Hall Joseph

Hall, Joseph (1574-1656), the satirist, was born at Ashby, Leicestershire, and educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He took orders and became successively incumbent of Halstead and Waltham, Dean of Worcester, and Bishop of Exeter (1627) and Norwich (1641). He went with James I. to Scotland in 1617, and was one of the English deputies at the Synod of Dort, where he preached charity. He was distrusted by Laud and had to complain to the king of the spies set on him by the archbishop. He was imprisoned by the Parliament, and when released was driven out of his palace at Norwich, his last days being passed in poverty at Higham. His satires called Virgidemiarum (1597-98) were some of the earliest in the language, and aroused the jealousy of Marston. Besides this he wrote a prose satire (Mundus alter st Idem) in Latin against the Roman Catholics, and published devotional works which are highly praised by Fuller.