Chapter 39

The which thyng, as it is thought commendable to vs, so the manor of the procedyng was no lesse pleasant, that the matter was performed by so great consent of so many estates, as of the Clergy, nobility, and vulgare people, not rashely, but most prudently, the order of law beyng in all poynts obserued. We haue sene the sentence which ye pronounced, and alway do approue the same, not doubtyng but that the Articles which be inserted, are erroneous: so that whosoeuer wil defend for a truth, any one of the same, with pertinacitie, should be esteemed an enemy to the fayth, and an aduersary to the holy[1071] Scripture. And albeit one or two of them appeare to be without errour, to them that will consider onely the bare wordes: as (for example) good workes make not a good man, but a good man worketh good workes, yet there is no doubt, but they conteine a Lutheran sense, which, in a maner, they signifie: to witte, that workes done after fayth, and justification, make not a man the better, nor are worthy of any reward before God. Beleue not, that this example shall haue place onely among you, for there shalbe among externe nations, which shall imitate the same, &c.

Certainly, ye haue geuen vs great courage, so that now we acknowledge your Vniuersitie,[1072] which was founded accordyng to the example of our Vniuersitie of Louane, to be equall to ours, or els aboue: and would God occasion were offered of testifying our myndes toward you. In the meane tyme, let vs labour with one consent, that the rauenyng Wolues may be expelled from the shepefold of Christ, while we haue tyme. Let vs study to preach to the people more learnedly hereafter, and more wisely. Let vs have Inquisitours, and espyers of bookes, containyng that doctrine, especially that is brought in from farre countreys, whether by apostatiue Monkes, or by Marchauntes, the most suspected kynde of men in these dayes. It is sayd, that since Scotland first embraced the Christian fayth, it was neuer defiled with any heresie. Perseuer therfore, beyng moued thereunto by the example of England, your next neighbour, which in this most troublous tyme, is not chaunged, partly by the workyng of the Byshops, among the which[1073] Roffensis hath shewed hymselfe an Euangelicall Phoenix, and partly of the Kyng, declaryng hymselfe to be an other Mathias of the new law: pretermittyng nothyng that may defend the law of his realme. The which, if your most renowned Kyng of Scotland will follow, he shall purchase to himselfe eternal glory. Further, as touchyng the condigne commendation, due for your part (most Reuerend Byshop) in this behalfe, it shal not be the least part of your prayse, that these heresies haue bene extinct sometymes in Scotland, you beyng Primate of Scotland and principal authour therof: Albeit that they also which haue assisted you, are not to be defrauded of their deserued prayse, as the Reuerend Byshop of Glasgow, of whose erudition, we haue here geuen vs partly to understand, and also the Reuerend Byshop of Aberden, a stoute defender of the fayth, together with the rest of the Prelates, Abbots, Priours, and professours of holy Scripture. Let your reuerend fatherhode take this litle testificate of our duety toward you, in good part, whom we wish long and happely well to fare in Christ. From Louane, an. 1528, Aprill 21.

BY THE MAISTERS AND PROFESSOURS OF THEOLOGIE IN THE VNIUERSITIE OF LOUANE, YOURS TO COMMAUNDE.

¶ In this Epistle of the Louaniane Doctours, I shall not neede (gentle Reader) to note vnto thee, what a pernitious thyng in a common wealth, is blynd ignoraunce, when it falleth into cruell hartes. Which may well be compared to a sword put in the handes of one, that is both blynd and mad. For as the blynd man, hauyng no sense to see and iudge knoweth not whom he striketh: so the madde man, beyng cruell and furious, hath no compassion in sparyng any. Wherupon it happeneth many tymes with these men, as it dyd with the blynd furious Phariseis, that as they hauyng the sword of authoritie in their handes, in stede of malefactours and false Prophetes, slue the true Prophetes of God, and at last crucified the kyng of glory: so these Catholicke Louanians and folowers of their Messias of Rome, take in their handes the sworde of iurisdiction, who neither seyng what to spare, nor caryng whom they smite, vnder the stile and pretense of heretiques, murther and blaspheme without mercy, the true preachers of the Gospell, and the holy annoynted of the Lord.

