The Scottish ReformationIts Epochs, Episodes, Leaders, and Distinctive Characteristics by Mitchell, Alexander F.
The Scottish ReformationIts Epochs, Episodes, Leaders, and Distinctive Characteristics by Mitchell, Alexander F.
The Scottish ReformationIts Epochs, Episodes, Leaders, and Distinctive Characteristics by Mitchell, Alexander F.
SCOTTISH REFORMATION
Characteristics
Distinctive
and
Leaders,
Episodes,
Epochs,
Its
(Being the Baird Lecture for 1899)
BY THE LATE
LL.D.
D.D.,
MITCHELL,
F.
ALEXANDER
EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF CHURCH HISTORY
IN ST. ANDREWS UNIVERSITY
EDITED BY
D. HAY FLEMING, LL.D.
[Pg v]
PREFACE.
Few men have shown more indomitable application to an arduous duty, amid physical weakness and bodily
pain, than did the author of these Lectures in their preparation and revision. In the MS. there are a goodly
number of additions and minute alterations in his own hand—some of them very tremulous, some of them in
ink, some of them in pencil. He intended to revise them still more carefully ere they were published; but
expressed the desire that, if he were not spared to do so, I would see them through the press. The Master,
whom he served so long and so faithfully, having released him from the work he loved so well, and from the
suffering he so patiently endured, the final revision has devolved upon me.[Pg vi]
On the suggestion of Professor Robertson the book has been arranged in chapters. The sixth lecture having
temporarily gone amissing before its delivery, Dr Mitchell prepared a rescension of it. The original and the
rescension are now combined in chapter x. He intended to devote an extra lecture to Alesius, and another to
Andrew Melville, but unfortunately was unable. The chapter on Alesius is therefore taken from two of his
class-lectures, some of the longer extracts being thrown into appendices, and a few passages being slightly
compressed. This is at once the fullest and the best account of Alesius that has yet been published. The facts
concerning Melville in chapter x. are supplemented to a small extent in the paper quoted in Appendix A.
Comparatively few of the authorities were entered in the MS. when it was placed in my hands. I have filled in
many, and have taken care, in almost every instance where volume and page are given, to check the
quotations with the originals. My notes, and my additions to Dr Mitchell's notes, are enclosed within square
brackets; but when I have merely supplied authorities, they are not so distinguished. The[Pg vii] list which he
had drawn up of the works of Alesius was partly in an obsolete form of shorthand, which to me was quite
undecipherable. Having been privileged to examine a good many of these rare treatises in various public
libraries, I have been able, though only to an inconsiderable degree, to supplement the list; these additions
being marked like those in the notes and other appendices. In revising the Lectures themselves, I have
corrected a number of trifling slips, but have made no alteration of which Dr Mitchell would not have
cordially approved had his attention been drawn to it.
D. H. F.
December 1899.
[Pg ix]
PREFACE. 3
THE SCOTTISH REFORMATION.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DR MITCHELL xiii
CHAPTER I.
THE NATURE AND NEED OF THE REFORMATION 1
CHAPTER II.
PATRICK HAMILTON 19
CHAPTER III.
THE OPPRESSED AND THE OPPRESSORS 34
CHAPTER IV.
GEORGE WISHART 56
CHAPTER V.
[Pg x]KNOX AS LEADER OF OUR REFORMATION 79
CHAPTER VI.
THE OLD SCOTTISH CONFESSION OF 1560 99
CHAPTER VII.
THE BOOK OF COMMON ORDER 123
CHAPTER VIII.
THE FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE 144
SECT. I. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCH 145
II. THE DISCIPLINE OF THE CHURCH 162
III. THE PREROGATIVES AND DUTIES OF CHURCH MEMBERS 169
IV. EDUCATION OF THE YOUNG AND UNIVERSITY REFORM 174
V. CARE OF THE POOR 179
CHAPTER IX.
THE LAST DAYS OF JOHN KNOX 184
CHAPTER X.
THE SECOND BOOK OF DISCIPLINE 214
CHAPTER XI.
[Pg xi]ALESIUS 239
APPENDICES.
ADDENDA 307
INDEX 311[Pg xii]
[Pg xiii]
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
OF
A pathetic and almost melancholy interest attaches to this volume of the Baird Lectures. Their scholarly and
accomplished author may be said to have entered on the last stage of the malady to which he succumbed when
they were read for him in Blythswood Parish Church, Glasgow, by his friend and former student, Professor
Robertson, the closing one, indeed, having been delivered but a few days before his death. In proof of the
deep interest which he took in the subject of these Lectures, and of his desire to present them in as perfect a
form as possible, it may also be mentioned that he employed his time in revising them while confined to bed
during the protracted and painful illness through which he[Pg xiv] passed. The editing of them he intrusted to
another friend, Dr Hay Fleming of St Andrews, with whom he had much in common—similarity of tastes and
interest in the same literary pursuits having led to an intercourse between them which ripened into mutual
confidence and esteem. Had Professor Mitchell lived to see the work through the press himself, there is hardly
room to doubt that, as in the case of most of his other publications, additional explanatory and supplementary
notes on obscure points would have been appended by him. As it is, the editor in executing his task has done
what he could in this respect.
When the decease of the venerable Professor took place at St Andrews towards the end of March of this year,
it was felt that the Church of Scotland had been bereft not only of one of her ablest and most trusted leaders,
CONTENTS. 5
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Scottish Reformation, by Alexander F. Mitchell
but of one of the wisest and warmest friends of her missions; and the many tributes paid to his memory, both
from the pulpit and in the press, were all expressive of the high regard in which he was held, and of the sense
of public loss caused by his removal. But the loss was not that of his own Church alone, nor of the University
with which his name had been so long and so honourably associated. There are those in other communions
who had learned to look upon him as "a master of Israel," and in all Presbyterian Churches especially he was
recognised as one of the ablest and most learned exponents of the principles which they[Pg xv] hold in
common, and as one of the most earnest defenders of "the faith once delivered to the saints."
As many of those who are familiar with Professor Mitchell's writings may know little or nothing of his
personal history, it has been suggested that a short biographical sketch of him would form an appropriate
introduction to this posthumous volume. The particulars woven together in the following narrative have been
collected from various sources, some of them having been furnished by members of his own family.
Alexander Ferrier Mitchell was born on 10th September 1822 in the old ecclesiastical city of Brechin, with
which his ancestors had had an honourable connection for several generations. His grandfather, Alexander
Mitchell, and his father, David Mitchell, were both known as Convener Mitchell, probably as having
succeeded each other in the convenership of the local guilds. On the maternal side he was descended from
another Brechin family, some of the members of which had in their day served in various capacities abroad,
one of his granduncles, Alexander Ferrier, after whom he was named, having been a doctor in India, and
another, Captain David Ferrier, "a brave and bold sailor,"—in memory of whom there is a tablet on the east
door of the old Cathedral,—having made a voyage round the world in the Dolphin, in which also he ran
the[Pg xvi] blockade in time of war into some of the French ports. Elizabeth, daughter of James Ferrier at
Broadmyre, the Professor's mother, was a woman of good judgment and deep piety, and from her he seems to
have inherited some of the most prominent features of his character. He was one of a family of three, his
brother and sister having died, the former at Bloemfontein in South Africa, many years ago. In childhood he
had a narrow escape, a cart having run over his body. He was picked up and carried home by the minister of
the Episcopal church. As a boy he passed through more than one severe illness, and when taken for a change
to Glenesk one summer he was described by a sympathetic friend as "a deein' laddie." To a mother's
unwearied care and attention he owed, under the divine blessing, the recovery of his health, and to a mother's
religious training he owed in no small degree that knowledge of the Holy Scriptures and that pious disposition
by which he was distinguished from his earliest years. His elementary education he received at the
grammar-school of his native town, and when fifteen years of age he proceeded to St Andrews to prosecute
his studies with a view to the Christian ministry.
In those days the journey thither was not made with the comfort and facility with which it is now
accomplished; and the Professor himself has told how, on landing from the North off the ferry-boat at
Newport, he walked all the way[Pg xvii] to St Andrews—a distance of eleven miles—along with the carrier's
son by the side of the cart which conveyed his luggage to its destination. Widely different as were the future
careers of those two youths, there were various interesting points of contact in their lives, the one becoming an
eminent doctor in the University, and the other filling the honourable position of a magistrate in the ancient
city, while both were associated as members of the kirk-session of the Town Church.
At the very outset of his career at St Andrews the young student from Brechin gained the highest distinction,
having won the first bursary open to students entering the University, as the result of a competitive
examination in classical scholarship. Throughout his course, both in Arts and Divinity, he maintained a highly
honourable place in all the classes, distinguishing himself particularly by proficiency in Hebrew and other
Oriental languages; while he won the commendation of his professors and the esteem of his fellow-students
not more by his attainments in learning than by the sterling integrity of his character and the example of his
consistent Christian life. Among his contemporaries at College were not a few who in after-life rose to
prominent positions in the Church, one of these being his future colleague, the late Principal Tulloch, with
whom he continued to have most cordial relations during a lifelong friendship.
The Professor had been no passive spectator of the exciting and momentous events which were taking place in
the Church of Scotland in the years which immediately preceded and followed his entrance on the work of the
ministry; and in his address as Moderator of the General Assembly, four decades afterwards, he gives a
graphic account of the impressions made upon him by his visits to the Supreme Court of the Church during
that period of acrimonious controversy and painful separation. He says: "My first view of the General
Assembly was gained in 1840, where from the public gallery of the Tron Church, in near proximity to Dr John
Ritchie, of the Potterrow (whose thoughts were already running in the same direction as those of his
successors are now), I listened to the thrilling eloquence of Chalmers, and the calm, thoughtful utterances of
Cook, and witnessed the first of those titanic encounters between Cunningham and Robertson, which the pen
of Hugh Miller and the histories of the period have made classical. My next glimpse of the Assembly was in
1843, when, from the students' gallery of St[Pg xix] Andrew's Church, beside my friend William Smith,
afterwards of North Leith, I witnessed that sad sight which was never to fade from our memories, nor cease to
influence the course of our thought and action—the scene when Welsh, Chalmers, Gordon, and many more
good and devoted ministers, abandoning in despair the contest of ten years, withdrew from the Church of their
fathers, to rear another in which they hoped to enjoy greater freedom and peace. My next view of the
Assembly was in 1848, when, along with Dr Tulloch, and two or three other college friends, I took my place
for the first time as a member of the House, and when my old preceptor, then Professor of Church History in
St Mary's College, filled the chair. The Church at that time was but slowly recovering from the staggering
blow she had received in '43, and the great Dr Robertson was shaping out the splendid scheme which was to
constitute her mission for the immediate future, and give to her the consciousness and confidence of reviving
life. There were plenty of aged men there, whose lives had been honourably worn out in her service; a goodly
band of young men, with not a little of the ardour and enthusiasm of youth; not a few of riper years, who, after
weary waiting, had at last been promoted to pastoral charges. But that class which is the mainstay of a
Church—the men who have attained to experience by years of labour in her service, and are still able[Pg xx]
to bear the burden and heat of the day—was more scantily represented."
The young minister, with so many conspicuous gifts and graces, was not allowed to remain long in the quiet
pastoral charge at Dunnichen, where his ministry had been very acceptable; and in 1848—only one year after
his ordination, and when not more than twenty-six years of age—he was appointed to the chair of Hebrew in
St Mary's College, St Andrews, through which he had so recently passed as a student. He has himself told of
the cordial welcome which he received from the venerable Principal Haldane and the other members of the
professorial staff, and of the harmony with which they co-operated in the work of the College.
It was not then a common thing that so young a minister should be called to occupy such a position of dignity
and responsibility, nor was Hebrew then so popular a branch of study as it has, for various reasons, since
become in our Divinity Halls; but the ability and success with which the Professor discharged the duties of his
chair, and the salutary influence which he exerted in many ways upon the students, more than justified the
appointment. He was one of the first in Scotland to introduce a scientific method in the teaching of Hebrew,
and his class-room became a place of very real work, necessitating careful preparation on the part of the
students. Some of these, perhaps, thought him rather exacting, and[Pg xxi] the strict discipline which he
enforced was not altogether to their liking; but there were very few who did not value his good opinion, or
who would not have considered it a kind of degradation to incur his displeasure; while many, imbued with
something of his own spirit, attained under his guidance to such a degree of proficiency in the knowledge of
the sacred tongue as made the reading of the Old Testament in the original a source of interest and pleasure to
them in subsequent years. Dr William Wright, one of the greatest of Orientalists, was one of his students, and
two others of them are occupants of Hebrew Chairs in Scottish Universities.
While the Professor still occupied the Hebrew Chair, he had shown a special aptitude for another branch of
learning, in which he was yet to make a reputation for himself in the Churches not only of Britain but of
America. In 1866 he published a lecture, primarily addressed to his students, on 'The Westminster Confession
of Faith: A Contribution to the Study of its Historical Relations and to the Defence of its Teaching,' which, as
a reply to views then current in certain quarters, attracted no little notice at the time of its publication, and
which is not only of special interest as illustrating his theological standpoint, and the calm and temperate, yet
earnest and vigorous, manner in which he could defend it, but is of permanent value as a contribution to the
literature of the subject with which it deals. In the following year he published 'The Wedderburns and their
Work, or the Sacred Poetry of the Scottish Reformation in its Relation to that of Germany'—a subject which
was treated by him much more fully in one of his most recent works.
The Professor was known to possess a most[Pg xxiv] extensive and accurate knowledge of Church History in
general, and of Scottish Church History in particular; and when in 1868 he was called to occupy the Chair of
Ecclesiastical History in St Mary's College, the appointment was hailed with satisfaction alike by the
University and the Church. With an absorbing interest in his subject, and with the true instinct of the historian,
he was most painstaking in ascertaining historical facts, never reaching his conclusions but as the result of
patient and careful investigation; and those who knew him intimately can tell how little he grudged the trouble
of a journey to Edinburgh or London, or even of an occasional excursion to the Continent, in order to
prosecute his researches in libraries there with the view of verifying a statement, or of obtaining indubitable
evidence on some controverted point. Besides those who had the privilege of listening to his prelections from
the professorial chair, there are many in the Churches on both sides of the Atlantic who have profited by his
great erudition; and his published writings, which all bear the impress of a master-hand, will always be
reckoned standard works in Ecclesiastical History.
The Baird Lecture on the Westminster Assembly was received with great favour in America as well as in this
country, and a new edition of[Pg xxvi] it was published at Philadelphia in 1897, in a notice of which in the
'Presbyterian and Reformed Review' the following statement occurs: "The book at once took its rank as the
most trustworthy and sympathetic account of the Westminster Standards in existence, and rapidly ran out of
print. The public is to be congratulated that Dr Mitchell has permitted himself to be persuaded by the
[Presbyterian] Board to revise the text and allow a new edition to be issued to meet the present demand. The
revision does not much alter the text. A phrase is more felicitously turned here or rendered a shade more exact
or emphatic there; a few additional references are added in the notes; and a few additional citations and
remarks incorporated in them: that is about all. But so good a book needed only these little touches of
betterment."
The Professor also contributed to various journals and encyclopædias many important articles, chiefly on
historical topics relating to Scotland, which, if collected, would form a volume of miscellaneous papers of
great interest and value. The most important of these are included in the subjoined list: In the 'British and
Foreign Evangelical Review,' January 1872, "Our Scottish Reformation: Its Distinctive Characteristics and
Present-Day Lessons," pp. 87-128; October 1875, "Dr Merle D'Aubigné on the Reformation in Scotland," pp.
736-760; October 1876, "Killen's Ecclesiastical History[Pg xxvii] of Ireland," pp. 713-741: in the 'Catholic
Presbyterian,' March 1879, "Calvin and the Psalmody of the Reformed Churches": in the 'Scottish Church,'
November 1886, "St Andrews in Covenanting Times": in the 'Year-Book of the Church of Scotland,' 1886,
"Brief Sketch of the History of the Reformed Church of Scotland": in 'St Giles' Lectures,' First Series,
1880-81, "Pre-Reformation Scotland"; and in Fourth Series, 1883-84, "The Primitive or Apostolic and
Sub-Apostolic Church," being the first of the lectures entitled, "The Churches of Christendom." To Dr
Schaff's Encyclopædia he contributed separate articles on "St Columba," "The Culdees," "Patrick Hamilton,"
"Iona," and "The Keltic Church"; and to the 'Presbyterian and Reformed Review,' published at Philadelphia,
he contributed a review of Dr Hume Brown's 'John Knox.' Besides many Reports on various matters presented
to the General Assembly, he issued for special purposes a "Statement regarding the Eldership," and a "List of
Acts of the Scottish Parliament, and of Acts, Overtures, and Resolutions of the General Assembly of the
Church of Scotland, adopted at various times for the Acknowledgment of the True Reformed Protestant
Religion, the Maintenance of Sound Doctrine, and the Subscription of the Confessions of Faith of 1560 and
1647." When at Geneva, on one of his visits to the Continent, he prepared for private circulation,[Pg xxviii]
from the original, which is still preserved among the historical treasures in the Hotel de Ville, "Livre Des
Anglois, or Register of the English Church at Geneva under the pastoral care of Knox and Goodman,
1555-1559," with a Prefatory Notice and a Facsimile of pp. 49, 50. To this list of his minor works may be
added a sermon on "The Unsearchable Riches of Christ," published in 1879.
In 1885 the Church showed her appreciation of the Professor's character and work by electing him to the
Moderatorship of the General Assembly, an office which he filled with a union of dignity and authority which
reflected honour upon the Church. If there are parties in the Church of Scotland, he never identified himself
with any of them, and had learned to call no man master but Christ. He knew his own mind, and could give
forcible expression to his convictions when occasion required. Naturally of an unassuming disposition and
unobtrusive manners, he never courted popularity nor sought to thrust his opinions upon others; and it was for
this reason, perhaps, that he was deferred to even by those[Pg xxx] whose views were in some respects widely
divergent from his. It was doubtless for this reason also, as well as for others, that he wielded so great an
influence in the counsels of the Church, and probably few men had more to do than he with the shaping of her
policy in recent years. In paying a tribute to his memory at a meeting of the Presbytery of Edinburgh a few
days after his decease, the Very Rev. Dr Scott of St George's said that "by Professor Mitchell's death the
Church had lost a laborious, faithful, successful, and honoured minister and professor, and perhaps one of the
soundest and wisest counsellors that the Church ever had. He was a man who had friends in all the Churches.
He knew how powerfully his influence had told in the Church—always for conciliation, not only so far as
those without their own Church were concerned, but those within the Church also. Had it not been for Dr
Mitchell's influence the relaxation of the formula regarding the subscription of elders would never have been
carried through."
A man of a very catholic spirit, and a lover of peace and concord, the Professor, like many others who longed
for a comprehensive union of the Scottish Churches, would willingly have made all reasonable concessions
for the attainment of so desirable an object. But he was too loyal a son of the Church of Scotland to consent to
any unworthy compromise, and in the hour of danger no one was more ready than he to exert all the[Pg xxxi]
influence at his command in her defence. Readers of Dr Boyd's 'Twenty-five Years of St Andrews' may
remember the account there given of the impression made by the Professor's sermon in the Town Church in
the height of the contest in 1885, when the question of Disestablishment was brought so prominently before
the electors of the St Andrews Burghs. Dr Boyd says: "It had been intimated at the services during the day that
Dr Mitchell, our Professor of Church History, would lecture in the parish church in the evening on 'Some
aspects of the Church Question deserving of consideration in the present crisis.' Dr Mitchell was that year
Moderator of the Kirk: and he very seldom preaches. The church was filled by a great congregation. I should
not in the least degree have been surprised to hear Dr Mitchell preach wisely and devoutly: that is his usual
way. But it did surprise me to find that man of calm and well-balanced mind fire up into a pathos and
vehemence which I have rarely seen equalled and never surpassed. The question of disestablishment had been
raised: and one was made to realise how it stirs the blood of good men here. And not merely were there this
The attitude which the Professor maintained in regard to the doctrine and worship of the Church was a strictly
conservative one, and may be best described in his own words, taken from an article included in the list of his
minor works. In that article, after quoting the advice tendered by an eminent minister of the Church of
England to a minister of the Church of Scotland—"Stick by your own Kirk: it is an honest Kirk, one of the
few that has fairly rid itself of sacerdotalism and ritualism, and you have no cause to be ashamed of it"—he
goes on to say: "The advice is not unneeded in the present day by others than he to whom it was originally
tendered, and I give it this publicity for the benefit of all whom it may concern. The Reformed Church of
Scotland from the first rid herself of these medieval corruptions, and the attempt to bring her again under the
yoke issued in dire disaster to those who made it. This surely is no time for the Presbyterian Churches to
swerve from the testimony they have so long and resolutely borne against all such errors. When we think of
the mischief they are now causing in the Church of England, and the grief they are occasioning to many of her
most loyal sons, rather does it become us to bear more decided testimony to the truths, that under the New
Testament there is but one Priest, who ever liveth to make intercession for us, and one[Pg xxxiii] sacrifice
once offered, which perfects for ever them that are sanctified; that He has not communicated His priestly
office to His ministers either by succession or delegation, nor authorised them to repeat or continue that
sacrifice which is the propitiation for sin; and that He has neither Himself imposed, nor warranted others to
impose, a load of 'fondly' invented ceremonies in His worship."
If the Professor thus strenuously opposed sacerdotalism on the one hand, he had as little sympathy with Broad
Churchism on the other. The non-natural sense in which the narratives of the New Testament miracles are
understood and interpreted by some of the modern critics he rejected as subversive of Christian truth, a
common saying of his being, "If the Gospel is not true historically, it is not true at all: 'If Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain'"; and while he mellowed with advancing years, he never wavered in his deep religious
convictions, nor for a moment relaxed the tenacious grasp which he had of the doctrines of Christianity as set
forth in the standards of the Reformed Churches. One of his latest sayings was, "I die in the faith which I have
always professed."
From his Alma Mater the Professor had received the degree of D.D. in 1862, and in 1892 the University of
Glasgow conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. in recognition of his eminence as a teacher and an author. A
young minister of[Pg xxxiv] the Church, himself one of his most distinguished students, has drawn a picture
of him as he appeared about the latter of these dates, which is so true to the life that no excuse is needed for
introducing it here. He says: "St Andrews and Professor Mitchell are inseparable. For forty-four years he has
taught in the University: first the Hebrew Tongue; next the History of the Church of Christ. As a Professor, Dr
Mitchell comes into contact with a comparatively small number of students. The classes in St Mary's are
diminutive—in some ways a source of much gratification to the writer and others—consequently he is little
known by most men here. Of course, all are familiar with the Figure pacing the town in the bright of the
forenoon; or, arm-in-arm with a youthful Professor, walking as far as the Swilcan; or, at a Graduation
Ceremony, scanning the audience, if perhaps he may get a glimpse of some old pupil among the crowd of
interested spectators. For many of his students have risen high: and some of them have a weight of years to
bear. But all are not aware that in the Church History Class-Room English is spoken as she is nowhere else in
St Andrews. The beautifully rounded and perfectly balanced sentences, and the elegance of the language, will
hardly be excelled. To make the study of Church History what is called popular is one of the few
impossibilities of life, but there is no man living who can invest the subject with more interest;[Pg xxxv] for
Professor Mitchell is thoroughly up to date with all his facts, and loses no opportunity of visiting the great
German authorities.... To be reproved in class by the Professor is not to be desired: to be 'spoken to' in his
ante-room still less so. Many men stand in awe of him—I have always thought unnecessarily so."
"Mr Campbell, I thank you, sir, with all my heart, for the many kind things—far more kind than I
deserve—which you have just said of me, and for the many kind services which you have rendered to me in
the course of our lifelong friendship; and I thank, with all my heart, you, my many esteemed friends and
pupils, who have united in presenting me with this address expressive of your warm affection, this speaking
likeness and munificent gift. Kindness far more than I have merited has followed me all my life
through—never more conspicuously than at the close of my public career; and now in retiring from the
professorial work I loved, and from the College for which almost for half a century I lived and laboured, it is a
consolation to me to know that I carry with me into my retirement the esteem of so many honoured friends
and the affectionate regard of so many former pupils. Some have been speaking lately of the loneliness of a
Scottish student's college life. I can only say for myself that the years I spent as a student in St Mary's College
were among the happiest of my life, and that the friendships then formed within the little band of my
fellow-students were among the most valued and lasting of those I have enjoyed. I have but to name John
Robertson, afterwards minister of Glasgow Cathedral;[Pg xxxvii] John Tulloch, afterwards Principal of St
Mary's College; William Milligan, afterwards Professor of Biblical Criticism in Aberdeen; William Dickson,
afterwards Professor of Divinity in Glasgow; Drs W. H. Gray, Gloag, and Herdman, and with these some who
afterwards joined the Free Church: Dr Thomson, long at the head of the Free Church Jewish Mission at
Constantinople; Dr Thomas Brown, younger brother of my late colleague, Dr William Brown, agent for the
Turkish Missions Aid Society; and Edward Cross, afterwards Free Church minister at Monifieth, with whom I
laboured in happiest intercourse in Dundee, he being assistant to the Free Church minister in the same district
of the town when I was assistant to the Parish minister. When in my twenty-sixth year I returned as a
Professor in the College where so shortly before I had been a student, I can never forget the kindness with
which I was received by my aged instructors there, especially by Principal Haldane, whose kind counsels were
then invaluable to me, nor the kindness of Professors Duncan and Alexander, the only two of my instructors
remaining in the Old College. St Andrews about that time had the reputation of being rather a hot place. The
conviction that I was a man of rather placid temper, who would not add fuel to the flame, I believe weighed
considerably with Lord Advocate Rutherfurd in finally recommending me for the Chair. Within[Pg xxxviii] St
Mary's College we were a happy family, and the youth of twenty-six and the two aged Professors beyond
threescore and ten continued to work in unbroken harmony—the youth deeming it a special privilege to aid
the venerable Principal in his class-work during the last year of his life, as well as to aid him and his aged
colleague in their pulpit work. It was soon after this that I began to take an active part in Church work,
attending the General Assembly as an elder and as Convener of the Jewish Mission—doing what I could to
reorganise it in Turkey, first in conjunction with such venerable fathers as Drs Muir, Hunter, Grant, and James
Robertson, and with several brethren nearer my own age, who were bearing the burden and heat of the
day—Drs Crawford, Nicholson, Nisbet, William Robertson, and Elder Cumming, and such laymen as Sheriff
Arkley, David Smith, Henry Cheyne, John Elder, John Tawse, and the good Edmund Baxter, all now gone to
their rest and their reward. Principal Haldane was succeeded by my old class-fellow, Principal Tulloch, in
harmony with whom I wrought for thirty years in the College, occasionally taking part of his work, as I had of
his predecessor's, when he was laid aside by ill-health, and also taking part with him in Church work,
In 1852 the Professor married the eldest daughter of the late Mr Michael Johnstone of Archbank, near Moffat,
who belonged to an influential yeoman family that has been connected with Annandale for the last two
hundred years. The late Mr Peter Johnstone, brother of Mrs Mitchell's father, who was a proprietor as well as
a large farmer, is still remembered as having done a great deal to promote the cause of education in the district
where he resided; and her brother, the late Mr James Johnstone, was tenant of Bodsbeck farm, which is the
scene of the Ettrick Shepherd's well-known Covenanting story—"The Brownie of Bodsbeck." How much Mrs
Mitchell did to brighten the life and to minister to the happiness of the Professor can be known only to those
who have had the privilege of being admitted into the inner circle of their friends, and there are not a few who
have very pleasant reminiscences of delightful intercourse with them in their house at 56 South Street, where
the duty of entertaining strangers seemed never to be forgotten. Their family of four sons and two daughters
all survive, with the exception of the eldest son, Robert Haldane, who died several[Pg xli] years ago in
Australia, to which he had emigrated along with his brother Johnstone.
Probably few are aware that the Professor spent many of his happiest days, and did much of his literary work,
at Gowanpark, his country residence near Brechin, which, with its charm of seclusion and restfulness, no one
who has visited it can ever forget, and which his family came to regard as their home almost as much as St
Andrews. There he found relaxation in the interest which he took in the work of his little farm, which was his
own property, and as long as he had health he enjoyed a ramble among the neighbouring hills, or a walk,
varied by an occasional drive, along the quiet country roads. His home in the country, however, was with him
no mere place of recreation, still less of idleness, and there, as elsewhere, he never failed to find his chief
source of pleasure in the prosecution of his favourite studies.
When the Professor retired from the duties of his Chair he did not cease to take an interest in the affairs of the
College, of which he was an ornament while he lived, and with which, as was said in a notice of him at the
time of his death, his name will always be associated—like those of Andrew Melville, Samuel Rutherford,
and others in remote and troublous times, and that of Principal Tulloch in our own more peaceful days. Nor
did he cease to interest himself in the work of the Church which he loved so well and had served so faithfully.
Perhaps it was to show his love for[Pg xlii] the Church as much as to gratify his own feelings that, amid great
bodily infirmity, he undertook the journey to Edinburgh, in May 1898, to attend the General Assembly. He
was unable, indeed, to be present there more than once or twice, and when on one occasion he occupied the
Moderator's chair for a few minutes, a thrill of respectful sympathy passed through the House. In a letter
Soon afterwards he removed to his loved retreat at Gowanpark, but his health did not improve, and he was but
seldom able to leave the house. Most of the letters he wrote at this time, some of them in pencil, with his head
resting on the pillow, were evidently intended to be his parting words to those to whom they were addressed.
In one of these, written in the middle of September, he says, "For the first fortnight after I came here I was
able to go out of doors, and in my invalid chair bask in the sun for an hour a-day. I am still keeping my bed in
the hope of being able to return without risk to St Andrews in the end of the month;" and then, alluding to a
subject his interest in which seems to have helped to keep him alive, he says, "I have got five of[Pg xliii] my
six Baird Lectures transcribed. Of course I must get some one to read them for me."
When he returned to St Andrews, the burden of his infirmities grew heavier, and as the spring approached it
was manifest that he was nearing the end. He was greatly affected by the tidings of the tragic death of Dr
Boyd, who had paid him a visit shortly before his departure for the south. On the Monday before he died he
repeated the words of the second paraphrase in a clear, strong voice, and quoted almost the last recorded
words of St Paul, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." On Tuesday
evening he desired some one to sing to him, and as Miss Mitchell was unable to control her feelings to do so,
Mr Smith, his amanuensis, who had come in, was asked by him to sing "Jesus, Lover of my Soul." When this
was done he turned to Miss Mitchell, and said, "What would you like?" and they sang together "Rock of
Ages." With uncomplaining patience he had suffered much, but welcome rest came to him on the morning of
Wednesday, 22nd March. Having served his own generation by the will of God, he fell asleep amid the tender
regrets of his family, leaving behind him a memory that will always be held in honour, and an example of
laborious service, of deep piety, and of fervent trust in Christ.
In compliance with his own wish, his remains were conveyed to Brechin, where they were laid[Pg xliv] to rest
beside those of his fathers under the shadow of the old Cathedral, the members of the local Presbytery, in
token of their respect, being present on the occasion. "The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he
that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."
CHAPTER I.
THE NATURE AND NEED OF THE REFORMATION.
With the single exception of the period which covers the introduction and first marvellous triumphs of
Christianity, the Reformation of the sixteenth century must be owned as perhaps the greatest and most
glorious revolution in the history of the human race. And the years of earnest contendings and heroic
sufferings which prepared the way for its triumph in many lands and issued in its cruel suppression in others,
and the story of the men who by God's grace were enabled to bear the brunt of the battle and to lead their
countrymen on to victory or to martyrdom, will ever have a fascination for all in whose hearts[Pg 2] faith in
the great truths, then more clearly brought to light, has not yet altogether evaporated. The movement then
initiated was no mere effort to get quit of acknowledged scandals, which had long been grieved over but never
firmly dealt with; no mere desire to lop off a few later accretions, which had gathered round and obscured the
faith once delivered to the saints;[1] no mere "return to the Augustinian, or the Nicene, or the Ante-Nicene
Such was the animating principle which gave power to the teaching of the reformers in all lands, and which
constitutes still the central article of a standing or a falling church to all their true-hearted
successors—Christ crucified for our sins, raised again for our justification, and now exalted to the right
hand of the Majesty in the heavens as Prince and Saviour, to give repentance and remission of sin and all
needed grace to those who thus believe in Him, and are brought into union with Him. And the Reformed
Church will never perish or decay while it continues to set forth this Gospel, and is honoured by its divine
Head to bring it home to the hearts and consciences of men, with the same power as its first teachers were
honoured with in the brave days of old. For it must never be forgotten, I repeat, that the Reformation
movement was not only the introduction of a more scriptural and scientific method of exhibiting Christian
doctrine, and simple unfolding of its teaching[Pg 5] Infusion of a New Life. as to man's fallen state and the
remedy their heavenly Father had in His love provided for them; not only the reassertion of the supremacy of
the written Word of God over human traditions, as well as of the right of all Christian men and women to have
direct access to that blessed Word; not only the translation into the vernacular—German, English,
Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish—and the circulation throughout Western Europe of that which
for ages had been to the Christian laity as a book that is sealed; but it was also, above all this, the infusion of a
new and higher life into the churches. We fall short of a full comprehension of the movement if we fail to
recognise that the God of all grace and blessing was then pleased to "send a plentiful rain to confirm His
inheritance when it was weary," to grant a second Pentecost to the church, to make the people willing in the
day of His power, and to pour out His Spirit in rich abundance upon men.
With all the conscious and unconscious preparation which had paved the way for them, the men who were
God's chosen instruments at that crisis were made deeply to feel and humbly to own that it was God Himself
who had led them on—at times by ways they had not thought of; that it was He who had upheld them
in their extremity when all human power seemed to be[Pg 6] arrayed against them; that it was He who, when
their resources were exhausted, was pleased, in the day when they cried unto Him, to hear their prayer and
revive their hopes by the plentiful outpouring of His Spirit. How feelingly this was acknowledged by Luther
at various crises in his life is known to all who are in any measure acquainted with his thrilling story. No one
could have more constantly in his heart or more frequently on his lips the Hebrew psalmist's song of holy
confidence, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though
the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.... There is a river, the
streams whereof shall make glad the city of God." There was also that other which, under reverses and
discouragements, was the solace of our own reformer, "If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when
Reforming tendencies in the sixteenth century, it has been said, first showed themselves in Scotland in the
reassertion of "those principles, catholic but anti-papal," which had been maintained in the preceding century
in the Councils of Constance and Basle. The decisions of the former were received in Scotland in 1418, and
allegiance to Benedict XIII. was finally renounced.[10] A Scottish doctor[11] had taken a rather
prominent[Pg 17] part in the proceedings of the latter, though the Scottish Church, like the others, ultimately
fell away from that council and the pope elected by it, and under Bishop Kennedy was reconciled to the
Roman See and to Pope Eugenius.[12] Scotland had had no Grosteste, no Anselm or Bradwardine among its
prelates in the middle ages, no Wycliffe among its priests. Duns Scotus, the one theologian before the
sixteenth century who claimed Scottish birth and European fame, never seems to have taught in his native
land. John Major.Chief among its doctors in the beginning of the sixteenth century stood John Major, a native
of East Lothian, who taught with distinguished success, first in Paris, then in Glasgow, after that in St
Andrews, then once more in Paris, and finally in St Andrews again. Melanchthon, while ridiculing his
scholastic ways, places him at the head of the doctors of the Sorbonne. The remembrance of his early labours
in Montaigu College had not died out when Calvin entered it, and probably he had returned to it before Calvin
left. Patrick Hamilton and Buchanan may possibly have been brought into contact with him while there, as
they, Alesius, and John[Pg 18] Wedderburn afterwards were in St Andrews, and John Hamilton and Knox in
Glasgow. He was a true disciple of D'Ailly and Gerson, but like them was warmly attached to the dominant
church and opposed to the heretics of his time. He taught, as they had done, that the church, assembled in
[Pg 19]
CHAPTER II.
