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Gilly, William Stephen

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Gilly, David

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D.D, a pious and exemplary English clergyman, and patron of the Vaudois Christians. He was born in 1789, and educated at Cambridge, where he passed A.B. in 1812, A.M. in 1817, and D.D. in 1833. In 1817 he became rector of North Fambridge, Essex. In 1825 he became a canon of Durham and rector of St. Margaret's in that city. He died September 10, 1855. In the year 1823 Dr. Gilly paid his first visit to the Vaudois Christians, which has been attended with such important results, not only to himself, but likewise to that interesting people, who for so many centuries have maintained their independence against all the power and persecution of papal Rome. The following year he published a volume entitled A Narrative of an Excursion to the Mountains of Piedmont in the Year 1823, and Researches among the Vaudois, or Waldenses, Protestant Inhabitants of the Cottian Alps. This work immediately attracted great attention, and the interest it produced was shown by its reaching a fourth edition in less than three years. A fund of over £7000 was raised, and devoted, in part to the maintenance of a college and library at La Tour, in Piedmont. Dr. Gilly ceased his labors on behalf of the Vaudois only with his life. (See VAUDOIS).

Besides the work above-named, he published The Spirit of the Gospel, or the four Evangelists elucidated (Lond. 1818, 8vo): — Horae Catecheticae, or an Exposition of the Duty and Advantages of public Catechizing in the Church (Lond. 1828, 8vo): — Waldensian Researches, a second Visit to the Vaudois (Lond. 1831, 8vo): — A Memoir of Felix Nef, Pastor of the High Alps, and of his Labors among the French Protestants of Dauphine (Lond. 1832, 8vo): — Our Protestant Forefathers (London, 1835, 12mo; twelve editions before 1844):Vigilantius and his Times (London, 1844, 8vo). — Gentleman's Magazine, October 1855; Quart. Rev. 33:134.