A NEW AND GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL 380 DICTIONARY: CONTAINING AN HISTORICAL, CRITICAL, AND IMPARTIAL ACCOUNT OF THE LIVES AND WRITINGS OF THE Most Eminent Perfons IN EVERY NATION, IN THE WORLD, From the Earliest Accounts of Time to the prefent Period; WHEREIN THEIR REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND SUFFERINGS, ARE ACCURATELY RECORDED AND DISPLAYED; With CATALOGUES OF THEIR LITERARY PRODUCTIONS: A NEW EDITION, IN EIGHT VOLUMES. AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS IN TOWN AND COUNTRY, MDCCXCV. " L ESLEY (JOHN), the celebrated bishop of Rofs in Scotland, was defcended from a very ancient family, and born in 1527. He had his education in the univerfity of Aberdeen; and, in 1547, was made canon of the cathedral church of Aberdeen and Murray. After this, he travelled into France; and, pursuing his ftudies in the universities of Thoulouse, Poitiers, and Paris, he took the degree of doctor of laws at the laft. He continued abroad till 1554; when he was commanded home by the queen-regent, and made official and vicar-general of the diocefe of Aberdeen; and, entering into the priesthood, he became parfon of Une. About this time the Reformed Doctrine, beginning to fpread in Scotland, was zealously oppofed by our author; and, a folemn difpute being held between the Protestants and Papifts in 1560, at Edinburgh, Lefley was a principal champion on the fide of the latter. However, this was fo far from putting an end to the divifions, that they daily increased; which occafioning many difturbances and commotions, both parties agreed to invite home the queen, who was then abfent in France. On this errand Lefley was employed by the Roman-Catholics; and made such dispatch, that he came feveral days before lord James Stuart, fent by the Proteftants, to Vitri, where queen Mary was then lamenting the death of her husband, the king of France. Having delivered to her his credentials, he told her majefty of lord James Stuart's coming from the Covenanters, and of his defigns against the Rman-Catholic religion; and advised her to detain him in France by fome honourable employment, till fhe could fettle her affairs at home but the queen,, not at all diftrufting the nobility, who had VOL. VII. No. 66. A fent fent lord James, defired Lefley to wait, till the could confult with her friends upon the methods moft proper for her to take. At first, the court of France oppofed her return home: but, finding her much inclined to it, they ordered a fleet to attend her; and Lefley embarked with her at Calais for Scotland, August 1561. Presently after his arrival, he was appointed one of the fenators of the college of justice, and fworn into the privy-council. The abbey of Lundores was conferred upon him afterwards; and, upon the death of Sinclair, bishop of Rofs, he was promoted to that fee. His learning was not inferior to his other attainments; nor was his attention fo entirely abforbed in ecclefiaftical matters, but that he found time to confider and improve the civil state of the kingdom. To this end, having obferved that all the ancient laws were growing obfolete, for want of being collected into a body, he reprefented the thing to the queen, and prevailed with her majesty to appoint proper perfons for the work. Accordingly, a commiffion was made out, empowering our bifhop, with fifteen others, privy-counsellors and advocates in the law, with authority to print the fame. Upon the queen's flying into England from the Covenanters, queen Elizabeth appointed commiffioners at York, to examine the cafe between her and her fubjects; and our bishop was one of those chofen by his queen in 1568, to defend her caufe. He did fo with great vigour and ftrength of reafoning: and, when this method proved ineffectual, appeared afterwards in the character of ambaffador at the English court. He was fent to complain of the injuftice done to his queen; but, finding no notice taken of his public folicitations, formed feveral fchemes to procure her efcape privately. With that view, among other projects, he negotiated a scheme for her marriage with the duke of Norfolk; which being difcovered, the duke was convicted of treafon, and executed. Lefley, however, being examined upon it, pleaded the privileges of an ambassador; alleging, that he had done nothing but what his place and duty tied him to, for procuring the liberty of his princefs, &c. but, his pleas not availing, he was fent prifoner to the ifle of Ely, and thence to the tower of London. In 1573, he was fet at liberty; but, being banished England, he retired to the Netherlands. The two following years he employed in foliciting the kings of France and Spain, and all the German princes, to intereft themselves in the delivery of his mistress; but, finding them flow in the affair, he went to Rome, to fee what iluence the pope might have over them. In the end, perceiving all his efforts fruitless, he had recourse to his pen, and published feveral pieces, to promote the fame defign. In 1579, he was made fuffragan and vicar-general of the archbishopric of Rouen in Normandy, and, in his vifitation of that diocefe, was apprehended and thrown into prifon, and obliged to pay three thousand piftoles for his ranfom, or elfe to be given up to queen Elizabeth. He re LESLIE (Dr. John and Charles). -- 3 mained unmolefted under the protection of Henry III. of France : but, upon the acceffion of Henry IV. a Proteftant, who was fupported in his claim to that crown by queen Elizabeth, was apprehended, in his vifitation through his diocefe, in 1590; and, being thrown into prifon, was obliged to pay three thousand pistoles for his ranfom, to fave himself from being given up to Elizabeth. In 1593, he was declared bishop of Conftance; with licence to hold the bishopric of Rofs till he should obtain peaceable poffeffion of the church of Conftance, and its revenues. Some time after this, he . went and refided at Bruffels: and, at laft, feeing all hopes cut off of his returning home, to his bithopric of Rofs, by the establishment of the Reformation under king James, he retired into a monaftery at Guirtenburg, about two miles from Bruffels; where he paffed the remainder of his days, and died in 1596. LESLIE (DR. JOHN), bishop of Clogher in Ireland, was defcended from an ancient family, and born in the north of Scotland. The first part of his education was at Aberdeen, from whence he removed to Oxford. Afterwards he travelled into Spain, Italy, Germany, and France: he fpoke French, Spanish, and Italian, with the fame propriety and fluency as the natives; and was equally as great a master of the Latin. He continued twenty-two years abroad; and, during that time, was at the fiege of Rochelle, and the expedition to the ifle of Rhee, with the duke of Buckingham. He was all along converfant in courts, and at home was happy in that of Charles I. who admitted him into his privy-council both in Scotland and Ireland; in which stations he was continued by Charles II. after the Restoration. His chief preferment in the church of Scotland, was the bishopric of the Orkneys, whence he was tranflated to Raphoe in Ireland, in 1633; and, the fame year, fworn a privy-counsellor in that kingdom. He built a stately palace, in his diocefe: it was built in the form and ftrength of a castle, one of the finest episcopal palaces in Ireland, and proved to be useful afterwards in the rebellion of 1641, by preferving a good part of that country. The good bifhop exerted himself, fo much as he could, in defence of the royal caufe, and endured a fiege in his caftle of Raphoe, before he would surrender it to Oliver Cromwell; being the last which held out in that country. He then retired to Dublin, where he always used the liturgy of the church of Ireland in his family, and even had frequent confirmations and ordinations. After the Reftoration, he came over to England; and, in 1661, was tranflated to the fee of Clogher. He died in 1671, aged above 100 years, having been above 50 years a bishop; and the most ancient that was then in the world. LESLIE (CHARLES), the fecond fon of the preceding, was born in Ireland, we know not what year; and admitted a fellow-com A 2 moner |