http://books.google.com/books?id=lyENAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA402#v=onepage&q=&f=false Page 402 - 407

“IV. John Leslie, who is called by Buchanan a priest’s giett - i.e. the spurious son of a priest - as, according to some authorities, his father Gavin was in priest’s orders, and consequently was never married.  Miss Ruther being only his concubine.  A dispensation or legitimation under papal authority was grated, 19th July 1538, by Alexander Sutherland, official of Moray, in favour of John Leslie, therein designed as John Lesley, scholar in Moray, enabling him, notwithstanding the defect of this birth, to receive holy order.  John Leslie was educated at the University of Aberdeen, and gave early indications of extraordinary genius.  In 1544, when he was eighteen years of age he was nominated by the magistrates and council of Aberdeen to a prebend, and to the office of organist and teacher of the song-school, with an income of £20 a-year.  In 1546 the bishop of Aberdeen made him an acolyte in the cathedral of Aberdeen.  In 1550 he was appointed canon of Aberdeen and Ellon, prebendary of Aberdeen, and vicar of Dyce.  In 1553 he was appointed canonist in King’s College, Aberdeen.  He went to France, and studied canon and civil law at Poictiers, Toulouse, and Paris, and took his degree as Doctor of Laws, and lectured in the schools of law.  In 1558 he received holy orders, and was appointed official of the diocese of Aberdeen.  In 1559 he was inducted into the parsonage of Oyne.

“About this time the doctrines of the Reformation begain to spread, and great animosities and debates arose among all ranks of people. A solemn disputation between the Catholics and the Reformers was agreed to. We find that in 1560, the Rev. John Leslie, official of Aberdeen, licentiate in both faculties of law, and Mr. Alexander Anderson, the principal of the college, with others, were ordered by the Lords of the Congreation to go to Edinburgh, to meet and discuss points of faith with John Knox, John Willox, and others. But nothing was settled by the discussion. Dr. Leslie was detained in Edinburgh, and was ordered not to preach again.

“The troubles in Scotland daily increasing, both parties thought it necessary to invite Queen Mary home from France. Dr. Leslie was sent to France by the Catholic party, and particularly by the Earls of Huntly and Athole, to offer their services to the queen. Lord James Stewart, Queen Mary’s natural brother, was sent by the Reformers to offer their services. Dr. Leslie made such dispatch that he arrived at the French Court several days before Lord James Stewart. Queen Mary set out for Scotland, and embarked at Calais 20th August 1561, and arrived at Leith six days afterwards. Dr. Leslie accompanied her.

“In 1562, Dr. Leslie was appointed professor of canon law in the University and King’s College, Aberdeen. Soon afterwards he was appointed one of the Senators of the College of Justic, an ordinary Lord of Session, and a privy councilor. In 1564 he received the Abbey of Lindores in commendam. In 1565, on the death of Henry Sinclair, Bishop of Ross, Dr. Leslie was appointed to the bishopric of Ross.

“The Bishop of Ross, observing that the laws of Scotland were becoming obsolete and ill kept from not being collected into one body, urges Queen Mary to appoint a commission to collect, amend, and correct all the laws. The queen accordingly appointed a commission for this purpose, and to the care and industry of the commissioners, and expecially of the Bishop of Ross, we owe the first impression of the Laws of Scotland, printed at Edinburgh, 1566, commonly called the “Black Acts of Parliament”, -- so called because they were printed in the black or Saxon character.

“The Bishop of Ross joined Queen Mary after her escape from Lochleven. In 1568 he was sent as one of her commissioners to meet the commissioners of Queen Elizabeth at York, to defend the Queen of Scotland against the calumnies of her rebellious subjects. The bishop proved minself most faithful to his queen on this and on other occasions, and acted as her agent and ambassador at several courts, never ceasing, while she lived, to act for her with great earnestness and much labour. When Mary was detained a prisoner by Queen Elizabeth, she sent the Bishop of Ross to Elizabeth to represent the injustice which was done to her. A particular account of what the Bishop of Ross did to further Queen Mary’s liberation, taken from his own writings, is preserved in manuscript in the Advocates’ Library at Edinburgh.

“The Bishop of Ross, finding that Queen Elizabeth paid no attention to his representations, endeavoured by secret transactions to procure the escape of Queen Mary, and forwarded the project of a marriage between the unfortunate queen and the Duke of Norfolk, which being discovered, the duke was condemned for high treason, 16th January 1572, and was executed in June following. The Bishop of Ross was summoned before the English council. He pleaded the privileges of an ambassador, but without avail. He was sent a prisoner to the Isle of Ely, and afterwards to the Tower of London. He was set at liberty in 1573, and was banished from England. He retired to the Netherlands, where he published a treatise in Latin upon afflications and tranquility of mind, for the use of his mistress, the Queen of Scots. Afterwards he went to France, and solicited the kings of France and Spain, and the German princes, to interest themselves for Queen Mary. But, finding that all these acted very slowly in the affair, in 1575 he went to Rome to urge the Pope to use his influence with the princes of Europe in the Queen’s behalf. While at Rome, in 1578, he published his History of Scotland in Latin, written in a polished and nervous style. This work is entitled De Origine Moribus et Rebus Gestis Scotorum. He visted different countries after leaving Rome, and, in 1579, he was made Vicar-General of Rouen. In 1580 he published in Latin at Rheims several treatises in vindication of Queen Mary; amongst others, an answer to those who opposed her title to the succession to the crown of England; a treatise to show the advantages that would result to Scotland and England from the union of the two crowns; and an answer to those who opposed the government of women. He was appointed coadjutor to the Arch-bishop of Rouen, but was prevented by the troubles of the times from enjoying this preferment.

“When the sorrowful tidings of the execution of Queen Mary reached Brussels, where the Bishop of Ross was then residing, the circumstances and inhumanity of her untimely end filled him with such horror that he retired to a monastery of the canons-regular of the order of St. Augustine at Gertrudenber, about two miles from Brussels, where he spent the remainder of his days in great devotion. He died in June 1596, aged seventy years, and was buried in the monastery under a monument erected to his memory by his nephew, John Leslie, and bearing the following inscription: --

“ ‘Sola Virtus.’ “ ‘Joannes Leslaeus, Episcopus Rossensis, Scotus, ex illustri familia Leslaeorum, ominis generis scientiarum cultissimus, orator ad Regem Gall. Franciscum II. Consiliarius Mariae, P.M. Scotorum Reginae, Catholicae religionis propugnator, post immensos prov avitâ fide labores, presertim in Regno Scotiae restituenda; post defensam in Anglia Mariam Reginam; post varia summâ cum laude gesta, tranquilissime excessit Bruxel. prid. kalend. Junni, A.D. MDXCVI. Aetatis suæ 70. “ ‘Avunculo grato ne superesset ingrates, Joannes Leslaeus, Nepos, haeres moestus posuit et pro eodem anniversarium p.p. fundavit in hoc coenobio Gertrudengergensi prid. kal. Junii celedbrandum. Natalem Locum et Diem scimus, sepulchri nescimus.’

“An old manuscript history of the Leslie family states, but on what authority does not appear, the John Leslie, Bishop of Ross, had three daughters - Janet, married to Andrew Leslie of New Leslie; a second, married to Richard Irvine; and a third, married to Cruickshank of Tillymorgan."