Part 2

No dregs of Papistry left in the Reformed Church of Scotland, 225. This Book tells of declension, 226. The arrival of Mary, Queen of Scots: a distressing omen, 226. The Mass is restored at Holyrood, 227. The Council tolerates the Mass at Court, 228. The Earl of Arran protests, 229. The Protestants are beguiled, 229. John Knox preaches against the Queen's Mass, 230. He reasons with the Queen, 230. No results follow the Queen's conference with Knox, 237. The prodigality of Edinburgh, 238. The Magistrates of Edinburgh are imprisoned and deposed, 238. The Mass is restored, 239. Lord James Stewart is sent to the Borders, 240. The behaviour of the Queen, 240. The influence of the Court is felt in the Kirk, 241. The ministers reproach the defaulting lords, 242. Discussion concerning _The Book of Discipline_, 243. The barons sue for public order in regard to ecclesiastical benefices, 244. The Council agrees to divide the patrimony of the Kirk, 244. The modification of stipends, 245. Secretary Lethington gets his answer, 246. Lord James Stewart created Earl of Mar: his marriage, 247. Disorderly conduct of Earl Bothwell and others, 248. Plots against the Earl of Moray, 250. Earl Bothwell speaks with John Knox, 250. The reconciliation of the Earl of Arran and the Earl Bothwell, 251. The Earl of Arran suspects treachery, 252. The frenzy of the Earl of Arran, 254. John Knox reproves the Queen, 255. He is summoned before the Queen, 255. He states his views concerning the behaviour of Princes, 255. Of dancing, 257. The Queen negotiates with England, 258. The King of Sweden proposes marriage to Queen Mary, 259. The Queen and the Earl of Moray, 259. The General Assembly: June 1562, 259. The supplication to the Queen, 259. Secretary Lethington objects to the terms of the supplication, 264. The Queen visits the North: Papist intrigues, 265. John Knox warns the Protestants, 266. A bond is again subscribed, 267. The result of John Knox's labours in the South, 267. The Abbot of Crossraguel and Knox, 268. The revolt of the Earl of Huntly, 268. Of the Earl of Huntly, 269. The Queen's relations with the Earl of Moray, 269. Rumours concerning the Queen's marriage, 270. The Queen and Earl Bothwell, 270. The preachers admonish the courtiers, 270. The General Assembly: 25th December 1562, 271. The Protestants deal with idolaters and the Mass, 272. Queen Mary and John Knox at Lochleven, 273. John Knox writes to the Earl of Argyll, 276. The Massmongers are tried: 19th May 1563, 276. Parliament of May 1563, 277. Queen Mary's influence: "Vox Dianae," 277. Reformation is hindered by personal interests, 278. John Knox breaks with the Earl of Moray, 278. Inept legislation, 279. John Knox preaches a faithful sermon to the Lords, 279. Papists and Protestants take offence: Knox is summoned by the Queen, 281. Lethington's return: his worldly wisdom displayed, 284. The Queen retains observance of the Mass, 285. The death of Lord John of Coldingham, 285. Massmongers at Holyrood take fright, 286. The Papists devise mischief, 287. John Knox's letter to the brethren: 8th October 1563, 287. He is betrayed, 289. He is accused of high treason, 290. The Lord Advocate gives his opinion, 291. The Earl of Moray and Secretary Lethington reason with John Knox, 292. Knox is brought before the Queen and Privy Council, 293. He is tried for high treason, 293. The verdict of the Privy Council, 299. The displeasure of the Queen, 300. The General Assembly: December 1563, 301. John Knox demands the judgment of his brethren, 301. His acquittal by the General Assembly, 302. Signs of God's displeasure, 302. Lavish entertainments at Court, 303. The Queen's broken promises, 303. Secretary Lethington defies the servants of God, 304. The courtiers and the Kirk, 304. The courtiers rouse John Knox: he preaches concerning idolatry, 305. The General Assembly: June 1564, 306. The Protestant courtiers maintain an independent position, 307. Secretary Lethington defines the attitude of the lords of the Court, 308. The disputation between John Knox and the Secretary, 309.

