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Title: The history of civilisation in Scotland, Vol 2 (of 4)
Author: John Mackintosh
Release date: June 24, 2026 [eBook #78939]
Language: English
Original publication: London: Alexander Gardner, 1892
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF CIVILISATION IN SCOTLAND, VOL 2 (OF 4) ***
THE HISTORY OF CIVILISATION IN SCOTLAND.
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THE HISTORY
OF
CIVILISATION IN SCOTLAND.
BY
JOHN MACKINTOSH, LL.D.
_Author of “The Story of Scotland,”
“The Revolution of 1688 and Viscount Dundee,”
“The Highland Land Question Historically Considered,” Etc._
_A NEW EDITION._
PARTLY REWRITTEN, AND CAREFULLY REVISED THROUGHOUT.
Volume Second.
ALEXANDER GARDNER,
Publisher to her Majesty the Queen,
PAISLEY, AND 26 PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON.
1893.
CONTENTS.
Illustration: (‡ decoration)
CHAPTER XIII.
SECTION I.
_The Rise and Progress of the Reformation._
⭘ A new point of Departure――Mechanical Inventions――Aspiration for
Unity and Independence; Modern Languages――Revival of Classical
Literature――Revival of Art
⭘ Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages――Her vast Organisation,
Wealth, and Power――She controlled Education, and subjected the
Human Mind
⭘ Outline of the prevailing Belief of Roman Catholicism――Angels,
Demons, Witchcraft――Worship of Saints, Images, and Relics――Ideas
of Hell and of Heaven
⭘ Political Power of the Church in different Countries――The French
Nobles; Oppression of the Peasantry――State of Germany; Rebellions
of the Peasantry
⭘ Influence of Literature in Germany; Satirical Attacks upon the
Church――Inquisition in Spain――State of Italy
⭘ Morals of the Priesthood and the Religious Orders
⭘ Influences sapping the Authority of Catholicism; Dante,
Boccaccio, Savonarola――Influence of the Vernacular Literature
⭘ Printing and Publication of the Bible――Early Translations of
Scripture into the Modern Languages
⭘ Awakening of the Moral Consciousness; Enthusiasm of the early
stages of the Movement――Relation of the Reformation to Philosophy
⭘ Significance of the Revolt from Rome――Eras of the Reformation
in different Nations――Proceedings of Luther; his Writings――Early
Protestant Literature――Principle of the Reformation
SECTION II.
_History of the Reformation in Scotland
to the Death of Cardinal Beaton._
⭘ Scotland after the Battle of Flodden――The Duke of Albany assumed
the Government――His Regency
⭘ Henry VIII. interfered with the Government――The Earl of Angus
seized the King, and usurped the Functions of the Crown――The King
escaped; Forfeiture of Angus――Policy of the King
⭘ The Causes of the Reformation in Scotland――Position of the Nobles
――Relation of the Catholic Clergy to the People; Exactions of the
Church――State of Clergy and the Religious Orders
⭘ Celibacy and Monasticism――Assumptions of the Priesthood
⭘ Monogamy――The Family the Foundation of Society――Communism
⭘ Inner Causes of the Reformation; Religious Feeling and Moral
Sentiments
⭘ Heretical Books; Circulation of the Bible――Martyrdom of Patrick
Hamilton; his Opinions――Friar Erth’s Sermon――John Mair, Gavin
Logie, John Winram, Alexander Seton
⭘ Policy of the King――Persecution, Trials, and Executions for
Heresy
⭘ Henry VIII. attempted to induce James V. to discard the Authority
of the Pope
⭘ Marriage of the King; Mary of Lorraine――Persecution――Cardinal
Beaton――Trials and Executions for Heresy――Can Persecution
extinguish Heresy?
⭘ Encroachment by the King upon the Nobles――Acts against Heresy
――Projected Interview between Henry VIII. and James V.――Henry
resolved on War; Conduct of the Scotch Nobles; Solway Moss; Death
of James V.
⭘ The Crown fell to an infant Princess――Cardinal Beaton aspired to
the Regency――The Earl of Arran elected Regent――Project of Henry
VIII. defeated
⭘ He then orders an Invasion of Scotland; great and wanton
♦destruction of Property――Henry’s hatred of Cardinal Beaton; a
Plot to murder him
♦ “destruc-” replaced with “destruction”
⭘ Heresy spreading――Heretics tried and executed――George Wishart
preaching in various Towns――He was seized, tried, and burned
⭘ Plot against the Cardinal; Murdered in his Castle
CHAPTER XIV.
_History of the Reformation to the
Overthrow of the Roman Catholic Church._
⭘ The Conspirators retained the Castle of St. Andrews; Knox joined
them――The new Doctrines spreading――Arrival of French Troops; the
Castle attacked; the Garrison surrendered
⭘ Death of Henry VIII.; the Policy of Aggression continued; the
Scots reduced to extremities――Arrival of a French Army
⭘ The Religious Struggle continued――Attempts to reform the Catholic
Clergy; a new Catechism published――Trial and Execution of Adam
Wallace
⭘ Council of Trent――Authority of Scripture and Tradition; the
Vulgate――Justification; Diversity of Views; Influence of the
Jesuits――Debates on the Errors of the Heretics, and many other
Doctrines――The Inquisition――The Jesuits――Index of Prohibited
Books――Canons and Decrees――The Christianity of the West assumed
three Dogmatic Forms
⭘ The Regency of Arran approaching its termination――The
Queen-mother proclaimed Regent――Death of Edward VI.――Return of
Knox; summoned before the Church Court; Summons abandoned――He
again departed from Scotland
⭘ The Reformed Doctrines continued to spread――A new Covenant
to advance the Reform Movement――Policy of the Queen-Regent
――Execution of Water Mill
⭘ Position of the Reform Party; they protested in Parliament
――Succession of Elizabeth to the Throne of England
⭘ The Queen-Regent influenced by France――The Crisis――A vehement
Sermon by Knox; Destruction of Monasteries――The Queen-Regent
threatened severe Measures――Manifesto of the Lords of the
Congregation
⭘ An Agreement with the Regent; soon broken――The Demolition of the
Monasteries and Images ♦proceeded with
♦ “preceeded” replaced with “proceeded”
⭘ Arrival of French Troops――The Lords of the Congregation
deposed the Regent――Skirmishing between the Frenchmen and
the Congregation――The Lords of the Congregation retired from
Edinburgh; reduced to extremities
⭘ Negotiations with the English; a Treaty between the English
Government and the Lords of the Congregation――Siege of Leith
――Treaty of Edinburgh; Peace proclaimed――Energy of the Reformed
Preachers――Meeting of Parliament; Confession of ♦Faith――Acts
abolishing the Authority of the Pope, and the exercise of the
Catholic Religion
♦ “Eaith” replaced with “Faith”
CHAPTER XV.
_The Creed and Organisation of the Reformed Church._
⭘ Confession of Faith――Belief in one God――Duty of Civil Magistrates
⭘ Preaching the Gospel; the Bible――The Sacraments――Abolition of
Idolatry――Election and Admission of Ministers
⭘ Proposals for the Disposal of the Patrimony of the Church
――Temporary Expedients; Superintendents――Provision for the
Ministry――National Education――Relief of the Labourers of the
Ground and the Poor
⭘ Form of Discipline――Election of Elders and Deacons――Polity of
the Church
⭘ Marriage――Burial――Contemners of the Word of God
⭘ Book of Common Order――Intolerance――The First General Assembly
CHAPTER XVI.
_Reign of Queen Mary._
⭘ France declined to confirm the Treaty of Edinburgh――Death of
Francis II.――State of Parties in Scotland――Arrival of Mary;
Interest of her reign――Difficulty of her Position; the Nobles
and the Preachers
⭘ A Royal Proclamation――Position of the Reformed Church――Mary’s
first Interview with Knox――Parliament declined to ratify the
Book of Discipline――Disposal of the Revenue of the Church; Knox
denounced it
⭘ Proceedings against the Earl of Huntly
⭘ The Court and the Preachers; Interview between the Queen and Knox
――Precarious State of the Protestant Party
⭘ Earl of Lennox; Lord Darnley――The Queen preparing for her
Marriage; the Earl of Moray opposed it――Intolerance――Energy of
the Queen; she married Darnley――Movement of the disloyal Nobles;
their Flight
⭘ Character of Darnley――He becomes the tool of the Nobles――A Plot
to murder Riccio, and restore the banished Nobles――Murder of
Riccio――Return of the banished Lords――Escape of the Queen
⭘ An Army rallied round the Queen, and the Disloyal Nobles
dispersed――Birth of James VI.――Moray restored――A Series of
Stirring Events
⭘ Origin of the Plot to murder Darnley――He was removed to Edinburgh
――Preparations of the Conspirators――Murder of Darnley――The
Chief Actor in the Crime――Was the Queen in any way guilty of
the Murder?
⭘ Trial of Bothwell――Parliament; many Acts granting Lands to the
Nobles――Many of the Nobles recommended Bothwell as a husband for
the Queen――Bothwell conveyed the Queen to Dunbar Castle, thence
to the Castle of Edinburgh, and their Marriage was celebrated at
Holyrood
⭘ A Royal Proclamation――Difficulties rapidly encompassed the
Queen――A party of the Nobles seized Edinburgh and assumed the
Government――Mary and Bothwell mustered an Army, but the Nobles
faced it――Mary surrendered and Bothwell fled――The Nobles
imprisoned the Queen
⭘ The Nobles soon developed their Plot――They deposed the Queen
and appointed the Earl of Moray Regent――Meetings of the General
Assembly――Coronation of the Infant King
CHAPTER XVII.
_History of Protestantism in Scotland,
and the Conflict of the Clergy with the Crown._
⭘ State of Parties――Moray’s Interview with the Queen――He assumed
the Government, and endeavoured to restore order――Ratification
of the Acts establishing the Reformation――Meeting of the General
Assembly――The Regent’s Difficulties
⭘ Mary’s Escape from Prison――An Army rallied round her; Battle of
Langside; Flight of Mary to England
⭘ The Regent struggled to maintain order――The Preachers petitioned
him to punish vice and suppress the Catholics. During Moray’s
absence in England his enemies multiplied, when he returned the
struggle was desperate――The Regent shot, his Character
⭘ The Factions of the King and Queen distracted the Kingdom
――Earl of Lennox elected Regent――Efforts of the Reformed
Clergy――Execution of Archbishop Hamilton――Both Parties issued
proclamations and held Parliaments――The Regent slain――Earl of
Mar elected Regent
⭘ The Earl of Morton elected Regent――The Queen’s party reduced
――The Castle of Edinburgh surrendered, and the Governor tried
and executed――Death of Lethington, his Character
⭘ Polity of the Reformed Church――Leith Concordat touching titles
and orders of the Clergy, and Disposal of the patrimony of the
Church; opposed by the General Assembly
⭘ Knox resumed Preaching in Edinburgh――He denounced the Authors of
the Massacre of St. Bartholomew――Knox’s last Public Sermon; his
Death, his Work, and Character
⭘ Efforts of the Ministers to improve the Organisation of the
Church; difficulties of Reconstruction――The Struggle between the
Clergy and Crown was founded upon Theocratic Ideas
⭘ Morton’s Policy――The Bishops subjected to the Discipline of
the General Assembly――Discussion of Episcopacy in the General
Assemblies――A Form of Polity to be drawn up――Episcopacy abolished
⭘ An Address to the King
⭘ Second Book of Discipline contrasted with the First――This
Treatise presented the definite Polity of Presbyterianism
⭘ Difficulty of carrying this Polity into effect――Scarcity
of qualified Ministers; the Reformed Doctrines only partly
introduced into the Highlands
⭘ Morton’s enemies pursuing him――New Court favourites――The Negative
Confession――Trial and Execution of Morton
⭘ The King’s Favourites Supreme――A Plot against them――Attempt to
revive Episcopacy――The Preachers attacked the Favourites and the
Court――The Plot matured; the King and the Earl of Arran taken
Prisoners
⭘ The dominant party held a Parliament, and passed a Vote of
thanks to themselves; the Clergy also approved of the Enterprise
――Attitude of the Preachers toward the French Ambassadors
⭘ Escape of the King――Return of Arran――A new Plot――Capture of the
Earl of Gowrie――Arran Supreme
⭘ Andrew Melville――Conflict between the Clergy and the Crown――A
Scheme of Episcopacy――A series of Acts passed――Flight of a number
of Preachers――Entire submission of the Clergy to the Required
Conditions
⭘ Peculiarities of the History of Scotland――Lord Maxwell and
the banished Lords surprise the King――Return of the Preachers
――Conceit of the King――Violent Language of the Clergy――Meeting
of the General Assembly――French Protestant ministers
⭘ Execution of Queen Mary
⭘ Act of Annexation of Church lands――Defensive Preparations against
the Armada――Revolt of the Roman Catholic lords――Vehement Speeches
――Position of the King――Establishment of the Presbyterian Polity
CHAPTER XVIII.
_Continuation of the History of Protestantism._
⭘ Intense zeal of the Reformed Clergy――Apprehension of Ker
――Execution of Graham――Policy of the King; the Catholic Earls
――Earl of Bothwell――Parliament
⭘ The Clergy and the Catholic Earls; Act of Abolition――Rebellion
of the Catholic Earls; Battle of Glenlivet; Advance of the Royal
Army; Flight of the Catholic Earls
⭘ A National Fast――General Assembly――Vice of all Ranks
⭘ Return of the Catholic Earls; alarm of the Clergy; vehement
Sermons――Black summoned before the Council; declined to recognise
its authority――A Fast proclaimed; the King’s proceedings; a
number of Citizens ordered to leave Edinburgh――A false Alarm;
great Tumult
⭘ New move of the King――The Magistrates imprisoned; tried and
convicted, and the Burgesses declared Rebels, and compelled to
pay an enormous Fine
⭘ Ideas of the Relation of Church and State――The King circulated a
series of Questions; Meetings of the General Assembly; the Court
party carried their Measures――The Catholic Earls reconciled to
the Church
⭘ The King engaged in Recasting the Polity of the Church――Churchmen
in Parliament; debate in the General Assembly――Conference at
Holyrood on the Clergy voting in Parliament
⭘ James and the Court of Session――General Assembly; a Modified
Episcopacy introduced
⭘ The Gowrie Conspiracy――Accession of James VI. to the Throne of
England
⭘ Ultimate Problem of the Reformation in Relation to the
development of Civilisation
CHAPTER XIX.
_The Social State of the People in the Sixteenth Century._
SECTION I.
_Prior to the Reformation._
⭘ Aim of the Chapter――The Crown and the Government――Court of
Session and the Privy Council――Staff of the Executive
⭘ State of the Borders and the Highlands――Modes of treating the
Inhabitants of those quarters of the Kingdom――Feuds in every part
of the country
⭘ State of Crime――Theft, Robbery, Murder, Rape――Defective Police
Organisation――Crime in the Burghs; Acts of Violence; Begging;
Harlots――Penance as a Punishment――Habits of Swearing
⭘ Deplorable Sanitary Condition――Early mode of Lighting the streets
of Edinburgh
⭘ State of the Tenants and Labourers of the Land――Efforts to
relieve the Poor
⭘ Religious feelings of the People――Altars of Churches――Processions,
Patron Saints, and Altars of the various Craftsmen
⭘ Indications of the novel Doctrines among the People prior to the
Reformation――Heresy in Aberdeen――Hanging and breaking of Images;
Ballads
SECTION II.
_After the Reformation._
⭘ Evidence of the Change of Religious Sentiments――Disposal of the
Ornaments, Images, Vestments, and Silver work of the Churches
⭘ Proceedings against Idolaters, Harlots, and Swearers――Efforts to
suppress Immoralities and Social vice――Long Struggle to secure
the Observance of Sunday
⭘ Reformed Discipline compared with the System which it superseded
――A Treatise on Excommunication; its chief points――The Order of
Fasting; Illustrations of the Sentiments of the Clergy, and the
state of Society
⭘ Some of the Customs associated with Roman Catholicism continued
by the People
⭘ Relation of the Sexes――Inconsistency of Celibacy――Loose habits
of the People――Regulations connected with Marriage; Peculiarities
of the Scotch Law of Marriage――Curious points came before the
General Assembly――Age at which persons might Marry――Divorce
⭘ Provisions for the Relief of the Poor――Efforts of the Clergy to
assist them――Difficulty of treating Vagrancy
⭘ A belief in Sorcery, Witchcraft, and Necromancy, has descended
from Pre-historic Ages――By an Act of Parliament in 1563
Witchcraft was punishable by Death――James VI. a great believer
in Witchcraft――Trials for Witchcraft
⭘ Many of the Witches were accused of Conspiring the Death of
the King――The Earl of Bothwell was accused of trafficking with
Witches against the King, and imprisoned, but he escaped――Euphame
MacCalyean tried and executed――Barbara Napier tried; a speech of
the King on Witchcraft――Richard Graham, a great Sorcerer, Tried
and Executed――Bothwell continued his Exploits against the King
――At last he was driven out of the Country――The number of Witches
executed in Scotland not so great as in other Countries
⭘ Censorship of the Press
⭘ Monopoly and the disturbed condition of Society were inimical to
Commerce――The Coinage――Relative value of English and Scotch money
⭘ Mining Operations――Gold, Silver, Lead, Copper, Iron, and Coal
⭘ Commerce of the Kingdom――Foreign trade comparatively small
――Curious regulations touching the Export of Salt, Coal, and
other things――Trade between the Highlands and the Lowlands
⭘ Laws fixing the price of Ale, Malt, and other goods――Whisky
――Prices of Boots and Shoes――Complaint of Bonnet-makers
⭘ Sumptuary Laws――Dress――Eating and Drinking at Marriages and
Baptisms――Lent
⭘ Popular Amusements――Social results of the Reformation
CHAPTER XX.
_The Literature of the Nation in the
First Half of the Sixteenth Century._
⭘ Relation of Education and Literature――Introduction of Printing
into Scotland; first Printing Press; Chepman and Myllar
――Specimens of their Work――Other Scottish Printers
⭘ William Dunbar, the Court Poet――Editions of his Poems――Causes for
his Writings being neglected
⭘ Dunbar’s Writings chiefly consist of short pieces――The range of
his subjects pretty wide――Allegorical Poems; The Goldyn Targe
――Ballad sung at the Marriage of James IV.――The Thistle and the
Rose――Merit of his short Poems――The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy
――Some of Dunbar’s poems supposed to be lost
⭘ Gavin Douglas――The Palace of Honour; his Imagery; Peculiarities
of his language――King Hart, an Allegory――His Translation of
Virgil; Original Prologues――Descriptions of Winter and May
⭘ John Mair――His Career as a Professor――His Writings, Opinions, and
Views
⭘ Boece’s Writings――John Bellenden――His Translations; a Specimen of
the Vernacular Prose of the Period
⭘ Complaynt of Scotland――Its Authorship uncertain――Character and
nature of the Work――The Writer’s Opinions
⭘ State of Scotland――Discussion of the English Claims; Intention of
the Protector, Somerset――Characteristics of the English and the
Scots――The Complaints of the People against the Nobles and the
Clergy――Shortcomings of the People themselves――Corruption and
Vanity of the Nobles――Abuses of the Clergy; Heretics should not
be Burned――Internal Strife――Characteristics of the Style――Value
of the incidental Information in the Work
CHAPTER XXI.
_Literature of the Reformation,
and the later part of the Sixteenth Century._
⭘ Sir David Lyndsay――Influence of his Writings on the Reformation
movement in Scotland――He was the most popular Writer of the
Period, and wrote for the People
⭘ Lyndsay’s Attack upon the Churchmen and the Religious Orders,
specimen of his Sarcasm――Satire of the Three Estates, its humour
――The Abbot, the Parson――The Play acted upon the Green――The
Magistrates encouraged Dramatic Representations――Lyndsay’s other
Works
⭘ James Wedderburn, and Robert Wedderburn――Characteristics of the
Gude and Godly Ballads――Hymns of the Reformation――Influence of
this class of Writings
⭘ Knox’s Writings――His Style, History of the Reformation,
Admonitory Writings――Letter to the Queen Regent
⭘ Ninian Winzet――His Attack upon Knox, and the Reformers――Winzet
escaped from Scotland――His Writings
⭘ Quintin Kennedy――His Writings――Discussion with Knox on the Mass
――James Tyrie, a Jesuit――His attack on the Reformed Church,
answered by Knox
⭘ Knox’s Treatise on Predestination――History of the Doctrine of
Eternal Decree――Theories of the Origin of the Soul――Views of
Augustine, and others――Calvin’s view of the Eternal Decree,
opposed and vehemently disputed――Knox’s Defence of Predestination
unsatisfactory――The subject is beyond the powers of the Mind
――Knox’s Letters
⭘ George Buchanan――His Career as a Public Teacher Abroad――On his
return home, he became associated with the Protestant party――His
History of Scotland, Political Writings, Influence of his Views
⭘ Scottish Poets of the later part of the Century――Sir Richard
Maitland, George Bannatyne, Alexander Scott, Alexander Arbuthnot,
John Davidson――Anonymous Poems and Rhymes
⭘ Alexander Montgomery――Characteristics of his Poetry
⭘ James VI.――His Writings――Alexander Hume――James Melville――Latin
Poetry
⭘ Theological and Religious Literature of the later part of the
Century
⭘ Legal Literature――Dr. Henryson, Sir John Skene, Sir Thomas Craig,
William Welwood
⭘ Progress of Science――John Napier――A Treatise on Revelations――His
proposed Inventions for the Defence of the Island――Publication of
his great Work on Logarithms――His minor Inventions
⭘ Progress of Medical Knowledge――Dr. Skene, Dr. Lowe, Dr. Liddel
⭘ Scientific Conceptions of the Universe met much Opposition in the
Sixteenth Century――Moral and Religious Sentiments were the moving
Influences of the Reformation
CHAPTER XXII.
_Education and Art in the Sixteenth Century._
⭘ Aim of Education――Origin and Progress of Parochial Schools,
Subjects Taught
⭘ Grammar Schools prior to the Reformation――After the Reformation,
High School of Edinburgh――Grammar School of Glasgow――Method of
Teaching and Subjects Taught
⭘ Universities of Scotland――St. Andrews, new Colleges established
――Subjects Taught――Effect of the Reformation upon the
Universities――State of the University of Glasgow, New Foundation
――Andrew Melville appointed Principal, His method of Teaching
⭘ The Leaders of the Reformation movement made the utmost efforts
to reform the Universities――Reorganisation of the University
of St. Andrews, order of Teachers and Subjects Taught――Andrew
Melville appointed Principal of St. Mary’s College
――Reorganisation of the University of Aberdeen
⭘ Origin of the University of Edinburgh, Foundation――Robert
Rollock, Method of Teaching, number of Students
⭘ Aim of a Liberal Education as then conceived――Method of
Examination――Graduation――Growing interest in Education,
Foundation of Marischal College――Limited Views of Science and
the Universe which prevailed――Deficiencies of the System――Lack
of Libraries
⭘ Music Taught in the Schools prior to the Reformation――Act of
Parliament touching Music――Singing in the Reformed Church
⭘ Architecture――Carving in Oak――Painting and Sculpture almost a
Blank
CHAPTER XXIII.
_The Ultimate Problem of the Reformation._
⭘ Primitive Religious Feeling――Prime characteristic of the Human
Mind――Influence of Cosmic Forces in the Early Stages of the Race,
Crude Notions――Ancestor Worship, and Nature Worship
⭘ Brahmanism founded on a Pantheistic Conception――It issued in a
System of fixed Castes――A Reaction against It
⭘ Buddha a great Religious Teacher――Early Stage of His Career――At
last He found a New Light and the Secret of Spiritual Freedom
⭘ Henceforth Buddha proclaimed his doctrine of Salvation, founded
a new Religion, and almost effected a Social Revolution in India
――But the Interest of Caste, and Considerations of State, Caused
Buddhism to be expelled from India
⭘ Pantheistic Conception of the Universe――Nirvana
⭘ Religion of the Greeks――Romans――and Germans prior to the
Introduction of Christianity
⭘ Respect for Honesty, Justice, and Humane Sentiments have been
very slowly Developed
⭘ Distinct Character of Christianity――Roman Hierarchy――New
Testament, Faith in Immortality――A Region of Belief, and beyond
it a Region of Hope
⭘ Conclusion
THE HISTORY
OF
CIVILISATION IN SCOTLAND.
Illustration: (‡ decoration)
CHAPTER XIII.
SECTION I.
_The Rise and Progress of the Reformation._
PARTLY owing to the insular position of Scotland, the means of
intercourse with the other communities of Europe had for ages been
comparatively limited, but, from the closing years of the thirteenth
century onward, the commercial and foreign relations of the kingdom
had gradually extended, and new historic conditions had arisen.
The gradual development of the industrial arts, the extension of
commercial relations, and the consequent improvement of the means
of intercommunication, had at length permitted different nations to
influence each other more freely and directly. Step by step commercial
enterprise had become a power in Europe, and the narrow feudalism of
the earlier period had begun to relax and decay. The energy of the
people of Europe had rendered it possible for the various communities
to influence each other in their ideas and opinions, as well as to
confer benefits by the exchange of their diverse commodities. This
mutual influence was most decisively manifested in the department of
thought and feeling associated with the Reformation movement. There
had been some slight attempts to sow novel doctrines among the Scots in
the fifteenth century, but they were still firmly attached to the Roman
Catholic creed. The principles and the doctrines of the Reformation
were not originated in Scotland, they were imported; and in treating
of the historic rise of this revolutionary movement, it is necessary
to extend our view beyond the boundaries of the Island.
The mechanical inventions connected with the manufacture of paper,
and the art of printing, had a relative bearing on the Reformation.
In Europe, paper was first made from cotton about the year 1000, and
from rags in 1319; and thus the material for printing on was rendered
available. In 1438, the art of printing was discovered; and a few years
later, cut metal types were invented and brought into use. Before the
end of the fifteenth century many thousands of books had been printed
and published in the various countries of Europe. Thus the printing
press soon made literature more accessible to mankind; while the range
of an individual thinker’s influence was at once greatly widened, his
ideas and opinions being easily promulgated to an extent which, in
preceding ages, was unknown and undreamed.
These new agencies appeared upon the scene when the chief nations
of Europe were seeking unity and aspiring to political independence,
and when their languages were assuming the modern forms. This had a
close relation and a deep influence on the Reformation movement. The
Italians, the French, the Spaniards, the Germans, and the English,
had each already begun to cultivate their respective languages, and to
produce poetry and other compositions. But the languages of the three
first were essentially descendants of the Latin; and it is a notable
coincidence that, though the Reformation was attempted to be introduced
among these nations, they still remain in the Roman Catholic Church.
The Italians have produced a rich and varied literature, characterised
by flowing cadence and dramatic power. Spanish literature is
distinguished for its sonorous rhythm and its romantic characteristics.
Both Italian and Spanish literature are somewhat poor in the
departments of philosophy and criticism: in these departments French
literature has taken a higher rank. German literature and English
literature were also influenced by the Latins, but in a much less
degree than the rest, each of them having retained a large body of
vernacular words, which have been developed into a great and massive
national literature. The action of the above agencies and others began
to indicate that a revolution was looming in Europe. The fetters which
had so long entangled and enslaved the human mind were soon to be
snapped; and the time was approaching when the mass of traditions, of
legends, and of wonders, would be subjected to a rude and irreparable
shock.
It has long been recognised that the revival of Classical literature
aided the Reformation movement. This however only affected the educated
class, and if there had been no stronger causes of the Reformation,
classical learning would have been comparatively powerless to touch the
body of a nation; but being in accord with other and deeper causes of
the revolutionary movement, it may be reckoned a considerable factor
among the antecedents of the Reformation. Inasmuch as this revival of
ancient literature contributed to weaken the authority of the theology
of the schools, it trenched upon the supreme power of the Church,
and by assisting to modify the forms of thought and opinion proved
exceedingly favourable to the general movement. Even to awaken a spirit
of inquiry was a step of the utmost consequence. Many learned men of
the period had no intention of reforming religion, but owing to other
tendencies which had been long in operation, their efforts conduced to
that end.
At the same time the revival of art and the rise of modern painting
in Italy gave an impetus to the onward movement. It is the essential
function of painting to embody man’s feelings, emotions, and ideas
of beauty, and within certain limits to give them living form and
realised existence. The Church thought that art could help her; and to
a certain extent it did. By vividly portraying Scripture histories and
the lives of the saints, by presenting new types of serene beauty and
pure joy, by giving form to the floating notions of angelic beings, and
by rousing deep sympathy with our Lord in His Passion, painting lent
efficient aid to piety. But its effect was not exactly what the Church
desired. Instead of tightening the fetters of ecclesiastical authority
and encouraging mysticism and asceticism, it restored humanity to a
sense of its dignity and beauty, and helped to show the untenability
of the mediæval standpoint; for art is emphatically and uncontrollably
free, and it is free in the realm of sensuous delightfulness from which
conventual religion turns aside to enjoy her own ecstatic liberty of
contemplation. Thus art early contributed to the emancipation of the
modern mind by proclaiming to men the tidings of their greatness in a
world of manifold enjoyment created for their use. “Whatever painting
touched, became by that touch, human; piety at the lure of art, folded
her soaring wings and rested on the genial earth. This the Church had
not foreseen.”¹
¹ Symonds’ _Renaissance_, Volume III., pages 29‒32, _et seq._
Before the Reformation the Catholic Church presented a vast and
powerful organisation with innumerable agencies which penetrated into
every form of society, and attempted to control the whole life of
mankind. The body of the clergy, including the monks and friars, had
assumed the characteristics and the position of a distinct caste. They
were not only distinct, but in many respects antagonistic to the other
classes of the people; in their view of life, their laws, their special
privileges, their social duties, and in the aim of their existence,
they were separated from the lay classes of society by an impassible
limit. Their theory of life was to neglect and subdue the body, to
mortify the flesh in order that the soul might be made perfect. Whether
all this was done for the good of humanity or for the benefit of the
clergy themselves is a question of the most momentous importance, and
perchance some light may be thrown upon it in the course of this volume.
In every country of Europe the Church held a considerable extent
of landed property, which varied in different kingdoms, but at
the beginning of the sixteenth century the wealth of the Church
was enormous. In England the landed estates of the bishops, of the
cathedrals, and of the monastic orders extended into every parish
of the kingdom; while the tithes and offerings which maintained the
beneficed clergy brought in a revenue larger than the lands. In France
a long series of causes and circumstances had combined to throw into
the hands of the clergy a very large stretch of landed property;
for many generations the Kings of France had vied with each other in
heaping estates upon the bishops and in endowing monasteries. The title
deeds of church property in France date from a very early period; and
in Scotland the earliest body of charters relating to land rights are
found in the registers of the Church. The Church lands however formed
but a small part of the revenues of the clergy. They had the tenth of
all the produce of land, which was extended to include not only all
kinds of grain and vegetable produce, but also cattle, sheep, poultry,
and all kinds of fish. There were also the votive offerings, many of
which were at first free gifts, but had assumed the form of lawful
demands. Then the whole life of every Catholic was interwoven with the
ceremonial of the Church, and the priest had to be paid for confession,
baptism, confirmation, marriage, and the rites of burial, and the
saying of masses which were believed to lighten the suffering of the
soul after death. Moreover, there were the offerings at the crosses and
the shrines of famous and popular saints for their intercessory prayers
to avert calamities, to grant success to schemes of ambition, to obtain
pardon for sin, and to bring down blessing. Many of the crosses and
shrines were supposed to be invested with miraculous powers, and the
miracles which were said to have been wrought at them were innumerable.
When to all these are added the large subsidies which must have been
given to the swarms of friars spread over every country of Christendom,¹
it will be easily realised that the Church was in receipt of a large
portion of the industrial produce of Europe, and drew into her coffers
an almost incredible amount of wealth.
¹ Selden’s _Book on Tithes_; Speed’s _Catalogue of Religious
Houses, Benefices_, etc.; Dugdale and Stevens on _The
Revenues of the Monasteries_; Stubbs’ _Constitutional
History Of England_, Volume III., page 521; Milman’s
_History of Latin Christianity_, Volume VI., pages 344‒375;
for Germany see Ranke’s _History of the Reformation in
Germany_, Volume I., pages 272‒278.
Such education as then existed was almost wholly under the control of
the Church, and the clergy themselves were the best educated body of
men in the world. Rome was the head of the educational department as
well as the centre of everything else connected with religion, morals,
and philosophy. No university could be properly established without the
sanction and the approval of its constitution by the Pope; but it does
not appear that the Pope threw obstacles in the way of the erection
of these institutions. At the beginning of the sixteenth century there
were upwards of fifty universities scattered over Europe: and all
learned people were regarded as belonging to the clergy, for the Pope
had long claimed them as the special subjects of his empire. It was
well understood that all the members of the universities should talk
and write in Latin, the universal language of the Church and the
learned, in which all the knowledge of the times was sealed up and
monopolised by the clergy. They were the canon lawyers, the historians,
and the philosophers, for philosophy was wholly under the dominion
of theology. They reigned supreme, and everything which they deemed
opposed to the Faith or inconsistent with their theology was rigorously
excluded from the pale of orthodox Christendom. Medicine and science
were left to the Jews and the Arabians; as the Christian had higher
objects with which to occupy his mind. If it had been possible to
continue making Latin the only medium of communication and record, the
sole vehicle of literature, with the Church as its depository, there
would have been no Reformation. The modern languages even in their
crude state aided the onward movement, and the comparatively rapid
development of their varied literature secured its success. Hence,
since the sixteenth century, in spite of every effort, the Latin tongue
has been constantly falling more and more into the background; it was
relegated into the study of the scholar, and into books intended only
for the learned. But at the beginning of that century the spiritual
authority and the power of the clergy stood unchallenged; and the
minds of men were held in the most complete slavery. They declared the
eternal destiny of every one, and to doubt their sentence was the most
abhorrent sin; those who disbelieved trembled in silence, and shrouded
themselves from their fellow creatures; the few who openly ventured to
question the unlimited power of the clergy to absolve were the outcasts
of society, detested and proscribed by the Church and hated by the
people. The whole life and moral being of man was claimed to be under
the supervision and control of the clergy; no act was beyond their
cognisance, all the thoughts of the mind and the inmost secrets of
the heart had to be disclosed to them. Every one was bound to inform
against himself, and to submit to a moral torture which threatened him
with the severest condemnation. If he concealed anything, he had to
undergo the most crushing penance. The sacraments of the spiritual life
could be granted or withheld according to the arbitrary judgment of
the priest; absolution might be delayed and even refused; after death
the body might repose in consecrated ground with the saints, or be cast
out into the domain of devils. Excommunication cut the man off from the
Church, beyond whose pale there was no possibility of salvation; no one
could presume to hope for any one who died under its ban. The inward
assurance of faith, of virtue, or of rectitude, unless avouched by the
priest, was accounted nothing; without the priestly passport admission
into the kingdom of heaven was impossible. But the sacredness of the
priest himself was indefeasible, whatever his habits and life might be.
The people might murmur in secret at his cupidity and licentiousness;
he might even be openly exposed to shame, but he was still a priest and
his verdict of condemnation or absolution remained equally valid. This
was the crowning triumph of the Roman priesthood over the moral and
intellectual faculties of mankind, but it was too complete to endure.
Great as the power of the Church was, she could not bind the human mind
for ever; she might cramp its freedom and retard its progress, but to
arrest the onward movement and destiny of humanity was more than she
could do, and the moral indignation of the people at last rent the veil.
The written creed of the Church comprised only a small part of the
belief of Roman Catholicism. During the period of a thousand and
four hundred years the Church had accumulated and interwoven with
Christianity a vast mass of mythology, which consisted partly of
notions belonging to the old heathen religions that were current in
these countries when the Gospel was introduced into them, and partly of
notions and opinions which prevailed among the Jews when Christianity
was founded, and largely of traditions and legends associated with the
Christian saints.¹ The popular religion of the middle ages composed
from these diverse sources, contained a remarkable combination of
beliefs, and a mass of crude, unsifted, and materialised notions.
Tradition claimed equal authority with the Scriptures; the Church
and the hierarchy were assumed to have the power of indefinitely
multiplying the objects and articles of faith, and by degrees the whole
imaginary belief of the Middle Ages was authorised and ingrafted upon
Christianity. Externally there was a certain unity in the diversity
of the public worship. Although each nation and even each parish had
its peculiar patron saint, no one denied the influence and the power
of the saints of other nations and parishes; as there was always plenty
of employment for them all within the vast organisation of Roman
Catholicism.
¹ Mackintosh’s _History of Civilisation in Scotland_, Volume
I., pages 99‒102, 123, 128‒130, 437. _Supernatural Religion_,
Volume I., pages 88‒141, 148, _et seq._, 1874‒77. If I
might venture to pass a remark on this important work, it
appears to me that the first part of it is by far the most
effectively handled. When the author comes into the heart
of the subject, to the examination of the evidence of the
fundamental doctrines of Christianity, he always seems
rather anxious to prove his special view; and his criticism
loses much of its force owing to its excessive minuteness
and length, and he sometimes fails to see the real bearings
of the points in question.
All historians of opinions and doctrines are aware that
there existed a speculative connection between the current
notions of the philosophy of the age and those set forth
in the New Testament; indeed, the speculative tendency of
the early Fathers caused them to adopt the existing logical
distinctions of philosophical schools. But nevertheless
the opinions of the Fathers were all tinged by their belief
in supernatural agencies. Numerous allusions and direct
references to good and evil spirits, angels, and demons,
occur in their writings; and the doctrine of the existence
of demons stands in close association with the existence of
evil in the world. In the onward development of Catholicism
this class of beings seems to have constantly multiplied.
“If we pass from the Fathers into the Middle Ages we find
ourselves in an atmosphere that was dense and charged
with the supernatural. The demand for miracles was almost
boundless, and the supply was equal to the demand.” (Lecky’s
_History of Rationalism_, Volume I., page 152.) Compare Dean
Milman’s _History of Latin Christianity_, Volume VI., pages
399‒332.
There were the realms of angels and devils, and the hierarchies of
heaven and hell. The celestial host of angels was divided into three
classes, and each class sub-divided into three orders;¹ and these
beings formed circles around the throne of the Trinity. They were of a
fiery nature, as fire had most of the properties of the divinity, and
they were endowed with countless eyes and wings; their form, however,
was human, their raiment priestly and exceedingly bright, and they were
holy and full of joy. Occasionally they visited the earth as messengers,
but angelic apparitions were far less frequent than the interferences
and temptations of the demons. The latter were base and cruel,
malignant, hideous, and hateful; they took a peculiar delight in the
tortures which they inflicted, but the saints often mastered them,
and exultingly repulsed their fiercest assaults. The devils were very
numerous and ever present under the name of the spirits of the air;
this world was their almost exclusive domain; sometimes they assumed
beautiful forms, as of frisky women, to tempt the saints; sometimes the
devil appeared in the shape of a monstrous animal, at other times as a
priest to declaim in the pulpit. Thomas Aquinas, the greatest Catholic
writer of the fourteenth century, distinctly maintained that diseases
and tempests were the direct acts of the devil; that the devil could
transport men at his pleasure through the air, and that he could
transform himself into any shape. It was generally taught and believed
that innumerable evil spirits were ranging over the world, seeking
the misery and the ruin of mankind; and that they were always hovering
around the inhabitants of the earth, and originating wind, hail, and
tempests.²
¹ In the primitive Church the doctrine of angels was indefinite,
but it gradually assumed form, and most of the scholastics
adopted the classification indicated in the text. The
Council of Lateran, held in 1215, declared as the doctrine
of the Church that the angels are spiritual beings, and were
created in a state of innocence. But touching particular
points, ample scope was still left for poetical and
imaginary speculations. Some of the Fathers held rather
curious notions about the angels. Clement and Origen
assigned to the angels the office of watching over provinces
and towns, in accordance with the notions of individual
guardian angels. (Clement, Stromata, V., page 700.) Clement
further says――“That they have neither ears, nor tongue, nor
lips, nor entrails, nor organs of respiration,” etc.
² _Malleus Maleficarum_; Lecky’s _History of Rationalism_,
Volume I., pages 72, 74, _et seq._ Regarding the devil there
has been great diversity of doctrine and opinions. According
to the opinion of Origen, there was still hope of the final
conversion and pardon of Satan himself. Tertullian and
Origen both ascribed the failures of crops, drought, famine,
pestilence, and murrain to the influence of demons.
Closely associated with these demoniac agencies, was the belief in
witchcraft, sorcery, spells, talismans, and conjurations. These vaguely
connated notions rested upon the supposition that acts and operations
were performed by persons who were under the influence of the devil,
or who acted as the assistants of evil spirits. The Church had long
encouraged these silly notions and wild hallucinations by recognising
and treating them as facts; and in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, the belief in witchcraft reached a height which produced the
most frightful results. Many thousands of human creatures were burnt
and drowned for the supposed crime of having sold themselves to the
devil, and having held communication with evil spirits.
The intense and vivid sense of satanic presence which pervaded the
minds of the clergy and the legislators of those times, induced them to
look upon heresy and witchcraft as nearly allied, and the zeal against
both grew together. The idea of demoniac power had so deep a hold upon
the minds of men that even the Reformation failed to shake it; and for
some time this revolution gave a new impetus to the persecution for
witchcraft, and it required the enlightenment of other two centuries to
weaken and dispel this dark and cruel belief.
The saints were an intermediate class of beings between God and the
living Catholic world of Christians. As they were endowed with human
feelings and sympathies, they were naturally supposed to be more
closely associated with, and interested in, the welfare of their
kindred upon the earth. This kinship between the blessed saints and
their brethren and votaries still in the flesh seemed to be mutual;
and each saint willingly kept up his special interest and attachment
for the places and the associates of his earthly sojourn. By his
intercession he exercised a beneficent influence; he was tutelar within
his sphere, and so he became an object of devout adoration. So useful
a class of beings could not fail to be constantly multiplied, and some
of them deified, as they had assumed the position of the rulers and the
disposing providence of the earth, and it appeared that the Deity had
almost abandoned the government of the world to them. The unmistakable
evidence of their place and power in the popular imagination was seen
in the numbers of their altars in every church and chapel throughout
Christendom, and the costly oblations that were continually offered at
their shrines.
But the Virgin Mary was seated far above all the saints and martyrs.
Since the beginning of the seventh century the worship of the Virgin
had been constantly on the ascendant. Every cathedral, and almost every
church, had its Chapel of our Lady; and in every breviary the hymns to
the Virgin teemed with poetic images expressive of the homage paid to
her: in the worship of the people she was addressed in words similar
to those applied to the Deity. A copious and rich legend unfolded
the whole history of her birth and life, a subject on which the New
Testament was silent: but the spurious gospels had furnished ample
incidents, which threw a halo of authority around the details.¹
Painting and sculpture both lent their aid to embody and realise this
worship of the Blessed Virgin. At last the question was raised, whether
she was entirely free from the sin of Adam, and there were great
discussions on the point. The Council of Basle in 1439 passed a decree
in favour of the Immaculate Conception; yet some still doubted, and
Pope Sixtus the Fourth, in 1477, and again in 1483, declared that the
opposite doctrine should not be called heretical, but his bulls did not
prohibit those who differed from retaining their own views.² At this
time the festivals in honour of the Virgin had increased to seven; and
it is almost unnecessary to say that countless miracles were attributed
to her.
¹ _Supernatural Religion_, Volume I., pages 308, 314, _et seq._
² “Those theologians who sought to clear the Mother of Christ
from the guilt of original sin, did not bear in mind that
they only pushed the miracle one step further back, without
entirely removing it; for in that case the parents of Mary
must have been free from original sin, and again their
parents, etc., and so on up to Adam. Bernard of Clairvaux
seems to have perceived this difficulty.” Hagenbach’s
_History of Doctrines_, Volume II., page 23; 1847.
This worship of the Virgin and the Saints was continually receiving
fresh accessions. For many centuries the passions and feelings were
kept in a state of excitement, as new saints were always arising and
crowding on to the Calendar, and whenever a saint was canonised, it
was deemed necessary to show that he had worked miracles; so all the
lives of the old saints are full of miracles. Some of the saints had
a world-wide fame; their churches were erected in every Christian
kingdom, and their shrines sprung up in all lands; but others had
only a national or a merely local fame, although within these limits
they were worshipped with equal fidelity, their legends, their acts,
and their miracles, were commemorated and presented to the eye in
architecture, sculpture, and painting. A few of the patron saints of
the western kingdoms of Europe belong to a comparatively late date,
England placed herself under St. George, a personage of very doubtful
origin; St. Louis was the Saint of the Crusades; and St. Thomas Aquinas
of Scholasticism. Each order of monks and of friars were bound to
hold up to the utmost the saints of their order, and it was the sacred
duty of all who wore the garb to spread their fame with especial
assiduity. It was also the duty of every king, burgess, and craftsman
and parishioner, to assist in propagating the renown and the miracles
of his patron saint.¹ Most of the chief churches of a kingdom had a
commemorative anniversary of their patron saint, when his wonders were
made the subject of endless sermons. Great processions, rejoicings, and
feastings were held, and occasionally rendered more attractive by some
new miracle, some marvellous cure, some demon ejected, or something
which outdid the miracles of every neighbouring saint. Each of these
notable saints had his life of strange incidents, the legend of his
virtues and miracles, his shrines and his relics; and this legend was
to his votaries a kind of gospel, which was worked into the popular
belief by constant iteration. Legend, in fact, was the universal poetry
of the times. The mythic literature of Roman Catholic Christianity is
almost interminable in quantity, and its life and strength is centred
in its particularity and individuality; whenever it is reduced to
a more compendious form it withers, the chill of the tomb gathers
around it; and under the searching grasp of comparative criticism, the
specified particulars and the minute detail, are found to lack evidence,
and one by one, each story is made to pass from the realm of fact into
that of belief, or the hallucinations of the dark and perplexed
imagination of the sons of men.
¹ Incidental evidence of this has already been given in the
first volume of this work, pages 125 _et seq._, 406, 438.
The great authority for the lives of the Saints is the large
folio volumes of the Bollandists’ Collection, which was
begun in 1643 by the Jesuit, Bolland. Within the past fifty
years many of the materials relating to the Roman Catholic
Church in England and Scotland have been published by the
authority of the Commissioners of Records; and by Clubs and
Societies formed with the object of printing early records.
The worship of the saints was connected with the adoration of images,
and the veneration of relics. The legend was confirmed and kept alive
by the somewhat dimly shown relics, which were generally in the church,
either under or upon the altar. In 787, the Second Council of Nice
issued a decree prohibiting the consecration of any church without
relics; hence it may easily be understood that objects of such virtue
and importance continually multiplied. The reliquary was the most
precious ornament in the king’s hall, in the lady’s chamber, and in the
knight’s armoury. It cannot be denied that there is something human and
even amiable in preserving memorials of the departed; and this natural
and universal feeling when transferred to the relics of the Blessed
Virgin and the saints had an almost incredible power. No one doubted
that the relics of the saints worked miracles; while the wood of the
true cross grew into a forest, and the most perishable things――the
garments of the Saviour and of the saints――became imperishable. To
such a degree was the veneration of relics carried, and the belief in
their virtue and miraculous powers had become so absolute, that the
very devil himself failed to detect imposture. Up to the verge of the
Reformation period the veneration of relics and the worship of images
continued in unshaken authority.
As the Catholic Church developed and completed her organisation, the
world after death became more and more distinctly imagined and vividly
described. Hell, purgatory, and heaven, were palpably represented
to the senses. The conception of hell and the doctrine of future
punishment was especially clear and minutely elaborated; the site of
the former, its topography, trials and torments, were all portrayed
with harrowing exactness and repulsiveness. Hell was described in the
writings of the Middle Ages in words too gross to be repeated here;
its imagery, gathered from various sources besides the Old and New
Testaments, had been for long accumulating. It was held and taught that
eternal damnation was the lot which God had prepared for an immense
majority of the human race; that their punishment consisted in the
burning of their bodies in a literal fire; that the flames of this
fire were never quenched and that the bodies of the damned were never
consumed; that God had made the contemplation of their sufferings
an essential element of the happiness of the redeemed; and that the
saint was frequently permitted in visions to behold the agonies of the
lost, and to describe the fearful spectacle he had seen. “He loved to
tell how by the lurid glare of the eternal flames he had seen millions
writhing in every form of ghastly suffering, their eyeballs rolling
with unspeakable anguish, their limbs gashed and mutilated and
quivering with pain, tortured by pangs that seemed ever keener by their
recurrence, and shrieking in vain for mercy to an unpitying heaven.
Hideous beings of dreadful aspect and of fantastic forms hovered around,
mocking them and their torments, casting them into cauldrons of boiling
brimstone, or inventing new tortures more subtle and refined. Amid
all this a sulphur stream was ever seething, feeding, and intensifying
the waves of fire. There was no respite, no alleviation, no hope. The
tortures were ever varied in their character, and they never paused
for a moment upon the sense. Sometimes, it was said, the flames while
retaining their intensity withheld their light; a shroud of darkness
covered the scene, but the ceaseless shriek of anguish attested the
agonies that were below.”¹
¹ Lecky’s _History of Rationalism_, Volume I., pages 348‒349;
St. Thomas Aquinas, In Question 97, Articles 4, 5, 6;
Hagenbach’s _History of Doctrines_, Volume II., pages
148‒149, 151‒152. There is a large literature on hell and
the punishment of the lost. Besides passages in the Fathers,
and in the writings of the Schoolmen, and in the legends
of the saints, we have the well-known works of the great
Italian poet Dante; but another of his countrymen, not so
well known, Antonio Rusca, was the author of a book entitled
_De Inferno_; Milan, 1621. It settles logically, and with
great learning, every question relating to hell and its
inhabitants――its place, extent, divisions, and torments.
The more modern books which treat on the subject are very
numerous, and quite recently the main points involved in the
doctrine of future punishment have been handled from very
opposite standpoints.
The doctrine of hell and eternal punishment as presented in the tenets
of the Church of the Middle Ages, destroyed all sense of the Divine
goodness, and would at length have extinguished the principles of right
and morality. Religion, instead of exhibiting a pure and exemplary
morality, had become a system of dogmas, of ceremonies and of relics,
of asceticism and of abuse, of extreme credulity and of savage
persecution, and all this was mainly supported and maintained by fear.
The doctrine of purgatory seems to have arisen gradually from the
notion of a purifying fire, and it was afterwards brought into
connection with the notion of the mass. It came in to soften the
horrible idea of eternal torture in hell; in another respect it was
simply a continuation of the doctrine of penance. The possession of the
keys of heaven and hell certainly entailed a terrible responsibility
upon the priesthood; and it is only charitable to suppose that many a
priest might have thought that the key of purgatory might be used with
much less presumption; and so it came to pass that praying souls out of
purgatory by saying masses on their behalf was speedily developed into
an elaborate office which demanded large remuneration. The purchase of
indulgence naturally followed in the same wake; and so much alms-giving
to churches or to churchmen was understood to secure the remission of
so many years, or it might be, centuries of purgatory.
But the idea of heaven, the state of the blessed, was not nearly so
firmly realised as the notions of hell and purgatory. Many had brought
back visions of hell and purgatory, but no one had returned from
heaven with clear information about it; though some of the saints
might occasionally descend on beneficent missions to the world of
living men, yet of the state of the blessed they gave only the vaguest
tidings. In fact, the notion of heaven was mixed up with the prevailing
cosmic theory, as well as with the theology of the age. The whole
belief of Roman Catholicism was materialistic; a palpable image or a
representation of everything was eagerly sought and as fully supplied.
At the opening of the sixteenth century the political power of the
Church varied in different kingdoms. Although the head of the Church
made the same absolute claims upon all the rulers of Christendom, the
rulers did not always respond equally to his calls and pretensions.
In England the aristocracy and the commons had united to limit the
exorbitant power and influence of the Pope within the kingdom, and his
remonstrances and threats were often unavailing. The English clergy, as
a body, had a considerable share of political power; they constituted
one of the estates of the realm, and the territorial wealth of the
bishops being large, contributed to enhance their social importance.
The Pope, however, was still recognised as the head of the Church, and
by artful management, and the policy of seizing every opportunity to
extend his influence, he as yet retained a firm hold upon the English
clergy.
In France the clergy were very powerful in the Middle Ages; and in
the first half of the thirteenth century they had begun to exercise
an almost complete social tyranny. Heresy was a crime which fell under
their jurisdiction; they had a monopoly of granting licences to marry
and of power to sanction wills; they had an exclusive right to give
judgment in cases of usury, that is loans; and thus became the judges
in nearly all the important disputes of daily life. Indeed they
interfered in everything, and upon every opportunity launched forth
their excommunications, which, if not removed, ended in confiscation.
The French nobles who tamely yielded to the encroachments of the
kings, resisted the clergy, and entered into a bond to aid each other
in defying the Papal ban. In 1249, King Louis issued his Pragmatic
Sanction, an ordinance against the undue privileges of the clergy and
the usurpations of the Popes. It established the rights of the national
prelates to confer benefices as handed down to them, and the right
of chapters and cathedrals to elect their bishops; it also abolished
simony, which Rome in her urgent need of funds had introduced on a
large scale. All these arrangements King Louis declared to be under
the protection of his own royal courts. The decree forbade the levy of
any tax by the court of Rome, unless it was sanctioned by the King, and
consented to, by the national Church. This ordinance remained in force
till the reign of Francis I. in the sixteenth century. The Pragmatic
Sanction was not a very bold assertion of religious freedom, but it
seems to have been highly valued by the French; although one of its
results was to foster the growth of the royal authority which long
proved fatal to the peace and happiness of the French.
The French nobility were a separate caste and paid no national taxes.
Their estates descended to their eldest sons, but the younger sons,
according to etiquette, also belonged to the noble class; they became
very numerous, and though often poor they were extremely proud of their
blood and privileges. Thus it was that the hard worked tillers of the
soil of France from an early period were hard pressed by the payment of
rents to the nobles, taxes to the King, tithes to the Church, and other
fees and payments, which were rigorously exacted from them. In 1483
the French peasants laid their grievances before Charles VIII., hoping
for some remedy, but in vain, as the new monarch proceeded to invade
Italy, and thereby increased their taxes and shed more of their blood.
Absolute monarchy became firmly established in France, and there
the Reformation failed, not because the French were Roman Catholic,
but mainly because the struggle in France was finally decided upon
secular and political grounds. The persecution of heresy in France
was excessively severe till Catholicism gained the upper hand, and as
it was more favourable to despotic government than Protestantism, the
absolute monarchy of France ruled the people almost without a challenge
for nearly two centuries. But the accumulated oppressions and wrongs
perpetrated upon the people for many generations at last exhausted
their endurance, and they arose and laid the Throne and the Church both
in the dust. The Reformation which was stifled in the sixteenth century
burst with volcanic violence at the end of the eighteenth, when the
people, goaded almost to madness, rose in their might, scattered the
glittering brass of the Crown, and rent to shreds the hallowed veil
of the Church, which had so long favoured the instruments of the
oppressors.
In Germany the strife between the Emperor and the Pope had ceased;
while externally there seemed to be peace with the head of the Church
in that quarter of Christendom. But there were many other elements of
discord among the Germans. As yet they were far from having attained
national unity. The country, though nominally under the Emperor, was
really ruled by a number of petty princes and prelates, and the Emperor
merely held a kind of feudal headship. Germany was still under the
meshes of the feudal system; she had a class of little princes and
great dukes, and under them a host of petty nobles and lords, most of
whom were poor but proud and independent, and these constantly resisted
all the attempts of the higher powers to control them. They claimed the
right of waging private war, and the public peace was often broken. It
was only in the free towns of Germany that there was union and orderly
organised society; the citizens were thrifty, toiled hard, and saved
much, and thus they had obtained wealth. The great want of Germany was
a central and organised government with sufficient power to maintain
the public peace.
No class in Germany had suffered more from the lawlessness of the
nobles and knights than the peasantry, who were still in feudal serfdom.
Since the beginning of the sixteenth century there had been several
insurrections among the peasantry against their masters; and at last
these risings began to be mixed up with the religious movement. They
were the natural result of oppression――in the circumstances rebellion
was the only remedy. The peasants of Swabia, a district of South
Germany, rebelled in 1525 against the exactions of the Church and the
nobles, but they were soon crushed. The demands which the leaders of
the peasants put forward were comprised in twelve short articles――“The
right to choose their own pastors; they would pay tithe of corn, out
of which the pastors should be paid, the rest to go for the use of the
parish; but small tithes, that is, the produce of animals, every tenth
calf, lamb, pig, or egg, and so on, they would not pay; they would be
free and no longer serfs and bondmen; wild game and fish to be free
to all; woods and forests to belong to all for fuel; rent when above
the value of the land to be valued and lowered; common land to be again
given up to common use; punishments for crimes to be fixed; death gifts,
that is, the right of the lord to take the best chattel of the deceased
tenant, to be done away with. If any of these articles be proved
contrary to Scripture or God’s justice, such to be null and void.” But
there was no chance of their demands being granted.
Other local rebellions of the peasantry followed, and severe and savage
measures were adopted on both sides, and many were put to death. It has
been calculated that before the Peasants’ War was terminated 100,000
were slain. Luther throughout this struggle sided with the ruling
powers; he was firmly opposed to the use of the sword against the civil
authorities. The sons of toil naturally thought that they should have
found a friend in Luther but they were bitterly disappointed, as he
openly exhorted the princes and the nobles to crush the rebellion, and
urged them on in the work of slaughter.¹ It need not be denied that
in some degree this rebellion was incited by the seed which Luther
himself had sown, and therefore he deserves the less sympathy for his
hard and cruel bearing towards the poor peasantry and their somewhat
wild leaders. The monks, who had suffered severely at the hands of the
peasants during the progress of the rebellion, blamed Erasmus and the
new learning for causing it; Erasmus blamed Luther, and Luther blamed
the wild teachers. But history must tell that it was the refusal of
timely reforms by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities that was the
real cause of these rebellions, and so persistent were the authorities
against social reform that the German peasantry were doomed to groan
under the yoke of serfdom till the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Since then, unhappily for the German race, they have been subjected to
a crushing and exhausting militarism, a modern form of despotism, which
is threatening to extinguish the spirit and consume the heart of this
great but too submissive people.
¹ Worsley’s _Life of Luther_, Volume II., pages 62‒64, 67‒69,
71‒73. There is a full account of the Peasants’ War in
Ranke’s _History of the Reformation in Germany_, Volume I.
The revival of learning had a remarkable influence on the Reformation
movement in Germany. Erasmus had a European reputation and influence,
but there was a number of other notable scholars more immediately
connected with the rise of the Reformation in Germany; amongst whom
were Reuchlin, Buschius, and Hutten; they were called “Humanists,” and
those who were bent on maintaining the old modes of learning branded
them as “preachers of perversion, and winnowers of the devil’s chaff.”
Greek in particular was declared to be heretical: the monks and masters
of the Universities were afraid of the light. Reuchlin was the greatest
Hebrew scholar of his day, at once a man of the world and of books,
but Hebrew was not more in favour than Greek with the theologians of
the old school, and they resolved to crush the leaders of the literary
reformation. Great efforts were put forth by the enemies of light to
overwhelm Reuchlin; the struggle was desperate, and for some time the
issue seemed doubtful. His enemies were fast closing around him, when,
as a last resort, he wrote to his friends throughout Europe, entreating
them to make the utmost efforts to obtain for him new allies. He
received from all quarters expressions of sympathy and assistance.
Reuchlin’s victory in public opinion was completed by a satire
which appeared in the beginning of the year 1516, entitled _Epistolæ
Obscurorum Virorum_, etc. The aim of this memorable satire was to make
the enemies of Reuchlin and polite letters represent themselves: “And
the representation is managed with a truth of nature only equalled by
the absurdity of the postures in which the actors are exhibited....
Never certainly were unconscious barbarism, self-glorious ignorance,
intolerant stupidity, and sanctimonious immorality so ludicrously
delineated. The _Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum_ are at once the most
cruel and the most natural of satires, and as such they were the most
effective.... So truly, in fact, did it hit the mark that the objects
of the ridicule themselves, with the exception of those who were
necessarily in the secret, read the letters as the genuine product of
their brethren, and even hailed the publication as highly conducive to
the honour of scholasticism and monasticism.”¹
¹ Sir W. Hamilton’s _Discussions_, pages 203‒217; 1852. Ranke’s
_History of the Reformation in Germany_, Volume I., pages
300‒308; 1845.
Hutten, who has generally been supposed to be one of the authors of the
above satire, at first wrote in Latin rhyme, but he at length resolved
to write in German for the instruction of the people. The burden of
his popular German rhymes was that Germany should abandon Rome; and he
exposed her tyranny and worldliness, and stirred up the people against
it. Many other writers also freely ridiculed the existing priestcraft
in fables, letters, and rhymes, and prepared the people for the
inception of the Reformation.
Before the end of the fifteenth century Spain had fully entered
upon the task of persecuting the heretics. The Inquisition was early
established in Spain, and more effectively applied to crush all
attempts for the reformation of religion than in any other country; and
she long enjoyed the glory of being the most Catholic nation in Europe.
The modern form of the Inquisition was adopted in Spain in 1484. It was
at this time that Torquemada, a friar, was placed at its head with the
title of Inquisitor-General, and he at once proceeded to organise the
institution. After constituting the new tribunal, he framed a body of
rules for its government, which were issued in 1484, and from time to
time new rules were added till 1561, when the whole code was revised
and published in eighty-one articles, which continued to be the law,
with slight variations, down to the present century. Without entering
into minute details, it may be stated that the Inquisition was not
merely a court for the trial and condemnation of heretics; it exercised
the duties of an organised body of police employed in searching out
heresy, and thus it was one of its chief functions to hunt for the
crimes on which it was afterwards to sit in judgment, and every member
of its higher and lower courts was charged with this work. At times
when its vigilance was aroused by the alarm of heresy, it had its spies
and agents at every port and pass of the kingdom, fully armed with
authority to arrest the persons and goods of all who incurred their
suspicion. The forms of trial in its courts were all on the side of the
inquisitors, and to render it an instrument at once of injustice and
terror, all its proceedings were shrouded in complete secrecy. The part
of the procedure relating to torture was full of inhuman cruelties;
and when the evidence was not sufficient to convict the heretic, he was
tortured in order to force him to give answers against himself. From
1484 to 1517 the victims of the Inquisition in Spain numbered thirteen
thousand persons who were burnt alive, eight thousand seven hundred
burnt in effigy, and one hundred and sixty-nine thousand, seven hundred
and twenty-three condemned to undergo penance, all within a period of
thirty-four years.¹
¹ Limborch’s _History of the Inquisition_, Volume I., pages
119‒127, 156‒159; Volume II., pages 211‒226; 1731. Compare
M‘Crie’s _History of the Progress and Suppression of the
Reformation in Spain_, Works, Volume III., pages 50‒51; 1855.
Various attempts were made to introduce the reformed doctrines into
Spain, but they completely failed. Everything savouring of heresy
was utterly extinguished. In the sixteenth century, Spain constituted
herself the great champion of Roman Catholicism; but the ends for which
she leagued with the court of Rome were chiefly political. She aimed
at subjecting all classes to the absolute will of the monarch, and
the power and seeming greatness which was raised upon this foundation,
contained within itself the vices which soon consumed her energy and
ensured her decay.
At the opening of the sixteenth century Italy had made but little
progress towards becoming a united nation. The country was divided into
a number of separate states with varying and opposite interests. The
chief states were Venice, Milan, and Florence, in the north; Naples to
the south; and the States of the Church lying between them, over which
the Pope had endeavoured to rule. These States of the Church contained
a number of petty lordships and cities which claimed independence, and
the Nobles and the Pope were always quarrelling as to who should bear
the chief sway. Quarrels were constantly fomented among the Italian
states; and the governments of the neighbouring kingdoms were apt to
seize these comparatively weak principalities. Milan was claimed by
the Kings of France, Spain, Naples, and the German Emperor; and through
these internal and external forces Italy was kept in a sea of unrest
and disorder. The power of the Papal Court was not so complete in Italy
as it was in some other countries; and even excommunication had lost
some of its former power and terrors.
Touching the morals of the clergy before the Reformation, there was
a general concurrence of testimony against them; to the historian,
however, this subject appears as a complicated problem tinged by the
contorted notions of the age; inasmuch as it is difficult to reach
the truth and do justice to opposing parties. From the beginning of
the fifteenth century, a reformation of the Church had been loudly
demanded; and the shortcomings of the clergy were generally, if
somewhat reluctantly, acknowledged throughout Christendom. They
neglected the religious instruction of the people, and their sacred
functions were often prostituted to worldly purposes; while the
exactions of the Church were becoming more and more unbearable.
Nowhere were these abuses and grievances more rampant than in Italy.
The Court of Rome itself was more corrupted than any of the political
Courts of Europe; the unprincipled and faithless character of its
policy was everywhere notorious; in fact, it was a system of intrigue,
of cabal, and of bribery. The sacred bodies of clerical dignitaries
who surrounded the throne of the Pope might agree to dupe the world;
yet they rarely scrupled to supplant and deceive each other when their
personal interests were at stake.¹ Many of the clergy did nothing but
say masses for the dead, a more lucrative occupation than praying for
the living. The education of the clergy and their modes of life were
not well calculated to encourage self-culture nor the study of Divine
truth, in order to qualify them to instruct others; and the root of the
prevailing system directly tended to narrow their sympathy and to dwarf
their humanity. Celibacy cut them off from all the interests and duties
of domestic life, and this left them at leisure for mischief of all
kinds. “The history of the clerical celibacy, in England as elsewhere,
is indeed tender ground; the benefits which it is supposed to secure
are the personal purity of the individual, his separation from secular
ways and interests, and his entire devotion to the work of God and
the Church. But the results, as legal and historical records show
us, were very different. Instead of personal purity, there is a long
story of licensed and unlicensed concubinage, and appendant to it,
much miscellaneous profligacy and a general low tone of morality in
the very point that is supposed to be secured. Instead of separation
from secular work is found in the higher class of the clergy entire
devotion to the legal and political service of the country, and in the
lower class idleness and poverty as the alternative. Instead of greater
spirituality, there is greater frivolity. The abuses of monastic life,
great as they may occasionally have been, sink into insignificance by
the side of this evil, as an occasional crime tells against the moral
condition of a nation far less fatally than the prevalence of a low
morality. The records of the spiritual courts of the middle ages remain
in such quantity and in such concord of testimony as to leave no doubt
of the facts; among the laity as well as among the clergy, of the towns
and clerical centres, there existed an amount of coarse vice which
had no secrecy to screen it or prevent it from spreading.... And in
this, as in other particulars, the mediæval Church incurred a fearful
responsibility. The evils against which she had to contend were beyond
her power to overcome, yet she resisted interference from any other
hand. The treatment of such moral evils as did not come within the
contemplation of the common law were left to the Church courts; the
Church courts became centres of corruption which archbishops, legates,
and councils tried to reform and failed, acquiescing in the failure
rather, than allow the intrusion of the secular power. The spiritual
jurisdiction over the clergy was an engine which courts altogether
failed to manage, or so far failed as to render reformation of manners
by such means absolutely hopeless: yet any interference of the temporal
courts was resented and warded off until the evil was irremediable,
because a clerk stripped of the reality of his immunities, but
retaining all the odium with which they had invested him would have
no chance of justice in a lay court. Thus on a smaller stage was
reproduced the result which the policy of the papacy brought about in
the greater theatre of ecclesiastical politics. The practical assertion
that, except by the court of Rome, there should be no reformation, was
supplemented by an acknowledgment of the evils that were to be reformed,
and of the incapacity of the court of Rome to cure them: there popes
and councils toiled in vain; they could neither bear the evils of
the age nor their remedies. Strange to say, some part of the mischief
of the spiritual jurisdiction survived the Reformation itself, and
enlarged its scope as well as strengthened its operation by the close
temporary alliance between the Church and Crown.”² Everywhere there
was a number of priests and friars, whose religious duties occupied
only a small portion of their time, and whose standard of morality was
formed upon an extremely low ideal; and it was the moral standard that
required to be raised before there could be any real improvement in the
social condition either of the clergy or the people.
¹ “The corruption of the Papal Court involved a corresponding
moral ♦weakness throughout Italy.”――Symonds’ _Renaissance_,
Volume I., page 382, and the whole of the 7th Chapter.
♦ “weaknass” replaced with “weakness”
² Stubbs’ _Constitutional History Of England_, Volume III.,
pages 372‒374; 1878.
For several centuries before the Reformation much of the popular
literature of Europe was directed against the vices of the clergy and
the abuses of the Church; upon this theme the most orthodox and the
most heretical were agreed. The secular clergy often despised the monks,
the monks satirised the begging friars, and thus their inconsistencies
were exposed to the people, and gradually the strength of the old
traditions and prejudices were loosened and impaired, and the people
partly prepared for a revolution in their opinions and belief.
From an early period in Italy the corruptions of the Church were ably
exposed by persons who had not thought of renouncing her communion. The
Italian poets laid open the abuses of the head of the Church as well
as of the subordinate orders of the clergy. Dante, who was a sincere
believer in the Roman Catholic Church, showed little faith in the
infallibility of the Popes or general councils, and he describes
the avarice and the luxurious lives of the clergy in the language of
indignation and ridicule. In his treatise on Monarchy, he inveighed
with remarkable boldness against the corruption of the Church; and
in the same work he also attacked tradition, the grand fortress of
Catholicism. Petrarch and Boccaccio followed in a similar strain; and
the latter, especially by his broad humour, keen wit, and reckless
pleasantry was exceedingly effective. He mercilessly assailed the
popular religion; its pilgrimages, relics, and miracles were scoffed at
in the most playful style; its corruptions were exposed, and the monks,
the nuns, and the friars were stripped of their sanctity and derided
in profane mockery and jeering scorn.¹ The _Decameron_ of Boccaccio is
the bitterest satire of the religion of the Middle ages ever written,
and to this day it remains the most curious illustration of the
belief and notions of that age. Many other Italian poets and writers
employed their talents to unmask the ignorance, the vice, the greed,
the hypocrisy, and the absurdities of the hierarchy, from the Popes
downward to the wandering mendicants; and this warfare was continued
down to the eve of the Reformation.
¹ Dante’s _Inferno_, H. F. Cary’s Translation; Petrarch’s
_Sonnets_ and other Poems; Milman’s _History of Latin
Christianity_, Volume VI., pages 516‒518, etc.; M‘Crie’s
_History of the Progress and Suppression of the Reformation
in Italy_, Works, Volume III., pages 14‒19; 1855. “While
so much liberty of thought prevailed in Italy it may be
wondered why the Renaissance, eminently fertile in the
domains of arts and culture, bore but meagre fruit in those
of religion and philosophy. The German Reformation was
the Renaissance of Christianity; and in this the Italians
had no share, though it should be remembered that, without
their previous labours in the field of scholarship, the band
which led the Reformation could hardly have given that high
intellectual character to the movement which made it a new
starting point in the history of the reason. To expect from
Italy the ethical regeneration of the modern world would be
to misapprehend her true vocation; art and erudition were
sufficient to engage her spiritual energies.”
“True to culture as their main preoccupation, the
Italian thinkers sought to philosophise faith by bringing
Christianity into harmony with antique speculation, and
forming for themselves a theism that should embrace the
system of the Platonists and Stoics, the Hebrew Cabbala,
and the Sermon on the Mount. There is much that strikes
us as both crude and pedantic, at the same time infantine
and pompous in the systems elaborated by those pioneers
of modern eclecticism.”――Symonds’ _Renaissance in Italy_,
Volume II., pages 21‒23; 1877.
In the latter part of the fifteenth century, Savonarola, a Dominican
friar, became a religious reformer; he was an Italian by birth and
education, a man of talents and great piety; but he seems to have
yielded to the illusions of his imagination, and at last persuaded
himself that he was possessed of supernatural gifts. In 1486, he
commenced preaching against the vices of the popes, cardinals, priests,
and monks, the tyranny of princes, and the immorality of the people;
he was an eloquent and powerful preacher, and he called earnestly for
repentance and reformation. He preached in various cities, and vast
crowds of the people came to hear him. Florence was chosen as the
scene of his labour, and for a short time he had a great influence
in that city. His aim was to improve the morals of the clergy and the
people, not to change the faith of the Christian world. He was also a
warm friend of the cause of political liberty and freedom. From this
standpoint he was one of the most ardent reformers. Towards the close
of his career his mind seems to have become fevered and unbalanced.
In 1495, Pope Alexander VI. deemed it time to extinguish so bold a
preacher, and he was excommunicated and proclaimed a heresiarch; and he
was afterwards taken, tortured, condemned to the flames, and strangled
and burned in May, 1498, by the order of the Pope, who had himself
committed many dark crimes.¹
¹ Symonds’ _Renaissance_, Volume I., pages 428, 471.
For two centuries preceding the Reformation a literature in the
language of the people had been growing up in Germany, France, and
England, and in each of these countries the vernacular contained a
mass of writings which satirised the corruptions of the Church and
the vices of the clergy. These compositions were sometimes in the form
of rude rhymes and short poems, and sometimes songs or ballads, but
occasionally they assumed a more ambitious form, as in the poems of
Chaucer, and Piers Ploughman. As before indicated, the general result
of this literature upon the minds of the people was that gradually and
with difficulty they began to see some of the inconsistencies of the
Church, and their moral and religious consciousness at last awoke to a
clearer conception of their rights.
But the causes of the Reformation were manifold and extremely varied,
rising so high and at the same time descending so low, and yet invoking
so many venerated feelings and sentiments; and it must be added, so
many prejudices and passions were inflamed on both sides, so many great
prizes and vested interests depended upon the issue, that even at this
day it is almost impossible for any man to assign the true and just
measure of all the causes and influences which contributed to this the
most momentous struggle of the Christian era.
Another important agency of the revolutionary movement was implied
in the printing and publication of editions and translations of the
Scriptures. In Italy during the fifteenth century much attention was
devoted to the Hebrew language and to sacred literature. The Psalter
appeared in 1477, and from that date parts of the Old Testament in the
original continued to be issued from the press till in 1488 a complete
Hebrew Bible was printed at Soncino in Italy. The first edition of
the Septuagint came from the Aldine press at Venice in 1518. Erasmus
published at Basle in 1516 his edition of the Greek text of the
New Testament, together with his own Latin version and explanatory
annotations. The book of Job in Hebrew was printed at Paris in 1516.
The Complutensian Polyglot Bible under the patronage and at the expense
of Cardinal Ximenes, was printed at Alcala between 1502 and 1517 and
published in 1520, in six volumes folio, six hundred copies on paper,
and three on vellum. It contained in three columns the Hebrew, the
Septuagint Greek, and the Latin Vulgate version of Jerome; the Chaldee
paraphrase of the Pentateuch by Onkelos was printed at the foot of
the page, and to it a Latin translation was given; the New Testament
included the original Greek and the Vulgate Latin version. The work
also had a grammar and dictionary of the Hebrew, a Greek vocabulary,
and other explanatory treatises attached to it. Spain thus had the
credit of printing the first complete edition of the Scriptures. It is
said that this work cost 250,000 ducats. An edition of the Septuagint
and of the Greek New Testament was published at Strasburg by Cephalæus
in 1524 and 1526; editions of the New Testament also appeared at Paris
in 1534, and at Venice in 1538; and about the same time editions were
printed at various other places. Hebrew and Greek grammars and lexicons
then began to appear, and commentaries on the Scriptures followed.¹
¹ Ginguene’s _History of Italian Literature_, Tome VII.;
M‘Crie’s Works, Volume III., pages 31, 34, 36; 1855. Among
the earliest books of any kind printed was a Psalter in 1457,
and a Latin Bible about the year 1455, usually called the
Mazarin Bible, the exact date of its printing is uncertain,
but it is not earlier than 1450 nor later than 1455.
But these important works were confined to the learned, and could
have had no impression upon the popular mind. The influences, however,
which had contributed to produce them were general and not limited to
any class; for the religious feelings and sentiments were as active
among the unlearned as among the most cultured men of the age. The
activity of the learned class, as manifested in the publication
of the Scriptures, was the effect of general and widely spread
influences which were running in a definite direction. Translations
of the Scriptures were therefore eagerly solicited, and then for
the first time began to be supplied. It is said that the Scriptures
were translated into the Italian language in the thirteenth century,
and it appears that fragments of very early translations were found
in libraries during the fifteenth century. Nicolo Malermi, a monk,
produced an Italian version of the Bible from the Vulgate, which
was published in 1471. Before the end of the century it went through
eleven editions, and in the following century through twelve. About
this period also Italian versions of parts of the Scriptures appeared.
An improved and more faithful translation of the New Testament was
executed by Antonio Brucioli, and printed at Venice in 1530. His
translation of the whole Bible was published in 1532, and revised and
printed in 1541. Other Italian versions of the Scriptures soon followed.
But in none of the modern languages were so many translations and
editions of the Bible published as in the Flemish or Dutch tongue.
A Flemish version of the Bible appeared in 1477; a translation from
the Vulgate was printed at Delft in 1497, and reprinted several times
before the Reformation at the presses of Antwerp and Amsterdam. A
Flemish version of the New Testament from that of Luther was published
at Antwerp in 1522, and reprinted twelve times within the next five
years. During the first thirty-six years of the sixteenth century
fifteen editions of the entire Bible were printed in the Flemish
language, and thirty-four editions of the New Testament alone within
the same period, twenty-four of which were printed at Antwerp; some of
them were taken from the Vulgate, but most of them were from Luther’s
version. The earliest French translation of the Old Testament from the
Vulgate was printed about 1477; a French version of the New Testament
was published in 1512, and a version of the Bible in 1530. The earliest
Protestant translation of the Bible in French was printed at Neufchatel
in 1535.¹
¹ Panfer’s _An. Typ. In._; Simon’s _Critical History of the New
Testament_; M‘Crie’s Works, Volume III., pages 38‒40.
In Spain the Scriptures were translated into the Castilian dialect in
the year 1260, and other ancient versions of the Bible in the dialects
of the Spanish people have been preserved in the libraries of the
Continent. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, Bonifacio Ferrer,
a Carthusian monk, translated the whole of the Scriptures into the
Spanish language, and this translation was printed at Valencia in 1478;
but shortly after its publication it was suppressed by the Inquisition,
and the whole impression ordered to be burned. A Spanish version of
the New Testament was printed at Antwerp in 1543.¹ Luther’s German
translation of the Old and New Testaments was published between the
years 1522 and 1530. Translations of the Bible were published in the
Danish language in 1524, and in the Swedish in 1526.
¹ _The Bible of Saci_, Book I. Andres.
Wycliffe commenced his English translation of the Bible from the
Vulgate in 1380, and it is supposed that portions of it were widely
circulated in manuscript. Tyndale’s English version of the New
Testament was printed in 1526, and within ten years fourteen editions
of it were published. Coverdale’s translation of the whole Bible was
published in 1535; and another version, mainly based upon Tyndale’s,
appeared in 1537. A revised translation was issued in 1539,¹ which
was sometimes called Cranmer’s Bible. The publication of so many
translations of the Scriptures in the languages and dialects of the
people, and the numerous editions which they passed through, seemed to
indicate that a crisis was approaching, as the religious sentiments of
the people were warmed, and that their feelings and passions were being
raised to a pitch of excitement which might be extremely difficult
to control. The lower classes in many parts of Europe had been long
groaning under oppression, and a sense of wrong had begun to rankle
in their minds. A century and a half earlier the English peasantry
had rebelled against their masters, and we have seen that the same
classes had revolted against the Church and the nobles in Germany. The
inconsistencies of the profession and the practice of the clergy could
not fail to open the eyes of the people, while the social position
in which they found themselves placed did not harmonise with the
most elementary ideas of justice and truth. They therefore listened
with keen emotion and swelling hearts to the impassioned appeals of
the reformed preachers, who they easily won over the multitude; but
there was much more difficulty in moderating the zeal and the passions
aroused by their preaching. Even in Luther himself the destructive
leaning was pretty strong and pronounced; he said――“I believe it to
be impossible that the Church should be reformed without completely
eradicating canons, decretals, scholastic theology, philosophy, and
logic, as they are now received and taught, and instituting others in
their place.”²
¹ Dibdin’s _Typographical Antiquities_; Anderson’s _Annals of
the English Bible_, 1862.
² Ueberweg’s _History of Philosophy_, Volume II., pages 16‒17.
“Luther railed against all speculative doctrines and pursuits
with violent, indiscriminate recklessness. He frequently
expresses the most withering contempt for Aristotle and
all his works.”――Blakey’s _History of the Philosophy of
the Mind_, Volume II., page 129; 1848. Compare D’Aubigne’s
_History of the Reformation_, Volume I., pages 154, 219.
This awakening of the religious consciousness, and its association with
moral and social practice, soon led to important issues. The married
life, which had hitherto been regarded as inferior to celibacy, now
appeared in a new light, as something divine, as a law imposed by God
Himself; and the domestic duties at once assumed a higher and nobler
significance. Poverty was no longer considered an object in itself,
and the life of the monk, though before deemed higher than the worldly
energy and industry of the layman who supported himself by the labour
of his hands, began to be regarded with contempt. Religious freedom
took the place of blind obedience, and henceforward monkhood and
priesthood lost much of their sway.
Again, in relation to knowledge and to thought, man returned, as
it were, from the extramundane to the genial earth――from the alien
region of authority to himself. He was at last convinced that the
entire work of salvation must be accomplished within himself, and that
reconciliation and grace were matters that stood in a direct relation
between himself and God. With this conviction in the core of his soul,
he found his real and true being; thus it is that the philosophy of the
human mind is closely connected with Protestantism, for the principle
of both is one and the same, though it realises itself in the course of
development in varying forms.¹
¹ Schwegler’s _History of Philosophy_, Stirling’s Translation,
pages 148, 149; 1868.
The Bible appeared to the early Reformers as the pure, genuine, and
true word of God, and whatever had been added to it, was not regarded
as a real advance upon the original, but rather as a debasement. The
authority of tradition was denied, the mediæval hierarchy, and the
scholastic tendency to rationalise Christian dogmas were rejected.
In the first burst of their enthusiasm, the Reformers called the
Pope Antichrist, and Aristotle, the chief of the Catholic school of
philosophy, the godless bulwark of the Papists. The logical result of
this would have been the abandonment of all philosophy in favour of
immediate, unquestioning faith: but when Protestantism gained a fixed
consistence the necessity of a definite order of instruction became as
apparent as that of a new ecclesiastical polity. Melanchthon perceived
the need of Aristotle, the master of form, and at last Luther allowed
the use of the text of the Aristotelian writings, when not encumbered
with scholastic commentaries. Thus there arose at the Protestant
Universities a new, though simpler, scholasticism; the development of
an independent philosophy on the basis of the generalised Protestant
principle was the work of a later time.¹ Modern Philosophy began when
the intellect threw off that entire subservience to theology which
characterised it in the Middle Ages. In the words of one of the best
authorities the chief divisions of modern philosophy are:――“1. The
Transitional Period, beginning with the revival of Platonism; 2.
The Epoch of Empiricism, Dogmatism, and Scepticism, from Bacon and
Descartes to the Encyclopedists and Hume; and 3. The Epoch of the
Kantian Criticism, and of the systems issuing from it, from Kant till
the present time.
¹ Ueberweg’s _History of Philosophy_, Volume II., pages 15‒16.
“Unity, servitude, freedom――these are the three stages through which
the philosophy of the Christian era has passed in its relation to
ecclesiastical theology. The stage of freedom corresponds with the
general character of the modern era, which seeks to restore, in place
of mediæval antagonism, harmonious unity. Freedom of thought, in
respect of form and substance, has been secured gradually by modern
philosophy. The first movement in this direction consisted in a mere
exchange of authorities, or in the reproduction of other ancient
systems than that of Aristotle, without much modification, and such
adaption to new and changed conditions, as the scholastics had effected
in the system of Aristotle. Then followed the era of independent
investigation in the realm of nature, and finally also in the realm
of mind. There was a transitional period marked by the endeavour
of philosophy to become independent. The second epoch, the epoch
of Empiricism and Dogmatism, was characterised by methodical
investigations and comprehensive systems, which were based on the
confident belief that knowledge of natural and spiritual reality was
independently attainable by means of experience or thought alone.
Scepticism prepared the way for the third stadium in the history of
modern philosophy, which was formed by criticism. According to the
critical philosophy, the investigation of the cognitive faculty of
man is the necessary basis for all strictly scientific philosophising,
and the result aimed at by it is, that thought is incompetent to the
cognition of the real world of phenomena, beyond which the only guide
is man’s moral consciousness. This result has been denied by the
following systems, although these systems are all lineal descendants
from the Kantian philosophy, which is still of immediate (not merely
historical) significance for the philosophy of the present day.”¹
¹ Ibid., Volume II., pages 1‒3; 1874.
There is only a limited truth in the presuppositions of a complete
parallelism between the progress of the development of the ancient
philosophy and that of modern systems. “Modern philosophy has from the
beginning owed its existence in a far greater measure to an interest
in theology (though not for the most part to an interest in the
specially ecclesiastical form of theology) than did ancient philosophy
previous to the time of Neo-Platonism.” The most remarkable difference
between the ancient and modern philosophy is in the science of mind.
Psychology has in comparatively recent times been developed to a stage
of completeness much beyond what the philosophers of Greece had reached;
and the departments of moral and social science are now treated on a
different and far wider method than in ancient times.
From the outset there were two chief doctrines which determined the
course taken by the Reformers. One of these was the Pauline doctrine
of justification by faith, the other manifested itself in the constant
appeal to the Bible as the only decisive authority in questions
concerning faith. It is pretty evident that the German Reformers held
mainly by the first, while those of Switzerland, Zuinglius and Calvin,
gave the preference to the second.
Although the leaders of the Reformation did not adopt a bold critical
method of inquiry, and though the systems which Luther and Calvin
founded were essentially dogmatic at all points; yet the admission of
an act of spiritual rebellion, of an appeal to conscience and to the
judgment of the people, instead of the authority of the Catholic Church,
involved a principle which must ultimately lead to consequences that
the Reformers hardly intended and could not have ♦foreseen. Questions
concerning the sacraments, the meaning of certain texts of Scripture,
the forms of church polity, were discussed with the utmost zeal; but
the grand issue of the revolution――the rebellion of the moral faculty
against the doctrines that collided with its teaching――was as yet
little manifested by the Reformers. They had rejected many of the
traditions and external ceremonies of the Church, but they still looked
to the Bible and historical authority for the basis of their theology.
And yet it cannot be doubted that the Reformation introduced influences
which had a powerful effect on the philosophy of the human mind;¹ and
at length greatly modified the moral ideas and sentiments of the people,
and led to political and social results. This revolutionary movement
also gave a marked impetus to scientific inquiry. It was then that
empirical science began to assume importance, and it is only from this
epoch that it has a continuous history.
♦ “forseen” replaced with “foreseen”
¹ D. Stewart’s Works, Volume I., pages 28‒30; 1854. Blakey’s
_History of the Philosophy of the Mind_, Volume II., page
128; 1848.
When we inquire what was the meaning of a national revolt from Romanism,
and look only to external circumstances, it will not appear to amount
to much. It was the claim set up by the Government or the Crown for the
control of those rights within the nation, which the Pope had before
claimed as the head of the Christian empire; the clergy, monks, and
friars had hitherto been regarded as subjects of the Pope’s sacerdotal
rule. Now, where there was a revolt from Rome, the allegiance of this
class of persons was annulled, and the civil government claimed as
full a power over them as it had over its lay subjects; there were
some partial exceptions to this, but the essential point was the entire
exclusion of all the pretensions of the Pope to interfere with any of
the affairs of the nation. Generally, matters relating to marriage and
wills still remained under the jurisdiction of the clergy, but when the
ecclesiastical courts ceased to be papal they became national, and the
special matters with which they dealt, might, if necessary, be brought
under the control of the Government. Even touching religious doctrine
and the forms of public worship, the Government often claimed the
final authority, which had been before exercised by the Pope. Thus
externally considered, the revolt from Rome was rather a political and
ecclesiastical arrangement than a purely religious matter. In relation
to the ruling powers, it was an assertion of free, independent national
life; the instinctive feeling for unity and the pride of distinct
national independence entered as a very strong influence into the
struggles of the Reformation, but it was not always on the side of
the Protestants; and in those countries where the movement failed,
as in Spain and France, it was probably owing to influences of this
kind more than to any other cause. In the imperfectly tutored mind the
instinctive tendencies, the inherited feelings, and the traditional
notions, form a conservative and unreasoning force which it is almost
impossible to overcome without a gradual change of surroundings and
circumstances; while to many highly cultured individuals, the mere idea
of belonging to the great historical and the only true and infallible
Church is exceedingly soothing and gratifying. To be relieved also from
all perplexing doubts and questions touching the spiritual and eternal
destiny of the soul, is to many a matter of exquisite satisfaction;
they glory in the thought of the certainty of their everlasting
salvation; they glory in the notion that whatever others may be,
they at least cannot be wrong; time may come and go, generation after
generation of heretics and heathens may be whirled into everlasting
misery, but they alone go on for ever, rejoicing that the universe was
specially created for their eternal happiness.
The eras of the Reformation among the different nations of Europe
were comprised within a period of about fifty years, though in
some countries the struggle lasted longer. The revolt of Luther is
usually dated 1517, the year in which he published his theses against
indulgences, but the Reformation in Germany was only partly successful.
Denmark and Sweden both broke off from Rome and adopted the Lutheran
doctrines between 1521 and 1534; about the same time several of the
cantons and chief cities of Switzerland became Protestant. England
threw off the authority of the Pope in 1535. But the struggle with
the Roman Catholic powers was long continued in the Netherlands, in
France, and in Germany; and in the two latter the Catholics ultimately
recovered much of the ground they had lost.
Luther was supported by the Elector of Saxony, and this enabled him
to continue his controversy with the Church. His activity and writings
soon raised a stir in Germany, which spread to other lands. In 1520,
he published two pamphlets. The first was addressed to the nobility of
the German nation, and in it we find the following sentiments:――“The
Romanists have raised round themselves walls to protect themselves from
reform. One is their doctrine, that there are two separate estates:
the one spiritual, including the pope, bishops, priests, and monks; the
other secular, embracing the princes, nobles, artizans, and peasants.
And they lay it down that the secular power has no authority over the
spiritual, but that the spiritual is above the secular; whereas, in
truth, all Christians are spiritual, and there is no difference between
them. The secular power is of God, to punish the wicked and protect
the good, and so has power over the whole body of Christians without
exception, pope, bishops, monks, nuns, and all. For St. Paul says――‘Let
every soul (and I reckon the pope one) be subject to the higher powers.’
Why should 300,000 florins be sent every year from Germany to Rome?
Why do the Germans let themselves be fleeced by cardinals, who get
hold of the best preferments and spend the revenues at Rome? Let us
not give another farthing to the Pope as subsidies against the Turk;
the whole thing is a snare to drain from us more money. Let the secular
authorities send no more annates to Rome; let the power of the Pope be
reduced within clear limits; let there be fewer cardinals, and let them
not keep the best things to themselves; let the national churches be
more independent of Rome; let there be fewer pilgrimages to Italy; let
there be fewer convents; let priests marry; let begging be stopped by
making each parish take charge of its own poor; let us inquire into
the position of the Bohemians, and if Huss was in the right, let us
join with him in resisting Rome.”¹ This passage shows that Luther knew
well how to catch the ear of the people, and it was a strain admirably
calculated to arrest the attention of the princes of the day; nothing
could be more gratifying to them than to set their own authority above
the clergy and the Church. From this date Luther’s impassioned nature
hurried him onward; and he burned the Pope’s bull and the canon law
books in the month of December 1520. But it would be unjust not to
mention that there were many in the Roman Catholic Church who earnestly
wished for a reform of the discipline, the manners of the clergy, and
the monastic orders, although they were averse to any separation from
her communion or any breaking up of what was deemed her legitimate
authority. This class of moderate men, though some of them were not
without influence, were doomed to effect very little, because in times
of revolution bold measures alone have the chance of commanding success.
¹ Luther’s Works, Walch’s edition; H. Worsley’s _Life of
Luther_, Volume I., pages 169‒171.
Luther was a voluminous writer as well as a great preacher, and
in spite of his faults, taking him all in all, he presents the
characteristics of a veritable hero. His works are both numerous
and diverse. They consist of sermons and expositions of Scripture,
disputations, and controversial writings, many letters and circular
epistles, maxims, and hymns, besides his translation of the Bible
already mentioned. Most of Luther’s writings were produced on the spur
of the moment to meet some exigency. None of them can be regarded as
finished compositions, yet they are fresh and full of vigour and energy.
Many editions of his works, more or less complete, have been published:
one at Wittenberg, twelve volumes in German, 1539‒59, and seven in
Latin, 1545‒58; one at Jena, eight volumes in German, 1555‒58, and
four in Latin, 1556‒58; another at Altenburg, in ten volumes in German,
1661‒64, and there are several later editions. But it fell to the
lot of the calmer and more learned Melanchthon to lead the stream of
the newly awakened life of faith into its methodically circumscribed
channel. Besides many other valuable works, he composed the first
compend of the doctrines of the Protestant Church, which formed the
basis of other treatises. His _Loci Communes rerum Theologicarum seu
Hypotyposes Theologiæ_ was published in 1521, and has passed through
upwards of a hundred editions, about fifty of which appeared during his
lifetime.
Melanchthon was appointed by the newly formed Protestant party to draw
up a Confession of Faith, in a concise and moderate form, on the basis
of the doctrines which he and Luther and other divines had determined.
It was laid before the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, and hence it has
been called the Confession of Augsburg. It consists of twenty-eight
articles; and in the first twenty-one the principal doctrines of faith
were discussed in reference to the Roman Catholic Church, but with
remarkable moderation of tone; the last seven articles treated of the
prevailing abuses of Catholicism. A confutation of this Confession
published by the Roman Catholics, was soon after followed by a treatise
from Melanchthon, entitled the Apology of the Confession. A similar
arrangement was adopted in the Apology as in the Confession, but the
number of articles was reduced to sixteen. This work long held the
first place among the theological books of the Lutheran Church; and in
argumentative power the Apology is exceptionally masterly amongst this
class of theological literature. The Articles of Schmalkald, which were
written by Luther in a far bolder strain, appeared in 1536, and the
first German edition was published in 1538. With these may be mentioned
Luther’s larger and smaller Catechisms, the larger one for the use of
the clergy and schoolmasters, and the other for the use of the people
and children.
The early Swiss Reformer, Zuinglius, proclaimed the principles of
evangelical faith in various writings, which may be regarded as the
beginning of the consecutive theology of the reformed Church. Besides
his polemical writings, sermons, and letters, he wrote _Commentaries
concerning True and False Religion_, published in 1525, and _A Brief
and Clear Exposition of the Christian Faith_. A Confession of the
Reformed Church was published in 1534, which is known as the Confession
of Basle. But owing to the controversy touching the Lord’s Supper, and
the efforts made to restore peace, a second Confession was composed
by the Swiss Reformers and divines in 1536, and is usually called the
Helvetian Confession.
From the very commencement of the Reformation it became manifest that
the Protestants must proceed upon a different method of attaining
knowledge from that followed by the Roman Catholics. The radical
difference between the two, which has continued to become wider down to
the present day, may be shortly stated: The Protestants assert that the
Old and New Testament is the only safe source of religious knowledge,
and forms the sole rule of faith; the Roman Catholic Church assumes
the existence of another source associated with the first, namely,
tradition. The Roman Catholic Church emphatically claims the sole right
of interpreting Scripture; but the Protestant Church concedes this
right, within limits, to every one who has the requisite gifts and
attainments, and in a wider sense to every one seeking after salvation;
she proceeds upon the view that Scripture should be interpreted in its
entirety according to the analogy of faith, and she also allows for the
distinction between a critical and general understanding――between the
common understanding and a deeper insight into the meaning of Scripture.
Having presented a sketch of the antecedents of the Reformation, I
return to the more immediate subject of the work.
SECTION II.
_History of the Reformation in Scotland
to the Death of Cardinal Beaton._
WHEN Europe was on the eve of the first stage of the Reformation
struggle, Scotland as we have seen in the foregoing volume, had
lost her king and many of her leading men upon the disastrous field
of Flodden. The citizens of Edinburgh, however, were equal to the
emergency, and they immediately took steps to preserve order and
to defend the capital; and it was at this time that the authorities
resolved to build a wall around Edinburgh.¹ But the fear of an invasion
was soon dispelled as the Earl of Surrey disbanded his host. In October,
1513, the infant king was crowned at Scone, and his mother named
as regent; but her frothy disposition speedily led her into actions
which rendered this arrangement nugatory, as in the following year
she married the young Earl of Angus, which at once deprived her of the
regency.
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume I., pages 143‒144, 146.
Meanwhile a party of the nobles were looking to the Duke of Albany as
a likely personage to take the reins of Government. He was a son of
Alexander Stuart, Duke of Albany, a brother of James III., who after
his forfeiture passed into France, and had attained to a position of
wealth and honour. As a member of the Royal family, after the infant
king, he was next heir to the throne. He was requested to assume the
functions of Governor of the kingdom; but the state of society in
Scotland offered comparatively few attractions to a man habituated to
the gay and fashionable society of France, and he seems to have been
very loath to leave the enjoyments of his adopted country, even in
exchange for the highest office in the Council of Scotland.
As usual there was strife amongst the nobles; while a fierce contest
was raging among the dignitaries of the Church about the See of St.
Andrews. Gavin Douglas, the provost of St. Giles, John Hepburn, the
prior of St. Andrews, and Andrew Forman, the bishop of Moray, were all
eagerly struggling to obtain possession of the much coveted primacy.
After some very unseemly demonstrations of force, a compromise was
effected by a distribution of benefices amongst the aspirants, and
Forman obtained St. Andrews with the power of _Legate a Latere_, and
the promise of a cardinal’s hat.¹
¹ Buchanan’s _History of Scotland_, Book XIII., chapter 48;
_Statutes of the Scottish Church_, Volume I., pages 125‒127.
In May 1515 the Duke of Albany arrived in Scotland, and received a warm
welcome from the people, as they hoped to enjoy greater tranquility
under his rule. The task, however, of restoring order amongst the
nobles was exceedingly difficult. Although the new governor’s talents
were above the average of his class, he laboured under the disadvantage
of being French in manner and habits, and of being quite unacquainted
with the usages and feelings of the Scots. He began his government
with bold measures. Offenders of high rank were seized, imprisoned, and
executed. But these proceedings failed to produce the intended effect,
and were too much out of the usual course. In a short time Albany
discovered the hopelessness of his task. He repeatedly returned to
France to be free of the turmoil; and after a fluctuating sway of eight
years, his regency terminated in 1524.¹
¹ Buchanan’s _History of Scotland_, Book XIII. Among modern
historians Tytler has treated the regency of Albany at
greatest length. _History of Scotland_, Volume V. pages
101‒174; 1834.
The persistent interference of Henry VIII. with the internal affairs
of Scotland added another element of anarchy, and he appears to have
had a special animus at the Duke of Albany, continuing to tease and
torment Scotland throughout his reign. Henry’s intrigues and projects
were unceasing; he endeavoured to get the young King into his hands
by encouraging his sister to flee with her children into England. He
kept a number of paid spies and agents in Scotland for the express
purpose of exciting popular tumults, private quarrels, and rekindling
the jealousy of the nobles, in order to distract and discredit the
government of Albany. Project after project arose in his passionate
breast, which his ambitious and brutal nature pursued with unrelenting
and murderous severity; sometimes his hobby was political, sometimes
religious, at other times matrimonial, and in almost every instance
he inflicted great suffering upon the people of Scotland. During the
regency of Albany, the Earl of Angus, having previously been forced to
leave the country, entered into a paction with the English Government
in ♦1524, and returned to Scotland.¹
♦ “1224” replaced with “1524”
¹ _State Papers_, reign of Henry VIII., Volume IV., throughout.
Tytler’s _History of Scotland_, Volume V., pages 99, 117‒119,
182.
At this time the chief nobles were much divided; and the Earl of Angus
quickly matured his plot. Having secured the concurrence of the Earl
of Arran and others, he seized the young King, and, as had often been
done before in similar circumstances, he shortly concentrated in his
own hands all the power of the Crown. Angus kept the King in close
restraint, and revelling in his usurped authority, he exercised a
severe tyranny on all who dared to oppose him. The kingdom remained in
this state for several years, though two attempts were made to rescue
the King from the grasp of the bold noble, in one of which the Earl
of Lennox lost his life, while the chains of the captive were more
firmly rivetted than before. The Douglases were complete masters of the
situation, Angus himself was chancellor, his uncle treasurer, and they
compelled the King to sign all deeds which they presented to him, while
the revenue and the law of the country were wholly under their control.
At last, with the assistance of Archbishop Beaton, James escaped from
Angus in May 1528, and from that time to the end of his reign, he
pursued the Earl and his adherents with relentless severity.¹
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., pages
301, 307, 312, 330; ♦Lesly’s _History Of Scotland_, pages
134, 136, 140; Buchanan’s _History of Scotland_, Book XIV.,
chapter 33.
♦ “Lesley” replaced with “Lesly” for consistency
In September a parliament met and passed an act of attainder against
the Douglases, and Angus was forced to flee into England. The King
appointed the Archbishop of Glasgow chancellor, the Abbot of Holyrood
treasurer, and the Bishop of Dunkeld, keeper of the privy seal.¹ These
appointments indicated that the tide was turned against the aristocracy,
and that the policy of the young King would be strongly influenced by
the circumstances in which he had been placed. James soon manifested an
unmistakeable intention to curb the nobles, but it must be added that
he entered upon his purpose without a full and proper appreciation of
the difficulties of the task; he seems to have greatly under-estimated
the power of the nobles, and accordingly he had to pay the penalty.
Whenever the nobles were excluded from the government of the kingdom,
they began to show a leaning towards the doctrines of the Reformation;
they were extremely dissatisfied with the king, and hated the clergy
on account of their influence over him, and their control of the
government.
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., pages
322‒323, 324; _Diurnal of Occurrents_, page 11.
But the causes and circumstances which tended to promote the
Reformation in Scotland demand a more minute examination. In the
tenth chapter of this work it was noticed that the wealth of the
Church gave the clergy much power in public affairs and the government
of the country; it was also observed that the clergy generally
ranked themselves on the side of the Crown in its struggles with the
aristocracy. This deep-seated antagonism of interests between the
clergy and the aristocracy was one of the chief external causes of
the Reformation in Scotland; and in the development of Protestantism,
the motives of this aristocratic connection finally issued in curious
and instructive results. James V. was not insensible to the prevailing
abuses of the Church, nor was he averse to moderate remedies, but he
never entertained the idea of forsaking the religion of his fathers.
He, however, incited Buchanan to lash the mendicant friars in the
Satire of the Franciscans, and he encouraged by his presence the public
performance of Sir David Lindsay’s Satire of the Three Estates, which
was acted at Linlithgow in 1540. It was reported that he exhorted
the bishops to reform their lives, and threatened if they neglected
his warning that he would treat them after the manner of the King
of England; still he was a faithful son of the Catholic Church, and
pretty well under the influence of the clergy. Many of the nobles,
from motives of self-interest, professed a willingness to embrace the
reformed opinions, and gradually ranked themselves on the side of the
Reformers; as time passed, and the prospects of the division of the
church lands approached, they became more and more ardent in their
adherence to the principles of the Reformation.
But strong as the influence of the nobles was in hastening on the
Reformation, or rather the destruction of the Roman hierarchy, it
is a misinterpretation of the historic phenomena to attribute this
revolution to them alone. Besides the religious ideas and sentiments
which the Reformers themselves honestly held and preached, there were
also the domestic, the social, and the moral causes of the Reformation,
and which comprised all the relations between the clergy and the people
that had arisen and accumulated since the introduction of Christianity.
The tenor of these relations and exactions have already been partly
noticed in the Introduction and in the fourth and tenth chapters of
this work, and again generally touched upon in the preceding pages of
the present chapter, and I must now discuss the results which they more
or less distinctly produced on the feeling and mind of the nation.
The exactions connected with the Roman Catholic rite of burial were the
most teasing and heartless. They were known under the terms of “The
Kirk Cow,” “The Uppermost Cloth,” and “Corse Presents,” that is, dues
exacted by the parochial clergy on the deaths of their parishioners.
These dues were sometimes taken from the surviving relations in cases
of the most abject poverty, and however much concern the survivors of a
father or a mother might have for the souls of the departed, surely it
was a short-sighted piece of policy to lay on a heavy exaction at such
a time, irrespective too of the circumstances of the parties. For these
and many other obvious reasons the mortuary dues were the most hateful
and galling to the people. On the eve of the Reformation (1559) a
provincial council of the Catholic clergy enacted a canon relieving
the poor from the mortuary dues, but they were to be exacted from those
immediately above the poor in a modified form. The concession, however,
came too late.¹ Then there were the paschal offerings, the Sunday
penny, the penny offering, the christening pennies, and the lights
at Candlemas for the feast of the purification of the Virgin Mary.
At first these were free gift offerings, according to the benevolence
of the giver; but in course of time they became obligatory, and the
churchmen enforced the payment of them, when necessary, by fulminating
the sentence of cursing and debarring the refractory from the
sacraments of holy Church. The priest also claimed the right of common
pasture for his cattle throughout the parish.²
¹ _Statutes of the Scottish Church_, Volume II., pages 44,
273‒274, 167‒168, 305‒306.
² _Ibid._, Volume II., pages 31, 45, 148‒149, 274‒275.
The right of the Church to enforce the payment of tithes under
penalties had been long established in Scotland as elsewhere, but this
often led to disputes between the clergy and the people. An uncounted
tithe was a tax on the fruits of industry, increasing in amount with
the increase of production and wealth; and however much the hard
toil of a man or a family might produce, the tenth part thereof had
always to go to swell the riches of the Church. This exaction pressed
extremely hard upon the class of tenant farmers and the toilers of the
soil, who amid all their difficulties and struggles could not fail to
see that the services of the clergy scarcely repaid them for the worry
and loss of so large a deduction from the products of their industry.
Such thoughts naturally would have arisen in the minds of the people,
for strong as their religious feeling was, yet it had a limit, beyond
which it could not be drawn upon with any chance of safety. Then the
tithes were extended not only to include all kinds of farm produce,
live stock, and poultry, but also the produce of gardens, descending to
flax, leeks, and cabbages; tithes of pasture and hay, tithes of mills
and fishings, tithes of wool and everything else.¹ That the collection
of all these dues must have been a constant source of annoyance to
the people cannot be doubted, or that it occasioned many disputes and
quarrels was not surprising.
¹ _Ibid._, Volume II., pages 21‒23; _Acts of the Parliaments of
Scotland_, Volume I., page 47.
But from another point of view the practice of the Roman Catholic
Church had issued in a social corruption of the clergy and the
religious orders which was too palpably inconsistent to endure.
Touching the principle of celibacy, it was briefly noticed in the
fourth chapter that the clergy of Scotland had not strictly practised
the rule of the Church; and in the sixteenth century this blot on the
clergy was not a matter of doubt or dispute, it was a notorious fact
and patent to the eyes of all. The result in Scotland was this, the
rule of celibacy was enjoined by law but abrogated in practice among
those of the clergy who were rich enough to support a household;
council after council protested against it, canon after canon called
upon the bishops and the clergy to put away their concubines, but
all was in vain, on the failing of incontinence they seemed to be
utterly irredeemable. Cardinal Beaton had five children; his successor,
Archbishop Hamilton, had three; William Gordon, Bishop of Aberdeen, had
several children, and one of his daughters married the Laird of Udny;
Bishop Chisholm of Dunblane had children, in 1542 one of his daughters
married Sir James Stirling of Keir, and her father gave her a dowry
of £1000, and also bound himself to keep her and her husband for five
years. The Bishop of Moray, when Prior of St. Andrews had three sons,
legitimated in 1533; when Bishop of Moray he had five sons legitimated
in 1545, and two daughters in 1550――making ten of a family. In fact
most of the bishops and many of the abbots and monks had children at
the period immediately preceding the Reformation. The statutes passed
in the Provincial Council of the clergy held at Edinburgh in 1549,
were prefaced with a confession that the cause of the troubles and
heresies which afflicted the Church were the corruption, the lewdness,
and the gross ignorance of churchmen of almost all ranks. “The clergy,
therefore, were enjoined to put away their concubines under pain
of deprivation of their benefices; to dismiss from their houses the
children born to them in concubinage; not to promote such children
to benefices, nor to enrich them, the daughters with doweries, the
sons with baronies, from the patrimony of the Church. Prelates were
admonished not to keep in their households manifest drunkards, gamblers,
whoremongers, brawlers, night-walkers, buffoons, blasphemers, and
profane swearers. The clergy in general were exhorted to amend their
lives and manners; to dress modestly and gravely; to keep their faces
shaven and their heads tonsured; to live soberly and frugally, so as to
have more to spare to the poor; to abstain from secular pursuits, and
especially trading.
“Provision was made for preaching to the people; for teaching grammar,
divinity, and canon law in cathedrals and abbeys; for visiting
and reforming monasteries, nunneries, and hospitals; for recalling
fugitives and apostates, whether monks or nuns, to their cloisters;
for sending from every monastery one or more monks to a university; for
preventing unqualified persons from receiving orders and from holding
cure of souls; for enforcing residence and for restraining pluralities;
for preventing the evasion of spiritual censures by bribes or fines;
for silencing pardoners or itinerant hawkers of indulgences and relics;
for compelling parish clerks to do their duty in person, or to find
sufficient substitutes; for registering testaments and inventories of
persons deceased, and for securing faithful administration of their
estates by bringing their executors to yearly account and reckoning;
for suspending unfit notaries, and for preserving the protocols
of notaries deceased; for reforming the abuses of the Consistorial
courts.”¹ This is a very formidable array of abuses to reform brought
forward by the Roman Catholic clergy themselves; but the proceedings
and canons of subsequent councils show that they were not carried into
effect――indeed it would have been marvellous if the churchmen had
complied with the canons of 1549. Sir David Lindsay in the Satire of
the Three Estates makes Spiritually say――
“Howbeit I dar not plainlie spouse a wife,
Yet concubeins I haif had four or five,
And to my sons I have given rich rewards,
And all my daughters maryit upon lairds.”
¹ _Statutes of the Scottish Church_, Volume I., pages 149‒150,
173; Volume II., pages 15, 17, 28, 35, 42, 48, 51, 55, 65,
81‒88, 89‒118, 128, 153‒156, 301‒303. _Register of the Great
Seal_, Book 26; _Acts of the Lords of Council and Session_,
Book 36; Lord Lindsay’s _Lives of the Lindsays_, Volume I.,
page 201; Gordon’s _History of the Earldom of Sutherland_,
pages 172, 478; W. Fraser’s _Stirlings of Keir_, pages 39,
40, 378.
Again Diligence announces――
“From this day forth our barons temporall
Sail na mair mix thair noble ancient blood
With bastard bairns of stait spirituall.”¹
¹ Lindsay’s _Poetical Works_, Volume II., pages 88, 119.
This must have tended to lower the character of the clergy in the
popular estimation; there seems also reason to believe that the example
of the dignified clergy sporting with their damsels in the face of
society had an injurious effect in other directions, by weakening
the feeling of chastity and modesty in the relations of the sexes, it
encouraged immorality among all ranks of the nation, it lowered and
tended to discredit the whole group of feelings and sentiments which
should be concentrated around the domestic circle, and which really
forms the foundation of social well-being and virtuous life.
Celibacy and monasticism, and the associated group of ascetic and
sanctimonious notions, originated from the same principle. Looking on
the subject from the standpoint of history, and from the broad ground
of morality and freedom, it is not necessary at this time of day to
argue that the State should suppress and prohibit monasteries and
nunneries. All that the State should be fairly called upon to perform
is to see that protection is afforded to those who are forcibly seized
and detained in such establishments. But circumstances might arise when
it would be necessary for the government to interfere; in well-ordered
communities, however, where public opinion has its proper influence,
such instances would rarely happen. If men and women voluntarily
resolve to shut themselves up within the walls of a building, it
is best, perhaps to let them follow their special hobby; when the
dominant idea and feeling of their minds lead them to adopt this mode
of life, it may be pretty safely assumed that such persons would form
comparatively useless members of society. It is not therefore on the
ground of any theory of government that the system of monasticism is
here discussed; but upon the principles of human nature, morality, the
rational and harmonious exercise of the varied faculties of the mind in
the development of civilisation.
It is true that the ascetic sentiment has often entered largely into
other religions as well as Christianity. This is especially true of
the great religions of the East, but it is not unknown in some of the
less developed forms of religion. When Mexico and Peru were conquered
by the Spaniards in the first quarter of the sixteenth century, they
were amazed to find among the inhabitants of these countries religious
customs and practices which much resembled some of those of the old
world. The resemblance was most noticeable in relation to monasticism;
as some of the customs of the natives corresponded pretty closely with
the Christian monastic institutions.¹ In Africa and Asia the monastic
type of religion has always existed; the horrifying macerations and
ascetic rites of the Buddhists surpass those of any Christian order.
¹ Viscount Amberley’s _Analysis of Religious Belief_, Volume
I., pages 98‒108. Hereafter it will come within my purpose to
give a more detailed criticism of this work, especially the
second Book, which deals with the Religious sentiment itself.
Although the candour, the talents, the industry, and the
literary culture of the author are worthy of all admiration,
it must be admitted that his elaborate performance lacks the
logical grasp of principles and ideas which characterise the
highest minds, and that before all other qualifications is
necessary to one who aspires to revolutionise the religions
and theologies of the human race. It may also be stated that
his sympathies were rather feeble to enable him to fathom
the real sufferings and the inner pangs of the heart of
mankind, or to reach and faithfully represent the deepest
chords which have throbbed in the soul of humanity. This
weakness of sympathy is most apparent in his treatment of
Jesus Christ. He devotes about 240 pages to an account of
Jesus and his sayings; but even from the standpoint of the
school to which he belongs, the criticism is uncommonly
contorted and flippant. Sometimes he condescends to sneer
at the ignorance of Jesus――“His intellectual weakness, his
irrational prejudices,” and so on. He was evidently much
offended because the moral doctrines of Jesus did not assign
more respect to wealth and rich men――it was a sad error on
the part of Jesus not to extol them; since from these and
such-like reasons the author is led to the conclusion that
Jesus had only a very imperfect sense of justice, “crude
ideas of social connections,” and no proper esteem for the
aristocracy. The work in its historical character is also
defective in consecutive continuity and in the appreciation
of internal sequence. Volume I., pages 254‒496.
The monastic system was first introduced from Egypt into Christendom
about the beginning of the fourth century. By the end of that century
the system was in vogue and growing rapidly. “At first it called into
existence a class of men who for self-denial, sincerity of purpose,
heroic endurance, and unyielding fanaticism, have rarely been matched.
They abandoned all the ties of home and friendship, renounced all
the pleasures and even most of the necessaries of life; they scourged
and macerated their bodies, lived in loneliness and desolation, and
wandered half-starved and half-naked through deserts, till they had
almost extinguished every natural feeling and every human sentiment
within their breasts. No affliction could move them, no sympathy for
suffering stirred their heart; they embraced misery with an ardent
yearning; they gloried in multiplying forms of loathsome penance and in
trampling upon every natural desire. To promote the interests of their
church was their only passion, and to gratify it there was no torture
that they were not ready to endure or to inflict.”¹ The monastic
system under various orders of monks, but all founded on the theory of
mortification, continued to develop till it reached enormous dimensions;
and as centuries passed, the first enthusiasm of the monks died away,
the monasteries became rich, and then multitudes entered into them
merely to escape the burdens of life. At last the monasteries, instead
of being the abodes of saints and holy men and women entirely devoted
to the service of God, had become dens of corruption and of luxury;
yet until near the end of the fifteenth century the ascetic theory of
life, the philosophy of mortification, was everywhere held throughout
Christendom; asceticism still represented the highest point of moral
dignity, and Protestantism was the first effective declaration against
it.
¹ Lecky’s _History of Rationalism_, Volume II., pages 28‒29,
396; Montalembert’s _Monks of the West_, Volume I.
According to every worthy conception of the philosophy of human nature,
man has been constituted with feelings, emotions, sentiments, and ideas,
which naturally seek gratification; and the chief question is how their
varied claims should be subordinated and developed. Every feeling and
emotion and idea has an unquestionable right to seek gratification,
subject to the necessary limitations, on the ground of reasonable
subordination in the interest of development on the lines of harmonious
inclusion, instead of exclusion and unnaturally attempted extinction.
The most advanced thinkers, moralists, and educators now recognise this;
and history presents masses of evidence against the principle of rigid
exclusion and asceticism――the method of maiming the body, dwarfing
the human sympathy, and starving the mind, in order to save the soul.
The results of this may be seen in the establishment of caste, in
Oriental religions and despotisms, in oligarchies and aristocracies,
in imperialism and fatalism, and in many other forms.
In the history of the form and the manifestation of the religious
feeling and aspiration there has been a tendency in many quarters to
draw the lines too sharply between the teachers of religion and the
body of the people. This has often resulted in the establishment of a
class specially charged with the oracles and message of God; and once
the idea began to be entertained, sentiments and habits associated with
it sprung up and accumulated around it, till the priesthood finally
assumed a strong and commanding position. They were supposed to be the
holy servants of God, and they should therefore show to the profane
world of the flesh that they were exalted above the most natural
and deeply rooted feelings of mankind. Accordingly they proceeded to
renounce the idea of marriage, and to forego all the touching domestic
feelings and duties associated therewith; the members of the priesthood
from the highest to the lowest must forsake all such earthly pleasures;
the salvation of the human race having been committed to them by heaven,
they in sooth must rise to the height of their sublime calling. The
intoxication of power inevitably asserted its supremacy, and then they
declared themselves to be the final legislators for this world and the
next. If a point of morals, a case of mutual association among any body
of men, or a novel opinion were expressed, or a tradition or article
of the creed which time had consecrated, were called in question, then,
on all such matters, they alone were the arbiters who could pronounce a
true verdict.
A celibate clergy among a rude people would probably command most
influence. The priest with no family ties was supposed to have
abandoned the engrossing interest of earthly enjoyments, to have
devoted himself to his God, and to care only for the salvation and
eternal welfare of his flock. With nothing else to divert his energies
or to ruffle the serenity of his soul, he professed to toil for the
benefit of his fellow-creatures. Many priests of all religions have
earnestly laboured in such work; the Roman Catholic priesthood have
rarely shrunk from facing danger and toil in the cause to which they
have devoted themselves. It is, however, possible for the priests
to make too stringent rules of self-denial――rules which aim at
extinguishing the natural feelings of our common humanity, and by
pushing this to extremes, instead of enhancing their influence, they
may degrade themselves. It is possible to be over holy, by publicly
professing to believe doctrines and to obey rules which in practice are
continually broken by some of their number. Now this was exactly what
happened in Scotland, celibacy was the rule and law of the Church but
in practice the clergy disregarded it. It may well be asked, why should
any class of men be placed in such a position? why should rules be
imposed upon the clergy whereby their human feelings become twisted and
tied down? Why should their humanity be shorn and mangled as if this
was a necessary part of their calling?
The most sympathetic races are those among whom monogamy has been long
established. All genuine social feeling and sentiment begins in the
family circle, and this is the altar where, if anywhere, love should
reign supreme. There the little ones looking up to their father with
all the simplicity of a primitive faith, are full of trust and ready
to be impressed with reverence. Those who do not love their own, will
never care much for any doctrines of religion or morality, however
clearly they may be understood. We have no faith in the son who rails
against his father and mother; for the best part of our nature is
almost unconsciously formed during our earliest years, while all those
feelings and sentiments that assist in sustaining the development of
the moral character and the finer emotions of the heart, those touches
of kindness which sweeten human life and cheer the soul of humanity are
the result of family life.
The family must ever be the foundation of society, the first link
in the great chain of order, virtue, progress, and civilisation.
It was the root from which the most complete social and political
organisations have sprung; and the nations which have recognised and
adopted this institution have had by far the happiest and most glorious
careers of national life. But celibacy, monasticism, and the modern
hospital establishments for the young, all discarded it, and proceeded
on a single line of characteristic isolation. To retire from the duties
of life and bury oneself in a monastery cannot contribute much to the
onward movement of society, though it may suit the peculiar mind and
circumstances of some individuals.
The evidence of history and psychology both point to the conclusion
that monasticism, celibacy, and the hospital system, all violate
and trench upon the fundamental principles of social development and
healthy society. These systems ignore the doctrine that teaches us
to cultivate and develop all our powers and feelings in harmonious
subordination to a life of activity and energy, of untiring struggle
and conflict with surrounding difficulties, of honest effort and
endeavour, of toil and thought. No one has a right to shrink from his
duties, and no one should be deprived of any of the enjoyments which
our country and age afford.
In connection with these matters, the social miscalculations and
economic errors, as formed and taught by the Socialists and Communists,
bears a rather close resemblance in some points to the monasticism of
the Middle Ages. The modern theories are not all equally impracticable;
but the ideas of absolute equality of right, community of goods
and property throughout a nation, must be characterised as utterly
visionary. In the history of Christianity from the fourth to the
fifteenth century there had been innumerable attempts to establish a
sort of Communism in societies unripe for its reception, which ended
in the results indicated in the preceding pages. All the theories of
modern Socialists for the immediate reconstruction of society are based
upon equally delusive notions; no theory can have a chance of practical
influence and realisation, unless it work through existing forms of
social life, and not by isolation from them. A higher moral standard,
a clearer idea of justice, and a far greater willingness to look at
both sides of a trade question must be attained, even before a great
development of simple co-operation can be effected.
Having indicated the external, the political, and social causes of
the Reformation, I proceed to consider what may be called the inner
or religious causes. They are more difficult to realise than the other
causes, and more important, because they are deeper and more intense.
The first class of causes were transient and rather selfish, and
when the aims which had stimulated their activity were gained, they
fluctuated, and shortly ceased to operate. But the purely religious
sentiment and aspiration were constant in their action, and persistent
in their manifestation in the face of fearful odds; until they attained
a complete triumph in the recognition of toleration and religious
freedom.
The religious feeling and idea, then, were the constant and the real
causes of the Reformation, though these contained immense social and
political issues which were hardly foreseen by the politicians of
that age. The political movements and combinations prompted by mixed
motives, and often by selfish ends, in some quarters accelerated,
and in others retarded, the religious upheaval, but all the political
powers in the world could neither have accomplished nor prevented
the final consummation of the principles of the Reformation. For no
external power can extinguish the internal operations of the human
mind. From the dawn of history, political power has been characterised
by duplicity and a lack of honest principle; diplomatic jugglery and
concealed falsehood, have reigned along the whole line of empires
and nations down almost to the present century. The proof of this may
be read in the records of every government that has existed, and in
the honest testimony of the historians of the world. In the sixteenth
century no political government had truth enough in its constitution
to bring about this great religious revolution; no government had
sufficient strength of moral purpose for so mighty a task; and at the
utmost governments could only directly hinder or hasten it. Though
the Reformation bore on its surface many marks of contact with the
political powers, it may be affirmed that the religious feeling and
the moral principle were the supreme influences of the movement; as
these were its heart and life, the internal and invisible springs of
its vigour, and the glorious features of its reality and truth.
There have been politicians who have laid down their lives in testimony
of their adherence to political ideas, but they are few in number
compared with the army of men and women who have cheerfully endured
the tortures of martyrdom for the sake of their religion. Here, then,
we have the grand influence and the motive power of this religious
movement――an aspiration and a moral sentiment, the inner craving of
the mind which ever seeks a Being worthy of its adoration.
In 1525, Parliament passed an Act prohibiting the importation of
Luther’s book, and the propagation of his opinions. The Act stated that
damnable opinions have been spread in several countries by the heretic
Luther and his disciples; but that Scotland and her people has always
firmly believed in the holy faith and never yet admitted any opinion
contrary to it. It then declared that no person arriving with ships
at the ports of the kingdom should bring any books of this heretic,
nor dispute, nor rehearse, his heresy unless it was to refute it. It
was reported that a translation of the New Testament in manuscript,
was used among the Scots in the reign of James IV. Tyndale’s version
in a printed form was brought into Scotland in 1526, and seems to
have been pretty freely circulated. The first heretical books of any
kind circulated in this country came chiefly from England. In 1535,
Parliament commanded all persons who had heretical books in their
possession, to deliver them up to the authorities within forty days,
under the penalty of confiscation and imprisonment.¹
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., pages 295,
349; Anderson’s _Annals of the English Bible_, pages 111‒112,
495‒501. 1862.
The first Scotsman who suffered for the profession of the reformed
opinions was Patrick Hamilton, the Abbot of Ferne. While sojourning
in Germany, he had received the proscribed doctrines from the lips
of Luther himself. He returned to Scotland in 1527, and began to
disseminate his opinions and doctrines. Early in the following year he
was taken and imprisoned in the Castle of St. Andrews, and there tried,
convicted, and condemned for heresy. On the 29th of February, 1528,
he was led to the stake and burned to death before the College of St.
Andrews.¹ It appears that he was married and had a daughter.² He left
a short treatise in Latin, which contained a summary of his leading
doctrines.
¹ Knox’s _Works_, Volume I., pages 14‒18, Laing’s edition.
² Lorimer’s _Life of Hamilton_, pages 123‒124.
This treatise was translated into English shortly after Hamilton’s
death by John Firth, an Englishman, who added a preface to the reader.
As a reward for his zeal he was burnt at Smithfield in 1533. The
book contains the ten commandments and eighteen propositions, mostly
quotations from the Scriptures, which are put into the form of
syllogisms. The doctrine of the Gospel is set forth and contrasted
with the law, the doctrine of faith――faith in Christ, free grace, or
justification by faith; good works are held neither to save nor to
condemn the sinner; a comparison is made between faith, hope, and
charity; and finally, “He that thinks to be saved by his works calleth
himself Christ, for he calleth himself a saviour, which appertains only
to Christ. What is a saviour but he that saveth? And thou sayest, I
save myself, which is as much to say as I am Christ, for Christ is the
only Saviour of the world.”¹
¹ Hunt’s _Religious Thought in England_, Volume I., page 4;
1870. A copy of Firth’s translation of Hamilton’s treatise
is inserted in Knox’s History. _Works_, Volume I., pages 20,
21‒35.
Three editions of Firth’s translation were published at London,
probably before 1540. John Firth was one of the earliest and most
consistent of the English Reformers. “He had embraced the rational
views of the sacraments that had been taught by ♦Zuinglius. He reasoned
that if the body of Christ ascended into heaven it could not be in
the Eucharist, for it was impossible for a body to be in more places
than one at one time.... Firth complained that the error prevailing
in his day was too much trust in the outward signs, as if by them was
accomplished what could only be done by faith. He denies that the sign
gives the Spirit of God or grace. Those that come rightly to baptism
have grace already. The ordinance is a witness that they are in a state
of grace. The life of a true Christian is a continual baptism. One
result of attaching so much importance to the outward sacrament was
the consigning of unbaptised infants to everlasting pain.”
♦ “Zwingle” replaced with “Zuinglius” for consistency
It was mostly among the lower orders of the clergy that the new
doctrines were embraced. The friars were the chief preachers of the day,
and they occasionally inveighed boldly against the prevailing abuses
of the priesthood. A friar named Erth preached a sermon in Dundee,
in which he touched upon the licentious lives of the bishops, and the
evils connected with excommunication and miracles. The armed followers
of the Bishop of Brechin immediately buffeted him and called him a
heretic. Naturally the friar was displeased at this treatment, and he
proceeded to St. Andrews to consult John Mair, the well-known doctor of
the Sorbonne and the author of numerous works, whose word at that time
was regarded as an oracle in matters of religion; and he assured the
friar that such a doctrine might well be defended, and that he would
defend it, for it was not heresy. The friar then intimated to all who
were offended with his sermon that he would again preach it in the
parish church of St. Andrews. On the appointed day all the regents and
masters of the University, and other notable persons, attended to hear
him. He ascended the pulpit, and took for his text the words, “Truth is
the strongest of all things.” He spoke of excommunication, how fearful
a thing it was when rightly applied, that it should not be rashly used
for every light cause, but only against open and incorrigible sinners.
