Robert Baillie
| Robert Baillie | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1602 Glasgow, Scotland |
| Died | August 1662 Glasgow, Scotland |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Known for | Presbyterian leader and author |
| Notable work | Letters |
Robert Baillie (30 April 1602 – 1662) was a Scottish divine and historical writer.
Baillie was born at Glasgow, the son of Baillie of Jerviston. Having graduated there in 1620, he gave himself to the study of divinity. In 1631, after Baillie was ordained into the Church of Scotland, acting for some years as regent in the university, he was appointed to the living of Kilwinning in Ayrshire. His abilities soon made him a leading man. In 1638 he was a member of the Glasgow Assembly, when Presbyterianism was re-established in Scotland, and soon after he accompanied Leslie and the Scottish army as chaplain or preacher. In 1642, Baillie was made Professor of Divinity, Glasgow, and in the following year was selected as one of the five Scottish clergymen who were sent to the Westminster Assembly.
In 1649, he was one of the commissioners sent to Holland for the purpose of inviting Charles II to Scotland, and of settling the terms of his admission to the government. He continued to take an active part in all the minor disputes of the church. In 1651, he was made Professor of Divinity in Glasgow University, and in 1661 was made principal. He died in August of the following year, his death likely hastened by his mortification at the apparently firm establishment of episcopacy in Scotland.
Baillie was a man of learning and ability; his views were wise and temperate rather than extreme, and he played but a secondary part in the stirring events of the time. His Letters, by which he is now chiefly remembered, are of first-rate historical importance, and give a very lively picture of a period of great importance in Scottish history.
A complete memoir and a full notice of his writings can be found in David Laing's edition of the Letters and Journals of Robert Baillie (1637–1662), Bannatyne Club, 3 vols. (Edinburgh, 1841–1842). Among his works are Ladensium αὐτοκατάκρισις, an answer to Lysimachus Nicanor by John Corbet in the form of an attack on Laud and his system, in reply to a publication which charged the Covenanters with Jesuitry; Anabaptism, the true Fountain of Independency, Brownisme, Antinomy, Familisme, etc., a sermon [in which he criticises the rise of the early Baptist churches in England such as those led by Thomas Lambe]; An Historical Vindication of the Government of the Church of Scotland; The Life of William (Laud) now Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Examined (London, 1643); A Parallel of the Liturgy with the Mass Book, the Breviary, the Ceremonial and other Romish Rituals (London, 1661).
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