Bayly, Lewis

BAYLY, LEWIS: Anglican bishop; b. perhaps at Carmarthen, Wales, perhaps at Lamington (6 m. s.w. of Bigger), Scotland, year unknown; d, at Bangor, Wales, Oct. 26, 1631. He was educated at Oxford; became vicar of Evesham, Worcestershire, and in 1604, probably, rector of St. Matthew's, Friday street, London; was then chaplain to Henry Prince of Wales (d. 1612), later chaplain to King James I, who, in 1616, appointed him bishop of Bangor. He was an ardent Puritan. His fame rests on The Practice of Piety, directing a Christian how to walk that he may please God (date of first ed. unknown; 3d ed., London, 1613). It reached its 74th edition in 1821 and has been translated into French, German, Italian, Polish, Romansch, 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—and it was by reading it that Bunyan was first spiritually awakened.

Bibliography: A biographical preface by Grace Webster is prefixed to the Practice of Piety, London, 1842; consult also A. à Wood, Athenæ Oxonienses, ed. P. Bliss, ii, 525–531, 4 vols., ib. 1813–20.