HEYLYN or HEYLIN, PETER (1600-1662), English historian and controversialist, was born at Burford in Oxfordshire. He entered Hart Hall, Oxford, in afterwards joining Mag dalen college; and in 1618 he began to lecture on cosmography and became fellow of Magdalen. He disputed with John Prideaux, regius professor of divinity at Oxford, replied to the arguments of John Williams in his pamphlets, "A Coal from the Altar" and "Antidotum Lincolnense," assisted William Noy to prepare the case against Prynne for the publication of his Histriomastix, and made himself useful to the Royalist party in other ways. He joined the king at Oxford in 1642. At Oxford Heylyn edited Mercurius Aulicus, a vivacious but virulent news-sheet ; consequently his rectory at Alresf ord was plundered and his library dispersed. After some years of wandering and poverty he settled in 1653 at Lacy's Court, Abingdon, where he resided undisturbed by the Govern ment of the Commonwealth. His numerous works include Cypri anus Anglicus, or the history of the Life and Death of William Laud, a defence of Laud and a valuable authority for his life; Ecclesia restaurata, or the History of the Reformation of the Church of England (1661; ed. J. C. Robertson, 1849) ; and A Survey of France (1625), a work frequently reprinted. He died on May 8, 1662.