^mvW&)7'i

iifeilii.;MiKKiii 0

i ¦•¦-¦ r-

Deposited by the
Ljnonian and Brothers Library
1 9Z1

THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF
ROBERT LEIGHTON

" A purer, humbler, holier spirit never tabernacled in Scottish clay." —
Professor Flint.
" Tauler will be, for the rest of my life, one of my sacred guides, and
will stand, after my Bible, with Plato and Leighton, and the Theologia
Germanica, and Coleridge, and Tennyson, and the German and Wesley
hymns. A strange jumble, you will say, of heterogeneous springs of
thought ! Yet all, I think, assuaging to the same thirst." — DR. James
Martineau.
" If the tradition of Archbishop Leighton could at length replace that
of Archbishop Laud, how much might the Episcopal Bench do, even at
once, for the unification of Christ's Church." — Canon Henson.

y/^i-,

l-^prifluGEtL InPhoiaijravnrE by Annan 5. 3 dus >

- /

¦/)f/-'. '>'WJV^'

///• y^.'-; ,y/'-u/'//uw //f- 'J

/////// ^y^'

r I ^

he Life and Letters
of Robert Leighton
Restoration Bishop of Dunblane and
Archbishop of Glasgow * * * ^

By the Rev. D. BUTLER, M.A.
F.R.S.E. MINISTER ot THE TRON KIRK,
EDINBURGH, atid Author of " Scottish Cathedrals
and Abbeys" "Henry Scoitgal and the Oxford
Methodists" ^''John Wesley -and George Whitefield ^
in Scotland" " 7"/*^ Ancient Church and Parish of
Abemethy"

LONDON : HODDER AND
STOUGHTON -* '•s 27
PATERNOSTER ROW 1903

Butler &> Tanner The Selivood Printing Works Frome and London

PREFACE
IT is to be regretted that Gilbert Burnet did not write the
life of Leighton as he intended to do, for his long
intimacy and correspondence with him gave insight as well
as material which no one but Burnet possessed, and the latter,
so far as is known, no longer exists, beyond what has been
incorporated in the History of His Own Times. Philip
Doddridge also contemplated a larger life than he has given
in the preface to his edition of Leighton's works, but he never
attained it, and letters which he possessed (written by
Leighton) have now disappeared, or at least, if extant, are at
present inaccessible. Since then, lives of Leighton have
been promised and projected, but no full life has yet appeared.
The following life is an endeavour to supply the want, and
at no time was it so neccesary, since the very problem which
Leighton endeavoured to solve in the seventeenth century
has been recently before the Church.
Burnet's account has been hitherto the chief source of
information regarding Leighton, and well is it so, for Burnet
estimated him aright. In the following life, the valuable
edition of Burnet's History, edited by Mr. Osmund Airy, has
been used.
Other original sources of information are : — (i) The Corre
spondence of the Earl of Ancram and the Earl of Lothian,
edited by Dr. David Laing (2 vols., Bannatyne Club, 1875).
(2) " Extracts from the Presbytery Books of Dalkeith and
from the Session Records of Newbattle," by the late Rev. Dr.
Gordon, parish Minister of Newbattle (with introductory
remarks by Dr. David Laing) in the Proceedings of the Society
of Antiquaries, vol. iv. pp. 459-489. These valuable extracts
correct various mistakes into which Bishop Burnet has fallen

vi PREFACE
and which have misled later writers. On this account special
thanks are due to Dr. Gordon for his excellent work as well
as (3) to the late Dr. Wilson, Minister of Dunning and Clerk
to the Synod of Perth and Stirling for publishing and
editing the Register of the Diocesan Synod of Dunblane, con
taining eighteen of Leighton's addresses.
(4) Reference must also be made to the " Account of the
Foundation of the Leightonian Library," by Robert Douglas,
Bishop of Dunblane {Bannatyne Miscellany, vol. iii. 229-272),
and (s) to " Bishop Leighton's Resignation of the See of
Glasgow " {Maitlaitd Miscellany, vol. iv. part i. pp. 295-299),
while it is to be regretted that the earliest volume of the
Synod Book of Glasgow and Ayr, which is now preserved,
does not extend further back than 1 687, fourteen years after
Leighton had resigned the See. Were its valuable prede
cessor to be discovered, no doubt Leighton's Addresses to
the Synod of Glasgow might be brought to light, and another
addition made to the religious literature of the Church.
(6) The Lauderdale Papers, edited for the Camden Society
by Mr. Osmund Airy, contain several letters of Archbishop
Leighton, written to Lauderdale, and of Lauderdale, written
to the Archbishop. Another letter, written by the Arch
bishop tc Lauderdale (but not included in the above) was
published in the Bannatyne Miscellany (vol. iii. pp. 231, 232),
and is included in the present work.
These letters, as well as those (nineteen in all) published
by Wilson in 1758, afford a true insight into Leighton's
religious ideals and aspirations. The present writer has
incorporated all these original sources of knowledge in his
present work, as well as consulted directly all the previous
biographical notices to be found in the various encyclopaedias,
biographical dictionaries, and editions of Leighton's works
from those edited by Principal Fall to Mr. West.
He has also found some original matter in the many
volumes of the Historical Manuscript Commission as well as

PREFACE

Vll

in those of the Scottish Historical Society, while he has made
a wide study of seventeenth century literature in the Bodleian
Library, Oxford, and the British Museum as well. The
results of this research are also incorporated in this work,
although he was not always rewarded by finding references
to Leighton where he expected to have found them. Leighton
was the most respected of the Restoration Scottish Bishops,
and even Covenanting polemics are somewhat abated in
dealing with his scheme, however much they were naturally
opposed to it. He was a man apart.
To the original sources of direct information already
indicated there are added others in this work for the first
time : — {a) A letter addressed by Leighton to the Provost
and Town Council of Edinburgh, shortly before his re-
ordination as Bishop in Westminster Abbey (p. 291). {b) All
the references to him and of him in the Edinburgh Town
Council Records during the period of his Principalship in
Edinburgh College (pp. 293-302). For both I am much
indebted to the kindness and courtesy of Thomas Hunter, Esq.,
W.S., Town Clerk of Edinburgh, to whom I express my
warm thanks, {c) Through the kindness and interest of Sir
James Marwick, LL.D., Town Clerk of Glasgow, I am able
to publish in this work extracts from the Glasgow Council
Records, showing the conciliatory manner in which Leighton,
when Archbishop of Glasgow, discharged his duty of ap
pointing the magistrates (pp. 494-496). (a?) Leighton's
mortifications to the Hospital of St. Nicholas, with the
Council's answer thereanent. {e) His Institution of Bursaries,
with his remarkable will (pp. 592-594). {f) The references
to Archbishop Leighton that still exist in the few surviving
pages of the Records of Glasgow Presbytery dxirmg Leighton's
tenure of ofifice (pp. 496-497). For these five original sources
of information I desire to express my grateful thanks to Sir
James Marwick, LL.D., while they contain letters of the
Archbishop that have hitherto remained hidden.

viii PREFACE
I desire also to express my hearty indebtedness to the
Presbytery of Dunblane, as well to their Clerk (the Rev.
Mr. Wilson, of the Trossachs), for kind permission granted
me to examine the Records. The results are published in
the Appendix, and show that Bishop Leighton only sat in
the Presbytery as a Member of the Court, and took
part in its deliberations practically as a presbyter, his at
tendance being stated in the sederunt and his name given
almost always as distinct from that of the moderator, who
was a presbyter (pp. 575-581). Research in these Records
was also rewarded by the account of an ordination service
at Port of Menteith in 1667, which will be found at
pp. 580-1. This shows that the Bishop had no monopoly of
the ordination service, but took his part along with the
presbyters, who ordained by the laying on of hands, the
same questions being put as were used in Presbyterian times.
This I consider an important contribution to the controversy
regarding episcopal ordination, and it shows Leighton as
making a concession that was in accordance with his own
gentle, self-effacing nature.
For the copying of these extracts from the originals, I
am indebted to Mr. Robert Renwick, Deputy Town Clerk,
Glasgow, and to Mr. John Jarvis, City Chambers, Edinburgh.
That assurance will guarantee their accuracy, since they are
copied by the pens of two experts, who are quite at home in
the contracted writing of the seventeenth century.
Through the kindness of the Rev. Principal Fairbairn,
D.D., LLD., Mansfield College, Oxford, who gave me a
letter of introduction to the Rev. Principal Vaughan Price,
D.D., New College, Hampstead, I was able to set a matter
at rest. Doddridge distinctly stated that he had reserved
letters of Leighton's for a future work, and it was thought
by me that they might survive among Doddridge's papers,
which are preserved in the Library of New College,
Hampstead. Principal Vaughan Price has examined the

PREFACE ix
carefully indexed volumes, and is quite clear on the point
that no letters survive among the preserved correspondence.
For this research I am very grateful to him.
Leighton's birthplace is still a matter of doubt. Discover
ing that his father was a frequent attender at the services
of St. Ann's, Blackfriars, London (if he was not an actual
member of the church), and that he had been in England
probably about the time of his distinguished son's birth, I
thought the baptismal registers of St. Ann's might afford
some testimony. They have been now searched, but there is
no reference to any one bearing the name of Leighton. For
this kindness, I desire to express my indebtedness to the Rev.
P. Clementi-Scott, rector of the church.
Besides the numerous references throughout the work, I
cannot close the preface without referring to the constant
help I have received from my wife, especially in research at
the Bodleian and British Museum, as well as to the Rev.
J. Ritchie, B.D., Minister of Dunblane, for permitting me to
examine the Leightonian Library in his parish, and to take
some notes of its contents ; to the Rev. Mr. Jamieson, of
Portobello, Clerk to the Presbytery of Edinburgh ; to the
Rev. Mr. Dodds, of Garvald, Clerk to the Presbytery of
Haddington ; and to the Rev. Mr. Pryde, Clerk to the
Presbytery of Glasgow.
General study has enabled me accurately in some cases,
approximately so in others, to affix dates to letters that
bear no date, and the whole is an endeavour to sum up,
to give unity as well as additional elements to, all that can
be at present known regarding Leighton's history. The
discovered letters here published and those from the Lauder
dale Papers, preserve the archaic language of Leighton
which has disappeared from the editions of his works
through the supposed "improvements" and " modernizing "
of editors.
The portrait affixed to this volume is upon the whole the

X PREFACE
best of the existing ones, although they all strike one as
inferior art. The Archbishop had always a repugnance to
permit any portrait to be made of him. It has been sug
gested that the portrait in the University of Edinburgh
collection, marked " Principal Leighton," and the other
marked " Principal Cant," ought to be vice versa. There is
much to strengthen this conjecture, but unfortunately there
is no positive evidence for it, although one fondly thinks
that the conjecture is true.
The study of Alexander Leighton's life, as well as that of
his son, resolves the work into a study of the great endea
vours by James VI, Charles I and Charles II to force Episco
pacy upon Scotland, and of the revolt of the Presbyterians.
I have striven to write in a spirit historically fair and
reverent, and to connect the Archbishop's statesmanship with
the message of his published writings, and the problem of
his age.
D. B.
54, Blacket Place, Edinburgh,
November i, 1903.

CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE
The Leightons of Usan . . . . . . i
CHAPTER II
Dr. Alexander Leighton . .... 15
CHAPTER III
Puritanism and Laud . .... 21
CHAPTER IV
Laud and Alexander Leighton . .... 31

xii CONTENTS PAGE
CHAPTER V
Robert Leighton— Youth and Student Life ... 48

CHAPTER VI
Residence Abroad  67
CHAPTER VII
The Struggles of Scottish Presbytery with Prelacy
UP TO the Glasgow Assembly  112
CHAPTER VIII
Robert Leighton— Minister of Newbattle (1641-1653) . 137
CHAPTER IX
Robert Leighton— Principal of Edinburgh College
(1653-1662)  245
CHAPTER X
Leighton's Transition from Presbytery to Episcopacy . 303

CONTENTS xiii
PAGE
CHAPTER XI
Robert Leighton, Bishop of Dunblane . . . .323
CHAPTER XII
Robert Leighton, Archbishop of Glasgow . . . 433
CHAPTER XIII
Resignation, Retirement, Death ... . . 498
CHAPTER XIV
Leightoniana ... ¦ . • 517
CHAPTER XV
Tributes to Leighton's Spiritual Genius . . . .53°
CHAPTER XVI
Leighton and Monasticism ¦ • • -541
CHAPTER XVII

Conclusions

546

xiv CONTENTS

APPENDICES PAGE
Lady Ullishaven  13

Dr. Alexander Leighton  46
Robert Leighton's College Course at Edinburgh . . 62
Extracts from Presbytery Books of Dalkeith, relat
ing TO the Rev. Robert Leighton .... 220
Extracts from Edinburgh Council Records relating
to Principal Leighton  293
Bishop Leighton's Synod Addresses  366
Extracts from Glasgow Council Records relating to
Archbishop Leighton  494
Extracts from Glasgow Presbytery Records, or the
Archbishop as a Presbyter  496
Extracts from Dunblane Presbytery Records, with
Account of an Ordination in which Bishop and
Presbytery Act Conjointly  575

CONTENTS XV
PAGE
The Leightonian Library at Dunblane . . 582
Leighton's Mortifications . . .592
The Bishop's Palace at Glasgow . . • • 595
Index . . . .... 597

CHAPTER I
THE LEIGHTONS OF USAN
" Man ! Trust me, 'tis a clay above your scorning.
With God's image stamped upon it, and God's kindling breath within."
E. B. Browning.
USAN is an ancient Scottish estate, in the parish of
Craig, near Montrose. The first recorded proprietors
of it were the Rossies, who held it for at least two generations,
during which time the name was written Hulysham. It is
now vain to conjecture when it received the Homeric desig
nation of Ulysseshaven or Ulishaven, or when that name
passed into the shorter form of Usan.
Usan is situated, as the old statistical map indicates,* in
that part of the present parish known anciently as Inch-
brayoch, from the church of St. Braoch, which was situated
on an island in the middle of the South Esk. Braoch may
be the same as Brioc, who was a saint of Brittany,^ and may
indicate that the early settlers brought their native patron
saint's name to their new home. Besides this old place of
worship there were others in the parish. The chapel of St.
Fergus exists only in name ; that of St. Mary is now marked
by the burial-places of several proprietors of Usan, and is
situated on the sea-shore not far from the entrance to the
Usan property. The chapel of St. Skeoch is romantically
situated upon a cliff by the sea-shore to the south-west of
' Vol. ii. p. 495.
2 Baring-Gould's Lives of the Saints, appendix-vol. p. ii6.
A.L. I

2 THE LEIGHTONS OF USAN
Usan and doubtless originated in being the abode of a hermit,
who is supposed to have been one of the twelve disciples of
St. Columba. There are three saints of this name in the Irish
Calendar, and Dr. Reeves considers the word a corruption of
Echoid or Eochaidh, which is found under the name of
Skeoch in some of the south-western districts of Scotland.
The situation is an impressive one : —
" St. Skeas' grey rock stands frowning o'er
The troubled deep ;
A structure formed by nature's hand,
A bridge with wave-worn arches planned,
Whose echoing depth the surges spanned.
Where wind and wave
Their voices raise, in concert grand.
When tempests rave.''
Usan has been long famous as a fishing village, and in old
times when the King or Court resided at Forfar it is said
that fresh fish were conveyed daily from it to the county town,
by a road which led through Montreathmont Muir, the track
of which is known to this day as " the King's cadgers' road." ^
It may be added that the ancient Forfarshire family of
TuUoch (which before 1493 merged by marriage into that of
Wood and between whom and the Leightons there were also
intermarriages) ^ is said to have held the adjoining lands of
Bonnington under the tenure of supplying fresh fish to the
royal table.
The mansion-house of Usan is more inland, although it
commands a lovely and extensive view of the ocean. Not
the present house, but one on a site near the present lodge
and nearer the extensive gardens, was the home of the
Leighton family for centuries.
The surname of Leighton is said to be of Saxon origin, and
to signify a place or town of pasture. It is believed to have
' New Statistical Account, vol. xj. p. 251.
' Register of Privy Seal.

THE LEIGHTONS OF USAN 3
been assumed from the barony of Leighton in the county of
Bedford, where there were persons of the name prior to the
Norman conquest. Soon after that event, Sir Richard, son
of Sir Titus de Leighton, who was a co-founder of the Abbey
of Buldewas in Salop, made a grant to that monastery.* The
family may have followed the general movement of leading
families northward about this period, but the Leightons
appear first in the county of Forfar and in the neighbourhood
of Montrose.^ As early as 1260 William of Lech ton is wit
ness to a grant by Walter of Rossy, whose ancestors, vassals
of the old Norman family of Malherb, held the lands from
which they assumed their surname and also those of Usan
from at least 1245. Probably the Leightons acquired the
lands of Usan from the lords of Rossy, and perhaps Dominus
Wilhelmus de Legheton, miles, who gave homage to King
Edward I on July 17, 1291,^ was the son of the baron who
witnessed the charter above referred to. His designation of
knight indicates that he had rendered good service to his
country. In 1337 Thomas of Lychton, probably a son of Sir William,
was clerk of the livery at Kildrummy Castle, and in 1342 a
person of the same name and surname is designated Canon
of Moray and collector of the customs of Inverness.* Walter
of Lichton is witness to a charter in 1390, and in 1406 Walter
Lychton is described as the son of the late Walter Lychton.
This latter was the laird of Usan, who fell at the feud of
Glasclune in 1391, betwixt the first Earl of Crawford and his
relative the Wolf of Badenoch. Leighton was half-brother
to Sir Walter Ogilvy, Sheriff of Angus, who also fell there ;
and the incident is thus referred to by Wyntoun —
' Dugdale's Monasticon.
' Calendar of Documents, vol. ii. p. 124.
' Jervise's Memorials oj Angus and Meams, p. 264 : Warden's
Angus or Forfarshire, vol. Iii. p. 157.
* Chamb. Rolls, vol. i. 245, 267, 283.

4 THE LEIGHTONS OF USAN
Gud Schir Walter of Ogylwy,
That manly knycht and that worthy,
Scherrave that tyme of Angus,
Godlike wis, and verteuous :
And a gud Sqwyer of gret renown,
His Bruthir Wat cald of Lichtoun :
(To this gud Schirrave of Angus
Half Brothir he wes, and rycht famous :
Of syndry Fadirs was thai tw£,
Of lauchful bed ilk£ne of thd).'
The son of this ill-fated man, probably on account of his
relationship with the Ogilvys, had a small annuity out of the
lands of Campsie in Lintrathen, and contemporary with him
and his father was Duncan of Lichtoun, who in 1391 is de
signated " locum tenens vice comitis de Forfar," and in 1409
is a witness in a charter ^ of a part of the lands of Kinnaird.
In 1428 Alexander de Lichtoun — " miles, prior domus de
Torfychyne " — knight and prior of the hospital or preceptory
of Torphichin,^ which from 1153 was the principal Scottish
residence of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem — appears
as a witness in a charter to Patrick de Ogilvy of the lands of
Maines.* In 1483, on the death of William, Abbot of the Tyron-
ensian Abbey at Arbroath, and the college being divided
in opinion regarding the election of a successor, the settle-
' Chronicle, ii. 369.
" Reg. Mag. Sig., pp. 201, 208.
' In the Libri Bullarum of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem there
is a "Licentia" of the Grand Master, Philebert de Naillac, dated
August 23, 1418, granting leave of absence from the Convent for three
years to a Scottish Knight of Rhodes, named Alexander de Lichton.
Another Alexander de Lychtoun occurs as Bishop of Brechin in 1415
(Button MSS., Stafford Club).
In BurMs General Armory the arms of the Lichtons of Usan are
given as : " Lighten (Ullishaven, Scotland) argent, a lion rampant, gules
armed or crest, a lion's head. Motto, ' Light On.' " Leighton used the
family crest as his seal when Bishop (Blair's Life, p. 47).
* Reg. Mag. Sig., p. 22, No. 1 1 1

THE LEIGHTONS OF USAN 5
ment was entrusted to the Prior of Fyvie, who made choice
of Sir David of Lichtone, who was of the Usan family and
at that time held the offices of Clerk of the King's Treasury
and Archdeacon of Ross. So popular was the appointment
that 3,000 gold ducats were voted by the Convent to defray
the expenses of expediting Leighton's bulls at Rome.^ He
held the office of abbot down to at least 1505, and during his
abbotship a relative of his own — Walter Lichton, son to the
laird of Usan — acted as justiciary of the regality of the
abbey. This officer administered the formidable jurisdiction
of the abbot, who held all his lands " in free regality," i.e.
with sovereign power over his people and the unlimited
emoluments of criminal jurisdiction. The noblest thought it
no degradation to hold their lands as vassals of the great
abbey of Arbroath.
Other members of the Usan family were Churchmen, and
some of them were connected with the Chapter of Brechin
Cathedral, but the greatest and best known of the Churchmen
who came from Usan was Henry de Lichtoun, Bishop of
Moray, and afterwards of Aberdeen. He succeeded at Elgin
Bishop Innes (1406-1421) who was a Churchman of great
repute, and was " the greatest builder of the greatest and
fairest fabrick in the kingdom — the Cathedral of Elgin.
The work itself, the common tradition, and the inscription
on his tomb, confirm what is said sufficiently — notabile opus
incepit et per septenium potenter sedificavit. He died young
and seems to have given much from his estate towards the
Cathedral." * Leighton was certainly not an unworthy
successor to this beneficent prelate, and continued his work
of restoration. The " Wolf of Badenoch " had descended
from the hills in 1390 with a band of wild Scots, and burned
a considerable part of the town of Elgin, St. Giles' C hurch
* Reg. Nig. de Aberbr., 208-11.
' The Familie of InneSy'p'p. 12, 13.

6 THE LEIGHTONS OF USAN
the Maison Dieu, the manses of the clergy, and the Cathedral
itself Notwithstanding his great age. Bishop Bur proceeded
with the restoration of the Cathedral, Bishops Spynie and
Innes persevered, but Bishop Leighton continued it, accept
ing the office at considerable sacrifice. His first preferment
in the Church appears to have been in the Cathedral of
Moray, where he was canon and chanter. In 14 14 he
assisted at a meeting of the Chapter of Moray, held upon the
death of Bishop Innes, where it was resolved that whichever
of the canons succeeded, should devote a third part of his
revenues to the expenses of building the Cathedral, till its
completion. The choice fell on Leighton, and on March 8,
14 14, he was consecrated^ Bishop of Moray, taking the oath
that he would devote one-third of his income to the work of
restoration. He was Bishop of Moray from 1414 to 1422
and fulfilled his obligation, part of which may be seen in
portions of the west front and the interior of the chapter
house, which indicate by their architecture that they belong
to the fifteenth century.^ If Bishop Leighton was a
cathedral-restorer at Elgin he helped with equal generosity
in the erection of St. Machar's Cathedral at Aberdeen. The
precise date of his translation is uncertain, but it was prob
ably in 142 1 or 1422, and he remained there till his death
in 1440. As Bishop of Aberdeen he witnessed the charter
(Feb. 20, 1423) founding a chaplainry at St. Mary's altar in
the choir of the Cathedral. He was one of the Commissioners
to England to arrange the ransom of King James I, and
after the king's return from his imprisonment, the bishop
was one of those selected for an embassy to Rome, from
which he appears to have returned before June 20, 1427,
on which day, at the desire of the Abbot and Convent

' In the Registrum Episcopattis Moraviensis, it is stated (p. xiv.) that
Leighton or Lychton was consecrated at Valentia by Pope Benedict XIII
^ Ecclesiastical Architecture of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 122

THE LEIGHTONS OF USAN 7
of Arbroath, he confirmed to their call at Ardlogy, the
vicarage of their church at Fyvie. On October 28, 1427, he
converted the revenues of Bishop Matthew, which he alleged
to have been abused, to the maintenance of his episcopal
table and support of two chaplains at St. Peter's Chapel in
the Cathedral — a questionable transaction which was sanc
tioned by Pope Eugenius IV in 1435. On July 17, 1428,
letters passed the Great Seal, appointing him one of three
ambassadors to the French Court for treating of the marriage
of the infant Princess of Scotland with the Dauphin. He
was still in Scotland on August 7 of that year, and seems
to have returned from his embassy before October 9,
1 43 1, for on that day he made a transaction at Aberdeen
for enlarging the episcopal palace or its grounds. On
April 20, 1439, he founded an anniversary for himself, and
the same year made a similar endowment to the vicars
of the choir for the anniversaries of his father and mother.
He also founded the chapel of St. John (in which he after
wards rested) and made during his episcopate several
donations to the church of books, vestments and plate.-'
Two other important aspects of his career must not be
forgotten. The first brings him before us as a reconciler of
parties. After the death of the ill-fated King James I,
Chancellor Crichton and Sir William Livingston, between
whom a feud existed as to the custody of the young King
James II, met in the Church of St. Giles', Edinburgh, and
came to a mutual understanding. But they had not come
there at their own instigation. When their rivalry was at
its height, and was likely to be attended with most
disastrous effects to the kingdom, two of the Scottish
bishops, Leighton of Aberdeen and Winchester of Moray,
induced the disputants to meet for conference. Unarmed
and slenderly attended, they repaired to St. Giles' Church,^
' Preface to Registrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis, pp. xxxvi.-xxxviii.
' Tytler's History, vol. iv. p. 21.

8 THE LEIGHTONS OF USAN
where they debated their differences and were reconciled to
each other— the charge of the youthful monarch being
entrusted to Livingston, whilst the Chancellor was rewarded
with an increase of his individual authority.^
The second, more continuous and distinguishing aspect of
his career as Bishop of Aberdeen was the splendid work he
did as the builder of the Cathedral of St Machar. Up to
this time the Cathedral had a rather chequered history.
The third Bishop of Aberdeen had begun the building of a
cathedral church between 1183 and 11 99 to supersede the
primitive church then existing, " which (new) building,
because it was not glorious enough. Bishop Cheyne threw
down."^ The second cathedral was begun about 1282, but
was interrupted by the Scottish war with Edward I during
the Bishop's absence in temporary banishment. Robert the
Bruce " seeing the new cathedral he had begun, made the
church to be built with the revenues of the Bishopric." ^
This cathedral was again thrown down by Bishop Alexander
Kininmond, who succeeded in 1355 and began the present
cathedral about 1366. Of his operations there remain two
large piers for the support of the central tower, which form
the earliest portion of the structure of St. Machar now
remaining.* The Dean and Chapter (of which Barbour, the
father of Scottish poetry, was a member) taxed themselves
for the fabric in sixty pounds annually for ten years : the
Bishop surrendered revenues worth about twice that sum :
the Pope in 1380 made a grant of indulgences to all who
should help the work. But all these appliances only availed to
raise the foundations of the nave a few feet above ground,
and forty years elapsed before the Cathedral restorer from
' Dr. Lees' St. Gile^, Edinburgh, Church, College and Cathedral,
pp. 25-6.
2 View of the Diocese, p. 48.
' Ibid. p. 163.
^ Ecclesiastical Architecture, vol. iii. p. 75.

THE LEIGHTONS OF USAN 9
Elgin appeared upon the scene. His work at Aberdeen still
stands as a monument to his memory, for Leighton completed
the wall of the nave (which may be said to be all of one
period), reared the two great western towers, founded the
northern transept or St. John's Aisle, and commenced the
building of the central tower, which was finally completed by
the good Bishop Elphinstone about 1511.^ In St. John's
Aisle (St. John was evidently his favourite saint) the
beautiful sculpture of Bishop Leighton's effigy now lies
inglorious beneath a rough brick arch, although it appears
to have been entire when Orme wrote his history of the
Cathedral.^ He describes it as an effigy in pontificalibus
on an altar tomb with a canopy, under which is this inscrip
tion — " Hie jacet bone memorie Henricus de Lichtoun," etc.
If the mediaeval Scottish Church had had many such
Churchmen as Bishop Leighton " of good memory '' and his
illustrious, although not immediate, successor in the See,
Bishop Elphinstone, it is beyond doubt that the Scottish
Reformation would have been less drastic than it was, and
one cannot but think that as Robert Leighton recalled the
history of his ancestral home at Usan, one of the brightest
and most helpful forms that rose up from the past would be
the figure of the good fifteenth century Bishop of Aberdeen.
We have now to proceed from the record of peaceful
churchmen to times of violence, with which the house of
Usan was connected and which affected the fortune of the
family. The laird of Usan who lived towards the middle of
the sixteenth century, married a lady named Helen Stirling.
He predeceased her, and she afterwards became the wife of
James Straton, who is regarded as a cadet of the old family
of Lauriston in the Mearns. They lived at Dalladies in the
same county, 'and of this property Straton had probably been

• View of the Diocese, p. 150.
^ Pp. 42, 62.

lo THE LEIGHTONS OF USAN
laird.* By Leighton she had a son named John who suc
ceeded his father, and who from some cause unknown, enter
tained a mortal hatred to his mother after her second mar
riage. By instigation, it appears that both she and her maid
servant suffered violent deaths " within the Place of Dallady,''
where they were murdered in cold blood on the night of
April 24, 1549 — crimes which were aggravated by the fact
that both were pregnant at the time.
Persons named Waldy, Tracy and Fothringhame were con
victed and hanged for these murders ; James Shorewood
found caution to appear for the same crime, but Leighton
himself, making his escape before the trial, was " denounced
rebel and put to the horn." On December i, 1561, Shore-
wood was brought before the court, and James Straton and
James Lychtoun, the latter of whom was parson of Dunloppy,
appeared as prosecutors, when a protest was entered against
Lychtoun by the defenders setting forth that "conform to
the lawis " the parson " suld tyne his benefice," by which it
would appear that in those days the clergy were not allowed
to prosecute in criminal cases. No further record of this
barbarous murder is preserved ; but apart from that charge
it appears the assassins were also accused of " breaking up
the chests of the said James Stratoune, and stealing and
reiving, furth of the said place and chests, all the goods and
jewels contained therein."^
This murder had a bad effect upon the fortunes of the
house of Usan, although the property was afterwards restored
to the family.^ In 1591 Leighton of Usan (evidently son to
the preceding laird) is again charged with murder (along
with others),* and in course of the first half of the seven
teenth century it is believed that the family ceased to have
' Jervise's Memorials, p. 266.
"^ Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, vol. i. pt. ii, p. 344.
2 R. M. S.
* Pitcairn, vol. i. pt. i. p. 264.

THE LEIGHTONS OF USAN ii
possession of the estate, and John who in 1619 was served
heir to his father Robert Leighton in the south or sunny
side of the estate — the north or shady side being then in
other hands' — is the last of the family found mentioned
in connexion with the property. This Robert is supposed
to be nephew to the celebrated Dr. Alexander Leighton,^
of whom we shall hear more in the next chapter, and who
was the father of the celebrated Archbishop of Glasgow.
John Leighton, or Lichton, is the last of the name who
appears to have had any connexion with Usan, and Sir
John Carnegie of Craig, third son to the first Earl of
Southesk, had a charter of a portion of Ulishaven from his
father in 161 8. In 1672 the Lord Treasurer Maitland,
taking advantage of the confidence reposed in him by
James VII, appropriated to himself large possessions
in almost all parts of the kingdom, and added to these
the barony of Usan, of which he and his heirs had power
to dispose at pleasure.^ Of the old " tour and fortalice "
of Usan mentioned in his charter, there is now no trace.
The Leightons of Usan* thus suffered from storms as
adverse to their destiny as those that beat upon their rocky
coast ; no trace of their mansion-house or their resting-place
even survives in the district ; subsequent proprietors are
' Inq. Spec. Forfar, Nos. 118-22.
^ Jervise, p. 267.
^ Douglas Peerage, ii. 514 : Acta. Pari. viii. 122.
'' In the " House of Carnegie of Southesk^'' the following members ot
the family are mentioned, having been jurors : —
Duncan Lychtoune of Ulishaven (Feb. 20, 1409).
W^alter Leighton of do. ( March 5, 1506).
Walter Leighton of do. (April 29, 15 14).
Thomas Leighton of do. (April 13, 1532).
In the Record of the Convention of Royal Burghs, Robert Leighton
appears as Commissioner for Montrose between 1575 and 1591 (vol. i.
pp. 41, 121, 229, 244, 353) and Patrick Leighton between 1612 and 1630
(ii- 377 ; iii- 217, 305, 310, 321, 324). The name is still not an
unknown one in Montrose.

12 THE LEIGHTONS OF USAN
commemorated in their burying-ground at St. Skeoch s or
St. Mary's churchyards, but in neither of these nor in the
old churchyard of Inchbrayoch, is there any monument to be
found belonging to this old family, although it is almost
certain that the place of family sepulture must have been in
one of the three churchyards, probably in Inchbrayoch as
the Rev. Robert Scott, Minister of Craig, thinks. The
present mansion-house is long subsequent to the time of
the Leightons and is comparatively modern ; the old one
was near the present lodge, but not even a stone of it remains
on the site. The well of the old house is still used, and not
far from the lodge is an ancient ash tree with a great
spreading root and a wide-spreading head, described to the
writer by the gardener as the " grandfather of all the ash
trees on the estate." It bears indications of extreme age,
and could only have reached its present height, colossal in
relation to all the surrounding trees, by being protected in its
early stage from the violent sea-winds. West of the tree all
is cultivated land, an.d east of it and between it and the
present lodge, probably stood the old house of Usan — north
of which again was the stately garden. On no other
hypothesis but on that of protection — unique protection —
can the height and massiveness of the ash tree be explained
on this stormy coast, and its great age is beyond doubt.
When the good Robert Leighton visited the house which
his fathers occupied for nearly four centuries, this ash tree in
its early stage may have met his eyes on the lawn at the
west side of the house, while the neighbouring ruined
chapels, with the dust of the hamlets and his forefathers
sleeping around them, must have uttered much to his rever
ent heart. While there was much in the tradition around
the old place of which he might be justly proud, the
untimely effects of violence, the variability of human things
and the turmoil which self-will produced could not fail to
suggest many of those thoughts that afterwards pervaded

THE LEIGHTONS OF USAN 13
his writings in such a vein. But another and an eternal
voice would also speak out, which he so often heard and
s6 well obeyed —
" What is that to thee ? Follow thou Me." '
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER I.
(1539) Oct. 31. — Remiffion to Thomas Lichtoune of VUishavin,
for the Slaughter of Andrew Tait, &c. (Apud Falkland).
Pitcairn's Criminal Trials (vol. i. part ii. p. 252.)
(1549) May 29, 
John Lichtoune, of Vllishaven, denounced rebel, and put to the
horn, as fugitive from the law, for the Murder of the faid Helen
Striueling, his mother, and Jonet Sawlie, her servant, (Helen
Striueling is described in the previous paragraph as " Lady
Ullifhavin, fpoufe of James Stratoune") — the " said Helen and Jonet
her fervant being pregnant at the time of the faid Murder "
(Pitcairn's Criminal Trials vol. i. part ii. p. 344.)
(1550) May 10. — James Schoriswod and twelve others found
caution to underly the law, on Jul. 8, for the cruel Slaughter and
Murder of Helen Striueling Lady Ullifhavin, and Jonet Saule her
servant (Ibid. p. 350.)
(1561) Dec. I. — James Schoriswod delatit for arte and "parte of ^e
crewell Slauchter of vmq''Helene Stirling, Lady Ullefhevene. Pru-
locutouris for pe pannel, Mr. George Strang, fames Crawmond oj
Aldbar. The quhilk day comperitin jugement James Stratoune, and James
Lychtoune, Parfone of Dunloppy ; and ^ai being requirit be i>e faid
James Schorifwood, gyf^ai wald perfew him of his lyfe for ^e faid
Slauchter ? Anfuerit, ^at ^ai wald perfew him for i>e famyn. And
i>airupon }>& faid James Schoirifwod afkit ane Act of Court and
inftrumentis, and proteftit ^at >e faid Parfone fuld tyne his bene
fice conforme to ^e lawis.
Thomas Guthre of Kynbach protestit for his dampnage and
fkayth fuftenit be him ^at infafar as he was chargit be }>& Letteris
to underly }>& law, and >at no party comperit to perfew him, that
he mycht recouer }>% famyn, ovther vpone }>& officiar executour of
' Cf. Sermons berore Scottish Parliament.

14 THE LEIGHTONS OF USAN
}>e Letteris or party : and >air upoune afkit inftrumentis. {Ibid.
p. 4II-)
Oct. 28, 159 1 ... Lichtane of Vsane, Johnne L., Archibald and
Alexander Ogiluyand Johnne Smith his feruandis, George Ogiluysone
to Alexander O. of Drummis, now feruand to James Lord Ogiluy,
Williame and . . . O. sonis to Johnne O. of Quheich, . . . O.
brother to Innerquharritie, (and sundry others, fervants to the Lairds
of Telling and Balfour, &c.) were charged, "that quhair vpoun
the xvj day of August, laft paft or thairby," they " with convocatioun
of his Maiefteis liegis, to the nowmer of thre fcoir perfonis or thair
by, all bodin is fair of weir with jakkis, fpeiris, haequebutis,piftolettis
and vtheris waponis, invasiue, prohibite to be worne be the lawis of
this realme and actis of Parliament, off the speciall caufing, fending,
hounding oute, command, cvc of the faid Lord, come vpoun vmq'°
Robert Campbell in Milhorne, Williame of Soutarhous, Thomas C.
portionar of Kathik and Johnne C. of Muratoun, and maift cruellie
and,vnmercifullie murdreift and flew thame, vpouna fett purpois,
prouifioun and foirthocht fellouny, in hie and proude contemp-
tioune of his Maieftie, and encouragement of vtheris to cominitt
the like fhamafull and cruell flauchteris, heireftir," &c. — The
Letters raifed were at the inftance of " the wyffis, bairnis and re
manent kin and friendas " of the deceafed perfone, chargingthe above
parties to appear before the King and Council : and they not obey
ing the charge, were ordained to be denounced rebels, etc."
Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, vol. i. part i. p. 264).

CHAPTER II
DR. ALEXANDER LEIGHTON
" Conscience reverenced and obeyed,
As God's most intimate presence in the Soul,
And His most perfect image in the world."
Wordsworth.
" Whatever fault we may find with many of their beliefs, we have a
right to be proud of our Pilgrim and Puritan fathers among the clergy.
They were ready to do and suffer anything for their faith, and a faith
which breeds heroes is better than an unbelief which leaves nothing
worth being a hero for." — Oliver Wendell Holmes.
ALEXANDER LEIGHTON, the father of the Arch
bishop, was born presumably at Usan, and evidently
suffered from the fallen fortunes of the house. His per
sonality is sufficiently distinct, but the course of his life
is not very well known. He was born about 1568, and
studied at St. Andrews, where he graduated probably in
1587. He himself distinctly states in his petition to the
High Court of Parliament in 1640 that he was a graduate of
St. Andrews. In the list of students who subscribed the
Articles of Religion in St. Leonard's College in 1586, there
is a name resembling " Alexander Leighton," but the signa
ture is very obscure. It is said that he was professor of
Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh in 161 1, the year of his son's
birth, but there is lack of evidence for this. There is an
undated petition* from Leighton, not earlier than 1606, and
not later than 16 12, addressed to Adam Newton, Dean of
Durham and tutor to Prince Henry. In it he asks for a
' Harl. MSS., 7004, Art. 71-
16

1 6 DR. ALEXANDER LEIGHTON
small church preferment in the gift of the Dean and Chapter,
"donativum nomine St. lies," i.e. possibly St. Giles; and
states that after taking his Master's degree at St. Andrews
he had occupied himself " docendo et praedicando Corea-
libus hisce partibus Anglicanis." His occupation was thus
teaching and preaching in the Eastern parts of England,
and it was therefore with the English, and not with the
Scottish Church, that Leighton was dissatisfied.* He may
have been at this period one of the " lecturers," of which we
shall hear more. He then removed to London, whence he
betook himself to Leyden in 1617, studied medicine, and
took the degree of doctor of medicine. In The Index to
English Speaking Students who Graduated at Leyden
University, there appears the following entry, " Leighton,
Alexander, Anglus, Londiniensis." ^ In his petition after
wards to the Parliament of 1640, Leighton himself, referring
to his suffering in 1630, adds that " the Degrees of the person
censured did exempt him from any such punishment, besides
inbred generosity : a Master of Arts, I commenced also
Doctor : for my capability in these degrees I have the seals
of two Universities, St. Andrews and Leyden, with more
than ordinary approbation," etc. He was subjected to an
examination on his return to England by the Censors' Board
of the College of Physicians, who were probably not very
anxious to detect his knowledge, as Mr. Gardiner suggests,^
and he was interdicted from practising medicine in England.
This was on September 24, 1619. We find him again before
the same Court on July 7, 1626, and January 5, 1627. He
seems to have practised clandestinely,* while reverting to his
' Gardiner's Preface : History, vol. vii.
^ P. 61.
' Vol. iii. p. 143.
* In a Breviate to the Bill in the Star Chamber he is described as
'¦ sometime a Minister, now pretending himself a doctor in the Church''
— Appendix to Seventh Report of Historical Manuscripts, p. 260.

DR. ALEXANDER LEIGHTON 17
clerical work, and gathered around him in the privacy of his
own house a considerable number of hearers. The opposi
tion of the College may be explained by the fact that
Alexander Leighton was not so much imperfect in his
medical attainments as that he emerged pronouncedly in the
r61e of a Puritan Lecturer, and brought down upon himself,
and indirectly on his profession, the displeasure of the civil
and ecclesiastical authorities of the period.
They may have resented Leighton taking the opportunities
afforded him as a medical practitioner to disseminate his
religious prejudices, and his publication sufficiently manifested
his special direction. In 1624 he published the Speculum
Belli Sacri, as an incentive to the declaration of war against
Spain. It is marked by a furious intolerance, is interspersed
with quotations from the classics and Scripture, while he
dogmatizes even on military tactics. In 1625 there appeared
an anonymous work, " A Short Treatise against Stage -
Playes," and in the British Museum Catalogue it is attri
buted to Alexander Leighton as its probable author. This
book, like the Speculum, is full of Scriptural quotations and
contains " an humble supplication tendered to the High and
Honourable House of Parliament assembled May xviij.,
1625." Plays are pronounced as repugnant to the written
Word and Will of God, and to examine it is to be strongly
convinced of the probable authorship assigned to it. It is
similar throughout to the Speculum, and manifests its author
as the extremest of the extreme Puritans.
In 1628, after the Houses had been prorogued, and the
Remonstrance of the Commons was passing from county to
county and inflaming the opposition, the friends who met in
Leighton's house discussed plans for carrying on the war
against the ecclesiastical system that was hostile to freedom,
both civil and religious. Some advocated minor reforms,
others argued for abating the authority of the bishops, but
Alexander Leighton was " right down for the extirpation of
A.L. 2

i8 DR. ALEXANDER LEIGHTON
the prelates, with all their dependencies and supporters.'
His proposal was well received, and he was asked to embody
his views in a petition to Parliament. A draft was soon pre
pared and circulated amongst those whom Leighton regarded
as the "godliest, learnedst, and most judicious of the land."
Before long he had 500 signatures to his petition, some of them
being Members of Parliament. He crossed to Holland to print
the petition, and in its passage through the Press it was elabor
ated i nto a treatise, and the appearance of that book " in the
year and month when Rochelle was lost " brought very serious
consequences for Leighton. His fame and influence were
also increased by the most probable — nay, almost certain —
fact that during these years in London he had done vigorous
work as a " lecturer " and was known as such far and wide
throughout England.
The " lecturers " were men who were supported by volun
tary contributions and employed in localities where there was
a deficiency of clergymen or where the people were unusually
zealous. They had no local cure and confined themselves to
religious teaching on market days or Sunday afternoons.
They arose from the Puritan desire to have preaching more
suitable to their minds than that which was supplied by the
parish clergy, and when, as Professor Masson says, " many
Puritans, educated for the ministry, were glad to have the
opportunity of following their calling without such a degree
of conformity to Church discipline as would have been
necessary if they took full priest's orders and accepted paro
chial livings. About the beginning of the reign of Charles,
there was a movement among the Puritans for their increase :
and a scheme for that purpose, among others, had been set
on foot by the Puritan leader. Dr. Preston." *
A committee was appointed to collect funds for the pur
chase of lay impropriations as they came into the market,
' Life of John Milton, vol. i. p. 269.

DR. ALEXANDER LEIGHTON 19
and when a lay impropriation was thus bought it was in the
power of the trustees both to appoint a minister and apply
the residue of the tithes to the support of " lecturers ''
over the country. During five years, thirteen impropriations
were bought by the funds supplied by wealthy Puritans
in London, and it was calculated that in the course of fifty
years all would be bought in, and the Church would thus be
rid of one particular scandal.*
How Laud regarded this order may be best understood by
the " Instructions to the two Archbishops concerning certain
orders to be observed and put in execution by the several
bishops." No. V. states " that they (the bishops) take great
care concerning the lecturers in these special directions
following " : —
The wording of this instruction in Laud's (or Harsnet's) draft is
much fairer : — " That a special care be had over the lecturers in
every diocese, which, by reason of their pay, are the people's crea
tures, and bloiv the belloivs oj their sedition : for the abating of
whose power these ways may be taken : —
" I. That in all parishes the afternoon sermons may be turned into
catechising by questions and answers, when and wheresoever there
is no great cause apparent to break this ancient and profitable
order. " II. That every Bishop ordain in his diocese that every lecturer do
read Divine Service according to the Liturgy printed by authority,
in his surplice and hood, before the lecture.
" III. That, where a lecture is set up in a market town, it may
be read by a company of grave and orthodox divines near adjoin
ing, and in the same diocese ; and that they preach in gown and
not in cloaks, as too many do use.
" IV. That, if a corporation maintain a single lecturer, he be
not suffered to preach till he profess his willingness to take upon
him a living with cure of souls within that corporation : and that
he actually take such benefice or cure as soon as it shall be
fairly procured for him." ^
' Ibid. Fuller's Church History, sub anno, 1630, and Neal's Puritans,
II. 221-2.
^ Gardiner's History of England, vol. vii. pp. 130, 131.

20 DR. ALEXANDER LEIGHTON
In Laud's Diocese of London the order was stringently
applied, and it was not likely that he would be favourable to
a class of men who were careless about forms and cere
monies, who owed their appointment for religious work to the
laity and who could be dismissed by them without episcopal
sanction, and especially towards one, like Dr. Alexander
Leighton, who was " blowing the bellows of sedition." Row's
statement (referring to the period prior to Leighton's arrest
in 1630) that he had been silenced'^ by the bishops, suggests
that he had been interfered with in the pursuit of his work as
a lecturer. Leighton retired to Holland to escape further
disturbance which might prevent the publication of his book,
but its ultimate appearance aroused a storm and brought
together by a common dislike of subversive doctrines, and a
common resolution to punish their dissemination, two men
who as yet had formed no special tie of friendship with each
other — Laud and Wentworth.^
How this united opposition was aroused, with the terrible
punishment that followed, can only be understood by a study
of two forces that had long been at work, and at last came
into violent antagonism with each other — an antagonism
that is nowhere better seen than in the fate of Alexander
Leighton, the author of Zion's Plea.

* Historie of the Kirk of Scotland, p. 301.
^ Gardiner, vii. p. 143 : Epitome.

CHAPTER III
PURITANISM AND LAUD
"The greatest liberty of our kingdom is religion."— Pym.
WHILE the division of Church parties was as old as the
Reformation itself, the outstanding fact in the seven
teenth century, as far as the internal constitution of the Church
was concerned in relation to the clergy and the people alike,
was their distribution into two great parties — the Prelatical
or Hierarchical party and the Puritan or Nonconformist party,
who though within the Church of England were not at ease
in it, and were eager for further reforms than the Reformation
and subsequent events had given them. At the time of King
James' accession (1603) the "millenary petition" makes it
clear that scarcely any dissatisfaction was expressed with the
essential doctrine of the Church, but only with certain rites
and ceremonies as either positively sinful or inexpedient and
mischievous. But this dissatisfaction did not terminate with
points of Church government and ritual : by 16 19 it had
developed into a doctrinal antagonism. The most resolute
upholders of Episcopacy and the established ritual had not,
generally speaking, exhibited any hostility to the Calvinistic
doctrines of their opponents : at the utmost, they rather
abstained from pressing, as their opponents hotly did, the
distinctive peculiarities of Calvinism. Yet after the Synod
of Dort (161 9) the tendency to a doctrinal divergence
between the two parties became most evident. It was then
perceived that there was an organic connexion between the

22 PURITANISM AND LAUD
Calvinistic theology and the Calvinistic polity and ritual, so
that the one implied the other : while it was also perceived
that Calvinistic doctrine was chiefly confined to the Puritan
section, and that a good many of the hierarchical party
tended towards a Romish or Arminian interpretation of the
Articles. The " Arminians " and " popishly inclined Doctors "
were the most zealous and thoroughgoing supporters of the
royal prerogative in the State and of hierarchical forms in the
Church, and, as was to be expected. King James' theological
prejudices were easily overcome by his partiality towards his
divine right theory of Kingship, and it was a matter of com
plaint that Arminian divines were admitted to intimacy with
the King and were favoured with preferments. The pulpits
soon became the organs of the popular feeling, and the steady
Calvinistic fire from one set was returned by Arminian sharp-
shooting from another. Abundant dissertations were heard
on the " Five points " — Election, Redemption, Original Sin,
Irresistible Grace, and the Perseverance of the Saints — and
this was answered by abundant condemnation on the evils of
nonconformity. The King resolved on a characteristic
measure — to " command silence on both sides or such a
moderation as was next to silence." He was helped by
Buckingham and the Lord Keeper Williams, Bishop of
Lincoln : but the "Directions to Preachers" (1622) forwarded
to all the bishops, with instructions that every clergyman or
preacher in their dioceses should receive a copy and be
obliged to obey its injunctions, failed to lessen the storm.
The peace of the Church was not to be preserved by
abridging the liberty of preaching, which was in those days
the right of free thought and a free press in one. The
Puritans and Calvinists protested most loudly, and towards
the end of James' reign (1622-5) a new distinction of names
arose, superseding to some extent the traditional distinctions
into Prelatists arid Puritans. Those of the prelatic or
hierarchical party, who were most easy under the recent

PURITANISM AND LAUD 23
policy of the Court towards the Catholics, were denounced as
Arminians and semi-Papists ; and the new name of " Doctrinal
Puritans " was invented as a term of reproach for those who
held high Calvinistic views and shared in the popular alarm
at the concessions to Rome and continental Popery.* Bishop
Williams was during this period the working partner of
Buckingham, both in Church and State, and in State politics
his aim seems to have been to bring the prerogative, if pos
sible, into greater harmony with popular feeling, while in
Church politics he was disposed towards an inclusive rather
than a coercive system. In modern language, his policy was
that of the Broad Church. But at this point there appeared
prominently on the scene a man who was to supersede
Williams in the government of the Church and whose life was
to be identified in a very memorable manner for the next
twenty years with the history of England. This was William
Laud, who did most to kindle the blaze, and in whom the
spirit of the new Anglican anti-Calvinism was incarnate
" Churchmen in all ages," says Mr. Morley, " are divided into
those on the one hand who think most of institutions, and
those on the other who think most of the truths on which the
institutions rest." ^ Laud belongs markedly to the first of
these types, and his policy was the worst possible to rule the
storm or guide the whirlwind.
William Laud was born at Reading in 1573. He was the
son of a well-to-do clothier, and passed from Reading free
school to St. John's College, Oxford, of which four years
later he became a fellow. He took his M.A. degree in 1598 :
" at which time," says Wood, " he was esteemed by those that
knew him a very forward, confident, and zealous person." He
was of very small stature, and was known to the wits of the
University as " parva Laus " or " little Laud." He became
deacon in 1600, priest in 1601, held a divinity lectureship in'
' Masson's Milton, vol. i. p. 312.
" Qliver Cromwell, p. 38,

24 PURITANISM AND LAUD
1602, and in 1604 was one of the proctors of the University
of Oxford. In the same year he became chaplain to the
Earl of Devonshire, and being by 1607 B.D., he became vicar
of Stanford, in Northamptonshire ; in 1608 he had the
advowson of North Kilworth, in Leicestershire, given him ;
being in the same year made D.D., he became chaplain to
Neile, Bishop of Rochester, and to be near him he exchanged
the advowson of North Kilworth for that of West Tilbury in
Essex ; in 1610, on being presented by Neile to the rectory of
Cuckstone in Kent, he resigned his fellowship. His connexion
with Oxford was renewed in 161 1 by his election to the
presidency of St. John's, and in that office he remained for
ten years, becoming successively Chaplain to the King,
Prebendary of Bugden in Lincoln, Archdeacon of Hunting
don, Dean of Gloucester, Rector of Ibstock in Leicestershire
and Prebendary of Westminster. " In some sort," says Fuller,
" he had thus served in all the offices of the Church from a
common soldier upwards," and had " acquired an experi
mental knowledge of the conditions of all such persons as
were at last to be subject to his authority." And yet he
" bare no great stream," but flowed on in a kind of sombre
privacy, " taking more notice of the world than the world did
of him." His friends do not seem to have liked him, nor to have
been able to make out what he was aiming at. " His life at
Oxford," says Archbishop Abbot, " was to pick quarrels with
the lectures of the public readers, and to advertise them to
the then Bishop of Durham (Neile) that he might fill the ears
of King James with discontents against the honest men that
took pains in their places, and settled the truth, which he
called Puritanism, on their authors. He made it his work
to see what books were in the press and to look over Epistles
Dedicatory, and Prefaces to the Reader, to see what faults
might be found." It was thought dangerous in Oxford to be
much in his company and his habit of ferreting out the faults
of his fellow-clergymen and reporting or registering them—

PURITANISM AND LAUD 25
an act incompatible with a generous nature — led to un
popularity. From his earliest days of connexion with the
Church he resolved on a patient course from which he never
deviated. " Of all diseases," he says, " I have ever hated a
palsy in religion, well knowing that too often a dead-palsy
ends that disease in the fearful forgetfulness of God and His
judgments. Ever since I came in place I laboured nothing
more than that the external public worship of God, too much
slighted in most parts of the kingdom, might be preserved, and
that with as much decency and uniformity as might be ;
being still of opinion tJiat unity cannot long continue in the
Church where uniformity is shut out at the church door. And I
evidently saw that the public neglect of God's service in the
outward face of it, and the nasty lying of many places
dedicated to that service, had almost cast a damp upon the
true and inward worship of God ; which, while we live in the
body, needs external helps, and all little enough to keep it
in any vigour." Laud thus was resolved on a ceremonial
worship and punctual conformity to be observed through
out the Church and to be enforced by law and canon. So
far he was anti-Puritan, but his anti-Puritanism was more
than a passion for uniformity and ceremonial. He believed,
as he himself avers, in the " divine apostolical right of
Episcopacy.'' " There can be no Church without diocesan
bishops," he said in 1603, and in 1614, " The Presbyterians are
as bad as the Papists." In the inexorable logic with which he
pressed this position, he was singular even among his own
prelatic contemporaries, and he also went farther than most
of them in the notion of the superior value of public worship
over preaching in the ordinary service of the Church. In all
this he was a persistent anti-Puritan, and it was he who
invented and put in circulation the term " Doctrinal Puritans "
as a synonym for those in the Church of England who adhered
to Calvin doctrinally, even though they had no zeal for the
Genevan discipline.

26 PURITANISM AND LAUD
Till 1 62 1 this restless, intense man was known only
within a limited circle ; he was President of St. John's
College, Oxford ; Chaplain to the King, and Dean of Glouces
ter, as well as Prebendary of Westminster, but he was still
" little Laud," the smallest in stature of all the ecclesiastics ;
he was noted for his red face, cheery, quick expression,
piercing eye, irascible speech, plain garb and short hair.
Williams and Buckingham liked him, but the King and
Archbishop did not.
" The plain truth is," said King James, " I keep Laud back
from all place and authority, because I find he hath a restless
spirit, and cannot see when matters are well, but loves to toss
and change and to bring things to a pitch of reformation
floating in his own brain." The King told Williams that
Laud had been privately pressing on him the project of
bringing the Scots to " a nearer conjunction with the liturgy
and canons " of the English Church. He rebuffed Laud, but
" for all this he feared not mine anger, but assaulted me again
with another ill-fangled platform to make that stubborn Kirk
stoop more to the English pattern. He knows not the
stomach of that people ! " Williams still pressed Laud's
promotion. " Then take him to you," said the King, " but on
my soul you will repent it." And on November 18, 1621,
Laud was consecrated Bishop of St. David's.
From the time of the accession of Charles I Laud became
a power in the land, and Buckingham confided to Laud the
ecclesiastical department of affairs under his government.
From the first Laud's theory of Anglican orthodoxy and
order was adopted as the royal rule in Church matters, and
the schedule which Laud presented to Buckingham nine days
after the death of James showed that his object was to drive
the question of Arminianism to an issue. The schedule
contained the names of many churchmen marked with the
letters O and P — divided in other words into two classes, so
that the King might know which to promote and which to

PURITANISM AND LAUD 27
keep back. Laud gave his seal to such doctrines as " if
princes command any thing which subjects may not perform
because it is against the law of God, yet subjects are bound to
undergo the punishment without either resisting or railing,"
and " the King is not bound to observe the laws of the realm
concerning the rights and liberties of his subjects, but his
royal will and command doth oblige the subjects' conscience
upon pain of eternal damnation " — moreover " the authority
of Parliament is not necessary for the raising of aids and
subsidies," and " the slow proceedings of such great assemblies
are not fitted for the supply of the State's urgent necessities."
Laud had a rapid series of preferments. In June, 1626, he
was transferred from the bishopric of St. David's to that of
Bath and Wells ; in September of the same year he succeeded
Andrews as Dean of the Chapel Royal, receiving at the same
time notice that in the event of Abbot's death he should be
Archbishop of Canterbury. In April, 1627, he and Neile
were sworn members of the Privy Council — the last prefer
ment bringing him into closer contact with civil affairs. In
1628, he was appointed Bishop of London, and the assassina
tion of Buckingham gave Laud a deeper grip upon the civil
and ecclesiastical affairs of the kingdom.
Charles announced that there was to be no supreme
minister, but that he himself would govern and allot each his
part. Laud apparently accepted the conditions but held
Charles in his grasp while he professed to serve him, and as
the ecclesiastical department received the first shock from the
collision with the Parliament, fortune seemed to drive Laud
further to the front. The " Declaration " was ordered by the
King to be prefixed to a reprint of the Thirty-nine Articles ; it
is still printed to the Articles in the Book of Common Prayer,
but without date or indication of the circumstances amid
which it originated. But then it was received with different
feelings and was regarded as interfering with the liberty of
preaching ; it was perceived that only the Calvinists would be

28 PURITANISM AND LAUD
restrained, and the delegation of the sole right of ecclesiastical
legislation to the crown and clergy was what the Parliament
of the day would not endure, and herein was the sting, that
the Parliament about to assemble must not interfere with
religion. When Parliament assembled (January 20, 1628-9) the
" Declaration " was taken as the chief grievance of all that
occurred in the recess. The King was unflinching, and on
March 10 Parliament was dismissed, but left as a legacy to
the English people these three resolutions passed on the 2nd
in uproar and with closed doors : —
I. Whosoever shall bring in innovation of religion or by favour
or countenance seem to extend Popery or Arminianism or other
opinion disagreeing from the true and orthodox Church, shall be
reputed a capital enemy to the kingdom and commonwealth.
2. Whosoever shall counsel or advise the taking or levying of the
subsidies of tonnage and poundage, not being granted by Parliament,
or shall be an actor or instrument therein, shall be likewise reputed
an innovator in the government, and a capital enemy to the
kingdom and commonwealth.
3. If any merchant or person whatsoever shall voluntarily yield
to pay the said subsidies of tonnage and poundage, not being granted
by Parliament, he shall likewise be reputed a betrayer of the liberties
of England and an enemy to the same.
For more than eleven years (March 1628-9 to 1640) there
was no Parliament held, and Charles with his ministers were
left to govern the country on the principles here condemned,
the Church being subject to the Laudian rule, pure and simple.
The sole deliberative and legislative body was the King's
Privy Council or ministry, consisting of about five and thirty
members, and in them was vested the supreme government of
England. Laud and Neile were among the working chiefs of
the ministry, and in all civil business the ecclesiastical were
as active as the lay lords. There was no meeting of convoca
tion any more than of the ecclesiastical parliament, but
instead " Instructions to the two Archbishops concerning

PURITANISM AND LAUD 29
certaip orders to be observed and put in execution by the
several bishops." The enactments were all Laudian and
rested for their authority on the King's prerogative.
(i) " The beauty of holiness " was to Laud's mind chiefly
centred in a uniformity of the sensuous and ceremonious aids
to worship, and it was his effort to increase and perfect them.
Laud was for the strict observance of all that was enjoined
by the letter of the canons, and for " a restauration " of such
"ancient approved ceremonies" as had fallen into disuse since
the Reformation.
(2) Laud was as the legislative chief of the Church, the
dispenser of the royal patronage, and thereby he gave an
impulse within the Church in the Laudian direction by
increasing the Laudian element.
(3) He made his own diocese a model of his ecclesiastical
order ; restored the rite of consecration as it had not been
used since Reformation times, and introduced elaborate
variations of ceremony in worship. He instituted a severe
supervision of Puritans and Nonconformists in his diocese,
with swift procedure in cases of offence. Many things that
Laud was unable to do as bishop he was able to do as the
head of the existing judicial and executive system — an
office which entitled him to go beyond his own diocese and
practically take cognizance of all the dioceses in England.
(4) The Privy Council was the fountain both of law and
judgment, and as such, superseded all other courts of law.
The Star-chamber, which was but another edition of the Privy
Council (the same persons sitting in different rooms or " divers
lords being Privy Councillors, together with two judges of the
Courts of Common Law " without jury) enforced the execu
tion of its own decrees. " Whatever, in fact, the council chose
to construe as coming under the head of sedition or contempt
of authority, was taken, with other causes, under its own
immediate jurisdiction — the Council-table conducting the
preliminary inquiries, and calling the delinquents before

30 PURITANISM AND LAUD
them, and the Star-chamber receiving the delinquents to be
formally tried and punished with fine, imprisonment, or worse
penalties." i The bishops were even kept under Laud's hand
by this means.
(5) Besides the Council-table and the Star-chamber, Laud
and his colleagues had a powerful instrument in the Court of
High Commission, the working members of which were the
bishops, and three might be a quorum. It wielded the same
authority in purely ecclesiastical cases as the Star-chamber
had in civil or in ecclesiastical ones bordering on civil. It
converted itself into a court of revenue by punishing with huge
pecuniary fines, and was empowered " to visit, reform, redress
order, correct, and amend all errors, heresies, schisms, abuses,
offences, contempts, and enormities whatsoever, which by any
ecclesiastical authority whatsoever might be lawfully ordered
or corrected."
(6) Laud again as Chancellor of Oxford remodelled the
statutes, the execution of which has associated his name with
the history of the University as its second founder, and his
office enabled him to keep a watch over opinion at that great
training-place of churchmen.
By all these means, Laud emerged as the dominant spirit
in the English Church and one of the masterful spirits in the
English State, and how grievous was the schism that he
brought about between his Church and Puritanism, history
abundantly testifies. The religious consciousness everywhere,
and at all times, revolts against a tyranny, and at no time was
the revolt more justified than now. The " little, low, red-faced
man," bustling with his definite views and indefatigable
official activity, rose above men who were in every way his
superiors, to the very top of power, and in 1633 emerges as
Archbishop of Canterbury.
' Masson's Life of fohn Milton, vol. i. p. 353.

CHAPTER IV
LAUD AND ALEXANDER LEIGHTON
" One thing is needed : it is personal conviction of the truth."
—Bishop of Ripon.
" Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament and adversity the
blessing of the New." — LORD BACON.
TWO early copies of Leighton's book were sent over to
England to be laid before the two Houses of Parlia
ment, but the dissolution came before they reached those for
whom they were intended. Yet Leighton himself was passing
through vicissitudes. He was in Holland, which was drawn
very closely to Scotland in the seventeenth century : he had
already been greatly influenced by that Dutch Calvinism of
the period which left its mark upon Scotland more profoundly
than the Genevan of the sixteenth century, and his book
reflected the spirit of the environment amid which it was
prepared. In March, 1629, he was elected and ordained as a preacher
in the English Church at Utrecht, but in less than three
months he had come to an open opposition with his con
gregation. He dissented from some of the orders laid down
for the guidance of ministers in the province, and he refused
to preach on Christmas Day, Good Friday and the other days
of the Christian year which the English Puritans of the
Netherlands were accustomed to observe. Though his con
gregation dismissed him, he is said to have persisted in occu
pying the pulpit till the magistrates intervened and ordered

32 LAUD AND ALEXANDER LEIGHTON
him to forbear preaching. His wife seems from the following
letter (which was found in the State Paper Office and was
probably seized at the time of his arrest in England) to have
been at first unfavourable to Leighton accepting the office at
Utrecht, and was probably aware of the difficulties ahead,
which would not suit one of her husband's temperament.
Leighton's letter manifests warm family affection, and sheds
a light around his character which does not appear in his
public life.
Letter of Dr. Alexander Leighton to his Wife.
Dear Love,— Having yet once more occasion by a fit bearer to
salute you, know that the 14th of March of our style I was getting
things in order for my return. I am to be ordained in the place on
the 22nd of the said month, whereon also we have the Sacra
ment. The 24th (being the Tuesday following) I intend to set
forth for England, if wind and passage permit ; for the which I
know you pray earnestly. I was glad to hear by the letter that God
hath wrought your heart to my entertaining of the call, which was
so freely and publicly put upon me that I could not avoid it. As
for the means, we must wait upon God, of whose bounty and good
ness we have had many expressions : blessed be His name !
hope the Parliament hath the thing (the book?) ere this. [There is
then a reference to some one who had promised to get "a protection"
for him against his "overcoming."] Howsomever, I mean to come
over upon Jehovah's protection, under whose wings if we walk,
nothing can hurt us. If I come not with all expedition, know no
thing hindereth but want of passage. So, with my dearest love to your
sweet self, our children, sister and all our friends remembered, I
commend you all to God. Your ever,
AL. LEIGHTON.
Utrecht, March 14, 1629.
The breach between Alexander Leighton and his congre
gation took place within three months from the date of this
letter, and a few weeks later, finding that there was no place

LAUD AND ALEXANDER LEIGHTON 33
for him in Holland, he returned to England. His book. An
Appeal to Parliament or Zion's Plea against Prelacy, was
published in 1628 in Holland, and was circulated privately in
England. Parliament no longer existed in 1629 to protect
him, and in February, 1630, a copy reached Laud's hands.
Row tells us " there was great search made in England who
should be the author of it," * and Laud at last found that it
was the man, who had already been silenced, and he was on
his track. On February 17, 1630, Leighton was seized while
in the act of leaving Blackfriars' Church, London (which was
then served by Dr. William Gouge,* one of the leading Puritan

1 Historie of the Kirk of Scotland,"^. 351.
2 A brief notice of Dr. William Gouge (i 575-1653) may here be given,
as the Leightons evidently attended his church and Robert Leighton
in his early years and in his later visits to London must frequently have
heard him preach. " Nulla dies sine linea" was Gouge's motto, and his
life was an industrious one. During his nine years of residence at Cam
bridge he was never absent from morning prayers in King's College
Chapel, although the hour was half past five, and he always read his
stated portion of five chapters before leaving his room. His preaching
was a force in London during the forty-five years he was Rector at
Blackfriars. He declined all preferment that would take him away
from his attached people, saying " The height of my ambition is to go
from Blackfriars to heaven." It was a wonderfully domestic and pastoral
life which the good man lived under the very shadow of St. Paul's.
After his Sunday labours were over many would come to his house,
'• where he repeated his sermons after so familiar a manner that many
have professed that they were much more benefited by them in his repeti
tion than they were in the first hearing of them. For he did not use to
read word by word out of notes what he had preached, but by questions
and answers would draw from those of his own household such points
as were delivered. His exercise being ended, his constant course was to
visit such of his parish as were sick, or by pain and weakness were dis
abled from going to the public ordinances."
His Wednesday exposition of Scripture attracted great crowds, and
visitors from the country felt that they had not completed the tour of
London until they had been to "the lecture in the Blackfriars." For
the last thirty years of his life the subject of these lectures was the
Epistle to the Hebrews, and neither the interest of the preacher nor the
hearers flagged, we are told. Verily he was worthy of the epithet
frequently given in the period — " A painful preacher of the word."
A.L. 3

34 LAUD AND ALEXANDER LEIGHTON
ministers), and lodged according to his own words " in a
nasty dog-hole, full of rats and mice." He was submitted to
a terrible ordeal : his own and the family letters were used
as evidence that the book was his, and Laud's vengeance
followed upon this pronounced advocate of Puritanism.
All that Laud hated was represented in Alexander
Leighton, and he determined to make an example of him. He
was a " doctrinal Puritan " of the worst type : he had been
one of the irregular lecturers : he was an opponent of the
" ceremonies," the decided antagonist of prelacy, and the
upsetter of the absolute prerogative of the crown. No won
der, too, that Wentworth, the firm holder of the flood gates
of authority against the rising tide of democratic aspiration,
became Laud's colleague in the persecution ; for had he not
said at the close of 1629, " To the joint individual well being
of sovereignty and subjection do I vow all my cares and dili
gence through the whole course of my ministry. I confess I
am not ignorant how some distempered minds have of late ,
endeavoured to divide the consideration of the two, as if their
ends were distinct, not the same, nay, in opposition : a mon
strous, a prodigious birth of a licentious conception : for so
should we become all head or all members. But God be
praised, human wisdom, common experience. Christian
religion, teach us far otherwise." * This was to Laud ancj
Wentworth the opportunity of warning Presbyterianism in
the Church and Parliamentarism in the State, and it was
freely taken advantage of.
Alexander Leighton's book is the work of a vigorous
mind, but of a mind with one fixed idea. It is characterized
by much learning, but also by a bitter spirit. The prelates
are not spared and the two illustrations have the following
lines : — " Prevailing Prelats strive to quench our Light,
Except your ' sacred power quash their might."
* Lord Strafford, by H. D. Traill, p. 49.
^ i.e. Parliament's.

LAUD AND ALEXANDER LEIGHTON 35
*¦»*??
" The tottering Prelats, with their trumpry all,
Shall moulder downe, like Elder from the wall.''
Whatever evils existed in Church and State are laid to the
charge of the anti-Christian and Satanical'prelacy, and though
Zion's Plea spoke respectfully of the King, it did not at the
same time hesitate to wound his feelings. The King's mar
riage was not spared : God had " suffered him to match with
the daughter of Heth, though he missed an Egyptian." The
book was an ecclesiastical manifesto, an appeal to political
Presbyterianism to take the sword in hand and to Parliament
to take up the work which the King had left undone, as well
as to resist a dissolution. Such was the general tendency of
Zion's Plea or Appeal to the Parliament, but its more specific
claims are apparent in its thesis and proposed reforms.
I. First may it please your Honours to take notice, that
the calling of the hierarchy, their dependent offices and cere
monies, whereby they subsist, are all unlawful and anti-
Christian. II. The hierarchical government cannot consist in a
nation with soundness of doctrine, sincerity of God's worship,
holiness of life, the glorious power of Christ's government,
nor with the prosperity and safety of the commonwealth.
III. The present hierarchy are not ashamed, to bear the
multitude in hand, that their calling is Jure divino. But they
dare not but confess, when they are put to it, that their calling
is a part of the King's prerogative. So that they put upon
God what he abhorreth, and will hold of the King when they
can do no other.
IV. They abuse many ways that power from the King,
by changing, adding, and taking away at their pleasure, to
the grievous vexation of the subject, the dishonouring of his
Majesty, and the making of the laws of none effect.
V. The privileges of the laws and the hierarchical govern
ment cannot consist together.

36 LAUD AND ALEXANDER LEIGHTON
VI. The loyalty of obedience to the King's Majesty and
his laws, cannot possibly stand with the obedience to the
hierarchy. VII. All the unparalleled changes, bloody troubles, devasta
tions, desolations, persecution of the truth, from foreigners or
domestics, since the year of our Lord 600, arising in this
kingdom, and all the good interrupted or hindered, hath had
one or more of the hierarchy as principal causes of them.
VIII. All the fearful evils of sin and judgment, for the
present reigning among us and threatened against us (to omit
the black desolation of our sister churches) we conceive to be
the birth of the womb and the nurslings of the breasts of the
hierarchy. IX. If the hierarchy be not removed, and the sceptre of
Christ's government, viz. discipline, advanced to its place,
there can be no healing of our sore, no taking up of our
controversy with God ; yea, our desolations, by His rarest
judgments, are like to be the astonishment of all nations.
X. Lastly, Right Honourable, if you strike at this root of the
hierarchy, removing that Ashtaroth or grand idol, and erect
the purity of Christ's ordinances, we are confident that there
shall be a ceasing from exorbitant sins, a removal of judg
ment, a recovery of God's favour, a repairing of the breaches
of the Church and Commonwealth, a redeeming of the
honour of the State, a dashing of Babel's brats against the
stones. Yea, this shall remove the wicked from the throne,
strike terror and astonishment to the hearts of all foreign and
domestic foes. In a word, God will go forth with us, and
smite our enemies : yea a glorious prosperity shall rest upon
Zion, King, State and Commonwealth.*
After dealing with these two principles, at considerable
length and with much learning, the author suggests means of
removal —
(i) Information — we stand all in need from the King to
' pp. 10-12.

LAUD AND ALEXANDER LEIGHTON 37
the beggar to be awakened, and made sensible of this work
to be done : we are deadly secure under the pressure of God's
wrath : we are neither sensible of God's honour trod under
foot, nor of His glory departed from us, nor of the indignity
and indemnity that is upon us and all that we put our hand
to : all that pass by spoil us, and we spoil all that rely upon
us.* (2) The second mean of removal of this great evil, is for
ministers and magistrates to set themselves against this
superstitious worship and anti-Christian government, teaching
and exhorting others for to do the same.^
(3) The third mean of removal of this evil is conceived
by some to be a Council called : wherein the authority of the
Prelacy, their superiority, their offices, and substituted officers,
their liturgy and maintenance may be thoroughly examined,
and judged accordingly.^
(4) The fourth mean of removal is " to gather yourselves
together in serious humiliation and reformation before the
Lord," Zephaniah ii. 2, in knitting your hearts together in
the band of love, every one lending his helping hand (accord
ing to his place) to the breaking down of Babel.*
(5) The fifth convenient mean to take them off will be the
removal of their surfeiting and soul-starving means, which
maketh them adventure upon their own bane, and maketh
them the bane of the nation.^
(6) The sixth and last mean of removal is, the continuance
of a Parliament, till the tenets of the hierarchy be tried by
God and the country, that is, by the laws of God and the
land.® Proceedings were commenced against Alexander Leighton
in the Court of Star Chamber on June 4, 1630, and the
Attorney-General was anxious to find out if Leighton stood
* p. 193. * p. 201. • p. 214. * p. 233.
^ p. 235. " p. 236.

38 LAUD AND ALEXANDER LEIGHTON
alone, lavished all his powers of persuasion and offered him
liberty or forgiveness if he would give up the names of those
five hundred who had signed the petition. But Leighton had
the stuff in him of which martyrs are made, refused to give
any information that would involve his friends, and acknow
ledged the form of his book to be entirely his own.* The
following account of the trial is given by Rushworth : —
" Ann. 1630. An information was formerly exhibited in the
Star Chamber against Alexander Leighton, a Scotchman and
Doctor of Divinity, for writing a Book, entitul'd, A n Appeal to the
Parliament, or a Plea against Prelacy, which he printed during
the last Parliament, and deliver'd to divers Persons : and he
was charg'd in the Information for setting forth therein,
I. That we read not of greater Persecution of God's People
in any Christian Nation than in this Island, especially since
the death of Queen Elizabeth. 2. He terms the Prelates
Men of Blood, and Enemies to God and the State ; that the
establishing Bishops by Law is a Master-sin, and Ministers
should have no Voices in council deliberative or decisive.
3. The Prelacy is Antichristian and Satanical ; the Bishops
Ravens and Magpies. 4. The Canons of 1603 nonsense.
5. He condemns that Spawn of the Beast, kneeling at the
Sacrament. 6. That Prelates corrupted the King, and the
Queen was a Daughter of Heth. 7. He commends him that
murder'd the Duke of Buckingham, and encourages others in
the like attempts. 8. He saith, all that pass by us spoil us,
and we spoil all that rely upon us ; and instances in the
black pining death of the famish'd Rochellers, to the number
of 1 5,000 in four months. 9. Saith, The Church hath her Laws
from the Scriptures, and no King may make Laws in the
House of God ; for if they might, the Scripture would be
imperfect. 10. He saith it is pity, and will be an indelible
dishonour to the States Representative, that so ingenuous
' Leighton's Answer, Sloane MSS. 41.

LAUD AND ALEXANDER LEIGHTON 39
and tractable a King should be so monstrously abus'd, to the
undoing of himself and his Subjects.
" The Defendant in his Answer confess'd the writing of the
Book, but with no such Intention as is suggested, his end
being only to remonstrate certain Grievances in Church and
State, that the Parliament might take them into considera
tion and redress them. The Court now proceeded to Sentence
and declar'd That it appear'd upon proof the Defendant had
printed 5 or 600 of the Books ; that he had committed a
most heinous offence by his Assertions, to the scandal of the
King, Queen, and Peers, especially the Bishops. The two
Chief Justices declar'd that they would have proceeded
against him for Treason, if it had come before them ; and other
Lords, that it was his Majesty's Mercy and Goodness he was
not question'd as a Traitor.
"His sentence was, to be committed to the Fleet during Life,
fin'd 10,000/. refer'd to the High-Commission to be degraded ;
that done, to be brought to. the Pillory at Westminster (the
Court sitting) and there whip'd ; and after whipping, to be
set in the Pillory, have one of his Ears cut off, one side of his
Nose slit, and be branded on one cheek with the letters S S,
for a Sower of Sedition ; and another day be brought on a
Market-day to the Pillory in Cheapside, there likewise whipt,
and have his other Ear cut off, and the other side of his Nose
slit. November 4, he was degraded, but the Evening before
the Sentence was in part to have been executed upon him, he
escaped out of the Fleet ; whereupon the Privy Council sent a
printed Hue and Cry after him, requiring all Justices of Peace,
Mayors, Sheriffs, &c., to use all diligence for apprehending
him, describing him to be of low Stature, fair Complexion, a
yellowish Beard, high Forehead, and between forty and fifty
Years of Age. This hue and cry followed him into Bedford
shire, where he was apprehended, brought back again to the
Fleet, and the Sentence executed. All which Bishop Laud
then Bishop oi London noted in his Diary ; and that when he was

40 LAUD AND ALEXANDER LEIGHTON
brought to Cheapside for the latter part of his Sentence, his
Sores upon his Back, Ear, Nose, and Face were not cured. This
unfortunate gentleman was well known both for Learning and
other Abilities, but his intemperate Zeal (as his Countrymen
then gave out) prompted him to that mistake. Afterwards
they who procured his escape were taken and proceeded
against in the Star Chamber. It appeared that Levingston
put off his Cloak, Hat and Breeches all of a Grey Colour, and
Anderson his Doublet, and Leighton put theirs on, and in that
disguise they all went out of the Fleet unsuspected. For
these offences and in respect of their Penitence they were only
fined 500/. apeice, and committed to the Fleet during the
King's pleasure."*
Leighton does not seem to have been present at the
whole proceedings of his trial,^ and what was new in this in
famous transaction was that his judges were parties in the
case, and had a personal interest in avenging an insult
directed against themselves. This was truest of the bishops,
but it was equally true of the judges and temporal lords. As
soon as the harsh judgment was pronounced, Laud is said to
have taken off his cap and raising his hands " gave thanks to
God who had given him the victory over his enemies."'
" Whether this last anecdote be true or false," says Dr. Gar
diner, " it illustrates the position into which Laud had come.
He looked upon those who opposed his opinions as his
enemies, and upon his enemies as the enemies of God."*
There are several other details not stated in Rushworth,
which are essential to the completeness of the narrative.
Before the sentence* could be carried out Leighton was to be
* Rushworth's Historical Collections, vol. ii. pp. 45, 46, 47.
' Epitome (published 1646), p. 70.
' ^I'i'^; P- 78. " History, vol. vii. p. 150.
"Dr. Harris says of Zion's Plea "that it was written with spirit, and
more sense and learning than the writers of that stamp usually shewed
in their productions " : and adds " I cannot for my life see anything in it
deserving so high a censure." Life of Charles I, p. 225.

LAUD AND ALEXANDER LEIGHTON 41
degraded from his office by the High Commission, so that he
might not appear in clerical garb at the pillory. As the
High Commission was not then sitting, an effort was made in
the course of the vacation to get from him the names of his
supporters, but he was obdurately silent. Introduced before
the Commission, he refused to take off his hat to the court,
and defiantly declared that it had no authority to touch him.
His clerical dress was stripped from his back (Nov. 4,
1630) and he was sent back to prison to prepare for suffering.*
The King was said to be meditating the remission of his cor
poral punishment, when on the night before the day fixed for
his appearance in the pillory, Leighton escaped from prison
with the aid of two of his countrymen, named Livingston and
Anderson (Nov. 9). Within a fortnight he was captured ^
and all thoughts of mercy were then at an end. Leighton
went bravely to his suffering, together with two other culprits
who had offended against the law, and his wife walked before
him as if in some triumphal procession. " As Christ," she
said, " was crucified between two thieves, so is my husband
led between two knaves." His courage did not fail him.
" All the arguments brought against me," he said, " are prison,
fines, brands, knife and whip." " This is Christ's yoke," he
cried, as his neck was thrust into the pillory, and as the sharp
knife of the executioner rent away his ear, he exclaimed,
" Blessed be God, if I had a hundred, I would lose them all
for the cause." The first part of his sentence was fully carried
out — that "he was to be set in the pillory at Westminster,
and there whipped, and after his whipping to have one of his
ears cut off and his nose slit, and be branded in the face with
S.S. for a sower of sedition." Faint and bleeding he was

His calling the queen " a daughter of Heth " meant no more than she
w as a Papist, and such language had much countenance from the taste
and spirit of the age, as Bishop Tillotson speaks of foreign Popish
princes as " the people of these abominations."
* Epitome. ^ Laud's Diary.

42 LAUD AND ALEXANDER LEIGHTON
taken back to his prison, there to endure long years of misery.
The second agony at Cheapside was spared him — one ear
was left uncropped, and the second scourging was not
inflicted. So far the mercy of Charies extended. At any
rate Leighton makes no reference to it in his Epitome, and
the infliction of the second part of the sentence is noticed only
in the forged entry in Laud's diary.* Dr. Gardiner regards
Leighton's silence as conclusive,^ and without it all will
acknowledge that the first part was sufficiently barbarous,
and must have put the moral sense* of England in revolt. In
Scotland Leighton was regarded as a martyr to the cause of
liberty, and notwithstanding his extremeness, " worthy Mr.
Leighton " was justly honoured as a champion of freedom and
as one of those who stemmed the tide of despotism.
Bunyan was committed to Bedford gaol and was im
prisoned for over twelve years — during part of which time |iis
imprisonment was little more than formal, as his choice to the

' Rushworth, ii. 57.
' Vol. ii. p. 151 ; cf. Granger's Biographical History, 6i/^, p. 21: Meade
to Stuteville, Dec. 5 {Court and Times), ii. 82.
" How far this cruelty perpetrated on Leighton may have influenced
John Milton adversely to the Church, it is impossible to say : he cer
tainly, however, watched it keenly and with inner scorn assuredly. His
letter of December, 1631, or the early part of 1631-2, shows that he had
reluctance to take orders, and unquestionably then as ten years later his
views were the same.
" The Church, to whose service, by the intentions of my parents and
friends, / was destined of a child, and in mine own resolutions, till,
coming to sound maturity of years, and perceiving what tyranny had
invaded in the Church — that he who would take orders must subscribe
slave, and take an oath withal, which unless he took with a conscience
that would retch, he must either straight perjure or split his faith — I
thought it better to prefer a blameless silence before the sacred office
of speaking, bought and begun with servitude and forswearing. How
soever thus Church-outed by the prelates, hence may appear the right I
have to meddle in these matters as before the necessity and constraint
appeared." (The Reason of Church Government : Works, iii. 1 50.) How
different matters ecclesiastical would have been had John Milton and
not Laud been the Church adviser of Charles I !

LAUD AND ALEXANDER LEIGHTON 43
pastorate at Bedford in 1671 shows.* Alexander Leighton
was imprisoned for ten years in the Fleet, but an entry in the
Register of the College of Physicians seems to indicate (Feb.
18, 1634) that for a period at least he enjoyed some liberty."^
But even with this slight consideration of occasional freedom
Leighton's petition to the Long Parliament in 1640, contain
ing a brief epitome of his sufferings is both veracious and
reveals the heroic stuff he was made of in enduring so long.
The reading of the petition drew tears from the house.*
" The humble petition of Alexander Leighton, prisoner in
the Fleet,
" Humbly sheweth,
"That on February 17, 1630, he was apprehended com
ing from Sermon by a high-commission warrant, and dragged
along the street with bills and staves to London-house.
That the jailer of Newgate being sent for, clapped him
in irons, and carried him with a strong power into a
loathsome and ruinous dog-hole, full of rats and mice,
that had no light but a little grate, and the roof being un
covered, the snow and rain beat in upon him, having no bed
ding, nor place to make a fire, but the ruins of an old smoky
chimney. In this woful place he was shut up for fifteen
weeks, nobody being suffered to come near him, till at length
his wife only was admitted.
" That the fourth day after his commitment the pursuivant,
with a mighty multitude, came to his house to search for
Jesuits' books, and used his wife in such a barbarous and in
human manner as he is ashamed to express : that they rifled
every person and place, holding a pistol to the breast of a
child five years old, threatening to kill him if he did not dis
cover the books : that they broke open chests, presses, boxes,
and carried away every thing, even household stuff, apparel,
1 Fronde's Bunyan, pp. 81-84. Brown's Bunyan, pp. 171-191.
* Preface to Gardiner, vol. vii. p. 6.
' Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. ii. p. 334.

44 LAUD AND ALEXANDER LEIGHTON
arms, and other things : that at the end of fifteen weeks he
was served with a subpcena, on an information laid against
him by Sir Robert Heath, attorney-general, whose dealing
with him was full of cruelty and deceit : but he was then
sick, and, in the opinion of four physicians, thought to be
poisoned, because all his hair and skin came off: that in the
height of this sickness the cruel sentence was passed upon
him mentioned in the year 1630, and executed November 26
following, when he received thirty-six stripes upon his naked
back with a threefold cord, his hands being tied to a stake,
and then stood almost two hours in the pillory in the frost
and snow, before he was branded in the face, his nose slit, and
his ear cut off : that after this he was carried by water to the
Fleet, and shut up in such a room that he was never well, and
after eight years was turned into the common jail." *
The petition was read to Parliament on Saturday, Nov
ember 7, 1640,^ and the following was the resolution of the
House on April 21, 1641 : —
" On Mr. Rouse's Report of Dr. Leighton's Case, it was
resolv'd on the Question, That the seizing and detaining him
in Prison by Warrant from the High Commissioners, and
breaking open his House, and taking away his Papers, by
Edward Wright then Sheriff and now Lord-Mayor of
London, were both illegal, That the said Edward Wright
ought to give him Reparation for his Damages thereby, and
that the Archbishop of Canterbury, then Bishop of London,
ought to give him Satisfaction for his Fifteen Weeks Im
prisonment in Newgate by his Warrant : That the great Fine
of io,ooo/.and the Sentence of corporal Punishment, by whip
ping him, setting him in the Pillory, branding him, slitting his
Nose, cutting off his Ears, with the Imprisonment thereupon,
were illegally impos'd on him, by the Determination of the
' Ibid., vol. ii. pp. 334, 335.
^ Rushworth, vol. iii. p. 250.

LAUD AND ALEXANDER LEIGHTON 45
Star-chamber, for which his great Damages he ought to have
good Satisfaction."*
Parliament supported Leighton's claim,^ and well might it,
for no threat of punishment could extract from him the names
of the five hundred (including members) who had signed the
Petition of 1628 and were consequently as guilty of" rebellion "
as Leighton himself was supposed to be. Leighton's unflinch
ing loyalty to his friends was beautiful, and relieves a
character that might otherwise seem harsh ; his loyalty was
sternly tested, as refusal implied the pillory, which he bravely
faced. His time for imprisonment now was over, for in 1640
he was released by Parliament, had his fine cancelled, while
;^6,ooo were voted to him in compensation for his losses and
inhuman treatment. Whether the money in whole or part
was paid to him,* we know not, but in 1642 he was appointed
Keeper of Lambeth House, then turned into a State prison,
and it surely reads like one of the strange ironies of the world
to find in Laud's Diary of His Own Life the following entry :
" 1642 (Dec. 23), Thursday. Dr. Layton came with a
Warrant from the House of Commons for the keys of my
•Rushworth, vol. iv. p. 67.
'"It greatly aggravated the injustice and cruelty of the sentence
passed on him : that his book was printed for the use of the parliament
only, and not in England, but in Holland. The heads were previously
sanctioned by the approbation of five hundred persons under their hands,
whereof some were members of parliament. And when the parliament
was dissolved, he returned without bringing any copies of it into the land,
but made it his special care to suppress them." (A letter from General
Ludlow to Dr. HoUingworth, printed at Amsterdam, 1692, p. 23.) Neal,
i., p. 188.
° In the manuscripts of the House of Lords (Sixth Report, p. 158) there
is a " Petition of Doctor Alexander Leighton, Petitioner, being now in
daily expectation of death praying for some suitable reparation for the
sufferings both in body and estate which he has endured since 1628 for
no other cause than a book which he wrote against the evils of Epis
copacy. The greater remaining sting of his sufferings is that he has
been hindered by his thirteen years' imprisonment in providing for his
family."

46 LAUD AND ALEXANDER LEIGHTON
house to be delivered to him, and more prisoners to be
brought thither."* Alexander Leighton lived till 1649, but
his health was much shattered by his long imprisonment.
Although in controversy he was " of violent and ungoverned
heat " — and his times offer much by way of explanation — in
his family life he was amicable and affectionate, and it is said
" was never heard to speak of his persecutors but in terms of
compassion and forgiveness." He was twice married ; his
first wife's name is unknown, but his second wife was a daugh
ter of Sir William Musgrave, of Cumberland, who had been
twice a widow. He had four sons, James, Robert, Elisha,
and Caleb, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Sapphira.
We have now to do in the next chapter with his celebrated
son, Robert Leighton, whose personality and career are in
such strange contrast to his father's.
NOTES TO CHAPTER IV.
r. In Benson's Tracts (No. 14) there is the following reference to
Alexander Leighton : " Dr. Alexander Leighton was of low stature,
of a fair complexion, and well known for his learning and other
abilities. And he must have had an excellent constitution to have
lived for so long, under such cruel treatment. But his long and
close confinement (added to his other sharp utterances) had so
impaired his health : that, when he was released, he could hardly
walk, see, or hear " (p. 234).
2. Baillie (writing Nov. 18, 1640) says with reference to his
appeal to Parliament : " Lightoun has been twyce heard and on
Fryday, is hoped, sail be absolved " (vol. i. p. 273).
3. In ihe History of the English and Scotch Presbytery, by Isaac
Basier or Basifere (edition 1660)— the Scotch Covenanters are
described as " impatient Libertines and haughty : they will form a
Gospel according to the air of their climate " (pf 32) — " the Presby.
terians laid his head (Charles I's) upon the block, and the Indepen
dents cut it off" (p. 229): In the course of this violent book against
the Covenanters and as violent defence of Charles I, Drf Alexander
Leighton's Zion's Flea is severely criticized and referred to (p. 76).
' Diary (1695), p. 65.

LAUD AND ALEXANDER LEIGHTON 47
4. Referring to the portrait of Alexander Leighton, with its
evidences of suffering. Granger says : "It shows how differently
authors of libels were treated in the reign of Charles I from what
they have been of late years." Biographical History of England, vol.
i. p. 493.
5. In the Camden Miscellany (vol. vii. old series) will be found
the " Speech of Sir Robert Heath in the Case of Alexander Leighton
(i-io) with preface by the late John Bruce, F.S.A., (iii.-xiii.) and
notes by the Editor, Samuel Rawson Gardiner (xiv.-xxii.).
6. In the British Museum Catalogue there is an anonymous work,
published September 6, 1642, attributed to Alexander Leighton as its
author. The probability is great, but no certainty is possible
regarding it. If it is Leighton's then it would be additional evidence
to that already adduced (p. 43) that Leighton sometimes had times
of liberty during his imprisonment. The title is a long one :
" King James : His Judgment of a King and of a Tyrant :
Extracted out of His own speech at Whitehall to the Lords and
Commons in Parliament, 1609, with certain notations anent the
same. Also 28 Questions, worthy due consideration and solution,
in these dangerous times of England."
It bears a strong internal resemblance to Alexander Leighton's
other works, and is on the same line of direction. I am disposed
to think the conjecture in the Catalogue is a right one.
7. Although Leighton in his Zion's Plea incites the Members of
Parliament to "smite the bishops under the fifth rib "(p. 128), he
adds; "we mean of their callings not their persons."
8. R. Walker (Journal; 177) styles him " Keeper of the Prisoners
for the Rebels in Lambeth House."

CHAPTER V
ROBERT LEIGHTON— YOUTH AND STUDENT LIFE
" He at least believed in soul, was very sure of God."
"You know how love is incompatible
With falsehood— purifies, assimilates
All other passions to itself."
" What is there to frown or smile at ?
What is left for us, save, in growth
Of soul, to rise up, far past both.
From the gift looking to the giver,
And from the cistern to the river.
And from the finite to infinity.
And from man's dust to God's divinity ?
Take all in a word : the truth in God's breast
Lies trace to trace upon ours impressed :
Though He is so bright and we so dim,
We are made in His image to witness Him :
And were no eye in us to tell.
Instructed by no inner sense.
The light of heaven from the dark of hell.
That light would want its evidence." Robert Browning.
WE now pass from the father to his distinguished and
saintly son, Robert Leighton, and in doing so the
transition is felt to be a sudden one, for there is very little
in the son to suggest the father, and as far as charity and
mildness are concerned, they seem as opposite poles, or as
the arctic and tropical regions to each other.
Robert Leighton's birthplace is unknown, although Edin
burgh has not a little to be said in its favour,* perhaps more
' Robert Pearson's Life, p. 7.
48

• ROBERT LEIGHTON 49
than London.* His father's personality stands out sufficiently
clear from the last chapter, but of his mother nothing is
known. Robert was unquestionably the son of the first
wife, whose name is unknown. One would eagerly know
something regarding his mother, but search is in vain.
There must have been about her an unusual sweetness of
disposition, amiability and tenderness, and Robert seems to
have been shaped much by her character ; his refinement,
delicacy of feeling, sweetness of temper, as well as his consti
tution, apparently not very robust, must have been inherited
from her side of the family, and I cannot help thinking that
Robert's eager desire for heaven, his constant communing
upon it throughout life, must have been intensified by this
love, early removed from the visible form and centred round
her as an angel form. His mother's early death, with the
chastening and reflection it brought, does much to enlighten
one regarding his inner life, and to reveal the affections it
created there, while Principal Tulloch thought that his
father's second marriage evidently explains some features of
the son's later career.^ Robert Leighton was born in 161 1,
and Burnet adds that the father " sent his eldest son Robert
to be bred in Scotland." * He entered the University of
Edinburgh in the winter of 1627 under Mr. Robert Rankin,
one of the regents, and he took his degree on July 23, 163 1.*
Principal Sir Alexander Grant says : " It has never been ob
served that whereas a century later Robertson and Hume
took the greatest pains to write English correctly, and did
' There seemed a possibility of acquiring sound information on this
point from the Baptismal Registers of St. Andrew by the Wardrobe and
St. Ann, Blackfriars, London, as Alexander Leighton attended the
ministry of Dr. Gouge, the rector of the period there. The present
rector (the Rev. P. Clementi-Smith) favoured me by examining the
Registers of the period, but the search for the name of Leighton was in
vain. " Scottish Divines, p. 117.
' History of His Own Times, vol. i. p. 239.
* Proceedings, vol. iv. p. 460.
A.L. 4

Professors of Philosophy.

50 ROBERT LEIGHTON
not always succeed, because it was not the dialect in which
they were accustomed to speak and think, Leighton in the
middle of the seventeenth century wrote in a lucid style of
English undefiled. The explanation must be that as a boy
he lived in England, and the southern dialect was to him the
mother-tongue, the use of which he of course improved by
scholarship." *
The College consisted of the following'members at the year
of Robert Leighton's enrolment as a student : —
Alexander Morison, Lord Prestongrange, Rector of the
University. Mr. John Adamson, Principal.
Mr. Henry Charteris, Professor of Divinity.
Mr. Robert Rankin ^
Mr. John Brown
Mr. Andrew Stevenson
Mr. William King
Mr. Thomas Crauford, Professor of Humanity.^
Principal Adamson published in 1627 a small Latin cate
chism for the use of students, and Leighton would use it as
one of the University manuals. It was entitled ^Toi-xeloxn^
Eloquiorum Dei, sive Methodus Religionis Christianae Cate-
chetica. In usum Academiae facobi Regis et Scholarum Edin-
ensium conscripta. "Beyond this," Sir Alexander Grant
remarks, " his Principalship did not leave much trace, except
that he bequeathed George Buchanan's skull to the College."*
Professor Henry Charteris is described by Craufurd as " cer
tainly one of the most learned men of his time, both in the
tongues, and in philosophy and divinity ; but he had too low
thoughts of himself, a fault (if a fault) known in few beside.
He was also of an holy and unblamed life." * He wrote the
* The Story of the University of Edinburgh, vol. ii. p. 248.
" Dalzel's History of the University of Edinburgh, vol. ii. p. 91.
' Story, vol. ii. p. 245.
* Ibid., pp. 242, 243.

ROBERT LEIGHTON 51
life of Rollock, Principal of the University from 1586 to 1599
— a book that may have influenced Leighton, as we shall yet
see that when the latter became Principal he followed
Rollock's example in restoring the week-day lecture, and one
of Leighton's early pieces indicates that Rollock was one of
the youthful student's heroes. Rollock had a high ideal of
the preacher's vocation : " Believe me, it is not a thing of
small importance to preach the Word : it is not the same
thing as to expound the text of Plato and Aristotle, or to set
forth a harangue bedaubed with the colours and allurements
of rhetoric. The preaching of the Word depends on holiness,
humility, and the efficacious demonstration of the Spirit.
God knows how highly I have ever prized it." Rollock's
sermons, too, were well known during Leighton's student
period, and he was said in his day to have shone out " like a
star of salvation." Another contemporary of Rollock's * to
whom Leighton ardently refers, was Bruce of Kinnaird, whose
preaching was described as " an earthquake to his hearers."
The earnestness of the early Reformed Church pulsed in both,
and Leighton may have caught something of their glow.
It has been asserted as more than probable that Robert
Rankin, Professor of Philosophy, and James Fairly, Professor
of Divinity (elected successor to Henry Charteris in 1629)
and both of them strongly in favour of Episcopacy, the latter
having afterwards become Bishop of Argyle — had early
penetrated Leighton with those views which in after-life
exercised a considerable influence over him.^ But this" at
best is only problematical, and there is no existing evidence
by which we can test its truth. It is most likely that Robert
Leighton reached his later opinions by his own growth, and
as a result of contact with another environment But so
far as evidence exists, it can reasonably be inferred that
Bruce and Rollock were the two master lights of his college
' Cf p. 57.
' Chamber's Biographical Dictionary, vo\. v. p. 378.

52 ROBERT LEIGHTON
days, and Rollock especially was distinguished by a feature
which early possessed Leighton — humility of character.
Affinities meet each other and the self-effacement of the
principal would not fail to impress and deepen a natural
tendency in the receptive student as he read his works. The
historian of Edinburgh University points out that in his
numerous works Rollock never gave himself the title of
" Principal," or in any way referred to his connexion with the
college, but always styled himself " Minister of Jesus Christ
in the Church of Edinburgh."* This is all the more remark
able as his works were all prepared for the class-room, and
afterwards published for the students. Robert Leighton
graduated in 1631, and is said to have had a distinguished
career in all his classes. But his character was no less out
standing than his scholarship, and part of Burnet's narrative
of him relates to this period. " He was accounted as a saint
from his youth up. He had great quickness of parts, a lively
apprehension, with a charming vivacity of thought and
expression. He had the greatest command of the purest
Latin that ever I knew in any man. He was a master both
in Greek and Hebrew, and in the whole compass of theolo
gical learning, chiefly in the study of the Scriptures. But that
which excelled all the rest, he came to be possessed with the
highest and noblest sense of divine things that I ever saw in
any man. He had no regard to his person, unless it was to
mortify it by a constant low diet, that was like a perpetual
fast. He had a contempt both of wealth or reputation. He
seemed to have the lowest thoughts of himself possible, and
to desire that all other persons should think as meanly of
him as he himself did. He bore all sorts of ill usage and
reproach like a man that took pleasure in it." '
Burnet gives here additional references to later years, but
the description includes the tendencies of the earlier ones.
' Story of the University of Edinburgh, vol. ii. p. 241.
' History of His Own Time, vol. i. pp. 239, 240.

ROBERT LEIGHTON 53
A comparison may here be made between Leighton and
John Milton, who was a student at Cambridge during the
same period and graduated in the subsequent year, 1632.
Milton was known as the " Lady of Christ's," and both were
noted for a prevailing tone, a characteristic mood — a deep
and habitual seriousness. Both guarded against sensuality
as the cause of inevitable spiritual incapacitation and both
had a prevailing ideality of conception within them, an
united tendency to the high and holy and contemplative.
Both had the stewardship of many talents, and Milton was
possessed by a " fixed idea " from his youth upwards which
was unquestionably Leighton's underlying resolve as well,
that to a life of truly great work or of truly great endeavour
of any kind, moral integrity was supremely necessary : —
" He who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well
hereafter in laudable things ought himself to be a true poem."
Each afterwards found different paths to express his
particular ideal — Milton striving not only to be a poeta but a
vates, and Leighton to be not only a minister but a man after
God's own pattern.
But an academic episode, besides the common features of
character just indicated, brings them together at this period.
Milton was chastised by his tutor and was certainly rusti
cated for a short time in 1626, Leighton had a somewhat
similar experience in 1628, which ended in his temporary
expulsion* from the University of Edinburgh. His piety
' The following is the Coltness reference :—
" In his bachelor year, attending the College, he was induced to
lampoon the chief magistrate, who by office is Rector or Chancellor of
the University, and who had disobliged some of the students. The
stanza made was a piece of false witt then fashionable : it was a pun on
the Lord Provost of Edinburgh's name, Aikenhead and the many
pimples on his face ... For this Robert Leighton was called before
the faculty of Masters, and to please the Provost, was solemnly extruded
the University. Sir James his guardian, was absent, but on his return
had him reponed." Collections, pp. 21, 22.

54 ROBERT LEIGHTON
had never any tinge of gloom about it, and the caustic
epigram on the nose of the Provost of Edinburgh, which he
wrote in 1628, is in no degree at variance with the disposition
already described, while it exhibits an intellectual vivacity
and an ironical humour which he had difficulty in restraining,
even as a bishop. Leighton had to submit to censure and
expulsion for the indignity* offered the Provost. Sir James
Stewart, his guardian, was absent at the time from Edinburgh,
but upon his return had Leighton reponed.* The following
is the epigram and the subsequent apology, and they are very
clever to be written by a lad of seventeen years.
Upon the Provost of Edinbugh.
That which his name pretends is falsly said
To wit, that of an Aike his Head is made ;
For if that it had been composed so,
Hisfyrie nose had iiam'd it long agoe.
His Apologie.
Come, Muses all, help me to overcome
This thing which some ill-mynded Muse has done ;
For sure the Furies, and no sacred Muse,
Has taught madde braines such patrones to abuse.
But since the fault committed is so great,
It is the greater honour to remitt ;
For if great Jove should punish everie cryme.
His quiver emptie would become in tyme :
Therefore sometymes he fearfuU thunder sends.
Some tymes sharpe arrows on offenders spends ;
Some tymes againe, he swan-lyke doth appeare.
Or in a showre of crystale waters cleare ;
Fooles scornes Apollo for his glistering beames,
Lykwayes the Muses for their sacred streams :
'The students in Edinburgh in those and previous days were evidently
in strong opposition to the Provost and Baillies of Edinburgh. High
School boys adopted far more violent measures than Leighton over the
question of holidays, for during the time of Rollock's Regency (1583-
1587) we are told that by his personal character he acquired a great
influence over all the students of the college and tamed the wild High
School boys, who had "barred out" their masters and SHOT a bailie
when the Town Council made some demur about their autumn holidays.
Stevenson's History of the High School of Edinburgh.
' P- 53-

ROBERT LEIGHTON 55
But as they doe, so may you eike despyse
Your scorners. For why ? Eagles catch no flyes.
Fooles attribute to you a fyrie nose.
But fyre consumeth paper, I suppose ;
Therefore your Lordship would seem voyd of fyre,
If that a paper doe dispell your eyre ;
And if that this remeid doe stand in steide.
Then shall the laurell crown your Aiken heid :
Now, since it's thus, your Lordship if it please,
Accept ane triple cure for ane disease. Mr. R. Lightoune.'

The authorship and the date of the verses are put beyond
all doubt by the following letter of Leighton to his father
which was found along with two others in the State Paper
Office, and was apparently seized, at the time of Dr. Alexander
Leighton's arrest. (It has endorsed in the father's hand the
following words : — " If this Parliament have not a happy
conclusion, the sin is yo"- I am free of it.")
" To his kind and loving father. Mr. Alexander Leighton
Dr. of Medicine, at his house on the top of Pudle Hill
beside the Blacke Friars Gate, near the Kinges Wardrobe
there, London : — (Chief part of letter.)
" Sir, " The busines that fell out with me, which I cannot without
sorrow relate that such a thing should have fallen out, yet
having some hope to repe good out of it as you exhort me —
it, I say, was thus. There was a fight between our Classe and
the Semies, which made the Provost to restraine us from the
play a good while ; the boyes upon that made some verses^
one or two in every classe, mocking the Provost's red nose.
I, sitting beside my Lord Borundell * and the Earl of Ha(ding-
' Laing's Fugitive Scottish Poetry of the Seventeenth Century, second
series, Edinburgh, 1853.
^ John, master of Berriedale, predeceased his grandfather in 1639 ;
but his son George succeeded to the Earldom of Caithness in 1644.

56 ROBERT LEIGHTON
ton's) son,* speaking about these verses which the boyes had
made, spoke a thing in prose concerning his nose, not out of
spite for wanting the play, neither having taken notice of his
nose, but out of their report, for I never saw (him) before but
once, neither thought I him to be a man of great state. This
I spoke of his name, and presently, upon their request, turned
it into a verse thus :
" That which his name importes is falsely said (his name is Oken-
head)
That of the oaken wood his head is made,
For why, if it had bein composed so.
His flaming nose had fit'd it long ago.
" The Verses of Apology not onely for myselfe but for the
rest * you have in that paper. I hope the Lord shall bring
good out of it to me. As for the Primare * and Regents, to
say the truth, they thought it not so hainous a thing as I my
selfe did justly thinke it. Pray for me as I know you doe,
that the Lord may keepe me from like fals ; if I have either
Christianity or naturality, it will not suffer me to forget you,
but as I am able to remember you still to God ; and to
endeavour that my wayes greive not God and you my dear
Parentes, the desire of my heart is to be as litle chargeable as
may be. Now desireing the Lord to keepe you, I rest, ever
endeavouring to be, " Your obedient son, "ROBERT LEIGHTON.
" I pray you. Sir, remember my humble duety to my mother
my loving brethren and sisters : remember my duty to all
my freindes.
" Edenbrough, May 6, 1628."
' This was Robert Hamilton, the youngest son of Thomas, Earl of
Haddington, by his third wife.
* Evidently the whole of the class.
' Primare, primarius, principal.

ROBERT LEIGHTON 57
Leighton also evinced at this period a disposition to satire,
having written one or more pieces of sarcastic verse
against the Scottish Bishops of his time.* Let the following
be taken as a representative one, and as being autobiographi
cal in so far as it reveals the names of Robert Leighton's
heroes. It belongs to his early years in the University : —
Upon the Decaying Kirk.
Ryse RoUocke, ryse, relate, and Bruce returne.
Deplore the mischeifes of this uncouth change :
In the prime Kirk, which as a lamp did burne.
Our Teachers hath set up a Worship strange ;
Strutheris spyc'd sermons now prove true indeid,
It is become the tail that was the heid. L.
It has already been pointed out that we can know nothing
from any records as to the sweet, winsome lady who was
Robert Leighton's mother. If we can interpret her through
her remarkable son, it might be said that two of her
prominent qualities were intellectual vivacity and genuine
piety. I often think that the catechism which Robert
Leighton afterwards composed for the use of children is for
him an echo of the long ago, and brings back the memories of
the lessons learned at his mother's knee. In this light, it is
always to me an impressive document, and a revelation of the
early formative influence in his own life. Take the following
as representative ones : —
" How hath our Lord Jesus Himself expressed the great
and necessary duty of all disciples ?
' There are others included under the title Incertis Atcctoribus,
but the letter "L" besides the internal evidence puts the above one
beyond doubt. Dr. David Laing remarks in his prefatory notes : — " The
most singular circumstance connected with these effusions is to find the
amiable Archbishop Leighton as a writer of satirical verses ; but his
original opposition to Episcopacy may afterwards have inclined him to
that moderation which distinguished him from the rest of the Scottish
Prelates during the reign of Charles the Second."
' Cf. Laing's Scottish Fugitive Poetry.

58 ROBERT LEIGHTON
"That they deny themselves and take up their cross and
follow Him.
" Rehearse then some of the chief points wherein we are to
follow our Lord Jesus Christ.
" I. To surrender ourselves wholly to our Heavenly Father,
and His good pleasure in all things, even in the sharpest
afflictions and sufferings ; and not at all to do our own will
or design our own praise and advantage, but in all things to
do His will and intend His glory.
" 2. To be spotless, and chaste, and holy, in our whole con
versation. " Add a third.
" 3. To be meek and lowly, not to slander or reproach, to
mock or to despise any ; and if any do so to us, to bear it
patiently, yea, to rejoice in it.
" A fourth.
" 4. Unfeignedly to love our Christian brethren, and to be
charitably and kindly affected towards all men, even to our
enemies, forgiving them, yea, and praying for them, and re
turning them good for evil : to comfort the afflicted, and
relieve the poor, and to do good for all as we are
able. " . . . . What is the final portion of them who truly repent
and believe and obey the Gospel ?
" The blessed life of angels in the vision of God for ever." *
The supreme help in the religious life which Leighton com
mends is prayer — " the effectual means of obtaining increase
of faith and power to obey, and generally all graces and bless
ings at the hand of God',' and one may compare it with the
similar statement of Milton. It is from God the poet's
thought comes. " This is not to be obtained but by devout
prayer to that Eternal Spirit that can enrich with all utter
ance and knowledge and sends out " His seraphim with the
' Leighton's Works (Pearson's Edition), vol. ii . pp. 505, 506.

ROBERT LEIGHTON 59
hallowed fire of his altar to touch and purify the life of whom
He pleases"^
In this simple catechism of Leighton's, it is possible to see
reflected the early teaching of his old home, and to hear the
voice of one who as a heavenly spirit spoke to him from be
hind the veil. It reveals the teaching with which he was sur
rounded in childhood, and so has something autobiographical
about it. The letter to his father just referred to, manifests
fine affection and respectful obedience, but the two following
ones, written to his step-mother, indicate her loving concern
for the young student at Edinburgh, and the reverence with
which he regarded her. Here as elsewhere his character is
all a piece, and as these letters belong to his early Edinburgh
days they are here published, with the comment that their
preservation is due to Laud's arresting them along with his
father's other papers, as evidence against the latter.
"Loving Mother,
" I have much wondered that this long time I have never
heard from you, especially so many occasions intervening,
but yet it stopped me not to write yet again (as is my duety),
and so much the more because I had so good an occasion. I
received a letter from my father, which, although it was but
briefe, yet it perspicuously made manifest unto me the danger
that he would in al likelihood incurr of the booke which he
hath bin printing, God frustrate the purpose of wicked men.
He sent some of the bookes^ hither, which are like to bring
those that medled with them in some danger, but I hope God
shall appease the matter and limite the power of wicked men,
who, if they could doe according to their desire against God's
children, would make havock of them in a sudden. The
Lord stirr us up to whom this matter belonges, to pray to
God to defend and keepe his children and his cause, least the
wicked getting too much sway cry out where is their God
' Mark Pattison's Life of Milton, p. I7-
« Zion's Plea against the Prelacie, for which he was now m prison.

6o ROBERT LEIGHTON
become. If trouble come, there is no cause of sinking under
it, but a comfortable thing it is to suffer for the cause of God,
and the greater the crosse be, if it be for righteousness, the
greater comfort it may afford, and the greater honour will it
be to goe patiently through with it, for if it be an honour and
blessedness to be reviled for Christ's sake, it is a far greater
honour to be persecuted for his sake. Exhort my brother
walke with God, and pray for me that the same thing may be
my case. Thus committing you to God, I rest
" Your obedient Son,
"R. Leighton.
"Edbrg., March 12, 1629.
" Pray remember me to my brethren and sisters, my duty to
my Aunt and all my freindes. I write not to my father
because I have not heard whether he be come home yet or
not. I directed the letter as to my father, that it might be
the better knowne where to deliver it.
" I writt for sundry things long since, for which I will not
now sollicit you ; send them at your owne leasure any time
before May.
" To his loving father Mr. Alexr. Leighton, Dr. of Physike
at his house on the top of pudle hill, near blackfriars gate
over against the King's wardrobe. These,
London. " Endorsed, — in Laud's handwriting, March 2, 1629 (Style
Rom.), Rob. Leighton, the Sonn's Letter to his mother from
Edenborough." *
" Loving Mother, The cause of my delaying to write unto
you, having twice received letters from you was this. You
writt unto me concerning some things that you had sent, and
I differred writing till I thought to have received them, but not
having heard anything as yet of their coming, I thought good
to write a line or two, having occasion. Mr. Wood hath re-
' Notes and Queries : 3rd series, vol. i. p. 107.

ROBERT LEIGHTON 6i
ceived things from Mr. Morhead since then, with which he
thought to have gotten my thinges, but he hath received his
own and not mine. I informe you breifly of this, but I more
desire to heare something of my father's affaires. I have not
so much as seene any of his bookes yet, though there be some of
them heere. I pray you the first occasion write to me what he
hath done ; as yet my part is in the mean while to recommend
it to God. Remember my duety to my aunt, my love to my
brother James. I blesse God for the thing I heare of him,
though I come short of it myselfe, pray him to pray for me,
that God uphold me, and let not Satan take advantage either
by objecting liberty before me or ill example.
"Remember me to Elizabeth, Elisha, and my young brother
and sister. Remember me to Mrs. Freese.
"Pardon my most rude forme of writing in regard of the
past and ye time of night wherein I writt this letter.
" Your obed. Son,
"R. Leighton.
"Edbrg., May 20, 1629.
" To his loving father Mr. Alexr. Leighton, Dr. of Physike,
at his house on the top of pudle hill, near blackfriars gate,
over against the King's wardrobe — These —
London. " Endorsed,— i(J/^y 20, 1629 (Style Rom.), Rob. Leighton's
letter to his mother, from Edenboroughe." *
Such is all that can be gathered from existing sources re
garding Robert Leighton's youth and student days. One
would willingly know more and regrets that he can know so
little. The veil is only lifted at brief and long separated in
tervals to fall again, and the record of his early days, chiefly
on account of the vicissitudes of his family, is very incomplete.
His character, however, stands out clear amid the surrounding
' Notes and Queries: 3rd series, vol. i. (1862) p. 107.

62 ROBERT LEIGHTON
uncertainty regarding details and is full of a potency which
his later years more definitely unfolded.
November 26, 1630, saw the execution of the dreadful sen
tence upon his father, after which he was confined to the Fleet.
When Leightofi graduated at Edinburgh College on July 23,
1 66 1, his father was then a prisoner, and the last year of his
college career must have been for him one of strain and much
solicitude for his father's welfare. At a later period of his
life one of the professors wrote to Dr. Alexander Leighton
congratulating him " on Jtaving a son in whom Providence had
made him abundant compensation for his sufferings" During
the next ten years he was abroad. Burnet's statement is :
" From Scotland his father sent him to travel. He spent
some years in France and spoke that language like a native." *
He lived with relations at Douay — not unlikely friends of his
mother — and there he conceived, as is said, a certain sym
pathy for the French Catholics. His travels brought him a
wider knowledge of the life of others and an acquaintance
with forms of religious thought and worship, different from
his own. Perhaps this may account in some measure for his
freedom from insular prejudices, his capacity of seeing good
in those who widely differed from him, as well as his wider
charity. Leighton became a believer in the influence of travel,
and many years afterwards recommended a similar course to
his nephew, alleging that " there is a very peculiar advantage
in travel, not to be understood but by the trial of it : and that
for himself he nowise repented of the time he had spent in
that way." NOTE TO CHAPTER V
The "Old College Record" was carried off by the Town
Council of Edinburgh in 1704,* and was destroyed some time
subsequently to 1826, so that we are deprived of valuable data
' History of His Own Time, vol. i. p. 240.
' See the Story of the University, vol. ii. p. 469.

ROBERT LEIGHTON 63
relative to the early student life of Edinburgh College. But the
following course of study, belonging to the period when Robert
Leighton was a student, not only illustrates University life in the
period, but goes far to explain the thorough training he received,
and the good use he makes of the classical writer throughout his
lectures and sermons.
The Discipline of the College of Edinburgh, December 3, 1628;
wherein is contained the Offices and Duties of the Professors,
Masters, Scholars, Bursars and Servants as it has been observed
many years ago.
The Order of the First Year.
In the beginning of October, the entrant students to the discipline
of the College are exercised in Latin authors, chiefly in Cicero, and
turning of Scots into Latin and Latin into Scots : and the Regent is
to examine these versions both in the etymology, construction, and
in the right writing of them, until the Primar give and examine a
common theme.
The common theme being examined, Clenard's Greek Grammar
is continually taught, in which, when they come to the annotations of
the nouns, the practice of the rules is joined with the Grammar out
of some part of the New Testament. Then are taught the first and
second orations of Isocrates, and also one or two others of the
same author, and of the poets, Phocilides, the first book of Hesiod,
with some book of Homer.
About the middle of May are taught Ramus's Logics,* and with
the Logics some Latin themes to be turned into Greek, and some in
Greek to be turned into Latin.
What they hear at the beginning out of the New Testament, the
first oration of Isocrates and Phocilides, or the first book of Hesiod,
they commit to memory : and what is taught during the week they
repeat on the Saturday mornings with a clear voice in the master's
audience : on that same day they dispute betwixt ten and twelve
o'clock. On the morning of the Lord's day the Catechism is taught.
* Ramus was a Protestant and a victim of the St. Bartholomew
massacre. His Logic was adopted with zeal by the Protestant Universi
ties of Europe in the last half of the sixteenth century in opposition
to the Aristotelian with which the cause of Roman Catholicism was
regarded as associated.

64 ROBERT LEIGHTON
The Order of the Second Year.
From the beginning of October they are exercised in repeating
those things which were taught in the former yearj and near the end
of October they are examined on the same.
The examinations being ended, they are examined in themes and
versions, until the Greek theme is taught by the Primar : which uses
to be taught the day after the common theme (foresaid) is given.
After the Greek theme is taught Talaeus' Rhetoric with Cassander,
or the like, together with Apthonius's Progymnasmata. Afterwards
they make orations to exercise their style in Logic and Rhetoric.
In the beginning of January, Aristotle's Organon is begun to be
taught, beginning at Porphyry's Isagoge ; and in that year are taught
the books of the Categories on the Interpretation of the Prior
Analytics, the first, second, and eight of the Topics, and the two
books of Sophistics.
In the end of the year is taught a compend of arithmetic.
On the Saturday they dispute on Logic theses in their private
schools. But on the first Saturday in May, at three o'clock in the
afternoon, they begin to have orations in public : and they have
each days appointed, until all of them have declaimed before the
end of the year.
On the Lord's day, in the morning, the Regent goes on in the
explication of the Catechism.
The Order of the Third Class.
In the beginning of the third year, they repeat* what was taught
in the former year, until the examinations.
After the examinations, the Regent teaches his scholars the
Hebrew Grammar, and exercises them in Logical analysis and
Rhetoric, in what authors he thinks best, until a public examina
tion of their progress in analysis is made by the Primar : which
usually takes place the day after the Greek theme (aforesaid) is
given and examined.
The trial of their ability in analysis being made, the Regent goes
' Burnet says of Leighton's scholarship : " He laid together in his
memory the greatest treasure of the best and wisest of all the ancient
sayings of the heathen as well as Christians, that I have ever known any
man master of, and he used them in the aptest manner possible."
History of his Own Times, vol. i. p. 240.

ROBERT LEIGHTON 65
on to teach his scholars the two books of the Posteriores in the
Logics, and then teaches the first, second, the half of the third, the
fifth and sixth books of the Ethics, afterwards the five first books
of the Acroamatics (or General Physics) and teaches a short com
pound of the three last.
In the end of the year the anatomy of the human body is
described. On the Saturdays they dispute in their private schools on theses
which the Regent prescribes out of those things which they have
heard. On the Lord's day, some commonplace of Divinity is taught.
The Order of the Fourth Class.
In the beginning of the fourth year, after the vacation, all those
things which were formerly learned are repeated, until the two
inferior classes be examined.
The examinations being ended, they begin the books de Caelo(i.e.
concerning the heavens), and the Regent teaches the first book, the
greater part of the second and fourth ; which being perfected, the
sphere of John de Sacrobosce is taught, with some theorems of the
planets, to the fourth chapter ; as also the more notable constella
tions are shown in the book, in the celestial globe, and in the
heavens. Then are taught most exactly the books de Ortu (i.e. of generation)
and the books de Meteoris, as much as sufiSceth. Then are taught
the three books of Anima (i.e. concerning the soul).
In the beginning of May they begin to repeat all those things
learned in the Logics and Philosophy.
In the time of the repetitions. Hunter's Cosmography is taught ;
and afterwards they are exercised in disputing, chiefly on the theses,
which they are publicly to defend at the laureation.
On the Lord's day, in the morning, they are exercised in common
places of Theology, and on the most necessary controversies.
The Bachelors, after they have learned in the third year the first
four chapters of the first book de Demonstratione, convene in the
Magistrand school at five o'clock at night, and there dispute with
the Magistrands,* every one of them having a Magistrand for his
antagonist, the choice being made by the Regents, who likewise
* The name given to those who are in the highest philosophical class
before graduation. It is still retained in Aberdeen.
A.L. 5

66 ROBERT LEIGHTON
prescribe the matter of disputation, and so they exercise themselves
till six.
In like manner, upon the Saturdays from ten o'clock, all the three
superior classes dispute in the public schools : the Magistrands first
give the theses, then the Bachelors, and thirdly, the Semies ; and so
by turns in circle. These public disputations are begun so soon as
the Semies have learned Porphyry's Isagoge, from whence the
matter of disputation is taken.
These disputations are continued until the examination of the
Magistrands . . .
The Office of the Professor of Theology.
The Professor of Theology must teach the students the right
method of learning Theology : what they should read first, or at the
beginning, and what is necessary afterwards, and in all things which
they should chiefly exercise themselves in. He shall teach publicly
on the Tuesday and Friday, betwixt eleven and twelve in the fore
noon, and he shall be present on the Monday at an exercise in
Scots of the students in Theology. On the Thursdays he shall
take care that one of the students make trial privately in Latin upon
some head of Theology, both by teaching and by sustaining theses ;
the Professor himself, in the meanwhile, moderating in the
disputations. It belongs also to the Professor of Theology to teach something of
the Hebrew tongue.*
A training such as that, acting upon the natural, intellectual and
metaphysical nature of the young Scottish mind, not only explains
much in Leighton, but in those with whom he had afterwards to
confer. It certainly produced information, enlightenment and power
in disputation, and was the framework amid which at least Robert
Leighton's mind was academically evolved from 1627 to 1631.

' Town Council's Records of date : Dalzels' History of the University
of Edinburgh, vol. ii. pp. 376, 382.

CHAPTER VI
residence abroad (1631-1641)
" And Wisdom's self
Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude.
Where, with her best nurse, contemplation,
She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings.
That in the various bustle of resort.
Were all to-rufffed and sometimes impaired."
—Milton.
" It is to the pale solitary, stretched by his cave in the desert or on
the mountain, with his beechen bowl of simple water beside him or
meditating alone in his quiet watch-tower, that Nature whispers her
sublimer secrets, and that the lost knowledge of things comes once more
in visions and in dreams. Did we live as erst did Pythagoras, should
there not begin to resound in our ears, faint at first, but gradually more
and more clear and loud, that famous sphere-music of his, to which the
orbs do keep time and the young-eyed cherubs do unceasingly listen
albeit to humanity it has so long been a fable ?" — PROFESSOR Masson.
" That One Face, far from vanish, rather grows.
Or decomposes but to recompose.
Becomes my universe that feels and knows."
— Browning.
" The points on which the disciples of the Saviour agree, greatly out
number and in respect of importance very greatly outweigh, the points
on which they differ."— ANDREW FULLER to Dr. Thomas Chalmers.
THE late Master of Balliol (Dr. Jowett) in taking a com
prehensive view of the Church, regarded it as em
bodying three tendencies of thought or three distinct parties.
(i) Those whose eyes are fixed on the past and whose prayer
and aspiration might be summed up in such words as these : —
" The Catholic Church, one and continuous throughout all
ages." (2) Those who have found a nearer way to God, not

68 RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641)
through the priesthood or the sacraments or any ordinance of
the Church, but in the immediate approach to God through
Christ, whose ideal might best be expressed in the phrase —
" The Bible the religion of Protestants." The inner life of
their Church might be expressed in the words of the Apostle :
" By grace are ye saved through faith : and that not of your
selves : it is the gift of God." (3) Those who pursue truth
as a duty. If their hopes and aspirations could be summed
up in a few words, perhaps the motto that might best describe
them would be " The truth, one and indivisible in religion, in
philosophy, in history and in nature," or the words of Scrip
ture, " The truth shall make you free." * Robert Leighton's
early surroundings were such as to impress him almost exclu
sively with the ideal of the second class, and the influences that
led him to a more comprehensive, yet inclusive ideal, remain
now to be traced. But in doing so, it is right at once to state
that he never parted with the spirit of his early environment,
but only had it enlarged and made more roomy by other
forces, into contact with which he was now brought. To sum
up, Leighton's mind from the very earliest years presents
itself to us as one in which the Unseen was the prevailing
background — in which there was a subtle gift of spiritual
genius giving flavour to the whole personality — in which
there is always perceived the stamp of spiritual consecration.
His father presents to us the headlong, the strong conviction,
united with enthusiasm for it : Robert Leighton, on the other
hand, brings before us the quiet, meditative, contemplative
type of mind, by which and through which the cloister in its
purest days did its best work. He was " a saint from his
youth upwards " — one who, like John Wesley, had a genius
for godliness, and holiness in his blood. He had a deep,
habitual seriousness without sourness, and no one would
single out humour — although he possessed a natural vivacity —
as one of his prevailing characteristics. He impressed us as
' Jowett's Sermons (Biographical and Miscellaneous), pp. 260-264.

RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641) 69
one who embodied more of the spirit of his mother than of
his father.
(2) Robert Leighton embodied the deepest spiritual culture
of the Scottish Church ; his home and his friends represented
it to him in its most vigorous form.
"A virtuous household, though exceeding poor!
Pure livers were they all, austere and grave.
And fearing God : the very children taught
Stern self-respect, a reverence for God's Word,
And an habitual piety, maintained
With strictness scarcely known on English ground.
*****
The Scottish Church, both on himself and those
With whom from childhood he grew up, had held
The strong hand of her purity and still
Had watched him with an unrelenting eye.
This he remembered in his riper age
With gratitude, and reverential thoughts."
Wordsworth here expresses the true genius of Scottish
religion, for notwithstanding all the controversies of the
period, there was in Scotland a real piety and a vigorous
religion, which shaped splendid types of character and heroic
men. The Church was characterized by an impassioned sense
of national independence, by an equally strong grasp of
spiritual independence, as well as by a fervid devotion, and
if its theological division centred around points that now
seem conspicuous for their littleness or minuteness : if a pre
eminence was given in its teaching to the Old Testament and
even to some of the most transitory portions of the Old
Testament — which is blamed for having " cribbed, confined
and soured " * the religion of the country — it can only be a
superficial glance which stops there. The best literature of the
period reveals much that is better and more potent : the deep
sense of the Grace as well as of the Sovereignty of God, of
the loveliness of Christ, of the hatefulness of sin, and of the
searching light of holiness. This religion blended itself with
Dean Stanley's Lectures on The Church of Scotland, p. 83.

70 RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641)
the stern intolerant church policy and even of the extremest
upholders of the covenant (the Cameronian) ; Kerr of Kerr-
shaw, who was among them but not of them, could say :
" They are strictly religious and make war a part of their
religion and convert state policy into points of conscience.
They fight as they pray and pray as they fight." The
struggles of Scotland during the seventeenth century are only
to be understood from the theocratic ideal that possessed the
Church and the deep, pervasive religion at the heart of the
people. Of this the Church of Scotland was the inspiring
force, and Robert Leighton must have felt it and been shaped
by it as it expressed itself through the action and life of his
father. The Scottish Church can rightly claim him as her
son. (3) We must remind ourselves that Robert Leighton had a
Calvinistic bringing up, but the Calvinism he knew was that
of the warm Puritan age, and not as it became in the attenuated
creed of the eighteenth century. It was not the Calvinism
which became a personal gratification of safety for self and
for the rest damnation : that asserted predestination in an
arbitrary degree ; degenerated so often into antinomianism
and had this as its tendency and inherent danger : that
was briefly but accurately described in the words " nine
hundred and ninety out of a thousand are lost, do what they
can : the remaining ten are saved, do what they will." It
was against this degenerate Calvinism John Wesley
directed his energy and wrote one of the most remarkable
sermons in any language. But when Robert Leighton was
being reared Calvinism was not a mere doctrine, far less was
it old and effete. It was a living system of thought, an all-
prevailing sense of God's Majesty and Sovereignty over men
and human institutions, as the supreme law. It carried the
mind upwards towards the Eternal Will, rather than down
wards towards personal security. It made the Puritan a
force, transformed the humble into heroes, and had its

RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641) 71
strongest fort in the Church of Scotland. More than any
thing else it inspired the resistance to kingly absolution
and ecclesiastical Erastianism : it evoked the spiritual
independence of the Scottish Church and made impossible
for the Stuart kings to say what Elizabeth said of her policy
in the Church of England, " that she tuned its pulpits " : it
inspired the hero to oppose interference with the authoritative
ideal of conscience, and the Church to be moved from within
and not from without. Scotland in the seventeenth century
is not to be understood apart from its living Calvinism, for
this is at the heart of its chivalrous romance, and has helped
most potently to make it what it is. But, on the other hand,
it is to be recalled that it was Calvinism in its best form — not
as an effete doctrine, but in its pristine vigour — as it has
been described by one who has made it a special study.
" First, it regards religion, not in an utilitarian or eudae-
monistic sense, as existing for the sake of man, but for God,
and for God alone. This is its dogma of God's sovereignty.
Secondly, in religion there must be no intermediation of any
creature between God and the soul — all religion is the
intermediate work of God Himself, in the inner heart. This
is the doctrine of Election. Thirdly, religion is not partial
but universal — that is the dogma of common or universal
grace. And, finally, in our sinful condition, religion cannot
be normal, but has to be soteriological—thsX is its position in
the two-fold dogma of the necessity of regeneration, and of
the necessitas S. Scripturae." *
Such was the strong Puritanism amid which Leighton
was educated, both at home and college, and Burnet sums
it up by saying "he had been bred up with the greatest
aversion imaginable to the whole frame of the Church of
England." ^ But the little we do know of his next ten years
is suggestive, although the veil only raises itself to fall again
» Calvinism, by Prof A. Kuyper, p. 71.
* History of His Own Times, vol. i. p. 240.

72 RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641)
" From Scotland," says the same authority, to whom we owe
so much, " his father scjpt him to travel. He spent some
fears in France, and spoke that language * like one born
there." ^ Wodrow adds a sentence regarding Robert Leighton
which is also suggestive of this and of a subsequent period : —
" By many he was judged void of any doctrinal principles :
and his close correspondence with some of his relations at
Douay, in Popish orders, made him suspected, as very much
indifferent to all persuasions which bear the name of
Christian." " Certain it was," says Row, " that he had
too great a latitude of charity towards the Papists, affirming
that there were more holy men in the cloisters of Italy
and France, praying against the covenant than there were
in Britain praying for it." ^ Nor is the subsequent
opposition of the strong Scottish Calvinism without
specific interest in the present connexion. " I am
told," says Wodrow, " that when Mr. Dickson was Pro
fessor at Edinburgh, and Mr. R. Leighton was Principall
there, the Principall urged that the Professor might either
teach, or at least recommend Thomas a Kempis to his
students : and told him he regarded it one of the best books
that ever was writt, next to the inspired writers. Mr.
Dickson refused to do either, and among other reasons from
some Popish doctrines contained in it, he added, that neither
Christ's satisfaction, nor the doctrine of grace, but self
and merit ran throw it." * Burnet again informs us
that the early visit to Douay was repeated in later
years, especially during the time of his Principalship.
" Sometimes he went over to Flanders to see what
he could find in the several orders of the Church of
Rome. There he found some of Jansenius's followers, who
1 This statement by Burnet is corroborated from another source.
Dalrymple's Memorials contain a letter of Mr. William Colvill to
Lord Balmerino in which he refers to Robert Leighton's " better
judgments and better experience" in French, p. 58.
' Ibid. " Life of Robert Blair, p. 404. ¦> Analecta, vol. iii. p. 452.

RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641) 73
seemed to be men of extraordinary temper, and who studied
to bring things, if possible, to the purity and simplicity of the
primitive ages : on which all his thoughts were much set." *
Such is all that can be gathered as referring directly and
indirectly, wholly or partially to the period between 163 1
when Robert Leighton went abroad and 1641 when he was
ordained minister of Newbattle. But interpreted in the light
of the religious movements both in F"rance and the Nether
lands, and in the light of his later aims and religious teaching,
as unfolded in his subsequent sermons and lectures, they are
of great interest and are very suggestive. While there is no
evidence to tell the college or colleges he attended during
the period or part of the period, it is more than certain that
he had been a student in one or other of the Protestant
Theological Schools either in France or Holland. In the
history of his mental development it is not unimportant to
know that for some time he had resided at Douay, where he
had some relations connected with the Religious Orders.
And here we have the first influence that modified the
Calvinism amid which he was reared. He formed at
Douay ^ an intimacy with the best educated of the Roman
* Vol. i. p. 244.
' In the subsequent days when Leighton must have felt his connexion
with Lauderdale, Middleton and Sharpe as very embarrassing, and con
trary to his own Christian instinct. Dr. Walter Smith thus interprets his
mind in the Bishop's Walk.
"O that I were in meek Douay,
Among the quiet priests that pray
In chapel low or chancel dim.
Chanting the plain-song or the hymn,
Or the 'Stabat Mater'
Or 'Veni Creator.'
"I may not bind me with their creed.
Though some of them are free indeed.
Or only thrall to heaven above.
And O they bind me by their love
To him whose name on earth
Is ointment pourfed forth.''

74 RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641)
Catholic gentlemen who were attending the college, and
being fond of understanding systems different from his own,
and of coming into contact with men of worth in other
Churches than his own, he learned to love them in Christian
charity for the goodness they possessed, and thought less
rigidly of the differences that separated them." * A brief
survey of the history of the town will show that its influence
would tend to break down the narrower aspects of young
Leighton's creed and give him a wider outlook through the
social influence it afforded.
Douai or Douay, a town in France, in the department of
Le Nord on the Scarpa, grew during the middle ages into
a place of commercial and industrial importance under the
Counts of Flanders. It passed afterwards into the possession
of the Dukes of Burgundy, fell then as an inheritance to the
crown of Spain and was in 1667 conquered by France. In
1568 William Allen (afterwards Cardinal) founded there a
college for the young English Catholics who were sent to the
continent for the prosecution of their studies, which became
the model for a similar one at Rome in 1579, that the Pope
might have them more under his own eye and away from the
turbulent Netherlands.^ No student was admitted into the
" Nor can I say but vesper hymn.
And the old chaunt in chapel dim,
Sound to me as an infant's voice
When Faith is young, and doth rejoice.
And goeth all day long
Singing a quiet song : —
" A voice that lingers on mine ear
From bride whose Bridegroom still is near ;
In her mysterious mirthfulness.
And trembling joy, and wondering grace,
A tender music sighing
Upon her bosom lying.'' PP- 32, 33-
^ Cf. Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, vol. iii. p. 378.
Ranke's History of the Popes, vol. i. p. 458.

RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641) 75
college at Douay until he pledged himself to return to
England on the completion of his studies, and there preach
the faith of the Roman Church. For that purpose they
were exclusively prepared and were excited to religious
enthusiasm by the spiritual exercises of Ignatius and the
example of the missionaries sent by Pope Gregory the Great
for the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons, who were set before
them as models for imitation. Though supported only by
private subscription, the seminaire flourished, and in a short
time had one hundred and fifty scholars and ten professors.
It was affiliated to the Douay University, which had been
founded by Philip II, in whose dominion the town then was.
It made the town the headquarters of the Englishmen living
on the continent, and the hotbed of political intrigue.
Campian and his colleagues Sherwin and Briant came from
Douay. This gave rise to great disturbances, and after a
Huguenot riot the college was compelled to move in 1578,
but found an asylum at Rheims under the protection of the
Duke of Guise. In 1593, however, the college returned to
Douay and before its dissolution at the French Revolution
it could boast that it had produced more than 30 bishops-
169 writers, while 160 of its alumni had given their lives on
the gallows for the papal cause. The Douay Bible was the
English version of the Bible executed by the students of the
Roman Catholic College at Douay under the auspices of
Cardinal Allen. The work was published at Douay in 1609,
about two years before the appearance of King James'
authorized Protestant Bible issued in 161 1. The Douay
version contains the Old Testament only, a translation of the
New having been sent forth from the press at Rheims as
early as 1582. The Douay version is the only one that has
obtained the sanction of the Pope, and apart from its religious
use, possesses an interest for philologists.
There was also at Douay a Scotch College. This seminary
was originally founded at Pont-a-Mousson, in Lorraine, by

76 RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641)
Dr. James Cheyney of Aboyne in 1576, and was assisted by a
pension from Queen Mary. After her death it was reduced
to great straits, and could only count seven members. In
1594 it moved to Douay, thence to Louvain, and finally was
once more transferred to Douay in 1608. Clement VIII
placed it under the administration of the Jesuits. Hippolyte
Carle, the son of Mary's secretary, made over to the college by
deed of gift a large sum of money, providing that in case of
his country's return to the Roman Catholic religion, the
foundation should be transferred to St. Andrew's University.
Carle became the second rector to the college, and died in
1638. The college was closed in 1793 by the French
Government and turned into a prison. It ultimately became
the mother-house of a congregation of nuns devoted to edu
cation, called Les Dames de la Sainte Union.
It was in such a town that Robert Leighton lived during
his formative period. It was in it he had friends, and it is
not unlikely that after the fall of the old family of Usan
(chapter I.) a member or members of it may have retired.
thither along with the many Scotch families of the period
Possibly too he may have had relations there on his mother's
side and at any rate Wodrow's Analecta makes it clear
that his grandfather had not joined the Reformed Church.*
Now a first step is always important because the whole
tendency of the course pursued is involved in and determined
to some extent by it, and we know that while Robert
Leighton always retained a repugnance to the Roman
Catholic Church in its unreformed condition,^ he yet admired
' "Sir James Stewart, Provost of Edinburgh told Mr. Muire that being
very bigg with Bishop Leigton, he said, 'Sir, I hear your grandfather
was a Papist, your father a Presbyterian and suffered much for it in
England, and you a Bishop ! What a mixture is this." (Says Leighton):
" It's true, Sir, and my grandfather was the honestest man of the three.'
Vol. i. p. 26.
^ Writing about the 1660 period in Leighton's life, Burnet adds :—
"What hopes soever the papists had of him at this time, when he knew

RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641) 77
the piety of the best connected with it, and was much in
fluenced by those deep utterances of the religious writers it
has nurtured. In other words, he was influenced by Roman
Catholicism in its religious, not in its oj^wa/ aspect, and while
disliking its corruptions, he could yet live upon those deep
aspirations after a perfect holiness and a chastened humility
that found expression in the Jesus-love of a St. Francis, a
St. Bernard, or a Francis Xavier. At any rate his contact
with men of different religious pursuasions at Douay, his
admiration of a goodness transcending creed and outsoaring
its limitations, brought him under the range of an influence
that helped to evolve a truly Catholic spirit, and gave him an
insight to trace unity beneath differences. In other words
his Puritanism was at Douay modified by Catholicism.
" Amplius, amplius," as Francis Xavier put it, became hence
forth his prevailing attitude.
As to " his relatives at Douay in Popish orders " we are
without definite inform'ation in the meantime, and may always
be, as we do not know the name of his (Leighton's) mother. The
discovery of her family name might lead to their identity, but
we fail to find amid the recently published matter relating to
nothing of the design of bringing in popery, and had therefore talked of
some points of popery with the freedom of an abstracted and speculative
man, yet he expressed another sense of the matter, when he came to see
it was really intended to be brought in among us. He then spoke of
popery in the complex at much another rate : and he seemed to have more
zeal against it than I thought was in his nature with relation to any
point': in controversy : for his abstraction made him cold in all such
matters. But he gave all who conversed with him a very different view
of popery, when he saw we were really in danger of coming under the
power of a religion that had, as he used to say, much of the wisdom that
was earthly, sensual, and devilish, but had nothing in it of the wisdom
that was from above, that was pure and peaceable. He did indeed
think the corruptions and cruelties of Popery were such gross and odious
things, that nothing could have maintained that church under those just
and visible prejudices but the several orders among them that had such
an appearance of mortification and contempt of the world : that with all
the irash that was among them this maintained a face of piety and
devotion." History of His Own Times, vol. i. p. 246.

