Lewis Bayly was a native of Carmarthen, Wales, Lewis Bayly (c.1575–1631) was born in about 1575. Educated at Exeter College, Oxford, he received several church preferments in England and Wales before becoming Treasurer of Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London, and Chaplain to King James the First. In 1616 Bayly was appointed chaplain to the kind, and that same year consecrated as bishop of Bangor, a post he retained until he died in 1631.
His Puritan convictions led to the imprisonment of several months in 1621 when he opposed The Book of Sports. He continued to be harassed by Archbishop William Laud, with new charges being brought against him in (and successfully defended) 1626 and 1630. He died in October 1631, is survived by his wife and four sons.
Bayly’s devotional manual, The Practice of Piety, appeared in 1611. By 1842 it had gone through eighty English editions and had been translated into several other languages. Among those strongly influenced by Bayly’s book were the English Baptist pastor and writer John Bunyan and Howell Harris, a leader in the Welsh revival of the 18th century.
Digital Puritan Press
