John Bale included autobiographical notes in his literary catalogs. Beginning with those entries, then studying correspondence between Bale and his contemporaries and reviewing official records of the era, Jesse W. Harris has provided considerable background data in his book John Bale: A Study in the Minor Literature of the Reformation (1940), to which the following summary is indebted.

Bale was born to Henry and Margaret Bale at Cove, County Suffolk, near Dunwich, England. At age twelve, he began study with the Carmelite friars at Norwich, whose monastery had a good library. Bale learned Latin, the rites and customs of the Order, and the principles of careful study and research.

In 1514, Bale entered Jesus College in Cambridge University. College policy apparently required that he reside at Jesus College rather than with fellow Carmelites in lodgings that the order maintained at the university. When Bale arrived at Cambridge, interest in the New Learning was high and Continental Reformation influences were strong; Erasmus, the Dutch theologian and New Testament scholar, was in residence there. A number of Bale’s fellow students, including Hugh Latimer, Thomas Cranmer, Stephen Gardiner, and Matthew Parker, were to become important figures in the religious and political struggles that erupted when Henry VIII assumed control of the English Church and that did not significantly subside until after the accession of Elizabeth I.

Bale took his bachelor of divinity in 1529 and his doctor of divinity not long afterward. He served briefly as prior of the Carmelite monastery in Maldon in 1530, then moved to the priory at Doncaster. In 1533, he became prior at Ipswich, not far from his hometown of Cove; by then, he had a reputation for unorthodox teaching. One William Broman, when questioned about his religious views in 1535, testified that Bale had taught him in Doncaster in 1531 that Christ was not physically present in the Eucharist.

At Ipswich, Bale grew close to Thomas Wentworth, an active Protestant who led the unorthodox friar to act more decisively on his reform convictions. Bale converted to Protestantism, left the priesthood, and married a young woman named Dorothy. On the strength of some fourteen Protestant plays already written for patron John de Vere, Wentworth recommended Bale to Thomas Cromwell, a major power in the Protestant movement. Cromwell encouraged Bale to continue writing plays and other materials to further the Protestant cause. On at least two occasions, Bale’s outspoken views brought sanctions from authorities. He even spent time in Greenwich jail, but Cromwell was able to bring pressure to bear on the authorities involved, and Bale was released.

For several years, the nature of the Church in England was fiercely debated. Henry VIII’s assumption of headship did not eradicate in one stroke all the centuries of Roman Catholic tradition in England, and among those who called for reform, there was no consensus on how much reform was enough. The relative influence of various factions waxed and waned. For a time, Cromwell’s influence was substantial. Anne Boleyn’s execution in 1536, however, set off a wave of pro-Catholic activity. By 1540, Henry VIII was less worried about the definition of the national Church than he was about the deep divisions within the body politic. He moved to solve his political problems as he had his personal problems—by execution. To be fair, he beheaded or burned three Catholic and three Protestant leaders, including Cromwell.

His patron gone, Bale fled with his wife and children to the Continent in 1540. He presumably spent time in Holland, Switzerland, and northern Germany. The publication notices in books he issued while in Europe cite places of...