Library · The History of the Reformation in Scotland (Works, vol. 1)
Part 61
The History of the Reformation in Scotland (Works, vol. 1) · John Knox
[46] Hamilton was merely titular Abbot of Ferne, and was not in holy orders. His predecessor, Andrew Stewart, was Bishop of Caithness, and Commendator of the two Abbeys of Kelso and Ferne. He died 17th June 1517; and the latter benefice was probably then conferred on Hamilton. Ferne is a parish in the eastern part of the shire of Ross. The Abbey was founded by Farquhard first Earl of Ross, in the reign of Alexander the Third. The Church, built or completed by William Earl of Ross, who died in 1371, was a handsome structure of about 120 feet in length, with chapels on the north and on the south sides. It continued to be used as the parish Church till Sunday the 10th of October 1742, when, during public service, the flagstone roof, and part of the side walls fell in, and killed 40 persons, besides others who died in consequence of the injuries they sustained.--(Scots Magazine, 1742, p. 485.) At a later period (1772), the centre part of the Church of Ferne, but reduced in its length, was repaired, with a new roof, and still serves as the parish Church. Unless for some ruined portions of the side chapels attached to the eastern end of the Church, which were suffered to remain, all marks of its venerable antiquity have now disappeared.
[47] It was at Marburg, the capital of Upper Hesse, and not at Wittemberg, where Lambert was professor.
[48] In the MS. "trawailled." The letters w and v are used indiscriminately by Knox's amanuensis.
[49] This statement, we presume, is incorrect, as there is no evidence to show that James the Fifth visited the Shrine of St. Duthac at this time. Lesley speaks of the King dealing with Hamilton, which implies at least a knowledge of his accusation, "adhortante Rege ipso."--(De Rebus Gestis, &c., p. 427.) The chapel of St. Duthac, Bishop of Ross, now in ruins, is situated about half a mile to the north-east of the town of Tain. In the Appendix No. IV. will be given various extracts from the Treasurer's Accounts relating to the frequent pilgrimages which James the Fourth made to this Shrine, as illustrative of a superstitious custom of that period.
[50] In the MS. "lief."
[51] See page 19.
[52] Gilbert Kennedy third Earl of Cassilis. He was probably only at St. Andrews for one session; as his name does not occur in the Registers of the University. In 1532, he was at Paris, pursuing his studies under George Buchanan, who dedicated to him his first edition of Linacre's Latin Grammar. Lord Cassilis was one of the prisoners taken at Solway Moss in 1542. As Knox afterwards mentions, he died at Dieppe in 1558.
[53] The University of St. Andrews, founded by Bishop Wardlaw in the year 1410, was confirmed by Papal authority in 1413. Its endowments, however, continued to be very limited, until St. Salvator's College was erected and endowed in 1456 by James Kennedy, his successor in the See. At this time it received the name of the Old College, to distinguish it from that of St. Leonard's College, created in 1512, and St. Mary's, in 1537.
[54] In Vautr. edit., and MSS. G, A, &c., "scorched."
[55] Lindesay of Pitscottie, (circa 1575,) in his detailed account of Hamilton's condemnation, after narrating the Martyr's last speeches, and his solemn appeal to Campbell, proceeds,--"Then they laid to the fire to him; but it would no ways burn nor kindle a long while. Then a baxtar, called Myrtoun, ran and brought his arms full of straw, and cast it in to kindle the fire: but there came such a blast of wind from the East forth of the sea, and raised the fire so vehemently, that it blew upon the Frier that accused him, that it dang him to the earth, and brunt all the fore part of his coul; and put him in such a fray, that he never came to his right spirits again, but wandered about the space of forty days, and then departed."--(Edit. 1728, p. 134; edit. 1776, p. 209.) Pitscottie gives the false date of September 1525. This writer indeed is often very inaccurate in names and dates; but his details were evidently derived from some contemporary authority.
[56] Foxe, and other authorities, state that Campbell was Prior of the Dominican or Blackfriars Monastery, St. Andrews.
[57] According to modern computation, the year 1528.
[58] Foxe, in republishing his "Actes and Monumentes," among other additions, has the following paragraph:--"But to return to the matter of Master Hamelton; here is, moreover, to be observed, as a note worthy of memory, that in the year of our Lord 1564, in which year this present History was collected in Scotland, there were certain faithful men of credit then alive, who being present the same time when Master Patrick Hamelton was in the fire, heard him to cite and appeal the Black Friar called Campbell, that accused him, to appear before the high God, as general Judge of all men, to answer to the innocency of his death, and whether his accusation was just or not, between that and a certain day of the next month, which he then named. Moreover, by the same witness it is testified, that the said Friar had immediately before the said day come, without remorse of conscience, that he had persecuted the innocent; by the example whereof divers of the people, the same time much mused, and firmly believed the doctrine of the aforesaid Master Hamelton to be good and just."--(Third edit. p. 650, Lond. 1576, folio.)
[59] In Vautr. edit. "true fruites;" in MSS. G, &c., "trow fruittis."
[60] The above title, and Fryth's preface are not contained in Knox's MS., but are inserted from Foxe's Martyrology, p. 949, 3d edit., Lond. 1576.
