Mary charged him with having interpolated the last letter of Babington, which was the principal evidence of her complicity in the plot to murder Elizabeth. "His administration of foreign affairs was founded on a system of bribery, espionage, and deception. He is said to have had in his pay fifty-three agents and eighteen spies in various countries." In an age when diplomacy was universally tainted with intrigues and lies, the astute Walsingham would no doubt have considered that he was doing God's service in encompassing the death of one who he must have believed endangered England while she lived. The trial of Mary was, as Hallam says, an illustration of that "shameful breach of legal rules almost universal in trials of high treason during the reign of Elizabeth."" Such are the palliations of the restored Church-State's persecutions of the Catholics. When we consider the splendid loyalty of the Catholics in the face of unparalleled provocation, the murderous venom of her tortures and hangings stains the history of the Church of England in her hour of triumph with ineffaceable dishonor and reproach.' THE ATTITUDE The persecution of the Puritans, as the Protestant party in the Church of England came to be called, and the martyrdom of the Congregationalists, will be considered CHURCH'S later. From the English Reformation, as finally established under Elizabeth, has evolved the Church of TANTS. England, which has continued without radical change to the twentieth century. 'Art. Walsingham, Sir Francis, in Chambers' Encyc., ed. 1893, x, 540. 1 L. c., i, 164. * There is much of truth in this complaint of a Catholic writer : “For three centuries and more, according to their opportunities and the progressive stages of opinion and civilization, the Anglicans have burned us and hanged us, ripped us up, confiscated our private property, seized our churches, universities, ecclesiastical titles and revenues, kept us out of parliament, insulted our hierarchy, and in all possible ways made the exercise of our faith difficult."Cor. of The Tablet, Lond., Feb. 17, 1877. LITERATURE: SCOTTISH REFORMATION. SOURCES AND OLDER WORKS. Book of the Universal Kirk (Bannatyne Club), 3 vols., Edinb., 1839-45; Works of John Knox, ed. by D. Laing, 6 vols., Edinb., 1846-64; Collection of Confessions of Faith, Catechisms, etc., of Authority in the Ch. of Scotland, ed. by Dunlop, Edinb., 1719; D. Calderwood, Hist. of the Kirk of Scotland, ed. from MSS. by T. Thomson, 8 vols., Edinb., 1842-49, the best original authority, with Knox; J. Row (d. 1646), Hist. of the Kirk of Scotland, 1558–1637, printed from MSS. by Maitland Club, 2 vols., Edinb., 1842, and by the Wodrow Soc., 1842; J. Spotiswood (d. 1639), Hist. of Ch. and State of Scotland, 203–1625, Lond., 1655; best ed., 3 vols., Edinb., 1847-51-Episcopalian—many errors pointed out by Lee; R. Wodrow (d. 1734), Hist. of Sufferings of the Ch. of Scotland, with memoir, 4 vols., Glas. 1849; Analecta, 4 vols., Edinb. (Maitland Club), 1843; Collections upon the Lives of the Reformers and most eminent ministers of the Ch. of Scotland, Glas., 1834; all of first importance. MODERN WORKS. 1. McCrie, Thomas. Life of John Knox. Edinb., 1811; 2d ed., 1813; 5th ed., 1831; 6th ed., 1839. This epoch-making and standard book first set Knox forth in true light by an exhaustive study of the original sources. P. Hume Brown only confirms the conclusions of McCrie in all essential particulars. Life of Andrew Melville. 2 vols. Edinb., 1819. 2. Cook, Geo. Hist. of Ref. in Scotland. Edinb., 1811; 2d ed., 3 vols., 1819. 3. McCrie, Thomas (son of No. 1, above). Scottish Church History, 15171630. 2 vols. Edinb., 1841; 4th ed., 1846 (2 vols. in 1). Excellent. The Scottish Church from the Reformation to the Disruption. Edinb., 1875. 4. Hetherington, W. M. Hist. of Ch. of Scotland. Edinb., 1843; N. Y., 1881. 5. Stephen, Thomas. Hist. of Church of Scotland from Reformation to the Present. 4 vols. Lond., 1843-44. Episcopal. 6. Cunningham, John. Church Hist. of Scotland, from Earliest Times to Present Century. 2 vols. Edinb., 1859. Impartial. 