with you for as to these vices we have been talking of I thank God none of them do reign in me onely I speak this to discover your minde and disposition Thus both agreeing upon the enterprise they gave private notice to their friends of their coming and obtaining a supply of ten thousand men from King Edward under the leading of Sibard Earl of Northumberland Malcolmes Grand-father by the Mother they entered into Scotland The rumour of this Army did cast Mackbeth into a great terrour and not knowing what to do for he was deserted of all he shut up himself at first in the Castle of Dunsinnan a Fort that he had lately built The Army marching thither how soon they came in sight Mackbeth out of a new fear forsook the Fort and made to flye by horse but being pursued by some of Malcolme his friends he was overtaken and killed Upon this victory Malcolme was declared King and crowned in Scone the 25. of April 1057. Soon after his Coronation calling the Estates together at Forfar he restored the children of those that Mackbeth had forfeited and to correct the intemperances of the people and to recall them to the ancient frugality made divers good statutes repealing that beastly Act of Eugenius the third which appointed the first night of the new married woman to appertain to the Lord of the ground and granting the husband liberty to redeem the same by payment of an half Mark of silver which portion they call Marchetas mulierum and is as yet disponed by superiours in the Charters they give to their vassals In this Convention likewise the Bishops who as we shewed before did indifferently administrate their functions in all places to which they came had limits appointed to them for the exercise of their jurisdiction To Saint Andrewes was committed the oversight of Fife Louthian Merce Striveling-shire Angus and Mernis Glasgow had the charge given him of the West parts and Borders Galloway this countrey which yet beareth the name and Murthlack all that is now of the Diocy of Aberdeen Besides these the King did erect Murray and Cathnes in two Bishopricks appointing able men for the discharge of the service and providing them with maintenance sufficient he gave the Lordship of Momemusk the superiority whereof belongs as yet to that See The Church of Dunfermling he built from the ground and laid the foundation of the Cathedral in Durham advancing great summes to the perfection thereof In all which he was much furthered by that blessed Lady Queen Margaret his wife That we may better know this Lady and how she came to be married unto Malcolme I must relate a few things belonging to that purpose Edmond King of England surnamed Ironside being treacherously killed at Oxford Canutus a Dane who reigned in a part of that kingdome attained the absolute dominion of the whole This Edmond left two sons Edwin and Edward whom Canutus in the beginning entertained very kindly but afterwards seeking to establish the Crown in his own posterity he sent them to Volgarus the Governour of Swain to be murthered The Governour pitying the estate of these innocent youths conveyed them secretly unto Solomon King of Hungary giving out to Canutus that they were made away Edward surviving Edwin his brother married Agatha sister to the Queen of Hungary and daughter to the Emperour Henry the second by whom he had a son called Edgar and two daughters Margaret and Christian. After Canutus his death succeeded Harold his eldest son whose reign was cruel and short and four years only And after him Hardicanutus who died suddenly in the second year of his reign and was the last of the Danes that ruled in England Upon his death Edward brother to Edmondlronside living then in Nomandy was recalled and Crowned King of England at Winchester in the year 1042. This is he that is called Edward the Confessor a most pious King who having no issue sent to Hungary for his Cousin Edward and for his children Edward soon after his coming died so Edgar surnamed Atheling remained to whom King Edward would willingly have resigned the Crown but such was the modesty of that young Prince as he did absolutely refuse to reign during the King his life That lost him the Crown for upon the death of the King Harold son to Earl Godwin was preferred Prince Edgar his right utterly misknown But Harold his reign continued not long William Duke of Normandy commonly called the Conqueror having killed him in a battel fought in Sussex the next year usurped the kingdom to himself Edgar fearing the Conquerors cruelty took sea with his mother Agatha and his two sisters Margaret and Christian intending to return into Hungargy but were by Tempest driven upon the coast of Scotland where King Malcolme that had learned by his own sufferances to compassionate the distresses of others did most courteously receive them and shortly after their coming took Margaret the eldest sister of Edgar to wife a Lady of rare vertue who though she brought him little or no portion made both him and his kingdom happy How soon the Norman had setled his dominion in England he sent to King Malcolme to require Edgar his competitor and fugitive as he termed him to be rendered Malcolme refused holding it an unseemly deed in a King to deliver any person that took their refuge to him much more to betray a Prince allyed to himself unto his mortal enemy Hereupon Warre was proclaimed and one Roger a Nobleman of Normandy sent to invade Northumberland which was then in the possession of the Scots Richard Earl of Gloucester did second him with a great power but both these were put to the worse Odon the Normans brother who of a Bishop of Bayeux was made Earl of Kent as likewise his own son Robert whom he employed with several Armies did prosper no better so as wearied of the warres he began to think