The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Neale, John Mason
(nl) (KEY) , 181866, 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 voluminouslyhistory, 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. Margarets 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 Clunys De contemptu mundi, from which several of Neales best-known hymns are taken.