JOHN DONNE BIOGRAPHY, PAGE 2,

In the first part of this John Donne Biography, we dealt with his early life, including education, marriage and subsequent life of poverty. In this part we contine with his return to London and later life.

The publication of his two anti-Catholic polemics, Pseudo Martyr and Ignatius His Conclave, was public confirmation of his rejection of the ancient Roman Catholic Faith.

A great deal has been written concerning when and for what reason Donne, who was from a very staunch Roman Catholic family, came to the decision to give up the faith of his forefathers.

His great, great uncle Sir Thomas More had been martyred under Henry VIII for his beliefs, eventually coming to be known as St. Thomas More, when he was cannonized in 1935.

Several of Donne's relatives became recusants and refused to give up their faith under any circumstances. They paid a very heavy price for their decision, as did so many of their fellow countrymen.

The Persecution of Protestants under Queen Mary of England, had now been replaced during the reign of her sister Queen Elizabeth 1, by the Persecution of Catholics.

Queen Mary, in whose reign nearly three hundred Potestants were executed, has been known as Bloody Mary ever since. Queen Elizabeth on the other hand, in whose reign many more Catholics were executed, has been known as Good Queen Bess.

It is believed that in the reign of their father, King Henry VIII, although it can't be authenticated, between fifty and seventy thousand executions took place. Not for him either, was the soubriquet Bloody applied.

In those days there were extremely harsh penalties ( the Penal Laws), for those who refused to sign the Oath of Supremacy.

These Penal Laws started with the two Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity (which were passed in 1559), whereby Queen Elizabeth 1 started her Religious Settlement.

They were made even stricter when they were amended. This meant that to maintain the authority of the Pope IN ANY WAY would be punishable under the laws of Praemunire (a law that prohibited the assertion or maintenance of papal jurisdiction, imperial or foreign, or some other alien jurisdiction or claim of supremacy in England, against the supremacy of the Monarch).

By the Act of Supremacy all who maintained the spiritual or ecclesiastical authority of any foreign prelate were to forfeit all goods and chattels, both real and personal, and all benefices for the first offence, or in case the value of these was below 20 pounds, to be imprisoned for one year; they were liable to the forfeitures of Praemunire for the second offence and to the penalties of high treason for the third offence.

The penalties of Praemunire were:

Exclusion from the sovereign's protection, forfeiture of all lands and goods,

To be Hanged, Drawn and Quartered.Corruption of Blood, in which any heirs could not inherit honours or office and Forfeiture of all property.

Therefore for the first offence, it was the penalties of praemunire. The second offence was high treason, but without corruption of blood.

The Act of Uniformity, was used to punish any cleric, either by deprivation and/or imprisonment, who performed any service other than the Anglican service, and everyone who refused to attend the Anglican Services by fining them twelve pence for each time they missed.

Twelve pence in those days was a huge sum of money to the average person and it is hard to imagine anyone, who being threatened with such heavy fines, and the certainty of being deprived of their employment, with no chance of ever being employed again, not being forced into surrender.

It was certainly under these constraints that John Donne found himself. On being informed by King James 1, that he would find no employment whatsoever outside the Anglican Church, he finally submitted.

Regardless as to what he published in his works, just how much of it, may have been written in order to prove himself a loyal subject of the king's. No-one except Donne himself could ever know.

The intense pressures felt by the whole population of his day, to renounce the religion of their forefather's, which most people held very dear, can only be imagined by us. With no other choice than to either conform or starve, did Donne feel he had no alternative.

Pseudo-Martyr, published in 1610 was a public declaration of his belief, that English Roman Catholics could take the Oath of Allegiance, while still remaining loyal to the Spiritual Authority of Rome.

Having been trained as a lawyer, Pseudo-Martyr was the only one of his works he wrote through the eyes of, and with the mind of a lawyer. It was an attempt by Donne to reveal how he had resolved or excused, his own lapse from the ancient faith.

The polemic, Ignatius His Conclave, which he had not originally intended to be published, but eventually relented, and allowed it to be published in 1611, is a work that is vindictive to the Jesuits in the extreme.

