Part 34

8 ― In the twelfth century, there was a school at Abernethy and at Roxburgh. Sir James Dalrymple’s Collections, p. 226, 255. Other schools in that and the subsequent century are mentioned in charters, apud Chalmers’s Caledonia, i. 76.

9 ― Caledonia, i. 768.

10 ― Boetii Vitæ, fol. xxx. Vaus was the author of “Rudimenta Artis Grammaticæ per Jo. Vaus Scotvm Selecta――Edinbvrgi Excudebat Robertus Lekpreuik, Anno Do. 1566.” 4to. This was probably another edition of the work printed by Jod. Bad. Ascensius, Paris, 1522.

11 ― Row’s History of the Kirk of Scotland, MS. p. 3, 4. Simson taught at Perth between 1550 and 1560. At the establishment of the Reformation, he became minister of Dunning and Cargill, from which he was translated, in 1566, to Dunbar, where he sustained the double office of minister of the parish, and master of the grammar-school. He was the author of the Latin Rudiments, which continued to be taught in the schools of Scotland until the time of Ruddiman, and were much esteemed by that accomplished scholar. Row, ut supra. Keith’s History, p. 534. Chalmers’s Life of Ruddiman, p. 21, 22, 63.

12 ― Life of John Erskine of Dun, p. 2, in Wodrow MSS. vol. i. Bibl. Coll. Glas. This industrious collector had access to some of Erskine’s papers, when employed in compiling his life. Additional facts respecting the early state of Greek literature in Scotland will be found in Note C.

13 ― “In the Hebrew toung, (says Knox, in his defence before the bishop of Durham,) I confess myself ignorant, but have, as God knaweth, fervent thirst to have sum entrance thairin.” MS. Letters, p. 16.

14 ― Major had come to St Andrews in 1523. The Records of that University shew that Buchanan was not of St Salvator’s College, but of St Mary’s. It is probable that Major at that time taught in this College; and it was not until 1533 that he became provost, or principal, of St Salvator’s.

15 ― These sentiments are collected from his Commentaries on the Third Book of the Master of Sentences, and from his Exposition of Matthew’s Gospel; printed in Latin at Paris, the former in 1517, and the latter in 1518.

16 ― See Note D.

17 ― Lord Hailes, having given an example of this, adds, “After this, can Buchanan be censured for saying that he was ‘solo cognomine _Major_?’” (Provincial Councils of the Scottish Clergy, p. 11.) By the way, it was Major who first said this of himself. It was the sight of these words, “Joannes, solo cognomine Major,” in the dedicatory epistle to his writings, that drew from Buchanan the satirical lines, which have been so often appealed to by his enemies, as an infallible proof of the badness of his heart. If fault there was in this, we may certainly make the apology which his learned editor produces for him in another case, “non tam hominis vitium, quam poetæ.” Poets and wits cannot always spare their best friends.

18 ― Buchanan always mentions Knox in terms of high respect, Oper. ed. Ruddiman. p. 313, 321, 366. And the Reformer, in his Historie, has borne testimony to the virtues as well as splendid talents of the Poet: “That notable man, Mr George Bucquhanane――remanis alyve to this day, in the yeir of God 1566 years, to the glory of God, to the gret honour of this natioun, and to the comfort of thame that delyte in letters and vertew. That singulare wark of David’s Psalmes, in Latin meetre and poesie, besyd mony uther, can witness the rare graices of God gevin to that man.” Historie, p. 24.

19 ― D. Buchanan’s Life of Knox. Mackenzie’s Lives, iii. 111. Although I have followed the common accounts, I have great doubts if Knox was made Master of Arts. It was usual to put Mr before the names of those who had been laureated, but I have never seen this title prefixed to his name in any old record.

20 ― “In hac igitur Anthropotheologia egregie versatus Cnoxus, eandem et magna autoritate docuit: visusque fuit magistro suo (si qua in subtilitate felicitas,) in quibusdam felicior.” Verheiden, Effigies et Elogia Præstant. Theolog. p. 92. Hagæcomit. 1602. Bezæ Icones, Ee. iij. Melch. Adami Vitæ Theolog. Exter. p. 137. Francofurti, 1618.

21 ― See Note E.

