Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

LEIGHTON, ROBERT (161x—1684)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 399 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

LEIGHTON, See also:ROBERT (161x—1684) , See also:archbishop of See also:Glasgow, was See also:born, probably in See also:London (others say at Ulishaven, See also:Forfar-See also:shire), in 1611, the eldest son of Dr See also:Alexander Leighton, the author of See also:Zion's Plea against the Prelacie, whose terrible sufferings for having dared to question the divine right of See also:Episcopacy, under the persecution of See also:Laud, See also:form one of the most disgraceful incidents of the reign of See also:Charles I. Dr Leighton is said to have been of the old See also:family of Ulishaven in See also:Forfarshire. From his earliest childhood, according to See also:Burnet, Robert Leighton was distinguished for his saintly disposition. In his sixteenth See also:year (1627) he was sent to the university of See also:Edinburgh, where, after studying with distinguished success for four years, he took the degree of M.A. in 1631. His See also:father then sent him to travelabroad, and he is understood to have spent several years let See also:France, where he acquired a See also:complete mastery of the See also:French See also:language. While there he passed a See also:good See also:deal of See also:time with relatives at See also:Douai who had become See also:Roman Catholics, and with whom he kept up a See also:correspondence for many years afterwards. Either at this time or on some subsequent visit he had also a good deal of intercourse with members of the Jansenist party. This intercourse contributed to the charity towards those who differed from him in religious See also:opinion, which ever afterwards formed a feature in his See also:character. The exact See also:period of his return to See also:Scotland has not been ascertained; but in 1641 he was ordained Presbyterian See also:minister of Newbattle in Midlothian. In 1652 he resigned his See also:charge and went to reside in Edinburgh. What led him to take this step does not distinctly appear. The See also:account given is that he had little sympathy with the fiery zeal of his See also:brother clergymen on certain See also:political questions, and that this led to severe censures on their See also:part.

See also:

Early in 16J3 he was appointed See also:principal of the university of Edinburgh, and primarius See also:professor of divinity. In this See also:post he continued for seven or eight years. A considerable number of his Latin prelections and other addresses (published after his See also:death) are remarkable for the purity and elegance of their Latinity, and their subdued and meditative eloquence. They are valuable instructions in the See also:art of living a See also:holy See also:life rather than a See also:body of scientific divinity. Throughout, however, they See also:bear the marks of a deeply learned and accomplished mind, saturated with both classical and patristic See also:reading, and like all his See also:works they breathe the spirit of one who lived very much above the See also:world. His See also:mental See also:temper was too unlike the temper of his time to secure success as a teacher. In 1661, when Charles II. had resolved to force Episcopacy once more upon Scotland, he fixed upon Leighton for one of his bishops (see SCOTLAND, See also:CHURCH OF). Leighton, living very much out of the world, and being somewhat deficient in what may be called the political sense, was too open to the persuasions used to induce him to enter a See also:sphere for which he instinctively See also:felt he was See also:ill qualified. The Episcopacy which he contemplated was that modified form which had been suggested by Archbishop Ussher, and to which See also:Baxter and many of the best of the See also:English Nonconformists would have readily given their adherence. It is significant that, he always refused to be addressed as " my See also:lord," and it is stated that when dining with his See also:clergy on one occasion he wished to seat himself at the See also:foot of the table. Leighton soon began to discover the sort of men with whom he was to be associated in the episcopate. He travelled with them in the same See also:coach from London towards Scotland, but having become, as he told Burnet, very weary of their See also:company (as he doubted not they were of his), and having found that they intended to make a See also:kind of triumphal entrance into Edinburgh, he See also:left them at See also:Morpeth and retired to the See also:earl of See also:Lothian's at Newbattle.

