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 of Bishopston, he was soon afterwards deprived as a ‘malignant.’ During the earlier part of the civil war Earle lived in retirement, and occupied himself in translating into Latin Hooker's ‘Ecclesiastical Polity,’ and afterwards the ‘Eikon Basilike.’ The latter was published in 1649; the former, written chiefly at Cologne, was ‘utterly destroyed by prodigious heedlessness and carelessness’ (Letter from Smith to Hearne, 13 Sept. 1705, in Bodleian Library).

When Charles II was obliged to fly from England, Earle accompanied him, or rather preceded him, as he is said to have been the first to salute him on his arrival at Rouen. The king now appointed him chaplain and clerk of the closet. During the period of the Scotch expedition Earle appears to have resided at Antwerp with Dr. Morley in the house of Sir Charles Cotterell [q. v.] He was called from this place to heal some of the troubles which were existing in the household of the Duke of York at Paris, and he probably remained at Paris till the Restoration. He assisted the king with money in his necessities, and was engaged with Morley, Barwick, and others in working at schemes to bring about his return. In the midst of the intrigues, which developed great bitterness and rancour, Earle maintained his popularity. ‘He was among the few excellent men,’ says Clarendon, ‘who never had, and never could have, an enemy.’ On the Restoration Earle was preferred to the deanery of Westminster (June 1660). On 25 March 1661 he was nominated a commissioner to review the prayer-book; on 28 March he preached at court, and on 23 April assisted at the coronation. At Westminster he had the opportunity of first practically showing that he cherished no bitter feeling against the nonconformist divines. It was thought good policy at first to conciliate the leading men of these views, and Richard Baxter [q. v.] was appointed to preach at the abbey (June 1662). The dean, finding him unprovided with clerical vestments, offered him a ‘tippet’ (used in place of a hood) to wear over his gown. Baxter turned rather abruptly away. Upon this it was reported that he had refused the clerical dress, and some indignation was excited. Baxter wrote to Earle to explain that he had thought the ‘tippet’ the mark of a doctor in divinity, and not having that degree he had simply refused it on that ground. Upon this Earle wrote him a most kind and friendly letter, in the margin of which Baxter noted, ‘O that they were all such!’ Earle was one of the church commissioners at the Savoy conference, and his moderation in this great controversial duel is again noted by Baxter. On 30 Nov. 1662 he was consecrated bishop of Worcester in succession to Dr. Gauden, and on 28 Sept. 1663, on the promotion of Dr. Henchman to the see of London, he was translated to Salisbury. In the administration of his diocese Earle dealt very tenderly with the nonconformists, and in his place in parliament opposed to the utmost of his power persecuting and vindictive measures. The first Conventicle Act was altogether distasteful to him, but to the persecuting clauses of the Five-mile Act he was still more strongly opposed. The court and parliament had been driven by the plague to Oxford, and thither Earle had accompanied the king, and occupied rooms in University College. He was struck with grievous illness, but with his last breath he protested against the act which was then being fabricated against the nonconformists, and which was said by many to be a revenge suggested by the clergy on account of the superior devotion shown by the nonconformists during the plague. The bishop died in University College 17 Nov. 1665, and was buried with much state in Merton College Chapel 25 Nov. His grave was near the high altar, and in the north-east corner of the chapel a monument was erected to him with a highly laudatory Latin inscription. Perhaps Burnet's words afford the strongest testimony to the beauty and purity of the character of Earle: ‘He was a man of all the clergy for whom the king had the greatest esteem. He had been his sub-tutor, and followed him in all his exile with so clear a character that the king could never see or hear of any one thing amiss in him. So he, who had a secret pleasure in finding out anything that lessened a man esteemed for piety, yet had a value for him beyond all the men of his order.’ Calamy the nonconformist wrote that Earle ‘was a man that could do good against evil, forgive much out of a charitable heart.’

[Earle's Microcosmography, or a Piece of the World discovered, ed. Bliss, London 1811; Wood's Athenæ Oxon., ed. Bliss, iii. 716–19; Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, and Life, Oxford, 1843; Clarendon State Papers; Conformists' First Plea for the Nonconformists; Burnet's Own Time, London, 1838.] 

EARLE, JOHN (1749–1818), catholic divine, born in London on 31 Dec. 1749, was educated at the English college, Douay, and became one of the officiating priests at the chapel of the Spanish ambassador in Dorset Street, Manchester Square, London, where he died on 15 May 1818.

His works are: 1. A poem on ‘Gratitude,’ composed in commemoration of the partial repeal of the penal laws in 1791. 2. ‘Remarks on the Prefaces prefixed to the first