Bale, John

Bale, John (1495–1563), a pugnacious English reformer who served as bishop of Ossory 1552–3. A Carmelite friar, Bale was born at Dunwich in Suffolk and educated at Cambridge University. He converted to Protestantism in the 1530s, and in 1540 had to flee to the Continent. There he began his broad‐ranging scholarly career, as a bibliographer, Protestant dramatist, and highly influential commentator on the Book of Revelation. On Edward VI's succession in 1547 Bale returned to England, but, disappointed of advancement, he accepted the bishopric of Ossory in 1552. His appointment was an attempt by the English authorities to impose a firmly Protestant prelate on a strategically important diocese. Bale's entertaining account (in his Vocacyon) of his brief time as bishop provides a unique insight into the impact of English Protestantism in an Irish context. Though a few people may have responded positively, local reaction to the new religion was hostile and even, after the news of Edward's death and the accession of the Catholic Mary, violent. Fearing for his life, Bale fled from Ireland, never to return.

Alan Ford