APPENDIX.

KNOX'S CONFESSION.

CAP. PAGE

_The Preface_ 341

I. _Of God_ 342

II. _Of the Creation of Man_ 343

III. _Of Original Sin_ 343

IV. _Of the Revelation of the Promise_ 343

V. _The Continuance, Increase, and Preservation of the Kirk_ 344

VI. _Of the Incarnation of Christ Jesus_ 345

VII. _Why it behoved the Mediator to be very God and very Man_ 345

VIII. _Election_ 345

IX. _Christ's Death, Passion, Burial, etc._ 346

X. _Resurrection_ 347

XI. _Ascension_ 347

XII. _Faith in the Holy Ghost_ 348

XIII. _The cause of Good Works_ 349

XIV. _What Works are reputed good before God_ 350

XV. _The Perfection of the Law and Imperfection of Man_ 351

XVI. _Of the Kirk_ 352

XVII. _The Immortality of the Souls_ 353

XVIII. _Of the notes by which the True Kirk is discerned from the false, and who shall be judge of the doctrine_ 353

XIX. _The Authority of the Scriptures_ 355

XX. _Of General Councils, of their Power, Authority, and Causes of their Convention_ 355

XXI. _Of the Sacraments_ 356

XXII. _Of the right Administration of the Sacraments_ 358

XXIII. _To whom Sacraments Appertain_ 360

XXIV. _Of the Civil Magistrate_ 360

XXV. _The Gifts freely given to the Kirk_ 361

THE BOOK OF DISCIPLINE.

I. _Of Doctrine_ 363

II. _Of Sacraments_ 364

III. _Touching the Abolition of Idolatry_ 366

IV. _Concerning Ministers and their Lawful Election_ 366

V. _Concerning Provision for the Ministers, and for Distribution of the Rents and Possessions justly appertaining to the Kirk_ 372

VI. _Of the Superintendents_ 376

VII. _Of Schools and Universities_ 382

VIII. _Of the Rents and Patrimony of the Kirk_ 391

IX. _Of Ecclesiastical Discipline_ 395

X. _Touching the Election of Elders and Deacons, etc._ 401

XI. _Concerning the Policy of the Church_ 404

XII. _For Preaching and Interpretation of Scriptures, etc._ 408

XIII. _Of Marriage_ 411

XIV. _Of Burial_ 414

XV. _For Reparation of Churches_ 416

XVI. _For Punishment of those that profane the Sacraments and do contemn the Word of God, and dare presume to minister them, not being thereto lawfully called_ 416

_The Conclusion_ 419

GLOSSARY OF OBSOLETE AND SCOTS WORDS AND PHRASES 423

INDEX 427

THE REFORMATION OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND

BOOK FIRST.[1]

1422-1558.

[1] "_The First Book of the History of the Reformation of Religion within the Realm of Scotland._ Containing the Manner and by what Persons the Light of Christ's Evangel hath been manifested unto this Realm, after that horrible and universal Defection from the Truth, which has come by the means of that Roman Antichrist."

[Sidenote: Early Persecutions.]

In the Records of Glasgow, mention is found of one that, in the year of God 1422, was burnt for heresy. His name is not given, and of his opinions or of the order upon which he was condemned there is no evidence left. But our Chronicles make mention that, in the days of King James the First, about the year of God 1431, there was apprehended in the University of St. Andrews one named Paul Craw, a Bohemian, who was accused of heresy before such as then were called Doctors of Theology. The principal accusation against him was that, in his opinion of the Sacrament, he followed John Huss and Wycliffe, who denied that the substance of bread and wine were changed by virtue of any words, or that confession should be made to priests, or prayers made to saints departed.

[Sidenote: Paul Craw: A.D. 1431.]

God gave unto the said Paul Craw grace to resist his persecutors, and not to consent to their impiety, and he was committed to the secular judge (for our bishops follow Pilate, who both did condemn, and also washed his hands) who condemned him to the fire. Therein he was consumed at St. Andrews, about the time mentioned. To declare themselves to be of the generation of Satan, who from the beginning hath been enemy to the truth and desireth the same to be hid from the knowledge of men, they put a ball of brass in his mouth, to the end that he should not give confession of his faith to the people, nor yet that they should understand the defence which he had against his unjust accusation and condemnation.