22 ― Bezæ Icones, Verheidenii Effigies, Melchior Adam; ut supra. Spotswood’s History, p. 265. Lond. 1677.

23 ― During the minority of James V. the celebrated Gawin Douglas was recommended by the Queen to the archbishopric of St Andrews; but John Hepburn, prior of the regular canons, opposed the nomination, and took the archiepiscopal palace by storm. Douglas afterwards laid siege to the cathedral of Dunkeld, and carried it, more by the thunder of his cannon, than the dread of the excommunication which he threatened to fulminate against his antagonist. Buch. Hist. xiii. 44. Spotsw. 61. Life of Gawin Douglas, prefixed to his translation of the Æneid; Ruddiman’s edition.

24 ― Sir David Lyndsay’s Works, by Chalmers, i. 344. ii. 237, 238. Winzet, and Kennedy; apud Keith, App. 488, 504.

25 ― The Popes were accustomed to grant liberty to the commendators to dispose of benefices which they held by this tenure, to others who should succeed to them after their death. Introduction to Scots Biography, in Wodrow MSS. vol. ix. p. 171; Bibl. Coll. Glas. So late as anno 1534, Clement VII. granted, _in commendam_, to his nephew Hypolitus, Cardinal de Medici, ALL the benefices in the world, secular and regular, dignities and parsonages, simple and with cure, being vacant, for six months; with power to dispose of all their fruits, and convert them to his own use. Father Paul’s History of the Council of Trent, lib. 1, p. 251. Lond. 1620.

26 ― One exception occurs, and must not be omitted. When George Wishart was preaching in Ayr, Dunbar, archbishop of Glasgow, took possession of the pulpit, in order to exclude the Reformer. Some of the more zealous hearers would have dispossessed the bishop, but Wishart would not suffer them. “The bishope preichit to his jackmen, and to some auld boisses of the toun. The soum of all his sermone was, They sey, we sould preiche: Quhy not? Better lait thryve nor nevir thryve. Had us still for your bishope, and we sall provyde better the nixt tyme.” Knox, Historie, p. 44.

27 ― War not the preiching of the begging freiris, Tint war the faith among the seculeiris. Lyndsay, ut supra, i. 343, comp. ii. 101.

28 ― Lord Hailes’s Notes on Ancient Scottish Poems, p. 249, 250, 297, 309. We need not appeal to the testimony of the reformers, nor to satirical poems published at that time, in proof of the extreme profligacy of the popish clergy. The truth is registered in the Acts of Parliament, and in the decrees of their own councils, (Wilkins, Concil. tom. iv. p. 46‒60. Keith’s Hist. pref. xiv. and p. 14,) in the records of legitimation, (Lord Hailes, ut supra, p. 249, 250,) and in the confessions of their own writers. (Kennedy and Winzet, apud Keith, append. 202, 205‒7. Lesley, Hist. 232. Father Alexander Baillie’s True Information of the Unhallowed Offspring, &c., of our Scottish Calvinian Gospel, p. 15, 16; Wirtzburg, anno 1628.)

29 ― In consequence of a very powerful confederacy against the religious knight, called Templars, and upon charges of the most flagitious crimes, that order was suppressed by a general council, anno 1312; but their possessions were conferred upon another order of sacred knights. The plenitude of papal power was stretched to the very utmost, in this dread attempt: “Quanquam (says his holiness in the bull) de jure non possumus, tamen ad plenitudinem potestatis dictum ordinem reprobamus.” Walsingham, Histor. Angl. p. 99. When the Gilbertine monks retired from Scotland, because the air of the country did not agree with them, their revenues were, upon their resignation, transferred to the monastery of Paisley. Keith’s Scottish Bishops, p. 266.

30 ― See Note F.

31 ― Fox, p. 1153, printed anno 1596. Chalmers’s Lyndsay, ii. 62, 63, 64. Lord Hailes, Provincial Councils of the Scottish Clergy, p. 30. Sir Ralph Sadler’s testimony to the clergy, as the only men of learning about the court of James V., may seem to contradict what I have asserted. But Sadler speaks of their talents for political management, and in the same letters gives a proof of their ignorance in other respects. The clergy, at that time, made law their principal study, and endeavoured to qualify themselves for offices of state. This, however, engaged their whole attention, and they were grossly ignorant in their own profession. Sadler’s State Papers, i. 47, 48; Edin. 1809. Knox, Historie, p. 18.