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"But to returne to the matter agayne of M. Hamelton, here is moreouer to be observed, as a note worthy of memory, that in the yeare of the Lord 1564, in the which yeare this present history was collected in Scotland, there were certaine faythfull men of credite then alyue, who beyng present the same tyme, when M. Patrike Hamelton was in the fire, heard him to cite and appeale the blacke Frier called Campbel, that accused him, to appeare before the hygh God, as generall iudge of all men, to aunswere to the innocency of his death, and whether his accusation was iust or not, betwene that and a certaine day of the next moneth, which he there named. Moreouer by the same witnes it is testified, that the sayd Frier dyed immediatly before the sayd day came, without remorse of conscience, that he had persecuted the Innocent. By the example wherof diuers of the people the same tyme, much mused, and firmely beleued the doctrine of the foresayd M. Hamelton, to be good and iust.

"Hereunto I thought good to adioyne a certaine godly and profitable Treatise of the sayd M. Patrike Hamelton, written first by him in Latine, and afterward translated by John Frith into English, which he names Patrikes Places; not vnprofitable in my mynde, to be sene and read of all men, for the pure and comfortable doctrine conteined in the same, as not onely by the treatise it selfe may appeare, but also by the preface of the sayd John Frith, prefixed before; which also I thought not inconuenient to insert with the same, as here foloweth."

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The "brief Treatise," translated by John Fryth, which immediately follows the above extracts from Foxe, has already been included in the present volume: see pages 19 to 35.

It appears from some payments in the Treasurer's Accounts, in 1543, that Patrick Hamilton had left an illegitimate daughter named Isobell. Some readers perchance may think that such a fact should have remained unnoticed, as casting a blemish on his hitherto pure and immaculate character; but a regard to what may be called historical justice, will not allow such a circumstance to be concealed, while the habitual licentious conduct of the highest dignitaries of the Church at that time are, in the course of the present work, so frequently alluded to.

"Item, the x day of Aprile deliuerit to be ane gowne to Issobell Hammiltoun, _dochter to umquhill Patrik Abbot of Fern_, four elnis Frenche blak, price of the eln xxxiiij s.... Summa, vj lib. xvj s.

"Item, deliuerit to be hir are kirtill, thre elnis Frenehe brown, price of the eln xxx s.... Summa, iiij lib. x s.

"Item, deliuerit to hir to walt the samin, and to be hir pertlettis, ane eln blak veluet, price thairof, ... lvj s."

In the following month of May 1543, another gown was furnished to Isobell Hamilton.

No. IV.

ON THE ROYAL PILGRIMAGES TO THE SHRINE OF ST. DUTHACK, AT TAIN, IN ROSS-SHIRE.

In a note to page 16, I expressed some doubt as to the accuracy of the statement that King James the Fifth was sent in pilgrimage to the Shrine of St. Duthack, immediately previous to the trial and condemnation of Patrick Hamilton. Had the Treasurer's Accounts for 1528, or the Household Book between July 1526 and August 1528, been preserved, they might have enabled us to trace the King's movements. But the statement is highly improbable in itself. Mr. Tytler has shown that James only escaped from the thraldom of the Douglasses at the end of May 1528, or nearly three months after Hamilton's sentence; and it was most unlikely from the vigilant restraint under which the King was kept that he would have been allowed to traverse a great part of the country upon such an errand. It may also be kept in view, that if an application had been made to James, before he assumed the reins of government, it is scarcely probable his interference would have had any effect in preventing the sentence of the Ecclesiastical Courts from being carried into execution.

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Want of space prevents me from inserting here, as I intended, a series of extracts from the Treasurer's Accounts during the reign of James the Fourth, in connexion with his visits to that celebrated shrine. I shall therefore merely notice, that the public registers furnish some evidence to shew that he made an annual pilgrimage to St. Duthack's chapel, in Ross-shire. On more than one occasion the King rode unattended from Stirling across the mountain pass of the Grampians, leading from Fettercairn to the north side of the Dee, and from thence to Elgin, Inverness, and Tain. These repeated visits to a distant shrine may have been performed as an act of penance, the chapel having been founded by his father, James the Third. Such a journey, with a few attendants, he appears to have made in August 1513, or only one month previously to his setting out on his calamitous expedition, when he was slain at Floddon.

No. V.

FOXE'S ACCOUNT OF HENRY FORREST, AND OTHER MARTYRS IN SCOTLAND, DURING THE REIGN OF KING JAMES THE FIFTH.