[Sidenote: The Lollards of Kyle: 1494.]

These practices did not greatly advance the kingdom of darkness, nor were they able utterly to extinguish the truth. In the days of King James the Second and King James the Third we find small question of religion moved within this Realm, but in the time of King James the Fourth, in the year of God 1494, thirty persons were summoned before the King and his Great Council, by Robert Blackader, called Archbishop of Glasgow. Some of these dwelt in Kyle-Stewart, some in King's-Kyle, and some in Cunningham. Amongst them were George Campbell of Cessnock, Adam Reid of Barskymming, John Campbell of New Mills, Andrew Shaw of Polkemmet, Helen Chalmers, Lady Polkellie, and Marion Chalmers, Lady Stair.

[Sidenote: Whereof the Lollards of Kyle were accused.]

These were called the Lollards of Kyle. In the Register of Glasgow we find the Articles of Belief for which they were accused. These were as follows:--(1) Images are not to be possessed, nor yet to be worshipped. (2) Relics of Saints are not to be worshipped. (3) Laws and Ordinances of men vary from time to time, and so do those of the Pope. (4) It is not lawful to fight, or to defend the faith. (We translate according to the barbarousness of their Latin and dictament.[2]) (5) Christ gave power to Peter only, and not to his successors, to bind and loose within the Kirk. (6) Christ ordained no priests to consecrate. (7) After the consecration in the Mass, there remains bread; and the natural body of Christ is not there. (8) Tithes ought not to be given to Ecclesiastical Men--as they were then called. (9) Christ at His coming took away power from Kings to judge. (This article we doubt not to be the venomous accusation of the enemies, whose practice has ever been to make the doctrine of Jesus Christ suspect to Kings and rulers, as if God thereby would depose them from their royal seats, while, on the contrary, nothing confirms the power of magistrates more than does God's Word.--But to the Articles.) (10) Every faithful man or woman is a priest. (11) The anointing of kings ceased at the coming of Christ. (12) The Pope is not the successor of Peter--except where Christ said, "Go behind me, Satan." (13) The Pope deceiveth the people by his bulls and his indulgences. (14) The Mass profiteth not the souls that are in purgatory. (15) The Pope and the bishops deceive the people by their pardons. (16) Indulgences to fight against the Saracens ought not to be granted. (17) The Pope exalts himself against God and above God. (18) The Pope cannot remit the pains of purgatory. (19) The blessings of the bishops--of dumb dogs they should have been styled--are of no value. (20) The excommunication of the Kirk is not to be feared. (21) In no case is it lawful to swear. (22) Priests may have wives, according to the constitution of the law. (23) True Christians receive the body of Jesus Christ every day. (24) After matrimony is contracted, the Kirk may make no divorce. (25) Excommunication binds not. (26) The Pope forgives not sins, but only God. (27) Faith should not be given to miracles. (28) We should not pray to the glorious Virgin Mary, but to God only. (29) We are no more bound to pray in the kirk than in other places. (30) We are not bound to believe all that the Doctors of the Kirk have written. (31) Such as worship the sacrament of the Kirk--we suppose they meant the sacrament of the altar--commit idolatry. (32) The Pope is the head of the Kirk of Antichrist. (33) The Pope and his ministers are murderers. (34) They which are called principals in the Church are thieves and robbers.

[2] Phraseology.