Andrew Forman, bishop of Murray, and papal legate for Scotland, being obliged to say grace, at an entertainment which he gave to the pope and cardinals in Rome, blundered so in his latinity, that his holiness and their eminences lost their gravity, which so disconcerted the bishop, that he concluded the blessing by giving all the false carles to the devil, _in nomine patris, filii, et sancti spiritus_; to which the company, not understanding his Scoto-Latin, said Amen. “The holy bishop,” says Pitscottie, “was not a good scholar, and had not good Latin.” History, p. 106.

32 ― Wilkins, Concilia, tom. iv. 72. Lord Hailes’s Provincial Councils of the Scottish Clergy, p. 36.

33 ― Luther often mentioned to his familiar acquaintances the advantage which he derived from a visit to Rome in 1510, and used to say that he would not exchange that journey for 1000 florins; so much did it contribute to open his eyes to the corruptions of the Romish court, and to weaken his prejudices. Melchior. Adami, Vitæ Germ. Theol. p. 104. Erasmus had a sensation of the same kind, although weaker. John Rough, one of the Scottish Reformers, felt in a similar way, after visiting Rome. Fox, p. 1841.

34 ― Notwithstanding laws repeatedly made to restrain persons from going to Rome, to obtain benefices, the practice was greatly on the increase about the time of the Reformation.

It is schort tyme sen ony benefice Was sped in Rome, except great bishoprics; But now, for ane unworthy vickarage, A priest will rin to Rome in Pilgrimage. Ane cavill quhilk was never at the scule Will rin to Rome, and keep ane bischopis mule: And syne cum hame with mony a colorit crack, With ane burdin of beneficis on his back. CHALMERS’S _Lyndsay_, ii. 60.

35 ― Knox, 14‒16. Spotswood, 64, 69. Keith, append. 205. Dalyell’s Cursory Remarks, prefixed to Scottish Poems of the Sixteenth Century, i. 16‒18. Chalmers’s Lyndsay, i. 211.

36 ― See Note G.

37 ― Knox, Historie, p. 14.

38 ― Dalyell’s Cursory Remarks, ut supra, i. 28.

39 ― Patriots have toil’d, and in their country’s cause Bled nobly; and their deeds, as they deserve, Receive proud recompense.―――――――――――――― But fairer wreaths are due, though never paid, To those who, posted at the shrine of truth, Have fallen in her defence.―――――――――――――――― Yet few remember them.―――――――――――――― ―――――――――――――― With their names No bard embalms and sanctifies his song: And history, so warm on meaner themes, Is cold on this. She execrates, indeed, The tyranny that doom’d them to the fire, But gives the glorious sufferers little praise. COWPER _Task_, Book V.

In the margin, Cowper names Hume as chargeable with the injustice which he so feelingly upbraids. While it is painful to think that other historians, since Hume, have exposed themselves to the same censure, it is pleasing to reflect, that Cowper is not the only poet who has “sanctified,” and, I trust, “embalmed his song,” with the praises of these patriots. The reader will easily perceive that I refer to the author of _The Sabbath_.

40 ― His father, Sir Patrick Hamilton of Kincavil, was son of Lord Hamilton, who married a sister of King James III. His mother was a daughter of John Duke of Albany, brother to the same monarch. Pinkerton’s Hist. of Scotland, ii. 45, 46, 289.

41 ― There was an act of parliament, as early as 17th July, 1525, prohibiting ships from bringing any books of Luther or his disciples into Scotland, which had always “bene clene of all sic filth and vice.” Act. Parl. Scot., vol. ii. p. 295. This renders it highly probable, that such books had already been introduced into this country.

42 ― F. Lamberti Avenionensis Comment. in Apocalypsin, præfat. anno 1528.

43 ― Lambert, ut supra. Bezæ Icones, Ffj. Fox, 888. Knox, 4‒6. Lindsay of Pitscottie’s History of Scotland, p. 133‒5; Edin. 1728. This last author gives a very interesting account of Hamilton’s trial, but he is wrong as to the year of his martyrdom.

44 ― Pinkerton.

45 ― Cald. MS. i. 69.

