Barclay, William (1546–1608)

Scottish jurist, father of the satirist John Barclay. Like his son, Barclay attacked abuses of power within the Roman Catholic Church.

Barclay studied law in Bourges, France, and became professor of law at the University of Pont-à-Mousson. His chief legal work is De Regno et Regali Potestate, 1600; his attack on the temporal power of the Pope, De Potestate Papae, was edited by his son in 1609, and was answered by Bellarmine's De Potestate Summi Pontificis, 1610.