Albeit that the accusation of the Archbishop and his accomplices was very grievous, God so assisted his servants, partly by inclining the King's heart to gentleness (for divers of them were his great familiars), and partly by giving bold and godly answers to their accusators, that the enemies in the end were frustrated in their purpose. When the Archbishop, in mockery, said to Adam Reid of Barskymming, "Reid, believe ye that God is in heaven?" He answered, "Not as I do the Sacraments seven." Thereat the Archbishop, thinking to have triumphed, said, "Sir, lo, he denies that God is in heaven." The King, wondering, said, "Adam Reid, what say ye?" The other answered, "Please your Grace to hear the end betwixt the churl and me." Therewith he turned to the Archbishop and said, "I neither think nor believe, as thou thinkest, that God is in heaven; but I am most assured that He is not only in heaven, but also on earth. Thou and thy faction declare by your works that either ye think there is no God at all, or else that He is so shut up in heaven that He regards not what is done on earth. If thou didst firmly believe that God was in heaven, thou shouldst not make thyself cheek-mate[3] to the King, and altogether forget the charge that Jesus Christ the Son of God gave to His Apostles. That was, to preach His Evangel, and not to play the proud prelates, as all the rabble of you do this day. And now, Sir," said he to the King, "judge ye whether the Bishop or I believe best that God is in heaven." While the Archbishop and his band could not well revenge themselves, and while many taunts were given them in their teeth, the King, willing to put an end to further reasoning, said to the said Adam Reid, "Wilt thou burn thy bill?"[4] He answered, "Sir, the Bishop and ye will." With these and the like scoffs the Archbishop and his band were so dashed out of countenance that the greatest part of the accusation was turned to laughter.

[3] Familiar.

[4] The form of burning one's bill, on recanting, was this,--the person accused was to bring a faggot of dry sticks, and burn it publicly, by which ceremony he signified that he destroyed that which should have been the instrument of his death.--_Keith._

[Sidenote: Archbishop James Beaton.]

After that diet, we find almost no question for matters of religion, for the space of nigh thirty years. For not long after, to wit, in the year of God 1508, the said Archbishop Blackader departed this life, while journeying in his superstitious devotion to Jerusalem. Unto him succeeded Mr. James Beaton, son to the Laird of Balfour, in Fife. More careful for the world than he was to preach Christ, or yet to advance any religion, but for the fashion only, he sought the world, and it fled him not. At once he was Archbishop of St. Andrews, Abbot of Dunfermline, Arbroath, and Kilwinning, and Chancellor of Scotland. After the unhappy field of Flodden, in which perished King James the Fourth, with the greater part of the nobility of the realm, the said Beaton with the rest of the prelates, had the whole regiment[5] of the realm. By reason thereof, he held and travailed to hold the truth of God in thraldom and bondage, until it pleased God of His great mercy, in the year of God 1527, to raise up His servant, Master Patrick Hamilton, at whom our history doth begin. Because men of fame and renown have in divers works written of his progeny, life, and erudition, we omit all curious repetition. If any would know further of him than we write, we send them to Francis Lambert, John Firth, and to that notable work, lately set forth by John Foxe, Englishman, of the Lives and Deaths of Martyrs within this Isle, in this our age.

[5] Rule; control.

[Sidenote: The Coming of Patrick Hamilton.]

This servant of God, the said Master Patrick, being in his youth provided with reasonable honour and living (he was titular Abbot of Ferne), as one hating the world and the vanity thereof, left Scotland, and passed to the schools in Germany; for then the fame of the University of Wittenberg was greatly divulged in all countries. There, by God's providence, he became familiar with these lights and notable servants of Christ Jesus of that time, Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, and the said Francis Lambert, and he did so grow and advance in godly knowledge, joined with fervency and integrity of life, that he was in admiration with many. The zeal of God's glory did so eat him up, that he could of no long continuance remain abroad, but returned to his country, where the bright beams of the true light, which by God's grace was planted in his heart, began most abundantly to burst forth, as well in public as in secret. Besides his godly knowledge, he was well learned in philosophy. He abhorred sophistry, and would that the text of Aristotle should have been better understood and more used in the schools than then it was: for sophistry had corrupted all, as well in divinity as in humanity.

[Sidenote: Persecution of Patrick Hamilton.]

