Gilbert Burnet

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Gilbert Burnet bigraphy, stories - British bishop

Gilbert Burnet : biography

18 September 1643 – 17 March 1715

Gilbert Burnet (18 September 1643 – 17 March 1715) was a Scottish theologian and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury. He was fluent in Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Burnet was respected as a cleric, a preacher, and an academic, as well as a writer and historian. He was associated with the Whig party.Martin Greig, ‘’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 12 December 2009.

Family

He married several times, once to Lady Margaret Kennedy, daughter of John Kennedy, 6th Earl of Cassilis.Burnet, Gilbert Bishop Burnet’s History of His Own Time, ed. M. J. Routh (1823):, His sons included William Burnet and Gilbert Burnet. His daughter Elizabeth married Richard West a distinguished lawyer who became Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and was the mother of Richard West the younger, the poet and friend of Thomas Gray.

Influential close relatives include Burnet’s mother’s brother Archibald Johnston and his son James Johnston (Secretary of State).

Glorious Revolution

William landed at Torbay on 5 November. When Burnet came ashore he hastened to William and eagerly inquired of what William now intended to do. William regarded the interference in military matters by non-military personnel with disgust but he was in good humour at this moment and responded with a delicate reproof: "Well, Doctor, what do you think of predestination now?"Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second. Popular Edition in Two Volumes. Volume I (London: Longmans, 1889), p. 565.

Burnet was appointed to preach the coronation sermon, on 11 April 1689.

Notes

Early life: 1643–1674

Burnet was born at Edinburgh, Scotland in 1643, the son of Robert Burnet, Lord Crimond, a Royalist and Episcopalian lawyer, who became a judge, and of Rachel Johnston, the sister of Johnston of Warristoun, a leader of the Covenanters. His father was his first tutor until he began his studies at the University of Aberdeen, where he earned a Master of Arts in Philosophy at the age of thirteen. He studied law briefly before changing to theology, and earned his Doctor of Divinity by the age of eighteen. He did not enter into the ministry at that time, but travelled for several years. He visited Oxford, Cambridge, London, the United Provinces and France. He studied Hebrew under a Rabbi in Amsterdam. By 1665 he returned to Scotland and was ordained in the Episcopal Church by the Bishop of Edinburgh.

He began his ministry in the rural church at East Saltoun, East Lothian, and served this community devoutly for four years. In 1669, without his asking or even consent, he was named to the vacant chair of Divinity at the University of Glasgow. At first he declined, since his congregation unanimously asked him to remain. But, when Bishop of Edinburgh Leighton urged him, he accepted the post. He was later offered, but declined, a Scottish bishopric.

Personality

Thomas Babington Macaulay describes Burnet in relation to the king he served, William of Orange: When the doctor took liberties, which was not seldom the case, his patron became more than usually cold and sullen, and sometimes uttered a short dry sarcasm which would have struck dumb any person of ordinary assurance. In spite of such occurrences, however, the amity between this singular pair continued, with some temporary interruptions, till it was dissolved by death. Indeed it was not easy to wound Burnet’s feelings. His self-complacency, his animal spirits, and his want of tact, were such that, though he frequently gave offence, he never took it.—History of England, Vol. 2, Ch 7.

Bishop of Salisbury

On Easter 1689, Burnet was consecrated Bishop of Salisbury and three days later was sworn as chancellor of the Order of the Garter. His office as bishop is noted for his liberal views and zealous discharge of duty. He was present at King William’s deathbed. He was out of royal favour in the reign of Queen Anne. He was nominated by John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury, to write answers to the works sponsored by the Tillotson’s friend, the Socinian businessman and philanthropist Thomas Firmin, who was funding the printing of Socinian tracts by Stephen Nye. Yet neither Burnet nor Tillotson was entirely unsympathetic to non-conformism. Of the Athanasian Creed, the new Archbishop of Canterbury wrote to the new Bishop of Salisbury "I wish we were well rid of it".Leonard Williams Levy Blasphemy: verbal offense against the sacred, from Moses to Salman Rushdie p 230