of peace neither was Malcolme unwilling unto it and after some treaty it was accorded That King Malcolme should retain Cumberland with the same right that his predecessours did enjoy it and that the subjects of each kingdom might know their limits and how farre they were to passe a stone-crosse was erected in Stammore which was called the Ree Crosse that is the Crosse of Kings for on the North side thereof the Armes of the King of Scotland were graven and upon the South the Armes of the King of England This peace held firm all the Conquerours time but William called Rufus his son succeeding it quickly dissolved neither could it be otherwise considering the contrary disposition of the two Kings for as Malcolme was religiously given and a great Benefactor to the Church so Rufus in all his carriage manifested no affection that way For to inlarge his Forest at Winchester he demolished thirty Churches and forced Anselme that good Bishop of Canterbury to quit the kingdom for the liberty he used in his
money and not out of any purpose those Fathers had to redresse abuses The same year was one Bagimund a Legate directed hither who calling before him all the Beneficed persons within the kingdom caused them upon their oath give up the worth and value of their Benefices according to which they were taxed The table commonly called Bagiments rolls served for the present collection and was a rule in after times for the prizes taken of those that came to sue for Benefices in the Court of Rome Wishart not long after his return from this Councel being employed by the King and State in a Commission of the Borders sickned at Marbotle in Teriotdale and there died He is commended to have been a man careful in his charge and a great lover of peace then which there is no vertue more required in a Churchman he continued Bishop 5. years and 8. monthes only his corps was honourably conveyed from Marbotle and interred in his own Church nigh to the high Altar in the year 1279. There lived in the kingdome at this time Michael Scot and Thomas Lermouth men greatly admired the first for his rarest skill in the secrets of nature the other for his predictions and foretelling of things to come Picus Mirandula and Cornelius Agrippa do make honourable mention of Michael Scot in their writings and accompt him to have been a subtile Philosopher and most expert in the Mathematick sciences The prophecies yet extant in the Scottish Rymes of the other whereupon he was commonly called Thomas the Rymer may justly be admired having foretold so many ages before the union of the kingdomes of England and Scotland in the ninth degree of the Bruces blood with the succession of Bruce himselfe to the Crown being yet a childe and other divers particulars which the event hath ratified and made good Boeth in his story relateth his prediction of King Alexanders death and that he did foretell the same to the Earl of March the day before it fell out saying That before the next day at noon such a tempest should blow as Scotland had not felt many years before The next morning the day being clear and no change appearing in the aire the Nobleman did challenge Thomas of his saying calling him an Impostor he replied that noon was not yet passed About which time a Post came to advertise the Earl of the King his sudden death Then said Thomas This is the tempest I foretold and so it shall prove to Scotland Whence or how he had this knowledge can hardly be affirmed but sure it is that he did divine and answer truly of many things to come 25. William Fraser Chancellour of the kingdom was after Wishart elected Bishop and going to Rome was consecrated by Pope Nicolaus the third in the year 1280. The office of Chancery upon his resignation was given by the King to Mâ— Iohn Pebles Archdeacon of S. Andrewes At his return from Rome a pestilential feaver never before known in this kingdome brake up to the destruction of an infinite number of people This visitation was scarce ceased when all the Kings children were taken away one after another first David his yongest son died then Alexander the Prince who had married a daughter of the Earl of Flanders after him Margret Queen of Norway who left behinde her one onely daughter and last the King himself who had taken to wife after the death of his Queen Iolet a daughter to the Count of Dreux in hope to restore his issue was most unfortunately killed by the fall of his horse a little space from the town of Kingorne So many deaths falling out together in the Royal family did presage great calamities to ensue The onely hope that remained was in the Norvegian maid for whom Sir David Wemis and Sir Michael Scot two Knights of Fife were directed by the Estates The administration of affaires was in the mean time committed to William Fraser Bishop of S. Andrewes Duncan Earl of Fife and Iohn Coming Earl of Bughan for the countries on the North side of Forth and to Robert Bishop of Glasgow Iohn Lord Comin and Iohn Lord Stewart for the South parts but it was not long before that these Gentlemen that were sent to Norway returned bringing word that the maid of Norway was likewise departed this life At which newes it cannot be told whether the fears or sorrowes of the subjects were greater for as their sorrow for the losse of so worthy a King was great so their fear was no lesse because of the uncertainty of the succession for so many Competitors six they were in number claiming the inheritance of the Crown and all of them men of power and friendship they could not but divide the Realme and so beget a civil warre yet they who were trusted during the interreigne did by their mediation work them to a compromise and to remit the decision of the controversie to King Edward the first of England a Prince of long experience