Joseph Hall, an English author, born at Ashby dela Zouch, July 1,1574, died at Higham, Sept. 8, 1656. He was educated at Cambridge, took orders, and became dean of Worcester in 1617, bishop of Exeter in 1627, and bishop of Norwich in 1641. In the latter year he joined with the bishops who protested against the validity of laws made during their forced absence from parliament, and was committed for a time to the tower. In 1643 his revenues were sequestrated and his personal property was pillaged. From 1647 to his death he lived in poverty at Higham, near Norwich. Among his prose writings are: Mundus alter et idem (1007; translated into English by John Healey under the title "Discovery of a new World, or a Description of South Indies hitherto unknown," London, without date); "Contemplations on the Old and New Testaments;" "Paraphrases on Hard Texts;" " Epistles," and several volumes of sermons and devotional and polemical works. His satires, "Virgidemiarum, six Bookes" (1597-'8), have been highly praised by Pope, Warton, and Campbell, and disparaged by Hallam. An edition of his works has been published, with an autobiography, and notes by Josiah Pratt (10 vols., London, 1808), and a later and better one by Peter Hall (12 vols., Oxford, 1837-'9).