The Works of John Knox Volume I Part 39

[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 s.p.a.ce 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 G.o.d, 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 t.i.tle, 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 t.i.tle, "Dyvers frutefull gatherynges of Scripture: And declaryng of fayth and workes." One was printed at London by Thomas G.o.dfray, 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 s.p.a.ce 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 t.i.tle, 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 circ.u.mstance of worldlie men, and not of them of G.o.d; for the neirer that men draw to G.o.d, 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 d.a.m.ned, 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 quant.i.tie 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 Princ.i.p.al 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," Princ.i.p.al of St.

Leonard's College, was appointed one of his a.s.sessors, 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 Princ.i.p.al 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) Princ.i.p.al 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.)

[76] The Abbot of Cambuskenneth, Alexander Myln, was appointed first President of the College of Justice in 1532. In 1494, Alexander Myl, was a Determinant at St. Andrews. In 1515, he was Official of Dunkeld, and in that year he wrote a Latin work, Lives of the Bishops of Dunkeld, first printed in 1823, for the Bannatyne Club. In Brunton and Haig's Historical Account of the Senators, a very accurate notice is given of his several preferments in the Church. Myln, who died about the close of the year 1548, is acknowledged to have been a man of great accomplishments, and to have displayed a most commendable zeal for religion and learning.

[77] In the year 1522, on the death of his Uncle, John Hepburn, Prior of the Metropolitan Church of St. Andrews, Patrick Hepburn succeeded; and held the Priorate till 1535, when advanced to the See of Moray. See note 82.

[78] The Scotish Parliament pa.s.sed an Act on the subject, on the 12th of June 1535, in which the cause of this disregard of the censures of the Church is mainly attributed to "the dampnable persuasions of heretikis, and thair perversit doctrine," which, it is added, "gevis occasioun to lichtly (or despise) the process of cursing, and uther censures of Haly Kirk."--(Acta Parl. vol. ii. p. 342; Keith's Hist., vol. i. p. 28.) There is a singular production by one of the early Scotish Poets, a priest named Sir John Rowll, called his Cursing, which exemplifies the abuses to which this process was perverted. It was written between 1492 and 1502, and is directed chiefly against the stealers, among other articles,

Of fyve fat geiss of Sir Johne Rowllis, With caponis, hennis, and uther fowlis;

but it also contains a general invective against persons who defraud the clergy of their tythes or dues. The following entries in the Treasurer's Books, shew that ecclesiastical persons were not exempted from such censures:--

"Item, the thrid day of November [1533], to Sir Johne Smyth, notare, to pa.s.s to execut the Process upon the Abbot of Melross, and Prioress of Eccles, for non payment of thair taxt,. xl. s.

"Item, the first day of Junij [1534], to ane cheplane to pa.s.s to Curss the Prioress of North Berwick and Eccles, for non payment of thair taxtis,. xx. s."

[79] In MS. A, &c., "canon law."

[80] In MS. G, "Kirkmen."--The Church of Rome, however, always performed the ceremony of depriving a Priest of his holy orders, before being handed over to the secular authorities for punishment; "because (in the words of a modern writer) she was too watchful over the immunities of the privileged order of Priests, to deliver them up to temporal jurisdiction, till stripped of the sacerdotal character, and _degraded_ to the situation of laymen." (Dowling's History of Romanism, p. 551, New York, 1845, 8vo.)

[81] The Abbot of Unreason in Scotland, was a similar character to the Lord of Misrule in England. "This pageant potentate," as Stowe calls him, "was annually elected, and his rule extended through the greater part of the holydays conected with the festival days of Christmas." But these "fine and subtle disguisings, masks, and mummeries," too often degenerated into abuse, as indeed was to be expected, when such pastimes had for their object to turn all lawful authority into ridicule, and more particularly to burlesque the services of the Church. On such occasions, "the rude vulgar occupied the Churches, profaned the holy places by a mock imitation of the sacred rites, and sung indecent parodies of the hymns of the Church;" and the lively representation of a scene of this kind is familiar to most readers, in a well known work of fiction, "The Abbot." Part of Sir Walter Scott's comment on his own description may be here quoted:--"The indifference of the clergy, even when their power was greatest, to the indecent exhibitions, which they always tolerated, and sometimes encouraged, forms a strong contrast to the sensitiveness with which they regarded any serious attempt, by preaching or writing, to impeach any of the doctrines of the Church."--(Waverley Novels.)

[82] Patrick Hepburn, son to Patrick first Earl of Bothwell, was educated at St. Andrews, under his uncle, John Hepburn, Prior of St.

Andrews, whom he succeeded in 1522. He was Secretary from 1524 to 1527.

