ticles_ (1699; ed. J.R.
Page, 1837), which was severely criticized by the High Church clergy. But
his hopes for a comprehensive scheme which might include nonconformists in
the English Church were necessarily destroyed on the accession of Queen
Anne. He died on the 17th of March 1715, and was buried in the parish of St
James's, Clerkenwell.

Burnet directed in his will that his most important work, the _History of
His Own Time_, should appear six years after his death. It was published (2
vols., 1724-1734) by his sons, Gilbert and Thomas, and then not without
omissions. It was attacked in 1724 by John Cockburn in _A Specimen of some
free and impartial Remarks_. Burnet's book naturally aroused much
opposition, and there were persistent rumours that the MS. had been unduly
tampered with. He has been freely charged with gross misrepresentation, an
accusation to which he laid himself open, for instance, in the account of
the birth of James, the Old Pretender. His later intimacy with the
Marlboroughs made him very lenient where the duke was concerned. The
greatest value of his work naturally lies in his account of transactions of
which he had personal knowledge, notably in his relation of the church
history of Scotland, of the Popish Plot, of the proceedings at the Hague
previous to the expedition of William and Mary, and of the personal
relations between the joint sovereigns.

Of his children by his second wife, William (d. 1729) became a colonial
governor in America; Gilbert (d. 1726) became prebendary of Salisbury in
1715, and chaplain to George I. in 1718; and Sir Thomas (1694-1753), his
literary executor and biographer, became in 1741 judge in the court of
common pleas.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The chief authorities for Bishop Burnet's life are the
autobiography "Rough Draft of my own Life" (ed. H.C. Foxcroft, Oxford,
1902, in the _Supplement to Burnet's History_), the Life by Sir Thomas
Burnet in the _History of His Own Time_ (Oxford, 1823, vol. vi.), and the
_History_ itself. A rather severe but detailed and useful criticism is
given in L. v. Ranke's _History of England_ (Eng. ed., Oxford, 1875), vol.
vi. pp. 45-101. Burnet's letters to his friend, George Savile, marquess of
Halifax, were published by the Royal Historical Society (_Camden
Miscellany_, vol. xi.). The _History of His Own Time_ (2 vols. fol.,
1724-1734) ran through many editions before it was reprinted at the
Clarendon Press (6 vols., 1823, and supplementary vo