Library · The History of the Reformation in Scotland (Works, vol. 1)
Part 48
The History of the Reformation in Scotland (Works, vol. 1) · John Knox
The same author, in his Flyting or poetical contest with William Dunbar, among other terms of reproach, styles his antagonist "Lamp Lollardorum;" and also, "Judas Jow, Juglour, LOLLARD Lawreat."--(Dunbar's Poems, vol. ii. pp. 85, 90, 440.)
No. III.
PATRICK HAMILTON, ABBOT OF FERNE.
In collecting some notices of this memorable person, it may be remarked, that Knox has passed over his history much more briefly than likely he would have done, had he himself been at St. Andrews at the time of his execution. It has been customary to give a rather exaggerated account of Hamilton's birth and family connexions. Bishop Burnet says, "The first who suffered in this age (in Scotland) was Patrick Hamilton, a person of very noble blood: his father was brother to the Earl of Arran, and his mother sister to the Duke of Albany: so nearly was he on both sides related to the King. He was provided of the Abbey of Fern in his youth; and being designed for greater preferments, he was sent to travel," &c.--(Hist. of the Reform., vol. i. p. 291.) Similar terms are employed by later writers.
This notion to Hamilton's high descent and parentage requires to be somewhat modified. His father, Sir Patrick Hamilton of Kincavel, was an illegitimate son of James first Lord Hamilton, by a daughter of Witherspoon of Brighouse, and died in 1479. Sir Patrick afterwards obtained a letter of legitimation under the Great Seal, 20th January 1512-13; and in a charter of the settlement of the Hamilton estates about the same time, by the Earl of Arran, he was called next in succession, (failing the Earl's lawful issue,) after Sir James Hamilton of Fynnart, who was the natural son of James second Lord Hamilton, created Earl of Arran in 1503, and who was legitimated on the same day with Sir Patrick. The latter was slain in a conflict on the streets of Edinburgh, 30th April 1520. His wife was Catharine Stewart, daughter of Alexander Duke of Albany, the second son of King James the Second. She is also described as a natural daughter; the marriage of her parents having been dissolved on alleged propinquity of blood, by a sentence of divorce, pronounced 2d March 1477-8. It is proper however to observe, that illegitimation caused by the dissolution of such marriages, in conformity with the complicated rules of the Canon Law, was not considered to entail disgrace on the children, nor did it always interrupt the succession either in regard to titles or property. Their children were,--
1. James Hamilton of Kincavel, Sheriff of Linlithgowshire, and Captain of Blackness in 1525. He was summoned on a charge of heresy in 1534, but escaped to England. (See note 139.) He obtained permission to return in 1540, and was the means of accomplishing the downfall of his cousin, Sir James Hamilton of Fynnart, (ib. p. 66.) The sentence given against him by the Popish Clergy at Holyrood House, 26th August 1534, was reversed and annulled by the General Assembly in June 1563.
2. Patrick Hamilton the Martyr.
3. Katharine Hamilton, who is mentioned in a letter, 29th March 1539, (ib. p. 66, note,) as wife of the late Captain of Dunbar Castle. The reference in that letter may have been not to her brother Patrick, who was brent in 1528, but to James, who was condemned for heresy in 1534. The word brent therefore might be read banished.
PATRICK HAMILTON was born about the year 1503. Being intended for the Church, he no doubt received a liberal education, and the influence of his family connexions was sure to obtain for him high preferment. The time when he was promoted to the Abbacy of Ferne, in the county of Ross, is nowhere stated, except in the vague, general terms, "in his youth." It is however quite certain that Ferne was held, along with the Abbacy of Kelso in commendam, by Andrew Stewart, Bishop of Caithness, who died in 1517. Sir Robert Gordon, in his Genealogy of the Earls of Sutherland, (p. 93,) says, that on "The 17th day of June 1518 yeirs, Andrew Stuart, Bishop of Catheneys, commendator of the Abbayes of Kelso and Ferne, died at his Castle of Skibo," &c. (p. 93.) A manuscript Calendar of Ferne, which may be held as the best authority, places the Bishop's death in 1517. But although this benefice was conferred on Patrick Hamilton, there is no evidence to show that he was ever in Priest's orders, as he necessarily, at the time of this condemnation, would have been degraded, or deprived of such orders. He appears however to have prosecuted his studies at St. Andrews, and to have taken his Master's degree, according to the following entry in the Registers of that University:--
"Congreg. tenta, 3 Oct. 1524. Mag^r. Patricius Hamilton Abbas de Ferne Rossen. Dioc. in facultatem est receptus."