7. Lee, John. Hist. of Church of Scotland from Reformation to 1690, with notes, appendices from the author's papers and by his son, the editor, Wm. Lee. 2 vols. Edinb., 1860. Admirable. 8. Grub, G. Eccl. Hist. of Scotland. 4 vols. Edinb., 1861. Good. Epis. 9. Brandes, F. John Knox. Elberfeld, 1862. 10. Stanley, A. P. Hist. of Church of Scotland. Lond. and N. Y., 1872. 11. Rainy, R. Three Lect. on Ch. of Scotland. Edinb., 1872. Reply to Stanley. 12. Taylor, W. M. John Knox. N. Y., 1885. 13. Bellesheim, A. Hist. of Cath. Ch. in Scotland. 4 vols. Tr., Edinb., 1887-89. Roman Catholic. 14. Stephen, W. Hist. of the Scottish Church. 2 vols. Edinb., 1896. Episcopal. 15. Brown, P. Hume. John Knox. 2 vols. Edinb. 1895-96. Fine, able. 16. Innes, A. T. John Knox. Edinb. and N. Y., 1898. The best short life. CHAPTER IX. THE SCOTTISH REFORMATION-THE MARTYR PERIOD. THE moral and intellectual degradation of the Roman Church in Scotland, which portended a reformation, has already been described.' In beginning a treatment of the Reformation itself it is well to speak first of those brave witnesses whose blood was the seed of a purer Church. EARLY As early as 1407 John Resby, a Lollard, was burned for heresy, and in 1432 Paul Craw, a Bohemian Husite, suffered the same fate at St. Andrews. To prevent his giving testimony at his burning, his mouth was gagged by a ball of brass. But the martyrdom itself was a sufficient testimony. In 1494 several men and women were brought up before the archbishop of Glasgow. From the articles of accusation, which Knox copied from the Glasgow registers, it appears that they denied the lawfulness of images, worship of relics, war, tithes, indulgences, papal jurisdiction over purgatory, swearing, priestly celibacy, transubstantiation, excommunications, and worship of the Virgin. They held that we are not more bound to pray in the kirk than in other places, that we are not bound to believe all the doctors of the kirk have written, that such as worship the "sacrament of the kirk" commit idolatry, that the pope is Antichrist, that he and his ministers are murderers, and that they who are called principals in the Church are thieves and robbers.' King James IV himself presided at this trial, and so aptly and vigorously did the Lollards of Kyle, as they were called, defend themselves, that for that and other reasons the king would not allow them to be put to death. They were dismissed with the caution to give up their heresies. Whether through the influence of the king or for other reasons, no one suffered on account of faith for several years. The Lollard preaching still went on; Tyndale's Bibles were circulated; and the way was preparing for Knox. Eventually alarm spread through 1See above, i, 645-647. For a fuller description see McCrie, Life of Knox, 6th ed., pp. 9-15. 'Works of John Knox, ed. Laing, Edinb., 1846, vol. i, pp. 8 ff. Calderwood, Hist. of the Kirk of Scotland (Wodrow Soc.), i, 50 ff. Calderwood thinks it doubtful whether some of these charges were not false. PARLIAMEN- WRITINGS. the Church, and in 1525 the Scottish parliament responded to it by an act of unmistakable tenor. "Forasmuch as damnable heresies are being spread in divers countries by the heretic Luther and his disciples, and this realm and lieges have firmly persisted in the holy faith since the same was first received by them, and never as yet admitted any opinions contrary to the Christian faith, but ever have been clean of all such filth and vice; therefore, that no manner of person-strangerthat happens to arrive with the ship within any part of this realm, bring with them any books or works of the said Luther's, his disciples or servants, dispute or rehearse his heresies or opinions unless it be to the confusion thereof, under the pain of escheating of their ship and goods, and putting of their person in prison." It appears that the Leith and other east coast town skippers had carried on quite a profitable trade in Tyndale's Bibles, which were printed in Cologne.' Scotland was in a fair way of being leavened with Protestantism, and this aroused the Church authorities to look around again for victims. This time their eye met a shining mark. 2 Patrick Hamilton, of knightly blood on his father's side and of