Gilbert Burnet


Gilbert Burnet was a Scottish philosopher and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury. He was fluent in Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Burnet was highly respected as a cleric, a preacher, an academic, a writer and a historian. He was always closely associated with the Whig party, and was one of the few close friends in whom King William III confided.

Early life: 1643–1674

Burnet was born at Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1643, the son of Robert Burnet, Lord Crimond, a Royalist and Episcopalian lawyer, who became a judge of the Court of Session, and of his second wife Rachel Johnston, daughter of James Johnston, and sister of Archibald Johnston of Warristoun, a leader of the Covenanters. His father was his first tutor until he began his studies at the University of Aberdeen, where he earned a Master of Arts in Philosophy at the age of thirteen. He studied law briefly before changing to theology. He did not enter into the ministry at that time, but travelled for several years. He visited Oxford, Cambridge, London, the United Provinces and France. He studied Hebrew under a Rabbi in Amsterdam. By 1665 he returned to Scotland and was ordained in the Church of Scotland by the bishop of Edinburgh. In 1664 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
He began his ministry in the rural church at East Saltoun, East Lothian, and served this community devoutly for four years. In 1669, without his being asked, he was named to the vacant chair of Divinity at the University of Glasgow. At first he declined, since his congregation unanimously asked him to remain at East Saltoun; but, when the Bishop of Edinburgh, Leighton, urged him, he accepted the post. He was later offered, but declined, a Scottish bishopric.
In 1672 or 1673 he privately married Lady Margaret Kennedy, daughter of the Earl of Cassilis, who was many years his senior. The great differences between the couple in age, rank and fortune caused them to keep the marriage secret for a considerable time. Burnet's motives for marriage were certainly not mercenary, as he entered into what has been described as an early form of "pre-nuptial agreement" by which he renounced any claim to his wife's money. Burnet himself recalled that they had been good friends for several years, but that in his view such a close friendship between a single man and a single woman could not continue indefinitely unless they married. The marriage seems to have been happy, despite their lack of children, which Burnet regretted. He was to have numerous children by later marriages.

London: 1674–1685

In view of the unsettled political times, he left the university in 1674 and moved to London. In London, his political and religious sentiments prompted him to support the Whigs. His energetic and bustling character led him to take an active part in the controversies of the time, and he endeavoured to bring about a reconciliation between Episcopacy and Presbytery.
At Court, where his brother Thomas was a royal physician, he gained the favour of Charles II, from whom he received various preferments. He described Charles shrewdly as a man who, despite his affable manner and famed courtesy, was at heart the archetypal cynic: "he has a very ill opinion of men and women, and so is infinitely distrustful... he thinks the world is governed wholly by interest". Burnet noted fairly that this attitude was quite understandable, given the King's experiences in the English Civil War and the Interregnum, which had shown him when he was still very young the "baseness of human nature". Like many other observers he noted Charles's remarkable self-control: "he has a strange command of himself: he can pass from business to pleasure, and from pleasure to business, in so easy a manner that all things seem alike to him." He also recorded some of the King's most memorable sayings, such as "Appetites are free, and Almighty God will never damn a man for allowing himself a little pleasure".

The Popish Plot

During the Popish Plot, when Queen Catherine was accused of treason,, the King confided to Burnet his feelings of guilt about his ill-treatment of the Queen, "who is incapable of doing a wicked thing", his resolve not to abandon her, and his wish to live a more moral life in future. Burnet, for his part, told the King frankly that he was wrong to believe that the Earl of Shaftesbury had any part in the charges of treason made against the Queen: Shaftesbury, who was well aware of the Queen's great popularity with the English ruling class, was simply too shrewd a statesman to make such a serious political misjudgment.
As regards the reality of the Plot itself, while the King quickly became a total sceptic on the subject, Burnet probably captures Charles's first reaction to the accusations neatly enough: "among so many particulars I do not know but there may be some truth." Burnet himself was neither a sceptic, nor a convinced believer in the Plot. Like most sensible Protestants he believed that there had probably been a Catholic conspiracy of some sort, but he had grave doubts about the veracity of the informers, especially Titus Oates, while he regarded Israel Tonge, the co-author of the Plot, as insane. He recognised the danger that innocent people might be falsely accused, and it is notable that he praised the Catholic martyr Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh, who is nowadays probably the best-known victim of the Plot, as a good and innocent man who was destroyed by the malice of his personal enemies. He also argued strongly that the first victim of the Plot, the young Catholic banker William Staley, was innocent, although his narrative of Staley's trial was undoubtedly coloured by his detestation of William Carstares, the Crown's chief witness at Staley's trial. Whether the Catholic nobleman William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford, executed for treason in 1680, was innocent or guilty he regarded as a mystery whose solution must await "the great revelation of all secrets".