The fate of Henry Forress or Forrest seems to have excited much less attention than might have been expected. In the note to page 52, I suggested that the probable time of his martyrdom may be placed in 1532; and he may thus be regarded as the second victim in the cause of the Reformed faith in Scotland. The strict inquisition which took place, and caused a number of persons to forsake their native country, whilst others met with a similar fate as his own in the course of a few years, may have contributed to this comparative silence. Even Foxe, to whom we are chiefly indebted for preserving an account of his fate, seems to have been ignorant of it in 1564; as in the following short paragraph, from the first edition of his work, he refers to those who suffered in Edinburgh in 1534, as the next in succession to the Abbot of Ferne:--

"¶ FIVE BURNT IN SKOTLAND.

"Seuen yeres after Patrik Hamelton, whose history is before passed, there were v. burnte in Skotland, in the city of Edenborow, being the Metropolitike citye of al Skotlande, of the which fiue two were dominicane Friers, one Priest, one Gentleman, and the fifthe was a channon: whose iudges and inquisitors were these: Jhon Maior, Archbishop of S. Androwes, Petrus Chappellanus, and the Franciscane friers, whose labor and diligence is never wanting in such matters." (Page 525.)

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At the same time I suggested that Henry Forrest was the son of Thomas Forrest of Linlithgow, who was in the employment of King James the Fourth. Since that sheet was printed, I find the name of "HENIRICUS FORRUS" in the list of students who were incorporated, that is, became Bachelors of Arts, at the University of Glasgow, in the year 1518. If this was the martyr, we may presume that at the time of his martyrdom he must have been upwards of thirty years of age. This however may have been another person of the same name, as we find "HENRICUS FORREST," as a Determinant in St. Leonard's College, St. Andrews, in 1526, which leaves no doubt of his having, two years later, witnessed the fate of Patrick Hamilton.

The following is Foxe's account from his enlarged edition of his "Actes and Monuments," in 1576:--

"HENRY FOREST, MARTYR.

Persecutors.

Iames Beton, Archbishop of S. Andrewes. Frier Walter Laitig, bewrayer of the confession of this Henry Forest.

Martyrs

Henry Forest. At. S. Andrewes in Scotland.

The Causes

Within few years after martydome of M. Patrike Hamelton, one Henry Forest, a yong man borne in Lithquow, who a little before, hand receyued the orders of Benet and Colet (as they terme them) affirmed and sayd, that M. Patrike Hamelton died a martyr, and that his articles were true: for the which he was apprehended, and put in prison by James Beton, Archbishop of Saint Andrewes. Who shortly after, caused a certaine Frier named Walter Laing, to heare his confession. To whom when Henry Forest in secret confession had declared his conscience how he thought M. Patrike to bee a good man and wrongfully to be put to death, and that his articles were true and not hereticall: the Frier came and vttered to the Bishop the confession that he had hearde, which before was not thoroughly known. Whereupon it followed that his confession beyng brought as sufficient probation agaynst him, he was therfore conuented before the councell of the clergy and doctors, and there concluded to bee an hereticke, equall in iniquity with M. Patricke Hamelton, and there decreed to be geuen to the secular indges to suffer death.

"When the day came of hys death, and that he should first be degraded, and was brought before the cleargy in a grene place, beyng betwene the castle of S. Andrews, and another place called Monymaill, as sone as he entred in at the dore, and saw the face of the Clergy, perceiuing wherunto they tended, he cryed with a loude voyce, saying: Fie, on falshoode: Fye on false friers, reuealers of confession: after this day, let no man euer trust any false Friers, contemners of God's word and deceiuers of men. And so they proceding to degrade him of hys small orders of Benet and Collet, he sayd with a loud voyce, take from me not onely your owne orders, but also your owne baptisme, meaning thereby, whatsoeuer is besides that which Christ hymselfe instituted, whereof there is a great rablement in Baptisme. Then after hys degradation, they condemned hym as an heretike equal with M. Patrike aforesaide: and so he suffred death for his faythfull testimony of the truth of Christ, and of hys Gospell, at the Northchurch stile of the Abbey church of S. Andrew, to the entent that all the people of Anguishe [Angus] might see the fire, and so might be the more feared from falling into the like doctrine, whiche they terme by the name of heresie. _Ex Scripto testimonio Scotorum_."

