of fervid devotion, and a deep and singular elevation of thought, and solemnity of diction.

SCRIMGER, HENRY, a learned person of the sixteenth century, was the son of Walter Scrimger of Glasswell, who traced his descent from the Scrimgers or Scrimzeors of Dudhope, constables of Dundee, and hereditary standard-bearers of Scotland. The subject of this memoir was born at Dundee in 1506, and received the rudiments of his education in the grammar school of that town, where he made singular proficiency both in the Latin and Greek languages. He af terwards went through a course of philosophy in the university of St Andrews with great applause. From thence he proceeded to Paris to study civil law. He next removed to Bourges, where he studied for some time under Baro and Duaren, who were considered the two greatest lawyers of the age in which they lived. Here he formed an acquaintance with the celebrated Amiot, who at that time filled the Greek chair at Bourges, and through his recommendation was appointed tutor to the children of secretary Boucherel. In this situation, which he filled to the entire satisfaction of his employers, Scrimger became acquainted with Bernard Bonetel, bishop of Rennes, who, on being appointed ambassador from the court of France to some of the states of Italy, made choice of him for his private secretary With this dignitary he travelled through the greater part of that interesting country, and was introduced to a great many of its most eminent and learned men. While on a visit to Padua, he had an opportunity of seeing the notorious apostate Francis Spira, of whose extraordinary case he wrote a narrative, which was published along with an account of the same case by Petrus Paulus Virgerus, Mattheus Gribaldus, and Sigismundus Gelous, under the following title "The history of Franciscus Spira, who fell into a dreadful state of despair because, having once assumed a profession of evangelical truth, he had afterwards recanted and condemned the same, most faithfully written by four most excellent men, together with prefaces by these illustrious men Caelius S.C. and John Calvin, and an apology by Petrus Paulus Virgerus, in all which, many subjects worthy of examination in these times are most gravely handled. To which is added the judgment of Martinus Borrhaus on the improvement which may be made of Spira's example and doctrine, 2 Pet. 2. 'It had been better for them not to have known the way of life,""&c. The book is written in Latin, but has neither the name of printer, nor the place, or date of printing. It was, however, probably printed at Basil in the year 1550 or 1551. Deeply affected with the case of Spira, Scrimger determined to sacrifice all the prospects, great as they were, which his present situation held out to him, and to retire into Switzerland, where he could profess the reformed religion without danger. It appears that he shortly after this entertained the idea of returning to Scotland; but, on his arrival in Geneva, he was invited by the syndics and magistrates of the city to set up a profession of philosophy for the instruction of youth, for which they made a suitable provision. Here he continued to teach philosophy for some time. A fire, however, happening in the city, his house was burnt to the ground with all that was in it, and he was in consequence reduced to great straits, though his two noble pupils, the Bucherels, no sooner heard of his misfortune than they sent him a considerable supply of money. It was at this time that Ulrich Fugger, a gentleman possessed of a princely fortune, and distinguished alike for his learning and for his vir tues, invited him to come and live with him at Augsburg till his affairs could be put in order. This generous invitation Scrimger accepted, and he lived with his benefactor at Augsburg for a number of years, during which he employed himself chiefly in collecting books and manuscripts, many of them exceedingly curious and valuable. Under the patronage of this amiable person he ap

pears also to have composed several of his treatises, which he returned to Genera to have printed. On his arrival, the magistrates of that city importuned him to resume his class for teaching philosophy. With this request he complied, and continued again in Geneva for two years, 1563 and 1564. In the year 1565, he opened a school for teaching civil law, of which he had the honour of being the first professor and founder in Geneva. This class he continued to teach till his death. In the year 1572, Alexander Young, his nephew, was sent to him to Geneva, with letters from the regent Marr, and George Buchanan, with the latter of whom he had been long in terms of intimacy; requesting him to return to his native country, and promising him every encouragement.

