmth of a decided 

 partisan and great personal sufferer, the principal 

 work of Bale must ever be considered valuable as the 

 foundation of English biography. 



BALE, BASIL, or BASLE. See Basle. 



BALE, COUNCIL OF. See Basle, Council of. 



BALEARIC ; the name of the two islands in the 

 Mediterranean, situated near the coast of Valencia, 

 in Spain, Majorca (in Spanish, Mallorca) and Minorca 



(q. v.), which, together with the Pithyusian islands, 

 Ivica and Formentera, formed the Spanish kingdom or 

 Majorca, containing 1758 square miles, and 5J75,000 

 inhabitants. The Grecian name B. was given them 

 because the inhabitants were famous for their skill in 

 slinging. The Balearic slingers distinguished them- 

 selves in the army of Hannibal. In later times, the 

 Romans took possession of both the islands ; after- 

 wards, the Vandals, under Gensecic, and in the 8th 

 century, the Moors, from whom they were taken by 

 James I. , king of Arragon, 1 220 1 234. They then 

 constituted a kingdom, which, in 1375, was united to 

 Spain. The British conquered Minorca in 1708, lost 

 it again in 1782, and relinquished it to Spain by the 

 treaty of 1783. Under the Romans, the B. belonged 

 to the conventus juridicus in Carthagine nova. 



BALEN, Hendrick van, and Jacob van ; father and 

 son ; historical painters ; the former born in 1560, the 

 latter in 1611, both at Antwerp. The former died in 

 1632. Pictures by each are still extant, and consider- 

 ed valuable. 



BALES, Peter ; famous for his skill in penmanship, 

 lived in the 16th century. Holingshed, in his chro- 

 nicle, mentions the wonderful skill of B. in what may 

 be termed micrography ; and Evelyn more particu- 

 larly states, that he wrote the Lord's prayer, creed, 

 decalogue, two short I&tin prayers, his own name, 

 motto, day of the month, year of our Lord and of the 

 reign of queen Elizabeth, to whom he presented it at 

 Hampton court, all within the circle of a silver penny, 

 enchased in a ring and border of gold, and covered 

 with a crystal, so accurately done as to be plain- 

 ly legible, to the great admiration of her majesty, 

 the whole privy council, and several ambassadors 

 then at court. He was very dexterous in imi- 

 tating the hand writing of others, on which account 

 he was employed by Sir Francis Walsingham, the 

 queen's secretary of state ; but, by involving himself 

 in the conspiracy of the earl of Essex, he suffered im- 

 prisonment. He died about 1610. From a book 

 which he published in 1590, entitled the "Writing 

 Schoolmaster, in three Parts ; the first teaching Swift 

 Writing, the second True Writing, the third Fair 

 Writing," it appears that he was acquainted with ste- 

 nograpny. His talents were celebrated by learned 

 men in verse. We shall have a more just idea of his 

 merits, if we consider the low state of penmanship at 

 that time. All the manuscripts of that period extant 

 are either miserably written, or have the appearance 

 of drawings rather than writings. 



BALESSAN ; the Eastern name for that species of 

 the amyris which produces the celebrated balsam of 

 Mecca, the ancient balm of Gilead. This plant 

 grows to the height of fourteen feet, on a stony, bar- 

 ren soil. The balsam is a resinous matter, exuding, 

 like ordinary resin, from incisions in the bark, in July, 

 August, and September. The balsam is used for 

 many medicinal purposes, and the ladies in the East 

 employ it as a means of beautifying the skin. Lady 

 Montague tried it, and relates that she suffered for 

 three days from its application, but that her complex- 

 ion was greatly improved. The balsam of Gilead 

 was renowned among the early Hebrews. 



BALESTRA, Antonio ; an historical painter of much 

 reputation ; born at Verona, in 1666 ; died, accor- 

 ding to some, in 1720, according to others, in 1740. 



BALFOCR, Alexander, an esteemed miscellaneous 

 writer, was born March 1st, 1767, in the parish of 

 Monikie, Forfarshire. His parents belonged to the 

 humbler rural class, and as he was a twin, ne was al- 

 most immediately taken under the protection of a 

 friend of the family, to whom he was indebted not 

 only for support during his early years, but also for 

 those lessons of early piety and virtue which seemed 

 to have laid the foundation oi his character in after 

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