78 RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641)
the Douay College in the " Papers of the Right Reverend
Dr. Manning, late Archbishop of Westminster " : * in the
" Papers belonging to the Catholic Chapter, London " : ^ in
the " Manuscripts of Mrs. Dorothy Witham of Kirkconnell
and her husband Robert Maxwell Witham, Esquire, contain
ing reference to the Two Registers of the Scots' College at
Douay " — the " Register of Douay," and the " Smaller Register
of Douay " ^ — as published, any reference to persons bearing
the name " Leighton " as connected with the college. The
Kirkconnell Manuscripts show that many of the students at
the Douay Scotch College were connected with distinguished
Scotch families ; such names occur as Bruce and Wallace
(they are the first and second names at the beginning of the
list), Crichton, Law, Barclay, Gordon, Douglas, Seton, Elph-
ingston, Lyndesay (son of the Baron of Mains), MacCree
Christie, Maxwell, Gray, Forbes, Irvine, William Leslie
(rector in 1634), Ogilvie (son of John Ogilvie of Craig, 1647),
Semple, Skene.* Similar representative names might be
chosen from the English ones, but " Leighton " does not
occur among either, and the evidence only manifests hitherto
the religious activity of the neighbourhood where Robert
Leighton settled. It was an academic centre for Scotch and
English Roman Catholic gentlemen.
But there was a special form of Catholicism, in this
period, that was agitating the Church, and in which we
definitely know Robert Leighton was interested, and by
which he was influenced — the movement known as Jansenism.
In his later years he watched its development closely, but in
his earlier days of travel and study, with their accompanying
impressionableness, he observed it in its nascent form and in
his near neighbourhood, for north-west of Douay and in
west Flanders was Ypres, where Jansen, its founder, was
' Historical Manuscripts Commission, Fifth Report, pp. 470-478.
^ Ibid. pp. 463-470. » Ibid. pp. 650-654.
^Ibid. pp. 653, 654.

RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641) 79
bishop during the latter years of Leighton's residence, while
in the earlier he was professor at Louvain, east of Brussels.
Jansenism was a movement that profoundly influenced him,
and with it we have now to do.
Jansenism was one of those movements that in the history
of the Church have had the religious and Christocentric doc
trine of St. Paul as their inspiration. It is at heart a Pauline
reaction against all natural moralism, all righteousness of
works, all religious ceremonialism, all Christianity without
Christ. It was the inward, Christocentric spirit of Paulinism
that created it as it has done all the critical epochs in the
Church. In the words of Professor Harnack : — " One might
write a history of dogma as a history of the Pauline reaction
in the Church, and in doing so would touch on all the turning
points of the history. Marcion after the Apostolic Fathers :
Irenaeus, Clement, and Origen after the Apologists : Augustine
after the Fathers of the Greek Church : the great reformers
of the middle ages from Agobard to Wessel in the bosom of
the mediaeval Church : Luther after the Scholastics: Jansenius
after the Council of Trent — everywhere it has been Paul,
in these men, who produced the Reformation." * So deeply
was this manifested in Jansenism, that the same scholar
declares — " Paulinism has become the conscience of the Church
until the Catholic Church in fansenism killed this her con
science!' ^
Such was the inspirational source of Jansenism, but it had a
more specific development and a distinct history in relation
to the time when it arose. It came from the piety within the
Catholic Church, was an expression of the counter- Reforma
tion which the Protestant Reformation forced upon the
Catholic Church itself, was a reaction against the lamentable
posirion in which pious Catholics saw their Church placed.
Earnest Catholics in France could not reconcile themselves
with the Court and State Christianity, with its frivolity, world-
' History of Dogma, vol. i. p. 136. ' Ibid.

8o RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641)
liness of spirit and despicable ideals : nor on the other hand
could they rest satisfied with the Jesuits who had attained en
ormous power, who were undermining the principles of religion
with their dangerous and immoral doctrine of " Probability '>
and by which they were driving religion into blind depend
ence on the Roman Confessional. " Behold the Fathers who
take away the sins of the world ! " It is from this state of
things that the Jansenist movement is to be understood, and
as a reaction against it there was in Jansenism the true im
pulse of piety. It strove for an inner regeneration of the
Church through faith and piety, religious awakening and
asceticism, as these were interpreted by Augustine, and after
adverse judgment had been expressed on Luther and Calvin
there was a rallying around the banner of Augustine by pious
Catholics themselves.* Jansenism was a spiritual movement
against false religion and against the false moral teaching of
the Jesuits, who applied it through the Confessional and
maintained that it is sufficient if we do not will the commission
of sin, as sin is a voluntary departure from the commands of
God. As to their doctrine of " Probability," " the Jesuits
maintained," says Ranke, " that in doubtful cases a man
might follow an opinion of the soundness of which he was
not himself convinced, provided always that the said opinion
was defended by some author of repute. They not only con
sidered it allowable to be guided by the most indulgent
teachers, but they even recommended that practice. Scruples
of conscience were to be disregarded : nay, the proper method
of freeing oneself from their influence was to follow the most
tolerant opinion, even though they might be less safe. How
completely were the profound and secret monitions of self-
government and self-judgment thus lowered into a mere
external act ! In the directing manuals of the Jesuits all
possible contingencies of life are treated of, much in the
method usually adopted for systems of civil law, and
' Cf. History of Dogma, vol. vii. pp. 92, 93.

RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641) 81
appreciated according to the degrees of their veniality. A
man has but to look out the cases supposed in these
books, and, without any conviction on his own part, to
regulate himself according to their directions, and he is then
certain of absolution before God and the Church : a slight
turn of the thoughts sufficed to exonerate from all guilt. The
Jesuits themselves, with a certain sort of honesty, sometimes
express surprise on perceiving how light and easy their tenets
render the yoke of Christ." * All religious life was perishing
between the Court and State Christianity and this disgrace
ful ethical teaching : all religion must have perished in
France and elsewhere had not an evangelical movement
within the Church itself arisen. It is this which makes
Jansenism so interesting in its origin and so full of ultimate
good : for at heart, it was an endeavour to emancipate the
Church from the Church and faith from a subtly-refined and
immoral morality.
The Jansenists remind us of the early Protestants, and may
be called unconscious Protestants. ^ It is not without a true
perception that they have been called the Methodists of the
Church of Rome, although the term is only applicable in the
wide and early sense of those who sought at reformation and
aimed at a superior piety within the Church of England. ^ No
doubt, the Jansenists adhered to a principle with which Pro
testantism from the very first refused a reconciliation — they
did not cut themselves off from the authority of the Fathers.
They held themselves to be the true Catholics, the repre
sentatives of the Church in its palmy days, as it existed at
least down to St. Bernard, whom they styled " the last of the
Fathers." They followed St. Ambrose, St. Augustine and
St. Gregory, added fathers of the Greek Church, especially
' Ranke's History of the Popes, vol. ii. pp. 395, 396.
' Buckle calls them the Calvinists of the Roman Communion. Civili
zation in England, xiv.
^ Cf. Dr. McCrie's Introduction to Pascals Provincial Letters, p. Ixiii.
A.L. 6

82 RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641)
St. Chrysostom, in whose works they perceived the true and
unadulterated stream from which down to the days of St.
Bernard they believed no deviation had been made. After
him, " the last of the Fathers," they held that the intrusion of
Aristotelianism had obscured the light. Pascal in his con
cluding letter repudiates the idea of " heresy existing in the
Church," and in doing so, upheld the attitude of the whole
brotherhood at Port-Royal, for to be a Catholic and a
Christian were with the Jansenists convertible terms. They
were convinced that the Church, notwithstanding its disfigur-
ments and corruptions, is still one with Christ—" not one in
spirit only, but in body also — infallible, immortal, and im
perishable." They held by the episcopal hierarchy, and by
St. Augustine as appointed by God to communicate to the
world the doctrine of grace as the foundation of the new
covenant, and in whose teaching theology was completed
They examined St. Augustine's teaching to its very roots,
and in the ever- recurring problem of the connexion between
Divine Grace and human freedom, they opposed Pelagius and
followed Augustine who denied to man, apart from special
grace, all freedom except a dira neccesitas peccandl I The
Jansenists, in enforcing the creed of Augustine, regarded it as
comprehending all that preceded it and as containing the
basis of all that was to follow. The Catholics held fast by
tradition, but Jansenism endeavoured to purify it, to restore
to it its original character, wi1;h the hope of regenerating' both
doctrine and life. In thus adhering to a form of tradition,
they differed from Luther, who had first been awakened by
St. Augustine, but then returned solely to the true source of
inspiration — the Scriptures. Luther and the Reformers thus
accepted a principle, to which the Jansenists refused to be
reconciled, but it is true to say that had the Jansenists taken
one step further they would have approached Protestantism,
and notwithstanding their assertion that they were opposed
both to Protestants and Jesuits alike, it was a favourite

RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641) 83
charge which the Jesuits made against them, that the
Jansenists were Calvinists in disguise. Unconsciously they
were so — their disclaimer notwithstanding — and the Jesuits,
however unscrupulous, had here a clear penetration. The
doctrines of Jansen and St. Cyran were the old doctrines of
grace which Calvin and they both found in St. Augustine,
but which Calvin again found in the Epistles of St. Paul. *
The difference was one of authority, and by holding to St.
Augustine and giving St. Paul a less authoritative position,
their teaching aroused within the bosom of the Catholic
Church the old controversy which since the days of the
Pelagian controversy had so often agitated it. The Jansenists
were thus unconscious Protestants within the Catholic
Church itself, and one hears the ring of Luther's Teh Kann
nicht anders in Pascal's solemn declaration : " if my letters are
condemned in Rome, what I condemn in them is condemned
in heaven. Ad Tuum, Domine fesu. Tribunal Appello.'' One
hears again Luther's sense of a great mission in time from
the very heart of the Port- Royal itself When Arnauld was
expelled from the Sorbonne, driven out of France, hunted
from place to place, he still continued heroically to fight for
his cause to the last. On one occasion, wishing his friend
Nicole to assist him in a new work, the latter observed, " We
are now old, is it not time to rest ? " " Rest ! " exclaimed
Arnauld, " have we not all eternity to rest in ? "
This Jansenist movement was in its early stage centred
around two names, Cornelius Jansen of Holland, and Jean Du
Verger of Gascony, and these two names must have been
very familiar to Robert Leighton, the young Scottish graduate
living in the North of France and making occasional or
frequent visits to Holland. It is with them as inspirational
forces in his life and thought that we have now to do, and this
because they were associated in a prominent way with the
» Cf. Principal Tulloch's Pascal, pp. 104, 105.

84 RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641)
movement already described in its general spirit and
tendency. During the years when the Catholic Church was held in a
state of continual warfare respecting the Means of Grace,
Cornelius Jansen and Jean Du Verger were studying at
Louvain, were moulded by the more rigid doctrines which
that university maintained and contracted a strong antipathy
to the Jesuits. Du Verger was the superior in rank and took
his friend with him to Bayonne, no doubt fascinated by his
spiritual genius, by his contemplative habits and intense
inwardness. His mental bent is indicated by what his friends
overheard him once to exclaim in his solitary walks, " 0
Veritas ! Veritas ! O truth, truth ! " Here they both plunged
into a deep study of Augustine and were possessed with an
enthusiasm for the doctrines of this Father in relation to
grace and freewill. In i630jansen became professor of theology
at Louvain ; in 1636 he was made Bishop of Ypres, and he
died in 1638 just as he had completed his great work, the
Augustinus (4 vols.) which was published after his death in
1640. Jansen attached himself all his life to a theoretical
asceticism with a view of reviving Augustine's teaching,
while St. Cyran pursued the same object by a path more
ascetical and practical in the Port-Royal. Jansen's book is
of great value as an exposition of his convictions ; he boldly
attacks the doctrines and tendencies of the Jesuits and seeks
to restore to their original vitality of thought the doctrines of
grace, sin and remission. His principle, clearly stated after
the teaching of Augustine, is that man's will is not free, but is
fettered and enslaved by the desire after earthly things. It
cannot of its own strength rise from this condition ; grace
must come to the aid of the will — grace, which is not so much
the forgiveness of sins, as the deliverance of the soul from
the bondage of earthly desires. " The liberation of the soul,"
he says, " is not the forgiveness of sins, but a certain delight.
ful freedom from the bonds of earthly wishes : enslaved by

RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641) 85
which, the soul is in chains, until, by a celestial sweetness in
fused by grace, it is borne over to the love of the supreme
good." * Grace is thus a celestial sweetness which God's
grace pours over the soul, and is made manifest in the higher,
purer happiness obtained by the soul from heavenly things.
It is a spiritual delight, by which the will is moved to desire
what God decrees. It is an involuntary impulse given by
God to the will by which it finds happiness in good, by which
it seeks good, not from fear of punishment, but from love of
righteousness ; by which in loving it, the soul is loving God
Himself God is purely Spiritual, the Eternal Truth whence
all truth and wisdom proceed — the Eternal Righteousness
whose will makes right absolute. In loving righteousness,
man loves God Himself Virtue is the love of God, and it is
in this love that the freedom of the will consists. The sweet
ness extinguishes the pleasure derived from earthly gratifi
cation, and then " there follows a most happy, immutable
and necessary will not to sin, but to live rightly." ^
" Throughout the work," said Ranke, " the development of
the doctrinal view is carried out with a high degree of philo
sophical clearness, even in the midst of zealous and hostile
polemical discussion. The essential groundwork of the book
s at once moral and religious, speculative and practical. To
the mere external form and self-seeking of the Jesuit doctrines,
it opposes an upright and strict internal discipline, the ideal
of an activity, whose primary origin, as well as its ultimate
expression, is love to God." ^
The chief centre of Jansenism was at the Port- Royal,
a convent situated in a romantic valley three miles from
Versailles. La Mere Angelique, of the Arnauld family, and
while of tender years, became abbess of the house in 1602.
She determined on a complete reformation of the community
and established a most austere system of discipline, being led
' Vol. iii. lib. i. c. ii. ^ Vol. iii. lib. vii. c. ix.
' History of the Popes, vol. ii. p. 399-

86 RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641)
to it by the preaching of a Capuchin friar. After a time she
was sent by the General of the Order to reform the convent
at Maubisson, but she again returned to '' Port- Royal des
Champs " taking with her thither many of the inmates from
the former house. In 1633 the community removed to a house
in the Rue St. Jacques, Paris, known as the " Port-Royal de
Paris," and one of the most important consequences of this
change was that the " Port-Royal des Champs " became under
the rectorship of Du Verger, abbot of St. Cyran, an asylum
for those who wished seclusion without taking monastic
vows. St. Cyran, for so was Du Verger now called, made
this a learned and ascetic hermitage, where he reduced the
principles of Jansen to practice, and by an unwearied study
of Scripture and the Fathers, sought to imbue his mind
with their spirit. Here he gathered around him a brilliant
galaxy of earnest and distinguished scholars, and Port- Royal
became associated with the names of Le Maitre, Arnauld,
Nicole, Pascal, De Saci, Sericourt and others. Several of
them had renounced a career of worldly splendour, and became
disciples of St. Cyran in this literary and religious hermitage,
whileAngelique Arnauld, with her nuns at Port- Royal attached
themselves to St. Cyran with all the enthusiasm of woman
hood for a religious guide and prophet. They were witnesses
of true religion — Protestants in spirit, if not in name — and
the Port-Royal became one of the strongest and purest
spiritual forces of the period. Jesuitic Probabilism was the
enemy against which this movement directed itself, but in
doing so, it was a return to pure religion, both in doctrine
and life. It is a cold heart which cannot be touched with
these earnest men striving like Pascal " to renounce all
pleasure and superfluities," and to copy originally like St.
Francis the portrait of the Master. Port-Royal was a re
ligious house, fettered by no vows, was held together volun
tarily, and was at once a religious seminary, a missionary
centre, a literary academy and a pastoral college. Agricultural

RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641) 87
labours were undertaken, handicrafts were engaged in, but
the principal occupation was literature, addressed to the
nation in a popular form. The inmates were always advised
to study the Holy Scripture itself, without any commentary
and with the single aim of edification.i " They began " says
Ranke, " by translating the Holy Scriptures, the Fathers of
the Church and Latin Prayer-books. In these labours they
were happily careful to avoid the old Prankish forms which
had previously disfigured works of this character, and ex
pressed themselves with an attractive clearness ; an educational
institution, which they established at Port-Royal, gave them
occasion to compose school books in ancient and modern
languages, logic and geometry. Works of a different character
were also produced at intervals ; as for example, controversial
writings, the acuteness end precision of which reduced their
enemies to silence ; with others of the most profound piety,
such for example as the Heures de Port-royal, which were
. received with an eager welcome, and even after the lapse of a
century were as much valued and sought for as on the first
day. From this society proceeded men of scientific eminence,
such as Pascal ; of high distinction in poetry, such as Racine ;
or of the most comprehensive range in learning, such as
Tillemont. . . . They exercised an extensive and beneficial
influence on the literature of France, and through that
medium on the whole of Europe. To Port-Royal the
literary splendour of the age of Louis XIV may in some
measure be safely attributed." ^
This Society of Port-Royal made its influence felt through
the whole nation in the seventeenth century, and had adherents
among the parochial clergy of France who had an abhorrence
of the confessional system of the Jesuits. Sometimes it
had friends among the dignitaries of the Church ; it
spread to the Netherlands and Spain, and a Jansenist Divine
' Schimmelpenninck's Memoirs of Port-Royal, vol. i. 151.
2 Ranke, vol. ii. pp. 404, 405.

88 RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641)
(Honorato Herzan) was cited before the holy office to answer
for a sermon at Rome in which he defended the opinion of
Jansenius, and upheld him to be the only expositor of St.
Augustine. St. Cyran had founded a school in which his
own doctrines and those of Jansen of Ypres were regarded
and felt as a living gospel. " His disciples," said one of the
body, " go forth like young eagles from under his wings ; heirs
of his virtue and piety, what they had received from him
they transmitted to others ; Elijah has left behind him many
an Elisha, who continue to prosecute his work." Singlin, a
follower of St. Cyran and a popular preacher at Paris, was an
active upholder of the cause, and maintained it with over
powering eloquence. He was said to have been able only
with difficulty to express himself in the common affairs of
life, but in the pulpit to have been a burning orator ; he
attached many to himself and sent them to Port-Royal,
where they were warmly welcomed. They included young
gentlemen clergymen and scholars, wealthy merchants,
eminent physicians, members of distinguished families and
religious orders, who all took the step under the guidance of
a spontaneous impulse, evoked by Singlin's preaching. Port-
Royal gave the presentation of an Evangelical Religion with
in the Catholic Church.
St. Cyran agreed with Jansen's teaching and was led to con
sider penance. He felt that the pure days of the Church were in
the past, that gospel-truth had been obscured, and thus there
arose within him dissatisfaction with the ordinances of the
Church. But in criricising he did not depart from a severe
rigour in discipline. " To humble oneself,* to suffer and to
» The Jansenists learned from Pascal to denote themselves in French
by on, and one of their adversaries averred that by this mark he could
tell that an anonymous work whieh he refuted was to be attributed to them.
Pascal thought [that an honest man ought to shun the naming of him
self and the use of the words I and me, as Christian piety annihilates the
human me, while civility ought to conceal and suppress it (Bayle's Diction
ary, iv. 153, 154). Students of Leighton will recognize how much of
this spirit of s^lf-eff^ceiTient was in fiiiii,

RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641) 89
depend wholly on God — this makes up the whole Christia
life." His conviction of the necessity of an inward change
was strong, and grace to him preceded repentance. " When
it is the will of God to save a soul, the work is commenced
from within ; when the heart is once changed, then is true
repentance first experienced : all else follows. Absolution
can do no more than indicate the first beam of grace. As a
physician must observe and be guided by the movements and
internal operations of nature only, so must the physician of
the soul proceed according to the working of grace." St.
Cyran's religion was founded on personal experience, although
he maintained a calm exterior and communicated himself to
few. What Jowett said of Greek literature was applicable
to him : " under the marble exterior was concealed a soul
thrilling with spiritual emotion',' although St. Cyran's few
words and serene expression could not altogether hide the
inner grace nor occasionally the inner fire of holy devotion.
Memoirs tell us that " since his whole soul was filled with the
truth of what he uttered, and as he always awaited the
proper occasion and a befitting frame of mind, both in him
self and others, so the impressions he produced were
irresistible, his hearers felt themselves affected by an involun
tary change, tears sometimes burst from their eyes before they
could think of repressing them."
Jansenius died on May 6, 1638, before his Augustinus
was published, and eight days after his colleague's death, St.
Cyran was imprisoned in the dungeon of Vincennes for
heresy by Richelieu at the instigation of the Jesuits. But
neither Jansenius's death nor St. Cyran's imprisonment pre
vented the diffusion of the doctrines, and although St. Cyran
was confined for five years and only survived his release at
the death of Richelieu in 1643 for a few months, an impulse
was giv6n to piety and a religious storm ensued from the
conflict with the Jesuits. Augustinus was still in manuscript
at its author's death, but Jansenius's friends proceeded with its

90 RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641)
publication. It was a task of difficulty and risk, for the
Jesuits obtained possession of sheets as they passed through
the press, and denounced the work both at Rome and to the
Faculty of Theology at Louvain, as contravening the in
junction of Sixtus V against the maintenance of controversies
with respect to grace. But before steps could be taken
against it, the printers, with the connivance of the University,
completed the work and Augustinus was published at
Louvain in 1640 — the centenary year of the Jesuit order —
and was reprinted shortly afterwards at Paris and Rouen.
The Augustinus struck at the Jesuits and its sting lay mainly
in the epilogue, which draws a parallel between the errors of
the Massilians and those recentiorum quorundam — the Jesuits
being referred to. The Jesuits did a very shrewd thing, and
although, the persons assailed, assumed the offensive ; * for the
Augustinus contained pure Augustinianism — Augustine's
doctrine of sin, grace and predestination being reproduced
in it — while no concessions were made to Protestantism.
Jansenius made interference from the Curia possible, how
ever, for in the third book he adverts to a position laid down
by St. Augustine which he could not but admit to have been
condemned by the court of Rome. He hesitates whom he
should follow — the Father of the Church or the Pope but
recalling that the Roman See sometimes condemned a doctrine
merely for the sake of peace, without intending to declare
such doctrine alsolutely false, he determines in favour of St.
Augustine. The Jesuits availed themselves of this passage,
pointed to it as an attack on the papal infallibility, and
through their influence with the Curia obtained from Pope
Urban VIII a bull, which, after referring to the censure pro
nounced upon Bajus, confirmed the prohibition of the book
on the ground of it containing heresies. This, while effecting
very little as a declaration, gave new zeal to the Jansenist
cause, which rapidly spread, and France became a scene of
' Harnack, vii. p. 93.

RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641) 91
religious upheaval. In 1643, the year after Urban's bull. Dr.
Antoine Arnauld, a member of Port-Royal, published his
treatise De la fr^quente Communion, based on Jansen's views-
His legal training suggested the distinction of " de facto "
and " de jure " which afterwards acquired importance. The
book was at once denounced by the Jesuits and the same year
by Urban VIII. Arnauld, 1 while he taught the necessity of
spiritual preparation for Communion, had also suggested that
the Church of Rome had a two-fold head in St. Peter
and St. Paul. Arnauld yielded to the storm by retiring
into private life, but only to exercise his pen in the Jansenist
cause (1649). The Jesuits now saw that the source of the
movement — the Augustinus — must be dealt with, in order to
draw forth a more decided condemnation from Rome. They
drew up five propositions and required Pope Innocent X to
pronounce upon them judgment. Investigation was formally
entered upon at Rome, but there arose a diversity of opinion
among the cardinals and theological consultors regarding
them. Nine out of the thirteen were in favour of the con
demnation, while four, including the general of the Augustinian
order, regarded the condemnation as unadvisable. Cardinal
Chigi pressed the hesitating Pope, and on July i, 1653,
Innocent X published his bull in which he condemned the
opinions as hererical, blasphemous and accursed— declared
his hope thereby to restore the peace of the Church, and his
wish to see its bark sailing onward as in tranquil waters, and
arriving at the haven of salvation ! The five propositions
which were condemned and at the same time represented,
though not with entire clearness, as propositions of Jansen
were these:— (i) Some precepts of God cannot be fulfilled
by good men, whose wish and effort are according to the
measure of strength they at present possess ; they have the
further need of grace that shall render obedience possible.
• He was author of the Port-Royal Logic : see translation by Pro
fessor Baynes,

92 RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641)
(2) Inward grace is never resisted in the state of fallen
nature. (3) In order to the existence of merit and demerit
in the state of fallen nature there is not required in man a
liberty that is the absence of necessity : it is enough if there
be the liberty that is the absence of constraint. (4) Semi-
Pelagians admitted the necessity of inner prevenient grace
for single acts, also for the origination of faith, and they were
heretical in this, that they wished that grace to be of such a
kind that it should be possible for the human will to resist or
obey. (5) It is semi-Pelagian to say that Christ died, or that
He shed His blood for all men without exception." A
struggle thence ensued about religion itself, combined with
another for rights of personal conviction against Papal
despotism ; the Jansenists [raised the question du fait, and
denying that such doctrines were taught by Jansen, required
proof that they were. They perceived at once the subtlety of
the Jesuits, whose real aim, as Harnack avers, " was to
separate off the extreme conclusions of Augustinianism and
give them an isolated formulation, that thereby it might be
possible to reject them without touching Augustine, but that
thereby also Augustinianism might be slain." * The Jansenists
were placed in a very unfavourable position, because as
Catholics they would not openly question the Pope's authority
in questions of doctrine, but to the mortification of the
Jesuits the Jansenists declared their willingness to sign the
condemnation, but averring at the same time that the propo
sitions in the sense which the Jesuits fixed to them were not
to be found in the writings of Jansen at all. The Jesuits
were thus checked and the Jansenists took advantage of
their ignorance to publish anonymously an Epistle of St.
Prosper (a scholar of St. Augustine) to Ruffinus against
Pelagius. The Jesuits pronounced this a piece of Jansenist
heresy, and when they perceived the snare into which they
had been led declared that the doctrine was true when iindef-
' Vol, vii. p. 95.

RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641) 93
stood in an orthodox sense. Soon there arose the distinction
oi droit a.nd fait m the controversy, the Jansenists maintaining
that the Pope was guided infallibly in questions of doctrine,
and showing from several historical instances that the Pope
had erred in matters of fact. The false position in which the
Pope had placed himself now became apparent, and the
French bishops were urgent for a declaration that those
propositions already condemned were condemned in the
sense given them by Jansen. Chigi, who was now Pope
Alexander VII, was unwilling to refuse this, and the notori
ous bull of 1656 (Ad sanctam b. Petri sedem) was issued :
" We determine and declare that those five propositions ex
tracted from the aforemenrioned book of Cornelius Jansen, and
understood in the sense intended by the same Cornelius Jansen,
have been condemned!' The Jansenists still replied that a
declaration of such a character was beyond the Papal power
and that the Pope's infallibility did not extend to a judgment
respecting facts. But the Pope was not to be set aside, and
when he had declared that he had not only to decide doctrine,
but also had the right to decide in what sense such doctrine
had been understood by some one, what objection could be
raised by pious Catholics if there was the general admission
made of absolute authority ? Where is the line to be drawn
between droit and fait, between questions of right and
questions of fact f Accordingly the Pope took a further step
still, and in 1664 issued a formula for subscription, in which
all clerics and teachers and nuns were required both to reject
the^z^^ propositions and to confess upon oath that these were
condemned " as meant to be understood by the same author."
Here was indeed a lordship over conscience, although two
centuries more had to pass before the papal infallibility could
be proclaimed. The Jansenists did not hesitate to condemn
the five propositions, which admitted of a heterodox inter
pretation ; they refused to acknowledge by an unconditional
subscription that the tenets condemned were contained in the

94 RESIDENCE ABROAP (1631-1641)
Augustinus, or that they were the doctrines of their master.
No prosecution could extract from them a contrary admission,
and the effect of their steadfastness was such that their
numbers and their credit increased, and defenders of their
opinions were to be found even among the bishops them
selves.* Persecution and the filling of the Bastile with those
who refused to violate their conscience by subscription
touched the people, and before them was the strange sight
that is worthy of supreme admiration — on the one side the
most absolute monarch in Europe, the despotism of Rome,
the unscrupulous Jesuits all bent on crushing, and on the other
a few weak women at Port- Royal, strong in their conviction
of truth and loyalty and refusing to yield. King Christ in
them at last conquered. In 1668 Clement VII was forced
by the popularity of Port-Royal and of Jansenism, to give
relief to the Jansenists so far by remaining satisfied with
" submissive silence." He also contented himself with a
condemnation of the five propositions in general, without
insisting on their actually being taught by Jansen. The
second article of pacification states : " We declare that it
would be offering insult to the Church to comprehend, among
those opinions condemned in the five propositions, the doctrine
of St. Augustine and St. Thomas, concerning grace as
efficacious of itself, necessary to all the actions of Christian
piety, and to the free predestination of the elect." This
concession on the part of the Curia not only waived its claim
to decide the matter of fact {fait) but was also an acquies
cence that its sentence against Jansenism should remain
without effect. The society continued to flourish and its
religion and literary activity was felt on the nation. But
with its progress there grew within it an opposition to the
Roman See, as was inevitable from its ideal. Very thin was
the partition wall between Jansenism and Protestantism — a
fact which was always clear to the Jesuits. Clement XI in
' Ranke, vol. ii. p. 409,

RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641) 95
the bull, "Vine-am Domini Sabaoth " (1705), gave fresh con
firmation to all the severe bulls of his predecessors against
Jansenism and made the demand that there should be a
recognirion of the definition of Jansen's intention given by
Alexander VII. Port- Royal was forcibly broken up, its
inmates expelled and the cemetery desecrated.
So fared the endeavour of earnest men and women to
reform the Roman Church in France from within, and so
passed away a constructive movement of great potency.
Professor Harnack's words regarding it are very striking
and solemn ones, but they are the interpretation of history : —
"The French Church exterminated the Huguenots and
Jansenists : it received in place of them the atheists and
Jesuits." * The rejection of Jansenism is another instance from
many of the immobilis inertia in great institutions to apply
the pruning knife to old abuses and corruptions, and adapt
themselves to new life. How frequently would the course of
history been different had they done so !
Jansenism interests us here chiefly because in its early
development it was a movement in which Robert Leighton
was directly interested and the progress of which he watched
with the eyes of a contemporary. In after years the interest
did not lessen, but just now we are brought face to face with
it as one of the important influences that surrounded him
during his impressionable years in France and prior to his
ordination as minister of Newbattle. It is impossible to
read his sermons and his university lectures without
perceiving how closely he was in sympathy with the
teaching of Jansen and St. Cyran : it is impossible also not
to perceive how deeply he was indebted to the old Catholic
sources of piety — St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom, St.
Bernard and others, whom the Jansenists sought to restore
as the true Fathers of the Church. The young Scotch
Calvinist unquestionably received from the Jansenists, ideals
' History of Dogma, vol. iii. p. 238.

96 RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641)
and impulses which certainly modified his early position,
and which he treasured throughout life, while remaining a
loyal Protestant. In his case we can aver in a sense purely
religious what Lecky avers in a more restricted form — that
whatever widens the imagination and enables it to realize the
actual experience of other men, is a powerful agent of
ethical advance. Leighton's contact with the Jansenists
and his admiration for the piety of St. Cyran and Port-Royal
certainly widened his horizon no less than his sympathy, and
he returned to Scotland different from what he left it in 163 1.
He had been impressed with the spirituality of a move
ment that was Protestantism within the Roman Catholic
Church, that was an endeavour to bring back that Church to
purer and simpler days and to beliefs more in accordance
with its true ideal as a spiritual institution and not as a
temporal power. He saw an effort to restore the Church
from within, thwarted and baffled by an officialdom that
was incapable of beholding the day of its visitation, and like
every great reformation, this effort was centred at first in the
conscience and protest of individuals like Jansen and St.
Cyran whom he could reverence as men of outstanding
saintliness. Notwithstanding Jesuit casuistry and intrigue,
he could still see in the old mediaeval Church a piety which
neither could extinguish — a piety enforced as the highest
attainment of Christian life by Thomas and Bonaventura, by
Eckhart, Suso, Tauler, Thomas a Kempis, and all the active
witnesses to personal religion in the centuries before the
Reformation. From these streams of fresh intuition
Leighton drank with heart-felt delight and could see the
true spirit of the Catholic Church not in the worldly papacy
of his day, but in St. Bernard's mystic devotion to the
bridegroom of his soul, in the Jesus-love of a St. Francis of
Assisi or a St. Clare. Not dogma, but devotion — not
organization but piety was what he saw and heard from the
past as the true Church because the true Spirit of Christ —

RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641) 97
creative of sweet graces, unquenchable aspirations and
immortal ideals in human souls. From that Leighton never
severed himself and in connecting himself with it he was a
true Protestant, for Protestanrism does not claim to be
infallible, and must allow that some part of the truth can be
found with those who are its adversaries. Protestantism
rests on the great principle of spiritual freedom and in setting
aside that which is external and concrete and in accepting
that which is inward and spiritual, it discovered a spiritual
basis in consciousness, which could attract all from any
source that was not alien to itself, that was on the line of its
own direction, and had to it an elective affinity. And this is
Leighton's greatness in his own time — for common as it may
be now, it was a rare feature in the seventeenth century, when
no underlying identity in spiritual life was accepted, beneath
and beyond the differences. He would never regard the
names of Roman and Catholic as identical, nor would he
regard the Catholic Church and Catholicism as convertible
terms. To Leighton's mind Catholic is applicable to the
Christian spirit within the Catholic Church as it welled up in
its pious literature and the pious spirits within its com
munion, but not to the papacy or the papal officialism. And
so while loyal to his Protestantism, he could learn much
from another communion, and could nourish his spiritual
life from sources that were eternal because inspired and
permeated by a deep God-consciousness. He could say with
St. Bernard, " I love God that I may love Him : I love that
I may love Him more." " Let there be no limit, save that of
life, to the pursuit of my Lord." He could with St. Francis
invoke the sun and all creation to join the praise he could
never sufficiently express for his soul's sweet Saviour, and
say " My God is my All." He could say with St. Teresa,
" All that is not of God is nought," and with Tauler, " I
found God wherever I lost myself, and wherever I found
myself there I lost God " ; with St. Gregory, " Humility is
A.L. 7

98 RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641)
sorely perilled by honours, purity by pleasure and moderation
by riches " ; with St. Denys, " God as Sovereign Beauty is the
Author of all the beautiful adaptarion, all the brilliancy, all
the grace we find " ; with St. Bruno, " O goodness of God, ever
old and ever new " ; with St. Catherine of Sienna as she
heard the heavenly voice, " Think thou of me and I will
think for Thee " ; with the Founder of the Brothers Minor,
" Intercourse with God in solitude is far better than the
teeming crowds of this world, amid their reckless cares
their endless weariness, their ceaseless importunity " ; with
St. Augustine, " Oh Christ, hope of our race, God of God, our
refuge and our strength, whose light beams on our eyes from
afar, as a star shining through the heavy clouds of storm that
thickly roll over the sea, pilot. Lord, our ship by the helm of
Thy cross that we perish not in the waves : let no tempest
overwhelm us with its billows, let not the deep engulph us,
but draw us from this sea to Thyself, our only solace, whom
through our tear-dimmed eyes we descry afar off as the
Morning Star and Sun of Righteousness waiting to receive
us on the shore of the heavenly country " ; he could unite
with the Abbot of Clairvaux, " O Lord, I pray Thee that the
sweet and fiery strength of Thy crucified Love may so
absorb my heart, that I may die for love of Thy love, O
Redeemer of my soul, who hast deigned to die for love of
my love." These and similar elements of spiritual culture
helped to shape the young Scottish Leighton and to lead
him to the conception of the Christian Church as a
spiritual temple, where all holy souls meet in God, in
which the spirits of the just made perfect can be spoken of,
not as former, but as actual members ; in which the present
and the past blend in a unity that transcends distinction
and its members are characterized by Christ-like character,
Christ-like aspiration, Christ-like service. Neither death nor
time-division create within it any wall of separation, and
it includes both the communion of saints and of sages. In

RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641) 99
thus believing, he was true to the spirit of the Westminster
Confession." * " The Catholic or Universal Church, which
is invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect
which have been or shall be, gathered into one
under Christ the Head thereof, and is the spouse, the
body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." He
anticipated the breadth of view of Prevost Paradol : " I
belong to that Church which has no name, but of which
the members recognize each other wherever they meet.
Leighton's Church had a " blank shield with no device
of sect or party" and it was the society of the faithful
in present and past. His Church was the Church of the
German legend, the pathway to which had been closed
by the war of sects, but still its sight and sound did not
wholly forsake the eyes and ears of men. For as the legend
tells, the casual wanderer in the deep silent twilight still
hears the tones of strange far-off bells borne floating in the
evening air, and in the misty grey of the deepening shadows
some wanderers have suddenly found themselves in the
gloom of the forest standing before it, its white pinnacles
gleaming like spirits in the light of the moon and stars.
There was no sound of human voices, although round the
shrine bowed the forms of venerable men, while the tones
of the organ mingled with the soft and silvery sound of
bells, and a reverent and hallowed light trembled on every
nook and crypt and corbel.
Leighton's ideal, like that of those whom he loved as
teachers, arose from the intensity of his religious life, and
from the spiritual eye that enabled him to
" Gaze one moment on the Face, whose Beauty
Wakes the world's great hymn :
Feel it one unutterable moment.
Bent in love o'er him :
' First clause in 25th Article.

loo RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641)
In that look feel heaven, earth, men and angels.
Distant grow and dim :
In that look feel heaven, earth, men and angels.
Nearer grow through Him."
During the years of his residence abroad, another influence
must be taken into account — the De Imitatione. Wodrow
distinctly tells us that Robert Leighton regarded this as one
of the best books that ever was written next to the inspired
writers (p. 72). While such a judgment will be generally
accepted now, it was a unique one in the Scotland of the
seventeenth century, and one not unlikely to be followed with
serious ecclesiastical consequences. Anything that was
" Popish " was deeply and inveterately suspected or disliked.
Leighton's favourite poet in later years was George Herbert,*
and his favourite manual of devotion throughout life was
Thomas a Kempis, but the De Imitatione, as it was the earlier
in time, was also the more potent and creative in his thought.
It suited the poetic mysticism of his own mind, and gave an
impulse to its own spontaneous direction. It made clearer
the Figure that his own heart loved, and ever turned toward,
and became the basis for spiritual discipline and striving. It
unfolded that love which makes the soul become the bride of
Christ and gives true insight. Thomas, like Dante, realized
that it is not thought alone, but thought aided by love that
lead^ to the Beatific Vision. Beatrice leads but to the
highest tier of the celestial theatre, and fixing her eyes upon
the face of God moves them not again. Theology in her has
done its work, only to hand her disciple to St. Bernard, the
genius of mystic love, who takes Dante by the hand to the
' Dr. Walter Smith has the following note to The Bishop's
Walk : " Mr. Burgon states in his Life of P. F. Tyiler that a
copy of Herbert's Poems, with notes by Leighton, once existed in the
library at Dunblane. It certainly is not there now, and I take this
opportunity of again advertising all whom it may concern, that, if they do
not return it, all literature will persecute them " (p. 138). Where is the
offender ?

RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641) loi
Holy of Holies, where the outline of the triune human form
appears, and where the beatific vision of the Deity who made
man in His Own image is accorded to the poet. And Thomas
k Kempis was to Leighton the apostle of this mystic
love — the love that withdraws from all vile thoughts — the
love that dwells in heaven and makes the angels exclaim,
when a stranger comes, " see one who will increase our
love." * But Thomas was no less the apostle of faith in its
inwardness — as the eye of the newborn soul, whereby
every believer "seeth Him who is invisible"; as the ear
of the soul, whereby the sinner " hears the voice of the
Son of God and lives"; as the palate of the soul, whereby a
believer " tastes the good words and the power of the world
to come"; as the feeling of the soul, whereby "through the
power of the Highest overshadowing him ... he feels the
love of God shed abroad in his heart." This faith that works
by regenerating love is what both Leighton and Wesley
realized at the same period of their lives, and when each was
studying the same De Imitatione. And did not Wesley write
in 1738 and in doing so voice what Robert Leighton felt just
about a hundred years before ?
" O grant that nothing in my soul
May dwell but Thy pure love alone !
O may Thy love possess me whole,
My joy, my treasure, and my crown,
Strange flames, far from my heart remove !
My very act, thought, word be love."
And as Robert Leighton studied this book and the litera
ture of the " Brothers of the Common Lot," he could not think,
as men of his period so generally thought, that there had been
no Church history before the Reformation but the record of
Antichrist. Nay, it was through the teaching of such
witnesses that the Reformation became possible, and if
Leighton could say, as Erasmus is reported to have said after
' Dante.

102 RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641)
reviewing the different sections of Protestantism, sit mea
anima cum Puritanis Anglicanis, would he not also read
even their spiritual testimony in the deep utterances that
came from the teachers of the mediaeval Church, like John of
Goch, John of Wesel, Tauler, Gerhard Groot, John Wessel,
Thomas k Kempis, and the army of unknown witnesses who
aimed at piety and spirituality amid worldliness and
monastic corruption, and made the Reformation possible in
Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands. These were
among the theologians who paved the way for the Reforma
tion, by implanting in men's minds the sense of inward religion,
which ultimately in the Reformation acquired importance in
history. There was much in common, too, between Thomas a
Kempis and Robert Leighton : there was the same elective
affinity of disposition, and the same attraction felt toward the
meditative contemplative life as the best preparation for
religious service. The narrow cell, lighted up by the love of
God and Christ was to Thomas, and would have been to
Leighton, had it been possible in his day, heaven on earth
and a joy that he would have exchanged for nothing but
heaven above. Leighton, too, could endorse the words which
Franciscus Polensis once saw as a characteristic motto on
the picture of Thomas : " I have sought rest everywhere and
found it nowhere, save in solitude and books " (In omnibus
requiem quaesivi, sed non inveni, nisi in Hoexkens ende
Boexkens : hoc est, in abditis recess ibus et libellulis.)
The words were applied to one who sought to write the
life of a spiritual genius, whom he was incapable of under
standing : " Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with and the well
is deep." But this could not be said of Robert Leighton in
his relation to Thomas a Kempis. It was a spiritual splen
dour interpreting a like spiritual splendour — two souls meet
ing whose light was kindled from the same heavenly fire —
the interpreter and the interpreted were of the one spiritual

RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641) 103
mould. Robert Leighton was born a Protestant, while
Thomas k Kempis was born a Roman Catholic and directly im
pugned nothing that had received the authority of his Church,
but notwithstanding this difference, there existed a similarity
of disposition between them, and both were united in the
desire to follow the Divine Figure, and have His lineaments
traced upon their souls. It is not the hood which makes the
monk, but the inward frame of mind, and Leighton was as wil
ling to accept as Thomas was glad ever to repeat the law of
life : " Rise early, watch, pray, labour, read, write, be silent,
sigh, and bravely endure all adversity." Robert Leighton, in
writing to the Earl of Lothian after he had been appointed
Bishop of Dunblane, said, " I shall live as monastically as ever
I did," and the words afford a key that explains the spirit
of his life. Within the Reformed Church he main
tained the strict discipline and self-denial of monasticism in
its purest days, and always upheld as his binding law
spirituality and rigour. How much there always was in him
of Thomas' asceticism may be seen by comparing his life with
the model that Thomas portrayed, and with which he was at
this time familiar : — " Sustine vim patiens,
Tace ut sis sapiens.
Mores rege, aures tege,
Saepe ora, saepe lege,
Omni die, omni hora,
Te resigna sine mora."
The chief rules for the "Brethren of the Common Lot,"
besides transcribing the Scriptures, circulating them among
the people, and preaching the gospel, were : " Prompt obedi
ence, frequent prayer, devout meditation, diligence in labour,
fondness for study, the avoidance of conversation, and a relish
for solitude — these are what makes a good monk and give a
peaceful mind." " The things which are above all necessary
and profitable both for a man's own advancement in virtue
and for the edification of others, are solitude, silence, manual

104 RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641)
labour, prayer, reading, meditating upon the Scriptures,
poverty, temperance, oblivion of one's native country, flying
from the world, the quiet of a monastery, frequenting the choir,
and remaining in the cell."
While to Leighton there was much in all this that reflected
its source, and was phenomenal ; while it manifested its
monastic environment and thereby received a limitation, there
can be no doubt that he was much moulded by it as a
spiritual pattern, and received much inspiration from it for
his life. While he would not say, as the pious monk did of
his cell — " O beata solitudo
O sola beatitudo,"
while he realized that it is the duty of the Christian to be in
the world and thereby to help in making the world better by
his influence ; while he saw in the De Imitatione and the Vita
Boni Monachi the picture of all that was purest in the clois
tered life, he yet felt, as his after life showed, that to him
abstinence from action was not Christian, and that our
Saviour went into the desert only that He might find in
prayer and communion with the Heavenly Father the inspira
tion and strength necessary for keeping up the struggle
against evil, and that far from avoiding the multitude, He
sought to enlighten, console and convert them. In this light
monasticism appeared as disguised selfishness, and the truth
flashed out that only in saving others can one save himself
Leighton saw all this, and while there was ever something
attractive to him in the life of retirement, he remained a true
Protestant by uniting to it the life of action as a duty, not
even infrequently against his own natural inclination. In this
retirement, whether at Newbattle, Edinburgh, Dunblane or
during his occasional visits throughout life to his Jansenist
friends at Douay, Leighton loved to be for a time, and to live
on those deep spiritual manuals that come from the past, and
reveal that spiritual identity beneath differences so well

RESIDENCE. ABROAD (1631-1641) 105
de.scribed by Principal Caird : "The irresistible convicrion is
winning its way into all candid and tolerant minds that the
essential spirit of religion may exist under wide theological
divergencies; and that though good men may differ, and
differ greatly, in doctrinal forms of belief, there is something
deeper which unites them. The essence of religion is some
thing more catholic than its creeds. . . . And could we get
at that something — call it spiritual life, godliness, holiness,
self-abnegation, surrender of the soul to God, or better still,
love and loyalty to Christ as the one only Redeemer and
Lord of the Spirit — could we, I say, pierce deeper than the
notion of the understanding to that strange, sweet, all-subdu
ing temper and habit of spirit, that climate and atmosphere of
heaven in a human breast, would not the essence of religion
lie in that, and not in the superficial distinctions which kept
these men apart ?" *
Probably at this period Leighton arrived at the idea
— although later years and subsequent revisits to the
continent deepened it — ¦" that the great and fatal error of
the Reformation was that more of those (monastic) houses
and of that course of life, free from the entanglement of
vows and other mixtures, were not preserved ; so that the
Protestant churches had neither places of education nor retreat
for men of mortified tempers." ^ It is not unlikely that he
was impressed with the religious and literary men who
lived at Port-Royal, and were not bound by any monastic
vows ; it is not improbable, too, that he had learned much
regarding the Friends of God ^ and Houses of the Brethren
' University Sermons, pp. 22, 23.
" Burnet's History, vol. i. p. 246.
^ They were so called from their sense of having entered into a living
personal union with God, from their sense of a yearning pity for sinners
and their desire to bring them into the same blessed state of life that
they themselves had attained. The " Friends " were characterized by
a thorough self-surrender to God, and a forsaking all things to follow
God alone. With this ideal they formed associations, and far from

io6 RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641)
of the Common Lot, which represented the very blossom
of monasricism, as at Mount St. Agnes (where Thomas
k Kempis had been an inmate), Deventer, Windesheim.
Imitaring the Church of Jerusalem, and prompted by
brotherly affection, they shared each others' property or
earnings. Rich members consecrated their ' fortunes to the
use of the community. " From this source, and from
donations and legacies made to them," says Professor
Ullmann, " arose the Brother- Houses, in each of which
a certain number of members lived together, subjected, it
is true, in dress, diet and general way of life, to an
appointed rule, but yet not conventually sequestered from the
world, with whicJi they maintained' constant intercourse, and
in such a way as, in opposition to Monachism, to preserve
the principle of individual liberty. Their whole rule was
to be observed, not from constraint, but from the sole
motive of goodwill constantly renewed, and all obedience,
even the most unconditional, was to be paid freely and
affectionately, and for God's sake." * Those again, like
Thomas k Kempis, who excelled as penmen, executed
beautiful manuscripts of the Bible and other theological
works, while others copied useful books for indigent
regarding the events around them with passive indifference they believed
themselves called on to exercise a positive influence upon them. It has
been said, " They seem to have entered into that intense appreci.ation of
the evil of sin mingled with endless grief and compassion for its slaves
which could overwhelm the Saviour's mind with agony." Introduction
to Tauler's Sermons, p. 120.
They did not surrender all their individual possessions to the
good of the house — renunciation of the world did not involve to them
the absolute giving up of earthly possessions, nor the violent rending
asunder of social ties. " These Friends of God do not appear," says
Miss Winkworth, " to have renounced all control over their property, but
merely to have thrown what they regarded as superfluous into a common
stock, which was applied to the building of their house and church, to
purposes of charity, to defray the expenses of their missionary journeys."
Ibid. p. 1 58.
' Professor Ullmann's Reformers Before the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 71.

RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641) 107
scholars, or religious tracts for the people. In each house
attention was paid to pecularities of character, and each
individual was treated according to his kind and allowed
to cultivate fully his own particular talent. But all the
houses were united in their best days with one aim to
realize the Spirit of the Master as the goal and inspiration
of all striving. The De Imitatione was their common
manual, and while Thomas conceived the Image of Jesus in
its totality, he uses it even to the minutest point as a
pattern for himself and others. He even seeks in Christ
a precedent for transcribing books, and in preaching on
that passage of the Gospel which tells us that Jesus " stooped
down and with His finger wrote on the ground," he says:
" It is pleasing to hear that Jesus could read and write,
to the end that the art of writing and zeal in reading
pious books may delight us the more. Take pleasure then
in imitating Him, even in reading and writing, for it is
a good, meritorious and pious work to write such books
as Jesus loves, and in which He is confessed and made
known, and to keep them with the utmost care." Thus
each brother was to keep the example of Christ before him
in all the occurrences of life, to mould himself in uniformity
with it, and according to the measure of human weakness
repeat Christ in his own person.
It was such houses as these that Robert Leighton would
have desired to be connected with the Church reformed,
and not a few after his own mind, would like to have them
still. Free from vows, and moulded after the Protestant
pattern, they would possess many advantages for the
training of clergy and for helping to transform the wastes
in our great cities.* They would supply what is a want
* Then the late Archbishop Magee said : " How greatly the Church
has suffered by the dissolution of her monastic orders, though they
too had inflicted grevious mischief on her before their destruction. But
I should like to see a score or two of Anglican and Protestant monks,

io8 RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641)
within Presbyterian Protestantism at least, and would exist
as houses of spiritual culture, as centres of religious work
and beneficent service. They would afford what the
theological seminaries, with their lectures alone, do not
give, and would exist for the advance of piety, spiritual
life and devotion among those who were to be the future
ministers and missionaries of the Church, as well as for
those who desired to give themselves to distinctly religious
work apart from ordination. Leighton desired them as
" places of education " and " retreats for men of mortified
tempers," but such a limitation was no doubt produced by
the controversial spirit of the time in which he lived, and
from which his nature shrank. But the idea of wider
service could be connected with them, and the " social
problem " of to-day, in its religious aspect, affords much which
they could help to solve, and to which they could present
a united front. Here assuredly Robert Leighton was an
anticipator of what the Home Mission of the Church is
undoubtedly bringing more and more to the front, as well
as what is being forced upon the Church as a practical
necessity. Hitherto the methods of Protestantism have
been too stereotyped, and have been devoid of elasticity,
if not of inventiveness to meet the new needs ; in recoiling
from the corruptions of monasticism it has surrendered the
purified idea of the orders, and the principle upon which
they rested. But a society of men, apart from monastic
vows, while living under strict rule, with definite hours for
study, service, prayer — even for healthy recreations — -in a
crowded district of a great city, would be a movement
fraught with great good to men, and one that would attract
many who are impressed with the incompleteness of the
present methods.
It is to be remembered that in ancient times the monks
if such a composite creation could exist, at work, in Northampton and
Leicester, and our other large towns." Life, vol. ii. p. 190.

RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641) 109
established themselves in wild and not easily accessible
places which were left to them precisely because they were
uncultivated, and no one was willing to undertake the task
of clearing them. It is also certain that generally the lands
granted to monasteries were of no value, and such as the
donors did not think worth keeping for themselves.* Not
withstanding such difficulties they taught the industries,
became the best of landlords, while the people liked to live
under their merciful rule. Cruce et aratro~hy preaching
the Cross of the Redeemer, and ploughing the land, the
monks did their best work. They educated at one and
the same time the people, and were pioneers of agriculture,
and to them, notwithstanding later corruptions, the world
owes very much as the outcome of their palmy days.
If we are " to stand upon the old paths," not to copy
them literally, but that -we may look out for new ones,"
there is surely much in this past to teach the present— and
not least of all in its endeavour to redeem and restore the
great waste in the crowded cities. The congregational and
parochial idea needs a new organization to realize the
larger mission of the Church that has arisen from the new
enthusiasm of humanity created by the Christian faith.
Robert Leighton's idea^ of "brotherhoods" and "sisterhoods"
' Cf. Monks' of the West, vol. vi. p. 254.
In an old Scottish work. The Reformed Bishop, by Philarchaios
(James Gordon, Parson of Banchory), the same idea was expressed in
a slightly different form. While the old bishops were blamed as
frequently "ambitious, avaritious, and luxurious persons'' (p. i), it is
stated " necessary reformations might have repurged monasteries, as well
as the Church,iwithout abolishing of them ; and they might have been
still Houses of Religion, without any dependence upon Rome. . . . To
take off the groundless odium of the name, let those habitations be also
termed Hospitals" (pp. 27, 28). Among other reforms the reformed
bishop is to achieve is "the building of monasteries for contemplative souls
yet without any bond upon the convenience (as it is in some convents
of Germany) save that of serving God more strictly in their speculative
retirements " (p. 23). This work was published in 1680, and gave much
concern to Bishop Paterson, of Edinburgh. Lauderdale Papers, iii. 189.

no RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641)
connected with the Reformed Church is not without
suggestiveness. It seems also to be one towards which
Protestantism is striving.
We have endeavoured to reach an estimate of the new
elements with which Robert Leighton was conversant during
these years on the continent, and by which his early
Calvinism was modified. He remained throughout life a
loyal Protestant, but his Protestantism had a wider outlook
than that of his contemporaries, was certainly less controversial,
and was more rooted in the old pieties. Notwithstanding
his early upbringing, the old Catholic tradition was in his
blood, and he could not but recall with pride the bishops
and abbots who were connected with his family in the best
days of mediaeval Scotland, and especially the good bishop
who restored Elgin cathedral, erected the two western
towers of St. Machar's, Aberdeen, and did other beneficent
work (pp. 5, 6, 7). The new forces aroused old memories,
bound the present to the past, led him to find the element
of unity in different ages, and to trace a continuity beneath
different forms.
We shall see more of this in later chapters, but Leighton
certainly returned to Scotland more attached to the old
forms of faith and more persuaded that the Word of God
abides for ever with us to renew the world and make it
young again, and to call forth from death a new and more
glorious life. How often has a single word formed an epoch
in a man's life ; how often has contact with other forms of
religion and earnest faith modified an early creed ; how
often has retirement gathered together the latent forces of
the soul for new efforts ! John Bunyan could write of the
years spent in retirement at Bedford Gaol (1660-1672) : " I
never had in all my life so great an inlet into the Word
of God as now. The Scriptures that I saw nothing in
before are made in this place to shine upon me. Jesus
Christ also was never more real and apparent than now.

RESIDENCE ABROAD (1631-1641) in
Here I have seen Him and felt Him indeed. I have seen
that here which I am persuaded I shall never while in this
world be able to express. I never knew what it was for
God to stand by me at all turns, and at every offer of
Satan to afflict me as I have found Him since I came in
hither. . . . Many more of the dealings of God towards
me, I might relate, but these out of the spoils won in battle
have I dedicated to maintain the house of God."
These ten years were to Robert Leighton, amid quiet
Douay and its neighbourhood, a time of deep, silent growth
that manifested its results in later years. We have part of
them in his ministry at Newbattle, Midlothian, where he was
ordained in 1641, and one cannot but think that it was well
for him to have been apart and away from the bitter con
troversies and civil war that history has to relate between
163 1, the year of his departure abroad, and 1641, the year
of his ordination. Had he been embroiled in them he
could not have been what he afterwards was, and it was
well that in his retirement he could study his Thomas a
Kempis, and be brought into contact with such a spiritual
movement as Jansenism. He returned with new aims and
visions, with new convictions and hopes to serve the Church
of his fathers, for then as afterwards " he retained a particular
inclination to Scotland!' *
That we may know the Scotland he found, we must
consider the national struggles, as they were centred round
the kirk, and it is the history of a storm.
' Burnet's History of His Own Times, vol. ii. p. 428.

CHAPTER VII
THE STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY WITH PRELACY
UP TO THE GLASGOW ASSEMBLY
The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland was in reality a
Commons' House of Parliament discussing the most varied interests of
the country and giving effect to the popular, or at least the middle-class
feehng, on all the topics of the day. . . . The clergy and barons with
them felt they were powerful against any combination of their enemies.
The Sovereign and great nobles knew that in the face of these Assem
blies they could never hold the country by the old feudal bonds of
government. It was a life-and-death contention on either side ; and
Scottish Presbytery became then, in the very circumstances of its origin,
and still more in the progress of its history, intensely political, and could
not help being so."— Principal Tulloch.
THE Scottish Reformation gave the Church of Scotland
a Calvinistic theology and a Presbyterian form of
Church government, and no external force has ever been able
to modify its polity with any general acceptance among the
Scottish people or take it away from the type that John Knox
impressed upon it. Nationality and spiritual independence
are the two prominent aspects of its history, and nowhere are
they more conspicuously visible than in the struggles of the
Church of Scotland with the Stuart kings.
It was the desire of King James from the time he crossed
the Tweed to break the neck of Scottish Presbytery and
remodel the Kirk somewhat at least after the English pattern.
In 1606 Episcopacy was restored by the Scottish Parliament,
in so far as the investiture of thirteen parish ministers with
the titles and the recoverable temporalities of the old Catholic
bishops could be regarded as a restorative. In 16 10 after these

STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY 113
officials had carried their empty honours amid a scoffing
people, the General Assembly was prevailed upon to adopt them
ecclesiastically, by constituting them moderators of Synods
and giving them the jurisdiction that such offices implied.
Two courts of ecclesiastical commission were appointed — each
under the presidency of an archbishop — one at St. Andrews
and the other at Glasgow. In 1618 King James gained
another victory in the Five Articles of Perth by the adoption
of which the Church consented to allow kneeling at the
sacrament, private communion, private baptism, confirmation
by the bishops, and the observance of Christmas, Good
Friday, Easter, and Pentecost. In all this — with the two
new-made Archbishops of St. Andrews and Glasgow and the
eleven subordinate bishops — and the adoption of the cere
monies, the Kirk had apparently ceased to be Presbyterian,
and had travelled far from the ideal of the Reformers. But
it was not so. The country was indomitably Presbyterian.
" Though these (the thirteen bishops) were bishops in name,"
says Clarendon, " the whole jurisdiction and they themselves
were subject to an Assembly which was purely Presbyterian :
no form of religion in practice, no liturgy, nor the least
appearance of any beauty of holiness." * The Scottish clergy
could not be called respectful to the bishops : insisted that
they were still presbyters, although primi inter pares. The
Scottish people were restless, regarded the new ceremonies
with horror, and called the day on which they received their
final ratification and became law — Saturday, August 4, 1621
— " the black Saturday "—one of the darkest and stormiest
days, say the chronicles, ever known in Scotland. Had an
Oxford or a Cambridge man settled in a Fifeshire or a Perth
shire parish, he would have felt ill at ease, and would
not have taken kindly to a Church, Calvinistic in creed,
without a liturgy,^ with few ceremonies and only capable of
' i. 63.
' Masson's Life of Milton, vol. i. pp. 375, 65 1- 8

114 STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY
being called Episcopal in so far as an apparatus of bishops
had been screwed down upon its Presbyterian polity, and
that not as a movement from within but one forced from
without. Notwithstanding all the apparent changes, and to
no little degree because of them, the Church was Presbyterian
in spirit and adhered to the Geneva model as its ideal for
worship. The Presbyterian clergy represented the popular
element in the nation, exercised an extraordinary personal
liberty in the pulpit and a power of influence out of it ; and
lay elders, representing the people, within the Church courts
and along with the clergy, made the collective will felt, and
whereas in England the bishops had a party (lay and clerical)
behind them, in Scotland they were mere instruments of the
King to keep the clergy, as the leaders of the people, quiet.
Charles was more eager than his father to alter the worship
of the Scottish Church, and Laud found in him a coadjutor
more willing to follow his plans. King James had in 1624
declined to be led by Laud's proposal for a new Scottish
Liturgy, but in 1632 Charles was not unwilling. Charles was
crowned in Holyrood Abbey on June 18, 1633, and the
arrangements for the coronation service were made by Laud,
who was also sworn a member of the Scotch Privy Council.
During the five weeks of their residence in Scotland much
had been done to indicate what was to follow. When the
King attended public worship in St. Giles' church, it was
observed that Mr. John Maxwell, one of the Edinburgh
ministers, and Bishop of Ross elect, came down from the
King's loft, and caused the minister who was reading in
Scotch fashion to remove from his place. Two English
chaplains, clad in their surplices, officiated for him and read
the English service ; the Bishop of Moray thereafter entered
the Pulpit and preached a sermon also in a surplice — " a
thing whilk had never been seen in St. Giles's Kirk sin' the
Reformation." The people began to fear " an inbringing of
Popery " through the agency of Scottish bishops. Laud

STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY 115
astonished the natives by his remarks at Dunblane. When
he was at the kirk of Dunblane he affirmed that it was a
goodly church. " Yes, my Lord," said one standing by, " this
was a brave kirk before the Reformation." " What, fellow,"
said the bishop : ZJrformation, not ^Reformation." *
When King and bishop returned to England the impres
sion had spread far and wide that a plan was in the air to
extirpate Presbyterianism, and the impression was soon
verified. In October, 1633, two letters came on ecclesiastical
business : one was to the Dean of the Chapel-Royal (Bishop
Bellenden of Dunblane) giving directions as to the forms and
ceremonies to be used at Holyrood — the Dean being com
manded to make a yearly report to the King, of the Lords of the
Privy Council, the Lords of Session, the Writers to the Signet
and all the other official people in Edinburgh, who refused to
attend communion in Holyrood at least once a year and
receive it kneeling.^ The second letter contained instructions
as to the dress of the clergy, descending even to the particu
lars of head-gear.^ Laud's introduction to the Privy Council
gave him an official concern in Scottish affairs, and it was
strengthened by the introduction of nine of the Scottish pre
lates. A new bishopric was created for Edinburgh, and the
bishopric was conferred (Jan. 26, 1634) on William Forbes,
Principal of Marischal College, Aberdeen, while St. Giles' was
altered so as to serve for a cathedral.
About thirty or more persons formed the Privy Council,
and, while managing ordinary Scotch business at their
discretion, received all important instructions direct from
Edinburgh through the sixpenny post — all the ecclesiastical
instructions coming from Laud.
By royal warrant dated "Hampton Court, October 21,
1634," there was established a Court of High Commission for
Scotland, with a view of strengthening the bishops against
' Row's History, p. 369. ' Rushworth, ii. 205.
' Acts of Scottish Parliament, vol. v.

ii6 STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY
an ill-fated opposition to two final measures which were in
reserve — the promulgation of a Book of Canons and the
introduction of the new Liturgy. With this new organization
fully equipped, it is necessary to recall the opposition it had
to face. Almost all the lay colleagues of the Council were
probably of the private opinion of Lord Napier : " That
churchmen have a competency is agreeable to the Law of
God and man, but to invest them into great estates, and
principal offices of the State is neither convenient for the
Church, for the King, nor for the State," and there were not
wanting those in the Council who were disposed to, question
the new method of governing Scotland by orders from
Lambeth. But what was at the metropolis only reflected in
faint degree the forces that existed in the provinces, (i)
Among the nobles and lairds (about seventy of the former
and one thousand of the latter) there were many dissentients,
some from distinctive Presbyterian feelings and others from
hereditary jealousy * of the prelates, whose order their
ancestors had robbed, and whose rise to power brought about
a fear that rich abbacies raised into temporal lordships and
fat church lands might require to be restored. The lesser
barons were not so anti-prelatic as the peers, but among them
were strong Presbyterians, like Archibald Johnson, of
Warriston, who afterwards became the most earnest, prompt
' The plans mentioned by Burnet for recovering the bishops' lands
and purchasing the tithes for the better maintenance of the clergy were
in the opinion of the Earl of Clarendon the real grounds for the Scottish
rebellion (" by lessening the authority and independence of the nobility
and great men "). Rebellion, i. 174. " These were the cor;cealed and private
grounds," says the Bella Scot-Anglica Tract of 1648; "the open and
avowed causes were the introduction of our Liturgy, the Book of Canons,
Ordination, and Consecration, with the High Commission Court among
them ; and it hath been found since, that those things were introduced
by the cunning of those discontented spirits, that thereby there might be
some ground to suscitate the people to rise, which plot of theirs took
place." But if this explains the opposition of the nobles, it cannot
explain that of the clergy, who were the mainspring of the movement
and of the body of the people generally.

STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY 117
and prudent of the laymen when the crisis demanded it. (2)
As to the Scottish clergy — the eight or nine hundred parish
ministers, along with the probationers and divinity students
and professors, formed the body over which the bishops
presided. It is probably true to say that the majority of
them accepted as an institution the form of church-govern
ment that has been already indicated in this chapter. It is
probably also true to say that but for the interference of
Charles and Laud, the two elements of presbytery and a
modified episcopacy might have united more permanently,
become an organic growth and adapted themselves to the
national life. But that was now hopeless. Interference
created an antagonism, and the two forms of Church govern
ment were to separate each on its own way. Kingly and
priestly absolutism were too much for a high-spirited people
like the Scotch, and the strong sense of nationality opposed
any antagonism from English sources to what was native to
Scotland. It was still held by many of the clergy that
prelacy " had never been allowed as a standing office in the
Church by any lawful assembly in Scotland," and with that
as a widespread condition it required the greatest caution to
prevent even a moderate episcopacy from being questioned
at any moment. Presbyterianism was aroused in the clergy
by the very antagonism of the force that was bent on its
destruction. But men were keenly watching and waiting the
hour to testify for their independence. " It was not,'' says
Professor Masson, " in the metropolis, however, but in a few
remote country parishes and small country towns over Scot
land that the men were in training who were to come forth
as the chief leaders of their brethren." * Alexander Henderson
was at Leuchars ; David Dickson was at Irvine ; Robert
Baillie was at Kilwinning ; Andrew Cant was at Pitsligo ;
Samuel Rutherford was " at fair Anwoth by the Solway," and
could say, " woods, trees, meadows and hills are my witnesses
* Life of Milton, vol. i. p. 666.

Ii8 STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY
that I drew on a fair match betwixt Christ and Anwoth " ;
George Gillespie was chaplain to the Earl of Cassilis. These
were to be the leaders of the latent Presbyterianism that was
soon to burst forth. (3) As to the people, it may be truly
said that in opposition to prelacy they outstripped the clergy,
that wives, mothers and sisters were more earnest even than
their husbands, sons and brothers in their zeal against the
innovations and the ceremonies ; that making every allowance
for lingering Catholicism and rooted Episcopacy, " nineteen-
twentieths of the Scottish population were, in as far as crowds
can be conscious of a creed, Presbyterian Calvinists."* From
the blue-bonneted and plaided peasantry of the shires to the
provosts and councillors of the burghs, with the intermediate
sections of the population, there arose a great sense of
personal responsibility in connexion with the principles and
government of Presbytery. Patriotism and religion were felt
to be for Scotland bound up in its cause ; civil and religious
freedom was involved in their struggle, and the people
perceived that in making a stand for religious freedom they
were also advancing the cause of civil freedom. " True
religion," says a classic of the Scotch Church, "and national
liberty are like Hippocrates' twins — they weep or laugh,
they live or die together. There is a great sibness between the
Church and the Commonwealth. They depend one upon the
other, and either is advanced by the prosperity and success of
the other." At this time it is true to say that the Presbyter
ian Church was the nation ; that it was loyal to the spirit
of the Reformation, which in Scotland, if anywhere, had
simplification as its key-note ; that it identified itself with
the national struggle for liberty.
(4) Yet deep beneath all classes in Scotland, reconciling dif
ferences and creating a unity that transcended them, was the
national Calvinism that John Knox had succeeded in impress-
* Ibid. p. 667.

STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY 119
ing on the people. Here, if anywhere, was the spiritual
weapon of the struggle, as far as Scotland was concerned.
Calvin had claimed for the spiritual power at Geneva
independence of the temporal, and although with a different
religious organization, he did it with no less vehemence than
the Pope did at Rome. Without positively excluding bishops,
he certainly favoured the system in which the spiritual power
was vested in a council of presbyters and laymen. This was
the form of government that Knox's genius had impressed on
Scotland, and this was the scheme that in Elizabeth's time
was the subject of dispute between Cartwright and Whitgift
and was the main contention of that famous admonition of
1572, in which Puritanism is generally regarded to have first
taken its rise.
To displace this Calvinism and its ecclesiastical system to
match. Laud perceived that a new spiritual basis was needed,
and this he found in the doctrines of the Dutch Arminius.
Arminianism was to Laud the key-stone of the falling arch in
Church and State, and to the rising Anglo-Catholic school
which surrounded him it became the half-way house between
Catholicism and Calvinism, a via media to those who disliked
Rome and Geneva alike. Arminianism " became in England
the corner-stone of faith in a hierarchy, a ceremonial Church,
and a monarchy." * And it is historically true to say that
Prelacy with Arminianism from the south united themselves
against Presbytery with Calvinism from the north. Baillie
distinctly tells us in his letters that when Minister of Kilwin
ning he would have been willing to live under a moderate
Episcopacy, but that the increase of " Arminianism and
Papistry " was causing him much anxiety.^
Calvinism was the force in Puritanism, and in Scotland it
had its stronghold. With its dominant, all-pervading sense
of God, with its supreme consciousness of His Majesty over
' Morley's Cromwell, p. 55.
* J-aing?s Memoir, prefixed to his Letters,^ I. xxix., xx}£,

I20 STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY
the conscience and will, with its conviction that man exists
for the advancement of God's purposes and the fulfilment of
God's will, with its assurance that each is a spiritual being
before God, with rights that cannot be ignored before man —
Calvinism was the living inspiration within the Scottish mind,
and brought to it a deep vision of the Invisible. And how
real the piety of Scotland was is known to all who sympathize
with the heroes it created and the heroism it evoked. The
revival at Shotts in 1630 and the revival at Stewarton the
same year — that extraordinary " outletting of the Spirit " *
which overflowed the district, advancing from place to place
" like a spreading moor-burn " — are symptoms of the deep
religious earnestness, associated with Presbytery, that brought
Presbytery close to the hearts of the people and proved its
Calvinism to be then so real.
The people again suspected Episcopacy, because it meant
to them the restoration of Romanism. Their battle cry
latterly became one against " Popery, Prelacy, and Arbitrary
Power," and behind Prelacy it was ever the dark shadow of
Popery that daunted and maddened them. " Busk, busk,
busk him as bonnilie as ye can," said John Davidson at
Prestonpans, in 1 598, when the Parliament had agreed to t he
reintroduction of Kirkmen, " and fetche him in as fearlie as ye
will, we sie him weel aneuche ; we sie the homes of his
mytre."^ This was the source of the deep dislike to the
Episcopal system, and while it may seem to-day both
irrational and without foundation, many who say so would
have taken their place with the Scotch Covenanters had they
lived amid their circumstances. In enjoying the civil and
religious liberty to-day (which is the fruit of their struggles
and without which it could not have been) it is also right to
take the true historical perspective. Recall their memories at
1 It was under Dickson's preaching, and was profanely known as " The
Stewarton Sickness."
2 Melville's Diary, p. 289,

STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY 121
this period, and indifference will no longer smile at their fears.
They could not forget the Jesuit order, which had pledged
itself (and as history had shown) with the arm of the flesh, to
reconquer Christendom for the Papacy. They could not
forget the burning of George Wishart and Patrick Hamilton,
nor Mary Tudor and the Protestant martyrs. In 1567 Alva
set up his court of blood in the Netherlands. In 1572 took
place the terrible and blood-curdling massacre of St. Bar
tholomew, and in 1588, the Spanish Armada appeared in the
English Channel to conquer England and reverse Protestant
ism. In 1605, Guy Fawkes and his powder barrels were
found in the vaults of the House of Lords, and there were
not wanting indications that new combinations (with less
violent means) were existing and working to reinstate the
Pope with his old authority in Scotland and England. Such
facts were fresh in the memory of the period and justify the
fears that brought the new resistance to the policy of Laud on
the ground that, if accepted, it would have led to some
thing further. The native instinct recognized this, and the
dreaded apprehension added fuel to the fires that were already
burning. The Scottish people associated Episcopacy with
the ultimate restoration of Popery, and in resisting the former
they did it on the ground that they were opposing the latter.
Events, too, in the light of the subsequent policy of Charles II,
who was a concealed Papist, and James VII, who was an
open one, showed that the hidden fear was not a dream, and
it is true to say that the union of Scotch Presbytery with
English Puritanism saved the Protestantism of the country.
Such was the feeling that pervaded all the parties in
Scotland already described ; such was the Calvinism that
gave to ' Scotland its fibre and force ; such was the dread
that possessed the Scottish mind when Laud with the Privy
Council and Court of High Commission, and as ignorant as
a foreigner could be of the internal forces at work, sought to
govern Scotland ecclesiastically by the sixpenny post. His

122 STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY
correspondence with the Scottish bishops is chiefly con
cerned about the new Book of Canons and the new Service
Book, and the arrangement was that the Scottish bishops
(who were rather the chief ecclesiastical officers pf the
Sovereign than divinely constituted advisers of the Church),
should prepare both books, and that when revised and
amended by Laud, Juxon of London, Wren of Norwich, and
such other prelates as the King might appoint, they should
be imposed on the Scotch by royal authority.
The Book of Canons was first established by royal decree
on May 23, 1635, and was received in Scotland with dumb
amazement. The bishops seem to have thought that the
canons after approval from the King were to be submitted
to the Scottish clergy, for the title prefixed to the original
draft was " Canons agreed on to be proposed to the several
Synods of the Kirk of Scotland " — a title which Laud
altered into " Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical or
dained to be observed by the Clergy." * The matter of the
book was chiefly objected to, for it asserted the absolute
prerogative of the King over the Kirk and denied the right
of meeting to the General Assembly without the King's
authority. Private meetings of the clergy for the exposition
of Scripture were strictly prohibited, and among the minor
enactments were such as these : that the forthcoming
Service Book should be used, in all its parts, as the only
directory of worship ; that there should be no prayers except
according to the forms there printed ; that the sacrament
should be received kneeling ; that every ecclesiastical person
should leave part of his property to the Church ; that no
presbyter should reveal anything told him in confession
except in cases where concealment would forfeit his own life
by law. These enactments along with other articles relating
to "fonts, chancels, communion tables," etc., gave the im-
¦ Wharton's Laud, p. 101.

STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY 123
pression that the King was subverting the constitution of the
Church and favouring Popery.*
There was delay in the appearance of the Prayer Book,
but the Canons of 1635 justified the acceptance of it as
already existing. It did not appear till May, 1637, although
the Privy Council made public proclamation of it on
December 20, 1636. The book was pronounced " Popish in
its frame and forms," to contain " many Popish errors and
ceremonies, and the seeds of manifold and gross superstitions
and idolatries," to be more objectionable than the English
Service Book would have been, and " was counted little
better than the mass." On July 23, 1637, the new Service
Book was introduced into St. Giles' Cathedral, and no sooner
had the Dean begun to read the collect for the day, than a
stall-woman, Jenny Geddes by name, is said to have thrown
a stool at his head and to have cried out, " Out, thou false
thief ! dost thou say the mass at my lug ? " She was
backed by the wilder element in the congregation, and the
service broke up with an uproar and riven benches. " Efter
that Sunday's work," says Spalding, " the haill kirk-doors
of Edinburgh were lockit and no more preaching heard," the
zealous people going " ilk Sunday to hear devotion in Fife."
From all parts of Scotland came the same popular response.
" Supplicates " or petitions were addressed to the Privy
Council ; one grand " supplicate " was addressed to the King.
The Council was kept in a state of permanent siege : the
four committees or " Tables " were appointed to look after
the business — one for the nobles, consisting of a few nobles
named by the rest ; another for the gentry, consisting of two
gentlemen from each shire ; a third for the burghs, consist
ing of a commissioner from each burgh ; a fourth from the
clergy, consisting of a minister from each Presbytery.
These " Tables " representing the " supplicants " were to
be convened in Edinburgh on any emergency, but there
' Burnet'^ History, edited by Osmund Airy, vol. i. p. 40-

124 STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY
was to be one supreme permanent " Table " in Edinburgh,
consisting of twelve members, and acting under the authority
of written commissions from the rest.
The missive from the King and Laud at last comes
accusing the " supplicants " and nonconformists of treason,
refusing redress and advising all His Majesty's subjects to
trust to his good intentions. Scotland responded in no un
certain tones and in its own decisive way. The " Tables "
resolved to frame a National Covenant, and it was carried,
Henderson and Dickson being present to advise. The sign
ing commenced on March i, 1638, in the Greyfriars' Church
yard, Edinburgh, and was done by " all the nobles who were
then in Scotland except the Lords of the Privy Council and
four or five others ; commissioners from all the shires within
Scotland and from every burgh except Aberdeen, St.
Andrews and Crail ; and other gentlemen and ministers
whose zeal had brought them up." * The leading parts of
this important document are as follows :
" We all, and every one of us underwritten, do protest, that, after
long and due examination of our own consciences in matter of true
and false Religion, we are now thoroughly resolved of the truth by
the Word and Spirit of God, and therefore we believe with our
hearts, confess with our mouths, and subscribe with our hands, and
constantly affirm before God and the whole world, that this only is
the true Christian Faith and Religion, pleasing to God and bring
ing salvation to man, which is now by the mercy of God revealed
to the world by the preaching of the blessed Evangel, and received,
believed, and defended by many and sundry notable Kirks and
realms, but chiefly by the Kirk of Scotland, the King's Majesty,
and three Estates of this Realm, as God's eternal truth and only
ground of our salvation : as more particularly is expressed in the
Confession of our Faith, established and publicly confirmed by
sundry Acts of Parliament, and now of a long time hath been
openly professed by the King's Majesty, and whole body of this
realm, both in burgh and land . . . And, therefore, we abhor and
detest ^11 contrary Religion and doctrine, but chiefly all kind of
' Stevenson, ii. 291-2,

STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY 125
Papistry in general and particular head, even as they are now
damned and confuted by the Word of God and Kirk of Scot
land." (Here follows a statement of doctrines and practices of the
Church of Rome repudiated and condemned.)
" Finally we detest all his (the pope's) vain allegories, rites, signs,
and traditions brought into the Kirk without or against the Word of
God and doctrine of the true Reformed Kirk : To which we join
ourselves willingly in doctrine, religion, faith, discipHne, and use of
the holy sacraments, as lively members of the same in Christ our
Head : promising and swearing, by the great name of the Lord
our God, that we shall continue in the obedience of the doctrine
and discipUne of this Kirk, and shall defend the same, according
to our vocation and power, all the days of our lives, under the
pains contained in the law, and danger both of body and soul in the
day of God's fearful judgment."
(After a recitation of previous statutes and Acts of Parlia
ment, there follows the special part for the occasion.)
" We, Noblemen, Barons, Gentlemen, Burgesses, Ministers and
Commons underscribing, considering divers times before, and
especially at this time, the danger of the true Reformed Religion,
of the King's honour, and of the public peace of the Kingdom, by
the manifold innovations and evils generally contained and parti
cularly mentioned in our late Supplications, Complaints, and
Protestations, do hereby profess, and before God, his Angels, and
the World solemnly declare, that, with our whole hearts, we agree
and resolve all the days of our life constantly to adhere unto and
defend the foresaid true Religion, and, forbearing the practice of all
innovations already introduced in the matters of the worship of
God, or approbation of the corruptions of the public government of
the Kirk, or civil plans and powers of Kirkmen, till they be tried
and allowed in free Assemblies and in Parliaments, to labour by all
means lawful to recover the purity and liberty of the Gospel, as it
was established and professed before the said novations. . . . And,
in like manner, with the same heart, we declare before God and
men that we have no intention or desire to attempt anything that
may turn to the dishonour of God or the diminution of the King's

126 STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY
greatness and authority : but, on the contrary, we promise and
swear. That we shall to the utmost of our power, with our means
and lives, stand to the defence of our dread sovereign, the ICing's
Majesty, his person and authority, in the defence and preservation
of the foresaid true Religion, liberties, and laws of the Kingdom.
As, also, to the mutual defence and assistance every one of us of
another in the same cause ... so that whatsoever shall be done to
the least of us for that cause shall be taken as done to us all in
general and to every one of us in particular ; and that we shall
neither directly nor indirectly suffer ourselves to be divided or with
drawn by whatsoever suggestion, combination, allurement or terror
from this blessed and loyal conjunction . . .
" Neither do we fear the foul aspersions of Rebellion, Combination,
or whatever else our adversaries, from their craft and malice, would
put upon us, seeing, etc. . . .
" In witness whereof we have subscribed with our hands all these
premises." The " signing of the Covenant " was continued throughout
Scotland for many weeks, became the text for pulpits and
the subject of conversation in all homes. Men flocked to
sign it — the swearing took place in many cases en masse —
while congregations stood up and raised their hands in
affirmation, as the minister read the Covenant. In
Aberdeen alone was there any lukewarmness or opposition
manifested. While the ministers of St. Andrew formally
condemned it, the clergy of Aberdeen averred their deter
mination to support the King's policy.
By the end of April, 1638, all Scotland was pledged to the
Covenant, and in the presence of the Scottish revolt
Charles was forced either to crush or concede. The first
alternative was thought of, but the latter was adopted, and
the Marquis of Hamilton was sent north as a special
commissioner from the King with power to treat with the
Covenanters. Negotiations were proceeded with, but the
Covenanters refused to acknowledge any " prelimitation " of
the business of the Assembly or an exclusion of the lay

STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY 127
element. Neither would they accept from the King a new
covenant or the renewal of a particular Bond or Covenant
against Papists which had been annexed in 1590 by James
to the " Short Confession of 1580." "Only one thing frays
us," says Baillie, " the subscription of ane other covenant."
For about two months there was a struggle over the two
Covenants throughout the whole country : the Covenanters
were not satisfied with the reserves of the King : the whole
country was in a blaze, and the King ultimately sanctioned
the holding of Assembly on November 21, 1638, the
Marquis of Hamilton being Lord High Commissioner.
The " Tables " had issued instructions to their supporters
as to their attendance at the Assembly, and had also
prepared a general form of complaint or " libel " against
the bishops, which libel, with special charges of immorality
against several of them, was transmitted to the Presbyteries,
within whose bounds lay the cathedral-seats or residences,
so that the Presbyteries might judge the accused them
selves or refer the trial to the Assembly. The latter course
was adopted, and the necessary preparations were made
with a business-like talent with which the King's side had
nothing comparable.
The Assembly met in the Cathedral of Glasgow on the
2 1st of November, and so great was the crowd that it was
difficult for members to get to their places. The Marquis
of Hamilton as royal commissioner occupied a chair of
state under a canopy, and was surrounded by the chief
officers of state. In front was the table for the moderator
and clerk. The peers and barons who attended as lay
elders sat on a long table running down the centre of the
church,* while round it on seats placed one above the other
were the ministers and commissioners of burghs. Above, in
one of the aisles, sat young noblemen and men of rank who
were non- members, and the galleries were filled with
* Council Records, edited by Sir James Marwick, i. p. 392.

128 STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY
members of all classes, among whom were many ladies.
One or two ministers wore gowns, the rest appeared in
cloaks. The lay members wore their ordinary dress and
the noblemen and gentry carried their swords. Alexan
der Henderson was appointed moderator and Archibald
Johnston, of Warriston, clerk. The Assembly consisted of
one hundred and forty ecclesiastics and one hundred laymen,
but no bishops or church dignitaries were present. The
Commissioner urged that the declaration of the bishops
should be read, but this was not done till the 27th, when a
document signed by the Archbishops of St. Andrew and
Glasgow and by the Bishops of Edinburgh, Galloway, Ross
and Brechin, with their reasons of dissent and protest, was
read. The Bishops of Dunkeld, Orkney, Caithness, Argyle,
Dunblane, Aberdeen, Moray, and the Isles had not subscribed
it. On the 28th a discussion took place as to the bishops'
declinature, after which the moderator declared that he
would take the vote of the Assembly as to whether they
could lawfully decide on the accusation of the bishops,
notwithstanding the reasons contained in their declinature.
Upon this the Commissioner addressed the Assembly, and
in name and by authority of the King commanded it not
to proceed further : " I stand to the King's prerogative as
supreme judge over all causes, civil and ecclesiastic : to
him the Lords of the Clergy have appealed, and therefore I
will not suffer their cause to be farther reasoned here."
The Commissioner with his retinue of Privy Councillors
left the Assembly, and only one Privy Councillor remained
behind — the Earl of Argyle, who intimated his sympathy
with the Assembly's proceedings.
Next day there was a proclamation by the Marquis of
Hamilton dissolving the Assembly on pain of treason, but
the Assembly refused to comply. Through other nineteen
sittings they proceeded with their business, the last or
twenty-sixth sitting being on Thursday, the 20th of

STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY 129
December. On 4th December the Assembly declared the
last six Assemblies to have been unfree, unlawful and null.
On the 6th it condemned the Service Book, the Book of
Canons, the Book of Ordination, and the Court of High
Commission. The two archbishops and the four bishops
who had signed the declinatures were then deposed and ex
communicated. Likewise the Bishops of Aberdeen and
Dunblane. The Bishops of Moray, Orkney, Argyle, and
the Isles, Dunkeld and Caithness were also deposed, but
were to be excommunicated only in the event of their not
professing repentance and submitting themselves to the
Assembly. On the 8th the Assembly declared Episcopacy
to have been abjured by the Confession of Faith, 1580, and
ordered it to be removed out of the Kirk. On the loth a
similar declaration and order were passed regarding the
Articles of Perth. On the nth the judicatories of the Kirk
were restored and several former acts were revived and
ratified. Among other acts passed were — (i) that of i8th
December ordaining Presbyteries to proceed with the
censures of the Kirk, and excommunicate those ministers
who, being deposed by the Assembly, did not acquiesce in
their sentences, but still exercised ministerial functions. (2)
That of the 19th against the civil power and places of
Kirkmen. (3) That of the 20th, asserting the right of the Kirk
to have yearly assemblies, and oftener, pro re nata, and
appointing the next General Assembly to be held on the third
Wednesday of July in the following year, and (4) another act
of the 20th appointed a humble supplication to be trans
mitted to the King, craving his approval and ratification of
its proceedings.*
Civil war was now imminent, and both the King and
Covenanters had for several months been anticipating and
making preparations for it. The Covenanters appointed
their " War Committee," and as early as February, 1638,
* Acts of the General Assembly, 1638-1842, p. 1-35.
A.L. 9

I30 STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY
projected the levying of a contribution to meet the
expenses of resisting the royal authority. The King, too, was
making preparations for war, and on January 26, 1639,
intimated his resolution to march against the Scots in
person. Soon there commenced the first "Bishops' War."
General Leslie was the Covenanting general— " a little,
crooked and rather battered military veteran," who had
served under Gustavus Adolphus and a brave soldier — and
the arrangements necessary for the campaign were superin
tended by a Central Council in Edinburgh, which as a new
edition of the "Tables" adapted itself to the wariike
emergency. The Castles of Edinburgh, Stiriing, Dumbarton,
Dalkeith Palace, and all the border strongholds (except
Caerlaverock) were seized or secured, and the Covenanting
army under Montrose, Marischal, Kinghorn and Leslie
obliged Huntly to flee from Aberdeen and leave the city to
their mercy. The Episcopal and Royalist inhabitants
sought safety in flight, and the Marquis of Huntly himself,
pursued into Strathbogie and obliged to surrender, was sent
to Edinburgh with his eldest son. Lord Gordon, and
imprisoned in the castle. The "Trot of Turriff" (May 14,
1639), though a small affair in itself, is memorable as the first
field action in the Civil War. A number of Covenanting
lairds with Lord Eraser and the Master of Forbes at their
head, having announced that they would hold a demonstra
tion for the Covenant at Turriff and having assembled with
their retainers to the number of 1,200 men, were attacked
there by an equal force of the opposite party, who had with
them field pieces. The Covenanters fled, and the Royalists
gained a small success. This and the Royalist movements
in the north led to the return of Montrose to Aberdeen on
25th May with an army — the army having retired to the
south on 1 2th April under Leslie, leaving only a garrison
behind. Montrose imposed a fine of I0,000 merks and
passed on to the Gordon country, but on receipt of informa-

STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY 131
tion, which proved to be false, he broke up his camp and
retreated southwards. Emboldened by the retreat the
Royalists took possession of Aberdeen in the beginning of
June, and Montrose was again dispatched to the north in
the middle of that month. On his way he was met by the
Royalists between Dunottar and Muchalls, but they were
signally defeated. Pushing forward Montrose forced the
bridge over the Dee, and took possession of Aberdeen on
19th June.
It was the King's plan that he should remain with his army
at Newcastle till Hamilton's fleet from the Thames had passed
the coast of Berwickshire and begun operations. The fleet
did so on the 2nd of May, and the King awaited the result
with anxiety, but the result was next to nothing. The
Covenanters having secured Aberdeen and taken Huntly
prisoner, the fleet had to confine itself to demonstrations in
the Firth of Forth. Hamilton lost his chance by not turning
the Turriff incident to advantage, and all that he could do was
to capture a trading vessel or two, and his men began to die
of small-pox.
The Scots were anxious to avoid open war and made
their last effort for peace. But the King resolved that it
would be best to overawe them by his near personal presence.
He arrived at Berwick on the 28th of May, and the number of
the troops besides the garrison of Berwick was 19,614 foot and
3,260 horse.' Leslie and his army had their headquarters at
Dunglass, but the Scottish territory having been invaded,
Leslie raised his camp at Dunglass and encamped on the 4th
of June on Dunse Law. Of the confusion and demoralization
of his own army the King could have no doubt, but the Scots
were fighting for their religious liberty, and religion is the
power that makes the best soldiers. " Every company," says
Baillie, " had flying at the captain's tent-door a brand new
colour, stamped with the Scottish arms, and this inscription,
' For Christ's Crown and Covenant,' in golden letters." The

132 STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY
soldiers " were all lusty and full of courage, the most of them
stout young ploughmen." . . . "Every one encouraged
another ; the sight of their nobles and their beloved pastors
daily raised their hearts." ; . . There were "the good
sermons and prayers, morning and even, under the roof of
heaven, to which the drums did call them for bells," and " the
remonstrances very frequent of the goodness of their cause
and of their conduct by a hand clearly Divine." * Leslie was
over all " like a Great Solyman." Hope was on the side of the
Scots, and despair on that of the King, and Charles concluded
that a reconciliation with the Scots would be advisable.
Negotiations began, and issued on the i8th of June in a
formal pacification.
The " Pacification of the Birks " was embodied in two docu
ments. One was the Royal Declaration, in which while
guarding himself against approval with the "pretended
Assembly " of Glasgow and the " pretended Tables," the
King practically promised all that was claimed. He pro"
mised the future regulation of all affairs in Church and State
by free General Assembly and free Parliament : the Assembly
to be held on 6th August and the Parliament on 20th August,
at both of which the King hoped to be present. The " Articles
of Pacification " related to the immediate disbanding of the
armies and mutual restoration of property seized during the
campaign. The King's concessions very soon changed them
selves into reproaches, and the terms " pretended Assembly "
and " pretended Tables " created discontent in Scotland.
From the too great advantages seemingly given to the King
it was found necessary to accompany the proclamations in
certain Scottish towns with "informations regarding the
same," and these Charles described as " seditious glosses." At
all events he left Scotland on the 29th of July, appointed
Tracquair as Commissioner, and declined to go personally to
Edinburgh and open the Assembly.'i. 211-214.

STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY 133
The General Assembly met from 12th to 30th August, and
Tracquair appeared as the Lord High Commissioner to give
to its proceedings the stamp of royal authority. As Charles
declined to acknowledge in full the Assembly of 1638, this
Assembly of 1639 did all its work over again. It declared
the Assemblies of 1606, 1608, 16 10, 1616 and 16 18 to be
no Assemblies ; it condemned the Book of Canons and
the Service Book ; it declared the Episcopal Government,
with the civil powers and places of Kirkmen as " unlawful in
this Kirk," and revived the Presbyterian polity. Tracquair
gave his sanction to everything that was done, and thought
the phrase, " unlawful in this Kirk," would satisfy the King ;
but the King argued that this was quite different from the
words which he wished : " contrary to the constitution of this
Kirk," and dreaded that if Episcopacy were allowed to be
unlawful in the Church of Scotland it might be held to be
unlawful in the Church of England as well. Charles in fact
still clung to the hope of being able to restore Episcopacy,
and did not wish to commit himself further than he could help.
It would have been far wiser for him at once to have yielded
to the wish of his people, and had he done so would have
ultimately saved both his life and his crown. He did not do
so, and the revolt of the Scots spread like fire through his
kingdom.* War between the King and the Scots became
inevitable, and it was the very necessities of this war that led
to the first step in saving the freedom of England — the calling
of the Long Parliament.
Episcopacy had existed in Scotland for upwards of thirty
' Parliament met the next day after the rising of the Assembly, was
prorogued 24th October and again on 14th November to and June, 1640.
When it met on 2nd June without the King's Commissioner it passed
important Acts ratifying the proceedings of the Assembly of 1639 and
named a Committee to transact business. Like the Reformation Parlia
ment of 1560 the Covenant Parliament of 1640 marks a distinct stage in
Scottish constitutional history. From 1641 to 1650 Scotland was ruled
by the Scottish Parliament acting in conjunction with the Assembly. Cf.
Rait's Scottish Parliament before the Union of the Crowns, pp. 103, 104.

134 STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY
years, and three-fourths of the Scottish clergy up to 1638 must
have entered the Church during its existence and received
ordination from the bishops, while the remaining fourth must
have acknowledged its jurisdiction, although some of the
older ministers must have looked back with longing to the
" former days." A permanent fusion of the two elements
would have been possible but for the absolutism of Charles,
and the high-handed as well as unjustifiable interference of
Laud. Both these influences henceforth associated the cause
of Episcopacy in the minds of the people with despotism and
the loss of national independence, and Presbytery with religious
and civil freedom as well as with the very existence of the
Scottish nation as a nation. The struggles of Presbytery
involved constitutional government and liberty of conscience
in Scotland, and notwithstanding subsequent intolerance this
was its vis vivida. It was impossible for a high-spirited
people like the Scotch to submit without renouncing their
past and being disloyal to their own best. That they did
resist under the circumstances is their glory, and as in
England liberty depended on a free Parliament, in Scotland
its foundation was a free Assembly.* The Scottish Parlia
ment was a mere court for registering royal decrees, and
restricted by the Lords of the Articles it was but a tool of the
party in power. Scottish history from the Reformation to
the Revolution is really the history of the General Assembly.
' " The General Assembly," says Dean Stanley, " was itself a kind of
Parliament. Its forms were borrowed not from the Councils of the
Church, but from the Scottish Parliament. The ouvertures of the Par
liament are the overtures of the Assembly. It was a very different body
then from that to which by successive purifications of the lay element, it
has since been reduced. The King, the Regent, the Privy Councillors,
the Barons, had a seat and a vote in it when they chose to exercise
them. The qualification of King as elder was not insisted on. When
tlie great laymen came in any numbers the ministers were compelled to
sit outside the bar. The presence of the Regent and the nobility was
felt in the Assembly itself to be " most comfortable and most earnestly
wished by all, and their absence most dolorous and lamentable." Church
of Scotland, p. 100.

STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY 135
It was in the Assembly of the Kirk that patriotism expressed
itself, and the Scottish Presbyterians in struggling for a free
Assembly were fighting the same battle as the English
Puritans for the privileges of the House of Commons. In
witnessing to the rights of their General Assembly, the Scot
tish Covenanters declared that Scotland wanted to be herself
and not to be moulded by the exigencies of her wealthy
neighbour and the absolutism of the King and his accom
plices. And in the very act of doing so, Scottish Presbytery
with a Calvinistic creed as iron in its blood, was associated
with the past struggles of Wallace and of Bruce ; was loyal to
the national instincts ; was on the line of the nation's historical
development ; became and has ever remained the symbol of
the national independence. It is the characteristic of all great
movements that they shall be spontaneous and win their way
by inward conviction, not by the authority of the State
Presbytery satisfied these conditions, and there is no sufficient
explanation of its victory but the strength of national con
viction that was behind it. No doubt the nobles, whose
incomes had been enlarged by the confiscation of church
property, dreaded the bishops of Charles I, and believed that
their hold upon the property was endangered by the policy of
the King, while they resented the competition of the bishops
for offices in the State. Their discontent was a factor in the
case ; no Henry VIII had humbled them and they still pos
sessed heritable jurisdictions which invested them with the
power of life and death over criminals on their estates. This
was but a secondary cause, however, in the Presbyterian
triumph of 1638 ; the efficient cause was the national spirit
which withstood government by unqualified prerogative, and it
was inspired by the Calvinistic creed with the accompanying
organization that Protestantism has assumed when on its
defence. In fact so intensely national was the movement
that the Calvinistic creed and Presbyterian discip
line were afterwards offered to the world not as temporary

136 STRUGGLES OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERY
expedients, but as eternal pillars of the Divine Temple, with
out which no real Christianity could exist and which must be
imposed on all even contrary to their wishes. Clad in this
armour, the Church of 1638 did its work, and its subsequent
intolerance is to be explained by the fierce Calvinism which
pervaded it.
It was at the close of this struggle, and during the period
when victorious Presbytery wielded its influence on Church
and State both, that Robert Leighton was minister of New-
battle. How he regarded its subsequent development we
shall see in the following pages.

CHAPTER VIII
ROBERT LEIGHTON, MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE
(1641-1653)
"... The high saint
Who with mild heat of holy oratory
Subdued me somewhat to that gentleness
Which, when it weds with manhood, makes a man." — Tennyson.
" The Tale of the Divine pity was never yet believed from lips that were
not felt to be moved by human pity." — George Eliot.
" The Divine nature of Christ is a magnet that draws unto itself all
spirits and hearts that bear its likeness, and daily unites them to itself
through love."
" A pure heart is one which finds its whole and only satisfaction in
God, which relishes and desires nothing but God, whose thoughts and
intents are ever occupied with God, to which all that is not of God is
strange and jarring, which keeps itself as far as possible apart from all
unworthy images, and ioys, and griefs, and all outward cares and
anxieties, and makes all these work together for good ; for to the pure all
things are pure, and to the gentle is nothing bitter.''
" Now, as the loadstone draws the iron after itself, so doth Christ
draw all hearts after Himself which have once been touched by Him ;
and as when the iron is impregnated with the energy of the loadstone
that has touched it, it follows the stone uphill although that is contrary
to its nature, and cannot rest in its own proper place, but strives to rise
above itself on high ; so all the souls which have been touched by this
loadstone, Christ, can neither be chained down by joy nor grief, but are
ever rising up to God out of themselves. They forget their own nature,
and follow after the touch of God, and follow it the more easily and
directly, the more noble is their nature than that of other men, and the
more they are touched by God's finger." — From Sermons of Doctor John
Tauler of Strasbourg (1291-1361).
DOCTOR ALEXANDER LEIGHTON was released
in 1640 from his imprisonment, and Robert Leighton
seems to have settled in Scotland about the same year. He

138 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
was presented to Newbattle by the Earl of Lothian, and
ordained by the Presbytery of Dalkeith, on December 16,
1641. On July 15, 1641, he had been ordered by his
Presbytery " to bring a testimonial from Edinburgh the next
day." Among those present on his ordination day was
Robert Douglas, then minister at Edinburgh, and with him
Leighton seems to have maintained a long and intimate
friendship. Douglas was a man after Leighton's own heart,
was at this time a staunch Presbyterian and full of zeal for
the Covenant. He lived on gracious terms with his opponents,
and of one, with whom he was at variance, he could say, " I
love him as my own soul." He served as chaplain in the
army of Gustavus Adolphus, and that great King is reported
to have said of him, when he took leave, " There is a man
who, for wisdom and prudence, might be counsellor to any
prince in Europe ; he might be a moderator to a General
Council, and even for military skill I could very freely trust
any army to his conduct." * Douglas was popularly believed
to be of royal descent, and Bishop Burnet says of him, " There
was an air of greatness in Douglas that made all that saw
him inclined enough to believe he was of no ordinary descent.
He was a reserved man ; he had the Scriptures by heart, to the
exactness of a Jew, for he was as a concordance ; he was too
calm and grave for the furious men, but yet he was much
depended on for his prudence."^ Douglas was the leader of
the " Resolutioners " in the Church — the party to which
Leighton afterwards belonged.
Leighton's immediate predecessor at Newbattle was
Andrew Cant, who had been translated to Aberdeen, where
he had been known about 1638 as one of " the Apostles of
the Covenant."
It is interesting to observe that all the churches which
Leighton served were ancient ecclesiastical centres ; about
' The Church of Scotland, p. 104.
2 History of His own Time : edited by Osmund Airy, vol. i. pp. 55, 56.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 139
every one of them, as well as of his ancestral home at U san
there was much
" That rung to an old chime
And bore the mark of time."
Every one of them recalled the old pieties, and spoke
reverently of the past. Newbattle had the ruins of a Cistercian
monastery about it — a house belonging to the order that
claimed St. Bernard of Clairvaux as its great saint, whose
writings Robert Leighton knew well, frequently quoted and
earnestly studied. The Cistercians were originally among
the purest and strictest of the orders, and their early aspira
tions may well be described as issuing in a spirituality as pure
as anything on this side of time can be. Robert Leighton in
many respects recalls St. Bernard ; his mysticism, piety,
devotion, love of solitude, are not unlike those of this early
saint, but on the other hand, like St. Bernard, he did over
come his natural tendency to live apart, dedicating his soul
entirely to the bridegroom, and stepped into the arena with
the passion to heal the breaches of the Church. Like him,
too, he restored in practice, if not in name, the famous motto
which that great churchman assumed as the guiding-star of
his life, and with which he is represented in art — sustine et
abstine (bear and forbear). The little, too, that remained of
the old abbey at Newbattle was at Leighton's time sufficient,
as it is still sufficient to recall that peculiar and undefinable
tenderness which the Cistercians expressed in all their
religious structures that were always situated in secluded
river valleys. No place could be more attractive, historically
as well as for its natural situation and beauty, than Newbattle
to Robert Leighton. " Its situation," says Dr. Cosmo Innes,
the editor of its chartulary, "is of that kind which the
Cistercian most of all affected. The South Esk, escaped from
the green hills of Temple and the woody ravines of Dalhousie,
widens its valley a little to give room for a long range of level
' haughs.' At the very head of these meadows, and close to

I40 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
the brook, the abbey stands. Behind, to the north, are the
remains of the ancient monkish village, and occupied by the
hinds and shepherds of the convent, but separated from the
abbey gardens by a massive stone wall, ascribed to the time
and the personal care of William the Lion, which still forms the
boundary of the park on that side. Across the little river the
bank rises abruptly, broken into fantastic ravines, closely
wooded, which only upon examination are discovered to be
the remains of the ancient coal-workings of the monks, of a
period when the operation was more a sort of quarrying than
like modern coal-mining. The abbey was not placed to
command a prospect. The river banks have probably always
been covered with a growth of native oak. What was the
clothing of the level lawn of old we can only conjecture. As
it is, situated at the bottom of its narrow valley, close by the
brook, hidden among beeches and venerable sycamores, it
gives an idea of religious seclusion such as Saint Bernard
sought at Citeaux." *
The abbey was founded in 1140 or 1141 by David I for
monks of the Cistercian order, who were brought to Neubotle
(or new residence) from Melrose. The first abbot was Ralph,
described as a person of beautiful presence, occupied con
tinually in divine meditation, who from his youth had loved
his Creator with all his heart. The second abbot, Alfred,
was a benefactor of the abbey, and adorned the chapter
house and cloisters. The dedication of the abbey church
took place in 1233, the service being conducted by Andrew
de Moravia, a predecessor of Leighton's ancestral relative in
the old Scottish See of Moray. The fabric seems to have
been far advanced in 1241, and Mary de Couci, Queen of
Alexander II, was buried within its church in 1271. The
death of Abbot Waldeve in 1275 is thus described in the old
chronicle of Melrose : — " Waldeve of pious memory and holy
conversation. Abbot of Neubotle, going the way of all flesh,
' Introduction to Registrum de Neubotle, pp. xiii., xiv.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 141
with blessed end departed to the Lord, leaving his house in
full peace and excellent condition, both in its spiritual and its
temporal affairs in the third year of his government, on the
3d day of February, 1275 : whose body was interred with
due reverence, as became one holding the office of Father
Abbot, on the eve of Agatha, Virgin and Martyr." About the
middle of the fourteenth century the abbey was in a fairly
complete state, but it was burnt by the English about 1385. The
restoration was proceeded with, and in 1544 it was partially
destioyed by the Earl of Hertford. The last abbot was
Mark Ker, who is styled in 1 560 as " Commendator of Neu
botle," and was one of those who ratified and confirmed the
Scottish Confession of Faith. The lordship of Neubotle was
conferred on his son, and has remained with his descendants
to the present day.*
The abbey itself appears to have been almost completely
demolished shortly after the Reformation, the only parts of
the monastic buildings allowed to remain being the fratery
and portions of the chapter-house, which were incorporated
with the mansion house. It was said of the Commendator and
his oldest son that they " do so metamorphose the building
that it cannot be known that ever it did belong to the Church,
by reason of the fair new fabrick and stately edifices built
thereon." The importance of the great Cistercian abbey of
Newbattle may be realized by recalling that the total length
of the church, within the walls, was 239 feet, and on the
exterior 253 feet ; the interior width was 57 feet, and the
exterior (excluding the buttresses) (^ feet. The nave con
tained ten bays, had a length of 161 feet, its central aisle a
width of 31 feet, the side aisles being 13 feet. The choir and
presbytery comprised one bay and a half, and had two large
piers, each ten feet in diameter. The crossing had four similar
large piers, and measured 41 feet 9 inches over the piers. The
piers supported a tower over the crossing. The transept was
* Introduction to Register, pp. 1-30.

142 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
1 17 feet in length from north to south, and had an eastern
aisle making the width 45 feet. The north transept had
enormous angle buttresses and a square pier, while the large
piers and flat angle buttresses of the choir indicate early work,
probably Norman.^
All this great church was but a memory in Robert Leigh
ton's time, but a memory fresher and more vivid than it is to
day. To one, too, with his family traditions of pious bishops
and abbots, to one with his naturally fine instincts and
training abroad, it was a memory full of potency and creative
of fine thought. This Cistercian abbey recalled a time and
spoke of a reform, when if ever ideals were carried out in the
world and gained ascendency over souls, it was then, and
when the world " cast aside its old garment and clothed itself
in the white robe of the Church." The culture of its age bore
" the pained look of world-renunciation on the one hand, and
the look of strong character suggesting world-conquest on the
other." ^ It was the time immediately before the period of
St. Francis, whose ideal was "Go sell all that thou hast," whose
joy was in a richness of soul, possessing nothing but the
Saviour, and whose life, the most loveable and tender, fully
realized what he preached. This Cistercian abbey of New-
battle, recalled him, who was the forerunner of St. Francis, as
well as the saint of the Cistercian order — St. Bernard of Clair
vaux. And what a splendid figure arose in thought of the
retiring monk, who in the quiet of his cell spoke a new lan
guage of devotion, dedicated his soul to the Heavenly Bride
groom, wrote the sweetest of hymns {Jesu dulcis memoria) and
yet urged Christendom to forsake the worid, warned the Pope
that he was called to the chair of St. Peter not to rule but to
serve, yea to be the servus servorum—aryd withal led the
policy of the world-ruling church.
Newbattle was a parish suited for the meditative nature of
1 Ecclesiastical Architecture of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 255.
^ Cf. Harnack's History of Dogma, vi. 7 : Monasticism, pp. 90-98.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (i 641-1653) 143
Robert Leighton, nourishing to his piety and quickening to
his family traditions of former days, when his family gave
worthy abbots and bishops to the Scottish Church. But its
quiet and lovely landscapes were no less restful and restora
tive to his spirit amid the stormy times, when he passed his
ministry there, and Scott has commemorated the neighbour
hood in one of his stanzas : —
"Who knows not Melville's beechy grove
And Roslin's rocky glen,
Dalkeith, which all the virtues love.
And classic Hawthornden ? "
Newbattle Abbey to-day is simply a large and commodious
building with a castellated front. The present parish church,
restored and renovated in 1895, is a quaint edifice of 1727 ;
the former church where Leighton preached was within the
old wall, called Monkland Wall, enclosing Newbattle grounds,
and about a bow-shot from the abbey. The church of to
day contains one link of association with Leighton's period in
having the old oak pulpit from which he preached. A part
of the present manse was the house which Leighton occupied,
and was built in 1625 during the ministry of the Rev. John
Aird. Over one of the windows there is an inscription,
Evangelio et posteris, and there is a hand-bell kept in the
manse with the date 1616. There are also four silver com
munion cups which were " presented to the kirk of Neubotle
29th May, 1646."
"The town of Newbattle" of Leighton's day is now a
hamlet of a few old houses along the road to Galashiels facing
the abbey- wall and originating the proverb " A' to ae side like
Newbattle," but the old path, the old bridge, the old mill and
the old manse are the features of the locality that remain very
much as they were in Leighton's time.*
The latest editor of Leighton's works (Mr. West) has placed
them in their chronological order. With the exception of his
' Cf Blair's Archbishop Leighton, p. 52.

144 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
Latin works (the University Lectures) they had been formerly
assigned to the period after the Restoration, whereas there are
scarcely any remains of his written after he became a bishop.
" As I proceeded with a careful study of Leighton's life and
times, my eyes became more and more opened to the fact that
the received chronology of the works was wrong, and that, with
scarcely an exception, they belonged to the Presbyterian
period of his life. . . . The right chronology is most necessary
for a right understanding of Leighton's writings. It throws
a new light upon the whole, and makes us aware that these
writings, so long read and received as the works of a church
man and prelate, are really the works of a Presbyterian and a
Covenanter, though, it must be confessed, a most abnormal
and exceptional one, for the contrast between Leighton and
the representative Presbyterians of the time, such as Blair,
Cant, Baillie, Dickson, Warriston, Rutherford, etc., is im
mense." * All his writings — his commentary on St. Peter and
his sermons — belong predominatingly to the Newbattle period
of his life, when he was a Presbyterian minister, and it is a
relieving feature, amid the then stern conditions of Scot
land, to find such utterances of spiritual truth, with their
breadth, depth and sweetness, coming from a pulpit of the
Church of Scotland. Professor Flint has said of them, and of
the man behind them : — " As far as I can judge, a purer,
humbler, holier spirit than that of Robert Leighton never
tabernacled ih Scottish clay. He was 'like a star which
dwelt apart ' while the storm raged below ; or like a fair
flower of Paradise dropped amidst the thorn and thistle on
some bleak mountain-side. His character was of an almost
ideal excellence, and so divinely beautiful, that men, while
attracted by it, were also awed by it, as beyond what imita
tion could hope to reach in the earthly state of being. His
works, owing to the marvellous fullness and perfection of the
spiritual life which pervades them, are worth many times
' West's Edition of Leighton's Works, Remains, vol. vii. pp. 352-4.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 145
over all the writings of all his Scottish contemporaries. There
is nothing nearly equal to them in our devotional literature
from its rise until now." * Robert Leighton was for twelve
years a Presbyterian minister, and was nominally a Presby
terian during the years of his principalship at Edinburgh, so
that all his writings, with the exception of several letters and
synodal addresses, belong to the period when he was in
Presbyterian orders. All the churches can claim him as their
saint, but it is only historically true to aver that the writings
by which his name is known belong to the Presbyterian
period of his life.
What then are the prominent features that distinguish these
writings of his and make them so unique in the spiritual
literature of the Church ?
Their predominant feature is spirituality. Behind them
all is the background of the Unseen, and the man who wrote
them is felt to be one to whom God was a real Presence,
known in experience. The preacher has found his own rest
in God, and from the repose which he himself has felt, speaks
humbly but with a sincerity that is irresistible. He has
penetrated beyond the storms of his age to that serene region
or climate of the soul where peace reigns, and he speaks as
one who has entered into spiritual repose, and has within
him as certainty that to which he bears witness. There is no
mistaking it, for his utterances are both consciously and
unconsciously full of it. The spiritual consciousness gives
its amen to the message, and the man behind it and who
speaks through it, is known as one who has breathed the
serene air of the Mount of Vision, and was a friend of God.
Both the message and the messenger are felt to be spiritual
through and through — to be permeated and possessed by
God. The dews of heaven have fallen on his soul, and the
window within is ever open through which there comes the
light from the Hill of God. Leighton's sermons are the
' St. Giles' Lectures, p. 204.
A.L. 10

146 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
utterances of one who breathed here and now the air of
paradise, and if ever on Scottish soil Eckhart's aspiration
was realized, it was surely in Robert Leighton. " The storm
cannot cease moving till it touch the earth ; the fire rises up
to heaven ; then a loving soul can never rest but in God, and
so we say God has given to all things their proper place — to
the fish the water, to the bird the air, to the beast the earth,
to the soul the Godhead." " Simple people conceive that we
are to see God, as if He stood on that side and we on this.
It is not so : God and I are one in the act of my perceiving
Him!' Another characteristic is their timelessness, and in this
respect they stand forth in contrast to their period. The
atmosphere was heated both politically and ecclesiastically,
and politics and religion were blended together. Strong men
had strong battles to fight, and the issues at stake were vast
and far-reaching. The pulpits were in those days the free
press as well as the religious forces of the country, and could
not help being so. The preachers were patriots and formed
public opinion on politics as well as religion, for there were
then no daily newspapers, no political leaders and no special
correspondents. The ministers had to inform as well as
inspire, and the parish pulpit shaped public opinion, not
least of all on the affairs of Church and State. The Scottish
burghers and rural population would sit for hours while the
preacher declaimed against the vices of kings and statesmen,
against the backsliding of those disloyal to the Covenant, or
described the marching of the Covenanted army, deplored the
victories of Montrose, or gave thanks to God for his defeat at
Philiphaugh. They preached up the times and to the times,
educated the people, were on the side of liberty and morality,
and could not be charged with time-serving. Now Leighton
from the very mould of his mind was the opposite of this.
The references to the " times " are very slight, and events,
when referred to, are always interpreted in the light of a

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 147
religious message which he emphasizes — a call to God, a
summons to repentance, the vanity of earthly things apart
from God, the supremacy of God as the All of life. Leighton
evidently felt that he served the times best by witnessing to
eternity — as the rounded whole that completes the broken
arch. There is a story that has had a long tradition now,
and whether historical or not contains a truth that is
Leightonian, and is at least founded on some utterance of
his, known to his contemporaries. It is told of him that
when minister of Newbattle he was publicly reprimanded at
a meeting of Synod for not " preaching up the times," and
that, on asking who did so and being answered " All the
brethren," he rejoined, " Then if all of you preach up the
times, you may surely allow one poor brother to preach up
Christ and eternity!' Preaching up Christ and eternity are
the two prominent aspects of Leighton's sermons, and this in
an age when controversies made life full of bitterness.
Hurricanes are said to revolve around a region of perfect
calm — outside there is turmoil, within there is peace. So in
seasons of theological and civil strife there are some spirits
whom the controversies never reach, and who hear beyond
the storms the voice of the Master whispering peace.
Robert Leighton was one of such, and if ever a disciple realized
religion as eternal life in the midst of time by the strength
and under the eye of God, it was surely he. This is what
stamps his utterances with eternity and makes them an heir
loom for the Church. For if others attain importance by
a temporary form of opinion, they as invariably sink with the
wave by which they rose ; but that which is founded on the
eternal survives all vicissitudes and contingencies. In this re
spect Leighton's utterances will endure, for there is a timeless
ness about them. Just as it would not be difficult to imagine
Tauler's sermons as preached by Leighton, so it is not less
strange to say that Leighton's could have been preached by
Tauler in the church of Strasburg. Both reflect the same

148 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
spirit : both come from the same pure climate of the inner
life : both express the same sense of sin, the same passion
for union with God, the same quenchless aspiration after
perfection in fellowship with God. As one compares them,
too, with those of Thomas-a-Kempis, the sense of the now
and the then disappears. We are impressed with the fact
that the truly catholic spirits of all ages agree more than
they differ — that in their spirits all is of eternity, and the
eternal has an elective affinity to all that is kindred to itself
in every age.
Dean Stanley speaks of Rutherford as " the true Saint of
the Covenant," and the Covenant, as Principal Tulloch put it,
marks the limitations of his sphere and saintliness. But
Leighton belongs to no party, and his name is an inheritance
to Christendom. There is nothing in him of the " bitter and
bigoted controversialist," and to ask for an embodiment of
catholicity is to turn at once to his message. In Rutherford
we have spirituality united with keen controversial power :
from the former come his Letters, and from the latter the Lex
Rex, which has been pronounced by Dr. Taylor Innes as one
of the few important books on constitutional law which
Scotland has produced.* In Leighton all the time elements
are subdued by the Eternal, which is his native air, and he is
instinctively admitted into the Pantheon of the truly
catholic saints.
His sermons combine the Catholic with the Puritan spirit —
unite in thought a Puritanism which he received from his
father with that Catholicism which he inherited from the
past of his family, and which was deepened and enlarged by
the influence of the Jansenists. It is not without importance
that before he was a parish minister, a principal and a bishop,
Leighton had been in contact with that unconscious
Protestantism in a catholic form which these noble men
represented in France. The spirit — the quiet, meditative,
^ The Evangelical Succession, p. 127.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 149
mystic spirit of the cloister had penetrated him, and had
given a lovely flavour to the manly Protestantism of his
Church. It is a climate — an atmosphere, more to be felt
than described, more to be breathed than analysed — but
still it exists as an element distinguishing Robert Leighton
from the other writers of his day, and gives him no little of
the spell he wields. There is the same atmosphere in
Newman — in fact Newman and he are in many respects
spirits akin. Both of them represent the same block of
spiritual substance, but the kindredness exists with a differ
ence. Both Newman and Leighton seem ever to be saying
with St. Philip Neri — the genial saint of the sixteenth century
— " Oh God, seeing that Thou art so infinitely loveable, why
hast Thou given us but one heart to love Thee with, and this
so little and so narrow." Both united the same Puritanism with
a mystical Catholicism, but on the question of the Church
they each held different views. Let us follow the point a
little further. Newman tells us that Scott, Romaine,
Newton, Milner were the chief books given him by his
mother to read, and that the principles which he borrowed
from Scott as to " the scope and issue of his doctrine "
were " holiness before peace " and " growth the only evidence of
life!' He tells us, too, that from the Analogy of Religion he
received two principles, (i) That the^less^certain aspects of
what is called natural religion are to be interpreted in the
sense of revealed religion and not vice versa — in other words
that we must take the sacramental system of revealed
religion as the key to natural religion, and look at material
phenomena as intended to convey and actually conveying
spiritual influences. (2) That while " probability is the law of
life " we cannot accept this as satisfactory in religious
belief — that we cannot pray to a Being about whose
existence we are seriously in doubt, and that reason which
only amounts to probabilities must be transformed into
certitude by the action of the Divine Will. Newman thus

150 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
accepted the teaching of the Analogy as displaying the
rational preparation for belief, but rejected it so far as it
suggested that any doubt as to the highest truths might
remain. He thus derived both his earliest religious con
victions and philosophy from sources truly Puritan and
Protestant, and this never left him, even after he had taken
a step from which Robert Leighton would have recoiled.
Yet with this Puritanism in thought and belief, Newman
brings that climate and atmosphere, that mystical piety and
self-abnegation, that recall the cloister, with its burning
Jesus-love, and its resignation to the Bridegroom of the
soul. This, too, Leighton had, but Newman added an article
of belief to which Robert Leighton could not subscribe.
Newman held that dogma is of the very essence of revelation
and regarded an authoritative Church at least as important
an element in revelation as a clearly defined doctrine. He
never gave that pre-eminence to the gradual unveiling of
God's character which is the subject-matter of revelation, and
which can alone check and counteract any tendency to
magnify the office of the priesthood. Revelation to Newman
meant not merely, and not chiefly this, but as R. H. Hutton
has put it, " the totality of the results to be produced by all
the new agencies which Christianity set in motion, and of
these of course he regarded an authoritative Church as by
far the most important." * To him the Church was not a
great organization which handed down the original testi
monies to Christ, and which strove to embody Christ's
teaching in the life and conduct of the world ; it was the
depository of the sacraments which Christ instituted, and
thereby the only agency competent to impress on man those
regenerate habits of mind that make its testimony effectual.
Here Newman takes the step that makes his career — spiritual
splendour as he was — so impressively pathetic. He did not
rest satisfied that the unveiling of God could be accomplished
' Cardinal Nei/umaii, p. 51.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 151
without the aid of any elaborate church system or any great
network of doctrine. He did not see that neither has
certainty attached to them in Scripture — that the unveiling
of God in what Christ was and did, and its irresistible
evidence in winning the soul of man — are the all in all of
Christianity. Now Leighton held no such views on the
Church. He regarded it as the society of the faithful, as the
gathering together of men, penetrated by the Spirit of
Christ, for worship, meditation and Christian service in the
world. Revelation was the unveiling of God in Christ —
" Christ is the medium through which we look upon God." *
What Christ did, was and suffered, brings God near man
and man near God. He subscribed to the Protestant
conviction — the Christian belongs to the Church because he
belongs to Christ, not to Christ because he belongs to the
Church. Leighton resented what he called " Rome's
conceit," ^ and he was Protestant in his convictions to the
very end of his life. He never wavered in this belief, nor
had any doubt of its authoritative basis in God's Word.
But he never parted, on the other hand, with the spiritual
element that appears in the old Catholic mystics, and their
devotion and his Protestantism did not exist in Bacon's
phrase as iron and clay — " cleaving, but not incorporating " —
they fused together, and in no writer of his time do we find a
Protestantism so well incorporated in all that was good and
holy in the past. He is at once loyal to the Reformation
and loyal to St. Bernard and St. Francis in absorbed
devotion to the Bridegroom of the soul. He is a St. Francis
in a Scottish garb and speaking from a Scottish pulpit. He
had all the unworldly purity and aspiration about him that
shine from the cloister in its purest days. He is the true
Scottish saint and catholic teacher. Newman and he are
twin-brothers in their spirituality and self-abnegation, but
' West's Edition of Commentary on St, Peter, vol. i. p. 140,
' Ibid. p. 3.

152 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
unlike Newman, Robert Leighton disbelieved in an authori
tative Church as an element of revelation, or as ever existing
in history.
His sermons exhibit a moderate Calvinism. Although
emphasis has been laid upon the catholic element in
Leighton, it is not to be inferred that this was inconsistent
with the Calvinism which he inherited from his upbringing,
his reading and his study. The two elements did not
exist as parallel forces that did not touch each other at any
point. On the contrary, and from the very nature of the
case, they blended and enriched each other. Calvinism was
the form which Protestantism always assumed when it was
put on the defensive against Roman Catholicism, but
Calvinism is not alien to Catholicism.* Augustine was left
behind at the Reformation, but he helped to call that very
Reformation into being. Without Augustine Luther is not
to be understood, neither is Calvin himself, nor St. Bernard,
nor Thomas Aquinas, nor Thomas k Kempis, nor Wyclif
nor Wesel nor Wessel. Augustinianism has been the
inspiration of all the mighty forces that have moved the
Western Church, and Professor Harnack has put it —
" Catholicism strove to stifle his surviving influence at the
Council of Trent, in the contest with Jansenism, and by the
Vatican Decrees. But he is, in spite of all, no dead force ;
what he has been to the Church of Christ will not vanish, and
even to the Romish Church he will leave no rest." ^ The
' Professor Hastie thus refers to Calvinism : " We speak of it as
the Theology of the Reformed Church as such — a Church which,
unlike the Lutheran Church, has refused to be designated by any
human name, however honoured, or to be confined within any one
national designation or boundary, and which claims to be more truly
Catholic than the Roman Church, because it is none other than the
Reformed Church of Christ itself, now purged as such of its human
corruptions and individual limitation, and elevated into the truly
Catholic Universality of the Invisible Church, with immediate Divine
Communion in all its members." Theology and Science, p. 65.
" Confessions of St. Augustine, p. 171,

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 153
doctrines of grace which Calvin, Jansen, and St. Cyran
warmly espoused were derived from St. Augustine as the
interpreter of St. Paul. All sought to awaken them in the
Christian consciousness — Calvin within the Protestant
branch of the Catholic Church and the Jansenists within
the very bosom of the Roman Church itself Both had the
one aim, with this difference, that Calvin led to new forms of
church-life, and the Jansenists sought to embody the
doctrine of grace within the old mediaeval Church itself
Leighton formed this synthesis between the two, and felt no
difficulty in thereby being ordained minister of a Church
that was predominantly Calvinistic in its theology. And
so his Protestantism was enriched and softened by the
refreshing stream of the old and pure catholic spirit.
Leighton's early training was not undone by the later
influence, and it is to be recalled that this character of
rare beauty and holiness grew up in Calvinistic soil, that
Calvinism as a living system of thought and belief moulded
him and shaped his religion. To say this is but to say
that the principle of grace, which Calvin rediscovered,
became the inspiration of his religious life as well as the
basis of his Christian experience, and that he lived under
the revelation, power and conscious knowledge of God, as a
God of Grace in Christ Jesus.
But we have named his doctrine as a moderate Calvinism,
for he did not, as some Calvinistic teachers did, annihilate the
human in the divine. He co-ordinated the two necessary
factors in the religious life — God and the soul. He empha
sized God as a God of Grace, but the Grace did not crush or
eliminate the human factor. It orbed it into a purer, fairer
form. There are present in his teaching the " I " and the " not
I " of St. Paul: if he felt so profoundly "Christ liveth within
me," he also felt in this Christ-consciousness " I also live." He
realized at one and the same time the Spiritual Prince from
whom the truth came and the spiritual faculty in man as ari

154 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
active faculty to which it was addressed, in which and by
which it was to be realized. He harmonized at once the
Divine Sovereignty, which seems to crush man and regard
him as clay in the hands of the potter, by its very assertion,
and human freedom which realizes itself in the very act of
surrendering itself to God, and inherits a new sweetness
and power in the very act of doing so. In experience he real
ized that God is the All and the in all, working within us both
to will and to do of His own good pleasure, and yet that man
as man is not extinguished in the Immanent God, but raised
to a new life. God is all— but it is also true, Ich bin ein Ich,
— man is a personality realizing himself as man in the very
act of knowing this experience.
In doing so, Leighton kept himself free from a one-sided
theology and philosophy that were current in his day, and
which arose from the very same consciousness that the Reform
ation as spiritual emancipation had brought. Both the phi
losophy and religion of the period, springing from a common
origin, exhibit a similar course of development through which
they passed — a development manifesting an apparent incon
sistency with its origin. Freedom is the common origin of
both, and yet it passes into a doctrine of absolutism which is
the very denial of freedom. In religion the assertion of the
right of private judgment in religious matters gave rise to a
theology of predestination and " irresistible grace." In philo
sophy the theory of Descartes, which may be compared to
the first assertion of religious liberty by the Reformers, led to
the philosophy of Spinoza, in which God was felt to be the
All and the individual to be absorbed in Him. Predestination
in religion corresponds with pantheism in philosophy, and in
both God is so conceived as to leave to the world and man no
independence or reality.
Now it is not to be doubted that Leighton was partially,
and if not permanentiy yet occasionally, under this religious
view of the world ; but, upon the whole, he reconciles both

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 155
factors in the religious life, and in such a way as to leave room
for the realization of the human in communion with the Di
vine. If " to will as God wills " is the whole of religion, yet in
that submission there is much more involved : the soul of
man thereby attains to a true consciousness of itself, to a new
and higher freedom — the freedom of a life in God. In dying
it has lived ; in renouncing itself it has gained itself; in set
ting aside its own aims it has realized them in a nobler form
in God. The thought and will to which it has resigned
itself are recognized as infinitely above it, yet spiritually its
own ; and in making the surrender the soul of man has passed
into a new activity in which it has become a "fellow-labourer"
with God. This reconciliation is well expressed in Tenny
son's " Human Cry " : —
" We feel we are nothing — for all is Thou and in Thee ;
We feel we are something — that also has come from Thee :
We know we are nothing — but Thou wilt help us to be :
Hallowed be Thy Name— Hallelujah ! "
This was felt in experience by Leighton. Religion was
at once to him a free act and a feeling of dependence ; it
was a communion, and the creation of a new inner activity
through it — a surrender and the birth of a new life by it. He
realized reverently the Sovereign Grace of God as the pre
dominant element of religion, but as a spiritual power to be
known in his own spiritual nature as well as in that of his
hearers, and so he could emphasize so strongly these three
directions as the sum of religion : —
Remember always the Presence of God ;
Rejoice always in the Will of God ;
Seek always the Glory of God ;
but yet as a " remembering," a " rejoicing," a " seeking " which
involved not the absorption of the soul in God, but a new life,
of spiritual activity with God. Piety, he would say with Pascal
is God sensible TO the heart, and the revelation of God within
the soul is through the very faculty God has given it as a

156 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
gift, and through the new inspiration God continually imparts
to the faculty when it draws nigh to Him in meditation and
prayer. Revelation becomes the response of God to the prayer
of man. The Father does not exist without the children, and
in the Sovereign Law is the gracious love that invites the
children to a new life of sonship in the Fatherhood. Man's
sonship is his response to God's Fatherhood. Leighton saw
this, and so his religion, while Calvinistic in its basis, was
saved from the extreme that Calvinism has assumed.
Again, Leighton's religious teaching reconciles the inner
consciousness with the authority of Scripture. He never
asserted the spiritual nature of man as an absolute authority
apart from Scripture, nor Scripture as an absolute authority
apart from the spiritual faculty in man to which it was
addressed. He thereby avoided the danger of early Protest
antism ; for, as Professor Hastie has said, " the theology of
the Reformation took on a distinctively subjective character
from its turning away from the false objectivity of Romanism
into the inward depths of faith." * Leighton heard God speak
ing in the message of Scripture, but he also saw in the spirit
ual consciousness of man a pre-established harmony to that
message, which contained within itself the possibility of a
response — knew that response as ultimately certain, for the
God of Grace who gave the message also created the spiritual
faculty to assimilate it. And, like St. Paul, he sought to com
mend the authority of Scripture " to every man's conscience
in the sight of God." The idea of a covenant-relationship
between God and man through the Bible is one prominent in
his thought, but he does not make it rest upon an external
supernatural revelation, but on one commending itself to man's
original spiritual nature — to that primary, universal, and
indestructible element in man's own constitution. He
maintained the innateness or naturalness of religion along
with its spiritual authority in Scripture, appealing to it; and
Theology and Science, p. 41,

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 157
if on the one hand he heard heaven's music in the Bible, he
sought on the other hand to find in man's spirit the chords that
vibrate to it. To expound and commend Scripture to the
acceptance of his hearers — to secure from the religious con
sciousness a cordial welcome to what he brought from the
Scripture storehouse — was the end of his preaching, and an
end that makes his message perpetually fresh. Amid the
bitter controversies and parties of his day, his pre-eminent
glory is that he recognized the relationship of man to God to
be a personal one in thought and love, and knew that until
man attains personal communion with God in the inwardness
of his own life man remains a stranger to the eternal and
divine. This to Leighton was religion ; this religion he
sought to commend to others ; and it is the constant pleading
for it that makes him such a grand figure amid the stormy
contentions of his age.
Founded on his intense consciousness of God in Christ
was his toleration. In fact, Leighton stands forth in
Scottish history of the seventeenth century as the one man
who knew what tolerance was and exhibited it constantly in
his own attitude. Beholding the Vision on the Mount, with
eyes ever fixed on the Unseen Face, he regarded the
questions over which men wrangled as secondary ones, and
not worthy of the fever that they engendered. His is one of
the solitary names in Scotland that transcends the difference
of parties and unites them. Presbyterians and Episcopalians
both can claim him, and his name may yet become the
rallying point of the future. His Church was the union of the
faithful, and his heart ever rested in that element which
unites the good of every church and age. His life affords
the evidence, of which John McLeod Campbell testified when
he wrote : " True, pure toleration towards others is as sure an
accompaniment of being consciously taught of God as
humility is as to ourselves."* His possession of truth, while it
' Thoughts on Revelation, p. 45 .

