The Works of John Knox Volume I Part 31

BY THE MAISTERS AND PROFESSOURS OF THEOLOGIE IN THE VNIUERSITIE OF LOUANE, YOURS TO COMMAUNDE.

-- In this Epistle of the Louaniane Doctours, I shall not neede (gentle Reader) to note vnto thee, what a pernitious thyng in a common wealth, is blynd ignoraunce, when it falleth into cruell hartes. Which may well be compared to a sword put in the handes of one, that is both blynd and mad. For as the blynd man, hauyng no sense to see and iudge knoweth not whom he striketh: so the madde man, beyng cruell and furious, hath no compa.s.sion in sparyng any. Wherupon it happeneth many tymes with these men, as it dyd with the blynd furious Phariseis, that as they hauyng the sword of authoritie in their handes, in stede of malefactours and false Prophetes, slue the true Prophetes of G.o.d, and at last crucified the kyng of glory: so these Catholicke Louanians and folowers of their Messias of Rome, take in their handes the sworde of iurisdiction, who neither seyng what to spare, nor caryng whom they smite, vnder the stile and pretense of heretiques, murther and blaspheme without mercy, the true preachers of the Gospell, and the holy annoynted of the Lord.

"But to returne to the matter agayne of M. Hamelton, here is moreouer to be observed, as a note worthy of memory, that in the yeare of the Lord 1564, in the which yeare this present history was collected in Scotland, there were certaine faythfull men of credite then alyue, who beyng present the same tyme, when M. Patrike Hamelton was in the fire, heard him to cite and appeale the blacke Frier called Campbel, that accused him, to appeare before the hygh G.o.d, as generall iudge of all men, to aunswere to the innocency of his death, and whether his accusation was iust or not, betwene that and a certaine day of the next moneth, which he there named. Moreouer by the same witnes it is testified, that the sayd Frier dyed immediatly before the sayd day came, without remorse of conscience, that he had persecuted the Innocent. By the example wherof diuers of the people the same tyme, much mused, and firmely beleued the doctrine of the foresayd M. Hamelton, to be good and iust.

"Hereunto I thought good to adioyne a certaine G.o.dly and profitable Treatise of the sayd M. Patrike Hamelton, written first by him in Latine, and afterward translated by John Frith into English, which he names Patrikes Places; not vnprofitable in my mynde, to be sene and read of all men, for the pure and comfortable doctrine conteined in the same, as not onely by the treatise it selfe may appeare, but also by the preface of the sayd John Frith, prefixed before; which also I thought not inconuenient to insert with the same, as here foloweth."

The "brief Treatise," translated by John Fryth, which immediately follows the above extracts from Foxe, has already been included in the present volume: see pages 19 to 35.

It appears from some payments in the Treasurer's Accounts, in 1543, that Patrick Hamilton had left an illegitimate daughter named Isobell. Some readers perchance may think that such a fact should have remained unnoticed, as casting a blemish on his. .h.i.therto pure and immaculate character; but a regard to what may be called historical justice, will not allow such a circ.u.mstance to be concealed, while the habitual licentious conduct of the highest dignitaries of the Church at that time are, in the course of the present work, so frequently alluded to.

"Item, the x day of Aprile deliuerit to be ane gowne to Issobell Hammiltoun, _dochter to umquhill Patrik Abbot of Fern_, four elnis Frenche blak, price of the eln x.x.xiiij s.... Summa, vj lib. xvj s.

"Item, deliuerit to be hir are kirtill, thre elnis Frenehe brown, price of the eln x.x.x s.... Summa, iiij lib. x s.

"Item, deliuerit to hir to walt the samin, and to be hir pertlettis, ane eln blak veluet, price thairof, ... lvj s."

In the following month of May 1543, another gown was furnished to Isobell Hamilton.

No. IV.

ON THE ROYAL PILGRIMAGES TO THE SHRINE OF ST. DUTHACK, AT TAIN, IN ROSS-s.h.i.+RE.

