Neale, John Mason

Neale, John Mason (nēl), 1818–66, English clergyman, historian, and hymn writer, grad. Trinity College, Cambridge, 1840. An enthusiastic supporter of the High Church movement, he was under the inhibition (i.e., not allowed to perform any ministerial duties) of his bishop from 1846 to 1863. From 1846 until his death he was warden of Sackville College, East Grinstead, Sussex, a charitable institution for the aged; there he wrote voluminously—history, theology, travel books, poems, hymns, and books for children. A nursing sisterhood which he had founded elsewhere was moved to East Grinstead in 1856 and continued there as St. Margaret's Sisterhood. He is best known for his numerous translations of Greek and Latin hymns. In 1859 appeared his translation of a sizable part of Bernard of Cluny's De contemptu mundi, from which several of Neale's best-known hymns are taken.

Bibliography

See A. G. Lough, The Influence of John Mason Neale (1962).