PATRICK HAMILTON.
It has not been very clearly ascertained how or when the opinions and writings of Luther were first introduced
into Scotland. M. de la Tour, who in 1527 suffered in Paris for heresy, was accused of having vented various
Lutheran opinions while in Edinburgh in attendance on the Duke of Albany. This, of course, must have been
before 1523. On the 9th June 1523, the same day that John Major was received as Principal of the
Pædagogium, or St Mary's College,[14] Patrick Hamilton was incorporated into the University of St
Andrews;[15] and on 3rd October 1524 he[Pg 20] was admitted as a member of the Faculty of Arts. If he did
not from the latter date act as a regent in the University, he probably took charge of some of the young
noblemen or gentlemen attending the classes. At that date he was probably more Erasmian than Lutheran,
though of that more earnest school who were ultimately to outgrow their teacher, and find their congenial
home in a new church.
Patrick Hamilton was born in 1503 or 1504 at Stonehouse in Lanarkshire, or at Kincavel near Linlithgow. His
father, a natural son of the first Lord Hamilton, had been knighted for his bravery, and rewarded by his
sovereign with the above lands and barony. His mother was a daughter of Alexander, Duke of Albany, the
second son of James II., so that he had in his veins the noblest blood in the land. His cousins, John and James
Hamilton, were in due time raised to episcopal rank in the unreformed church of Scotland, and several others
of his relations received high ecclesiastical promotion. Marked out for a similar destiny, Patrick was carefully
educated, and, according to the corrupt custom of the time, was in his fourteenth year appointed to the Abbacy
of Ferne in Ross-shire,[Pg 21] His Studies. to enable him to maintain himself in comfort while continuing his
studies abroad. Like many of his aristocratic countrymen he went first to the University of Paris, and probably
to the College of Montaigu, where Major, the great Scottish scholastic doctor, was then teaching with much
eclat, and gathering round him there, as afterwards at St Andrews, an ardent band of youthful admirers,
several of whom in the end were to advance beyond their preceptor, and to lend the influence of their learning
and piety to the side of Luther and the reformers. Before the close of 1520 he took the degree of M.A. at the
University of Paris, and soon after left Paris for Louvain, to avail himself of the facilities for linguistic studies
provided there, or to enjoy personal intercourse with Erasmus, the patron of the new learning. He is said while
there to have made great progress in the languages and in philosophy, and to have been specially attracted
towards the philosophy of Plato. With the Sophists of Louvain, as Luther terms them, he could have had no
sympathy. But there were some there, as well as at Paris, whose hearts God had touched, to whom he could
not fail to be drawn. He may even have met with those Augustinian monks of Antwerp whom these Sophists
so soon after his departure sent to heaven in a chariot of fire, and whose martyrdom un[Pg 22]sealed in
Luther's breast the fount of sacred song. In the autumn of 1522, or the spring of 1523, he returned to Scotland,
and, after a brief visit to his relatives in Linlithgowshire, appears to have come on to St Andrews. Probably,
[Pg 24]
In 1526 the primate, Archbishop James Betoun, uncle of the cardinal, having taken a keen part in the political
contentions of the day with the faction which lost, had to escape for a time from St Andrews, and, disguised as
a shepherd, to tend a flock of sheep for three months on the hills of Fife, on the high grounds of Kennoway,
immediately to the east of where the railway now reaches its summit level.[18] It was at this juncture that
copies of the New Testament of Tyndale's translation were brought over from the Low Countries by the
Scottish traders to the seaports of Aberdeen, Montrose, St Andrews, and Leith. Most of them are said to have
been taken to St Andrews and put in circulation there in the absence of the archbishop. One was present there
at that time who had long treasured the precious saying of Erasmus, "Let us eagerly read the Gospel, but let us
not only read, but live the Gospel"; and who seized the golden opportunity to impress the saying on others,
and invite longing souls to quench their thirst at those wells of living water which had so marvellously been
opened to them for a season. During the months when the primate was in concealment, and in those which
followed his return, Patrick Hamilton came out more earnestly than he had done before as an evangelist and
an advocate of the great[Pg 25] James Betoun's Motives. truths, for which ultimately he was to be called to lay
down his life. His conduct could not long escape the notice of the returned archbishop. I do not suppose that
he was naturally cruel, nor after his recent misfortunes likely, without consideration, to embroil himself with
the Hamiltons, with whom in the tortuous politics of the times he had often acted. But he had those about him
who were less timid and more cruel, especially his nephew, the future cardinal. He was himself ambitious and
crafty, and about this very time was exerting all his influence to obtain special favours from the pope without
the sanction of the king.[19] He knew that the holy father had written the sovereign requiring him to keep his
realm free from heresy, and no doubt he and his scheming nephew thought that by their zeal in this matter
they would discredit the opposition of the king and his advisers to their ambitious schemes at the papal court.
Still, he was anxious to perform the ungrateful task in the way least offensive to the Hamiltons. So while
issuing his summons against the reformer to appear and answer the charges which had been brought against
him, he did not at[Pg 26]tempt at once to restrain his personal liberty; he would rather, if he could, rid the
Some of Hamilton's opponents even, touched by his youth, his illustrious descent, his engaging manners and
noble character, joined with his friends in urging him to avoid by flight the danger which impended. He
yielded to their counsels, and, along with two friends and a servant, made his escape to the Continent. The
story of his residence there has been graphically told by Principal Lorimer and Dr Merle D'Aubigné; and the
latter has the merit of explaining why Hamilton did not carry out his original intention of visiting Luther and
Melanchthon at Wittenberg, as well as Frith, Tyndale, and Lambert at Marbourg. At the very time he arrived
on the Continent, the plague was raging in Wittenberg. "Two persons died of it in Melanchthon's house."
Luther himself was suddenly taken ill. "All who could do so, and especially the students, quitted the
town."[20] Thus the absence of documents bearing on his alleged sojourn at the Saxon university is naturally
explained. He went to the younger University of Marbourg in Hesse, and prepared there, and[Pg 27] Final
Return to Scotland. publicly disputed, those theses that most fully and systematically set forth the doctrines
which he mainly taught, and for which at last he suffered. He was warmly beloved by Lambert of Avignon,
who was then the most distinguished theological professor in the infant university, as well as by others with
whom he was brought into contact; and he would have been gladly retained by them, could he have been
persuaded to remain in Germany: but his heart yearned to return to his native land, and once more proclaim
there the truths which had now become to him more precious and engrossing than before. His faith had been
confirmed, and his spirit quickened, by living for a time among earnest and decided Christians; and in the
autumn of 1527 he set out once more for Scotland, prepared for any fate that might await him, not counting
even life dear unto him if he might finish his course with joy, and bear faithful witness to his Master's truth,
where before he had shrunk back from an ordeal so terrible. He appears first to have resorted to his native
district, and made known to relatives, friends, and neighbours about Linlithgow that Gospel of the grace of
God which gave strength and peace to his own spirit. In his discourses and conversations he dwelt chiefly on
the great and fundamental truths which had been brought into prominence by the[Pg 28] reformers, and
avoided subjects of doubtful disputation. His own gentle bearing gained favour for his opinions and success in
his labours, and it won for him the heart of a young lady of noble birth, to whom he united himself in
marriage, following in this the example of Luther and others of the German reformers.
In St Andrews.
Archbishop Betoun being then on the other side of the Forth, in the neighbouring abbey of Dunfermline, could
not fail to hear of his doings or to desire to silence him. But neither could he fail, in the state of the political
parties in Scotland at the time, to recognise "that a heretic with the power of the Hamiltons at his back was
more to be dreaded than Luther himself," and must be dealt with very cautiously. It was long supposed that, if
not at the king's express desire, as Bishop Lesley seems to suggest,[21] then certainly from his own wariness,
the archbishop did not at first venture formally to renew his old summons, but invited the reformer to St
Andrews to a friendly conference with himself and other[Pg 29] chiefs of the church on such points as might
seem to stand in need of reform, and that Hamilton accepted the invitation. At first, it has been said, he was
well received: "All of them displayed a conciliatory spirit; all appeared to recognise the evils in the church;
some of them seemed even to share on some points the sentiments of Hamilton."[22] He left the conference
not without hope of some other than the sad issue he had at first anticipated. He was permitted for nearly a
month to move about with freedom in the city, to dispute in the schools of the university, and privately to
confer with all who chose to resort to him at the lodging which had been provided for him. It was evidently
the intention of those who were deepest in the plot against him, that he should have ample time allowed him
to express his sentiments fully and unmistakably, and even should be tempted by dissemblers, like Friar
Campbell, to unbosom himself in private on matters as to which he refrained from saying much in
public—the many alterations required in doctrine and in the administration of the sacraments and
accustomed rites.
It is said that the archbishop still desired that he should again save himself by flight, and there is nothing in
the summons flatly inconsistent[Pg 30] with this;[23] but he and his friends took the credit of the terrible deed
His Martyrdom.
Among the articles with which he was charged, and the truth of which he admitted and maintained, the most
important were: "That a man is not justified by works, but by faith alone;" "That faith, hope, and charity are so
linked together, that he who hath one of them hath all, and he that lacketh one lacketh all;" and "That good
works make not a good man, but that a good man doth good works."[24] On being challenged by his accuser
with having avowed other heretical opinions, he affirmed it was not lawful to worship images or to pray to the
saints; and maintained that "it is reason and leisome to all men that have a soul to read the Word of God, and
that they may understand the same, and in special the latter-will and testament of Christ Jesus."[25] These
truths, which have been the source of life and strength to many, were to him the cause of condemnation and
death; and on the last day of February 1527-28, the same day the sentence was passed, it was remorselessly
executed before the gates of St Salvator's College. "Nobly," as I have said elsewhere, "did the martyr confirm
the minds of the many godly youths he had gathered round him, by his resolute bearing, his gentleness and
patience, his steadfast adherence to the truths he had taught, and his heroic endur[Pg 32]ance of the fiery
ordeal through which he had to pass to his rest and reward." The harrowing details of his six long hours of
torture have been preserved for us by his friend Alesius, himself a sorrowing witness of the fearful tragedy.
"He was rather roasted than burned," he tells us. It may be that his persecutors had not deliberately planned
thus horribly to protract his sufferings—though such cruelty was not unknown in France, either then or
in much later times. They were as yet but novices at such revolting work, and all things seemed to conspire
against them. The execution had been hurried on before a sufficiency of dry wood had been provided for the
fire. The fury of the storm, which had prevented the martyr's brother from crossing the Forth with troops to
rescue him, was not yet spent. With a fierce wind from the east sweeping up North Street, it would be a
difficult matter in such a spot to kindle the pile and keep it burning, or to prevent the flames, when fierce,
from being so blown aside as to be almost as dangerous to the surrounding crowd as to the tortured victim.
They did so endanger his accuser, the traitor Campbell, and "set fire to his cowl, and put him in such a fray,
that he never came to his right mind." But, through all his excruciating sufferings, the martyr held fast his
confidence in God and in his Saviour, and the faith of many in the[Pg 33]Effects of his Constancy. truths he
taught was only the more confirmed by witnessing their mighty power on him.[26]
[Pg 34]
CHAPTER III.
THE OPPRESSED AND THE OPPRESSORS.
Archbishop Betoun thought that by Patrick Hamilton's death he had extinguished Lutheranism in Scotland.
The University of Louvain applauded his deed; and so also, I regret to say, did John Major, the old Scottish
Gallican, then resident at Paris, and preparing for the press his Commentary on the Gospels, the first part of
which was to be dedicated to his old patron in Scotland, and was emphatically to express his approval of what
that patron had done to root out the tares of Lutheranism.[27] But, according to the well-known saying, "the
reek of Patrick Hamilton infected all on whom it did blow."[28] His martyr death riveted for ever in the hearts
The name of this confessor was Alexander Alane, and it is so entered in the Registers of St Andrews
University; but it is by the name of Alexander Alesius, imposed on him by Melanchthon, that he has been
chiefly known to posterity. It may admit of some doubt whether he was absolutely the first after the death of
Hamilton to abandon his country[31] and all he held dear, rather than renounce the faith the martyr had taught
him, or crouch before the lecherous tyrant who had destined him to a filthy dungeon and a lingering death.
But it admits of no doubt that he was the most notable of all the band of young Scottish exiles who had to
leave their native country between the martyrdom of Hamilton and that of Wishart, and who were honoured to
do faithful service in the cause of the Reformation in England and on the Continent. The story of Alesius, of
the shameless cruelties which drove him from his native land, of the hardships he had to bear in the earlier
years of his exile, of the high place he gained in the affections of Melanchthon and Beza, and the great work
he was to do by his writings and prelections for the Protestant churches of Germany, is one of the most
interesting in the[Pg 37] Alesius and the Scriptures. great movement of the age. But to be appreciated it must
be told in detail, and as most of his work was done out of Scotland, I have decided to reserve it for a
supplementary lecture. I must not, however, omit to mention here one special service which he was honoured
to do for the cause in his native land soon after he left it, as it casts fresh light on the origin of the Reformation
in Scotland. His first publication, printed in 1533, was entitled 'Alexandri Alesii Epistola contra decretum
quoddam episcoporum in Scotia, quod prohibet legere Novi Testamenti libros lingua vernacula.' It brought
into bold relief, and set high above all minor issues, what had been taught by Wycliffe in the fourteenth
century, and maintained by the Lollards of Kyle in the fifteenth, and what had actually been urged as an
additional charge against Patrick Hamilton. Save for this epistle of Alesius, and the controversy it occasioned,
we might not have known that even in ignorant Scotland the bishops had been so far left to themselves as to
issue such a decree.[32] It[Pg 38] is still more melancholy to think that even among the better informed
controversialists of Germany one was found to champion their cause, and to maintain that there was nothing at
variance with sound doctrine in the decree; that nothing but harm could come from the practice of allowing
laymen to read the Scriptures in their own tongue; and that it could not fail to make them bad Christians and
bad subjects, as Luther's translation had done in Germany.
From the time that Alesius fled from Scotland down to the death of James V. in the end of 1542, there was
almost continual inquisition made for those who were suspected of having in their possession heretical books,
including the New Testament in the vernacular, or who otherwise betrayed a leaning towards the new
opinions. In 1532, we are told, "there was ane greit objuratioun of the favouraris of Mertene Lutar in the
Abbay of Halyrudhous;"[33] and of course their goods were forfeited to the crown. In 1534 a second great
assize against heretics was held in[Pg 39] Norman Gourlay and David Stratoun. the same place. The king, as
the great Justiciar of the realm, was present in his scarlet robe, and took a prominent part in the proceedings.
Betoun was also present and taking part. About sixteen are said to have been convicted and to have had their
goods forfeited. James Hamilton, brother of the martyr, had been ordered by the king to flee the country, as he
Cardinal Betoun.
During all these anxious years the severe measures against the reformers had really been directed by the man
who comes more prominently into public view toward their close. This was David Betoun, the nephew of the
primate, and, like him, a younger scion of the house of Balfour in Fife, who by this time was not only Abbot
of Arbroath and Bishop of Mirepoix in France, but also coadjutor to his aged uncle in the Archbishopric of St
Andrews, and cardinal, with the title of St Stephen on the Cœlian Mount. "Paul III.," says D'Aubigné,
"alarmed at seeing the separation of England from Rome, and fearing lest Scotland—as she had a
nephew of Henry VIII. for her king—should follow her example, was anxious to have in that country
one man who should[Pg 43] be absolutely devoted to him. David Betoun offered himself. The pope created
him cardinal in December 1538, and thenceforth the red—a colour thoroughly congenial with
him—became his own, and, as it were, his symbol. Not that he was by any means a religious fanatic: he
was versed neither in theology nor in moral philosophy. He was a hierarchical fanatic. Two points, above all,
were offensive to him in evangelical Christians: one, that they were not submissive to the pope; the other, that
they censured immorality in the clergy, for his own licentiousness drew on himself similar rebukes. He aimed
at being in Scotland a kind of Wolsey, only with more violence and bloodshed. The one thing of moment in
his eyes was that everything in church and state should bend under a twofold despotism. Endowed with large
This is one of the few attempts made fairly to estimate the character of the man whom one party seemed to
have thought they must make out to be a very monster of iniquity, and of whom the other party seemed to
have felt that the less they said the better; and to a certain extent D'Aubigné's estimate is correct, but it
requires to be supplemented. The cardinalate was rather eagerly sought by him and his friends on the ground
of what he had already done, and was expected yet to do, for pope and king, than voluntarily offered by the
pope. Two, if not three, letters, extremely urgent, were written regarding it by the king to the pope, to the King
of France, and to Cardinal Farnese, in the favour of all of whom he stood high.[41] The pope consented to
bestow on him the cardinalate he so much coveted; but the office of legate a latere, without which the other
was rather an office of dignity than of power, was not granted till 1544,[42] by which time neither[Pg 45] the
papacy nor any others needed to divine his character. Betoun was a man not only of large intelligence, high
ability, unremitting energy, and unbounded ambition, but also of considerable scholarly attainments. He did
not belong, it is true, to the school of Pole and Contarini, who would have made concessions to the reformers
in regard to doctrine, nor to that of the disciples of D'Ailly and Gerson, who were pressing for a reformation
within the old church in regard to morals. His associations and sympathies were rather with the laxer Italian
and French humanist school, both in their virtues and vices, and he seems to be lightly referred to in their
gossip as ille latinus Juvenalis.[43] He was a great stickler for the liberties of holy church, and for years
refused to pay the tax imposed on him for the support of the College of Justice.[44] It was no doubt by his
counsel that heretical processes from the first were carried on under the canon law, and that that code and
French consuetudinary ecclesiastical law were more completely naturalised in Scotland than they had been
before. Most of his time from 1514 to 1524 was passed abroad—the later years in the diplomatic
service of his country; and he had acquitted himself with much[Pg 46] credit and success. He had been
subsequently employed in the negotiations for the marriage of the king, first with the daughter of the King of
France, and after her death with Mary of Guise, and in both missions had given high satisfaction to his
sovereign. He had no sooner returned home in 1524-25, than the same measures of cruel restraint against the
reformers began to be adopted here which had already been put in practice in France; and he was a member of
the various Parliaments in which the rigour of these measures had been increased. Even some of the hardest
sayings of the Scottish king against heretics were but the echo of those of his father-in-law, the King of
France.
Like too many of the high dignitaries of the Scottish church of his time, Cardinal Betoun was of notoriously
incontinent habits;[45] but he was never, so far as I know, guilty of such shameless excesses as were the boast
of his comrade, Prior Hepburn, nor did he ever allow himself to sink into the same indolence and unredeemed
sensuality. He was above all a "hierarchical fanatic," devoted to the cause of absolutism, who would shrink
from no measures, however cruel, to preserve intact the privileges of his order, and to stamp out more earnest
and generous thought, whether that thought was aiming at the reforma[Pg 47]tion of the old church or the
building up of another on her ruins. If we may not say that he had sold himself to France—which had
pensioned him with a rich bishopric and helped him to his honours—we must say he had lived so long
in it, and had got so enamoured of it, that he was at any rate three parts French, and all popish. He had
mingled not only with her scholars but with her nobles, loved and determined to imitate their ways even down
to their scandalous laxity of morals and merciless treatment of so-called heretics. He made no earnest effort to
reform the old church, and so help her to weather the gathering storm; and it was not till towards the close of
his life that he laid out on the building of St Mary's College part of the money which his uncle had carefully
hoarded for that purpose.
So, notwithstanding all measures of repression, the desire for a reformation quietly grew and spread
throughout the nation, especially among the smaller landed proprietors in Angus and Mearns, in Perthshire
and Fife, in Kyle and Cunningham, as also among the more intelligent burgesses in the various burghs, and,
above all, among the élite of the younger inmates of the monasteries and of the alumni of the University.
When the poor monarch, as much sinned against as sinning, at last died of a broken heart,[48] and the Earl of
Arran, who claimed the regency, looked about for trusty supporters to defend his claims against the
machinations of the cardinal and the queen dowager, he deemed it politic to show not a little countenance to
the friends of the Reformation and of the English alliance. We are not warranted to assert that he meant to
declare himself a Protestant; but he chose as his chaplains preachers who showed themselves favourably
inclined to the new faith. He encouraged the chief men among the Protestants to frequent his court, and he
ventured to lay hands on the unscrupulous cardinal, who had striven to exclude him from the regency. He
consented to pass through Parliament an Act expressly permitting[Pg 51] the people to have and to read the
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments in the vulgar tongue, and despatched messengers to all the chief
towns to make public proclamation of the Act. The little treatises of Alesius had thus done their work, and he
himself thought of returning and completing what he had so well begun.
Even in June he had entered in the books of the Privy Council an Act against Sacramentaries holding opinions
on the effect and essence of the Sacraments tending to the enervation of the faith catholic, in which they were
threatened with "tinsale of lif, landis, and gudis."[52] He had not dared to proclaim this openly, though
perhaps his ally, Henry VIII., would not have blamed him greatly for doing so. But no sooner was he in league
with, and under the power of, the cardinal, than he showed in open Parliament "how thair is[Pg 53] gret
murmure that heretikis mair and mair risis and spredis within this realme, sawand dampnable opinionis
incontrar the fayth and lawis of Haly Kirk, actis and constitutionis of this realm"; and exhorted all prelates and
ordinaries "to inquir upon all sic maner of personis and proceid aganis thame according to the lawis of Haly
Kirk"; promising to be ready himself to do therein at all times what belonged to his office.[53] This promise
he was soon obliged cruelly to fulfil.
The weak and inconstant man continued to be regent in name, but from that hour he was dominated by the
imperious cardinal almost as completely as King James had been. He wrote to the pope that the cardinal's
devotion to the holy see and to the interests of his native country was so great that he deserved the praise, or at
least no small part of the praise, of preserving its liberty and extinguishing heresy.[54] That last work,
however, was by no means so nearly accomplished as the regent in his letter to the pope had boasted. In fact,
within two months after we find the cardinal himself confessing in a letter to the pope that he was still in the
thick of the fight, and all but worn out—"vigiliis, laboribus, atque sumptibus"—not only in
contending with foes without, but also with traitors within, the camp.[55] The regent himself was obliged to
confess, in a subsequent letter, that they were then in a miserable plight; and that, unless material
assistance[Pg 55] The Balance of Parties. came to them from abroad,—and in particular from his
holiness, when almost all their other friends were growing cold,—it would be hard for them to maintain
the struggle against the English king. The balance of parties at this critical juncture was more nearly equal
[Pg 56]
CHAPTER IV.
GEORGE WISHART.
It was about this time that a new evangelist arrived in the country, singularly fitted to impress on the hearts of
men the lessons of the Holy Book to which they had now access in their native tongue. This was George
Wishart, a younger son or nephew of Sir James Wishart, laird of Pittarrow in the Mearns. He appears to have
been born about 1512-13, and to have received his university training in King's College, Aberdeen, then
presided over by a distinguished humanist skilled both in Latin and Greek. He acquired a knowledge of
Greek—at that time a very rare accomplishment in Scotland—either from the Principal of King's
College, or from a Frenchman teaching languages in Montrose. From his early years he seems to have been
intimate with John Erskine, laird of Dun, and at that time also provost of the neighbouring burgh[Pg 57] of
Montrose. The earliest notice we have of him is as attesting a charter granted in favour of Erskine.[57] This
lends confirmation to the tradition which Petrie, himself a native of the town, says he had heard from ancient
men (who in their youth had seen and known the reformer) that then, or soon after, he was employed as
assistant or successor of Marsillier, the Frenchman Erskine had brought from France to teach the languages,
and that, like him, he read the Greek New Testament with some of his pupils. John Hepburn, then Bishop of
Brechin, would not naturally have been quick-scented to detect heresy in one who stood so high with his good
friend Erskine of Dun; but David Betoun, Abbot of Arbroath, often resided at the mansion-house of Ethie,
half-way between Arbroath and Montrose, and he was both more lynx-eyed and more anxious to stamp out
any approach to heresy, and he urged the bishop on.
He returned to England about the close of 1542, and soon after entered into residence in Corpus Christi or
Benet College, Cambridge, with the view of studying and teaching there. In one of the windows of the
common-room in that college, above the arms of archbishops and nobles, distinguished alumni of the college,
Such, according to his pupil, was the evangelist who—in 1543 according to some, in 1544 according to
others—returned to his native land, and for two years testified of the gospel of the grace of God
throughout Angus and Mearns, Ayrshire and the Lothians, but whose favourite fields of[Pg 60] labour were to
be central Angus and Mearns, the towns of Montrose and Dundee. A portrait of him, as well as one of his
great opponent, has been preserved in the Roman Catholic College of Blairs, and the expression of the face
harmonises well with the description his pupil gives of him. Another portrait, deemed by Dr Laing not
unworthy of Holbein, is in possession of a descendant of the Wisharts.[60]
It is supposed that for a short time after his return to Scotland he lived quietly at Pittarrow, in the parish of
Fordoun, where the shrine of St Palladius was preserved; and being an accomplished artist, occupied himself
with adorning the ancestral mansion with several beautiful fresco paintings, which, after being long covered
over by the wainscot, were again brought to light in the present century, but unfortunately were destroyed
before their value was perceived. Dr Leslie of Fordoun, who saw them, has thus described the most
remarkable of them: "Above the largest fireplace in the great hall was a painting of the city of Rome, and a
grand procession going to St Peter's.... The Pope, adorned with the tiara, and mounted on horseback, was
attended by a large company of cardinals on foot, richly dressed, but all uncovered. At a little distance,
directly in front of the procession, stood a[Pg 61] A Protestant Pasquil. beautiful white palfrey, finely
caparisoned, held by some persons who were well dressed, but uncovered. Beyond them was the Cathedral of
St Peter, the doors of which appeared to be open. Below the picture were written the following lines:—
"In Papam.
Wishart began his work as a preacher in Montrose, the scene of his early scholastic labours, expounding the
rudiments of the Christian faith and practice as set forth in the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the
Apostles' Creed. At that time Montrose was frequented by many of the landed gentry in the surrounding
districts who were favourable to the Reformation and the English alliance, and their hearts could not fail to be
cheered and their courage raised by the exhortations of the evangelist. Dundee, however, was the chief and
favourite scene of his ministrations; and it was from the great success attending them that it gained the name
of the Scottish Geneva. It was even more decidedly attached to the new opinions and the English alliance
than[Pg 63] Montrose; and a reformation, as it was called—including the sacking of the monasteries in
the town and neighbourhood—had taken place in the autumn of 1543. The governor confessed, when
put to penance, that this had been done with his permission.[62] The martyr cannot with any certainty be
Preaches at Dundee.
He preached for a time in Dundee with great acceptance, expounding systematically that Epistle to the
Romans, the full significance of which the recently published Commentary of Calvin had deeply impressed on
the minds of his co-religionists in various lands where Wishart had been. At length he was charged by one of
the magistrates in the queen's name and the governor's to desist from preaching, to depart from the town, and
trouble it no more. This was intimated to him when he was in the pulpit, surrounded by a great congregation,
and with a significant re[Pg 64]minder that he had already been put to the horn, and that there was no
intention to relax the law in his favour. Thereupon he called God to witness that he intended not their trouble
but their comfort, and felt sure that to reject the Word of God, and drive away His messenger, was not the way
to save themselves from trouble; adding, "God shall send unto yow messengeris who will not be effrayed of
hornyng nor yitt for banishment."[64] He left the town forthwith, and with all "possible expeditioun passed to
the west-land."[65] There he pursued his labours in the same kindly spirit, refusing to allow his followers to
dispute possession of the churches by force of arms with the authorities, and choosing rather to preach in the
open air wherever he found a convenient place and audience fit to listen to him.
No doubt John Wedderburn, as well as the others who had been suspected of heresy and had fled from the
town in the persecution of 1539, had before this time returned, and were co-operating with Wishart in his
work; and then, in all probability, was prepared that beautiful funeral hymn which passed from the Bohemians
to the Germans, and from the Germans to the Scotch; and which, in addition to the original stanzas, contains
in the Scottish version certain new verses having unmistakable reference to the circum[Pg 67]stances in which
they originated—in a plague-stricken town which had just before been occupied by the soldiers of the
cardinal and the regent, and might well dread a similar visitation for its determined adherence to the new
evangelist.
One day as the people were departing from the sermon, utterly unconscious of the peril menacing their
favourite preacher, Knox tells us that a priest, bribed by the cardinal, stood waiting—with his whinger
drawn in his hand under his gown—at the foot of the steps by which the preacher was descending from
the top of the port. Wishart, most sharp of eye and swift of judgment, at once noticed him, and, as he came
near, said, "My friend, what wald ye do?" and at the same moment seized the hand in which he held the
dagger, and took it from him. The priest fell down at his feet and confessed the whole truth. Immediately the
rumour spread that a priest had attempted to assassinate their favourite preacher, the sick outside burst open
the gate, crying, "Deliver the tratour to us, or ellis we will tack him by forse." But the preacher put his arms
around his would-be assassin, exclaiming, "Whosoevir trubles him shall truble me, for he has hurte me in
nothing, bot ... hes lattin us understand what we may feare in tymes to come"; and so, says Knox, he saved the
life of him that sought his.[69] [Pg 69]
His Innocence.
Like Drs Laing, Lorimer, and Weir, I cannot persuade myself that the man who spoke and acted thus is the
same as "a Scottish man called Wysshert," who is mentioned in a letter of the Earl of Hertford in April 1544,
as privy to a conspiracy to apprehend or assassinate Cardinal Betoun, and as employed to carry letters
between the conspirators and the English court.[70] There were other Wisharts in Scotland. Yea, as Dr Laing
has shown, another George Wishart in Dundee, who was a zealous friend of the English alliance—not
only after the conspirators got possession of St Andrews castle, but from the earlier date when the monasteries
in Dundee were destroyed and sacked.[71] There was probably another about St Andrews who, while the
martyr was yet a boy, was called in to attest a charter by the notorious friar Campbell in 1526. I will not
venture to affirm that, with all his gentleness,[Pg 70] Wishart might not have been tempted to maintain that
violence and murderous intent—such as Betoun had twice shown to get rid of him
privately—might be lawfully met and restrained by force, though even that is hardly in keeping with all
we know of his gentle ways; but we may be sure that had such thoughts been cherished by him, he, like Knox,
would have said this openly, and not have engaged in any secret reprisals. As an outlawed man he came down
to Scotland under protection, and never seems to have travelled in it save under protection; and so he was one
of the last men likely to be chosen for a secret mission to England. If anything more than the able essay of the
late Professor Weir in the 'North British Review' for 1868 were needed to prove that the "pure lustre of the
martyr's fame is still unsullied," it seems to me to be supplied by himself in his affecting address at the stake.
"I beseech Thee, Father of heaven! to forgive them that have of any ignorance, or else have of any evil mind,
His Constancy.
From the time of Wighton's attempt the reformer had a clearer view of the perils which beset him, and a
mournful conviction of the issue which awaited him if he would not flinch or flee. By his success in Dundee
the rage of his adversaries was lashed into a fury which appalled his friends in various districts; but none of
these things moved him that he might finish his course with joy, and make full proof of his ministry. As soon
as the plague abated in the city, heedless of the new proofs he then had of the cardinal's relentless
determination to capture or trepan him, and the earnest warnings of his northern friends that they could not be
answerable for his safety, he took his last farewell of his kirks in Montrose and Dundee. At all hazards he was
determined to fulfil his engagement to meet his western friends in Edinburgh, to prosecute his work there
under their promised protection, and to seek a public[Pg 72] disputation with some of the popish clergy who
about that time were to meet in Synod in the capital. Disappointed of the presence and protection of the
western men, he laboured for a brief season in Leith, Inveresk, and East Lothian without much success. At
last, forsaken by many of those who should have stood by him, he was seized at Ormiston, under cover of
night and promise of safe keeping, by the Earl of Bothwell, Sheriff Principal of the county. The Earl pledged
his honour not to give him up to his enemies, but was soon persuaded to deliver him to the governor, as was
the governor to hand him over to the cardinal, though he finally protested against his being tried or
condemned by the churchmen in his own absence. A full account of his labours during these days of
despondency has been given by Knox, who got from him, it is said, the first rudiments of Greek, and
who—having rendered his first service to the cause of the Reformation by bearing the two-handed
sword for his protection—was dismissed on the night of his betrayal with the significant words, "One is
sufficient for one sacrifice," showing what fate he now anticipated for himself.
I cannot enlarge on these things, nor on the sad scenes which took place at St Andrews on the last day of
February and 1st of March 1545-46, when the cardinal, regardless of the remon[Pg 73]strances His
Martyrdom. of the regent and the murmurs of the people, but with the assent of the Council which he had
adjourned from Edinburgh to St Andrews, condemned him to the stake. Throughout all these trying scenes he
comported himself as nobly as Patrick Hamilton had done; and not less plentifully did his blood prove the
seed of the church, verifying his words, that few would suffer after him before the glory of God evidently
appeared. No doubt his cruel martyrdom hastened the removal of that tyrant who set himself above all
restraint of civil law, and breathed forth threatenings against the saints of God,—though that removal
had not been plotted by him, nor would have been approved by him. The words attributed to him at the stake
by Buchanan and Lindsay of Pitscottie, foreshadowing his persecutor's approaching fate, are not generally
regarded as authentic. Knox says nothing of them, nor Foxe, nor Spottiswoode; nor does Sir David Lindsay, in
his 'Tragedy of the Cardinal,' make any reference to them. It seems better authenticated that he made the
following general statement: "I beseech you, brethren and sisters, to exhort your prelates to the learning of the
Word of God, that they at the last may be ashamed to do evil and learn to do good, and if they will not convert
themselves from their wicked error, there shall hastily come upon them the wrath of God,[Pg 74] which they
shall not eschew."[73] It is easy to see—especially after the events which so speedily
occurred—how a statement which referred to the prelates generally should come to be applied
specifically to their imperious chief, just as the example of Eli had, in a well-known ballad, been similarly
used for warning by the Reformation poet to the aged James Betoun for his weak indulgence to his nephew
and the younger Prior Hepburn, notwithstanding their scandalous excesses.[74]
Church Organisation.
