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was educated at the University of Edinburgh; was schoolmaster at Markinch, Fife, 1800-02; became parish minister at Sprouston, Roxburghshire, in 1802; of East Church, Perth, in 1808; of Greyfriars, Edinburgh, in 1810, and of St. George's in the same city in 1814, where he remained till his death. Soon after he took up his work at Greyfriars he was recognized as one of the strongest preachers in the city, and his labors for the enrichment of the service were well recompensed, especially in the department of music to which he was a contributor, composing several tunes for hymns. His influence continued to increase, and he became leader of the evangelical party in the Church of Scotland. He was also active in the work of education. The " Apocrypha controversy " was in part excited by him when, in 1827, he gave up his membership in the British and Foreign Bible Society and assailed that organization for binding the Apocrypha with the Bible. He edited The Christian Instructor, in which his attack upon the Bible Society appeared; wrote a Catechism for the Instruction of Communicants (Edinburgh, 1808) ; Lectures Expository and Practical (1816) ; Lovers of Pleasure more than. Lovers of God (1818; ed. Dr. Candlish, 1867); The Doctrine of Universal Pardon (1830); and issued several volumes of sermons.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: A Memoir was prefixed to his Sermons and Sacramental Exhortations, Boston, 1832; of. DNB, lvi. 234.

THORN, CONFERENCE OF: A Polish conference of 1645 held to prevent religious strife between Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Reformed. About the middle of the seventeenth century in Poland party spirit was rife, and religion played an important part in the political struggles; ' the Roman Catholic party and in it especially the Jesuits possessed the greatest influence while the Protestants, Reformed, Lutherans, and Bohemian Brethren (q.v.) were not in harmony, and not a few were antitrinitarian Soeinians. Officially, Protestantism had enjoyed political toleration since 1573, but the Roman Catholic party tried by every means to lead the Protestants back, after the Jesuits had gained ascendency over Sigismund III..(15871632) and his successor. . This was the chief and final reason why King, Ladislaus IV. issued a call to

the representatives of the three Christian confessions to a religious conference at Thorn on the Vistula, beginning Aug. 28, 1645. The dissidents were permitted to procure foreign speakers. The Polish Lutherans secured Johann Hiilsemann (q.v.), orthodox professor of theology at Wittenberg, and Abraham Calovius (q.v.), rector of the gymnasium in Danzig. For the Konigsberg Lutherans, the great elector of Brandenburg sent Georg Calixtus (q.v.), but the two former secured his rejection as a Lutheran representative (see SYNCRETISM, SYNCRETISTIC CONTROVERSIES). The king sent the grand chancellor of the crown, George of Teczyn, duke of Ossolin, as his deputy and conductor of the proceedings. The Roman Catholics chose twentysix theologians for the conference, Professor Gregor Schonhof being their most prominent speaker. The Reformed party was represented by twenty-four theologians, among them Johannes Bythner, superintendent of the congregations of Greater Poland, who was joined by Amos Comenius (q.v.), Johann Berg, court preacher of the Elector Frederic William of Brandenburg-Prussia, and Professor Reichel of Frankfort-on-the-Oder. The Lutherans, numbering twenty-eight, were under the leadership of Hiilsemann and Calovius. In an instruction issued by the king it was required that each of the three parties first give a statement of its doctrine; not till then should the correctness or incorrectness of the doctrines be (amicably) discussed;. and, finally, a statement of customs and usages. The Roman Catholics evidently tried to prevent from the beginning every criticism of their official church doctrines. Each party deliberated in a special room of the town-hall, and conferred with the others only through the exchange of documents or through deputies. The conference consisted of thirty-six sessions, of which only four were public. After the formal preliminaries the Reformed on Sept. 1 drew up a general confession o£ faith; on the same day the Roman Catholics followed their example, and after these had presented their confession to the Lutherans on Sept. 7, the latter answered with a reply that essentially referred to the unchanged Augsburg Confession. After that there was to follow a detailed representation of the doctrine of the different parties. Such a document was issued.first by the Roman Catholics, on Sept. 13, repeating only the teachings- of the Council of Trent with plain ultramontane additions concerning the power of the pope. The Reformed presented their doctrine, a statement which later obtained great fame as the Dedaratio Thoruniensis, more accurately Specialior deeluratio doctrinte ecclesiarum Reformatorum Catholicce de prcecipuis fedei controversies (original printed in Scripta partis Reformatce). The Lutherans presented Kurzer Inbegri$' der Lehre der augsbnrgischen, Konfession. The Roman Catholics were so embittered over the Lutheran document, as indeed they, had been over the Reformed before, that they refused to receive it, much less to permit its reading, and the presiding , grand chancellor Ossolinski. had himself recalled. Count Johann Lesezinski, his successor, tightened the reins in behalf of his party, and stated, Sept. 25, that no progress had been made because of wandering from, the king's instructions. To ex-