Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/394

 fordshire. Returning to Edinburgh he was licensed a preacher of the church of Scotland in 1586, and admitted minister of the parish of Bothkennar, Stirlingshire, in August 1587, whence he was translated to the second charge of Perth in October 1595. He was a member of six of the nine assemblies of the church from 1596 to 1608. Although one of the forty-two ministers who signed the protest to parliament, 1 July 1606, against the introduction of episcopacy, he in 1608 attended the packed assembly regarded by the presbyterians as unconstitutional, and from this time concurred in the measures sanctioned by the royal authority in behalf of episcopacy. When present at court in London in the latter year, he was sent by the king to the Tower to deal with Andrew Melville, but as he was unable to influence him the matter was left to Bishop Spotiswood (, History, vi. 820). He was promoted to the bishopric of Galloway 31 July 1612, and was also made dean of the Chapel Royal. His character as delineated by Calderwood is by no means flattering, but the portrait is doubtless coloured by party prejudice. ‘He was,’ says Calderwood, ‘a man filled with self-conceate, and impatient of anie contradiction, more vehement in the wrong course than ever he was fervent in the right, wherein he seemed to be fervent enough. He made his residence in the Canongate, neere to the Chapell Royall, whereof he was deane, and went sometimes but once in two years till his diocese. When he went he behaved himself verie imperiouslie’ (ib. vii. 349). Spotiswood, on the other hand, was of opinion that he ‘affected too much the applause of the people.’ He died 16 Feb. 1619, and was interred in Greyfriars churchyard, Edinburgh. He had the chief part in the composition of the prayer-book completed in 1619, but never brought into use. His religious writings are much superior in style and in cast of thought to most of the similar publications of the time. In his lifetime were published: ‘The Anatomy of a Christian Man,’ 1611; ‘Three Treatises concerning Christ,’ 1612; ‘The Holy Alphabet of Zion's Scholars; by way of Commentary on the cxix. Psalm,’ 1613; ‘Good News from Canaan; or an Exposition of David's Penitential Psalm after he had gone in unto Bathsheba,’ 1613; ‘A Mirror of Mercy; or the Prodigal's Conversion expounded,’ 1614; ‘Dikaiologie; containing a just defence of his former apology against David Hume,’ 1614; ‘Sermon on Titus ii. 7, 8,’ 1616; ‘Two Sermons on Psalm cxxi. 8, and Psalm lxxxviii. 17,’ 1618. His ‘Works,’ among which was included ‘A Commentary on the Revelations,’ and to which was prefixed an account of his life, appeared in 1623, 2nd ed. 1629, 3rd 1726; and the ‘Triumph of the Christian in three treatises’ appeared in 1632.

[Life prefixed to his Works; Histories of Calderwood and Spotiswood; Thomas Murray's Literary History of Galloway, 86–101; M'Crie's Life of Andrew Melville; Keith's Catalogue of Scottish Bishops; Hew Scott's Fasti Eccles. Scot. ii. 614, 693.]  COWPER, WILLIAM (1666–1709), surgeon, was the youngest son of Richard Cowper of Petersfield in Sussex, where he was born in 1666. His name is sometimes spelt phonetically Cooper. From the evidence upon the trial of Spencer Cowper [q. v.], where he was called as a witness, it appears that he was not related to the chancellor's family. He was apprenticed to William Bignall, a London surgeon, on 22 March 1682, continued his apprenticeship under another surgeon, John Fletcher, was admitted a barber-surgeon on 9 March 1691, and began practice in London. In 1694 he published ‘Myotomia Reformata; or, a New Administration of the Muscles of the Humane Bodies, wherein the true uses of the muscles are explained, the errors of former anatomists concerning them confuted, and several muscles not hitherto taken notice of described: to which are subjoined a graphical description of the bones and other anatomical observations,’ London. To his copy of this work the author made manuscript additions and corrections, and prepared a short historical preface and a long introduction on muscular mechanics. Thirteen years after his death a new edition, with these additions, was published, at the charge of Dr. Mead, and edited by Dr. Jurin, Dr. Pemberton, and Mr. Joseph Tanner, a surgeon, with the altered title ‘Myotomia Reformata; or, an Anatomical Treatise on the Muscles of the Human Body,’ London, 1724. In 1696 Cowper was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1698 published at Oxford ‘The Anatomy of Humane Bodies, with figures drawn after the life by some of the best masters in Europe, and curiously engraven in 114 copperplates. Illustrated with large explications containing many new anatomical discoveries and chirurgical observations. To which is added an introduction explaining the animal economy.’ A second edition was published at Leyden in 1637. This work gave rise to a controversy with Dr. Bidloo, a Dutch professor, as to Cowper's use of plates taken from a book of Bidloo's on anatomy. Bidloo began by attacking Cowper in ‘Gulielmus Cowper, criminis literarii citatus coram tribunali nobiliss. ampliss. societatis Britanno [sic] regiæ per Godefridum Bidloo,’ Leyden, 1700 