It may not be inappropriate to state how far the organisation of the Reformed Church had by this time
advanced in Scotland. Patrick Hamilton seems to me to have laboured to the last for the revival of Scriptural
teaching and Christian living within the old church rather than apart from her. Alesius, and some others of his
disciples, were for a time reluctant to separate from her, if her rulers could have been persuaded seriously to
set about repairing acknowledged evils and defects. But Wishart, and those who came under his influence,
seem to have abandoned this struggle, and to have striven for the formation of a new organisation apart from
the old one. He formed kirks or congregations—at least in Montrose and Dundee; the former consisting
probably mainly of the lesser gentry in the adjacent districts of Angus and Mearns, and the latter chiefly of the
substantial burghers of the town of Dundee. I suppose that some forms of discipline began to be put in
practice in the Dundee congregation, and that it was on that account, as well as from the remarkable revival
which had taken place under his ministrations, that the town came to[Pg 76] be spoken of as "the Scottish
Geneva." The New Testament of Tyndale's translation had been introduced both there and in Montrose as
early as 1526; and by this time the subsequent editions had been largely imported, and since 1543 might be
openly read.[76] John Wedderburn was then in his native city, and I suppose by that date had published, in its
most rudimentary form, his 'Psalms and Spiritual Songs,' largely translated from the German. John Scott, the
printer, was also there, and under suspicion of the authorities in Edinburgh. Of the psalms and hymns, one, as
I have already mentioned, bears unmistakable reference to the pest then infesting the town of Dundee; another
was sung by Wishart that evening on which he was apprehended in East Lothian; a third is certainly referred
to in the 'Complaynt of Scotland,' which, being published as early as 1549, is a guarantee for the earlier
existence of the hymn.[77] This rudimentary collection of 'Psalms and Spiritual Songs' was the book of praise
in family and social gatherings of the reformed until the 'Genevan Psalter' came into use.[78] The earliest
editions of it have per[Pg 77]ished. A nearly complete copy of the edition of 1567 has, however, been
preserved, and now at last reprinted.[79]
[Pg 79]
CHAPTER V.
KNOX AS LEADER OF OUR REFORMATION.
As stated towards the close of my last lecture, the sword-bearer of Wishart stood forth at once "to wield the
spiritual sword which had fallen from the master's grasp, and to wield it with a vigour and trenchant execution
superior even to his."
At this time Knox was full forty years of age, having been born at Giffordgate, in Haddington, in 1505. He
probably received the rudiments of his education there, and matriculated at the University of Glasgow in
1522. Some suppose that he may have followed Major to St Andrews in 1523, or may have come there later,
to study theology or to act as a private tutor to some young men studying at that university. But there is no
reference to him in the university books, nor mention of his presence by any one then resident. From 1522 up
to 1545-46, when he appears as sword-bearer to Wishart, his life is to us almost a blank. But as Minerva was
said to have come full armed from the brain of[Pg 80] Jupiter, so did Knox then start up as leader of our
Reformation, fully equipped and singularly matured. Whatever his early training may have been, he had by
that time thoroughly mastered the subjects in controversy between the two churches, and possibly, as Bayle
supposes, had made himself aquainted in his retirement with the writings of that great doctor of the western
church to whom Luther, Calvin, and Alesius were largely indebted. I believe no man in recent times has in
brief space sketched his character, both on its brighter and darker sides, with less partisan feeling than Dr
Merle D'Aubigné, when he says: "The blood of warriors ran in the veins of the man who was to become one
of the most intrepid champions of Christ's army.... He was active, bold, thoroughly upright and perfectly
honest, diligent in his duties, and full of heartiness for his comrades. But he had in him also a firmness which
came near to obstinacy, an independence which was very much like pride, a melancholy which bordered on
prostration, a sternness which some took for insensibility, and a passionate force sometimes mistakenly
attributed to a vindictive temper."[82] According to Calderwood, he received his first "taste of the truthe"
from the preaching of his fellow-countryman, Thomas Guilliame or Williams, a black friar, who in 1543
became one of the chaplains of the[Pg 81] regent, and shortly after, being inhibited to preach, retired into
England.[83] The good seed sown by him was watered by Wishart, and grew up apace, "first the blade, then
the ear, after that the full corn in the ear."
Those who had presumed to take into their hands "the sword of God" as they called it, and to mete out to the
tyrant cardinal the punishment which human justice was too weak to award, were made to feel that they who
take the sword must expect to suffer from the sword. They had been able to withstand the power of the regent
and the attacks of his unskilful captains; but help and skill at last came to the aid of these from[Pg 85] A
Galley-slave. their co-religionists abroad—chief among them being a militant ecclesiastic entitled Prior
of Capua—and the succour promised to the garrison by England having been again and again delayed,
they were obliged to surrender the castle to the representative of the French king.[88] The occupants of the
castle—those who had come to it for shelter, as well as those who were really guilty of the
murder—were deprived of liberty, and dealt with as criminals of the worst class. For nineteen
months[89] our reformer had to work as a chained slave on board the French galleys, generally at Rouen or
Dieppe, though sometimes a cruise was taken to more distant waters. Once, at least, he was brought within
sight of the towers of the city where he had begun his ministry; and then he solemnly affirmed that he
believed God would once more allow him to proclaim His word there. Even then he maintained unshaken
faith in God, and at times indulged in sallies of pleasantry against his popish custodiers; but he would have
been more than human if the iron had not entered into his soul, and if traces of the sternness thence arising had
His fame as an eloquent preacher, and able and ready defender of the doctrines of the Reformation, spread
southwards; and at the close of 1551, or early in 1552, he was appointed one of the royal chaplains of Edward
VI. In the autumn of 1552 he was summoned to the south, and preached with great power and faithfulness
before the king and his court. He persistently advocated, along with the other royal chaplains, those
thoroughgoing Protestant doctrines which, in the north, he had previously held and taught and carried out in
practice. In conjunction with the other five royal chaplains, he was called to give his opinion of the Articles
then proposed to be adopted as the creed of the English Church, and of the revised Communion Office then
prepared to take the place of that of 1549. His objections to the act of kneeling in receiving the elements in the
Lord's Supper helped to procure the insertion of that rubric which high-churchmen term "the black rubric." He
refused both an English bishopric and a London rectory, and continued to labour on, faithfully and devotedly,
as a preacher unat[Pg 88]tached. He had a presentiment that the time he would have to do so would be brief,
and he improved it to the uttermost. The Reformation in England at that date had been forced on by its courtly
patrons and their earnest preachers beyond what was warranted by the hold it had as yet gained on the mass of
the people. When the good King Edward[91] was succeeded by the bigoted Mary, nothing remained for the
Protestant bishops and preachers but either to prove the sincerity of their convictions in prison and at the
stake, or to leave the country and reserve themselves in exile for happier times. Knox, as a foreigner, was
especially warranted to choose the latter course; and at the urgent request of his friends in the north he did so,
when it was only not yet too late to escape.
The five years of the reformer's life which followed were not less eventful for himself nor for those of whom
he now became the chosen leader. After an unsuccessful attempt to set up a substantially Puritan church
among the English exiles at Frankfort, Whittingham and he obtained at Geneva, through the favour of Calvin,
an asylum for themselves and their like-minded fellow-exiles, where they might be allowed peacefully to
carry out their own forms of worship and discipline. But he had not been long there till,[Pg 89] Visits
Scotland. at the earnest invitation of the reforming party, he paid a visit to his native land—a visit
which was memorable for its immediate, and still more for its ultimate, results. For several years the cause of
the Reformation had been making quiet progress. Those who could read the Scriptures had been drinking the
waters of life from the fountain-head. Those who could not, drank from the streams opened by the
Reformation poets, whose verses were carefully committed to memory. Then came the voice of the living
preacher, accompanied, as it had never yet been in Scotland, with the demonstration of the Spirit and with
power from on high. The reformer wrote that he would be content to sing his nunc dimittis after forty such
days as he had had three of in Edinburgh. He prolonged for six months a visit which he had intended to
complete in as many weeks; and, when he was at last recalled to Geneva by the urgent letters of the
congregation there, he promised to his friends in Scotland that he would return whenever they saw meet to
summon him and to assure him of protection from persecution.
Genevan Benefits.
It was there that Puritanism was organised as a distinct school, if not also as a distinct party, in the church. If it
had done nothing more than what it was honoured to do in the few peaceful years our fathers were permitted
to spend in that much loved city by the bright blue waters of the Leman Lake, it would have done not a little
for which the church and the world would have had cause to be grateful to it still. There were first clearly
proclaimed in our native language those principles of constitutional government, and the limited authority of
the "upper powers," which are now universally accepted by the Anglo-Saxon race. There was first deliberately
adopted and resolutely put in practice among British Christians[Pg 91] a form of church constitution which
eliminated sacerdotalism, and taught the members of the church their true dignity and responsibility as priests
to God and witnesses for Christ in the world. There was first used that Book of Common Order which was
long to be the directory for public worship in the fully reformed Church of Scotland, and whose simple rites
Bishop Grindal was forced to own, in his controversy with the English Puritans, he could not reprove. There
was nearly completed, after the model of the French version, the English Metrical Psalter. There was planned
and executed a translation of the Scriptures into our mother tongue, which for nearly half a century continued
to hold its place alongside of others executed at greater leisure and more favoured by authority.[92] That was
how our[Pg 92] reformer and his tireless associates occupied themselves when left freely to follow their own
bent. That was how he was ultimately prepared for the great work he was to accomplish in his native country
when finally invited to return to it.
Immediately after the accession of Elizabeth to the English throne in the autumn of 1558,[93] the English
exiles on the Continent began to break up their congregations and return to their native land. Those at Geneva
were among the first who commenced to do so; but those of them who had been occupying themselves in that
translation of the Bible into English which was to prove such a blessing to their countrymen decided to remain
where they were until they had finished that work.[94] Those who returned were at first favourably received
by the queen and her advisers, and taken into service in the reconstituted church; but when it was found that
they were generally averse to comply fully with the ceremonies which she fostered, a change took place.
Returns to Scotland.
Knox, who does not seem to have been one[Pg 93] of the translators, appears to have left Geneva among the
earliest. In February 1558-59 we find that he had gone to Dieppe, whence, while assisting in the French
Protestant services, he sent a request to Cecil for leave to pass through England on his way to Scotland, and to
converse with him on some matters which deeply concerned the welfare of the Protestants in both realms.[95]
But his 'First Blast of the Trumpet' was an insult which Elizabeth could not brook, and so, after waiting in
vain for the desired permission for a reasonable time, he set sail from Dieppe for Scotland, and arrived in
Edinburgh on the 2nd of May 1559, much to the consternation of the popish council then assembled in the
city. It dissolved forthwith; but care was taken to get Knox's name, as that of an already condemned heretic,
added to the list of Protestant preachers then under summons to appear before the queen regent and her
council to answer for their persistence in preaching.[96] Knox at once[Pg 94] resolved to throw in his lot with
his brethren, and went north to Dundee where the zealous Protestants of Fife, Angus, and Mearns were
already assembling, determined to make common cause with their preachers, and to go forward in peaceful
form to Stirling in order that they might do so, and leave the queen and her council in no doubt as to the
position which they were henceforth to occupy towards her and them. They accordingly marched forward
After the regent's falsehood to Erskine and persistence in her fatal policy, the reformers proceeded at once to
set about such reform as they desired, and commenced rather roughly at Perth, where they had the majority of
the population in[Pg 95] Preaches in St Andrews. their favour. Knox, along with Moray, went to Fife as soon
after as it became apparent that forcible measures must be taken to secure toleration for the Protestants. After
a few brief visits to other towns he presented himself at the public preaching-place in St Andrews. Modern
historians will not allow us to say that it was in that city that he had received his university training, or had
first listened to the preaching of the reformed doctrines, or been brought to a personal knowledge of the truth;
but they leave untouched, as previously stated, the more important facts that it was there, when in charge of
his pupils at the university, that he had first ventured at the hazard of his life openly to make known to others
that which had been blessed of God to the quickening of his own soul, and publicly to exert in the cause of the
Reformation those rare gifts of telling argument and persuasive speech which were destined so signally to
contribute to its ultimate and permanent triumph throughout the land. It was there, probably in the old parish
church, that he had been first solemnly called to the ministry of the Word in the reformed church; and there, in
the chapel of the old and now ruined castle, that he had first celebrated the Lord's Supper with the same purity
and simplicity with which it was afterwards observed in the fully reformed Church of[Pg 96] Scotland.[97]
Even in exile and working as a slave in the galleys his heart had turned with special pleasure to the scene of
his first labours, and he had cherished the confident expectation that God would again bring him to the place
where he had first opened his mouth, and permit him again to preach from its pulpit the precious truths of His
Holy Word.[98]
This expectation he believed that God had then fulfilled, and neither the threats of adversaries could make him
quail from his purpose, nor the counsels of timid friends move him to let slip the opportunity which he
believed God had then given him of bearing full and faithful testimony to the truth of God in that important
city.[99] He therefore boldly proclaimed before the dignitaries of the church, the doctors of the
university,[100] and[Pg 97] The Victory. the magistrates of the burgh, as well as before more humble citizens,
that doctrine of the grace of God which had long been his own solace and support, and was then being more
generally recognised and embraced by his countrymen. Having thus seized the opportunity and improved it to
the utmost, his efforts were so abundantly blessed by God that the cause of truth and right finally triumphed
there. The reformed worship was by general consent peaceably set up, and the authority of the archbishop was
virtually ended in the very stronghold of his power. That which, with the divine blessing, the reformer's
preaching then accomplished in St Andrews, was by the same or similar means effected in the chief cities of
the kingdom, and throughout the greater part of the lowlands, almost within the compass of a single year. In
fact, four months after his arrival, he could write to his friends: "Nothwithstanding the fevers have vexed me,
... yitt have I travelled through the most part of this realme where (all praise be to His blessed Majestie) men
of all sorts and conditiouns embrace the Truthe.... We doe nothing but goe about Jericho, blowing with
trumpets as God giveth strenth, hoping [for the] victorie by His power[Pg 98] alone."[101] The reformer's
expectation of victory, and of victory by the persuasive means which Bishop Hooper affirmed were alone
legitimate and in accord with Christ's will, was neither disappointed nor long deferred. The great body of the
nation, with unexampled rapidity and unanimity, embraced the truth, and submitted to the discipline of their
teacher, and under its salutary influence, as Stähelin in his 'Johannes Calvin' affirms, from being one of the
rudest, most ignorant, indigent, and turbulent peoples, grew to be one of the most civilised, educated,
prosperous, and upright which our family of nations can show.
Believing that we have no cause to be ashamed of the great revolution which was thus effected, or of aught
which has legitimately followed from it, but that we need to have our pure minds stirred up by way of
remembrance of the great things the Lord has done for us, I proceed to direct attention to the distinctive
characteristics of the Scottish Reformation in respect of doctrine, worship, government, discipline, and church
life, and the lessons which such a review should tend to rivet on the hearts of those who still hold fast its
principles and long to see them more fully carried out.[Pg 99]
CHAPTER VI.
THE OLD SCOTTISH CONFESSION OF 1560.
Knox, in his 'History of the Reformation,' has stated that the preparation of this Confession was entrusted to
the same six ministers who were commissioned to draw up the Book of Discipline—viz., Wynram,
Spottiswoode, Willock, Douglas, Row, and himself.[102] It has been frequently taken for granted that the
Confession was prepared and revised within four days after the formal charge to frame it was issued by the
Parliament, and that the Book of Discipline was not ordered to be prepared till after the Parliament of 1560
was adjourned. It is evident, however, from the dates specified in the Introduction, and at the conclusion of the
copy of the Book of Discipline engrossed by Knox,[103] that the original charge to frame it had been granted
on the 29th April 1560, or just two days after the[Pg 100] nobles and barons signed one of those "godly
bands" or covenants[104] by which they pledged themselves to stand by each other in setting forward the
Reformation of religion according to God's Word; and it can hardly be supposed that that book should have
been taken in hand some months before the Parliament met, and that no attempt should have been made in this
interval to prepare materials for the 'Confession of Faith.' Besides, Knox has not stated that within four days
after the charge was formally issued the Confession was prepared, but only that it was presented, so that we
may hold with Dr M'Crie that "the ministers were not unprepared for this task," which was then formally
devolved on them by the Parliament. Knox has further stated that the Confession was accepted by the
Parliament in the form in which it was laid before them without change of a single sentence.[105] Others
supplement his statement by explaining that before it was publicly presented it was submitted privately to
certain lords of Parliament, and by their direction was handed for revision to the rather time-serving Wynram
and the anon[Pg 101] Alleged Omission of a Chapter. time-serving and vacillating Laird of Lethington, who
softened many harsh expressions in it, and even recommended the omission of a chapter or part of a chapter
from it. This they say was a chapter bearing the title, "Of the obedience and disobedience due from subjects to
magistrates."[106] But the chapter on the "Civil Magistrate" still found in the Confession treats so fully and
expressly of the obedience due to magistrates, that it is difficult to see how place could ever have been sought
for an additional chapter on the same subject. There may possibly at first have stood in the chapter still
retained some such clause or sentence regarding the limits of obedience as we find in the corresponding
chapter of some of the Genevan symbolical books,[107] and this may have been the matter deemed unfit to be
"entreated of" at that time, and recommended by the revisers to be omitted; or it may be that, after all, their
recommendation and the suggestions of the English ambassador on the subject were not followed in this
instance, and[Pg 102] that we have the chapter still as it was originally framed by Knox and his
associates.[108]
In endeavouring to form an estimate of the real merits of this Confession, we must make due allowance for the
circumstances in which it was composed. Even though we suppose that the materials of it had been collected
beforehand, only four days seem to have been allowed to the committee to put them into final shape.
We must not look either on the one hand for an exhaustive and logical elaboration of the several doctrines of
the system and nicely balanced statement of complementary truths, or on the other for a careful avoidance of
incidental expressions which seem dogmatically to determine points not fully or directly handled in the places
where we should have expected them to be so. Yet, if we make such due allowance, look at it from the proper
point of view, and peruse the work not only in the now obsolete Scotch, but also in the neat Latin version
The first topic deserving of notice, from the place it holds both in the preface and in the body of this treatise,
is the distinct and hearty acknowledgment of the supreme authority of the written Word of God, or "the buiks
of the Auld and New Testamentis," which books are briefly but sufficiently defined as those "quhilk of the
ancient have been reputed canonicall."[110] In these[Pg 104] they affirm "that all thingis necessary to be
beleeved for the salvation of mankinde is sufficiently expressed," and to these they desire in all things to
conform, protesting that, if any man should note any article or sentence in their Confession contrary to the
Scriptures, and should "of his gentleness" admonish them of the same, they "do promise unto him
satisfactioun fra the mouth of God, that is, fra His Haly Scriptures, or else reformation of that quhilk he sal
prove to be amisse."[111]
A group of chapters[120] treats of the nature and work of the Holy Spirit, the cause of good works, the works
which are reputed good, the perfection[Pg 110] of the Law of God, and the imperfection of man. Those who
have overlooked the explicit statement in the third chapter concerning the depravity of man have generally
overlooked or failed to perceive the full significance of the emphatic statements in the twelfth chapter
regarding our entire dependence for spiritual renovation, and all good, on the Holy Spirit. The words are: "Of
nature we are so dead, so blind, and so perverse, that nether can we feill when we ar pricked, see the licht
when it shines, nor assent to the will of God when it is reveiled, unles the Spirit of the Lord Jesus quicken that
quhilk is dead, remove the darknesse from our myndes, and bowe our stubburne hearts to the obedience of His
blessed will;"[121] and again, "As we willingly spoyle ourselves of all honour and gloir of our awin creation
and redemption, so do we also of our regeneration and sanctification."[122] These statements, however they
may be viewed by others, seem to me no less explicit than those of the later Confession, which have been
sometimes contrasted with them. "This effectual call is of God's free and special Grace alone, not from
anything at all foreseen in man, who is[Pg 111] Justification. altogether passive therein until, being quickened
and renewed by the Holy Spirit, he is thereby enabled to answer this call, and to embrace the Grace offered
and conveyed in it."[123] The last of this group of chapters contains the fullest and most direct exposition the
Confession embodies of the views of its framers in the article of Justification. It is as follows: "It behovis us to
apprehend Christ Jesus with His justice and satisfaction, quha is the end and accomplishment of the Law, be
quhome we ar set at this liberty that the curse and malediction of God fall not upon us, albeit we fulfill not the
same in al pointes. For God the Father, beholding us in the body of His Sonne Christ Jesus, acceptis our
imperfite obedience as it were perfite, and covers our warks, quhilk ar defyled with mony spots, with the
justice of His Sonne."[124] To the same[Pg 112] effect it is said in chapter xxv. that "albeit sinne remaine and
continuallie abyde in thir our mortall bodies, zit it is not imputed unto us, bot is remitted and covered with
Christ's justice."[125] It has been questioned, however, whether we have in these statements the doctrine
taught generally in the reformed churches regarding the articulus stantis vel cadentis ecclesiæ. This can be a
question only with those who forget that the church which received this Confession, and required her adult
members to assent to the heads of it, appointed for the instruction of her youth the Catechism in which this
doctrine of Calvin is stated in his own words; and that the very men[126] who in 1560 drew it up, in 1566,
along with their brethren of the General Assembly,[Pg 113] declared of the Later Helvetic
Confession—which is admitted to contain what has been termed "the Lutherano-Calvinian view" of
justification—that therein was "most faithfully, holily, piously, and indeed divinely explained" what
they themselves had for eight years been constantly teaching, and still by the grace of God continued to teach,
and that in consequence they felt constrained not only to express their approval, but their "exceeding
commendation of every chapter and of every sentence," save the one relating to holidays.[127] It may be
taken for granted that they knew their own meaning, and that of their Swiss brethren;[128][Pg 114] the more
especially as in our day Stähelin, whose impartiality and historical reputation will not be challenged, has
adduced the statement in chapter xv. as one of his proofs that Calvin himself could not have framed the Scotch
Confession otherwise than Knox has done.[129]
The nature of the church, and the notes by which the true church is to be discerned, are explained in chapters
xvi. and xviii. As in most of the other Reformed or Calvinistic Confessions, greater prominence is assigned to
the Invisible Church, consisting of the elect of all times and nations, than to the general visible church
subsisting at any particular time in the world and embracing all who profess faith in Christ and submit to the
godly discipline He has prescribed. The notes by which it may be discerned whether any branch of the
The only other parts of the Confession I deem[Pg 116] it necessary to refer to in this review of it are the
chapters relating to the sacraments and the right use of them. It was asserted some years ago by a leader of
modern thought in Scotland that Knox did not go beyond the Zwinglian doctrine regarding the Sacrament of
the Lord's Supper; and that his Order for the administration of it was a bold protest against the "mystical
jargon" which Luther employed, and from which Calvin was not free. When he made this assertion he seems
to have forgot that the address in Knox's Order for the administration of the Lord's Supper was little else than
a translation of that in Calvin's Liturgy, and teaches exactly the same mystical doctrine. This doctrine is no
less explicitly taught in the Confession; and Stähelin, whose competence to judge in the matter cannot be
questioned, maintains that the Zwinglian doctrine is as explicitly rejected as the Romano-Lutheran; and that
the language as well as the doctrine closely resembles Calvin's.Two Sacraments only. The text of the common
editions of the Confession speaks of two chief sacraments only as being appointed under the New Testament
as well as under the Old. From this expression, some, who are more familiar with Anglican than with
Calvinistic formularies, have concluded that Knox, like several of the earlier English reformers, attributed a
quasi-sacramental character to some of the other rites regarded as[Pg 117] sacraments by the Romanists. But
in the copy of the Confession reprinted in Dr Laing's edition of Knox's History the word chief is omitted in the
second instance, and the clause runs two sacraments only.[132] Perhaps it will be accepted as some
confirmation of the correctness of this reading that it is identical with that found in Alasco's 'Epitome
Doctrinæ Ecclesiarum Frisiæ Orientalis,' from which treatise the opening sentence of chapter xxi. of the
Scottish Confession may possibly have been taken,[133] though the verbal coincidence with the early edition
of Calvin's Institutes is in some respects more marked.
Such are the main contents and general bearing of this ancient Scottish Confession. Notwithstanding the
confident assertions to the contrary made of late both within and without the Presbyterian churches, I venture
to think that no one who, with a good conscience and[Pg 118] honest intent, could sign that Confession, and
answer in the affirmative the questions regarding election put to candidates for the ministry at their ordination,
need hesitate to put his name to that which in 1647 was received as "in nothing contrary" to the former, and
held its place alongside of it even after the restoration of Charles II., and under the episcopal régime.[134]
Most assuredly at least no one need hesitate to do so who would have put his name to that Confession which
was drawn up in the time of the first episcopacy,[135] and which is quite as distinctively Calvinistic as the
Westminster Confession, while it ventures incidentally to determine some points the Westminster divines
have wisely left undetermined.[136] The old Confession can advance no claim to the terse English style, the
logical accuracy, the[Pg 119] Type of Scottish Theology. judicial calmness, and intimate acquaintance with
early patristic theology which characterise that mature product of the faith and thought of the more learned
Puritans of the south. I am not ashamed to avow that it has long appeared to me that there is somewhat to be
Unmeasured Language.
Probably, however, the main argument against recurring to the old Scottish Confession of 1560 is that derived
from the unmeasured language of vituperation in which it, as well as the contemporary forms of
recantation[141] required of priests at[Pg 121] that date, indulges when referring to the teaching of the
members of the pre-Reformation church. No doubt it might be deemed sufficient proof of this to subjoin the
examples furnished in chapter xviii. on the "Notis" or marks by which "the trewe Kirk is decernit fra the
false," where the old church is designated the "pestilent synagoge," "the filthie synagogue," and "the horrible
harlot, the kirk malignant"[142]—the last words no doubt meant as a translation of the Vulgate
rendering of Psalm xxvi. 5, ecclesiam malignantium,[143] translated "the congregation of evil doers" in our
authorised English version. But I may add, in corroboration, that in chapter xxi. on the true uses of the
sacraments, the papists are charged with having "perniciouslie taucht and damnablie beleeved" the
transubstantiation of the bread into Christ's natural body and of wine into his natural blood,[144] and that in
the last chapter the language of Rev. xiv. 11 ("the smoke of their torment[Pg 122] ascendeth up for ever and
ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image") is adduced in proof of the
ultimate fate of those who delight in superstition or idolatry.[145]
The same unrestrained spirit is shown in some contemporary Confessions, notably in the earliest Danish one,
the framers of which seem to have kept closer to Luther than to the more gentle Melanchthon: but however
excusable it may have been in the fierce battle then forced on them, there can be no doubt that the calmer and
more measured language of the later Confession is a decided improvement on the statements of the earlier
one; and I do not hesitate to say that, with the simpler formula of 1693-94 recently restored, and the
explanatory act which accompanies it—emphasising the distinction between matters of minor
importance and the great doctrines of the faith—the position of the ministers of our church in these
respects is as nearly what it should be as is that of the ministers in any of the allied Presbyterian churches.
[Pg 123]
CHAPTER VII.
THE BOOK OF COMMON ORDER.
This, though in point of time the first composed of the symbolical books of the Scottish Reformation, was the
last to be formally assigned its honoured place. The title it commonly bore in that age was the Book of
Its Authority.
The exclusive authority of this book—previously drafted but first used in Knox's congregation at
Geneva—was not asserted by the General Assembly till 1564: nevertheless, even in 1560, the Book of
Discipline indicated a very marked preference for its regulations, speaking not only of it as the book of our
Common Order, already used in some churches, but specially commended its form for administration of the
Lord's Supper; and in giving directions for the celebration of the sacraments and marriage, and for the burial
of the dead, it followed closely the regulations of this book. In 1561 Quintine Kennedy, Abbot of Crossraguel,
in his oration against the Protestants, alluded to it in such a way as implied that it was already well known and
in general use in Scotland.[150] In 1562 the General Assembly enjoined the observance of a uniform Order in
the adminis[Pg 128]tration of the sacraments and the celebration of marriage according to the "Booke of
Geneva"—i.e., the Order used by Knox's congregation there;[151] and in 1564 it further ordained that
"everie minister, exhorter, and reader sall have one of the Psalme Bookes latelie printed in Edinburgh, and use
the Order contained therein [that is, the Order in Knox's Book] in prayers, marriage, and ministration of the
sacraments."[152]
Randolph, the English ambassador, in his letters to his Government, not only admits that they were "lothe to
remytte anie thing of that that thei have receaved,"[156] but also leads us to conclude that the practice of their
leading ministers in public worship at this early date was not very[Pg 130] dissimilar to that of their
successors in the next century. "The Byshop of Athens," he says, "preacheth earnestly, and prayethe hartely
for the Queene's Majestie our Soveraigne, and greatly extollethe her benefyttes; Mr Wyllocke specially by
name prayethe both for France and Englande; Mr Knox, universally for all Prynces lyvinge in the feare of
God, desyring Him to turne the hartes of other, and to sende them in the rycht way."[157] About the same
period, in one of his letters to Mrs Lock, Knox links together "Mr Parson's pattering of his CONSTRAINED
prayers" and "the masse-munging of Mr Vicar and of his wicked companions," in such a way as shows that he
was no great admirer of the one or the other.[158] In tolerating for a little the use of the morning and evening
services of the Prayer Book of Edward VI., our reformers can be judged inconsistent only by those who do not
know that in the time of the good King Edward considerably greater latitude was allowed in the celebration of
those services than has ever since been suffered in the sister church. The minister, for instance, was expressly
permitted to shorten them according[Pg 131] to his discretion when a sermon or other divine ordinance was to
follow. He had a sort of sanction for any neglect of minuter directions as to kneeling, crossing, &c., from a
general rubric which intimated that these things were to be left free "as every man's devotion serveth." He had
also a pretty full indulgence practically conceded for deviating from the strict injunctions of the book in
regard to surplices and other ecclesiastical vestments,[159] which were never adopted or tolerated by Knox
and his associates, the rigid enforcement of which in the days of Queen Elizabeth produced great misery and
discontent at the time, and paved the way for more and greater in the days of James and Charles, her
successors.Knox and the English Liturgy. It is by no means so clear as some have recently asserted it to be,
that Knox used this liturgy habitually when he was in England, acting as one of the court chaplains and special
preachers in the time of Edward VI. The observance of the liturgy was not enforced in the northern part of the
kingdom when Knox began his labours there. And even at the time when he removed to the southern province
it was not necessary that he should use the liturgy in the office he held, as the special preachers of that day,
and even the lecturers for long after, often delivered[Pg 132] their discourses in the open air, and used before
them only free prayer or a short prayer similar to that which is still employed by the university preachers at
Oxford and Cambridge. It was not till a considerably later period that "to gall tender consciences" it was
required of all lecturers and special preachers that they should also personally read the liturgy so many times
every year. Dr Lorimer has proved that Knox used at Berwick a simpler form of communion service, moulded
so far as yet traced on Swiss and German offices.[160] And it can be established on the best of all
authority—Knox's own testimony—that he neither approved of nor was willing to conform to
the communion office. Then no sooner was he beyond the restraint of English law than he proposed for
adoption in his congregation, first at Frankfort and then at Geneva, the form ultimately adopted in Scotland
after his return thither.
A Guide or Moael.
Our reformers laid it down in their First Book of Discipline as a fixed principle that "it is neither the clipping
of their crownes, the greasing of their fingers,[162] nor the blowing of the dumb dogges called the bishops,
neither the laying on of their hands, that maketh true ministers of Christ Jesus. But the Spirit of God, inwardly
first moving the heart to seeke to enter in the holy calling for Christ's glory and the profite of His Kirk, and
thereafter the nomination of the people, the examination of the learned, and publick admission, ... make men
lawfull ministers."[163] They distinctly taught that no one was to be regarded as a lawful minister of Christ
into whose mouth[Pg 135] Christ had not put some word of exhortation or vouchsafed some gift of
expounding and preaching the Word of God,[164] and they expressly encouraged their ministers to look for
their Master's aid and guidance in praying as well as in preaching. Hence throughout their Book of Common
Order they carefully abstained from imposing the ipsissima verba of particular forms as rigidly binding, or
even from encouraging their ministers to rest contented with the stated repetition of them.
It is plain, therefore, that the General Assembly, by the sanction it gave to the Book of Common Order, did
not mean to restrict its ordained ministers to the use of a certain unvarying form of words, but to provide such
a Directory or model as would guide them in "the substance and right ordering of all the parts of divine
worship," as well as guide the readers and others not fully admitted to the ministry of the Word, through
whose special aid alone they were able, in a time of so great dearth of qualified ministers, to supply in part the
spiritual destitution of their countrymen. Nor in granting such an amount of liberty, at least to their ordained
ministers, did they follow a course which was, as has been so confidently asserted, altogether novel, but
rather, as in several other things, carried out more thoroughly and consistently[176] what others of
the[Pg 141] Practice in other Reformed Churches. Reformed churches had adopted at least partially. In almost
all the Reformed or Calvinistic liturgies the prayers are left partly free, and in several of them no form is
furnished even as a guide or model for the prayer immediately preceding the sermon (and the same might be
said of some of the earlier Lutheran Agend-bücher). In the churches of Basle, which probably in this respect
only followed the general practice of the churches of East Switzerland, Hagenbach informs us that there was
for fifty years after the Reformation no form of prayer, before or after sermon, imposed by public authority,
and for fifty years longer only the prayer after sermon for all estates and conditions of men.[177] What,
therefore, dis[Pg 142]tinguished our reformers from their successors, and from the English Puritans of the
seventeenth century, was not that the former disapproved of or curtailed free prayer while the latter advocated
and encouraged it, but that the former retained in their Book of Common Order a variety of forms, not only as
models, but also as aids to the officiating minister, while the latter put their Directory into such a shape that
even the "help and furniture" it provided required the exercise of thought and care on the part of the minister
to adapt it for use. This certainly was no great divergence, considering how thoroughly both parties were
From the notices given in his 'Order and Government of the Church of Scotland,' and from the specimens of
Henderson's prayers which accompany his printed discourses, it is further evident that he, like Calderwood,
habitually used free prayer both before and after sermon. There seems reason to suppose that in not a few
cases the readers also before 1638 took the liberty of varying from the forms in Knox's Book and exercising
their own gifts. The charges made against the character of their prayers, in what is called the King's
Declaration, but what was in[Pg 143] Prayers of the Readers. reality the declaration of some of his prelates, is
only intelligible on this supposition.[178] And the Assembly, as I read their deliverance, rather deny that the
prayers of the readers were of the particular character charged than affirm they were the identical prayers
contained in Knox's Book.[179] [Pg 144]
CHAPTER VIII.
THE FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE; OR, THE BOOKE OF THE POLICIE OF THE CHURCH.
I regard the First Book of Discipline as, in several respects, the most thoughtful, judicious, practical, and
comprehensive of the documents connected with the organisation of the Reformed Church of Scotland. It was
drawn up by the same six men[180] who were subsequently entrusted with the preparation of the Confession
of Faith; and it has been said that they first settled the titles of the several chapters, and then apportioned the
preparation of so many of them to each. But this is matter of pure conjecture. The portion on the universities,
from the multitude of its practical details, we cannot but assign mainly to Douglas, the Principal of St Mary's
College, and Wynram, the sub-prior of[Pg 145] Knox's part in its preparation. the Augustinian Monastery at
St Andrews. One can hardly doubt that the rest, if not actually drafted by Knox, was carefully remoulded by
him; and it bears evidence of acquaintance with books which were far more likely to have been known to him
than to any of the others—as Herman of Cologne's Book of the Reformation, Latin versions of some of
the earlier Kirchenbücher or Kirchenordnungen of the German Protestants, and probably of the famous
Ordonnances of Calvin, as drafted at Geneva after his return from exile.
CHAPTER VIII. THE FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE; OR, THE BOOKE OF THE POLICIE OF THE CHURCH.