Was it an attempt on his part to blame the Jesuit Order for the death of his brother Henry, for harbouring one of their priests.

He was able to move back to London in 1611/12, with the hope of still achieving his ambition of a position and status in public life, but with no success.

His writings however, had attracted much attention and his friend, Thomas Morton, Dean of Gloucester, tried to persuade the reluctant John Donne that the only opportunity left open to him would be to enter the Church of England.

His two polemics Pseudo-Martyr and Ignatius His Conclave, had attracted the attention of no less a person than King James I himself, who was greatly impressed with them.

ABOVE : JOHN DONNE BIOGRAPHY : PORTRAIT OF KING JAMES I.

However, due to the nature of these works, is it any surprise at all, that they were bound to impress him. Had they been written with the express purpose of impressing him.

By this time, Donne had left the Roman Catholic Church and through the support of his patrons, he made the aquaintance of the king, with whom he was certainly in communication.

He had previously resisted all the pressure which had been applied to him, to make a career for himself, by entering the Church of England. He had been resolute in his refusal, even under the added pressure of King James 1.

The exasperated king, finally made his wishes very clear by announcing that Donne would receive no post or preferment from him unless he entered the Church.

Apparently with a great deal of reluctance, Donne submitted to this intense pressure which he had bourne for so long and entered the Anglican Ministry.

He took Anglican Orders in 1615 and was appointed Royal Chaplain later that year. In 1616 he became a Reader of Divinity at Lincoln's Inn and in 1618, he received his Doctor of Divinity from the University of Cambridge.

During this period when he was beginning to see much belated success, his wife Anne died at the age of thirty three. This was in 1617, following the birth of their twelfth child, which had been stillborn.

Her death greatly affected Donne. Out of the twelve children she had given birth to, only seven survived. According to his friend and biographer, Izaak Walton, Donne was struck by grief and thereafter 'crucified to the world'. He wrote Holy Sonnet XVII.

HOLY SONNETS. XVII.

Since she whom I loved hath paid her last debtTo Nature, and to hers, and my good is dead,And her soul early into heaven ravishèd,Wholly on heavenly things my mind is set.Here the admiring her my mind did whetTo seek thee, God; so streams do show the head;But though I have found thee, and thou my thirst hast fed,A holy thirsty dropsy melts me yet.But why should I beg more love, whenas thouDost woo my soul, for hers offering all thine:And dost not only fear lest I allowMy love to saints and angels, things divine,But in thy tender jealousy dost doubtLest the world, flesh, yea, devil put thee out.

He continued to write poetry. The Holy Sonnets were written during this period. It was in 1618 that he accompanied Viscount Doncaster on a diplomatic mission to Germany.

He returned to England in 1620 and the following year, in 1621, was appointed Dean of St. Paul's, a position he held until his death in 1631.

In these later years he became obssessed with death. He became very ill late on in 1623, with what was thought to have been typhus or relapsing fever, and it was during his period of convalescence that he wrote Devotions upon Emergent Occasions.

In this work he describes each stage of his illness, of which Meditation XVII is probably the best known part, where he is preparing himself to die.

John Donne Meditation 17.

PERCHANCE he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill as that he knows not it tolls for him..............No man is an island,entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

In 1624, he became the vicar of St. Dunstan-in-the-West. He was celebrated for his sermons, which reputedly held his congregations spellbound and attracted them in huge numbers.

In these later years he seems to have been completely obssessed with death and wrote works which appeared to challege it, such as his Holy Sonnet X , “Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so.”

In the lent of 1631, he got up from his sickbed and In the presence of King

Charles 1, he preached his last sermon, Death's Duell, just a few weeks before he died. It was later described as his own funeral sermon.

He died on 31st March 1631, from what is thought may have been stomach cancer, although it has never been proved.

He was buried in Old St. Paul's Cathedral London

He had posed in a shroud for a painting which was completed just weeks before his death, and later was used to produce an effigy. This memorial is the only one to have survived the Great Fire of London, which destroyed the old Cathedral and most of the City in 1666.

This memorial can still be seen in the new St. Paul's Cathedral, which was built by Christopher Wren after the Fire.

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