Barclay, John (2)
Barclay, John
Author of the political novel “Argenis” and other Latin works in prose and verse, was b. 28 January, 1582, at Pont-à-Mousson; d. in Rome, August, 1621. His father was William Barclay. John Barclay received his early schooling from the Jesuits, and at the age of nineteen he published a commentary on the “Thebais” of Statius. In 1603 father and son, perhaps attracted by the union of the Scotch and English crowns, tried their fortunes in London. The son dedicated to James his “Euphormionis Lusinini Satyricon”. After a brief stay in France, John returned to England in 1605.
He married a brilliant and clever Frenchwoman, and was again in London in 1606. He published, in Paris, 1607, the second part of his “Satyricon” and about the same time his poems, under the title “Sylvae”, and a narrative of the Gunpowder Plot (English translation, Oxford, 1634). His publication in 1609 of his father’s work, “De Potestate Papae”, which denied the temporal jurisdiction of the pope over princes, and his declaration therewith that he would defend his father’s memory, led to a prolonged controversy, in which his known opponents were Bellarmine and a Jesuit, Andreas Eudaemon Joannes. A further series of polemics was occasioned by his “Apology” (1611) for the “Satyricon”, in which he attacked the Jesuits and his father’s former patron, the Duke of Lorraine. In his “Icon Animorum”, a fourth part of the Satyricon” (London, 1614), he described the character and manners of the European nations, mentioning Scotland with special affection. In 1615 a volume of his poems appeared in London.
In England Barclay received occasional help from the king and the Earl of Salisbury, and won the friendship of Isaac Casaubon, Ralph Thorie, and especially, in 1606, of du Peiresc, an attache of the French Embassy and a patron of learning. In 1616 Barclay, at the invitation of Paul V, went to Rome, where he was welcomed by Bellarmine and pensioned by the pope. Perhaps to prove his Catholic loyalty he published in 1617 his “Paraenesis ad Sectarios”. Completing in July, 1621, his Latin novel “Argenis”, he died in the following month. The facts as to the removal of his monument and inscription from St. Onofrio have been perhaps permanently obscured by partisan dispute. His friend Ralph Thorie published an elegy in 1621. Barclay was admired by his contemporaries for his honesty, his rare courtesy, and a conversational charm that owed something to grave irony. His varied learning and talents made him a formidable opponent.
The most important of Barclay’s writings, the “Argenis”, published by du Peiresc at Paris, 1621, has been admired by Richelieu, Leibnitz, Jonson, Grotius, Pope, Cowper, Disraeli, and Coleridge. This work is a long romance which introduces the leading personages of international importance. To it were indebted, in whole or in part, Fenelon’s “Telemaque”, du Ryer’s tragi-comedy “Argenis et Poliarque”, Calderon’s “Argenis y Poliarco”, an Italian play “Argenide”, by de Cruylles, and a German play by Christian Weysen, 1684. The “Argenis” was soon translated into French, Spanish, and German. English translations appeared as follows: by Kingsmill Long, London, 1626; by Sir Robert Le Grys and Thomas May, London, 1629, and in 1772, under the title of “The Phoenix”, by Clara Reeve. Ben Jonson in 1623 entered a translation at Stationers’ Hall. There have been translations into Italian, Dutch, Greek, Hungarian, Polish, Swedish, and Icelandic. An English translation, by Thomas May of the fourth part of the “Satyricon”, under the title, “The Mirror for Minds”, was printed in London, 1633.
Portraits of Barclay may be found in the first edition of the “Argenis”, in the volume of 1629 of Le Grys and May, and in the later work of Collignon.
Garnett in Dict. Nat. Biog., s. v.; Gillow, Dict. Engl. Cath., s. v.; Hailes, Life of John Barclay (Edinburgh, 1786); Barclay, poems in Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum; Boucher, Latin Dissertation on Argenis (Paris, 1874); Dupond, L’Argenis de Jean Barclay (Paris, 1875); Dukas, Bibliographie du Satyricon de J. B. (Paris, 1880); Collignon, Notes Hist., Litt., et Bibliographiques sur l’Argenis de J. B. (Paris, 1902); Schmid, Barclay’s Argenis — with bibliography and key (Munich, 1903).
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J.V. CROWNE Transcribed by Susan Birkenseer
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IICopyright © 1907 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Barclay, John
was born at Pont-A-Mousson, in Lorrain, where his father, William Barclay (q.v.), was law professor, in 1582. He studied at the college of the Jesuits there, and the brethren, observing his genius, attempted to draw him into their order. This offended his father, who left the college with his son in 1603 and returned to England. He wrote verses in praise of King James, and would doubtless have succeeded at court had he not been a Romanist. His literary reputation rests on his Argenis (1621, and many editions since), which had an immense popularity, and was translated into various languages. We mention him here for the following works Series patefacte divinitus parricidii, etc. (A History of the Gunpowder Plot, Amst. 1605, 12mo); Pietas, etc. (a defense of his father’s work, De Potestate Pape, against Bellarmine; Paris, 1611, 4to); Paraenesis ad Sectarios hujus temporis (Rome 1617, 12mo; an appeal to Protestants in favor of Romanism). He died at Rome, Aug. 12.1621. New Genesis Biog. Dictionary, 2:49; Allibone, Dictionary of Authors, 1:117.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Barclay, John (2)
founder of the Bereans (q. v ), was born at Muthill, Perthshire, Scotland. in 1734, and studied at St. Andrews, where he graduated A.M. In 1759 he was licensed by the presbytery of Auchterarder, and became assistant minister of Errol, and in 1763 assistant minister of Fettercairn in Forfarshire. Here he began to act the religious leader, and attracted crowds of hearers by his novelties of doctrine. In 1766 he published a Paraphrase of the Book of Psalms, with a dissertation on interpretation, which was censured by the presbytery. On the death of the clergyman to whom he was assistant in 1772, the presbytery refused him the necessary testimonials for accepting a benefice elsewhere, and he then left the Church of Scotland, and became the leader of the sect called Bereans, of which a few congregations still exist. He preached for some time in Edinburgh, and subsequently in London and Bristol. In London he kept open a debating society, where he supported his doctrines against all impugners. He. died on the 29th of July, 1798. SEE BEREANS.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Barclay, John (2)
an English minister of the Society of Friends, was born in Clapham in 1797, became a Christian before reaching his majority, and began his ministerial labors in the autumn of 1823, and was recognized as such by Friends in Cornwall in 1825. After residing in Alton, and in Crovdon for a time, he took up his abode in Stoke Newington. His engagements in thae liie of ministry were not frequent, but he was at times led to address his friends in a weighty and feeling manner, endeavoring to turn their attention from a dependence on man, and from all that is superficial in religion, to a single reliance on the great Head of the Church. For the purpose of promoting the spiritual welfare of the members of the Society, he edited and published a series of selections from the writings of Friends eminent for their piety. In family visitation he was especially blessed. He died May 11, 1838. See Testimony of Deceased Ministers at the Yearly Meeting, 1839, pp. 3-9. (J. C. S)