“But now,” said he, “the avarice of priests and the ignorance of their
office has caused it to be altogether vilified; for the priest, whose
duty and office it is to pray for the people, stands up on Sunday
and cries: ‘One has tint a spurtle; there is a flail stolen from them
beyond the burn; the goodwife on the other side of the street has
tint a horn spoon; God’s malison and mine I give to them that knows of
this gear and returns it not.’” The people, he said, merely mocked at
such excommunication. This part of the friar’s sermon was confirmed by
acts of Parliament passed about the same date, in which it was stated,
“that the dishonesty and misrule of churchmen, both in wit, knowledge
and manners, was the reason and cause that the Church and clergy were
slighted and contemned; and also that the damnable persuasion of the
heretics and their perverse doctrines gave occasion to despise the
process of excommunication and other censures of the holy Church.”¹
¹ Knox’s _Works_, Volume I., pages 36‒40; _Acts of the
Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., page 341, 342, 370.
Friar Erth, however, did not renounce the Catholic faith, but his plain
preaching necessitated his flight to England, where he was imprisoned
by Henry VIII. for defending the authority of the Pope. In Scotland, as
in other countries, there was a number of earnest Roman Catholics who
wished to reform the existing abuses and discipline without destroying
the Church or forsaking their ancient faith, but things had come to
such a crisis that their efforts in this direction were overborne and
rendered futile; it was too late in the day, the time for compromises
had passed. John Mair, noticed above, was for sometime a regent in the
University of Glasgow, but in 1523 he became a regent in the University
of St. Andrews. In 1525 he left St. Andrews and went to Paris; but
in 1531 he returned to St. Andrews, and resumed his lectures. He
was appointed Provost of St. Salvator’s College in 1534, an office
which he held till his death in 1550. About the same time Gavin Logie
was principal of St. Leonard’s College. Under him many of the early
Scottish Reformers were educated at St. Andrews. In this connection
might be reckoned Alexander Myln, the Abbot of Cambuskenneth, who
was appointed the first President of the Court of Session in 1533; he
manifested commendable zeal in religion, and died in 1548. At the same
time John Winram was sub-prior of St. Andrews, and afterwards became
one of the chief Reformers; and Robert Richardson, a canon-regular
of Cambuskenneth, though an adherent of Catholicism, preached with
great energy against the scandalous and immoral lives of the higher
churchmen, and denounced the intemperate habits which prevailed amongst
the monks. Alexander Seton, a black friar, and confessor to the king,
preached during the time of Lent, with remarkable boldness against the
corruptions of the Church, and especially against the life and conduct
of the bishops. The favour of the King shielded him for a time from the
wrath of his brethren, but he was at last obliged to retire, and sought
refuge in England about the year 1536.¹
¹ Brunton and Haig’s _Senators of the College of Justice_,
pages 7, 8; Knox’s _Works_, Volume I., pages 36, 37, 45‒52,
150, 530‒533; Mair’s _History of the Scots_ (Scottish
History Society), edited, 1892.
For some years after the fall of the Earl of Angus, the anarchy on
the Borders, the disturbance in the Highlands, and the harassing
conflict between the Crown and the nobles, fully occupied the time and
attention of the leading churchmen of the day, so that heretics were
comparatively little disturbed. The king, as we have seen, had thrown
the government almost entirely into the hands of the clergy, who found
sufficient employment in watching the nobles. These, neglected by the
king and excluded from the offices of the State, were now manifesting a
still stronger inclination to listen to the new opinions. But great as
the power of the Church was during the reign of James V., it was not in
a position to accuse and try any one of the great nobles for heresy.
In justice to the character of the leading Catholic churchmen of the
age, it should be remembered, however, that their ideas and sentiments
were very different from those of the present day, and in relation
to the persecution of heresy this was specially noticeable. To take
the life of a single human being for holding certain opinions on any
subject whatever is a great and fearful crime; but in the sixteenth
century it was deemed the highest virtue to cut off the obstinate
heretic. This throughout Christendom was the common view. It is
therefore unjust to judge them by the ideas and sentiments of the
nineteenth century. The prevailing Roman Catholic creed seems to have
produced upon the character of its most ardent professors an almost
absolute indifference to the suffering of those outside the Church; and
amongst men of this frame of mind and feeling it was regarded as their
first duty to cut off the heretics, and to extinguish them root and
branch for the glory and honour of God, the purity of the faith, and
the good of society. These notions were so deeply ingrained into the
prevailing religious creed and feeling that it was hardly possible for
the Reformers to emancipate themselves from them; hence we find that
Calvin openly avowed and took credit to himself for his share in the
persecution and burning of Servetus. Calvin’s action in this matter
was applauded by all sections of Protestants, and warmly approved by
his most intimate contemporaries. Calvin, Beza, and others, wrote books
on the lawfulness of persecution;¹ so difficult was it for even the
greatest minds to disentangle themselves from the current trains of
thought and associated sentiments of their age. It is deserving of
remark, however, that the persecution in Scotland was not nearly so
severe as in some of the other countries of Europe.
¹ Tulloch’s _Leaders of the Reformation_, page 185; Hallam’s
_Introduction to the Literature of Europe_, Volume II.,
pages 101, 107‒116; Dyer’s _Life of Calvin_. Compare Lecky’s
_History of Rationalism_, Volume II., pages 35‒61. 1865.
King James continued attached to the Church, and countenanced the
persecution of the heretics. Henry Forest, a Benedictine monk, was
taken, tried, condemned for heresy, and burned at St. Andrews in 1532.
In 1534, the Bishop of Ross, under a commission issued by the primate,
held a court in the Abbey of Holyrood, and many suspected persons were
summoned to appear before it; and the king himself attended several
of the sittings clothed in scarlet. A number of the accused, both men
and women, “burned their faggots,” that is, renounced their erroneous
opinions; while some fled to England, and to other countries. On the
other hand Norman Gourlay, a priest, and David Straiton, a layman,
firmly adhered to their heresy, asserted their innocence, and
vindicated their faith to the last, and in consequence were both
condemned, and on the 27th of August suffered for their opinions, being
burned at Greenside in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh.¹ In the case of
Straiton there was a quarrel with the clergy about the tithe of fish.
He had a boat in which his servants went to sea and fished, and when
the collector insisted for the tithe of the fish, Straiton bade his
servants throw every tenth fish into the sea again, and let him seek
their tithe where he found the stock. Yet despite these executions the
new opinions continued to spread, and between the years 1534 and 1537
many persons were accused of heresy. Some of ♦the accused abjured their
opinions, while a considerable number of them fled out of the country.²
¹ _Diurnal of Occurrents_, from 1513 to 1575, pages 18‒19. “And
also there was sharp inquisition and punishment of heretics
in Edinburgh, the king himself assisted thereto. Master
Gourlay being adjured before, and Straiton obstinate in
his opinions, were burned. The Sheriff of Linlithgow, and
Captain James Borthwick, and divers others, fugitives from
the law, were convicted for heresy.”――Lesly’s _History Of
Scotland_, pages 149‒150; Knox, Volume I., pages 56‒60.
♦ missing word “the” inserted
² Knox, Volume I., pages 54‒57, 526‒531; M‘Crie’s _Life of
Knox_――Works, Volume I., pages 317‒323.
Henry VIII. was extremely anxious that the young king of Scotland
should imitate his example and shake off the authority of the Pope. In
1535, he sent ambassadors into Scotland with a proposal for a marriage
between his daughter and the Scottish king, and suggested that James
should meet him at York, where they could confer together and cement
the ties of friendship. Much showy flattery was used towards James to
induce him to follow out the proposals of his uncle; various presents
were sent to the king, consisting of horses, offers of the garter, and
a copy of a book entitled “The Doctrine of a Christian Man.” A specimen
of Henry’s efforts to convert James may be given from his instructions
to Bishop Barlow and Thomas Halcroft, his ambassadors at the Scottish
court in October, 1535: the following touches on the encroachment of
the Pope on kingly prerogatives and royal authority――“That within the
limits of your realm, such spiritual promotions and ecclesiastical
dignities as appertain to the collation of your prerogative royal, your
clergy have appropriated to the Bishop of Rome for to give and sell
them away by prevention, at his own pleasure, without your licence,
rather choosing to receive them of a foreign usurper, than of their
own natural prince, to the intent your grace should have no liberty in
their kingdom. And divers of them have encroached so large possessions,
that in richness and yearly revenue they seem able to compare with
you; and as for pre-eminent authority they far surpass your highness;
which in no condition should be suffered by so noble a prince as your
grace is, whom God has endued with prudent wisdom and discretion much
excelling many of your noble progenitors, so that nothing is to be
desired in you, save only a fervent love of God’s word, whereby without
difficulty ye shall know the office of a king, righteously how to rule
and not to be ruled of your subjects; which kingly office of God’s
ordinate institution most highly preferred, Scripture depaindeth from
the first creation hitherto. When God had created Adam and set him
in paradise, subduing to his obedient subjection all creatures, and
having no superior under God, without any restraint of free liberty
save only to obey God’s precept, what was it otherwise than a perfect
demonstration of a king’s majesty, to be in his realm as Adam was in
paradise, lord over all.” After citing various examples of kings from
Scripture, for the instruction of his nephew, which the ambassadors
were instructed to beat into his head with all their eloquence and
force; and then the practical application was presented to the young
king, thus:――“And therefore this good King Josias, only attended
to God’s word, the established foundation of princely governance,
without any contrary respect, delayed not his royal power, effectually
furthering a due reformation, whereby God’s pleasure accomplished, he
prosperously reigned over the people; exhibiting an evident example
unto your grace, both of courage and necessity, valiantly now in
the clear revelation of God’s word, to enterprise a like reformable
redress of your spiritual (so named) clergy, which as it shall be to
the glorifying of God’s honour, so must it needs be to the advancement
of your realm, also to such augmentation of inestimable riches and
unrestrained freedom of your royal liberty, as never none of your noble
progenitors hitherto could attain. How should not your treasure be
inestimably augmented, if unto your highness, as of duty ought to be,
were restored the title, jus, advowson, patronage, gifts and grants
of all spiritual promotions, with free interest in their goods, lands,
rents, revenues, and possessions, as rightfully belong to your regality,
whereof so long season they have injustely dispossessed you by their
subtle submission to the Bishop of Rome? What a kingly liberty were
it to have them subdued under your obedience and subjection, which by
unseemly sufferance are lords over you within your own dominion, whose
visured holyness is hypocrisy, and their flattering fidelity nothing
else save false dissimulation! If they feign humble submission of
allegiance, they show it for a facid intent, to be exalted above your
royalty. If they seem to motion you to justice, it shall be to revenge
their cruel quarrels. If they offer to assist you with their riches, it
is to maintain their extortionate causes. Finally, whatsoever purpose
they compass about, always the principal respect is their private
commodity, being a kingdom within themselves, confedered together
without any profitable consideration of your common public weal.”
James V. replied to Henry in these words――“As to the matter shown by
your said ambassadors, we may not of our conscience but first keep our
part toward God and our obedience to Holy Kirk, as all our forefathers
had done these thirteen hundred years by past.”¹
¹ Hamilton Papers, Volume I., pages 20, 22, _et seq._ 1890.
All the artful policy of Henry failed; the meeting between the
two kings was indefinitely postponed by the advice of the Scottish
clergy, and James remained firmly attached to the Roman hierarchy.
The agents of the English Government assert that James was completely
under the control of the clergy; and Barlow, the bishop of St. Asaph,
characterised them thus――“his spiritual unghostly councillors, who, I
dare boldly affirm that, if they might destroy us with a word, their
devilish endeavour should not long fail.... Also, I am sure that the
Council, which are only the clergy, would not willingly give such
advertisement to the king for due execution upon thieves and robbers;
for then ought he first of all to begin with them in the midst of
his realm, whose abominable abused fashion, so far out of frame, a
Christian heart abhorreth to behold. They show themselves to be in all
points the pope’s pestilent creatures, very limbs of the devil, whose
popish power violently to maintain their lying friars cease not in
their sermons, we being present, blasphemously to blatter against the
verity, with slanderous reproach of us, who have justly renounced his
wrong usurped papacy. Wherefore, in confutation of their detestable
lies, if I might obtain the king’s licence (otherwise shall I not be
suffered) to preach, I will not spare for no bodily peril, boldly to
publish the truth of God’s word among them. Whereat though the clergy
shall repine, yet many of the lay people will gladly give ear.”¹
¹ _State Papers_, Henry VIII., Volume V., pages 1‒7, 10, 14,
19, _et seq._, and pages 36‒38. The _Diurnal of Occurrents_
says――“In the month of November there came an English
ambassador, with sixteen horse in his train, to infest this
realm with heresy, which was then in England among them, but
through the grace of God he came no speed but departed with
repulse” (page 19).
In 1537, Sir Ralph Sadler was sent into Scotland on a mission to the
Scottish court. He was instructed to make every endeavour to induce
James to resist the Pope and to join his uncle in common measures of
defence, and to persuade him to give no heed to the false rumours and
slanderous misrepresentations of the motives of his uncle which were
so industriously spread. He was also to propose that James should meet
with Henry, when they might have a personal interchange of views, from
which much mutual benefit was expected to result.¹ The influences which
controlled the policy of James V. were manifested in various directions.
He went to France in 1536 in search of a wife, and on the 1st of
January 1537, his marriage with Magdalene, daughter of the King of
France, was celebrated at the French court. The King and Queen landed
in Scotland on the 28th of May, amid great rejoicings; but the Queen
had a very delicate constitution, and she died on the 7th of July, the
same year, greatly lamented by the people. Shortly after an embassy was
sent to France, and Mary of Lorraine, a daughter of the Duke of Guise,
was conveyed to Scotland in 1538, and married to the King. She was a
woman of remarkable energy and talents, and played an active part in
the struggles of the Reformation in her adopted country. The house of
Guise, however, was one of the most aspiring and ambitious in France,
and its aims and policy were wholly devoted to the Roman Catholic
Church. The marriage of the King of Scots, therefore, was a plain
indication to Henry VIII. of the direction in which the policy of the
Scottish King would tend for at least some time to come. But it is only
rendering historical justice to state that James V., as compared with
his contemporary across the Border, was a liberal minded king; and when
he countenanced and permitted the execution of heretics he was merely
allowing the law of the kingdom to run its course. He was at variance
with the aristocracy as many of his ancestors had been before him; and
remembering the treatment which many of the occupants of the throne and
even himself had received at their hands, it is not surprising that he
pursued the line of policy naturally marked out for him. There is no
evidence that James was naturally cruel or inclined to push matters to
extremes. Henry VIII. on the other hand persecuted the devotees of the
Pope and the disciples of Luther with equal severity, and endeavoured
to hold the position of Pope and of King, to concentrate the power of
both in his own person, and reign above all law.
¹ _Ibid._, Volume V., pages 81‒90, 97.
In the autumn of ♦1539, James Beaton, Archbishop of St. Andrews, died,
and was succeeded by his nephew, Cardinal Beaton. David Beaton, Abbot
of Arbroath in Scotland, and Bishop of Mirpoix in France, was assured
of the primacy in August 1538, and was installed in the See between the
13th and the 25th of February, 1539, six months before the death of his
uncle; a few days afterwards his natural son got a grant of lands in
Angus. Beaton was made a cardinal upon the 20th of December, 1538, and
was exceedingly anxious to obtain from the pope the office of legate a
latere. In December, 1539, he wrote to his agent at Rome to press his
suit for a commission as legate. James V. wrote to the Pope on the 16th
December, 1538, entreating that the office might be bestowed on Beaton,
and again in August, 1539, in June 1540, and in March 1541. In February,
1544, the Regent Arran also wrote to the Pope touching the same matter,
and a month after the coveted office was granted, and Beaton attained
to the summit of his power.¹
♦ “1239” replaced with “1539”
¹ _Statutes of the Scottish Church_, Volume I., pages 117,
129‒133; Sadler’s _State Papers_, Volume I., pages 15‒17;
_State Papers_, Henry VIII., Volume V., pages 156, 443‒445.
Archbishop James Beaton, the cardinal’s predecessor, had
also aspired to a cardinal’s hat and the power of legate
a latere, but he failed to obtain it. David Beaton was the
only Scottish bishop on whom the dignity of a cardinal was
bestowed by the undivided Latin Church.
About the beginning of the year 1539, several persons, mostly of the
lower orders of the clergy, were accused and apprehended for heresy.
Thomas Forrest, a canon of Inchcolm and vicar of Dollar; two black
friars, named Beveridge and Killor; Duncan Simpson, a priest at
Stirling, and Robert Forrester, a layman, belonging to Stirling,
were tried before a council held by Cardinal Beaton and the Bishop of
Dunblane. They were all condemned, and were burned on the 1st day of
March, in the presence of the king, upon the Castle Hill of Edinburgh.
At the same time nine persons recanted, and many were banished. Amongst
the latter was George Buchanan, who escaped by the window of his
bed-chamber while his keepers were asleep.¹ The same year a friar of
the name of Russel was apprehended for heresy. He had been preaching at
Dumfries and other parts of the country; he was young and intelligent,
and therefore it was not likely that he would be suffered to spread
his heresies. Another youth of eighteen years, named Kennedy, was also
apprehended. Both were brought before the Archbishop of Glasgow, who,
it is said, was reluctant to condemn them. They were both, however,
sentenced to death and burned at Glasgow. Russel before his death is
reported to have spoken the following words:――“This is your hour and
the power of darkness; ye now sit as judges, whilst we stand before
you wrongfully accused and more wrongfully condemned, but the day shall
come when our innocence shall appear, and then ye shall see your own
blindness to your everlasting confusion. Go forward, and fulfil the
measure of your iniquity.”²
¹ _Diurnal of Occurrents_, page 23; Knox, Volume I., pages
62‒63, 521‒522; Buchanan’s _History of Scotland_, Book XIV.,
chapter 55; _State Papers_, Henry VIII., Volume V., page 154.
² Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_, Volume I., page 216; Knox,
Volume I., pages 63‒66; _State Papers_, Henry VIII., Volume
V., page 141.
These executions were not followed by the results expected. Instead
of stamping out the heresy they only added more intensity to it,
and the proscribed opinions were more firmly held by those who had
embraced them. It has been maintained by some that if a persecution be
sufficiently severe and prolonged it must extinguish heresy. A great
deal depends, however, upon the state of civilisation the people have
reached among whom the heresy exists. If a nation be in a comparatively
low moral and social condition, and lives under a political or military
despotism, heresies or opinions obnoxious to the ruling powers might
be extinguished, or rather banished, from that particular quarter of
the earth. In such circumstances persecution might be carried to a
pitch which would crush the best of causes. But although the usual
means by which heresy is propagated be cut off, it cannot eradicate
what is believed to be the truth from the minds of those who have
cordially embraced it. Oppressive laws and a tyrannical and merciless
administration, if carried on long enough, will no doubt prevent
the expression of heresies, or of any opinion whatever; still it can
hardly be assumed that a heresy is extinguished because its expression
is legally and effectively suppressed, which is the utmost that the
severest persecution can effect. And it is just at this point where the
influences arise in which the human mind derives a peculiar enjoyment
from holding on to opinions that have been prohibited by Church and
State. For there is unquestionably a high degree of inward pleasure
in cherishing proscribed opinions which the judgment and the moral
sense believe to be true, and upon this some of the very strongest
self-sustaining and original elements of character have been developed.
The bond of sympathy that radiated in the hearts of the heretics was
not broken when one or two were burnt, indeed their memory and opinions
began then only to be thoroughly grasped, and were afterwards retained
with a vividness and a faith which their fellow believers alone could
fully realise. If it had been possible to burn the enthusiasm of the
heretic and of the martyr along with their bodies, truth and religion
and morality would long ago have been banished from the world, or
rather the higher characteristics of humanity could not have been
developed. Hence heresy may be cursed and condemned, heretics may be
tortured and consumed to ashes; and yet, as if to mock the limits of
the powers which have vainly assayed to crush them, again and again
heresies have risen up and shone with a lustre all its own, drawing
fresh energy from the manes of the departed.
A parliament met at Edinburgh in December, 1541, and at once proceeded
to deal with two measures which directly trenched upon the privileges
of the aristocracy. An act was passed confirming the revocation of
all grants of lands, lordships, customs, burgh rents, annual fishings,
donations, life rents, and gifts, which had been made during the king’s
minority. The variety and extent of the transactions which this act
covered must have appeared extremely alarming, especially to those who
had any hand in the Government within the period specified. Another act
declared the Western and the Orkney and Shetland Islands to be annexed
to the Crown, together with the lordships of Douglas, Bothwell, Preston,
Tantallon, Crawford Lindsay, Crawford John, Bonhill, Jedburgh Forest,
♦Glamis, Liddesdale, Evandale, and the superiority of the Earldom of
Angus, with all its forts, castles, and whatever else pertained to it.
Though these measures were within the legal limits of the constitution
of the kingdom, they were far too bold; but if the Crown had been able
to carry them into effect the results would have been beneficial, as
the disorderly state of the inhabitants in the annexed districts would
have been remedied, and peace and order introduced. The Government
was aware of the danger attending the path on which it had entered,
and attempted to appease the ruffled feelings of the nobles and chiefs
by proclaiming a general pardon for all crimes committed down to the
date of the act. This, however, lost much of its calming effect owing
to the clause which excluded the banished Earl of Angus and all his
adherents.¹ The nobles now became nervously apprehensive, and their
feeling soon manifested itself.
♦ “Glammis” replaced with “Glamis”
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., pages
357‒358, _et seq._
In a parliament held in March, 1541, new acts were passed against the
spread of heresy. To question the supreme authority of the Pope was
declared to be a capital crime, and even a suspicion of heresy was
deemed sufficient to disqualify any one for office in the Government or
elsewhere; all meetings for the discussion of religious doctrines were
strictly prohibited, and rewards were promised to those who revealed
to the authorities where such meetings were held. The Church was so
solicitous to preserve the purity of her doctrines that no Catholic was
permitted to converse with any one who had embraced a single heretical
opinion. Another statute was passed which tells that one special
feature of the Scottish Reformation had already begun to show itself;
as it was directed against those who broke and cast down the images of
the saints, or otherwise treated them with irreverence and dishonour.¹
¹ _Ibid._, pages 370‒371.
While these events were passing at home, Henry VIII. was assuming
a more dictatorial tone, and making demands which no Government of
Scotland could ever entertain. His project of a meeting at York was
again renewed, and James agreed to meet him there. The King, however,
on the advice of the clergy, in the end declined the meeting. Henry was
greatly disappointed, and instantly burst into an uncontrollable rage,
leaping in his fury and raving like a maniac. Nothing short of a war
of conquest against Scotland could appease him. King James’s advisers
would not let him go to York; and they had good reason for distrusting
his uncle’s professed intentions, as the State papers amply testify.¹
¹ _State Papers_, Henry VIII., Volume V., pages 198‒205, 214.
In 1542, Henry resolved on war, in order to let the Scots feel his
power. The strife began on the Borders with all the old fury. James
mustered his army and marched southwards, but tidings soon came that
the English army had disbanded for want of provisions. The Scotch
nobles refused to follow their king. Their hour was come, and they
determined to show their power by mortifying the man, who had so
ruthlessly punished them, and who, according to their ideas, had
encroached upon the old rights of their class. Although forced to
disband his army, James was very loath to be baulked in his intention
of retaliating upon Henry, and very shortly after it was resolved that
a smaller force should make a raid across the Border――a body which was
said to have numbered ten thousand mustered. They had passed the Esk
and were approaching English ground when a strange fate befell them. It
was at this point that Oliver Sinclair, one of the king’s favourites,
began to read the commission which appointed him to the chief command.
The nobles present were enraged at this new encroachment upon their
hereditary rights, a storm of talk arose among them, and all discipline
and order was forgotten. Lord Dacre, the English leader, was hovering
near with a body of cavalry and a force of three thousand footmen.
When he saw the confusion of the Scots, he ordered his party to dash
in amongst them, and in a moment the Scottish army was scattered in
all directions. A number of the Scots were drowned in crossing the Esk,
many were slain in the pursuit by the English cavalry, and upwards of
a thousand prisoners, including nine nobles, fell into the hands of the
enemy. This severe disaster happened on the 24th of November, 1542, and
became known as the panic of Solway Moss.¹
¹ Lesly’s _History Of Scotland_, page 165; Knox, Volume I.,
pages 86‒88. In the fifth volume of the _State Papers_ of
the reign of Henry VIII., there is a list of the Scottish
prisoners taken at Solway Moss, in which the value of their
property and the names of their hostages are stated (pages
232‒235). See also the _Hamilton Papers_, Volume I.,
Appendix to Preface, page 98, pages 307, 311‒313. 1890.
The tidings of this disaster seems to have broken the spirit of the
king. He brooded over his disappointments and what he regarded as an
unbearable disgrace; and his mind became confused. He continued to
sink lower and lower, and died on the 14th December, 1542. Although
he was hard on the nobles, he was popular amongst the people. The line
of policy which circumstances naturally led him to pursue, cannot be
commended either for its wisdom or sagacity; yet, when everything is
taken into account, James V. appears as a ruler fully equal to the
average of his contemporaries.
The Crown then fell to an infant, Mary Stuart, born in the Palace
of Linlithgow seven days before the death of her father. She was
destined to become the most famous of the long line of Scottish
sovereigns. In her infancy and innocent childhood she was an object
of extremely fierce contention. Her youth and beauty, her talents and
accomplishments, her success and failure, the strength and weakness of
her character, her imprisonment and romantic escape, her flight into
England, her long captivity and tragic end――all concurred to fill the
story of her life with the most absorbing interest.
Immediately after the death of the king, Cardinal Beaton made an
attempt to obtain the chief position in the government of the kingdom.
He was to be the head of the Council and the guardian of the infant
princess, associated with the Earls of Arran, Huntly, Moray, and Argyle;
and a proclamation was issued at Edinburgh commanding the people to
obey the Cardinal and the above earls. But early in January, 1543,
the Earl of Arran was named as Governor of the kingdom, and recognised
as next heir to the throne; and his appointment was confirmed by
parliament in March the same year.
When Henry VIII. heard of the events in Scotland, he assumed that
Providence had given him a great opportunity, and at once formed the
idea of arranging for a marriage between the infant queen and his
son. Matrimonial projects were all-absorbing matters with him, and
if his exploits in this region of activity were not always attended
with honour and glory, he certainly never lost his relish for the
pursuit. His high sense of justice, his love of truth, no less than
the unspotted purity of his motives, suggested to him that the banished
Earl of Angus, and the Scottish nobles taken at Solway Moss might be
made useful agents for the accomplishment of his scheme in Scotland!
Henry proposed to the Earl of Angus and the captive nobles that they
should enter into an agreement with him, to do their utmost to promote
the marriage project, and to deliver the infant queen into his hands
to be kept in England. They agreed to this, and also to recognise Henry
as lord superior of Scotland; they promised to exert their influence
to procure for him the government of the kingdom, and to deliver all
the national fortresses into his hands. This bond between Henry and the
Scottish prisoners was drawn up with great formality and minuteness,
yet, with all his adroitness in taking advantage of the circumstances
in which the Scotch nobles were placed, he gained very little by it.¹
¹ Sadler’s _State Papers_, Volume ♦I., pages 69, 74‒75, 81, 97;
_State Papers_, Henry VIII., Volume V., pages 239‒241.
♦ missing Volume number “I.” inserted
Arran was not a man of great talents, and yielded too much to the
promises and bullying of Henry VIII. The Solway prisoners, on being
released, had promised to do great service for Henry when they returned
to Scotland; and the banished Earl of Angus, and Sir George Douglas,
had undertaken to procure the government of the kingdom for him
and to place the Crown on his head. But the performances of these
Lords greatly disappointed the expectation of this ambitious and
vain-glorious king. In short, his despotic demands were unreasonable
and impracticable; for he demanded that the Cardinal should be seized
and delivered into his hands; that the infant Queen should be betrothed
to his son, and also delivered into his hands; and in truth he wanted
possession of the kingdom of Scotland, although the means which he used
to attain his end, were even more despicable than any which had been
employed by any of his predecessors. In order to secure the support and
confidence of the Governor Arran, in April 1543, Henry offered to give
his daughter, Elizabeth, in marriage to Arran’s son. This he imagined
would certainly secure the Governor to his interest. He said: “For
we have a daughter called Lady Elizabeth, endowed with virtue and
qualities agreeable with her status ... if we shall see him sincerely
to go through with us in all things, to condescend to a marriage to
be celebrated between his son and our daughter, if he shall think it
for his favour and advancement to desire the same, and thereby to take
his son conjoined with our daughter, as our son-in-law, being content
according to that status to bring up and nourish him in our court with
us.... And what honour, what reputation, what worldly glory, it shall
be to him otherwise, for his son to marry a King of England’s daughter,
and to be nourished up thereafter in a King of England’s Court,
we doubt not he can consider.” But the one important condition in
this proposal was that Arran’s son must live in England. Henry was
playing with Arran, for he had no intention of giving his daughter
in marriage to Arran’s son. He continued to clamour for the capture
and imprisonment of the Cardinal, and to scold the released prisoners
and the Earl of Angus that they had done next to nothing in advancing
his designs in Scotland. After much underhand dealing and corruption,
on the 6th of June, with difficulty the conditions of the treaty of
marriage between the infant Queen and Henry’s son, and the treaty
of peace, were agreed to by the Regent and a party of the nobles. In
this transaction the Earls of Huntly, Argyle, and Moray, had no part.
Shortly after, Henry proposed to give the Regent Arran the whole of
Scotland beyond the Tay, but the offer was coldly received. On the 25th
of August, the treaties were ratified at Holyrood by the Regent, in
name of the Queen and the three Estates, in presence of a portion of
the nobles, but the Cardinal and his party were absent. These treaties,
however, were never ratified by Henry himself; and it is evident that
he did not intend to carry his purpose into effect by treaty, but hoped
shortly to take possession of the young Queen and the best part of her
kingdom, unclogged by special conditions.
The general feeling of the Scots was decidedly opposed to the
interference and domineering spirit of Henry VIII. The Regent and a
section of the nobles lent their support to his schemes for a time, but
at last a coalition was formed against him, and then the Regent sailed
under the canvas of the Cardinal. While Henry professed a desire for
peace, he was actively preparing for an invasion of Scotland. The
course of events had turned against him, his friends were falling off;
and so keen was the feeling against his schemes amongst the citizens
of Edinburgh that they threatened to lay violent hands on Sadler, the
English Ambassador. Henry himself, in his bullying tone, addressed a
letter to them, in which he scolded them thus:――“We have thought good
to admonish you to beware and eschew that outrage, whereby ye might
provoke our extreme displeasure and indignation, and to forbear that
attempt, not only for the detestation of it in all men’s ears, but
also for fear of the revenge of our sword to extend to that town and
commonalty, and all such people as shall by any means come into our
hands, to the extermination of you to the third and fourth generation.”
The ambassador found refuge in Angus’ Castle of Tantallon. Parliament
met at Edinburgh, and on the 11th December 1543, the treaties of
marriage and peace between the two kingdoms were declared to have been
violated by the seizure and detention of Scottish ships by the English,
and were therefore annulled.¹
¹ Hamilton, _Papers_, Volumes I., II.; _Acts of the Parliaments
of Scotland_, Volume II., page 432.
Henry then prepared to invade Scotland. It was indeed hard that the
Scots could not see his many virtues; it was harder still that they
could not believe in his benign purposes, nor appreciate the many acts
of condescension which he had shown towards them; he had suffered them
long, but his forbearance was at last exhausted, and he must let them
feel the weight of his wrath. On the 10th of April, 1544, he issued
instructions through his Privy Council to the Earl of Hertford, the
leader of the inroads into Scotland; and these instructions were
marked by a ferocity of spirit, a fiendish malignity, and a barbarity
unmatched in the annals of Europe. Hertford was ordered in Henry’s name
to make an inroad into Scotland: “There to put all to fire and sword,
to burn Edinburgh town, to raze and destroy when you have sacked and
gotten what you can out of it, as there may remain for ever a perpetual
memory of the vengeance of God lighted upon it, for their falsehood
and disloyalty.... Sack Holyrood House, and as many towns and villages
about Edinburgh as ye conveniently can. Sack Leith, and burn and
subvert it, and all the rest, putting man, woman, and child to fire and
sword without exception where any resistance shall be made against you.
And this done, pass over to Fife land, and extend like extremities and
destructions in all towns and villages whereunto ye may conveniently
reach, not forgetting among all the rest, so to spoil and turn upside
down the Cardinal’s town of St. Andrews, as that the upper stone may
be the nether, and not one stick stand by another, sparing no creature
alive within the same, especially such as either in friendship or blood
are allied to the Cardinal; and the accomplishment of all this shall be
most acceptable to the majesty and honour of the King.”¹
¹ Hamilton, _Papers_, Volume II., pages 325‒327. Compare _State
Papers_, Henry VIII., Volume V., pages 350‒352, 371‒374.
The Earl of Hertford followed out his instructions pretty fully, he led
two expeditions into Scotland, the great one in May 1544, and the other
in September, and both were marked by the mere wanton destruction of
life and property. Towns and villages one after another were sacked
and burned, and wherever the English forces marched, death, desolation,
and woe proclaimed the wrath of Henry VIII. The monasteries of Melrose,
Kelso, Holyrood, Jedburgh, Dryburgh, and other religious houses, were
committed to the flames and laid in ruins.¹
¹ _State Papers_, Henry VIII., Volume V., pages 521‒525;
Morton’s _Monastic Annals of Teviotdale_, pages 36, 100, 243,
301; _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries Scotland_,
Volume I., page 271, _et seq._
In the reports of the progress of the expedition of May, Hertford gave
detailed descriptions of the burning and sacking of Edinburgh, Holyrood,
Leith, and many other towns and villages. When the army was encamped
at Leith, he said, “The town of Leith we found to be of good substance
and riches, at the least of Xᵐᵉ li., as we suppose, whereof there was
a great store of grain of all kinds; finding also within the haven
two fair ships of the late Scottish King’s, called the ‘Salmon’ and
‘Unicorn,’ for which I, the lord admirall have taken such order, that
by the suffrance of God, the same shall arrive to your majesty with the
rest of your navy.” From the same place he wrote: “We have daily sent
forth both horsemen and footmen, as well by sea as by land, which have
devastated the country hereabout, and within six miles of Stirling,
in such sort as there shall not only remain a perpetual memory of
our being here, but also, we trust, I, the Earl of Hertford, have so
accomplished the charge committed to me by your highness in that behalf,
as the enemies shall neither be able to recover this damage while we
live, nor yet to assemble any power this year in these parts of the
realm, whatsoever aid be sent to them out of France or Denmark to annoy
your majesty’s subjects, or to make any invasion into your realm of
England.”¹
¹ Hamilton, _Papers_, Volume II., pages 360‒371.
Henry VIII. evidently had engendered in himself a remorseless enmity
against the Scots; and there was one man whom he detested more than the
rest, and pursued with a venomous malignity. This was Cardinal Beaton,
the most talented and strongest adherent of Catholicism in Scotland,
and a politician, according to the standard of the times, of consummate
ability. The Cardinal had worked hard against the policy of Henry,
and had defeated it. Since the death of James V. Henry had marked out
the Cardinal, and had employed every means to insnare and crush him,
but Beaton was well aware of his venomous designs against him. Henry
lent his influence to a plot against the Cardinal’s life, and at last
promised a reward to the other conspirators who were concocting a
scheme to murder him. As early as 1543 Henry had approved of the plot,
and in the event of its being successful, that is, if the Cardinal
was killed, and his murderers forced to flee to England, then he bound
himself to protect them from all the consequences of their act.¹ But
despite all the efforts of Henry and of those whom he employed the
Cardinal eluded the machinations of his mortal enemies for several
years.
¹ _State Papers_, Henry VIII., Volume V., pages 242‒243,
377, 449‒458, 467, 470‒472, 512; _Statutes of the Scottish
Church_, Volume I., page 142. There is a pretty full account
of the plot against the cardinal in an appendix to the fifth
volume of Tytler’s _History of Scotland_, pages 453‒470.
While these events were passing and ruffling the surface of society,
the reformed opinions were gradually spreading amongst the people. The
contradictory and vacillating policy of the Regent was well adapted
to weaken the authority of the old religious creed. In March 1543,
Parliament passed an act authorising all men to have and to read the
Old and New Testament in the common speech of the country, English or
Scottish. This liberty, however, was only enjoyed for a short time, and
it is doubtful if any edition of the Scriptures was printed in Scotland
during the brief interval in which the act was allowed to remain in
force.¹ The Regent Arran, in a few months after the passing of this act,
dismissed the two reformed preachers whom he had retained in his family,
and the Cardinal soon obtained a complete ascendency. Those affected
by the new opinions began to manifest their feeling by attacking and
defacing the houses of the Black and Grey Friars in Dundee. About
the same time attempts were made to mar the building of the Black
Friars at Edinburgh, a movement which was repelled by the citizens; and
these outbursts of heretical feeling quickly received a sharp check. A
parliament which met at Edinburgh passed an act declaring――“How there
is great murmour because the heretics more and more rise and spread
within the realm, sowing their damnable opinions contrary to the faith
and laws of the holy Church and the acts and constitutions of the
kingdom.” Therefore all the prelates and ordinaries were exhorted, each
within their own diocese, to inquire after all such heretical persons,
and to proceed against them according to the laws of the Church, and
the Regent promised to be always ready to do everything therein that
belonged to his office.²
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., pages 415,
425; Craufurd’s _Officers of State_, pages 77, 438.
² _Diurnal of Occurrents_, _Acts of the Parliaments of
Scotland_, Volume II., page 443.
The year 1544 began very ominously for the so-called heretics. The
Cardinal was then master of the situation in Scotland, and he was not
the man to let his opportunity slip. About the end of January he held
a court at Perth, and many suspected persons were summoned before it
and accused of heresy. A number of them were banished, but four men,
James Hunter, a flesher, William Anderson, a maltman, James Randlson,
a skinner, Robert Lamb, a burgess of Perth, and his wife, were all
condemned. The four men were hanged, and the helpless woman, Lamb’s
wife, who had a child at her breast, was drowned; she gave her infant
to the attendants, her hands and feet were then bound, and she was
thrown into a deep pool of water where her sufferings were ended.¹
This was the only instance of a woman being put to death for religious
opinions in Scotland before the Reformation.
¹ Knox, Volume I., pages 117‒118, 523‒527.
George Wishart returned to Scotland in the end of the year 1544. He
was a popular preacher, and was supported by the Earls of Cassillis and
Glencairn, the Lairds of Brunston, Ormiston, and Calder. These men were
deeply in the confidence of Henry VIII., and were plotting the murder
of Cardinal Beaton; but whether George Wishart was concerned in this
plot, is a disputed point. The evidence, however, on which it has
been attempted to show that he was implicated in the plots against the
Cardinal’s life, certainly does not approach to the requisite standard.
The only evidence connecting Wishart, the martyr, with the plot against
the Cardinal’s life rests on the fact that a Scotsman named Wishart
conveyed letters from Crichton of Brunston to Henry VIII., and it is
only conjectured that this individual was Wishart, the preacher of
the reformed doctrines. There are some presumptive circumstances which
seem to point to him, such as his known association with the Laird of
Brunston and others of the conspirators. But even if this conjecture
were true, it would not amount to much, as people in these days did not
view the murder of an enemy of their faith in the light in which we do,
on the contrary, they thought it was rendering a service to God to cut
off an able opposer of the truth.¹ Wishart preached in Montrose, Dundee,
Ayr, Perth, and in other parts of the country. He delivered his sermons
with much vehemence, boldly attacking the errors of the Church and
declaiming against the profligacy of the clergy. Knox first appears in
history in company with Wishart.²
¹ Knox, Volume I., pages 125‒138, 534‒537.
² Buchanan, Book XV., chapter 32; Knox, Volume I., pages
125‒137.
In the beginning of the year 1546, Wishart was in Lothian, and
preached in Haddington, where John Knox accompanied him. On the 16th
of January he was apprehended at Ormiston, in East Lothian, by the Earl
of Bothwell, and conveyed first to Edinburgh, and shortly after to St.
Andrews. He was tried on the 28th of February, condemned, and executed
on the 11th of March. When the fire was prepared, he was led from
the castle to the stake imploring mercy of his Saviour and commending
his soul to Him. He then addressed the people, beseeching them not to
be offended with the word of God, for the profession of which he was
suffering. He said――“For the word’s sake, and the true gospel which was
given me by the grace of God, I suffer this day by men, not sorrowfully
but with a glad heart and mind. For this cause I was sent, that I
should suffer this fire for Christ’s sake. Consider and behold my
visage, ye shall not see me change my colour. This grim fire I fear not,
and so I pray you for to do if that any persecution come to you for the
word’s sake and not to fear them that slay the body and afterwards have
no power to slay the soul. Some have said of me that I taught that the
soul of man should sleep until the last day, but I know surely, and my
faith is such, that my soul shall sup with my Saviour this night ere
it be six hours, for whom I suffer this.” He then prayed for those who
had accused him, saying――“I beseech thee, Father of Heaven, to forgive
them that through ignorance or an evil mind have forged lies upon me;
I forgive them with all my heart; I beseech Christ to forgive those
who have condemned me to death this day.” And finally to the people he
said――“I beseech you, brethren and sisters, to exhort your bishops to
learn the word of God, that at least they may be ashamed to do evil and
learn to do good: and if they will not convert themselves and turn from
their wicked ways the wrath of God shall swiftly overtake them.” He was
then hanged, and his remains burned to ashes.¹
¹ Knox, Volume I., pages 137‒171; Fox’s _Acts and Monuments_,
pages 632‒♦667; _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I.,
page 20. Wishart produced an English translation of the
Swiss Confession of Faith, which was printed after his death.
♦ “267” replaced with “667”
The burning of Wishart aroused a deep feeling in the popular mind, and
many began to say that they would not suffer the life of innocent men
to be taken away. As the Regent had declined to authorise the execution
of Wishart, all the odium of the deed rested upon the Cardinal, so that
his enemies increased in number and bitterness. Indeed Beaton had been
endeavouring to strengthen his position by the old custom of entering
into bonds of man-rent with many of the nobles; he was secure on the
side of France, and the faction of the Scottish nobles opposed to
his line of policy had been almost put out of reckoning. Soon after
the death of Wishart the Cardinal passed through Angus, and attended
the marriage of one of his natural daughters at Finhaven Castle. When
he was thus enjoying himself, news came that Henry VIII. was again
preparing to invade Scotland. He hurried back to St. Andrews to put his
castle into a state of defence, as he dreaded that it would be attacked.
At that moment his enemies in Scotland were maturing their scheme to
murder him, and the folds of the plot were fast closing around their
victim.¹
¹ Knox, Volume I., pages 147‒174; Lord Lindsay’s _Lives of
the Lindsays_, Volume I., page 201; Tytler’s _History of
Scotland_, Volume V., pages 456‒470.
The Cardinal was living securely in his own Castle of St. Andrews,
which a number of workmen were engaged in repairing. Early on the
morning of the 29th May, 1546, Norman Lesley, the Master of Rothes,
and two others, slipped into the castle; these were followed by James
Melville and other three, who asked an interview with the Cardinal;
immediately after them the Laird of Grange came up with eight armed
men. The suspicion of the porter at the gate was now roused, but he was
instantly stabbed and thrown into the ditch. Thus in a few minutes the
party were within the walls of the castle; and with surprising alacrity
its few defenders, and the workmen on the ramparts were led out, and
all the gates guarded. The unusual noise had aroused the Cardinal from
his bed, and he was ascending the stair of the castle when his enemies
came upon him and ruthlessly murdered him. Meanwhile the alarm was
given in the city, the common bell was rung, and the citizens, with
their provost at their head, rushed in confusion to the castle, and
loudly called for the Cardinal; but they were too late, and to show
them that the work was done, the murderers exposed the body of the
Cardinal over the castle wall. The conspirators, only sixteen in number,
kept possession of the castle.¹
¹ _State Papers_, Henry VIII., Volume V., pages 560‒561.
Spottiswood.
Thus perished Cardinal Beaton by the hands of a set of cruel and hired
assassins. The Cardinal was the ablest champion of Catholicism in
Scotland; and John Hamilton, a brother of the Regent, who succeeded to
the primacy, was much inferior in energy and talents to his predecessor.
According to the laws of the Church, Beaton’s moral character was
extremely defective; but then amongst the clerical dignitaries of the
period, the laws of purity and chastity were utterly disregarded, while
the morals of the Cardinal were just those of his day. He has been
often blamed for persecuting the adherents of the reformed opinions,
but when compared with his contemporaries, it appears that the number
of persons put to death by him was not great; and there is no evidence
that he was naturally cruel. That he was much respected and even loved
by many of the citizens of St. Andrews, seems evident. That the men who
put him to death were not actuated by religious motives has long ago
been clearly proved.¹ The feelings, sentiments, and ideas of those who
originated, sustained, and continued the Reformation, were of a very
different character from those which animated the mercenary and greedy
plotters who cut short the life of Cardinal Beaton.
¹ Hosack’s _Queen Mary_, Volume I., page 13. When the citizens
of St. Andrews came running to the castle, Knox says they
cried――“What have ye done with my Lord Cardinal? Where is
my Lord Cardinal? Have ye slain my Lord Cardinal? Let us see
my Lord Cardinal!” And when they were told that he was no
more, they cried more eagerly――“We shall never depart till
we see him!” Then his body was shown over the wall “to the
faithless multitude, who would not believe before it saw.”
Works, Volume I., page 178.
CHAPTER XIV.
_History of the Reformation to the
Overthrow of the Roman Catholic Church._
THE sixteen conspirators who had seized the Castle of St. Andrews
were soon joined by about one hundred and forty of their adherents,
who formed a garrison and defied all the force at the disposal of the
Regent. The Cardinal at the time of his death held the Regent’s son
James, Lord Hamilton, afterwards third Earl of Arran, as a hostage. He
was retained by the conspirators as a pledge for their own advantage;
as the Government were afraid he would be delivered to the English.
John Rough, a reformed preacher, entered the castle soon after the
Cardinal’s death, and began to preach to the garrison. The Regent
besieged the castle from the end of August to December without success.
In April 1547, John Knox had become wearied by wandering from place
to place to avoid persecution, and he felt inclined to visit the
schools of Germany; but having the charge of some gentlemen’s sons, he
entered the Castle of St. Andrews. During the intervals of the siege
a Protestant congregation had been formed in the town, and about the
end of May, Knox consented to assume the functions of their minister.
Rough had been unable to match the debating powers of John Annand, the
principal of St. Leonard’s College, and a firm adherent of Catholicism;
but Knox, according to his own narrative, refuted all the arguments of
the principal, and compelled him to retire behind the authority of the
Church, which had already condemned Lutherism and all other heresies.
After worsting the principal, Knox on the following Sunday preached
his first public sermon in the parish church of St. Andrews, where
were present John Mair, Winram, the sub-prior, many of the canons, and
some of the friars. In this sermon he showed to his own satisfaction
that the Roman Church was the Antichrist, the Man of Sin, and so on.
A discussion then ensued between Knox on the one side, and Winram and
a friar on the other; but neither party was convinced by the arguments
of the other. The Catholic clergy themselves then began to preach
regularly in the parish church every Sunday. Knox continued his sermons
on the week days, and the numbers of those who embraced the reformed
opinions increased. However, this episode in the history of the
Reformation was abruptly terminated.¹
¹ Knox, Volume I., pages 181‒202; _Register of the Privy
Council_, Volume I., pages 26, 31, 33, 38, 39, 44, 47, 58;
_State Papers_, Henry VIII., Volume V., pages 563‒564; _Acts
of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., pages 478, 479.
Meanwhile, however, the new opinions were spreading. In the month of
June 1546, the Council issued a proclamation warning all persons not to
pillage or destroy monastic and church buildings. It stated that――“In
these troublous times it is dreaded and feared that evil disposed
persons will invade, destroy, cast down, and withhold abbeys, abbey
places, parish kirks, friars’ houses, nunneries, chapels, and other
spiritual men’s houses, against the law of God and man, and contrary
to the liberty and freedom of the holy Church and acts of parliament
made and observed in all bygone times.... All and sundry were charged
that none of them take upon hand any of these kirks, religious places,
or houses, or to withhold, intermot, or take the same at their own
hand by way of deed hereafter, or to spoil the jewels and ornament of
the church ordained for God’s service and dedicated to it, under the
penalty of forfeiture of life, lands, and goods.”¹ The bishops and the
priests were enraged at the proceedings in St. Andrews, and they ran to
the Regent, to the Queen, and the whole Council, with their complaints,
crying――“What are we doing? Shall we suffer this whole realm to be
infected with pernicious doctrine? Fy upon you, and upon us!”² The
Queen and the French ambassador then comforted them with the assurance
that matters would ere long be remedied. On the 19th of March 1547, the
bishops and clergy assembled at Edinburgh, and presented to the Regent
and Council a supplication, calling on them to enforce the laws against
the followers of the pestilent heresies of Luther, which had not only
spread in several quarters of the kingdom, but also in the Court, and
the Regent’s presence, and was sometimes preached openly; and it would
daily increase unless the arm of the civil power assisted the spiritual
authority to arrest its progress. The Regent and the Council acceded
to their request, and desired to be furnished with the names of the
heretics and the teachers of heresy; “and his Grace and the temporal
lords shall take them and cause the laws of the realm to be executed
against them, ay, as he is required thereto, according to the laws of
holy Church, and ordained this deliverance to be inserted in the books
of the Council.”³
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 28‒29.
² Knox, Volume I., pages 202‒203.
³ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., page 61, 63‒64.
But the resources at the command of the Regent were not sufficient
to reduce the Castle of St. Andrews, and there the heretics were
practising their own forms of religion. In the end of the month of
June 1547, however, a French force arrived in Scotland, and attacked
the castle by sea and land. After the guns were put into position, and
the batteries opened fire, the bold defenders of the castle were soon
brought to submission. The garrison had imagined that they would obtain
more favourable terms from the French commander and the King of France
than from the Regent Arran and the Council, and surrendered themselves
to the French commander.¹ But they were conveyed to France and treated
as criminals. They arrived at Fecamp, a seaport about midway between
Dieppe and Havre, then passed up the Seine and anchored before Rouen;
and the chief gentlemen who had expected to be liberated were put into
various prisons; while the rest were left in the galleys and hardly
treated, among whom were James Balfour, and his two brothers, and John
Knox. The Catholics both of Scotland and France rejoiced greatly at
the fate of the heretics and the enemies of the late Cardinal. Knox,
along with his fellow-prisoners, had to work on the galleys chained
as a slave. After an imprisonment of eighteen months he obtained his
liberty in 1549, upon the intercession, it was supposed, of the English
Government. Knox came to England, and soon after he was appointed to
preach in Berwick; but in 1550 he was removed to Newcastle, where he
continued his labours. In 1551, he was appointed one of King Edward’s
chaplains, and he remained in England till after the death of Edward VI.
Knox left England in the beginning of March, 1554, and passed to Geneva
to pursue his private studies. Soon after he was called to be minister
to the English exiles in Frankfort, entering on his duties there in
November 1554. But disputes arising in the congregation regarding the
Book of Common Prayer, and other ceremonies, he relinquished his charge,
and in March 1555, returned to Geneva.²
¹ _Diurnal of Occurrents_, page 44; Buchanan, Book XV.; Knox,
Volume I., pages 203‒206.
² Knox, Volume I., pages 206, 225‒232; Volume III., pages 156,
215, 380. Lesly’s _History Of Scotland_, page 195.
On the 28th of January, 1547, Henry VIII. died, but the policy of
aggression towards Scotland was continued. The Duke of Somerset, the
new Governor, invaded the kingdom with a strong army and a naval force;
and on the 10th of September, 1547, the Scots risked a battle, but were
completely defeated. Many of the Scots were slain, while others were
taken prisoners in the flight. This disastrous defeat became known in
history as the Battle of Pinkie; subsequently the Scots were reduced
to great extremities. The English and Scots became much exasperated;
the war assumed a fierce and ruthless character, and acts of shocking
cruelty were frequently perpetrated. In 1548 a French army of seven
thousand men arrived to assist the Scots; while the same year the young
Queen was sent to France, and thus one cause of the war was removed.
After many severe struggles, the French and the Scots drove the English
out of the castles and recovered the southern districts of the kingdom.
Peace was at length concluded in April 1550.
When the pressure of external enemies was removed the nation breathed
more freely. But the internal political and religious conflict
proceeded; and, as the contest between the old and the new religious
views became closer and clearer, and the shadow of the revolution was
more distinctly seen approaching, the Church and the Government acutely
felt the gravity of the issues involved. When the heretics were few in
number burning might have kept them down or caused them to hide their
faces; but it was now perceived that if heresy was to be extinguished,
other means would have to be employed. The whole body of the clergy,
from the primate to the humblest monk and friar, must then betake
themselves to the proper functions of their calling, and discharge
their varied duties honestly and faithfully. Within the ten years
immediately preceding the Reformation there were four provincial
councils of the Church held in Scotland; and they enacted and adopted
one hundred and thirty-one canons, the greater part of which were
directed against the immoral lives of the clergy, their ignorance,
and the neglect of their essential duties.¹ The provincial council
of 1549 ordered a strict search to be made for heresy and heretical
books, especially poems and ballads; and to make the inquest effective
the inquisitors were supplied with a schedule of the chief points
of heresy. Thus the chief points of heresy enumerated in the canons
were――“Speaking against the rites and sacraments of the Church,
especially the sacrifice of the mass, the sacraments of baptism,
confirmation, extreme unction, and penance; contempt of the censures
of the Church; denial of the reign of the souls of saints with Christ
in glory; denial of the immortality of the soul; denial of purgatory;
denial of prayer and intercession of the saints; denial of the
lawfulness of images in Christian churches; denial of recompense for
works of faith and charity; denial of the authority of general councils
in controversies of faith; neglect of the fasts and festivals of the
Church. Heretical books, especially poems and ballads against the
Church or clergy, were to be diligently sought after and burned.”
¹ See under pages 40‒43. Also _Statutes of the Scottish Church_,
Volume II., pages 81‒176. A number of the canons enacted in
the provincial council of 1549 were adopted from the decrees
of the Council of Trent passed in June, 1546, and March,
1547; _Statutes of the Scottish Church_, Volume I., page 150.
The part which the popular poems and ballads played in the Reformation
struggle will be illustrated in the chapter on the literature of the
period. One of the canons of the Provincial Council of 1552 stated
that――“Even in the most populous parishes very few of the parishioners
came to mass or to sermon, that in the time of service jesting and
irreverence go on within the church, sports and secular business in
the porch and the churchyard. It therefore enacted that the name of
every person wilfully absenting himself from his parish church, shall
be taken down by the curate and reported to the Rural Dean, and that
all traffic in church porches, in churchyards, or in the immediate
neighbourhood, shall be forbidden on Sundays and other holidays during
divine worship.”
It was in the Provincial Council of 1552 that the publication of
the Catechism was sanctioned. At that time it was openly confessed
that――“The inferior clergy and the prelates for the most part are not
in the meanwhile sufficiently learned to instruct the people rightly
in the Catholic faith, in things necessary to salvation, or to reclaim
them from the path of error.... This work, since commonly known as
Archbishop Hamilton’s Catechism, was to be read to the people in church,
before high mass, when there was no sermon, as much as would occupy
half an hour, being read from the pulpit every Sunday and holiday
with a loud voice, clearly, distinctly, impressively, and solemnly by
the rector, vicar, or curate, in his surplice and stole. The clergy
were enjoined to exercise themselves daily in reading it, lest their
stammering or breaking down might move the jeers of the people; and
heavy penalties, fine and imprisonment, imposed on all who should fail
to observe any part of the canons regarding it.”¹
¹ _Statutes of the Scottish Church_, Volume I., pages 150, 151,
154; Volume II., pages 117‒120, 135‒139.
Thus the party within the pale of the Roman Catholic Church in
Scotland wished to redress gross abuses without demolishing the old
organisations. The Catechism which they produced in the vernacular
for the use of the clergy, was characterised by moderate statement
and graceful composition. But all the canons and the catechism were
of no avail; they were too late, as the fiat had gone forth; the
accumulated corruptions of many generations had resulted in a system
of institutions incapable of reformation from within; the features of
purity, the love of truth and justice had departed from their walls and
altars; the great ethical principles at the heart of all true religion
had waned dim, and there was no glowing rays to lighten up the darkness
which enveloped the Church.
In the summer of 1550, Adam Wallace, a layman from Ayrshire, a man of
humble rank, had been occasionally engaged in teaching the children of
Cockburn of Ormiston, was accused of heresy. He was seized and conveyed
to Edinburgh, and tried before the bishops, the Regent, the Earl of
Huntly, and others. Wallace was accused for having assumed to preach
without authority, and of reading the Scriptures. He denied having
preached in public, but admitted that he had read the Bible, and
sometimes added a word of exhortation. Then one of his accusers said,
“What shall we leave to the bishops and churchmen to do, if every man
shall be a babbler upon the Bible.” Wallace replied that it would befit
them better to speak more reverently about the Word of God. Questions
were put to him touching the sacraments, prayer for the dead, and other
points; and at last, the Earl of Huntly asked him what he thought of
the mass. Wallace replied that he could find no authority for it in
the Word of God, and therefore it was idolatry in the sight of God.
Then they all cried “Heresy! heresy!” He was condemned, and burned on
the Castle hill of Edinburgh, where he met his doom with firmness and
faith.¹
¹ Knox, Volume I., pages 237‒241; Foxe, pages 627‒628.
When Paul III. ascended the papal throne in 1834, he signalised the
event by the elevation of several distinguished men to the College of
Cardinals without any other object than that of their personal merits.
Some of the new Cardinals held opinions which inclined to Protestantism;
and by the command of the Pope himself, they prepared a plan for the
reform of the Church. When this became known to the Protestants, they
rejected it because they had already passed beyond its most liberal
proposals. Various other attempts to effect a reconciliation were
equally unsuccessful.
In connection with the view of the Reformation, it is necessary to
touch briefly on the proceedings of the Council of Trent. As indicated
above, a certain number of thoughtful Catholics were willing to make
considerable concessions in the form of redressing prevalent abuses.
Still a line had to be drawn somewhere, and when it was drawn by the
Council of Trent, the Protestants found themselves beyond it. But
taking a view of the conditions and circumstances of the nations of
Europe, it appeared that the final decision and the conclusions of the
Council of Trent were greatly influenced by political interests. As
religion had been so long and so much mingled with the politics and
the secular affairs of the world, the great majority of the members
of the Council were unable to realise the necessity of such a measure
of disentanglement as the principles of the Reformation implied; while
the strong feeling naturally associated with an inherited belief, the
importance attached to tradition, and the efficacy ascribed to external
ceremonies in the Roman Catholic Church, were so powerful that they
overruled the deliberations of this memorable Council.¹
¹ Ranke’s _History of the Popes_, Volume I., pages 110‒113;
1847. Buckley’s _History of the Council of Trent_, pages
68‒76; 1852.
After many obstacles and circumstances unfavourable to the assembling
of the Council of Trent had been overcome, it was opened in December
1545. There was no representative from Scotland at the Council,
although a provincial council of the Scottish clergy which met at
St. Andrews in March 1546, and imposed a tax of two thousand and five
hundred pounds for the expenses of deputies from Scotland to Trent.
The tax appears to have been paid, but no Scottish delegate attended
the Council. The position of the Church in Scotland was so perilous
that Cardinal Beaton, though thrice summoned by the Pope to share
the deliberations of the Vatican, did not venture to leave Scotland.¹
When the opening ceremonials and various preliminary matters were
disposed of, they proceeded to discuss revelation and the sources from
which the knowledge of it was derived. At this stage, some proposals
were enunciated in favour of opinions tending towards Protestantism.
The Bishop of Chiogga insisted that nothing but Scripture should
be admitted; he maintained that the gospel contained all that was
necessary. Seripando, the general of the Augustines, also argued that
a distinction should be drawn between the canonical books of Scripture
and those not yet received as canonical, such as the Proverbs and
Books of Wisdom; and that the first class only be used for proving the
doctrines of belief. But they found few supporters, and there was an
overwhelming majority against these views. The Council at last adopted
the resolution that those unwritten traditions which had been received
from the mouth of Christ, or by the Holy Spirit, and preserved by
a continuous succession in the Catholic Church, were to be regarded
with the same veneration and of equal authority with the Scriptures.
The Vulgate was declared to be an authentic translation, and it was
enjoined that it should be printed with the greatest care as soon as
possible.² In the discussion touching the reception of the Vulgate
there was much diversity of opinion expressed in the Council; and
the following example of the line of argument taken by one party
of the Fathers has an interest of its own:――“That if the providence
of God hath given an authentical Scripture to the synagogue, and an
authentical New Testament to the Grecians, it cannot be said without
derogation that the Church of Rome, more beloved than the rest, hath
wanted this great benefit; and therefore that the same Holy Ghost who
did dictate the holy books hath dictated also that translation which
ought to be accepted by the Church of Rome.... And if any should make
dainty to give the Spirit of God to the interpreter, yet he cannot deny
it to the Council; and when the vulgar edition shall be approved, and
an anathema be thundered against whosoever will not receive it, this
will be without error, not by the spirit of him that wrote it, but of
the synod that hath received it for such.”³
¹ _Statutes of the Scottish Church_, Volume I., pages 145,
260‒269.
² _Decrees of the Council of Trent_, Session IV.
³ Sarpi, Book I., chapter 2, pages 159, _et seq._; Buckley’s
_History of the Council of Trent_, page 125; Pallavicino,
Book VI., chapter 15.
Upon the great subject of ♦justification there was much diversity of
opinion manifested in the ♠Council, and the discussions on it were
long and tedious. A section of the members held views nearly similar to
those of the Protestants. This party maintained that justification must
be ascribed to the merits of Christ and to faith alone; charity and
hope they affirmed to be the attendants, and works the proofs of faith,
but nothing more; thus the basis of justification was made to rest
on faith alone. But this primal doctrine of Protestantism had little
chance of even a fair hearing in the Council; it was in vain that
Cardinal Pole entreated them not to reject an opinion merely because
it was held by Luther. The debate waxed extremely hot: a bishop and a
Greek monk from words came to blows. The Council found that it could
not argue the questions raised to any purpose, and the discussions
were confined; still there were marked differences of opinion
expressed among the assembled fathers and divines. Towards the end of
the discussion on justification, Seripando advanced his opinion; he
contended that the doctrine of justification was twofold, or that there
was a twofold righteousness, “the one intrinsic, which he again divided
into two kinds; the first being that, whereby we become friends instead
of enemies of God, and that this is given us with the grace infused
by baptism; the second, whereby man is said to live righteously, which
results from the acts of virtue proceeding from the aforesaid grace.
The other kind of righteousness was outward, and consisted in the
righteousness and merits of Christ, imputed to us by the divine mercy
as if they were our own, not indeed wholly, but to such degree, and
for such effects, as seems good unto God. If it be asked which of
these justifications we must rely on――that indwelling, or that imparted
through Christ――the devout man will reply that we must confide in
the latter only. Our own righteousness is incomplete and ineffective,
marred by its deficiences――that of Christ alone is true and sufficient;
this only is entirely pleasing in the sight of God, and in virtue of
this alone may we trust to be justified before God.¹ These opinions
of Seripando met with little sympathy, only five of the assembled
theologians gave their assent to them; while his peculiar tenets on
justification were combated with great ability, force, and subtlety,
by Cardinal Caraffa,² and the two Jesuits, Salmeron and Laineg.³ The
influence of the Jesuits was strong in the Council, and their opinions
prevailing, the decision of the assembly was in accordance with their
views. There were many and long discussions on the errors of the
heretics in connection with the sacraments; debates respecting the
granting of the cup to the laity; debates touching the mass and
the abuses associated with it; debates concerning the institution
of the priesthood and its various orders; discussions on marriage;
discussions on pernicious and suspected books;⁴ and discussions on
many other matters. But the result of the whole was that after several
adjournments and reassemblings during a period of eighteen years, the
twenty-fifth and last session terminated the Council in December 1563;
the Protestant opinions were excluded from Catholicism, and all hope
of mediation or reunion was utterly abandoned. The seven sacraments as
heretofore were retained; and also purgatory, indulgences, auricular
confession, celibacy of the priesthood, and so on: the incubus of the
Middle Ages and the inherited accretions of the creed of the Roman
Church rested too heavily and firmly upon her to be shaken off; hence
she easily accepted tradition as of equal authority with Scripture; yet
she was still bold in assumption, strong in assertion, and vigorous in
her denunciations; she had always been kept free from error by special
grace; she alone was the true Church, and beyond her walls no religious
body could be acknowledged.⁵
♦ “jusification” replaced with “justification”
♠ “Conncil” replaced with “Council”
¹ Pallavicino, Book VIII., chapter 11; 1670. Ranke’s _History
of the Popes_, Volume I., pages 152‒153.
² Caraffa was elected Pope under the title of Paul IV. in
the year 1555; he was an ardent Romanist. Heresy had been
spreading in Italy as in other places, and it was deemed
desirable that the Inquisition should be reorganised at Rome.
The leading idea of this institution is well expressed in
these words:――“As St. Peter subdued the first Heresiarchs
in no other place than Rome, so must the successors of St.
Peter destroy all the heresies of the whole world in Rome.”
The Pope, by a bull in April 1543, founded at Rome the
Congregation of the Holy Office: six cardinals were deputed
as inquisitors-general of the faith, and their functions
were extended to embrace all Christian nations. They were
empowered to try all cases of heresy, to apprehend and
imprison all suspected persons and their abettors, of every
rank and order; they could nominate officers and appoint
inferior courts in all places, with the same or with limited
powers. One restriction only was imposed on the power of
this inquisition; they had full liberty to inflict all kinds
of punishment, but the right to pardon was reserved by the
Pope himself; they might condemn as many heretics as they
choose, but to absolve those once condemned was in the power
of the Pope alone. The inquisitors were commanded to go on
“enforcing and executing whatever might most effectively
suppress and uproot the errors that have found place in the
Christian community, and permitting no vestige of them to
remain.” Limborch’s _History of the Inquisition_, Volume I.,
pages 150‒152; Bromato’s _Life of Paul IV._, Book VII.,
Section 3; Ranke, Volume I., pages 157‒158.
At this time Cardinal Caraffa was the head and leading
spirit of the Inquisition. In this office he worked
vigorously; he appointed commissioners-general for the
different countries; and the rules which he drew up for
their guidance were the following:――“First, when the faith
is in question, there must be no delay, but at the slightest
suspicion rigorous means must be resorted to with all speed.
Secondly, no consideration to be shown to any prince or
prelate, however high his station. Thirdly, extreme severity
is rather to be exercised against those who attempt to
shield themselves under the protection of any potentate;
only he who makes plenary confession shall be treated with
gentleness and fatherly compassion. Fourthly, no man must
debase himself by showing toleration towards heretics of any
kind, above all towards Calvinists.” We are told in the Life
of Caraffa that “he held as a positive axiom this rule, that
in matters of faith one must in no way pause at all, but on
the first suspicion or intimation of this plague of heresy,
proceed by all force and violence to its utter extirpation.”
Ranke, Volume I., pages 158‒159. Such was the iron severity,
inflexible and remorseless, which characterised the Roman
Inquisition of the sixteenth century: can we wonder that
there was also intolerance among the Protestants of that
age? The Inquisition as a whole is the most complete system
of tyranny ever devised; and it is equally exhaustive in
detail, and merciless in the means by which it sought to
reach its end.
³ The Society of Jesus was originated by Ignatius Loyola,
a Spaniard, who was gifted with a fund of enthusiasm. The
new Order received the papal sanction in 1540, and they
soon rose to power, and spread over the world; they were
afterwards known by the name of Jesuits. The aims of the
Order may be roundly described to consist in a fixed and
absolute determination to enhance and extend the influence
and power of the Roman Church. Their first and chief
rule was unconditional obedience, total and unhesitating
subjection of their whole being and energies to the
will of their superiors. The Order was to the Jesuit the
representative of divine providence, and consequently
everything else must be sacrificed to its demands. The
society was placed under the guidance of a general, and
its organisation quickly attained a definiteness and a
completeness as yet unmatched.
The Order was ranked into several classes, each with their
special duties and work. They devoted themselves to the
department of teaching, and the confessional with peculiar
and unrivalled zeal. The Jesuits, in fact, became the
teachers in the colleges and schools in every Roman Catholic
country; and they founded a system of instruction, framed
upon a theological basis, which they impressed upon the
minds of the young with an effectiveness never before
attained. Their scheme of education was methodical and
uniform throughout; the schools were divided into classes,
and the strictest discipline in every branch was observed.
The success of the Order, not only in Roman Catholic
countries, but also in Germany and in other nations which
were partly Protestant, was surprisingly great. The first
Jesuits were an immense element of force to the Roman
Catholic Church; they exhibited in their whole proceedings
a reaction from the looseness both of morals and of creed
which had marked the recent condition of the Church; they
were pious, intensely earnest, and warmly attached to the
Church, because their minds were cast in the mould which
allowed them still to believe firmly in her pretensions.
While they had all the boldness, fervour, and energy of
the Protestant reformers, yet their reform took another
direction; instead of going back to the Bible and St.
Augustine, they chose St. Francis and the mediæval saints
as their models, and rested with unfaltering faith on
the authority of the Roman Church. To reform her by the
formation of a new monastic Order, which made an absolute
surrender of free inquiry and free thought, and absolute
obedience to ecclesiastical authority, was their leading
principle and idea; and before Loyola the founder died,
he had established more than a hundred Jesuit colleges or
houses for training new disciples, and a vast number of
educational establishments under their influence; he had
many thousands of Jesuits in the rank and file of his order.
He had divided the world into twelve Jesuit provinces, in
each of which he had his officer, while the general-in-chief
himself resided in Rome.
If we inquire why the Jesuits were so successful, the answer
will be found in the state of society and the circumstances
of the age when they began their work. They came into the
field at the very time that men’s minds were being agitated
to and fro, and the general pulsation of society was then
exceedingly accessible and susceptible to the influences
which they brought to bear upon it: the prevailing states
of feeling and emotion, the association of ideas, and the
current trains of half-formed thought, were all especially
amendable to the influences, the dogmatic forms, the
positive affirmations, and the compact creed, which the
Jesuits employed and held up.
The moral ideas of the Jesuits were entirely subordinated
to the notions of the Church, and they often had recourse to
the most tortuous casuistry. After the Council of Trent, it
was the members of this Order, in particular, who made the
defence of modern Roman Catholicism, both speculatively and
practically, the task of their lives. The Order has produced
many able writers; among others who wrote on doctrinal and
polemical points, may be mentioned Bellarmin and Petavius;
and among those who wrote on dogmatic theology――Canisius,
Salmeron, Maldonat, Suarez, Vasquez, Coster, Becanus, and
others. Some of the Jesuit writers justified and defended
tyrannicide; and a few of them have at times advanced
pretty liberal views. For fuller information of the Jesuits
consult Ranke’s _History of the Popes_; Hallam’s _History
of Literature_, Volume II., pages 196‒200, 1839; Baumgarten;
Michelet; Lecky’s _History of Rationalism_, Volume II.,
pages 161‒184; Dallas’s _History of the Jesuits_; De
Sarrion’s _History of the Jesuits_; Brühl’s _History of the
Jesuits_; Liskenne’s _History of the Jesuits_.
⁴ It was one of the functions of the Inquisition to look
for and to condemn all books which contained opinions and
sentiments displeasing to the Church. In 1543 it decreed
that no book, either new or old, of any kind should in
future be printed without its permission; and booksellers
were ordered to send in a catalogue of their stock, and to
sell nothing without the consent of the Inquisitors. The
officers of custom also were ordered to deliver no package,
either of printed books or manuscripts, to its address
without first laying them before the Inquisition. In this
way arose the Index of prohibited books; the first examples
appeared in Louvain and Paris, and other lists came out at
Florence in 1552, and in Milan, 1554. The first published
in the form henceforward adopted, appeared at Rome in 1559.
Even private persons were commanded on soul and conscience
to denounce all forbidden books, and to exert themselves
to the utmost to destroy them. The secular power was called
upon to assist the clergy in this matter; and many thousands
of books were confiscated and destroyed. There was a long
discussion on the best mode of dealing with prohibited and
suspected books in the Council of Trent, and much diversity
of opinion on the matter was expressed by the assembled
Fathers; but in the end it was left with the Pope to settle
it according to his judgment. Buckley’s _History of the
Council of Trent_, pages 278‒285; _Decrees of the Council_,
Session XVIII., Session XXV.; Limborch’s _History of the
Inquisition_, Volume II., pages 69‒72, 1731; Bromato’s _Life
of Paul IV._, Book VIII., section 9.
⁵ _Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent._ Touching the
history of doctrines the Sessions IV.‒VII., XIII., XIV.,
XXI.‒XXV., are of particular importance. The _Catechismus
Romanus_ was composed in conformity with a resolution of
the Council of Trent, Session XXV.; it was drawn up under
the superintendence of three Cardinals, and published
by authority of Pope Pius IV. in 1566. Several editions
and translations of it were published. There was another
Catechism composed by the Jesuit, P. Canisius, which first
appeared in 1554, and it acquired greater authority than
the other one, though it did not receive the sanction of
the pope.
Although the Council of Trent did not radically reform the creed of
the Roman Church, clerical abuses were corrected and decency enforced.
Provision was made for the education of priests and for their devotion
in future to active duties; the old laxity of morals was to be no
longer tolerated, nor on the other hand, the old diversity of doctrine.
Thus the revolt of the Protestants had at least contributed to bring
about a degree of moral reform within the Roman Church herself;¹ and
for this salutary benefit which the heretics so greatly assisted her
to obtain, the Roman Catholics have not as yet shown much gratitude.
Doubtless, the salvation of the soul and its eternal life is the
highest end of human aspiration; but it can never be permissible to
use immoral means even to obtain eternal life. This is the supreme
doctrine, the very cornerstone of heaven, and without it there can be
no real religion. But Catholics and Protestants alike have often acted
in the teeth of this moral law; and the decline of their authority
and influence must be attributed to the violation of moral ideas and
sentiments more than to aught else. That blind conservatism which
causes institutions to have a tendency to outlive the period of their
usefulness, has never been more forcibly illustrated than in the
history of the Papacy during the last four hundred years.
¹ _Decrees of the Council of Trent._
When we attempt to fix the exact date of the separation between the
Roman Catholics and the Protestants, we find that it was not strictly
coincident with the first appearance of the Reformers, as opinions
did not at once assume a fixed character; and for some time there
was hope that a compromise between the conflicting principles and
doctrines might be effected. But a little past the middle of the
century any prospect of this had utterly vanished; and the three forms
of Christianity in the West were irrevocably separated. Lutheranism
gradually assumed a severity and exclusiveness unknown to it in
its earlier stages. The Calvinists had departed from it in several
essential doctrines, though Calvin himself in his early days had
been considered a Lutheran. But in hostile contrast to both of them,
Catholicism firmly invested itself with those forms and ceremonies
which still distinguish it. Each of these dogmatic systems sought
eagerly to establish its position; each laboured intensely to displace
its rival and to subjugate the world. The struggle for many years was
desperate. Catholicism after the first shock rallied again, and with
renovated and concentrated resources and power it fought its opponent
with every available weapon, and with a determination and persistence
of purpose, which would have been more worthy of our admiration, if it
had been less cruel and merciless.
Having briefly indicated some of the varied agencies and the
conflicting influences of the great revolution abroad; I resume the
history of the movement as it manifested itself in Scotland. The
regency of Arran was approaching its close. His government throughout
had been weak and vacillating, and he had now fallen very low in the
public estimation. The Queen-mother aspired to the regency, and in
connection with her design she made preparations for visiting her
daughter in France. In September 1550, along with the Earls of Huntly,
Glencairn, Marischal, the king’s natural sons, and others of the barons
and clergy, she embarked at Leith, and landed in France on the 19th
of the month. The party at the head of affairs in France were eager to
promote her object. It was there agreed to press upon Arran’s notice,
that the revenues of the Crown had been dilapidated during his regency,
that he would be called upon to account when the Queen came of age, and
then it would be difficult for him to obtain an honourable discharge,
should he remain in office. No line of argument could have been more
effective with the weak-minded Regent; and as a compensation for the
demission of office he was offered the Dukedom of ♦Chatelherault. The
Queen-mother, after concluding her business in France, passed over to
the Court of England, and had an interview with Edward VI. She returned
to Scotland in the end of November 1551.¹
♦ “Chastelherault” replaced with “Chatelherault”
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., page 108;
Lesly’s _History Of Scotland_, pages 238‒240; _Diurnal of
Occurrents_, page 50.
In 1552, the Queen-mother accompanied the Regent on a judicial circuit
through the country. She then reminded him that the time was come
when he had promised to demit his office; but he declined to resign
the government into her hands, and nearly a year was spent in party
recriminations. The Regent’s party, however, dwindled away till only
his brother, the primate, remained; accordingly he resigned in April
1554, and the Queen-mother was proclaimed Regent of Scotland amid
public rejoicings. Mary of Lorraine, as she was familiarly called,
was a woman of exceptional talents. She had acquired some knowledge
of the habits and character of the Scots; but she had many adverse
circumstances and influences to contend against. Being herself a
Catholic, she was most perplexed by the steadily growing strength of
the reformed party. On the whole, however, she ruled with remarkable
moderation, and exhibited sagacity and tact of a high order. As the
Protestants had not yet obtained toleration they gave her government
little trouble.¹
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, pages 600‒603;
Buchanan, Book XVI., chapters 2, 3; Lesly’s _History Of
Scotland_, page 249.
Edward VI. died in July, 1553, and the throne of England was soon
after occupied by Mary, a daughter of Henry VIII. She was a stanch
Roman Catholic, and the wife of the King of Spain. During her brief
reign the Protestants in England were subjected to an extremely severe
persecution. Mary busied herself in restoring the ancient system and
faith to their pristine glory, inflicting enormous suffering upon the
English people, many of her subjects being mercilessly sacrificed.
A number of Scotsmen who had formerly fled across the Border, now
returned to their own country, where they were comparatively safe
under the mild government of the Queen-regent. Among those came William
Harlaw, who was born about the beginning of the century. He had been
originally a tailor in Edinburgh; but afterwards went to England, where
he had been ordained a deacon in the English Church, and was employed
as a preacher during the reign of Edward VI. Harlaw on his return began
to preach in Edinburgh, and in other quarters of the country. John
Willock was a native of Ayr, and at first belonged to the order of
the friars, but he cast off the monastic habit, and was employed as
a preacher in St. Catherine’s, London, and also as chaplain to the
Duke of Suffolk. He visited Scotland in 1555 concerning some matters
of trade, and took the opportunity of preaching to the people. Knox
himself arrived in Scotland about the end of September the same year,
and came to Edinburgh where he was warmly welcomed by the Protestants.
At this time some of the Protestants still continued to attend mass and
join in the worship of the Catholic Church, partly to allay suspicion
and to avoid giving unnecessary offence. Knox, however, was opposed to
this, and the point was debated at one of their meetings; the Reformer,
however, would listen to no compromise even for the sake of safety.¹
The time was not yet come for open manifestation of contempt for the
old worship, while possibly the disciples of the Reformer were not
as yet prepared to follow a course which might bring their lives and
estates into jeopardy.
¹ Knox, Volume I., pages 244‒248; _Miscellany of the Wodrow
Society_, Volume I., pages 261‒263.
Knox at the request of John Erskine of Dun, passed to Forfarshire,
where he preached every day to many of the chief men of the county. He
then recrossed the Forth, and lived at Calder House in West Lothian;
while there some of the nobles came and listened to his teaching, and
among them the Prior of St. Andrews, afterwards the Regent Moray. In
the end of the year he preached mostly in Edinburgh; after Christmas
he went to Kyle, and preached in the houses of the local gentry,
and in the town of Ayr. Shortly after Easter, he went to the family
residence of the Earl of Glencairn, where he preached and administered
the communion, whence he again visited West Lothian, and preached to
the people. He once more went to the Laird of Dun, and proclaimed the
opinions of Protestantism with more freedom than before; and many of
the gentry of the Mearns embraced the reformed doctrines.¹ It should
be observed that it was chiefly among the nobles and the gentry that
Knox preached, and in their own houses; the reformed party were not
yet strong enough openly to announce their views; and probably it may
have been the perception that the movement was not ripe for open action
which induced Knox to leave Scotland. The Catholic clergy had become
thoroughly alarmed, and Knox was summoned to appear in the church of
the Blackfriars at Edinburgh on the 15th of May, 1556. He resolved
to appear, and Erskine of Dun and other barons who adhered to the
Protestant opinions met in Edinburgh; whether this was intended to
overawe the authorities, the reader must determine for himself. The
citation of Knox, however, was abandoned, and on the day that he
should have appeared in court, he preached in Edinburgh to a larger
audience than had ever attended to hear him. For ten days he preached
in Edinburgh twice a-day, and on this occasion his followers met in
the Bishop of Dunkeld’s lodgings. In the month of July 1556, Knox
left Scotland and proceeded to Geneva to take charge of the English
congregation in that city.²
¹ Knox, Volume I., pages 249‒251.
² Knox, Volume I., pages 251‒254.
Immediately after Knox’s departure the bishops again summoned him, and
when he did not appear, sentence was passed against him, and his effigy
was burned at the cross of Edinburgh. But the reformed doctrines still
continued to spread. Besides the preachers mentioned in a preceding
page, John Douglas, a reformed friar, under the protection of the
Earl of Argyle, preached in Leith and Edinburgh; and Paul Methven,
originally a baker, preached in Dundee with great acceptance; and
others in various parts of the kingdom exhorted the people. They read
the Scriptures to those who assembled to hear them, using the English
Prayer Book of Edward VI. in their worship. A number of the landed
aristocracy――adherents of the Reformation movement for purposes of
their own――had come to an understanding with each other. They had cast
their longing eyes upon the property of the Roman Church, and this,
more than anything else, stimulated them to hasten on the revolution.
In the beginning of December 1557, they resorted to one of the familiar
expedients which they had been in the habit of adopting for centuries,
when they had any great enterprise on hand,――they entered into a bond
of man-rent to assist each other in forwarding the reformation of
religion. This was the first of the new religious covenants, and those
who subscribed it took to themselves the name of the Congregation.
Among the names attached to the document were those of the Earls of
Argyle, Glencairn, and Morton; the Lord of Lorne, and John Erskine of
Dun. It is an extremely vehement piece of writing, and it distinctly
proceeded on the ground that they were the true Congregation of Christ,
while of course the Romanists were the very limbs of Satan.¹ After
consulting together, the Lords of the Congregation agreed to two
resolutions for promoting the reformation of religion throughout the
country. (1) It was deemed requisite that in all the parish churches
the common prayers should be read on Sundays and on festival days,
with the lessons from the Old and New Testament, according to the order
of the Book of Common Prayer; (2) it was also agreed that doctrine,
preaching, and expounding of the Scriptures, should be used quietly
without convening great bodies of the people, until God move the prince
to grant public preaching by faithful and true ministers.²
¹ _Ibid._, Volume I., pages 256, 273; Lesly’s _History Of
Scotland_
² Knox, Volume I., pages 275‒276. It is understood that the
Book of Common Prayer mentioned in the text was the liturgy
of Edward VI.
The Queen-regent acted with great calmness in the trying position in
which she then found herself placed, yet she manifested a disposition
not to push matters to extremes. But it was impossible to hold the
balance evenly between the Protestants and the Catholic clergy,
especially as the latter naturally became much alarmed and excited.
The stealing away of images and damaging of religious buildings in
Edinburgh had begun. The great image of St. Giles was first drowned
in the North Loch, and afterwards burned, incidents which raised an
unusual stir in the capital. The Protestant preachers were summoned,
and they resolved to appear accompanied by their adherents; but
when the authorities saw such a multitude as approached Edinburgh,
a proclamation was issued commanding all those who had come without
liberty to proceed at once to the Borders and remain there for fifteen
days. The gentry were not disposed to submit to this, and they forced
their way into the Queen-regent’s presence to remonstrate. James
Chalmer of Gadgirth addressed her in the following strain:――“Madam, we
know that this is the malice and device of that bastard (meaning the
Archbishop of St. Andrews) that stands by you. We vow to God we shall
make a day of it. They oppress us and our tenants for feeding their
idle bellies; they trouble our preachers, and would murder them and
us. Shall we suffer this any longer? No, Madam, it shall not be;” and
therewith every man put on his steel bonnet. There was nothing heard
on the Queen’s part but, “My joys, my hearts, what ails you? Me mean
no evil to you nor your preachers. The bishops shall do you no harm.
Ye are all my loving subjects. Me knew nothing of this proclamation.
The day of your preachers shall be discharged, and me will hear the
controversy that is between the bishops and you. They shall do you
no wrong.” “My Lords,” said she to the bishops, “I forbid you either
to trouble them or their preachers.” And to the gentlemen, who were
wondrously moved, she turned again and said――“O, my hearts! should ye
not love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind?
and should you not love your neighbour as yourselves?” With these and
the like fair words she restrained the bishops at that time.¹
¹ Knox, Volume I., pages 256‒258; _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_,
Volume II., pages 251‒252.
In the month of April 1558, Walter Mill, an old man over eighty years,
who in early life had been a priest, but had abandoned the Catholic
faith in the days of Cardinal Beaton, was apprehended at Dysart, and
carried to St. Andrews and imprisoned in the primate’s castle. He was
tried before the spiritual court, convicted of heresy, and sentenced
to death; on the 24th of April, he was burned at St. Andrews. This
was an act of great cruelty and extreme folly. The execution of an old
decrepit man for heresy was not at all likely to ♦enhance the respect
of the people for the Catholic clergy or the creed of the Church.
Indeed his execution strengthened the position of the Protestant party,
and they at once sent a remonstrance to the Queen-regent, charging
the Church with cruelty. They also demanded a reformation of abuses,
and the establishment of religion according to their own views. She
received their requests with the regard which the gravity of the
subject urgently required, and promised to tolerate their preachers,
if they would abstain from holding public meetings in Leith and
Edinburgh.¹ The moderation which she showed deserves the highest praise;
for according to the constitution and laws of the kingdom, the Lords
of the Congregation had put themselves into a state of open rebellion;
and however far we may sympathise with the cause of the reform party,
this should not blind us to their real attitude in relation to the
government of the time. It could hardly have been expected that
the Church and the Government would abdicate their functions at the
command of their enemies. Those who talk of the obstinacy of the Roman
Catholics should remember that the holders of power have always and
everywhere endeavoured to retain it to the last. In the end of November
1558, parliament met at Edinburgh, and the Lords of the Congregation
then tendered a protest to the effect, “that seeing they could not
obtain a reformation of religion according to God’s word, they asked
liberty to worship in their own form, until their adversaries proved
themselves to be the true ministers of Christ’s Church. They then gave
open warning that if any tumult should arise among the people owing to
difference of opinion about religion and if it should happen that the
abuses in the Church were reformed by violence, the responsibility of
this must rest upon the shoulders of those who now refused all reform,
and not upon those who are meanwhile struggling to reform all things
according to order; and, finally, they professed to be acting simply
from the promptings of their consciences, with no other aim but the
reformation of religion, and therefore they called upon the government
to protect them from the rage and oppression of their enemies.” This
protestation was read in parliament, but it was not inserted in the
record.² Thus the Reformers intimated to the authorities that force
was contemplated; and it seems probable that the leading men among them
already saw that if once the passions and feelings of the people were
fully aroused, it would be utterly impossible to restrain their riotous
excesses.
♦ “enchance” replaced with “enhance”
¹ Knox, Volume I., pages 302, 312, 550‒555.
² _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II.;
Spottiswood, pages 119‒120; Knox, Volume I., pages 312‒314.
Meanwhile important events were passing in other countries which
affected the contending parties in Scotland. On the 11th of October,
1558, Mary of England died, and she was succeeded by Queen Elizabeth;
but for some time it seemed doubtful whether she would declare herself
on the Protestant side or not. One of Elizabeth’s first acts was to
notify her accession to the Pope, and there was negotiation touching
her marriage with the King of Spain. But the Pope, Paul IV., whom
we have before met under the title of Cardinal Caraffa, was by no
means well qualified for winning to his side a doubtful monarch like
Elizabeth. He was incapable of exercising moderation, and instead of
attempting to conciliate the Queen, he returned a contemptuous reply to
her ambassador; “first of all,” said he, “she must submit her claims to
the decision of our judgment.”¹ Now this would certainly have been the
last thing in the world to which the daughter of Henry VIII. would have
submitted. There were, however, various considerations which might have
weighed with the Pope. The French wished to prevent a marriage between
Elizabeth and Philip; while the Guises were especially interested in
this affair, since, if the claims of Elizabeth were rejected by the
Holy See, Mary Stuart, Dauphiness of France and Queen of Scotland,
would then possess the title to the English Crown. If her right could
only be established, the Guises might reign supreme in her name over
the three kingdoms. What a grand prospect for the imagination of a
pious pope and the grasping ambition of the house of Guise. At times
it seemed as if this dream were to be realised, and it was always kept
in view by the parties, and pursued even after it had become entirely
hopeless. But the force of circumstances more than her own disposition
led Elizabeth to take the side of Protestantism. Her own heresy, save
on one or two points, was not of a very decided character; yet it
was sufficient to complete the separation of England from Rome. Hence
Queen Elizabeth became an object at whom the Roman Catholic powers
were extremely anxious to strike a blow. Many schemes and conspiracies
were concocted for her destruction, but all failed, and England at last
emerged from the struggle victorious.
¹ Ranke’s _History of the Popes_, Volume I., pages 238‒239.
The influence of France was now brought to bear upon the Queen-regent.
She acted with more coldness towards the Lords of the Congregation than
formerly; and they began to see that they were losing her countenance.
Still attempts continued to be made to pacify the Protestants by
propositions for reforming the more flagrant abuses of the Catholic
clergy. Early in 1559 the Lords of the Congregation had begun to think
of an alliance with England.¹
¹ _Statutes of the Scottish Church_, Volume I., pages 159‒160;
Knox, Volume I., pages 314‒316.
Everything indicated that the crisis was at hand. The preachers were
intently engaged in spreading the new opinions; the old clergy were
frightened, and only making feeble efforts to outdo their rivals by
preaching and celebrating masses themselves. The Queen-regent had
informed some of the Lords of the Congregation that they must desert
their principles, as her line of policy was to be shaped according
to instructions which she had received from France. Four of the
chief Protestant preachers were cited to appear before the Court of
Justiciary at Stirling, on the 10th of May, 1559, for convening the
people and preaching erroneous doctrines to them, and inciting them
to seditions and tumults. The Lords of the Congregation resolved to
protect the preachers, and assembled their feudal followers at Perth.
John Knox had landed at Leith on the 2nd of May; he stayed two nights
in Edinburgh, and then proceeded to Dundee, where he joined his
brethren. He received a warm welcome and went to Perth with his friends.
In order to prevent a collision, Erskine of Dun passed forward to
Stirling and endeavoured to effect an agreement with the Queen-regent,
while the Lords of the Congregation and the preachers remained in
Perth. But he was unsuccessful, and when the accused preachers failed
to appear on the 10th, those who had become sureties for them were
fined, and the preachers were proclaimed rebels. The multitude had been
gradually becoming more and more excited, their feelings and passions
had risen to a pitch which neither the preachers nor the magistrates
could regulate, nor could they prevent them from wrecking the
monasteries.¹
¹ Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_, Volume I., pages 406‒407;
Knox, Volume I., pages 314‒319; _Woodrow Society_, Volume I.,
page 57.
On the 11th of May, Knox preached a vehement sermon against idolatry
in the parish church of Perth. He enlarged upon the abomination of
the mass and all the accompanying trumpery of the Roman Catholic
form of worship. His hearers had been much excited before, but their
passions and cupidity were now roused to a point far beyond the bounds
of control. Meantime a priest, utterly incapable, as it seemed, of
understanding the state of the people’s minds, uncovered the altar to
say mass. It was an exceedingly rich altar-piece, in which the history
of many of the saints was carved. A number of Protestants were present,
and a youth at the top of his voice, exclaimed,――“this is intolerable,
when God by His word hath plainly damned idolatry, that we should
stand by and see it used in dispute.” The priest gave him a blow on
the ear, and the youth in retaliation threw a stone at the priest, but
it struck the tabernacle and broke one of the images. Very soon the
whole multitude threw stones, and proceeded to tear down the altars
and destroy every vestige of the ornaments in the church. When it
became known in the town that such work was going on, an uproarious
mob assembled, which attacked the four monasteries of Perth, and for
two days the work of destruction proceeded till only the bare walls
remained.¹ The example shown in Perth was followed in the town of
Cupar-Fife. There the people destroyed all the altars and images
in the church. Shortly after the Abbey of Scone was burned; and the
monasteries throughout the country were in an incredibly short time
either defaced or demolished.²
¹ Knox, Volume I., pages 320‒323; Buchanan, Book 16, chapter
28; Spottiswood.
² Knox, Volume I., page 361, _et seq._; Buchanan, Book 16,
chapter 33.
The Protestant reformers have been severely blamed for these excesses
and the destruction of religious buildings. Each party has striven
to lay the blame upon the other, and to exaggerate or extenuate these
excesses, according to their respective standpoints. But it should
be remembered that there never was a revolution without excesses,
the reason of which is not difficult to find. The amount of outrage
and the destruction of property which a revolution may entail mainly
depends on the strength and completeness of the organised moral force
in the country at the time of its occurrence. If the moral sentiments
and ideas of the nation are but imperfectly formed, the guiding and
restraining feelings and influences only partly developed through
the social organisation, and the intelligence of the people is very
limited and dim, and as it were, only awakening to a consciousness that
they have been long deluded, then, in such circumstances, a revolution
cannot be effected without anarchy and excess in various forms. The
same undeviating principle comes into play in this as in everything
else: when the moral organisation of a nation is sufficiently developed
and ripe, the desired and needful reform is gradually brought to pass
by peaceful means. But, from the information we now possess, to talk as
if a peaceful and harmless revolution had been possible in Scotland in
the middle of the sixteenth century, is only a sign of much ignorance.
It is well known, how easy it is to arouse the cupidity of a class,
and how eagerly any body of men pursue a line of action which promises
rapid and great profit; and how fierce the storm of wrath when the
result fails, as it almost always does, to answer the expectations
which had been raised.
When the Queen-regent heard of these proceedings she was naturally much
offended; and she threatened to inflict severe vengeance on the guilty
parties. But this was a difficult matter to accomplish, and she soon
discovered that her power was not commensurate with her wishes. The
Lords of the Congregation issued several manifestoes to the Regent,
to the French commanders, and to other persons in authority. These
documents were all pervaded by an absolute and dogmatic conviction of
the truth of their cause; and they breathed a spirit of uncompromising
resolution and defiance, and a determination to carry out their views
of reform at all hazards, while they were extremely vehement, and
even coarse and rude in expression. Many examples were drawn from
the Old Testament of how God and His people had punished unjust
and ungodly kings, and these were pressed home as applicable to the
existing circumstances of Scotland. One of their manifestoes concluded
thus――“Yea, we shall begin that same war which God commanded Israel to
execute against the Canaanites; that is, contract of peace shall never
be made, till ye desist from your open idolatry and cruel persecution
of God’s children. And this we signify unto you in the name of the
eternal God, and of His Son Christ Jesus, whose verity we profess,
and whose Gospel we will have preached, and holy sacraments rightly
ministered, so long as God will assist us to gainstand your idolatry.
Take this for ♦advertisement, and be not deceived.”¹
♦ “advertisment” replaced with “advertisement”
¹ Knox, Volume I., pages 334‒336.
At this time the Lords of the Congregation had entrenched themselves
in Perth; while the Regent’s army, mostly composed of Frenchmen,
had approached within twenty miles of them. The Congregation had
a considerable force, but an arrangement was made with the Regent,
mainly through the influence of the Earl of Argyle and the prior of
St. Andrews. The agreement was to the effect that both armies were
to be disbanded, and the town of Perth left open to the Regent; that
none of the inhabitants were to be molested for the late alterations
in religion; that no Frenchman should enter the town, nor come within
three miles of it; and that when the Queen retired no French garrison
would be left in the town. All other controversies were postponed to
the next Parliament.¹ This arrangement was concluded on the 28th of
May, 1559; and the Lords of the Congregation then retired from Perth.
The Queen-regent entered Perth surrounded by a body of French troops
which she called her body-guard; but the Protestants regarded this as
a violation of the agreement.
¹ _Ibid._, Volume I., pages 336‒341, _et seq._; Lesly’s
_History Of Scotland_
The Earl of Argyle and the prior of St. Andrews then left the Regent,
and joined the Congregation. Numbers of the people from various
quarters of the kingdom gathered round the Lords of the Congregation,
who went boldly on with their work. They invaded St. Andrews, where
the primate had thought of resisting them, but he was forced to flee.
On the 11th of June, Knox preached one of his scathing sermons in St.
Andrews, in which he entreated his hearers to eject the buyers and
sellers from the Temple, according to the Gospel of Matthew and John;
and with all the force of his nature, he applied his examples to the
surrounding circumstances. The altars and the images, the monuments
of idolatry, as they called them, were quickly destroyed in all the
churches of the city.¹ The Regent’s army approached but found the
Congregation too strong; and another arrangement was made between
the contending parties, which was again soon broken off. The Regent
was expecting more assistance from France to crush out the heresy
in Scotland. Meanwhile the heretics were increasing in numbers. One
division of the Congregation re-entered Perth on the 25th of June, and
another under the Earl of Argyle and the Prior of St. Andrews, took
possession of Edinburgh on the 29th of June, while the Regent retired
to Dunbar.² The Congregation demolished the monasteries of Edinburgh,
and seized the coining irons of the Mint. A sort of truce having
been concluded between the conflicting parties, the Regent returned
to Holyrood. Both parties issued proclamations and appeals to the
people. The Regent said she would grant liberty for the exercise of the
Protestant religion, provided that wherever she was dwelling preaching
should cease and the mass be maintained. This was the difficulty,
neither party could tolerate the worship of the other, unless at a
respectable distance; Knox and his followers upon no consideration
would tolerate manifest idolatry; his aim, as he expressed it, was
to “establish God’s eternal verity within the realm.” While these
absorbing matters filled the mind of the nation, the intelligence
came that Henry II. of France was dead, and that the husband of the
Queen of Scots had succeeded to the throne of that Kingdom. This event
foreboded severe opposition to the Congregation; and the reformed party
in Edinburgh were soon in great straits. They departed from the capital
on the 26th of July, and passed to Stirling, from whence on the 11th
of ♦August they issued a short manifesto in which they bound themselves
to stand true to each other. The Earls of Argyle, Glencairn, Lord Boyd,
and other barons, then marched to Glasgow, and “reformed” the city of
the West.³
¹ Knox, Volume I., 336‒350.
² _Diurnal of ♠Occurrents_, pages 53‒269; Knox, Volume I.,
pages 350, 359, 362.
♠ “Occurents” replaced with “Occurrents”
♦ “Angust” replaced with “August”
³ Knox, Volume I., pages 363‒384.
John Willock was left in Edinburgh to keep alive the Protestant
opinions, lest the idols might again raise their heads in the capital.
He continued to preach in the Church of St. Giles till the month of
November. In the end of August a thousand armed Frenchmen arrived and
disembarked at Leith, and with the army already there, they began to
fortify the position. On the 24th of September two thousand more French
troops arrived to assist the Queen-regent in the struggle to uphold
the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. The Frenchmen shortly made the
defences of Leith so strong that the Congregation could not hope to
take it.¹ But the leaders of the Congregation took a bold step, they
re-entered Edinburgh in October, and on the 21st of that month they
met in the Tolbooth to deliberate concerning the government of the
kingdom. Lord Ruthven introduced the business of the meeting by asking:
――“Whether she who so contemptuously refused the most humble Request
of the born councillors of the realm, being also but a Regent, whose
pretensions threatened the bondage of the whole community, ought to be
suffered so tyrannously to rule above them?” As this question had not
been debated before in an open assembly, it was deemed right that the
opinion of the preachers should be asked, and John Willock was called
upon to express his sentiments on the point. He said――“That though
magistrates were granted power and authority from God, yet this power
was limited by the word of God; as subjects were commanded to obey
their magistrates, so magistrates must discharge their duties to their
subjects, and the office of both is prescribed in the word of God.
Though God hath appointed magistrates on the earth and honoured them,
yet he never did establish any one who for just reasons might not have
been deprived. That in deposing princes, and those who had been in
authority, God did not always employ his immediate power, but sometimes
other means which His wisdom thought good and justice required.” And
therefore he concluded――“That since the Queen-regent denied her chief
duty to the subjects of this realm, which was to administer equal
justice to them, to preserve their liberty from the invasion of
strangers, and to suffer God’s word to be freely and openly preached
among them; seeing moreover that the Queen-regent was an open and
obstinate idolatress, and finally, that she utterly despised the
council and requirements of the nobility, he could see no reason why
they, the born councillors, nobility, and barons of the realm, might
not justly deprive her of regime and authority amongst them.” The
opinion of Knox was then asked, and he concurred with Willock, adding
that the iniquity of the Regent ought in no way to withdraw their
hearts, nor the hearts of other subjects from the obedience due to
their sovereign, and that when she was deposed, if she repented and
submitted, she might be restored to her former place and honour. Then
every one present was requested to express his opinion freely, and to
vote according to his conscience. A document was drawn up and agreed
to, deposing the Queen-regent of all authority within the kingdom,
proclamation of which was made at the Cross of Edinburgh.²
¹ Knox, pages 388‒399; Tytler’s _History of Scotland_ Volume
VI., pages 163‒167.
² Knox, Volume I., pages 437‒452; Spottiswood.
After this, skirmishing immediately began between the Frenchmen at
Leith and the Congregation. In these encounters the forces of the
Congregation were generally defeated; and they were again forced to
retire from Edinburgh on the 7th November 1559, when they retreated to
Stirling. The undisciplined followers of the Lords of the Congregation
were unable to cope with the efficient and well handled French troops;
so that the Protestant party were reduced to extreme difficulties. The
voice of Knox, however, never ceased to exhort and encourage them; he
called upon them to put their trust in “the Eternal God, the Lord of
Hosts,” and that in the end they would assuredly prevail; he pointed
out to them the examples in the Old Testament touching the sufferings
and the afflictions of God’s people for their sins. In concluding one
of his sermons at Stirling he said――“Whatever shall become of us and
our bodies, I doubt not but this cause, in spite of the devil, shall
prevail in the realm of Scotland. For as it is the eternal truth of the
eternal God, so shall it prevail, however for a time it may be impugned.
It may be that God shall plague some, because they delight not in the
truth, albeit for worldly considerations they seemed to pursue it. Yea,
God may take some of his dearest children away before their eyes see
greater troubles. But neither shall the one nor the other hinder this
action, but in the end it shall triumph.”¹
¹ Knox, Volume I., pages 452‒473; Sadler’s _State Papers_,
Volume I., page 554.
The Protestant party found it absolutely necessary to make more urgent
requests to the English Government for assistance. They had long
been in communication with the leading men in England, but something
effective was urgently needed; and they therefore sent William Maitland
of Lethington to London, with instructions to explain their condition
to Queen Elizabeth and her Council. Long before this time Knox
himself had been in constant communication with the chief ministers
of Elizabeth, and had very earnestly urged upon them the wisdom of
rendering support to the Protestant party in Scotland, in order to
enable them to overcome the schemes of the Roman Catholic powers.¹
The negotiations with the English Government proceeded favourably,
notwithstanding the natural reluctance of Elizabeth to lend assistance
to rebellious subjects. The chief men of England were well aware of the
relative position and state of parties in Europe at this momentous and
critical period, and hence they were extremely anxious and determined
to come to an understanding with the Protestants in Scotland. Knox
exerted himself to the utmost to secure their aid, and Lethington had
an eloquent and diplomatic tongue. On the 23rd of January the English
fleet appeared off the coast of Fife, and rendered effective aid to
the Congregation. After much diplomatic talk the treaty of Berwick was
concluded on the 27th of February, 1560, between the English Government
and the Lords of the Congregation; its avowed purpose was to expel the
French from Scotland. This was as much calculated to secure the safety
of England itself as the liberties of the former kingdom.²
¹ Knox, Volume VI., pages 15‒21, 28‒♦29, 31‒32, 35‒36, 40‒43,
35‒49, 63, 63‒71, 74, ♠79, 81, 89, 91, 92, 98, 101, 189;
Sadler’s _State Papers_, Volume I., pages 601, 684.
♦ “28” replaced with “29”
♠ “69” replaced with “79”
² Fœdera, Volume XV., page 569; Calderwood’s _History_, Volume
I., pages 574‒578; Knox, Volume II., pages 13, 38‒45.
An English army, six thousand strong, entered Scotland in the end of
March 1560, and they were soon joined by the Scots who adhered to the
Lords of the Congregation. The united forces proceeded to besiege Leith,
and skirmishing ensued between them and the French. The French had made
their defences very strong, and the attacks of the allied forces were
repeatedly driven back with great loss. The Frenchmen exhibited more
skill than the besiegers; months passed, and still little progress
was made towards the reduction of Leith. But the current of events was
working changes in other quarters, and the critical condition of France
itself soon began to tell upon the course of affairs in Scotland.
Negotiations were commenced to bring the war to an end, but the
circumstances being of a peculiar character, the preliminaries required
much discussion and deliberation.¹
¹ Hayne’s _State Papers_, Volume I., pages 272‒273; Buchanan,
Book XVI., Chapters 55, 57, 58; Knox, Volume II., pages
66‒72.
The negotiations resulted in the conclusion of the treaty of Edinburgh
on the 6th of July, 1560. This treaty dealt with a variety of matters
touching France and England, some of which were never ratified. The
articles more immediately affecting the cause of the Congregation
were mainly these――that the French troops should return home; that
no foreigners hereafter should be employed in Scotland without the
sanction of Parliament; that an act of oblivion should be passed for
all injurious deeds committed against the laws of the kingdom from the
6th of March, 1559, till the 11th of August, 1560; that a general peace
should be made amongst the lords and all the subjects of the kingdom,
so that those who were of the Congregation, and those who were not,
should have no cause of quarrel with each other for the things done
since the above date. That a Parliament should be held on the 10th of
July, and adjourned to the 11th of August; and that this parliament
should be as valid as if it had been expressly summoned by their
majesties the King and Queen, provided that nothing be treated before
the 1st of August.¹ Peace was proclaimed on the 8th of July, and a few
days afterwards the French and English troops departed from Scotland.
¹ Fœdera, Volume XV., page 593, _et seq._; Keith, Volume I.,
pages 298‒306.
The Queen-Regent had removed into the castle of Edinburgh on the
approach of the English army. She was wearied with the responsibilities
of her position, and, worn out, she died on the 10th of July, 1560. On
her death-bed she showed a nobleness of feeling and a magnanimity of
soul which moved the minds of the hardest reformers; she called for
Willock, the reformed preacher, and freely and cheerfully heard such
exhortations as he deemed suitable for the occasion;¹ and thus she
gave an example of religious humility and liberality unmatched in that
fierce intolerant age. The important place which she naturally assumed
in Scotland at this crisis, and the attitude which various associations
and influences led her to take up, have often been overlooked in the
heat of controversy; and she has been blamed for not acting in a way
which her position, and the circumstances of her connections precluded
her from attempting, even apart from her hereditary tendencies and her
domestic feelings and sentiments. She had often said that, if she had
been permitted to act according to her own wishes and judgment, she
would have ended the dissensions and settled the kingdom in peace.
¹ Sir James Melville’s _Memoirs_, page 29; Buchanan, Book XVI.,
Chapter 61; Knox, Volume II., page 71.
The reformed preachers, most of whom were in Edinburgh, were actively
engaged preparing matters for the parliament. They met in St. Giles’s
church on the 19th of July, and offered up solemn prayers for their
deliverance.¹ About the 20th of July, the first appointment of
ministers and superintendents to the chief towns and districts of the
country was made.
¹ Knox, Volume II., pages 84‒87.
The parliament met at Edinburgh in the beginning of August 1560. All
had been summoned who had a right by law or custom to be present,
and there was an unusually large attendance. Some time was spent in
discussing whether it was a legal meeting of the Estates. The leaders
of the Reformation had prepared a document containing what they deemed
necessary for reforming the Church. This they placed in the form of a
petition before the parliament. It was a rather sweeping production,
and extremely vehement in expression. One part of it referred to the
patrimony of the Church, but the parliament waived this important and
practical question of dealing with the revenues of the hierarchy; and
then requested the Reformers to lay before the House a summary of the
doctrines which they proposed to establish. The party selected for this
task proceeded rapidly with their work; and in four days they produced
a Confession of Faith which touched upon many subjects, and delivered
opinions upon some of the most difficult and speculative points which
have ever tasked the powers of the human mind. It was, however, only
a body of doctrine, and when on the 17th of August this Confession of
Faith was read in parliament, it was adopted without hesitation “as
wholesome and sound, and grounded upon the infallible truth of God’s
word.” Only three Earls voted against it, on the ground that they
would believe as their fathers believed before them, and no otherwise.
The spiritual estate, the bishops and the clergy, said nothing;¹ and
there is some reason to think that they had not formed any adequate
conception of the immense issues of the revolution which was being
enacted before their eyes――the rending the foundations of the Roman
Catholic Church.
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., pages
525‒534; Knox, Volume II., pages 89‒92, 220‒222. A far
greater number than usual of the lesser barons attended this
parliament; and their names were inserted in the roll after
the commissioners of the burghs. The Roman Catholic clergy
were represented in it by twenty-eight names, among whom
there were six bishops. A contemporary chronicler makes the
following mention of the Confession: “And upon the 20th day
of the said month, the whole Lords passed to the Tolbooth,
and there, after long reasoning of sundry matters concerning
the commonweal of this realm, the ministers presented in the
same a tractate called the Confession of our Faith, which
being read was received and admitted therein.”――_Diurnal of
Occurrents_, pages 279‒280.
This parliament passed an act against the mass, and another abolishing
the authority of the Pope in Scotland. By the first act, any person who
said mass or attended to hear it was liable to have all their moveable
goods confiscated, and to be otherwise punished at the discretion of
the magistrate; for a second fault, banishment; and for the third, the
punishment of death. It was declared that in future the Bishop of Rome,
called the Pope, should have no jurisdiction in Scotland, nor should
any bishop or persons whom he might appoint, dare to act, under the
penalty of proscription and banishment from the kingdom.¹ The Scottish
nobles had now done their work. They had at last laid the Church of
their fathers in the dust; hereafter we shall see what was the real
depth of their religious feelings and convictions, and how true and
faithful they were to the religion which they had professed to fight
so hard to establish.
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., pages
534‒535.
CHAPTER XV.
_The Creed and Organisation of the Reformed Church._
THE Confession of Faith, ratified by the Parliament of August 1560, was
composed by John Knox, John Winram, John Spottiswood, John Willock,
John Row, and John Douglas. It comprised twenty-five very short
chapters; and a brief preface, which stated that the Scottish Reformers
had long desired to proclaim to the world the sum of the doctrine which
they professed, and for which they had faced danger and infamy. In the
preface it is announced:――“If any man will note in our Confession any
article or sentence repugnant to God’s holy word, we humbly request him
to admonish us of the same, in writing, and on our honour we faithfully
promise him satisfaction from the Scriptures, or else reformation
of what is proved to be amiss.” This is an indication of fairness
and reasonableness; but it must be regretted that the Reformers
seldom acted in the spirit of the rule which they here recognised. The
preface concluded thus:――“And therefore by the assistance of the mighty
Spirit, our Lord Jesus, we firmly purpose to abide to the end by this
Confession of our Faith.”¹
¹ Knox, Volume II., pages 95‒96; _Acts of the Parliaments of
Scotland_, Volume III., pages 14‒22.
The Confession opened with the belief in one God, Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost. God is eternal, infinite, unmeasureable, incomprehensible,
omnipotent, and invisible; one in substance, and yet divided into three
persons. It treated concisely of the creation of man, his fall, and
original sin; the promise of a Saviour, and the continuation of the
faithful from Adam to the coming of the Messiah. As to the Incarnation,
Christ is declared to be truly God and truly man, having two perfect
natures united in one person. On this doctrine they condemned――“The
damnable and pestilent heresies of Arius, Marcion, Eutyches, Nestorius,
and all others who deny the eternity of His Godhead, or the verity of
His human nature, or confound them, or divide them.” This wonderful
conjunction of the persons of the Godhead, “did proceed from the
eternal and immutable decree of God, whence also our salvation springs
and depends. For God, the Father, of His mere mercy had elected us
in Christ Jesus, before the foundation of the world was laid, and
appointed Him to be our Head. So we confess and undoubtedly believe
in His Passion, Death, and Burial; his Resurrection and Ascension, His
session at the right hand of God, whence He shall visibly return at the
day of judgment.”
There are chapters on the Holy Ghost, the cause of good works, on
what these consist, the perfection of the law and the imperfection of
man; on the true Church, the power and the authority of the Scriptures;
on the immortality of the soul, the sacraments and their right
administration, the gifts freely given to the Church; and on the civil
magistrate.
The Confession recognised empires, kingdoms, and cities, to be distinct
realities and ordained by God. Emperors, kings, dukes, and magistrates
of cities, each in their proper rank and place, are to be regarded
as the holy ordinance of God, established for the manifestations
of His own glory, and the good of mankind. So those who go about to
destroy the existing constitution of the State, or to confound the
government of a kingdom, are not only the enemies of mankind, but they
also wickedly fight against the expressed will of God. Such persons
therefore as are placed in authority, should be loved, honoured, feared,
and held in the most reverent estimation. But then it is the duty of
kings and magistrates to reform and purge religion, and to suppress
all idolatry and superstition, according to the examples of the Old
Testament, as in the case of David, Ezechias, Josias, Josaphat, and
others, most worthy of being imitated.
“Arise, O Lord, and let thy enemies be confounded: Let them flee from
thy presence that hate thy godly name: give thy servants strength to
speak thy word in boldness: and let all nations attain to thy true
knowledge. Amen.”¹
¹ Knox, Volume II., page 120.
The six men who drafted the Confession of Faith, also composed the
First Book of Discipline; but it never received the sanction of the
government. It was divided into nine heads, and treated of doctrine,
polity, discipline and education.¹ It is a production embodying views
on various important points that penetrate deeply into the strata of
society, and wield a far-reaching influence over its destiny.
¹ The _First Book of Discipline_ is printed in the second
volume of Knox’s Works, pages 183‒257: and it is also
included in the _Collection of Confessions_, published in
1722.
The first head announced that the Gospel should be freely and openly
preached in every church and assembly of the kingdom; and that all
doctrine repugnant to this should be utterly suppressed, “as damnable
to man’s salvation;” that the books of the Old and New Testament
contained all things necessary for the instruction of the Church, and
for perfecting of the man of God: all laws and constitutions imposed
upon the consciences of men, without the expressed command of God’s
word, such as vows of chastity, celibacy, superstitious observance of
fasting days, keeping of saints’ days, prayer for the dead, and other
feasts, were therefore declared to be abolished in Scotland, and that
obstinate maintainers of these abominations ought not to escape the
punishment of the civil magistrate.
The second head asserted that there are only two sacraments, Baptism¹
and the Lord’s Supper, that the people should be instructed in the
language which they understood before participating in the sacraments,
and that in Baptism the element of water only should be used, oil, salt,
wax, conjuration, crossing, and all inventions of men were forbidden.
At the Lord’s Supper, sitting at a table was declared to be the most
suitable posture, because our Lord Himself sat with His disciples. It
was further directed that the people should partake both of the bread
and of the wine, that the officiating minister should break the bread,
and distribute it to those next to him, commanding the rest, every one
with reverence and sobriety, to break with each other, and that during
this action, some comforting passages of Scripture should be read,
which brought to mind the death of Christ Jesus, and the never-ending
benefit flowing from it to mankind.
¹ The Canons of the Roman Scottish Church on Baptism may be
seen in the _Statutes of the Scottish Church_, Volume II.,
pages 174‒175, 307‒309.
The third head required the abolition of idolatry with all its
monuments, such as abbeys, monasteries, friaries, nunneries, chapels,
chantries, cathedral kirks, canonries, and colleges, excepting those
used as parish churches and schools, and all the mansions and dwelling
places attached thereto, with the gardens and orchards. It should be
observed that it was only the monastic system, and the extinction of
its pertinents, which was really a consequence of the establishment of
Protestantism; not at all the mere wanton destruction of the buildings:
in the circumstances it was necessary to remove the ornaments and the
internal furniture of the Roman Catholic churches and establishments
of every description, as these were all intimately connected with the
worship of the system. It is always easy for people to be wise after
the event, but if those who now blame the Reformers had been upon the
scene at the time, their wisdom would in all probability have proved
of little avail. Under idolatry was included the mass, invocation of
saints, adoration of images; and finally, all honouring of God not
authorised in His holy word.
The fourth head dealt with the ministers and their lawful election.
In a reformed Church, it was said, no one ought to preach or to
administer the sacraments, till he be called. The ordinary vocation of
a minister was said to consist in election, examination, and admission.
It pertained to the people and to each congregation to elect their own
minister. Examinations must be in public, by the ministers and elders
of the Church: the applicant should be examined openly in the presence
of the people on all points of controversy between the Protestants and
the Catholics, Anabaptists, Arians, and other enemies of the Christian
religion, that all may hear and understand. After he has given evidence
of his soundness in doctrine, and evinced his ability to convince the
gainsayers, he must then appear before the congregation whom he is
intended to serve, and in the presence of his flock should deliver
several sermons, touching the articles of faith, jurisdiction, the
office of Christ Jesus, the number, the effect, and the use of the
sacraments, and finally, explain the whole Protestant conception of
religion. But great care should always be taken not to thrust any man
upon a congregation, if they were not satisfied with him; this point
was repeatedly stated in the First Book of Discipline.
Touching the form of admission of members to their charge, a sermon
should be preached by some specific member concerning the duties of
the office; and an exhortation should be given both to the minister
to be admitted and to his congregation. Any other ceremony was deemed
unnecessary, only the approbation of the people, and the declaration of
the presiding minister that the person then presented was appointed to
serve his particular church. Although the apostles used the imposition
of hands, yet seeing that the miracle ceased, this ceremony was
unnecessary.
The Scottish Reformers experienced much difficulty in the work of
organising their Church, from the paucity of qualified ministers
then in Scotland; to overcome this, they adopted the only expedient
of employing other two classes of persons in the work of religious
instruction, called exhorters and readers. In churches where no
ministers could be had, readers were to be appointed, persons who
could read distinctly the common prayers and the Scriptures; and
afterwards, some of these, if found qualified, might be advanced
to the position of ministers. The exhorters were a class between
the readers and the minister. As the name imports, they gave some
explanation or application of the parts of Scripture which they read
to the congregation.
The fifth and sixth heads are very important, and related to the
distribution of the possessions, rents, and patrimony of the church,
and provision for the ministers. It was exactly in these matters that
the strength and weakness of the reformation spirit in Scotland would
be tested; it is necessary therefore to indicate the scheme proposed
by the leading men among the Protestant clergy. It is very obvious
from what has already been stated, that some of the expedients which
they adopted were merely intended to meet the exigencies of the
circumstances, and to bridge over the great difficulties springing
out of the revolutionary changes of the religious movement. Owing to
the scarcity of qualified ministers the Reformers had recourse to the
expedient of selecting a number of persons with power to plant and
erect churches, and to appoint ministers within the bounds of their
respective provinces. To effect this they divided the country into five
districts, each of which was placed under a superintendent.¹ These men
were not to live idly as the bishops had often done; they had to preach
themselves three times every week, to labour incessantly and to travel
from place to place, till all the churches within their district were
provided with ministers, or at least with readers. Till they had gone
over their district, they were not to remain longer in one place than
thirty days. They were to examine into the life and diligence of the
ministers and readers, the order of their churches, the manners of the
people, the state of the poor, and the instruction of the young.
¹ The names of the persons chosen were John Carswell, for
Argyle and the Isles; John Erskine of Dun, for Angus and
Mearns; John Spottiswood, for Lothian and Tweeddale; John
Willock, for Glasgow and the West; and John Winram for
Fife――five in all. As this number of superintendents was
never increased, the General Assembly from time to time
appointed commissioners or visitors for special districts.
Their duties were of a very arduous nature, and their
stipends were not great. They had no superiority over their
brethren, and like other members they were entirely subject
to the General Assembly. Their special office was to plant
churches, and assist in the great labour of organisation.
At this time three or four churches were sometimes grouped
together, having a minister in one and readers in the others,
under the superintendent; and this continued for many years,
till a sufficient number of qualified ministers could be
obtained.
It was proposed to regulate the scale of stipend according to the
condition and circumstances of the ministers. The superintendents
were to get more than the ordinary minister of a parish, a minister
more than an exhorter, and the reader less than an exhorter. Proposals
were made for securing a provision for the wives and families of the
ministers; burghal privileges were demanded for their children, and
a special preference to be accorded to their sons in the schools and
colleges, with regard to the presentation of bursaries. Thus far,
touching the personal wants of the new clergy and their families.
It was proposed that a portion of the property of the Church should be
applied to national education. “Seeing that all men came into the world
ignorant, and God had ceased to illuminate them miraculously, a system
of education for the whole people was therefore a necessity.” A school
was to be attached to every church, and when a schoolmaster could
not be got, the minister or the reader was to teach the children and
the young people of the parish, and instruct them in the rudiments
of education, especially in the Catechism as translated in the Book
of Common Order, called the Order of Geneva.¹ They further proposed
that those who were unable to keep their children at school, should be
assisted out of the funds of the Church, especially the people in the
landward parts of the country.
¹ The reference here is to the translation of Calvin’s
Catechism. In another part of the First Book of Discipline
it is called the most perfect catechism that ever was used
in the Church. It was approved and adopted by the Reformed
Church of Scotland, and commonly printed with the Book of
Common Order. A translation of this catechism was reprinted
at Edinburgh in 1564, and it was long and widely used among
the Protestants of Scotland. There is a notice of early
editions in the sixth volume of Dr. Laing’s collected
edition of Knox’s works, page 341. Calvin’s Catechism was
divided into fifty-five parts, one for every Sunday, so that
the whole of it was gone through in little more than a year.
It contains three hundred and seventy-three questions and
answers.
The Palatine Catechism used by the reformed Churches of
Germany, and taught in the schools, was translated into
English, and printed in 1591 by public authority for the use
of Scotland; and it was sometimes printed with the Book of
Common Order and the Psalm Book. This catechism had three
chief headings――“1. Of Man’s Misery; 2. Of Man’s Deliverance;
3. Of Man’s Thankfulness.” It was divided into fifty-two
parts, one for each Sunday of the year, and contains one
hundred and twenty-nine questions and answers. It was
printed in the _Collection of Confessions_, published at
Edinburgh in 1722, Volume II. pages 273‒352.
There was a little catechism in Latin which was used in the
grammar schools. It embraced forty-one questions and answers.
In 1592, the General Assembly authorised a Catechism, which
was drawn up by John Craig, with the assistance of Robert
Pont, Thomas Buchanan, and Andrew Melville; its title is――“A
form of Examination before the Communion.” The Assembly
ordered it to be used in families and to be taught in
schools. _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 574, 784, 788.
It is known by the name of Craig’s Catechism. It has twelve
headings, and contains ninety-six questions and answers.
The eighty-sixth question is this――“What is the office of
the Christian magistrate in the Church? A. He should defend
the true religion and discipline, and punish all troublers
and contemners of the same.”――_Collection of Confessions_.
Volume II., pages 363‒377. A new edition of Craig’s
Catechism was prepared and issued some years ago by W. T. G.
Law of the Signet Library, Edinburgh.
The state of the poor labourers of the ground was noticed, with the
remark that they had been long oppressed. The Reformers were grieved
to see that some of the barons were so cruel to their tenants, and
extorted from them as much, and even more, than the priesthood had done;
and they argued earnestly that this class should now be relieved of a
part of the burdens which had so long pressed upon them. It was also
firmly maintained in the First Book of Discipline, that the poor and
the helpless ought to be supported and sustained from the property of
the Church.
The seventh head treated of ecclesiastical discipline. A distinction
was drawn between crimes which should be punished and put down by the
State, and those which fell under the discipline of the Church. All
capital crimes ought to be punished by the civil power; but drunkenness,
excess in eating, oppression of the poor by cruel exactions, or
cheating in buying and selling, properly appertained to the Church
to punish as God’s word commanded. Owing, however, to the confusion
introduced by the Roman Catholic system: “The Church of God is
compelled to draw the sword against such open and manifest offenders,
cursing and excommunicating all such, as well as those whom the civil
sword ought to punish as the others, from all participation with her in
prayers and sacraments, till open repentance manifestly appears in them.
As the form of proceeding in excommunication ought to be grave and slow,
so when once it is pronounced against any person, whatever their rank
and condition may be, it must be kept with all severity. For laws made
and not kept engender contempt of virtue, and bring in confusion and
liberty to sin.” The same sharp and inflexible rules of discipline were
to be applied to all ranks in the kingdom, to the rulers as well as
to the ruled, and even to the preachers themselves as well as to the
humblest in the nation. Here at least there was a thorough recognition
of equal justice and no respect of persons.
The eighth head related to the election of elders and deacons. The
most intelligent, faithful, and honest men that could be found within
the Church should be nominated for election, and their names publicly
announced by the minister to the whole congregation. Regarding the
form of voting, so that every man might give his vote with freedom,
each congregation was left to adopt such rules as seemed most likely
to attain the end. They were to be elected yearly, but those in office
the preceding year might be re-elected. The elders were to assist the
minister in all the public affairs of the church, in judging causes,
and in admonishing the licentious; for by the gravity of the elders,
the levity and unbridled life of the immoral should be corrected and
restrained. They were to observe the life, diligence, and study of
the minister himself, to admonish and correct him, and when necessary,
with the consent of the congregation and the superintendent, they
might depose him. The office of the deacon was to receive the rents
and gather the alms of the church, and to keep and distribute them as
should be appointed. They were also to assist the minister and elders
in deciding causes, and they might be admitted to read publicly, if
required, and found fit to perform that duty. The deacons personally
should be sober, humble, lovers of concord and peace, and examples of
godliness to all. The elders and deacons were to receive no stipend,
because they held office only from year to year, and because their
services to the Church did not prevent them from attending to their
private business.
The ninth head referred to the polity of the Church, which embraced
those things that might bring the rude and ignorant to knowledge,
inflame the learned to greater fervency and to retain the Church in
good order. It was then stated that there were two kinds of polity, the
one necessary, the other merely expedient and amenable to circumstances.
The first required that the word should be truly preached, the
sacraments rightly administered, and the common prayers publicly
offered; that children and rude and ignorant persons should be
instructed in the chief points of religion, and offenders punished, as
without these there was not the face of a visible Church. The second
touched upon such matters as that psalms should be sung, that certain
portions of Scripture should be read when there was no sermon, and
that on this or the next day of the week, few or many, the congregation
should meet for worship. Regarding points of this character each
congregation was permitted within limits to frame rules suitable to its
circumstances. It was required, however, that in all the chief towns
there should either be a sermon or common prayers every day, with some
exercise of reading the Scriptures. In every notable town it was also
required that there should be sermon and prayers on one day of the week,
besides Sunday; and during the time of this service both masters and
servants should cease from their business and labour. In all places
the Sunday was to be regularly kept: in the forenoon the Word was to
be preached, the sacraments administered, and marriage solemnised;
and in the afternoon the children should be taught in their catechism
and examined in the presence of the people, as thereby the old as well
as the young might be better enabled to understand the questions and
answers propounded, and the doctrines of Christianity. To promote this
great end every church should have an English Bible, and the people
were commanded to convene at befitting times to hear it read and
interpreted, and thus by degrees to dispel the grovelling ignorance
and thick darkness which had so long enslaved their bodies and minds.