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Foxe next proceeds to narrate the persecution of James Hamilton, brother of Patrick, of Katherine Hamilton, their sister, and of a woman at Leith. This must have occurred in 1534, as Hamilton was in England early in 1535. See note 157; and the Rev. Christopher Anderson's Annals of the English Bible, vol. ii. p. 471. Foxe joins with this an account of the martyrdom of David Straton and Norman Gourlay, as follows:--

"JAMES HAMELTON. KATHERINE HAMELTON HIS SISTER. A WIFE OF LYETH, PERSECUTED. DAUID STRATON, NORMAN GURLEY, MARTYRS.

Persecutors.

Iames Hay, bishop of Rose and commissioner of Iames Beton, Archbishop of S. Andrewes. M. Iohn Spens, Lawyer.

Martyrs.

Iames Hamelton, brother to M. Patrike. Katherine Hamelton, A wyfe of Lieth. Dauid Straton. M. Norman Gurlay.

The Causes.

Within a yere after the martirdom of Henry Forest, or there about, was called James Hamelton of Kyntlitgow, hys sister Katherine Hamelton the spouse of the captain of Dunbar, also an other honest woman of Leith, Dauid Straton of the house of Lawristonne, and M. Norman Gurlay. These were called the Abbey Church of Halyrowdhouse in Edenburgh by James Hay, B. of Rose, commissioner to James Beton Archbishop, in presence of K. James the V. of that name: who upon the day of theyr accusation was altogether clad in red apparel. James Hamelton accused as one that mainteaned the opinions of M. Patricke, hys brother.

To whome the Kyng gaue counsaile to departe, and not to appeare: for in case he appeared he could not help him, because the Byshops had persuaded him, that the cause of heresie did in no wise appertayne vnto him, and so James fled and was condemned as an heretike, and all his goods and landes confiscat, and disposed vnto others.

Catherine Hamilton hys Sister, appeared vpon the schaffold, and beyng accused of an horrible heresie, to witte, that her owne workes could not saue her, she graunted the same, and after longe reasoning betwene her and M. John Spens the Lawyer, she concluded in this maner: Work here, worke there: what kinde of workyng is al this? I know perfectly that no kynde of workes can saue mee, but onely the workes of Christ my Lord and Sauiour. The kyng hearing these wordes, turned hym about and laught, and called her vnto hym and caused her to recant, because she was hys aunt, and she escaped.

The woman of Leith was detected hereof, that when the mydwife in tyme of her labour, bad her say our Ladye helpe mee: She cryed, Christe helpe me, Christ helpe me, in whose helpe I trust. Shee also was caused to recant, and so escaped, without confiscation of her goodes, because she was maryed.

Maister Norman Gurlay, for that he sayd, there was no such thyng as Purgatory, and that the Pope was not a Byshop, but Antichrist, and had no Jurisdiction in Scotland.

Also Dauid Straton, for that he sayd, there was no Purgatorie, but the Passion of Christe, and the tribulations of this world, and because that, when M. Robert Lowson Vicare of Eglesgrig asked his tieth fishe of hym, he dyd cast them to him out of the boate, so that some of them fell into the Sea: therefore he accused him, as one that shoulde haue sayd, that no tithes should be payed. These two, because after great solicitation made by the kyng, they refused to abiure and recant, were therefore condemned by thee Byshop of Rose as heretickes, and were burned vpon the grene side, betwene Leith and Edenburgh, to the entent that the inhabitaunts of Fiffe, seyng the fyre, might be stricken with terrour and feare, not to fall into the lyke. _Ex eodem Scripto._

¶ And thus much touchyng those Martyrs of Scotland, whiche suffered vnder James Beton, Archbishop of S. Andrewes. After whom succeded Dauid Beton in the same Archbyshopprike, vnder whom diuers other were also martyred, as hereafter (God willyng) in their order shall appeare."

"¶ THE HISTORIE TOUCHING THE PERSECUTION IN SCOTLANDE, WITH THE NAMES AND CAUSES OF SUCHE BLESSED MARTYRS, WHICHE IN THE SAME COUNTREY SUFFERED FOR THE TRUTH, AFTER THE TYME OF PATRICKE HAMELTON.

"Thus hauyng finished the tyme and rase of kyng Henry the Eight, it remayneth nowe according to my promise made before, here to place and adjoine so much as hath come to our handes, touchyng the persecution of Scotland, and of the blessed Martyrs of Christ, whiche in that countrey likewise suffred for the true religion of Christ, and testimony of their fayth.