In a note to page 16, I expressed some doubt as to the accuracy of the statement that King James the Fifth was sent in pilgrimage to the Shrine of St. Duthack, immediately previous to the trial and condemnation of Patrick Hamilton. Had the Treasurer's Accounts for 1528, or the Household Book between July 1526 and August 1528, been preserved, they might have enabled us to trace the King's movements. But the statement is highly improbable in itself. Mr. Tytler has shown that James only escaped from the thraldom of the Dougla.s.ses at the end of May 1528, or nearly three months after Hamilton's sentence; and it was most unlikely from the vigilant restraint under which the King was kept that he would have been allowed to traverse a great part of the country upon such an errand. It may also be kept in view, that if an application had been made to James, before he a.s.sumed the reins of government, it is scarcely probable his interference would have had any effect in preventing the sentence of the Ecclesiastical Courts from being carried into execution.

Want of s.p.a.ce prevents me from inserting here, as I intended, a series of extracts from the Treasurer's Accounts during the reign of James the Fourth, in connexion with his visits to that celebrated shrine. I shall therefore merely notice, that the public registers furnish some evidence to shew that he made an annual pilgrimage to St. Duthack's chapel, in Ross-s.h.i.+re. On more than one occasion the King rode unattended from Stirling across the mountain pa.s.s of the Grampians, leading from Fettercairn to the north side of the Dee, and from thence to Elgin, Inverness, and Tain. These repeated visits to a distant shrine may have been performed as an act of penance, the chapel having been founded by his father, James the Third. Such a journey, with a few attendants, he appears to have made in August 1513, or only one month previously to his setting out on his calamitous expedition, when he was slain at Floddon.

No. V.

FOXE'S ACCOUNT OF HENRY FORREST, AND OTHER MARTYRS IN SCOTLAND, DURING THE REIGN OF KING JAMES THE FIFTH.

The fate of Henry Forress or Forrest seems to have excited much less attention than might have been expected. In the note to page 52, I suggested that the probable time of his martyrdom may be placed in 1532; and he may thus be regarded as the second victim in the cause of the Reformed faith in Scotland. The strict inquisition which took place, and caused a number of persons to forsake their native country, whilst others met with a similar fate as his own in the course of a few years, may have contributed to this comparative silence. Even Foxe, to whom we are chiefly indebted for preserving an account of his fate, seems to have been ignorant of it in 1564; as in the following short paragraph, from the first edition of his work, he refers to those who suffered in Edinburgh in 1534, as the next in succession to the Abbot of Ferne:--

"-- FIVE BURNT IN SKOTLAND.

"Seuen yeres after Patrik Hamelton, whose history is before pa.s.sed, there were v. burnte in Skotland, in the city of Edenborow, being the Metropolitike citye of al Skotlande, of the which fiue two were dominicane Friers, one Priest, one Gentleman, and the fifthe was a channon: whose iudges and inquisitors were these: Jhon Maior, Archbishop of S. Androwes, Petrus Chappella.n.u.s, and the Franciscane friers, whose labor and diligence is never wanting in such matters." (Page 525.)

At the same time I suggested that Henry Forrest was the son of Thomas Forrest of Linlithgow, who was in the employment of King James the Fourth. Since that sheet was printed, I find the name of "HENIRICUS FORRUS" in the list of students who were incorporated, that is, became Bachelors of Arts, at the University of Glasgow, in the year 1518. If this was the martyr, we may presume that at the time of his martyrdom he must have been upwards of thirty years of age. This however may have been another person of the same name, as we find "HENRICUS FORREST," as a Determinant in St. Leonard's College, St. Andrews, in 1526, which leaves no doubt of his having, two years later, witnessed the fate of Patrick Hamilton.

The following is Foxe's account from his enlarged edition of his "Actes and Monuments," in 1576:--

"HENRY FOREST, MARTYR.

Persecutors.

Iames Beton, Archbishop of S. Andrewes. Frier Walter Laitig, bewrayer of the confession of this Henry Forest.

Martyrs

Henry Forest. At. S. Andrewes in Scotland.

The Causes

Within few years after martydome of M. Patrike Hamelton, one Henry Forest, a yong man borne in Lithquow, who a little before, hand receyued the orders of Benet and Colet (as they terme them) affirmed and sayd, that M. Patrike Hamelton died a martyr, and that his articles were true: for the which he was apprehended, and put in prison by James Beton, Archbishop of Saint Andrewes. Who shortly after, caused a certaine Frier named Walter Laing, to heare his confession. To whom when Henry Forest in secret confession had declared his conscience how he thought M.