48
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Scottish Reformation, by Alexander F. Mitchell
after his death that controversy arose as to whether the episcopal or presbyterian form of government was the
more primitive and scriptural. These views, if I[Pg 147] understand rightly, are now abandoned by their ablest
men; and it was full time that they should be so. The works of Whitgift, which have been republished in our
own day and made more generally accessible, clearly show that the controversy about the presbyterian
government of the church had been formally raised even in England at least as early as 1568; while the Later
Helvetic Confession, approved by the Church of Scotland in 1566 at the request of Knox himself,[182] as
clearly shows that the principles on which the controversy fell to be decided had been generally adopted by
the followers of Calvin even at an earlier date. These principles were:Permanent Office-bearers. First, that the
names of bishop and presbyter are in Scripture used indiscriminately to denote the holder of the same office;
second, that the only office-bearers of permanent divine appointment in the church are the pastor, the doctor,
the elder, and the deacon. In fact, at the head of Calvin's Ordonnances Ecclesiastiques, drawn up, if not
printed, as early as 1541, we find the following: "Il y a quatre ordres d'offices que notre Seigneur a institue
pour le gouvernment de son eglise, premierement les pasteurs, puis les docteurs, apres les ancients,
quatrement les diacres," which passed substantially into the Book of Common Order in 1556.[Pg 148] This
being the case, we are not guilty of any anachronism in attributing substantially presbyterian opinions to our
reformer, even if we have to grant that the particular church court first known as the greater eldership or
presbytery, and now exclusively enjoying the title of presbytery, existed at that time only in a rudimentary
form.
The Book of Common Order of 1556 is the earliest authentic document casting light on the opinions of our
reformers respecting the government and discipline of the church. The introductory part of the book treats at
length of the permanent office-bearers of the church, the manner of their election, the duties of their respective
offices, and the assemblies they were to hold in common for government and discipline. The enumeration of
the office-bearers and the description of their duties is quite in harmony with what the Books of Discipline
subsequently laid down. The office-bearers recognised are the minister, the elder, the deacon, and the doctor;
and the duties assigned to each are such as have generally been allotted to these functionaries in the
presbyterian churches. The terms in which the last-named of them is referred to are specially deserving of
notice. They effectually close a loophole, that might otherwise have been imagined to be left,[Pg 149]
Superintendents temporary. for the introduction of either bishop or superintendent as an essential and ordinary
office-bearer in the church on the pretext that, even if he were so, he could be of little use in the single English
congregation at Geneva.[183] "Wee are not ignorant," it is said, "that the Scriptures make mention of a fourth
kind of ministers left to the church of Christ, which also are verie profitable where time and place doth permit;
but for lack of opportunity in this our dispersion and exile we cannot well have the use thereof, and would to
God it were not neglected where better occasion serveth. These ministers are called teachers or doctors, whose
office is to instruct and teach the faithfull in sounde doctrine, providing with all diligence that the puritie of
the Gospel be not corrupt either through ignorance or evill opinions."[184] Now, can it be supposed that Knox
would have said all this of the doctor and not a word of the superintendent, if he had deemed both to be of like
permanence and necessity in the church of Christ; or that he would have devoted several pages to explain the
duties of the office-bearers, and their assem[Pg 150]blies for the interpretation of the Scriptures and the
administration of discipline, and not have uttered one word about the bishop, had he believed that that official
was the chief or even an essential minister of the church? Can it be supposed likely that he would have been
so silent, even if there had been no bishop, as confessedly there was no doctor, among the English in Geneva;
or possible that he could have been so with Miles Coverdale,[185] a regularly consecrated bishop attending on
his ministrations and acting as an elder in his congregation, unless he had regarded (and wished it to be known
that he regarded) the simple presbyter as jure divino on a level with the diocesan bishop, to say nothing of the
fact that his party at Frankfort had refused to have a bishop or superintendent over their congregation?
This examination of the introductory chapters of the Book of Common Order will enable us the better to
understand and explain the parts of the Book of Discipline drawn up in 1560 re[Pg 151]specting Necessity of
Preaching. the ministers and office-bearers of the church. Even the ordinary ministers of the church must all
be well qualified to preach the gospel of salvation, as many of the common people were unable to read,[186]
[Pg 153]
Readers.
Readers, or exhorters, were to be provided for those churches which could not presently be supplied with
ministers. These readers were to be men judged most apt distinctly to read the common prayers and the
Scriptures, but they were to be encouraged and urged so to exercise their gifts that they might grow in
knowledge and utterance, and in time might come to be entrusted with the power of preaching the Word,
administering the sacraments, and discharging all the functions of the ordinary pastor.[194] Special provision
was made for the spiritual improvement of these readers or exhorters in those weekly meetings for the
interpretation of Scripture which, originally introduced among the exiles at Frankfort and Geneva, were after
their return set up by them in England under the name of prophesying, and in Scotland under the name of the
exercise.[195]
The portion of the book relating to the superintendents opens with a statement of the reasons which had led its
framers "to make difference betwixt preachers at this time."[196] These last[Pg 154] words, as has often been
remarked, would have been unmeaning had they regarded the superintendent's office as by divine institution
permanent in the church and superior to that of the ordinary minister. Accordingly, when they proceed to state
in detail the reasons which induced them to sanction such a difference, these are found to be—not, as in
the Anglican Ordinal, that there have always been in the church of Christ distinct orders of bishops and
presbyters,[197] nor even as in Alasco's book that such offices were in some sort necessary, though, save in
matters executive, in no way superior to their brethren the ordinary ministers of the church, but—that
the dearth of qualified preachers or ministers at that time in Scotland was so great, that if each were to be
settled in a single town or parish, and allowed to make continual residence therein, the larger part of the realm
would be left altogether destitute of that efficient spiritual instruction, oversight, and training which the people
themselves eagerly longed for, and the reformed leaders earnestly desired to provide for them. To meet this
emergency, without being obliged to avail themselves so generally and unrestrictedly[Pg 155] as the English
had done of the former popish incumbents, they deemed it most expedient that these should, for a time at
least, be restricted to the humbler duties of readers; and that from the whole number of godly and learned men
then in the realm ten or twelve should be selected, and one of them assigned to each of the proposed
provinces, which he should visit annually through its whole extent, preaching from time to time in every
Order of Excommunication.
The Order of Excommunication and Public Repentance, sanctioned by the General Assembly in 1569, long
continued to be used as a directory in the administration of discipline. It was compiled by Knox, or rather
abridged by him from Alasco's 'Modus ac Ritus Excommunicationis' and his 'Forma ac Ratio Publicæ
Penitentiæ,'[Pg 166] used with the approbation of Edward VI. in the Church of the Foreigners in London. It
breathes throughout a spirit of tender regard for erring brethren and earnest longing for their recovery, quite as
strongly as it manifests a spirit of holy zeal for the glory of God and the purity of His church. In all save the
most notorious and urgent cases, the offender was to be dealt with repeatedly both in private and in public to
confess his aggravated offence before the extreme penalty was inflicted on him. If these dealings and
admonitions proved ineffectual, the minister was once more to explain the nature of his offence, and the
frequency of the public and private admonitions addressed to him, was then to appeal to the elders and
deacons to confirm the truth of what he said, and finally was to ask of the whole church if they thought such a
contempt should be suffered amongst them, and only in the event of no man making further intercession for
the erring and obstinate was the minister to proceed to pronounce the fearful sentence.[208]
To us, living in the light and glorying in the toleration of the nineteenth century, some of these disciplinary
provisions may seem harsh, several of the details frivolous, others inquisitorial; and the very principle of such
a close identification of the ecclesiastical and civil, as that all offences against morality and church discipline
were to be also dealt with and punished by the state, more than questionable. But to men living in the
sixteenth century and just emerging out of the ignorance and licence which the old church had tolerated, and
longing to be moulded into a community really holy and self-denying and quickened to a higher
life—enthused with a longing to reach loftier heights in it—the iron discipline of Calvin and
Knox was welcome as requiring only what they felt to be their duty and their true interest. We may extend to
the disciple what the historian of French Protestantism has said of the master, and so far varying the words of
Haag affirm: "The institutions of Calvin [and Knox][Pg 169] The People remoulded. accomplished what was
proposed. In less than three generations the Genevese [and Lowland Scots] were entirely remoulded. To
frivolity and licentiousness succeeded that somewhat austere strictness of morals which in earlier days
distinguished the disciples of the reformer[s]. History tells of only two [three] men who have been able
permanently to impress their stamp on an entire people—Lycurgus and Calvin [and Knox], whose
characters in fact have much in common."[209] The Athenians made merry over the black broth of the
Spartans; but Sparta conquered Athens. How many accusations and witticisms have been launched against the
Calvinistic spirit, and yet Calvinistic countries led the way in Christian activity and civil freedom, and to them
even those who abuse them are largely indebted for their blessings.
[Pg 174]
Value of Learning.
To these suggestions regarding primary and secondary schools succeeds a very detailed statement of the
changes desired in the universities to adapt them to the new order of things. And then they conclude as
follows: "All other things touching the books to be read in ilk classe, and all such like particular affaires, we
referre to the discretion of the masters, principals, and regents, with their well-advised counsel; not doubting
but if God shall grant quietnesse, and give your wisedomes grace to set forward letters in the sort prescribed,
ye shall leave wisdome and learning to your posterity—a treasure more to be esteemed than any earthly
treasure ye are able to amasse for them, which without wisdome are more able to be their ruin and confusion
than their help and comfort. And as this is most true, so we leave it with the rest of the commodities to be
weighed by your honours' wisedome, and set forwards by[Pg 178] your authority to the most high
advancement of this commonwealth committed to your charge."[215]
These touching appeals were not made altogether in vain. Though neither quietness nor a large measure of
grace was granted to the rough barons so earnestly and tenderly addressed, yet the goodly fabric of our church
and commonwealth was reared up in those troublous times. The full and liberal adoption of the plan of
national education sketched by our reformer and his associates still remains in part to be desiderated, and is
worthy to be striven for by the churches which claim to represent them. The partial carrying out of their
views, more than any other influence that can be named, has conduced to elevate our people and raise
Scotland to the rank it now holds among the nations; and we can hardly doubt that the more complete
realisation of them in the careful Christian training of the young and the adult members of the church, and the
extension of the blessings of education and religion to the masses so long left to grow up in ignorance and
vice, would tend greatly to bring back the disaffected to the paths of peace and life, to raise the members of
the church in the scale of intelligence and virtue, to make the nobles more than ever heretofore the decus et
tutamen patriæ, and to bind all, both classes and[Pg 179] masses, closely together in the bonds of mutual
Christian affection and true patriotism.
these oppressive exac[Pg 183]tions The Oppressors relentless. is known to be true to the life; and contributed
greatly to the overthrow of the merciless oppressors who, until the very eve of the triumph of the Reformation,
could not be persuaded either to abolish or abate their dues.[219] [Pg 184]
CHAPTER IX.
THE LAST DAYS OF JOHN KNOX.
The eighth decade of the sixteenth century was memorable in the history of Protestantism in its Presbyterian
or Calvinistic form, and the year 1572 has been termed its annus mirabilis. It marked a crisis in the long and
bloody struggle of the Protestants in the Netherlands with their Spanish oppressors,—a struggle which
issued in securing the independence of the Dutch people, and settling on a Calvinistic basis the Reformed
Church of Holland. It formed the turning-point in the tragic fortunes of the Reformed Church of France, at
which, from being able to claim as adherents a majority of the landed gentry and a large minority of the more
intelligent and wealthy bourgeois in the provincial towns, and being only weak among the citizens of the
capital and the peasantry of northern and central France, she was, by an act of base treachery and
fiendish[Pg 185] Assassination of the Good Regent. cruelty, hurled from her promising position, sadly
crippled in numbers and influence, permanently weakened and cast down, though not crushed or driven to
despair.[220] This decade was especially memorable in the history of the Reformed Church of Scotland as
having witnessed the removal of the ablest and best of the lay defenders of the Reformation, the death of our
great reformer himself, and the return to Scotland of the intrepid and devoted man who was to take up and
complete the work, from which failing health and a grieved spirit had obliged Knox to withdraw. The
assassination of the Good Regent (as the Earl of Moray was deservedly surnamed) was unquestionably the
most disgraceful of all the murders perpetrated in Scotland in the interests of faction during those years of
confusion and strife.[221] It brought no permanent advantage to the party of reaction. It wrought much woe to
the country, which under his firm yet kindly rule had begun to settle into order and to recover its prosperity.
This great national calamity preyed on the spirit and broke the already waning strength of Knox. In the month
of October in that year[222][Pg 186] he had a stroke of paralysis or of apoplexy, which for a time laid him
aside altogether from work, and permanently enfeebled his constitution. As in the case of Wycliffe in the
fourteenth century, his opponents exulted over his misfortune, and circulated maliciously exaggerated
accounts of his condition, on which probably their more malicious and notoriously fictitious accounts of his
last illness were founded. But this first seizure was not so severe as to put a final arrest on his activities.
Before many weeks were over he had so far recovered as to be able, in part at least, to resume his labours. He
was able in a measure to continue them through the anxious and unquiet months of the succeeding winter and
spring—bearing faithful testimony to the principles, religious and political, which he had long
professed; standing up resolutely in defence of the authority of the young prince, when many, who had
formerly sworn allegiance to him, led by the intriguing laird of Lethington and the "fause" house of Hamilton,
went over to the party of his popish mother. He exposed their sophistries, and fearlessly rebuked their
defection, even after they had gained for the time the supremacy in Edinburgh. Others might truckle to them
or quail before them, but that palsied old man, with all his former plainness and much of his former fire,
persevered in denouncing[Pg 187] their treachery and discrediting their proposals. Threatenings were uttered
against his life if he persisted in his course; protection seems to have been refused him by the party against the
violence of their lawless followers; and one evening (as had often happened to Calvin in his years of conflict)
a musket-ball was fired in at the window of his house, and lodged in the roof of the apartment in which he was
sitting. Again and again faithful citizens, an attached kirk-session, and John Craig, then his colleague in the
ministry, entreated him to remove for a time to some place where his life would be safe from violence, and
whence he could return to his loving and beloved flock as soon as the prevailing faction should be put down,
or should vacate the city. But he heard them all unmoved, until at last they were constrained to tell him plainly
As I have hinted, there were some in the city to whom such discourses could not fail to be
distasteful—some who refused to attend on his ministry, and were perhaps so stung by what was
reported of his sharp but not undeserved reproofs that they were compelled to throw off the mask they had
hitherto worn, and soon after openly to apostatise from the faith which for several years they had professed
and taught. But the effect on many of the young men in attendance on the university, or acting as regents in its
colleges, was salutary and enduring; and perhaps it was not without special intention that, when the door was
shut against him in Edinburgh and the ears of the men in power there were closed against his counsels, he
betook himself to what was still the principal university in the realm, and made his last appeals to the rising
hopes of the church and country there. Such discourses as he then delivered, coming from one they had
already learned to venerate, could not fail to form or foster in their ingenuous minds that fidelity to the
reformed faith, that jealousy of[Pg 191] popery, and that hatred of its cruelty and tyranny, which distinguished
them to the last.
Opposition in St Andrews.
In the New College we are told, "whowbeit Mr Jhone Dowglass, then Rector [and Principal] was guid
aneuche," yet the "uther maisters and sum of the regentes war evill-myndit," and "hated Mr Knox and the guid
cause";[232] and two of them, Archibald and John Hamilton, soon after apostatised, betook themselves to the
Continent, and rose to high office in the Universities of Louvain and Paris, where the one in not inelegant
Latin, and the other in courtly Scotch, sought to vindicate their conduct, and to traduce[Pg 194] and refute
their former co-religionists. Some of the masters of the Old College also, as Bannatyne has recorded, hated the
plain-speaking reformer, though "be outward gesture and befoir his face thei wald seime and apeir to favore
and love him above the rest."[233] The Hamiltons especially seem to have given him considerable occasion to
complain of their bitter and unguarded criticisms, and one of them, stung by his denunciations, challenged
him to defend his doctrine in the schools of the university. This he at first refused, maintaining that the pulpit
was not to be controlled by the university schools, nor the church put into subjection to the academy.
St Andrews at that time was the rendezvous of others of the adherents of the young prince, who did not feel
themselves safe under the faction then in possession of the castle and city of Edinburgh. One of these, Mr
John Durie of Leith, was "for stoutness and zeall in the guid cause mikle renouned and talked of." He was an
enthusiastic leader of the volunteers of his day. "The gown was na sooner af and the Byble out of hand fra the
kirk, when on ged the corslet, and fangit was the hagbot, and to the fields."[234] Another was Robert
Leckprevick, the famous printer, who brought his types and printing-press with him, and so did notable
service to the cause.[Pg 195] Patrick Adamson. "He haid then in hand," Melville tells us, "Mr Patrik
Constant's [or Adamson's[235]] Catechisme of Calvin, converted in Latin heroic vers, quhilk with the author
was mikle estimed of";[236] and deservedly so, for Adamson was an accomplished scholar, was using his
scholarship for the church's good, was eulogised by Lawson, Knox's colleague and successor, and had not yet
The printer had also the honour of publishing in St Andrews the last work which engaged the thoughts of the
reformer. This was his 'Answer to a letter of a Jesuit named Tyrie.' It had been drawn up some years before,
but was now carefully revised and enlarged, and exhibited his matured views respecting several of the most
notable subjects of controversy between the reformed and unreformed churches. Possibly it[Pg 196] may have
been because he had detected through all their disguises the secret leaning of the two Hamiltons to Romanist
or semi-Romanist views regarding the apostolical succession, the nature of the sacraments, and the unfailing
visibility and perpetuity of the church, that he now so fully entered into a controversy which previously he had
been inclined to shun. Perhaps this is what is hinted at in the preface, in which he says: "Wonder not, gentill
reidar, that sic ane argument suld proceid fra me in thir dolorous days after that I have taken gude-night at the
warld and at all the fasherie of the same.... There ar sevin yeares past sen a scrole send from a Jesuite to his
brother was presented unto me be a faithfull brother requyring sum answer to be maid to the same.... Amongs
my other caires I scriblit that which followis, and that in few dayis; which being finished I repented of my
laubour, and purposed fullie to have suppressed it. Which, na dout I had done, if that the devil had not steirit
up the Jesuites of purpois to trouble godlie harts, with the same argumentis which Tyrie usis, amplifyed and
set furth with all the dog eloquence that Sathan can devyse for suppressing of the free progres of the Evangell
of Jesus Christ." Then, after a touching reference to the hard lot of his dispersed flock "suffering lytill les
calamitie than did the faithfull efter[Pg 197] the persecutioun of Steaphen," and an earnest petition that God
would grant them one day to meet in glory, he entreats the brethren to pray for him, that God "in His mercy
will pleis to put end to my long and panefull battell," as he was unable to fight as erewhile he had done, and
longed for release, though still resigned to bear patiently whatsoever God saw meet to lay upon this, his
"wicked carkase."[237]
[Pg 198]
Two months before this a convention at Leith had given its sanction to a sort of mongrel episcopacy,
nominally to secure the tithes more completely to the church, but really to secure the bulk of them by a more
regular title to certain covetous noblemen who sought in this way to reimburse themselves for their services in
the cause of the Reformation.[240] Chief among these noblemen was the Earl of Morton, then one of the chief
supporters of the young prince, and soon after regent of the kingdom. Having secured a presentation to the
Archbishopric of St Andrews for Mr John Douglas before mentioned, he came over to the city, had him
elected by the chapter in terms of the convention, and on the 10th of February inaugurated into his office. This
function was performed by Wynram, Superintendent of Fife, according to the Order followed in the admission
of Superintendents, save that the Bishop of Caithness, the Superintendent of Lothian, and Mr David Lindsay,
who sat beside Douglas, laid their hands on his head. Knox had preached that day as usual; but, as Bannatyne
is careful to tell us, had "refuised to inaugurat the said bischope";[241] and as others add had "denounced
anathema[Pg 199] Three Kinds of Bishops. to the giver, anathema to the receaver,"[242] who as rector and
principal had already far more to do than such an aged man could hope to overtake.[243] It was in reference to
the same appointment that Adamson, as yet uncorrupted by Court influences, had a few days before in a
sermon from the same pulpit given utterance to his famous distinction of three kinds of bishops, my lord
bishop, my lord's bishop, and the Lord's bishop, the first of whom had been in time of popery, the second was
now brought in merely to enable my lord to draw the kirk rents, and the third was the evangelical pastor as he
should be in times of thorough reformation.[244]
[Pg 200]
One more brief sketch from the Diary of the quaint but graphic chronicler on whom I have repeatedly drawn
may conclude our notice of these last labours of the reformer, and bring us to his last illness and death. "The
town of Edinbruche recovered againe [out of the hands of the queen's faction] and the guid and honest men
therof retourned to thair housses,[245] Mr Knox with his familie past hame to Edinbruche." During the time
of his residence in St Andrews he was very weak. "I saw him everie day of his doctrine," says Melville, "go
hulie and fear with a furring of martriks about his neck, a staff in the an hand, and guid godlie Richart
Ballanden, his servand, halding upe the uther oxtar, from the abbey to the paroche kirk; and be the said
Richart and another servant lifted upe to the pulpit, whar he behovit to lean at his first entrie; bot or he haid
done with his sermont he was sa active and vigorus that he was lyk to ding that pulpit in blads, and fly out of
it."[246]
Soon after his return to Edinburgh he found himself quite unable to preach in the large church which he had
formerly occupied, and a smaller one was fitted up for him in the western[Pg 201] His Message to Charles IX.
part of the nave of St Giles.[247] But not even so were his services to be long available. On one occasion only
after his return may it be said that the old fire burst out with all its former fierceness and brilliancy. This was
in September, when tidings reached him of the bloody massacre of St Bartholomew's day in France. "Being
conveyed to the pulpit," Dr M'Crie tells us, "and summoning up his remaining strength, he thundered the
vengeance of God against 'that cruel murderer and false traitor, the King of France,' and [borrowing the
language of the Old Testament prophets] desired Le Croc, the French ambassador, to tell his master that
sentence was pronounced against him in Scotland, that the divine vengeance would never depart from him nor
from his house, if repentance did not ensue; but his name would remain an execration to posterity, and none
proceeding from his loins should enjoy his kingdom in peace."[248] The only further notice of his work is by
Melville, who simply informs us that after "instituting in his roum, be the ordinar calling of the kirk and
congregation, Mr James Lawsone, a man of singular[Pg 202] learning, zeal, and eloquence, ... he tuk him to
his chamber and most happelie and comfortablie departed this lyff."[249]
With this kindly notice by his youthful admirer this lecture would have ended, had I not promised to the late
Dean Stanley several years ago that, when a suitable opportunity occurred, I would not fail publicly to advert
to a shameless misrepresentation of the closing scene to which he had directed my attention. This originated
with Archibald Hamilton, already referred to as one of the two masters of the New College, who apostatised
from the Protestant faith, and after his flight to the Continent published the most barefaced lies of his old
antagonist and the noble men who were associated with him in his hard battle and well-earned triumph. These
lies were exposed and refuted at the time by Principal Smeton of Glasgow, himself a convert from that
Society of Jesus which Hamilton ultimately joined. But as they have been revived in our own day, and
distributed in the form of a tract by Popish emissaries at the doors of Protestant churches in London, and as
one of a series bearing the sensational title of "Death-bed Scenes," I shall, in fulfilment of my promise,
subjoin a brief account of the reformer's last illness and death, taken almost exclusively from the
contemporary narra[Pg 203]tives of Bannatyne and Smeton, the former of whom was an eye-witness, and the
latter of whom had full information from Lawson,[250] who also was an eye-witness of all. This, I feel
assured, is all that is required to set matters in their true light.
Popish Calumny.
The vague charges of immorality brought against the reformer by those calumniators, ancient and modern,
may be dismissed at once as nothing more than the stock-in-trade of hard-pressed controversialists in the
sixteenth century. Had there been the slightest foundation for them, some of Knox's many opponents in
Scotland—Ninian Winzet, or the Abbot of Crossraguel, or Tyrie the Jesuit, or Hamilton himself before
Such, however, I hardly need to assure you was not the end of the restorer of a really holy church in Scotland,
if aught of credit is to be given to the unanimous testimony of those who attended him during his last illness
and witnessed its closing scene, though it may have been the end which Popish controversialists in the
sixteenth century deemed meet for him—as well as for Luther and Calvin and many more of whom the
world was not worthy—as it is in one of the foulest legends with which their successors in the
nineteenth century think it fair to supplement the legends of their predecessors in the sixteenth. According to
them Luther was the child of a demon, not figuratively but literally; Calvin was eaten up of worms, like Herod
who slew the children of Bethlehem and was smitten by the judgment of God, because (though apparently in
this they confound him with a later Herod) he affected divine honours. To mention such slanders, as the
sceptical Bayle has said with special reference to the case of Knox, is all that is needed to refute them. They
are the product of malignity so evident that it defeats itself. I know but one parallel to them in our literature,
and it has the excuse that it has come down to us from the[Pg 205] dark ages.[251] Some would persuade us
that the time has come when we might afford to forget old controversies and to shake hands with our former
antagonists, but such occurrences as these tend to show that such forgetfulness and affectation of cordiality is
likely to be all on one side.
And now let me simply set over against these fables, in as abridged form as I can, the unvarnished statements
of Bannatyne and Smeton, the latter of which was published in reply to Hamilton who first gave shape to
these charges, and which hitherto has been deemed a conclusive refutation of them.[252]
His Consolation.
On the 23rd the difficulty of his breathing had greatly increased, and he seems to have thought that his end
was near at hand. To one of his most intimate friends who asked him if he felt great pain, he replied that that
was not reckoned as pain by him which would be the end of many miseries and the beginning of perpetual
joy. And soon after, apparently supposing his end was come, he repeated the Lord's Prayer and the[Pg 209]
Apostles' Creed, adding certain paraphrases of his own on each petition of the prayer and article of the creed
to the great comfort of those who stood by; and then lifting up his hands to heaven he once more said, "Lord,
into Thy hands I commend my spirit." During the succeeding night he caused the 15th chapter of 1st
Corinthians to be read and re-read to him, and repeatedly said to himself, "O! how sweet and salutary
consolation does the Lord provide for me in this chapter." The following day, about noon, he once more sat up
in bed, but owing to his extreme weakness was not able to remain long in that posture. About three in the
afternoon one of his eyes failed, and his tongue performed its office less readily than before. About six in the
evening he again said to his wife, "Go, read where I cast my first anchor," referring to the instructions he had
given on the 13th.[255]
When this had been done, he continued for some hours in troubled slumber. It is in this occurrence alone that
there can be got the slightest foundation for the slanders which his traducers have circulated. And it is only
necessary to quote the account given of it by those who witnessed it to show that it was as honourable to the
dying confessor as the gross mis[Pg 210]representation of it was dishonourable to his opponents. During these
hours he uttered frequent sighs and groans, so that those who stood by could not doubt that he was contending
with some grievous temptation. When he awoke they asked him what was the cause of his distress. He
answered that in the course of his life he had had many contests with his spiritual adversary. Often he had
been tempted to despair of God's mercy because of the greatness of his sins, often also tempted by the
allurements of the world to forget his calling to endure hardness as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. But now the
cunning adversary had assailed him in another form, and endeavoured to persuade him that he had merited
heaven itself and a blessed immortality by the faithful discharge of the duties of his high office. "But blessed
be God," exclaimed the dying reformer, "who hath brought seasonably to my mind those passages of Scripture
by which I was enabled to quench the fiery dart, 'What hast thou, that thou hast not received?' 'By the grace of
God I am what I am,' and 'Not I, but the grace of God in me' ... wherefore I give thanks to my God by Jesus
Christ who has been pleased to grant me the victory. And I am firmly persuaded that ... in a short time,
without any great bodily pain, and without any distress of mind, I shall exchange this mortal and
miserable[Pg 211] life for an immortal and blessed life through Jesus Christ."
Such was the account of his last illness and death transmitted by those who attended on him and witnessed it,
a death worthy of his noble life, and fully justifying the brief comment of Smeton, "Surely, whatever
opprobrious things profane men may utter, God hath in him given us an[Pg 212] example of the right way as
well of dying as of living." It is true, as his heartless traducer takes care to remind us, no dirge was chanted
over his remains, no mass of requiem was celebrated for his soul. He and his countrymen had long ceased to
believe in the worth of such priestly ceremonies, or to imagine that their eternal state could be affected by
them, or by aught save Christ's finished work and their own faith and repentance while God's day of grace was
prolonged to them here. The brief eulogy pronounced over his grave by the stern and reserved regent[256]
was a truer and more impressive testimony to his worth than the most gorgeous celebration of Romish rites
which he could but have shared with a Borgia or a Betoun. The stern simplicity of his grave, which, like his
master Calvin's, was till lately preserved in the memory of men without stone or bronze to mark it out, tells a
tale very different from that his traducer hints at; and if his bitter taunts shall lead the reformer's countrymen
now to erect a material monument to him in some measure corresponding to the[Pg 213] benefits he has been
honoured to confer on them, this attack on his fair fame will have been overruled for good.
CHAPTER X.
THE SECOND BOOK OF DISCIPLINE.
In a previous lecture I have endeavoured to give a pretty full account of the First Book of Discipline. It
remains yet to say a few words about the Second Book of Discipline.
Principal John Cunningham has said: "The First Book exhibited a system of polity sagaciously suited to the
circumstances of the country and the church: it seemed to grow out of the times."[257] I will add that it was
not only suited to the times, but to many of the practical needs of the church of all times. I therefore hold that
even yet it is worthy of a higher place than to be deemed merely a "collection of parchments and coins
deposited beneath it [i.e., the Second Book] by which future generations may read the story of the times in
which the building was begun."[258] The[Pg 215] The Two Books Compared. Second Book is more a book
of constitutional law; and aims, as the Principal says, at elaborating a system from the New Testament without
reference to circumstances, and bears far more resemblance to the Ordonnances of Calvin than to the less
ambitious and more comprehensive Church Order Books of Germany. But the Second Book of Discipline has
even fewer practical details than the ordinances of Geneva. Of course, so far as it actually abolished or
modified the regulations of the First Book, these fell to be disused; but in so far as it did not actually do so,
they still had a certain validity: and even in the Covenanting times it is generally the Books, not the Book of
Discipline, to which reference is made in Acts of Assembly.
I do not believe that the principles of the two Books are so widely different as they have sometimes been
represented to be, or that the grand ideas of Knox concerning the place of the laity in the church, the education
of the young, and the support and kindly treatment of the aged poor, were meant to be rejected or ignored by
his great successor; but I do think these matters fall considerably into the background. Some of the noblest
conceptions of the earlier Book are narrowed, and the whole system stiffened; and in the contests in which the
church had then to engage with the young monarch, in vindication of her independence in her own province,
positions were laid down which were soon pressed to consequences from which Knox and his associates
would have shrunk.[Pg 217]
Hill Burton sarcastically remarks that "if we grant that those who prepared it were what they called
themselves—the Church of God, presided[Pg 219] Limits of Ecclesiastical Power. over by the Lord
Jesus Christ as the representative of the Godhead on earth—it would be difficult to refuse assent to
what follows. Nothing can be more perfect than the analysis by which the two ruling powers are separated
from each other, and the ecclesiastical set above the secular."[263] If this is not quite borne out, one can
hardly help feeling that more care should have been taken to mark out the limits of ecclesiastical authority,
and to show that the power of ministers and elders was as distinctly limited by the laws of Christ as that of
kings and magistrates ought to be by the laws of the land; or, in other words, that ministers and elders may err
in interpreting the laws of Christ, just as civil rulers may err in interpreting the laws of the land. No doubt the
limitation contended for is in words admitted, "the magistrat neither aucht to preich, minister the sacraments,
nor execute the censuris of the kirk, nor yit prescrive any rewll how it sould be done; bot command the
ministeris to observe the rewll commandit in the Word, and punish the transgressours be civill means. The
Rutherfurd's Opinion.
"That the magistrate is not obliged," Rutherfurd affirms, "to execute the decrees of the church without further
examination, whether they be[Pg 221] right or wrong, as Papists teach that the magistrate is to execute the
decrees of their Popish councels with blind obedience, and submit his faith to them, because he is a layman
and may not dare to examine whether the church doth erre or not, is clear. 1. Because, if in hearing the Word
all should follow the example of the men of Berea, not relying on the testimony of Paul or any preacher, [and]
try whether that which concerneth their conscience and faith be agreeable to the Scriptures or no, and
accordingly receive or reject; so in all things of discipline the magistrate is to try by the Word whether he
ought to adde his sanction to these decrees which the church gives out for edification, and whether he should
draw the sword against such a one as a heretick and a perverter of souls. But the former is true; the
magistrate's practise in adding his civill sanction and in punishing hereticks concerneth his conscience,
knowing that he must do it in faith as he doth all his moral actions; ergo, the magistrate must examine what he
practiseth in his office according to the Word, and must not take it upon the meer authority of the church, else
his faith in these moral acts of his office should be resolved ultimate on the authority of the church, not on the
Word of God, which, no doubt, is Popery, for so the warrant of the magistrate's conscience should not be
'thus[Pg 222] saith the Lord,' but 'thus saith the church in their decrees.' 2. The magistrate and all men have a
command to try all things, ergo, to try the decrees of the church, and to retain what is good (1 Thes. v. 21); to
try the spirits even of the church in their decrees (1 John iii. 1). 3. We behooved [in that case] to lay down this
Popish ground that ... the church cannot erre in their decrees.... Its against Scripture and reason that
magistrates, and by the like reason all others, should obey the decrees of the church with a blinde faith,
without inquiring in the warrants and grounds of their decrees, which is as good Popery as, Magistrates and all
men are to beleeve as the church beleeveth, with an implicite faith, so ignorance shall be the mother of
devotion. Whoever impute this to us—who have suffered for nonconformity, and upon this ground, that
synods can erre, refused the ceremonies—are to consult with their own conscience whether this be not
to make us appear disloyall and odious to magistracy in that which we never thought, far lesse [presumed] to
teache and professe it to the world."[266]
Gillespie's Opinion.
Even more notable are the utterances of George Gillespie, when vindicating against the Erastians of the south
that more free government of the church by its own courts from which they feared[Pg 223] so many evils. "I
dare confidently say," he affirms, "that, if comparisons be rightly made, presbyterial government is the most
limited and the least arbitrary government of any other in the world."[267] And, after entering into details to
make good this affirmation in regard to the papal and prelatical forms of government, he proceeds to maintain
that Independents "must needs be supposed to exercise a much more unlimited or arbitrary power than the
presbyterial churches do," because they exempt individual congregations from all control and correction by
superior courts, and because it is "one of their three grand principles which disclaimeth the binding of
themselves for the future unto their present judgement and practice, and avoucheth the keeping of this reserve
The Second Book of Discipline, as well as the First, failed to commend itself to the ruling powers, and to
obtain a place in its full form on the statute book. Those of its clauses relating to the functions of the several
church courts were inserted almost word for word in the Act of the Scottish Parliament of 1592, reckoned the
charter of the presbyterian church. It was, however, several times ratified by the General Assembly, and was
partially carried out by its authority from the time of its ratification; and to this extent it, as well as the First
Book of Discipline, appears to have been fully recognised. The question of its authority was very fully argued
in the famous Auchterarder case. The counsel for the presbytery and the minority of the judges did not venture
to argue, however, that as a whole the Second Book of Discipline had received the sanction of the state save in
irregular times; but they contended that the notes, contained in Spottiswoode's History, of the clauses
respecting which the king and the commissioners of Parliament had come to agreement with the ministers,
should be accepted as determining the extent to which it was law. It was affirmed, however, by the majority of
the judges that only the clauses[Pg 227] Its Theory of the Church. actually inserted in the Act of Parliament
could be so regarded, and it has since been maintained by Mr Peterkin that the alleged notes of agreement
between the king and the church's commissioners are not actually found in the manuscript copy of the History
which is preserved in the Advocate's Library.[272] The general theory of the church, however, which may be
said to underlie the most important statement of the Second Book of Discipline, is not materially different
from that which finds expression in the First. "The kirk of God," it is said, "is sumtymes largelie takin for all
them that professe the Evangill of Jesus Christ, and so it is a company and fellowship, not onely of the godly,
but also of hypocrites professing alwayis outwardly ane true religion. Uther tymes it is takin for the godlie and
elect onlie, and sumtymes for them that exercise spiritual function[Pg 228] amongis the congregation of them
The Kirk-Session.
