Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 07.djvu/414

Burnet before it was known. Upon the publishing of it she retired to Edinburgh, condoling her own case and her present misfortunes’ ( Memorials). It is asserted (, p. 315) that she expected Lauderdale to marry her on the death of his first wife, and that through anger at her disappointment she induced Burnet to join the attack upon him when impeached by the House of Commons, and to disclose facts and conversations which might help to ruin him. For this charge also it is impossible to find any evidence worthy of the name, and Burnet himself accounts for his knowledge and action in the matter on totally different grounds. The date of her death is uncertain, but it must have been before 1686, as we find that in that year Burnet was reported as being about to marry a second time (History of my own Time, vi. 284).

[Authorities cited above.]  BURNET, THOMAS (1632?–1715?), physician, was son of Robert Burnet, lawyer and advocate of Edinburgh, and was thus brother of Gilbert Burnet, bishop of Salisbury [q. v.] He must have been born between 1630 and 1640 (the date 1632 is given in Billings's ‘Catalogue of Surgeon-General's Library, U.S.,’ but on what authority does not appear). He studied and graduated in medicine at Montpellier, being already M.A., and the theses which he defended for his degree on 26–28 Aug. 1659 show that his medical knowledge was mainly based upon Galen and Hippocrates. He returned to Edinburgh and practised there. Burnet is named in the original charter of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, granted in 1681, as a fellow. He was physician to Charles II, and apparently to his successor; certainly also to Queen Anne. He was knighted some time before 1691, and died, it is stated, in 1715. His son, Thomas Burnet, graduated M.D. at Leyden in 1691. Burnet was an eminent physician in his day, and his reputation was spread all over Europe by his books, especially by the ‘Thesaurus Medicinæ,’ which was very often reprinted, and was evidently a useful compendium of the knowledge of the time. An abridgment was published by the author himself in 1703. His ‘Hippocrates Contractus’ is an abridgment in Latin of the most important works of Hippocrates. He wrote: ‘Currus Iatrikus triumphalis, &c. … ad Apollinarem laudem consequendam’ (theses for obtaining a license), Montpel. 1659, 4to; and ‘Quæstiones quatuor cardinales pro supremâ Apollinari daphne consequenda,’ ibid. 1659, 4to (for doctor's degree). They are in Brit. Mus. Library. ‘Thesaurus Medicinæ practicæ ex præstantissimorum medicorum observationibus collectus,’ London, 1672, 4to. Other editions are given, viz. London, 1673, 1685; Geneva, 1697, 1698, 12mo, edited by Dan. Puerarius (two vols.). ‘Thesauri Medicinæ practicæ breviarium,’ Edin. 1703, 12mo. ‘Hippocrates Contractus,’ s. l. (Edin.?) 1685, 12mo; London, 1686, 12mo; Venice, 1733, 1737, 1751, 8vo; Strasburg, 1765, 8vo. It has not been found possible to verify the existence of all the above-named editions.

[Historical Sketch of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, 1882; Life of Bishop Gilbert Burnet (by his son) in his History of my own Time; Burnet's Works.]  BURNET, THOMAS (1635?–1715), master of the Charterhouse, was born about 1635, at Croft in Yorkshire, educated at the free school of Northallerton, under Thomas Smelt, who held him up as a model to later pupils, and admitted at Clare Hall, Cambridge (26 June 1651) as a pupil of Tillotson. When Cudworth, in 1654, gave up the mastership of Clare Hall for that of Christ's College, Burnet followed him. He became fellow of Christ's in 1657, M.A. in 1658, and was proctor in 1667. He travelled with Lord Wiltshire, son of the Marquis of Winchester, and afterwards (1689) Duke of Bolton, and with Lord Orrery, grandson of the first Duke of Ormonde. The influence of the Duke of Ormonde, one of the governors, secured his appointment in 1685 to the mastership of the Charterhouse, in spite of complaints that, though in orders, he wore a ‘lay habit.’ He took part in the resistance offered to James II's attempt to make a Roman catholic, Andrew Popham, pensioner of the Charterhouse. At two meetings held by the governors 17 Jan. and Midsummer day 1687, the king's letters of dispensation were produced, but, in spite of the efforts of Jeffreys, one of the governors, the majority refused compliance. After the revolution Burnet became chaplain in ordinary and clerk of the closet to William, and Oldmixon asserts (History, i. 95) that he was thought of as the successor of his friend Tillotson in the primacy, but passed over because the bishops doubted his orthodoxy. He afterwards lived quietly in the Charterhouse, where he died on 27 Sept. 1715, and was buried in the chapel. His will was printed by Curll. Burnet is known as the author of some books of considerable eloquence, and interesting for their treatment of questions which have since been discussed by theologians and men of science. Warton, in his ‘Essay on Pope’ (i. 115, 266), thinks that he combined an imagination nearly equal to Milton's with solid powers