bishops follow Pilate, who both did condemn, and also washed his hands) who condemned him to the fire. Therein he was consumed at St. Andrews, about the time mentioned. To declare themselves to be of the generation of Satan, who from the beginning hath been enemy to the truth and desireth the same to be hid from the knowledge of men, they put a ball of brass in his mouth, to the end that he should not give confession of his faith to the people, nor yet that they should understand the defence which he had against his unjust accusation and condemnation.
The Lollards of Kyle: 1494.
These practices did not greatly advance the kingdom of darkness, nor were they able utterly to extinguish the truth. In the days of King James the Second and King James the Third we find small question of religion moved within this Realm, but in the time of King James the Fourth, in the year of God 1494, thirty persons were summoned before the King and his Great Council, by Robert Blackader, called Archbishop of Glasgow. Some of these dwelt in Kyle-Stewart, some in King's-Kyle, and some in Cunningham. Amongst them were George Campbell of Cessnock, Adam Reid of Barskymming, John Campbell of New Mills, Andrew Shaw of Polkemmet, Helen Chalmers, Lady Polkellie, and Marion Chalmers, Lady Stair.
Whereof the Lollards of Kyle were accused.
These were called the Lollards of Kyle. In the Register of Glasgow we find the Articles of Belief for which they were accused. These were as follows:—(1) Images are not to be possessed, nor yet to be worshipped. (2) Relics of Saints are not to be worshipped. (3) Laws and Ordinances of men vary from time to time, and so do those of the Pope. (4) It is not lawful to fight, or to defend the faith. (We translate according to the barbarousness of their Latin and dictament.[2]) (5) Christ gave power to Peter only, and not to his successors, to bind and loose within the Kirk. (6) Christ ordained no priests to consecrate. (7) After the consecration in the Mass, there remains bread; and the natural body of Christ is not there. (8) Tithes ought not to be given to Ecclesiastical Men—as they were then called. (9) Christ at His coming took away power from Kings to judge. (This article we doubt not to be the venomous accusation of the enemies, whose practice has ever been to make the doctrine of Jesus Christ suspect to Kings and rulers, as if God thereby would depose them from their royal seats, while, on the contrary, nothing confirms the power of magistrates more than does God's Word.—But to the Articles.) (10) Every faithful man or woman is a priest. (11) The anointing of kings ceased at the coming of Christ. (12) The Pope is not the successor of Peter—except where Christ said, "Go behind me, Satan." (13) The Pope deceiveth the people by his bulls and his indulgences. (14) The Mass profiteth not the souls that are in purgatory. (15) The Pope and the bishops deceive the people by their pardons. (16) Indulgences to fight against the Saracens ought not to be granted. (17) The Pope exalts himself against God and above God. (18) The Pope cannot remit the pains of purgatory. (19) The blessings of the bishops—of dumb dogs they should have been styled—are of no value. (20) The excommunication of the Kirk is not to be feared. (21) In no case is it lawful to swear. (22) Priests may have wives, according to the constitution of the law. (23) True Christians receive the body of Jesus Christ every day. (24) After matrimony is contracted, the Kirk may make no divorce. (25) Excommunication binds not. (26) The Pope forgives not sins, but only God. (27) Faith should not be given to miracles. (28) We should not pray to the glorious Virgin Mary, but to God only. (29) We are no more bound to pray in the kirk than in other places. (30) We are not bound to believe all that the Doctors of the Kirk have written. (31) Such as worship the sacrament of the Kirk—we suppose they meant the sacrament of the altar—commit idolatry. (32) The Pope is the head of the Kirk of Antichrist. (33) The Pope and his ministers are murderers. (34) They which are called principals in the Church are thieves and robbers.