Patrike to bee a good man and wrongfully to be put to death, and that his articles were true and not hereticall: the Frier came and vttered to the Bishop the confession that he had hearde, which before was not thoroughly known. Whereupon it followed that his confession beyng brought as sufficient probation agaynst him, he was therfore conuented before the councell of the clergy and doctors, and there concluded to bee an hereticke, equall in iniquity with M. Patricke Hamelton, and there decreed to be geuen to the secular indges to suffer death.

"When the day came of hys death, and that he should first be degraded, and was brought before the cleargy in a grene place, beyng betwene the castle of S. Andrews, and another place called Monymaill, as sone as he entred in at the dore, and saw the face of the Clergy, perceiuing wherunto they tended, he cryed with a loude voyce, saying: Fie, on falshoode: Fye on false friers, reuealers of confession: after this day, let no man euer trust any false Friers, contemners of G.o.d's word and deceiuers of men. And so they proceding to degrade him of hys small orders of Benet and Collet, he sayd with a loud voyce, take from me not onely your owne orders, but also your owne baptisme, meaning thereby, whatsoeuer is besides that which Christ hymselfe inst.i.tuted, whereof there is a great rablement in Baptisme. Then after hys degradation, they condemned hym as an heretike equal with M. Patrike aforesaide: and so he suffred death for his faythfull testimony of the truth of Christ, and of hys Gospell, at the Northchurch stile of the Abbey church of S. Andrew, to the entent that all the people of Anguishe [Angus] might see the fire, and so might be the more feared from falling into the like doctrine, whiche they terme by the name of heresie. _Ex Scripto testimonio Scotorum_."

Foxe next proceeds to narrate the persecution of James Hamilton, brother of Patrick, of Katherine Hamilton, their sister, and of a woman at Leith. This must have occurred in 1534, as Hamilton was in England early in 1535. See note 157; and the Rev. Christopher Anderson's Annals of the English Bible, vol. ii. p. 471. Foxe joins with this an account of the martyrdom of David Straton and Norman Gourlay, as follows:--

"JAMES HAMELTON. KATHERINE HAMELTON HIS SISTER. A WIFE OF LYETH, PERSECUTED. DAUID STRATON, NORMAN GURLEY, MARTYRS.

Persecutors.

Iames Hay, bishop of Rose and commissioner of Iames Beton, Archbishop of S. Andrewes. M. Iohn Spens, Lawyer.

Martyrs.

Iames Hamelton, brother to M. Patrike. Katherine Hamelton, A wyfe of Lieth. Dauid Straton. M. Norman Gurlay.

The Causes.

Within a yere after the martirdom of Henry Forest, or there about, was called James Hamelton of Kyntlitgow, hys sister Katherine Hamelton the spouse of the captain of Dunbar, also an other honest woman of Leith, Dauid Straton of the house of Lawristonne, and M. Norman Gurlay. These were called the Abbey Church of Halyrowdhouse in Edenburgh by James Hay, B. of Rose, commissioner to James Beton Archbishop, in presence of K.

James the V. of that name: who upon the day of theyr accusation was altogether clad in red apparel. James Hamelton accused as one that mainteaned the opinions of M. Patricke, hys brother.

To whome the Kyng gaue counsaile to departe, and not to appeare: for in case he appeared he could not help him, because the Byshops had persuaded him, that the cause of heresie did in no wise appertayne vnto him, and so James fled and was condemned as an heretike, and all his goods and landes confiscat, and disposed vnto others.

Catherine Hamilton hys Sister, appeared vpon the schaffold, and beyng accused of an horrible heresie, to witte, that her owne workes could not saue her, she graunted the same, and after longe reasoning betwene her and M. John Spens the Lawyer, she concluded in this maner: Work here, worke there: what kinde of workyng is al this? I know perfectly that no kynde of workes can saue mee, but onely the workes of Christ my Lord and Sauiour. The kyng hearing these wordes, turned hym about and laught, and called her vnto hym and caused her to recant, because she was hys aunt, and she escaped.