To proccede therefore in the history of these Scotlandc matters, next after the mention of Dauid Straton and M. Nicholas Gurlay, with whom we ended before, pag. 956, the order of tyme woulde require nexte to inferre the memorye of Sir John Borthwike Knight, commonly called Captayne Borthwyke. Who beyng accused of heresie (as the Papistes call it) and cited therfore, an. 1540, and not appearyng, and escaping out into other countreys, was condemned for the same, being absent, by the sentence of Dauid Beaton Archbishop of Saint Andrewes, and other prelates of Scotland, and all his goodes confiscate, and his picture at last burned in the open market place, &c. But for so muche as the storye of hym, with his articles obiected against hym, and his confutation of the same, is already expressed sufficiently in the Firste edition of Actes and Monuments, and because he being hapily deliuered out of their handes, had no more but onely his picture burned, referring the reader to the booke aboue mentioned, we wyll now (the Lord willing) prosecute suche other as followed, begynnyng firste in order with Thom. Forret and his felowes. Their story is this.

Persecutors.

Dauid Beton, Bishop and Cardinal of Saint Andrewes. George Creichton, Bishop of Dunkelden.

Martyrs.

Tho. Forret, priest. Fryer Iohn Kelowe. Fryer Benarage. Duncan Sympson, priest. Rob. Foster, a gentleman, with three or foure other men of Striuelyng, Martyrs.

The Causes.

Not long after the burnyng of Dauid Strutton, and M. Gurlay aboue mentioned, in the dayes of Dauid Beaton Bishop and Cardinall of S. Andrewes, and George Creichton Bishop of Dunkelden, a Canon of S. Colmes Inche, and vicar of Dolone, called Deane Thomas Forret, preached euery Sonday to his parishners, the Epistle or Gospel, as it fell for the tyme: whiche then was a great noueltie in Scotlande, to see anye man preach, except a Blacke fryer, or a gray frier: and therefore the Fryers enuyed hym, and accused hym to the Bishop of Dunkelden (in whose Dioces he remayned) as an heretike and one that shewed the mysteries of the scriptures to the vulgare people in Englishe, to make the Clergie detestable in the sight of the people. The Bishop of Dunkelden moued by the Fryers instigation, called the sayde Deane Thomas, and saide to hym: My joye Deane Thomas, I loue you well, and therefore I must geue you my counsayle, how you shal rule and guide your selfe. To whom Thomas sayd, I thanke your Lordship hartily. Then the Bishop begun his counsaile on this manner.

My joy Deane Thomas, 1 am enfourmed that you preache the Epistle or Gospell euery Sonday to your Parishners, and that you take not the kowe, nor the vpmoste cloth from your Parishners, whiche thyng is very preiudiciall to the Churche men: and therefore my joye Deane Thomas, I would you tooke your kowe and your vpmost cloth, as other church men do, or els it is too much to preach euery Sonday, for in so doyng you may make the people think that we shoulde preache likewise. But it is enough for you, when you finde any good Epistle, or any good Gospel, that setteth foorth the libertie of the holy church, to preache that, and let the rest be.

Thomas answeared: My Lorde, I thinke that none of my parishners wyl complaine that I take not the kow nor the vpermost cloth, but wyll gladly geue me the same together with any other thing that they haue, and I wyll geue and communicate with them any thyng that I haue, and so my Lord we agree right wel, and there is no discord among vs.

And where your Lordship sayth, it is too muche to preache euery Sonday: in deede I thinke it is too litle, and also woulde wishe that your Lordshyp dyd the like. Nay, nay, Deane Thomas (sayth my Lord) let that bee, for we are not ordeyned to preache. Then said Thomas, when your Lordship byddeth me preach, when I finde any good Epistle, or a good Gospell, truely my Lorde, I haue readde the Newe Testament and the Olde, and all the Epistles and the Gospels, and among them all I coulde neuer finde any euyl Epistle, or any euyl Gospel: but if your Lordship wil shewe me the good Epistle and the good Gospell, and the euyll Epistle and the euyll Gospel, then I shall preache the good, and omyt the euyl.

Then spake my Lord stoutly, and said, I thanke God that I neuer knewe what the Olde and Newe Testament was, (and of these wordes rose a Prouerbe which is common in Scotland: Ye are like the Bishop of Dunkelden, that knewe neither newe nor olde lawe:) therefore Deane Thomas, I wyll know nothyng but my Portous and my Pontifical. Go your way, and let be al these fantasies: for if you perseuer in these erroneous opinions, ye wyl repent it when you may not mende it.