Charles VII. is greatly praised by the students of history. Gilles is regarded as the earliest writer of history as distinguished from the mere chronicler. Augustin Thierry, in his Letters on the History of France, praises him highly.—J. A., D.
GILLES, Pierre (in Latin, Petrus Gillius), a French naturalist, was born at Albi in 1490, and died at Rome in 1555. He travelled over his native country and Italy, and, on his return, spent some time with George d'Armagnac, bishop of Rodez, at whose request he wrote his work "De vi et naturâ animalium." It was dedicated to Francis I., who afterwards sent him on a scientific journey into the Levant; where, receiving no pay from the king, he was obliged to enlist in the service of Soliman II. He returned to France in 1550. Gilles wrote also "Elephanti Descriptio," "De Bosphoro Thracio," &c.—R. M., A.
GILLES DE CORBEIL. See Aegidius.
GILLESPIE, George, a celebrated divine of the church of Scotland, was born at Kirkaldy in 1612, and ordained minister of Wemyss in 1638, the year of the famous Glasgow assembly. He was the first man to be inducted into a pastoral charge at that period, without any acknowledgment of the jurisdiction of the bishops. His distinguished zeal and abilities procured his translation to Edinburgh in 1642, and his nomination by the general assembly in 1643 to be one of the commissioners of the Church of Scotland to the Westminster assembly which met in that year, where he distinguished himself highly. "This young man," said Selden, after a speech in which Gillespie had replied to his arguments in behalf of erastianism, "has swept away by his single speech the learning and labour of my life." On his return to Scotland he continued to take a prominent part in the affairs of the church, and in 1648 was elected moderator of the general assembly. He was cut off in the same year, "and no man's death at the time was more lamented." To testify the public sense of his merits, the committee of Estates, by an act dated December 20, 1648, "ordained that the sum of £1000 sterling should be given to his wife and children," an act which was ratified by parliament in 1650, but was finally rendered ineffectual by the invasion of Cromwell. Gillespie was not less distinguished as a writer than as a preacher and debater. He published in his twenty-fifth year his "Dispute against the English Popish Ceremonies." His "Aaron's Rod Blossoming" and "Miscellany Questions" were printed after his death in 1649.—P. L.
GILLESPIE, Rev. Thomas, founder of that body of Scottish dissenters entitled the Synod of Relief, now merged in the United Presbyterian Church, was born in 1708 in the parish of Duddingstone, near Edinburgh. An interview which he had with the celebrated Thomas Boston of Etterick when he was twenty years of age, appears to have been the means of his conversion, and led him soon after to become a student in the university of Edinburgh, with the view of preparing himself for the work of the ministry. He subsequently prosecuted his theological studies at Northampton academy under the celebrated Dr. Doddridge, with whom he became a great favourite. He was licensed to preach the gospel on the 30th October, 1740, and ordained to the work of the ministry on the 22nd of January, 1741, by a respectable class of English dissenters. Dr. Doddridge acting as moderator. In March following he returned to Scotland, and on the 19th of August was settled as parish minister of Carnock, near Dunfermline. The presbytery, strange to say, held his deed of license and ordination by the English dissenters as valid, and even allowed him to object to the doctrine of the Confession of Faith respecting the power of the civil magistrate in religion. Mr. Gillespie laboured in this quiet rural parish during eleven years, and proved himself a most diligent and faithful minister. He was of a retiring, reserved disposition, and never took any prominent part in the business of the church courts. But his adherence to the old principles of the Scottish church, and his scrupulous conscientiousness, unexpectedly led to his ejection from the establishment, and made him, against his inclination, the founder of a sect. Scotland was at this time convulsed with keen disputes respecting the law of patronage, which one party wished to modify, and another was determined to enforce. In the year 1749 an unpopular minister was presented to the parish of Inverkeithing in Fife; the great body of the parishioners protested against his settlement amongst them, and the presbytery of Dunfermline in consequence refused to induct him. The case was ultimately brought before the general assembly in May, 1752, and that venerable court not only peremptorily enjoined the presbytery of Dunfermline