royal blood on his mother's (though both parents were illegitimate), the cousin of two bishops and related to other persons in high places, was a brilliant young Scotchman of pure and noble character. He graduated at the university of Paris in 1520 and then proceeded to Louvain, where a college for the study of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin had been founded in 1507 under the direction of Erasmus, that he might pursue linguistic studies under the great Humanist. He returned to Scotland, entered the university of St. Andrews, where he was soon made teacher, but his defending the reading of Tyndale's Bible brought the wrath of the authorities upon him, and he fled to the Continent. He then proceeded to the new university of Marburg, founded under Protestant auspices, where Tyndale, Frith, and Lambert were carrying on their fruitful studies. Here these four earnest and truehearted lovers of truth were preparing themselves for that baptism of fire which they were to receive-one from the Spanish author PATRICK IN. S. Walker, Scotch Church History, Edinb., 1882, p. 27. 2 The university of Louvain itself was much older, founded in 1425 or 1426. Five or six thousand students were in attendance during the heyday of its prosperity-its first one hundred and fifty years. The French Revolution swept it away, but it was restored in 1835, and still continues the center of Catholicism and conservatism. ities of Belgium, one from the Catholic authorities of Scotland, and two from the Episcopal rulers of England. It was here that Hamilton composed that admirable treatise on the faith which Knox prints entire in his history of the Reformation in Scotland.' But the pious young scholar yearned to preach the truth in his native land. He therefore returned, but was seized, condemned to the flames, and suffered with heroic constancy in a lingering fire, at St. Andrews, February 29, 1528. Hamilton had attained the full joy and glory of the Protestant faith, and has the honor, perhaps, of being in the full sense the first martyr of the Scotch Reformation. The early death of this enthusiastic scholar, with his winning personal character and Christian spirit, made a profound impression in Scotland, so that his death wrought more harm to the Catholic faith than his life. "The reek of Master Patrick Hamilton," said one of the retainers of the archbishop of St. Andrews, "has infected as many as it did blow upon. "When those cruel wolves had, as they supposed," says Knox, "clean devoured the prey, they found themselves in worse case than they were before; for then within St. Andrews, yea, almost the whole realm who heard of that fact, there was found none who began not to inquire, Wherefore was Master Patrick Hamilton burnt ?"" The reforming principles spread and the fires were kept burning. Gourley and Straiton were burned at Greenside, Edinburgh, in 1534, and Henry Forrest at St. Andrews the same year.' In February, 1538, Robert Forrester, gentleman, Duncan Simpson, priest, Friar Kyller, Friar Beveridge, and Dean Thomas Forrest were burned at one stake on Castle Hill, Edinburgh. Of the last named a contemporary historian tells a racy anecdote which reveals the spirit of the old Church and of the new better than a lengthy description. 'Works, i, 36. The late Professor Lorimer wrote an excellent life of Patrick Hamilton, Edinb., 1857; and T. P. Johnson has made him the subject of a drama, Edinb., 1882. See also Laing, Appendix iii to his ed. of Knox, Works, i, 500 ff. Hamilton, says Hetherington, "died a victim to the malice and treachery of the popish priesthood; but his death did more to recommend the cause for which he suffered to the heart of Scotland than could have been accomplished by a lengthened life, as a sudden flash of lightning at once rends the gnarled oak of a thousand years, and yields a glimpse of the strong glories of heaven."-Hist. of the Church of Scotland, N. Y. ed., p. 26. Calderwood prints-i, 80 ff.-a letter of congratulation of the university of Louvain to the 'archbishop of St. Andrews and doctors of Scotland, commending them for the death of Mr. Patrick Hamilton." * Calderwood, i, 96, 97. |