The Works of John Knox Volume I Part 56

[720] Spotiswood says that Douglas was a Carmelite or White Friar.--(Hist. p. 94.) It is not improbable he may have been the same person whose name appears as a Determinant in St. Salvator's College in 1554. In that year another John Douglas had the same rank in St. Mary's College, where he became a Licentiate in 1555. It is, I think, quite certain that John Douglas, who was Chaplain to the Earl of Argyle in 1558, and who may have a.s.sumed the name of Grant to escape apprehension, should not be confounded with the Provost of St. Mary's College, as Keith and other writers have done. The latter was born about the year 1494, and was descended from the Dougla.s.ses of Pettendreich. He studied at St. Andrews at the same time with John Wynrame, and was a Determinant in St. Leonard's College in 1515, and a Licentiate in 1517. Whether he was the person who entered the Carmelite Order, may be left to conjecture; but on 1st October 1547, he was elected Provost of St.

Mary's College. In 1551, "Magister Joannes Douglas Prepositus Novi Collegii Mariani," was elected Rector of the University; and being annually elected to this office for the unprecedented period of twenty-three successive years, (1572-3, being called "Vigesimus tertius Rectoratus Johannis Douglas,) and being a constant resident in St.

Andrews, it is obvious he could not have been the obscure person who was protected by the Earl of Argyle.

[721] "How the Bishop's conscience (says Dr. M'Crie) stood affected as to these points, we know not; but it is certain that his practice was very far from being immaculate."--(Wilkins, Concilia, vol. iv. p. 209; Life of Knox, vol. i. p. 320.)

[722] Archibald fourth Earl of Argyle, in 1525, was designed son and heir-apparent of Colin Earl of Argyle. He succeeded to the t.i.tle before 1533. In 1543, he was opposed to the proposed alliance of Edward the Sixth and Mary Queen of Scots; and distinguished himself at the battle of Pinkie, in 1547, and at the siege of Haddington, in the following year. The precise time of his death is not ascertained; and his Testament is not known to be preserved. But he died towards the close of 1558, as on the 21st August that year he granted a charter to his son Archibald, then Lord Lorne; on the 2d December following, in the confirmation of the same charter, it is expressed that he was then deceased.

[723] Knox in thus alluding to the conduct of Archibald fifth Earl of Argyle, evidently points at his continued adherence to Queen Mary, at the time when the above pa.s.sage was written.

[724] In MS. G, and Vautr. edit., this date is introduced into the text, as 10th of May 1568. If this was not a clerical mistake, it might be held to indicate that the intermediate MS., from which Vautrollier's edition, as well as the Glasgow MS. was taken, had been transcribed in that year.

[725] On the margin of the MS. is written, apparently in Knox's own hand, and then deleted, "Here tak in the Beggars Summonds warning the Freres." In Vautr. edit., in MS. G, and in all the other copies, it is introduced in this place, where it stands wholly unconnected. The paper referred to occurs at the end of the original MS., (fol. 388,) as a single leaf, ent.i.tled "The Blind, Crooked, &c., to the Flockis of all Friars within this realme," &c. It will be seen that the Author had finally resolved upon inserting it near the beginning of Book Second.

[726] See note 768, and Appendix, No. XIV. for some notices of this Provincial Council, in 1558-9.

[727] Knox himself fixes the date of his arrival in Scotland to the 2d of May 1559: see page 318.

[728] In the MS. it was originally "The Threepenny Faith." Spottiswood and other writers, (see Keith, vol. i. pp. 5, 149,) have erroneously imagined that this refers to the CATECHISME, "set furth, in his Provincial Counsale," by Archbishop Hamilton; which has this colophon, "Prent.i.t at Sanct Androus, be the command and expensis of the maist reuerend father in G.o.d, Iohne Archbischop of Sanct Androus, and Primat of ye hail Kirk of Scotland, the xxix. day of August, the zeir of our Lord M.D. lii." 4to, 220 leaves. But besides the difference of six years in the date, and the absurdity of supposing that a volume of that size could have been sold for such a price, the Catechism was never intended for the laity, but was specially enjoyned to be used by "all and sindry Personis, Vicars and Curattis," both for their own edification, and for reading a portion of it to "thair awin parochianaris,"--"quhen thair c.u.mmis na precheour to thame to schaw thame the word of G.o.d."--Of the Twopenny Faith, published in 1559, no copy is known to be preserved.

[729] It is said that Hepburn, Bishop of Moray, imagining that the last of the enactments which Knox has specified had a special reference to his licentious conduct, justified himself, not by an appeal to the Canon Law, but to example set by Archbishop Hamilton, who presided in the Council.