Ideal Presbytery.
The sum of all this may be given in the words of Henderson, in the conclusion of his treatise on 'The
Government and Order of the Church of Scotland,' the only other treatise which has any right to be set
alongside of the Books of Discipline. "In the authoritie of these assemblies, parochial, presbyteriall,
provinciall, and nationall, and in the subordination of the lesser unto the greater, or of more particular
elderships to the larger and generall eldership, doth consist the externall order, strength, and steadfastnesse of
the Church of Scotland.... Here there is a superiority without tyrannie, for no minister hath a papall or
monarchicall jurisdiction over his own flock, far lesse over other pastors and over all the congregations of a
large dioces. Here there is paritie without confusion and disorder, for the pastors are in order before the elders,
and the elders before the deacons; the church [i.e., each congregation] is subordinate to the presbyterie, the
presbyterie to the synod, and the synod to the nationall assembly. One pastor also hath priority [of esteem]
before another, for age, for zeale, for gifts, for his good deservings of the church, each one honouring him
whom God hath honoured, and as he beareth the image of[Pg 238] God which was to bee seen among the
apostles themselves. But none hath power or jurisdiction above others: even as in nature one eye hath not
power over another, only the head hath power over all, even as Christ over His church.... And lastly, here
there is a subjection without slaverie, for the people are subject to the pastors and assemblies, yet there is no
assemblie wherein everie particular church hath not interest and power; nor is there anything done but they
are, if not actually, yet virtually called to consent unto it."[282] This is presbytery in theory, and there is no
reason why we should not approximate to the ideal in practice more closely than some recent representations
imply, save that we come short of what we ought to be as men and as Christians, and that would suffice to mar
any form of government that could be devised by the wit of men. [Pg 239]
CHAPTER XI.
ALESIUS.
We owe it to the Rev. Christopher Anderson, the author of the 'Annals of the English Bible,' that attention has
been once more turned to the deeply interesting story of Alexander Alane, or Alesius. Principal Lorimer, in
his 'Scottish Reformation,' has thrown further light on him. And Dr Merle D'Aubigné, who appears to have
minutely examined most of his tracts and commentaries, has wrought into his graphic but imaginative
narrative much of the information which they have been the chief means of handing down to us. It was after
his expatriation that he received from Melanchthon the name of Alesius, or the wanderer.
This highly distinguished but long forgotten alumnus of St Andrews University was born in Edinburgh on the
23rd of April 1500, of honest parents, and received the first rudiments of his[Pg 240] education in his native
city. It was probably while he was still there that he had vouchsafed on his behalf those wonderful
interpositions of Providence, which remained through life engraven on his heart, and which he thus relates in
his preface to his Commentary on the Second Epistle of Paul to Timothy, published at Leipzig in 1551. "Certe
ab infantia [Diabolus] me saepe incautum opprimere voluit, et perdere non tam insidiis et crudelitate hostium,
quam praecipitio in ignem et aquam. Verum ille, qui servavit me inter omnia pericula et infantem de gradibus
patris mei cadentem in acervum lapidum advectorum ad extruendum supremum tabulatum in aedibus, et
[Pg 242]
Alesius, or Alane as he was still called, being of good abilities, was early sent to the university, and seems to
have been one of the first set of students who entered St Leonard's College (the college founded by Prior John
Hepburn, with the consent of Archbishop Alexander Stuart) after its opening in 1512. His studies appear to
have been prosecuted there in the usual way, and in 1515 he became a determinant, or took the degree of
B.A.;[285] and, probably after acting for a few years as a regent in the college, he was drafted as a novice into
the priory, and ultimately became one of its canons. When John Major came to St Andrews in 1523 as
principal of the Pædagogium, he, like Hamilton and some others who ultimately shared the same opinions,
studied theology under him, and made great progress, especially in the study of the schoolmen and the fathers
of the Christian church. He was, like most of the young scholastics of his time, fond of disputation; and if he
listened to those lectures on the gospels which Major gave to the press some years after, he probably imbibed
from his teacher that combative attitude towards the new[Pg 243] Discussions with Patrick Hamilton.
opinions which at this period of his life he showed. D'Aubigné says: "His keenest desire was to break a lance
with Luther.... As he could not measure himself personally with the man whom he named arch-heretic,
Alesius had refuted his doctrine in a public discussion held at the university. The theologians of St Andrews
had covered him with applause.[286] ... Alesius, alive to these praises and a sincere catholic, thought that it
would be an easy task for him to convince young Hamilton of his errors.... Armed cap-a-pie, crammed with
scholastic learning, and with all the formulæ 'quo modo sit, quo modo nonsit,'" he had various discussions
with him. "Hamilton had before him nothing but the Gospel, and he replied to all the reasonings of his
antagonist with the clear, living, and profound word of the Scriptures.... Alesius, struck and embarrassed, was
silenced, and felt as if 'the morning star were rising in his heart. It was not merely his understanding that was
convinced, the breath of a new life penetrated his soul."[287] He continued from time to time to visit the
reformer while he lived, and to cherish[Pg 244] his memory after he had been so cruelly put to death.
When the opinions and martyrdom of Hamilton were the subject of conversation among the canons, several of
the younger of whom were attached to him, Alesius refused to condemn him. He was not yet by any means, as
Dr Lorimer would have it, a Lutheran; he was not yet prepared to separate himself from the old church; but he
saw and mourned over her corruptions, and longed, and in a quiet way laboured, for the removal of them, and
also yearned for the revival of a more earnest Christian spirit, and more correct moral conduct among those
over whom his influence extended. From that day no one could induce him to express approval of the
proceedings which had been taken against Hamilton, or to pronounce an unfavourable judgment on the
articles for which he had been condemned to death.
Patrick Hepburn.
This silence brought him under the suspicion of his more bigoted associates, and gave special offence to his
superior, Prior Patrick Hepburn (the nephew of Prior John, who had founded St Leonard's College), a violent,
coarse, immoral young noble, emulous of the debaucheries and vices, as well as of the cultured hauteur, of the
young French ecclesiastics of rank among whom his youth had been passed. Knox has given a[Pg 245]
graphic if rather coarse account of the revelries of this young man and his gay associates, more in keeping
The Christian lives and healthful influence of the younger canons could not but be felt to be a standing rebuke
by their superior, and doubtless were one main cause why he bore them so deep a grudge and gave way to
such savage outbursts[Pg 246] of temper in his intercourse with them. He is said to have denounced them, and
especially Alesius, to the aged primate, and probably with the view of entrapping him into some unguarded
expression of approval of the new opinions, he got him appointed to preach the sermon at the opening of a
synod of bishops and priests which was held at St Andrews probably in the Lent of the year 1529. Alesius,
while carefully avoiding everything which might give needless offence to his hearers, thought, to use his own
words, that in such presence, and speaking in the Latin language, he would not discharge his duty unless he
earnestly exhorted those set in authority over the churches to the practice of piety, the observance of good
morals, the study of Christian doctrine, and the pious teaching and governing of their churches. He confesses
that he earnestly inveighed against immoral priests, but he adds that as he had said nothing in a disloyal spirit,
or more harshly than the facts warranted, and had attacked no one by name, the sermon gave no offence to
good men. But his irate and domineering prior imagined that the sermon was specially aimed at him, and was
intended to hold him up to the ridicule of the assembled prelates and clergy. Having already defied the
archbishop, Hepburn could not brook such a liberty on the part of one of his own subordinates. An[Pg 247]
opportunity soon occurred to him of paying back with interest the insult which he imagined had been done to
him.
The king's order was speedily carried out in regard to all save Alesius; but he, notwithstanding all
remonstrances of friends, was not only detained in custody, but was even thrust into a more filthy dungeon,
called by the sufferer, in one of his treatises, teterrimo specu subtus terram inter bufones et serpentes,[289]
and in another a latrinâ,[290] or sink, to which I know nothing at all corresponding in St Andrews save the
underground chamber near the college hall,[291] and the roughly-hewn cavern still subsisting in the rock to
the north of the house at the end of Castle Street, going down by the southern entrance by thirty or more
somewhat irregular steps through the rock, and terminating in a small chamber of rounded or oval form,
having an opening in its roof originally little more than a foot in diameter, but now considerably enlarged, and
to which on the other side a covered passage from the castle leads down. They might well abandon hope who
He escapes by Night.
As soon as their superior left them for the night the canons, satisfied that all hope of preserving the life of their
comrade in St Andrews was at an end, and that if he did not seek safety by instant flight horrible torments and
certain death awaited him, gathered round him and urged him to escape. On his expressing a wish to consult
with other friends before taking a step so serious, they pressed him only the more urgently to flee and leave
the country at once, as he would certainly be pursued, and, if overtaken, brought back for condign
punishment. The sequel I give in his own unvarnished statement, which is to me more touching from its very
simplicity than the highly embellished rechauffées of D'Aubigné: "Etsi maximo dolore afficiebar cum
cogitarem mihi è patria, qua nihil dulcius est bene institutis naturis, discedendum esse, tamen, et necessitati, et
tot bonorum virorum consiliis parendum duxi."[292] And[Pg 251] then follows a parting scene only less
affecting than that of St Paul from the disciples on the seashore at Tyre, and proving that even yet all good
was not extinguished from the hearts of those under the rule of this vicious prior, and encouraging the hope,
which was afterwards fully realised, that the best of them would ultimately find a more congenial home in a
new and purified church. Only the apostle, though in a heathen land, could kneel down in open day on the
seashore to pray with his friends, and they without challenge could accompany him to the ship which waited
to receive him; while these men, though living in a professedly Christian land, had secretly to bring out their
friend from the place of confinement and comfort him, and then send him away alone into the thick darkness
to pursue his weary journey under cover of night to that broad firth which bounds Fifeshire on the north, if
haply he might find on its shores some boat to ferry him across, or on its bosom some friendly craft to convey
him without loss of time beyond the reach of his implacable persecutor. "Clam igitur educunt me domo,
instruunt et viatico. Ita cum lachrymantes inter nos vale dixissemus, et illi suavissima commemoratione
illustrium virorum et sanctorum qui similiter è patria tyrannidi cesserunt, maesticiam meam non nihil[Pg 252]
levassent, media jam nocte in densissimis tenebris solus iter ingredior."[293] Sadly he plodded on his way
through the darkness, oppressed with forebodings, for he knew of no hospitable retreat in other lands; he had
neither friend nor acquaintance among foreigners; he could speak no language but his native tongue and Latin;
and he had some reason to fear that he might be classed with those vagabonds who had been driven out from
various Continental states because of their fanatical opinions, and were justly suspected even by Protestants in
Germany. But in the multitude of distracting thoughts within him he encouraged himself in the Lord his God
and in Christ his Saviour. Ere morning had well dawned his journey was completed, and he got safely on
shipboard, where, according to his own account, quidam homo germanus[294]—that is, according to
some, a certain man a German; according to others, a certain man a kinsman—received him very
affectionately, and afterwards nursed him with great kindness during the sea-sickness from which he suffered
throughout the stormy voyage.
Thus Alexander Alesius was driven from his much-loved native land, destined never to return to it more, or
again to see the friends and relations to whom he was so warmly attached. "Could any one then have
whispered in the ear of the disconsolate exile that he was on the road to far more extensive usefulness" and
freedom; that he would gain many friends in foreign lands, and would not only be spared to labour there for
more than thirty years, but would also be honoured to be the first to plead by his writings for the free
circulation of the Scriptures in his native Scotland, and one of the first to help on Cranmer in England, and
Hermann von Wied, the reforming Archbishop of Cologne, in Germany; that he would be privileged to attend,
as one of the Protestant representatives, many of the most important colloquies of the leaders of the old and
the new church on the Continent, to be the intimate friend of Luther and Melanchthon, to labour as a professor
of theology in two German universities, and to live and die in the greatest honour and respect among those
with whom he laboured,—"how incredible would it all have seemed to him!" Yet it was thus God
meant it, and thus He brought it to pass; and if there was one among the Scottish exiles of those times who
was less embittered[Pg 255] towards his persecutors than another, or more ready to yield to them in things
indifferent or of minor importance, if only he could gain their hearts for Christ and His cause in matters of
highest moment, it was he.
Befriended by Melanchthon.
Soon after this Alesius appears to have passed[Pg 259] on from Cologne to Wittenberg, and there for a time to
have resumed the study of theology, as well as of Greek and Hebrew, under Melanchthon and the other gifted
teachers in that university. Luther he does not seem to have met for a time, or to have been acquainted with
his writings when he published his first[297] treatises. Melanchthon cherished a special affection for Alesius
and the Scottish exiles who soon after followed him to Wittenberg, believing that they were the descendants
of those Scoti who had sent the early Christian missionaries to Germany, and that it became him to repay to
them the great kindness the heathen Germans had received from their forefathers in the distant past.[298]
It was while he was thus occupied that Alesius heard of the cruel edict of the Scottish bishops, and it hardly
admits of doubt that he submitted to Melanchthon, and got corrected by him, his little treatise against their
decree, forbidding the New Testament Scriptures to be used by the laity[Pg 260] in the vernacular. It is a very
pithy and forcible bit of pleading for the right of the Christian laity to possess and study the Scriptures in their
own tongue. This remarkable treatise struck the true key-note in the contest it ushered in, and helped it on to
victory—a victory which was substantially to be gained ere Knox had taken his place among the
combatants on the side of the Reformation at all.[299]
To this epistle Cochlaeus replied without loss of time,[300] and ere the year was out Alesius rejoined in that
Responsio ad Cochlei calumnias,[301] in which he has given so touching an account of his own maltreatment,
so interesting a statement of his own opinions in matters of faith and church polity, and so trenchant a reply to
the sophistries and slanders of his opponent.[302]
[Pg 261]
Cochlaeus.
This able and, for the age, singularly temperate reply made a deep impression in England as well as in
Scotland, and doubtless prepared the way for that offer of employment there which two years subsequently
was made him by Cranmer, whom, in his moderation and earnest desire to avoid a total rupture between the
The epistles of Cochlaeus, if abusive and less cogent in reasoning, as well as less relieved by any sparkle of
wit or racy anecdote than those of Alesius, are certainly written in a more easy and flowing Latin style, and, in
that respect at least, the Scottish prelates had no reason to be ashamed of the champion who had volunteered
his services in their cause. Nor were they wanting in those more substantial expressions of their satisfaction
which Cochlaeus, like most of the controversialists of his time, evidently coveted. The Archbishops of St
Andrews and Glasgow testified their gratitude for his services by sending him liberal presents. The king wrote
him a letter, a contemporary transcript of which is still extant, and also, as is stated by Cochlaeus[Pg 263]
Effect of his Treatises. himself in a letter to a Polish archbishop, sent him some more material tokens of his
regard.[304] And even the messenger who had brought over the copies of his first epistle received, as it now
appears, a present of fifty pounds Scots.[305] Alesius, though in quite another way, did not lack his reward,
and it came in the way which he valued most—the treatises he had written, to a certain extent at least,
got into circulation both in Scotland and in England. They cheered the hearts of the faithful under all the
terrible trials to which they were subjected in the later years of James's reign, when he seems to have
abandoned his former kindliness, and surrendered himself in a great measure to the priests and to vicious
indulgences. They carried conviction to the minds of many, and gradually ripened opinion[Pg 264] to demand
the right to do publicly what many had learned to do secretly—to study the Word of God, and
especially the New Testament, in their native tongue. This right was authorised by an Act of the Scottish
Parliament passed in 1543,[306] when Cardinal Betoun was in disgrace, and the Archbishop of Glasgow was
left alone to protest against it. This Act was the first real victory of the reformed party in Scotland, and it was
mainly due to the able and temperate pleading of Alesius that this great boon, or indeed I may say this
indefeasible right of Christian laymen, was granted. The same subject had been reverted to by him in his more
elaborate treatise, De authoritate Verbi Dei, which was published in 1542 in Latin, and some time after was
translated into English.[307]
Erasmus intervenes.
One other episode in this controversy remains still to be adverted to. This is the intervention of the great
humanist, Erasmus,—an incident in his history on which his biographers with one consent have
observed a judicious silence. Nevertheless, the fact is as undoubted as melan[Pg 265]choly that
he—who had done so much to promote the freer circulation and profounder study of the Greek original
of the New Testament, and had even ventured, under the patronage of Pope Leo X., to bring out a Latin
version of the New Testament more true to the original than the Vulgate version, that those who knew only
Latin might understand more fully the meaning of the original—in his old age, when irritated by the
course of events, and by his controversies with Luther, consented to recommend this scurrilous pamphleteer to
his friends in Scotland. His own letter is not now extant, or, if extant, is not at present accessible; but the
answer sent to him by the Scottish king has been preserved, like his letter to Cochlaeus, among the MSS. in
In 1535 Alesius, having received encourage[Pg 266]ment from the agents of the English king then negotiating
an alliance with the Protestant princes of Germany, came over to England with a letter of recommendation
from Melanchthon.[308] He was favourably received by Archbishop Cranmer, by Crumwell the
Vicar-General, and by the king himself, who appointed him king's scholar, and instructed Crumwell, as
Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, to give him a place as a reader in divinity there.At Cambridge and
London. He accordingly went into residence in Queen's College, the same college which shortly before had
been the home of Erasmus while lecturing in the university on Greek, and towards the end of the year he
began a course of lectures on the Hebrew Psalter. He is supposed to have been the first who delivered lectures
in Cambridge on the Hebrew Scriptures, but he was not suffered to do it long in peace. It could not be
concealed that he was a favourer of the new opinions and a friend of Melanchthon, and that he had, in fact,
been recommended by him to the king and the chancellor of the university. By the time he had entered on the
exposition of Psalm viii. he was challenged by one of the champions of the old learning to a public
disputation, and courage[Pg 267]ously accepted the challenge; but when the day appointed for the discussion
arrived, his opponent did not venture to meet him in open fight. He preferred to plot against him in secret, and
to foment tumult among the scholars, till Alesius, finding that his life was in danger, and that he could not
count on the protection of the university authorities, deemed it his duty to leave Cambridge and return to
London.[309]
For the next three years he remained there, supporting himself chiefly by the practice of medicine, which he
studied under a London physician of note. He occasionally, however, gave assistance to his reforming friends
in the varying fortunes of these unquiet times. He did so notably in a convocation or a meeting of the superior
clergy in 1536 or 1537,[310] being put[Pg 268] forward by Cranmer and Crumwell as the chief spokesman on
the reforming side, the opinions of which he defended with considerable force and ability, so far as the notes
of the debates preserved by Foxe in his 'Acts and Monuments' enable us to judge.[311] His appearance on this
occasion brought him into sharp collision with Stokesley, Bishop of London. On the other hand, it secured for
him the warm friendship of Cranmer and Latimer, towards both of whom he continued to the last to cherish a
deep affection, and of whose martyrdom he spoke with so much grief when he published his Commentary on
the First Book of Psalms. While in England, as Thomasius tells us, he married an English lady, by name
Catherine de Mayn; and when Henry VIII. once more veered round to his[Pg 269] Returns to the Continent.
former moorings, and passed the bloody statute of the six articles, insisting inter alia on the doctrine of
Transubstantiation and the celibacy of the clergy, Alesius, like several other married priests, had to consult his
safety and that of his family by a hurried retreat to the Continent.[312]
Among those who had to leave England about the same time were John M'Alpine[313] and John
Fyffe—or, as they were henceforth to be surnamed by Melanchthon, Joannes Macchabaeus and
Joannes Fidelis—both, like Alesius himself, Scotsmen, the former having been prior of the Dominican
monastery at Perth, and the latter an alumnus and teacher in St Leonard's College. They had, along with
several other known favourers of the Reformation, been obliged to leave Scotland at an earlier period, and
after finding a temporary shelter in England, apparently at Salisbury, under the protection of Bishop Shaxton,
who was then a favourer of the reformed opinions, were, like Alesius himself, to find their ultimate home and
special work on the Continent—the one in the University of Copenhagen, the other in the University of
Frankfort on the Oder. They seem to have gone first to Wittenberg, and while the others for a time resumed
their studies there, Alesius almost immediately on his return was[Pg 270] selected by Melanchthon to
accompany him to the colloquy at Worms, and then to that at Regensburg, which were attended not only by
the Lutheran and the Catholic theologians, but also by Bucer, Calvin, and other reforming divines of
The remaining twenty-one years of his life were spent busily and usefully in this famous university,[Pg 272]
though he suffered somewhat severely during the Schmalkaldic war and the seige of Leipsic. It was there that
most of his theological treatises were elaborated and published. He was twice at least chosen Rector of the
university—viz., in 1555 and in 1561.[315] In 1542, as already stated, he published in Latin the
arguments he had used in his disputation with Stokesley, Bishop of London, on the authority of the Word of
God, and against the doctrine of the seven sacraments, both confirming his former arguments as to the rights
of the Christian laity, and maintaining the supremacy of Scripture over tradition. He had previously published
his inaugural dissertation in the University of Frankfort, 'De restituendis scholis,' in which he advocated at
length the great need for university training for the ministers of the protestant churches, and gave a detailed
account of his own opinions, which he affirmed were then in full accord with those of the Lutheran churches.
In 1543, probably before he was fully settled at Leipsic, it is said that on[Pg 273] hearing the news of the
favourable change which had taken place in Scotland on the death of James V. and the accession of Arran to
the regency, he, like many other Scottish exiles, had serious thoughts of returning home, and availing himself
to the uttermost of this unexpected opportunity which seemed to be opening for carrying forward the work of
the Reformation in the land which was still dear to him. But before he had fully made up his mind to follow
this course, he fortunately heard that the fickle regent had already begun to change his policy, and that though
the privilege of freely reading the Scriptures in the vernacular, for which he had so earnestly contended, was
legally secured, the triumph of the Reformation was by no means so near at hand as at first he had been led to
suppose.The Perth Martyrs. Shortly after this, roused by the tidings of fresh persecutions which had reached
him from Scotland, and especially by the account of the cruel executions of the humble martyrs of Perth by
the cardinal and his party on St Paul's day, 1543-44, Alesius on 23rd April wrote to Melanchthon in the
following terms:—
"Three days ago there were here several countrymen of mine, who declare that the cardinal rules all things at
his pleasure in Scotland, and governs the governor himself. In the town of St Johnston he hung up
four[Pg 274] respectable citizens, for no other cause than because they had requested a monk, in the middle of
his sermon, not to depart in his doctrine from the sacred text, and not to mix up notions of his own with the
words of Christ. Along with these a most respectable matron, carrying a sucking child in her arms, was haled
before the tribunal and condemned to death by drowning. They report that the constancy of the woman was
such that, when her husband was led to the scaffold and mounted the ladder, she followed and mounted along
This was the last service, so far as we know, which Alesius was able to render to the cause of the Reformation
in his native land, and it did not fail in due time to produce abundant and lasting fruit. As Major before him,
so Knox after him, strenuously contended for union of Scotsmen among themselves; and after that, but only
after that, for a league with England rather than with France. They laboured, and others entered into their
With respect to his private life, we are told by Thomasius that he had by his English wife one son, whose
name was Caspar, and who died while still a youth, and had a monument erected by his father to his memory,
bearing the simple inscription, "Caspari. Filiolo. Alexander. Alesius. Doctor. Lugens. Posuit." He had at least
two daughters. One named Christina, Thomasius tells us, was married to a German bearing the classical name
Marcus Scipio: she outlived her husband, and died in 1604, in the fifty-ninth year of her age. The name of the
other daughter does not seem to have been known to Thomasius, but as he states that she was given in
marriage in 1557, we can have no doubt that she is the same Anna whose wedding is referred to in a[Pg 281]
letter of Alesius to Melanchthon, recently unearthed, and inviting him and other friends in Wittenberg to the
wedding.[318]
His Death.
Alesius himself died on the 17th March 1565, and was buried at Leipsic; but no stone was raised, or, if raised,
now remains, to tell where his ashes repose. In all probability it was in his son's grave, in the church of St
Paul, in the city of Leipsic, that his ashes were laid to rest. The only monuments to his memory reared at the
time and still existing are those furnished by our own John Johnston—second master of St Mary's
College, and colleague of Andrew Melville—in his Latin poems on the Scottish martyrs and
confessors, and entitled Περι
Στεφανων and by Beza in his 'Icones.' Johnston, joining
together Macchabaeus and Alesius, says:—
[Pg 285]
In 1430 Bishop Wardlaw, the illustrious founder of the University, mortified as a site for a Pædagogium or
common[Pg 286] school for the faculty of arts the strip of land and buildings thereon immediately to the west
of St John's College—the frontage now covered by the western portion of the Library, the porch of St
Mary's College, and the Principal's house. After the erection and endowment of St Salvator's College by
Bishop Kennedy, and of St Leonard's College by Prior Hepburn, the attendance on the Pædagogium, which
It was mainly in his last years, however, that James Betoun set himself in right earnest to complete the work
which Archbishop Stewart had begun. At his solicitation Pope Paul III., on 12th February 1537, issued a bull
annexing the[Pg 287] teinds of the church of Tannadice, in Forfarshire, and of the wealthier church of
Tyninghame, in East Lothian, to the old foundation, and erecting it into a privileged college under the title of
the Blessed Mary of the Assumption. In this college, medicine, law, and theology, as well as arts, were
henceforth to be taught, and the privilege was granted to it of conferring degrees in all lawful faculties, and of
conferring them on those who had gained their knowledge elsewhere as well as on those who had studied
within the college—in fact, making it almost a university within the University, and conceding to it
more extensive powers than were conceded to many universities. His first work was to replace the decaying
buildings of the Pædagogium by others more massive and commodious. That work was far from finished at
the time of his death, and having been intermitted by his successor [the cardinal], was only completed by
Archbishop Hamilton, who, with papal sanction, reconstituted the college and added to its endowments.
Early, however, in 1538, the first staff of teachers entered on their work as a college organised and equipped
"ut militans Dei ecclesia indies abundet viris litterarum scientiâ præditis," and few institutions through a long
and eventful history have more illustriously fulfilled this object, though in another sense than its founders
meant, and handed on the torch of sacred learning from generation to generation. Bannerman, who succeeded
Major, had the honour of reorganising the old institution and starting it on its new career. Archibald Hay, who
came next, was the child of the Renaissance, and more in earnest about religion than many of that school; and,
had his life been spared, and the cardinal given heed to his counsels, the old Church might have been able to
make a better fight for privilege or for life in the struggle which ensued. John Douglas, his successor, bridged
the passage from the old to the new without any violent break, probably taking part with Wynram in the
composition of Archbishop Hamilton's Catechism, as he did afterwards in the preparation of the Reformed
Confession of[Pg 288] Faith and the First Book of Discipline. He was a man of the ancient academic type,
content to live in single blessedness, to treat his pupils, who also lived in college, with the familiarity and
affection of a father. He had the honour of training the youthful Andrew Melville, and perhaps it was with
some presentiment of his future eminence that, as he held the precocious youth between his knees at the
college fire, he fondly said, "My sillie fatherless and motherless chyld, it is ill to wit what God may mak of
thee yit."
God watched over that weakly youth, and prospered his studies at Paris, Poictiers, and Geneva, so that with a
mind stored with all the learning of his time, he returned to his native land to complete the reformation of its
universities, and to delight successive generations of students by his stores of learning and wit, and by his
accessibility and generosity. It was to meet his ideas of what a theological school should be that the college
was set apart "allenarly" for the study of theology, and furnished with professors of the Old and the New
Melville was by no means an illiberal theologian, and he and Johnston wrote to the Protestant churches of
France urging moderation on them in controversies which were then being discussed with great bitterness.
Both lived with and[Pg 289] for their pupils, and secured in an unusual degree their reverence and affection.
Both ultimately lost the favour of the king; and Melville, after being cruelly used in London, had to spend his
declining years in the French Protestant University of Sedan.
Jacobus etc., Decano Christianitatis nostre de L[audonia] Universisque et singulis aliis Dominis rectoribus,
vicariis perpetuis, capellanis curatis et non curatis per provinciam nostram S[ti Andree] ubilibet constitutis,
Illique vel illis ad quem vel ad quos presentes litere pervenerint, Salutem cum benedictione divina: Quia per
fidelem inquisitionem aliter de mandato nostro legitime receptam compertum extitit quendam Magistrum
P[atricium] H[amilton] de heresi multiplici suspectum, quem citandum et desuper accusandum antea
decrevimus, sed medio tempore relictâ patriâ ad alia et extera se transtulit loca, nuper autem vagante fama ad
aures nostras clamorosa insinuatione pervenit Ipsum nuperrime in patriam reversum et quod primo statim
adventu non debite missus nec prerogativis aut privilegiis debitis munitus, sed propriâ auctoritate et temerariâ
presumptione, predicationis officium de heresi ei designata acceptare ausus est, et suas hereticas pravitates et
perversas Martini Lutheri heretici alias ab ecclesia damnati et suorum fautorum ac sequacium opiniones
promulgare, docens seminansve et pertinaciter affirmans, ac populum Christianum de eisdem[Pg 290]
instruere non erubescit, indeque simplices et illiteratos hujus regni Christi fideles qui in se et progenitoribus
per tanta temporis curricula, spatio viz. mille et trecentorum annorum et ultra in ecclesiâ Dei constantissime
militaverunt, a verâ nostrâ orthodoxâ fide et catholica ecclesia seducere, et quantum in eo est pervertere nititur
et proponit, dicendo predicando et temerario ausu inter alia palam et publice affirmando:—
Legibus, canonibus, patrum sanctionibus et decretis, humanis quoque constitutionibus non esse
obtemperandum; Claves et censuras ecclesie contempnendas, nec sacramentis ejusdem fidendum, Templa non
esse frequentanda, nec ymagines adorandas, pro defunctorum animabus non esse exorandum; nec decimas
Deo et ecclesie solvendas; pro bonis operibus nullum fore salutis premium nec pro malis cruciatum; Nostros
progenitores in ecclesia Dei et ejusdem sacramentis fidentes in malâ et iniquâ fide esse mortuos et in inferno
sepultos:—
Aliaque dictu et recitatu saltem inter Christianos et fideles horrenda et nephanda predicat docet et affirmat in
Dei viventis claviumque ecclesie ac nostre fidei orthodoxe contemptum, regni et reipublice ejusdem damnum
scandalum et, digna Dei ultione, si premissis favere incipiat, sperandam ruinam, animabusque perpetrantium
[According to Dr Joseph Robertson, "Cardinal Beaton had five bastards" ('Concilia Scotiæ,' ii. 302). There is
record evidence, however, to show that he had at least seven. On the 4th of November 1539, three of his sons
were legitimated in the following terms: "Rex dedit literas legitimationis Jacobo Betoun, Alexandro Betoun et
Johanni Betoun, bastardis, filiis naturalibus Davidis archiepiscopis S. Andree, &c." (Register of Great Seal,
iii. No. 2037). He had also a son David (Ibid., No. 1931), and three daughters, Elizabeth (Ibid., Nos. 1274,
2330), Margaret, and Agnes (Ibid., iv. Nos. 1353, 2740; 'Liber Officialis Sancti Andree,' Abbotsford Club, p.
158).][Pg 294]
"With all his scribbling, he [i.e., Cochlaeus] has never yet, so far as I know, disclosed what are his own
opinions about Christian doctrine; and therefore his empty and scurrilous treatises miss their mark, and are
justly held in derision by learned men.... But I, renowned monarch, that you may know that my alliance is
APPENDIX D (p. 124). CONDITIONS on which the use of the Church of the White Ladies at Frankfort was86granted to
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Scottish Reformation, by Alexander F. Mitchell
with the Church of Christ and not with any other factions, do not refuse before you and other good men to
give a simple and clear account of my faith as I formerly wrote to you, for I believe the prophetical and
apostolical Scriptures, and embrace the consensus of the holy fathers whom the Church approves. I also
reverence the ecclesiastical authority, being one who, especially in doubtful matters, will obey and follow its
decisions. Does Cochlaeus ask anything further? I myself will add, I approve of nothing seditious. With my
whole heart and soul I abhor the ravings of the Anabaptists. No new doctrine, unsupported by the testimony of
the ancient Church, is acceptable to me. Further still, as I do not undertake the defence of Luther, so, on the
other hand, I do not approve of all the dreams of the monks which have been received, not only contrary to the
decision of the Scripture, but also to the authority of the ancient church. Moreover, I cannot approve of the
cruelty which is everywhere being practised against those who, following the judgment of Scripture and of the
fathers, reject or censure any manifest abuse or error that in the course of time may have crept into the
Church. Such is my faith, O Cochlaeus, use it if you are pleased with it; if not, show me a better.[Pg 296] If
the unjust punishments inflicted on the truly pious afford you pleasure, you are not only a miserable, but a
contemptible wretch. I neither can nor will ever knowingly burden or pollute my conscience by approving of
these parricides. I saw in my own country the punishment of one, born in a most honourable station, and
innocent of any serious crime, Patrick [Hamilton]. I saw burned at Cologne two men of pious and orthodox
sentiments, and most averse to the fanatical opinions of the Anabaptists. Nor can I express in words how
deeply I was grieved by these mournful spectacles. And I did not grieve only over the fate of those who were
punished, in whom because, as the poet says, 'grace shone through their very anguish,' their singular bravery
and constancy brought some alleviation to my grief; but much more did I grieve over the fate of the Church,
which is disordered in many ways, and likely yet to be more so, by the practice of such cruelty. Finally, there
is no doubt that the State will, in God's appointed time, have to suffer heaviest punishment for its guilt in
permitting such parricides; yet I do not impugn the laws as to the punishment of heretics, if only there is due
cognition of each case, and care is taken that those who are really innocent of perverting the true Christian
faith may not be punished."
Then follows a paragraph of great importance in itself, and of almost as much from the light it casts on its
author's state of mind, and, perhaps, also on Melanchthon's, at that particular time:—
"I myself also desire moderation in certain things on the part of the Lutherans, and reasonableness. To this
they may be recalled if the matters in dispute are duly examined into. It is the duty of the bishops to do their
utmost that learned men of either side should lovingly confer together on Christian doctrine, that some one
certain form of doctrine, founded only upon the Word of God and the teaching of the primitive fathers, should
be framed; and if this were done, the Church might easily be brought to coalesce again[Pg 297] into one body.
