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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: 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: 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: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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