[730] At page 262, notice is taken of the appointment of Monsieur de Ruby, in 1554, as Keeper of the Great Seal; and he is there said to have been Comptroller in 1557. For this we have the authority of Lindsay of Pitscottie, who says, "Soone thairefter, she (the Queen Regent) changed her Officeris of State, and maid ane Maister Ruby Comptroller, quho used sick rigour in his office, that incontinent he was deposed."--(Chronicles, sub anno 1557.) But it must be added, that Pitscottie is very inaccurate in many of his statements; as Vielmort, according both to Knox and Lesley, held the office of Comptroller; and the latter expressly says, that Ruby "kepit the Great Seill during the hoill time of the Queen Regent's government," (Hist. p. 252;) that is, from 1554 till 1560. And in 1558, in an Act of Parliament, he is styled "M^c Ynes de Rubbay _Garde des Seaulx_ dicelle Dame," apparently meaning Queen Mary.--(Acta Parl. Scot. vol. ii. p. 513.) According to another authority, he held the Great Seal until 1564, when he was succeeded by David Rizzio.--(Scott's Staggering State, App. p. 175. See Tytler's Hist. vol. vi. p. 60.)

[731] Bartholomew Villemore, it is said, had been named Comptroller by Queen Mary, in March 1560-1, but he was never admitted.--(Scott's Staggering State, App. p. 144.) But Bishop Lesley mentions his appointment as Comptroller by the Queen Regent in the year 1554.--(History, p. 250.)

[732] Lord James Stewart, the eldest of the natural sons of James the Fifth, is noticed at page 71, as having been educated under George Buchanan, and as Commendator of the Monasteries of Kelso and Melrose: see also page 249, note 5. But the date of his death is there erroneously stated. Instead of 1548, it happened in August or September 1558. The Queen Dowager nominated her uncle, Charles Cardinal of Lorraine, and brother of Francis Duke of Guyse, to be his successor, "be vertue of the Acte of Naturalization," (Lesley's History, p. 267;) but the Cardinal never obtained possession of these lucrative benefices. The Commendators.h.i.+p of Melrose was afterwards conferred on James Douglas, a cadet of the Morton family.

[733] Parliament did not meet till the 29th of November 1558.

[734] The Duke of Chattelherault gave in, at the Parliament held at Edinburgh on the 14th December 1557, a protestation "tuiching the marriage of our Souerane Lady;" and another protest, on the 29th November 1558, "tuiching the Crowne Matrimoniale."--(Acta Parl. Scot.

vol. ii. p. 605, 507.)

[735] In MS. G, "except the Duke for his interest."

[736] In MS. G, "professed;" and in the second next line, "profess;" but the words are corrected to "possessed," and "possess," in edit. 1732.

[737] In Vautr. edit. and MS. G, "Harlawe."

[738] These early and zealous friends of the Reformation, who undertook the office of Exhorters, were all laymen, with perhaps the exception of Robert Hamilton, who afterwards became minister of St. Andrews. Robert Lockhart is mentioned by Knox in October 1559, as endeavouring to make an agreement between the Queen Regent, and the Congregation, without success.

[739] In MS. G, "Meffen."

[740] Paul Methven, after the Reformation, was appointed minister of Jedburgh; but to the scandal of his brethren in the ministry, and according to the account of "this horrible fact," related by Knox in his Fourth Book, he was found guilty of adultery, and deposed and excommunicated, June 1563.

[741] Respecting Willock, see notes 633, 672.

[742] "Sacrate authoritie," here, and in other places, may mean the _const.i.tuted_ rather than "sacred authority," as in MS. G, and Vautr.

edit.

[743] Sir James Sandilands of Calder, the ancestor of the Torphichen family. His pedigree is fully detailed in Douglas and Wood's Peerage of Scotland, vol. ii. pp. 590-595. He was born about the year 1480; and had a charter of lands to himself and Margaret Forrester, only daughter of Archibald Forrester of Corstorphine, 23d August 1510. In the Peerage, Sir James is said to have "died after 1553." This date may have misled Mr. Tytler, in stating that it was the Preceptor of the Knights of St.

John, commonly called Lord St. John, who made this appearance in Parliament.--(History, vol. vi. pp. 79, 90.) But Dr. M'Crie has in like manner confounded the father with his second son.--(Life of Knox, vol.

i. p. 176.) Sir James probably survived till the beginning of 1560. On the 12th July 1559, his eldest son and successor was styled "John Sandilands of Calder, younger," which proves that his father was still alive. James Sandilands, his second son, became Lord St. John, and, as stated in note 641, he obtained the temporal lords.h.i.+p of Lord Torphichen, in 1563; but leaving no issue, the t.i.tle, on his death, devolved on his grand-nephew, James Sandilands of Calder, 29th November 1596.

