Robert Baillie

1599-1662. Scottish divine. Born and educated in Glasgow, he was episcopally ordained in 1622 and after a brief period of teaching was inducted to the Ayrshire parish of Kilwinning. He protested against the service-book which Archbishop Laud* was trying to impose on Scotland, and was a member of the famous Glasgow Assembly of 1638 which reestablished Presbyterianism in Scotland. Baillie became divinity professor in Glasgow University (1642) and a year later attended the Westminister Assembly* in London, where he was to spend much of the ensuing three years. In 1649 he was one of those sent to Holland to invite Charles II to sign the National Covenant,* and after the Restoration he became principal of Glasgow University. A learned, moderate, and modest man, Baillie produced Letters and Journals which are among the most important materials of the century. He died disillusioned after episcopacy was once more forced upon the country and he saw how his temperate policies had been mistaken.