Lewis Bayly

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Lewis Bayly (born perhaps at Carmarthen, Wales, perhaps near Biggar, Scotland, year unknown; died at Bangor, Wales, October 26, 1631) was an Anglican bishop. He was educated at Oxford, became vicar of Evesham, Worcestershire, and probably in 1604 became rector of St. Matthew's Church, Friday street, London. He was then chaplain to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (died 1612), later chaplain to King James I, who, in 1616, appointed him bishop of Bangor. He was an ardent Puritan.

Bayly's fame rests on his book The Practice of Piety, directing a Christian how to walk that he may please God (date of first edition unknown; 3d edition, London, 1613; reprinted as ISBN 1-877611-66-2). It reached its 74th edition in 1821 and has been translated into French, German, Italian, Polish, Romansh, Welsh, and into the language of the Massachusetts Indians. It was one of the two books which John Bunyan's wife brought with her—the other one being Arthur Dent's Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven (ISBN 1-877611-69-7)—and it was by reading it that Bunyan was first spiritually awakened.

[edit] References

A biographical is prefixed to the Practice of Piety, London, 1842
A. á Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, ed. P. Bliss, ii, 525-531, 4 vols., London, 1813-20