It was probably in the following year that Hamilton went abroad, in the farther prosecution of his studies, visiting Wittenberg and Marburg, and becoming acquainted with Luther, Melancthon, and Francis Lambert. From the sentence pronounced by the Archbishop and his assistants, it is evident that before Hamilton's visit to the Continent he had been suspected of cherishing heretical opinions. At the University of Marburg, he publicly set forth certain Conclusions or Theses for disputation, on the subject of Faith and Good Works. His Theses may have been printed at the time: they have been preserved, in the English translation, by John Fryth, of which there are several editions, sometimes under the title of 'Patrick's Places,' and are also inserted in Knox's History, and in Foxe's Book of Martyrs.
Hamilton returned to Scotland in 1527, impelled by a zeal to impart to his countrymen the knowledge of the truth which he had acquired: the result of which is well known; having been apprehended and taken prisoner to the Castle of St. Andrews, tried by Archbishop Beaton, and condemned for heresy, and suffering at the stake on the last of February 1527-8.
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Some extracts from contemporary writers, relating to Patrick Hamilton, may here be quoted. The first extract is taken from the dedication of Lambert's work, which has been oftener mentioned than examined in recent times. It was first published in the year 1528; but the following extract is from an edition bearing the following title, "EXEGESEOS FRANCISCI LAMBERTI Avenionensis, in sanctam divi Ioannis Apocalypsim, Libri VII. Basileae per Nicolaum Brylingerum. Anno M.D.XXXIX." 8vo. It occurs in the dedication to "the illustrious Prince Philip, Landgrave of Hesse." Unfortunately it does not give the date.--
"Habuisti anno supeiriore in tua nova Academia Marpurgensi ex Scotia unum, qui vere suam in Dei Ecclesiam attulit gloriam, PATRICIUS HAMMILTON, ex illustrissima Hammiltonum familia, quae ex summis Regni Scotiae; ae Regi, sanguine proximius junctis, est. ls cum esset annorum circiter trium et viginti, eruditionisque non vulgaris, et in Dei sermonibus, iudicij, et certissimi et solidissimi, ab illo mundi angulo, nempe Scotia, venit ad tuam Academiam, ut abundantius in Dei veritate confirmaretur, de quo veruntamen testor, me vix alium repperisse, qui de eloquiis Dei, spiritualius, ac syncerius loqueretur. Saepe enim mecum de cisdem contulit. Praeterea et is primus fuit, qui post erectam a tua sublimitate Academiam, in eadem Christianissima aliquot axiomata palam et doctissime, me hoc illi consulente, asseruit. Ubi autem robustior in pietatis doctrina factus est, assumpto uno ex tribus quos secum huc veniens duxerat, rediit in Scotiam, et palam Christum docuit, factus Scotorum primus et idem inclytus, +apostolos+. Mox principes Sacerdotum cum Satrapis suis, apud Sancti Andreae urbem convenerunt in unum, adversus dominum, et Christum, illiusque Apostolum Patritium, et ilium quantumvis sanguine clarum, et (ut puto) Rege adhue puero, ab eis seducto (neque enim metu cognatorum eius quidquam alioqui ausi fuissent in cum) vocarunt in concilium suum, in Calen. Martias, huins anni. At ille in Christi confessione ardens totus tempus ipsum praevenit, et pridie cal[=e]. Martij mane, illis pinguibus Samariae vaccis adfuit, et ab illis velut a Judaeis Christus, damnatus mox, et morti adjudicatus est, atque a prandio ipsiusmet dici combustus, et factus Deo in hostiam sanctam, et vivam. Is vere allulit in Dei Ecclesiam non solum gloriam suam, sed et vitam. Hune veluti suavissimum florem, maturumque fructum, ab ipso initio protulit, noua et foelix illa Academia tua. Non es fraudatus desiderio tuo. Idcirco enim maxime illam erexisti, quod cuperes ut intrepidi Christi confessores, et constantes veritatis assertores ex ea prodirent. Ecce jam unum habes, et eundem quidem inclytum multis nominibus, alij, cum domino visum fuerit, sequentur."
In a work still less known, and indeed of which only one solitary copy is known to be preserved, we find an interesting allusion to Hamilton. The author, John Gau or Gaw, will afterwards be noticed among the Protestant Exiles, Appendix, No. VI. The volume has this title within an ornamented border:--
"The richt bay to the kingdome of hevine is techit heir in the x commandis of God / And in the Creid / and Pater noster / In the quhilk al chrissine man sal find al thing yat is neidful and requirit to onderstand to the saluation of the saul."
(Colophon,) "Prentit in Malmw / Be me Jhone Rochstraten the xvi day of October / Anno M.D.XXXiii."
