William Forbes (bishop)

He was the son of Thomas Forbes, a burgess of Aberdeen, descended from the Corsindac branch of that house, by his wife, Janet, the sister of the botanist James Cargill.

Such doctrines would not have been tolerated elsewhere in Scotland, but in Aberdeen they were received with favour, and on Aidie's enforced resignation in 1620 the town council of the city, who were patrons of Marischal College, made him the principal, specifying that he should continue his preaching.

Five of the ringleaders were dealt with by the privy council; but Forbes felt that his ministry at Edinburgh was a failure, and more trouble arising from his preaching in support of the superiority of bishops over presbyters, he returned to Aberdeen, where in 1626 he resumed his former post.

He was married, and left a family, of whom one, Arthur, is said to have become Professor of Humanities at St. Jean d'Angel, near La Rochelle, while another, Thomas, entered the Catholic Seminary, the Scots College, Rome, and eventually entered the service of Cardinal Carlo Barberini[2] Forbes himself published nothing, but in 1658 a posthumous work, Considerationes Modestae et Pacificae Controversiarum de Justificatione, Purgatorio, Invocatione Sanctorum Christo Mediatore, et Eucharistia, was published from his manuscripts by T. G. (Thomas Sydeserf, bishop of Galloway).

Other editions appeared at Helmstadt (1704) and Frankfort-on-the-Main (1707); while a third, with an English translation by Dr. William Forbes, Burntisland (Oxford, 1856), forms part of the Anglo-Catholic Library.