In short process of time, the fame of the said Master Patrick's reasoning and doctrine troubled the clergy, and came to the ears of Archbishop James Beaton. Being a conjured enemy to Jesus Christ, and one that long had had the whole regiment of this realm, he bare impatiently that any trouble should be made in that kingdom of darkness whereof, within this realm, he was the head. Therefore, he so travailed with the said Master Patrick, that he got him to St. Andrews, where, after conference for divers days, he received his freedom and liberty. The said Archbishop and his bloody butchers, called Doctors, seemed to approve his doctrine, and to grant that many things craved reformation in the ecclesiastical regiment. Amongst the rest, there was one that secretly consented with Master Patrick almost in all things, Friar Alexander Campbell, a man of good wit and learning, but corrupted by the world, as after we will hear. When the bishops and the clergy had fully understood the mind and judgment of the said Master Patrick, fearing that by him their kingdom should be damaged, they travailed with the King, who then was young and altogether at their command, that he should pass in pilgrimage to St. Duthac in Ross, to the end that no intercession should be made for the life of the innocent servant of God. He, suspecting no such cruelty as in their hearts was concluded, remained still, a lamb among the wolves, until he was intercepted in his chamber one night, and by the Archbishop's band was carried to the Castle. There he was kept that night; and in the morning, produced in judgment, was condemned to die by fire for the testimony of God's truth. The Articles for which he suffered were but of pilgrimage, purgatory, prayer to saints and prayer for the dead, and such trifles; albeit matters of greater importance had been in question, as his Treatise may witness. That the condemnation should have greater authority, the Archbishop and his doctors caused the same to be subscribed by all those of any estimation that were present, and, to make their number great, they took the subscriptions of children, if they were of the nobility; for the Earl of Cassillis, being then but twelve or thirteen years of age, was compelled to subscribe to Master Patrick's death, as he himself did confess.

[Sidenote: Martyrdom of Patrick Hamilton.]

Immediately after dinner, the fire was prepared before the old College, and Master Patrick was led to the place of execution. Men supposed that all was done but to give him a fright, and to have caused him to have recanted and become recreant to those bloody beasts. But God, for His own glory, for the comfort of His servant, and for manifestation of their beastly tyranny, had otherwise decreed. He so strengthened His faithful witness that neither the love of life nor yet the fear of that cruel death could move him a jot to swerve from the truth once professed. At the place of execution he gave to his servant, who had been chamber-child[6] to him for a long time, his gown, coat, bonnet, and such like garments, saying, "These will not profit in the fire; they will profit thee. After this, thou canst receive no commodity from me, except the example of my death. That, I pray thee, bear in mind; for, albeit it be bitter to the flesh and fearful before men, it is the entrance unto eternal life, which none shall possess who deny Christ Jesus before this wicked generation."

[6] Valet-de-chambre.

The innocent servant of God being bound to the stake in the midst of some coals, some timber, and other matter appointed for the fire, a train of powder was made and set afire. This gave a glaise[7] to the blessed martyr of God, scrimpled[8] his left hand and that side of his face, but kindled neither the wood nor yet the coals. And so remained he in torment, until men ran to the Castle again for more powder, and for wood more able to take fire. When at last this was kindled, with loud voice he cried, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! How long shall darkness overwhelm this realm? And how long wilt Thou suffer this tyranny of men?" The fire was slow, and therefore was his torment the more. But most of all was he grieved by certain wicked men, amongst whom Campbell the Black Friar (of whom we spoke before) was principal. These continually cried, "Convert, heretic; call upon our Lady: say _Salve Regina_," etc. To them he answered, "Depart, and trouble me not, ye messengers of Satan." But, while the foresaid Friar still roared one thing with great vehemency, he said unto him, "Wicked man, thou knowest the contrary, and the contrary to me thou hast confessed: I appeal thee before the tribunal seat of Jesus Christ!" After these words, and others that could not well be understood or marked, both for the tumult and the vehemence of the fire, the witness of Jesus Christ got victory, after long suffering, on the last day of February in the year of God 1527. The said Friar departed this life within few days after, in what estate we refer to the manifestation of the general day. But it was plainly known that he died, in Glasgow, in a frenzy, and as one in despair.

[7] Scorched.

[8] Shrivelled.

[Sidenote: Questionings arise.]