''History of the Reformation''

In the mid-1670s, a French translation of Nicholas Sanders' De origine et progressu schismatis Anglicani libri tres appeared. Sanders attacked the English Reformation as a political act carried on by a corrupt king. Several of Burnet's friends wished him to publish a rebuttal of the work, so in 1679 his first volume of The History of the Reformation of the Church of England was published. This covered the reign of Henry VIII; the second volume covered the reign of Elizabeth and the Elizabethan Religious Settlement; the third volume consisted of corrections and additional material. His literary reputation was greatly enhanced by this publication. The Parliament of England voted thanks for Burnet after the publication of the first volume, and in 1680 the University of Oxford awarded Burnet the degree of Doctor of Divinity on the advice of William Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury. For over a century this was the standard reference work in the field, although Catholics disputed some of its content.
;Initial publication of the three volumes of the History of the Reformation
These early editions of Gilbert Burnet's The History of the Reformation of the Church of England were all published in London:
  • 1679 : first edition of Volume 1, that is, The First Part, of the Progress made in it during the Reign of K. Henry the VIII. London: Richard Chiswell.
  • 1681 : second edition of Volume 1. London: Richard Chiswell.
  • 1681 : first edition of Volume 2, that is, The Second Part, of the Progress made in it till the Settlement of it in the beginning of Q. Elizabeths Reign. London: Richard Chiswell.
  • 1683 : second edition of Volume 2. London: Richard Chiswell.
  • 1714 : An Introduction to the Third Volume of The History of the Reformation of the Church of England. London: John Churchill. 72 pages. The text of this Introduction was reprinted the following year in Volume 3.
  • 1715 : first edition of Volume 3, that is, The Third Part. Being Supplement to the Two Volumes formerly publish'd. London: John Churchill.
  • 1715 : fourth edition of Volume 1. London: Daniel Midwinter; and Benjamin Cowse.
  • 1715 : fourth edition of Volume 2. London: Daniel Midwinter; and Benjamin Cowse.
Although a "fourth" edition was published in 1715 by Midwinter and by Cowse, a third edition of these volumes was neither prepared nor published by Burnet.

Exile: 1685–1688

Upon the succession of the Roman Catholic King James II in 1685, Burnet requested permission to go abroad, to which request James heartily consented. Burnet left on 11 May and reached Paris at the end of that month. He then travelled through Switzerland to Italy, where Pope Innocent XI offered him an audience, which Burnet declined on account of his poor knowledge of the Italian language. We cannot know whether a personal meeting with the Pope would have altered Burnet's low opinion of him. After more months of travelling across France, Switzerland and Germany he arrived at Utrecht, Netherlands, in May 1686. He was sent letters from the court of William, Prince of Orange, and his wife Princess Mary inviting him to take up residence at The Hague. This courting of Burnet infuriated James and under his pressure he was formally dismissed from court, but still kept in contact with William and Mary. It was Burnet who pointed out that William's marriage to Mary did not in itself entitle him to reign jointly with her if she became Queen, and that further steps would be necessary to ensure his right to the throne.
In 1687, in light of James's policy of wanting to receive William and Mary's support for the repeal of the Test Act, Burnet wrote a pamphlet against repeal. William and Mary declined to support repeal, apparently on Burnet's advice. Burnet also upset James by becoming engaged to the wealthy heiress Mary Scott. James prosecuted Burnet for high treason in Scotland, accusing him of corresponding with Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll, and others convicted of high treason. To safeguard Burnet, the States General of the Netherlands naturalised him without opposition, and James's request for Burnet's extradition was declined. Burnet and Mary Scott were married and the marriage proved to be a happy one. Burnet, who had long been resigned to being childless since as his first wife Lady Margaret Kennedy had been nearly twenty years his senior, quickly found himself the father of a growing family.
He translated an open letter written by Gaspar Fagel, William's grand pensionary, setting out a policy of lifting disabilities on non-conformists while retaining them on Catholics, which provided an alternative to the dissenters of an alliance with James's court.
Burnet was not privy to William's decision-making process because he was apparently unable to keep a secret; he was not, for example, informed of William's planned invasion of England until July 1688. However, his help was needed to translate William's Declaration which was to be distributed in England after his landing. When William's fleet set sail for England in October 1688, Burnet was made William's chaplain.