Donne's stature as an artist in prose is directly linked to his transformation into a great preacher whose unique blend of verbal virtuosity, far-ranging learning, emotional and psychological profundity, and imaginative range set him apart from his clerical peers.
Born sometime during the first half of 1572, Donne was the son of John Donne, a successful merchant in the Ironmongers' Company, although the younger Donne suppressed this feature of his heritage. The critical factor, as he saw it, was his birth into a family notable for its passionate attachment to the Catholic faith. Through his mother, Elizabeth Heywood Donne, he was related to Sir Thomas More; one of his uncles was a leader in the Jesuit mission to England in the 1580s. After the death of his father in January 1576, his mother wed John Syminges, a Catholic doctor who became president of the Royal College of Physicians.
Donne apparently received his earliest education from Catholic tutors, and that education may have had much to do with his affection for medieval thinkers and his great familiarity with medieval devotional traditions. He also seems to have taken an interest in medicine, for references to medical practice and theory abound in his writings.
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