The New International Encyclopædia/Leslie, Charles

LESLIE, Charles (1650-1722). A British Jacobite non-juror and controversialist. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, graduated at Trinity College, Dublin, removed to England in 1671, and began the study of law at the Temple, but soon abandoned this for divinity, and was admitted to orders in the Church of England in 1680. Returning to Ireland, he was appointed, in 1687, Chancellor of Connor. Living in Ireland at the time of the Revolution, he distinguished himself in disputations with the Roman Catholics in defense of Protestantism. Though a zealous Protestant, he adhered to King James, refusing to acknowledge William as his rightful sovereign. After the death of James II. he transferred his allegiance to his son, the Pretender, and was sent by some opulent Jacobite gentlemen, in 1709, to Bar-le-Duc to convert him; when the Pretender removed to Italy he accompanied him. In 1721 he obtained permission from George I. to return to his native land, and took up his abode at Glaslough, Ireland, where he died on April 13, 1722. His theological works excited much attention and have been frequently reprinted. The most prominent are: Gallienus Redivivus (1695), which gives the facts of the massacre of Glencoe; The Snake in the Grass (1696); A Short and Easy Method with the Deists (1698); A Short and Easy Method with the Jews (1699); The Truth of Christianity Demonstrated (1711). In his political controversies he was the advocate of high monarchical principles. His collected works were published in two volumes (London, 1721), and reprinted in seven volumes (Oxford, 1832).