Maitlaiid, Samuel RoflFey, D.D., an English di- vine of some note, was born in London in 1792 ; was ed- ucated at Trinity College, Cambridge ; entered the law profession in 1816, but shortly after turned towards the ministry; was ordained deacon and priest in 1821 ; per- petual curate of Christ Church, Gloucester, in 1823-29; keeper of the Lambeth MSS., and librarian to the arch- bishop of Canterbury, in 1837. He died at Lambeth Palace, Loudon, Jan. 19, 1866. His principal theological publications are as follows: An Inquiri/ into the Grounds on which the Prophetic Period oj" Daniel and St, John has been supposed to consist q/'1260 Yecas (Lond. 1826, 8vo) : — A Second Inquiry, etc. (1829, 8 vo) : — An Attempt to elucidate the Prophecies concerning A ntichrist (1830, 8vo) : — Tracts and Documents illustrative of the History, Doc- trine, and Rites of the Ancient Albigenses and Wuldenses (1832, 8vo): — The Dark Ages; a series of Essays in- tended to illustrate the state of Religion and Literature in the Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Centuries (re- printed from the British Magazine, with corrections and some additions, 1811, 8vo ; 2d edit, 1845, 8vo) : — Essays on the Subjects connected with the Reformation in England (reprinted, with additions, from the British Magazine, 1849, 8vo; see London Athenmun, 1849, p. 834, 835) :— Illustrations and Inquiries relating to Mesmerism, parts i-vi (1849, 8vo) : — Eruvin, or Miscellaneous Essays on Subjects connected with the Nature, History, and Destiny of Man (2d edit. 1850, sm. 8vo) : — An Essay on the Mys- tical Interpretation of Scripture : — Strictui'es on din- ner's Church History (London, 1834, 8vo) : — Reviev) of Fox's History of the Waldenses. — Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and A nier, A uthors, s. v. ; Thomas, Diet, of Biography and Mythology, s. v. ; English Cyclopcedia, s. v.
Maitland, "William, a noted Scotch politician of the Keforniatiou period, better known as " Secretary Leth- ington," was born about 1525, and was educated both at St. Andrews and on the Continent, He had great influence as a political leader, and though he became a convert to the Reformed doctrines about 1555, he was in 1558 appointed secretary of state by jNIary of Guise. In the following. year, however, he openly joined the lords of the Congregation, and was one of the Scotch commis- sioners who met the duke of Norfolk at Berwick, to ar- range the conditions on which queen Elizabeth would give them assistance. In 1561, after the arrival of queen Mary from France, he was made an extraordinary lord of Session. He strongly objected to the ratification of Knox's Book of Discipline, and in 1563 conducted the prosecution raised against Knox for treason. Prom this time he appears to have lost his influence with tlie re- formers. In 1564 he held a long debate with Knox on the claims of the Reformed Church to be independent
of the state. In 1566 he took part in the conspiracy against Rizzio, after whose assassination he was pro- scribed, and obliged to seek shelter for some months in obscurity. After queen Mary's imprisonment (1567) in England he played a most unenviable part, pretending to Elizabeth to be one of her admirers, but really seek- ing all the while to protect the cause of Mary, and it is evident that he really never deserted her, although he was present at the coronation of king James VI, and al- though he fought on the side of her opponents on the field of Langside. He took part in 1568 in the confer- ence held at York, and there displayed such unmistaka- ble sj-mpathy for IMary that the Scottish lords marked him as a dangerous enemy to the commonwealth, and in 1569 he was arrested at .Stirling, but was liberated shortly after by an artifice of Kirkaldy of Grange. In 1570 he openly declared for Mary, and became the soul of the queen's party, in consequence of ■which he was declared a rebel, deprived of his offices and lands by the regent IMorton, and besieged, along with Kirkaldj', in Edinburgh Castle. After a long resistance, the castle surrendered, and he was imprisoned in Leith, where he died (in 1573), " some," says Melville, " supposing he took a drink and died, as the auld Romans were wont to do." Buchanan has drawn his character with a severe pen in his Scottish tract entitled Tlie Chameleon, Froude (x, 474) believes that Maitland died a natural death. Burton (Hist, of Maitland, iv, 55-57) says of jMaitland that "his name was a byword for subtlety and state- craft. Yet ... if we look at his life and doings, we do not find he was one of those who have left the mark of their influence upon their age. . . . He had great abili- ties, but they were rather those of the wit and rhetori- cian than of the practical man." In the estimation of Knox, Maitland had greatly lowered himself by his un- kindness and vacillation, and the great reformer, in his dying hours even, was called ujion to pronounce against the wary Scotch politician : '■ I have na warrant that ever he shall be well," alluding to Maitland's state in the hereafter. See Froude, Hist, of England, vol. x, ch. xix and xxiii ; Robertson, Hist, of Scotland (see Index).