Burn, Richard, LL.D., a distinguished English writer on ecclesiastical law, was born in 1720 at Win- ton, "Westmoreland, and educated at Queen's College, Oxford. He was for forty-nine years rector at Orton, where he died, Nov. 20, 1789. He was also chancellor of the diocese of Carlisle. His Ecclesiastical Law (Lond. 1760, 2 vols. 4to ; 9th ed. enlarged by R. Phil- limore, Lond. 1842, 4 vols. 8vo) is recommended by Blackstone as one of the " very few publications on the subject of ecclesiastical law on which the reader can rely with certainty." Equall}- celebrated is his work, Justice of the Peace and Parish Officer (Bond. 1755, 2 vols. 8vo ; 29th ed. by Bere and Chitty, Lond. 1845, G vols. ; suppl. by Wise, 1852). — Hook, Eccl. Biog. iii, 279.
Burnaby, Andrew, an English clergyman and traveller, was Lorn at Ashfordly, 1732, and was edu- cated at Queen's College, Cambridge, where he passed M.A. in 1757. In 1759 and 1760 he travelled in North America, and afterward published Travels through the Middle Settlements of North America (Lond. 1775, 4to). He then became British chaplain at Leghorn, end travelled in Corsica, of which he wrote an account in Journal of a Tour in Corsica in 1766 (Lond. 1804). In 1760 he became vicar of Greenwich, and archdeacon of Leicester in 1786. He died in 1812. Besides the works above named, he published Occasional Sermons and charges (Deptford, 1805, 8vo). — Rose, New Biog. Dictionary ; Allibone, Dictionary of Authors, i, 296.
Burnap, George Washington, a Unitarian di- vine and writer, was born in Merrimac, New Hamp- shire, Nov. 30, 1802, graduated at Harvard College in 1824, was ordained pastor of the Unitarian church in Baltimore April 23, 1828, and continued its pastor un- til his death, Sept. 8, 1859. In 1849 he received the degree of D.D. from Harvard College. He was a fre- quent contributor to various periodicals, and the au- thor of a large number of books, among which the fol- lowing are the most important: 1. Lectures on the Doc- trines of Controversy between Unitarians and other De- nominations of Christians (1835):— 2. Lectures to Young Mm on the Cultivation of the Mind (Baltimore, 1840, 12mo) : — 3. Expository Lectures on the principal Texts >f tin Bibl which relatt to the Doctrine of the Trinity (Bos- ton, 1845) : — 4. Popular Objections to Unitarian Chris- tianity consider/ d and answered (1848) : — 5. Christianity, its Essence anil Eridi nee (1855).
Burnet, Gilbert, bishop of Salisbury, was born in Edinburgh, Sept. IS, 1643, his father being an Epis- copalian, and his mother a Presbyterian. He was educated at Aberdeen, and was licensed to preach in the Scotch Church 1661. After travelling in Eng- land, Holland, and France, he returned to Scotland in 1665, and was ordained priest by Wishart, bishop of Edinburgh, and appointed to the parish of Saltoun, where he soon trained the good-will ofthe people bv his
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faithful labors both as pastor and preacher. Here he published an attack upon the remissness and wrong- doings of the bishops of the Scotch Church, which brought him the ill-will of Archbishop Sharp. In 1669 he was made professor of divinity at Glasgow, and in that year he published his Modest and Free Conference between a Conformist and a Non-conformist. In 1673 Charles II made him his chaplain ; but he soon after- ward, through the misrepresentations of Lauderdale, fell into disgrace, and his appointment was cancelled, whereupon lie resigned his professorship at Glasgow and settled in London, where he was made preacher at the Rolls and lecturer at St. Clement's. In 1G75 he published vol. i of bis History of the Reformation of the Church of England, which was received with much favor, and had the extraordinary honor of the thanks of both houses of Parliament. In 1680 appeared the most carefully prepared of all his writings, entitled Borne Passages in the L'fe and Death of tin- Earl of ■Rochester, being an account of his conversation with that nobleman in his last illness. In 1081 he publish- ed vol. ii of his History of the Reformation, and in 16*2 his Life of Sir Matthew Hale. Overtures wore now again made to him by the court, and he was offered the bishopric of Chichester by the king " if lie would en- tirely come into his interests." lie still, however, re- mained steady to his principles. About this time also he wrote a celebrated letter to Charles, reproving him in the severest style both for his public misconduct and hi* private vices. His majesty read it twice over, and then threw it into the fire. At the execution of Lord Russell in 1683, Burnet attended him on the scaffold, immediately after which he was dismissed both from his preachership at the Rolls and his lecture at St. Clement's by order of the king. In 1685 he published his L>fe of Dr. William Bedell, bishop of Kilmore, in Ireland. In 1685, upon the accession of James II, he passed through France to Rome, where he was at first favorably received by Pope Innocent XI, but was soon afterwanl ordered to quit the city. Invited by the Prince of Orange, he settled down at the Hague, where he devoted his time chiefly to English politics, and was entirely in the confidence of the Protestant party. In 1688 In- accompanied the Prince of Orange to England, and upon his accession to the throne as William I, Burnet was appointed to the bishopric of Salisbury; an appointment which appeared so objectionable to Sancroft, the archbishop of Canterbury, that he refused to consecrate him in person, but authorized his ordina- tion by a commission of bishops, March 31, 1689. In his diocese he was zealous and painstaking; he tended his flock with a diligence and disinterestedness worthy of the purest ages of the Church. Finding the gener- al character of his clergy to be not such as became their high office, he devised the plan of forming a ci m- nuinity of young clergymen, whom he clothed and kept at his own expense, and instructed them and pre- pared them for the exercise of the sacerdotal office.