Albeit that the accusation of the Archbishop and his accomplices was very grievous, God so assisted his servants, partly by inclining the King's heart to gentleness (for divers of them were his great familiars), and partly by giving bold and godly answers to their accusators, that the enemies in the end were frustrated in their purpose. When the Archbishop, in mockery, said to Adam Reid of Barskymming, "Reid, believe ye that God is in heaven?" He answered, "Not as I do the Sacraments seven." Thereat the Archbishop, thinking to have triumphed, said, "Sir, lo, he denies that God is in heaven." The King, wondering, said, "Adam Reid, what say ye?" The other answered, "Please your Grace to hear the end betwixt the churl and me." Therewith he turned to the Archbishop and said, "I neither think nor believe, as thou thinkest, that God is in heaven; but I am most assured that He is not only in heaven, but also on earth. Thou and thy faction declare by your works that either ye think there is no God at all, or else that He is so shut up in heaven that He regards not what is done on earth. If thou didst firmly believe that God was in heaven, thou shouldst not make thyself cheek-mate[3] to the King, and altogether forget the charge that Jesus Christ the Son of God gave to His Apostles. That was, to preach His Evangel, and not to play the proud prelates, as all the rabble of you do this day. And now, Sir," said he to the King, "judge ye whether the Bishop or I believe best that God is in heaven." While the Archbishop and his band could not well revenge themselves, and while many taunts were given them in their teeth, the King, willing to put an end to further reasoning, said to the said Adam Reid, "Wilt thou burn thy bill?"[4] He answered, "Sir, the Bishop and ye will." With these and the like scoffs the Archbishop and his band were so dashed out of countenance that the greatest part of the accusation was turned to laughter.
Archbishop James Beaton.
After that diet, we find almost no question for matters of religion, for the space of nigh thirty years. For not long after, to wit, in the year of God 1508, the said Archbishop Blackader departed this life, while journeying in his superstitious devotion to Jerusalem. Unto him succeeded Mr. James Beaton, son to the Laird of Balfour, in Fife. More careful for the world than he was to preach Christ, or yet to advance any religion, but for the fashion only, he sought the world, and it fled him not. At once he was Archbishop of St. Andrews, Abbot of Dunfermline, Arbroath, and Kilwinning, and Chancellor of Scotland. After the unhappy field of Flodden, in which perished King James the Fourth, with the greater part of the nobility of the realm, the said Beaton with the rest of the prelates, had the whole regiment[5] of the realm. By reason thereof, he held and travailed to hold the truth of God in thraldom and bondage, until it pleased God of His great mercy, in the year of God 1527, to raise up His servant, Master Patrick Hamilton, at whom our history doth begin. Because men of fame and renown have in divers works written of his progeny, life, and erudition, we omit all curious repetition. If any would know further of him than we write, we send them to Francis Lambert, John Firth, and to that notable work, lately set forth by John Foxe, Englishman, of the Lives and Deaths of Martyrs within this Isle, in this our age.
The Coming of Patrick Hamilton.
This servant of God, the said Master Patrick, being in his youth provided with reasonable honour and living (he was titular Abbot of Ferne), as one hating the world and the vanity thereof, left Scotland, and passed to the schools in Germany; for then the fame of the University of Wittenberg was greatly divulged in all countries. There, by God's providence, he became familiar with these lights and notable servants of Christ Jesus of that time, Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, and the said Francis Lambert, and he did so grow and advance in godly knowledge, joined with fervency and integrity of life, that he was in admiration with many. The zeal of God's glory did so eat him up, that he could of no long continuance remain abroad, but returned to his country, where the bright beams of the true light, which by God's grace was planted in his heart, began most abundantly to burst forth, as well in public as in secret. Besides his godly knowledge, he was well learned in philosophy. He abhorred sophistry, and would that the text of Aristotle should have been better understood and more used in the schools than then it was: for sophistry had corrupted all, as well in divinity as in humanity.
Persecution of Patrick Hamilton.
In short process of time, the fame of the said Master Patrick's reasoning and doctrine troubled the clergy, and came to the ears of Archbishop James Beaton. Being a conjured enemy to Jesus Christ, and one that long had had the whole regiment of this realm, he bare impatiently that any trouble should be made in that kingdom of darkness whereof, within
