William Couper (bishop)
William Couper | |
|---|---|
Gavin Hamilton | |
| Successor | Andrew Lamb |
| Orders | |
| Consecration | 4 October 1612 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1568 |
| Died | 16 February 1619 Edinburgh |
William Couper (or Cowper) (1568–1619) was a Bishop of Galloway in Scotland.
Life
The son of John Couper, merchant-tailor, of
Returning to Edinburgh he was licensed a
His character as delineated by Calderwood is by no means flattering, but the portrait is doubtless coloured by party prejudice. "He was", says Calderwood, "a man filled with self-conceate, and impatient of anie contradiction, more vehement in the wrong course than ever he was fervent in the right, wherein he seemed to be fervent enough. He made his residence in the Canongate, neere to the Chapell Royall, whereof he was deane, and went sometimes but once in two years till his diocese. When he went he behaved himself verie imperiouslie".[2] Spottiswood, on the other hand, was of opinion that he "affected too much the applause of the people".
Four days before he died a number of accusations were made against him. Two days before he died he is said to have been playing golf on Leith Links when he saw a vision which frightened him so much that he threw his clubs away. His golf partners saw nothing and sent him home to rest. He took to bed and did not recover.[3]
He died on 16 February 1619, and was interred in Greyfriars Kirkyard in central Edinburgh. The grave lies immediately south of the church.
Works
Couper had the leading role in the composition of the prayer-book completed in 1619; but never brought into use. He produced extensive religious writings. In his lifetime were published:
- The Anatomy of a Christian Man, 1611
- Three Treatises concerning Christ, 1612
- The Holy Alphabet of Zion's Scholars; by way of Commentary on the cxix. Psalm, 1613
- Good News from Canaan; or an Exposition of David's Penitential Psalm after he had gone in unto Bathsheba, 1613;
- A Mirror of Mercy; or the Prodigal's Conversion expounded, 1614
- Dikaiologie; containing a just defence of his former apology against David Hume, 1614
- Sermon on Titus ii. 7, 8, 1616
- Two Sermons on Psalm cxxi. 8, and Psalm lxxxviii. 17, 1618
- Pathmos: A Commentary on the Revelations, 1619. This work expressed Couper's admiration for John Napier of Merchiston.[4] It was directed against the Revelation of the Revelation of Thomas Brightman, which while critical of the apocalyptic ideas of John Foxe shared Foxe's Anglocentric vision.[5]
His Works, to which was prefixed an account of his life, appeared in 1623, 2nd ed. 1629, 3rd 1726; and the Triumph of the Christian in three treatises appeared in 1632.
References
- ^ Calderwood, History, vi. 820.
- ^ ib. vii. 349.
- ^ Cassell's Old and New Edinburgh; vol.6, p. 260
- ^ Mark Napier (1834). Memoirs of John Napier of Merchiston: his lineage, life, and times, with a history of the invention of logarithms. W. Blackwood. p. 198.
- ^ Arthur H. Williamson, Scottish National Consciousness in the Age of James VI (1979), pp. 33–4.
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Cowper, William (1568-1619)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. Article cites the following sources: Life prefixed to his Works; Histories of Calderwood and Spotiswood; Thomas Murray's Literary History of Galloway, 86–101; M'Crie's Life of Andrew Melville; Keith's Catalogue of Scottish Bishops; Hew Scott's Fasti Eccles. Scot. ii. 614, 693.
Further reading
- Keith, Robert, An Historical Catalogue of the Scottish Bishops: Down to the Year 1688, (London, 1824)
- Watt, D. E. R., Fasti Ecclesiae Scotinanae Medii Aevi ad annum 1638, 2nd Draft, (St Andrews, 1969)
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