Brooks - BX9338 .B7 1813 v1

BALE. 113 zeal often carries him beyond the bounds of decency and candour, in his accounts of the papists. Anthony Wood styles him "the foul-mouthed Bale ; "o but, the above writer adds, some of his foul language translated into English, would appear to be of the same import with many expres- sions used by that writer himself.+ Perhaps some allowance ought to be made not only for his resentment of what he had suffered, but for the age in which he lived. It would be doing him great injustice, to form our ideasof him from the popish authors, many of whom were exceedingly exaspe- rated against him, on account of the vehemence with which he had attacked the errors and superstitions of the papal see. Dr. Bale's writings are prohibited by the church of Rome, among those of the first class of heretical books. The Index Expurgatorius, published at Madrid in 1667, calls him a most impudent and scurrilous writer against the see of Rome, the Mass, the Eucharist, and one that is per- petually bredthing out poison ; for which, it forbids the reading ofhis works for ever.t His writings werenumerous, a list of which, according to the subjects, is given below : the exact titles cannot now be ascertained. His WORKS, while lie was a papist-1. ABundle of Things worth knowing.-2. The Writers fromElias.-3. The Writers fromBerthold. -4. Additions to Trithemius.-5. German Collections.-6. French Collections.-7. English Collections.-8. Divers Writings of divers learned Men.-9. ACatalogue of Generals.-10. The Spiritual War. -11. The Castle of Peace.-12. Sermons for Children.-13. To the Synod ofHull.-14. An Answer to certain Questions.-15. Addition to Palaonydorus.-16. The History of Patronage.-17. The Story of Simon the Englishman.-18. The Story of Francus Senensis.-19. The Story of St. Brocard.-20. A CommentaryonMantuan's Preface to his Fasti. Hewrote thefollowing after he renounced popery:-1. The Heliades of the English.-2. Notes on the three Tomes ofWalden.-3. On his Bundle of Tares.--4. On Polydore de Rerum Inventionibus.-5. On Textor's Officina.-6. On Capgrave's Catalogue.-7. On Barnes's Lives of the Popes.-8. The Acts of the Popes of Rome.-9. A Translation of Thorp's Examination.-10. The Life of John Baptist. -11. Of John Baptist's Preaching.§-12. Of Christ's Temptation.- Wood's Athena, vol. i. p. 60. + Granger's Biog. Hist. vol. i. p. 159, 140. Biog. Briton. vOl. i. p. 535. § The title of this piece is, " A Comedy, or Interlude, of Johan I3aptyst's Preachynge in the Wildernesse; opening the Crafts of Hypo- crytes," and is Opted in the " Harleian Miscellany." " There was a time," says Mr. Granger, " when the lamentable comedies of Bale were acted with applause. He tellsus, in the account of his vocation to the bishopric of Ossory, that his comedy of John Baptist's Preaching, and his VOL. I.

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