Buchanan had before repeatedly written to him, pressing his return to his native country, in a manner that sufficiently evinced the high esteem he entertained for him. The venerable old scholar, however, could not be prevailed on to leave the peaceful retreat of Geneva, for the stormy scenes which were now exhibiting in his native country; pleading, as an apology, his years and growing infirmities. The letters of Buchanan, however, were the means of awakening the ardour of Andrew Melville, (who was at that time in Geneva, and in the habit of visiting Scrimger, whose sister was married to Melville's elder brother,) and turning his attention to the state of learning in Scotland, of which, previously to this period, he does not seem to have taken any particular notice.

Though his life had not passed without some vicissitudes, the latter days of Scrimger appear to have been sufficiently easy as to circumstances. Besides the house which he possessed in the city, he had also a neat villa, which he called the Violet, about a league from the town. At this latter place he spent the most of his time, in his latter years, in the company of his wife and an only daughter. The period of his death seems to be somewhat uncertain. Thuanus says he died at Geneva in the year 1571; but an edition of his novels in the Advocates' library, with an inscription to his friend, Edward Herrison, dated 1572, is sufficient evidence that this is a mistake. George Buchanan, however, in a letter to Christopher Plaintain, dated at Stirling in the month of November, 1573, speaks of him as certainly dead; so that his death must have happened either in the end of 1572, or the beginning of 1573.

The only work which Scrimger appears to have published, besides the account of Spira, which we have already noticed, was an edition of the Novelle Constitutiones of Justinian, in Greek; a work which was highly prized by the first lawyers of the time. He also enriched the editions of several of the classics, published by Henry Stephens, with various readings and remarks. From his preface to the Greek text of the Novellæ, it is evident that Scrimger intended to publish a Latin translation of that work, accompanied with annotations; but, from some unknown cause, that design was never accomplished. Mackenzie informs us, that, though he came with the highest recommendations from Ulrich Fugger to Stephens, who was, like Scrimger, one of Fugger's pensioners, yet, from an apprehension on the part of Stephens, that Scrimger intended to commence printer himself, there arose such a difference between them, that the republic of letters was deprived of Scrimger's notes upon Athenæus, Strabo, Diogenes Laertius, the Basilics, Phornuthus, and Palophatus; all of which he designed that Stephens should have printed for him. The most of these, according to Stephens, after Scrimger's death, fell into the hands of Isaac Casaubon, who published many of them as his own. Casaubon, it would ap pear, obtained the use of his notes on Strabo, and applied for those on Polybius, when he published his editions of these writers. In his letters to Peter Young, who was Scrimger's nephew, and through whom he appears to have obtained the

use of these papers, he speaks in high terms of their great merit; but he has not been candid enough in his printed works, to own the extent of his obligations. Buchanan, in a letter to Christopher Plaintain, informs him, that Scrimger had left notes and observations upon Demosthenes, Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, and many other Greek authors; as likewise upon the philosophical works of Cicero: all which, he informs his correspondent, were in the hands of Scrimger's nephew, the learned Mr Peter Young; and being well worth the printing, should be sent him, if he would undertake the publication. Plaintain seems to have declined the offer; so that the Novellæ and the Account of Spira, are all that remain of the learned labours of Scrimger, of whom it has been said, that no man of his age had a more acute knowledge, not only of the Latin and Greek, but also of the Oriental languages. His library, which was one of the most valuable in Europe, he left by testament to his nephew, Peter Young, who was Buchanan's assistant in the education of James VI., and it was brought over to Scotland by the testator's brother, Alexander Scrimger, in the year 1573. Besides many valuable books, this library contained MSS. of great value; but Young was not a very enthusiastic scholar; and as he was more intent upon advancing his personal interests in the world, and aggrandizing his family, than forwarding the progress of knowledge, they probably came to but small account.

The testimonies to Scrimger's worth and merits, by his contemporaries, are numerous. Thuanus, Casaubon, and Stephens, with many others, mention his name with the highest encomiums. Dempster says he was a man indefatigable in his reading, of a most exquisite judgment, and without the smallest particle of vain-glory. And the great Cujanus was accustomed to say, that he never parted from the company of Henry Scrimger, without having learned something that he never knew before.

