Who was JOHN DONNE? 1572 - 1631 by Angela Bernales

Donne entered this world during a period of theological and political unrest for both England and France. The fight between Protestantism and Catholicism was at their peak. A Protestant massacre occurred on Saint Bartholomew's Day in France; while in England, the Catholics were the persecuted minority.
Born into a Roman Catholic family, his personal relationship with the ghost of religion was tumultuous and passionate, and it was the center of much of his poetry.
He studied at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities in his early teen years but he did not take a degree at either school, because to do so would have forced him to subscribe himself to  the Thirty-nine Articles, the doctrine that defined the Anglicanism.
At age of twenty he studied law at Lincoln's Inn. Two years later he succumbed to the religious pressure and joined the Anglican Church after his younger brother, convicted for his Catholic loyalties, died in prison.  As a way of releasing his sorrow, he wrote most of his love lyrics and some sacred poem during this time.
In 1598, after returning from a two-year naval expedition against Spain, he was appointed private secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton. While working in Queen Elizabeth's last Parliament in 1601, he met the sixteen-year-old niece of Lady Egerton and secretly married her. Her uncle got mad because of this and disapproved the marriage, canceling the dowry for the couple. Due to this matter, Donn suffered social and financial instability in the beginning of the marriage life exacerbated by the birth of many children.
He continue to write and published the "Divine Poems" in 1607. Donn displayed his extensive knowledge of the laws of the Church and State, arguing that Roman Catholics could support James I without compromising their faith.
His wife aged Thirty-three died in 1617, shortly after giving birth to their twelfth child, a stillborn.
The "Holy Sonnets" are attributed to these phase of his life. He wrote his private prayers, "Devotion upon Emergent Occasions," during a period of severe illness and publish them in 1624.
His learned, charismatic, and inventive preaching made him a highly influential presence in London. Best Known for his vivacious, compelling style and thorough examination of mortal paradox, he was appointed Royal Chaplain in 1618.
In 1621, he became dean of Saint Paul's Cathedral. He died in London in 1631.