46 ― In 1546, Winram having spoken to the bishops in favour of George Wishart, cardinal Beatoun upbraided him, saying, “Well, sir, and you, we know what a man you are, seven years ago.” Pitscottie, 189.

47 ― See Note H.

48 ― See Note I.

49 ― Wodrow’s MSS. in Bibl. Coll. Glas. vol. i. p. 2. Calderwood’s MS. Hist. of the Church of Scotland, vol. i. p. 35. Knox, Historie, p. 22.

50 ― See Note K.

51 ― Cald. MS. i. 103, 119. Sadler, i. 47. Knox, 21, 24.

52 ― Sadler, i. 94. Knox, 27, 28. Pitscottie, 164. Keith, 22. Sir James Melvil’s Memoirs, 2‒4. Lond. 1683. Knox says, that the roll contained “mo than ane hundreth landit men, besides utheris of meener degre, amongis quhome was the lord Hamiltoun, then second persoun of the realme.” Sadler says, “eighteen score noblemen and gentlemen, all well minded to God’s word, which then they durst not avow;” among whom were the earl of Arran, the earl of Cassils, and the earl Marishal. Pitscottie says, “seventeen score;” but he includes in his account, not only “earls, lords, barons, gentlemen,” but also “honest burgesses and craftsmen.”

53 ― The progress of opinion in Scotland, and the jealous measures adopted for checking it, may be traced in the variations introduced into the Act of Parliament, 17th July, 1525, “For eschewing of Heresy,” as these are marked in the original record. The act, as originally drawn, in prohibiting the rehearsing of, or disputing about, the heresies of Luther or his disciples, has this exception: “gif” (_i.e._ unless) “it be to the confusioun thairof;” but this being thought too loose, the following clause is added on the margin, “and that be clerkis in the sculis alenarlie.” According to the tenour of the act when passed in 1525, “na maner of persoun, _strangear_, that happenis to arrive with thare schip within ony part of this realme, bring with thame any bukis or workis of the said Luther his discipulis or servandis, disputis or rehersis his heresies, &c., under the pane of escheting of thare schipis and guidis, and putting of thaire personis in presoun.” But in 1527, the chancellor and lords of council added this clause: “and all uther the kingis liegis assistaris to sic opunyeons be punist in semeible wise, and the effect of the said act to straik upon thaim.”――From this it appears, that, in 1525, protestant books and opinions were circulated by strangers only, who came into Scotland for the purpose of trade; but that, in 1527, it was found necessary to extend the penalties of the act to natives of the kingdom. Both these additions were embodied in the act, as renewed 12th June, 1535. Acta Parliamentorum Scotiæ, vol. ii. p. 295, 341, 342, published by the authority of his Majesty’s commissioners on the public records of the kingdom. This highly valuable and accurate work will afterwards be referred to under the title of Act. Parl. Scot.

54 ― Bezæ Icones, Ee. iij.

55 ― Act. Parl. Scot. ii. 415, 425. Sadler’s Letters, i. 83. Crawfurd’s Officers of State, 77, 438. Keith, 36, 37.

56 ― Knox, 34.

57 ― Ibid. 33, 34.

58 ― Life of Knox, prefixed to his History of the Reformation, anno 1644.

59 ― Cald. MS. i. 118. Calderwood says that he was provincial of the order of Dominicans, or Blackfriars, in Scotland. But a late author informs us, that the chartulary of the Blackfriars’ monastery at Perth mentions John Grierson as having been provincial from the year 1525, to the time of the Reformation. Scott’s History of the Reformers, p. 96.

60 ― See Note L.

61 ― Chalmers’s Caledonia, ii. 526. comp. Knox. Historie, 67.

62 ― In his progress through the kingdom with the governor, he instigated him “to hang (at Perth) four honest men, for eating of a goose on Friday; and drowned a young woman, because she refused to pray to our lady in her birth.” Pitscottie, 188. Knox says, that the woman, “having an soucking babe upon hir briest, was drounit.” Historie, 40. Petrie’s History of the Church of Scotland, part ii. p. 182. He had planned the destruction of the principal gentlemen of Fife, as appeared from documents found after his death. Knox, 63, 64.

