1. Robert Rollock was acknowledged by his contemporaries as a prolific academic and Biblical scholar, and effective principal.
22 Facts About Robert Rollock
1. 2.
Robert Rollock was born in 1555, the son of David Robert Rollock, laird of Powis, near Stirling, and his wife Mariota Livingston.
3.
Robert Rollock was one of at least six children, Hercules Rollock being his older brother.
4.
Robert Rollock received his early education at the school of Stirling from Thomas Buchanan, a nephew of George Buchanan.
5.
Robert Rollock then entered St Salvator's College at the University of St Andrews in 1574, obtaining his BA in 1576 and his MA likely in 1577.
6.
Robert Rollock's appointment was guaranteed for one year; should the college be successful, it was agreed that he should be advanced to the highest post or title that might be created.
7.
Robert Rollock's salary was fixed at 40 pound Scots, and the council agreed to "sustain him and one servant in their ordinary expenses".
8.
The tuition fees for the sons of burgesses were set at 40 Shillings, and other students paid three pounds or more; Robert Rollock would be given an augmentation not exceeding 40 merks should the fees not afford him a sufficient salary.
9.
Robert Rollock's curriculum was deeply influenced by humanist ideals which had taken root at the universities of Glasgow and St Andrews, but a pioneering course on human anatomy was an innovation.
10.
Robert Rollock instructed students in divinity if they wanted to become ministers after graduating, and saw himself both as an educator and as a spiritual guide to his students.
11.
Robert Rollock played a prominent role in the Church of Scotland and its somewhat troubled church politics, and was appointed on several occasions to committees of presbytery and assemblies on pressing ecclesiastical business.
12.
In 1590, Robert Rollock was appointed assessor to the moderator of the general assembly, and in 1591 was named to a committee of the presbytery of Edinburgh with negotiated with the king on the affairs of the kirk.
13.
Robert Rollock supported a proposal made in 1595 that certain ministers should be allowed to sit and vote in parliament as bishops, affirming that "lordship could not be denied them that were to sit in parliament, and allowance of rent to maintain their dignities".
14.
Church historian John Row points out that Robert Rollock had previously condemned the office of bishops in his 1590 commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians.
15.
In 1596, Robert Rollock accepted one of the eight ministerial charges of the city of Edinburgh, and took charge of his congregation.
16.
On his deathbed, Robert Rollock stated that he wanted the university to remain chiefly a place of spiritual instruction, and that he was strongly opposed to the introduction of professors of law and medicine.
17.
Robert Rollock requested that his former student Henry Charteris would be made his successor, a wish which was granted by the Town Council.
18.
David Calderwood, in his 1646 Historie of the Kirk of Scotland, criticises Robert Rollock's perceived weakness towards the king, but admits that he was "a man of good conversation and a powerful preacher".
19.
Robert Rollock was the author of numerous theological works, the majority of them being commentaries or expositions of scripture.
20.
Robert Rollock was internationally recognised for his Bible commentaries, and over 40 of his works were printed in Edinburgh, Geneva, Heidelberg and Herborn.
21.
Robert Rollock married Helen Barroun, daughter of James Barroun of Kinnaird, around 1587.
22.
Robert Rollock encouraged his students to apply Ramist logic and analysis to their readings of scripture, and he used the same approach in his published works.