158 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
humbled himself, also created a due reverence for conscience
in others. " Leighton belonged," says Professor Blaikie, " to
a broad church in the best sense of that term. His toleration
was not the kind that rebukes the bitterness of theologians in
that very spirit of bitterness which it affects to rebuke. His
charity was not that which laments the divisions of Christen
dom in that scornful tone which only serves to increase
them." * While his catholicity did not make him latitudin-
arian, nor his charity make him indifferent to the majesty of
truth and its imperious claims over the conscience, Leighton
recognized as brethren all who loved the Lord Jesus, claimed
an affinity to the good that was in every system, and could
say all good men must unite, for they are already one in
God. As in church movements he sought to be guided more
by the way of reform than of revolution, so in doctrine he
would recommend unity in all that is essential, liberty in all
that is doubtful, and in all things charity. He, supremely
and in the best sense, deserved the name — tolerant.' While
he was a Protestant, he at the same time found that principle
expressing itself in all the best movements and the best
minds of the mediaeval Church — in a St. Bernard or St.
Francis as well as Luther, in a Thomas a Kempis as well as
Calvin, in a Tauler as well as a Knox. Beneath and
beyond all differences, Leighton had still the vision of the
' The Evangelical Succession, p. 207.
^John McLeod Campbell has the following statement on the
intolerance of the Reformers: "At first sight nothing can look more
inconsistent than the conduct of the Reformed Churches, persecuting in
their turn their persecutors, and then persecuting one another. As to
this seeming inconsistency, it must be remembered that it was not of the
use of power on the part of the Church of Rome to enforce conformity
that the Reformers complained, but of that use to enforce conformity to
error. The same use of power they were therefore ready, and witliout
inconsistency, to justify and practise in the interest of truth. It was a
prejudice of their education, an error which they took with them out of
the Church of Rome, to think that the knowledge of truth conferred a
right so to act, or that the interests of truth could at all thus be
promoted." Thoughts on Revelation, pp. 43, 44.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 159
Church of Christ, as essentially one and catholic, and as
being continued by those who exhibited the grace and faith
of the Christian life. He was persuaded, too, that difference
disappeared in a renewed consciousness or assurance of God,
and to this he dedicated his life.
Plis sermons are the expression of himself, and it is the
man within them that imparts the fascination. What he
utters was part of himself — the very vital substance of his
being. To read these utterances is to be brought into
contact with one to whom the spiritual world was ever
present as the background of life and to whom the spiritual
had become as the natural — to whom the assurance of God
in Christ and the aspiration after moral perfection were the
predominating elements of religion. To read them is to
breathe an atmosphere — the atmosphere created by one who
was possessed at once by a deep, habitual seriousness and a
prevailing ideality of character, who felt his own sinfulness
and God's grace, who was chastened, gladdened and
purified by the well-known Presence, who sought to raise
his hearers to the Mount of Communion, where he himself
lived. It was said of Tauler by one who heard him often*: —
" that the Spirit of God breathes through him, as sweet music
through a lute," and the same can be said of Robert
Leighton. One hears the Divine harmonies reaching this
world through him, and if ever any one reiterated the cry of
Francis Xavier as he appealed to men — "Oh, rock, rock,
when wilt thou open to my Master?" — it was surely this
prophet in a Scottish garb and from a Scottish pulpit.
Archbishop Magee divided preachers into three classes :
(i) the preacher you can't listen to, (2) the preacher you can
listen to, and (3) the preacher you cannot help listening to.^
Leighton, both by his matter and his manner, belonged to
the third class. The angelic strains of eloquence and
* Christina, Abbess of Eugenthal.
'^Life, vol. ii. p. 17.

i6o MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
devotion, with the low, sweet voice, lingered in the memory
of his hearers to their " dying day," and gave the impression of
a unique man. The following is a tribute to his preaching as it
comes from the pen of Bishop Burnet, who heard him often :
" His preaching had a sublimity both of thought and
expression in it ; and, above all, the grace and gravity of his
pronunciation was such that few heard him without a very
sensible emotion : I am sure I never did. It was so different
from all others, and indeed from everything that one could
hope to rise up to, that it gave a man an indignation at him
self and all others. It was a very sensible humiliation to me,
and for some time after I heard him I could not bear the
thought of my own performances, and was out of countenance
when I was forced to think of preaching. His style was
rather too fine, but there was a majesty and a beauty in it
that left so deep an impression that I cannot yet forget the
sermons I heard him preach thirty years ago. And yet with
all this he seemed to look on himself as so ordinary a
preacher that while he had a cure he was ready to employ all
others, and when he was a bishop he chose to preach to small
auditories, and would never give notice beforehand. He had
indeed a very low voice, and so could not be heard by a
great crowd." *
Although Leighton never wrote for the press, his preaching
marks a new era in the literary history of the Scottish pulpit.
He set aside the old orthodox method of pulpit utterance —
formal division, uses, applications — and, along with Binning
and Gray, he adopted or led the new form which was known
as "the haranguing way."^ Discarding the multitudinous
' History of His Own Times, vol. i. p. 241.
^ Referring to Andrew Gray (who became Gillespie's successor as
minister of the Outer High Church, Glasgow, in 1653, but died of fever,
1656) Baillie says :— " He has the new guyse of preaching, which Mr.
Hew Benning and Mr. Robert Leighton began, contemning the ordinarie
way of exponing and dividing a text, of raising doctrines and uses, hot
runs out in a discourse on some common head, in a high, romancing.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 161
divisions, he made the text in its parts the key-note of his
method, and although like Emerson he was an intuitionalist,
indulging frequently in aphorisms that embody a marvellous
richness of truth and insight, there is a subtle logical coherence
pervading the whole treatment of a text. His writings reveal
an unaffected flow ; his language is that of a scholar and a
man of high literary taste ; he is free from the mystical
raptures and the luscious sensuousness that come out in the
Scottish practical theology of the seventeenth century. It is
to be regretted that no perfectly satisfactory edition of his
works exists, and perhaps it is now impossible to have one as
the manuscripts are no longer in whole to be had, and he has
suffered so much from later editors. Dr. Fall's edition may
with some drawbacks be pronounced as by far the best. Later
editors have reduced the good, archaic, nervous language
which appears still so prominently in his letters,* to the bald
feebleness of modern phraseology. They have acted the part
of schoolmasters, correcting the style of a school-boy's essay,
and so Leighton's quaint language has been much impaired.
Still such as the text now is, Leighton's diction is more
elegant and his English style more free and flexible than
that of any contemporaneous preachers, and throughout it are
unscriptural style, tickling the ear for the present, and moving the
affections in some, bot leaving, as he confesses, little or nought to the
memorie and understanding. This we must misken, for we cannot
help it." Letters and Journals, vol. iii. pp. 258, 259. Wodrow pre
serves for us also the impression Leighton's preaching made on William
Guthrie, afterwards minister of Fenwick, the author of The Christian's
Great Interest, and cousin of the celebrated martyr, James Guthrie.
He, like Baillie, did not approve of the new method. " Mr. William
Guthrie, upon the fame of Mr. Leighton's affecting manner of preaching,
when at Edinburgh, used sometimes to go to New Botle, where Mr.
Leighton was minister, and hear him. And his remark was, that, in the
time of hearing him, he was as in heaven, but he could not bring one
word with him, almost, out of the Church dores ; referring to his har-
ranging way of preaching without heads." Analecta, vol. ii. 348, 349.
' E.g. those in the Lauderdale Correspondence, edited by Mr. Osmund
Airy. See chaps, xi. and xii.
A.L. 1 1

i63 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
felt the refining influence of scholarship and a wide knowledge
of English, French, and Latin authors. It is freed from the
uncouth language of the period, and indicates a distinct
advance in literary attainment.
The style of the Scottish preachers was formed out of
three languages, Latin, Scotch and English.* Latin was the
language of the Universities, Scotch of conversation, and
English of the press, but it was not till the eighteenth century
that Scotch preachers generally came to be familiar with the
English language. Leighton's style* was much improved by
his frequent visits to England and his knowledge of French
literature, and so it as well as his thought tend to preserve
his influence. Special emphasis must here be given to his
aphorisms, which are classic in a supreme degree. Take the
following examples from the many that occur throughout his
works : —
" The grace of God in the heart of man is a tender plant in a
strange, unkindly soil." "The grief of the saints here is not so
much for the changes of outward things as of their inward comforts."
" Worldly mirth is so far from ending spiritual grief that even
worldly grief, where it is great and takes deep root, is not allayed
but increased by it." " The love of our heavenly Father is beyond
the love of mothers in tenderness, and yet beyond the love of fathers
(who are usually said to love more wisely) in point of wisdom."
"The true and genuine beauty of the Church is to grow in spiritu
ality, and so to be liker itself, and to have more of the presence of
God and His glory filling it as a cloud." " In times of peace the
Church may dilate more, and build as it were into breadth, but in
times of trouble it arises more in height : it is then built upwards,
as in cities where men are straitened they build usually higher than
' Cf. Blaikie's Preachers of Scotland.
^ Coleridge says as to Leighton's style :— " Ask yourselves, therefore,
what you would be at, and with what disposition you come to this most
sacred table." In an age of colloquial idioms, when to write in a
loose slang had become a mark of loyalty, this is the only L'Estrange
vulgarism I have met with in Leighton. Notes on English Divines,
p. 120,

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 163
in the country." * "Oh, there is nothing in myself but matter of
shame, but yet, in Christ there is more matter of glorying, who
endured shame that we might not be ashamed." "God shall com
municate Himself unto you, the light of whose countenance feeds and
satisfies the glorified spirits that are about His throne." "Art
imitates nature ; and the nearer it comes to nature in its effects the
more excellent it is." "To be the sons of God is not a style without
an estate, an empty title. No, He who makes us sons, makes us
heirs likewise ; sons, we are, in Christ and co-heirs with Christ."
" The visible Church is but a little parcel, a kingdom chosen out of
the world ; but the truly godly, who are alone the subjects of the
inward kingdom of grace, are but a small part of that part, a
choice part of the visible Church, as it is a choice part of the visible
worid." Referring to the Lord's Prayer, Leighton says : —
"Oh, the spirit of this prayer would make rare Christians."
In reference to the Psalter he adds : —
"A bundle of myrrh that ought to lie day and night in the
bosom." " The highest beauty of the soul, the very image of God
upon it, is hohness."
Philip Doddridge in a preface to Leighton's works (1748)
expresses his own estimate of the sermons by quoting the
words of a friend : —
" There is a spirit in Archbishop Leighton I never met
with in any human writings ; nor can I read many lines in
them without being moved."
But he also adds the following tribute : —
" The style wonderfully suits the sentiments ; and however
destitute of the flights of oratory, has such a dignity and force
mingled with that simplicity, which is to be sure its chief
characteristic ; so that on the whole, it has often reminded
me of that soft and sweet eloquence of Ulysses, which Homer
describes as falling like flakes of snow ; and if I might be
allowed to pursue the similitude, I could add, like that, it
' Probably suggested by the high blocks of buildings in Old Edin
burgh.

i64 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
penetrates deep into the mind too, and tends to enrich and
fructify it."
Sermons which could draw such a tribute from Doddridge
and this one from Coleridge : * " Surely if ever work not in the
Sacred Canon might suggest a belief of inspiration, of some
thing more than human, this * it is " — deserve to be placed
amongst the national religious works and regarded as classics.
And in a volume which seeks to interpret the mind of the
author as well as record the facts of his life, so far as they
can be known, passages illustrative of his distinctive thought
and style are both appropriate and necessary for the full view
of the man. Let us take the following.
Comparison of Chrisfs Life with the lives of famous men.
" God has set His stamp on all other things, but most of all on
man ; and as He intended (man's happiness) in the first creation, so
also in the second, which in some respect is greater, and does show
forth more wonderfully His power, goodness, and wisdom. But
that which overtops the rest, though all be great, is His Goodness,
which the Apostle could not stay till he had spoken of the rest, but
cast it in between the other two : That He might show forth the ex
ceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ
Jesus; and it still exceeds all that can be spoken. In the history of the
life of former famous men and reigns of kings,'what shall we find, for
the most part, but unnatural jealousies, treacheries, and murders
one of another ; and for the poor people that are under their com
mand, the sacrificing them as sheep to their own passions and pride
in needless wars ? And if anything of affections, it is usually of un
happy lusts. Yet men can take delight in turning over such lives !
But O the sweet history of the Gospel ! which is all love, most rare,
most pure : the love of God to sinners ; the sending forth of His
only begotten Son, and He no less willingly and sweetly giving Him
self for us, to come down and die with men and for men, that they
might live, and be quickened, and be glorious. Were it but simply
' " Next to the inspired Scriptures — yea, and as the vibration of that
once-struck hour remaining on the air, stands Leighton's Commentary
on the First Epistle of St. Peter. Notes on English Divines, p. 120.
^Ibid

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 165
to have been delivered and no more but that, O what love and what
mercy is in that, to be set free from everlasting burning, and to be
out of pain and at ease ! But to have this added, to be raised from
so low to so high a dignity, lifted up to heaven from hell ! Not only
is our life redeetned from destruction, but we are crowned with loving-
kindness and mercy ; being once adjudged to lie under the wrath of
God for ever, not only to have this taken off, but to be taken in and
embraced of God to all eternity! Think what love is this ! . . .
Now amidst the disasters of these times, it cannot be denied, but
that yet we may be happy ; that God has made the Gospel shine
here and entreats us to accept it. And the more unhappy we if we
do not : that lies in ourselves, it is not in the power of the times :
that makes us unhappy if we were not in the best days of the world.
O how dismal were they without this report of this grace that is re
vealed in Jesus Christ ! And this may fill our hearts with comfort
in the midst of trouble."
Man's union with God in Christ.
" Man is knit to God in the person of Christ so close that there is
no possibility of dividing them any more ; and this union of our
nature in His person is made the ground of the imion of our persons
with God. We find our own flesh in Christ catch hold of a man,
and in that man may find God, and are made one with Him by our
faith in Christ. And this all the powers of hell cannot dissolve. Our
life none can cut off from His, more than a man can cut a beam from
off the sun. We are and subsist of God in Christ. This is an un
known mystery, but, were it known, it would prove a depth of rich,
inexhaustible consolation. The world doth not know what Christians
are. This is no wonder, for truly they know not themselves, or
but very little. How would it elevate their spirits, but not in pride !
Oh, nothing is more humbling than this, as the Apostle here implies.
But it would raise them above the world, and suit their desires and
their actions to their condition, having all under foot that the world
accounts great, walking as heirs of heaven, led and moved by the
Spirit of Christ in them ; thinking, when soHcited to any base or
sinful way. How doth this become the son of God ? Shall one who
lives in Christ degrade himself so much as to borrow comfort or
pleasure from any sin, for the killing and destruction whereof He
laid down His precious life ?
" Oh, my brethren, that this divine ambition were kindled in yout

i66 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
breasts, to partake of this high and happy being, and leave all other
pursuits to follow this, restless till you be in Christ ! For solid,
abiding rest, sure I am, out of Him there is none. And then,
being in Him, remember where you are and what you are. Walk
in Christ, and live like Him, as one with Him indeed ; let His
thoughts and desires be yours. What was His work, yea, what His
refreshment. His meat and drink ? To do His Father's will. Oh,
when shall we find ourselves so minded, and, as the Apostle's word
is, have the same mind in us that was in Christ ? "
Faith in the Fatherly Providence of God.
"Amidst all disorders. He is ordering all wisely and justly, and to
them who love Him, graciously; therefore we ought not to be dis
mayed. Let us calm our thoughts with this, remember who it is that
rules all, and disposes of peace and war and all affairs, and we cannot
wish them in a better hand. I am persuaded that in all the com
motions of the world, when a believer thinks on this, it cannot but
calm and compose his spirit exceedingly : My Father rules all Let
this so quiet our fears as that withal it quicken our prayers, and stir
us up to the work of the day — repentant, humble, seeking unto
God ; seeing all is in His hands, our peace, our liberties, and our
enemies that threaten to bereave us of both. Oh ! that the effect of
all our troubles and dangers were to drive us more to God, to make
us throng more about the throne of grace, to draw forth our King
for our help ! Oh, our impenitence and unreformedness ! That
turns Him to be our enemy ; that only is sad. Men are nothing.
And now in so great straits, yet so litde calling on Him ! Oh, my
brethren, what are we doing ? O ! pray, pray. It is our God that
commands all, and we may say it upon His own warrant, it is prayer
that commands Him."
The Endeavour after the Christian Life, with the
accompanying sense of Sin.
" The most purified Christians are they that are most sensible of
their impurity. Therefore I called not this a universal freedom
from pollution, but a universal detestation of it. They that are then
pure are daily defiled with many sins, but they cannot be in love
with any sin at all, nor do they willingly dispense with (indulge in)
the smallest sins which a natural man either sees not to be sin
(though his dim moonlight discover grosser evils), or, if he do see

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 167
them, yet he judges it too much niceness to choose a great incon
venience rather than a little sin. Again, they differ in another
particular ; a natural man may be so far in love with virtue after his
manner as to dislike his own faults and resolve to amend them, but
yet he would think it a great weakness to sit down and mourn for
sin, and to afflict his soul, as the Scripture speaks. The Christian's
repentance goes not so lightly : there is a great deal more work in it.
There is not only indignation against impurity, but it proceeds to
revenge. 2 Cor. vii. n. The saints we read of in Scripture were
ashamed of their impurity, but never of their tears for it. Let the
world enjoy their own thoughts, and account it folly, yet surely the
Christian who delights in purity, seeing he cannot be freed from
daily sin, when he retires himself at night, is then best contented
when his eyes serve him most plentifully to weep out the stains of
the by-past day : yet he knows withal that it is only his Redeemer's
blood that takes away the guilt of them. This is the condition of
those that are truly, though not yet fully, cleansed from the pollu
tions of the world by the Spirit of wisdom and purity. What mean
they, then, who would argue themselves out of this number,
because they find yet much dross left, and that they are not so
defecated and refined as they would wish to be ? On the contrary,
this hatred of pollution testifies strongly that the contrary of it,
purity, is there ; and though its beginnings be small, doubt not it
shall in the end be victorious. The smoking of this flax shows
indeed that there is gross matter there, but it witnesseth likewise
that there is fire in it too, and, though it be little, we have Christ's
own word for it that it shall not be quenched ; and if He favour it no
other power shall be able to quench it. You find not, indeed,
absolute holiness in your persons nor in your best performances, yet
if you breathe and follow after it, if the pulse of the heart beat thus,
if the main current of your affections be towards purity, if sin be in
you as your disease and greatest grief, and not as your delight, then
take courage : you are as pure as travellers can be ; and notwith
standing that impure spirit, Satan, and the impurity of your own
spirits, vex you daily with temptations, and often fail you, yet in
despite of them all you shall arrive safe at home where perfection
dwells." Walking in the Light.
" Heat without light is the character of the fire of hell. . . .
Aspire then to be intelligent Christians, and to know well what you

i68 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
believe. Let your minds be filled with knowledge, as the Apostle
speaks. But let it not stop there : it must have influence into the
will. Lux est vehiculum caloris : True light conveys heat. All
the knowledge that the natural man hath of Christ, not warming his
affection to Christ, is but ignis fatuus, a vain light ; it shall never
lead him to happiness. Saving light produces love, and by that
acts. . . . Shine here in holiness. And do it with these
qualifications : (i) Constantly; (2) Progressively, gaining still more
and more victory over darkness till you attain to the unmixed and
perfect light ; (3) Shine humbly to His glory whose light you
borrow. . . ."
In another sermon he adds : —
" Now this walking in the light is so truly the badge of this Light
that it is the thing itself. It is a retreat of the soul to God. It is a
retiremeiit and retreat of the soul to repose the spirit upon God : not
to that cloister and hermetical life so much commended, nor the
relinquishing those things there required. Let us, says the Saviour,
go into the wilderness and rest awhile — -from thronging multitudes of
people. There is a necessity for those intervals of retiring in unto
God — we must have some fixed viewings of God and openings of
our heart unto God — these sittings down to look upon His Infinite
Beauty, and shutting out all other things beside Him. This soon
doth assimilate the spirit of a man unto God, and does mortify the
flesh and the affections of sin, and those lower desires that are
struggling and wrestling within us. Many endeavours will not
wrong us in this Fellowship with God. Though we cannot see that
Light as it is, yet that light He hath set forth in the revealing of His
will and of His nature. Christians ought to come forth from these
recessions as Moses from the Mount, their faces shining and the
tables of the law in their heads, the writings of the law and the
power of it in their hearts, and in their actions holiness and love.
This is to walk in the light, and this is to have Fellowship with God.
It is the evidence of this that clearly testifies unto the soul that it is
translated from the power of daikness by the almighty power of
God, Who is Light, into the Kingdom of His dear Son."
Fellowship with God.
" My beloved, I desire that you may be inflamed with an ardent
desire for this blessed privilege, and whatsoever way the Lord shall
be pleased to dispose all things that are about us, yet this may be

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 169
our great and daily business to study this communion with God.
The heights of princes and great men in all their greatness is
nothing to this. Those that are raised to the highest converse and
society with men that are at the top of the worid— what is it all that
they attain to ? For as in their height and greatness they can easily
despise the vulgar persons that are meaner than themselves, so doth
a Christian despise all that they account highest. For a Christian is
conversant with angels, he is walking daily in the streets of the New
Jerusalem, and there is not any person so mean or inconsiderable or
despicable in the world that is shut out from this great advantage
and this so high a privilege." The Evidence of Election.
"The great evidence of thy election is love. Thy love to Him
gives certain testimony of His preceding eternal love to thee : so are
the elect here designated, they that love God. Thy choosing Him is
both the effect and evidence of His choosing thee. Now, this is not
laborious, nor needs to be disputed. Amidst all thy frailties, feel the
pulse of thine affection, which way it beats, and ask thy heart
whether thou love Him or not : in this thou hast the character of
thy election." Religion as Imitation of Christ.
" The chief study of a Christian, and the very thing that makes
him to be a Christian, is, conformity to Christ. Summa religionis
est imitari quern colis : This is the sum of religion (said that wise
heathen Pythagoras) to be like Him whom thou worshippest. But
this example being in itself too sublime, is brought down to our view
in Christ : the brightness of God is veiled, and veiled in our own
flesh, that we may be able to look on it. The inaccessible light of
the Deity is so attempered in the humanity of Christ that we may
read one lesson by it in Him, and may direct our walk by it. And
that truly is our only way : there is nothing but wandering and
perishing in all other ways, nothing but darkness and misery out of
Him : but he that follows Me, saith He, shall not walk in dark
ness, John viii. 12. And therefore is He set before us in the
Gospel in so clear and lively colours, that we may make this our
whole endeavour, to be like Him."
Loving God as the Enlargement of the Heart.
"As the Devil's work is division, Christ's work is Union. ... He

I70 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
came to make all friends : to re-collect and re-unite all men to God,
and man to man. . . . Loving of God makes us one with God, and
so gives us an impression of His Divine bounty in His Spirit. And
His love, the proper work of His Spirit, dwelling in the heart,
enlarges and dilates it, as self-love contracts and straitens it ; so that
as self-love is the perfect opposite to the love of God, it is likewise
so to brotherly love : it shuts out and undoes both ; and where the
love of God is rekindled and enters the heart, it destroys and burns
up self-love, and so carries the affection up to Himself, and in Him
forth to our brethren. . . . That Spirit of Christ, which is all sweet
ness and love, so calms and composes the heart, that peace with God,
and that unspeakably blessed correspondence of love with Him, do
so fill the soul with loving kindness and sweetness, that it can breathe
nothing else. It hates nothing but sin, it pities the sinner, and
carries towards the worst that love of good will, desiring their return
and salvation. But as for those in whom appears the image of their
Father, their lieart cleaves to them as brethren indeed. But as for
those in whom appears the image of their Father, their heart cleaves
to them as brethren indeed. No natural advantages of birth, of
beauty, or of wit, draw a Christian's love so much as the resemblance
of Christ : wherever that is found, it is comely and lovely to a soul
that loves Him." Faith as Contemplation of Christ.
" Faith looks so steadfastly on its suffering Saviour, that as they
say Intellectus fit illud quod intelligit, the mind becomes that which
it contemplates. It makes the soul like Him, assimilates and con
forms it to His death as the Apostle speaks. Phil. iii. 10. That
which Rome fables of some of her saints, that they received the
impression of the wounds of Christ in their body, is true, in a
spiritual sense, of the soul of every one that is indeed a saint and a
believer : it takes the very print of His death by beholding Him, and
dies to sin, and then takes that of His rising again, and lives to
righteousness. As it applies it to justify, so to mortify, drawing
virtue from it. Thus said one, ' Christ aimed at this in all those
sufferings which, with so much love, He went through ; and shall I
disappoint Him, and not serve His end ? ' "
Eternity.
" One thought of Eternity drowns the whole time of the world's

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 171
duration, which is but as one instant, or twinkling of an eye,
betwixt Eternity before and Eternity after : how much less is any
short fife (and the small part of it that is spent in sufferings), yea,
what is it, though it were all sufferings without interruption, which
yet it is not I When I look forward to the crown, all vanishes, and
I think it less than nothing."
In another passage : —
" Oh, Eternity, Eternity ! Oh, that we did believe it ! "
Educative Power of Suffering.
" If we trace the lives of the most eminent saints, shall we not
find every notable step that is recorded marked with a new cross,
one trouble following another, veluf undo pellitur undo, as the waves
do, in an incessant succession ? " Is not this manifest in the life of
Abraham, and of Jacob, and the rest of God's worthies in the
Scriptures ? And doth not this make it an unreasonable, absurd
thought, to dream of an exemption ? Would any one have a new
untrodden way cut out for him, free of thorns and strewed with
flowers all along ? Does he expect to meet with no contradictions,
nor hard measure from the world, or imagine that there may be
such a dexterity necessary as to keep its goodwill and the friendship
of God too ? This cannot be ; and it is a universal conclusion.
All that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution.
2 Tim. iii. 12. This is the path to the Kingdom, that which all the
sons of God, the heirs of it, have gone in, even Christ, according to
that well-known word, one Son without sin, but not one without
suffering : Christ also suffered.
" The example and company of the saints in suffering is very
considerable, but that of Christ is more so than any other, yea, than
all the rest together. Therefore the Apostle, having represented the
former at large, ends in this, as the top of all. Heb. xii. i, 2. There
is a race set before us, it is to be run, and run with patience, and
without fainting ; now, he tells us of a cloud of witnesses, a cloud
made up of instances of believers suffering before us, and the heat of
the day wherein we run is somewhat cooled even by that cloud
compassing us : but the main strength of our comfort here lies in
looking to Jesus, in the eyeing of His sufferings and their issue. The
considering and contemplating of Him will be the strongest cordial,
will keep you from wearying and fainting in the way."

172 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
The following preserves the memory of quiet Sundays at New-
battle : —
"This is the loveliest, brightest day in all the week to a spiritual
mind. These rests refresh the soul in God, that finds nothing but
turmoil in the creature. Should not this day be welcome to the
soul, that sets it free to mind its own business, which is on other
days to attend the business of its servant the body ? And these are
a certain pledge to it of that expected freedom, when it shall enter
into an eternal Sabbath, and rest in Him for ever, who is the only
rest of the soul."
With regard to Leighton's doctrinal teaching in a special
sense, the following may be taken : —
The Sacraments.
"The end of Baptism, to save us. This is the great common end
of all the ordinances of God ; that one high mark they all aim at.
And the great and common mistake in regard to them is, that they
are not so understood and used. We come and sit awhile, and, if
we can keep awake, give the Word the hearing ; but how few of us
receive it as the engrafted Word that is able to save our souls I
Were it thus taken, what sweetness would be found in it, which
most who hear and read it are strangers to ! How precious would
those fines be if we looked on them thus, and saw them meeting and
concentrating in salvation as their end ! Then, likewise, were the
Sacraments considered indeed as seals of this Inheritance, annexed to
the great charter of it, sealsof Salvation, this would powerfully beget a
fit appetite for the Lord's Supper, when we are invited to it, and
would beget a due esteem of Baptism : would teach you more
frequent and fruitful thoughts of your own baptism, and more pious
considerations of it when you require it for your children. A
natural eye looks upon bread, and wine, and water, and sees the out
ward difference of their use there, that they are set apart and
differenced (as is evident from external circumstances) from their
common use ; but the main of the difference, wherein their excel
lency lies, it sees not, as the eye of faith above that espies salvation
under them. And oh, what a different thing are they to it from
what they are to a formal user of them ! We should aspire to know
the hidden rich things of God, that are wrapped up in His ordin-

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 173
ances. We stick in the shell and surface of them, and seek no
further : that makes them unbeautiful and unsavoury to us, and that
use of them turns into an empty custom. Let us be more earnest
with Him who hath appointed them, and made this their end, to
save us, that He would clear up the eye of our souls, to see them
thus under this relation, and to see how they are suited to this their
end, and tend to it. And let us seriously seek salvation in them
from His own hand, and we shall find it. . . .
"... That Baptism hath a power is clear, in that it is so
expressly said, it doth save us ; what kind of power is equally clear
from the way it is here expressed ; not by a natural force of the
element ; though adapted and sacramentally used, it only can wash
away the filth of the body ; its physical efficacy or power reaches no
further ; but it is in the hand of the Spirit of God, as other
Sacraments are, and as the Word itself is, to purify the conscience,
and convey grace and salvation to the soul, by the reference it hath
to, and union with, that which it represents. It saves by the answer
of a good conscience unto God, and it affords that, by the Resurrection
of fesus from the dead.
" Thus, then, we have a true account of the power of this, and so
of other Sacraments, and a discovery of the error of two extremes :
(i) Of those who ascribe too much to them, as if they wrought by a
natural inherent virtue, and carried grace in them inseparably; (2)
Of those who ascribe too little to them, making them only signs and
badges of our profession. Signs they are, but more than signs merely
representing: they are means exhibiting, and seals conferring grace to
the faithful. But the working of faith, and the conveying of Christ
into the soul to be received by faith is not a thing put into them to
do of themselves, but still in the Supreme hand that appointed them :
and He indeed both causes the souls of His own to receive these
His seals with faith, and makes them effectual to confirm that faith
which receives them so. They are then, in a word, neither empty
signs to them who believe, nor effectual causes of grace to them who
believe not.
"The mistake, on both sides, arises from the want of duly
considering the relative nature of these seals, and that kind of union
that is betwixt them and the grace they represent, which is real,
though not natural or physical, as they speak : so that, though they
do not save all who partake of them, yet they do really and effectu
ally save believers (for whose salvation they are means) as the other

174 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
external ordinances of God do. Though they have not that power
which is peculiar to the Author of them, yet a power they have such
as befits their nature, and by reason of which they are truly said to
sanctify and justify, and so to save, as the Apostle here avers of
Baptism. "Now, that which is intended for our help, our carnal minds are
ready to turn into a hindrance and a disadvantage. The Lord
representing invisible things to the eye, and confirming His promises
even by visible seals, we are apt, from the grossness of our un-
spiritual hearts, instead of stepping up by that which is earthly to
the Divine spiritual things represented, to stay in the outward
element, and go no further. Therefore, the Apostle, to lead us into
the inside of this seal of Baptism, is very clear in designating the
effect and fruit of it : Not (says he) the putting away the filth of the
fiesh (and water, if you look no further, can do no more) : there is
an invisible impurity upon our nature, chiefly on our invisible part,
our soul. This washing means the taking away of that, and where it
reaches its true effect, it doth so purify the conscience, and makes it
good, truly so, in the sight of God, who is the judge of it."
The following utterance on Christian Unanimity in the
Newbattle days, is not unimportant in the light of Leighton's
later history.
" Concerning Unanimity we may safely conclude : i. That
Christians ought to have a clear and unanimous belief of
the mysteries and principles of faith : to agree in those without
controversy. 2. They ought to be diligent in the research of truth
in all things that concern faith and religion ; and withal to use all
due means for the fullest consent and agreement in them all that
possibly could be attained. 3. Perfect and universal consent in all,
after all industry bestowed on it, for anything we know, is not here
attainable, neither betwixt all churches nor all persons in one and
the same church ; and therefore, though church-meetings and synods,
as the fittest and most effectual way to this Unity, should endeavour
to bring the church to the fullest agreement that may be, yet they
should beware lest the straining it too high in all things rather break
it, and an over-diligence in appointing uniformities remove them
further from it. Leaving a latitude and indifferency in things
capable of it, is often a stronger preserver of peace and unity. But

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 175
this is by the way. We will rather give some few rules that may be
of use to every particular Christian, towards this common Christian
good of Unity of mind.
"i. Beware of two extremes, which often cause divisions — captivity
to custom on the one hand, and affectation of novelty on the other.
" 2. Labour for a stayed mind, that will not be tossed with every
wind of doctrine, or appearance of reason, as some who, like vanes,
are easily blowed to any side with mistakes of the Scriptures, either
arising in their own minds, or suggested by others.
" 3. In unclear and doubtful matters be not pertinacious, as the
weakest minds are readiest to be upon seeming reason, which,
when tried, will possibly fall to nothing ; yet they are most assured,
and cannot suffer a different thought in any from their own. There
is naturally this Popeness in every man's mind, and most, I say, in
the shallowest : a kind of fancied infallibility in themselves, which
makes them contentious, contrary to the Apostle's rule (Phil. ii. 3),
Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, and as earnest upon
differing in the smallest punctilio as in a high article of faith.
Stronger spirits are usually more patient of contradiction, and less
violent, especially in doubtful things ; and they who see furthest are
least peremptory in their determinations. The Apostle in his second
Epistle to Timothy hath a word to the purpose, the spirit of a sound
mind; it is a good, sound constitution of mind not to feel every
blast, either of seeming reason to be taken with it, or of cross
opinions to be offended at it.
"4. Join that which is there, the spirit of love in this particular:
not at all abating affection for every light difference. And this the
most are a little to blame in : whereas the abundance of that should
rather fill up the gap of these petty disagreements, that they do not
appear nor be at all sensibly to be found. No more disaffection
ought to follow this than the difference of our faces and complexions
or feature of body, which cannot be found in any two alike in all
things." Leighton, we know from contemporaneous literature, was
suspected to be "Popish and Jesuisted" — to be "such an
offence to the godly, so there is none who by his way, prac
tise and expression, giveth greater suspicion of a popish affec
tion, inclination and design " ! The " suspicion '' has no

176 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
ground in facts, and was both an unworthy and an untrue
one. He was throughout his whole life a loyal Protestant,
and the following extracts from many throughout his writings
indicate his views regarding the Papacy during the Newbattle
period of his life, and from them he never wavered.
Referring to St. Peter, he says : —
" By that which is spoken of him in divers passages of the Gospel,
he is very remarkable amongst the Apostles, both for his graces
and his failings ; eminent in zeal and courage, and yet stumbfing oft
in his forwardness, and once grossly falling. And these by the pro
vidence of God being recorded in Scripture, give a check to the ex
cess of Rome's conceit concerning this Apostle. Their extolHng
and exalting him above the rest, is not for his cause, much less to the
honour of his Lord and Master Jesus Christ, for He is injured and
dishonoured by it ; but it is in favour of themselves. As Alexander
distinguished his two friends (Hephaestion and Craterus), that the
one was a friend of Alexander, and the other a friend of the King,
the preferment which they give this Apostle is not in good-will to
Peter, but in the desire of primacy. But whatsoever he was, they
would be much in pain to prove Rome's right to it by succession.
And if ever it had any such right, we may confidently say it has for
feited it long ago, by departing from St. Peter's footsteps and from
his faith, and retaining too much those things wherein he was faulty,
namely :
" His unwillingness to hear of and consent to Christ's sufferings —
his Master, spare Thyself, or Far be it from Thee— in those they are
like him ; for thus they would disburden and exempt the Church
from the cross, from the real cross of affliction, and, instead of that,
have nothing but painted, or carved, or gilded crosses : these they
are content to embrace, and worship too, but cannot endure to hear
of the other. Instead of the cross of affliction, they make the crown
or mitre the badge of their Church, and will have it known by pros
perity and outward pomp ; and so turn the Church militant into the
Church triumphant, not considering that it is Babylon's voice, not
the Church's, I sit as a queen, and shall see no sorrow. Rev.
xviii. 7.
"Again, they are like him in his saying on the Mount at Christ's
Transfiguration, when he knew not what he said. It is good to be here.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) I77
So they have httle of the true glory 01 Christ, but the false glory of
that monarchy on their seven hills : It is good to be here, say they.
"Again, in their undue striking with the sword, not the enemies,
as he, but the faithful friends and servants of Jesus Christ. But to
proceed. "We see here St. Peter's office or title — an Apostle; not chief
bishop. Some in their glossing have been so impudent as to add
that beside the text ; though in chap. v. ver. 4 he gives that title to
Christ alone, and to himself ovAy fellow elder ; and here, not prince
of the Apostles, but an Apostle, restored and re-established after his
fall, by repentance, and by Christ Himself after His own death and
resurrection. Thus we have in our Apostle a singular instance of
human frailty on the one side, and of the sweetness of divine grace
on the other."
Again :
" It is in His Word that Christ shines, and makes it a directing
and convincing light, to discover all things that concern His Church
and Himself, and to be known by its own brightness. How imper
tinent, then, is that question so much tossed by the Romish Church,
How know you the Scriptures (say they) to be the Word of God, with
out the testimony of the Church ? I would ask one of them again,
how they can know that it is day-light, except some one light a candle
to let them see it. They are little versed in Holy Scripture, who
know not that it is frequently called light ; and they are senseless
who know not that light is seen and known by itself." . . . "The very
authority of the Church, which they obtrude so confidently, must be
stopped and examined by these Scriptures, which they would make
stand to its courtesy. Doctrines and worship must be tried by this
light ; and what will not endure this trial must not be endured in the
house of God."
These extracts from Leighton's Commentary and Sermons,
belonging to the Newbattle period of his life, illustrate the
matter of his teaching ; but there exists a sermon of his, de
livered at aq Ordination Service, which brings before us his
ideal of a minister's life and work. It is interesting here as
revealing the principles by which he sought to guide and
mould his own ministry at Newbattle, and in this autobio-
A.L. 12

178 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
graphical light we seek to consider it. The minister is to him
the ambassador of Christ, entreating men in Christ's stead to
be reconciled to God. The office binds upon its holder four
duties : i. Piety ; 2. Prudence ; 3. Fidelity ; 4. Magnanimity.
The minister must be (i) a friend of God and inward with God ;
(2) he must quarter dove-like simplicity and serpent-like
wisdom together, as the Master appointed who created the
embassy ; (3) he must declare the whole counsel of God, and
neither add nor abate anything ; (4) he must rise above the
world, tread upon her frownings with the one foot and her
deceitful smilings with the other — slight her proffers and
despise her contempts." * We may be certain — rather we know
from existing evidence — that he who commended this ideal
for another had first of all accepted it for himself, and that if
any one ever in the ministry deserved the epithets of pious
prudent, faithful, and magnanimous, it was indeed Robert
Leighton. But another point to be observed is that not only do his
writings exhibit a covenanting spirit, but there is no ground
to doubt his unfeigned attachment to moderate Presbytery
during the Newbattle period of his life— at least before 1648.
The extracts regarding his Newbattle ministry from the
Session ajid Presbytery Records, published by the late Rev.
Dr. Gordon, of Newbattle,* correct various mistakes into
which Bishop Burnet and those misled by his words have
fallen. Burnet states : " Leighton came and settled in
Scotland, and had Presbyterian ordination ; but he quickly
broke through the prejudices of his education. . . . He soon
came to see into the follies of the Presbyterians, and to hate
their covenant, particularly the imposing it, and their fury
against all who differed from them. He found they were
not capable of large thoughts : theirs were narrow as their
temper was sour. So he grew weary of mixing with them :
' Sermon on the "Worth and Work of the Ministry.''
' Proceedings, vol. iv. pp. 459-489, see pp. 220-241.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 179
he scarce ever went to their meetings, and lived in great
retirement, minding only the care of his own parish at
Newbattle, near Edinburgh. Yet all the opposition that he
made to them was, that he preached up a more universal
charity, and a more exact rule of life than seemed to them
consistent with human nature : but his own practice did even
outshine his doctrine." * Now the historical evidence will
not bear such an interpretation — in fact, says much to the
contrary. Leighton is brought before us as one of the
most faithful members of Presbytery, and one of the most
regular in his attendance at the meetings. He preached
often before the Presbytery of Dalkeith, occasionally before
the Synod of Lothian and the Scottish Parliament. If he
" disliked their covenant, particularly the imposing it," he
signed the Solemn League and Covenant himself in 1643,
and even so late as June 27, 1650, he administered it to
Robert Kerr, who had been for twelve years previous in
Germany. So far from " scarce going to their meetings,
living in great retirement, and minding only the care of his
own parish," he took a part in Presbytery work and was
generally trusted. But anything that tends to illuminate
the history of this great man at this period is interesting :
the point is important, and we must take the details as they
are brought before us by documents of unquestionable
historical veracity.
Robert Leighton seems in general to have been more
in accord with the position of the Earl of Lothian than
with that of the poet Drummond of Hawthornden, in the
neighbouring parish of Lasswade. The Earl was his lifelong
friend, and at his house he would occasionally meet the
Earl's relative — the great Earl and Marquis of Argyll, who
took such an important part in the General Assemblies of
the Church at this time. Newbattle Abbey was the residence
of the Lothian family, and Annabella Campbell, sister of
' History of His Own Times, vol. i. pp. 240, 241.

i8o MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
the Earl of Argyll, had married Robert Kerr, second Earl
of Lothian. The Countess became a widow by the death of
her husband in 1624, and had gone to reside in France, and
the Countess of Lothian in possession of the title and
property during Leighton's ministry was her eldest daughter
Anne. This lady — her father having left no male heir —
was countess in her own right, and married, in 1631, William
Kerr, eldest son of Sir Robert Kerr, of Ancram — a distant
relative. In October of the same year William Kerr was
created Earl of Lothian, and two years afterwards his father
was created Earl of Ancram. This young nobleman — the
third Earl of Lothian — had become a Covenanter, associated
himself with his wife's uncle, the Earl of Argyle, and was
the ruling or representative elder sent by the Presbytery of
Dalkeith to the Glasgow Assembly. He took his place as
a Covenanting leader, and to him more especially had been
assigned the duty of looking after the interests of the
Covenant in the region south of Edinburgh, lying round
Newbattle and Dalkeith. Although his father, the Earl of
Ancram, remained throughout life a devoted royalist and
a faithful courtier of Charles, and the son, the Earl of
Lothian, influenced by patriotic and high-minded principles
appeared as a supporter of the popular party, neither of
them, as their correspondence manifests, lost affectionate
esteem for the other.' Ancram lived in England, while
Lothian remained in Scotland as one of the prominent
leaders in the Covenanting party and one of " the Noblemen,
Barons, Gentlemen, etc., who leagued themselves for the
Defence of the Religion and Liberty of Scotland."
Now Leighton was more in accord with the policy of the
Earl of Lothian his friend and parishioner, than with another
whom he must have frequently met at Newbattle Abbey —
Drummond of Hawthornden. " Call Drummond a passive
' See Correspondence of the Earls of Ancram and the Earl of Lothian
(1616-1667), edited by David Laing.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 181
or theoretical Montrose, and Montrose a rampant or practical
Drummond, and you will have expressed very exactly the
relationship of the " two men to each other." * Leighton
sympathized at this period of his life neither with Drummond
nor Montrose, although later reflection must have made him
regard both somewhat differently. So far as he took an
interest in or made a reference to the events of his day,
he followed for about seven years the policy of the Church
of Scotland, as stated by its Assembly, but at the same
time his references to current events are very slight, and
interpret them chiefly in a religious aspect. Let us examine
somewhat more minutely the details.
Leighton's ordination was on December 16, 1641, and on
June 30, 1642, he was appointed by the Presbytery of
Dalkeith a Commissioner to the General Assembly, which
met at St. Andrew's on July 28, 1642, " to promote the great
work of unity in religion and uniformity in church govern
ment in all the three Kingdoms." Leighton was present at
this Assembly, and on the 5 th of August the same year was
appointed a member of Commission to carry out this
scheme.^ He was present at the Meeting of Commission on
October 18, 1642, when Commissioners were nominated for
the Westminster Assembly. There thus seems reason to
conclude that immediately after his ordination Leighton
sympathized with the project to establish Presbyterianism in
England, to have the Church of England moulded after the
model of the Church of Scotland, and both possessing the
same catechism, confession and directory.
Soon after his ordination he celebrated the Church settle
ment, just completed with the authority of the King — the
" Second Reformation " as it was called — under the name of
" The Restoration of Zion's Glory : or God's Day of Mercy
to His Church." ^ The sermon breathes a Covenanting spirit
' Masson's Life of Drummond, p. 346.
^ Cf. Peterkin's Acts, p. 68. ' West's Edition, vol. ii. p. i.

i82 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
and speaks against the undue adornment of worship. " It is
the vanity of that Church (Rome) to think they adorn the
worship of God when they dress it up with splendour in her
service, which, though some magnify it so much, yet may
most truly be called a glistering slavery and captivity. Then
is the Church truly free, and wears her crown, when the
ordinances of God are conformable to His own appointment.
It is vanity in men, I say, when they dress it up with a
multitude of gaudy ceremonies, and make it the smallest part
of itself : whereas, indeed, its true glory consists not in
pomp, but purity and simplicity."* The treaty between
Charles I and the Scottish Pariiament and Assembly in
1 64 1 is thus referred to : — " Truly we have matter of thank
fulness that the Lord hath in some measure inclined the
royal heart of our Sovereign to the desires of his people." ^
He does not spare Covenanting excesses, especially groaning
during prayer, which was a custom during this period.^
" This godly sorrow is always serious and sincere, and that is
the other quality here remarkable in it. It is not a
histrionical weeping only in public : for the speech is here
directed to God, as a more frequent witness of these tears
than any other, who is always the witness of the sincerity of
them, even when they cannot be hid from the eyes of men." *
In the midst of these customs and the contentions of the day,
he says, " It is the substance of religion to be like Him, whom
we worship : man's end and perfection is likeness to God." ^
He thus refers to the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642
(St. Peter ii. 13, 14) : —
"It is the pride and self-love of our nature that begets dis
obedience in inferiors and violence and injustice in superiors : that
depraved humour which ties to every kind of government a pro-
' Ibid. p. 9. * Ibid. p. 12.
^ Mercurius Poliiicus, October 12, 1650.
* West's Edition, vol. ii. p. 78 ; cf p. 43 ; also vol. iii. p. 341.
' Vol. ii. p. 52.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 183
pension to a particular disease : which makes royalty easily
degenerate into tyranny, the government of nobles into faction, and
popular government into confusion.
"As civil authority and subjection to it are the institutions of
God, so the peaceable correspondence of these two, just govern
ment and disobedience, is the special gift of God's own hand, and a
prime blessing to States and Kingdoms; and the troubling and
interruption of their course is one of the highest public judgments
by which the Lord punishes oftentimes the other sins both of rulers
and people. And whatsoever be the cause, and on which side
soever be the justice of the cause, it cannot be looked upon but as a
heavy plague, and the fruit of many and great provocations, when
Kings and their people, who should be a mutual blessing and
honour to each other, are turned into scourges one to another, or
into a devouring fire." *
We now come to 1643, the year of the Solemn League
and Covenant. Robert Leighton held different views regard
ing this document in later years : it became the stumbling-
block against the realization of his favourite scheme of con
ciliation, but he signed it in 1643. The copy with his
signature and those of William, Earl of Lothian, and Sir
John Murray, dated Newbattle, 1643, is still existent in the
Scottish Antiquarian Society's Museum.^ He makes
frequent reference to this document in his subsequent papers,
and it is necessary to recall the essential parts of it for the
sake of later reference : — " We, Noblemen, Barons, Knights,
Gentlemen, Citizens, Burgesses, Ministers of the Gospel, and
Commons of all sorts, in the Kingdoms of England, Scotland
and Ireland . . . with our hands lifted up to the Most
High God, do swear : —
" I. That we shall sincerely, really and constantly, through the
grace of God endeavour, in our several places and callings, the
preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland,
in Doctrine, Worship, Discipfine and Government, against
* Vol. iii. p. 290.
' Proceedings, vol. iv. p. 487 ; Bannatyne Miscellany, vol. iii. p. 231.

i84 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
our common enemies : (also) the Reformation of Religion
in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland, in Doctrine,
Worship, Discipfine and Government, according to the Word
of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches,^ and
we shall endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three King
doms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Religion,
Confession and Faith, Form of Church Government, Directory for
Worship and Catechising, that we and our posterity after us may, as
brethren, live in faith and love, and the Lord may delight to dwell
in the midst of us.
" II. That we shall in like manner, without respect of persons,
endeavour the extirpation of Popery, Prelacy (i.e. Church-govern
ment by Archbishops, Bishops, their Chancellors and Commissaries,
Deans, Deans and Chapters, Archdeacons, and all other
ecclesiastical officers depending on that Hierarchy), Superstition,
Heresy, Schism, Profaneness, and whatsoever shall be found to be
contrary to sound doctrine and the power of godliness ; lest we
partake in other men's sins, and thereby be in danger to receive of
their plagues, and that the Lord may be one and His name one in
the three Kingdoms.
" III. We shall with the same sincerity, reality and constancy, in
our several vocations, endeavour with our estates and lives mutually
to preserve the rights and privileges of the Parliaments and the
Hberties of the Kingdoms, and to preserve and defend the King's
Majesty's person and authority in the preservation and defence of
the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms ; that the world
may bear witness with our consciences of our loyalty, and that we
have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his Majesty's just power
and greatness.
" IV. We shall also with all faithfulness endeavour the discovery
of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries, Malignants, or
evil Instruments, by hindering the Reformation of Religion, divid
ing the King from his People, or one of the Kingdoms from
1 The most important article is the First, pledging to a recognition and
defence of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland and to an endeavour
after a Reformation of Religion in England and Ireland, "according to
the Word of God," with a view to uniformity in the three Kingdoms.
The insertion of the caution " according to the Word of God," is said to
have been due to Vane, who did not desire to pre-commit the English
too much to exact Scottish Presbytery. It is a phrase that Leighton
refers to in his subsequent papers.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 185
another, or making any faction or parties among the People
contrary to the League and Covenant ; that they may be brought
to public trial, and receive condign punishment as the degree 01
their offences shall require or deserve, or the supreme judicatories of
both Kingdoms respectively, or others having power from them for
that effect, shall judge convenient.
"V. And, whereas the happiness of a blessed Peace between
these Kingdoms, denied in former times to our progenitors, is by
the good Providence of God granted unto us, and hath been lately
concluded and settled by both Parliaments, we shall, each one of us,
according to our places and interest, endeavour that they may
remain conjoined in a firm Peace and Union to all posterity, and
that justice may be done upon the wilful opposers thereof in
manner expressed in the precedent Article.
" VI. We shall also, according to our places and callings, in this
common cause of Religion, Liberty, and Peace of the Kingdoms,
assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant
in the maintaining and pursuing thereof, and shall not suffer our
selves, directly or indirectly, by whatsoever combination, persuasion,
or terror, to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed union and
conjunction, whether to make defection to the contrary part, or give
ourselves to a detestable indifferency and neutrality in this cause,
which so much concerneth the glory of God, the good of the
Kingdoms, and the honour of the King ; but shall all the days 01
our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all
opposition, and promote the same according to our power against
all lets and impediments whatsoever, and what we are not able
ourselves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal and make known,
that it may be timely prevented or removed : all which we shall do
as in the sight of God. . . ."
Such is the remarkable document that explains Scottish
Church History at this period. " The English were for a
civil league, we for a religious covenant," said Baillie, and the
event has made the sentence memorable. It was after slight
discussion accepted by the Westminster Divines, was signed
by Lords and Commons in St. Margaret's Church, by the
Scottish Privy Council and by the people all over Scotland
and England. Ecclesiastical censures and spoiling of goods

i86 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
awaited those who refused to sign it, and intolerance of
differences reigned supreme. The Scots had thus two Cove
nants — the National Covenant peculiar to themselves, and the
Solemn League and Covenant, in which they were joined by
the English Parliamentarians, and on which, as a basis of
agreement, they sent as Commissioners to the Westminster
Assembly, x'^.lexander Henderson, George Gillespie, Robert
Baillie, Samuel Rutherford, Robert Douglas, Ministers ; John,
Earl of Lauderdale, John, Lord Balmerino, and Sir Archibald
Johnston of Warriston, Elders.* This " will o' the wisp " ol
covenanted uniformity led the Scottish Church into strange
places, and its only ultimate results were the substitution in
Scotland of the Westminster Confession of Faith, Catechism
and Directory for Public Worship, in place of the older
Scottish documents, and the approximation of Scottish Pres
bytery to English Puritanism, involving a distinct departure
from the ideals of the Scottish Reformation, and the intro
duction into Scotland of a form of Sabbatarianism which has
come to be regarded as distinctively Scottish, but which owes
its origin historically to English Nonconformity.^ Its imme
diate effects were the short-lived predominance of Presbytery
in England, and the crossing of the Tweed in January, 1644,
by a Scottish army in the pay of the English Parliament.
Yet as the subject is interesting here in the light of
Leighton's subsequent career, let us consider further im
portant aspects of the case.
(i). A strong difference exists between the National
Covenant of 1638 and the Solemn League and Covenant
of 1643. That two such documents, with only five years
of time between them, should differ so widely in their whole
scope and purpose is one of the most remarkable features in
the history of the troubles. The later one indicates a most
unfavourable change in the spirit and conduct of the leaders
' Peterkin's Record, p. 450.
^ Cf. Rait's Relations between England and Scotland, p. 167.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 187
of the Church party, and yet it stands so near to the earlier
one in point of time. The National Covenant was constitu
tional and conservative — was a defence of the principles, rights
and liberties of the Church of Scotland, while its end and
aim was the preservation of the Church. The Solemn League
and Covenant was revolutionary and aggressive, and instead
of directing itself to the defence of the National Church in
Scotland, had an obvious and undisguised object — the subver
sion of the Church of England, and the abolition of its govern
ment, worship and discipline. The one was a vigorous, manly
declaration and defence of liberty : the other created a crusade
of intolerance. The one was an endeavour of earnest men
to secure liberty of conscience for themselves : the other was
an open attempt to deny liberty of conscience to others.
Perhaps the wisest of all the Commissioners was Robert
Douglas, who never went to Westminster, and not least of all
is it worthy to be recalled here that he was Robert Leighton's
friend. (2). The past of England made it impossible for the English
mind to accept Presbytery as it was then at work in Scotland.
The difference of English tradition at once made it apparent
that the Solemn League and Covenant was not a medicine to
heal the wounds of the Church, but a sword to divide it —
that divisive as it was, this Covenant merely emphasized
the divisions, which were harsh enough already.* It never
occurred to Henderson and his coadjutors that the political
development of England made the English people hostile to
the strict Presbyterian inquisition into the moralities of
domestic life, while their -social organization made them
intolerant of a masterful, ecclesiastical rule. They were the
less likely, also, to pay attention to the essential difference in
the character of the two people, since the English Parliament
at Westminster, which had now implored their aid, was quite
ready to accept Presbyterianism in its more shadowy, but in
* Cf. Gardiner's History of the Great Civil War, vol. i. pp. 235, 236.

i88 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
reality less important aspect. " No one," says Mr. Gardiner,
"who had studied the Root-and-Branch Bill,* which wa.s
brought in and dropped in the summer of 1641, could doubt
that the English Parliament would refuse to surrender that
control over the clergy by the laity which had been the most
abiding result of the Tudor rule, or would resist to the utter
most the ever-present despotism of the Presbyterian Church
Courts. Yet, as every Scottish minister knew, it was in these
two points, and not in the mere absence of bishops, that the
essence of Scottish Presbyterianism was to be found." ^
(3). The Solemn League and Covenant made conciliation
between the parties represented in the Westminster Assembly
impossible. It at once cleared away from the Assembly the
Moderate or Broad Church party who, while attached to
Episcopacy as entwined with English history, were ready
for changes in the government and worship of the Church,
and were persuaded that the hour for them had struck.
These men were one in aiming at a limited Episcopacy and
were prepared for a system that united Presbytery and
' The object of the Root-and-Branch Bill was the abolition of Epis
copacy and the transference of jurisdiction to committees of laymen in
each diocese. When it was being pushed steadily through committee
in 1641, Vane's proposed frame of Church government was materially
altered, and so determined were the Committee not to admit the clergy
to power, that they rejected Vane's plan for placing Episcopal jurisdic
tion in the hands of Diocesan Boards, one half of which were to be
clergymen, and substituted for it a scheme by which nine lay commis
sioners, to be named in the Bill, were to exercise jurisdiction in England
in person or by deputy. Objections were raised to the competency of
lay commissioners, but Selden, who usually supported the bishops,
argued in favour of the new project, which at least had the merit in his
eyes of taking authority from the hands of the clergy, and Selden carried
the Committee with him. A few days later it was arranged that five
ministers in each county should be charged with the work of ordination.
It is thus clear that in rejecting Episcopacy, the House of Commons
resolved not to establish Presbyterianism, and in the light of this the
ideal of the Solemn League and Covenant was an impossible one.
Cf Gardiner's History of England, vol. iv. pp. 407, 408.
^Ibid. p. 228.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 189
Episcopacy together : they represented a great party in
England, and were quite distinct from the Laudian or High
Church Party, who believed in the Divine Right of Epis
copacy. They represented those who held that Episcopacy
might be good for the bene esse of the Church, but was not
necessary to its esse, and were willing to arrange a compre
hensive scheme of unity. The effect of the Solemn League
and Covenant was to make conciliation impossible, and
Archbishop Usher, their great representative, at once left
the Assembly. As he had departed from the policy of
Laud, it was impossible for him to join with those who had
become Laud's successors in spirit, by asserting the absolute
Divine Right of Presbytery. Here assuredly was a great
opportunity lost, for had the Scottish Commissioners united
with Usher, an eirenicon might have been evolved that
would have proved acceptable to the Church of Scotland,
that would have given an embodiment of the comprehensive
tolerance that was the ideal of Chillingworth and Hales, and
saved from so much later strife. Usher ought to have been
the one whom the Scottish Commissioners should have hailed
as their best coadjutor, for as an Episcopalian he was ready to
make concession, and even to bring back the Prayer Book
to the ideal so attractively pourtrayed by Hales : " Were
liturgies and public forms of service so framed as that they
admitted not of particular and private fancies, but contained
only such things as in which all Christians do agree, schism
and opinion were utterly vanished. For consider of all the
liturgies that are or ever have been, and remove from them
whatsoever is scandalous to any party, and leave nothing
but what all agree on, and the event shall be that the public
service and honour of God shall no ways suffer : whereas to
load our public forms with the private fancies upon which we
differ is the most sovereign way to perpetuate schism unto
the world's end. Prayer, confession, thanksgiving, reading
of Scriptures, exposition of Scripture, administration of

190 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
sacraments in the plainest and simplest manner, were matter
enough to furnish out a sufficient liturgy, though nothing
either of private opinion, or of Church pomp, of garments, of
prescribed gestures, of imagery, of music, of matter concern
ing the dead, of many superfluities, which creep into the
Churches under the name of order and decency did inter
pose itself. For to charge Churches and liturgies with
things unnecessary was the first beginning of all superstition,
and when scruples of conscience began to be made or
pretended, then schism began to break in." All this was
represented in Usher, but the Covenant of 1643 parted
ways : it caused the few Episcopalian members who had
been originally nominated either to decline any part in the
Assembly's deliberations or to be expelled upon charges of
royalism, while of the lay-members only a few gave them
selves the trouble to attend.
The Presbyterians were probably represented by 100
of the 105 remaining divines, but the Covenant even
amongst them created a decisive line of demarcation. It
divided, or rather brought to light, a pre-existent spirit
that divided two parties, those who, like the prolocutor
Dr. Twisse and Dr. Reynolds, afterwards Bishop of Nor
wich, simply held that Presbytery was "lawful and agree
able to the Word of God," and those who, like the
Scottish Commissioners, held that it was of Divine Right.
The Covenant thus alienated Presbyterians from each other,
but it no less alienated them from the Independents, Messrs.
Goodwin, Burroughs, Nye, Simpson and Bridge, within the
Assembly itself.
These men were the most mild of their order, and were
the least removed from the Presbyterians, while toleration in
some form would have satisfied them. Their independency
consisted in the courageous assertion of the Congregationalist
principle in the midst of an overpowering Presbyterianism,
and in their claim that should the Presbyterian system be

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 191
established in England there should be at least " an in
dulgence" under that system for themselves and their
adherents " in some lesser differences." These " lesser differ
ences " were not theological, for in doctrine they were one
with the Presbyterians — they were rather such as would
arise from the conscientious perseverance of a minority in
Congregational practices after Presbytery had been estab
lished. These were the true representive " Independents "
who stood up for the rights of conscience in the Assembly,
and who witnessed to their conviction that the early Church
was a voluntary association of believers represented in the
local congregation, managing its own affairs, choosing its
own office-bearers, independent of neighbouring congre
gations, though holding occasional conferences with them
and profiting by the collective advice. The error of the
Presbyterians, to the Independents, lay in their retaining the
Synodical tyranny, while they would throw off the Prelatic :
Independency would be done with the Synodical as well as
with the Prelatic power, and commit the duties of discipline
to each particular Church or society of Christians in any one
place. Like Robinson they abandoned the name of Brownists
as " a mere nickname and brand for making them odious " :
like Robinson they witnessed to the " liberty of prophesying,"
and believed that it was part of their Church covenant " to be
ready to receive whatever truth shall be made known from
the written Word of God."
Now the Solemn League and Covenant, with its assertion
of the Divine Right of Presbytery, alienated the Independents
no less than the moderate Episcopalians and Presbyterians.
But, on the contrary, had greater autonomy been permitted
to the individual congregation in matters of worship and
discipline : had a Creed been formed, not statutory, but
declaratory : had Scottish Presbyterianism been less rigid
and more elastic ; had toleration been declared ; even the
Independents might have been satisfied and been included in

192 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
a National Church, comprehensive in the best sense of the
term. But Independency was to be crushed, not reconciled.
The orthodox Independents were associated in the Presby
terian mind with the numerous and miscellaneous " sectaries "
of the period — with the Baptists or Anabaptists, the old
Brownists, Antinomians, Familists, Millenaries or Chiliasts,
Seekers, Divorcers, Anti-Sabbatarians and Traskites, Soul-
Sleepers or Mortalists, Arians," Socinians, Anti-Trinitarians,
Anti-Scripturists, Sceptics, Atheists, etc.* — and branded with
a common hatred. Anti-toleration and the conformity of
the whole nation to one Presbyterian Established Church, in
which Independency and Toleration were to be strangled
together, was the demand of the hour, and so the Solemn
League and Covenant became not a balm to heal, but a
sword to sunder differences that were wide enough before it.
The Presbyterians had now succeeded the Laudians, and
their intolerance was as great as that of those whom they had
supplanted. Neither again could the Presbyterian demands satisfy the
Erastians of the Assembly, who held that the Church was a
department of the State service or the State itself acting
ecclesiastically, and that all power of discipline, civil and
ecclesiastical, belonged ultimately to the State. This party
was represented by Dr. Lightfoot, Mr. Coleman, and by
lawyers and laymen like Bulstrode, Whitlocke, Oliver St.
John and Selden. At more than one juncture they were
brought into co-operation with the Independents, although
the predilection of most of them was for a limited Episcopacy
or Presbytery. They were the " critics " within the Assembly
— " zig-zagging across the line of main division and causing
complication of the main controversy " — seeking always to
modify jure divino forms, and it can be quite easily under
stood how they regarded any uniformity as possible on the
line of absolute Presbytery.
' Cf Masson's Lije of Milton, vol. iii. pp. 146-159.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641 -1653) i93
(4). Thus Scottish Presbytery in standing determinately to
the necessary identity of Presbyterianism with absolute anti-
toleration, lost the most magnificent opportunity for effecting
unity that has ever presented itself to it in the course of
history. Had the General Assembly of the Church of Scot
land offered to England " Presbytery with a Toleration," it is
impossible to conceive the great good to Christendom that
would have ensued. But the " religious bond " meant to
Baillie and Henderson an ecclesiastical one, and that was
again a Scotch theocracy, moulded more after the Old
Testament than the New Testament ideal. Of the possibles
to the English mind — («) Absolute liberty of conscience, and
no National Church or State interference with religion of any
kind whatsoever ; (J?) Unlimited Toleration around a
National Church ; (c) Limited Toleration around a National
Church ; (d) Anti-Toleration, or the absolute and entire
conformity of the whole nation to one Established Church —
the Scots unfortunately gave their predominating influence in
favour of the last. O the pity of it ! It separated as a con
sequence elements that might have been united, and, which
united, would have made subsequent Church History so
different. The English mind would not have accepted
alternative (a) any more than it accepted alternative {d) ; but
between {b) and (c) the solution of the problem lay, and (c)
was the more likely of the two. Usher's reduction * with
toleration for Independency, was the one that would have
carried, but that it did not occur to Henderson, constituted
his unfitness as a far-seeing leader for the crisis and was the
one weakness of his career near its close. If Robert Leighton
had been able by age and experience to have been leader of
the Church at this time, the policy would have been different,
but his hour had not yet come, and when it did come, the
situation rendered a comprehensive solution impossible by
the parties that had been created, to some extent both by
* Leighton afterwards accepted this.
A.L. 13

194 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
what the Solemn League and Covenant had done and failed
to do. Scottish Presbyterianism was more tolerant than the
Church of England prior to 1640, but after that date a
change had taken place in the spirit of the north,* and by
1644 and subsequent years the Presbyterians were Anti-
Tolerationists, were possessed by an antipathy for Toleration
(limited and unlimited), and by a desire to pinion Indepen
dency and Toleration together in one common death. The
honour of being the first witnesses for Toleration must be
assigned to the Independents in general and to the Baptists
in particular, not to the Presbyterians. Even Presbyterians,
possessed with the belief in Presbyterianism "as the inevitable
future of the self-governing English race and of the Church
universal," ^ can sympathize with the indignant remonstrance
in 1646 of John Milton : —
" Because you have thrown off your Prelate lord.
And with stiff vows renounced his Liturgy,
To seize the widowed whore Plurality
From those whose sin ye envied, not abhorred.
Dare ye for this adjure the civil sword
To force our consciences that Christ set free,
And ride us with a Classic Hierarchy,
Taught ye by mere A. S.' and Rutherford?*
Men whose life, learning, faith, and pure intent
Would have been held in high esteem with Paul,
Must now be named and printed heretics
By shallow Edwards,^ and Scotch what d'ye call?
But we do hope to find out all your tricks.
Your plots and packing, worse than those of Trent,
' This is apparent in the answer of the General Assembly of 1641 to
the Presbyterian Ministers of London regarding their inquiry as to the
lawfulness of Independency in any form or degree.
^ E.g. A. Taylor Innes in Evangelical Succession Lectures, p. 163.
' Dr. Adam Steuart, who wrote on behalf of strict Presbytery and
Anti-Toleration against the " Apologetic Narrative " of the Assembly
Independents. ^ Samuel Rutherford.
^ Author of the Gangraena.
' Masson identifies this individual as Baillie, whose Dissuasive had
referred to Milton as one of the heretics of the time.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 195
That so the Parliament
May, with their wholesome and preventive shears,
Clip your phylacteries, though baulk your ears.
And succour our just fears.
When they shall read this clearly in your charge—
New Presbyter is but old Priest writ large.''
Such was the effect of the Solemn League and Covenant
in 1643, in so far as England and the Westminster Assembly
were concerned. But in Scotland to refuse to sign it was
not merely to differ in belief from the multitude, but was
also to be regarded as a traitor to the country. To hold out
was not merely to be met with dark looks and threatening
gestures, but was to render oneself liable to ecclesiastical
censures and spoliation. Robert Leighton ' like Robert
Douglas signed it in 1643, but it is certain that the Presbytery
they desired was one of the more shadowy and less important
in its aspect — one more in harmony with " the Word of God "
than with that of the " best Reformed Kirk " as that phrase
was understood in 1643 and subsequent years. Leighton
appears as one dwelling apart in his own meditation and
parish work, but still obeying the injunctions of the Courts of
the Church as he was bound by his ordination to do. This
at least can be said that between him and Samuel Rutherford,
as far as ecclesiastical policy was concerned, a great gulf was
fixed, and he came afterwards to see that amid the circum
stances of his time the uniformity, dreamt of, was impossible
on the basis of Presbyterianism, as that basis was interpreted
by the Scottish Commissioners and the Scottish General
Assemby.^ ' It is to be observed that the father. Dr. Alexander Leighton, was
with his son at Newbattle when the latter signed the Covenant. He is
the bearer of a letter from the Countess of Lothian to the Earl of
Ancram who was then resident at London — the letter being dated New-
battle, December 26, 1643. Correspondence of the Earl of Ancram and
the Earl of Lothian, vol. i. p. 158.
^ While the Presbyterian scheme of uniformity has been here
historically considered in its relation to the Westminster Assembly and
with a view to a better understanding of Leighton's position after the

196 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
Again Robert Leighton's loyalty to the edicts of the
Assembly and his acquiesence in the Argyll policy blinded
him at this time to Montrose, to whom he refers as " the sword
of a cruel enemy," * while the defeats of the Covenanters at
Tippermuir and Aberdeen (Sept. i and Sept. 13, 1644) are
thus referred to : " If we be not altogether dead, surely we
shall be stirred with the voice of those late strokes of God's
hand, and be driven to more humble and earnest prayer by
it." ^ Leighton was not in a position to understand Mon
trose's true character and uses the mildest phrases regarding
him in vogue amongst the Covenanters ; yet it is also to be
observed that in speaking of " Incendiaries," or those loyal
to the king, he interprets the phrase in a purely spiritual
sense — " Ungodly men, though they meddle not with public
affairs at all, yea, though they be faithful and honest in
meddling with them, yet, by reason of their impious lives, are
traitors to'their nation : tJiey are truly the incendiaries^ of States
and Kingdoms." *
The references are slight, and there is more of " eternity "
in them than of the " times," but they are still sufficiently
clear to show that Leighton followed the policy of the Kirk,
but he did not regard Montrose as yet in the light that after
wards surrounded him to his thought. Montrose is a grand
figure, and he was understood by Leighton's near neighbour
Restoration, it is not to be forgotten that with all their intolerance, the
Presbyterian Clergy in Scotland kept Scotland in that crisis of British
history firm to the cause of liberty and truth, because firm to the
alliance with the English Parliament. This union fought out the battle
of constitutional liberty, but ecclesiastically it had not the result that,
allied with toleration, it might have achieved.
* West's Edition of the Commentary, iv. p. 495.
"^ Ibid. 403. Cf also 425, vol. ii. pp. 57, 88, 102, 120.
' The Scottish Chancellor Loudoun at a conference in Essex House
(1644-5) said : " You may ken that by our law in Scodand we clepe him
an incendiary whay kindleth coals of contention and raiseth differences
in the State to the public damage." It came to mean any one who dis
agreed with the policy of the Earl of Argyll.
?Vol. ii. p. 80.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 197
Drummond, of Hawthornden, but not by the inmates of
Newbattle House, nor by the minister at Newbattle Manse.
" Call Drummond a passive or theoretical Montrose, and
Montrose a rampant or practical Drummond, and you will
have expressed very exactly the relationship of the two men
to each other. They were perhaps the only two men of their
time in Scotland that we should now unhesitatingly call men
of genius, and it so happens that Scottish Conservatism or
Royalism can claim them both. ... It might even be a
fair guess that the nobleman to whom we saw Drummond
sending a copy of his Irene in the end of 1638, with the
striking and subtle compliment, " Force hath less power over a
great heart than duty " was no other than Montrose, then in
his first ardour for the Covenant."* Drummond's Irene and
Skiamachia but represent a view of the situation that
Montrose arrived at independently, and acted upon. Both
stood up for individual liberty as against collective liberty,
but Montrose struck the blow for it, while Drummond
remained the thinker. Montrose was the Scottish reaction
to Scottish intolerance, and in that sense he is best to be
understood. He believed in passive obedience to the King,
but great idealist as he was, he pictured a King under whose
wise and beneficent rule passive obedience should mean
happy and prosperous quiescence in the secure enjoyment of
religion and liberty. Although he became the champion of
a lost cause and the martyr of an impossible loyalty to a
King whose word could not be trusted, Montrose stands out
in history as the opponent of Presbyterian Hildebrandism,
and in strange contrast with those to whose arguing he could
only say in his last hour, " I pray you, gentlemen, let me die in
peace." He was too a sincere Presbyterian, but not an
intolerant Presbyterian, and it was the intolerance of his
former associates, headed by Argyll, that produced in him
the reaction. The National Covenant he accepted, but the
* Masson's Life, p. 346.

198 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
Solemn League and Covenant of 1643 was too much for him.
" The Covenant (1638) which I took, I own it and adhere to
it. Bishops, I care not for them. I never intended to advance
their interest. But when the King had granted you all your
desires, and you were every one sitting under his vine and
under his fig-tree, that then you should have taken a party
in England by the hand, and entered into a League and
Covenant with them against the King, was the thing I judged
my duty to oppose to the yondermost. ... I am very
sorry that any actions of mine have been offensive to the
Church of Scotland, and I would, with all my heart, be recon
ciled to the same. But since I cannot obtain it on any other
term — unless I call that my sin which I account to have been
my duty — I cannot for all the reason and conscience in the
world." * These words uttered by Montrose in self-defence
in 1650 shortly before his merciless execution for " breach
with the Covenant " must have affected Leighton then in his
time of dissatisfaction with the iron rule, and brought to light
an ideal with which he had been in sympathy so far back as
1644, even more than he then knew. But Montrose dared —
won six battles for the King, and had he not lost Philiphaugh,
might have been the means of ending Argyll's rule in Scot
land. He lost, but he was true to his own idea : —
" He either fears his fate too much.
Or his deserts are small.
That dares not put it to the touch.
To gain or lose it all."
It seems to me that Leighton, when he afterwards became
conscious of what had been unconscious within him, came
round to the position which Montrose assumed in 1643 : it cer
tainly was Leighton's later standpoint. Let us briefly sum
marize it.
(a) Montrose was a loyal Presbyterian and up to about
1643 was in sympathy with the Church leaders whom he had
learned to respect.
1 Cf. Memorials of Montrose and Life, by Mowbray Morris.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 199
(b) Throughout his whole career he maintained his
adherence to the National Covenant of 1638 and upheld its
constitutional principles.
(c) He regarded the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643
as unconstitutional and rebellious and as bringing about a
league with those who were unfriendly to Charles I, after
the King had granted to the Scots all that they could legiti
mately in Montrose's opinion ask.
{d) He broke away from the extreme party that in 1643
and afterwards, arrogated exclusively to themselves the name
of Covenanters, and were headed by the Earl, afterwards the
Marquis of Argyll.
{e) He was deceived first by Charles I and afterwards by
his son — beguiled by their false professions. To the service
of both he devoted himself (especially to that of Charles I)
under the conviction that the King was desirous to effect a
reconciliation with the Church and that the only obstacle to
this was the unreasonable obstinacy of the extreme Church
party, headed by Argyll.
(/) His idea of passive obedience did not rest on the
King's claim to absolute power, but on the faith that the
King's only title of sovereignty was to rule according to law
and the constitution of Church and State.* Montrose was
in favour of constitutional liberty and limited monarchy : he
disliked absolute monarchy with as much hatred as he did
the principles and practices of the intolerant party, who had
in 1643 usurped the name of Covenanters — a name which he
legitimately applied to the heroes of 1638. These principles
reveal the real Montrose and give an impression, certainly
different from that which prevailed about 1644, ^rid which
still lingers in the popular estimate. Leighton must have
modified his epithet in referring to Montrose in 1644 as "the
sword of a cruel enemy " by later reflection — if he did not
* Cf. " Montrose and the Covenant of 1638," in Blackwood's Magazine,
December, 1887, pp. 610-625..

200 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
even hesitate over it in his quiet moments at the Newbattle
study. It is to be noted that Leighton was frequently
absent from the Presbytery meetings in 1642, occasionally in
1643, at least six times in 1644, and the " seik " may indicate
spiritual dissatisfaction as well as bodily infirmity. It was
impossible for a man of his spiritual temperament, as revealed
in his Newbattle sermons, to acquiesce unreservedly in the
Presbyterian regime of his time, and when he did so, it must
have been with the prayer, uttered or felt, that it would be
over-ruled. Leighton's chief joy must have been in preaching
and ministering to the sick and weary, and taking part as
little as possible in the 'questions of the hour.
The following is another time-reference in his Commentary.
After the taking of Newcastle in October, 1644, the plague
entered Scotland where it lingered until the end of 1648, or
the early part of 1649. But here as elsewhere the "time"
ever merges in the " eternal " aspect. " We breathe in a
corrupt infected air, and have need daily to antidote the heart
against it." *
" ' I will raise them up at the last day.' This comfort we
have even for the house of clay we lay down : and as for our
more considerable part, our immortal souls, this His death and
rising hath provided for them, at their dislodgement, an entrance
into that glory where He is. Now, if these things were lively
apprehended and laid hold on, Christ made ours, and the first
resurrection manifest in us, were we quickened by His Spirit to
newness of life, certainly there would not be a more welcome
and refreshing thought, nor a sweeter discourse to us, than that of
Death. And no matter for the kind of it. Were it a violent
death, so was His. Were it what we account most judgment
like among diseases, the Plague, was not His death very
painful ? And was it not an accursed death ? And by that curse
endured by Him in His death is not the curse taken away to the
Believer? Oh, how welcome will that day be, that day of
deliverance ! To be out of this woeful prison, I regard not at
* Vol. iv. p. 509.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (t64i-i653) 201
what door I go out, being at once freed from so many deaths,
and let in to enjoy Him who is my life." *
There is fortunately preserved a letter which Robert
Leighton wrote to the Earl of Lothian, then at Newcastle.
As it belongs to this period it is here inserted.
After the defeat of the Royalists in England at
Marston Moor and Naseby, and the complete defeat of
Montrose at Philiphaugh — "a most sweet and seasonable
cast of providence " ^ as it seemed to Row and his associates
struggling for all that was dear to them as men and sacred to
them as Christians, Charles hoped to take advantage of the
differences of opinion between Presbyterians and Independents
which were fast assuming critical importance. Had he
surrendered himself to the English Presbyterians, the
Presbyterians of the Parliament and London could not have
protected him from the army of Independents. But by
placing himself in the hands of the Scottish army he avoided
this difficulty, received temporary protection, and intimated
at the same time that it was with the Presbyterians, and not
the Independents, he preferred to deal. Suddenly by the
King's flight to the Scottish army at Newark (May 5, 1646),
and by the retreat of that army with the King in their
possession to the safer position at Newcastle (May 1 3) the
situation was changed : recently it had appeared that the
Independents and Erastians were to carry the day, but now it
had become by Charles' flight more doubtful. The question
between Independency and Presbyterianism with the included
questions of Toleration or no Toleration, were thrown into
the crucible of the negotiations between the English and the
Scots around the King at Newcastle.
To the King, however, politics was a kind of game, and he
was " playing his cards " as best he could. His hope was
" that he should be able so to draw the Presbyterians or the
' Ibid. p. 540. Cf. also pp. 584, 618, 619.
* Life of Blair, p. 178.

202 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
Independents to side with him for extirpating one the other,
that he should really be King again." * Charles seems to
have calculated that the Scots would replace him on the
throne without insisting on very rigorous conditions and
thought that they would rather restore him to power than
allow the formidable English army to have undisputed
authority in England, and possibly to crush the independence
of Scotland. The Scots again seem to have thought that
Charles, now in their power and for his safety's sake, ought to
agree to establish Presbyterianism in England by which
means the party, that would lean for support on them, would
have the mastery of England. Around him immediately
were Leven, Leslie, Lothian, Balcarres, Dunfermline, Lanark,
Argyll, Loudoun, and Henderson : the General Assembly,
which met at Edinburgh, June 4, 1646, appointed Blair,
Robert Douglas and Andrew Cant to repair to the King and
concur with Alexander Henderson and others in treaty with
him.^ But the King cavilled : " All my endeavours must be
the delaying of my answer till there be considerable parties
visibly formed," he wrote to the Queen — in other words till
Presbyterians and Independents would come to blows, and
therefore take him at his own price. Instead of answering
directly the propositions of July 14 on behalf of Parliament
and the Scots, by which he was to surrender his power over
the Militia for twenty years, take the Covenant and support
Presbyterianism in the Church, he made in October a proposal
of his own by which he promised, if returned to power, to
establish Presbyterianism for three years, during which time
the future settlement of the Church might be discussed. He
took care, however, to make no provision for the very probable
event of the discussion leaving parties as opposed as before,
and it was obvious that as he had never given the royal
assent to any Act for the abolition of Episcopacy, the
' Baillie, ii. 389, et seq.
'¦' Cf. Blair's Life, pp. 185, 186.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 203
Episcopal system would occupy the field at the close of the
three years, and the Presbyterians would find themselves
checkmated. The Scots, discontented with the King's
refusal, began to treat with the English Parliament, which
offered to pay the money owing to them for their assistance,
on the open understanding that they would leave England,
and the tacit understanding that they would leave the King
behind them. Once more they implored Charles to accept
Presbyterianism, assuring him if he would, that they would
fight for him to a man. On his refusal they accepted the
English offer, took their money, and on January 30, 1647,
marched to Scotland, leaving the King in the hands of
Commissioners of the English Parliament, who conveyed him
to Holmby House in Northamptonshire.*
As the letter, written to the Earl of Lothian, shows,
Leighton hoped that the King would come to terms with
the Scotch Commissioners. It was written during the sitting
of the Assembly at Edinburgh, of which he was a member,
and which appointed Blair, Cant and Douglas to repair to the
King at Newcastle.
Mr. Robert Leighton, Minister of Newbattle, to the Earl
of Lothian. 'June 8, 1646.
"My Lord,
" By your Lordship's letter (which I received) I perceive
that they have least to retract, that were least taken with the
common sudden rejoycing at that late great occurrence ; ^ yet,
however, (looking to Him who orders all to His good and
wise ends) I am persuaded 'tis a step to advance the maine
work now in His hand, and that good shall arise out of it,
though likely not in that speedy and easy way that most
have imagin'd it : rather it may first raise the difficulties
* Cf. Qi?ix6:\nt.-es Student^ History of England, vol. ii. pp. 55°-5S3-
^ Alluding to King Charies joining the Scottish army.

204 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
higher than before, and if not cause, yet threaten at least,
further embroylement : but then shall Hee, whom the winds
and seas obey, appeare most in His power, in commanding a
calme. Your Lordship's faithfulnesse and freedome we heard
of here, with as much contentment to all welminded, as
possibly it is discontent to him,* that still most mistakes
those that wish him best. My Lord, besides the histories
of former times that yow are well acquainted with, your
eyes have seen and read clearely in these present resolutions,
the extreame vanity of earthly dependances, and I am con
fident, having learned to eye God alone, and His good
acceptance in all, and to place your happinesse and joy
solely in the light of His countenance. Oh, there is nothing
sweet, and lasting, and truely desirable, but that : and I
doubt not it shall bee your portion and reward. The great
affection your Lordship expresses to good intelligence be
twixt the kingdomes, is a thing most agreeable to the
interest both of the cause of God, and of the happinesse of
this Hand. And whosoever they bee that affect and in-
deavour division upon whatsoever intentions, I trust they
shall bee disappointed and ashamed. I believe Mr. Andrew
Cant ^ will write to your Lordship. We have hopes of his
recall to these parts : for myselfe, I think there is good
reason for it, and doe earnestly desire it : there is a motion
for bringing his son to Fakirk. Your Lordship's recom
mendation may doe much with the patron, my Lord
Calendar. Hee is much approved by the people and by the
ministers of Edinburgh, where hee hath lately preached
diverse times, after which my owne satisfaction in hearing
him once at Newbattle, I judge not worth the mentioning.
Your Lordship's returne, if it may be without publicke
' The King.
^ Andrew Cant, translated from Newbattle in 1640 to Aberdeen, was
Professor of Theology in Marischal College. He was a strong Covenanter
and a zealous Royalist.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 205
prejudice, cannot bee so speedy as it will bee welcome here,
and to none more then to your Lordship's most humble
Servant, "R. Leighton.
"NEWBATTELL,/aw. 8, 1646.
" For the right honourable
the Earle of Lothian, Newcastle, these." *
On June 18, 1646, Leighton was appointed by the
Assembly a member of Commission,^ and as the Records of
this Commission have been published for the Scottish
History Society,* it is possible to know something regarding
his attendance. From an examination of the Records, it
will be found that he was present at least thirty times*
throughout the year.
On January 24, 1647, Robert Leighton was appointed by
the Commission to preach before the Scottish Parliament.^
Between February and May 1647 he was visiting his
father, who was lying siqk at London.®
In 1647 there were various Fasts appointed for the con
version of Charles I and the public reformation of the land.
The following passage in the Commentary evidently has refer
ence to one such occasion : " But there is a Hand can both
stop and turn the most impetuous torrent of the heart, be it
even the heart of a king which will least endure any other
controlment." '
From May 20, 1647, to March 23, 1648, there were forty-
one meetings of Presbytery, and at twenty-nine of them
Leighton was present*
Between March and June, Leighton was again present at
¦ Correspondence of the Earl of Ancram and the Earl of Lothian,
vol. i. pp. 185, 186.
^ Acts of the General Assembly, p. 143.
^ And edited by Professor Mitchell and Dr. Christie.
*• Cf. pp. 1-226. = Ibid. p. 164. " P- 226.
' West's Edition, vol. ii. p. 609. ^ See p. 237.

2o6 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
London, and now begins the period when differences between
him and the strict Presbyterian regime become somewhat
clear. They arose in connexion with the " Engagement."
Charles had fled to the Isle of Wight on November 1 1, 1647,
and once more manifested his inclination to deal rather with
the Presbyterians than with the Independents, who now
swayed the Parliamentary army. On December 26, 1647, at
Carisbrooke Castle, he entered into an engagement with the
Scottish Commissioners in which he bound himself, on the
word of a king, to confirm the Covenant for such as had
taken it or might take it (without forcing it on the unwilling) ;
also to confirm Presbyterian government and the Westminster
Directory of Worship in England for three years (with the
reservation of the Liturgy, etc., for himself and his house
hold), and moreover to see to the suppression of the Inde
pendents and all other sects and heresies ; while the Scots, in
return, were to send an army into England for the purpose
of restoring him on these conditions to his full Royalty
in England. The Engagement became known in Scotland
on February 15, 1648, and in the Committee of Estates and
in the Parliament which met on March 2, the majority —
the Hamiltonians or Engagers — carried the day. But the
Opposition, headed by Argyll, Eglinton, Lothian, Cassilis,
and Johnstone of Warriston, rested on nearly the unanimous
opinion of the Scottish Clergy, and had a powerful help,
apart from Parliament, in the Commission of the Kirk. The
argument on their side was that the Commissioners had
exceeded their powers : that the conditions made with Charles
were too slippery; that the King had really evaded the
Covenant, and that though Scotland might have a just cause
for war against the English Sectaries no good could come
from a war, nominally against them, in which Presbyterians
would be allied with Malignants, Prelatists and even Papists.
Declarations embodying these views were published by the
Commission : the pulpits rang with denunciations of the

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 207
Engagement : petitions against it were poured in upon
Parliament by the Kirk, and the Anti-engagers or Protesters
were in the majority among the people. Loudoun detached
himself from Hamilton, and expressed repentance in the High
Church at Edinburgh : the Scots army, notwithstanding,
headed by Hamilton and numbering about 20,000, marched
into England on July 8, 1648, and out of the Scottish Engage
ment with the King began the second Civil War, which was
crushed into four months (May to August, 1648) as the first
was spread over four years. The connexion between the
Scotch Commissioners and the English Parliament was
severed, and forward into Lancashire the Scotch army moved,
to rescue the King, free England from the army of
Sectaries, establish Presbytery, and put down " that impious
Toleration settled by the two Houses contrary to the
Covenant." The result was the Three Days' Battle of
Preston (August 17-19) in which the Scots and their
English allies were totally routed by the Parliamentary
army under Cromwell. This strengthened the position of
Argyll, who, backed by the popular sentiment and by nearly
the whole body of the clergy, had opposed the Engagement,
and now, supported by the Whigamores or zealous Cove
nanters of the western shires and by the near presence of
Cromwell in the north of England, became the dominant
force in the government of Scotland. Cromwell entered
Scotland on September 21, 1648, praised Argyll and Elcho,
and announced that there was a very good understanding
between " the Honest Party of Scotland " and himself This
was Cromwell's first visit to Scotland, and his real object
having been accomplished (which was to pledge the new
Argyll Government of Scotland to future alliance with the
advanced English party), he retired southward on October 7,
leaving Lambert with two regiments of horse and two troops
of dragoons to be at the service of Argyll. But in the
events of the next six months Scotland had no part nor lot,

2o8 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
and the responsibility for the King's death rests on the
English Government alone.
Now it is in connexion with these controversies in
Scotland that Leighton's disagreement with Scottish
Presbytery comes to the surface : he was evidently out of
sympathy with the fiery zeal of his brother clergymen, and
this led to censures on their part which were too much for
his gentle retiring spirit. He was " anxious to be left to
his own thoughts," and was evidently in great difficulty by
the opposition of the Church to the resolution of Parliament
in favour of the Engagement. His sympathies were with
Hamilton, not with Argyll, and Burnet states that in the
year 1648 he declared himself for the Engagement for the
King.* Even deducting from Burnet's further statement and
seeking to qualify it by the evidence that Leighton did
subsequently attend Presbytery meetings, there is no doubt
that after 1648 it is in the main true that " He came to see into
the follies of the Presbyterians, and to hate their Covenant,
particularly the imposing it, and their fury against all who
differed from them. He found they were not capable of
large thoughts : theirs were narrow as their tempers were
sour. So he grew weary of mixing with them : he scarce
ever went to their meetings (?) and lived in great retirement,
minding only the care of his own parish at Neubotle, near
Edinburgh. Yet all the opposition that he made to them
was, that he preached up a more universal charity and a
silenter but sublimer way of devotion, and a more exact
rule of life than seemed to them consistent with human
nature : but his own practice did even outshine his doctrine."^
Even if he did recommend the Covenants, it must have been
more in the spiritual than in the political sense, and there
is distinct evidence from Wodrow to show that he was not
a little "suspected" by the Presbyterians, and that a weariness
' History of His Own Times, vol. i. p. 241.
2 Ibid.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 209
of the situation had set in upon his spirit, even before
1648.* With regard to the Declaration of the Commission against
the "unlawful engagement" on March 16, 1648, and ordered
by the Presbytery to be read by " every brother the next
Sabboth," it is clear from the evidence ^ that Leighton asked
the Precentor to read it, and immediately, or shortly after
wards, left for London, probably on his annual visit to his
aged father there. On April 6 all the brethren reported to the
Presbytery that they had all read it — " only Robert Porteous,
the elder of Newbotle, declared that Mr. Robert Leightoun
had made the Precentor read it and that because of the
lownesse of his voice which could not be heard through the
whole kirk." The clerk is ordained to report the matter
to the Commission that met on April 12, 1648, and after
consideration it was resolved to hear " himselfe when he
returnes to the countrey." * The matter was considered on
Leighton's return at the meeting held on June 15,* and
after Leighton stated his reasons for absence he was appointed
" to be gravlie admonischt to amend : which was accordinglie
done be the Moderator, after his incalling, and recavit by
* " He (Mr. Robert Stewart) tells me that the late Advocate, Sir
James Stewart, did express his suspicions to him that the late
(Archbishop) Leighton was an Arrian."
¦ff Iff "ff "flF flF
" It was ordinary for Bishop Leighton, when minister at Neubotle, to
engage the communicants at the Lord's Table to the covenants " (not
to be accepted without question). Analecta, vol. ii. p. 361.
" He tells me (Mr. John Hunter) that old ministers have told him
that Mr. Leightoun, when at Neubotle, was still offering his dismission
to Commissions and Assemblys, and compleaning of the insupportable
weight of the work of the ministry. At a meeting where old Calderwood
was, he made a long speech this way. Mr. Calderwood, being old and
deafe, asked what he said. The moderator (said) to him he desired to be
eased of his charge. ' Ease him, ease him, since he desires it ; for I
am perswaded he will leave us, and prove very troublesome to this poor
Church." Analecta, vol. iii. p. 297.
^ See p. 228. ' Proceedings, p. 442. * See p. 239.
A.L. 14

210 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
him humblie, and promisit by the grace of God to amend."
The wonder is that in those days he escaped further censure
from the Commission, but probably the influence of his
friend, the Eari of Lothian,* led to leniency at their
hands. On August 31, 1648, he is again admonished for not
accepting his commission to the General Assembly^ nor
appearing at the meeting of Presbytery. The rebuke was
"modestly" taken by him, with promises "by the grace
of God to amend." But at any rate it shows that while
his brethren around him were waxing fiercer and fiercer in
their Presbyterian zeal, he had been, as Professor Masson
puts it, " getting more and more provokingly quiet and
contemplative in his parish." ^
Newbattle Church must have given Leighton quite suffi
cient concern, apart from Presbytery and Commission inter
ference. It gave him 900 communicants * to minister to, and
Leighton was evidently passively obedient to the injunctions
of both, as long as they did not forbid him " preaching to
eternity " at Newbattle. He did not work from a poor ideal
of his office, and duty, as he strove to discharge it, weighed
heavily on his heart.® By order of the Commission he, along
* Burnet adds : " The earl of Lothian, who lived in his parish, had
so high an esteem for him that he persuaded the violent men not to
meddle with him : though he gave occasion to great exception : for
when some of his parish who had been in the engagement, were ordered
to make public repentance for it, he told them, they had been in an
expedition, in which, he believed, they had neglected their duty to God,
and had been guilty of injustice and violence, of drunkenness and other
mmoralities, and he charged them to repent of these very seriously
without meddling with the quarrel on the grounds of that war!' History,
i. 241, 242.
^ See p. 231. ^ Life of Drummond, p. 439. *P. 231.
^ " Mr. Leighton, while minister at Newbattell, usually compleand o.
the heavy charge of so many souls ; Mr. Oliver Colt, then minister of
Inveresk, told him that he in Musselburgh and Inveresk had more than
double his number of examinable persons. Mr. Leighton, in his
punster dialect, says ' Oh, brother, that is a load fitter for an ass than

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 211
with his brethren, renewed the Covenant,* and on May 31,
1649, he is one of those who had " cheerfullie " read the
Declaration.^ He received leave of absence from his
Presbytery to visit London, and he was there from June to
September, 1649. It was probably at this time his father
died, to whom Leighton was singularly devoted, notwith
standing the differences that must have existed between them
on Church questions. It is not an unreasonable nor an
altogether unfounded conjecture, that reverence for his
father's advice may have helped to keep him more in touch
with the Church than he would have been without it. We
know that he was at Newbattle when Leighton signed the
Covenant in 1643,* and after his death Robert Leighton
manifests a great desire to be away from the ecclesiastical
strifes. His letters to his father exhibit a beautiful filial
spirit, and I cannot think of the two without thinking of
other two, father and son — to the latter of whom Robert
Leighton was so much akin. After John McLeod Campbell
had been deposed by the Assembly of 1831 his father said :
" I bow to any decision to which you may think it right to
come. Moderator, I am not afraid for my son : though his
brethren cast him out, the Master whom he serves will not for
sake him ; and while I live I will never be ashamed to be the
father of so holy and blameless a son." At his father's death
John McLeod Campbell said : " For no mere creature-gift of
the ' better Father ' have I been so indebted and so grateful
to Him as for the earthly father, whose being what he was
filled that name with so much meaning for me." It would be
in some such terms that Robert Leighton would speak of his

for a colt.' ' They are light-headed asses (says Colt) that burthen them
selves with souls.' Both these punster divines complied and conformed
to a tyrannizing, persecuting Episcopacy in Scotland. Colt had not
Leighton's wheems, nor his piety and devotion; nor was Leighton
latitudinarian, as was Colt." Coltness Collections, p. 69.
' P. 232. "P. 232. •' P. 19s (note).

212 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
father and his father of him, for the relationship between
them was of a beautiful kind.
Leighton was back again to Scotland and was present at
Presbytery meetings from September 6, 1649, but on March
14, 1650, he again craves leave of absence, as " weightie
business " did call him to England.* The business was his
father's property, to which he had been made by his father's
will residuary legatee, besides receiving ;^6oo. Leighton was
so much absorbed in the deeper spiritual sides of religion that
he had become indifferent to, or at least failed to exercise
reasonable prudence in, his worldly affairs. His brother-in-
law, Mr. Lightmaker, had written to warn him that his patri
mony was not safe with the merchant in whose hands it was
lying, and the following was his reply. The last sentence
illustrates, as by the unconscious expression of himself, his
attitude in relation both to questions of property and church
politics. Both touched him very lightly indeed : —
" December 31, 1649.
" Sir— " I thank you for your letter. That you give me notice ot
I desire to consider as becomes a Christian, and to prepare
to wait for my own removal. What business follows on my
father's (death) may be well enough done without me, as I
have writ more at large to Mr. E  and desired him to
show you the letter when you meet. Any pittance belonging
to me may be useful and needful for my subsistence : but,
truly, if something else draw me not, I shall never bestow so
long a journey on that I account so mean a business.
Remember my love to my sister, your wife, and to my
brother and sister Rathband as you have opportunity. I am
glad to hear of the welfare of you all, and above all things
wish for myself and you all a daily increase in likeness to
' P. 234.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 213
Jesus Christ, and growing heavenwards, where He is who is
our treasure. To His grace I recommend you.
"Sir,
" Your affectionate brother,
"R. Leighton."
A month's time verified Mr. Lightmaker's anticipations,
and the money was irretrievably gone. The loss of his
patrimony forced him to borrow 1,000 marks (Scotch) that
year from Newbattle Session (p. 242) — on which he paid
interest and which he ultimately restored. The following is
his reply to his brother-in-law : —
" Newbattle, February 4, 1650.
" Sir— " Your kind advice I cannot but thank you for, but I am not
easily taught that lesson. I confess it is the wiser way to
trust nobody : but there is so much of the fool in my nature
as carries me rather to the other extreme, to trust everybody.
Yet I will endeavour to take the best course I can in that
little business you write of It is true there is a lawful, yea, a
needful diligence in such things : but alas ! how poor are
they to the portion of believers, where our treasure is. That
little which was in Mr. E  's hands hath failed me : but I
shall either have no need of it or be supplied some other
way. And this is the relief of my rolling thoughts, that
while I am writing this, this moment is passing away, and
all the hazards of want and sickness shall come to an end.
My mother writes to me, and presses my coming up. I
know not yet if that can be : but I intend, God willing, as soon
as I can conveniently, if I come not, to take some course
that things be done as if I were there. I hope you will
have patience in the meantime. Remember my love to my
sisters. The Lord be with you, and lead you in His ways.
" Your loving brother,
" R, Leighton."

214 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
His reference to his widowed step-mother * is most respect
ful, and it is evident that he regarded her with affection.
He had returned to the Presbytery meeting on May 21,
1650, and is ordained to receive to the Covenant Robert Kerr
(afterwards fourth Earl of Lothian), who had been resident
in Germany for the past twelve years.^
There is also a curious case of Brownism before the Session
with which Leighton had to deal, anent the lawfulness of
" set prayers." ^
We now come to a point in his career which was big with
results. The news of the execution of Charles I (January 30, 1649)
was at once followed by the fall of Argyll and his party, who
but a week before excluded from Parliament, and from all
places of political trust for longer or shorter periods, four
defined portions of the population, precisely on account of
their complicity or sympathy with Hamilton's enterprise on
the King's behalf. This Act was known as the " Act of the
Classes." The execution of Charles drove Scotland into a
passionate mood of royalism, and the Scots had no sympathy
with English Republicanism, while they were alarmed with
the growth of Independency in England. On February 5
Charles II was proclaimed King of Great Britain, France
and Ireland, and the Scots declared themselves ready to
defend his cause by blood, if only he would take the Covenant.
This the young King refused to do, but the execution of
Hamilton, Huntly and Montrose drove him to accept the
Scottish terms. Charles landed at the mouth of the river Spey
on June 24, 1650, having taken the Covenant, and was received
at Edinburgh as King of the three nations. The English
Parliament and army could not but take up the challenge,
and war was the inevitable result. Cromwell defeated the
» She was the daughter of Sir William Musgrave, of Ireby, in
Cumberland. ^P. 234. " P. 234.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 215
Scots at Dunbar (September 3, 1650). Leslie had to retreat
to Stirling, while the Lowlands passed into Cromwell's hands.
Cromwell was conciliatory, and a considerable proportion of
the Presbyterians took up an attitude of hostility to the
King's claims. The supporters of Charles were known as
Revolutioners or Engagers, and his opponents as Protesters
or Remonstrants. As a consequence the old Royalists and
Episcopalians began to rejoin the King. Before the battle of
Dunbar Charles was really a prisoner in the hands of the
Covenanters, who ruled him with a rod of iron, and as the
stricter Presbyterians withdrew and their places were filled
by the " Malignants," whom they had excluded from the
King's service, the personal importance of Charles increased.
On January i, 1651, he was crowned at Scone, and in the
following summer he took up a position near Stirling, with
Leslie as the commander of his army. Cromwell outman-
ceuvred Leslie and seized Perth, while the royal forces
retaliated by the invasion of England, which ended in their
defeat at Worcester on September 3, 165 1, exactly one year
after Dunbar. The King escaped and fled to France.
Scotland was unable to resist Monk, whom Cromwell left
behind him when he followed Charles. On the 14th August
he captured Stirling, and the Committee of Estates was
seized at Alyth, and carried off to London. All Scotiand,
for the first time since Edward I's reign, was in military
occupation by the English troops, and Scotland, it was now
settled once for all, was not to determine the form of the
government of England without the consent of Englishmen.
Scottish Presbytery was severely shaken by the English
occupation, and thence we may date (1650-1) most of that
leaven of Puritan dissent still to be traced in Scottish society.
Of the time previous to this Professor Masson has said : " It
was the absence of Religious Dissent, the impossibility of
Religious Dissent, that was the peculiar characteristic of
Presbyterian North Britain. Not a man, not a woman, not a

2i6 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
child, not a dog, not a rabbit, all over Scotland, but belonged
to the Kirk, or had to pretend that relationship. . . . The
kirk was the nation, and the nation was the kirk." *
Scottish History remembers to this day that split of the
Scottish clergy around Charies II in 1650 into the Resolu
tioners who acquiesced in the resolutions of the Parliament
and Commission of the Kirk for suspending or disusing
the Act of Classes and the Remonstrants or Protesters who
raised their voices against the backsliding. The difference
descended through a whole generation, bringing fame or
infamy, and even death, to those concerned. The leaders of
the Resolutioners were Robert Douglas, David Dickson, and
Robert Baillie. The leaders of the Protesters were Patrick
Gillespie, James Guthrie and Samuel Rutherford. The
Resolutioners were the inheritors of the better traditions of
the Reformed Scottish Church, and saw nothing undivine in
Episcopacy : the Protesters represented the ultra-Presby
terian party. Robert Leighton could only belong to the
Resolutioners, in so far as he took any side.
At Worcester 14,000 Scots were either slain or taken
prisoner : Stirling, Alyth and Dundee had also sent many
of the Scots into English captivity ; those of rank were
imprisoned at Windsor Castle, the Tower, and Chelsea Col
lege, the subalterns at Tothill Fields, London, Chester, and
other places.
Robert Leighton was unanimously chosen by the Synod of
Lothian^ "to repaire to London for negotiating the freedome
and enlargement of their said brethren." This took place on
November 4, 165 1, and nothing can show better than this the
esteem in which he was held not only by the brethren of his
own Presbytery, but also of the whole Synod of Lothian.
Whatever may have been his private opinions, he was
evidently too retiring to express them, and too anxious to
avoid controversy by expressing them. One must recall
' Life of Milton, vol. i, p. 63. "Sec pp. 235-237.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 217
here Burnet's statement : " he was the freest of censuring
others or of imposing his own methods on them possible : so
that he did not so much as recommend them on others. He
said there was a diversity of tempers, and every man was to
watch over his own, and to turn it in the best manner he
could."* Evidently when his brethren differed from him,
they still loved him, and the transparent goodness and gentle
ness of his nature aroused and won their admiration.
Leighton was evidently in England^ from May till about
the end of November 1652, and the next meeting of Presby
tery after his return to Scotland (December 16)^ had a letter
presented from him wherein " he demits his charge of his
ministrie at Newbotle." The Presbytery desire him to
" returne to his charge," but at the next meeting (December
30) he "divests his charge de novo" which the Presbytery
again refuses to accept* On January 27, 1653, Leighton
appeared, and " desyred to be loused from his charge," but
with him on this occasion was Andrew Brysone, the City ^
Treasurer, who stated that the Town Council of Edinburgh
had given Mr. Leighton a call to be Principal of the College.
Leighton was probably appointed as the result of an order

¦ History, vol. i. p. 239.
"The Mercurius Scoticus (November 17, 165 1) states that "The
said ministers (i.e. of Linlithgow Presbytery, who refused to come to the
Synod of Lothian's meeting) have refused to give obedience to the said
Synod's Acts, especially in that of giving a willing contribution to bear
the charges of Master Robert Lighton, Minister of Newbottle, whom
they have appointed to go to London, to mediat for the relief of their
Ministers who were taken at Ellit (Alyth), and now are prisoners at
London, whose wives went thither the last week in Coach (forsooth) :
and the reason of their refusall to contribute is, that they say, if they
had been following their calling then they should not have been prisoners
there now, so that (it seemes) that the Lord hath called them to be where
He would have them, because they were not where they should be."
They were evidently "Protesters" ; some also in Edinburgh objected to
the "Reek-Penny" for their relief, i.e. so much upon the pound of the
" House- Rents and Dues of every House that Kindles fire."
'P. 239. * Ibid. 5 PP 294-296.

2i8 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
sent down by the Government, and he probably had inter
views with Cromwell or his Government when in London.
Leighton had not been chosen in the first instance by the
Council of Edinburgh. Their choice had been Mr. William
Colville, then a Scotch minister at Utrecht, and Colville had
accepted the office (which he afterwards filled on Leighton's
promotion to a bishopric in 1662). But difficulties had arisen
in connexion with his appointment — raised, it was thought,
by the Commonwealth Government — and the result was the
election of Leighton. In terms of the Charter, the ministers of
Edinburgh were present at the election, but declined taking
any part in the transaction.* When they were asked to vote
the Town Council Record adds, " it halted there a tyme wish
ing they had not been calld to the electioun and showing
that albeit they were weill content with the man, yet they
could not give their voices to the electioun becaus they wer
not cleir in the maner of the Call, and desyred to be markit
onlie present, and non-loquets in the voiceing." ^
The Presbytery proceeded deliberately, and after the usual
manner by citing the congregation, before liberating Leighton
from his charge. The Commission was produced on February
3, and Leighton was freed from his parish on account of the
" greatness of the congregation far exceeding his strength "
and the " extreme weakness of his voice " not being able to
reach the half of his congregation when convened — reasons
which he had " often expressed to us." '
Leighton's relations with his Presbytery were thus orderly
to the last, and he was too gentle and tender, too much
engrossed in the primary, eternal elements of religion, to
emphasize any differences on secondary matters that may
have arisen in his mind. He was a regular attender at the
meetings of Presbytery, and verily no one can read the Acts
of Assembly and of Commission without seeing that not
withstanding the intolerance on ecclesiastical questions that
" pp. 294-295. " Vol. 17 : fol. 369. 3 See p. 240.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 219
exhibits itself, there was alongside of it a deep, passionate
concern for the religious and spiritual welfare of Scotland,
which reveals an aspect of the period that may be overlooked.
With this Leighton was allowed to busy himself for ten years,
and Burnet's statement as to Leighton " withdrawing from his
cure" must be modified by the evidence that the Records
afford.* In going to the University, he did not separate from
the Church of Scotland — Presbyterian as it was — for the next
ten years. He parted from his parish with the good will of
his brethren, and he was too courteous not to reciprocate it.
The following letter from Lord Lothian to his Countess
expresses his estimate of Leighton's ministry at Newbattle
and also his fancy that Leighton " would, from any place he
were putt in, withdrawe into Ingland."
The Earl of Lothian to the Countess of Lothian.
"Sweet Hearte —
" Your neighbours did yow mutch honor : I wish
onely yow had knowne of their comming before hand,
that yow might have received them better. Yow have
amased me with what yow write concerning Mr. Lighton. I
was in the hope he would not have left us, unles the call he
had to the CoUedge ^ heare had beene made good, wherin there
would have beene some dificulty : but that he would have left
us without going to some other imployment or charge, I did
not thinke he would have donne it, although yow may
remember I sayd he would shortly, from any place he were
putt in, withdrawe into Ingland. It would have been some
contentment and satisfaction to me if he had but stayed in
this land. I have not nowe leisure to write to him, but I will
once this night : in the mean tyme, I pray, doe yow again
* See appendix to this chapter (pp. 220-241).
" Referring to a previous election of Mr. William Colvill, which was
afterwards set aside in favour of Mr. Leighton.

220 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
speake to him, and intreate that, whatsoever his resolutions
be, that he would not this winter quite us, or att least not so
sodainly and abruptly : and if he will not stay in his ministry,
and preach more to us (which wilbe a greate grieffe to me, for
never did I gettsoe much good by any that stoode in a pulpitt),
but is as yow write to retyre to a corner untill the spring that
he goe to England, desire him, that that corner may be your
house, which may be as quiett to him as a monastery or a
wildernesse : he shall not be desired neither to pray, nor soe
mutch as to say grace to us. A greene wound is not felt, but
wee will fynde the want of him very bitter and sharpe ere
long : therefore I pray yow deale with him to stay with us
this winter, in the congregation, att least in our company. I
can now adde noe more, but that I am your most loving
Husband,
" Lothian.
" Edinburgh, the 9 December, 1652."
Correspondence of the Earls of Ancram and Lothian, vol. ii. p. 373.]
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VIIL
Extracts from the Presbytery Books of Dalkeith.
1639.
The National Covenant signed in August 1639 by Mr. Andrew
Cant, Newbottle, and other ministers in the Presbytery of Dalkeith,
by the Earls of Lothian and Dalhousie, Thomas Megot of Maisterton
and other ruling Elders and several Expectants, in all about 100
persons, is preserved in the volume of Records, 1639-1652.
1639. October 10. — Mr. Andrew Cant (and others absent) are
excused, being appointed by the Synode to attend with the rest of
the brether in Edinburgh during the Parliament.
1640.
December 3. — Quhilk day the Presbyterie of Aberdein sent to Mr.
William More ane letter desyring the bretheren to demit freelie Mr.
Andrew Cant to the vacant Kirk of Aberdein, conform to the act
of transport given by the late Generall Assemblie holden theire : to

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 221
the quhilk the brether returned thair ansuer and mynde be theire
missive letter sealed, and given in the said Mr. William his hands.
December 17. — Quhilk day Mr. Andrew Cant exhibit ane letter
written from the Armie desyring him to returne, quha requested
the brether to supply his place during his absence. They ordane
the catalogue of the bretheren to goe on, and begin whair it left.
1641.
March 25. — This day Mr. Andro Cant having returned from the
Armie, thanked the Brether hartilie for suppleing his kirk in his
absence, and desyred thame to continnew till his returne from
Aberdein : quhilk they accorded to.
June 1 7. — The Earle of Lauthian desyred the Presbyterie by letter
to supplie the kirk of Newbotie for two or thrie Sondayes : quhilk
suit was granted.
July 15. — Mr. Robert Lichtone appointed to adde, and to bring a
testimoniall from Edinburgh the nixt day.
July 22. — Exercised Mr. James Porteous younger, and Mr.
Robert Lichtone. Rom. ii. i, 2, 3. They approvin.
Mr. Robert Lichtone produced a testimoniall from the Presbyterie
of Edinburgh.
July 29. — Exercised Mr. Robert Lichtone and Mr. R. Cowper.
Rom. u. 4. Doctrine approvin.
Mr. Robert Lichtone appointed to preach at Newbotle.
August 5. — Reported Mr. Robert Lichtone, that he had preached
at Newbotle.
September 23.— [Mark Cass or Carss of] Cokpene produced, in
name of the Erie of Lauthian, a presentation to Newbotle in favours
of Mr. Robert Lichtone. Mr. Robert Lichtone appointed to preach
the next day. Math. xxv. i, 2.
September 30.— Preached Mr. Robert Lichtone, Math. xxv. i, 2,
and approvin. He ordained to have the common heid De
propagatione Peccati.
October 28.— Mr. Robert Lichtone had the common heid De
propagatione Peccati, and approvin. Ordained to susteine disputes
the next day.
November 11.— Mr. Robert Lichtone susteined disputes, and
approvin. This day fyfteine dayes appointed the last dyet for his
farther tryall.
November 25.— Mr. Robert Lichtone tryed in the languages,
chronologic, and difficult places of Scripture. Approvin.

222 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
Ordains ane edict to be served for Mr. Robert Leightone at the
kirk of Neubotle on Sonday nixt.
December 2. — Reported Mr. Robert Lichtone that his edict was
served, and returned it indorsed. Compered the parochiners of
Neubotle, and accepted.
Ordains the last edict to be served on Sonday next.
The next Thursday appointed for his admissione.
Mr. Hew Campbell appointed to preach in Neubotle on Sonday
next, and the moderator (Mr. Jhone Knox) at Mr. Robert's
admissione. Ordains the clerk to write to Edinburgh and Hadiu-
tone for their concurrence to the said actione.
December 16. — At Neubotle.
Quhilk day (being appointed for the admission of Mr. Robert
Lichtone) preached Mr. Jhone Knox, Heb. xiii. 17. Commissioners
from Edinburgh, Mr. Robert Dowglas, Mr. Archibald Neutone:
from Hadentone, Mr. Robert Ker, Mr. Wil. Trent.
Quhilk day, after sermon, Mr. Johne Knox posed the said Mr.
Robert Lichtone and the parochiners of Newbotle with sundry
questions competent to the occasion. Mr. Robert, with imposition
of hands and solemn prayers, was admitted Minister at Newbotle.
December 30.^ — Quhilk day, the brethren subscryvit Mr. Robert
Lichtone's collatione and took his oath of alledgiance, and that he
hath made no privat pactione to the prejudice of the Kirk.
1642.
(Leighton often absent this year.)
June 30.— Lichton was one of the Commissioners to the General
Assembly. In his turn, he made the usual exercise and addition
before the Presbytery, on July 7 and 14, on Rom. vi. i, 4.
October 6. — He and two other members ordained to speak to the
Earl of Louthian about one James Ramsay, guilty of murther.
The quhilk day, Mr. Robert Lighton gave advertisement to the
brethren that the Commissioners of the Generall Assembly was to
meet the iSth of October. 1643.
February 2. — Exercised Mr. Robert Lichtoun, Rom. viii. 12, and
approvin. February 9. — Becaus Mr. Rot. Lichton was sick, appoynts Mr.
William Thomson to adde.
February 29. — Mr. Robert Lichtone (being present) ordained to

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 223
give James Ramsay the first admonition out of pulpit, according to
the Book of Discipline.
March 9. — Long minute about James Ramsay of Southsyde,
charged with the murther of William Otterburne. Reported Mr.
Robert Lichton that he had given the first admonition out of pulpit.
March 16 a.nd.June i. — Mr. Robert Lighton absent.
July 20. — (He being present) Annabell Hall in Carrington con
fessed that she had maid a covenant with the Divell, and had
received his mark and his name, and ratified whatsoever she had
confessed to her own minister, in presence of the brethren : whose
confession the brethren subscryved, that it might be presented to the
Counsell. July 27. — Helen Ingliss in Carrington does the same.
September 7 and 14. — Exercised Mr. Robert Lighton, Rom. ix.
19-23. Approvin. 1644.
February 8, 29, March 7 and 28. — Mr. Robert Lichton one of
those absent.
On the 7th of March he had been ordered to supply Lasswade.
April 4. — Patrick Eleaz (Elice) of Plewlands gave in a bill to the
brethren, wherein he desired them earnestlie to put him in posses
sion of that seat in Newbotle Church quhilk belonged to the landes
of Easter Southsyde, the quhilk lands he had now purchased. But
because Mr. Robert Lighton, the minister of the parish, was not
present, the brethren would doe nothing in this businesse till Mr.
Robert was present.
April II. — Patrick Eleaz and Alexander Lawsone wer desyred to
be heir this day eight days to heare it decerned who had best right
to the seate in Newbotle Church now in question.
April 18.— Reported Mr. Oliver Colt, that the Commissioners of
the General Assembly ordained that we should goe on in the
processe against James Ramsay, raanslayer, and cause summons him
at the Corse of Edenbrugh and peire of Leith, to compeir before us
and answer his murther within threescor dayes.
April 25.— The case of Patrik Eleis and Alexander Lawson
resumed, and it was thought the best way to compose the businesse
was by a Visitation of that parish.
Visitation of the Kirk of Newbotle.
May 23.— Quhilk day preached Mr. Robert Cowper, Math. iv. 19.

224 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
Reported Mr. Robert Lightone that he had intimat this present
Visitation. The Minister being removed, and the heritors and elders being
posed concerning his lyfe and doctrine, all with one voice approved
him in bothe. He exhorted to continue.
The heritors and elders being removed, were approvin ht the
minister. The Reader being removed, was approvin be the
minister and elders.
The question anent the seat in the kirk, betwixt Southsyde and
Alexander Lawsone continued, at the Earle of Lauthian's desyre,
and that with the consent of the parties.
June 6 and 13. — Exercised Mr. Robert Lichton. Rom. xi.
26-32. July 18. — Reported Mr. Robert Lightone that he had preached
in Pennicooke.
August I. — Compeired James Gibsone,of the parishe of Neubottle,
supplicating theyr helpe in respect of the burning of his house.
Refers him to the several kirks.
August 22. — Mr. Robert Lightone appointed to preach in Edin
burgh at the Synode.
September 5. — Reported the Commissioners that the Committee
of the General Assemblie advysed them to continue all further
processing of James Ramsay till it be instructed that he is living.
Mr. Robert Lightone appointed to acquaint the partie perseuar to
use diligence herein.
September 12. — No exercise this day because of Mr. Robert
Lighton's sickness, who should have had the common heid.
September 26. — Mr. Robert Leighton had the common heid, De
Christi Descensu.
December 19. — No addition becaus of Mr. Robert Lighton's
sickness. Mr. Robert Carson ordered to mak, and Mr. Robert
Lighton to adde, if health permit. 1645.
January 2 and i6. — Exercised Mr. Robert Lighton. Rom.
xiii. 5-9.
January 16. — Quhilk day, was presented ane Catalogue of
books, given by William, Erie of Lauthian, to be ane begining of
a librarie to belong in all tyme comeing to the paroche kirk of
Newbottle for the use of the Minister : which the Brethren thank-

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 225
fuUie accepts for a good work and good example to uthers, and
heartilie thanks his Lordship.
July 17.— Mr. Robert Lightoun appointed to adde.
October 2 and 9. — Exercised Mr. Robert Lichtoun. Rom. xv.
12-14. Approvin. 1646.
February 19. — Exercised Mr. Robert Lichton. Rom. xvi.
20-21. Approvin.
February 26. — Exercised Mr. Robert Lichton. Rom. xvi. 23, 24,
25. Approvin.
May 29. — Mr. Robert Cowper, minister of Temple, being
accused of excessive drinking : the brethren and ruling elders were
severally desyret to informe themselves the best way they cane
quhairin Mr. Robert has miscariet himself in his calfing and con
versation. " Mr. Robert Lichtoun declared that ther was an
surmise of his scandalous drinking in the Stobhill upon an certaine
day. The brether desyret Mr. Robert Lichton to try the verity
thereof, and report the next day."
June 18. — Mr. Robert Lichton appoynted to go ther (to
Ormiston) the next day.
June 24. — Reported Mr. Robert Lichton he had preached at
Ormiston. As for Mr. Robert Lichton, to whom was recommendit
the tryell of (Mr. Robert Cowper) his drinking in Stobhill, reported,
that he was informet that on an certaine day he was drinking in
ane Simeon Wilson's in the Stobhill.
July 2. — Mr. Robert Cowper objects to Sir James Douglas
sitting as a judge. The most of the brethren thought he should
not sit. " Wherewith he not being well pleaset, the brether sent
forth Mr. Oliver Colt and Mr. Robert Lichton to deill with him,
and requeist that he would not sit as ane judge in that business :
quhilk when he refuset, they desyret (he being callet in) that he
would giv his oath that in his cariag in this particular he was free of
malice and splen, and had nothing before his eye but the glory of
God." July 16.— The said day Mr. Robert Lichton informet the
bretherin that ther wes an who informet him that ther wes an
William Hoge and his wife in Laswad, who would witness against
Mr. Robert Cowper that he was drunk, if they should be callit
thereto. A.L. 15

226 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
[These extracts refer to a long trial of Mr. Robert Cowper, who
is accused by Sir James Dundas of Arnoldston (Arniston) of
excessive drinking. The depositions of the various witnesses are
recorded, and Cowper is finally acquitted ; but having, on his
acquittal, broken out into a violent invective against Sir James
Dundas, he is suspended.]
August 20 and 27. — Exercised Mr. Ro. Lichton. i Cor. ui.
1-4. October i. — In a dispute about the settlement of Borthwick, and
the presentation in favour of Mr. Alexander Wedderburn, between
the heritors and presbytery, each party, " after long debate and con
ference, nominate three candidates, viz., Mr. Robert Lichton, Mr.
John Stirling, Mr. Alexander Wedderburne, for the heritors of
Borthwick ; Mr. Alexander Verner, Mr. David Lidle (Liddell), Mr.
William Clyd, were nominate by the presbytery." On the 15th
Wedderburn declined.
October 15. — Mr. Robert Cowper "most humbly did supplicate
the brethren of the presbitery that he should be relaxit at this time
from his suspension." — It was the mynd of the whole presbitery and
commissioners (from Edinburgh and Haddington, who had been
summoned to advise and assent) except Mr. Robert Lichton and
the Laird of Arnolston, he be presently relaxet upon the humble
acknowledgment of his offence (against) God and his brethren, and
purging himself of all malice against the Lard of Arnolston.
Quherupon Mr. Robert Lichton and Arnoldston desyret their voyces
should be market as disassenters, in respect they thought it should
be referret to the judgment of the Synode.
1647.
Ormisters, January 14. — The said day ther was an act of the
commission producet be the clerk, ordaining Mr. James Robertson
and Mr. Robert Lichtoun to preach to the Parliament the 24 of
Januar, and Mr. Oliver Colt and Patrick Sibbald to preach the last
of the said month : quhilk they promisset to obey.
February 25. — Exercised Mr. Robert Carson, i Cor. vi. 12, 13,
and wes approvin. There wes no addition, because Mr. Robert
Lichton was sent for by his Father, who was lying sick at Londoun.
April 22. — The said day Mr. James Fairly, moderator, delaitit
one named Stephen Askine, who wes a known malignant, and wes
in actuall service with James Graham, and had purchaset an

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 227
testimoniall from the schoUmaster of Neubotle declaring that he
wes an honest man, and that ther wes no blamish
Malignant, found in his conversation except that he had been
with James Graham, for which he had satisfiet the
kirk session of Newbotle, and was absolvet this last Sabboth be
Mr. John Sinclair, who preachet ther for Mr. Robert Lichton.
May 13. — Forasmuch as Mr. James Aird was not lawfully sum
moned for giving a testimonial to Steven Askine, who was received
for his complying with the rebels in the Church of Newbatle, con
trary to the Acts of the Generall Assembly, he was ordained to be
summoned again the next day, with certification.
May 20. — Mr. Robert Lightoune present.
The which day, being called, compeared Mr. James Aird, and
declared that the Session of Newbotle, to which he was clerk, gave
orders to him for the giving up the name of Steven Askine to Mr.
John Sinclair, who did occasionally preach there by the absence of
Mr. Robert Lightoune, for receiving his satisfaction for his com
pliance with the rebels : and whereas he was received, not being
first at the presbytery, conform to the Act of the Generall Assembly,
it was onely done by him out of ignorance. Wherefore he was
admonished to be more circumspect afterward, and because the
Session was concerned in that businesse, they ordained the elders
thereof should be present the next day to declare them
selves. May 27.— (Steven Askine, who was a parishioner of Lasswade,
compears in sackcloth.)
June 3. — The which day it was declared by Mr. Robert
Lightoune, in name of the elders of the Session of Newbotie, that
whereas they ordained Steven Askine to satisfy for his compliance
with the rebels, contrary to the Acts of the Generall Assembly,
they did it out of ignorance of the said Actis.
September 16.— The which day Mr. Robert Lightoune made a
reference to the presbytery of a processe of adultery, from the
session of Newbattie, of John Howy and Katherine Alam, which
they denied. (Long process and examination of witnesses and
confronting of parties.)
[From May 20, 1647, when the sederunts began to be entered
in full, till March 23, 1648 (between which date and March 30
Leighton went to England), there were 41 meetings of presbytery,
several of them being merely visitations in distant parishes), at 29

228 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
of which I find Leighton was present. There were few more
regular attenders.j 1648.
January 20. — Mr. Robert Leightone, having given in Theses de
Oratione atque Invocatione Sanctorum, was appointed to handle
that commonplace the next Thursday.
January 27.— The which day Mr. Robert Leighton handled the
commonplace De Oratione atque Invocatione Sanctorum, and was
approved. March 16. — This day came from the Commission of the General
Assembly, 16 Declarations and ane Act, for the reading of them by
every brother the next Sabboth.
(This Declaration evidently was connected with the "unlawfuU
Engagement." )
March 30. — Mr. Robert Leightoun, who should have added, being
absent in England for some necessary businesse, Mr. Robert AUsonne
appointed to adde the next day.
April 6. — This day, the brethren (being interrogated by the Mo
derator, as also the two days before) declared that they had all read
the Declaration themselves the first Sabboth after they got it. Onely
Robert Porteous, the elder of Newbotle, declared that Mr. Robert
Leightoufi had made the Precentor read it, and that because of the low
nesse of his owne voice, which could not be heard throw the whole kirk.
The clerk was ordained to report this in writt to the Commission of
the General Assembly.
April 27. — Absents from the Synod, tried. — Mr. Robert Leigh
toun, because in England, could not give his excuse.
At Edinburgh, in the New Church, May 3. — The quhilk day, the
brethren and rufing elders being removed quhill ther presbyteris
book wes a trying, did mak choise of Mr. James Robertsone and
Mr. Robert Lichtoun to preach to the Parliament Sunday come a
moneth ; and in case Mr. Robert Lichton his not home-coming, Mr.
Patrick Sibbald to supplie his place.
Leighton's June 15. — The quhilk day, according to the ordinance
Answers, of the Provinciall Assembly, the Moderator did demand
Mr. Robert Lichton — i. Why he did not read the Declaration
himself. 2. Why he went away to England without obtaining fibertie
from the Presbyterie, seeing there wes Acts of the Generall Assembly
expresly prohibiting ministers to be absent from their charge thrie

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 229
Sabboths togidder, under the paine of deposition, unlese they have
obtainet libertie from ther Presbyterie.
To the first he answered, That that Sabbath quhen the Declara
tion wes to be red, he wes so troubled with ane great defluction that
he was (not) able to extend his voyce, and therefor was necessitat to
do that farr, by his intention, bot it shall be helpet in tyme coming.
To the 2d he answeret— i. That quhen he went away he intendit
onlie to have bene absent two or three Sabbothes at the most, and he
humbly conceavet ther had bene no expresse Act why an minister
might not have been absent for that short space. Bot if ther be any
such Act, he wes sorrie that he should have downe any thing that
might appeir contrarie to it.
2. Hoc posito he had remained longer away than these few Sab
bothes togedder, he aflSrmed, that he did acquaint som of the brether
with it, and desyret them to excuse him.
3. Quhen he came to York he found an busines of an neir friends,
but non of his own, that necessitat him to go further and stay longer
than he intendit.
4. He no sooner came to York bot als sone he wrote an letter of
excuse to the Brether, notwithstanding it did not come to ther hands
befor his coming home.
5. Quhen he came home he was surpryset with seikness, and was
not able to come to the presbyterie for the space of 14 days.
He being removit, and his excuses being consideret and they cha-
ritablie constructed, did appoynt him to be gravlie admonishit to
amend : which was accordinglie done be the Moderator, after his in-
calling, and receavit by him humblie, and promisit be the grace of
God to amend.
June 22. — The quhilk day, list being made for choising the com
missioners to the Generall Assemblie, Mr. John Knox, Mr. John
Sinclair, and Mr. Robert Lichton wes choisen, and my Lord Borth
wick rulling elder : which being intimiat be the Moderatour to them,
they did all accept of the commission and gave ther oath of fidelitie,
except Mr. Robert Lichton, who gave these Reasons why he could
not accept of the commission :
I. Because he had an great charge.
2. He had his people to examine.
3. He was bot shortlie come home from England.
4. It was not long since he was commissioner to the General
Assemblie.

230 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
5. The great attendance of the commission; and therefor he
could wish they would not insert his name in the commission.
The forsaid reasons, after his removall, being consideret be the
Brethren, and withall laying to heart the bad consequence that
might follow upon his refussall or not accepting of the commission,
being orderlie choisen, uthers might do the lyk, and so ther should
be no Generall Assemblie if the allegit reasones of every commis
sioner should be accepted as relevant : And therefor they did adhere
unto ther former voyces in choising of him commissioner, and de
syret him to think upon it till the day 14 days, and then to be
present and accepe upon oath as the rest.
July 6. — The quhilk day, the bretheren and ruling elders that
were present finding that Mr. Robert Lichton was not ther to accepe
the commission to the Generall Assembly ordainet his name to be
expungit be the clerk out of the commission.
August 5. — (Mr. Robert Lichton present — arrangement made for
copying and reading the Declaration against the Engagement and
two Acts of the Assembly.)
August last. —The quhilk day, Mr. Robert Lichton was poset, why
he did not come to the presbyterie that Thursday immediately pre
ceding the sitting downe of the Generall (Assembly) and embracit
his commission to the said Assemblie, conforme to the appoyntment
of the Presbyterie. Ans. He was so troubled with an distillation
that he was not able to come for the space of two or three days.
Also being poset, why he did not embrace the commission ? Ans.
He was conscious of his own weaknes for the managing of that
busines, and could have wisht that they would construe it so. 2. He
declared that he was very infirme, and feared that he should not
have been able to have waited upon the sitting of the Generall
Assembly. And withall he assured them, that if he had suspected
that they would not have choisen another in his place, notwithstand.
ing of all his weakness of bodie, yea, although it had tendit to the
great prejudice of his health, he would have embraced it, for he
resolvit never to be refractarye to any thing which they commandit
him, and he lookit they would think so of him.
The foresaids reasons being ponderet be the Bretheren and found
somewhat weak, they thought him censurable, but quhat his censure
should be, they continued the same to the nixt Thursday that the
commissioners of the Generall Assemblie be present.
September 7. — The quhilk day, the bretheren and ruling elders

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 231
(after Mr. Robert Lichton his removall) having divers tymes hard
his reasons red be the clerk, and charitably consideret them, why he
did not accepe of the commission to the General Assemblie the first
day quhen he wes choisen, neither cam the second day conforme to
the presbyteries ordinance, having gotten tyme to think upon it : and
finding that it wes not disaffection unto the cause of Christ, neither
out of any disrispect unto the ordinance of his bretheren, but judging
it modestie in ther brother and infirmitie in bodie that movet him to
Admonished *'' ^^'^ ordane him gravly to be admonishit be the
Moderator for his imprudent cariage, and to beware of
the lyk in tyme coming : which was accordingly downe, and wes
modestly taken by him, and withall promiset be the grace of God to
amend. September 28-November 2. — (Mr. Robert Whyt, expectant,
charged with not being "weill myndit to the Covenant," and
suspected of not praying in the Lugton family [where he seems to
have been tutor] against the Engagement. He admitted he did not
pray against the Engagement, gave his reasons, and after long
process was ultimately suspended).
November 2. — (A report on the state of the various Kirks of the
Presbytery occurs here in the Register.) That of Newbattle is very
brief, viz. — "The parish therof four miles in lenth, and in bredth
„ . two : communicants about 900 : provydet with manse
Communicants. , , „ , , t i
and glybe and stipend, payet be the Erie of Lowthean,
patron, 4 chalder of victuals, 40 bolls therof oats, 8 bolls wheat,
and sixteen bolls heir, with 400 merkes of moneys."
(At the Synod held at Edinburgh, November 7, 1648, a com
mission, of which Mr. Robert Lightoune was a member, was
appointed for " trj'ing of any members of the Assemblie had bein
active promoters of the last sinfuU ingadgment, or had accession
thairto, or had hand in carieing on the samen, or if any of the
brethren had contryvit subscrivit or had hand anywayes in a
supplication that was caried on befoir and at the tyme of the last
Generall Assemblie, and is reported to have been contrarie to the
public resolutions of the General Assemblie.")
The Committee reported that " they had cleared their number,"
but report that there " are fyve ruling Elders who have had accession
to the ingagement."
(The strict examination of the Presbytery books by the Synod
precluded the possibihty of any minister being habitually absent.)

232 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
December 21.— (Mr. Robert Leightone present.) This day, the
brethren being particulariy enquyred by the Moderator, If they had
observed the fast, and renewed the Covenant according to the
directions given by the Commission of the Generall Assemblie,
answered all, that they had so done : which Mr. Jhone Knox was
ordained to report to the Commission.
December 28.— Exercised Mr. Patrick Sibbald and Mr. Robert
Leightone, upon the isth of the ist Epistle to the Corinthians from
the 6th verse unto the 9th. 1649.
January 12.— Exercised Mr. Robert Leightone and Mr. Jhone
Knox, expectant, upon the 15th ch. of the ist Epistle to the
Corinthians from the 9th verse unto the 12th, and were approven.
April 1 2. — This day, the Presbytery having diligently revised and
examined Mr. John Pringle, his whole processe could find none of
these declarations that were given in against him clearly and
directly proven, etc. (he was "an expectant" or probationer, and
was charged with thinking the Engagement lawfull) . . . Mr.
Robert Leightone and Mr. Jhone Sinclare did declare that, to their
best sense and judgment, he had testified to them and evidenced
true signs of sorrow and repentance for his errors and miscarriages
in relation to the late Engagement : the Presbytery suspended him
from preaching till he should give furder signs and evidences of
repentance. " Leighton," says the Rev. Dr. Gordon, " during the time of his
incumbency at Newbattle, was a frequent visitor to England. After
1646 he seems to have gone there every year, sometimes on account
of his father's health, and sometimes on account of "weightie busi
nesse." It was then, as it is now, the law of the Church of Scotland,
that a minister cannot be absent more than a few weeks in the year
from his parish without leave asked and obtained from the Presby
tery of the bounds. Year after year Leighton appears asking for
leave to go to England, usually to see his father. This is regularly
given : and great kindness and consideration seem always to have
been shown to him. His absence usually extended to three months."
. . . After quoting the words of the Minute, June 14, 1649, Dr.
Gordon continues, " Permission was given, and Leighton seems to
have remained away till September. It is probable that
Father's j^jg father's death occurred at this time, as on his next
visit to London in March 1650, he obtained libertie to

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 233
go on 'weightie businesse.' This 'weightie businesse,' doubtiess,
was the failure of the merchant in whose hands was placed the
/i 000 ^*'°°° which Leighton had inherited from his father,
and about which he wrote to Mr. Lightmaker on
December 31, 1649, and February 4, 1650.* In connexion with this
see p. 242 for an extract from the Parochial Records, from which
it would seem that Leighton had been put to inconvenience by the
loss of the money.''
1649, May 31. — (Mr. Robert Lighton present.)
The Moderator having inquyred of everie brother severally, if
they had red the Declaration, and observed the day of public
thanksgiving, found that everie one had discharged themselfs
cheerfullie. June 14. — The which day, Mr. Robert Lighton declared that his
father, being under seakness, had written for him, and thairfor
desyred libertie to goe and visite him.
The Brethren judget his desyr reasonable, graunted the same
desyring him to returne with all possible diligence to his charge, and
to provide some to supplie his plaice induring his absence, quhilk
he promised to be cairfull off.
June 21. — Erie of Louthian chosen rewling elder to the Assemblie.
July 12. — At Glencorss Visitation, the people said they were
abundantfie satisfied of their minister (Mr. Robert Allison) in his
^, ^ . , , fife, and much edified by his doctrine, and that he had
Cf. Leighton s , . ' , . ,
" Preaching preached according to the exigence of the times, and
Eternity." particularfie against malignants and sectaries.
September 6. — (Mr. Robert Lighton present, first time since
June.) This day the Presbyterie appoynted everie brother to give in the
names of aU quho in their parishes had bene upon the lait unlawful
Ingagement, and had not as yet nather satisfied nor supplicate.
September 20.— Mr. Robert Leighton excused for his absence last
day (Sept. 13).
November 8.— The Provenciall Assemblie of Lowthian and
Tweeddale " requeists my Lord Lowthian to speak to the Committee
of Estaits, that ther Lordships may give ordour to their clerks to
issue out commissiounes for tryall and burning of witches, gratis."
November 29-December 6.— The which day, exercised Mr.
Robert Leighton, 2 Cor. i. 6-11, and was approven.
'¦ See pp. 212, 213.

234 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
1650.
January 24. — The which day Marjorie Paterson, of the parioch of
Newbotle (and others), confessing witches, had their depositions
attested by the Moderatour.
Every minister ordained to see that his kirk was provided accord
ing to the Act of Parliament. Mr. Hugh Campbell to speak to my
Lord of Lothian for the settling of the stipend of Newbottle.
February 7. — The which day, reported Mr. James Robertsoune
that my Lord Lothian had provided the Kirk of Newbottle with a
stipend, according to the Act of Parliament, to wit, 4 chalders
victuall, of wheat, bear, and oats, foure hundreth pounds of money,
with 40 pounds for the elements, with 4 sowmes grass, when the
minister shall demand it, with manse and gleib.
March 14. — The which day, Mr. Robert Leightoun did show the
Presbyterie that a weightie businesse did call for him to England,
and obtained libertie from the Presbyterie to goe, upon condition
he should take a course for the providing of his kirk till his return,
which he told the Presbyterie he had alreadie done.
May 21. — Mr. Robert Leightoun's name reappears at this date.
May 30. — This day, Mr. Robert Carsan complainid of Robert
Walter his precentour, for malignant speeches that he should have
vented in my Lord Lothian's family. Mr. Robert therefore, and
Mr. John Sinclair, were ordained to try my Lady Lothian
anent his speeches.
June 20. — This day, Mr. John Sinclair reported that Mr. Robert
Carsan and he could learn nothing of the malignancy of Robert
Walter, the precentour in Newtoun, at Newbottle.
Robert Kerr ^^"^ ^^' — '^^^^ ^^^' ^^^ert Ker, having beeni2 years
in Germany, and having come to the country within
thirteen dayes, and having his father dwelling in Newbotie, was
ordained to be received to the covenant by Mr. Robert Leightoun,
after triall. (One Andrew Alexander signs a declaration expressing
Prayers." '^'^ sorrow for having condemned set prayers, and the
use of the Lord's Prayer, and admits that it may be law
fully used, both in public and private, and he "heartifie detests and
abhorres the errour of those who condemne the use thereof as
sinfulL") (" Moreover, forasmuch as the said Andrew declared he was
scarcely satisfied that sett prayers were lawfull, and desired he were

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 235
cleared from Scripture, Mr. Robert Leightoun and Mr. John
Sinclair were ordained to conferre with him.")
(Ther was no melting of the Brethren from 25 Julii, 1650, untill
the 15 day of Junij, 1651, into which there was anything judicially
done. The Brethren resolved to meet at Cockpen, and choose com
missioners to the Generall Assembly.) 1651.
June 22. — The meeting was held at Cockpen.
Nine members were present, including Mr, Robert Lichton.
(One or two leaves wanting here, till October 30, 165 1.)
1 65 1. November 4. — Adjourned to January 6, and then to
March 1652.
Proceedings of the Synod.
No Presbytery Books except Linlithgow, because, through the
calamities of the times, the meetings of Presbyteries had been very
unfrequent. Long proceedings about differences in the Presbytery
of Linlithgow. A committee, of which Robert Leighton was a
member, appointed to consider what should be done by the
Synod. A committee appointed to consider " what is expedient
Prisoners. , , ... t. , • ¦ ,
to be done in relation to our Brethren prisoners in the
Tower of London, and about that city."
A committee, of which Robert Leightoun was a member, appointed
to present this Act to the brethren differing in judgment from its
Provinciall Assembly.
(Committee on Mr. Edward Wright's processe appointed : Robert
Leighton one of the members.)
^ Overtures anent the Brethren Prisoners in England. —
Overtures. ... , . , ,
The Committee appointed in relation to our brethren,
prisoners in England, proposed — (i)That a generall letter should be
written to them showing sympathie and fellow-feeling. (2) That a
fitt man of the Synod be pitched upon, to be sent to London with
commission to negotiat their liberatione and freedome, by all possible
and lawfull meanes, quho may take advice of the minister of St.
Andrews and Edinburgh, the Lord Warristoune, and Mr. John
Livingstoune, anent his carriage in that business, quho shall have
Sopeeces (50 peeces = 6oo merks) allowed toward his charges, to be
payed by the Presbyteries of the Synod proportionally. (3) That some
be directed from the Synod to acquaint the Magistrals of Edinburgh;

236 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
and the persons in nearest relation to the prisoners, with this
resolution. (Mr. Robert Ker and the clerk to draw out the letters
AoDofntment ^'^'^ commission, and a committee, of which Mr. Robert
Leightoun was one, to acquaint the Magistrats and
nearest relations with the Synod's purpose.) Proportions payable
by the Presbyteries fixed.
Mr. Robert Leightoun is unanimously chosen and earnestly desired
by the Synod to undertake the charge of repairing to London for
negotiating the enlargement and fredome of our imprisoned
brethren in England : quhilk he accepted. The commission
being presented and read, was approved : the tenor quhairoff
followeth. The Provinciall Assembly taking to consideration the sadd con
dition of their brothren now prisoners in England, and the dutie in
cumbent to this Assembly in relation to them, found themselves
obliged as to hold them up in prayer to God in privat and publick,
so to use all lawfull meanes for their enlargement and libertie : and
having found it expedient for that end that on should be sent up to
London, doe unanimouslie appoynt their reverend brother, Mr.
Robert Leightoun, minister at Newbottle : hereby giving him power
and commission to repair to London for negotiating the freedome
and enlargement of their said brethren : and doe appoint the
Presbyterie of Dalkeith to take course for supplie of his place, that
the people of his charge sustaine no prejudice during the time of his
absence : lykewise the drawght of the letter to the brethren im
prisoned, being presented and read, was approven, the tenor
quhairof followeth : — (4th November, 1651.)
Reverend and Deare Brethren —
Neither our condition nor yours will permitt us at this time fullie
to expresse the thoughts of our hearts toward yow in your suffering,
yett we thought it our dutie to give yow some testimony of our
remembrance of yow : and therefore, being by the Lord's good
providence mett here in our Provinciall Assemblie, the brotherlie
affection we carry to yow, and the Christian sympathie we have with
yow, hath put us to a resolution of assaying all possible and lawfull
meanes of your enlargement : for this effect we have desired our
reverend brother, Mr. Robert Leightoun, to repair to London, giving
power to negotiate in that matter, as God sail be pleased to blesse

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 237
any meanes for that end, — there shall be no earthly thing more
acceptable to us : for obtaining hereof we have appoynted prayers
to be made throughout the churches of our bounds : in the mean-
whyle assure yourselves our souls' desire to God shall be for yow,
that His consolation may abound in yow, and his strength support
yow : to His rich grace we commend yow, and are in him.
Your loving Brethren and most affectionat
The Ministers and Elders of the Provinciall Assembly
of Lothian, &c., in their name.
(A Fast appointed.)
1652, March 3. — Mr. Robert Leightoun appointed by the Synod
one of a committee "To consider of the marriage and fornication of
our women with the English souldiers, and the baptisme of children
gotten twixt them in fornication : and whether ministers are to
accompt the personnes so marled of the number of their con
gregation ; also how to cary in case of their seeking proclama
tion, and to present their thots anent these things to the Synod,"
&c., &c. March 4. — Report : Mr. Hew M'Kaile — Mr. Robert
M^aUe Traill and he having moved the English Commissioner
for freedome or maintenance to our brethren prisoners
in England, speciallie those who are in the Tower, that they
found no hopes at all of the former, and but little for the latter.
The Synod nominats and appoints Messrs. William Dalgliesh,
George Leslie, Oliver Colt, Robert Ker, to concurre with the
brethren of Edinburgh in dealing with Mr. Leighton, to the intent
of the commission given him for repairing to London, to negotiat
for the brethren in prisone there.
Dalkeith, November 14.— In supplying Borthwick during the
vacancy occasioned by the death of Mr. James Porteous, it was
ordained, that (after six members who are named) it should be done
by those who should have suppliet Mr. Robert Lichton's place
during his abod at England, if he went not away before that tyme.
(Few meetings of the Presbytery were held about this time.)
1652.
January 22. — No exercise, because of the English commissioners
at Dalkeith, and the great confluence of soldiery, both of horse
and foot.