Concerning marriage, it was found that the existing relations of
the different sex were of the most lax and immoral character. Under
the Roman Catholic system, the practice of divorce, of dissolving
marriage by granting dispensations on various grounds, tended to foster
immorality and to encourage crimes of the most atrocious description,
more especially among the upper classes.¹ The Reformers, therefore,
endeavoured to frame regulations calculated to remedy this class of
social evils. Henceforth marriage must be publicly celebrated in the
face of the Church; and to avoid all suspicion, the banns should be
proclaimed on three successive Sundays. On no consideration should
secret marriages be permitted; the ceremony should be solemnised
publicly.
¹ _Statutes of the Scottish Church_, Volume II., pages 130‒131,
297.
Touching burial it was stated:――“In all ages it has been held to
signify that the same body that was committed to the earth should not
utterly perish, but should rise again.” From what immediately followed,
it is pretty clear that the Reformers were reluctant to abolish all
the forms and ceremonies which till then had been associated with
the burial of the dead. This is not surprising, as veneration for the
memory of the departed is one of the strongest and deepest sentiments
of human nature; it touches those tender strings of the heart which
are at once the source of the purest emotions and the noblest feelings
of our common humanity. In Scotland, as elsewhere, from the earliest
period there is ample evidence of this respect for the memory of the
deceased, and it was keenly felt by the Reformers themselves. At the
same time they were more strongly impressed by the baneful results
which superstitious notions and practices had produced; and thus
without much discrimination they put a ban on the expression of one
of the most affectionate features of human character, when, to avoid
all superstition, they enjoined――“that the dead should be conveyed to
the place of interment with some honest company of the Church, without
either singing or reading; yea, without any kind of ceremony hitherto
used, other than that the dead be committed to the grave, with such
gravity and sobriety as those that be present may seem to fear the
judgment of God, and to hate sin, which is the cause of death.”
The First Book of Discipline concluded with an article concerning the
punishment of those who profane the sacraments and contemn the Word
of God. It suggested that very severe measures should be adopted for
the repression of all such abuses within the kingdom. This Book of
Discipline was not sanctioned by parliament, but it was approved by
an act of the Privy Council in January, 1561, and about thirty of the
nobles and gentry subscribed it. The Reformers failed to obtain any
settled provision or adequate allowance for the new clergy out of the
confiscated lands of the Church; and none of the Acts of the Parliament
which abolished the Roman Catholic religion were ever sanctioned by
Queen Mary.
The Book of Common Order, mentioned in the First Book of Discipline,
was a kind of directory of public worship.¹ It contained a form of
prayer for the ordinary meeting of the congregation. At that time
extempore prayer was not common in Scotland, nor anywhere else
among the reformed clergy. The book also gave directions for the
administration of the sacraments; a form of marriage; a prayer to be
said at the visitation of the sick; and instructions on the order of
ecclesiastical discipline.² There were also two treatises, the one on
fasting, and the other on excommunication. These, however, were written
and adopted by the Church a few years later, and will fall to be
noticed in connection with other influences which affected the people.
¹ It was an adaptation of the Order of Geneva――the forms of
worship which had been received by the English congregation
in that city. Of this congregation Knox was for some time
pastor, hence it was sometimes called the Order of Geneva.
The Geneva edition of 1558 was reprinted at Edinburgh in
1562, and again in 1564, and it was approved and sanctioned
by the General Assembly; the subsequent editions were
numerous, and commonly printed with the old metrical version
of the psalms. _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 30, 54.
In Dr. Laing’s edition of Knox’s Works, accurate and minute
details on these points will be found.
² _Collection of Confessions_, Volume II., pages 372, 468;
1722. Knox’s Works, Volume VI., pages 275‒333.
The system of doctrine and polity of the Reformed Church of Scotland
as presented in the Confession, the First Book of Discipline,
the Catechism, and the Book of Common Order was pretty distinct,
although on several points rather crude and imperfectly developed. The
doctrines of Calvin were adopted by the Scottish Reformers with little
modification, and it was at this time that Calvinism seized the minds
of men with irresistible power.¹ The Calvinistic modes of belief and
thought were decidedly more opposed to the Roman Catholic tenets than
the doctrines of Luther. Of this fact, the Catholics themselves were
well aware, and hence the intense bitterness that eventually prevailed
everywhere, when Calvinists and Romanists came into conflict with each
other. In Scotland amongst the Protestants heresy was for a long time
quite unknown; the disputes which arose within the Reformed Church
in this country were always about points of polity or external forms,
or the limits of the liberty and power of the Church. The first brunt
of the battle was directed against the Roman Catholic system; and
it is vain and untrue to deny that the Protestants persecuted the
Catholics. The moral ideas and sentiments of the sixteenth century
were comparatively narrow and imperfectly developed, and Knox and his
associates would most assuredly not have taken it as a compliment, if
they had been told that they tolerated the Catholics. The Reformers
distinctly, emphatically, and constantly, proclaimed that it was
the duty of the State and the Church to punish and extinguish the
confessors of the mass and other forms of idolatry. The proceedings
of the General Assemblies, the Acts of Parliament, and other national
records, contain endless evidence of this. What else could have been
expected? A nation does not spring up to an elevated moral position in
a day or in a few years; and the ultimate results of a great revolution
cannot justly be measured by its immediate effects. On the contrary,
the movement must be followed century after century ere its truth and
glory can be fully apprehended.
¹ On the re-establishment of Protestantism in England at the
accession of Queen Elizabeth, the English bishops would
have gladly dispensed with Episcopacy, and the ceremonies
which the Queen imposed were barely tolerated. In regard to
the great question of the real presence the majority of the
bishops agreed with the Swiss Reformers. Hunt’s _Religious
Thought in England_, Volume I. pages 39‒41. For further
evidence of the influence exerted by Calvin on the Reformed
Church, see Hagenbach’s _History of Doctrines_, Volume II.,
178‒183, and Ranke’s _History of the Popes_. Blunt,
_Dictionary of Doctrinal and Historical Theology_
The first General Assembly met at Edinburgh on the 20th of December,
1560. There were only a few ministers present, but a number of lay
commissioners attended. The Assembly enumerated and recorded the
names of those who were deemed best qualified for preaching the word
and administrating the sacraments, and reading the common prayers in
all the churches. The ministers and readers together did not exceed
sixty in number; and it can easily be seen that the difficulties
and obstacles which the leaders of the Protestant revolution had to
overcome, were something enormous; but they boldly proceeded to meet
the necessities of the circumstances, in the way already indicated,
by placing a man over a district to organise and appoint readers and
exhorters to the churches where ministers could not be obtained.¹
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 3‒6.
Another General Assembly met at Edinburgh on the 26th of May, 1561. It
passed an act for the suppression of the Catholic worship throughout
the kingdom; and measures were proposed for strengthening the hands of
the superintendents. A supplication was sent to the government calling
on them to take order――“With the pestilent generation of that Roman
Antichrist within the realm, who was again threatening to erect their
idolatry.” The Privy Council acceded to their request and passed
an act thereon; and the Protestants went forward with their work of
suppression and reorganisation.¹
¹ _Ibid._, pages 8‒10.
CHAPTER XVI.
_Reign of Queen Mary._
WHILE the Protestants were still uneasy and somewhat alarmed by the
intelligence that France had firmly refused to confirm the Treaty
of Edinburgh, or to ratify any part of the proceedings of the last
Parliament, the welcome tidings reached Scotland that Francis II. had
died on the 6th of December, 1560. As this event broke and limited
the sway of that scheming and ambitious house of Guise, the death of
the young king was hailed with undisguised satisfaction by the leaders
of the Protestants. The work of the Reformation in Scotland proceeded
without serious interruption from any quarter; and the nation began to
look for the early return of their Queen without misgiving.
A considerable section of the people still professed to adhere to
the old religion, and they were headed by the Earl of Huntly. This
noble was then almost the supreme ruler in the north and north-west of
Scotland; and he put himself forward as the representative of the Roman
Catholics. John Lesly, the parson of Oyne, and afterwards bishop of
Ross, was deputed in April 1561, to proceed to France and represent the
views of the Catholic party to Queen Mary. He suggested that she should
land at Aberdeen, where twenty thousand troops would be ready at her
command; and with these a blow might be struck against the Protestants.
This plan was not followed by the Queen; but it had some connection
with events which happened shortly after her return to Scotland.¹
¹ Lesly’s _History Of Scotland_, page 294; Dr. Burton’s
_History of Scotland_, Volume IV., page 166.
The prior of St. Andrews, Lord James Stuart, the Queen’s natural
brother, passed through England on his way to France, as the deputy of
the Protestant Lords; and was warmly received by the Queen. After many
interviews with her brother, concerning the state of Scotland, Mary
informed him that she intended to return to the home of her ancestors.
She embarked at Calais on the 14th of August, 1561, and landed at Leith
on the 19th of the month. Her arrival was announced by the sound of
cannon; and all ranks of the people hastened to meet her and to welcome
her home. The loyal citizens of Edinburgh endeavoured to enliven her
first night at Holyrood by a musical performance, in which fiddles
with three strings were the leading instruments. This serenade seems to
have grated on the ears of her French attendants; and indeed the whole
people and their surroundings must have presented a strange contrast
to the luxury, the external polish, and the enchanting pleasures, which
had encircled Mary during the palmy days of her life in France. Many
of the citizens of the capital, however, were anxious to show their
goodwill towards her, and on the 2nd of September they presented to
her a cupboard which cost two hundred marks. The expense of the town in
connection with the banquet, the triumph, and gift to the Queen on the
occasion amounted to four thousand marks.¹
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume III., pages 119‒122;
_Diurnal of Occurrents_, pages 67‒69; Knox, Volume II.,
pages 269‒270.
The exceeding interest of the events crowded into the history of the
succeeding seven years, the tragic, and often dark character which
they assumed, and the vital importance of the main issue involved,
have induced me to attempt a concise explanation of the causes which
controlled the current of events, and ultimately led to the flight
of Queen Mary into England. This part of our history has often been
ably treated in the narrative form, and with every point of detail,
especially in reference to the character of Queen Mary herself; but
in nearly all the writings on this period there is rather much of the
partisan spirit, and too keen a tendency to rest the issue of the
momentous revolutionary movement on points of merely secondary weight
and import. The questions as to whether there is evidence that Mary
was implicated in the plot to murder her husband, whether this or
that noble was concerned in the plot to murder Riccio and Darnley,
whether Mary’s marriage with Bothwell was voluntary, or forced by
violence; how this King or Queen struggled to outwit and befoul another;
or how this statesman and that confounded each other, by framing
misrepresentations――such are the questions and matters which mostly
fill the literature on the reign of Queen Mary. But without by any
means ignoring the relative value of the literature, the chief aim
of this chapter will be to reach the underlying ideas, not of the
literature itself, but of the Reformation movement.
It is quite unnecessary to dwell on the charming beauty, the varied
accomplishments, and the unquestionable talents of Mary Stuart, Queen
of France and Scotland. But once for all it must be stated that I am
not a hard and fast apologist of Mary throughout her chequered career;
although on the other hand, I have been unable to discover that she
was so deceitful, immoral, and wicked, as she has often been painted.
If she be measured by the standard of morality common amongst her
contemporaries of the sixteenth century, she will not suffer by a
comparison with the best of them. The cupidity and faithlessness of
the royal families and many of their counsellors, who were then trying
to sway the destinies of Europe, had reached a height of enormity
which would be incredible, if it were not attested by piles of
unimpeachable evidence. Everywhere the suffering of the lower classes
had became almost unbearable; and this was a time of destruction, of
revolution, and of renovation. In these circumstances it is unjust, and
historically false to single out Queen Mary because she was unfortunate,
as baser and worse than her compeers.
The Scottish nobles had long been accustomed to fight against the
Crown; and they had at last laid one of the strongest arms of the
throne in the dust. They had abolished the old Church and seized its
landed property; and what they had thus taken, they intended to retain,
while they eagerly looked for more. Most of them had joined with the
Reformers for no higher aim than the enlargement of their estates; and
the whole of their subsequent proceedings were quite consistent with
the origin of their reforming spirit. John Knox was smarting under the
sting of blasted hopes and defeated schemes. He at least acted from
honest intention and firm conviction. He believed that he was following
out the will of God, and delivering His message to Scotland. His whole
heart and soul was in his work, and he struggled with all his energy to
enforce what he deemed to be “the eternal truth of God.” Yet like other
men, he was intolerant, overbearing, and greedy of power. The party who
faithfully adhered to him were naturally suspicious, and dreaded that a
reaction might be attempted; and for the protection of their own lives,
and the safety of the reformed faith, they were always on the outlook
and ready to frustrate the machinations of those who were opposed to
it. That the utmost vigilance was necessary for the success of their
cause, they were well aware. Their scheme of life was narrow, and many
of their ideas extremely crude. But the Reformation on the other hand
embraced the elements of a social and religious revolution. It went
to the roots of evil, stirred the inmost thoughts of men, and aimed
at the elevation of society, from the humble tiller of the ground
to the occupant of the throne. Underneath all the rudeness of the
reformed preachers, there was the moving, invisible flow of the moral
principle――the consciousness of a God before and above all, and the
conviction of the justice of their cause. They believed that the
decrees of the Almighty were irresistible in their sweep. It was
chiefly in the “eternal decree” that the intensity of Calvinism rested;
and this absolute dogma was the secret of the influence which Calvin
so long wielded over the minds of men. So long as there was no question
touching the power of the mind to discover this decree, its influence
had full swing, and remained unimpaired.
The nobles and barons had gathered from all quarters to welcome Queen
Mary; but the trying circumstances in which she was placed, soon became
apparent. Though her personal talent for government was conspicuous,
she never had a fair chance as a Queen in Scotland. On Sunday, four
days after her arrival, when the preparations began to be made for the
celebration of mass in the royal chapel, the Reformers were greatly
offended. The more zealous of them openly asked whether this idol
should be again suffered, even in the Queen’s chapel. When it appeared
that there would be an attack upon the priest, the Queen’s brother, the
Lord James, guarded the chapel door during the service. After it was
over, John and Robert Stuart, other two natural brothers of the Queen,
took the priest between them and conducted him safely to his chamber.¹
¹ Knox, Volume II., pages 270‒271.
The following day a proclamation was issued, announcing that the
Queen was to make no alteration in the form of religion which she had
found existing when she returned to her kingdom, without the consent
of parliament. The people were enjoined to make no attempts either
publicly or privately to change the form of religion; but at the same
time the proclamation commanded that no one should molest any of the
Queen’s French followers or servants, for any cause whatever, under
the penalty of death.¹ On the following Sunday Knox inveighed against
idolatry, and declared what terrible plagues God had sent upon the
nations who indulged in this false worship. He had a special hatred
at the service of the mass, and dreaded the effects of allowing the
Queen to engage in the exercise of the Roman Catholic worship. In the
circumstances there was reasonable ground for his apprehension.²
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 266‒267;
1877.
² Knox, Volume II., pages 296‒277, Anderson’s _Collections_.
Queen Mary was naturally extremely annoyed at the outspoken proceedings
of the preachers, and resolved to try the effect of her wit upon
Knox himself. The Reformer had a long dialogue with the Queen which
is reported in his history. The Queen tackled him on a variety of
points, chiefly political; and even according to Knox’s report, clearly
held her own in the argument, showing at every turn a quickness of
perception and a dialectic tact which brought out the unyielding and
intolerant features of Knox’s character.¹
¹ Knox, Volume II., 277‒286.
Mary’s government, notwithstanding the alarm of the Protestants, was
for some years conducted with unusual success. Her brother, Lord James,
was placed at the head of affairs; and Maitland of Lethington, a man
of ability, was Secretary of State, and played an active part in the
Government. In September Mary made a progress to Linlithgow, Stirling,
Perth, Dundee, and St. Andrews, and was everywhere well received by
the citizens. She returned to Edinburgh in the end of September; but
Knox complained that she had polluted the places she had visited with
idolatry. Means were taken to punish the lawless Borderers and to
restore order amongst them, but with little success.¹
¹ _Diurnal of Occurrents_, page 69; Volume II., page 287;
_Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 163‒165,
167, 168, 184.
As yet the Reformed Church was merely on sufferance; the head of the
State was a confirmed Roman Catholic; and there was no provision made
for the Protestant preachers. Knox and other ardent reformers had been
much mistaken when they supposed that the Lords of the Congregation
who had so actively assisted in pulling down the Roman hierarchy, would
also be ready to transfer its property to the new Church. The preachers
had rather foolishly imagined that the nobles, who at first had stuck
so close to the good cause, were really actuated by pure religious
motives and honest convictions. When the practical proposals for the
disposal of the lands and the wealth of the old establishment came
under their consideration their eyes were opened. The reformed clergy
desired the Parliament and Queen to ratify the First Book of Discipline,
but the reforming lords now asked in jeering tones――“How many of
those who subscribed that book would be subject to it?” Maitland
of Lethington said――“Many subscribed it in _fide parentum_, as the
bairns are baptized.” In the face of the remonstrances of Knox himself,
another of the lords said――“Stand content, that book will not be
obtained.” Then said Knox, “Let God require the lack which this poor
commonwealth shall sustain of the things therein contained from the
hands of such as stop the same.”¹
¹ Knox, Volume II., pages 295‒298.
By an Act of the Privy Council, 22nd of December, 1561, it was proposed
to appropriate a third of the revenue of all the benefices in the
kingdom to the Crown. The Catholic bishops and clergy who were still in
possession, were to retain the rents and proceeds of their benefices,
except the third which was to be applied to the purposes of the Queen
and the government of the country, and to making a reasonable provision
for the Protestant ministry. The rentals of all the benefices in the
kingdom were ordered to be given in at a specified time, that the
amount of the thirds might be ascertained and the arrangements carried
out. A Royal Commission was appointed with power to carry the Act
into effect, but those who were in possession of the benefices seem
to have paid little or no heed to it. On the 12th of February, 1562,
the Council complained, “That the Queen’s Majesty and the Council,
and others appointed by her for receiving the said rentals, have
continually since the said 24th of January awaited upon the receiving
thereof; yet only a very small number of them have produced their
rentals, contemning thereby not only Her Grace’s ordinance and
proclamation, but also herself and her authority, like as if they
were princes and not subjects, expressly against reason, equity, and
justice.” Her Majesty and the Council therefore resolved to appoint
factors to intromit, gather, uplift, and receive the rentals in all
cases where they had not been given in according to the ordinance.¹
The reformed clergy were extremely displeased with this arrangement,
and Knox expressed his opinion on its defects as usual with great
freedom: “Well, if the end of this order pretended to be taken for the
sustentation of the ministers be happy, my judgment faileth me; for I
am assured that the Spirit of God is not the author of it; for, first,
I see two parts freely given to the devil, and the third part must be
divided between God and the devil. Well, be witness to me, that this
day I say it, or it be long, the devil shall have three parts of the
third; and judge you then what God’s portion shall be.” Many were
offended at this language, and some were not ashamed to affirm that,
“After the ministers were sustained the Queen will not get at the end
of the year as much as to buy her a pair of new shoes.”² Knox was
pretty near the truth, for by grants of lands, long leases, alienations,
pensions, actual seizure by force, and other means, the nobles and
gentry swallowed up the greater part of the property and revenue of the
Roman Church.³
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 192‒194,
196, 199, 201‒203, 204‒206. Among the public records there
are several volumes of accounts of the collectors of the
thirds of benefices, beginning in 1562.
² Knox, Volume II., page 310.
³ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 287‒288,
412‒413, 477‒479, 487‒488, 573‒575, _et seq._
The stipends granted to the reformed ministers were not large. The sum
fixed for the ordinary ministers was to range from one hundred marks
to three hundred. But from various causes even this small sum was very
irregularly paid, and the ministers were constantly complaining in the
General Assembly. Some persons had the audacity to tell them that many
of the barons had not so much to spend as they had; but this comparison
was deemed unfair and inapt, as a baron might augment his rent by
engaging in other business, while a minister had no other source of
income but his stipend, and required books and quietness in order to
study and work to edify the Church of Christ. When the clergy put these
reasons before the authorities and complained of their poverty, they
were told that the Queen could not spare greater sums. The preachers,
however, often sounded into their ears――“O, happy servants of the devil,
and miserable servants of Jesus Christ, if after this life there was
not a hell and a heaven! For to the servants of the devil, to your dumb
dogs, and horned bishops, to one of these idle bellies, ten thousand
a-year was not enough; but to the servants of Christ who laboriously
preach the Gospel, a thousand pounds; how can that be sustained?”
Lethington, the Queen’s secretary of state, said that the ministers
were paid so much every year by the Queen, and he asked, “Was there
ever a minister that gave thanks to God for her Majesty’s liberality
towards them.” Then “one smiled and answered, Assuredly, I think that
such as receive anything gratis of the Queen, are unthankful if they
acknowledge it not, both in heart and speech; but whether the ministers
be of that rank or not I greatly doubt. Gratis, I am assured, they
receive nothing, and whether they receive anything at all from the
Queen wise men may dispute. I am assured that neither the third nor
two parts ever appertained to her predecessors within the realm these
thousand years bypast; neither has the Queen a better title to that
which she usurps, be it given to others, or taken to herself, than such
as crucified Christ Jesus had to divide his garments among them. And if
the truth may be spoken, she has not so good a title as they had; for
such spoil used to be the reward of such men, and in that point these
soldiers were more gentle than the Queen and her flatterers, for they
parted not the garments of our Master till that he himself was hung
upon the cross; but she and her flatterers part the spoil while poor
Christ is yet preached amongst you.... Let the Catholics, who have the
two parts, some that have their thirds free, and some that have gotten
abbacies and feu lands, thank the Queen, and sing _Placebo Dominæ_. The
poor preachers will not yet flatter for feeding their belly.”¹
¹ Knox, Volume II., pages 311‒313; _Book of the Universal
Kirk_, pages 16, 17, 23, 30, 47, 48.
But dissatisfied as the Protestant ministers were with Mary, her
proceedings were probably much more displeasing to the magnate of
the north, the Earl of Huntly. The Earldom of Moray was detached from
Huntly’s possessions and conferred on Lord James, who was henceforth
known as the Earl of Moray. Huntly had not changed his religion, but
throughout the religious struggle his chief aim had apparently been
to retain his vast territories and his influence in the north. Various
incidents and circumstances indicated that Moray had resolved to
crush him. The house of Huntly had long ruled supreme over the smaller
chiefs in the northern Highlands, and had sometimes committed acts of
oppression and injustice amongst them. In August, 1562, the Queen and
Moray moved northwards; Huntly suspected that mischief was brewing
against him, and sent his wife to Aberdeen to meet the royal party
and to ascertain their purpose. The Countess invited the Queen to
♦Strathbogie Castle, but Mary declined, and proceeded by Rothiemay, and
onward to Inverness. The gates of the Castle of Inverness were closed
against the Queen, but it was besieged, and taken, and the garrison
hanged. Some of the clans, including the Clan Chattan, the Camerons,
and the Monros who had been under Huntly, now that they had an
opportunity, deserted his standard and joined the Queen. When the royal
party were returning to Aberdeen, Huntly with a body of his retainers
followed them, marching well up along the heights to the Hill of Fare,
in Midmar, where the battle of Corrichie was fought on the 28th of
October, 1562. The royal troops under Moray were victorious, and the
Earl of Huntly himself was slain, his followers scattered, and two
of his sons captured. Two days after the battle, five gentlemen of
the Gordon clan were hanged on the Castlegate of Aberdeen; and three
days later, Huntly’s son, Sir John Gordon, was executed at the same
place, “greatly pitied, for he was a manly youth, exceedingly handsome,
and just in the opening bloom of life.” George Gordon, the late
Earl’s eldest son, was seized and imprisoned in the Castle of Dunbar.
Strathbogie Castle was then rifled. Many of its rich furnishings and
ornaments were taken to Holyrood House; others of them were carried by
Moray to the Castle of Darnaway to fit up his newly acquired residence
in this ancient Earldom, which was once held by James Stuart, a natural
son of James IV. George Gordon was tried for treason, convicted, and
sentenced to be executed. But in 1565 he was pardoned by the Queen, and
restored to his titles and lands as fifth Earl of Huntly. Thus Moray
managed to crush and humble the great house of Huntly only for a time.
Early in November, 1562, the Queen proceeded from Aberdeen southward
by Dundee, Perth, Stirling, and reached Edinburgh on the 21st of the
month.¹
♦ “Stratbogie” replaced with “Strathbogie”
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 218, 219,
220, 222; _Diurnal of Occurrents_, pages 73, 74; Buchanan,
Book XVII., chapter 36, 37.
The Court stayed in Edinburgh during the winter. The gaiety of the
Queen and her courtiers gave much offence to Knox and the reformed
preachers; and they were extremely outspoken touching the excessive
banqueting and dancing of the Court. It was said that some of the
dances then fashionable in the Queen’s Court were indecorous and
immoral, and that it was against these that Knox declaimed. It is
evident, however, that from the first the reformed clergy of Scotland
went too far in limiting and in denouncing almost every form of
amusement. But Knox had also a suspicion that Queen Mary’s dancing
was the expression of her heterodoxy and malignancy. As, “among other
things, he was assured,” he said in a sermon, “that the Queen had
danced excessively till after midnight, because she had received
letters that persecution was begun in France, and that her uncles
were beginning to stir their tails, and to trouble the whole realm of
France.” When the Queen heard of this sermon, she sent for Knox, and
accused him of having spoken irreverently of the Queen, of endeavouring
to make her an object of hatred and contempt amongst her people, and of
having exceeded the limits of his text. In self-defence, the Reformer
proposed to rehearse from memory what he had said in the pulpit; and
proceeded to deliver one of the most plain and vehement harangues ever
uttered in the presence of a monarch. “The complaint of Solomon is
this day most true, to wit: That violence and oppression do occupy the
throne of God here in this earth: for, while murderers, blood-thirsty
men, oppressors, and malefactors dare be bold to present themselves
before kings and princes, and the poor saints of God are banished and
exiled, what shall we say? But that the devil has taken possession in
the throne of God, which ought to be fearful to all wicked doers, and a
refuge to the innocent and oppressed. And how can it be otherwise? For
princes will not understand; they will not be learned as God commands
them. But God’s law they despise, His statutes and holy ordinances
they will not understand; for in fiddling and flinging they are more
exercised than in reading and hearing God’s most blessed word; and
fiddlers and flatterers are more precious in their eyes than men of
wisdom and gravity, who by wholesome admonition might beat down into
them some part of that vanity and pride whereinto all are born, but
in princes it takes deep root and strength by wicked education. And
dancing, Madam, I said, that albeit in Scripture I find no praise
of it, and in profane writings, that it is termed the gesture rather
of them that are mad and in phrensy than of sober men: yet I do not
utterly condemn it, provided ♦two vices be avoided; the former, that
the principal vocation of those who use that exercise be not neglected
for the pleasure of dancing, and secondly, that they dance not, as
the Philistines their fathers, for the pleasure that they take in the
displeasure of God’s people.” The Queen looked around and said――“Your
words are sharp enough as you have spoken them; but yet they were told
to me in another manner. I know that my uncles and you are not of one
religion, and therefore I cannot blame you, albeit you have no good
opinion of them.”¹
♦ “too” replaced with “two”
¹ Knox, Volume II., pages 330‒335.
The idea of religious toleration was adopted by the Protestants
in practice, no more than it was by the Roman Catholics. The only
difference between them was, that the first had introduced a principle
which would ultimately develop a spirit of toleration; whereas on this
point the principle of Romanism never changes, however circumstances
may modify its practical operation. As might naturally be expected
there was still a considerable section of the people unconverted to the
Protestant opinions, especially in the north, where the power of the
local Catholic ruler was only newly broken. In several other quarters
of the kingdom, where the influence of the local chief was on the
side of the old religion, the Catholic worship still prevailed. The
Protestant clergy insisted that the laws against the Romanists should
be enforced; but the government was negligent, and the preachers
threatened to take the matter into their own hands; as they firmly
believed themselves to be justified according to the command of God
to extinguish all idolatry. They apprehended some priests in the west,
and intimated to others that punishment awaited them. The Queen again
sent for Knox and once more tried her wit and policy upon him; and
this time she managed him far better than usual, and the two parted
on good terms. She promised to summon the offending Catholics, and to
show the Reformer that she would administer justice; and he blessed
her and departed.¹ The Catholics were accordingly summoned to appear at
Edinburgh before the Justiciary Court on the 19th of May, 1563. There
were about forty-eight persons brought before the court, and amongst
them the Archbishop of St. Andrews. They were accused of celebrating
and attending mass. Most of them were imprisoned in Edinburgh and
Dumbarton, and some in other places; but none of them was executed.²
It need hardly be said that the Queen was unwilling to punish the
professors of her own religion, but she yielded to the clamour of the
Protestants thus far, for the sake of other advantages.
¹ Knox, Volume II., pages 370‒376; _Diurnal of Occurrents_,
pages 75‒76.
² Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_, Volume I., page 472; _Diurnal_,
page 75; _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume III., pages
160‒161.
Parliament met at Edinburgh on the 26th of May, 1563, but it did little
to strengthen the walls of the reformed Church. Articles were presented
for moderating the excess of dress, and for the reformation of other
enormities; but they were all shuffled aside. The Acts of 1560 which
abolished Catholicism were not even mentioned. But an Act was passed
which gave full protection to all who had been connected with the
rebellious proceedings between the 6th of March, 1558, and the 1st of
September, 1561. This Act afforded much satisfaction to many of the
nobles, as it in a measure secured to them the lands on which they
had laid hands during the period of conflict and confusion: but the
preachers were not pleased with it, nor with any of the acts of this
parliament. Other enactments were passed touching the punishment of
witchcraft, adultery, and the restitution of the glebes and manses
to the ministers of the Church;¹ yet this did little to appease the
wrath of Knox. Before parliament dissolved, he preached a sermon in
the presence of the nobles, and spoke very plainly. “The Queen, say ye,
will not agree with us: Ask ye of her that which by God’s word ye may
justly require, and if she will not agree with you in God, ye are not
bound to agree with her in the devil. Let her plainly understand so
far of your minds, and steal not from your former stoutness in God, and
ye shall prosper in your enterprises. But I can see nothing but such
a recoiling from Christ Jesus, as the man that first and most speedily
fleeth Christ’s banner, holds himself most happy. Yea, I hear that some
say, that we have nothing of our religion established either by law or
parliament. Albeit that the malicious words of such can neither hurt
the truth of God, nor yet us who thereupon depend, yet the speaker for
his treason committed against God, and against this poor commonwealth,
deserves the gallows. For our religion being commanded, and so
established by God, was accepted within this realm in public parliament;
and if they will say that was no parliament, we must, and will say, and
also prove, that that parliament was as lawful as ever any that passed
before it within the realm.... And now, my Lords, to put an end to all,
I hear of the Queen’s marriage: dukes, brethren, to emperors and kings,
strive all for the best game; but this, my Lords, will I say (note
the day, and bear witness after) whensoever the nobility of Scotland
professing the Lord Jesus, consents that an infidel (and all papists
are infidels), shall be head to our sovereign, ye do so far as in ye
lieth to banish Christ Jesus from this realm; ye bring God’s vengeance
upon the country, a plague upon yourselves, and perchance ye shall do
small comfort to your sovereign.”²
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., pages
536‒538.
² Knox, Volume II., pages 382‒386.
This came rather near an assumption of the gift of prophecy. There is
an element of supreme boldness, intense earnestness, and not a little
arrogance in it. But Knox had unquestionably a clearer view of the real
difficulty and danger which was then menacing the reformed Church, than
any other man in Scotland. That his language was strong, seething, and
sometimes rebellious, must be admitted; yet underneath it all he had
an unbending, unswerving, and true moral conviction, which he followed
with an unflinching resoluteness of will rarely equalled. He was
well aware that Catholicism in other countries was beginning to show
unmistakable signs of fresh activity and power; it had reorganised its
armies, and was rapidly recovering from the effects of the first shock
of the Reformation; in many things indeed Catholicism had reformed
itself. Though the fascinating smiles and enchantments of Queen Mary
had failed to cast their spell over Knox, they had won for her the
hearts of many. Day by day the prospects of the Protestants in Scotland
were becoming darker; and Knox adopted a special form of prayer for the
conversion of the Queen, the good of the kingdom, and the preservation
of the light of the word of God.¹ The prayer for the Queen was couched
in an extreme strain of phraseology, and it is not surprising that it
offended her. The current of events in Scotland seemed likely soon to
engulf the Protestant party and their Church in a sea of trouble. The
Queen was meditating and preparing for her marriage with a branch of
the Lennox family. The Earl of Lennox, after twenty years of banishment,
arrived at Edinburgh on the 23rd of September, 1564. Parliament met in
December and restored to him the family estates and titles. In the end
of the year the General Assembly met at Edinburgh, and petitioned the
Queen to put the laws in execution against the sayers and hearers of
mass, who were then so numerous throughout the kingdom.²
¹ Knox, Volume II., pages 387‒392, 428.
² _Diurnal of Occurrents_, page 77; Keith, Volume II., page
228; 1845. _Book of the Universal Kirk_, page 53.
Henry, Lord Darnley, the eldest son of the Earl of Lennox, came to
Edinburgh on the 12th of February, 1565. A few days after, he visited
the Queen at Wemyss Castle in Fife; and soon found himself at a height
of fortune far too dazzling for his poorly gifted nature. He was quite
a youth, blooming and handsome, vain and full of ambition, but utterly
void of ability and moral character; and before he had been many weeks
at the Scottish court, he had made the Protestant lords his enemies.
The Earls of Moray, Morton, and Glencairn disliked him; and Moray,
who had been at the head of affairs since the return of the Queen from
France, soon began to feel that his influence and power were slipping
away. Darnley was a Roman Catholic, which further intensified the
complications throughout the nation. Moray at length began to concert
measures to prevent his marriage with the Queen.¹ A special meeting
of the nobles and chief officers of State was held at Stirling in
May 1565; and Mary announced to it her intention to marry Darnley.
The Protestants became greatly alarmed. They seemed to think that a
reaction was impending, and that at any moment the Queen might proclaim
the restoration of Catholicism. The Queen had intended to hold a
parliament at Perth to sanction her marriage; but the attitude which
Moray and his party assumed, rendered the step unsafe.²
¹ Keith, Volume II., pages 263‒265, 268‒275.
² _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 334‒336;
Knox, Volume II., pages 478‒482.
The General Assembly met at Edinburgh on the 23rd of June, 1565, and
at once proceeded to adopt measures for the suppression of the mass and
other Catholic practices. They demanded that all popery, idolatry, and
jurisdiction of the Pope should be utterly extinguished throughout the
kingdom, not only among the people but also in the Queen’s own person
and household, without any exception. Mary’s answer to this demand
was very candid. She said, that she did not believe in the Protestant
religion, nor that there was anything wrong in the mass, that she
believed the Catholic religion to be well grounded; and she therefore
desired her subjects not to press her to receive any religion against
her conscience; as she had never pressed them, they should not press
her. She also stated that if she changed her religion, she would lose
the friendship of the King of France and other great princes, who
were her firm allies, to whom she could look for support in all her
necessities and difficulties; and that she would be indeed extremely
reluctant to hazard the loss of all these advantages in an instant.¹
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 59, 67.
Meanwhile the Earl of Moray had broken off from the court, and
meditated a rebellion. On the 15th of July, he and his party met at
Stirling to consult upon their project. The same day the Queen issued
a proclamation at Edinburgh, announcing that she intended to make no
change in religion, and intimating to all her loyal subjects to prepare
themselves to attend her for fifteen days in the field, and to be ready
to appear the instant they were charged. The Queen and her adherents
were too active and numerous on this occasion for Moray and his party.
Seven days later a general muster of the Crown vassals was ordered.
Offers were made to Moray to appear before the council and obtain
satisfaction; but in vain. Mary ordered her intended marriage to be
publicly proclaimed; and on the 29th of July she and Darnley were
joined in wedlock amid rejoicing at Holyrood.¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 339, 343,
345, 346; _Diurnal of Occurrents_, pages 79‒80.
Various rumours were afloat as to the conflict between the Queen and
her nobles. Some said that it had its origin in envy, ambition, and
hatred, rather than in religion. The newly married pair, however, began
their reign by adopting vigorous measures. Moray and the Protestant
nobles who had joined him, were declared rebels: and to crush them
swiftly, the feudal vassals of the Crown were at short intervals
summoned anew to muster and rally round their King and Queen. Their
majesties also raised considerable sums of money from the citizens and
burgesses for licenses to absent themselves from the army. The disloyal
nobles, the Duke of Chatelherault, the Earls of Moray, Glencairn,
Argyle, Rothes, and other barons, had mustered about a thousand of
their followers. They soon found that the Queen and her party were too
strong for them. Mary at this time was exceedingly well served, and the
action of her government was prompt and decisive.¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 347, 348,
349, 350, 353‒363; _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume
III., pages 198, 200, 201, 202‒203. This old feudal mode of
raising an army then began to be felt a severe burden, and
♦people in business were glad to pay a sum of money to be
allowed to remain at home. But those who remained away from
the army without license, were brought before the courts
and fined; and it appears that a number of persons had not
answered the Queen’s calls to join the host. _Diurnal of
Occurrents_, pages 80‒81; Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_,
Volume I.
♦ “pesple” replaced with “people”
The provost of Edinburgh was an adherent of the Protestant Lords, and
the Queen at once commanded the town council to discharge him from his
office, and named another to be elected in his place. About the same
time the court had ordered the magistrates of the capital to suspend
Knox from preaching, but this the council firmly refused to do; and
several of the citizens fled to the banished Lords. On the other hand,
Lord George Gordon was restored to honour and to the Lordship of Gordon,
by royal proclamation at Edinburgh. The Queen now recalled Bothwell,
whom Moray hated, and had contrived to keep out of Scotland for several
years. He was then residing in France, and landed at Eyemouth on the
17th of September. He immediately proceeded to the court, and was there
graciously received by Mary, who restored him to all his hereditary
titles and offices. Along with the Earl of Lennox, he was appointed
commander-in-chief of the army, which the Queen and Darnley personally
accompanied. The rebellious lords after various moves and efforts found
themselves unable to face the royal army in the field. They retired to
Dumfries, and there issued a manifesto on the 8th of September, 1565,
calling upon the Protestants to rally round them. But few joined their
standard. They had rashly calculated on receiving assistance from
England, but none came; and on the approach of the Queen’s army, led
by Bothwell, they disbanded their followers, and retired beyond the
Border.¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 369, 372,
379, 384; _Diurnal of Occurrents_, pages 80‒84. In regard to
Knox the town council of Edinburgh came to this conclusion
――“On the 23rd of August, 1565, the bailies, council, and
deacons, being convened in the council-house, after long
reasoning upon the discharge of John Knox, minister, to
forbare preaching, during the stay of the king and queen in
this town, all in one voice concluded and delivers that they
will in no manner of way consent or grant that his mouth be
closed or he discharged from preaching the true word, and
therefore willed him at his pleasure, as God should move his
heart, to proceed forward in true doctrine as he had done
before, which doctrine they would approve and abide at to
their life’s end.”――_Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume
III., pages 199‒200.
The Queen and her government were now victorious, and many of the
Protestants dreaded that the Reformation would soon be extinguished in
Scotland. At the time there were many schemes and plots on hand among
the Roman Catholic States of Europe, and more in the fountain head――the
Curia of Rome――for the total overthrow of heresy and all its works.
Spain was deeply interested in the recovery of Britain to the Holy
See;¹ but the stream of events swept away this dream.
¹ Ranke’s _History of the Popes_, Volume I., page 406,
_et seq._
The marriage of the Queen with Darnley turned out to be extremely
unfortunate. She discovered when too late that her husband was a
vicious, vain, and childish fool, utterly unfitted to be her companion
and guide. Their domestic quarrels soon became notorious. The Queen
had several foreigners in her service. One of them named Riccio acted
as her foreign secretary. He seems to have enjoyed her confidence,
and was occasionally consulted by her on important matters. Darnley,
however, began to think that Riccio was his enemy, and fancied that he
had prevented the Queen from granting to him the Crown matrimonial. He
ran from one silly thought to another, until he came to the conclusion
that Riccio had frustrated his aim.¹ This is characteristic of all
weak-minded and naturally vain persons. They fancy that some one has
set himself purposely to defeat them; while all the time the cause of
their defeat is in their own defects. The Scottish nobles at once saw
Darnley’s weakness, and seeking a way to restore the rebel lords, they
fixed upon him as their tool, and on Riccio as their victim.
¹ Sir James Melville’s _Memoirs_, pages 132‒134, 136‒140; 1827.
A parliament was summoned to meet at Edinburgh on the 4th of March,
1566, to confiscate the lands of the banished lords. They had many
friends in Scotland and even in the government; but, although they
had made incessant efforts to obtain pardon and to be restored, the
Queen still held out against them. The Scottish nobles have never been
deficient in devising bold plots for the overthrow of their enemies
and the attainment of their ends. Accordingly Morton the Chancellor,
Lord Ruthven, Lord Lindsay of the Byres, and others, now entered into
a bond with Darnley for the murder of Riccio and the restoration of
the banished Lords, Moray and his associates, and pledged themselves
in return to procure for him the Crown matrimonial, on which he set
so much store.¹ It is plain, however, that Darnley was a mere tool in
the hands of the nobles. They had no intention of elevating him to the
throne. Their chief aim was to prevent the meeting of parliament, and
thus preserve intact the estates of the rebel lords. Probably they
foresaw that Darnley would prove false, and thus throw himself outside
the bond.
¹ _Ibid._, page 148; Keith, Volume III., pages 260‒263.
The plot was exceedingly well matured and everything was prepared for
its realisation. On the 7th March, 1566, parliament was opened by the
Queen in person. Darnley, instead of accompanying her, rode off to
Leith to enjoy himself among his companions. The first business of the
parliament was to summon the exiled nobles to appear before it on the
12th of March; but they were already moving towards Edinburgh.
The evening of the 9th of March was fixed by the conspirators for the
consummation of their dismal deed. The Earl of Morton commanded a body
of one hundred and sixty armed men, and took possession of the inner
court of the palace and secured all the gates; a party of these men
took up their position in the royal audience chamber on the ground
floor; thence Darnley ascended to the Queen’s apartments and Lord
Ruthven followed him. They found their victim sitting with his cap on
his head in her Majesty’s presence, along with a small social party
in the Queen’s supping-room. Some parley and sharp talk passed between
the Queen and Ruthven; but suddenly more of the conspirators rushed
in, instantly the tables and chairs were overturned in the scuffle,
and David Riccio was seized and dragged to an outer room, and there
stabbed to death. A guard was placed over the Queen; but in spite of
their vigilance several gentlemen escaped, and warned the citizens
of Edinburgh. The common bell was wrung, and the people rushed to the
palace with torch lights. They demanded the instant deliverance of the
Queen; but she was not permitted to speak to them: Darnley appeared and
assured the citizens that the Queen was quite safe, and commanded them
to go home. Darnley and Ruthven then prepared two proclamations to be
issued next day in the name of the King, the one ordering the citizens
of Edinburgh to keep order in the streets, and the other dissolving
the parliament, and commanding all the members to leave the city within
three hours, except those whom the King might request to remain. Lord
Ruthven placed men to watch the gates and all the private passages;
but in spite of the utmost vigilance of the conspirators, the Earls of
Bothwell and Huntly managed to escape during the night.¹
¹ Sir James Melville’s _Memoirs_, page 149; _Diurnal of
Occurrents_, pages 89‒90; _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_,
Volume III., page 214; Keith, Volume II., pages 414‒418.
The following day, Sunday, the banished lords arrived in the evening,
and were ready to make the most of the peculiar circumstances. They
took possession of Edinburgh, and frustrated the proceedings of
parliament. But Mary soon disengaged her husband from the nobles, who
had murdered her favourite, and there can be no doubt that he was duped
by the Queen as well as by the nobles. He had neither the ability, the
resolution, nor even the recognised rough honesty of his day, to carry
him through such a plot. Mary and he slipped out a little past midnight
on Tuesday morning, and rode to Seton House, whence they were escorted
to Dunbar Castle.¹
¹ _Diurnal of Occurrents_, pages 92‒98; Sir James Melville’s
_Memoirs_, page 151.
When the confederate nobles rose that morning they found that they had
been completely outwitted, and that they were in imminent danger. A
large force quickly rallied round the Queen, who at once advanced upon
Edinburgh. The opposing party of nobles were unprepared to meet her
army, and immediately dispersed; Morton and Ruthven fled to England,
others fled to the Highlands, and some of them went home to their
estates. After a short time the Queen pardoned Moray, and some of his
associates; but on those directly concerned in the murder of Riccio,
she seemed determined to be revenged. Darnley exhibited the baseness of
his nature by loudly denouncing his fellow-murderers. His treachery he
hoped would win back the esteem and regain for him the love of his wife.
In reality it only made him loathsome to her, while the nobles regarded
him as an object of hatred and utter contempt.¹ When the Queen returned
to the capital, Knox left it and went to Kyle. Many persons were
apprehended in Edinburgh and accused of being concerned in the murder
of Riccio, but only two men were executed――Thomas Scott, Sheriff-Depute
of Perth, and Henry Yair.² On the 8th of June, 1566, the Council passed
an act commanding the people not to receive or entertain the Earl of
Morton, Lord Lindsay, the Master of Ruthven, and other thirty persons
named, because they were implicated in the vile and treasonable
slaughter of David Riccio, her Majesty’s French Secretary. All these
and some more of their accomplices were denounced as rebels and outlaws,
for not appearing before the Council and answering to the charges
against them.³
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 446‒437,
456‒457.
² Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_, Volume I., pages 480, 481.
³ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 462‒464.
The Queen retired into the castle of Edinburgh, and on the 19th of
June, 1566, James VI. of Scotland and I. of England, was born. After
this event the Queen showed a disposition to listen to the suggestions
for reconciliation with the nobles who had rebelled against her. Moray,
Argyle, Glencairn, and others of the Protestant party, were re-admitted
to a share in the administration, although Bothwell and Huntly were
at the head of the government. Mary rewarded Bothwell for his very
important service by appointing him Keeper of Dunbar Castle.¹
¹ _Ibid._, Volume I., pages 374, 464, 468; _Burgh Records of
Edinburgh_, Volume III., page 219.
The series of events leading up to the murder of Darnley, the ♦marriage
of the Queen with Bothwell, and her subsequent imprisonment, have often
been detailed at great length. All that can be attempted here is to
indicate the motives of the chief actors and the circumstances which
controlled the form of the drama. On the one hand, we have the Queen
and her husband; Mary was a good Catholic and really wished to stand
well in the eyes of the Pope and the other Catholic rulers of Europe.
She was a woman of great energy and remarkable talents. Up to the time
of the birth of her son, she may be said, when everything is taken into
account, to have acted in the government of the country with surprising
moderation and fairness. But her feelings were extremely keen, her
sentiments tender and kindly, her emotions and passions strong; withal
she was a woman of exceptional polish and commanding presence. On
the other hand, Darnley had acted in a very singular way towards his
wife. He had exhibited so much folly, falsehood, depravity, and such
utter stupidity, that he must have completely alienated the Queen
from him; while on the other side, he had unpardonably offended
the pride and aroused the hatred of a party of the nobles, whose
revenge was deep and never slumbered. His doom was therefore settled.
Indeed, the aristocracy had long been following a line of policy
which tended directly to depress the authority of the Crown, and
they were not likely to let the opportunity slip, which a concurrence
of circumstances was now offering, without turning it to their own
advantage.
♦ “marrriage” replaced with “marriage”
The plot for the murder of Darnley, which seems to have originated with
Lethington, was soon concocted. According to custom a bond was drawn
up by Sir James Balfour, an experienced lawyer, and a firm friend of
Bothwell. This bond declared that Darnley――“was a young fool and tyrant,
and unworthy to rule over them.” They therefore bound themselves to
remove him by some means or another, and each engaged to stand true
to the other in this deadly enterprise. The bond was subscribed by
the Earls of Argyle, Huntly, and Bothwell, Lethington the Secretary
of State, Sir James Balfour, and others who joined in the conspiracy.
Their victim had become sick, and was visited by the Queen at Glasgow,
whence he was conveyed to Edinburgh on the last day of January 1567. He
was put into a house close to the city wall, called Kirk-of-Field, and
here the Queen was very attentive to him and for several nights before
the murder slept in the room immediately below him. At last everything
seems to have been prepared, and the evening of Sunday the 9th of
February, was fixed for his murder. When the day arrived everything at
the court was going on in the most natural and joyful fashion; the Earl
of Moray had left to join his wife at St. Andrews; and on the evening
fixed for the murder a marriage was to be celebrated between two of
the Queen’s servants. Meanwhile the servants of Bothwell and the Earl
himself were intently engaged in making the final preparations for the
horrible deed. The conspirators had resolved to blow up the house with
powder. After dark they placed a large quantity of that destructive
element in the room below the king, Bothwell himself superintending
the operations. About ten o’clock in the evening the Queen arrived from
Holyrood to join her husband, and passing the door of her own bedroom,
entered the apartment of the king. Some agreeable conversation passed
between them; and then the Queen recollected that she had promised to
attend the ball to be held that night in honour of her two servants’
marriage. She bade the King farewell and departed, with Bothwell and
Huntly and her attendants to Holyrood; and apparently only two of the
conspirators remained behind at the King’s lodgings. In spite of all
the care that had been taken by the contrivers of this dolesome plot,
there appears to have been a hitch in their proceedings. It is pretty
evident that Darnley and his servant had discovered their danger and
attempted to escape, and had got some distance away when they were
caught in the garden and strangled. Bothwell with a company of his
followers returned from the palace about midnight, and joined the two
conspirators, who had already lighted the train. The explosion shook
the earth for miles around, and all the inhabitants of Edinburgh were
aroused from their sleep. The murderers had to escape swiftly. Bothwell
ran to his apartments in the palace and immediately went to bed, only
to be awakened as if from slumber half an hour afterwards, by a message
informing him of the tragedy. He then, like an innocent man, shouted
“Treason! treason!” and along with the Earl of Huntly called on the
Queen to tell her what had happened.¹
¹ Sir James Melville’s _Memoirs_, pages 173, 174; Keith, Volume
II., pages 501‒507; _Diurnal of Occurrents_, pages 105, 106;
Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_, Volume I.; Chalmers’s _Life
of Queen Mary_, Volume I. And a very full account of all
the proceedings in the fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters of
Hosack’s _Mary Queen of Scots_, 1870.
It was well known at the time that the chief actor in this great
crime was Bothwell, but at the moment no one would have been safe to
accuse him. Many of the nobles were directly, and others indirectly,
implicated in it. The confused state of feeling and belief, and the
traditional policy of the nobles introduced a variety of motives into
the breasts of these desperate men.¹ The murder caused great excitement
among the people, owing more to the unusual way in which it was
committed, than to any feelings of compassion or humanity. Voices were
heard at night in the streets of Edinburgh denouncing the murderers. On
the 12th of February, a statement emanated from the Privy Council which
announced “that two hours after midnight, the house where the late
King’s grace was lodged, was in an instant blown in the air, while he
was sleeping in his bed, with such force and vehemence that the whole
lodging was destroyed and driven to dross to the very ground stone;
and not long thereafter the bodies of his grace and of a servant were
found dead within a short space of the same lodging.” A reward of two
thousand pounds and a grant of lands was offered to any one who should
discover the murderers of the King; but no one ventured to claim the
reward by an open accusation, although a bill was fixed to the door
of the parliament house, naming Bothwell, Balfour, Chambers, and
John Spense, as the guilty parties; and another placard named others
of the inferior actors in the tragedy. On the 14th of the month the
remains of the King were privately interred in the Chapel of Holyrood.
The following day the Queen, with Huntly, Argyle, Bothwell, and
the Archbishop of St. Andrews, removed to the house of Lord Seton;
and it was observed at the time that more inquiry was made for the
authors of the placards than for the murderers of the King. Bothwell
himself, surrounded by fifty armed men on horseback, rode from Seton
to Edinburgh, paraded the streets, and, with hideous oaths and furious
gestures, openly declared “that if he knew who were the authors of the
bills, he would wash his hands in their blood.”²
¹ “The conduct of the leading nobility of Scotland in the reign
of Mary Stuart has no parallel in the history even of that
turbulent country. We have seen that during her residence in
France, they assumed the right of disposing of her Crown. We
find them afterwards rising in rebellion against her because
she married Darnley; and yet a few months later, we find the
very same men conspiring to dethrone her and to bestow the
Crown upon her husband. Failing in this, they next resolved
to murder him; and after they effect their purpose, they
first recommend their chief accomplice as a new husband for
their Queen; and they then combine to punish him for the
murder. But it is easy to perceive that the conduct of the
great nobles, which at first sight appears so inconsistent,
and even inexplicable, was guided throughout by a fixed
determination to depress the authority of the Crown....
James V. had, during his brief reign, struggled manfully
against the common oppressors of the people and the Crown,
but he perished in the unequal struggle. The duty of
reducing the nobles to obedience next devolved upon his
daughter; and although possessing many qualities for the
task, she too found at last that it was beyond her strength.
So long as she suffered the dominant faction to exercise
the whole powers of the government, she was allowed to reign
in peace; but as soon as she adopted an independent course
by determining to marry, they turned against her, under
the pretence that their religion was in danger; and we find
them engaged in one desperate conspiracy after another,
until they finally succeeded in depriving her of her Crown.
We have no example, in ancient or modern times, of men
so utterly unscrupulous as those by whom this revolution
was accomplished. Combining as they did all the energy of
the North with more than the perfidy of the South, courted
at the crisis of the Reformation as well by England as by
France, they were equally ready to clutch the bribes and
betray the interests of both. At home the circumstance of
two minorities following in succession had greatly aided
their power, and they now had every prospect of a third. It
was only necessary to destroy the reputation of the Queen in
order to secure the triumph of the ruling faction for many
years.”――Hosack’s _Mary Queen of Scots_, Volume I., pages
331‒332.
² _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 498, 500;
_Diurnal of Occurrents_, page 106; Tytler’s _History of
Scotland_, Volume VII., page 90.
Touching the never-ending question of the guilt of the Queen in
connection with the murder of Darnley, it must be admitted that while
many of her enemies in Scotland were prepossessed against her, and
others of them were eager to assume that she was guilty, there is
evidence that she was informed of a proposal which had been under
the consideration of a party of the nobles for removing the King out
of the way; but no direct evidence has been found that she gave any
encouragement to the plot or in any way sanctioned it. The point has
been often fully argued on both sides; but much of the whole evidence
which has from time to time been adduced, is utterly worthless and
irrelevant. After a careful examination of the case I am compelled to
state that the circumstantial evidence is strong on the count that Mary
knew something about the plot; but that she encouraged or sanctioned
it seems to me improbable. In that direction there is no real evidence
against her. Indeed, she had too much judgment to commit herself to
anything of this character; and a mere silent acquiescence in what
was to be done, was in all probability the relation in which Mary
stood to the murderers of her husband. But even this was sufficient to
compromise her, while immediately succeeding events, and her relations
with the chief actor in the tragedy, tended to stain her character.
Rumours immediately began to arise that the Queen was about to
marry Bothwell, and that she was not innocent of the King’s death.
A correspondence was opened between her and the Earl of Lennox, who
naturally insisted that the parties who had murdered his son, should be
brought to justice, and distinctly called upon the Queen to take steps
to effect that end. At last, Lennox himself was charged to attend the
trial of Bothwell, as a party to the action; and on the 28th of March,
1567, the Queen consulted the Council concerning the application of
Lennox, as to the trial of Bothwell and others for the murder of the
King. The Council ordered them to be tried by a jury; and accordingly
the trial of Bothwell was fixed for the 12th of April.¹ The trial,
however, was a mere farce. The court sat in Edinburgh, and Bothwell had
three thousand of his armed retainers on the streets of the capital.
Certain forms of law were gone through, but no witnesses appeared
against him, and he was of course acquitted. He then published a
challenge, boldly offering single combat to any one, noble or commoner,
rich or poor, who dared to affirm that he was guilty of the murder of
the king. This had at least a touch of rather grim humour about it; and
as no one responded to his challenge, he could then aver that he had
satisfied the law and the ancient custom of his country.²
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., page 404; Sir
James Melville’s _Memoirs_, page 175.
² Keith, Volume II., page 563; _Diurnal of Occurrents_, pages
107‒108.
Parliament met at Edinburgh on the 14th April, two days after the
trial of Bothwell, and he bore the crown and sceptre before the Queen
when she rode to the parliament house. A number of acts were passed,
chiefly relating to ratifications of grants of land. John Erskine got
a ratification of the earldom of Mar, the regality of the Garioch, and
other lordships. There were also ratifications of lands to the Earls
of Huntly, Moray, Crawford, Morton, Rothes, and other barons, and
formal reductions of the forfeitures against the Earls of Huntly and
Sutherland, and a number of gentlemen of the name of Gordon, were gone
through. Bothwell got a grant of lands with the castle of Dunbar; and
an act was passed against the makers and up-setters of the placards and
bills which had given Mary and Bothwell so much annoyance. An act was
also passed which purported to recognise religious toleration.¹
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., pages
545‒590.
The relations of the Queen and Bothwell quickly developed. On the day
after parliament rose, Bothwell invited the nobility to a banquet at
an hotel in Edinburgh; and a large party of the nobles responded to
his hospitable call. After the red wine had been freely quaffed which
warmed all their hearts and quickened the circulation of their blood
till their faces smirked with joy, he placed before them a bond and
kindly requested them to subscribe it. This document stated that some
of Bothwell’s ill-willers and private enemies had malignantly slandered
and accused him of being art and part in the heinous murder of the late
king; but now that he was acquitted, and had also according to ancient
custom offered to prove his innocence by single combat, and having a
due regard to the nobleness of his house, and the good and honourable
service rendered by his predecessors, and more especially by himself to
her Majesty the Queen, “in the defence of her realm against the enemies
thereof;” considering moreover that it was ruinous to the kingdom
for the Queen to remain a widow, the bond then went on to recommend
Bothwell, a married man, as the most suitable match she could obtain
amongst her own subjects. All the nobles present, except the Earl of
Eglinton, who managed to slip away, signed the bond. They undertook
upon their honour and faith――“to promote, further, advance, and
set forward the marriage to be solemnised and completed between her
Highness and the said noble lord, with our votes, counsel, strength,
and assistance in word and deed, at such time as it should please her
Majesty to fix, and as soon as the law shall allow it to be done.” They
thus bound themselves to risk their lands and lives against all who
might oppose the marriage.¹
¹ Keith, Volume II., pages 562‒565; Hosack’s _Mary Queen of
Scots_, Volume I., pages 301‒304.
On the 21st of April the Queen went to Stirling to visit her son, and
remained two days. When returning to Edinburgh on the 24th, she was met
by Bothwell at the head of a company of his own retainers, and conveyed
to the castle of Dunbar. Whether the Queen was taken by Bothwell
against her will and forcibly detained, is a point which has long been
vehemently contested. Both sides have argued their special views at
great length, but with little decisive results.¹ Without venturing to
pronounce any dogmatic opinion upon the matter, it should be remembered
that in those days there was hardly anything too daring for a Scottish
noble to undertake if there was a chance of success and the object
interesting and important, and that obstacles which would now be
deemed insurmountable, were then often disregarded, and the main
aim pursued with a recklessness of consequences almost incredible. A
little attention to this feature in the character of the aristocracy
of the period might tend to clear the capture of Mary of some of its
difficulties; we should be prepared to see that neither honesty nor
consistency were essential features of the aristocratic character of
the age, and allowance should be made for the play and action of this
throughout the whole of the revolutionary movement. But when all the
circumstances are taken into account, and every corollary duly weighed,
it is rather difficult to believe that Mary was not aware of the
intention of Bothwell to lead her to Dunbar. If she had not been so,
there was no necessity for her yielding to him at the Bridge of Almond;
and even when in the castle of Dunbar, a woman of her mental resource
and energy could easily have found means of discarding him, without
leaving any disgrace upon her brow. Although Bothwell was a profligate
and unscrupulous man, it is not likely that he would have murdered the
Queen if she had resisted his advances.
¹ _Diurnal of Occurrents_, page 109; Sir James Melville’s
_Memoirs_, page 177; _Birrel’s Diary_.
But according to the Queen’s own account, it was against her will
that Bothwell conveyed her to Dunbar castle. The Earl of Huntly, the
Chancellor, Lethington the Secretary, and Sir James Melville, were in
attendance upon her when she was carried to Dunbar. Melville said that
Bothwell boasted that he would marry her, “who would or who would not;
yea, whether she would herself or not;” and he also said that the Queen
could not help marrying Bothwell, after he had publicly carried her
off and dishonoured her. Mary was kept for a week a close prisoner in
Dunbar castle. Although the exact character of the acts and proceedings
which occurred between Mary and Bothwell during these seven days, can
never be accurately known, yet there is evidence that Bothwell was
permitted and even encouraged by many of the nobles――to shamefully
handle the Queen.
Whether Mary was passionately in love with Bothwell before the murder
of Darnley, seems a difficult question to settle. At a later stage,
an attempt was made to prove that she was by “The Casket Letters,” and
thus directly to connect her with the murder of Darnley, as a partner
of Bothwell’s guilt in the deed. Much has been written about these
letters, and great ingenuity has been shown both by the defenders
of Mary, and by her assailants. The one party have maintained that
these letters were forgeries――fabricated by the accusers of the Queen;
while another party have maintained with more or less confidence that
they were genuine letters of Mary’s addressed to Bothwell, or which
passed between her and him. Some of them are harmless, others are
incriminating. But the latest authority who has carefully examined
them and the related circumstances, Mr. Henderson, seems to have some
doubts about their genuineness; although he attaches much importance to
Morton’s recently discovered declaration concerning them. My own view
is that they are not genuine letters of Queen Mary to Bothwell, though
some parts of letters of hers may have been infused into them.
Bothwell conducted the Queen to the castle of Edinburgh on the 29th of
April, and preparations for their union were rapidly pushed forward.
He obtained a divorce from his own wife on the 7th of May, 1567, upon
the ground of consanguinity, and for adultery on _his_ part. The banns
of marriage were proclaimed on the 12th of May; and on the 15th of the
month the marriage was celebrated in the palace of Holyrood.¹
¹ Sir James Melville’s _Memoirs_, pages 178, 179; _Diurnal
of Occurrents_, page 111. Schiern’s _Life of James Hepburn,
Earl of Bothwell_, pages 237‒242. For full accounts of
the divorce between the Earl of Bothwell and his wife, see
Anderson’s _Collections_; Keith, Volume II., pages 571‒575;
and Riddel’s _Peer, and Consistorial Law of Scotland_,
Volume I., pages 392‒394, 433, 434, 437.
But unfortunately the stream of events soon began to disturb the
happiness of the newly wedded pair. It was surely a cruel destiny that
so swiftly overtook them, and led to their final separation. For three
weeks after their marriage, they remained at Holyrood, and on the 4th
of June the Privy Council passed an act in the form of a declaration
from the Queen, upon the groundlessness of the rumours and fears of
the people. “Her Majesty, considering and thinking upon her own state,
and the government of her realm, over which Almighty God has placed
her supreme head and lawful inheritor, and moreover, recalling what
great alterations and strange accidents have from time to time occurred
during her Majesty’s reign; but especially since her highness entered
this realm and took the management and government of the affairs
thereof on her own person, which, all praise be to God, were happy
and quietly settled down by her Majesty: And God so prospered the
work in her hands, as well to her own honour as the satisfaction
and contentment of all her good subjects, that all the time of her
Majesty’s personal reign, they have never felt the force of foreign
enemies, but lived in good peace ... so that they may justly compare
their state during her Majesty’s reign to the most happy time that has
occurred within the memory of man. But as envy is the enemy of virtue,
and that seditious and unquiet spirits for ever seek occasion to stir
up trouble and strife; so however sincerely and uprightly, or however
perfectly her Majesty direct her doings, instead of thankful hearts
and good obedience, her Highness’ clemency is commonly abused and
recompensed with thwartness and ingratitude; and when she is thinking
least of any innovation, always some clamour is raised that alterations
are to be introduced, and the people persuaded to believe it; as if
her Highness’ care of the nation were lost, that she meant to subvert
the laws, to reject the counsel and assistance of her nobility, and
to handle all things without discretion, and contrary to the ancient
customs. But last, it is most grevious and offensive of all, when it
is said, that the health, preservation, sure custody, and guardianship
of her most dear and only son the prince, now in his infancy, has been
neglected by her Highness.”¹ Most people will be ready to exonerate the
Queen from the foolish slanders that she ever intended any harm to her
infant.
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 514‒516.
This declaration plainly shows that troubles had been gathering round
the unhappy Queen. She had ordered the feudal array to assemble at
Melrose on the 15th of June, for an attack upon the insolent and
disorderly borderers; but there was no appearance of the order being
obeyed. In fact, the ball was taking another turn. A party of the
nobles, including the Earls of Morton, Mar, Athole, and Glencairn,
Lords Lindsay, Hume, the Laird of Grange, and others, were then uniting
for a struggle against Bothwell, and, as the issue showed, also against
the Queen herself. The Queen and Bothwell left Edinburgh on the 7th of
June, and passed to Borthwick Castle, a place of great strength about
ten miles south of the capital. Two of the confederate leaders, the
Earl of Morton and Lord Hume, with a considerable force immediately
appeared before the castle, and Bothwell and the Queen with difficulty
escaped to Dunbar. The pair were now much alarmed. They issued a
proclamation commanding the Crown vassals of the district to muster
immediately. The confederates took possession of Edinburgh, and
proceeded to make themselves secure; and having managed to come to
an understanding with Sir James Balfour, the governor of the Castle,
they at once assumed all the functions of the government. On the 11th
of June, they issued a proclamation from the Canongate, touching the
crisis of affairs and ordering the people of all ranks, but especially
the burgesses and inhabitants of Edinburgh, to muster and assist
in rescuing the Queen from thraldom, “to preserve the prince’s most
gracious person from all such as would invade him, and to try and
purge the kingdom of the most cruel and abominable murder of his late
father,” by bringing the guilty parties to punishment.¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 516, 517,
519, 520; _Diurnal of Occurrents_, page 114; _Burgh Records
of Edinburgh_, Volume III., page 231.
Meanwhile the Queen and Bothwell had mustered between two and three
thousand men, and advanced on Edinburgh. The confederate lords resolved
to meet them, and marching from the capital, the two parties came
in sight of each other near Musselburgh. Bothwell had posted his men
on Carberry Hill. After a day’s manœuvering and treating, the Queen
surrendered herself to the nobles, and Bothwell was allowed to ride
off in the direction of Dunbar. The Queen was taken to Edinburgh, and
when she at last saw herself a prisoner in the hands of a party of
the nobles, she was extremely displeased. She surrendered on the 15th
of June, and on the 17th was conveyed a captive to Lochleven, on the
alleged ground that she had refused to abandon Bothwell.¹
¹ Teulet, Volume II., page 313; Tytler’s _History of Scotland_,
Volume VII., pages 135‒137.
The confederate nobles soon developed their scheme, which was in
harmony with their traditions and previous history. It consisted in
taking the rights of the Crown into their own hands. They ordered all
the members of the Court of Session to resume their business; they
issued proclamations against Bothwell, and demanded the surrender
of the Castle of Dunbar; they gave instructions that those who were
suspected of being concerned in the King’s murder should be seized and
tortured; and all this was done by the very men who were themselves
more or less implicated in the murder of the King, and many of whom
had sanctioned the marriage of the Queen with Bothwell. They issued
a proclamation also against the inhabitants of Crail for abetting
Bothwell and furnishing him with boats; and the Bishop of Moray they
punished for harbouring him in the Castle of Spynie.¹ Yet, it may be
doubted if the confederate nobles really desired to take Bothwell;
he would have been a very dangerous prisoner in their hands. Probably
they merely wanted to drive him out of the country, and in this they
succeeded.
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 523‒525,
526‒528, 530, 531.
The plans which the party then at the head of affairs had determined
upon, rendered it necessary to treat the Queen with great severity.
They had resolved to depose her, to place the crown on her infant son,
and to appoint the Earl of Moray regent during the prince’s minority.
In the Island of Lochleven on the 23rd of July they presented two
documents to the Queen, which they requested her to subscribe; the one
was a renunciation of her crown, and the other appointed Moray to the
regency. These were hard terms for a young high-spirited princess; but
such pressure was put upon Mary that she yielded and signed the two
deeds, which were then ratified by parliament. When Queen Elizabeth
heard of the treatment which the Queen of Scots had received at
the hands of her rebellious subjects, she was extremely wroth and
threatened to inflict condign punishment upon them, but her boasting
ended in nothing. For some time after her imprisonment in Lochleven
Mary was very strictly guarded, and hardly any one was admitted to
visit her.¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, pages 531‒534, 537‒541;
_Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., page 11,
_et seq._; Lord Lindsay’s _Lives of the Lindsays_, Volume I.,
pages 285‒287.
In the summer of 1567, the General Assembly held two meetings, and the
reformed clergy threw the whole weight of their influence on the side
of the confederate nobles. They first met at Edinburgh on the 25th
of June, George Buchanan being chosen moderator. Knox, who had been
for some time absent from the chief centre of activity, then returned
to Edinburgh; and the members of the Assembly resolved to meet again
on the 20th of July, and meantime to send letters to all the earls,
lords, barons, and other brethren, to attend upon that day. The letters
sent out to the nobles indicated the matters which it was intended to
discuss at the ensuing Assembly. The Assembly met at the appointed time.
John Row, minister of Perth, was elected moderator. The Earl of Argyle
sent in a letter to the Assembly, stating that as he had not joined the
confederate lords, who were then surrounded with an army in Edinburgh,
he could not attend the meeting of the Church; and for the same
reason Lord Boyd and the commendators of the abbacies of Arbroath and
Kilwinning refused to attend the Assembly. In the list of the nobility
present were the names of the Earls of Morton, Mar, and Glencairn; Lord
Hume, Lord Ruthven, Lord Lindsay, Lord Graham, Lord Innermaith, Lord
Ochiltree, Sir James Balfour, James M‘Gill, Tulliebardie, and a large
number of the smaller barons and lairds; but the body of the higher
nobles had as yet stood aloof from the proceedings against the Queen.
A number of articles were laid before the lords and barons who were
present, and they subscribed them. The articles were then recorded in
the Register of the Privy Council. These articles embraced a variety of
matters touching religion: the thirds of benefices, the distribution of
the patrimony of the Church, and the social state of the people. They
bore that at the first lawful Parliament the nobles and barons should
exert themselves to the utmost to establish and promote the reformed
religion within the kingdom; that Parliament must do something to
relieve and lighten the extreme burdens of the poor labourers of the
ground; that all vice, crimes, and offences against God’s law should be
severely punished according to the Scriptures; that the horrible murder
of the King, which was odious in the sight of God and the whole world,
should not be hushed up, and that the Signatories bound themselves
to punish all persons who should be found guilty of that crime. The
articles concluded――“The nobility, barons, and others of the Church
under-subscribed, in the presence of God have faithfully promised to
convene their power and forces, and then to root out, destroy, and
utterly subvert all the monuments of idolatry, namely, the odious and
blasphemous mass, and thereafter to go forward throughout the whole
kingdom, to all and sundry places wheresoever idolatry is fostered,
haunted, or maintained, and chiefly where mass is said, to execute
the reformation aforesaid, without exception of place or person; and
shall to the uttermost of their power remove all idolaters and others
that are not admitted to the ministry of the Church from all function
thereof, as well private as public, that they hinder not the ministry
in any manner of way in their vocation. And in the place of the
premises shall set up and establish the true religion of Jesus Christ
throughout this whole realm by planting churches, superintendents,
ministers, and other needful members of the Church, then the rest of
the lords shall pass through the whole country to this effect, and
also shall proceed to the punishment of idolaters according to the
laws thereupon pronounced; and in like manner they shall punish and
cause to be punished all other vices that presently abound within this
realm, which God’s law and the civil laws of the kingdom command to
be punished, and chiefly the murder of the King lately committed. And
likewise faithfully promise to reform the schools, colleges, and the
universities, and to expel and remove the idolaters that have charge
thereof, and others who as yet have not joined themselves to the true
Church of Christ, and plant faithful instructors in their places, to
the end that the youth be not infected by poisoned doctrine at the
beginning which after cannot be well removed away.”¹
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 93‒97, 100‒103, 106‒110;
_Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 534‒537.
It is in these proceedings that we see the real spirit which animated
the reformed clergy, who had a great influence with the people; and it
was this that gave the confederate nobles success against the Queen.
Her own conduct again, was such that it was often turned against her.
But after all it is very questionable whether she would have been able
to remain upon the throne of Scotland much longer, even though her
conduct had been far more exemplary.
Her reign was characterised by many and great difficulties. There
were not merely political matters demanding wise management, but also
difficult and pressing religious and social questions, springing from
the Reformation movement. With the latter, Mary, when she came to the
throne, was not in a position to deal satisfactorily; being a Catholic
herself, to have attempted to deal with them would have been contrary
to her belief, her education, her ideas of authority, and to the
aims of the Pope, and all her Roman Catholic allies. Thus it is not
surprising that she failed to hold the reins of government in Scotland.
Many of the nobles opposed her for their own ends, and exerted
themselves to the utmost to destroy whatever influence she had among
the people; and their success was complete.
Having imprisoned and deposed the Queen, the Lords next proceeded
according to custom to place her son upon the throne. The infant King
was crowned in the parish church of Stirling on the 29th of July, 1567.
The two deeds which Mary had signed at Lochleven were publicly read,
and the Earl of Morton took the Coronation oath for the prince and
Steward of Scotland, whom the bishop of Caithness then anointed “the
most excellent Prince and King of this realm.” The proceedings were
wound up by John Knox with a sermon which he delivered in his most
vigorous style.¹ The following day the King’s authority was proclaimed;
and the reign of Queen Mary in fact and law terminated.
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 537‒543;
_Diurnal of Occurrents_, pages 118‒119; _Burgh Records of
Edinburgh_, Volume III., page 238.
CHAPTER XVII.
_History of Protestantism in Scotland,
and the Conflict of the Clergy with the Government._
THUS far the revolutionary movement awakened and stirred society to
the core; but as yet the nation was much divided. On the one hand,
the Earls of Morton, Glencairn, Athole, Mar, Lord Lindsay, Lord Hume,
and others, with Moray as their leader, were supported by the reformed
clergy. On the other hand, a section of the Protestant nobles who
disapproved of the treatment of the Queen, still stood aloof and
were assuming a decided attitude; while the Roman Catholic party were
constantly active and looking for their opportunity. On all sides the
elements of conflict were apparent.
On the 11th of August, 1567, the Earl of Moray, who had been recalled
from France by his party, arrived in Edinburgh. After conferring with
his friends, he consented to accept the regency, but before formally
assuming the office, he wished to have an interview with the Queen. He
was accompanied to Lochleven, by Morton, Athole, and Lord Lindsay; but
the Queen naturally desired to see her brother alone, and her request
was granted. What passed between them, is rather hard to ascertain.
It has been reported that he reproached her for her conduct in the
severest manner, that the Queen was extremely afflicted, and that after
a long interview he left her to ponder over what he had said. Next
morning the Queen and Moray again met. There was more sympathy between
them; and at the Queen’s request Moray agreed to accept the regency.¹
¹ Sir James Melville’s _Memoirs_, pages 193‒194; Hosack’s
_Queen Mary_, Volume I., pages 373‒375.
On the 22nd of August, Moray formally assumed office in the Tolbooth
of Edinburgh, and having taken the oath required by the constitution,
was proclaimed Regent. The following day the Council issued an order
calling in all the seals, that they might be broken and destroyed, and
new ones made with a legend appropriate to James VI.¹ The new Regent
exerted himself to the utmost to restore order and administer justice
in the nation. He commanded the leading men of the Merse to appear
before the Council on the last day of August to concert measures
for the quiet administration of justice within the East March. The
Hamiltons offered some opposition to his authority within their
territories, but it was easily overcome. Moray’s next aim was to get
possession of the castle of Edinburgh. The Governor, Sir James Balfour,
was bought over by a bribe, and the castle was then committed to Sir
William Kirkaldy the laird of Grange. The Regent also struggled hard
for the castle of Dunbar, and it fell into his hands about the end of
September. The castle of Dumbarton, however, still held out for the
Queen. Orders were issued for the surrender of many other castles; and
great efforts were made to establish peace and order throughout the
kingdom.²
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 548‒551.
² _Ibid._, Volume I., pages 551‒576; Stevenson’s _Selections_,
pages 283, 291‒294.
Moray summoned a parliament which met at Edinburgh in December, 1567,
“to treat on the affairs tending to the glory of God, the setting forth
of the King’s authority, and for establishing good and necessary laws
in the kingdom.” This parliament ratified the most important steps of
the Reformation. The acts passed in 1560 which had never received the
royal assent, were confirmed, and the Confession of Faith was inserted
in the record of the parliamentary proceedings.¹ Henceforward the great
revolution which had substituted Protestantism for Romanism in Scotland
may be regarded as secured; though there were still many weighty and
interesting matters relating to the polity and rights of the reformed
Church, and the claims of her clergy, remaining to be settled, which
afterwards led to a protracted struggle with the Crown.
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., pages
3‒45.
The General Assembly met at Edinburgh on the 25th of December, 1567.
All the members present agreed to a proposition that a certain number
of ministers should be appointed to meet at any time with such members
of parliament or of the Privy Council as the Regent should name, as
a committee to advise on the affairs of the Church.¹ The reformed
Church gave the Regent a firm and undivided support; and his government
required all their aid. It was said that he took great trouble to
pounce upon the thieves and vagabonds who distressed the people, and
held courts of justice throughout the country; but that he took no
such care to settle the differences and whims of the nobility, and thus
failed to draw them into obedience to the King. For all the Regent’s
energy and the success of his government, the army still required to
be kept in the field. On the 14th of February, 1568, the lead on the
cathedral churches of Aberdeen and Elgin, part of which had already
been stolen, was ordered to be stripped off and sold, and the proceeds
applied to maintain the King’s troops.² The Queen’s party continued
exceedingly active. A considerable section of the people were still
dissatisfied, and the Regent was often warned that trouble was brewing.
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, page 113.
² Sir James Melville’s _Memoirs_, pages 198‒199; _Register of
the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 599, 608‒614.
In the beginning of May, 1568, the Queen escaped from her imprisonment
in Lochleven, and proceeded to Hamilton. Her chief adherents were
the Earls of Argyle, Huntly, Rothes, Cassillis; the Lords Harris,
Livingston, Fleming, and Claud Hamilton.¹ In a few days she was at
the head of a force of four or five thousand armed men. When the
intelligence of Mary’s escape reached him, the Regent was at Glasgow
holding justice courts. On the 3rd of May he ordered a muster of all
the Crown vassals, for the preservation of the King’s authority and
person, and for establishing justice and peace in the kingdom. He
resolved at once to meet the danger, and marching out of Glasgow, took
up a position at Langside. On the 13th of May the followers of the
Queen gave him battle. His victory was complete, and Mary herself fled
towards the Border;² and in an unhappy hour determined to throw herself
upon the hospitality of the Queen of England.
¹ Keith, Volume II., pages 797‒799.
² _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 620‒622.
After the flight of the Queen, the Regent continued his efforts to
restore order in the kingdom. This was no easy task. He had a host of
enemies, and was always making more, for the peculiar position into
which he had allowed himself to be put, necessarily multiplied his foes.
When parliament was summoned to meet in July, 1568, the keenness of the
struggle was intensified as soon as it became known that the enemies
of the Regent’s government would be subjected to forfeiture. The
Archbishop of St. Andrews was cited to appear before the Council, and
having failed to appear, was declared a rebel and outlawed. The Earl
of Crawford and others were also proclaimed rebels. Parliament met at
the appointed time, but it was immediately adjourned to August, when
proceedings of forfeiture were to be begun against the opponents of the
government. From motives of policy, however, only a few were condemned,
and hopes were held out to others, with the view of inducing them to
submit.¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 624‒634,
638; _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III.,
pages 47‒58.
The General Assembly met at Edinburgh on the 1st of July, 1568. John
Willock was chosen moderator, and the members proceeded to the business
before them. They presented a number of articles to the Regent and
craved reform of abuses. Among other things they complained that
their stipends were not fully paid; and requested that the College of
Aberdeen should be reformed, the corrupted office-bearers removed and
others appointed in their places, so that the youth might be instructed
in letters and godliness. They desired the Regent to adopt measures
for the suppression of vice, that the plague of God might thereby be
withdrawn from the nation. The Regent listened with respect to their
requests and returned a favourable answer. This Assembly resolved that
all the Catholics, who after due admonition refused to join themselves
to the Reformed Church, should be cast out of the society of Christ’s
body and excommunicated. But the Assembly which met in February the
following year, presented to the Regent a series of similar articles
praying that remedies might be adopted; and in reference to the
Regent’s former proposal touching vice and crime, they added――“If his
grace send us to the Justice-Clerk, experience has sufficiently taught
us what he has done in any such matters.”¹ They meant that he had done
nothing at all.
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 123, 126‒129, 139, 140.
In the end of September, 1568, the Regent, accompanied by the Earl
of Morton, Lord Lindsay, and other leading men of his party, passed
to England to attend the conference at York touching Queen Mary. But
it does not fall within the scope of my work to follow the story of
that unhappy Queen after her flight to England; although it has been
intensely interesting to some minds, it is not sufficiently important
in its bearing upon the main subject to justify its introduction.¹
¹ This matter is treated in the histories of Tytler and Burton,
very fully in Hosack’s _Queen Mary_, and in many other works
which need not be enumerated.
When the Regent returned from England in the beginning of February 1569,
he found his position in Scotland to be one of extreme difficulty. In
the interval the Queen’s party had become more powerful and restless,
and were employing every means in their power to harass his government
and the unhappy people. Moray continued to act with energy, but some
of his supporters deserted, and his enemies multiplied. Maitland of
Lethington, who had fallen under the suspicion of the Regent, joined
the Laird of Grange, the governor of the Castle of Edinburgh. Both of
them threw in their lot with the cause of Mary, and thus the strongest
and most important fortress in the kingdom passed into the hands of her
party. It was mainly owing to this circumstance that the supporters of
the Queen were able to hold out so long in Scotland. The other centres
of her party were Huntly and the Gordons in the north, the Hamiltons
and Argyle in the west, and some of the border clans. Thus hemmed in
and hard pressed on every side, the Regent struggled on, and if his
career had not been cut short, he would in all probability, with the
assistance of the money of England, have overcome his enemies; but
in the beginning of the year 1570, as the castle of Edinburgh was in
the hands of the Queen’s adherents, he set out for Stirling; and on
the 13th of January, when returning through Linlithgow, he was shot by
Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh. The bullet passed through his body, and he
died in a few hours. The assassin escaped on a fleet horse and rode to
Hamilton Castle. Moray’s death was bewailed by the people and by the
reformed clergy, who both regarded him as the arm of their safety.¹
To the party of the young King Moray’s death was a severe blow. He was
an unscrupulous man, and his character will not bear close inspection;
but he had great energy and some of the qualifications of a successful
ruler; and with such means as he could command, he struggled bravely
and worthily to maintain order and to administer justice.
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume III., page 259;
Buchanan, Book XIX., chapters 51‒54; _Register of the Privy
Council_, Volume I., pages 644‒649, 654, _et seq._; Volume
II., pages 11, 20, 25, 37‒44, 51, _et seq._
For several years after the death of Moray, the factions of the King
and Queen kept the country in an incessant turmoil. The adherents of
the Queen still held the castle of Edinburgh; and in May, 1570, the
English Government sent a small force to Edinburgh, but instead of
restoring order, it intensified rather the general wretchedness. The
passion and hatred of the opposing parties went on increasing, but at
length the enthusiasm of the Queen’s followers spent itself. In July,
1570, the Earl of Lennox was elected Regent. His election was approved
by the English Government, and he received the unswerving support of
the reformed clergy.
The General Assembly met at Edinburgh on the 5th of July, and passed
an act commanding all the ministers throughout the kingdom to pray
publicly in their churches for the preservation of the King’s person
and authority, and to proclaim to the people that he should be
universally obeyed. The Assembly further unanimously agreed to appoint
a commission of their brethren to attend any conventions of the
nobility which might be held, and to assist and consent to everything
that should be treated, which tended to promote the glory of God, the
preaching and ministering of the true religion, the authority of the
King, and the common good of the nation. The Assembly also, having
regard to the troubled state of the kingdom, appointed a number of
their brethren to be sent to all the earls, barons, and gentlemen who
had fallen off from the King’s authority, and by every lawful means to
endeavour to win them back and to reconcile them to the government of
his majesty.¹
¹ Bannatyne’s _Journal_, pages 23‒28; _Book of the Universal
Kirk_, pages 177‒178, 182; Tytler’s _History of Scotland_,
Volume VII., pages 327‒329.
In the midst of the strife in Edinburgh, about the middle of October,
1570, Knox sustained a shock of apoplexy, which impaired his speech;
but he recovered so far as to be able to preach on Sundays. In one of
his sermons in the month of December, he made some personal remarks on
the proceedings of the Laird of the Grange, the governor of the castle,
which led to a bitter quarrel between him and his old friend. Knox
defended himself and insisted on his freedom of speech in the pulpit,
but anonymous libels were circulated against him. He was accused of not
praying for the Queen, and for maligning her name and her adherents.
His brethren and friends prevailed upon him to leave Edinburgh for his
own safety, and he went to St. Andrews early in May, 1571. The bishop
of Galloway, Alexander Gordon, then filled his pulpit in Edinburgh,
and preached in a strain more acceptable to the Queen’s party. It was
reported that he prayed for the Queen on the ground of her extreme
wickedness, thus――“All sinners ought to be prayed for: If we should not
pray for sinners, for whom should we pray, seeing that God came not to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. St. David was a sinner,
and so was she: St. David was an adulterer, and so was she: St. David
committed murder in slaying Uriah for his wife, and so did she: but
what is this to the matter; the more wicked that she be, her subjects
should pray for her, to bring her to the spirit of repentance.”¹
¹ Bannatyne’s _Journal_, pages 54, 70‒88, 107‒120, 139‒141,
144; Dr. M‘Crie’s _Life of Knox_, pages 250‒256; 1855.
The Castle of Dumbarton was taken from the Queen’s party in the
beginning of April, 1571; and Hamilton, the archbishop of St. Andrews,
was among the prisoners who surrendered. The Regent Lennox brought
him to Stirling, where he was tried, condemned, and hanged on the 9th
April. He was the last Roman Catholic Bishop ♦of St. Andrews. He had
never ceased to assert his rights, and was therefore obnoxious to the
reformed clergy and the King’s party. He was an active and able man in
public life; and Lennox was glad of the opportunity to put him out of
the way, but his execution was an act of cruelty and gross injustice.¹
♦ duplicate word “of” removed
¹ ♠Buchanan, Book XX., chapter 34; Dr. Grub’s _Ecclesiastical
History of Scotland_, Volume II., pages 168‒169.
♠ “Buchannan” replaced with “Buchanan”
Both parties issued proclamations and counter-manifestoes, and there
was much skirmishing about Edinburgh, which produced little result. The
Regent summoned a parliament to meet at Stirling in August, 1571. The
General Assembly met in the same town on the 6th of August. Knox, being
unable to attend the meeting, sent a letter to his brethren. In this he
referred to the graceless libels which had been circulated against him,
and called on the Assembly to judge the matter as they would answer
to God. As his natural strength was daily decaying, and he was looking
for a sudden departure to that land where the weary find rest, he
earnestly exhorted his brethren to be faithful to the flock over
whom God had placed them, and to resist all tyranny to the last. The
battle, he said, would be hard, “but they must withstand the merciless
devourers of the patrimony of the Church.... God give you wisdom and
stout courage in so just a cause, and me a happy end.”¹ This Assembly
repeated the injunctions that prayer should be offered up for the King,
and that the people should submit to his authority. Complaints were
made, touching the oppression of the ministers and the people in the
counties of Aberdeen and Banff, by the Earl of Huntly and his servants,
and of their neglect to pay the stipends of the ministers.²
¹ Knox’s Works, Volume VI., pages 604‒606; _Book of the
Universal Kirk_, pages 198‒199; Lord Lindsay’s _Lives of the
Lindsays_, Volume I., pages 260‒291.
² _Book of the Universal Kirk_, page 201.
Parliament assembled at Stirling on the 25th of August. About the
same time the Queen’s party held their parliament in Edinburgh. In the
Queen’s parliament sentences of forfeiture were passed against the Earl
of Morton, and other chiefs of the King’s party; while in the King’s
parliament an act was passed which ratified all former acts in favour
of the liberty and freedom of the reformed Church. Acts were also
passed in favour of Morton and Lord Lindsay, as a reward for their
resistance to the open enemies of the King, and in favour of those
who had taken the castle of Dumbarton from the enemy. While the King’s
party were thus helping themselves and mutually congratulating each
other, a company of the Queen’s adherents, under the command of the
Earl of Huntly and Lord Hamilton, marched from Edinburgh upon Stirling,
and on the 4th of September, surprised them, and slew the Regent Lennox.
Ten days after the death of Lennox, the Earl of Mar was elected Regent;
but the Earl of Morton had by this time become the real leader of the
King’s party.¹
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_ Volume III., pages 58,
61, 65‒78; Bannatyne’s _Journal_, pages 247, 255‒258, 260;
Calderwood, Volume III., pages 136, 138‒141. Calderwood says
that the rebels in their parliament at Edinburgh forfeited
upwards of two hundred persons.
The regency of Mar was of short duration. He died on the 28th of
October, 1572. The Earl of Morton was then elected Regent; since the
death of Moray he had been the ruling spirit of his party. Morton had
been more or less deeply implicated in all the plots and political
murders of the past twenty years. He was an ambitious, greedy, crafty,
and unscrupulous man; but brave and determined like all his ancestors
of the Douglas tribe. He courted the friendship of the English
government; and in the spring of 1573, concluded an arrangement by
which fifteen hundred English troops and a train of artillery entered
Scotland, and assisted in the reduction of the castle of Edinburgh.
The Queen’s party throughout the country were broken up, and most of
the leaders submitted to the Regent. Her adherents in the castle held
out bravely, but were at last reduced to despair, and surrendered in
the end of May, 1573. The common soldiers were dismissed. Lethington,
who had served so many masters, and attempted to play so many parts,
died about the 7th of June, a week after the castle fell. The laird
of Grange, William Kirkaldy, the governor of the Castle, was tried,
condemned, and hanged at the Cross of Edinburgh.¹ Mary’s party in
Scotland never after raised their heads.
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., page 77,
_et seq._; Calderwood, Volume III., pages 281‒285; _Register
of the Privy Council_, Volume II., pages 213‒219, 236, 237.
Maitland of Lethington’s recent biographer, has with much ingenuity and
great literary power, attempted to prove that he was one of the very
greatest statesmen of the period. “In fine, Maitland’s was one of the
governing minds of the time in which he lived. The number of such men
at any particular period is as a rule extremely limited――much more so
than is commonly supposed. I am inclined to hold that, at the period
of which I am writing, there were not above three or four men of
distinctly original and creative force in the whole island, from John
o’ Groats to the Land’s End. In England they had Cecil; in Scotland,
John Knox and William Maitland. Cecil’s ‘brothers in Christ’――the
envoys and emissaries of the English Government――were men of a
specifically inferior order, who derived their inspiration from their
master, and who, when deprived of his guidance, of the habitual support
of his cautious but fertile brain, showed themselves, almost without
exception, extraordinarily helpless.... There are eminent writers who
would be prepared to place the Earl of Moray beside Knox and Maitland
and Cecil. It appears to me that Moray belongs to another class
altogether,――the class of men whose mutual processes are slow, involved,
and dependent. It was a common saying, when he came to be Regent,
that Moray was the hand and Morton the head; and during the earlier
and brighter years of Mary’s reign, it might have been said quite as
truly――with even greater truth indeed――that if Moray was the head,
Maitland was the heart.
“I have said that a statesman in Lethington’s position must be judged
less by his actions than by his aims. What were his aims? We shall
see that they involved the determination of political and religious
questions of the first importance:――How to diminish the power of an
anarchical nobility, how to promote the union of the nations, how to
secure the succession to a Scottish prince (to the throne of England),
how to establish a religious peace on tolerable conditions――these were
the problems to which, as a Scottish Protestant and a Scottish patriot,
Maitland addressed himself.... His field was comparatively narrow; but
the issues of the conflict in which he was engaged were momentous and
far reaching.”
The aims of Lethington as stated above by Skelton, invites comment:――1.
There is no evidence that Lethington ever made any real effort to
reduce the power of the nobles; but there is evidence that he used the
influence of his official position, and also exerted his talents and
wit, to enhance the power and the wealth of the nobles in connection
with the landed property of the old Church. In the face of such
evidence, it is surprising that his elegant panegyrist should have
ventured to advance this, as one of the leading aims of the great
statesman of the period. 2. It may be true that Maitland aimed to
promote the union of the Crowns of England and Scotland; yet it is
evident that some of his efforts in this direction were short-sighted,
impracticable, and inconsistent. 3. Touching his aim to establish
a religious peace in Scotland on tolerable conditions, it may be
fairly questioned whether he was capable of appreciating and realising
the real conditions of the problem. Most of Lethington’s efforts in
this department were imperfectly conceived, or unrealisable in the
circumstances, and consequently proved utter failures. It seems a
rather curious historic phenomenon that one of the three greatest
governing minds of the Reformation period in Britain, has somehow left
so few traces on the nation of the result of his faculties. The fact
is, that Lethington was a clever, glib, and scheming politician, but
in no sense a great and wise statesman; and his recent biographer has
glorified the Laird of Lethington by investing him with many virtues,
which are quite inconsistent with his public career.¹
¹ _Maitland of Lethington_, By J. Skelton, Volume I., pages
333‒336.
The polity of the Reformed Church so far as yet developed, tended
to leave a blank in the chief council of the nation. As the bishops,
abbots, and other orders of the Roman clergy died out, the spiritual
estate ceased to be represented in parliament. Knox was not decidedly
opposed to a gradation of rank among the ministers of the Church;
the democratic polity of presbyterianism was not matured in the First
Book of Discipline, nor in any work emanating from the Reformed Church
of Scotland in the reformer’s lifetime. At this stage, however, the
most interesting point centred around the territorial possessions and
the wealth of the ancient hierarchy. The nobles, the old orders of
clergy, and the reformed preachers, were all scrambling according to
the measure of their power and opportunity for what each imagined to
be their share of the endowments which the piety of bygone generations
had consecrated to religion. For all the preaching against idolatry and
the monuments thereof, there was one idol not as yet extinguished――the
golden calf. The aristocracy had recourse to various expedients to
reach the revenues of the great benefices, and it must be admitted that
in the end they succeeded.
For the settlement of this matter, an extraordinary meeting of the
barons, superintendents, and ministers, was held at Leith in January,
1572. They assumed the powers of a General Assembly, and resolved to
hand over the business to a committee of six, viz.:――John Erskine,
John Winram, David Lindsay, John Craig, Andrew Hay, and Robert Pont,
authorising any four of them to meet with those appointed by the Privy
Council, the Earl of Morton, Lord Ruthven, the Abbot of Dunfermline, Mr.
James M‘Gill, Sir John Bellenden, and Colin Campbell of Glenorchy, and
to ratify whatever they might determine agreeable to their instructions.
The joint committee met on the 16th of the same month, and agreed
upon a form of polity for the Church, known as the Leith Concordat. It
was agreed that the names and titles of archbishops and bishops, and
the bounds of the dioceses, should not be altered, at least until the
King’s majority or the parliament consented to another arrangement. The
document went on to state, that persons promoted to bishoprics should
as far as possible have the requisite scriptural qualifications; that
they should be elected by a chapter or assembly of learned ministers;
that archbishops and bishops should have no greater jurisdiction than
the superintendents already had, and that they should be subject to the
church and the General Assembly in spiritual matters, as they were to
the Crown in temporal; that in the admission of persons to spiritual
functions in the Church, they should at least take the advice of six
of the best learned of the chapter; that all the archbishoprics and
bishoprics then vacant or which hereafter became so, should within a
year and a day after the vacancy be filled up with qualified persons
not under thirty years of age; and that the dean, or failing him,
the next in dignity among the chapter, should be vicar-general during
the vacancy. Concerning the abbacies, priories, and nunneries, it was
concluded that no disposition of these benefices should be made, nor
any grants out of the funds of the same till it was ascertained what
portion of the rents consisted in churches and tithes, and what portion
of temporal lands, and until provision was made for the ministers
properly belonging thereto. Touching the person holding the title and
receiving the fruits of the benefice, it was agreed that he should
fill the place of one of the ecclesiastical Estate in parliament, and
have the style of abbot, prior, or commendator; that all such should
be learned and qualified for their office, and that to secure this end,
on the recommendation of the King, they should be tried and admitted
by the bishops. It was further agreed that when the present members of
the convents were all departed this life, the ministers of the churches
belonging to the abbey or priory should then act as the chapter of
the commendator in the administration of the property and rents of the
establishment, and that if these commendators should be found worthy,
they might be promoted to act as senators for the spiritual estate in
the Court of Session.
There were proposals also for dealing with the rights of lay patrons,
with benefices in the patronage of the Crown, and for the disposal
of the smaller benefices throughout the kingdom. The latter were to
be conferred only on duly qualified ministers, and churches were to
be planted throughout the realm, residence secured, and pluralities
prevented. The revenues of provostries, prebendaries, and chaplainries
in college churches, if founded upon lands or annual rents, it was
proposed to apply to the maintenance of bursars at the grammar schools
and universities; and a form was drawn up for the election and
appointment of bishops.¹
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 203‒205, 207‒232. It
is very justly observed by Dr. Grub, that the scheme agreed
on at Leith bore a remarkable resemblance to the external
polity of the church as it existed before the Reformation
in Scotland. _Ecclesiastic History of Scotland_, Volume II.,
page 179. Regarding the confused and anomalous points of the
system as then proposed from the Episcopalian standpoint,
see Russel’s _History of the Church in Scotland_, Volume I.
page 300, and for a strictly Presbyterian view of the matter,
compare Dr. M‘Crie’s _Life of Melville_, Volume I., pages
145‒151.
The proposals of the Committee, were immediately confirmed by the
Regent and the Council, and an attempt was forthwith made by the
government to carry out the scheme they embodied. On the 6th of
February, 1572, the chapter of St. Andrews met and elected John Douglas
to be archbishop of that ancient see. Douglas was also rector of the
university and provost of St. Mary’s College, and besides, he was a man
advanced in years. Knox merely protested against the accumulation of
offices in the person of one man. Some of the other sees were filled
up, but the new bishops were simply the tools of their patrons. They
had consented to assume the title with only a very small portion of
the episcopal revenues, the greater part being retained in the hands
of their masters――the nobles.¹ To secure the richest portion of the
benefices to the court, the nobles, and their friends and dependents,
was the motive in which the whole scheme originated; and if the
Reformed Church had yielded it would have destroyed its usefulness,
and ended in a despotism of a degrading character. But a strong party
of the clergy were thoroughly opposed to the scheme, and although the
struggle between them and the Crown was protracted and severe, the
liberties of the Church and the freedom of the nation eventually
triumphed.
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, page 241; Calderwood, Volume
III., pages 205‒207; Bannatyne’s _Journal_, pages 269‒285,
286, 323, 324.
When the Articles came before the General Assembly, which met at
Perth in August, 1572, that body unanimously agreed that such names
as archbishop, dean, archdeacon, chancellor, and chapter sounded
scandalous to the ears of many of the brethren, and recalled the ring
of popery, and protested that while recognising the names, it did
not mean to ratify, consent, or agree to any kind of superstition,
but wished rather that the titles should be changed for others less
offensive. The Assembly protested also that the articles and heads of
the Leith Concordat were only to be received as interim, till a more
perfect order could be obtained at the hands of the King, the Regent,
and the nobility, for which they were to press whenever an opportunity
occurred.
Knox addressed a letter to the Assembly containing a number of
suggestions. He exhorted them to contend earnestly for the truth and
for the liberty to express it, to endeavour to recover the patrimony
of the Church, to petition the Regent to have all the vacant bishoprics
filled up according to the order agreed on at Leith, but especially to
complain that the bishopric of Ross was given to Lord Methven. He urged
also that the Assembly should pass an act, ordering all the bishops
admitted under the new articles to give an account of the whole rents
of their sees and their intromissions therewith once every year; and
that the present Assembly should determine the jurisdiction of the
Church, as that part of the polity had long been postponed.¹
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 244, 246, 247‒250; Knox’s
_Works_, Volume VI., pages 619‒622.
For some time Knox had been in feeble health, but his spirit continued
vigorous to the last. When the strife between the two contending
parties was at its height, he had retired to St. Andrews, as we have
seen, but by the end of August, 1572, he had returned once more to
Edinburgh and resumed his preaching in St. Giles. When the intelligence
of the massacre of the Protestants in Paris on the 25th of August
arrived, he was deeply moved. A proclamation was immediately issued
in the Regent’s name, calling on the Protestants to meet at Edinburgh
on the 20th of October. Every congregation in the kingdom was directed
to send one or more commissioners to consult and deliberate upon such
matters and overtures as might be proposed, tending to protect and
mutually to defend the professors of the Gospel within the kingdom,
“from the furious rage and lawless cruelty of the bloodstained and
treasonable Catholics, the executors of the decrees of that devilish
and terrible Council of Trent.”¹ On the appointed day a number of the
ministers and barons assembled. Among other things, they proposed that
a national fast should be held, to begin on the 23rd of November and
continue to the end of the month, that thereby the wrath of God might
be mitigated. They desired that all the Catholics without exception
should be summoned before the Council and the commissioners of the
Church, to give confession of their faith, and that all who did not
conform to the reformed religion, should be punished according to the
acts of parliament. For resisting the Catholics in and without the
country, they proposed that a league should be made with England and
other reformed kingdoms, for their mutual defence, and the maintenance
of the true religion against all its enemies; as it was only by banding
themselves together that they could hope to thwart and frustrate the
endless machinations which were constantly forming against them. “At
this time the ministers then in Edinburgh did most vehemently inveigh
against this most beastly and more than treasonable fact; whereat
the French ambassador, called La Crocke, was not a little displeased,
because that his master the King of France should be called a traitor,
and a murderer of his own subjects, under promise and trust; but
especially against John Knox, who had pronounced in his sermon, and
had declared the same to the ambassador to tell his master, that the
sentence is pronounced in Scotland, against that murderer the King of
France, that God’s vengeance shall never depart from him nor his house,
but that his name shall remain an execration unto the posterity to come,
and that none that shall come of his loins, shall enjoy that kingdom in
peace and quietness, unless repentance prevent God’s judgments.”²
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume II., pages 168‒169.
² _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 252‒254; Calderwood,
Volume III., pages 227‒230; Bannatyne’s _Journal_, pages
401‒402.
On Sunday the 9th of November, 1572, Knox officiated at the induction
of James Lawson as his colleague and successor. His voice was weak,
and he never again appeared in public. On the 11th of the month he was
seized with a severe cough, but continued cheerful. Richard Bannatyne,
his faithful servant, attended him. He was surrounded by his family,
and visited by many warm friends. He died in peace and full of hope on
the 24th of November, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. On the 26th
of the month his body was laid in the grave in the churchyard of St.
Giles.¹
¹ Bannatyne’s _Journal_, pages 262‒254; Knox’s _Works_, Volume
VI., pages 634‒560. In these full details of the last days
of the Reformer’s life are given.
The character of Knox is manifested in his work, although the manner
of performing it is a fair subject for criticism. But there is a
prior point which must be noticed. In that and in all ages of recorded
history, when a revolution is preparing and even after it is carried
through, those who oppose it with all their power and still strive
to resist its outcome, and those who struggle with all their energy
to hasten and accomplish it, cannot both be animated by identical
ideas, principles, and sentiments. The two contending parties must
be influenced and swayed in varying degrees according to the strength
or the feebleness of their sentiments, the firmness of their belief,
the clearness of their ideas, and the grasp which they have of their
principles; or their course of action may be partly controlled by the
object and ends towards which they look, as these may be conceived from
different points of view: as when one party regards the commemoration
of the saints as an essential article of religion while the other does
not, and so on through many other articles of belief. If then the God
of the one party is exactly the God of the other, they at least desire
to take different ways of approaching Him. It is the distinctive and
characteristic glory of Roman Catholicism to proclaim that it has never
changed its creed nor its principles; both are constantly assumed to
be infallible. But Protestantism admits of change, and recognises the
laws of development and progress, of corruption and decay, in religious
systems as in everything else; and endeavours by a process of gradual
elimination to advance towards the conception of a supreme moral ideal
to which all theology should eventually subordinate itself.
Those who looked upon the Reformation as an evil, and on Protestantism
as a heresy which deserved to be condemned and stamped out, could
see in Knox only an embodiment of wickedness. For this reason their
libels on his character may be justly disregarded. It is a fashionable
thing to talk in modern phrases about toleration, and then proceed to
stigmatise the Reformers of the sixteenth century for their bigotry,
dogmatism, narrowness, and ignorance; but this is neither just nor
in accordance with true historical ideas. In the great religious
revolutions of the world toleration has had little place; and for
ages the expression of difference of religious opinion has been
punished as a crime. There is only one way of fairly appreciating the
character of all great religious Reformers. To form a true estimate
of their character, a thorough knowledge of the state of society
in which they lived, and of all the associated circumstances, is a
preliminary requisite. It is in the degree which the Reformer’s ideas
and sentiments rise above those of his own age that his character must
be measured, not by the standard of a later age. That Knox’s ideas were
higher and purer than those current among the ruling class of Scotland
is a fact, which any one who desires may verify for himself. That he
was animated by a firm belief in a righteous and just God who rules the
universe, cannot be doubted. His moral ideas were in some respects in
advance of those of his age, but some of them were crude, erroneous,
and even savage, and as a thinker he takes no rank. Owing, however, to
his natural sagacity and shrewd common sense, and to his deep feeling
of the realities and the responsibilities of human life, some of his
practical views were singularly clear, far-reaching, and well developed.
In common with all great men and religious reformers, Knox exercised a
wonderful sway over his followers, and inspired them with confidence in
the hour of danger and of battle. He always avowed his opinions openly,
and acted on them with a bold and fearless independence; yet in matters
of doctrine he was not rigidly dogmatic. The Reformation Confession of
Scotland is remarkable for the acknowledgment of its own fallibility.¹
It was only what he emphatically believed to be the inspired word of
God, and necessary for the Church and the good of the nation, that he
insisted on being adopted by others. To blame him for not embracing
a tolerant policy is simply to forget the state of society and the
circumstances of the times; and if he had followed such a course,
the Reformation in Scotland would never have been accomplished, while
he himself would certainly have been crushed. He was greedy of power
and impatient of the least opposition. But he believed that he had a
message from God, and that it was his imperative duty to proclaim and
enforce it, and in this he toiled with untiring industry and energy.
There are some of the lighter shades and graces of life which he seems
to have been incapable of appreciating, and he certainly showed a
disposition to limit the amusements and the enjoyments of others;
but this arose from his deep sense of the realities of human life
and the gravity of its manifold duties. Among his friends, and in the
family circle, he could on occasion unbend and disport himself in an
exceedingly social and agreeable manner; he had indeed a humourous and
peculiar comic side which comes out in many forms in his writings.
¹ See under page 104.
John Knox, in conjunction with his contemporaries, brought blessings
to the people of Scotland which they have never forgotten. Although he
was extremely strong in assertion and firm in his own convictions, it
should be remembered that he was still stronger in denial and negation.
He swept off at once the accumulated mass of legends, traditions, and
ceremonies which had enslaved the mind and obscured the glory, purity,
and truth of Christianity.
Much of the energy of the leading men among the clergy was still
devoted to the improvement of the polity of the Church, and to the
planting and the organisation of congregations throughout the country.
As yet the practical establishment of the reformed worship was in many
places only imperfectly accomplished. The disorder which accompanied
the revolution itself, and the internal struggle of the contending
factions of the King and the Queen which followed it, had all
contributed to leave the Church in a state of disorganisation. The new
clergy, with all the power and means at their command, were ardently
and incessantly labouring to remedy these evils; but they were met at
every turn with the inexorable fact, that it is a much easier matter
to destroy the forms and institutions of a religious system than to
construct others to replace them. The history of mankind has shown that
the genius of destruction is more common than the genius of appropriate
construction; hence the curious spectacle presented in the history
of Scotland, the constantly recurring tendency and the efforts of
the party at the head of the government to return to the forms and
modes of the old system of church polity. As the practical solution
of the problem involved great secular as well as religious issues,
it was hotly contested between the Crown and the clergy for many
generations. There was an element of democracy inherent in the very
heart of the Reformation; but the Reformers in Scotland went beyond
their contemporaries in the admission of democratic principles.
Knox maintained that the King and the ruling political powers were
responsible to the people, and that if they abused the trust committed
to them, the people might lawfully depose them and appoint others
in their place. Similar principles were taught by Buchanan. Thus it
was that the Reformation in Scotland assumed an intensely political
importance, but always in connection with religion and the polity of
the Church.
The rarity of original construction among the leaders of the
revolutionary movement is very remarkable. Even by Calvin, the greatest
master of dogmatic form that the Reformation produced, religion,
secular government, and morality were all mixed up and regarded as
integral parts of one and the same system. In fact, it could hardly
have been otherwise, for philosophy had no separate and independent
existence. A Church distinct from and independent of the State was a
conception quite alien to the modes of thinking which prevailed among
the Reformers. On the other side, a government distinct and independent
of the Church was an idea scarcely entertained by the statesmen of the
sixteenth century. They all seemed to be more or less possessed with
the notions common to theocracies, that the Church and the State as
being both under the direction of God, should be associated together.
The idea of a theocracy is grand and inspiring in contemplation, but
in practical operation it turns out that the Church and the State
both claim a supremacy; and they often come to hold very different
views as to what is, or is not, the will of God. For the intelligent
apprehension of the history of Scotland during the next one hundred
years, it is necessary to have a clear conception of this theocratic
principle. The struggle of the Crown to establish Episcopacy, and the
opposition of the Presbyterian clergy; the Covenants, the Solemn League
and Covenant, with many of their attendant tragedies, had their origin
in the theocratic notions which were gathered out of the Old Testament,
and attempted on both sides to be applied to forms of society and
circumstances which were beyond their scope.
After the fall of the castle of Edinburgh, the Regent Morton succeeded
in restoring comparative quietness in the kingdom. He was known to
be inclined towards the hierarchy of bishops; not from principle but
from ambition and greed. The management of the thirds of benefices he
took out of the hands of the collectors appointed by the Church, and
then united a number of parishes under one minister, who was assisted
by readers to whom a trifling stipend was paid. When the Church
complained of these abuses, he accused the ministers of seditious and
treasonable speeches, refrained from attending their assemblies, and
began to question their right to meet and pass acts without his express
permission.¹ But crafty and astute as Morton was, he miscalculated his
power, and utterly failed to comprehend the intense earnestness and
honesty of purpose by which the reformed clergy was animated.
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 292‒293, 296‒305;
Calderwood, Volume III., pages 304‒306.
The General Assembly met at Edinburgh in March, 1574, and concluded
that the bishops should be subject to the discipline of the Assembly,
the same as the superintendents in all points. Among the evils which
this Assembly enumerated and desired the assistance of the government
to remedy, were specified some books issued by the Jesuits and others
which contained manifest blasphemies against God and His revealed truth,
and were daily brought into the country by Poles and others to the
offence of the Church. The Assembly passed an act against simony in the
Church, and unanimously declared――“That all such persons as either buy
or sell benefices, or use any other kind of bargaining thereon, either
directly or indirectly, should be deprived of all function in the
Church; and the discipline of the Church to be laid upon them with the
utmost rigour and severity; and the buyers and sellers, or otherwise
coupers of the benefices to lose the same for evermore.”¹ This act was
much required. It is reported and recorded in many forms that Morton
and the nobles carried the traffic in benefices to an enormous length.²
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 294, 306, 310‒311.
² _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume II., pages 445,
585‒587; 184‒185, _et seq._
It was daily becoming more manifest that the clergy would throw off
what remained of the forms of Episcopacy. The existing state of the
Church was extremely confused and unsatisfactory. A convention of the
Estates in the beginning of March, 1575, voted that inconveniences
had arisen, and were likely to increase, from the want of a proper
government in the Church; and a committee was appointed to draw up a
form of polity agreeable to the Word of God, and adapted to the state
of the kingdom.¹ The General Assembly met on the 7th of March the
same year, and appointed a committee of their number to meet with the
Regent’s commissioners, and to reason and confer on the jurisdiction
and polity of the Church. The draft of whatever scheme was proposed the
committee were directed to lay before the Assembly. Andrew Melville was
a member of this committee, which was reappointed from time to time,
and at last produced the Second Book of Discipline.²
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., pages
89, 90.
² _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 326‒332; Dr. M‘Crie’s
_Life of Melville_, Volume I., pages 158, 159; 1819.
The Assembly met again at Edinburgh in August, 1575, and according to
custom the trial of the bishops and superintendents was begun, when
John Dury, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, rose and protested that
the trial of the bishops should not prejudge what he and others had
to propose against the name and office of a bishop. At a subsequent
sederunt Andrew Melville addressed the Assembly in support of Dury’s
proposition; his speech was attentively listened to, and it produced a
marked impression. The question was next proposed, Whether the bishops
as then placed in the Church of Scotland had their function in the Word
of God or not; and whether the chapters appointed for electing them
should be tolerated in a Reformed Church? For the better discussion
of the questions, the Assembly appointed John Craig, minister of
Aberdeen, James Lawson, minister at Edinburgh, and Andrew Melville,
principal of the University of Glasgow, on the one side; and George
Hay, commissioner of Caithness, John Row, minister of Perth, and
David Lindsay, minister of Leith, on the affirmative side of the
subject. In two days the committee reported that they did not think it
expedient at present to answer the first part of the question directly;
but they were of opinion that if any bishop was chosen without the
qualifications which the Word of God required, he should be tried by
the Assembly anew and so deposed. Touching the office of a bishop or
superintendent, they reported that the name of bishop is common to all
who are appointed to have the charge of a particular flock in preaching
the word and administering the sacraments, and exercising discipline
with the consent of the elders; and that this is the chief function
of bishops according to the Word of God. But out of this number some
might be chosen to visit and oversee, besides their own congregation,
within such reasonable bounds as the General Assembly might appoint to
them; and in these districts to admit ministers, with the consent of
the other ministers, and the approval of the congregations concerned:
and also to admit elders and deacons when necessary, with the consent
of the people; and to suspend ministers for reasonable causes, with
the consent of their brethren of the province. A full discussion of
the report was deferred to the next Assembly.¹ There were six bishops
present in the Assembly, none of whom seems to have offered any defence
of Episcopacy.
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 331, 340, 342‒343;
Spottiswood, Volume II., 200‒201.
When the Assembly again met at Edinburgh in April, 1576, the
question of the bishops was discussed anew. After a long debate the
propositions laid by the committee before the last Assembly were
affirmed; and the bishops who had not as yet received the charge of
a particular congregation were ordered to make choice of one. There
was much reasoning touching the districts of the various bishops,
superintendents, and commissioners. It was agreed that the existing
districts were too large for them to overtake, and it was arranged to
allot only such a district to each as he could duly oversee, and with
this aim a new distribution of districts was proposed. The persons who
visited such districts whether called bishops, superintendents, or by
other names, were interrogated at every General Assembly, and required
to render an account of their proceedings.¹
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 352‒356, 358‒359.
Questions and points concerning the patrimony of the Church came before
almost every Assembly. At this time it was asked, whether the Assembly
should proceed against those who unjustly possessed the patrimony of
the Church and the poor, and if so, how far? The Assembly unanimously
concluded that they might be proceeded against, first by way of
doctrine and admonition, and if in this way no remedy was obtained,
then to try the censures of the Church against them. The Assembly
reappointed the committee on the polity of the Church, and enjoined its
members to hold meetings at St. Andrews, Montrose, Glasgow, Edinburgh,
and Stirling, and to invite all ranks of the people to attend and give
their opinion on the proposed polity.¹
¹ _Ibid._ pages 360‒362.
The French Protestants who had taken refuge in England from persecution,
addressed a letter to their brethren in Scotland, bewailing their
sad condition, and desiring that the money which had been collected
for them among the Scots should be sent to them. The Assembly had
delayed sending it, because much of what had been promised, was not yet
collected; but it was resolved to forward at once the sum in hand to
the persecuted Frenchmen.¹
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, page 356.
In 1577 the General Assembly met twice at Edinburgh, and on both
occasions the book on the polity and jurisdiction of the Church was
discussed. The various heads of the subject were put into form and read
in the Assembly, and sanctioned by the majority; but the book itself
was still reserved for further reasoning. The Regent was asked to
attend the Assembly, but he excused himself on the ground that he was
otherwise occupied. The Assembly, however, resolved to lay the proposed
polity before him. Morton, however, who had never been very popular,
was now tottering towards his fall. Early in 1578 he resigned the
regency; and the government was committed to a Council of twelve men
and the young King, then in his twelfth year.¹
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., pages
115‒117, 120; _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume II.,
pages 677‒679; _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 383‒385,
391, 393, 394.
The popular party of the clergy were very active. In 1578 they held
three General Assemblies. These enacted that the bishops in the
Reformed Church of Scotland should henceforward be called by their own
names, and the chapters were prohibited from making any new elections
of bishops, under the penalty of deprivation of their offices. All
the bishops were ordered to submit themselves to the General Assembly
for reformation, and if they refused after admonition, they were
to be excommunicated; indeed the ruling party in the Church pursued
the bishops with astonishing energy. In the General Assembly which
met at Dundee in July, 1580, the subject of bishops was proposed for
discussion, and full liberty given to all the members to reason on the
matter and express their opinion. After this the Assembly unanimously
found that the office of a bishop, as then used and commonly understood,
had no warrant nor ground in the word of God. It was therefore declared
that this pretended office should be terminated, as being unlawful
in itself――a corruption and an invention of men. All the bishops were
charged to demit their office at once, to cease from preaching or
administering the sacraments or in any way exercising the functions of
pastors, until they received admission anew from the General Assembly,
under the penalty of excommunication. So energetic were the measures
of the Church that within a year all the bishops had submitted except
five;¹ the democratic spirit had become so strong and determined
that the Episcopal party had no longer any chance of retaining their
position in the Church.
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 408, 409, 413, 423‒425,
432, 433, 453; Dr. Grub’s _Ecclesiastical History of
Scotland_, Volume II., pages 210, 211; Dr. M‘Crie’s _Life of
Melville_, Volume I., pages 162, 163.
In 1579 the General Assembly had presented a long address to King James
VI., putting him in remembrance of things pertaining to the advancement
of God’s glory, the welfare of the Church, and the common good of the
nation. In this they pointed out to him his duties to the Church, and
warned him of his perils. Referring to the translation of the Bible,
which under the direction of the Assembly, had been newly printed and
dedicated to his highness, they went on to say:――“This holy book of God
should be set forth, and printed within your own realm, to the end that
in every parish church there should be kept at least one, to be called
the common book of the Church, as a most meet ornament for such a place,
and a perpetual register of the Word of God, the fountain of all true
doctrine, to be made patent to all the people of each congregation, as
the only rule to direct and govern them in matters of religion, as also
to confirm them in the truth, and to reform and to redress corruptions
wherever they may creep in; certainly we have great occasion both to
glorify the goodness of God towards this country, and highly to extol
and commend your highness’s most godly purpose and enterprise. Oh!
what a difference may be seen between these days of light, when almost
in every private house the book of God’s law is read and understood in
the Vulgar language, and the age of darkness, when scarcely in a whole
city, without the cloisters of monks and friars, could the book of God
ever be found, and that in a strange tongue of Latin, not good, but
mixed with barbarisms, used and read by few and almost understood and
expounded by none; and when the false named clergy of this realm abused
the gentle nature of your highness’s grandfather of worthy memory, made
it a capital crime to be punished with the fire to have read the New
Testament in the Vulgar tongue; yea, and to make them more odious to
all men, as if it had been the detestable name of a pernicious sect,
they were called New Testamenters.... Call for the wisdom of Solomon to
endue your grace with a spiritual spirit, as well in the civil policy
as in advancing the spiritual policy of the Church; imitate the fervent
faith of Jehosaphat putting his whole trust in the Lord and believing
his prophets; imitate the diligence of Jehoash, in repairing the
house of the Lord; follow godly Ezekias in rooting out all monuments
of idolatry, making the book of the law of God, a long time ignored
and left in silence, yea, utterly forgotten, to be publicly read and
accepted by the people and recommended to their posterity. To such
diligence as this did the prophets of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi
exhort the princes of the Jews.... This is a matter most worthy of your
royal heart, a purpose proper for the exercise of the vivacity of your
divine and high genius.... All other glory at last shall decay, and
all commendations that result from other princely acts, are either not
of long duration, or commonly mixed up with such things as are also
deserving of blame; but the honour of this act shall endure for ever,
and shall be fully approved by Him whose judgment must be equal and
right, who is the eternal Lord of lords and King of kings; whom with
most humble hearts and instant prayers we beseech to bless your majesty
with continual and daily increase of His abundant blessings both
spiritual and temporal; and to maintain in wealth and prosperity your
princely estate to the praise and glory of His holy name, your assured
salvation, the comfort and quietness of this country, the overthrow of
the power of Satan and the advancement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
Amen.”¹
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 441‒448.
While the clergy were busy abolishing the remaining fragments of
Episcopacy, they were, as we have seen, intently engaged in maturing
their own scheme of church polity. It had been laid before several
Assemblies, and its various chapters and heads had been discussed,
altered, amended, and rendered as perfect as possible. It was adopted
by the Assembly which met at Edinburgh in April, 1578. This polity,
which then became the authorised form of church government in Scotland,
is known by the title of the Second Book of Discipline; it was placed
before the King, but it was not ratified by the Privy Council nor by
Parliament. The Reformed Church, however, acted upon it, and inserted
it in the Register of the Acts of the General Assembly in 1581.¹
¹ _Ibid._ pages 408, 409, 432, 487‒512; Calderwood, Volume
III., pages 414‒418; Melville’s _Diary_, pages 87‒116.
This book of polity is a comparatively short but logical and compact
treatise. It contains thirteen chapters, each of which is again divided
into a number of short expository statements of the different points of
the general heading or doctrines to be established. It is essentially
a deductive work, and presents an admirable example of that method of
exposition. In the general scope and spirit of the book there are many
points of difference between it and the First Book of Discipline: the
earlier book was a meritorious and comprehensive production, but some
parts of it were ill arranged and not fully developed, and several
other matters were simply introduced to meet the exigencies of the time.
There is a notable difference in the view taken of the authority of
the civil power in the two books, touching ecclesiastical matters; in
the latter the distinction between the Church and the State is far more
fully worked out than in the earlier work. The first book, as we have
seen, gave a large share of power to the people in the election and
control of their ministers; the second book also gave a share of power
to the people, but divided it between the judgment of the eldership and
the consent of the congregation. It deals less with doctrine and more
with the external form and order of the Church than the first book.
But according to the second scheme, the Church would be altogether
independent of the civil government, and the civil government would in
things spiritual be subject to the orders of the Church. “This power
and ecclesiastical polity is different and distinct in its own nature,
from that power and policy which is called the civil power, and belongs
to the civil government of the Commonwealth; albeit they are both
of God, and tend to the same end, if they be rightly used, namely,
to advance the glory of God, and to have godly and good subjects.
This power ecclesiastical flows immediately from God and the Mediator,
Christ Jesus, and is spiritual, not having a temporal head on earth,
but only Christ, the only spiritual King and Governor of His Church.
Therefore this power and polity of the Church should lean upon the Word
of God immediately as the only ground thereof, and should be taken from
the pure fountains of the Scriptures, hearing the voice of Christ, the
only spiritual King, and being ruled by His laws.... Notwithstanding,
as the ministers, and others of the ecclesiastical estate, are subject
to the civil magistrate, so ought the person of the magistrate in
spiritual matters to be subject to the Church, and in ecclesiastical
government.
“The Civil power should command the Spiritual to exercise and perform
their office according to the Word of God. The spiritual rulers should
require the Christian magistrate to administer justice and punish
vice, and to maintain the liberty and quietness of the Church within
their bounds.... The magistrate ought neither to preach, minister the
sacraments, nor execute the censures of the Church, nor yet prescribe
any rule how it should be done, but command the ministers to observe
the rule commanded in the Word of God, and punish the transgressors
by civil means. The ministers do not exercise civil jurisdiction, but
teach the magistrate how it should be exercised according to the Word.”
This style of illustration by contrast is much employed in the Second
Book of Discipline. “The magistrate ought to assist, maintain, and
fortify the jurisdiction of the Church. The ministers to assist their
princes in all things agreeable to the word, provided they do not
neglect their own charge, by involving themselves in civil affairs.
“So it appertains to the office of the Christian magistrate to assist
and fortify the godly proceedings of the Church in all behalfs, and to
see that the public estate of the ministry be maintained and sustained,
according to the Word of God. To see that the Church be not invaded nor
hurt by false teachers or hirelings, nor their places occupied by dumb
dogs and idle bellies. To assist and maintain the discipline of the
Church, and to punish them civilly that will not obey the censures of
the Church. To make laws and constitutions agreeable to the Word, for
the advancement of the Church and her polity, without usurping anything
that does not belong to the civil sword, but belongs to the offices
that are ecclesiastical.... And although kings and princes who are
godly, sometimes by their own authority, when the Church is corrupted
and all things out of order, may place ministers and restore the true
service of the Lord, after the example of some of the godly kings
of Judah, and divers godly kings and emperors also in the light of
the Gospel; yet where the ministry of the Church is once lawfully
constituted, and those that are placed in offices perform their duties
faithfully, all godly princes and magistrates ought to hear and obey
their voice, and reverence the majesty of the Son of God speaking by
them.”¹
¹ The _Second Book of Discipline_ is printed in the _Book of
the Universal Kirk_; in James Melville’s _Diary_; and in the
third volume of Calderwood’s _History of the Church of
Scotland_.
