Hales, JOHN, the 'Ever-memorable,' was born at Bath in 1584, and was educated in 'grammar learning' in his native city. At thirteen he entered Corpus Christi College, Oxford, took his degree in July 1603, and obtained a fellowship at Merton College in 1605 as 'a person of learning above his age and standing.' Wood tells us of his extraordinary subtlety in philosophical disputation, of his eloquence, and of his unusual knowledge of the Greek tongue, which contributed greatly to Sir Henry Savile's edition of St Chrysostom, and procured for himself in 1612 the chair of Greek in his university. Next year he delivered the funeral oration of Sir Thomas Bodley, and was admitted a Fellow of Eton. In 1618 he went to the Hague as chaplain to the ambassador, Sir Dudley Carleton, for whom he made a report of the proceedings at the famous synod of Dort, in a very interesting series of letters. Here the passion and contentious zeal of extreme orthodoxy seem to have convinced him that neither side possessed the monopoly of truth, and indeed that it is a hopeless attempt to express spiritual truth within precise dogmatic definitions. According to his friend Farindon, 'there he bid John Calvin good-night, as he often told.' Early in 1619 he returned to Eton to devote himself to continuous study, varied only by a journey to London once a year. Yet he was no melancholy recluse, but delighted in the conversation of such friends as Chillingworth, Lord Falkland, Savile, and Sir Henry Wotton, as well as Ben Jonson, Snelling, and other London wits. His too liberal Tract concerning Schism and Schismatics brought him under the displeasure of Laud, who was, however, satisfied after a personal conference and an apologetic letter, and appointed him to a canonry at Windsor, the only preferment Hales could ever be induced to accept. No doubt he allowed himself to be persuaded, because he loved peace better than argument; and Peter Heylin's account of how Hales told him that Laud's logic had 'ferreted him from one hole to another' need not be taken too literally, being, as Hallam says, indicrous, considering the relative abilities of the two men. The Puritan supremacy deprived him of his office, and reduced him to great want, which Andrew Marvell said well was 'not one of the least ignominies of that age.' He was forced to dispose of his fine collection of books, which must have been the keenest trial to his scholar's heart. He died at Eton, 19th May 1656.
Hales is a rare example of a profound student without pedantry, a ripe theologian with an altogether untheological clearness of mind and direct- ness of phrase. His conviction that dogmatic differences do not really affect religion, and his zeal for freedom of spirit rather than rigidity of form, belong not to his own time, but were qualities well becoming the dear friend of Falkland and Chillingworth. The genial sweetness of his temper and the humble modesty of his bearing fitted well with a singularly devout but unobtrusive piety, and help to account for the unwonted glow of warmth in the accounts of him by Clarendon, Pearson, Marvell, and Stillingfleet alike. Aubrey's false imputation of Socinianism has done much wrong to the memory of one of the most loyal although enlightened sons of the Church of England; but we have to thank his rambling pen for a glimpse of the gentle and cheerful little scholar not a year before his death, 'in a kind of violet-coloured cloth gown with buttons and loops,' the Imitation in his hand. His picture is one of the finest in the gallery of Clarendon, whose own words best help to explain the large tolerance of his temper and his broad conception of Christianity: 'He had, whether from his natural temper and constitution, or from his long retirement from all crowds, or from his profound judgment and discerning spirit, contracted some opinions which were not received, nor by him published, except in private discourses, and then rather upon occasion of dispute than of positive opinion; and he would often say his opinions, he was sure, did him no harm, but he was far from being confident that they might not do others harm, who entertained them, and might entertain other results from them than he did; and therefore he was very reserved in communicating what he thought himself in those points in which he differed from what was received.'
'Nothing troubled him more than the brawls which were grown from religion; and he therefore exceedingly detested the tyranny of the Church of Rome, more for their imposing uncharitably upon the consciences of other men than for the errors in their own opinions; and would often say that he would renounce the religion of the Church of England to-morrow if it obliged him to believe that any other Christians should be damned; and that nobody would conclude another man to be damned who did not wish him so.'
His friend Anthony Farindon (1598-1658) undertook to collect his writings, and write a memoir, but died before his task was completed. In a letter to his publisher he says, 'I am like Mr Hales in this, which was one of his defects, not to pen anything till I must needs.' And indeed all Hales's writings, valuable as they are, are occasional and unsystematic in form. The Golden Remains of the Ever-memorable Mr John Hales of Eton College were at length published in 1659 under the care of Pearson, who prefixed not a Life but an Epistle to the Reader, containing a most eulogistic character of his author. This edition was reprinted in 1673 and 1688, and in 1677 a new volume gave several additional tracts. The best edition is that issued in three small volumes by the Foulis Press at Glasgow in 1765, edited by Sir David Dalrymple, afterwards a Scottish judge with the title of Lord Hailes. See chap. 4, vol. i., of Tulloch's Rational Theology in England in the 17th Century (1872).