SHARP, JAMES, archbishop of St Andrews, was the son of William Sharp, sheriff-clerk of the shire of Banff, by his wife, Isobel Lesly, daughter of Lesly of Kininvey, and was born in the castle of Banff, in the month of May, 1613. His parents seem to have been industrious and respectable in the class of society to which they belonged; his father following his calling with dili gence, and his mother, though a gentlewoman by birth, assisting his means by setting up a respectable brewery at Dun, which she appears to have conducted creditably and profitably to the day of her death. The subject of this memoir, probably with a view to the church, where, through the patronage of the earl of Findlater, which the family had long enjoyed, a good benefice might be supposed attainable, was sent to the university of Aberdeen. But the disputes between Charles I. and his parliament having commenced, and the prelatic form of the church being totally overthrown in Scotland, he took a journey into England; in the course of which he visited both the universities, where he was introduced to several persons of distinction. He had, however, no offers of preferment; but, finding the church of England ready to follow that of Scotland, he addressed himself to the celebrated Mr Alexander Henderson, then in England as a commissioner from the Scottish church, and enjoying a very high degree of popularity, from whom he obtained a recommendation for a regent's place in the university of St Andrews, to which he was accordingly admitted. Mr James Guthrie was at this time also a regent in the college of St Andrews, but whether suspecting the sincerity, or undervaluing the talents of Mr Sharp, he gave his whole favour to Mr John Sinclair, an unsuccessful candidate for the regent's place which Sharp had obtained, and to whom, when called to the ministry, he afterwards demitted his professional chair. It was with this circumstance, not improbably, that the opposition began which

continued between Mr Guthrie and Sharp throughout the whole of their after lives. With Mr Sinclair, now his co-regent, Mr Sharp seems also for some time to have lived on very bad terms, and even to have gone the length of striking him at the college table on the evening of a Lord's day in the presence of the principal and the other regents. For this outrage, however, he appears to have made a most ample acknowledgment, and to have been sincerely repentant. Mr Sharp's contrition attracted the notice and procured him the good graces of several of the most highly gifted and respected ministers of the Scottish church, particularly Mr Robert Blair. Mr Samuel Rutherford, an eminent Christian, and a person of the highest attainments in practical religion, was so much struck with what had been related by some of the brethren respecting Mr Sharp's exercises of soul, that, on his coming in to see him on his return from a distant mission, he embraced him most affectionately, saying, “he saw that out of the most rough and knotty timber Christ could make a vessel of mercy." With the brethren in general Mr Sharp also stood on high ground, and at the request of Mr James Bruce, minister of Kingsbarns, he was, by the earl of Crawford, presented to the church and parish of Crail. On his appointment to this charge Mr Sharp began to take a decided part in the management of the external affairs of the church, in which he displayed singular ability. His rapidly increasing popularity in a short time procured him a call to be one of the ministers of Edinburgh, but his transportation was refused, both by the presbytery of St Andrews and the synod of Fife. It was at length ordered, however, by an act of the General Assembly; but the invasion of the English under Cromwell prevented its being any further insisted in. In the disputes that agitated the Scottish church after the unfortunate battle of Dunbar, the subject of this memoir, who was a stanch resolutioner, was the main instrument, according to Mr Robert Baillie, of carrying the question against the Protesters. His conduct on this occasion highly enhanced his talents and his piety, and was not improbably the foundation upon which his whole after fortune was built. In the troubles which so speedily followed this event, Sharp, along with several other ministers and some of the nobility, was surprised at Elliot in Fife by a party of the English, and sent up a prisoner to London. In 1657, he was deputed

