The Reverend Dr. Alexander Carlyle: Preserver of the Church from Fanaticism
John Kay British, Scottish
Sitter Dr. Alexander Carlyle British, Scottish
Not on view
Kay portrays Alexander Carlyle in clerical collar and spurred boots, holding a hunting whip as he raises a finger to admonish invisible advisaries. As minister at Inveresk for fifty-seven years, Carlyle led the Moderate or Court party within the ecclesiastical courts of the Church of Scotland. He dubbed his conservative opponents Fanatics and was one of a handful of ministers who brooked a Presbyterian theater-going ban to attend "Douglas, a Tragedy," an historical play penned by John Home, a fellow divine. Carlyle also published anonymous pamphlets which helped ensure the production's success. A central contributor to the intellectual life of Enlightenment era Edinburgh, Carlyle enjoyed close friendships with the historians William Robertson and David Hume, and Adam Smith the famed economist.