This treatise laid down the lines of Presbyterianism, that form of
church government and organisation which has taken the firmest hold
upon the national mind. For some time the Assemblies had been taking
steps and labouring incessantly to complete this organisation, but
much still remained to be done and various obstacles had yet to be
overcome. The most pressing difficulty was the want of a sufficient
number of qualified ministers. In 1567 there were upwards of a thousand
parishes and churches in Scotland under the charge of two hundred and
fifty-seven ministers, one hundred and fifty-one exhorters, and four
hundred and fifty-five readers. Thus a number of parishes had neither
ministers nor readers. There were only 868 persons, including the
superintendents, for all the churches of the country. In 1574 there
were two hundred and eighty-nine ministers and seven hundred and
fifteen readers engaged in the religious instruction of the people,
but there were many complaints that a number of those who had charge
of churches were not qualified for the office. To meet the aim of
the Presbyterian polity in 1581 a rearrangement of the parishes
was proposed. Excepting the Diocese of Argyle and the Isles, it was
resolved to reduce the number of parish churches to six hundred, and
to divide these into fifty presbyteries――“twelve churches to every
presbytery, or thereabout.” But for some time it was found to be
impracticable to carry this scheme fully out, although the unwearying
perseverance of the leading ministers was rewarded with a considerable
measure of success. It was agreed to abolish the office of reader, and
gradually to replace it by regularly ordained ministers. The General
Assembly of 1580 concluded that all the readers who had been two years
in office should be tried and examined by the superintendents and
commissioners, and if they were found unqualified to be pastors and
to preach the word, to depose them; and in 1581 it was resolved that
no new readers should hereafter be admitted in the Church. We find,
however, that there were still readers in the Church at the end of the
century. Many of the readers had belonged to the Roman Catholic Church,
but they were not allowed to administer the sacraments or to solemnise
marriage. Still there was a lack of qualified ministers. This was owing
partly to the small and uncertain provision assigned to the ministry,
and partly to the disturbing circumstances of the times. Even in 1596
there were four hundred churches destitute of ministers. In Argyle
and other parts of the Highlands the doctrines of the Reformation were
only very imperfectly introduced, and in some of these portions of the
kingdom the people long remained Catholics. “Besides the Diocese of
Argyle and the Isles, of which no rentals were ever given up, there
are in Scotland nine hundred and twenty-four churches.” But several
of them were very small, and many of the churches were demolished. The
Diocese of Argyle and the Isles seems to have stood in a rather distant
attitude towards the Reformed Assemblies of the Church. In 1586, one
of the petitions presented by the Assembly to the King ran――“That the
bishops and commissioners of Argyle and the Isles may be subject to
attend upon the General Assemblies, and to keep their synodial meetings
as in other parts of the realm, which is a furtherance of the King’s
majesty’s obedience, since otherwise they appear to be exempted out of
his dominions.” Since the Reformation, however, the means of diffusing
religious instruction had been immensely increased; and the facilities
for acquiring information were steadily widening.¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume II., pages 6‒7,
261‒264, 351‒352; _Miscellany of the Wodrow Society_, Volume
I., pages 325‒328; _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages
455‒457, 479, 480‒487, 523, 530‒533, 549, 513, 535, ♦627,
661.
♦ “927” replaced with “627”
Although Morton had resigned the regency, he was still greedy of power
and struggled to regain it; but his enemies were closing in around him
and plotting his ruin. The young King naturally had his favourites.
They were constantly with him, and aroused the suspicion of the
Protestants and the clergy. In the year 1579 Eme Stewart, a cousin
of the king, arrived from France. He was kindly received by his royal
kinsman, with whom he soon became a great favourite. The two were
always together, and whatever interested the King and engaged his
attention was sure to interest his cousin. The result was that Eme
Stewart speedily rose to greatness. First, he was made an Earl, and
shortly after, Duke of Lennox. Then he was appointed High Chamberlain;
and in order that his wealth might be commensurate with his rank, the
once rich Abbey of Arbroath was freely granted to him. To complete
his influence in the councils of the kingdom he was made governor of
the Castle of Dumbarton. About the same time a Captain James Stewart,
another of the King’s favourites, came upon the scene. In the spring
of 1581 he was elevated to the rank of Earl of Arran, and put in
possession of a portion of the estates of the house of Hamilton.
As long as Morton was at liberty, however, these two upstarts were
insecure; they therefore contrived to compass his destruction.¹ The new
Duke of Lennox was known to be a Roman Catholic, and it was whispered
that he had come to Scotland as a secret emissary of the Pope. To allay
the suspicion of the clergy he professed that he was converted and
joined the Reformed Church. But the popular mind was not satisfied. It
was still feared that a scheme was being formed among those about the
court to bring back the old religion; and to calm this apprehension, at
the request of the King, a document was prepared, and signed by himself,
the Duke of Lennox, and the other members of the royal household in
March, 1581. Hence this paper has sometimes been called the King’s
Confession, the First Covenant, and in later times the Negative
Confession, from its extremely condemnatory character. It was a most
vehement protest and denunciation of many of the tenets of the Roman
Church, and it concluded with these words, “And because we perceive
that the peace and stability of our religion and Church depends
upon the safety and good behaviour of the King’s majesty, as upon a
comfortable instrument of God’s mercy granted to this country, for the
maintenance of His Church, and the administration of justice among us:
we protest and promise solemnly with our hearts, under the same oath,
hand write, and pains, that we shall defend his person and authority
with our goods, bodies, and lives, in the defence of Christ’s Gospel,
the liberty of our country, the administration of justice, and the
punishment of iniquity, against all enemies within and without this
realm, as we desire our God to be a strong and merciful defender to
us in the day of our death, and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: to
whom with the Father and with the Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory
eternally. Amen.”²
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., pages
237, 248‒254; Spottiswood, Volume II., page 266, _et seq._
² _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 515, _et seq._;
Calderwood, Volume III., pages 501‒505; _Collection of
Confessions_, pages 101‒107. 1722. This confession was drawn
up by John Craig, one of the ministers of Edinburgh.
About the beginning of the year 1581 the Duke of Lennox accused
Morton of complicity in the murder of Darnley, the King’s father; and
the fallen regent was taken and imprisoned, first in the Castle of
Edinburgh, and afterwards in Dumbarton Castle. He was brought to trial
on the 1st of June; and on his own confession that he was privy to
the plot for the murder of Darnley, was condemned and beheaded on the
2nd of June. Morton faced death as he had faced life, and died with
characteristic firmness.¹
¹ Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_, Volume II.; Melville’s _Diary_,
pages 116‒118.
Lennox and Arran were now supreme in the court and in the government.
But, as usual in the history of Scotland, a party of the nobles entered
into a bond against the favourites to crush them, take the King into
their own hands, and hold the reins of government themselves.¹ Some
time, however, elapsed before the project was matured. This interval
afforded Lennox an opportunity of trying his skill in the affairs
of the Church. On the death of Boyd, the Archbishop of Glasgow, the
disposal of the see was given to Lennox; and although the regulations
which recognised Episcopacy had been abrogated by the General Assembly,
and virtually abandoned by the court, they were revived by an act of
the Privy Council. The Duke offered the see to various ministers upon
the condition of their giving over to him the revenues, and agreeing to
accept an annual pension; and at last the offer was accepted by Robert
Montgomery, the minister of Stirling. To the reformed clergy this
simoniacal paction was extremely odious. The matter came before the
Assembly in October, 1581, and in spite of Lennox, the court party,
and the King, Montgomery was subjected by the Church to a form of
treatment which made him glad to submit, and in the end to supplicate
for permission to take the charge of a congregation, instead of the
Archbishopric of Glasgow. The King’s favourites and the court party had
not reckoned on the determined stand which the clergy made against them;
and were greatly enraged at being defeated.²
¹ The bond contained the names of the Earls of Gowrie, Mar, and
Glencairn, Lord Lindsay, the Master of Glamis, and a number
of others.
² _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume III., pages 474‒477;
_Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 524, 525, 529, 532, 539,
541‒547, 557‒566, 569, 571, 575, 578, 580, 583, 590, 599,
607, 609, 691, 700‒701, 709.
The feeling of uneasiness amongst the people, springing out of a fear
that the Catholics were preparing plots, continued. The adherents of
the old faith were very active; some of the most ardent of those who
had fled to the Continent after the Reformation were then returning;
and the court was showing a decided leaning towards Episcopacy. The
reformed ministers were not silent. They frequently expressed their
sentiments and opinions in the pulpit with irritating plainness. Walter
♦Balcanquhal, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, in a sermon which he
preached in October, 1581, said,――“That within these few years Popery
had entered into the country, not only in the court, but in the King’s
hall, and was maintained by the tyranny of a great champion, who was
called Grace; and if his grace would oppose himself to God’s Word, he
should have little grace.” For this sermon he was called before the
King’s Council, but he declined to recognise their right to try him for
anything which he had spoken in the pulpit, and offered to submit the
matter to the General Assembly. His case came before the Assembly, and
his brethren, after inquiry among the preacher’s session, unanimously
found that there was nothing wrong in his sermon; “but that it was
solid, good, and true doctrine.”¹
♦ “Balcanquhall” replaced with “Balcanquhal”
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 527‒529, 540, 542‒543.
By the freedom which they took in the pulpit the ministers of Edinburgh
were extremely annoying to the dominant faction, who had the King’s ear.
John Dury charged the King himself to his face for exchanging presents
with the Duke of Guise, “that cruel murderer of the saints.” When he
ascended the pulpit, he made the church resound with his denunciations
of the bishops, the King, and his favourites, who ruled the kingdom.
Dury was at first an exhorter in Leith, and though not a learned man,
he had much energy and intense earnestness of purpose. He could wield
a weapon on the field of battle, as well as preach a sermon in the
pulpit. It was on the evening of Wednesday, the 23rd of May, 1582, in
the Cathedral Church of Edinburgh, that he made his great attack upon
the court faction. “I pray you,” he said, “what should move Guise,
that bloody persecutor, that enemy unto all truth, that pillar of the
Pope, to send this present by one of his trustiest servants to our
King? not for any love, no, no, his pretence is known.... What amity
or friendship can we look for at his hands who has been the bloodiest
persecutor of the professors of the truth in all France, neither was
there any notable murder or havoc of God’s people, but what he was at
in person. And yet for all this, the Duke and Arran will needs have
our King to take a present from him. If God did threaten the captivity
and spoil of Jerusalem because their King Hezekia did receive a lure
and present from the King of Babylon, shall we think to be free when
committing the like or rather worse?” In his prayers, he prayed that
the Lord would either convert or confound the Duke. For his sermon
he was called before the Privy Council, and banished from Edinburgh
by an Act of Council. When the General Assembly met in June, 1582, he
placed the whole process against him before it, and the members of the
Assembly found nothing amiss in what he had spoken. “The whole Assembly
found nothing in him but sound, true, and wholesome doctrine; and
that he was upright and honest in his life and conversation.” As the
King had banished him from the capital, the Assembly gave him liberty
to preach wherever providence might cast his lot, until he should be
restored to his own flock.¹
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 576, 578, 580;
Calderwood, Volume III., pages 620, 622‒625; _Register of
the Privy Council_, Volume III., pages 335, 489. Dury was
called before the King and Council at Dalkeith――“Where he
narrowly escaped being slain by the duke’s cooks, who came
out of the kitchen, with spits and great knives to take his
life, as he often told me.”――Melville’s _Diary_, page 129.
The plot against the King’s favourites was at length ripe for
execution. The King was very fond of hunting, and on August 22, 1582,
his Majesty, by invitation, proceeded to the grounds of Ruthven Castle,
in the neighbourhood of Perth, to enjoy his favourite amusement. When
the sport was concluded for the day, he went to Ruthven Castle as
the welcome guest of its noble lord. Everything passed off in the
most agreeable fashion, and his Majesty at last retired to rest. The
following morning, when he arose and looked abroad, he was alarmed by
the throng of armed men around the place, and when he wished to depart,
discovered that he was a captive. The Earl of Arran was seized and
imprisoned; and the Duke of Lennox was warned to leave the country
without delay. This affair is known in history as “The Raid of Ruthven.”
The King was permitted to step about, but he was attended by a body
of well-armed followers to preserve his royal person from danger. In
a few days he was removed to Stirling, and in October was conveyed to
Holyrood House. A Parliament was then held at Edinburgh on the 19th
of October, and an act of indemnity, or rather a vote of thanks to the
chief actors in the enterprise, was passed. This was a farce which the
aristocracy often played. They proclaimed that, under the providence of
God, they were moved to attempt the reform of many abuses in the State,
which threatened to subvert the established religion, and were equally
perilous to his Majesty and the crown.¹ By the most ardent Protestants
and the clergy, “The Raid of Ruthven” was regarded as a deliverance
for the Church, and the ministers declared their satisfaction from the
pulpits. When the General Assembly met at Edinburgh on the 9th October,
1582, the members heartily approved of the proceedings of the Earl
of Gowrie and his adherents, and passed an act declaring “that the
prosecution and following out of the said good and godly cause, all
particulars put aside, is and shall be most acceptable to all that
fear the majesty of God aright; and to all who tender the preservation
of the King’s Majesty, most noble person, and estate, and loves the
prosperous and happy success of this troubled nation.” The members of
the Assembly were therefore recommended to explain the affair, and the
proceedings of the noblemen connected with it, to the people throughout
the country.²
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., pages
326‒331.
² _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 591‒592, 594‒596;
Melville’s _Diary_, page 134; Sir James Melville’s _Memoirs_,
pages 282‒283.
During the time that the King was in the hands of Gowrie and the barons
who joined him, the government was carried on pretty much in accordance
with the views of the Church. When ambassadors arrived from France
in January, 1583, the Presbytery of Edinburgh appointed some of the
ministers to go to the King and admonish him to beware of them. The
King thanked the preachers for their friendly admonition, but said that
he must show the common courtesies to the ambassadors of his old ally,
the King of France; but promised, however, to use no great familiarity
with them. The ♦distinguished strangers were permitted to celebrate the
mass, and their celebration of it excited the popular displeasure; the
ministers of the capital declaimed bitterly against them, especially
against La Motte, a knight who wore a white cross on his shoulder,
which they called the badge of Antichrist. Indeed, such was the feeling
aroused against them that the representatives of the King of France
could scarcely appear on the streets without being followed by the
jeers and hooting of the mob. The King desired the magistrates to
entertain them at a banquet before they departed; but the ministers
were extremely opposed to it, and immediately proclaimed a fast to
be kept on the day of the banquet. On that day the preachers in St.
Giles made the walls resound with their denunciations. Three ministers,
in succession, mounted the pulpit, and, without intermission for
four hours, thundered out maledictions against the nobles and the
magistrates who waited on the ambassadors, and took part in the
banquet.¹
♦ “distintinguished” replaced with “distinguished”
¹ Calderwood, Volume III., pages 694, 697, 698, 699, 700;
Spottiswood, Volume II., page 298.
Despite the vigilance of his keepers, the young King contrived to
escape in the end of June, 1583, and to throw himself into the Castle
of St. Andrews. The power of the Ruthven party was shortly after
terminated. The King issued a proclamation on the 30th of July,
touching the Raid of Ruthven, and announcing that he had resumed
his independent authority. Referring to the Raid, he expressed
his willingness to forget the offence and grant forgiveness to all
concerned in it, if they should timeously profess their penitence; and
for some time several of the nobles implicated in the Raid continued
members of the Privy Council. But on the 23rd of August the Earl
of Arran reappeared in the Council, and shortly resumed his power
and influence in the government; and he seems to have instigated the
young prince to prosecute to the utmost those concerned in the Raid of
Ruthven, and at last, on the 31st of March, 1584, it was denounced as
high treason. By this time, a number of those implicated in the Raid
had been tried one by one or collectively, and sentenced to banishment
or imprisonment, and disgraced. But the hatred of the Earl of Arran’s
rule had become general, and a new plot, sanctioned by a bond, was
formed against him, in which the Earls of Mar, Angus, and Gowrie, the
Lords Lindsay, John Hamilton and Claud Hamilton, the Master of Glamis,
and others, were associated. They resolved to seize Stirling Castle,
and then to raise a general insurrection. On the 10th of April, Mar
and Glamis, with a body of their followers, captured Stirling Castle;
but on the 15th of April, the Earl of Gowrie was arrested by Colonel
Stewart at Dundee, and immediately conveyed to Edinburgh. The capture
of Gowrie somewhat disconcerted the insurgent nobles. Arran, with a
strong force, advanced against them, and on the 24th of April, they
fled from Stirling, leaving only a garrison of twenty-four men in the
Castle. The following day, a proclamation was issued for the pursuit
and capture, dead or alive, of the Earls of Mar and Angus, the Master
of Glamis, and other rebels; but they escaped by Lanark to Kelso,
and crossed the border into England. The King and his army appeared
before Stirling, the small garrison left by the insurgents surrendered
the Castle, and on the 28th of April, their captain and other three
men were hanged. On the 2nd of May, the Earl of Gowrie was tried for
treason at Stirling by a jury of his peers, including ♦Argyle, Arran,
Crawford, and others; he was convicted, and beheaded the same day
beneath the castle wall. The same month an Act of Parliament was passed
for disinheriting his posterity, and in August an act of forfeiture was
passed against the Countess of Gowrie. From May 1584, till Midsummer
1585, Arran was the supreme ruler of Scotland, and his policy was
clearly manifested in the two short sessions of what is known as the
“running” Parliament, and in the proceedings of the Privy Council
during the brief period of his sway.¹
♦ “Argyll” replaced with “Argyle” for consistency
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., pages
301‒304; _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume III., pages
574, 585, 590, 602, 608, 611, 614, 644, 651‒662.
Meanwhile the apprehensions of the clergy had risen to an unusual
height. They had applauded the Raid of Ruthven, and some of them still
continued to reiterate their former sentiments on that enterprise. John
Dury, who had returned to Edinburgh, was ordered to retire beyond the
Tay, and to abide in Montrose. In the middle of February, 1584, Andrew
Melville, one of the chief leaders of the clergy, was cited to appear
before the Privy Council, touching seditious language which he had
uttered in his sermons. When he came before the Council, he at once
offered to give an account of the sermon upon which he was accused, and
after he had done this, the Council resolved to proceed with the trial.
Melville then protested and declined to answer, on the ground that
the case ought in the first instance to be tried by the Presbytery.
The reading of his protest seems to have greatly irritated Arran and
the King. On the second day of the trial Melville lost his temper, and
told the King and Council that they had taken too much on themselves to
control the servants of a Master far higher than they were. That they
might see their rashness, he took a Hebrew Bible from his girdle, and
throwing it down on the table challenged his judges to try conclusions
on that and then they would see their folly. The record states that
he “proudly, irreverently, and contemptuously declared that the laws
of God and the practices observed within the country were perverted
and not observed in this case.” The court ordered him to enter as
a prisoner into the Castle of Blackness within ten hours, under
the penalty of being proclaimed a rebel and an outlaw; but Melville
preferred to choose his own place of imprisonment, and immediately fled
to Berwick, which in those days was the city of refuge.¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume III., page 631;
Melville’s _Diary_, pages 141‒144; Scott’s _Narrative_,
page 51.
The contest between the Crown and the clergy had now reached a
crisis. Archbishop Adamson, acting in concert with the King and Arran,
was busy concocting a plan for the reintroduction of Episcopacy and
the destruction of the Presbyterian polity, which had been rapidly
completing its organisation. Adamson drew up a series of articles for
the constitution of the Church and the acceptance of the Government.
According to this scheme, which recognised in emphatic terms that the
King was head of the Church, and that it was therefore his prerogative
to appoint the order of her polity, the government of the Church
consisted, subject to the headship of the King, in the power and
authority of the bishops, whose office is of apostolic institution
and in accordance with the primitive purity of the Church of God. On
the other hand, it was pointed out that presbyteries in which laymen
associated with the ministers, were in fact a continual source of
sedition. No General Assembly was to be allowed to meet without a
license from the King.¹ These ideas were instilled into the mind of the
young King at this impressionable period of his life, and throughout
the rest of his career he never ceased to hold and enforce them to the
utmost of his power.
¹ Calderwood, Volume IV., pages 53‒55; Dr. Grub’s
_Ecclesiastical History of Scotland_, Volume II., pages
232‒234; Melville’s _Diary_, pages 151‒153.
Rumours of impending calamities to the Church and the nation filled the
land. In the beginning of May several of the most energetic preachers
fled to Berwick, and joined Melville and the banished lords. When
Parliament met at Edinburgh on the 19th of May, 1584, these gloomy
forebodings were fully realised. A series of acts were passed which
placed in the hands of the King powers quite unprecedented in Scotland.
One act declared that the King had an absolute power and authority over
all ranks in the kingdom, and that he was supreme judge in all matters
civil and religious. Another enacted that to speak against any of the
proceedings of Parliament should be accounted treason; a third, that
all the acts and judgments of the church courts, if unsanctioned by
Parliament, were to be held as unlawful, and all meetings of the people
to consult and deliberate on any matter, either civil or ecclesiastical,
without the King’s special licence, were declared criminal and
deserving the severest punishment. A fourth act placed the chief
ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the hands of the bishops. A fifth
commanded that no person whatever should dare to comment upon the
proceedings of the King and Council, either in sermons or declamations,
in public, in private, or in familiar conversation; nor at all presume
to utter any false and slanderous statements to the reproach, the
disdain, or the contempt of His Majesty, or to the prejudice and
dishonour of his highness and his parents and worthy progenitors, under
the penalty of the laws against the makers and tellers of lies. And
that these royal prerogatives which by the gift of heaven belonged to
his highness and to all his heirs and successors on the throne should
continue unimpaired, it was deemed absolutely necessary to condemn
Buchanan’s _History of Scotland_ and his _Jure Regni apud Scotos_;
and therefore all persons who possessed any copies of these books
were ordered to deliver them to the royal officers within forty days,
“that they might be purified of the extraordinary matters which they
contained.”¹
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., pages
292‒296; Calderwood, Volume IV., page 38, _et seq._
The clergy had become aware that these acts were preparing, and some
of them went to the Parliament House, with the intention of protesting
for the rights of the Church, but the doors were closed against them.
When the Acts were proclaimed at the cross of Edinburgh, three of the
ministers, Lawson, Pont, and Balcanquhal, protested publicly against
them as injurious to the former liberties of the Church. These acts had
been passed in great haste, the parliament having sat but two days, and
passed forty-nine acts; and the King and Arran made a bold attempt to
carry them into effect. For some time nothing was heard of but arrests,
trials, hornings and forfeitures. These measures unquestionably
expressed the intentions of the party in power. Orders were issued to
apprehend the preachers who had protested against the acts, but they
had saved themselves by flight. Soon after more than twenty ministers
took refuge in England; and there was then a pretty large party of
Scots in Berwick, Newcastle, and other parts of that kingdom.¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume III., page 668;
_Miscellany of the Wodrow Society_, Volume I., pages 411‒419;
Calderwood, Volume IV., pages 64‒65, 72; Melville’s _Diary_,
pages 167‒172.
The King and his party having now asserted their supremacy, resolved
to crush the rebellious nobles and the bold preachers. Parliament
again met in August, 1584, and passed thirty-eight acts to strengthen
the hands of the government. A process of treason against the banished
lords and others associated with them was carried through, and their
property was forfeited to the Crown. An act was passed which commanded
all beneficed men, ministers, readers, masters of colleges and
schools, to subscribe and faithfully promise that they would humbly and
dutifully submit to the King, and obey the acts of the last parliament;
and to show their submissive spirit, they were ordered at once to obey
the bishops and the commissioners appointed by the King to rule over
them in all religious matters, under the penalty of forfeiting their
stipends.¹ All the ministers between Stirling and Berwick were summoned
to appear at Edinburgh, on the 16th of November, 1584, there to attest
their submission to the will of the King. This was a very hard measure,
and many of the ministers refused to comply with it. When Craig and
other leading preachers were before the court, Arran asked them, how
they durst venture to be so bold as to find fault with the acts of
parliament; Craig answered that they durst find fault with anything
which was repugnant to God’s Word. Upon this Arran started to his feet
and threatened that, “he would shave their heads, pare their nails, cut
their toes, and make them an example to all rebels.” After some further
debate, Craig and the most of his brethren signed the deed, with a
clause which was added――“agreeable to the Word of God.” Erskine of Dun,
the venerable superintendent, also signed it, and used his influence
in persuading others to conform. On the 2nd of January, 1585, it was
proclaimed that all those who had not subscribed the acts of parliament
were then offered the last opportunity of doing so; and that in the
event of their declining, their stipends would be withheld, and their
persons punished for contempt of the laws.²
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., pages
331‒333, 336‒346, 347.
² _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume III., pages 701‒704,
712, _et seq._; Calderwood, Volume IV., pages 198‒200,
209‒211, 246‒247; Fifth Report of the Commissioners on
Historical manuscripts, page 636.
But neither the rage of Arran, nor the kingcraft of James, could
stifle thought and feeling. The ministers, however, were extremely
hard pressed. The laws against them were rigorously enforced; and even
the wives of the refractory preachers were turned out of their houses,
and commanded to leave the country.¹ By such means the King and his
associates fondly imagined that they would crush the spirit of the
clergy and the people; and an onlooker might well have thought that the
clergy were completely subdued; but the inner springs of the movement
the King with all his craft and acts was unable to touch. It was here
that he failed. He could enforce compliance with certain things; but
it was beyond his power to control the motives, the ideas, and the
convictions; and it is these which ultimately prevail.
¹ _Miscellany of the Wodrow Society_, Volume I., pages 432‒437.
One of the inner political peculiarities of the history of Scotland
appears in the rapid rise and fall of the factions of the nobles who
ruled the country, or rather the king. This process of action and
reaction was always at short intervals producing sudden and unexpected
changes at the centre of authority. Looking merely at the external
features of these manifestations, they seem to be capricious, irregular,
and extremely confused; but when we extend our view over a series
of centuries, and learn to appreciate the position and the power of
the aristocracy, these surprising changes in the government become
intelligible and full of sequence. In this light, the long series of
unforeseen changes in the government, the seizures, the imprisonments,
the depositions, and the murders, of the kings are seen to be the
results of a movement springing out of the social and political
organisation of the nation. In other words, the aggregates of society
in Scotland had for ages circled round the nobles, but often in
separate and conflicting groups; hence the comparative weakness of the
Crown arose partly from its having to contend with the freaks of these
natural and traditional centres of power.
Lord Maxwell had been for many generations the leading local noble
in Dumfries and its neighbourhood, and had frequently held the office
of Warden of the Western March. On the 29th of April, 1581, John,
Lord Maxwell, was appointed to that office by the King and Council. A
supporter of Lennox and Arran, immediately after the execution of the
Regent, he was created Earl of Morton, and on the 5th of June, 1581,
he obtained a charter granting the Earldom to him. The new Earl was
at feud with John Johnstone of Johnstone, a powerful border laird,
and formerly a Warden of the Western March; and on the 26th of May,
1582, a royal proclamation ordered them not to appear with their
armed followers in Edinburgh――“to a day of law appointed to be held
on the last day of May.” On the 19th of November the Earl of Morton
was deprived of the Wardenship of the Western March, and his rival,
Johnstone of Johnstone, was appointed to the office. The Earl of Morton
was subsequently charged with many misdemeanours, and denounced as
a rebel. In the winter of 1585 he appears as the leader of a border
revolt against Arran’s government; and in April a muster of the loyal
vassals of the Crown was ordered, and then to proceed against him,
while the gift to Maxwell of the Earldom of Morton was revoked; and
therefore he was at war with the King and his government. Maxwell
had a thousand armed men in the field, and the banished Lords at once
saw their opportunity, and joined him. In the beginning of November,
1585, they returned, and having collected their adherents, met Maxwell
at Selkirk. Thence they marched on Stirling with a force of eight
thousand men. The King and Arran were at Stirling when the rebels
appeared before it. Arran fled towards the Highlands; while the King,
notwithstanding all his craft and the astuteness of his favourites, had
no alternative but to receive the proffered homage of his rebellious
nobles, and pardon them.¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume III., pages 376, 487,
531, 534, 540, 739; Bannatyne _Miscellany_, Volume I., page
119; Melville’s _Diary_, pages 223‒225; Sir James Melville’s
_Memoirs_, pages 384‒385.
With the nobles most of the exiled preachers had returned, and the
hopes of the Protestant clergy were somewhat brightened. But if they
expected much aid from the party whom they had befriended, they were
quickly disabused. The nobles told them that first of all their own
estates must be restored, and that when they were, they would work
intently for the Church. This was the characteristic form of the policy
of the aristocracy towards the reformed clergy, when a party of the
clergy had interests of their own at stake, they were ready to promise
assistance to the clergy; but, excepting a few individual nobles who
appeared from time to time, there was no real religious principle or
living conviction amongst them from the beginning to the end of the
conflict. The clergy themselves, however, continued to struggle on,
and fought manfully for the redress of their grievances. The Parliament
met in the beginning of December, 1585, and restored the estates of the
nobles who had been disinherited for their rebellion. But the despotic
acts of 1584 were left untouched. The only act in favour of the Church
was one which restored all the ministers and masters of colleges to
their offices and possessions.¹
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., pages
383‒387, 395.
It has become apparent that the King had an enormous amount of
self-conceit; and that he was filled with a passion for polemics. He
had been so flattered and puffed up by those who had lately associated
with him, that he verily thought he could settle theological questions,
make a commentary, or handle a text better than all the preachers and
professors in the kingdom. About the beginning of the year 1586 he
attended worship in the High Church of Edinburgh, when Balcanquhal the
minister made some derogatory remarks touching the authority of bishops.
James immediately rose from his seat and asked him what Scripture he
had for his assertions. The preacher said he could adduce sufficient
proofs from Scripture for what he had stated. The King vehemently
denied this, and offered to pledge his kingdom that he would prove the
contrary, and he added that it was the practice of preachers to busy
themselves with such matters in the pulpit, but he was aware of their
intentions, and would look after them. The interlude continued for a
quarter of an hour, after which the King resumed his seat and heard the
sermon to the end. Balcanquhal was subsequently sent for, and in the
palace his Majesty had the satisfaction of engaging him for more than
an hour.¹ It should be stated, however, that the preachers sometimes
provoked the King. A short time before this incident, James Gibson, the
minister of Pencaitland, preached a sermon in Edinburgh, and uttered
the following statement――“I thought that Captain James Stewart, Lady
Isabel his wife, and William Stewart, had persecuted the Church, but
now I have found the truth, that it was the King himself. As Jeroboam
and his posterity were rooted out for staying of the true worship of
God, so I fear that if our King continue in his present course, he
shall be the last of his race.” For this, Gibson was brought before
the Privy Council and imprisoned. He was afterwards liberated, and for
a time suspended by order of the General Assembly.²
¹ M‘Crie’s _Life of Melville_, Volume I., pages 340‒345.
² _Register of the Privy Council_, December, 1585; _Book of the
Universal Kirk_, pages 688, 690, 699, 709‒712.
The General Assembly met at Edinburgh in May, 1586. The King attended
at the election of the moderator, and gave his vote in favour of
David Lindsay, the minister of Leith, who was in consequence chosen.
There had been no General Assembly for a long time, and there was much
business to transact; but the proceedings ended in a compromise which
was satisfactory to neither party. Discussions were held concerning
the office of a bishop, the discipline of the Church, the limits of
the jurisdiction of the Synods and Presbyteries, and a scheme for
the division of the whole country into Synods and Presbyteries was
adopted. The King’s Commissioners and the members of the Assembly
held long communings; the King had one chief object always in view――to
keep the Episcopal element in the Church. Bishop Adamson, who had been
irregularly excommunicated by the Synod of Fife, appeared before the
Assembly and submitted. He promised to behave himself for the future,
and to submit his life and doctrine to the trial, the judgment and
censure of the General Assembly, and upon which, and no other condition,
were bishops to be recognised in the Church.¹
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 645‒684. “In this
Assembly was first seen what fear and flattery of the Court
could work among weak and inconstant ministers.” Calderwood,
Volume IV., page 583. Compare Melville’s _Diary_, page 249.
But the nation was not as yet fully under the discipline of the
Reformed Church. A considerable section of the people still adhered
to the Roman Catholic religion in the remote districts of the West and
North. There was also, as we have seen, a lack of qualified ministers
to overtake the work throughout the country. Besides, the reformed
system of organisation had scarcely come into full operation when the
diverging views of the King and his government began to obstruct its
development.¹
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 658‒661.
At this time a number of French Protestant ministers had taken refuge
in Scotland from the severe persecution which was raging in their
own country. The General Assembly employed Andrew Melville to write
a letter assuring the exiled preachers that the Assembly would do
everything in its power to assist them and to render their sojourn
agreeable. The magistrates of Edinburgh allowed the French refugees
to meet for worship in the common hall of the College, and allotted
stipends to their ministers. Collections also for them and their
brethren in England were made in the parishes throughout the kingdom.¹
¹ _Ibid._, pages 655‒657.
When it became known in Scotland that Queen Mary was to be executed,
the King issued an act of council ordering the ministers at all their
preachings and meetings to pray for his mother in this form, “The
Lord illuminate and enlighten her spirit, that she may attain to the
knowledge of His truth, for the safety of soul and body, and preserve
her from the present peril.” Some of the ministers, especially those of
Edinburgh, refused to pray but as the spirit moved them. The King seems
to have been disappointed at this, and on the 3rd of February, 1587,
he appointed Archbishop Adamson to preach in St. Giles, and after a
little scene, the bishop was allowed to go on with his prayer and his
sermon. The truth is, that James was far more concerned and interested
about his own succession to the English throne than about his mother’s
death.¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume IV.; Calderwood,
Volume IV., pages 606‒607; Moysie’s _Memoirs of the Affairs
of Scotland_.
The unfortunate queen herself was endowed with a courage and a
spirit which, in the final scene of her chequered career, astonished
and dismayed all her enemies. Never had martyr exhibited a grander
spectacle of fortitude than did Mary Stuart in the closing act of her
fitful life. And she has had her reward. Her bearing upon the scaffold
shed a glory around her which has been transmitted and worshipped by
her admirers down to the present. But amongst the people of Scotland
she was at the time of her execution but little regarded.
The parliament which met at Holyrood House in July, 1587, ratified all
the acts passed in favour of the reformed religion during the minority
of the King. An act was passed against seminary priests and Jesuits,
and all the enemies of the reformed religion. The temporal lands of the
bishoprics, abbacies, and priories, which then remained unappropriated,
were annexed to the crown; but the chief gainers by this act were the
nobility, as it secured to them the lands which they had obtained since
the Reformation. By this measure, whether the King perceived it or
not, a severe blow was given to Episcopacy, as it really divested the
bishops of the right to sit in parliament by their landed titles, and
thus cut from beneath them the strongest ground for their continuance.¹
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., pages
429‒437.
Meanwhile the Presbyterian clergy were persevering in their attacks
on the bishops, and were fast becoming masters of the field. They
were making incessant efforts also for the utter suppression of the
adherents of Catholicism. An extraordinary meeting of the General
Assembly was convened at Edinburgh in February, 1588, for the purpose
of arousing the nation to a sense of its danger from the threatened
Spanish Armada. Andrew Melville, as moderator of the last Assembly,
opened the proceedings with an address, in which he explained the
reasons for their meeting. The alarming nature of the crisis had
attracted a great concourse of members who were all animated with one
spirit. They drew up an extremely dark picture of the state of the
kingdom: “It was an exceedingly great grief to all such,” they said,
“as have any spunk of the love of God and his Christ, to see Jesuits,
seminary priests, and other teachers of popery and error, to be so long
suffered to pollute this land with idolatry, corrupt and seduce the
people, and spread abroad their poisonable doctrine; to see practisers
and traffickers against the true religion, and the present liberty
of this realm, to be received, maintained, and entertained; to bring
to pass their most dangerous devices and plots, and the receivers,
the entertainers, and the maintainers, and the professed favourers of
both the one and the other, so to abound everywhere; and not only to be
tolerated with impunity, without executing of the laws of the country
against them, but also to have special credit, favour, and furtherance,
at the court, in the session, in the burghs, and throughout the realm,
in all their affairs. And, on the other hand, to behold the true
Word of God contemptuously despised by the great multitude; His
holy sacraments horribly profaned by private, corrupt, and unlawful
persons; the discipline of the Church disregarded, the persons of the
ministers and the office-bearers within the same stricken, menaced, and
shamefully abused, themselves beggared, and their families shamefully
hungered. And yet, notwithstanding, neither the laws against idolatry
nor vice were put into execution, neither sufficient laws made for the
liberty and welfare of the Church, nor such as are made put into effect
for removing of these fearful enormities.” The records then enumerate a
number of Catholics by name who were spread throughout the country. In
the north, where the Earl of Huntly was supreme, the reformed religion
had as yet taken comparatively little hold upon the people. Many of
the parishes in this region had no ministers, and even where there were
readers and pastors, they found it extremely difficult to perform their
functions. In Lennox, at this time, there were twenty-four churches,
and not four ministers amongst them all.¹ The Assembly appointed a
commission to visit the north, south, and west, to introduce order and
discipline, plant qualified ministers, and establish the authority of
the Church.
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 703, 715‒724.
The Scots made every preparation which their limited means afforded to
defend themselves, if the Spaniards should attempt to land in Scotland.
For some time great uneasiness was felt among all ranks of the nation.
Time passed on, and the Spaniards at last landed in Scotland, but
not in the character of a conquering army. Early one morning, before
the fate of the Armada was known, James Melville, the minister of
Anstruther, was informed that a ship filled with Spaniards had entered
the harbour and were imploring aid, and the authorities requested
his advice as to how they should act towards them. The principal
inhabitants of the town were at once assembled, and when the real
condition of the Spaniards was ascertained, the Scots treated them
with all the kindness and hospitality in their power. Afterwards they
obtained a license and safe conduct from the King to return to Spain.¹
¹ Melville’s _Diary_, pages 260‒264.
But the reformed clergy continued their endeavours to put down the
Jesuits and seminary priests, who were protected by some of the local
nobles. A convention of the chief ministers was held at Edinburgh in
January, 1589, to devise and recommend measures to the government.
Andrew Melville was chosen chairman of the meeting, and his nephew
James acted as clerk. The meeting petitioned the government to purge
the land of all Jesuits and priests; and before separating they
appointed a number of their brethren as commissioners to meet every
week in Edinburgh, and consult upon matters relating to the Church.
In the spring of this year the Earl of Huntly and other Catholic lords
broke out into rebellion. They collected their followers and met at
Aberdeen in April, but the King marched in person against them, and the
insurrection was for a time suppressed.¹
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 740‒744; Pitcairn’s
_Criminal Trials_, Volume II., page 171, _et seq._;
Calderwood, Volume V., pages 54‒55.
The Presbyterian party was now almost masters of the position. The
Synods and Assemblies were enforcing the discipline of the Church
with a firm hand. They demanded conformity of polity and doctrine, and
the discipline was brought to bear upon the highest as well as upon
the humblest in the land.¹ In the pulpit the ministers were extremely
outspoken and freely rebuked the King and the chief officials of the
government. Mr. Robert Bruce, when preaching a sermon in Edinburgh
in the presence of the King said――“What could the great disobedience
of this land mean now while the King was at home, seeing that some
reverence was borne to his shadow when he was absent? He answered, it
meant a universal contempt of the subjects; therefore he willed the
King to call to God, before he either ate or drank, that the Lord would
give him a resolution to execute justice upon malefactors, although it
should be with the hazard of his life. Which if he would courageously
attempt, the Lord would raise anew to assist him, and all these
obstacles would vanish away, otherwise he would not be suffered to
brook his crown, but every man will have one.” Others of the ministers
were equally explicit in warning the King of his sins.²
¹ _Book of Universal Kirk_, pages 771, 773, 777, 781.
² Calderwood, Volume V., pages 129‒130, 139.
The King himself was in a state of almost utter poverty. During the
revolutionary period the revenue of the Crown had decreased; and the
unseemly squabbles in the court, together with the King’s inability
to punish notorious criminals, and his leniency towards the Catholic
Earls, had all tended to lower him in the eyes of the people. Harassed
by these circumstances and uncertain which way to turn, the idea seems
to have crossed his mind that he might regain the esteem of the people
by cultivating the friendship of the Church. The leaders of the clergy
were only too eager to let such an opportunity slip. When the General
Assembly met in May, 1592, it was resolved to petition Parliament to
pass an Act which should recognise the polity and the liberties of the
Church.¹
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 786‒787; Calderwood,
Volume V., pages 140‒162.
Parliament met at Edinburgh in June 1592, when the petition of the
General Assembly was laid before it. The Assembly craved that the acts
passed against the discipline and the liberty of the Church in the year
1584, should be repealed, that the discipline which had been in use
should be ratified, and that the act of annexation should be reduced,
and the patrimony of the Church restored. An act was accordingly passed
which confirmed all the liberties and privileges granted by the King
and the regents in his name to the Reformed Church as then established
in the kingdom. The act recognised and sanctioned the general
assemblies, synods, presbyteries, and particular sessions of the Church.
The General Assembly was to be allowed to meet once a-year, or oftener,
if necessary, the time and place of the next meeting to be fixed by the
King or his Commissioner, or if neither of them should be present, by
the Assembly itself. Then followed a special abrogation of acts passed
in bygone ages in favour of the Roman Catholic Church, which were
prejudicial to the Reformed Church and her discipline within the realm.
Acts of the Parliaments of James II. and James III. were specially
pointed out as recognising the authority of the Pope and holy days, but
these and all other acts authorising the interference of the Pope were
declared to be for ever annulled. It was distinctly stated that the
act passed in the Parliament of 1584, concerning the royal supremacy,
should be in no way derogatory to the privileges of the office-bearers
of the Church, touching the heads of religion, points of heresy,
excommunication, appointment or deprivation of ministers, or any
censures warranted by the Word of God. The act of 1584 relating
to the bishops was also repealed.¹ Thus the legal establishment of
Presbyterianism, for which the leading men among the clergy had so
long fought, was at last obtained. Although the settlement was far
from complete, it has always been regarded by the Presbyterian body
of Christians as an important step in national reformation. But the
Reformed Church of Scotland did not consider either this, or any other
Parliamentary sanction as the basis of her religious constitution.
This had already been laid down and so far fixed in her Confession
and in her Books of Discipline; but all her internal regulations she
considered to be founded upon higher grounds than any earthly authority.
Still in that age, when the traditions of the old system were by no
means extinct in the country, and while the energy of Roman Catholicism
was successfully recovering its lost ground in other parts of Europe,
it will be seen that it was no small advantage for the Reformed Church
of Scotland to obtain a firmer and more public establishment of the
principles of Protestantism.
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., pages
541‒543.
CHAPTER XVIII.
_Continuation of the History of Protestantism._
THOUGH the clergy had obtained the sanction of the government to their
form of Church polity, the public mind was still agitated. The air
was filled with rumours of plots and conspiracies on the part of the
Jesuits, and of projected invasions for the overthrow of the Reformed
religion and the massacre of the Protestants. The zeal of the clergy
against the Catholics was intense and implacable. They were much
annoyed at the lenity of the King towards the Catholic Earls of Huntly,
Errol, and Angus, and were constantly on the outlook for their enemies.
In the month of November, 1592, they appointed a committee to sit in
Edinburgh during the emergency in order to watch over the Church. To
sharpen the feeling of the people, they proclaimed a fast to begin on
Sunday, the 17th of December, “That by true humiliation and unfeigned
repentance, the fearful judgments of God that hang over this land may
be prevented.” During the fast the pulpits resounded with denunciations
of the Catholics, the decrees of the Council of Trent, and the
remissness of the King and the government in not executing justice
upon malefactors and murderers. According to Calderwood, the effect of
the fast was immediately manifested in the apprehension of George Ker,
a doctor of laws, who was connected with a strange conspiracy. On the
27th of December, Andrew Knox, the minister of Paisley, having learned
that Ker was ready to proceed to Spain, traced him to Glasgow, thence
to the Island of Cumbrae, and apprehended him on the ship in which
he was about to sail. Ker’s baggage was searched, and some packets
of letters of a suspicious character being found, he was conveyed a
prisoner to Edinburgh. Among the letters, several signatures of the
♦Earls of Huntly, Errol, and Angus, were found at the bottom of blank
slips of paper. Graham of Fintry, an associate of Ker’s, was shortly
after apprehended. Ker was tortured, and on the first stroke of the
boots confessed the conspiracy. This mode of extracting information
destroys any degree of credit which might otherwise attach to the
statements of the accused individual, but it was enough in the heated
temper of the clergy and the people, to arouse their passions and
feelings to a pitch of great excitement. The Privy Council, after
examining the letters, had no doubt of their authenticity. The King,
then at Stirling, was requested to return to Edinburgh. The people
clamoured for the trial and execution of Ker; and the authorities
issued a proclamation ordering all Jesuits and excommunicated persons
to depart from Edinburgh within three hours, under the penalty of
death. Upon Sunday the 7th of January, 1583, the King attended church,
and Robert Bruce, the preacher, exhorted him “that now was the time
to execute justice,” or else, said he, “the chronicles will keep in
remembrance King James VI. to his shame.” A meeting of the Protestant
barons and ministers was held, and they called upon the King to
prosecute and punish the traitors. Ker escaped; but Graham was
convicted of conspiracy, and on the 10th of February, he was executed
to appease the rage of the people, but in vain. On the night after his
execution, a bill was posted up in a conspicuous part of the capital,
which asserted that all the preparations against the Catholics would
end in nothing, for the greatest criminals had been allowed to escape
by the connivance of the Court.¹
♦ “Early” replaced with “Earls”
¹ Calderwood, Volume V., pages 167, 168, 171‒193, 214‒230;
Melville’s _Diary_, pages 306‒307.
Towards the end of February, 1593, the King, at the head of an army
made a demonstration against the Catholic Earls, but it resulted
merely in the Earls of Huntly and Errol withdrawing to Caithness. Many
circumstances indicated that the King intended to treat them leniently,
and there were obvious reasons for this policy in the existing state of
things. The Crown of Scotland was never strong, and the craft of James
VI. was little fitted to enhance its importance. The nobles, on the
other hand, were unusually distracted by feuds and factions, springing
out of a variety of causes, social and political, as well as religious.
Since the Reformation their landed possessions had frequently changed
hands. The national records of the time are full of forfeitures,
revocations, and confirmations, of landed estates; and naturally
the plots of those who had been defeated and ruined were incessant.
About one-third of the nobles were still more or less firmly
attached to the Roman Catholic religion.¹ From these circumstances
a mass of difficulties arose which reduced the Crown to the most
miserable straits, and placed the King in the most ridiculous plights.
Unfortunately, James had neither the sagacity to appreciate the
tendency of his age, and to follow and moderate it, nor grasp of
principle and firmness of character to turn it aside. His thin narrow
mind was filled with little conceits and possessed with the most
childish notion of his own power and prerogatives; while the moral
side of his character was even worse than the intellectual, indeed, he
had little regard either for truth or honesty. Yet, he was continually
tampering with the Church, and in his own underhand and crafty fashion
endeavoured to impress his notions upon her, and to install the bishops
as executors of his will.
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III.
throughout; _Register of the Privy Council_; Tytler’s
_History of Scotland_, Volume IX., pages 65‒111, 376‒382.
The reformed clergy boldly insisted on the complete submission of
the Catholics, and the entire extirpation of their faith. The General
Assembly which met at Dundee in April, 1593, called upon the King and
the government to punish all the Catholics in the country, according
to the laws of God and the laws of the realm. They insisted “That
Parliament should declare all the Jesuits and trafficking Catholics to
be guilty of treason, and that the same penalties should be enforced
against all persons who harboured them, not for three days, as the law
then stood, but for any time, however short. That all those whom the
Church found to be Catholics, although not excommunicated, should be
debarred from holding any office in the kingdom; and also debarred from
all access to his Majesty, and from the protection of the laws; and
that the consequences of horning and all other social penalties should
follow upon such a declaration, as upon the sentence of excommunication:
that an act of council should be immediately made thereon, till the
next Parliament, when it should be passed into a law.”¹
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, 798‒799, 802‒803.
When the petition in which these demands were embodied came before the
King, he refused to grant it. In his answer he reminded the petitioners
of his right to appoint the day and the place of the Assembly, and
desired them to pass an act prohibiting every minister from declaiming
in their pulpits against himself or the proceedings of his council. He
also wished the ministers to name six of the wisest of their number,
that from these he might select two to serve in his own household.
Nothing, he said, would afford him more pleasure than to hear through
the clergy what was doing in all parts of the country, for whoever
were their enemies, were his enemies; he would be highly delighted,
not only to hear from time to time about the practices of the Catholics
and the Spanish faction, but also about Bothwell, whenever they
had any information of him, because his whole course of action was
directed against his Majesty’s person, and the total subversion of all
religion.¹
¹ _Ibid._, pages 805‒806.
Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, was a near relative of the King. But
he was restless, daring, and unscrupulous; and had repeatedly thrown
the King into fits of terror for his life, by sudden and unexpected
attempts to make him a prisoner. Bothwell was known to have entered
into plots with the Catholic party, the Protestant party, and
with Queen Elizabeth; but he lacked the strength of character and
intelligence to carry out any great enterprise; while his exploits
with the King, although extremely annoying and fearful to the royal
personage himself, often assumed a rather ridiculous and comic form,
and had no effect whatever on the main current of history.¹
¹ Sir James Melville’s _Memoirs_, pages 414‒416; Calderwood,
Volume V., pages 117‒132, 138, 140, 134, 177, 258;
Melville’s _Diary_, pages 277, 294‒326.
Parliament met in July 1593, but the process against the Catholic
lords failed. The King’s advocate informed the commissioners of the
Church that the summons was informal, and the evidence against them
insufficient, and that it was impossible then to forfeit them. An act
was passed against the mass, and a searching inquisition was ordered
to be made for all Catholics. But this did not satisfy the clergy; and
they freely expressed their sentiments in the pulpits to the people.
On the Sunday after the close of the parliament, John Davidson said in
his sermon, “It was a black parliament, for iniquity was seated in the
high court of justice: the arch traitors having not only escaped, but
in a manner were absolved, as it was alleged that no evidence could
be adduced against them. The absolving of the wicked, imported the
persecution of the righteous, except God restrained the adversaries.
Let us pray, that the King by some sanctified plagues, may be turned
again to God.”¹
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume IV.;
Calderwood, Volume V., pages 255‒256.
The King was still averse to proceed to extremities against the
Catholic Earls. But the more ardent Protestants and the clergy had
come to the conclusion, that it was impossible for the old and the
new religion to exist together in Scotland. They therefore deemed it
necessary to employ the power of the Church against the Catholics. The
Synod of Fife met at St. Andrews on the 25th of September 1593, and
agreed to a resolution to excommunicate the Earls of Huntly, Errol,
Angus, Lord Home, and others of their adherents. This sentence was
ordered to be intimated in all the congregations throughout the kingdom.
The Synod concluded its proceedings by exhorting the pastors to prepare
themselves by prayer and diligent study of the word, for the solemn
fast which was to be observed in every parish of the realm.¹
¹ Calderwood, Volume V., pages 259‒265; Melville’s _Diary_,
pages 309‒310.
The excommunication of the Earls highly displeased the King, and there
was much contention between him and the clergy concerning it. The
Earls themselves then supplicated the King to put them on their trial
for conspiracy, and complained that they had been excommunicated and
were treated as traitors, without having been offered an opportunity
of vindicating themselves. When everything is taken into account, it
certainly was hard that they should be compelled either to renounce
their own religion and sign the Protestant confession, or submit to
banishment and utter ruin. These, however, were the alternatives which
the clergy were determined to exact. From the standpoint of modern
ideas, the proceedings and the demands of the Protestants would be
pronounced wholly wrong; but at the time the prevailing ideas, and
the religious notions of truth and error, were far more influenced by
the pressure of circumstances than they are in the present. With their
aim, and from their point of view, the single line of policy which they
followed was thoroughly logical and honest according to their light.
On the 17th of October the leading ministers and their adherents met
at Edinburgh to consult and prepare to face the threatened danger. They
appointed six of their number to request the King to take order with
the excommunicated Earls, and they freely expressed their regret that
he had permitted those cast-off persons to come into his presence. The
King gave them no thanks. He upbraided the members of the Synod of Fife
for excommunicating the Earls. But the representatives of the clergy
told him, that if their enemies took up arms, they had resolved to meet
them face to face. “This,” they said, “we are minded to do, although it
should be with the loss of all our lives in one day; for certainly we
are determined that the country shall not brook us and them both, so
long as they are God’s professed enemies.”¹
¹ Calderwood, Volume V., pages 270, _et seq._; Melville’s
_Diary_, pages 110, 111; _Acts of the Parliaments of
Scotland_, Volume IV., page 44.
Matters were rapidly running to a crisis. Both parties were mustering
their followers in all parts of the country. To the religious elements
of the struggle, there were added the bitter and revengeful feelings
springing out of long-standing family feuds, and if once the swords
were drawn, the results would prove disastrous in the extreme to all
alike. This was well known to the government; and a committee of the
Three Estates, along with six of the leading clergy, met to deliberate
on the state of affairs. After some animated debates, the King, on the
26th of November, pronounced what was called “The Act of Abolition,”
touching the accused Earls. This act stated that the true religion,
which was established in the first year of his Majesty’s reign, should
be the only one professed in Scotland; and that those who had never
embraced it, and those who had declined from it, should either conform
to it, before the 11th of February, 1594, or depart from the country
to such places as the King should direct, and there to remain till they
professed the truth and satisfied the Church. During their banishment,
they were to retain the full possession of their estates. All
accusations against them were annulled. The Catholic Earls were ordered
to inform the King and the Church, before the 11th of January, which of
the alternatives they meant to accept.¹
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume IV., pages
46‒48; Spottiswood.
This act pleased neither party. The Earls were not disposed to renounce
their religion, nor to retain it only at the cost of exile: while the
clergy and their adherents were extremely annoyed at this temporising
line of action, and immediately expressed their disapproval of it from
their pulpits. On the 30th of November, 1593, Mr. Balcanquhal touched
upon the practices of the court, in his sermon, and recalled the
judgments of God that had fallen upon some of the chief actors――“as
upon Bothwell who had died like a dog; and upon the Queen who was
beheaded that day twenty years, after she had caused her husband to be
murdered.” On the 4th of December, the ministers of the Presbytery of
Edinburgh met to consult upon the Act, and many faults were found in it.
Some proposed to amend it, but Pont thought it should be disannulled,
for the reason that if they amended it, it would be called their work.
Upon Sunday, the 16th of December, Mr. Robert Bruce in his sermon, in
the presence of the officers of State and the Justice-Clerk, said “The
King’s reign would be troublesome and short if he did not abolish the
Act of Abolition.”¹
¹ Calderwood, Volume I., pages 288‒290; Melville’s _Diary_,
pages 312, 313.
The clergy stood constantly on their watch-towers, ready to descry
the enemy. When the General Assembly met at Edinburgh in May, 1594,
Andrew Melville was chosen moderator, and the Assembly immediately
proceeded to deal with the case of the Catholic Earls. Some persons
in Perth, who had resetted them, were sharply called to account for
their conduct; but they confessed their offence, and satisfied the
Church. The Assembly unanimously avowed and ratified the sentence of
excommunication passed by the Synod of Fife against the Catholic Lords,
and ordered this to be intimated to every congregation in the kingdom.
As the Catholic Earls had disregarded the Act of Abolition, and
were persisting in their unholy and unlawful courses, the Assembly
petitioned the King to confiscate all their lands, and annex them to
the Crown; and then to muster the feudal array of the realm for the
purpose of pursuing and defeating them.¹
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 819‒821, 828‒834.
Parliament met in June 1594, and though the Catholic nobles were then
in open rebellion, they had friends in Parliament. Andrew Melville
appeared for the Church before the Lords of the Articles, and insisted
upon strong measures being taken. He told the King to his face, “That
many thought it a matter of great weight to overthrow the estate of
three so great men. I grant that it is so; but yet it is a greater
matter to overthrow and expel out of the country three far greater,
to wit, true religion, the quietness of the commonwealth, and the
prosperous state of the King.” Addressing the Lords, he said――“If ye
can get us a better commonwealth than our own, and a better King, we
are content that the treacherous lords be spared; otherwise we desire
you to do your duty.” The majority of the Lords of the Articles voted
for the forfeiture of the Earls, Parliament passed the act, and they
were proclaimed traitors and rebels. The Earl of ♦Argyle was commanded
to assemble his vassals and to wage war against them. But the Earls of
Huntly and Errol attacked the hastily collected and undisciplined army
of ♦Argyle in Glenlivet, on the 13th of October, and after a severe
struggle, ♦Argyle was completely defeated, and his followers fled in
confusion.¹
♦ “Argyll” replaced with “Argyle” for consistency
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume IV., pages
56‒61; Tytler’s _History of Scotland_, Volume IX., pages
168‒172; Dr. M‘Crie’s _Life of Melville_, Volume II., pages
48‒50.
The King had advanced to Dundee when tidings of ♦Argyle’s defeat
reached him, and he at once pushed forward with his army to Aberdeen.
There some of the local chiefs, who were at feud with Huntly, joined
him. On this occasion, Andrew Melville and a number of the most ardent
preachers accompanied the army, and by their exertions and example
contributed to bring the expedition to a successful issue. Huntly
found himself unable to face the royal army and fled to Caithness. His
stronghold, the Castle of Strathbogie, was dismantled; the Castle of
Slaines, the seat of the Earl of Errol, and other mansions were also
defaced. On returning to Aberdeen, the King caused a number of the Earl
of Huntly’s adherents to be executed, and proclaimed a general pardon
to all who had been with him at the Battle of Glenlivet, providing they
paid the fines imposed by the Council. After making arrangements with
the view of securing peace in the north, the army was disbanded, and
the King returned to Stirling on the 14th of November, 1594.¹
¹ _Register of Privy Council_; Melville’s _Diary_, pages
318‒322; Calderwood, Volume V., pages 348‒357.
The Catholic Earls were reduced to despair, and they quitted the
country in the month of March, 1595. The Protestants, however, did not
relax their efforts. They knew that the Catholics would renew their
plots. When the General Assembly met at Montrose in June, 1595, an
order was issued to the presbyteries throughout the country to proceed
against the Catholics within their bounds and excommunicate them, and
to enforce the penalties of the law upon all who had offended, and
on any who held intercourse with those who were absenting themselves
from the sacraments on the plea that they were at deadly feud with
their neighbours; indeed there was still a considerable amount of
social anarchy in the country which seemed to defy all restraints
and remedies.¹ Owing to the enormous iniquity and sins of the nation,
the Assembly ordered a general fast to be held in all the churches
throughout the kingdom on the first two Sundays of August. The
ministers were enjoined to put the causes of the fast fully before
the people. They were chiefly――“The great and present danger that
the Church, the commonwealth, and the King standeth in through the
wrath of God, not only kindled against us, but also justly burning and
devouring us up already by sundry fearful plagues and punishments ...
the deep conspiracies and daily confederacies of the faction of the
known adversaries to religion, to the King, and to the country, and
threatening to root us out from being any more a nation, and the
breaking and removing of our two estates of Church and Commonwealth.”
The Assembly also resolved that it was their duty to sympathise with
the Protestants of other Churches.²
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 846‒848.
² _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 853‒854.
The clergy were in continual fear of the return of the Catholic nobles
and the renewal of their intrigues. When the General Assembly met at
Edinburgh in March 1596, the King attended in person, and is reported
to have delivered a speech in which he regretted that the ministers
were so poorly paid. A list of the crimes, the sins, and the iniquities,
of all ranks in the nation was drawn up by this Assembly. It presents a
frightful state of society, and will be more fully examined elsewhere.
The King, we learn, was in the habit of swearing, and set a bad
example to all around him. He had also a habit of conversing with those
beside him in the church during the time of sermon, and was therefore
earnestly recommended to hold private meditation with God in spirit
and conscience. The offences in the court and judgment seat were:――“a
universal neglect of justice both in civil and criminal causes――by
a system of granting remissions and respites for slaughter and other
hideous crimes; and no execution of the laws against vice, nor in
favour of the Church. Most of the judges in civil matters were declared
unqualified for their office, either in respect of knowledge or
conscience, or both; and when any office became vacant, the worst
men were advanced to it both in high and low positions. The Court of
Session was charged with buying pleas, delaying justice, and bribery,
which was palpably to be seen by sudden conquests――by the extraordinary
quickness in obtaining property which had become so common.”¹
¹ _Ibid._, pages 859, 872‒878.
In the summer of 1596, the Catholic Earls had secretly returned, and
there were indications that the government would restore them. Huntly
had forwarded overtures to the King offering submission and praying to
be absolved from the sentence of excommunication. At a meeting of the
nobles and some of the clergy it was agreed that Huntly might, under
certain conditions to be drawn up by the King and the Privy Council,
be received. But the majority of the clergy were opposed to this
resolution; and the commissioners of the last General Assembly met at
Cupar in Fife, and sent a deputation to remonstrate with the King on
the evil consequences which were likely to result from the measures
which his Council were pursuing. The King assured the ministers that
the Catholic Earls should obtain no favour, until they had satisfied
the Church. The ministers, however, had no faith in the King’s promises;
and sixteen of their number from different parts of the country were
selected to sit in Edinburgh, and along with the ministers of the
capital, to watch over the reformed religion. This body immediately
proceeded to action, and summoned Seaton, the President of the Court
of Session, to appear before the Synod of Lothian to answer for his
conduct, touching the recall of the Earl of Huntly. The President
offered some resistance, but found it necessary to come forward and
satisfy the Church.¹
¹ Melville’s _Diary_, pages 368‒371; Calderwood, Volume V.,
pages 439‒450.
The King quickly saw an invasion of his royal prerogatives in these
proceedings. He endeavoured to convince the clergy of the justice and
mercy implied in his proposals to restore the Catholic Earls, but in
vain. The clergy were inexorable; and their firmness strengthened him
in his intention to remodel the government of the Church, whenever
an opportunity occurred. While the feelings of both parties were
running high, and recriminations were passing from mouth to mouth, Mr.
Black, one of the ministers of St. Andrews, delivered a sermon on the
threatened triumph of idolatry in Scotland. Alluding to the prelacy
established in the adjoining kingdom, he said: “The Queen of England
was an atheist; the religion professed in that kingdom was nothing
better than an empty show, gilded by the injunctions of the bishops;
and not content with this pageant at home, they were persuading the
King to set it up in Scotland. As for his highness, none knew better
than he did of the meditated return of the Catholic Earls, and therein
he was guilty of manifest treachery. But what could they look for? Was
not Satan at the head of both court and council? Were not all kings
devil’s bairns? Were not the Lords of Session miscreants and bribers,
the nobility cormorants, and the Queen of Scotland a woman whom for
fashion’s sake they might pray for, but in whose time it was vain to
hope for any good.”¹
¹ Moysie’s _Memoirs_, page 128; Calderwood, Volume V., pages
453‒454.
For this Black was summoned to appear before the Privy Council. But
the ministers knew that a blow was aimed against the liberties of the
Church, that the King was bent on limiting freedom of speech in the
pulpit; and they therefore advised him to decline the authority of the
Council, in the first instance, on the ground that it was a spiritual
subject. On the 10th of November, 1696, he obeyed the summons and
appeared before the Council; but he denied that the court had any right
to try him. “He was ready,” he said, “to give a confession and stand to
the defence of every point of the truth of God which he had uttered ...
yet seeing I am not at this time brought to stand before your Majesty
and council, as a judge set to cognise and discern upon my doctrine;
and though my answering to the said pretended accusation might import
with the manifest prejudices of the liberties of the Church, and
acknowledging also of your Majesty’s jurisdiction in matters that are
merely spiritual, which might move your Majesty to attempt further
in the spiritual government of the Church”; and so on. Afterwards he
gave his reasons at length for declining the jurisdiction of the court.
Enraged at this refusal of the preacher to recognise his supremacy, the
King issued a proclamation commanding the commissioners of the Church
to leave the capital and return to their flocks within twenty-four
hours, under the penalty of rebellion. At so critical a time the
ministers were not disposed to obey this royal order, as it was deemed
rather arbitrary. They resolved therefore to remain and watch over the
safety of the Church. Some of them went to the King to try the effect
of a personal interview, but he insisted stoutly that they should
allow his claim of supreme jurisdiction, as the condition of stopping
the process against Black. The ministers could not agree to this,
which would have been almost equivalent to a renunciation of their
Protestantism; so the charge against Black was recast, and his trial
proceeded. He was found guilty, and the measure of his punishment
referred to the King; meanwhile he was ordered to be confined beyond
the North Water.¹ The ministers then proclaimed a fast to avert
the impending danger and judgments, “When the doctrine was sounded
powerfully, and stirred up a mighty motion amongst the people of God.”
The King seems to have considered this as a personal affront, and
issued an order commanding the commissioners to depart from the capital;
and announced that the ministers must subscribe a bond to obey the King
and the Privy Council, before they received their stipends. At the same
time Black was ordered to enter into ward.²
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, November and December;
Calderwood, Volume V., pages 454‒498.
² _Register of the Privy Council_; Calderwood, Volume V., pages
498‒502; Melville’s _Diary_, pages 510‒515.
The commissioners left Edinburgh on the 15th of December, 1596, and
were no sooner gone than the King again thought of trying his craft on
the ministers of the capital, who he imagined would be more manageable
when alone. He accordingly invited them to an interview, but in reply
they said that unless the commissioners were recalled as openly as they
had been dismissed, there could be no communication between the court
and them. The King’s flatterers continued to keep him upon the line
of thought towards which he had always inclined; and he next commanded
twenty-four of the most ardent Protestants among the citizens to leave
Edinburgh within six hours. The excitement in the capital then became
extreme. On the 17th of December a rumour spread that Huntly had been
at the Palace of Holyrood, and the alarm of the preachers was intense.
Balcanquhal was ascending the pulpit for the week-day sermon when
this story was told to him, and unaware of its falsehood, he commented
on it in his discourse, and aroused the feelings and passions of the
congregation to the highest pitch. At the close of his sermon, he
called on the barons present not to disgrace their names and their
ancestors, but to meet the ministers immediately in the Little Church.
A crowd had already collected there, and when the barons were seated,
the preacher addressed them on the dangers to which the Church was
exposed by the return of the Catholic lords. He reminded them of the
rigour lately shown to the faithful professors of the reformed religion,
and desired them to hold up their hands and swear to defend their faith
against all opposers.¹
¹ Spottiswood, Calderwood, Volume V., pages, 510‒511.
A deputation was sent to the King, who at the moment was in the
Tolbooth with the Lords of Council. When admitted, they informed him
that they were sent by the barons convened in the Little Church, to
lay before his Majesty the imminent dangers which threatened religion.
“What dangers see you,” said the King, “and who dares to assemble
against my proclamation?” Lord Lindsay replied, “we dare do more than
that, and will not suffer religion to be overthrown.” The clamour
increased, and a number of the people rushing into the room, the King
started to his feet in great alarm, and without giving any answer,
ran down the stairs and ordered the doors to be shut. The deputation
returned to the Little Church, where one of the ministers had been
reading the story of Haman and Mordecai; and when it was announced that
the King had given no answer, the multitude were furious. The tumult
thickened, and Lord Lindsay shouted at the top of his voice not to
separate, that their only hope of safety was to remain and send notice
to their friends to come and assist them. Some cried “to bring out the
wicked Haman;” others shouted, “the sword of the Lord and of Gideon.”
One of the crowd cried, “Fy, Fy, save yourselves, the Catholics are
coming to massacre you, To arms! to arms! bills and axes.” The seething
mob rushed hither and thither in wild confusion. Some fancied that
the King was a prisoner, and ran to the Tolbooth; others, imagining
that their ministers were being murdered, flew to the church; some
knocked on the Tolbooth door, and called for President Seaton and other
councillors to be delivered up to them, that summary punishment might
be executed upon the misdoers. At last the provost of the city arrived.
He addressed the multitude, and advised them to go quietly to their
homes; and thus the uproar which threatened to be dangerous was quelled
without serious mischief.¹
¹ Moysie’s _Memoirs_, page 131; Calderwood, Volume V., pages
512‒513; Bruce’s _Sermons_, pages 173‒176, 1843; Birrel’s
_Diary_.
After the King’s courage had revived, he determined to let the
ministers and the citizens feel the weight of his wrath. The
following morning he left Edinburgh for Linlithgow; and there issued
a proclamation which described the disturbance of the preceding day as
a treasonable uproar, excited by the ministers; and ordered the courts
of law to leave the capital, which was no longer a fit place for the
administration of justice. At the same time he commanded all the barons
to depart to their own homes, and not dare again to assemble until they
had received his permission.¹
¹ Calderwood, Volume V., pages 514, 515.
This unexpected move on the part of the King, cowed the citizens and
cooled their ardour. The burgesses and craftsmen saw in it the decay
of the town, and the loss of their trade, and were therefore ready to
yield, and implore his Majesty’s clemency. The clergy, on the other
hand, were prepared to brave the tempest. When all the people were in
despair, Mr. Robert Bruce ascended the pulpit, and upbraided them for
their timidity. He said, “A trial shall go through all men, from the
King and Queen to the council and nobility, from the session to the
barons, from the barons to the burgesses, yea, to the very craftsmen.
The love of all men shall be seen, both towards God and the religion.
Sorry am I that I should see such weakness in many of you, that ye dare
not so much as utter one word for God’s glory and the good cause....
I am heartily sorry that our holy and gracious cause should be so
obscured by this late tumult, and that the desperate enemies should be
emboldened to pull down the crown off Christ’s head.... Let us suffer
cheerfully, and in the meantime stand to the cause. The Lord so bear us
out that, if the greatest were sitting there, we shrink not to admonish
them with all reverence.... The Lord prepare us in mercy, enlarge the
narrow bounds of our wretched hearts that they may be capable, and
multiply His holy and divine unction on them, that His glory may break
out, and shine on our constancy and holy perseverance; and, on the
other side, that the tokens of His hot and just wrath may break up and
begin in the heart of the enemy, and awaken their conscience, and open
their mouths to confess their own turpitude, to the honour of the good
cause, and the glory of Christ for ever.” The ministers invited Lord
Hamilton to place himself at the head of those who had embraced the
cause of the Church; but he modestly declined the honour, and sent the
letter of invitation to the King. The citizens of Edinburgh dispatched
humble messages to the King to appease his wrath, and solicited him to
return to his capital, but in vain. The only answer he returned was an
announcement, that ere long he would come to Edinburgh, and let them
know he was their King. The Provost was meantime ordered to imprison
the ministers; and the tumult was declared to be treason by an act of
the Privy Council. A rumour arose that the city was to be sacked, razed,
and sown with salt. But on the 1st of January 1597, the gates and
streets were occupied with bodies of armed men, and the King re-entered
the capital with all the pomp and circumstance of a conquering hero.
The magistrates and the citizens offered the most complete submission,
but the King declined to accept it. A convention of the Estates at
Holyrood anew denounced the disturbance as a treasonable riot and
ordered the Provost and Bailies to be imprisoned in Perth before the
11th of February, and there to remain till they were tried.¹
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_; _Register of Privy Council_;
Birrel’s _Diary_; Calderwood, Volume V., pages 515‒521, 530,
535‒538.
The day of the trial was at last fixed for the 5th of March, 1597;
and the case was then put into this form:――two of the bailies, the
treasurer, the dean of guild, four of the council, the town clerk,
and four of the deacons, were summoned to attend their trial, as
representing the city. On the appointed day they all appeared, except
one, who, it was alleged, had the King’s dispensation; but the plea was
overruled, and they were all found guilty of not fulfilling the order
of the council, which required thirteen to be present. The city was
denounced, the burgesses declared rebels, and all their public property
forfeited to the crown. This sentence filled the capital with dismay;
the magistrates threw up their offices and refused to act, and for
fifteen days the city was without either magistrates or ministers.
After this the provost, the magistrates, and the deacons were admitted
into the King’s presence at Holyrood, and on their knees besought
his highness to take pity on the city as they had thrown themselves
entirely upon his mercy. The King severely reprimanded them, and after
expatiating long on the enormity of their offence, he ordered them to
retire, till he should resolve upon their doom. When recalled, they
were commanded to give up to his Majesty the houses in the churchyard
where the ministers used to dwell, who were henceforth to live
separately; to protect the Lords of Session during their sittings under
a penalty; to give up the lower council house for exchequer chambers,
and to pay a fine of twenty thousand marks.¹ Such was the enormous
punishment which the wisdom of James VI. deemed it necessary to inflict
upon the inhabitants of Edinburgh for a harmless hubbub, which it was
impossible for them to have foreseen or prevented, and for which the
King himself and his courtiers were more to blame than any one else in
the kingdom.
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_; _Acts of the Parliaments of
Scotland_, Volume IV., pages 103‒109.
This severe punishment of the people of Edinburgh enabled the King to
extend his influence and power over the Church. For a time the chief
ministers of the capital were silenced and put out of the way. Two of
the most active had fled to England, and other two were in Fife. James
had thus gained ground in the direction of the object which he had
in view――the establishment of Episcopacy. He was aware that any overt
attempt to reintroduce the bishops would be firmly resisted; and in
accordance with the statecraft and pedantry on which he prided himself,
a series of fifty-five questions were drawn up and published in the
name of the King,¹ touching the polity of the Church, and appointing
a General Assembly to be held at Perth on the last day of February,
1597. Those questions were drawn up by Secretary Lindsay, and they were
issued with the intention of casting discredit upon the established
government of the Church. The points raised in this long string of
questions involved among other matters the great and difficult problem
of the relations of the Church and State, a subject on which the
King and the clergy held directly opposite views. The Church, in all
spiritual things, claimed a supremacy over the civil government, as
Jesus Christ was her Head and King, and the word of God her guide, to
these only was she bound to render obedience. But the weak side of this
principle, as then understood, came out clearly in the realities of
political and practical life. The proceedings of the Church were held
to be independent of the civil government in form and doctrine; and
yet, according to the theory of the Church, the civil authorities must
enforce the decisions of the spiritual courts by the infliction of
secular penalties, as when a person was excommunicated all the legal
machinery of the land was to be employed to crush him. This singular
confusion of ideas was one of the main embittering stings in the
long conflict of the Church and State in Scotland. It seems to have
originated from the theocratic conception embedded in the Old Testament,
already noticed, as influencing the form and spirit of the reformed
religion. Thus it was that the Church and the King both claimed to be
directly under God, and each consequently thought they were supreme.
According to some of the notions of the time the King was accountable
to God alone, and therefore his authority must be above all persons
and courts in the kingdom. At this period the social advantages of the
contention were nearly all on the side of the Church, and it was with
the aim of turning the balance in his own favour that the King proposed
the questions.
¹ They are printed in the _Book of the Universal Kirk_, and in
Melville’s _Diary_, pages 390‒403.
The clergy of the age had no idea of a Church existing separately from
the State. They were continually calling on the King and the government
to pass laws relating to the establishment of the Church, and also on
points of discipline and doctrine; and many acts of parliament, and of
council, were passed on these matters from the Reformation to the end
of the century. But the conditions of society, and the circumstances
in which Protestantism found itself placed, rendered the sanction and
support of the State necessary to its existence; and even if an idea of
the complete separation of the Church and State had arisen in the minds
of the Reformers, it could not have been realised anywhere in Europe
for long after their day.
The King’s questions were industriously circulated among the
presbyteries and synods. The leading ministers, however, were opposed
to the discussion of them, because they wished to hold by the existing
polity and discipline. The Synod of Fife drew up instructions for the
guidance of the commissioners of all the presbyteries within its bounds,
who were to attend the ensuing Assembly at Perth; and the Presbytery of
Edinburgh did the same. The tenor of these instructions were directly
adverse to the renewed discussion of the polity of the Church.¹
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 903‒911.
When the Assembly met at Perth, after a long debate on the manner of
appointing a General Assembly, the majority agreed to hold the meeting
to be a lawful General Assembly. The proposals submitted by the King
were then considered. They were hotly contested; but in the end the
King gained his object. It was carried by a majority, that the King
or his commissioner might propose any point of the external polity of
the Church which he desired to be reformed; that the ministers in their
sermons should refrain from rebuking individuals by name, and from
introducing political subjects in their discourses; that they should
hold no unusual meetings without his Majesty’s consent; and that in
all the chief towns the ministers should be chosen with the consent of
the King. The rest of the King’s questions were postponed to the next
Assembly, on the understanding that in the meantime they should not be
condemned either in pulpits, synods, or presbyteries. These conclusions
were ratified by the parliament then sitting in Perth.¹ The King had
thus gained a footing in the General Assembly, which he retained, until
it became a mere organ of the court, and the clergy opposed to his
measures were kept in the background for many years.
¹ _Ibid._, pages 895‒896; _Acts of the Parliaments of
Scotland_, Volume IV., pages 110‒112; Melville’s _Diary_,
pages 403‒411.
Another General Assembly met at Dundee on the 10th of May, 1597, when
the Assembly at Perth was declared lawful, and its proceedings were
ratified. The court party had made great exertions, but it was with
difficulty that they carried their measures. The King was present, and
he obtained the consent of the Assembly to a standing commission of
fourteen ministers, who were to meet with his Majesty and consult and
deliberate on all matters concerning the Church.¹
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 924‒928.
The conditions prescribed for the absolution and admission of the
Earls of Huntly, Errol, and Angus, came before this Assembly; and a
commission was appointed to receive them into the Church. The ceremony
of their reconciliation to the Church, and their restoration to their
estates, took place at Aberdeen in the Old Church on the 26th of June,
1597. The church was crowded. Immediately before the sermon, the three
earls publicly subscribed the Confession of Faith. After the sermon,
they rose and with a loud voice confessed their defection and apostacy,
and professed their present conviction of the truth of the Protestant
faith, and their resolution to adhere to it. The Earl of Huntly then
declared before God, the King, and the Church, his penitence for the
murder of the Earl of Moray. The three earls were then absolved from
the sentence of excommunication and received into the bosom of the
Church. They next communicated in the Protestant form, and solemnly
swore to keep order in all respects and to execute justice within their
territories. The following day their reconciliation was proclaimed at
the cross amid a multitude of the people, who shouted for joy, drank
their health, and tossed their glasses in the air.¹
¹ The Laird of Gight was also reconciled. In the garb of a
penitent he threw himself upon his knees before the pulpit,
and there implored pardon for supporting Bothwell, and
prayed to be released from the sentence of excommunication.
Scott’s _Narrative_, page 98; _Analecta Scotica_, page 299;
_Spalding Club Miscellany_, Volume II., page 60.
The four ministers of Edinburgh, who had sought refuge in flight, were
permitted to return, and began to preach in their own churches in July,
1597. The King was all the more bent on his project of improving the
polity of the Church, as the democratic elements of Presbyterianism
were extremely hateful to him. It was soon shown what he intended
to effect by the commission of ministers. He called them together at
the Palace of Falkland, and having summoned the Presbytery of St.
Andrews to appear before them, they reversed two of its judgments.
The King with his commissioners next proceeded to the University of St.
Andrews, and instituted an inquiry into the teaching of the professors.
The commission manifested an intention to find matter for censure
against Andrew Melville, the rector of the new college and professor of
divinity; and, though nothing was proved against him, he was deprived
of his rectorship.¹ The King had at last got his foot pretty fast
upon the chief university and the Church. He aspired to be the supreme
dictator in literature as well as religion.
¹ Calderwood, Volume V., pages 550‒654; Melville’s _Diary_,
pages 417‒419; Dr. M‘Crie’s _Life of Melville_, Volume II.,
pages 111‒117.
Parliament met at Edinburgh in December, 1597, and the Commissioners
of the Church presented a petition, asking that the ministers should
be permitted to vote in parliament as the third estate of the realm.
This was the way which the King took to restore the order of bishops
and episcopacy; and the presbyterian clergy at once saw the drift of
the proposal, and attempted to oppose it. But parliament passed an act
authorising the King to appoint such pastors as he thought fit to the
office of bishop or abbot, and conferred upon them the right to vote in
parliament as in past ages. In keeping with the petty craft of the King,
it was left to himself and the General Assembly to determine the limits
of the spiritual jurisdiction of the bishops.¹ It was well known that
there would be much opposition to this act among the clergy, and the
commissioners endeavoured to represent what they had done in the most
favourable light.
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume IV., pages
130‒131.
When the Assembly met at Dundee in March 1598, the question of the
bishops, and their voting in parliament in the name of the Church, was
hotly discussed. The King’s party had made great efforts to pack the
Assembly, yet there were still members present whom his majesty wished
to exclude from the debate. At the beginning of the Assembly, when
Andrew Melville’s name was called, the King challenged it, and said
that he could not agree to the admission of one whom he had restricted
from attending on Church courts. Melville, of course, defended his
right to be there; and was supported by the venerable Mr. Davidson, who
reminded the King that he was present only as a Christian, and not as
the President of the Assembly. The King then, with his characteristic
tactics, declared that he would not allow the business of the Assembly
to proceed till Melville retired; and accordingly he was ordered
to confine himself to his lodgings; but when it was found that his
brethren repaired to him, he was charged to quit Dundee under the
penalty of rebellion. After a week spent on the complaints given in
against the commissioners, and a number of other matters, the chief
question was introduced by a speech from the King. He reminded the
Assembly of his own services to the Church; how he had laboured to
remove controversies, restore discipline, and increase the patrimony
of the establishment; and how that in order to secure this, it was
now necessary that she should have a voice in parliament. He therefore
desired the members to discuss every point of the act lately passed
on the subject. The question whether ministers should have a vote in
parliament was then debated at great length, and the affirmative was
carried by a majority of ten. It was further agreed that the number
of the representatives of the Church should be fifty-one, about the
same number as under the Roman Catholic system. Their election was to
belong partly to the King and partly to the Church; but this and other
details were referred for consideration to the presbyteries and synods,
and then to the delegates of the synods, who were to meet with the
theological professors, and, in the presence of his Majesty, to reason
and conclude on the points undecided; and if they could not agree, the
whole matter was to be again put before the General Assembly.¹
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 932, 940, 942‒946;
Melville’s _Diary_, pages 439‒441.
The resolutions in the southern Presbyteries and Synods showed a
strong opposition to Episcopacy, and an attempt to confine the powers
of their representatives in Parliament within narrow limits. When
the discussions in the provincial meetings were concluded, and their
deputies chosen for the conference, several meetings were held with the
professors; but the result was not satisfactory to the King. He then
summoned the leading ministers of the kingdom to meet at Holyrood in
November, 1599, where with their brethren of the commission they opened
a debate upon the whole subject. The chief proposition was, whether it
was lawful for ministers of the Gospel to have a seat in Parliament?
A long and hot discussion ensued, which naturally enough ended in
settling nothing. Those who took the affirmative side argued that the
Gospel was not intended to destroy civil polity, that the ministry
were a part of the State, and ought therefore to be represented in
Parliament, as well as any other class; that it was reasonable that
they should assist in framing and passing the laws by which they were
to be governed; that ministers were not prohibited from discharging
the social duties of life, and that to debar them entirely from
secular business would be to carry the doctrine as far as the
Catholics had done, when they forbade the priests to marry. It was
also pointed out that, as matters had actually stood for some time
past, the Commissioners of the Church had waited on meetings for fixing
stipends, and often presented petitions to Parliament, and that General
Assemblies had repeatedly craved that no one should vote in Parliament
for the Church without their commission. Those who opposed the
proposition maintained, on the other hand, that though the Gospel by no
means sought to destroy civil polity, Christianity was distinct from it,
and might exist under any form of government; that a seat in the high
council of a kingdom constituted no part of this religion; and that
the ministry was not a civil corporation, nor recognised as a distinct
body in the State, but only as a portion of the general community, and
the ministers, like their fellow-citizens, were already represented
in Parliament by the commissioners of the shires and the burghs. The
performance of the natural duties of domestic life, and the social
duties which devolved upon them all, was a different matter, they said,
from being directly engaged in the offices of the government; and the
presenting of a petition occasionally, had little resemblance to a
regular attendance in Parliament. They knew little of the importance
of the ministerial function, who thought that it was compatible with
the holding of civil offices, and the worldly titles and dominion
which it was sought to import into the Church were not in harmony,
they maintained, with the injunctions of the Gospel, but opposed to
the leading example of Jesus Himself, who professed that His kingdom
was not of this world. It was suggested that the elders and deacons
might be commissioned by the General Assembly to vote for the Church
in Parliament, if it was necessary, which, however, was not admitted.
It was urged also that no General Assembly, before the last, had ever
solicited a seat for the ministers in Parliament; and since 1580, the
Church had objected to bishops and other ecclesiastical persons sitting
in Parliament in her name. The meeting ended where it began. The King
saw that he could gain nothing by it, on the second day he broke it
up, and announced that he would leave the matter to the ensuing General
Assembly.¹ The scheme for the establishment of Episcopacy meantime
continued to be pushed on.
¹ Calderwood, Volume V., pages 745‒761.
James had at last got the preachers of Edinburgh, who had for long been
rather free in their comments on him and his government, pretty well
under his hand. But he was greatly mortified to meet with a rebuff
in a quarter where he least expected it. He had deprived the popular
preacher, Mr. Robert Bruce, of a part of his stipend. Bruce sued the
Crown before the Court of Session, and got a decision in his favour.
James appealed, appeared at the bar in person, and ordered the judges
to give their votes against Bruce. Seaton, the President, then rose
and said: “It is my part to speak first in this court, of which
your highness has made me head. You are our King, we your subjects,
bound and ready to obey you with our lives and substance; but this
is a matter of law, in which we are sworn to do justice according to
conscience and the laws of the realm. Your Majesty may indeed command
us to the contrary; in which case I, and every honest man on this
bench, will either vote according to conscience, or resign and not vote
at all.” Lord Newbottle next rose and said: “It had been spoken in the
town, to his Majesty’s great slander and theirs, who were his judges,
that they dare not do justice to all classes――a foul imputation,
to which the lie that day would be given; for they would deliver an
unanimous opinion against the crown.” For this the King was utterly
unprepared, and proceeded to use the most childish arguments, taunts,
and threats; but in vain. The judges re-affirmed their decision in
favour of Bruce, and the abashed monarch, flung out of court, vowing
vengeance and raging like a maniac.¹
¹ Tytler’s _History of Scotland_, Volume IX., pages 289‒291.
It is noted by Tytler, that Seaton was a Roman Catholic.
The King, however, by the most deplorable means afterwards
managed to deprive Bruce of this part of his stipend. There
are full details of this matter in the _Life of Bruce_,
published by the Wodrow Society, along with his _Sermons_,
pages 80‒83; and in Dr. M‘Crie’s _Life of Melville_, Volume
II., pages 169‒171.
Much interest was felt throughout the country in the General Assembly
which met at Montrose on the 28th of March, 1600. Both parties had
exerted themselves to the utmost to bring up their men, and there was a
very full attendance of members. It was well known that the decision of
the Assembly would fix the fate of the establishment. The Presbyterians
were confident of their superiority in point of argument and debating
power. Andrew Melville attended the Assembly as the representative
of the Presbytery of St. Andrews; but he was called before the King,
who asked him why he persisted in coming to the Assemblies after his
Majesty had prohibited him. Melville answered that he had a commission
from the Church, and it was his duty to discharge it, on higher grounds
than the command of any earthly monarch. He was not allowed to take
his seat in the Assembly, but he remained in the town and assisted his
brethren with arguments and advice.¹
¹ Melville’s _Diary_, pages 468, 485; Dr. M‘Crie’s _Life of
Melville_, Volume II., pages 144‒146.
The debate on the proposition of ministers voting in parliament
was resumed. Many arguments were adduced against it and backed by
references to the Scriptures, the writings of the reformed divines, and
the decision of general councils. The court party finding themselves
fairly vanquished by their opponents in the field of open discussion,
then shifted their ground, and affected to condemn the union of sacred
and civil offices, and asserted that the ministers who were to sit in
parliament, would have no civil charge, but would simply be present
to watch over the interest of the Church. But they were quickly driven
from this position; and at last retired behind the maxims of their
master, and asserted that the King alone makes the laws, and the
estates only gave him advice. When the discussion reached the words of
the act of parliament which restored “the office, estate, and dignity
of bishops,” the discussion became too hot, and the King intimated that
this point had been already settled by the last General Assembly, which
at once terminated the debate. If the general question had been put to
the vote, it seems probable that the scheme would have been defeated;
yet, by one device and another the Assembly sanctioned the measure.
A series of restrictions were framed by the Assembly to keep the
commissioners, who were to vote for the Church to their duty; but
the King had no intention of observing these customs. His object
was the re-establishment of Episcopacy, and he filled up several of
the bishoprics; although, in spite of all his efforts, he failed to
materially alter the presbyterian organisation of the Church, till
after his accession to the throne of England.¹
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 954‒956; Calderwood,
Volume VI., pages 2‒21.
However much the policy of James the VI. has been admired,¹ it is a
fact, that for many years he distracted the reformed clergy by his
childish notions and his scheme of Church polity. Much of the energy
of the ministers, which but for him might have been employed in
the instruction of the people, was wasted without producing any
good results. The higher aims of religion were neglected, and the
introduction of the reformed religion into the Highlands was greatly
retarded.
¹ “Those who wish to perceive the glory of James’s reign must
carefully attend to this part of his history. It was at
this time that he found a stage on which he could exert his
distinguished talent, and stick the doctor’s chair into the
throne. It was at this time that he acquired that skill in
points of divinity, and in the management of ecclesiastical
meetings, which afterwards filled the English bishops
with both admiration and shame, and made them cry out that
they verily thought he was ‘inspired.’ Never did this wise
monarch appear to such great advantage, as when, surrounded
with his own northern men, he canvassed for voters with
all the ardour and address of a candidate for a burgh; or
when presiding in the debate of the General Assembly, he
kept the members to the question, regaled them with royal
wit, calling one ‘a seditious knave,’ and another ‘a liar,’
saying to one speaker ‘that’s witch like,’ and to another
‘that’s anabaptistical,’ instructing the clerk in the true
geographical mode of calling the roll, or taking him home
to his closet, helping him to correct the minutes.”――Dr.
M‘Crie’s _Life of Melville_, Volume II., page 152.
The reader of Scottish history soon becomes familiar with the plots
of the aristocracy against the Crown. The 5th of August, 1600,
was memorable for an event of this character, known as the Gowrie
conspiracy. The Earl of Gowrie of that time was the grandson of Lord
Ruthven, who acted a leading part in the Riccio tragedy. It seems, for
the evidence is imperfect, that Gowrie intended to imprison the King
and then rule the kingdom in his name, as had often been done before.
Very few persons were aware of the plot; hence the doubts of its
reality, and the natural suspicion that it was got up by the King
himself. The main facts were, that the Earl of Gowrie decoyed the
King to his house; and after dinner conducted him into a room in which
the Master of Ruthven handled him rather roughly, but the nobles who
accompanied the King coming to his rescue, after a short scuffle, the
Master and his brother, the Earl of Gowrie, were both slain in the
house. The family of Gowrie, of course, was utterly ruined. The King
insisted that all men must believe that his escape was miraculous. The
ministers of Edinburgh, who had not quite so high an idea of the King
as he had of himself, refused to admit that there was any conspiracy at
all, and would not give thanks to God for his Majesty’s deliverance in
the exact words dictated to them. Five of them were therefore removed
from the capital. With one exception they afterwards submitted and
professed to believe in the conspiracy. The exception was Robert Bruce,
who refused to believe in this conspiracy, and was banished.¹
¹ Tytler’s _History of Scotland_, Volume IX., pages 329,
351‒358; _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 1000‒1002;
_Register of the Privy Council_; Bruce’s _Sermons, Life_,
pages 84‒96, 188‒196.
The King manifested his vanity and want of common sense in connection
with this affair more than in any of his proceedings. Granting that
the conspiracy of the Earl of Gowrie was real, it was not an unusual
occurrence or one which stood alone. At the utmost it was simply one
of those projects which were from time to time attempted by the nobles
against their kings. It is not surprising therefore that some of the
clergy and the people should have failed to see anything miraculous
about the matter; and especially those who knew how great an adept the
King was at making conspiracy and treason out of a harmless affair,
such as the recent example of the tumult in Edinburgh. The King issued
a mandate to change the week-day religious service in all towns to
Tuesday, the day on which the event happened. Nor was he content with
this. An Act of Parliament was passed which ordained that the fifth of
August should be observed yearly――“In all times and ages to come, as a
perpetual monument of their humble, hearty, and unfeigned thanks to God
for his miraculous and extraordinary deliverance from the horrible and
detestable murder and parricide attempted against his Majesty’s most
noble person.”¹
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume IV., pages
213‒214; _Book of the Universal Kirk_, page 1061.
Notwithstanding that the King continued his efforts to complete his
scheme of Church polity, his success while he remained in Scotland was
very limited; and he looked eagerly forward to the time when he could
command greater resources for the accomplishment of his projects.
Queen Elizabeth died on the 24th of March 1603. The same day the King
of Scots was proclaimed her successor. For some time the English had
been looking toward the rising sun; and James immediately prepared
to go and take possession of the throne. If he did not fulfil all the
expectations of his new subjects, this was perhaps more their own fault
than his, for if they had moderated their hopes and expected little,
they would not have been disappointed. On the 5th of April James began
his journey, and entered London on the 6th of May, greeted by the
shouts of his English subjects.
Before proceeding further, it seems appropriate to ask what is the
ultimate problem of the Reformation in relation to the development
of Civilisation? The first thought that strikes one is the extreme
complexity of the problem. The influence of the Reformation was felt
throughout the entire organisation of the nation. The domestic, the
social, the moral, the political, and the intellectual relations of the
people were affected by it, not less profoundly than their religious
practice and faith. Their whole circle of thought and action was
moved to its centre. This revolutionary movement, then, must have a
connection with the philosophy of the human mind. But the historical
manifestation of the mind, for obvious reasons, is exceedingly
difficult to handle; when it is applied to nations or communities, and
not merely treated as a history of systems. There have been various
elaborate philosophical systems emanating from individuals and schools,
which have had comparatively little effect on the progress of the
race, or on the civilisation of independent nations. The philosophy of
the Reformation, however, whatever it was, deeply affected the people;
and this at least is an indication of its reality. In its essence
the Reformation was a religious movement springing out of the devout
feeling and aspiration of the people, which was then associated with
the belief in the divine revelation of the Bible. It opened to the
individual a free access to the heavenly promises offered in the Gospel,
and thus for the time satisfied the inherent cravings of his being and
the deepest emotions of his mind; warm thrills of joy passed through
his soul, till his nature was renewed and he lived in peace and hope.
Another tendency of the movement was to withdraw the senses from
the mere external emblems and material forms of worship, in order
to concentrate the mind on the essential dogmas and the doctrines of
religion in their ideal modes. Hence religion became more allied with
morality and the understanding; but this was rather a result which
ensued in the subsequent development of Protestantism than a special
aim of the Reformers.
The search for the ultimate problem of the Reformation suggests
the question of the relative efficacy of the religious feelings,
the moral sentiments, and the intellectual ideas, as factors in the
development of civilisation; in other words, the comparative potency
of religion, morality, and science, in advancing social organisation,
the development, the progress, and the happiness of mankind. Upon the
evidence adduced in the first volume, and especially on the evidence
in the preceding chapters of this volume, the following tentative
deduction is proposed:――That the supreme sustaining power of the
Reformation throughout was the moral sentiments and ideas, coupled
with the religious feeling and aspiration. In the succeeding chapters
of this volume more evidence will be advanced and summarised, and
finally the various steps of the generalisation will be explained and
formulated.
CHAPTER XIX.
_The Social State of the People in the Sixteenth Century._
SECTION I.
PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION.
IN the preceding volume the characteristics of the government and
the institutions of the kingdom were described; the general traits of
feudalism, the powers and privileges of the nobles, and their action,
as exhibited in the history of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Resuming the social history of the people from that period, it is
unnecessary to dwell on matters of a similar kind to those treated
in the foregoing chapters. The aim of this work will be attained by
giving a connected view of the social relations of the people, and thus
present a continuous account of their development, while noting the
causes adverse or favourable to their progress. In the main the present
chapter is a continuation of the chapters in the first volume, with
this difference, that the habits and the institutions of the people
are now assumed to be more familiar, so that only the changes and
modifications, and especially those consequent on the revolutionary
movement, have to be noticed at length. Such is the method which will
be followed, in order to throw light on this interesting department of
human activity.
The Crown of Scotland had few great royal prerogatives which it could
wield at pleasure; the government was, at all points, essentially
aristocratic. The pretentions to prerogative which the kings sometimes
assumed, were soon dashed to the ground by the dominant faction of
the nobles. While in other nations of Europe the kings were augmenting
their power by curtailing the privileges of their nobles, the Scottish
nobility had gradually, during the last two centuries and a half, been
increasing their power, till, at the time of the Reformation, they
became supreme. But from that time onward other influences came into
operation which slowly undermined their power.
In 1533 James V. remodelled the Court of Session, as the supreme
court for the administration of justice in civil cases. From this date
the Court of the Lords-Auditors ceased; but the Privy Council still
retained the judicial power of the old Lords of Council. The theory
of these courts seems to have been that the Council could administer
justice by its inherent prerogative, and therefore it should interfere
if the strict rule of law inflicted a wrong; while the Court of Session
was supposed to proceed according to the rules of law. In consequence
of this distinction, the lords of the Privy Council assumed something
like a right of superiority over the Court of Session, and on critical
occasions the former sometimes took a very emphatic and decisive
attitude.¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 317‒318,
520‒526, 620, _et seq._ The Records of the Privy Council for
the greater part of the 16th century are still preserved.
Two volumes of the Register, embracing the period from 1545
to 1579, have recently been published under the authority
of the Record Commissioners, and these volumes have been
ably edited by Dr. Burton, who has conferred a great boon on
historical students by rendering this valuable record easily
accessible.
The ordinary official staff of the executive comprised the sheriffs
of the counties and their deputes, the bailies of the hereditary
regalities, baronies, lordships, stewardships, and their subordinate
officers. In time of peace throughout the Lowlands, this organisation
afforded a comparative measure of rough order and security to the
inhabitants, though, even in the best settled parts of the kingdom,
acts of violence and lawlessness were very common, and, owing to the
defective means for detecting and apprehending them, and the want
of simplicity in criminal procedure, the offenders often escaped
unpunished. Upon the Borders and in the Highlands, on the other hand,
the state of society was little removed from intermittent anarchy. In
both regions the small clan system prevailed; feuds were frequent and
bloody. At short intervals, when the excesses rose to an unusual height,
the government proceeded to punish and repress them. The chiefs of
the clans were made responsible for the action of their followers, but
this was soon found to be but a very imperfect restraint. When, as it
frequently happened, the chiefs and their men were both engaged in the
same lawless depredations, it often became necessary for the government
to interfere directly. The usual mode of treating the Borderers was
this: the king mustered an armed force, and proceeded against the
reivers and notorious thieves, and executed justice upon them by
seizing and hanging them on the spot, or by occasionally bringing some
of them to Edinburgh to be hanged. The national records during this
century are full of such raids on the border thieves and reivers. The
mode of dealing with the Highlanders was much the same, only the Crown
often delegated its power to a local noble, as to the Earl of Huntly in
the north, and the Earl of Argyle in the west.
During the minority of James V. the administration of justice was
wretchedly neglected in every quarter of the kingdom. But in 1530
disorder on the Borders had risen to such a crisis that the King,
at the head of an army, scoured the glens of Yarrow and Ettrick, and
seized Cockburne of Henderland, and Scott of Tuschielaw, two of the
most notorious offenders. They were taken to Edinburgh, and tried for
extorting black-mail from the poor tenants, and for common theft and
reset. Both were convicted and executed, and their lands forfeited to
the Crown.¹ In connection with this raid the king summoned the Earl
of Bothwell, the Lords of Home and Maxwell, the Lairds of Buccleuch,
Fernihirst, Johnstone, and Mark Ker; all of them were imprisoned, and
Bothwell was at last banished. At the same time the King compelled
about fifty other barons and lairds in the counties of Berwick,
Roxburgh, Peebles, and Selkirk, to find security to appear before the
Justiciary when required. In this way the Crown sought to bridle the
reivers and cattle-lifters by making their superiors and neighbours
responsible for the crimes and depredations of those who lived and
harboured upon their lands.² The same year the King made another raid
on the Borders, partly for pleasure, but at the same time prepared to
punish any noted thief who came within his grip. He was accompanied
by the Earls of Athole, Huntly, Argyle, and many other barons, and it
was reported that they killed eighteen score of deer. It was on this
occasion that the famous John Armstrong was taken, a border marauder
who, it seems, operated chiefly on the English side of the marches.
He is represented as surrounded by his followers, and coming to meet
the king to offer him homage; but when James saw him and his company
mounted on horseback, he ordered the chief and most of his men to be
immediately hanged, without the formality of a trial. Armstrong’s fate
excited great commiseration amongst the people of the district, and his
memory is commemorated in a stirring ballad.³ By repeating these harsh
measures, the King for a time reduced the borderers to comparative
quiet,⁴ but it is doubtful whether the severe punishment he inflicted
on them was at all calculated to promote the permanent peace of the
district. Excessive severity often defeats itself; and, besides, the
lawlessness of the borderers could be effectually remedied only by
changing their circumstances; harsh treatment might aggravate existing
evils, but could not reform them.
¹ Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_, Volume I., pages 144‒145. There
is an exceedingly spirited and touching ballad――“The Widow’s
Lament”――which is supposed to refer to the fate of Cockburne.
Though rude and turbulent, the Borderers had some fine
traits of character; even this reiver and king of thieves
had some estimable qualities.
² Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_, Volume I., pages 146‒148.
³ Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_, pages 152‒154; Veitch’s
_History of the Poetry of the Scottish Borders_, pages
287‒294; 1878.
⁴ Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_, Volume I., pages 171‒173.
After the death of the King the borderers broke out in greater excesses
than ever; and throughout the regencies of Arran and the Queen mother,
they grew worse and worse. In the end of the year 1546 the Council
resolved that the regent should pass with an army towards the Borders
and restore order; but the government being then occupied with the
siege of the Castle of St. Andrews, had not a sufficient force.
Accordingly an Act of Council was passed in March, 1547, calling a
muster of the local forces to accompany the regent to the Borders to
assist in stanching the theft, reif, and oppression of the thieves
and reivers. Five years later the Queen regent again attempted to
remedy the evils of the borders, but the people there daily became
more disorderly. The Master of Maxwell in 1553 declined to accept
the Wardenship of the West Marches which his deceased brother had
held. The government offered him five hundred pounds yearly, and some
other reward, such as a benefice or the like, but he still refused to
undertake the office till the offenders against the public authority
were punished, or a sufficient force was placed at his command
to punish them. This could not be done, and Sir James Douglas of
Drumlanrig took the office, but threw it up in less than a year, and
the troubles of the region thickened.¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 28, 57, 64,
120‒125, 132, 137, 140, 143‒146, 152, _et seq._
The social state of the Highlands resembled that of the Borders in
many particulars, but there were some differences between them. The
peculiarities of race which have been made so much of, were in reality
of little consequence. The social condition of the Highlanders was
the result of a long chain of causes, rather than of any peculiarities
belonging to the race. This is well shown by the quickness with which
the Highlanders adapt themselves to the requirements of a higher
civilisation so soon as their surroundings are changed. If they had
been the incapable and erratic savages that some have represented
them, how came it, that on being removed from the mountains and glens,
and placed under a course of training for a few months, they proved
themselves amongst the best soldiers in the British army? If idleness,
thieving, and fighting, for the mere love of such things, had been
essential features in the Celtic population of the Highlands, why
was it that they were so easily and readily cast aside when the
circumstances of the Highlander were changed? The fact is that
the social condition of the Highlands was due to a long chain of
circumstances by which the inhabitants were forced into those habits
of living that characterised them, and which were explained in the
preceding volume. To talk, therefore, of their social condition being
due to their defects or peculiarities as a race is inapt and misleading,
and calculated to distort justice and obscure history. The main
difference between the Borderer and the Highlander consisted in the
more complete dependence of the latter on his chief. The vassals and
dependents of the Highland chief stood by him with a fidelity and love
in misfortune as well as in prosperity, which we do not meet with among
the Borderers. In this respect, one of the moral elements of clanship
was decidedly higher in the Highlands than on the Borders.
The heads of the clans Cameron and Ranald having failed to appear
before the Council at Inverness, the case of the latter was entrusted
to the Earl of Argyle. In 1552 Argyle reported to the government that
the captain of the clan was loyal to their authority, and that he
would have attended before the justiciary if the charge had reached him
previous to his departure for Ireland. Argyle was ordered to continue
his proceedings, and to cause the head of the clan to appear before the
regent and council before Christmas, and take their orders for the good
government of the district. If he failed, Argyle was to make war upon
the clan, and to pursue them with fire and sword, according to the Act
passed at Inverness. At the same time the Earl of Huntly was ordered to
proceed against the Camerons and to pursue them in the same fashion.¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 125‒126.
In the autumn of 1553 it was recorded that for a long time there had
been great slaughter, reifs, enormities, and oppression, committed
upon the people in the northern quarters of the kingdom, and especially
by the strife between the Earl of Caithness and M‘Kay, and their kin
and adherents. The Earl of Caithness was summoned to meet the Earl
of Huntly and the Bishop of Ross at Inverness, in order to concert
measures for restoring order in the county; but he neither appeared
nor condescended so much as to answer the Regent’s letters. The Council
then directed the officers at arms to charge the Earl of Caithness to
come to Inverness and meet the Earl of Huntly and the Bishop of Ross,
and to bring sufficient pledges for himself, his kin, and his allies,
that he would maintain better order in future, under the penalty of
rebellion and horning.¹
¹ _Ibid._, page 147.
There was one enemy of peace and civilisation common in the Highlands,
the Borders, and the Lowlands; this was the numerous feuds which had
sprung up and accumulated during centuries of internal strife, till
they were spread throughout the entire nation. The bonds of manrent by
which the different clans and families became bound and banded together,
and against one another in all their causes and quarrels, constantly
tended towards anarchy and confusion. An injury, or the slaughter of
a member of the clan, was never forgotten by the surviving kin; and
an intense feeling of revenge had been fostered so long that it had
assumed an almost incredible strength, as the feud had in many cases
been transmitted from father to son, and from kindred to kindred,
through many generations. In Catholic times the Church recognised its
power by leaving the right hand of male children unchristened, that it
might deal the more unhallowed and deadly a blow to the enemy.¹ This
sentiment now appears to us extremely shocking, but it is one which
belongs to all stages of predatory society. It was nursed, not only
among the Highlanders and the Borderers, but also among the Lowland
aristocracy, and was encouraged and prolonged by the weakness of the
central authority. The feuds among the Lowland nobles in the sixteenth
century were notorious, and often formed the subject of parliamentary
enactments and acts of Council.² Some of the bonds which they entered
into for gaining their ends through deeds of violence have long been
matter of history. The habits of the Scottish nobles always tended
towards lawlessness. Whatever party was at the head of affairs, there
was always sure to be another party plotting, scheming, or fighting
against them, and thus the nation was continually kept in a state
of insecurity. Revolutions in the government followed each other
so rapidly that no encouragement whatever was afforded for peaceful
industry among the people.
¹ Scott’s _Minstrelsy of the Scottish Borders_; Veitch’s
_History of the Poetry of the Scottish Borders_, page 299;
Evan’s _Ballads_, Volume III., page 106.
² _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III.; _Register
of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 133‒134, 150‒151.
During the half century immediately preceding the Reformation, the
national records disclose a deplorable state of crime among all ranks
of society. Murder, slaughter, mutilation, and theft in the form of
cattle lifting, were extremely prevalent. Theft in these times often
led to assault, which usually ended in slaughter, or something like
robbery and murder. Parliament passed many Acts against these crimes,
and the phraseology of the Acts themselves vividly recalls the state of
society. Homicide and slaughter were so common that many respites and
pardons were granted every year. In the end of the year 1501 the Master
of Errol, the son of the Earl of Errol, and three others, were granted
a remission for stealing thirty-one oxen from Sir William Keith of
Inverugy. In 1508 a remission was given to Lord Oliphant and two of his
accomplices for the oppression of Lord Drummond, by casting down the
dykes between the lands of Drymane and Balloch, “and for the murder of
John, Earl of Buchan, in Perth, after the slaughter of James Oliphant,
committed by the said Earl and his accomplices, and for all other
oppressions, felonies, and crimes.” Here we see the action of the
feeling of revenge; the Earl of Buchan had murdered an Oliphant, Lord
Oliphant then murdered the Earl, and we may pretty safely assume that
Lord Drummond was an ally of the Earl of Buchan. To grant pardons for
these crimes was perhaps the best thing that the government of the
time could do. If every one had been hanged who committed slaughter
and murder, there would have been two or three executions every day
of the year. In 1517 “The Master of Glencairn, the son of the Earl of
Glencairn, and twenty-seven others, obtained a remission for the cruel
murder of Sir Matthew Montgomery, Archibald Caldwell, and James Smyth,
and for hurting John Montgomery, the son of the Earl of Eglinton.”
The Earl of Argyle, in 1532, and ninety-two of his followers, obtained
a remission for treasonable fire-raising in the Islands, with his
standard unfurled. “The King and his Council dispensed with the general
act, on the condition that the Earl satisfied the kin of Donald Ballo
M‘Ancrum, Donald Crum M‘Cowuane, Farquhar M‘Sevir, and others having
lawful claims.”¹ These few cases of pardon for crimes are merely a
selection from hundreds of a similar character; and though the criminal
records for the first half of the century are very incomplete, an
examination of what remains discloses a state of society absolutely
lawless.
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., pages 250,
282, 347, 372, 492; Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_, Volume I.,
pages 102, 108, 234, 247.
Although in 1528 Parliament attached a severe penalty to the crime of
rape, this crime was often passed over with a very light punishment.
Bigamy and adultery were common offences, and in 1551 Parliament
enacted a measure which proposed severe penalties against them. The
Act proceeds to deal with married persons “that are open, manifest,
and common, and incorrigible adulterers, and will not desist nor cease
therefrom, for any fear of the spiritual jurisdiction or the censure
of holy Church, to the great peril of their own souls,” and directs
that such persons shall be visited with the processes of the Church,
and then denounced as rebels and put to the horn. Divorce was also
extremely common among the upper class in Scotland, and was encouraged
by the fashion of granting papal dispensations.¹
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., pages 298,
377, 486; Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_, Volume I., pages
28‒406; _Statutes of the Scottish Church_, Volume II.; A.
Robertson’s _Lectures on the Government, Constitution, and
Laws of Scotland_, pages 133‒134, 183; 1878.
As indicating the absence of respect for the law, and the defectiveness
of the police organisation, the treatment which the executive officers
and messengers often met with may be instanced. Their summonses
and letters were often taken from them and torn to tatters; “and
the evildoers boasted, menaced, disobeyed, struck, and pursued the
officers, and sometimes killed them outright.” In 1546 the Lords of
Council passed an Act imposing severe penalties upon offenders of this
description; and it was resolved to grant no respites to any one guilty
of such crimes for three years to come. On the other hand, the officers
of the law were often guilty of oppression and corruption. They took
bribes from the rich and powerful and permitted them to remain at home,
so that when the pursuer’s case came on before the court, there was
not a sufficient number of jurymen, and the case broke down, while
the injured party lost all the value involved, and the trouble and the
expense of the action. They were accused of summoning poor and simple
persons as jurymen, who had no knowledge to enable them to decide
upon doubtful matters. In 1531 twelve messengers-at-arms were by one
sentence proclaimed fugitives from the law and rebels, and forbidden to
exercise their office on pain of being hanged and drawn. In 1539, again,
thirty-three messengers-at-arms were convicted at once, and deprived of
their offices, for common oppression of the people, “by the false and
unjust exercise of their office, and frustrating them in their just
actions through their ignorance.” After the Reformation attempts were
made to remedy the defects among the officers at arms.¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 66‒660;
Volume II., pages 74, 176, 365‒367; Pitcairn’s _Criminal
Trials_, Volume I., pages 48, 74‒75, 154‒157, 217.
The municipal organisation of the burghs was pretty complete, but owing
to various causes the state of society in them was by no means peaceful
or secure. In 1529 it was stated in the Town Council of Edinburgh
that in past times there had been slaughters and murders in the burgh,
because the officers and citizens had not been careful to resist and
punish evildoers, and that thus the character of the town had been
defamed. It was therefore enacted, “That every merchant and craftsman
should always have beside them in their shops ready for use an axe or
two or more, according to the number of their servants, that they might
be prepared to fortify and assist the magistrates in the administration
of justice.” Those failing to comply with the Act were to be fined
forty shillings for the first fault, and for the second, forty pounds.
This Act was repeated in 1539, and again in 1553, when it was stated
that there had been great slaughters and tussles in the town, which
were likely to recur. It was therefore enacted that “all persons who
occupied shops or chambers in the Highgate should have long weapons
therein, such as a hand axe, a Jedburgh staff, or a halbert, and that
after the ringing of the common bell, or when they saw or apprehended
any brawls on the streets, they should immediately turn out and assist
the officers in stanching and quelling the disturbance. Those who
absented themselves from a tussle on the streets, after being warned,
were to be deprived of their freedom for ever. Each bailie was ordered
to search his own quarter of the city to see that the statute was
obeyed.”¹ Similar regulations for meeting sudden brawls on the streets
were enforced in all the burghs of the kingdom. In 1522 the citizens
of Aberdeen unanimously ordained that all men dwelling in the town,
both burgesses of guild and other craftsmen, should always have in
their shops and office-houses a good fencible weapon, such as an axe, a
halbert, or a Jedburgh staff, for the defence of their persons, goods,
and the commonweal of the city. But in 1530, at a meeting of the whole
citizens called by the provost, it was resolved that――“Considering
the cruel slaughters, murders, and oppression done to them and their
neighbours by gentlemen of the country, ... every neighbour dwelling in
the town should wear daily his weapon on his person, until some remedy
be found how this good town may be freed from such cruel oppressors;
and that every craftsman have his weapon beside him in his workshop,
and when he passes into the street to truss it in his hand, that they
may be able at all times to defend themselves and their neighbours.”²
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume II., pages 7‒8, 93, 177.
² _Burgh Records of Aberdeen_, Volume I., page 103, 111, 131,
448‒449.
In 1529, during the months of October and November, there were nineteen
persons, male and female, banished from Edinburgh for various offences.
Margaret Clapane was banished for buying oysters to regrate contrary
to the statutes; William Cawdor was banished for buying wild fowls
contrary to the statutes; Janet Brown for her demerits was banished
for all the days of her life; David Christeson was banished because he
was a young stark fellow, who begged and would not work for his living.
An Irishman that sung with a lass, and begged through the streets of
the town, was banished because he was a stout young fellow, and would
not work; if he failed to depart out of the city, he was to be burned
on the cheek. Luke Jamison was expelled for regrating herring; and
Andrew Gibson for regrating the king’s money. In 1536 all the vagabonds
without masters were ordered forthwith to decamp from the town under
the penalty of imprisonment, and thereafter to be banished. The same
year, vagabonds who would not pay their debts, were to be banished from
the burgh; and vagabonds who had no occupation, nor anything to live
upon, nightwalkers, and players at dice and cards, were all commanded
to remove out of the city, under the penalty of imprisonment. No
beggars were to be allowed to live in the town, except those who had
been born in it, and of these such only as were feeble and unable to
work for their living, under the penalty of burning of their cheeks and
banishment. It appears, however, from other statutes that the beggars
in Edinburgh were many. In 1538 Agnes Wright was convicted for causing
a disturbance, and was sentenced to be put in irons at the market cross,
or else above the cross on the scaffold, that the people might see her,
when her offence was to be openly proclaimed, and thereafter she was to
be banished. In 1551 all the sergeants of the burgh were dismissed for
failing in the execution of their duties, and the bailies were
commanded to receive others in their places.¹
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume II., pages 8‒16, 73, 80,
88, 90, 156.
Among the sums disbursed by the Treasurer of Edinburgh for the year
1554‒55, we find the following: “For taking of a great gibbet off
the nether Tolbooth, and bringing it to the top of the Dow Crag, to
have hanged hummil Jok on, and bringing it down again to St. Paul’s
Work, the sum of twelvepence; and for cords to bind and hang him with,
eightpence. In November, for cords to bind and hang a thief, who was
convicted before the sheriff, eightpence. The same month, a great long
chain of iron for the thieves’ hole, with four arms extended from it,
and four locks and bolts, weighing eleven stones and three quarters,
made by John Ahamnay, blacksmith, and the price of each stone was
eleven shillings and fourpence――the total sum six pounds fourteen
shillings and twopence: and for bringing it from the workshop, and
helping to fasten it――eightpence. For cords to bind and hang Tom
Gelirson, and to bind a woman when she was burned on the cheek――two
shillings. For cords to bind Nicoll Ramsay when he was hanged――sixpence.
For cords to hang the man that burnt Lord James’ corn――eightpence.” In
the month of February, 1557, the Town Council ordered their treasurer,
“To pay to John Wauchlott, officer and surgeon, the sum of three pounds
for curing and mending of James Henderson’s leg, which was broken in
the town’s service at the taking of Ramsay, a thief who was slain in
the taking.”¹
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume II., pages 294, 295,
_et seq._; Volume III., page 16; _Old Dundee prior to
the Reformation_, pages 350, 208, _et seq._, by Alexander
Maxwell, 1891.
The surgeons of the period had considerable work in attending to the
broken heads and limbs which resulted from brawls and assaults, and it
appears that the injury inflicted by an assailant was usually assessed
upon their judgment. “When David Arthor hurt Wille Terbat, it was
ordered that the Leech, by the great oath, deponed how many days Wille
might not work through the hurt, and David to pay each day eightpence,
and also pay the leech-craft.” So also “when Rob Dawson struck Wille
Pangell, he was ordained to pay the Leech for his craft of Wille’s head
breaking, and give Wille twelve pence each day that the Leech deponed
that he might not freely labour through the hurt.”
Persons appearing before the burgh court were required to show due
respect to it, and to give the bailies becoming honour. On the 13th
of March, 1551, in the burgh court of Dundee, Andro Kynneris was
sentenced to pay “to Our Lady light two pounds of wax for causing a
disturbance in the court.” Three years later David Spankey was fined
ten shillings, and ordered to ask the bailies’ forgiveness, for saying
in their presence “that there was no justice done in the Tollbooth.”
Subsequently the Head Court of the burgh enacted: “That if any person
be found disobeying or slighting any officer holding office, he shall
pay to Our Lady Kirk five pounds of money; and the person convicted of
such an offence shall come to the High alter and offer a pound of wax
in a candle, and, if he disobeys, to lose his freedom. But, if he has
not goods or gear, in that case, he shall lie forty-eight hours in the
stocks, and on the following Sunday shall pass about the Kirk, afore
the procession, in linen clothes, and a wax candle of two pounds in
his hand; and if he fails to perform this, to be banished from the town
for a year and a day.” Shortly after this Act was made, Robert Peblis
disturbed the court and uttered defaming words to the bailies, for
which he was fined five pounds.
In 1556 harlots were ordered to wear a distinctive dress when they
appeared on the streets of Edinburgh. The Town Council of Dundee, on
the 10th of January, 1559, said that “It had been reported to the great
defame, slander, and shame of honest men’s wives, their daughters, and
women servants, that they have been seduced by panders and procurers
to use themselves unlawfully in fornication; for remedy of which the
Council ordered that if there be any such men or women panders in the
burgh, they despatch themselves off within twenty-four hours, under the
penalty of being openly taken to the Market Cross, and there banished
for ever.” Regarding the places where immoral practices were carried
on, it was enacted “that from this day forth no brothels should be
permitted within the burgh.” The custom of “hand-fasting” was then
not uncommon, which was an agreement between a man and a woman to live
together either for a limited or an indefinite yet a terminable time.¹
¹ _Ibid._, Volume II., pages 248; see also _Burgh Records of
Aberdeen_, and _Old Dundee_, page 285.
In Catholic times a form of penance was sometimes imposed on offenders
as a part of their punishment. In the year 1523, John Pitt, a tailor
in Aberdeen, was convicted, on his own confession, for disobeying David
Anderson, one of the bailies. The tailor had refused to take his proper
place, with the sign of his craft, in the Candlemas procession, and
he abused the bailie and the merchants of the town by calling them
“coffers, and bidding them take the salt-pock and the fire-brush in
their hands.” For this offence he bound himself before the council to
appear the next Sunday bare-headed and bare-footed in the church, in
the time of high mass, with a wax-candle in his hand, and to offer it
to their patron saint, Nicholas; he also promised to have the usual
token of his craft on his breast――that is, a pair of patent shears; and
then to sit down humbly on his knees and beseech the provost to remit
his fault. Bessie Dempster was convicted in 1538, before the council
by a jury, for the aspersion of David Reid, both by word and deed; and
a part of her punishment was that, on the next Sunday, she should go
before the procession, with nothing on her but her shift, and enter
the High Church with a wax-candle in her hand, and offer it “to the
holy blood light;” and then sit down on her knees, and beseech the
magistrates and the good men of the town to request David to forgive
her. In 1544 the Town Council commanded Mage Durtty, who had been twice
convicted before, and at this time for disturbing Janet Lesly, that she
must go the next Sunday, with a wax-candle burning in her hand, into
the church, and sit down on her knees, and ask Janet to forgive her.
But if ever she again committed such offences, they ordained that “her
crag should be put in the jougs.” Thomas White was convicted by the
bailies, in 1549, for interfering with David Reid, an officer, in
the execution of his duty, and for assaulting Duncan Fraser. He was
ordered to appear on Sunday in the church, in the time of high mass,
bare-headed and bare-footed, with a wax-candle in his hand, and then
sit down on his knees, and ask the magistrates and council to forgive
him, and the officer, Duncan Fraser; and, finally, to offer the candle
to St. Nicholas light.¹
¹ _Burgh Records of Aberdeen_, Volume I., pages 93, 154, 155,
198, 206, 212, 271, 272, 429, 445.
There is little variation in these cases of public penance, but they
enable us to understand some of the peculiar features of the Catholic
system; and it will be found that something of the old forms of
penance passed into the discipline of the Reformed Church. Although
the hierarchy in Scotland was tottering to its fall, and was upon the
very brink of destruction, yet within a few years of the Reformation
the surface of things was seemingly little disturbed. In 1555, John
Sandris, a couper, and his wife, were tried and convicted by the
bailies of Aberdeen, for striking and drawing blood of Thomas Gellane
and his wife; and their sentence was that they should pay Thomas twenty
shillings, to be given to the barbour for curing his wounds; and to
go next Sunday to St. Nicholas Church, in the time of high mass, each
of them with a candle of wax in their hands, and there ask forgiveness
of Thomas and his wife. The same year, other two persons in Aberdeen
underwent penance in a similar form for their offences.
In Dundee between the years 1520‒3 the bailies in the burgh court,
among other cases, disposed of the following, which have the
characteristic of penance. Willy Marshall for disobedience to the
bailies, and not paying the King’s tax, was sentenced to go to the kirk
“on Sunday before the time of high mass in shirt and gown, barefooted
and bareheaded, with a candle of a pound of wax, and ask the bailies’
forgiveness, and offer the candle where they command him: and, if he
fails, to come next Sunday with a candle of four pounds; and, if he
fails the third Sunday, to pay a stone of wax to Our Lady.” Reche Crag
had threatened the town’s officers with a dirk, and having confessed
the fault, he was “ordered to come on Sunday in the time of high mass,
and the knife drawn in his hand by the point, and on his knees ask the
provost’s forgiveness, and give him the knife to be placed where he
pleases.” If he failed to do this, he was to pay half a stone of wax
to Our Lady light.¹
¹ _Burgh Records of Aberdeen_, pages 282, 285, 288; also _Old
Dundee_, pages 17, 18.
All classes of the people were in the habit of swearing. The literature
of the period contains ample evidence of the number of oaths which were
then common among the Scots. The writings of Sir David Lindsay alone
exhibit upwards of fifty forms.¹ Parliament, in 1551, passed an act
touching “the abominable swearing, execration, and blaspheming of the
name of God, swearing in vain by His precious blood, body, and wounds;
devil stick, cummer-gor, reist or rife them, and other vulgar oaths and
execrations against the command of God. Yet, both among the high and
low, it has come into such vain-glorious use that the people may be
heard daily and hourly blaspheming openly God’s name and majesty.” The
remedy proposed was a graduated scale of fines for those who could pay
them; and the poor people found guilty were to be put in the stocks
or imprisoned for four ♦hours; but women guilty of swearing were to be
treated according to their blood and station, and the parties with whom
they were coupled.²
¹ In a note on Lyndsay’s _Satire of the Three Estates_,
Chalmers says――“The one-half of conversation in that age,
both in England and in Scotland, was made up of swearing.”
And he then gives a list of the most fashionable oaths which
occur in Lyndsay’s play, and they amount to thirty-three.
Among them may be mentioned the following:――“By God’s wounds;
by God’s cross; by God’s bread (that is, the altar); by Him
that made the moon; by Him that herried hell; by our Lady;
by St. Mary; by sweet St. Gile;” and so on.――_Works of Sir
D. Lyndsay_, Volume I. pages 360‒363.
♦ “honrs” replaced with “hours”
² _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., page 435.
Some of the habits of the people and their modes of living were
extremely defective. This appeared most in the deplorable sanitary
state of the towns. The necessary conditions of health were but little
understood, and usually disregarded, till pestilence reached a height
which compelled the authorities to take active measures, and endeavour
to mitigate the suffering. The streets of the towns, and the houses
of the poorer classes, were in a wretched state; and throughout this
century the country was never long free from the pest. Many acts of
parliament and council were passed for dealing with the pestilence,
and the records of all the burghs are full of regulations about it;
but they are chiefly remarkable for the single idea, that to prevent
contact with the persons affected with the disease was the only
remedy and protection against it. The efforts of the authorities were
mostly directed to this, and thorough cleanliness seems to have been
greatly undervalued and neglected. The authorities, however, often
showed commendable energy to prevent the spread of the pest by actual
contact; they exerted themselves to separate those affected with the
disease from the healthy portion of the people; and, in carrying out
their regulations on this point, they frequently acted with great
determination.¹ On the second of October, 1559, the Town Council of
Dundee ordered “that all persons, either rich or poor, having middens
in any place within the boundary of the burgh, should remove them
before Wednesday night, and lay no more in time coming.” Each bailie
was enjoined to visit the quarters where they were, and to cause the
Act to be put into execution. Subsequently the town’s officers were
ordered to pass through the burgh once every twenty-four hours, and
enforce the Act. But, although repeatedly prohibited, the offensive
heaps still continued. It is now well known, though as yet only
imperfectly acted upon, that the rational mode of preserving health
depends on the proper sanitary conditions of the country, and
especially of the great centres of population――thorough drainage and
sewerage arrangements, which tend to promote the general vigour of the
entire population of the Island.
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volumes II., III.;
_Register of the Privy Council_, Volumes I., II., III., IV.,
V., VI.; _Burgh Records of Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow,
Peebles, Perth, and Dundee_.
In Scotland the streets, even of the chief towns, were not lighted at
night. The Town Council of Edinburgh, in November, 1554, ordained that,
“for eschewing of the evil doings of the vagabonds and others who go
in the burgh in the night, stealing and robbing within the same, there
be nightly, from this day forth till the 24th of February, lanterns and
bowets set up and lighted at five o’clock in the evening, and to burn
till nine, by the following persons:――Each barber on the highgate, each
candlemaker on the highgate, each apothecary, each taverner, each baker,
and each common cook, to have a lantern or bowet burning in front of
their shops and houses during the said hours; and likewise each brewer
in the closes and outwith should furnish a bowet; and also that all
the persons dwelling in closes must furnish bowets night about, as
they shall be ordered by the bailies: and where it happens that two
candlemakers or barbers dwell near to each other, then the bailies
shall put one of their bowets to any other place as he pleases; and
these parties were required to comply with this statute under a fine
of two shillings.”¹ This was a primitive enough mode of lighting the
streets of the capital of a kingdom.
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume II., pages 204‒205;
_Burgh Records of Aberdeen_, 262.
In 1557 Bessie Campbell having been brought before the magistrates of
Edinburgh, promised that she would desist from making _aqua vitæ_, or
selling it in the burgh, except on the market days. It appears from
various records that the use of spirits was quite common amongst all
classes of the people; and drink-money and drink-silver was a very
common phrase in the accounts paid to the different classes of workmen
by the Town Councils throughout the kingdom.
Reference has already been made to the oppressive burdens which were
imposed upon the tenants, the occupiers, and the tillers of the land.
Contemporary literature abounds with evidence of the wretched state
of these classes of the people. Sir David Lyndsay enumerates by name
several of the burdens which the landlords enforced upon their tenants;
such as “the great fine on the renewal of leases,” and the fines which
had to be paid on the marriage of their daughters.¹ In the _Complaynt
of Scotland_, which was published in 1549, the oppression of the
tenants and labourers of the ground is touchingly related. Their corn
and cattle were often reft from them, and they were then turned out of
their holdings. The poor especially were excessively oppressed.² Prior
to the Reformation, however, some efforts were made to relieve them.