by the Resolutioners to proceed to London to plead their cause with Cromwell in opposition to the Protesters who had sent up Messrs James Guthrie, Patrick Gillespie, and others, to represent the distressed state of the Scottish church, and to request, that an Assembly might be indicted for determining the controversies in question, and composing the national disorders. From the state of parties both in Scotland and England, and from the conduct which Cromwell had now adopted, he could not comply with this request, but he seems to have set a high value upon the commissioners; to have appreciated their good sense and fervent piety, and to have done everything but grant their petition to evince his good-will towards them. They, on the other hand, seem not to have been insensible either to his personal merits, though inimical to his government, or to that of some of the eminent men that were about him. This was terrifying to the Resolutioners, who saw in it nothing less than a coincidence of views and a union of purposes on the part of the whole protesting body with the abhorred and dreaded sectaries. "Their [the leading protesters'] piety and zeal," says Baillie, is very susceptible of schism and error. I am oft afraid of their apostasy;" and, after mentioning with a kind of instinctive horror their praying both in public and private with Owen and Caryl, he adds with exultation, "the great instrument of God to cross their evil designs has been that very worthy, pious, wise, and diligent young man, Mr James Sharp." It was part of the energetic policy of Cromwell, while he was not dependent on the party

whom he favoured, not to offend the other, and the mission had little effect, except that of preparing the way for Sharp to assume one which he made more advantageous to himself.

After the death of Oliver Cromwell, and while Monk was making his memorable march to England, the presbyterians sent to him David Dickson and Robert Douglas, accompanied by a letter, in which, expressing their confidence in whatever measures he should propose regarding Scotland, they suggested the propriety of his having some one near his person to remind him of such matters as were necessary for their interest, and requested a pass for Sharp, as a person qualified for the duty. Monk, who had in the mean time requested Sharp to come to him, wrote an answer, addressed to Messrs Dickson and Douglas from Ferry-bridge, to the following effect :-"I do assure you, the wellfare of your church shall be a great part of my care, and that you shall not be more ready to propound than I shall be to promote any reasonable thing that may be for the advantage thereof, and to that end I have herewith sent you according to your desire a pass for Mr Sharp, who the sooner he comes to me the more welcome he shall be, because he will give me an opportunity to show him how much I am a well-wisher to your church and to yourselves," &c. This was dated January 10th, 1660, and by the 6th of February, Sharp was despatched with the following instructions: "1st. You are to use your utmost endeavours that the kirk of Scotland may, without interruption or encroachment, enjoy the freedom and privilege of her established judicatories ratified by the laws of the land. 2nd. Whereas by the lax toleration that is established, a door is opened to a very many gross errors and loose practices in this church, you shall therefore use all lawful and prudent means to represent the sinfulness and offensiveness thereof, that it may be timeously remedied. 3rd. You are to represent the prejudice this church doth suffer by the interverting of the vaking stipends, which by law were dedicated to pious uses, and seriously endeavour that hereafter vaking stipends may be intermitted with by presbyteries and such as shall be warranted by them, and no others, to be disposed of and applied to pious uses by presbyteries according to the twentieth act of the parliament 1644. 4th. You are to endeavour that ministers lawfully called and admitted by presbyteries to the ministry may have the benefit of the thirtyninth act of the parliament, intituled act anent abolishing patronages for obtaining summarily upon the act of their admission, decreet, and letters conform, and other executorials to the effect they may get the right and possession of their stipends and other benefits without any other address or trouble. If you find that there will be any commission appointed in this nation for settling and augmenting stipends, then you are to use your utmost endeavours to have faithful men, well affected to the interests of Christ in this church employed therein." As the judicatures of the church were not at this time allowed to sit, these instructions were signed by David Dickson, Robert Douglas, James Wood, John Smith, George Hutchison, and Andrew Ker, all leading men and all Resolutioners. He was at the same time furnished with a letter of recommendation to Monk, another to colonel Witham, and a third to Messrs Ash and Calamy, to be shown to Messrs Manton and Cowper, and all others with whom they might think it proper to communicate, requesting them to afford him every assistance that might be in their power for procuring relief to the enthralled and afflicted' church of Scotland. Sharp arrived at London on the 13th of the month, and next day wrote his constituents a very favourable account of his reception by Monk, who had already introduced him to two parliament men, Mr Weaver, and the afterwards celebrated Anthony Ashley Cowper, earl of Shaftesbury. Monk himself also wrote the reverend gentlemen two days after, the