He very soon lost all See also:

hope of being able to build up the church by the means which the See also:government had set on foot, and his See also:work, as he confessed to Burnet, " seemed to him a fighting against See also:God." He did, however, what he could, governing his See also:diocese (that of See also:Dunblane) with the utmost mildness, as far as he could, preventing the persecuting See also:measures in active operation elsewhere, and endeavouring to persuade the Presbyterian clergy to come to an See also:accommodation with their Episcopal brethren. After a hopeless struggle of three or four years to induce the government to put a stop to their fierce persecution of the See also:Covenanters, he determined to resign his bishopric, and went up to London in 1665 for this purpose. He so far worked upon the mind of Charles that he promised to enforce the See also:adoption of milder measures, but it does not appear that any material improvement took See also:place. In 1669 Leighton again went to London and made fresh representations on the subject, but little result followed. The slight disposition, however, shown by the government to accommodate matters appears to have inspired Leighton with so much hope that in the following year he agreed, though with a good deal of hesitation, to accept the archbishopric of Glasgow. In this higher sphere he redoubled his efforts with the Presbyterians to bring about some degree of conciliation with Episcopacy, but the only result was to embroil himself with the hot-headed Episcopal party as well as with the Presbyterians. In utter despair, therefore, of being able to be of any further service to the cause of See also:religion, he resigned the archbishopric in 1674 and retired to the See also:house of his widowed See also:sister, Mrs Lightmaker, at Broadhurst in See also:Sussex. Here he spent the remaining ten years, probably the happiest of his life, and died suddenly on a visit to London in 1684. It is difficult to form a just or at least a full estimate of Leighton's character. He stands almost alone in his See also:age. In some respects he was immeasurably See also:superior both in See also:intellect and in piety to most of the Scottish ecclesiastics of his time; and yet he seems to have had almost no See also:influence in moulding the characters or conduct of his contemporaries. So intense was his absorption in the love of (,od that little See also:room seems to have been left in his See also:heart for human sympathy or See also:affection.

Can it be that there was after all something to repel in his outward manner? Burnet tells us that he had never seen him laugh, and very seldom even smile. In other respects, too, he gives the impression of See also:

standing aloof from human interests and ties. It may go for little that he never married, but it was surely a curious See also:idiosyncrasy that he habitually cherished the wish (which was granted him) that he might See also:die in an See also:inn. In fact, holy meditation seems to have been the one absorbing See also:interest of his life. At Dunblane tradition preserved the memory of " the good See also:bishop," silent and companionless, pacing up and down the sloping walk by the See also:river's See also:bank under the beautiful See also:west window of his See also:cathedral. And from a See also:letter of the earl of Lothian to his countess it appears that, whatever other reasons Leighton might have had for resigning his charge at Newbattle, the See also:main See also:object which he had in view was to be left to his own thoughts. It is therefore not very wonderful that he was completely misjudged and even disliked both by the Presbyterian and by the Episcopal party. It was characteristic of him that he could never be made to understand that anything which he wrote possessed the smallest value. None of his works were published by himself, and it is stated that he left orders that all his See also:MSS. should be destroyed after his death. But fortunately for the world this charge was disregarded. Like all the best See also:writing, it seems to flow without effort; it is the easy unaffected outcome of his saintly nature.

Throughout, how-ever, it is the language of a See also:

scholar and a See also:man of perfect See also:literary See also:taste; and with all its spirituality of thought there are no mystical raptures, such as are often found mingled with the Scottish See also:practical See also:theology of the 17th See also:century. It was a See also:common reproach against Leighton that he had leanings towards Roman Catholicism, and perhaps this is so far true that he had formed himself in some degree upon the See also:model of some of the saintly persons of that faith, such as See also:Pascal and See also:Thomas a Kempis. The best account of Leighton's character is that of Bishop Burnet in Hilt. of his Own Times (1723—1734). No perfectly satisfactory edition of Leighton's works exists. After his death his Commentary on See also:Peter and several of his other works were published under the editorship of his friend Dr Fall, and those early See also:editions may be said to be, with some drawbacks, by far the best. His later editors have been possessed by the See also:mania of reducing his good archaic and See also:nervous language to the bald feebleness of See also:modern phraseology. It is unfortunately impossible to exempt from this See also:criticism even the edition, in other respects very valuable and meritorious, published under the superintendence of the Rev. W. West (7 vols., London, 1869—1875); see also See also:volume of selections (with See also:biography) by Dr See also:Blair of Dunblane (1883), who also contributed " Bibliography of Archbishop Leighton " to the See also:British and See also:Foreign Evangelical See also:Review (See also:July 1883); See also:Andrew See also:Lang, See also:History of Scotland (1_902). (J. T. BR.; D.

End of Article: LEIGHTON, ROBERT (161x—1684)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
LEIGHTON, FREDERICK LEIGHTON, BARON (183o–1896)
[next]
LEININGEN