John Earle

John Earle (c. 1601 – 17 November 1665) was an English cleric, author and translator, who was chaplain to Charles II. Towards the end of his life he was Bishop of Worcester and then Salisbury.

Life

He was born at York, but the exact date is unknown. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, but moved to Merton, where he obtained a fellowship. In 1631 he was proctor and also chaplain to Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke, then chancellor of the university, which led in 1639 to incumbency of the rectory of Bishopston in Wiltshire.

His fame spread, and in 1641 he was appointed chaplain and tutor to the future Charles II of England. In 1643 he was elected one of the Westminster Assembly, but his sympathies with Charles I of England and with the Anglican Communion were so strong that he declined to sit. Early in 1643 he was chosen chancellor of Salisbury Cathedral, but he was soon deprived of this position as a "malignant." After the final Royalist defeat at the Battle of Worcester, Earle went abroad, and was made Clerk of the Closet (1651–1664) and chaplain to his former student Charles II.

He spent a year at Antwerp in the house of Izaak Walton's friend, George Morley. He then joined the Duke of York (the future James II) in Paris, returning to England at the Restoration. He was appointed dean of Westminster, and in 1661 was one of the commissioners for revising the liturgy. He was on friendly terms with Richard Baxter. In November 1662 he was consecrated Bishop of Worcester, and was translated, ten months later, to the see of Salisbury, where he conciliated the nonconformists. He was strongly opposed to the Conventicle Act and Five Mile Act. During the Great Plague of London in 1665 – 1666, Earle attended to Charles II and his Queen consort Catherine of Braganza at Oxford, and there he died.