l> MEMOIR OF 



brother was a Papist, and by his advice, grounded 

 on mercenary views, the king had selected Leigh- 

 ton for a bishoprick. What degree of influence 

 the example of the tutor might have upon the 

 mind of the pupil in this transaction, there may 

 be a difference of opinion ; but we think that it 

 had some. We are justified in supposing Sibbald's 

 aberration was of but short continuance ; and it 



Roman Catholic countries to be little better than iynavi 

 fures, rapacious drones ; at the same time that he recognized 

 among them a few specimens of extending gro wth in religion, 

 and thought he had discovered in the piety of some conventual 

 recluses a peculiar and celestial flavour which could hardly be 

 met with elsewhere. Of their sublime devotion he of ten spoke 

 with an admiration approaching to rapture" P. 58. 



" There was ' a current report that Leighton was not 

 unfriendly to some parts of the pontifical constitution, a 

 report which seems to have taken its rise from his paying 

 occasional visits to the college at Douay, and to have been 

 countenanced by his celibacy, his ascetic habits, and an 

 admiration for some of the disciples of Jansenius, which 

 he was too high minded and ingenuous to dissemble. 

 It was, indeed, more than insinuated that he was too 

 liberally affected towards the Catholics for a stanch and 

 thorough Protestant ;' and the commendation he bestowed 

 on the writer of Thomas a Kempis in his public lectures, 

 did not escape some animadversion," p. 16. The writer 

 of this, himself an Episcopalian, trusts he shall not be 

 misunderstood, or supposed intending any thing derogatory 

 to the exalted character of Leighton, by selecting these 

 extracts, still less of insinuating that he was inclined to 

 Romanism. He merely produces these passages in proof 

 of the bishop's laxity on points which, coupled with his 

 superior religious attainments, he might justly regard as 

 matters of inferior moment, but which, in the eyes of the 

 world, should always be respected, and in a teacher of 

 youth it was surely injudicious to despise- 



