this mid time, the wisdom of God did provide that Harry the Eighth, King of England, should abolish from his realm the name and authority of the Pope of Rome, and suppress the Abbeys and other places of idolatry. This gave hope, in divers realms, that some godly reformation should have ensued therefrom. From this our country, divers learned men, and others that lived in fear of persecution, did repair to that realm. They found not such purity as they wished, and some of them sought other countries. But they escaped the tyranny of merciless men, and were reserved to better times, that they might fructify within His Church, in divers places and parts, and in divers vocations. Alexander Seton remained in England, and publicly, with great praise and comfort of many, taught the Evangel in all sincerity certain years. Albeit the craftiness of Winchester, and of others, circumvented the said Alexander, so as to cause him, at Paul's Cross, to affirm certain things repugnant to his former true doctrine; there is no doubt but that, as God had powerfully reigned with him in all his life, in his death, which shortly after followed, he found the mercy of his God, whereupon he ever exhorted all men to depend.
Scots Reformers abroad.
Alexander Alesius, Master John Fyfe, and that famous man Dr. Macchabeus,[23] departed unto Germany, where by God's providence they were distributed to several places. Macdowell, for his singular prudence, besides his learning and godliness, was elected burgomaster in one of the Stadts. Alesius was appointed to the University of Leipsic; and so was Master John Fyfe. There, for their honest behaviour and great erudition, they were held in admiration by all the godly. And in what honour, credit, and estimation, Dr. Macchabeus was with Christian King of Denmark, let Copenhagen and famous men of divers nations testify. Thus did God provide for His servants, and frustrate the expectation of these bloody beasts who, by the death of one in whom the light of God did clearly shine, intended to have suppressed Christ's truth for ever within this realm. But the contrary had God decreed; for his death was, as we have said, the cause of awakening many from the deadly sleep of ignorance; and so did Jesus Christ, the only true Light, shine unto many, from the away-taking of one. These notable men, Master John Fyfe only excepted, did never after comfort this country with their bodily presence; but God made them fructify in His Church, and raised them up lights out of darkness, to the praise of His own mercy, and to the just condemnation of them that then ruled—to wit, the King, Council, and nobility, yea, the whole people—who suffered such notable personages, without crimes committed, to be unjustly persecuted, and so exiled. Others were afterwards treated in the same manner; but of them we shall speak in their own places.
Persecution revived: 1534.
As soon as the bishops got the opportunity which they constantly sought, they renewed the battle against Jesus Christ. In the year of God 1534, the foresaid leprous Archbishop caused to be summoned Sir William Kirk, Adam Deas, Henry Cairns, and John Stewart, indwellers of Leith, with divers others, such as Master William Johnstone, and Master Henry Henderson, schoolmaster of Edinburgh. Some of these compeared in the Abbey Kirk of Holyroodhouse and abjured, and publicly burned their bills: others compeared not, and were exiled. But two were brought to judgment, to wit, David Stratoun, a gentleman, and Master Norman Gourlay, a man of reasonable erudition. Of them we must shortly speak.
David Stratoun and his Teind Fish.
In Master Norman appeared knowledge, albeit joined with weakness. But in David Stratoun there could only be espied, from the first, a hatred against the pride and avarice of the priests. The cause of his delation was as follows. He had made himself a fishing boat to go to sea, and the Bishop of Moray, then being Prior of St. Andrews, and his factors, urged for the teind thereof. His answer was that, if they would have teind of that which his servants won in the sea, it was but reason that they should come and receive it where he got the stock.[24] So, as was constantly affirmed, he caused his servants to cast every tenth fish into the sea again. Process of cursing was led against him, for non-payment of such teinds; and when he contemned this, he was delated[25] to answer for heresy. It troubled him vehemently; and he began to frequent the company of such as were godly; for before he had been a very stubborn man, and one that despised all reading, chiefly of those things that were godly. Miraculously, as it were, he appeared to be changed; for he delighted in nothing but in reading, albeit he himself could not read, and he became a vehement exhorter of all men to concord, to quietness, and to the contempt of the world. He frequented much the company of the Laird of Dun, whom God in those days had marvellously illuminated.
The Conversion of Stratoun.
One day, the present Laird of Lauriston, then a young man, was reading to him from the New Testament, in a certain quiet spot in the fields. As God had appointed, he chanced to read these sentences of our Master, Jesus Christ: "He that denies Me before men, or is ashamed of Me in the midst of this wicked generation, I will deny him in the presence of My Father, and before His angels." At these words he suddenly, being as one ravished, platt[26] himself upon his knees. After extending both hands and visage fixedly to the heavens for a reasonable time, he burst forth in these words: "O Lord, I have been wicked, and justly mayest Thou withdraw Thy grace from me. But, Lord, for Thy mercy's sake, let me never deny Thee or Thy truth, from fear of death or corporal pain."
Martyrdom of Stratoun and Gourlay.
The issue declared that his prayer was not vain: for when he, with the foresaid Master Norman, was produced in judgment in the Abbey of Holyroodhouse, the King himself (all clad in red) being present, there was great labour to make the said David Stratoun recant, and burn his bill. But he, ever standing at his defence, alleging that he had not offended, in the end was adjudged unto the fire. When he perceived the danger, he asked grace of the King. This would the King willingly have granted unto him, but the bishops proudly answered that his hands were bound in that case, and that he had no grace to give to such as by their law were condemned. And so was David Stratoun, with the said Master Norman, after dinner, upon the twenty-seventh day of August, in the year of God 1534, led to a place beside the Rood of Greenside; and there these two were both hanged and burned, according to the mercy of the papistical Kirk.
The True Light spreads: Cardinal David Beaton notwithstanding.
This tyranny notwithstanding, the knowledge of God did wondrously increase within this realm, partly by reading, partly by brotherly conference, which in those dangerous days was used to the comfort of many; but chiefly by merchants and mariners, who, frequenting other countries, heard the true doctrine affirmed, and the vanity of the papistical religion openly rebuked. Dundee and Leith were the principal centres of enlightenment, and there David Beaton, cruel Cardinal, made a very strait inquisition, divers being compelled to abjure and burn their bills, some in St. Andrews, and some at Edinburgh. About the same time, Captain John Borthwick was burnt in effigy, but by God's providence he himself escaped their fury. This was done for a spectacle and triumph to Mary of Lorraine, lately arrived from France, as wife of James the Fifth, King of Scots. What plagues she brought with her, and how they yet continue, may be manifestly seen by such as are not blind.
The Reformation in Court and Cloisters.
The rage of these bloody beasts proceeded so that the King's Court itself escaped not danger; for in it divers were suspected, and some were accused. And yet ever did some light burst out in the midst of darkness; for the truth of Christ Jesus entered even into the cloisters, as well of Friars, as of Monks and Canons. John Linn, a Grey Friar, left his hypocritical habit and the den of those murderers the Grey Friars. A Black Friar, called Friar Kyllour, set forth the history of Christ's Passion in the form of a play, which he both preached and practised openly in Stirling, the King himself being present, upon a Good Friday in the morning. In this, all things were so lovably expressed that the very simple people understood, and these confessed that, as the priests and obstinate Pharisees persuaded the people to refuse Christ Jesus, and caused Pilate to condemn Him, so did the bishops and men called religious blind the people, and persuade princes and judges to persecute such as professed the blessed Evangel of Christ Jesus.
Friar Kyllour and others go to the Stake: Feby.
