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or ingenious replies, which he had met with in the pages of that 
eminent controversialist. He had been brought up, and always 
remained, a devoted son of the Reformation. But he was not averse 
to the study of the schoolmen, especially Aquinas ; and he re- 
cognised, not wholly without admiration, in the theology which he 
so firmly opposed, a system which, in his own words, “ touched the 
human mind at a great many points.” 
Again, in South Africa he found a system of law very different 
from that to which he had been accustomed in England. Dutch 
law, like Scottish law, is largely based upon that of ancient Rome. 
Straightway he became a student of Roman law. Whether the 
study of that or of any other system will render a mind judicial, if 
it is thoroughly imbued with the advocate-temper, may he doubted; 
hut it can hardly he questioned that where its teaching falls on a 
congenial soil, it has a tendency to strengthen the upgrowth of a 
judicial harvest hy reason of its general essence of admirable clearness 
and common sense. In 1878 some difficulties in the will of the 
Misses Walker were brought before the First Division of the Court 
of Session in Edinburgh. Bishop Cotterill’s interpretation of certain 
clauses had been disputed by some of the Walker Trustees, includ- 
ing at least one eminent lawyer. The Court entirely confirmed the 
Bishop’s view, and rejected that of his chief opponent. 
As a scholar and a divine he was naturally much interested in 
the Revision of the New Testament. In the main he sympathised 
with the Revisers, and in general preached from their version. In 
the field of what may perhaps be called constructive theology his 
most important production was probably the volume entitled The 
Genesis of the Church, an original and thoughtful work, which 
may, though in a quiet and comparatively unnoticed manner, 
considerably influence the divinity of the future. 
But as was to be expected from one who kept up his acquaintance 
with physical science, Bishop Cotterill was especially drawn towards 
the field of apologetic theology. Among contemporary writers none 
fixed his attention more than the late Dr Mozley, whom Sir James 
Paget — no mean judge — has called u perhaps the most philosophic 
divine of our age.” The Unseen Universe at once arrested his notice, 
and in 1876 he contributed to the third number of the Church 
Quarterly Review a sympathetic and able criticism of this remark- 
