Joseph Hall

Joseph Hall 1574-1656, English prelate and author. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and became bishop of Exeter, 1627-41, and of Norwich, 1641-47. The rise of Puritanism involved him in serious church difficulties, and his vigorous defense of the episcopacy against its attackers resulted in his imprisonment in 1641 on charges of high treason. He was eventually released, but he lived the remainder of his life in poverty. Hall's most notable work, his verse satires, modeled after the Roman satirist Juvenal, appeared in two parts: Virgidemiarum or Toothless Satires (1597) and Biting Satires (1598). He also wrote prose satires, poems, meditations, and autobiographical tracts.

Bibliography: See his poems, ed. by A. Davenport (1949, repr. 1969).

Hall, Joseph (1574–1656), Bp. of Norwich. He attended the Synod of Dort as one of James I's representatives. In 1627 he became Bp. of Exeter. When the bishops were attacked in Parliament in 1640, Hall defended his order. He was translated to Norwich in 1641, but his income was impounded by Parliament and he lived in poverty.