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Scottish theologian and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury

Gilbert Burnet (18 September 1643 – 17 March 1715) was a Scottish philosopher and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury. He was fluent in Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Burnet was highly respected as a cleric, a preacher, an academic, a writer and a historian. He was always closely associated with the Whig party, and was one of the few close friends in whom King William III confided.

Burnet was born at Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1643, the son of Robert Burnet, Lord Crimond, a Royalist and Episcopalian lawyer, who became a judge of the Court of Session, and of his second wife Rachel Johnston, daughter of James Johnston, and sister of Archibald Johnston of Warristoun, a leader of the Covenanters. His father was his first tutor until he began his studies at the University of Aberdeen, where he earned a Master of Arts in Philosophy at the age of thirteen. He studied law briefly before changing to theology. He did not enter into the ministry at that time, but travelled for several years. He visited Oxford, Cambridge, London, the United Provinces and France. He studied Hebrew under a Rabbi in Amsterdam. By 1665 he returned to Scotland and was ordained in the Church of Scotland (then episcopal) by the bishop of Edinburgh. He began his ministry in the rural church at East Saltoun, East Lothian, and served this community devoutly for four years. In 1669, without his being asked, he was named to the vacant chair of Divinity at the University of Glasgow. At first he declined, since his congregation unanimously asked him to remain at East Saltoun; but, when the Bishop of Edinburgh, Leighton, urged him, he accepted the post. He was later offered, but declined, a Scottish bishopric. Burnet noted fairly that this attitude was quite understandable, given the King's experiences in the English Civil War and the Interregnum, which had shown him when he was still very young the "baseness of human nature". Like many other observers he noted Charles's remarkable self control: "he has a strange command of himself: he can pass from business to pleasure, and from pleasure to business, in so easy a manner that all things seem alike to him." He also recorded some of the King's most memorable sayings, such as "Appetites are free, and Almighty God will never damn a man for allowing himself a little pleasure".

During the Popish Plot, when Queen Catherine was accused of treason, (it was alleged that she had conspired to murder her husband), the King confided to Burnet his feelings of guilt about his ill treatment of the Queen, "who is incapable of doing a wicked thing", his resolve not to abandon her ("it would be a horrible thing, considering my faultiness to her"), and his wish to live a more moral life in future. Burnet, for his part, told the King frankly that he was wrong to believe that the Earl of Shaftesbury had any part in the charges of treason made against the Queen: Shaftesbury, who was well aware of the Queen's great popularity with the English ruling class, was simply too shrewd a statesman to make such a serious political misjudgment. As regards the reality of the Plot itself, while the King quickly became a total skeptic on the subject, Burnet probably captures Charles's first reaction to the accusations neatly enough: "among so many particulars I do not know but there may be some truth." Burnet himself was neither a sceptic, nor a convinced believer in the Plot. Like most sensible Protestants he believed that there had probably been a Catholic conspiracy of some sort, but he had grave doubts about the veracity of the informers, especially Titus Oates, while he regarded Israel Tonge, the co author of the Plot, as insane. He recognised the danger that innocent people might be falsely accused, and it is notable that he praised the Catholic martyr Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh, who is nowadays probably the best known victim of the Plot, as a good and innocent man who was destroyed by the malice of his personal enemies. He also argued strongly that the first victim of the Plot, the young Catholic banker William Staley, was innocent, although his narrative of Staley's trial was undoubtedly coloured by his detestation of William Carstares, the Crown's chief witness at Staley's trial. Whether the Catholic nobleman William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford, executed for treason in 1680, was innocent or guilty he regarded as a mystery whose solution must await "the great revelation of all secrets".

William landed at Torbay on 5 November. Burnet was appointed to preach the coronation sermon, on 11 April 1689. He was well known for having no feelings to be hurt. After Mary's death, Burnet, in 1700, married, as his third wife, Elizabeth Berkeley (née Blake): his choice of her met with general approval, as Elizabeth had been Mary's best friend, and Mary herself had told her husband that should he outlive her, she would wish him to marry Elizabeth.

At Easter 1689, Burnet was consecrated Bishop of Salisbury and three days later was sworn as Chancellor of the Order of the Garter.

He was present at King William's deathbed, and with that knack for appearing absurd which sometimes detracted from his genuine gifts, he rushed in haste to be the first to break the news to the new Queen, and went on his knees in front of her, only to find himself "generally laughed at". He was out of royal favour in the reign of Queen Anne: apart from Anne's reflexive hostility to anyone whom King William had favoured, she apparently thought Burnet to be something of a buffoon, although he could sometimes be an entertaining one. Nonetheless, like her four royal predecessors, she occasionally confided in him. In 1713 he warned her of an impending Jacobite invasion: the Queen, unimpressed, noted drily that while Burnet apparently considered himself to be all knowing, she could not help recalling that he had made a similar prophecy the previous year, which had proved to be entirely groundless. He was nominated by John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury, to write answers to the works sponsored by Tillotson's friend, the Socinian businessman and philanthropist Thomas Firmin, who was funding the printing of Socinian tracts by Stephen Nye. Yet neither Burnet nor Tillotson was entirely unsympathetic to non conformism. Of the Athanasian Creed, the new Archbishop of Canterbury wrote to the new Bishop of Salisbury, "I wish we were well rid of it".

In 1714, as Queen Anne approached death, Burnet became briefly, and in the opinion of his critics, somewhat hysterically concerned about the dire consequences for Protestants if her Catholic half brother, the Old Pretender, succeeded to the throne. His predictions of doom were received with general scepticism: "Be easy my Lord, and disturb not the peace of your old age with vain imaginings of a second Revolution and a flight to Holland I am sure you need not die a martyr for your faith", wrote one correspondent acidly. In the event, the throne passed peacefully to the Protestant House of Hanover in August 1714, seven months before Burnet's own death. Burnet died of a fever on 17 March 1715, having been ill for only three days. His mood in his final days was described as being calm, cheerful and absolutely resigned to death. His will has been called one of those rare dispositions of one's property which please everyone: one third of his estate was left to his eldest son and the rest was divided among the other four children. What happened to his daughter Elizabeth's share of the money is something of a puzzle, as she is known to have spent her last years in poverty.

Burnet began Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time in 1683, covering the English Civil War and the Commonwealth of England to the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713. The first volume was published in 1724, ending before the Glorious Revolution. In 1734 the second volume was published, taking the History to the Treaty of Utrecht. and edited by H. C. Foxcroft and T. E. S. Clarke, was published in 1902.

After 1664, Burnet developed relations with the Dutch Arminians, with among them Jean Le Clerc, and Philipp van Limborch. He then rejected his Calvinist soteriology for an Arminian one. Besides, Gilbert is counted among the Latitudinarian divines with distinctive theological characteristics of thought. In particular he was attacked for his latitude in the interpretation of the Thirty Nine Articles which could encompass an Arminian reading. Among his works is Lives, characters, and an address to posterity.