In 1535, Parliament enacted that the poor who cannot work should be
supported by the parishes in which they were born.³ In 1553, James
Henderson laid proposals before the Town Council of Edinburgh for the
improvement of the burgh; and it was then suggested that a new hospital
should be built, with forty beds, for helpless men and women, with a
priest, a surgeon, and a doctor attached to it. The scheme, does not
appear to have been carried out; but about the same time the necessity
of some mode of assisting the helpless poor was recognised. The Town
Council, in 1555, appointed a committee to devise means for supporting
the poor, and expelling sturdy beggars from the town. The next year the
Council appointed two men to receive the bread and the silver collected
for the poor, and to distribute them till the next term. In 1557, the
Council resolved to provide for the maintenance of the poor in the
meantime, and passed several Acts in 1559 for expelling beggars who did
not belong to the town. It was also proposed to make provision for the
poor, according to the Act of Parliament and the statutes of the burgh.
The most common mode of dealing with the poor in the burghs seems to
have been to grant to those who were born in the town liberty to beg,
and to expel all other beggars.⁴ Many of the hospitals for the sick
and infirm which had formerly existed in many places throughout the
country,⁵ had fallen into a state of decay; and as yet there was no
definitely organised scheme for giving assistance to the poor, although
the matter had frequently engaged the attention of public bodies.
¹ _Works_, Chalmers’s Edition, Volume II., pages 6‒7, 118;
Volume III., page 147.
² Dr. Murray’s Edition, page 123, _et seq._
³ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II.
⁴ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume II., pages 169‒172, 232,
261; Volume III., pages 50‒51; see also _Burgh Records of
Aberdeen_, Volume I., page 234.
⁵ Mackintosh’s _History of Civilisation in Scotland_, Volume
I., page 434.
The religious feelings and opinions of the people themselves, as
manifested in their daily life during this revolutionary period, is
a highly interesting subject; and an attempt will be made to show
what they were immediately before the crisis of the Reformation. In
1514, the Town Council of Aberdeen resolved to impose a tax for buying
ornaments and books to the church of their “glorious patron Saint
Nicholas.” At the same time an act was passed by which no burgess was
admitted, nor any unfreeman licensed to sell, without the payment of a
certain sum of money for the repairing of St. Nicholas church and choir.
This act was often repeated, and others similar to it were enacted with
the consent of the whole community of the city.¹ The citizens also gave
voluntary contributions for furnishing ornaments to the altars of their
“glorious Saint Nicholas”; and in many other ways they exhibited their
feelings by bestowing a liberal share of the good things of the earth
and of the waters on the Church.² The Town Council of Edinburgh, in
1518, ordained that the servants of the guild and the beadle should
keep the College Church of St. Giles and its choir free from all evil
persons in the time of matins, high mass, and evensong; and that no
beggars should be permitted to enter the church at such times. In
1521, the Town Council resolved that the dean of guild and seven others
should form a committee, to meet every Friday, and sit one hour, and
deliberate and advise touching the good of the church and the making
of freemen and guild brethren. The Council, in 1546, ordered that all
the fines taken from those who had broken the price of wine, should be
applied to the reparation of the high altar; and the following year the
magistrates resolved that the tavern keepers should be poinded for the
dues which they owed to St. Anthony’s altar. In 1552 the magistrates
entered into a contract for making the stalls of the choir of St. Giles;
and in 1555 they appointed a man to sing in the choir at the masses
of Our Lady and the Holy Blood, for which service he was to receive
twenty merks a-year. The same year the council ordered the musicians
who played before St. Giles on that saint’s day to be paid out of
the town’s funds. In the beginning of the year 1556, the provost and
bailies granted to Alexander Scott a pension of ten pounds for one
year only, for his attendance and singing in the choir on all the
festival days, and for playing on the organ when he was requested by
the authorities of the town. On the 5th of November, 1557, the Town
Council granted the benefice of St. Andrews altar in St. Giles’ church
to Robert Craig, the son of a goldsmith, “who promised to be a priest
within two years, or else renounce his prebendary.” The great church
of St. Mary in Dundee had upwards of thirty altars, and a large staff
of priests and officials. There was a peal of five bells in the tower,
on which a chime of one hundred and twenty-nine strikes was rung three
times daily, to call the people to matins, mass, and evening song.
In such churches, and in the grand cathedrals of the kingdom, the
magnificence of the ritualistic service was exceedingly imposing. The
varied and beautiful decoration of the whole interior of the churches,
the altars adorned with cloth of gold, silver vessels, and fine service
books, the beautiful hues of the vestments of silk and tissues of gold,
the sacred crucifix, and the greatly venerated relics of the saints,
and withal, the vocal chanting of touching hymns to the resonant
harmony of the organ, were all carefully calculated to touch the devout
hearts and impress the souls of the humble worshippers.³
¹ _Burgh Records of Aberdeen_, Volume I., 88, 89, 96, 178, 176,
218, 235, 248.
² _Ibid._, 119‒120, 149, 151, 180, 279, 299.
³ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume I., pages 177, 208;
Volume II., pages 125‒127, 142, 174, 218, 220, 236; Volume
III., page 12; _Old Dundee_, Maxwell, page 13, _et seq._
Touching the processions in which the craftsmen joined on notable saint
days, pretty full accounts are contained in the Records of Aberdeen,
where they were an important institution. It appears, however, that
these displays sometimes ended in bickerings, that is, in a general
uproar, especially among the young.¹ In 1531 the Town Council of
Aberdeen passed the following statute: “According to the lovable custom
and right of this burgh, and of the noble burgh of Edinburgh, of which
rite and custom the provost has received a copy: that is to say, that
in the name of God and the blessed Virgin Mary, the craftsmen of this
burgh, in their best array, keep and decorate the procession, as on
Corpus Christi day and Candlemas day, as honourably as they can, every
craft with their own banner, with the arms of their craft thereon,
and they shall pass each craft by themselves, two and two, in this
order:――First the fleshers, and next the barbers; next the skinners and
furriers together; next the shoemakers; next the tailors; after them
weavers, walkers, and listers together; next them the bakers; and last
of all, nearest to the Sacrament, passes all the hammermen――namely,
smiths, wrights, masons, ♦coupers, slaters, goldsmiths, and armourers.
And every one of the said crafts, in the Candlemas procession, shall
furnish their pageants, according to the old statute of the year
of God 1510.” The crafts were ordered to furnish their pageants as
follows:――“The fleshers, St. Bestian and his tormenters; the barbers,
St. Lawrence and his tormenters; the skinners, St. Stephen and his
tormenters; the shoemakers, St. Martin; the tailors, the coronation
of our Lady; the listers, St. Nicholas; the weavers, walkers, and
bonnetmakers, St. John; the bakers, St. George; the hammermen, the
Resurrection and the Cross.”²
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume II., pages 8, 73.
♦ “coupars” replaced with “coupers” for consistency
² _Burgh Records of Aberdeen_, Volume I., pages 449‒451.
Turning to another class of illustrations of the religious sentiments
of the people, the shoemakers of Edinburgh were incorporated by a seal
of cause, 1510, which contained rules touching payments to the altar
of the craftsmen. “For augmentation of divine service at the altar of
St. Crispin, in the College Church of St. Giles, we desire that the
following statutes, articles, and rules, should be sanctioned by your
authority.” Every apprentice at his entry to the craft had to pay six
shillings and eightpence, for upholding of divine service at the altar
of St. Crispin; and when a shoemaker commenced business as a master,
he had to pay four marks to the altar of St. Crispin. Every master had
to pay one penny weekly for keeping the altar in repair, and each of
his servants a half-penny. All the fines for breaking the rules of the
craft, or disobeying the kirk-master, were also to be applied to the
service of the altar of St. Crispin. The candlemakers were incorporated
in 1517; and it was stated in their seal of cause, “that when they set
up shop, each master must pay to St. Giles’ work half a mark of silver,
and to the reparation and upholding of the light of any altar in St.
Giles’ Church, where the deacon and craftsmen think it most needful,
half a mark weekly; ay, and until they be furnished with an altar
of their own. And, likewise, each master of the craft, in honour of
Almighty God and his Blessed Mother St. Mary, and of our patron St.
Giles, and of all the saints of heaven, shall give the sum of ten
shillings yearly to the helping and furnishing, either of light or
any other needful thing to any altar in the church of St. Giles.” The
bakers were incorporated in 1523, and their patron was St. Cuthbert,
whose altar was in St. Giles; and they kept a chaplain of their own
to perform divine service at their altar. All the fines for disobeying
the rules of the craft were to be devoted to the altar, chiefly in the
form of wax candles to lighten the church and enliven the worship. The
tailors had St. Ann for their patron; and they also had an altar and a
chaplain of their own, “who said prayers.” The bonnetmakers were under
the protection of St. Mark. The skinners and furriers of Edinburgh
were incorporated in 1533. “In example of others, and for augmentation
of divine service at the altar of St. Christopher our patron, in the
college church of St. Giles. Seeing that all virtuous practices depend
on a good beginning, thence persevering and advancing to the end,
therefore all those who set up as skinners and furriers should pay
five pounds for the maintaining of divine service at their altar of St.
Christopher; unless, indeed, they be skinners’ sons within this burgh,
in which case, they shall only pay ten shillings. Every master who has
a shop, should pay one penny weekly to the reparation of the ornaments
of our altar and sustaining of the priests’ meat thereof, as it comes
about.” Indeed almost every craft had its special saint and altar.
Toward the end of the fifteenth century the weavers of Dundee resolved
to found an altar to St. Severus, their patron saint, and the erection
having been sanctified, they then framed rules, which were presented
to the town council. In 1512, the council granted a seal of cause,
incorporating the weavers, “for the supplying and upholding of divine
service and reapparelling of their altar of St. Severus, uphorlden by
them in Our Lady Kirk, and for the government of their work and labours.
It was provided that the fees and fines exacted for infringement of the
rules of the craft should go to the upholding of the altar, and that
each man and woman engaged in the craft, who gives not to the priest of
the altar his meat in the year, as the rest does, shall pay every week
to the altar a penny, to be collected by the deacon of the craft.” In
1516, the town council incorporated the glovers, and the craft became
bound, “in honour and loving of God Almighty, and of the glorious Lady
the Virgin Mary, and of St. Duthac, our patron, to the reparation of
our altar in the parish kirk, for the upholding of God’s service daily
at the said altar, and to the honest sustentation of a chaplain daily
to sing and say at the altar;” and to collect from every person engaged
in the craft forty shillings, for upholding the altar and the service
thereof, except freemen’s sons of the craft, who should pay only six
shillings and eightpence. St. Cuthbert was the baker’s patron saint,
and they founded and maintained his altar in St. Mary’s Church, and
appointed their chaplain annually. In 1515 the guild merchants of
Dundee, with the consent of the town council, resolved to erect an
altar in St. Mary’s Church, “to the loving of God Almighty, of Christ’s
precious blood, and to his blessed mother the Virgin Mary, and to
appoint a chaplain daily to sing and say divine service there, and for
singing mass solemnly every Thursday in honour of the Holy Blood of our
Lord Jesus Christ.” For the reparation of the altar and the upholding
of the service, the merchants were empowered to elect a dean, who was
authorised to exact duties on all goods exported, to tax all merchants
beginning business, and to exact fines from those who encroached on the
High Market Gait with their goods.¹
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume I., pages 127‒129,
170‒172, 214, 215; Volume II., pages 22‒24, 48‒50, 52‒55,
61‒66, _et seq._; _Burgh Records of Dundee_.
In the preceding pages some of the religious sentiments of the people
have been indicated, as manifested in their life and action; the next
point is to look for the signs of the new religious opinions amongst
them before the crisis of the Revolution. The magistrates of Aberdeen
in 1525 received a letter from the King, stating that the bishop of
the diocese had informed him that there were several persons in the
district who had the books of the heretic Luther, and who favoured
his opinions; and the act of parliament newly passed against heresy
was ordered to be proclaimed, and a searching inquisition made of all
suspected persons within the bounds of the diocese. The king’s letter
and the act of parliament were both inserted in the records of the city.
There was no more mention of heresy in Aberdeen till 1544, when some
of the citizens were committed, and convicted for injuring the black
friars; while the same year two of the townsmen were found guilty of
hanging the image of St. Francis. In the beginning of the year 1559 the
buildings of the black and the gray friars were attacked by some of the
citizens, who were assisted by certain strangers; and the bailies then
inquired whether these buildings should be preserved for the good of
the town, “and the setting forth of God’s glory, and the suppression
of idolatry;” notwithstanding the provost’s protest, which was adhered
to by fifteen of the inhabitants, in March the whole community of
“the good town” resolved to support the Lords of the Congregation. In
the month of June the chaplains of St. Nicholas church petitioned the
magistrates to devise some means for defending their church, and for
preserving the chalices, silver work, caps, and ornaments, till the
uproar and tumult of the people was quelled by the ancient and wise
council of the kingdom.¹
¹ _Burgh Records of Aberdeen_, Volume I., pages 206, 211,
315‒323.
In 1551, parliament had passed an act prohibiting the printing or
publishing of any books or ballads, either in Latin or English, unless
licensed by the king and government; and in 1554, the Town Council
of Edinburgh passed an act against the makers of defamatory and
blasphemous ballads. The ballads had been placed before the people,
and had raised discord among them; but the parties who composed the
ballads were unknown, and the bailies ordered that no one should dare
to make such ballads, under the penalty contained in the common laws.
On the 22nd of September, 1556, the archbishop of St. Andrews sent
a document to the town council of Edinburgh, touching the images
which had been taken down in the churches; and the council agreed
to make inquiry concerning the matter, and to report to the justice
clerk. The following day the council received a message from the Queen
Regent, in the name of the primate, which she desired to be inserted
in the records of the burgh. It proceeded, “as we are informed that
there are certain odious ballads and rhymes lately set forth by
some evil-inclined persons of your town, who have also taken down
divers images, and contemptuously broken them――which is a thing very
slanderous to the people, and contrary to the ordinances and the
statutes of Holy Kirk――and we understand that the makers of this
misorder are all dwellers and inhabitants of your town. Wherefore
we charge you that immediately after the sight hereof, ye diligently
inquire, search, and seek for their names, and deliver them in writ to
our cousin the archbishop of St. Andrews, to be used according to the
statutes of the Kirk; assuring you, if ye do not your utmost endeavours
therein to bring the same to light, that ye shall be considered by us
favourers and maintainers of such persons, and shall underlay the same
punishment that they ought to sustain, in case we get knowledge thereof
by you.”¹ Thus we see that the popular ballads had an influence on the
revolutionary movement.
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume II., pages 199, 200, 251.
In June, 1559, Matthew Stevenson, a servant of a barber, was accused
before the Council of Edinburgh for throwing stones at the windows of
the buildings of the black and the gray friars, the last night that he
was upon the watch. He pleaded guilty, and his master became bail for
his appearance when required. On the 27th of June the Council appointed
a number of persons to whom the vestments, the ornaments, and the gear
of the church of St. Giles were committed for safety. The council met
in the Tolbooth on the 29th of June, and after long reasoning upon
the coming of the Lords of the Congregation to Edinburgh, they at
last resolved to send a deputation to meet them at Linlithgow; and to
arrange with them for the preservation of the religious buildings and
the churches of the burgh.¹ There is something very touching in the
anxiety and the care which the town council of Edinburgh exhibited for
the preservation of the furnishings and the ornaments of their churches,
which, as we have just seen, had been so long and so closely associated
with their altars, and with the religion of their fathers.
¹ _Ibid._, Volume III., pages 40‒45.
SECTION II.
AFTER THE REFORMATION.
When the Protestants came into power the evidence of the great change
was soon seen in the proceedings of the citizens. In May, 1560, the
town council of Edinburgh ordered their treasurer to pay the sum of
forty pounds for furnishing the household of their minister, John Knox,
and because he had been living with David Forester since he came to
the town, to settle this account also; and they ordered the treasurer
to pay for a lock to Knox’s lodgings. In June the council ordered that
twenty pounds should be paid to John Willock, the Reformer; while the
council and the deacons of the crafts resolved that the bell, called
the Mary Bell, and the brazen pillars of the Church of St. Giles,
should be made into cannon for the use of the town; they also directed
that the silver work belonging to the town, which had been used in St.
Giles’ church in bypast times, both the gilt and the ungilt, should
be at once sold or coined into money; and the whole of the vestments,
caps, and other gear of the church were to be sold, and the proceeds
to be applied to the common works of the town, and especially to the
rebuilding of the interior of the church, according to the requirements
of the new order of worship. The dean of guild and the treasurer were
appointed to carry these arrangements into effect.¹ The interior of
the churches of Edinburgh were refitted on the 1st of August, 1560,
and the deacon of the tailor craft presented the following complaint to
the provost and council:――“Bearing in effect that the traves close room
or seat, built and made by command of James Barron, dean of guild, at
St. Anne’s altar, sometimes called the tailor’s altar, ought and should
be removed, and the deacons and brethren of the tailor craft permitted
to build their seats there, to be used by them and their craft at all
sermons and other times convenient and none others, conform to their
old possession; to this it was answered, and for plain ordinance by
the provost, bailies, council, and deacons, declared, that in respect
of the goodly order now taken in religion all title and claim to altars
and such other superstitious practices are and should be abolished, and
no further word nor claim thereof to be in time coming; but as it is
commanded by God’s most holy Word, brotherly amity should be amongst
us who are joined in his congregation, the nobility, provost, bailies,
council, elders, and deacons, being first placed, the honest merchants
and the honest craftsmen to place and set themselves together as loving
brethren and friends in that and all other places of the church vacant
at all times needful, providing always that nowhere the apprentices
or servants of the merchants or the craftsmen, or other common people
take up the places and seats of the said merchants and craftsmen; and
this act to take effect without alteration in all time coming.” In
the beginning of January, 1561, the town council of Aberdeen agreed to
sell all the silver and brass work, the images and the ornaments of the
church of St. Nicholas; and the whole of the inhabitants of the city
were warned to attend on the 6th of that month and see these articles
sold by auction. The caps brought one hundred and forty-two pounds,
the brass work sixteen shillings the stone, the silver work was sold at
twenty-one shillings per ounce, and the total sum of the sale amounted
to five hundred and forty pounds. Two men, David Menzie and Gilbert
Collison, dissented and protested against this sale for themselves
and their adherents, but the goods were delivered to the purchasers by
the voice of the majority.² On the 8th of May, 1562, the town council
resolved to apply the above sum of money to the building of a pier
and quay-head;³ so swiftly had the religious notions of the leading
citizens changed.
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume III., pages 63‒65, 66,
70‒71, 85.
² _Burgh Records of Aberdeen_, Volume I., pages 328‒329, 331.
³ _Ibid._, page 344.
It will be seen that a new epoch had begun. When objects which had been
venerated for many centuries, and were still believed to be possessed
of uncommon virtues, were turned into cash and cannon, and applied to
build harbours, it was obvious that a revolution had been effected.
The citizens of Edinburgh entered warmly and earnestly into the
reformation movement. The town council and some of the deacons of
the crafts met in June, 1560, and having considered the great number
of idolaters, whoremasters, and harlots who daily resorted within
the burgh, provoking the indignation of God upon it, as had been
oftentimes foreshadowed by the preachers, so they issued a proclamation
in a comprehensive form――“That all such persons should come into the
presence of the ministers or the elders, and give testimony of their
conversion from such abuses before next Sunday, or failing that, the
said idolaters to be defamed by setting them upon the market cross,
there to remain for the space of six hours; and carrying of the said
whoremasters and harlots through the town in a cart for the first
fault: and burning of both classes of offenders on the cheek for the
second fault, and banishment from the town; and for the third fault
to be punished to the death.” On the 20th of September, 1560, the
town council ordered the Act of Parliament against idolaters to be
proclaimed.¹ On the 30th of October, the town council enacted that
henceforward the holy day commonly called Sunday should be kept by
all persons in the burgh, and that no one make market, nor open their
shops, nor exercise any worldly calling on this day, but that all
should attend the ordinary sermons both in the forenoon and in the
afternoon: “And that from the first toll of the bell announcing the
hour of the sermon to the final end thereof, there should be neither
meat nor drink sold in open taverns, but that during this time they
should be closed. That the flesh market, which used to be held on
Sunday, should be henceforth held upon the Saturday; and that the
cattle market at the House of the Muir, which had been held in past
times on Sunday, should in all time coming be held on the Thursday.”
At the same time they passed an act against swearing and taking
God’s name in vain, under the penalty of being placed in the iron
branks, “there to remain during the pleasure of the judge.” They also
enjoined concerning taverns: “Because in past times the iniquity of
women taverners in this burgh has been a great occasion of whoredom,
insomuch that there appears to be a brothel in every tavern; therefore
all vintners of wine who may engage women taverners before the
next Martinmas hereafter were to be certified, that if their women
committed any immoral fault they should have to pay forty pounds,
except they deliver the offender into the hands of the bailie, to be
banished, according to the laws, as soon as the offence comes to their
knowledge.”² In November the same year, John Sanderson, the deacon of
the fleshers, was convicted for adultery, and the bailies sentenced him
to be carted through the town and then banished. But when the deacons
of the various crafts heard of the sentence, and their aid was asked to
carry it into execution, they unanimously dissented, and declared that
they would not allow such extreme punishment to be inflicted upon any
honest craftsman. The bailies and council then applied to the Lords of
the Privy Council for their help and support in this case, and after
much wrangling it was at last settled.³
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume III., pages 65, 82‒83.
² _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume III., pages 85‒86.
³ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume III., pages 89‒95.
Compare the _Burgh Records of Aberdeen_, Volume I., pages
345, 367‒370, and Maxwell’s _History of Old Dundee_, pages
77‒81. 1884.
These social immoralities not only engaged the attention of the burgh
magistrates and the courts of the Reformed Church, but Parliament also,
and the Privy Council passed acts for their suppression. There can be
no doubt that a clearer sense of the enormity of social vice originated
with the Reformation; the most strenuous efforts were made to purify
the feelings and the sentiments of the people, as well as to purge the
nation of idolatry. The first General Assembly of the Reformed Church
declared that fornication should be punished according to the law of
God, and that public repentance should be made by those who were guilty
of this sin. All through the acts and proceedings of the Assemblies
of the Church, the clergy, as may be seen, were incessantly and
earnestly trying to improve the morals of the people.¹ It is somewhat
disagreeable to touch much on these matters, but social vice affects
the very foundation of society, and should not be summarily dismissed;
a false delicacy which would ignore the roots of social evil will never
do much to help the onward and upward movement of mankind towards a
higher civilisation and a happier life.
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 5, 19, 29, 39, 44, 54‒56,
79, 91, 98, 114, 140, 170, 180, 267, 308, 366, 377, 379, 388,
536, 953, _et seq._
As we have seen, the clergy were well supported by the authorities
of the towns, and especially by those of Edinburgh, in their efforts
to reform the morals of the people. In November, 1561, the bailies
of Edinburgh banished an adulterer; and in May, 1562, they prepared a
hole in the North Loch for dipping fornicators in, as the best means
of suppressing them. On the 6th of November, 1562, the town council
passed an act which directed the bailies to search all parts of the
town for offenders of this description, and to apprehend them, whether
man or woman, without exception of persons; “and then put them in the
iron-house, and there to be fed on bread and water only for the space
of a month, and afterwards to banish them from the town for ever. And
suchlike offenders who had been tried and convicted by order, both
the man and the woman should be scourged at the cart’s end through
the streets and banished from the town; aye, and until some evidence
be presented to the kirk and the magistrates of the amendment of
their lives; and this order was to be observed in Edinburgh till it
should please the Almighty to move the hearts of the higher powers to
establish better laws for the punishment of these crimes.” In December
the town council ordered a prison to be prepared for the reception of
adulterers and fornicators, which should be secure and lockfast.¹
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume III., pages 129, 135,
152, 154; _Register of the Kirk Session of St. Andrews_,
pages 36, 142, 172, 180, 377, 417, _et seq._
The wish expressed in the last paragraph was realised. In 1563,
parliament passed an act against notorious adulterers: and the Privy
Council in 1564 passed an act prohibiting brothels, either openly or
privately, under the penalty of eight days’ imprisonment with bread and
water, and then to be scourged through the town, for the first fault;
and for the second fault to be burned on the cheek and banished from
the town for ever. At the same time the Privy Council ordered that
those convicted of fornication, should be punished in the following
manner:――“For the first fault they shall pay the sum of forty pounds,
or else both he and she shall be imprisoned for the term of eight days,
and their food to be bread and small drink, and thereafter presented
in the market-place of the town bareheaded, and there to stand fastened
that they may not remove for the space of two hours, from ten o’clock
to twelve noon. For the second fault, when convicted, they shall pay
the sum of one hundred marks, or else sixteen days’ imprisonment on
bread and water only, and in the end to be fastened in the market-place,
and the heads of both the man and woman to be shaven; and on conviction
for the third fault they shall pay one hundred pounds, or else the
above term of imprisonment, their food to be bread and water only, and
in the end to be taken to the deepest and the foulest pool of water
in the town or parish, and there to be thrice ducked, and thereafter
to be banished from the town for ever; and thenceforward, that however
often they may be convicted for this vice, the third penalty shall
be executed upon them.” Parliament repeated this act in 1569; and it
was then enacted that incest should be punished by death. The vice
of adultery was also made punishable by death, according to the acts
of parliament. But in spite of the severity of the laws this vice
continued to be common; and as late as 1592 an act was passed which
declared that the crime of adultery was daily increasing.¹ The citizens
of Edinburgh had anticipated Parliament and the Privy Council, and it
was because a section of the people were prepared to enforce a better
social order that gave to these acts historic importance.
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., page 539;
Volume III., pages 25‒26, 213, 543; _Register of the Privy
Council_, Volume I., pages 296‒298; Volume II., pages 306,
499: Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_, Volume I., pages 13‒14,
22‒40, 78‒80, 100, 169.
In 1562, the General Assembly resolved to petition the Queen for
the punishment of all vice that the law of God commanded, which,
as yet, was not commanded by the public laws of the kingdom: Such
as blaspheming of God’s name, contempt of the Word and sacraments,
perjury, breaking of the Sunday by holding common markets on that
day, and profane talking. The clergy directed their efforts especially
to the abolition of markets on the Lord’s-day.¹ This is a point of
much interest, and well deserves to be further explained. We have seen
that the Town Council of Edinburgh passed an act, in October, 1560,
immediately after the establishment of the Reformation, ordering
that Sunday should be observed; and it may safely be assumed that the
ministers of Edinburgh had been consulted by the magistrates before
this act was passed.
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 19, 30.
The Privy Council passed an act in 1564, re-enacting the statute of
James IV., which prohibited the holding of markets on holydays, or
in churches or churchyards. But this act, like many others, had never
been observed, and the Council then enjoined that no markets should
be held on Sunday, nor in churchyards. And in July, 1569, the Regent
issued a proclamation prohibiting markets on Sunday, which directed
the authorities throughout the country to seize and confiscate the
goods of those who exposed anything for sale on Sunday. The provost
and bailies of Elgin were charged by the Lords of Council, in November,
1569, to put the acts prohibiting markets on Sunday into execution. It
was further ordered that in all the free burghs common harlots should
be banished; and the provost and bailies of Elgin were imprisoned for
not executing these acts. In 1574, the magistrates of Aberdeen were
enjoined by the Lords of Council to prohibit markets on Sunday, within
the bounds of the freedom of the burgh, under the penalty of forfeiting
all the goods offered for sale on that day.¹ Parliament, in 1579,
re-affirmed the act of James IV., and added, that as markets were yet
held in the towns and in the country on Sunday, and that the people
still continued to work at their usual occupations on the Lord’s-day,
or gamed and played, and passed the day in taverns, and remained away
from the church in the time of sermon and prayers: it was therefore
anew enacted that no markets should be held on Sunday, nor in churches,
nor churchyards, on any other days, under the penalty of forfeiting
the goods exposed for sale, and the proceeds thereof to be given to the
poor of the parish. All manual labour was strictly forbidden on Sunday,
and the frequenting of ale-houses, and the selling of meat and drink,
and also all gaming and playing, under the penalty of severe fines,
which were to be applied to the relief of the poor and helpless.²
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 296, 688;
Volume II., pages 64‒65, 390.
² _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., page 138.
In 1574, the Town Council of Glasgow ordered that every Sunday one of
the bailies, with an officer and some other honest men, should pass
through the town to visit the taverns and the flesh-market; and if
any flesh was found exposed for sale after nine o’clock, it was to be
confiscated, and given to the poor; and if the taverners offered any
contempt, they were to be punished according to the judgment of the
council. In 1576, two persons were convicted in Glasgow for selling
meal in their houses on Sunday; and the same year the council and
bailies agreed to a conditional restriction touching the taking of
salmon on Sunday. “No salmon-cobles were to be employed on the Sunday,
within the freedom of the city, by the inhabitants thereof, providing
that the whole of the cobles on the waters of the Clyde, burgh and
land, do likewise and keep the same, and otherwise not.” But in 1577,
the Town Council of Glasgow concluded that no market should be held on
Sunday, under the penalty of forfeiting all the goods exposed; yet some
persons were shortly after convicted for selling flesh on Sunday.¹ The
Town Council of Aberdeen, in 1580, ordained that the fish-market should
in future be held within the Iron-ring, and around the Fish-cross; and
that on Sunday, from the ringing of the first bell in the forenoon and
in the afternoon, until the sermon be done, there should be no market,
under the penalty of the confiscation of the fish to the poor. The
General Assemblies were always complaining that the acts of Parliament
and of the Privy Council touching the keeping of Sunday were not
enforced. In 1581, the Synod of Lothian complained before the General
Assembly that the act of parliament for prohibiting markets on Sunday
was not put into execution, that the people still continued to hold
their markets on that day, absented themselves from the church, and
remained in their ignorance, and that thus atheism was increased.²
¹ _Burgh Records of Glasgow_, pages 21, 48, 60, 63, 65, 74.
² _Burgh Records of Aberdeen_, Volume II., page 38; _Book of
the Universal Kirk_, pages 253, 284, 536.
But it is extremely difficult to change the customs of a people; and
in spite of all the efforts of the clergy and the authorities, ♦the
observance of Sunday for several generations after the Reformation was
far from universal in Scotland. In 1588 the Town Council of Aberdeen
recorded that many of the citizens stayed away from the church on
Sunday, frequented taverns and alehouses, dealt in merchandise,
and continued at their manual labour during the time of the sermon,
contrary to the order of the Reformed Church. The council then proposed
the following scale of fines to be exacted from those who absented
themselves from the preaching: “Every burgess of guild and his wife
for their remaining from the sermon on Sunday, thirteen shillings and
fourpence; and for their remaining from the sermon on the weekly days,
two shillings. Every craftsman, householder, and other inhabitants, for
remaining from the sermon on Sunday, six shillings and eightpence; and
every week-day, twelvepence. And in case any merchant or burgess of
guild be found in his shop after the ringing of the third bell on the
week-day, he must pay six shillings and eightpence.”¹ The days on which
sermons were preached in Aberdeen, besides Sunday, were the Tuesdays
and Thursdays; and down to the present time there is a service in one
of the city churches every Thursday, though sad to tell, few of the
inhabitants are even aware of it.
♦ duplicate word “the” removed
¹ _Burgh Records of Aberdeen_, Volume II., page 62; Compare
_Burgh Records of Glasgow_, page 93.
In 1590 the General Assembly found it necessary to pass an act for
restraining of markets on Sunday, the going of mills, the delivering
of loads, and the selling of flour and fruit in Edinburgh; and in 1592
parliament passed another act touching the holding of markets on Sunday.
It enacted that the markets formerly held on Sunday should be held on
any other day of the week, except the day on which the neighbouring
burgh held their market. In 1598 the town council of Aberdeen ratified
the act passed before concerning the holding of markets on Sunday in
the time of the sermon. From this it seems to follow that markets were
still held on Sunday in Aberdeen about the end of the century, though
not during the hours of worship.¹ Even as late as 1602, more than forty
years after the Reformation, the General Assembly reported that the
churches in many places were not well attended, owing to the people
continuing to labour on Sunday, especially during the harvest and
seed-time, and also by the going of the mills, and by many of the
people fishing on Sunday for white fish and salmon. The Assembly
ordered that all such labour upon the Lord’s Day should cease, under
the penalty of incurring the censures of the Church; and at the same
time the Assembly requested the King to enact some special punishment
for those who persisted in working on Sunday.² The observance of Sunday
in Scotland was not attained till after a long and vigilant struggle.
On this point the reformed clergy and the magistrates both may have
sometime been rather severe; yet it is difficult to see how they
could have reached their end otherwise. The importance of the day of
rest, even on the comparatively low ground of the physical and social
advantages resulting from it to the people themselves, is very great,
apart from the higher aims of morality and religion.
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 776, 777; _Acts of the
Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., page 548; _Burgh
Records of Aberdeen_, Volume II., page 167.
² _Book of the Universal Kirk_, page 996; _Register of the Kirk
Session of St. Andrews_, pages 309, 314, 343, 349; _et seq._
It is true that the discipline of the Reformed Church of Scotland
assumed an austere and rigid form, although on the whole it was far
more moral and vigorous than the system which it superseded; but in the
special region of feeling and emotion it was weaker than its Catholic
rival. The strongest characteristic of Roman Catholicism has always
consisted in the art of presenting to the human senses a variety
of easily comprehended objects. The immense multitude of her saints
and martyrs can be easily localised anywhere, and in the requisite
proportion to fit the capacity of her humblest votary. In the chief
church of the city or parish there may be ten, twenty, thirty, or
forty altars, each dedicated to a particular saint, as in St. Giles
at Edinburgh, where each of the different crafts of the town had their
own special saint and altar, at which they worshipped. It must be
admitted that there is something indescribably fascinating in the
feeling of having the assistance and the protection of a great saint;
and the element of selfishness in it merely raises the emotion to
a higher pitch, and enhances the value of the benefits which spring
out of the union between the saint and his devoted adherents. In this
connection everything has been very skilfully arranged for avoiding
any unnecessary strain on the imagination of the worshipper: the image
of his patron saint is pleasingly and gracefully placed before his
eyes, and he is thus relieved from all troublesome cogitation. As the
God of the universe has condescended to make the Roman Catholic Church
infallible, the true Catholic can have no religious doubts; he has
no occasion to ruffle the serenity of his mind, for his Church has
settled everything, and his simple duty is to believe what she teaches,
and he cannot be wrong. This is a primary article of faith with all
Roman Catholics. It has taken a firm hold on multitudes of the human
race, and penetrates deeply into the minds of many earnest and able
men. Hence Roman Catholicism has a stronger tendency to make men
docile and submissive than Protestantism. Those who believe that
the Church is infallible on earth and supreme in heaven, can have no
motive to venture beyond the comparatively narrow circle marked out for
them. Thus it is, that in those countries where Catholicism has most
completely maintained its sway, there has been little real progress
in the region of science, or philosophy, or the higher criticism, and
less freedom of thought, than amongst the Protestant nations. But in
the realm of the fine arts Catholicism has held her own, if she has not
always been able to maintain an unchallenged supremacy. Yet our deepest
thoughts touching God, the world, and man, cannot be successfully
handled by the figurative arts; as these thoughts are too abstract for
sensuous representation.
The discipline of the Reformed Church was brought to bear upon the
people in many ways. The process of censure which she then wielded
was a great power. The form of excommunication used in the Church of
Scotland was drawn up by John Knox, and, as finally revised, it was
adopted by the General Assembly in 1569, and ordered to be printed.
It is a treatise containing an enumeration of the crimes which deserve
excommunication, the forms to be followed, the pains and penalties
incurred, the form of repentance, and of readmission to the society
of the Church.¹ The first part treats of summary excommunication. And
under this head the following crimes are noted as deserving of such
a sentence: Wilful murder, adultery, sorcery, witchcraft, conjuring,
charming, giving of drink to destroy children, and open blasphemy
against God and his holy Word, or railing against the Sacraments. All
who committed these offences were to be excluded from the society of
Christ’s Church, that their impiety might be held in greater horror,
and that they might be the more deeply moved when they saw themselves
abhorred by the godly. Against these open malefactors the process
of summary excommunication might be applied. When the offender had
been tried by a jury, the Church was not to excommunicate him, but to
proceed by way of admonition, and to show him how precious human life
is in the sight of God, and that no one ought to shed blood, except by
the sword of the magistrate; and upon sufficient evidence of repentance
he was to be restored to the fellowship of the Church. If the offender
was fugitive from the law and his crime well known, the sentence of
excommunication was to be pronounced without delay.² There were forms
also for the readmission of penitents. After confessing their sin
and admitting that Satan had for a time gotten the victory over them,
they had to present themselves on three Sundays before being finally
restored.³
¹ The General Assembly in 1563 requested John Knox to put
in order the form and manner of excommunication. In 1567
the Assembly appointed a committee to revise the order of
excommunication, composed by John Knox; and in 1568 the
Assembly nominated John Craig, John Willock, John Row,
Robert Pont, James Gray, William Christeson, and David
Lindsay, to revise the order of excommunication, which had
been penned by John Knox. _Book of the Universal Kirk_,
pages 37, 93, 131, 155. This treatise is printed in the
Collection of Confessions published at Edinburgh, 1722,
Volume II., pages 700‒752. It is also printed in the sixth
volume of Dr. Laing’s collected edition of Knox’s works,
pages 445‒470.
² As may easily be conceived, the process of summary
excommunication must have been open to grave and fatal abuse.
In 1590 the General Assembly had under consideration the
state of crime, such as murder, adultery, and incest; many
persons guilty of these evil deeds eluded the Church by
shifting from place to place, and thus continued to evade
the final sentence. The question was then asked whether
summary excommunication should be pronounced on persons
falling into such odious crimes, and it was answered in the
affirmative. But in 1595 the King proposed to the General
Assembly that summary excommunication should be utterly
abolished; the Assembly however did not comply with his
request, the subject was postponed. The point again came
before the Assembly in 1597, and without giving a final
decision, they agreed in the meantime to suspend all summary
processes of excommunication. _Book of the Universal Kirk_,
pages 779‒852, 853, 947.
³ The Church in handling those guilty of capital crimes,
proceeded with the aim of strengthening the hands of
the magistrate. See _Acts of General Assembly.――Book of
the Universal Kirk_, pages 144‒145. “Those who have been
excommunicated for their offences, should present themselves
in sackcloth, bareheaded and barefooted, on six preaching
days, and the last one after sermon, to be received in
their own clothes.”――_Ibid._ page 159. Touching those guilty
of heinous crimes but not excommunicated. “They should be
placed in the public place, where they may be known from
the rest of the people, bareheaded the time of the sermon;
and the minister must remember them in his prayer after the
sermon: after going through this, they had to appear before
the Assembly bareheaded and barefooted in linen clothes, and
humbly to request the Assembly to restore them to the bosom
of the Church.” _Ibid._, pages 176‒177, 283, 284, 309, 358,
583, 748, _et seq._
One class of offences came under the punishment of what was called
public repentance, such as fornication, drunkenness, swearing, breaking
the Sabbath, and common contempt of the order of the Church. Lesser
offences, as vain words and uncomely gestures, were visited with
admonition.
The form of excommunication and the rules of the process for the case
of the absolutely obstinate sinner who resisted all admonition were
minutely laid down. The final words of the sentence ran thus: “And at
the command of this congregation, cut off, seclude, and excommunicate
this man from the body and from our society, as a person slanderous,
proud, a contemner, and a member at present altogether corrupt and
pernicious to the body. And this his sin by virtue of our authority
we bind and pronounce it to be bound in heaven and in earth. We
further give him over into the hands and the power of the devil to the
destruction of his flesh.” Every one who associated with or sheltered
an excommunicated person rendered himself liable to a similar sentence.
The last part of this remarkable treatise laid down the mode of
procedure for receiving the excommunicated person again into the
fold of the faithful. The civil penalties attached to the sentence
of excommunication was enough to make it a terrible punishment. No
other punishment at all approaches that which deprives a man of all
intercourse with his fellowmen; and probably if a human being were
certain that no other person in the world sympathised with him, and
that he was abandoned and abhorred by all men and driven from their
presence, he could not live. Even the most degraded individuals
need the sympathy of their fellows. Among the criminal class this is
the case; the most hardened criminal feels that he has at least the
sympathy of his companions and confederates. A criminal who has often
eluded the hand of justice and defied the laws of his country, is
regarded as a hero among his own class. Though he has been convicted
often and has suffered many years of imprisonment, he is still looked
upon by them as a distinguished character, and is conscious that he
has their sympathy. But the man who was excommunicated in the sixteenth
century was probably placed in a much more harrowing position than the
worst criminal of the present day.
Fasting in the Reformed Church of Scotland was a mode of discipline
which was often resorted to; and there was a treatise on the subject
composed by Knox and Craig, in 1565, by the authority of the General
Assembly, which reduced this exercise to a regular form.¹ When the
General Assembly of 1565 proposed to hold a fast, the order and form to
be observed was drawn up and printed. This form was afterwards followed,
and a brief notice of the occasions on which, according to a statement
afterwards added to it, it was deemed necessary to hold a national fast,
will give a vivid impression of the ideas and sentiments of the clergy
and of the state of society.
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages, 279, 578‒581, 590; 74.
The treatise on fasting is printed in the _Collection of
Confessions_, published in Edinburgh in 1722, Volume II.,
pages 642‒700; and in the sixth volume of Laing’s edition
of Knox’s _Works_, pages 391‒429.
In 1572 the Assembly resolved that there should be a public humiliation
among all who feared God and professed the true religion, with prayers
and fasting throughout the kingdom, to begin on the 23rd of November,
and to be continued to the last day of the month, “with the intent
that the notorious offenders and open slanderers of the Church may be
brought to amend their lives, or else to be excluded from the society
of the faithful.” It was deemed necessary that before the fast the
superintendents and the ministers should appoint certain days and
call before them all the known offenders in their respective districts
and parishes, such as murderers and their accomplices, adulterers,
robbers of the patrimony of the Church and of other men’s possessions;
commencing with the ministers themselves and the nobility, and then to
proceed through every other class of the people, that wickedness and
heinous crimes which offend the majesty of God may be purged out of
the nation. A rigorous scrutiny was to be made of the diligence and the
life of the clergy themselves, and also of the life of the nobility,
who ought to be the chief example of the whole country.¹ The General
Assembly which met in April, 1577, having considered the great iniquity
that overflowed the whole face of the community, as it appeared by the
light and revelation of the true religion, justly to provoke and stir
up the justice of God to take judgment and vengeance on this unworthy
and unthankful nation; “observing also the many perilous storms
and the rage of persecution daily invading the true Church of Jesus
Christ; the extreme suffering of her members in France and elsewhere,
that therefore earnest recourse should be had to God by prayers, the
Assembly appointed a fast in all the congregations of the realm, to
begin on Sunday the 9th of July and to be continued to the following
Sunday.”²
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 252‒253.
² _Book of the Universal Kirk_, page 390.
The cry of the Church was that corruption pervaded all classes of the
nation, that it was therefore necessary to have recourse to fasting,
and to call upon God to avert His righteous judgment impended over
the people. Another specimen of the language commonly used to express
their ideas and sentiments as to the grounds of fasting, may suffice
to illustrate this phase of the reformed religion, as it was then
understood and practised. The General Assembly in 1581, “ordained a
general fast to be observed universally in all the kirks of the realm,
with doctrine and instruction of the people, to begin the first Sunday
of July and to be continued to the next Sunday thereafter inclusive,
using in the meantime, exercise of doctrine according to the accustomed
order; and the commissioners were instructed to call on the King and
to request him to assist therein by sending out proclamations to that
effect.” The causes of this fast are stated in the following order.
“1. Universal conspiracies of the papists and the enemies of God in all
countries against Christians, for execution of the bloodthirsty Council
of Trent. 2. The oppression and thraldom of the Kirk of God. 3. Wasting
the rents thereof without remedy. 4. Falling from the former zeal.
5. Flocking home of Jesuits and Papists. 6. Manifest bloodshed, incest,
adultery, and such horrible crimes defiling the land unpunished. 7. The
danger wherein the King’s majesty stands through evil company resorting
about him, by whom it is feared that he may be corrupted in manners
and in religion. 8. Universal oppression and contempt of the poor.”¹
About this time, the Church of Scotland stood almost alone in her bold
and unflinching opposition to the pretensions of the Church of Rome.
Through all the vehement and rude language of the Protestant clergy,
they never forgot to plead for the oppressed and the struggling poor.
¹ _Ibid._, pages 407, 409‒410, 569‒570, 730, 747. In 1596
the General Assembly drew up a list of what was called
“The common corruptions of all the Estates within the
realm.” This report gave a fearful description of the
state of society. But there is always hope of amendment and
reform for a nation that has the heart and the honesty to
acknowledge its errors and misdeeds. The clergy were not
afraid to admit and proclaim their own shortcomings, and it
is only foolish mockery to cry peace, peace, when crime, and
injustice, and oppression, and vice, and suffering, abound
on every side. Those who wish to see this representation
of the state of society in Scotland at that period, should
consult the original document in the records of the Church,
and in other national and local documents.――_Book of the
Universal Kirk,_ pages 864‒867, 872‒875.
When a national fast was proclaimed by the Church its observance was
strictly enforced. In the General Assembly of 1580, Mr. Thomas Buchanan,
the minister of Ceres, was questioned for not causing the fast to
be observed within his bounds; “so that when the rest of the country
was humbled in fasting, there was no fasting in Fife.” His answer was
that he had done all that he could to cause the fast to be observed,
but there were instances which no one could remedy, and these he
had particularised in his report to the Assembly.¹ As we have seen,
the saints’ days, festivals, and holydays, were all discarded at the
Reformation; and although sometimes here and there the people showed a
tendency to revert to observances of them,² the sermons on two days of
the week, the occasional fast days, and the entire devotion of Sunday
to religious exercises, were amply sufficient to satisfy the spiritual
needs of the people.
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, page 451.
² _Burgh Records of Aberdeen_, Volume II., pages 25, 39, 66;
_Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 332, 334, 389; _Register
of the Privy Council_, Volume II., page 390.
But some of the old traditions and customs associated with the saints
still exhibited signs of life amid the changed forms of worship
and belief. This was strikingly manifested in connection with the
venerated wells of the early saints. The General Assembly, in 1573,
determined that the discipline of the Church should be used against
all who went on pilgrimage to wells; and it was deemed an offence
that the magistrates ought to punish. In 1580, the Church requested
the government to make a special punishment for all those who went
on pilgrimages to wells and churches, as a number of persons had
lately passed on pilgrimages to the Holy Rood of Peebles, and to other
places. The following year, the General Assembly craved that an act of
parliament should be passed against persons who go on pilgrimages, and
perform superstitious practices at wells, crosses, images, and altars,
or observe feasts on days dedicated to saints. Accordingly parliament
passed an act in 1581 forbidding pilgrimages to wells, chapels, and
crosses, the observance of any festival days, “and such other monuments
of idolatry――as making bonfires, singing of carols in and about the
churches at certain seasons of the year, and the observance of other
superstitious rites to the dishonour of God and the contempt of true
religion.” A severe fine was to be imposed upon all who broke the law
for the first time, and for the second offence the penalty of death
was to be inflicted.¹ But only two years later, a question came before
the Assembly as to how the ministers who permitted people to repair on
pilgrimages to wells close beside their own manses, without reproving,
but rather encouraging them by entertaining them with meat and drink,
should be punished? The Assembly concluded that a minister guilty
of such neglect of his obvious duty, deserved to be deprived of
his office.² In spite, however, of the acts of parliament and the
discipline of the Church, numbers of the people still continued to
visit the wells, to go on pilgrimages to certain churches, to make
bonfires, and to keep holydays.³ In fact, many of the wells were
resorted to down to the present century, and within my own recollection
there were wells supposed to possess special virtues, which were
frequently resorted to by the people.
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 280, 462, 535‒536; _Acts
of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., page 212.
² _Book of the Universal Kirk_, page 638.
³ _Ibid._, pages 720‒721, 874, 1055, 1120.
The relation of the sexes at the time of the Reformation was in an
extremely unsatisfactory state. In the preceding volume of this work,
it was shown that the institution of marriage had passed through
various modifications, and that though the Roman Catholic Church had
often attempted to make it a public and solemn act, she had only partly
succeeded in overcoming the loose habits of the people.¹ In this volume
it has already been indicated that the principle of celibacy imposed
upon the Roman priesthood and the religious orders had the effect of
lowering, instead of elevating, the feelings and sentiments naturally
associated with the institution of marriage. The obvious fact could
hardly fail to strike the mind that, if marriage is a good and lawful
connection instituted for the continuance and comfort of the race, the
consequent inconsistency of prohibiting any class or profession from
entering into it becomes palpable; for what is absolutely necessary
to the continuance of the race, and calculated to increase the sum
of human happiness, cannot be denied to any class of men without
introducing a most invidious, immoral, and warping distinction. The
principle of moral consistency is utterly shocked by the rules of a
celibate priesthood, as if this pretension of unhuman purity exalted
them above their fellow-men, and prepared and enabled them to become
qualified instructors of mankind; as if the natural sentiments which
cluster round the domestic hearth must be eradicated from their breasts;
and that when thus shorn and dwarfed, they are better able to feel
and understand what is needful for the well-being of humanity. First
extinguish the strongest and most essential sentiments of the human
heart, and then you have a priesthood admirably fitted to maintain
their position as the enemies of all progress, of all liberty, of all
freedom of thought; a priesthood that for ever struggles to uphold a
belief in traditions and legends, in signs and wonders, and enfolds
their adherents in a mesh of puerilities and absurdities well suited
to the spirit of the Dark Ages.
¹ Mackintosh’s _History of Civilisation in Scotland_, Volume
I., pages 153‒156, 244, 428.
The first General Assembly of the Reformed Church agreed to adopt the
law of Moses, touching the degrees of blood relations in marriage. By
it first cousins were allowed to marry with each other, and all remoter
degrees, but in the direct line of descent marriage is forbidden
throughout; this became law by act of parliament in 1567. It was
found, however, to be difficult to bring the people under restraint
in the relation of the different sexes; as men and women had a custom
of cohabiting after promising to marry, without publicly solemnising
their marriage. The Church was forced to take severe measures against
defaulters of this character, and the reformed discipline was sternly
applied. It was enacted by the General Assembly that those who wished
to be married must give in banns to their parish minister and be
proclaimed on three successive Sundays. In 1579 it was stated in the
General Assembly that some of the ministers would solemnise marriage
only on Sunday, while others married people upon week-days, which
had raised much slander; and the Assembly was called upon to give a
decisive answer on the point. The answer of the Assembly was, that
when parties had been thrice proclaimed they might be married on any
day of the week if a sufficient number of witnesses were present.¹ But
some persons were still married without proclamation of banns, and the
General Assembly of 1597 resolved that none should be joined together
in marriage, unless thrice proclaimed in their own parish church,
according to the custom observed in Scotland; and that any minister who
contravened this rule should be deprived of his office, and the other
parties ordained to satisfy the Church by public repentance.²
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., page 26;
_Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 5, 30, 32, 66, 72, 73,
114, 440‒441.
² _Book of the Universal Kirk_, page 939.
It was not necessary that marriage should be celebrated by a clergyman,
and though it was the law of the Church that banns should be proclaimed,
the consent of the parties might be declared simply before witnesses.
Even when no formal consent appeared, marriage was presumed from
cohabitation, if the parties were reputed to be husband and wife.
Before the civil courts of Scotland evidence of this description was
often held to prove marriage.¹ When marriage was solemnised according
to the order of the Church, it was called regular, when otherwise,
clandestine, which, however, was held to be valid, though penalties
were sometimes annexed to it.
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II.; Erskine’s
_Principles of the Law of Scotland_, page 66; 1802. The
complete system of registration, established about forty
years ago, will ultimately supersede the necessity of having
recourse to such evidence touching marriages.
In connection with marriage some curious points were occasionally
brought before the General Assembly. In 1575 this question was asked:
“Whether the contract of marriage which used to be made before the
proclamation of banns between the man and the woman should be made by
words of the present time. The man saying to the woman, I take thee
to be my wife, and the woman saying to the man, I take thee to be my
husband; or should there be no promise made till the very time of the
solemnisation of the marriage. Answer――Parties to be married should
come before the session and give in their names, that their banns
may be proclaimed, and no further ceremony used.” Again, it was asked
what should be done in the following case: “A man and a woman in the
presence of some of the parishioners were married in the parish church,
or hand-fast by the reader, and thereafter mutually cohabited together
at bed and board as married people, and were so reputed and holden. The
minister of the same church, at the woman’s desire, a good space after,
leads a form of divorce between them in this manner: he calls the woman
before him, and caused her to swear that her husband never had any
sexual intercourse with her, and thereupon, without further questions
at the man, decerns them separated and divorced from each other, the
man always dissenting and still claiming her as his wife. Whether is
this form of divorce allowable in a Reformed Church that has received
the Gospel, and if it be not, what correction does the minister deserve
who usurped and used this manner of process and judgment?” The Assembly
answered: “That this divorce was not lawful, and that the minister
should be suspended and make public repentance.” Once more: “A certain
man with his accomplices ravished and took away a woman, and thereafter
married her without proclamation of banns, but did not solemnise the
marriage in the face of the Church, but in a private house. Whether
is this marriage lawful, or are children begotten therein legitimate
or not? and what punishment should the minister receive who so abused
marriage?” The Assembly answered that the minister should be deposed.¹
In 1579 it was asked in the General Assembly: “What order should be
taken with the persons who went to a popish priest to be married, and
their banns not being proclaimed, should they be esteemed as married
persons, and if not, what discipline should be used against them?” It
was answered: “This connection is no marriage, and therefore ordains
the persons to be called before the particular assemblies, and to make
satisfaction as fornicators; and upon a new proclamation to be married
according to the order of the Reformed Church, and the papist priest to
be punished.”²
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 143, 144, 345.
² _Ibid._, page 441. In the Register of the Kirk Session of
St. Andrews, which covers the period from 1559 to 1600,
there is great collection of interesting information on the
social state of the people; the Register was issued by the
Scottish History Society in 1889‒90.
The question, at what age the young should be allowed to marry, came
before the General Assembly in 1600. It was then stated that great
inconveniences had arisen from the untimeous marriages of young persons
before they were of age meet for entering into this union. As yet there
was no statute of the Church defining the age at which persons might
marry; but it was then enacted that henceforth no minister should join
in matrimony any persons, except the male be fourteen years of age,
and the female at the least twelve years: the Assembly directed their
commissioners to request parliament to ratify this act.¹ When the
Church was making an act on this important social point, she might have
shown a little more wisdom, and not given her sanction to the marriage
of persons at this early age. In justice to the Church, however,
it must be mentioned that there was still an heirship of feudalism
involved in the marriage of a certain class of individuals. This was
a pecuniary casualty due to the superior from the heir of his former
vassal, after the age of fourteen if a male, and if a female twelve;
and thus there was an engrossing interest attached to the marriage of
a portion of the landed class while they were minors, and under the
control of their superiors. This marriage casualty arose from the right
which the superior had over the person, as well as over the estates of
the minor heir; and it was chiefly restricted to ward holdings, except
where a special clause in the charter imported it. It was the privilege
of the superior to dispose of the heir in marriage, and to take the
marriage portion to himself; but if the minor heir refused the offered
match, and named another, then he was not entitled to the possession of
his lands after the ward terminated, till the superior was refunded the
double of the value of the portion which would have accrued to him from
the offered marriage. Seeing, however, that no man nor woman could be
forced to marry, it was the interest of the superior to have the power
of arranging this important affair, while the heir or heiress was very
young; and so an extremely complicated mode of attaining this end was
gradually introduced into the law of the kingdom.² Cases arising out of
these peculiar rights of the superior, in connection with the marriage
of his vassals, frequently came before the courts;³ and under various
modifications these invidious privileges continued till 1748, when they
were finally abolished.
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, page 953. Erskine says, “But
by our law, children may enter into marriage without the
knowledge, and even against the remonstrances, of a father.”
――_Principles of the Law of Scotland_, page 66.
² _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II.; Volume III.
³ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 311, 324,
326; Volume II., pages 470‒472, 447, 693; Volume III., pages
250, 312, 318, 547, 667, 687; Volume IV., pages 222, 418,
422, 712; also Volumes V. and VI.
Regarding divorce, the doctrine of the Reformed Church was clear and
emphatic. She insisted that marriage could only be dissolved either on
the ground of adultery, or wilful desertion; and for obvious reasons
she endeavoured to make divorce difficult. The Church firmly maintained
that divorced persons should not be permitted to marry their paramours;
and at her request, Parliament passed an Act in 1600 prohibiting such
unions.¹ There are two sides to this social question, and at that time
there was ample justification for the Act.
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 19, 31, 146, 148,
197, 262, 269, 306, 333, 377, 524, 539, 953; _Acts of the
Parliaments of Scotland_, Volumes III., IV.; _Register of
the Privy Council_, Volume II., page 7.
Some account has already been given of the measures taken for the
relief of the poor in the period preceding the Reformation. From the
first, the Reformed Church endeavoured to make provision for the really
indigent poor, and also to relieve the labourers of the ground and
the oppressed tenants, from some of their burdens. The first General
Assembly resolved to petition the government to make better laws for
the protection of pupils and orphans. In 1565, the Assembly took into
consideration what should be done to those who oppressed children,
and it was resolved in 1568, that oppressors of children, should
be admonished by the Church to make public repentance in sackcloth,
bareheaded and barefooted, as often as the particular congregation
shall appoint.¹ The following year, the General Assembly petitioned the
government to make provision for the poor, suggesting that a portion of
the tithes should be applied to that purpose, and requesting that the
poor labourers of the ground should have intromission to take their own
tithes upon a reasonable composition. It is quite evident that after
the nobles obtained possession of the Church lands, they then oppressed
the tenants by exacting tithes, rents, and other dues, so that for a
considerable time the occupiers of these lands were much harder pressed
than before the Reformation. The reformed clergy in many ways exerted
themselves to improve the material well-being of the people, as well
as their moral and social state: and there is ample evidence of this
throughout the records of the period.²
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 6, 75, 125.
² _Ibid._, pages 146, 306, 353, 339, 417, 425, 603. In 1587,
the General Assembly petitioned the King: “That order should
be taken with the poor, who in such multitudes wandered up
and down the country without law or religion.” _Ibid._, page
715. The next year, the Assembly made a proposal that every
minister should endeavour to deal with this moving mass of
poor within his own parish. _Ibid._, page 731. Concerning
the tenants and labourers of the ground, the Assemblies
made repeated appeals to the Government to take measures to
relieve them, pages 22, 40, 49, 60, 108, 507, 511.
Collections were made in the churches every Sunday for the poor; other
sources of revenue that should have fallen to them, had been diverted
by the Revolution into other channels. The government in 1574 ordered
the provost and magistrates of Aberdeen to remove the organs out of
their churches, and dispose of them, and to give the proceeds to the
poor. They were ordered to sell the Gray Friars’ church and grounds
to the highest bidder, except what was required for lodging the poor,
and all the proceeds of the sale to be applied to sustain the poor. At
the same time the Town Council of Aberdeen came under an obligation to
build an hospital for the poor and impotent, and to put the croft and
the mire and the house belonging to the leper folk, which lies between
Old and New Aberdeen, into proper repair, for the support of the leper
men and women, as was originally intended. The community of the city
the same year resolved that alms should be collected weekly by one of
the elders of the Church, and delivered to the keeping of the minister,
to be distributed among the poor every month, according to the
discretion of the session. Beggars not born in the town were ordered
to be removed, and the poor citizens were directed to wear the town’s
token on their outer garments that they might be known.¹ The Lords
of Council passed an act in 1575 for the punishment of sturdy and
idle beggars, and for providing support for the poor and helpless. In
1578 there was a great dearth in Scotland, and the Lords of Council
discharged the customs on victuals imported, in order to mitigate the
suffering of the poor.²
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume II., pages 391‒393,
402; _Burgh Records of Aberdeen_, Volume II., pages 20, 21.
² _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume II., pages 435, 680.
One difficulty of dealing with the poor arose from the defective police
organisation. There was no adequate means for handling the multitude of
strong beggars, “such as make themselves fools and bards,” gipsies, and
a host of other vagabonds, who moved about and continually multiplied.
It was difficult to separate these from the really deserving poor, and
this long hampered the laws relating to the latter class. The city of
Aberdeen had an official whose duty it was to keep the town free from
extraneous beggars “not born and bred within the burgh.” In 1577 the
council agreed to give him forty shillings to buy a garment to himself,
on which the town’s arms was to be put, and then remitted “him to the
session, to be helped and aided by them also, as his office concerns
for the most part the ecclesiastical jurisdiction.”¹ When mixed notions
of this kind prevailed regarding the jurisdiction of the civil and
ecclesiastical spheres of action, we can easily see how the beggars
would succeed. In 1574 Parliament passed an Act re-enacting the former
Acts against beggars and all idle persons between the age of fourteen
and seventy, and proposed to inflict severe penalties upon them.
This Act also provided for the support of the poor, the aged, and the
helpless, and it may be considered the first Poor-law Act of Scotland.
It was repeated in 1579, and again, with some additions, in 1592, and
once more in 1597. But the beggars and vagabonds still increased.²
The centuries of feudal anarchy had entailed a legacy of vagrancy
which the Government and the Church endeavoured to suppress. Years
and generations passed, yet all the influences of religion and the
restraints of the law appeared equally powerless to remove the idle
and the ruffian population who preyed upon the industrious inhabitants
of the kingdom. A long train of circumstances had concurred to feed
the natural inclination to idleness and wandering among the people.
A large portion of mankind have always manifested a similar tendency.
But notwithstanding all the anarchy and the wretchedness of the nation,
there was a core of vigour and health; and the moral discipline which
the Church was so earnestly inculcating soon began to take root in the
heart of the people.
¹ _Burgh Records of Aberdeen_, Volume II., page 29.
² _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., pages
86‒89, 139, 579; Volume IV.
The subject now to be noticed is one of melancholy interest, for the
sad aberration of the faculties of the human mind which it manifested.
A belief in magic, sorcery, witchcraft, and necromancy is a phenomenon
which has afflicted mankind from the earliest ages onward to the
present day. The forms they assumed are innumerable and endless;
but whether it originated from ignorance, and has been sustained and
continued by this; or whether something akin to it must naturally arise
from the constitution of man, and the circumstances in which he was
placed in the universe, as some eminent philosophers seem to hold; or
whether it springs up gradually from a confused consciousness, at first
tinged with an inclination, and afterwards with a deliberate intention
to impose upon and deceive the people for interested ends, is a problem
that cannot be decidedly answered.¹ The manifestation of the mind
and feeling of the human race has been so diversified and unequally
developed, that what is superstition and necromancy to one nation,
may appear to another to be the only true form of religion; while
that which another community believes and professes to be true and
holy, a different people may believe to be the very work of the enemy
himself. The beliefs of mankind, so far as they are known, have always
contained opposing and directly exclusive elements of this character,
which is mainly a result of the varied degrees of civilisation
that have prevailed throughout the world. Even the same nation, at
different periods of her life and development, may entertain the most
opposite beliefs, as we find in the history of our own country. The
difference between a believer in witchcraft and a believer in modern
spiritualism is only one of degree and development; and if witchcraft
and spiritualism are both founded upon the same class of notions, it
is the higher development of morality and intelligence which renders
the latter more harmless in the nineteenth century than the former was
in the sixteenth. Among all the forms of belief in evil spirits, that
which assumes the reality of a union between the evil spirit and a
human being for the purpose of doing injury to other people is the most
mischievous in its action on society. When men believed that the devil
was an enormously powerful being, and that he could give an almost
unlimited portion of this power to his confederates――the witches, for
working all manner of evil――we need not be surprised that the King and
the clergy were very anxious to purge the land of witches.
¹ On the rise and development of the notions of ghosts,
spirits, demons, divination, exorcism, and sorcery, there
is much valuable information in Tylor’s _Primitive Culture_,
and in the First Volume of Herbert Spencer’s _Principles of
Sociology_.
It seems to be pretty well ascertained that the belief in ghosts,
spirits, and demons, has descended from the early cult of the
prehistoric ages. One cause of the continuance of the belief in such
imaginary beings into comparatively advanced stages of civilisation,
appears to be the extreme credulity of uncultured and uncritical man,
and another is the craving for the marvellous――a notable trait even in
recent times. In the early stages of culture there seems to have been
scarcely any distinction between the facts of inspiration and the facts
of divination. The diviner employed his power for practical ends. The
medicine-man of the savage stage operated in a somewhat similar way as
an exorcist does; he invoked the aid of supernatural agents, and then
endeavoured to make the body of the patient so disagreeable that the
demon became glad to depart. In the more developed forms of exorcism,
one demon was employed to expel another, or the officiating priest
might summon a friendly spirit to his assistance. This power of the
exorcist over evil spirits, when further developed, was used for many
other purposes, and assumed the forms of sorcery and magic. The belief
in the agency of evil spirits which the human race has manifested
is a perplexing problem in the history of religion. In the earlier
forms of religion the evil spirit or god was most feared, and hence
a kind of devil worship seems to have prevailed. In the neo-platonic
philosophy――that curious mixture of subjective thought, ecstasy, and
theosophy, which flourished from the beginning of the third century to
the sixth――there was a large element of theurgy and magic, and some of
the most eminent of these philosophers were addicted to sorcery, and
professed to have received divine communications to foresee ♦the future,
and to perform miracles. The trials and executions for witchcraft in
the sixteenth century present painful evidence of the continuance of
the belief of demoniac agency. The belief in the power of the devil
as something which manifested itself in the life of men and women
was universal; the Reformation failed to shake it. The seventy-third
canon of the Church of England, enacted in 1603, prohibited the clergy
from casting out devils; in the present century the belief in demoniac
possession of the body, which continued among the lower classes of the
people in Germany in spite of the progress of civilisation, was revived
among educated Protestants; and even yet it is not quite extinct in any
nation in Europe.
♦ duplicate word “the” removed
In 1563, witchcraft was declared by Act of Parliament to be punishable
by death. Probably the sudden shaking and the suppression of the
traditions and notions of the people at the Reformation, had tended
to arouse and revive other ideas of the demoniac order. However,
witches soon became numerous after the revolution. The clergy and
the kirk-sessions were very active in searching for witches. When
these poor creatures were apprehended, they were placed in solitary
confinement, and often fearfully tortured, to extort a confession of
their guilt. They were systematically deprived of their natural rest;
they had to endure cold, hunger, and thirst; and then the branks were
applied to the unhappy victims, who were soon reduced to a fit state
for confessing what was required. Their trial followed on the emission
of one or more of the confessions thus obtained, which usually formed
the groundwork of the public accusation and prosecution for this
imaginary crime.¹
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II.; Pitcairn’s
_Criminal Trials_, Volume I., pages 38, 49‒58.
It was stated in the General Assembly of 1563, that four witches had
been delated for witchcraft by the superintendent of Fife and Galloway.
The Assembly requested the Lords of Council to take order with them,
and the complainers were commanded to give in their information. The
General Assembly, in 1573, passed an act touching those who consult
with witches, and ordered that persons suspected of conferring with
them should be called before the superintendents; and, if they were
found to have consulted witches, then they had to undergo public
repentance in sackcloth, on Sunday in the church, under the penalty
of excommunication. “If they be disobedient, to proceed after due
admonition, and excommunicate them.” The popular party in the Church
accused Bishop Adamson of consulting witches. Under the year 1583,
James Melville records that Adamson was lying sick in his castle,
“and oftentimes under the care of a woman suspected of witchcraft....
This woman being examined by the presbytery, and found to be a witch,
in their judgment, was given to the bishop to be kept in his castle
for execution, but he suffered her to slip away; but within three or
four years thereafter, she was taken, and executed in Edinburgh for a
witch.”¹
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 44, 283; Melville’s
_Diary_, page 137.
It is well known that James VI. was a firm believer in witchcraft, and
he greatly encouraged the prosecution of the wretched creatures accused
of this crime. During the last twenty years of the sixteenth century, a
considerable number of witches were tried and executed in every quarter
of the kingdom. They were accused, tried, burnt, and drowned, for doing
and attempting to do, many curious and wonderful things; but most of
the points in the accusations appear to us very ridiculous and absurd.
Making a clay picture of the individual whom the witch intended to
injure or to kill, was a very common point of the indictment. One
count of the indictment against Bessy Rory, who was tried in 1590 for
witchcraft, but acquitted, was this: “Thou art indicted for a common
awaytaker of women’s milk in the whole country, and detaining the
same at thy pleasure, as the whole country will testify.” Much of the
records of the trials for witchcraft are quite unfit for publication.
One of the most extraordinary stories in these indictments is the
account of the meeting of the witches with the devil in the church
of Berwick. The company who met his satanic majesty on this occasion
consisted of a hundred persons, of whom six were men, and the rest
women. The old enemy boldly ascended the pulpit, and delivered an
address to his servants. He inquired what they had done since their
last meeting; then, after giving them some more instructions, he
concluded by commanding them to do all the evil that they could. Before
the company separated, the witches showed their respect for their
master in an unmistakable and exceedingly becoming fashion. On this
night, the devil was respectably dressed――he wore a fine black gown
and a hat.¹
¹ Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_, Volume I., pages 76, 101,
161‒165, 186, 201‒204, 207‒213, 230‒241.
Many of the witches were accused of conspiring and attempting by their
devilry to destroy the King; and this aroused the weak-minded monarch
to greater efforts against them.
Francis Stewart, Earl Bothwell and High Admiral of Scotland, was a
son of John Stewart, prior of Coldingham, a natural son of James V.;
thus the Earl was a nephew of Queen Mary and the Regent Moray, and a
cousin of James VI. He became a powerful personage, and by his daring
exploits often threw the King into a state of extreme alarm and terror.
Politically he was wayward and reckless, and acquired a reputation for
dissipation. For a considerable time many of his offences were condoned;
but at last he was accused of trafficking with witches in a treasonable
manner, and for treasonable purposes, and on these charges he was
brought before the King and Council on the 15th of April, 1591, and
committed to prison in Edinburgh Castle to await his trial; while two
of his servants were summoned on similar charges to appear before the
King and Council on the 6th of May. Bothwell escaped from the Castle of
Edinburgh on the morning of the 21st of June; and on the 25th a royal
proclamation was issued denouncing him as a wicked traitor who had
entered into a conspiracy “against his Majesty’s own person, consulted
with necromancers and witches, both in and without this country, for
the purpose of taking his Highness’s life, which was confessed by some
of the same class already executed, and by some others yet alive, ready
to be executed for the same crime.... For which cause, and the former
treasonable offence whereof he was convicted, his Majesty now at last
has caused the doom of forfeiture to be pronounced against him, so that
he is now a declared rebel, a traitor, an enemy to God, his Majesty,
and this his native country.” Yet Bothwell was not extinguished, for,
on the night of the 27th of December, he suddenly entered Holyrood
Palace and battered at the doors of the King’s chamber, the Queen’s
chamber, and the apartments of Maitland, the Chancellor. It seems that
he intended to seize the King, to murder the Chancellor if necessary,
and thus effect such a revolution in the Government as he desired in
his own interest; but his attempt failed, though it appeared that he
was abetted by several persons in the King’s court. The hue and cry
against the bold rebel and consulter of witches was redoubled, and
proclamations against his accomplices were issued, still the daring
Bothwell, with his witchery, almost drove the King, the Chancellor,
and the Council, into utter distraction. Meantime the prosecution and
execution of the witches and the sorcerers had been proceeding. Euphame
MacCalyean, the wife of a notable Edinburgh advocate, was accused on
various charges of witchcraft. Her trial lasted from the 9th to the
13th of June, and one of the chief counts in her indictment was that
she had kept intercourse with the witches who had formed a conspiracy
for the destruction of the King. She was convicted and sentenced to
death, and the poor woman, “on her conscience, protested that she was
innocent of the crimes laid to her charge.” On the 25th of June, 1591,
the very day on which Bothwell was proclaimed a rebel, Euphame was
executed on the castle hill of Edinburgh. Barbara Napier of Edinburgh
was another reputed witch, and was also accused of treasonable
witchcraft against the King’s own person. On the 11th of May, 1591,
she was convicted, and sentenced to be strangled and burned; but, after
the stake was set in the Castlehill, and everything prepared for her
execution, some of her friends alleged that she was pregnant, whereupon
the execution was delayed. As it was considered hard to execute her
after this, her life was spared, whereat the King was much displeased.
James was enraged at the jury for acquitting her of the charge of
treasonable witchcraft against his own person, and he purposely went
to the Tolbooth of Edinburgh and delivered an oration on the subject
to enlighten the minds of jurymen and the people touching “The use of
witchcraft, and the enormity of the crime; its punishment according to
Scripture, the ignorance of thinking such matters were fantasies, the
cause of his own interference, the ignorance of the jury in the late
trial, the cause of their finding, and his own opinion of what witches
really are.” His Majesty explicated the above points at great length;
and it appears that his oratory had been effective, for on the 26th of
October the Privy Council appointed a Special Commission, consisting
of six members, viz., Cockburne, the Justice-Clerk; MacGill, the King’s
advocate; two burgesses of Edinburgh, and two Presbyterian ministers.
This Commission was empowered to deal with all persons suspected,
delated, or accused of witchcraft, sorcery, and all such devilish
devices, and to examine, imprison, and torture them, and then report
in writing the depositions to the King and his Council in order
that the witches and sorcerers might be tried by a jury and justice
executed upon them. Moreover, the King granted, and also sold, many
commissions to earls, barons, sheriffs, stewards, and to the local
authorities of burghs and towns, which empowered them to search for all
persons suspected of witchcraft within the districts included in the
commissions, to examine and torture them, put them to trial and execute
them. For many years this cruel mania against witches raged throughout
the kingdom, and was mainly instigated by the conceit and timidity of
the King.
Richard Graham, the great sorcerer of the time, who had been connected
with the alleged evil practices of Euphame MacCalyean, Barbara Napier,
Earl Bothwell, and others, was himself at last brought to trial and
condemned. He appears to have been a thorough rascal; but he adhered to
the declarations which he had emitted, that Bothwell had held magical
consultations touching the King’s death, and he also asserted that
Ex-Chancellor Arran had dealt in witchcraft. He confessed to several
raisings of the devil, especially once in the house of John Boswell
of Auchinleck, “and once in the yard of the house in the Canongate
belonging to Sir Lewis Ballenden, the late Justice-Clerk.” On the 29th
of February, 1592, Graham was strangled and burned at the Cross of
Edinburgh.
Bothwell still continued his exploits. On the night of the 28th of
June, 1592, he re-appeared with an armed company of his followers and
besieged the King and Queen in Falkland Castle, intending to carry
them off, and putting them in terror of their lives; but the people
of Fifeshire mustered and went to the rescue of the King, and on their
approach Bothwell retired, having been frustrated in his main object.
Great efforts were made to drive him out of the kingdom, yet, though
repeatedly chased, condemned and forfeited, and proclaimed a traitor
and an outlaw, under every possible form, still he was at liberty, and
supported by an unknown number of followers; and thus he was a cause of
constant anxiety to the Government and of terror to the King. Early on
the morning of the 24th of July, 1593, Bothwell was again in the Palace
of Holyrood by the connivance of the Duke of Lennox, Lord Ochiltree,
and other courtiers. The King was then forced to capitulate to his
detested archenemy; in fact, Bothwell for five or six weeks was master
of the political situation; so on the 26th of July the King granted an
act of remission and condonation of all the crimes of Bothwell and his
accomplices. This was obtained, however, under menacing circumstances,
when Bothwell and a band of his armed followers stood around the King,
who was in terror of his life. Bothwell then had such a number of
associates in Edinburgh that he offered to stand his trial to clear
himself of the charges of witchcraft against the King’s life, which
had been the chief cause of all the trouble with him. Accordingly a
jury was summoned, and on the 10th of August he was tried before it,
and unanimously acquitted of all the charges of witchcraft against the
King’s person. For a time Bothwell and his party had the King in their
hands, and his Majesty was sorely vexed at the restraint of his liberty,
and extremely perplexed as to how he could extricate himself from his
embarrassed position. On the 7th of September, a Convention of Estates
was assembled at Stirling, in which Bothwell’s party seems to have sunk
into a feeble minority. On the initiative of the King, the Convention
intimated to him that he was not in any way bound by the conditions
extorted from him at Holyrood Palace, and an Act was immediately
passed declaring “that his Majesty, with the advice of the Estates, had
recalled the grant made to Bothwell in August last.” This was intimated
to Bothwell, and shortly after he assumed a threatening attitude. On
the 11th of October he was summoned, along with two of his adherents,
to appear before the King and the Council on the 25th, under the
penalty of rebellion, and having failed to appear he was denounced;
still, he was not extinguished. On the 3rd of April, 1594, he appeared
at Leith with a body of armed followers, attacked the royal army under
the King’s own command, and forced them to retire, and nearly obtained
possession of the capital. The following year, early in April, however,
he was obliged to leave Scotland. It was reported that he had gone to
France, thence into Spain, and finally to Naples, where he died in poor
circumstances, about the year 1606.
It appears that no other man of public mark had been so much connected
with the alleged practices of witchcraft as Bothwell, or so incessant
in consultations with the noted witches and warlocks of the period, and
especially with the arch warlock Richard Graham. In the charge of high
treason on which he was arrested and imprisoned in April 1591, which
had driven him into his subsequent career of rebellion, the main count
had been that he conspired with such infernal agencies for the death of
the King, and thus to attain his own ambitious aims in the State. This
was the view that the King entertained of Bothwell’s proceedings and
exploits.
It is quite evident that the belief in witchcraft was entertained by
all classes, the parliament, the Lords of Council, and the Judges of
the Court of Session; none of them indicated any doubt of the reality
of infernal agency, nor any inkling of the absurdity of the devil
appearing in a human form, and assisting persons to accomplish all
manner of mischief.¹
¹ Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_, Volume I., pages 242‒257,
Volume II., pages 361, 397‒400. Witchcraft was a crime for
which no remission or respite was given. _Register of the
Privy Council_, Volume II., pages 198, 318; Volume IV.,
pages 392, 609, 624, 643, 666, 680, 705; _et seq._, Volume
V., pages 4‒5, 14, 72, 91‒98, 100, 137‒139, _et seq._
The Church also continued to search and hunt for witches. The General
Assembly, in 1587, had before them the case of a witch who was lying
in prison at St. Andrews; but it seems the evidence in her case was
insufficient, and James-Melville was ordered by the Assembly to travel
on the coast side and collect matter for an indictment against her.
In 1597, it was reported to the Assembly that several persons had
been convicted of witchcraft, yet the magistrates not only refused
to punish them according to the law of the country, but in contempt
set them at liberty. The Assembly then ordered that the presbyteries
should proceed in all severity with the censures of the Church against
such magistrates as liberated convicted witches. About the end of the
century a great number of witches were burnt in Aberdeen; yet it seems
the city was not free of them, as in the beginning of the year 1600
the council resolved――“That the commission purchased to the provost of
the burgh and the sheriff of the county, for holding of justice courts
on witches and sorcerers, should be prosecuted upon all persons in
this burgh and the freedom thereof, who were delated for this crime,
so that the city should be purged of such contagious enemies of the
commonweal.”¹ Indeed the local authorities and the clergy were intently
bent on reforming the nation, and with the Catholics, the Jesuits, the
troops of beggars, the poor, and the mass of crime and vice, it must
be admitted that their hands were full enough. They never wavered,
however, but steadfastly fought against everything which they deemed
an evil; and, although we must candidly confess that their ideas of
what constituted an evil or a crime were often confused and mistaken,
and that their judgments were frequently wanting in discrimination,
nevertheless, the evidence proves that they struggled manfully to
improve the social state of the people.
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 725, 938‒939; _Burgh
Records of Aberdeen_, Volume II., pages 144, 155‒6, 204‒5.
There are many books on witchcraft; but those who wish to
make a study of Scottish witchcraft will find a mass of
original information on the subject in Pitcairn’s _Criminal
Trials_, 3 volumes, in the _Old Spalding Club Miscellany_,
and in the _Records of the Proceedings of the Church Courts_;
and also in the volumes of the _Register of the Privy
Council_.
The number of trials and executions for witchcraft in Scotland was
not comparatively greater than in other European countries. Barrington
estimated that in England, during a period of two centuries, 30,000
witches were executed. Matthew Hopkins, the witch finder, by his
allegations caused the execution of one hundred persons in 1645‒47,
in the counties of Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk. In 1515, five hundred
witches were burned at Geneva in the space of three months. In 1520,
a great number were burned in France, and one sorcerer confessed to
having twelve associates; while in Lorraine, between the years 1580 and
1595, nine hundred witches and warlocks were burned; and in Bretagne
twenty poor women were executed as witches in 1654. In Germany upwards
of 100,000 were executed for witchcraft; while in Wurtemburg alone,
between the years 1627 and 1629, one hundred and fifty-seven persons
were burned.
The discipline of the Reformed Church not only aimed at the suppression
of crime and vice, but also, according to its light, endeavoured to
strike at the roots of evil. The General Assembly in 1563 passed an act
prohibiting the publication of any book either printed or written, if
it touched upon religion, till it was presented to the superintendent
of the district and approved by him and the most learned of his
brethren within his bounds; but if they could not agree on the points
raised in the book, then it should be placed before the General
Assembly for a final decision on its merits and orthodoxy. In 1568 the
Assembly found that Thomas Bassandyne had printed a book in Edinburgh,
entitled _The Fall of the Roman Church_, “naming our King supreme head
of the primitive Church,” and that he had printed a psalm book at the
end of which was a profane song called “Welcome Fortune”; and that
these books had been issued without the license of the magistrates or
the Church. The Assembly unanimously agreed to order the printer to
call in all the copies of the book which had been sold, to alter the
title and expunge the profane song, and in the future to refrain from
printing anything without the license of the supreme magistrate, and
the revision of such matters as related to religion by the committee
appointed for that purpose.¹ Though the Church was thus careful
in guarding against the spread of immoral writings, and what she
held to be erroneous doctrine, she was not an enemy to the press.
Robert Lekpreuik, the Edinburgh printer, had fallen into straitened
circumstances; and in 1569 the General Assembly, after considering his
position, and the money which he had expended on his establishment,
resolved to give him fifty pounds yearly out of the funds of the
Church. The Assembly in several other instances encouraged printers,
and petitioned the government to treat them liberally.²
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 35, 125‒126.
² _Ibid._, pages 164, 306, 462.
The Privy Council in 1574 passed an act prohibiting the printing of any
book without a license from the government. The act directed that the
authorities throughout the kingdom should proclaim to the people, that
none of them may presume to print or sell any books, ballads, rhymes or
tragedies, either in Latin or English until they were seen and examined,
and allowed by the Chancellor and other persons appointed by the King,
and at the least three of these must concur before the King’s license
could be granted for the publication. The penalty attached to the
contravention of this act was death and confiscation of goods.¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume II., page 387;
Volume III., pages 587, 549, 583; Volume IV., page 459;
Volume V., page 313; Volume VI., pages 18, 185; _Acts of
the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume IV., page 187.
In the secular affairs of life, the citizens still exhibited the same
restriction and monopoly, which was described in the tenth chapter of
the first volume. This greatly hampered the internal industry and the
trade of the country. While the wars with England and the disturbed
state of the nation before the Reformation, and the troubles which
ensued after it, were all inimical to trade and commerce. Owing to
these circumstances, industry and trade made comparatively little
progress in the sixteenth century; this period was more remarkable
for moral and religious change and transformation than for material
prosperity.
During the reigns of James V. and Queen Mary, many acts of parliament
were passed relating to the coinage of the kingdom. A great variety
of gold, silver, and copper coins were struck. In 1525 it was ordered
that a gold coin should be struck, called a crown, of the fineness of
twenty-one carats and a-half and two grains; nine of these were to be
coined out of the ounce of gold, and each to pass current for twenty
shillings. For every ounce of gold brought to the mint, the seller was
to get seven pounds, and out of every ounce of coined gold the King was
to get twenty-five shillings. In 1527 the Crown entered into a contract
with two men for coining of silver money. According to this agreement,
one hundred and seventy-six coins were to be made out of the pound of
silver, and each was to be of the value of eighteen pence Scots. The
coins of Queen Mary are numerous and present a variety of types. In
1547 the Regent and Lords of Council passed an act stating that the
pennies and half-pennies were mostly all gone out of the country; and
thus the people, but especially the poor, suffered for want of them.
The Council ordered twelve stones of silver to be coined into pennies
and half-pennies, of the fineness and weight of the old pennies;
and commanded that they should have currency throughout the kingdom.
In 1554 the Bishop of Ross was going to France in the character of
ambassador, and the Regent and Council ordered James Atcheson, the
master coiner, to receive a silver vessel and coin it into babies
to defray the ambassador’s expenses. In the end of the year 1565
directions were issued for coining the silver piece called the Mary
Rall; it was to pass for thirty shillings, and the two-thirds and
the one-third of the same to pass for twenty, and ten shillings
respectively. During the reign of Queen Mary, the intrinsic value of
the currency underwent several remarkable changes. As in 1544 the value
of a pound of silver was £9 10 shillings, in 1556, £13, and in 1565
it was raised to £18. At this time, in England the pound of silver was
worth from £2 8 shillings to £3, which pretty plainly shows that money
was scarce in Scotland.¹
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II.; _Register
of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 71, 151‒152, 154,
413; Lindsay’s _View of the Coinage of Scotland_, pages
39‒52, 141‒145; 1865.
In 1565, the Lords of Council ordered the false coins called hardheads,
brought from Flanders, to be melted, and to have no currency in the
kingdom. The same year an act was passed against the importation of
false coin; and in 1566, several persons were convicted in Aberdeen
for this offence. The following year, in May, a proclamation was issued
against importing false coins――hardheads, placks, babies, or any other
light money; and in 1568, Forbes of Monymusk and Forbes of Pitsligo,
two brothers, were cited for coining false babies.¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 325, 335,
468, 510, 642‒643. “Owing to the constant exporting of good
coin and the importing of bad, the circulating medium of the
country was in a wretched state. There seems to have been a
regular system of coining base placks and lions (otherwise
called hardheads) in the Low Countries, to be introduced by
merchants into Scotland.”――Chambers’s _Domestic Annals_,
Volume I., page 102.
Many acts touching the coinage were passed in the reign of James VI.
In 1567, the regent and council passed an act ordering the coinage
of a silver piece, to be called the James Rall, of the weight of an
ounce troy, and to pass for thirty shillings in Scotland, two-parts of
the same for twenty shillings, and the third-part for ten shillings.
This year, in December, the parliament passed an act dealing with
the coinage, and with false and clipped coins. It was stated that the
King with the consent of the Regent, may coin gold and silver pieces
of the same fineness as that of other countries, and that no gold or
silver coin should be melted. The Lords of Council, in 1572, stated
that parliament had authorised a new silver coin to be sent out, “for
payment and support of the charges of this present civil and intestine
war, raised against his highness’ authority by certain declared
traitors, rebels, and conspirators, who, after the murder of the King’s
dearest father, and of his uncle the Regent of this realm, have never
ceased to resist his highness’ authority and to seek his own life, and,
as far as in them lies, to pull his royal crown off his head.” This
money was coined in whole and in half-pieces――the first to be called
the half mark, and to pass for six shillings and eightpence; the second
to be called the forty-penny piece, and to pass for three shillings
and fourpence. The council ordered that the new coinage should be made
known to the people by proclamation: “And to command and charge them
to receive the said money in thankful and ready payment, and no one
may presume to refuse the same upon any pretence whatever, under the
penalty of treason; certifying to those that fail, that they shall be
condemned to death with all rigour as an example to others.”¹ This act
gives some indication of the difficulties connected with the currency,
which mainly arose from the scarcity of specie, and the confused ideas
of what constituted wealth; as yet there was no paper currency to
make up the deficiency. Only three months after the issue of these two
pieces of money, the Council had to proclaim that it was counterfeited
by some persons to the great injury of the people.² It may be inferred
that the motive for counterfeiting these coins so quickly arose from
their being further debased than the money before in circulation. In
the copper coinage, as well as in the gold and silver, there seems to
have been much counterfeiting practised.³ During the later half of the
century numerous acts were passed prohibiting the exportation of gold
and silver; and injunctions were issued for bringing all the gold and
silver to the master coiner, who was to pay the ordinary price for it.⁴
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., page 556; Volume
II., pages 135‒136.
² _Ibid._, Volume II., page 160.
³ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III.
⁴ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 212‒213,
330; Volume II., pages 410, 554, 615‒616; _Acts of the
Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., page 216.
In 1579 parliament enacted that there should be a piece of gold coined
of twenty-one carats, containing ten in the ounce, to be called the
Scottish crown, and to pass for forty shillings. At the same time it
was proclaimed that the ounce of the finest gold was to be bought for
twenty-one pounds of the money of the realm, and the price of all other
gold to be according to its fineness. A silver piece was to be coined
of the fineness of eleven deniers, in whole and in half pieces――the
first to pass for twenty-six shillings and eightpence, and to be called
the two-mark coin; and the half piece to pass for thirteen shillings
and fourpence, and to be called the half-mark. The price to be given
for the finest silver was thirty-six shillings the ounce, and for
other silver in proportion to its quality. But in 1580, parliament
ordered that all the money in the kingdom, except the stamped placks
and pennies, should be reformed and reduced to the fineness of eleven
deniers, and a new gold coin was also ordered to be struck. The next
year, the King and parliament thought that the last silver coinage had
been fixed at too high a value, and this had caused great injury to
the people, and had also been the occasion of a dearth and many other
inconveniences. The new act, therefore, directed that the last coinage,
which extended to two hundred and eleven stones and ten pounds of
silver, should be brought in again to be recoined into ten shilling
pieces, containing four in the ounce. In 1584, parliament passed
another act, reciting that the gold of the kingdom had been continually
exported, and that of other countries introduced to the loss and injury
of the people; and it was then ordered that two pieces of gold, of
the fineness of twenty-one carats and a-half, should be coined――the
one of six coins to the ounce, each to pass for three pounds fifteen
shillings; and the other nine to the ounce, and to pass for fifty
shillings. In 1597, it was stated in an act of parliament that the
current money of the kingdom was scarce, and that gold and silver
had risen to exorbitant prices owing to the liberty which all persons
took of raising the price of money at their pleasure, far above the
value prescribed by the laws and acts of parliament. Through this,
and constant exporting of the money, great confusion had been caused;
and it was then enacted that parties transgressing the laws would be
severely punished. The scarcity of money is very apparent from the
high value which the laws set upon it. The ounce of foreign gold of
twenty-two carats was twenty-eight pounds sixteen shillings, Scots
money, in 1598; and in 1601, the price given at the mint for gold was
thirty-three pounds the ounce; at the same time the ounce of silver
was about forty-eight shillings, Scotch money.¹ In 1587, parliament
passed an act limiting the rate of interest on money and on grain to
ten per cent.
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., pages
150, 191, 310, 311; Volume IV., 134‒135. Lindsay’s _View of
the Coinage of Scotland_, pages 53‒59, 145‒151.
At the time of the union of the crowns the relative value of English
and Scotch money was as twelve to one; the gold pieces which passed in
England for twenty-one shillings each, in Scotland passed for twelve
pounds.
Some early attempts at mining were noticed in the preceding volume. In
the reign of James IV., the gold mines of Crawfurd Moor were discovered;
and in the years 1511, 1512, and 1513, many payments were made by the
crown to Sir James Pettigrew for working these gold mines. Payments
were also made to Sebald Northberge, the master finer, Andrew Ireland,
finer, and Gerard Essemer, the melter; and in 1513 the Abbot of
Tungland received payment from the King to visit the mines of Crawfurd
Moor. These mines engaged the attention of the government in 1515. In
1524 a court was ordered to be held at Edinburgh to deal with those who
had broken the order of the mine, and conveyed gold out of the kingdom;
and the gold of the mine was then ordered to be coined in the coining
house. The Albany medal of 1524 was made from gold found in Crawfurd
Moor; and it seems that some of the gold coinage of James V. was minted
of native metal. In 1526 a lease was granted to a party of Germans
and Dutchmen of all the mines of gold, silver, and other metals for
a term of forty-three years; and in the following year a contract was
made with them to coin certain gold and silver money for ten years,
but it appears that the enterprise was not successful as the foreigners
departed homeward in 1531. In 1535 a Commission was appointed to
inquire into the working of the mines, and in 1539 miners from Lorraine
were brought to Scotland to work the mines. They were placed under the
management of John Mossman, a goldsmith, and a considerable quantity
of gold seems to have been found by them; and shortly after forty-one
ounces of native gold were used in making a crown for James V., and
thirty-five ounces for a crown to his Queen, while seventeen ounces
were added to the King’s great chain, and nineteen and a half ounces
for making a belt to the Queen; a quantity was also used for the
coinage of gold bonnet pieces and other purposes. During the minority
of Queen Mary little was done in gold mining. In 1565 the Privy Council
granted a licence to John Stewart of Tarlair, and his son William, to
search for all kinds of minerals, and to work the mines of gold and
silver and other metal between the Tay and Orkney, on the condition
that they should pay to the government one stone of metal out of every
ten which they found. They were also authorised to work all the gold
and silver mines throughout the country, on the condition that they
brought all the gold and silver to the coining-house; for every ounce
of gold they were to receive ten pounds, and for each ounce of silver
twenty-four shillings. If in the course of their explorations they
discovered coal haughs, not within ten miles of any royal residence,
then they should be free to work them, and only pay the tenth penny of
the proceeds to the Crown. Their licence was to endure for nine years.
In March, 1568, the Regent Moray granted a licence to Cornelius Vois, a
Dutchman, to work the gold and silver mines for nineteen years in every
quarter of the kingdom, and he undertook to pay to the Crown for every
hundred ounces of gold and silver which was found, purified by washing,
eight ounces, and if purified by fire, four ounces; while there were
other alternative arrangements. Cornelius was allowed to employ as many
of the Scots as he pleased, but not more than twenty foreigners. He
had, as one of his partners, Nicolas Hilliard, the noted medallist, and
also the Earl of Morton, who had ten shares, and some of the Scottish
merchants.
In 1576 Abraham Paterson and his partners obtained a licence to work
all the gold, silver, lead, and copper mines in Scotland, excepting
the lead mines of Glengonar and Orkney, which were then worked by
George Douglas of Parkhead, and Adam Fullerton, a burgess of Edinburgh.
Lengthy and very minute stipulations occur in this licence; he was to
pay six ounces out of every hundred of gold or silver to the Crown,
and the licence was to continue for twelve years. In 1583 a general
grant of all the mines and minerals in the country for twenty-one
years was given to Eustachius Roche, mediciner. He was authorised to
search anywhere for minerals, and to use timber, coals, and peats from
the royal territories on the condition of paying seven ounces out of
every hundred of gold found, and of all the other metals ten ounces
out of every hundred, and all the rest of the gold and silver was
to be brought to the coining-house at the price of twenty-two pounds
Scots per ounce of fine gold, and forty shillings per ounce for fine
silver. All other persons were prohibited from working minerals unless
authorised by Roche. Further privileges were granted to him by contract,
which was ratified by Parliament in August, 1584; but certain mines
which belonged to the Earl of Arran were exempted from the scope of
Roche’s lease; afterwards Roche obtained a separate lease of Arran’s
mines, but when Roche attempted to transport the lead, in 1585,
which had been got in the mines of Glengonar and Wanlock (on Arran’s
territory) it was arrested in Leith by the Treasurer, although, on
appeal to the Privy Council, the claim was abandoned and the lead
permitted to be transported on payment of the royal duty according to
the contract.
George Douglas of Parkhead, mentioned above, had obtained a grant of
the mines in the Leadhills district in 1576, but he was forfeited in
1581, and fled to England. On the turn of the political wheel, however,
he was restored in 1585, and in 1592 he was permitted to work the mines
of Waterhead, “otherwise called Over-Glengonar,” on the condition of
paying fifty ounces of fine silver out of every thousand stone of lead
ore. He was allowed to sell one thousand stone weight of the ore for
the advancement of the work. The following year the master of the
metals complained to the Privy Council that Douglas had worked much
more ore than his licence permitted, and so he was summoned to pay the
whole duty due from the commencement of his lease. This resulted in an
agreement between Douglas and Thomas Foullis, a goldsmith and burgess
of Edinburgh, by which all the rights of Douglas in connection with the
mines were transferred to Foullis for an annual rent of five hundred
merks. Foullis then obtained an Act of the Privy Council, confirmed by
Parliament, granting to him all the minerals and metals in the lands
of the Friar’s Moor, in the sheriffdom of Lanark, for twenty-one years,
at a yearly rent of one thousand merks; but he ceased to search for the
precious metals on any extensive scale, and directed his attention to
develop the lead mines.¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 232, 330,
612‒614; Volume II., pages 506‒514; also Volumes III. and
IV.; _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II.;
_Early Records Relating to Mining in Scotland_, by R. W.
Cochran-Patrick, 1878.
A long Act of Parliament touching the mines was passed in 1592. This
Act explicitly stated that all mines belonged to the Crown, and that in
the past these mines had not been made so profitable as they might have
been, owing mainly to there not having been a specially qualified man
appointed to look after the whole work connected with them. Therefore,
it was enacted that henceforth there should be an officer appointed by
the Government to oversee the whole matter of the metals and minerals,
who should be called the Master of the Metals, with full powers
touching the management and working of the mines. The Act appointed
Mr. John Lindsay, a brother of Sir David Lindsay of Edzell, Master of
the Metals for life. One clause of the Act stated that the King, if
he thought fit, with the advice of the Treasurer and the Master of the
Metals, for a reasonable composition, might let in feu to every earl,
baron, or other freeholder in the kingdom, all mines of gold, silver,
copper, lead, or other metals and minerals “which is or may be found
in their own lands, giving to them power to seek and to work such
mines on the condition of paying the Crown one-tenth part of the whole
metals found.” It appears that Roche had not been very successful in
his mining operations, and it was resolved to reduce his contract.
Accordingly he was charged with having neither worked the mines in
operation before the date of his contract, nor those which he had
discovered himself, that he had also neglected to pay the duty owing
to the Crown, and he was ordered to appear before the Privy Council to
answer these charges, and at the same time to produce all his papers
and titles. Roche appeared and answered the charges against him, but
the contract with him was reduced, and his connection with the mines
then ceased.¹
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., page 556;
Balcarres’ _Papers_; _Lives of the Lindsays_, Volume II.
There is little mention of iron mining till a comparatively late period,
but coal was a common article of commerce in ♦1425. In 1542 the annual
value of the coal haughs of Wallyfurd and Preston, which belonged to
the Crown, was 1100 merks. Coal was worked at Culross in 1572, and in
1584, Lord Sinclair had a coal pit at Dysart. In 1592 Parliament passed
an Act relating to the working of coal, which enacted that any person
who wilfully set fire to coal haughs, from motives of revenge and spite,
should incur the penalty of treason, if found guilty of this crime.
In 1600 it was enacted, that as the King’s coal haughs could not be
worked within the bounds of his annexed territories unless at great
expense; in consequence of this his Majesty neither received coal for
the royalty, nor any profit, it was therefore resolved to separate them
from the Crown lands and let them in feu.¹
♦ date uncertain; probably “1525”
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., pages 10,
424; Volume IV., page 229.
In the sixteenth century there was not much commerce between England
and Scotland. The Low Countries, France, and the Baltic kingdoms, were
the places where the Scots mostly traded. During the war between the
two countries in the reign of Henry VIII., within a very short time,
the English took twenty-eight trading ships from the Scots. In 1545
the treaty between the Emperor and Scotland touching the commerce of
the Scots with Flanders was renewed; thus the Flemings were exempted
from attacks of the Scottish ships commissioned for warfare. But
difficulties arose between this country and Flanders, and several
Scottish ships were detained there. It was stated in 1550 that “when
our ships came to Flanders as to our friends for traffic of merchandise,
after they had been well received, and were ready to depart, the whole
fleet of fourteen ships, richly laden with Flemish wares, were taken,
held, and disposed of, and the merchants imprisoned by the Emperor’s
subjects.” The same year the Lords of Council had to interfere to
protect the Scots from the ships of Holland and the Lowlands of
Flanders, the subjects of the Emperor; they were daily committing
enormities upon the Scots within the Firths and other places. As many
of the Scottish war ships as could be put into a seaworthy state,
were commissioned and instructed to proceed against them; they were
commanded to take, and chase these pirates off the coasts and out
of the waters of Scotland. But they were specially restricted from
interfering with the ships of England, France, Denmark, Sweden, and
Hamburg. It seems however that trade was not long interrupted between
Scotland and Flanders. In 1552 the Lords of Council passed an act
complaining that the flesh of the country was barrelled, packed, sold,
and sent out of the kingdom to other countries, and especially to
Flanders, which had caused a great dearth of meat at home whereby the
people had been much hurt; and its exportation was therefore prohibited
under the penalty of confiscation and death.¹ New regulations
were passed by the Council in 1565 for the guidance of the Scotch
Conservator in Flanders; these were very minute and bear upon the
merchants as well as the Conservator, touching the hours of business
and such matters as the following: “That no merchant when he has bought
his goods should bring them home himself, but should employ others to
carry his gear to his lodgings or his cellar like a merchant, under
a fine of five shillings. That no merchant who buys his meat in the
market should truss it home upon his sleeve or on the point of his
knife, under the same fine. That no one should deal in merchandise
unless he be honestly able like a merchant; and if he be not well
dressed the Conservator should warn him to clothe himself better, and
if he fail to do that, then the Conservator should take as much of his
goods as will clothe him properly withal.”²
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 18, 40, 41,
92, 104, 127; Macpherson’s _Annals of Commerce_, Volume II.,
page 93.
² _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 332‒334.
Even in the latter part of the sixteenth century the foreign trade of
Scotland was comparatively small. The exports were comprised within
very narrow limits, but the imports were more varied. There were some
very curious regulations imposed in connection with the exports, which
strikingly brings before us the state of society and the character
of the times. It was noticed that there were acts prohibiting the
exportation of gold and silver; and there were other things which
were allowed to be exported under limitations one year, while the
next they were absolutely prohibited. A considerable quantity of salt
was produced at the various salt works throughout the country, but
the export of salt was only permitted under certain contingencies. The
Council in 1573 passed an act stating that it was unlawful to export
any salt until the whole people and the carriers to all the markets in
the kingdom were supplied with a sufficient quantity of it, which had
to be sold at the salt-pans for eight shillings the boll. Then whatever
quantity of it remained after satisfying the people, was allowed to
be exported to other countries. But the owners and carriers of it were
obliged to buy six ounces of silver for every chalder of salt exported,
and this silver had to be delivered to the master coiner within eight
days after their return to Scotland, and for every ounce of which
the owner of the salt was to receive from the master coiner thirty
shillings. It was further provided, that in the event of the exporters
of salt buying up the stipulated proportion of silver, and not buying
it from abroad, the silver so bought should be forfeited to the crown,
and the exporters of the salt condemned to pay a sum equivalent to
the silver they should have brought from foreign parts. To ensure
the fulfilment of this condition the custom officers were ordered
not to give the exporters of salt a cocket, till they came to the
coining-house and gave security to bring home the required quantity
of silver.¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume II., pages 264‒265,
290, 293; _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volumes II.,
III.
This rather peculiar arrangement, which was contrary to acts of
parliament, did not prove to be satisfactory. In 1574, the Lords of
Council discharged the granting of licenses to export salt, on account
of the exorbitant dearth of small salt at home. “As experience now
teaches,” they said, “the granting of such licenses has been very
prejudicial to the commonweal of the nation, as the conditions for
furnishing and serving the people at the prices mentioned in the
Acts of Parliament has in nowise been observed; but our sovereign
lord’s subjects have been constrained to buy salt at exorbitant and
unreasonable prices, and likely from day to day to rise to greater
extortion, if timely remedy be not provided. Therefore all the licenses
for exporting salt out of the kingdom were henceforward discharged.”¹
Three weeks after their lordships had passed this act, however, they
granted a license to Robert Paterson, the master of the ship called
“The Grace of God,” to export to Norway six chalders of salt for curing
fish; and another to William Ker, the master of the “Swallow,” to
export four chalders; and two burgesses of Edinburgh became sureties
that the salt should not be converted to any other use. At this time
the authorised price of salt was eight shillings per boll, but there
were many complaints of parties selling it at a higher rate.² Only
white salt was allowed to be exported in 1584; and the export of salt
was prohibited in 1587; there was a duty on salt exported.
¹ _Ibid._, Volume II., pages 406‒407.
² _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume II., page 285;
Volumes III., IV. On the 30th of August, 1573, the owners
of thirty-eight salt-pans, of Preston and Musselburgh, gave
security to supply Scotsmen with salt at eight shillings the
boll.――_Ibid._, page 296.
Several other articles were dealt with in the same way. Licenses were
now and again granted by the Lords of Council for exporting things
which were prohibited by parliament. The exportation of coal was
prohibited by Act of Parliament; but the Council, in 1573, resolved
to grant licenses for exporting smithy-coal. In the same year, on the
other hand, Walter Scott, in Dysart, became bound that the coals loaded
in a ship of that port should not be exported;¹ the export of coal was
forbidden in 1586, and in 1597. The trade of the country was carried
on under the same changing and disturbing influences as its politics;
and, so few of the resources of the country were as yet developed, and
such restrictive and conflicting agencies were in operation that the
merchants were greatly hampered. The regulations touching the export
of lead were of the same varying character. Lead might be exported,
but there was a royalty placed upon it; the exporter had to pay fifteen
ounces of silver for every thousand stones of lead shipped.²
¹ _Ibid._, Volume I., page 340; Volume II., page 290, Volumes
IV. V.; _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II.,
page 543.
² _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume II., pages 102, 507,
626.
Licenses were sometimes granted for exporting grain, but owing to bad
harvests, and the frequent neglect of agriculture from war, it was
often deemed necessary to prohibit the export of corn and wheat. There
were frequently seasons of dearth, and many attempts to fix the price
of grain were made. In September, 1567, the Regent and Council stated
that the merchants and others had exported great quantities of grain,
under the pretence of licenses granted “by the Queen’s grace, our
Sovereign Lord’s dearest mother, to the great increase and dearth
of the same; the corn of this year’s crop being at God’s pleasure
plagued and spoiled with rain, and so in all appearance scarce enough
to sustain the inhabitants of this country.” Therefore the Council
resolved to revoke all such licenses, and ordered that no grain
should be exported hereafter, under the penalty of the confiscation
of the ship and her cargo. In 1574, the Regent and Council ordered the
comptroller to ascertain the quantity of grain exported that year, by
whom, and at what ports, and other points concerning it. The Council,
in the winter of 1577, agreed to allow the free export of grain for the
following reason: “In times of dearth this country has received large
help and support of victuals out of France, Flanders, and England,
whereby the people have been greatly relieved; and the like favour and
good neighbourhood, charity, and amity ought to be extended towards the
people of these countries in this present year, when it has pleased God
to visit them with the like dearth and scarcity, and this realm with
such increase and plenty of grain, as some part thereof may, without
prejudice of the State, be spared to the relief of our neighbours’
necessities.”¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 402, 571,
572; Volume II., pages 252, 589.
Horses and cattle were occasionally exported, but Acts of Parliament
and Council frequently prohibited this; and on the whole the regular
export trade of Scotland was as yet very small. It consisted mostly of
raw materials, such as hides, wool, and the like; but the imports were
more varied, and comprised a variety of articles, and especially large
quantities of wines. There were Acts of Parliament and Council which
prohibited the importers of wines from selling any to the people till
the king, bishops, earls, lords, and barons, were first well stocked.¹
¹ _Ibid._, Volume I., pages 282, 298, 191, 285, 402, 571‒572;
Volume II., pages 128‒129, 505, 515, 662, 675, 693; _Acts of
the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III.
The trade between the Highlands and Lowlands chiefly consisted of
cattle and wood. The Highlanders had long been accustomed to bring
their cattle to the Lowland markets; but sometimes parties in the
Lowlands seized their flocks under the pretence that they were
authorised by the Government, which was not the case. They brought
the timber down the rivers in floats to the towns and sold it to the
citizens.¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 401,
470‒471; Volume II., pages 500‒501; _Burgh Records of
Aberdeen_, Volume II., page 33.
The internal trade of the country was still carried on, under the
strict principle of monopoly. The price of manufactured articles
and goods, as well as of food and provisions, was fixed by law and
regulated by the local authorities. The guild or merchants openly
insisted on their exclusive right of commerce, not only in foreign
trade, but also within the burgh, and often over the county in which
it was situated.¹
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volumes II., III.,
IV.; _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volumes I., II., III.
Among the many regulations fixing the supply and the price of
provisions, perhaps those relating to the sale of ale and spirits
are the most instructive. Ale had long been a beverage in common and
daily use, and large quantities of it were consumed by all classes
of the people. The Acts of Parliament and Council fixing the price of
malt and ale were numerous; and the statutes and regulations of the
burghs touching the supply and the price of these two necessaries were
endless. In 1535 Parliament passed an Act stating that the inhabitants
of Edinburgh and the people who frequented it were greatly oppressed
by the maltmakers of Leith, and others in that neighbourhood, exacting
four, five, and even six shillings more for the malt than they paid for
the barley. It was therefore enacted that maltmakers should produce and
sell their malt at a competent profit, and charge only two shillings
more for the boll of malt than the current price of the boll of barley.
“Those who disobey these acts, it was ordained, shall be called and
punished as oppressors of the King’s subjects, and particular courts
shall be set for them, and the King shall give commission to such as he
pleases to call the offending maltmakers before them in the Tolbooth of
Edinburgh, to execute justice upon them as they may think fit, and to
cause this statute to be observed in all points.”¹ In 1551 the Regent
and the Lords of Council, taking into consideration the high prices of
all kinds of victuals “whereby the poor were at the point of perishing,”
issued a commission under the great seal to the provost of Edinburgh,
authorising him to deal with all the maltmakers, maltsellers, bakers,
and regraters, within a circle of four miles of Edinburgh; and to
bring them to punishment according to the Acts of Parliament and the
laws of the kingdom. When Queen Mary visited Jedburgh in October,
1566, it seems that the good citizens of that town raised the price
of provisions. Whereupon her majesty called together her council and
the authorities of the burgh, who passed an act fixing the price of
everything during the stay of the court in that quarter. The pint
of good ale was to be fourpence, and sixteen ounces of fine bread
fourpence. The price of a man’s dinner, “being served with beef, mutton,
and roast at the least, was sixteenpence. For the use of a furnished
bed the charge was to be twelvepence each night; and for stabling to
a horse for the space of twenty-four hours, twopence.”² In 1573 the
price of ale was four shillings the gallon; in 1589 the pint of ale was
eightpence; and from this time to the end of the century it ran from
one shilling to one and fourpence the pint.³ In 1571 the magistrates
of Edinburgh enacted that Dutch drinking beer should not be sold higher
than sixpence the pint.
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., page 351;
_Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume II., pages 265‒266.
² _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., pages 115,
488‒489.
³ _Ibid._, Volume II., page 269; _Burgh Records of Glasgow_,
pages 25, 137, 162, 172, 198, 214; _Burgh Records of
Edinburgh_, Volume III., page 284.
The price of wine varied during the first half of the sixteenth century,
from sixpence the pint to one shilling and fourpence; but towards the
end of the century, the price of it had nearly tripled. There is much
evidence that large quantities of wine were consumed in Scotland. The
members of the guild claimed the exclusive right to sell wine in all
the burghs of the kingdom.¹
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volumes II., pages
373, 376, 483; Volumes III., IV.; _Register of the Privy
Council_, Volume I., pages 128‒129, 212‒213, 425‒428, 451;
Volume II., pages 505, 662, 693; Volumes III., IV., V., VI.;
_Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume II., pages 114, 115,
120, 123, 125, 127, 132, 134, 144, _et seq._; Volume III.,
pages 29, 84, 132, 156, 191, 198, 224; _Burgh Records of
Glasgow_, pages 66, 82, 107, 184, 201; _Burgh Records of
Aberdeen_, Volume II., page 149.
Whisky was known, but as yet it was not much used among the people.
In 1557, as noticed in a preceding page, Bessy Campbell was brought
before the magistrates of Edinburgh, and ordered to cease from making
whisky in the burgh, and from selling it, except on the market-day,
according to the privilege granted to the barbers, under their seal of
cause, unless she was permitted by them. The use of whisky, however,
was gradually becoming more common. In 1579, Parliament passed an
act restricting the making and selling of it. This Act opened with
a statement that grain would be scarce that year, and yet great
quantities of malt was consumed in the making of aquavitæ, which was
the cause of the dearth of the malt. It was enacted therefore that
no person, either in town or country, should brew or sell any whisky,
from the 1st of December, 1579, to the 1st of October, 1580, under the
penalty of the breaking of their brewing utensils, and the confiscation
of their stock of spirits. But the nobles and men of rank were
permitted to brew and distil whisky from their own malt, on their
own premises, for the use of their own house, families, and friends.¹
This act is very characteristic of much of the subsequent legislation
relating to the sale of whisky and spirits; but it is clear that whisky
had not then the hold on the people which it afterwards obtained.
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume II., page 262; _Acts
of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., page 174;
_Register of the Privy Council_, Volume II., page 269.
There were many complaints that leather and shoes were so dear that the
people were unable to buy them. In 1541, a number of the shoemakers of
Aberdeen were convicted by a jury for making insufficient shoes, and
for selling them above the legal price. The magistrates of Edinburgh,
in 1563, fixed the price of boots and shoes as follows: “The pair of
double-soled shoes of the largest size, well made and of good material,
three shillings and eightpence; a pair of single-soled shoes of similar
size, two shillings and eightpence; a pair of the finest double-soled
boots, twenty-four shillings; a pair of single-soled boots, twenty
shillings;” and so on in proportion for smaller sizes. The authorities
of Aberdeen, in 1580, ordained that the price for shoeing the largest
horses should be six shillings and eightpence, and the charge for the
smaller horses and nags, four shillings.¹
¹ _Burgh Records of Aberdeen_, Volume I., pages 453‒454;
Volume II., pages 38‒39; _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_,
Volume III., page 155; _Register of the Privy Council_,
Volume I.
Complaints were often made against the craftsmen that their workmanship
was insufficient, and their charges too high. Complaints of this
description frequently came before Parliament and the Privy Council,
and acts were from time to time passed fixing the price of manufactured
goods and articles. But the craftsmen struggled hard, and by their
organisations they became a considerable power in the burghs. Sometimes
they were rather troublesome to the guilds. Amongst the craftsmen the
spirit of monopoly was excessive. The trade disputes between Edinburgh
and Leith, and between the Canongate and Edinburgh, were numerous
and bitter. The different bodies of craftsmen sometimes manifested
an extreme jealousy of each other, and of their exclusive privileges,
which was unfavourable to the development of trade and to the
acquisition of skill.¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., page 142; Volume,
II., pages 33‒34, 220‒221, 260, 577‒579; _Burgh Records of
Edinburgh_; _Burgh Records of Glasgow_, pages 165‒166.
In 1562, the bonnetmakers of Edinburgh complained that various
craftsmen, fleshers, wrights, shoemakers, and others, in the burgh, had
enticed away their apprentices and servants, who were unfree persons,
and had caused them to labour at kinds of work which belonged to their
craft. The provost and council agreed that the bonnetmakers should be
protected in their privileges and liberties; but they added, “That in
case it pleased the goodness of God to give the gift to strangers and
others resorting to this town to labour, and invent upon points a more
perfect and finer fashion of hose, sleeves, gloves, and such like,
than they themselves, their servants, or apprentices, could do, or
has done, at any time before this, and that in such cases the said
persons should not be stopped, nor the gifts of God smothered, provided
always that nowhere they nor any others should be served by servants
and apprentices who have had their beginning under the deacon and
masters.”¹ This opinion of the Town Council was on the line which leads
to improvement. In 1587, Parliament passed an act in favour of Flemish
craftsmen――makers of serges, bedcovers, and other woollen fabrics
belonging to their craft. They were to teach the Scots to make this
class of goods, and the conditions of the bargain extended to twelve
heads.²
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume III., page 148.
² _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., pages
607‒609.
It was already observed that the reformed clergy had exerted themselves
to extinguish some of the amusements of the people; and Parliament
followed in the same track, and passed sumptuary enactments. In 1567,
the Estates of the realm enacted that no women should adorn themselves
with dress above what was appropriate to their rank, unless they were
prostitutes. And Parliament, in 1581, passed an act touching dress,
and another against superfluous banqueting, and the inordinate use of
confectionery and drugs. The act on dress opened with a statement that
there was great abuse among the common people, even of the meanest rank,
inasmuch as they presumed to counterfeit the king and his nobility by
their habit of wearing costly clothing of silk, and of all varieties:
“Laine, cameraige, fringes, pasments of gold, of silver, of silk,
and woollen cloth, brought from other countries; thus the price of
these goods had been raised to such a dearth that this state of matters
cannot be longer endured without great scath to the nation. Though
God has granted to the kingdom sufficient commodities for clothing
the people thereof within itself, if they were properly employed
manufacturing them at home; and whereby great numbers of the people now
wandering in beggary might be relieved, and the honesty and the wealth
of the country greatly increased.” The Act prohibited all persons
below the ranks of duke, earl, lord of parliament, knight, and landed
gentlemen, and their wives and families, from wearing costly dresses.
Minute provisions were made for carrying out the Act, and penalties
were to be inflicted for its infringement. This Act also contained
a clause prohibiting the exportation of wool, under the penalty of
confiscation, the object of which was to give more employment to the
people at home, and to confer a benefit on the nation. The act against
the wearing of costly clothing was ratified in 1584, and ordered to be
carried out with all rigour.¹
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., pages 40,
220‒221, 354.
Parliament was equally anxious to put the people right in the matter
of eating and drinking at marriages and baptisms. It was enacted that
only bishops, earls, barons, and gentlemen who have two thousand marks
of free yearly rent, or fifty chalders of grain after deducting all
charges, should presume to have at their marriages and banquets, or
on their tables for their daily fare, any drugs or confectionaries,
brought from foreign countries. After the Reformation Acts of
Parliament and Council were often passed forbidding the eating of flesh
during Lent. On the 12th of February, 1562, the Lords of Council passed
an Act prohibiting the eating of flesh from that date to the 29th of
March, under the penalty of ten pounds for the first offence, twenty
pounds for the second, and confiscation of all movable goods for the
third. The Act proceeded on the ground that:――“In the spring of the
year, called Lenten, all kinds of flesh decays and grows out of season,
that it is not meet for eating; and also that by the tempestuous storms
of the last and preceding winters, the whole stocks of cattle were so
plagued, smothered and dead, that the price of flesh had risen to such
extreme dearth that the like had not been within this realm; and if
such dearth continued it will be to the great hurt of the commonweal.”¹
In 1567, Parliament, to save the nation from the harm entailed by the
daily eating of flesh, enacted that the people should eat flesh only
on four days of the week, under a penalty: and in 1568 the Lords of
Council passed an act forbidding all classes to eat any flesh during
Lent. It was ordered also that no fleshers, cooks, hostlers, nor tavern
keepers, should slay or prepare any kind of flesh for sale during
that time, under the penalty of the confiscation of their goods and
the imprisonment of their persons, unless they had obtained a written
license from the King upon reasonable consideration. During the time
of the civil war, after the flight of Mary, the Lords of Council
issued proclamations against the eating of flesh in Lent, but they were
little heeded.² In 1584 it was again enacted, “because of the disorder
amongst all ranks of the people by the licentious eating of flesh
every day of the week, which besides producing other evils, was also
the cause of the dearth of all meat.” It was then commanded that no
one should presume hereafter to eat any kind of flesh on Wednesday,
Friday, or Saturday, nor in the time of Lent, under the penalty of
the confiscation of all their goods to the Crown. This act was again
repeated in 1587 with some additions.³
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, page 221; _Register
of the Privy Council_, Volume I., page 200. The same year it
was stated: “Forasmuch as the tempest and storms of weather
fallen this last winter, the most part of the sheep of
Scotland are perished and dead, which causes the dearth
thereof so to increase that the poor cannot well abide the
same; and if the lambs be likewise wasted and consumed,
the dearth shall not only increase, but also the sheep of
the country shall so decay that few or none shall be left
therein, for the sustaining of the people of this kingdom.
For remedy thereof, it is statuted by the Queen’s Majesty,
with the advice of the Lords of Council, that no manner of
lambs be slain or eaten by any of the people of this realm
for the space of three years to come, under the penalty of
the confiscation of all the movable goods of the persons who
contravene this statute.”――_Register of the Privy Council_,
Volume I., pages 200‒201.
² _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., pages 40;
_Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., page 611; Volume
II., pages 337, 431, 500, 593.
³ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III., pages
353, 453.
After the Reformation several of the old amusements of the people were
proscribed. This however need occasion no great regret, for with the
spread of refinement and the progress of civilisation they would have
died out of themselves. The citizens of Edinburgh had a pastime called
“bickering,” and this word itself partly explains the character of the
amusement. The bickering seems to have consisted of a company of people,
mostly the young, who made a mock attack upon certain places, which
however often ended in serious mischief. On the 11th of April, 1567,
the Town Council of Edinburgh:――“ordered the bellman to pass through
the town and discharge the bickerers, under the penalty of hanging
those come to age, and the scourging of such as are not of age.”¹ The
people were still in the habit of amusing themselves pretty freely.
There were rude stage plays; the field games of golf, of football,
and many others, which the humblest of the people enjoyed. Towards the
end of the century parliament passed an act that enjoined Monday to be
observed as a holiday for pastime and amusement, that every one in the
nation might have one day in the week for their own enjoyment. The King
himself had a fancy for rope-dancers, in the year 1600 James Melville
records in his diary “that in Falkland, I saw a Frenchman play strange
and incredible pranks upon stretched ropetakle in the Palace close,
before the King, the Queen, and the whole Court.” In the accounts of
the Lord High Treasurer, in August, 1600, the sum of £333 7 shillings 8
pence is entered as the payment of this rope-dancer, so it seems he was
handsomely rewarded for his performance. In 1598 an English juggler,
“played such supple tricks upon a rope, which was fastened between the
top of St. Giles’s Kirk steeple and a stair beneath the cross, the like
was never seen in this country, as he rode down the rope and played so
many pavies on it.” For the performance of this trick the King ordered
him to get twenty pounds.²
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume III., pages 229‒230.
² _Burgh Records of Glasgow_, page 193; _Burgh Records
of Aberdeen_, Volume II., pages 179, 180; _Acts of the
Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume IV.; Melville’s _Diary_,
pages 17, 29, 30, 487.
The general influence of the Reformation on the social state of the
people was in the main salutary and beneficial. It is true that some
of the commons and tenants were in better circumstances under the
Roman Catholic churchman than after the Reformation, and the fact is
undeniable that many of the tenants of land were excessively oppressed
by the nobles after that event.¹ The evidence adduced in this volume
is sufficient to prove that the exertions of the reformed clergy to
lighten the burdens of the people were not in vain; while the benefits
of the revolution were far reaching and immense.
¹ Pinkerton’s _Ancient Scottish Poems_, Volume II., page 321;
1786.
CHAPTER XX.
_The Literature of the Nation in the
First Half of the Sixteenth Century._
IN the eleventh chapter of the first volume an account of the national
literature to the end of the fifteenth century was presented; and in
this chapter it is intended to present a continuation, till the current
of thought and feeling became affected by the revolutionary movement;
and then in the succeeding chapter to treat of the literature of the
Reformation, and the latter part of the century; and thus exhibit
a connected narrative of its development. Education, culture, and
literature, in one point of view are mutually related words, and in
many ways reciprocal in their effects; although they are far from being
co-extensive in meaning. Education of some kind precedes literature and
culture; but at a comparatively early stage of civilisation, literature
assumes a more general, if a less definite influence than education.
In nations with pretty well developed civilisations, the customary
education and the national literature sometimes run on opposite lines.
This is especially observable in revolutionary periods, when the
established education and the national literature may each be seen
pursuing diverse ends. At such times, the existing school ♦education
is often more than ever conservative and opposed to any change.
Illustrations of this will occur to every one; and yet all the elements
and influences of a nation are closely related, and act and re-act
upon each other in manifold ways; still, in historic exposition it is
necessary to signalise the opposites, in what appears to be the most
nearly allied and interdependent agencies in the organisation of a
nation.
♦ “eduction” replaced with “education”
In the first section of this volume, reference to the invention and the
introduction of printing was made; but it is a singular fact that until
near the end of the last century, it was unknown when the typographic
art was first introduced into Scotland. Mr. George Chalmers, the author
of _Caledonia_, first announced the real date of its introduction. He
said that “it was the intelligent and industrious William Robertson,
of the General Register House, who, to gratify my desire, discovered
a patent by James IV., which plainly demonstrates that a printing
press was established at Edinburgh during the year 1507.” Prior to this
there was no printing press in Scotland. Since Chalmers’ time, the late
Dr. David Laing and others, and the efforts of printing clubs, have
rendered the earlier productions of the Scottish press familiar.
The history of the matter may be briefly told. In 1507, James IV.
granted a patent to Walter Chepman, a burgess of Edinburgh, and Andrew
Myllar, to erect a printing press, for printing within the kingdom
the Books of Law, Acts of Parliament, Chronicles, Mass Books, Legends
of Scottish Saints then collected, and all other books, that should
be necessary, and to sell them for competent prices, “by our advice
and discretion their labour and expense being considered.... It is
also devised and thought expedient by us and our council, that in time
coming, Mass Books, after our own Scottish use, and with Legends of
Scottish Saints, as now collected by a Reverend Father in God, and our
trusty counsellor, William, Bishop of Aberdeen, and others, should be
used generally within the realm as soon as the same may be printed and
provided, and that no manner of such books of Salisbury use be brought
to be sold within our realm in time coming; and if any one does in the
contrary, that they shall lose the same. Wherefore we charge strictly
and command you all, our officers and subjects, that none of you take
upon hand to do anything contrary to this our ordinance, under the
penalty of escheating the books and punishment of their persons.” As
Bishop Elphinstone’s _Breviary_ was to be printed as soon as possible,
while other service books were to be excluded, it may be inferred that
he had used his influence with the King in the granting of the patent
to Chepman and Myllar for erecting a printing press.
Both Chepman and Myllar were burgesses of Edinburgh. Chepman was
a merchant, and traded in wood, wool, cloths, and other articles
of merchandise, a man of some capital and property, and appears to
have had a connection with the King’s household; while Myllar was
a bookseller in the city, and had supplied books to the King for
some time, importing them from England and the Continent; and he also
appeared as a publisher in 1505 and 1506, and as a practical printer
in 1508. Chepman possessed several houses in Edinburgh, in one of
which, at the foot of the Blackfriars Wynd, in the Cowgate, he and
Myllar erected their printing press. After obtaining the patent, they
immediately proceeded to work; and in April, 1508, they issued a number
of short pieces. These consisted of: 1. “The Porteous of Noblenes,” in
commendation of the twelve virtues “in ane nobil man;” 2. “The Knightly
Tale of Golagros and Gawane,” a somewhat singular romance, which
has been assigned to the fourteenth century; 3. “Syr Eglamoure of
Artoys,” a short romance; 4. “Book of Good Council to the King,” a
piece which also forms the last chapter of the eleventh book of the
“Liber Pluscardensis;” 5. “The Maying of Chaucer,” found in all the
collections of his works; 6. “The Tale of Orpheus and Eurydice,” one of
Robert Henryson’s poems; 7. “The Gest of Robyn Hode,” and the following
four pieces of Dunbar’s: “The Golden Targe,” “The Flyting between
Dunbar and Kennedy,” “A Ballad of Lord Barnard Stewart,” and the “Two
Married Women and the Widow.” Only one imperfect copy of the volume
containing the above pieces is known to be extant. As in it have been
preserved the very earliest specimens of the first Scottish press, it
was deemed of inestimable value. Early in the present century the late
Dr. Laing undertook the reproduction of this volume in facsimile, and
also to supply the deficiencies of the original. After the volume had
been completed, excepting the preliminary notices, a disastrous fire
happened, which consumed the premises of Abram Thomson, bookbinder
in Edinburgh, where the sheets were lying, and the greater part of
the volume was destroyed or rendered useless. At last the volume was
published in 1827, seventy-two copies on paper, and four on vellum
were issued. One of the vellum copies was sold at Dr. Laing’s sale in
December 1879, and was purchased by Mr. Quaritch for £71. Dr. Laing
in his valuable introduction to the volume, presented a body of
interesting information touching the earliest Scottish printers, to
which subsequent inquirers have been much indebted.¹
¹ _Annals of Scottish Printing_, from 1507 to 1599, by A.