[744] This permission to read the Scriptures "in our common tongue,"

refers to the Act of Parliament 15th March 1542-3: see page 100.

[745] In Vautr. edit. "in severitie of prayer;" MS. G has "in fervent and oft prayers."

[746] MS. G has "stabilitie;" Vautr. edit. "abilitie."

[747] In MS. G, "lavacrie."

[748] The Council of Constance, in 1415, whilst acknowledging that "Christ inst.i.tuted the venerable Sacrament of the Eucharist, after the Supper, and administered it to his Disciples under the forms of bread and wine;" nevertheless decreed that the laity should not be allowed to partake of the cup. This prohibition by the Romish Church, was the occasion of great discontent in some of the foreign Churches, more especially in Bohemia and Switzerland, from the time of John Huss to that of Luther.--As both George Wishart and Knox had previously dispensed the Sacrament, according to the original inst.i.tution, this may have led to this demand for such a privilege to the Protestants in Scotland, in 1558.

[749] It is not unlikely that this last demand, and the increasing strength of the Reformers, may have led the Catholic Prelates and Clergy to enact some of the Canons in their last Provincial Council, for reforming the lives of their own body.

[750] In MS. G, "a longe purs."

[751] Vautr. edit. omits the important words, "sayis the Chronicle," and reads, "40,000 powndes gathered by the Laird of Earles haule."--In the anonymous "Historie of the Estate of Scotland," the sum to be paid, it is said, "was within 15,000 lib."--(Wodrow Miscellany, vol. i. p. 56.)

[752] This Chronicle is not known to be extant; but Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, in his Chronicles of Scotland compiled about 1575, enumerates, as one of his authors, "SIR WILLIAM BRUCE OF EARLESHALL, Knight, who hath written very justly all the deeds since Floudoun Field."--In Douglas's Baronage, pp. 510-513, there is a genealogy of this family, from which we learn that Sir William was the heir of his father, Sir Alexander Bruce of Earlshall, who had the honour of knighthood conferred on him by James the Fourth. Sir William succeeded his father in 1504, and is said to have been knighted by the same Monarch. This is apparently a mistake; but his name appears as _Miles_, in a charter dated 1539. In May 1563, Sir William Bruce became surety for Maxwell of Teling, (Criminal Trials, vol. i. p. *427;) but how long after this he may have survived, is uncertain.

[753] Pitscottie, Calderwood, Spottiswood, and other writers, have given an account of the fate of this aged priest, who suffered martyrdom at St. Andrews, in the eighty-second year of his age. But Foxe's account of his trial and sentence is the earliest and most minute, and will be inserted as No. XIV. of the Appendix to the present volume. Myln himself expressed a hope, which was realized, that he would be the last person in this country thus to suffer for the cause of truth.

[754] Although this _cairn_ was not allowed to remain, there has lately been erected, within sight of the Castle of St. Andrews, a granite obelisk, to commemorate the names of the more eminent Scotish Martyrs.

It bears the following inscription:--

"IN MEMORY OF THE MARTYRS PATRICK HAMILTON, HENRY FORREST, GEORGE WISHART, WALTER MILL, WHO, IN SUPPORT OF THE PROTESTANT FAITH, SUFFERED BY FIRE AT ST. ANDREWS, BETWEEN THE YEARS MDXXVIII AND MDLVIII.

_The righteous shall be held in everlasting remembrance._

[755] In Vautr. edit. "Officiall."

[756] See note 760.

[757] In Vautr. edit. "becommeth."

[758] In Vautr. edit. "officers."

[759] See page 294.

[760] No notice of this Protest occurs in the Acts and Proceedings of the Parliament held at Edinburgh on the 29th November 1558, when, from the reference to the Crown Matrimonial, at page 312, it must have been presented. Knox indeed says it was refused; but the proceedings of that Parliament, which also sat on the 5th December, seem not to have been fully recorded, or at least preserved.

[761] The treaty of peace referred to was concluded at Cateau-Cambresis, between France, England, and Spain, on the 2d April 1559. The evident design of the Courts of France and Spain at this time was to endeavour the extirpation of heresy, or the Protestant Faith in England, as well as in other countries.

[762] In MS. G, "in hir hairt."

[763] It has already been noticed that the preachers summoned were Paul Methven, John Christison, William Harlaw, and John Willock. As they did not appear on the day finally fixed, they and their cautioners were denounced as rebels, on the 10th of May 1559. See the sentence, in M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. i. p. 447.