and like confluence of people. In all his sermons, after his departure from Angus, he forespake the shortness of the time that he had to travail, and of his death, the day whereof, he said, approached nigher than any would believe.
Master George goes to Haddington.
Towards the close of those days that are called the holy days of Yule, he passed, by the consent of the gentlemen, to Haddington, where it was supposed the greatest confluence of people might be found, both by reason of the town and of the country adjacent. On the first day, before noon, the audience was reasonable, and yet nothing in comparison with that which used to be in that kirk. But, in the afternoon and on the next forenoon, the audience was so slender that many wondered. The reason was thought to have been that the Earl Bothwell, who in these bounds had great credit and obedience, had, by procurement of the Cardinal, given inhibition to the town, as well as to the country, that they should not hear Master George, under the pain of his displeasure. On the first night he lay within the town with David Forrest, now called the general, a man that long has professed the truth, and upon whom many in that time depended. On the second night he lay in Lethington, the Laird whereof was ever civil, albeit not persuaded in religion.
John Knox's first Appearance.
On the day following, before the said Master George passed to the sermon, a boy came to him with a letter from the west land. This read, he called for John Knox, who had waited upon him carefully from the time he came to Lothian. With him he began to enter into purpose,[70] saying that he wearied of the world, for he perceived that men began to weary of God. The cause of his complaint was that the gentlemen of the west had written to him that they could not keep diet at Edinburgh. The said John Knox, wondering that he desired to keep any purpose before sermon, for that was never his custom, said, "Sir, the time of sermon approaches: I will leave you for the present to your meditation;" and so left him. The said Master George paced up and down behind the high altar for more than half an hour; his very countenance and visage declared the grief and alteration of his mind. At last he passed to the pulpit, but the audience was small.
The last Sermon of Master George Wishart: his Arrest.
Master George should have begun to have treated of the second table of the Law; but thereof in that sermon he spake very little, and began in this manner: "O Lord, how long shall it be that Thy holy Word shall be despised, and men shall not regard their own salvation. I have heard of thee, Haddington, that in thee two or three thousand people would have been at a vain clerk play;[71] and now, to hear the messenger of the Eternal God, of all thy town or parish there cannot be numbered a hundred persons. Sore and fearful shall the plague be that shall ensue this thy contempt: with fire and sword thou shalt be plagued; yea, thou Haddington, in special, strangers shall possess thee, and you, the present inhabitants, shall either in bondage serve your enemies, or else ye shall be chased from your own habitations; and that because ye have not known, and will not know, the time of God's merciful visitation." That servant of God continued for nearly an hour and a half in such vehemency and threatening, and during this he foretold all the plagues that ensued, as plainly as afterwards our eyes saw them performed. In the end he said, "I have forgotten myself and the matter that I should have entreated; but let these my last words as concerning public preaching remain in your minds, until God send you new comfort." Thereafter he made a short paraphrase upon the second table, with an exhortation to patience, to the fear of God, and unto His works of mercy; and so ended, as it were making his last testament that the spirit of truth and of true judgment was both in his heart and mouth. Before midnight he was apprehended in the house of Ormiston, by the Earl Bothwell, who for money was become butcher to the Cardinal. …
Master George is betrayed into the Hands of the Cardinal.
The servant of God, Master George Wishart, was carried first to Edinburgh; thereafter brought back to the House of Hailes, which was the principal place that then the Earl of Bothwell had in Lothian. As gold and women have corrupted all worldly and fleshly men from the beginning, so did they him. For the Cardinal gave gold, and that largely; and the Queen, with whom the said Earl was then in the glondours,[72] promised favours in all his lawful suits to women, if he would deliver the said Master George to be kept in the Castle of Edinburgh. He made some resistance at the first, by reason of his promise:[73] but an effeminate man cannot long withstand the assaults of a gracious Queen. And so the servant of God was transported to Edinburgh Castle, where he remained not many days. For that bloody wolf, the Cardinal, ever thirsting for the blood of the servant of God, so travailed with the abused Governor, that he was content that God's servant should be delivered to the power of that tyrant.
Thus, small inversion being made, Pilate obeyed the petition of Caiaphas and of his fellows, and adjudged Christ to be crucified. The servant of God being delivered into the hand of that proud and merciless tyrant, triumph was made by the priests. The godly lamented, and accused the foolishness of the Governor; for, by retaining the said Master George, he might have caused Protestants and Papists to have served: the one to the end that the life of their preacher might have been saved; the other, for fear that he should have set him at liberty again, to the confusion of the bishops. But, where God is forsaken, what can counsel or judgment avail?
The Bishops and Clergy are convoked to the Trial of Wishart.
How the servant of God was treated, and what he did from the day that he entered within the Sea-Tower of St. Andrews, which was in the end of January, in the year of God 1546, until the first of March in the same year, when he suffered, we cannot certainly tell. We understand that he wrote something when in prison; but that was suppressed by the enemies. The Cardinal delayed no time, but caused all bishops, yea all the clergy that had any pre-eminence, to be convocated to St. Andrews against the penult[74] of February, for consultation. The question was no less resolved in his own mind than was Christ's death in the mind of Caiaphas; but, that the rest should bear the burden with him, he desired that, before the world, they should subscribe to whatsoever he did.
In that day was wrought no less a wonder than that at the accusation and death of Jesus Christ, when Pilate and Herod, who before were enemies, were made friends, by both of them consenting to Christ's condemnation. There was no difference between the two cases, except that Pilate and Herod were brethren under their father the Devil in the estate called temporal, and these two of whom we are to speak were brethren, sons of the same father the Devil, in the estate ecclesiastical. If we interlace merriness with earnest matters, pardon us, good reader. The fact is so notable that it deserveth long memory.
A merry Tale of the Cardinal and Archbishop Dunbar.
The Cardinal was known to be proud; and Dunbar, Archbishop of Glasgow, was known for a glorious fool; and yet, because for some time he had been called the King's Master,[75] he was Chancellor of Scotland. The Cardinal had come to Glasgow this same year, in the end of harvest, upon what purpose we omit. But while they remained together, the one in the town, the other in the Castle, question arose as to precedence in the bearing of their croziers. The Cardinal alleged that, by reason of his cardinalship and of his office of Legatus Natus and primate within Scotland in the kingdom of Antichrist, he should have the pre-eminence, and that his crozier should not only go before, but should alone be borne, wheresoever he was. Good Gukstoun Glaikstour,[76] the foresaid Archbishop, lacked no reasons, as he thought, for maintenance of his glory. He was an Archbishop, and, within his own diocese and in his own Cathedral seat and Church, ought to give place to no man. The power of the Cardinal was but begged from Rome, and appertained but to his own person, and not to his bishopric; for it might be that his successor should not be Cardinal. But his dignity was annexed to his office, and did appertain to all that ever should be archbishops of Glasgow.
Howsoever these doubts were resolved by the doctors of divinity of both the prelates, the decision was as we shall hear. Coming forth, or going in, at the choir door of Glasgow Kirk there began a strife for position betwixt the two cross-bearers. From glooming they came to shouldering; from shouldering
