Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 46.djvu/106

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Poole
100
Poole

which condenses into brief, crisp notes the substance of much laboured comment. Rabbinical sources and Roman catholic commentators are not neglected; little is taken from Calvin, nothing from Luther. The ‘Synopsis’ being in Latin for scholars, Poole began a smaller series of annotations in English, and reached Isaiah lviii.; the work was completed by others (the correct list is given in Calamy).

In his depositions relative to the alleged ‘popish plot’ (September 1678), Titus Oates [q. v.] had represented Poole as marked for assassination, in consequence of his tract (1666) on the ‘Nullity of the Romish Faith.’ Poole gave no credit to this, till he got a scare on returning one evening from Ashurst's house in company with Josiah Chorley [q. v.] When they reached the ‘passage which goes from Clerkenwell to St. John's Court,’ two men stood at the entrance; one cried ‘Here he is,’ the other replied ‘Let him alone, for there is somebody with him.’ Poole made up his mind that, but for Chorley's presence, he would have been murdered. This, at any rate, is Chorley's story. He accordingly left England, and settled at Amsterdam. Here he died on 12 Oct., new style, 1679. A suspicion arose that he had been poisoned, but it rests on no better ground than the wild terror inspired by Oates's infamous fabrications. He was buried in a vault of the English presbyterian church at Amsterdam. His portrait was engraved by R. White. His wife, whose maiden name is not known, was buried on 11 Aug. 1668 at St. Andrew's, Holborn, Stillingfleet preaching the funeral sermon. He left a son, who died in 1697. The commentator spelled his name Poole, and in Latin Polus.

He published: 1. ‘The Blasphemer slain with the Sword of the Spirit; or a Plea for the Godhead of the Holy Spirit … against … Biddle,’ &c., 1654, 12mo. 2. ‘Quo Warranto; or an Enquiry into the … Preaching of … Unordained Persons,’ &c., 1658, 4to (this was probably written earlier, as it was drawn up by the appointment of the London provincial assembly, which appears to have held no meetings after 1655; Wood mentions an edition, 1659, 4to). 3. ‘A Model for the Maintaining of Students … at the University … in order to the Ministry,’ &c., 1658, 4to. 4. ‘A Letter from a London Minister to the Lord Fleetwood,’ 1659, 4to (dated 13 Dec.). 5. ‘Evangelical Worship is Spiritual Worship,’ &c., 1660, 4to; with title ‘A Reverse to Mr. Oliver's Sermon of Spiritual Worship,’ &c., 1698, 4to. 6. ‘Vox Clamantis in Deserto,’ &c., 1666, 8vo (in Latin). 7. ‘The Nullity of the Romish Faith,’ &c., Oxford, 1666, 8vo (Wood); Oxford, 1667, 12mo. 8. ‘A Dialogue between a Popish Priest and an English Protestant,’ &c., 1667, 8vo, often reprinted; recent editions are, 1840, 12mo (edited by Peter Hall [q. v.]); 1850, 12mo (edited by John Cumming [q. v.]). 9. ‘Synopsis Criticorum aliorumque Sacræ Scripturæ Interpretum,’ &c., vol. i., 1669, fol.; vol. ii., 1671, fol.; vol. iii., 1673, fol.; vol. iv., 1674, fol.; vol. v., 1676, fol.; 2nd edit., Frankfort, 1678, fol., 5 vols.; 3rd edit., Utrecht, 1684–6, fol., 5 vols. (edited by John Leusden); 4th edit., Frankfort, 1694, 4to, 5 vols. (with life); 5th edit., Frankfort, 1709–12, fol., 6 vols. (with comment on the Apocrypha). The ‘Synopsis’ was placed on the Roman Index by decree dated 21 April 1693. 10. ‘A Seasonable Apology for Religion,’ &c., 1673, 4to. Posthumous were 11. ‘His late Sayings a little before his Death,’ &c. [1679], broadsheet. 12. ‘Annotations upon the Holy Bible,’ &c., 1683–5, fol., 2 vols.; often reprinted; last edit. 1840, 8vo, 3 vols. Four of his sermons are in the ‘Morning Exercises,’ 1660–75, 4to. He had a hand in John Toldervy's ‘The Foot out of the Snare,’ 1656, 4to (a tract against quakers); he subscribed the epistle commendatory prefixed to Christopher Love's posthumous ‘Sinner's Legacy,’ 1657, 4to; he wrote a preface and memoir for the posthumous sermons (1677) of James Nalton [q. v.]; also elegiac verses in memory of Jacob Stock, Richard Vines, and Jeremy Whitaker.

[Calamy's Account, 1713, pp. 14 seq.; Calamy's Continuation, 1727, i. 15 seq.; Wood's Fasti (Bliss), ii. 205; Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, 1696, iii. 157; Burnet's Own Time, 1724, i. 308; Birch's Life of Tillotson, 1753, pp. 37 seq.; Granger's Biogr. Hist. of England, 1779, iii. 311; Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, 1779, ii. 546; Chalmers's General Biogr. Dict., 1816, xxv. 154 seq.; Glaire's Dictionnaire Universel des Sciences Ecclésiastiques, 1868, ii. 1816; extract from Sampson's Day-book, in Christian Reformer, 1862, p. 247; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1891, iii. 1175.]

A. G.

POOLE, PAUL FALCONER (1807–1879), historical painter, fourth son of James Paul Poole, a small grocer, was born at 43 College Street, Bristol, on 28 Dec. 1807. An elder brother, James Poole, a merchant, was mayor of Bristol in 1858–9, and chairman of the Taff Vale Railway Company, and of the Bristol Docks Committee. He died on 24 Dec. 1872, aged 75.

Paul was baptised in St. Augustine's Church in that city on 22 July 1810 by the names of Paul ‘Fawkner.’ He received little general education, and as an artist was almost entirely self-taught, to which cause must be ascribed