Zachary Boyd (1585–1653) was a Scottish minister and university administrator who wrote many sermons, scriptural versifications and other devotional works.Zachary Boyd

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

(multi-tab page) He served as Dean of Faculties, Rector and Vice-Chancellor at the

during the 1630s and 1640s, and bequeathed a generous legacy to the university including his library and large manuscript collection of unpublished sermons and verse.

Life

Boyd was born into the family of Boyd of Pinkhill,

Ayrshire Ayrshire (, ) is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration county, in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. The lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area of Ayrshire and Arran covers the entirety ...

. He first studied at the

and then went to

Saumur Saumur () is a Communes of France, commune in the Maine-et-Loire Departments of France, department in western France. The town is located between the Loire and Thouet rivers, and is surrounded by the vineyards of Saumur itself, Chinon, Bourgu ...

in France. There he followed courses of his kinsman Robert Boyd and in 1611 became Regent Professor. He returned to Glasgow in 1621 and became Minister of Barony Parish in 1625. During the 1630s and 1640s he served as Dean of Faculties, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the Glasgow University. He was a moderate royalist who, like many faculty members at Glasgow, was initially reluctant to subscribe to the

National Covenant The National Covenant () was an agreement signed by many people of Scotland during 1638, opposing the proposed Laudian reforms of the Church of Scotland (also known as '' the Kirk'') by King Charles I. The king's efforts to impose changes on th ...

in 1638, though in time he did so. As a

Scottish Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pre ...

his primary concern during the

Wars of the Three Kingdoms The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were a series of conflicts fought between 1639 and 1653 in the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland, then separate entities in a personal union un ...

was to guarantee Presbyterian church government in Scotland. In a poem about the

Battle of Newburn The Battle of Newburn, also known as the Battle of Newburn Ford, took place on 28 August 1640, during the Second Bishops' War. It was fought at Newburn, just outside Newcastle, where a ford crossed the River Tyne. A Scottish Covenanter ar ...

Boyd celebrated the Scottish victory but stopped short of saying that the King himself had been defeated. After many magistrates and ministers subsequently fled Glasgow, Boyd remained behind and met

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially ...

in October 1648: Cromwell was advised to 'pistol the scoundrel' but instead invited Boyd for dinner.

Works

Three collections of Boyd's verse were printed during his lifetime. ''The Garden of Zion'' (1644) is a two-volume work that versifies

Job Work, labor (labour in Commonwealth English), occupation or job is the intentional activity people perform to support the needs and desires of themselves, other people, or organizations. In the context of economics, work can be seen as the huma ...

Proverbs A proverb (from ) or an adage is a simple, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and are an example of formulaic language. A proverbial phrase or a proverbial ...

Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastes ( ) is one of the Ketuvim ('Writings') of the Hebrew Bible and part of the Wisdom literature of the Christian Old Testament. The title commonly used in English is a Latin transliteration of the Greek translation of the Hebrew word ...

, the

Song of Solomon The Song of Songs (), also called the Canticle of Canticles or the Song of Solomon, is a biblical poem, one of the five ("scrolls") in the ('writings'), the last section of the Tanakh. Unlike other books in the Hebrew Bible, it is erotic poe ...

, and other

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

songs. Boyd sought to have his rhymed psalter (printed in 1644) and scriptural songs (1645) accepted as the standard text for use in England and Scotland. Though the Scottish General Assembly sent his psalms to the

Westminster Assembly The Westminster Assembly of Divines was a council of Divinity (academic discipline), divines (theologians) and members of the English Parliament appointed from 1643 to 1653 to restructure the Church of England. Several Scots also attended, and ...

for consideration,

Robert Baillie Robert Baillie (30 April 16021662) was a Church of Scotland minister who became famous as an author and a propagandist for the Covenanters.

criticized Boyd for his '' in seeking to have his psalter adopted. These books were printed by George Anderson, an unofficial printer to the university whom Boyd supported during his time as Vice-Chancellor. His printed prose consists of a variety of devotional works. The largest is the prose treatise ''Last Battell of the Soule in Death'' (Edinburgh, 1628), a text written in the ''

Ars moriendi The ("The Art of Dying") are two related Latin texts dating from about 1415 and 1450 which offer advice on the protocols and procedures of a good death, explaining how to "die well" according to Christian precepts of the late Middle Ages. It wa ...

'' tradition to offer solace to those approaching death. ''Cleare Forme of Catechising'' (Glasgow, 1639) is a children's

catechism A catechism (; from , "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of Catholic theology, doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult co ...

. ''A Sermon of Preparation to the Communion and A Sermon for the Day of the Sacrament'' (Edinburgh, 1629) and ''Two Orientall Pearles, Grace and Glory'' (Edinburgh, 1629) made a small number of Boyd's sermons available in print, but Boyd left over 250 more in manuscript. Boyd also left a substantial quantity of scriptural versifications. Boyd's autograph manuscripts, which are held at

Glasgow University Library Glasgow University Library in the main library of the University of Glasgow. At the turn of the 21st century, the main library building itself held 1,347,000 catalogued print books, and 53,300 journals. In total, the university library syst ...

, include ''Zions Flowers'' (or 'Christian Poems for Spiritual Edification'), the didactic set of exercises ''The English Academie ''and versified Gospels entitled ''The Four Evangels.'' ''Zions Flowers'' versifies nineteen biblical narratives from the Old Testament, such as 'Pharaoh's Tyrannie and Death', 'David and Goliath' and 'Destruction of Sodom'. Known collectively as 'Boyd's Bible' – though Boyd never did versify the entire Bible – these poems' critical estimation has never been high: representative is the nineteenth-century writer

John Marshall Lang John Marshall Lang (18342 May 1909) was a Church of Scotland Minister (Christianity), minister and author. He served as Moderator of the General Assembly in 1893 and later became Principal of the University of Aberdeen in 1900. Life He was bo ...

's opinion that Boyd 'was not a poet, yet he was something more than a mere doggerel rhymer ...the commendable features are often marred not merely by rugged verse, but also by hard and unsympathetic thought.' Boyd's versifications are remarkable for the extent to which they contain phrases and imagery appropriated from

Josuah Sylvester Josuah Sylvester (1563 – 28 September 1618) was an English poet. Biography Sylvester was the son of a Kentish clothier. In his tenth year he was sent to school at King Edward VI School, Southampton, where he gained a knowledge of Fren ...

's translation of Guillaume de Saluste Du Bartas' ''Semaines'' and Sylvester's other works. Boyd's Deed of Mortification indicated that a portion of the money he donated to Glasgow was to be used for printing his poems; it never was. However, the bibliographer Gabriel Neil did print four poems from ''Zion's Flowers'' in 1855, and David Atkinson produced an edition of Boyd's Selected Sermons for the

Scottish Text Society The Scottish Text Society (STS) is a text publication society founded in 1882 to promote the study of Scottish literature. The Society publishes scholarly editions of important texts from the country's literary history, and has played a significa ...

in 1989.

References

External links

Boyd's bursary in the University of Glasgow
Wikisource. {{DEFAULTSORT:Boyd, Zachary 1585 births 1653 deaths 17th-century Scottish writers 17th-century Scottish male writers Academics of the University of Glasgow Alumni of the University of Glasgow People from South Ayrshire Scottish religious writers 17th-century ministers of the Church of Scotland 17th-century Scottish Presbyterian ministers