ture to the inward light on the same grounds as Boman- ism pleads for the necessity of tradition. He points to the many contradictory interpretations of the Bible, which require a higher criterion, and asserts that this can only be found in the inward divine word. The subjective tendency, if carried out to its consequences, might lead to entirely giving up the objectivity of di- vine revelation" (Neander, History of Dogmas, ii, 672). So able a book naturally gave rise to controversy, the assumption of inward light being supposed by many to set aside the superior authority of Scripture, and the denial of the perpetuity of baptism and the Lord's Supper occasioning a suspicion of infidelity. On this supposed tendency' of the system it was acri- moniously attacked by John Brown, in a work to which he gave the title of " Quakerism the Pathway to Pa- ganism." The Apology was also much canvassed in various seats of learning. Nicholas Arnold, a pro- fessor in the University of Franeker, wrote against it, and Barclay replied ; and in the same year an oral discussion took place between some students in the University of Aberdeen on the one side, and the au- thor, assisted by his friend George Keith, on the other. "No part of the 'Apology' was controverted by so many opponents as that in which the necessity of an inward and immediate revelation was insisted upon. It was the only portion of the work which could be considered original. The other doctrines contained in it had all been maintained by abler defenders, their arrangement in the Quaker system of theology being the only point in which they differed from the Armin- ian scheme. None of the numerous publications in which this leading tenet of this new faith was at- tempted to be disproved called forth a reply from the writer ; but having been requested by Adrian Paets, an ambassador from the court of the Netherlands, with whom he had some conversation on the principles of the Friends, to reconsider the strength of some objec- tions which he had advanced against them, Barclay addressed him in Latin on the subject while he was in the prison at Aberdeen, reviewed his former arguments, and declared himself more convinced of their truth than he had ever been, in his treatise on Immediate Revelation (see below).
"The discipline or church government of the So- ciety of Friends was as much defamed as their relig- ious opinions. It could not be denied that in their forms of worship, of marriage, and of burial there was a wide departure from the customary ceremonial, and it was generally understood that the society carried its interference to a great extent in the private con- cerns of those who belonged to its communion. These regulations were vindicated by Barclay in a work wherein he contrasts the internal government of the Quakers with the anarchy of the Banters and the hier- archy of the Bomanists, justifying the discipline of his sect, and defending its members 'from those who ac- cuse them of confusion and disorder, and from such as charge them with tyranny and imposition.' The pub- lication of this treatise engaged its author in a long altercation with some persons of his own persuasion, who took offence at various parts of it as tending to violate the rights of private judgment and to restrain the operations of the Spirit. Their opposition, being discountenanced by the society, soon passed away, and the work itself rose into such favor among the sect that its title was changed at one of its yearly meet- ings to A Treatise on Christian Discipline, and it lo- came the standard authority on all matters to which it relates."
In 1677 Barclay was in prisoned at Aberdeen, to- gether with his father and many others, but was re- leased at the instigation of Elizabeth, the princess palatine of the Rhine, who greatly favored him and "William Penn. While in prison he wrote his Uni- versal Lave cons/den d and < stallhluil vp<n its light Foundation, etc. (J.ondon, 1677), a work breathing the
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purest spirit of Christian benevolence and peace. His last literary work was his Possibility and Necessity nf the immediate Revelation of the Spirit o/GW(1686, 8vo). He afterward enjoyed so high a reputation that in 1G82 he was appointed governor of New Jersey, in America, by royal commission, liberty being granted to him of appointing a deputy, which he did, and never visited his government in person, lie died October 13th, 1G90, at his estate of Ury. — Penny Cyclopaedia, s. v. ; Chambers's Encyclopcvd'a, s. v. : Biographia Britan- niea; Allibone, Dictionary of Authors, i, 117; Collect- ed Works of Robert Barclay, by Penn (London, 1G92, fol., and 1718, 3 vols. 8vo) ; Short Account of the Life and Writings of R. Barclay (Lond. 1782, 12mo). See Friends.
Barclay, William, was born in Aberdeen, Scot- land, about 1515, was a Roman Catholic, and a favor- its of Mary Queen of Scots. After her fall he went to France, studied law, and was made professor of that branch at the new University of Pont-a-Mousson. Finding that the Jesuits were likely to draw his son John into their ranks (see Barclay, John), he left the University, returned to England, and was offered a professorship of civil law at one of the universities if he would conform to the Anglican Church. This, however, he refused to do, and returned to France, where he was made professor at Angers, and died in 1605 (or 1G09). He wrote (besides other works on law, etc.) De Potestate Papre, an et quatenus in Reges et Principes seculares Jus et fmperium h'ibeat (London, 1609, 8vo ; Pont-a-Mousson, 1G10, 8vo ; transl. into French, Pont-a-Mousson, 1611 ; Cologne, 1688, 8vo). In this work he vindicates the independent rights of princes against the usurpations of the pope. — Bayle, Dictionary, s. v. ; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generate, iii, 471.