‘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.’
These words are familiar to many; their author, John Donne, though less well-known, is one of the greatest of English poets. In his own time, he was the best-known preacher in the Church of England. He came to that eminence by a tortuous path. Born into a wealthy and pious Roman Catholic family in 1573, he was educated at both Oxford and Cambridge, and studied law at Lincoln’s Inn. Some time later he conformed to the Established Church and embarked upon a promising political career of service to the State. The revelation of his secret marriage in 1601 to the niece of his employer, the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, brought his public career to an end. In 1615, he was persuaded by Kings James 1 and others to receive ordination.
Following several brief cures, Donne rose rapidly in popularity as Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, London, from 1622 until his death. He drew grat throngs to the Cathedral and to St Paul’s Cross, a nearby open-air pulpit. His sermons reflect the wide learning of the scholar, the passionate intensity of the poet, and the profound devotion of one struggling in his own life to relate the freedom and demands of the Gospel to the concerns of a common humanity, on every level, and in all its complexities.
In one of his poems, he wrote:
We thinke that Paradise and Calvarie,
Christs Crosse, and Adams tree, stood in one place;
Looke, Lord, and fine both Adams met in me;
As the first Adams sweat surrounds my face
May the last Adams blood my soule embrace.
So, in his purple wrapp’d receive mee Lord,
By these his thornes give me his other Crowne;
And as to others soules I preach’d thy word,
Be this my text, my Sermon to my owne.
Therefore, that he may raise the Lord throws down.
John Donne died 31 March 1631