In 1535, he was advanced to the See of Moray, and was likewise Commendator of Scone. He retained his bishopric after the Reformation; and died at his Palace and Castle of Spynic on the 20th of June 1573.

[83] Knox has been blamed for recording this "merry bourd" or jest; but Bishop Hepburn had rendered himself notorious by his profligacy. This indeed appears on the face of the public records. Under the Great Seal there pa.s.sed the following letters of Legitimation;--(1.) "Johanni et Patricio Hepburn, b.a.s.t.a.r.dis filiis naturalibus Patricii Prioris Sancti Andreae." 18 Dec. 1533.--Also, (2.) "Legitimatio Adami, Patricii, Georgii, Johannis, et Patricii Hepburn, b.a.s.t.a.r.dorum filiorum naturalium Patricii Episcopi Moraviensis." 4 Oct. 1545. And, (3.) "Legitimatio Jonetae et Agnetis Hepburn, b.a.s.t.a.r.darum filiorum naturalium Patricii Moraviensis Episcopi." 14 Maij 1550. Here are no less than nine illegitimate children, evidently by different mothers. (4.) Agnes Hepburn, another daughter of the late Patrick Bishop of Murray, was also legitimated on 8th Feb. 1587.

[84] In MS. G, "he was imprisonit."

[85] According to Spotiswood, (Hist. p. 65,) these words were spoken at the time when Henry Forrest was to be burnt for heresy. See note 113.

[86] In Vautr. edit., "Dungwaill." In MS. G, "Dungwell."--Sir John Dingwall was a priest, and evidently a person of some note. On the 18th of August 1516, his name occurs in the Treasurer's Accounts, when 3s.

8d. was paid to "ane child to bring the auld (Service?) bookis out of Edinburgh fra Sir Johne Dingwall to Dundie." John Dingwall, Archdeacon of Caithness, was one of the Auditors who signs the Treasurer's Accounts, in October 1516. In two charters under the Great Seal, 15th September, and 19th November 1524, he is designed Archdeacon of Caithness, and Rector of Strabrok, in Linlithgowshire. In another charter, 7th April 1529, he is styled "Dominus Johannes Dingwall Praepositus Ecclesim Collegiatae Sanctre Trinitatis prope Burgum de Edinburgh." Having been nominated one of the Spiritual Lords at the Inst.i.tution of the College of Justice, on the 27th of May 1532, at the first meeting of the Court, he took his seat under the t.i.tle of Provost of Trinity College. But he did not long enjoy his judicial office, as he died before the 9th of July 1533.--(Brunton and Haig's Senators of the College of Justice, p. 11.) Buchanan wrote an epigram on Dingwall, founded upon some verses of Sir Adam Otterburn of Redhall, King's Advocate, ("argumento sumpto ex Adami Otterburni Equitis clarissimi hexametris,") from which it may be inferred that Dingwall's father had been a priest, and left him no patrimony; that he himself had acquired great wealth, accompanied with pride and luxury, whilst employed at the Court of Rome; and that a monument had been erected to his memory, containing his t.i.tles in high sounding terms.

[87] In MS. G, "Kirkmen." See some notes on the use of the t.i.tle "Sir,"

as applied to priests, in Appendix, No. IV.

[88] In MS. G, "delaitt.i.t."

[89] Some notice of Oliphant will be given in a subsequent page.

[90] Gawin Dunbar was the son of Sir Alexander Dunbar of Westfield, and Dame Elizabeth Sutherland; (see note to Poems of William Dunbar, vol.

ii. p. 433, Edinb. 1832, 2 vols. 8vo.) and not son of Sir James Dunbar of c.u.mnock, as Keith states. He had been a student at St. Audrews, where he took his Master's degree in 1475. On the 7th of October 1488, his name occurs as Dean of his native diocese of Moray. He also held the office of Clerk-Register from 1500 to 1513. In 1503, Dunbar received a presentation to the Archdeaconry of St. Andrews. (Regist. Secr. Sigil.) On the death of Bishop Gordon, 30th June 1518, being promoted to the See of Aberdeen, he resigned his Archdeaconry. He died at a very advanced age on the 9th or 10th of March 1531-2.--(Preface by the Editor, Mr.

Cosmo Innes, to the Registrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis, p. lv.)

[91] In Vautr. edit. and MS. A, &c., "Andro Balsone." He was probably related to Martin Balfour, "Official Princ.i.p.al" of St. Andrews, Rector of Dunyno, and a Canon of St. Salvator's Church, St. Andrews. The name of Andrew Balfour occurs among the licentiates of St. Leonard's College in 1524; but we cannot say whether or not he was the person who is here mentioned.

[92] In MS. "h.e.l.l."