From the ‘Scriptorum illustrium maioris Brytanniae’ of bishop John Bale (1495–1563). The text is from the Basle edition of 1557, p. 651. Bale was a dramatist, controversialist and the author in this instance of a biographical and bibliographical reference work containing the fullest early biography and bibliography of Skelton. It supplements the accounts of Skelton in Bale's two earlier works, his ‘Illustrium Maioris Britanniae Scriptorum’ (1548) and his ‘Index Britanniae Scriptorum’ (post 1548). Bale bases his account on the collections of the antiquary Edward Braynewode, who is otherwise unknown.
Ioannes Skeltonus, poeta laureatus, ac theologie professor, parochus de Dyssa in Nordouolgiae comitatu, clarus & facundus in utroque scribendi genere, prosa atque metro, habebatur. facetijs in quotidiana inuentione plurimum deditus fuit: non tamen omisit sub persona ridentis, ut in Horatio Flacco, ueritatem fateri. Tam apte, amoene, ac false, mordaciter tamen, quorundam facta in amoena carpere nouit, ut alter uideretur Lucianus aut Democritus, ut ex opusculis liquet. Sed neque in scripturis facris absque omni iudicio erat, quamuis illud egregie dissimulauit. In clero non ferenda mala uidebat, & magna & multa: quae nonnunquam uiuis perstrinxit coloribus, ac scommatibus non obscoenis. Cum quibusdam blateronibus fraterculis, praecipue Dominicanis, bellum gerebat continuum. Sub pseudopontifice Nordouicensi Ricardo Nixo, mulierem illam, quam sibi secreto ob Antichristi metum desponsauerat, sub concubinae titulo custodiebat. In ultimo tamen vitae articulo super ea re interrogatus, respondit, se nusquam illam in conscientia coram Deo, nisi pro uxore legitima tenuisse. Ob literas quasdam in Cardinalem Vuolsium inuectiuas, ad Vuestmonasteriense tandem asylum confugere, pro uita seruanda coactus fuit: ubi nihilominus sub abbate Islepo fauorem inuenit. De illo Erasmus in quadam epistola, ad Henricum octauum regem, sic scribit: Skeltonum, Brytannicarum literarum lumen ac decus, qui tua studia possit non solum accendere, sed etiam consummare: hunc domi habes &c iste uero edidit, partim Anglice, partim Latine,
[A list of Skelton's works follows.]
(John Skelton, poet laureate and professor of theology, was priest of Diss in the county of Norfolk and skilled in both kinds of writing, verse and prose. He was much given to the daily invention of satires. Nevertheless, under the mask of laughter, he did not omit to utter truth, as did Horatius Flaccus. (1) He knew how to speak about various matters in a pleasant manner, so skilfully, pleasantly, deceitfully, albeit bitingly, that he seemed another Lucian (2) or Democritus, (3) as is clear from his works. But he was not in full accord with Holy Scripture, although he concealed the fact deftly. He saw many great evil deeds being carried out among the clergy, which he sometimes attacked with lively rhetoric and judicious sneers. He continuously waged war on certain babbling friars, especially the Dominicans. Under the false bishop of Norwich, Richard Nix, he kept that woman (whom he had secretly married for fear of Antichrist) under the title of concubine. When, as he was dying, he was asked about her, he replied that he had nothing on his conscience before God concerning her, since she had been kept as a true wife. Because of certain satiric verses against cardinal Wolsey he was at last compelled to seek sanctuary at Westminster to save his life; where, notwithstanding he found favour with abbot Islep.)
1 Horace (65–8 BC), the Roman poet and satirist.
2 A Greek rhetorician and satirist.
3 The Greek philosopher (c. 460–370 BC).