238 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
The said day the brethren appoynted the next day
^'soldieTs.°^ °f meeting to be at Cokpen this day twenty days,
fearing the insolencie of the souldiers at Dalkeith.
At Cokpen : There was nothing judicially downe, because there
wes bot few brether came ther, and therefore it was resolvet that
the place of meeting should be at Dalkeith againe. In respect
they were credibly informed that they might als safely meet at
Dalkeith as at Cokpen.
April I. — An act of the Sessione of Borthwik laid on the table,
showing that the heritors and elders had unanimouslie chosen
Mr. John Weir as their minister. The brethren having pondered
the premess, approved of the same, and " appointed Messrs. James
Fairlie, Robert Lichton, to concurre with the heretors of Borthwick
for his transportation from Leith to Borthwick, and for that effect
to appear before the Presbyterie of Edinburgh.
April 15. — The quhilk day, reported Mr. James Fairlie and Mr.
Robert Lichton, that they had been at the Presbyterie of Edinburgh,
for the lousing of Mr. John Weir from his charge he had at Leith,
and that they had loused him from his charg ther without relation
unto any place.
Weir having accepted this call to Borthwick : the call, among
other things, says, "and that it will be your studie not to break,
bot entertaine and preserve the union and harmonie of this Presbyterie,
quhairin they are so singularly happie in this distracted tyme."
At Inneresk Kirk, April 29. —The quhilk day, ther
^^'l^ppjy^'^^came an letter from Mr. Robert Lichton, desyring
the brethren to have an cair of suppliing his place
during his abod in England, in respect he wes going to sie if
he can obtaine any sort of fibertie to these ministers who wer
keepet in the Tower and uther places.
The brethren condescendit to his desyr, and ordainit Mr. James
Robertsone to preach at Newbotle upon Sunday com 8 days,
and after him the wholl brether to preach ther per vices according
to their standing, expressed in the Presbyterial Roll.
July 15. — Also it was informed by some of the
Excommuni- brether, that Mr. James Robertsone, at the marriag
Present, of ^^ Erie of Lowthian's daughter, had both in
the kirk prayet, and at the table in Newbotie Castell
craved an blessing before supper, and given thanks also, Swinton
being present, who is excommunicat : and therefor Mr. James

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 239
being posit if it wer so, as wes alledget. An ; that if Swinton
wes in the kirk it wes more than he knew of, for he did not sie
him ther. As for his being at the table, it wes an long tyme
before he did perceave him, he being at an larg distance from him,
and many betwixt them, as also it being in the evening. Bot
quhen he perceaved him ther, he wes much weighted then, as also
now, for his imprudent and inconsiderat carriag. As for his giving
of thanks, it wes after Swinton's rysing from the table, uthers having
downe the lyk befor, and taking the opportunitie at his absence,
did give thanks.
The brethren having ponderat the premisses, and finding that
he had not careit himself as it became an man of his place and
age, ordainet him to be publicly rebuiket, and to be more cir
cumspect in tyme to come ; which, after his incalling, was
accordingly down, and the same rebuik well acceptet of by the
said Mr. James.
L. in (Leighton appears to have remained in England
England, fjom May till about the end of November 1652.)
December 16. — A letter from Mr. Robert Lichtone,
hisCha"'e Presented be Mr. Hew Campbell, quhairin he demits
his charge of his ministrie at Newbotle : Quhilk, the
Presbyterie, refused to accept. Appoints the Moderator to writ
to him, and to desyre him to returne to his charge.
December 30. — Ressavit from Mr. Robert Lichtone ane letter
quhairin he divests his charge de novo, quhilk the Presbyterie
refused to accept. Appoints the Moderator to writ to him.
1653-
January 13. — Appoints Mr. James Robertsone to preach in
Newbotle, and to speik to the Earl of Lauthian about Mr. Lichtone
and Mr. Robert Alisone the nixt day.
Reported the Moderator that he had written to Mr. Lichtone.
January 27. — Compared Mr. Robert Lichtone, and desyred
to be loused from his charge.
Compeared Androw Brysone, in name of the towne of
to LdgSon'. Edinburgh, shewing that the Councell of Edinburgh
had given Mr. Lichtone a call to be Principall of
the Colledge : and his commissione being requyred, he
undertook to produce it at the nixt meeting. Appoints

240 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
the nixt meeting to be this day eight dayes, and then to give ane
answer to both : but no exercise that day. Appoints Mr. Robert
Carsane to preach in Newbotle, to mak publick intimation to the
parishioners, that if they had anything to say against the lowsing of
their Minister, they might appear befor the Presbyterie the nixt day.
February 3. — Reported Mr Robert Carsane that he had preached
at Newbotle, and made publick intimation, as was appointed the
last day. The parochiners of Newbotle called, compeared not.
Ane letter presented be Andrew Brysone from the Councell of
Edinburgh, desyring that Mr. Lichtone might be lowsed from his
charge at Newbotle, and transported with all conveniencie to Edin
burgh Colledge, to be Principall there : and ane Act of Councell
lykewyse presenting the said Mr. Lichtone to the said place. Mr.
Lichtone being posed, if he would embrace the foresaid charge,
answered, that he was not yet fully resolved.
The quhilk day the brethren of the Presbyterie
R?asons^ convened, according to the appointment of the
day preceding, anent the desyre of our brother,
Mr. Robert Lichtone, tobe lowsed from his ministrie at the
kirk of Newbotle, by reason of the gritnes of the congregatione
far re exceeding his strength for discharging the dewties thereof,
especially the extreme weakness of his voice, not being able to reache the
halfe of them when they are convened, which hes long pressed him very
sore, as he had formerly often expressed to us : And to give ane
answer to the Commissioner from the Councell of Edinburgh, anent
his call from them to be Principall of Edinburgh Colledge, that he
may be released from his ministrie ther to that effect. And having
ordained the parish of Newbotle to be warnit by public intimation
from pulpit to heir and see quhat they could object against the said
desyre and call. The Brethren this day having called the said
parish, and they not compearing, nor any in their name, and having
hard our said Brother renew his desyre, as also having red the
letter and commissione from the Councell of Edinburgh, directed to
us by Androw Bryson, thesaurer to the said town, anent his foirsaid
call, did, after mature deliberatione, unanimouslie conclude, that the
said Mr. Robert Lichton shall be lowsed, and by thir presents, doe
actually lowse him from his ministrie at the said Kirk of Newbotle,
declaring the kirk thereof tobe vacant, and transports him to that
charge. And ordains publick intimation tobe made heirof the next
Lord's Day at the said kirk of Newbotle, by Mr. Patrick Sibbald,

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 241
minister at Pennicooke, and ordains ane extract heirof to be given
to the said Androw Bryson, and to Robert Porteous, younger, in
Newbattle. Appoints Mr. Patrick Sibbald to preach in Newbotie, and to con
vene the Session, and to desyre them to pitch with all conveniencie
upon ane honest and able man.
(Mr. Alexander Dickson, afterwards Professor of Hebrew in the
University of Edinburgh, was admitted Leighton's successor at New
battie on the 7th of October, 1653).!
Dr. Gordon also made several extracts from the Session records
of Newbattie during Leighton's incumbency, and from them the
following are selected : —
August 14, 1643.— The minister and elders of the parochin of
Newbattell, considering the manie evillis that follow upon the ne
glect of bringing up childring at school, and especially ane that is not
only ane maine cause of thair grosse rudness and incivility, bot of
thair ungodlines and ignorance of the principillis of religion, and
makis them also almost unteachabell, have ordained that all parents
within the said paroch be careful, so soon as thair childring com to
capabil yearis, to send them to some schooll, that they may learne at
the leist to read, and that, whosoever sail be found within this paroch
to fall heirin, sail be obliged to pay as give they did send thair
childring to schooll according to the number of thame, or be uther-
wayes cens(ured) as the session sail think fitting.
November 5, 1643. — The quhilk day, it was with universall con
sent, both of minister and elders, condescendit upon that thair
sould be built befoir the pulpet ane convenient seatt of timber for
the reidar as is in other kirkis : and the elders to sit at the tabill or
boord befoir the pulpett.
November 12. — It was relatit that John Burrowman in Easthousses
did carie his aill and small drink oft and divers tyms throw the
parochiin upon the Sabbath day, and thairfoir is to compeir befoir
the session the next Sabbath that he may be discernit to satisfie for
the same.
1644, February 11. — After dividing the parish into districts, and
naming an elder for each, it is added — That everie ane be cairfull
within thair owin boundis designit to visit frequently, as once in
fyfteen days, and to inquyr about family exerceise in every house, and
* See Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. iv.
pp. 463-479-
A.L. 16

242 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
the convervation of the people. Especially to tak ordour with
cursing, swearing, or scolding, and excessive drinking — give any
such disordour be fund among them : and to be cairfull in visiting
the seik, and sik avar in want to give notice of thame to the
minister and session.
1647, November 21. — The whilk day Helen Smith was exhorted by
the Minister, in presence of the Session, to have a care of herself and
house, that she walked Christianlie. Because schoe was reported
to have had ane unrulie and uncivill house, which could not be
thoroughly provin.
From numerous entries in the Kirk-Session accounts, it seems
that the rate of payment for scholars at school was ten shillings
Scots per quarter, i.e. somewhat less than one penny sterling per
week. The Term of Martemes, 1650.
The quhilk day Robert Porteous did dischairg himself off the
money quhilk he was dew to the schurch off Newbottell, and his
debursment is all allowet. He restet off fre money — the soume off
ane thousand merks Scotis quhitch was delyverit to Mr. Lichtoune,
minister thaire, for the quhitch he hes gevane his bond to pay
interest; and now at this terme off Witsonday 165 1, the said Mr.
Lichtoune hes deburset the half yeir's interest from Martemess 1650
to Witsounday 1651, at dispositione off the elders. And to testefie
thir premisses, we the Elders underwretten hes subscryvet with our
hands. Thomas Megot, Witness.
Robert Porteous, Yonger.
Johne Trent, Witness.
Johne Edmonstone, Witness.*
(Communicated by the Rev. Thomas Gordon, D.D., Minister of
Newbattle, with some introductory remarks by David Laing, Esq.,
V.P.) To complete the record of Leighton's Newbattie ministry, a
reference may here be made to his "Newbattie Library." In a
paper on "Archbishop Leighton's Newbattie Library," the present
Minister of Newbattle, the Rev. J. C. Carrick, B.D., F.S.A. Scot.,
gives a list of the thirty-one volumes which are still preserved in the
Manse, and are handed down from incumbent to incumbent. All
the books were acquired by Leighton, whether by gift or purchase,
and when he left for the Principalship of Edinburgh, he left these
* See Proceedings : vol. iv. 480-486.

MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653) 243
volumes behind him at Newbattie. The following is the list as given
by Mr. Carrick : —
(i) Clavis Theologica.
(2) Doctrinale Bibliorum Harmonicum, by George Vitus, Lutheran
Abbot of Wurtemberg.
(3) Thesaurus Locorum Communium, by Augustinus Marlo-
ratus. (4) The " Magdeburg Centuries."
(5) " Joannis Baptistse Folengii Mantuani, Divi Benedicti mon
achi, in Psalmos aliquot juxta Hebraeam veritatem commentarius."
(6) Osiander's Summaries of Church History.
(7) D. Hieronymi Osorii Lusitani, Episcopi Sylvensis, de Regis
Institutionibus et Disciplina, Lib. viii. There are jottings by " R.
L.'' on the fly-leaf.
(8) Complete Catalogue of the Books in the Bodleian Library.
1620. (9) John Henry Alsted's "Philosophy."
(10) Luke Trelcatius' "Theological Commonplaces."
(11) Stephen Szegedinus' "Speculum Pontificum Romanorum."
(12) Rollock's "Analysis Logica in Epistolam ad Hebraeos.''
" The most touching thing about it is that on the front page a text
written in Latin in the same hand as all the rest is inscribed, and
with the faded initials " R. L." after it : " God forbid that I should
glory save in the Cross of Jesus Christ.''
(13) St. Chrysostom's Works in Latin.
(14) A Roman Catholic Exposition of Job (Latin) " not only to
teach true doctrine but to heal controversies," by John Ferus,
Bishop of Mentz.
(15) lUustrium et clarorum virorum epistolse selectiores.
(16) Cornelius Crocus. Philology and Rhetoric,
(17) Calvin's Commentary on Acts.
(18) Claudian's Works with Latin Commentary.
(19) Danalus' "De Prima Mundi /Etate."
(20) Papa Confutatus.
(21) Arnold Clapmarius' "Concerning the Mysteries of Govern
ment," and bound with it Casaubon's Works.
(22) Theodore Beza's Works.
(23) Raymund Lullius' Works.
(24) Luther's Commentary on Galatians.
(25) Volume of Loose Tracts and Papers.
(26) Bilson's "Perpetuall Government of Christ's Church."
(27) A French Catechism from French Reformed point of view.

244 MINISTER OF NEWBATTLE (1641-1653)
(28) "A Familiar Commentary on the Romans" in French.
(29) Cartwright's "Replye to an answer by Mr. Dr. Whitgifte
against the Admonition to the Parliament."
(30) A work on Astrology, Physiognomy, Cheiromancy and Kin
dred arts.*
Mr. Carrick gives the following " traces " of Leighton in New
battie :—
(i) His old Pulpit ; a small round oak Pulpit with a canopy,
handsomely carved, and originally without a seat.
(2) The ancient Hour-Glass ; it is still entire, sand and every
thing, and stands about 8 inches high. The wooden frame is very
rude. (3) The ancient Funeral Bell.
(4) The Sacramental Vessels — four cups and baptismal basin.
(5) Parish and Presbytery Records. {Ibid. pp. 52, 53.)
A handsome brass memorial was erected recently in Newbattle
Church to Leighton's memory. It gives the main events of his life,
and closes with the texts, " Blessed are the peacemakers. For so
He giveth His beloved sleep."
' Transactions of the Aberdeen Ecclesiological Society (pp. 54-61).
Fourth year (1889).

CHAPTER IX
ROBERT LEIGHTON PRINCIPAL OF EDINBURGH COLLEGE
(1653-1662)
" Truth has its loveliness as the rose its beauty ; and the love of the
truth is the spirit's due response to that loveliness." — John McLeod
Campbell. " When I look back . . . and among the inevitable varieties of worth,
notice the figures and features that survive in thought, the differences are
full of pathetic lights and shades. The vain and empty are simply gone
without a trace, their egoism melted into nothingness. The hard and
opinionative are remembered, indeed, and with homage to their integ
rity, but remembered with a smile, as belonging to the past : or, if more,
only on account of some redeeming enthusiasm and tenderness which
hinted a suppressed fire within. But the forms that are still radiant, the
eyes that have not lost their glow, and are still as if near to us in the
distant air, are those of loving and trustful disciples, surrendered to
faithful service, and spending in it with childlike simplicity the gifts of
genius or the affluence of culture." — Dr. James Martineau.
" When at its origin [University of Edinburgh] its feeble vitality could
only be preserved and developed by intense religious zeal, Rollock was
given : when the storms of religious passion swept over the land, the most
competent directing mind which Scotland then possessed — that of Hender
son — was placed at its service : when fanaticism and intolerance had
converted the country into a well of Marah, in which all sweetness was
in danger of being lost, and when safety was only to be had in pious
quietness, the saintly Leighton was lent : when political sagacity was
peculiarly required, it was conferred in the person of Carstares ; and
when the transition from an ecclesiastical to a literary epoch needed to
be wisely effected, no one more suited to direct the movement could have
been found than Robertson." — Tercentenary Sermon of Edinburgh Uni
versity, by Professor Flint, D.D.
IN a previous chapter reference has been made to that
spiritual climate or atmosphere of the soul, where all
good men meet, and where distinctions vanish away in the

246 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
light of an ineffable glory. And there have been spirits of
a rare mould and refined texture, whose catholicity has
attracted minds of different persuasions : whose sincere piety
has in its unaffectedness won the admiration of all ; whose
largeness has dissolved the differences that become bound
up with the religious life of the many ; in whose presence,
transparent goodness, gentleness and love are so manifested,
that the affection of all good men goes out to them.
Of this type, Robert Leighton was a beautiful example : he
received his first parish from the Presbyterian Earl of Lothian,
served under the government of a Presbytery, and was es
teemed by all his Presbyterian friends at Newbattle. He
was appointed to the Principalship of Edinburgh College
by the Independents ; * and was at last made a Bishop by
Charles II, who felt that dignity was added to his policy
by the acquisition of such a man. The best of the Pres
byterians, Independents, and Episcopalians loved Leighton,
and were attracted by his sweetness and humility, while his
own self-abnegation and piety enabled him to work with any
who were disposed to work peaceably with him.
He had probably been brought into close contact with
Cromwell when in London, and it is certainly to Cromwell's
credit that he advanced Leighton to the Principalship.
Cromwell sought men for places, and not places for men:
" If there was a man in England," says Neal, " who excelled
in any faculty or science, the Protector would find him out and
reward him according to his merits." Ever above his Pres
byterian contemporaries in true toleration, Cromwell once
wrote to a zealous major-general who had suspended and
arrested a colonel for his opinions : " Sir, the State, in
choosing men to serve it, takes no notice of their opinions. —
Take heed of being sharp, or too easily sharpened by others
against those to whom you can object little but that they
square not with you in every opinion concerning matters of
' Laments Diary, p. 53.

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653- 1662) 247
religion." It is certainly to Cromwell's glory that he appointed
John Milton as Foreign Secretary throughout the Common
wealth and Protectorate ; it is also to his glory that he nomi
nated, or helped to nominate, Robert Leighton for the
Principalship at Edinburgh. To Cromwell, as to Milton and
Leighton, forms, whether of worship or government, were but
means to an end, and could be changed whenever expediency
or necessity required.
It is noteworthy that Cromwell, whose sympathies were
decidedly with the " Protesters," should have nominated one
whose leanings were known to be with the " Resolutioners " ;
and certainly it was a beneficial lesson to distracted Scotland
at this time.* The absence of agreement in details and of
uniformity in externals, was not defect in Cromwell's eyes, but
rather merit. "All that believe," he once wrote, "have the
real unity, which is more glorious because inward and spirit
ual." Mr. Great-heart, under whose sheltering care all pil
grims to the Celestial City walked securely — Feeble-mind
and Ready-to-Halt as well as Valiant-for- Truth — is Bunyan's
allegorical representation of what Cromwell was to the Puri
tans. Toleration and comprehension was Cromwell's ideal.
Leighton entered on his duties as Principal in February
1653, and at a time when the government of Scotland, both
ecclesiasrically and civilly, was much altered. Let us briefly
recall the conditions.^
' Besides the reference in Lament's Diary (p. 53) there is the following
account of the appointment in Baillie's Letters and Journals — " 1654—
As for our church affairs, thus they stand : the Parliament of England
had given to the English Judges and Sequestrators a very ample com
mission to put out, and in ministers, as they saw cause, to plant and dis-
plant, our Universities. According to this power, they put Mr. John Row
in Aberdeen, Mr. Robert Leighton in Edinburgh, Mr. Patrick Gillespie
in Glasgow, and Mr. Samuel Colville they offered to the Old Colledge of
St. Andrews : this last is yet holden off, but the other three acts as Prin
cipalis. All our Colledges are quicklie like to be undone."— Vol. iii. p. 244.
' Cf. Oliver Cromwell, by Frederick Harrison, p. 221 ; Life of Monk, by
Corbett ; Gardiner's Cromwell's Place in History, pp. 59-65 ; Oliver
Cromwell, by Charles Firth, pp. 294-299 ; Masson's Milton, vol. iv.

248 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
Scotland was a conquered country after Worcester, but
there had been no general confiscation of the conquered, and
no far-reaching alteration on the framework of Scottish
Society. The Scottish confiscations left the bulk of the
people untouched, although they ruined many of the nobility
and gentry. The National Religion was not proscribed, but
the Church lost a portion of its independence and was
deprived of its former power to check or control the civil
government. The General Assembly — the " glory and
strength of our Church upon earth " — was forcibly dissolved
in 1653, but synods and presbyteries were allowed to meet as
formerly. The formation of Independent congregations was
protected, and Church-courts were deprived of coercive
jurisdiction over non-members. The English Government
appointed commissioners to visit the Universities, punish
ministers who preached against it, and decide disputes about
vacant parishes. While they interfered little in the internal
affairs of the Church, they endeavoured to hold the balance
between the Resolutioners and Protesters. " These bitter
waters," said Robert Blair, '' were sweetened by the Lord's
remarkably blessing the labours of his faithful servants. A
great door and effectual was opened to many."
The separated National Parliament came to an end, and
was replaced by representation to the Parliament of Great
Britain. By the " instrument " of Government, Scotland was
assigned thirty members in the British Parliament. Twenty
were allotted to the shires — one to each of the larger shires,
and one to each of the nine groups of less important shires.
There were also eight groups of burghs, each group electing
one member, and two members were returned by the City of
Edinburgh. Between 1653 ^-^d 1655 Scotland was governed
by Parliamentary Commissioners, and from 1655 by a special
Council. The Court of Session was abolished and its place
taken by a Commission of Justice.
The Protector hoped to reconcile Scotland to the Union by

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 249
the material benefits which it conferred. Freedom of trade
was granted. Tenures, implying vassalage, servitude and
heritable jurisdictions, were abolished. Popular court-barons
were set up, legal fees diminished, and new judges were
appointed, who administered justice without fear or favour.
It was admitted that there was all round an improvement in
the administration of justice, and the " English judges " were
popular in Scotland, as they were above corrupt influences
and just." * Monk, who was Governor of Scotland from 1654,
and had his residence at Dalkeith, attended to almost every
detail himself, kept the military power in subordination to the
civil, was known as " honest George," and adopted as a
principle, " Assist the weak inhabitants and weaken the
mighty." Trade began to revive, feuds and brigandage were
put down, and never perhaps in Scotland had the weak been
so strong.
Cromwell once rebuked the Scottish clergy for " meddling
with worldly policies and mixtures of worldly power," for
setting up that which they called the " Kingdom of Christ,"
and warned them that " the Zion promised " would not be
built "with such untempered mortar." The censure was
not unneeded, for the continuous strifes of the " Reso
lutioners " and " Protesters " make this the most painful
part of our history to contemplate and the most difficult to
unravel. In Scotland all that the Protectionist Government aimed
at was a Limited Presbytery with Toleration, whereas in
England (1653-1660) a Broad Church was realized which
recognized no special form of ecclesiastical organization.
All that the Commission dealt with was the personal piety and
intellectual fitness of the man presented to the living, and if in
these respects he was found to be worthy, he was installed.
The Parish Church was regarded as parish property, and
in one parish in England might be found a Presbyterian,
* Omond's Lord Advocates of Scotland, vol. i. p. 159.

250 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
in another an Independent, and in a third a Baptist con
gregation. Cromwell had toleration for all but Roman
Catholics. Such was the general condition of Church and
State when Leighton was Principal, and we now proceed
to the details of his special services. Burnet states that
Leighton was a great blessing in his office, "for he talked
so to all the youth of any capacity or distinction that it
had a great effect on many of them."* He is said to have
" revived " the practice of Rollock, which his predecessor
had permitted to fall into abeyance, of Wednesday lectures
to the students. Twenty-four of these lectures still sur
vive,^ and are full of beauty and learning. Burnet tells us
that " if crowds broke in, which they were apt to do, he
would have gone on in his sermon in Latin, with a purity
and life that charmed all who understood it." The Latin
is characterized by purity and elegance, and the message
breathes the spirit of an evangelist. These lectures con
tain no exposition of a system of theology, but rather deal
with the higher purposes of life. In the best sense they
are exhortations and endeavours after the Christian life, and
are pervaded by a spirit of the most celestial type. Their
scholarship is wide, and reveals extensive reading and study
of patristic and classic literature, bringing thence things
new and old. They are not of time but of eternity, and form
a storehouse of the richest spiritual utterances that Scotland
possesses, and to them all can turn for impulse, inspiration
and instruction at all times, but not least of all when the
spiritual energies of life are flagging. If the comparative
method be adopted towards them in relation to Scottish
religious literature, both of this and subsequent periods,
they stand out unique and lonely in their splendour.
Leighton, although Primarius Professor of Divinity, was
not expected to teach theology — that being the province of
' History, vol. i. p. 242.
^ See Praelectiones Theologicae, edited by James Scholefield.

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 251
his colleague, David Dickson, professor of theology and the
reputed author of " O mother dear, Jerusalem." As Principal,
his purposes were mainly those of practical theology, and he
frequently exhorts his students in an affectionate manner to
be " candidates for eternity," and certainly his lectures
reveal, like his letters, a mind that always lived on the
borderland where the seen blends in mystic union with the
unseen and God is felt to be near. Besides these prelec
tions there exist eight addresses to students on the occasion
of their laureation, with an address after the vacation, and
a farewell address before leaving the University.
On Sundays the students, with their professors, marched
to Church — the High Church of St. Giles — and the gallery in
the east end of the Cathedral was allotted to them. This
service was transferred after a time to Trinity College Church
and then to Lady Yester's Church. It was Leighton's office
to preach to the students at morning service, and besides
this duty with the weekly Wednesday's lecture, an offer was
made by him, on October 21, 1658, to the Council of Edin
burgh to " preache in the Colledge Hall to the Scholleris
once in two, three or four weeks per vices with the rest of
the professors." * The offer was accepted, and Leighton,
along with the other theological professors, David Dickson,^
and his son, Alexander Dickson (Leighton's successor at
Newbattle and now professor of Hebrew), accepted the duty
of conducting the service.
' See p. 297.
^ Dickson does not seem to have sympathized with Leighton's
admiration for Thomas a Kempis. " I am told that when Mr. Dickson
was Professor at Edinburgh, and Mr. R. Leighton was Principall there,
the Principall urged that the Professor might either teach, or at least
recommend Thomas a Kempis to his students ; and told him he reconed
it one of the best books that ever was writt, next to the Inspired Writters.
Mr. Dickson refused to do either, and among other reasons, from some
Popish doctrines conteaned in it, he added, that neither Christ's satisfac
tion, nor the doctrine of grace, but self and merite ran throu it "
Wodrow's Analecta, v. iii. 452.

252 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653- 1662)
In 1657 Leighton received a commission from the Town
Council to proceed to London and endeavour to obtain
from the Protector some increase to the College revenues.
He was successful in his mission, for Cromwell granted in
general terms * .£'200 a year " out of Church lands " to
Edinburgh College. In July 1658 Leighton moved the
Town Council to endeavour to obtain a " locality " for this
amount (i.e. to have it fixed as a charge on the tiend of some
parish), but in September Cromwell died.
Two other matters were brought before the Council at the
same meeting by Leighton. (i) There was a common report
of some suspected houses in the College Wynd, in reference
to which the Council undertook to remove all scandalous
persons from the neighbourhood. (2) The principal evidently
thought that the students did not make such good progress as
they might, and he attributed this to a deficiency of grammar
schools. He suggested that steps should be taken for the
establishment of a grammar school in every presbytery, and
that the Protector should be petitioned to provide salaries for
the masters out of church rents. He also suggested that a
Latin grammar, written in English, " for the more easy appre
hension of little children," should be provided. The Council
recommended Professor Thomas Craufurd to furnish some
' This gift, which Leighton procured for the University, is thus referred
to in the Council Order Book of date :—
" Know ye that we, taking into our consideration the condition of the
University of Edinburgh, and that (being but of late foundation, viz.
since the Reformation of Religion in Scotland) the rents thereof are
exceedingly small," grant £200 a year at the disposal of the Edinburgh
Town Council, " being the founders and undoubted patrons of the said
University," to be applied for University purposes with the advice and
consent of Masters and Regents. Baillie, speaking of Leighton after his
return, gives this fancy sketch : " Mr. Leighton does nought to count of,
but looks about him in his chamber" (iii. 365), and adds that "the saint
had shown more temper than usual at finding that Sharp had contrived
that ;£ioo of the sum should go to Mr. Alexander Dickson " (son of the
Resolutioner David Dickson), who had been recently appointed
Professor of Hebrew, and whom Leighton did not like.

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 253
Rudiments he was understood to have in hand, but, adds Sir
William Grant, "Craufurd was probably too old for this
work, and nothing was done towards realizing Leighton's
aspiration for the improvement of classical teaching."*
It is interesting to have the following testimony from the
Autobiography of Sir Robert Sibbald, M.D., as to the
influence Principal Leighton had over him when he was a
student under him at Edinburgh University. The references
also afford glimpses into the spirit of the times, with the fac
tions that existed in the Church.
" The Principall of the CoUedge during the five years I studied
was Mr. Robert Lighton, who was first Bishop of Dumblane, upon
the restauration of King Charles the 2nd, and therafter was made
Archbishop of Glasco, a learned and devout man, who had
excellent discourses to us in the Common Hall, sometymes in
Latin, sometymes in English, which, with the blessing of God upon
them, then gave me strong inclinations to a serious and good life.
I shunned the playes and divertisements the other students
followed, and read much in my study, for which my fellows gave me
the name of Diogenes in dolio." ^
. . . "My mother would have had me studie divinity, but
there were great divisions amongst the presbiterians then, some for
the public assemblies of the church, some against them, and they
wrott reproachful discourses against others, and occasioned factions
in the state and private families, which gave me ane disgust of
them. I was acquaint with Mr. Robert Duglass, Master John
Smith, and Hew Mackell, good men and moderate. I saw non
could enter to the ministerie without ingadging in some of these fac
tions, and espousing their interests.
" The impressions I retained from Mr. Leighton his discourses
disposed me to affect charity for all good men of any persuasion, and
I preferred a quiet lyfe, wherein I might not be ingadged in factions
of Church or State." s
" It was this charity to all men that induced the violent controver
sialists of the day to abuse the worthy prelate so much." C)
^ Story of the University, vol. ii. p. 250.
'* Autobiography pp. 4, 15. ^P. 15. * P. i5-

254 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653- 1662)
"I became lykewise about this tyme (1664) acquaint with Mr.
James Aird, a serious christian, a follower of Mr. Lighton, and
who liveth yett now of the age of 68, a man of strong affections for
piety and vertue, and of a single and chast lyfe, and to his power
charitable to the poor in ane eminent way." *
Leighton wrote frequently letters to the minister here
mentioned by Sibbald — the Rev. James Aird, of Ingram,
Northumberland. Unfortunately he does not always date
his letters, but the following belong to the period when
Leighton was Principal. Mr. Aird was son of a former
minister of Newbattle, graduated at Edinburgh in 1646, was
session-clerk of Newbattle in 1647, and was ordained at
Ingram in Northumberland, whence he was ejected by the
Act of Uniformity, 24th August, 1662. Prior to this he does
not seem to have been happy at Ingram, and Leighton did
his utmost to procure for him a new charge, and in the
interval before he succeeded even spoke of a regency for him
at Edinburgh. He was finally settled (1668) at Torryburn,
and was throughout life Leighton's loyal friend.
LETTERS OF PRINCIPAL LEIGHTON
To THE Rev. James Aird, Minister of Ingram,
NORTHUMBERLAND I.
" Sir,
" Some days ago I received some lines from you, and they
were very welcome : for I know no better news can come from
any corner of the earth than of a soul attempting to over
come the world and its own self, and in any degree prevailing
and resolving still onwards. All the projects and conquests
of the world are not to be named to it. Oh I what a weari
ness it is to live amongst men and find so few men, and
amongst Christians and find so few Christians : so much talk
and so little action : religion turned almost to a tune and air
' P. 20.

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (i 653-1 662) 255
of words : and amidst all our pretty discourses, pusillanimous
and base and so easily dragged into the mire, self and flesh
and pride and passion domineering while we speak of being
in Christ and clothed with Him : and believe it because we
speak it so often and so confidently 1 Well I know you are
not willing to be thus gulled : and having some glances of
the beauty of holiness, aim no lower than perfection, which
in the end we hope to attain : and in the meanwhile the
smallest advances towards it are more worth than crowns
and sceptres. I believe it, you often think on these words of
the blessed champion Paul (i Cor. ix. 24, etc.). There is a
noble guest within us : oh, let all our business be to entertain
Him honourably, and to live in celestial love within, that will
make all things without be very contemptible in our eyes ! I
should rove on, did I not stop myself : it falling out well too
for that, to be hard upon the post hours ere I thought of
writing. Therefore, good-night is all I add : for whatsoever
hour it comes to your hand, I believe you are as sensible as I
that it is still night : but the comfort is, it draws nigh toward
that bright morning that shall make amends.
" Your weary fellow-pilgrim, "ROBT. Leighton.
"It may be Mr. Ogle does not think me in earnest when I
desired him to spy out a hermitage for me : but if one remote
enough were offered, I know not how it might tempt me. If
you write again, I pray you load not the back of your letter
with any more than this, "To Mr. Robert Leighton, at
Edinburgh," for by that it will not fail to find me out, and
that answers the end, and, you see, I give you example." *
II.
" Sir, " Though I desired you to forbear for a while the pains of
sending me the book you spoke of, I know it was your kind-
' About 1658 or 1659 ?

256 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
ness pressed you to send it, and I thank you. I cannot say I
have read it through, but divers passages of it I have, and
though I approve the design of it, and of all such wrirings so
far as I can understand, and what I understand not adventure
not to judge of, but rather impliciter think the best of it : yet
I must confess their lowest rules, that are laid as the founda
tion of their structure, I find of most use. And could I duly
follow them, either I should insensibly be raised to those
greater sublimities they speak of, if the Great Lover of Souls
saw any such thing good for me : or I should humbly and
contentedly live without them, which possibly would do as
well, till the day come of the fullest and purest intuitive life,
which I live in the hopes of as not far off. Meantime, I
think I have at a venture given up with the contemptible
desires and designs of this present world, and must have
either something beyond them all or nothing at all : and
though this base clod of clay I carry still depresses me, I am
glad that, even because it does so, I loathe and despise
it. " I have sent you two little pieces of history, wherein it may
be you will find some small relish, but the hazard is small :
and, however, I pray you do not send them back to me at all,
for I have enow of that kind. The one is of a good pen, and
an acquaintance and friend of yours, Paulus Nolanus, and his
life of Martin of Tours I think you will relish, and I believe
it is not in your Vitae Patrum. The other, Valerius Maximus,
I conceive would clog you the less because it is of so much
variety of selected examples ; and the stages are so
short, you may begin and leave off where you will without
wearying. " But when all is done there is one only blessed story,
wherein our souls must dwell and take up their rest : for
amongst all the rest we shall not read ' Come unto Me, all ye
that are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
And never any yet that tried Him, but found Him as good

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 257
as His word. To whose sweet embraces I recommend you,
and desire to meet you there. " Yours, " R. Leighton." *
III.
" Dear Friend —
" I am very sorry for the indisposition you are under, but
I assure you I do not value myself, nor anything I say or do
either upon this or any other occasion, worth your pains of
writing, far less on a journey hither; yet I should gladly
enjoy your mistake in thinking otherwise, if I was in a posture
capable of the pleasure others have of your abode under my
roof for some longer time. The persons you mention in
order to that affair, etc. — I have not seen nor heard anything
from any of them since my last, nor expect that I shall till
the beginning of June, at EdinburgJi, where I intend (God
willing) to be, and desire, if it may be, to see you there. I
have thoughts of going thither somewhat before that time, and
therefore, if I did not signify such to you, I fear you might
miss me if you came hither.
" As for the business, it is very safe, with all our other
interests of Time and Eternity, in our Blessed Father's hand,
of all fathers the wisest and the best. He, I am sure, can
mould either your heart or theirs you have to do withal, as He
thinks fit, and it shall be as it is best to be ; therefore, if we
were together, I should not very eagerly dispute the matter
with you, far less will I by scribbling. Let your heart keep
near to Him, and be daily purging out all that may interpose
and obstruct our closest union, and we have nothing else to
care for. This moment is posting away, and that blessed day
is hastening forward that shall complete that union.
" Pray for your lame fellow-traveller,
" R. L.
' Secretan's Archbishop Leighton, pp. 40-42.
A.L. 17

258 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
" I should chide you, if I could do it sharply enough, for
entertaining the least thought of any such jealousy, as I
think very incongruous with the strength and mutual confid
ence of solid friendship." IV.
" Sir— " What the opportunity is that may engage you where you
are, seeing you express it not, I cannot particularly know ;
but whatever it is, I shall be glad if it suit your mind, and if
I could do you any real furtherance in any such time, I think
I need not tell you how ready the occasion would find me.
Here I see nothing at present worth the thinking on for
you, unless you have a mind to try a course of tilting for a
Regency in Philosophy,* as they call it, which is likely to be
vacant here very shortly, Mr. Wiseman being upon the point
of leaving it and going to sleep. If you find a stomach to it,
all I can promise is, an endeavour to see fair play ; and if
you make one, you would be sure to win, if it depended on
the wishes of. Sir, " Your friend and servant,^
" R. L."
V.
" Sir—
" I should please myself very much in doing anything
towards your repose ; but there is nothing such as I wish
within my reach, nor within my view. The humanity place
' Letters IV. and V. must belong to 1655 and 1656 respectively. The
reference to Mr. Wiseman makes this clear. Wiseman, formerly master
of Linlithgow Grammar School, was appointed Professor of Humanity
at Edinburgh in 1636, Professor of Philosophy in 1638, and died October
1655. He was succeeded in the Chair of Philosophy by William Forbes,
Professor of Humanity, on March 7, 1656. {The Story of Edinburgh
University, vol. ii. pp. 173. 360.) Leighton evidently thought of Mr. Aird
for both offices, as the letters indicate.
2 Aikman's Leighton, p. 684.

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 259
will either not be vacant, or if it be, I think we shall break it
for some reason. Of the other I wrote to you, you can only
judge whether it suits your genius and inclination ; neither
(if it did) have I power to promise anything but heavy
endeavours if I see it feasible, having no assurance of prevail
ing. But one thing I am sure of, and so are you, and it is
enough, that to them that fear the Lord and trust in Him,
no good thing shall be wanting. The choosing of some
dubious steps of our way may now and then be a little trouble
some, but the comfort is, the journey will be quickly done, and
then we hope to be where there are no desires nor delibera
tions of change of quarters. " I am, yours,
"R. L.
" I suppose you have heard of Mr. Andrew Grey's death.*
He has got the start of us, but not for long. I am likely to
preach to-morrow (God willing) in our own Hall, where for the
present meets one of the Town Congregations." ^
VI.
" Sir— " I think you know the reason of my forbearing to write ;
for you cannot but know that letters sent by the post are
' This reference also proves the letter to have been written in 1656.
Andrew Gray (1633-1656) studied at St. Andrews and Edinburgh. He
was one of the band of young Scottish preachers who were powerfully
influenced by Leighton. He was ordained to the Collegiate Charge of
the Outer High Church of Glasgow on November 3, 1653, although only
in his twentieth year. Baillie refers to his " high-flown, rhetorical style,"
and describes his ordination as taking place " over the belly of the town's
protestations." His ministry, although only of three years' duration,
made a profound impression, and his popularity was sustained by his
published works. He died February 8, 1656, of fever, after a brief
illness, and was interred in Blackadder's Aisle, Glasgow Cathedral. On
the walls of the aisle his initials and date of death may be seen deeply
incised. He married Rachel, daughter of Robert Baillie of Jerviswood,
by whom many of his sermons and communion addresses were published
after his death. She had taken them down in shorthand at the time of
delivery. ? Referring to the congregation of the Tron or Lady Yesters.

26o EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
broken open very frequently, if not constantly of late ; and
other way I know none. I often entreated that favour of
my fohn to inquire at your sister's how you were, if she did
hear, and if she knew any safe convey of letters to you ; but
he did as he uses to do in divers of the few letter services I
have for him, and I am beholden to his neglects. Meanwhile
my not forgetting you, you may be assured of, while I shall
continue to remember myself, when I think how little or
nothing it is my letters speak other than some short word,
dropped as it comes, reflecting to you some of your own
thoughts. I am pained with your reckoning them anything
at all. Your imparting the particulars relating to yourself,
though in extrinsic things, I do very heartily thank you for ;
for such communications are a redoubling the pleasure in
them ; and seeing our great Father's love descends to the
ordering of the low concernments of our life, we were very
unwise and ungrateful not to observe them, who had made
flies with so much art, and is truly magnus in minimis.
Courage, it shall be well ; we follow a conquering general,
yea, who hath conquered already ; et qui semel vicit pro
nobis, semper vicit in nobis. For myself at present, I am (as
we use to say), that is, this little contemptible lodge of mine
is, not very well ; but that will pass some way or other, as it
is best ; and even while the indisposition lasts, oh ! how
much doth it heighten the sweet relish of peace within, of
which I cannot speak highly, for to you I speak just as it is.
But methinks I find a growing contempt of all this world
and consequently some further degrees of that quiet which is
only subject to disturbance by our inordinate fancies and
desires, and receding from the blessed centre of our rest :
for hurries of the world you know the way, Isa. xxvi. 20 ;
and in these retiring rooms we meet and be safe and quiet
That you may speak of the shock seeming to threaten your
Order, I am not afraid of at all, neither for you nor myself,
nor the generality of the rest ; but you may be assured that,

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 261
in that case, the lot of those in my posture will be the same
as yours. Sed feJtovah regnat, circuiter, Gentis et cum
reliquis etiam insulae. " Farewell, dear Brother, " Yours,!
"R. L.'
VII.
" Sir—
" The answer I intended your letter was a visit, and that
not en passant. Though I spoke and once had thoughts of
Newcastle for some days, my last purpose was no further
than Ingram, unless it had been with you to Wittingham, to
see your honest neighbour Mr. Hume ; * which, if you think of
it when you meet, it may be you will tell him. Nor was this
a mere thought, for I was on my way towards you as far as
Ginglekirk, whence I returned back to my lodge, finding
myself not well, by reason, I think, of not scarce having been
on horseback twice these many months. I am yet in a little
distemper: of which, though, I apprehend no great height nor
long continuance, yet I am doubtful whether I shall again,
this vacation, attempt any further than Pentland Hills. But
' Aikman's Leighton, p. 684.
^ This reference is to Abraham Hume, a native of the Merse, Berwick
shire. He became chaplain to the widowed Countess of Home, who
brought him to London. John Maitland, afterwards Duke of Lauder
dale, who married the Countess's second daughter, took Hume with him
on his travels to Paris and Geneva. He afterwards obtained the vicarage
of Long Benton, Northumberland, and in 1647 received Presbyterian
orders. His ministry was popular, but being a strong royalist, his
politics were displeasing to Sir Arthur Hesilrige, who procured his
banishment from England. He lived obscurely in Scotland till 1653,
when Hesilrige joined in procuring him the vicarage of Whittingham,
Northumberland. He refused to acknowledge Cromwell's government,
and was instrumental in obtaining the appointment of royalist Presby
terians to vacant parishes. In 1662 the Uniformity Act ejected him.
He died in 1695. {Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xxviii.
p. 208.)

262 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
it is no matter ; blessed be He in whom souls may meet and
concentre in constant rest, and in renewed thoughts and
desires intervisit, every day, in despite of large lumps of
earth, and, in much greater matters, how little imports the
defeat of our purposes as to anything without us, if it please
Him to shine on, and advance our great business within.
O ! what is all the world to it, to that bright purity we aspire
to, and the blessed eternity we hope for ! And how great
reason have we to say non magna relinquo, magna sequor !
I thank you for the notice of your Capuchin, but I almost
knew that he was not here before I looked. It is true the
variety of his book refreshes us, and, by the happy wording, the
same things not only please, but sometimes profit us ; but
they tell us no new thing, except it may be some such thing
as, I confess, I understand not, of essential unions and sleeps
of the soul, which, because I understand them not, would
rather disorder and hinder than advance me ; and therefore
I begin to be unwilling to look over these and such like,
unless I would pick out here and there such things as I am
capable of, and not meet with those steep ascents which I
dare not venture on. But dear di Kempis is a way to it, and
oh ! that I could daily study more, and attain more sublime,
humble devotion there drawn to the life . . . most soaring
treatises I have ever yet met with, find any th . . . certain
and solid use that is there not plainly and Di . . . proque
est paucis opus et . . . panels libris ad bona me . . .
could we once thoroughly despise our own base flesh, and
the vain opinion of the world, and live in the Divine will, as
dead to all things beside, and gladly take the lowest room. He
can, if He please, call for us to go up higher. Oh, but the
misery to have sin, lust, and pride, and self-will, and self-love,
and desire of esteem amongst men, not only living, but, alas,
lively and strong ; and yet, however it be, let us not faint in
our minds, for in the name of the Lord we shall destroy
them. And in the meantime, blessed — ever blessed, be His

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 263
name, who hath called us to fight under His royal standard
and given us to resolve to live and die there. Amen.
"Your fellow-soldier,
" R. L." *
VIII.
[May belong either to the Edinburgh or Dunblane Period of
Leighton's Life.]
"Dear Friend —
" I wish, after your resolution taken, and I think avv dew,
you had barred the door on all suggestions from without and
within, that might have changed or in the least disturbed it.
Sure I am the reason that convinced you is still the same,
that what you may do, you may also promise if it be
required ; and I believe the design was so like to make you
serviceable to God, and to souls that He hath bought, that
you should never have had just reason to repent it. The
like I dare not say of your now recoiling ; and if I might
again prevail with you, I entreat you to re-advise the thing
betwixt God and your own heart, and that cleared, as much
as you can, from all mist, both of the fancy of others and
your own melancholy. If you would meet me at Culross or
Lithgow any time the next week, and send me word what
day or hour you choose, I would endeavour not to fail, or if
coming to Edinburgh to speak with you (though at this time
well I cannot) might be likely to do any help towards
dispelling the cloud that hath overcast your mind, I would
not grudge the pains. All I can do at this distance is to
look up to heaven, who alone powerfully can do it, and in
His blessed hand I leave it, and you, and myself, and all that
concerns us, and all the world ; and whatsoever you do,
never doubt the unalterable affection of
" Your Friend, "R. L."2
' Aikman's Edition of Leighton, p. 622.
" Aikman's Leighton, p. 683.

264 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
IX.
To the Rev. James Aird.
" Sir— " I see there is no place, city nor country, valley nor
mountain, free from that sentence so early passed upon the
earth for man's curse, ' Thorns and briars shalt thou bring
forth.' But he that is well shod walks on the safelier till
he comes where there are none : but, seeing that is not here,
we are to use the greater coolness and deliberation in our
removes. If your present company be someway irksome,
a greater solitude may prove more so : only if God both
sensibly fits you for it, and points clearly out the way to
it, follow Him : otherwise my advice should be, not to hasten
too much, and particularly at no hand so to hasten as to
run into debt for it. For I speak it on experience — He
that sets up anywhere in debt, it will keep him possibly
wrestling, and at under * many years : but if you let your
incomes do their own business, as they come to your hand,
you will find it much easier to do, and sweeter when it is
done. Meanwhile I know you can digest all a little longer,
as hitherto you have done.
" To your other point touching baptism, freely my thought
is, it is a weak notion, taken upon trust almost generally,
to consider so much or at all the qualifications of the parents.
Either it is a benefit to infants, or it is not. If none, why
then administer it at all ? but if it be, why then should the
poor innocents be prejudged of it for the parents' cause,
if he profess but so much of a Christian as to offer his child
to that ordinance ? for that it is the parents' faith gives the
child a right to it, is neither clear from scripture nor from
any sound reason. Yet in that I heartily approve your
thought, that you would make it as it most fitly may be,
an active inducement to the parents to know Him and His
' An old colloquialism for at disadvantage.

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 265
doctrine, and live conformably to it, unto whose Name they
desire their children to be baptized.
" But in this and the other business, and in all things, I
am confident that good Hand, to which I know you have
given yourself up, will graciously guide you. Oh ! let it
be more entirely so with you and your resigned friend,
" Robert Leighton.
" 'Tis well our great journey is going on, and will quickly
set us where we would be. The business you write of is
to you one signal step of it, marked out by that Sovereign
Hand which, I doubt not, will lead you in it and all along
through what remains." *
In October, 1657, at the very time when Leighton must
have been present in Edinburgh, George Fox, then on his
visit to Scotland, was in Edinburgh testifying of the " Light
of Christ in men's hearts." In his Journal he adds, "The
people began to see light and to come into the covenant of
light," but the ministers of Edinburgh and the district were
up in arms against him. There was evidently much sympathy
extended towards Fox by the people and the soldiers ; but
the ministers petitioned the Council, who summoned Fox
to appear before them on October 13, 1657. He did so,
and was ordered " to depart that nation of Scotland by that
day seventh night." ^ He did not, however, do so, but visited
Glasgow, Perth, Dundee, and was back at Edinburgh later
in the year.^ One would like to know what Leighton thought
of this Apostle of Quakerism, and even if he had an interview
with him, for beyond external differences there was much
in common between them in their mutual witness-bearing
to the inner* light. Both were also one in their aversion
1 Secretan's Archbishop Leighton, pp, 42, 43.
^ George 7 o^'s Journal, vol. i. p. 449. ^ Ibid. pp. 443-459-
¦• In the volume of tracts which Leighton has left in the " Newbattle

266 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
to the Calvinistic discipline and extreme doctrine, and the
Quakers were the one important religious body which
originated in the seventeenth century and owe their strength
on the one hand to their opposition and on the other to that
extreme individualism which marked their doctrine as the
very essence of the higher Puritanism. Cromwell was drawn
to their founder (George Fox), and said to him, " If thou and
I were but an hour of the day together, we should be nearer
one to the other." 1 One wonders if Robert Leighton would
have replied in similar words, but there is no letter nor
recorded interview to tell. On this point, as on many others
through the destruction of the University Records belonging
to the period, information is awanting; but through the
preservation of his lectures and addresses, we are sufficiently
informed as to Leighton's religion and the ideals which he
sought to impress on young Scotland during the Common
wealth and Protectorate as well as to mould its future
ministry. Let the following be taken as illustrative of both.
The Ideal of his Ofiice.
" Among the various undertakings of men, can there be a nobler
one than that which has for its object the formation of human minds
anew, after the Divine Image? And it will, I doubt not, be generally
acknowledged that this is the true end and design, not only of
pastors in their several parishes, but also of professors of divinity in
universities. And though, in many respects, the pastoral office is
Library " there is one on the Persecution of the Quakers, by Alexander
Jaffray, Provost of Aberdeen. Jaffray was a great advocate of the
Quakers, and was several times Commissioner to Parliament. He
married the daughter of the Rev. Andrew Cant, Leighton's predecessor
at Newbattle, and for several years during Leighton's ministry Jaffray
lived in an old house at Newbattle next to the Manse, but now pulled
down {Transactions of Aberdeen Ecclesiological Society, 1889, p. 59).
There can be no doubt that a warm friendship existed between Leighton
and his next-door neighbour at Newbattle, and that he must have
found in Jaffray more affinity than from some of his Covenanting
brethren. * Ibid. p. 266.

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 267
evidently superior to the academical, yet in one respect this seems
to have the advantage, as it is the business of the former to instruct
persons who are mostly of the common sort, ignorant and illiterate :
while it is the work of the latter to imbue with heavenly doctrine
minds of a more select class — namely, of youths who have had a
learned education, and are devoted to a studious life : many of
whom, it is to be hoped, will, by the Divine blessing, become
preachers of the same salutary doctrines themselves. And surely
this ought to be a powerful motive with all those who, by the Divine
dispensation, are employed in such a work, to exert themselves all
the more heartily and zealously in the discharge of their duty :
especially when they consider that whatever lessons of Christian
instruction and true piety they instil into the tender minds of their
pupils, will by them be spread far and wide, and in due time con
veyed, as it were, by so many canals and aqueducts, to many parts
of the Lord's vineyard. . . . Every right-minded physician would
feel more than common pleasure in curing the eye which had to see
for and watch over many ; and a harp-maker would exert his skill
with peculiar satisfaction if he knew that his harp would be played
by the hands of Amphion, and, by the force of its music, would
draw stones together for building the walls of Thebes. A learned
and ingenious author, alluding to this fable, and applying it to our
present purpose, calls university professors of theology makers of
harps for building the walls of a far more famed and beautiful city,
even the Heavenly Jerusalem : the stones of this building being
truly, and without fable, living stofies, which, charmed by the sweet
music of the Gospel and drawn by its attractive power, come of
their own accord to take their places in the wall." *
The End of Theology.
" Theology is a Divine doctrine, directing man to true happiness
as his chief end, and conducting him to it by the way of true
religion. I call it a doctrine, because it is not considered here as
a habit in the mind, but as a summary of heavenly truth. I call
it a Divine doctrine, for all the reasons already mentioned, because
it truly is from God, has God for the subject of it, and wholly
terminates in God. I call it a doctrine concerning man, for I am
concerned with that doctrine only which was sent down from heaven
for that purpose. What signify then those far-fetched distinctions
' West's Edition of Leighton's Works, vol. vi. pp. 77, 78.

268 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (i 653-1662)
which are indeed high-sounding, but nevertheless quite foreign to
the purpose, that divide theology into archetypal and ectypal, and
again into the theology of the Church militant, and that of the
Church triumphant? What they call archetypal theology is very
improperly termed theology, forjit is the kyrroaot^La., the very wisdom
of God Himself, His own ineffable self-knowledge. And the
theology of the Church triumphant ought rather to be called ®(oij/Ca,
the beatific vision of God. The theology with which we are con
cerned is that day-spring from on high which hath visited us pilgrims,
that dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet
into the way of peace, Luke i. 78, 79. That peace is true happiness,
and the way of peace is true religion, concerning which I shall offer a
few thoughts, and very briefly." *
The Vision of God as the Motive-power to Purity and Inwardness.
"We must by all means conclude that this Beatific Vision
includes in it not only a distinct and intuitive knowledge of God,
but, so to speak, such a knowledge as gives us the enjoyment of that
most perfect Being, and, in some sense, invites us to Him : for such
a vision it must of necessity be, that converts that love of the
Infinite Good which glows in the souls of the saints into full
possession, that crowns all their wishes, and fills them with a
perpetual and over-flowing fullness of joy, that vents itself in ever
lasting songs of praise.
"And this is the only doctrine, if you believeit (and I make no
doubt but you do) : this, I say, is the only doctrine that can wholly
raise your souls, and carry them up on high. Hence you will learn
to trample under foot all the turbid and muddy pleasures of the
flesh, and all the allurements and splendid trifles of the present
world. However great and beautiful these may seem, and especially
to the inexperienced, yet to a soul whose thoughts and hopes are
set on the heavenly country, and that expects to share the joy of
angels, how insignificant, how nothing-worth are all these earthly
things, whose sounding titles are a lie, and whose apparent greatness
is but an empty cheat ! In fine, the more the soul withdraws from
the body, the more it rises above itself, and cleaves to God : so
much the more the life it lives on earth resembles that which it will
enjoy in heaven, and the larger foretastes are vouchsafed to it of the
blessed harvest there. Aspire, then, to holiness, dear youths, with
out which no man shall see the Lord." ^
' Vol. vi. p. 214. * Vol. vi. pp. 115, 116.

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 269
Happiness not to be found in Earth or earthly Things.
" We must raise our minds higher, and not live with our heads
bowed down like the common herd of men, who, as St. Augustine
expresses it, 'seek a happy life in the land of death.' To set our
hearts upon the perishing goods of this wretched life and to wallow
in the mire of its pleasures is not the happiness of men but of hogs.
And if earthly pleasure be but mire, all else is merely smoke. Were
this the only good proposed to the desires and expectations of man,
it would be no great privilege to have been born. Be advised,
therefore, young gentlemen, and beware of this Circe's cup, lest
your minds thereby become brutish, and fall into a fatal oblivion of
your origin and your end. Turn what in you is Divine to God,
yoiu: Creator and Father, without whom we can neither be happy,
nor indeed be at all." *
Rules to regulate Life according to Religion.
First avoid too much sleep. . . .
(2) Observe temperance in eating and drinking.
(3) Beware of immoderate speech.
(4) Be frequent in prayer, morning, noon or night, or oftener
throughout the day, and continually walk as in the presence of God :
always remembering that He observes not only our words and
actions, but also our most secret thoughts.^
Study of the Bible.
"Let everyone that desires to be not merely a so-called theologian
or divine, but ^€oSt8aKTos et (juXoOeo^ — a true disciple and lover
of God, resolve within himself, above all things, to make this
sacred volume his constant study, intermingUng his reading with
frequent and fervent prayer : for if this be omitted his labour will be
altogether in vain, supposing him to be ever so well versed in these
books, and to have besides all the advantages that can be had from
the knowledge of languages and the assistance of commentators and
interpreters. Different men have different views in reading this
Book. As in the same field the ox looks for grass, the hound for
a hare, and the stork for a lizard: some, fond of critical remarks,
pick up nothing but little stones and shells : others search into deep
mysteries, giving themselves but very little trouble about the precepts
and instructions that are clear and evident, and these plunge them
selves into a bottomless abyss. But the genuine disciples of this
^Ibid. pp. 100, loi. ' Ibid. pp. 233-236.

270 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (i 653-1 662)
true wisdom are those who make it their daily employment to purify
their hearts by the water of these fountains, and bring their whole
lives to a conformity with this heavenly doctrine. They do not
desire to know these things only for the sake of knowing them, or
that they themselves may become known thereby, but that their
souls may be healed and their steps directed, so that they may be
led through the paths of righteousness, to the glorious happiness
which is set before them." *
Avoidance of Controversies and Parties.
"As for you, young gentlemen, especially those of you that intend
to devote yourselves to theological studies, it is my earnest exhorta
tion and advice to you, that you avoid, as you would the plague, that
itch for polemicial and controversial theology, which is so prevalent
and infectious, and which, if any science deserve the name, may be
truly termed, science falsely so called." * . . .
"A philosopher of old (Seneca) brings this grave reproach against
the sophists of his time : ' What was formerly the love of wisdom, is
now become the love of words.' We indeed have a yet graver
reproach to bring against our times, and have to complain, that
what was theology before, is now become matceology or foolish talk
ing : and that many of our divines (alas, how many !) though they
scorn our God, and that the God of peace, yet split into parties upon
the lightest occasions, and with lawless minds divide the whole world
into schisms and factions. And I much fear that this evil in great
measure derives its origin from the education of youths in schools
and colleges. For most of our public instructors carry on the work
of education as if they thought disputing was the end of learning, as
fighting is that of warfare : hence the youth, as soon as they go to
school, begin disputing, which never ends but with their life. Death
imposes silence, and so, at last,
' These passions fierce and stormy strifes are hushed,
Stilled by the magic of a little dust.'
As for you, my young gentlemen, if my earnest wishes and sincere
device can have any weight with you, you will speedily extricate
yourselves from these unhallowed flames of strife and controversy,
that your minds, being enlightened by the pure and celestial fire of
the Divine Spirit, may shine forth in holiness, and glow with the
most fervent charity." ^
1 Ibid. pp. 231, 232. 2 p_ 266. 3 pp_ 2g2^ 283.

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 271
These representative selections from his University Lectures
are sufficient to illustrate his teaching, but fortunately at the close
of several of his Prelections and of all his Exhortations to the
candidates for degrees, there are prayers preserved, which are
spiritual in a supreme degree. If the lectures manifest his
learning, suffused with piety, his prayers naturally reveal his
piety in a more distinctive and explicit form. Throughout
his Commentary and Sermons, Leighton frequently turns his
thoughts into acts of devotion and prayer, and a valuable
volume of devotion might be profitably collected from his
works. The following are examples of his University
Prayers. For Light, Purity, and Communion.
" O ! Unseen God, who seest all things ! Eternal Light, before
whom all darkness is light, and in comparison with whom every
other light is but darkness ! The weak eyes of our understanding
cannot bear the full and unveiled radiance of Thy inaccessible light ;
and yet, without some glimpses of that fight from heaven we can
never direct our steps, nor proceed towards that country which is
the habitation of light. May it therefore please Thee, O Father of
Lights, to send forth Thy fight and Thy truth, that they may lead
us straight unto Thy holy hill. Thou art good, and the fountain of
goodness : O give us understanding that we may keep Thy precepts.
That part of our past fives which we have lost in pursuing shadows
is enough, and indeed too much : bring back our souls into the
paths of life, and let the wonderful pleasantness thereof, which far
exceeds all earthly pleasures, preserve us by a strong yet sweet con
straint from being drawn aside therefrom by any temptation whatso
ever. Purify, we pray Thee, our souls from all impure imaginations,
that Thy most beautiful and holy image may be again renewed
within us, the perfection whereof, we hope, wifi at last make us happy
for ever in that full and beatific Vision we aspire after. Till this
most wished-for day breaks, and the shadows flee away, let Thy Spirit
be ever present with us, and may we feel the powerful effects of His
Divine grace constantly directing and supporting our steps : that all
our endeavours, not only while in this society but throughout the
rest of our lives, may serve to promote the honour of Thy most
blessed name, through Jesus Christ our Lord." *
' University Lectures, pp. 254, 255.

272 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
Prayer to Rest in God alone.
" Whatever satisfaction we look for without Thee, O Heavenly
Father, is mere delusion and vanity. Yet, though we have so oft
experienced this, we have not to this day learned to renounce this
vain and fruitless labour, that we may rest in Thee alone, the life
and full delight of souls. We pray, therefore, that, by Thy Almighty
Hand, Thou wouldest deign to knit our hearts unto Thee, and
make them Thine for ever. . . . Take from us, O Lord, what
ever earthly enjoyments Thou wilt : there is one thing will abun
dantly make up for all our losses : let Christ dwell in our hearts by
faith, and the rays of Thy favour continually refresh us in the face
of Thine Anointed : in this event, we have nothing more to ask, but
with grateful minds, shall for ever celebrate Thy bounty : all our
bones shall say. Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, who is like unto
Thee ? " *
We now come to an element in Leighton's religious life,
that differentiates him from so many of his countrymen and
from so many of his country's teachers — his mysticism. This
element is felt throughout his writings, as a climate or atmo
sphere, but it was developed and scientifically stated in a tract
he has given us — his Counsels of Perfection, or Rules and
Instructions for Spiritual Exercises. One feels in it the
language of the cloister — the mystic aspiration of the Jesus-
love — the union realized through that love — the contempla
tion that is both centred upon the Heavenly Object of Faith
and realizes itself as one with that object.
Mystical theology has not been a congenial one to the
English nor to the Scottish mind, and this tract of Leighton's
has been pronounced to be the only piece of its kind in
English theology. It was first published from the manu
scripts of Leighton by Dr. Fall, and it was edited with con
siderable misgivings, several parts being omitted or altered.
It was drawn up by Leighton for his own use, and for that of
several like-minded friends, and so stands apart from his
other works that were written for public use and were
publicly delivered. ' Ibid. pp. 293, 294.

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 273
Scotland has produced very few mystics, and Scottish
Church life has not been favourable to their develop
ment with the practical problems it has had to face and solve.
St. Columba rushing knee-deep into the sea after the sacrile
gious robber and pursuing him with curses is more representa
tive of the national religion — " savage and bare, but infinitely
strong " — than Thomas a Kempis.
Mysticism has had many extravagant growths, and needs
a rare nature to co-ordinate it with the other necessary and
eternal elements of the religious life. It rests upon the
assurance and present experience that man in his spiritual
life can transcend his finite being and enter here and
now into communion with the Life of God : that the human
soul possesses a time-transcending faculty, by which it can
enter into fellowship with the spiritual world and receive
from it a present light and life ; that in virtue of this
transcendental nature of the human spirit, it can return to its
true source and inherit a divine afflatus ; that it can retire
within itself, and in inward calm and ineffable peace know
the spiritual Christ, born within it " the hope of glory." The
spiritual faith of the mystics was involved in the saying of St.
Bernard — credo ut intelligam — for faith receives the treasure
of divine truth wrapped up in it {involutum), and later know
ledge or intelligence is but the unfolding of this inner
content, the making explicit of that which faith has already
realized as implicit. The mystic paradise became thus a
garden which few could enter, and its fruit could only be
enjoyed by the rare spirits.. {0 quam difficilis est ignorantibus
Veritas et quam facilis scientibus I) It is essentially an
esoteric religion, fraught with danger when it is not balanced
by other elements, but full of blessedness and peace when it
is. And the mystic has ever accepted as his guide in
religion the faculty of intuition, or that form of religious
knowledge in which every medium has passed away, and in
which the subject is believed to apprehend the purely
A.L. 18

274 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
spiritual object of faith, and even to coalesce with it. He
has ever believed in the time-transcending faculty of
the human soul, which enables man to enter into heart-to-
heart, soul-to-soul fellowship with the object of faith — in
which all media pass away, and in which spiritual experience
is best described by the words , " I am my Beloved's, and my
Beloved is mine." In this communion he attains a direct,
immediate, personal knowledge of God, because, he argues,
God is present to the soul in mystic love. The mystic has
ever maintained the reality of his knowledge, although his
system has been fraught with two tendencies — the risk on the
one hand of an unhealthy excitement, and on the other of
intellectual torpor. To the many, again, his faith has ever
seemed to be too vague to be self-supporting, and too sub
jective to be missionary ; while as a theory of religion it has
had the constant difficulty of maintaining an ethical balance
to qualify it for life, or a sufficiently aggressive creed enabling
it to meet and conquer the ills of existence. The mystic's
sympathies have been too exclusively with the spiritual
concerns of life, so that he has scarcely seemed to touch
mundane concerns. Mysticism has ever had about it the
atmosphere of the cloister, and has made too much of the
Citizen of Eternity, rather than of the Citizen of Eternity in
time, doing the work of time and consecrating it by his new
spirit. But in the leaders of religion the element of mysticism,
co-ordinated with other factors of the religious life, has gener
ally been present : in them it has ceased to be a purely con
templative religion, and has become the refreshing stream
gladdening and purifying the spiritual life. It was said of
Fiesole that he prayedhis pictures on to the wall, and Augustine
derived his profoundest thoughts regarding the first and last
things from prayer and the atmosphere it brought. " The con
tents of the inner life lay clearly before Augustine's eyes as a
realm of distinctiveobjects of perception, outside and independ
ent of sense-experience, and he was convinced by his own

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 275
rich insight that in this sphere quite as genuine knowledge
and information, based on inner experience, were to be gained,
as by external observation in surrounding nature." His ideal
was : " I desire to know God and the soul. Nothing more ?
Nothing at all." In such words Augustine has briefly formu
lated the aim of his knowledge, and at the same time
expressed the ideal of mysticism.
Mysticism has ever been one and the same : it has never
possessed any national or confessional distinctions within it :
it is Catholic piety in general, so far as that piety outlived the
idea of religion as mere ecclesiastical obedience. It has been
always the precursor of evangelical religion, and has ever
pointed beyond itself, while historically it was the movement
within the Roman Catholic Church that led to Protestantism
in its religious sense. It has been the spiritual life of the
Middle Ages chiefly, reacting against the predominant
monasticism on the one hand, with its system of rules ; and
the worldly, sacerdotal element of the mediaeval Church,
which pushed itself into the place of the Roman Empire, and
of which it became the actual continuation.* But amid outer
decoration and inner decay, true religion has never been
wholly effaced. " Venture onwards ! deep down in a vault
you will still find the altar, and its sacred, ever-burning
lamp ! " And mysticism, which has generally arisen from
the piety of the cloister itself, and has generally been tinged
by its pale light, is best to be understood as an endeavour
towards the renewal of religion as opposed to sacerdotalism
and worldliness : it is truly Catholic piety as a return to
Christianity, and religion asserting itself through the supersti
tions and accretions of mediaevalism. As piety toward God
it led to the Reformation and found its ultimate home and
goal in Luther's doctrine of Justification by Faith, not as
doctrine only, but as experience.
Mysticism, it has already been observed, possesses no
' Cf.' Harnack's What is Christianity ? pp. 246-265.

276 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
national or confessional distinctions within it, but it rests
everywhere on the same belief— the transcendental nature of
the human spirit, the divine afflatus, the spiritual Jesus born
in the heart and leading to an experience in which the
disciple no longer needs the Historical Jesus. Throughout all
the different forms of it there is this as an underlying unity —
that the God-Logos continually unites Himself afresh with
each receptive heart, so as to form a union — that intuition is that
form of knowledge in which the subject both apprehends the
spiritual object of faith and coalesces with it, or in which it
attains to a complete and inseparable union with God.
But Mysticism also has a definite philosophy of man and a
definite idea of man's preparation for this union. As to the
first, it holds that human nature is tripartite, possessing {a)
the outer court of the senses, {b) the inner court of the intel
lectual nature, {c) the inmost court, the ground of the soul,
the Holy of Holies, where God and man unite. This leist is
the spark and potential divinity in man that enables him to
attain union with God. But as to preparation, the soul
that has departed from God must return to Him by
purification, illumination and essential unification. The stages
in this process are minutely examined and described by the
Mystical writers, and whether it be by an Augustine, a St
Bernard, a St. Francis, a Tauler, a Thomas a Kempis, or a
Leighton, one hears the same voice in them all.
Now it is very interesting, as it is very rare, to find such
mystical Theology appearing in Scotland, and Robert
Leighton is one of the very few Scotsmen in whom it appears.
With the solitary exception of Henry Scougal's Life of God
in the Soul of Man (and Scougal was Leighton's intimate
friend and pupil), Leighton's Rules and Instructions for
Spiritual Exercises form a unique product of Scottish religious
thought. In a a previous chapter reference has been made to
the new influences, corresponding to a natural tendency, which
Leighton received during his years of residence abroad, especi-

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 277
ally from the Jansenists. Now, during his incumbency at New-
battle, we know that he w^s a frequent visitor to London, but
during his Principalship at Edinburgh, we know that during the
summer vacations he was frequently at London and abroad,
and watched with interest the unfolding of the Jansenist
movement already described. Burnet distinctly tells us :
" In the vacation time he made excursions, and came oft to
London, where he observed all the eminent men in Cromwell's
court, and in the several parties then about the city of
London. But he told me he never could see anything
among them that pleased him : they were men of unquiet and
meddling tempers : and their discourses and sermons were dry
and unsavoury, full of airy cant or of bombast swellings.
Sometimes he went over to Flanders, to see what he could
find in the several orders of the Church of Rome. There he
found some of Jansenius's followers, who seemed to be men
of extraordinary tempers, and who studied to bring things, if
possible, to the purity and simplicity of the primitive ages :
on which all his thoughts were much set." * Thus Leighton,
ill at ease with the controversies of the Resolutioners and
Protesters in Scotland and with the "unquiet and meddling
tempers " of Cromwell's associates, found greater affinity with
the Jansenists, whose hearts were set on the " purity and
simplicity " of the primitive ages. In other words, Leighton's
visits abroad ^ brought him into deeper touch with the
Jansenist movement, and especially with Pascal, who in 1656
and 1657 was writing his famous Provincial Letters against
the Jesuits, who had condemned Arnauld in 1655. Pascal's
' History of His Own Times, vol. i. pp. 243, 244.
^ Besides Burnet's statement, I find the following reference in the
Ancrum and Lothian Correspondence.
Mr. Young, tutor to the two eldest sons Si the Eari of Lothian, thus
writes : " Leyden, September Jj"-, 1653. — Last week we had a visit, which
was very unexpected, from Mr. Leightoun. I believe he is gone, ere
this, from this country homewards." (Vol. ii. p. cxxiv.)
Could this Mr. Young be Milton's former tutor, or a brother ?

278 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
life must have had a fascination for Leighton, and his death
in 1662, at the early age of thirty-nine, must have affected him
profoundly. There was much in common between the two,
and if anywhere Leighton could find the society he loved
best, it must have been at Port-Royal with Pascal and his
associates. Here was the man who did for the Casuists what
Plato did for the Sophists — made them ridiculous — who
struck them so hard in the interests of truth, that while the
Dominicans contradicted the Jesuits and the Jesuits the
Dominicans, both were united in hatred of Port-Royal. Here
was the man who united with this love for the truth a sympathy
for the poor, and a passionate asceticism ; who was a brilliant
scientist; and a pure saint of exquisite moral sensibility, with a
mystic's passion for union with God. Here was one whose suffer
ings quickened in him, not the sense of his own misery, but that
of others, and in whom the " moi " of personal affliction was lost
in the thought of God and his fellow-man ; who, in his last
illness, desired that some sick person might be brought into his
chamber to share the comforts with which he was himself so
well provided, or at least that he himself might be carried to
the hospital of incurables, as he had a great desire to die in the
company of the poor. Itwas such a combination of the old piety,
of moral grace, of intellectual gift, as in Pascal rather than
Scottish or English controversialists, that attracted Leighton ;
it was the Jansenist endeavour to purify and reform the Church
on the old lines that he so much loved : it was this mysticism,
so well co-ordinated with other religious elements, that had
a natural affinity towards the inherent bent of his own mind.
And so we may well think of this Mystical Tract of his as
written after one of his visits in the College vacation to the
Port-Royal, and as manifesting the manner in which he
sought to influence his students, as well as direct his own
devotions. This Tract, too, renders intelligible the stories
regarding his ascetical habits and long hours of retirement
that were current about him during the time of his Principal-

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 279
ship,* and that must have made him so unintelligible to the
eager Protesters of his time. It is now interesting for another
reason : for the refined Catholicism that it displays as united
with a loyal but tempered Protestantism (of which there can
be no doubt), and for its burning aspiration after communion
with God and a life shaped after the Christian Ideal. Let
us take- several typical endeavours from it ^ — although
selection mars the unity of the whole, and is difficult as well.
Section VI.
" I. Too much desire to please men, mightily prejudgeth the
pleasing of God.
" 2. Too great earnestness and vehemency, and too great delight in
bodily work and external doings, scattereth and loseth the tranquillity
and calmness of the mind.
" 3. Cast all thy care on God, and commit all to His good pleasure.
"4. Laud, and praise, and applaud Him in all things, small and
great. " 5. Forsake thy own will, and deliver up thyself freely and cheer
fully to the will of God, without reserve or exception, in prosperity
and adversity, sweet or sour, to have or to want, to live or to die.
" 6. Untie thy heart from all things, and unite it to God.
"7. Remember often and devotedly the life and passion, the
death and resurrection, of our Saviour Jesus.
"8. Descant not on other men's deeds, but consider thine own :
forget other men's faults, and remember thine own.
" 9. Never think highly of thyself, nor despise any other man.
" 10. Keep silence and retirement as much as thou canst, and,
through God's grace, they will keep thee from many snares and
offenpes. "11. Lift up thy heart often to God, and desire in all things His
assistance. " 1 2. Let thy heart be filled and wholly taken up with the love
of God, and of thy neighbour : and do all thou doest in that sincere
charity and love."
* Cf. Analecta, vol. i. p. 274.
^ The whole will be found in West's Edition, vol. vi. pp. 314-331 ;
Pearson's Edition, vol. ii. pp. 663-671.

28o EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
Section VII.
******
"4. Whoever thou be, let this voice of God be still in thine ear :
My son, return inwardly to thy heart, abstract thyself from aU things,
and mind Me only.
" 5. Then, with a pure mind in God, clean and bare from the
memory of all things, remaining unmovable in Him, thou shalt think
and desire nothing but Him only, as though there were nothing else
in the world but He and thou alone together : that all thy mights
and powers being thus collected into God, thou mayest become one
spirit with Him.
" 6, Fix thy mind on thy crucified Saviour, and remember con
tinually His great meekness, love, and obedience. His pure chastity.
His unspeakable patience, and all the holy virtues of His humanity.
" 7. Think on His mighty power and infinite goodness : how He
created thee and redeemed thee : how He justifieth thee, and
worketh in thee all virtues, graces, and goodness : and then
remember Him, until thy memory turn into love and affection.
" 8. Draw thy mind, therefore, from all creatures, unto a certain
silence and rest from the jangling and company of all things below
God : and when thou canst come to this, then is thy heart a place
meet and ready for thy Lord God to abide in, there to talk with thy
soul." These selections are sufficient to manifest the whole, under
lying which there can clearly be traced the three stages of
purification, illumination, and union, with prayers for each.
Leighton evidently used the Tract for his own quiet hours of
devotion ; but that he was conscious of the incompleteness of
mysticism as a final system of religion is rendered quite clear
by the letters already referred to,* and that he correlated and
co-ordinated it with other factors of the religious life is also
clear from his sermons and lectures. Along with it there was
a sanity and common sense that are not always to be clearly
discerned in mystical writings, but are visible in the best of
the mystics themselves. Just as Tauler, mystic as he was,
could say," If I were not a priest, but were living as a layman,
' See p. 256 et seq.

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 281
I should take it as a great favour that I knew how to make
shoes, and should try to make them better than any one else,
and would gladly earn my bread by the labour of my hands ; "*
just as Kingsley could co-ordinate it with joy in life, with the
fulfilment of life's duties and the love of science f so Leighton,
who wrote this tract, and who regarded daily dying as the
path of daily living, was characterized by a statesmanlike
comprehension and a practical insight into the situation of his
day for which he has not always received credit. While he
accepted the mystical path as one for his own spiritual re
freshment and strength, he could also write an excellent
course of sermons on the Ten Commandments, and grapple
with the difficulties of college life in a sanely ethical way.
He balanced opposing qualities, although the bitterness of
his day may sometimes have strengthened the monastic
tendency of his life and given it an exaggerated form.
How far he influenced his students we have not much evi
dence to judge ; but that many were profoundly impressed
by him there is no reason to doubt.^ Andrew Gray, already
referred to, was one of such, and Henry Scougal, whom he
frequently met at Leuchars and Salton, was another. And to
have influenced such men, who influenced so many others,
was not to have been a Principal in vain. Scougal refers to
Leighton thus : " An eminent and holy person yet alive in
our Church said, ' He would rather be instrumental in per
suading one man to be serious in religion than the whole
nation to be Conformists.' " Scougal was Leighton's disciple,
' See Sermons, p. 355.
^ Life and Letters, p. 174.
^ I find the following reference to the remark of one of Leighton's stu
dents in a recent publication of the Scottish History Society : —
" In the afternoone Mr. Tho. Laurie cam to me and stayed all night.
... He told me a note of Mr. Leightoun on i John ii. 7, 8, that all the
world might be devyded in two. They wer either too superstitious of
old things or too curious of new, and to gaine both the Apos'. calls it both
ane old and ane new commandment." — Hay of Craignethan'S Diary
(1659-1660), p. 47.

282 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
and was true to his master's spirit when he wrote the Life of
God in the Soul of Man — a book that had a far-reaching in
fluence, and was one of the earliest and most potent forces in
moulding John Wesley, Charles Wesley, George Whitefield,
and the Oxford Methodists, while it helped also their move
ment in general* Through them the spirit of Leighton
passed as a sacred heritage to Christendom, as well as through
the great multitude inspired by his writings to a deeper know
ledge and appreciation of divine things, and clearer vision of
God. We have just considered Leighton as an inspirer of his
students, and to give a fuller portrait of him it will not be in
appropriate to bring forward another aspect of his beautiful
character, which comes forth in his comfort to the sorrowing
and his counsel to the perplexed. There are two such letters,
without date, and the names of those to whom they were
addressed, that may be here best inserted.
I.
"Christian Friend —
" Though I had very little vacant time for it, yet I would
have seen you if I could have presumed it might have been
any way useful for the quieting of your mind ; however, since
I heard of your condition, I cease not daily, as I can, to pre
sent it to Him who alone can effectually speak peace to your
heart, and, I am confident, in due time will do so. It is He
that stilleth the raging of the sea, and by a word can turn the
violentest storm into a great calm. What the particular thoughts
or temptations are that disquiet you I know not ; but, what
soever they are, look above them, and labour to fix your eye
on that infinite goodness which never faileth them that, by
naked faith, do absolutely rely and rest upon it, and patiently
wait upon Him who hath pronounced them all, without ex-
' See this explained in my book, Henry Scougal and the Oxford
Methodists.

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 283
ception, blessed that do so. Say often within your own heart.
Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him ; and if, after some
intervals, your troubled thoughts do return, check them still
with the holy Psalmist's words. Why art thou cast down, 0 my
soulf etc. If you can thoroughly sink yourself down, through
your own nothingness, into Him who is all, and, entirely re
nouncing your own will, embrace that blest and holy will in
all things, there, I am sqre, you shall find that rest which all
your own distempers, and all the powers of darkness, shall not
be able to bereave you of I incline not to multiply words ;
and indeed other advice than this I have none to give you.
The Lord of peace, by the sprinkling of the blood of His Son
Jesus and the sweet breathings of the great Comforter, His
own Holy Spirit, give you peace in Himself Amen."
II.
" Madam —
" Though I have not the honour to be acquainted with
your Ladyship, yet a friend of yours has acquainted me with
your condition, though I confess the unfittest of all men
to minister anything of spiritual relief to any person, either
by prayer or advice to you ; but he could have imparted
such a thing to none of greater secrecy and withal of greater
sympathy and tender compassion towards such as are
exercised with those kinds of conflicts ; as, having been
formerly acquainted with the like myself, all sorts of
sceptical and doubtful thoughts, touching those great points,
having not only passed through my head, but some of them
have for some time sat mire fast and painfully upon my
mind; but, in the name of the Lord, they were at length
dispelled and scattered. And, oh ! that I could live and
bless Him,, who is my deliverer and strength, my rock and
fortress, where I have now found safety from these incursions ;
and I am very confident you shall very shortly find the
same ; only wait patiently on the Lord, and hope in Him,

284 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
for you shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance ;
and it is that alone that can enlighten you, and clear your
mind of all those fogs and mists that now possess it, and
calm the storms that are raised within it. You do well to
read good books that are proper for your help, but rather
the shortest and plainest, than the more tedious and
voluminous, that sometimes entangle a perplexed mind yet
more, by grasping many more questions and answers and
arguments than is needful. But, above all, still cleave to the
incomparable spring of light and divine comfort, the Holy
Scriptures, even in despite of all doubts concerning them ;
and when you find your thoughts in disorder, and at a loss,
entertain no dispute with them, by any means, at that time,
but rather divert from them to short prayer, or to other
thoughts, and sometimes to well chosen company, or the
best you can have where you are ; and at some other time,
when you find yourself in a calmer and serener temper, and
upon the vantage ground of a little more confidence in God,
then you can resume your reasons against unbelief, yet so
as to beware of casting yourself into new disturbance ; for
when your mind is in a sober temper, there is nothing so
suitable to its strongest reason, nothing so wise and noble,
as religion ; and believe it is so rational, that, as now I am
framed, I am afraid that my belief proceeds too much from
reason, and is not so divine and spiritual as I would have
it ; only when I find (as in some measure through the grace
of God I do) that it hath some real virtue and influence upon
my affections and track of life, I hope there is somewhat
of a higher tincture in it ; but, in point of reason, I am well
assured, that all that I have heard from the wittiest atheists
and libertines in the world is nothing but bold reve[l]ry
and madness, and their whole discourse a heap of folly and
ridiculous nonsense : for, what probable account can they
give of the wonderful frame of the visible world, without the
supposition of an eternal and infinite power and wisdom and

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 285
goodness, that formed it and themselves, and all things in
it? And what can they think of the many thousands of
martyrs in the first age of Christianity, that endured not
simple death, but all the inventions of the most exquisite
tortures, for their belief of that most holy faith; which, if
the miracles that confirmed it had not persuaded them to,
they themselves had been thought the most prodigious
miracles of madness in all the world ? It is not want of
reason on the side of religion that makes fools disbelieve it,
but the interest of their brutish lusts and dissolute lives
makes them wish it were not true ; and there is the vast
difference betwixt you and them : they would gladly believe
less than they do, and you would also gladly believe more
than they do. They are sometimes pained and tormented
with apprehensions, that the doctrine of religion is or may
be true ; and you are perplexed with suggestions to doubt
of it, which are to you as unwilHng and unwelcome as these
apprehensions of its truth are to them. Believe it, madam,
these different thoughts of yours are not yours, but his that
inserts them, and throws them, as fiery darts, into your mind ;
and they shall assuredly be laid to his charge and not to
yours. Think you that Infinite Goodness is ready to take
advantage of His poor creatures, and to reject and condemn
those that, against all the assaults made upon them, desire
to keep their heart for Him, and to acknowledge Him, and
to love Him, and live to Him. He made us, and knows our
mould, and, as a father pities his children, pities them that
fear Him ; for He is their father, and the tenderest and kindest
of all fathers ; and, as a father pities his child when it is
sick and in the rage and reverie of a fever, though it even
utter reproachful words against himself, shall not our dearest
Father but forgive and pity those thoughts in any child of
His, that arise not from any wilful hatred of Him, but are
kindled in hell within them ? And no temptation hath
befallen you in this, but that which has been incident to men.

286 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
and to the best of men ; and their heavenly Father hath not
only forgiven them, but in due time hath given them an
happy issue out of them, and so He will assuredly do to
you. In the meantime, when these assaults come thickest
and violentest upon you, throw yourself down at His footstool,
and say, ' Oh God, Father of mercies, save me from this
hell within me. I acknowledge, I adore, I bless Thee, whose
throne" is in heaven, with Thy blessed Son and crucified
Jesus, and Thy Holy Spirit ; and, also, though Thou slay
me, yet will I trust in Thee. But I cannot think Thou canst
hate and reject a poor soul that desires to love Thee, and
cleave to Thee, so long as I can hold by the skirts of Thy
garment, until Thou violently shake me off, which I am
confident Thou wouldst not do because Thou art love and
goodness itself, and Thy mercies endure for ever! Thus, or
in what other frame your soul shall be carried to vent itself
into His bosom, be assured your words, yea, your silent sighs
and breathings, shall not be lost, but shall have a most powerful
voice, and ascend into His ear, and shall return to you with
messages of peace and love in due time, and, in the meantime,
with secret supports, that you faint not, nor sink in these
deeps that threaten to swallow you up. But I have wearied
you instead of refreshing you. I will add no more, but that
the poor prayers of one of the unworthiest caitiffs in the
world, such as they be, shall not be wanting on your behalf,
and he begs a share in yours ; for neither you, nor any in the
world, needs that charity more than he does. Wait on the
Lord, and be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your
heart ; wait, I say, on the Lord!'
Such are the letters and religious papers belonging to Prin
cipal Leighton that still survive from the Commonwealth and
Protectorate period, and it must be confessed that from their
supremely religious character, they throw little light on the
history of the events that were passing around him. But the

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 287
restoration of the King was now at hand, and we reach a
decisive step in Leighton's career.
The Protectionist Government in Scotland was not popular,
because it was anti-national, military and sectarian. The
Scottish people could not forget Dunbar nor Worcester, nor
could they cease to remember that their General Assembly
had been silenced. The Scottish people thought they had
everything to gain by a Restoration, while dislike of the pre
ponderance of the army in England, implying the mainten
ance of the heavy taxation that was rendered inevitable by
the necessity of holding Scotland and Ireland in subjection,
helped it forward. The English Government of Scotland
failed because it paid no heed to the spirit of nationality ; " in
Scotland," says Mr. Firth, " all that Cromwell had done or
failed to do — union, law-reform, and freedom of trade —
vanished when the Restoration came. But the aims of his
policy were so just that subsequent statesmen were compelled
to follow where he led. The union and free trade came in
1707, and the abolition of hereditary jurisdictions in 1746." *
Burnet's statement " we always reckon those eight years
of usurpation a time of great peace and prosperity " is an
exaggeration, for the devastation and loss caused by the long
wars had produced wide-spread poverty, and Baillie's letters
are full of complaints regarding the burden of taxation. The
English Government had originally imposed a land tax of ten
thousand pounds per month on Scotland, but it was levied
with such difficulty that it was at last reduced to six thousand
pounds ; while in the year of Cromwell's death, England
had to remit to Scotland a contribution of over ;^i4o,ooo
towards the expenses of the military government that held
Scotland in subjection.^ Ecclesiastical and national feeling
were against the union, and Robert Blair voiced the discon
tent when he said, " As for the embodying of Scotland with
^ Oliver Cromwell, p. vy). "^ Ibid. p. 298.

288 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
England, it will be as when the poor bird is embodied in the
hawk that has eaten it up."
The Church, too, was rent with parties, and the Resolu
tioners and Protesters thundered against each other, although
the sound of battle was louder on the Protesters' side, and
the Resolutioners were the " Moderates " — the wise men of
the Via Media.* The Protesters were the means of intro
ducing into Scotland a strict Sabbatarianism, and customs in
worship and discipline that were common among the Inde
pendents and " Sectaries " of the army, but were not indi
genous to Scottish soil. Baillie deplored the predominance
of the " heady men," who " waste the Church " and " frame
our people to the sectarian model."
Leighton could, no more than Baillie, be drawn, far less
attracted to them, and the departure of the Church from its
simple ritual and national position was, as we shall see from
Brodie's diary, one of the main causes why he took the step
that he did.
The Restoration came : Charles II entered London on May
29, 1660, in triumph : the 19th of June was kept in Edinburgh
as a day of thanksgiving for the Restoration, and the Scottish
nobles hastened to London to pay their respects to the King.
But the " Covenanted Monarch " was determined to restore
Episcopacy in Scotland, and for this purpose employed James
Sharpe as his tool. Parliament met by royal authority and
passed the Revisory Act which rendered void all Acts passed
since 1638, and the Episcopal form of Church government
was at once restored in Scotland.
Before entering into this history in so far as Leighton is
concerned with it, let us introduce here two letters belonging
to the period.
The first is to his brother. Sir Elisha Leighton, recom
mending his old friend, Mr. Aird, of Ingram, for promotion ;
and as this brother was an agent in bringing Robert Leighton
* Principal Story's William Carstares, p. 10.

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 289
before the notice of the King, a short sketch of his career may
best here be given.
Elisha Leighton* was the younger son of Alexander Leigh
ton, and rose to be colonel in the Royalist Army. He was
arrested in August 1647, imprisoned in Windsor Castle, and
after the King's execution joined the Royalist party abroad.
The Duke of Buckingham employed him, and in 1649 the
Duke of Lorraine sent him to England to raise soldiers for
the Royal cause. In 1650 Charles appointed him secretary
for English affairs in Scotland, and after Worcester he escaped
to Rotterdam with Buckingham. He became a Roman
Catholic, and in 1656 he deserted Buckingham on the ground
that the Duke did not " rightly submit to the King." Subse
quently he became secretary to the Duke of York, and was
knighted at Brussels in 1659. At the Restoration he made
his peace with Buckingham and was indebted to him for
much preferment. He is said to have persuaded Lord
Aubigny to recommend his brother Robert for a bishopric in
1 66 1, and in 1664 he was made one of the secretaries of the
prize office. Charles recommended him to the University
of Cambridge for the LL.D. degree, and in 1665 he was
admitted one of the King's counsel in the Admiralty Court.
His subsequent career was an unworthy one, and he was in
every respect not worthy of his saintly brother. North sums
him up as " the most corrupt man then or since living," and
there is not an extant word in his favour. Burnet thus
describes him : " He was very like Robert in face and in the
vivacity of his parts, but the most unlike him in all other
things that can be imagined : for though he loved to talk of
great sublimities of religion, yet he was a very immoral man,
both lewd, false, and ambitious. ... He was a very
vicious man : and this perhaps made him the more considered
by the King, who loved and trusted him to a high degree.
' Cf. Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xxxiii. p. 3.
A.L. 19

290 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
No man had more credit with the King : for he was of the
secret as to his religion, and was more trusted with the whole
design that was then managed in order to it, than any man
whatsoever. Sir Elisha brought his brother and him
acquainted : for Leighton loved to know men in all the
varieties of religion." *
Robert Leighton in the following letter asks his brother's
influence on behalf of Mr. Aird, of Ingram, who was " threat
ened with a removal by the title of an old incumbent," and
also on behalf of another.
Letter of Principal Leighton to his brother. Sir Elisha
Leighton. "March 5, 1661.
"Dear Brother —
" I writ to you lately and troubled you with the story of my
present and daily growing unhealthiness, which cannot add
much, but something it does, to my wonted longings for the
evening, not without hopes that it shall likewise prove a
bright and sweet morning. Meanwhile it is no great matter
where I pass the few hours that remain ; yet I told you I had
some thoughts of spending them nearer you, but have not yet
resolved ; but that and all shall be disposed of as is best.
" Mr. Aird, who gives you this, I believe you have heard me
speak of as one acquainted with my free thoughts, and that
hath himself a free unprejudiced soul, and loves truth and
devotion wheresoever he finds it, even in the greatest crowd
of error or superstition about it. He hath a cell and a
provision amongst the hills in the borders of England, but is
threatened with a removal upon the title of an old incumbent,
who is at London or near it. If you be acquainted with Dr.
Cozens, Bishop of Durham, or can recommend him to him,
by anyone that is, if he himself desire it, or if in any other
way you can assist him, I entreat it of you.
" Mrs. Abernethy tells me her son is in the King's Life-
' History of His Own Times, vol. i. pp. 242, 243.

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 291
Guards. If you meet with him, and by recommending him
to my Lord Gerard's favour, or in anything else can do him
good, you shall oblige both me and the honest widow. She
makes often mention of you. Cher frfere, adieu,
" R. Leighton."
" For Sir Ellis Leighton at St. James's."*
The above letter indicates that Leighton's health was not
satisfactory. The following one to the Lord Provost of
Edinburgh makes it clear that he had gone South in search
of health, and also at the Council's request to represent the
affairs of the University to the King and his Counsellors.^
It was during this visit that he was evidently persuaded by
his brother to accept a bishopric, and his brother had
evidently coadjutors in leading the good man to the decision.
He distinctly states in August — three months before his
" re-ordination " — that he " projected " nothing for himself in
London, and would be quite happy to return to his academic
office in Edinburgh.
Letter from Principal Leighton to the Right Honourable
Sir Robert Murray, Lord Provost of Edinburgh (dated
London, 20th August, 1661).
" My Lord —
" Having bin some weeks at the bath and found litle benefit
by it, I returnd to Lond. some four or five days agoe where I
found a letter from your Lo. and your Councell concerning
the Colledg for which my great inclination and affection I
know is out of doubt, but my hopes in it are very small. I
have spoke with those great persons here that yow name and
they promise their assistance, but unless yow can find out
some particular whereon to fixe, to mention the bussinesse in
generall with all the recomendations possible will signify
nothing at all, and I beleev it will bee hard to find any thing
' Secretan's Archbishop Leighton, pp. 43 to 44.
' Cf. Minute of Town Council, p. 298.

292 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
worth the asking that is not either disposd of some other way
or in the aime of some that will bee more likely to cary it, for
the Signature formerly sent up, and whereof I likewise have a
copy, I perceive 'twill bee to little purpose to looke further
after it, yet I intend to tryt once more. For myself I am so far
from projecting any thing here that I can imagine nothing
though most freely offer'd that would stay mee from returning
to that station where I have found so much unmerited
respecte and kindnesse from all, and particularly from your
Lo. and the present Councell, but the simple truth is, growing
of late so sensibly still more crazy and unhealthfull, and
having (I beleev and hope) so short a stage of remaining life
to run, I know not if it shall be pertinent to take so long a
journey to doe yow and that place so litle or no service, I had
almost sayd so great an injury (and I speak it without art or
feigning). I shall heartily absolv yow, yea I doe it before
hand, if yow should plainly send mee word to save the
labour, and while I live would continue no whit the lesse a
most affectionate welwisher to your City and Colledg and all
that concerns yow, and. My Lord,
"Your Lordship's
" Most oblig'd and humble servant,
" R. Leighton.
" Lond. Aug. 20.
" I know your Lo. will be pleasd to impart this, together
with my humble service, to the Councill.
" [28. Augt. 1661, produced and read]."
When Leighton returned from London, he was Bishop of
Dunblane, and although we do not possess any letters that
indicate his mind prior to his taking this step, we have
luckily preserved in the Diary of Brodie of Brodie several
references to interviews that the latter had with Leighton,
and which show " development " towards a form of

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 293
government different from the Presbyterian. Brodie of
Brodie was a lord of session, and married Mary, daughter
of William, third Earl of Lothian, the warm friend of
Robert Leighton. Like his father-in-law, Brodie was a
pronounced Presbyterian, and in December 1640 had
headed a party that demolished two oil paintings of the
Crucifixion and the Day of Judgment in the Cathedral of
Elgin, and also mutilated the finely carved interior of the
building as unsuitable for a place of worship !
His records of Leighton are, however, valuable, and give us
an insight into his thoughts from 1653 to 1662. (Cf. Chap. X.)
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IX
Note. — I am indebted for these full extracts from the
Edinburgh Council Records to the kindness of Thomas
Hunter, Esq., W.S., Town Clerk of Edinburgh, and his
obliging assistant, Mr. John Jarvis.
Extracts from Edinburgh Town Council Records rela
tive to Mr. Robert Leighton, Principal of the College
of Edinburgh.
17th January, 1653. The same day the Counsell Vol. 17, fol.
togidder with the ministeris of this Brugh present being ^
conveined in Counsell Elects, nominats and constitutis
Mr. Robert Lightoun, Minister at Newbottle, to be
Principall of the Colledge of this Brugh vacand be
deceis of Mr. John Adamsone lait Principall thairof,
and grauntis to the said Mr. Robert the yeirlie benefite
and casuallities belonging to the said place siklyk and in
the same conditioun as the said Mester John had the
samen himselff and ordaines the Thesaureris of the
Colledge to answer and make peyment thairof at the
four vsuall termes in the yeir quhairanent thir presents
shall be your warrand.
17th January, 1653. The same day it is to be Vol. 17, fol.
remembred that the Provest craveing the voteis of the 369-
ministers anent the electioun of Mr. Robert Lightoun,
Primar, it halted there a tyme wishing they had not bene
caUd to the electioun and showing that albeit they were
weill content with the man yet they could not give their

294 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
voices to the electioun becaus they wer not cleir in the
maner of the Call and desyned to be markit onlie
present and non loquets in the voiceing.
Vol. 17, fol. 20th January, 1653. The quhilk day the Counsell
^^' appoyntis the Thesaurer Andro Bryssone and James
Ker to go to Newbottie to call Mr. Robert Lightoun to
the place and office of Primar of the Colledge quhair-
unto he is elected and chosen and to delyver to him a
missive direct to him fra the Counsell to that effect
quhairanent thir presentis sail be your warrand.
Vol. 18, fol. 30th March, 1653. The quhilk day compeird Mr.
"¦ Robert Lightoun electit Principle of the Colledge of
Edinburgh in place of umquhile Mr. John Adamsone
lait Principle thairof and acceptit upon him the said
place and gave his aith defideli administratione.
Vol. 18, fol. 30th March, 1653. The same day ordaines the Dean
*'• of Gild and his Counsell to admitt and resave Mr.
Robert Lightoun, Principle of the College of Edinburgh
to be burges and gildbrother of this Brugh for peyment
of the ordinar dewties and ordaines the Dean of Gild
to repay the same and dispenss with his arme silver and
uther dewes accustomed to be peyit at the admissioun
of burgessis quhairanent thir presentis sail be his warrand.
Vol. 19, fol. 29th September, 1656. The Counsell appoyntis John
*S'*- Mairjoribanks baillie and David Wilkie Dean of Gild to
goe over to the Colledge to the Primar and to show him
that the Counsell can doe nothing in reference to the
Colledge at this tyme, it being so neir the electioun and
the bussiness being of itselff so weightie.
Vol. 19, fol. 22nd July, 1657. The Counsell appoyntis Archibald
^^°' Sydserff and Robert Murrey, baillies, John Milne and
William Thomsone, clerk, to meitt with Mr. Robert
Lightoun, Principall of the Colledge, and to deall with
him for takeing a journey to Londoun to his Highnes
and Counsell there for procuireing ane augmentatioun of
the Rentall of the Colledge and to give him instruc-
tiouns for that effect, and the Thesaurer to pay the
expensis of his journey, quhairanent thir presentis sail be
their warrand.
Vo^^^ig, fol. ^gjjj October, 1657. The Counsell appoyntis John

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 295
Lawder, baillie, William Johnstoun, Thesaurer, and
Archibald Sydserfe to meitt with the Principall of the
Colledge anent such particulars as he hes to inform and
to report.
9th December, 1657. Compeired the Lord Provest Vol. 19, fol.
and gave in a Report of the meitting of some of the
Counsell with the Primar and Regents of the Colledge
yesterday eftirnoone.
I. That they had appoynted to remember that legacie
of sex hundred merks left to the Colledge be William
Wauchops mother in law, and upon that accompt the
Counsell sould become debtors to the College for the
same. 2. That they had appoynted the baillie Johne
Lawder to give in a list of the legacies left to the
Colledge to the Agent, and the Agent to goe about the
way to procure payment of them, and the Thesaurer of
the Colledge to be at the expensses thairof. 3. To
remember what may be given to the Relict of Master
William Forbes in farder consideratioun over and above
the bygane rents of his fialls. 4. That they had
appoynted the baillie John Lawder to give in to the
Provest the names of those who intend to inlarge the
buildingis of the Colledge. 5. That they had appoynted
the Thesaurer of the Colledge and John Milne to visite
the roofe of the auld hous and namelie the galvie thairof,
and to report what is necessar to be done thairto,
and lykwayis to visite the dropps of the leids of the
Librarie and caus mend the same. 6. That they had
recommended to the Counsell quhat is fitting to be done
with the bromestaks neir the Colledge. 7. That they
had lykwayis recommended to the Counsell to appoynt
some of thair number with the Thesaurer and Agent to
prosecute the Graunt of his Highnes to the Colledge
with all caire and diligence and for settling of the
localitie and drawing of the Signature. 8. That there
sould be two exact Catalogues of the librarie, ane for the
Counsell and another for the Colledge. The Counsell
haveing heard the report appoyntis Mr. James Norwell
to be spoken anent the legacie, approves the second,
fourt and fyft, continues the thrid to the next meitting,

296 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653- 1662)
Recommends the sixt to the baillie of the quarter for
removeing of the bromestaks, appoynts John Jossie,
Patrik Murrey and John Milne with the Agent to
prosecute the Graunt, localitie and Signature, and
appoynts Patrik Murrey, Thesaurer, to speak with the
Primar that order be given to the Keiper of the librarie
to perfyte the Catologues and to acquaint the Counsell
that some may be appoynted to compare them.
Vol. 19, fol. 2nd July, 1658. The Council appoyntis John Pen-
3'7- nian, lait Thesaurer, to pay to Mr. Robert Lightoun,
Primar, one Thowsand Merks Scottis For his expensses
and chairges to Londoun in the Colledge affairs For
procureing of the new gift.
Vol. 19, fol. 28th July, 1658. A Report being made be John
^^°' Jossie, John Lawder, baillies, David Wilkie, Dean of
Gild, and John Milne of the Counsell conveined at the
Colledge with the Primar, Professors, Ministers and
Regents on Monday last the 26th of Julie Instant. That
the Primar had moved to them that there being a
common report of some suspect houses keipit neir the
Colledge, and that the Scholleris wer in danger to be
corrupted by such occasiouns, And in particuUar that
one Marie Kincaid, of a scandalous Lyfe, keipit her
residence in the Colledge Wynd and received in her
company young men quho are thoght to have no LaufuU
bussiness in that or such places, and that theirfoir the
Magistratis would take such course quhairby at least she
and all other such suspected woemen might be removed
from these boundis which are neir or adjacent to the
Colledge if not to be expeUed out of the cittie. Which
motion the baillies did approve of, And that they would
take a present effectuall course for removeing that and all
other scandaleous persones. — Item, he moved that the
Studentis in the Colledge could not be so good
proficients in Philosophie as could be wished, the
reason quhairof in great pairt he conceaved to be the
great defect in grammer schoolls. For remeid quhairof
he thought (i) that meanes would be used quhairby
Grammar Schoolles might be erected in the severall
Presbytries, And that a competent frie sallarie may be

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 297
graunted to the Masteris and that it might be endevoired
that his Highnes and Councill might graunt out of the
concealled revenues of the Kirk rents some Sowme for
that effect. (2) That some sort of Rudiments at leist
might be condiscendit on, pairt English pairt Latine, for
the more easie apprehension of litle children. Quhair-
upon it is recommendit to Mr. Thomas Crawfuird that
agains Michelmes nixt he may have in reddines ,that
draught of Rudimentis and Grammer which some yeirs
agoe he had compyled be desyre of the Magistratts that
the same may be considered on and course taken in
caice of Approbation that the same might be printed, and
Ordaines to be made use of it in all Grammer Schooles,
and the said Mr. Thomas to be considered accordinglie
for his paines. And this is recommendit to the Ministeris
that they speak with their Colleagues and consider of
the best overtures that may be to that effect and to
report to the nixt meitting. — Item. It wes moved be
the Primar that becaus now it is fund that his Highnes
hath graunted a Gift of Twa hunder pund Sterling per
annum, out quich Landis that therefoir the magistratis,
ministeris and masteris may use their endevoirs to pro
cure a Localitie for the samen, and particularfie that the
Treasurer and Agent of the Colledge, with assistance of
Mr. James Pillouns, may goe about the bussiness and
employ such as may make discoverie of such rents and
Localities. — Item. To remember the Publick debtis and
Legacies due to the Colledge.
The Counsell haveing heard the report approves of
the samen.
2 ist October, 1658. At a meeting at the College in- Vol. 19, fol.
structions are given inter alia to remember of the 150 ^^'^'
tlb Sterling due by Mr. James Balfowr to the Primar,
quhilk is to be dedicat be him to the Colledge, the
papers quhairof are in the hands of William Downy,
Clerk, and of 100 lib. Sterling due to him be the Earle
of Murrey, both which soumes ar to be disposed of at
the Primars pleasure, and an offer is made be the Primar,
Master Lightoun, to preache in the Colledge Hall to
the Scholleris upon the Sabbath day once in two,

298 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
three or four weiks per vices with the rest of the
Professors.
Vol. 19, fol. 22nd October, 1658. The Counsell appoynts Johne
^¦'^' Jossie, John Lawder, and James Lawsone to speak with
Master Lightoun and John Scott anent the making of
a Table of the Benefactors and to condiscend upon
the persones to be insert therein, and recommends also
to the Lord Provest and Committee afoirsaid, to speak
with the Primar and Professors of the Colledge to have
preaching ilk Sunday in the efternoone established in
the Colledge Hall.
Vol. 20, fol. 4th February, 1659. The Lord Provest haveing re-
''¦ ported that Mr. James Balfowre, ane of the Clerks of
the Sessioun, being pressed be the Thesaurer of the
Colledge for a debt awand be him to Mr. Robert
Lightoun, Principal of the Colledge, and be him assigned
to the Good Toun for the use of the CoUedge, being
the soume of wes desyreous to have a
continuance of the said soume till Lambes nixt to
come, and that for the Counsells further satisfactioun
and securitie he wes content to give to them a precept
on the Lord Register for the soume of Fyftie pund Sterfing
in the firstend of his Sallarie, in pairt of the said soume,
and that he would assigne the Counsell to a bond of
adebtit to him be the Earl of Lauderdaill and Dum-
fermling in corroboratioun of his said former band, quhich
offer the Counsell declaired they wer content to accept and
passes fra the arrestment laid thairupon/w loco et tempore.
Vol. 20, fol. 31st July, 1 66 1. The CounseU appoynts John Jossie,
283- baillie, Edward Edgar, Dean of the GUd, Thomas
Fairholme, William Bell, William Carmichell, and Sir
William Thomsone, clerk, to meitt anent a letter to he
written to Master Lightoun, Principall of the CoUedge,
for the present at Londoun, anent the affairs of the
Colledge and appoints the said Thomas Fairholme to
give him a bill of credite for ane hundreth pound
sterling to be repayed to him with exchange out of the
first of the CoUedge rents if the same be made use
of be the said Maister Lightoun, quhairanent thir
presentis sail be his warrand.

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 299
6th December, 1661. The Counsell being informed vol. 21, fol.
that Mr. Robert Lightoun, Principal of the Colledge of 67-
this Brugh, is to be advanced be his Majestic to some
other place, thinks fitt for the present for keiping of
thair awen liberties and priviledge over the Colledge as
Patrons of the samen to nominal a lyt of some able
and qualified persones and to continue the nomination
or electioun of any one single persone till the Counsell
be fullie mett and the advyce of the ministers heard
thairin and the extraordinar Deakens wairned to that
effect. The Lytts for primar ar these : Mr. William
Colvill, Mr. Patrik Scowgall, Master James Fergusone,
Mr. WiUiam Rate, Mr. Thomas Crawfurde, Mr. John
Smyth. 9th December, 1 66 1. The CounseU delayis tiU Fryday Vol. 21, fol.
all questiouns and debeat of electing a Principall for the ^7-
Colledge in respect betuixt and that tyme they may heave the
certaintie of things from Master Lightoun himselfe quhither
he is to continue in the chairge or to remove thairfra.
7th August, 1663. Compeird Thomas Fairholme, Vol. 21, fol.
Thesaurer of the Colledge and producit the accompt ^°'
of the Earle of Lawderdaills band dew to Mr. James
Balfowr daited 18 January, 1 648,'conteining the principal
soume of 19 10 merks payable the first of March thair-
aftur with annual rent, quhilk band wes assigned by the
said Mr. James Balfour to Harie Hope and transferred
by the said Harie Hope to Andrew Balfour and assigned
be Andrew Balfour to Patrik Murray, Thesaurer of the
CoUedge, for the use thairof in satisfactioun pro tanto
of the debt dew be the said Mr. James Balfour to Mr.
Robert Lightoun, Principal of the Colledge, and dedicat
be the said Mr. Robert Lightoun to the Colledge for
a maintenance of a Bursar of Philosophie thairin. The
annual rent of the quhilk soume of 19 10 merks money
foirsaid from the first of Marche, 1648, to the first of
August, 1663, instant, it being 15 yeirs fyve moneths
at sex per cent, is 18 19 merks and a half inde 3729
merks \ quhairof is to be rebaited with common consent
for sex yeirs rent of the principal soume at sex per cent
687 merks \. Swa that there rests to pay in all 3042

300 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653- 1662)
merks quhairof to be deduced be transactioun made
with Sir John Baird conforme to ane Act of Counsell
of the fourt of July, 1662—806 merks S/Sd. with a yeir
and a quarters rent quhairof 60 merks 4/Sd. Item to
Alexander Lockhart conforme to ane Act of Counsell
of the sext of March last 300 merks inde 1167 merks
rents dew to the CoUedge, 1877 merks quhairwith the
Thesaurer is to be chairged in his accomptis. And
seeing the said soume is mortified to the CoUedge be
the said Mr. Leightoun for maintenance of a Bursar
of Philosophie thairin, appoynts the Thesaurer of the
Colledge to delyver the said soume to the Toun
Thesaurer upon the Touns band to the Colledge for
payment of annual rent thairfoir conforme to the mortifi-
catioun, and the Toun Thesaurer to be chairged thairwith
and the Thesaurer of the Colledge to be dischairged of
the same as payit out in maner foirsaid and to be
chairged with the Touns band in place of the said
soume, and the Provest, BaiUies, Dean of Gild, Thesaurer
and their Clerk to subscryve the Band, quhairanent thir
presentis sail be their warrand.
Vol. 51, fol. 14th May, 1684. The same day anent the petitione
'7' given in be Mr. William Hendersone, keeper of the
Bibleothick, mentioning that wherupon ane earnest and
kynd missive Letter from the right reverend Doctor
Robert Lightoun in behalf of his sone Ralph Hender
sone that he should receive the benefeit of what he had
consigned for the maintenance of a bursaray, and whyll
the said Ralph showld be bred to serve the Church in
the work of the Holly Ministrie to which through the
mercie of God he is designed, it did please the Counsell
to admitt him to that benefeit only dureing his course
of Philosophie, which expyres at Lambes next, swspending
ther act for the course of Theologie whyle a more
express ordor and warrand from the said Doctor Lightoun
should come to ther hands. He being soe earnest to
have the supplicants sone provydit for delayed noe
tyme, but did instantiy upon the making of this knowen
unto him, send doun from London a new Order and
warrand not only in behalf of the supplicants sone in

EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662) 301
particuUar (which he assured him wold easilly pass in
most ample forme by reasone of the Counsells kyndness
and goodnes to the supplicant) but also in behalf of
others who should heirafter obtaine his bursary and
should be qwahfied and attested as wes ther reqwyred.
The Ordor and Warrand being produced as also the
testemony and declaration of the Primar, Professor and
Masters of the Colledge in behalf of the petitioners sone
as wes reqwisite, Beseekand therfor the Provost, Baillies
and Counsell by ther act to confirme the said Ralph
Hendersone to the forsaid benefeit for thrie years next
after Lambes that he, according to Doctor Lightoun's
desyre, might be brede in the knowledge of Divinety
to serve Christ and the Church in the holly ministry,
which wes the great designe and end of that mortificatioun
as the petitione bears. Which togither with the forsaid
Order of Doctor Lightouns reUative to the said mortifi
catioun, togither with the forsaid testificate in favors of
the said Ralph Hendersone subscrived by the Principal,
Professor of Divinity and Masters of the Colledge of
this Cittie bearing his proficiensy in Philosophy and his
inclinatioun to prosecute his stwddies of Divinity and
his abiletyes to prosecwte his saids Stwdies in Theologie
being ^considdered by the Counsell, they have admitted
and conforme to the said Doctor Lightoun his said
letter of presentatioun admitts the said Ralph Hender
sone, sone to the said Mr. WiUiam Hendersone, to be
ane bursar of Theologie of the said Doctor Lightouns
fowndatioun, and that for the space of thrie years after
Lambes nixt, at which tyme his course of philosophy
expyres, and aUowes the dewes to him apperteineing to
that bursary conforme to the said Letter of Presentatioun
reUative to the said Doctor Lightouns Mortificatioun
and appoynts the Thesaurer of the Colledge to pay the
same to him qwarterly beginand his first qwarters pay
ment thairof by advance from Lambes to Hallowmes
next and soe furth qwarterly dureing the said thrie years
efter the said terme of Lambes next.
nth May, 1685. The same day anent the Petitione Vol. 13, fol.
given in be Mr. WUliam Cleilland, Stwdent of Divinety *7°'

302 EDINBURGH COLLEGE (1653-1662)
in the Colledge of this brugh, mentioneihg that he wes
resolved to prosecute his Stwddies of Divinety in the
said Colledge but not haveing money necessary for
the prosecutione thairof and being enformed that the
lait most reverend father in god Doctor Robert Lightoun,
Arch bishop of Glasgow, had mortified to the Colledge
of this bwrgh ane hundreth and fyftie pound starling for
the mentinance of ane bursar of divinety therin and that
ther is not as yet any preferred therto, the|,^Good Toun
as patrones of the said Colledge haveing the presenta
tioun thereof and therfor craveand that the Counsell
wold preferre the supplicant to the said Bursarie soe
soon as the samyn should occur as the Petitione bears.
The Counsell in answer to the forsaid petitione preferrs
the petitioner to the bursarie of Doctor Robert Lightoun
conforme to the Mortificatioun immediately efter the
hundred and fyftie pound Starfing contained in the
Mortificatioun is payed in to the Toun for the use of the
Colledge. Sic subscribitur George Dummond, Provost.
Vol. 31, fol. 14th August, 1685. The same day the Toun
*95- Thesaurer reported he had receaved of a legacie left
by Bishop Lightoun to the Colledge ane hundreth
and fyftie pound Starling. The Counsell appoynts the
said Thesaurer to be charged therwith in his accompts.
Mose's In- 1 6th January, 1668. Tack of the Teinds and Lands
ir"'p'^'24o,' °^ Langton, and others, granted by Bishop Leighton,
bdle. 270, Bishop of Dunblain.
No. 8481. Letter from Mr. Robert Leighton to the Lord Provost
J^ntory, vll' °f Edinburgh relative to the affairs of the Colledge.
ii. p. 288, No date given, and this letter is stated to have been
No.^'72i2°'' "removed to the volume of Letters."
Report on Discharge granted by Sir James Campbell, of Abern-
City Monu- chill, Mr. Mathew Wallace, Minister of the Gospel at
Hicnts vol
16, p." 171.' Kincardine, and Mr. Archibald Gibson, Minister of the
Gospel in Dunblane (three of the Trustees of the
Library in Dunblane founded by the late Reverend
Bishop Leighton) to the Good Town of Edinburgh for
the sum of ;^io Sterling contained in a Bond granted by
the Good Town to the said Trustees. Dated at Dunblane
and Edinburgh 28th October and 8th November, 1720.

CHAPTER X
LEIGHTON'S TRANSITION FROM PRESBYTERY TO
EPISCOPACY
BEFORE reaching conclusions, it is necessary to state
the evidence upon which they are founded, and
Brodie's Diary affords the chief links that connect the period
of Robert Leighton's life when he was a Principal in a Pres
byterian College, and the time when he became a Bishop in
the Restoration Church. Let us take the references in order.
24th May, 1653.
" I spoke with Mr. Leighton : he did shew me, that the composing
of our differences was not a harder task than the finding out the
Christian Lord's mind by them, both the procuring and final
Forbearance, cause. He thought holiness, the love of God and our
brethren, was the chief duty God was caUing us unto, and sobriety
and forbearance to one another. He knew not if it were not from
his natural temper, or something of the Engfish air : but he thought
it was the safest to incfine in mitiorem partem. Much persecution
was there upon our imposing upon one another, as if we were
infaUible, allowing none that differed from ourselves in the least
measure. He thought the Lord would break that which we would
so fain hold up, our Judicatories : he had observed so much of our
own spirit in tliem these many years past, that he had lothed them for
the most part, and wearied of them. I said, indeed, I thought that
our Judicatories these three or four years were much deserted, and
without that presence of God in them which sometimes was observed.
Our differences were the cause. That the Lord might not be traced
in His way, and that none may come after Him : therefore he darkens
our mind. . . . Mr. Leighton said, These differences should make
the hope of heaven the sweeter. I said, 'Tis true : yet so as not to
303

304 TRANSITION FROM PRESBYTERY
weary here or be hasty. He said. It was the more venial extreme,
if any were venial, and better than any love of the world. I said,
One grain of the world's love was more burdensome and worse than
a hundred grains of untimeous desires after heaven. He said,
Deferred hope breaks the heart. He said. If the saints knew the
advantages and final causes of their differences and trials, they would
rather trials. And, indeed, I think the sweet fruit of a sanctified
trial is to see mercy in it for correcting our quarrelling, and advan
tage, which would make us love the Lord better, and so say, ' In
faithfulness Thou hast afflicted me, and it was good for me, &c.'
Tho' we may not love the sin, yet we may admire and love and
adore Him that can extract good to us, and glory to Himself, out of
our very infirmities and sin." {Diary, pp. 42, 43.)
The Scottish Parliament having adjourned on the 12th
of July, 1 66 1, the Laird of Brodie, in compliance with the
advice of some of his political friends, resolved to visit Lon
don. His object seems to have been more on behalf of others
than for himself, in the hope of obtaining from the King an
exemption for them from certain fines either imposed or
threatened. This journey he undertook on horseback, and
accomplished within eight days. During his protracted stay in
London he had to experience the vexations and irksomeness
of waiting on at Court, soliciting favours, in which he seems
not to have been very successful, in connexion with the
affairs of the Earl of Morton, Lord Lorn (afterwards Earl of
Argyle), and others, his " poor friends." *
Brodie took ill, evidently under the strain, and was visited
by Leighton, who was also in London at the period. The
Diary states :
August 31, 1 66 1. ..."I was heald and recoverd, and my
sickness did not return, but past away at once. ShaU I not bless,
ador, and acknowledg the hand of the Lord in this? Yes, and
shall doue so long as I Hue.
" Onlie let it be in mercie : and this is the token that it is in
mercie, quhen al is broght to Thee : my health, bodie, spirit, re-
* Intro, p. xii .

TRANSITION FROM PRESBYTERY 305
couerie ar forthcoming not to myself, but to the Lord and him
onli ; for quhat other end should I hue, or desir to hue ? Mr. Ligh
ton did visit me, and gau me this lesson. Lord, seal it on my hart." ^
The Laird of Brodie was in London for a considerable
time, and on September 14, 1661, the Diary states :
" I heard Bishops were set up in Scotland : the rents that did
belong to them arrested," ^ and shortly afterwards there foUows an
account of an interview with Leighton. September 23, 1661. " I
met with Mr. Lighton, and he exprest much of a tender disposition.
Oh, let it not be a sin or snar to him ! He said ther was not that
Latitude, difference betwix Psts (Papists) and us as to put us to
excommunicate and condemn, judg, and persecut one another ; we
might forbear one another. He said there was as much for the
sa(k)cloth as for the surplice. He had a great latitud. Lord,
deliver him from snares !"^
Brodie's fears were corroborated by report : —
Leighton September 30, 1661. "I heard Mr. Lighton in-
inclined to be clined to be a Bishop, and did obserue his loos
a Bishop, principals befor anent Surplic, Ceremonie, and Papists.
I desird grac to discern what to judg of this, and if the Lord cald
me to speak to him or not." *
. . . October 13, 1661. "Die Dom. ... I mentiond this day
among others Mr. Lighton to God, that the Lord would minister
light, grac, direction to him, that he stumbl not upon the one hand
or the other, and be noe occasion to mak others stumbl or sin." ^
The next and subsequent notices of Leighton are of special
interest, in so far as they are explicative of his action at this
period : —
October 25, 1661. "Mr. Lighton din'd with me. ... I per
ceaved he was not averss from taking on him to be a Bishop : al
was clear to him ; ciuil places fre from censurs : he approu'd the
organis, antheams, musick in ther worship. He said the greatest
error among Papists was ther persecution and want of chariti to us.
His intention was to doe good in that plac, and not for ambition. He
^ Diary, p. 210. ^ P. 213. ^ P. 215. " P. 216.
' P. 219.
A.L. 20

306 TRANSITION FROM PRESBYTERY
was against defensiv arms ; men inpopri holding all ther tenets might
Papists, be sav'd. He had no scrupl in ani thing which they did,
repeating oft this word. — Religion did not consist in thes external
things, whether of gouernment or ceremonies, but ' in righteousness,
peac, and joy of,' &c. I prayd for him, as for myself, and wasfeard
that his chariti misguided might be a snar to him.
" I desird to mourn under the darknes which hid us from one
another, and bids the mind of God from us, that we see it not clearli.
How great is our darkness ! He said, he signd and swor the Couenant,
Covenant, and had thes sam thoughts then : that the Couenant was
rashli enterd in, and is now to be repented for. They placd mor
religion in ther ceremonies then in the most material things of
religion ; and we placd mor religion in opposing ther ceremonies
then in the weightiest matters of the law of God." ^
"November 24, 1661. Die Dom.
Re-ordained. " I heard Mr. Sharp and Lighton were re-ordained,
and scrupled at nothing. It is a difficulti in thes tyms to know
quherin true sound worship and godlines does consist ; men readi
to use the(ir) liberti for the hurt and destruction of others, and as a
stumbfing block to manie." ^ . . .
November 27, i66i. "I met with Mr. Lighton, and anent his
undertaking did express myself freelie to him. He shew(ed) that he
retaind the sam tendernes and bowels to thes that feard God. I
Toleration, desird him to use his liberti not to stumbl, but to edifi
others, and not use his liberti to pleas himself, but rather others in
the Lord. He said he thoght he was bound to use his liberti to the
utmost: and if he did forbear to use his liberti in things quherein he had
freedom, he thoght he sinn'd. I exhorted him to guard against Poprie.
He said he had not ani thing he tnor desird than that they {Papists)
might hav liberti also, and not for ther consciences to be prest ; he
would indulg them, and Anabaptists and Quakers ; he lyk'd {the)
Liturgy. Liturgie and som of thes things best. These opinions
wer dangerous. I besoght him to watch, and prayd the Lord for
Ceremonies, him. I desird him to use his credit that the Ceremonies
might not be broght in upon us. He said he wishd soe : but he
hop'd they should be prest on none. Alace ! efter introducing, force
will soon ensew. But, good man, he does not perceav or suspect it.
I desird him also to use his credit with his coUegs (colleagues) and
Jiis King." 3
' Pp. 221, 222. * Pp. 228, 229. ^ Pp. 229, 23p.

TRANSITION FROM PRESBYTERY 307
December 3, 1661. "I spok to Mr. Lighton and
found his satisfaction in the worship of Ingland, and al
the ceremonies of it, and I could not but be troubld. He preferd
liturgie and set forme to other prayer. I read the pamphlet anent
the unlawfulness to press or injoin the ceremonies or things
indifferent." 1 Referring to the consecration of Leighton,
of Scottish Sharp, Fairfoull and Hamilton in Westminster
Bishops. Abbey, on December 15, 1661, Brodie writes:—
"I heard they had surplices, albs, and all other ceremonies. He
that preached said, ther wer noe laik elders, but ther wer diuersities
of dignities in the preaching Presbyters ; much spoke he against
Presbyterians ; God's declaring against them at Dunbar. Al thes
things we spread befor God. I heard that our Bishops bou'd to the
alter, had on their surplices, rochetts, and other ceremonies, took the
Sacrament kneeling at the alter quhen consecrated. I desird to
consider and weigh thes things soberlie, and with understanding." *
January 7, 1662. "I did se the Bp. of Dumblean
Dunblane, and heard . . . I could not but acknowledg the grace of
God in that man, albeit he was . . . " ^
January 27, 1662. "I spoke with B. Dumblain
wasdis-°^ (Leighton). He told me he feard he should be dis
appointed appointed in them he was to be joind with : and he
Colleagues, exprest his desir and purpos to knmv and doe the wil of
God. Oh, let the Lord grant him and me also this
mercie." *
Affected with July 15, 1662. " I did see the Bishop of Dumblean
of the Time, and found him affected with our distempers." ^
(i) We can see from Brodie's references the chief reasons
that induced Robert Leighton to become a bishop in the Re
storation Church. He had a dislike to the controversial air
that surrounded the Church Courts from 1643 especially, and
of the parties into which the Church was divided during the
period of the Commonwealth. He had no sympathy with
the Hildebrandism that succeeded the Solemn League and
1 P. 231. " P. 233. 3 p. 236. * P. 239. * P. 266.

3o8 TRANSITION FROM PRESBYTERY
Covenant, nor with the Protesters whose fanaticism and
intolerance had embittered the religious life of the country
and converted it into a well of Marah. Leighton had no
aptitude for controversies, and he disliked the spirit of the
Presbyterian Church Courts. Brodie records of him so early
as 1653 :
"He (L.) thought the Lord would break that which we would
so fain hold up, our Judicatories. He had observed so much of
our own spirit in them these many years past, that he had lothed
them for the most part and wearied of them." ^
(2) His ideal of religion as a life of righteousness, joy and
peace in God, seemed to him more likely to be realized in a
larger form of Church polity that would unite and reconcile
the faithful, that would embrace all the types included by the
two great divisions of Puritanism and Royalism.
(3) His toleration of ecclesiastical differences, as matters
of secondary importance, was united with a deep love for the
permanent elements of religion. He retained a " tenderness
for all that feared God," and desired a liberty for " Papists,
Anabaptists and Quakers." ^ In other words, his ideal was a
comprehensive, national, Protestant Church, with toleration
for all who differed from it.
(4) His residence in England had led him to love the
liturgy and prefer "set form to other prayer" as well as to
desire a more impressive ritual than that which had become
customary in Scotland through the league between the
Protesters and the English Independents. He felt that the
time had come at the Restoration when there might be more
of " beauty of holiness " in worship, when more of the
" ceremonies " of the Church of England might appropriately
be introduced into Scotland,^ and he took the step with this
avowed intention, although he subordinated ritual and
ceremony to the deeper elements of religion on which they
' P. 303. " P. 306, 3 p. 306.

TRANSITION FROM PRESBYTERY 309
ought to rest as consciously present in the mind of the
worshipper. (5) He regarded the " Solemn League and Covenant " as
" rashly entered into and now to be repented of," ' and (in
1 661) avers " that he had the same thought " when he signed
it. In other words, he had signed the Covenant of 1643, as
an obedient son of the Church, subordinating his own views
to those of the older men, who then led the Church. And here
we are at the heart of the comprehensive problem that now
presented itself to him. The " Solemn League and Covenant "
in 1643 had driven from the Westminster Assembly the very
men with whom Leighton had come to sympathize, and
notably the great Archbishop Usher, in whose scheme of
accommodation Leighton felt that the hope for a comprehen
sive Church in the future was centered.
Let us now part with Brodie, thankful for the help he has
given us in interpreting Leighton's mind, and not least of all
for this reference to the Covenant of 1643 that enables us to
connect Leighton with another movement to which Brodie
does not refer. It is now that we see the comprehensiveness,
the sincerity and singleness of purpose, the burning passion
of this good man to connect Scotland with the great movement
going forward in England, which Richard Baxter had so much
at heart and which had the great aim of comprehending both
Presbyterians and Episcopalians in one national Church — a
movement that might have become realized fact but for the
Solemn League and Covenant of 1643.^ Let us briefly
recall the situation as it centres around the name of Arch
bishop Usher and his feasible model of a Low-Church
Episcopacy adapted to Presbyterian forms.
In England, about 1640-41, there existed three
Usher. parties on the Church question : (i) There was the
Laudian or High Church Party, who believed in the Divine
Right of Episcopacy ; (2) There was the Root-and-Branch
' P. 306. "^ See pp. I83-I9S.

3IO TRANSITION FROM PRESBYTERY
Party or tfte Presbyterian Party, who desired the abolition of
Episcopacy "root and branch"; the simplification of the
ritual : the exclusion of all dignitaries above that of the
presbyter or parish minister : and the appropriation of all
ecclesiastical revenues after the abolition of Bishoprics,
Deaneries, etc., to humbler religious uses or to the general
purposes of the State. Their aim was to work for a greater
degree of similarity between the Church of England and the
Church of Scotland ; (3) There was the Moderate or Broad
Church Party, who though attached to Episcopacy as
entwined with English History, were ready for changes in
the government and worship of the Church, and persuaded
that the hour for them had struck. There were many sub
sections in this party, but they may all be considered as one
in aiming at a " Limited Episcopacy." Two of the most
outstanding names connected with this movement were
Williams of Lincoln, who had been restored to public life by
the Long Parliament, and Archbishop Usher of Armagh.
Although of the Irish Church, Usher's learning and high
character won for him respect in England, and in 1640 he
left Ireland for England and continued to live there. Usher
was distinguished for his vast scholarship, but more for his
charity, sweetness of temper, and humility, and his views on
Episcopacy were not now to be declared for the first time.
He did not believe in the absolute Divine Right of Episcopacy,
but only in its convenience and advantage, and he held that
in the primitive Church there had been no distinction, or next
to none, between Presbyter and Bishop. His ideall of Church
polity was a limited Episcopacy, in which Bishops as Super
intendents over districts should be aided by councils of
Presbyters and even controlled by synods of Presbyters. In
Ireland, he had been overborne by Laud, and had seen, not
without grief, the Irish Church deprived of her Calvinistic
independence and conformed to the Church of England. And
now (1640) that he was in England, and Laud and Strafford

TRANSITION FROM PRESBYTERY 3"
had reached their downfall, although he treasured no feelings
toward them but those of respect and pity, he thought it was
possible that his influence might be used for mediation,
especially as the King had come to regard his presence in
England as not unimportant.^
The Committee of the Commons (March 9, 1641) had
brought in their report, and it propounded for the con
sideration of the House three distinct courses of Parlia
mentary action as necessary for a satisfactory soludon of
the Church question. First, there must be an exclusion of
the Bishops and clergy generally from all State offices and
duties. Secondly, there must be a limitation of the power
of the Bishops in the Church itself, and an introduction of
more of the democratic element into the Church government ;
and Thirdly, there must be a reduction and application to
State purposes of the great revenues of Deans, Chapters
and other ecclesiastical foundations. No report, short of
Root-and-Branch, could be more revolutionary, and the
House not only received the report and kept it in reserve,
but proceeded to give effect to its recommendations. This
extreme measure naturally produced a joining of forces in
the ranks of the High Church and the Moderate Party, and
it was strengthened by the rejection of the Bishops'
Exclusion Bill by the Lords. Usher, who had been already
asked for advice by the House of Lord's Committee,
appointed under the presidency of Bishop Williams on
March i, 1641, and whose views had frequently been cited
and appealed to on different sides, was appealed to by all
defenders of Episcopacy for help. It was rumoured that
with the King's approval, he had been drawing up plans
for conciliation, and on February 9, 1 641, he had com
plained to the Commons of the unauthorized publication, in
his name, of some such plan. Bishop Hall, the author of
Episcopacy by Divine Right, was specially anxious for his
' Elrington's Life, pp. 207-209.

312 TRANSITION FROM PRESBYTERY
co-operation, and wrote to Usher " to bestow one sheet of
paper upon these distracted times, on the subject of
Episcopacy, showing the Apostolical original of it, and the
grounds of it from Scripture and the immediately succeeding
antiquity. Every line of it, coming from your Grace's hand,
would be super rotas suas — as Solomon's expression is, very
apples of gold with pictures of silver, and more worth than
volumes to us." Usher consented, and on May 21,
1 64 1, there appeared The judgment of Doctor Rainoldes
touching the originall of Episcopacy more largely confirmed
out of Antiquity, by James, Archbishop of Armagh. But
the perfect copy of The Reduction of Episcopacy unto the
form of Synodical Government received in the Ancient
Church seems to have been in private circulation in May
and June 1641, and to have affected the discussion then
proceeding in the Commons. In this scheme of accommoda
tion the government of the Church was to be by the follow
ing graduated courts : (i) A weekly parochial court in every
parish, consisting of the Incumbent and Churchwardens ; (2)
monthly courts in districts, or subdivision of dioceses
corresponding to the Rural Deaneries ; every such court to
consist of the assembled Rectors or other Incumbents of the
parishes of the district, presided over by a Suffragan for the
district, corresponding to the ancient Chorepiscopus ; (3)
Diocesan Synods, once or twice a year, consisting of the
Suffragans of districts and representatives of the parish
clergy, and presided over by the Bishop, or by one of the
district Suffragans deputed by him ; (4) Provincial Synods,
every third year, consisting of the Bishops, the Suffragans,
and elected parish Ministers from each of the two ecclesiasti
cal Provinces of England, under the presidency of the Arch
bishop of the Province, or a Bishop deputed by him ; and
with power to the two Provincial Synods, if meeting at the
same time as Parliament, to coalesce into a General Assembly
or National Council for the ultimate regulation of Church
affairs.

TRANSITION FROM PRESBYTERY 313
Let it be recalled that this scheme of accommodation
was regarded as having the King's (Charles I) approval ;
that the fall of Laud and Strafford and the report of the Com
mons' Committee in 1641 had produced a greater sympathy
between the High Church Party and the Moderate or
Broad Church Party headed by Usher, as well as a greater
desire to come to terms, and it will be seen what a
great opportunity was lost by the Covenant of 1643, which
made Usher and his followers at once retire from the West
minster Assembly. Usher had a great following in England,
was willing to come to terms with the Presbyterians in England,
Scotland and Ireland, and in all likelihood would have done
so but for the revolutionary and aggressive attitude of the
Solemn League and Covenant, which had an obvious and
undisguised object — the subversion of the Church of
England and the abolition of its distinctive government,
worship and discipline. It alienated moderate Episcopalians,
moderate Presbyterians and Independents by its assertion of
the sole Divine Right of Presbytery ; it made Usher's scheme
with toleration for sects outside the national Churches
impossible, and lost for Scotland the most magnificent
opportunity that has ever presented itself to her for effecting
unity and creating Churches truly national and comprehen
sive in Great Britain.^ With Usher's retiral, what possi
bilities left the Westminster Assembly !
But men gradually awoke to the sense of what had been
lost by the non-acceptance of Usher's plan. This is
distinctively clear during the time of Cromwell's Protectorate,
and the Protector himself was both aware of the spontaneous
movements in some of the quasi-Presbyterian associations of
the clergy for a reunion as far as possible with the moderate
Episcopalians as distinct from the Laudians, and had himself
the old Episcopalian clergy in view as a body to be con
ciliated. Baxter, who advocated as sufficients in Church
' See this discussed, pp. 185-194.

314 TRANSITION FROM PRESBYTERY
tests, the Apostles Creed, Ten Commandments and Lord's
Prayer, was anxious that there should be a restored
Episcopacy after Usher's model ; he did not accept
Presbytery any more than Episcopacy as of divine right,
but was willing to accept a modified Episcopacy on the
ground of expediency — the Bishops to be permanent
presidents of Synods, and to govern along with Presbyteries
in conference. In the interest of such a scheme, Baxter
and his friends were willing to re-consider the old questions
of a Liturgy, kneeling at the Sacrament and other matters
of Anglican ceremonial. Moreover, even if Burnet's state
ment is hardly credible " that Dr. (afterwards Bishop)
Wilkins 1 told me that he (Cromwell) often said to him
(Wilkins) no temporal government could have a sure support
without a national Church that adhered to it, and he
thought England was capable of no constitution but
Episcopacy : to which he told me he did not doubt but
Cromwell would have turned " — it is certain that Cromwell
treated Usher with profound respect, showed him much
attention and consulted him on several occasions. Usher
had lived in London during the Commonwealth and part of the
Protectorate with the greatest honour, held the preachership
to the Society of Lincoln's Inn, and had a pension at the rate
of .^400 a year. He died on March 21, 1655-6, and was
buried in Westminster Abbey, a sum of ;^200 having been
voted for his funeral by the Protector and Council.
Whatever may have been Cromwell's views on Usher's
model, it was believed that he had some intention of giving
effect to it, so as to incorporate the most reasonable of the old
Anglican clergy with the other elements in the Church of
the Protectorate, and institute, along with the somewhat
inorganic aggregate, a moderate Episcopal government.
Usher's Reduction of Episcopacy, which was in private circu
lation since 1 641, was published from the original manuscript
' Second husband of Cromwell's youngest sister.

TRANSITION FROM PRESBYTERY 315
by Dr. N. Bernard in 1658, and was brought much before
the public notice. Fresh studying of it took place among
the clergy, and from 1658 to January 10, 1661, there was
every likelihood that it would be accepted by parties
generally as the basis of a comprehensive Church, with
toleration for religionists of any kind outside that Church.
As it was with this Church movement that Robert Leighton
sympathized, as it was his single-hearted, sincere endeavour
to bring it as the remedy to distracted Scotland, let us
examine it a little further, and see what rendered its
realization impossible.
The movement was received generally in England with
much sympathy, and would probably have attained sound
practical expression but for Cromwell's death. Then
followed the Restoration, with the great blunder that the
Presbyterians made in letting Charles return absolutely
without conditions. The hurricane of popular impatience
with Monk's advice had swept aside the proposals for
negotiation, and there was no other pledge in Church matters
than was contained in one passage of his voluntary Declara
tion from Breda : — " And because the passion and uncharit-
ableness of the times have produced several opinions in
Religion, by which men are engaged in parties and
animosities against each other — which, when they shall
hereafter unite in a freedom of conversation, will be com
posed, or better understood — we do' declare a Liberty to
Tender Consciences, and that no man shall be disquieted
or called in question for differences of opinion in matter of
Religion which do not disturb the peace of the kingdom, and
that We shall be ready to convent to such an Act of Parliament
as, upon mature deliberation, shall be offered to Us, for the
full granting that Indulgence." The affair was astutely
managed, and in a manner most vague, but Hyde and the
King's intimate counsellors knew quite well that with an easy
crypto-Catholic on the throne. Episcopacy, not in its moderate.