[61] This evidently refers to Archbishop Beaton; but he had previously been deprived of the Chancellorship: see note, page 13.
[62] Hamilton's treatise was probably printed as an academical dissertation, whilst he was at Marburg, in 1526. It in uncertain whether Fryth's translation was published during his own life. There are at least three early editions, with this title, "Dyvers frutefull gatherynges of Scripture: And declaryng of fayth and workes." One was printed at London by Thomas Godfray, and two others by William Copland, each of them without a date, but probably before 1540.--(Dibdin's Typogr. Antiq., vol. iii. pp. 71, 161, 162.) In 1562-3, Michael Lobley, a printer in St. Paul's Churchyard, had license to print "The Sermonde in the Wall, thereunto annexed, The Common Place of Patryk Hamylton."--(ib., p. 540.) Foxe's copy of this Treatise differs from the present in a number of minute particulars, which would occupy too much space to point out.
[63] John Fryth, as the reward of his zeal in the cause of religion, was confined to the Tower, in 1532, and was brought to the stake, at Smithfield, on the 4th of July 1533.--(See the Rev. Chr. Anderson's Annals of the English Bible, vol. i. pp. 339-377.)
[64] This title, with the numbers of the Propositions, and the words included within brackets, are supplied from Foxe. Also a few trifling corrections in the orthography.
[65] These Propositions are put in a syllogistic form; but the terms Major, Minor, and Conclusion, marked on the margin of Foxe's copy, except in one or two instances at the beginning, are not contained in Knox's MS. Such as are marked, being incorrectly given by his transcriber, as well as in Vautr. edit., are here omitted.
[66] In Vautr. edit. and MSS. E, A, and I, is this marginal note--"This is to be understood of circumstance of worldlie men, and not of them of God; for the neirer that men draw to God, we ar bound the more to love them." Also a similar note to page 24, Prop. IV., "Christ is the ende and fulfillinge of the lawe to everie one that beleveth."
[67] Foxe has given this sentence more correctly:--"Now, seying he hath payed thy dette, thou needest, neither canst thou pay it, but shouldest bee damned, if hys bloud were not."
[68] In republishing his "Actes and Monumentes," Foxe, along with Fryth's translation of "Patrick Hamilton's Places," has subjoined "Certaine brief Notes or Declarations upon the foresayd Places of M. Patrike." He says, "This little treatise of M. Patrike's Places, albeit in quantitie it be but short, yet in effect it comprehendeth matter able to fill large volumes, declaryng to us the true doctrine of the Law, of the Gospell, of Fayth, and of Workes, with the nature and properties, and also the difference of the same." But Foxe's Notes are too long to be here inserted, and they have several times been reprinted.
[69] Gawin Logye, under whom so many of the early Reformers had prosecuted their studies, was educated at St. Andrews, and took his degree of Master of Arts in 1512. In 1518, "Gavinus Logye" was "Regens Coll. Sancti Leonardi de novo fundati." In the "Acta Fac. Art.," his name occurs as Principal of that College in 1523. Calderwood says, that in the year 1533, Logye "was forced to flee out of the countrie," (vol. i. p. 104.) This date is certainly erroneous. At the election of Martin Balfour, as Dean of Faculty, "Mag^r. Gavinus Logye," Principal of St. Leonard's College, was appointed one of his assessors, on the 3d of November 1534. He probably fled before the close of the year 1535; but of his subsequent history no particulars have been discovered. Logye's immediate successor was "Dominus Thomas Cunnynghame," whose name first occurs as Principal Regent, on the 3d of November 1537.
[70] In MS. G, "novittis;" in other MSS., and in Vautr. edit., "novices."
[71] Probably John Wynrame, see note 395.
[72] In Vautr. edit., "William Archbishop," and also in MSS. A, I, and W. In MS. E, "William Arth." In MS. G, "William Arithe."
[73] John Hepburn, Bishop of Brechin, was descended of the Hepburns of Bothwell. He held this See from 1517, for upwards of forty years, till his death in August 1558.--(Keith's Catal.)
[74] Best known by his Latin name Major. He was a native of Haddington, and spent many years on the Continent, where he acquired great reputation by his numerous works, and became a Doctor of the Sorbonne. After his return to Scotland, he was for a short time (1518-1522) Principal Regent in the College of Glasgow, where Knox himself was his pupil. He was at this time Vicar of Dunlop; and Treasurer of the Chapel Royal at Stirling. In 1533, he was incorporated in the University of St. Andrews; and became Provost of St. Salvator's College; an office which he held till his death in 1550. See M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. i. pp. 7, 339; and Irving's Life of Buchanan, pp. 8, 373.
[75] George Lockhart, Provost of the Collegiate Church of Crichton, in Mid-Lothian, was Rector of the University of St. Andrews, from 1521 to 1525. He was the author of more than one work, printed at Paris, on Dialectic Philosophy. He afterwards was Dean of Glasgow, where he died on the 22d of June 1547.--(Obituary in the Registrum Episcopatus Glasguensis, vol. ii. p. 614.)