This plain speaking so inflamed the hearts of all that bare the beast's mark, that they did not cease their machinations until the said Friar Kyllour, and with him Friar Beveridge, Sir Duncan Simson, Robert Forrester, a gentleman, and Dean Thomas Forret, Canon Regular and Vicar of Dollar, a man of upright life, were all together cruelly murdered in one fire, on the last day of February, in the year of God 1538. This cruelty was used by the said Cardinal, the Chancellor, Archbishop of Glasgow, and the incestuous Bishop of Dunblane.
The Trial of Friar Russell and Friar Kennedy.
After this cruelty was used in Edinburgh, upon the Castle Hill, two friars were apprehended in the Diocese of Glasgow, to the effect that the rest of the bishops might show themselves no less fervent to suppress the light of God than was he of St. Andrews. The one was Jerome Russell, a Cordelier Friar, a young man of a meek nature, quick spirit, and good letters. The other was one Kennedy, who was not more than eighteen years of age, and was of excellent ingyne[27] in Scottish poesy. To assist the Archbishop of Glasgow in that cruel judgment, or at least to cause him to dip his hands in the blood of the saints of God, there were sent Master John Lauder, Master Andrew Oliphant, and Friar Maltman, sergeants of Satan, apt for that purpose. The day appointed for their cruelty having come, the two poor saints of God were presented before these bloody butchers. Grievous were the crimes that were laid to their charge.
At the first, Kennedy was faint, and gladly would have recanted. But, when a place of repentance was denied unto him, the Spirit of God, which is the Spirit of all comfort, began to work in him. The inward comfort began to burst forth, in visage as well as in tongue and word; for his countenance began to be cheerful. With a joyful voice he said, upon his knees, "O Eternal God! how wondrous is that love and mercy that Thou bearest unto mankind, and unto me the most caitiff and miserable wretch above all others; for, even now, when I would have denied Thee, and Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, my only Saviour, and so have casten myself into everlasting damnation; Thou, by Thine own hand, hast pulled me from the very bottom of hell, and makest me to feel that heavenly comfort which takes from me the ungodly fear wherewith before I was oppressed. Now I defy death; do what ye please, I praise my God I am ready."
The godly and learned Jerome, railed upon by those godless tyrants, answered, "This is your hour and that of the power of darkness: now sit ye as judges; and we stand wrongfully accused, and more wrongfully to be condemned; but the day shall come, when our innocency shall appear, and ye shall see your own blindness, to your everlasting confusion. Go forward, and fulfil the measure of your iniquity."
When these servants of God thus behaved themselves, there arose a variance betwixt the Archbishop and the beasts that came from the Cardinal. The Archbishop said, "I think it better to spare these men, rather than to put them to death." Thereat the idiot Doctors, offended, said, "What will ye do, my Lord? Will ye condemn all that my Lord Cardinal and the other bishops and we have done? If so ye do, ye show yourself enemy to the Kirk and us, and so we will repute you, be ye assured." At these words the faithless man, effrayed,[28] adjudged the innocents to die, according to the desire of the wicked.
The Friars are burned.
The meek and gentle Jerome Russell comforted the other with many comfortable sentences, oft saying unto him, "Brother, fear not: more potent is He that is in us, than is he that is in the world. The pain that we shall suffer is short, and shall be light; but our joy and consolation shall never end. Therefore, let us contend to enter in unto our Master and Saviour, by the strait way which He has trod before us. Death cannot destroy us; for it is destroyed already by Him for whose sake we suffer." With these and the like comfortable sentences, they passed to the place of execution, and constantly triumphed over death and Satan, even in the midst of the flaming fire.
The Bigotry of James V.
Thus did these cruel beasts intend nothing but murder in all quarters of this realm. For so far had that blinded and most vicious man, the Prince—most vicious, we call him, for he neither spared man's wife nor maiden, no more after his marriage than he did before—so far, we say, had he given himself to obey the tyranny of those bloody beasts that he had made a solemn vow, that none should be spared that was suspected of heresy, yea, although it were his own son. He lacked not flatterers enough to press and push him forward in his fury. Many of his minions were pensioners to priests; and among them, Oliver Sinclair, still surviving and an enemy to God, was the principal.
God speaks to the King.
Yet did not God cease to give to that blinded Prince documents[29] that some sudden plague was to fall upon him, if he did not repent his wicked life; and that his own mouth did confess. For, after Sir James Hamilton was beheaded, justly or unjustly we dispute not, this vision came unto him, as he himself did declare to his familiars. The said Sir James appeared unto him, having in his hands a drawn sword. With this he struck both arms from the King, saying to him, "Take that, until thou receivest a final payment for all thy impiety." He showed this vision, with sorrowful countenance, on the morrow; and shortly thereafter his two sons died, both within the space of twenty-four hours; some say, within the space of six hours. In his own presence, George Steel, his greatest flatterer, and the greatest enemy to God that was in his Court, dropped off his horse, and died without word, on the same day that, in open audience of many, the said George had refused his portion of Christ's kingdom, if the prayers of the Virgin Mary should not bring him there.
Men of good credit can yet report a terrible vision the said Prince saw, when lying in Linlithgow, on the night that Thomas Scott, Justice Clerk, died in Edinburgh. Affrighted at midnight, or after, he cried for torches, and raised all that lay in the Palace. He told that Thomas Scott was dead; for he had been at him with a company of devils, and had said unto him these words, "O woe to the day that ever I knew thee or thy service; for, for serving thee against God, against His servants, and against justice, I am adjudged to endless torment." Of the terrible utterances of the said Thomas Scott before his death, men of all estates heard, and some that yet live can witness. His words were ever, "Justo Dei judicio condemnatus sum"; that is, I am condemned by God's just judgment. He was most oppressed for the delation and false accusation of such as professed Christ's Evangel, as Master Thomas Marjoribanks and Master Hew Rigg, then advocates, did confess to Mr. Henry Balnaves. These came to him from the said Thomas Scott, as he and Mr. Thomas Bellenden were sitting in St. Giles's Kirk, and in the name of the said Thomas asked his forgiveness.
George Buchanan: his Arrest and Escape.
None of these terrible forewarnings could either change or mollify the heart of the indurate, lecherous, and avaricious tyrant: still did he proceed from impiety to impiety. In the midst of these admonitions he caused hands to be put on that notable man, Master George Buchanan to whom, for his singular erudition and honest behaviour was committed the charge of instructing some of his bastard children. But, by the merciful providence of God, Master George escaped the rage of those that sought his blood, albeit with great difficulty, and he remains alive to this day, in the year of God 1566, to the glory of God, to the great honour of his nation, and unto the comfort of those that delight in letters and virtue. That singular work of David's Psalms in Latin metre and poesy, besides many others, can witness the rare grace of God given to the man whom that tyrant, by instigation of the Grey Friars and of his other flatterers, would altogether have devoured, if God had not provided to his servant remedy by escape.
This cruelty and persecution notwithstanding, these monsters and hypocrites the Grey Friars, day by day, came further into contempt; for not only did the learned espy their abominable hypocrisy, but men, in whom no such grace or gifts were thought to have been, began plainly to paint the same forth to the people. …
When God had given unto that indurate Prince sufficient documents that his rebellion against His blessed Evangel should not prosperously succeed, He raised war against him, as He did against obstinate Saul, and in this he miserably perished, as we shall hear.
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