and much respected in that time To this purpose the Bishop of Brichen with the Abbot of Iedbrugh and Galfred Mowbray a Gentleman were sent to King Edward who finding him at Xantoign in France did expone to him the inconveniences that were feared to fall out in the kingdome and the course they had taken to prevent the same intreating his help for quieting the State King Edward glad to have an hand in the making of a King in Scotland dimitted them with many loving words assigning a Diet to the Competitors at Norham upon Tweed which he promised to keep The day come and the Competitors all present with the Prelates and other Nobles the King by a long and premeditated speech declared That albeit he might justly claim the superiority of the kingdome of Scotland as belonging to him by right yet as a friend and arbiter elected by themselves he would labour to compose the present controversie in the best sort he could for the right said he howsoever there be divers pretenders belongeth to one onely and for my self I determine to wrong no man but to do that whâ—ch is just assuring my self you will all acquiesce and take him for King who shall be pronounced so to be This said Robert Bishop of Glasgow arose and gave the King most hearty thanks in name of the rest for the good affection he bare to their countrey and the paines he had taken to come and remove their debates shewing that out of a perswasion they all had of his wisdome and equity they were well pleased to submit to him as sole Arbiter the judgement and decision of that weighty affaire But where it had pleased him to speak of a right of superiority over the kingdome it was sufficiently known that Scotland from the first foundation of the State had been a free and independent kingdome and not subject to any other power whatsoever That their ancestors
And to shew that in his election no respect was had to neerness of bloud his elder brother Alexander was then alive who would not have been passed if propinquity or kindred had carried the sway How Duke Murdack and his father before him came to govern it was well known King Robert the third waxing infirm and unable to rule by himself did substitute his brother called Robert likewise his Lieutenant in the Kingdome commending his tow sons David and Iames to his care But the kindness he shewed to them was that the elder of the two was starved to death in the Palace of Falkland and the younger forced fly for his life he being detained prisoner in England After the fathers death the uncle usurped still the place wherewith he was possessed and at his dying left the same to Murdack his son As to that he speaks of his own Regiment they said he had done more wisely not to have mentioned it considering his preferment proceeded rather of hatred born to the Cardinall who had supposed a false testament then of any favour carried to himself And that being possessed in the place he sold both it and the young Queen to the French which had bred a great deal of trouble And granting the custome had been such as he pratends will any man in reason judge it safe to commit the tuition of an innocent child to him whose family hath entertained so long enmity with that of which the King is descended and will ever be waiting and wishing the death of his Pupill none will think it This was the substance of the reply which when the Queen of England heard she directed certain of the Councell to shew the Duke that he was not to look for any help from her in that businesse and to prohibite his journey into Scotland till the Regent was parted and gone home About the same time there were letters of the Queen of Scots intercepted sent to the Noblemen of her party in Scotland wherein she complained That the Queen of England had not kept promise unto her yet desired them to be of good heart because she was assured of aid by some other means and hoped to be with them in a short time These letters sent from Scotland to the Regent he delivered to the Queen of England who from thenceforth was much estranged from the Queen of Scots as well for that she charged her with breach of promise as because it appeared she leaned to some others besides her self The Regent presently after took his journey homewards and being attended by the Sheriffes and Gentlemen of the Countrey at the Queen of Englands direction came safely to Berwick the first of February and the day following to Edinburgh within a few days he went to Striveling and in a convention of the Estates having related the proceedings in England had all ratified and approved The twentieth of the same moneth the Duke of Chattellerault returned and being made deputy by the Queen of Scots caused publish his letters prohibitting the subjects to acknowledge any other Soveraign then the Queen Hereupon the Regent gave forth Proclamations charging the lieges in the Kings name to meet him in Arms at Glasgow the tenth of March The Duke in the mean time sent to the Assembly of the Church convened at that time in Edinburgh a prolixe letter wherein he signified That being in France and hearing what troubles were moved at home the love he carried to his native countrey made him return with intent to pacify these stirres at his utmost power And howbeit in his absence he had suffered wrong yet he assured them that his own particular did not grieve him so much as the danger wherein the Kingdom was brought by the diversity that had happened betwixt the Queen their native Soveraign and a part of her subjects which he wished to be removed in some quiet and peaceable manner and that the Estates convening might after they had considered the ground and beginning of these troubles which he conceived to be the murther of the Queens late husband with one consent agree upon soem reasonable