The allusion to Hamilton's fate occurs in "Ane Epistil to the nobil Lordis and Baronis of Scotland," in which the Author complains of "the blynd giders and pastors quhilk sekis bot the mylk and wow of the scheip, quhilk alsua thinkkis na scheyme to cal thayme selff vicars of Christ and successours of the Apostlis," and says, "The thrid and principal causs (viz. of the want of religious instruction) is the sekkis N. and N. quhilk ar rissine laitlie in the Kirk and prechis dremis and fablis and the tradicions of men, and notht the Vangel, and giff ony amangis thayme wald prech it and notht thair tradicions thay ar haldine for heritikis, as ye knaw be experience of PATRIK HAMMILTONE QUHOM THAY PAT CREWELLIE TO THE DEID BOT NOW HE LIFFIS WITH CHRIST QUHOM HE CONFESSIT BEFOR THE PRINCIS OF THIS VARDIL, BOT THE VOCE OF HIS BLWID CRYIS YEIT WITH THE BLUID OF ABEL TO THE HEWINE."
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The next extracts are from Foxe's Martyrology; and it may be proper to be more particular in describing the early editions of that well known work, as Knox's reference to it, at one period, was held to be a proof that the History of the Reformation was not composed by him. During Foxe's exile, he published at Strasburgh a small Latin work, entitled "Commentarii Rerum in Ecclesia Gestarum, maxi-marumque, per totam Europam persecutionum, a Vuicleui temporibus ad hanc vsque aetat[=e] descriptio. Liber primus. Autore Ioanne Foxo Anglo. Argentorati, exc. Vuendelinus Rihelius, Anno M.D.LIIII." Small 8vo. Dedicated to Christopher Duke of Wurtemberg.
Five years later, at Basil, he published a large folio, also under the title of "Rerum in Ecclesia Gestarum, &c., Commentarii," dedicated to Thomas Duke of Norfolk, from Basil, 1st Sept. 1559. In this work, at pages 121-123, is a short account of Patrick Hamilton, with a reference to Francis Lambert's work on the Apocalypse. But it is to Foxe's great English work, in 1564, that Knox refers, and as the First Book of his History was not written until 1566, no anachronism can be discovered in such a reference. The succession of Queen Elizabeth to the English Throne, evidently suggested the propriety of putting upon record a detailed history of the fearful sufferings and persecutions which had been endured. The first edition bears the following title:--
"ACTES AND MONUMENTS
of these latter and perillous dayes, touching matters of the Church, wherein ar comprehended and described the great persecutions & horrible troubles, that have bene wrought and practised by the Romishe Prelates, speciallye in this Realme of England and Scotlande, from the yeare of our Lorde a thousande, unto the tyme nowe present. Gathered and collected according to the true copies & wrytinges certificatorie, as wel of the parties themselves that suffered, as also out of the Bishops Registers, which wer the doers thereof, by IOHN FOXE.
� Imprinted at London by Iohn Day, dwellyng ouer Aldersgate. Cum priuilegio Regiae Maiestatis."
This edition has no date; but the "Kalender" and "Almanacke for 31 yeares," commencing in 1563, shows that it was printed in that year, although not actually published till 1564.
The following is a literal copy of the account of Hamilton's trial and execution contained in this rare edition:--
" PATRIKE HAMELTON A SKOT.
"Like as there was no place, neyther of Germanye, Italye, or Fraunce, wherin there was not some impes or braunches spr[=o]ge out of that mooste frutefull rote and foundation of Luther. So likewise was not this Ile of Brittaine without his frute and braunches: amongst whom Patricke Hamelton a skottishman borne, being a yong man of an excellent nature and towardnes, but muche more commendable and praise worthye, for that he was of the kynges bloud and family, being the most ancient and noble stocke and name in all Scotlande. The tender florishing age of this noble yonge man made his deathe so muche the more horrible, which of it selfe was but to muche cruell and detestable, for that skarse xxiii. yeres old, wh[=e] he was burned by Dauid Beton Cardinall of Saint Andrewes, and his fellow Byshoppes. Which yong manne if he had chosen to leade his life, after the manner of other Courtiers in all kinde of licentious riotousnes, he should peradventure haue found praise without pearill or punishment in that his florishinge age: but for so much as he joyned godlinesse wyth his stock, and vertue with his age, he coulde by no meanes escape the hands of the wicked. So that in all thinges and in al ages, the saying of S. Paule is verified. Whosoeuer dooth desire and studye to liue godlye in Christe, he shall suffer persecution as a companion of his godlinesse.
"For there is nothinge safe or sure in thys world, but wickednesse and synne. Who euer sawe the Cardinals or bishoppes rage wyth their cruell inquisitions, againste aduoutrye, riot, ambition, unlawfull gaming, dronkennesse, rapines, and wilfulnesse to doo all kinde of mischeues. Anye man that list for all them, maye exercise vsurye, make tumultes, haunt whores, sweare and forsweare, and deceiue at his owne will and pleasure.