3i6 TRANSITION FROM PRESBYTERY
but in the Anglican High Church form, and resting on the
doctrine of Apostolic succession, was inevitable.
Having entered on his heritage without a definite expression
of policy, the Presbyterians still hoped for what was now
called a Comprehension, or a polity of the Church after
Usher's model — an amicable blending of Presbyterians and
Episcopalians in the Church with a Toleration outside for
all other sects, or even a concurrent endowment of them —
a point that was occasionally mentioned.^ Private consulta
tion had also taken place among the leading Presbyterian
ministers as to the possibility of reverting to the Thirty-
Nine Articles and an amended Liturgy, as well as to the
ceremonies that might reasonably be regarded as optional
in worship. All seemed hopeful and an open spirit prevailed.
Fond expectations were expressed that the nine Bishops
still surviving would waive all ideas of a Laudian Episcopacy
and remain contented with Usher's model. Charles within
a few weeks of his return appointed ten Presbyterian
chaplains among others, and in interviews with the King,
at which the other nine were present, Baxter spoke freely.
" I presumed to tell him," says Baxter, " that the late usurpers
that were over us so well understood their own interest that,
to promote it, they had found the way of doing good to be
the most effectual means, and had placed and encouraged
many thousand faithful ministers in the Church, even such
as detested their usurpation . . . Wherefore I humbly craved
his Majesty . . . that he would never suffer himself to be
tempted to undo the good which Cromwell or any other
had done because they were usurpers that did it, or dis
countenance a faithful ministry." Others spoke likewise,
and the requests made to the King were these : — that things
not necessary should not be made terms of membership of
the Established Church; that sound discipline should be
maintained, and that faithful ministers should not be ejected,
' See Masson's Life of Milton, vol. vi. pp. 590, 693.

TRANSITION FROM PRESBYTERY 31?
nor unworthy ministers be thrust in. The King's answer was
gracious, and he expressed himself as glad to hear of the
inclination of the Presbyterians to come to an agreement
with the Episcopalian clergy. He also expressed his resolu-
lution to draw them together himself — " which must not
be," he said, " by bringing one party over to the other, but by
abating somewhat on both sides and meeting in the midway."
On July 20, 1660, Parliament followed this hopeful
beginning between the King and the Presbyterian clergy
with a resolution that the Church difficulty be referred to
the King, and that he act with_ the advice of such a Synod
of Divines as he might call. He asked his Presbyterian
chaplains to draw out a list of the concessions they would
make on their side. This was accordingly done and sent
in as an Address and Proposals to his Majesty. While
disclaiming Prelacy as repudiated in the Covenant,^ they
were willing to accept " the true ancient and primitive
Presidency" in the Church " as it was balanced and managed
by a due commixtion of presbyters," and tendered Usher's
model as one that suited the circumstances. They agreed
with the lawfulness of a Liturgy, if not so imposed as to
supersede oral prayer entirely, and they desired a new one
or a careful revision of the old one. They pleaded for
moderation in ceremonies generally ; for respect for the
scruples of those who might object to kneeling at the
Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, or to holidays of human
appointment ; for prohibition of the use of the surplice, the
cross in baptism and bowing at the name of Jesus. They
requested that the King would not meanwhile impose tests
or subscriptions on holders of benefices as conditions of their
remaining in the Church ; that he would stay the putting
in of new men into livings the former holders of which were
dead, and which might now be held by their Puritan
possessors without injury to old rights ; and that he would
1 P. 184.

3i8 TRANSITION FROM PRESBYTERY
provide some remedy against the return to livings of men
notoriously insufficient or scandalous. . Such were the
Presbyterian proposals — and they indicated a willingness to
come to terms— but the Presbyterians were greatly surprised
that the Episcopal divines, instead of presenting a paper of
concessions drawn up on the same principle, presented only
one of severe criticism, assuming High Episcopacy as
indubitably right, and incapable of making concessions unless
it might be in the matter of some revision of the Liturgy
and some relaxation of ceremonies to tender consciences at
his Majesty's pleasure. A defence of their former proposals
was offered by the Presbyterian ministers in reply, but
failure was evidently stamped upon the movement by the
action of the High Church, who were in the ascendant and
were secretly favoured by the King.^ It became evident by
immediate legislation (the " Act for the confirming and
restoring of Ministers ") that the Establishment was to be
cleared of all Anabaptists and of such Independents as had
been very prominently Republican.
At a conference held in the King's presence at Worcester
House on October 22, 1660, Baxter was emphatic in declar
ing that the name " Presbyterian " was now a misnomer,
purposely kept up among the courtiers to discredit him
and his friends. "None of them now," he said, "spoke for
Presbytery or thought of bringing any of the essential
differences between the Presbyterian and the Episcopal
systems into discussion. They had all practically ceased to
be Presbyterians and had consented to accept Episcopacy
and a Liturgy : what they now desired was simply an abate
ment of tlie excesses of Episcopacy and the excesses of Ritual.
They were all at one in regarding Usher's model of
Episcopacy as the satisfactory solution of the question.
The Conference ended in disappointment, but Baxter and
his friends were surprised and delighted by the King's
' Baxter, i, (231-351) ; Masson's Milton, vi. 66, 67.

TRANSITION FROM PRESBYTERY 319
Ecclesiastical Declaration of October 25, 1660. Baxter's
comment is, regarding it, " Though not such as we desired,
yet such as any sober honest ministers might submit to :
and I was presently resolved to do my best to persuade
all, according to my interest and opportunity, to conform."
Among the promises of the Declaration for the reconstruction
of the Church of England was one granting a National
Synod, and another that no Bishop in any diocese should
ordain or exercise jurisdiction involving church censure
without " the advice and assistance of the presbyters." The
old Liturgy was to be revised by a committee of an equal
number of divines of both persuasions to be appointed by
his Majesty, and meanwhile to be optional in whole or in
part. The Declaration seemed to promise all that Usher
proposed, satisfied parties, and England was in repose.
The Bill for confirming the King's Ecclesiastical Declaration
came to a'sudden collapse in the Commons on November 27,
and then the Royalist forces at work became apparent. It
was thrown out by 183 noes to 157 yeas, and the King was
very glad, says Hyde. Baxter was justly indignant, and soon
the Presbyterians saw that the King's Declaration was a
mere concoction to answer the exigencies of the hour, but was
never meant to be binding. The King was left by his Parlia
ment to manage the Church, and no one of his promises was
fulfilled. On January 10, 1661, the proclamation was issued "re
straining conventicles under pretence of religious worship
and forbidding any meetings for worship except in parochial
churches or chapels," and from this date, and strengthened
by subsequent legislation, the fear passed into the certainty
that there was to be no comprehension for Presbyterians
within the Established Church, and no toleration for any out
side of it. Soon the prisons were filled with what was
bravest and best in the manhood and womanhood of
En|;land, and the Act of Uniformity of May 19, 1662,

320 TRANSITION FROM PRESBYTERY
followed by St. Bartholomew's Day (August 24, 1662), when
2,000 clergy were ejected from their livings and 500
more were silenced, was the death-blow to all the hopes
for a Comprehensive Church. It is from this date
that there has come down the great ecclesiastical divi
sion of England into the Church of England and the
Non-Conformists ; that the polity of Laud once more
triumphed, and the conciliatory polity of Usher receded into
the background ; that many of England's best sons found
themselves excluded from the National Church, because
they refused what Conscience would not permit them to
accept. Instead of a Church reconstructed after a primitive
model ; with a Low-Church Episcopacy adapted to Presby
terian forms ; with the Bishops as permanent presidents and
guiding the Church with the counsel of the Presbyters ; the
Church of England had now as principles, standing on legal
record, to which all within the Church were officially
pledged : — "The necessity and obligation of Diocesan
Episcopacy : the necessity and obligation of Episcopal ordin
ation for all the clergy : the use of the Liturgy and a defined
ritual in worship : acceptance of State control in the Church :
avowed recognition of monarchical government in the Stuart
line, as of divine right or nearly so, with commensurate repro
bation of the Commonwealth and of the memory of
Cromwell : profession also of the doctrine of passive obedi
ence, or the duty of non-resistance to the Crown in any
contingency whatsoever"^ If the Solemn League and
Covenant helped to allow a great opportunity to pass in
1643, not less so did the Crypto-Catholicism of Charles II
and the High Church policy of his Episcopal and Parlia
mentary advisers in 1662.
Now from 1658 Leighton sympathized with the move
ment that had been connected with the name of Cromwell,
and was advocated by Baxter on the model of Usher.
' Masson's Milton, vi. p. 234.

TRANSITION FROM PRESBYTERY 321
Baxter refused a Bishopric, Leighton accepted a Scottish
one, but he had taken the step before the Act of Uniformity in
1662. He believed Usher's scheme both possible and realiz
able, while he had not yet been taught to distrust Charles II.
Burnet states that he had previously entered into corre
spondence with many of the Episcopal party, and with Burnet's
own father in particular ;* but the scheme he advocated as the
basis of conciliation was Usher's, while he regarded Episco
pacy merely as a matter of expediency and to be united with
Presbytery exactly on the lines that Baxter approved for
England. The Episcopacy he desired was of the Low-Church
type. We have already traced the records of the old mediaeval
Bishops connected with his family (chap, i.) : we have likewise
traced the influence of the Jansenist movement over his mind
(chap, vi.), and both must be taken into account. Still, such
as they were they seemed to him to culminate in the oppor
tunity which Usher's model afforded, and which he liked as a
restoration of Church government to a primitive simplicity
when Presbyter and Bishop were one, and the Bishop with the
advice of the presbyterate guided the Church. He quotes
Baxter in his appeals for union to the Scottish clergy, and in
such a way as to show that he was one with him in his com
prehensive endeavour. And had Leighton but had favour
able circumstances in Scotland ; had his unfortunate col
leagues been of the same fine mould as himself ; had Charles
II and his coadjutors but risen to the great occasion and been
generous in their treatment of a high-spirited people, there
seems no reason in the nature of things why Leighton's ideal
for the Church of Scotland might not have been triumphant.
Leighton knew the feeling of the young men, and at the
Restoration a wave of feeling in favour of Episcopacy had
become visible among the Resolutioner clergy, not only in
Aberdeenshire and the North, where it was already strong,
' History, vol. i. p. 242.
A.L. 21

322 TRANSITION FROM PRESBYTERY
but even in the Lothian and the southern districts.^ Bad
and unscrupulous statesmanship turned it, but the fault of
that is not to be attributed to Leighton but to the unworthy
men with whom, by a strange turn of fortune, this saint was
surrounded. Dr. Walter Smith's language is not exaggerated
when he says, " Here was a servant of God who found himself
strangely ranged on the devil's side in the great conflict of
the age, though fully minded all the while to fight the battle
of the Lord.^
Had the Restoration statesmen been but guided by this
beautiful spirit that dominated Leighton ; had they been but
worthy of this majestic Christian idealist, there is no reason
to doubt that the course of Scottish history might have been
different. Among unworthy company this good man's lot
was cast, but he took his part from generous, high-souled
conviction for the Church's weal, and from a single-hearted
purpose to serve his country. Like Baxter in England, he
aimed at a comprehensive church for Scotland, " reconciling
the devout on different sides " ; for that ideal Leighton lived
and struggled ; for it he pleaded for twelve long years ; the
policy that prevented it in England annulled it in Scotland ;
but of all those who entered the field in Scotland as
leaders of the Restoration Church, there is but one name
on which no stain rests, and that is the name of Robert
Leighton. ' See Masson's Milton, vi. p. 149.
^ Preface to The Bishops' Walk, p. xiv.

CHAPTER XI
ROBERT LEIGHTON, BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
"An eminent and holy person (Robert Leighton), yet alive in our
Church, said, ' He would rather be instrumental in persuading one man
to be serious in religion, than the whole nation to be Conformists.' "
—Henry Scougal.
IN this chapter we have more specially to deal with
Leighton's endeavour for a comprehensive Church in
Scotland and the circumstances that made its realization
impossible. Never had a monarch a better chance of
realizing it than Charles II at the restoration, and never
did a monarch more wilfully fail. The whole transaction
was characterized by dishonour and duplicity, and there is
only one in the whole group whose name is unstained, and
that one is Robert Leighton.
The Restoration was for Scotland a dissolution of her
recent political connexion with England, and among the
various causes of Scottish rejoicing at the Restoration, not
the least was the hope of getting back their nationality and
their laws, and of having an independent government of
their own in Edinburgh.
The preliminary arrangements for the government of
Scotland were made in London, and from among the
many eminent Scots in London, the beginnings of a Scottish
Ministry and Privy Council were formed. Middleton was
designated as the King's High Commissioner to the Scottish
Parliament, when it should meet : Glencairn was made
Chancellor of Scotland : the Earl of Crawford became
Scottish Lord Treasurer : Lauderdale was made Scottish
323

324 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
Secretary of State, and Sir Archibald Primrose, Lord Clerk-
Register or Keeper of the Rolls. These five were the centre
round which the other Scots grouped themselves, and Hyde,
Southampton, Monk, Ormond, Manchester and Secretary
Nicholas were associated with them and might be present at
their meetings with the King. Such meetings were frequent
during June and July 1660, and the arrests of Argyll,
Swinton and other prominent Protesters, made it quite
clear in what direction the currents were running. The
Resolutioner clergy at least hoped that a moderate Pres
byterianism was to be maintained and the government of
the Church not to be interfered with, even although the
Protester type of Presbyterianism was to be put down.
This hope was so far strengthened by the letter which Sharp
brought with him from the King, addressed to Mr. Douglas,
and to be communicated by him to the Presbytery of
Edinburgh, and by that Presbytery to all the other
Presbyteries of Scotland. " We do resolve to protect and
preserve the government of the Church of Scotland, as it is
settled by law, without violation, and to countenance in the
due exercise of their functions all such ministers who shall
behave themselves dutifully and peacefully, as becomes men
of their calling." But the letter was a deliberate equivocation,
and the equivocal phrase was " as established by law."
No restraint was to be put on Middleton, and by him the
Scottish Kirk question was to be managed in accordance
with his prudence and discretion !
Under the name of the Three Estates, the Scottish Parlia
ment was opened on January i, 1661, and it was com
posed of King's men, who were most prominent among
the elected lairds and burgesses. The Lords of the Articles,
who were such pliant tools to James I and Charles I, were
revived, and to this committee of twelve selected nobles,
twelve selected lairds and twelve selected burgesses, was
entrusted the preparation of all Bills, if not the decision of

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 325
what the House should and should not do, while the rejection
in the Parliament was merely nominal. The Scottish people
before long witnessed an absolute despotism, directed from
London, and operating by native agency ; and were called to
obey Acts emanating from a Parliament that was known as
the Drunken Parliament. "It was a mad roaring time "
says Burnet, " full of extravagance : and no wonder it was so,
when the men of affairs were almost perpetually drunk!'
On the first day of their sitting they imposed upon them
selves an oath of allegiance and supremacy, acknowledging
the King's sovereignty " over all persons and in all causes,"
and binding them " never to decline " the same. This oath
struck at the root-principle of Presbytery, which denies the
supremacy of the civil magistrate in spiritual causes.
On the nth they passed an Act declaring it to be" His
Majesty's prerogative to choose officers of State, Councillors
and Lords of Session," and pronouncing all laws, acts and
practices to the contrary since 1637, to have been undutiful
and disloyal. On the same day they passed another,
asserting it to be part of the King's prerogative to call,
prorogue or dissolve all Parliaments or political conventions,
declaring all meetings without his warrant to be null and
void, and repealing all Acts to the contrary since 1640.
On the 1 6th, among other Acts, they passed one vesting the
sole power of peace and war in the King, as holding his
crown from God alone. On the 22nd the Solemn League
and Covenant with England was declared null and void.
On the 2Sth Hamilton's Engagement of 1648 was approved
of, and then there was a most comprehensive Act, imposing
on all persons in any public trust, or to be appointed to
such, an oath of supremacy and allegiance, formulated so as
to recapitulate the Acts respecting Prerogative already
passed in the present Parliament, and requiring sworn
obedience to them all.
But now came the direct attack on Presbytery. On March

326 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
28th there was passed the Act Recissory, annulling all the
Parliaments that had been held since 1633, and thus up
rooting Presbytery from Scotland. To stay the outcry
against this, there came soon afterwards an Act concerning
Religion and Church Government, declaring that " as to the
government of the Church, his Majesty will make it his care
to settle and secure the same in such a frame as shall be
most agreeable to the Word of God, most suitable to
monarchical government, and most complying with the
public peace and quiet of the kingdom." Such phrases
might be construed as well as they could, but Presbyterians
had at least the annexed assurance that " in the meantime
his Majesty, with advice and consent" of his Parliament,
" doth allow the present administration by Sessions, Presby
teries and Synods, they keeping within bounds, and behaving
themselves as said is, and that notwithstanding of the pre
ceding Act Recissory." But there was one thing conspicuous
by its absence — there was no reference to the General
Assembly promised in the King's letter of the preceding
August. The purpose of that omission was soon to be visible.
On September 5, 1661, the Lord Chancellor presented to
the Scottish Privy Council a letter from his Majesty,
referring to ecclesiastical affairs. It began :
" Whereas, in the month of August 1660, we did, by our letter to
the Presbytery, declare our purpose to maintain the government of
the Church of Scotland settled by law ; and our Parliament having
since that time not only rescinded all the Acts since the troubles
began referring to that government, but also declared all those pre
tended Pariiaments null and void, and left to us the settfing and
securing of Church government : therefore ... we have, after
mature deliberation, declared to those of your Council here our firm
resolution to interpose our royal authority for restoring of that Church
to its right government by Bishops, as it was by law before the late
troubles, during the reigns of our royal father and grandfather of
blessed memory, and as it now stands settled by law."
It is difficult to understand the reference to the

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 327
letter of August 1660, since the King's word was there
solemnly pledged to maintain the " government of the Church
as established by law," and this, on any fair principle of
interpretation, could only mean the Presbyterian Church.
The whole transaction, on the King's part and that of his
satellites, was characterized by duplicity of the worst type,
and the very first principle which could inspire trust in the
people — faithfulness to the spoken and the written word —
was ruthlessly violated. Even the moderate Low-Church
Episcopacy, for which Leighton pleaded, never received a
fair chance, and henceforth all Episcopacy became asso
ciated in the people's minds with despotism, and with the loss
of national, political and spiritual independence. Its im
position, on an unwilling people by royal authority, was
characterized both by tyranny and dishonour, and Principal
Story has truly said :
" The history of Episcopacy in Scotland is not a heroic history.
. . . The Presbyter was the symbol of freedom, the Bishop of
tyranny. It needs all the saintliness of Leighton to redeem the
name of Scotch Bishops in the days of the Stuarts from utter
execration." ^
That the Scotch Bishops now became the pliant tools of a
monarch who dishonoured his word, was their condemnation,
and by their unworthy action they lost the opportunity of
restoring a reputation that was already sullied. And so
impartial a historian as Dr. Samuel Gardiner, referring to the
Tulchan Bishops of 158 1, has said :
"From that moment Episcopacy was a doomed institution in
Scotland. It was impossible for any man to submit to become a
Bishop without losing every remnant of selfrespect which he might
originally have possessed. The moral strength which Presbytery
gained from this compromise was incalculable. It soon became the
earnest belief of all who were truthful and independent in the nation
that the Presbyterian system was the one divinely-appointed mode of
' Life and Remains of Dr. Robert Lee, vol. ii. pp. 109, 1 10.

328 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
Church government from which it was sinful to deviate in the
sfightest degree. Whatever credit must be given to Andrew Melville
for his share in producing this conviction, it is certain that the dis
reputable spectacle of the new Episcopacy was far more effective
than any arguments which he was able to use." ^
Such was the tradition in the people's minds, and with the
exception of Leighton, there was no one among the Scottish
Bishops ordained in Westminster, capable of restoring the
reputation of the order in Scotland.
Their appointment followed from the same policy that
produced the Act of Uniformity in England (May 19, 1662),
and terminated the hopes of Baxter, who was willing to have
a comprehensive Church. For the Scottish people to have
accepted them, would have been to be traitors to the spirit
which their past had created in them, and to the national
independence which has made them what they are. The
execution of the Marquis of Argyll and of James Guthrie,
and the burning of the Covenant by the common hangman,
set Scotland ablaze, and the history of the period resolves
itself into a struggle between kingly despotism, with Epis
copacy as its appanage, and spiritual independence, with
Presbytery as its inspiration. The question of the hour
was. Shall the anvil and the hammer break the iron that was
to be beaten into a particular shape, or shall the iron break
the anvil and the hammer? That the iron resisted, broke
ultimately both anvil and hammer, and refused to take the
shape intended for it by the hard strokes, is the glory and
the vindication of the Covenanters, and forms a heroic period
in Scottish history.
The King's letter of September 5, i66i, was followed
by an Act of the Scottish Parliament, echoing it ; and the
proclamation restoring Episcopacy was made at the market-
cross of Edinburgh. The only Scottish Bishop now alive of
those who had been swept away by the Glasgow General
' History of England, vol. i. pp. 46, 47.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 329
Assembly of 1638 was Thomas Sydserf, Bishop of Galloway,
and as two Archbishops and eleven Bishops were now re
quired for the offices created, Sydserf mighty well expect office.
He was accepted as a link of continuity with the Episcopate
of James' reign, and was appointed Bishop of Orkney. Leigh
ton was in London at the time, and with the views regarding
Church government already indicated,' was persuaded by his
brother to accept office.
" His brother (Sir Elisha Leighton),^ who thought of nothing but
the raising himself at court, fancied that his being made a bishop
might render himself more considerable. So he possessed the
Lord Aubigny mth such an opinion of him that he made the King
apprehend that a man of his piety and his notions (and his not
being married was not forgot) might contribute to carry on their
design. He fancied such a monastic man, who had a great
stretch of thought and so many other eminent qualities, would be
a man at least to prepare the nation for popery, if not directly to
come over to them ; for his brother did not stick to say he was
sure that lay at the root of him. So the King named him of his
own proper motion, which gave all those who began to suspect tlie King
himself great jealousies of him. Leighton was averse to his pro
motion as much as was possible. His brother had great power
over him ; for he took care to hide his vices from him, and to
make before him a great shew of piety. . . . When Leighton was
prevailed on to accept a bishopric, he chose Dunblane, a small
diocese as well as a little revenue. But the deneary of the chapel
royal was annexed to that see. So he was willing to engage in
that, that he might set up the common prayer in the King's chapel,
for the rebuilding of which orders were given. The English clergy
were well pleased with him, finding him both more learned and
more thoroughly theirs in other points of uniformity than the rest
of the Scotch clergy, whom they could not much value. And
though Sheldon did not very much like his great strictness, in
which he had no mind to imitate him, yet he thought that such a
man as he was might give credit to Episcopacy in its first introduction
to a nation much prejudiced against it. Sharp did not know what
to make of aU this ; he neither fiked his strictness of fife nor his
notions : he believed they would not take the same methods, and
' Pp. 303-307- ' Pp- 289, 290.

330 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
he fancied he might be much obscured by him : for he feared he
would be well supported. He saw the Earl of Lauderdale began
to magnify him, and so he did all he could to discourage him, but
without any effect ; for he had no regard to him." ^
Leighton was an idealist, and certainly his personal action
was guided by the heavenly vision as he saw it. Still looking
at the matter in the light of the history that followed
in Scotland for the next twenty-seven years, it is almost
unaccountable how such a man could have submitted so
long to the degradation of being associated with colleagues
like Sharp and some of the other Scotch Bishops. The only
explanation is that he had lived so long apart, and regarded
contemplation as the chief object of life, that he had neither
any idea of the hostility in the Scottish mind to Episcopacy,
nor of its utter unfitness to become the Established Church
polity for the great mass of the people ; and that his gentle,
child-like nature rendered him open to the persuasions that
were addressed to him to add the lustre of his name to what
became an unholy cause. He certainly had no conception
that the object of the Government in establishing Episcopacy
in Scotland was to make it subservient to despotism and
persecution. What he did was done from his own religious
ideal, as he saw it in the academic cloisters, and no one can
question either his sincerity or his single-mindedness. His
mind was fixed upon the early days of primitive simplicity,
and to unite the Church upon a basis that did justice to the
truth on all sides was his generous aim. Religion, like the
early Apostles, he regarded as the recognition of Jesus as
the Living Lord, and an actual experience of the life of God :
while the leading of a holy life in purity and brotherly fellow
ship with all good men, was the duty to him of the hour.
His religion was inwardness and the fulfilling of the law, and
to a man with this ideal, all questions of Church government
were of secondary importance. It was from such a stand-
' Burnet's History of His Own Times, vol. i. 244, 245.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 331
point that he acted, and any error of judgment he made, arose
from the guilelessness and simplicity of his spiritual nature.
But this cannot be said of Sharp, who lacked all heroic
qualities. Leighton was a hero, but Sharp was none. He
shared and echoed the King's duplicity, and his name stands
out in Scottish history with a stain upon it As Burton puts
it : " The Scots Presbyterians were represented by a traitor
who abandoned all. James Sharp was sent to London as an
ambassador in the cause of a Presbyterian polity, and he
returned as the selected Archbishop of St Andrews." ^ His
doctor's degree of 166 1 was, in Row's language, " but a stirrup
to mount him to prelacy,"^ and he stands forth from the
unworthy transaction, as a man who betrayed those who
trusted him, and sacrificed his brethren for his own personal
aggrandisement and advancement^ Even Row, while con
demning Sharp, admits of Leighton "that he was never
fixed in the point of Kirk government, counting it a thing
indifferent, whether it was Independency, Presbytery, or
Episcopacy,"* but he _can admit no such redeeming feature
in the case of Sharp. Nor has recent research altered his
judgment^ Of the four bishops elect, only two had received Episcopal
ordination, and before the consecration of Fairfoul as Arch
bishop of Glasgow and Hamilton as Bishop of Galloway, it
was considered by the English Bishops as absolutely neces
sary to ordain Sharp and Leighton as deacons and priests.
' History of Scotland, vol. vii. p. 398.
' Blair's Life, p. 373.
^ See article by Principal Tulloch in North British Review (1867), pp.
398-4SS- * Blair's Life, p. 398.
" The Editor of the Lauderdale Papers (Mr. Osmund Airy) says, "A
careful perusal of the whole series will save any future biographer from
the temptation of endeavouring to palliate a life of petty meanness such
as has seldom been exceeded in history. In the most comprehensive sense
of the word Sharp was a knave, pur sang, and one who, to retain the
price of his knavery, eagerly submitted to be cajoled, threatened, bullied,
or ignored, by bolder men as served their turn." (Vol. i. p. x.)

332 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
The same necessity was not recognized at the consecration
of Scotrish Bishops in 1610; for when Bishop Andrewes main
tained that they must first be ordained presbyters, as having
received no episcopal ordination, Bancroft replied " that there
was no necessity, seeing where Bishops could not be had, the
ordination given by the presbyters must be esteemed lawful.
Otherwise that it might be doubted if there were any lawful
vocation in most of the reformed churches." '¦ Sharp stickled,
but Leighton had sense enough and a sufficient acquaintance
with Scripture and the writings of the early fathers to know
that it was a matter of no consequence whether he submitted
to it or not. Leighton never thought that orders given with
out Bishops were null and void, nor that episcopal ordination
was necessary to the being of a Church.^ It was but an out
ward sign or symbol of admission, creating nothing and
conferring nothing. He could say, with John Milton :
"It is the inward calling of God that makes a minister, and
his own painful study and diligence that manures and improves
his ministerial gifts. In the primitive times many before they had
received ordination from the Apostles had done the Church noble
service — as Apostles and others. It is but an orderly form of
receiving a man already fitted, and committing to him a particular
charge." Burnet distinctly avers :
" Leighton thought that every Church might make such rules in
ordination as they pleased, and that they might re-ordain all that
came to them from any other Church; so that the re-ordaining
a priest ordained in another Church imported no more but that
they received him into orders according to their rules, and did
not infer the annulling the orders he had formerly received." ^
Row tells us that Sharp and Leighton would have their
re-ordination only to be called "a confirmation of their
former ordination," * and Wodrow preserves Leighton's
' Spottiswoode's History, p. 514.
^ See p. 428. ' History, i. p. 348. ^ Life of Blair, p. 399.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 333
own words : " I will yield, although I am persuaded I was in
orders before, and my ministrations were valid, and they
do it aimulative and not privative: though I should be
ordained every year I will submit"' But it is to be observed
that neither in 1610 nor in 1661 did the Archbishop of York
or the Archbishop of Canterbury preside, lest their presiding
should have been regarded as claiming from the Church of
Scotland any acknowledgment of subjection to the Metro
politan Sees of York or Canterbury.^ And so even in the
very act of subordination, some stand (such as it was) was
made for the independence of the Scottish Church !
Leighton and Sharp were privately ordained deacons
and priests ; and this done, all the four were publicly con
secrated in Westminster Abbey. The following description
of the event is given by an eye-witness :
" The foure Doctors, Sharpp, Fairefoule, Hamilton and Lightoun,
come in coach to the Dean of Westminster's house in the Cloister,
where they were mett by four Englishe Bishopps, London, Woores-
ter, St. Asaph, and Carlile, and were conducted by them to the
church, where all were placed over against the pulpit. The 4 Scots
in the habite of Doctors, with their Canonicall coates, girdles,
gownes, tippets, and corner caps. Sermon being ended they went
to the east end of the church, where the altar stands. London
having the action, placed himself upon the right side of the altar,
Worcester on the left : the rest, Scots and Engfish, standing before
it. Then Canterburie being commissioner, the commission was
read, and London proceeded to reade the forme of the booke of
Common-prayer, each of the Scotts having one in their hand. After
some time spent in reading, the Scotts sate downe before the altar
on their knees, in which posture the oath of supremacie was tendered
to them by the Bishop of London, they having their hands on the
booke and kissing it This done, they removed to a by-roome, and
after a little returned having a linen garment above their gownes,
such as a shirt without sleaves. In this garb they stood some time
before the altar, and then returned to another roome, and after a
little come in againe attired as Bishops, thus — Above the linen
'^Analecta, i. p. 133.
^Bishop Skinner's Primitive Truth and Order, pp. 350, 351.

334 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
garment called a rochet, they have a gowne without sleaves, of a
rich silk stuffe, and to it were pinned lawne sleaves. Having stoode
a littie, they kneeled againe before the altar. Then came the
English bishops, and laid their hands on their heads, one by one.
The consecration being ended, they communicate thus — 2 English
Bishops and the foure Scotts, kneeling before the altar, receive the
bread and wine from London. This done, they rose, and the foure
Scots Bishops went toward the altar, one after another bowing as
they went, and then kneeling laide downe the offering upon it.
After which they went to Sir Abraham William's house, the place
where ambassadours are received, and there had a sumptuous feast,
where diverse of the Scottish nobilitie were present. But the Lords
Midleton and Crawford were not, they being sicke. AU this is
testified by one who was an eye witnesse."^
Leighton was shocked at the jollity which prevailed at the
feast, and when he spoke to Sharp about Archbishop Usher's
scheme for union, found that Sharp had no idea on the subject
at all. When he spoke to Fairfowl, he was only met with a
joke or humorous story.
"By these means,'' says Burnet, "Leighton quickly lost all
heart and hope ; and he said often to me upon it, that i7i the whole
progress of that affair there appeared such cross characters of an
angry Providence, that how fully so ever he was satisfied in his
own mind as to Episcopacy itself, yet it seemed that God was against
them, and that they were tiot like to be men that should build up
His Church ; so that the struggling about it seemed to him like a
fighting against God. He who had the greatest hand in it
proceeded with so much dissimulation, and the rest of the order
were so mean and so selfish, and the Earl of Middleton, with the
other secular men that conducted it, were so openly impious and
vicious, that it did cast a reproach on everything relating to religion
to see it managed by such instruments.'' (Vol. i. p. 249.)
But it is a lovely contrast to turn from these three
bringing down from London the inestimable gift of Apostolic
succession, and breathe the atmosphere of two letters, written
' Excerpta Ex Adversariis Reverendi Jacobi Bruni. — MS. volume in
Faculty Library published in Analecta Scotica, vol. i. pp. 79, 80.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 335
by Leighton to his old friend and patron. Lord Lothian, and
his friend, Mr. Aird.
A week after his consecration Leighton thus wrote to the
Earl of Lothian : —
"My Lord,
" I will not trouble your Lordship with many words
touching so mean a thing as both I am, and really
account myself and whatsoever may concern me : but the
simple truth is, after much conflict with myself and others
about the employment I am now design'd to, I found no way
of escape, but either by sound scruple which I had not, or by
pretending one, which, not having it, I durst not doe. But
being forct to capitulate, I have at length obtained the
indulgence of the lowest station, and they say the lightest
burden of all the kind, whereas I was for some days threatn'd
with one of the heaviest : and that the secular advantages of
that I have yielded to are proportionable, being likewise
called the least of all, is a thing that pleases mee not a little.
One thing this change of mine will doe, which I account an
advantage : 'twill mortify mee more thoroughly to a thing I
never was very fond of — popular opinion, and that of many
good people ; for whom, however they take it, my affection
will bee still the same, thougJi my opinions in many things are
not, nor for many years have not bin, the same with theirs : only
I jud^d it uselesse and impertinent to tell them so : and now
I have truely a design of greater charity upon them than
ever ; 'tis to use all the litle skill and strength I have to recall
their zeal from all the little questions about rites and
discipline to the great things of religion, and of their souls,
which in these debats are litle or nothing concern'd. And
truely if others engag'd in the same employment use as litle
dominion and violence towards their brethren as I trust I
shall doe, the difference will not be so considerable as it is
imagin'd. And my purpose is, God willing, to indeavour and
persuade all I can that they may bee in that of the same

336 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
mind and practice with mee. How things may succeed I
know not, nor doe I flatter myself with /topes of great satisfac
tion in any modell of human things under the sun : yet He is
wise that rules them all, and to will nothing but His will in all
is to mee all religion. I now perceive I have broke the
promise of the first line of my letter, but I know your Lord
ship will pardon it to the pleasure men naturally have to open
themselves most to those they confide can best understand
them. The young man your Lordship is pleas'd to recommend
to mee, hath by that and many other respects very much
right to whatsever may bee usefull to him within my power,
but for employments I doe not see how there likely can be
any worthy of him within my dispose. I beleeve for myself
I shall live as monastically as ever I did, and for aught I
understand, the smallnesse of my provision will make it
rather a necessity than a virtue ; but if at my return I can
procure any place fit for him with any person of quality that
I am acquainted with, and find him not better provided, I
shall rather doe myself a pleasure in it then him, and would
account it no part at all of that I so much long for, that in
anything worthy of your notice and acceptance by which I
might testify myself to bee, what indeed I am, my Lord, your
Lordship's most obliged and humble servant,
"R. Leighton.
" London, December 23, 1661.
" May I give your Lordship the trouble of presenting my
humble service to my Lady, and my Lord Ker and his Lady,
if they bee with yow?
" For the right honorable the Earle of Lothian."
(Correspondence of the Earls of Ancram and Lothian, pp. 455 to 457.)
This letter is sufficient to establish Leighton's sincerity
and unworldliness, if such a defence were now necessary.
There is about it the heavenly-mindedness that characterizes
his wrirings, and to read it is to be in contact with a soul that

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 337
was as a star and dwelt apart Along with the second letter,
written about the same period, it dispels the unworthy
estimate of this saint by Kirkton :
" Leighton was made Bishop of Dunblane : thus he choose to
demonstrate to the world avarice was not his principle — it being
the smaUest revenue — a man of good learning, excellent utterance
and very grave, abstract conversation ; but almost altogether
destitute of doctrinal principle, being almost altogether indifferent
among all the professions that are called by the name of Christian " !
Let us place against this outside judgment the breathings
of Leighton's own heart, as they were expressed to another
friend :
Letter of Bishop Leighton to the Rev. James Aird.
" My Dear Friend,
" I have received from you the kindest letter that ever you
writ me : and that you may know I take it so, I return you the
free and friendly advice, never to judge any man before you
hear him, nor any business by one side of it. Were you
here to see the other, I am confident your thoughts and mine
would be the same. You have both too much knowledge
of me, and too much charity, to think that either such little
contemptible scraps of honour or riches sougJtt in that part of
the world with so much reproach, or any human complacency
in the world, will be admitted to decide so grave a question,
or that I would sell (to speak no higher) the very sensual
pleasure of my retirement for a rattle, far less deliberately do
anything that f judge offends God. For the offence of good
people in cases indifferent in themselves, but not accounted
so by them, whatsoever you do or do not, you shall offend
some good people on the one side or other : and for
those with you, the great fallacy in this business is, that
they have misreckoned themselves in taking my silence and
their zeals to have been consent and participation ; which,
how great a mistake it is, few know better or so well as
A.L. 22

338 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
yourself And the truth is, I did see approaching an
inevitable necessity to strain with them in divers practices,
in what station so ever remaining in Britain : and ^ to have
escaped further off (which hath been in my thoughts) would
have been the greatest scandal of all. And what will you
say if there be in this tiling something of tJiat you mention,
and would allow of reconciling the devout on different sides,
and of enlarging those good souls you meet with from their
little fetters, thougJi possibly with little success ? Yet the
design is commendable, pardonable at least. However,
one comfort I have, that in what is pressed on me there
is the least of my own choice, yea, on the contrary, the
strongest aversion that ever I had to anything in all my
life : the difficulty, in short, lies in a necessity of either
owning a scruple which I have not, or the rudest disobedience
to authority that may be. The truth is, I am yet importuning
and struggling for a liberation, and look forward for it:
but whatever be the issue, I look beyond it, and this weary,
weary, wretched life, through whicli the hand T have resigned
to I trust will lead me in tfie path of His own choosing : and
so I may please Him I am satisfied. I hope, if ever we meet,
you shall find me in the love of solitude and a devout life.
" Your unalter'd Brother and Friend,
" R. L.
" When I set pen to paper, I intended not to exceed half
a dozen lines, but slid on insensibly thus far : but though
I should fill the paper on all sides, still the right view of
this business would be necessarily suspended till meeting.
Meanwhile hope well of me, and pray for me. This word
I will add, that as there has been nothing of my choice in the
thing, so I undergo it, if it must be, as a mortification, and
that greater than a cell and haircloth : and whether any will
believe this or no I am not careful!'
' May this mean a contemplated retirement to the Port-Royal at one
time ? (see p. 105).

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 339
Leighton's action may have been inexpedient, and he
certainly had to pay the price of being much misunderstood,
but that it was sincere and single-minded is beyond doubt,
as the above letters show. Religion (as he felt it) was
behind it ; and if his action was a mistake, it was at least
a generous one. Leighton certainly did not achieve what
Knox did, but beneath great outward differences, there is
this in common — both acted from the highest motives, and
the main source of the outward career was an inner life,
secret, deep, rich and sympathetic. If these two letters
illuminate much that would have remained otherwise obscure
in Leighton's life, no less do Knox's own words to his wife
on the last day of his life (November 24, 1572), " Go, read
where I cast my first anchor." '^ Both of them, whatever
may be said to the contrary of several of their associates,
acted from the fear of God as the motive power of their lives.
Knox achieved much because his statesmanship was on the line
of the national aspiration. Leighton achieved little because
he had associated himself with a distrusted class, but the
motives were in both cases the most honourable and pure.
Each was true to the heavenly vision as it appeared to him,
and religion was the motive power in the action of both.
The late Bishop Wordsworth blamed Leighton for
pusillanimity in retiring from a position where his presence
was much needed.^ On the contrary, it may be pointed out
that nothing but magnanimous courage and brave adherence
to a purpose could have kept him in a position for thirteen
years, which from the first he regarded as a " mortification,
greater than a cell and a hair-cloth," and the struggling for
which seemed to him afterwards " like a fighting against God."
Upon the consecration of the four Bishops at Westminster,
the Presbyteries of Scotland, that were still sitting, now began
to declare openly against Episcopacy, and to prepare pro-
' 17th chap, of St. John's Gospel.
2 Episcopate of Charles Wordsworth, p. i6o.

340 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
testations or other acts and instruments against it At
the instigation of Sharp on January 9, 1662, a royal proclama
tion was read, declaring that Kirk judicatories, having now
no power nor authority, were forbidden to meet in Synods,
Presbyteries or Sessions, until they should be authorized and
ordered by the Bishops.^ The King commanded the Bishops
to be received with all tokens of respect and honour and
forbade all to speak, preach, write or print anything against
them. But nowithstanding all this there was much denuncia
tion, with not a few satires ^ and where a general obedience was
given to it, the ministers met, and entered in their records a
protestation against the proclamation, as an invasion of the
' Blair's Life, p. 403 ; Burnet's History, i. p. 250.
Maidment's ^ *-*^ these satires referred to by Row (Blair's Life,
Analecta p. 403) I have found two preserved in Maidment's
Scotta. Analecta Scotica. The first is entitled —
"An Acrostick upon a worthy gentleman, Mr. Robert Lightone,
Falsly, but by extract Lightbodie, now Bishop of Dunblane."
R are are thy gifts — rarer thy works
Which thee so much decore :
O rarity of rarities.
Who would not thee adore ?
B ecause of singularity,
Though nought else thee commend,
E v'n this to all posterity
Shall much thy name extend,
R eporting thy compliancie
With each prevailing partie :
T hat whatsoever change fell out
Thou wast to it most heartie.
L ight heart, light head, light feet, light facts.
Thy true name is Lightbody :
I s this a pretty game to play
So oft the Pahnody?
G rave and retired thou seem'd to be,
Pomp worldly to defy,
H atch'd a religion thou has first
Does with all sorts comply.
T ush all divines of every sect,
Why are you all so busie ?

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 341
liberties of the Church, and to which they declared they gave
obedience only for a time and for peace sake. The language
of royalists, on the other hand, according to Row, was that
they acknowledged no law in Scotland since 1633, and so,
though the King had promised to preserve the government
as settled by law, yet he might set up Bishops, as there was
O ne for you all the way to heav'n
Makes plain to ev'ry husie.
N ow farewell, all strait lac'd conceits,
Lightbody beares the bell,
E nter sects, Popes, all hereticks.
There's roome within his cell.
{First Series, p. 84.)
In the Poems on Archbishop Sharpe, in which the Archbishop and
the Restoration Bishops are severely referred to, Leighton is thus
animadverted on :
" The Whig's great curse to Hamilton,
2nd Part, To Scougal wings to flee,
verses i8, 19, To empty Paterson, the wind,
23> 20, 30. -j-Q Honeyman, the sea.
19. To Hogy Wild, the mountain's bear.
To Wallace, venison.
To Leighton and Forbess, I leave
Ther father's beneson.
*****
23. Yett some of yow were counted wise,
And skilfuU in the arts,
But since Prelats, thers onlie one (Leighton)
Seems to have witt or parts.
*****
26. To Church I leave a legend large.
Of things indifferent.
Which Master Lighton long since wrott
But nev'r before in print.
* * * *
30. A map of sensuality.
By all but Lighton fram'd,
But of cheap set the virtues rare,
Strahon can best commend."
*****
{Analecta Scotica), 2nd series, pp. 95, 96.

342 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
now no law for abolishing them.^ And yet Charies II was
a covenanted monarch !
The Bishops left London in April, 1662, travelling together
in the primate's coach, said to have been newly purchased
for the occasion. Leighton was already weary of them, and
they of him : and learning that they were to be received at
Edinburgh with pomp, and that the magistrates of that
city had commanded many of the townspeople to go out
and meet them, he left them at Morpeth and came to
Edinburgh before them, quietly and privately. The whole
display and feasting at Holyrood were distasteful to one
whose thoughts were fixed " on some of Jansenius' followers,
who seemed to be men of extraordinary tempers, and studied
to bring things, if possible, to the purity and simplicity of
the primitive ages, on which all his mind's thoughts were
fixed!' He certainly offered a strange contrast to Sharp,
who on taking possession of his ancient see on April 16,
rode from Leslie to St Andrews with an earl on each side
of him, and a train of seven or eight hundred mounted
gentlemen. On the first Sunday after the bishops came to
Edinburgh, Mr. Murdoch Mackenzie (minister of Elgin and
afterwards Bishop of Moray) and Leighton preached in the
Tron Kirk.^ Nine other bishops were before long consecrated,
but Leighton was not present either on May 7 or at the
beginning of June, or at the end of June, and so took no
part in such services.^ Row states that he went to Dunblane
and convened several ministers, and proposed some demands
to them, all of which they refused.*
The problem now presented itself — what was to be done
with the clergy of the disestablished Church ? And to it
there were three answers — the first was Leighton's, the
' Blair's Life, p. 381.
^ The Tron was the only Church in Edinburgh that became Episcopal
— the minister being known as the " nest-egg." Leighton and Henry
Scougal were frequent preachers within it (cf Row and Burnet).
' Blair's Life, pp. 407, 411, 415. * Ibid. p. 407.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 343
second Sharp's, and the third was Middleton's. Leighton's
method was the one he himself adopted in the Diocese of
Dunblane, and not without success : it was one, too, that he
believed would have succeeded over Scotland if it had been
patiently and lovingly tried. It was this : — Displace no one ;
enforce no subscription nor oath that will offend any tender
conscience : let the bishops renounce all pomp and pride of
office ; let them confine themselves to spiritual duties, and
live after the simplicity of early days : let them be guided by
the clergy in their deliberations, and by the wish of the
heritors and the people in their presentations : let them
endeavour to make public worship more beautiful, preaching
less controversial, piety more diffuse : 1 let them advance
those things that unite and avoid those that separate or
create divisions. Leighton's ideal was one to which he was
himself loyal, but it was one that emanated from his own
seraphic spirit, and that found no response either from his
colleagues or from the representatives of the Government.
The second answer, involving a different method, was Sharp's,
and it was the expression of the worldly wise man. It was —
Pursue a cautious, temporizing step-by-step procedure, which
will gradually get rid of those opposed to the new system
and supply their places with the compliant. But while
Leighton was dreaming of a peaceful, comprehensive Church,
governed by men, who reflected the spirit of the Good
Shepherd ; while the worldly Sharp was evolving a
temporizing policy, it was Middleton's answer to the problem
that was acted on by the Parliament. It was — Assert the royal
supremacy in ecclesiastical causes : enforce the rejection of
the Covenants : compel the oath of allegiance : make it
clear to the Presbyterian clergy that non-acquiescence is to
be met with force, and that opposition is to be crushed
with arms. The policy of the Parliament of 1662 was the
outcome of this delusion, and Scotland witnessed for the
' Cf. Synod Addresses, pp. 366-394.

344 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
next twenty-seven years a tyranny over men's persons and
consciences, that is alien to the Chrisrian religion, and
could never be the pillar of the Chrisrian Church.
Then came the period of resistance, which Scodand justly
regards with pride, and looks back towards as being for her
tlte heroic age. Dean Stanley has wisely said : " The tombs
of the Covenanters are to the Scottish Church what the
Catacombs are to the early Christian Church." ' That the
Covenanters resisted is their glory : if they need a
vindication, it is to be found in the Acts of the Scottish
Parliament : that they ulrimately prevailed, is the best proof
that political intrigue in the name of religion, and an
Erastian Church that lent itself as a pliant tool, are their
own doom. Leighton was the one pre-eminently Christian
minded leader on the side of the Government,^ and he
found him.self ill at ease in that strange position to which he
had been led by his own meditation, by the transparent guile-
essness of his nature, by his being a Christian idealist and a
political Nathaniel.
Let us recall the general policy, and its terrible conse
quences, before following the tracks of this peace-loving saint
at Dunblane ^ surrounded as they still are with a fragrance,
which the centuries only make more attractive.

' The Church of Scotland, p. 80.
^ Bishop Mitchell, of Aberdeen, and Bishop Wishart, of Edinburgh,
brought also to their sacred office the qualifications that might have
made Episcopacy acceptable. Of the others. Dr. Grub states that
they were men " of respectable character, but not one among them
was remarkable for learning or piety." After the prisoners were taken
a* Rullion Green they were mercilessly used by the Government, but
none showed themselves more humane than Dr. Wishart, Bishop of
Edinburgh. Although he had been barbarously persecuted by the
Covenanters when in power, he not only urged that the prisoners
should be forgiven, but daily supplied them with food.
^ The following verses by the late Mrs. Grant, of Laggan, may be
here inserted : they are published in Jerment's Edition of Leighton's
Works (vol. i. pp. xhii.-xliv.).

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 345
At the session of Parliament in April 1662, the first thing
that was proposed by Middleton, was that since by the Act
Recissory, which had annulled all the parliaments held since
1633, the former laws in favour of Episcopacy were now in
force, the King had restored that function which had been so
long glorious in the Church, and for which his blessed father
had suffered so much ; and though the Bishops had a right to
come and take their place in Parliament, yet it was a just
piece of respect to send some of every state to invite them to
come and sit among them ! This was agreed to ; ' so upon
the message that was sent, the Bishops came and took their
places. On May 8, 1662, nine Bishops were added to the
"ON DUNBLANE AND LEIGHTON.
" When simple piety is seen,
To flourish with unfading grace.
Since Leighton taught and blest the place.
Dear, lov'd, rever'd and honour'd name!
Whose sound awakes devotion's flame ;
When musing in the lofty aisle
Of yon Cathedral's mould'ring pile ;
By thy bless'd memory inspir'd.
What sacred joy my bosom fir'd ;
With mild, complacent spirit, meek,
And placid brow, in act to speak ;
Methought I saw his form appear,
While crowds in silent awe revere.
The Evangehc Shepherd kind,
Who feeds the hungry, leads the blind.
And gently draws the sheep that stray.
To his lov'd Master's living way.
In meditation wrapt profound,
Or pouring balm in misery's wound ;
I see his humble mitre bright
With purest beams of heavenly light ;
Bold fancy check thy downy wing,
Nor strive 'midst trivial themes to sing.
Of him who far beyond our praise
With Seraphs joins immortal lays !
Sweet warbling through the courts above
The raptures of celestial love.''
' Burnet, i. p. 253.

346 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
Lords of the Articles by the King,' but Burnet significantly
adds, " Leighton came not with them, as indeed he never
came to Parliament but when there was something before
tliem that related to religion or to the Church!'
Episcopacy was formally restored on May 27, 1662 ; and
now that the Episcopal bench was filled, legislation went
forward with speed. An Act was passed by the pliant
Parliament requiring from every man in public office or place
of trust, an abjuration of the Covenant, and a declaration of
its unlawfulness. As patronage had practically been in
abeyance since 1638, and had been by law abolished since
1649, another Act declared, that all ministers, who had since
1639 been appointed to parishes, " without presentation from
the lawful patrons," must either now quit their charges, or accept
presentation from the patron and collation from the Bishop.
All who refused to do this were to leave their manses before
November i, 1662, and were forbidden thereafter to re
side within twenty miles of their own parishes ; six miles of
Edinburgh, or any cathedral town ; or three miles of any royal
burgh. The clergy at first took no notice of this Act, but
the Privy Council decided to enforce compliance. Soon
after ^ the demand to " own and submit " to Episcopacy as
established by law, some of the preachers in the West were
summoned to answer before the Parliament for reflections
made in their sermons against Episcopacy. Nothing could be
made of their words, for they were general and capable of
different senses ; so it was resolved, for a proof of their
loyalty, to tender them the oath of allegiance and supremacy,
but the nine ministers said they were willing to take it,
provided they were permitted to give their sense of it. They
gave in under their hands, to the Lords of the Articles, an
orthodox sense, which Archbishop Usher had put on it in
James' time, but the Lords would not permit them to give
' Acts of the Scottish Parliament, vii. 371.
'^ Row says in the end of May.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 347
any sense of it, nor would they receive any paper from them,
urging them to take the oath in terminis, as tendered to
them. The ministers then urged the Lords to give their sense
of it, which they likewise refused to do.
In connection with this, Leighton for the first time,
appeared in Parliament, and he spoke in favour of the minis
ters. Row gives an account of his speech : " These men have
been misrepresented to be of unsound principles : but now, I
find them, upon a sound principle, acknowledging the King's
lawful supremacy, and ought to be cherished and embraced, for
they acknowledge his Majesty to be supreme civil governor,
etc., and in this sense the King himself acknowledges the oath,
for he must either be supreme civil or ecclesiastic governor ; but
this last he is not : ergo, only civil he must be." While Leigh
ton was thus debating, the Commissioner alleged that he had
no right to speak in that judicature, since he had not taken
the oath himself He replied he had taken it, though not as
a member of Parliament, for he minded not to come to
Parliament, but when they were about Church affairs :
" Neither had I " (said he) " been here to-day, were it not that
I understood you were to be about Church affairs, and that
which concerns ministers. But, however, I am ready to take
the oath, but in that orthodox sense given by these honest
ministers." Prelate Sharp alleged that he had been too bold
and rash, to speak and debate in that question " before he had
asked liberty." 1
Regarding Sharp's displeasure, Burnet supplies additional
details. " Sharp took this ill from him, and replied upon him with great
bitterness : he said it was below the dignity of government to make
acts to satisfy the weak scruples of peevish men : it ill became them,
who had imposed their covenant on all people without any explana
tion, and had forced aU to take it, now to expect such extraordinary
favour. Leighton insisted that it might be done for that very reason,
' Blair's Life, p. 409.

348 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
that all people might see a difference between the mild proceedings
of the government now, and their severity ; and said it ill became
the very same persons that had complained of that rigour now to
practise it themselves : for then it may be said, the worid will go mad
by turns. This was ill taken by the Eari of Middleton and aU his
party : for they designed to keep the matter so, that the Presbyterians
should be possessed with many scruples on this head, and that when
any of the party should be brought before them that they believed in
fault, but had not full proof against him, the oath should be tendered
as the trial of his allegiance, and that for refusing it they should cen
sure him as they thought fit" ^
The ministers refused to take the oath as it stood in the
law, and six of them were commanded to be kept close
prisoners in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh.
Leighton's first endeavour for conciliation signally failed,
but his failure shows how wide was the breach between him
and his unfortunate coadjutors. Nor did he try to hide the
difference from the people. He preached in Edinburgh
(June i), the Sunday after the imprisonment of the ministers,
and offended all the Bishops by speaking against their ways
and by desiring them to consider the words of St. Peter :
" Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the
oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly : not for
filthy lucre, but of a ready mind : neither as being lords
over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock."
St. Bartholomew's day in England was soon to have its
counterpart in Scotland, and in both countries permanent
marks were left behind. The clergy at first took no notice
of the Act affecting collation, but the action of the Com
missioner and the Secret Council at Glasgow (October i
1662) showed that it was to be strictly enforced. ^ Then
followed the day of heroic covenanting resistance, and the
meetings of Synods in October showed generally the spirit
of the country. In the north they were well attended by the
' History of His Own Times, vol. i. pp. 256, 257.
^ Ibid., p. 269.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 349
ministers, but' in the southern and western districts it was
different. At Glasgow, there were only thirty-two present
of above two hundred and forty ministers, while in the
Synods of Argyll and Galloway, there were none present
but the two Deans. The conformists appealed to the non
conformists to comply, citing the example of the Presby
terian ministers from 16 10 to 1638, when the strange com
bination of two opposite systems also existed in the Scottish
Church. Row's statement well expresses the grounds of
resistance, and represents the Presbyterian attitude : —
" Our case and theirs in former times differed very wide : First
the King then did not set up bishops by virtue of his supremacy, but
brought them in by kirk judicatories, though corrupted. Secondly,
the King then did not discharge all kirk judicatories until they were
anew authorized by the Prelates, and so put other courts in their
place, but the judicatories containing the Prelates intruded upon
them, and usurped over them, therefore these honest unconform men
resolved to hold what they could of these judicatories, and to keep
their possession, still protesting against the intrusion and usurpation
of bishops, and all innovations and corruptions, etc., the judicatories
never being by the King or his Council discharged, or unconform
ministers really disinabled to come to them, and to retain what they
could of them. Thirdly, the King then did steal in the bishops, and
made them intrude upon the standing judicatories gradatim, mak
ing them first commissioners to the Parliament to see ne quid
detrimenti ecclesia capiat : then constant moderators : then bishops :
then giving them high places in the estate, to be counsellors, extra
ordinary Lords of the Session : then giving them a High Commission,
etc. Fourthly, Unconform ministers that were then deposed by the
bishops (for none were deposed by the Parliament or Secret Council)
were never hindered to preach publicly, wherever they got a call.
And lastly, the bishops then were more moderate (especially Spottis-
wood), deposing but a few, and unconform ministers that were not
deposed were gently dealt with. But now the King, by open pro
clamation, January 9, having discharged all kirk judicatories, and the
bishops being set up by his supremacy, and that per saltum, to the
very height, at first authorizing other judicatories in their place, of
another nature, that were destructive of Presbyterial government,

350 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
which all were sworn to maintain, honest ministers thought they
could not countenance nor keep these meetings : so many honest
ministers being already outed by the Parliament and Secret Council,
and discharged public or private teaching. So in the end it was con
cluded that they should not countenance these meetings." '
The Presbyterians were not contented to submit to an
absolute monarchy, interfering in the region of the spirit
where it has no right to be ; neither were they to accept an
Erastian Church ; and no less than three hundred and fifty
ministers suffered themselves to be driven from their churches,
rather than " own and submit'' During the close of 1662,
over large districts throughout all the Lowlands of Scotland,
the parish churches were shut, the sacraments were not
administered, and the sound of the bell was not heard on the
Lord's Day, Edinburgh was left alone with a single minister,
and the outed ministers represented the moral worth and
spiritual power of the Church. Burnet states " that they
were very popular men, both esteemed and beloved of their
people ; they were related to the chief families in the
country, either by blood or marriage : and had lived in so
decent a manner that the gentry paid great respect to
them. ... It can hardly be imagined to what a degree they
were loved and reverenced by their people." ^ Their places
had to be filled, and this could only be done with men, who
were in all respects inferior to those they had supplanted,
and who, (according to Burnet, " entirely episcopal" as he was,)
were worthless persons, with little learning, less piety, and no
sort of discretion " ^ . . . Middleton " stuck at nothing," and
with his Court of High Commission, Acts of Parliament, and
latterly military law and military force, sought to attain by
compulsion from a high-spirited people what would not come
by spontaneous response. The Parliament of 1663 decreed as
follows : ' Blair's Life, pp. 429, 430.
' History of His Own Times, vol. i. pp. 269-273. ' Ibid. pp. 270, 271-

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 351
" Hereby it is ordained, that such as ordinarily absent themselves
from their parish kirks on the Lord's Day incur these penalties ; each
nobleman, gentleman, and heritor, the loss of a fourth of each year's
rent ; and each yeoman or tenant the loss of such a part of their
movables as the Lords of Council shall modify, not exceeding a
fourth : and every burgess his liberty, and the fourth of his movables ;
and the Council is to execute this Act against aU who, after admoni
tion of the minister before two sufficient witnesses, and by him so
attested, shall be given up to them, with power to them to inflict
further corporal pains, as they shall judge necessary, and to do every
other thing for procuring obedience to this Act, and for the executing
thereof" The Act said nothing about women, but the Privy Council
supplemented it by resolving, that husbands were to be held
responsible for the church attendance of their wives, and that
no recusant minister should reside within twenty miles of his
own parish, six miles of Edinburgh, or any cathedral town, or
three miles of any royal burgh, on pain of being treated as a
seditious person. With such appendices the Act was known
as the " Bishops' drag-net."
The fact, that nearly 600 ordained ministers actually
conformed to Episcopacy, conclusively shows, that the yoke
imposed by the rulers of the Covenanting Church during the
time of supremacy had been uneasily borne.' It indicates,
that had the Bishops been after Leighton's mind, and had
they been guided by his conciliatory attitude in Church and
State, Episcopacy on tJie basis of Usher's reduction might
have been carried ; but it also pointed to the necessity of fur
ther concessions in questions of worship and discipline. And
these were actually allowed, or at least granted, by the necessi
ties of the case. The Episcopalian Church of the Restoration
differed little from the Presbyterian in its communion service,
public worship, and even discipline.^
' Dr. Story's Church of Scotland, iv. 241.
' See this excellently proved by the Rev. Robert Stevenson, of Dun
fermline, in The Communion and some other Matters in Dunfermline
in the ijth Century.

352 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
The Church was Episcopal in government, but no more.
Had not the bishops as a whole rendered themselves the
instruments of kingly tyranny, their existence would hardly
have been obvious to their fellow-countrymen. Except that
they held certain dignities ; exercised some spiritual authority
over certain districts called "dioceses," named presbyteries
" precincts," and had seats in the Scottish Parliament ; they
were " Bisiiops " more in name than reality.
The Scriptures and the Apostles' Creed were practically the
only rule of faith.' There was no liturgy used in public
worship, except in one or two places — the Chapel Royal at
Holyrood, and the parish church of Salton, where Gilbert
Burnet was minister. We have from Leighton himself this
testimony, " There is in this Church no change at all (from
that before the Restoration) neither in the doctrine, nor
worship, no, nor in the substance of the discipline itself"^
The doctrine was Calvinistic as before : the worship was
conducted without liturgy, surplice, or ceremony : the
worshippers sat during prayer and at the Lord's Supper,
which Sacrament was rarely celebrated.® There was no
three-fold ministry : Confirmation was unknown, and, as
Mr. West admits, ordination seems very much to have been
ad libitum.^ Synods, Presbyteries, Kirk-Sessions, and Elders
continued as before.
" The bishops did not demand subscription to the old and first
Confession of the Reformers, but connived at the Westminster Con
fession and Catechism : they enjoined no holidays, and observed
but few. In every parish the minister chose several of the most
noted inhabitants to assist him in parochial discipline, which in
effect were as ruling Elders. So indulgent was the Government,
that in many parishes Presbyterian ministers, if they would but
pray for the King (which divers of them would not do), were
allowed to officiate in the churches, and receive the whole profits
' See Stephen's History of the Scottish Church, vol. ii. p. 350. Cf p.
431 (in text).
" Let i. p. 409, also p. 428. ^ West's Leighton, vii. p. 177.
" Ibid; cf Appendix at end of this volume with Extracts from
Records of Dunblane Presbytery.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 353
without being any ways accountable to the Bishop, or ecclesiastic
establishment, on any score whatsoever."'
Sir George Mackenzie wrote, " We had no ceremonies,
surplice, altar, cross in baptism, nor the meanest of those
things which would be allowed in England by the Dissenters
in way of accommodation." Speaking of the church where
he worshipped, he adds, " The way of worshipping in our
church differed nothing from what the Presbyterians them
selves practised, excepting only that we used the doxology,
the Lord's Prayer, and, in baptism, the Creed." ^
The moderator of presbytery was chosen by the Bishop,
and candidates for orders were, after examination by the
presbytery, returned to the Bishop for ordination, and
inducted by the presbytery to the charge ; but, as West
admits, even this was not strictly enforced, and the presbytery
ordained as before by the laying on of hands, the Bishop
taking part as one of the brethren.^ The Bishop presided
at the Synod, but the Episcopal " General Assembly " differed
from the Presbyterian General Assembly in so far as the
former was a supreme court, composed of Bishops, Deans,
two members from each presbytery (one of them to be the
nominee of the Bishop) and one member from each university.
The calling of the Assembly rested wholly with the Crown,
and nothing was to be proposed in it but by the King or
his commissioner, nor was anything done by it to be of force
rill ratified by the sovereign.* The limitation of the
Assembly was the obnoxious point to the Presbyterians,
implying an Erastianism in the Church, and pointing, as
subsequent events showed, to the monstrous Assertory Act
' The Present State oj Scotlana, by Matthias Symson, Canon of
Lincoln, pp. 241-2.
^ Vindication of Charles IPs Government : Works, ii. 243.
^ See Dr. Blair in British and Foreign Evangelical Review, (1869),
PP- 349) 350 ; also Appendix to this volume, giving account of
Ordination Service.
* Moodie's Present State oJ Scotland (1682) ; Story's Carstairs, p. 178.
A.L. 23

354 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
of 1669, which gave the King a more than papal power in
matters ecclesiastical. It was this that led McWard to
say, " The supremacy, as at present established, hath clearly
everted and swallowed up all true ecclesiastical government
The Episcopacy now among us is not so much as Christ's,
but merely his Majesty's usurpation over the house of
God." 1
On the other hand, had the King been a constitutional
monarch ; had the establishment of Episcopacy been attained
in a constitutional form (on Usher's basis) through the
General Assembly of the Church ; had force and dishonour
been absent ; had the spirit of Leighton prevailed in the
Scottish Parliament and the other bishops been of his type ;
had Leighton been Archbishop instead of Sharp, and had he
succeeded in banishing Erastianism from the Church — there
is no reason in the nature of things, as one recalls the great
following the Resolution clergy had in the country, and the
obloquy that the Protester clergy had brought upon Pres
byterianism during the time of the Commonwealth and Pro
tectorate, why Leighton's scheme of accommodation should
not have triumphed, and the Church of Scotland embodied
a polity that was truly Presbyterian with a limited Episcopacy
connected with it. Had this been so, how different would
have been the subsequent stream of Scottish history, and how
many later strifes and discussions would have been avoided.
Having stated the general scheme, we have now specially
to deal with Leighton as he sought to interpret it.
By a commission from the King under the Great
Seal he was designated Bishop of Dunblane and Dean
of the Chapel Royal.^ Burnet states (and the statement
is one to be expected) that Leighton chose Dunblane
because it was a small diocese, and had a little
' Case, pp. 13, 42.
2 Nicoll's Diary, p. 354 ; Register Book of Archbishop Juxon,
fol. 237.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE

355

revenue.' He accepted the Deanery of the Chapel Royal,
Holyrood, that he might set up the common prayer in
the King's chapel, for the rebuilding of which orders were
given. The restored nave of Holyrood was converted into
a chapel royal,^ and a throne was erected for the sovereign
and twelve stalls for the Knights of the Thistle, while the floor
was tessellated with variously coloured marble. This seems,
however, to have been done, not immediately after Leighton's
appointment, and how often he read common prayer in

' From a table as accounted for by the Receiver-General of Bishops'
rents in the Scottish Exchequer, the following figures {in tnoney sterling)
represent the Scottish Bishops' incomes at the Restoration. The sums
include the revenues in money Scots and what was paid to the Arch
bishops and Bishops \n produce.
Archbishop of St. Andrews ...
Bishop of Edinburgh
„ Moray
„ „ Brechin
„ „ Aberdeen...
„ „ Dunkeld
„ „ Dunblane...
„ „ Caithness..
,, „ Ross
„ „ Orkney
Archbishop of Glasgow
Bishop of Galloway ...
„ „ Argyll and Isles...
(Lawson's Episcopal Church in Scotland, p. 26.)
The above small income of Dunblane was increased from other
sources. \r, 1617 the benefice of Crossraquel Abbey (already annexed
to the Cravn in 1587) was annexed to the bishopric of Dunblane in
order to«ovide a suitable support for the Bishop, and on the overthrow
of Episcopacy in 1689 the revenues reverted to the Crown {Ecclesiastical
Architecture of Scotland, ii. 405). The Bishop of Dunblane was also
styled " Parson of Monimusk," for the priory of Monymusk was also
attached *to the bishopric of Dunblaneshire in 1617 (Walcott's Scoti-
Monasticcit, p. 322). Probably in toto the income would be about ;£2oo

£ s.

d

1,544 6

I

93 6

10

198 8

I

76 6

II

288 10

II

152 8

8

43 19

1

547 4

10

452 0

7

1,366 2

8

1,294 S

7

228 12

0

140 0

0

per year. .
^ Liber Cartarum Sancte Crucis, p.

Ixxvii.

356 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
Holyrood is unknown. Still, when there, the Abbey would
appeal to him most potently :
" Those ancient ruines :
We never tread upon them, but we set our foot
Upon some reverend historie."
Holyrood and the bishopric of Dunblane were founded
by the same Scottish monarch, David I — the former in 1128,
the latter about 11 50. Holyrood was a religious house for
the canons regular of the Order of St Augustine, and was
dedicated in honour of the holy cross or rood brought to
Scotland by Margaret, the King's mother. This cross, called
the Black Rood of Scotland, fell into the hands of the
English at the Battle of Neville's Cross in 1 346. The abbey
was several times burned by the English, and the nave, on
the last of these occasions (1547), was repaired with the ruins
of the choir and transepts. This was used as the parish
church of the Canongate till the time, in the reign of
Charles II, when it was restored as the Chapel Royal.
The abbey was the occasional abode of the Kings of Scotland,
and James II was born, crowned, married, and buried within
it. The foundations of a palace apart from the abbey were
laid in the time of James IV, and it was thenceforth the
chief seat of the Scottish sovereign. In it the nuptials of
James IV were celebrated. Here also Mary Queen of Scots
took up her abode in 1561 on her return from France, and
here James VI dwelt much before his accession to the
throne of England in 1603.
But as lovely in situation and not less potent in
historic influences, as well as in the voices of stt. n? and
glade, of mountain and sky, was Leighton's hc^^e and
Cathedral at Dunblane.
"A gray old minster on the height
Towers o'er the trees and in the light ;
A gray old town along the ridge
Slopes, winding downward to the bridge —

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 357
A quaint, old, gabled place.
With Church stamped on its face.
The quiet close, secluded, dim.
The lettered scroll, the pillar slim,
The armorial bearings on the wall,
The very air you breathe, are all
Full of Church memories.
And the old sanctities.
And beautiful the gray old place
With characters of antique grace,
That tell the tale of pious work
Beneath the spire and round the kirk
And growth of Law and Right
Where Christ had come with light.

A quaint old place— a minster gray.
And gray old town that winds away,
Through gardens, down the sloping ridge
To river's brim and ancient bridge.
Where the still waters flow
To the deep pool below."
The Bishop's Walk is still associated with Leighton's name,
and leads southward from the Cathedral, not far from the
river, and is overshadowed by fine beech trees. It is
thus finely referred to by Dr. Walter Smith, the venerable
poet, who still lives not far from it :
"Where looks the western window far
Unto the liquid evening star.
And can Benledi dimly view,
And the gray mists on Benvenue,
And long brown uplands, felt
In distant air to melt ;
There where the green ash interweaves
Irregular branch and slender leaves,
For umbrage soft — -a pale green shade
With broken sunlights in the glade,
¦'' There lies a pleasant way
In gloaming all the day.

358 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
And far below the waters clear
Murmur their presence on the ear,
Scarce seen for dipping boughs that seek
The light, or only when a streak
Of sunshine cometh home
Upon the crisp white foam.
A pleasant walk, when singing bird
Upon the bending twig is heard.
And rustling leaf that bids you hush !
And hear the slow still waters gush
Far down below unseen,
Beneath the branches green.

How swell the Ochils green : and there
The Cromlex melts in distant air :
Benledi and Benlomond far
Front the rude crags of U-am-var ;
And by the shady way
Still towers the minster gray."'
Such were the surroundings of Leighton's home at Dunblane,
but the great church had also a great past, and is one of the
sacred places of Scotland. It was an old Celtic foundation,
and the first place of worship dates back to the seventh
century, and seems to have been an offshoot of the Church of
Kingarth in Bute, the founder of which was St Blane, whose
name is still perpetuated in that of the Cathedral Town.
The church of Dunblane had a chequered history, for the
ancient town was burned (844-860) by the Britons of Strath-
clyde, and in 912 was again destroyed by Danish pirates.
Bishop Keith thinks there was a college of Culdees at
Dunblane, but we do not hear anything about it in history,
and the important college was at Muthill, where the Dean of
Dunblane afterwards had his seat About 11 50 David I
established the bishopric of Dunblane, and from that date
its history begins as a Cathedral town. The square tower
of Dunblane (at least the four lower storeys of it) dates back
• The Bishop's Walk.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 359
to the twelfth century, and reveals characteristics of Norman
work, while it may have been associated with an earlier
church. The see seems to have fallen into a forlorn condition, for
when the learned Dominican Clement was bishop (1233-1258)
he made a pilgrimage to Rome, and represented to the Pope
among other things that " its rents were barely sufficient to
maintain him for six months : there was no place wherein he
could lay his head : there was no collegiate establishment,
and that in this unroofed church the divine offices were
celebrated by a certain rural chaplain."
Evidently the fourth part of the tithes of all the parishes
within the diocese was given for the building of the Cathedral,
and Clement left it " a stately structure." The greater por
tion of the beautiful building is of First Pointed Date, and
represents work of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,'
and above the western window is a lovely vesica, praised
much by Ruskin, and invariably admired as an architec
tural gem. The Cathedral has a lovely situation, and in its
neighbourhood were the Abbeys of Inchaffray and Cambus-
kenneth, and the Priory of Inchmahome, now in ruins.
About the Reformation period the Cathedral of Dunblane
suffered much, and the choir afterwards served as the parish
church. In 1893 the Cathedral was re-opened after a com
plete restoration, but in Leighton's time service was conducted
only in the choir. To the south-west of the Cathedral there
are some vestiges of the bishop's palace still left Here
Leighton was bishop from 1661 to 1670, and verily he needed
all the quietness and solace of the quaint Scotch town, with
its lovely surrounding scenery, to brace his spirit ; for he
was both ill at ease with the party he had joined, and much
misunderstood by those whom he had left. We know now
that Burnet's estimate of him is the right one, but the follow-
^ Ecclesiastical Architecture of Scotland, vol. ii. pp. 92-102.

36o BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
ing were the estimates of the contemporary Presbyterian
leaders ; and Leighton had to bear them as the current
speech of his time.
The author of Napthali says : " Mr. Leighton, prelate of
Dumblain, under a Jesuitical-like vizard of pretended holi
ness, humility and crucifixion to the world, hath studied to
seem to creep upon the ground, but always up the hill toward
promotion and places of more ease and honour, and as there
is none of them hath with a kiss so betrayed the cause and
smitten religion under the fifth rib, and hath been such an
offence to the godly, so there is none who by his way, practice
and expressions, giveth greater suspicion of a popish affec
tion, inclination and design." ' The average estimate of him
was that preserved by Wodrow, who generally is credited
with fairness and candour: "he was judged void of
any doctrinal principles," and regarded " as very much
indifferent to all the professions which bore the name of
Christian" !
In the continuation of Robert Blair's life by his son-
in-law, William Row, the most innocent of Leighton's
acts have a malicious interpretation put to them. When
he resigned Newbattle, " he pretended inefficiency for the
ministry, by people's not profiting by him." ^ When he
returned to Edinburgh as a bishop and expressed an opinion
in favour of the English liturgy and ceremonies, "it was
suspected that he was Popi-sh and Jesuitic." * When he
refused the title of lord and carried himself modestly and
humbly, he was named a " pawky prelate." * When he
persisted in refusing the title of lord, Burnet tells us he was
thought too stiff, and provoked the other bishops, while his
refusal furnished those "who were prejudiced against him
with a specious appearance to represent him as a man of
odd notions and practices." ^ When he spoke in Parliament
' Pp. 341, 342. ^ Blair's Life, p. 398. " Ibid. p. 404.
* Ibid. p. 407. ^ History, vol. i. p. 251.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 361
in favour of the outed ministers, and thought that they ought
to be " cherished and embraced," offending all the other
prelates by the course he took. Row states " it was difficult
what to judge of his actings or sayings, he carried so smoothly
among the ministers of his diocese." ' While some spoke
well of him, " others thought that he spoke from a Popish
principle." ^ When he was gentle and forbearing to the
clergy of his diocese, telling them to hold their presbyteries
and sessions as before, and suggesting without commanding
anything, it was " thought that he was but straking cream in
their mouths at first," while by others it was regarded as
" a happiness to live in his diocese." ^ When he was
disgusted with the proceedings of the other bishops about
1665 in " outing so many honest ministers and filling their
places with insufficient and.for the most part scandalous men,"
and intimated his wish to demit his office in consequence,
he was " only pretending to be displeased." * When the
King wrote to the Council in 1668 that some of the most
peaceable and moderate ejected ministers might have liberty
to preach, and Leighton pleaded that all might have the
same liberty, it was " thought that he did this of purpose to
oppose and crush it." *
The good man could do or say nothing, that did not bring
upon him calumny and reproach,^ and verily he needed all the
possible sympathy of his friends around Dunblane, with the quiet
' Blair's Zz/^, p. 410. "^ Ibid. ^ 73/^. p. 427.
*Ibid. p. 480. ^ Ibid. p. 518.
° The following is illustration : —
Shortly after his arrival in Edinburgh as Bishop ot Dunblane, he
was invited to dine at Goodtrees or Gutters (now called Moredun
near Gilmerton, three miles from Edinburgh), the residence of Sir
James Stewart, his father's friend, and Robert Leighton's guardian in -
his student days. Leighton called him his " old friend " or " best
friend." The first salute was " Welcome, Robin ! you loved gauding
abroad too much : you have the fate of Dinah, Jacob's daughter, and
now I may say the Schekamites have catched and defloured you.'
He made no further reference to the subject, but Sir James' son was
rude, for Leighton on his return was reported to have said : " I have

362 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
reposeful influence of its air and scenery, to strengthen him in
bearing a daily cross. It is, too, not without significance that
the tradition of Dunblane still recalls " the good bishop,"
silent and companionless, pacing up and down the sloping,
tree-shaded walk along the river bank, and under the
beautiful western window of the Cathedral. Meditation was
the bent of his life — its strength, and perhaps also its weak
ness ; and superior in intellect and piety as he was, it does
seem strange that he had so little influence in moulding
the characters or conduct of his contemporaries.
Leighton was as one born out of due time, and as Burnet's
friendship commenced with him during the Dunblane period,
we can place opposite the false judgment of his contem
poraries, an estimate of the man that is the true one.
" He came to be possessed with the highest and noblest sense
of divine things that I ever saw in any man. He had no regard
to his person, unless it was to mortify it by a constant low diet,
that was like a perpetual fast. He had a contempt both of wealth
and reputation. He seemed to have the lowest thoughts of him
self possible, and to desire that all other persons should think as
meanly of him as he himself did. He bore all sort of ill usage
and reproach like a man that took pleasure in it. He had so
subdued the natural heat of his temper, that in a great variety of
accidents, and in a course of twenty-two years' intimate conver
sation with him, I never observed the least sign of passion but
upon one single occasion. He brought himself into so composed
a gravity, that I never saw him laugh and but seldom smile.
And he kept himself in such a constant recollection, that I do

dined at Goodtrees. I wish I had stayed at home and chawed
gravell I That young man, Sir James Stewart's son, Thomas, is as
hott as pepper : he was never off this turff of Scotland, has got a
presbyterian crochet in his pericranium, and will never get it out
again." When the Bishop left Gutters, all Sir James said was :
" Mr. Leighton is a man of many oddities or singularities, and it does
not surprize me what he has done, still I shall think him a pious good
man. The Court have called up three (Sharp, Fairfowl, Hamilton)
little better than Judas, and seduced one Nathaniell (Leighton) "
Coltness Collections, pp. 21-24).

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 363
not remember that ever I heard him say an idle word. There
was a visible tendency in all he said to raise his own mind, and
those he conversed with, to serious reflection. And though the
whole course of his life was strict and ascetical, yet he had nothing
of the sourness of temper that generally possesses men of that
sort. He was the freest of superstition, of censuring others, or
of imposing his own methods on them possible : so that he did
not so much as recommend them to others. . . . His preaching
had a sublimity both of thought and expression in it : and, above
all, the grace and gravity of his pronunciation was such that but
few heard him without a very sensible emotion ; I am sure I never
did. It was so different from all others, and indeed from
everything that one could hope to rise up to, that it gave a man
an indignation at himself and all others. It was a very sensible
humiliation to me, and for some time after I heard him I could
not bear the thought of my own performances, and was out of
countenance when I was forced to think of preaching. His style
was rather too fine : but there was a majesty and beauty in it that
left so deep an impression that I cannot yet forget the sermons
I heard him preach thirty years ago. And yet with all this he
seemed to look on himself as so ordinary a preacher, that while he
had a cure he was ready to employ vail others : and when he was a
Bishop he chose to preach to small auditories, and would never
give notice beforehand." '
This is the final estimate, and it is not only confirmed
by the impression received from a study of Leighton's
works and letters, but by the addresses which he delivered to
the Synod of Dunblane. These bring before us " the good
Bishop," settling the difficulties in his diocese by conciliation,
and seeking to raise both clergy and people to an atmosphere
with which his own spirit was very familiar.
In accordance with the Act of Privy Council (Sep
tember 10, 1662), the day fixed for the Synod of Dunblane
to meet was the second Tuesday of October, but Leighton
anticipated the time appointed and invited the clergy of
his diocese to meet him on September 15. Most of
' History of His Own Times, vol. i. pp. 239-241.

364 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
them complied with the invitation, " very few being absent,
of whom the most sent their excuses either by word or writt"
His diocese included the Presbyteries of Auchterarder and
Dunblane, with several parishes from other Presbyteries, and
at the first meeting he submitted a few proposals which were
approved of unanimously by the Synod. There were no
violences committed in his diocese, and he went round it
constantly every year, preaching and catechising from parish
to parish.' He continued in his private and ascetic life, and
gave all his income, beyond the small expense on his own
person, to the poor. " He studied," says Burnet, " to raise
in his clergy a greater sense of spiritual matters, and of the
care of souls, and was in all respects a burning and shining
light, highly esteemed by the greater part of his diocese :
even the Presbyterians were much mollified, if not quite over
come, by his mild and heavenly course of life." ^
He re-ordained no minister in his diocese^ but regarded
their Presbyterian ordination as good and as valid as any
which a Bishop could confer. In fact none of the Scottish
Bishops imposed re-ordination except Bishop Wishart, of
Aberdeen, although they did not refuse it to such as desired
it* He did not interfere with the presbytery or kirk-
session, but sought to aid both by friendly counsel. In every
respect the government was as before, only the BisJiop presided
at the Synod meetings. Sharp always exercised his prero
gative of appointing the minister who was to preside at the
Exercise, but under the government of Leighton, as the

' Very few traditions now survive regarding Leighton's visits. The only
one I can find is in connexion with Culross, where he is said to have
lodged in a house in the Middle Causeway opposite the Dundonald
Arms. Culross was included in the diocese of Dunblane. (Beveridge's
Culross and Tuliallan, vol. i. 389 (cf ii. 309, 360).
^ History, i. 382. ^ See p. 428 (important).
* Symson's Present State of Scotland, p. 241 : West, vol. vii. p 201.
Skinner's Eccles. History, ii. 463 : Crookshank's History of the Church 0
Scotland, i. 126.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 365
Synod Records' testify, Presbyteries were left to choose their
own Moderator. It is thus put : October 10, 1666, the
Moderator was appointed " by advice or consent of the
brethren" : or as on October 13, 1664, the Moderator " was
nominated by the Bishop, and willingly accepted by the
brethren." There was no ritual nor prescribed form of
prayer, and all that he sought to enforce within the diocese
was the use of the Lord's Prayer, Doxology, Creed, and
repetition of the Ten Commandments. He condemned the
people's practice of sitting at prayer, and charged the clergy
to exhort them to kneel or stand, as a more befitting attitude
in the worship of God. He commended the more frequent
celebration of Communion, and regarded the neglect of the
ordinance as the chief defect in the worship of the time. He
recommended the clergy to prefer long texts and short
sermons, to the short texts and long sermons then in vogue,
which wearied more than edified the people. He advised
them also to read the Scriptures without note or comment,
and reminded them that with all their zeal against popery,
they might be too much of the Roman opinion, that the
Word of God could not be safely trusted to speak for itself
without continual exposition. In other words, Leighton
sought to have more of the beauty of holiness in the Church
services, more oiworship,tha.n elaborate and lengthy sermons,
with the worshipful element put to the background. He
sought to get his clergy and people away from what had
become a custom, through the influence of the Protesters and
their English Independent friends— of substituting a lecture
for the lessons, so that not a word of Scripture was often
heard in the worship of the Church as conducted by the
minister, but the text of the sermon or some quotations in the
prayers and discourses ; while even the Lord's Prayer itself
came to be regarded with suspicion, because it savoured, as
was thought, of popery, or rather because the use of it was a
' See p. 368 etseq. ; cf. p. 385.

366 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
virtual acknowledgment that set forms of prayer were not
unlawful nor unbecoming in Christian worship.' In doing
so they were going against their own Directory (adopted in
1645), which appointed that at each diet of worship two
chapters of the Bible should be read— one from each Testa
ment,— and that the Lord's Prayer should be used.
Leighton was thus on the lines of the best traditions in the
Church, and his addresses not only reveal a heavenly-minded
ness and wisdom, but are their own best vindication. As reli
gious literature they are unique, and the passages omitted here
are purely local references, or repetitions of the usual procedure.

REGISTER OF THE DIOCESAN SYNOD OF DUNBLANE.^
Synod I. September 15, 1662.
This day the Synod of the Diocese of Dunblane being met, the
Bishope preached; and after sermon and prayer, the names were
callit, and very few being absent, off whom the most sent their
excuses either by word or writt.
The Bishope propounded some few particulars, which by the
unanimous voyce of the Synod were approved and enacted. And
because having noe furder to doe at this meeting, there was not ane
clerk nominated. The Bishop left with the brethren a note of
particulars propounded, and written with his awne hand, the true
copie whereof is heir inserted as follows :
For Discipline.
(i) First, That all diligence be used for the repressing of profane
ness, and the advancement of solide pietie and holinesse, and
therefore : —
(2) Secondlie, That not onlie scandaUes of unchastitie, but
drunkenness, swearing, cursing, filthie speaking and mocking of
religion, and all other grosse offences, be brought under Church
censure. (3) Thirdlie, That scandalous offenders be not absolved tiU there
appear in them very probable signs of true repentance.
(4) Fourthlie, The enquirie be made by the minister, not onelie
' Dr. Robert Lees' Reform of the Church of Scotland, pp. 33, 34.
^ Bishop Ramsay then speaks of these Addresses : " I look on the
Register as beyond some volumes of the Ancient Councills" (p. 394)-

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 367
into the knowledge, but the practise and tenor of lyffe of those that
are to be admitted to the holy communion, and all profane and
evidentlie impenitent persons are to be secluded till their better
conversation and obedience to the Gospel be more apparent.
(5) Fifthlie, That familie prayer be enquired after, and those that
can be exhorted to joyne with it reading of the Scriptures.
For Worship.
(i) First, That instead of lecturing and preaching both at one
meeting, larger portiones of the Scriptures — ane whole chapter at
least of each Testament and Psalms — shall constantlie be read :
and this not as a bye-work while they are conveining, but after the
people are well conveined, and the worshipe solemnlie begune with
confession of sins and prayer, either by the minister or some ffit
personne by him appoynted.
(2) Secondlie, That the Lord's Prayer be restored to more frequent
use, likewyse the Doxologie and the Creed.
(3) Thirdlie, That daifie public prayer in churches, morning and
evening, with reading of the Scriptures, be used where it can be had
convenientlie, and the people exhorted to frequent them, not so as
to think that this should excuse them from dailie private prayer in
their families and in secret, but rather as ane helpe to enable them
and dispose them the more for both these : and let the constant use
of private prayer be recommended to all personnes as the great
instrument of sanctifying the soull, and of entertaining and increas
ing in it the love of God.
(4) Fourthlie, That the younger sort and the ignorant be duly
catechized at fitt tymes all the year through, and soe that it be not
whoUie laid over on some days or weeks before the celebration of
the communion : but that the enquiry at that tyme be rather of
their good conversatioune, and due disposition for partaking that
holy ordinance, as was said before in ane article touching dis
cipline. (S) Fifthlie, That ministers use some form of catechism, such as
they may require account off, till ane common form be agreed on.
(6) Sixthlie, That preaching be plain and useful for aU capacities,
not entangled with useless questions and disputes, nor continued to a
wearisome length. The great and most necessarie principaUes of
religione most frequentlie treated upon, and oftentymes larger por
tions of Scripture explained, and suitable instructions and exhorta-

368 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
tions then deduced, and that be the sermon at that tyme, and be
doubtlesse as truly preaching and useful, if not more so, than
insisting for ane whole sermon or more upon ane short verse or
sentence. The Bishope propounded to the brethren that it was to be
reminded by himself and themselves to what eminent degrees of
purity of heart and life their holy calling doth engadge them, to how
great contempt of this present world and enflammed affectiouns
towards heaven — springing from deep persuasiouns within them of
those things they preach to others, and from the daily meditation of
them and secret prayer, and that we consider how ill it becomes us
to be much in the triviall conversatione of the world ; but when our
duty or necessitie involves us in companie, that our speech and
deportment be exemplarlie holie, ministering grace to those with
whom we converse. And to add but this one thing so suitable to
ministers of the Gospel of peace — that we be meek and gentle, and
lovers and exhorters of peace, private and pubHc, among all ranks
of men — endeavouring rather to quench than to increase the useless
debates and contentions that abound in the world: and be always
more studious of pacific than of polemic divinitie, that certainlie being
much diviner than this, for the students of it are callit " the sons of
God." And so having closed with prayer the Synod was dissolved.
The Moderators of the two Presbyteries belonging to this Synod
were not then nominated : but some weeks after they were nomi
nated with joynt consent,' viz. Mr. Johune Edmonstone for the
Presbytery of Dunblane, and for Ochterarder Mr. Archibald Drum
mond. Synod II.
The Second Synod of the said Diocese was held April 28,
1663. Mr. John Edmonstone, minister of Kilmadock and present
Moderator of the Presbyterie of Dunblane, preached. After sermon,
the roll being callit, diverse of the absentees were excused by sick
ness or other just impediments made known to the Synod.
The Bishope propounded the choice of a clerk : and two being
lysted, both readers and precentors, the one of Dunblane, the other
of Kilmadock, Master David Wilsone, reader and schoolmaster of
Dunblane, was chosen clerk by the vote of the Synod, and his dues
appoynted to continue as was formerlie in custome.
' Cf. p. 361.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 369
The books of the two Presbyteries, as to what they contained
since the former Synod, were revised by some brethren of the other
Presbytery respectively, and were approved.
There being at this tyme onlie two kirks vacant within this
diocese, — the one at Balwhidder, in the Presbytery of Dunblane,
by the transportation of Mr. William Andersoune from thence
to the kirk of Buchanan : the other of Kinkell, in the Presby
tery of Ochterardour, by the decease of Mr. Johne (Murray),
last incumbent thereof, — it was recommended to the respective
Presbyteries to supplie them as frequentlie as they could during
the vacancies, and to put the personnes concerned in mind of
using all due difigence and despatch for provyding them : and
because it is necessarie that the minister of Balquhidder have the
Irish tongue, and that so expeditely as to preach in it, it was
particularfie recommended to Mr. Donald M'Vicare, minister at
Aberfoil, to enquire for such a one, as having more acquaintance
with such than any of the brethren.
... It was enacted that the readers at kirks doe keep a
register of burials, as well as of baptisms and marriages.
. . . The public reading of the Scripture, and the use of the
Lord's Prayer and the other particulars agreed on in the former
Synod, was again recommended, and that dewlie qualified readers
be provided where they are wanting for that purpose, and that in
the meantyme the ministers themselves doe read.
Full Freedom I* ^^^ declared by the Bishope that the Synod and
of Speech and each member of it hath now as full and free libertie
Vote allowed, ^j. ^g^jj^g and declaring their assent and dissent in aU
things that occur as ever they had in the former tymes : and having
exhorted them to eminent and exemplarie holiness in their per-
sounes and conversations, and diligence in their holy calfing, and
to be of good accord amongst themselves, closed with prayer, and
the Synod dissolved. Synod III.
The Third Synod of the Diocese of Dunblane was held October 13,
1663. Mr. Thomas Lindsay, minister and present Dean of Dunblane,
preached this day, and, in the absence of the Bishope, did moderate.
*****
A.L. 24

370 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
Synod IV.
The Fourth Synod of the Diocese of Dunblane was held upon the
twelve day of April 1664.
This day Mr. Archibald Drummond, minister of Ochterardour,
and Moderator of the Presbyterie there for the tyme, preached.
After sermon the Synod conveined, and after prayer made by
the Bishope, the roll was callit, and some of the brethren being
absent, of whom was excused by letters — Mr. George Moray,
minister of Foulis, Mr. Archibald Moncrieffe, minister at Abernethie,
Mr. Matheu Fleming, minister at Culross, and Mr. Andrew Rynd,
minister at TuUiecultrie.
This day it was agreed and enacted that the brethren within
this Diocese who as yet has never kepit presbyterial nor synodical
meetings, that for the samyen end they be exhorted and spoken
to, either by the Bishop himself or by some of the brethren within
the foresaid Diocese, to keep the presbyterial and synodical meetings,
in tyme coming : and failing herein, the respective Presbyteries
whereof the said brethren are members, are ordained to refer them
to the next ensuing Synod.
It is statute that upon the Sabbath-day in each kirk within this
Diocese at least two chapters, one of the Old Testament and
another of the New Testament, with a portion of the Psalms, be
read in the congregation before sermon begin, both in the forenoon
and the afternoon, either by the minister or be ane fit and qualified
reader. It is enacted that hereafter the Ten Commandments, with
the Belief, be repeated either by the minister or reader, the congre
gation being fullie conveined upon the Sabbath-day in the forenoone.
The constant use of the Lord's Prayer formerlie appoyntit was now
again recommended by the Bishope : and having closed with prayer,
the Synod for this day dissolvit, and ordained to meet to-morrow
againe be ten o'cloack in the forenoone.
Session 2.
At Dunblane, the 13th of Apryl, 1664 years.
... It is agreed and enacted, that if any of the brethren within
the Diocese shaU be found to come to the Synod too late, or to
goe away before the dissolving of the Synod without leave asked
and given, he shall pay a dollar to be bestowed on pious uses.
It is likewys enacted, that if any brother within the Diocese shall

BISPIOP OF DUNBLANE 371
absent himself totallie from the Synod without any just reasone
accepted by the Bishope and Synod, beside Church censure, he
shall pay, toties quoties, two dollars, to be bestowed on pious uses.
It is agreed and enacted, that if any brother within the two respec
tive Presbyteries shall be found to absent himself any dyet from his
own Presbyterie without some just reason to be accepted of the
Presbyterie, he shall pay twelve shillings Scotis, toties quoties.
The books of the respective Presbyteries, as to what they contain
since the foregoing Synod, being revised be some brethren of the
other Presbytery respective, were approven.
The Moderators of the two Presbyteries for the ensuing half-
year were nominated by the Bishope, and were willingly accepted
by their brethren — viz. Master Thomas Lindsay, minister and Dean
of Dunblane, for the Presbyterie of Dunblane : and Master James
Forsyth, minister at Monzie, for Auchterarder.
Synod V.
The Fifth Synod of the Diocese of Dunblane was held at
Dunblane, elevinth day of October 1664.
The quhilk day Mr. James Drummond, minister at Muthill,
preached : and after sermon, the Synod being convened, and prayer
being made by the Bishope himself, the roll was read, and some
of 'the brethren being absent, particulare ministers was excused by
their letters to the Bishope. . . .
This day the Bishope did enquire at the Moderators of the
respective Presbyteries if there was any brother within their divisions
who did not make use of repeating the Ten Commandments, the
Befief, and the Lord's Prayer, with frequent reading of the Holie
Scriptures upon the Sabbath-day, as was formerlie recommended
to them. They answered that to their knowledge they knew of
none such. ... It was enacted by the Bishope and Synod, that
in everie congregation within the Diocese the Sacrament of the
Lord's Supper be celebrated once everie year at the least : and if any
within the bounds of the Diocese shaU he found to failzie herein
it is ordained that whatever is allowed upon the minister of the
parish be decreet for buying of the elements for that end, it is
to be bestowed upon pious uses at the decernitour and pleasure
of the Presbyterie, and that by and att owr public censure.
It was recommended by the Bishope to the brethren within the
two respective Presbyteries, that they exhort the people within

372 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
their several congregations that they repair more frequentlie to
the reading of the Holie Scriptures in public upon the Sabbath-
day, and that there be choice made of qualified readers for that
effect, who are men of good life and conversatione, and of grave
habit (at least) upon the Sabbath-day.
It was again recommended by the Bishope that the brethren
be careful to exhort their auditores that in tyme of divine service
they behave themselves in a most decent and humble manner
but especiablie that in tyme of prayer they be exhorted either to
kneel or stand.
It being lykwyse recommended by the Bishope that those whom
they make choice of to be elders and overseers of their several
congregations be understanding men, and men of a good lyfe and
conversatione, and free of any known scandal : and having concluded
with prayer, the Synod was dissolved for that nyght.
Session 2.
At Dunblane, the twelfe day of October, ante meridiem, 1664.
. . . This day it was made known to the Bishop and Synod
of some who does intrude themselves into some paroches within
the Diocese, — who does take upon themselves to teach the
grammare and English schools, and does not acquaint the
Presbyteries therewith, and in particulare at the kirk of Noriestoune
Therefore the Bishope and Synod ordains that hereafter none within
the Diocese make paction with, nor admit of any schoolmaster for
the forsayd effect until that first it be made known to the Presbyterie:
and lykwys it is ordained that the school at Noriestowne be discharged
and dismissed. . . .
Synod VI.
At Dunblane the 1 1 of April jajvi" threescore five years.
. . . Session 2.
. . . This day the Bishope produced before the Synod ane letter,
quhUk was sent to him by the Lords of His Majestie's Privy
Council, in pursuance of the Act of Parliament for the help of
Universities — bearing that everie minister within the nacione is
to pay threttie poundes Scottis out of their thousand merkis of
yearlie stipend, or conform to that proportioune : and the first

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 373
year's payment hereof to begine at the year jajvi" three-score four,
and so forth, continue for the space of five years. Whereupon it
was agreed by the Bishope and Synod that those in the Presbyterie
of Auchterardore and be east it belonging to this Diocese, shall
bring in their proportion to the Moderator of said Presbytery.
And the brethren of the Presbytery of Dunblane, with Culross, are
to bring in their proportions to Dunblane, either to be delivered to
the Bishope or Moderator there. . . . That day it was earnestly
recommended by the Bishope to the brethren that if there was any
amongst them who neglected to cause the parents of children to
repeat the Belief at the baptism of their children, that they would
not neglect it in tyme coming.
It was againe recommended be the Bishop to the brethren that
the Belief and the Ten Commandments be read or repeated before
the whole congregation convened upon the Sabbath-day, and that
either by the minister or reader.
It being lykwys recommended be the Bishop to the brethren
that the doxologie be not neglected after the psalms, and lykwys
that the brethren be careful to exhort their people to use reverend
gestures in tyme of divine service, but especiallie in tyme of prayer
that they be exhorted either to stand or kneel thereto.
I This day it being lykwys seriously considered and grievously
lamented be the Bishope and Synod that godliness is so little
esteemed in the land, and that prayer and family exercise is
neglected for the most part in all families. Wherefore it is seriously
recommended be the Bishope that the brethren would be very
careful to exhort their people within their respective congregations
to make conscience in going about the samene dutie, and that they
would make narrow search and enquire where the samene is
neglected, whither in common or in great men's families.
It was recommended by the Bishope to the brethren that they
examine their people frequentlie throughout the year, both in poynt
of knowledge, and also of their lyffe and conversatione.
Session 3.
At Dunblane, the 12 day of Aprill, 1665 years.
... It being very notour to the Bishope and Synod that
people within their several congregations does not frequent
ordinances, and especiaUie the reading of the Word upon the
Sabbath-day in pubUck, although they have been several tymes

374 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
admonished by their respective ministers of the Word for doing of
the same.
Wherefore it is ordained be the Bishope and Synod that the
ministers of the Word be careful to exhort their people within their
respective congregations to make conscience in hearing of the
Word preached, and also to be more obsequious in frequenting
the reading of the Word, and to rebuke those whom they find
to be contumacious herein. Synod VIL
. . . Session 3.
At Dunblane, the 1 1 day of October jajvi" threescore five years.
. . . This day it is ordained that the several ministers within the
boundis of the Diocese put the Acts of the Synod in execution for
repression of the prevailing vices of drunkenness and swearing, and
cursing and filthie speaking, and all profaneness, and for the
pressing familie worship, and the advancing the power of godliness
by all due means.
. . . After the affaires of the Synod were ended, the Bishope
showed the brethren he had somewhat to impart to them that
concerned himself: which, though it imported little or nothing
either to them or to the Church, yet he judged it his duty to
acquaint them with it. And it was the resolution he had taken
of retiring from this public charge, and that all the account he could
Bishop's Resigna- gi^e of the reasons moving him to it was briefly this,
tion and Reasons, the sense he had of his own unworthiness of so
high a station in the Church, and his weariness of the contentions
of this charge, which seemed rather to be growing than abating, and
by their growth did make so great abatements of that Christian
meekness and mutual charitie, which is so much more worth than
the sum of all that was contended about. He thanked the brethren
for aU their undeserved respect and kindness manifested toward
himself all along, and desyred their good consideracion of the
poore endeavoure he had used to serve them, and to assist them
in promoting the work of the ministrie, and the great designs of
the Gospel in their bounds. And if in anything in word or deed
he had offended them, or any of them, he very earnestlie and
humbfie craved their pardon. And having recommended them
to continue in the study of peace and holiness, and ardent love

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 375
to our great Lord and Master, and to the soules He hath so
dearlie bought, he closed with these words of the Apostle :
"Finallie, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort,
be of one mind, five in peace : and the God of love and peace
shaU be with you." And after prayer the Synod was dissolved.
Synod IX.
(This Synod is so numbered in MS. It ought to have been
VIIL, there being no meeting of Synod in April 1666, as the
Bishop was in London.)
At Dunblane, the 9 day of October 1666, Synodos nona.
The quhUk day the Bishope did preach. . . .
Session 2.
Post meridiem, hora tertia.
... It was condescended and agreed upon by the Bishope
and Synod that the Presbyterie of Dunblane nominate one of their
number to preach before the Synod in April : and the Presbyterie
of Ochterardon one of theirs, to preach before the Synod in
October. Enacted — i. That all the ministers endeavour to bring their
people to a high esteem of the Holy Scriptures and of the reading
of them in publick, and to give evidence thereof by a reverend
and attentive hearing, none being permitted to stand about the
dores or ly in the kirk-yard during the tyme of reading : and if
after warning them of this, any shall be found to continue in the
same disorder, they are by due rebuke and censure to be brought
to obedience.
2. That the ministers be careful to direct the readers what parts
of Scripture are most frequentlie to be read, as the history of the
Gospel and the Epistles, ane of thfrOld Testament the most intelligible
and particular parts- — particularly large portionis of the Psalms at
all tymes, being both so excellentlie instructive, and withal soe
dyvine forms of prayers and praises, and therefor have been so
much used by the Christian Church in all ages, and always made
so great a part of their public service.
3. That noe readers be permitted but such as are tryed and
approved by the Presbyterie.
4. That besides the reading between the second and third beU

376 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
which is but in the interval for those that are come till the rest
doe convene, some part of the Scriptures be read after the last
bell is rung out, and the congregatione more fullie mette, and the
minister is come in, either be himself or the reader at his appoint
ment, one chapter at least, together with some of the Psalms, one
or more as they are of length, and of which some part afterwards
may be sung, and so the people shall the better understand what
they sing : and thus shall this soe useful ordinance of pubficke
reading of the Scriptures be performed with more solemnitie, and
brought into greater respect and reverence, and the people be
more universallie and plentifuUie edified by it. But together with
this, the reciting of the Ten Commandments and the Befief, accord
ing to the Acts of former Synods, is noe Lord's Day to be omitted;
nor is this onlie or mainlie meant as a help to the people learning
the Word of God, and so being made able to repeat them, but
as a solemne publicatioune of the law of God as the rule of our
life and solemn professione of our believing the articles of our
Christian faith, and the quickening of our affections towards both.
And as to that exercise of reading the Scriptures, it cannot be
imagined that anie well-instructed and solide-minded Christian can
questioune the great expediencie and usefulnesse of it for all rankes
of people : for besydes that manie of our commons cannot read,
and so cannot use the Scriptures in private, and too many that
can, yet doe neglect it, even they that use them most in private wiU
not onlie not with the less, but so much the more, be well satisfied
and edified with hearing them read in publick, and will more
reverentlie and religiouslie attend to them, and with the blessing
of God upon their soe doing, nor fail to find (what others can
say they have found) diverse passages and sentencies falling fre
quentlie in upon their hearts in public reading with particular
warmth and divine force nothing below, if not sometymes beyond,
what they usuallie find in private.
If the minister think fit to make his sermon for that tyme upon
some part of what be himself, or be his appointment, hath been
read, it may doe well, and so much the better the longer that be
and the shorter the sermon be : for it is greatly to be suspected
that our usual way of verie short texts and verie long sermons is
apt to wearie people more and profit them lesse.
But whatsoever they doe in this they should bewarre of returning
tp their long expositions besides their sermon at ope and the same

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 377
meeting, which, besides the tediousnesse and other inconvenienis, is
apt to foment in people's myndes the foolish prejudice and proude
disdaine they have taken against the Scriptures read without a
superadded discourse: in which conceit, for all their zeal against
Popery, they seeme to be too much of the Romish opinion, as accounting
the Holy Scriptures so obscure in themselves that it is somewhat
dangerous, or at least altogether unprofitable, to entrust the common
people either with reading or hearing any part of them at any time,
unless they be backitt with continual expositiones.
5. That ministers doe indeavour to reduce the people from the
irreverent deportment they have generally contracted in publick
worshipe, particularly from their most undecent sitting at prayer.
To kneel or stand as conveniently they may, that as we may
worshipe both with our bodies and souls Him that made both, and
made them for that very end. Oh, how needful is that invitation
to be often rung in our ears that seemes wholly to have forgott it,
" Oh come, let us worshipe and bow downe, and kneel before the
Lord our Maker " !
6. That people be frequently and earnestly exhorted to morning
and evening prayer in their families, especially the pryme families
in parishes as most exemplary.
7. That the way of catechising be more adapted to the capacity
of our rude and ignorant people : and that our sermons, particularly
those of the afternoones, may be more frequentlie bestowed on the
most plaine and intelligible way of explaining some poynt of cate
chetical doctrine.
8. It was recommended that convenient utensiles be provyded
in every kirk for the administration of the Holy Sacramentes.
9. That according to our great and standing duty we be still
more and more zealous and careful, by doctrine and discipline, to
purge out all profanenesse, particularfie the most common and
crying sines, as drunkennesse, cursing, swearing, raiUng, and bitter
speaking, and rotten, filthy speaking, so usual among the common
sort in their house or field labour together, particularfie in harvest.
And that it be by all ministers recommended to the owners of the
crepes and overseers of the reapers to range them so to their work
and in such divisiones as may give least occasione to any thing of
that kynd.
lo. That as wee ourselves would be exemplary in holiness, we
would endeavour that our seniores plebis, or elders of the people,

378 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
be so too : and for that end rather to have them well chosen,
though fewer, than a great number of such, as too often they
are. II. That the Presbyteries doe enquyre of each one of their
number concerning the celebration of the Communion, that at
least our usual returns of it be neglected by none : for it is one
of the great defects and reproaches of our Church that that great
ordinance, being so usefull for the increase of holinesse, should be
so seldome administered as with us it is, even where it is oftenest.
For the way of examination in order to it somewhat is sett downe
in our first Synod, which may be lookit on, if possible it may prove
to be of any use. . . .

Session 2.
At Dunblane, the 10 of October 1666 — ante meridiem hora
octava.
. . . The Bishop, having exhorted the brethren to eminent and
exemplarie holienesse in their persons and conversationes, and
diligence in their holie calling, clossed with prayer, and so the
Synod dissolved.
Synod X.
Att Dunblaine, the 10 ot Aprill jajvi" thriescore seevyne years.
Session 3.
A paper was given in by the Bishope to the Synod containing
some proposalles, as follows :
I confess that my own unactive and unmedling temper may be
too apt to prevail against the knowne duty of my station, and may
enclyne me rather to enquyre too little then too much into the
deportment of others, and rather to be deficient than to exceed in
admonitions and advices to my brethren in matters of their duty :
and besides this naturall aversione, the sense of my owne great
unworthiness and faultiness may give me check, and be a strong
curb upon me for censuring others for what may be remiss, or
offering any rules for the redress of it. And there is yet another

BISPIOP OF DUNBLANE 379
consideration that bends still further that way, for I am so desyrous
Prejudice *" ^^^^ /«^^e off from the reach of that prejudice that
against abounds in these parts against the name of my function
Bishop. as apt to command and domineire too much, that I may
t)0Ssiblie erre i?i the other hand, and scarce perform the duty of the
lo^vest and most moderate kind of Moderator, so that I am forced to
spurre and dryve up myself against all these retardmentes to suggest
any thing how useful soever beyond our road and accustomed way,
especially finding haw little any thing of that kynd takes and prevails
to any real extent. And I may remember that good old word,
"to /iijScV (l<^£Xoi)vTa fLTj TToiei ixarfiv." However, when anything
appears to mee of evident reasone and usefuUnesse, and that easily
joins in and peiceth with our standing customs, I judge it my duty
to offer it to you : and shall hope, if that you sail find it of any
use, you may not reject it, but rather improve it to somewhat better
that by occasion of it may arise in your owne thoughts.
Something of this kynd I have formerly moved, concerneing the
way of dealling with persones faUen into scandalous sine : frequent
speaking with them in private to the convinceing and awaking their
consciences to a lively sense of sin, and directing them in the exer
cises of repentance, and exhorting them to sett apart some tyme for
a more solemne humbfing of their soules in fasting and prayer, and
not to admit them to publick confessioun untill they have, to our
best discerneing, some real heart-sense of sine and remorse for it, and
serious purposes of newness of life.
Lykewyse I suggested somewhat touching the way of examineing
of all persones towards their admission to the Holy Communion
besides the ordinarie way of catechizeing the younger and more
ignorant sort, and some other particulars much like these that I will
not now repeat.
That which I would recommend at this tyme relates to the
bussines of privy tryalls (as they are caUed) of ministers in their
Presbyteries towards the tyme of the Synod, in which I have
perceived in some places (if I may be pardoned that frie word)
very much of superficial! empty forme : for the helpe of which,
besydes other ways which may be thought on, that which occurres
to me at present is this, that some certaine questiones be askit of
every minister before he withdrawes, and these the same or much
the same that usually are or fitly may be propounded to the elders
and people concerning their minister at the visitation of particular

38o BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
kirks : for though in the case we now speak off we can have nothing
but every man's own word concerneing himself, yet does not this
render it ane useless thing : for besides that divers of the questions
win be of things obvious to publick knowledge that no man will
readily adventure to give ane untrue answer where it may be easily
traced, there is much to be given to the presumed ingenuity and
veracity of a minister, especially in what is solemnlie and punctuallie
enquired of him, and whatsumever formerlie hath been or hath not
been his former degrie of diligence in the particulates, the very
enquyrie and asking concerneing them will be very lykely to awaken
in every man a more serious reflection upon himself touching each
poynt, and the drawing furth an expresse answer to each before
his brethren will probablie excite and engage him to better exact
ness in all of them for the tyme to com.
The particulars, I conceive, may be these, and such others like
them as may be further thought fitt : —
I. Whether he be constantly assiduous in plane and profitable
preaching, instructing, and exhorting, and reproving most expressUe
and frequentlie those sines that abound most among his people,
and in all things to his best skill fitteing his doctrine to the
capacityes and necessities and edification of all sortes within his
charge ?
2. Whether he be diligent in catechizing, employing through
out the year those seasones and times for it as may be easiest and
fittest for the people to attend it, and not wholly casting it over
upon some few dayes or weekes near the time of the Communion ?
3. How often in the year he celebrates the Holy Communion
for I am ashamed to say, whether at least once a year ?
4. Whether he does faithfully and impartially exercise discipline,
and bring all known scandalls to due censure, and does speak
privately, and that oftener than once, with the persons convicted, and
admit them not to publick acknowledgement till he sees in them
some probable signs of true repentance ?
5. Whether he be diligent by himself and his elders and aU
convenient wayes to know the deportment of the several famifies,
and not only ask, but do his best certainly to enforme himself,
whether they constandy use morning and evening prayer together,
and reading of the Scriptures, if they have any that can do it, and
whether this point of family exercise be specially provyded for in the
chiefe fatniligs jn the parish ?

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 381
6. Whether hee be careful of the relief of the poor, of visiting the
sick whenever he knows of any, even though they neglect to send for
him, and for this end make enquiry and the rather prevents their
sending, because they commonly deferre that till it can be of fide or
no use to them ?
7. Whether hee does in privat plainely and friely admonish those
hee knowes, or hath cause to suspectt to be given to uncleannesse, or
drunkennesse, or swearing, or any kynd of inordinat walking,
especially if they be of that quality that engages him frequently to
converse with them : and if they continue such, leaves of that
converse, and if their miscarriage be publick, brings them to
publick censure ?
8. Whether he watches exactly over his owne conversacioun
in all things, that hee not only give noe offence, but bee an example
to the flock and preach by liveing ?
9. Whither he spends the greatest portiones of his tyme in
privat in reading and prayer and meditacioun, a thing so necessarie
to enable him for all the other parts of his duety ?
10. Whither he makes it the great bussines and withall the
great pleaseure of his life to fulfille the work of his ministrie, in
the severall partes and dueties of it, out of love to God and the
soules of his people ?
II. Iff hee does not only avoid grosse offences (which in a
guide of soules were intolerable) but studies daylie to mortifie
pryd, and rash anger, and vaine gloria, and covetousnes, and love
of this world, and of sensuall pleaseures, and selfe-love, and all
nordinat passiones and affectiones, even in those instances
wheirin they are subtilest and best discernible by others and
commonly too fittle discerned by ourselves?
12. If hee not only lives in peace with his brethren and his
flock, and with all as much as is possible, but is ane ardent
lover and promoter of it, reconcileing differences and preserving
agrieraent all he can amongst his people ?
It hath not escaped my thoughts that some of these questiones,
being of things mor in word, may seeme lesse fitt to be pub-
licquely propounded to any : and that the best observers of them
will, both out of modestie and reall humility, and seveirre
judgeing of themselves, be aptest to charge themselves with
deficiencie in them, and will only owne at most sinceir dezyres
and indevour, which lykewyse they that practise and mynde them

382 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
least may in generall professe, neither is ther any more particulare
and punctual! account to be expected of such things from any
man in publick : but the maine intent in these (as was said
before) is serious reflexion, and that each of us may be stirred up
to ask ourselves over againe those and more of the lyke questiones
in our most privatt tryalles and our secret scrutinies of our owne
heartes and lives, and may redouble our diligence in purgeing
ourselves that wee may be in the house of God vesselles of
honour, sanctified and meet for the Master's use, and prepared to
every good work : and for those other things more exposed to the
knowledge of others, if any brother heares of any faultinesse in
any of the number, he shall not doe well, I think, crudely to
vent it in the meeting tell first hee have made all due enquyrie
after the truth of it : yea, though he hath it upon enquyrie to be
true, yet ought hee not even then to mak his first essay of
rectifeing his brother by a delacioun to the full meeting without
haveing formerly admonisht him first alone, and then (according to
our Saviour's rule) in the presence of one or two more : but having
done, if neither of these reclaime him, then followes of necessity to
tell the Church : but that is lykewyse to be done with great single-
nesse of heart and charity and compassion, and the wholl procedure
of the wholl company with the person so delated is to be managd
with the same temper, according to the excellent advyce of the
apostle. Gal. vi. i : " My brethren, if any man be overtaken in a
fault, ye which are spiritual! restore such a one in the spirit of
meeknesse : considering thyselfe, lest thou also be tempted."
And having concluded with the prayer, the Synod dissolved.
Synod XI.
Synodos undecima, Sess. I. 8bris 8, 1667.
... A committie was appointed to think of overtures for the
advanceing off pietie and repressing of profainenes.
* * * «
Session 2. Bbris 8, post meridiem.
The Bishope and Synod being come together againe, and after
prayer the roll was read according to the custome, and non absent
who were present in the forenoone : and after conference about
somethings moved in the comittie, the Bishope presented a paper
conteining proposaUes touching the following particulares :

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 383
I. Solemne reading of the Scriptures.
2. Reducing the people to a reverend gesture in prayer.
3. Plain and practical! and catechetical! preaching.
4. A weekly day for catechizeing, and the reading of the Scrip
tures joyned with it.
5. A short and plaine forme of catechisme.^
6. A more exact and spirituall way of dealling with publick
penitentes. 7. As lykewyse of preparing people for the Communion : more
frequent celebratioun whereof is so much to be wished, but so
lifle or scarce at aU to be hoped in this Church.
8. That in preaching, the most abounding and crying sines be
more sharply and frequentlie reproved, particularly curseing and
sweareing : and the worshipe of God in families more urged.
9. The due educatteing and moulding the myndes of young
students in Presbyteries.
10. More frequent and more exacte visitacioun of churches, and
the visiteing of families by each minister in his owne charge.
The words of the paper were as follows :
I. That the reading of the Holie Scriptures in our publique
meetings when they are solemnest and fullest, be constantlie used :
and that wee endeavour to bring our people to a reverent and
affectionat esteeme of that ordinance and attention to it.
2. That both by our owne example and by frequent instruction
and exhortacioun, wee studie to reforme that extreame irreverence
and indecencie that hath generally prevailled in people's deport
ment in tyme of publique worshipe, and particalarly of prayer : and
that they be reduced to such a gesture as may signifie that wee are
acknowledgeing and adoreing the great majestie of God.
3. That wee indeavour to adapt our way of preaching, witha
evidence and plainnesse, to the enformeing of the people's myndes
and quickneing their affectiones, and raiseing in them renewed
purposes of a Christian lyfe : and that some part of our sermones
be designd for the plaine and practicall explicacioun of the great
principles of religion.
4. That wee fixe some certaine tymes — at least one day in the
week — throughout the year for catechizeing, and that withal there
he reading of the Scriptures and prayer at the same tyme : to which,
' See p. 57.

384 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
besydes that parte of the people that are for each tyme warned to
be present, those others that are niere the church and at leasour
may resort, for the work of the ministerie a husbandrie of more
continual! labour and attendance then that of our countrey people
that labour the ground, and, theirfore, cannot well be duelie dis
charged, being whollie cast over upon the Lord's Day, without evere
meeting with them or bringing any considerable parte of them
together all the week long.
Short and 5- ¦''¦'¦ seemes absolutely necessarie that each minister
plain would resolve on some short and plaine forme of
catechisme for the use of his people : for it is not,
I think, to be imagined that ever people will have any fixt know
ledge of the articles of religioun by laxe and continuallie varied
discourses and formes, or by catechismes too long and too hard for
them : and some would draw up severall short formes. They might
be revysed at the next Synod, and possibly one framed out of them,
which, by consent, might be appointed for the use of this Diocese for the
interim untill one shall be publisht for the wholl Church.^
6. That which hath bene formerlie proposed would be remynded
of a more exact and spirituall way off dealing with publick offenders,
that their receptioun might be both more apt to recover the peni
tentes themselves and to edifie the Church.
7. For more frequent communion (if it could be hade), or,
however, for the better improveing it : when wee have it, seldome
as it is, what hath been formerly suggested touching the way of
examineing, and prepareing people to it, and other particulares
relateing theirto, need not be repeated, but need very much to be
really practised, if they can be of any use.
8. Lykewyse enough hath bene formerly said — it were well if
anything might once appeare to be done — touching the worshipe
of God in families, especially the pryme ones within our boundes,
as lykewyse the exercise'of discipline for the repressing of swearing,
and drunkennesse, and all profainnesse so much abounding every
where, and that our doctrine be lykewyse more particularely and
frequently applyed to that purpose.
Students. 9. Something hath lykewyse bene said concerneing
the training upe of such young men amongst us as intende the
ministery, not onely as to their straine of preaching, but the moving
of their myndes to more inward thoughtes, and the study of a devout
' See pp. 57, 58.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 385
life, and more acquainteance with the exercises of mortificatioun and
purgeing of their owne heartes by these divine iruethes which they are
to preach to others for the same purpose : for how shall they teach
what they have not learnit 1
10. That churches be more frequently and exactly visited, and
by each minister the families of his congregation.
This paper being publiquely read, was consented to, and approved
by the unanimous vote of the Synod : and conforme to it was framed
the following actt :
The Bishope and Synod, haveing seriously considered and
regrated the hight of profainnesse and grosse sines abounding
among their people, particularfie drunkennes and uncleannes, and,
most universallie, the heinous sine of curseing and sweareing, and
that which fomentes and increases those and all sines, the great
contempt of the Lordis holy day and ordinances, and the grosse
and almost incredible ignorance of the common sort under so
much assiduous preaching and catechiseing, for the more effectuall
redresse of all these eviles, have agried and resolved throw the Lordes
helpe each one within himselfe to stirre the grace and zeall of God that
is within them to renewed vigour and fervor, and more earnest endea-
voures in the use of all due means for that effecte, and particularly :
I. The applyeing of their sermones and doctrines more expresly
and frequently to the reproofe of those wickednesses, especially of
that horrible sine, which almost all rankes of men doe more easilie
and frequently committ than they can possiblie doe other grosse
sines, and that with lesse sens and remorse, curseing and sweareing :
and that they wiU by Godis assistance not onely use short and
frequent reproofes of this and other sines, but at some tymes more
largely insist in representing the excieding sinefulnes and vilenes
of such a particulare sine, and the great danger of the Lordeis
wrath and heaviest judgementes upon those that persist in it
2. That with this they will joyne constant privat inspection overe
the lives of their people, and by all due meanes particulare enquyrie
into them ; and when they find any one guyltie of any grosse sine,
privately to admonish him meekly and affectionately, but yet with
aU friedome and plainness : and if upon that they mend not, to
proceid in the regulare way of discipUne and censure within their
owne charge : and if they be not by that reclaimed, but prove
obstinate, then to delate them to the higher judicatories in the
usuaU order of this church.
A.L. 25

386 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
3. To the more frequent catechiseing, and that in so plaine a
method and way as may be most apt both to enforme the myndes
of the most ignorant, and through the blessing of God to make
more deep impression upon their heartes.
4. That as much as is competent for ministeres, they will indea
vour to procure the executeing of these penall lawes made against
curseing and sweareing and other scandalous offences, in such way
as may be best convenient and feasible in each of their respective
paroches. 5. That they wiU indeavour both by exhortacioun, and wheir
neid is by use of discipline, to bring their people to more careful!
and constant attendance on all the ordinances of God, at all tymes
of the accustomed publick meetings, and to a more religious and
reverent deportment in them throughout the wholl, but particularely
in tyme of prayer.
6. That they be particularfie careful! to enquyre after the daylie
performance of the worshipe of God in families, and wheir they find
it wanteing to enjoyne it, and make enquyrie againe after it, and
this would be especiallie provyded for in the chiefe and most
eminent families in the severall congregaciounes as exemplary to all
the rest. Synod XIL April 24, 1668.
. . . For preventing of tippling and drinking in aiU houses
upon the Lord's Day, it is ordained that the beU of the paroch
church be runge about halfe ane houre after afternoones sermone,
and if that they sal be found in aiU houses after the said bell, then
those persones are to be censured by the minister and session :
lykewise hyreing of servantes on the Lord's Day to be curbed. Itt
was recommended by the Bishope to the brethren that they would
be careful! to presse family exercise in the famUies within their
several! congregaciounes, and especiallie in the chiefe families as
most exemplarie to all the rest.
Ordained that ministeres within this Diocese shaU in all companies
abstein from drinking of healthes themselves, and also discounten
ance and dissuade it in otheres. ApriU 25, 1668.
*****
. . . The Bishope haveing commended the brethren for their

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 387
unity and concord and good conversation, and exhorted them to
continue therein, and to be more and more exemplare in holienesse
and in modestie and gravity, even in the externalles of their haire
and habitt and their wholl deportment, and to the regulating of
their children and their whoU families to be paternes of religion
and sobriety to all about them : and that they themselves aspyre
dayfie to greater abstraction from the world and contempte of things
belowe, giveing themselves whoUie to their great work of watching
over soules, for which they most give account, and to reading and
meditacioun, and to prayer that drawes continuall fresh supplies
from heaven to enable them for all these duties.
After some short discourse to this purpose, he clossed with
prayer, and the Synod was dissolved. Synod XIII.

. . . Session 2.
It is ordained that ministers both in their preaching and prayer
indeavour to make people sensible of God's goodness in given a
good harvest for the most parte. . . .
. . . That which has been sometymes spoke of before, the
Bishope now againe recommended to the brethren, that at their
sett tymes of catechising and examineing their people that they
would take particulare notice of young persones, and towards their
first admissioun to the Holy Communion : and haveing before
taken account of their knowledge of the grounds of religion, would
then cause them each one particularly and expreslie to declaire
their beleiff of the Christiane faith into which in their infancie they
were baptized, and remynding them of that their baptismal vow,
and the great engadgement it layes upon them to a hofie and
Christiane lyfe, would requyre of them ane explycit owneing of that
vow and engagement, and their solemne promise accordingly to
indeavour the observeing and performance of it in the whole
course of their following lyfe. And then, in their prayer with
which they use to conclude these meetings, would recommend the
said young persones now thus engagd to the effectual blessing of
God, beseeching Him to owne them for His, and to bestowe on
them the sanctifeing and strengthening grace of His Holie Spiritt,
and His signature upon them sealling them to the day of
redemption.

388 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
And this practice, as it hath nothing in it that can offend any,
even the most scrupulous mindes, so it may be a very fitt suppletory
off that defectt in infant baptism which the enemies of it doe
mainely objectt against it, and [may through the blessing of God
mak a lasting impression off religion upon the heartes of those
young persones towardes whom it is used, and effectuallie engage
them to a Christiane life : and if they swerve from it, make them the
more inexcusable and cleirly convincible of their unfaithfulnes
and breach off that great promise and sacred vow they have so
renewed to God before His people. And for authority of divines,
if wee regard that, it hath the general approbacioun of the most
famous reformers and the most pious and learned that have followed
them since their tyme : and being performed in that evangelical!
simplicity as it is here propounded, they doe not onely allow it
as lawfull, but desyre it and advyse it as laudable and profitable,
and of very good use in all Christian churches.
The Bishope did recommend to the brethren within the respec
tive Presbyteries to appoint one day in the week at least for
catechiseing and reading a portion of the Holy Scriptures, singing
of a psalme and prayer.
Lykewyse the Bishope againe did recommend to the brethren
that they would indeavour to bring their people to a reverend
gesture in tyme of prayer, and also the brethren did undertake to
doe in the samyne so farre as possiblie they could.
And haveing concluded with prayer, the Synod was ordained
to meet at eight aclock in the morneing.
Session 3. 14th Oct 1668.
. . . The Bishope haveing commended the brethren for their
unity, and concord, and good conversacioun, and exhorted them
to continue therein, and to be more and more exemplare in
holienes, modestie, and gravitie : and haveing concluded with
prayer, the Synod was dissolved. Synod XIV,
At Dunblane, the 13 of ApriU 1669.
. . . Session 2 (post meridiem).
... It being considered by the Bishope and Synod
Night Wakes. ''^^'^ ther is great profanity committed be some light
conceited persones at night walkes wheir dead persones

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 389
are, and for curbeing of the same, it is ordained that ministeres
gravelie reprove and inhibit such in tyme comeing, and also that
the minister of the paroch appoynt the eldares of the severall
quarteres to tak notice of such persones, and give up their names :
and if that they transgresse heirin after tymous warneing, they are
to be punished for the samyne. . . .
Synod XV. 5th Oct, 1669.
Session 2 (post meridiem).
... Itt is ordained that ther be commissioners
¦ chosen be the brethren to goe to the justices of peace
anent the private conventicles within the Diocese of Dunblaine,
and anent those'preacheres who keipes private meltings.
Itt is thought fitt be the Synod that the Bishope would represent
to the ensueing Parliament anent vagabondes and travellares upon
the Lord's Day, that the Parliament may provyde some remedie for
curbeing of the samyne. Synod XVI. I
At Dunblaine, April 11, 1670.
Mr. James Donaldson, minister at Port, preached,
absent °^ ^'^'^ ^^^^^ sermon the brethren convened : but the
Bishope was not yet returned from Edinburgh, whither
he was unexpectedly called the week before upon bussines of
importance.^ His intention was to have been with them that
' The " important business " which took Leighton to Edinburgh was
the prosecution of his favourite scheme for accommodation by com
prehension, under which he endeavoured to combine Presbyterians and
Episcopahans under a kind of modified Episcopacy. After repeated
conferences between leading men on both sides, the scheme was not
successful. Dr. Burnet, who was himself an agent in the matter, says :
" The Episcopalians thought that if it took effect, and the Presbyterians
were to be generally brought into churches, they would be neglected,
and their people would forsake them : and the Presby terians^thought
it was a snare, and the doing that which had a fair appearance^at
present, and was meant only to lay that generation to their grave in
peace, by which means Episcopacy, that was then shaking over all the
nation, would come to have another root and grow again out of that."

390 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
day, but in case it myght fall out otherwayes (as it did) he left order
with the Dean to preside in his stead. But the brethren finding that
there was litie or nothing to doe, chose rather to weave the melting
synodicalle for that tyme.
And the Bishope, returneing the day after, writt to both the
Presbyteries to meit at the kirk of Blackfoord the verie nixt week,
on Wednesday, being the 20th of ApriU, wher the particulares
following came before them and were dispatcht
K\X the kirk of Blackfoord, ApriU 20, 1670.
The Bishop presiding (business ordinary).
Synod XVII. nth Oct, 1670.
Session 2. . . .
In connection with a case of ministerial suspension for unworthy
conduct, and a petition from Lord Madderty and others for restora
tion (Leighton being present), there is the following which iUustrates
how the Bishop exercised authority in conjunction with the Presby
teries and not apart from them. " The quhilk suplicatioun of the
heretores and otheres foresaids, the Bishope and Synod haveing
taken seriouslie to their consideraciounesdeclared that for the present
they could not satisfie the desyres of the foresaids parishioners of
Monzie in restoring the said Mr. John to his former employment :
but did referre the samyne to a meiteing of the two respective Presby
teries, to be holden at Dunblaine upon the sixfeine of November nix to
come — to whom the Bishop and Synode {if at that tyme it shall fall
out hee bee absent himselfe) gives full and absolute power to determine
in the samyne, or to prorogate their melting, as they shall think to be
fitt and expedient untill the determination thereoff." And haveing con
cluded with prayer, the Synod was ordained to meit at eight houres
in the morning. Session 3. 1 2th Oct., 1670.
. . . The Bishope recommended to the brethren the reading of
the Holie Scriptures in publick, that they be read in Irish to those
that hes the use of it, and in English to those that have the use of it
The Bishope haveing exhorted the brethren to be careful! in
goeing about the dueties of the holie calleing, and to mutual! love,

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 391
quhilk is a marke of the true disciples of Jesus Christ, and haveing
concluded with prayer and singing of a psalme, the Synod was
dissolved. ISth Dec, 1670.
Meeting of Presbytery. . . . After prayer, Mr. Thomas Lindesay,
Moderator, presenteing ane letter from the Bishope of Dunblaine,
in relation to his commission in the former melting, the brethren
having the same read with the former letter, finds themselves to have
fuU power by the Bishop's order in the samyne to cognosce and
determine in that bussines. (Here follows an account of the process.)
The Moderator did intimate the samyne (the judgment of restoration
to the ministry) to the said Mr. John, "which the Moderator did,
with ane grave and holie exhortacioun, desyreing the said Mr. John
to walk circumspectlie, begging strength from God earnestlie, that hee
might not disanull his owne vowes, or disappoynt the brethren's
charitable expectacioun of him hereafter, tobecome a newcreatour, a
mor faithfuU minister of the Gospell : also they ordained the foresaid
Mr. John to evidence his repentance where the scandal! was given,
at the church of Dunblaine the nixt Lord's Day by preaching there :
as also that Mr. James Row should preach at Monzie, and intimate
the foresaids Mr. John his reponeing againe to his ministerie. And
haveing concluded with prayer, the meeting dissolved.
The above instance is quite sufficient in showing that
Leighton did not interfere with the spiritual functions of the
Presbytery, and is an example of the conciliatory and liberal
policy which he adopted in the government of the Diocese.
Synod XVIII.
Att Dunblaine, the eUevinth of April, jajvi' thrie score and
ellevne yeares (167 1).
The quhilk day Mr. David Litiejon, minister at Blackfoord, and
present Moderator to the Presbyterie of Ochterardor, did preach :
and sermon being endit, the Synod did meett, and after invocacioun
of the name of God, the roll was read, and some of the brethren
found to be absent ... but aU of them were excused for reasones
made knowne to the Synod.
The Bishope at his goeing to Glasgow (being uncertaine of his
returneing) did leave with the clerk of the Synod ane paper under
his owne hand, giveing warrand to the Dean to presyde in his

392 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
absence. And hee not being returned as yet from thence, did
wriatt ane letter to the Synod, which cam to their hands this day,
the tenor whereof followes : Glasgow, Appr. 6, 1671.
Reverend Brethren,
The superadded burdon that I have here sits so hard upon me
that I cannot escape from under it to be with you at this tyme, but
my heart and desyres shal be with you for a blessing from above
upon your meeting. I have nothing to recommend to you, but (if
you please) to take a review of things formerly agried on, and such
as you judge most usefull to renew the appoyntment of putteing
them in practise, and to adde whatsoever shall further accurr to
your thoughtes that may promotte the happie discharge of your
ministrie and the good of your people's soules. I know I need not
remynd you, for I am confident you daylie think of it, that the great
principle of fidelitie and diligence and good successe in that great work
is love, and the great spring of love to soules is love to Him that
bought them. Hee knew it well Himselfe, and gave us to know it
when He said, " Simone, lovest thou me : feed my sheepe : feed my
lambs.'' Deep impression of His blessed name upon our heartes
will not fail! to produce lively expression of it, not onelie in our
words and discourse in privat and publick, but will make the whoU
track of our lives to be a true copie and transcrip of His holie life :
and if there be within us any sparkles of that divine life, you know
the best way not onelie to preserv them but to excitt them and
blowe them into a flam me, is by the breath of prayer. Oh prayer,
the converse of the soule with God, the breath of God in man returneing
to its Original— frequent and fervent prayer, tlie better halfe of our
whole work, and that which maks the other half e livelie and effectuall,
as that holie company tells us, when, designeing deacones to serve the
tables, they add, " But wee will give ourselves continuallie to prayer and
the ministrie of the word."
And is it not, brethren, our unspeakeable advantage, beyond all
the gainful! and honorable imploymentes of the world, that the
wholl work of our particulare calling is a kind of liveing in heaven,
and besides its tendencie to the saving of the soules of others, is all
along so proper, and adapted to the purifieing and saveing of our
owne ? But you will possiblie say. What does hee himselfe that
speaks these things to us ? Alas ! I am ashamed to tell you, ; all I

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 393
dare say is this, I think I sie the beauty of holienes, and am
inamoured with it, though I attain it not : and how little soever I
attaine, would rather live and die in the persute of it, then in the
persute, yea, or in the possession and enjoyment, though unpurified,
of aU the advantages that this world affoords. And I trust, deare
brethren, you are of the same opinion, and have the same desyre
and designe, and follow it both with more diligence and with better
successe. But I wiU stope herre, least I sould forgett myselfe, and possiblie
rune on tiU I have wearied you, if I have not done that alreadie ;
and yet if it be so, I will hope for easie pardon at your hands, as of
a fault I have not bene accustomed heretofore, nor am not lyklie
hereafter often to commit. To the all-powerful! grace of our great
Lord and Master I recommend you and your flocks, and your whole
work amongst them, and doe earnestlie intreat your prayers for your
unworthiest but most affectionat brother and servant,
(Signed) R. Leightonne.
Synod XIX.
Att Dunblaine, the loth of October, 1672.
, . ; Section 2. . . .
. . . The Bishope haveing exhorted the brethren to love and
amitie amongst themselves (as formerly severall tymes he hes done)
and to be very carefuU over the flocks of whom God hes made them
overseeres, and having concluded with prayer and singing of a
psalme, and therafter the Synod was dismissed.
The first Synod at which Bishop Ramsay (Leighton's
successor at Dunblaine) presided, was held at Dunblaine on
September 30, 1673, and in his address to the brethren, he thus
referred to his predecessor, then the Archbishop of Glasgow : —
I doubt not but all of us judge it one great end melting together,
that we may consider one another and stire up one another to greater
and more fervent zeall in the discharge of our hie and holie calling :
and whiU I was thinking with myselfe what might be fitt for me to
move to yow, yor Register (quich I have read with verie great
satisfaction) lets me sie that yor last most reverend and pious
Bishope has so fuUie discharged himselfe that noe new thing can be
proposed; for therein I perceive that whatevir can be thought upon
for purifeing our myndes, for making our conversacioun harmles

394 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
and blameles, as that sones of God without rebuk in the midst of a
pervers generacioun, among whom we ought to shyne as lyghtes in the
world, or for fulfilling of our ministrie, is so amplie, and in so
convinceing and persuasive a straine alreadie upon yor record, that a
much wyser and experienced person than I dare pretend too, would
be forced to sitt downe with this of the wise man, "What can hee
say that comes after?" for I look on your Register as beyond some
volumes of the ancient concilles.
One thing I must tell you I have observed, that in everie Synod I
find that holie and grave Bishop renewing his desyres, and re
commending the same thing, so often as ye mete together : and
although his meikness was such as not to give yow the check in
plaine and direct termes, yet to any persone of the most ordinarie
capacitie, who shall read over your Register, as I have done, it wiU
appear that at least some amongst yow are much to be blamed for
giveing him occasion to teach precept upon precept, lyne upon lyne,
etc., and to put yow in remembrance of those things yow knew
before. Dear brethren, shall you and I complaine of any people,
" Who hes believed our report ? " and regrate that in sieing they
perceive not, and in the mean tyme, we ourselves have as littie
regard to what is recommended to us, in the name of the Lord,
though we have as great need to observe it as any of our people
have of the dueties we recommend to them ? Doubtless these things
shall witnes against us : and in the day when the book shal be
opened, this yor Register shall not be closed nor silent Therefore
I doe seriouslie recommend to yow all yor owne Actes, and par
ticularfie that Act, page (blank) whereby everie moderatore (if you
please) I would have every member appointed to search the Register,
and extract these things of so generall use, that they may be
recorded in your heartes and made legible in your conversacioun,
especiallie these who are neulie entered into the ministrie, and were
not so happie as to hear them delivered viva voce. . . .
Leighton's Addresses to the Synod of Dunblane reveal the
high ideal, and gentle, conciliatory spirit that guided him in
the discharge of his duties, but there are also several letters
belonging to the Dunblane period of his life that may here
be inserted, all of which manifest the same spirit as the
Addresses.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 395
The following indicates the manner in which he sought to
discharge his duty as a Patron. Since 1638 patronage had
been practically in abeyance, and in 1649 it had been
abolished by law. In 1662 it was restored by the Scottish
Parliament in a manner most offensive to the Scottish
people, and placed autocratic power in the hands of the
Bishops. Leighton did not exercise this, but, as the letter
indicates, sought to ascertain the desire of the heritors
and parishioners, and present the man whom they nominated.
The letter is dated Edinburgh, September 22, 1662.
" To the Heritors of the Parish of Straton.
" Worthy Gentlemen and Friends —
" Being informed that it is my duty to present a person fit
for the charge of the ministry now vacant with you, I have
thought of one, whose integrity and piety I am so fully
persuaded of, that I dare confidently recommend him to you
as one who, if the hand of God do bind that work upon him
amongst you, is likely, through the blessing of the same
hand, to be very serviceable to the building up of your souls
heavenwards, but is as far from suffering himself to be
obtruded as I am for obtruding any upon you : so that un
less you invite him to preach, and, after hearing of him,
declare your consent and desire towards his embracing of the
call, you may be secure from the trouble of hearing any
further concerning him, either from himself or me ; and if
you please to let me know your mind, your reasonable satis
faction shall be to my utmost power endeavoured by
" Your affectionate friend and humble servant,
"R. Leighton.
" The person's name is Mr. James Aird ; he was minister at
Ingram, in Northumberland, and is lately removed from
thence, and is now at Edinburgh. If you write to him, direct
it to be delivered to Hugh Paterson, writer in Edinburgh,
near the Cross, on the north side of the street This, if you

396 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
please, may be communicated to such of the inhabitants of the
parish as you shall think fit"
The minister here recommended by Leighton was
evidently not acceptable to the heritors and people of
Straiton, and he was not admitted to a parish until July 15,
1668, when he was inducted to Torryburn, on the presenta
tion of Alexander, Earl of Kincardine. The following letter
to Mr. Aird refers to Straiton, and was written prior to the
one, sent to the heritors. Edinburgh, July 5, 1662.
" Sir— " Waving all other discourse till meeting, though you are
possibly enamoured with your vacancy, yet if you find any
return of appetite to employment in the ministry, I am once
again to offer you an invitation, for there is a place or two
now vacant at my dispose. ' Tis true 'tis by the removing of
the former incumbents against their will: but you are not
guilty of that by succeeding them, nor I by giving a call to
any that will, for you may be sure they are not within the
bounds I have charge of, but in other dioceses. There is
one place indeed in my precinct^ now vacant, and yet
undisposed of, by the voluntary remove of the young man
that was in it to a better benefice, and this is likewise in my
hand : but it is of so wretchedly mean a provision that I am
ashamed to name it — little (I think) above 500 marks by year.
If the many instances of that kind you have read have made
you in love with voluntary poverty, there you may have it
but wheresoever you are or shall be for the little rest of your
time, I hope you are, and still will be, advancing in that blest
poverty of spirit that is the only true height and greatness of
spirit in all the world entitling to a crown, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. Oh ! what are the scraps that the great
ones of this world are scrambling for compared with that
' Presbytery.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 397
pretension ? I pray you as you find an opportunity, though
possibly little or no inclination to it, yet bestow one line on
" Your poor friend and servant,
" R. Leighton." 1
The following letter brings Leighton before us in the
aspect of business,^ and is worthy to be compared with a
previous letter (p. 212). He was certainly not exacting in his
demands for what were his legal dues.
Letter from Robert Leighton, Bishop of Dunblane, to
Sir George Stirling. Edinburgh, March 20 (n.y.).
"Honoured Sir —
" Yow know well how painful and unusual! a thing it is to
me to dispute these matters either by word or writt. I have
wholly intrusted the clerk with that buisinesse (the renewal
of a lease of teinds), and not limited him to any sume. If yow
make it appear to him reasonable that yow give nothing,
nothing bee it : whatsoever is my meannesse of estate and the
ability God has blessed yow with, I am far from the mean
nesse of mind to plead that : but if the clerk inform you
that others have given some acknowledgment for the very
like buisinesse, and that though no new advantage accreases
' Secretan's Archbishop Leighton.
' The following charter still survives : —
"23rd March, 1666. Charter by Robert Leighton, Bishop of Dunblane
and Dean of the Chapel Royal, as superior of the subjects disponed,
granting to William Maxwell, of Murreith, (Moureith), his heirs and
assignees, that fishing on the water of Dee called the fishery of Culdooch
otherwise called the "Dooches," with the fisher's croft and pasturage, etc.,
within the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, which had belonged to the late
Sir John Vaus of Lungcastell, and been apprised from Patrick Vans,
his son and heir. The reddendo not given. Edinburgh, 23rd March,
1666. Witnesses, Hugh Paterson, W.S., George Hutcheson, the Bishop's
servitor, and Alexander Pettigrew, writer, Edinburgh. Signed, R.
Dunblain, Decan" Sacelli Regii." Bishop's round seal attached, but
defaced. The Laing Charters : 2600 : pp. 607, 608.

