Basire, Isaac

Basire, Isaac D.D., a learned English divine, was born in the island of Jersey in 1607, and educated at Cambridge. He was made prebendary of Durham 1643, archdeacon of Northumberland 1644. When the rebellion broke out he sided with the king, but was afterward obliged to quit England, and he then traveled to the Levant, etc., to recommend the doctrine and constitution of the English Church to the Greeks. In the Morea he twice preached in Greek, at an assembly of the bishops and clergy, at the request of the metropolitan of Achaia. He made acquaintance with the patriarch of Antioch, visited Jerusalem, where he was respectfully received by the Latin and Greek clergy, and was allowed to visit the church of the Holy Sepulchre in the character of a priest. On his return he was honored with a chair of divinity in Transylvania, and on reaching England was restored to his preferments. He died in October, 1676. His principal works are, 1. Deo et Ecclesiae Sacrum, or Sacrilege arraigned and condemned by St. Paul, Ro 2:22 (Lond. 1668, 8vo): — 2. Di triba de Antiqua Ecclesiae Britannicae Libertate: — 3. The ancient Liberty of the Britannic Church (Lond. 1661, 8vo). A memoir of Basire, with his correspondence, by Dr. Darnell, was published in 1831 (Lond. 8vo). — Landon, Eccl. Dict. 2:73.