Abstract
There has only been one attempt to construct anything like
a full account of the life of Patrick Forbes. This was by G.P.Shand
in his introduction to the funeral orations and pieces offered in
honour of the Bishop and published by the Spottiswoode Society in
1845. Shand's Memoir is valuable but enters into no detailed
analysis of Forbes's thought, nor of the movements of the time
which formed the background of his life and in which he played
a notable part. The author is content to follow the brief references of Garden to the Bishops work as Chancellor of Aberdeen
University and does not attempt to assess the extent of his
influence upon seventeenth century religious life and thought.
Besides Shand did not have before him the printed editions of the
Register of the Privy Council of Scotland which throw additional
and interesting light upon Forbes as a statesman and a diocesan.
A recent valuable addition to a fuller understanding of the
life and influence of Patrick Forbes is contained in Professor
G. D. Henderson's Religious Life in Seventeenth Century Scotland.
The most useful parts of Henderson's essay on Forbes are those
which deal with his work in connection with King's College, Aberdeen and his influence throughout the remainder of the seventeenth
century. Henderson helps us to fill in the gaps left by Shand
and I gladly acknowledge my indebtedness to these two scholars.
A recent valuable addition to a fuller understanding of the
life and influence of Patrick Forbes is contained in Professor
G. D. Henderson's Religious Life in Seventeenth Century Scotland.
The most useful parts of Henderson's essay on Forbes are those
which deal with his work in connection with King's College, Aberdeen and his influence throughout the remainder of the seventeenth
century. Henderson helps us to fill in the gaps left by Shand
and I gladly acknowledge my indebtedness to these two scholars.
It has been said that when God appoints a man to some special
work or witness His preparatory action is to be seen in the circumstances of hereditary descent. Forbes's ancestry has been fully
explored in Chapter 1 with such comment as appeared necessary and
his degree of kinship with Andrew Melville, usually left vague, indicated.
From time to time suggestions which seemed historically reasonable
have been offered and erroneous or misleading statements challenged.
Material not previously used by those who have written of Patrick
Forbes, from Registers of the Privy Council of Scotland and
from the Ecclesiastical Records of Aberdeen, has been used, while
the closest attention has been given to Forbes's own writings.
It has not been easy to keep Forbes continually in the
picture, but I have tried, chiefly by use of Appendices, to avoid
Russell Lowell's criticism of Masson's Life of Milton - that
Milton was sometimes only an incident in his own biography.
Opportunity has been taken to explain the principles governing
Episcopal Elections during the First Scottish Episcopate and to
elucidate other points frequently omitted or glossed over in
text books. Particularly have I tried to stress the decisive
nature of the economic and political motives which underlay the
national Covenant of 1638, for these nave not been correctly
guaged by Episcopalian historians who have too frequently tended
to represent the issue as a clear-cut one between Episcopacy and
Presbyterianism.