398 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
to yow (for that is not vsuall in any leases), but only the
continuance of the case yow have, and securing yow from
being scru'd higher for so many years : if upon this yow be
pleasd to give him any thing, it will help to discharge some
litle charities that I have left vpon him to doe for mee ; but
if that please yow not, whatsoever yow doe shall not dis
please, " Sir, " Your very affectionate and humble servant,
" R. Leighton." *
The following letters were written to his relative, Mr. Light-
maker, of Broadhurst, Surrey, and his friend Mr. Aird,
of Torryburn.
To his brother-in-law (Mr. Lightmaker) on the death of his
son.
" I am glad of your health and recovery of your little
ones : but indeed it was a sharp stroke of a pen that told me
Love of your pretty Johnny was dead : and I felt it truly
children, ^q^q than, to my remembrance, I did the death
of any child in my life-time. Sweet thing ! and is he so
sweetly laid to sleep ? Happy he I Though we shall have no
more the pleasure of his lisping and laughing, he shall have
no more the pain of crying, nor of being sick, nor of dying,
and hath wholly escaped the trouble of schooling and all
other sufferings of boys, and the riper and deeper griefs of
riper years, this poor life being all along nothing but a linked
chain of many sorrows and many deaths. Tell my dear
sister she is now much more akin to the other world, and this
will quickly be passed to us all. John is but gone an hour or
two sooner to bed, as children use to do, and we are un
dressing to follow. And the more we put off the love of this
' " Historical Manuscripts •'—Manuscripts of Sir J. Stirling Max
well of Keir, Bart., p. 80.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 399
present world, and all things superfluous beforehand, we shall
have the less to do when we lie down."
To the Rev. Mr. Aird.
" Dear Friend —
"I trust you enjoy that same calm of mind, touching your
present concernment, that I do on your behalf. I dare not
promise to see you at Edinburgh at this time, but it is
possible I may. I know you will endeavour to set yourself
on as strong a guard as you can against the assaults you may
meet with there from divers well meaning persons, but of
weak understandings and strong passions ; and will maintain
the liberty of your own mind both firmly and meekly. Our
business is the study of sincerity and pure intention ; and
then, certainly, our blessed guide will not suffer us to lose our
way for want of light ; we have his promise, that if in all our
ways we acknowledge him, he will direct our paths. While we
are consulting about the turns and new motions of life, it is
sliding away, but if our great work in it be going on, all is
well. Pray for " Your poor Friend,
"R. L.
" Dunblain, Jan. 13th." To the Same.
" Sir— " I long to hear how you dispose of yourself, if it be
determined. If still in suspense, I still wish you the favour
able impression of that hand to which I know you have
delivered up yourself ; if you be resolved upon a removal,
and incline to the like charge here upon a^ fair call, I desire
to know it by the first opportunity, for I hear^there is some
what of that kind in the West likely to be at my disposal ; I
would not have this unsettle your propension to stay where
you are, if you find anything within you, for thorns grow

400 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
everywhere and from all things below : and to a soul
transplanted out of itself into the root of Jesse, peace grows
everywhere too, from him who is called our Peace, and whom
we still find the more to be so, the more entirely we live to
him, being dead to this world, and self, and all things besides
him. Oh ! when shall it be ? Well, let the world go as it will ;
let this be our only pursuit and ambition, and to all other
things_/?«i; voluntas tua, Domine!'
To the Same.
"Dear Friend —
" Being at present not well, I shall say no more but that I
take these communications as a singular act of the truest
kindness and friendship, and heartily thank you for them, and
am glad to find that there are some souls in this world truly
sick of it all, that being, in my opinion, a very happy symptom
and prognostic of a prevailing health — such a degree of it at
least as may be had in the diseased, defiled cottages wherein
we dwell, and may be to us a certain pledge of real beginning of
that full health we look for at our removal, and therefore have
so much reason to long and wish earnestly and sigh and
groan for that day, and yet have no less reason to wait
patiently for it Pray for " Your poor Friend,
" R. L
"March 21, 1669."
The following letter to his sister, expressing his desire
for retirement, indicates that even at Dunblane Leighton
was conscious of the wide discontent in the country, and
desired retirement from what seemed to him more and
more an impossible situation. It was written probably
about 1665 or 1667. " Dunblane, April 19.
" Dear Sister —
" I was strangely surprised to see the bearer here. What

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 401
could occasion it I do not yet understand. At parting he
earnestly desired a line to you, which, without his desire,
my own affection would have carried me to, if I knew what
to say, but what I trust you do : and 'tis that our joint
business is to die daily to this world and .self, that what
little remains of our life we may live to Him that died for
us. For myself, to what purpose is it to tell you I grow
old and sickly ? and though I have here great retirement —
as great and possibly greater than I could readily find
anywhere else — -yet I am still panting after a retreat from
this place and all public charge, and, next to rest in the grave,
it is the pressingest desire I Jiave of anything in this world
and, if it might be, with you or near you. But our heavenly
Father, we quietly resigning all to Him, both knows and
will do what is best. Remember my kindest affection to
your son and daughter, and to Mr. Siderfin, and pray for
" Your poor weary brother,
"R. L."
The letter is evidently to be read in connexion with his
statement to the Synod of Dunblane on October 11, 1665,*
expressing his resolution "of retiring from his public charge''
with the reasons given : " the sense he had of his own un
worthiness of so high a station in the Church, and his
weariness of the contentions of this charge, which seemed
rather to be growing than abating, and by their growth did
make so great abatements of that Christian meekness and
mutual charitie, which is so much more worth than the sum
of all that was contended about" The country was ruled
by tyranny, and responded in the west and south-west by
rebellion. The people were dissatisfied with the " King's
curates," treated their ministries with scorn, and forsook
their churches. They were brought before the Council and
Ecclesiastical Commission for absenting themselves from
' P. 374 ; cf. also p. 379.
A.L. 26

402 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
ordinances that they did not desire, on the information of
the clergy, and were condemned to imprisonment, fines, and
even whippings on defective proof Guards were quartered
through the country, under the command of the fierce Sir
James Turner, who was ordered by Rothes to act, according
to Archbishop Burnet's instructions.' The government of the
country became an inquisition rather than a legal court,
and on the temper produced by such dealings there is a
significant comment by the then Archbishop of Glasgow
himself: — "the least commotion in England and Ireland, or
encouragement from foreigners abroad, would certainly engage
us in a new rebellion." ^
Leighton went to London and informed the King of the
proceedings of the Government of Scotland as headed by
Lauderdale, Rothes and Sharp. He described it as so violent,
that he could not concur in planting Christianity itself in
such a manner much less a form of gover?iment. He begged
leave to quit his bishopric and to retire, for he considered
he was in some sort accessory even to the violencies done by
others, since lie was one of tfiem, and all was done with a
pretence of establishing their order. The King seemed
touched with the state of the country, would not suffer
Leighton to quit his bishopric, spoke very severely of Sharp,
assured Leighton that he would quickly come to other
measures and put a stop to violent ones. He ordered the
ecclesiastical commission to be discontinued, and promised
that another way was necessary for his affairs. Leighton
seemed, as far as promises went, to have achieved his mission
and returned home with the purpose of achieving all that
a single-hearted, conciliatory spirit could propose.
But alas ! for any promise made by the perfidious
Charles II; Sharp before long attained the upper hand;
under the fear of help from Holland Dalziel was promoted to
' Burnet's History, i. 376-379.
* Lauderdale Papers, i. 215 note.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 403
be a general ; and it required the Pentland Rising of 1 666
with the awful horrors of " Haddock's Hole," perpetrated
on the Covenanters, to prove that the severities of Rothes
and Sharp were a blunder, and to make Lauderdale begin
an administration with milder methods. It was not till
June 7, 1669, that "the First Letter of Indulgence" was
issued, and from 1665 Leighton was but as a voice crying in
the wilderness. His endeavours for conciliation, if impossible
of achievement, were at least sincere, and it is pleasant
to find a relieving feature in the black picture.
The following two letters were written by Leighton before
the Accommodation Movement, as it was technically called
(1667- 1 671), and were intended for private circulation in
manuscript form. They were incorporated by McWard
in his Case of the Accommodation, printed at Rotterdam in
1 67 1. They are valuable as an embodiment of Usher's
Scheme, as applied to Scotland, and as an interpretation of
it, in connexion with the Covenants.'
Moderate Episcopacy as now established in Scotland, considered
with a view to Accommodation.
" Sir— "In the late Conference I had with your friend, the sum of
what I said was this :
" I. That Episcopal Government, managed in conjunction with
Presbyters in Presbyteries and Synods, is not contrary either to
the rule of Scripture, or the example of the Primitive Church, but
most agreeable to both.
"2. Yea, it is not contrary to that very Covenant, which is
pretended by so many as the main, if not the only, reason of their
scrupUng : and for their sakes it is necessary to add this. For
notwithstanding the many irregularities both in the matter and
form of that Covenant, and the illegal and violent ways of pressing
and prosecuting of it, yet to them who remain under the conscience
of its full force and obligation, and in that seem invincibly persuaded,
it is certainly most pertinent, if it be true, to declare the consistence
' Cf pp. 124-126, 183-185.

404 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
of the present Government even with that obligation. And as both
these assertions, I believe upon the exactest (if impartial and
impassionate) inquiry, wiU be found to be in themselves true : so
they are owned by the generality of the Presbyterians in England :
as themselves have published their opinions in print under this
title. Two Papers of Proposals humbly presented to his Majesty by
the Reverend Ministers of the Presbyterian persuasion. Printed at
London, Anno 1661."
Besides other passages in these Papers to the same purpose, at
pages II and 12 are these words : "And as these are our general
ends and motives, so we are induced to insist upon the form
of a Synodical Government, conjunct with a fixed Presidency or
Episcopacy, for these reasons :
" I. We have reason to believe that no other terms will be so
generally agreed on, etc.
" 2. It being agreeable to the Scripture and Primitive Government,
is likeliest to be the way of a more Universal Concord, if ever the
Churches on earth arrive to such a blessing : however, it will be
most acceptable to God and well-informed consciences.
"3. It will promote the practise of Discipline and Godliness
without disorder, and promote order without hindering Discipline
and Godliness,
" 4. And it is not to be silenced (though in some respect we
are loth to mention it) that it will save the nation from the violation
of their Solemn vow and Covenant, without wronging the Church
at all, or breaking any other Oath, etc." And a littie after they
add, that " the Prelacy disclaimed in that Covenant was the engross
ing of the sole power of Ordination and Jurisdiction, and exercising
of the whole Discipline absolutely by Bishops themselves and their
delegates, chanceUors, surrogates, and officials, etc., excluding wholly
the Pastors of particular churches from all share in it."
"And there is one of prime note amongst them, Mr. Baxter,
who in a large Treatise of Church Government,' doth clearly evince,
that this was the mind both of the Parliament of England, and
of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, as they themselves did
expressly declare it, in the admitting of the Covenant, ' that they
understand it not to be against all Episcopacy, but only against
that particular frame,' as it is worded in the article itself. Because
' Five Disputations of Church Government and Worship.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 405
every one hath not the book, I have transcribed here Mr. Baxter's
own words.
"In the 3rd part of his Treatise, at p. 275, he asserts, 'An
Episcopacy desirable for the Reformation, Preservation, and Peace
of the Churches.' And at p. 297 he asserts the desirableness of
'a fixed President, durante vita! The objections to this, drawn
from the Covenant, he thus answers at p. 330.
" But some will say, we are engaged against all Prelacy by
Covenant, and therefore cannot yield to as much as you do, without
perjury. Ans. That this is utterly untrue, I thus demonstrate.
" I. ' When the Covenant was presented to the Assembly with
the bare name of Prelacy joined to Popery, many grave and reverend
Divines desired that the word Prelacy might be explained, because
it was not all Episcopacy they were against And thereupon the
following concatenation in the parenthesis was given by way of
explication, in these words : That is. Church government by Arch
bishops, Bishops, their Chancellors and Commissaries, Deans and
Chapters, Archdeacons, and all other Ecclesiastical OfiUcers depending
on that Hierarchy.' By which, it appears, that it was only the
English hierarchy, or frame, that was covenanted against, and that
which was then existent, that was taken down.
"2. When the House of Lords took the Covenant, Mr. Thomas
Coleman, that gave it them, did so explain it, and profess that it
was not their interest to covenant against all Episcopacy ; and
upon this explanation it was taken : and certainly the Parliament
was most capable of giving the due sense of it, because it was
they that did impose it.
" 3. And it could not be all Episcopacy that was excluded,
because a parochial Episcopacy was at the same time used and
approved commonly here in England.
" 4. And in Scotland they had used the help of Visitors for the
reformation of their churches, committing the care of a county or
large circuit to some one man, which was as high a sort of
Episcopacy, at least, as I am pleading for. Besides that, they had
Moderators in all their Synods, which were temporary Bishops.
"5. Also the chief Divines of the late Assembly at Westminster,
that recommended that Covenant to the Nations, have professed
their own judgments for such a Moderate Episcopacy as I am here
defending : and therefore never intended the exclusion of this by
the Covenant.

4o6 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
" After, he adds, ' As we have the old Episcopacy to beware of,
so we have the contrary extreme to avoid, and the Church's Peace
(if it may be) to procure. And as we must not take down the
Ministry, lest it prepare men for Episcopacy, so neither must we be
against any profitable exercise of the Ministry, or desirable order
amongst them for fear of introducing Prelacy.' Thus far Baxter's
own words.
"There is another that hath writ a Treatise on purpose, and that
zealous and strict enough, touching the obligation of the League
and Covenant, under the name of Theophilus Timorous.' And yet
therein it is expressly asserted that " however, at first, it might
appear that the Parliament had renounced aU Episcopacy, yet upon
exacter inquiry, it was evident to the Author that that very scruple
was made by some members in Parliament, and resolved (with the
consent of their Brethren in Scotland) that the Covenant was only
intended against Prelacy, as then it was in being in England, leaving
a latitude for Episcopacy, etc."
" It should be noted that when that Covenant was framed, there
was no Episcopacy at all being in Scotland, but in England only :
so that the extirpation of that frame only could then be meant and
understood. Likewise it should be considered, that though there
be in Scotland at present the name of Dean, and Chapter, and
Commissaries, yet that none of them at all do exercise any part of
the Discipline under that name, neither any other, as Chancellor or
Surrogate, etc., by delegation from Bishops, with a total exclusion
of the community of Presbyters from all power and share in it,
which is the great point of difference betwixt that Model and this
with us, and imports so much as to the manner of Discipline. I do
not deny that the generality of the people, yea even of the ministers
in Scotland, when they took the Covenant, might likewise under
stand that Article as against all Episcopacy whatsoever, even the most
moderate, especiaUy if it should be restored under the express
name of Bishops and Archbishops : never considering how different
the nature, and model, and way of exercising it may be, though
under the same names, and that the due regulating of the thing is
much more to be regarded than either the retaining or altering of
¦ The Covenanters Plea against Absolvers : or a Discourse showing
why those who in England and Scotland took the Solemn League and
Covenant cannot judge their consciences discharged from the obli
gation of it.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 407
the name. But though they did not then consider any such thing,
yet certainly it concerns them now to consider it, when it is
represented to them, that not only the words of the Oath itself do
very genuinely consist with such a qualified and distinctive sense,
but that the very composers and imposers of it, or a considerable
part of them, did so understand and intend it. And unless they
make it appear that the Episcopacy now in question with us in
Scotland is either contrary to the Word of God, or to that mitigated
sense of their own Oath, it would seem more suitable to Christian
charity and moderation, rather to yield to it as tolerable, at least,
than to continue so inflexibly fast to their first mistake and excessive
zeal, as for love of it to divide from their Church, and break the
bond of Peace.
" It may likewise be granted that some learned men in England,
who refused to take the Covenant, did possibly except against that
Article of it, as signifying the total renunciation and abolition of all
Episcopacy : and seeing that was the real event and consequent of
it, and they having many other strong and weighty reasons for
refusing it, it is no wonder that they were little anxious to inquire
what passed amongst the contrivers of it, and what distinction or
different senses either the words of that Article might admit, or
those contrivers might intend by them. And the truth is, that
besides many other evils, the iniquity and unhappiness of such
Oaths and Covenants lies much in this, that being commonly
framed by persons that, even among themselves, are not fully of
one mind, but have their different opinions and interests to serve
(and it was so even in this), they are commonly patched up of so
many several articles and clauses, and those, too, of so versatile and
ambiguous terms, that they prove most wretched snares, thickets of
briars and thorns to the consciences of those that are engaged in
them, and matter of endless contentions and disputes amongst them
about the true sense and intendment, and the tie and obligements
of those doubtful clauses, especially in some such alterations and
revolutions of affairs as always may, and often do, even within few
years, follow after them : for the models and productions of such
devices are not usually long-lived. And whatever may be said for
their excuse in whole or in part, who, in yieldance to the Power
that pressed it, and the general opinion of this Church at that time
did take that Covenant in the most moderate and least schismatical
sense that the terms can admit : yet, I know not what can be said

4o8 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
to clear them of a very great Sin, that not only framed such an
Engine, but violently imposed it upon all ranks of men, not
ministers and other public persons only, but the whole body and
community of the people, thereby engaging such droves of poor
ignorant persons to they know not what, and, to speak freely, to
such a hodge-podge of various concernments. Religious and Civil,
as Church Discipline and Government, the Privileges of Parlia
ment and Liberties of Subjects, and Condign Punishment of
Malignants, things hard enough for the wisest and learnedest to
draw the just lines of, and to give plain definitions and decisions of
them, and therefore certainly as far off from the reach of poor
country people's understanding, as from the true interest of their
souls : and yet to tie them by a Religious and Sacred Oath either
to know all these, or to contend for them bhndfold without knowing
them : — Can there be instanced a greater oppression and tyranny
over consciences than this 2 Certainly they that now govern in this
Church cannot be charged with anything near or like unto it : for
whatsoever they require of intrants to the Ministry, they require
neither Subscriptions nor Oaths of Ministers already entered, and far
less of the whole body of the people. And it were ingenuously
done to take some notice of any point of moderation, or whatso
ever else is really commendable even in those we account our great
est enemies, and not to take any Party in the world for the absolute
standard and unfailing rule of Truth and Righteousness in all things.
"As for our present model in Scotland and the way of managing of
it, whatsoever is amiss (and it can be no wrong to make that sup
position concerning any Church on earth), or whatsoever they
apprehend to be amiss, though it may be upon mistake, the
Brethren that are dissatisfied had possibly better acquitted their
duty by free admonitions and significations of tiieir own sense in aU
things, than by leaving of their stations, which is the one thing that
hath made the breach, I fear, very hard to cure, and in human
appearance near to incurable. But there is much charity due to
them, as following the dictate of their own conscience : and they
owe, and, I hope, pay the same back again to those that do the
same in another way : and whatsoever may be the readiest and
happiest way of reuniting those that are mutually so minded, the
Lord reveal it to them in due time. This one word I shaU add : —
That this difference should arrive to so great a height may seem
somewhat strange to any man that calmly considers that there is i

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 409
this Church no change at all, neither in the Doctrine nor Worship,
no, nor in the substance of the Discipline itself : but when it falls
on matter easily inflammable, a little spark, how great a fire will it
kindle !
" But oh, who would not long for the shadows of the evening, and
to be at rest from all these poor childish, trifling contests ! "
Postscript.
" Whatsoever was the occasion ef copying out the passages cited in
this Paper, and of adding these few thoughts that then occurred
touching that subject, I would have neither of them understood as
intended any way to reflect upon or judge other Churches where
this Government is otherwise exercised : but what is here said
is only argu^nentum ad hominem, and particularly adapted to
the persons, and notions, and scruples we have to do withal
in this Church. And though this is designed to come to very
few hands, yet I wish that what is here represented were by
some better way brought to the notice of such as know least of it
and need it most that, if it be possible, their extreme fervour might
be somewhat allayed by this consideration, that this very form of
Government, which is so hateful to them, is by the Presbyterians of
the neighbour kingdom accounted a thing, not only tolerable, but
desirable.' And I might add that, upon due inquiry, the Reformed
Churches abroad will be found in a great part much of the same
opinion : yea, I am not afraid to say yet further, that I think there
is good reason to believe that it were not only lawful for those that
now govern in this Church, but, if prejudice hindered not, might
prove expedient and useful for the good of the Church itself, that
they did use in some instances a little more authority than they do,
and yet might still be very far off from proud and tyrannical
domination, never applying their power to obstruct what is good,
but to advance it, and not at all against the Truth, but always for
it And while they do so, the Atheism and Profaneness that
abounds cannot reasonably be imputed to the nature of the
Government, as too commonly it is by some, but rather to the
schism that is made by withdrawing and dividing from it : for there
is not a greater enemy in the world to the power of Religion than
the wranglings and contentions than are raised about the external
forms of it. T&lpi^vr} <j>iXy], eipi^vr} ^lAi/, ¦jrov irore aweXi'Trei rnj.S,'; ; as
Nazianzen patheticaUy begins one of his Orations for Peace. I
' See pp. 309-322, especially pp. 317, 319.

410 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
confess I have somewhat wondered to see some wise and good men,
after all that can be said to them, make so great reckoning of
certain metaphysical exceptions against some little modes and
formalities of difference in the Government, and set so littie a value
upon so great a thing as is the Peace of the Church. Oh, when
shaU the low and harsh noises of our Debates be turned into the
sweeter sound of united Prayers for this blessed Peace, that we
might cry with one heart and voice to the God of Peace, who alone
can give it. Pacem te poscimus omnes ! And if we be real
suppliants for it, we should beware of being the disappointers of
our own desires, and of obstructing the Blessing we pray for, and
therefore should mainly study a temper receptive of it, and that is
great Meekness and Charity. And certainly whatsoever party or
opinion we follow in this matter, the badge by which we must be
known to be followers of Jesus Christ is this, that we love one
another : and that Law unquestionably is of Divine right, and
therefore should not be broken by bitter passion and revilings, and
rooted hatreds one against another for things about which the right
is in dispute betwixt us. And, however that be, are we Christians ?
Then doubtless the things wherein we agree are incomparably
greater than those wherein we disagree, and therefore in aU reason
should be more powerful to unite us than the other to divide us.
But to restrain myself, and stop here, if we love both our own and
the Church's Peace, there be two things I conceive we should most
carefully avoid, viz., the bestowing of too great zeal upon small
things, and too much confidence of opinion upon doubtful things.
It is a mad thing to rush on hard and boldly in the dark, and we all
know what kind of person it is of whom Solomon says. That he
rages and is confident. Letter II.
" Sir— " The question betwixt us is not concerning Bishops governing
absolutely by themselves and their delegates, but concerning Bishops
governing iu conjunction with Presbyters in Presbyteries and
Synods. Of which we affirm that it is neither contrary to the
Scriptures, nor the example of the Primitive Church, but most
agreeable to both : if any think otherwise, let them produce their
evidences of Scripture and Antiquity. If they say, it is not enough
to make such a form lawful, that it is not contrary to the Scripture,
but there ought to be an express command or rule in Scripture to

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 411
warrant it, they will, surely, be so just as to be subject to the same
law themselves. Let them then produce such an express command
or rule for their own model of Kirk-Sessions, Presbyteries, Synods
Provincial and National, Commission of the Kirk, and their several
dependencies and subordinations for the ordinary and constant
government and exercise of discipUne in the Church, and the
necessary changing of the Moderators in these meetings, excepting
only that of the Kirk-Session, wherein the Minister is constantly to
moderate. For without such an express rule as this, a Bishop or
fixed President may very well consist with that whole frame they con
tend for ; and it is reaUy and actually so at this present in this Church,
and they stand so much the rather obliged to bring a clear command
for these Judicatories, and their subordinations, because they affirm
them to be of unquestionable Divine Right, and the very Kingdom
of Christ upon earth, and the only lawful and absolutely necessary
Government of the Christian Church,' whereas the assertors of other
forms do not usually speak so big. If they shall say they are not
against a fixed President or Bishop, or call him what you will (for to
contest about names, especially in so grave a matter, is trivial and
childish), but that the question is above their power, then we beg that
it may be so. Let that be all the question betwixt us, and then we
hope the controversy wiU be quickly ended : for we trust we shall be
found not at all desirous to usurp or affect any undue power, but
rather to abate of that power which is reasonable and conformable
even to Primitive Episcopacy, than that a Schism should continue in
this Church upon that score. But be it supposed that Bishops do
stretch their power somewhat beyond their line, let all the world
judge whether Ministers are for that engaged to leave their station
and withdraw from those meetings of the Church, which themselves
approve of, for the exercise of Discipline, yea and (as many of them
have done) to separate from the Public Worship, and whole Com
munion of the Church, because of some degree of wrong done them
as they think, in that point of power : or whether they had not
sufficientiy acquitted themselves, and discharged their consciences
by free declaring of their opinion concerning that matter, and
modestly desiring the redress of it : and patiently waiting for it,
though it be not presently redressed, and continuing in the per
formance of their own duty to their power, though others above
them, or about them, do transgress theirs, or seem at least to them
' Cf. pp. 186-194.

412 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
to do so. Otherwise, if we think ourselves obliged for everything
that is, or that we judge faulty in other persons, or in the frame of
things in the Church, to relinquish either the communion of it, or
our station in it, what will there be but endless swarms of separations
and divisions in any Church under the sun ?
" But there is one thing in this business of ours that sticks after all
the rest : the Covenant. AS to that, waiving all the irregularities of it,
though so many and so great, that in the judgment of divers both
wise and good men they seem to annul the obligation of it, suppose
it still to bind all that took it, and suppose likewise that the present
Episcopacy in this Church is that same that was abjured in the
Covenant : yet the article relating thereto obliges each one only to
this, to endeavour within their calling and station to extirpate it, if
such an Episcopacy shall be introduced and continued against their
wiU. But the truth is, if men would have the patience to inquire
into it, and consider the thing without prejudice and partiality, this
our Episcopacy will be found not to be the same with that abjured
in that Covenant : for that is tlie Government of Bishops and
Archbishops absolutely by themselves and their Delegates, Chan
cellors, Archdeacons, Officials, etc., as it is expressed in the very
words of the Article, and was on purpose so expressed to
difference that frame from other forms of Episcopacy, and
particularly from that which is exercised by Bishops jointly with
Presbyters in Presbyteries and Synods : and that is it which
is now used in this Church. And that the Presbyterians in
England do generally take notice of this difference, and to that
degree, as to account the one Model contrary to the Covenant
and the other not contrary to it, but very well agreeing with it,
is a thing that none can deny, nor any that uses diligence to
inquire can be ignorant of it, for it is clear in divers Treatises
extant in print. These things, to my best discerning, are Truths :
and if they be indeed so, I am sure are pertinent Truths,
toward the healing of our sad Divisions : but ij any like to be
contentious, I wish I could say of this Church, we have no such
custom, but — this certainly may be said, that there is no custom
doth more disedify the Churches of God, and less become the
followers of the Prince of Peace. I shall only add one word,
which I am sure is undeniable, and I think is very considerable,
that he that cannot join with the present frame of this Church
could not have Uved in the communion of the Christian Church in

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 413
the time of the first most famous General Assembly of it, the
Council of Nice : yea (to go no higher up, though safely I might) he
must as certainly have separated from the whole Catholic Church,
in the days of the holy Bishop and Martyr Cyprian, upon this
very scruple of the government, as Novatus did upon another
occasion." The other Scottish Bishops concerned in the affairs of Scot
land were not as Leighton. Burnet's was the worst possible
appointment that could have been made to the Archbishopric
of Glasgow, and his unrelaxing efforts to dragoon the western
clergy and people to episcopal authority, appear to have been
as potent a factor in the discontent of the time as the knavery
of Sharp, and the brutality of Rothes, Hamilton and their
merciless coadjutors.' But Leighton's influence seems to
have had some power over Lauderdale, and nothing so
demonstrates it as the letter of the Scottish Bishops (dated
Edinburgh, September 16, 1667). Burnet reported to
Sheldon ^ that at a meeting of the Scottish Bishops, which
after great pressure Sharp had been induced to summon, he had
urged that a letter should be written to Sheldon, in the name
of all present, expressing their sense of the danger to which
they were exposed by the conciliation policy of Lauderdale
and his friends, and their earnest hope that this policy might
be stopped. He goes on to say that to frustrate his objects
Sharp moved that a letter should also be written to Lauder
dale himself; that it was thereupon arranged that Sharp
should draft this letter, while that to Sheldon was left to
him : that when Sharp told him, he must not speak with
his accustomed freedom, and that former letters of his had
been displeasing to Lauderdale, he declined to have anything
to do with the matter.
There is no reason to doubt Archbishop Burnet's account,
but Sharp in his letter to Sheldon ' gives a different one. He
speaks as if it were the result of an independent and un-
' Cf. Appendix to Lauderdale Papers, ii. pp. xxix., xxxiv., xiii., xlvi.
2 Ibid. p. xlix. = Ibid. p. .

414 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
biassed view of affairs ; that he is beginning to regard the
violence of former years as a mistaken policy ; praises the
loyalty to the Church showed by Lauderdale and Murray ;
mentions lightly that at the Bishops' meeting it was judged
fitting to write a letter expressing this, and only at the very
end of the letter, and as it were incidentally, refers to the fact
that it had been moved to write also to Sheldon himself, as
though this had been the second thought, nor does he hint at
the causes of that motion. The Scottish Bishops' letter to
Lauderdale, as drafted by Sharp, says nothing whatever
about the alarm which Burnet declares prompted his motion,
and is entirely concerned with their expression of belief in
Lauderdale's virtues and in his zeal for the welfare of their
order. Either Burnet or Sharp was lying, and there can be
no doubt that it was Sharp. The trick was a clever one, but
its smartness was seen by Robert Moray, who writes on
September 20 :
"Though S. S. and I laughed till we were weary at the letter of
the Bishops that was sent you, yet you may pick out of it some
passages that may sway you to comply with the advice I give. But
in sum you will soon observe, as we have done, what a silly com
pany of people they are, and how useful one of them is in managing
of the rest."^
Sharp had been made to feel that the safest game was to
accept Lauderdale's mastery and confine himself, as he was
ordered, to his own diocese. But the letter of the Scottish
Bishops, drafted by him, shows that on account of Lauderdale's
apparent acceptance of Leighton's conciliatory attitude.
Sharp was forced to appear as falling in line with it, and this
at a time when, as Burnet shows, he was particularly hostile
to Leighton.2
The letter of the Scottish Bishops is another instance of
Sharp's craft, and proves, along with other irrefragable
evidence, that the estimate of James Sharp's character, pro-
' Ibid. p. 70. ^ History of His Own Times, i. 372.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 415
nounced by Mr. Osmund Airy, the editor of the Lauderdale
Papers, is, although severe, the only possible one :
" We have showed that Sharp was reckoned a poltroon and a liar :
but a poltroon of serviceable ability, and a liar whose lies could be
counted upon : that, unstable as he was in all else, he might always
be depended upon to betray his associates and the cause which he
was supposed to represent ; that cajolery, however coarse and care
less, would instantly draw from him the most fawning recognition
and timely menace the most abject surrender : that, after being the
most trusted minister of that kirk which had waged a century's war
against crown and nobility, he had acquired through various stages
this supreme merit in the eyes of king and nobility alike, that, when
dirty work had to be done, he did it really well." '
The letter is one of the few in which Leighton's name
appears in association with those of the Scottish Bishops, and
it is the only one in which he signs himself " R. Dunblane "
— it being a noteworthy fact that even in his official letters
to Lauderdale and others, he invariably, and contrary to the
custom of his colleagues, signs himself " Robert Leighton."
The Scotch Bishops to the Earl of Lauderdale.
Edinburgh, i6th September, 1667.
" May it Please Your Lordship—
" Wee having mett at this place for consulting what may be incum
bent to us upon the juncture of affairs, for obviating and curing
those eviUs which doe infest and threaten the Church, doe find
ourselves oblidged to tender to your Lo"" our humble ac
knowledgment of that favour and care for the legall government
of this Church you were pleasid to express by your civilities to those
of ourselves when we had occasions to wait upon yow, and your
readines to assist us in our addresses to his sacred Ma'^ and in
the dispatches of his royall instructions and coinands from tyme
to tyme in order to the setlement and quiet of this Church.
Next, we shaU crave leave to say, y', as by the Institution of our
offices and his M'"^' favour which placed ws in them, we are
bound to direct all our actions and administrations for the glory of
God, the honour and greatness of the King, the peace of Church
'^Scottish Review, ]u\y, 1884.

4i6 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
and Kingdom, with the maintenance of EpiscopaU government in its
authority allowed by the lawes, so we shall not doubt of your
Lo''^ countenance of ws, and concurrance in pursuance of
these ends ; some of ws having heard your Lo". to our great
content express your judgment as to the basis and right upon which
the order of episcopacy is foundit, and all of us may know the great
trust our royall master does repose in your Lo"'^ eminent
abilities and fidelity, and have been acquainted with the assurance
yow have laitly given of the sincerity of your professed kyndes and
concernment for the Church government as now settled by Law ; in
the management whereof we propose no other design but yt the
clergy and people cornitted to our inspection may live in the awe
of the religion professed in the conscience and practise of Loyalty to
the King, obedience to his Laws, and charity and peace amongst
themselves, wee make it our care in the way proper to ws, to
endeavour the suppressing of error, profainnes, shism, and sedition,
which to our great greif have gott too much ground in this kingdom ;
wee find our interest, how wigorously soever imployed, insufficient to
prevaile over these, without the reale assistance of the Ministers of
State and justice of the Kingdom : we profess ourselves servants
in sincerity to all who serve the King ; we sufficiently know yt under
God we have no dependance nor security but upon the favour and
protection of our most gracious master, and in our own innocency
and integrity in the discharge of our duties ; and doe desire without
any jealousy or reserve to rely and putt ourselves upon your
Lo""'^ patrociny and freindship, hoping yt the great interest
God hath given your Lo" with the King, and in the administra
tion of his affairs, shall have its auspicious and benign influence for
the flourishing of the Church, and our encouragement in the service
of it, which will inviolably ingage our duty and prayers, yt the like
signs from heaven which in all ages have been observed to attend
the persons and howses of the freinds of the EpiscopaU order (the
known and experienced channell of conveyance and preservation of
truth and power to the Christian world) may be multiplyed and
ensured upon your person and noble family; wee presume yt your
Lo^'^ ends and ours are the same, and if ther happen any
difference about the meanes conducing thereunto, we shaU not stick
in our opinion, but in submission and paying all becoming deference
to your Lo"'^ great judgment and experience.
By your Lo^'^ permission we shall moreover offer our

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 417
humble sute, first for the Church and then for ourselves. That by your
Lo""^ intercession the King may be graciously pleasit, yt after
the signifying of his will about the expedients for the quiet of the
kingdom upon the disbanding of the forces, the disturbers of the
peace of the Church, who continue their insolent and scandalous
affronting and contempt of the Lawes, may effectually find yt though
in the method of provision for the publick quiet the peace of the
State may be first taken into consideration, yet the quiet of the
Church cannot saifely nor reasonably be disregardit or separated
from it, seeing the attempts against the one have been found in all
Christian kingdoms not to hold long without the detriment and
concussion of the other; and for ourselves we humbly intreat
y' your Lop may not intertain mistakes of any of ws, but yt
yow would be assured yt as we place our great releef from despon-
dencie under the many difficulties and discouragements we meet
with in your Lo"'^ good opinion of ws, and beeng concerned for
our order, so we shall, by the grace of God, be carefuU to deserve
well of your Lo" and yt the tenour of our actions may witness
yt we are in all dutifulnes.
Your Lo^'' most humble and obedient Servants,
St. Andrews,
Geo. Edinburgen, Alex. Glascuen,
Henr. Dunkeld, Ja. Gallobidien,
Pat. Bp. of Aberdeen, Alexan. Moraniens,
Da. Brechinen, R. Sodoren,
Will. Lismoren, R. Dunblane.
It is curious that Leighton did not separate from his party,
for his heart could not be with the blood-stained Dalziel,
" the Muscovite," as he pursued his awful work in Ayrshire
and Dumfriesshire, and whose cruelty made the people of
the West think kindly of his predecessor. Sir James Turner.
Leighton's sympathies were with the cloud of witnesses —
with men like Hugh McKail, who believed, as Renwick did
in 1683, " that if the Lord could be tyed to any place, it is to
the mosses and muirs of Scotland."
We know that it was his longing to reconcile that detained
him at his post, as well as his hope that he might succeed in
A.L. 27

4i8 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
the establishment of milder measures. Had he been at
Glasgow from the first, or had he accepted the station which
Sharp dishonoured, the history of the country might have
been different Lauderdale's change of policy (at least for
a time) was evidently the occasion of fresh hope, and that
must be Leighton's vindication, as it was the outcome of
Leighton's pleading with the King. The fall of Clarendon
was followed unquestionably by a change for the better in
Scotland, as Rothes was dismissed from office. Sharp had to
confine himself to his diocese and come no more to Edin
burgh,' and worthy men like the Earl of Tweeddale^ and
Sir Robert Murray acquired an influence in the conduct of
affairs. The First Letter of Indulgence (June 7, 1669)
allowed such ejected ministers, as had lived " peaceably and
orderly," to reoccupy their churches if they happened to be
vacant. Only about forty ejected ministers succumbed to
the temptation (among them George Hutcheson and Robert
Douglas), but by a large number of the people their
acceptance of the Indulgence was regarded as a base
compliance. It was soon seen that this acceptance meant
' Burnet's History, i. 428.
2 "Lord Tweeddale took great pains," says Burnet, "to engage Leighton
into the same counsels with him. He had magnified him highly to the
King, as the much greatest man of the Scottish clergy; and the Lord
Tweeddale's chief aim with relation to church matters was to set him at
the head of them : for he often said to me that more than two parts in
three of the whole business of the government related to the church.
So he studied to bring in a set of episcopal men of another stamp, and
to set Leighton at their head. . . . Leighton was prevailed on to go to
London, where, as he told me, he had two full audiences of the King."
{History of His Own Time, i. p. 443.) At these audiences Leighton
impressed on the King the madness of the former administration, the
necessity for moderate counsels, and his comprehension of the Presby
terian, which by abatements for the present might preserve the whole
for the future. {Ibid.)
Tweeddale sent a commission to inquire into the Western atrocities,
and Sir Robert Murray, who went personally through the West reported
that no support could be given to the " ignorant " and " scandalous "
clergy or curates in Burnet's diocese. (/&'(/. pp. 440, 441.)

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 419
the acceptance of Episcopacy and the ecclesiastical supremacy
of the Crown, and this was indicated in a measure of the
Parliament, which met in October, with Lauderdale as King's
commissioner. By another Act of November 16, it was once
more declared that the King possessed " supreme authority
and supremacy over all persons and in all causes ecclesias
tical." ' On the other hand. Archbishop Burnet, of Glasgow,
and many of the Episcopal clergy were enraged, because the
Indulgence allowed benefices to be held, without a direct
acknowledgment of the authority of the Bishops. In the
Remonstrance of the Synod of Glasgow, drafted by Burnet,
it was affirmed that the late Indulgence had been granted
against the interests and desires of the Church, and that as a
result of the Government policy, the religious condition of
the country was more unsatisfactory than ever.^ The Epis
copal remonstrants were as summarily dealt with as their
Presbyterian brethren, and before the close of the year,
Archbishop Burnet was removed from his see by the express
command of the King.^ Leighton was put in his place, and
for three years attempted reconciliation in the stormy West ;
but the first application of the Assertory Act was the expul
sion of Archbishop Burnet from the see of Glasgow.
Two days before it was passed, Robert Leighton preached
before the Commissioner and Parliament at Edinburgh (No
vember 14, 1669). His sermon was a beautiful one, and
reveals a spirit that lived in the atmosphere of God ; but it
is also the expression of a saint, who failed to see the principle
involved in the time-struggles, or to recognize what the
Covenanters felt to be as dear to them as life itself If
the practical genius may be so developed as to injure the
spiritual side of man's nature ; if the spiritual may be so
developed as to make man shrink from the practical duties
^ Acts of Parliament, vii. 554.
^ Appendix to Lauderdale Papers, vol. ii. pp. Ixiv.-lxvii.
^ Ibid. p. Ixix.

420 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
of life ; no less may an elevated nature be so wrapt in its
own contemplation as to fail to see the principle for which
strong, practical men are contending. And this is what
strikes one in reading Leighton's sermon before the Scottish
Parliament. It is the message of a saint, who was led by his
conviction to be a practical statesman, and yet although his
motives were pure, he somehow or other failed to see what was
involved in the struggle, although he could not possibly be alto
gether ignorant of what was to follow in the Parliament two
days later.' We know from Leighton's own pen that the
differences were to him " a drunken scuffle in the dark." *
His text was, " What is that to thee ? Follow thou Me "
(John xxi. 22).
..." Some will say that although we be not concerned in the
private affairs of others, or in matters of state, yet the affairs of
the Church are such, as we ought not a little to concern ourselves
in them. I shall only say that all truths are not alike clear, nor are
duties alike weighty to all, and do not equally concern all parties.
Christians may very well keep themselves within the compass of their
own sphere. Many things about which men dispute very warmly
are of remote relation and affinity to the great things of Christianity.
Some truths are of so little evidence and importance, that he who
errs in them charitably, meekly and calmly, may be both a wiser
man and a better Christian than he who is furiously, stormily, and
uncharitably orthodox. If it be the mind of God that that Order,
which from the primitive times has been in constant succession in
this and other Churches, do yet continue, what is that to thee or to
' " Leighton " (says Burnet) " was against any such act, and got some
words to be altered in it. He thought it might be stretched to ill ends,
and so he was very averse to it : yet he gave his vote for it, not having
sufficiently considered the extent of the words, and the consequences that
might follow on such an act j for which he was very sorry as long as he
lived. But at that time there were no apprehensions in Scotland of the
danger of popery. Many of the best of the episcopal clergy, Nairn and
Charteris in particular, were highly offended at the act. They thought
it plainly made the King our pope, as the Presbyterians said it put him
in Christ's stead." {History of His Own Times, i. pp. 512, 513.)
* Lauderdale Papers, iii. 76.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 421
me ? If I had one of the loudest, as I have one of the lowest voices,
yea, were it as loud as a trumpet, I would employ it to sound a
retreat to all our unnatural and irreligious debates about religion,
and to persuade men to follow the meek and lowly Jesus. There is
great abatement of the inwards of religion, when the debates about it
pass to a scurf outside, and nothing is to be found within but a con
suming fever of contention, which tendeth to utter ruin. If we have
not charity towards our brethren, yet let us have some compassion
towards our mother. But if this cannot be attained, I know nothing
rather to be wished for, next to the silent shades of the grave, than
a cottage in the wilderness. Ah, my beloved, the body of religion is
torn, and the soul of it expires, while we are striving about the hem
of its garment."
..." This is the substance of religion, to imitate Him whom we
worship. Can there be a higher or nobler design in the world than
to be God-like and like Jesus Christ ? He became like us that we
might be the more like Him. He took our nature upon Him that
He might transfuse His into us. . . . Charity was so dear to Him,
that He recommended it as the characteristic by which all might
know His disciples, if they loved one another. But that we may
imitate Him in His life we must run the back-trade, and begin with
His death, and must die with Him. Love is a death. He that
loves is gone and lost in God, and can esteem or take pleasure in
nothing besides Him. When the bitter cup of the Father's wrath
was presented to our Lord, one drop of this elixir of love and union
to the Father's will, sweetened it so that He drank it off without more
complaining. This death of Jesus mystically acted in us must strike
down all things else, and He must become our All. Oh, that we
would resolve to live to Him that died, and to be only His, and
humbly to follow the crucified Jesus ! All else wiU be quickly gone.
How soon will the shadows that now amuse us and please our eyes
fly away ! "
Verily that was the message of a man, whose soul was as a
star and dwelt apart. It sounds like an appeal from the other
world in the midst of strife, and the messenger was a seraph.
Two days afterwards from the Prelatist Parliament came
the Assertory Act, and can the Covenanter be blamed for
resisting it, and standing up for the spiritual liberty which

422 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
is man's prerogative as a child of God, in obedience to God
alone ?

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XI.
The following letter is taken for the most part from Leighton's
papers and speeches, and was drawn up by his friend Gilbert Burnet,
minister of Salton and afterwards Bishop of Salisbury. It was
written between June and November 1669, that is between the issue
of the First Indulgence and Burnet's removal from Salton to
Glasgow College. It was printed for the first time by West (vol. vii.
pp. 195-206) from the Wodrow MSS. in the Advocates' Library.
McWard refers to it, as well as to the other two (pp. 404-414), in
his " Case of the Accommodation."
" Sir, " My retirement in the country doth not secure me from the great
noise that is abroad about the intended Accommodation betwixt the
Episcopal and Presbyterian parties. It is in the thoughts and mouths
of all : every one according to his measure and affections censuring it.
The great distance both have stood in from one another, now of a
great many years, hath engaged them into such rivalry that it can
scarce be expected they can be of a sudden cured of their mutual
jealousies. I know you are desirous to know of me how this
proposition takes, and such is your opinion of my thoughts, that
though you be no stranger to the most secret of them, yet you are
pleased to call for my sense of it. It is true these things do not
engage me to many thoughts about them. It is long since all the
niceties of the metaphysics and matters of contention lost this
value with me, so that I seldom reflect on them except it be to pity
and pray for those who are entangled with them : and having made
an escape from these bitter wranglings into the cool shades of calmer
thoughts, I have no itch to return to these briars and thickets from
which I was delivered, yet so as by fire. However, I shall not be so
sullen as to deny a free and copious account both of what I under
stand from others, and what occurs to myself on this head. And
this I know will be doubly welcome to you, if I intermingle with it
what I had on this subject from our excellent and noble friend
(Bishop Leighton), and transcribe his words as occasion brings them
in my way. You know the man and his communication so weU that
you will easily discern his gold among my ore.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 423
" The state of things among us is deplorable and next to desperate.
The minds of people are so rankled with the divisions, that they can
scarce with patience hear anything spoken for cooling of their
passions or clearing of their understandings. Nay, so bent are they
on these matters, that I fear this feverish heat among them discovers
aU is not sound within. Are we not carnal, when one says, I
am for Bishops, and another, I am for Presbyterians ? The effects
of these things are as sad as the disease. The power of godliness
is under great and visible decay, so that the very visage of religion is
dying among us. The young folk are horridly ignorant, and are
instructed in nothing but railing and contention ; profanity abounds
and triumphs over the discipline of the Church. Scarce any (yet I
hope there are some) who do retire their minds to dwell at home
and consider their own work : all of religion is turning to a mere
formality and gross hypocrisy. Every one is pleased with himself
and too pleasing to others, if he zealously declaim against the faults
of others, be he never so slack in correcting his own : nay, on both
sides, the characters that Christ gave of His disciples are reversed :
for by this shall you know a disciple among us, if he hate and rail at
his brethren. And one thing is too visible, but has yet escaped the
consideration of most, that we are like to lose the sacred Bond of
Love and Seal of our Christian religion in this country, the Holy
Eucharist : which hath lain forgotten these seven years bygone,'
and is like to go out of head. The parishes where the ministers are
episcopal are totally deserted : many withdrawing out of scruple, and
many out of example, or perhaps atheism. So that though our
country swarms with people, there are many who go nowhere on the
Lord's day to worship God. It is true there are a store of people in
the churches of those whom the Council indulged,^ but it is too
notorious that most run thither merely out of custom or vanity : but
almost all think themselves delivered from the yoke of order. What
all this may end in, is too apparent to any who seriously, even with
out the fumes of melancholy, reflect upon things. Nothing is so
probable for putting an effectual stop to those evils we groan under,
and which threaten our ruin, as a happy composing of matters, that
so the great designs of Refigion may be again resumed, and happily
and zealously promoted. Did I not know you well, and had I not
been a witness to the frequent and fervent groans you offer up daily
' i.e. 1662-1669.
^ This Indulgence bears date June 7, 1669.

424 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
to the God of Peace for a happy union among us, I should assault
you with all the strength of my weak forces in order to this, that you
weary not of well doing, but go on, bending all your thoughts, and
setting as you can influence in motion for bringing this desirable
work to a happy issue. Be not discouraged with the difficulties that
meet you in it, nor with the censures wherewith you may be lashed on
both sides : perhaps you are born for this hour. And though this
noble undertaking miss the desired success (as indeed our sins
make me apprehend the worse) yet you shaU not miss your reward.
" But now I come to consider the thing more closely. The state
of the question in order to this Accommodation, is, as I understand
it, this : If a Bishop, exercising no other authority but that of a
constant presidency over the presbyters, and declaring he shall be
in all things determined by the major part of the presbyters in
their respective courts, be so far unlawful that the Presbyterian
brethren may not, upon his Majesty's civil sanction, sit down in
the presbyteries and synods where the Bishop resides : a liberty
being offered to them of declaring against any authority he may
pretend to or assume over them ? This, I suppose, is the present
case. " All I hear objected against it is, in short, this : ' That they
judging a Bishop and a presbyter to be one and the same office
in the Scripture sense, and that no other office can be added by
any human authority, they do not well see how they can concur
with a Bishop, who seems to be and behaves himself as a distinct
officer from an ordinary officer : he receiving a new ordination for
it : and the exercise of ordination, at least, being so restrained to
him, that it may not be gone about without him, nor any excom
munication pass without his approbation : as also he pretends to
have the inspection of the ministers : by all which he carries himself
as a distinct officer from a presbyter : from all which it does not
appear how these, who judge such a distinct officer unlawful, can
concur with him, or sit in courts where the other members have
sworn obedience to the Bishop as their superior, by which they are
under his authority. This is that upon which they stick mainly.
But to this they add the obligation of the covenant to extirpate
Prelacy in their stations, which shall be too visibly broken, if in their
stations they concur to establish it. And though this present model
be of a lower size, yet a presidency among churchmen has never
rested there, but sweUs to the height of tyranny : as appears from

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 425
the progress of the Papal dominion to the tyrannical height it now
pretends to, which rose from small beginnings, even that of a
presidency among churchmen. And besides this, they think
their own later experience doth furnish them with such instances
as oblige them to resist the least appearances and small beginnings
of evil. Besides the aversion which the people have drunk in
against anything of Prelacy is so great, that to comply with it,
though their consciences could permit them, would render their
ministry ineffectual, and so destroy the great design of aU Order
and Government, which is Edification.'
" And then you have, in short and in gross, the sum of all that
I have met with from any of them, why they are still in the dark
as to the proposition made to them. I have represented it with
all the edge and force I can, lest any suspect me of blunting their
weapons, that thereby I may obtain a cheap and easy victory over
them. " But I judge it wiU neither be impertinent nor unpleasant to let
you understand the sense of other neither less learned nor less
zealous Presbyterians on this subject. It were too great a task both
for my leisure and your patience to give an account of what the
Divines of foreign Churches say of a Bishop President. One thing
I can positively and upon knowledge assert, that the utmost length
they have advanced in this matter is to prove that a Bishop is
not necessary : but none of them (save one) have condemned a
presidency among churchmen as either unlawful or inexpedient
And to this day (if I may believe the accounts of some who have
travelled among them and conversed with them, whose fidelity few
do suspect) when the present state of Scotland is laid before them,
they are amazed at the stiffness of such as choose rather to abandon
their ministry than concur with Episcopacy attempered unto
presbytery. I know some will say they do not so thoroughly
understand these controversies, never having enquired into them
so narrowly as we have done. All I shall say to this, is, perhaps
it were better for Religion and the Church, that both they and we
were more ignorant than either of us are about these questions of
words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, etc. But to come
nearer home : the Presbyterians of England judge an Episcopacy
attempered with presbytery not inconsistent either with the Presby
terian principles or Covenant : as may be made appear from what
themselves published as their opinion under this title : Two Papers

426 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
of Proposals humbly presented to his Majesty by the Reverend
Minister of the Presbyterian Persuasion. Printed at London, anno
1 66 1. Wherein, at p. 5, they 'humbly represent to his Majesty
that although upon just reasons we do dissent from the Ecclesiastical
Hierarchy or Prelacy disclaimed in the Covenant, as it was stated
and exercised in this kingdom, yet we do not nor ever did renounce
the true ancient primitive Episcopacy or presidency as it is balanced
or managed by a due commixtion of presbytery therewith.' And
a little after : ' Which kind of attempered Episcopacy or presidency,
if it shall, by your Majesty's grave wisdom and gracious moderation,
be in such manner constituted, as that the forementioned and other
like evils may be certainly prevented (which are the evils of a sole
jurisdiction) we shah humbly submit thereunto.' And after they
have pointed at these alleged evils, p. 6, they add for the reforming
of these evils : ' We first crave leave to offer to your Majesty the
late Most Reverend Primate of Ireland his Reduction of Episcopacy
into the form of Synodical Government received in the Ancient
Church, as a groundwork towards accommodation and fraternal
agreement in this point of Ecclesiastical Government.' And again,
in the second paper, pp. 1 1 and 12:' We are induced to insist
upon the form of a Synodical Government, conjunct with a fixed
Presidency or Episcopacy, for these reasons.' '
"These words are so express that they need no commentary save
the particulars wherein Bishop Usher his Reduction consists : which
(according as it was published by Dr. Bernard at London, anno
1656, out of an original which he had from that Most Reverend
Primate) are these (p. 4) : 'In every parish,' etc.
" Now after you have compared this (with that reduction) which
is now offered you will find the concessions made to them to be yet
more yielding and fuller of discussion. And then you see the
value which the English Presbyterians set on this platform, and that
they judge it no way inconsistent either with their principles or
oaths : and a little after what was awhile ago cited by me out of
the Presbyterian's Paper, p. 13, they define what they abjured in
the Covenant thus : ' The Prelacy which we disclaim is that of
Diocesans, who assert the claim of a superior Order to a presbyter,
assuming the sole power of Ordination and of Public Admonition
of particular Offenders, enjoining Penitence, Excommunication and
Absolving (besides Confirmation), over so many Churches as
' Given at p. 404 et seq.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 427
necessitated the extirpation of Discipline, and the using of the
human offices as chancellors, surrogates, officials, commissaries,
archdeacons, while the undoubted officers of Christ, the pastors
of the particular Churches, were hindered from the exercise of their
office.' Now these Papers, being the united thoughts of so many
of that persuasion, do show that a well-modelled and regulated
Episcopacy doth not contradict the Presbyterian principles : much
less can it do so when they are permitted to declare their judg
ments against it, and that they submit to it as a usurpation with
a reservation of their opinion against it.
" But besides this joint suffrage, one of prime note and indeed
of great worth, Mr. Baxter, in a large Treatise he published on
this matter during the late troubles when he was under no tempta
tion to have proceeded so far, but rather the contrary, yet in his
Treatise, p. 275, he asserts, "Episcopacy desirable for the reforma
tion, preservation, and peace of the Church " : and, p. 297, he
asserts a fixed presidency, durante vita. The objection to this,
drawn from the Covenant, he then answers at p. 330.'
" Hitherto I have made it abundantly clear that the Presbyterians
of England would without any scruple not only submit to, but
desire, an Episcopacy attempered with the synodical government
of presbyters. In Scotland, also, before the year 1638, for thirty
years ^ together, all the Presbyterians, a very few only excepted,
made no scruple to sit in presbyteries and synods and to receive
ordination from a Bishop's hands, and judged themselves sufficiently
discharged when they declared their dislike of the Bishop's en
croachments. So that now, when by the late concessions the case
is brought into the same posture (or rather more favourable) in
which it then was, I see not how our brethren can refuse them
without reflecting on their worthy antecessors as either ignorant
or unlawful.
" But to look nearer into these things at which they stick. And
ist, that it contradicts not their principles to concur with a Bishop
behaving himself as an officer distinct from presbyters. This will
be abundantly cleared if I make out thereby that a Bishop and a
presbyter are but one and the same officer, or that suppose that
it were otherwise, yet their concurrence in judicatories, so doing
their duty, cannot bring them under the guilt of another man's
usurpation, be he never so criminal in it But if both these be
' Then follow passages given, pp. 406, 407. ^ See pp. 112 et seq.

428 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
made out, then I hope a great step shall be made clear and a
passage for our brethren to return to the unity of the Church.
For the ist, a Bishop thus modelled being nothing but a fixed
president of their synods, and a constant visitor of the precinct,
can be accounted no distinct officer, but only in a higher degree of
the same office. And that he is ordained for this by imposition
of hands can never make it the worse, except any think a solemn
benediction with prayer to be quarrelled at : for the laying on of
hands is only a ceremony of benediction : and therefore the
Apostles laid on hands on all Christians : deacons were also
separated by that ceremony. So in the ancient Church, both in
Confirmation and Absolving of penitents, that ceremony was used.
And we find Barnabas and Saul, Acts xiii. 3, separated by imposi
tion of hands for the ministry of the Gospel among the Gentiles,
though we find them preaching the Gospel before : and therefore
a new benediction with imposition of hands imports no new office.
Neither is there anything of power which the Bishops claim able to
prove them a distinct office more than a constant moderator and
visitor will amount to : for though no ordinations may pass without
a Bishop, that is only in regard to the exercise of that power, but
doth not stop the presbyters simply of the power, or say, their
ordination without a Bishop is null : since the Bishops in Scotland
do not attempt tlie re-ordination of those whom presbytery had
ordained. So also in excommunication, the law requires the Bishop's
consent ere it pass : but this doth not take the power of the keys
from presbyters, only for order's sake restrains the exercise of them.
In a word, let any man impartially consider whether a fixed
moderator and a constant visitor during life be contrary either to
clear Scripture, good reason, or primitive antiquity, or suitable to
them aU. But though Bishops trangress the just line of their power
let all the world judge whether, etc'
" And since they declared they should have continued in these
judicatories had they not been once raised : and though a Bishop
had come and obtruded himself on them, they should have sitten
still, after they had freely declared themselves against his alleged
usurpation : then let them, as before God, consider, if this meta
physical nicety of sitting still though a Bishop come in upon them,
but not of sitting down again when a Bishop is already there (the
court and constitution of the judicatory being stiU the same) be not
' As at p. 412.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 429
a punctilio scarce to be considered, much less to be laid in the
balance with the great evils our divisions do and may occasion. And
indeed, how faulty soever the Bishop's assuming this his presidency
may seem to them : yet I know not what logic, or, if you wiU,
sophistry, can fasten it upon them who only do their duty, and in
their station declare his usurpation. But they insist that they are
restrained in the two main parts of their ecclesiastical authority,
Ordination and Excommunication, which must not be done without
the Bishops concur. But shall I here remind you of the known
distinction of power and the exercise of power ? Now whatever they
may allege as to the exercise of their power, they cannot say they
are stripped of their power; since both the ordinations and ex
communications of presbyters made in the time we had no Bishops,
are by the Bishops made valid and so looked upon. And as for the
exercise, that they say is restrained, they cannot be in a worse case
than now they are in, since they are not permitted either to ex
communicate or ordain. So by the accepting of the concessions they
lose nothing that they are in possession of, but become every way
gainers. And all this will be then less cogent when the Bishop (as
I hear) hath given them assurance that he will never make use of a
negative vote, but in all things will be determined by the major
part of his presbyters. And since the ministry is a complex
power, yet they accepted liberty to preach, administer sacraments,
and exercise discipline congregationally, without liberty to meet in
presbyteries and to ordain. I am not, after I have stretched myself
to the utmost, able to devise why they may not accept of the rest,
though it be restrained as to the exercise of it in four particulars;
especiaUy if they be suffered to declare their dislike of their restraint.
They cannot deny the Bishop to be a presbyter at least, and so they
will not pretend his ordination to be invalid. If, after all this is
laid out to them, they stiU scruple at it, either they must be in the
dark, or I must have owl's eyes, to see where there is no light at all.
As for that other scruple, that the ministers ordained by the Bishops
have subscribed obedience to him, and so are bound up from a
liberty of suffrage, at least in things indifferent: therefore the
judicatories cannot be free which are made up of such persons ; I
answer that still it is free for them to sit there ; and the servitude
they alleged others to be under cannot abridge them of their Uberty.
Or is there anything under this objection ? Is it that they fear not
to be able to carry things as they would ? Truly, how strong soever

430 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
this may be against an absolute equality among presbyters, yet it iU
becomes those who pursued so hotly for a parity. But this falls
wholly to the ground by the Bishop's concessions, which as to their
judicatories renounceth any claim of obedience he may pretend to
by their subscription. But to insist a fittle on this ; I am not afraid
to say yet further, etc." '
" As to that which comes next in the way, the Covenants, I shall
not at this time take notice of any evils that were in these
Engagements, or of the ways of framing and improving them.^
"That which they next insist on is 'The hazard and inexpediency
of such modelled episcopacy : since upon inany grounds, both from
elder and later experience, we may justly, without the suggestions of
melancholic jealousy, fear it should not long rest so, but swell up
unto a greater height ; for thus did the Mystery of Iniquity work by
degrees, and therefore we must look to it in time.' I need not here
tell them that this is rather a bringing of Episcopacy lower, than
making steps to raise it higher. But how easy were it to retort this
upon themselves in many particulars I May not an Independent
upon as good grounds refuse to submit to any association or
subordination of Churches ; since from the subjecting of con
gregations to presbyteries, follows the hierarchy of Synods over
them, of National Synods over these, and of General CEcumenical
Councils with a pretence of absolute and infaUible authority : and
therefore to avoid this, all associations are to be discharged. And
we may ask of our Protesting Brethren to consider this, how long it ,
is since they with a loud mouth complained of the tyranny of
Synods. " May not also those who are against a fixed maintenance for the
ministry argue at the same rate, that churchmen should be left to
the benevolence of their people, since a fixed maintenance certainly
baits many to the ministry, who run to it for filthy lucre : which would
be remedied if all knew their maintenance depended upon their
labours and deportment. Then there is nothing under the sun,
how good soever in itself, which is not subject to great corruption ;
and therefore their reasoning will hold good for striking out at least aU
ecclesiastical constitutions in things indifferent : but 'he that observeth
the wind will not sow ; and he that regardeth the clouds wiU not
reap' (Eccles. xi. 4). However, since they pore so much with the one
eye over the evils of Episcopacy, I wish they would open the other
' p. 410. ^ Here follow extracts, pp. 408, 413.

BISHOP OF DUNBLANE 431
eye, and with no less attention consider that greater evils are with
more probability like to follow, if our differences receive not some
settlement : profanity shall abound, discipline go down, and the
heat that is already among us shall swell to greater heights and
distempers. And if obedience to Authority, and the Peace of the
Church, which are certain duties, be not to be more considered than
uncertain evils, I have lost the true balance for weighing things
aright. For it should be considered, the case is not what they would
desire, and, being left to their own choice, would accept of: in
which case these apprehended evils might have much weight, but
the question now is, what they will do for the peace of the Church,
and obedience to authority, whereby they are obliged to many things
from which otherwise they might conceive a just aversion. Neither
are the (tests) of subscriptions called for now, all that is demanded
being a temporary concurrence : so that if these concessions be
violated in their time, the case being altered, they are then to
consider what to do next : if their model outlive them, then they
shall die in peace ; and for what may come, I suppose they may, on
good grounds and with a secure confidence, commit the managing
of the Church to Him that redeemed her with His own Blood, and
hath now governed her very well for so many ages, who can raise up
witnesses for His Truth and instruments to promote it when He
lists. Surely they may safely commit it into His hands, in which
nothing can miscarry ; and believe that if His kingdom and glory
be nearly concerned in this matter, as they believe, they need not
doubt His care of it.
"Now I come to the last consideration (viz., the apprehension of
some), that this accommodation may defeat the very design of it, and
be a means to raise a new and perhaps a greater schism both among
ministers and people. I know this (objection on the part of
Ministers) appears to most with the worst visage : as if a humour of
popularity were too prevalent with them, and that they are in
servitude to their people. But if these severe thoughts be cherished
by you, I beg you may rid yourself of them, and impute this neither
to an ambitious and vain gaping after applause, nor to a servile
pusillanimity of spirit : but whatever may be in the latter, appearing
perhaps to them in disguise with a better visage, yet let your charity
clear them of the former. For, after a long and free converse with
many of them, I must hope for better things from them : for really
they are good men, and live and preach weU ; and having heard

432 BISHOP OF DUNBLANE
them vindicate themselves so solemnly from sinistrous designs and
vain ends, I am obliged to have better thoughts of them. But still
I add that this consideration is as weak as any of the former : for if
the thing required of them be itself lawful, then the considerations
of the commands of Authority and the Peace of the Church make
it necessary. In which case we are to consider our duty, and to
leave events wholly to God, who will support all those who faithfully
serve Him, and not expose them unfurnished and unassisted to any
straits, while they continue doing their duty. Shall we trust nothing
to God's providence and care of His Church ? And truly, if this
consideration, of following the people too much, should keep them
off from their duty, I doubt that there be much juster grounds to
believe that God, out of His just and unsearchable judgments,
would leave them and their people to dash into pieces 1 since often
our idols become our plagues. And indeed, the peevish and
insolent humour of many is of that height, that if somewhat be
not done to tame it, I tremble to think where it may end. The
schismatical principles they have drunk in are such that they
themselves confess they are both aware and afraid of And it is to
be hoped that these good ministers will judge themselves obliged to
lift up their voices like a trumpet, and make them know their
iniquities, and not only covertly declare against them, but speak plain
Scots to them. For if this schismatical temper go on to the height
it is running to, the blood of all these souls that might perish by it,
and all the other evils that may follow upon it, shall undoubtedly be
required at their hands who see the evil of these things, if they do
not plainly and faithfully forwarn them of their sin and hazard But
to speak what I certainly know, the humours of the People, being
only such as have been infused into them by some Ministers, wiU
not prove unconquerable either to them or to others, faithful, pious
and zealous Ministers : Piety with Truth is great, and will certainly
overcome at length."

CHAPTER XII
ROBERT LEIGHTON : ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
BURNET resigned the see of Glasgow on December 24
1669, and retired into private life with ;^300 a year from
the revenues of the diocese. He was of himself good-natured
and sincere, but too much under the power of others, and too
remiss in what ought to have been his chief business — the
spiritual part of his function. The West was singularly stormy
during his tenure of office, and while he met the struggles more
with secular than spiritual weapons, he failed to pacify them.
The Earls of Lauderdale and Tweeddale pressed Leighton
much to accept the see of Glasgow, but he was most averse
to the proposal. Nothing moved him but the hope of
bringing about an accommodation, in which he had all
assistance promised him by the Government Leighton
proposed his scheme to the King, who apparently acquiesced
in it, and Leighton's paper, corrected by Sir Robert Murray
was turned into instructions, by which Lauderdale was
authorized to pass the concessions that were to be offered,
into laws.' Leighton, in other words, accepted office on the
understanding that the substance of his scheme was to
become the statute-law of the dand, and Scotland was in
other words to be ruled constitutionally, and with toleration
for the Covenanters. But how treacherous was the promise ;
for Lauderdale had evidently received secret counter-
instructions, and acted contrary to the solemn assevera
tions of Charles. The result of the late Indulgence had been,
' Burnet, i. 519.
A.L. "' 28

434 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
that conventicles became more numerous than ever, and
what was specially obvious, those who attended them,
began to carry weapons with their Bibles. By what he
called " a clanking Act " against conventicles, passed in the
second session of the new Parliament, Lauderdale definitely
announced that he had reverted to the policy of Rothes,
and thenceforward every year was marked by increasing
severity. Linked thus with one of the fiercest of ministers,
was the gentlest of saints, and the former surely undid
what the latter nobly strove for.
The following letter shows that Leighton undertook the
duty much against his own likings, and solely from the desire
to help the Church.
Robert Leighton, Bishop of Dunblane, to the Earl of
Lauderdale. "Ed'- Ap'- 6 (1670).
" May it please yo'* Grace,
" I am so far from attracting vanity upon it, that knowing how
infinitely I am below his Ma""^ good opinion, it falls as a weight
upon me, & sinkes mee so much y" deeper into y" shame & grief of
my utter incapacity for y" service requir'd of mee, for, besides an
infirm and diseased body, I have that invincible indisposition of
mine, & am so extreamly weary of the trifling contentions of this
part of y' world, that instead of engaging further in them, I intend
an entire escape out of them ; but (as his Ma"" enioyn'd mee upon
my former attempting it at London) I shall doe it here, and in the
most orderly way y' may be without his Ma''" at aU with it : And
this I was resolv'd to doe this sumer, or at furthest towards y" end
of this year, before there was any mention of this remoov ' for the
truth is, my Lord, I am greatly ashamed that wee have occasion'd
so much trouble, & done so little or no good, now these seven or
eight years since y" restitution of our order, & after so many favours
heapt upon us by his Ma""' Royall goodnesse, not that I would
reflect y' blame of this upon any, save my own share of it upon my
self : for, xnay bee, it is not so much o' fault as our unhappinesse
' (To succeed Burnet at Glasgow.)

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 435
& y" reveschnesse of y" matter wee have to work upon. But,
however, hee that can sitt down content with honour & revenue
without doing good, especially in so sacred a function, hath I think
a low & servile soul : but to trouble yo"' grace no further, I doe for
my pardon in this affair humbly confide in his IVP"" clemency, &
next to that in yo'' grace's favourable representation & interces
sion, w*^"" shall add very much to y° many obligements of
" My Lord,
" Yr Grace's
' " Most humble Servant
" R. Leighton."
Memorandum of Bishop Leighton.
(To be read in connection with the foregoing letter.)
"The true reasons both of my purpose of retiring from my
present charge, & of declining a greater, are briefly these :
" I. The sense I have of ye dread full weight of whatsoever
charge of souls, or any kind of spirituall inspection over people, but
much more over ministers : & withall of my own extream un-
worthinesse & unfitnesse for so high a station in ye church.
" 2. The continuing divisions and contentions of this church,
and ye litle or no appearance of their cure for our time.
" 3. The earnest desire I have long had of a retir'd & private
life, w"*" is now much increased by sicklinesse & old age
drawing on & ye sufficient experience of ye folly & vanity of
ye world, and, in a word, it is rerii humanarii fastidium.
"Whatsoever I might add more, I forbear, for I confesse, after all
I could say, I expect little right or fair construction from y" world in
this matter, but rather many various mistakes and miscensures on
all hands : but soe that y" relief is, that in y" retreat I design, I
beleev I shall not hear of them, or if I doe I shall not feel them." '
Leighton did not retire from his work at Dunblane, but
evidently discharged its duties, as well as those of the See of
Glasgow, where he was now Commendator or Administrator.^
The last Synod of Dunblane he attended was in 1672, so that
not in the full sense of the term till then, was he Archbishop
^ Lauderdale Papers, \\. pp. 181-183.
^ Law's Memorials, pp. 32, 33.

436 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
of Glasgow, although he formally became such in 1671. He
seems to have resided between the two places, and his Address
to the Synod of Dunblane in 1 67 1 ' is dated from Glasgow.
Burnet says it was a year before he was prevailed on to be
translated to Glasgow,** and his unworldliness was again
manifested by his refusal to take the whole income, and his
contentment with one-fifth of it.^
Leighton held his first Synod at Glasgow in August 1670,*
and nothing was to be heard from all his clergy but com
plaints of desertion and ill usage. But they were now asked
to look at such in a higher light In a sermon, that he
preached to them, as well as in ordinary public and private
discourse, he exhorted them to look up more to God ; to con
sider themselves as ministers of the cross of Christ ; to bear
the contempt and ill usage they met with, as a cross laid on
them for the exercise of their faith and patience ; to lay aside
all the appetites of revenge, and humble themselves before
God ; to have many days for secret fasting and prayer ; and to
meet often together that they might quicken, and assist one
another in those holy exercises ; and then they might expect
a blessing from heaven upon their labours. But this aspect
of their suffering, as a discipline of the cross, was a new strain
to the clergy, and while they regarded it as unaccustomed
and comfortless doctrine, they had nothing to say against it
It was strange and unfamiliar to them to hear of no new and
' See p. 392.
^ History, i. 519.
¦' Row, writing of 1670, says : " Leighton having refused the bishoprick
of Glasgow comes from Court prelate of Glasgow in a new mode, only
having the spiritual power of the bishop, nothing of his temporalities,
and only a part of the rent, viz. ;£30o sterling. As much was given to
Burnet : the rest to come into the Exchequer. He was called com
mendator of Glasgow. Sharp was offended at this, fearing a design by
him to deal so with them all, to clip their wings to augment the King's
rents." {Life of Robert Blair, p. 536). Cf p. 355 in text.
¦* Law states that he held another Synod the same month at Peebles.
{Memorials, p. 29.)

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 437
speedy ways proposed for forcing the people to church, nor
for sending soldiers among them, nor for raising the fines to
which they were liable. So the clergy returned home as
little edified by their bishop as he was with their complaints.
Leighton now proceeded to practical measures. Finding the
country full of complaints regarding the scandals of the clergy,
he had a committee appointed, of which public intimation was
made throughout the diocese of Glasgow, that they might
hear and deal with such complaints.' Some of the scandalous
were censured, others were deposed, and Leighton then
revealed himself as a bishop who, while gentle, could yet be
a strict disciplinarian, and make his pastoral staff a rod
of correction. This purging committee was not wholly
drawn from the diocese of Glasgow, but had Mr. Aird,
Laurence Charteris, Mr. Nairn and others joined to it,
while the Council by an Act (August 25th) ..." did
appoint Sir John Cochrane of Ochiltree, Sir Thomas
Wallace, Sir John Cunningham, Sir John Harper, the
Provosts of Glasgow and Ayr, to meet with them, and
countenance and assist them, and be careful that their
orders and citations be obeyed." Thus far at least,
Lauderdale assisted Leighton in his worthy endeavour.
Leighton's next effort was to send to the western counties
six episcopal divines, all (except Burnet) brought from other
parts of the country. They were to go round the country,
preach in the churches and where necessary argue on the
grounds of the accommodation with such as might come to
them. They were all moderate men,* and after Leighton's
own heart. To Burnet we owe references especially to two of
them. " Mr. Nairn was the politest man I ever knew bred in
Scotland : he had formed clear and lively schemes of things,
and was the most eloquent of all our preachers. He con
sidered the pastoral function as a dedication of the whole
' Wodrow's History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, ii. 176.
^ Lauder of Fountainhall's /car«a/j, p. 231.

438 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
man to God and His service. ... He studied to raise all that
conversed with him to great notions of God, and to an
universal charity." ' Laurence Charteris is described as a
man of composed and serene gravity, and without affectation
or sourness : of great tenderness and composedness, and
making religion appear amicable in his whole deportment^
The following are Leighton's letters for both authorizing
and instructing :
" Sir, "The Lords of the CouncU having appointed some Members
from other parts, to preach in such churches within the diocese of
Glasgow as do most need their help, I desire the Reverend Mr.
fames Aird, Minister of Torry, to bestow his pains in that circuit
that lies eastward from Hamilton or thereabouts, and particularly
in the Kirk of Carluke; not doubting that the Minister thereof,
and others in the like case, will very gladly receive and earnestly
intreat what help he can do towards the bringing of their people
to frequent the public ordinances, and the removing of their
prejudices and calming of their passions, that they may with one
heart worship that one Lord whose name we all profess to love
and honour. " R. Leighton.
"Glasgow, Sept 17, 1670."
" This is to recommend to the kind reception and assistance of
the Gentlemen and Ministers to whose parishes he shall resort,
for preaching of the Gospel, within the diocese of Glasgow, oiir
Reverend Brother Mr. Laurence Charteris, Minister at Bar, being
nominated and appointed by the Lords of Council, with some
others from other parts for that effect.
"Glasgow, Sept. 20, 1670.
To Mr. Charteris are recommended within the Presbytery of
Paisley these Kirks :
" Neelson, Kilbarchan, — vacant.
" Likewise, if his health permit,
" Killelen and Kilmacome, — though not vacant. "R. Leighton.
"Oct 19, 1670." ' History, ii. 385. "^ Ibid.

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 439
The six were known as " Leighton's Evangelists," and
the people of the districts came generally to hear them,
though not in great crowds. They were about three months
in the west, and during that time there was a lull in the
frequency of conventicles. Burnet, who was one of the six,
thus describes the experience of all :
" We were indeed amazed to see a poor commonalty so capable
to argue upon points of government, and on the bounds to be set
to the power of princes in matters of religion. Upon all these
topics they had texts of scripture at hand, and were ready with
their answers to anything that was said to them. This measure
of knowledge was spread even amongst the meanest of them, their
cottagers and their servants. They were indeed vain of their know
ledge, much conceited of themselves, and were full of a most
entangled scrupulosity : so that they found or made difficulties in
everything that could be laid before them." '
The Presbyterian ejected ministers were soon on the track,
after the evangelists had left ; told the people that the Devil
was never so formidable as when he was transformed into
an angel of light ; reported that this was an attempt to
prop up a tottering government, and it was generally agreed
to reject the offers made on the basis of Leighton's proposals.
Touch not, taste not, handle not, became the popular watch
word, and Leighton's laudable endeavour was without com
mensurate success.^
Thus Leighton's scheme of placing the ecclesiastical power
in presbyteries and synods, with bishops merely as permanent
moderators ; with no oath required of canonical obedience
to them, and with permission granted to Presbyterian ministers,
while accepting the proposed accommodation, to declare
their convictions : was not successful. Neither the circulated
letters, nor their advocates, could achieve the end desired.
' History, i. pp. 524, 525.
^ Lauder of Fountainhall's Journals, p. 23 1 ; Law's Memorialls, p. 32.

446 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
But besides purging committees, and appointing evangelists,
Leighton appealed himself directly, and it was at least
something achieved, when he attained a conference with the
disaffected ministers.' The Conferences began in August,
1670, and lasted till January 1671.
The King's commissioner wrote to the most eminent of
the indulged ministers, Hutchison of Irvine, Wedderburn
of Kilmarnock, Ramsay and Baird of Paisley, and Gombil
of Symington, desiring them to come to Edinburgh on
August 9, upon matters of considerable importance, which he
had to communicate to them. Leighton, on instructing them
beforehand on the coming invitation, was scarcely treated
civilly, and was not so much as thanked for his tenderness
and care. He began to lose heart, but resolved to set the
negotiation on foot, and carry it as far as he could.^
The conference, however, took place at Holyrood House,
and with the invited ministers, there were present Leighton,
Lauderdale, Tweeddale, and Kincardine. Leighton stated
his scheme, "laid it to their consciences to consider of the
whole matter as in the presence of God, without any regard
to party or popularity. He spoke in all near half an hour,
with a gravity and force that made a very great impression
on all who heard it" Hutchison answered on behalf of his
brethren, and said their opinion for a parity among the clergy
was well known : the presidency now spoken of had made
way to a lordly dominion in the Church : and, therefore, how
inconsiderable soever the thing might seem to be, yet the
effects of it both had been, and would be very considerable :
he therefore desired some time might be given them to
consider well of the propositions now made, and to consult
with their brethren about them ; and since this might seem
an assembling together against law, he desired that they
might have the King's commissioner's leave for it
A second conference took place, when matters were more
' Brodie's Diary, p. 309. » Burnet's History, i. 520.

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 441
fully opened ; and, what was an unusual thing in those bitter
days, they even dined together, although it took Leighton's
persuasion to prevent Lauderdale, who entered after
dinner, being rude to the Presbyterian ministers. Verily
Leighton had the heart of a hero to proceed further. Sharp
protested afterwards that episcopacy was being undermined
since the negative vote was to go : the inferior clergy thought
that the admission of the Presbyterian ministers into the
churches, implied the charge of their neglect, and the con
sequent desertion by the people : the Presbyterian clergy
regarded it as a snare to do that which had a fair appear
ance at present, but which, after the present generation were
laid to rest, would give episcopacy another root and growth
over the nation. Burnet adds, however, the greater part
of the nation approved of Leighton's scheme.'
To show his opposition to Leighton's well-intentioned
proposal, Lauderdale, four days after the first Edinburgh
Conference, got his abject Parliament to pass his " clanking
Act " ^ against conventicles, threatening the preachers with
death 1 Were ever the steps of a good man so closely
followed by the emissary of the Devil ?
Meanwhile meetings were held in the Synod of Glasgow
between the Presbyterian ministers, indulged and not indulged,
regarding Leighton's proposal, and their reply was expected
by the first of November. The substance of the accommoda
tion was thus put to the ministers by their indulged brethren :
" Presbyteries being set up by law, as they were established
before the year 1638, and the Bishop passing from his negative
voice, and we having liberty to protest and declare against any
remainder of prelatic power retained, or that may happen at any
time to be exercised by him, for a salvo for our consciences, from
homologation thereof: Queritur, whether we can, with safety to
our consciences and principles, join in these presbyteries ? Or,
' History, vol. i. p. 522. ' Lauderdale Papers, ii. 200

442 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
what else is it that we will desire or do for peace in the Church
and an accommodation, episcopacy being always preserved ? " '
They all agreed that the above concessions were not
sufficient to be a foundation of their sitting and acting in
presbyteries and synods with the prelates : that a sitting
with the bishops in a diocesan synod would be a plain giving
up of the reformation of 1638, when the civil places and power
of kirkmen were declared unlawful, and when the Assembly
did unanimously agree that all Episcopacy different from that
of a pastor over a particular flock'^ was abjured in the Church
of Scotland.
As to Leighton's surrender of the negative vote, they felt
that although he might yield it, his successor might claim
it, and tfiey also knew that lie was tlie only one of the Scottish
bishops who would acquiesce in it. When they asked him what
he would do, upon the supposition that he and the presbytery
would not agree on a point under debate, he answered that
he would enter his dissent against them. And when urged,
whether his dissent would be any more than that of another
member, he declined, according to Wodrow's statement,
to speak of this, and said the estates behoved to determine
that. So his dissent seemed to them still to be a negative
at least upon the execution of the presbytery's sentence.^
The presbyteries, they were to meet in, were founded only
upon the Bishop's commission, which he might enlarge or
straiten as he pleased : they were denuded of the power of
jurisdiction and ordination, which the Bishop reserved in his
own hand : they wanted ruling elders, officers, in their opinion
of Christ's institution. In a word, the bishop in the pres
bytery was still clothed with an episcopal power, although
he should for a while still lay aside the exercise of it, and
they reckoned their sitting with him homologated episcopacy.
' Wodrow's History, ii. 178.
^ Peterkin's Acts of Assembly, p. 18.
" Wodrow's History, p. 178.

ARCHBISPIOP OF GLASGOW 443
The ministers, who were formerly at Edinburgh, returned at
the day appointed, but found that Tweeddale and the others
were at London. Meanwhile they resolved to wait their
return, but by letters of November 12 and 19 Leighton
desired a conference with the indulged and non-indulged.
Hutchison and Wedderburn replied, that they would not
decline such a conference, provided it were legally allowed
by the magistrate, but they would not name time nor place.
At length, when Leighton procured Tweeddale's letter, it
was agreed that the conference should take place at Paisley
on December 14, i66o.
On that day Leighton came to Paisley with the provost
of Glasgow, Sir John Harper, of Cambusnethan, Mr. Gilbert
Burnet, Mr. James Ramsay, dean of Glasgow ; and about
twenty-six Presbyterian ministers, indulged and non-indulged,
conferred with them. Leighton's statement was followed by
acrimonious discussion, as was to be expected, and it is
interesting to compare the accounts of the conference.' No
conciliation was manifested by the Covenanters, and they
craved some time to consider the matter further, which was
granted. They were told that their decision would be
expected at Edinburgh on January 12, 1671, and thus the
meeting at Paisley ended.
The ministers met at Kilmarnock in a few days and
unanimously agreed that Leighton's last propositions were
more unsatisfactory than the former proposal : they drew
up their reasons, and nominated Hutchison and others to
go to Edinburgh, and deliver them, granting them liberty
to add, as they saw necessary.
They came to Edinburgh and had two conferences at
Holyrood with the Chancellor, Hamilton, Tweeddale, Leighton,
Burnet, and the other counsellors, on January 12, 17, and 21.
' Analecta, iii. 65 ; Wodrow's History, ii. 180-181 ; Burnet's
History, i. 527, 528 ; Law's letter to Lady Cardross : Lauderdale Papers
iii. 233, 234.

444 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
There were also private conferences at the house of Lord
Rothes, but reconciliation was impossible. Hutchison spoke
for the others and declared the propositions were not satis
factory to their conscience. The following is the account
of the Conference at the Abbey of Holyrood House on
January 17 and 21, from a manuscript belonging to the late
Dr. David Laing of the Signet Library.
"A Narrative of the Issue of the Treaty Anent
Accommodation.
" The proposal offered by the Bishop at Paisley, December 1 7,
1670 : —
" I. That if the Dissenting Brethren wiU come to Presbyteries and
Synods, they shall not only not be obliged to renounce their
own private opinion concerning Church Government or swear or
subscribe anything contrary thereto, but shall have liberty at their
entry to the said meetings to declare it, and enter it in what form
they please.
" 2. That all Church affairs shall be managed and concluded in
Presbyteries and Synods by the free vote of the Presbyters, or the
major part of them.
" 3. If any difference faU out in the Diocesan Synod betwixt any
of the members thereof, it shall be lawful to appeal to a Provincial
Synod or their Committee.
" 4. That Intrants being lawfully presented by the Patron, and
duly tried by the Presbytery, there shall be a day agreed upon by
the Bishop and Presbytery for their meeting together for their
solemn Ordination and admission, at which there shall be one
appointed to preach, and that it shall be at the Parish Church to
which they are to be admitted, except in cases of impossibility or
extreme inconvenience : and if any difference fall in touching that
affair, it shall be referable to the Provincial Synod or their Committee,
or any other matter.
"5. It is not to be doubted but my Lord Commissioner, his
Grace, will make good what he offered anent the establishment
of Presbyteries and Synods : and we trust his Grace wiU procure
such security to these brethren for declaring their judgment, that
they may do it without hazard of contravening any law : and that

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 445
the Bishop shall humbly and earnestly recommend this to his
Grace. " 6. That no Intrant shaU be obliged to any Canonical Oath or
Subscription to the Bishop : and that his opinion as to that
Government shall not prejudge him in this, but that it shall be
free for him to declare it.
"The answer delivered by Mr. Hutchison and owned by Mr.
Wedderburn, Mr. Maitland, and Mr. Millar, as to their own sense,
and the sense of their brethren who sent them, was written from
their mouth in these words, in which they acquiesced :
" ' IVe are not free in conscience to close with the Propositions made
by the Bishop of Dunblane, as satisfactory!
" And this short and dry answer, such as it is, they refused to
give under their own hand, for reasons best known to themselves.
And seeing they thought these concessions not satisfactory, they
were desired to set down, or at least to say what would satisfy them.
But this they also refused to do. So they likewise wholly declined
to give any account of the reasons, why they were not satisfied with
what was yielded to them out of love to peace, and healing of this
unhappy schism. And it was earnestly desired of them to let us
know why they judged that too little which many others thought
a great deal too much to be granted them, and many more thought
it was abundantly enough to answer all their scruples, and to satisfy
them in point of conscience : and almost all that look on are put
to a stand, as not able to find out any other reason of their rejecting
these offers, unless it be the interest and affection of continuing
a divided Party.
" And there is one thing which seems strange beyond all this,
that when they were fairly invited, yea, earnestly desired and pressed,
to a free and friendly Conference before the Lords here present,
and such offers as they should call, to whom they might declare
the grounds of their persuasion in this matter, as the question is
now stated, they wholly declined this also, though it was declared
to them that the difference betwixt us should be freely referred to
the Scriptures first of all, and next to the judgment and practice
of the Primitive Church, and to the whole Catholic Christian Church
in succeeding ages, and to the most famous and leading persons in
the late Reformation of the Church, as Calvin, Luther, Melancthon,
yea and to the Reformed Churches abroad, even to those who at
present have no Bishops, and last of all to the Presbyterians of

446 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
England. And that if from all these, or any of them, they could
justify their continuing divided, even after these offers made them,
it should be yielded to them as a thing reasonable. Yea, the
person that propounded this (Leighton) further offered them, that if
before the noble and judicious persons then present, or that should
be present at the time of such a Conference, they should produce
strong and clear reasons for their opinion and practice in this point
of difference as now it stands qualified, he would forthwith resign
his present station and become their proselyte, and would unite
and act with them, and, if he were called to it, would suffer with
them. " It is to be noted that the proposal touching provincial Synods,
though intended for their better satisfaction, yet being disrelished
by them, it was presently offered to be dashed out, and assurance
given them they should be no more troubled with that motion, as
being found to be no less displeasing and unacceptable to some of
those that differ most from them than to themselves. But there
is now the less need of this exception concerning that one article,
seeing upon their absolute refusal, that and all the rest together
are at once expired, and are no more henceforward to be reckoned
on or spoken of, than if they had never been made.
" It is true that one of them said, if they were commanded by
authority they could not decline to own and vindicate their opinion,
but withal he offered reasons why they should not be brought
under any such obligation: and this was all the entertainment the
offer of the Conference had from them. But to this it was answered,
that it was not to be expected those in authority should command
any to dispute against what was settled by law, the utmost that
ever was granted in such cases being a permission ; but to this
nothing was returned.
" It was asserted by us : —
" I. That there is no command in Scripture for the changing of
Moderators in meetings of Presbytery, nor no precept nor rule of
Scripture contrary to the office of a Bishop as a fixed President
in Synods.
"2. That the fixed Presidency of Bishops in Synods hath as much
warrant as the fixed moderating of a Presbyter in Kirk Sessions of
ruling Elders, who, by those that assert such Elders to be of
Divine rights, as our opponents do, cannot but be accounted equal
as to the point of rufing.

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 447
" 3. That there is no particular command in Scripture for an
absolute parity of Presbyters : if there be, let it be produced, and
it will end the controversy.
" 4. That that Parity cannot be reasonably concluded from our
Saviour's command, It shall not be so with you, etc., Matt. xx. 26.
or from any other of His holy injunctions (given either to all His
followers or particularly to His Apostles or Ministers) of modera
tion, humility, and meekness, for that would destroy all Church
Government, and all superiority of Pastors over Elders and Deacons,
and over their people. If all imparity and rule in Ecclesiastical
persons were inconsistent with these great laws of our holy pro
fession, then the Apostles themselves would have been the first
and most signal transgressors of these laws : and to say they were
extraordinary persons would, upon that supposition, say nothing but
that they were extraordinary transgressors.
"5. If the thing be lawful, the appropriating that name of Bishop
to the superior presbyter or president cannot make it unlawful,
though these two names be indifferently used in the Scriptures :
for they are so used in some primitive writers at some times, who
in other passages do clearly own the different degree of Bishops
over Presbyters, and were themselves of that degree. So to reason
from that topic seems to be too weak to be worthy of any serious
persons insisting upon it.
" 6. And it is yet more strange to be offended at the solemn way
of blessing or consecrating Bishops to that Presidency with the
imposition of hands : as if a grave nnd solemn admission to a high
and holy employment were apt to unhallow it : and being in
appearance so proper an instrument of making it the better, should
yet effectually make it the worse.
" 7. Nor is it easy to be understood how any person can judge
the office of such a Bishop unlawful because there is in Scripture
no express command for it and under that very name, who yet finds
a way to persuade himself without any such command, or so much
as the names of most to be found in Scripture, that Kirk-Sessions,
and Presbyteries, and Synods, National Assembly, and Commission
of the Kirk, are in their several subordinations not only lawful
but a Divine Institution and the Kingdom of Christ upon earth :
whereas to an impartial inquirer there will be undoubtedly found
in the Scripture more vestiges of such an Episcopacy as we speak
of than of that chain of judicatories or anything like them.

448 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
" 8. As to the degree of power of Bishops beyond other Pres
byters, that is certainly not to be so fitiy measured by any other
rule as by the received practice of the Primitive Church, and
Canons of the most ancient Councils, and thence it will undoubtedly
be found that they had not only some such particular power, but
exortem et eminentem potestatem, as Jerome speaks. But (as) for
that, if the Spirit of our meek and lowly Master did more possess
the minds both of Bishops and Presbyters, there would certainly
be little or no dispute, but the sweet contest of striving who should
yield most, and give most honour the one to the other.
" 9. As for the opinion of the late Reformers in France and
Germany, and elsewhere, and of the present Reformed Churches
abroad, even those that have no Bishops, and of the Presbyterian
brethren in England, how great the moderation of all these is
concerning the Episcopacy now in question, is sufficiently known
to all that know anything of these matters : and makes it much the
more wonderful that these we have to deal with should affect so
exorbitant an height of zeal and fervour in this point, so far beyond
what can be found in any of these we have named, or any other
society or party of men in the whole Christian world, either of our own
or former times : nor can any reason be given of this, unless that
word of the Roman philosopher, Superstitio est error insanus.'
"As for the engagement they still apprehend from the Covenant,
it hath been sufficiently cleared on other occasions, that the article
of it touching Prelacy, as it is expressly specified in the words of
it,^ doth not at all concern the Episcopacy with us in question,
especially as it is qualified by the concessions lately offered to our
divided brethren for their satisfaction.
" But we are informed that they now flee to the other article of
that Covenant engaging them to maintain the Discipfine and
Government of the Church of Scotland as it was then in being.
But it were to be wished they would impartially consider whether
the present Episcopacy be inconsistent with that Discipfine and
Government that was before, and destructive of it, or if it wiU not
rather be found to be indeed corroborative and perfective of it,
as apt to keep it in more union and order, and so to make it
stronger and more lasting than it formerly proved, or likely would
be if it were again restored as it was. And again they should
consider that if the substance thereof be salved in the present
' Seneca. ^ See p. 184.

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 449
Model, their obligation is abundantly preserved : for if no chip or
circumstance of it must be altered even though for the better, then
is the next article illusory, and in plain terms a perfect cheat, in
that it engages them to endeavour the greatest uniformity attain
able in the Churches of the Three Kingdoms,' as in doctrine and
worship, so in discipline and government, and that "according to
the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches."
Now if in order to this uniformity, no hoof, as they use to speak,
nor so much as a hair of the Scottish Model can be altered, because
of the preceding article, though the example of the best Reformed
Churches, yea, even the Word of God itself, should be found to
call for some alteration of it, and the designed and vowed uniformity
should highly require it, then ought it instead of reading according
to the Word of God, Ss'c, to be rather according to the present frame
of the Church of Scotland in all points. How this would have passed
with their English brethren, and particularly with those that
were present at the framing of that Covenant, may easily be
imagined. " Yea, it is not unknown to some yet alive how careful one of
the English Commissioners was to have that clause inserted,
according to the Word of God, and how secure he thought himself
and his country by that expression from the inroad of Scottish
Presbytery upon them, notwithstanding that former article premised
in favour of it. Thus were the contrivers of that Covenant busied,
in patching it up, to outwit one another by words and clauses, how
incoherent and discordant soever, to salve their different interests
and opinions, to make it strong, in odium tertii, how weak soever
it might prove to discerning men by disagreeing and jarring with
itself, and a very Babel by the divided and confused language of
its architects.
" We hear likewise that some take the Romish Hierarchy in the
National Covenant ^ for the same with our present Episcopacy, and
that by virtue of the gloss at Glasgow, which yet doth out of
question shamefully and grossly corrupt the text : for the Romish
Hierarchy is the Romish Hierarchy, and no other, nor hath any
man upon earth, not the head of that Hierarchy, the Pope himself,
nor any assembly of men, even such as have most of the Spirit in
them, power to bind a sense upon the words so different from and
opposite to their clear and genuine signification. Nor did the
' P. 184. " Pp. 124-126.
A.L. 29

450 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
Presbyterian brethren in preceding times think themselves by that
Covenant obliged to separate from the Synods wherein Bishops
presided, as their known practice evidences to all the world."
Such is Leighton's case as stated by himself: we have
already learned from Wodrow the position in general of
the Covenanters,' but a book written at this period by
McWard refers to Leighton, and may be regarded as the
representative expression of the special reasons, why the
Covenanters rejected Leighton's Accommodation. The per
sonal element is besides not a little strongthroughout the book.
After examining in a most unfriendly manner Leighton's
plan of accommodation, McWard states :
" But the author provided a retreat concluding. But oh 1 who
would not long for the shadows of the evening, and to be at rest from
all these poor, childish, trifling contests ?^ I shall not say, that since
he walks so much in darknesse, it is little wonder that he longs for
shaddes. But of this I am very certain, that if he had laboured
as seriously upon his Master's mission to reconcile souls unto God,
as he seemeth to have travelled upon his Majestie's commission, to
patch up a sinful Accommodation, his hope of rest had been both
more sweet and more assured : and, in place of the shadows
of the evening, he might have promised to himself the light
inaccessible, for his everlasting refreshment. But seeing these
very poor, childish, trifling contests, whereby he would cunningly
decry all the just oppositions of the faithful to his evil course, are in
effect his own devices against the Kingdome of our Lord Jesus, the
day wherein every man shall receive his own reward, according
to his own labour, shall make his work manifest, when the fire shall
try it. And I heartily wish that the burning thereof may be all his
losse." Another example of what Leighton had to contend against,
and the interpretation put upon his words, may be seen from
the following extract from the same work :
" And now the Author, for a conclusion of this Paper, teUs us.
And we all know what kind of person it is, of whom Solomon
• P. 443. 2 p_ ^og_ 3 (-^^g gjr ^^^ Accommodation Examined, p. 57-

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 451
sayeth, that he rageth and is confident. And, really, if I had but the
halfe of the Author's confidence, I think I could point out the very
man. 'Tis true a weak monastick spirit,' long habituat to an affected
abstraction and stoicisme, may render a man lesse capable of stronger
passions, and consequently, for a time, exempt him from these
ruder eruptions of rage : but whether he rage or laugh there is no
rest : and if appearances hold according to the influences, which his
last promotion seems to have had upon his dormant corruption, 'tis
like we may very shortly have a prelatick experiment of both. It is
enough for us that the Lord is our light and our strength, and none
that love his righteous cause shall ever be ashamed." ^
The following are the conclusions of the book, which
express the attitude of the Covenanters towards Leighton's
Scheme of Accommodation :
"(i) That a conjunction in the present church meetings is a
certain acknowledgment of and participation with the present
ecclesiastical government, which in effect is not truly such, but a
mere politick constitution wholly dependent upon and resolving in
the Supremacy, wherein no faithful minister can take part.
" (2) That this conjunction doth evidently infer a consent and
submission to the supremacy, and arrant usurpation on the Kingdom
and Church of Christ.
" (3) Such is the present elevation of this all-swaying prerogative,
not intended to be suppressed, that all other concessions, though in
themselves satisfying, would thereby be deprived of any consistent
assurance, and rendered wholly elusory.
" (4) As the meetings are founded upon and absolutely subjected
unto the Supremacy, so they are authorized and ordered by the
archbishop and bishops, and consequently do in such manner
derive their authority from them.
"(S) The meetings, whereunto we are invited, do consist of
such members for their perjurious intrusion and canonical servitude
(to say nothing of their more extrinsic delinquencies of profanity,
insufficiency and irreligion) as may not only warrant a non-conjunc
tion, but a positive separation.
"(6) Even in the most moderate acceptation the Bishop as
offered to be reduced, is repugnant both to Scripture, purer
antiquity, and our solemn oaths and engagements, inconsistent
' See'p. 105 et seq. ^ P. 69.

452 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
with the principles of Presbytery, and in effect very little lowed
from any of these powers and heights which he acclaims, inas
much as he is still at the King's nomination and not subject to
either the censure or control of the meetings over which he doth
preside. "(7) The Accommodation utterly disowns and cuts off the
Ruling Elder.
" (8) The terms being abjured by the National and the Solemn
League and Covenant, to close and comply therewith were to
desert the Lord's cause, ' by casting away the word of his patience
in this hour of temptation and to give ourselves to that detestable
indifferency and neutrality which we have by oath so enixly
renounced." " (9) The embracing of this coalition, but real suppression of
Presbyterian government, would not only be a total surrender of
that interest to the will of the adversaries, but engage us into
snares, contests, offences and temptations that may be better fore
seen than they can be numbered, let be prevented." '
Tweeddale did not think the negotiations would come
to much,^ but Leighton's perseverance was heroic. And
verily no saint was more sorely tried, nor did a saint ever
bear his affliction with a meeker spirit.
Sharp and his episcopal followers (both bishops and laity)
blamed Leighton for a design in the whole matter to betray
his order and set up presbytery. The Presbyterians, as the
above reference indicates, rejected as impossible what he felt
to be possible, and blamed as insincere and " jesuitized," a
man whose whole negotiations were single-hearted and open,
and who had no other design but that of allaying the agita
tions that were distracting the country. But the sorest
wounds came to Leighton from the hands of those who
ought to have supported him by conciliatory measures, yea,
who were solemnly pledged to do so. He trusted Lauderdale's
promises as well as the King's, yet both were written in sand.
' The Case of the Accommodation proposed by the Bishop of Dunblane
(1671). Appendix contains Leighton's two letters, pp. 90-94.
* Lauderdale Papers, ii. 207.

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 453
And although Leighton expostulated with Lauderdale
regarding the new persecutions which he had inaugurated
against the Covenanters, and said that the whole complexion
of itwas so contrary to the common rules of humanity, that
he was ashamed to mix in council with those wlio could frame
and pass such acts, and thought it strange that he Jiad not been
consulted — it was all in vain. Both Lauderdale and his royal
master had become infatuated, and Lauderdale ruled as a
satrap and not as a constitutional minister. His wife died in
1671, and he had been long intimate with Lady Dysart and
was now married to her. Under her evil influence, all that
was bad in his character became strengthened, and her jealousy
induced him to discard Sir Robert Moray, his best friend :
caused him to break with Tweeddale and to burden the
country with taxation. Kincardine, who had done his best
to govern the wretched country, alone remained with
him, but was very soon compelled to leave him. To
the angry and organized opposition (led by Hamilton
upon the opening of Parliament on Nov. 12, 1673), which
demanded redress of certain abuses, he gave a passionate and
uncompromising opposition, which he was strong enough to
make good, although he had to give way on certain points.
He was no longer the " good Maitland " or the " gracious
youth " of Baillie's affection, full of noble possibilities and
beaming with a frank intelligence : he had now become
swollen with gluttony, brutalized with vice, and bore upon
his face the evidence of his shame.
Such was the man, with whom Sharp worked, to attain
the complete subjection of a Church, penetrated with a
consciousness of spiritual independence and determined to
maintain it unto death. Such was the man, with whom the
saintly Robert Leighton had to correspond, that he might
carry out what was to his beautiful spirit, as the Vision on
the Mount
The situation, till the time when Leighton resigned the

454 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
See of Glasgow, may be thus described. On the one side
was Lauderdale, applying systematic coercion to establish
the supreme authority of the King over all persons and in
all causes ecclesiastical : on the other side were the western
Whigs, who would only be law-abiding subjects, when
Charles would abolish bishops and permit free General
Assemblies ; and who, until that day, would remain irre-
concileable. In the midst of the turmoil was one heavenly
voice pleading for peace on a broad, comprehensive basis
of agreement Knowing now the fifth act in the scene, we
understand the result, but honour is due to the single-minded
man, who felt that his work was a cross and nobly bore it.
The following letter ' reveals one of his difficulties.
Archbishop Leighton to the Earl of Lauderdale.
"Edinburgh, December i, 1671.
" May It Please Yo" Grace—
*****
" There is one thing in my present charge I am much concern'd
in & solicitous about 'tis ye supplying of ye vacant kirks in ye
western part especially, for ye truth is wee have not men for them,
and ye people in most of ye parishes would not receive angels if
they comitt ye horrid crime of going to presbyteries and synods.
That I have to interest at present is y* I bee not left to struggle
alone with so hard a task, but may have ye assistance both of ye
direction & authority of ye Lords of CounciU or their Comittee,
or these same that are named in ye later order, that I may make
my address to them in this particular and what other difficulties
occurr in ye affairs of y' diocese, & if yo' Grace would be pleas'd
to write a line to my L. Chancellor for y* effect w"'' will add to ye
many and great obligements 01
" My Lord, " Yo'' Grace's most humble servant,
"R. Leighton."
{Lauderdale Papers, vol. ii. p. 217.)
' About this date (on October 17, 167 1) Archbishop Leighton issued
a certificate authorizing any clergyman of the Church to celebrate
the marriage of Robert MacKneill with the " Lady of Boott"(Bute)
(Appendix to Sixth Report of Manuscript Commission, p. 473).

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 455
Leighton's work is now best stated in the letters which
fortunately still survive.
(Undated, but apparently before Lauderdale's arrival in
Scotland in the end of May 1672.)
Archbishop Leighton to the Earl of Lauderdale.
" May It Please Yo" Grace —
" Though I confesse I am as lazy as any other to ye businesse
of writing, yet I would not have bin wanting to my duty of
acquainting yo' grace if any thing had occurr'd since my last worthy
of yo' notice within my present circle (for with things without
it I medle not) nor have I much now to say, but that (thanks bee
to God) ye west sea is at present pretty calm and wee are in a
tolerable degree of quiet, and y" late treating and conferences with
o' dissenting brethren seems to have contributed something towards
it, so y' y' time and pains bestowed that way seem not to bee
wholly lost, and though they cannot be charm'd into Union, yet
they doe not sting so fiercely as they did, nor does the difference
appear so horridly vast, and ye gulf between us so great but that
there may be some transition, and diverse of them are speaking of
coming to presbyteries, if they may bee excus'd from synods,' but
'tis most amongst them y* are still out, as indeed most concern'd,
& possibly had the rest bin treated with in ye same posture they
would have bin more tractable, but we must doe as well as wee can
with things as they are, de ce qui est fait, le conseil en est pris.
The main difficulty at present is the filling of the vaccancies, w"*"
are not a few, and diverse of y' people very humorous and hard
to please, & the too great disregard of that & y° negligent
indifferent throwing in upon them any that came to hand was y"
great cause of all y° disquiet that hath arisen in these parts, filling
all places with almost as much precipitancy as was usd in making
them empty. And in this affair I am now craving y" advice and
assistance of y' Lords of CounciU, and particularly of those on whom
I know yo' Grace reposes most for this & other matters of publick
concernment, being resolved to doe nothing of importance while I
continue in this station, without their good fiking and concurrence.
*****
"R. Leighton."
{Lauderdale Papers, ii. 225, 226.)
' In the previous December Leighton says they will come neither to
Presbyteries nor Synods (p. 454).

456 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
Leighton's influence seems to have had the effect of making
the Government pause for a time from its maddening severity,
and become possessed with a temporary mood of sweet
reasonableness, and on September 3, 1672, came the Second
Indulgence. By it about eighty ministers, mostly in the
west and south-west, were confined to fifty-eight parishes,
and the Council proportioned the stipends, giving assurances
at the same time to the regular and legal incumbents that
no more would be indulged. By the second Act, prescribed
rules were to be observed by all the indulged ministers about
their baptisms, their keeping the sacrament of the Lord's
Supper upon one day, their places of preaching, residing
within the bounds of their own parishes, their discipline and
their paying the ordinary dues to synod clerk and bursar.
The third Act discharged all presbyterian ministers except
those who were indulged, from exercising any part of their
ministerial work, under what punishments the council thinks
fit, and appointed all outed ministers to attend ordinances
in the parishes where they lived, or to go and live in such
places where they will attend.
The ministers felt that acceptance implied acqui
escence in Erastianism, and the eighty, who conformed, '
were regarded as traitors to the cause.' It was to the
generality the admission of the principle of regal absolutism,
which might extend to all laws whatsoever. The second
Scottish Indulgence of September 1672 corresponded to
the Royal Declaration in England of March 1672, promising
licence for English Nonconformist chapels. In neither
country did it prove a solution, and, as Leighton's letters
indicate, it only produced a temporary lull in the Scottish
storm. ' The reader will remember in Old Mortality " that blinded man,
Peter Poundtext, once a precious preacher of the Word, but now a
backsliding pastor, that has, for the sake of stipend and family mainten
ance, forsaken the strict path, and gone astray after the Black
Indulgence."

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 457
The following letter was evidently written by Leighton
in 1673, and must have been before September of that year,
when James Ramsay, Dean of Glasgow, was promoted as
his successor in the See of Dunblane.' It is its own best
commentary. "May it Please Your Grace —
" I can give as yet litle further account of our distemper'd
Church affairs than formerly, onely I am informed that y° late
Act (the 'Second Indulgence,' passed on 3d September, 1672)
relating to our divided Brethren hath divided them more
amongst themselves then any thing y' hath yet befallen them ; for
though they generaUy think it girds them too straite into a corner
yet y" soberer of them incline to bee doing with it till better come,
w"'" they are still gaping for, and let them doe, for y' keeps them
from despair : but others of them have some scruple concerning
it, but what kind of scruple that can bee, I think, passes the skille
of any man in his right wits to imagine. However, there is this
good in it, that it amuses them, and keeps their heads and tongues
busy, which otherwise would possibly not bee so innocently employ'd.
And truely I beleev y' y" utmost y' is to bee expected from y" best
counsels relating to this affair, is y° preventing of mischief, and
keeping things from running to extream confusion : but for Church
order and cordiall agreement I confesse I have given over to look
for it in these parts for our time : but had this change bin either a
litle lower model' d at first, or at least, as it was, a litle more calmly
managd, it might likely have attained much better reception and
settlement long ere this time : but it was unhappily, and I fear
irrecoverably lost, at first setting out, by too high and too hot and
hasty counsels. And I looke on it at present as a forlorn aftergame,
and nothing remains but to make y° best that may bee of it as it is.
For y° vacancy of Dunblain, I gave yo' Grace my humble opinion
in my last and am still persuaded of it, as y" onely choyce I dare
advise. For y° Isles, I have bin enquiring after one that hath
y* language, and find that one Mr. Graham,^ Minister of y° Isle of
Boot is absolutely y° fittest yea, y" onely fitt man of that kind that
' See p. 393.
^ Archibald Graham, parson of Rothesay in the Isle of Bute, was
advanced to the Bishopric of the Isles, but not until 1680, when
Andrew Wood was translated to the See of Caithness.

458 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
I can either meet with or hear of And if your Grace incline to
fixe both y" one and other, either according to this advice or a better
from some better hand, it were much to be wisht it were done as
soon as conveniently may bee, after so long vacancy, especially of
y" one. However, I trust yo' Grace will pardon the freedom
presum'd upon by, " May it please your Grace,
" Your Grace's most humble servant,
" R. Leighton."
{The Bannatyne Miscellany, vol, iii. pp. 231, 232.)
The following letter indicates that Leighton once more
sought resignation from the See of Glasgow, and went to the
King with that purpose in view.
Bishop Ramsay to the Duchess of Lauderdale.'
Hamiltone, May 21, 1673.
" May it Please Yor Grace —
" Although I am assured that my letters ar bot a trouble,
yet I have foresumed this third time to give y' G' the
trouble of reading a few Lynes. Our Archbishop is gone from us to
Court w' a designe (as is thought) to lay doune this charge, and I
doubt not but yo' G' is sensible how unfitt a time this is for such a
persone to relinquish such a statione, if for preventing q'of, as I doe
not questione bot y' G' will interpose yo' oun desires. So (if ther
be need) I doe as litl doubt but yow will jndeavour that his
Ma"" may lay his commands upon him to continue in this see, at
least for some time, and I am perswaded he has a principle of
obedience that will prevaile w' him to crosse his oune jnclina°nes.
But if he shall prove resolute in his Dimissione and retirement
I hope the love that yo' G' beares to this poor church will
move you to solicite, my Lord Commissioner, his G', that by his
jnterest w' his Royal Ma'" This sea may be supplied both speedilie,
and w' a persone who will follow those methods q"*" the Commis
sioner, his G' and the archbishop have sett on foot and approve of.
Our case no more admitting change of methods than a sore eye
does change of a good salve. Iff in this or any other thing yo' G'
offend at my presumptione, I doe in all humifitie crave pardon,
' The second Duchess Elizabeth Tollmarsh, Countess of Dysart in
her own right.

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 459
Desyring nothing more then that I may stand right in yo' g' favour.
As one who values himself upon nothing so much as to be esteemed,
and relie to acquitt himself in everie capacitie he can be in as,
" May it please yo' G',
" Yo' Graces most ffaithful and obedient servant,
" J. Ramsay."
{Lauderdale Papers, vol. ii. pp. 231-232.)
The following is the only address of Leighton's to the Synod
of Glasgow, that is known to survive, as the Synod Books,
which now exist, only extend from 1687 — thirteen years after
Leighton left the See.'
Letter to the Synod of Glasgow,^ convened April 1673.
" Reverend Brethren —
" It is neither a matter of much importance, nor can I yet give
you a particular and satisfying account of the reason of my ab
sence from your meeting, which, I trust with the help of a little
time, will clear itself But I can assure you I am present with
you in my most affectionate wishes of the gracious presence of
that Holy Spirit amongst you, and within yow all, who alone
can make this and all your meetings and the whole work of your
ministry, happy and successful to the good of souls and his
glory that bought them ivith His own blood. And I doubt not
that your own great desire, each for yourself, and all for one
another, is the same ; and that your daily and great employ
ment is, by incessant and fervent prayer, to draw down from above
' Maitland Miscellany, iv. p. 211.
^ Regarding this Synod, Law has the following statement : Bishop
Leighton, at his last meeting at the synod of Glasgow, appoints some
of the brethren, viz., Mr. Ross, parson of Glasgow ; Mr. Stewart, at
BoniU ; Mr. Whyt, at Air, and some others with him, to go to Edinburgh
to present some grievances, viz. against the indulged brethren, that
they baptiz'd children of other parishes, and did not keep the 29th of May,
the King's birth and restoration day ; and that they did not keep the
injunctions of the councell : 2dly, against conventicles ; against some
of them they alleged treasonable speeches in their sermons, and charges
some with adultery and fornication. 3. Against some young men that
preach, as they alledge, without appoyntment of the church-officers.
These grievances were presented to the commissioner and Bishop Sharp
by these brethren, and were remitted to the King's councell. {Memorials,
p. 56.)

46o ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
large supplies and increases of that blessed Spirit which our Lord
and Master hath assured us that our heavenly Father will not fail to
give to them that ask it And how extreme a negligence and folly
were it to want so rich a gift for want of asking, especially in those
devoted to so high and holy a service, that requires so great degrees
of that spirit of holiness and divine love to purify their minds, and
to raise them above their senses and this present world. Oh ! my
dear Brethren, what are we doing, that suffer our souls to creep and
grovel on this earth, and do so little aspire to the heavenly life of
Christians, and more eminently of the messengers and ministers
of God, as stars, yea, as angels, which He hath made spirits, and
his ministers a flame oj fire 1 Oh ! where are souls to be found
amongst us, that represent their own original, that are possessed
with pure and sublime apprehensions of God, the Father of spirits,
and all often raised to the astonishing contemplation of his eternal
and blessed being, and his infinite holiness, and greatness, and
goodness ; and are accordingly burnt up with ardent love I And
where that holy fire is wanting, there can be no sacrifice, whatsoever
our invention, or utterance, or gifts may be, and how blameless
soever the externals of our life may be, and even our hearts free
from gross pollutions ; for it is scarce to be suspected, that any
of us will suffer any of those strange, yea, infernal fires of ambition,
or avarice, or malice, or impure lusts and sensualities, to burn
within us, which would render us priests of idols, of airy nothings,
and of dunghil gods, yea, of the very god of this world, the prince of
darkness. Let men judge us and revile us as they please, that
imports nothing at all ; but God forbid anything should possess our
hearts but He that loved us, and gave himself for us ; for we know
we cannot be vessels of honour meet for the Master's use, unless we
purge ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, and empty our
hearts of all things beside him, and even of ourselves and our own
will, and have no more any desires nor delights, but his will alone,
and his glory, who is our peace, and our life, and our all. And,
truly, I think it were our best and wisest reflection, upon the many
difficulties and discouragements without us, to be driven by them
to live more within ; as they observe of the bees, that when it is
foul weather abroad, they are busy in their hives. If the power of
external discipline be enervated in our hands, yet who can hinder
us to try, and judge, and censure ourselves ; and to purge the inner
temples, our own hearts, with the more severity and exactness ?

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 461
And if we are dashed and bespattered with reproaches abroad, to
study to be cleaner at home : and the less we find of meekness
and charity in the world about us, to preserve so much the more
of that sweet temper within our own hearts ; blessing them that curse
us, and praying for them that persecute us ; so shall we most
effectually prove ourselves to be the children of our heavenly Father,
even to their conviction that will scarse allow us, in any sense, to
be called his servants.
As for the confusions and contentions that stiU abound and
increase in this Church, and threaten to undo it, I think our
wisdom shall be, to cease from man, and look for no help till we
look more upwards, and dispute and discourse less, and fast and
pray more ; and so draw down our relief from the God of order
and peace, who made the heavens and the earth. Concerning
myself, I have nothing to say, but humbly to entreat you to pass
by the many failings and weaknesses you may have perceived in
me during my abode amongst you ; and if in anything I have
injured or offended you, or any of you, in the management of my
public charge, or in private converse, I do sincerely beg your pardon :
Though, I confess, I cannot make any requittal in that kind ; for
I do not know of anything towards me, from any of you, that
needs a pardon in the least ; having generally paid me more
kindness and respect than a much better or wiser man could either
have expected or deserved. Nor am I only a suitor for your
pardon, but for the addition of a further charity, and that so great
a one, that I have nothing to plead for it but that I need it much,
— your prayers, and I am hopeful as to that to make you some
little, though very disproportioned, return ; for whatsoever becomes
of me (through the help of God), while I live, yow shall be no one
day of my fife forgotten by
" Your most unworthy, but most affectionate
" Brother and Servant, " R. Leighton.
"PS. — I do not see whom it can offend, or how any shaU
disapprove of it if you will appoint a fast throughout your bounds,
to entreat a blessing on the seed committed to the ground, and for
the other grave causes that are still the same they were the last
year, and the urgency of them no whit abated, but rather increased :
but in this I prescribe nothing, but leave it to your discretion and
the direction of God."

462 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
The following paper from Leighton's pen has reference to
the Second Indulgence, that was framed at Holyrood by the
three Acts of Council, September 3-7, 1672. By this Act
Mr. John Burnet, minister of Kilbride, near Glasgow, was
sent to the parish of Newmills in Ayrshire.' Refusing the
Indulgence, he was summoned before the Council, March 7,
1673. Being prevented by sickness from appearing, he wrote
down his reasons for declining, and sent them with a private
letter to Lauderdale. Leighton's remarks were probably
drawn up at the request of Lauderdale. Burnet died
December 22, 1673.
Burnet is described by Wodrow (vol. ii. p. 227) as a
minister of solidity and learning, who was well disposed
to the Quakers and Separatists at Kilbride. He both heard
the Indulged Ministers and pressed his people to do so, but
he had scruples in his own personal acceptance of the In
dulgence. The last words he was heard to speak were,
" Glory, glory, glory ! "
Reasons for Refusing the Indulgence Examined
(By Archbishop Leighton).
" I confess I have a doubt concerning this matter, and it is whether
it were wisely done, or to any purpose at all, to offer a right reason
to any man when it hath come in his head to offer such scruples
as these :
'¦ I. That could doubt whether it were lawful for a minister to
preach under persuasion of any man that is able to hinder him,
though it were a single soldier with a broad sword about his waist,
and a charged musket in his hand.
" 2. That he is afraid that it is an act of exorbitant and unlawful
supremacy for the King, with the advice of the Council, to confine
a minister to a particular parish, with liberty given him to preach
in the public church of that parish, if he will ; or, if he please, to
forbear. And likewise give liberty to his people to hear him, if
they wiU, or if they will not, as they please : neither restraining him
to be their minister, nor them to own him for such, unless they both
agree to do so. For this is truly and undeniably the present case.
' Wodrow's History, ii. 203 (note).

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 463
" 3. He apprehendeth, if he should preach on these terms, that
he is thereby guilty of aU that is contained in the Act of Supremacy,
and in aU the narrative clauses contained in the late Act of Indulgence,
though he is not at all required, either by word or writ to approve
either of these Acts or anything in them, or to make any promise
to observe these rules, but may break them all if he please, only
upon the hazard of losing that liberty which is granted to him,
and which is to be continued to him if he shall observe them.
"4. That he thinketh he cannot accept of liberty to preach in
conscience unless he have his full share in the power of ordination
and jurisdiction and the actual exercise thereof, and all other
liberties that he would have or thinks he should have as his just
due, which he would not receive if it were offered him from any
that hath power at present to give it him, neither from the King
for fear of approving of his supremacy, neither from the Church
for fear of compliance with lordly prelacy : so that unless the whole
frame of the Church and State be altered for his sake, there is no
hope of prevailing with him to be so kind and charitable to preach
where he is permitted ; but to make amends for that, he hath
resolved to be so stout as, in the despite of all authority and all
hazards, to preach where he is not permitted.
" 5. That he suspecteth that if he and his brethren would not
do so, the Gospel were gone, as being faithfully preached by no
other in this kingdom or any other else in all the world, but by
those that are fully in his opinion in all things, or at least in point
of Church Government : and how small that number is in all the
Churches, I am not willing to think that this gentleman is ignorant.
And were it true that his hypothesis were true, it were a thousand
pities that these men should be confined to a few parishes, or to
this whole kingdom, but rather should be sent as Apostles to teach
all nations.
" 6. Notwithstanding all his courage, he is hugely affrighted with
a terrible apprehension that if he be confined to one parish, the
sword of the magistrate will be still at his throat to cut it without
mercy, if he should offer to preach freely, or reprove the sins of the
time. But if that be so indeed, surely the rest of all his indulged
brethren have all this while been guilty of much sinful silence, for
not one throat of them is cut as yet.
"7. It is strange that these men have still the confidence to
speak of their model as ' the Cause of God ' and ' Kingdom of

464 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
Christ ' when they never hitherto expressed the least desire ot a
public conference for clearing this their pretension, but on the
contrary some of the chief of them did absolutely decline it when
it was freely offered them before honest men and honourable
witnesses. But in^ this they are wise, considering how much easier
it is to triumph amongst the ignorant credulous fellows with big
words and canting phrases, than with clear and strong arguments
to prove their trifling opinion in the presence of judicious and
impartial hearers."
Leighton had the help of Bishop Hamilton of Galloway
in the government of the Diocese of Glasgow as the following
letter (dated August 9, 1673) indicates. It was sent with
one from Lauderdale to the Bishop of Galloway, requesting
him to assist Leighton.
"My Lord —
" Being remanded back to this station for a little time, I desired
the enclosed, though I have found your lordship very ready to
assist me upon such occasions as this relates to : because if they
shall frequently occur, as possibly they may, it might seem not so
regular and warrantable to trouble yow w them, w'out this significa
tion of his majesty's pleasure wh. will sufficiently excuse and justify
us both in these instances. But at meeting, I may, God wiUing,
give yow a fuller account of the business, and the reason that caused
such a thing to be desired^by, my lord,
" Your lordship's affectionate brother and humble servant '
"Ro. Leighton."
(Stephen's Life and Times of Archbishop Sharp, p. 465.)
In the following letter, Leighton's desire for retirement
comes to the surface again, and he refers to his scheme " as
the peevish humour of a melancholy monk."
The Archbishop of Glasgow to the Duke of Lauderdale.
"Edg', Nov'9(i673).
"May It Please Yo"^ Grace —
" It were (I know) an unpleasant thing, & now scarce pertinent for
me to say any more of y° struggles & tossings of my thoughts con
cerning my engaging in this station, both before my submitting

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 465
to't & even since, onely what I sayd once and again to bespeak y°
liberty & right construction of my retiring in case of necessity,
though yo' grace thought it not fitt to take any notice of it at present,
yet I must humbly begg it may not be wholly forgott, & I will men
tion it no more tUl I find my self forct to make reall use of it, for
them y' are in eminent civiU employments and are no lesse emi
nently qualified for them, God forbid they should think of withdraw
ing ; but for us of this order in this kingdom, I beleev 'twere little
damage either to church or state, possibly some advantage to both,
if wee should all retire : but that, whatsoever y" event of it might
proov, is a thing neither to be feared nor hoped. For myself, how
greatsoever bee my longings after retreat yet ought they not to
hinder my most humble acknowledgment of his Ma''°' undeserved
favour (though it stUl detains mee from that w"*" of all things in this
world I doe most passionately desire), & next to his Ma''" favour I
cannot but bee sensible of my singular obligement to yo' grace, for so
much unwearied kindness & patience in this affair, for how much
reason soever I may seem to myself to have for my reluctancy, yet I
think yo' grace had more reason long ere this to have despised &•
neglected it, as ye peevish humor of a melancholy monk. But whatsoever
I am or shall be while I live, yea, though T turn'd Hermite, I am
sure not to putt off ye indeleble character of,
"My Lord,
"Yo' grace's " Most humble servant,
"R. Leighton."
".My Lord —
" The Comissariate of Lanrick becoming vacant I was forc't to
dispatch ye choyce of one for it on purpose to avoyd the crowds of
severall recomendations, and y" vexatious importunities with w"*"
they were press'd. Ye person I have chosen is one John Graham,
Comissary Clerk of Dunblane, & have put another in his place
there, being under some kind of promise to the both to doe them a
kindnes if any opportunity should offer, and I have done it freely
to them both : whereas for y° Comissariate, though one of y'
meanest, more was offerd mee by some of the competitors then I
think one much better were worth, if sett to sale in y' market-place,
& I think it a shamefull abuse that Churchmen should so comonly
doe soe by these places, disposing the to any man more bids, and I
heartily wish this were discharg'd, but that w'='' pains mee now most
A.L. 30

466 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
in this particular is y' I understand by y' Earie of Kincardin that
yo' grace had a mind to recomend one to y' place, w"*" could I have
had y= least foresight of, there is no doubt it would have bin reserv'd
for him : but I hope yo' grace will pardon my hastening to dispose
of it for y' true reason I have given account of The person I fixt
on is both of approved honesty & ability & will reside upon it &
attend it constantly & is indeed worthy of a better place if any such
were at my dispose. And yet after all this rather then yo' grace
should take it ill either y' I was so sudden or y' y" person yo' grace
intended for it should be disappointed I would doe my utmost & I
hope might prevayl with my friend to surrender back his gift : but if
yo' grace incline not to putt him & mee to y" retrograde I would
engage myself for y" gentleman for whom yo' grace design'd this
place that y'' first & best of that kind within y° diocese, if it fall
vacant in my time, should be no otherwise disposed of I again
begg yo' grace's pardon & that I may know yo' mind in this, & to
my utmost power it shaU bee obey'd. I hope this long postscript wiU
be pardon'd, for sometimes y° circumstances of these litie affairs
require more words then matters of greater importance.
" For My Lord Commissioner
" His Grace."
{Lauderdale Papers, vol. ii. pp. 238-240.)
In the following letter he expresses his belief that the ejec
tion of worthy ministers, during the Middleton administration,
was the chief cause of the Western disquiet.
The Archbishop of Glasgow to the Duke of Lauderdale.
"Edg', Jun. 16(1674).
" May It Please Yo"^ Grace —
" Whither it bee y" fatall unhappinesse of this order in this
corner of y" world, or our unskilfulness in managing it, or something
of both, I cannot tell, but it is evident to all y° world y' it hath not
produc'd since its restitution those good effects y' were wisht &
expected from it, & is now in lesse appearance to doe so then
before, & likely rather to occasion more trouble then yet it has done,
unles it please God to avert it, & to suggest such counsaiUs to those
in power as may proov effectuall to prevent it. I am far from pre
suming to offer advice in so difficult a buisines : and though my

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 467
own private concernment in it will quickly expire, if anything
occurr'd to my thoughts that I did but imagine might bee of any
use I would not affect y'^ modesty of concealing it What I sayd in
my last I see as yet no reason to retract y' whatsoever other ways of
quieting or curbing that froward party may bee us'd, it seems not
wholly useles to put them once more to't to give account of y°
reasons of their opinions & practises : & why they have now run
to so entire a separation, & to such wild & insolent attempts : &
certainly while those coercions & civiU restraints that for a time were
intermitted, are now found needfuU to bee renewed upon them. If
churchmen shall doe nothing in their own proper way, I see not
how they can bee thought worthy that so much should be done for
them, & such pains taken in their behalf, while they doe not so
much as offer to speak for themselves & y° church, & by y° clear
evidence of reason either to reduce their opposites to union, or to
strip them in y° view of y" world of all further excuse : but unles
this take with others, I shall presse it no further, for ther is none of
us has lesse pleasure in disputes & contests about these pitifuU ques
tions, then " May it please yo' Grace,
" Yo' Grace's " Most humble servant
" R. Leighton.
" I have now received y" presentation for Jedburgh, for w^'' I most
humbly thanke yo' Grace.
"That w'='' hath made y" wound of our shism almost incurable was
y" unhappy act of Glasco ' turning out so many ministers at once,
& though a good number of the"" are now perfectly silenc't by
death, & not a few permitted to preach, & provided to parishes
by indulgence, yet there remains a considerable part of them that
were not willing of themselves to goe and no means was us'd to
make them goe, & bee confined within y° parishes to w'^'" they
were assigned double, and these are mainly they y' now disquiet y"
countrey. And I see no help unles some way can be found out
how these may bee quieted, & bound to y" good behaviour, without
binding upp their mouths from preaching and fro eating, & so
neither stiffle them nor starve them : nor is it probable that this can
quickly and fully bee done by giving them liberty to bee presented
to vacant churches, there being not at present so many vacancies
' In the Middleton administration.

468 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
nor likely on a sudden to be so many within y" kingdom as will
suffice to lodg y" half of them single : and if they and their zealous
followers be so drunk with opinion of themselves as to think so I
cannot tell, but sure none besides themselvs will think it reasonable to
turn out any of y" regular ministers on purpose to make room for
them, so y' it would seem some other way must of necessity bee
thought of" {The Lauderdale Papers, vol. iii. pp. 50, 51.)
Lauderdale returned to Whitehall in the middle of April
1674. His absence from Scotland was the signal for increased
activity in the "Party," and at the beginning of May he
received intelligence of the Duke of Hamilton's endeavour
to surprise the Council into assenting to an address to Charles
founded upon those from various synods that were instigated
by Hamilton himself, praying for a National Synod or As
sembly, and representing the evils of Lauderdale's govern
ment' Leighton appears to have written Lauderdale on
June II in support of the proposal for a National Synod, for
on June 18 Lauderdale answers in the following dispatch, in
which, from his point of view, he urges the unfitness of such
a proposal. It would have been 1638 repeated, and that was
what Lauderdale did not desire.
The Duke of Lauderdale to the Archbishop of
Glasgow. " 18 June, '74.
"Yesterday I received yours of the i ith instant and am very gladd
you are come to Edenburgh. I am glade yow have written so fully
& so freely, for I hope yow will not mistake as full and free an
answer : and before I come to speak of youre Proposition at p'sent
I must crave leave to tell my minde freely of those Addresses that
have been made for a Nationall Synode. By the Addresses themselves,
and by a letter from three of the Ministers of Edenburgh ingadged
in them (Mr. Cant Mr. Turner & Mr. Robertson), I find the
ground upon w* they plead for a Synod, Nationall is Because
Synods have been in the pure and primitive times a good Remedy
^ Ibid. vol. iii. p. 42.

ARCHBISPIOP OF GLASGOW 469
against schisme, which I acknowledge to be true. But alace, what
hopes can wee have from a Nationall Synod, for which our Dissenters
will have no maner of Reverence. Our Synod wil be composed,
according to our Act of Parliam', of the Bishops, the Deanes,
the Constant Moderators of each Presbitery, Comissioners from
the Universityes, & one from each Presbitery. Will the Dissenters
look upon that as a Generall Assembly of Scotland ? Will they
give any obedience to the Decrees of it ? and as for the Orthodox
Clergie, they are or ought to be satisfied with the Government
estabfished by law, and what need they a Synod ? But I must look
a littie back towards the first Rise of this Motion. It was begun at
yo' Synod of Glasgow, and yet I doe not find it inserted nor pro
posed in their addresse to the Councill. It was also moved in the
Synode of Edenburgh, and with the same successe, and now I hear
the Presbitery of Glasgow wrote a letter to the Presbitery of Eden
burgh, tojoine with them to presse my Lord Primate & the Bishops
to join in an addresse to the Councill for a Synod : when neither
of those tooke, I am informed some Ministers of the Presbiteries of
Edenburgh, Dalkeith, and Hadinton gave in a petition to the
Bishop of Edenburgh to the same purpose, and the three above-
named sent it to me and desired me to joine in it. Now I am apt
enough to beleiv the generality of those that moved so earnestly
for this have no ill intention, yet I must needs suspect that some
others have set them on who had another Designe then what is
pretended. I can notforget the time when those Addresses were made.
It was to trifle with the Council- Day in May, where it was earnestly
urged that the Councill might send some Solemne Representation
to the King of the great dangers of the Country, and I think it
was intended that some Eminent Persons (some of whom are come
to Court since) might have been the cariers of this Solemn Repre
sentation, and so might have come to Court with a publick Character
which would have made a great noise here (a thing that was intended
ever since I went last to Scotland). It was very fit that his Maj"°
should be truely informed of the condition of his Kingdome of Scot
land, but so solemne a Representation as was intended was very
needlesse, unles it was thought that I would not represent faithfully
what would be sent to me, which was a great mistake. For I have
faithfuUy acquainted the King with all the Papers & all the
Passages, & he has sent his positive commands to his Councill
for the suppressing those Insolences by feild Conventicles & invading

470 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
of Churches, which I am confident have been industriously raised
and fomented, and yet I hope if the Councill doe vigorously prose
cute the King's commands, that violent & seditious spirit may
easily be quelled. But I have another Reason to mislike the late
Pressing of a Synod by Ministers without authority from their
Presbiteries, becaus I too well Remember what sad Effects flowed
from Petitions of Ministers in the year 1638, and for a GeneraU
Assembly too. I doe also remember how the tumult at Edenburgh
begun by woemen, and now I find woemen more tumultuously
Petitioning. I wish some may not be intending the same Play over
again, but a burn'd child dreads the fire, and upon aU those con
siderations I dare not I can not concurre in the Desires of a Synod
at this time, from which I may fear eviU, and expect no maner of good.
" If the late mad pranks, so evidently threatening a Rebellion, had
not fallen out I was much inclined to any maner of Moderation
that could have been proposed for quieting the soberest of the
Dissenting Party, and I was for granting any Indulgence to the
Peaceable of them w"'' might have consisted with the maintenance
of the present Church Government Established by Law, & w"^
would not probably have perpetuated the Schisme : but the late mad
practises have much cooled me untill I shall see some more hopes
of Peace by the Councell's vigorous quelling of this Spirit : yet
shall I not discourage any Motions for quieting the Spirits of such
as wilbe peaceable. Yow propose a meeting of some of the
Soberest Dissenters with some of my Lords the Bishops & of the
Orthodox Clergie : And althogh such Meeting had no successe the
last time it was attempted, yet seeing yow think it may now be of
great use, I shall not absolutely Discourage it. Yow may please to
talk of it with confident friends, & if upon debate it shalbe thowght
a probable meanes, I shall not oppose it becaus those upon the place
can be better judges than I at this distance : yet I can not disguise
my own melancholy thoughts that untill that desperate Party see that
their violent Courses can not prevaile, I have but little hope from
Moderation and Indulgences. Thus yow see I have freely told yow
my thoughts which I desire yow to communicate to such confident
friends as I would have yow to meet with, and from whom I will
expect a joint advice upon the whole matter.
" Endorsed :
"To Ar. Glas. 18 June, 74."
{Lauderdale Papers, vol. iii. pp, 52-54.)

