The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume VII. Cavalier and Puritan.

IX. Historical and Political Writings.

§ 8. Archbishop Spottiswoode.


Of archbishop Spottiswoode’s History of the Church of Scotland, beginning A.D. 203, and continued to the reign of king James IV, the first edition was printed in 1665; but the book had advanced gradually in its author’s hands, and the earliest MS. of it extends only to the year 1602. The work was written in tranquil times by a calm-minded man, who was singularly free from a spirit of ecclesiastical bitterness.   14