Nor do I doubt that good men on both sides are so disposed that they would not only willingly proffer their
opinions, but also yield their individual convictions if they should hear more weighty reasons from the other
side. For it is tyrannical, and specially unbecoming in a theologian, to do that which the son reproves in the
tyrant, his father, in the tragedy. He wishes, the son says, to speak but to hear nothing in reply. At present the
good men who are most desirous to provide some remedy for public evils keep silence, and secretly bewail
the fate of the Church, not only alarmed by fear of those in power, but crushed by a sort of despair in this so
great madness of slanderers, who have become so domineering that they would suffer no one but themselves
to gain a hearing."
Terrified by this dream, or vision, I immediately arose, and, crossing the river Thames, I came to Lambeth
(this is the name of the Archbishop of Canterbury's palace), and I entered the garden in which he was walking.
When the archbishop saw me, he inquired why I had come so early, for the clock had not yet struck four.
I[Pg 298] answered that I had been horrified in my sleep, and I told him the whole occurrence. He continued
in silent wonder for a while, and at length broke out into these words, "Do not you know what is to happen
to-day?" and when I answered that I had remained at home since the date of the Queen's imprisonment, and
knew nothing of what was going on, the archbishop then raised his eyes to heaven and said, "She who has
been the Queen of England upon earth will to-day become a queen in heaven." So great was his grief that he
could say nothing more, and then he burst into tears.
Terrified at this announcement, I return[ed] to London sorrowing. Although my lodging was not far distant
from the place of execution, yet I could not become an eye-witness to the butchery of such an illustrious lady,
and of the exalted personages who were beheaded along with her.—(Foreign Calendar, Elizabeth, i.
528).]
When I heard what the bishop had to say, I immediately caused my property to be sold, and I concealed
myself in the house of a German sailor until the ship was ready, in which I embarked, dressed as a soldier,
along with other German troops, that I might not be detected. When I had escaped a company of searchers, I
wrote to Crumwell (although he had not behaved well towards me) and warned him of the danger in which he
stood at that time, and about certain other matters. For this I can vouch the testimony of John Ales, Gregory,
The next intelligence, however, which I heard of him was that he had undergone capital punishment by order
of the king; to whom he had written, when in prison, saying that he was punished by the just judgment of
God, because he had loved the king more than God; and that out of deference to his sovereign he had caused
many innocent persons to be put to death, not sparing your [i.e., Elizabeth's] most holy mother, nor had he
obeyed her directions in promoting the doctrine of the Gospel.—(Foreign Calendar, Elizabeth, i.
532-534).]
S.D. Quod fœlix faustumque sit. Dilectissima filia mea Anna, cui nomen in baptismo indidit bonæ
memoriæ primogenita vestra, desponsata est honesto iuveni Martino Luxsolario (nam solem etiam pro insigni
habet), doctoris Martini filio, petente id sua matre per cognatos et affines, et suadentibus communibus amicis
nostris. Dictus est autem dies[Pg 301] nuptiarum ultimus Augusti, circa quod tempus vos ad colloquium
profecturum (sic) spero. Peto igitur reverenter et amanter, ut una cum honestissima coniuge vestra, genero,
filia ac nepte nuptias vestra praesentia ornare velitis. Existimo autem magistrum Paulum, amanuensem
vestrum, una venturum, sed tamen ut eum cum uxore invitetis meis verbis ad nuptias oro. Scitis autem
summum sacerdotem et pontificem nostrum filium Dei, qui primos parentes in paradyso copulavit, et non
minore magnificentia quam sapientia et potencia suam ordinationem contra sophistica et tyrannidem diaboli et
multiplicem ingratitudinem nostram defendit, ut totam actionem, ita etiam invitacionem hospitum et
communia officia sua presentia et primo miraculo comprobasse[t] ac monstrasse[t], quantum dilectetur (sic)
istis congressibus. Nos autem parentes et amici, sponsi et sponsae, una cum eis, pro hoc officio et molestia
profectionis gratitudinem pollicemur per omnem occasionem.
Alexander Alesius.
1. Epistola contra decretum quoddam Episcoporum in Scotia, 1533. [For a full copy of the title see p. 259 n.
No place, date, or printer's name is given on the title-page. This small 8vo consists of only 14 leaves. It
2. Responsio ad Cochlei Calumnias, 1533. [The full title is: "Alexandri Alesii Scotti Responsio ad Cochlei
Calvmnias." No place, date, or printer's name is given.]
3. Oratio de Gratitudine et Restituendis Scholis. Lipsiæ (?), 1541. [In the 'Athenae Cantabrigienses,' the
'Oratio de Gratitudine' and the 'De Restituendis Scholis' are entered as separate works published in Leipsic in
1541. They may, however, have been also issued as one. In the 'Corpus Reformatorum,' xi. 251-257, is printed
the "Oratio de Gratitudine M. Alexandri Alesii Scoti, Decani, in promotione Magistrorum anno
M.D.XXXIV." The full title of the other is: "De Restitvendis Scholis Oratio habita ab Alexdro (sic) Alesio, in
celebri Academia Frācofordiana ad Oderam. An. M.D.XL. Mense Iunio. Francofordiæ apud Ioannem
Hanaw." The dedication ends: "Francofordiæ ad Oderam calēdis Iunij. An. M.D.XL." There are only 19
leaves in this small tract.]
5. De Auctoritate Verbi Dei contra Episcopum Lundensem. 1542. [See p. 264 n.]
6. Of the Auctorite of the Word of God agaynst the Bisshop of London. [For a full copy of the title, see p. 268
n. This small 8vo black-letter tract of 46 leaves bears no place, date, or printer's name. In the British Museum
Catal., Leipsic is given as the probable place of printing, and 1537 as the supposed date. Perhaps the date has
been inferred from the opening sentence of the tract: "Abowt V yere agone I wrote to the noble king of
Scottys the father of my contry complanning of a certen proclamacyon wherin the bisshops had forbidden the
Holy Scripture to be redd in the mother tong." It is rather curious that in the Latin version this sentence runs
thus; "Ante biennium scripsi[Pg 303] inclyto regi Scotorum patri meæ patriæ, et questus sum de edicto
quodam, quo episcopi prohibebant lectionem sacrorum librorum lingua patria."]
8. [De Argvmento Epistolae ad Romanos Dispvtatio prima, pvblice proposita in celebri Academia Lipsensi, et
in ordinaria dispvtatione defensa, praesidente Alexandro Alesio, sacrae theologiae doctore. Lipsiae in officina
Valenttini Papae. anno M.D.XLVII. This small 8vo tract of 8 leaves is printed in italics.]
9. Ordo Distributionis Sacramenti Altaris in Regno Angliæ. 1548. [This is a translation of 'The Order of the
Communion,' which has been re-printed for the Parker Society in 'The Two Liturgies of Edward VI.' In the
British Museum Catal., it is mentioned that the translator's address to the reader is signed: 'A. A. S. D.
Th.'—i.e., "Alexander Alesius, Scotus, Doctor Theologiæ." See also Coverdale's Remains, Parker
Society, p. 525 n.]
10. Epitome Catechismi D. P. Melanchthonis cui addita est expositio symboli et Orationis Dominicæ. 1550.
12. Commentarius in Epistolam Secundam Si Pauli ad Timotheum. Lipsiæ, 1551. [The exact title of this is:
"In Alteram ad Timotheum Expositio. Avtore Alexandro Alesio. D. Lipsiæ, excvdebat Georgivs Hantzsch
anno M.D.LI."]
13. Ordinatio Ecclesiæ in Regno Angliæ. 1551. [This is a translation of the 'First Liturgy of Edward VI.' As a
translation it is somewhat adversely criticised in the 'Liturgical Services of Queen Elizabeth,' Parker Society,
14. Commentarius in Epistolam S. Pauli ad Titum. Lipsiæ, 1552. [The full title of this is: "Epistolae ad Titvm
Expositio, in qva pleraque tractantur per quæstiones, ut à pueris facilius percipi, & retineri possint. Nulla est
autem sententia in tota Epistola praetermissa, quae non sit explicata: Et de Syntaxi, & Figura sermonis, ac
genuina significatione dictionū passim disputatur. Praelecta Lipsiae, ab Alexandra Alesio. D. Lipsiae, in
officina typographica Georgii Hantzsch. M.D.LII."]
15. Refutatio errorum Andreæ Osiandri de Justificatione. Wittembergæ, 1552. [The full title is: "Alexandri
Alesii Doctoris Theologiae diligens refutatio errorum, quos sparsit nuper Andreas Osiander in libro, cui
titulum fecit: De Vnico Mediatore Christo. Edita VVitebergæ ex officina Ioannis Lufftij anno 1552." In the
'Athenae Cantabrigienses' it is stated that an edition was also printed at Leipsic in 1553.]
16. Commentarius in Evangelium Joannis. Lipsiæ, 1552. Basilii, 1553. [The full title is: "Commentarivs in
Euangelium Ioannis, praelectvs in celebri Academia Lipsensi, ab Alexandro Alesio D. Theologo, anno
Domini 1552. Cum locuplete rerum & uerborum memorabilium indice. Basileae, per Ioannem Oporinum."
The colophon is: "Basileae, ex officina Ioannis Oporini, anno salutis humanae M.D.LIII. Mense Martio." This
volume contains over 600 pages.]
17. Disputatio in XIIII. cap. Rom. Disputt. et Orr. aliquot Francoforti habitæ 1540 et 1541. [The full title is:
"In Capvt XIIII. Epistolae Pavli ad Romanos, Dispvtatio Alexandri Alesii Theologiae D. Lipsiae,
M.D.XLVI." This tract of 6 leaves, with the exception of the title-page and the heading, is printed in
italics.][Pg 305]
18. Omnes Disputationes Alexandri Alesii in Epistolam Si Pauli ad Romanos. Lipsiæ, 1553. [The full title is:
"Omnes Dispvtationes D. Alexandri Alesii de tota Epistola ad Romanos diversis temporibvs propositae ab
ipso in celebri Academia Lipsensi, et a mvltis doctis viris expetitae, iam tandem collectae per Georgivm
Hantsch, et editae in gratiam stvdiosorvm. Cvm praefatione Philippi Melanchthonis. M.D.LIII." In the British
Museum Catal. Wittenberg is entered as the supposed place of publication. In the sale catal. of the Makellar
Library there is the item: "Alesius (Alex. Scotus) De Paulina Argumentatione, capiti secundo ad Romanos,
Ideo inexcusabilis es, o Homo quis-quis es qui Judicus (sic), Disputatio Sexta, ... s. l. anno 1549." See also
supra, Nos. 8 and 17.]
21. Responsio ad Tapperum de Missâ et Cœna Domini. Lipsiæ. [In the 'Athenae Cantabrigienses,' 1565
is given as the date of publication.]
22. Contra horrendas Serveti Blasphemias Disputationes Tres. Lipsiæ, 1554. [These disputations were
probably issued separately and were supplemented by a fourth. In the 'Athenae Cantabrigienses' there is the
entry: "Contra Michaelem Servetum ejusque blasphemias disp. iii. Leipsic, 8vo. 1554"; and also this other:
"Contra horrendas Serveti blasphemias disputatio quarta. Leipsic, 8vo. 1555."]
24. Ad libellum Ludovici Nogarolæ comitis De Traditionibus Apostolicis et earum necessitate Responsio
Alexandri Alesii D. Lip. 1556. [For the rarity of this tract see supra, p. 255 n. In his Introduction to Gau, Dr
Mitchell gives as the alternate title: "Apostolicæ institutiones a Ludovico Nogarola Com. in parvum libellum
collectæ et ab Alexandro Alesio in Disputationem propositæ in celebri Academia Lipsiensi. Lipsiæ,
Excudebat Georgius Hantzsch, 1556." 8vo.][Pg 306]
25. Responsio ad Duos et triginta Articulos Theologorum Lovaniensium. Lipsiæ, 1559. [In the sale catalogue
of the Makellar Library 1545 is given as the year of publication. In the 'Athenae Cantabrigienses' 1549 is
given.]
26. Assertio Doctrinæ Ecclesiæ Catholicæ de Sancta Trinitate, cum confutatione erroris Valentini Gentilis.
1564 (?). [British Museum Catalogue gives Geneva, 1567.]
27. Edinburgi Regiæ Scotorum Urbis Descriptio. Bannatyne Club Miscellany, vol. i. [This description of
Edinburgh was sent by Alesius to Sebastian Munster for his "Cosmography," printed at Basle in 1550, and
republished in 1572. There are translations of it in Mackenzie's Lives and Characters of Scots Writers, ii. 400,
401; and in Chambers' Minor Antiquities of Edinburgh; and in Hume Brown's Scotland before 1700.]
28. [Congratulatory letter to Queen Elizabeth, dated at Leipsic, 1st September 1559. The original holograph of
twenty pages and a slip is still preserved. A translation of most of it is given in the Calendar of Foreign State
Papers, Reign of Elizabeth, i. 524-534.]
[There are copies of Nos. 5, 12, 14, 15, 16 (1553), and 18 in St Andrews University Library; of No. 2 in the
Church of Scotland Library, Edinburgh; of No. 16 (1553) in the Signet Library; of No. 8 in the Advocates'; of
Nos. 2, 3 (De Restituendis Scholis), 5, 13, 16 (1553), and 17 in the Edinburgh University Library; and of Nos.
1, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16 (1553), 18, 19 (1554), 23 (1556), and 26 in the British Museum. Nos. 27 and 28
are in all important public libraries. At Laing's sale, No. 1 brought £6, 5s.; No. 2, £17, 17s.; No. 5, £6; No. 6,
£4; No. 13, £10; No. 15, £5, 17s. 6d.; No. 16, £5, 10s.; and No. 18 (with which was bound up "Sarcerius de
Scholasticae Theologiae Vanitate"), £6. In the 'Athenae Cantabrigienses,' the following six items, which are
not in the above list, are mentioned: "Disputatio de Justitia Dei et Justitia hominis coram Deo. Leipsic, 1553."
"De utriusque naturae officiis in Christo." "De distincta Christi hypostasi." "Preface to Gardiner[Pg 307] upon
obedience. Translated from English to Latin." "De Balaei Vocatione. Translated from English." "Ordinationes
Anglorum Ecclesiae per Bucerum. Translated from English to Latin." In connection with the last, see
'Liturgical Services of Queen Elizabeth,' Parker Society, p. xxv, n. 3.]
[ADDENDA.
Page 20. Patrick Hamilton's admission to the Faculty of Arts in St Andrews University.—The entry in
the 'Acta Facultatis Artium' runs thus: "Congregatione artium facultatis, in Nouis Scolis eiusdem tenta tercio
die mensis Octobris, anno Domini millesimo quingentesimo vigesimo quarto, Magister Johannes Ba[l]four
regentium senior Collegij Sancti Saluatoris in quodlibetarium est electus; et Magister Patricius Hamiltone,
abbas de Ferne, Rossensis diocesis, in facultatem est receptus."
Page 117. Two sacraments only.—In the Preface to the Book of Common Order it is said that "for the
ministration of the two sacraments, our Booke giveth sufficient proofe" (Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 395;
Laing's Knox, iv. 164). In the Confession used in the English congregation at Geneva only two are referred to
(Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 9; Laing's Knox, iv. 172); in "the Maner to Examine Children" their number is said
to be two (Laing's Knox, vi. 344); and in Calvin's Catechism, printed with the Book of Common Order, it is
emphatically declared that there are two only (Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 233).
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Page 121. The language of Rev. xiv. 11.—In the text of the Confession the passage runs thus: "For sik
as now delyte in vanity, cruelty, filthynes, superstition or idolatry, sal be adjudged to the fire unquencheable:
in quhilk they sall be tormented for ever, asweill in their awin bodyes, as in their[Pg 308] saules, quhilk now
they give to serve the devill in all abhomination" (Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 96, 97). As printed in Laing's
Knox (ii. 120) the word "inextinguishable," and in the Acts of Parliament (ii. 534; iii. 22) the word
"unstancheabill," is used instead of "unquencheable." In Dunlop, however, there is in addition, at the bottom
of the page, in smaller type: "Rev. 14. 10. The same shall drynke the wyne of the wrath of God, which is
poured in the cuppe of hys wrath. And he shall be punyshed in fyre and brymstone before the holy angells,
and before the Lambe. And the smooke of theyr torment ascendeth up evermore, and they have no rest daye
nor nyght, whyche worshyppe the beast and hys ymage."
Page 153. Readers or exhorters.—The name exhorter does not occur in the First Book of Discipline;
but that "sort of readers" therein mentioned as having "some gift of exhortation" (Dunlop's Confessions, ii.
537; Laing's Knox, ii. 200) soon came to be known as exhorters, and are so named in various Acts of
Assembly; see, for example, the Act of 1564 quoted on p. 128. They are distinguished from readers in the
'Register of Ministers, Exhorters, and Readers,' printed for the Maitland Club; but, as David Laing has pointed
out, the title of exhorter as indicating an advanced class seems to have been soon and silently dropped. "On
comparing the list of the persons so styled in 1567 with that of 1574, we find some of them had become
ministers, but the greater number are entered simply as readers" (Wodrow Miscellany, p. 323).
Page 233. Conference between the two parties.—Besides the three conferences mentioned in the
footnote, there was another held in the early summer of 1578. The results, as recorded in the Booke of the
Universall Kirk (ii. 414, 415) and in Calderwood's History (iii. 412, 413), embrace nothing about the
kirk-session, beyond the perpetuity of the persons of the elders.
Page 259. Alesius at Wittenberg.—Through the influence of Luther and Melanchthon, the Elector of
Saxony had con[Pg 309]ferred on Alesius the prebend of Aldenburgh. Being in greats straits for money, and
having been disappointed of help otherwise, he was constrained to write from Wittenberg, on the 12th of
December 1533, to Spalatinus, requesting him to obtain payment of the moiety of the prebend (Corpus
Reformatorum, ii. 690, 691).
Page 261. The disputatious Cochlaeus.—On the suggestion of Melanchthon, an attack in verse was
made on Cochlaeus for his injustice to Alesius; but the timorous author so dreaded Cochlaeus that, instead of
writing in his own name, he personated Alesius (Corpus Reformatorum, iv. 1025, 1026).
Page 265. Erasmus and Cochlaeus.—Summaries of the letters which James V. wrote, on the 1st of July
1534, to Erasmus, to Cochlaeus, and to the King of the Romans, are in the Letters and State Papers of Henry
VIII., vol. vii. p. 358.
Page 267. Alesius as a physician.—"I determined with my self to serve the tyme and to change the
preaching of the crosse with the scyence of physic wherin I had a litle sight before, and thus I went unto a
very well-lerned phisycian called Doctor Nicolas, which hath practised phisyk in London thes many yeares
with high prayse, whose company I dyd use certen yeares, wherby I did both see and lern many things, even
the principal poyntes concerning that science. In so moch that at length certen of my frindes did move me to
take in hand to practise, which thing I did I trust not unluckyly" (Of the Auctorite of the Word of God agaynst
the Bisshop of London).
Page 268. Latimer and Cranmer.—For the opinion of Alesius on Latimer and Cranmer, see Dr
Mitchell's Westminster Assembly, 1883, p. 14 n., and p. 23 n.
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Page 268 n. Ales or Alesius.—Christopher Anderson may be excused for supposing that Ales was the
real name of Alesius; but less can be said for those editors of State Papers and compilers of important Library
Catalogues who have helped to perpetuate the error long after it was pointed out by Principal Lorimer in his
Patrick Hamilton.[Pg 310]
Page 269. John M'Alpine and John Fyffe.—From a correction which Dr Mitchell has made in his own
copy of the 'Gude and Godlie Ballatis,' 1897, p. cv, it seems that he had come to the conclusion that it was
M'Alpine and Macdowal, not Fyffe, who were protected by Bishop Shaxton. Cf. Lorimer's Patrick Hamilton,
pp. 186, 187.]
CORRIGENDA.
[Transcriber's Note: These corrigenda have been applied to this version of the text.]
INDEX.
• Acton, Lord, quotation from 'Lecture on the Study of History' by, 2 fn.
• Acts of Parliament referred to, 15, 23, 50, 51, 53, 226, 233, 264.
• Adamson, Archbishop, 102, 195, 199.
• À Kempis, 3.
• Alane, Alexander, 36, 239, 242
•
♦ —not Ales, 268 fn., 309
• Alasco, John, reference to 'Summa Doctrina' by, 109, 117
♦ —his treatise against the decree of the Scottish Bishops, 37, 259
♦ —a miraculous escape, 240
♦ —at College, 242
♦ —discussions with Patrick Hamilton, 243
♦ —his account of Patrick Hepburn, 245
♦ —assaulted and imprisoned, 247
♦ —his escape, 251
♦ —at Malmö, 255
♦ —at Cologne, 256
♦ —befriended by Melanchthon at Wittenberg, 259, 308
♦ —his controversy with Cochlaeus, 260 et seq.
♦ —the intervention of Erasmus, 264
♦ —at Cambridge, 266
♦ —at London, 267
CORRIGENDA. 94
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♦ —his dispute with Stokesley, ib., 268
♦ —marries Catherine de Mayne, 268
♦ —returns to the Continent, 269
♦ —appointed Professor of Divinity in Frankfort University, 270
♦ —Professor in Leipsic University, 271
♦ —the Perth Martyrs, 273
♦ —he pleads for National Union, 275
♦ —his public and private life, 279
♦ —his family, 280
♦ —his death, 281
♦ —his theological opinions, 295 et seq.
♦ —his dream concerning Anne Boleyn, 297
♦ —his departure from England, 298
♦ —a letter to Melanchthon, 300
♦ —his works 301 et seq.
♦ —prebend of Aldenburgh conferred on him, 309
♦ —one writes in his name, ib.
♦ —he practises as a physician, ib.
♦ —his name not Ales, ib.
• Allen, Edmund, 268 fn.
• Anderson, Rev. Christopher, reference to 'Annals of the English Bible' by, 239, 260 fns., 268 fn., 283
fn.
• Anderson, William, 53.
• Anselm, 3, 17.
• Arbuckill, Friar, 121 fn.
• Archebald, Sir James, vicar of Lintrathin, 128 fn., 183 fn.
• Argyll, the Duke of, 215.
• Arminianism, discussion on, 119.
• Arran, Earl of, 50 et seq., 273.
• Arth, William, 35 fn.
• Assembly, General, 160-162.
• Augustine, 3, 119 fn.
INDEX. 95
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• Bucer, 270.
• Buchanan, George, 17, 22, 40, 49, 73.
• Burton's 'History' referred to, 215, 219.
INDEX. 96
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♦ —its character, 102 et seq.
♦ —the supreme authority of the Scriptures, 103
♦ —the fall and the remedy, ib., 105
♦ —the eternal decree, 107
♦ —influence of John Alasco, 109, 117
♦ —the effectual call, 110
♦ —justification, 111 et seq.
♦ —notes of the True Church, 114 et seq.
♦ —the sacraments, 116 et seq.
♦ —compared with later confessions, 118 et seq., 122
♦ —its unmeasured language, 120 et seq.
• Constable's 'Major' referred to, 18 fn.
• Cook, Dr George, of St Andrews, 231.
• Cook, Dr, of Haddington, 231.
• Cook, Procurator, 232.
• Cook's 'History of the Reformation' referred to, 61 fn.
• Coverdale, Miles, 150.
• Craig, John, 187.
• Cranmer, Archbishop, 58, 254, 266, 268, 282, 297, 298, 299, 309.
• Craw or Crawar, Paul, 15.
• Croc, Le, 201.
• Crumwell, 37 fn., 266-268, 298-300.
• Cunningham, Principal, 231
• D'Ailley, 18.
• Dalgleish, Nicol, 192.
• Dalrymple's 'Lesley' referred to, 28 fn.
• 'Dalyell's Scottish Poems' quoted, 195 fn.
• D'Aubigné's 'Reformation in the Time of Calvin' referred to, 26 fn., 33 fn., 42 et seq., 48 fn., 80 fn.,
239, 241 fn., 243 fn., 250.
• Davidson, John, 188, 192, 197.
• Declaration, the Large (or King's), 142, 143.
• Discipline, the First Book of, its preparation, 99, 144
INDEX. 97
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♦ —the ideal presbytery, 237.
• 'Diurnal of Occurrents' referred to, 38 fn., 39 fn.
• Dore's 'Old Bibles' quoted, 91 fn.
• Douglas, John, 99, 144, 193
• Ebrard, 14.
• Edinburgh, 38, 41, 89, 93, 158 fn., 187, 190, 200, 239-241.
• Education, 9, 174 et seq.
• Edward VI., 87, 88, 130, 131.
• Erasmus, 21, 24, 264, 309.
• Erskine of Dun, 40, 56 et seq., 78, 94.
• Ethie House, 57, 293.
• Eugenius the Fourth, Pope, 17.
• Exactions of pre-Reformation Church, 9, 179 et seq.
• Exercise, or Prophesying, 153, 159, 170 et seq., 229.
• Exhorters, 152, 153, 308.
♦ —his 'Richt Vay to the Kingdom of Heuine' referred to, 33 fn., 255 fn.
• Geneva, 89-91, 125, 149, 158 fn., 288.
• Gerson, 18.
• Gilby, Ant., 125 fn.
• Gillespie, George, 158 fn.
INDEX. 98
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♦ —his 'Aaron's Rod Blossoming' quoted, 222 et seq.
♦ —'Assertion of the Government' referred to, 229 fn., 232.
• Glasgow martyr, 15.
• Gordon, Bishop of Galloway, 130.
• Gourlay, Norman, burned for marrying, 39.
• Grimani, 55.
• Grindal, Archbishop, 91, 150 fn., 160.
• Grosteste, 17.
• Grub's 'History,' 118 fn.
• 'Gude and Godlie Ballatis' referred to, 67, 74 fn., 76 fn.
• Guise, Mary of, 11 fn., 46, 93, 94, 192.
♦ —his 'Government and Order of the Church of Scotland' quoted, 140, 237
• Henry VIII., 49, 266 fn., 268, 298.
• Hepburn, Bishop, 57.
• Hepburn, Prior John, 242, 244, 286.
• Hepburn, Prior Patrick, 36, 40, 46, 74, 244-247, 249, 250, 252, 253.
• Honorius III., 161.
• Hooper, Bishop, 98.
• Hunter, James, 53.
INDEX. 99
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Scottish Reformation, by Alexander F. Mitchell
• Innes, Taylor, reference to 'John Knox' by, 209 fn.
• James V., 23, 38, 39, 44, 46 et seq., 192, 247-249, 263 fn., 273.
• James VI., 131, 143 fn., 166, 168.
• Johnston, John, 281, 288.
• Johnston, Rev. T. P., reference to 'Patrick Hamilton' by, 33 fn.
INDEX. 100
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♦ —quotation from 'Lectures on the History of the Church of Scotland' by, 115, 199 fn.
• Lees, Dr Cameron, reference to 'St Giles' by, 201 fn.
• Leipsic, 271, 272, 279, 281.
• Lemon's 'State Papers' referred to, 37 fn., 44 fns., 69 fn.
• Lesley's 'History' referred to, 24 fn., 39 fn., 85 fn., 129 fn., 192 fn.
•
♦ —'De Origine' referred to, 28 fn.
• Leslie, Dr, of Fordoun, 60, 61 fn.
• Lethington, Laird of, 101, 186.
• Lindores, Laurence, Abbot of, 15.
• Lindsay, Mr David, 198, 207.
• Lindsay, Sir David, 10, 11 fn., 81, 83, 182
♦ —'Scottish Reformation' referred to, 41 fn., 69, 75 fn., 81 fn., 239, 244, 274 fn., 275,
276 fn.
♦ —'Knox and the Church of England' referred to, 77, 132 fn.
♦ —article in 'British and Foreign Evangelical Review' by, referred to, 185.
• Luther, 6, 19, 21, 26, 28, 38, 67, 80, 115, 116, 163, 204, 216, 243, 254, 261, 265, 282, 295.
• Lyne, John, 41.
INDEX. 101
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Scottish Reformation, by Alexander F. Mitchell
• Mayn, Catherine de, 268.
• Melanchthon, 17, 22, 26, 36, 239, 254, 259, 261, 266, 270, 271, 279, 280, 282, 300, 309.
• Melville, Andrew, 216 et seq., 281, 288, 289.
• Melville, James, 191 et seq., 288.
• Montrose, 24, 57, 60, 62, 71, 75, 78.
• Morison, Ric., 299 fn.
• Morton, Earl of, 198, 199 fn., 207, 212.
• Mount, Christopher, 300.
• Neander, 170.
♦ —to 'Booke of the Universal Kirk' by, 218 fn., 227 fn.
• Pitscottie, Lindsay of, 73
♦ —his 'History' referred to, 24 fn., 31 fn., 33 fn., 39 fn., 192 fn.
• Plague, or pest, 64, 67, 76.
• Pole, Cardinal, 45.
• Poor, care of, 179, 180.
• Poullain, or Pollanus, 126, 127, 136 fns.
• Preaching, necessity of, 151.
• Presbytery, ideal, 237, 238.
• Presbytery, or greater eldership, 159, 229 et seq.
• Preston, Dr, 211.
• Psalm Book, 120, 128.
• 'Psalms and Spiritual Songs,' 76.
INDEX. 102
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♦ —Knox as leader of the Reformation, 79 et seq.
♦ —its triumph, 97
♦ —the Confession of 1560, 99 et seq.
♦ —the Book of Common Order, 123 et seq.
♦ —the First Book of Discipline, 144 et seq.
♦ —the last days of Knox, 184 et seq.
♦ —the Second Book of Discipline, 214 et seq.
♦ —Alesius, 239 et seq.
• Regent, the Good, 185, 188, 189
• Register of Privy Seal, 199 fn.
• 'Register of St Andrews Kirk-Session' referred to, 13 fn., 37 fn., 120 fn.
• Resby, James, 15.
• Richardson, John, 41.
• Richardson, Robert, 41.
• Robertson, John, 288.
• Robertson, Dr Joseph, 10, 11 fn.
♦ —'Concilia Scotiæ' referred to, 16 fn., 30 fn., 45 fn., 50 fn., 93 fn., 161 fn., 183 fn.,
293.
• Roger's 'Three Scottish Reformers,' 188 fn.
• Rolle, Richard, 14.
• Rothes, Earl of, 245.
• Rough, John, 83.
• Row, John, 99, 144 fn.
• Row, John, of Carnock, on liturgies, 138.
• Rubric, the black, 87.
• Russell, Bishop, 227 fn.
• Rutherfurd's 'Divine Right of Church Government' quoted, 220 et seq.
♦ —his 'History' referred to, 10, 31 fn., 33 fn., 34 fn., 64 fn., 68 fn., 73, 146 fn., 218 fn.,
227, 231.
• Spottiswoode, John, superintendent of Lothian, 99, 144 fn., 198.
• St Andrews, reforming priests from Augustinian Priory and College of St Leonard, 13
♦ —University and Colleges of, 15, 19, 20, 22, 95, 96 fn., 239, 242, 285 et seq.
INDEX. 103
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Scottish Reformation, by Alexander F. Mitchell
♦ —Major at, 18, 19, 22, 242, 286
♦ —Patrick Hamilton at, 19, 20, 22 et seq., 29 et seq., 307
♦ —Alesius at, 36, 242 et seq.
♦ —Wishart at, 72, 73
♦ —Knox at, 82 et seq., 95 et seq., 188 et seq.
• St Bernard, 3.
• St Giles' Church, 133 fn., 201.
• Stähelin's 'Johannes Calvin' referred to, 98, 114 fn.
• Stanley, Dean, 202
• Stevenson's 'Mary Stuart' quoted, 55 fn.
• Steward, Walter, 40.
• Stewart, Archbishop, 286.
• Stirling martyrs, 41.
• Stokesley, Bishop of London, 268, 272.
• Stonehouse, 20.
• Stratoun, David, 39.
• Succession, Apostolic, 115.
• Superintendents, 152
• Tannadice, 287.
• Tauler, 3.
• Theiner's 'Vetera Monumenta Hibernorum et Scotorum' referred to, 44 fn., 45 fn., 51 fn., 54 fns.
• Thorpe's 'Calendar' referred to, 44 fns.
• Tilney, Emery, 58.
• Tonstal, Bishop of Durham, 86.
• Tour, M. de la, 19.
• Tudor, Elizabeth, 92, 93, 131, 150 fn., 156 fn., 159, 300.
• Tudor, Mary, 88, 92 fn.
• Twopenny Faith, the, 8 fn.
• Tyndale's translation of the New Testament introduced into Scotland, 24, 26.
• Tyninghame, 287.
• Tyrie, the Jesuit, 195, 196, 203.
• Tytler, 11 fn.
INDEX. 104
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• Willock, John, 40, 99, 112 fn., 130, 144 fn.
• Winkworth, Miss, quotation from 'Christian Singers of Germany' by, 6 et seq.
• Winzet, Ninian, his 'Tractates' referred to, 11 fns., 203.
• Wishart, George, 36, 41
♦ —early education, 56
♦ —summoned for heresy, 57
♦ —escapes to England, ib.
♦ —converted before Cranmer, 58
♦ —returns and enters Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, ib.
♦ —a pupil's description of him, 59
♦ —returns to Scotland, ib.
♦ —preaches in Montrose and Dundee, 62 et seq.
♦ —his labours in Dundee during the plague, 64 et seq.
♦ —attempted assassination of, 68
♦ —innocent of the plot to assassinate Betoun, 69 et seq.
♦ —proceeds to Edinburgh, 71
♦ —seized at Ormiston, 72
♦ —his martyrdom, 73
♦ —his work, 74 et seq.
• Wishart, George, bailie of Dundee, 63, 69.
• Witches, prosecution of, 168.
• Withof's 'Vertheidigung,' 124 fn., 294.
• Wittenberg, 26, 259, 269, 300 fn., 308, 309.
• 'Wodrow Miscellany' referred to, 58 fn., 69 fn., 78 fn., 93 fn., 308.
• Wycliffe, 3, 14, 17, 18, 37, 186, 205.
• Wycliffites in Scotland, 15.
• Wynram, John, 77, 99, 100, 144, 198, 287.
THE END.
Baird Lectures.
THEISM. Being the Baird Lecture for 1876. By Robert Flint, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Divinity in the
University of Edinburgh. Ninth Edition, Revised. Crown 8vo, 7s. 6d.
ANTI-THEISTIC THEORIES. Being the Baird Lecture for 1877. By the Same Author. Fifth Edition. Crown
8vo, 10s. 6d.
THE EARLY RELIGION OF ISRAEL. As set forth by Biblical Writers and Modern Critical Historians.
Being the Baird Lecture for 1888-89. By James Robertson, D.D., Professor of Oriental Languages in the
University of Glasgow. Demy 8vo, 12s.
THE APOSTOLIC MINISTRY IN THE SCOTTISH CHURCH. The Baird Lecture for 1897. By Robert
Herbert Story, D.D. (Edin.), F.S.A. Scot., Principal of the University of Glasgow, Principal Clerk of the
General Assembly, and Chaplain to the Queen. Crown 8vo, 7s. 6d.
Croall Lectures.
INDEX. 105
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AGNOSTICISM. Being the Croall Lecture for 1887-88. By Robert Flint, D.D., LL.D. In 1 vol. demy 8vo.
RECENT ARCHÆOLOGY AND THE BIBLE. Being the Croall Lecture for 1898. By Thomas Nicol, D.D.,
Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism in the University of Aberdeen; Author of 'Recent Explorations in
Bible Lands.' Demy 8vo, 9s. net.