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 471
In the following letter Leighton acknowledges, and at once,
somewhat timidly, gives way to Lauderdale's masterful com
mands. The Archbishop of Glasgow to the Duke of Lauderdale.
"Edg--. Jun. 25 (1674).
" May it Please Yo"^ Grace —
" I was iust upon going out of town when I receiv'd yo' grace's
letter of y" 18'* of June & some few days before I had writt some
what to y' Gr : touching y" buisiness of a national synod, very much
agreeing with what yo" sayes concerning it, onely I took y° liberty
to suggest the fairest construction in behalf of ye ministers suiting
for it, & that if any were driving a design in it, 'twas more than I
could perceiv, & more than y" generality of themselvs doe know
of, & there is one particular they have mistaken, y' gave yo' gr :
account of this affair, if they affirm'd that y° motion began at y*
Synod of Glasco, for upon my honest word there was not one
syllable spoke of it there in my hearing, no not in private, far lesse
any thing propounded towards it in publick : indeed, after it was
moov'd at Edg', y° report spreading, diverse presbyteries were taken
with it & began to discourse of it & yet none of them writt of it
to mee till it was again reviv'd at Edg', wherein there was more ir
regularity then in any other I have seen or heard of, for they neither
acquainted y" Bp. of Edg' with it at aU, nor mee, w°'' look' y" liker
y° striking up to a correspondence divided from us ; but if this had
not come to yo' Grace's knowledge by other hands, I confes I had
never say" anything of it for being here just y° day before it should
have bin deliver'd it was brought to my hands, & I having open'd
it (as I thought I had good reason to doe) & being much displeas'd
with y° strain of it, kept it upp & resolv'd to suppresse it, & to check
them y' writt it, but not to bring them to any publick censure for it
& the rather for y' very reason y' would have moov'd a vindictive
man to publish it some of those y' joyned in it being y° persons of
y" whole diocese that have most discover'd something of unkindness
towards mee, yea I can confidently say are y" onely persons of y*
whole for anything I know y' continue so to doe, the rest having
after the first preiudices & mistakes were blown over liv'd with mee
not onely in much peace, but in great amity & kindnes & have of
late generally exprest more affection to mee than I can modestly
own y' reporting of But this I say to excuse my suppressing y*
very Ul advis'd letter those persons sent to Edg'.

472 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
" The reasons they give y' still presse this motion are not that they
think y' dissenters will submitt to it but that a free & full hearing
may be offer'd them in any way they will accept of it, or if they
totally decline it that will bee both a sufficient & very easy defeat ;
nor doe they say they themselves need a synod in order to their
own satisfaction concerning y" government, seeing they wyn with
it, but for regulating of y" church in matters of discipline, &
reducing to as much order as may bee for y° present attainable : but
to both these I answer the that till there shall be found a more
convenient time for such a meeting these things may bee some way
provided for in an easier & safer way, for I tell them freely that
though I doe not suspect them of any design ag"' the present govern
ment, wh"'' was y° great incentive in y° year 1638, yet I fear unles it
were very wisely manag'd & succeeded very happily, it might bee
in hazard rather to disparage the government then likely to add any
thing to its reputation, for seeing them so divided & hotly contesting
about y° very motion of a synod, it may justly bee fear'd they would
be more so in it if it were granted them : & with these & other con
siderations I doe really indeavour to alay & cool y' minds of such
ministers as apply themselves to mee about it & strive to divert
them from any further attempts or thoughts of it for this time : and
I am hopefuU there shall bee no more noyce about it. Our primate
tells me hee hath writt to some of the Northern B'" of his province
to meet him shortly at Brechin, but I beleev it will bee but a thinn
meeting, & (as I told him) I cannot see what great matter they can
doe at it, but that I leav to his own better judgment : if it had been
at Edg' it would have past with lesse noyse & observation, & I
would have indeavour'd to waite on it, but being now going to y°
most southern corner of y° diocese of Glasco I cannot possibly re
turn so quickly as to go so soon north. I have stay'd this day in
town on purpose to speak with some of those Lords yo' Grace
directs mee to waite on, & I went in y" morning to my Lord Hatton's
lodging, but hee was gone abroad, but this afternoon I intend to
waite on his Lo : & any others of y' number I can meet with,
though I have litle or nothing to say but what some of them know
already. I have weare'd yo' Gr : with so long a letter, but y° parti
cular y' occasion it to bee so I trust will excuse
" May it please y' Grace,
"Yo' Grace's
" Most humble servant,
"R. Leighton."
{Lauderdale Papers, iii. 57-59.)

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 473
A previous letter of June 20, written before he received
Lauderdale's of June 18, is perhaps the most descriptive of
Leighton's personal feelings in his difficult, if not impossible,
situation. He describes the violent passions of his diocese,
and acknowledges that " the genius of the Church of Scoriand
lies much towards Synods and Assemblies since the Reform
ation." Leighton seems personally inclined to grant the
claim, but Lauderdale knew too well that liberty to sum
mon a general assembly would involve the repetition of 1638.
The Archbishop of Glasgow to the Duke of Lauderdale.
Ed', Jun. 20 (1674).
"May it Please Yo"^ Grace —
"There is a huge noyse raisd here of late among y" Clergy about
y° motion of a convocation, & they y' are here seem all hotly en
gagd in y" contast for or ag" it except one, y* is cool & indifferent
in it but that poor man is so to most other things y' sett y"
world on fire. As to this desire it was first moov'd in y" synod
of Edenburgh, as I am inform'd, & hath bin since revivd there,
but I hear it takes generally with y" presbyters everywhere, &
I think it is because 'tis y' road, & has bin y° usuall way of y°
Church in cases either of heresy, or schism ; & besides, y' genius of
this church particularly lies much towards synods &¦ assemblies since
y" reformation : for myself I am so far from overvaluing those meet
ings that I am & have long bin weary & sick of them all, & of all
y" vain Tangles & strifes, y' usuaUy take them upp : & upon the litle
knowledg I have of them, when I reflect on y" greatest part of
synods & councils old and new, I have so mean an opinion of them,
that if I should ever have vented it in any of them where I have bin,
I should have bin sure to feel y° weight of their censure : 'tis true
sometimes they doe some good, but none can deny they doe like
wise sometimes harm, & very great harm, & possibly y" oftner of the
two : after y' spreading of Luther's doctrine the germans cri'd their
throats dry with calling for a generall councill, and when they had
obtain'd it all y° world knows what they gain'd by it. For y' pres
byteries or presbyters that have supplicated here for a synod I could
not enquire of their motives before they did it none of them
having acquainted mee with their purpose, but since they did it, I
have spoke with some of them, & they doe wholly disclaim all

474 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
kind of project or design in it save onely y° good of this Church, &
as to the way they us'd as they say it was with all due respect & sub
mission to their Ordinary, & finding reasons (as they thought) for
offring their desire of a thing lawfull in itself, & establisht by law,
& usuall in y° Church, they knew not a more regular & orderly way
then y' they took in representing it to y" Bp. and leaving it for his
judgment whether he thought fitt to moov it or suppresse it ; how
far this may plead their excuse yo' Grace can judg as well as any, &
that I give yo' Grace this account of it is from no motive but that
of charity, for there is no man lesse involv'd in y° concernment
than I am. I receiv'd lately a letter from y° Dean of the Isles,
complaining of y" great and many disorders in y' diocese for want
of a Bishop, & seeming to impute somewhat of it to my neglect y'
diocese being of y' province of Glasco, but that yo' Grace will clear
mee of, having spoke of it often, & particularly the last winter while
yow were here, & having spoke of it, it became not mee to presse it
further. Hee desir'd likewise that in y" interim for redresse of those
disorders I would give warrant to them to meet in a diocesan synod,
& to appoint one to moderate in it w* it seems hee thought doe,
but I think not so, unles I have a particular coinand for it. I am
minded, God willing, to go from hence within two or three days, to
visit y° southern & remoter parts of y" diocese of Glasco, as I have
formerly done in y" sumer season, & to doe it now for the last time,
but I shall leav direction how to send them, if in the intervall any
comands shall come from yo' Grace to
" May it please yo' Gr :
" Yo' Grace's
" Most humble servant,
"R. Leighton."
{The Lauderdale Papers, vol. iii. pp. 55, 56.)
In connexion with the last letter, attention may here be
given to a paper, bearing date "Glasgow, 9th May" (no
year), and probably written about May 1674, referring to
the views of the Archbishop of Glasgow on Church matters.
The paper is a copy, but, according to a note in the middle
of it signed " G. Burnet," is a copy of a draft made by
Mr. Gilbert (afterwards Bishop) Burnet for Leighton's use.
The paper begins by a statement that Archbishop Leighton
accepted the See of Glasgow in the hope of bringing the

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 475
Presbyterians to terms and obtaining concessions from the
King, but these hopes failed. The next thing thought on
was the supply of many vacant churches in the Glasgow
diocese, which were so addicted to Presbyterian ministers, that
as the Archbishop could find none well qualified who would
serve these cures (the " outed " Presbyterian preachers, in
1672, being everywhere busy in conventicles), [he] judged it
necessary either that they should all be carried to other
countries, or lodged where they might be tied to particular
charges and no more ramble over the nation. The former
being against his conscience and inclination, he thought it
most advisable that the Indulgence, which had been granted
to thirty parishes, should be extended to other twenty-five, and
two outed ministers confined to each of the indulged parishes.
This course, however, though considered prudent, had not
been obeyd, as during "the last winter, 1673," field conven
ticles and other disorders increased, and ministers were
deserted and affronted in the service of God. Complaints
of this were made to the Commissioner (Lauderdale), but
nothing had been done. On the contrary, the disorders had
been pardoned, which made " all those people " become bold,
etc., and they are now possessing the vacant pulpits, and
also filling the pulpits of regular incumbents. " Amidst all
these confusions, the Archbishop is in an utter incapacity
to carry on the service of God in the Church, for as parishes
fall vacant, the incumbents he sends to them are beaten and
stoned away, which is not got punished, and tho' during the
years of his stay in this see he hath constantly every Lord's
day preached from parish to parish and done all [that] lay
in his power for encouraging the regular clergy, yet without
more vigorous assistance" he will be too weak to resist a
torrent which threatens to bear away the Church as established.
It is therefore proposed (i) that the King should consider
whether episcopacy should be maintained at the rate of the
trouble it has cost, and whether it should not be given up.

476 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
If it is to be maintained, religion and order should not he
neglected, offences against Churchmen should be punished,
etc. (2) The laws concerning the Church are too severe to
be executed, and should be revised and made practicable.
(3) A Synod should be called to settle the Church, etc.
Here follows in another hand, apparently Burnet's, " hitherto
my draught is copied out ; what followes is the copy of
what is written by the Archbishop on the same paper.
G. Burnet"
The second part of this paper begins :
" The account of the affaires of this diocesse is I think exactly
true & fitUe exprest, but it is larger than either the person men
tioned or his endeavours deserved, and larger than the King will
possiblie have patience to hear . . . unlesse yow finde him at several
reprises at leisure & in some disposition to receive account of these
particulars." After some further comments he continues :
"The errours in the management of these whole Church affaires
have been so great and so many, all along from the first setting out
that it looks like a judicial stroke from heaven either on the bussines
itself or on ws that were intrusted with it, for we have stiU been
tossed betwixt the opposite extreams of too great rigour and too
great relaxations and indulgences, well made lawes too severe to be
executed & for a counterpoise have executed almost none of them,
except by exorbitant fitts and starts that by their extreamitie made
all men sure of their short continuance. Our first unhappy stumble
that boded us no good journey was the discharging Kirk Sessions &
Presbyteries before we came from London, and so laying loose the
reins of all discipline for the most part of ane whole year. Our
overbended act of restitution and mishapt act of Convocation
followed. But our desperat fall that (I fear) we shall never recouer
was the fatal act of Glasgow, laying so great a tract waste to make
it quiet and then stocking again that desert we hade made with
a great many howles and satyres. For our remissnes on the other
hand & extream neglect of exercising due authoritie and so
exposing it to be despised and trampled on there need no more

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 477
instances but the two last the former of which is the not foUowing
out of the Act of Councell of '72, which the King himself and my
Lord Commissioner, & I beleeve all other intelligent persons look
on as both the softest and surest way by giving up some lodging
to stop the contagion from spreading, & bestowing a little ground
vpon a few channels to drain the rest of the whole country. The
other instance yow know . . ., what shall be the date of our
recovery He alone knowes who rwles times and seasons and all
men's hearts and all thinges."
(Historical MSS. Commission Eleventh Report, Appendix, part vi.
The MSS. of the Duke of Hamilton, K.T., pp. 148-149.)
Leighton resigned in 1673, but the King would not accept
his resignation, and prevailed upon him to continue in office
for another year. The following is a copy of the royal
engagement."Charles R.
" It is our win and pleasure, that the present Archbishop of
Glasgow do continue in that station for one whole year : and we shall
allow liberty to him to retire from thence at the end of that time.
"Given at our Court, at Whitehall, the Ninth Day of August,
1673 : and of our Reign the Twenty-fifth Year. By his Majesty's
command." The year was now drawing to its close, and Leighton was
looking forward to the relief that was to come. He found
himself more and more in an unbearable situation, and the
increase of conventicles, the unpopularity of his clergy, the
dissatisfaction with Episcopacy in any form, the fines and
cruelties perpetrated by Lauderdale's officers, made Leighton
determined that he had carried his doctrine of passive
authority to the royal command far enough, and that it must
not lead him to the infliction of another year. Besides, in
1673 four of the Scottish bishops had died, and Leighton
was disappointed when neither Charteris, Nairn, nor Burnet
would accept office.' They had all an ill opinion of the Court
' History of His Own Times, vol. i. p. 536.

478 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
and could not be persuaded to leave their retirement
Leighton said if his friends left the whole load on him, he
must leave all to Providence. That Sharp might not have
too public an affront put on him, Leighton agreed to a
bishop of his nomination, but notwithstanding the times
were sadly out of joint. He could not bear the Court, nor
could he be a sycophant and an abject flatterer, to the
Countess of Lauderdale, like Sharp, even although he was
always treated with distinction.' Lauderdale again suspected
him to belong to the Duke of Hamilton's faction ^ formed
against him, and the Presbyterians in the south and west
were hostile, as his own letters clearly show, and as their
literature no less manifests.^
There is the recurring reference to " weariness " in his
letters, and one of them speaks of " his disposition to bury
himself alive in one of y" solitarest hermitages in y" world." ^
Leighton was in London during June^ 1674, and the following
letter to Lauderdale shows that he was there in July, and
the purpose of his visit was unquestionably to keep the King
loyal to his word and to be liberated from a charge that
had long since become unbearable.
The Archbishop of Glasgow to the Duke of
Lauderdale. " Lond. July 3^ (1674).
May It Please Yo'' Grace — •
" I am extreamly sorry if y" putting a close to y" buisines y' brought
mee hither, when it could not well bee differr'd any longer, shall
have caus'd in yo' grace any displeasure ag"' mee, w* yet I can
hardly suspect for this desire of mine (w'"" I confesse is y° onely
' Ibid. p. 603.
^ Analecta, i. 337 ; Law's Memorialls, p. 71.
3 Cf Naphtali, by Mr. James Stiriing, minister at Paisley, and Mr.
James Stewart Advocate, afterwards Lord Advocate.
* Historical MSS., Ninth Report, p. 446.
^ Law's Memorialls, p. 71.

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 479
ambitious & passionate desire I have of anything in this world), bee
it from weaknesse of understanding, or melancholy humor, or what
soever else any may imagine, I am sure there is no malice in it
to any person or to any party, yea ye innocency & sincerity of my
heart in this matter will I trust in God uphold me under all ye
various misconstructions y' can fall upon me. Yea even that of
crazinesse of mind 'tis possibly by some imputed to, does not moov
mee when I consider that many great & wise persons have bin
guilty of y° same folly, if it bee so, some by actuall retiring, others
by earnest desires of it when it prov'd impossible for them. But
not to amuse yo' Grace with these discourses, I submitt to y" result
of this buisines for this time seeing 'tis now never to create any
further trouble either to myself or any other, & I hope in God
I shall goe through y" remainder of this wnpleasant work without
discontent or impatience. If I may bee but assur'd of one thing
& that is a full & absolute pardon from yo' Grace of whatsoever
hafh bin troublesome or offensive to yow in this matter, & no
abatement of yo' good opinion and favour, though (I confes) alwaies
undeserv'd in all other respects, unles great affection to yo' Grace
& yo' service may pretend to some small degree of acceptance
instead of merit. And this shall remain unalterable in mee
while I live. However, yo' Grace shall bee pleasd henceforward
to look upon mee. But it would exceedingly encourage me in
my return to my Laboratory if a line from yo' hand did give mee
some hope at least, of y" same favourable aspect from yo' Grace as
formerly ; but I crave pardon for this presumption, & however my
poor prayers, such as they be, shall not be wanting for yo' Grace's
welfare & happiness, nor shall I ever cease while I am above
ground to bee, "May it please yo' Grace,
"Yo' Grace's
"Most humble servant
"R. Leighton."
{Lauderdale Papers, vol. iii. pp. 62, 63.)
The next is his last letter to Lauderdale, and indicates his
desire to " live and die " in the Communion of the Church of
England.

48o ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
The Archbishop of Glasgow to the Duke of Lauderdale.
"May it please Yo" Grace — Dec. 17, 1674.
" Because I was unwilling to give yo' Grace any further trouble
at parting at so mean a buisines, I did resolv to peece out y" re
mainder of this year in this station, w"*" being now neer upon
expiring, I could not think of a fitter way to signify my intention,
then by y" enclosed, being y" very same individuall paper y' I
presented to yo' Grace while you were here. And I think it need
lesse to say any more of y" reasons mooving me to't having then
given yo' Grace a true &l short account of the main of them in a
paper apart. Onely I crave leav to add this that upon y° most
impartiall reflexion I can make upon y" temper of my mind in this
matter, I cannot find that it proceeds from any pusiUanimous'
impatience or wearines of y° troubles of this employment but
rather from a great contempt of our own unworthy & trifling con
tentions of w""" I have little other esteem then of a querelle d'Alman,
or a drunken scuffle in the dark, & doe pity exceedingly to see a
poor church doing its utmost to destroy both itself & religion in
furious zeals & endlesse debates about y" empty name & shadow of
a difference in government, & in the meanwhile not having of
solemn & orderly publick worship so much as a shadow. Besides I
have one just excuse, that grows daily truer, for though I keep not
bedd much, nor am (I thank God) rack' with sharp and torment
ing diseases, yet I can truely say that I am scarce ever free
from some one or other of those pains & distempers that hang
about this litle crazy turf of earth y' I carry, w"'' makes it an
uneasy burden to mee, but withall puts me in hopes y' I shall
shortly drop it into y" comon heap. Meanwhile my best relief will
be to spend y" litle remnant of my time in a private &• retir'd life in
some corner of England, for in y" cdihunion of y' Church, by y° help
of God, I am resolv'd to live 6f die. That which I am humbly to
intreat of yo' Grace is y" representing of this little affair to his
Ma''", & that in as favourable a manner as may bee, w* shall add
very much to y" many & great obligements of,
" May it please yo' Grace,
" Yo' Grace's " Most humble servant,
" R. Leighton."
{Lauderdale Papers, vol. iii. pp. 75, 76.)
' Cf. p. 339.

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 481
Such are all the letters of Robert Leighton that now sur
vive in the Lauderdale Papers, but there are others, mostly
without date, which, from general internal evidence, can be
pronounced as belonging to the Glasgow period of his life.
Several of them are to his old friend, Mr. Aird of Torryburn,'
who was eminent for his piety and charity to the poor, and at
whose private expense the bridge near the church of Torry
burn was built. He was the son of Leighton's predecessor
(not immediate) at Newbattle, and Leighton had a high
regard for him.
"Dear Friend —
" I do very much commend the activeness of your charity in the
journey you have taken ; for the success, though I had much desire
and some little hopes of better, yet I suspected how it might prove,
unless this one consideration, the extreme necessity of this church
at this time, did prevail with our friend to do violence to himself
I hope you both pardon me for the very reason that I moved it, and
that I am but to be angry or impatient at it I could not pardon
myself I look to Him who makes everything beautiful in its
season, and remember that saying of his, ' Your time is always ready,
hut my time is not yet.' As we are to forbear forbidden fruits at
all times, so not to pull the best fruit in his garden tUl he aUows us,
and some way signifies he thinks them duly ripe for use. I do
heartily thank you for the kindness of communicating the inclosed
letters ; for next to what is within me, the painful reflecting I have
on this world is, that there is so small a part of mankind in whose
breasts such thoughts are stirring, and am somewhat refieved when
I meet with anything of that kind, and long to meet with more, or
be gone where no such wishes are needful. O ! this dark night is
very long ; but blessed hope of that bright morning without cloud
that is hastening forward. Well, no more, but pray for
" Your poor friend and servant,
" R. L.

' The Author of the Fasti states that because Aird imitated Leighton's
"shrug and grimace" he was called "Leighton's Ape." But this
language evidentiy reflects the bitterness of the times. {Fasti, part
iv. p. 604.)
There is a fine reference to him " as a man of strong affections for
A.L. 31

482 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
" I beseech you pain me not again with so excessively canonical a
superscription of your letters, for there is no need of it though they
were to pass through twenty hands. Since I wrote this I received
another of yours for Mr. Blair. The truth is, for this next year I
am already engaged to one that both needs and deserves a little help,
and am bespoke for another to succeed the year after, but have not
absolutely promised, and I therefore am at a little more liberty to
consider it against that time, if it please God to continue me here
so long ; for the youth you name you may be assured, if it can faU
on that side, his relation to our brother, and your recommendation
will have very much weight to make it so, and that is all I can say
of it at present.
" For my Rev. Brother Mr. Aird,
Minister at Torriburn." II
" Dear Friend —
" Whether you know the particular purport of the enclosed you
sent me, I know not ; but it is to quit Ten Pounds sterling supposed
due to me from the party that pleads inability : and doubtless your
recommendation, together with the charity of the thing (if it shall
appear to be so), would easily give law to me for a greater sum than
that. But the truth is, there is a main mistake in the business, for
it is not payable to me, and therefore no way in my power, for my
Lord Bargeny hath a lease of all my little dues in these parts for
nineteen years, upon very easy terms as they inform me ; yet
whether he will consider that so as to make such an abatement of
what is now his due and not mine, I cannot tell ; neither have I any
power to carve upon what is his without paying it back, or some
way compensing it to him myself; and yet even that I shaU not
decline, if, after you and I both know the more particular state of
the business and the person, you shall judge it reasonable. This
is all I can say to that at present ; and I will not enter upon any
other discourse by this ; for the truth is, there is fittle to be said
and much to be done. You and I are, I trust, upon a design that

piety and virtue, and of a simple and chaste life, and, according to
his power, charitable to the poor in an eminent degree," in Analecta
Scotica, vol. i. p. 135.)

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 483
will reflect a very low estimate upon all below it, and it shall cer
tainly succeed if we be careful to stick to our leader and follow him.
" Pray for
" Your poor Friend and Servant,
" R. L.
"March, 1670.
" To the Rev. Mr. Aird,
" Minister at Tory." Ill
" Sir— " I wish I could punctually resolve you concerning that freedom
of commencing to that excellent work which you desire ; but the
truth is, though I believe they are not there so strait-laced by far as
here, yet you having never ex;ercised at all in public, I am not sure
they would not all inquire concerning that, but it is likely nothing
would be required which (if you be not superstitious on the other
hand) would trouble you. If you thought fit in the mean time to
spend some weeks in that place you speak of, and to use the liberty
of it in exercising, it might possibly pass for what you would avoid
in the other. And if a fair invitation shall come. He to whom you
have resigned yourself will direct you.
" Sir, " Your very affectionate Friend.
" To my own motions or stay, as I am in a most quiet indifferency
myself, you, I am sure, may much more easily be so. We are at sea
and cannot expect stiU to sail within speech, no nor written sight,
but we hope to arrive at the same ' fair havens.' "

IV
" Dear Friend —
" I was refreshed by your account of your feast in your former,
of which I trust I was participant as to the blessing of it, for though
absent, I was heartUy with you in desire. The accident your letter
acquaints me with, I think concerns you little or nothing ; for if
there was any offence in the printing it it rests upon him that pro
cured it, and the printer ; but for instructing your own flock in what
way you judge most accommodated to them, who can blame you ?

484 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
However, when I meet with the archbishop, I shall (God willing)
represent the business to him as it is, if I find it needful ; but if you
think it hath come to his knowledge, and that with some misreport
and disguise, I believe it might not be amiss for you to give him the
true and ingenuous account yourself by a letter, for, it may be, some
weeks may pass before I see him. But oh ! how quickly will aU
these things be gone, and even at present a look beyond them makes
them disappear ! Let us manage our ways as prudently and profit
ably to our main end as we can, and let the world descant as they
will. Blessed are the upright in heart, for their great Judge and
Master sees into the heart, and cannot mistake them.
" Pray for
" Your poor Friend,
" R. L."

" Sir—
" There is one here comes from Ireland to inquire after able
young men for the Ministry, whom they invite thither, sending
them transport-money, and assuring them of a liberal and certain
provision there. He they sent hath been with me, and was desirous
to know if I could recommend any. It came into my thoughts to
give you notice, that if you find any inclination that way, I may
know. I will not advise you, much less press you in it but leave
you wholly to the freedom of your own thoughts and choice, and to
the best hand to determine them. I believe they expect of those
that go an engaging to a pastoral charge ; but whether for some
time they may not give a little liberty to some or to one at least in
a freer posture to preach, or whether their pastoral engagement be
so indissolubly fast as here, I know not. You will think on that,
and if you judge it worth so much, let me hear from you how you
relish it. However, I wish you as to myself much happy success
and advancement in your great design. " Your Friend to serve you."
In addition to these letters from Leighton's own pen, there
are references to Leighton in a little note-book, entitled
Chorleyana, or a Register commemorating some of the most
retnarkable passages of God's Providence towards me from

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 485
my nativity, by fosiah Chorley, the first part of which was
written at Glasgow in 1671-72.
Josiah Chorley was born in 1652 at Preston in Lanarkshire,
where he notes his father's house was "the receptacle of
persecuted ministers." After a preparatory education in
several good grammar schools, he was sent to Cambridge, and
admitted to Trinity College under the tuition of Mr. Bain-
bridge, but his residence there was not long, " the term of
conformity being strait." He then turned his thoughts to
Scotland, and enrolled at Glasgow College. He afterwards
became an Independent minister at Cambridge and Norwich,
and the references, in his Register, to the University and
Church life at Glasgow, when Leighton was Archbishop, are
valuable.' "The good orders of the College were very agreeable to mine
inclination. At five o'clock in the morning the bell rings, and
every scholar is to answer to his name, which is then called over.
The day is spent in private studies and public exercises in the
classes ; at nine at night every chamber is visited by the respective
regents. The Lord's days strictly observed, all the scholars called
to the several classes, where, after religious exercises, all attend the
Primar and Regents to church, forenoon and afternoon, and in the
same order from church. Then in the evening called again to the
classes, and then come under examination concerning the sermons
heard, and give account of what was appointed the foregoing Sab
bath in some theological treatise, viz. Wollebius, or Ursin's Cate
chism, etc., and other religious exercises ; and then to supper and
chambers ; so that there is no room for vain ramblings and wicked
prophanations of the day, if we were so disposed ; and such
restraints are great blessings to licentious youth.
"The public worship in the churches, though the Archbishop him
self preach, is in all respects after the same manner managed as in
the Presbyterian congregations in England, so that I much wondered
why there should be any Dissenters there, till I came to be informed
of the renunciatio7i of the Covenant enjoined and the imposition of the
hierarchy. ' See Introduction to Owain Goth, a tale of the Revolution, and Wod
row, ii. 271 (note).

486 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
" There is also a comely face of religion appearing throughout the
whole city in the private exercises thereof in the families, as may
appear to any that walks through the streets ; none being allowed,
either in or out of church time, to play or saunter about ; but read
ing Scriptures, singing Psalms, etc., to be heard in most houses."
"1672, April I. We of the magistrand class now in the begin
ning of April concluded our lecturing in order to prepare for the
ensuing Laureation. All the scholars that designed to take their
degrees assembled to assesse one another by defraying the expenses ;
chose collectors of the money assessed, and treasurers, whereof one
was for the Scots, and I for the English ; and also stewards to
provide gloves and the printing of the theses — one on white satin
for the patron, and an appointed number on paper. My tutor
would engage me to be the publick orator at the Laureation. I
declined it and earnestly begged his excuse, till I obtained it. But
then he would not excuse my journey to Edinburgh to invite the
grandees there to our Laureation ; so that I went furnished with
gloves, and theses, which I first presented to the patron, the Laird of
Colchun, upon white satin. I then waited upon the Archbishop of
Glasgow, Dr. Leighton, at his chamber in the Colledge, whereof he
had been formerly master. After presenting the service of our
Colledge and Tutor, and invitation to our Laureation, I craved his
acceptance of the theses, which he thankfully accepted; but pre
senting then the fine fringed gloves, he started back, and with all
demonstrations of humility, excused himselfe as unworthy of such
a present. I humbly urged his acceptance ; he still retired back
ward, and I pursued him till he came to the end of the chamber,
and at last prevailed. But it was amazing to see with what humble
gratitude, bowing to the very ground, this great man accepted them.
This was agreeable to his whole deportment at Glasgow, where the
history of his deep humility might fill a volume."
Description of Laureation in Tron Church of Glasgow (at
which Leighton was present).
" The day after my return home, came on the famous Laureation
in the Trone Church (the Colledge hall, the usual place, not being
capable to receive the number of scholars and the grand concourse
of the learned clergy and gentry who were invited from all parts,
besides a vast multitude of spectators), wherein, after our Regent in
the pulpit had prayed in Latin, and opened the design of that

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 487
solemnity in an eloquent oration, and propounded the Theses, came
on the disputations, wherein every clergyman and gentleman
present or as many as would, called out what scholar he pleased
for his respondent, and opposed upon any thesis that he read ; the
Regent all the while moderating in the pulpit. This was a long
exercise ; which ended, the publick orator (Mr. J. L. [Jonathan Low],
my chamber-fellow, an Englishman, who had accepted the office
after I had declined it) pronounced his declamation very well.
Then were all the scholars sent out into the churchyard, waiting
to be called by the Regent according to his judgment of their
degrees in learning, to be observed by the whole assembly. The
first call was Arthure Hamilton (a Scots gentleman), the second
' Josias Chorley.' I not thinking myself worthy of that degree, put
my friend, chamber-fellow, and orator on going in my room. He
readily accepted it and went in ; I waited till his turn came to be
called : then as I was going, I laid hold on Mr. Ainsworth to
thrust him in my room, esteeming him a better scholar than either
of us, but he refused it, so that I must go in, though (I thought)
before many my betters. This being over, we all stood in order in
the Church. Then the Primar (the learned Mr. Wright) read his
injunctions to us out of the Colledge Statute Book, pronouncing
the title of Master of Arts over us : which done, the Regent con
cluded all with a solemn prayer and thanksgiving." '
Another paper of Archbishop Leighton's may here be
referred to — Tlie Rule of Conscience. It was most probably
written between 1671 and his retirement in 1674, and has
special reference to the events of \6^6-6<^. In November
1666 occurred the insurrection of the Western Whigs and
Covenanters, which was crushed by their defeat at Pentland.
In 1667 appeared Napfitali, or the Wrestlings of the Church
of Scotland for the Kingdom of Cfirist, by Mr. (afterwards
Sir James) Stewart, jun., of Coltness and Goodtrees, who
became Lord Advocate of Scotland after the Revolution, and
Mr. John Srirling, minister of Paisley. The book asserts that
" not only no obedience, but no allegiance is to be given to
1 Published in Cosmo Innes' Sketches of Early Scotch History,
pp. 236, 237.

488 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
any created power on earth, but with this restriction, in
defence of religion and liberty according to the Covenants,"
and that " the extirpation of prelacy is the main covenanted
religious duty." Naphtali also declares of the Scottish
bishops, that " their only grievance and eyesore is Conscience,
and any measure of tenderness thereof." In conformity with
this teaching, James Mitchell, a covenanting preacher con
cerned in the Pentland rising, attempted in July 1668 to
assassinate the Archbishop of St Andrews, and, failing, made
his escape to Holland. When captured in February 1674,
while preparing for another attempt, and indicted for rebel
lion, treason and attempt to murder, Mitchell told the Lord
Chancellor that what he had done was no crime, but " a
duty which every one was bound to have performed " who had
taken the Covenant : that it was the " prosecution of the ends
of the Covenant, which was the overthrow of prelates and
prelacy." He added that " in the year 1656 Mr. Robert
Leighton (now Archbishop of Glasgow) before our laureation,
tendered to us the National Covenant and the Solemn League
and Covenant," and I then subscribed both. In his testimony
Mitchell emphatically sets forth his approval of Rutherford's
Lex Rex, Naphtali, etc., " as orthodox and consonant to the
received principles and doctrine of the Church of Scotland."
In 1668 appeared a Survey of Naphtali, by the Bishop of
Ross, which brought forth, in l66g,fus Populi Vindicatum,
from the Authors of Naphtali.^ In the next edition of 1 680

' Naphtali vi&s a seditious book, and gave rise both to misrepresentation
and misunderstanding. Presbyterianism was, largely through its influ
ence, regarded by Episcopalians as inconsistent with loyalty, and as
tending to Republicanism. History has proved this to be a myth, but
it is not a little interesting from an archeeological point of view to
examine the old 17th century literature on the subject. In a book by
Bishop John Maxwell (1646) this idea is sufficiently expressed by its
title : The Burthen of Issachar, or the Tyrannical Power and Practises
of the Presbyterial Government in Scotland in the Parochial Session,
Presbyterie, Provinciall Synods, General Assembly, with the Articles o]

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 489
the authors inserted Mitchell's account of his trial, testimony,
etc., and in their postscript made a virulent attack on
Leighton.' As the intending assassin was a student at
Edinburgh when Leighton was Principal, and Leighton's
name was now associated with Mitchell's fanaticism by
Stewart and Stirling, it made the matter a very painful one
to him, and some answer in the situation was necessary.
It was most likely in this connexion, that his treatise, The
Rule of Conscience was drawn up, and it was evidently
circulated for the use of students and professors in the
University of Glasgow. It manifests a keen philosophic
insight into the conscience- difficulties of the day, but it
must be confessed that Leighton regarded such, too much
from the cold light of reason, and that he was comparatively
oblivious of the principles for which the Covenanters were
contending, as dearer to them than life itself He speaks
too much as a Royalist, who believed in the divine right
of kings, and forgets that that doctrine as interpreted by
Charles II, was one which no high-spirited people could
accept. The treatise is a long one, but a representative
passage may be taken from it on the general problem.
Presbyterian Faith, inconsistent with Monarchic. Whereby it is evident
that Presbyteriall Fingers are heavier than EpiscopaU Loynes : these
correcting with a rod, those with a Scorpion. And therefore it is not
the Kingdom and Government of Jesus Christ, whose Yoake is easy,
His Burthen light, and His Scepter a Scepter of Righteousness.
In Basier's History of the English and Scotch Presbytery (1660) there
is an Address to the "Ministers of the Reformed Church at Paris," and it
is said, " During the agitations of the State your Church as the needle in
the Marriner's Compass, kept steady upon the point of rest, which is God
and the King" (p. 32). It thus refers to the Scotch, " These Northern
people are impatient Libertines and haughty : they will form a Gospell
according to the air of their climate " (p. 32). Leighton's father is
criticised and referred to (p. 76), and it is stated that it " was upon the
Presbyterian Principles that the Independents built their conclusions "
(p. 228). There is in it a violent defence of Charles I, and it is stated
" the Presbyterians laid his head upon the block and the Independents
cut it off" (p. 229).
' Pp- 341, 342-

490 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
After dealing with the various forms of disordered con
science and stating that an evil conscience, an ignorant con
science, an erroneous conscience, a cauterized conscience
cannot be the voice of God, he concludes :
"To speak positively what the office of Conscience is, in reference
to God, our superiors, and ourselves.
"ist. In reference to the laws and commands of God, the office of
Conscience is, without murmuring or contradicting, humbly to
believe, receive, and obey them.
"2nd. In reference to the laws and authority of men, the Conscience
hath a power and liberty, by a judgment of discretion, to try aU
things, whether they be contrary to the law of God or not : if they
be, we are not to give active obedience but passive, for it is better
to obey God than man : yet, in this case, God hath given none power
to resist and rise against the Powers that are over us. If what they
command be not contrary to any express Divine precept, then the
office of the Conscience is to give ready and cheerful obedience,
and that even for conscience sake, because we are commanded to
obey them for the Lord's sake.
"In this case it is not the office and duty of subjects to busy their
conscience and fill their head with scrupulosities, and stand aloof,
in case they cannot find out the reason and equity of the law, or
the motives of the lawgiver. God hath not commanded us to make
such search, or to decline obedience because of the intentions of the
lawgiver, and of other sequels which may follow such a law, and our
giving obedience to it. To command is the Prince' s part, and to obey
is our part, the event is God! s part.
" 3rd. Our obedience must be rational, and conscientious, and
acceptable. We should render a practical obedience to the just
command and rule we are under. The office and duty of our
Conscience is rationally and prudently to determine our own private
actions and affairs, in such matters as neither the law of God or man
hath determined us, but left us to our own prudence. A consdence
acts conscientiously indeed, when it keeps itself within these due
limits ¦ and when it exceeds these it is no more worthy to have the
name of Conscience, but is to receive its oivn proper titles, which are
ignorance, stiffness, wilfulness, pride, arrogance, hypocrisy, pragmati-
calness." But while conscience is to regulate with an absolute

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 491
authority " private actions and affairs " its office does not end
there. Man is more than an individual, and has a relation
ship to society, while society has a relationship to him. Man
is not an isolated unit, but is part of a social whole ; and while
society or the state has rights over him, he also has rights
from society. As long as the oath of allegiance and supre
macy was demanded by the Government, asserting the King's
absolutism over " all persons and causes " and binding them
" never to decline the same," then it was the duty of these
Covenanters to protest, and it is their glory that they did so.
Their political rights as citizens, and their religious rights as
members of the Church, were interfered with, and to have sub
mitted would have been the renunciation of their liberty and
the reversion of a progressive history. It would have implied
political serfdom and religious Erastianism, and that they did
feel these alien to their conscience, constitutes the contribu
tion they have made to the battle for constitutional liberty
and spiritual independence. They would have obeyed a con
stitutional monarch, keeping within his own region and inter
fering not where God alone can claim rule, but they rightly
declined to accept an unconstitutional and arbitrary rule.
Had the King reigned constitutionally and not interfered
with the spiritual sphere of the Church, he would have had
no more loyal subjects than the Covenanters. And to draw
a distinction between private, public and Church conscience,
as Leighton does in his treatise, was not only to be blind to
the true facts of the case, but also to discard the very circum
stances, that made the realization of his own generous ideal
impossible. Authority has its limits, and even at the present
day we are aware that with all our submission to an Act of
Parliament, there might possibly be Acts, to which it would be
duty to refuse obedience. If such a resolve seldom comes into
practical consideration, it is mainly because respect for indi
vidual conscience has so passed into the minds of the mass of
the people, that it is unlikely that Parliament, as at present

492 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
constituted, will pass Acts which many would be called on to
disobey. But this spirit is in no small measure due to the
resistance, which, the Covenanters and their successors in the
battle for liberty, have made. Dr. Samuel Gardiner has well
said :
"It is well that a more tolerant generation should remember
what Scotland owed to these intolerant men — a firm grasp on the
paramountcy of morality and duty, and a no less firm hold upon
the brotherliness of Christian life and its independence of aU
considerations of worldly rank and place. Robert Burns was not
exactly a model Presbyterian, but he would hardly have given out
the watchword ' a man's a man for a' that ' if the blood of his Pres
byterian ancestors had not been hot within him." '
Leighton, like Lord Bacon, believed that those are the best
laws by which the king hath the greatest prerogative and the
people the best liberty, but both were thinking of a worthy
monarch, ruling in the fear of God. Charles 1 1 was unworthy
of the apology from the good Scottish Bishop, nor would
the practical intelligence of the people accept it, with such
a king as its interpretation and with the government of
Lauderdale as its executive. How widespread was the dis
content and how impossible was the situation can be easily
discerned from Leighton's own (almost scornful) words in
another part of his treatise :
" Every pedlar and mechanic who should be occupied in the
business of their calling, chap and handy labour, they, forsooth,
must be handling the helm of Government, and canvassing all the
affairs of Church and State : and if things be not modelled and
managed according to their foolish, ridiculous fancies, presentiy
those in authority are quite wrong, and they cannot in conscience
obey them : he who cannot well manage his own plough and cot
tage must canvass both Church and State ! Can a greater folly
readily possess the head of a Bedlamite ? " ^
And yet these men at the plough and in the cottages of
' Cromwell! s Place in History, p. 6i. ^ Cf. p. 439.

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 493
the country ultimately settled the problem. They constituted
the backbone of Scotland, and no ecclesiastical system would
survive which did not carry their sympathies with it. Pres
bytery meant to them civil and religious freedom, under the
guardianship of constitutional government : Episcopacy meant
to them bondage under an absolute despotism. Well was it
that they did not bow the knee, for it would have been the
reversal of Scottish history. No system, supported by
Charles II and Lauderdale, could carry Scotland, even
although it could claim one saint, Robert Leighton, who was
single-minded and sincere. Presbytery stirred the conscience
of the country, and the fires of persecution only gave momen
tum to its claim.
Sir Thomas Browne, speaking of mankind, said truly that
men live by an invisible flame within them, and when ordinary
men make a conscience of what they do, their action gener
ally triumphs. It is evermore the spirit that quickens and
keeps alive, and Presbytery in touching thus the deepest
springs of national life, became a moral education for the
people. Quite apart from the extreme and fanatical case of
Mitchell ' already referred to (p. 488), it made its triumph

' The treatment he received was treacherous in the extreme. Mitchell
was brought before the Privy Council in 1674, and, under a promise that
his life should be spared, was induced to confess to his ineffectual
attempt to shoot Archbishop Sharp. But his case was transferred to
the Court of Justiciary, and there he denied the charge of having fired
the shot and as no evidence could be produced against him, he was sent
to the Bass Rock for safe keeping. In 1676 he was again brought
before this Court, on the charge of having been in the Pentland Rising,
but though tortured by the boot, he made no admission that could
incriminate him, and was sent back to prison. Two years later (January
1678) he was again tried by the Justiciary Court on the original charge
of his attempt on Sharp, and his counsel (Sir George Lockhart) pleaded
that MitcheU had made his confession to the Privy Council under the
pledge that his life would be safe. Lauderdale, Rothes, Sharp, and
Halton, deposed on oath that the pledge had not been given, and
Lauderdale refused to allow the Register of the Council to be produced.

494 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
a case of conscience, and the irony of the situation was that
men who desired to be constitutional citizens under a con
stitutional government, should have been treated as rebels,
because they refused the admittance of a temporal authority
into a sphere where Conscience alone should rule. Well was
it for themselves as well as for those who came after them
that they made the great choice, even although it cost them
so much, and declined to make the great refusal. The "great
refusal " would have implied the renunciation of all that was
best in Scottish history.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XII
The Restoration Archbishop of Glasgow, like the mediaeval Roman
Catholic Archbishops, had the " power to elect the provost, bailies, and
other officers of the city, and of putting in and putting out or expelling,
at their own will or good pleasure, the provost and officers," ' so that
Episcopacy implied also rule over the municipal life of Glasgow on the
plan as approved by Lauderdale. The conciliatory manner in which
Leighton exercised his prerogative, won for him the admiration of the
citizens,' and the following extracts from the Council Records of Glasgow
bring him before us in the discharge of his responsibilities as Archbishop
of Glasgow. "4 October 1670.
" The said day being the ordinarie day for the electioune
Glasgow Qf (-Jig magistratis of this burgh, for the year enshewing.
Record compeired Alexander Todrick, servitour to the Earle of
1667-74. Tweddaill, and producit ane letter direct be the King's
Majestie to the magistrates and counseU of this citie of
Glasgow quherof the tenour fallowis. Sic superscribitur : Charles R.
Trustie and weilbeloved We great yow weill. Wheras the Bischop of
Dumblain whom we have nominated and presented to the Archbischop-
rick of Glasgow, vacant by the dimissioun of Alexander, lait archbischop
thairof, is not yet solemnly invested, and that the tyme of the electioune
of the magistratis of that our citie is now verie neir, we have thought
fitt to requyre yow to receave William Andersoune to be your provost

Lauderdale would have spared their victim, but Sharp was inexorable,
and Mitchell was sent, in Lauderdale's words, to " glorify God at the
Grassmarket." ' Sir James Marwick's Charters of Glasgow, part i. ch. xii.
» P. 501.

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW 495
for this enshewing yeir. And we leave for this tyme the electioune of
the remanent magistratis for this year to the said provest and counsell
of our said citie. And in caice any uther be elected befor this our
command come to your handis, yow, nochtwithstanding receave William
Andersoune for your provest for this enshewing year. So expecting
your reddie obedience we bid yow fairweill. Given at our court of
Whythall the 24th day of August 1670 and of our rigne the 22 yeir.
Sic subscribitur : By his Majesties command : Lauderdaill."
"3 October 1671.
The quhilk day, being the ordinarie day for electing of the Magistratis
of this burgh compeired George Andersoune, ane of the ordinarie clarkis
thairof,'and producit ane letter direct to the proveist, baillies and counsell
of the samyne daitit at Whythall the eleventh of September last by past
quhairof the tenour fallowis : Assured guid freindes, ye may remember
that in respect that the archbishop of Glasgow was not settled, his
Majestie the last year did nominat and appoynt William Andersoune
to be proveist of Glasgow ; and now, upon the same consideratioune his
Majestie is pleased to ordour and appoynt that the said William Ander
soune continow proveist of Glasgow for this next enshewing year. This
the King hes commandit me to signifie as his expres pleasour. So,
being confident of your redie obedience, rest your assured guid friend.
Sic subscribitur : Lauderdaill." " I October 1672.
"The quhilk day, being the ordinarie day for the electioune of the
magistratis of this burgh of Glasgow for a year to come, there was sent
doune, be the archbishop of Glasgow his servant ane paper subscribit
be the said archbishop of this dait, bearing him to desyre, for this tyme,
for certaine consideratiounes moving him thairto, to know quhom the
toune counsell of Glasgow, and the bodie of the burgessis, or major
part of them, doe desyre to be thair magistratis for the enshewing year,
and that they meit for this end, trusting they will be carefull to manage
this affair without tumult. And, first he desyred to know, as being
himselfe impartiall in that whom they wold have their proveist and the
persone whom they should recommend, (unles his grace upon verie
weightie reasones to the contrair) sail lykly be nominat be the said
archbischop. As the said paper in itselfe beares : being thus subscribit,
R. Leightoune.''
[William Andersoune was recommended for re-election as provost
and the archbishop nominated him and chose three bailies out of a list
of nine persons.] " 30 September 1673.
[This being the day for election of magistrates " and becaus Robert

496 ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
archbischop of Glasgow had grantit licence to the said magistrates and
counsell to sett doune a lyt of three persones out of quhilk lyt the said
bishop might choyse one persone to be proveist of this burgh the said
year enshewing " . . . " The said magistratis and counsell electit furth
thairof their thrie persones, viz. William Andersoune, present proveist
John Walkinshaw and Johne Cauldwall, and did direct the said lyt to
the Castle of Glasgow quhair the said archbishop was for the tyme
to be presented to him. . . . After sighting quherof he did nominat the
said William Andersoune to be proveist of this burgh for the year
enshewing." Thereafter the archbishop elected 3 bailies out of a leet
of 9 persons.] " 6 October 1674."
[Nomination of Provost etc., made by Alexander, archbishop of
Glasgow.] From Accounts Michaelmas 1673 to Michaelmas 1674.
. " Item, debursat to twa bursars and twa poor men, be
Record ordour of the lait archbishop in the first end of the
1674-87, annuel rait the toune owes him be band eight pundis
P' '5- starfing." From Accounts 1672-3.
Council " Item, the compter charges himself with 400 lib. starling.
Record, borrowit be the toune fra the archbischop of Glasgow and
,1667-74. receivit be the thesaurer, inde ^£4,800 Scots.''
(The Town had evidently money on Bond, lent by the Archbishop.)
II. The following references from the Glasgow Presbytery
Records show that the Archbishop sat as an ordinary mem
ber of Presbytery. On account of the burnt edges of the
Records, a good number of words are awanting, but the
meaning can be understood.
Excerpts from Presbytery Records of Glasgow.
" 20 July, 1670
"The said day the moderator exhibited a letter from the
Bischop of Bischop of Dum . . . desyring it may be regrated, the
Dum . . . (g^jjoj. quherof followeth : Glasgow, July . . . Reverend
: . the Bretheren. Being appointed be his Majestie for a little
Synod . . . take some inspectioun of the church affairs of this
diocese, that is to . . . that I desyre to meet with yow in
this place alson as convenient . . . and therfor I entreat yow to con-
veine heir on Twesday the 26 of this JuUy, wher, God willing, yow will
find readie to wait upon yow . . . " Brother and serv.
" R. Leight . ."

ARCIiBISHOP OF GLASGOW 497
" The said letter was directed to the moderator to be communicated
... In obedience to quhich letter the presbiterie is appointed to meet
at the Synod as aforsaid." " September, 1671.
" The said day it was represented to the presbiterie be Mr. Gabriel
Russell . . . not get a session without the countenance of the Baillie of
Regalite . . . made his application, and that the baillie of ralite is . . .
and all the ministeris within the barrony, provyding the Bischop gives
. . . the presbiterie intreatis the Bischop to give his countenance to
... be his subscription, and applycation heirof being made to the
. . . willing give the samen, " I do earnestly intreat the Baillie ... his
outmost assistance to the ministeris within these . . . kirk sessions
quher it is needfuU and toward . . . ministeris and sessions quher they
are stablished. " R. Leighton."
" 3 January, 1672."
At Glasgow the 3 of January 1672 "The Archbischop" [included in
the Sederunt]. "22 May, 1672."
[The signature "R. Leighton" is appended to an Act of Presbytery.
" 16 September, 1673."
" The Archbishop " [included in the Sederunt].
" 24 September, 1673 "
"The Archbischop " [again included in the Sederunt].

A.L. 32

CHAPTER XIII
RESIGNATION, RETIREMENT, DEATH
" James VI. had to exercise much pressure before he succeeded in
displacing Presbytery by Episcopacy, but the subjects of Charles II
had the memory of the triumphant Covenants in their minds and of
twelve years' successful revolt against the royal authority. To coerce a
nation that had thus known liberty and had become conscious of its powers,
was the task of Charles and his ministers. How they accomplished their
task is fitly described when it is said that it was by the methods of an
Inquisition rather than by forms of government. His reign, like those
of his two predecessors, had proved that, at the stage of development
the country had now attained, a ruler who differed from the majority of
his subjects on the fundamental principles of national well-being had
ceased to be a possibility." — Professor Hume Brown.
" There is a manifest distinction between spiritual government and
political or civil government. Christ drew a distinction between the
spiritual Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of this world. If, therefore,
princes usurp some of the authority of God, we must not obey them
except in so far as may be done without offending God. Is it any
better to submit to Berne than to Rome ? " — John Calvin.
LEIGHTON had now striven for the attainment of his
ideal of Church polity in Scotland — comprehensive
in the best sense of the term — but he saw that under the
existing government, and with the temper of the people
towards it, realization was impossible. To Presbyterians
and Episcopalians alike, his proposed "accommodation "
was a compromise, which would give away the essential
principles for which each existed, and it was equally dis
liked by both parties. It evoked an opposition as keen on
the Episcopalian as on the Presbyterian side, and Archbishop
498

RESIGNATION, RETIREMENT, DEATH 499
Usher's ' Model was as much rejected in England as it was
in Scotland, while in the latter country it had the prestige
of Leighton's great and honoured name connected with it,
but all in vain. There was nothing but disappointment in
the whole outlook. A breach too, or something approaching
it, had occurred between Lauderdale and Leighton, and Lau
derdale's character was not one that could have any charm for
him. Richard Baxter in 1672 had addressed a letter of ex
postulation to Lauderdale on his dishonourable career,^ and
Leighton must have disliked most bitterly to act with a
Commissioner whom he could not respect as a man. Lau
derdale too suspected him to be in sympathy with the
Hamilton party of reform^ and knew too well that Leighton
desired an Assembly of the Kirk, which his royal master was
most unwilling to concede, in fact opposed to the extreme
degree. Again, if Lauderdale ruled Scotland, his second wife,
Lady Dysart,* ruled both him and the Court. Sharp and his
colleagues made abject flattery and submission, but Leigh
ton had too much grandeur of character about him for
such work.* He went seldom either to Lauderdale and his
' Leighton does not seem to have known Usher personally — at least
here is no evidence of any friendship. In the Life and Letters of
Archbishop Usher, by Richard Parr, D.D., there are 323 letters printed,
but not one is to or from Leighton. In Elrington's Edition (1847) of
Usher's works (16 vols.) there are 461 letters published in vols. 15 and
16, but not one of them is to or from Leighton. His knowledge of
Usher seems to have been derived from his published works and from
a general appreciation of his position in relation to the Church difficulties
of the time.
''¦ Lauderdale Papers, iii. 235-239.
^ Law's Memorials, p. 71.
* Leighton could not endure Lady Dysart and it is worthy of note
that the Presbyterian annalists, Kirkton, Wodrow and Law, each repre
senting different shades of opinion, all speak kindly of Lauderdale,
and attribute his severities against the Covenanters to the influence of
his second wife. Her triumph over her husband was evidently one of
the main reasons of Leighton's retirement.
* Leighton's Deed of Demission was published in the Maitland Mis
cellany (vol. iv. part i. pp. 295-299) from the collections of Dawson

500 RESIGNATION, RETIREMENT, DEATH
Duchess, even although he was always treated by them with
great distinction.'
In short he had done his utmost to be loyal to his vision,
and regarding the situation as a hopeless one, desired to
retire to that " quiet hermitage " for which he often longed,
amid the din of the strange conflict that surrounded his lot.
He determined to keep the King loyal to his promise of
1673, and to be done with a Church party of which Lauder
dale was the head. We know that Leighton was in London
in June, 1674 ^ ; that Sharp, Leighton and Burnet had an inter
view with Charles there in September of the same year ^ ; and
that Burnet held his Synod in Glasgow on the second week
of October.* All points to pressure being brought to bear
upon Leighton to continue in office, but it was vain. His
resignation was ultimately accepted ; and Burnet, restored to
office and reinstated as Archbishop of Glasgow, became a
pliant tool in the hands of Lauderdale. Leighton left Glas
gow in December 1674 * and retired to the Sussex Home
of his sister, whom he loved, and to whom some of his
tenderest letters were addressed.
Turner, Esq. It is without date, but cannot be referred to a later
period than the autumn of 1674. It is thus worded and signed : —
" Being resold/ d to retire to a private life, I doe absolutely surrender and
resign my present charge of the diocese of Glasco, to bee disposd of as his
Majestie shall think fitt. — R. Leighton"
Burnet states that previous to this, Leighton " had gathered together
many instances out of Church history of Bishops that had left their
Sees and retired from the world and was much pleased with these." In
Archbishop Spottiswoode's history (published 1655) he might have
read how one of his own predecessors, S. David's preceptor, Bishop
John, finding his episcopal authority set at nought and " when he per
ceived his complaints not much regarded, forsook his charge and went
into France, enclosing himself in the Monastery of Tours, where he
abode until the Pope compelled him to return." {History of the Church
of Scotland,p. 113.)
' Burnet i- 603. ^ Law's Memorials, p. 71.
' Harley Papers, i. 347.
* Law's Memorials, p. 71, and Wodrow's History, ii. 273.
^ Burnet, ii. 63.

RESIGNATION, RETIREMENT, DEATH 501
The following statement from the Glasgow Town Council
Records both manifests the esteem in which he was held at
Glasgow, and indicates that an effort was made by the
citizens to retain him (if possible) in office. " 2nd May, 1673.
"The said day, in presens of the said Provest BaiUies, and
Counsell, compeared Rot. Rae and Johne Cauldwall, twa of the
late Baillies of this burgh, as commissionat from the merchand rank
within the samyne, and did present to them ane supplicatioune from
the said merchand rank, makand mentione that they, being informed
of the Archbishop of Glasgow, his being now at Court at London, is
of intentioune to demitt his office as Archbishop in our Souereign
Lordis handis, and considering that the whoill citie and incorpora-
tioune therin hes lived peaceablie and quyetlie since the said Arch
bishop, his coming to this burgh, throw his Christian cariage and
behaveor towards them, and by his government with great dis-
cretioune and moderatioune, and fearing, if his dimissiounis be
receavit, the samyne may tend to the great prejudice of this burgh
and cuntrie about, and therefor intreating and desyring the said
Magistratis and Counsell to mak applicatioune to quhat persones at
Court they think most fitt and in particular to his Grace the Duk of
LauderdaUl, by lettres or uthir such correspondence as they sail
pleas." [The entry breaks off here and a blank is left in the record.]
{Glasgow Memorabilia, pp. 216, 217.)
His first place of retirement was at Edinburgh, and he
lived for some time within the precincts of the College, where
he seems always to have retained rooms' and where his former
office was filled by William Colville, who had been put in
nomination at the time of Leighton's own appointment. But
in a short time he retired to Broadhurst,^ in Horsted Keynes,
Sussex, where, surrounded by the affection of his sister and
' See p. 486.
^ " Broadhurst is now a farmhouse. There is a shady avenue over
grown with ferns, and a group of old trees, which was Leighton's
favourite resort. The rector in Leighton's time, for five years at least
before his death, was the Rev. Giles Moore. He kept a diary, which
was printed in 1871, under the title of A Clergyman's Diary of the
Seventeenth Century. It is a curious fact that Leighton is not men
tioned in it." (Blair's Archbishop Leighton, pp. 63, 64.)

502 RESIGNATION, RETIREMENT, DEATH
family, he spent the last few years of his life. Burnet thus
describes his latter years :
" He lived ten years in Sussex, in great privacy, dividing his time
wholly between study and retirement and the doing of good : for in
the parish where he lived, and in the parishes round about he was
always employed in preaching, and in reading of prayers. He dis
tributed all he had in charities, choosing rather to have it go through
other people's hands than his own : for I was his almoner in
London. . . . He lamented oft to me the stupidity that he observed
among the commons of England : who seemed to be much more
insensible in the matters of religion than the commons of Scotiand
were. He retained still a particular inclination to Scotland : and if he
had seen any prospect of doing good there, he would have gone and
lived and died among them. In the short time that the affairs of
Scotland were in the Duke of Monmouth's hands, he had been
possessed with such an opinion of him that he moved the King to
write to him to go and at least live in Scotland, if he would not
engage in a bishopric there. But that fell with that duke's credit
He was in his last years turned to a greater severity against popery
than I had imagined a man of his temper and of his largeness in
points of opinion was capable of He spoke of their corruptions, of
the secular spirit, and of the cruelty that appeared in that church,
with an extraordinary concern : and lamented the shameful advances
that we seemed to be making towards popery. He did this with a
tenderness, and an edge, that I did not expect from so recluse and
mortified a man. He looked on the state the Church of England was
in with very melancholy reflections, and was very uneasy at an
expression then much used that it was the best constituted church in
the world. He thought it was truly so, with relation to the doc
trine, the worship, and the main parts of our government. But as
to administration, both with relation to the ecclesiastical courts and
the pastoral care, he looked on it as one of the most corrupt he had
ever seen. He thought we looked like a fair carcase of a body
without a spirit ' : without that zeal, that strictness of life, and that
laboriousness in the clergy that became us." ^
The following letter to his friend Mr. Aird was evidently
written from Broadhurst :
' Both John Wesley and his father frequently quoted this phrase oi
Leighton's with regard to the Church of the period.
^ History, vol. ii. pp. 428, 429.

RESIGNATION, RETIREMENT, DEATH 503
(1676.)
"I did receive your letter, which I would have known to be
yours, though it had no other sign but the piety and affectionate
kindness expressed in it.
" I wiU offer you no apology (nor I hope I need not) for not
writing since that ; yea, I will confess, that if the surprising and
unexpected occasion of the bearer had not drawn it from me, I
should hardly for a long time to come have done what I am now
doing ; and yet still love you, more than they do one another that
interchange letters, even of kindness, as often as the gazettes come
forth, and as long as they are too. And now I have begun, I would
end just here ; for I have nothing to say, nothing of affairs (to be
sure) private or public ; and to strike up to discourses of devotion,
alas ! what is there to be said, but what you sufficiently know, and
daily read, and daily think, and, I am confident daily endeavour to
do ? And I am beaten back, if I had a great mind to speak of such
things, by the sense of so great deficiency in doing those things,
that the most ignorant among Christians cannot choose but know.
Instead of all fine notions I fiy to Kvpie eXeqaov, XpicrTe eXerjo-ov. I
think them the great heroes and excellent persons of the world that
attain to high degrees of pure contemplation and divine love ; but next
to those, them, that, in aspiring to that, and falling short of it, fall
down into deep humility and self-contempt, and a real desire to be
despised and trampled on by all the world. And I believe that they
that sink lowest into that depth stand nearest to advancement to
those other heights. For the great King, who is the fountain of that
honour hath given us this character of Himself, that He resists the
proud, and gives grace to the humble. Farewell, my dear friend, and
be so charitable as sometimes in your addresses upwards, to remem
ber a poor caitiff, who no day forgets you.'
" R. L.
" 13th December, 1676."
The following fragment of a letter indicates not only the
advance of years, but that hunger for eternity — that longing
" to be with Christ which is far better " — which has been the
characteristic of deep spiritual natures, like Leighton's, that
constantly view things in the light of eternity.
' Middleton's Edition of Leighton's Works, vol. ii. pp. 461, 462.

504 RESIGNATION, RETIREMENT, DEATH
" I find daily more and more reason without me, and within me
yet much more, to pant and long to be gone. I am grown exceed
ing uneasy in writing and speaking, yea almost in thinking, when I
reflect how cloudy our clearest thoughts are : but, I think again what
other can we do, till the day break, and the shadows flee away : as
one that Heth awake in the night must be thinking, and one thought
that will likely oftenest return, when by all other thoughts he finds
little relief, is when will it be day 1 "
Leighton's benefactions to Dunblane, Edinburgh and
Glasgow may be here referred to. In 1673 he mortified
to the poor of the parish of Dunblane the " soume of ane
thousand and twentie - four punds Scots money," and in
1683, by will, he bequeathed to the Diocese of Dunblane,
his large library, with a sum of one hundred pounds (after
wards increased by his nephew to three hundred pounds)
for the building of a " room " for his books.'
To Edinburgh University he left fifty pounds, to be added
to his previous gift of one hundred pounds, for " the main
tenance of one student in philosophy there during his four
years' course." ^
To Glasgow he bequeathed ;^I50 "for the standing main
tenance of two poor men yearly " in the hospital of St.
Nicolas,^ and £\^o "for the maintenance of one student in
philosophy during his four years' course in the Colledg of
Glasco " for all time coming.*
The following letter from the Magistrates and Council of
Glasgow was written to Leighton in acknowledgment of his
gift "25 August, 1677.
Glasgow " Mortification by ' Bischop Lightoune lait arch-
Record, bischop of Glasgow ' of ^^150 to Burar, and ;^iSo to
xi. p. 139. poor men in St Nicollas Hospital produced to the
Town CouncU.
1 P. 582 et seq. ^ Pp. 593 and 299. ' P. 593.
" P. 593. Cf Munimenta Alma Universitatis Glasguensis, i. 429,
430 ; ii. 503, 546 ; iii. 589.

RESIGNATION, RETIREMENT, DEATH 505
" 8 September, 1677.
"There was ane letter subscribit bei the magistrates and counseU
direct to Bischop Lightoune, quhairof the tenour fallowes : — My
lord. Wee receavit ane accompt from Mr. Andersone of your
favouris and munificence touardis the poor of this place, by the
mortificatioune of thrie hundreth pundis starling, one half towardis
a bursarie in the universitie and the uther to twa poor men in St.
Nicollas Hospitall ; and we cannot but, with all gratitude and sense
of obligatioune to your cair and zaill to our poor, returne yow most
heartie [thanks ?] for this liberallitie. So, in complyance with your
pious and charitable intentiounes we declare that we ar verie weill
satisfeit to accept on ws and our successouris the debt of these
sowmes to be payit in to ws, and that we will nocht only mak dew
and thankfull payment of thes annual rentis thairof in maner as they
ar by yow mortified and designed but we will indeavour by all
meanes in our power that the whofil uther circumstances and designe
of your so pious and charitable a work be dewly observed and in-
tearlie and punctwallie ordered according to your awne method
without any innovatioune. And hoping your cair and affectioune
for the poor sail nocht want its awne rewaird by Him who repayes
quhat is given to them, we doe alwayes remayne, my lord, your lord-
shipis most humble servants." "10 November, 1677.
P. ijj. "The proveist producit a letter fra Bischop Lightoune
of his recept of theirs sent to him formerly ; and ap-
poyntes the proveist in name of the counsell, to send him a letter
of thanks for his so civill and kynd returne to them."
There now remains but little to add regarding Leighton's
closing years. He lived far from the strife, but was to the
close of his life " solicitous about Scotland." He was ever
willing to help — old man as he now was — if his help could
have been of any avail, and the next that is heard of him is
in 1679.
Sharp was murdered on Magus Moor on May 3, 1679 =
and the skirmish of Drumclog, (June i) when the Covenanters
completely routed the royal troops, was followed by the
serious engagement of Bothwell Bridge (June 22), when

5o6 RESIGNATION, RETIREMENT, DEATH
the Covenanters, — unprepared, led by an incapable com
mander, divided in their own counsels and with no definite
plan of action, — were defeated by the royal army under the
command of the Duke of Monmouth. The Royalists hardly
lost a man, while over 400 Covenanters were slain, and 1,200
taken prisoners.
There was now a noble opportunity of trying the effects
of conciliation, and Monmouth's influence was all on the side
of leniency. On his return to London he procured an Act
of Indemnity and a third Act of Indulgence, but they were
as futile, as they were well meant. The general policy of the
Privy Council was not reversed, the indemnity granted was
partial and short-lived, the indulged ministers, now as for
merly, were under government supervision and by the zealous
Covenanters were styled " dumb dogs."
Leighton was evidently regarded as the man for the hour
whose influence might now tell upon Scottish affairs, and but
for the Privy Council, who can say what he might not have
achieved? A better, if a short-lived, condition of mind
also seems to have possessed the King, and he wrote to
Leighton, who had been out of public affairs for five years,
and was living quietly at Broadhurst, his sister's house in
Sussex. "Windsor, July 16, 1679.
" My Lord—
" I am resolved to try what clemency can prevail upon such in
Scotland as wUl not conform to the government of the Church
there : for effecting of which design, I desire that you may go down
to Scotiand with your first conveniency : and take all possible pains
for persuading all you can of both opinions to as much mutual
correspondence and concord as can be : and send me from time to
time characters both of men and things. In order to this design,
I shall send a precept for two hundred pounds sterling upon my
Exchequer, till you resolve how to serve me in a stated employ
ment "Your loving Friend,
" Charles R.
"For the Bishop of Dunblane."

RESIGNATION, RETIREMENT, DEATH 507
Leighton, although he would not consent to resume his
episcopal office, was willing to take the step proposed
by the King, if any benefit was likely to arise from it,
but his Scottish visit never took place. The Duke of
Monmouth's influence declined : few accepted the indem
nity : the indulgence was cancelled ' : the hunt for " rebels ''
and " conventiclers " was again begun by the fierce
soldiers of Dalzell, that persecutor who, according to the
belief of the harassed people, was in league with the
devil, and cast no shadow as his gaunt figure crossed the
light of day. Bothwell Bridge closed the career of Lauder
dale, no doubt, as Rullion Green closed the dominion of
Rothes : and when in December 1679 James, Duke of York,
took his place at the board of the Scottish Privy Council at
Edinburgh, the policy was begun, by which, first as commis
sioner and afterwards as king, he eventually alienated Scot
land from its ancient race of princes. Now more than
ever the people distrusted Episcopacy, as a disguised
form of Romanism, and trusted Presbytery, as the national
bulwark against Popery. Now it became more and more
apparent that Presbytery in Scotland was not an accident,
but the expression of Protestant forces which had attained
an overwhelming ascendancy. The historical situation now
resolved itself into Presbytery counteracting Romanism by
resisting Episcopacy, and the advance from stage to stage of
the royal house of Stuart became more and more distinctly
clear. Nor can the advance be doubtful. James VI was
bred a Presbyterian and died a Prelatist : Charles I was the
' Most of the prisoners taken at Bothwell Bridge were penned up in
Grey Friars' Churchyard, under the open sky, fed on bread and
water, kept there in filth, hunger and nakedness till near the end of
November, when 300 were shipped as slaves for the American planta
tions (Fountainhall's Historical Notices, i. 246). But the majority of
them were doomed never to reach their destination. Off the Orkney
Islands a storm drove the vessel on a rock which split it in twain.
The captain and crew contrived to save their own lives, but some two
hundred of the prisoners, who had been secured under the deck,
went down with the ship.

5o8 RESIGNATION, RETIREMENT, DEATH
type of a high Church Anglican : Charles II was a concealed
Papist and James VII was an open one. Every one of them
endeavoured to subdue the Scottish people to Prelacy, and
James VII deliberately employed it as the stepping-stone to
Popery. Episcopacy was now felt to be subservient to the
King's Romanizing designs,' and Presbytery was recognized
as the bulwark of Scottish Protestantism as well as of Scottish
civil and religious liberty. The Act of Succession and the Test
Act passed by James' influence in the Scottish Parliament of
1 68 1 made the issue clear, and as Baxter by his statesmanlike
insight foresaw the trend of things in England and refused
with his brethren to gain advantages for the Nonconformists
at the cost of the destruction of the Church of England or
the establishment of Popery, so did the Presbyterians in
Scotland. They were in that hour most heroic, but not least
among the heroes were the Cameronians, headed by Donald
Cargill and Richard Cameron,^ who combined piety with
patriotism, and declared their creed in the " Queensberry
Paper " and the " Sanquhar Declaration," and whose religious
earnestness was continued in their followers, and received
this testimony from Norman Macleod, when minister of
Loudon : " I am eagerly desirous to get family worship estab
lished — of that there seems not to be a vestige, except
among the Cameronians, and there every family has it."
The situation was fast approaching a climax, and stronger
even than the love of Presbytery in Scotland, was the hatred
of Popery. Leighton was now away from the arena of
struggle, but we know by irrefragable evidence, how strong
was his love of Protestantism and how forcibly he spoke in
its favour. However much he may have differed with his
Scottish brethren on questions of Church-government, he
was one with them in the common faith of the country and
' Cf. The Sum of the Episcopal Controversy (pp. 212, 242), and
Cyprianus Isotimus (p. i8i), by Professor Jameson, Glasgow University
(1713, 1705).
* See Prof Herkless' Richard Cameron.

RESIGNATION, RETIREMENT, DEATPI 509
in their dislike for Roman Catholicism. But time for him
was soon to pass into that eternity, towards which his
thoughts ever tended.
Leighton's last visit to London and his death are thus
described by Burnet : '
" I had a very earnest message from him (Lord Perth) desiring
by my means to see Leighton. I thought that angelical man might
have awakened in him some of those good principles which he
seemed once to have had, and that were now totally extinguished by
him. I writ so earnestly to Leighton that he came to London.
Upon his coming to me, I was amazed to see him at above seventy
look so fresh and well, that age seemed as it were to stand stUl with
him ; his hair was still black, and all his motions were lively : he had
the same quickness of thought and strength of memory, but above
all the same heat and life of devotion that I had ever seen in him.
When I took notice to him, upon my first seeing him, how well he
looked, he told me he was very near his end for all that, and his
work and journey both were now almost done. This at that time
made no great impression on me. He was the next day taken with
an oppression, and as it seemed with a cold, with some stitches,
which was indeed a pleurisy, but was not thought so by himself So
he sent for no physician, but used the common things for a cold.
Lord Perth ^ went to him ; and he was almost suffocated while he
was with him, but he recovered himself, and, as Dr. Fall who was
there told me, he spoke to him with a greater force that was usual
even in hira, recommending to him both firmness in religion and
moderation in government, which struck that lord somewhat but
the impression was soon worn out."
The same writer, to whom Leighton ever showed " perfect
friendship and fatherly care," has noticed two circumstances
connected with his death. " His provision and journey failed
both at once." While Bishop, he took what his tenants were
pleased to pay him, and, in the unsettled condition of Scotland,
much that was due to him was left unpaid. He left one in
' History of His Own Times, vol. ii. 427.
' Lord Perth had gone to London to be invested with the office of
Lord High Chancellor of Scotland.

510 RESIGNATION, RETIREMENT, DEATH
trust to gather some rents that were owing to him, and from
the sums received, he instituted the bursaries and bequests
already indicated, while the small remainder was used to
meet his few and simple demands. Leighton at all times
was a saint in elevation and purity, but not least of all in
beneficence, and it is noteworthy that he, who might have
died rich, died poor.
Another and more striking circumstance regarding his death
is, his frequent averment, that if he were to choose a place
to die in, it should be an inn. And his wish was fulfilled.
The idea of life as a warfare goes at least as far back as
St. Paul's earnest exhortation to Timothy to fight the good
fight of faith : and the conception of life as a pilgrimage
goes back further to those first wanderers from the Chal
dean plains, who set forth in search of a city, which hath
foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Both Bunyan
and Dante derived this latter idea from the Bible, and the
Pilgrim! s Progress and the Divina Commedia are inspired by
it — the thought of " the human soul placed for its trial in a
fearful and wonderful world, with relations to time and matter,
history and nature, good and evil, the beautiful, the intelligible
and the mysterious, sin and grace, the infinite and the eternal."
The monk, too, thought of himself, in the best days of
monasticism, as a soldier of Christ on pilgrimage, with his
cell as the inn for the night, and the thought was one, over
which Leighton long pondered, and loved. He had had his
own share of warfare, and when the shades of evening were
stealing on, he desired an inn to rest and die in, " it looking
like a pilgrim's going home, to whom this world was all as an
inn, and who was weary with the noise and confusion in it."
Most men desire the presence of the near and dear at such
an hour, and feel the human to be the interpretation of
the Divine Love, but Burnet states as Leighton's own ex
pressed opinion, " that the officious tenderness and care of
friends was an entanglement to a dying man : and that the

RESIGNATION, RETIREMENT, DEATH 511
unconcerned attendance of such as could be procured in such
a place would give less disturbance.'" To ordinary thought
the wish gives the impression of standing aloof from ordi
nary interests and ties, but it seems quite natural to one
whose time was so largely given to contemplation, and who
ever looked at things like Spinoza, sub specie aeternitatis. It
is in accordance with the tradition still preserved at Dunblane
of the " good bishop," silent and companionless, absorbed in
holy meditation, pacing up and down the sloping walk by
the river's bank and under the beautiful western window of
the cathedral. The wish that he might die in an inn was an
oft repeated one, and it was granted him. The pleurisy,
which attacked him on his visit to London, was fatal, and
about three days after his arrival — on June 25, 1684,^— he
died at the Bell Inn,^ Warwick Lane, in Burnet's arms, aged
seventy-four. The old inn was under the shadow of St Paul's Cathedral,
but is now removed to make way for more modern structures.
Leighton's remains were conveyed to Horsted Keynes, the
parish in which he had spent the last ten years of his life, and
were buried in the chancel of the church, beside those of his
brother. Sir Ellis Leighton, who died January 9, 1684.
On his tombstone is the following simple epitaph :
Depositum
ROBERT I t LEIGHTOUNJ
Archiepiscopi Glasguensis
Apud Scotos
Qui obijt xxv die Junij
Anno Dmj 1684
^tatis suae 74.
• History, i. p. 429. ' Burnet's History, ii, 428.
2 Dr. Stoughton thus refers to it in a lecture, entitied Robert Leighton,
or the Peacefulness of Faith :
"There is still in the narrow thoroughfare called Warwick Lane,
running out of Newgate Street an old inn bearing the name of the
Bell. The writer never passes it without thinking of Leighton." {Lights
of the World, 58.)

512 RESIGNATION, RETIREMENT, DEATH
And so passed away from the scene of this mortal strife,
one of the most seraphic spirits that ever visited this
world. His sincerity and single-mindedness in the pursuit
of the ideal, as he saw it on the Mount, are beautiful ;
and amid time-serving politicians, unworthy kings and
bishops, his soul was like a star and dwelt apart Even
Dr. Grub has said of those who were by strange fortune
his colleagues, that they were rather " the chief ecclesias
tical officers of the sovereign than the divinely constituted
rulers of the Church." But in a dark distracted period
it is a striking circumstance that this lovely, chastened
character, who lived always so near God, witnessed for a
comprehensive Church, in which Presbyterian and Episco
palian should live at peace, and in which all that was
best in both their systems was to be included and transcended
in a higher unity. It is certain that if there had been more
churchmen and bishops such as Bishop Elphinston of Aber
deen, in the sixteenth century, the Scottish Reformation
would have been less drastic. It is equally certain that if there
had been bishops and rulers like Leighton, the Church of
the Restoration would have been different, and subsequent
history changed. The "indomitable, pious constancy" of
the Covenanters was necessary for the cause of civil and
religious liberty, and all lovers of such will praise them for
what they achieved, and for the clearness with which they
discerned the issue at stake.
But it is also a similar circumstance that God gave the
Church at such a time a lovely spirit, who stands out to-day
as the prophet of a brighter horizon, who, misinterpreted by
his own age, is becoming a centre around which good men
are becoming more willing to meet. Leighton failed because
he was as one born out of due time, but it is a glory to
have fascinated minds so far apart as those of Doddridge
Wesley, Coleridge, John McLeod Campbell, Arthur Stanley,
John Tulloch, John Caird, and Robert Flint : it is a privilege

RESIGNATION, RETIREMENT, DEATH 513
to have called forth out of the heart of the Church of
England this acknowledgment in 1901 : "If the tradition of
Archbishop Leighton could at length replace that of Arch
bishop Laud, how much might the Episcopal Bench do, even
at once, for the unification of Christ's Church." '
It must be acknowledged that a great opportunity for
realizing Leighton's scheme was lost at the Revolution
Settlement in Scotland, and it is impossible to say what
might have been had Carstairs favoured it and had the
Scottish Episcopal clergy not " preached King James more
than Christ," and lent all their influence to the cause of
Jacobite stratagem and plot William leant strongly towards
comprehension in Church matters, and it must be said that
if the Covenanters had previously rejected Leighton's scheme,
the Episcopal clergy, who also as a body did not favour it
during Leighton's lifetime, now made its realization impossible
by their Stuart proclivities.
"The possibUity of a broadly conciliatory and comprehensive
settlement'' says Principal Story, "which would have pleased a
moderate like Tarbat, decreased as loyalty to the elected King
became more and more the distinctive mark of the staunch Pres
byterian, of whom Crawford was the perfervid type. As in the days
of the " tulchan " bishops of James VI ; of the first enthusiasm of
the Solemn League and Covenant; and of the Restoration, pofitical
considerations ruled the destinies of the Church. Her own voice
was not consulted. Had a General Assembly been invited to decide
how the Church was to be governed, the vote of the majority would
undoubtedly have declared for Episcopacy: and therefore Parlia
ment took care to put that question out of court before a General
Assembly should get leave to sit and took care also to summon
such an Assembly as should be certain never to recall that ques
tion." ^
It is worthy to be recalled that months before the Parlia-
' Canon Henson's Appeal for Unity, in sermon preached at Cambridge.
Cambridge Review, p. xi.
^ William Carstares, p. 186.
A.L. 33

514 RESIGNATION, RETIREMENT, DEATH
ment met in April 1690, when Church affairs were to
be settled. Viscount Tarbat, one of the wisest and most
judicious statesmen of the time, wrote to Melville : " Pray
consider the matter of the Church with such an eye as
impartially to consider not only what will satisfy one party,
but the whole." He followed this up with a weighty memorial
in which he sketched a plan of comprehension, that would
have kept in the establishment all ministers well affected to
the Government and have reconciled moderate Episcopalians
to Presbytery and moderate Presbyterians to Episcopacy,
by the adoption of Leighton's device of perpetual moderators.'
Crawford again would hear of nothing but Presbytery, pure
and unclogged, and so, amid the struggle expediency carried
the day, and the greatest opportunity was lost Jor constituting
the Church of Scotland on the most comprehensive basis. The
chief factor that rendered this impossible was the Stuart
tendency of the Episcopal clergy, and Bishop Row of
Edinburgh was so impolitic as to declare their allegiance
only " so far as law, reason or conscience would allow them."
William naturally could not support those whose loyalty was
questionable, but one cannot look back at the situation with
out thinking of the possibilities that passed away with it When
it is recalled that William, although brought up as a Presby
terian, did not hold "the Divine right of Presbytery": that the
Protestantism of the country was satisfied by the Protestant
succession to the throne being assured : that the King was
in favour of comprehension and conciliation, and made it
clear that there must henceforth be religious toleration by
the declaration, " I will not lay myself under any obligation
to be a persecutor " ; it is to be regretted that the counsel
of men like Viscount Tarbat did not prevail. Scotland
might have thenceforth had a Church, moulded after
Leighton's ideal, which would have " united the faithful "
and prevented the line of demarcation, that has since existed
' Leven and Melville Papers, pp. 108, 125.

RESIGNATION, RETIREMENT, DEATH 515
between the Presbyterian and Episcopal communions. But
the occasion was lost, and over and above all statesmen's
proposals, the feeling of the hour may have been too keen
and filled with too bitter memories for it.
Principal Story has admitted that the " Revolution Set
tlement " was, of all conceivable settlements, the most
" Erastian ": that the Church was not a party to the pro
cedure, and that the State dealt with her as its obedient hand
maid.' But it did not satisfy the Cameronians, while the im
plicit Erastianism in it, manifested in the subsequent Patronage
Act of 171 2, brought about the Secession of the Erskines, and
subsequent legislation brought about the still greater Seces
sion of 1843. The " glorious Revolution " was not the best
possible settlement, although it may have been the only pos
sible one, through the political exigencies of the hour. It
left many wounds and aroused many bitter feelings, that
have penetrated Scottish Church History ever since, and
made its development so chequered. No doubt it is a next
to impossible task to define and fix permanently the relation
of the State to the Church, as history shows : and in a dual
control, the question of the predominant partner must arise,
and the State and the Church have ever been changing their
relationship. But the Erastianism of 1690 was no more
the perfect solution than the absolutism of 1 661. One
cannot but think of the might-have-been, if Leighton's plan
of conciliation had been carried, and the spiritual independ
ence of the Church had been more secured. Instead of it
there came the measure which established the Church on
the basis of the Confession of Faith and of the Presbyterian
polity, as defined and secured by the Act of 1592, which
throughout all previous struggles the Constitutional Presby
terians of Scotland had regarded as the unabrogated and
fundamental Magna Charta of the Church. The same
measure also ratified the Westminster Confession of Faith :
¦ William Carstares, p. 187.

5x6 RESIGNATION, RETIREMENT, DEATH
repealed a long list of laws in favour of Episcopacy ; legalized
the illegal " rabblings " of the curates ; vested the government
of the Church in the survivors of the ejected clergy of 1661,
and appointed a meeting of the General Assembly.' Behind
it all, too, was the hatred of Romanism, which was even
stronger than the love of Presbytery. The "Settlement"
was a compromise, but the establishment of Presbytery was
in accordance with the wishes of the great majority of the
Scottish people and justified the heroic struggles of the
Covenanters. Yet notwithstanding it all, had Leighton's
scheme been carried, bitter social differences would have
been set at rest, and the Church of Scotland would have
received a polity that restored to the Church, Bishops or
Superintendents after Knox's Model, and included at the
same time all that was best in later Presbytery.
Who can tell if Leighton yet awaits his day to dawn, when
Ephraim shall no longer vex Judah nor Judah vex Ephraim ?
when the differences of the past shall be at once justified
and reconciled in a wider unity ?
' William Carstares, 187, 188.

CHAPTER XIV
LEIGHTONIANA
THE life of Leighton is now as complete, as existing and
accessible material will at present permit it to be.
But from the pages of diaries, as well as from the records of
his various editors from the end of the seventeenth to the
nineteenth century, there may be gathered together certain
anecdotes and sayings, that help to complete the portrait,
which letters and historical facts bring before us. Although
these are but as disjecta membra, they are not without impor
tance as casting side-light upon the central figure. They
are here gathered together,' and each conveys a distinct
impression, which prevents classification of the whole under
distinctive heads.
His love for public worship on the Lord's Day was intense,
and one day (probably in his retirement), when through indis
position he was hardly equal to going abroad, he still per
sisted, and said in excuse for his apparent rashness, ". Were
the weather fair,^ I would stay at home, but since it is foul, I
' The best collection of such is in Pearson's Life prefixed to his edition
of Leighton's Works. These anecdotes are authentic, for they were
taken by Pearson from a compilation which Mr. Lightmaker, Leighton's
nephew, had made for Bishop Burnet when that prelate was thinking of
matching his Life of Bedell with a companion biography of Leighton. It
is to be regretted that Burnet never attained his project, but the manu
script was in the hands of Pearson, and from it his anecdotes are derived.
(Secretan's Troubled Tinus and Holy Life of Archbishop Leighton,
P- 93-)
^ Compare this with John Wesley's statement regarding his itinerant
preachers, who were deterred from their work by the weather : "I do
not admire fair-weather preachers " (Tyerman's Life, iii. 355),

5i8 LEIGHTONIANA
must go, lest I be thought to countenance, by my example,
the irreligious practice of letting trivial hindrances keep us
back from public worship."
His own taste in food was of the simplest nature, and he
was abstemious, if not ascetic, to an extreme degree.
" Spiritual sensuality," as he termed the ardent desire for
holy things, ought to leaven, moderate, and consecrate bodily
appetite. Everything beyond the necessaries of life was to
him the overflowing of a full cup, which ought not to run to
waste, but descend into the poor man's platter. His nephew
thought that he injured his health by excessive abstinence,
but his own maxim was " that little eating and little speaking
do no one any harm," and when dinner was announced, he
would pleasantly say, " Well, since we are condemned to this,
let us sit down." When his sister invited him to partake of
a particular dish, he declined, saying, " What is it good for
but to please a wanton taste ? One thing foreborne is better
than twenty things taken." "But," answered his sister,
" why were these things bestowed upon us ? " " To see how
well we could forbear them " ; and then added, " Shall I eat of
this delicacy while a poor man wants his dinner ? "
It is told that his sister, at the request of a friend, once
asked him what he thought was the mark of the beast, at the
same time adding, " I told the inquirer that you would cer
tainly answer you could not tell." " Truly you said well,"
replied Leighton, " but if I might fancy what it were, it would
be something with a pair of horns that pusheth his neighbour,
and hath been so much seen and practised in Church and
State." He passed a severe sentence on the Romanists,
" who in their zeal for making proselytes fetched ladders
from hell to scale heaven," and he lamented that men of the
reformed Church should have adopted similar measures.
In his public life Leighton always protested against
force as a weapon to establish a Church, and he frequently
reiterated that he would rather make one Christian than many

LEIGHTONIANA 519
conformists. Conciliation was to him the only means of
advancing the Church. " The Scripture tells us, indeed, of
plucking out a right eye for the preservation of the whole
body : but if that eye admit of a cure, it should rather be pre
served : only let its cure be committed to the dexterous hands
of the kindest oculist, and not to a mere bungler who would
mar instead of healing. For himself he would suffer anything
rather than touch a hair of the head of those, who laboured
under such pitiable maladies as errors in faith must -be
accounted. Or, if he did meddle with them, it should be
with such a gentle touch as would prove the friendliness of
his disposition and purpose." " I prefer," he has been heard
to say, " an erroneous honest man before the most orthodox
knave in the world : and I would rather convince a man that
he has a soul to save, and induce him to live up to that belief,
than bring him over to my opinion in whatsoever else beside.
Would to God that men were but as holy as they might be
in the worst of forms now among us ! Let us press them to
be holy, and miscarry if they can." Being told of a man
who had changed his persuasion, all he said was, " Is he
more meek : more dead to the world ? If so, he has made a
happy change."
One day, when going to confer with a Presbyterian minister,
he found him discoursing on the duties of a holy life to his
friends. Leighton fell in with the conversation, and departed
without mentioning the point regarding the presbyter's non
conformity, for which he came. To some, who afterwards
remonstrated with him, he replied, " Nay, the good man and
I were in the main agreed : and as for the points in which
we differ, they are mosriy unimportant ; and though they be
of moment, it is advisable, before pressing any, to win as
many volunteers as we can." Another anecdote of this type
is narrated of him and is characteristic, that a friend calling
on him one day and not finding him at home, learnt that
he had gone to visit a sick Presbyterian minister on a

520 LEIGHTONIANA
horse which he had borrowed from the Roman Catholic
priest. To his nephew, who complained that there was a certain
text of Scripture which he could not understand, he replied,
" And many more that I cannot." Being once interrogated
about the saints reigning with Christ, he tried to elude the
question by replying, " If we suffer with Him, we shall also
reign with Him." Pressed to give his opinion whether or
not the saints would exercise rule on the earth, although
Christ should not in person assume the sovereignty, he
answered, "If God hath appointed any such thing for us. He
will give us heads to bear such liquor : our preferment shall
not make us reel."
Leighton recognized human limitation in the interpretation
of the deep things of God. Passionate curiosity he rebuked
by the angel's answer to Manoah, " Why askest thou thus
after my name, seeing it is secret ? " " Enough," he said, " is
discovered to satisfy us that righteousness and judgment are
within, although round about His throne are clouds and dark
ness," and he blamed those " who boldly venture into the
very thick darkness and deepest recesses of the Divine
majesty." " That prospect of election and predestination,"
said he, " is a great abyss into which I choose to sink rather
than attempt to sound it And truly any attempt at throw
ing light upon it makes it only a greater abyss, and is a
piece of blameable presumption."
Being told of an author who had entitled his work
" Naked truth whipt and stript," his remark was, " It might
have been better to clothe it" He disliked the rank zeal of
those " who would rather overturn the boat than trim it," and
his frequent prayer was, " Deliver me, O Lord, from the errors
of wise men : yea, and of good men." It was an aphorism
of his that " one half of the world lives upon the madness
of the other."
He inspired in his relatives both affection and reverence, and

LEIGHTONIANA 521
he loved deeply in return. Returning from the grave in
which his brother-in-law had been interred, he said, " Fain
would I have thrown myself in with him." Sometimes, while
viewing his own last resting-place, he would utter the words
of his own favourite poet, the holy George Herbert, whose
" time was mostly with God " :
" O let me roost and nestle there :
Then of a sinner thou art rid,
And I of hope and fear."
Hearing once of the death of a portly man, he said, " How
is it that A  has broken through those goodly brick walls,
while I am kept in by a bit of flimsy deal ? " He would add
pleasantly that he had his night-cap on, rejoiced that it was so
near bed-time, or rather so near the hour of rising to one who
had long lain awake in the dark : and pointing to the chil
dren of the family one evening, who were showing symptoms
of weariness and importuning to be undressed : " Shall I,"
said he, '' who am threescore and ten, be loth to go to bed ? "
He loved to speak of death in the words of Seneca : " Ilia dies
quam ut supremam metuisses, aeternitatis natalis est," and
his longing to depart was only conditioned by profound
submission to the will of God.
Leighton did not pretend to an absolute assurance of final
salvation. " Ah, but you have assurance," said a friend.
" No, truly," he replied, " only a good hope, and a great
desire to see what they are doing on the other side, for of this
world I am heartily weary."
He was a great admirer of natural scenery and loved his
rides upon the Sussex Downs. The marvels of the small, as
well as the great, impressed him, and adverting to the varieties
of creation, he remarked that there is no wonder after a straw,
omnipotence being as necessary to make the least things out
of nothing as the greatest The glorious lamps, hung on
the heavenly vault, had as their purpose to attract our thoughts

522 LEIGHTONIANA
towards the glory that excelleth and " we miss the chief benefit
they are meant to render us, if we use them not to light us
up to heaven." " It was a long hand," he would exclaim,
" and a strong hand too, that stretched out this stately canopy
above us : and to Him, whose work it is, we may rightly
ascribe most excellent majesty." After some such expres
sions of devout amazement, we are told, he would sink into
silent and adoring contemplation.
" Some good men," he would sometimes say, " are contented
to be low and stunted vines," and there is much preserved in
the saying of his little nephew, " My uncle did not give thanks
like other men!' " One devout thought," he once said, " is
worth all my books," and although naturally inclined to mon
astic seclusion, his statesmanship shows that he could hear
the world's calls and seek to fulfil them. While naturally
disposed to the practice " of dressing and undressing " his soul
in devotional exercises, he held that a mixed life was the
preferable one. He called it " an angelical life " as being " a
life spent between ascending to fetch blessings from above,
and descending to scatter them among mortals." He hated
the notion of " dressing religion with a hood and bells."
To his judgment the middle condition of life was best
" Better to be in the midst, between the two pointed racks of
deep penury and high prosperity, than to be on the sharps of
either." He was much pleased with a saying which com
pared the good things of this life to mushrooms, which need
so many precautions in eating, that wholly to waive the dish
is the safest wisdom.
In referring to the leading men of his period, (and no one
will say his judgment was too severe,) he disliked the selfish
craft by which they were characterized. They made him
lose heart. " I have met with many cunning plotters," he would
say, " but with few truly honest and skilful undertakers. Many
have I seen who were wise and great as to thi s world, but of
such as are willing to be weak that others may be strong.

LEIGHTONIANA 523
and whose only aim it is to promote the prosperity of Zion,
have I not found one in ten thousand."
He was always lenient in his estimate of honest effort, even
when it differed in aim from his own idea of things. After
hearing a plain and homely sermon he expressed the highest
satisfaction : " for the good man," he said in reference to the
preacher, "seems in earnest to catch souls." And the
measure of speech was to him always the character of the
audience. He disliked the practice of reading sermons, and thought
it detracted much from the weight and authority of preach
ing. " I know," he said, " that weakness of the memory is
pleaded in excuse for this custom : but better minds would
make better memories. Such an excuse is unworthy of a
man, and much more of a father, who may want vent
indeed in addressing his children, but ought never to want
matter. Like Elihu, he should be refreshed by speaking."
Leighton always thought with St. Augustine that a bishop
ric is not for pastime and leisure : Episcopatus non estartificium
transigendae vitae." During his own tenure of office, he went
about from parish to parish catechising and preaching, heal
ing differences and counselling in the midst of difficulties.
He often commiserated the London clergy, who were pre
vented by the largeness of their parishes from giving to each
individual the attention he required. " Theirs," he observed,
" is rightly called cura animarum " — meaning that it was full
of anxiety and peril. " Were I again," he said in his retire
ment, "tobe a parish minister, I must follow sinners to their
houses, and even to their alehouses."
His character gives the impression of a complete isolation
from the cares and prejudices of the world — of an entire
detachment from earth, of a centring of thought upon
Eternity. To Leighton the temporal was as nothing, and
the eternal as the all in all.
On some pecuniary loss he made a jesting remark. " What,"

524 LEIGHTONIANA
said his relative, "is that all you make of the matter?
" Truly," said Leighton, " if the Duke of Newcastle, after
losing nineteen times as much of yearly income, can dance
and sing, while the solid hopes of Christians will not avail to
support us, we had better be as the world."
Once as a party embarked on the Thames in a boat between
the Savoy and Lambeth, the boat was in imminent danger of
sinking, and most of them crying out, Leighton never lost his
serenity ; and to some who expressed their astonishment
replied, " Why, what harm would it have been if we had all
been landed safe on the other side ? " His habit was to die daily.
Another incident indicates his belief in prayer in the
presence of perils. During the civil wars, when the Royalist
army was lying in Scotland, Leighton was anxious to see his
brother, who bore arms in the King's service, before an
engagement, which was daily expected, should take place.
On his way to the camp he was benighted in the midst of a
vast thicket, and having deviated from his path, sought for an
outlet. Spent with fatigue and hunger, he began to think
his situation desperate, and, dismounting, he spread his cloak on
the ground and knelt down to pray. With devotion he resigned
his soul to God, entreating, however, that if it was not the
Divine pleasure then for him to conclude his days, some way
of deliverance might be opened. Then, remounting his horse,
he threw the reins upon its neck, and the animal, left to itself,
it is said, made straight for the high road, threading all the
mazes of the wood with unerring certainty.
Leighton's ideal for his clergy has been already stated by
himself in his Synodal Addresses, and he desired to stamp
on their minds the ideal of the meek and lowly Jesus as the
source and sustenance of spiritual power. But, like John
Wesley, he impressed on them that fervour for opinions and
things indifferent is not Christian zeal, and that religion is to
radiate into everything. As John Wesley used to be particular
even in his directions of dress :

LEIGHTONIANA 525
" Let thy soul's sweetness have its domination
Upon thy person, clothes and habitation,''
so Leighton used to consider a singular modesty and
gravity, even in externals such as their apparel and the
adjustment of their dress, to be highly becoming in ministers,
whose profession it was to give themselves wholly to the care
of their souls.
Leighton's brother-in-law was so impressed with his piety
that he said, " If none shall get to heaven but so holy a man,
what will become of me ? "
Leighton's sister, thinking that he carried his beneficence
too far and that his liberality needed check, said to him once,
" If you had a wife and children, you would not act thus
His answer was, " I know not how it would be, but I know
how it should be. Enoch walked with God, — and begat sons
and daughters."
Sir James Stewart, formerly Provost of Edinburgh and
Leighton's friend, once said to him, " Sir, I hear your grand
father was a Papist, your father a Presbyterian, and suffered
much for it in England, and you a Bishop ! What a mixture
is this ! " " It's true, sir," said Leighton, " and my grandfather
was the honestest man of the three." This and the following
are from the pages of Wodrow's Analecta ; they must be
taken with some reserve, as manifesting a somewhat acid
spirit :
"Mr. D. Freeman informs me, that about 1674 there was a
mighty difference between the Bishops of Dumblain and St.
Andrewes ; and there was a generall inclination among the Episcopal
clergy to have a Convocation to regulate the abuses of the Bishops.
Severall ministers, yea Presbitrys, did addresse anent this ; and he
alledges that this was much fostered by Duke Hamiltown and his
party, in opposition to Lauderdale, who supported the Archbishop
of St. Andrewes. There goes a story that when Leightoun, who, I
suppose, about this time was Bishop of Dumblain, and was in a
meeting with Sharp, Archbishop of St. Andrewes, he frequently
termed him ' My Lord,' and did not add ' your Grace ' to it ; and

526 LEIGHTONIANA
the Archbishop said, hufifingly, ' My Lord, and noe more ? ' 'Ay,
says Leightoun, ' my Lord is more than either you or I should
have.' " Mr. R. Stewart tells me, he has it from ane old servant yet
alive at Edinburgh, who was Leighton's man, that frequentiy once a
week or fourteenth-night, Leighton, when Principal of Edinburgh
Colledge, used to shut himself up in the room above the Library,
and discharged anybody to have access to him, and that for two
days. He had ^nothing with him but his Bible, and sometimes he
had a candle lighted at night frequently not and a choppin of
ale and a bitt of bread ; and his servant declares that at the third
day when he came out there would scarce have been any of the
ale and bread made use of This monkish retirement and other
things i^ide alibi'^) give great ground for suspicions of his inclination
to Popery.2
" I am told that [Archjbishop Leightoun, when at Edinburgh,
was very much suspected to be ane Arrian (!) and vented severall
things in conversation that tended that way.^
" P(rofessor) Stirling tells me two storys of Bishop Leighton, one
Mr. John Lau, Minister at Edinburgh since the Revolution, used to
tell, after Mr. Leighton was Bishop of Dumblain. Mr. Lau was in
conversation with him, and somewhat fell in, which brought on the
subject of charity, which the Bishop used to expatiat upon. Mr.
Lau said he minded an expression of Mr. David Dickson's, who
used to say that " people should not make a fool of their charity.
The Bishop replyed, he did not know what Mr. Dickson meaned
in these words, but the Scripture made a fool of charity
since it said that fools bear all things, and charity beareth all
things ! ' — a very light expression."*
The following are from the Coltness Collections, and manifest
the strong Presbyterian opposition of their source. Sir James
Stewart was Leighton's guardian (when he was a student at
Edinburgh) and regarded him " as of a sprightly, generous
(temper), and wanted not good understanding, but had no due
proportion of firmness and stability. He wanted to find out
' Thevery, O. Fr. resverie, incoherent and wandering imaginations.
Note Wodrow, ii. 214.
^ Vol. i. 327. ^ Vol. ii. 212. * Vol. ii. pp. 348, 349.

LEIGHTONIANA 527
somewhat new and surprizing and plodded early upon
Utopian expedients 1 " We have a truer perspective of him
now, but there is notwithstanding the bias, a little gleam of
light in the narrative, and we insert it (the part, already
referred to, being omitted) :
" Coltness himself was of inflexable stuborn zeale & sincerity, a
Presbyterian of the strictest forme, & the particulars of that visite
by Bishop Leighton at Gutters, hinted at in sir James Stewart's
Life, shall here be ane evidence of this, & is this. On that oc
casion, & when none but he & his brother James were taking the
air with Mr. Leighton, now Bishop of Dunblane, Coltness put him
in mind of his formally & solemnly mentioning the obligation of the
national covenant at Sacrament times, when he was minister at
Newbattle, where he & his brother had attended, for Mr. Leighton
in those days expressed all regarde for the national covenant how
ever little he had for the solemn league.' But now the Bishop
answered, ' Mr. Stewart man is a mutable changing essence both in
body & mind, & frequently is misinformed, yet acts according to
his light at the time, & acts safe, but if years, & experience, & en
quiry give further light so he is still to act ane ingenious parte, as
God, his word, & his confidence direct' & the Bishop cited that
text — 'When I was a child, etc., but now have I put away childish
things.' Mr. James Stewart advocate, his brother, said he did not
impune his Lordship's principle, that each man was to be fuUy per
swaded in his own mind, & so to act : but then he thought christian
charity, — as to not giving offence, should incline one, who had been a
publick teacher in a different way, not to cast a stumbling-block
before the weak of his former party, for things more indifferent ;
' & truly, my Lord, you must be convinced that all the odds of
dignity & titles, or a parity among brethren ministers, is not to be
ballanced with the disturbance it wiU create, & the offence it gives
many truly godly in the Church of Scotiand.' Coltness added,
' There is a woe pronounced against him by whom offences come,
& that Mr. Leighton could not but be aware that his taking priest's &
deakon's orders at London, as if he had none formerly, was a villi-
fying his former ordination, declaring as it were null all his former
administrations, as if formeriy he had neither God's nor the Church
her caU to dispence sacraments, & he might be affrayed this wo
might overtake him & his associates, for all that was done had a
' See p. 309.

528 LEIGHTONIANA
tincture of perjury.' He next put the Bishop in minde of his
grievous complent, when at Newbattle, of the load of so numerous
a charge of souls, but that now he thought a whole bishoprick an
easy burthen. It was this free conference drew the angry reflection
from the bishop of the presbyterian crochet, but as Mr. James
called [him] ' my Lord,' & spoke with more temper, he said Mr.
James was a mannerly well behaved gentleman, but Coltness was
hott as pepper, — ^of confined civic education." '
It is told of Leighton that he once had a Roman Catholic
servant, who made a point of abstaining from flesh on the
days appointed by the Calendar. Leighton, being informed
of this, commented on the vanity of such scruples, yet re
spected them and requested his sister to indulge the man
with such fare as suited his piety, lest the endeavour to dis
suade him from the practice should drive him to falsehood
or prevarication. " To this," he added, " many poor creatures
are impelled, not so much from a corrupt inclination, as for
want of a handsome truth."
It was probably by this servant, that the Bishop's equani
mity was often tried. Going out to fish one morning, he
locked the door of the house and carried off the key, leaving
his master imprisoned. Too much engrossed in his sport,
he did not return till the evening, when the only admonition he
received was, " John, when you next go a fishing, remember
to leave the key in the door."
The following reveal some humour — an element that very
occasionally appears in what survives regarding Leighton :
" In a pamphlet, in answer to Bishop Burnet's charges against the
Scottish bishops, it is asserted that only one of them, beside the
Archbishop of St. Andrews, had servants in livery. Leighton was
certainly not the one, as the letter (p. 336) indicates, and as one
would have expected from his humility and modesty. His men,
however, had the weaknesses of their fraternity. As they durst
not be seen tippling in town, they are said to have persuaded the
Bishop, that his horses would only drink in a barn, two miles above
Dunblane, where there was an ale-house. At last annoyed with
' Pp. 68, 69.

LEIGPITONIANA 529
their irregularity, he allowed them free egress and regress, provided
they neither locked him out nor in. One day that he had a suit of
new clothes drenched in the rain, he said not an angry word to the
fellow who had neglected to bring his cloak at the hour appointed.
On a gentleman wondering at so much meekness, the Bishop smiled
and said, ' What would you have me lose my coat and my temper
too ? ' There is another story belonging to the same period. A
young woman, the widow of a minister in his diocese, to whom he
had been exceedingly kind, took it into her head that the Bishop
was in love with her. Thinking he was long in breaking his mind,
she went to him in the Haining, a lonely walk by the water-side,
where he used to meditate. Upon his asking her commands, ' Oh
my lord,' she said, ' I had a revelation last night.' ' Indeed I
answered he: 'I hardly imagined you would ever have been so
highly honoured : what is it ? ' ' That your lordship and I were
to be married together.' ' Have a little patience,' replied the
Bishop, much abashed, ' till I have a revelation too.' " '
' Scotland and Scotsmen (Edited by Alexander Allardyce), vol. ii. p. 90.

A.L. 34

CHAPTER XV
TRIBUTES TO LEIGHTON'S SPIRITUAL GENIUS
ROBERT LEIGHTON'S works have been well known
and appreciated by the different sections of Christ's
Church, and his genius has called forth a variety of tributes
from minds ecclesiastically wide apart Amidst divisions
he has formed a centre of unity, and the following repre
sentative statements from the past and present vindicate
his claim to be the common saint of all the Churches. Men
who differ from each other agree on him. Sir George Mac
kenzie, who was known in Scotland as the " bluidy Mackenzie,"
the criminal prosecutor in the days of the persecution, thus
wrote of Leighton :
" He was in much esteem for his piety and moderation amongst
the people, and as to which the Presbyterians themselves could
neither reproach nor equal him : albeit they hated most of all his
fraternity, in respect he drew many into a kindness for Episcopacy
by his exemplary life, rather than debates. His great principle was,
that devotion was the great affair about which Churchmen should
employ themselves : and that the gaining of souls, and not the
external government, was their proper task : nor did he esteem it
fit and scarce lawful to Churchmen, to sit in Councils and
Judicatories, these being diversions from the main. . . . He opposed
all violent courses, whereby men were forced to comply with the
present worship beyond their persuasions : and he granted a latitude
and indulgence to those of his own diocese before the King had allowed
any by his letter. This made the world believe, that he was the
author to his Majesty of that public indulgence : and the statesmen
who were unwilling to be authors of an innovation, which some there
thought might prove dangerous, were well satisfied to have it so believed:

LEIGHTON'S SPIRITUAL GENIUS 531
but however, these principles rendered him a fit instrument in
their present undertakings." '
Middleton, another contemporary, wrote :
" Leighton was a man of singular and wonderful piety, 01 good
learning, and in him most of the eminent virtues we admire in the
primitive Bishops, seemed to be revived. His life was most
exemplary and severe : he preached constantly and seemed like
one in heaven, when he preached : his humUity was astonishing :
his meekness and charity were extraordinary : his expense on himself
very small, but all he had, he laid out on the poor." ^
Leighton's friend, Dr. Fall, Principal of Glasgow University
and afterwards Precentor of York Cathedral, thus wrote :
"Leighton was the delight and wonder of all that knew him:
his thoughts were noble, and his expressions beautiful : his gesture
and pronunciation (peculiar to himself) had a gravity, a majesty,
and a sweetness in them, that many severe judges have often said
were beyond all that they had ever seen at home or abroad. That
which gave the greatest authority to all he said, was, that his life
was such a continued course of sublimest virtue and the most
elevated piety that has appeared in this age. Those who have
known him the most and the longest have often said, that in a
course of many years' acquaintance, they scarcely ever saw him
once out of that deeply serious state in which they themselves
wished to be found in their last minutes."^
Dr. Henry Miles (circa 1740) said :
"There is a spirit in Archbishop Leighton I have never met
with in any human writings, nor can I read many lines in them
without being moved."*
Dr. Doddridge (1702-175 1) said :
" In the works of this great Adept in true Christianity, we do
not so much hear of Goodness, as see it in its most genuine traces :
' History, p. 161.
= Appendix to Archbishop Spottiswoode's History, p. 7.
^ Prefatory Epistle to Works.
* Dr. Doddridge's Preface, p. xiv.

532 LEIGHTON'S SPIRITUAL GENIUS
see him a living image of his Divine Master, for such indeed his
writings show, I had almost said, demonstrate him to have been,
by such internal characters as surely a bad man could not counter
feit, and no good man can so much as suspect. . . . On the whole,
the style wonderfully suits the sentiments : and however destitute
of the flights of oratory, has such a dignity and force mingled with
that simplicity, which is to be sure its chief characteristic : so that
on the whole, it has often reminded me of that soft and sweet
eloquence of Ulysses, which Homer describes as falling like flakes
of snow : and if I might be allowed to pursue the simifitude, I
could add, like that, it penetrates deep into the mind too, and tends
to enrich and fructify it." '
fofin IF^j/^j/ published about 1750,'in his Christian Library,
a selection from the writings of Leighton, including his
Exposition of the Creed, and his six sermons on
The Wisdom from Above (James iii. 17).
All Things tend to the Glory of God (Psalm Ixxvi. 10).
Of Love to (7(?^ (Psalm cxix. 136).
Of Glorifying God {2 sermons) (Isaiah Ix.i).
Of Praising God (Cant. i. 3).^ *
In his short preface he characterizes Leighton's matter,
style and character, very much in the words of the preface
attached to the 1692 edition of Leighton's Works by Dr.
Fall. But it is not uninteresting to observe, that although
Wesley adds no distinct testimony of his own, he chose
Leighton as one of the religious influences, by which he
sought to instruct and inform the people connected with the
great Methodist revival of religion in the eighteenth century.
He styles Leighton as the " Author Most Reverend."
Coleridge, who founded his Aids to Reflection chiefly on
aphorisms from Leighton's Works, thus refers to him in
another work : ^
" Surely if ever work not in the Sacred Canon might suggest a
' From Preface to Works, pp. vii.-xxii.
^ Vol. XX. (pp. 237-348).
" Notes on English Divines, vol. ii. p. 120.

LEIGHTON'S SPIRITUAL GENIUS 533
belief of inspiration — of something more than human — this it is.
When Mr. Elwyn made this assertion, I took it as the hyperbole
of affection : but now I subscribe to it seriously and bless the hour
that introduced me tp the knowledge of the evangelical apostolical
Archbishop Leighton. Next to the inspired Scriptures — yea, and
as the vibration of that once struck hour remaining on the air,
stands Leighton's Commentary on the First Epistle to the Romans!'
Professor folm Brown, of Scottish Secession ' stock, and
father of the more famous John Brown, author of Rab and
his Friends, thus wrote :
" I part from the devout Archbishop with reluctance, as from a
pious accomplished friend, who has been my instructive and
delightful companion during my leisurely journey through this most
fertUe region of the world of inspiration, and to whom I am much
indebted for turning my attention to some of its most recondite
beauties, and for gathering for me and for you, some of its sweetest
flowers and richest fruits." ^
' The representatives of the Erskines in Scotland have shown no
little interest in Leighton, and have exerted themselves in making him
better and more widely known. In this connexion, and in proof of
the statement, I have only to mention the names of the Rev. Dr. Blair,
of Dunblane, who has written frequently and warmly on his subject,
and of the late Rev. Dr. Jerment, Bow Lane, London (1760-1819), who
has edited an edition of his works with a valuaile life (pp. i.-c.) He
there states (p. xcix.) how he first became acquainted with Leighton's
Sermons : " Before the age of seventeen he (Dr. Jerment) saw in the
cottage of a Scots gardener a small detached volume of Leighton's
Sermons, without the title page or any mark to indicate the author.
Taking it up, and being much struck with the first page, he inquired of
the possessor whether he knew the author ? ' No, sir,' was the reply,
but that book has been blessed to my soul and must have been written
by some great and good man.' He never rested till he discovered the
author, and procured all his works then published. Now, after the
lapse of thirty years, and having read the discourses often, his esteem
is increased : and he shall ever reckon it a signal honour conferred
upon him to have been in any degree instrumental in diffusing the
knowledge and usefulness of such pure and precious productions."
^ Expository Discourses on First Peter, ii. p. 553.

534 LEIGHTON'S SPIRITUAL GENIUS
The late Duke of Argyll thus wrote :
" Leighton's name is one which has secured the reverence of
after times and abated even the rancour of his own. It is a name
which, in connexion with the circumstances of his day, deserves,
I think, special honour. He was deeply religious, yet he was not
a fanatic : he was a Bishop, yet he was not a ' Churchman ' : in
an age of fiercest bigotry or grossest irreligion, he was an earnest
Christian and a large-minded man. During all the periods of his
life he may be said to have walked alone. As a Presbyterian, he
had been a moderate and therefore a suspected member: — more
engaged in the cause of personal piety than in the battles of the
Covenant. As a Bishop, he was still more apart from all his
brethren : he was a humble preacher of the Word : a striver for the
peace, not the oppression of the Church. As a Protestant he could
speak of the errors of the Reformation and see points of beauty
in some ideas and institutions connected with the Church of Rome.
Such was Robert Leighton, whom I mention as not more singular
among the Scottish prelates of his own day, than alone in the
history of Scottish prelacy. I mention him for another reason.
He was a disbeliever in the Jus Divinum, or the indispensability
of his office in the Church. . . . To a mind engrossed by the
realities of religion, the Covenant and the ' Crown of Christ '
could have no connexion."'
Dean Stanley thus refers to him :
" The peculiarity of Leighton's position was that he combined a
sanctity equal to that of the strictest Covenanter or the strictest
Episcopalian with a liberality in his innermost thoughts equal to
that of the widest Latitudinarian of the school of Jeremy Taylor or
of Hoadley. . . He was the only man of that age — we may almost
say of any age — that deliberately set himself, as to the work of his
life, to the union of the two Churches. He was absolutely indif
ferent to the forms of either. . . . However chimerical may seem in
our days an equal respect to Episcopacy and Presbyterianism, it is
enough that the projected — the all but completed — union between
them originated in a head so clear and a heart so pure as
Leighton's. ^
' Presbytery Examined, pp. 200, 201.
^ Lectures on the Church of Scotland, pp. 105, no, 114.

LEIGHTON'S SPIRITUAL GENIUS 535
Bishop f ebb, of Limerick, writing to Alexander Knox (who,
and not Southey, ought to have been the biographer of John
Wesley) thus refers to Leighton : —
" He was a pattern of Christian perfection ... in sublime piety,
and often in genuine strokes of natural but most exalted eloquence
his writings are not excelled but by the sacred writers." '
In another letter he thus refers to his writings :
" These writings are often tinged with the Calvinism of the day.
But, after making every needful abatement, we must confess that
Leighton was a human seraph : uniting the solar warmth with the
solar light, and, throughout exhibiting the purest, most unmingled
goodness. His commentary on St. Peter is a treasure of devotion.
His theological lectures are the very philosophy of the New Testa
ment : and his meditations on some of the psalms, raise us to those
purer and sublime heights, where it was Leighton's delight and
privilege habitually to dweU." ^
Principal Story refers to the " apostolic earnestness and
gentle wisdom of Leighton." ^ Professor Flint avers that "a
purer, humbler, holier spirit never tabernacled in Scottish
clay." * Professor Herkless describes him as " almost the
one tolerant man of his time." ^ Professor Blaikie states
that " Leighton is one of the names that belong, beyond
reasonable question, to the Church Universal . . . that no
character could show more conclusively how one may be a
member of the school of Calvin, and at the same time a
scholar, a gentleman, and a saint." " Principal Tulloch says :
" His name is a jewel in the crown of the Scottish Church,
which shines refulgent with so many glories of a different
order : and it is and has long been to me a fact singularly
' Correspondence, vol. i. p. 27.
" Forster's Life of Bishop Jebb, p. 107.
^ William Carstares, p. 35-
¦* St. Giles' Lectures (first series), p. 204.
' Richard Cameron, p. 40
^ The Evangelical Succession, pp. 207, 208.

536 LEIGHTON'S SPIRITUAL GENIUS
touching that our Church (the Church of Scotland) — ac
counted by many, and rightly accounted, the nurse of the
sterner and more heroic Christian virtues — should have pro
duced a character of such light and sweetness as is rarely to
be found." ' Bishop Wordsworth said : " Nor can I omit to
mention at least one redeeming feature in the character and
administration of King Charles II — that it was he who not
only appointed the saintly Robert Leighton to the bishopric
of Dunblane in this country and the saintly Thomas Ken
to his bishopric of Bath and Wells in England, but who
also showed on more than one occasion, in the case of both,
that he entertained a just appreciation of their respective
merits." ^
fofm Macleod Campbell somewhere in his letters adds, " I
love Leighton, for he breathes the spirit of an Evangelist."
Dr. foseph Robertson, after recapitulating the various out
standing events that characterize the history of Glasgow
Cathedral, thus writes : " Glasgow echoed the universal
delight which hailed the Restoration, yet amid that joyous
tumult a voice was heard from the depths of her cathedral
crypt prophesying woe and lamentations — Cargill, the rugged
confessor of a relentless Covenant, sparing not to denounce
the faithless King even on the first "oak apple day" of his
reign. A few years pass and in the choir above the low, sweet
voice of Leighton is heard in tfiose angelic strains of eloquence
and devotion wliich haunted the memory of his hearers to their
dying day!' ^
West says : " Leighton's works breathe the spirit of his
life, which was indeed what Plotinus calls, a Flight of the
Alone to the Alone. . . . He realized as fully as ever man did
the truth of that profound saying of the ancients : ' Nascentes
' Scottish Divines, p. no.
" Discourses on Scottish Church History, p. 63.
3 Scottish Abbeys and Cathedrals, p. 66.

LEIGHTON'S SPIRITUAL GENIUS 537
morimur ; morientes nascimur.' " ' The same writer. Episcopa
lian though he was, could add this testimony (and no one will
withhold the praise that is his due for doing so) : " I believe
that I am the very first writer who has shown that Leighton's
works, with scarcely an exception, belong to the Presbyterian
period of his life : and so far from wishing to soften down
his Presbyterian principles or prejudices, I have given them
the utmost distinctness and prominence. From first to last
(whether as Presbyterian or as Bishop) Leighton's views of
Church polity were what is called latitudinarian and his doc
trinal views Calvinistic." ^
Dr. Reid, of Balmaghie, wrote : " The saintly life and
amiable manners of Leighton have lent a charm to the thought
of what might have been if only his obstinate presbyters had
listened favourably to his scheme of a modified Episcopacy.
And contrasted with him, these unbending presbyters are apt
to appear in an unlovely light." ^
John Morley has testified : " Leighton was one of the few
wholly attractive characters of those bitter-flavoured times,
was closely intimate with French Jansenists, of whom Hume
truly says they were but half Catholics : and Leighton was
wont to declare that he would rather turn one single man to
be truly of a serious mind than turn a whole nation to mere
outward conformity, and he saw no reason why there should
not be a conjunction between bishops and elders. For none
of these temperate and healing ideals was the time ripe." *
Sir Alexander Grant wrote : " Leighton was a man who, from
his sweetness and humility, and perhaps from some faculty
of ' being all things to all men ' was acceptable to all the
Churches. No Presbyterian had a word against him, the
Independents took him up, and as soon as the Stuarts were
' Notes and Queries (2nd Series), viii. 508.
" Reply to British Quarterly Review criticism (1870), p. 13.
° Lee Lecture (1899), p. 11.
* Oliver Cromwell, p. 95.

538 LEIGHTON'S SPIRITUAL GENIUS
restored to the throne he was made a Bishop." ' Cardinal
Manning wrote : " One of the most remarkable discoveries
of modern science is the fact that hurricanes revolve around
a centre of perfect calm. Outside the charmed circle the
tempest may rage furiously — within it, all is peace. A simi
lar phenomenon can be found in the moral and spiritual
world. In seasons of civil war or theological strife, when
' envy, hatred and all uncharitableness ' abound, we may find
some tranquil spirits who, undisturbed by the tumult around,
seem perpetually to hear their Master whispering to them
words of peace. Such a man was Robert Leighton." ^
Dr. Blair, after examining the Dunblane Presbytery
Records relating to the period subsequent to the Restoration
thus testifies to the manner in which Leighton co-operated
with the presbyters : " First , that during Leighton's adminis
tration the form of presbyteries was kept up unaltered, the
moderator presiding as before, while the bishop sat in court
and gave his counsel with the rest of the brethren : secondly,
that the constitution of the church courts remained unchanged,
elders and even heritors being constituent members of ses
sion and presbyteries : thirdly, that ordinations were conducted
as before by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery
the bishop taking part as one of the brethren : and fourthly,
that the public worship was conducted exactly as before,
without service-book or liturgy, and not in the pompous
ritual of the Anglican Church, as has been absurdly repre
sented by various writers. That there were slight modifica
tions in the matter of ordination under Leighton's successors,
' The Story of the University of Edinburgh, ii. 248.
' This extract is from one of a series of volumes. The Wisdom of our
Fathers, published without the editor's name. The volume from which
the above is taken contains selections from the miscellaneous works of
Archbishop Leighton with a memoir (p. vii.). My authority for saying
Manning was the author of the Memoir is Schaff-Herzog, Encyclopcedia
of Religious Knowledge, vol. ii. p. 1298.

LEIGHTON'S SPIRITUAL GENIUS 539
we grant ; but these never, in the smallest degree, touched
the worship or discipline of the Church." '
Such testimonies* from representatives of different sections
of the Christian Church, are worthy tributes to Leighton's
spiritual splendour and catholic statesmanship. They all
point to the conclusion that he is one of the unifying forces
in the Church ; that the future will even outshine the past in
regarding him as one of God's very best gifts, and as one of
marvellous potency and help to the settlement of the eccle
siastical problems that are looming on the near horizon.
Leighton was a man of clearest vision as well as of purest
' British and Foreign Evangelical Review (1869), pp. 349, 350.
' References will also be found to Leighton in Burnet's Preface to the
Life of Bishop Beddell (1692) : Orme's Bibliotheca Biblica, p. 288 :
Bennett's Christian Oratory, vol. ii. pp. 51-52, 79, 80, 81, 82,83, 144-147,
209 : Granger's Biographical History of England, vol. ii. p. 35 : Notes
and Queries (2nd Series), vol. viii. pp. 41, 61, 507, 525 : vol. x. pp. 124,
213, 507, 526.
Besides Articles and Lives already referred to, sympathetic notices
will be found in Chamber^ Encyclopcedia, vi. 567-569 ; Anderson's
Scottish Nation, ii. 643-644: Encyclopcedia Britannica, xiv. 427-429:
Irving's Lives of Scottish Writers, ii. 120-144 • Dictionary of National
Biography, xxxii. 4-7 : Schaff-Herzog, Encyclopcedia, ii. 1296-1298. The
writer of the last- mentioned article is the Rev. William Blair, D.D.,
Dunblane, who has contributed much to the Leightonian Literature.
Here may be mentioned his Archbishop Leighton, a short Biography
with selections from his writings, and his following papers which I have
read with pleasure. A Scottish Presbytery in the Seventeenth Century
{British and Foreign Evangelical Review, 1869), pp. 22-40, and Scottish
Prelacy after the Restoration {ibid. pp. 331-350), as well as three papers
on Archbishop Leighton in the United Presbyterian Magazine (1865,
pp. 397, 493, and 1866, p. 15), and four papers on the Bishop of Dunblane
in the same magazine for 1869 (pp. 304, 355, 400, 498). There are
references to Leighton's Work in the Civil and Ecclesiastical histories of
Scotland, but it is curious that Hume passes him over in silence and
speaks of Sharpe. The Rev. C. B. Bingham edited a book entitled.
Baptism : the Testimony of Archbishop Leighton, extracted from his
Commentary, with an Introduction (1850). In the Bibliographer's Manual
of English Literature (iii. 1337) there is an incomplete bibliography, but
a complete one will be found in West's Edition (vol. vii. pp. 289-358).
There is a fine reference to Leighton in a recent book, By Allan Water,
by Katherine Stewart (p. 178).

540 LEIGHTON'S SPIRITUAL GENIUS
holiness, and his life and work are a testimony to the truth
of a statement made by his distinguished contemporary
Richard Baxter : — '
" It is the will of God that the Unity of the Church should not
be laid up on indifferent small and doubtful points ; but that true
believers who differ in such things should notwithstanding have
inward charity and outward communion with one another, not
censuring, not despising, nor dividing from each other on this
account. . . . The Church is to be healed and repaired by such
that are sensible of their own infirmities and compassionate to
others, that are of a Christian Catholic spirit and have Catholic
principles and affections, and see such a beauty in the Image of
Christ that they can heartily love a gracious person, notwithstanding
his many tolerable infirmities, and think themselves more unworthy
to be tolerated by others than such as I have described to be
tolerated by them." ' Catholic Unity, pp. 323-324, 378-379.

CHAPTER XVI
LEIGHTON AND MONASTICISM
" If there are refuges for the health of the body, ah ! permit religion to
have such also for the health of the soul, wiiich is still more subject to
sickness, and the infirmities of which are so much more sad, so much
more tedious and difficult to cure." — M. DE Chateaubriand.
" In the history of most saints, who have exercised a reformatory and
lasting influence upon monastic institutions, the name and influence of
some holy woman is almost invariably found associated with their work
and devotedness. ... To instance only the greatest : Macrina is seen
at the side of St. Basil, and the names of Monica and Augustine are
inseparable : as in later ages are those of St. Francis of Assisi and
St. Clara, St. Francis de Sales and St Jeanne de Chantal." —
Montalembert. IT is impossible to study the early centuries of Christian
civilization, and the earlier part of mediaeval history,
and not be impressed with the civilizing and religious forces
which monasticism created, developed and sustained. It is
improbable that any one, who has an acquaintance with the
first fifteen centuries of the Christian Church, Protestant
though he be, can refuse to sympathize with Montalembert's
glowing history of the rise and progress of the Monastic Orders.
But it is also improbable that any one can consider their con
dition prior to the Reformation, and not realize that in
England and Scoriand at least they had served their day,
and could plead no further reason for continued existence.
All that was best in them had been assimilated into the
civilization which the Orders had helped to bring about
most effectually in their purest days.
The contrast between their beginning and their end is a
641

542 LEIGHTON AND MONASTICISM
very striking one, and openness to the glory of the former
should not blind us to the darkness of the latter. In the
Reformation era itself the monastic bodies had sunk so low
in the estimation of even the rulers of the Church, that one
clause in the report of the committee of cardinals, appointed
by Pope Paul III (a body composed of Sadolet, Contarini,
Reginald Pole, Gilberti, Fregoso, Badia, Aleandro and
Caraffa, afterwards Paul IV), delivered in 1538, was worded
as follows :
" Another abuse which needs correction is in the religious orders,
because they have deteriorated to such an extent that they are a
grave scandal to seculars, and do the greatest harm by their example.
We are of opinion that they should be all abolished, not so as to
injure (the vested interests of) any one, but by forbidding them to
receive novices : for in this wise they can be quickly done away
with without wrong to any one, and good religious can be put in
their place. At present we think the best thing to be done is to
dismiss all the unprofessed youths from their monasteries."
As this document shows the current of high Ecclesiastical
opinion towards the Orders, so the lay view took expression in
the Epistolae Obscurorum Fzwr?/;;;^, by Ulrich von Hutten, which
were to the Dominicans of the sixteenth century as the Pro
vincial Letters were to the Jesuits of the seventeenth. The
Orders also came under the delicate scalpel of Erasmus' wit,
and he did not spare them, either in his Colloquies or Praise of
Folly. The objections raised were not wholly new, for the de
fence of monasticism by Thomas Aquinas makes it clear, that
they were used in the thirteenth century. The interests involved,
however, were too vast and complicated to allow of any such
sweeping measure of reform as that proposed by the Cardinals
to be carried out. The enactments of some partial corrections
by the Council of Trent (not touching any principle but
apparently saying something because public opinion required
it to be said), and the creation of the new Order of the Jesuits
in 1 5 34, represent the total action taken by the Church of
Rome during the actual crisis of the Reformation.

LEIGHTON AND MONASTICISM 543
Now Leighton sympathized too much with the Jansenists,
who sought to reform the Church of Rome from within in
doctrine and discipline:' he loved the idea of the Port- Royal
too much, where was gathered together a religious community,
fettered by no vows, but united voluntarily, and serving as a
religious seminary, a missionary centre, a literary academy
and a pastoral college. Protestant though he was, he could
speak of the errors of the Reformation, and see so much
good in some of the ideas and institutions it had renounced,
as to be conscious that in renouncing all the forms of
monasticism, the Reformed Church had lost much, which it
might have retained to its own advantage. And so he is to
be numbered among some of the many distinguished men ^ of
the Reformed Church, who from the days of Latimer down
wards, have lamented the absence of some kind of monasteries
in her communion, " Like that same peaceful hermitage.
Where Milton long'd to spend his age."
Such ideas were not uncommon to men of earnest minds and
quiet habits, and Leighton may not inappropriately be called
a Protestant monk. There was always a good deal of the
cloister atmosphere about him, and his own family at Usan
had given distinguished Bishops, Abbots and even Knight-
Templars to the Church."^ The forms that were no more, and
the days that were gone, would lead him to treasure much
that was beloved for the fathers' sake, but with all this he never
wavered from the fundamental principles of the Reformed
Church. He only desired to make it more comprehensive
and useful to minds of a meditative type. He recognized the
eternal necessity to the religious life of being apart for a
season, and amidst the turmoils of his day could say, as
Edward Irving said amid the storms of a later time : " Ah
me ! I could almost . wish myself transported back to lona,
* See p. 82 et seq. ^ See pp. 107, 206. ^ See chapter i.

544 LEIGHTON AND MONASTICISM
and living amongst the presbyters of Columba their life
of piety and love." ' In other words, Leighton would have
retained some reformed religious houses as a help to the
work and life of the Reformed Church of Scotland.
While seeing in Popery " much of the wisdom that was
earthy, sensual and devilish," and little " of that wisdom that
was from above, and was pure and peaceable," Leighton,
according to Burnet, " did think the corruptions and cruelties
of Popery were such gross and odious things, that nothing
could have maintained that Church under those just and
visible prejudices but the several Orders among them that
had such an appearance of mortification and contempt of
the world : that with all the trash that was among them,
this maintained a face of piety and devotion. He also
thought the great and fatal error of the Reformation was, that
m.ore of those fiouses and of that course of life, free from the
entanglements of vows and other mixtures, was not preserved :
so that the Protestant churches had neithet places of education,
nor retreat for m,en of mortified tempers!' ^
His evident desire was to retain these houses as retreats
for prayer and meditation, and connect them with the work of
the Church. It is not unlikely that he was thinking of a
Reformed German monastery, like that at Loccum, near
Hanover, or of the religious house instituted at Little
Gidding by Nicholas Ferrar, the friend of George Herbert.
Ferrar founded it in 1626, and while he remained loyal to the
Church of England, thought that England in the fury of her
Protestantism had parted unnecessarily with some elements
of her old monastic life that might have been profitably
retained. Walton states that " many of the clergy, that were
more inclined to practical piety and fdevotion than to doubt
ful and needless disputations, did often come to Gidden Hall
and make themselves a part of this happy society, and stay a
' Works, vol. i. p. 565.
^ History of His Own Tinus, i. 246.

LEIGHTON AND MONASTICISM 545
week or more, and then join with Mr. Ferrar and the family
in these devotions and assist and ease him or them in their
watch by night" Some such house or houses like this
Leighton may have had in his mind as helpful accessories to
the life and work of the Church of Scoriand, but the main
source of his conviction was Port- Royal, the resort of Arnauld
and Pascal, who combined religious meditation with religious
service. In this respect, as in many others, he was as one
" born out of due time," and it is interesting to notice that
so earnest a Protestant as Professor Harnack has recently
pleaded for the same institution as Leighton desired in the
seventeenth century.'
" The Reformation abolished monasticism, and was bound to
abolish it. It rightly affirmed that to take a vow of life-long
asceticism was a piece of presumption ; and it rightly considered
that any worldly vocation, conscientiously followed in the sight of
God, was equal to, nay, was better than, being a monk. But some
thing now happened which Luther neither foresaw nor desired :
' Monasticism, of the kind that is conceivable and necessary in the evan
gelical sense of the word, disappeared altogether. But every community
stands in need of personalities living exclusively for its ends. The
Church, for instance, needs volunteers who will abandon every
other pursuit renounce ' the world,' and devote themselves entirely
to the service of their neighbour ; not because such a vocation is
' a higher one,' but because it is a necessary one, and because no
church can live without also giving rise to this desire. But in the
evangelical churches the desire has been checked by the decided
attitude which they have been compelled to adopt towards Cathoficism.
It is a high price we have paid : nor can the price be reduced by con
sidering, on the other hand, how much simple and unaffected religious
fervour has been kindled in home and family life. We may rejoice,
however, that in the past century a beginning has been made in the
direction of recouping this loss. In the institution of deaconesses
and many cognate phenomena the evangelical Churches are getting
back what they once ejected through their inabifity to recognize it
in the form which it then took. But it must undergo a much
ampler and more varied development." ^
' Cf. pp. 105-1 10. ^ What is Christianity ? pp. 287, 288,
A.L. 35

CHAPTER XVII
CONCLUSIONS
" The Apostolic ideal was set forth, and within a few generations
forgotten. The vision was only for a time and then vanished. A
strictly sacerdotal view of the ministry superseded the broader and
more spiritual conception of their priestly functions. From being the
representatives, the ambassadors of God, they came to be regarded
His vicars." — Lightfoot.
" Towards the end of the second century the organization of the
Christian congregations throughout the Roman empire, at least of all
the greater ones, was identical. At the head of each was the bishop,
whose function it was to conduct public worship, control the Church
funds and keep watch over the manners of his flock. The free prophets
and teachers having almost everywhere died out, the duty of religious
instruction and edification also fell to him. In conducting the worship
and in ministering to the wants of the poor, he was assisted by the
deacons as his subordinates. The presbyters formed a body, whose
business was that of advising the bishop. Of this college, he was the
president, and as such he was himself a presbyter, and conversely the
presbytery, inclusive of the bishop, formed the governing body of
the community. . In rank they were above the deacons, but below
the bishop, yet in such a way that the bishop could call them his
' co-presbyters.'"— Harnack.
IN previous chapters, notice has been taken of Leighton's
advocacy of a scheme for " uniting the faithful " within
a comprehensive national Church, but it is also well to recall
that it was first proposed by Archbishop Usher, and might
have been accepted by the Westminster Assembly but for
the revolutionary and aggressive attitude of the Solemn
League and Covenant, which all its members had to accept,
and the forcing of which on the Assembly led to Archbishop
Usher's withdrawal and with him much of the scholarship
and comprehensive thought of the day.
6i6

CONCLUSIONS 547
It was a basis of accommodation that, apart from Laud's
influence, was regarded as possessing the approval of
Charles I before his death : it was the basis on which
Cromwell in the latter days of the Commonwealth was
desirous to settle the differences between Episcopalians and
Presbyterians in England, while after the Restoration and
with it as an agreement, the English Presbyterians and many
of the Independents were willing to take their place and
claim their heritage within the Church of England itself
The ultimate assertion of the Divine right of Episcopacy,
with the consequent triumph of high Church principles,
prevented its realization in England, and ever since parties,
whose object it was to unite, have remained apart
Robert Leighton pleaded for its acceptance in Scotland
after the Restoration ; submitted to re-ordination and accepted
the office of a Bishop that he might more effectually bring
it about as a meeting-point for opposing parties, and endea
voured with a singularly sincere and disinterested spirit to
mediate between the people and the King on its behalf
But the forces against him were too many and too powerful,
and chief among them was the strong popular consciousness
which felt and regarded the order of Bishops, as instituted
by the King, to be inimical to religious and political liberty.
The sovereign was distrusted, his ministers were unscrupulous,
bishops were regarded as his tools or means in the realization
of his unworthy policy, and to have any conciliatory dealings
with them was regarded as a betrayal of the sacred cause of
liberty. Since the Reformation achieved by the genius of
John Knox, the Scottish nation had attained a consciousness of
itself which was not to be coerced, and the policy of James VI,
Charles I, Charles II and James VII was inimical to it. In
the struggles that followed, and which constitute one of the
most heroic chapters in Scottish history, Presbytery repre
sented the side of popular liberty, and its advocates must
be regarded as the true successors of Wallace and Bruce.

548 CONCLUSIONS
With a strong Calvinism as their inspiration or vis vivida of
action, and with a Presbyterian government as their goal, the
Covenanters, however intolerant they do appear when com
pared with the peace-loving and saintly Leighton, really
represented the consciousness of the nation for civil and
religious liberty, and thus the main stream of Scottish
history. They were like the Reformers of 1 560, the Evangelii
professores as well as the vindices libertatis, and that they were
so, constituted the Covenanting leaders, the tribunes of the
people. The triumph of Presbytery shows that no cause
can ultimately triumph that has not liberty as its ally and
its tributary, and the cause of the " prelates " in Scotland
moved not in harmony with this consciousness. Since the
days of " Tulchans " they had as a body lost public esteem,
were not regarded as the " vindices libertatis',' were associated
with kingly absolutism, while their restoration was suspected
as a veiled return to Roman Catholicism. To accept them
was popularly regarded as a surrender of liberty and Pro
testantism both, and no order could triumph in the Scotland
of the seventeenth century, with such a twofold consciousness
against it. Stronger even than the love of Presbytery in
the Scottish mind was the hatred of Roman Catholicism
and the triumph of Scottish Presbytery shows at least that
not in Scotland is Gibbon's assertion true, that the banner
of the Church has not been on the side of the people.
Whatever defects may be recognized in the Presbyterianism
of Scotland (and no other Church order is a finality or without
its imperfections) this at least must be conceded after a review
of the objective facts of Scottish history, that to Scottish Presby
terianism belongs the praise of first fighting and afterwards
winning the great battle of civil and religious liberty in the
dark and gloomy days of tyranny, and of handing on this
sacred heirloom to Great Britain, and, with Holland, even
to America at large. The pulse of patriotism, with its con
comitant liberty, beats strong within Scottish Presbytery,

CONCLUSIONS 549
while in allying itself with the aspirations of the Scottish
people it has built itself on adamantine pillars, and every
great movement from the Church of Scotland itself (during
the two subsequent centuries of its history) has accepted
Presbyterianism as the sine qiid non or the cum qud semper
of its activity. Scottish Presbytery has given, all throughout
its history, an unequivocal testimony to the facts that the
Church is not the creation of the State : that the State
cannot intrude into a region where it has no claim to be,
without arousing a violent opposition, which can create in its
very momentum a new Church. Yet, when the claims of
the Church as a spiritual organism are recognized by the
State, Scottish Presbytery has ever manifested itself as a
law-loving power, making for loyalty and order. Spiritual
independence within the Church is the keynote of the Scottish
Church, and the Establishment to-day in straining for more
liberty in relation to the interpretation of its creed, is raising
again the cry of spiritual independence within its own borders,
and is thereby true to its own past, in witnessing for the
spiritual liberty which becomes ultimately the basis of civil
liberty. Under the belief that spiritual independence is as
sured and enjoyed under the protection of the State, the
Church is again asserting it, and no accredited statesman
to-day would interfere with the spiritual functions and liber
ties of the Church of Scotland. But it was not so in the
seventeenth and subsequent centuries, and well is it that the
Covenanters did not bow the knee, for liberty was involved
in their resistance. They are the National Heroes, who main
tained the historical traditions of the country.
One thing is clear in Scotland from the Reformation down
wards (and it becomes specially clear in the days of Charles I
and Charles II), that the Church's ideas of its liberties and
powers in the established relationship with the State have
been widely different from the statesman's ideas, and the
conflicts of Church and State in the past have largely, if not

550 CONCLUSIONS
solely, risen from the conflict of these ideas. The General
Assembly was always regarded as "the palladium of the
Church's liberty," and every attempt to restore Episcopacy
by the State was associated with another, to silence the
voice or cripple the powers of the Assembly.' And so,
around the question of the powers of the Assembly, the
controversy between Church and State has generally centred
in Scotland. Leighton was ultimately willing or disposed to
grant an Assembly during his tenure of office at Glasgow,^
and was regarded by even Sharp as favourable to it, but
Lauderdale knew that such a concession would at once have
led to the "deposition of the prelates," and "the abolition of
the ceremonies," as well as the end of his regime. Hence
came his refusal, but hence came also the end of the
system which he propped. Episcopacy, even as advocated
by Leighton, (and his scheme was incomprehensible both
to Episcopalians and Presbyterians alike,) was regarded as
hostile to the Church's rights and the people's rights, and
hence resulted its rejection, even in modified form. No
' The Erskines were true to this spirit in appealing to the " first free,
faithful and reforming Assembly of the Church of Scotland," while for
over 167 years their descendants (the former U. P. Church) have
adhered to their appeal. Professor MacEwen, in his charming mono
graph on The Erskines, claims for them (and justly) that they set on
foot in Scotland a Church expressly evangelical, brought the doctrine of
the headship of Christ dear to Scotland since the Reformation, into
connexion with the modern claim for liberty of conscience : that in
their adherence to their Scottish past they have differentiated the non
conformity of Scotland from that of England : that their lives were
impregnated with an intense conscience and devotion to God without
reserve and that their movement kept secular ideas of liberty in subor
dination to religious law (pp. 154-160). All this is true, but the strength
of their movement lay in the fact that they were in touch with the
national conscience and the Scottish past since the days of Knox, whereas
Leighton, through the predominant meditative tendency of his nature,
lived so far apart that he failed to recognize the forces that were at work
on the side which opposed him. He was an Athanasius contra mundum-
^ See pp. 468 et seq.

