was more anxious to obtain for his own conduct a partial sanction in his father's opinions than to represent them as they really stood.
We are not aware that Mr Spotswood is the author of any distinct or individual work. Such papers as he may have written, arising out of the business of the church courts, certainly do not deserve that name.[1]
SPOTSWOOD, John, archbishop of St Andrews, and author of "The History of the Church and State of Scotland," was one of the two sons of the subject of the preceding article. He was born in the year 1565, while his father, besides serving as parish minister at Calder, acted as superintendent of Lothian' Merse, and Teviotdale. Being a child of "pregnant wit, great spirit, and good memory," he was early taught his letters, and sent to the university of Glasgow, of which Andrew Melville was at that time principal. He studied languages and philosophy under James Melville, and divinity under his more celebrated uncle; but the opinions of these men respecting church government seem to have made no impression on their pupil. At the early age of sixteen he took his degrees, and when only about twenty, he was appointed to succeed his father in the church of Calder. In the various agitating disputes between king James and the majority of the Scottish clergy respecting the settlement of the church, the gentle and courtly character of Spotswood induced him to lean to the views espoused by the king, which were in favour of a moderate episcopacy, supposed to be more suitable than presbytery to the genius of a monarchical government.
In 1601, the parson of Calder was selected by the court to accompany the duke of Lennox as chaplain, on his embassy to Henry IV.; and it is said by the presbyterian historians, that he marked the looseness of his principles on this occasion, by attending mass in France, along with his principal. In returning through England, Spotswood had an interview with queen Elizabeth. When James proceeded to London in 1603, Spotswood was one of five untitled clergymen whom he selected to accompany him. On reaching Burleigh house, the king received intelligence of the decease of James Beaton, archbishop of Glasgow, who had lived in France since the Reformation; and he immediately nominated Spotswood to the vacant see. The new archbishop was at the same time directed to return to Scotland, in order to accompany the queen on her journey to London, and to act as her eleemosynar or almoner; an office, his biographer remarks, "which could not confidently be credited but to clean hands and an uncorrupt heart, such as his really was."
Holding as he did the second episcopal dignity in the kingdom, Spotswood naturally lent himself with great willingness to aid the policy of the king for the gradual reconstruction of that system in the kingdom. Tho measures adopted were cautious and prudent, but nevertheless highly unpopular; and for several years the archbishop of Glasgow was obliged to appeax- obedient to the ordinary church courts. At length, in 1610, the power of the bishops ex jure postliminii was restored; and the subject of this memoir, with the bishops of Brechin and Galloway, repaired to London, to receive the solemnities of consecration, which were conferred upon them by the bishops of London, Bath, and Ely. About the same time, Spotswood became the head of one of the two courts of High Commission erected by James in Scotland for the trial of offences against the church. He had previously, in 1609, been appointed an extraordinary lord of session, in accordance with the policy adopted by the king for giving influence and dignity to his ecclesiastical office, though it after-
- ↑ Abridged from a memoir of Mr John Spotswood, in Wodrow's Biographical Collections, printed by the Maitland Club.