Dickson and J. P. Edmond, Chapters I. to IX.
As the _Aberdeen Breviary_ was intended to supersede the _Sarum
Breviary_, and to become the chief church service book for the
priesthood of Scotland, it might be presumed that its publication
had excited some interest. It was the most important work issued from
the primitive Scottish press, and consisted of two volumes――the first
was completed on the 13th of February 1510, and the second on the
4th of June the same year. The text was printed in double columns of
thirty-seven lines each, and done in black and red ink; and the whole
work extended to 1527 pages of comparatively small type. The printing
is unequally executed, some pages being very clear and distinct, while
others are blurred. Four copies of the original edition are known to be
extant, all of which are incomplete. One in the University of Edinburgh,
which has the title to the first volume but not to the second; one in
the Advocates’ Library which wants twenty-seven leaves of the first
volume and fourteen of the second; an imperfect copy of the first
volume in the University Library of Aberdeen; and one belonging to the
Earl of Strathmore in the Library at Glamis Castle, which wants only
a few leaves. Under the editorship of the Rev. James Blew, a reprint
of this _Breviary_ was published in 1854 by James Toovey, London, in
two volumes. A number of special copies were executed for the members
of the Bannatyne Club, to which Dr. Laing contributed an excellent
preface.¹
¹ _Annals of Scottish Printing._
Myllar’s name does not appear in the pages of the _Breviary_, and it
has been supposed that he had retired from the partnership or died.
It seems probable that with the completion of the _Breviary_ Chepman’s
connection with printing ceased; and the printing materials were
perhaps sold, or laid aside. Chepman died in the winter of 1529; and
during the last fifteen years of his life, all the works of learned
Scotsmen were printed on the Continent. But it cannot be supposed that
the pieces and fragments which have been preserved, represent all the
works printed by Chepman and Myllar. It appears that they printed some
small school books; and probably an edition of blind Henry’s _Wallace_.
Excepting a fragment of eight leaves, containing “the Office of our
Lady of Pity,” and the legend of the relics of St. Andrew, which was
printed at Edinburgh in 1520, by John Story, the printing art seems to
have ceased in Scotland for nearly twenty years. Although during this
interval there is evidence that books were imported into Scotland from
England and the Continent.
Thomas Davidson, said to have been a north countryman, born on the
banks of the river Dee, was a practical printer. The exact date when
he began to print in Edinburgh has not been ascertained; some writers
have supposed that he commenced about 1530, but only one of his works
is dated 1542. In December, 1541, he was commissioned by the Lord Clerk
Register to print the Acts of three Parliaments of James V., which he
executed in the following February. This placed him in the position of
King’s printer, and he assumed that title in his works. As only three
complete specimens of his works have been preserved, the number of
different books which he printed cannot be ascertained; but the finest
specimen of his press is Bellenden’s translation of Boece’s _History of
Scotland_.
John Scot was a contemporary of Davidson. It appears that Scot printed
books both in Edinburgh and St. Andrews, and possibly also in Dundee,
where it seems he was living in 1547. In 1552 he printed Archbishop
Hamilton’s Catechism at St. Andrews. After the Reformation he printed
the new Confession of Faith. In August, 1562, he was engaged in
printing “The Last Blast of the Trumpet,” by Ninian Winzet, when the
magistrates of Edinburgh and their officers entered the printing office,
seized the copies of the work, and imprisoned the printer. Scot again
appeared in 1568, when he printed an edition of Sir David Lindsay’s
works; and in 1571 he printed the same work, but after this his name
disappeared. From this time to the end of the century, the chief
printers in Scotland were――Robert Lekpreuik, Thomas Bassandyne, John
Ross, Henry Charteris, Vantrollier, Robert Waldegrave, and Robert Smyth.
The most eminent Scottish writer of this period was William Dunbar,
the court poet of James IV. He was born in East Lothian about the year
1460, and on rather slender ground it has been conjectured that he was
descended from the fourth son of the tenth Earl of Dunbar. It seems
probable that Dunbar received his early education at the well-known
school of Haddington; and he entered the University of St. Andrews in
1474, attained the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1477, and graduated as
Master of Arts in 1479. He became a novice in the order of Franciscans;
and in the character of a friar, he for some time travelled and
preached in France and England, as well as in Scotland. At a later
stage of his life, it seems he visited France in 1491, in connection
with an embassy from Scotland to negotiate a marriage for James IV.;
yet little is clearly known touching the life and wanderings of Dunbar
from 1479 to the end of the century. But in one of his poems he claims
to have served the King, not only in France, England, Ireland, and
Germany, but also in Italy and Spain. His name first occurs in the
public records in 1500, when he obtained from the King an annual
pension of ten pounds, which should “be paid to him of our Sovereign
Lord’s coffers, by the Treasurer, for all the days of his life, or
until he be promoted by the King to a benefice of the value of forty
pounds or more yearly.” In 1507, the King increased Dunbar’s pension to
twenty pounds, and again in 1510 it was increased to eighty pounds――“to
be paid to him half-yearly by the Treasurer, until he be promoted to
a benefice of one hundred pounds or above.” Dunbar also occasionally
received presents from his royal master, and, while James IV. lived,
at least, the poet was pretty liberally rewarded; although he never
obtained the great object of his ambition――to wit, a benefice. From the
end of the fifteenth century to the death of James IV., Dunbar attended
the Scottish court regularly; and he addressed many of his short poems
to the King, and also to the Queen, while the burden of most of these
effusions was that the poet wanted to be presented to a benefice.
Though Dunbar had abandoned the order of St. Francis, still he had
become a priest; and on the 17th of March, 1504, he performed his first
mass in presence of the King, who gave an offering of four pounds and
eighteen shillings in honour of the occasion. Yet he was only one of
the many servants who catered to the royal pleasure and the court.¹
Most of Dunbar’s writings, between 1500 and 1513, were poems composed
to amuse the court, or to suit his own humour, by satirising its
policies and vices; and they show the favour in which he was held,
especially by the Queen, and his constant petitions for salary and for
a benefice. The picture which they presented of the Scottish court was
a real, but not a flattering or a pleasing one――to modern taste and
sentiment. The poet’s benefactor fell on the fatal field of Flodden,
and whether he continued to receive his pension subsequent to that
event, has not been ascertained, as the Treasurer’s accounts from
August, 1513, to June, 1515, have not been preserved, and in those of
a subsequent date Dunbar’s name does not occur. Most of his religious
poems or hymns were supposed to have been written between the date of
Flodden and the time of his death. The exact date of Dunbar’s death has
not been discovered; but it has been supposed that he died about the
year 1520, when he had reached sixty years of age.²
¹ See Volume I., pages 417, 459, 468.
² Dunbar’s Poems, _Memoir_, pages 7‒17; Volume I., pages 28,
149; Volume II., pages 231‒234, Laing’s Edition; _Scottish
Text Society, Edinburgh_, Part III., Introduction.
Although during Dunbar’s lifetime, and for a few years after his death,
his writings received attention and were admired, and a few of his
poems were printed as mentioned in a preceding paragraph, yet from
about the year 1530 to 1724 his name was rarely mentioned in Scottish
literature; and therefore the historian cannot assume that Dunbar’s
writings have had much influence upon the nation, seeing that for
two hundred years few, if any of them, were read by the people. The
chief historic value of his poems consists in the many pictures of
the Scottish court and its coarse manners and speech, which they so
vividly portray; and the illustrations of the habits and manners of
other classes of society in his time, which they presented. If we look
for great conceptions, any inspiring ideals, or striking thought and
ennobling passion or sentiment calculated to stimulate and improve the
civilisation of the people, in Dunbar’s writings, we will be somewhat
disappointed.
Since 1724, when Allan Ramsay called attention to the long forgotten
poems of Dunbar, and published sixteen of them in his _Evergreen_,
there have been several notable efforts made to restore the lost fame
of this poet. In 1770 Lord Hailes, in his “Ancient Poems from the
Bannatyne Manuscript,” published thirty-one of Dunbar’s poems; in
1786, Pinkerton, in his “Ancient Scottish Poems from the Maitland
Manuscript,” published twenty-one of Dunbar’s; and in 1802, Sibbald’s
“Chronicle of Scottish Poetry from the Thirteenth Century,” was
published, which included thirty-two poems by Dunbar. About the
beginning of this century George Chalmers, the well-known author
of “Caledonia,” made collections for a complete edition of Dunbar’s
poems; but he died before accomplishing the work. Chalmers’ intention
was carried into effect by the late Dr. Laing, who had acquired his
transcripts for the purpose. Dr. Laing’s edition appeared in 1834,
in two volumes, to which he issued a supplement in 1865: this edition
has been long much esteemed, as it is enriched with various readings,
interesting and valuable notes, and a concise but excellent glossary.
The works of Dunbar, including his life, by James Paterson, author
of “The History of Ayrshire and Ayrshire Families,” was published
at Edinburgh in 1863. The very valuable researches of Dr. Laing, and
the excellent work of Professor Schipper of Vienna, which appeared in
1884, and made Dunbar known on the Continent, seems to have given a
remarkable stimulus to the study of this ancient Scottish poet. It has
been reported that Schipper’s is the best work which has been written
on Dunbar, and that his German translations of the Scotch poet are
executed with surprising skill and fidelity, and astonishing lucidity.
Kaufmann has also written a Dissertation on Dunbar, which was published
in 1873. But apparently the most elaborate edition of Dunbar’s poems
will be the one undertaken by the Scottish Text Society, which when
completed will consist of five parts. Part I. was published in 1884,
and Part II. in 1885; these contain the text of the poems, which was
ably and carefully edited by Mr. John Small, M.A., F.S.A., Scotland;
Part III. appeared in 1887, consisting of an exceedingly elaborate
Introduction by Sheriff Mackay, and extending to 283 pages. It
presents――1, an interesting and comprehensive biography of Dunbar,
judiciously introducing such portions of the contemporary history of
Scotland as seemed necessary to estimate the character and genius of
his author; 2, a classification of Dunbar’s poems――dividing them into
ten classes, and commenting on each class in detail; 3, a valuable
Appendix to the Introduction, which gives――_a_, Table of Dunbar’s
poems according to the probable order of their dates; _b_, Notes
on the versification and metres of Dunbar; _c_, Bibliography of
Dunbar――including both manuscripts and printed editions of his
writings; _d_, Historical notice of persons alluded to in Dunbar’s
poems, in which many interesting particulars are given. Part IV. was
published in 1890, and consists of Notes to the Poems by Walter Gregor,
LL.D., and covers the poems from number one to thirty-eight. Dr. Gregor
is an enthusiastic admirer of Dunbar as a poet, and he is himself a
thorough master of the Scottish language. He is also fully conversant
with the literature of the subject. Thus his notes on each of the
poems of Dunbar are numerous, varied, accurate, and instructive,
showing wide and intelligent research throughout, and consequently
they are exceedingly valuable. Part V. will contain the remainder of
Dr. Gregor’s Notes, and a Glossary by him; and also an Appendix on
the “Intercourse between Scotland and Denmark,” by Sheriff Mackay.
When this edition is completed, it will be a veritable offering to
the genius of Dunbar, and a striking monument of the special historic
research and enthusiasm of its editors.
There were various causes which accounted for Dunbar and his writings
being neglected and almost forgotten for about two centuries. The chief
cause was the approach of the Reformation, and the new turn which it
gave to the sentiments and opinions of the people. When Dunbar had
attempted to be a friar,――he ultimately became a priest,――and during
the time that he was Court poet, he was ever clamouring for a benefice.
In spite of his ironical treatment of the lives of the friars, he
showed not the slightest trace of accepting any of the doctrines of
the Reformation; and as he advanced in years he became a more pious
observer of Roman Catholic usage; while his last poems were of the
nature of religious hymns in strict conformity with Romanism. Thus
Dunbar was in no sense a precursor of the Reformation.
The range of Dunbar’s subjects was pretty wide. In the new edition
mentioned above, there are one hundred and one poems, of which
eighty-nine have been considered as undoubtedly Dunbar’s, and the other
twelve have, on various grounds, with more or less probability, been
attributed to him. Most of his poems are comparatively short, the
longest one is “The Two Married Women and the Widow,” extending to 530
lines. His poems may be described as consisting of allegorical poems,
comic and humourous, satirical, moral, religious and amatory. The best
marked specimens of his allegorical poems, are “The Goldyn Targe,”
“The Thistle and Rose,” and “Beauty and the Prisoner.” “The Goldyn
Targe” extends to 275 lines, and its aim was to show that love, unless
restrained by reason, always blinds and leads astray. The language
and versification of the poem is flowing and easy, and some fine
descriptive touches occur in it, such as this:――
“For mirth of May, with skippis and with hoppis,
The birdis sang upon the tender croppis,
With curiouse note, as Venus chapell clerkis:
The rosis yong, new spreding of their knoppis,
War powderit brycht with hevinly beriall droppis,
Throu bernes rede, birnyng as ruby sperkis;
The skyes rang schouting of the larkis,
The purpur hevyn our scailit in silvir sloppis
Ourgilt the treis, branchis, lefis, and barkis.”¹
He introduces Homer and a number of classic gods in this poem, and the
student will find it amply illustrated in Dr. Gregor’s notes.
¹ _Scottish Text Society_, Part I., page 2.
The short ballad sung at the marriage of James IV., was composed by
Dunbar to welcome the Princess Margaret, and began thus:――
“Now fayre, fayrest off every fayre,
Princes most pleasant and preclare,
The lustyest one alyve that byne,
Welcum of Scotland to be Quene!
* * * * *
Sweet lusty lusum lady clere,
Most myghty Kinges dochter dere,
Borne of a princes most serene,
Welcum to Scotland to be Quene!”¹
¹ _Scottish Text Society_, page 279.
He also produced “The Thistle and the Rose” to celebrate this
interesting event. This poem extends to 185 lines, and it assumed the
characteristics of allegory and the mingling of classic names with the
objects of nature. The rhyme is flowing, and it presents many pleasing
descriptive touches; but it lacks strength and the characteristic glow
of real poetry. The following stanzas occur near the end of the poem:――
“Thane all the birdis sang with voce on hicht,
Quhois mirthfull soun wes mervelus to heir;
The mavyss song, ‘Haill, Roiss most riche and richt,
That dois up flureiss under Phebus speir;
Haill, plant of youth, haill, princes dochtir deir,
Haill, blosome breking out of the blud royall,
Quhois pretius vertew is imperiall.’
“The merle scho sang, ‘Haill, Roiss of most delyt,
Haill, of all flowris quene and souerane;’
The lark scho sang, ‘Haill, Roiss, both reid and quhyt,
Most plesand flour, of michty cullouris twane;’
The nichtingaill sang, ‘Haill, naturis suffragene,
In bewty, nurtour and every nobilness,
In rich array, renown and gentilness.’”¹
¹ _Ibid._, page 188.
Many of Dunbar’s short pieces have much merit, “The Dance of the Seven
Deadly Sins” is animated and full of biting satire. Take the stanzas on
“Gluttony”:――
“Then the foull monster Gluttony,
Off wame insatiable and gredy,
To dance he did him dress:
Him followed mony foull drunkerd,
With can and collep, cup and quart,
In surffet and excess;
Full mony a waistless wallydrag,
With wames unweildable, did furth wag,
In creische¹ that did incress;
Drink! ay they cryed, with mony a gaip,
The fiends gave them hot leid to laip,
Thair lovery was na less.”²
This piece exhibits a strong satirical vein, while the whole picture is
boldly drawn and full of energy.
¹ Grease, fat.
² Volume I., pages 52‒53, Laing.
The curious satirical poem, entitled “The Joust between the Tailor
and the Shoemaker,” is brimful of comic humour, but the phraseology is
extremely coarse and vulgar. His “Devil’s Inquest” is also strong in
satire and humour. The poem addressed to the “Merchants of Edinburgh”
afforded Dunbar an opportunity of giving a vivid and characteristic
description of the capital, which in his day presented to the beholder
anything rather than the picture of a fair city. Much of the manners of
the court and also of the habits of the people, are reproduced in the
writings of Dunbar: and it is this chiefly that renders them valuable
to us: the mere literary and poetical value of his works have sometimes
been over-estimated by modern authorities.
The long and curious production, entitled “The Flyting of Dunbar and
Kennedy,” which extends to 552 lines, was written, as the title implies,
partly by both. Kennedy was a contemporary poet, and the two by turns
abuse each other in no stinted terms: the “Flyting,” was exceedingly
rich in words and phrases of biting scorn and vehement vituperation. It
has been supposed that the two poets had no personal animosity towards
each other, which may or may not have been the case. Dunbar began the
flyting, and Kennedy had the last words, thus: “Out! out! I schout,
upon that snout that snevels, tale teller, rebel, indweller with the
devil, spink, sink with stink ad Tertara Termagorum.”¹ Walter Kennedy
was the third son of Gilbert, first Lord Kennedy, and was educated at
the College of Glasgow. Besides his part of the “Flyting,” a few of his
poems have been preserved.
¹ _Poems_, Volume II., page 68. “This jolly, quick-witted friar
and courtier is sometimes called the Scottish Chaucer. The
two have, indeed, a good many points of resemblance. Both
were men of the world and favourites at court; companionable
men, witty and good humoured, both showed sufficient address
and business dexterity to be employed on embassies of state.
But if we wish to give the title of ‘Scottish Chaucer’ its
full significance, we must place considerable emphasis on
the adjective. Dunbar and Chaucer belonged to the same class
of easy self-contained men, whose balance is seldom deranged
by restless straining and soaring; but within that happy
pleasure-loving circle, they occupied distinct habitations;
and one way of bringing out their difference of spirit is
to lay stress upon their nationality. Dunbar is unmistakably
Scotch. He is altogether stronger and harder――perhaps of
harsher――nerve than Chaucer; more forcible and less diffuse
of speech; his laugh is rougher, he is boldly sarcastic
and derisive of persons; his ludicrous conceptions rise to
more daring heights of extravagance; and, finally, he has a
more decided turn for preaching――for offering good advice.”
――Minto’s _Characteristics of English Poets_, page 130.
A number of Dunbar’s poems have been supposed to be lost, and, as
mentioned in a preceding page, other poems and pieces of verses have
sometimes been attributed to him, most of which were printed in Dr.
Laing’s edition of the poet. Of this class is “The Friars of Berwick,”
a rhymed tale extending to 592 lines. It is a satire on the life of
the religious orders, and it is worked out with considerable skill and
effect.¹
¹ Dunbar’s _Poems_, Volume II., pages 3‒23. Professor Veitch
says, “‘The Friars of Berwick’ is a tale very much in the
manner of Chaucer, and it is not unworthy of his style. It
satirises the vices of the regular clergy in a way that must
have come home to the sense of domestic purity of the people.
It is evidently a production of the pre-reformation period,
and, like the writings of Sir David Lyndsay, must have
contributed in some measure to the ecclesiastical revolution
of 1560.”――_The History and Poetry of the Scottish Borders_,
page 326. 1878.
“The Three Tales of the Three Priests of Peebles” is another
rhymed production of this period, the authorship of which
has not been definitely ascertained. See _The Complaynt of
Scotland_, page 143. Murray’s edition, 1872. These tales
were first printed in 1603, and reprinted by Pinkerton in
1792, and by Dr. Laing in his _Early Metrical Tales_, 1826.
The groundwork of the story is simple and natural. The three
priests met together on the 1st of February――St. Bride’s
Day――in Peebles, and each in turn tells a story. The first
tale proceeds on the supposition that the King proposes to
each of the three estates in parliament certain questions.
The second tale refers to the thoughtlessness of the King
in so often changing his servants. The third one is more
allegorical, and refers to Death as the messenger of
God. The tales are moral and didactic in tone and highly
patriotic.――Veitch, _Ibid._, pages 319‒326. In regard to
Dunbar’s contemporaries in Scotland, there is little now
remaining of their writings. See Dr. Laing’s edition of
Dunbar, Volume II., pages 352‒362, and the Supplement, which
contains much additional information.
Gavin Douglas, the bishop of Dunkeld, was the third son of Archibald,
the fifth Earl of Angus, “Bell the Cat,” and was born about the year
1474. He completed his education at the University of St. Andrews, and
graduated Master of Arts in 1494. Shortly after this he entered into
priest’s orders and in the year 1496 he received a grant of the tithes
of Monymusk, in Aberdeenshire. Chiefly owing to his family connections,
other preferments soon came to him, and about the year 1501 he was
appointed provost of the collegiate church of St. Giles, at Edinburgh.
It was while he held this office that most of his works were composed.
His poem, “The Palace of Honour,” was finished in 1501; and in 1512 he
began the translation of Virgil, and completed it in July, 1513.¹ After
the battle of Flodden he became deeply involved in the knotty politics
of the times; and made a bold but unsuccessful effort to attain to the
primacy of the Scottish Church. In 1515 he was nominated to the see of
Dunkeld, and after much opposition and delay obtained possession of the
bishop’s palace. He again became entangled in the political troubles
of the day, and, having passed to England, died near London in the year
1522.²
¹ The Works of Gavin Douglas, edited by John Small, M.A.,
F.S.A. Scotland, 4 volumes, 1874. Volume I., pages 2‒9,
Introduction.
² The Works of Gavin Douglas, Volume I., page 11, _et seq._ The
Biographical Introduction to Mr. Small’s complete edition of
Douglas’s Works is very full and exhaustive.
The “Palace of Honour,” his longest poem, is an allegorical production
of remarkable power. Douglas had one requisite of the poet in a
high degree, a command of copious, varied, and striking imagery. His
poetry has a glow about it which will be sought in vain in Dunbar.
His language is difficult to understand, as he used many words and
phrases derived from the Latin and the French, which often render his
expression obscure and his lines rather stilted. But his diction is
entirely free from the coarse and vulgar phrases which disfigure the
writings of Dunbar. As a poem, the “Palace of Honour” is loose and
rambling; though it gives ample evidence of the classical reading of
the author. He introduces various moral reflections throughout the
production, and concludes it with a ballad on virtue. The last stanza
is rhetorical and ornate:――
“Haill rose most choce till clois thy fois great micht,
Haill stone which shone upon the throne of licht,
Virtue, whose trew sweit dew overthrow al vice,
Was ay ilk day gar say the way of licht;
Amend, offend, and send our end ay richt.
Thow stant, ordant as sanct, of grant most wise,
Till be supply, and the high gre of price,
Delite the tite me quite of site to dicht,
For I apply schortlie to thy devise.”¹
¹ _Ibid._, Volume I., page 80.
His poem of “King Hart” is an allegory of the progress of human life.
The heart of man is represented in it as a mystical king in the full
bloom of youth, surrounded by attendants who personify the propensities
of early manhood. Though the King is a feudal monarch, he is far from
enjoying freedom; for those around him hold him in leading-strings
without much hope of his being able to shake them off. After a few more
details about the King, the palace of Dame Pleasance is described. This
lady with a legion of attendants passes by the Castle of King Hart;
and two of his attendants go to ascertain who the party are. They are
surprised and easily made prisoners. The King then sends out other
messengers, who are also captured; at last, becoming enraged, he arrays
his host for battle with Dame Pleasance and her army. But the King’s
party are defeated, many of his subjects are taken prisoners and
confined in dungeons; and King Hart is imprisoned in a grated chamber,
where he listened to the mirth proceeding from the halls of the Queen.
Through the help of Dame Pity, who at this juncture deserts Dame
Pleasance, King Hart and his adherents are set free; and then, taking
possession of the palace, they capture the Queen herself. After an
interview with King Hart, she finds that he is deeply affected by her
charms, and the first canto ends with their espousals and the marriage
feast.¹
¹ _Works_, Volume I., Introduction, pages 139‒141.
The second canto begins with a description of age in this form:――
“At morning tide, when at the sone so schene
Out rushed had his beamis frome the sky
Ane auld gude man befoir the gate was sene,
Apone ane steed that raid full easalie.
He rappit at the gate, but courtaslie,
Yet at the straik the grit dungeon can din;
Syne at the last he schouted fellonlie;
And bad them rys, and said he would cum in.
Sone Wantonness came to the wall abone,
And cryit out, what folk ar ye thair out?
My name is Age, said he again full sone;
May thou nocht heir? Langar how I culd schout?
What war your Will? I will cum in without dout.
Now God forbid! In faith ye cum nocht heir,
Rin on thy way, or thou sall beir ane route:
And say, the portar he is wonder sweir.”¹
¹ _Ibid._, page 101.
The sentiment is very natural, few people wish for old age to overtake
them. The King is grieved that fresh delight has deserted him, sadness
intrudes and whispers something into his ear. The Queen now loses
patience, and when the King is asleep, she leaves him; wisdom and
reason then counsel him to return to his own castle. There, however,
he finds little comfort; enjoyment and strength both creep away, and
decrepitude with his host takes the castle and mortally wounds the King,
who prepares for death, and makes his last testament, the details of
which conclude the poem.¹
¹ _Works_, pages 141‒142; Introduction, Volume I., pages
102‒120, 145‒146.
The most notable of Douglas’s works is his translation of the Æneid
of Virgil. He has the honour of being the author of the first metrical
translation of a Latin classic in Britain, although soon followed
by others. Virgil was the most popular of the classical writers, and
before the end of the fifteenth century his works had passed through
ninety editions. In the days of Douglas they were read by young
and old. Taking everything into account, competent authorities have
affirmed that Douglas has discharged the duty of a translator tolerably
well, “he was a master of the Latin tongue,” and his translation of
the greatest Roman poet is a work of which his countrymen may justly be
proud.¹ To each of the thirteen books of his translation of the Æneid,
Douglas wrote a prologue. Some of these prologues are of considerable
length, and three at least out of the thirteen contain passages of
remarkable descriptive power. As a whole, they display considerable
knowledge of human nature, and contain many pointed observations on the
manners of mankind. The following passage is from the seventh of the
series, and is a part of his much admired description of winter, from
a modernised version.
¹ _Ibid._, Volume I., pages 144‒147. Introduction.
“Now reign’d the power of keen congealing frost,
When all the beauty of the year is lost;
The brumal season, bitter, cold, and pale,
When short dull days and sounding storms prevail,
The wild north winds tremendous from afar,
O’erwhelm’d imperial Neptune in his car,
Their scatter’d honours from the forests tore,
And dash’d the mad waves headlong on the shore.
Fierce, foaming rivers, swell’d with torrents brown,
Hurl’d all their banks precipitately down;
Loud roar’d the thunder of the raging floods,
Loud as gaunt lions bellowing shake the woods.
Th’ unwieldy monsters which the deeps contain,
Sought safety at the bottom of the main.
* * * * *
Incessant rains had drench’d the floating ground,
And clouds o’ercast the firmament around;
White shone the hills involv’d in silver snow,
But brown and barren were the vales below:
On firm foundations of eternal stone,
High rugged rocks in frosty splendour shone;
The hoary fields no vivid verdure wore,
Frost wrapt the world, and beauty was no more,
Wide-wasting winds that chill’d the dreary day,
And seemed to threaten nature with decay,
Reminded man, at every baleful breath,
Of wintry age, and all-subduing death.”¹
These lines have something of the genuine classic roll and swell, and
are fairly natural. To compensate for the dreary prospect outside, the
poet warmed himself at the fire, and resolved to resume his task of
translation.
¹ _Works_, Volume I., pages 151‒152. Introduction, also Volume
III., pages 74‒75.
Douglas’s prologue to the twelfth book contains a picture of May, which
has been much and justly admired. The following lines are taken from a
modernised copy:――
“All gentle hearts confess the quickening spring,
For May invigorates every living thing.
Hark! how the merry minstrels of the grove
Devote the day to melody and love;
The ousel shrill, that haunts the thorny dale,
The mellow thrush, the love-lorn nightingale,
Their little breasts with emulation swell
And sweetly strive in singing to excel.
In the thick forest feeds the cooing dove;
The starling whistles various notes of love;
The sparrow chirps the clefted walls among:
To the sweet wildness of the linnets’ song,
To the harsh cuckoo, and the twittering quail
Resounds the wood, the river, and the vale;
And tender twigs, all trembling on the trees,
Dance to the murmuring music of the bees.”¹
¹ _Ibid._, Volume I., page 155. Introduction, Volume IV., page
84.
Douglas concluded his translation of Virgil by intimating his belief
in the continuance of his fame――“On Virgil’s post I fix for ever more;”
and he then bids farewell to his poetical studies.¹ Several editions
of his works were published in the sixteenth century at London and
Edinburgh, and they were comparatively popular.²
¹ _Ibid._, Volume IV., page 223.
² _Ibid._, Volume I., pages 67‒172. Mr. Small’s edition of
Douglas’s writings is very complete; he has done all that
careful research and scholarship could to present a correct
text, and to illustrate his author. The value of Douglas’s
writings for philological comparison and illustration has
long been fully recognised. See Volume I. Introduction,
pages 162‒166; and also Dr. J. A. Murray’s _Dialects of the
Southern Counties of Scotland_; 1873.
Dunbar and Douglas both belonged to the old form of religion and
society; and there are a few other writers of the same class who have
to be noticed ere we enter the heat of the Reformation era. The method
followed is intended to indicate the lines on which the historical
tendencies were running. While it will appear that the adherents of
Roman Catholicism were not all equally blind to the evils around them;
it will also appear that it has always been an object of the policy
of Romanism to hold the people in leading-strings, though this should
entail the utmost oppression and cruelty.
John Mair, already mentioned in connection with the Universities
of Glasgow and St. Andrews, was born in 1470, at Gleghornie, in the
parish of North-Berwick. It seems that he received the rudiments of
his education at the Grammar School of Haddington, a school which
had attained some note, even in the fourteenth century. In 1493, he
studied one session at the University of Cambridge, and the same year
he crossed the channel, and entered on his studies at the University of
Paris. Mair was an eager and diligent student, and he graduated Master
of Arts in 1496. He continued at the University of Paris, and taught
classes in Logic and Philosophy. In 1505 he graduated as Doctor
of Theology, and became one of the most famous scholastics of his
day, in the character of a Professor and a writer. Mair taught Logic
and Theology in the University of Paris from 1496 till 1518, and
in the latter year he returned to Scotland. On the 25th of June he
was installed as Principal Regent of the College of Glasgow, and he
taught in this College for five years. On the 9th of June 1523, he was
appointed a Regent or Professor in the University of St. Andrews, where
he taught Logic and Philosophy for some time. In 1525 Mair returned to
the University of Paris, where he remained till 1531, and then returned
to St. Andrews and lectured on Theology. In 1533 he was appointed
Provost of St. Salvator’s College, holding this office till his death,
which occurred in 1550. He is the author of a History of Britain in
Latin, a work of considerable value. He wrote also commentaries on
the Book of the Master of Sentences (Peter Lombard); an exposition of
the four Gospels; an Introduction to Aristotle’s Dialectics, and many
other writings. He wrote in Latin, and his style is harsh and uncouth.
But he held some comparatively liberal opinions touching the Church
and civil government. He denied the supremacy of the Pope, and showed
a disposition to limit the power of the censures of the Church; he held
that tithes were merely a human appointment; censured the avarice, the
ambition, and the secular pomp of the Episcopal order; and advised the
reduction of monasteries and holydays.¹ His views of government were
to the effect that kings and princes originally derived their authority
from the people; and that therefore the people were superior to the
King, if considered in their corporate character: that when kings
are tyrannical, or employed their power for the destruction of their
subjects, they may lawfully be controlled by them, and if incorrigible,
might be deposed and even punished by the community. The connection of
these principles with the political opinions afterwards avowed by Knox,
and clearly expounded by Buchanan, is too striking to need further
illustration. Yet, though these liberal and rational sentiments are
embodied in the writings of John Mair, it requires some attention to
disentangle them from the mass of trifling questions and discussions
which fill the pages of his works. The Scottish History Society have
just issued a translation of Mair’s History of Britain. The translation
was executed by Mr. Archibald Constable, who has added many interesting
notes to the work; while a Life of the Author, written by Sheriff
Mackay, is prefixed to it; and also a careful Bibliography of John Mair
and his Disciples, compiled by Mr. T. G. Law, the learned Librarian of
the Signet Library.
¹ Most of Mair’s writings were originally published at Paris;
Watt’s _Bibliotheca_, and Law’s _Bibliography of John Mair_,
appended to the newly issued edition of his _History of
Britain_.
The writings of Boece, the Principal of King’s College, Aberdeen,
are better known than Mair’s. Boece was a good Latinist, and has
an eloquent and charming style. His chief works are the Lives of
♦the Bishops of Mortlach and Aberdeen, and the History of Scotland.
Notwithstanding his learning he was extremely credulous; and in his
history he allowed his fancy a pretty long rein; but the character
of this work is so well known that it is unnecessary to dwell on its
peculiarities. It was published at Paris in 1526, and was afterwards
translated into the Scottish dialect by Bellenden.¹
♦ duplicate word “the” removed
¹ Herbert’s _Typographical Antiquities_, Volume III., pages 14,
71.
John Bellenden was a Catholic churchman, and attained to the rank of
Archdeacon of Moray. Before he was promoted to that position, he had
translated Boece’s History of Scotland into the vernacular, for the
use of James V. He was engaged on this task in 1530 and the three
following years; and at intervals he received from the Treasurer small
sums of money as the reward of his labours. His translation of Boece
is reported to have been printed in 1536, but it is more likely that it
was printed about 1540 by Thomas Davidson, the King’s printer; there is
no date on the book itself. Bellenden’s translation of the first five
books of Livy’s history, which was also produced for the instruction
of the King, was not printed till 1822. About 1537 he was promoted to
the archdeaconry of Moray, and shortly after obtained a prebend in the
cathedral of Ross.¹
¹ _Treasurers’ Accounts_; the Works of J. Bellenden, Volume I.,
pages 39‒41; Introduction, 1822. There is a fine copy of
Bellenden’s translation of Boece’s history in the library of
the University of Edinburgh, printed upon vellum. But “this
valuable volume seems to have been heedlessly committed to
the hands of a tasteless bookbinder, and has, in consequence,
suffered much from those operations known by the name of
cobbling.” Another copy was preserved in the library of the
Duke of Hamilton: “and a more splendid specimen of early
typography, and of antique binding, cannot well be imagined.
The vellum upon which it is printed is stainless――and the
breadth of the margin would satisfy the most fastidious and
princely collector. The boards bear the following inscription,
JACOBUS QUINTUS REX SCOTORUM――and on the title page, the
Initials J. Rx., appear in manuscript. They are in all
probability, in the handwriting of that monarch, to whom the
volume seems to have belonged.” At the sale of the Duke of
Hamilton’s Library in 1884, this fine copy was purchased by
Mr. Bernard Quaritch for £800. Works of Bellenden, Volume I.,
pages 7‒8; Introduction.
Bellenden’s translations are the longest prose compositions in the
Scottish dialect prior to the Reformation that have come down to
our times. His powers of expression were conspicuous, his style is
remarkably fluent and easy, and it often surprises the reader by
touches of vivacity and force. In his version of Boece’s history,
however, he does not adhere closely to his author, and frequently takes
the liberty of curtailing as well as amplifying; but, on the whole
he has improved the original, and rendered it more interesting. To
his translation of Boece’s history he has subjoined an epistle to the
King, which is written with manly freedom, and a few sentences of it
may be quoted as a specimen of the language of the period. “In every
history that men redis, apperis, evidently, the same maneris with the
pepil, which are usit by the King. And sen na thing is, that the pepil
followis with mair imitation, nor kepis in mair recent memory, than
werkis of nobil men; of reason, their besines suld be mair respondent
to virtew, than of any other estatis.... For these reasons, I that hes
bene your humil servitour sen your first infance, hes translatit the
History of Scotland, sen the first beginning thereof, in your vulgar
langage; that your Hienes may know the vailyeant and nobil dedis done
be your progenitouris; and have cognasance how this realm hes bene
governit these one thousand and eight hundred years bygane: which
was nevir subdewit to uncouth empire, but only to the native princis
thereof; howbeit the same hes sustenit gret truble, be weris of Romanis,
Inglismen, and Danis, with sindry chancis of fortoun. Here, may your
hienes understand how your realm suld be governit in justice, and what
persons are maist abil to beir authority or office thairintil.... The
truth is, that kingis and tyrannis hes mony handis, mony ene, and mony
more membris. A tyranne settis him to be dred; a king, to be loved. A
tyrane rejoices to make his pepil poor; a king, to make them rich. A
tyrane draws his pepil to sindry factions, discord, and hatred: a king
makis peace, tranquilite, and concord; knowing nathing sa dammagious as
division amang his subdittis. A tyrane confoundis all divine and humane
lawis; a king observes them, and rejoices in equite and justice....
What is he that will not rejoice to heir the knichtly affaris of thay
forcy compionis, King Robert Bruce, and William Wallace?”¹
¹ _Works_ of J. Bellenden, Volume II., pages 513‒516.
In common with John Mair and a few others of his contemporaries,
Bellenden held liberal political sentiments; although he was not
prepared for any radical change in the national religion, he was well
aware of the vicious lives of many of the clergy. In his proem or
preface to the translation of Boece, he states that the large incomes
of the churches had made the priests more slothful than fervent in
their proper work; and that the wealth of the bishops afforded them
occasion to lead vicious lives. The honest archdean was opposed to
the Reformation movement, but did not live to see it established in
Scotland. He went to Rome, where he died in 1550.¹
¹ _Ibid._, Volume I., page 110, and Introduction, page 42.
The _Complaynt of Scotland_, a very remarkable production, now falls
to be examined. Its authorship has not been exactly ascertained, but
it has been brought within the limit of two or three individuals who
lived in the first half of the sixteenth century. It is, however,
pretty clear that the author of this remarkable book was a Scotchman, a
churchman, and firmly attached to the Roman Catholic faith, and a warm
adherent of the French side in the struggle then raging in Scotland.¹
The work was called forth by the exigencies of the kingdom at the
time of its composition, and this greatly enhances its value. To
the historian it is a book of exceeding importance for the numerous
illustrations of the state of society which it affords, and for the
opinions of the author himself on a variety of matters. He introduces
an extremely multitudinous mass of subjects besides the treatment of
the main theme, and these digressions are very interesting.
¹ Introduction to the _Complaynt_, pages 106‒108, 116. Dr.
Leyden, in his learned and very valuable edition of the
_Complaynt_, has attributed its authorship to Sir David
Lyndsay. But this opinion upon reasonable grounds has been
set aside as untenable. Dr. Laing, in his preface to _The
Gude and Godlie Ballads_, came to the conclusion that
Robert Wedderburn, Vicar of Dundee, was the author of the
_Complaynt_. The question of its authorship, and also the
place of its publication, has since been discussed at great
length by Dr. Murray in his introduction to the edition of
the _Complaynt_ published for the Early English Text Society,
1872. It had been usually stated that the _Complaynt_ was
printed at St. Andrews in 1549; but Dr. Murray, from various
considerations, such as the spelling of certain words and
the absence of the letter W., and the style of type, being
Roman instead of the black letter, in which the old Scottish
books were commonly printed; from these circumstances,
and the fact that the typography of the _Complaynt_ bore
a striking likeness to that of many of the French books of
the sixteenth century, he was led to the conclusion that
the first edition of this book was printed in France. He
also states that the experts in typography at the British
Museum had independently arrived at the conclusion that the
_Complaynt_ was printed in France.
Dr. Murray’s opinion on the authorship is thus stated:――“Sir
David Lyndsay is peremptorily excluded from consideration;
no less so, I think, is Wedderburn, Vicar of Dundee. In
lack of further evidence, the claims of Sir James Inglis
of Cambuskenneth, and some unknown priest of the name of
Wedderburn, are equally balanced, though, if the part of
_Mackenzie’s Life_ which calls Inglis a man of Fyfe belongs
to this Inglis, the evidence of dialect would be against
him.” Touching the question of authorship as thus indicated,
compare Professor Veitch’s view, in the _History and Poetry
of the Scottish Borders_, pages 339‒342.
The _Complaynt of Scotland_ consists of two chief parts, the author’s
discourse concerning the wretched state of his country, and his dream
of Dame Scotia and her complaint against her three sons. But in the
sixth chapter he makes a digression and introduces what he knew of
cosmogony, botany, naval architecture, native songs, dances, and
popular tales. As this part of the book is interesting in connection
with the history of the national ballads and music, after describing
the chief part of the treatise, I will return and touch upon the points
embraced in it, and then conclude the account of the pre-reformation
literature, so far as it was unaffected by the new influences of the
revolutionary movement.
The writer begins his work with an epistle to the Queen mother, Mary of
Lorraine, and, rising to the height of the occasion, extols her virtue
and wisdom. He thinks that her counsel will do something to stave off
the subjection of the nation to their old enemies, the English. He then
proceeds to indicate the causes of their affliction, but soon returns
to the praise of the Queen and her noble ancestors, and continues
in this strain through six pages. To this illustrious person he had
resolved, he says, to dedicate the first work of his pen, and had
experienced some difficulty in deciding what to write about; but after
searching the library of his understanding, he deemed it most meet to
rehearse the miseries of Scotland and their causes. The epistle to the
Queen is followed by a prologue to the reader. He quotes with approval
the ancient laws against idleness; and sets himself to show that the
labour of the pen is no pastime, whatever it may seem. Having a talent
for study and writing, he desires to assist the public-weal by his
pen; as the pen had done more for the Romans than the sword, though
each craft was necessary in a well organised state, and every honest
occupation was equally honourable. He thinks it necessary to make an
apology for writing in the vulgar Scottish dialect; and he states that
several writers before him had mixed their language with uncouth terms,
derived from Latin, and measured their eloquence by the length of their
words;¹ but he, repudiating all such conceits, means to use his natural
Scottish tongue alone. In spite, however, of this declaration, his
work is encumbered with more foreign words than that of any Scottish
writer.² He requests the reader to look favourably upon his intentions,
and thus encourage him to make greater efforts in his next work.
¹ He gives instances of these long words――“gaudet
honorificabilitudinitatibus.” He holds “that all such terms
proceeds from fantastic and glorious conceits.”――_Complaynt
of Scotland_, pages 1‒17.
² The language of the _Complaynt_ has been admirably explained
by Dr. Murray in his Introduction. See pages 96‒106.
The _Complaynt_ extends to twenty chapters, some of which are very
short. The first five chapters are filled with the author’s opinions
upon the fortunes of nations, and the causes of the distress and
suffering which then afflicted Scotland. He avers that rulers are set
up and overturned by Divine Providence; and he supports this view by
instances from Scripture and from profane history, citing the fate
of Troy, Thebes, Sparta, Athens, Rome, and other powers, which had at
one time held empire in the world. He translates several passages from
the Vulgate, which he thinks applicable to the state of Scotland; and
concludes this part of his subject with a hit at the sceptical readers,
who might malignantly say that the threatenings of Moses referred not
to Scotland but to Israel.
He digresses to discuss various opinions concerning the world, its
duration and nature. Many believe, he says, that nothing is lasting
but the world, and are thus led to value temporal good more than
eternal well-being. People speak of the world, and know not what it
is. The ancient philosophers had spent much time in speculating on this
question; and he proceeds to state their opinions about the world. Too
many, he goes on to say, still believed that it would last 37,000 years,
as Socrates had taught, but will that make human life one day longer?
He quotes John Carion’s account of the prophecy of Elijah, to show
that the world will endure only 6000 years; and then states that as
1548 of the last two thousand were already past, there remain but 452
years till the final consummation of all things. Even this period was
to be shortened for the sake of the elect people, though the exact
date is not fixed, and thus the end of the world may be close at
hand. Therefore, as it is so near its end, “it should be held in
detestation,” he argues, “and our thoughts concentrated on the future
eternal happiness that God has promised to all those that hold it in
abomination.”¹
¹ Pages 31‒36.
“The Vision of Dame Scotia” opens in the seventh chapter, and occupies
the rest of the book. In somewhat figurative language he describes the
nobles, the clergy, and the people, all of whom were in a most wretched
state. He begins the eighth chapter by making more direct charges of
degeneracy, selfishness, and want of patriotism amongst all classes
of the Scots. Next, he draws a very natural picture of the condition
of the kingdom, reproaches the men who had sacrificed their country
for their own private interest, and refers to the feuds of the Scots
among themselves, and affirming that some of them had yielded to the
English and become vile slaves.¹ Having expressed his indignation, he
proceeds in the ninth chapter to urge the Scots to pray to God and help
themselves, to repent and prosper, and recited for their encouragement
the examples of several countries whose struggle for independence had
been successful. Next he briefly notices some of the wars of the Jews
as recorded in the Bible; recounts Darius’ invasion of Greece, and
his discomfiture by Miltiades; and how the great host of Xerxes, the
King of Persia, was bravely encountered by the Greeks, and ultimately
compelled to beat a retreat. He recalls to the mind of his countrymen
and bids them consider how the English were driven out of France. But
now it is manifest, he says, that the English have violently usurped
all Scotland, in the east, in the west, and in the north, where they
are dwelling peaceably under their own laws. In the days of Edward I.
they had done the same thing; though, with the aid of God, Robert
Bruce had driven them out of the kingdom. “Therefore I hope in God
that within a short time the Protector of England and his cruel
council shall be put in the chronicles in as abominable a style as was
Philaris, Dionysius, Nero, Callugala, or Domician, the which came to a
mischievous end, for the violent invasion of other princes’ countries
without any just cause.”
¹ After the battle of Pinkie, in September, 1547, the Duke
of Somerset received the homage of many of the chiefs and
gentry of the Eastern Borders; and the English warden of
the West Marches brought most of the clans of the west under
assurance. Their submission, however, lasted only till the
arrival of the French auxiliaries in 1549. But when the
_Complaynt_ was written the whole inhabitants of the border
counties were living under the English. Dr. Murray’s
Introduction, page 37.
The tenth chapter begins with an attack upon a book, set forth by the
English orators and their Protector, in which, though the grounds of
the claim were frivolous, the English wished to show to foreign princes
that they had a just title to make war upon Scotland; but our author
remarks that realms are not conquered by books, but with blood.¹
Englishmen, he said, gave more credence to the prophecies of Merlin
than to the Gospel, “because that their old prophet prophesied that
England and Scotland should be both under one prince.” The author
himself believed that this would come to pass, but not in his day, nor
in the way that the English expected; since they were to be conquered
by the Scots: “And from that time forth, England and Scotland shall be
but one monarchy, and shall live under one prince; and so Englishmen
shall get their prophecy fulfilled to their own mischief.”
¹ The particular book meant by the author has not been
ascertained, but four English pamphlets have come down to
us, which answer to his description, and were evidently in
the author’s mind here and in other parts of the Complaynt:
these pamphlets are printed as an appendix to Dr. Murray’s
edition, see pages 191‒256.
At the beginning of the eleventh chapter he introduces a rather
sweeping mode of treating the English claim; and yet it had a strain of
historic truth. He proposes to examine their title to England and what
they were themselves, and comes to the conclusion that they were the
descendants of Sergest and Hengest, the two Saxons who came to assist
the King of Britain in his wars, and after a short time, treacherously
dispossessed him. Ever since, this false race have possessed the
country by violence and tyranny; and most of the English kings have
murdered their predecessors. Henry I. was banished from the throne;
Henry III. was driven from it by his second son, Richard; King John was
a murderer; Edward II. and Richard II., perished miserably; Henry VI.
was murdered; Richard III. slew the children of Edward IV., and Henry
VII. obtained the crown of England by the support of the King of France;
so that not one of them had a just title to the throne of England, much
less to Scotland. “All this if well considered, should inflame your
hearts with courage to resist their cruel assaults, and to maintain by
valour the just defence of your native country. Ye know how they and
their forefathers have been your old mortal enemies for twelve hundred
years, making cruel war against your ancestors by fire and sword,
daily destroying your fields, villages, and burghs, with a firm purpose
to strip Scotland from your generation ... constantly lying in wait
against you, and taking advantage of your dissensions.” He exhorts his
countrymen to remove the causes of discord among themselves; and asks
what castle could be kept against besiegers, if mortal strife raged
within it among the defenders? He calls on them to remember the valour
of their forefathers, and to take an example from the noble deeds of
those, who in bygone ages had often been harder pressed than they were.
He tells the Scots that their enemies would not have troubled them,
if their own discord had not opened the way; and implores them to
make a final effort before their wives and daughters were ravished,
their property seized; their ruin complete, and the nation for ever
enslaved. After reminding them of the treatment to which the English
had subjected Ireland and Wales, he warns them to expect nothing better
at the hands of their old enemies. The King of England was of Welsh
descent, yet the Welsh were subjected to all kinds of oppression. So
likewise the English have oppressed Ireland, for the chief men of that
country have been beheaded, and the people enslaved, excepting the few
who had fled and found a refuge in the wilds. But a still harder yoke,
he argues, will be put on the necks of the Scots who help England to
subdue their native land――“As King Edward in the black parliament at
the barns of Ayr hanged sixteen score of his Scottish adherents; so
in 1547 the Protector Somerset intended to repeat this feat ... for
the invader had brought to Scotland two barrels full of halters, each
with a loop ready-made to receive its victim.... Though the English
King patronises the renegade Scots, he would be well pleased if every
Scotsman had another in his stomach; as he merely uses them for his own
ends, he loved the treason that suited his purpose, but not the traitor
that committed it.”
In the thirteenth chapter the author discusses the familiarity between
the English and the Scots, and its evil effects. This familiarity arose
from the intercourse of the people on the borders, and was contrary to
the laws both of England and Scotland. No two nations, he asserts, were
more unlike each other than the English and the Scots, though they were
neighbours and spoke the same language. “For Englishmen are subtle,
and Scotsmen are facile. Englishmen are ambitious in prosperity, and
Scotsmen are humane in prosperity. Englishmen are humble when they are
subjected by force and violence, and Scotsmen are furious when they
are violently subjected. Englishmen are cruel when they get victory,
and Scotsmen are merciful when they get victory.... Their natures and
conditions are as different as is the natures of sheep and wolves.”
He came to the conclusion that there should be no familiarity between
them; as familiarity between enemies is sure to beget treason, and the
King of England had tampered with several Scottish gentlemen. There
were also some traitors who revealed the secret plans of the Scottish
Council to the King of England; so when the Lords of Council resolved
on any matter, within twenty-four hours a full account of it was in
Berwick, and three days after the Berwick post presented it in London:
thus the English were ready to thwart the purpose of the Scots, even
before it was entered upon. He regretted that there were Scotsmen who
would reveal every secret of their country rather than burn a finger
of their gloves. But, lest persuasion and invective should both fail
to arrest the Scottish traitors, he quoted various classical and
Scriptural instances to show that traitors and conspirators were always
punished even by those who have profited most by their treason.¹ He
devoted the whole of the fourteenth chapter to the illustration of the
subject.
¹ The authorities cited by the author of the _Complaynt_
are the following:――Aristotle, Politics; St. Augustine,
Boccaccio, Bœthius, Carion’s Chronicle; Cato, Cicero,
De Officiis, Parody, De Finibus, Epistolæ; Diodorus,
Josephus, Justin, Juvenal, Lactantius, Livy, Mimus Publianus,
Persius, Philiremo Fregoso, Plutarch, Priest of Peebles,
Sallust, Seneca the Tragedian, Thucydides, Valerius Maximus,
Vincentius, besides many references to the Civil and Canon
Law, to the Annals of Rome, and to the Old and New Testament,
the Vulgate version. The author of the _Complaynt_ was
familiar with Lydgate’s translation of Boccaccio, and
frequently used it. Dr. Murray observes, “That in no case
does the original of any Greek author appear to be quoted in
the _Complaynt_: Greek was only struggling for recognition
at Oxford and Cambridge; and it was not till after the
Reformation that it became an ordinary acquirement of the
scholar.” _Introduction_, pages 30‒31, 67‒68.
In the fifteenth chapter he enters on another side of the state of
Scotland――the commons and the people state their grievances against the
nobles and the clergy. I referred to this chapter before, and will now
give a summary of its contents, as it is one of the most valuable parts
of the book. The industrious husbandmen and the labourers pour forth
their lamentations against the oppressive exactions of the landlords
and the clergy. The people are, like dull asses, kicked and goaded, and
made the butt of every dart. They are compelled to labour night and day
to feed lazy and useless men, who, in return, oppress them and fleece
them even to beggary. The nobles and the clergy are described as more
cruel to them than the English invaders. Their corn and cattle are
daily reft from them, and they themselves turned out of their holdings.
“They were forced to lend to the tyrants above them, and when they
asked for the debt, they were cuffed or killed. There was a cry for
war against England, but the brunt of it really fell upon the poor
labourers; and there was no help for them in Scotland, except to pray
to God that He would take vengeance upon their oppressors. For it is to
be presumed that the lamentable voice and cries of the afflicted people
complaining to heaven, will move to pity the clemency of the most
merciful and puissant divine Creator, who, through His eternal justice,
will crush in confusion all violent usurpers that perpetrate such cruel
iniquities upon the desolate and poor people. Therefore, oh! my country,
since I am in danger of death, and despairing of my life, necessity
drives and constrains me to call on God, and to desire vengeance
on them that persecute me, in hope that He will relieve me, or else
take me out of this miserable life, for the ingratitude of the nobles
and the clergy.” He goes on to say that they had misgoverned the
kingdom, and brought the people into this dire extremity, yet they were
displeased because the people murmured, though they did not desist from
wrongdoing. These proud men, it is said, would fain have it believed
that they were the progeny of angels and archangels, instead of the
common sons of Adam. How baseless is the boast of blood! “Let it be
tested. The stock of the first genealogy of all the nobles that has
been since the world began has been poor labourers and mechanical
craftsmen; and God grant that these arrogant ones may have grace to
know themselves. For in the past all conspiracies have been originated
and fomented by the great, as treason is impossible among the poor.”
No one can read this chapter without perceiving that the author has
felt keenly for the hard lot of the common people; albeit, in the next
chapter he looks at the other side of the shield, and he is equally
severe on the faults of the people themselves. The commonalty are
described as deserving punishment as much as their betters, and are not
fit for liberty; if they had the opportunity, they would be worse than
the others. Their meetings were usually scenes of uproar; “where they
scolded and barked without rhyme or reason all the day long.” They
follow the most blatant prater like sheep, were fickle in their minds,
and the counsel of ten prudent men was better than all the wisdom of
the commons. Their judgment is worthless, as they jump to conclusions
at first sight, and are worse than the brute beasts. They are
intemperate, lustful, and steady only when forced. When any of them
rise in the world, they were much worse than the higher classes, and
their children are ignorant, vain, prodigal and arrogant. The chapter
closes with an old piece of advice to the commons, that they should
correct themselves before they accuse the nobles and the clergy.
In the seventeenth chapter he turns again to the vices of the nobles,
and begins by saying that the faults of the people should not make
the nobles glory. He shortly shows that they have no ground for
glorification, and he declares that they have scarcely a spark of
nobleness or gentleness in them. To make this quite clear, he discusses
the origin of gentlemen, speaks of the golden age, when habits were
simple and men’s tastes natural; when the people drank no wine nor
beer, nor yet disordered their appetites with spices, herbs, drugs,
gums, or sugar, brought from distant lands. There was no difference
of conditions, and all being equal, they all lay together in a corner
without any shame or offence. But, since the iron age, which now
reigns, was ushered in, everything has been perverted, and though
many expedients have been tried to mitigate suffering, there has been
comparatively little success.
True nobility is not hereditary, and when the descendants of nobles
cease to perform worthy deeds, they deserve to be degraded from their
privileged position. It is far better to be virtuous one’s self than
to attempt to draw one’s lineage from the virtuous; even the son of
a prince if he lacks virtue is not a gentleman. Some gentlemen are
ashamed that their ancestors were plebeians. But how vain is the boast
of high ancestry, as the longest line must begin in mud and clay. Men
therefore should have as their armorial bearings dust, ashes, and earth.
“As they must all return to their common and general mother the earth,
and she makes no acceptation of persons nor differences of qualities
between gentlemen and mechanics, but receives them all indifferently in
her domicile and receptacle. Then when the corrupted flesh is consumed
from the bones, no man can distinguish a prince from a beggar.”
He becomes very serious on the character of the nobles, but from other
sources of information it seems that his description of them is not
much overdrawn. “It appears that when your noble predecessors died,
they took their virtue and gentility with them to their sepultures, and
they left nothing with you but the title of their gentle rank.... For I
see nothing among gentlemen but vice. For honesty is spotted, ignorance
is praised, prudence is scorned, and chastity is banished; the nights
are too short to gentlemen to commit their lecheries, and the days
are too short to them to commit extortions upon the poor people. Their
blasphemy of the name of God corrupts the ear. The prodigal pride that
reigns among them is detestable, not only in costly dress above their
state, but also in the prodigal expenses that they incur on horses and
dogs, above their rents or riches. A man is not reputed for a gentleman
in Scotland unless he expends more on his horses and his dogs than he
does on his wife and children.... There are too many horses in Scotland,
like Diomede’s horse, that eats the poor people; and there are too many
dogs in Scotland that worries their master, as Actæon was worried.”
The nineteenth chapter treats of the shortcomings of the clergy, but
the treatment of them is not so severe as that of the nobles and the
people. The author makes general charges against the spiritual estate,
and speaks of abuses prevailing among them; but his reproof of the
priesthood is not so distinctly put or thrust home as his complaints
against the other classes. From this it has been inferred that the
author was himself an ecclesiastic.¹ Probably he was a member of the
spiritual class; at least, be was firmly attached to the Roman Catholic
faith, and a hater of schism; though his sagacity enabled him to see
the folly of burning heretics.
¹ Dr. Murray’s Introduction, pages 60‒63.
The abuses of the clergy had caused dissension between them and the
temporal estate. “For the clergy and the nobles lived like cats and
dogs barking at each other, therefore there is not one of you better
than another.... Doubtless thy abuse, and the sinister ministration
of thy office, is the special cause of the schism and of the diverse
sects that troubles all Christendom. Howbeit, though the root of these
schisms and sects are in Germany, Denmark, and England, nevertheless
the branches of them are spread athwart all Christian realms in such
a way that they have more adherents nor adversaries, for diverse men
desire a part of the temporal patrimony of the kirk, because of the
abuse and evil example of the churchmen. And this plague of schism
can never be reformed by any statutes, laws, punishments, banishings,
burning, forfeiting, nor torment that can be devised till the time
that the clergy reform themselves. Therefore, if the clergy were as
solicitous to reform and correct their own malversation as they are
solicitous to punish those that detract and murmur at their obstinate
abuses, certainly the example of their good conversation would
extinguish and supplant more hastily all perverted opinions and schism,
than all the punishment that Christendom can execute. While the clergy
remain in their present state, the punishment which they execute upon
schismatics may be fitly compared to a man that casts oil on a burning
fire in hope to extinguish it and to drown it out, the which oil
makes the fire more bold than it was before. The evidence of this is
manifest; for as soon as there is a person slain, burnt, or banished
for holding perverted opinions, immediately there rises up three in his
place; therefore such punishment may be compared to a serpent called
hydra, which had seven heads.” He tells the clergy to unite together
and reform their scandalous lives and the abuses that reign amongst
themselves.
The author of the _Complaynt_ shows sound judgment in his remarks on
the burning of heretics. He informs his brethren that they have more to
fear from England than from the laity; and proceeds to show that Henry
VIII. hated the English clergy, and that those of Scotland need expect
no more mercy at his hands. He therefore counsels the clergy, at least
all who were able-bodied, to cast aside their cowls and long robes
and buckle themselves with steel jackets and coats of mail, and go
boldly into the battle against the English army of vile heretics and
excommunicated infidels.¹
¹ The author said that all classes were bound by every law,
human and divine, to fight for their country――“Then why
should priests or friars allege exemptions, saying that
their profession obliges them to sing and say, to preach
and pray, and not to fight in battle,” pages 161‒164.
He begins the twentieth and last chapter by stating that the intestine
strife which was raging in Scotland had done her more injury than all
the armies of England; and he concludes his work with a general address
to the various ranks of the Scots, in which he illustrates his views by
historical examples at great length; and ends by telling them that God
will help them, if they help themselves.
The author of the _Complaynt_ displays much knowledge of the world,
and considerable learning for his age and country. His style of remark
is shrewd and striking, and his illustrations are often apposite,
and sometimes exceedingly happy. He exhibits a very keen relish for
invective, and occasionally he makes telling hits. His phraseology is
not nearly so coarse as that of many of his contemporaries.
It has been inferred that the sixth chapter, as it now stands, is
mainly an addition made by the author when his work was passing
through the press, and inserted as a piece of attractive reading.
This chapter opens with the description of a walk which he took among
the green fields. He passed to the foot of a hill where there was a
stream teeming with fishes, and overhung by a wooded bank, amid which
the melodious songs of birds charmed his ear. He then entered a forest,
and listened to the cries of the animals and the fowls of the air. From
this scene he passed to the seashore, and there he saw a naval conflict
between a galley and another ship. His description of the scene is very
minute and animated. He repeats the sea cries then in use, and gives
a list of the artillery and firearms known in Scotland in the early
part of the sixteenth century. Leaving the two vessels enveloped in
the smoke of powder, he returns to the fresh fields. He then proceeds
to relate the current opinions of the age about the universe, the
motions of the sun, the moon, the fixed stars, and the planets; and
astrology as well as astronomy engaged his attention. After discoursing
learnedly on these exalted subjects, he concludes this part of his
work in the following words:――“All these things before rehearsed, of
the circles of the sphere, and of the heavens and planets, is said
to cause you to consider that mankind is subject to the planets and
their influences; therefore we should prepare and provide to resist
these evil constellations. For, howbeit, that they are the instruments
of God, yet, nevertheless, He of his goodness resists their evil
influences from the time that we become obedient to his command.”
The latter half of this chapter is very valuable, as he introduces
into it a list of the popular tales, songs, ballads, and dances,
then popular among the Scots. The names, or titles, of forty-eight
tales were recorded, the names of thirty-seven songs, or ballads, and
the names of about thirty dance-tunes. Altogether the list contains
one hundred and sixteen titles of distinct things of the character
indicated.¹ These lists are important in connection with the history of
our popular literature, as they afford the earliest date for many tales,
ballads, and tunes; although a tale or a ballad is only mentioned in
the briefest terms, still it is evidence that they existed, at least,
in the first half of the sixteenth century.
¹ The lists were analysed by Dr. Leyden in his introduction to
the _Complaynt_, and by Mr. Furnivall in his introduction to
_Captain Cox, his Ballads and Books_, edited by him for the
Ballad Society, 1871; and Dr. Murray has given a very useful
summary of the list, chiefly drawn from the above sources.
See Introduction to the _Complaynt_, pages 73‒96. Sir David
Lyndsay mentions several of the tales enumerated in the
_Complaynt_. Those who wish to become familiar with this
interesting department of early British literature will
now have little difficulty of finding ample materials,
which have been rendered accessible in a printed form by
the various book clubs and societies both of England and
Scotland.
CHAPTER XXI.
_The Literature of the Reformation,
and the latter part of the Sixteenth Century._
IN the preceding pages an account was given of the pre-reformation
literature of Scotland; in this chapter the class of writings more
immediately associated with the revolution will be treated. In this
connection, the writings of Sir David Lyndsay had more influence among
the people in hastening on the Reformation than those of any other man
of the age in Scotland. It is a singular and notable fact that Lyndsay
was not interfered with, nor accused of heresy in the Church, though he
made many bold attacks upon the priesthood and the corrupted doctrine
of the Roman Church: probably it was his rank and position that saved
him from the heresy hunters of the times. Whether he ever actually
renounced his general adherence to the Roman Catholic faith is
uncertain. His name, however, is always reckoned among those of the
early adherents of the Scottish Reformation. His death took place
before the reformed party in Scotland had assumed a distinct attitude
toward the government of the kingdom, or had even formed themselves
into an open congregation; but, if he cannot be exactly counted as one
of the Protestant Reformers, we must at least regard him as a great
power in preparing the national mind for the reception of the radical
revolution, which triumphed in Scotland within a few years after his
death.¹ In fact, Lyndsay was a real and worthy Reformer. He openly
and bravely stood up and exposed the abuses of the government of his
country, and held up to scorn the corruptions of the Church; he was
not afraid to denounce the host of traditions, of puerile fancies, and
inherited prejudices, which had been venerated for centuries; he felt
keenly for the hard lot of the toiling mass of his countrymen, and the
whole force of his nature and power over the language was thrown into
his writings, with the aim of mitigating the suffering of the people.
Having honestly faced the storm, he has had his reward in the grateful
remembrance of succeeding generations.
¹ _Poetical Works_ of Sir D. Lyndsay, edited by Dr. Laing,
2 Volumes, 1871, _Memoir_, Volume I., pages 45‒50. “Had
Lyndsay survived for a few years beyond the actual term
of his life, we need scarcely doubt he would have joined
himself to the Lords of the Congregation in the abjuration
of Popery; but it cannot be said that, at any period of
his life, he had actually renounced his general adherence
to the Romish Faith.” Compare Dr. M‘Crie’s _Life of Knox_,
pages 17, 25, 324; 1855. “His poems were very famous among
his countrymen; but they were admired not so much for their
poetical charms as for their powerful help to the good
cause of the Reformation.”――Minto’s _Characteristics of the
English Poets_, pages 143‒144.
Little is known about the early days of Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount;
but it appears that he was employed at the court of Scotland during the
greater part of his life. For a period of nearly fifty years, excepting
the short time that the Earl of Angus held James V. in captivity,
Lyndsay seems to have been constantly engaged in various offices in the
royal household. About the year 1529, he was appointed chief Herald,
or Lyon King of Arms, as it is called, and he held this office till his
death. In the latter part of the reign of James V. he was occasionally
sent on foreign embassies in the service of the government. He died
about the year 1555.¹
¹ Dr. Laing’s _Memoir_, pages 12‒22, 29, Chalmers’s Edition of
the Poetical Works of Sir D. Lyndsay, Volume I., pages 11‒14,
17, 36; 1806.
Lyndsay was not a great poet nor a man of very remarkable genius;
all his works had practical aims, and were intended to produce moral
results. He was well informed, familiar with the history of his own and
other countries, and his writings are interspersed with many historical
allusions. He had a fund of genuine humour, and his satire is often
pungent and stinging; but his taste was rather coarse, which, however,
was partly the fault of his age, and sprang out of the state of society.
If his style had been pitched on a higher key, it is certain that his
writings would not have been so popular, and that his influence as
a reformer must have been greatly circumscribed. Some of Lyndsay’s
productions were printed in his own lifetime, but it is uncertain if
any of the existing early impressions had the advantage of his own
revision when passing through the press.¹ The earliest collection of
his writings extant is the edition which was published in France in
1558. From this date to the year 1614 there was no fewer than fourteen
editions of his works published, including the two French and the three
English ones. His writings were not only very popular among all ranks
of the Scots; they were also well received in England and France, and
were printed in Holland and in Ireland. It is reported that his poems
were read by the children in the schools,² but there is little evidence
of this; though for three or four generations his writings were to be
found in almost every household throughout the kingdom.
¹ “Some of his works were undoubtedly circulated during
his own life in a printed form, but of the existing early
impressions, it cannot positively be asserted that any one
of them had the advantage of his own superintendence.” Dr.
Laing’s edition, Preface. Volume I., page 1.
² Chalmers said that Lyndsay’s poetical works were read in
the schools. _Works_ of Sir David Lyndsay, Volume I., pages
83‒91.
In the days of Lyndsay the orthography of the vernacular language was
not definitely fixed, and the spelling of the same word is often varied
in his writings. He sometimes makes violent changes in words to suit
the necessity of his rhyme, and occasionally carries this so far as to
obscure the sense. But he had a copious command of words, and used a
great variety of all sorts of terms. His chief object was to instruct
and to make himself intelligible to the common people; in his own
words――
“Howbeit that divers devote cunning clerks
In Latine tongue has written sundrie books,
Our unlearned knows little of their works,
More than they do the ravying of the rooks.
Wherefore to colliers, carters, and to cooks,
To Jok and Thome my rhyme sall be directed,
With cunning men howbeit it will be lacked.”¹
¹ _Poetical Works_, Volume I., page 248, Dr. Laing’s edition;
see also pages 65‒66, 231. In those days it was common to
make apologetic prefaces for composing works in the vulgar
tongue; the great Chaucer deemed it needful to do this, also
Lydgate, Gavin Douglas, and the author of the _Complaynt
of Scotland_, as already mentioned; even in the reign of
Charles I., Abacue Bysett, in the preface to the _Rolment
of Courtes_, apologised for “using my awin natural Scottish
language.”
He went on to state that when the Romans held universal sway, “the
ornate Latin was their proper lingo;” but if St. Jerome, who translated
the Scriptures into Latin, had been born in Argyle, he assuredly
would have written his books in Gaelic. He argues that all the books
necessary for the commonweal and our salvation should be translated
into the language of the people. His works are full of moral sentences
and proverbial phrases, but many of his words are obsolete, and others
which he freely used are regarded as profane slang; in fact, some of
his expressions can only be characterised as swearing at large; on the
whole, his language gives a sad impression of the state of society in
pre-reformation times.
Lyndsay’s first poem, “The Dreme,” in which he began his attack
upon the clergy and the Church, was written in 1528. It contains a
deplorable picture of the religious orders. Pride had usurped the
place of humility amongst them, sensual pleasure had banished chastity;
the lords of religion were more absorbed in counting their money than
in observing their rule and attending to their duty, as ambition had
so utterly blinded them. In his _Complaynt_, written in 1529, and
addressed to the King, Lindsay warns his royal master to keep his
eyes upon the clergy, to cause them to perform their functions, to
preach and to administer the sacraments according to the injunctions
of Christ, to put aside their vain traditions by which the silly people
were deluded, as in praying to graven images, and making superstitious
pilgrimages, expressly against the Lord’s command. He recalls the
examples of the kings of Israel, who were punished for assenting to
idolatry, and then instances David and Solomon, who suffered no images
to stand in the Temple, and their reward was heavenly bliss, which
should also be granted to the King of Scotland if he followed in their
footsteps.¹
¹ _Poetical Works_, Volume I., pages 39, 59‒60. All the
references are to Dr. Laing’s edition, unless otherwise
noted.
Lyndsay’s next production, “The Testament and Complaynt of the King’s
Papyngo,” that is, the king’s parrot, was written in 1530. He brings
out this bird to laugh at clerical persons and the attendants of the
court, and uses his satirical faculty with much effect, ridiculing in
turn the courtiers, flatterers, and clergy. One of the latter is made
to reply in these words:――
“No marvell is, though we religious men
Degenerated be, and in our life confused:
But sing, and drink, none other craft we ken,
Our spiritual Fathers has us so abused:
Against our will, these swindlers been intrusted.
* * * * *
Great pleasure were to hear a bishop preach,
A Deane, or Doctor in Divinity,
An Abbot who could well his convent teach,
A Parson flowing in philosophy:
I tine my time, to wish what will not be;
Were not the preaching of the Begging Friars
Tint were the faith among the Seculars.
As for their preaching, said the parrot,
I them excuse, for why, they been so thrall
To Property, and her worthy daughters two,
Dame Riches, and fair lady Sensuall,
That may not use no pastime spirituall;
And in their habits, they take such delite,
They have renounced russat and raploch¹ white.”²
¹ A coarse woollen cloth.
² _Poetical Works_, Volume I., pages 99, 101. “The first
edition of this poem, and indeed of any of Lyndsay’s poems,
is that printed at London by John Byddell in the year 1538.”
Dr. Laing.
The “Supplication to the King, in Contemplation of Side Tails,” is an
extremely curious commentary on the dress of the period. Lyndsay here
directs his satire against the long trains and veiled faces of the
ladies; but rarely lets slip an opportunity of having a fling at the
clergy and the monastic orders, as the following lines bear witness:――
“But, I think most abuse,
To see men of religion,
Gar beir their tails throw the street,
That folks may behold their feet,
I trow Sanct Bernard nor Sanct Blais,
Gart never man beir up thair clais;
Peter, nor Paul, nor Sanct Andrew,
Gart nevir beir up thair tails, I trow,
But, I laugh best to see a Nun,
Gar beir her tails abone her bun,
For nothing else as I suppose,
But for to show her lily white hose:
In all thair rules they will not find,
Who should beir up their tails behind.”
To show the power of fashion, he asserts that even moorland Meg, who
milked the ewes, will immediately counterfeit the queen’s dress, and
have her kirtle with its tail wherever she goes. In summer when the
streets are dry, the long tails of the ladies’ dresses raise such a
dust, he says, that no one can walk near them without covering their
mouth and nose and eyes, and many other rather comical effects of
wearing long tails are noticed.¹
¹ _Poetical Works_, Volume I., pages 130‒135.
In the short poem “Kitteis Confession,” Lindsay directed his satire
against auricular confession, and exposes this source of priestly
influence with much pungency and some happy touches of humour. He
pursued a similar end in “the Tragedie of the Cardinal,” but with less
spirit and energy. To a rather general account of Cardinal Beaton’s
life, and his end in the castle of St. Andrews, he adds an admonition
and a warning to the bishops, and another to princes; the latter
concludes with the following:――
“Wherefore I counsel every Christian king,
Within his realm to make reformation,
And suffer no more rogues to reign
Abuse Christ’s true congregation:
Failing thereof, I make narration,
That ye princes, and prelates, all at once,
Shall burnt be in hell, soul, blood, and bones.”¹
¹ _Poetical Works_, pages 136‒140, 157. The tragedy of “The
Cardinal” was printed at London in 1547. In the prologue
to this composition, Lyndsay referred to a work on
Boccaccio――“The Fall of Princes,” which was translated into
English by Lydgate, and published at London in 1494, and
again in 1527.
The most remarkable of all Lyndsay’s works is his play, “The Satire of
the Three Estates.” It is a curious production, and in the history of
dramatic literature comes under the class of what is called moralities
or moral plays.¹ In its construction a number of real and allegorical
characters are brought upon the scene, such as king humanitas,
diligence, wantonness, good counsel, the bishop, the abbot, and the
parson; the shoemaker and his wife, the tailor and his wife, the cottar
and his wife, the old man, common theft, oppression, and many other
mixed characters. Much ingenuity in the marshalling of these various
characters is displayed in order to suit the action of the play;
though it is hardly possible for such a multitudinous rally to exhibit
a natural succession of incidents throughout so long a performance.
The action of the play, however, is sustained with wonderful spirit,
and occasionally with comic effect. The characters sometimes express
themselves in very coarse and obscene language, and there is much of
what would be called swearing, and would not be tolerated on the stage
of the present day or anywhere else; yet, there is not the slightest
reason to doubt that the “Satire of the Three Estates” is a pretty
faithful representation of the state of society in Scotland in
pre-reformation times.
¹ The full title is――“Ane Pleasant Satire of the Three Estates,
in Commendation of Virtue and Vituperation of Vice.”
The play, as its title imported, is a satire on the chief ranks of the
kingdom. But, as usual with Lyndsay, the burden of his rhyme and the
force of his lash falls upon the religious orders. He proceeds from
point to point, and charges them with a catalogue of immoralities which
is appalling. The bishops, with their lordly riches and immoral modes
of life, are represented in the most glaring colours, as are also the
abuses of their courts and the oppressions of the poor people. The
pardoner and his ways of extorting money are handled with boldness and
effect. It is forcibly shown that the priesthood had entirely neglected
to instruct the people in the religion of Christ; and that most of the
clergy were utterly ignorant of the Scriptures. It must be added that
the language itself which imparts this information affords evidence of
the fearful corruption of the nation: the profane swearing, the obscene
words and phrases, the extreme licentiousness, and the lack of delicacy,
which pervades the performance, all shows that there was great need for
a reformation.
In the course of the play the abbot is called upon to tell how he has
performed the duties of his office, and he replies in these words:
“Touching my office, I say to you plainly,
My monks and I, we live richt easily;
There is no monks, from Carrick to Crail,
That fairs better, and drinks more helsum ale.
My prior is a man of great devotion:
Therefore, daily, he gets a double portion.”
Next, the abbot is asked how he has kept his three vows, and returns
this answer:――
“Indeed, richt well, till I got home my bulls,
In my abbey, when I was sure professor;
Then did I live, as did my predecessor.
My parmours are both as fat and fair,
As any wench intill the town of Ayr.
I send my sons to Paris to the schools,
I trust in God that they shall be no fools.
And all my daughters I have well provided.
Now judge ye if my office be well guided.”¹
¹ _Works_, Volume II., pages 263, 264. For evidence that the
monks lived luxuriously and drank large quantities of ale
and wine, see Mackintosh’s _History of Civilisation in
Scotland_, Volume I., pages 431, 433. New Ed., 1892.
On being asked whether he can preach, the Parson replies:――
“Though I preach not, I play at the caiche:¹
I wait there is not one among you all,
More fairly can play at the football;
And for the carts, the tables, and the dice,
Above all parsons, I may bear the prize.
Our round bonnets, we make them now four-nuicked,
Of richt fine stuff, if you list, come and luke it.
Of my office I have declared to thee;
Speir what ye please, ye get no more of me.”²
¹ A game of hand-ball.
² Lyndsay’s _Works_, Volume II., pages 264, 265.
There was no theatre at the time in Scotland, and the satire of the
“Three Estates” was acted in the open air, upon the green. It was first
played at Linlithgow, on the 6th of January, 1540, in the presence of
the King and Queen, the ladies of the court, the bishops, and a great
assemblage of the people. It was again acted at Cupar Fife, on the
playfield, about the year 1552; and at Edinburgh in 1554, before the
Queen Regent, the nobles, and a large gathering of the people. On
the latter occasion the performance of the play began at nine in the
morning and continued till six at night; but it appears from the play
itself that there were short intervals, when the chief auditory retired
for refreshments.¹
¹ _Works_, Volume I., pages 33‒35, Preface. Volume II., pages
346‒348, and Chalmers’s edition, Volume I., pages 356‒358.
Dr. Laing holds that there is no evidence that Lyndsay’s
play was acted at Cupar in 1535, as had been supposed by
Chalmers and others.
Some information respecting dramatic exhibitions of the period may be
obtained from the records of Edinburgh. According to these, in June,
1554, the provost and council ordered the treasurer to pay the workmen,
the merchants, the carters, and others, who furnished the gear to the
convoy of the moirs to the abbey, and for the play which was acted
the same day, the sum of thirty-seven pounds, sixteen shillings, and
fourpence, “provided always that the master of work deliver to the dean
of guild the hand-scene and canvass, to be kept to the behoof of the
town.” On the 27th of the same month the treasurer was ordered to pay
the sum of twenty-four pounds for the making of the playing place.
On the 20th of July the town council ordered the payment of forty-two
pounds, thirteen shillings, and fourpence, to complete the playfield
“now building in the Greenside.” On the 18th of August the council
directed that the twelve minstrels who passed before the convoy and the
players on Sunday last should be paid forty shillings. The play-gear
it seems belonged to the town, as the council ordered the treasurer
to pay Walter Binning the sum of five pounds for making the play-gear,
painting the hand-scene and the players’ faces, “provided always that
the said Walter make the play-gear underwritten, forthcoming to the
town, when required, and which he has now received――eight play-hats, a
king’s crown, a mitre, a fool’s hood, a sceptre, a pair of angel-wings,
two angel-hair, and a chaplet of triumph.”¹ On the occasion of Queen
Mary’s marriage with the Dauphin of France in 1558, the magistrates
of Edinburgh voted various sums of money for plays and triumphs;² and
there are many indications that the people delighted in rude plays and
pageants.
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume II., pages 193, 195,
196, 197, 198, 199.
² _Ibid._, Volume III., pages 26, 28. So different was the
progress of the drama in England and Scotland, that before
the year 1633 nineteen playhouses had been opened in London,
while on our side of the Border there was hardly one worth
the name of a theatre.――Percy’s _Essay on the Origin of the
English Stage_, page 151.
Sir David Lyndsay’s other works are “Squire Meldrum,” and “The
Monarchy” or “A Dialogue between Experience and a Courtier of the
miserable Estate of the World.” The first is a kind of rhymed tale of
chivalry, though the hero of the story lived at the time, and Lyndsay
reported that he received some of his information from the lips of the
champion himself; and thus by a mixture of fact and romance, he has
woven a long and pretty animated poem. The many exploits of the heroic
squire are narrated with much energy throughout a performance extending
to nearly two thousand lines.¹ In 1553 Lyndsay finished his longest
work, the Monarchy, which extends to 6333 lines. In this work, his
chief object seems to have been, to make use of the great events
recorded in history for the purpose of illustrating general positions.
After a review of the most notable events narrated by Moses, and of the
four great ancient monarchies――Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans,
of whose history he evinces some knowledge, he proceeds to handle the
spiritual monarchy of the Pope. In this he was more in his element,
and soon shows that none of the rulers of the ancient monarchies ever
had such powerful armies to uphold their authority throughout their
dominions, as the Pope of Rome actually commanded. He illustrated his
view by referring to the cardinals, archbishops, and bishops, and the
vast legions of priests, vicars, monks, friars, and nuns――all holding
under the Pope, and mentioned the enormous privileges and powers which
this army had obtained in every Christian kingdom. He then goes on to
show that the Popes had abused their power, by corrupting religion,
by enslaving and oppressing the people without mercy; and he lashes
the occupant of the chair of St. Peter and all his hosts down to the
begging friars on the street, and the pardoners that hawked the country
selling salvation. Waxing bolder, he predicts the downfall of the
temporal power of the Pope, and fixes the day of God’s judgment of the
world to be――“in four hundred and forty-seven years” from the date when
he wrote. This remarkable work concluded with these words:――
“And speed me home, with heart sighing full sore,
And entered in my Oritore.
I took paper, and there began to write
This misery, as ye have heard afore.
All gentle readers heartily I implore
For to excuse my rural rude indite,
Though Phareseis will have at me despite,
Who would not that their craftiness were kend:
Let God be Judge! And so I make an end.”²
¹ Much information about Squire Meldrum will be found in
Chalmers’s Notes to Lyndsay’s _Poems_, and in Dr. Laing’s
Notes, also in Pinkerton’s _Ancient Scottish Poems_, 1786,
and in his _Scottish Poems_, reprinted from scarce editions,
1792. The rhymed story itself was probably composed about
the year 1543.
² _Works_, Volume II., pages 104‒105. The three-volume Library
edition containing a complete text of Lyndsay’s works,
published about eighteen years ago, was enriched with the
curious information and the careful research of the late
Dr. Laing. Another work of a different character, may be
noticed――“The Register of Arms of the Scottish Nobility
and Gentry,” executed in the year 1542, under Lyndsay’s
direction, as Lyon Herald. The arms are carefully drawn, and
properly blazoned; indeed they are among the most creditable
products of Scottish art which now remain of that period. It
contains the arms of the Royal Family of Scotland; and the
arms in full blazonry of many of the ancient nobles, and the
shields and quarterings of 194 of the principal families in
the country. The original volume has been preserved in the
Advocates’ Library since 1698, having been acquired with
Balfour’s Manuscript Collections. A limited impression of
an exact facsimile of the original Register was published
at Edinburgh in 1821, by W. and D. Laing. In 1879, another
impression limited to 250 copies, was published by Mr.
Paterson, at Edinburgh, which was also edited by the late Dr.
Laing. There is a pretty full account of Sir David Lindsay,
in the first volume of the _Lives of the Lindsays_, by Lord
Lindsay; in Tytler’s _Lives of Scottish Worthies_, and other
sources easily accessible. In short, students that wish
to understand the state of Society in Scotland immediately
before the Reformation, must make themselves familiar with
the writings of Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount.
There were other writers of rhymes in Scotland, who attacked the abuses
of Catholicism, though their names are not so well known as Sir David
Lyndsay’s. Killor, a friar, who was burnt for heresy, is reported to
have composed a tragedy on the crucifixion of Christ, in which the
Catholic clergy was attacked. About the same time James Stewart, son of
Lord Methven, wrote short poems and ballads satirising the priesthood.
James Wedderburn, a poet of some note, the son of a merchant, was
born in Dundee about the beginning of the sixteenth century. According
to the Bannatyne manuscript, he was the author of three short poems,
commencing respectively with the following lines:――“My love was ♦fals
and full of flatterie,” “I think thir men are very fals and vain,” “O
man, transformit and unnaturall.” It is also reported that he composed
two dramatic pieces, which were acted at Dundee about the year 1540;
in both of which the Catholic clergy were attacked, but these are
now lost.¹ James Wedderburn and his brother Robert are the reputed
authors of another and a very important production of the Reformation
period. This is the curious collection known by the title of “The
Gude and Godlie Ballads.”² It is true that this singular book may
appear to modern taste as “only a tissue of blasphemy and absurdity;”
but it is equally true that these rhymed parodies and ballads had
a real influence upon the mind of the people in connection with the
Reformation movement; and the historian is not at liberty to ignore
anything which was conducive to that revolution, on the ground of its
being unpleasant to existing notions of taste. The mixture of sacred
and profane subjects was quite common in Catholic places of worship,
both in Scotland and in other countries long before the Reformation.
♦ “falss” replaced with “fals”
¹ Calderwood, Volume I.; Dalzell’s _Cursory Remarks_, page 31;
Sibbald’s _Chronicle of Scottish Poetry_.
² The references are to the edition of 1868 edited by Dr.
Laing, unless otherwise noted. The original title of the
collection is――“A compendious Book of Psalms and Spiritual
Songs.” The earliest printed edition of it, yet discovered,
is that of 1578, but it appears from the title page that
there were earlier printed editions: it passed through
several editions in the later years of the sixteenth century
and the beginning of the seventeenth, but very few copies
of these early impressions are now known to exist. See Dr.
Laing’s Preface, pages 6‒7; Notes, pages 211‒215.
The collection naturally falls into three divisions: the first
doctrinal, embracing a short Catechism, the Creed, and the Lord’s
Prayer, which are repeated both in prose and in metre. The second part
contains versions of twenty-two psalms, and a number of hymns mostly
translations from the German. The third comprises secular songs, but
they are parodied, or mixed up with religious opinions. During the
Reformation era the practice of adopting rude popular songs along
with their airs to sacred subjects was common in several countries. In
Scotland, the initial line or the chorus of the ballads then popular
among the people were transferred to hymns of devotion; this as may
be seen in the collection of “Godly Ballads,” often resulted in an odd
kind of parody.¹ Though the association of the coarsely profane and the
sacred appears to be ridiculously out of character, it is, nevertheless,
certain that compositions of this description had a powerful effect in
contributing to the change of the religious opinions. From allusions
which occur in them to the Queen Regent, the Pope, and the Priesthood,
it is evident that some of them were written during the heat of the
Reformation; and that ballads touching the Roman Catholic religion,
were circulated among the people, appears from the national records.²
Though these ballads were popular among the common people, who could
easily appreciate words sung to popular airs, it is not probable,
however, that many of the pieces in the collection had been printed in
Scotland before the Reformation. It is hardly necessary to say, that
the book was never authorised by the General Assembly, nor known to
have been used in the public service of the Church.³
¹ The source of the song and the tune is seen in the well-known
lines――“Hay now, the day dawns,” which stands as the opening
words of one of the godly ballads. To give it a religious
turn it is put into the following connection:――
“Hay now, the day dawns,
Now Christ on us calls,
Now gladness on our waves,
Appears anone.
Now the word of God reigns,
Who is King of all Kings,
Now Christ’s flock sings
The night is near gone.”
The refrain “The night is near gone,” closes each stanza to
the end of the ballad. “Dunbar and Gavin Douglas, in the
reign of James IV., mention the tune, ‘now the day dawns,’
and ‘the jolly day now dawns,’ as one that was well known to
the common minstrels.” There are several versions of early
ballads which begin with the words, ‘the day dawns,’ and
close each stanza with――‘the night is near gone.’ Alexander
Montgomery, who wrote in the reign of James VI., composed
a short lyric poem which opened with, ‘haw the day dawns,’
and adopted the refrain――‘the night is near gone.’ The fine
plaintive air called ‘Hey tuttie tuitie,’ was from a very
early period sung with the foregoing words; but it is best
known from Burns’s address, ‘Scots wha hae wi’ Wallace
bled.’ Dr. Laing, Notes, page 256, page 168. Poems of A.
Montgomery, pages 219‒221, 314; 1821.
² See under pages 77, _et seq._; Dr. M‘Crie’s _Life of Knox_,
pages 323, 325; 1855.
³ _Godly Ballads_, Preface, pages 8‒9, 43, 47.
Touching the authorship of the “Godly Ballads” in the form that we now
have them, little can be said with certainty. As indicated above, it
has sometimes been attributed to James Wedderburn, while other early
authorities attribute the collection to two brothers of his, John and
Robert Wedderburn; all the three flourished in the second quarter of
the century. The earliest reference to the book is by James Melville,
in the year 1570 when speaking of his own education; he says that, at
that time he first saw Wedderburn’s songs, and learned several of them
by heart, with a great diversity of tunes. Melville does not mention
Wedderburn’s Christian name; and although the Wedderburns may have
translated some of the psalms, recast or composed some of the songs
in this collection, there is no available information for distinctly
assigning the contents of the book to the respective translators
and authors. A number of the psalms were versified, printed, and
circulated in England and in Scotland before the Reformation. In the
former country Coverdale compiled a book of psalms and spiritual songs
which was printed about the year 1539; and four of the psalms in this
collection are almost verbatim with four of those in the book of “Godly
Ballads;” and the presumption seems reasonable that they had been taken
from Coverdale’s collection. The chief source of modern hymnology,
however, is Germany. The Hussites in the fifteenth century had their
devotional songs; Luther’s collection of hymns was published in 1524,
and it was enlarged from time to time by himself and others. As these
hymns were written in the vernacular tongue and many of them set to
popular airs, they were admirably suited for private instruction as
well as for public worship.¹ These hymns accompanied with the music
which the people understood and loved, formed one of the strong points
of the German Reformation. The poetic inspiration that glowed in the
heart and stirred the soul of the German Reformer, joined with his
sublime confidence, rang out in many of his popular hymns.²
¹ Dr. Laing’s Preface, pages 8‒25, 33‒39. Regarding the
variety and extent of German hymns, Dr. Laing in his preface
and notes to the “Godly Ballads,” gives a good deal of
information. He notices the collections of Dr. Wackerangel
and the Chevalier Bunsen; Miss C. Winkworth’s “Lyra
Germanica,” first and second series, 1859. As to more recent
works on German hymnology, he mentions “Hymns translated or
imitated from the German, by the Rev. George Walker,” 1860.
A Lecture by Professor Mitchell of St. Andrews, entitled,
“The Wedderburns, and their work on the Sacred Poetry of
the Scottish Reformation, in its historical relation to that
of Germany,” 1867. “The Scottish Reformation; a historical
sketch by Professor Lorimer,” see pages 27‒29, 60.
² In 1521 Charles the Fifth issued the first of a series of
enactments for extinguishing heresy in the Netherlands; and
in 1522 two monks were burned at the stake in Brussels. This
execution moved Luther to write a stirring hymn, of which
the following is one of the stanzas:――
“Quiet their ashes will not lie:
But scattered far and near,
Stream, dungeon, bolt, and grave defy,
Their foeman’s shame and fear.
Those whom alive the tyrant’s wrongs
To silence could subdue,
He must, when dead, let sing the songs
Which in all languages and tongues,
Resound the wide world through.”
Quoted by G. P. Fisher in his work, _The Reformation_, page
287; 1873.
A number of the spiritual songs in the collection of “Godly Ballads”
are derived or founded upon German hymns of the Reformation period:
others are merely modifications of the original songs current among
the Scots at the time; while others are entirely of a satirical turn,
directed against Roman Catholicism, and naturally sprang out of the
struggle of the Reformation in Scotland. It is the two latter that are
of most importance in connection with the subject in hand. In one of
the spiritual songs the burden of a very old ballad is retained――“The
wind blaws cauld.” It is found in the following connection:――
“The wind blaws cauld, furious and bauld,
This lang and mony a day――
But Christ’s mercy we man all die,
Or keep the cauld wind away.
* * * * *
Then be not wo, see that ye pray
To Peter, James, nor John,
Nor yet to Paul, to save your soul,
For power have they none.
Save Christ only, that died on tree,
He may both loose and bind:
In others more, if ye trust so,
On you blaws cauld the wind.”¹
¹ _Ibid._, pages 165, 166‒168, 158‒161, 184.
Another satirical ballad refers to events when the Protestants, under
the name of “the Congregation,” had taken matters into their own hands,
in the year 1559, and it retains the following refrain:――“Hay trix,
tryme go trix, under the green-wood tree.” The drift of the effusion is
directed against the Pope and all the religious orders, the cardinals,
bishops, priests, abbots, and monks and nuns are each in turn severely
handled, and charged with obscene immoralities.¹ The doctrines of
Catholicism are also boldly, fearlessly, and effectively attacked in
these rude ballads. Not a tenet of Romanism is spared. All are treated
with scorn and contempt. Of the fire of purgatory, it is said, there
is not left a spunk; and the reek, that was sold so dear, is said to
have fallen into utter disrepute. The monks having long neglected to
pray for the souls of the founders of the monasteries――“their souls
were left to burn and biss” as they might. Touching the worship of
saints, it is said:――“I wat St. Peter, nor St. Paul, nor yet any saint,
can save your soul, though many lies make many brawl.” Relics, the
adoration of images, indulgence, the mass, and other doctrines of
Catholicism, are treated with sharp and bitter derision.² It is easy
to understand the effect of this upon the mind of the people; and in
connection with other influences the tone and spirit of these ballads
and rhymes tended to intensify the Protestantism of the Scots.
¹ _Gude and Godly Ballads_, pages 166‒168. “‘The wind blaws
cauld.’ This is the burden of an English song in praise
of Christmas, entitled ‘A pleasant country ditty,’ merrily
showing how to drive the cold winter away.”――Dr. Laing,
Notes, page 255.
² _Ibid._, pages 163‒165, 167, 169‒173, 175‒177, 183‒186.
John Knox was more remarkable as a reformer and a preacher than as a
writer and a thinker. He was aware of this himself, for he said that,
“considering myself rather called of my God to instruct the ignorant,
comfort the sorrowful, confirm the weak, and rebuke the proud, by
tongue and living voice, in these most corrupt days, than to compose
books for the age to come.” That he did his duty to his country and to
society, as thus conceived by himself, is matter of history. Looking
to his life and the important work which he so actively contributed to
effect, the writings that he produced are surprising. His compositions
it must be remembered were hastily prepared, under the pressure of
many disquieting influences, or amid constant and exciting occupation.¹
Neither great elaboration nor the finer graces of style can be expected
from him; yet, for all the unpropitious circumstances under which he
laboured, his writings in the language of the people will compare
favourably with those of any of his contemporaries in Britain. He had
a good command of his mother tongue: his style is equally remarkable
for strength, clearness, and vehemence. He never leaves any doubt about
his meaning; as he held his opinions firmly, so he expressed them with
all the force of his nature; his thoughts and judgments are thrown out,
with a rapidity and animation which is striking and effective. He had
a keen vein of humour in his constitution, and frequently adopted a
strain of remark and expression of a grotesque and humorous character;
and sometimes touches of sarcasm and bitter scorn occur in his
compositions. His humour is often coarse and even vulgar; but this was
partly the fault of his age, and partly a result of the kind of work
that fell to him.
¹ _The Works of John Knox_, collected and edited by Dr. Laing,
Volume VI., page 229. Preface, pages 85, 89. This edition of
our national reformer’s writings in six volumes is a great
literary monument to his memory. It has placed his life
and work in a clearer and juster light. The learned editor
bestowed much and unusual care on the execution of his task;
and he deserves our warmest gratitude for his research, his
unwearying industry, and his devotion to the accomplishment
of a worthy object. Dr. Laing did his work in a manner that
cannot fail to command the respect of his countrymen, while
the principle of Protestantism retains a hold upon their
minds.
Knox’s works may be described as mostly admonitory and historical.
In the department of theology itself he produced nothing, except a
treatise on predestination. As a writer, he is best known by his
History of the Reformation in Scotland. He began it in 1559, and
finished the fourth book, bringing the narrative down to 1564, in 1566.
He left a few marginal notes and materials for a continuation of the
history, which were used by others after his death in compiling the
fifth book, and also the volume of memorials published under the name
of Richard Bannatyne. Many references have been made to his history in
the preceding chapters of this work, and quotations given, which render
any lengthy account of its contents and character unnecessary. Its
historical value and general accuracy have now been fully recognised.
When narrating events which happened under his own eyes, it could
hardly be expected that he should always be able to refrain from bitter
reflections on his opponents; but his humour for abusing them he has
often carried to an extreme length. The only excuse for the coarse
expressions and hard epithets which he hurls at their heads must be
sought in the corrupt and immoral state of society, and the inflamed
and enraged feelings of the people around him.
Knox’s admonitory writings consist of his public letters, such as
the “Admonition to the Faithful in England,” “to the Godly,” “to
the Professors of the Faith,” his “Letter to the Queen Regent,” “The
First Blast of the Trumpet against the monstrous Regime of Women,” and
others of a similar description. In this department he was particularly
strong; he had a special faculty for scolding, and employed it with
much effect. Many examples of this might be quoted from his writings.
In his “Faithful Admonition to the Professors of God’s Truth in
England,” which was printed and circulated in 1554, there are some
passages touching Queen Mary and those at the head of the government
of England, which are extremely vehement. “And, now, does she not
manifestly show herself to be an open traitress to the imperial Crown
of England, contrary to the just laws of the realm, to bring in a
stranger, and make a proud Spaniard king? to the shame, dishonour, and
the destruction of the nobility; to the spoil from them and theirs of
their honours, lands, possessions, chief offices, and promotions; to
the utter decay of the treasure, commodities, navy, and fortifications
of the realm; to the abasing of the yeomanry, to the slavery of the
commons, to the overthrow of Christianity, and God’s true religion, and,
finally, to the utter subversion of the whole estate and commonwealth
of England.”¹
¹ _Works_, Volume III., page 294, _et seq._
After the death of Queen Mary, Knox wrote, in 1559, “A brief
Exhortation to England for the speedy embracing of the Gospel.” In
this tract, which was printed at Geneva, he at once strikes the keynote
and states what should be done: “Touching reformation of religion, you
must at once so purge and expel all dregs of papistry, superstition,
and idolatry, that thou, O England, must judge and hold execrable
whatsoever God hath not sanctified unto thee by his word, or by the
action of our master Christ Jesus. The glistening beauty of vain
ceremonies, the keeping of things pertaining nothing to edification, by
whomsoever they were invented, justified, or maintained, ought at once
to be removed, and so trodden under the obedience of God’s word, that
continually this sentence of thy God be present in thy heart and ready
in thy mouth:――‘Not that which appears good in thy eyes, shalt thou
do to the Lord thy God, but what the Lord thy God hath commanded thee,
that shalt thou do: add nothing to it, diminish nothing from it.’”¹
He then proceeds at length to admonish and counsel them to embrace the
gospel, and to cast aside the devices of men, and to rest only on the
word of God.
¹ _Works_, Volume V., page 515, _et seq._
In the Reformer’s letter to the Queen Regent of Scotland in 1558,
which was printed the same year, there are also some characteristic
and important passages. The following is one:――“As Satan by craft
hath corrupted the most holy ordinance of God’s precepts, I mean
of the first table, in the place of the spiritual honouring of
God, introducing men’s dreams, inventions, fantasies; so hath he,
abusing the weakness of man, corrupted this precept of the second
table, touching the honour which is due to parents, under whom are
comprehended princes and teachers; for the devil hath so blinded the
senses of many, that they cannot, or at the least, will not, learn what
appertains to God, and what to Cæsar. But, because the Spirit of God
hath said, ‘Honour the king,’ therefore whatsoever they command, be it
right or wrong, must be obeyed. But heavy shall the judgment be which
apprehends such blasphemers of God’s majesty, who dare be so hold as
to affirm that God hath commanded any creature to be obeyed against
himself. Against God it is, that for the commandment of any prince, be
he never so potent, men shall commit idolatry, embrace a religion which
God hath not approved by his word, or confirm by their silence wicked
and blasphemous laws made against the honour of His Majesty. Men, I say,
that do so, give no true obedience; but as they are apostates from God,
so are they traitors to their princes, whom by flattery they confirm
in rebelling against God.” After citing several examples from the Old
Testament, he continues: “But, Madame, more profitable it is that the
pestilent tumours be expelled with pain, than that they be nourished
to the destruction of the body. The papistical religion is a moral
pestilence, which shall assuredly bring to death eternal the bodies
and souls from the which it is not purged in this life. And therefore
take heed betimes, God calls upon you, beware that ye shut not yourself
up.... I come to you in the name of the eternal God, and of Christ
Jesus his Son, to whom the Father hath committed all power, whom he
hath established Sovereign Judge over all flesh, before whose throne
ye must make account with what reverence ye hear such as he sends.
It shall not excuse you to say or to think, that ye doubt whether I
be sent of God or not. I cry unto you, that the religion which the
princes and the blinded papists maintain with fire and sword, is not
the religion of Christ; that your proud prelates are none of Christ’s
bishops. I admonish you that Christ’s flock is oppressed by them; and
therefore I require, and that yet again, in the name of the Lord Jesus,
that with impartiality I may be heard to preach, to reason, and to
dispute, in that cause, which ye deny; ye declare yourself to bear no
reverence to Christ, nor love to his true religion.”¹
¹ _Works_, Volume IV., pages 440‒443.
The Roman Catholic clergy did not show much energy in their writings,
nor in their arguments in defence of their religion in England and
Scotland; no very memorable effort of eloquence or argument was put
forth within the Island during the progress of the Reformation. Those
who desired to maintain the ancient worship unimpaired, staked the
issue more upon the fire and sword principle than on reasoning and
discussion; and they were wise in their generation, for when it came to
this, the palmy days of a conservative priesthood were well-nigh past.
There were a few, however, from the humbler ranks of the Roman Catholic
clergy, that came forward and wrote in defence of their faith. Quintin
Kennedy, the abbot of Crossraguel, ♦Ninian Winzet, a schoolmaster, and
James Tyrie, a Scottish Jesuit, were the only controversialists on the
Catholic side in Scotland, whose writings have been preserved.
♦ “Ninan” replaced with “Ninian”
Ninian Winzet was born in 1518, in the burgh of Renfrew. He received a
liberal education, and was appointed schoolmaster of the Grammar School
of Linlithgow about the year 1551. Winzet himself said, in 1562, that
his happiest days were “spent in teaching of the Grammar School of
Linlithgow about the space of ten years;” but, at the command of Dene
Patrik Kinloquhy, preacher in Linlithgow, and of his superintendent,
“when I, for denying only to subscribe their phantasy and factioun
of faith, was expelled and shut out of that, my kindly town, and from
my tender friends there, whose perpetual kindness I hoped that I had
conquest.” The superintendent mentioned was John Spotiswoode, whose
jurisdiction extended from Dunbar to Stirling; and it appears that
Winzet then made a severe attack upon the creed of the Reformers.
He was a priest as well as a schoolmaster, and he was one of the
ablest and boldest defenders of Catholicism in Scotland. He held
out vigorously, and addressed questions to Knox and other reformed
preachers; as he had asked and received the permission of Queen Mary
to address the Protestant leaders touching certain doctrines, order,
and forms, approved by them. In the end of February, 1562, Winzet, as
a first instalment, specially addressed three questions to John Knox
and the reformed preachers of Scotland touching their vocation, which
were stated thus:――“1. Is John Knox a lawful minister? Since we read,
that none should take the honour of ministration of God’s Word and
sacraments on him, except he be lawfully called thereto, either by God
immediately, or by a man having power to promote thereto. 2. If John
Knox be not a lawful bishop, how can they be lawfully ordained by him?
If he cannot show himself a lawful bishop, how can ye superintendents
or other inferior preachers, elected and ordained by him, not having
power thereto, judge yourselves to be lawful ministers in the Church of
God? 3. If John Knox and ye affirm yourselves lawful by reason of your
science, and that ye are permitted always, if ye be not admitted by
these Churches, whom ye serve, why have ye preached manifestly a great
error and schism in your congregation, contending with tooth and nail,
some lords and gentlemen to have greatly failed, administering your
communion in bypast times to their own households and tenants, since
the lords and gentlemen were men of science; by their own judgment,
in that case, was permitted by their said servants to that office,
who affirm themselves to be a Church of God?” Knox referred to these
questions in his sermons, but he never sent a written rejoinder
to Winzet. Three tractates of Winzet’s were published at Edinburgh
on the 21st of May, 1562, in which the position of Knox was boldly
assailed. He said:――“I exhort ye cause your prophet, John Knox, and
your superintendent, John Spotiswoode, to impeach saints Hierome and
Augustine as leading witnesses in the premises; and cause them deliver
their answer in write, for these holy Fathers books are patent to us
and them. And some of our faithful brethren have written several times
to them both, and got no answer in write, but waste wind again. But
peradventure, albeit, these two, your champions, dare not for shame
answer in this matter, ye will appeal to the rest of your learned
theologians of a great number in Scotland and Geneva. But to them we
oppose all the Christian Catholics in Africa, Asia, and Europe.”
It seems that Winzet had some influence in the court of Queen Mary, and
he continued his attacks on the leaders of the Protestants. His “Last
Blast of the Trumpet of God’s Word,” printed at Edinburgh, 31st July,
1562, was directed “against the usurped authority of John Knox and his
Calvinistic brethren, intruded preachers, etc.” Only a fragment of five
leaves of the original edition is known to be extant. As mentioned in
a preceding chapter, the printer of the book was seized and imprisoned,
and Winzet narrowly escaped. He gained a ship bound for Flanders, and
reached Antwerp on the 13th of September, and immediately proceeded to
Louvain. His _Book of Four Score and Three Questions_ was published at
Antwerp in 1563, to which he added a postscript personally addressed to
John Knox. For some time he was connected with the University of Paris;
and in 1577 Winzet was appointed Abbot of the Benedictine Monastery
of St. James, at Ratisbon, by a bull of Pope Gregory XIII. At Ratisbon
Winzet continued to labour industriously till his death, which occurred
on the 21st of September, 1592, in the seventy-fifth year of his age.
His writings consists of certain tracts, already mentioned, and _The
Book of Four Score and Three Questions_, proposed to the Calvinistic
preachers in Scotland, and written in the vernacular: these were
reprinted in a volume issued by the Maitland Club in 1835. He also
translated into Scots the once well-known work on dogmatics, entitled,
_Commonitorium pro Catholicæ fidei antiquate et univeritate, adversus
profanas omnium Hæreseon nouationes_, written in the fifth century
by Vincentius, Abbot of the monastery of Lerinum; and Winzet, in
the title page to his translation, called it “a right goldin buke,
written in Latin about eleven hundred years past,” and he prefaced
it with an address to Mary Queen of Scots. He was further credited
with making translations of Optatus, Tertullian, and other fathers,
which are not now known to exist. But two of his Latin treatises
have been preserved――one entitled _Flagellum Sectariorum_, and the
other _Velitatio adversus Georgium Buchananum_. The first treated the
question whether obedience should be shown to kings or ministers; he
handled this subject because the teaching of the Calvinists tended to
unsettle all legitimate authority, and in his treatment of the subject
he showed considerable research; it also dealt with the subject of
the Vocation of the Calvinistic ministers. The second was a political
pamphlet of one hundred and thirty-three pages――an answer to Buchanan’s
_Dialogue De Jure Regni apud Scotos_――and it was published in 1582.
Winzet’s argument against Buchanan was that kings must be paramount,
and that the people had no right to rebel against them, until the
Church declared a king unfit to rule.
The Scottish Text Society issued an excellent edition of Winzet’s
works in 1888‒90, which contains his writings and translations in the
Scottish language, and also a useful glossary, valuable introductions,
and notes.
Kennedy was the fourth son of Gilbert, the second Earl of ♦Cassillis,
and was appointed abbot in 1548. He attended the Provincial Council of
the clergy held in Edinburgh in 1549, and had the reputation of being
a learned man. His treatise entitled, “A Compendious Tractive, conform
to the Scriptures of Almighty God, Reason and Authority,” etc., was
published in 1558. It was praised by his friends, and in latter times
by Bishop Keith, and others. It is hardly necessary to say, that the
Abbot’s chief and final argument was whatever the Church of Rome said
must be true and right. Kennedy’s “Tractive” was answered by John
Davidson, principal of the University of Glasgow, in a book printed
at Edinburgh in 1563.¹ The Abbot’s next work was an “Oration,” printed
in the year 1561, mainly intended to demolish a position held “by a
famous preacher called John Knox.” After some correspondence had passed
between Kennedy and Knox, a public discussion took place between them,
on the subject of the Mass, at Maybole, in September, 1562, when the
discussion lasted three days, and ended as disputes of the kind usually
end, without either of the parties convincing the other. In 1563, Knox
published a curious and rather interesting narrative of this three
days’ talk. The following are the concluding sentences:――“And therefore,
must I say, the Mass standeth groundless, and the greatest patron
thereof, for all his sicker riding, hath once lost his stirrups, yea,
is altogether, set beside his saddle. And yet the common brute goes,
that you, my Lord, your flatterers and collaterals, brag greatly of
your victory obtained in disputation against John Knox; but I will not
believe you to be so vain, unless I shall know the certainty by your
hand writ. Let all men now judge upon what ground the sacrifice of the
Mass stands. The heavenly Father hath not planted within his Scriptures
such a doctrine; it follows, therefore, that it ought to be routed out
of all godly men’s hearts.”²
♦ “Cassilis” replaced with “Cassillis”
¹ _Knox’s Works_, Volume VI., pages 153‒155. The Writings of
Kennedy were printed in the first volume of the Wodrow
Miscellany, together with some correspondence that passed
between him and John Willock. Davidson’s answer to Kennedy’s
book is also printed in this Miscellany.
“Among the persons who accompanied Queen Mary from France
was her preacher and confessor, Réni Benoist. He was
a divine of some note, and produced two or three small
treatises, in a vain endeavour to conciliate differences
of opinion in matters of religious faith and practice.
One of these was a Latin epistle, addressed to the most
learned John Knox and other Protestant ministers, dated
from Holyrood House, the 10th of November, 1561. It was
translated by a certain friar, and was ‘greatly boasted of’
or commended. At the urgent request of some of his brethren,
David Ferguson, minister of Dunfermline, wrote an answer,
passage by passage, to what he calls ‘this pithless Epistle.’
This answer, including the Epistle itself, was printed
soon after, but it is of such rarity that only one single
copy has been discovered; but having recently been reprinted;
it is now beyond the chance of destruction.” _Knox’s Works_,
Volume VI., pages 151‒152. It was reprinted by the Bannatyne
Club, 1860.
² _Works_, Volume VI., pages 219‒221.
The latest of Knox’s writings was a tract published in vindication
of the reformed religion, in answer to a letter of Tyrie, a Jesuit.¹
It was composed in 1568, and printed at St. Andrews ♦in 1572. Knox
gives a portion of Tyrie’s letter in separate paragraphs, then his own
comments follow, and thus each in turn succeed the other to the end of
the discussion. The Jesuit began by asking――“What words, if any, would
apply to those new formed Kirks, and especially of your invisible Kirk
of Scotland, not yet eight years old, he is convicted.... Wherefore if
ye cannot show what place of the world afore three hundred years your
Kirk was into, it follows of necessity, that it is not a kirk.” The
argument is the very old one, namely, that there is but one Church――the
Roman Church. Knox answers this point at great length, and closes with
these words:――“We say yet again, that whensoever the Church of Rome
shall be reduced to the state in which the Apostles left her, we are
assured that she shall vote in our favour, against all such as shall
deny us to be a Church, if God continue us in the simplicity which
this day is mocked of the world.”² The other points which the Jesuit
advances touching the Reformed Church, are forms of the arguments
always used by the Roman Catholic writers. Such as, that the Protestant
Church had no succession from Christ; that there is a continual
succession of doctrine which has never varied in the Catholic Church,
but has prevailed in all ages. With more truth and reason, he refers
to the differences of the Protestants among themselves, and specially
notes the contrast between some of the congregations of Germany and
those of Scotland. Immediately after Knox’s answer, Tyrie prepared a
refutation, which was published at Paris in 1573, but ere this Knox was
dead. In March, 1574, the General Assembly had under consideration an
answer to James Tyrie’s book, composed by John Duncanson, minister of
the King’s household.³
¹ James Tyrie was born near Perth in 1543, and it is supposed
that he spent some time at the University of St. Andrews.
Early in the year 1563 he left Scotland with Father Edmund
Hay, the Jesuit, to follow his theological studies at the
University of Louvain. In August of that year he visited
Rome, and there joined the society of Jesus. He was
afterwards appointed professor of philosophy and theology
in the Jesuit College of Clermont, at Paris. His elder
brother, David Tyrie of Drumkilbo, embraced the reformed
faith, and the Jesuit was naturally anxious to reclaim him
to the mother Church, and addressed to him several letters,
including the one submitted to Knox. Tyrie in 1590 became
Provincial of the Jesuits in France; he was in Rome in
1591; and two years later he was appointed assistant to
the General of the Jesuits for the provinces of France and
Germany. He died at Rome in March, 1597, leaving behind him
for publication several manuscripts to the library of the
professed house “Il Geni.” Knox’s _Works_, Volume VI., pages
475‒478.
♦ duplicate word “in” removed
² Knox’s _Works_, Volume VI., pages 486‒497.
³ _Ibid._, pages 497‒511, 475‒476; _Book of the Universal
Kirk_, pages 289, 361.
The longest of Knox’s polemical works is his treatise on predestination,
published at Geneva in 1560. It was directed against an anonymous
adversary, and its full title was, “An Answer to a great number of
blasphemous cavillations written by an Anabaptist and an adversary
to God’s eternal predestination; and confuted by John Knox, minister
of God’s word in Scotland; wherein the author so discovers the craft
and falsehood of that sect, that the godly, knowing that error, may
be confirmed in the truth by the evident word of God.”¹ At that time
the doctrine of predestination itself, as well as other tenets of the
Anabaptists, had evoked much controversy. But, before saying anything
about Knox’s contribution to the mass of this class of theological
literature, it is necessary to refer briefly to the writings of Calvin
himself, and to those of some of his predecessors and contemporaries.
¹ Knox’s _Works_, Volume V. “And, that it was prepared for the
press before his final return to Scotland is sufficiently
clear, when we consider how fully his time was afterwards
occupied, and this renders it probable that it may have been
chiefly written at Dieppe in 1559, during the interval of
his application for permission, which was denied him, to
pass through England on his way to his native country. That
the author had no opportunity of correcting the sheets while
at press seems also evident.... This task of revising the
work at press seems to have been done by William Whittingham,
an Englishman.” Dr. Laing, pages 15‒17. Knox’s treatise on
predestination was reprinted in 1591.
At an early stage in the history of Christian doctrine the idea of
an eternal decree of God began to arise. The notion of predestination
was held with varying degrees of definiteness, and it early became
associated with the freedom of the will. But the crude psychology of
the Fathers was entirely subordinated to the assumed necessities of the
conditions of salvation.¹ About the end of the fourth and the beginning
of the fifth centuries conflicting doctrines touching sin, grace,
and liberty, were advanced and maintained. Original sin was supposed
to have entailed utter ruin upon the human race; but Celestius and
Pelagius both denied the natural depravity of man; and it was out of
these controversies that the doctrine of predestination, or the eternal
decree sprang. When St. Augustine carried the notion of original sin to
its logical consequences, he arrived at the following statement of his
doctrine:――“As all men have sinned in Adam, they are justly exposed to
the vengeance of God, because of this hereditary sin and guilt of sin.”
He could see nothing in the natural power of man to choose between
good and evil, but only a liberty to do evil, since the regenerated man
alone can will aright. In short, Augustine held that all mankind were
in a state of depravity; that those alone will be saved to whom the
grace of God is imparted: in this way he led up to the eternal decree.²
¹ Several theories of the mind, or the soul, and the relation
between the soul and the body, were held during the early
centuries of Christianity. Some considered the soul as
forming the medium between the purely spiritual in man,
the ideal principle of reason, and the merely animal or
the grosser and sensual elements of his nature. They also
fancied that this threefold notion of the organ of the
human mind was supported by Scripture. Several of the
early Fathers, especially those of the Alexandrian school,
adopted the triple division of the mind; while others, like
Tertullian, adhered to the old opinion that man consists of
soul and body only. A few of the Gnostic sects carried the
triple notion so far as to divide men themselves into three
classes, according as the one or the other of the three
constituents prevailed to the apparent exclusion of the
others. “Accordingly, it is not every man who is composed
of three parts, but he only who has received the gift of the
Holy Spirit, as the third part.”――Hagenbach’s _History of
Doctrines_, Volume I., pages 141‒143, 180, 183, 184; 1846;
also Baur.
This is not the place to enter into a full exposition of the
curious theories of the mind which prevailed in the early
centuries of the Christian era. It may be stated, however,
that the anthropology of the Fathers was very different from
that of the present time; although the problems demanding
explanation were much the same, the modern conceptions
of mind and matter have little or no resemblance to the
ideas of Origen, Tertullian, Augustine, and the rest of
the Fathers. Touching the origin of the soul itself, there
were three principal theories:――1, The pre-existence of all
souls; 2, The continual creation of souls by divine agency;
3, The traduction of souls by natural procreation. Of these
in their order: The first theory taught that all the souls
and finite spirits in the universe were formed simultaneously
at the beginning, and prior to the creation of matter: the
intellectual universe thus preceded the sensible universe.
The souls of men, therefore, existed before the creation
of Adam. This theory is allied to the Pythagorean and
Platonic speculations. The second theory maintained that God
immediately created a new soul in every instance that a new
human being was born. The body, however, was not created in
this manner, it was naturally propagated. The third theory
held that both the soul and the body of the human individual
are propagated. But the last view fell into disrepute;
and in the Middle Ages, the notion of the special and the
continual creation of new souls generally prevailed.
² Hagenbach’s _History of Doctrines_, Volume I., pages 297,
300‒302, 304. “According to Augustine, not only was physical
death a punishment inflicted upon Adam and all his posterity,
but he looked upon original sin itself as being in some
sense a punishment of the first transgression, though it
was also a real sin, and can therefore be imputed to every
individual. But it is on this point, viz., the imputation
of original sin, that his views differed from all former
opinions, however strict they were. He endeavoured to clear
himself from the charge of Manichæism (in opposition to
Julian) by designating sin not a substance, but a vitium,
a languor; he even charged his opponent with Manichæism.”
――_Ibid._, page 302. See also Wiggers.
Pelagius and Celestius, on the other hand, held, along with other
heresies, that every human being is a moral agent, and must be
accountable for himself; hence it naturally followed that sin was
a voluntary act of the individual. According to this ethical view,
every infant is in the same state as Adam was before the fall; so that
neither sin nor virtue is innate, but the one as well as the other
develops itself when man comes to exercise his liberty, for which he
alone is responsible. Touching liberty and grace, however, Pelagius
admitted that man in his moral efforts had need of the Divine aid;
the grace of God assisted man in various ways, although he thought
that it is something external, merely added to a man’s own efforts. In
short, Pelagius’s theory assumed that man had it in his power to choose
between good and evil. These opinions were condemned at Carthage in
412; again, in a synod of the North-African bishops at the same place,
in 418. The controversy was hot, and the Emperor Honorius put a check
to his external manifestation.¹
¹ Hagenbach’s _History of Doctrines_, Volume ♦I., pages 200,
300, 302. The chief tenets of Pelagius, the heresiarch of
the fifth century, have been summarised as follows:――“1.
Adam was created mortal, so that he would have died whether
he had sinned or not. 2. Adam’s sin has only affected
himself, and not the human race. 3. New-born infants are in
the same condition in which Adam was before the fall. 4. The
whole human race dies neither in consequence of Adam’s death,
nor of his transgression; nor does it rise from the dead
in consequence of Christ’s resurrection. 5. Infants obtain
eternal life, though they should not be baptized. 6. The
Law is as good a means of grace as the gospel. 7. There were
some men, even before the appearance of Christ, who did not
commit sin.”――Wiggers, Volume I., page 60. Gieseler, section
87. Some of Pelagius’s writings are preserved, among others,
a treatise on “Free Will.” Many works were written against
the Pelagians.
♦ volume number added by transcriber.
Still the peculiar views of Augustine were not recognised in the east;
even in the west his notion of predestination never became universally
popular in the Roman Catholic Church. As we approach the Reformation
period it is evident that the doctrines of Augustine did not prevail.
Instead of free grace through the mercy of God and the merits of Christ,
the supererogatory works of the saints formed a ladder by which the
greatest sinner might easily mount to heaven, provided he paid enough
for the privilege, or left his lands to the Church. It was therefore
natural that the Reformers should look back to the belief of the
primitive Church, and receive with gladness some of the tenets of St.
Augustine.
Calvin’s _Institutes of the Christian Religion_ was first published
in 1536. Although in subsequent editions it was greatly enlarged, the
principles which he then enunciated were pretty consistently maintained
to the end of his days.¹ Knox followed Calvin, with little deviation,
in dogma and doctrine. In 1559 he was very anxious “to read Calvin
upon Isaie, and his _Institutes_ revised,” but the common troubles at
that time were forcing him to forego such important things.² Calvin
in his _Institutes_ gives four chapters of the third book, 21‒24,
to the treatment of election and predestination. He was aware of
the difficulties of the subject, and discussed it with a sobriety of
judgment, a sense of responsibility, and a power of intellect, rarely
matched in theological literature. But the line of argument that he
followed, the definite issue that he arrived at, and the evidence from
Scripture which he adduced to confirm the doctrine of predestination,
are not satisfactory.³ After he had expounded, illustrated, and
repelled objections to the doctrine of predestination, exhibiting
much power, logical skill, and ingenuity, the eternal decree is still
hard to reconcile with the moral attributes of a just and beneficent
God of the universe.⁴ On a pure moral principle the doctrine of the
eternal decree as stated by Calvin cannot be consistently maintained.
He asserts that the will of God is the supreme rule of right, and
that the mere fact of his willing anything makes it to be right.
Indeed, Calvin seems to have been controlled in the treatment of
predestination by practical religious considerations. His point of view
is unphilosophical, and moral truth and consistency were subordinated
in his mind to the assumed necessities of the conditions of salvation.
That God should voluntarily and knowingly condemn myriads of his
creatures to endless torture, merely because He so willed it, is
certainly not an elevated conception. On the other side, the doctrine
of predestination afforded to all who adopted it, ample scope for
insisting on the duty of submission to the will of God; and for
inveighing against the pride and self-conceit of those who might
pretend that their own merits entitled them to claim a right to heaven,
instead of being absolutely indebted for it to God’s pleasure, grace,
and benignity.
¹ The first edition of his _Institutes_, printed at Basle, is
now extremely rare, not more than half a dozen copies are
known to exist. It is a small octavo volume of 514 pages,
with five pages more of index placed at the end. The whole
work is described as one book, divided into six chapters. A
second edition appeared at Strasburg in 1539. It contained
seventeen chapters, the original matter being about doubled.
This edition is also very scarce. The other editions are
those of 1543, 1545, 1550, 1553, 1554, and an entirely
new edition in 1559, containing his last revisal, and from
it all the subsequent editions were printed. An English
translation was published at London in 1561.
Dyer, in his _Life of Calvin_, says that passages
favourable to a mild and tolerant treatment of heretics
which appeared in the earlier editions were expunged or
made more intolerant in the latter ones.――pages 357, 358.
Calvin’s final conclusions on the punishment of heretics
and allied matters are given in the fourth book of the
_Institutes_, chapter 12, section 1‒13.
² Knox’s _Works_, Volume VI., page 101.
³ When answering the objection, that predestination was a
stumbling-block, Calvin said, “I admit that profane men lay
hold on the subject of predestination to carp, or snare,
or cavil, or scoff. But if their petulance frightens us,
it will be necessary to conceal all the principal articles
of faith, because they and their fellows scarcely leave one
of them unassailed with blasphemy. A rebellious spirit will
display itself no less insolently when it hears that there
are three persons in the Divine essence, than when it hears
that God, when he created man, foresaw everything that was
to happen to him. Nor will they abstain from their jeers
when told that little more than five thousand years have
elapsed since the creation of the world; for they will ask,
Why did the power of God slumber so long in idleness? In
short, nothing can be stated that they will not assail with
derision. To quell their blasphemies, must we say nothing
concerning the divinity of the Son and the Spirit? Must the
creation of the world be passed over in silence! No. The
truth of God is too powerful, both here and everywhere, to
dread the slanders of the ungodly.”――Chapter 21, section 4.
⁴ “By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by
which He determined with Himself whatever He wished to
happen with regard to every man. All are not created on
equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life,
others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has
been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he
has been predestinated to life, or to death.” “The will of
God is the supreme rule of righteousness, so that everything
which He wills must be held to be righteous, by the mere
fact of His willing it. Therefore, when it is asked why the
Lord did so, we must answer, Because He pleased. But if you
proceed further to ask why He pleased, you ask for something
greater than the will of God, and nothing such can be found.
Let human temerity then be quiet, and cease to inquire after
what exists not, lest, perhaps, it fails to find what does
exist.”――Chapter 21, section 5.――Chapter 23, section 2.
The doctrines of Calvin were opposed in his own lifetime by Jerome
Bolsec, Sebastia Castellio, and others. Bolsec openly impugned the
doctrine of the eternal decree of predestination, and fought over
the points involved with Calvin himself. He had little difficulty in
showing that the human mind was unable to cope with the eternal and
unalterable counsel of God, or to lay down dogmatically what its issue
must be in relation to mankind. Castellio vehemently attacked the
Calvinistic doctrines, and especially assailed the tenet of election
by grace, with the weapons of acute thought and satire. Both maintained
that the eternal decree tended to fatalism, and made God the author
of sin, as everything happened according to an inexorable purpose.
Calvin answered both opponents, and prepared a public declaration of
the doctrine of predestination, which was approved by the consistory of
Geneva. The controversy, however, went on; but Calvin boldly faced all
his enemies, and fought with an energy and a resoluteness which at last
commanded a large measure of success.¹
¹ Dyer’s _Life of Calvin_, pages 168‒172, 265‒283, 388; Henry’s
_Life of Calvin_, Volume I., page 289.
In Geneva Calvin had many difficulties to contend against. There
were anabaptists in the city who sometimes caused disturbance, and
anti-Unitarian doctrines had also sprung up. After the burning of
Servetus, his disciples published several libels and attacks upon
Calvin. These parties were bitterly opposed to various points of his
system of theology, and one of their onslaughts was written in the
following strain:――“Moreover, though you affirm yours to be the true
doctrine, they say that they cannot believe you. For since your God
very often says one thing, and thinks and wills another, it is to be
feared that you may imitate him, and deceive men in like manner. I
myself was once taken with your doctrine; and though I did not quite
understand it, I defended it, because I so much esteemed your authority,
that it seemed to me forbidden even to think differently from you. But
now, when I hear the objections of your adversaries, I know not what to
reply.” He concludes with the request to Calvin, “If you have any good
arguments let me know them.”¹ The anabaptists were annoying, and though
often persecuted, not only in Switzerland, but also in Germany, England,
and other countries, they continued to spread and multiply.
¹ Dyer’s _Life of Calvin_, pages 66, 366‒367, 446, _et seq._;
Knox’s _Works_, Volume V., pages 12‒15; Dorner’s _History
of Protestant Theology_, Volume I.; Hagenbach’s _History of
Doctrines_, Volume II., pages 200‒206.
