50 
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 j 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 vvth in religion, 
and thought he had discovered in the piety of some conventual 
recluses a peculiar and celestial flavour which could hardly he 
met with elsewhere. Of their sublime devotion he often 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 t’ 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. 
