John Hales
John Hales of Eton College ( * 1584 in Bath, † 1656) was an English theologian and scientist.
Hales, was born in Bath, England and brought up and educated at Oxford University. He was in his time one of the most respected scholars and connoisseurs of ancient Graecia and lectured on the Greek language and in Greek. From 1613 to 1649 he was a member of the Eton College and long also treasurer. In 1616 he acted as chaplain to the English ambassador Sir Carleton to The Hague and attended the Synod of Dordrecht in Holland, where he was converted from Calvinism to Arminianism ( Farindon: "he went to there to bid John Calvin good night", and Tulloch replied " he did not say good morning to Arminius ").
1639 Archbishop Laud of Canterbury made him a canon of Windsor. His religious tolerance found its expression in the 1642 essay "Tract Concerning Schisms and Schismatics " which he published anonymously (and approval ) and mustered him against the then Archbishop Laud. Hales but defended himself against Laud well, who later made him a Prebendary ( Prebendary of Windsor ). In 1649 he lost due to his refusal to recognize the government of Cromwell, sell his professorship at Eton College and impoverished continuously and had his valuable library.
He was ahead of his time in many ways, and was regarded as a modern humanist freethinker and skeptic counselor also against religious authorities. After his death, his writings (1659 ) in the work The Golden Remains of the Ever - Memorable Mr. John Hales of Eton College with a foreword by John Pearson has been collected. He spent most of his life as a highly educated scientist at Eton College and deplored the mass of contradictory literature of his day. He admired the literary work of William Shakespeare and his knowledge of the ancient world and has contributed significantly to the early reputation of the poet. He is described as a person with great ironic charm and lack of vanity. He refused all offers of a religious movement and chose the scientific retreat in the form of a professorship at Eton College, whose head after him Sir Henry Savile and Sir Henry Wotton were.
The epithet of Eton College, like the term the ever Memorable were given to him during his lifetime.
Writings
- A Tract Concerning Schism and Schismatics Works
- FWBateson ( eds): John Hales, The Method of Reading Profane History, Works I, The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, Cambridge 1941