As already mentioned, it was against one of the anabaptist class that
Knox composed his book on predestination. Many of this unknown writer’s
objections to the Calvinistic tenets he states with much force; and,
although he insists throughout that his opponent’s inferences are
not deducible from their doctrines, this is not always the case.¹ In
the sixth section of his book “the adversary” advanced the following
statements on the Calvinistic conception of God:――“Of all sorts and
sects of men, I have judged them to be the most abhorred who are called
Atheists, that is to say, such as deny that there is a God. But now,
methinks these careless men are much more to be abhorred; my reason
is because they be more injurious to God than the Atheists; for it
is less injurious to a man to believe that he is not, than to call
him a cruel man, a tyrant, and an unjust person; so are they less
injurious to God who believe that he is not, than they that say he is
unmerciful, cruel, and an oppressor. Now what greater cruelty, tyranny,
and oppression, can be, than to create the most part of the human race
to everlasting damnation? so that by no manner of way they can escape
and avoid the cruel decree and sentence against them. Seeing that the
philosopher Plato judged them unworthy to live and to be suffered in
any commonwealth who spoke evil of God, what ought the judgment to be
of such men who have so wicked an opinion of God? Whatever our judgment
be of them, and whatsoever their deserving be, let us labour rather to
win them than to lose them. But, forasmuch as he that touches pitch is
in danger of being defiled therewith, therefore ought we to walk warily
with such men that we be not defiled and infected of them; seeing that
now-a-days this horrible doctrine does fester even as the disease of a
canker, which infects from one member to another until it has occupied
the whole body, unless it be cut away; even so this error hath already
infected from one member to another a great number. The Lord grant them
the true meaning and understanding of His word, whereby they may be
healed and the sickness cut off, the member being saved.”
¹ Dr. Laing thought that the author of this book, which
Knox set himself to refute, was Robert Cooke, one of the
gentlemen of Queen Elizabeth’s Chapel. Knox’s _Works_,
Volume V., page 16.
Knox answers this reasoning in a carping way. He does not attempt to
grapple with the real difficulty; the inconsistency of the decree of
predestination and special election of only a small number of the human
race to everlasting happiness; while the great majority is inevitably
doomed to endless suffering. He merely says――“Because that in all this
your long discourse, ye more show your malice, which unjustly against
us ye have conceived, than that either you expunge our belief, either
yet promote your false opinion. I will not spend time to recompense
your dispute. Only this I will offer in the name of all my brethren:
that if you will be able, in the presence of a lawful judge and
magistrate, evidently to convict us that either we speak evil of God,
either yet that by our writings, preaching, or reasoning, it justly
can be proved that our opinion is evil of His eternal majesty, power,
and wisdom, and goodness, that then we refuse not to suffer the same
punishment which by the authority of Plato ye judge us worthy of....
What is your study to win us, and whether our doctrine be a horrible
error or not, I do not now dispute. Thus you reason:――
“‘God created man a very good thing; and dare you say that God ordained
a very good thing to destruction? thus God delights in the destruction
of that which is good. Man at his creation was a just and innocent
creature, for before the transgression there was no evil neither in
Adam nor in us; and think you that God ordained his just and innocent
creatures to condemnation? What greater tyranny and unrighteousness
can the most wicked man in the world, yea, the devil himself, do, than
to condemn the innocent and just person? Hereby may we see that these
careless men are more abominable than the Atheists who believe that
there is no God. But these affirm God to be as bad as the devil, yea,
and worse; forasmuch as the devil can only tempt a man to death, but he
can compel none to fall into condemnation; but God may not only tempt,
but also compel by his eternal decree the most part of the race to
destruction, and has so done, as they say, so that of necessity, and
only because it was his pleasure and will――then must God be worse than
the devil; for the devil only tempted man to fall, but God compelled
them to fall by his immutable decree. Oh, horrible blasphemy!’”¹
¹ Knox’s _Works_, Volume V., pages 88‒90.
To these questions Knox has given no satisfactory answer, nor has
anyone else. They have engaged the minds of many writers, but so far as
theological exposition is concerned, they remain in much the same state
at the present day; though few cultivated preachers would now attribute
the wrathful and avenging character to God, which it was common to do
in the sixteenth century. The statement of the theory of the eternal
decree in any form is extremely difficult, if not impossible, in
connection with the doctrine of the conditional and limited salvation
of the human race, especially when it is deemed right to employ all
the examples of what is called the pouring out of God’s wrath upon the
enemies of the Jews, and upon the Jews themselves, when their turn came.
From one standpoint this is the weak side of Calvinism; yet to many
it has been, and is now, exceedingly fascinating to imagine that they
know the eternal counsel of God, and are able to formulate His will and
intention.
One other quotation and then I will leave this subject. “If God
reprobated man before the foundation of the world, then God reprobated
man before he had offended; and if God reprobated and damned man before
he offended, then is death the reward of God’s ordinance before the
world, and not the reward of sin. But the apostle teaches us, that by
sin death entered into the world, and also that death is the reward of
sin. I pray you, does either God’s law, or man’s law, condemn any man
before he has offended? I am certain ye are not able to prove it to be
so; then ought you to be ashamed to burden God with such unrighteous
judgment. Does not God rather forgive the offence already committed?
Let him be your God who condemns the innocent before he offended;
but he shall be my God who pardons and forgives the offence already
committed, who in his very wrath thinks upon mercy. And so with Job
will I conclude,――‘The great God casts away no man.’” Knox’s answer
to this is as follows:――“How ignorantly and how impudently ye confound
the eternal purpose of God’s reprobation with the just execution of
his judgments I have before declared, and therefore here it only rests
to admonish the reader that most unjustly ye accuse us in that ye say,
that we hold and teach that God damned man before he offended. This
ye be never able to show in any of our writings; for constantly, in
word and writing, we affirm that man willingly fell from God, and made
himself a slave to Satan before that death was inflicted upon him; and
so neither make we death to be the reward of God’s ordinance, neither
do we burden Him with unrighteous judgments.”¹ This reasoning is not to
the point; the adversary’s objections are deductions from the theory of
the eternal decree of predestination, election, and reprobation, which
were all fixed before the foundation of the world. It is no refutation
to say that his opponent cannot find the words which he used in
their writings. How could man “have willingly fallen from God,” when,
according to their theory, God had it all inexorably settled before
the creation? These are questions which the human mind cannot settle
dogmatically; they are immeasurably beyond its powers. But when men
assume that they can form definite ideas and pronounce true judgments
upon these mysterious and in a sense inscrutable matters, and enforce
people to profess their belief in them, suffering and persecution
often ensued, and men are tortured and put to death for not believing
what they are unable to understand; not only so, but for not believing
things which no human being has ever yet been able fully to comprehend.
The arrogance of those that presume to fix what the eternal counsel
of the Godhead is and must be, can hardly be expected to manifest much
respect for the people who do not think and believe as they do. We need
not be surprised, therefore, that intolerance was a characteristic of
men that professed to know the eternal counsel and will of the Supreme
Being. Seeing that they were thoroughly convinced and firm in their
faith, they deemed it their highest duty to compel others to adopt
their creed, that they too might have a chance of entering into the
glories of heaven, and of escaping the torments of hell. It is easy
for us now, with more varied, wider, and more minute knowledge of
nature and mankind, to point out the weak side of the great men of the
sixteenth century; but we are bound, at the same time, to recognise
the noble and unfaltering spirit which the leaders of the Reformation
displayed, however much we may deplore the use of coercive means which
they were far too eager to wield.
¹ Knox’s _Works_, Volume V., pages 110, 111.
Perhaps the most interesting class of Knox’s writings is his letters,
of which upwards of a hundred are included in Dr. Laing’s edition of
his works. They chiefly relate to the Reformation and the historical
events of the time; and many of them are valuable. His letters also
show him in a more amiable light than that in which he is usually
represented. He had a warm and tender heart, and for all his reputed
harshness of demeanour and his inflexible firmness of purpose, he was
by no means a man of blood; indeed there is no evidence that he was
ever accessory to the death of any one for his religious opinions. In
his history of the Reformation there are passages full of comic humour.
The description of the scene that happened in Edinburgh, at the close
of the procession on St. Giles’ day, is a fair example of his wit――“The
people began to cry down with the idol, down with it; and so without
delay it was pulled down.... Then might have been seen so sudden a fray
as seldom has been seen among that sort of men within this realm; for
down goes the crosses, off goes the surplices, round caps corner with
the crowns. The Gray Friars gaped, the Black Friars blew, the priests
panted and fled, and happy was he that first got to the house; for such
a sudden fray never came among the generation of Antichrist within this
realm before.”¹
¹ Knox’s _Works_, Volume I., page 260.
The Literature of the Reformation in Scotland may be said to close
with George Buchanan, whose life was prolonged to a comparatively old
age. Buchanan was born on the lands of Moss, in Stirlingshire, in the
beginning of February, 1506. The spot of his birth was a few yards
from the river Blane, and about two miles to the south-east of the
village of Killearn. On his father’s side he was of Celtic descent,
and probably Gaelic was his mother tongue; and, at least, it is clear
that he was quite familiar with that language; as he had the feeling
and intuition of a Celt, which was manifested throughout his writings.
He probably received the elements of his education at the schools
of Killearn and Dumbarton. At the age of fourteen he was sent to the
University of Paris, in which he spent two years, mainly devoted to
Latin, and writing verse in that language. He returned to Scotland in
weak health in 1522, and it was nearly a year ere he recovered. In 1525,
Buchanan proceeded to St. Andrew’s University to complete his first
stage in the curriculum of Arts, and, as mentioned in a preceding page,
he was under the teaching of John Mair. In October, 1525, he graduated
as a Bachelor of Arts, so it appears that his studies in Paris must
have been recognised by the Faculty of St. Andrews. Buchanan returned
to Paris in the summer of 1526, and entered the Scots College; and in
March, 1528, he graduated Master of Arts. Shortly after, he commenced
his teaching career as a regent in the University of Paris. He returned
to Scotland in 1535, and immediately became closely connected with the
Court of James V. At this time he wrote the poem entitled “Somnium,”
which gave great offence to the order of the Franciscans, who
thenceforth in Scotland, England, France, Portugal, and Italy, pursued
him with every weapon at their command. Buchanan was engaged by James
V. as tutor to one of his natural sons――Lord James Stuart, then a
child, not the James who was afterwards known as the Regent Moray, but
another natural son of the King, of the same name, who died in 1558.
Thus Buchanan was brought into very close connection with the Court,
and then the King prompting him to write more satires against the
Franciscans, he produced two severe writings against them. But the
resentment of the friars and the clergy was roused, and Buchanan soon
realised that even the countenance of the King would not protect him
from their wrath; and, as mentioned in a preceding chapter, he escaped
and fled to England, and shortly after proceeded to France. From
this time (1539), for upwards of twenty years, Buchanan was mainly
engaged as a professor in the Universities of France and Portugal, and
occasionally acted as a private tutor to the sons of personages of high
rank. At this period thought, creeds, doctrines, and opinions, were
in a state of great agitation and transition throughout Europe, which
rendered the calling of a public teacher one of extreme difficulty
and danger. Buchanan did not escape the anxieties, the troubles and
dangers then associated with his mode of life; for he had often to
face privation, and to encounter extreme difficulties and perplexities
in his career abroad. In March, 1547, under an engagement to act as a
professor in the Faculty of Arts in the University of Coimbra, Buchanan
proceeded to Portugal, and left France. For a short time, under the
management of Gouvéa, the principal of the institution, everything
succeeded delightfully, but he suddenly died in the end of the year
1547.
The following year Buchanan and other humanists connected with the
college were assailed by the Jesuits, and public charges of heresy were
made against them. Buchanan and other two were seized and imprisoned
in a dungeon. After long confinement they were brought to trial, and
for several days subjected to the most cruel reproaches, although no
accusers were even named, and they were sent back to prison. Towards
Buchanan the Jesuits were especially bitter; they accused him of
writing a poem against the Franciscans, and of having eaten flesh
during Lent, and that in conversation with some young Portuguese, when
the subject of the Eucharist was mentioned, he had said that Augustine
was far more with the heretics than the Church in his teaching on
that subject. After the inquisitors for a year and a half had worn out
Buchanan’s patience and their own, they shut him up for some months in
a monastery, in order that he might be more accurately instructed by
the monks, who proved neither unkindly nor ill disposed, though they
were utterly ignorant of religious truth. It was mainly at this time
that Buchanan translated a number of the Psalms into various measures.
At length, being restored to liberty, he embarked at Lisbon in a Cretan
ship, and sailed for England, where he arrived towards the end of 1552;
but shortly after proceeded to France, where he was again engaged in
public and private teaching, sometimes in Italy and sometimes in France.
After having experienced many vicissitudes in foreign lands, in 1561
Buchanan returned to his native country, after an absence of twenty-two
years.
On his return to Scotland, Buchanan became allied with the Protestant
party. He was not, however, a reformer in the same sense as Knox or
Calvin; he had more of the characteristics of a humanist and a scholar,
a man of genius and of letters. Buchanan became connected with the
court, and in 1562 he was acting as classical tutor to Queen Mary;
and in February, 1563, he was appointed to interpret documents written
in foreign languages, “that the Queen and council might thereafter
understand the same.” He addressed several of his short poems to Mary
herself, and he wrote and addressed a remarkable poem to her on the
birth of James VI. in 1566. The Earl of Moray, as Commendator of the
Priory of St. Andrews, appointed Buchanan principal of St. Leonard’s
College in 1566, an office which he held till 1570. Afterwards Buchanan
became attached to the party opposed to the Queen, and was closely
associated with the Regents Moray, Lennox, Mar, and Morton. In 1570 he
was appointed tutor to the young King, and directed to devote attention
to his education; and, along with Peter Young, Buchanan was in 1572 and
1578 confirmed by acts of the Privy Council in his office as “Master”
to the King. When Lennox became Regent, Buchanan was made Director of
Chancery, and then Keeper of the Privy Seal, an office which he held
till 1578; and in virtue of this office, he had a seat in parliament.
He died on the 28th of September, 1582, in the seventy-seventh year of
his age.¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume I., page 234; Volume
II., pages 181, 689, 702, 708. Very full information of the
life and of the writings of Buchanan will be found in Dr.
Irving’s _Memoirs_, published in 1807, the second edition in
1817. Buchanan kept up a literary correspondence with some
of the most learned and famous scholars of the age. A very
able, discriminative, and exceedingly interesting biography
of Buchanan, by Mr. P. H. Brown, was published in 1890;
it is the best account of the life and works of this great
Scotsman which has yet appeared.
Although Buchanan wrote very little in the language of the people, his
Latin works have had much influence, not only in Scotland but also on
the Continent. He was universally recognised as an elegant Latin poet,
and a very successful writer of classic prose.
A review of his Latin poems does not come within the scope of this work,
but his prose writings demand some notice. His largest and most popular
work is the History of Scotland in twenty books. Though the early
portion of it is unmistakably fabulous, it is written throughout with
great animation and force. For the part of it which relates to the
history of the sixteenth century, he is an original and contemporary
authority, and from his official position it may reasonably be assumed
that he had access to the most trustworthy sources of information for
the later portion of his history. Though an ardent party man, he had
a strong sense of justice, a good judgment, and a love of truth. His
narrative is enriched with wise and just political reflections, and his
sentiments are almost always liberal, and for the time even radical.
This feature of his History drew down upon it the vengeance of all
who were attached to Romanism, all the enemies of freedom and all
the lovers of despotism; even at this day, there are some who utterly
detest the political principles of George Buchanan. The personal
responsibility of kings for their conduct which he emphatically
asserted in his history, was the most unpalatable of all opinions,
and it met with virulent and bitter opposition.
But the work in which Buchanan most fully and logically developed the
principles of political freedom is the _De Jure Regni apud Scotos_,
published in 1579. This work was written in the form of a dialogue,
and is a masterly compend of political thought. It at once excited a
large degree of attention.¹ The principles which he enunciated were
clear and decisive; they were derived from reason and experience, and
unflinchingly directed against every form of tyranny. The argument
was put in the following form:――Men were naturally formed for society,
but in order to arrest the internal broils that sprang up among them,
they created kings, and in order to restrain the power of their kings,
they enacted laws. As the community is the source of legal power it is
greater than the king, and may therefore judge him; and since the laws
are intended to restrain the king in case of collision, it is for the
people, not for the ruler, to interpret them, as otherwise they could
have no assurance that their interests would be safe. It is the duty of
the king to associate himself with the law, and to govern exclusively
according to its decisions. A king is one that rules by law, and in
accordance with the interests of the people; but a tyrant is one that
rules by his own will, and contrary to the interests of the people. An
opinion has been promulgated that a king who is hampered by recognised
constitutional ties, may be resisted if he violates them, but that a
tyrant who reigns where no constitution exists must be always obeyed;
this view, however, is wholly false. The people may justly make war
against such a ruler, and may pursue him till he be slain. Buchanan
illustrated and sent home these political opinions by examples drawn
from history. He had also the merit of completely disentangling
politics from the puerile conceits and endless subtleties of the
Catholic theologians.
¹ There were several editions of the dialogue published in a
separate form, in 1580, 1581, one at Glasgow 1750; one at
London 1765; and it has been repeatedly translated into
English: besides it was printed with all the editions of
Buchanan’s works, except the first. As we have seen, it was
condemned by the Scottish parliament in 1584, but probably
this had little effect in retarding its circulation. At the
end of last century there was a manuscript version of the
dialogue in English, in the Lambeth Library. In 1680, a
translation was published, but the place of printing was
concealed: English translations of it appeared at Edinburgh,
1691; at London, 1689, 1721, 1799.
There have been many editions of Buchanan’s other works,
of the history there have been at least twenty editions.
His translation of the Psalms into Latin metre was long
and universally admired, and has passed through numerous
editions both in England and Scotland, and in other
countries. In the beginning of the present century Dr.
Irving wrote――“Buchanan’s paraphrase continues to be read
in the principal schools of Scotland, and perhaps in those
of some other countries. Lauder’s attempt to supersede it
by that of Johnston proved unsuccessful. During the lifetime
of Buchanan, it had begun to be introduced into the schools
of Germany; and its various measures had been accommodated
to appropriate melodies, for the purpose of being chanted by
academics. Pope Urban VII., himself a poet of no mean talent,
is said to have averred that it was a pity it was written by
so great a heretic, for otherwise it should have been sung
in all churches under his authority.”――_Memoirs of the Life
and Writings of Buchanan_, pages 130‒131.
Buchanan’s writings in the Scottish dialect are two political pamphlets,
which were written in support of the King’s party, one entitled “An
Admonitioun direct to the trew Lordis maintenaris of Justice and
Obedience to the King’s Grace,” and the other called the “♦Chamaeleon.”
They both originated from the critical state of the Kingdom immediately
after the murder of the Regent Moray, and show the keen and practical
interest which Buchanan took in the politics of his day; and also
his insight into the real position of the nation at the time. In the
_Admonitioun_ his chief contention is that the only hope for religion
and liberty in Scotland depended on the safety of the young King; and
the aim of the pamphlet was to show the King’s supporters the national
ruin that would issue from the defeat of their cause. He insisted
that the Hamiltons were the chief enemies of the King’s cause. The
_Chamaeleon_ was directed against Maitland of Lethington, who had
joined the Queen’s followers, and used his talents and energy to
subvert the King’s party; and he more than any one else was the moving
spirit of Mary’s party. Lethington was then in the Castle of Edinburgh,
and tidings having reached him that such a pamphlet was forthcoming, on
the night of the 14th of April, 1571, Captain Melvin was sent from the
Castle to Lekpreuik’s house to seize him, and if possible to obtain the
manuscript of the offensive pamphlet. The printer, however, having had
warning, made his escape; but the publication of the _Chamaeleon_ was
stopped, and it was not printed till 1710. Lekpreuik went to Stirling,
and there he printed in the summer of 1571 Buchanan’s _Admonitioun_
direct to the trew Lordis. These two pamphlets of Buchanan are very
good specimens of Scottish prose literature; although the form of his
sentences is in the Latin style, the expression is clear and effective.
The Scottish Text Society have recently published Buchanan’s two
Scottish pamphlets, edited by Mr. P. Hume Brown.
♦ “Chamaelon” replaced with “Chamaeleon”
The teaching of the reformed preachers has prepared the Scots for the
reception of the political opinions proclaimed by Buchanan: they were
in harmony with the spirit of the time, and had a great influence. They
offer a striking contrast to the slavish opinions then entertained by
the majority of the English clergy. The English Church for more than
a hundred and fifty years was the servile handmaid of monarchy, and
the steady enemy of political liberty and freedom,¹ while the body
of the English Puritans and the Scotch clergy struggled hard against
the despotism of the Crown, and the clergy of the Church of England.
They constantly taught the doctrine of the divine right of kings; and
insisted that passive obedience and absolute submission to the will of
the king was the first and highest duty of the people. The clergy of
Scotland taught and preached a very different doctrine; they, at least,
were not afraid of rebellion when it was necessary, and to maintain
that it was unlawful for the people to rise against their King, if he
proved an unworthy ruler or had encroached upon their freedom, would
have been the last thing that they would have thought of.
¹ Hallam’s _Constitutional History of England_, Volume I.,
page 415. Jeremy Taylor said: “Eternal damnation is prepared
for all impenitent rebels in hell with Satan the first
founder of rebellion. Heaven is the place of good, obedient
subjects, and hell the prison and dungeon of rebels against
God and their prince.”――Homily on Wilful rebellion. Quoted
in Lecky’s _History of Rationalism_, Volume II., page 149.
The Scottish poets of the later half of the sixteenth century were
not of high rank, and therefore need not detain us long. None of their
writings appear to have been very popular, and they did not exercise
much influence on the people. The name of Sir Richard Maitland, of
Lethington, a lawyer, a Lord of Session, and a Privy Councillor, in
the reign of Queen Mary, is associated with the history of Scottish
poetry more from the fact of his having been a collector of the verses
and poems of others, than for the importance of his own compositions.
He was born in 1494, and after a long, an active, and honourable life,
during the last twenty years of which he was deprived of his eyesight,
died in March 1586, at the great age of ninety. His poems were all
written after his sixtieth year, and they bear the impress of the
sober reflection of mature age. None of his verses are soaring or
glowing, but they contain some very pointed references to the state
of society and the events of the period. The subjects of most of his
poems are lamentations for the disturbed state of his country, such
as the feuds amongst the nobles, the discontent of the common people,
complaints against the courts for long delay in deciding cases, and
the depredations of the border thieves. Touching a remedy for the
delay of law suits, Maitland advised the King to increase the number of
judges, and to augment their salaries out of the funds of the abbacies,
parsonages, and provestries, which were then at the disposal of the
Crown. His poems were first printed in a separate and complete form in
1830 by the Maitland Club; some of them, however, had appeared before
in Pinkerton’s _Ancient Scottish Poems_, and in other collections of
early poetry.¹
¹ Pinkerton’s _Ancient Scottish Poems_, Volume II., page
275‒345, 349‒353. Sibbald’s _Chronicle of Scottish Poetry_,
Volume III., pages 76, 319.
Maitland’s collections of early Scottish poetry consists of two volumes,
containing two hundred and seventy-two pieces, and specimens of these
have long been before the public. He was the author of a book entitled
_The History and Chronicle of the House and Surname of Seytoun_, which
was printed for the Maitland Club in 1829.
George Bannatyne was a writer of verses, but was more remarkable as a
collector of early poetry, with the history of which department of our
vernacular literature his name is inseparably associated. He formed
his collection in the year 1568, when a young man, while the plague was
raging in Scotland. His manuscript is neatly transcribed, and extends
to eight hundred pages folio. He was engaged on it for three months.
In the beginning of the manuscript he states that he was forced to have
recourse to old and mutilated copies. There are only a few of his own
compositions in the collection, two of which deal with amatory subjects.
He concludes the manuscript with an address to the reader in the
following words:――
“Here ends this book, written in time of pest,
When I fra labour was compelled to rest,
Into the three last months of this year,
From our Redeemer’s birth, to know it here,
Ane thousand is, five hundred, threescore eight.
Of this purpose no more needs be taught.
So, till conclude, God send us all good end,
And after death eternal life us send.”¹
¹ Many particulars about the poems contained in this manuscript
may be seen in _Ancient Scottish Poems_, published by Lord
Hailes in 1770; in Pinkerton’s _Ancient Scottish Poems_; in
a volume printed by the Bannatyne Club, containing a memoir
of the worthy collector, Bannatyne; by Sir Walter Scott, and
in several of the writings of the late Dr. Laing, relating
to the early poetry of Scotland.
Only a few of Bannatyne’s own poems are preserved, and they have not
much poetical merit, though they are interesting as the effusions of
one that was so instrumental in transmitting to posterity the early
poetry of bygone generations.
Alexander Scott wrote poetry during this period, and his poems were
edited by the late Dr. Laing, but nothing has been definitely
ascertained concerning his parentage or profession. From his writings
it appears that he was married; but his wife deserted him, and fled
with some wanton man; however, after expressing his sorrow for this
mishap, he avowed his determination to choose another wife, and to
forget the faithless one. His poems are mostly founded on subjects of
an amatory character, and he often shows a considerable degree of fancy
and harmony. The longest of his productions is entitled “A New-Year’s
Gift to Queen Mary when she came first hame,” but it has little poetic
merit. His “Justing between Adamson and Sym” appears to be an imitation
of “Christ’s Kirk of the Green.”¹
¹ Alexander Scott’s _Poems_, 1821. Dr. Irving’s _History of
Scottish Poetry_, pages 417‒424. Eighteen of his pieces are
included in Sibbald’s _Chronicle of Scottish Poetry_, Volume
III., pages 115‒175.
Alexander Arbuthnot was born in 1538 at Pitearles, in Mearns, and
educated at the University of St. Andrews. In 1561 he passed to France,
and for five years prosecuted the study of the law under Cujacius,
in the University of Bruges. He returned to Scotland in 1566, with
the intention of following the profession of law, but was induced to
enter the ministry, and became an able adherent of the Reformation. He
was highly respected for his learning and knowledge, and in 1568 was
appointed Principal of the University of Aberdeen. He took an active
part in the proceedings of the Church Courts, and was twice elected
Moderator of the General Assembly. To the study of theology he joined
the study of letters, and was the author of an elegant Latin work
entitled “Orations on the Origin and Dignity of the Law,” which was
printed at Edinburgh in 1572. In his poems, which are in the Scottish
language, he mostly confines himself to subjects of a serious cast, and
some of his pieces are pervaded with a pleasing air of melancholy and
a warm benignity. He died in 1583, regretted by his contemporaries, who
united in recording his virtues.¹
¹ Spottiswood; _Delitiæ Poetarum Scotorum II._, page 120. Dr.
M‘Crie’s _Life of Melville_, Volume I., pages 114‒117, 283.
Only four or five of Arbuthnot’s poems are preserved. The most lively
of them is the one entitled “The Praise of Women,” which extends to 224
lines, and contains a very warm encomium of the fair sex. His effusion
entitled “The Miseries of a Poor Scholar,” is rather an interesting
composition, and shows that he had a vein of keen and glowing, though
somewhat carping, sentiment.¹
¹ These two poems are included in Pinkerton’s _Ancient Scottish
Poems_, Volume I., pages 138‒155; and quotations are given
in Dr. Irving’s _History of Scottish Poetry_, pages 432‒436.
Among the writers of rhyme of this period may be mentioned John
Davidson, who was born about the year 1549 at Dunfermline. He studied
at the University of St. Andrews from 1567 to 1570; and afterwards
became a Regent of St. Leonards College. He was a strong adherent
of the Reformation; and took a warm interest in promoting education
amongst the people. He wrote a metrical panegyric on John Knox,
entitled “A Brief Commendation of Uprightness,” which was printed at
St. Andrews in 1573. The aim of this rhymed production is to record in
popular language the memorable service that the Reformer rendered to
the nation. Every stanza of the poem closes with the word _uprightness_.
About the same time he composed a poem called “A Dialogue between a
Clerk and a Courtier,” which was printed in the beginning of the year
1574. It contains an exposure of a practice adopted by the Regent
Morton for the purpose of retaining at his own disposal a large part of
the thirds of benefices, by uniting two, three, or four churches under
the care of one minister, thus restoring the abuse of pluralities.
Morton was much offended at the outspoken style of the poem; and
its author was cited and convicted before a court at Haddington,
and banished from the country. Lekpreuik, the printer of the rhyme,
was also prosecuted, and imprisoned for some time in the Castle of
Edinburgh.¹ They were indicted on an Act of Parliament, of 1551,
“against blasphemous rhymes.” There is little in Davidson’s book that
could have given reasonable ground of alarm to any well regulated
government, as it merely describes a subject of public interest in a
comparatively sober manner. Davidson returned to Scotland after the
fall of Morton, and, as we have seen in preceding pages, took an active
part in the proceedings of the Church.
¹ _Poetical Remains of John Davidson_, 1829; Melville’s
_Diary_, pages 27, 28; _Life of Knox_, pages 447‒460; 1855.
_Annals of Scottish Printing_, by Dickson and Edmond, pages
205, 270‒71.
The literary merits of the piece, which offended the Regent, are
not great. The versification, however, is easy, and the conversation
is carried on in a natural and spirited style. Shortly after its
publication, Davidson composed a poem to the memory of Robert Campbell
of Kinyeancleugh, a man that had shown his attachment to the reformed
religion by his steadfast support of Knox. Campbell died while
endeavouring to shelter Davidson from the effects of persecution, and
the latter gratefully commemorated the virtues of his protector. The
poem was published in 1595. Having returned from exile, Davidson was
appointed minister of the parish of Liberton in 1579. Afterwards he
incurred the displeasure of the King, and had to leave his charge, and
retired to England. After his return he preached at various places in
and around Edinburgh; and in 1596 he became minister of Prestonpans.
But owing to his opposition to the King’s scheme of Church polity, he
was imprisoned for a time, and afterwards his action was restricted
to his own parish. After a life of activity and earnest work, he died
in 1604, leaving behind him a collection of papers relating to the
ecclesiastical history of Scotland.¹
¹ _Poetical Remains of J. Davidson_; Dr. M‘Crie’s _Life of
Melville_, Volume I., pages 131‒132, 449‒453. Davidson’s
other writings consisted of a letter in answer to Dr.
Bancroft’s attack on the Church of Scotland: an account of
Scottish Martyrs, written in Latin, but this work is now
lost; though Calderwood had the use of it when he compiled
his history: a Catechism entitled, “Some helps for young
scholars in Christianity,” Edinburgh, 1602, which was
reprinted in 1708. “A little before his death he penned a
treatise, De Hostibus Ecclesiæ Christi, wherein he affirms
the erecting of bishops in this Kirk is the most subtle
thing to destroy religion that ever could be devised.”
――Row’s _History._
There were several other minor versifiers in the latter
part of this century, but their productions are hardly of
sufficient importance to warrant any lengthy notice. Robert
Semple was a versifier of some repute in his day; he wrote
a poem on the siege of the Castle of Edinburgh, which was
printed in 1573. Another of his rhymes is entitled, “The
Legend of the Bishop of St. Andrews;” this was an attack
upon the character of Archbishop Adamson; but Semple’s
compositions are rather coarse. _Scottish Poems of the
Sixteenth Century_, Volume I.; Pinkerton’s _List of the
Scottish Poets_; Birrel’s _Diary_, page 14; Ramsay’s
_Evergreen_, Volume I., pages 67, 71.
There were also a number of anonymous poems and rhymes
relating to public events, published about this time.――“The
Testament and Tragedy of the late King Henry Stuart of
good memory;” another, “A declaration of the Lord’s just
Quarrel,” both were printed in 1569; and are very bitter
against Queen Mary. “A Tragedy in the form of a Dialogue, in
commemoration of the merits and fate of the regent Moray,”
was published in 1570. This performance has little or
no poetic value; many of the author’s expressions are in
extremely bad taste. Some parts however of the Regent’s
public service was clearly stated, and his subjection of
the borderers was narrated quite distinctly. This rhyme is
printed in _Scottish Poems of the Sixteenth Century_. “The
Lamintation of Lady Scotland,” which was published in 1572,
is a production of a similar description; but it contained
some important information regarding the state of the
people; and the oppressive character of the nobles was very
plainly stated. Lady Scotland concluded with a fling at the
practices of the dignitaries of the Roman Church. _Scottish
Poems of the Sixteenth Century._ There were several
rhymers who frequented the court of James VI., some of them
Englishmen, but their writings are of little interest.――Dr.
Irving’s _History of Scotish Poetry_, pages 461‒470.
Alexander Montgomery was one of the most eminent and popular of the
Scottish poets of the later half of the sixteenth century. Of his
life and character very few facts are known. He seems to have been for
sometime employed in the service of James VI.; while it also appears
that he experienced some of the vicissitudes of favour which so often
fall to the lot of the courtier. It is supposed that he died about 1609.
Several of his short poems occur in Bannatyne’s manuscript, and must
have been composed forty years before his death.¹ Montgomery’s poems
are numerous, embracing sonnets and short pieces of very varied degrees
of merit. It has been supposed that his taste was partly formed by
the study of the Italian poets, as some of his quaint turns of fancy
betray their Italian origin. He has written on many subjects, and tried
his ingenuity in a variety of measures, but his happiest efforts were
those of a lyric cast. To him amorous subjects afforded the most common
themes for the exercise and the display of his powers. He had a good
command of language, and, like some of his predecessors, especially of
words of abuse and scorn.²
¹ _Poems_ of Alexander Montgomery, by Dr. D. Laing;
_Biographical Notices_, pages 5‒16; 1821.
² The production entitled “The flyting between Montgomery
and Polwart” (Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth) teems with
the coarsest and most abusive strings of terms to be found
in any language. It is equally as coarse and vulgar as
the performance between Dunbar and Kennedy, in the same
department. Montgomery began the sport with the following
lines:――
“Polwart, yee peip like a mouse amongst thornes;
Na cunning yee keipe. Polwart, yee peip;
Ye look like a sheipe, and yee had twa hornes.
Polwart, yee peip like a mouse amongst thornes.
Beware what thou speiks, little foule earth tade;
With thy Cannigate breiks, beware what thou speiks,
Or there sal be wat cheiks for the last that thou made.
Beware what thou speiks, little foule earth tade.”
――Page 103.
The quantity of low slang that occurs in this composition
is very great, and many of the words are still current among
the lowest class in Scotland.
His greatest effort is “The Cherrie and the Slae,” a poem of
considerable ingenuity, extending to one hundred and fourteen stanzas,
comprising one thousand five hundred and ninety-five lines. The poem
begins in an amatory mood, and ends with a moral. Though the allegory
is rather obscure, and the thought too dim, many of the stanzas
are rich in imagery and smooth in diction. It was very popular, and
continued to be printed till a recent period.¹
¹ As far as known, the first edition of _The Cherrie and
the Slae_ was published at Edinburgh in 1597; in that year
two editions were printed by Robert Waldegrave. Several
stanzas were afterwards added by the author to an impression
which appeared in 1615, from the press of Andrew Hart. The
subsequent editions were――one at Edinburgh, 1536; another
there, 1675; another, 1706; and one inserted in Ramsay’s
_Evergreen_, 1724; one at Aberdeen, 1645: and editions
printed at Glasgow in 1668, 1746, 1751, 1754, 1757, and 1768;
and a modernised edition printed at Edinburgh, 1779: The
Scottish Text Society issued a complete edition in 1886‒87,
edited by Dr. James Cranstoun, with numerous notes and a
very useful Glossary.
Montgomery’s sonnets were mostly all addressed to some of his
contemporaries or friends, to the King, the Lords of Session, and
to others, male and female. They have not much poetical merit, nor
much interest now; some of his miscellaneous poems, however, are more
valuable and interesting. The following lines are from his short piece
headed “The Opposition of the Court to Conscience”:――
“The court some qualities requires
Which conscience cannot but accuse;
And specially such as aspiris
Mon honest adulation use.
I dar not say, and doubly deill,
But court and conscience wallis not weill.
* * * * *
Sin every minioun thou must make
To gar them think that thou art theirs,
Howbeit thou be, behind their back,
No furtherer of their affairs,
But mett them moonshin ay for meill;
So court and conscience wallis not weill.”¹
¹ _Poems_, pages 136, 137; Dr. Laing’s Edition.
Montgomery also versified several of the Psalms, and wrote many
devotional verses.¹
¹ _Poems_, pages 247‒287.
We have already seen that James VI. was fond of displaying his learning
and his theological knowledge. He was equally anxious to show his
subjects and the world that he was a poet. In 1584, when only eighteen
years of age, he published his first work, entitled “Essays of a
Prentice in the Divine Art of Poesie.” This publication consists of
a mixture of poetry and prose: the poems are mostly a kind of sonnet.
None of them are of high merit, but, emanating from such an exalted
personage, they were greatly praised, and James was soon recognised
as a poet and a scholar. He appeared as a contributor to the Cambridge
collection of verses on the death of Sir Philip Sidney, published in
1587. In this book the king’s verses were placed first.¹ His subsequent
writings were numerous, but a review of them would not repay the
trouble and the space which it would occupy. It may at once be stated
that his books have contributed nothing to the advancement of an
enlightened and liberal policy of government, nor to the progress of
civilisation.²
¹ There is much information about the writings of James the VI.
in Dr. Harris’s account of his life, 1753.
² In the list of King James’s works the following may be
mentioned:――1. _Ane Fruitful Meditation_, containing a
plain and facile exposition of the seventh, eighth, ninth
and tenth verses of the twentieth chapter of Revelations,
in form of a sermon; set down by the most Christian king,
and sincere professor and chief defender of the truth, James
the Sixth, King of Scots. Edinburgh, 1588. 2. _Demonology_,
in form of a dialogue, divided into three books, Edinburgh,
1597; again, 1600; and at London, 1603. 3. _His Majesty’s
Poetical Exercises in vacant hours_, Edinburgh, 1591. 4.
_Instructions to his Son, Prince Henry. Basilicon Doron_,
1603. 5. _The True Law of Free Monarchies_, 1598. 6.
_Counterblast to Tobacco._ 7. _Mysteries of State._ 8. His
other writings chiefly consist of speeches, declarations,
and the like. There is an enumeration of them in Dr. Watt’s
_Bibliotheca Britannica_, Volume II., page 541.
Towards the end of the century, there is some indication of an
improvement in the moral sentiment and tone of the popular literature.
Alexander Hume, minister of Logie, who died in 1609, produced in the
later years of his life a number of hymns or sacred songs. A volume
which he printed at Edinburgh in 1599, contains eight hymns, a short
poem on the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and a prose Epistle in which
he records the experiences of his youth. In the Epistle he expresses
himself pretty freely respecting the corruption of the judges, and
animadverts boldly on the Scottish Court.¹ His hymns are very unequal,
but the versification is occasionally fluent and easy; and some of his
descriptions are natural and vigorous. The following lines are taken
from the hymn entitled “the Day Festival:”――
“O perfect light! which shed away
The darkness from the light,
And left one ruler o’er the day,
Another o’er the night.
Thy glory, when the day forth flies,
More vively does appear,
Nor at midnight unto our eyes,
The shining sun is clear;
The shadow of the earth anone,
Removes and drawis by;
Syne in the east when it is gone,
Appears a clearer sky:
Which soon perceives the little larks
The lapwing, and the snipe;
And tunes their songs, like nature’s clerks,
O’er meadow, moor, and stripe.
* * * * *
What pleasure ’twere to walk and see
Endlong a river clear,
The perfect form of every tree
Within the deep appear;
The salmon out of crooves and creels
Up hauled into skouts,
The bells and circles on the weills
Through louping of the trouts.
O then it were a seemly thing,
While all is still and calme,
The praise of God to play and sing
With cornet and with shalme.”
This is certainly a great advance from the rude and coarse rhymes of
the “Gude and Godlie Ballads.” There is an ease and artless vividness
of description in this beautiful hymn which renders it exceedingly
pleasing to read; and it must have been more touching when sung.
¹ “Hymns or sacred songs, wherein the right use of poetry
may be espied. By Alexander Hume. Whereunto are added,
the experience of the author’s youth and certain precepts,
serving to the practice of sanctification.” Edinburgh, 1599.
James Melville, the nephew of Andrew Melville, whose valuable and
interesting _Diary_ has been often referred to in the preceding pages
of this work, also indulged in writing Scottish poetry. In early life
he acted as a professor at Glasgow and at St. Andrews, and afterwards
as a parish minister. He was one of the ministers that were deprived of
their livings and liberty after the accession of the King to the throne
of England. He died at Newcastle in 1614. He was a mild and estimable
man, more remarkable for his piety than for any original poetic power.
In 1599 his work entitled a “Catechism” was published at Edinburgh. The
first part of it is in prose, and consists of prayers and meditations
for different occasions, directions for self-examination, a form of
examination for those seeking to be admitted to the communion, in the
order of question and answer. The second part is in verse, and has the
following title――“A Morning Vision, or Poem for the Practice of Piety,
in devotion, faith, and repentance: wherein the Lord’s Prayer, Belief,
and Commands, and so the whole Catechism, and right use thereof,
is largely expounded.” He composed many other religious pieces in
verse, but his poetry is very homely and tame; and it appears that
his Catechism was not popular. His writings are interesting, however,
as specimens of the native language, and for the curious and plain
statement of customs and notions which prevailed in Scotland in his
day.¹
¹ James Melville’s _Diary_, edition by Robert Pitcairn,
_Prefatory Notice_, pages 8‒31, 45. The editor gives a list
of his various works, pages 44‒48. But the _Diary_ itself is
by far the most valuable of his writings to the student of
history.
The fashion of the age led the learned to make attempts to write Latin
poetry and rhymes. The quantity of effort spent in learning to read
and compose in the Latin language was enormous; and although this had
a tendency to improve the standard of culture, it may be doubted if it
was not carried too far. We are also told that “in all the schools and
colleges, and from the age of six to sixteen, the youth spoke and heard
nothing but Latin;” also that in their correspondence and ordinary
conversation with each other, the learned used the Latin tongue.¹
Supposing this to be literally true, it can hardly be said to have
been the most effective way to develop the faculties of the mind, or
to advance the civilisation of the nation. This mode of culture tends
to separate men of letters from the general community, and prevents
them from exercising an influence over the mind of the people; and
thus deprives literature of the advantages to be derived from its
diffusion among all ranks of society. It may be said, indeed, that
the Scottish Latinists of this period exercised an indirect influence
upon the national mind, which in one sense may be granted; but after
the Reformation the spell of Latin Christianity was broken, and in
Protestant nations the Latin language as a formative power inevitably
became greatly circumscribed. This was a consequence of the Reformation,
whether learned men saw it or not, that did not effect its operation.
¹ Dr. M‘Crie’s _Life of Melville_, Volume II., pages 328,
330‒332. “But perhaps, the most extraordinary circumstance
in the history of our literature at this period was the
enthusiasm with which Latin poetry was cultivated by our
countrymen; divines, lawyers, physicians, country-gentlemen,
courtiers, and statesmen, devoted themselves to this
difficult species of composition, and contended with each
other in the various strains which the ancient masters
of Roman song had employed. The principal poems in the
collection entitled ‘Delitiæ Poetarum Scotorum’ were
originally published, or at least written, at this time.
They are of course possessed of very different degrees of
merit, but of the collection in general we may say that it
is equal to any of the collections of the same kind which
appeared in other countries, except that which contains
the Latin poems composed by natives of Italy. If this was
not the classic age of Scotland, it was at least the age of
classical literature in it, and at no subsequent period of
our history have the languages of Greece and Rome been so
successfully cultivated, or the beauties of their poetry so
deeply felt and so justly imitated. Besides Andrew Melville,
the individuals who attained the greatest excellence in this
branch of literature were Sir Thomas Craig, Sir Robert Ayton,
Hume of Godscroft, John Johnston, and Hercules Rollock.”
To these may be justly added――Archbishop Adamson, who wrote
sacred poetry, translations of various books of the Bible in
verse, a Catechism, and other treatises in Latin. He died in
extreme poverty in 1591. He also wrote several works which
have never been published.
Remembering the comparatively unsettled state of the nation, the
religious and theological literature produced in the later part of
the century was considerable. Before this period no commentary on
Scripture, nor any collection of sermons, had appeared in Scotland; for
the writings on the Four Gospels of the Scottish Scholastic, John Mair,
were published in Paris. But Robert Rollock, the first Principal of
the University of Edinburgh, was an earnest educationalist and a warm
promoter of literature, whose name is closely and honourably associated
with the history of education and religious literature in Scotland. In
connection with his profession, he composed commentaries on many parts
of the Bible, some of which were published at Edinburgh toward the
end of the century, and were shortly after reprinted at Geneva, and
commended by several foreign divines. He wrote in Latin, and though
his mode of exposition was not free from the fetters of the pedantic
logic of Scholasticism, and themes that involved the most momentous
moral issues were handled as mere abstractions. Having formed certain
premises, the intermediate conclusions to which the rules of their
method led, they treated these deductions as logical symbols, and
reasoned them out, utterly ignoring the difficulty and the doubt
which so often attends the steps of moral reasoning. Everything rested
on the truth of the definitions and the premises; and to change or
doubt any of these was fatal to the whole structure. Protestantism has
only gradually and with difficulty extricated itself from this purely
dogmatic method; and even yet we are not altogether clear of its meshes.
Rollock’s good sense and feeling of the practical often appears in his
commentaries on the Scripture in spite of the art of the dialectician,
though in some of his Latin writings he revels in dialectics. His
sermons in the Scottish dialect, published at Edinburgh in 1599, from
notes taken by some of his students, are pretty concise and practical
discourses, and exhibit him in a favourable light. His work entitled
“God’s Effectual Calling,” originally published in Latin at Edinburgh,
1597, is rather an elaborate performance. It formed a portion of the
system of theology which he taught. In this treatise Rollock touches
upon a variety of topics relating to the Scriptures; and like other
Protestant divines of the period, exhibits an unhesitating and firm
belief in revelation. He mentions various early translations of the
Old and New Testament, and briefly discusses the authorship and claims
of the Vulgate. Passing to the consideration of translations into the
modern tongues, he inquires whether it is lawful to translate the Bible
into every modern language, whether the common prayers should be in the
mother tongue, and whether the people should read the Scriptures. The
arguments of the Roman Catholics against the free communication of the
Bible to the people he minutely examines and effectively exposes.¹
¹ _Select Works of R. Rollock_: Wodrow Society, 1849, Volume
I., pages 127‒160. A list of his works is given at pages
eighty-nine and ninety-five of the introduction to this
volume. Some of his writings were popular for several
generations after his death.
Robert Bruce, whom we have seen in preceding pages, as a bold and
popular preacher, was a man of strong and vigorous mind, intensely
earnest, honest, and steadfast in principle. His sermons in the
Scottish dialect were published at Edinburgh in 1590 and 1591; and are
exceedingly interesting specimens of vernacular composition, shortly
before the period when it was generally superseded by modern English.
They are full of doctrinal points and arguments, remarkably regular in
style and clear in expression. He had a good sense of method, and the
faculty of making an intricate subject intelligible to the ordinary
understanding.¹
¹ His sermons were translated into English, and published at
London in 1617; they were reprinted for the Wodrow Society.
――_Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ_, Volume I., page 18.
Robert Pont was born about 1528. Educated in St. Leonard’s College
at St. Andrews, he early embraced the reformed opinions, and his name
appeared among the members of the first General Assembly. From this
time till his death in 1606, he took an active part in the affairs
of the Church. In 1572, with the consent of the General Assembly, he
accepted an appointment to act as a senator of the college of justice,
and he held a seat on the bench till 1584. He was chosen minister of St.
Cuthbert’s Church, Edinburgh, in 1574; the same year, he was appointed
to revise all the books that were printed and published.
Pont was one of the most learned of the early ministers of the Church
of Scotland. In 1566 he published _A Translation and Interpretation of
the Helvetian Confession_. At the request of the General Assembly, he
composed three sermons against sacrilege in 1594, which were published
in 1599. This is an interesting subject, and has been often touched
on, in preceding chapters; yet a short quotation from a well informed
contemporary cannot be out of character:――“From the year of our Lord
1560 to this present time, the greatest study of all men of power
of this land has been, by all kinds of inventions, to spoil the Kirk
of Christ of her patrimony, by chopping and changing, diminishing of
rentals, converting of victual in small sums of money, setting of feus
under the value, long tackes upon tackes, with two or three life-rents,
with many twenty years of a tack, annexations, erections of Kirk-rents
into temporal livings and heritage, pensions, simple donations,
erecting of new patronages, union of teinds, making new abbots,
commendators, priors, and other papistical titles, which ought to
have no place in a reformed Kirk and country, with many other corrupt
and fraudful ways, to the detriment and hurt of the Kirk, the schools,
and the poor, without any stay or gainsaying.”¹ His other writings
chiefly related to chronology. “A new treatise on the right reckoning
of the years and ages of the world and men’s lives, and of the state
of the last decaying age thereof, this year of Christ, containing
sundry singularities worthy of observation, concerning courses of
times and revolutions of the heavens, reformation of kalendars, and
prognostications,” etc., published at Edinburgh, 1599. His work,
entitled _Chronologiam de Sabbatis_, was published at London in 1626.
He also wrote a tract on the union of the kingdoms, in the form of
a dialogue, which was published in 1604. In this dialogue he gives a
deplorable description of the tyranny of the aristocracy, the weakness
of the law, and the terrors of the judges, who trembled before the
power of the nobles.²
¹ Pont’s _Sermons against Sacrilege_.
² _History of the Church and Parish of St. Cuthbert’s_, 1829;
Tytler’s _Life of Sir Thomas Craig_, page 218; Wodrow’s
_Biographical Collections_, Volume I.
The Reformation movement was admirably adapted to call forth any latent
talent that existed in the nation; as it tended to arouse the latent
powers of the mind, and to widen the range of ideas and the objects of
study. After the Revolution, the department of jurisprudence began to
receive more attention; and indeed, it may be said that in Scotland the
teaching of the civil law only commenced at this period. Previously,
the canons were the great object of study; those who delivered lectures
occasionally on the civil law were in priests’ orders. It was not
till the later part of the sixteenth century that the institutes and
pandects began to be substituted for the sacred canons and decretals.
Dr. Edward Henryson edited and wrote a preface to a collection of the
acts of parliament, from 1424 to 1564, which was published at Edinburgh
in 1566: this volume, however, is rather carelessly arranged.¹ Sir
John Skene, the clerk registrar, edited a collection of the Acts
of Parliament, from 1424 onwards to the later part of the sixteenth
century, which was published at Edinburgh in 1597. He also, for the
first time, published in 1609, in Latin and in English, a collection of
the laws and constitutions of Scotland, from the days of Malcolm II. to
the reign of James I.; to this he added a treatise on the explanation
of difficult words and terms.² Although modern investigators have found
many reasons for the rejection and modification of not a few of Skene’s
opinions and conclusions touching the early laws of Scotland, it must
be acknowledged that his labours were valuable and meritorious, and at
the time of their publication threw much light on the ancient customs
and laws of Scotland.
¹ Dr. Henryson is the author of a work, entitled _Commentatio
Title X. Libri Secundi Institutionum de Testamentis
Ordinandis_, published in 1555. It is a kind of running
commentary, and it was inserted in the great work of
Gerard Meerman, _Novus Thesaurus Juris Civilis et Canonici_.
Henryson is reported to have written some other books, which
are not now extant.
² Skene’s first edition of the _Regiam Majestatem_, was
published in 1613; and the origin and authorship of this
book has caused much disquisition.
Sir Thomas Craig was an eminent and successful lawyer in the reign of
James VI. His best known work is the learned treatise on the feudal
law, “Jus Feudale, Tribus Libris Comprehensum,” which he finished in
1603, but it was not published till 1655, forty-seven years after the
author’s death. It is written in a vigorous Latin style. It obtained a
wide and authoritative reputation; many translations and editions of it
were published. He was a vigorous thinker, and made the first regular
attempt to treat the feudalism of Scotland in a philosophic spirit.
It is not surprising, however, that he failed to explain the peculiar
form that feudalism had assumed in Scotland; when he wrote, feudalism
was full of life in the kingdom; and it may be questioned, if a
professional lawyer is the best qualified person to give a true
exposition of the system in operation around him. Every one that has
tried to grasp and comprehend the special form of feudalism which so
long prevailed in this country, is well aware of the difficulties of
the subject. As we have seen, Scotch feudalism was not a natural growth
of the clan organisation. In the days of Craig, the distinctive feature
of feudalism was connected with the holding of land――the customary
rights and claims of the superior, and the obligation of his vassals
to satisfy all his demands; but one by one, here and there, the feudal
burdens were gradually lightened and outgrown, till at last the tenants
of the land only paid a money rent.
William Welwood was for sometime Professor of Law in the University
of St. Andrews, and published several useful treatises on juridical
subjects. He wrote both in Latin and English. In one of his works, he
drew a parallel of the points of resemblance between the Jewish and
the Roman codes. His tract on ecclesiastical processes was intended to
distinguish the forms of procedure in the civil courts, from the forms
that should be used in the Church courts, touching citation, the mode
of trial, and appeals. His abridgment of sea laws――one of the most
useful of his productions――was the first systematic book on maritime
jurisprudence which appeared in Britain. But Welwood ventured into
other fields: he wrote a treatise on practical theology, which was
published at Middleburgh in 1594. He had an inquiring mind, and in all
his writings there is a worthy desire to turn his knowledge to the good
of mankind.¹
¹ This work has the following title: “Abridgment of all Sea
Laws; gathered forth of all Writings and Monuments, which
are to be found among any People or Nation upon the Coasts
of Great Britain and the Mediterranean Sea,” London, 1613.
Watts’ _Bibliotheca Britannica_, Volume II., page 957. The
learned Selden afterwards wrote on this subject, in the
seventeenth century, and even later various points of the
law relating to the sea were fiercely disputed.
This very industrious man was also connected with the progress of
physics and the arts. In 1577, while teaching at St. Andrews, he
obtained from the Government a patent for a new mode of raising
water with greater facility from coal pits, sinks, and low places. He
afterwards published an account of his plan, and of the principles upon
which he calculated that it would produce the intended effect: this
publication appeared in 1582. It is an interesting indication of the
state of hydraulic science at the time, and of the experiments which
gradually led to the discovery and to the application of its true
principles.¹ In 1594, Parliament granted to two men the exclusive right
of making certain pumps for raising and forcing water out of mines.²
¹ His plan of raising water has been thus summarised:――“If
Welwood had persevered in his experiments, he might have
accidentally made the discovery which afterwards occurred
to Galileo. He proposed to produce the effect by means of a
leaden pipe bent into a syphon, and extended on the exterior
so as to discharge the water at a point below the surface of
the well. Having shut up the two extremities of the pipe, he
introduces water into both legs by an aperture at the upper
point or elbow of the syphon, till they are completely full;
and then closing this aperture with great exactness, and
opening both ends of the syphon, he maintains that the water
will flow out of the exterior or lower leg, as long as there
is any in the well. It cannot, he argues, flow out of the
shorter leg, for it has no head or difference of level to
give it the power of issuing in that direction. It cannot
flow out of both legs at the same time; for then it behoved
to separate somewhere in the middle, which, according to him,
is impossible, as nature abhors a vacuum. Therefore, it must
flow out of the well by the longer leg. The well is supposed
to be 45 cubits deep (for our author was not possessed of
the important fact that water will not rise to a height
above 33 feet). In other respects the principles of his
demonstration are not more unscientifical than those which
Galileo would have employed sixty years after the time of
Welwood.” Dr. M‘Crie, _Life of Melville_, Volume II., pages
320‒321.
² _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume IV., page 176.
But the most celebrated name in connection with the history of science
in Scotland was John Napier of Merchiston. This remarkable man, who
contributed so much to extend the bounds of knowledge, was born in
the year 1550. He was educated at the University of St. Andrews, and
afterwards in France at the University of Paris. He had returned to
Scotland before 1571, and for many years took an active interest in
the affairs of the Church. He was twice married, and had a family of
sons and daughters. Although he was of a studious and inquiring turn of
mind, he was by no means a mere recluse, as he attended to his domestic
duties and the business of his father, who was connected with the mint
and mining operations of Scotland. In short, he interested himself in
many projects, and seems to have passed a comparatively happy life. He
died in the month of April, 1617.¹
¹ M. Napier’s _Memoirs of John Napier of Merchiston_, 1834,
pages 56, 91, 104‒107, 129‒131, 147‒173, 227‒234, 282, 415,
430; _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III.,
page 559.
The dominant feelings and the belief of the age had taken a firm hold
upon Napier’s mind, as his earliest publication manifested. This was
an ingenious and extremely curious book, containing an exposition of
the whole Revelations of St. John. He prefaced this work with a short
poetical address to Antichrist; and to his interpretation, he annexed
certain oracles of Sibylla, which he conceived to agree with the
Revelations and other parts of Scripture.¹ The full title of this
work will perhaps give a better idea of its contents than any lengthy
description: “A Plain Discovery of the Revelations of St. John,
set down in two Treatises; the one searching and proving the true
interpretation thereof; the other applying the same paraphrastically
and historically to the text: by John Napier; with a resolution of
certain doubts, moved by some well affected brethren; whereunto are
annexed certain oracles of Sibylla, agreeing with the Revelations and
other places of Scripture; and also an epistle omitted in the last
edition, 1645. This was printed for Andrew Wilson, and sold at his shop
at the foot of the Ladie’s Steps.”
¹ _A Plain Discovery of the Revelations of St. John_, page 61;
edition 1645.
The conclusions which he draws from the introductory and expositive
treatise on the Revelations of St. John were thus stated in his own
words:――“Then for conclusion, by these interpretative propositions
followeth four things, marvellous and notable. First, that the
interpretation of every part of the Revelations is accessory or
consectory to another――that is to say, it is so chained and linked
together, that every mystery opens the other, to the discovery of
the whole. Secondly, that the first half of the book is orderly――that
is to say, it containeth in order of time the most notable accidents
that concerneth God’s Church, from the time of Christ’s baptism
successively to the latter day. Thirdly, that every history prophesied
is limited or dated with its own number of years. Fourthly, and last
of all, that whatsoever history is more orderly and summarily than
plainly set down in the first orderly part of the book, the same is
repeated, interpreted, or amplified in the last part of the book,
which therefore we call the amplicative part of the book, dividing the
whole Revelations according to the following table, before we proceed
to the principal matter.”¹ The table which Napier drew is ingenious
and elaborate, and his interpretation and exposition of the Book of
Revelations is fully as sensible as many others that have appeared
since his day. This treatise must have been comparatively popular, as
the first edition was published at Edinburgh in 1593, and the fifth,
corrected and amended, appeared in 1645.
In 1596, Napier published a letter, entitled “Secret Inventions,
profitable and necessary in those days for the defence of this Island,
and withstanding of strangers, enemies of God’s truth and religion.”
The inventions which he proposed do not appear to be very hopeful, and
at first sight they seem to hover between the possible and impossible;
yet some of his schemes were not incredible or beyond the limits of
realisation. The following are the words in which he announced the new
inventions:――
“First, the invention, proof, and perfect demonstration, geometrical
and algebraical, of a burning mirror, which receiving the dispersing
beams of the sun, doth reflect the same beams altogether united and
concurring precisely in one mathematical point, in the which point
most necessarily it engenders fire, with an evident demonstration of
their error who affirm this to be made a parabolic section. The use
of the invention serveth for burning the enemies’ ships at whatsoever
appointed distance.
“Secondly, the invention and sure demonstration of another mirror
which, receiving the dispersed beams of any material fire or flame,
yields also the former effect, and serveth for the like use.
“Thirdly, the invention and visible demonstration of a piece of
artillery, which shot passeth not linally through the enemy destroying
only those that stand on the random thereof, and from them flying idly
as others do; but passeth superficially, ranging abroad within the
whole appointed place, and not departing forth of the place till it
hath exhausted its whole strength, by destroying those that be within
the bounds of the said place. The use hereof not only serveth greatly
against the army of the enemy on land; but also by sea it serveth to
destroy and cut down, and one shot the whole masts and tackling of so
many ships as be within the appointed bounds, so long as any strength
at all remains.
“Fourthly, the invention of a round chariot made of metal of the
proof of double musket, which motion shall be by those that be within
the same, more easy, more light, and more speedy by much, than so
many armed men would be otherwise. The use hereof, as well in moving,
serveth to break the array of the enemy’s battle, and to make passage,
as also in staying and abiding within the enemy’s battle, it serveth to
destroy the environed enemy by continual charge and shot of harquebush
through small holes; the enemy in the meantime being abashed, and
altogether uncertain what defence to use against a moving mouth of
metal.
“These inventions, besides devices of slaying under the water, with
divers other devices and stratagems for harming of the enemies, by the
grace of God and work of expert craftsmen I hope to perform.”¹
¹ M. Napier’s _Memoirs of John Napier_, pages 247, 248.
They afford evidence of his speculative powers, and the scientific bent
of his mind struggling with the narrow resources within his reach to
produce practical results. Although the existing conditions――say the
requisite mechanical skill――may not admit of the immediate application
of a discovery or an invention, that is no evidence of the possible
value and ultimate practicability of such things. In the Introduction
of this history it was observed, that the lack of combined action and
organised means have always greatly retarded the realisation of many
things, even after the discovery, the invention, or the knowledge of
a principle, had been reached.¹ Most of the sciences began at a point
too remote from the real struggle of human life to be obviously useful,
and would have made no progress at all if they had waited to justify
their existence by their usefulness: their progress is mainly due to
their own internal, intellectual, and moral interest. If science had
always been absorbed in the search after obvious utilities, the highest
discoveries would never have been made, and the greatest utilities
would in all likelihood have been missed.²
¹ Volume I., pages 37, 65‒71, 157‒175.
² Joseph J. Murphy. _Habit and Intelligence_, Volume II.,
pages 225, 226. “All inorganic science, at least, depends on
measurement; and all other measurements ultimately depend on
the measurements of space. Now space is altogether external
to the mind; we think in time, and not in space; yet the
measurement of time depends on that of space, and not
the converse; and geometry, which is the science of the
properties of space, was the earliest of the sciences.”
――_Ibid._
In 1614, Napier published his _Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis
Descriptio_. This work presented a mode of calculation which greatly
abridged the labour and facilitated the solution of all the vast
problems involving numbers. “The general idea which Napier formed was
that of two flowing points, generating magnitudes by infinitely small
degrees, so regulated in their respective motions, that in the one
case, the successive increments would be equal to each other; and in
the other case, would differ proportionately from each other in an
infinitely small degree.” He had a fine faculty of exposition, and he
developed his conception with unrivalled clearness. The invention was
soon known throughout Europe amongst men of science. The work was
speedily translated into English by Edward Wright and Henry Briggs:
the former set himself to translate it, and the latter became a warm
and able co-operator of Napier’s in computing improved tables. Wright
finished his translation and sent it to the author for revisal in
1615. He shortly after died, and the task then devolved upon his son,
Samuel Wright assisted by Briggs, and the translation was published in
London, in 1616. Edward Wright had specially directed his attention to
navigation, which stood greatly in need of the aid of exact science.
He published a treatise at London in 1559, entitled “Certain errors in
Navigation detected and corrected;” he also computed tables of latitude,
and is distinguished for his sea rings, his great quadrant, his sea
quadrant, and other ingenious astronomical contrivances.¹
¹ M. Napier’s _Memoirs of John Napier_, pages 328, 438‒444.
For comprehensive views of the theory of logarithms, see the
_Works of Bailly, Astronomie Moderne_, Tome II.; _Delambre
Histoire de l’Astronomie Moderne_; _Montucla Histoire des
Mathematiques_, Tome II., page 2, _et seq._; Dr. Minto’s
_Account of Napier’s Inventions and Writings_; Colin
Maclaurin’s _Treatise on Fluxions_, and several articles
in the eighth edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_.
The only other work that Napier published in his lifetime was his short
treatise on the method of computing by figured rods, known by the name
of Napier’s bones, 1617: it contained the most important of his minor
inventions touching various numerical properties. The following is a
part of his own description of it, from the dedication to the Earl of
Dunfermline:――“Of which logarithms, indeed, I have found out another
species much superior to the former; and intend, if God shall grant
me longer life and the possession of health, to make known the method
of construction, as well as the manner of using them. But the actual
computation of this new canon I have left, on account of the infirmity
of my bodily health, to those conversant in such studies; and
especially to that truly and most learned man, Henry Briggs, public
professor of geometry in London, my most beloved friend. In the
meantime, however, for the sake of those who prefer to work with
the natural numbers as they stand, I have excogitated three other
compendious modes of calculation, of which the first is by means of
numerating rods, and these I have called ‘Rabdologia.’ Another, by
far the most expeditious of all for multiplication, and which on that
account I have not inaptly called the promptuary of multiplication,
is by means of little plates of metal disposed in a box. And lastly, a
third method, namely, local arithmetic performed upon a chess-board.”¹
¹ M. Napier’s _Memoirs of John Napier_, pages 413‒415. The
original edition of this little work is now extremely scarce.
In 1619 Napier’s son published the work which his father had left
incomplete――“Logarithmorum Canonis Constructio,” that is, the method
of their construction. The purpose of the work is to show the way
that he conquered the second difficulty in his path to the logarithms;
namely, how to calculate the numbers to be intercalculated between the
terms of his progressions, in order to reap the fruits of his original
conception. Though the author did not live to give it the final touches,
the book is teeming with profound thought, and exhibits a grasp of
the subject and a clearness of exposition which is rare even among
the efforts of the highest genius. Professor Playfair has well said,
“Napier’s view of the subject is as simple and profound as any which
after two hundred years has yet presented itself to mathematicians.
The mode of deducing the results has been simplified; but it can
hardly be said that the principle has been more clearly developed.”
Sir John ♦Lesly has said, “his sublime invention of Logarithms about
this epoch eclipsed every minor improvement, and as far transcended
the denary notation, as this had surpassed the numerical system of the
Greeks.” Robert Napier in the preface to his father’s posthumous work
said――“Some years ago, my father, of ever venerable memory, published
the use of the wonderful Canon of Logarithms; but the construction
and method of generating it, he, for certain reasons, was unwilling
to commit to types, as he mentions upon the seventh and the last pages
of the Logarithms; until he knew how it was judged of and criticised
by those who were versed in this department of letters. But since
his death, I have been assured from undoubted authority, that this
new invention is much thought of by the most able mathematicians; and
that nothing would delight them more than if the construction of his
wonderful Canon, or so much at least as might suffice to illustrate it,
were published for the benefit of the world.... I doubt, not, however,
that this posthumous work would have seen the light in a far more
perfect and finished state, if the author himself, who according to
the opinion of the best judges, possessed among other illustrious gifts
this one in particular, that he could explicate the most difficult
matter by some sure and easy method, and in the fewest words――if
God had granted a longer use of life. You have the doctrine of the
construction of Logarithms――which here, he calls artificial numbers,
for he had this treatise composed for several years before he invented
the word Logarithms, most copiously unfolded, their nature, accidences,
and various adaptations to their natural numbers, perspicuously
demonstrated. I have thought good to subjoin to the construction a
certain appendix, concerning the method of forming another and more
excellent species of Logarithms, to which the inventor himself alludes
in his epistle prefixed to the Rabdologia, and in which the Logarithm
of unity is 0.... I have also published some lucubrations upon the
new species of Logarithms, by that most excellent mathematician, Henry
Briggs, public professor in London, who undertook most willingly the
very severe labour of calculating this Canon, in consequence of the
singular affection that existed between him and my father, the method
of construction and explanation of its use being left to the inventor
himself.”¹
♦ “Leslie” replaced with “Lesly” for consistency
¹ M. Napier’s _Memoirs of John Napier_, pages 417‒418, 445,
_et seq._ This book contains a vast amount of information,
but its author is rather too laudatory of the inventor of
Logarithms.
Henry Briggs was the greatest mathematician of his day in
England; he was a man of remarkable powers of mind, and
of great industry. He is the author of several valuable
treatises on Logarithms, his greatest work appeared in 1624,
entitled “Arithmetica Logarithmica.” He died in 1630.
It was observed in the preceding volume, that there was little or no
medical science among the Scots at the end of the fifteenth century.¹
According to the statement of the elder Scaliger, who visited Scotland
about the middle of the sixteenth century, the kingdom did not contain
more than one regular practitioner. It is known, however, that this
learned man was rather fastidious in his taste and in his mode of
life.² It is possible that he might have exaggerated a little, or that
his information may have been incomplete. At least, this science had
made some progress in the country before the end of the century; though
as yet there was no medical school in the kingdom, as now understood;
and Scotsmen intending to follow this profession were trained abroad.
¹ MackMackintosh’s _History of Civilisation in Scotland_,
Volume I., pages 414‒415.
² “At ♦Agen the elder Scaliger was now exercising the
profession of a physician. That city, when he there
fixed his residence, could not furnish him with a single
individual capable of supporting literary conversation,
and he was therefore led to cultivate an intimacy with some
of the more enlightened inhabitants of Bordeaux. Buchanan,
Tevius, and other accomplished scholars, who then belonged
to the College of Guienne, were accustomed to pay him an
annual visit during the vacation. They were hospitably
entertained at his house; and he declared that he forgot
the torture of his gout whenever he had an opportunity
of discussing topics of learning with his guests. For
the society of this singular man, who possessed some bad
and many good qualities, Buchanan has expressed a natural
relish” (in Latin verses).――Dr. Irving’s _Memoirs of
Buchanan_, pages 45‒46.
♦ “Ageu” replaced with “Agen”
The people suffered greatly from the frequent recurrence of pestilence;
and in 1568 Gilbert Skene, doctor in medicine, published at Edinburgh,
“A Brief Description of the Pest,” which was the first medical treatise
printed in Scotland. This treatise consists of forty-six small pages,
and may be supposed to give the views of the learned of those days
touching the pest. He described it as “a feverable infection, most
cruel, and in sundry ways striking down many in haste. It proceeded
from a corruption of the air, which has strength and wickedness above
all natural putrefaction, and springs from the wrath of the just God
at the sins of mankind.” He recognised, however, other causes, “as
stagnant waters, corrupting animal matters and filth, the eating of
unwholesome meat and decaying fruits, and the drinking of corrupt water.
Great humidity of the atmosphere, dearth of victual, whereby men are
forced to eat bad meat.” He adverts to the suspicious intermeddling of
the comets and the shooting stars. He observed that the poor were more
subject to this fearful disorder than the rich; indeed, his description
of the state of the former was deplorable――“Every one is become so
detestable to another, which is to be lamented, and especially the
poor in the sight of the rich, as if they were not equal with them
touching their creation, but rather without soul or spirit, as beasts
degenerated from mankind.” This worthy doctor’s regimen for the pest,
regarding both its prevention and its cure, consisted of a vast variety
of curious recipes and rules of treatment, written partly in Latin and
partly in English.
Dr. Peter Lowe had practised in various parts of the Continent, and
returned to his native country toward the end of this century. He
published a system of surgery in 1597, giving a popular view of the
healing art, along with some description of cases which had occurred in
his own practice. The title of Dr. Lowe’s work will give the best idea
of its character:――“The Whole Course of Surgery; wherein is briefly set
down the Causes, Signs, Prognostications, and Curations of all sorts
of Tumours, Wounds, Ulcers, Fractures, Dislocations, and all other
Diseases, usually practised by Surgeons, according to the opinion of
all our ancient Doctors in Surgery: Compiled by Peter Lowe, Scotsman,
Arellian Doctor in the Faculty of Surgery in Paris, and Surgeon
Ordinary to the King of France and Navarre. Whereunto is annexed the
Book of Presages of Hippocrates, divided into three parts; also the
Protestation which Hippocrates caused his Scholars to make. The whole
collected and translated. London, 1596.” Reprinted in 1597, 1612, 1634,
1654. It was regarded as a work of merit in its day, and was translated
into several languages. Dr. Lowe also wrote a book entitled, “An Easy,
Certain, and Perfect Method to Cure and to Prevent the Spanish Sickness.
Published at London in 1596.”
About this time he was appointed by the Government to examine the
persons that proposed to practise the art of surgery in the West of
Scotland. He resided in Glasgow, and was the founder of the faculty
of physicians and surgeons of that city.
Dr. Duncan Liddel was born in Aberdeen, 1561, and attained an eminent
position as a professor of mathematics and as a physician. In the later
part of the sixteenth, and the early part of the seventeenth centuries,
he was a professor of mathematics and of medicine in the University of
Helmstadt; he also acted as first physician to the court of Brunswick,
and had a large practice among the families in the neighbourhood. He
was elected to fill several posts of honour in connection with the
University of Helmstadt, and achieved much celebrity. About 1608 he
returned to Scotland, and directed his attention to the diffusion of
science among his countrymen. He died in December, 1613. Dr. Liddel was
the author of several works composed in Latin, which were well received
on the Continent. His work entitled, “Disputationes Medicinales,” in
four volumes, was published in 1605; and it was reprinted as late as
1720; it contained the theses maintained by himself and his pupils at
Helmstadt from 1592 to 1605. In 1607 his well known work, “Ars Medica,
succincte et perspicue explicata,” was published at Hamburg; a second
edition was published at Lyons, 1624, and a third at Hamburg in 1628.
This work was pretty highly esteemed during the seventeenth century.
Like other works of the period in this department it treated largely
on metaphysics as well as on medicine.¹
¹ A sketch of the life of Dr. Duncan Liddel, Aberdeen, 1730.
There is also an interesting article relating to Dr. Liddel
in the eleventh volume of the proceedings of the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland, by the late Mr. A. Gibb, F.S.A.,
Scotland, pages 450, _et seq._
Having concluded the examination of the literature of the nation
in the sixteenth century; we may pause a little, and reflect on the
characteristics of the works, the opinions, the sentiments, and the
feelings, manifested in them. Looking backwards we find that there
had been some advance in physical knowledge amongst the Scots during
the century, but by no means a marked progress in this department.
Although Napier announced an important invention in the department
of mathematical science early in the seventeenth century, no one can
fail to see that the intellectual and scientific advancement of the
Scots was comparatively meagre as contrasted with the radical changes
of their religious belief, their sentiments and feelings. The great
intellectual revival in Europe, however, was beginning to be felt
in the sixteenth century. The Copernican system of the universe was
first printed in 1543, but it met with much opposition, even among
the learned its acceptance was extremely slow, probably not ten men in
Europe had adopted it in the sixteenth century; and there is not the
slightest reason to believe that any of the chief Reformers recognised
or comprehended it. Even Buchanan, though not ignorant of the
Copernican system, yet in his own philosophical poem, “The Sphere,” he
rejected it, and followed the Ptolemaic system. Long after their day,
the far famed Lord Bacon rejected the Copernican system to the last; he
also treated the valuable discoveries of Gilbert about the magnet with
the most arrogant contempt. When this great philosopher assumed such an
attitude to the greatest conception of his age, we can hardly suppose
that the mind of the Scots had as yet been in the least affected by
these scientific ideas; though it is possible that some individual
Scotsmen toward the end of the century might have been aware of them;
but the religious revolution was accomplished before this; and the
conclusion pointed to is that the Reformation depended more upon moral
causes than intellectual and scientific ones. Throughout the literature
of the period it will be found that there is more evidence of change
in the feelings and sentiments of the people, than of any display of
increasing intellectual power.
The writers in the Scottish dialect of the latter part of the century
are inferior to those of the first quarter of the century in point
of intellectual power. After the Reformation there is no Scottish
poet equal to Dunbar or even to Gavin Douglas, the versifiers of the
close of the century stand lower than those of its opening years; the
balance in conception, range of imagery, of ideas, and in appropriate
construction, is on the side of the earlier poets. If, however, we
look to the feelings and the sentiments which were expressed in the
compositions of both, the later writers appear in a more favourable
light; as the extremely coarse expressions which Dunbar and Sir David
Lyndsay frequently used, were gradually cast aside, and a better
moral tone observed. The improvement of the moral sentiments and
the broadening of the national sympathy were indicated in various
directions, as in the emphatic complaints touching the oppression of
the poor and the earnest efforts to relieve them.
Thus, the revolutionary waves of the sixteenth century were mainly
religious and moral, and considering the state of society, not merely
in Scotland, but throughout Europe, it was not surprising that the
Reformers were only partly successful. The reactionary spirit of Roman
Catholicism was great, and it long presented an undaunted opposition to
every form of liberal policy and moral freedom; and Rome still claims
a supremacy in all matters of morality and religion. The Pope is the
supreme and only visible head of this planet, appointed by God to
rule over the human mind, and if necessary, to spurn the accumulated
wisdom and knowledge of the race. Centuries roll on, revolutions
in governments, in knowledge, and in education, may be brought to
pass among the nations; but the Pope remains unchanged, the same
circumscribed views characterise the Popes of the sixteenth and the
nineteenth centuries.
CHAPTER XXII.
_Education and Art in the Sixteenth Century._
EDUCATION has long been a subject of interest; and there is nothing
more important in a civilised nation than its system of educational
establishments. An educational system, like all other human
institutions, must in some degree conform to the laws of social
organisation and progress, if it would maintain the complement of
its influence upon the mind of the nation. It is not enough that
an educational system should maintain its efficacy according to
a stereotyped standard, it should also take account of changing
circumstances, and accommodate itself to the requirements and the
wants of a highly artificial and progressive society. It was in
this that many of the knotty questions connected with national
education arose. The chief difficulty to a just and wise reform
sprang out of the conservative interests, class prejudice, hereditary
pride, and narrowness of sympathy; or on the part of some, a fear,
not unreasonable, that the ancient landmarks might be altogether
obliterated. In every nation where a comparative degree of civilisation
and freedom has been attained, there will always be persons and parties
who cling with extreme tenacity to whatever is old and established,
as if the least change or modification of an institution was certain
to derange the order of the universe; while other parties may be more
inclined to move onward and to improve the existing institutions,
to bring them more into harmony with circumstances and the realised
results of the age. The great revolution which we have been attempting
to explain in the preceding chapters, is a grand exemplification
of these conflicting tendencies of parties; and when the demand for
reasonable and necessary reform is obstinately resisted and withheld,
it requires no prophet to announce that the consequences must be
ruinously disastrous.
In the first volume some notices of the early schools of the country
were given;¹ and in this chapter it is proposed to present a brief
history of the origin of the parish schools, and other educational
institutions of the kingdom. Before the Reformation in Scotland,
there were at least two classes of schools, besides the universities:
one of these was called the “lecture-school,” in which the children
were taught to read the vernacular language; the other was the grammar
schools, in which the Latin language was taught, and these were
attached to the monasteries and to the burghs. Prior to the Reformation,
however, the first class of schools were not numerous. At the beginning
of the sixteenth century there were schools in Edinburgh for the
instruction of children, and in which there were female teachers; but
there were some early indications of a disposition to give the grammar
schools a monopoly of teaching. In 1520 the town council of Edinburgh,
on grounds which they deemed sufficient, enacted that no inhabitant
of the town should put their children to any particular school in
the burgh, but to the principal grammar school, “to be taught in any
science, except only grace-book, primar, and plain duty,” under a fine
of ten shillings.²
¹ Macintosh’s _History of Civilisation in Scotland_, Volume I.,
pages 148, 245, 465‒468.
² _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume I., pages 76, 193;
_Burgh Records of Aberdeen_, Volume I., pages 97, 98, 107.
We have seen, that after the Reformation strenuous and worthy efforts
were made to extend the means of education to the people. Where regular
schools were not erected, the readers in the churches often supplied
the deficiency, by teaching the youth to read the catechism and the
Bible. The reformed clergy took a warm interest in the education of
the people, by exerting themselves to establish parish schools; and
the Church courts were untiring in their exertions to forward the cause
of popular education.¹ At the annual visitation of the parishes by
the presbyteries, the state of the schools always formed a subject of
inquiry; the qualifications of the teachers were examined; and where no
schools existed, means were employed to establish them. The parochial
schools of Scotland were not originated by the act of Council in 1616,
which was ratified by parliament in 1633. Long before that time the
Church courts had a “common order” touching the rate to be raised for
the salary of the teacher, the fees to be paid by the scholars, and
many other regulations for the organisation of the primary schools. In
this way many schools were erected before the close of the sixteenth
century. There was often reference to the trial and inspection of
schoolmasters in the register of the Church courts, and regulations
for providing means to educate the children of the poor. Although it
is undoubted that many schools were founded and in operation during the
later part of the century, it would be a mistake to suppose that every
parish had a school,² as there were many and great difficulties to be
overcome ere a popular system of education could be organised to such
a point of completeness.
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_, pages 17, 33, 60, 108, 279,
311, 415, 432, 693, 737, 965.
² _Records of the Presbytery of Haddington._
After the Reformation, in all the schools the children were learned to
read the catechism, the prayers, and parts of the Bible; and even to
rehearse the catechism and portions of Scripture from memory. It was
common to instruct the boys in manly exercises and sports, to develop
their bodies and limbs, by the practice of archery, fencing, running,
leaping, wrestling, swimming, and other games.¹
¹ “And by our master we were teached to handle the bow for
archery, the club for golf, the batons for fencing; also to
run, to leap, to swim, and to wrestle.” Melville’s _Diary_,
pages 16, 17, 21.
All the chief towns in the kingdom had grammar schools before the
Reformation; it is unnecessary, however, to give an account of each,
and only a general description of their character, and the aim of the
instruction afforded in them, and the changes which the Reformation
introduced, will be presented. With comparatively few exceptions,
the whole of the educational institutions of Scotland were under the
control of the Church, both before and after the Reformation; and it is
only recently that the control of the Church in education was limited
to special branches, and altogether excluded from others.
In the first half of the sixteenth century there were sometimes two
or more grammar schools in Edinburgh, as the Canongate had one from an
early period. The magistrates exercised authority over these schools,
although the abbot of Holyrood had the right of nominating the head
masters. The town council paid the master of the grammar school various
sums of money and fees annually; and they also attended to the building
and repairing of the schools. In 1555 there was a school for teaching
French in Edinburgh, and that year the town’s treasurer paid ten marks
to the master of the French school; and French seems to have been
occasionally taught as a branch of education in the grammar schools.¹
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume II., pages 179, 271,
281, 292, 210, 241, 318; Melville’s _Diary_, page 17.
In 1521, John Marschall, master of the grammar school of Aberdeen,
asked the provost to tell him of whom he held the school, and the
answer was, that he held it under the appointment of the magistrates
of the burgh. This, however, was not exactly correct; for in 1537 the
Chancellor of the diocese of Aberdeen claimed the right of appointing
the master of the grammar school, and nominated Robert Skene to that
office, and requested the town council to accept him. The master of the
grammar school claimed a monopoly of teaching in the city, both before
and after the Reformation. In 1529, Mr. John Bisset, the master of the
grammar school, received from the town council the sum of ten pounds
Scots yearly to help to pay his board, till they promoted him to a
benefice. The council, in 1542, unanimously ordered that the master
of the grammar school should have forty shillings for his wages from
the humblest persons, who received him and the bishop on St. Nicholas
day, and every honest man to give him at their pleasure. Four years
later, Hugh Munro, the master of the grammar school, by the order
of the council, was to get ten pounds yearly; and, at the same time,
the citizens were requested to give him the accustomed wages on St.
Nicholas day. Hugh Munro had a wife and a family, and thus it seems, he
was not in priest’s orders. In 1550 he resigned, and the council then
nominated Mr. James Chalmer to the office of master of the school, and
presented him to the Chancellor to be admitted according to the usage
of bygone times. It is evident that the grammar schools of the burghs
were partly under the magistrates. But it seems to have been the policy
of the Church to allow the local authorities and the citizens to have
as much of the management of the schools as would cause them to take an
interest in these establishments.¹
¹ _Burgh Records of Aberdeen_, Volume I., pages 97‒98, 107,
120, 122, 151, 186, 231, 272, 277; Volume II., pages 90, 154.
The grammar schools of Glasgow, Dunfermline, Perth, Stirling,
Linlithgow, Dundee, and others, had attained to some importance. Andrew
Simson was master of the grammar school of Perth from 1550 to 1560,
and it was reported that he had sometimes three hundred boys under his
charge. He was the author of a Latin grammar, which kept its ground
in the schools of Scotland till the eighteenth century, when it was
superseded by Ruddiman’s grammar. On the eve of the Reformation, Ninian
Winzet, the opponent of Knox, held the post of master of the grammar
school of Linlithgow; and in one of his works he complained bitterly
that “so little respect has ever been paid to the grammar schools.”
The chief subject taught in these schools was the Latin language. The
amount of information imparted to the scholars was very limited. It
consisted of the matters connected with the Roman Catholic religion,
and of portions of Latin authors, which were read and explained. After
the Reformation these institutions were taken under the charge of the
Protestants; but the teaching of grammar and the Latin language still
continued to be their distinguishing characteristic.
At the time of the Reformation, the grammar school of Edinburgh was
taught by William Robertson, who continued to adhere to the Roman
Catholic faith; and the magistrates had much difficulty in removing him
from office, as his appointment was vested in the abbot of Holyrood. In
the month of April, 1562, the town council requested Lord James Stuart
to deal with his brother, Lord Robert, abbot of Holyrood, for ejecting
Mr. Robertson from the school; and the council proposed to grant the
post of master to the most learned man that could be found. The council
also expressed a desire to have a college built within the burgh for
regents, and suggested that the Queen might be persuaded to grant
to the town the yards and rents of the friars and the altarages of
the kirk. The master of the grammar school, however, was not to be so
easily removed as had been supposed. He was then ordered to produce
his right, and a long process of disputes between him and the council
ensued. He insisted that his fee should be paid; and in 1565, owing to
the Queen interposing in his favour, the council was obliged to pay him
for the year 1566. Though at last, Robertson was superseded by another
master, yet as late as 1580 he interfered with the grammar school of
the Canongate, and interrupted the teaching for three months.¹
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume III., pages 131‒132,
139, 141‒145, 149, 193, 196‒197, 215.
The council and the deacons of the crafts united in their endeavours
to find a qualified master for their grammar school. In July, 1568,
the council ordered their treasurer to ride to St. Andrews for Thomas
Buchanan. At a meeting of the council in August, after long reasoning
with this learned man, concerning the instruction of the youth of the
town, knowing him to be an able and qualified teacher, they resolved
to appoint him on the following terms:――“For the first year, in case it
be known to them that the said Thomas, with the fifty merks they have
granted him of yearly pension, with the fees of the bairns, which is
four shillings each, be not worth three hundred merks for the first
year or thereby, they shall cause their treasurer to give him other
fifty, which shall be one hundred merks for the first year, and each
year thereafter according to their appointment.” He entered on his
duties in February, 1569, but he left the situation in July, 1570.¹
The citizens of Edinburgh manifested a keen interest in education, and
their persistent efforts were at last rewarded.
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume III., pages 157, 250,
251‒252, 259.
In the year 1578, the High School of Edinburgh was erected on the
ground where the monastery of the Black Friars had stood. This school
soon took a high position among the educational establishments of the
kingdom. It was fortunate in having at its head two excellent teachers
in succession, who laid the foundation of its reputation. Hercules
Rollock was appointed Master of the High School of Edinburgh in 1584,
and filled this post for eleven years, and, by his energy and example,
and the success of his teaching, he contributed much to raise the
character of the school. Alexander Hume, the next head master, was
appointed in 1596. He was a good classical scholar, and proved to be
a very acceptable teacher. He was the author of a Latin grammar, which
the Privy Council, in pursuance of an Act of Parliament, ordered to be
used in all the schools of the kingdom. This injunction, however, was
frustrated by the action of some of the bishops, and by the opposition
of Ray, who succeeded him in the High School.¹ In the year 1598, a set
of rules was framed for the High School by a committee of learned men,
and were intended to regulate the mode of teaching and the government
of the youth; but I will return to this matter when I come to describe
the method of teaching and the subjects taught.
¹ _Ibid._; _Crawfurd’s History of the University of Edinburgh_,
pages 19‒20, 64; _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_,
Volume IV., pages 157, 374; _Register of the Privy Council_.
After the Reformation, the Grammar School of Glasgow was taught by
Thomas Jack, who had the reputation of being well qualified for the
task. He was the author of a work entitled “Onomasticon Poeticum,”
published at Edinburgh in 1592. It contains an explanation of the
proper names which occur in the writings of the ancient poets, and
composed in Latin verse, with the view of being committed to memory by
the boys. He left the school of Glasgow in 1574, and became minister
of the parish of Eastwood. Jack was succeeded by Patrick Sharp, who
held the office of master of the Grammar School till 1582; and he was
afterwards appointed principal of the University of Glasgow. Sharp was
succeeded by John Blackwood, who held the post of master of this school
for thirty years.¹
¹ _Burgh Records of Glasgow_, pages 99, 243, 246, 310, 311.
About the beginning of the seventeenth century the Town Council of
Glasgow was much occupied with the building of a new Grammar School.
In May, 1600, they ordered the master of work to go with two craftsmen,
a mason and a wright, to inspect the school and to ascertain what
repairs it required. But at a meeting of the council in August the same
year, it was “condescended that in respect that there was nothing more
profitable, first to the glory of God, next to the well of the town,
than to have a good grammar school;” and, seeing that it was altogether
ruinous and must be entirely rebuilt, they resolved to prosecute the
undertaking till it was finished.¹
¹ _Ibid._, pages 208, 210, 216, 217, _et seq._ There were
schools in Glasgow for teaching English, or reading in the
Scottish dialect.
Touching the method of teaching and the books used by the teachers,
some interesting information has been preserved. In 1575 the Lords of
the Privy Council deemed it expedient for the upbringing of the youth
of the kingdom, that there should be only one form of grammar taught
in all the schools; and that this important end might be attained by
common consent, the council ordered letters to be sent to the most
learned schoolmasters――“Mr. George Buchanan, or Peter Young, preceptors
to the King’s majesty, Mr. Thomas Buchanan, Mr. William Robertson,
Mr. Andrew Simson, Mr. James Carmichael, and Mr. Patrick Auchinlek
――schoolmasters of Stirling, Edinburgh, Dunbar, Haddington, and St.
Andrews, requesting them to appear personally before the Regent and
Council at Holyrood, on the 10th of January, to give their advice
concerning the form of Grammar that should be used in all the Schools
of the realm hereafter; thus at once to show their desire to promote so
necessary a work, and to manifest their loyalty.”¹ It does not appear
that this order directly led to the production of such a Latin grammar
as was desired; but in the latter half of the century there were at
least four different Latin grammars written by Scotsmen――Simson’s,
Duncan’s, Carmichael’s, and Hume’s; and several attempts were made by
Parliament and by the Privy Council, to cause the same grammar to be
used in all the schools of the kingdom.²
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume II., page 78.
² _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume IV., pages 157,
371; _Register of the Privy Council_.
As before observed, the aim of these schools was to impart to the
pupils a knowledge of the Latin language, as it was then the medium
through which Greek, theology, and ancient literature was universally
taught. That this method involved an excessive degree of labour in
order to reach its end, is quite evident; nor was the result obtained
at all commensurate to the waste of energy; and that it was so long
followed, is only another illustration of the strength and power of
habit.
In the year 1598 the Town Council of Edinburgh adopted a set of rules
framed by one of the Senators of the College of Justice, six advocates,
the Principal of the university, and three of the ministers of the city,
for regulating the mode of teaching, and the management of the scholars
in the High School. The school was divided into four classes, each to
be taught by a separate master, one of whom was the rector. The boys
passed from master to master at the end of each year; the subjects and
the books to be taught, as well as the mode of teaching, were minutely
specified. No boy was to be admitted to the school till he had learned
to read English perfectly, and all the common schools were strictly
prohibited from teaching Latin. The following is a part of the rules:
――“They think it best and expedient that there be four learned and
godly men appointed regents to teach the grammar school of Edinburgh,
in all time coming by four several classes in the following manner:
――The first class, the regent thereof shall teach the first and second
rudiments of Dunbar, with the Colloquies of Corderius; and on Sunday
the catechism platatine. The second regent shall teach the rules of
the first part of Pelisso, with Cicerois familiar epistles; and to
make some version thrice in the week; and to teach them on Sunday the
foresaid catechism lately set out in Latin, with Ovid de tristibus.
The third regent shall teach the second part of Pelisso, with the
supplement of Erasmus Sintaxis Terence, the Methamorphoris of Ovide,
with Buchanan’s psalms on Sunday. The fourth regent shall teach the
third part of Pelisso, with Buchanan’s Prosodia, Taleus figures, and
rhetoric figure, constructions, Thome Linacri, Virgelius, Salustius,
Cesaris Commentaria, and florus Ovidij epistole, and the heroic psalms
of Buchanan on Sunday. Each of the foresaid regents shall teach their
class in separate apartments, and to this effect the High School shall
be divided into four houses.
“And that there may be the better harmony between the four regents in
their procedure and teaching, and that they may the better answer for
their duty, discharges simpliciter masters or other persons whatsoever
from teaching of any rudiments or any other book in Latin in any
of their lecture schools. So that the first regent may be the more
answerable in grounding, and instructing them in rudiments. It is
always provided in favour of lecture schools, that none shall be
received in the said first class but he who can read first perfectly
the English with some writ; and the first regent shall in no ways be
suffered to teach any one the first A. B. C.
“The fourth regent shall be Principal of the school and of the regents,
and have the oversight of them all, namely, he shall see and animadvert
that every one of the regents keep their own hours in the manner and
form of teaching presently set down, and that each of them continually
await all the day long upon the school in teaching and examining their
bairns. That all the regents, the Principal as well as the other three
inferiors, each of them teach their own class, and that each of them
use correction upon their own disciples, except in great and notorious
faults, then all the four to be assembled in a house and have the
Principal regent to punish the same.”
Regarding the fees――“It has been thought good to make the fees and
quarter payments of the regents in this manner――The first and second
regents shall have quarterly each thirteen shillings and fourpence, the
third fifteen shillings, and the fourth twenty shillings.”
“Their salaries, the first and second regents each twenty pounds; the
third forty merks; and the Principal two hundred merks. The same day
the provost, bailies, and council, discharged all masters, regents,
and teachers of bairns in their grammar schools of all creaving and
receiving of any bleyis silver of their bairns and scholars; as also
of any bent silver, except fourpence at a time only.”¹
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh._ For comparison it may be
noticed that the Town Council of Aberdeen, in 1579, resolved
to give the master of the grammar school a yearly pension
of fifty merks――“for bringing up, teaching, and instructing,
the bairns and scholars thereof, in virtue, learning,
letters and good manners.” _Burgh Records of Aberdeen_,
Volume II., page 24.
Passing to the universities, the next and the highest educational
institutions of the kingdom, we naturally begin with the earliest.
Additions were made to the University of St. Andrews early in the
century. Near the church of St. Leonards, within the precincts of the
Abbey, there was an hospital for the reception of pious strangers, who
came on pilgrimage to visit the relics of St. Andrews; and the patrons
resolved to convert it into a college, “for training up poor scholars
in learning and the arts, to the glory of God and the edification
of the people.” The foundation charter of St. Leonard’s college was
executed in 1512, by John Hepburn, prior of the abbey, and confirmed
by the Archbishop, and his father James IV. The prior and conventual
chapter were the patrons of this college, and retained the power of
visiting and correcting it; and the teachers were always taken from
the monastery. The college was intended for the support and education
of twenty poor scholars. The Principal was appointed to lecture twice
in the week on Scripture or theology to the priests, the regents, and
others who chose to attend.¹
¹ Dr. M‘Crie’s _Life of Melville_, Volume I., pages 219‒222.
The college of St. Mary was begun under the direction of Archbishop
Beaton, who obtained a papal bull in 1537 authorising him to erect the
buildings. The branches authorised to be taught in it were grammar,
logic, theology, medicine, canon and civil law; and within the
establishment divine offices were to be performed, and a common table
provided for the members from the rents and benefices annexed to the
institution. The building was begun by Archbishop Beaton, and carried
on by his successor the Cardinal; but the college was not completed
till 1554, when Archbishop Hamilton obtained a papal bull empowering
him to alter the arrangements made by his predecessors. According
to Hamilton’s foundation of the new college, there were to be four
principal teachers, called respectively, the provost, the licentiate,
the bachelor, and the canonist; eight students of theology, three
teachers of philosophy, and two of rhetoric and grammar. A pretty
full course of studies was prescribed; and there was to be lectures
on the Bible, the canon law, logic, ethics, physics, and mathematics;
and minute rules were laid down for the order and regulation of the
institution. The teachers, regents, and students, had to wear caps
after the Parisian fashion; and all the students, the nobles, as well
as the bursars, had to wear gowns bound round them with a girdle, but
the bursars were to add to this a black hood. There were then three
colleges at St. Andrews.¹
¹ _Records of St. Andrew’s University._
The defence of the Roman Catholic faith was a special end of the
erection of all the colleges in the kingdom; but how far they
contributed to this, it is not difficult to discover. There can be no
doubt that the Scottish Universities aided the revolutionary movement;
as the carefully calculated system of instruction yielded results
little suspected by those who originated it. During the heat of the
Reformation struggle, the number of students at the universities
diminished; but many of the masters and regents of the colleges
embraced the reformed opinions.
Everything relating to the Roman Catholic faith and worship, in any way
connected with the laws and practice of the universities, was removed
as soon as possible, after the establishment of the Reformation. Yet
the modes of teaching philosophy and the arts were little changed; and
even in the theological faculty some of the old forms of teaching were
retained.
At St. Andrews the regular length of the course was four years, though
it was usually finished in three and a half. The session began on the
1st of October, and continued throughout the year, except the months of
August and September. All the scholars who entered for the first time
were placed under the tuition of a regent, who carried them through
the whole curriculum. He assembled his class three hours every day, and
read and explained the books of Aristotle; beginning with dialectics,
then ethics and physics, concluding the course with arithmetic and
mathematics, and the highest branch of philosophy, to wit, metaphysics.
In the progress of the course, the students were often engaged in
disputations and declamations, both before their class, and publicly
before the university. The Principal occasionally read public lectures
on what was deemed the higher branches of philosophy, which were
attended by the advanced students.¹
¹ _Records of the University of St. Andrews_; Melville’s
_Diary_, pages 24‒28.
About the middle of the third year of the course, the students that
had obtained an attestation of regular attendance and good behaviour
from the regent and the Principal of the college, were then admitted
to enter on trials for the degree of bachelor. Every year the faculty
elected three of the regents as examiners; and in their presence the
candidates determined a question in logic or morals in a connected
discourse, and answered the questions proposed on any of the branches,
which they had studied under their regents. The examiners reported to
the faculty, and those who passed were confirmed by the dean, and the
rest sent to a lower class. At the end of the course they were examined
in all the subjects taught, and candidates for graduation had to defend
a thesis, which had before been affixed to the gates of the different
colleges. They were divided into circles, and their names arranged in
the order of merit, but with a ♦preference to persons of rank; then the
degree of Master of Arts was solemnly conferred by the Chancellor of
the university, in the name of the Trinity.¹
♦ “perference” replaced with “preference”
¹ _Statutes of St. Andrews University_, 1570, and previous
regulations. When receiving the degrees of bachelor and
master of arts, the graduates paid certain sums of money
to the purse of the university, to the dean, and to other
officials; those that were too poor, undertook to give what
was due to the public fund as soon as they were able. An old
law enacted that each student, including the bursars, was
bound to give his regent annually, for three years, a Scots
noble, which in later times was made to answer to a pound
Scots.――_Ibid._, 1561, 1579, 1583.
The _First Book of Discipline_ sketched a scheme for remodelling the
three universities, but it was not adopted. In vain the Reformers
recommended it to the aristocracy, and argued for its acceptance with
all their powers of persuasion; in vain they urged, “if God shall give
your wisdoms grace to set forward letters in the way prescribed, ye
shall leave wisdom and learning to your posterity――a treasure more to
be esteemed than any earthly treasure ye are able to amass for them,
which, without wisdom, are more likely to be their ruin and confusion
than help and comfort.”¹
¹ Knox’s _Works_, Volume II., pages 213‒221.
Naturally the Reformation had more or less affected the teaching
staff of all the universities, and to a much greater extent the funds
on which they were supported. The University of Glasgow was nearly
ruined by the change of religion. As several of its professors were
maintained by their livings in the Church, and, as they adhered to the
old religion, there were no salaries for the Protestant professors, its
small revenue was also partly alienated, and unjustly seized. If the
Principal of the college, John Davidson, had not embraced the reformed
opinions, and continued his academical labour, indeed the institution
might have been utterly extinguished. As it was, Queen Mary in 1563,
granted to the College of Glasgow some houses, lands, and annual rents,
which had formerly been held by the friars, to found bursaries for five
poor scholars. The same year a petition was presented to the Queen and
the Lords of the Articles, “in the name of all that within this realm
are desirous that learning and letters may flourish.” This petition
stated that the patrimony of some of the foundations in the colleges,
especially those of St. Andrews, were wasted; and the sciences that
were most necessary, the tongues and humanity, were very imperfectly
taught in them, which was equally injurious to the people, to their
children, and to posterity. The petitioners therefore earnestly
requested that measures should be taken to remedy these matters.
Parliament appointed a committee to visit the universities, and to
report their opinions, as to the best mode of improving the state of
education. No report from the committee is preserved. But there is a
scheme for the University of St. Andrews, which was drawn by Buchanan,
who was one of the Commissioners.¹ Buchanan took a very keen interest
in all matters connected with education; and he had a leading hand
in the many schemes proposed after the Reformation. But the unsettled
state of public affairs, divided aims, and especially the lack of
funds, made it impossible to carry into effect the national system
of education proposed in the Book of Discipline. Along with the other
Reformers and friends of education, Buchanan did all that he could in
the circumstances; and the very inspiration of his name as a scholar,
and his life-long devotion to learning, was itself a powerful influence
on education in Scotland. Although it does not appear, that he had high
administrative abilities, still his example was great, and produced a
marked effect. The civil war, however, put a stop for a time to these
educational reforms.
¹ _Records of the University of Glasgow_; _Report of the
University Commissioners, 1826‒27 and 1836‒7_, Volume II.,
pages 236, 237; _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_,
Volume II., page 544. The plan of education proposed for
the University of St. Andrews was printed in Dr. Irving’s
_Memoirs of Buchanan_, appendix iii. It gave too exclusive
attention to the learned languages, though in some respects
it was a marked improvement on the existing mode of teaching.
But in 1572 the town council of Glasgow granted lands, houses, and
rents to their college, which was called a new foundation. It was,
however, only sufficient to support fifteen persons. Andrew Melville
was appointed Principal of the University of Glasgow in 1574, and by
his energy and talents contributed much to raise the institution.
He proceeded to work with great earnestness, and resolved to conduct
a class himself through what he deemed a complete course of study.¹
His method, and the subjects which he led the class through have been
minutely detailed by his nephew, James Melville. He began by teaching
his class the principles of Greek grammar, rhetoric, and logic,
using the dialects of Ramus. Once the students were engaged in these
fascinating subjects, he read with them the best classical authors,
pointing out their beauties, and thus illustrated the principles of
logic and rhetoric. He next treated geography and mathematics, using
the arithmetic and geometry of Ramus, the tables of Hunter, and the
astrology of Aratus. Moral philosophy followed; and he read the ethics
and politics of Aristotle; Cicero’s offices, paradoxes, and Tusculan
questions, and some of Plato’s dialogues: in physics, he commented
on some parts of the works of Aristotle and Plato. At last, entering
upon the subjects of his own special department, he taught the Hebrew
grammar; first cursorily, and then by a more searching examination
of its principles, accompanied with a praxis upon the Psalter and the
books of Solomon. Proceeding to the Chaldee and Syriac, he read the
parts of the Books of Ezra and Daniel which are written in Chaldee,
and the Epistle of the Galatians in the Syriac version. He also went
through the common heads of divinity, following the order of Calvin’s
Institutes; and gave lectures on the different books of the Bible. This
course was completed in six years. During all this time, Melville met
his class twice every day, including Sunday, besides holding occasional
discussions after dinner and supper with such as were present.²
¹ _Report of the University Commissioners_, Volume II., pages
237‒239; Melville’s _Diary_, pages 48, 49.
² Melville’s _Diary_, pages 48‒50.
Andrew Melville was a man of great energy and ability, and
enthusiastically attached to his profession. In 1575 his nephew, James
Melville, began a class in the College of Glasgow: and he states that
he was the first regent in Scotland, who read the Greek authors to his
class in the original. In 1577, Andrew Melville attempted to appoint
permanent teachers to the different departments of study; while the
revenue of the university was augmented, and its privileges anew
confirmed by a royal charter, called a new erection.¹
¹ _Ibid._, pages 53, 54; _Records of the University of Glasgow_.
The leaders of the Reformed Church were fully aware that the
universities greatly needed more reform. The General Assembly in
1576 appointed Commissioners to visit and examine the state of the
University of St. Andrews; and the following year parliament appointed
a committee to visit all the universities of the kingdom, but it
seems to have done nothing; and the General Assembly which met in
1579 presented a petition to the Government, urging the necessity of
reforming the University of St. Andrews, and nominated Commissioners
to act along with those whom the Council might appoint. The Council
at last named Commissioners, and gave them ample powers; they were
authorised to remove superstition, disqualified persons, and, if
necessary, to change the form of study, and the number of professors
and regents, to join or divide the faculties, and generally to make
such arrangements in the universities as should “tend to the glory of
God, the profit of the nation, and the upbringing of the youth in the
sciences which are needful for the continuance of religion.” They found
that all the colleges had departed from their original foundations, and
that the foundations themselves disagreed in many ways with the true
religion, and were not nearly up to “that perfection of teaching which
this learned age craves.”¹
¹ _Book of the Universal Kirk_; _Acts of the Parliaments of
Scotland_, Volume III., page 98.
The Commissioners introduced the following in St. Salvator’s College:
a Principal, and four ordinary regents of humanity and philosophy
were instituted. The first regent was to teach the Greek grammar; to
exercise the students in Latin composition during the first half year
of the course, and in Greek the second half. The second regent was to
teach rhetoric and elocution, illustrating them by examples from the
best Greek and Roman authors; this class had also an hour every day for
Latin composition, and during the last half of the session they had to
declaim an oration once every month in Latin and Greek alternately. The
third regent was to teach the most useful parts of Aristotle’s logic,
ethics, and politics, all in Greek, and the offices of Cicero in Latin.
The fourth regent was to teach as much of the physics as was necessary,
and the motions of the sphere. On Sunday a lesson on the Greek New
Testament had to be read in all the four classes. There were also to
be regents in mathematics, and law, who were to lecture on four days of
the week. The Principal of the college himself was to act as professor
of medicine. Similar arrangements were adopted in St. Leonards, except
that in it there was no classes for mathematics and law; and the
Principal, instead of teaching medicine, was to expound the philosophy
of Plato.
St. Mary’s, or the New College, was limited to the study of theology,
and the languages connected with it. It was to have five instructors,
and a course of study extending to four years. The chief subjects
embraced in the course were the Hebrew, the Chaldee, and the Syriac
languages, in connection with the books of the Old Testament. One
regent was to explicate the New Testament during the whole course. The
Principal himself, the fifth instructor, was to lecture on the system
of divinity during all the time of the course. Public disputations
were to be held every week, declamations once a month; and, at three
different times during the course, a solemn examination was to be held,
at which “every learned man should be free to dispute.” The regents
and masters then in office were ordered to remove without delay;
the Commissioners elected those whom they thought best qualified for
teaching. They enacted that when a vacancy occurred in the future, it
should be filled by an open competitive trial; and vacancies in the
other two colleges were to be filled up in the same way. Regulations
were made to prevent the revenue of the university from being diverted
to improper purposes. At the end of every four years, there was to be a
royal visitation of the university to inquire into the effects of this
reformation, and to see that the regulations were observed.¹
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, VIII., pages 178‒182;
Dr. M‘Crie’s _Life of Melville_, Volume I., pages 241‒244.
This scheme of educational reform indicated, that its authors were
anxious to promote the study of the higher literature, and the various
branches of learning inseparably associated with Christian theology
and religion. The new plan, however, was not fully carried into effect.
In the College of St. Salvador and St. Leonards, the act of parliament
touching the number of regents was not carried out.
Andrew Melville was translated from Glasgow to St. Andrews, and
appointed Principal of St. Mary’s College in 1580. After being
installed, he delivered his inaugural oration, and began to lecture
on theology. He went through the course of lectures and teaching with
much energy and ability. His lectures excited unusual interest in
the university, and were attended by some of the regents of the other
colleges, as well as by the class of theological students. Yet Melville
met with many difficulties in carrying out the new regulations, and
his own ideas of educational reform.¹ It has always been proverbially
difficult to reform old corporations; owing to various well known
influences, and the wisest reforms are often rendered almost nugatory.
An outside and powerful agent often sought to control the teaching in
the universities; as so many political crisis occurred, each dominant
party at the head of the Government deemed it necessary to apply their
tests, and to purge the educational institutions, and thus the field
of culture and the forms of religious thought were narrowed within the
walls of the universities.
¹ Melville’s _Diary_, pages 83‒86, 122‒128; _Life of Archbishop
Adamson_.
The first attempt to purge the University of Aberdeen was made by the
General Assembly in January, 1561, when Knox and the leading Reformers
held a conference with Alexander Anderson, the Principal, John ♦Lesly,
the canonist, and others. This meeting produced no definite result,
and it seems that King’s College remained unreformed till 1569. In that
year the Commission of the General Assembly, led by Sir John Erskine
of Dun, Superintendent of Angus, and the Regent, accompanied by some
of the members of the Privy Council, proceeded to Aberdeen, and, having
called before them Mr. Alexander Anderson, Principal, Mr. Alexander
Galloway, sub-principal, and the three regents of the College, they
were then asked to subscribe this declaration:――“We whose names
are underwritten, do ratify and approve, from our very hearts, the
Confession of Faith, together with all other Acts concerning our
religion, given forth in the Parliaments held at Edinburgh, the 24th
day of August, 1560, and the 15th day of December, 1567, and join
ourselves as members of the true Kirk of Christ, whose visible face is
described in the said Acts; and shall, in time coming, be participant
of the sacraments, now most faithfully and publicly ministered in the
said Kirk, and submit us to the jurisdiction and discipline thereof.”
As they showed no signs of compliance with the requisition of the
Commission, they were then called before the Regent and Lords of
Council; but “they contemned his Grace’s admonitions, and declined to
subscribe the said articles.” Consequently the Principal, sub-principal,
and the three regents, were deprived of their offices, ordered to
remove from the College, and prohibited from teaching publicly or
privately in any quarter of Scotland.
♦ “Leslie” replaced with “Lesly” for consistency
Alexander Arbuthnot was immediately appointed Principal of the reformed
University, and James Lawson, sub-principal, and new regents were
introduced. The office of canonist was abolished. Arbuthnot introduced
the study of Greek into the College, and, following the views of his
associate, Andrew Melville, he made an effort to limit each regent or
professor to one department of study, instead as had been the practice
formerly for each regent to take his class through all the branches
taught during the four years of the curriculum. Unfortunately the
records of the University under Arbuthnot’s presidency have been lost,
and no lists of the number of students or graduates now exist for this
period. It appears, however, that the new system had either not been
completely established, or it had fallen into disuse, shortly after
Arbuthnot’s death, as the lists of intrants from 1601 onwards show that
a regent taught the same students from the first to the fourth year.¹
¹ _Fasti Aberdonenses_, page 27, _et seq._; _Book of the Kirk_,
page 142.
We have seen that the citizens of Edinburgh took a warm interest in
education, and they were exceedingly anxious to have a college in the
capital. In 1579, the Town Council resolved to commence the building on
the piece of ground where Darnley met his fate. Owing, however, to the
opposition of some parties, the undertaking was for a time suspended;
but in 1581 the work was pushed forward with energy. It was not a
new and regularly designed structure, as it was patched up partly by
repairing the old houses upon the spot, and partly by the erection of
others upon the most economical plan. A royal charter was granted in
1582, authorising the foundation of the college, and confirming the
rights of the Town Council, with the advice of the ministers of the
city, as the patrons of the institution, conferring on them “full
freedom to elect the best qualified persons that could be found for the
discharge of the duties of the institution, with power to instal and
remove them as should be deemed expedient; and prohibiting all other
persons from teaching these sciences within the burgh, unless with the
permission of the magistrates and council.”¹
¹ _Register of the Privy Council_, Volume II., pages 528‒529;
_Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume III., pages 105‒106,
132, 163; Crawfurd’s _History of the University of
Edinburgh_, page 1‒16.
The patrons intended the students to lodge within the college and to
reside there during the course of their study. This was the custom in
the other Scottish universities, and was continued till a much later
period. In King’s College at Aberdeen, by a regulation of the Senatus
in 1753, all the students had to live within the college gates. The
second section of the statutes enacted by the Senatus of King’s College,
touching the lodging of the students, after stating that the practice
of the students living and eating in private houses had been attended
with bad results, proceeded thus:――“Therefore, the masters have decreed
that for the future all the students shall lodge in rooms within the
college, and eat at the college table during the whole session, and
that no student whatsoever shall be exempted from obedience to this
statute without a dispensation from the Principal or sub-principal, who
are empowered to grant such dispensations, for weighty reasons to be
therein expressed.” At the same time we find the following interesting
statute:――“That students may have the benefit of those parts of
education which are not reckoned academical, such as dancing, writing,
book-keeping, French, etc., without losing time in attending Masters
at a distance from the college, the sub-principal and regents shall
appoint proper rooms in the college, and proper hours, when these
things may be taught, and shall bespeak masters of the best characters
and qualifications for instructing those who chose to attend them.” As
directly applicable to the later part of the sixteenth century, I may
transcribe what James Melville said about similar matters in connection
with his own education at St. Andrews, between 1569 and 1573. “Moreover,
in these years I learned my music, in which I took great delight, of
one Alexander Smith, a servant to the Principal of our college, who
had been trained up among the monks in the abbey. I learned of him the
gamut and plain song, and many of the trebles of the psalms.... I loved
singing and playing on instruments passing well, and would have gladly
spent time when the exercise thereof was within the college; for two or
three of our condisciples played tolerably well on the virginals, and
other instruments. Our regent also had the spinet in his chamber, and
learned something, and I after him.”¹
¹ _Diary_, page 29.
The Town Council of Edinburgh in 1583 appointed Robert Rollock to take
charge of the youth in the new institution, who had been acting as a
regent of philosophy in the University of St. Andrews. In October the
magistrates issued a proclamation requesting those that desired to be
taught in the college to present themselves before one of the bailies,
and enrol their names. A considerable number appeared, and with them
Rollock began the first year of the course. Many of them, however,
were too deficient in the Latin language for entering on the subjects
contemplated in the college. He recommended Duncan Narne as one of
the regents of philosophy, and proposed that Narne should take those
that were deficient in Latin, and prepare them for a new Bajan class
the next session, when those under his own charge would be in the
second year of their course. This plan was followed, so during the
first session of the college, which lasted from October, 1853, till the
end of August, 1584, there were only two classes and two instructors.
During the second session there was no more, but the two regents
proceeded with their classes.
In the winter of 1586 Rollock was appointed Principal of the college;
he continued, however, to teach his class to the end of the course.
When the fourth session was opened, the teaching staff consisted of
the Principal and two regents, each having one class. In August 1587,
the first graduation took place, Principal Rollock conferred the degree
of Master of Arts on the students of the fourth year, educated by
himself――the number who graduated was forty-seven. After this Rollock
resigned the post of regent, and was appointed teacher or professor of
divinity, an office which continued to be attached to the Principalship
of the college till 1620. In 1589 a fourth regent of philosophy was
appointed, and in 1597 Mr. John Ray was elected regent of humanity. The
college now had six instructors――a professor of divinity, four regents
of philosophy, and a regent of humanity. At this strength the teaching
staff of the institution remained for many years.¹
¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_; Crawfurd’s _History of the
University of Edinburgh_, pages 30‒31; Dalziel’s _History
of the University of Edinburgh_, chapter 1.
Rollock in his method of exposition followed Ramus, and no man knew
how to make a better use of this famous philosopher’s dialectics
than the first professor of the college of Edinburgh. The writings
of Ramus, however, though adopted by Andrew Melville and some of the
other regents in the Universities, did not supersede the authority of
Aristotle, whose writings were for long the texts of the philosophical
teaching imparted by the regents in Scotland. Rollock, according to
all accounts, was a very successful teacher, an exceedingly industrious
man, and did much to ensure the success, and to raise the character of
the new institution. He was cut off in the midst of his arduous work in
the forty-third year of his age, in 1598. After his death, the greatest
respect was shown to his memory, his body was followed to the grave
by a vast concourse of the people, lamenting him with the deepest
manifestations of grief. His old pupils and literary friends composed
upwards of forty Latin elegies in his praise; and the magistrates of
Edinburgh did not forget to provide for his widow and daughter.¹
¹ Charteris’s _Narrative of the life and death of Rollock_;
_Select Works of Rollock_, Volume I., pages 65‒72, 86‒87;
Crawfurd’s _History of the University of Edinburgh_, pages
44‒45.
The salaries of the Principal and the regents of the college of
Edinburgh were comparatively small, and not at all calculated to
attract a man of great talents and ambition. In 1594 the four regents
of philosophy had each one hundred pounds Scots, that is £8 6 shillings
8 pence sterling per annum; even in 1620 the Principal had only
five hundred pounds yearly, or £41 14 shillings 4 pence sterling;
in consequence of the smallness of their salaries the regents seldom
remained long, and vacancies were always occurring.¹
¹ Dalziel’s _History of the University of Edinburgh_.
From the opening of the college of Edinburgh to the end of the
sixteenth century, the number of students who graduated in the faculty
of arts was about three hundred and twenty-two; the average attendance
including the four classes, probably did not exceed one hundred and
fifty. The number of students attending St. Andrews in the latter half
of the century was about two hundred;¹ and the number of students at
the other two Universities was at least, somewhat less than the average
at St. Andrews.
¹ Crawfurd’s _History of the University of Edinburgh_;
_Catalogue of the Graduates of the University of Edinburgh_,
1858.
Before leaving this subject, it seems desirable to give some account of
the kind of literature and science which was taught in the college of
Edinburgh. As it was founded after the Reformation, it may be assumed
so far to represent the views of the Protestants, touching learning,
literature, and science; this may also enable us to understand the cast
of the national mind, when we obtain a glimpse of one of the moulds
which so long contributed to form it. As then conceived, the main aim
of a liberal education was to acquire a knowledge of the Latin language,
as without this it was impossible to read the works of Roman authors,
which with the writings of the ancient Greeks, were deemed the only
genuine standards of fine composition. Much of the students’ time was
occupied in hearing the regents read and explain Latin authors, in
translating Latin exercises themselves, and in translating Greek into
Latin, and Latin into Greek. When they became adepts at this kind of
work, and had learned the rules of formal logic, with the ethics of
Aristotle, they were supposed to have received a liberal education.
When the students returned to their work in the month of October, they
were employed in reading Latin and Greek, preparing for the ensuing
session: and about the first of November, when the classes were fully
assembled, the Principal in a meeting in the public hall, at nine in
the morning, prescribed to the Bajan class a piece of Scotch, which
being copied and read aloud, the students were separated, and under the
observation of the regents who attended by turns, they translated it
into Latin, then having copied their versions, and each subscribed his
own one with his name, and the name of the master, who had instructed
him in Latin, they delivered the versions to the attending regent
before twelve o’clock. At four in the afternoon they re-assembled in
the presence of the Principal and regents, and each being called by
name, read his Latin version aloud under the inspection of one of the
regents, and then returned the paper to be perused by the Principal
and the regents; if any one of them was so deficient in Latin as to be
unable to follow the instruction given in the class, they were advised
to return to the study of that language. The next day, a Latin theme
was prescribed to the Semi class, to be translated into Greek, and
afterwards read and examined in the form above stated. A passage of
some Latin and Greek author was set to the third class to be analysed,
and this was disposed of in the same manner. At the opening of the
session, the Semi class was engaged for several days in repeating what
they had learned before; after this they were publicly examined by the
regents and the professor of humanity; they were examined on Ramus’
Dialectics and the compend of Ars Syllogistica, the Greek poets
and prose authors; and an account was taken of what had been taught
publicly, and also of what each student had acquired by his own energy
and industry. The third class was examined on philosophy and the
categories, some other parts of Aristotle’s logic, and on Ramus.
The Magistrand, or fourth year’s students, were examined on logic,
demonstration, on a few acromatical books, and on Aristotle’s ethics.
In the month of July, near the close of the session, the fourth class
gave up their names for trial in the public hall, preparatory to
receiving the degree of Master of Arts. This examination was nearly
similar to the preceding. The evening before the public disputation on
the thesis, they met in the presence of the Principal and the regents,
and subscribed the Confession of Faith. When the Principal found
that they had all received certificates, and that they had performed
the necessary exercises, he then took the report of the five regents
touching the behaviour and ability of every one, and according to
their merit enrolled their names, distinguishing them into ranks. The
disputation upon the thesis commenced in the morning, and concluded
in the evening about six o’clock, when the candidates were called in
by name according to their ranks, and the Principal briefly exhorted
them to follow a virtuous life, and then performed the ceremony of
graduation in the form still practised on such occasions.¹
¹ Crawfurd’s _History of the University of Edinburgh_;
Dalziel’s _History of the University of Edinburgh_, Volume
II., pages 46‒50. 1862. There is no complete list of the
philosophical theses which were printed before the day
fixed for the graduation of Master of Arts; the earliest
one that has been found is that for the year 1596. In
1599 and subsequent years the names of the candidates
and the presiding regent are affixed, with a dedication
to the provost and magistrates of Edinburgh, or to some
distinguished personage.
There was a steadily growing interest in national education, and the
educational institutions were increasing. In the year 1592 a college
was founded at Fraserburgh by Sir Alexander Fraser, of Philorth, the
lineal ancestor of Lord Saltoun. It did not succeed, however, although
its foundation was ratified by parliament, and sanctioned by the
General Assembly. The change of Church government, and the disturbing
influences thence arising, were against it; while the establishing
of Marischal College in the new town of Aberdeen in 1693, probably
interfered with the chance of success of the College of Fraserburgh.
As originally endowed, Marischal College had only a rector, a dean of
faculty, a Principal, three regents, and six bursars; but the number
of its professors and bursars gradually increased, and it became a very
useful educational institution.¹
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume IV., pages
35, 147, 148; _Book of the Universal Kirk_; _Records of
Marischal College_. These records have now been carefully
and ably edited by Mr. P. J. Anderson, M.A., LL.B., for
the New Spalding Club, Volume I., under the title of “Fasti
Academiæ Mariscallanæ Aberdonensis,” was issued in 1889,
and contains the original foundations of the Marischal
College and University, and notices of its later endowments;
while the second volume will give an account of the system
of education, including the names of teachers and of
students.
In forming an opinion on the educational system as it existed in the
latter part of the sixteenth century, it is necessary to remember the
limited range of the scientific knowledge of the period. As yet the
majority of learned teachers had no idea of the modern system of the
universe; they knew that the earth is a globe, but they thought it was
in the centre of the universe, and that all the heavenly bodies moved
round it every twenty-four hours. The idea that it was the earth that
moved they thought to be absurd; the earth stood still, they maintained,
like the everlasting hills. From this limited view of the universe,
there has sprung up a vast accumulation of childish and absurd notions:
the most learned men of the age thought that the planets were moved
by angels, and that the stars had a magic influence upon the affairs
of men. Thus they were ready to believe in visions, in prodigies, in
witchcraft, and in the power of the devil to fight pretty successfully
against God and mankind. Although a more correct conception and a wider
view of the universe had been expounded long before the end of the
sixteenth century, yet the mind of Europe had been so long held in
leading-strings that centuries were required for its emancipation.
An educational system which assumed that the ancients knew everything,
could not have been expected to show much favour to any new discoveries
in physical science. Hence the comparatively narrow course of education
which so long prevailed in the Scottish universities. This education,
however, produced logical habits of thought, which, associated
with many other influences, contributed to form a strongly marked
national character. The encouragement given to dogmatic instruction
in religion, from the humblest of the parish schools to the divinity
halls, powerfully conduced to mould that argumentative cast of mind, so
characteristic of the Scottish people. This dogmatic and logical system
of theology ran very much in one channel for two centuries after the
Reformation, before it was at all seriously challenged among the Scots:
as they were well contented with their Church and her doctrine, which
maintained its ground with wonderful completeness.
The deficiencies of the system in its early stages are seen in the
fact, that it was long after the Reformation ere either law or medicine,
reached the maturity of a faculty in any of the Scottish universities.
The languages and the literature of the Island itself were not deemed
worth the attention of the higher schools, till the present century.¹
There were no chairs for history before the eighteenth century; and
many other requisites, such as large libraries, were almost entirely
wanting in the Scottish universities at the end of the sixteenth
century. It is known that there was a collection of books in King’s
College at Aberdeen in the sixteenth century, but there is no
record touching the library or its management prior to 1634. There
were collections of books in the University of Glasgow before the
Reformation, but that event in a great measure dispersed them; yet
there was a small library in the college in 1578. From that date it has
gradually increased, and in the first quarter of the present century it
contained upwards of 30,000 volumes. The library of the University of
St. Andrews was never large. In the year 1580, Mr. Clement Little, one
of the Commissaries of Edinburgh, bequeathed his library for the use of
the citizens of the capital. It consisted of 268 volumes, which at that
time was considered a valuable collection. They were at first placed in
the lodgings of Mr. Lawson, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, who was
a warm promoter of the scheme for erecting a college in the city. And
in 1584 the Town Council ordered Mr. Little’s donation of books to be
removed to the college, and delivered to the care of Principal Rollock.
This was the foundation of the library of the University of Edinburgh,
which now contains over 158,000 volumes, and 700 manuscripts.
¹ Dr. Bain, in his work entitled _Education as a Science_,
devotes a long chapter to the discussion of teaching the
“mother tongue,” and handles the subject in an exhaustive
and interesting style. Chapter 9, pages 312‒358; 1879.
We have seen that music was cultivated and taught in the schools from
a very early period,¹ and there is evidence that singing was regularly
taught throughout the kingdom before the Reformation. In January, 1553,
the Town Council of Edinburgh resolved to grant a license to James
Lauder, the prebendary of their choir, to go to England and France,
and remain for a year, and learn better music, and more aptitude for
performing on musical instruments. In 1554 the Council ordered the
Dean of Guild to repair the song school in the churchyard, so that the
bairns may enter and attend it. The same year the magistrates engaged
Alexander Stevinson to sing in the choir every festival day, at the
masses of Our Lady and the Holy Blood, and ordered their treasurer to
pay him twenty merks for the year. To cheer the hearts of the national
legislators, four musicians were paid for playing during the sitting of
Parliament in 1555; while that year the musicians who played before the
image of St. Giles on his day, received forty shillings. In the year
1556, Jacques and his sons were paid for playing on All-hallow-een, and
all the time of the fair twice in the day through the town.²
¹ Mackintosh’s _History of Civilisation in Scotland_, Volume
I., pages 131, 245, 417, 468, _et seq._
² _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume II., pages 176, 192,
197, 219, 220, 336, 360.
The Reformation, however, was not favourable to the musical art. An Act
of Parliament was passed in 1579 stating that the teaching of the youth
in the art of music and singing had begun to be neglected. It affirmed
that the instruction of the children in music and singing had almost
decayed, and must decay altogether, if a timely remedy was not provided.
The provosts and councils of the burghs throughout the kingdom, and
the patrons and provosts of colleges, were enjoined to repair and “to
set-a-going the sang-schools,” and to appoint qualified masters to
instruct the young in the science of music.¹
¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III.
Although psalms were always sung, and sometimes hymns, in the Reformed
Church, the organs and all instrumental music were entirely discarded
from the public worship. From this and other influences the musical
faculty of the people was not so much encouraged and cultivated as
it might have been: in fact, in some of its forms music was directly
discouraged, while dancing was frowned upon, and sometimes denounced
as a sin.¹
¹ _Second Book of Discipline_, chapter 7; Melville’s _Diary_,
page 350.
