Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/44

Hales were all rejected (, iii. 210). Later in the reign, in 1552, he seems to have taken a journey to Strasburg (Cranmer's Lett. p. 434, Parker Soc.). On the accession of Mary his property was confiscated, and he retired to Frankfort, and with his brother Christopher was prominently engaged in the religious contentions among the English exiles in that city (, iii. 404; Orig. Lett. p. 764, Parker Soc.) He returned to England upon Mary's death, and greeted Elizabeth with a gratulatory oration, which is extant in manuscript (Harleian MSS. vol. ccccxix. No. 50). This was not spoken, but was delivered in writing to the queen by a nobleman. Hales was restored to his clerkship of the hanaper or hamper (, 'Annals',, i. 74; Cal. Dom. i. 125-6). But in 1560 he fell into disgrace by interfering in the curious case of the marriage between the Earl of Hertford, eldest son of the late protector Somerset, and Katherine, one of the daughters of Grey, late duke of Suffolk, which Archbishop Parker, sitting in commission, had pronounced to be unlawful, the parties being unable to prove it. Hales put forth a pamphlet (now in Harl. MS. 550) to the effect that the marriage was made legitimate by the sole consent of the parties, and that the title to the crown of England belonged to the house of Suffolk if Elizabeth should die without issue. He was committed to the Tower, but was soon released by the influence of Cecil, yet in 1568 he was under bond not to quit his house without the royal license (Cal. Dom. i. 306). The affair was complicated, and endangered the reputation of Sir Nicholas Bacon [q. v.] and other eminent men.

Hales died on 28 Dec. 1571, and was buried in the church of St. Peter-le-Poer in London. His estates, with his principal house in Coventry called Hales's Place, otherwise the White Fryers, passed to John, son of his brother Christopher.

[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), i. 404–5; works cited.]  HALES, JOHN (1584–1656), the 'ever memorable,' was born in St. James's parish, Bath, on 19 April 1584. His father, John Hales, of an old Somersetshire stock, had an estate at Highchurch, near Bath, and was steward to the Horner family. After passing through the Bath grammar school, Hales went to Oxford on 16 April 1597 as a scholar of Corpus Christi College, and graduated B.A. on 9 July 1603 (Oxf. Univ. Reg., Oxf. Hist. Soc., iii. 243). His remarkable learning and philosophic acumen brought him under the notice of Sir Henry Savile, and secured his election as fellow of Merton in 1605. He took orders; shone as a preacher, though he appears never to have had a strong voice; and graduated M. A. on 20 June 1609. At Merton he distinguished himself as lecturer in Greek; he is said by Clarendon to have been largely responsible for Savile's edition of Chrysostom (1610-13). In 1612 he became public lecturer on Greek to the university. Next year he delivered (29 March) a funeral oration on Sir Thomas Bodley [q. v.], which formed his first publication. Soon after (24 May) he was admitted fellow of Eton, of which Savile was provost.

In 1616 Hales went to Holland as chaplain to the ambassador, Sir Dudley Carleton [q. v.], who despatched him in 1618 to Dort, to watch the proceedings of the famous synod in which the 'five points' of Calvinism were formulated. He remained at Dort from 13 Nov. till the following February, when he left, and his duty was undertaken by Walter Balcanquhall, D.D. (1586?-1645) [q. v.] His interesting and characteristic reports to Carleton are included in his 'Golden Remains;' an additional letter (11-22 Dec. 1618) is given in Carleton's 'Letters' (1757), and inserted in its proper place in the 1765 edition of Hales's 'Works.' In the letter prefixed by Anthony Farindon [q. v.] to the 'Golden Remains' (27 Sept. 1657), Farindon states, on what he alleges to be Hales's own authority, that Hales was led at the synod to 'bid John Calvin good-night' when Episcopius, the well-known Arminian, pressed the verse St. John iii. 16 to support his own doctrine. According to Hales's own letter (19 Jan. 1619), Matthias Martinius of Bremen, a halfway divine, employed this text. But if Farindon's account be right, Hales, as Tulloch remarks, 'did not say good-morning to Arminius.' The main effect of the synod on his mind was to free it from all sectarian prejudice. No incident made a stronger impression upon him than the debate on schism, which he reported on 1 Dec. 1618.

Early in 1619 Hales retired to his fellowship at Eton. In Sir Henry Wotton, who succeeded Savile as provost in 1623, he found a kindred spirit. He lived much among his books, visiting London only once a year, although he was possibly there more frequently during the period (1633-43) of Falkland's connection with London [see, second ]. The traces of his connection with Falkland are slight; but his 'company was much desired' in the brilliant circle of men of letters then gathered in London. Suckling, who in a poetical epistle bids him 'come to town,' gives us glimpses also in his 'Session of the Poets' of his grave smile, his retiring manner,