In mitiorem partem: Robert Leighton’s journey towards Episcopacy

Hamilton, Alan James (2013) In mitiorem partem: Robert Leighton’s journey towards Episcopacy. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Robert Leighton (1610/11-1684) was a significant Scottish churchman of the seventeenth-century. He has been the subject of religious confessional history-writing which continues to skew our understanding of him. This thesis offers a radical reassessment of the first fifty years of Leighton’s life based upon the available primary evidence. The formative influences of Leighton’s Puritan anti-Episcopal father and his student years at the Town College of Edinburgh are re-evaluated. The possibility that he studied in Huguenot France in the 1630s is posited. Using his relationship with the Earl of Lothian to illuminate his involvement in the Covenanting movement, he is placed in Scotland from 1638. Leighton’s commitment to the Covenant and to Presbyterianism is reconsidered by charting Leighton’s career as minister of Newbattle (1641-1653) and his appointment as Principal of the Town College by the English occupiers in 1653. His decision to become a Restoration bishop in 1661 is reviewed having regard to a new understanding of his journey towards Episcopacy and by careful attention to his own words and actions. This study concludes that our comprehension of the Church of Scotland during the Covenanting, Interregnum and Restoration periods is heightened by re-discovering the real Leighton.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion; B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BR Christianity; B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BT Doctrinal Theology; B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BX Christian Denominations; D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D204 Modern History; D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > Theology and Religious Studies
• Supervisor's Name: Methuen, Rev. Dr. Charlotte
• Date of Award: 2013
• Depositing User: Rev Alan J Hamilton
• Unique ID: glathesis:2013-4152
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 03 Apr 2013 14:01
• Last Modified: 03 Apr 2013 14:01
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/4152