(Robert), the first principal of the college of Edinburgh, was the son of David Rollock of Poo-boufe, or, as it is now written, Powrie, in the neighbourhood of Stirling. He was born in 1555; and learned the rudiments of the Latin tongue under one Mr Thomas Buchanan, who kept, says Archbishop Spottiswood, a famous school at that time, and was, according to Dr Mackenzie, one of the most eminent grammarians in Scotland. Where Mr Buchanan kept his school, neither of these authors has informed us.

From school Mr Rollock was sent, we know not in what year, to the university of St Andrews, and admitted a student in St Salvator's college. His progress in the sciences, which were then taught, was so great and so rapid, that he had no sooner taken his degree of M. A. than he was chosen a professor of philosophy, and immediately began to read lectures in St Salvator's college. This must have been at a very early period of life; for he quitted St Andrews in the year 1583, when, according to Mackenzie, he had taught philosophy for some time in that university.

Not long before this period, the magistrates of Edinburgh having petitioned the king to erect a university in that city, he granted them a charter under the great seal, allowing them all the privileges of a university; and the college being built in 1584, they made choice of Mr Rollock to be their principal and professor of divinity.

At what time he was admitted into holy orders, by whom he was ordained, or indeed whether he ever was ordained, has been the subject of some acrimonious controversy; but it is a controversy which we shall not revive; for, considering the manner in which orders were then conferred in Scotland, the question in debate is of very little importance. It is certain that he became famous in the university, and among his countrymen in general, for his lectures in theology, and for the persuasive power of his preaching; for Calderwood affirms us, that, in 1589, he and Mr Robert Bruce, another popular orator, made the Earl of Bothwell so sensible of his sinful and vicious courses, that, upon the 9th of November, his lordship humbled himself upon his knees in the east church in the forenoon, and in the high church in the afternoon, confessing before the people, with tears in his eyes, his dissolute and licentious life, and promising to prove, for the future, another man.

In the year 1593, Principal Rollock and others were appointed by the estates of parliament to confer with the papish lords; and in the next year he was one of those who, by the appointment of the general assembly of the church, met at Edinburgh in the month of May, and presented to his majesty a paper, entitled, The dangers which, through the impunity of excommunicated papists, traffickers with the Spaniards, and other enemies of the religion and estate, are imminent to the true religion professed within this realm, his Majesty's person, crown, and liberty of this our native country. His zeal against Papists was indeed ardent; and he seems to have adopted that judaical doctrine, which was embraced in some degree by all the reformers, that it is the duty of the civil magistrate to punish idolatry with death.

In the year 1595 he was nominated one of the commissioners for the visitation of colleges. These commissioners missioners were empowered to visit all the colleges in the kingdom, to inquire into the doctrine and life of the several masters, the discipline used by them, the state of their rents and living, and to make their report to the next assembly.

In 1596, the factious behaviour of some of the ministers having drawn upon them the just resentment of the king, our principal was employed, on account of his moderation, to soften that resentment, and to turn his majesty's wrath against the Papists! In the year 1597, he was chosen moderator of the General Assembly—the highest dignity in the Scottish church; and he had the influence to get some great abuses redressed. Being one of fourteen ministers appointed by this assembly to take care of the affairs of the church, the first thing which he did was to procure an act of the legislature, restoring to the prelates their seats in parliament. He had here occasion for all his address; for he had to reconcile to this measure, not only such of the ministers as abhorred all kinds of subordination in the church, but likewise many of the lay lords, who were not delighted with the prospect of such associates in parliament as the Scotch prelates were at that period (a).

Though he spent the greater part of his life in conducting the affairs of the church, we have the authority of Spottiswood for saying, that he would have preferred retirement and study. To the bustle of public life, especially at that period of faction and fanaticism, his feeble constitution was not equal; and his inclination would have confined him to his college and his library. He was dreadfully afflicted with the stone; the torments of which he long bore with the fortitude and resignation of a Christian. He died at Edinburgh on the 28th of February 1598, in the 43rd year of his age; having exhorted his brethren, with his dying breath, to carry themselves more dutifully to their gracious sovereign.

His works are, 1. A Commentary on the First Book of Theodore Beza's Questions. 2. A Commentary on St Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, 4to, Edinburgh, 1590. 3. A Commentary on the Prophet Daniel, 4to, Edinburgh, 1591. 4. A Logical Analysis of St Paul's Epistle to the Romans, 8vo, Edinburgh, 1594. 5. Some Questions and Answers concerning the Covenant of Grace and the Sacraments, 8vo, Edinburgh, 1596. 6. A Treatise of Effectual Calling, 8vo, Edinburgh, 1597. 7. A Commentary on the Epistles of St Paul to the Thessalonians and Philomen, 8vo, Geneva, 1597. 8. A Commentary upon Fifteen Select Psalms, 8vo, Geneva, 1598. 9. A Commentary on the Gospel of St John, with a harmony of the Four Evangelists upon the Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ.

(a) The constitution of the Scotch church was, at this period, a strange system of inconsistency and contradiction. It was, in fact, presbyterian; for ecclesiastical discipline was administered then, as at present, by kirksessions, presbyteries, and general assemblies; and there was not a reformed bishop in the kingdom. Whether provincial synods were then in use, the writer of this note does not at present recollect. The king, however, who was meditating the restoration of episcopacy, conferred the estates, or part of the estates, belonging to the different fees, upon the most eminent parochial ministers, and dignified them with the title of bishops; though it does not appear that they had any jurisdiction over their brethren; and though they were certainly not in efficio so much as moderators of the presbyteries within the bounds of which their churches were situated. These were the men for whom Mr Rollock exerted himself to obtain seats in the parliament.