HALL, JOSEPH: Bishop of Norwich; b. at Ashby-de-la-Zouch (16 m. n.w. of Leicester), Leicestershire; July 1, 1574; d. at Higham, near Norwich, Sept. 8, 1656. He studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge (B.A., 1592; M.A., 1596; B.D., 1603; D.D., 1612), and began his career as a poet and satirist, but later took orders and in 1601 accepted the living of Halsted in Suffolk. In 1608 he became chaplain to Henry, prince of Wales, and shortly afterward he received from the earl of Norwich the donative of Waltham. In 1616 he was sent to France as chaplain to the English ambassador, and the following year he was summoned to attend James I. to Scotland to aid the king in his attempt to introduce there the ceremonial and liturgy of the Episcopal Church. He was made dean of Worcester in 1617 and was sent by James as one of his commissioners to the Synod of Dort in 1618. A Latin sermon preached by Hall before that assembly has been preserved. The see of Gloucester having been declined by him in 1624 he was elevated to that of Exeter in 1627, and translated to Norwich in 1641. With eleven other bishops he was accused of high treason and imprisoned in the Tower in Dec., 1641, but was released in June, 1642. The following year the revenues of his see were sequestered, though an allowance of £400 a year was granted him by parliament. Early in 1647 he was ejected from his palace, and his cathedral was dismantled. He then retired to a small estate at Higham.

Hall was a man of broad and tolerant sympathies, a moderate Calvinist, and sought for a mean between Calvinism and Arminianism. His Puritanical lean ings offended Laud, but, like many other Puritans, he was strongly attached to the Church of Eng land. As a pulpit orator he has had few equals among English preachers of the Established Church. He was a prolific author, but many of his works were purely controversial and only of ephemeral in terest. To be mentioned particularly are: his satires, published under the title, Virgzdemiarum, Six Books (2 vols., London, 1597-98; ed. A. B. Grosart, in The Complete Poems of Joseph Hall, Manchester, 1879), which are among the best in the language; Meditations and Vows, Divine and Moral (London, 1606; en larged ed., 1621; ed. Charles Sayle, 1902), his most popular work; Epistles (3 vols., 1608-11; ed. W. H. Hale, 1840); Contemplations upon the Principal Passages of the Holy Story (8 vols:, 1612-26; ed., with a Memoir, by C. Wordsworth, 1871), a valuable devotional work; The Old Religion (1628; ed. J. Brogden, in Catholic Safeguards, vol. ii., 1846), au exposition of the corruption in the Roman Catholic Church; Explication. of All the Hard Texts of . Scripture (Exeter, 1633; new ed., 2 vols., London, 1837); Episcopacy by Divine Right Asserted (1640; new ed., 1838), written at the suggestion of Laud; An Humble Remonstrance to the High Court o f par liament (1640), a skilful vindication of liturgies and episcopacy which called forth the reply from the Puritans "written by Smectymnuus" and led to a famous controversy (see Smectymnuus); and the posthumous Contemplations on the New Testament (1662). There are a number of collected editions of his works, the best being those of P. Hall (12 vols., Oxford, 1837-39) and P. Wynter (10 vols., Oxford, 1863).

Bibliography: Besides the biographical material already mentioned, consult: G. Lewis, Life of Joseph Hall, London, 1886 John Jones, Memoirs of Bishop Hall, ib. 1828; T. Fuller, Hist. of Use Worthies of England, ii. 230-231, ed. P. A. Nuttall, ib. 1840; J. H. Overton The Church in England, ii. 31, 73 et passim, ib. 1897; W. H. Hutton, The English Church 1826-171.¢, pp. 79 et passim, ib. 1903; DNB, mv. 75-$0.