Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/507

 10 s. x. NOV. 21, 1908.1 NOTES AND QUERIES.

419

" PORTIONS " : " PENSIONS " (10 S. x. 310, 358). In Funk & Wagnalls's dictionary the following definition is given of "pension": " In the Anglican Ch. A sum paid a clergyman in lieu of tithes."

R. VAUGHAN GOWER.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

A Life of Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury. By T. E. S. Clarke and H. C. Foxcroft. With an Intro- duction by C. H. Firth. (Cambridge, University Press.)

THE careers of few persons who have secured for themselves a marked position in our history have led to more controversy than that of Gilbert Burnet, the Scottish minister who ended his career as Bishop of Salisbury. So complex is the history of the days during which he was an active force that Whigs, Tories, and Jacobites may alike be pardoned for the praise and blame which they have showered upon his memory. We may say without any exag- geration that the present volume is the only one we nave encountered that shows a commendable desire to avoid partisanship ; and even here the authors, we believe, have not fully succeeded in their endea- vour to give a portrait of the man as he lived. Before that can be accomplished present contro- versies must have become things of the past, so as to make it possible for us to look back on the times between the Restoration and the battle of Culloden with the undisturbed calm that surrounds us when we contemplate the wars of the Danish and Norman invasions. We hope that before that time arrives the career of the great bishop for such he was in the eyes of his contemporaries will be dealt with as a psychological as well as an historical study, for if it be true, as has been stated, that he visited on pilgrimage what was known as the place of martyr- dom in Smithfield, there must have been a crossing of forces in the mind of this ardent " modernist," and for a time mediaeval ideas were reacting on his imagination.

Gilbert Burnet was the nephew of Archibald Johnston, Lord Warriston, a learned lawyer and one of those who took a great part in drawing up the National League and Covenant. The future bishop was, we believe, influenced in several directions by his fanatic relative, but that did not hinder him from giving us his mind with consider- able freedom. Warriston had, we are told, " the

temper of an inquisitor in him but after all that

appeared in his public actions, he was a sincere and self-denying enthusiast'- a blend which has in past times caused widespread suffering out of all proportion to its utility.

Ordained as Burnet had been by a Scottish bishop, it was by no means an act of apostasy, though it might be somewhat singular, for him to receive preferment in the Anglican Communion ; but we do not believe that he ever held the doctrines of the English Church as they were received by the majority of its clergy. His literary career began early. He was but twenty-three when he held the living of Saltoun in Scotland, and there wrote ' A

Memorial of Diverse Grievances in this Church,'

which was shown to acquaintances, and it may be circulated, as soon as written, though we believe

that it was not printed till a few years ago. Much' that occurs therein may have been true in a limited sense, but as Mr. Clarke, the present minister of Saltoun, says, " it is greatly marred by a colossal self-conceit." What Burnet's motive can have been for writing such an offensive document we can but guess. Vain as he was, and vain as he continued to- be during his whole life, that is not sufficient to- account for it. It is easy to attribute to the young man unworthy motives ; but there is another view of the situation which may not unreasonably be- taken. The foundation and much of the super- structure had undoubtedly much truth in it. We cannot excuse its one-sided violence, but it may be- that in the disturbed state of the country Burnet was sincerely anxious to do good by what to us in a milder age seems a tissue of invectives. He was summoned to answer for what he had done before the bishops, and received a severe censure for his " pride, vanity, and insolency." Archbishop Sharp was sterner than the others ; he alone, as it appears, advocated deposition, and, when thi* could not be carried, vacated his place in the- meeting.

Burnet's first wife was married secretly, and this- strange and, as it seems, unnecessary action wa& strongly censured, and was probably the chief, if not the only reason why his appointment to the- office of preacher at the Rolls Chapel caused scandal' and indignation. This was, so far as we know,.. Burnet's first English appointment, and he seem& to have held it about ten years.

It is impossible, in the space at our command, to- follow Burnet during the turmoil of the Revolution, period. He had changed his opinions, or, it may be safer to say, his expression of them was altered. He was not now an adherent of divine right, and 1 we think it clear that in his mind the displacement of James II. was hoped for, and indeed assured, long before there were any signs thereof except private murmurings. It is not surprising to find Burnet employing himself as a secret agent abroad. There is no sufficient evidence as to his doings in Holland and Germany. We know, however, from his whole career, that he was an untiring worker ; and if he could for so long a time restrain his loquacity, he must have been of great use to the future king. Whatever his services amounted to William, when King of England, appreciated their value, for the See of Salisbury was Burnet's reward. How he managed the affairs of his diocese has been, and still is, matter of controversy.

Of Burnet's many literary works the authors have given a carefully compiled catalogue. To criticize them would require a considerable volume. That they are careless, arid in many cases inaccurate productions, is evident; and when he treated of his own time, and especially of transactions in which he had taken a part, his vanity is painfully conspicuous. His style, even apart from the statements enshrined in it, has long been open to criticism. We agree with those who regara it as at times both lax and cumbrous.

IN Messrs. Longman's "Pocket Library" the English translation of Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology by Prof. Mackail is now out, a companion to the Greek text issued in the same form. The Professor's delicate and tasteful prose will bear reading by itself, and is worthy to rank with the best renderings of classical authors in English.