to proceed on the Thursday of the same week with the settlement of the presentee, but adopted the unusual step of ordering all the members of presbytery to attend on that occasion. Six members of presbytery—among whom was Mr. Gillespie—absented themselves from conscientious scruples, and were brought to the bar of the assembly on the following day (Friday). They in vain pleaded that they had merely adhered to the principles of the church announced by the assembly itself in 1736, that no minister should be intruded into any parish contrary to the will of the congregation. The assembly resolved to depose one of the six, and on the next day selected Mr. Gillespie, and pronounced the sentence of deposition on the spot. He received this hard and unconstitutional sentence, says Dr. Erskine, "with christian meekness and the dignity of conscious innocence, and conducted himself throughout in a manner worthy of the highest admiration." He never again entered the parish church, but preached first in the fields, and when driven thence, on the public highway, to immense multitudes of people until the month of September, when he removed to the neighbouring town of Dunfermline, where a church had been prepared for him, and where he ministered to a numerous and respectable congregation. In 1761 Mr. Gillespie, along with Mr. Boston of Jedburgh, and a Mr. Collier of Colinsburgh in Fife, formed themselves into a presbytery of Relief for the purpose of giving relief from the yoke of patronage and the tyranny of the church courts. He died 19th January, 1774. Mr. Gillespie was a sound divine, and an anxious and faithful pastor; and Sir Henry Moncrieff has borne testimony to his private worth, as "one of the most inoffensive and upright men of his time." He was the author of an "Essay on the Continuance of Immediate Revelations in the Church" and a "Treatise on Temptation."—J. T.
GILLESPIE, Rev. Thomas, LL.D., professor of humanity in the university of St. Andrews, was born in the parish of Closeburn, Dumfries-shire, about the year 1780. He was educated at the university of Edinburgh, was licensed as a preacher, and afterwards presented to the parish of Cults in the presbytery of Cupar-Fife. Here Dr. Gillespie remained until 1828, when he was appointed assistant and successor to his father-in-law, Dr. John Hunter, professor of humanity in the university of St. Andrews. Dr. Gillespie filled this office for sixteen years, and his extensive classical learning and knowledge of general literature, combined with his genial disposition and keen yet kindly humour, made him an eminently successful teacher. He amused his leisure hours by a great number of contributions both in prose and verse to Blackwood's Magazine and other periodicals, which display a lively imagination and great powers of satire, and excite deep regret that one who could write so well has left no monument worthy of his abilities. Dr. Gillespie's death, which was very sudden, took place 11th September, 1844. He was twice married, and his second wife is the sister of Lord Campbell.—J. T.
GILLIES, John, born at Forfar in Scotland, 18th January, 1747; was educated at the university of Glasgow, where he distinguished himself as a Greek scholar. As tutor to a son of the earl of Hopeton, he visited the continent in 1776, and for his services in this capacity received an annuity for life. In 1793 he succeeded Dr. Robertson as historiographer royal for Scotland, a sinecure worth £200 a year. He married the next year, and the remainder of his prolonged life was spent in retirement, devoted to literary pursuits. In extreme old age he became very infirm; and in 1830 removed to Clapham, where he died, 15th February, 1836. His works are translations of the "Orations of Lysias," 1778; of "Aristotle's Ethics and Politics, with supplements," 1797, and of "Aristotle's Rhetoric, with supplements, analysis," &c., 1823; "History of Ancient Greece, its Colonies and Conquest, from the earliest accounts until the division of the Macedonian Empire," 2 vols. 4to, 1786; "View of the Reign of Frederick II. of Prussia, with a parallel between that prince and Philip of Macedon," 8vo, 1789; "History of the Ancient World, from the domination of Alexander the Great to that of Augustus," 2 vols. 4to, 1807-10, being, in fact, the continuation of the "History of Greece." An able but severe critique on the "History of Greece" will be found in the twenty-first number of the Edinburgh Review, of which the following is an extract:—"In estimating the merits of Dr. Gillies' work, although we should be inclined to place it a good deal above Rollin and the Universal History, we cannot express ourselves satisfied with its execution. Without waiting to extract the spirit of history,
