John Mason Neale

John Mason Neale , 1818-66, English clergyman, historian, and hymn writer, grad. Trinity College, Cambridge, 1840. An enthusiastic supporter of the High Church movement, he was under the inhibition (i.e., not allowed to perform any ministerial duties) of his bishop from 1846 to 1863. From 1846 until his death he was warden of Sackville College, East Grinstead, Sussex, a charitable institution for the aged; there he wrote voluminously—history, theology, travel books, poems, hymns, and books for children. A nursing sisterhood which he had founded elsewhere was moved to East Grinstead in 1856 and continued there as St. Margaret's Sisterhood. He is best known for his numerous translations of Greek and Latin hymns. In 1859 appeared his translation of a sizable part of Bernard of Cluny's De contemptu mundi, from which several of Neale's best-known hymns are taken.

Bibliography: See A. G. Lough, The Influence of John Mason Neale (1962).

Neale, John Mason (1818–66), High Church Anglican author and hymn-writer. Ordained in 1842, from 1846 he was warden of Sackville College, East Grinstead. In 1855 he founded the Sisterhood of St Margaret; this community, devoted to the education of girls and the care of the sick, became one of the main religious orders in the C of E. His ritualistic practices led to his inhibition from 1847 to 1863.

Neale excelled as a hymn-writer. His own compositions include ‘O happy band of pilgrims’ and ‘Art thou weary’, and his translations from Latin and Greek hymns, ‘Jerusalem the golden’ and ‘All glory, laud and honour’. His Hymns of the Eastern Church (1862) included many translations of Easter hymns which indirectly introduced an important E. emphasis on the Resurrection into Anglican worship. Feast day in the American BCP (1979) and CW, 7 Aug.

Neale, J. M. ( John Mason Neale) (1818–66), educated founder of the Cambridge Camden Society. He was author of The History of the Holy Eastern Church (1847–73), and many hymns (some of them translations from Greek, medieval Latin, and Eastern sources) including ‘O happy band of pilgrims’, ‘Art thou weary’, and ‘Jerusalem the Golden’; Hymns Ancient and Modern owes much to his inspiration.