CONCLUSIONS 551
saintly life and no catholic mind, however honoured, could
commend a system which the Scottish people had learned
to distrust from its connexion with the absolutism of the
Stuart Kings. Every advocate of it was regarded as an emis
sary of a distrusted monarch and as seeking to bring both
a nation, that had attained a mature consciousness of itself,
to political servitude, and a Church that had an impassioned
sense of its spiritual functions to become a department of the
State. Presbytery was an advocacy of the political independ
ence of the Scottish people and an assertion of the spiritual
independence of the Scottish Church, and so closely are
politics and religion associated in the seventeenth century,
that it is impossible to dissociate the one from the other.
Presbytery became triumphant because in Scotland it was
the mother of liberty ; it became allied with the national
conscience and so conquered. Its dominant spirit was
spiritual freedom, and the future is likely to see fresh
developments in this direction.
This ideal at the heart of Scottish Presbytery, united with
a strong hatred of Episcopacy as ultimately leading back
wards to the Roman Catholicism from which John Knox
had delivered the nation, were the two supreme causes that
led to the rejection of Leighton's scheme. Pie had guilelessly
associated himself (however far apart he always was in spirit)
with the King's party, and that for the Scottish Covenanters
was enough to doom all efforts towards conciliation. The
Church, they had resolved, was not to be a department of the
State, and the Scottish Church was to be free to develop on
its own lines and not to be shaped after any model from
England. Such was the unfortunate setting, amid which
Leighton's plan was placed, and the unfavourable environ
ment, which prevented its realization. And separating it now
from this setting and environment, there are several features
connected both with the personality of its advocate and with
the scheme of accommodation itself, that are worthy to be
noted

552 CONCLUSIONS
It is certain that apart from Charles II and Lauderdale, it
would have triumphed and would probably have been accepted
as the basis of Church government at the Revolution Settle
ment, even if it had not already been assimilated into Scottish
life before it It was the sinister influence of the King and
his ministers with the broken vows behind both, that led to
its rejection. But had this holy man been followed, had the
spiritual independence of the Church been assured, had the
conscience of the nation not revolted from what was instinc
tively felt to be behind any compliance with Charles II —
ecclesiastical Erastianism and political servitude — it is certain
that the Scottish Church would have been the most compre
hensive of institutions, and that Scotland would have been
saved from much of the strife that in subsequent centuries
has characterized its history. On the other hand, it is to be
recalled that while Leighton was placed, by the leading of his
own mind, in a fellowship that was unworthy of him, his
own character stands forth from amidst it all as unsoiled : his
sincerity is unquestionable : he never quenched within him
that light which shines brighter than the light of the sun. If
there is a fault against him (and there unquestionably is), it
was the fault of transparent guilelessness, of forming too high
a conception at the first of the parties with whom his circum
stances brought him into contact. " He was fighting the
battle of the Lord on the devil's side," and the men he
accepted as moral heroes, with whom he associated himself,
were singularly devoid of the qualities with which his saintly
mind surrounded them. But Leighton himself is all a piece
— free from time-serving, living ever in his Divine Task
master's eye, follower of the vision he saw on the Mount,
loyal to the eternity towards which his mind's eye ever
instinctively turned and in the light of which he ever viewed
things around and beneath. He may have been somewhat
blind to the cause the Covenanters represented, and to the
great historical forces that were at work in the time when he

CONCLUSIONS 553
lived : his solitariness and living apart from men, with whom
he did not sympathize, may account for his failure to grasp all
the trend of the situation : still, there is a sanity about his states
manship that cannot be gainsaid, and a practical grip of the
time as a great opportunity for the realization of the govern
ment, which he desired, that are worthy of all praise. He was
not the good party man who puts his mind into the common
stock, and he escaped the tendency of the party system that
tends to degrade intelligence. Probably he placed ideality as
well before the teaching of experience, and had less the sense
of what was happening than of what he desired to happen,
even in the light of impossible circumstances. Yet his pre
vailing ideality is lovely, and his scheme of government has
this imprimatur upon it, that it comes from a mind habitu-
alized to eternity and the atmosphere of God.
His personality is a strangely interesting and fascinating
one amid the times when he lived, and a man that shapes his
ideas on the eternal is one who has the future on his side.
The hereditary influence of his family, that gave brilliant
mediaeval Bishops and Abbots to the old Church of Scotland
may have done much in creating tendency, but the strangely
chequered career of his house must have humbled a character
naturally humble. His family represented much that was
best in Scottish tradition, and may have impressed him
with the idea, of carrying more of the past into the present,
than the spirit of his own period permitted or thought profit
able. Still looking beyond the immediate circumstances of
his father's career, it is not without interest to observe that
this comprehensive scheme of government, which aimed at
reconciling parties within one Church, and transcending dif
ferences in a higher unity, was advocated by a man at once
so pre-eminently religious and the end of a line that gave
worthy churchmen — the very best of their time — to the Church
of Scotland in the mediaeval period. They restored cathedrals,
and he, their successor in tradition, sought to unite a limited

554 CONCLUSIONS
Episcopacy with presbytery and to combine the cathedral ideal
with the parochial one. The eternal pity is, that the circumstances
of his day prevented its realization, while the hope is that
one born out of due time, as far as his own day was con
cerned, may yet be the leader of a larger day that is to be,
and the prophet of a brighter dawn. Apart from the un
favourable environment already referred to, let the following
features of his scheme per se be regarded :
(i) It rests more upon the prophetic than on the sacerdotal
view of the ministry. The minister was to him only priest
in so far as he was prophet, or only priest in so far as that
term can be applied to all Christian men. He was one
who lived in the eternal, to bring the eternal nearer time,
and only capable of doing so in so far as he communed
with God. In other words, the power of the Christian
ministry was to Leighton's mind not conferred by ordination,
but by spiritual discipline, meditation, prayer, study of the
Scriptures and prayer. The power of the evangel, faithfully
interpreted, was the weapon of the Ministry, and he rested
it not on institutional forms, but on divine realities. Piety,
experience of God, realization of the great and absolute
principles of religion — these, and not any ordination grace,
constituted to his mind the vis vivida of the Christian
ministry. (2) He attached no divine right to any form of government
and could serve under any that was not contrary to the
Scripture, nor to the example of the primitive Church. The
Church to him rested on divine realities and not on institu
tional forms, and he could say, with Dr. Whyte : " Neither
Moscow, nor Rome, nor Geneva, nor Canterbury is the One
Fold of Christ to me. . . . The Good Shepherd, who gave
His life for the sheep, has much sheep of His in all these
partial folds, and much sheep of His outside them all, neither
shall any man pluck them out of His hand." ' He would
' Newman, pp. 56, 57.

CONCLUSIONS 555
never call Scotland " Samaria " and its reformers and saints
" a self-formed ministry," that had lost the grace that seals
" the holy apostolic line," because Scotland had not seen it
fit to accept at its great Reformation a three-fold order — and
the Church of Scotland, even when " Episcopal," never had
the three-fold ministry.' His mind was too grand for such
narrowness, for it rested the Church on the Divine doctrine
of grace, and of faith in the living God as nigh to all souls in
every communion, that called upon Him. He saw that God
fulfils Himself in many ways, and that the channels of grace
are as wide and as direct as the Eternal Love. He desired a
moderate Episcopacy, working in harmony with Presbytery
and subordinate to the Synods, as neccesary to the well-being
of the Church, but not to its being: he thoiight Presbytery
could be improved thereby, and his action was the outcome
of his vision. While regarding it as democratic in its essential
and root constitution, he desired to make it more oligarchic in
its central organization, and to adjust the latter to the former.
But he never called the outer shell the real thing, nor regarded
the inner kernel as of minor importance. Resemblance to
the Lord, abundance of Christian knowledge, possession in
the spirit of the Divine Spirit, constituted to his mind the
true Church, as they did the true minister of Christ Pie
would say, with Bishop Ewing, " a true ministry makes a
true Church, and a true ministry is likeness unto Christ
Looking on that image with discriminating reverence,
we cannot call it Roman, Episcopalian, Presbyterian,
still less monastic, papal, metropolitan. Is not the Church
that which remains when these things drop off ? In a true
ministry we find a true Church." ^ The official to him never
overshadowed the spiritual, and he never doubted, that
when the hierarchy departed from the heavenly, it ceased to
be a spiritual power in time. Church government was to
'Pp. 113, 114, chap. vii. ; also 351 et seq.
'^ Present Day Tracts, Second Series, p. 58.

556 CONCLUSIONS
him to be judged by the order it tended towards, and that
was the best, which had so vindicated itself in human ex
perience or history. The doctrine of parity again was not
inconsistent with an inter pares impar, or with a primus inter
pares. And so judging from the ground of history and practi
cal efficiency, and with the well-being of the Church supremely
in view, Leighton thought a gap could be filled, a service
rendered, as well as discords annulled, by combining with
Presbytery a limited Episcopacy, by taking both systems
back to primitive times and viewing them in the unity,
which both then realized. He regarded each as parts of a
severed whole, and each as supplying that, which the other
lacked. His bishop was not the mediaeval but the primitive
one, guiding the Church with the advice of the presbyters,
and in co-operation with them. And he thought that if
parties were centred on the inwards of religion, there ought
to be no scruples in accepting such a government as would
conserve all that was best in either system, as would unite
the faithful on the ground of piety, concession, and the
absence of claims on either side that would injure the feelings
of the other. That he contended for such a form of govern
ment, constitutes his unique position in Scottish history
during the seventeenth century. No one knew better that
Presbytery in its known form at that time would not have
existed but for the hard battles it had to fight, but for
the excesses it witnessed against as well. He saw that
it was a reaction against former abuses, as well as a dread
of recurring ones ; but he also saw, and no one more
clearly, that there were weaknesses in the Presbyterian
system from the disuse of Episcopacy. Yet while regarding
some form of Episcopacy " as coming down from the
primitive times in constant succession in this ' (Church of
' This statement of Leighton's corresponds with the statement of the
late Principal Tulloch : " I am one of those who recognize that Epis
copacy has a certain historic root in Scotland."

CONCLUSIONS 557
Scotland) and other Churches," it is impossible to study
his writings and not feel that he could say with Principal
Caird, " I do not believe there is to be found in the Bible
any prescribed and definite Church polity : but that while
the great truths upon which the existence of the Church
is based are immutable and everlasting, the arrangements
of government and discipline, under which these truths are
propagated and professed, have been by the great Head
of the Church left indeterminate and flexible." '
(3) To achieve the comprehensive idea of a Church, and
to make himself an efficient agent between the Episcopalians
and Presbyterians in realizing it, Leighton submitted to re-
ordination. But it was only not to disqualify himself in the
sight of one of the Church parties concerned. Leighton
never regarded his Presbyterian ordination as invalid,^ nor
did he regard his Episcopal ordination as adding any new
power to it. It was a necessity of his new situation, an
authorized acknowledgment to work in accordance with a
new Church polity. Many regarded this as the error of his
career, but to Leighton's mind it was a matter of very
secondary importance, a form to be accepted without any
conscience-difficulty, after his declaration was made in
relation to it.^ He had desired to be a mediator between
parties, and to do so efficiently he submitted himself to the
demands of one of them ; and if he might do good thereby,
he grudged not the self-effacement. But this is certain, that
he never sought, far less claimed, to re-ordain his Presbyterian
clergy, and the Records show that not one of the Presby
terians was re-ordained in the diocese of Dunblane. The
Bishop's mind was too fixed on the Divine realities to
attach importance to any such secondary matters. He was
too great a Christian to unchurch any Church that served
the Lord Jesus Christ. ' Good Words, July, 1863, p. 344.
^ See p. 332. ^ Ibid.

558 CONCLUSIONS
(4) His own example as Bishop of Dunblane, and after
wards as Archbishop of Glasgow, shows how consistent his
action was with his creed. His Episcopacy was founded on
no divine right theory, but solely on that of practical utility.
In his dioceses Presbytery remained as before : there was no
attempt towards a three-fold order, and the only change was
in the case of the parish ministers of Dunblane and Glasgow,
who, as ministers of the cathedral parish churches, were named
" deans." Presbytery exercised all its functions, as it does to
day, and at the Presbytery meeting, the Bishop, when present,
is mentioned in the sederunt as a presbyter, distinct from the
president of the Presbytery, who is styled " Moderator." '
The Presbytery examined students for licence, and when a
probationer was ordained to a charge within the Presbytery
and came from another Presbytery, he brought a certificate
from the Presbytery which he left, not from the bishop of
the diocese in which his Presbytery was.^
Leighton presided at the half-yearly meeting of the Synod,
and gave his charge, but he never interfered with the
autonomy of the Presbyteries included in the Synod. He
exercised no right of confirmation, but went about the
parishes preaching and advising where difficulties presented
themselves. Tlien as now catechmnens were instructed and
prepared for Communion by the parish minister and admitted
into Church-membership by the authority of the minister and
elders, or seniores populi as they were called.
Leighton took no exclusive part in ordination, but joined
with the Presbytery, who then as now ordained by the
laying on of 'hands. The extracts from the Records^ put
this point beyond any doubt To all intents and purposes,
and apart from the name " bishop," by which he was justly
designated, Leighton is as one of John Knox's superintendents ;
and had he been, as they were, appointed by the General Assembly
and accountable to the Assembly, he would have been one of
' Cf pp. 496-7 and Appendix, pp. 578-581. ^ P. 579. ^ P. 581.

CONCLUSIONS 559
them in every detail of Knox^s own ideal. Pie thus recalled
the finest days of Scottish Presbytery, before it departed
from its early form under the stress of circumstances, and
under the shaping influence of Andrew Melville. The
Dunblane and Glasgow Records bring him before us as a
primitive bishop, and not as a mediaeval one, and revealing
the graces of the Apostolic life, for which Burnet justly
praises him. He renounced and always disclaimed the title of
" lord',' ' and as far as historical evidence now presents itself
only once signed himself in a letter " R. Dunblane," and that
a petition presented to Lauderdale from the Scottish bishops,
when not to have done so after the manner of the other
bishops would have been to claim a singularity that was too
conspicuous in an official document for his modesty.* In
this respect he declined to make himself offensive to his
fellow-presbyters and clung to that pre-eminently spiritual
conception of the ministry,^ for which the Church of Scotland
has always witnessed. Like Frederick Maurice, he had come
to love some form of episcopacy as expressing the fatherly
and catholic character of the Church, and like him believed
that when it is lost the Church has the tendency to become
hard, narrow or formal,* but he never loved it in a way that
was incompatible with the inherent rights of Presbytery, and
offensive to its historical position in Scotland. As a bishop,
he presented Episcopacy in a form that was determined by,
and harmonious with, the humility of his own character ; that
was consonant with the history and strivings of the Presby
terian system under which he was educated, and of the best
culture of which he was a lovely expression. He did not
' And this, even when the Scottish Bishops had civil offices under the
Crown. ^ See p. 417.
^ The late Bishop Wordsworth always censured the assumption of the
tide " Lord Bishop " by the prelates of the Scottish Episcopal Church,
and always signed himself " Charles Wordsw;orth, Bp." (Knight's Some
Nineteenth Century Scotsmen, p. 299).
* Life of Maurice, vol. i. p. 524.

56o CONCLUSIONS
arrogate to himself a power nor assume a pomp, that were
distasteful to the worthy men, who were pronounced Presby
terians by the situation in which they were placed ; he did
not question their status as ministers of the Church of Christ
nor call in question the validity of their ordination. The
Christ-likeness of his action is transparent, and he was
too Christian, his eyes were too firmly fixed on the things
that are invisible, to attach any importance, or give an undue
proportion, to things that are secondary. " To unite the
faithful " was his sole aim : he never said, far less believed,
that there was " no Church but mine," and he never failed to
distinguish between the Church and the Kingdom of God,
which includes and transcends all Churches.
(5) His idea of the bishop was a primitive one. Under the
stress of the time the Covenanters would only accept the
term in the sense in which it could be applied to " the pastor
of a particular congregation." ' The bishop of Ignatius, who
was congregational and not diocesan, was their ideal : " one
altar, one bishop," or rather " one presbyter," was their goal.
Leighton went a little further, and apart from name, his
bishop was no other than Knox's superintendent. He set
aside all that was mediaeval, and returned to the primitive
condition of things : he was not a prelate : he governed with
the presbyters and deprived the presbyters of no powers
which they had inherited before his arrival : he was only there
to advise in difficulties, solve discords, settle disputes, and
exercise a healing influence in his diocese. Of course all
this depended upon the personality of the man who was the
bishop ; and if Leighton's type could be assured in its con
tinuance, his presence would be a blessing to any Synod.
But the difficulty then, as always, is that the personal
equation has no necessary continuance in others, and human
nature enters into and mars the ideal. It is always true
that as men are their work is, and Leighton never separated
' Peterkin's Records of Assembly, circa 1638.

CONCLUSIONS 56 T
the Church from the Saviour, but regarded it as a witness
to interpret His Divine Life in gracious action towards men.
(6) Apart from his strange associates Leighton was regarded
as betraying the cause in departing from the stern Presby
terianism of his father. But such a change is neither incon
sistent with genuine Protestantism nor with scientific theology
Both believe that no order is a finality in spiritual things and
that a man is entitled to change if he does so from sincere
loyalty to a wider experience, to a larger vision, to a more
comprehensive knowledge, to a genuine desire to improve that
which he loves. And in Leighton's time, as well as in that
preceding it, such changes were often sincere and necessary,
and were made by progressive minds. The great William the
Silent was born and baptized a Lutheran, was bred a Catho
lic, professed again the Lutheran faith in middle life, and
joined at forty years of age the Calvinist Church. He
united himself with that community, wherein he saw the
cause of religious and civil liberty to be best conserved, and
which worked best for both. To that community he held
with perfect loyalty and unswerving moderation, while his
prevailing idea in religion was to get rid of all persecution,
and tolerate different forms of worship side by side.' Milton
again, and on the same ground, passed through, in the course
of twenty years, the stages of Churchman, Puritan, Presby
terian, Royalist, Independent, Commonwealth's man, Olive-
rian,* and these phases were not the acquiescence of a place
man, nor of an indifferentist, far less were they the changes
of a party or of opinion. They were, as Pattison puts it, the
genuine development of Puritan England repeated in an
individual, and to Milton as to Cromwell, forms, whether of
worship or of government, were but means to an end, and
might be, or rather were to be, changed whenever duty
required. This is genuine Protestantism, and what was felt
' Life of William the Silent, hy Frederick Harrison, pp. 153, 155.
^ Life of Milton, by Mark Pattison, p. 121.
A.L. 36

562 CONCLUSIONS
necessary by such men, when new leading suggested itself
cannot be denied to Leighton, as he studied other fellowships
different from his own, visited other forms of communion
and saw in them what he sincerely felt would better his own.
His change was on the line of genuine development, and did
not contradict his past, but carried it forward, in its best if its
mildest aspects, to a larger form. It was a change in fact that
brought Presbytery back from the extreme forms, which it had
assumed as a reaction against High Churchism under Andrew
Melville, to the fairer and more genial ideal of Knox.
(7) But in defence of his position, Leighton (as his papers
on the subject clearly indicate) maintained that his position
was not inconsistent with the Westminster /^r j^. In other
words he maintained a limited form of Episcopacy as a
development from his own Scottish root, as an indigenous
and not an exotic plant. This point is worthy of enlarged
notice, and it was one of his strongest defences. As a his
torical perspective it is at least well to recall it.
It is said that the Church of Scotland is sworn " to the
extirpation of prelacy or church government by archbishops,
bishops, etc." But Leighton was too well informed from the
first not to know that this avowal is no part of the Confes
sion of Faith, but is extracted from the Solemn League and
Covenant, commonly bound up in the same volume with the
Confession. In fact it was noticed by the keen eyes of the
Scottish Presbyterians, that the Confession of Faith contained
not one word of those doctrines which are the very marrow
of the Solemn League and Covenant, as well as the very
essence of Scottish Presbyterianism in the seventeenth century
after 1643. As Dean Stanley put it, "the English Statesmen
had been too much even for the canny Scotsmen." ' While
the Scottish commissioners were set on having their forms
of Presbytery recognized in England, they omitted to obtain
' Macmillan's Magazine (1881), p. 290.

CONCLUSIONS 563
that guarantee for it in the Confession, which alone could have
made it of perpetual obligation. Baillie adds, " We have been
in a pitiful labyrinth these twelve days about ruling elders
— we yet stick into it." ' In the 2Sth chapter of the
Westminster, which alone bears on the subject, there is
not one word to indicate that Episcopacy iu Leighton's
form of it is unlawful, and not one word to indicate that
Presbytery is the only lawful or only desirable government.
It declares that " particular Churches are more or less pure
according as the doctrine of the Gospel is taught and
embraced, ordinances administered, and public worship per
formed more or less purely in them." As there is nothing
in the Confession of Faith against Episcopacy so there is
no legal obligation laid upon the clergy of the Church
of Scotland to hold Presbytery as of exclusive divine origin.
The Westminster is on this point the very essence of tolera
tion, and is the very reverse of those precise and exclusive
doctrines which most of the Scottish commissioners held on the
subject. Dean Stanley has said : " The English Thirty-Nine
Articles on the whole are elevated by the same lofty adia-
phorism as that which penetrated the Westminster Con
fession, but the Preface to the Ordination Service contains
expressions which dangerously trench on the exclusive privi
leges of Episcopacy in a way in which no similar expressions
can be alleged in the doctrine of the Scottish Church with
respect to Presbytery." ^ Principal Tulloch has said : " Be
twixt the Thirty-Nine Articles and the Confession of Faith
there is no substantial difference, although the former may
have followed more the Lutheran as the latter have followed
more the Calvinistic type of doctrine." ^ The Church of
England, as judged by her highest minds, and the Church
of Scotland as interpreted by her Confession, maintained

iii. 125. ^ Macmillan's Magazine, p. 291.
Contemporary Review (1881), p. 236.

564 CONCLUSIONS
the truly Catholic theory of the Church, as constituted by
Divine realities and not by institutional forms — as resting
not on formal prescription but on the higher principles of tlie
Divine law, interpreted by nature and history. Only thus to
Hooker did Episcopacy appear to possess any divine right,
and even Keble is forced to admit that the Elizabethan
divines are content " to show that the government by arch
bishops and bishops is ancient and allowable," and " never
venture to urge its exclusive claim or to connect the succession
with the validity of the Holy Sacrament" The clergy of
the Church of England are nowhere bound to the recognition
of the three-fold order as a necessary dogma of belief by the
Thirty-Nine Articles, and in the Westminster the idea of the
Church is held forth as purely spiritual and not ritualistic.
Ubi Spiritus Dei, ibi Ecclesia, is in effect the statement of both.
Now it is only fair to Leighton that this point, especially
as it relates to the Church of Scotland, should be pointed out
He was called disloyal and " jesuitized," while in fact his pro
posal was in no wise contrary to the Westminster nor to
Presbytery, which it sought to evolve into a higher form.
Leighton was true to the best traditions of his Church, and at
heart his aim was to lead Presbytery back from the form it
had assumed under the hand of Andrew Melville to the form
it originally had from the hand of Knox. Presbyterianism
does not disown nor denounce Episcopacy, and some form
of the latter seems necessary, if not implied, in it ; and just
as one finds Episcopacy truly defended as a useful fact
generated by the historical necessities of the Church and not
as a divine fact limiting all other rights in the Church, so it
is necessary to distinguish between Presbytery, defended
by its ardent upholders in the seventeenth century as an
eternal pillar in the temple, and stated in the Westminster,
which lays no legal obligation upon the clergy to hold it as of
exclusive Divine origin. Leighton's vision was open to this
fact, and he was one of those who saw weakness in the Pres-

CONCLUSIONS 565
byterian system, arising from the disuse of Episcopacy. It
was of the type of mind which Leighton embodied that
Principal Tulloch wrote : " In the Church of Scotland this
natural and practical form of Episcopacy (as opposed to the
divine right theory) has been recognized. Its early order
of superintendents was nothing else than this, and its prac
tice, of appointing commissioners to visit parishes and com
mittees to supervise Church work, shows that the mere idea
of oversight is not inconsistent with its ecclesiastical system,
although its operation is naturally watched with jealousy.
From the beginning, in fact, there has been in the Scotch
Church a party, not only not inimical to Episcopacy in this
sense, but strongly in favour of it — a party of whom Leighton
may be said to be the most distinguished representative." '
Regarding Episcopacy and Presbytery as equally allowable
and as equally justifiable by Scripture,^ Leighton's aim was
to engraft both in a system of mutual concession, which,
while preserving all that was best in each, took away from the
one any jus divinum ^ that could not be applied to the other.
He saw in each the element of growth, and probably also
' Contemporary Review (i88i), p. 236.
^ Superintendence is exercised by the Presbyteries to-day, either
by schedule queries, or by Presbytery visitation, or by Presbytery
delegates. But the desire for a personal superintendent of weight and
wisdom to advise, help and encourage in spiritual work is widely felt.
Professor Herkless pleaded for this at the Church Conference in 1899
{Report, pp. 39, 40), while Principal Stoi-y also advocates it (Preface to
History of the Church of Scotland, i. xxvi.).
' In his controversy with Archbishop Usher on Prelatical Episcopacy,
John Milton shut out antiquity as evidence in the case. Usher had
incautiously included the Ignatian Epistles in his argument, and Milton
questioned their authenticity. This led to Usher's re-examination of
them, and the result was edition (1644), in which he acknowledged the
total spuriousness of nine epistles and the partial interpolation of
other six.
Milton's argument amounted to this. Episcopacy is either of human
or divine origin. If of Divine origin, it must be so shown from Scripture
(which is impossible). If of human origin, it may be retained or abolished
as may be found expedient.

566 CONCLUSIONS
as clearly as Edwin Hatch' that the elements of which
Church organizations are composed, were already existing
in human society ; that the author of the one is the author of
the other, and that any jus divinum claimed by the eccle
siastical can be as justifiably claimed by the civil. He saw,
too, that this diminishes the controversies which have sepa
rated one community of Christians from another ; that God
acts in the realm of grace, as in the realm of nature, by
the mediation of general but far-reaching laws ; that the
fact of that operation and the mode of it are not to be con
fused ; that for the preservation of historical continuity more
than for the preservation of historical form we have to contend ;
that each generation may revise and reform the past, but
cannot bring it back. It is very interesting to notice how
much Leighton's scheme anticipated the investigations of
scholars like Hatch and Harnack,* who have both attained
the same results in their study of the historical process, and
how much he anticipated the investigations of a later age.
Yet this proves more effectually the sajiity of his scheme.
Leighton saw nothing in the Westminster per se to prevent
the realization of his combined idea, while he tried to persuade
the Covenanters to accept it, since by the Covenant they were
' Organization of Early Christian Church, pp. 215, 216.
^ Hatch studied the influence of the Church on its historical conditions
and the re-action of the historical conditions upon the Church. His
work is at once Catholic in spirit and historical in method : it was hailed
by Continental scholars, and Harnack, in his introduction to his German
edition of it admitted that the results of his researches are identical with
Hatch's. Hatch pointed out in his Bampton Lectures, p. 84 {a) that the tendency
towards the institution of a president was almost, if not altogether,
universal ; {b) that this necessity led to a centralized administration — a
chairman of the governing body (p. 87) ; (.:) that the Bishop came to be
regarded as the unity of doctrine and discipline, and that about the time
of the great Latin theologians of the fifth century it began to be argued
that they had succeeded not only to the seats which the Apostles had
filled, but to the powers which the Apostles possessed (pp. 90, 108).
The Episcopate is thus the outcome of a historical process, the evolution
of which can be traced.

CONCLUSIONS 567
only pledged to the uprooting oS. Prelacy, not of modified Episco
pacy, in the form of a Bishop as superintendent or perpetual
moderator of Synod. He desired the Church to expand on
its own lines, to develop on its own Scotch roots, to make
more lovely its own historic past, to be true to the earlier idea
of Knox and the Reformers. But his appeals only alienated
both Episcopalians and Presbyterians alike — the former be
cause his theory and example deprived the Bishop of that
which they regarded as his legitimate powers in ordination and
confirmation, and the latter because Episcopacy in any form,
by its connexion with the King, involved Erastianism for the
Church, as well as a betrayal of the sacred cause of civil and
religious liberty. Leighton was as much deserted by his own
friends as his Accommodation was rejected by the Presby
terians, and as far as the latter are concerned, McWard's
Paper was their manifesto,' and it reads like a Non- Intrusion
Pamphlet, which could almost have been written during the
ten years' conflict.
Richard Cameron, who lived " praying and preaching, and
died praying and fighting," is the true hero of the period,
and yet no one will deny that although Robert Leighton's
influence told little on the sphere of church-life during his
day, he is yet a hero and a saint, and is probably yet
awaiting a time of even wider influence. After days have
been benefited and helped by his piety : improvements in
church-worship have followed on the lines he indicated in
the seventeenth century : who can deny that his compre
hensive scheme of church-government may yet win the near
future ? or that he may yet be recognized as a statesman,
who suffered from the side to which he was led, and whose
programme, apart from its unfortunate historical environment,
can become a rallying-point of unity on honourable and
conciliatory terms for all parties, and that his name, rejected
by their predecessors, may yet be accepted by the Presby -
' Seepp. 4St 452.

568 CONCLUSIONS
terians and Episcopalians alike as their guiding-star amid
the problems that are to press for solution in the near
future, if Protestantism is to become a united force ?
Dollinger proposed a movement in Germany for the
reunion of Christendom, and the basis of conciliation was
to be Holy Scripture, with the three Oecumenical Creeds
interpreted by the still undivided Church of the early cen
turies. An international society of the noblest and most
beneficial kind was thus to be formed, and beginning as a
snowball, it might well become an irresistible avalanche.
The aim was noble, and Dr. Dollinger advocated it by
insisting on two great points : (a) the monstrous anomaly of
the existing state of division in the Christian Church, and
(b) the extravagant and absurd significance of the greater
part of the causes of disunion and separation. Every
Christian will wish success to such a union and utter the
prayer that it may yet be achieved, for an international
religious union, while lovely in itself, would help to solve
difficult international problems. This may be the far-off
goal in the distant future, and Europe may yet see a United
Reformed Catholic Church. But the stepping-stone to it
may be the unity of each type of disunited Protestantism
in each country, even as at the Reformation each country
had a united Reformed Church. Unity is the marching
word of the future, and Leighton's message to Scotland is
peculiarly helpful. In all likelihood, Presbyterianism will
before long strive to re-unite its broken ranks, and it is
called to do so, for Presbyterianism has, historically speaking,
allied itself with the sense of Scottish nationality and freedom,
while not less than eighty per cent, of the Scottish people
are connected with it. The history of its secessions proves
that those who separated on the conscientious ground of
spiritual independence never rejected the Westminster Creed,
nor altered the Presbyterian form of government, while they
claimed the same traditions by not separating from the true

CONCLUSIONS 569
Church of Scotland, but only from the defections and back
sliding from the original testimony as such appeared to them.
Scotland has already seen a great reconstruction, which is the
promise and prophecy of a still greater one between the
present Church of Scotland and the United Free Church of
Scotland. Both are historically akin ; both are separated by
small differences now, and when the Oecumenical Council
from both Churches meets to solve the difficulties that are
in the way, Leighton's scheme may suggest at least the pos
sibility of restoring Knox's Superintendent, with or without
the name of Bishop ; of creating for the work of the large
city parishes clergy-houses and deaconess-homes, with student
residences for the University centres, and institutes like Oxford
House, London, for redemptive work in the darker parts of our
big towns. All this is in harmony with his idea of having some
thing in Protestantism, but without vows, to correspond to the
religious houses, connected with the mediaeval Orders.
As to union between Presbytery and Churches episcopally
constituted, the problem is not so easy, for union on the
terms that Presbytery could honourably accept, would not
be such as the Episcopal Churches in their present temper
would grant, without changing their constitutions, and con
stitutions must grow, and cannot be manufactured. One
thing is certain, that Scottish Presbytery, which has been the
mother of freedom, and has helped most potently to mould
free institutions among the English-speaking races of the
world ; which has made the Scottish people as we know
them, and has been visibly blessed by God in its work and
testimony, in its saints and prophets — should not be compared,
in however well-meaning a manner, to a fourth century sect
like the Donatists,' or that proposals carried at a Church
Council in 393 A.D. should be brought forward as a precedent
for treating the Church of Scotland at a Conference of
Bishops.^ There ought to be no difficulty with the " orders "
' Episcopate of Charles Wordsworth, pp. 253, 254. ^ Ibid.

570 CONCLUSIONS
of a Church that God has so visibly blessed ; neither is it
intelligible to a Presbyterian, who loves his Church and knows
its great history, that preachers whose words have stirred
the soul, and pastors whose holy lives have helped to shape
the character of those who venerate them for their influence
and revere them for their worth, should have their status as
ministers of Christ even questioned, or the validity of their
sacraments doubted, because they have not been ordained
by a Bishop. The Lambeth decision calling for unity, dis
tinguished between " Churches of the Anglican communion "
and other " bodies." If that expression was due to inadver
tence, it ought to be rectified, for, as Professor Charteris said,
and voiced the feeling of the Church by his words, " The
Church of Scotland could have no Church unity with those
who denied that it was a Church." ' Without a full acknow
ledgment and declaration on such a point (and it is the
crux of the question) no union could be contemplated
between Scottish Presbytery representing 80 per cent, of the
population, and the main stream of Scottish history and
Scottish Episcopacy representing only 2-95. The idea
assumes a ludicrous form, since Scottish Presbytery in the
Colonies and America has become a world-force, and Scot
land is its early home. On any high Church theory of
Episcopal ordination, union with Presbytery is impossible,
for on such ground the systems will not blend ; and if Scot
land were to accept such a form of Episcopacy, the history
of the country would require to be written anew and the
national ideals reversed. Union must not be the absorption
of Presbytery in Episcopacy : * it must be the meeting of
elective affinity, of honourable recognition, founded upon the
Spirit of the Galilean, and of self-sacrifice for the good of
His Eternal Kingdom.
Bishop Wordsworth, during his honoured lifetime in
' Church of Scotland Congress at Aberdeen, October 10, 1901.
^ See Dr. Cunningham's Lee Lecture for 1887.

CONCLUSIONS 571
Scotland, advocated in touching appeals union between the
Church of Scotland and the Episcopal Church in Scotland.
But it is singular to observe that, great and good as he was,
there is no declaration in his statement of terms ' regarding
the Episcopal claims to ordain and confirm.
These are points on which Presbytery could not retrench
without compromising the ideal of the ministry on which it
rests. Presbytery admits degrees in office, but not difference
of kind, and its idea of bishop is that of " pastor of a particular
congregation." It is not alien to a superintendent, but it
could not delegate the exclusive power of ordination to a
Bishop without the Presbytery, as an accredited Court of
Christ's Church, ceasing to be ; neither could it delegate the
act of confirmation to the Bishop without interfering with
the spiritual jurisdiction of the Kirk-Session and of the
minister who admits communicants into the Communion
of the Church in the presence of the congregation, and after
a resolution of Kirk-Session. To surrender these two points
would be for Presbytery to annihilate itself in the act, and
these are the two points on which Bishop Wordsworth said
nothing, and these are the points on which something needed
to be said.
Apart from the inevitable Erastianism of Leighton's posi
tion,' (from its historical environment), and apart from
' Bishop Wordsworth thus states them : " When the time shall arrive
for such a reconciliation as that which I have advocated, there will be
nothing to prevent the continuance of that system, (i) Kirk Sessions
will remain as corresponding to our Vestries. (2) Presbyteries will
remain, as corresponding to Rural Deaneries, not yet revived among
ourselves, from the scantiness of our numbers, but revived in England.
(3) Synods will remain as corresponding to our Diocesan Synods_
(4) Above all the General Assembly will remain, only with Bishops con
stituting an Upper Chamber, and having the control of judicial processes,
There is nothing in such a system to stand in the way of intercommunion
with the Church of England, with the Irish Church, with the American
Church, and with the Anglican Churches throughout the world." {Appeals
in Behalf of Christian Unity, vol. ii. p. 466.)
^ See p. 491.

572 CONCLUSIONS
another weakness in the system that lay-elders were not
admitted as members of the Synods,' it is certain that
Leighton never interferred with the jurisdiction of the
Kirk-Session in the parish, and it is equally certain from
the account of the ordination at Port of Menteith, ex
tracted from the Presbytery Records,* that he did not ordain
alone, but witli the Presbytery, who laid on the probationer
their hands, as is done still. Leighton's example is thus
unique, and his scheme proposes the only possible solution of
the question : it is " low-church " : it is founded upon the full
recognition of Presbytery as a Church and of Presbyterian
orders, as well as on the recognition of Presbyterian sacra
ments : had Leighton but been able to admit lay-elders into
the Church Courts (and on this point the difficulty would not
be on his side, but on that of his colleagues), everything in
Presbytery would have been retained in his diocese, with an
Episcopal superintendence added in a very mild, if not solely
in an advisory, form. Yet McWard stated one of the chief
objections to it when he wrote, " The Accommodation utterly
disowns and cuts off the ruling elder," while the whole con
cession was founded (unfortunately for Leighton) "on the
all-swaying prerogative of the King." ^ Leighton at least
did all he could by way of limiting his own prerogatives, and
would have conceded further if he could, but he was pre
vented from doing so by his Episcopal colleagues. Yet it is
interesting to find one, who declared himself " an Episco
palian " and who filled the office of a Bishop, making con
cessions as he did, and no one can doubt that he did so,
because his spirit was so intensely Christian, and because
his mind distinguished between the permanent and the
contingent in the Christian Church, and never lost its sense
of proportion.
The scheme he advocated bears henceforth the glory of
' Also from the historical environment p. 353.
^ See Appendix, p. 581. ^ Pp. 451, 452.

CONCLUSIONS 573
having his honoured name connected with it, as well as
those of Archbishop Usher and Richard Baxter. In the future
it is certain to be much considered, and it stands forth as
an example of the Christian spirit creating a proposal to
unite two systems, which many think are incapable of being
united. But it is something to have had this proposal pro
ceeding from such good and honoured men. The beacon
lights are not yet burned out, nor has the need for separate
organization in the evolution of the religious society passed
from the minds of men, while each part has a contribution
to make towards the richness of the whole. Some day
forces that now run parallel may work themselves out, and
the desire for unity may overpoweringly break down barrier
walls presently immoveable ; then indeed the fresh study of
this proposal of Usher, Leighton and Baxter may be helpful
to the Church, and may become the guiding principle of a
new development In the meantime the invisible and spiritual
unity of all the Churches may be more abundantly realized :
it can pass more and more into mutual helpfulness and at
last into visible unity. Verily the Day of the Lord will come,
and none can stay it Duty is ours, but results are God's.
Manus ad clavum : oculus at caelum.
Scottish history may be stormy and the course of the
Church of Scotland ' may seem chequered. They are rugged,
but gratidly heroic. Reformation, Restoration, Revolution,
Disruption, only express its visible history of the latter, but
the grace beneath it all — the Divine life in the Church— has
created saints, inspired prophets, has moulded Scottish life
and character as well as the Scottish nation, and its full
record is written in the Book of Life above. While then we
lovingly part with Leighton and admire his toleration in an
age when toleration was unknown, or regard him as a
leader whose day is yet to come, let us be grateful that the
Covenanters saw into the heart of the historical situarion,
' Wordsworth's Life, p. 228.

574 CONCLUSIONS
resisted a tyranny, stood up for religious and civil liberty, and
witnessed even with their blood for the Crown Rights of
Christ. That great act of loyalty to the spiritual principles
of the Christian Church made Scotland, and although stern
to the view that does not pierce deep enough, the Coven
anters are in heart and action heroes.
The Church of Scotland was made in the storm, and while
we admire Leighton, it is well to treasure within us the spirit
that beat within the Covenanter's breast It penetrated
Scottish religion with a grand overmastering sense of con
science and of God in Conscience, which have made Scottish
religious history unique and a contribution to the world's
life.

APPENDIX A

Extracts from Dunblane Presbytery Records, with an account of an
Ordination Service in which Bishop Leighton and the Presbytery
conjointly take part. 6 January, 1663.
p , p The quhilk day, thair was ane lettere of the Bishop's
Dunblane reade of the dait I Ith 10 {[December], which occasioned
1652-71, the melting desyreing the brethreine to meite at Dun-
P-. 179- blane first Tuysday Januarj in respect thair was no
hisTettere rneiting since the synod ; and the breithreine present
considdering the said lettere quhilk did beare that the
bischope would either write or be present himselfe, and in his absence
Mr. Thomas Lyndsay the deane didjdelyver ane other lettere of the daite
31 10''"^ [i.e. December] quhairin Mr. Johne Edmonstoune,
Ane uther , "¦„,.. ¦' ^ . ¦",
lettere "1 expreso' thairin wes nominate moderatour to the next
expressing melting of the Synode, quhairunto the haill breithreine did
Mr. John give thair heartie applaus. And the rneiting proceids as
Edmonstone foUovyg ^nd, first, ordaines the next melting to be on
Weddinsday 20 dayes, the 28 January instant. And the
absent breithreine to be acquainted with the said diete.
9 September, 1663.
P. 191. This day thair was ane peaper produced to the presbitrie
The bischope fj.Qj^ jjjg bischope be John Grahame, his dark, quhilk the
ofsubmlssioneP'^ssbitrie having harde the presenter desyrit it might be
to the bookit and the principall to be returned to him as he was
presbitrie.? enjoynde. The presbitrie finding his desyre reasonabill
returned the principall being then registrat the tennour quherof followes
and is thus : Because I heir that thair hes beine ane contest betwixt the
ministers of Dunblane and Calendare tuicheing fourscoir merkis of
yeirlie dew now payable to me be Johnne Buchanane of Arnepryour and
confest by both no longer to belong to aither of thame ; and yet being
resolved to receede from my awne right to it, and to assigne it to thame
or either of thame as the presbitrie of Dunblane, after dew inquyrie into
' Memo. This'is really p. 279 of book. After p. 26S the paging reads 169, 170,
etc. — always lOO pages short. After page 210 the numbers proceed from 301
onwards. 2 This word is contracted, and probably means expression.
575

576 APPENDIX
the mater shall finde most juste and reasonable, I doe by these give full
power to the said presbitrie to dispose of the said fourscoore merkis for
this yeire j"" vj'= sixtie thrie, determineing it to be payed to quhom they
think fitt : As lykwayes of eight scoir merkis for the tuo bypast yeires
(David Moire haveing receaved it in my name), which I appoynt to be
repayed out of the rent dew to me within the diocie of Dunblane for
this present yeire 1663. And that the determinatioune of the said
presbitrie shalbe ane sufficient warrant for that effect Writtine and
subscrivit by me (?), Dunblane, August 26, 1663.
R. Leightone.
23 December, 1663.
The submissione be the bischope to the presbitrie relate-
Submissione '"? to the ministers of Dunblane and Calendare. The
be the presbitrie ^is to determine therin the nixt day peremp-
bischop to be torelie without farder delay ; quherof Mr. George Buchanane
the'nixt'da P"^^^^"' ^^ adverteised and the deane to be adverteised be
the dark that he may be present per se vel per alium. And
they baith to bring with thame what they have to say ; with certifica-
tioune the presbitrie will determine.
P. 195. 20 January, 1664.
Submissione ... "in respect nather of thame ar present personalie
delayed, j^^j, ^g proxies nor no peaperis seine."
16 March, 1664.
p j.^ The quhilk day, as to the mater in debate betwixt the
The ministers of Dunblane and Calendare (long depending
judgement befoir the presbitrie) and that be vertew of the bischope
}yf- his refewse and submissione, as the peaper therof in itselfe
presbitrie ... . . ' ^ ^ , .
upon the largelie proportis registrat on the 191 page of this register,
submittit the presbiterie finding that both the reverend breithreine of
'^."g ti^ t'^^ Dunblane and Calender by thair awne confessiones the
ops- rnater submittit doeth not of rycht belong to nather of
thame but is at the bischop's disposeing and quhilk now he hes referrit
to the judgement and determinatioune of the presbiterie : And thair
peapers rychtis and allegatiounes beine seine and considderit hinc inde
hath found nothing particularfie miUtateing against the same bot that of
rycht it pertaines to the bischope. And lykwyse haveing receaved ane
peaper this day as to the purpose subscrivit be the bischope the tennour
Ane other quherof is as followes. Quhairas I left ane note toucheing
paper from what is yeirlie dew to me from Mr. Buchanane of Arne-
the bischope pryour because it wes formerlie receaved by ane of our
"^the former* brethreine and the right of it pretendit to by ane other. I
submission perceave that which way soever it were disposed of to either
and not or both of thame it would lykelie content naither of thame
retracting, fj^f certainelie discontent the one. Thairfoir I am resolved
not to tempt thame to^any further conteste about it, and thoughe (I think

APPENDIX 577
it undoubtitlie mine) yet not to appropriate it to any use of myne owne,
bot to the releife of the poor in that place, yet doe I not whollie retract
my referrance to the presbiterie but submittis evine my right to thair
judgement that if they judge it belongs of right to either of the tuo
brethren that formerlie disputed it, it shalbe his to quhom they adjudge it
Bot if they determine it myne I shall crave leave to dispose of it as I
have said, and I think naither of the breithreine can justly complaine if I
doe so, for the deane knowes what I have doune to satisfie him evin
beyond ane agriement subscrivit with his owne hand ; bot I hope at
rneiting to give full satisfactioune both in this and any thing else within
my power to all my breithreine. R. Leightone.

Edr March 12, 1664.
rp. The presbiterie considdering the promisses with the
presbiteries peaper presentlie produced and insert : as also takeing to
mynd of the their serious consideratioune the meane and small provi-
submissione sJQun of their brother the minister of Calendare quho could
recommenda- "o* have subsisted in that place without the helpe and
tione of Mr. assistance of his breithreine doe thairfoir looke upon it as
George our deutie to recommend our brother Mr. George
Buchanane. guchanane to be the maine object of the bischop's charitie
in that mater. And for his better subsistance for the future that the
bischope would be pleased to be effectually asisting for the setling of
the said Mr. George in ane competint mantenance for his encouragment
to officiate in that place. And in the meane tyme that our reverend
brother Mr. Thomas Lyndsay his stipend be not deteriorate.
The said day Mr. Thomas Lindsay, deane, protested
eane against the said act and appeallis to the judge ordinare
and will give in his reasounes in maner [and tyme con
venient. Dunblane, 5 June, 1667.
P. 340. This day the bischope earnestlie desyred that the forsaid
The rneiting meitting of the presbiterie on the 19th of Junii instant might
forsaid ^^ continued as to any exercise except the lesser appoynted
continued m „ . ,^ „,.,,. „, ,¦ , t -^i. r ..l
respect of tryall of Mr. William Weemes, which he with some of the
Port and neirest brethrine should heir. And that in respect he hade
Kippen. condischendit with my lord Cardrose and other heretors of
the paroche of Port to meit at Port on the i8th day of the said moneth
with some of the breithreine on the west hand and that the said day
they would goe to Kippen in order to the mans and gleib of both
paroches, so that all the presbitrie could not keipe both the i8th and
nyntene dayes : quhairwith the presbiterie wes content, and that at
Kippen they should appoint the nixt full melting.
A.L. 37

578 APPENDIX
At Balquhidder, 8 9i="s (November), 1664.
P- 303- Post invocationem Dei nominis.
Sederunt.

Presentes.

The bishope, Mr. Thomas Lyndsay, deane, Mr. Johnne
Edmonstoune, Mr. George Buchanane, Mr. Andro Barclay,
and Mr. Donald McViccare, ministers.
At Kippen, 18 June, 1667.
This day the bishope and the presbiterie haveing mett for
P- 341- considdering of the mans to be built for the minister have
'^ rnansof ^ thought fitt for erecting ane sufficient house the sowme of
Kippen, &c. eight hundreth merkis Scottis, and does appoynt the said
sowme to be proportionallie layd on the wholl paroche and
to choyse ane collector to uplift the same quho may give ane full accompt
to the paroche when the whole work is perfyted of the expenssis
debursed. The fabrick of the hous is to be fourtie foot long within the
wallis thairof. And for the collecting of this money foirsaid Robert
Leckie is choysine by the heretouris to be answerable when demandit
to Walter Leckie of Daskers, James Edmondstoune of Broiche and
Duncane Fescher quha are to agrie with the tradsmen for the work and
to take ane accompt of the collectouris diligence. The termes of pay
ment of this forenamed sowme of money are, the first at the first of
August and the latter at Mertimes nixt therafter 1667 preceislie.
P. 343- At Dunblane, loth July, 1667.
The bischope,
Sederunt y^^_ Danidl McViccar, moderatour, Mr. Robert Kirk, Mr.
All present. _ ,
George Buchanane, Mr. Edward Blaw, Mr. Thomas For
rester, Mr. John Edmondstoune, Mr. Thomas Lyndsay, Mr. George
Shaw, and Mr, William Weemes ; all present.
p. 346. At TuUiallane, 31 July, 1667.
Sederunt.
The bischope, Mr. Johnne Edmondstoune, moderatour
Presentes. p^^ tempore, Mr. George Schaw, Mr. Edward Blaw, Mr.
Robert Kirk.
P. 347. At Dumblane, 11 August 1667.
Sederunt.
The bischope, Mr. Danidl McViccare, moderatour, Mr.
Presentes. George Schaw, Mr. Thomas Forrester, Mr. George
Buchanane, Mr. Robert Kirk, Mr. William Weemes, Mr. Johne Gray,
Mr. Edward Blaw.

APPENDIX 579
P. 349- 4 September, 1667.
The presbiterie taking to thair serious considderatioune
Act in favouris jj,at they have doune all that effared thame once and
ofBuchanane. . . , , . , , „ , , , . . ,, ¦ ,
agauie with the pariche of Calendare, and in speciall with
the heretouris that they would have takine away thair ministeris
greivances by redress, and yet nothing doune nather first nor last
And also considdering that the bischope and presbiterie by thair
act 14th Septembris 1664 did declaire that the said Mr. George was frie
where he might be better accommodate for the exercise of his functione
of the ministre. And also this day the brother Mr. George declaring to
the presbiterie that amongst many his other greevances of old and of
late this is not the least that his spirit is troublit with that he preaches
and prayes to many of that people in ane unknowne language, have
thairfoir voyced and hairby simplie voyces his transportatioune and that
forthwith he have extract heirof.
Buchanane The presbiterie recommendis the said Mr. George
recommendit g^jgj^^^^jjg j^ ^^^ bischope for authorizeing the foresaid
to the ... - . , , rr i II
Bischope. act in his favouris that the samyne may prove etlectuall.
P. 350. 25 September, 1667.
The bischope The bischope shewes that Mr. James Donaldsoune will
DonaldT *''' keipe the nixt melting for productioune of his testimoniallis
will returne. and for ending his tryallis in ordour to Port.
P- 3SI- At Dunblane, October 23, 1667.
Post invocationem Sacrosancte et Individue Trinitatis.
Sederunt.
The Bishop, Mr. John Edmonston, moderator pro tem-
Presentes. p^^^^ jyj^ j^j^j^ q^.^^^ jyjj. Robert Kirk, Mr. Eduard
Blaw.
Mr, J, Gray Mr. Jo. Gray exercised and was approvin. Mr. G. Shaw
exercised, who should have added is absent, together with M'=-
Absente. [maisteris] D. McVicar, T. Forrester, T. Lindsay.
Mr. Geo. Shaw is appoynted to e.xercise at next diet and
e^bUsht ^^- J' ^"^^y '° ^^^ °° ^"^^ '4" ^''" ^° ^^ November 6,
1667.
Robert Caddell, former clerk, having departed this life, Mr. Ro. Kirk is
nominate to be clerk for the future.
This day Mr. James Donaldson presented a testimoniall
Mr. Ja, Don- from the presbiterie of Edinburgh under Mr. A"- Turner
produce°th\is ^^^ moderator, and Mr. Charies Lumbsden clerk, their
testimonials, hands, of the dait October 16, 1667, quhairwith the presbi
terie wes satisfied and accepted the same as a sufficient
testimony of his good carriage and deportment while amongst them,

58o APPENDIX
with thair approbatione of bis first tryalls in order to preaching, which
testificats was app[ointed] him to produce at the last melting,
Quhilk day also Mr. Ja. Donaldsone is approvin by the
aldson at)- presbiterie in one and all of his tryalls and does recommend
provin and his speedy plantatione and admissione to the rycht reverend
R-'^vf"' 'f° *^ Bishop. In the mean tyme the presbiterie appoints the
admiss ^aid Mr. J. Donaldson to preach at Port the next Lord's
day or at furthest the 2d hence.
At Dunblaine, Novr. 6, 1667.
Sederunt
Presentes, "^^^ Bishop, Mr. Donald McVicar, moderator, Mr. G.
Shaw, Mr. T. H. Lindsay, Mr. J. Gray, Mr. Edw. Blaw, Mr.
Abs, Will. Weems. Absentes : Mr. Th. Forrester, Mr. J.
Edmonston, Mr. R. Kirk.
G, Shaw Mr. G. Shaw exercised, Mr. J. Gray added. Both are
™=^^' J- approvin.
Gray added,
Brethren Mr. G, Shaw and Mr, D. McVicar thair excuses are
excused, admitted of the last day's absence.
Mr. G. Shaw is appointed to exercise next and Mr. Thomas
Sabr Lindsay to add, on Luke 14. 33. The presbiterie diet is to
be determined at the admissione at Port. Which day of
Mr. Donaldson's admissione wes ordered by the Bishop from Edinburgh
to be Nov'. 15. This day the presbiterie ordeans every respective brother
A'^t Pp.^^^" to have the clerks of synod and presbiterie thair dues in
'readiness against the next diet and have compleat discharges
' ^^ ' under thair hands. As also to provide the bursars propor-
Bursars tigne for his first year 1667, so many as had not payd it
provisione, ' ^ •'
as yet.
Mr, Ed. Blaw Tis this day ordeaned that Mr. Ed. Blaw serve Mr.
to serve Mr. Donaldson's edict at Port some Sabboth betwixt and
Donaldson s , , . . , , , . ,
edict. the next presbiterie day and advertise the parosh
Mr, Donald- thairof tymously : Mr. Ja. Donaldson having reported
^Tt?ort'^^' this day that he preacht at Port on Sabboth wes 8 days.
Mr, J, Ed- Mr. Jo. Edmonston is appoynted to preach at Calendar
monston to 'twixt and next melting of Presbiterie.
preach at
Calendar, At Port November 15, 1667,
Post Dei Opt. Max. Nominis invoc'".
Sederunt.
The Bishop, Mr. Tho. Lindsay, Mr. Jo. Edmonstone,
Presentes. Mr. Ed. Blaw, Mr. Jo. Gray, and Mr. Don McVicar,
moderator.

APPENDIX 581
Mr Domld- "^^'^ ^^^ ^^' ^^' ^'^^^ reported (he having received
son's ordina- advertisement of the speedy admissione of Mr. Donaldson
tione and ad- to Port) that he preacht last Sabboth at Port, where his
ChwchofPort ^*^'*^' ^^^ served, according to appoyntment and gave in
the sermon indorst. Quhilk edict being read again at
the most patent church doore, that if any person did object against the
young man's admissione, his reasons wold be now heard and considered,
with certificatione if none compeared for that effect they wold proceid
to the work, wherfore none compearing to his contrair, in presence of
Almighty God, and before the presbytery present, heretors, elders and com
mons of the parosh of the said Kirk of Port, so many as were present also at
that tyme, the lycht reverend Bishop did question the said Mr. James
Donaldson that wes to be admitted and ordeand minister, of his desyre
to promote the honor of God, willingnes to accepte of that charge, to
officiat thairin faithfully in his personal and publick functione, that no
desyre of lucre and worldly advantages set him on to exercise the office
of the ministry, &c., the lyke necessary querys and demands at such
occasions, bee answering the samen humbly as became each propositione.
The said reverend Bishop did thairafter by caling upon God most high
and impositione of hands with the presbiterie ordean and admitt the
said Mr. James Donaldson minister of the Gospell of Jesus Christ after
wards giving him the Holy Bible and wyth hand of fellowship of both
Bishop and presbiterie, and then unanimously was received of al the
heritors, elders, and others considerable thaire present to be thair
laufuU minister, they all promiseing due encouragment to him and
hearty concurrence to thair utmost endeavours.
The said day Mr. J . Donaldson received collatione and institutione from
the Bishop by the hands of the moderator and deane Mr. T. Lindsay,
as the tenor thairof does bear. Mr. D . McVicar, moderator,
His seazing, gave him also infeftment and seazing in the gleib and
pertinents, and the Bishop gave him the keys of the church
doors. Quhairupon he took instruments in the hands of a notary, and
then they dismist after appoynting the next diet of presbi-
presbiterie '^"^ *° ^^ ^' Dunblaine the 4th Wednsday ii^.nce being
December II, 1667. Mr. Th. Lindsay appoynted to advertise
the brethren be-east him thairof, and the clerk those be-west.
P, 360, At Dunblaine, May 20, 1668.
Postquam nomen Dei Cceh et terr^ invocationem.
Sederunt.
Presentes "^^^ Bishop, moderator, M'=- [maisters], G. Shaw, Th;
Lindsay, Ja. Donaldson, W. Weems, Jo. Gray, R. Kirk,
Ed. Blaw.

582 APPENDIX
APPENDIX B
[The Leightonian Library at Dunblane.] '
Besides mortifying in 1673 to the poor of the parish of Dunblane
"the soume of ane thowsand and twentie-four punds Scots money, dew
to him by Robert Bruce of Bordie, Comissair of Dunblane, which he
recommended to be persewed after and imployed for the use of the said
poor," he bequeathed and left his Library to the Cathedral and Clergy
of the Diocese of Dunblane, by his last will and testament, as also
money for building the Library House and settling a yearly salary
"upon 1 Bibhothecarius for the better preservatione both of the fabrick
and books." The terms are as follows :
The Testament and Latter Will of Bishop Leighton.
At Broadhurst Feb. 17, 1683.
Being at present (thanks be to God) in my accustomed health of body
and soundness of mind and memory, I doe wryte this with my oune
hand, to signifie, that when the day I so much wished and longed for is
come, that shall set me free of this prisone of clay wherein I am lodged,
what I leave behind me of money, goods, or chattels, or whatsoever of
aney kynd was called myne, I doe devote to charitable uses : pairtlie
such as I have recommended, particuUarly to my sister Mistress Saphira
Lightmaker and her sone Master Edward Lightmaker, of Broadhurst,
and the remainder to such other charities as their oune discretione shall
think fittest. Only I desyre each of them to accept of a small token of
a litle graitfuU acknowledgment of their great kyndness, and their
trouble they have hade with me for some yeares that I was their guest,
the proportione whereof (to remove their scruple of taking it) I did
expreslie name to themselves, while I was with them, befor the wryteing
hereof, and likewise after I hade wryte it. But they neid not give aney
account of it to aney other, the whole being left to their dispose. Neither
I hope will aney other freinds or relationes of myne take it unkyndlie
that I bequeath no legacie to any of them, designing, as is said, so
intirlie to charitie the whole remaines. Only my Books I leave and
bequeath to the Cathedrall of Dunblane in Scotland to remaine there for
the vfe of the clergie of the Diocefs. I think I neid (add) no more, but
that I appoynt my said sister, Mistress Saphira Lightmaker, of Broad
hurst and her sone Master Edward Lightmaker, of Broadhurst joynt
Executors of this my Will, if they be both living at my deceass, as I
hope they shall : or if that one of them shall be surviveing, that one is
to be sole Executor of it. I hope none will rease any questione or doubt
about this upon aney ommissione or informalitie of expressione in it, being,
for preventione thereof, as plainly expressed as it could be conceaved
' The Bannatyne Miscellany, vol. iii. pp. 229-272.

APPENDIX 583
necessary by me. And that I declare to be the Last Will and Testa
ment of (Sic subscribitur) RO. LEIGHTON.
Signed, sealed, and published, in presence of
John Belling and George Warnet
Leighton died on 25th June, 1684, and his nephew wrote to Robert
Douglas, Bishop of Dunblane, as follows : July 8th (84).
My Lord—
It hath pleased God to take of late to himself the soul of that excel
lent persone Doctor Leightone, your singulargood freind, and at length to
answer the many yeares earnest longings of that holy man after his
eternall happiness. I was one that hade the honour to be relaited to him,
being his Sister sone and joynt Executor with my mother of his will :
to whose care he hath recomended the transport of his Books : in order
whereunto he did desire me that (in case I or my Mother should survive
him) one of ws would, soone after his deceass, wryte to your Lordship
to acqwaint yow that he hath ordered his Books to be sent to the Church
of Dunblane, to remain there for the vse of the ministers and students
of that Diocess (haveing bequeathed them to them be his Will), and
therefor to desire your Lordship to bespeak some masters of a ship that
is comeing from thence to call for them att Londone, at such a place and
in such a hand as we should think fitt to intrust them with, haveing
first packed them up in chists and trunks that are neidfull to containe
them. But the doeing of these things being a busienes that will requyre
some little tyme for the dispatch of it I thought it but fitt, in the mean
tyme, by a lyne, to assure your Lordship that nothing shall be ommitted
that may be necessary for the expeding of this mater. There was one
thing more was the desyre of this worthy man (to witt) that I should
transmitt to your Lordship ane hundreth pounds for the accomodateing
a chamber somewhere neir the Church for his books : and what shall
not be laid out on that to be added to the money he formerly left as a
stock for some yearlie supplie to the poor of the parish of Dunblane :
and that he supposed a room might be built for this use out of some of
the ruinous walls that are without the Church or of the Bishop's ruined
house, and desired that the roome might be built of convenient largenes,
and good lights, and handsomely furnished with presses and shelves,
and some desks for readeing at them, and chaires or stooles to sitt on.
But it will be too much to devolve the cair of this bussienes wholly on
your Lordship, and therefor doe intend, by a lyne, to desyre Sir Hugh
Patersone (who bathe formerlie agented bussienes for this good man) to be
assistant in this lykewayes. As for the transmissione of the hundreth
pounds befor mentioned, I shall be in some solicitude how to doe it,
unles your Lordship cane informe me of some fitt persone there with
whom to correspond, which, if you please to doe, and to receave the same
of him there, then I shall cause the same to be repayed to that merchants

584 APPENDIX
factor att London, with satisfactione for the exchange thereof. Or per
haps the merchant there will rather desire I should pay it heir first. I
know not the method of it as yet but shall waitt for your direction.
I am, Your Lordship's most humble and most obedient servant
(Sic subscribitur) Edw. Lightmaker.
To my Lord Bishop of Dunblane.
Correspondents were settled between the Bishop of Dunblane and
Mr. Lightmaker.' " He pitched upon a verie worthie gentleman. Master
Edward Haberfield, leiving at Midletemple, London, to be his corre
spondent at Londone, as also upon Master Foules, merchant factor at
Londone, who did transmitt from Londone to Edinburgh, by bills of
exchange, such soumes of money for the work as he was ordered by
Mr. Lightmaker. Upon the other pairt, the Bishop of Dunblane did
pitch upon Sir Hugh Patersone ^ of Bannockburn, and Johne Graham,
Comissare Clerk of Dunblane, both resideing att Edinburgh, to be cor
respondents for him att Edinburgh, and to receave there whatsoever
letters, bills of money, or books, should be sent doune from the saids
executors, or those intrusted by them, that these might be transmitted to
Dunblane.'' Assistance was also afforded by William, Lord Viscount
of Strathalan, at that time Lieutenant-General and Commander-in-Chief
of all his Majesty's forces in Scotland, who had " a peculiar and profound
respect and veneratione to that most excellent Bishop (Leighton) his
dear friend and intimatt."
A sum of a hundred pounds may seem a small piece of money for
rearing up the fabric, but this may be imputed to his want of knowledge
in secular things, and in the expense of building as well ; as Bishop
Douglas said, "to his profound humilitie and great charitie: for as in all
his hfetyme it was his airt and studdy to obscure and conceall himself,
and that which was great and good in him : and therefor hee was
desyrous that even after his death aney thing that was to be a memorial
of him should have as litle pomp and splendor as could be. He would
not so much as name it a House or Bibliotheck : but only recomends
that there might be a chamber accomodat for his books, etc. Yea, and this
chamber too, not so much in his mynd as the poor were : so that if aney
thing could be spared of this moyetie, let the poor have it, though the
chamber should be scrimpted. Who knew the genius of this good man
may easily know this to be the genuine gloss."
Mr. Lightmaker soon signified that he designed two hundred pounds
' It is not uninteresting to observe that Mr. Lightmaker (Leighton's nephew)
was one of the earliest correspondents of the Society for promoting Christian
Knowledge, and consulted them about the school he set up at Horsted Keynes
(Secretan). " He is described as "a speciall trusty of the Reverend Archbishop Leighton,
on whom he devolved all the manageing of his secular affaires while he was in
Scotland."

APPENDIX 585
sterling to be stocked for yearly interest towards the maintenance of a
Librarian, and that he would make good whatever was expended on
the library above the hundred pounds already bequeathed by his uncle.
May 24, 1687.
My Lord—
I received your letter, and humblie thank yow for it, and for the
extraordinary care ye have expressed about my Vncle's Library. I am
glad to heir that the fabrick is so neir a close, and shall be verie readie
to doe all that is requiseit to be done on my pairt to the completing of
it, either as to the surplusage of the charge or allowance for a keeper
(to whom I have designed two hundreth pounds to be layed out upon
something for a standing sallary). The money shall be readie to be
payed to your Lordship's first appoyntment only I shall desyre that the
discharge for it may be, according to the former, under your common
seall. My Lord, there is a litle bundle of manuscripts' of my Vncle's
oune wreitting ; I was doubtfull whither it was convenient or no to send
them ; but since I considder it was his desyre that I should send all
that was in his studdie, I purpose to send them by the same hand that
your Lordship shall direct to receive the money. I hope your Lordship
will pardon my not writeing long befor this, haveing bein, and con-
tinowing to be, under such great indispositiones of body as unfitts me
wholy for bussienes. Your Lordship's most humble and oblidged servant
(Sic subscribitur) Edw. Lightmaker.
To my Lord Bishop of Dunblane.
In 1687 the fabric was completed (Lord Strathallan having given the
carriage of the stones gratis) : Mr. Lightmaker sent an additional sixty-
two pounds for the balancing of the accounts, as also " a verie rich
marble stand, of oval figure, weill cutt, haveing on it Bishop Lightones
arms, with this inscriptione, Bibliotheca Lightoniana, and a gilded
mitre on the top of it, which is sett upon the frontispiece of this house
towards the streetts, according as my Lord Strathalane hath advysed."
. . . "The Bishop of Dunblane (Robert Douglas) did also receave the
Catalogue of the Books, conteinid in eighteen pages, and tuo pages by
the hand of Mr. Edward Lightmaker, of such books as were bought
a little befor the Bishop's death, and hade not bein by him sett doune ;
the whole Catalogue is in their House seriously recommendit to the
speciall care of the keeper." It was determined by the Bishop, and the
1 These manuscripts were described as " a colection of such select sentences
as the Bishop was pleased to note in his readings, seemingly designed only for
his own use, promiscuously set doune, some in Greek, some in Latine, and some
few in French. Some of them bound in octavoes, others stitched or in loose
papers, all of which are carefully to be kept, and may be useful to such as can
reade the hand."

586 APPENDIX
others concerned, " that the keeper should alwayes be a Student of
Divinitie, designeing for the holy Ministry, a young man that were
pious and sober, trusty, and of good behaviour. And that such a persone
being chosen, approved, and admitted, might in the said office (he
behaveing himself accordingly) be continowed for the space of thrie
yeares, butt at most not above four yeares, to the end other hopeful
young men intending for the Ministrie might have the lyke advantage
and benefeit of these books : that so, from tyme to tyme, some pious
and able young men might goe from this House better qualified for the
holy Ministry, thorrow the blessing of God upon their studdies.'' As
to the settling of the two hundred pounds for behoof of a keeper, " the
Bishop of Dunblane went to the city of Stirling, and haveing obtained
a meeting with Provost Kennedy (then present Provist of Stirling),
togither with the Bealyies, the Dean of Gild, and others of the Common
Counsell of the said burgh, did commune with them upon the head,
and obtainid that they should receave and secure the forsaid two
hundreth pounds sterling money, and yearlie pay the interest thereof to
a keeper of the Bibliotheck, who should be nominat and authorized by
the Bishop for that effect, and gave orders to their present Toune
Thesaurer, David Moir, in their name and be their authoritie, to
receave the forsaid soume of 20olb sterling money."
Bishop Douglas, with the aid of Principal Fall, of Glasgow University,
the Dean of Dunblane (Caspar Kellie), and others, drew up a set of rules
and orders for the keeper of the Library, and it was "judged necessary
that att the close of each Synod the Dean of Dunblane, with two other
Brethren of the Diocess, one out of each Presbytery, should visit the
Library and sie that all the Books were in the house, according to the
Catalogue " : the following benefaction is also noted : " The reverend
Bishop Lightone, being patrone of St. Stephen's altar, within the
Cathedrall of Dunblane, have presented Johne Graham, commissair-
clerk of Dunblane, to the rents and emuluments belonging to the said
alterage, and that all the dayes of his life this gentleman, out of a pious
and charitable designe, signified so much that he resolved to resigne
all his richt and interest to the said benefice in behalf of the Library
for the good and behoove of this house : for which it is just he be heir
mentioned and insert as a benefactor, and one who made the first offeir
of this nature, which kyndness God will repay to him and such as
follow his good example."
There were in all sent to the Library 1,390 volumes, and " A Cata
logue of Slicht peeces, viz.. Single Sermons, litle Treatises, and other
Pamphlets, put up in six bundles " — among which were also contained
" eleven Catalogues and thriten pair of Theses." Unfortunately none
of these Leighton manuscripts are now preserved in Dunblane, and the
information required by the trustees in April, 1708, and conveyed by
Dr. Fall (Leighton's literary executor) in 1710 is of some importance
as partly accounting for their loss " to the House."
Dr. James Fall was admitted Principal of Glasgow University in

APPENDIX 587
September 1684, and was sequestered by the Visitors of 1690 on declining
to take the Oaths. In 1691 he was preferred to the Precentorship of York
Cathedral, and in a letter dated York, January 15, 1693-4, to Mr. Robert
Wylie, Minister of Hamilton, he says, " I am comforted to find yow
valew so much the two litle (but yet great) presents I made yow of
Bishop Leighton's Discourses (I hope yow have a third by this time) :
if your Brethren were of your relish, the copies of those books would
not lye so much upon the hands of booksellers as I hear they do. But
' Wisdom shall be justifyed of her children,' though she seemes to
have too few of them in Scotland. We design no profit by printing these
excellent relicts of that excellent man, but to communicat what the
world really so much wants, viz., the knowledge and art how to treat
Divin things in a Divin way, and (as yow say) to warm as well as
enlighten. I do not remember ever to have seen anything of humane
composure {after Tho. a Kempis) come up so near to this character. We
print all at our own expences : I contribut litle more than my labour ;
his Sister and Nephew do all the rest. This Nephew is the Uncle
Redivivus, who has absolutely renounced the world, though he has
an estat in it worth 500 lb sterling yearly rent. Yow would admire the
letters I have frequently from him. We have now at the press some
Discourses on the Decalogue, Lord's Prayer, and Apostolick Creed, as
also the continuation on St. Peter, with the Epistle to the Ephesians.
Whether they sell or not in Scotland, they will elsewhere."
Dr. Fall died at York in 17 11, and was buried in the Cathedral.

No. I.
Act of Synod of Perth and Stirling nominating Messrs. Alexander
Douglas and Matthew Wallace to join the Overseers of the Library of
Dunblane, 1703.
At Aughterarder, Thursday, the 12th day of October, 1703.
The which day the Provincial Synod of Perth and Stirling being
met, a Letter was produced by Michael Pottar, Minister of Dumblane,
anent the Liberary of Dumblane, bearing that the Executors of Bishop
Lighton have sent an Instrument to John Graham here, wherein they
shew their right and power to the said Liberary, and do nominat and
give power to the Viscount of Strathallan, my Lord Aberuchd, Sir
Hugh Paterson of Bannockburn, John Graham in Dumblane, and their
heirs with the Minister of Dumblane, to inspect and oversee the Liberary,
and order what may be for the good of the same ; and that they desire
the Rev'' Synod to appoint two Ministers of the Presbyterie of Dumblane
to joyn with the foresaid persons in that work, Strathallan and Bannock
burn, having no heirs for the time capable to act in that affair, being
minors, and very young : which the Synod considering, they did nominat
and appoint Mr. Alexander Douglas, Minister of Logie, and Mr. Matthew
Wallace, Minister of Kincardine, both members of the said Presbyterie,
to be assistant with them in that affair, and make report of the case of

588 APPENDIX
the Liberary to the Synod, and appointed Mr. Michael Pottar to acquaint
the Persons named in the foresaid Instrument thereof.
" Extracted by me,
Pat^ Wylie, Clk. Syn.
No. II.
The Rev. Dr. Fall to the Rev. M. Pottar.
York, Apr. 24th, 1704.
Sir— Your acquaintance and mine is of an old standing, but time, distance
of place, and other circumstances, have interrupted our correspondence,
yet, upon such a favourable opportunity as now offers, in joyntly carrying
on and setleing a work of publick charity, such as your Library is,
makes me wiUing to renew it
Mr. Lightmaker, and his mother, Executors of the late Bishop
Leighton (the founder of that Library), are inclin'd to add an additional
Benefaction of 100"' sterl. to the summes of 200 "^ now in the hands of
the town of Stirling, the interest whereof they destin shall be bestow'd
thus, viz., one-half of the yearly interest to the Library-keeper, and an
augmentation of his sallery, the other half to be a standing fund for the
keeping up and repairing the Fabrick in all time coming, as shall be
directed by the Trustees and their successors.
That which they now desire is this, that you, together with the
surviving Trustees who are of age, may be pleas'd to meet at Dumblane
with your first conveniency, and then and there, by some writeing under
your hands, declare your acceptance of the s'^ Trust committed to you
by the original Instrument of Trust now lying in Mr. Graham's hand,
or in the Library : and then to consult and resolve on the best and
surest way to place the wholl 300^'' sterl. so as the interest thereof may
best answer the pious ends proposed. What you shall do as to these
two material points, be pleased to send up an account to me, that I
may transmit it to Mr. Lightmaker and his mother.
I must now joyn my most earnest entreaty to yow, to be a happy
Instrument to get these things done with all convenient dispatch : for
yow very well know that a fair occasion once lost is not easily retrieved,
that time is uncertain, and the worthy gentleman is but of a very crazy
constitution, and therefor he is very impatient till he remitt the money,
which he will do as soon as he knows from you (who are the Trustees)
to whom, by your order, it ought to be pay'd.
You who are now the surviving Trustees are but few, you live near
together, and no doubt you will more easily meet and agree. If I had
been known to the late Lord Abruchill's son, as I was to himself, I
had now written to him. I hope you will excuse me, and he will
pardon me. So praying God to direct you all in so good a work,
I am, sir. Your old friend and humble servant, Ja. Fall.
For the Reverend Mr. Michael Pottar, Minister of Dumblane.

APPENDIX 589
The Trustees of the Leightonian Library to the Rev. Dr. Fall.
Most Reverend Sir —
Wee, the Trustees of the Library of Dunblane, nominated by the
very Reverend Bishop Lightoun's Executors, inclined to have written
much sooner, but could not till we were in some case to give account of
the state of the said Library q=J' is as follows :
[Here follows report on fabric and investments. . . .]
Wee are informed that when yow was last here, yow took alongst
with yow a Catalogue of the books, in order to printing the same. Wee
would gladly know whither yow have it by yow. We find y"^ are several
of the very Reverend Bishop Leightoun's works through the countrey,
quhich are not in the Library (there being only his Prelections and his
Commentaries upon the two first Chapters of the first Epistle of Peter
here), which wee earnestly desire to have. The Register bears ane
account of several Manuscripts of the said Reverend Bishop's y' were
in the Library, q* the Library-keeper informs, at Mr. Lightmaker's
desire, were sent up to him, in order to printing, and that he hes a letter
bearing the receipt of them, and that they should be carefully returned,
Qch we find not yet done. We still intertain a gratefull sense of the
worthy Mr. Lightmaker's pious Donation, and of your particular care
and concern in what relates to the Library, and we earnestly desire
this to be represented to the Executors. And as we have hitherto
observed the directions contained in the Instruments, so do we resolve
for the future, and shall give ane account yi^of from time to time.
Indorsed :
Double of a letter to Doctor Fall, q"'' was
signed 28 Aprylle 1708.
In a letter (dated November 4, 1708) Dr. Fall states that he has made
inquiries, but Mr. Lightmaker's illness was the cause evidently of his
not receiving information. Then comes the last letter which explains
the missing manuscripts and shows that they were chiefly printed and
in part retained.
The Rev. Dr. Fall to the Trustees of the Leightonian Library.
Gentlemen, and My Very Good Friends —
I had the favour of yours relating to Mr. Lightmaker's Executors,
and the Trust ye are concern'd in as to the Library of Archbishop
Leighton at Dumblain, w''' a copy of a letter formeriy sent concerning
the state of that Library. I am very sensible of the respect yow shew
me, and the confidence ye put in me, upon this occasion : but I don't
see any other service I can do in this matter than to lay these papers
before Mr. Lightmaker's Executors. I am entirely discharged of all
concern in that matter, further than my hearty wishes for your
prosperity : and I am very glad that the Trust is in such hands, wherein
may be expected both prudence and integrity in managem'. Yow are
vested with full powers to do and determine what is fit and proper for

590 APPENDIX
the Library, and what belongs to it, and must be much better judges
of what is so than any body else that is not on the spot : so that
advice and counsel, in such a case, cannot be expected from hence,
much less indeed from me, disabled now by age and infirmities from
those small services that I was formerly, to the best of my power, ready
to assist my friends with. This, indeed, I will endeavour to do, to let
you know how to correspond with the Executors of Mr. Lightmaker,
that you may, as you resolve, from time to time give an account to them
of your care and Improvements in the Trust : and I think that's all
that I can further assist or direct in this matter.
As to some of the particulars in the inclosed letter, I can give you
this answer, that the Catalogue of Books which I brought from Dum
blain, in order to be printed, was by me put into Mr. Lightmaker's hands.
and I suppose is to be found among the rest of his Papers : it never was
printed, that I know of I shall write along with yours to those con
cern'd, and recommend to them to send printed copies of those of Arch
bishop Leighton's works you have not yet received into the Library.
As for the MSS., they are in the hands, I suppose, of Mr. Lightmaker's
Executors : many of them are transcribed for the Press, and others
already printed. What are printed, or shall be printed, care will be
taken to send copies of them to the Library : but for the original MSS.,
Mr. Lighttnaker designed to keep them, thinking them of no further use
in the Library after they were printed, and copys of them were sent to
you. What the Executors will do with those that are imprinted, I
cannot tell : but in that you may satisfie yourselves when you can, as I
shall in a very little time enable you, direct to them. This, Gentlemen, is
all at present that I can think of, in answer to yours, the imperfections of
w* I desire you to impute to the ill state of my health, and believe that
I am, with great sincerity. Your very humble servant, Ja. Fall.
York, 1 6th Septr, 1710.
To Mr. Grahame, and the Reverend Mr. Pottar, and the other Trustees
of the Reverend Bishop Leighton's Library at Dumblane.
Of the 1,390 volumes sent to the Library, 1,200 still remain, and these
show how keenly informed he was both in the best scholarship of his
own day and of the time which preceded it. Many of the volumes con
tain notes in Leighton's own hand, which may best be described by the
description given (p. 585) of his own manuscripts. Thus on a Hebrew
Bible are written the words " Secretissime, Patentissime " and on the
first volume of his complete edition of Thomas a Kempis' works " Non
magna relinquo : magna sequor." Having examined many of the
volumes, it can be testified that a volume reproducing them would be
an acceptable addition to the Scottish History or the Scottish Text
Societies' Publications. It is understood that Mr. West made a collec
tion of such sentences and notes, and it is to be hoped that the volume
may soon be printed. Several papers regarding these have already

APPENDIX 591
been printed.' Of Leighton's house and the present Library structure.
Dean Stanley said, " The Bishop's palace opened on the grassy slopes
leading down to Allan, along whose steep banks was an avenue of trees,
still known by the name of the Bishop's Walk : and the library founded
by him yet remains alone of inhabited ecclesiastical edifices in Scotland
retaining a mitre over the door." ^
The Library was opened in the course of 1688, and since that time
various additions have been made to it by the liberality of private indivi
duals and neighbouring proprietors, as well as by the appointed Trustees
with the desire to render the collection of greater utility. The only
printed Catalogue is dated 1793, which has been revised at a later
period. Besides many valuable editions of the Classical and Patristic writers,
which can only now be had in very old Libraries, the following books
may be given as affording a general idea of the whole : — Constitutions
du Monastire de Port Royal : Arnauld's de la Frequente Communion :
Lettres Spirituelles de Cyran (3 vols.) : Kempis, Thomas A, Opera
Omnia (3 vols.), De Imitatione (4 editions of). These sufficiently illus
trate his interest in the Jansenists and the Brethren of the Common Lot.
The following may also be taken to illustrate his range of learning, from
among many others : — Amesius, (4 vols.), Andrewe's Sermons, Antoninus,
Aquinas Thomae, Opuscula Omnia, Armenii Opera, Augustini Opera
Omnia ; Bacon's Works ; Baronii Annates Ecclesiasticae, Baxter (3
vols.), Bede, Bellarmini Opera Omnia, Bibles in Latin, Hebrew, Spanish,
French, Italian, Boethius de Consolatione Philosophiae. Buchanan,
Breviarium Monasticum, Brief Account of Ancient Church Government
(1662), Buxtorfii Opera, Cabinet Jdsuitique, Calvini Opera Omnia,
Camus, P Esprit du Franqois de Sales, et la Charitee, Celsus, Chrysostomi
Opera Omtiia, Clavis Talmudica, Clavis Apocalyptica, Clemens
Alexandrinus, Concilii Tridentini Canones et Decreta, Corpus Juris
Canonici, Cypriani Opera, De Dieu, Grammatica Linguarum Orienta-
lium, Dionysius, Drexelii Opera (18 vols.), Drusii Opera, Eberi Brevis
Historia Populi Judaici, Epictetus, Epistolae Selectae Illustrium,
Virorum Centuriae, Epistolae Ecclesiasticae et Theologicae ; Epi-
phanius, Erasmus (10 vols.), Eusebii Opera, Forbesii Irenicum and
other works, Fuller, Gerhard, Gouge's Works, Gregorii Magni Opera
Omnia, Grotii Opera (16 vols.), Hammond's Works, Herbert's Poems,
Hilton's Scale oJ Perfection, Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, Hyde's
Catalogus Bibliothecae Bodleianae, Ignatii Epistolae, Opera Irenaei,
Isidori, Isocratis, Josephi Opera Omnia, Juelli Apologia Ecclesiae
Anglicanae, Juliani Imperatoris Opera Omnia, Justiniani sacratissimi
Principis Institutiones, Justini Martyris Opera, Lactantii Opera Omnia,
Le Combat Spirituel, Le Maistre, Instauratio Antiqui Episcoporum
Principatus, Lightfooti Horae Hebraicae et Tulmudicae (3 vols.), Lipsii
' See Notes and Queries (Third Series), ii: 4, 379: iv. 63, 118, 131, 174, 313.
" Church qf Scotland, p. II 3.

592 APPENDIX
Opera Omnia, Longinus de Sublimitate, Lucretius de Reruin Natura,
Maximi Tyrii Philosophi Platonici Dissertationes, Melancthonis Chroni-
con et Loci Communes Theologicae, Memorial de la Vie Chritienne,
Missale Romanum, Monumenta Litteraria, Henry More's Philosophical
Poems and Conjectura Cabalistica, Mori Thomae Utopia, Morini
Opera, Origen contra Celsum, Oweni Epigrammata, Pascal, Pensdes sur
la Religion, Bishop Hall's Peace of Rome, Philoni fudaei Opera, Platinae
Vitae Pontificum Romanorum, Platonis Opera Omnia, Plinii Epistolae,
Plotini Opera Omnia, Plutarchi Opera, Pmsis Philosophica, Poliandri
Synopsis purioris Theologiae, Politique du Clerge de France, Popery
absolutely Destructive to Monarchy, Collections of Prayers taken from
the Scriptures and Ancient Liturgy, Prudentii {Clem.) Opera, Psalmen
Boeck der Psalmen Net de Nieuve Nederlandsche Oversettinge, Psalters
(several), Religio Medici, Revii Historia Pontificum Romanorum, Revi
sion du Concile de Trente, Ribadaneira, les Fleurs des Vies des Saincts,
et Festes de Toute I'Annde, Rodriguez, Pratique de la Perfection
Chrdtienne, trad, par Paul Duez, Rosse's Arcana Microcosmi, Rosini
Antiquitates Romanae, Rous's Works (Mystical), 5 vols., Rutherford's
Disputation against Pretended Liberty of Conscience, Salvianus, de
Atnore Dei and de Gubernatione Dei, Savonarolae Vita et Opera,
Scaligeri Opera, Scougall's Life of God in the Soul of Man (1677),
Senecae Tragaediae et Opera Omnia, Sententiae Veterum Poetarum,
Silesii, Explicationes et Disputationes, Skene's Regiam Majestatem,
Sparke's Dialogues in Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, English, Portu
guese, High and Low Dutch, Summa Conciliorum Omnium (2), Ponti
ficum (3), furis Canonica, Jeremy Taylor's Works (15 vols.), Theologia
Germanica, Usher's Works, Via ad Pacem Ecclesiasticam, D'Andelly's
Vies des Saint es Peres des Ddserts, Vosii Opera, Xavieri {Hier.) Historia
Christi, etc., Baker's Sancta Sophia or Directions for the Prayer of
Contemplation, Leonis {Magni Romani Pontificis) Opera.
A reference to a visit of Lord Harley to the Leightonian Library on
May 15, 1723, will be found in the Harley Letters and Papers (vol. iv.
p. 114, Historical Manuscript Commission).
APPENDIX C
[Leighton's Mortifications to Glasgow.] I August 1677.
Inv. I. pi 95 Know all men by these presents, that I, Doctor Robert
Bundle 41, Leighton, late Archbishop of Glasgow, in Scotland, upon
No. 8. grave and serious considerationes by the tennour hereof
mortifie dote and appoint for ever the soumes of money following to
the ends and uses underwritten, to witt out of the rent that remains due
to mee of the Barony and Regality of Glasco for the crop and year
of God one th. sixe hund. seventy four I doe hereby appoint first that
James Anderson, Collector of the said rent for mee, shall retain twenty
pounds sterl. for so much already distributed by him toward the end

APPENDIX 593
of the said year to the poor of the town of Glasco upon my order, jj/^j';'
_. , I doe give and appoint out of the same rent one hundreth
"Next "or ^'^'-^ '^fty pounds sterl, to the Colledg of Glasco for the
" Item." yearly maintenance of one student in Philosophie in all
Paper is torn time coming during his foure years course in the said
"^'^^- Colledg. Item to the Hospitall in the said Burgh of
Glasco called the Hospitall of Nicolas or the Bishops Hospitall one
hundr. and fifty pounds sterl. for the standing maintenance of two poor
men yearly in the said Hospitall. Thirdly to the Colledg of Edenburgh
I give out of the same rents fifty pounds sterl. to be added to one
hundreth pounds sterl. formerly given by mee to the same Colledg, that
the rent of the whole together may bee for the yearly maintenance of
one student in Philosophie there during his four years course. And
for these intents and purposes I doe hereby appoint the said Collector
James Anderson to pay in the above-written summes, the last to witt
fifty p. sterl. to the thesaurer of Edenburgh Colledg, the other two being
each 1501b sterl., in all three hundr. pounds sterl., to the Magistrats and
Town Council of Glasco or to whom they shall appoint to receiv it in
their names, the whole to remain in their hands for the uses above said
of the Colledg and Hospitall in the said Burgh, they paying the yearly
rent thereof to the said student in the Colledg and the two poor men
in the Hospitall, and giving security for that effect to the Faculty of the
said Colledg and to those intrusted with the affairs of the said Hospital,
respective. And these above named summes being payd as said is
by the said Collector James Anderson shall be allowed to him as
sufficient discharges pro tanto in his accounts. As to the persones,
presenting to these allowances as they shall bee vacant after my decease
for the bursary in Glasco Colledg being vacant two are to bee offerd
to triall to the Masters of the Colledge, the one nominated by the
Archbishop of Glasco for the time being, and the other by the Magistrats
and Councill of the said Burgh and upon the testificate of the saids
Masters (who I hope will remember that they are to bee answerable
to God for their faithful! and impartiall report) hee of the two who
shall bee found the better qualified and more hopefull to proov an able
schoUar shall bee admitted to the said bursary : and if the said Masters
shall find neither of the two to be sufficiently worthy, then shall two
others bee offerd them and so on if need bee till they shall find one
with whom they doe testify themselves fully satisfid. And hee that
is thus approoved and admitted shall be obligd during his continuance
therein to bring yearly a new testificate under the hands of the saids
Masters both of his proficiency in learning and of his good conversation,
without which hee is not to receiv the benefit of it any longer but to
be cashierd and another after the aforesaid manner chosen in his stead.
And in case when this nomination of two for triall is to bee made either
the Arch Bishoprigg shall be vacant, or the Arch Bp shall neglect to
name one for that effect for the space of full three months after the
vacancy of the said bursary : then shall the said Magistrats and Councill
AL. ' 38

594 APPENDIX
name both the two, and after triall preferr the more deserving of them.
And if the said Magistrats and Councill shall neglect to name one
within the same space of time then shall the Arch Bp have power to
nominate both the two for triall and thereupon to admitt the fitter as
said is. And if both the Arch Bp and Magistrats shall neglect this
nomination full three months after the vacancy thereof, then shall the
Masters of the said Colledg put two or three or more as they shall
think fitt upon triall and out of them chuse and admitt the worthiest.
As for the two poor men for the Hospitall the said Arch Bp shall if
hee please chuse one of them out of the Barony and the saids Magistrats
the other either out of the Town or Barony as they please provided
alwaies that one of the two shall still be of the Barony. And I hope
they both will be carefull to chuse such as upon whom that litle charity
may bee best bestowd, both in respect of their indigency and good con
versation which is to be testified by the Minister of the Barony or some
of the Ministers of the Burgh, respective. And in case of the fayling
of the Arch Bp or Magistrats in chusing one as said is within three
months of the vacancy, the other shall have the right of it for that
time, after the same manner as is above sayd concerning the Bursary
of the Colledg. And in case of the neglect of both for the said time
the Ministers of Glasco and the Barony joyntly shall have power to
chuse pro ilia vice. As for the bursary of Edenborow Colledg it is
after my decease to bee in the hands of the Magistrats and Councill
of the said Burgh to dispose of it by nominating two or more as they
think fitt for triall be the Masters of the said Colledg and bestowing it
on him that shall by them bee testifid to deserv it best. And by all
means lett each of the above named allowances remain entire and not
bee clipp't to help out other smaller provisions either in the saids
Colledges or Hospitall nor divided betwixt more then two at once in
the Hospitall or betwixt two in the Colledges but remain one Bursary
for one onely at once as the Hospitall provision for two. And though
I have reason to suspect that this draught is not exactly sutable to the
legall stile and forms usuall with yow yet I hope that no informalities
or defects of that kind shall anyway prejudg the reall validity of it
for the effect to which it is intended. And for the more security I am
willing these presents be inserted and registrated in the Books of
Councill and Session or any other Judges Books within the Kingdom
of Scotland that the samen may remain therein for future memory.
And for this effect I mak and constitute my prorrs.
In witness whereof I have subscribed these presents with my hand at
Bradhurst in Sussex Aug. i Anno Do. 1677 before these witnesses : Mr.
Edward Lightmaker of Bradhurst, and John Fellin, Indweller there.
(Sgd.) wittnes Edw Lightmaker, John Felling witnes (sgd.).
R. Leighton.

APPENDIX 595
APPENDIX D
[The Bishop's Palace at Glasgow.]
The Episcopal Palace or Castle stood on the vacant space in front
of the present Infirmary, immediately south-west of the Cathedral.
The great tower, which formed the principal portion of the building,
was erected by Bishop Cameron about 1430, and nearly a century later
appears to have been augmented by Archbishop Beaton. On this tower,
M'Ure, the historian of Glasgow, informs us, " his arms are yet to be
seen (1736), with an escutcheon, ensigned with his crosier (pastoral
staff) behind the shield, surmounted of a salmon fish, the badge of the
Episcopal See, and his name above in great Saxon capital letters."
The entire structure of the palace was built of hewn stone and was
enclosed with an embattled wall fifteen feet high and ornamented at
certain points with the arms of Archbishop Beaton, who built the
addition about 15 10, previous to which the castle was defended by a
fosse with a drawbridge and portcullis. At the extremity of the south
east wall (which formed a slight angle inwards at the centre) fronting
the south-east and uniting with the east wall immediately southward
of the consistorial house formerly attached to the cathedral was
situated the main entrance or Gatehouse. This imposing structure,
the gables of which terminated at the roof in a flight of crow-steps,
was of square form, and displayed an embattled front flanked by two
circular towers, each of which contained an upright oblong compart
ment. This portion of the edifice was erected during the episcopate
of Archbishop Dunbar between 1524 and 1547. Its construction was
attributed exclusively to that prelate, but the presence of the insignia
of the Sub-Dean, conjoined with the Archbishop's coat armorial, must
be held as equally potent in supporting the claim of the Sub-Dean to
a share in its erection.
Extending in front of the castle wall on the south-east was the ancient
avenue leading to the cathedral, and is generally regarded to have been
the work of the first Archbishop Beaton. Notice of the " Bishop's
Garden," is found about 1268, but no notice of the Castle is found till
1290, and then only incidental. In 1571, says Buchanan, "The Hamil
tonians," went to Glasgow, resolving to demolish the Castle of the
Archbishop there, that it might not be a receptacle to the Earl of
Lennox, then returned out of England. The Castle at this time appears
to have been garrisoned by " a few raw soldiers (twenty-four in number)
unprovided of necessaries," and the governor absent. " Hearing, how
ever," of " a design speedily to relieve the Castle," " the Hamiltonians
raised their siege, and in great fear packed away." The Bishop's palace
was restored in 161 1 during the episcopate of Archbishop Spotswood.
"The Castle of Glasgow" is noticed by Hamilton of Wishaw, in his
" Description of the Sheriffdom of Lanark " as " the ancient seat of the
Archbishop of this sea built of polisht stone, and yet in good condition " ;

596 APPENDIX
by Slezer as "fenced with an exceeding high wall of hewn stone,"
looking " down upon the city " ; by Rae in 1661 as "a goodly building
was the church," " still preserved " ; and in Morer's account of Scotland
(1689) as "without doubt a very magnificent structure, but now in ruins,
and no more left in repair than what was the ancient prison, and is at
this time a mean dwelling." The date 1689 points to the tumults con
sequent on the abolition of Episcopacy, during which time the Castle
appears to have been partially demolished. About this time it became
the property of the Crown, and in 1715 was used as a temporary prison
for upwards of 300 Highlanders taken during the rebellion. In 1755
the magistrates of Glasgow granted permission to remove certain
portions of the Castle structure to aid in the erection of the Saracen's
Head Inn. And neglected and in ruins, the whole structure, with the
castle-yard and garden, were in 1791 granted by the King for the
purpose of erecting an Infirmary.
In ancient times all or most of the city was built near the Bishop's
Castle, and to the west of the quadrangular wall-tower constructed by
Archbishop Beaton " near the Bishop's Castle and palace " stood the
" Hospital of St. Nicholas, or Almshouse " said to have been founded by
"Bishop Andrew Muirhead 1455-1473." {Proceedings of the Society
of Antiquaries 0/ Scotland, Sessions MDCCCLIV.-VIL, vol. ii. pp
317-329O

INDEX

B

Abbey of Newbattle, 138-142.
Abbot (Archbishop), p. 24.
Aberdeen (Bishop of), pp. 5, 6 ;
Palace at, p. 7 ; Cathedral of, pp.
7-9 ; Western Towers, p. 9 ; and
King, p. 126.
Aboyne, p. 76.
Accommodation Movement, pp.
403-432, 450-2, 499-
Adamson (Principal), p. 50.
Adolphus (Gustavus), p. 138.
Aird (Rev. James), 254-264, 290,
337, 395, 399 et seq., 437;
Letters to, 481-4, 503-4.
Airy (Osmund), pp. 431, 4x5.
Allen Cardinal, p. 74.
Ambrose (St.), p. 81.
America (Influence of Scotland on),
548.
Ancram (Earl of), p. 180; Son
marries Countess of Lothian,
ibid.
Angelique (M^re), 85.
Anwoth, p. 117.
Arbroath (Abbey of), pp. 4, 6.
Argyll (Earl and Marquis of), p.
179 ; Policy of, pp. 196-200, 208,
324, 329 ; Duke of, p. 534.
Arminianism, pp. 22, 26, 119 ; and
Papistry, p. 119.
Arnauld, pp. 83, 85, 91.
Articles (Lords of), p. 325.
Articles (Thirty-nine), p. 563.
Asceticism, pp. 102, 103.
Ash Tree at Usan, p. 12.
Assembly (General), pp. 112, 113,
134, 248, 353, 468 ; Leighton on,
p. 473 ; and Liberty, p. 550.
Assertory Act, p. 421.
Aubigny (Lord), p. 329.
Augustine, pp. 79, 80, 81, 82, 84,
90, 95, 98, 276 ; Augustinus, pp.
89, 90, 91.

Bacon (Lord), pp. 31, 492.
Badenoch (Wolf of), pp. 3, 5.
BaiUie, pp.46, 117, 119, 127, 131,
160, 185, 194, 216, 247, 252.
Balmerins (Lord), p. 72.
Baptists and Toleration, p. 194.
Barbour (poet), p. 8.
Basier (Isaac), pp. 46, 489.
Baxter, Richard, pp. 309 ; and Sub
scription, pp. 314, 319, 322, 328,
404, 427, 499, 508.
Bell Inn, p. 511.
Benefactions (Leighton's), pp.
504-5, 582-594.
Benson's Tracts, p. 46.
Bernard (St.), pp. ^^, 81, 95, 97,
98, 139, 15t 276.
Bible (Douay), p. 75.
Bibliotheca, p. 585.
Bishops (Alex. Leighton on), p. 17.
Bishops (Scottish), pp. 113, 114,
329, 340-341, 342, 344, 355 ;
Letter of, p. 415 ; Grub on, p. 512.
Bishop and Presbyter, pp. 424, 442.
Blair (Dr., of Dunblane), pp. 4,
143, 353, 5ot 533, 538-9-
Blaikie (Professor), pp. 158, 535.
Bonaventura, p. 96.
Books and Laud, p. 24.
Bothwell Bridge, pp. 505-7.
Brechin (Chapter of), p. 5.
Briach (St. Church oO, i.
Broadhurst, p. 501, Leighton's Life
at, p. 502.
Broad Church, p. 158.
Brodie of Brodie, pp. 292, 303-309.
Brothers (of Common Lot), pp.
101-104.
Brown (Prof. John), p. 533.
Brown (Prof Hume), p. 498.
Browne (Sir Thomas), p. 493.
Brownism, p. 214.
Browning (Mrs. E. B.), p. i.

598

INDEX

Browning (Robert), pp. 46, 67.
Bruce of Kinnaird, pp. 51, 57.
Bruce, Robert P- 8.
Bruno (St.), p. 98.
Buckle, p. 81.
Buckingham, p. 22.
Bur (Bishop), p. 6.
Burgundy (Dukes of), p. 74.
Burnet (Archbishop of Glasgow),
pp. 413, 419, 433-
Burnet (Gilbert), pp. 52, 62, 64, 71,
72, 74, 76, 105, 160, 178, 209,
324, 334, 347 et seq., 418, S40.
Burroughs, p. 190.
Bute (Lady), Marriage of, p. 454.
Bunyan, pp. 42-3, no, 510.

Caird (Principal), pp. 105, 512, 557
Cant (Andrew), pp. 117, 138.
Carle (Hippolyte), p. 676.
Carnegie of Craig, p. 11.
Carrick (Rev. Mr.), p. 244.
Calvinism, p. 21 ; Laud its oppo-
nentp. 23; Dutch, p. 31; Influ
ence of, on Robert Leighton,
pp. 70-7 1 ; in Scotland, pp. 118-
120; Laud on, p. 119; Character
of, p. 120 ; Moderate, p. 152.
Calvinists, p. 22 ; Doctrinal Pur
itans, p. 25 ; and Jansenists, pp.
81, 83.
Calvin and Bishops, p. 119; and
Church, pp. 153, 499.
Cameron, Richard, pp. 508 , 567.
Cameronians, pp. 70, 508.
Campbell-Annabella — married 2nd
Earl of Lothian, p. 180.
Campbell (John McLeod), pp. 157,
211, 245, 512,536.
Canons (Book of), p. 122.
Cargill, Donald, p. 508.
Catechism (Robert Leighton's), pp.
57, 384-
Catholic (meaning of) to Leighton,
pp. 76, 77.
Cathohc, p. 149.
Catholic Church (Leighton and),
pp. 96-99-
Chalmers (Dr. Thomas), p. 67.
Charles I and Laud, pp. 26, 27,
28 ; and Episcopacy, p. 133; and

Montrose, pp. 198-200 ; and
Scots, p. 202.
Charles II, pp. 315, 320, 322,404,
477, 489, 492, 506, 552-
Charter by Leighton, p. 397.
Charteris (Prof. Henry), p. 50.
Charteris (Laurence), pp. 437-8.
Charteris (Professor), p. 570.
Cheapside, p. 39.
Cheyney (Dr. James), p. 76.
Chigi, p. 93.
Children (Leighton's love of), p. 398.
Chorley (Josiah), p. 485.
Chorleyana, pp. 484-7.
Christina (Abbess), p. 159.
Chrysostom (St.), pp. 82, 95.
Church and Bishop (Laud on), p.
25 ; Laudian Element in, p. 29 ;
Newman and, p. 150; Leighton
and, 151.
Church (Scottish), characterisitics
of, pp. 69-70 ; Elements in,
116-120; and Nationality and
Patriotism, pp. 135, 324.
Cistercians, p. 139.
Clanking Act P- 44i-
Clara(St.), p. 96.
Clergy (Presbyterian), Character
of, p. 350.
Clement VII (Pope), p. 94.
Cochrane (Sir John), p. 437.
Coleridge on Leighton's Style,
p. 162 ; on Thought P- 164 ; on
Works, pp. 512, 532.
Coltness Collections, pp. 361-2,
525-8.
Columba (St.), p. 273.
Colvell, William, pp. 72, 501.
Colville (William), pp. 218-9.
Commendator of Glasgow, p. 435.
Commissioners to Westminster, p.
186.
Commission (Assembly), pp. 181,
205.
Confessional, p. 80.
Conscience (Rule of), pp. 487-90.
Contemplation and Divine Love,
P- 503-
Conventicles, pp. 389, 434.
Court of High Commission, p. 30 ;
and Alexander Leighton, p. 41.
Covenanters and War Committee,
p. 129 ; Army, p. 131.
Covenant (National), pp. 124-126 ;
Confounded with Solemn League,
p. 186 ; and Leighton, p. 209.

INDEX

599

Covenanters, Tombs of, p. 344 ;
Arms of, pp. 491-4 ; Gardiner
on, p. 492.
Craig, Parish of, p. 1.
Crawford (Earl of), p. 323.
Creed (Restoration), p. 352.
Crichton (Chancellor), p. 7.
Cromwell and Leighton, pp. 218,
246 ; Character of, p. 247 ; and
George Fox, p. 266 ; and Moder
ate Episcopacy, pp. 313-315.
Crossraquel, p. 355.
Culross, p. 364.
Cunningham (Sir John), p. 437.
Cyran (St.), pp. 83, 84, 86, 88.

D
Dalhousie, p, 139.
Dallady, pp. 10, 11.
Dalrymple's Memorials, p. 72.
Dalziel, " The Muscovite," p. 417.
Dean of Chapel Royal, p. 115.
Declaration by Charles I, p. 27 ;
Resolution anent, p. 28.
Denys (St.), p. 98.
Deventer, p. 106.
Dickson (David), pp. 72, 117, 124,
216, 251.
Doctrinal Puritans, pp. 23, 24.
Doddridge (Philip), pp. 163, 512,
531-
Ddllinger, p. 568.
Donatists, p. 569.
Dort (Synod of), p. 21.
Douay, pp. 72-74, 78 ; Colleges
at p. 75 ; Leighton's Relatives
at PP- 77-78, III.
Douglas (Bishop), pp. 583-6.
Douglas (Robert), pp. 138, 187,
105,216, 324, 418.
Droit and Fait, p. 93.
Drummond of Hawthornden, pp.
180, 196-198.
Drunken Parliament, p. 325.
Dunblane (Cathedral), Laud on,
p. 115 ; Bishop Bellenden of, p.
1 15 ; and Leighton, pp. 329, 345,
354, 356-360, 362-6, 435 ; Bene
factions, pp. to, 504, 592, 594;
Records of, relating to Bishop
Leighton, pp. 575-581 ; Leigh
tonian Library at, pp. 582-592.
Dunfermline, p. 351.
Dunloppy, Parson of, pp. 10-14.

Durham, Dean and Chapter of
pp. 15-16.
Dysart (Lady), pp. 453, 458, 499-

Eckhart, p. 96.
Edinburgh Bishopric Created, p.
115 ; Old, 163.
Edinburgh College, pp. 49, 53, 62-
66, 592-3.
Edinburgh Council Records re
lating to Principal Leighton, pp.
293-302. ¦ _.,. ,, ;:.
Edinburgh (Leighton's Benefac
tions to), p. 504.
Edinburgh (Preslsytery of) p. 324.
Editors and Mutilation of Leigh
ton's Style, p. 161.
Edward I., p. 8.
Ejected Ministers, p, 439.
Election (Evidence of), p. 169.
Elgin, p. 5 ; Cathedral of, pp. 5, 6,
no.
Eliot (George), p. 137.
Elphinstone, Bishop, p. 9.
Engagement, p. 206 ; Unpopularity
of, p. 207 ; Leighton and, pp. 209,
228-31, 325-
England and Solemn League and
Covenant, pp. 187-95.
Epigram on Provost's Name, p. 54.
England (Church of), pp. 480-1 ;
Estimate of, p. 502.
Episcopacy and Calvinism, pp. 21 ;
and Laud, p. 25.
Episcopacy (Leighton's) p. 320 ;
(Low Church), p. 327 ; and
Scottish Mind, p. 330 ; Leigh
ton's Disappointment with, p.
334 ; Attempts at Modified, pp.
403-32 ; and Scottish People,
pp. 439, 507 ; Episcopacy and
Presbytery, p. 485 ; Divine Right
Theory, p. 547 ; Low Church
Form, pp. 554-66 ; Episcopacy
(Scottish)of James, pp. 112-14; of
Charles I, pp. 114-24; Associated
to People with Popery, pp. 1 1 4-20 ;
and Nobles, p. 116 ; and Clergy,
p. 117; and People, p. 118; Cal
vinism against, p. 119; Assisted,
p. 129 ; Thirty Years of, pp.
133-6; Liberal, p. 189; Limited

6oo

INDEX

pp. 192, 310-20 ; Not Heroic, p.
327 ; and Presbytery, p. 328 ; Pres
byteries and, p. 339 ; Restoration
of, pp. 346-52 ; Characteristics
of, pp. 351-4 ; Disappointment
with Leighton, p. 498 ; Stepping
Stone to Romanism, p. 508.
Episcopate (Leighton on), p. 523.
Epitome (Alex. Leighton's), p.;42.
Erasmus, p. 542.
Erastianism, pp. 456, 515.
Erastians of Assembly, p. 192.
Erskine's (Representatives of), pp.
533, 550.
Estimates of Leighton, pp. 360-63,
530-40.
Eternity (Preaching to), pp. 147,
171; cf pp. 233, 503-4.
Evangehsts (Leighton's), p. 437 ;
Impressions of, p. 439.
Ewing (Bishop), p. 555.

Fairfoul (Bishop), pp. 307, 331.
Fait and Droit, p. 93.
Fall (Dr.), pp. 161, 531, 589.
Fathers and Jansenists, p. 81.
Fergus, St. (Chapel of), p. i.
Ferrar (Nicholas), p. 544.
Flanders (Leighton in), p. 72.
Flint (Professor), pp. 144, 245, 512.
Forfar (Court at), p. 2.
Fox (George), p. 265.
France and Jansenism, p. 90.
Francis (St.), pp. ^^, 96, 97, 142,
151, 276.
French Catholics, p. 79.
French (Leighton's knowledge of),
p. 72.
Friends of God, p. 105.
Fuller (Andrew), p. 67.
Fuller on Laud, p. 24.
Fyvie (Prior of), p. 5 ; Church of,
p. 7.

Gardiner (Historian), pp. 40, 42, 47,
188, 327, 492.
Geddes (Jenny), p, 123.
Genevan Calvinism, p. 31.
Gibbon on Church, p. 548.
Gillespie (Patrick), p. 216.

Glasgow, pp, 113; Assembly, p.
127 et seq. ; Bishop's Palace at,
pp. 595-6; Leighton at p. 392;
Remonstrance of Synod, p. 419 ;
Leighton (Archbishop of), pp.
433-97 ; Address to, p. 459 ;
Council and Presbytery Records
relating to Leighton, pp. 494-7 ;
Leighton Resigns Archbishopric,
pp. 500-1 ; Glasgow Council on,
p. 501; Leighton's Benefactions
to, pp. 504, 592, 594-
Glascune (Feud at), p. 3.
Glencairn, p. 323.
Goodwin, p. 190.
Gordon (James), of Banchory, p.
109.
Gordon (Rev. Dr.), p. 178.
Gordon (Dr. Thomas), pp.241, 242.
Gouge (Dr. William), p. 33.
Grace, p. 85.
Graham (Archibald), p. 457.
Grant (Sir Alexander), pp. 49, 50,
537-
Grant, Mrs. (of Laggan), p. 344.
Gray (Andrew), pp. 100, 259, 281.
Greek Church (Fathers of), p. 81.
Gregory (St.), p. 97.
Greyfriars, Edinburgh, p. 124.
Grub (Dr.) on Scottish Bishops, p.
344-.
Guthrie (James), pp. 216, 32S.
Guthrie (WiHiam), p. 161.
Gutters, pp. 361, 487.

H

Haddock's Hole, p. 403.
Hales on Prayer Book, p. 189.
Hamilton (Bishop), pp. 307; 331,
464.
Hamilton (Duke of), p. 453 ; and
National Synod, p. 468 ; Party of,
P- 499-
Hamilton'(Marquisof), pp. 126, 127,
208
Hamilton (Patrick), p. 121.
Harnack (Professor), pp, 79, 92, 95,
545, 546, 566.
Harper (Sir John), p. 437.
Hastie (Professor), pp. 152, 156.
Hatch (Edwin), pp. 565, 567.
Hay of Craignethan, p. 281.
Heath (Attorney-General), pp. 44
47-

INDEX

60 1

Henderson (Alexander), pp. 117,
124, 128.
Henson (Canon), p. 513.
Herbert (George), pp. 521, 544.
Herkless (Professor), pp. 508, 535.
Herzen (Honorato), p. 88.
Heth (Daughter of), pp. 35, 38, 41.
Hierarchy, Prelatic, p. 36.
Hildebrandism (Presbyterian), p.
197.
Holland (Alex. Leighton in), pp.
20, 31 ; Robert Leighton in, pp.
Ti, 548.
Holmes (Wendell), p. 15.
Holyrood, pp. 115, 352, 356 ; Con
ference at pp. 440-2, 444-50.
Home Missions and "Brother
hoods " and " Sisterhoods," pp.
109, 544-5.
Horsted- Keynes, pp. 501, 511.
Huguenots, p. 95.
Hutcheson (Rev. George), pp. 418,
440, 443 ; Answer to Leighton's
' Proposals, p. 445.

I

Inchbrayoch Churchyard, p. 12.
Incomes of Scottish Bishops, p. 355.
Independents and Covenant PP-
190, 192 ; Witness for Toleration,
p. 194.
Indulgence (First), pp. 418, 434;
(Second), pp. 456, 462-4.
Innes, Bishop, p. 5.
Innes (Cosmo), pp. 139.
Innes (A. Taylor), on Future of
Presbyterianism, p. 194.
Innocent (X), Pope, p. 91.
Inquisitional Aspect of Presbytery,
p. 187.
Inverness, p. 3.
Irene (Drummond's), p. 197.

J

Jaffray (Alexander), p. 266.
James I and Laud, p. 26.
James VI, Ransom of, p. 6.
Jameson, Professor, p. 508.
Jansen, Bishop of Ypres, pp. 79, 83,
84. Author of Augustinus and
death, p. 84 ; Doctrines, p. 88,
90, 342.

Jansenism and Jansenists, pp. 78-
95 ; Christo-centric, p.79;Counter-
Reformation,p. 79; and Inner Re
generation, p. 80. Evangelical,
p 81. Cf with Protestants and
Methodists, p. 81; and Papacy
and Jesuits, p. 89 et seq. ; Rejec
tion of, p. 95 ; Influence on
Leighton, p. 95 et seq.
Jebb (Bishop), p. 535.
Jedburgh, 467.
Jerment (Dr.), p. 533.
Jesuits, pp. 80, 82 ; and Jansenism,
p. 90 «/ seq.
Johnston of Warriston, pp. 116, 128.
Jowett (Dr., of Balliol), pp. 67, 89.

K

Kempis, Thomas k, and Robert
Leighton, pp. 72, 100, 101, 102,
276, 587.
Kildrummy Castle, p. 3.
Kilmarnock, Meeting at, p. 443.
Kincardine (Earl of), pp. 440, 453.
Kinnaird, Lands of, p. 4.
ICinnimond, Bishop, p. 8.
Kirkton (Historian), p. 337.
Knox, John, pp. 112, 118, 339, 547.
Kuyper (Prof.), on Calvinism, p.
71-

Lady Iblispadin, pp. 11-14.
Laing, Dr. David, pp. 55, 57.
Lambeth, p. 47.
Lament's Diary, p. 247.
Laud and the Puritan Lecturers,
pp. 1 8, 20. Life of, pp 23-30; High
Church Ideas, p. 25 ; Named
Calvinists " Doctrinal Puritans,"
p. 25;,Views on Kingly Authority,
p. 27 ; and Charies I, pp. 27, 30.
His Ideas and Objects, ibid. ; and
Courts, pp. 29, 30; and Oxford, 30:
Archbishop of Canterbury, p. 30;
and Alexander Leighton, pp. 34,
47; Diary, pp. 39, 45 ; Regarded
his Opponents as Enemies of
God, p. 40 ; and Charles I, pp.
114, 124 ; and Calvinism, p. 119;
and Scotland, p. 121 ; Laudian
Party, p. 309.

602

INDEX

Lauderdale (Correspondence), p.
i6i ; Eari of, pp. 323, 330, and
Leighton, pp. 4 1 3, 4 1 8, 433, 434-6,
441, 452 ; Letters to, pp. 454-460,
499, 552.
Lecky (Historian), p. 96.
Lecturers, pp. 18-20.
Lees (Dr. Cameron), p. 8.
Leighton — Origin of Name, p. 3 ;
Arms of, p. 4 ; Leighton, Family
of, p. 3 ; Sir Richard, p. 3 ;
William de, p. 3 ; Sir William,
p. 3 ; Thomas of, p. 3 ; Walter
of, p. 3 ; Alexander de. Prior of
Torphichen, p. 4 ; Bishop Alex
ander de, p. 4 ; Sir David of,
Abbot, p. 5 ; Walter Lichton,
p. 5 ; Henry de (Bishop of
Moray and Aberdeen), pp. 5-9 ;
Restores Elgin and Erects St.
Machars, p. 6 ; Erects Towers of
St Machars, pp. 69, 1 10 ; John,
p. 10 ; Charged with Murder,
pp. 10-14 ; Last Connected with
Usan, p. II; Jurors and Commis
sioners, p. II ; End of, pp. 11-
14.
Leighton (Alexander, Dr.), pp. 11,
15-20 ; Father of Archbishop,
p. 15 ; Graduates at St. Andrew's,
p. 14 ; Approaches Dean of
Durham, p. 15 ; in England, p.
16 ; at Leyden, p. 16 ; Pub
lishes, p. 17 ; on Bishops, 18 ; a
Lecturer, 18; Retires to Holland,
20 ; Preaches at Utrecht, 31 ;
and Christian Year, p. 31; Letter
of, p. 32 ; Returns to England,
p. 33 ; Seizedat Blackfriars, p 33;
Imprisoned, p.34; Letters Seized,
34; and Laud, pp. 34, 41; and Star
Chamber, p. 37; a Hero, p. 38 ;
Rushworth's Account of Trial,
p. 38 ; Leighton's Confession, p.
39; Sentenced, pp 39, 40; Escape
and Apprehension, p. 39 ; Not
Present at Whole' Trial, p. 40 ;
Bearing of, p. 41; Wife, p. 41; in
Fleet for Ten Years, p. 43; Peti
tion of, pp. 43, 44 ; Resolution of
Parliament regarding, p. 44 ;
Character of, pp. 45, 46; Wife and
Family, p. 46;,Referencesto,and
Anonymous Works, pp. 46, 47 ;
Keeper of Prisoners at Lambeth
House, p. 47 ; Father of Robert

Leighton (q.v.), p. 48; Letters to,
pp. 55, 61 ; Imprisonment and
Death, 62 ; With Robert when
Latter Signed Covenant, p. 195 ;
Death of, p. 211.
Leighton, Robert and Usan, pp.
9, II, 12 ; Birthplace Unknown,
pp. 48, 49 ; Mother's Name Un
known, p. 49 ; Graduated, p. 49 ;
His Professors, p. 50; Influenced
by Rollock, p- 51 ; A Saint from
Youth, p. 52 ; Youth and Milton's,
PP- S3, 54 ; Epigram on Edin
burgh Provost P- 54 ; Letters to
Father, pp. 55, 61; Disposition to
Satire, p. 57 ; Influence of his
Mother, p. 57 ; Catechism, p. 57 ;
Step-Mother, p. 46; Letters to,
pp. 59-61 ; Father's Death, p. 62;
Abroad, p. 62 ; Course at
Edinburgh, pp. 62, 66 ; Un
seen in, p. 68 ; Emfjodied
Scottish Church Culture, p. 69;
Influence of Calvinism, pp. 70, 7 1 ;
Abroad, pp. 71, in; At Douay
and Flanders, pp. 72, 73 ; For
mative Influences a|t Douay, p.
76 et seq. ; On Grandfather,
76 ; Influence of Jansenism on,
PP- 78, 95 ; Influence of Jansen
and Jean du Verges on, pp. 63,
85, 95; and Catholic Church, p.96,
etseq. ; and Thomas ei Kempis,
pp. ioo-4;Views on Monasticism,
pp. 104, no; Inclination to Scot
land, p. Ill; Settles in Scotland,
p. 137; and St. Bernard's Move
ment p. 139 ; Works Written at
Newiiattle, p. 144 ; Charac
teristics of, pp. 144, 162; cfd. with
Newman, pp. 149, 153; Style, 160;
Examples of Style and Message,
pp. 162-177 ; and Presbytery, p. 1 78
et seq. ; and Earl of Lothian, p. 1 79;
Ordained,p.i8i; Signs Covenant
p. 195; and Argyll and Montrose,
pp. 198, 200 ; Letter to Earl of
Lothian, p. 203 ; and Parliament
and Presbytery, pp. 205, 220 ; Ad
monished, p. 209 ; Visits London,
2n;and Patrimony, 212; Chosen
to go to London, p. 216 ; Desires
to be Freed from Newbattle,
p. 216 ; Called to be Principal,
p. 217 ; Relations with his Pres
bytery, p. 218; Books bequeathed

INDEX

603

to Newbattle, pp. 242, 244 ; Prin
cipal of Edinburgh College, pp.
245-302 ; Catholicity of, p. 246 ;
Leighton (Robert) and Cromwell,
p. 246 ; Principal of Edinburgh
College, p. 247 et seq. ; Pro
ceeds to London, p. 252 ; Sir
Robert Sibbald on, p. 253 ; Let
ters of, pp. 254-266 ; Mysticism
of, pp. 272-280; Letters of, pp.
282-286; and Sir ElishaLeighton,
pp. 288-291; Letters, pp. 290-2 ;
Council Record and, pp, 293-302;
Transition from Presbytery to
Episcopacy, pp. 303-22; Objects
in. PP- 320, 322 ; and Sir
Elisha Leighton's Influence, p.
329 ; Ordination Views, p. 332;
Writes Lothian and Mr. Aird,
335-8 ; Disappointment of, p.
342 ; Method, p. 343 ; Separates,
p. 346; Defends Presbyterians, p.
347 ; On Restoration Church, p.
352 ; Dean and Bishop, pp. 355-
36o;Work at Dunblane,pp. 363-6;
Synodical Addresses,pp. 366-394;
at Glasgow, p. 392; and Heritors;
p. 395 ; Letters of, pp. 395-432;
Archbishop of Glasgow, pp. 419,
433 ; Letters, p. 434 ; Appeals
and Purging Committee, p. 437 ;
Appoints Evangelists, p. 438 ;
Holds Conferences, p. 440 «/ seq.;
at Paisley, p.'443; Holyrood Con-
. ference, pp. 444-450 ; Mr. Ward
Attacks, pp. 4 50-52 ; Letters to
Lauderdale, pp 454-80 ; on Sec
ond Indulgence, pp. 462-4 ; on
Western Difficulties, pp. 474-7;
Suspectedby Lauderdale, p. 478 ;
Resignation, Retirement, Death,
pp. 498- 516 ; Benefactions,
pp. 504-5; Death at London,
p. 509; Character, p. 512;
Leightoniana, pp. 517-29;
Tributes to, pp 530-540 ; and
Monasticism, pp. 541, 545 ;
Conclusions as to, pp. 546,
574 ; Leightonian Library, pp.
582-592.
Leighton (Sir Elisha), pp. 288-91.
Leslie (General), pp. 130, 132.
Library (Leightonian), pp. 582-92.
Lightfoot (Bishop), p. 546.
Lightmaker (Mr.), pp. 398, 517,
583-6, 593-4-

Little Land, p. 23.
Liturgies, p. 189.
Livingston (Sir William), p. 7.
Lothian (Earl of), presents Leighton
to Newbattle, p. 138 ; Leighton in
Sympathy with, p. 179 ; Covenant
ing Leader, p. 180 ; at New
castle, p. 201 ; Leighton's Letter
to, p. 203 ; Protects Leighton,
p. 210; on Leighton, p. 219;
Leighton's Letter to, p. 335.
Loudoun (Chancellor), p. 196.
Louvain, pp. 76, 79, 84, 90.
Luther, pp. 79, 82, 83, 473.

M

MacEwen (Professor), p. 550.
Machar's (St.), Cathedral, p. 6 ;
St. Mary's Altar at P- 6 ; Chap
lains at, p. 7 ; Chapel of St.
John, p. 7 ; Building of, pp. 8, 9,
no.
Mackenzie (Bishop), p. 342.
Mackenzie (Sir George), pp. 353,
530.
Magee (Archbishop) on Orders,
p. 107 ; on Preachers, 159.
Maidment, p. 340.
Maitland Treasurer, p. n.
Manning, Cardinal, pp. 78, 538-
Marcion, p. 79.
Martineau (Dr. James), p. 245.
Mary (Queen), p. 76.
Mary (St.), Chapel of, pp. i, 12.
Masson (Prof), pp. 18, 67, 117.
Maurice (Frederick), p. 559.
McKail (Hugh), p. 417.
McWard on Episcopacy, pp. 354,
360, 422, 450-2, 572.
Melville (Andrew), p. 328.
Memory (Robert Leighton's), p. 64.
Middleton-Commissioners,pp. 323,
343, 348, 350-
Miles (Henry), p. 351.
Millenary Petition, p. 21.
Milton and Alex. Leighton, p. 42 ;
Youth and Robert Leighton's,
PP- 53, 54, also 58, 67 ; on
Covenant, p. 194 ; on Ordina
tion, 561 ; and Usher, 565.

6o4

INDEX

Ministers (Characteristics of), p.
178.
Mitchell's Fanaticism, pp. 487, 493-
Mitchell (Bishop), p. 344.
Moderate Episcopacy, pp. 554-68.
Monasteries (Reformed Protes
tant), pp. 107-8 ; Leighton on,
pp. 108-10, 541-5 ; Harnack on,
p. 545-
Monk (General), pp. 215,249,324.
Monks, p. 510.
Monk's Cell, p. 104.
Monmouth (Duke of), pp. 502, 506,
507.
Montalembert p. 541.
Montrose, pp. 130, 180, 196 ;
Characterof, pp. 196-8 ; Position,
pp. 198-200.
Moray (Canon of), pp. 3-6.
Morley (John) on Churchmen, p.
23 ; on Leighton, p. 537.
Mount St Agnes, p. 106.
Murder at Usan, pp. 10-14.
Murray (Sir Robert), pp. 291, 418,
433, 453-
Musgrave (SirWilliam),pp.46, 214.
Mysticism, pp. 272-80.

N

Nairn (Mr.), p. 437.
Napier (Lord), p. 116.
Napthali, pp. 360, 487-9.
Neal (Historian), p. 45.
Negative Vote of Bishop, p. 442.
Neile, pp. 27, 28.
Neri (Phihp, St.), p. 149.
Newbattle — Leighton Ordained to,
p. 138 ; History and Description
of, pp. 138-143 ; Manse, p. 143 ;
Leighton's Works belong to New-
battle Period, p. 144 ; Work at,
p. 210; Leighton and, pp. 220-
24 ; Books left to Ministers of,
pp. 242-4.
Newcastle (Scottish Army at),
p. 201.
Newman and Leighton, pp. 149-
52 ; and Church, 554.
Nice (Council of), p. 413.
Nicolas (St.) Hospital, pp. 593-6.
Nicole, p. 83.

Nobles and Lairds (Scottish) and
Episcopacy, p. 116.
Nye, p. 190.

O

Ogilvy, Sir Walter, p. 3 ; Family of,
p. 4.
Orders (Leighton's Relatives in)
P- 73-
Ordination (Leighton and Milton
on), p. 333 ; Leighton's Example,
pp. 558, 572.
Orme, p. 9.
Oxford, pp, 24, 25, 30.

Paisley (Conference at), p. 443.
Papists and Robert Leighton, pp.
72,76.
Parish Churches, Absence from,
P- 351-
Parliament (Scottish), Leighton
Preaches before, pp. 205, 348,
419-21.
Parliament and Charles I, p. 28.
Parties, Three Church, pp. 68, 69.
Pascal, pp. 82, 83, 88, 155.
Patrimony, Loss of, pp. 212, 213.
Paul (St.) and Reformation, p. 79.
Peebles, p. 436.
Pentland Rising, p. 493.
Persecutions, Leighton on, p. 453.
Personality (Leighton's), p. 553.
Physicians, College of, and Alex.
Leighton, p. 16.
Plays, Alex. Leighton on, p. 17.
Pope (Sixtus V), p. 90.
Popes, Leighton on, p. 176.
Portrait of Alexander Leighton,
p. 47.
Port of Menteith Ordination, p. 581.
Port Royal, pp. 82, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88,
94, 95, 105, 277, 278, 545-
Prayers (Leighton's), pp. 271-272.
Prelate on Hierarchical Party, p. 21.
Alexander Leighton on, 34-37.
Prerogative (King's), pp. 325, 419.
Prerogative Kingly and Laudian
Element, p. 29.

INDEX

605

Presbyterianism and Parliament-
arianism, p. 34.
Presbyterianism (Scottish) Nation
al, p. 118 ; Calvinism in, 118-20,
135-6, 193-5- Influence of
English Puritanism on, p. 215 ;
English, p. 310 ; and Comprehen
sion: pp. 316-320; resists Episco
pacy, pp. 346, 348 ; Reasons for,
p. 349 ; and Liberty, pp. 547-552 ;
and Leighton, p. 558 ; Heroic,
PP- 573-4-
Presbytery and Leighton, p. 179
etseq. ; Intolerant, p.189, and Civil
Magistrate, p. 325 ; Attack on,
326 ; English Presfjyterians and
Charles II, pp. 404, 426 ; Leigh
ton Sits as Presbyter, pp. 496-7,
575-81.
Presbyter (Bishop Leighton as),
pp. 496-97, 575-81-
President (Fixed), p. 411.
Primitive Ages (Purity of), p. 73.
Primrose (Sir Archibald), p. 324.
Princes and Subjects, p. 27.
Privy Council, pp. 29, 1 1 5.
Probability (Doctrine of), pp. 80,
149.
Protestantism, p. 97 ; Leighton's,
pp. no, 175 ; Scottish, p. 508 ;
Genuine, p. 561.
Protesters, pp. 216, 248 308.
Puritans, pp. 15, 21, 22.
Puritan Spirit p. 148.
Puritanism and Laud, p. 24 ; Laud's
Opposition to, pp. 28-30 ; Influ
ence on Robert Leighton, p. 7 1 ;
and Catholicism, p. ^^.
Puritanism and Calvinism, p. ng.
Pym, p. 21.

Ramsay (Bishop), pp. 393, 457, 458.
Ramus, p. 63.
Ranke (Historian), pp. 80, 84, 86.
Rankin (Professor), p. 51.
Records(Presbytery) and Leighton,
pp. 220, 241 ; Glasgow and,
496-7 ; Dunblane and, p. 575-81.
Reformation in Scottish Church,
p. 112.
Registers of Douay College, pp.
n, 78.
Religion, Object of, pp. 120-1.
Renwick, p. 417.
Resignation (Leighton's), pp. 374,
392, 400-402, 435, 458, 464.
Resolutioners, pp. 216, 248.
Retirement (Influenceon Leighton),
p. no.
Romanism and Episcopacy, pp.
1 20-1 2 1 ; Hatred of, p. 548.
Re-ordination — none at Dunblane,
p. 364 ; nor in Scotland, p. 428 ;
Leighton on, p. 557.
Resolutioners, p. 138.
Restoration in Scotland, pp.323,325.
Revolution Settlement and Leigh
ton's Scheme, p. 513.
Ripon, Bishop of, p. 31.
Robinson (Independent), p. 191.
Rollock (Principal), pp. 51, 52, 57.
Ross, Archdeacon of, p. 5.
Rossy, Lands of, p. 3.
Rothes, Earl of, pp. 402, 413, 418,
507-
Rouse's Report regarding Alex.
Leighton, p. 44.
Row (Bishop), p. 514.
Row (Historian), pp. 33, 72, 331
341,342,349,360-1,436.
Royalists (Scottish), p. 341.
Rushworth, p. 38.
Rutherford (Samuel), pp. 117, 194,
J95-

Quakers, p. 265.

R

Rait on Pariiament and Assembly,
P- 133-
Ralph (Abbot), p. 140.

Sacrament (Leighton on), p. 172 ;
Neglect of, p. 423.
St. Andrews, pp. 15, 76, 113.
St Giles (Elgin), p. 5 ; St. Giles
(Edinburgh), pp. 7, 114, 251 ;
St. Giles (Durham), p. 16.

6o6

INDEX

St. John's (Aisle), p. 9.
St Peter (Commentary), p. 144.
Salton, p. 352.
Satires on Bishop, pp. 340-341.
Schism (Cause of), p. 189.
Scotch College at Douay, pp. 74-
78.
Scotland (Church of), p. 69 ; Ele
ments in, pp. II 6- 1 20 ; and Nation-
ahty, p. 135 ; Resolutioners in,
p. 138 ; Solemn League and
Covenant with its Influence, p.
186; Alternatives before, p. 193.
Scotland and Dutch Calvinism, p.
31 ; and Alexander Leighton, p.
42 ; and Calvinism, p. 71 ; and
Episcopacy, 116- 119; during
Cromwell's time, p. 248 et seq.
Scougal (Henry), pp. 276, 281 ;
Leighton's Influence on and
through, pp. 281-282, 323, 342.
Sedition, Sower of, p. 41.
Sermons (Leighton's), Selections
from, pp. 164-177 ; University
Addresses, pp. 266-270.
Sharp (Archbishop), pp. 307, 329,
33t 343, 347, 402, 413, 4^4,
452-4, 505.
Shotts (Revival), p. 120.
Sheldon (Archbishop), pp.329, 413.
Sibbald (Sir Robert), p. 253.
Simpson, p. 190.
Skiamachia, p. 197.
Skioch, St., Chapel of, pp. 1,2, 12.
Smith (Dr. Walter), pp.73, 74, 322,
356-8.
Solemn League and Covenant
Leighton Signs, p. 179; Essential
parts of, pp. 183-185 ; Effects of,
on Scotland, pp. 86 ; Compared
with National Covenant, p. 186 ;
Gardiner on, p. 188 ; Prevented
Conciliation, pp. 188-192; Alien
ates Independents, and Moderate
Episcopalians and Presbyterians,
p. 191 ; Milton on, p. 194; and
Montrose, pp. 196-198 ; Leighton
on,p.309;andPrelacy,p.3i7; and
Modified Episcopacy, pp. 403-
432 ; see Leighton's Letters : and
Episcopacy, p. 563.
Southesk, Earl of, p. 1 1.
Sovereignty (King's), p. 325.
Speculum Belli Sacri, p. 17.
Spiritual Independence, p. 549.

Spirituality (Leighton's), p. 145.
Spontaneity of Presbytery, p. 135
Spynie, Bishop, p. 6.
Stanley (Dean), pp. 69, 134, 344,
512, 534, 562.
Star Chamber, pp. ?9, iJ.
State and Church, p. 549.
Stevenson (Rev. Robert), p. 351.
Stewart (Robert), p. 209.
Stewart (Sir James), pp. 54, 76,
209, 361, 487, 525.
Stirling (Sir George), p. 397.
Stiriing (Helen), pp. 9, 13, 14.
Stirling (John), p. 487.
Story (Prindpal), pp. 327, 35 1 3535
Comprehensive Settlement pp.
513, 515 ; on Leighton, p. 535.
Stoughton (Dr.), p. 511.
Stuart Kings and Romanism, pp.
507, 548-9, 550-
Sunday (Leighton on), p. 517-
Superintendents (Knox's), pp. 516,
558, 560, 569.
Suso, p. 96.
Sydserf (Bishop), p. 329.
Symson (Matthias), pp. 352, 364.

"Tables," The, pp. 123, 127.
Tarbot (Viscount), p. 514.
Tauler, pp. 96,97,137,147, I59, 276.
Temple, p. 139.
Tennyson, pp. 137, 155.
Teresa, p. 97.
Theophilus Timorcus, p. 406.
Timelessness (Leighton's), p. 146.
Times, Preaching to, p. 233.
Times, Preaching up, p. 147.
Titles (Leighton and), pp. 415, 559.
Toleration (Leighton's), p. 157 ;
Cromwell's, pp. 247, 308.
Toleration and Anti-Toleration, p.
193 ; Leighton's, pp. 303-305.
Traces of Leighton at Newbattle,
p. 244.
Travel (Robert Leighton on), p. 62.
Trent PP- 79, 152.
Tron Kirk (Edinburgh), Leighton
Preaches in, p. 342.
Tron Church (Glasgow), Laureation
in, pp. 486-7.
Tulloch (Principal), pp. 49, 1 12, 512,
535 ; on Episcopacy, pp. 556, 568.

INDEX

607

Tulloch, Family of, p. 2.
Turner (James), pp. 402, 417.
Tweeddale (Earl of), pp. 418, 433,
440, 443, 453-

U
Ullmann (Professor), p. 106.
Unanimity (Christian), p. 175.
Uniformity (Act of), p. 328 ; and
Union, p. 570.
Union (IJaxter on), p. 540.
United Free Church, p. 568.
Urban, VIII (Pope), pp. 90-91.
Usan, pp. 1-14.
Usher (Archbishop) — Represen
tative of Comprehensive Church,
p. 189 ; Influence on, of Solemn
League and Covenant, p. 189 ;
His Reduction, pp. 193, 309, 320 ;
and Leighton, pp.320, 346 ; Possi
bilities of, pp. 351, 426, 499 ; and
Milton, p. 565.

V

Vacancies (Impossibility of Filling),
P- 455-
Verger (Jean du), of Gascony, pp.
83-84 ; or St. Cyran (q.v.).

Westminster Confession on Catholic
Church, p. 99.
Westminster and Solemn League
and Covenant, pp. 187, 309, 405 ;
and Moderate Episcopacy, pp.
562-7.
Westminster, Pillory at pp. 39, 41.
West Scotland and Episcopacy,
pp. 433-66, 474-7, 487-
White (Dr.), p. 554.
Will (Leighton's), p. 582.
William King and Comprehension,
P- 513-
William the Silent p- 561.
Wilhams (Bishop), pp. 22, 26.
Windesheim, p. 106.
Wishart (Bishop), p. 344.
Wishart (George), p. 121.
Witham (Mrs. Dorothy), of Kirk
connell, p. 78.
Wodrow, pp. 53, 72, 76, 161, 209.
Woods (Family of), p. 2.
Worcester, p. 216.
Wordsworth (Bishop), pp. 339, 536,
571-2,569, 573.
Wordsworth, pp. 16, 69.
Wyntoun, p. 3.

X

Xavier (Francis), pp. 77, 159.

W
Waldeve (Abbot), p. 140.
Wallace and Bruce, p. 135.
Wallace (Sir Thomas, p. 437.
Wentworth and Laud, pp. 20, 34.
Wesley (John), pp. 68, loi, 502,
512, 517, 524.
West pp. 144, 536.
Westminster Abbey (Scottish
Bishops at), 333.

Ypres, p. 78.

Zion's Plea, p. 20; and Parliament,
p. 31 ; and Laud, 33 ; Objects of,
pp. 34-7; Alex. Leighton, Author
of, p. 38 ; Dr. Harris on, p. 40 ;
Robert Leighton on, p. 59.

Butter <Sr= Tanner The Selwood Printing Wortis Frome and London

0095