There are numerous early editions of the metrical Psalms which were
adopted by the Reformed Church of Scotland. Touching the singing of the
Psalms in the sixteenth century, only the Church part, or the melody
of the tune, was given on the tenor cleff C, and not, as now, on the
treble cleff G, thus leaving the harmony to be supplied at discretion,
according to the skill of the different congregations. The music of
the Reformed Church at that time was what is called “plain song.”¹ The
importance justly ascribed to singing in public worship, seems to have
suggested this simple mode.
¹ “_The Scottish Metrical Psaltery_ of A.D. 1635, reprinted
from the original work; the additional matter and various
readings found in the editions of 1565, etc., being appended;
edited by the Rev. Neil Livingston,” 1864. “There is a
peculiarity in the mode of harmonising the Church tunes
in the sixteenth and early part of the following century
which require notice. The melody, or plain song, as it is
sometimes called, is given to the tenor voice, and not, as
in the generality of modern music, to the treble. This mode
of arrangement was derived from the Roman Church, where the
canto fermo, or plain song, is to this day sung by men’s
voices. It was, no doubt, intended that the congregation
should sing the tune (which from its pitch and compass would
suit any kind of voice), and that the accompanying parts
should be sung by a choir of voices.”――_Proceedings of the
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, Volume VII., page 446.
During the sixteenth century architecture made no remarkable progress
in Scotland. The most notable peculiarity of the buildings of this
period was the adoption of several features of the French flamboyant
style, which had become mixed with other characteristics of native
origin. This peculiarity was frequently exhibited in the castellated
architecture of the period. The flowing tracery was retained till the
Reformation, but from that date church architecture has declined. A
pretty full account of the baronial and ecclesiastical architecture is
presented in Billing’s work, in four volumes, published in 1845‒52; and
in other works devoted to the subject.
The Regent Morton greatly embellished his palace of Dalkeith with
tapestry and very fine pieces of art. Later in the century, Duncan
Campbell of ♦Glenorchy employed artists to decorate his mansion at
Taymouth, and others of the nobles then began to show a somewhat better
taste in connection with the style, the interior decoration, and the
convenient arrangement of their castles and houses; and in some castles
the ceilings and roofs were ornamented with a variety of paintings, in
small divisions, containing emblematic figures. About the beginning of
the seventeenth century, the first Marquis of Huntly rebuilt portions,
and repaired the whole of the Castle of Strathbogie; the later portions
of the castle were elaborately and finely ornamented, both externally
and internally, and some of the chimney-pieces were highly ornamented,
one of which is preserved――a beautiful piece of sculpture in freestone.
♦ “Glenurchy” replaced with “Glenorchy”
Wood work, especially carving in oak, had attained a high degree of
perfection; but foreign artists have usually received the credit of
executing the best specimens of this description of work. A very fine
specimen of wood carving in oak is preserved in the chapel of King’s
College, Aberdeen, which presents a grand double row of oak canopied
stalls, with miserere seats and high open screen. The workmanship
is clean and delicate, and the traceried panels are beautifully
diversified and relieved by bold and elaborate treatment. The wood
carving of the stalls in the Cathedral of Dunblane is also fine, and
a few other specimens which have been preserved. The ceiling of the
audience-chamber of Queen Mary in the palace of Holyrood was executed
about 1558, and it is a good example of oak carving. Many admirable
specimens of the wood-workers’ art, such as cabinets, chests, and other
articles of household furniture, are preserved in public and in private
collections.
Touching the higher forms of art, painting and sculpture were as yet,
almost a blank in Scotland. The remarkable revival of art in Italy
in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries had little effect in this
northern corner of Europe. Indeed, painting may be said to be an
importation among us; for, with a few exceptions, Scotland had no
painters till a recent period. It is not, however, to be supposed that
the Scots made no attempts at the figurative arts; only their efforts
in this department were so crude, comparatively, as to place them
nearly beyond criticism. No doubt a large quantity of decorations,
and frescoes, associated with the churches in Roman Catholic times,
disappeared at the Reformation. In the sixteenth century painters were
mentioned both before and after the Reformation, but probably few of
them were artists. A considerable number of portraits were painted in
Scotland in the sixteenth century. A few seem to have been painted in
the reign of James V., and a greater number in the latter part of the
century: and amongst those of the later time, were portraits of Esme
Stewart, Duke of Lennox; the Earl of Mar, Regent of Scotland; and his
brother, Sir Alexander Erskine of Gogar, by unknown artists. Arnold
Bronkhorst, a Fleming, appears to have attended the court of James
VI., and was employed as a painter. He received sixty-four pounds
for painting three portraits, viz., “a portrait of His Majesty from
the belt upward, a portrait of His Majesty full length; and another
portrait of Master George Buchanan,” and moreover a gift of one hundred
merks for his coming to this country. It seems that Ruthven, the
unfortunate and last Earl of Gowrie, showed a taste for art. It was not
any inaptitude of the mental characteristics of the Scots in relation
to art, but their social and material condition, which in the sixteenth
century rendered art so backward amongst them. As yet the art of the
professional painter can scarcely be said to have existed.
The Reformation in Scotland was at first unfavourable to the culture
of the fine arts. Calvin admitted painting and sculpture to be gifts of
God, which should be used purely and lawfully; but he was disposed to
limit the subjects of the artist and the sculptor. He objected to all
images in churches and places of worship.¹ Thus the change in the creed
of the nation had a retarding influence on the development of art in
Scotland for several generations.
¹ Institutes, Book I., Chapter 12. The relation of fine art
to Christianity is well discussed by Mr. Symonds in his
“Renaissance in Italy.” He said――“Looking back upon this
phase of painting, we are able to perceive that already the
adoption of art to Christian dogma entailed concessions on
both sides.... There was consequently a double compromise,
involving a double sacrifice of something precious. The
faith suffered by having its mysteries brought into the
light of day, incarnate in form, and humanised. Art suffered
by being forced to render intellectual abstractions to the
eye through figured symbols.
“As technical skill increased, and as beauty, the proper end
of art, became more rightly understood, the painters found
that their craft was worthy of being made an end in itself,
and that the actualities of life observed around them had
claims upon their genius no less weighty than dogmatic
mysteries. The subjects they had striven to realise with
all simplicity, now became the vehicles for the display of
sensuous beauty, science, and mundane pageantry. The human
body received separate and independent study, as a thing
in itself incomparably beautiful, commanding more powerful
emotions by its magic than aught that sways the soul. At the
same time the external world with all its wealth of animal
and vegetable life, together with all the works of human
ingenuity in costly and superb buildings, was seen to be in
every detail worthy of most patient imitation.” Volume III.,
pages 21‒23.
“On the very threshold of the matter I am bound to affirm my
conviction that the spiritual purists of all ages――the Jews,
the iconoclasts of Byzantium, Savonarola, and our Puritan
ancestors――were justified in their mistrust of plastic art.
The spirit of Christianity and the spirit of figurative
art are opposed, not because art is immoral, but because it
cannot free itself from sensuous associations. It is always
bringing us back to the dear earth, from which the faith
would sever us. It is always reminding us of the body which
piety bids us neglect. Painters and sculptors glorify that
which saints and ascetics have mortified.” _Ibid._, page 24,
_et seq._
CHAPTER XXIII.
_The Ultimate Problem of the Reformation._
IT was indicated in the Introduction that we must look to the human
mind itself for the origin of society and of civilisation; and in like
manner, we must look to it as the prime source of religion. Although
the origin of religion cannot be reached by historic research, still,
from what has been ascertained by psychological analysis and the
results obtained through prehistoric and scientific investigation, it
appears that religion arose at a very early stage of man’s career.
Probably the very earliest impulse of religious feeling sprang from
the primitive instinct of self-preservation. The sentiment evolved from
this instinct and the emotions associated with it run through the lower
and the higher religions of the world, in more or less developed forms.
Religion in the earlier stage of society seems to have been limited
to the family. Every father of a family acted as a priest, just as he
acted as a labourer in the field, and a soldier in war. Thought must
have preceded language, and the notion of an object mentally exists
in the mind, before it can be intelligibly expressed. Thus the idea
of power has to be realised, before applying it even to a natural
phenomenon; and therefore men must first have conceived their gods,
before they gave them names. When the gods were once conceived,
descriptive names were usually applied to them, which seem gradually
to have undergone modifications of form and meaning.
The elements of the human mind are connected with the great external
system of natural phenomena, and the external senses of the human
organism are the media through which the processes of sensation and
perception operate. The prime and distinctive characteristic of mind
is consciousness, that is, to be conscious of its own phenomena,
both in the perception of external objects, and its own inner mental
operations――thoughts, feelings, and emotions. The nature of an act of
consciousness may be indicated thus:――I am conscious that I know, I
am conscious that I feel, I am conscious that I desire; so on the
one hand, consciousness is the recognition by the mind of its own
acts and affections, which is the simple self-affirmation that
certain mental modifications are known by me; while on the other
hand, consciousness may be viewed as the primary datum of intelligence
itself. Thus consciousness in its simplicity involves three points:
1, a recognising subject, an Ego or self; 2, a modification,
state, affection or operation; 3, a recognition by the Ego of the
modification, or operation. Every mental phenomenon may be called a
fact of consciousness. Although it is usual and useful to distinguish
consciousness from the special faculties of mind, for purposes of
analysis and exposition, yet these special faculties are fundamentally
modifications of consciousness itself. In short, philosophy is simply
a systematic evolution of the contents of consciousness.
But viewed historically, the human mind in the early stages of the race
was in some measure influenced by the great cosmic forces of the solar
system. Such changes as day and night, summer and winter, the varying
phases of the moon, and the mystery of the vast cosmic movements, had
an influence on the mind of the human race for a long period. This
influence, however, was only relative, and it slowly diminished with
the advance of definite knowledge and experience. The influences of
a terrestrial character were considered in the second section of the
Introduction. Such influences viewed as bearing on man, are usually
called the environment, and their effects on the history of the human
mind have sometimes been grossly exaggerated. Environment has had an
influence on the thoughts and feelings of men, and in some quarters
of the globe it has been more felt than in others; yet, after all,
the power of environment on man is only relative in its action. For
it is the pre-eminent characteristic and function of man to rise above
his environment by the energy of his mind, and the application of
his knowledge and experience; and, in so far as the higher mental
operations of his mind are concerned, he can discard the influence of
external environment.
In the early stages of the race, the most striking phenomena of nature,
as the sun, fire, the moon, the loud crack of thunder, the tempest, and
many other objects, which caused amazement or fear in the human breast,
were deified, and, for a time, worshipped. The conception of gods seems
to have been primarily individual, and the conceived standards of the
gods harmonised with the very limited range of ideas and knowledge then
attained. But the continuance of a religion was not dependent on the
character of its gods in early ages. The relation between men and their
gods was then very simple, and the moral element scarcely appeared. In
the Vedic hymns of India, such phrases were addressed to the gods, as:
“If you give me this, I shall give you that,” or, “As you have given me
this, I shall give you that.” Sometimes a strain of expostulation with
the gods occurs, in which the sacred writer tells them that, “if he was
as rich as they are, he would not allow his worshippers to go begging.”
When sacrificial offerings began, they consisted of some kinds of
food which men themselves relished, such as milk, butter, and berries,
cooked in various ways; and of sacrificial animals, such as sheep,
goats, oxen, and horses. The brief indications of cosmic notions in
the Veda are extremely crude, for instance, the following:――“The right
and true was born from kindled heat, then the night was born and the
surging sea. From the surging sea the annual sun was born, He who
orders day and night, the Lord of all that sees. The Creator made sun
and moon in turn, the sky, the earth, and the air, and then the heaven.”
Another source of early religion sprang out of kinship, and ♦is
usually called ancestor-worship. This worship often co-existed in
the same communities with other religions; yet this co-existence――and
even association with other forms of religion――does not prove that
ancestor-worship was the earliest, or the original religion; ♠as it
seems to have been preceded by nature-worship. But the worship of
ancestors, or the spirits of the departed, arose at a comparatively
early stage of human progress, and became widely prevalent. It
explicitly implied a belief in the future existence of the human
soul, which gave it an elevation over many of the other early forms
of religion.
♦ duplicate word “is” removed
♠ duplicate word “as” removed
Brahmanism never reached a high ethical standard, and socially it
issued in the institution of caste. The pantheistic conception which
finds God in all things, at a certain stage of its development when
applied to social life, leads to the conclusion that whatever exists,
simply because it exists, is therefore right. Hence, on this principle,
as class distinctions already existed in India, Brahmanism fixed
and consecrated them into the system of castes, which thenceforth
settled the status and the vocation of every individual in society.
The Brahmans were by origin and birth invested with sacred functions,
they were hereditary priests and lords over all the other castes, and
separated from them by an impassable barrier. They had the exclusive
right of reading and expounding the sacred books, and of performing
sacrificial rites; and any interference with their sacred functions
was prohibited under the severest penalties. This order of priesthood,
as determined by descent and birth alone, inevitably tended to the
substitution of mere rites and ceremonies for spiritual worship; and
ultimately issued in a fixed and dead level of debased ceremonialism
and superstition; while its system of caste resulted in a social
organisation of stereotyped inequalities, which completely stifled all
hope and chance of progress; and thus morally and socially perpetuated
injustice. As the Brahman by birth was nearer to God than other men,
whatever his character or moral worth might be, he stood in a special
relation to God such as no man of any other caste could aspire to,
however great his gifts and abilities; no other man could by any
possibility become his equal. On the other hand, there were amongst
the people those with whom the Brahman dare not associate, or help,
eat with, or visit in sickness, or even come into accidental contact
with, without undergoing a ceremonial pollution which could only be
atoned for by severe penalties. In short, the system of caste involved
the sanction of some of the worst and most cruel wrongs which could
be inflicted on human society. A reaction gradually arose in the
consciousness of the people against a religion, which so grossly
outraged the deepest instincts of man’s being.
About the sixth century B.C., the great religious teacher Buddha
appeared in India, and entered on his remarkable career. There is no
very authoritative account of his personal characteristics and life,
as the writings in which such information is given were not written
until long after his death. But it has been recorded that, Buddha, the
Enlightened, was the son of a Rajah of the Sakyas, an Aryan tribe of
central India, who in early life abandoned his position and prospects
as heir to his father’s throne, and entered on a wandering life as a
religious mendicant. Considering the influence which the corruption
of the period――an age of degrading superstition and of cruel social
inequality and fixed injustice――would be likely to exert on a mind of
marked originality and great metaphysical power, as well as of deep
moral and intense religious susceptibilities, the step which Buddha
took is not difficult to understand. He seems to have been gifted
with a reflective, introspective, and restless mind, for which the
great problems of the moral and spiritual life have a significance
transcending all external interests, and which is induced to seek the
solution of these problems by an inner and irresistible aspiration.
Whether the inquiry present itself as the search for truth, or as the
search for the meaning and end of human life, the explanation of its
inconsistencies and anomalies, or for salvation from sin, suffering,
and death――for such a mind there is no resting-place till the inner
perplexities of the soul are dispelled. They cannot passively accept
the existing conditions of social life, so long as these conflict with
pure morals, and the higher craving and aspiration of the human soul
exists. Buddha’s life was a search for truth, a struggle for spiritual
rest and the moral reform of the race.
Buddha first enrolled himself under the most famous Brahmanical
teachers of the time, and listened earnestly to their expositions
of the questions of metaphysics and ethics. But these studies under
the Brahmans failed to give him any mental peace. His moral and
religious sympathies were too keen, and his interest in humanity and
its suffering too intense to admit of his being satisfied with any
doctrines which the Brahmans could present. He then retired with five
faithful friends to a solitary spot in the jungles of Uruvela, and
there followed the ascetic discipline for the space of six years. At
last he became convinced that in seeking mental and spiritual peace
through the ascetic channel, he was on the wrong path. Accordingly
he relinquished asceticism, and betook himself simply to meditation
and prayer, wandering about from place to place, still longing and
aspiring after the secret of spiritual rest. It seems highly probable
that it was during these wanderings that Buddha made his profound
and exhaustive analysis of the human mind――an analysis perhaps more
accurate than has ever been made by any single man before or since. At
length, (we are told) after a prolonged stretch of meditation, while
resting under a tree, a new light seemed to break in upon his mind, his
difficulties vanished, and the secret of his own spiritual freedom, and
of the regeneration of the human race were within his grasp.
The new light or doctrine which Buddha found and proclaimed, was that
salvation can not be obtained by external sacrifices and penances,
but only through inner renunciation and self-devotion. This religion
announced that human happiness, salvation, and blessedness, which
is the goal of life, does not consist in external conditions, but
essentially in the internal character of the mind itself. Thenceforth
the life of Buddha was that of a preacher of the new doctrine. Filled
with compassion for the wretchedness and ignorance of his fellow-men,
and conscientiously believing that he possessed the only truth which
could save them, he proceeded enthusiastically on his mission of love.
The fame of the new teacher and his doctrine began to spread abroad.
His intense earnestness, his self-renunciation, associated with unusual
gentleness and great benignity, his stirring eloquence and wisdom, and
his personal dignity, gave striking force to the doctrines which he
taught, and everywhere moved men’s hearts and minds. Great crowds of
people flocked to hear his teaching, and thousands of all castes soon
became his adherents; the schools of the Brahmans began to be deserted,
and some of the notable Brahmanical teachers joined Buddha. The
bondage of caste was shaken by the power of the new doctrine of human
brotherhood which Buddha preached; and a great moral Reformation
bore witness to the influence of the doctrines which he taught. It
is reported that he lived to the age of eighty years. He was a highly
gifted man, of a very lofty nature, one of those rare and exceptional
personalities, who wield a strange power over all men coming within the
range of their influence, and become great moral and religious leaders
of the human race.
Morality formed the prime part of Buddha’s teaching, and this was
one of the chief causes of his remarkable success. The pre-existing
Brahmanism might be characterised as a political and social
institution――an organised system of castes――rather than as a religion
in the usual meaning of the term. Brahmanism had driven the religious
and moral instincts of the body of the people into a groove of an
elaborate system of prayers, penances, purifications, authoritative
precepts and prohibitions touching almost every action of daily life.
But it was the special and distinctive characteristic of Buddhism, that
the way in which it taught men to reach salvation, was simply through
the inner purification of the mind and heart, and moral goodness. It
rejected secret mysteries and ontological dogmas, which were attainable
only to speculative minds; and instead of these, demanded a knowledge
of morality which could be attained by clearing the soul from the
darkening influence of impulse and passion. Buddha said: “The highest
insight is not that which can be measured by an intellectual standard.
Merely to know is of little use. What is of supreme importance, is a
change of the heart and spirit.” As “anger, drunkenness, deception, and
envy constitute uncleanness, and not the eating of flesh,” so “neither
abstinence, nor going naked, nor shaving the head, nor a rough garment;
neither offerings to the priests nor sacrifices to the gods, will
cleanse a man, nor free him from the deluding influence of sensual
pleasure.” The importance assigned to practical morality in the
Buddhist religion, and its recognition of an appeal to the conscience
and the inner spiritual sentiment of man, formed the main element of
its strength, and placed it higher than any religion which had preceded
it. In short, its morals founded on love, charity and virtue, are so
humane, that it might perhaps be said to be the only religion that has
brought no ideal element of hostility into the world.
When Buddha’s disciples met in council to form their primitive church,
they did not propose to teach men a new metaphysics; their chief aim
was to improve the bad customs of the people, to reform their morals,
to purify their souls from all debasing passions, and to unite them in
a universal sense of brotherhood and love. From this sprang the intense
proselytising spirit of Buddhism, and the remarkable self-denial of
its early teachers, who established centres of their religion in Tibet,
in Samarcand, in Siam, in Ceylon, China, and other countries, to the
reformation and the civilisation of which it largely contributed. Its
conquests have been greater and more permanent than those of any other
religion; and even now, two thousand and four hundred years after
the birth of its founder, its adherents number upwards of two hundred
millions of the human race. It appears that Buddhism easily and rapidly
overcame those countries in which there was no organised priesthood or
orthodox religion. A somewhat similar result occurred when Christianity
arrived in the West, where it only met with a decaying and incoherent
Polytheism.
In so far as Buddha’s teaching was in its essence opposed to the
system of castes, Buddhism was a reaction against Brahmanism. From
another point of view, it was a marked original advance, and a higher
development of genuine religion. The vigour and spiritual power of
Buddhism as a reforming influence, was manifested in the effect which
it produced on the ancient religion itself; and in the reform which
it partly succeeded in effecting in the social life of the people. For
several centuries it was the dominant religion in India; although the
Brahmans after a time became intensely alarmed at its success, and, at
last, began to fight against it. When it is stated that the principles
of Buddhism admitted and recognised a priesthood recruited from
the lower castes, and from the pariahs or outcasts, the causes of
the opposition and the enmity of the Brahmans against it, is easily
understood. The Brahmans, as a hereditary priesthood, considered
themselves a class of very superior beings, on account of their pure
Aryan blood, and gloried in tracing their descent back to the early
Vedic times of the invasion and conquest of India. A hereditary caste
of priests, and a hereditary caste of legislators associated with
political institutions, always and everywhere, have fought hard to
maintain their status and special privileges. Buddhism dealt a severe
blow to the system of caste, and almost effected a complete social
revolution in India. But unhappily the usual and baneful consequence
followed. The reform of morals and religion had to give way to state
and political considerations. Hence on the revival of Brahmanism with
its political institution of castes, Buddhism was driven out of India,
the place of its birth, about the beginning of the sixth century, A.D.
The Brahman priesthood has continued, owing to the institution of
castes, which is its corner-stone.
It would be going beyond the scope and aim of this chapter to enter
into the treatment of the ontology, metaphysics, or the highest
conceptions of the Brahmans touching God and the universe; let it
suffice to say that the highest conception of the Brahmans and of
Hindu thought are fundamentally pantheistic. The highest form of this
conception may be indicated thus:――The visible universe is nothing, God
is all in all――the One Unity, the One Being; or in other words, God is
the invisible substance, the only real existence――the One eternal and
self-existent essence of the universe. Such is the highest conception
of Brahmanic thought. Although metaphysics form one of the three parts
of the collection of Buddhist writings, usually called the “Tripitaka,”
yet it would be quite unhistoric and unjust to judge of Buddhism from
its metaphysical side. As I said before, it was in psychology, ethics
and religion, that Buddha was original, and really great, for in these
branches he left all his Aryan predecessors far behind him. Touching
Nirvana, which has been made a special Buddhist problem, and has
elicited much discussion, the conception of it was expounded by the
Brahmans long before Buddha’s time. It cannot therefore be specially
assigned to Buddha as one of his original and primary doctrines.
Nirvana means extinction, and applied to man it may be taken to mean
his absorption into God at death.
Let me now direct attention briefly to the religion of the people of
Europe prior to the introduction of Christianity. The ancient religion
of Greece was elaborately polytheistic. There was no clear idea of
the one God in Greek religion, or any worthy conception of the Divine
attributes. The gods of the Greeks were mostly local, and bound to a
particular family, city, or district. As observed in the fifth section
of the Introduction, the Greeks had only a vague and feeble notion of
the immortality of the soul. Heroes might sometimes be exalted to the
skies, but for the common people there was no hope beyond the grave.
There was nothing in their religion to satisfy the inner craving of
the human soul, while its moral side was negative, if not positively
baneful. It was the Greek philosophers who gave morals and rules of
life to the people, not their religion. Thus Greek philosophy from
the first tended to undermine the popular religion, and any cult which
cannot embrace ethical ideas and truth, is doomed to decay.
The religion of the ancient Romans was also polytheistic, and
associated with a strong element of ancestor worship. Apparently the
Romans had no more difficulty in changing and modifying their gods,
than in making new domestic and State arrangements. They had a great
multitude of gods and also goddesses, as the formula used by the
officiating priest on great occasions shows:――“Be thou god or goddess,
man or woman; whoever thou art, or by whatever name it is right to call
thee.” Ancestor worship held an important place among the Romans, and
their funeral rites were elaborate. At Rome it was the custom, after
the dead body had been washed, anointed, and clothed, to keep it seven
days in the house: and on the eighth day it was carried out and burned;
then the remains were collected, sprinkled with wine and milk, placed
in an urn, and deposited in the family tomb. The relatives on returning
home stepped over a fire, and were sprinkled with water. Then the
departed was believed to be a kind of divine being, and eight days
after the funeral, sacrifices were celebrated in his honour; and the
offering consisted of sheep or swine, dedicated to Ceres. This was
followed by a feast, during which speeches and songs were given in
honour of the departed, libations were made for him and incense burned.
After all the requisite rites had been performed, the soul of the
departed was supposed to be at rest; as it had become one of the Manes.
On the 19th of February every year, a commemorative festival was held,
at which offerings were made to the Manes; and similar offerings had to
be made on several other days; and again on other occasions connected
with important events. The Manes were supposed to remain in the lower
world; but the departed were also called gods. Cicero said “that the
days kept sacred for the dead, would not, like the days kept sacred
for the gods, have been called solemn holydays, had not our ancestors
wished that the departed should be considered as gods.” From this it
was an easy step to the deification of the Emperors.
The College of Pontiffs was instituted at an early period, and
originally consisted of four persons of the patrician class, who
continued members for life, and had the right of electing to all
vacancies. In 300 B.C., four plebeians were added; and in 81 B.C. the
number was increased to fifteen. At first the Supreme Pontiff of the
College was elected by and from its own members, and subsequently by
the voice of the people. He was perpetual president of the College,
and invested with supreme power over the religion, worship, and the
priesthood of the State. In all matters relating to religious rites,
sacrifice and worship, sacred days and festivals, and the admission of
foreign gods with their cultus, the ceremonies at birth, marriage, and
funeral, and the conduct of the priesthood, their power was supreme.
All official documents touching religion were in their custody;
and of all the laws written and unwritten relating to it, they were
the interpreters and guardians; they had also the sole powers of
legislation in such matters. Dressed in purple-bordered robes and
conical woollen caps, they attended all the great public ceremonies,
and presided and read prayers at the opening of the Comitia, and other
important assemblies. The great Cæsar was made Supreme Pontiff as well
as Dictator; and all the Emperors to Theodosius assumed the same office.
Cæsar in his lifetime was honoured as a god, and after his death, he
was by the Senate formally enrolled amongst the deities. The Emperors
were also deified; the Romans talked of their majesty and eternity;
sacrifices were offered to them, and the sacred fire was carried before
them. The worship of the Emperors, in short, constituted the religion
of a corrupted and declining Empire.
The religion of the Teutonic nations――the Germans and the
Scandinavians――was a rude and vigorous polytheism. Their chief gods
were Odin and Thor, and their great goddess was Friga, one of Odin’s
wives, though they had many minor gods, and elves and dwarfs were also
numerous in their world. Odin, as the father of the gods, was called
Allfather, and also Valfather, because he takes as his sons the heroes
who fall in battle. He was represented as a very tall, one-eyed old
man, with a long beard and flowing hair, and a rather broad brimmed
hat, which was supposed to represent the vault of heaven, and a spear
in his hand to signify his great conquering power. All the other gods
were emanations from him, or renovations of him. He was the “father of
time, the lord of gods and men, the god of heaven, the king of the year,
and the god of war and giver of victory.” The other gods were generated
through Odin’s relations to external objects. Thor was the son of
Odin by his wife Jord, the uninhabited earth, and he was a great and
physically powerful personage. He was the god of thunder, and ruled
over clouds and rain. His home was in the region of cloudy gloom, and
his great shining palace contained five hundred and forty floors, from
which he sent forth lightnings. His grand chariot was drawn by two
goats, whose hoofs and teeth flashed forth fire. He was girded with a
wonderful belt which doubled his strength, and in his hand he carried
his terrible hammer, which he hurled at his foes, and which, after
dealing the fatal blow, returned to him. His great enemies were the
frost and mountain giants, with whom he was constantly at war. He was
represented as a powerful young man with a red beard, and when it
thundered in some places, the people used to say that “Thor is blowing
through his beard.” The worshippers of Odin and Thor were rude and
ruthless, yet they were free, brave, vigorous, and enterprising. Their
cult was extremely crude, and their stage of civilisation was still
comparatively low.
Looking at the peoples of Europe from the moral and social stand-point
at the period immediately preceding the general introduction of
Christianity amongst them, it appears that they were in a very bad
condition. In those parts of Europe which had been overrun and
conquered by the Romans, the spirit of the inhabitants was broken and
greatly enfeebled by complete subjection to a military power, which had
obtained the empire by force and upheld it by the same means; while the
Romans themselves had become corrupted by power, and their Empire was
disorganised, and exhausted at its centre. When the day of retribution
came, the Empire, raised by so many hands, by so much bloodshed,
cruelty and oppression, was attacked in the north and in the south, in
the west and in the east, and compelled to contract its lines till its
power and existence ceased.
It has been ascertained that humane sentiment, a respect for justice,
honesty, and an elevating and humanising morality, have been only very
slowly developed, even amongst the most advanced branches of mankind.
How is this? What were the causes and influences which retarded moral
developments? Such questions are not easily answered, and can be only
briefly touched on, in relation to the problem under consideration.
For a long period mankind was so much engaged in war that the higher
sentiments could not be developed, save in a very imperfect and limited
degree. At later periods, when conquering races appeared, the rude
and cruel natural propensities and passions were stimulated, fed, and
developed to an extent which often engendered in the conquering race
or nation an utter disregard for human life and human suffering. The
conquering race or nation became intoxicated by power, and elated by
the feelings and pride always associated with power, easily imagined
that they were a superior class of people, and had a right to subject
and enslave as many of the human race as they possibly could. Time
rolled on and human intellect developed, and mankind multiplied; but
the military passion and the inhuman propensities associated with it
still reigned in the world.
In the short intervals of peace, which occurred here and there, moral
feeling and humane sentiment had not time to develop, except on a
very narrow and limited scale. For ages, the moral development of the
race was retarded by the interest of power, empire, caste, and the
supposed requisites of political institutions. Religion too was usually
subordinated to State and political considerations, and this often
vitiated its moral influence. Although Buddhism had effected a social
revolution in India, the ruling power, for considerations connected
with the immoral and degrading system of caste, expelled this great
religion from India.
Viewed as a conception of an invisible Being, religion is distinct
from morality. Yet it is only when religion exercises an influence on
the moral character and life of man that it attains significance and
real importance. If the god or object of worship be not conceived as
benevolent, perfect, pure, and just, the religion to which it belongs
can be neither elevating nor purifying. It is quite true that the
attributes of God cannot be adequately conceived by finite minds; still,
if in the Divine attributes there is no moral characteristic, the great
difficulty of the relation between God and man becomes insurmountable.
Christianity removed this difficulty.
Christianity in the person and life of Jesus, its founder, manifested
the complete relation between God and man, the union of the Divine
and human. This Christian communion with God should embrace the whole
receptive life of man, filling him with the peace and love and joy of
God, and pervade his whole active life.
When Christianity was introduced into Europe, it had no difficulty in
overcoming the decaying and disjointed polytheisms which then existed.
Yet the Gospel of Jesus, as may be easily imagined, was too elevated
to be received in all its purity; and the result was that some of the
old notions were retained and transferred to it, for instance, ancestor
worship was continued under the form of the worship of the Saints.
In fact, at an early stage of the history of Christianity in the
West, Rome became its chief centre, and the Popes of Rome with their
immediate associates elaborated a great system of religious polity,
framed partly on the principles of the Roman empire; but partly also
on the principle of caste. Thus what is called Roman Catholicism is
essentially a political, and not a religious institution. It is well
known that the Popes claimed and exercised unlimited temporal power.
The royal power of Kings was subordinated to the head of the Church;
the authority of the Church assumed the right to dominate over civil
law and every institution. The Pope suspended Kings by excommunication,
and exercised despotic political power. Centuries passed, and the
organisations of the Roman hierarchy multiplied and developed to an
enormous extent in every country of Europe; while, as stated in the
first section of this volume, the Gospel of Jesus was obscured and
almost superseded by a vast number of legends, relics, traditions and
ceremonies, which for a considerable length of time seems to have been
pretty much in harmony with the ancient cultus of the people of Europe.
Throughout the centuries of comparative darkness, however, there was
a slow but continuous moral and intellectual progress, which, owing to
various agencies and influences, at last assumed the form of a reaction,
and issued in the Reformation.
It was already stated, that the diffusion of the Bible amongst the
people of Europe in the vernacular language was one of the deepest and
most powerful causes of the Reformation. Both Catholics and Protestants
believed in the supernatural origin of the Scriptures. The latter
especially maintained that the Bible contained a special revelation
from God to man, and therefore to the Reformers the Word of God was the
real and absolute authority in religion. The influence of this belief
was great, and in conjunction with other influences contributed much to
awaken the religious consciousness, and to intensify the feelings and
emotions. Moreover, the Gospel――the Christian revelation as contained
in the New Testament――presented in a simple and intelligible form,
the precepts, the doctrines, and the promises of immortality, which
satisfied the inmost craving of the soul, gave to faith and hope a
clearer vision, and in relation with the will and active efforts,
contributed much to sustain and cheer man in the daily struggle of life,
and in the most trying and perplexing difficulties. As life’s sojourn
approached its termination, and the years came when men are accustomed
to say there is no pleasure in them, they experienced the Saviour to be
as rivers of water in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in
a weary land. At last, when the Christian’s feet began to stumble upon
the dark mountains of eternity, and one by one external objects began
to vanish away, the faith in immortality became as an anchor of hope to
the still conscious soul.
This faith in a future life has had a great and beneficial influence
in stimulating and sustaining human effort. A belief in the immortality
of the soul is not in the least inconsistent with the highest knowledge
and the most accurate results as yet reached by science. While the
universe still remains far above and beyond our finite power of
comprehension, a belief in the immortality of the soul appears to be
requisite, as a supreme act of faith in the reasonableness of God’s
work. It seems to me, that only on such a view can the reasonableness
of the universe maintain its ground.
Volition, feeling, emotion, and sentiment, have usually entered more
into the heart of religion than cognition or formal thought. Religion
in the highest reach of its ideal always involves something which
cannot be known as a fact, or demonstrated as a scientific truth; in
other words, there is a region of belief, and beyond it, a region of
faith and hope. As some men manifest this emotional and volitional side
of the mind more than others, or even the same man at different times
under changed circumstances and influences may manifest it in higher
or lower degrees; in like manner there have been periods in the history
of the race, and in the history of nations, when this psychological
phenomenon became unusually prominent, and culminated in social
revolutions. Now, the Reformation era was of this character, as it was
characterised by an awakening of the religious consciousness, which was
manifested by an intense and prolonged excitement of the emotional and
the volitional sides of the mind.
I. The evidence supplied by the history of Scotland touching the
progress of social organisation and religion in relation to the
Reformation, may be briefly summarised. In the first volume it was
shown that the earliest inhabitants of the country were a people of
short stature, living under the tribal organisation; and that their
religion probably contained an element of animal worship, which was
connected with a form of ancestor worship. Subsequently the Celts
arrived and became the dominant people. The religion of the Celts
was polytheistic, with a strong element of ancestor worship in it;
and a vivid belief in the future existence of the soul. Christianity
was introduced into Scotland under the monastic form; and the early
saints who converted the people were venerated down to the eve of
the Reformation. In the twelfth century the Church of Scotland was
brought into conformity with the prevailing form of Christendom――Roman
Catholicism. The national clergy, however, on many occasions gave
evidence that their patriotism had risen above their allegiance to
the Pope; and this was specially manifested in the great struggle for
national Independence, as the bishops and the clergy gave effective aid
to Wallace and Bruce, and to other national leaders.¹
¹ Volume I., pages 266, 271, 281, 288, _et seq._
It was shown that historic conditions had arisen after the arrival of
the Celts, and that the nation was gradually developed out of a number
of tribes. It was indicated how the social and moral characteristics
of the nation had been developed, and the influences which Christianity
had contributed to it were pointed out. At a certain stage of
civilisation the customary law of the country appeared to be passing
into crude written laws, which in turn were modified and improved by
the current flow of influences and events, and the increasing command
of appliances; and it was noted that the conception of public justice
was gradually formed, and at last distinguished from the primitive
feeling of revenge. The growing complexity of the internal organisation
of the nation, as shown in the rise and the incorporation of the towns,
and also in the incorporation of the various classes of craftsmen in
these small centres of industry, was elucidated. Ample details were
presented touching the religious ideas, feelings, and sentiments of the
people from the prehistoric ages to the end of the fifteenth century.
II. In this volume, the first section of the thirteenth chapter
presented a brief outline of the general causes of the Reformation,
and of the state of Roman Catholicism and its chief characteristics;
while in the second section of the same chapter, and in the fourteenth
chapter, and the first part of the twenty-first chapter, evidence
of the awakening of the moral and religious consciousness was given,
which was soon perceived by the Roman Catholic clergy, who exerted
themselves to the utmost to extinguish it. Many of the heretics proved
the sincerity of their conviction and the strength of their faith by
suffering at the stake. Thus the religious feeling and aspiration was
constant in its action and persistent in its manifestation, even in the
face of the most appalling suffering and of death itself. On the other
hand, it was pointed out that the political causes of the Reformation
could not have originated, or produced, or sustained it; because
when the selfish aims which stimulated these political causes were
gained, then such causes fluctuated, and soon ceased to operate; nay,
these political powers, as soon as their special ends were attained,
frequently turned round and fought against the genuine outcome of this
great religious and moral revolution of the sixteenth century.
III. In this chapter on psychological and historic ground, I have
made a brief, and consequently a very incomplete effort, to indicate
the probable origin of religion. It appears that religion at first
was limited to the family, and to small communities, so that great
orthodoxies, such as Brahmanism, Buddhism, and Roman Catholicism, are
comparatively late developments. Fully developed ♦Brahmanism was more
of a political institution than a religion, while Buddhism was a real
and vigorous religious reaction against the frigid and rigid orthodox
Brahmanism and its system of castes. After Buddhism had effected a
social and moral revolution in India, mainly through the purity of its
moral doctrines and the humane ideas which it inculcated, the ruling
power, for political considerations connected with the degrading
system of castes, deemed it necessary to expel Buddhism from India.
Thus Brahmanism was revived and continued in India, because it was a
political institution under the semblance of a religion, but utterly
without the spirit and the characteristics of a real religion. In
like manner, the Reformation was a reaction against the hierarchy and
orthodoxy of Roman Catholicism; and, in so far as Catholicism was a
political institution, it then suffered an irreparable shock.
♦ “Brahmanisms” replaced with “Brahmanism”
It was remarked on a preceding page that the moral development
of the race has been greatly retarded by the absorbing interest
always associated with political power, empire, caste, and the
supposed necessities of State institutions. Thus the highest ideal
of Christianity and its most elevating doctrines have often been
perverted, and used for the accomplishment of the most pernicious ends;
yet this will yield no ground for an argument against Christianity. On
the contrary, it only shows how corrupting the love of power and its
exercise by an individual, a class, a nation, or an empire, always is,
when not limited and restrained by a sense of justice and feelings of
humanity.
IV. In Scotland there were indications of widening sympathy and humane
feeling in the earnest appeals of the Reformed preachers on behalf of
the oppressed tenants and labourers of the land, and in the efforts
to mitigate the suffering of the poor and helpless. The reformed
clergy made the utmost efforts to procure the cessation of all manual
labour on Sunday, and to devote that day to the moral and religious
instruction of the people, and to the worship of God. The ministers
in the daily exercise of their functions, and in their Sessions, and
in other Church Courts, unceasingly struggled to reform the habits
and to improve the morals of the people; they endeavoured to check all
disorder and excess; to place the important institution of marriage
on a proper footing, and manifested an earnest intention to protect
the lives of infants. They fearlessly exposed the immorality of the
Court, and of those in authority, and fought manfully against vice and
crime in all its forms. When they were harassed by the Government and
deserted by the nobles, they still continued steadfastly to contend
for what they believed to be the truth. Finally, they made great and
successful efforts to introduce and to extend the means of education
to the humblest classes of the people in the Kingdom. Thus various
influences were brought to bear upon the people which ultimately
effected a marked improvement in their moral habits and character. The
tentative deduction enunciated at the close of the eighteenth chapter
may be re-stated:――“The prime sustaining causes of the Reformation
throughout were the moral sentiments and ideas, associated with the
religious aspiration and the belief in the Divine revelation of the
Bible.” This deduction seems to be well founded, inasmuch, that, so far
as has been ascertained, the social instincts of the race originated
society; and that slowly in the roll of ages, the primitive social
instincts developed into moral sentiments, humane feeling, and finally,
the moral sense or conscience――from which in association with cognition
and the special faculties of knowledge――all conceptions of Justice,
of Law, of Truth, and of God, have been gradually developed. The
social feelings were the original foundation of society, and the
ethnic conceptions and ideals evolved from them in association with
the cognitive faculties of the mind, ultimately gave forms to law and
justice, and to all organisations and institutions. Thus the social
feelings and the moral sentiments have always been an essential factor
in the progress and civilisation of the human race. In so far as
religion has tended to elevate the ethnic standard and ideal, it has
contributed to the culture of the race. While viewed in its divine
and spiritual characteristics, it has satisfied the inner craving and
the highest aspiration of the soul, and thus Christianity has been an
important factor in civilisation.
V. But the Reformation ultimately produced intellectual results not
less remarkable than the moral and religious ones; as it was then that
a real zeal for education was instilled into the Scottish mind, which
ever since has been developing. The general intelligence of the people
of Scotland, the scientific and literary eminence which many Scotsmen
have attained, is partly traceable to the revolutionary movement of the
sixteenth century.
Another important result of the Reformation was to weaken the claims
and the chains of authority, and thus to give a new impetus to those
habits of mind so necessary in all branches of scientific inquiry.
Men began with greater freedom and boldness to interrogate nature; the
human mind awoke from a long sleep, and with refreshed strength and
glowing energy entered on the course of modern scientific progress.
Improvements in the methods of investigation were made, and original
discoveries and inventions soon followed; conquest after conquest
succeeded each other in regular sequence, the varied and beneficial
results of which we see around us at the present day. After a
relatively advanced stage of scientific knowledge is reached,
intellectual ideas begin to influence religious beliefs and doctrines,
and in some directions moral conceptions. The diffusion of knowledge
tends to purify religion; the conception of the Supreme Being gradually
becomes more elevated; the horizon of the moral vision is widened; and
more effective methods are devised and applied for the moral culture of
the race.
INDEX.
Abercorn, i., 116;
castle of, 343, 390;
Earl of, iii., 19.
Abercromby, Dr. Patrick, iv., 143.
Aberdeen, i., 148, 151, 234, 238‒9, 264, 284, 288, 306, 325, 366,
370, 386‒7, 390;
ii., 116, 123, 192, 202, 212, 241, 247;
iii., 28, 90, 91, 219, 223, 228;
iv., 370, 375;
University of, i., 415, 467;
ii., 412, 413;
iii., 62, 392‒3;
iv., 60, 139, 317‒320.
Aberdeen, Earl of, iv., 482.
Aberdeenshire, i., 28, 49, 52, 68, 75, 90, 95, 140, 184, 271, 284,
287, 325;
ii., 154;
iii., 244;
iv., 370, 371.
Abernethy, i., 114, 165, 245.
Aboyne, i., 174;
Viscount of, iii., 93.
Ada, daughter of Earl David, i., 204, 256.
Adam,
Dr. Alexander, iv., 153;
William, Robert, James, 402.
Adamson, Archbishop of St. Andrews, ii., 182‒4, 189, 271, 380.
Aed, King, i., 136.
Agricola, General, i., 105, 109.
Agriculture, i., 100, 133, 150, 250‒254, 376‒381;
ii., 266, 289, 290;
iii., 303‒305;
iv., 332‒339.
Aidan, King of Dalriada, i., 117‒8.
Aikman, iv., ♦429.
♦ page number provided by transcriber
Airlie, Earl of, iii., 90;
castle of, 337.
Alan, Lord of Galloway, i., 211.
Albany,
Duke of, i., 319, 321‒2, 324‒6;
Murdoch, 326, 327, 328;
Alexander, 348‒351;
John, Regent, ii., 36‒37.
Ale, i., 251, 399, 400, 401, 402, 404;
ii., 291‒292;
iii., 217‒219;
iv., 395.
Alexander I., reign of, i., 200, 201.
Alexander II., reign of, i., 209‒212, 242.
Alexander, III.,
coronation of, i., 213;
reign of, 213‒217.
Alexander, William, iv., 209‒211.
Alison,
Rev. Archibald, iv., 86;
Sir Archibald, 155‒6;
Dr. William, 312.
Allan,
David, iv., 433;
Sir William, 443.
Alloa, iv., 433.
Alnwick castle, i., 143, 300.
Amberley, Viscount, ii., 43, 44.
Anderson,
Dr. Joseph, i., 52, 55, 57, 61, 65, 66, 168, 180;
William, ii., 68;
James, iv., 143, 144;
Robert, 173.
Angles, i., 113, 118, 119.
Angus,
Pictish King, i., 120;
Angus, Chief, 116, 202;
Angus Duff, 329;
Angus, Lord of the Isles, 218, 285, 292, 293;
Angus, Earl of, 342, 343, 350, 351;
ii., 36, 37, 38, 61, 63, 64, 65, 181, 195, 212.
Annandale, i., 26, 203, 223, 349.
Annandale, Earl of, iii., 179.
Anne, Queen, iii., 204, 205, 209, 211, 220, 222.
Anstruther, ii., 192.
Arbroath,
monastery of, i., 249, 296, 432, 433, 434;
town of, 238, 409;
iii., 93, 301;
iv., 375.
Arbuthnot,
Alexander, ii., 372, 373, 413;
Dr. John, iv., 228‒230.
Architecture, i., 157‒165, 247‒250, 428‒431;
ii., 396, 397;
iii., 396‒7;
iv., 401‒411.
Ardnamurchan, i., 24, 261, 356;
iii., 90.
Ardoch, i., 106.
Argyle,
Earl of, i., 356‒7, 364, 365;
ii., 63, 64, 89, 96, 97, 130, 134, 135, 145, 150, 181, 201,
202, 224, 226, 229;
iii., 90, 91, 92, 99, 104, 121, 123, 159, 167, 192;
Duke of, 206, 223, 241.
Argyleshire, i., 53, 116, ♦117, 121, 127, 210, 261, 369;
iii., 91; iv.
♦ “177” replaced with “117”
Arkinholm, battle of, i., 343.
Armada, ii., 191, 192.
Armstrong,
John, a marauder, ii., 224, 225;
Dr. John, iv., 169.
Arran, island of, i., 23, 95, 216, 286, 379, 380.
Arran,
Earl of, i., 346;
Regent, ii., 63, 65, 67, 70, 74, 78, 86, 87;
Stewart, Earl of Arran, 175, 177, 181, 184, 185, 187.
Arrowheads, i., 49, 50.
Art,
early, i., 52, 75‒79, 166‒174, 176‒180, 241‒243, 470, 471;
ii., 423‒425;
iii., 393‒396;
Progress of, in Scotland, iv., 428.
Aryan race, i., 38‒42;
language of, 43.
Arth, a friar, ii., 51‒53.
Asceticism, i., 131, 156, 157, 244;
ii., 43‒46, 261, 262.
Assembly, General,
ii., 115, 129, 149, 151, 160, 166, 167, 169, 188, 193, 211,
213;
iii., 28, 34, 36, 39, 69‒72, 77, 83, 84, 98, 104, 186;
iv., 465‒485.
Athole,
Earl of, i., 208, 209, 214, 217, 255, 263, 283, 285, 305, 306,
335, 337;
ii., 143, 148;
iii., 110;
Marquis of, 174;
Duke of, 207, 212.
Attwood, iv., 143, 144.
Auldearn, battle of, iii., 94.
Ayr,
Burgh of, i., 240, 356, 359, 386, 387;
ii., 69;
iii., 303;
iv., 369‒372;
Castle of, i., 215, 248, 274, 287.
Ayrshire, i., 29, 114, 286, 287, 379;
ii., 78;
iii., 134, 153;
iv., 341, 342.
Aytoun, William E., iv., 194.
Bacon, Lord, ii., 395;
iii., 434‒435.
Badenoch, i., 211, 276, 356;
iii., 181.
Badenoch, Lord of, i., 217, 256, 271, 274, 275, 277.
Baillie,
General, iii., 93, 94, 95;
Rev. Robert, 75, 76, 87, 88, 357, 358.
Bain, Dr. Alexander, ii., 420;
iv., 139, 140, 141, 155.
Balcanqhall, Walter, ii., 177, 184, 187, 206.
Balfour,
Sir James, ii., 75, 135, 144, 146;
John, of Burley, iii., 151, 153, 343;
Sir Andrew, 369.
Baliol, Bernard de, i., 203.
Baliol,
King John, i., 256, 258, 259, 260‒262, 263, 264, 366;
Edward, 304, 305, 306, 307.
Ballads,
early, i., 184‒5, 441‒450;
ii., 76, 77, 244, 245, 341‒345;
referring to the Civil War and persecution, iii., 237‒346;
Jacobite ballads, 346‒353.
Balmerino, Lord, iii., 18, 60.
Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, iii., 32.
Bane, Donald, King, i., 144.
Banff, i., 148, 248, 307, 385, 390, 391;
iii., 301;
iv., 373.
Bank of Scotland established, iii., 327‒329.
Bannatyne, George, ii., 371, 372.
Bannockburn, battle of, i., 291‒295.
Barbour, John, i., 451‒454.
Barclay,
Robert, iii., 258;
Dr., iv., 308.
Barlow, Bishop, ii., 54, 56.
Barmekyn hill, fort on, i., 90.
Barony, i., 223, 225.
Barton, Captain, i., 359, 363.
Beaton,
James, Archbishop, ii., 38, 58;
David, Cardinal, 58, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70‒72, 79.
Beaumont, Henry, i., 301, 305, 306.
Beck, Bishop of Durham, i., 266, 270.
Bede, i., 116, 122, 126.
Bellhaven, Lord, iii., 197, 211‒12.
Bell Rock, i., 23.
Bell,
Dr. John, iv., 306, 307;
Sir Charles, 307, 308.
Bellenden,
John, ii., 317, 318;
Sir John, 158;
Sir Lewis, 274.
Berkeley, Bishop, iii., 470, 471.
Berwick-North, i., 387, 389.
Berwick, i., 206, 233, 234, 236, 238, 239, 248, 259, 260, 263,
264, 268, 279, 285, 295, 305, 350, 382;
Treaty of, ii., 100, 272.
Bible, translations of, ii., 25‒27, 49, 170.
Bisset, Thomas, i., 271.
Black,
David, ii., 204‒206;
Dr. Joseph iv., 260‒263, 273, 276, 278.
Blackadder, John, iii., 139.
Blackie, John S., iv., 247‒249.
Blakey, Robert, iv., 160.
Blacklock, Dr. Thomas, iv., 171, 172.
Blair,
Robert, iv., 169, 170;
Dr. Hugh, 215.
Blair Athole, iii., 90.
Blair Castle, iii., 181.
Bœce, Hector, ii., 316.
Bondmen, i., 252, 380‒382.
Book of Common Order, ii., 113, 114;
Book of Discipline, the first, 105‒113;
the second, 171‒173.
Book of Canons, iii., 45, 46.
Boot and shoe manufactures, iv., 392, 393.
Borders,
state of, i., 309, 315‒318, 322, 324, 342;
ii., 223‒225;
order established on the Borders, iii., 20‒28.
Borthwick Castle, ii., 143.
Bothwell,
Earl of, i., 353, 426;
ii., 69, 131, 133, 134, 135, 136, 138‒145;
Francis Stewart, Earl of, 198, 272, 273, 274‒276.
Bothwell Bridge, Battle of, iii., 153, 154.
Botriphnie, i., 378;
iv., 197.
Bower, Walter, i., 376, 463.
Boyd,
Robert, of Kilmarnock, i., 283;
Robert, Lord Boyd, 345, 346, 347;
Sir Thomas, created Earl of Arran, 146, 147.
Boyd, Zachary, iii., 358, 359.
Braemar, iii., 222.
Brahmanism, ii., 428, 429, 431, 433.
Braxfield, Lord, iv., 458.
Breadalbane, Earl of, iii., 190, 191.
Brechin, i., 138, 164, 183, 238, 249, 276, 409;
Castle of, 264, 276;
Battle of, 342.
Bridges, Early, i., 250.
Briggs, Henry, ii., 389, 390, 391.
Brigham, treaty of, i., 218.
Britons of Strathclyde, i., 113, 114, 117, 123‒125, 138.
Britons and Scots, early laws of, i., 151‒153.
Brochs, i., 157‒163.
Brodick Castle, i., 286.
Brodie,
Alexander, iii., 255;
William, iv., 454.
Bronze weapons and tools, i., 74‒79.
Brooches, i., 117‒119.
Brown,
Janet, ii., 231;
Dr. Thomas, iv., 87‒97;
John, 216;
Dr. John, 217;
Dr. William L., 218, 219.
Bruce,
Robert, of Annandale, i., 203, 218, 255, 256, 257, 258, 259,
260;
Robert, Earl of Carrick, 266, 267, 271, 276, 278, 281‒283.
Bruce,
Nigel, Thomas, Alexander, i., 285;
Edward, 287, 290, 291, 292;
Robert, ii., 201, 208, 216, 381, 382;
Michael, iv., 177.
Brude, King of the Picts, i., 127.
Bruno, Giordano, writings of, iii., 399‒401.
Brunston, Laird of, ii., 69.
Buchan, Earl of, i., 208, 209, 211, 213, 217, 262, 287, 288, 319,
325, 352, 353, 373.
Buchan, Peter, i., 446.
Buchanan,
George, ii., 58, 145;
writings of, 364‒369, 409;
Thomas, 260;
Dr. Robert, iv., 224.
Buddha, his life and work, ii., 429‒432.
Buddhism, ii., 233, 432.
Burghs,
the origin and organisation of, i., 33, 82, 83, 152, 232‒237;
Custom and trade of, 382‒391;
Social life and characteristics of the burghal communities,
397‒408, 414, 438, 439;
ii., 230‒243, 291‒294;
iii., 245‒248, 274‒278, 283‒289.
Burghs of regality, barony, and church, i., 226, 237, 238, 408,
409.
Burial dues exacted by the Church, ii., 39, 40.
Burnet,
Bishop, his works, iii., 364‒366;
John, iv., 441.
Burns, Robert, iv., 179‒182.
Burntisland, iii., 301.
Burton, Dr. John H., iv., 160.
Caerlaverock Castle, i., 247, 272.
Cairns, burial, chambered, i., 53‒64, 91, 92.
Caithness,
prehistoric structures in, i., 53‒58;
Norseman inroads, 136, 138, 139.
Caithness, Earls of, i., 207, 208;
ii., 227;
iii., 237, 238, 239.
Calderwood, David, iii., 38, 356, 357.
Caledonians, i., 105‒109, 110, 111, 114.
Caledonian Canal, iv., 354.
Calvin, ii., 119, 357‒360.
Cambuskenneth, i., 249, 367.
Cameron of Lochiel, i., 356;
iii., 181.
Cameron, Richard, iii., 155, 156.
Cameronians, iii., 155, 174, 185, 186, 187.
Campbell of Glenlyon, iii., 192.
Campbell,
Sir Colin, iii., 395;
Dr. John, iv., 144;
Dr. George, 85, 86;
Thomas, his writings, 185‒187;
Colin, architect, 402;
Thomas, sculptor, 454.
Candlish, Dr. R. T., iv., 221, 222.
Canterbury, Archbishop of, i., 200, 201, 272.
Cantyre, i., 21, 215, 261, 285, 348.
Canute, i., 139, 192.
Carberry Hill, ii., 144.
Cardross, i., 302, 303.
Cargill, Donald, iii., 155, 156, 157.
Carham, battle of, i., 138.
Carlisle, i., 210, 318;
iii., 227.
Carlyle,
Thomas, iv., 156‒159;
Dr. Alexander, 19, 43, 44.
Carmichael, Lord, iii., 186, 187.
Carmichael,
John, of ♦Meadowflat, iii., 27;
William, 151;
Gershom, iv., 18.
♦ “Meadowflatt” replaced with “Meadowflat”
♦Carmon, Colonel, iii., 183.
♦ Printed out of alphabetic order.
Carrick, Earl of, i., 217, 266, 271, 278, 281, 302, 305, 314,
316.
Carswell, John, ii., 108.
Carstairs, William, iii., 178, 179.
Carved woodwork, i., 430;
ii., 423.
Casket Letters, ii., 141, 142;
iv., 145.
Cassillis, Earl of, i., 365;
ii., 69, 150;
iii., 19, 56, 87, 99, 104.
Castellio, Sebastia, ii., 359.
Castles, i., 247, 248, 428, 430;
ii., 422, 423.
Catechisms, ii., 77, 78, 85, 109, 110;
iii., 89.
Caterthun, hill fort, i., 89, 90.
Cathen, the King’s adviser, i., 125.
Caves, i., 43, 83, 163.
Celestius, ii., 356.
Celibacy, i., 131, 156, 244, 245;
ii., 21, 22, 41‒43, 45, 46, 261, 262.
Celtic tribes, i., 44, 45, 90, 100, 101, 105, 110, 113‒116, 119.
Censorship of the press, ii., 277, 278.
Chalmer, James, ii., 90.
Chalmers,
George, iv., 153;
Dr. Thomas, 219‒221.
Chambered Cairns, i., 53‒65.
Chambers,
Thomas, i., 336, 337;
David, ii., 138;
Dr. Robert, iv., 163.
Charles I.,
reign of, iii., 42‒100;
policy of, 43‒50, 51‒54, 57, 58, 59, 63‒65, 66‒68, 71, 73‒75,
76, 77, 78‒82, 90, 95, 96, 97.
Charles II., reign of, iii., 103, 107, 110, 119‒163.
Charles Stewart, prince, iii., 226‒229.
Charters, i., 148, 201, 223‒225, 227, 232‒234, 373, 387, 422.
Chartularies, i., 247.
Chatelherault, Duke of, ii., 86, 130.
Chemical Science, iv., 260‒266, 273, 286, 296‒298, 397.
Chepman, Walter, ii., 300‒302.
Christian I., King of Denmark, i., 346.
Christianity,
introduced, i., 121‒129;
early form of, 130‒134;
influence of, 134, 135, 168, 181, 186, 232, 245, 248‒250, 288,
289, 466, 467;
ii., 437‒439, 443.
Church,
early, i., 130‒134, 155‒157, 200, 201;
re-organisation of, 212, 213, 243‒245;
property of, 227, 252‒254, 380, 431‒433;
state of, 332, 333, 431, 432;
ii., 40‒43, 51, 76‒78, 79, 102.
Church, the Reformed,
organisation of, ii., 104‒115;
conflict with the Government, 165‒173, 177‒189, 192‒194,
197‒220;
iii., 20‒42, 46‒82, 83‒87, 95‒101, 110, 120‒163, 164‒169;
internal struggles of, iv., 467, _et seq._
Circuit Courts, i., 222, 355, 356, 424;
Lords of Council, Judicial Committee, i., 370, 371;
Court of Session, ii., 216, 223;
iii., 112, 113, 124, 232‒235; iv.;
Church Courts, i., 227, 230, 371.
Cists, i., 55, 93, 95.
Civilisation,
primary causes of, i., 19‒20, 31‒33, 34, 35;
ii., 426, 427;
gradual progress of, i., 53, 70, 71, 98‒102, 119‒121, 135,
149‒151, 161, 164, 169, 170, 181‒188, 232‒241, 245‒55,
330‒332, 366‒371, 382‒397, 408, 418‒422, 465‒472;
ii., 109, 278‒291, 398, 419;
iii., 101, 102, 294‒335;
rapid development of, iii., 215;
iv., 142‒145, 165, 284, 324‒332; _et seq._, 341‒400.
Clackmannan, iv., 343.
Claim of Right,
of the Scotch Parliament, iii., 176, 177;
Claim of Right, of General Assembly of the Church, iv., 480,
_et seq._
Clan, i., 146;
iii., 225.
Clan Canan, i., 150.
Clan Morgan, i., 150.
Clanranald, chief of, i., 356;
ii., 226;
iii., 242, 243.
Cleland, William, iii., 153.
Clunymore, i., 378.
Coal,
early notice of, i., 238, 409;
mining, ii., 286;
iii., 292‒293;
iv., 341‒343.
Cochrane, Robert, i., 348‒350.
Cockburne, of Henderland, ii., 224.
Cockburn, Sir Richard, Sir John, iii., 18.
Coinage, i., 238, 394‒397;
ii., 279‒282;
iii., 320‒327;
paper currency, 327‒329.
Coldingham, i., 209, 246.
Colin, King, i., 137.
Colliers, iii., 291‒292;
iv., 342‒344.
Colville, John, i., 448.
Commerce, i., 239‒240, 391‒394;
ii., 286‒290;
iii., 112, 300‒303, 311;
iv., 352‒357, 359‒363, _et seq._
Compurgators, i., 228‒229.
Comyn, Clan, i., 213‒214.
Comyn,
John, i., 217, 256, 271, 275, 277;
slaughter of, 281.
Confessions of Faith, ii., 34‒35, 102, 204‒205;
iii., 89.
Constantine, Roman general, i., 112.
Constantine I., son of Kenneth M‘Alpin, i., 136.
Constantine II., 136‒137.
Constantine III., 138.
Conventicles, acts against, iii., 130, 131, 133, 138, 140, 146,
148, 149.
Convention of Royal Burgh, i., 234, 235.
Convention of Estates, iii., 173‒177.
Cope, Sir John, iii., 226, 227.
Corrichie, battle of, ii., 123, 124.
Cotterel, Colonel, iii., 110, 111.
Covenant,
National, iii., 59‒62;
Solemn League and Covenant, 83‒86.
Covenanters, iii., 68‒73, 74‒77, 78‒82, 86, 89‒102, 103‒105, 107.
♦Craftsmen, i., 335, 336, 404‒408;
ii., 240, 241, 242, 293, 294;
iii., 287‒289.
♦ “Craftesmen” replaced with “Craftsmen”
Craig,
John, ii., 110, 158, 167, 185;
Sir Thomas, 384;
Andrew, iii., 245.
Craigellachie, iv., 354.
Craigmiller Castle, i., 349.
Craigphadrig, vitrified fort, i., 91.
Crannogs, i., 42, 84‒87.
Cranstoun, Sir William, iii., 21, 24, 25, 27.
Crawar, Paul, i., 332.
Crawford, Earl of, i., 321, 340, 341, 342, 343, 364;
iii., 120, 179, 186.
Crawford, Sir William, i., 388, 389.
Crawford Moor, ii., 282;
iii., 293.
Crichton, Sir William, i., 338, 339, 340.
Crinan, Abbot of Dunkeld, i., 139, 140.
Cromwell, iii., 99, 108, 100, 110, 111, 112‒115.
Culblean, battle of, i., 306.
Cullen, burgh of, i., 385, 386.
Culloden, battle of, iii., 229, 230, 351, 352;
iv., 172, 173.
Cumberland, i., 105, 125, 142.
Cumberland, Duke of, iii., 228, 229.
Cummene, i., 181.
Cunningham, Allan, iv., 192, 193.
Cupar, i., 465;
iii., 157.
Curates, under Charles II., iii., 130, 132, 173.
Dacre, Lord, ii., 62.
Dalkeith, iii., 227;
castle of, i., 316, 342;
ii., 423.
Dalriada, i., 116, 117, 127.
Dalry, iii., 133.
Dalrymple, Sir John, iii., 191‒193, 233, 234.
Dalziel, General, iii., 134, 135, 342.
Dancing, i., 457, 468;
ii., 124, 125, 415;
iv., 416.
Darien Colony, iii., 196‒204.
Darnaway Castle, i., 360;
ii., 124.
Darnley, ii., 128, 129, 130‒136, 137, 138.
Dauney, William, iv., 416.
David I., reign of, i., 201‒204, 221, 223, 224, 225, 227, 228,
230, 232, 234, 235, 243, 244.
David II., reign of, i., 304, 306, 307‒313, 429.
David, Earl of Huntingdon, i., 204, 256.
Davidson,
John, ii., 198, 214, 373, 374;
Thomas, 302, 303;
John, Principal of the University of Glasgow, 352, 408;
Dr. Patrick, iv., 164.
Dean of Lismore’s Book, i., 442, 443.
Defence of the Country, armour, weapons, organisation of the
army, i., 409‒413.
Denmark, marriage treaty, i., 346.
Descartes, method and principles of his system, iii., 403‒418.
Dickson, David, iii., 61, 359.
Dingwall, i., 385, 386.
Divorce, ii., 265, 266.
Donald I., i., 136.
Donald II., i., 136.
Donald Bane, i., 144.
Donald Balloch, i., 329, 330.
Donald, Lord of the Isles, i., 324‒326.
Douglas,
Sir William, i., 266, 267;
Sir James, 283, 286, 287, 290, 292, 300, 303;
Sir Archibald, 305, 306;
Sir William, 307;
Sir John of Dalkeith, 342;
Sir James, 435;
Sir William of Drumlanrig, 389;
Sir James, ii., 225;
George of Parkhead, 284, 285;
Sir Archibald, iii., 18.
Douglas, Earl of, i., 316, 317, 318, 321, 323, 326, 338, 339,
340, 341, 342, 343, 349, 388, 389, 390.
Douglas,
Gavin, ii., 36, 310‒315;
Dr. James, iv., 320.
Drumclog, battle of, iii., 153.
Drummond,
Lord, i., 360;
ii., 228;
Earl of Perth, iii., 171, 172;
Lady Margaret, i., 360.
Drummond,
General, iii., 135;
James, 227;
William, 366, 367.
Dryburgh, Monastery, ii., 66.
Duff,
King, i., 137;
Angus Chief, 329;
♦Dumbarton, i., 114, 121;
castle of, 248, 278;
ii., 149, 154, 155;
burgh of, i., 386, 391;
iii., 302, 303;
iv., 361.
♦ Separate item, not part of Duff.
♦Dumfries,
Castle of, i., 248, 290;
burgh of, 282, 356, 384;
ii., 131, 186;
iii., 24, 27, 134, 212, 228, 342, 386;
iv., 371.
♦ Printed out of alphabetic order.
♦Dumplin, battle of, i., 305.
♦ Printed out of alphabetic order.
Dunaverty Castle, i., 285, 355.
Dunbar,
Castle, i., 263, 383;
ii., 133, 140, 141, 143, 149;
town of, i., 383, 503;
iii., 227, 300, 387;
battle of, 109.
Dunbar, Earl of, i., 212, 214, 217, 218;
iii., 18, 25, 26, 30.
Dunbar, William, ii., 303‒310.
Dunblane,
cathedral, i., 249;
ii., 423;
city of, i., 238, 408.
Duncan I., i., 139, 140.
Duncan II., i., 143, 144.
Duncan, Dr. Andrew, iv., 302‒304.
Dundee, i., 83, 119, 248, 265, 267, 288, 387, 391, 437;
ii., 69, 93, 197, 202, 233, 235, 237, 240, 243, 400;
iii., 93, 223, 301, 303;
iv., 243, 331, 357, 358, 375, 376.
Dundee, Viscount, iii., 174, 175, 181, 182, 183.
Dunfermline,
Abbey of, i., 141, 144, 156, 239, 248, 252, 303, 385;
burgh of, 238, 258, 408;
ii., 400;
iv., 375.
Dunfermline, Earl of, iii., 18, 30.
Dunkeld, i., 119;
church of, 120, 134;
abbot of, 138, 139, 143;
bishopric of, 210, 218, 222, 225.
Dunlop,
John, iv., 155;
Alexander, 480.
Dunnichen, i., 116.
Dunnotter, i., 136.
Duns Law, iii., 74.
Dunsinnane, i., 91, 92, 140.
Dupin, Nicolas, iii., 313, 318, 333.
Durham, i., 203;
battle of, 308;
iii., 97.
Durham, James, iii., 359.
♦Durrisdeer, i., 91.
♦ Printed out of alphabetic order.
Durward, Alan, i., 214, 216.
Dury, John, ii., 167, 178, 179, 182.
Eadmer, i., 200, 201.
Earth-houses, i., 65‒70.
Earthenware, iii., 317;
iv., 365, 366.
Edgar, King, i., 143, 144, 148.
Edinburgh,
annexed, i., 137, 144, 151, 233, 247, 258, 276, 301, 306, 312,
317, 319, 338, 352, 354, 370, 388, 389;
ii., 35, 54, 58, 65, 66, 78, 89, 90, 91, 93, 97, 99, 100,
115, 117, 119, 124, 128, 132, 133, 135, 140, 143, 148,
151, 154, 163, 167, 179, 183, 203, 206, 213, 219, 237;
iii., 37, 41, 42‒44, 48, 49, 54, 55, 56, 67, 81, 99, 110,
120, 129, 134, 135, 147, 153, 163, 168, 171‒173, 174‒176,
180, 182, 186, 203, 206, 213, 219, 227, 236, 241, 274, 285;
iv., 44, 70, 75, 87, 97, 144, 148, 165, 174, 178, 194, 211,
222, 234, 330, 391, 405‒6;
Castle of, i., 248, 264, 274, 307, 322, 339, 349, 350, 358,
429;
ii., 101, 134, 142, 144, 149, 152, 155;
iii., 73, 159, 174, 175, 227;
University of, ii., 414‒419;
iii., 392, 393;
iv., 18, 69, 70, 74, 75, 87, 97, 102, 103, 136, 148, 156,
157, 167, 257, 263, 274, 291‒315.
Edinburgh, treaty of, ii., 100.
Edmund, i., 143.
Education, i., 184, 245, 466;
first Educational Act, 466, 467, 468;
ii., 109, 110, 397‒422;
iii., 375‒393;
iv., 324‒330.
Edward I., policy of, i., 218, 219, 255‒260, 261, 262, 263‒265,
266, 269‒271, 272, 273‒279, 283, 287.
Edward II., i., 287, 290, 291, 292, 293, 294, 296, 298, 299, 300.
Edward III.,
Invasions of Scotland, i., 305, 306, 307;
policy of, 309, 310, 311, 312.
Edward IV., i., 348, 349, 351.
Edward VI., ii., 75, 86, 87.
Egfrid, defeat of, i., 116.
Eglinton, Earl of, ii., 140, 229;
iii., 56, 75, 99.
Elgin, i., 139, 264, 385, 390;
ii., 251;
iii., 92, 94;
iv., 370;
Elizabeth, wife of Robert I., i., 303.
Elizabeth, Queen, ii., 92, 93, 99, 100, 145, 150, 220;
iv., 147.
Elliot, Robert, iii., 27.
Ellon, iv., 370.
Elphinstone, Bishop, i., 467;
ii., 300, 301.
Elphinstone,
Lord, iii., 19;
master of, 292.
England, policy of toward Scotland, i., 206, 214, 218, 257‒260,
261, 263‒265, 271, 273, 278, 280, 283, 287, 299, 300, 301,
305, 306, 309, 310, 322, 349, 361, 362;
ii., 54‒57, 63‒67, 76, 99‒101, 155;
iii., 179, 183, 184, 190‒193, 198, 201‒204, 206, 217‒221.
English language, i., 441, 443, 464.
English money, i., 396;
ii., 282;
one standard fixed, iii., 216.
Eocha, King, i., 136.
Episcopacy, ii., 108, 109, 157‒160, 164‒171, 177, 182‒185, 188,
210‒218;
iii., 28‒42, 44‒69;
abolished, 70‒72;
reintroduced, 122‒128;
again abolished, 180, 181, 184.
Erc, Chief, i., 116.
Eric II., King of Norway, i., 217, 259.
Errol, Earl of, i., 365, 373;
ii., 195, 196, 199, 201, 212;
iii., 19.
Erskine,
Lord Robert, i., 334;
John, of Dun, ii., 88, 89, 93, 108, 158, 185;
Rev. Ebenezer, iv., 213;
Rev. Ralph, 213;
Dr. John, 213, 214;
Thomas, Lord, 232‒234.
Ethnology, i., 38‒43;
of Scotland, 43‒47, 114, 115, 116, 118.
Etive, Loch, vitrified fort on, i., 91.
Evans, Dr. John, i., 50, 51.
Exchequer, i., 221.
Excise, difficulties connected with, iii., 217‒219;
iv., 395, 396.
Excommunication of Robert I., i., 295, 303;
form of, ii., 255, 257.
Fairfax, iii., 342.
Falasie, i., 192.
Falkirk, battle of, i., 269‒271;
iii., 228.
Falkland Castle, i., 323, 430;
ii., 213, 274.
Fast Castle, i., 324, 353.
Fasting, i., 131;
ii., 257‒260;
iii., 272, 273.
Fergus,
King, i., 120;
Chief, 116, 205.
Ferguson,
David, ii., 352;
Adam, iv., 69‒74, 152.
Fergusson, Robert, iv., 178, 179.
Feudalism, i., 161, 190, 193, 198, 199, 201, 203, 209, 211,
220‒228, 256, 260, 261, 269, 337, 371‒376, 411.
Fife, Earl of, i., 143, 204, 209, 213, 217, 225, 271, 308, 314,
317, 319, 333.
Fifeshire, i., 105, 119, 121, 136, 304;
ii., 66;
iii., 151;
iv., 142, 143, 341, 373.
Finlay, John, i., 446.
Firth of Forth, i., 23, 28, 109, 110, 115, 119.
Fisheries, i., 239, 377, 390, 391, 432;
ii., 40, 54;
iii., 301, 302, 303, 308;
iv., 400.
Flanders, Count of, i., 240, 241, 391, 392.
Fleming,
Robert, i., 283;
Malcolm, 327, 339.
Fleming, Lord, i., 345;
ii., 150.
Fletcher,
Sir John, iii., 120;
Andrew, of Saltoun, 179, 206, 255.
Flint weapons and tools, i., 48‒52.
Flodden, Battle of, i., 363‒365.
Forbes, Lord, i., 353, 354.
Forbes,
Patrick, Bishop, iii., 362;
Dr. John, 362, 363;
Professor, iv., 266, 268.
Fordoun, iii., 94.
Fordun, John, i., 463.
Forest,
free, i., 223;
forest laws, 225, 417.
Forfar,
Castle of, i., 248, 267, 288;
burgh of, 373, 387;
iv., 375.
Forfarshire, i., 89, 121, 202, 264, 378;
ii., 88;
iii., 90, 110;
iv., 373.
Forfeited estates, i., 343, 344, 347;
ii., 60;
iii., 217, 224;
iv., 336.
Forman, Andrew, Archbishop of St. Andrews, i., 428;
ii., 36.
Forres, i., 248, 372, 385.
Forrest, Thomas, martyred, ii., 58.
Forrester, Robert, martyred, ii., 58.
Four Burghs, court of, i., 234, 235.
France,
Alliance with, i., 262, 274, 275, 299, 300, 315;
French troops in Scotland, 316, 317, 330, 363;
ii., 76, 97.
Franchise, iv., 456, 460, 461‒463.
Francis II., ii., 97, 116.
Frankfort, ii., 75.
Fraser, William, Bishop of St. Andrews, i., 217, 246, 255.
Fraser,
Sir Simon, i., 275, 277, 285;
Alexander, 283;
James, 305;
Simon, 305;
Captain Simon, iv., 421.
Free Trade with England under Cromwell, iii., 112.
French refugees, ii., 189.
Fyvie, i., 50, 432;
iii., 91.
Fyvie, Lord, ii., 204;
iii., 18.
Gaelic, i., 148, 175, 183, 184, 442‒444.
Galgacus, Chief, i., 106‒109.
Galloway, i., 115, 122, 201, 203;
risings in, 205, 206, 211, 212, 272;
law of, 229, 230;
castles of, 290.
Galloway,
Lord of, i., 211, 230, 256;
Bishop of, 212;
ii., 153.
Galt, John, iv., 204.
Game laws, i., 417.
Garioch, i., 325.
Gasklune, battle of, i., 319, 320.
Geddes, Sir William, iv., 142.
Geneva, ii., 75, 89, 113, 114, 359.
Geology, iv., 268‒271.
George I., iii., 222.
Gibbs, James, iv., 402‒404.
Gibson, James, ii., 188.
Gilbert, Chief, i., 206.
Gillespie, George, iii., 87, 362.
Gillies, Dr. John, iv., 152, 153.
Gladstanes, Archbishop of St. Andrews, iii., 19.
Glammis,
Lord, i., 373;
Master of, ii., 177, 181;
iii., 19.
Glasgow,
Bishop of――Wishart, i., 266, 273, 277, 283, 294;
Turnbull, 466, 467;
Laing, 467;
Archbishop of, ii., 38, 59;
iii., 19, 35, 363;
Cathedral of i., 249.
Glasgow,
city of, i., 125, 238, 403, 408, 465;
ii., 97, 252, 400, 402, 403;
iii., 50, 69, 128, 153, 218, 228, 245, 246, 248, 254, 284,
302, 303, 319, 328, 330, 331;
iv., 348‒351, 360‒363, 370, 376, 378, 380, 383, 389, 392‒393,
395, 397‒399, 406‒409, 428;
University of, i., 466;
ii., 408‒410;
iii., 388, 390, 391, 392;
iv., 18, 19, 44, 60, 102, 260‒263, 266, 272‒275, 284, 315‒317.
Glass,
introduction of, i., 420;
Glass-making, iii., 315‒317;
iv., 363‒365.
Glencairn, Earl of, ii., 69, 88, 89, 97, 130, 133, 145, 148, 177;
iii., 120, 124.
Glencoe, iii., 191‒193.
Glenfinnan, iii., 226.
Glengarry, chief, iii., 190, 191, 226.
Glenlivet, battle of, ii., 201, 202.
Glenmore, i., 25, 215.
Godly Ballads, ii., 341‒345.
Gold ornaments, ancient, i., 79‒81.
Goodal, Walter, iv., 145.
Goodsir, John, iv., 306.
Gordon, Duke of, iii., 174, 175;
iv., 421, 454.
Gordon,
Sir Adam, i., 298, 305;
Sir Alexander, 338;
Sir John, ii., 124;
George, 124;
Sir Robert, iii., 237, 238;
Sir Alexander, 238;
Lord Gordon, 238, 239;
Robert, 247;
George, 267, 268;
Dr., iv., 309;
Sir John W., 446.
Gourlay, Norman, burned, ii., 54.
Gow,
Neil, iv., 418, 420;
Nathaniel, 421, 422.
Gowrie, Earl of, ii., 177, 179, 180, 181, 218, 219.
Gowrie, Carse of, i., 28.
Graham,
Sir John, i., 271;
David de, 277;
Sir Robert, 327, 334, 335, 336, 337;
William, iii., 313;
John of Claverhouse, 153;
George F., iv., 416.
Grammar Schools, i., 465, 466;
ii., 399‒405;
iii., 380‒388;
iv., 327.
Grant, James, iv., 208.
Gray, Lord, iii., 238.
Gray, David, iv., 195.
Greenock, i., 409;
iii., 303;
iv., 394.
Gregory,
James, iii., 371, 372;
David, 372, 373;
Dr. John, iv., 300, 302;
Dr. James, 302.
Greyfriars Church, iii., 49.
Greyfriars Churchyard, iii., 61, 154.
Grub, Dr. George, iv., 164.
Gruoch, i., 139, 140.
Guilds, laws of, i., 235‒236, 404.
Guinea, iii., 330.
Guise, House of, ii., 57, 92, 93, 116, 124, 125.
Grum John, iv., 422.
Guthrie,
James, iii., 123, 326;
William, iv., 150;
Dr. Thomas, 222.
Hackston, of Rathillet, iii., 151, 153, 156.
Haco, i., 215, 216.
Haddington, i., 307, 386, 387, 465;
ii., 69, 303, 315;
iv., 370.
Haddington, Earl of, iv., 335.
Haddingtonshire, i., 271;
iv., 343, 373.
Hailes, Lord, iv., 146, 151, 152.
Halidon Hill, battle of, i., 306.
Hall, Sir John, i., 336.
Hamilton,
Lord, i., 345, 346;
Lord Claud, ii., 150, 155, 208;
Marquis of, iii., 63, 64, 65, 67, 70, 71, 74;
Duke of, 98, 99, 174, 175, 177, 179, 181, 193, 207, 211.
Hamilton, Patrick, martyred, ii., 49, 50.
Hamilton,
of Bothwellhaugh, ii., 152;
John, Archbishop of St. Andrews, 71, 77, 87, 96, 138, 150, 154,
406;
Sir Thomas, of Monkland, iii., 18;
James, Master of Paisley, 19;
Sir Robert, 154;
William, iv., 167;
William, of Bangour, 170;
Sir William, his writings, 102‒135.
Hamilton town, iii., 153;
iv., 295, 296.
Harlaw, battle of, i., 324‒326, 450.
Harold, King, i., 194.
Harold, Earl of Orkney, i., 207, 208.
Harrington, James, iii., 450.
Hastings,
John, i., 256, 259, 260;
Henry de, 204.
Hawick, iv., 369, 370, 371.
Hawley, General, iii., 228, 229.
Hay,
Gilbert, of Errol, i., 283;
Hugh, 283, 284;
Alexander, iii., 19;
Sir James, 19.
Hebrides, i., 22, 23, 118, 134, 144, 156, 215, 217, 329, 346,
348, 355, 356, 357;
ii., 60;
iii., 242, 243.
Henderson,
James, ii., 238;
Alexander, iii., 52, 55, 60, 61, 70, 87, 88, 362.
Henry, the minstrel, i., 458‒462.
Henry I., i., 195, 202.
Henry II., i., 205, 206.
Henry III., i., 214.
Henry IV., i., 322, 324.
Henry VI., i., 345.
Henry VII., i., 353, 358, 361, 362.
Henry VIII., i., 362, 363;
ii., 37, 51, 54‒56, 57, 61, 63‒67, 69, 76.
Henry II. of France, ii., 97.
Henry, Dr. Robert, iv., 151.
Henryson,
Robert, i., 376, 462, 463;
Dr. Edward, ii., 383.
Hepburn,
William, i., 353;
Patrick, Lord Hailes, 353;
John, ii., 36, 406.
Hereditary jurisdiction, i., 220, 221, 223, 225, 226, 228, 237,
238, 372, 411, 424‒426;
iii., 213, 225, 226.
Heresy, i., 37, 327, 332;
ii., 18, 19, 49, 53, 58‒60, 68‒70, 74, 75, 78, 81, 91.
Hermitage Castle, i., 309.
Herries, Ralph, i., 285.
Herries, Lord, ii., 150.
Hertford, Earl of, ii., 65‒67.
Hexham, i., 253, 254, 268.
High Commission, Courts of, iii., 34, 132, 133.
Highlands, i., 23‒25, 27, 29, 206‒208, 329, 348, 355‒357;
ii., 226, 227, 290;
iii., 237‒239, 241‒244;
iv., 353, 354.
Hill, Dr. George, iv., 219, 470.
Hill forts, i., 88‒92.
Historic Interpretation, i., 33‒37.
Historical conditions, i., 19, 45, 46, 85, 88, 101, 102, 113,
119, 120, 121, 135, 136, _et seq._, 227, 228, 255‒265;
ii., 1, 2, _et seq._, 100, 103, 220;
iii., 17‒20, 176, 177, 214, 215.
History of Scottish philosophy, iv., 17‒142.
Hogarth, George, iv., ♦422, 423, 427, 429.
♦ page numbers supplied by transcriber
Hogg, James, iii., 344;
iv., 189‒191.
Holland, John, iii., 328.
Holyrood Abbey, i., 221, 222, 249, 338;
Palace of, ii., 117, 130, 133, 136, 142, 179, 206, 209, 215,
273, 275, 423;
iii., 396;
Chapel of, ii., 119, 138;
iii., 37, 51, 169, 172.
Home, Lord, i., 364;
ii., 199, 224.
Home, John, iv., 174.
Homeldon Hill, battle of, i., 323.
Homil, James, i., 348, 350.
Hope, Sir Thomas, iii., 84, 367.
Howard, Lord, i., 363.
Hume, Lord, ii., 143, 145, 148.
Hume,
Alexander, ii., 377, 378;
Alexander, 402, 403;
Sir Patrick, iii., 179;
David,
his philosophical writings, iv., 25‒44;
history, 146‒148.
Huntingdon, Earl of, i., 204.
Hunter,
Dr. Henry, iv., 217, 218;
Dr. William, 320, 321;
Dr. John, 321‒323.
Huntly,
Earl of, i., 342, 350, 354, 356, 357, 358, 364;
ii., 63, 64, 78, 116, 123, 124, 133, 134, 135, 136, 138, 139,
150, 152, 155, 192, 195, 196, 199, 201, 202, 203, 204, 206,
212;
Marquis of, iii., 68, 74, 90, 94, 104, 222.
Hurry, General, iii., 93, 94.
Icolmkill, statutes of, iii., 242, 243.
Inchaffary, Abbot of, i., 292.
Inchcolm, ruins of monastery, i., 163.
Inchkeith, i., 23.
Inchmahome, i., 249.
Incontinence, i., 155, 244, 245;
ii., 41.
India-rubber manufactures, iv., 391, 392, 393.
Indulf, King, i., 137.
Independents, iii., 88, 96, 97.
Influence of surrounding nature upon the Mind, i., 19, 20, 31‒33,
66;
ii., 427.
Innermaith, Lord, ii., 145, 146.
Innes,
Thomas, iv., 145;
Cosmo, 162.
Invercharron, iii., 105, 106.
Inveresk, iv., 418.
Inverkeithing, i., 307, 387;
iii., 301.
Inverlochy, battle of, iii., 92.
Inverness, i., 83, 91, 127, 151, 207, 233, 240, 306, 329, 356,
385, 390, 404;
ii., 226, 227;
iii., 94, 225, 226, 227, 228, 288, 302;
iv., 354, 373, 374.
Inverurie, i., 278‒287;
iii., 74.
Iona, i., 127‒134, 156, 175, 181, 182.
Ireland, 21, 48, 70, 77, 78, 126, 127, 133, 161, 174, 181, 211,
285, 291, 357;
iii., 65, 85, 90, 297, 302, 303.
Irish,
early writings, i., 117, 150;
note illuminated manuscripts, 172, 173.
Iron works and manufactures, iv., 345‒352.
Irvine, i., 267, 391, 434;
iii., 134.
Irvine, Sir Alexander, i., 328.
Irving, Dr., ii., 367;
iv., 163.
Isles, lordship of forfeited, i., 348, 355.
Isabella, daughter of Earl David, i., 204, 256.
Jack, Thomas, ii., 402.
Jacobites, iii., 175, 176, 181‒183, 190, 193, 195, 196, 201,
205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 211, 213, 218, 219, 220, 222‒224,
226‒230.
Jacobite Songs, iii., 346‒353.
James I., reign of, i., 226‒337.
James II., reign of, i., 338‒344.
James III., reign of, i., 344‒352.
James IV., reign of, i., 353‒365.
James V., reign of, ii., 38‒39, 49‒62.
James VI., reign of, ii., 169‒220;
iii., 17‒42.
James VII., policy of, iii., 163‒172.
James VIII., Pretender, iii., 223.
Jamesone, George, painter, iii., 393‒396.
Jamieson, Dr., i., 280, 461.
Jedburgh, 238, 356, 383, 426;
ii., 292;
iii., 24, 27, 380;
iv., 371;
castle of, i., 248, 264, 324;
abbey of, 248;
ii., 66.
Jeffrey, Lord, iv., 234‒236.
Jesuits, ii., 82‒84, 192, 195.
Joanna, Queen of David II., i., 302, 306, 307, 310.
John, King of England, i., 208, 209, 210.
Johnstone,
of Johnstone, ii., 186, 224;
Archibald, of Warriston, iii., 60, 61, 70, 87, 121, 123;
Dr., 380;
Mrs., iv., 204, 205.
Justiciary, i., 214, 222, 330, 386, 424.
Jury trial, i., 221, 230, 371.
Justice of the Peace, iii., 248, 249, 294.
Kay, John, iv., 366.
Kells, Book of, illuminated manuscripts, i., 172, 173.
Keith, iii., 244.
Keith,
Sir Robert, i., 292, 293, 305, 367;
Sir William, of Inverugy, ii., 228;
Dr. William, iv., 319.
Kelso, i., 238, 344, 384;
iv., 369;
Abbey of, i., 216, 249, 250, 252‒254, 432;
ii., 66.
Kennedy,
Bishop of St. Andrews, i., 340, 345;
Walter, ii., 309;
Quintin, 349, 352, 353.
Kennedy, Lord, i., 360;
ii., 309.
Kenneth I., M‘Alpin, i., 120, 121, 136.
Kenneth II., i., 138.
Kenneth, M‘Duff, i., 138.
Ker,
George, ii., 195, 196;
Mark, 224;
Robert, iii., 19;
Dr. David, iv., 319.
Kilconcath, William, i., 246.
Kildelith, i., 246.
Kildrummy Castle, i., 247, 264, 276, 284, 285, 306, 307.
Killiecrankie, Battle of, iii., 181‒183.
Kilmarnock, i., 409;
iii., 297;
iv., 369, 371, 372.
Kilpatrick, West, i., 110.
Kilsyth, battle of, iii., 95.
Kincardineshire, i., 136, 137, 378.
Kinghorn, i., 217, 258.
Kinghorn, Earl of, iii., 19.
Kirk-of-Field, ii., 135.
Kirkcaldy, iii., 301, 303;
iv., 375.
Kirkcaldy, Sir William, of Grange, ii., 71, 149, 152, 153, 155,
156.
Kirkpatrick, i., 282.
Knapdale, i., 348.
Knox,
John, ii., 69, 72, 73, 74, 75, 87‒89, 93, 94, 96, 97, 98, 99,
100, 104, 118, 119, 120, 123, 124‒127, 130, 134, 147, 153,
154, 159, 160‒165;
his writings, 345‒349, 352‒354, 360‒364;
Andrew, minister of Paisley, 195;
Bishop of the Isles, iii., 242, 243;
Dr., iv., 309.
Laing, David, ii., 300, 305, 331, 340, 343, 346;
iv., 163.
Lamberton, Bishop of St. Andrews, i., 274, 281, 283, 285.
Lanark, i., 356, 387;
ii., 181;
iii., 160;
iv., 373.
Lanarkshire, i., 29, 81, 114, 271, 279;
iii., 134;
iv., 341, 342, 343, 344, 347, 378, 381, 388.
Land, in connection with the tribe, and organisation of society,
i., 100, 146‒150, 202, 223‒228, 250‒254, 371‒376, 377‒380,
380‒382, 421, 422;
ii., 39, 40, 110, 266, 297;
iii., 305;
iv., 336‒339.
Langside, battle of, ii., 150.
Largs, battle of, i., 216.
Latin, i., 183, 245, 463, 464;
ii., 5, 6, 379, 380.
Laud, Archbishop, iii., 45, 63, 66.
Lauder Bridge, i., 350.
Lauder, Sir Thomas D., iv., 206.
Lauderdale, Earl of, iii., 14, 129, 137, 142, 348.
Laws, early, i., 151‒153, 221, 222, 228‒231, 370, 371.
Lawson, James, ii., 162, 167, 184, 421.
Le Crocke, ii., 161.
Leibnitz, theory of monads, iii., 432‒434;
iv., 255, 256.
Leighton, Bishop, iii., 141, 363‒364.
Leith, i., 316, 333, 346, 358, 359, 419;
ii., 66, 89, 97, 98, 99, 100, 117, 132, 158, 275, 291, 294;
iii., 74, 84, 300, 301, 303, 309, 313, 331, 332;
iv., 357, 369.
Lennox,
Earl of, i., 217, 283, 285, 327, 328, 354, 364, 365;
ii., 37, 128, 131, 139, 152, 154, 155;
Duke of, iii., 54.
Lennox, Esme Stewart, Duke of, ii., 175, 176, 177, 179.
Lesley, Norman, ii., 71.
Leslie,
General Alexander, iii., 73, 76, 79, 338;
General David, 95, 338;
Sir John, iv., 263‒265.
Lesly, John, ii., 116.
Lesmahagow sanctuary, i., 232.
Leven, Earl of, iii., 175.
Lewis, island, i., 22, 357.
Leyden, University of, iv., 287, 292, 293, 304.
Leyden, John, ii., 319;
iv., 184, 185.
Liddel, Dr. Duncan, ii., 393, 394.
Lindisfarne, i., 126.
Lindores, i., 323.
Lindsay,
Alexander, i., 267, 277;
Sir James, 317;
Sir William, 321, 322;
David, Lord of Crawford, 434;
David, ii., 158, 167, 188.
Lindsay, Lord, ii., 132, 134, 143, 145, 148, 155, 175, 181, 206,
207.
Linlithgow, i., 258, 264, 274, 276, 290, 294, 307, 326, 345, 358,
387, 390;
ii., 120, 152, 207, 349, 400;
iii., 29, 80, 54;
iv., 370.
Linlithgow, Palace of, i., 333, 360, 377, 429, 430, 470;
ii., 62.
Linlithgow, Earl of, iii., 19.
Linlithgowshire, i., 29, 119;
iv., 341, 342, 343, 373.
Lismore, Book of the Dean of, i., 442.
Literature,
early, i., 181‒185, 215‒247, 441‒464;
Poetry, ii., 301‒315, 331‒341, 370‒380;
Ballad, 341‒345;
Historical and various, 315‒330, 345‒364, 364‒370, 380‒385,
393‒396;
Ballad and Jacobite Song, iii., 336‒355;
Historical and various, 356‒368;
Historical, iv., 143‒154, 154‒164;
Poetry, 165‒182, 183‒198;
Fiction, 199‒212;
Religious, 213‒228;
Miscellaneous, 228‒254.
Liturgy, iii., 44, 46‒50, 51‒58, 62, 63.
Livingston,
Sir Alexander, i., 338, 339, 340;
John of Livingston, 389, 390;
Sir William, iii., 19.
Livingston, Lord, i., 345;
ii., 150.
Livingstone, Dr. David, iv., 250.
Lochaber, i., 329, 356;
iii., 181.
Lochiel, chief of the clan Cameron, i., 356;
iii., 181, 226.
Lochindorb Castle, i., 247, 276.
Lochleven, i., 140;
ii., 144, 145, 147, 150.
Lochmaben,
Castle, i., 281;
town of, 372, 468.
Locke, John, writings of, iii., 452‒462;
iv., 17, 18, 27.
Lockhart,
Colonel, iii., 113;
Sir George, 148, 233;
Sir George of Carnwath, 208, 209, 210, 214;
John G., iv., 207, 208.
Logan, John, iv., 177, 178.
Logic, iii., 437‒439;
iv., 130‒133.
Logie, Margaret, i., 310.
Lomond, Loch, i., 29.
London, i., 271, 279, 280, 285;
ii., 99, 220;
iii., 54, 82, 86, 116, 118, 173, 179, 183, 198, 229, 296;
iv., 167, 173, 245.
Long Parliament, iii., 80, 84, 86, 87, 89, 96, 97.
Lord of the Isles, i., 285, 292, 312, 324, 325, 329, 330, 341,
348, 355.
Lords of the Articles, i., 369, 370;
iii., 37, 38, 129, 130, 180, 183, 184.
Lords of the Congregation, ii., 89, 91, 93, 95, 96, 97, 99, 100.
Lorne,
Lord of, i., 284, 312;
black knight of, 338; ii., 89.
Lothian, i., 47, 116, 138, 185, 189.
Lothian, Earl of, iii., 18, 188, 189, 190.
Loudon, Lord, iii., 55, 57, 58, 60, 61.
Loudon Hill, battle of, i., 286, 287.
Lowe, Dr. Peter, ii., 393.
Lovat, Lord, i., 386.
Lubeck, i., 268.
Lude Hill, iii., 181.
Lulach, i., 140.
Lumphanan, battle of, i., 140.
Luther, ii., 17, 32‒34, 49.
Lyndsay, Sir David, ii., 42, 331‒340.
M‘Ancrum, Donald B., ii., 229.
M‘Angus, William, iii., 237.
Macbeth, i., 139, 140, 148.
M‘Cowane, Donald C., ii., 229.
M‘Crie, Dr. Thomas, iv., 154.
M‘Culloch, Horatio, iv., 449.
Macdonald, Lord, i., 163.
Macdonald,
Sir Donald, iii., 190;
Chief of Glencoe, 191‒192;
of Boisdale, Glengarry, Keppoch, 191, 226;
Donald Gorm of Sleat, Donald of Ylanterim, Captain of
Clanranald, Angus of Dunivaig, 242, 243.
Macdonald, Alaster, iii., 90.
Macduff, i., 261, 271.
Macgill, James, ii., 146, 158, 274.
MacGregors,
clan of, iii., 243;
Patrick Roy, 244.
MacHeth, i., 205, 207, 209.
Mackay, ii., 227;
Donald, iii., 237, 238;
Dr. Charles, iv., 196;
Angus, 425.
Mackay, General, iii., 176, 181‒183.
Mackenzie,
Kenneth, iii., 19;
Sir George, 144, 146, 147, 234, 368;
Henry, iv., 199, 200.
Mackinnons, i., 117, note;
Rory, iii., 242.
Mackintosh,
of Borlum, iii., 224;
Sir James, iv., 97‒101;
Robert, 421.
Macknight, Dr. James, iv., 216, 471.
Maclean of Lochbuy, i., 357;
Lauchlan, iii., 242;
Hector of Duart, 242;
Lauchlan of Lochbuy, 242.
Macleod,
of Lewis, i., 357;
Rory, of Harris, iii., 242;
Dr. Norman, iv., 223, 224.
MacNeil of Barra, i., 357.
Macpherson, James, iv., 175, 176.
Macquharrie, Gellespie, iii., 242.
M‘Sevir, Farquhar, ii., 229.
MacWilliam, i., 207, 208, 209.
Magi, i., 128, 129.
Magnus VI., King of Norway, i., 216.
Maid of Norway, i., 217, 218, 219.
Mair, John, ii., 51, 315, 316.
Maitland,
Sir Richard, i., 445;
ii., 370, 371;
William, 99, 100, 120, 121, 135, 141, 152, 155, 156, 157.
Malcolm I., reign of, i., 137.
Malcolm II., reign of, i., 138, 139.
Malcolm III., reign of, i., 140‒143.
Malcolm IV., reign of, i., 204, 205.
Malise, Earl of Strathern, i., 203.
Mallet, David, iv., 169.
Man, Isle of, i., 216, 301.
Manufactures,
Textile, woollen, i., 100, 133, 150, 162, 241, 390, 392, 406,
407;
ii., 294;
iii., 306‒310;
iv., 366, 369‒372;
linen, iii., 311‒313;
iv., 372‒376, 377;
jute, 375‒377;
cotton, 377‒379, 383;
thread, 379‒380;
silk, 380;
mixed fabrics, 380, 381.
Mar,
Earl of, i., 208, 214, 216, 217, 304, 305, 312, 325, 334, 348,
349;
ii., 139, 145, 148;
elected Regent, 155, 177, 184;
iii., 19;
John, Secretary of State, 210;
his rising, 222‒224.
March, Earl of, i., 255, 270, 305, 321, 322, 328, 333, 334.
Marchmont, Earl of, iii., 262.
Margaret,
Queen of Malcolm III., i., 141, 143, 155‒157;
Queen of James III., 346, 351;
Queen of James IV., 360‒362;
ii., 36, 37.
Marischal, Earl, i., 358;
ii., 86, 419;
iii., 19, 222.
Marriage, i., 99, 153‒156, 428;
ii., 229, 261‒266;
iii., 264, 278‒281.
Mathematical Science, progress of, ii., 386‒391;
iii., 371‒374, 403;
iv., 254‒260.
Marston Moor, battle of, iii., 95.
Mary of Gueldres, Queen of James II., i., 340, 344, 345.
Mary of Guise, Queen of James V., ii., 57, 86, 87, 90, 91, 93,
95, 97, 98, 101.
Mary,
Queen of Scotland, ii., 62, 63, 79;
reign of, 116‒147;
imprisonment of, 144;
escape, flight to England, 150;
her execution, 189, 190.
Mary, Queen of England, ii., 87, 92.
Maxwell,
Lord, i., 345;
ii., 186, 187, 224;
Master of, 225;
iii., 27.
Maybole, ii., 353.
Mechanical Science, i., 408;
ii., 384‒386;
progress of, iv., 271‒285.
Medical Science,
state of, i., 414, 415;
ii., 392‒394;
iii., 368‒371;
progress of, iv., 286‒323.
Melrose, Monastery of, i., 125, 126, 246, 254, 302, 303, 432,
438;
ii., 66.
Melville,
James, ii., 71;
Sir James, 141, 142;
Andrew, 167, 182, 201, 202, 213, 214, 409, 410, 412;
iii., 32, 33;
Sir Robert, iii., 19.
Melville, Lord, iii., 179, 183, 186.
♦Menteith, Earl of, i., 213, 214, 217, 218, 263, 383, 308, 317.
♦ “Monteith” replaced with “Menteith”;
Printed out of alphabetic order.
Menteith, Sir John, i., 278, 279.
Metaphysics, iii., 399‒401, 405, 407‒414, 418‒452, 432‒434, 468,
469, 470;
iv., 126‒130, 136‒139.
Methven,
Bruce defeated at, i., 284;
lands of, 377.
Middleton, Earl, Royal Commissioner, iii., 121‒123, 125‒129.
Military service under the feudal organisation, i., 409‒412.
Mill,
Walter, executed for heresy, ii., 91;
John S., iv., 135;
James, 155.
Miller, Hugh, iv., 238‒240, 271.
Mining, ii., 282‒286;
iii., 291‒294;
iv., 340‒345.
Mitchell,
James, 135, 147, 148;
Dr. Charles, iv., 318.
Moir,
Dr. James, i., 461;
David, iv., 208.
Monk, General, iii., 110, 116.
Monmouth, Duke of, iii., 153, 154, 167.
Monro,
John, iv., 292;
Alexander, professor, 292‒294;
Alexander, 304‒305;
Alexander, 305‒306.
Montgomery,
Sir John, i., 321;
Sir Hugh, 449;
Sir Matthew, ii., 229;
Alexander, poems of, 375‒377;
Sir James, iii., 179, 180.
Montgomery, Lord, i., 345.
Montrose, i., 276, 387, 391;
ii., 69, 182, 217;
iii., 301, 303, 323;
iv., 369, 375, 424.
Montrose,
Earl of, iii., 18, 74;
Marquis of, 90‒95, 105, 106, 338, 339.
Moral philosophy, iii., 417, 418, 424‒430, 448, 451, 452,
466‒467;
iv., 19‒24, 38‒40, 45‒50, 68, 69, 71‒74, 81, 82, 94‒96,
98‒101.
Moray,
Sir Andrew, i., 266, 267, 268;
Sir Andrew of Bothwell, 306, 307, 378;
Thomas, 379.
Moray,
Earl of, Randolph, i., 283, 290, 292, 296, 298, 299, 300, 302,
304, 305, 308, 317, 360;
James Stewart, Earl of, ii., 123, 128, 129, 130, 131, 134, 136;
elected Regent, 148‒152.
Morken, King, i., 124, 125.
Morton,
Earl of, ii., 132, 133, 134, 142, 143, 145, 147, 151;
elected Regent, 155, 158, 165, 169, 175, 176.
Mouat, Bernard, i., 285.
Mowbray, 291, 294.
Mure, William, iv., 163, 164.
Murray,
Lord George, iii., 227, 228;
Mungo, 227;
Gideon, 21.
Music, i., 245, 468, 469;
ii., 421‒422;
iii., 386‒388;
iv., 416‒428.
Musselburgh, ii., 144;
iii., 300.
Nairn, i., 372, 386;
castle of, 248.
Napier, John, inventor of logarithms, ii., 386‒391.
Narne, Duncan, ii., 415.
Nasmyth, iv., 436.
Navigation, teaching of, iii., 386.
Navy, under James IV., i., 363.
Negative Confession, ii., 176.
Ness, Loch of, i., 25.
Newbattle, i., 239, 434, 435.
Newbattle, Lord, iii., 18.
Newcastle, i., 318;
ii., 75, 184;
iii., 33, 79, 80, 97.
Nithsdale, Earl of, iii., 222.
Nithsdale, i., 26, 272.
Norham,
meetings at, i., 255, 256, 258;
castle of, 209, 300, 359, 363.
Normans, i., 189‒194, 196, 197, 101‒103.
Norman Conquest, i., 141, 197, 198.
Norsemen, i., 47, 118, 120, 134, 136, 214‒217.
Northallerton, battle of, i., 203, 204.
Northampton, Treaty of, i., 300, 301.
Northumberland, i., 142, 143, 262, 268, 295, 300, 318.
Northumbria, i., 116, 138, 441.
Norway, 21, 144, 215, 216, 217, 219.
Oaths associated with feudalism, i., 258, 264, 281, 372, 373.
Ochiltree, Lord, ii., 146, 275;
iii., 19, 235, 236.
Odistown, i., 303.
Ogham, writing, i., 174, 175.
Ogilvie, Sir Walter, i., 319, 320.
Oliphant, Sir William, i., 277, 278.
Oliphant, Lord, i., 373;
ii., 228.
Orkney Isles, i., 22, 47, 53, 58‒61, 138, 139, 158, 215, 217,
219, 346;
ii., 60;
iii., 302;
iv., 372, 373.
Orkney, Earl of, i., 138, 139, 207, 208;
iii., 239‒241.
Ormiegill, i., 55.
Ormiston, Laird of, ii., 69.
Ormond, Earl of, i., 343, 379.
Ossian, Ossianic poems, i., 442‒444;
iv., 175, 176.
Otterburn, battle of, i., 318, 449.
Otterburne, Thomas, i., 468.
Oxford, i., 451, 452;
iii., 372, 373, 374;
iv., 102, 134.
Pae, David P., iv., 208, 209.
Painting, i., 470;
ii., 423, 424;
iii., 393‒396;
iv., 428‒454.
Paisley, i., 83, 151, 238, 409;
ii., 195;
iii., 386;
iv., 182, 183, 205, 206, 214, 372, 377, 378, 380;
Abbey of, i., 249, 324, 355.
Paper, manufacture of, ii., 2;
iii., 317‒319;
iv., 384‒389.
Parliament,
origin and constitution of, i., 366‒370;
Meetings of, 295, 309, 310, 311, 313‒315, 316, 320, 327, 328,
329, 330, 334, 340, 343, 347, 349, 351, 353, 354, 357;
ii., 38, 49, 60, 65, 68, 91, 102, 126, 139, 149, 183, 193,
213;
iii., 30, 33, 37, 41, 44, 77, 81, 84, 97, 99, 103, 121‒128,
129, 137, 140, 142, 158‒160, 164‒167, 168, 180, 183, 193,
202, 203, 205, 206‒208, 210‒215.
Parliament of the United Kingdom, introduced changes in Scotland,
iii., 217‒218, 220.
Paterson,
Abraham, ii., 284;
Robert, 289;
William, iii., 196, 199.
Patronage, ii., 107, 172;
iii., 103, 104, 184;
iv., 467‒473 _et seq._
Peasantry,
in Normandy, i., 191, 193;
in Germany, ii., 16, 17.
Pedro de Ayala, i., 360.
Peebles, i., 282, 356, 384, 402;
ii., 260;
iii., 274, 290, 307, 380;
iv., 246, 369.
Peers, Scottish representative, iii., 214.
Pembroke, Earl of, i., 283, 284, 286, 287.
Pennington, Joseph, iii., 21.
Pentland Firth, i., 22.
Pentland, battle of, iii., 134.
Percy,
Henry, i., 266;
Sir Henry, Sir Ralph, 318, 449.
Perkin Warbeck, i., 357‒359.
Persecution, ii., 49, 50, 53, 54, 58, 68‒70, 91;
iii., 130‒135, 140, 144‒154, _et seq._
Perth, i., 119, 151, 205, 208, 233, 258, 264, 276, 278, 279, 283,
290, 307, 311, 320, 327, 333, 335, 369, 386, 387, 391, 433;
ii., 69, 93, 94, 96, 179, 214;
iii., 39‒41, 90, 193, 194, 222, 223, 226;
iv., 196, 354, 373.
Perth, Earl of, iii., 171, 172.
Peterhead, iii., 223, 301, 302;
iv., 370, 374.
Philip IV., of France, i., 262, 271.
Phillip, John, iv., 450, 451.
Philiphaugh, battle of, iii., 95, 338.
Philosophy, ii., 28‒30, 220;
outline of European in the seventeenth century, and early part
of the eighteenth, iii., 398‒471;
Scottish, iv., 17‒142.
Physical Science, progress of, iv., 255‒271.
Picts, i., 112, 114, 115, 116, 119, 120, 127, 128.
Pinkerton, John, iv., 153, 154.
Pinkie, battle of, ii., 76.
Pitcairn,
Dr. Archibald, iii., 371;
Robert, iv., 163.
Plantations, nonconformists banished to, iii., 167, 168, 223.
Pont, Robert, ii., 158, 184, 382, 383.
Poor Laws, ii., 238, 239, 267;
iii., 248‒254.
Population, i., 413;
iv., 214, 495.
Postal communication, iii., 296‒296;
iv., ♦352, 356.
♦ Page numbers supplied by transcriber.
Prehistoric period,
Stone Age, i., 36, 47‒71;
stone weapons and tools, 48‒53;
modes of disposing of the dead, chambered cairns, cremation,
53‒65;
earth-houses, 65‒70;
primitive boats, 70;
Bronze Age, 71‒74, 74‒96;
bronze weapons and implements, 74‒79;
ornaments, 79‒81;
traces of dwellings, 81‒83;
crannogs, 84‒87;
hill forts, 88‒92;
cairn, and urn interment, 92‒96;
summary, 96‒104.
Prelacy, iii., 177.
Presbyterianism, ii., 166‒175, 193‒194;
iii., 68‒72, 184‒185.
Press, censorship of, ii., 84, 277, 278.
Preston, battle of, iii., 227.
Primrose, Sir Archibald, iii., 120.
Pringle, Charles, iii., 236, 237.
Printing,
introduction of, ii., 2, 25‒27, 299‒303;
development of, iv., 389‒391.
Privy Council, ii., 223, 225, 229, 248, 273, 275, 279, 281, 283,
288, 403;
iii., 18‒20, 24, 26, 28, 30, 47, 49, 52, 53, 54, 55, 57, 59,
62, 67, 123, 124, 128, 131, 133, 134, 136, 142, 146, 147,
148, 163, 171, 182, 192, 195.
Protestantism, history of in Scotland, ii., 149‒218.
Protests, iii., 59, 65, 67.
Protesters, iii., 109, 110, 111.
Provincial councils of the Roman Catholic clergy, i., 212, 213;
ii., 41, 42, 76, 77, 78.
Psalms, ii., 114, 342, 422.
Psalmody, iv., 426‒427.
Psychical faculties, i., 34, 35.
Psychological phenomenon, ii., 439, 441.
Psychology, ii., 30;
iii., 414‒417, 422‒430, 435, 436, 438‒444, 453‒460, 470;
iv., 20, 27‒39, 61‒68, 77‒82, 88‒96, 108‒126.
Quakers, iii., 114, 115, 256‒259.
Quarries, iv., 406, 411, 412.
Queensberry, Duke of, iii., 164, 202, 205, 210.
Quoyness, i., 59.
Raban, Edward, iii., 363.
Raeburn, Sir Henry, iv., 436‒439.
Raid of Ruthven, ii., 179‒181.
Ramorgny, Sir John, i., 322.
Ramsay,
John, i., 460;
Allan, ii., 305;
his writings, iv., 165, 166;
Allan, painter, 429‒431.
Randolph, Thomas, i., 283, 284.
Ratisbon, ii., 351.
Reader, office of, ii., 108, 174.
Reeves, Dr., i., 127, 129, 181.
Reformation,
rise of, ii., 16‒31;
eras of, 32, 85, 86;
history of, in Scotland, 38‒54, 58‒60, 67‒103, 104, 105, 149.
Reformed Church, organisation of, ii., 104‒115, 121, 122,
161‒175.
Regalities, i., 225, 226, 373, 374, 425, 426;
iii., 225.
Regality burghs, i., 234, 237, 238.
Reid,
Dr. Thomas, writings, iv., 161‒169;
General, 427, 428.
Religion,
prehistoric in Scotland, i., 58, 63, 99;
primitive, ii., 426, 428.
Renwick, James, iii., 155, 171.
Representatives of Scotland in the United Parliament, iii., 214.
Rescissory Act, iii., 122.
Resolutioners, iii., 109, 111.
Reuchlin, ii., 17, 18.
Revenue, i., 220, 221, 391.
Revocation Act of Charles I., iii., 43‒45.
Ricco, ii., 131, 132, 133, 134.
Richard, I., i., 206.
Riderch, King, i., 125.
Ripon, iii., 80, 81.
Roads, i., 256, 413;
iii., 225, 294‒296;
iv., 352‒355.
Robert I., reign of, i., 283‒303.
Robert II., reign of, i., 313‒319.
Robert III., reign of, i., 319‒324.
Robert, Prior of Scone, i., 201.
Robertson,
William, iv., 148‒150;
Joseph, 162, 163;
E. W., 163;
George C., 139‒142;
James S., 425;
Andrew, 439.
Robin Hood, i., 451.
Rollo, a Norman hero, i., 190, 191.
Rollock,
Robert, ii., 380, 381, 415, 416;
Hercules, 402.
Roman Catholic Church, ii., 3‒14;
Power of, 14‒20;
state of the clergy, 20‒23, 40‒43, 51‒77, 78, 328, 329.
Roman invasion, i., 104‒112.
Romanised tribes, i., 112, 113.
Rome, i., 45, 122, 129, 140, 341, 354, 355;
ii., 5, 20, 33, 58, 82, 103, 434, 435, 438.
Roslin, battle of, i., 275.
Ross, Earl of, i., 209, 211, 217, 264, 306, 312, 324, 325, 326,
340, 341, 348.
Ross, Lord, iii., 179.
Ross,
Alexander, iv., 170, 171;
William, 425.
Rothes, Earl of, ii., 130, 139, 150;
iii., 56, 60, 61, 120, 129, 148, 156, 165.
Rothesay, Duke of, i., 320, 321, 322, 323.
Rowll, i., 463.
Roxburgh, i., 231, 232, 245;
Castle of, 248, 264, 290, 305, 364, 383.
Roxburgh, Earl of, iii., 49, 57.
Royal Burghs, i., 233‒237, 382‒387, 397‒408.
Runic Inscriptions, i., 59, 175.
Russell, Dr. William, iv., 152.
Rutherford, Samuel, iii., 359‒362.
Rutherglen, i., 386, 409;
iii., 152.
Ruthven,
Lord, ii., 132, 133, 134, 135, 145, 158;
Master of, 219.
Ruthwell, i., 175.
Sadler, Sir Ralph, ii., 57, 65.
St. Adamnan, his life of St. Columba, i., 126, 181‒183.
St. Andrews, i., 137, 148, 200, 201, 238, 239, 277, 322, 332,
367, 387, 408, 413;
ii., 49, 66, 69, 70, 91, 96, 120, 136, 153, 199;
iii., 38, 151;
Castle of, i., 322;
ii., 49, 70, 71, 72, 73‒75;
Cathedral of, i., 249;
Bishop of, 137, 200, 209, 217, 255, 271, 281, 283, 285, 304,
340, 345, 353, 355, 360;
ii., 36, 58, 71, 77, 78, 90, 138, 154, 159, 182, 271, 380;
iii., 19, 63, 119, 124, 129, 131, 135, 147, 151;
University of, i., 466;
ii., 405‒408, 410‒413;
iii., 390, 392, 393;
iv., 136, 178, 219, 220, 224.
St. Bartholomew, massacre of, ii., 160, 161.
St. Bridget, i., 131.
St. Columba, i., 126‒131, 132‒135, 136.
St. Cuthbert, i., 125, 126.
St. Duthac, i., 436, 438.
St. Fergus, i., 439.
St. Fillan, relics of, i., 180, 439.
St. Finnian, i., 127.
St. Giles, i., 430, 431;
ii., 239.
St. Kentigern, i., 124, 125.
St. Maclou, i., 431.
St. Monance, i., 430.
St. Nicholas, i., 431;
ii., 239, 240.
St. Ninian, i., 122, 123;
shrine of, 48.
St. Regulus, i., 148.
St. Serf, monastery of, i., 455.
St. Servanus, i., 407.
Sandlands, John, i., 358.
Salt, export of, ii., 288, 289.
Sang Schools, early, i., 245, 468;
ii., 421, 422.
Sanquhar, Declaration proclaimed at, iii., 155.
Sauchie Burn, battle of, i., 352.
Saxons, i., 47, 112, 115, 116, 119, 141, 189.
Scandinavia, i., 161, 190.
Scandinavians, i., 47, 118.
Schools, i., 245, 465, 466;
ii., 398‒405;
iii., 375‒388;
iv., 224‒327.
Schrander, Dr., i., 41.
Science, progress of, ii., 384‒391;
iii., 371‒374;
iv., 255‒323.
Scolocs, i., 184.
Scone, i., 119, 121, 137, 141, 204, 209, 213, 217, 221, 241, 260,
262, 264, 283, 305, 313‒315, 319, 327, 353;
iii., 110, 223;
Monastery of, i., 201, 227, 239, 250;
ii., 94.
Scots, i., 112, 116, 118, 120, 127.
Scott of Tuschielaw, ii., 224;
John, 303, 372;
Walter, iii., 27;
Sir Walter, iv., 187‒189, 202‒204;
William B., 453.
Scrymgeour,
Alexander, i., 366;
Sir James, iii., 19.
Sculptured stones, i., 165‒174.
Seaforth, Earl of, iii., 92, 110, 222.
Selby, Sir William, iii., 21.
Security of the Kingdom, Act for, iii., 205, 206.
Segrave, Sir John, i., 275.
Selkirk, i., 356;
ii., 189;
iii., 378;
iv., 371;
forest of, i., 223, 274, 287, 343.
Semple, Robert, ii., 374.
Serfs, i., 250, 380‒382.
Seton, Sir Christopher, i., 283, 385, 453.
Seton, Lord, ii., 138.
Seton of Pitmedden, iii., 211.
Severus, his campaign, i., 110, 111.
Sharp, James, Archbishop of St. Andrews, iii., 118, 119, 120,
124, 129, 135, 137, 143, 147, 148, 151, 152.
Shawfield, iii., 218.
Sherifmuir, battle of, iii., 223.
Sheriffs, Sheriffdoms, i., 223, 261, 423‒426;
ii., 223.
Shetland Isles, i., 22, 47, 174, 185, 215, 217, 346;
ii., 60;
iv., 372.
Shipbuilding, i., 133, 240, 333, 363;
iv., 357‒363.
Shipping, i., 239, 240, 241, 391‒393;
ii., 286‒289;
iii., 300‒303;
iv., 356‒357.
Sibbald, Sir Robert, iii., 370.
Sigurd, i., 138.
Silver, ancient ornaments of, i., 177‒178.
Siward, Earl of Northumberland, i., 140.
Simpson, Sir James Y., iv., 313‒314.
Simson,
Andrew, ii., 400, 403;
Robert, iv., 260;
William, 446.
Sinclair,
Oliver, ii., 62;
Sir John, iv., 346.
Skene,
Dr. Gilbert, ii., 392, 393;
Sir John, 383, 384;
iii., 18;
Dr. William F., iv., 161.
Smith,
Adam, iv., 25, 43, 44‒59;
Alexander, 195, 196;
William R., 226, 227;
Robert A., 426.
Smollett, Dr., iv., 150, 172, 173, 199.
Social state of the People, i., 70, 71, 98‒103, 145‒157, 220‒254,
366‒440;
ii., 222‒298;
iii., 232‒335.
Solemn League and Covenant, iii., 85, 86.
Solway Firth, 21, 26, 70, 105.
Solway Moss disaster, ii., 62.
Somerled, i., 205.
Somerset,
Earl of, i., 326;
Duke of, ii., 76.
Soulis,
John, i., 271, 274, 277;
Nicholas, 256.
Southesk, Earl of, iii., 222.
Spain, i., 357, 360, 363;
ii., 18, 19, 20, 131, 191, 192.
Spear-heads,
flint, i., 50;
bronze, 76, 77.
Spense, John, ii., 138.
Spey, i., 150;
iv., 354.
Spinoza, his method and ethics, iii., 418‒432.
Spottiswood,
John, ii., 104, 108, 349, 350;
John, Archbishop, iii., 19, 26, 39, 63;
his writings, 357.
Stair, Lord, iii., 223, 232, 235, 367, 368.
Standard, battle of, i., 203, 204.
Stephen, King, i., 202, 203.
Stevenson, Professor, iv., 18, 75.
Stevenson, Robert L., iv., 211, 212.
Steward of Scotland, i., 214, 217, 218, 267, 274, 277, 292, 306,
307, 308, 309, 312, 313.
Stewart, Lord of Brechin, i., 321.
Stewart,
Sir Walter, of Jedworth, i., 321, 384;
Sir Alexander, 328;
Sir James, 338;
Duncan, 319, 320;
Sir Walter, 327;
James, 360;
Captain James, iii., 235;
William, 236.
Stewart,
Dugald, iv., 74‒84;
Matthew, 260.
Stirling, i., 83, 116, 140, 151, 209, 233, 234, 238, 264, 276,
386, 387, 391;
ii., 58, 93, 97, 99, 120, 124, 129, 140, 147, 152, 155, 179,
181, 187;
iii., 59, 62, 123, 228;
iv., 369;
castle of, i., 206, 248, 277, 278, 291, 294, 307, 338, 341,
352, 430;
ii., 140, 152, 181;
iii., 64, 228.
Stirlingshire, i., 29, 119, 121, 265;
ii., 364;
iv., 341, 342, 343, 373, 378.
Stirling, James, iv., 259, 260.
Stirling, Earl of, iii., 366.
Stone circles, i., 94‒96.
Stone weapons and tools, i., 48‒53.
Stone of Destiny, i., 119, 137, 264, 265.
Stonehaven, i., 28, 106.
Stormont, Earl of, iii., 222.
Strachan, Colonel, iii., 106.
Strafford, iii., 80.
Strathbogie, i., 140, 284;
castle of, ii., 123, 124, 202.
Strathclyde, i., 84, 85, 114, 139.
Strathern, i., 136, 138.
Strathern, Earl of, 203, 209, 213, 214, 217, 308, 317, 333.
Strathmore, i., 28.
Strathmore, Earl of, iii., 205.
Strathspey, i., 27, 207, 267.
Strathurd, lordship of, i., 378.
Succession Acts, i., 296, 313‒315;
iii., 155.
Stuart, Lord of Aubigny, i., 362.
Stuart,
John, i., 68, 69;
Dr. Gilbert, iv., 151;
Dr. John, 162.
Sugar works, iii., 330;
refining of, iv., 394, 395.
Sunday, i., 158, 439;
observance of, enforced, ii., 247, 248, 251‒254;
iii., 269‒272.
Superintendents, ii., 108.
Surrey, Earl of, i., 264, 267, 268, 270, 364.
Sutherland, Earl of, i., 306, 308, 318;
ii., 139;
iii., 53, 61.
Sutherland, James, iii., 369.
Tables, institution of, iii., 56, 57.
Tacitus, i., 106‒108.
Tactics of the Scots, i., 412.
Taverns, i., 415.
Taxes in early times, i., 149, 150, 220, 221, 251, 386‒391.
Tay, i., 27, 105, 106, 109, 110, 119, 264, 267, 287;
iv., 354.
Test Act, iii., 158, 159.
Teviotdale, i., 26.
Thane, thanage, i., 152, 251, 252.
Thrift, early laws touching, i., 128‒131.
Thomas the Rhymer, i., 446‒448.
Thomson,
James, iv., 167, 168;
Dr. Andrew, 219;
Dr. John, 309‒311;
Sir William, Lord Colvin, 266, 284;
George, 434.
Thor, ii., 436.
Thorburn, Robert, iv., 452.
Thorfinn, i., 138, 139.
Tithes, i., 243, 244;
ii., 40;
iii., 43, 44.
Todd, Dr., i., 117.
Torture, i., 276, 427;
ii., 195, 196;
iii., 134, 147, 148, 158, 177.
Torwood, i., 291;
iii., 156.
Traquair, Earl of, iii., 58, 59, 62, 77.
Trent, Council of, ii., 79‒85, 161.
Tucker, iii., 300, 301.
Tullibardine, Marquis of, iii., 222.
Tulloch, Dr. John, iv., 224, 225.
Turgot, Bishop, i., 156, 200.
Turnberry Castle, i., 286.
Turner,
Sir James, iii., 134;
William, iv., 306.
Tweed, i., 21, 138, 203, 363;
iii., 79, 86.
Tweeddale, i., 26.
Tweeddale, Marquis of, iii., 206, 210.
Tyrie, James, ii., 353, 354.
Tytler,
William, iv., 151;
Patrick F., 155.
Ulbster, i., 55.
Umfraville, Sir Ingram, i., 274.
Union of England and Scotland,
proceedings connected with, iii., 206‒215;
advantages of, 216, 217, 231.
Universities,
institution of, i., 466‒468;
changes in, ii., 405‒419;
iii., 388‒393;
iv., 327‒330.
Urns, i., 92, 93‒96.
Vane, Sir Henry, iii., 84, 85.
Veitch, John, iv., 246, 247.
Vesy, John, i., 258.
Vienne, John de, i., 316, 317.
♦Vipont, i., 294.
♦ Printed out of alphabetic order.
Vikings, i., 118.
Vitrified forts, i., 90‒92.
Wade, General, iii., 224‒225.
Wager of battle, i., 228‒229.
Wake, Lord, i., 301, 315.
Wales, i., 125, 174.
Walker,
William, iv., 197, 198;
James, 425.
Walls, Roman, i., 109, 110.
Wallace, Sir William, i., 265‒272, 277, 278‒280.
Wallace,
Adam, ii., 78;
William, iv., 253.
Wanlock, lead mine, ii., 284.
Wardlaw, Dr. Ralph, iv., 221.
Warwick, iv., 342.
Watson, Dr. Robert, iv., 152.
Watt, James, iv., 272, 274‒281.
Weapons, prehistoric, i., 49, 50, 75‒78.
Webster, Dr. Alexander, iv., 214.
Wedderburn,
Robert, ii., 319, 341;
James, 341, 343;
John, 343.
Weights and measures, i., 239, 332, 401, 402.
Wells, venerated, i., 128, 135, 260, 261.
Welsh,
John, iii., 29;
Dr., iv., 483.
Welwood, William, ii., 384, 385.
Wemyss, glass work at, iii., 315.
Westminster Assembly of Divines, iii., 85, 87‒89.
Whig, early use of the word, iii., 155, 342, 350, 351.
Whisky, ii., 192, 193;
iv., 396, 397.
White Caterthun, i., 89, 90.
William the Conqueror, i., 142, 143, 192, 193‒195, 196, 198.
William the Lion, reign of, i., 205‒209, 222, 227, 230.
William Rufus, i., 143, 196.
William of Orange, iii., 171, 173, 174‒176, 178‒180, 183‒185,
186‒190, 192, 201‒204.
Willock, John, ii., 87, 97, 98, 101, 104, 108.
Wilson,
John, iv., 105, 205, 206;
Alexander, 182.
Wine, i., 393, 394, 415, 416, 432;
ii., 292.
Winram, John, ii., 52, 104, 108, 158.
Winzet, Ninian, ii., 349‒352.
Wishart,
Bishop of Glasgow, i., 266, 273, 283, 285;
George, ii., 69;
seized and martyred, 69, 70.
Witchcraft, ii., 9, 268‒277;
iii., 259‒264.
Witherspoon, Dr. John, iv., 214, 215.
Wool, i., 240, 333, 387, 388;
ii., 290;
iii., 306, 307, 308.
Worcester, battle of, iii., 110.
Wyntoun, Andrew, i., 455, 456.
York, Duke of, iii., 156, 157, 163.
York, Archbishop of, i., 200, 201.
Young,
Peter, ii., 403;
Dr. Thomas, iv., 267.
Yule, i., 416, 417.
Zealand, i., 392.
END OF VOLUME II.
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