63 ― Sadler’s State Papers, i. 264, 265. comp. p. 128. Sir John Borthwick (who fled to England in the year 1540) ridicules the Scottish clergy for making it an article of accusation against him, that he had approved of “all those heresies, commonly called the heresies of England;” “Because,” says he, “what religion at that time was used in England, the like the whole realm of Scotland did embrace; in this point only the Englishmen differed from the Scottes, that they had cast off the yoke of Antichrist, the other not. Idols were worshipped of both nations; the prophanating of the supper and baptisme was like unto them both.――Truly, it is most false that I had subscribed unto such kinde of heresies.” Fox, 1149, 1150.

64 ― Knox, Historie, p. 67.

65 ― Ibid.

66 ― Act. Parl. Scot. ii. 471, 477‒9. Keith, 50, 51. Knox, 66, 67. Buchanan, i. 296.

67 ― This is done in a book, entitled, “The Image of both Churches, Hierusalem and Babell, Unitie and Confusion, Obedience and Sedition, by P. D. M.” (supposed to be Sir Tobie Matthews,) p. 139, 140, Torney, 1623. In p. 136, the author says, “Yet there is one aduise of Knox which is to be recorded with admiration, ‘It wear good, that rewards wear publicklie appointed by the peopl for such as kill tyrants, as well as for those that kill wolfs.’” In proof of this he refers to Knox’s Historie, p. 372. The reader, who chooses to give himself the trouble, will probably search in vain (as I have done) for such a sentiment, either in that or in any other part of the History.

68 ― “Quorum se societate, non multo post, implicaret Joannes Knoxus, Calvinistarum minister, qui se evangelicæ perfectionis cumulum assecutum non arbitrabatur nisi in cardinalis ac sacerdotis sanguine ac cæde triumphasset.” Leslæus de rebus gestis Scotorum, lib. x. The bishop should have recollected, that the violence of his popish brethren drove “the Calvinistic minister” to this “pinnacle of evangelical perfection.”

69 ― Principal Baillie’s Historical Vindication of the government of the church of Scotland, p. 42. A. 1646. Cald. MS. ad an. 1590.

70 ― Historie, 86.

71 ― See Note M.

72 ― Spotswood says, that “seven-score persons entered into the castle the day after the slaughter” of the cardinal. History, p. 84.

73 ― The coarseness of the age, and the strong temptation which he was under to gratify a voluptuous prince, will not excuse the gross indelicacies of Lindsay; and still less will the desire of preserving the ancient dialect of Scotland, and of gratifying an antiquarian passion, apologise for giving to the modern public a _complete_ edition of his works, accompanied with a glossary and explanatory notes.

74 ― Heroes ex omni Historia Scotica lectissimi: Auctore Johan. Jonstono Abredonense Scoto, p. 27, 28. Lugduni Batavorum, 1603. 4to. Chalmers’s Life of Lindsay, Works, vol. i.

75 ― Cald. MS. i. 119.

76 ― Lord Hailes, Catalogue of the Lords of Session, p. 2. Act. Parl. Scot. ii. 353.

77 ― Act. Parl. Scot. ii. 409. Sadler’s State Papers, i. 83. Knox, 35.

78 ― Fox, p. 1840. He was born A.D. 1510.

79 ― Fox, p. 1840. Knox, Historie, p. 33, 36, 67.

80 ― Knox, Historie, p. 68.

81 ― Whittingham, dean of Durham, was ordained in the English church at Geneva, of which Knox was pastor; and Travers, the opponent of Hooker, was ordained by a presbytery at Antwerp. Attempts were made by some highflyers to invalidate their orders, and induce them to submit to re-ordination; but they did not succeed. Strype’s Annals, vol. ii. 520‒4.

In the year 1582, archbishop Grindal, by a formal deed, declared the validity of the orders of Mr John Morrison, who had been ordained by the synod of Lothian, “according to the _laudable_ form and rite of the reformed church of Scotland,” says the instrument, “per generalem synodum sive congregationem illius comitatus, juxta laudabilem ecclesiæ Scotiæ Reformatæ formam et ritum, ad sacros ordines et sacrosanctum ministerium per manuum impositionem admissus et ordinatus.――Nos igitur formam ordinationis et præfectionis tuæ hujusmodi, modo præmisso factam, quantum in nos est, et de jure possumus, approbantes et ratificantes,” &c. Strype’s Life of Grindal. Append. Book ii. Numb. xvii. p. 101.