THE POETRY AND THE RELIGION OF THE PSALMS. The Croall Lecture, 1893-94. By James
Robertson, D.D. Demy 8vo, 12s.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] As Lord Acton has so well said, "The modern age did not proceed from the medieval by normal
succession, with outward tokens of legitimate descent. Unheralded, it founded a new order of things, under a
law of innovation, sapping the ancient reign of continuity. In those days Columbus subverted the notions of
the world, and reversed the conditions of production, wealth, and power.... Luther broke the chain of authority
and tradition at the strongest link; and Copernicus erected an invincible power that set for ever the mark of
progress upon the time that was to come.... It was an awakening of new life; the world revolved in a different
orbit, determined by influences unknown before. After many ages, persuaded of the headlong decline and
impending dissolution of society, and governed by usage and the will of masters who were in their graves, the
sixteenth century went forth armed for untried experience, and ready to watch with hopefulness a prospect of
incalculable change" (Lecture on the Study of History, 1895, pp. 8, 9). "There are no true 'cycles' in human
development; history never repeats itself; the Greco-Roman world has only distant analogies with the
Feudal-Catholic world, just as this has only distant analogies with the Revolutionary world. The great phases
of human civilisation are contrasted rather than compared; they differ as infancy, childhood, manhood, and
senility differ in the individual" (Harrison on "Freeman's Method of History," in the 'Nineteenth Century' for
November 1898).
[4] [Hamilton's Catechism, which was not intended for indiscriminate circulation among the laity, was not
published until 1552; and The Twopenny Faith was not issued until the spring of 1559.]
[5] [For these utterances see infra, chap. viii. sec. iv.]
[6] Because of its permanent importance, I deem it best to insert here a note from my Introduction to 'The
Gude and Godlie Ballatis,' p. lxiv: "We do not need to call in Knox, or Lindsay, or the satirists, in evidence of
this humbling fact. The testimony of their own councils, of the Acts of Parliament, and of some of their best
men, as Principal Hay in his congratulatory address to Cardinal Betoun, and Ninian Winzet in the sad appeals
and confessions inserted in his 'Tractates,' as well as that of impartial modern historians like Tytler and Dr
Joseph Robertson, is more than sufficient to establish it beyond contradiction. The testimony of Conæus, who
died when about to be raised to the purple, covers almost all that Alesius and Knox have averred: 'In
multorum sacerdotum aedibus scortum publicum ... nec a sacrilego quorundam luxu tutus erat matronarum
honos aut virginalis pudor.' More notable still is the representation given in the 'Memoire' addressed to the
Pope by Queen Mary and the Dauphin, evidently at the instance of Mary of Guise, in which the spread of
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heresy is expressly attributed to the ignorance and immorality of the clergy. See Appendix B, vol. ii., of Mr
Hume Brown's recent biography of Knox."
[7] [So early as the 23rd of June 1559, Knox wrote to Mrs Anna Lock: "Diverse channons of Sanct Andrewes
have given notable confessiouns, and have declared themselves manifest enemies to the pope, to the masse,
and to all superstitioun" (Laing's Knox, vi. 26). In all probability some of these canons were included among
the fourteen canons of St Andrews Priory who are mentioned as Protestants in January 1571-72, and of whom
twelve were then parish ministers ('Booke of the Universall Kirk,' Bannatyne Club, i. 222). None of these
fourteen is found signing the General Band of 13th July 1559, which in St Andrews was adopted as "the
letters of junctioun to the Congregatioun"; but eighteen priests did sign it; and of the other thirteen
ecclesiastics who there made sweeping recantations, at least six may be held to have joined the congregation,
for they not only confessed that "we haif ower lang abstractit ourselfis and beyne sweir in adjuning us to
Christes Congregatioun," but they promised "in tyme cuming to assist in word and wark with unfenyiet
mynde this Congregatioun" ('Register of St Andrews Kirk-Session,' Scot. Hist. Soc., i. 10-18). In 1573 it was
stated that "the most part of the persons who were channons monks and friars within this realme have made
profession of the true religion" ('Booke of the Universall Kirk,' i. 280).]
[8] [Enacted by the University on 10th June 1416 (M'Crie's Melville, 1824, i. 420).]
[9] [Enacted by Parliament on 12th March 1424-25 (Acts of Parliament, ii. 7).]
[12] [The bull of Eugenius the Fourth, addressed to Bishop Kennedy, and dated 6th July 1440, orders the
excommunication of the followers of the anti-pope, Felix the Fifth, elected by the Council of Basle, to be
published in Scotland (Ibid., p. c.)]
[13] [Dr Mitchell, no doubt, had the Commentary itself before him. Those who have not access to it will find
the dedication in the Appendix to Constable's 'Major,' Scot. Hist. Soc., pp. 447, 448.]
[15] [The entry in the Register of the University occurs at the bottom of a page, and is preceded and followed
by entries of 1521, as if it had been inserted there to save space. The entries of 1521 are distinct and easily
read, but in this of 1523 the ink is very faint, and the surface of the vellum has a rubbed appearance. It runs
thus: "Die nono mensis Junii anno Domini Im Vc xxiij incorporatus erat venerabilis vir Magister noster
Magister Johannes Major doctor theologus in Parisiensis et thesaurarius capelle regis. Eodem die incorporati
sunt Magister Patricius Hamilton et Magister Robertus Laudar in nostra Universite" (sic).]
[17] [The Act as thus extended was ratified on the 12th of June 1535 (Ibid., ii. 342).]
[19] Soliciting legatine powers over the whole of Scotland, instead of over his own province of the
archdiocese, so as to render nugatory the exemption granted to the king's old tutor and favourite prelate the
Archbishop of Glasgow.
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[20] D'Aubigné's Reformation in the Time of Calvin, vi. 42, 43.
[21] [The only passage, so far as I know, in which Lesley speaks of the king in connection with the martyr is
the following: "Suae pertinaciae, ac flagitii poenas igni luebat, adhortante magno Catholicae Religionis
protectore Rege ipso, quem et sanguinis propinquitate attigerat" (Lesley's 'De Origine,' 1578, p. 427; 1675, p.
407). This is rendered by Dalrymple: "For his obstinacie and wickednes committed, he is burnte at command
of the king selfe gret Catholik protectour, to quhom Ferne als was neir of kin and bluid" (Dalrymple's Lesley,
Scot. Text Soc., ii. 215, 216).]
[23] In an old manuscript book of forms used in ecclesiastical processes by the archbishops of St Andrews
before the Reformation, I found and have been able to decipher the recorded copy of the summons issued by
Archbishop James Betoun against Hamilton after his return from Germany. It is addressed specially to the
Dean of the Lothians, and refers only to the preaching of the reformer in West Lothian, so that there can no
longer be any doubt that his compearance in St Andrews before the date appointed in the summons must be
regarded as a resolute avowal of his determination to defend his teaching at all hazards. The summons is
inserted at length in Appendix B. [For an account of the manuscript Formulare see Robertson's 'Concilia
Scotiæ,' vol. i. pp. cxcv, cxcvi.]
[26] The older sources for the facts of Patrick Hamilton's career and martyrdom are the references to them by
his friend Alesius in two or three of his works, and especially in his 'Commentary on the First Book of
Psalms,' under Psalm xxxvii.; by Lambert in his 'Commentary on the Apocalypse'; and by Gau in the latter
part of his treatise on 'The Richt Vay to the Kingdom of Heuine'; and after those by Foxe, Knox, Calderwood,
Pitscottie, and Spottiswoode in their histories. The only satisfactory formal biography of him is that by
Principal Lorimer entitled, 'Patrick Hamilton, the first Preacher and Martyr of the Scottish Reformation.' His
story has also been told by Dr Merle D'Aubigné, in his own dramatic way; and still more recently it has been
made the subject of a veritable drama by the Rev. T. P. Johnston, minister of Carnbee.
[28] [The saying in slightly different forms may be found in Laing's Knox, i. 42; Calderwood's History, i. 86;
Spottiswoode's History, i. 130.]
[29] [Various dates, ranging between 1529 and 1533, have been assigned for Forrest's martyrdom.]
[32] [Howard and Barlo, in writing from Edinburgh on the 13th of May 1536, say, that to the Scots the
reading of God's Word "in theyr vulgare tonge is lately prohybitede by open proclamation" (Lemon's State
Papers, v. 48). Norfolk, writing to Crumwell from Berwick on the 29th of March 1539, says: "Dayly commeth
unto me some gentlemen and some clerkes, wiche do flee owte of Scotland as they saie for redyng of
Scripture in Inglishe; saying; that, if they were taken, they sholde be put to execution" (Ibid. v. 154). In the
Epistle to James VI. prefixed to the Bassandyne Bible, it is said: "The false namit clergie of this realme,
abusing the gentle nature of your Hienes maist noble gudschir of worthie memorie, made it an cappital crime
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to be punishit with the fyre to have or rede the New Testament in the vulgare language." One of the charges
on which Sir John Borthwick was condemned, on the 28th of May 1540, was that he possessed a copy of the
New Testament in the vernacular ('Register of St Andrews Kirk Session,' Scot. Hist. Soc., i. 98).]
[35] [Foxe alleges that Gourlay and Stratoun were condemned and burned, "because, after great solicitation
made by the king, they refused to abjure and recant" (Cattley's Foxe, iv. 579); but, on the other hand, the
writer of the Diurnal of Occurrents (p. 18) and Bishop Lesley (History, 1830, p. 149) assert that Gourlay did
abjure.]
[36] Such was the punishment meted out to him for endeavouring to do in a scriptural way what rulers of the
church were doing in disregard of the laws of Scripture as well as the laws of their church. Pitscottie knew no
other cause why he was burned save that "he was in the East-land, and came home, and married a wife
contrary to the form of the pope's institution because he was a priest; for they would thole no priest to marry,
but they would punish and burn him to the dead; but if he had used ten thousand whores he had not been
burnt" (Pitscottie's History, 1778, p. 236).
[37] [In the letter, dated 29th December 1537, granting his escheat to his father, he is described as "umquhill
Walter Stewart" (M'Crie's Knox, 1855, p. 316). Calderwood places his recantation and accidental death in
1533 (History, Wodrow Society, i. 104).]
[38] [Gavin Logie is usually spoken of as Principal of St Leonard's (Laing's Knox, i. 36, n.).]
[40] D'Aubigné's Reformation in the Time of Calvin, vi. 131.—Like his predecessor Archbishop
Forman, who—thirty years before, in the interests of France, which had richly rewarded him with the
Archbishopric of Bourges—had so cruelly embroiled Scotland with England and almost courted the
disaster of Flodden, Betoun never ceased either during the life or after the death of James V. to sow the seeds
of discord between the two realms, and so to court reverses to the Scottish arms, and destruction to the
Scottish monasteries near the southern border. He shunned no risk, shrank from no cruelty, to remove out of
the way those who thwarted his schemes or favoured the better policy which in the end was to carry the day.
[42] [Betoun's Commission as Legate is dated 30th January 1543-44 (Lemon's State Papers, v. 443; Thorpe's
Calendar, i. 46).]
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[49] [His letter to the Pope is dated 10th May 1543 (Theiner's Monumenta Hibernorum et Scotorum, pp. 614,
615).]
[50] [On the 8th of September "he was enjoyned to passe to the Freres in Stirling, ... and there received open
pennance and a solempne othe, in the presence and hereing of all men that was there, that he shulde never doo
the same againe, but supporte and defende the professon and habit of mounkes, freres, and such other; and
therupon, being absolved by the Cardinall and the Busshoppes, herde masse and received the sacramente"
(Hamilton Papers, ii. 38).]
[53] Acts of Parliament, ii. 443. [This was on the 15th of December 1543.]
[54] [This letter is dated 20th May 1545 (Theiner's Monumenta, p. 616).]
[55] Theiner's Monumenta, p. 617. [This letter is dated 6th July 1545.]
[56] Hume Brown's Knox, i. 64, 65. Grimani's opinion, as sent from Stirling, is thus summarised by Father
Stevenson: "The realm is in such confusion, so divided, so full of heresy that, but for the interposition of God,
it will soon become as bad as England. The queen and the cardinal have spent all their money in the common
cause; and the clergy are unable to assist, for the fruits of their benefices have been seized by the Lutherans"
(Mary Stuart, 1886, p. 51).
[57] [The charter is dated at Montrose on the 20th of March 1534-35. The Martyr's signature, as "M. Geo.
Wischert," proves that he had already taken his degree (Register of Great Seal, iii., No. 1462).]
[61] [Cook's History of the Reformation, 1811, i. 272, 273; 1819, i. 273. Dr Cook says that Dr Leslie, minister
of Fordoun, "got a short view of them," and favoured him with the account which he wrote. In a very similar
notice of the paintings by Dr Leslie, it is stated that they were discovered when the old house of Pittarrow was
being pulled down in 1802 ('New Statistical Account of Kincardineshire,' p. 81).] As Dr Cook long ago
surmised, the lines of covert sarcasm on the pope are not original. One evening as I returned to Guildford
Street after a long day in the British Museum, I had occasion to pass through Red Lion Square and the alley to
the east of it, where I saw exposed in a pawnbroker's window a little antique volume, in a very dilapidated
state, opened at the page which contained these lines almost verbatim. I at once purchased it, and on further
examination I found it had been published at Basle in 1537—i.e., a few years before Wishart was there.
[The little collection which Dr Mitchell thus refers to bears the title: "Pasqvilli de Concilio Mantuano
Iudicium. Qverimonia Papistarum ad Legatum Pontificium in comicijs Schmalcaldianis. Mantua uæ miseris
nimium uicina Papistis. MDXXXVII."
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Wishart evidently found his lines in the following:—
"Lavs Romani Pontificis. Scripta ad placitum Romanae curiae per uenerabilem dominum Doctorem Ioannem
Cochleum, Theutonicae Doctor Rotzloffel, et Georgium VVicelium cognomento, Meister Lugenmaul,
Romanae Ecclesiae propugnatores egregios.
[63] Maxwell's Old Dundee prior to the Reformation, 1891, pp. 92, 395.
[64] Laing's Knox, i. 126. [Calderwood (i. 186) and Spottiswoode (i. 150) have burning for hornyng.]
[66] [Knox calls it "the East Porte of the Toune" (Laing's Knox, i. 129). Maxwell says that the Port which
stood in the Seagate would alone correspond to that described by Knox; and he adds: "The Port yet standing in
the Cowgate—which, because of its association with the honoured name of George Wishart, only was
left when some of the others were demolished—really cannot be identified as his preaching-place, and
should not carry the inscription which has been recently put over its archway" ('History of Old Dundee,' 1884,
pp. 220-222).]
[69] Laing's Knox, i. 130, 131. The name of this priest is given as Sir John Wightone, or Weighton, by Knox,
Calderwood, and Spottiswoode. Maxwell cannot find a priest of this name among those ministering in Dundee
in 1550 ('Old Dundee prior to the Reformation,' 1891, p. 87, n.) The James Wichtand who was reader at
Inchture and Kinnaird in 1574 (Wodrow Miscellany, p. 353) is said to have held a chaplaincy in Dundee
before the Reformation. But Dr Laing holds that there was a Sir John Wighton, a chaplain in Dundee, who
obtained the vicarage pensionary in the parish church of Ballumby in 1538, and who appears to have been
incarcerated in St Andrews Castle in the cardinal's absence in 1543 (Laing's Knox, vi. 670).
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[71] Laing's Knox, i. 536. [Maxwell gives a detailed account of this other George Wishart in his 'Old Dundee
prior to the Reformation,' 1891, pp. 91-95.]
[73] Cattley's Foxe, v. 635. [Foxe is here quoting the account in the black-letter tract printed in or about 1547,
which Knox deemed important enough to copy from Foxe into his own pages.]
[76] Wedderburn and Wishart seem also to have been acquainted with Coverdale's Bible of 1535.
[77] See my Introduction to 'The Gude and Godlie Ballatis,' 1897, p. xxxviii, n.
[78] No doubt the initial Catechism was in use also. It has been conjectured that the Catechism may even have
been printed separately, and that the first part of the following entry may refer to it: "The catechisme in two
partes; the first in Scotch poetry, having a kalender before it. The second part in Latin and Scotis prose,
entituled Catechismus ecclesiae Geneuensis.... Edinburgh: Imprinted by John Ross for Henrie Charteris,
1574" (Dickson and Edmond's Annals of Scottish Printing, 1890, p. 334).
[79] [Reprinted under the editorial care of Dr Mitchell in 1897 for the Scottish Text Society.]
[80] Lorimer's Knox and the Church of England, 1875, pp. 290-292.
[83] Calderwood's History, i. 155, 156, 160; Laing's Knox, i. 95, 96, 105. [Calderwood says that Williams was
born "beside Elstonefurde, in East Lothiane."]
[85] [Though these lines are continually attributed to Lindsay, I do not remember to have ever seen them in
any edition of his works, or quoted as his by any earlier writer than Wodrow.]
[86] [According to Knox, though "called bastard brother to the governour," many deemed him to be a son of
"the old Bischope of Dunkelden, called Crychtoun" (Laing's Knox, i. 105). Buchanan says he was "first callid
Cuningham, estemit Cowane, and at last Abbot Hamiltoun" (Admonition to the trew Lordis). In a transcript
used by Ruddiman, Givane occurs instead of Cowane.]
[87] [Laing's Knox, i. 186. Though the Lyon King was then in St Andrews, he was not one of those who were
sheltering in the castle (Laing's Lindsay's Poetical Works, 1879, vol. i. pp. xxxix, xli).]
[88] [Knox says that the castle was rendered "upone Setterday, the last of Julij" (Laing's Knox, i. 205); Bishop
Lesley says "the xxix of Julij" (Lesley's History, 1830, p. 195). In 1547, the last of July fell not on Saturday
but on Sabbath.]
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[90] [The negotiations for the release of the captives seem to have dragged their weary length along very
slowly. So early as the 29th of March 1548, Huntly wrote thus to Somerset: "The governor has agreed to
exchange the men in the castle of St Andrews with Scots prisoners conform to your desire, and has sent me
commission therein, as I shall show you at my coming to London: or if you send your mind to my Lord
Warden, I shall appoint with him. The governor has written to the king of France to send the men taken in St
Andrews to Rouen, to be ready for the exchange" (Bain's Calendar, 1543-67, p. 104).]
[92] [The first edition of the Genevan version was printed at Geneva by Rouland Hall in 1560. "The changes
made in the Geneva Bible were the adoption of Roman type instead of the black letter, in which all English
Bibles had previously been printed, and the division of the chapters into verses. These changes were the
principal cause of the wonderful popularity of this version, of which about 200 editions are known. From
1560 to 1616 no year passed without one or more editions issuing from the press, in folio, quarto, or octavo.
In 1599 no less than ten distinct editions were printed, each of which consisted of a large number of copies.
The last quarto printed in England is dated 1615, and the last folio 1616. After this time a great many editions
were printed at Amsterdam by Joost Broerss and other Dutch printers; the last folio bears the imprint of
Thomas Stafford, and the date 1644.... 150,000 copies were imported from Holland after this version had
ceased to be printed in England.... Owing to the vast number of copies in circulation during the three-quarters
of a century that this version was the household Bible of England, it is now the most common of all early
printed Bibles.... The singular rendering of the 7th verse of the third chapter of Genesis in every edition of the
Genevan version has caused it to be commonly known as the 'Breeches' Bible" (Dore's Old Bibles, 1888, pp.
203, 204).]
[95] [After making two requests by messengers, Knox wrote to Cecil from Dieppe on the 10th of April 1559,
and on the 22nd sent from the same town a duplicate of that letter with a postscript added (Laing's Knox, ii.
15-22, vi. 15-21).]
[96] [The Provincial Council is said to have closed on the 10th of April (Robertson's Concilia Scotiæ, ii. 151,
176; Lesley's History, p. 271); but Knox says that it sat until he arrived in Scotland (Laing's Knox, i. 291); and
that the date of his arrival was the 2nd of May (Ibid., i. 318, vi. 21); and an anonymous writer alleges that the
council broke up when assured that Knox had come (Wodrow Miscellany, pp. 56, 57). M'Crie suggests that,
although the Acts were concluded on the 10th of April, the council may not have then closed (Life of Knox,
1855, p. 126, n.).]
[97] [While it is apparent from Knox's own narrative that his first public sermon was delivered in the parish
church of St Andrews (Laing's Knox, i. 189), it is not quite so clear whether Rough addressed the call to him
in that church or in the chapel of the castle, though it rather appears to have been in the former (Ibid., i.
186-188); and the precise building in St Andrews in which he first celebrated the Lord's Supper seems to me
to be also uncertain (Ibid., i. 201).]
[100] [Many members of the university became Protestants. The twenty-one men in St Andrews, whom the
first General Assembly deemed qualified "for ministreing and teaching," were with few exceptions professors,
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or regents. For the number of the ecclesiastics who joined the congregation at St Andrews in the early months
of the Reformation, see supra, p. 13. In September, 1566, St Andrews was emphatically declared to be "the
most flourishing city as to divine and human learning in all Scotland" (Laing's Knox, vi. 546).]
[105] ["Quhilk thay willinglie acceptit and within foure dayis presentit this Confessioun as it followis, without
alteratioun of any ane sentence." (Laing's Knox, ii. 92).]
[106] [These statements are based on the information which Randolph sent to Cecil on 7th September 1560
(Laing's Knox, vi. 120, 121).]
[107] "At vero in praefectorum obedientia unum semper excipiendum ne ab ejus obedientia nos deducat, cujus
decretis regum omnium jussa cedere par est.... Adversus ipsum si quid imperent nullo sit nec loco nec numero,
sed illa potius sententia locum habeat, obediendum Deo magis quam hominibus."
[108] This seems to be the opinion of Dr Laing (Knox's Works, vi. 121, n.) Indeed one can hardly read
chapter xviii. without having a suspicion induced that Knox may have proved too strong for them in regard to
some of what they termed the more harsh expressions in the treatise, as well as in regard to the particular
chapter in question.
[109] [The Scotch and Latin versions are printed in parallel columns in Dunlop's 'Collection of Confessions'
ii. 13-98.]
[110] "Libros, qui ab infantia usque ecclesiae semper habiti sunt canonici" (Latin version, Dunlop, ii. 70).
[111] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 17, 18; Laing's Knox, ii. 96. A similar protestation is made in the Preface to
the First Book of Discipline (Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 518; Laing's Knox, ii. 184).
[112] The sources from which this chapter was taken can still be pretty clearly traced. I place in parallel
columns its statements and those of the two Confessions from which it was probably taken:—
"We confesse and acknawledge ane only God, to whom only "Je confesse qu'il y a un seul Dieu auquel il
we must cleave, whom onelie we must serve, whom onelie nous faut tenir, pour le servir, adorer, et y
we must worship, and in whom onelie we must put our trust. avoir notre fiance et
refuge."—Confession subscribed by
students in Academy in Geneva.
"Who is eternall, infinit, unmeasurable, incomprehensible, "I beleve and confesse my Lorde God
omnipotent, invisible: ane in substance, and zit distinct in eternal, infinite, unmeasurable,
thre personnis, the Father, the Sone, and the Holie incomprehensible, and invisible, one in
Gost."—Old Scottish Confession, in Dunlop's substance, and three in persone, Father,
Confessions, ii. 21, 22. Sonne, and Holy
Ghoste."—Confession of English
Congregation at Geneva, in Laing's Knox, iv.
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169; Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 3.
[113] This also comes from a Genevan source:—
"We condemne the damnable and pestilent heresies "Ideirco detestor omnes haereses huic principio
of Arius, Marcion, Eutyches, Nestorius, and sik contrarias puta Marcionis, Manetis, Nestorii,
uthers."—Old Scottish Confession, as Eutychetis, et similium."—Genevan Confession.
above, ii. 31.
[114] Extraneum ab omni benedictione Dei, Satanae mancipium, sub peccati jugo captivum, horribili denique
exitio destinatum et jam implicitum.—Calvin.
[115] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 24, 25; Laing's Knox, ii. 98. It has been questioned if this description of faith
is one which Calvin and his stricter followers would have used. But nothing is more common, even in the
earliest edition of his Institutes, than to find him describing faith as the apprehension of Christ with His gifts,
or graces, as well as with His righteousness: "Apprehendimus ac obtinemus et ... Christi dona amplectimur,
quod ipsum est habere veram, ut decet fidem." "Haec omnia nobis a Deo offeruntur ac dantur in Christo
Domino nostro nempe remissio peccatorum gratuita, ... dona et gratiae Spiritus Sancti si certâ fide ea
amplectimur." In one of these chapters [of the Scottish Confession] relating to the incarnation of Christ Jesus,
He is spoken of not only, as in most of the Protestant Confessions, as the promised Messiah, the just seed of
David, the Immanuel, or God in our nature—God and man in one person—but also as the Angel
of the great counsel of God [Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 31; Laing's Knox, ii. 99]. This expression is no doubt a
translation of the μεγαλης
βουλης αγγελος of the
Septuagint, and is the more remarkable, not only as showing familiarity on the part of some of the framers of
the Confession with a somewhat unusual rendering of one of the most explicit Messianic prophecies of Isaiah,
but also as showing that they had perceived the true significance of an expression which last century gave rise
to no little discussion and misconception. So far as I can remember, this remarkable expression does not
appear in any other of the Protestant Confessions of that age.
[117] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 60, 61; Laing's Knox, ii. 108.
[118] The following are a few specimens of close verbal coincidence between the Scottish Confession and the
first edition of Calvin's Institutes:—
1. "It behooved that the Sonne of God suld descend unto us, and tak Filii Dei sumus quod naturalis Dei
himself a bodie of our bodie, flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bones, Filius sibi corpus ex corpore
and so become the Mediator betwixt God and man, giving power to so nostro, carnem ex carne nostra
many as beleeve in Him to be the sonnes of God."—Dunlop, ii. ossa ex ossibus nostris composuit
33, 34. ut idem nobiscum esset.
2. "Quhatsaever wee have tynt in Adam is restored unto us Ut quod in Adamo perdidimus
agayne."—Dunlop, ii. 34. Christus restitueret.
3. "It behooved farther the Messias and Redemer to be very God and Praeterea sic nostra referebat,
very man, because He was to underlie the punischment due for our verum esse Deum et hominem qui
transgressiouns, and to present himselfe in the presence of His Father's Redemptor noster futurus esset....
judgment as in our persone to suffer for our transgression and Prodiit ergo verus homo, Dominus
inobedience, be death to overcome him that was author of death. Bot noster, Adae personam induit ... ut
because the onely Godhead culd not suffer death, neither zit culd the Patri se obedientem pro eo
onlie manhead overcome the samin, He joyned both togither in one exhiberet ut carnem nostram in
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persone that the imbecillitie of the ane suld suffer and be subject to satisfactionem justo Dei judicio
death quhilk we had deserved: and the infinit and invincible power of statueret ac sisteret, ut in eâdem
the uther, to wit, of the God-head, suld triumph and purchesse to us life, carne peccati poenam persolveret.
libertie, and perpetuall victory."—Dunlop, ii. 35, 36. Quum denique mortem nec solus
Deus sentire, nec solus homo
superare posset, humanitatem cum
divinitate sociavit ut alterius
imbecillitatem morti in poenam
persolveret, alterius virtute
adversus mortem in victoriam
luctaretur.
4. "That Hee being the cleane, innocent Lambe of God, was damned in Judicis scilicet sententia damnatus
the presence of an earthlie judge, that we suld be absolved befoir the pro nocente et malefico ut apud
tribunal seat of our God."—Dunlop, ii. 37, 38. summi judicis tribunal ejus
damnatione absolveremur.
5. "Suffered ... the cruell death of the Crosse, quhilk was accursed be Crucifixus in cruce quae Dei lege
the sentence of God."—Dunlop, ii. 38. maledicta fuerat.
6. "Suffered for a season the wrath of His Father quhilk sinners had Divini judicii horrorem et
deserved. Bot zit we avow that He remained the only wel-beloved and severitatem sensisse ... luens
blessed Sonne of His Father, even in the middest of His anguish and poenas non suae ... sed nostrae
torment."—Dunlop, ii. 38. iniquitati. Neque tamen
intelligendum est patrem illi
unquam iratum fuisse. Quomodo
enim dilecto filio, in quo illi
complacitum est, irasceretur.
[119] Alasco's Works, ii. 296, 298.
[121] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 46. "Sunt autem dona Spiritus Sancti, per quem regeneramur, e diaboli
potestate et vinculis explicamur, in filios Dei gratuito adoptamur, ad omne opus bonum
sanctificamur."—Calvin.
[124] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 58. There is hardly one of these expressions that may not be found in Calvin's
Institutes:—
It behoves us to apprehend Christ Jesus with Confiteor nos justificari per fidem quâtenus per eam
His justice and satisfaction. apprehendimus Jesum Christum.
We are set at this liberty that the curse and Omni execratione quae nobis incumbebat eximeremur dum
malediction of the law fall not upon us. in eum traduceret. Fides, in Christi damnatione
absolutionem, benedictionem in maledictione, apprehendit.
God the Father, beholding us in the body of Ubi nos in filii sui communionem semel recepit, opera nostra
His Son Christ Jesus, accepts our imperfect grata acceptaque habet, non quod ita promereantur sed quia
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obedience as it were perfect. condonatâ eorum imperfectione, nil in illis intuetur, nisi
quod a Spiritu suo profectum, purum ac sanctum est.
Covers our works, which are defiled with Nullae nostrae sordes aut immunditiae imperfectionis
many spots, with the justice of His Son. imputantur, sed illa puritate Christi ac perfectione velut
sepultae conteguntur. Cujus perfectione tegatur nostra
imperfectio. See also Calvin's Catechism in Dunlop's
Confessions, ii. 175.
[125] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 95; Laing's Knox, ii. 119.
[126] [Of the six, all save Willock sign the letter to Beza on 4th September 1566 (Laing's Knox, vi. 548-550).]
[128] Considerable ingenuity has been expended in the attempt to show that the words "who is the end and
accomplishment of the law" are to be understood in some other than their most obvious and commonly
received meaning. Without questioning the competency of such ingenious rather than ingenuous exposition,
were a case raised before the judicial committee of a modern privy council to have the expounder tried and
condemned as a heretic, I venture to think that when the matter to be determined is rather what, in point of
fact, did Knox and his associates hold and teach, the following brief quotation from the "godly and perfect"
treatise of Balnaves on Justification must go pretty near to settle it: "Christ is the end of the law (unto
righteousnes) to all that beleeve—that is, Christ is the consummation and fulfilling of the lawe, and that
justice whiche the lawe requireth; and all they which beleeve in Him are just by imputation through faith, and
for His sake are repute and accepted as just" (Laing's Knox, iii. 492). If more than this has been taught in
recent times, I should be greatly inclined with Principal Lee to trace it to Jonathan Edwards, or perhaps even
to the great Independent, Dr Owen, rather than to the Westminster divines, or the earlier Scottish.
[131] Lee's Lectures on the History of the Church of Scotland, i. 124, 125.
[132] Laing's Knox, ii. 113. [In the Confession, as printed in the Acts of the Parliaments of 1560 and 1567
ratifying it, the word chief is retained (Acts of Parliament, ii. 532; iii. 20). The Confession of 1616 bears that:
"We believe that there be only two sacraments appointed by Christ under the New Testament, Baptisme and
the Lord's Supper" ('Booke of the Universall Kirk,' iii. 1137). Concerning the sacraments the First Book of
Discipline says: "They be two, to wit, Baptism and the Holy Supper of the Lord Jesus" (Dunlop's Confessions,
ii. 520; Laing's Knox, ii. 186).]
[133] Hujus generis duo praecipua in vetere ecclesiâ fuerunt circumcisio et agnus paschalis. Nos illorum loco
duo etiam habemus baptismum et caenam domini.
[134] "The Confession of Faith made by Mr Knox, and ratified in Parliament by King James VI., together
with the Westminster Confession (both agreed on by the General Assembly of Presbyters), are owned next to
the Word of God, by both parties, as the Standard of the doctrine of our Church" (Case of Suffering Church of
Scotland).
[135] It is printed at length in Calderwood's History, vii. 233-242; and also in the 'Booke of the Universall
Kirk,' iii. 1132-1139; and is supposed to have been mainly the work of Howie, Melville's successor at St
Andrews.
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[136] [In speaking of this Confession of 1616, Dr Grub says that it "agrees with the old one in all important
points, the chief difference being in its more marked enunciation of the doctrine of Calvin in regard to election
and predestination" (Grub's History, ii. 306).]
[138] Generally so designated, but really as old as the days of Paul and Augustine.
[139] [After 1564-65, the Book of Common Order was usually printed with a complete metrical version of the
Psalms (Laing's Knox, vi. 279, 280, 284); and was comprehended under the name 'Psalm Book' (infra, p.
128). Mr Cowan, of 47 Braid Avenue, Edinburgh, informs me that the Confession, drawn up for the English
congregation at Geneva, appears in every edition of the Book of Common Order which he has examined, from
the Geneva edition of 1556 down to the edition printed by Evan Tyler in 1644.]
[141] [These forms of recantation may be seen in the Maitland Miscellany, iii. 215-221; and in the Register of
St Andrews Kirk-session, Scot. Hist. Soc., i. 11-18.]
[142] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 65, 66; Laing's Knox, ii. 109, 110.
[143] The designation is undoubtedly Knoxian, as it occurs in his dispute with Friar Arbuckill in 1547. To the
reformer's assertion "that the spous of Christ had nether power nor authoritie against the Word of God," the
Friar replied, "Yf so be, ye will leave us na kirk;" and to that the reformer rejoined, "In David I read that thare
is a church of the malignantis, for he sayis, Odi ecclesiam malignantium. That church ye may have without
the Word, ... of that church yf ye wilbe, I can not impead yow" (Laing's Knox, i. 200).
[146] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 520, 583; Laing's Knox, ii. 186, 239. [In another passage it is spoken of as "the
Booke of the Common Order, called the Order of Geneva" (Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 548; Laing's Knox, ii.
210).] The Book of Common Order, which has been frequently reprinted, is included in vols. iv. and vi. of Dr
Laing's edition of Knox's Works.
[147] The extract from the minutes of the city council embodying these conditions, which I found in Withof's
'Vertheidigung' and communicated to Dr Hume Brown, was printed by him in the Appendix to his 'John
Knox,' and is also reprinted here in Appendix D.
[148] "At lenght it was agreed that the Order of Geneua (whiche then was alreadie printed in Englishe and
some copies there amonge them) shulde take place as an Order moste godly and fardeste off from superstition.
But Maister Knox beinge spoken unto, aswell to put that Order in practise, as to minister the communion,
refused to do ether the one or the other, affirminge, that for manie considerations he coulde not consente that
the same Order shulde be practised, till the lerned men off Strausbrough, Zurik, Emden, &c., were made
privy" (Brief Discourse of the Troubles begun at Frankfort in the year 1554, Petheram's reprint, p. xxvii). We
have the following additional entry: "After longe debatinge to and fro, it was concluded that Maister Knox,
Maister Whittingham, Maister Gilby, Maister Fox and Maister T. Cole shulde drawe forthe some Order meete
for their state and time: whiche thinge was by them accomplished and offred to the congregation (beinge the
same Order off Geneua whiche is nowe in print). This Order was verie well liked off many, but suche as were
bent to the Booke of Englande coulde not abide it" (Ibid., pp. xxxvi, xxxvii).
