RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
How
Howie
in England, Ireland, and Scotland, strengthened his conviction that reform was necessary. The rooms were, in part, underground and damp, and, as a rule, gloomy and filthy, in one case the common sewer of the city running directly under one of the prisons, and uncovered. The bedding was usually straw, and the rations were unwholesome and insufficient. Jail-fever and smallpox in its most virulent form were common diseases. In 1774 Howard was called to testify before the committee of the House of Commons. That body passed a resolution " recognizing the humanity and zeal which had led him to visit the several jails in this kingdom," and the same year passed two bills for the better treatment of prisoners, and care of jails.
Howard began his inspection of Continental prisons in 1775, visiting France, Germany, Belgium, and Holland. On other tours undertaken in 1776, 1778, and 1781 he studied prison conditions in the remaining countries of Europe. In 1783 he inspected the penal and charitable institutions in Spain and Portugal. With a view to mitigating the horrors of the plague he visited, in 1785, the lazarettos of various cities of France and Italy, went as far as Smyrna, and traveled unknown on vessels infected with the plague, in order to be able the better to find out the treatment of the disease, and the nature of the quarantine regulations. At the time of his death he was making a study of Russian military hospitals. A monument to Howard's memory was placed in St. Paul's Cathedral. To his efforts are due the improved system of prison accommodation and the discipline which seeks to reform the criminal, not only in Great Britain, but, to some extent, throughout a large part of Europe. He published The State of the Prisons in England and Wales and an Account of some Foreign Prisons
(2 parts, Warrington, 1777-80; 4th ed., London, 1792); and An Account of the Principal Lazarettos in Europe (Warrington, 1789).
Bibliography: Howard's Correspondence, with a Memoir by J. Field, appeared London, 1855. Consult: J. Aikin, View of the Character and Public Services of . John Howard, London, 1790; J. B. Brown, Memoirs of the Public and Private Life of John Howard, ib. 1823; Life of John Howard . from the most Authentic Documents, Edinburgh, 1825; T. Taylor, Memoirs of John Howard, London, 1836; G. E. Sargent, The Philanthropist of the World; a Life of John Howard, ib. 1849; W. H. Dixon, Memoir and Records of John Howard, ib. 1854; C. K. True, Memoirs of John Howard, the Prisoner's Friend, Cincinnati, 1878 ; J. Stoughton, Howard the Philanthropist and His Friends, ib. 1884; R. D. R. Sweeting, Essay on the Experiences and Opinions of John Howard, ib. 1884; W. H. Render, Through Prison Bars: the Lives of John Howard and Elizabeth Fry, ib. 1894; H. H. Scullard, John Howard, ib. 1899; E. C. S. Gibson, John Howard, ib. 1901; DNB, xxviii. 44-48.
HOWE, JOHN: English Puritan; b. at Loughborough (10 m. n.n.w. of Leicester), Leicestershire, May 17, 1630; d. at Smithfield, London, Apr. 2, 1705. At the age of five he went to Ireland with his father, who had been ejected from his living by Laud, but returned to England in 1641 and settled with his father in Lancaster. He studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and at Magdalen College, Oxford (B.A., 1650; M.A., 1652), where for a time he was fellow and college chaplain. At Cambridge he came under the influence of Ralph Cudworth and
Henry More (qq.v.), from whom he probably received the Platonic tinge that marks his writings. About 1654 he was appointed to the perpetual curacy of Great Torrington, Devonshire. In this place, according to his own statement, he was engaged in the pulpit on fast-days from nine to four, with a recess of fifteen minutes, during which the people sang. While on a visit to London in 1656 Cromwell prevailed upon him to preach at Whitehall, with the result that Howe, much against his preferences, became one of Cromwell's chaplains. Upon Richard Cromwell's retirement he returned to his former parish at Torrington. When the Act of Uniformity was passed he quitted his church, but remained for some time in the neighborhood, preaching in private houses. In this period he was cited before the bishop of Exeter, his old friend Seth Ward, who vainly urged Howe to be reordained.
In 1666 Howe accepted the Five Mile Act, but with the limiting clause, " so far as the laws of man are agreeable to the Word of God." In 1671 he became chaplain to Lord Massereene, of Antrim Castle, Ireland. Here he was a member of the Antrim Meeting, the precursor of the Presbyterian organization in northern Ireland. In 1676 he returned to London as the successor of Lazarus Seaman at Haberdashers' Hall. In 1685, on account of the greater severity shown to the dissenters, he accepted an invitation to accompany Lord Wharton to the Continent, and the year following settled at Utrecht. When James II. issued his declaration for liberty of conscience in 1687 Howe returned to his old position in London. From this time till his death he took an active interest in current discussions on predestination, the Trinity, and conformity. In 1688 he headed a deputation of dissenting ministers in an address of welcome to William.
Howe was conciliatory in disposition, catholic in spirit, anxious to promote Christian unity, and more than once he put his opponents in controversy to the blush by his moderation and firmness. His works, in spite of being somewhat prolix and tedious, are among the most suggestive and profound of Puritan writings. His principal works are: The Blessedness of the Righteous (London, 1668); Delighting in God (1674); The Living Temple (2 parts, 1675-1702), his best-known book; and The Redeemer's Tears Wept over Lost Souls (1684) . His Works were issued with a Life by Edmund Calamy (2 vols., 1724), and edited by J. Huirt (8 vols., 1810-22). There is also an American edition (2 vols., New York, 1869).
Bibliography: H. Rogers, Life and Character of John Howe, London, reprinted 1879; DNB, xxviii. 85-88 (where a list of scattered notices may be found).
HOWIE, JOHN: Scotch Presbyterian layman; b. at Lochgoin (2 m. from Kilmarnock), Ayrshire, Nov. 14, 1735; d. there Jan. 5, 1793. He came of a family of Lochgoin farmers which for generations had been characterized by stanch devotion to religious freedom. As the farm did not require all of his time, he found leisure for literary pursuits and the collection of antiquarian relics connected with the Covenanters. He was the author of the famous Scots Worthies, or, more fully, Biographia Scoticana ; or a Brief Historical A ccount of the
Eowson
Eater