BARCLAY, John, son of the former, was, as we have above mentioned, so great a favourite of the Jesuits, that they used all their efforts to engage him in their society. His father would not consent, and carried his son with him into England, who was already
an author, for he had published "A Commentary upon the Thebais of Statius," and a Latin poem on the coronation of King James, and the first part of Euphorion, 1603. He returned to France with his father; and after his father's death went to Paris, and soon after came back to London: he was there in 1606. He published "The History of the Gunpowder Plot," a pamphlet of six leaves, printed at Amsterdam. He published at London in 1610 "An Apology for the Euphorion," and his father's treatise De potestate papae. And at Paris, 1612, he published a book entitled Pietas, in answer to Cardinal Bellarmin, who had written against William Barclay's book concerning the power of the Pope. Two years after he published Icon Antuerum. He was invited to Rome by Pope Paul V. and received a great deal of civility from Cardinal Bellarmin, though he had written against him. He died at Rome in 1621, while his Argenis was printing at Paris. This celebrated work has since gone through a great number of editions, and has been translated into most languages. M. de Peirese, who had the care of the first edition, caused the effigies of the author to be placed before the book; and the following distich, written by Grotius, was put under it.
Gente Caledonius, Gallus natalibus, hic est,
Romam Romano qui docet ore loqui.