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[149] [It is greatly to be regretted that Dr Mitchell does not seem to have been able to prepare the Appendix to
which he here refers; but after this lecture had left his hands he expressed his "strong conviction that the
words and matter of Knox's Latin Prayer Book of 1556 were derived directly from the Liturgia Sacra of
Pollanus." On this point he entertained "no doubt whatever."]
[153] [The grounds on which this opinion is usually based are given in Laing's Knox, vi. 277, 278. To these
may be added the terms of the summons raised by Sir James Archebald, Vicar of Lintrathin, against his
parishioners, on the 27th of May 1560, for payment of his teinds, &c., on the plea that he "is lauchfullie
providit be the lawis and practik of oure realme, observit in tymes past, of the said vicarage, and hes bene in
possessioun of the samyn thir divers yeris bigane, and hes causit the commone prayeris and homilies be red
owlklie to the parrochinaris of the said parrochin, and uther wyiss is content to abyde sik reformatioun as the
Lordis of our Secreit Counsale plesis mak thairintill, and als is adjonit to Goddis congregatioun, and takis part
with the saidis Lordis in setting fordwart the commone caus, to the gloir of God and commone weill of our
realme" (Spalding Miscellany, iv. 120).]
[154] Laing's Knox, iv. 137-139. [Laing gives the 7th of July 1556 as the correct date of this letter, and says
that it is by some oversight that M'Crie in the later editions of his 'Life of Knox' has dated it 7th July 1557
(Ibid., iv. 140).]
[157] Laing's Knox, vi. 118. This evidently shows that they used not the ipsissima verba of the prayer for all
estates, but variant words, "like in effect." [Randolph's letter is dated 25th August 1560. Alexander Gordon,
Bishop of Galloway, was titular Archbishop of Athens.]
[158] Laing's Knox, vi. 13. [This letter is dated 6th April 1559.]
[159] Liturgies of Edward VI., Parker Society, pp. 157, 158. [The "certain notes" thus referred to pertain to
Edward's First Liturgy.]
[160] Lorimer's Knox and the Church of England, 1875, pp. 29-32.
[161] [On the 29th of July 1637—six days after the riot in St Giles—it was reported to the Privy
Council by Archbishop Spottiswoode, for himself and in name of the remanent bishops, that it seemed
expedient to them "that there should be a surcease of the service-booke" till the king signified his pleasure as
to the punishment of "that disorderlie tumult"; and "that a course be sett down for the peaceable exercise
thereof." He also reported that "the saids bishops had appointed and given order that, in the whole churches of
this citie [i.e., Edinburgh], sermon sall be made at the accustomed times, by regular and obedient ministers,
and that a prayer sall be made before and after sermon, and that neither the old service nor the new established
service be used in this interim." The Council remitted to the bishops "to doe therein according to the power
incumbent unto thame in the dewtie of thair office" (Peterkin's Records of the Kirk, p. 52).
[162] [In Knox's version—"the crossing of thair fingaris" (Laing's Knox, ii. 255).]
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[164] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 526, 530, 532, 536, 603; Laing's Knox, ii. 191, 194, 196, 199, 255.
[165] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 417; Laing's Knox, iv. 179; vi. 294.
[166] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 421; Laing's Knox, iv. 182; vi. 297.
[167] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 425; Laing's Knox, iv. 185; vi. 298.
[168] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 426. There is a similar rubric in the Liturgy of Pollanus: "Minister, nomine
Domini invocato, ut Spiritu Sancto adjutus, possit digna Deo atque salutaria ecclesiae eloqui recitat textum."
[169] The Liturgy of Pollanus appoints sermons to be preached on the mornings of Tuesday and Thursday.
The service is to begin with a psalm, which being sung, the minister having invoked the Holy Spirit recites his
text and proceeds with his sermon. He concludes with some shorter prayer "prout animus tulerit."
[172] In the Order of the General Fast it is stated: "The exhortation and prayers of everie several exercise we
have remitted to be gathered by the discrete ministers, for time preased us so that we culd not frame them in
such order as wes convenient, nether yit thought we it so expedient to pen prayers unto men, as to teach them
with what hart and affection and for what causes we shuld pray, in this great calamitie" (Dunlop's
Confessions, ii. 695; Laing's Knox, vi. 421). See also Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 698; Laing's Knox, vi. 470.
Even the Order of Excommunication might be "enlarged or contracted as the wisedome of the discreit
minister shall thinke expedient" (Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 746; Laing's Knox, vi. 470).
[173] Calderwood's Altare Damascenum, 1623, p. 613. In this and the preceding pages I have made use of
materials contributed by me to a Report anent Innovations in Public Worship, presented to the General
Assembly in 1864. [Elsewhere, Calderwood says: "None are tyed to the prayers of that book; but the prayers
are set down as samplers" (Calderwood's History, 1678 ed., p. 25). Principal Baillie's evidence is to the same
effect: "The Warner is here also mistaken in his beliefe that ever the Church of Scotland had any liturgy; they
had and have still some formes for helpe and direction but no tie ever in any of them by law or practise"
(Review of Bramhall's Faire Warning against the Scots Discipline, 1649, p. 57).]
[175] Order and Government of the Church of Scotland, 1641: Address to the reader.
[176] Certainly not more consistently than Pollanus in the following rubric: "Hae sunt precationum in liturgiis
certae formulae, quae tamen sequitur minister SUO ARBITRIO ut tempus fert et res postulat. Neque enim
ullâ praescriptione formularum alligandus est Spiritus Dei ad eum verborum numerum, cui non liceat
subjicere vel supponere si meliora suggerat.... Hae formulae serviunt tantum rudioribus. Nullius libertati
praescribitur, tantum ne ab eâ ratione discedatur quam nobis Jesus Christus praescripsit.... Cumque is (scilicet
Spiritus Sanctus) apud tribunalia subministret quae dicenda sint, non deerit nobis [si] cum vera fide coram
Deo nos sistemus sensu orationis excitati."
[177] "Von vorgeschriebenen Kirchengebeten vor und nach der Predigt finden wir keine Spur, vielmehr das
sichere Gegentheil.... Ums Jahr 1589 finden wir zuerst das sogenannte Lob und Dankopfer und die daran
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gehängten Fürbitten für die Obrigkeit, und die übrigen christlichen Stände.... Erst nach der Mitte des
siebzehnten Jahrhunderts ... suchte man auch im Liturgischen die Willkür der einzelnen in engere Schränken
zuruckzuführen" (Geschichte der ersten Basler-konfession, S. 249-251).
[178] [The charges are in the alleged causes which led James VI., immediately after his accession to the
English throne, to endeavour to bring about uniformity in the services of the church throughout the whole
kingdom, and run thus: "That diversitie, nay deformitie, which was used in Scotland, where no set or publike
forme of prayer was used, but preachers or leaders and ignorant schoolmasters prayed in the church,
sometimes so ignorantly as it was a shame to all religion to have the Majestie of God so barbarously spoken
unto, sometimes so seditiously that their prayers were plaine libels, girding at soveraigntie and authoritie; or
lyes, being stuffed with all the false reports in the kingdome" (Large Declaration, 1639, p. 16).]
[179] [The committee appointed by the General Assembly to examine the Large Declaration describe it as
dishonourable to God, to the king, and to the kirk; and as "stuffed full of lies and calumnies." Concerning this
part in particular they say: "To the great dishonour of this kirk [it] is affirmed in this Declaration that there is a
great deformitie in our service—no forme of publict prayer, but preachers, readers, and ignorant
schoollemasters, praying in the church, sometymes so ignorantlie," &c. (Peterkin's Records of the Kirk, pp.
265, 266).
[180] [The six were John Wynram, John Spottiswoode, John Willock, John Douglas, John Row, and John
Knox (supra, p. 99).]
[183] The appointment of such an official as chief minister of the English congregation of Frankfort had,
however, been urged by Knox's opponents there, but was refused by his party (Discourse of Troubles at
Frankfort, pp. xiv, xlvii, cxvii, cxxxv-cxxxviii, cxlvi, cxlvii).
[184] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 409, 410; Laing's Knox, iv. 177.
[185] The great services Coverdale had rendered to the cause of Protestantism by his translation of the
Scriptures did not suffice to blot out from the minds of Elizabeth and her ministers the remembrance of his
connection with Knox and Goodman. He was welcomed at the consecration of Archbishop Parker, though he
came in his black gown, for they could not well do that without him; but all Grindal's efforts failed to secure
for him a Welsh bishopric, or even to get him left unmolested in the parochial benefice he conferred on him.
[186] Even in St Andrews, with all its equipment of schools and colleges, the common people are represented
in 1547 as welcoming Knox's offer of a public disputation, because though they could not all read his papers
they could understand what he addressed to them vivâ voce (Laing's Knox, i. 189).
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[192] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 578; Laing's Knox, ii. 234, 235.
[193] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 581; Laing's Knox, ii. 236, 237.
[194] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 532; Laing's Knox, ii. 195, 196. [Readers who were able to exhort and explain
the Scriptures were to have their stipends augmented until they attained the honour of a minister (Dunlop's
Confessions, ii. 536, 537; Laing's Knox, ii. 199, 200).]
[195] [The readers who had "any gift of interpretation" were to take part in these meetings (Dunlop's
Confessions, ii. 590; Laing's Knox, ii. 244).]
[197] ["It is evident unto all men, diligently reading Holy Scripture and ancient authors, that from the apostles'
time there hath been these orders of ministers in Christ's church: bishops, priests, and deacons" (Liturgies of
Edward VI., Parker Society, p. 331).]
[198] The jest attributed to Queen Elizabeth that she had made a bishop but marred a good preacher shows
this.
[199] In the chief towns, just as in Geneva, there seems from early times to have been a common or "general
session," although there were several congregations in each, as in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, and Perth.
[200] Even the Second Book of Discipline does not sharply distinguish between the lesser and greater
eldership or presbytery; and Gillespie admits they were not distinguished in the primitive church, though he
holds that both were needed in Scotland to do the work which the one presbytery did in the primitive church
(infra, pp. 230-233).
[201] [The Book of Common Order distinguishes between the weekly meeting of the ministers and elders in
their assembly or consistory, and the weekly meeting of the congregation for the interpretation of the
Scriptures (Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 411-413; Laing's Knox, iv. 177-179). For the nature and object of the
exercise see infra, pp. 170-173.]
[202] [The bull, which is printed in Concilia Scotiæ, ii. 3, is dated "xiiij kalendas Junij pontificatus nostri anno
nono," i.e., the 19th of May 1225.]
[205] See Calvin's Institutes, book iv. chap. ii.—"As no city or village can exist without a magistrate
and government, so the Church of God stands in need of a spiritual polity of its own. This is altogether
distinct from the civil government, and is so far from hindering or impairing it, that it rather does much to aid
and promote it."
[207] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 414-417; Laing's Knox, iv. 204-206. If this humanity is not observed in
private as well as in public, there is danger lest instead of discipline we fall into a kind of Gehenna, and
instead of correctors and educators become executioners of the brethren (Calvin).
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[208] The form of absolution then appointed to be used was, with consent of Henderson, modified by the
Westminster divines into the shape in which it appears in their Directory for Church Government and
Excommunication, and as modified was afterwards inserted in our Form of Process of 1707.
[210] Book of Common Order, in Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 412; Laing's Knox, iv. 179.
[211] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 587-589; Laing's Knox, ii. 242, 243.
[212] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 590, 591; Laing's Knox, ii. 244, 245.
[215] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 561; Laing's Knox, ii. 220, 221.
[216] [Dr Mitchell seems to have thought that handlings should be read haldings.]
[217] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 562, 563. [The words which in this quotation are enclosed in parentheses are
not in the copy of the Book of Discipline preserved by Knox (Laing's Knox, ii. 221, 222). Instead of the
words, "if we permit cruelty to be used," that copy reads, "if you permit suche creualtie to be used"; and after
the words, "comfort and relaxation," is the clause, "Concludit be the Lordis."]
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Then Meg, my wife, did murne baith evin and morow,
Till at the last scho deit for verie sorow:
And quhen the vickar hard tell my wyfe was dead,
The thrid cow he cleikit be the heid.
Thair umest clayis, that was of rapploch gray,
The vickar gart his clark bear them away.
Quhen all was gane, I micht mak na debeat,
Bot with my bairns past for till beg my meat.
Now, haif I tald yow the blak veritie,
How I am brocht into this miserie."
—Laing's Lindsay's Poetical Works, 1879, ii. 99, 102, 103.
[219] [In the Articles addressed by some of the temporal lords and barons to the queen regent, and sent by her
to the Provincial Council convened in Edinburgh a few weeks before the Reformation burst like a tempest
upon the country, it was requested that "the corps presentes, kow, and [um]est claith, and the silvir commonlie
callit the kirk richts, and Pasch offrands quhilk is takin at Pasch fra men and women for distribution of the
sacrament of the blessit body and blood of Jesus Christ," should no longer be extorted under pain of
excommunication or debarring from the sacraments, but left to the free will of the givers (Concilia Scotiæ, ii.
148, 149). The Council met this demand for reformation by enacting that in future the poor should be freed
from mortuary dues, while those not quite so poor were only to pay them in a modified form; and the small
tithes and oblations were to be taken up before Lent so as to avoid the appearance of selling the sacrament
(Ibid., ii. 167, 168, 174). When, on the 27th of May 1560, the reforming vicar of Lintrathin raised a summons
against his parishioners for payment of his teinds, "the cors present and umest clayth of all yeris and termes
bigane restand unpayit" were specially excepted from his claim (Spalding Miscellany, iv. 121).
[220] Dr Lorimer in British and Foreign Evangelical Review for 1872, p. 758.
[221] [The Good Regent was assassinated on the 23rd of January 1569-70.]
[222] [1570.]
[225] M'Crie's Knox, 1855, p. 459; Rogers' Three Scottish Reformers, p. 97.
[226] [Archbishop Hamilton was hanged at the market cross of Stirling on the 7th of April 1571.]
[229] [Archibald Hamilton's letter or protestation is in Bannatyne's Memoriales, pp. 262, 263.]
[230] [According to Martine, it was built, not for the reception of Mary of Guise, but when James V. was
married to Magdalene, the fair daughter of Francis I., in 1537, the tradition being that the physicians chose
this place as peculiarly suitable for such a delicate creature; and that "so many artificers were conveened and
employed, and the materials so quicklie prepared, that the house was begun and finished in a month"
(Reliquiæ Divi Andreæ, p. 190). There is better evidence to show that Mary of Guise spent her honeymoon
within its substantial walls in the summer of 1538 (Lesley's History, pp. 155, 156; Pitscottie's History, 1778,
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[232] Ibid.
[235] [In the rather scurrilous Legend of the Bischop of St Androis, it is said:—
He inherited both names from his ancestors, who were called Constantine or Adamson (M'Crie's Melville,
1856, p. 461).]
[240] [This convention was held in January 1571-72. See Booke of the Universall Kirk, i. 203-236;
Calderwood's History, iii. 168-196.]
[243] [Dr Laing has not only indicated that there has long been much uncertainty and speculation as to the
parentage and social status of John Douglas, but has stated that he "was descended from the Douglasses of
Pettendreich" (Laing's Knox, i. 286 n.) Principal Lee has said: "All the accounts of Douglas which I have ever
seen in modern books abound with errors. He is represented as having been an obscure Carmelite friar whom
the Earl of Argyle chose to employ as his chaplain, and for whom the Archbishop of St Andrews expressed
the strongest aversion. He was quite a different man—a man of family undoubtedly, and most probably
related to James Douglas the Earl of Morton, son of Sir George Douglas of Pinky, and, like him, a branch of
the great family of Angus" (Lee's Lectures, ii. 3). When working in the Register House, I found
unimpeachable evidence concerning his parentage. On the 2nd of January 1563-64, letters of legitimation
were granted in favour of Mr John Douglas, Rector of the University of St Andrews, bastard son natural of
quondam Robert Douglas in Langnewtoune (Register of Privy Seal, xxxii. 23).]
FOOTNOTES: 125
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Scottish Reformation, by Alexander F. Mitchell
[245] These honest men earnestly implored their pastor to return also to Edinburgh, if he could do so without
serious injury to his health.
[247] [Dr Cameron Lees says that the Tolbooth, in which Knox preached for some little time and where he
delivered his last sermon, was "the portion of St Giles which had been cut off the western part of the nave, and
was used for meetings of the Council" (St Giles', 1889, p. 157).]
[250] [In the opinion of Dr David Laing, Lawson was the author of the Vera Historia extremae vitae et obitus
eximii viri Joannis Knoxii, appended to Smeton's Responsio ad Hamiltonii Dialogum, in 1579 (Laing's Knox,
vi. 646).]
[251] Walsingham's abuse of Wycliffe. [Thomae Walsingham, Historia Anglicana, ii. 119, 120; and
Ypodigma Neustriae a Thoma Walsingham, p. 340; Rolls series. Translations will be found in Vaughan's John
de Wycliffe, 1853, pp. 468, 469; and in Lechler's Wycliffe, Relig. Tract Soc., p. 423.]
[252] [For the substance of Archibald Hamilton's account, see M'Crie's Knox, 1855, p. 405. Bannatyne's
account is in both editions of his work (Journal of Transactions, 1806, and Memoriales of Transactions, 1836).
It is likewise in Laing's Knox, vi. 634-645; and there (pp. 649-660) is also given a translation of Smeton's (or
Lawson's) account. The accounts of Bannatyne and Smeton do not always agree as to the exact day on which
certain events happened.]
[253] [Morton was elected regent on the 24th of November 1572, the day on which Knox died (Acts of
Parliament, iii. 78; Bannatyne's Memoriales, p. 280). Bannatyne places Morton's visit on the 19th; Smeton
leaves the day uncertain.]
[254] For a defence of Kirkaldy see Barbé's Kirkaldy of Grange, Famous Scots Series, pp. 108-124.
[255] For a different interpretation see Taylor Innes's John Knox, Famous Scots Series, pp. 30, 31.
[256] [Morton's testimony to Knox, as recorded by Melville, was: "That he nather fearit nor flatterit anie
fleche" (Diary, p. 60). As recorded by Calderwood: "Here lyeth a man who in his life never feared the face of
man; who hath beene often threatned with dag and dager, but yitt hath ended his dayes in peace and honour.
For he had God's providence watching over him in a speciall maner, when his verie life was sought" (History,
iii. 242).]
[260] Confession of 1560, in Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 92, 93. [In Laing's Knox, ii. 118, it is reformatioun and
purgatioun instead of conservation and purgation.]
FOOTNOTES: 126
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[261] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 788, 789. [The Second Book of Discipline has been frequently printed. It is in
Calderwood's History, Wodrow Society ed., iii. 529-555; Spottiswoode's History, 1655, pp. 289-302;
Spottiswoode Society ed., ii. 233-256; Booke of the Universall Kirk, Bannatyne Club ed., ii. 488-512;
Peterkin's ed., pp. 537-563; Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 757-805. The quotations in the text are from Dunlop.]
[262] Ibid., ii. 764. Melville afterwards more pithily expressed the same principle in his sovereign's presence:
"Thair is twa kings and twa kingdomes in Scotland. Thair is Chryst Jesus the King, and His kingdome the
kirk, whase subject King James the Saxt is, and of whase kingdome nocht a king, nor a lord, nor a heid, bot a
member! And they whome Chryst hes callit and commandit to watch over His kirk, and governe His spirituall
kingdome, hes sufficient powar of Him and authoritie sa to do, bathe togidder and severalie; the quhilk na
Christian king nor prince sould controll and discharge, but fortifie and assist, utherwayes nocht fathfull
subjects nor members of Chryst" (Melville's Diary, p. 370).
[266] Rutherfurd's Divine Right of Church Government, 1646, pp. 596, 597. [1 John iii. 1 is a misprint in the
original for 1 John iv. 1.]
[269] [Dr Mitchell may have found such a claim elsewhere in Gillespie's works; but it is not distinctly made in
that chapter of 'Aaron's Rod Blossoming' from which the quotations in this paragraph are taken, although
perhaps it may be held to be implied in the words: "By which it appeareth that their [i.e., the Independents']
way will not suffer them to be so far moulded into an uniformity, or bounded within certain particular rules (I
say not with others, but even among themselves) as the Presbyterian way will admit of" (Aaron's Rod
Blossoming, p. 181).]
[272] Peterkin's Booke of the Universall Kirk, 1839, p. 549 n. [The late Bishop Russell, after examining the
four MS. copies of Spottiswoode's History, came to the conclusion that the one in the Advocates' Library is
only the first and incompleted draft of the work, and that the one in Trinity College, Dublin, is the one which
Spottiswoode himself prepared for the press. Bishop Russell accordingly followed the Dublin MS. in his
edition of the History printed for the Spottiswoode Society, and that edition (as well as the old folio edition)
contains the notes of agreement and disagreement. Peterkin has printed the Second Book of Discipline, from
an attested copy publicly read on the 29th of September 1591 "in the elderschip of Haddingtoun," and
"subscryvit be the brethren thairof." Of the ten subscribers, nine write minister after their names; the other
simply signs, "Mr L. Hay, Bass."]
FOOTNOTES: 127
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Scottish Reformation, by Alexander F. Mitchell
[276] ["Some reproachfully and others ignorantly call them lay elders. But the distinction of the clergie and
laity is popish and anti-christian; and they who have narrowly considered the records of ancient times have
noted this distinction as one of the grounds whence the mystery of iniquity had the beginning of it. The name
of clergie appropriate to ministers is full of pride and vaine-glory, and hath made the holy people of God to be
despised, as if they were prophane and uncleane in comparison of their ministers" (Gillespie's Assertion of the
Government, 1641, p. 3).]
[279] [In some editions of the Genevan version the word "eldership" is thus explained in the margin: "Under
this name he containeth the whole ministerie of the church which was at Ephesus."]
[280] Assertion of the Government of the Church of Scotland, 1641, pp. 128-130, 136-147.
[281] [It is not quite clear which conference Dr Mitchell is here referring to. In the conference held at Stirling
in December 1578, the Second Book of Discipline was discussed section by section. The results are preserved
not only by Spottiswoode, as mentioned above (p. 227 n.), but also by Calderwood (iii. 433-442), neither of
whom, however, says that these results were then noted as having been expressly approved by the king. The
heads agreed upon at the Holyrood conference on 17th February 1585-86 do not include anything which can
be regarded as the draft of the clause of the Act of 1592 concerning the power and jurisdiction of "particulare
kirkis" (Calderwood's History, iv. 491-494). The articles defining the jurisdiction of provincial assemblies,
presbyteries, and particular kirks, agreed on by the king in conference with some of the brethren sent to him
by the General Assembly in May 1586, are transferred almost verbatim to the Act of Parliament of 1592
(Booke of the Universall Kirk, Bannatyne Club edit., ii. 665, 666; Calderwood's History, iv. 567, 568; Acts of
Parliament, iii. 541, 542).]
[282] The Government and Order of the Church of Scotland, 1641, pp. 60, 64, 65.
[283] [Alesius thus proceeds: "Et in mari inter tempestates et 18 diebus subtus terram in teterrimo specu inter
bufones et serpentes custodivit (oportet enim me haec alicubi commemorare pro gratitudine erga Deum). Hic
igitur Salvator omnium, maxime fidelium, perficiet id quod per me facere instituit" (In Alteram ad Timotheum
expositio. Autore Alexandro Alesio. D. Lipsiae, 1551, sign. A 2).]
[284] D'Aubigné's Reformation in the Time of Calvin, vi. 13, 14. [D'Aubigné is here following, or rather
embellishing, the account which Alesius thus gives in another of his works: "Pueri, me adhuc puero, quasdam
sententias excerptas ex Joanne, scriptas in membrana, ut illam, in principio erat verbum, Ecce agnus Dei, &c.,
Sic Deus dilexit mundum, Ego sum resurrectio et vita, &c., ac similes, vel auro et argento inclusas circa
collum gestabant, non tam ornamenti causa, quàm quod magnam vim et virtutem in his collocarent contra
incantationes et pericula, in quae diabolus saepe pueros incautos solet conjicere. Memini frequenter, et quoties
reminiscor, toto corpore cohorresco, me in praerupto altissimi montis manibus et pedibus reptantem, ac
proximum praecipitio, subito translatum nescio à quo aut quomodo, in alium locum: et alia vice ex
eminentiori deambulacro aedium patris cadentem inter acervum lapidum poliendorum ad aedificium,
servatum esse divinitus.
"Non tribuo hanc salutem sententiis ex Joanne, quas forsan aliorum puerorum more circumferebam: sed fidei
parentum, qui harum sententiam mente circumferebant, et pro me orabant. Sed tamen, ut mihi videtur, magis
deceret nobilitatem Christianam, has et similes sententias in auro et lapidibus preciosis insculptas à collo
FOOTNOTES: 128
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Scottish Reformation, by Alexander F. Mitchell
[285] [In a list of names without a heading, he appears as "Alexr. Allane na. Lau.," which shows that of the
nations into which the members of the university were then classified, he belonged to Lothian. In the list of
determinants he appears as "Allexr. Alan." Opposite his name and the names of his class-fellows is the word
"pauperes," which shows that they paid no fees.]
[286] He himself at a later period ingenuously acknowledges that his arguments in great part were borrowed
from the treatise of an English bishop, namely Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, who at the request of Henry VIII.
had replied to Luther's attack on that monarch.
[290] [He calls it a latrinâ in his 'Responsio ad Cochlei Calumnias,' sign. A v.]
[294] Ibid.
[295] No doubt James Wedderburn, merchant at the West Kirk Style of Dundee, who carried on a large trade
with the Continent, and was known to be friendly to those holding the reformed opinions. One of his sons was
then studying at St Andrews, and probably had been the means of communication between the canons and
Dundee to secure beforehand a speedy departure for their fugitive friend. [For many interesting details
concerning the sons of this Dundee merchant, see Dr Mitchell's Wedderburns and their Work, 1867; and also
his edition of The Gude and Godlie Ballatis, 1897, pp. xvii-xxxii, lxxxiii-civ.]
[296] [In his Introduction (pp. xviii-xx) to Gau's 'Richt Vay to the Kingdom of Heuine,' Dr Mitchell says:
"The treatise 'De Apostolicis Traditionibus,' in which he [i.e., Alesius] has given an account of his visit, and of
the manner in which he was received by his countrymen and the reforming preachers of Malmö, is one of the
rarest of his minor treatises, and is not to be found in any of our Scottish libraries, nor in the British Museum,
nor even in the library of the University of Leipsic, in which he was so long an honoured professor.... Neither
the name of Gau nor that of any other of his countrymen then in the city is given by Alesius.... Principal
Lorimer has ingeniously conjectured that Gau may have come out to act as chaplain to his countrymen at
Malmö. And I am inclined to accept the conjecture to a modified extent.... At any rate, we find that before the
close of 1533 he was in Denmark, and had got such an accurate knowledge of the Danish language that he had
translated and published a treatise of considerable length from Danish into his native Scotch." In the Appendix
to the same Introduction (p. xlv) Dr Mitchell explains that "modern Danish scholars express doubts whether,
in the early part of the 16th century, any nation, save the German as represented by the Hanseatic League, was
organised as a distinct community at Malmö."]
[297] [This sentence is interlined, and the word which seems to be first is rather indistinct.]
FOOTNOTES: 129
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Scottish Reformation, by Alexander F. Mitchell
[298] In the preceding narrative I have availed myself of the details which Alesius has given us of his labours
and sufferings in his commentaries and lesser treatises, and especially in two of the smallest of them, both
published in 1533, the one bearing the title—"Alexandri Alesii Epistola contra decretum quoddam
Episcoporū in Scotia, quod prohibet legere Noui Testamenti libros lingua vernacula"; the other
"Alexandri Alesii Scotti Responsio ad Cochlei Calvmnias."
[299] [The nature of the arguments used by Alesius in this epistle may be learned from the lengthy extracts
quoted in Christopher Anderson's Annals of the English Bible, 1845, ii. 430-437.]
[300] [This reply by Cochlaeus, which is dated 6th June 1533, is entitled: "An Expediat Laicis, legere Noui
Testamenti libros lingua Vernacula? Ad Serenissimvm Scotiæ Regem Iacobum V. Disputatio inter
Alexandrum Alesium Scotum, & Iohannem Cochlæum Germanum. Anno dn̄i M.D. XXXIII." A
beautiful copy of this very rare work was secured at the Laing sale for the library of the Church of Scotland.
There is also a copy in the Signet Library. A few extracts may be found in Anderson's Annals, ii. 439-441.]
[301] [A beautiful copy of this excessively rare tract was also secured for the Church library at the Laing
sale.]
[302] [For a translation by Dr Mitchell of that part of the Responsio which relates to the opinions of Alesius,
see Appendix E.]
[303] [Dr Mitchell possessed copies of several of the other tracts of Cochlaeus, as well as of this: "Pro Scotiae
Regno Apologia Iohannis Cochlei, adversvs personatum Alexandrum Alesium Scotum. Ad Sereniss.
Scotorū regē. M.D.XXXIIII." It ends: "Excusum Lipsiae apud Michaelem Blum."]
[304] [Alesius says: "I was at Antwerp whan a contryman of myne, whose name was John Foster, did send a
somme of mony unto Cochleus by a marchant from the Bisshop of S. Andrews, which geveth him yerely so
long as he liveth a certen stipend. And it chanced by the goodnes of God, wherby He discloseth the wickednes
of these hipocytes (sic), that a pistle of Cochleus which he sent unto a certen bisshop of Pole came unto my
handes, wherin he complayneth that he hath gret losse and evel fortune in setting forth of bokes, for as moch
as no man wil wetesaue to rede his bokes. And he beggeth a yerely stipend of the bisshops of Pole, saing that
he hath bene nobly rewarded of the King of Scottys and of the Archbisshop of S. Andrews and of the Bisshop
of Glasguo" ('Of the Auctorite of the Word of God').]
[305] [From the Treasurer's Accounts, as quoted by M'Crie, it appears that the servant who brought over his
book received £10 (M'Crie's Knox, 1855, p. 321 n.).]
[307] [The title is: "De Avthoritate Verbi Dei Liber Alexandri Alesij, contra Episcopum Lundensem. An.
M.D.XLII." The preface is dated: "Francfordiae ad Oderam. Calend. Maijs. an. Domini M.D.XL." The
colophon is: "Argentorati apvd Cratonem Mylivm an. M.D.XLII. mense Septembri." The translation, which is
in black-letter, bears no date, place, or printer's name. For a copy of its title, see infra, p. 268 n.]
[308] [Alesius says that he was the bearer of the Loci Theologici, which he had persuaded Melanchthon to
dedicate to Henry VIII. (Foreign Calendar, Elizabeth, i. 525).]
[309] [He was in London during the time of the trial and execution of Anne Boleyn. He sent Elizabeth an
account of a dream or vision which he then had. See Appendix F.]
FOOTNOTES: 130
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Scottish Reformation, by Alexander F. Mitchell
[310] [There is "great uncertainty" as to whether this meeting took place in 1536 or 1537 (Hardwick's
Reformation, 1883, p. 182 n.). The year 1537 is given by Alesius in his 'De Avthoritate Verbi Dei' (p. 18), and
is repeated in the translation. In the latter it is said: "Contrary to all my expectacion I chanced to fall agayn
into such a disputacyon as I was in before, and in maner with like adversarys.... Unto this disputacion I came
sodenly unprepared, for as I did mete bi chance in the streate the right excellent Lord Crumwel going unto the
Parlament Howse in the yeare 1537, he whan he sawe me called me unto him, and toke me with him to the
Parlament House to Westmyster (sic), where we fownd all the bisshops gathered together."]
[311] Cattley's Foxe, v. 381-384. [The whole of this account, as Cattley points out, is taken by Foxe almost
verbatim from a statement made by Alesius himself in his rare tract entitled, Of the Auctorite of the Word of
God agaynst the Bisshop of London, wherein are conteyned certen disputacyons had in the Parlament Howse
betwene the Bisshops, abowt the nomber of the Sacraments, and other things very necessary to be known:
made by Alexander Alane Scot and sent to the Duke of Saxon. Christopher Anderson says that this translation
of the tract De Authoritate Verbi Dei Liber was made by Edmund Allen. So completely had the original name
of Alesius dropped out of knowledge that Anderson actually charges the printer with committing "a strange
blunder in the title." Believing that Ales was the real name of Alesius, he thought that the printer had divided
the name of the author between the author and the translator ('Annals of the English Bible,' ii. 479 n.).]
[314] "I owe much," he says, "to your father, who received me most hospitably at my first coming hither, and,
in name of Duke Maurice (now Elector of Saxony), invited me to give my services to this famous university,
and retained me here some years after, when I was called elsewhere" (i.e., probably Königsberg), "promising
me the favour and grace of the most illustrious prince elector. Finally, after the war, he encouraged me, then
hesitating, to write to the elector to beg the restitution of my books and other effects, which I had lost at the
time of the siege of this city, kindly offering his best services in rendering my supplicatory letter to the prince,
by which, however, he only succeeded in securing that the elector, when departing from his own dominions to
attend the imperial diet, should give instructions on the matter to his counsellors whom he had left at home,
and should deliver to be sent on to me a letter full of kindness through Damianus Sybothendorff, secretary to
his highness."
[315] On the former of which occasions he inscribed the following paragraph in the matriculation book of the
university: "Anno MDLV, die 23 Aprilis, qui Divo Georgio sacer est, et quo existimo me natum esse,
supputatis retro LV annis, ego Alexander Alesius, gente Scotus, Patriâ Edinburgensis, atavis consulibus, qui
duobus regibus, Jacobo Quinto, et Henrico Octavo, et quatuor electoribus, Johanni Friderico, Mauricio et
Augusto, Ducibus Saxoniae, et Joachimo Electori Brandeburgensi inservivi, invitus suscepi officium rectoris
universitatis scholae in inclytâ urbe Lipsiâ."
[316] Lorimer's Scottish Reformation, 1860, pp. 112, 113. [The Perth martyrs are noticed above, pp. 53, 54.
See also Laing's Knox, i. 117, 118, 523-526.]
[317] Lorimer's Scottish Reformation, 1860, pp. 115, 116. [The quotations from the Cohortatio which follow
agree substantially with those given by Dr Lorimer, but many of the variations in the phraseology show that
Dr Mitchell had the original as well as Lorimer's translation before him when he wrote.]
FOOTNOTES: 131
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Scottish Reformation, by Alexander F. Mitchell
[320] Anderson's Annals of the English Bible, 1845, ii. 485. For a list of the published writings of Alesius see
Appendix I.
[321] [This is taken from a paper on "St Mary's College," contributed by Dr Mitchell to the "Student's
Handbook to the University of St Andrews," 1895, pp. 12-15.]
[322] [In Crumwell's accounts there are payments of £5 to Alesius on each of the following dates: 4th January
1536-37, 28th March, 28th May, and 24th October 1537; of 10 merks, on 19th February 1537-38; and of £5,
on 13th October 1538, to Ric. Morison, which he gave "by my lord's command" to Alesius (Letters and State
Papers, Henry VIII., vol. xiv. part ii. 328-338).]
[323] [Alesius arrived at Wittenberg on the 9th of July 1539, and from thence informed Crumwell that he was
encouraged to hope that he would receive a post in the University there (Letters and State Papers, Henry VIII.,
vol. xiv. part i. 583, 584). Melanchthon wrote to the Elector's chancellor, on the 1st of December 1539,
recommending him for the University of Frankfort (Corpus Reformatorum, iii. 842-844).]
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