course to be followed for redresse thereof and of the evils which thence had proceeded whereunto he and all the Nobility continuing in the obedience of the Queen their Soveraign should be found pliable which he did not write as he said because of the Proclamations made by the Earl of Murray to convene people in Glasgow the tenth of March for since these troubles began he was not in the countrey and if all Scotland were gathered he would trust for his own and his predecessors good deserving to find such favour as if the Earl of Murray would invade him and his friends he should not be assisted by any of them to do him wrong Therefore desired them in Gods behalfe so the letter beareth to make his minde and intention known to the people or if they did not think his desires and offers reasonable that they would come and reason with himself whom they should finde easy to be ruled in all matters according to Gods word and equity To this letter dated at Hamilton the 27. of February 1568. the Assembly answered That they would communicate the Letter with the Regent and know his pleasure whether or not they should send any of their number to the Duke in Commission to treat with his Grace Which accordingly they did appointing the Superintendents of Lothian and Fise with Mr. Iohn Row to go unto the Regent and having obtained his licence to pass to the Duke and Noblemen that were in his company and use all means possible for reconciling them to the obedience of the King and his Regent They had also certain Petitions given them to be presented to the Regent in name of the Church as to desire That benesiced persons not bearing function in the Church and subject only in paiment of thirds should be compelled to contribute for sustentation of the poor That remedy might be provided against the chopping and changing of Benefices diminution of rentals and setting of Tithes in long leases to the defrauding of Ministers and their successors that they who possessed plurality of Benesices might be caused dimit all saving one That the jurisdiction of the Church might be separated from the Civil and that they might without his Graces offence and the Councels use their censures against the Earl of Huntley for deposing the Collectors of the Church and placing others in their roomes by his own authority Such a respect was carried in that time to Civil power as the Church could not proceed in censures against men in prime places without their knowledge the neglect whereof in after times brought with it great troubles both to the Church and State I find in the same Assembly the University of S. Andrews ordained to meet and form such orders as they should think fit for giving degrees in divinity whereby it appeareth that our first
children and their exhibition as was appointed made them in after times no less troublesome to the Countrey then before In the end of the year the Earl of Dunbarre departed his life at whitehall a man of deep wit few words and in his Majesties service no less faithfull then fortunate The most difficile affaires he compassed without any noise and never returned when he was employed without the work performed that he was sent to doe His death made a great change in our Estate Sir Robert Ker a son of Farnherst who had served the King long in the quality of a Page and was then grown powerfull in Court carrying all things by his credit At first the Thesaurers Office which was in the person of Dunbar whilest he lived was trusted to certain Commissioners but after a little space the same was bestowed upon the said Sir Robert and he preferred to be Earl of Somerset The guard that Sir William Cranston a Gentleman of great worth did command and wherewith he had performed divers notable services in the Borders was taken from him and given to Sir Robert Ker of Ancram Somersets cousin Sir Gedeon Murray his Uncle by the Mother made Deputy in the Office of Thesaury and Sir Thomas Hamilton his Majesties Advocate who had married his sister placed first in the office of Register and afterwards made Secretary all which was ascribed to Somerset his credit Yet these things were not ill taken the last excepted for Sir William Cranston being content to resigne his place the King in remembrance of his good service did preferre him to be a Lord of Parliament Sir Gedeon his abilities for the services he was trusted with were known to all and for the Advocate his sufficiency was undoubted only the manner of his coming to be Register was not so well interpreted Sir Iohn Skeen had enjoyed the place a good many years and being grown in age and infirme thinking to get his son provided to his office had sent him to Court with a dimission of the place but with a charge not to use it unless he found the King willing to admit him yet he abused by some politick wits made a resignation of the Office accepting an ordinary place among the Lords of Session The office upon his resignation was presently disponed to the Advocate which grieved the Father beyond all measure And the case indeed was pitifull and much regrated by all honest men for he had been a man much employed and honoured with divers legations which he discharged with good credit and now in age to be circumvented in this sort by the simplicity or folly of his son 't was held lamentable The King being informed of the abuse by the old mans complaint was very carefull to satisfie him and to have the son reconciled to his father which after some travell was brought to passe yet so exceeding was the old mans discontent as within a few daies he deceased The office of Register was shortly after enterchanged with the Secretary Sir Alexander Hay and he made keeper of the Rolls the Lord Binning Secretary and Sir William Oliphant received to be his Majesties Advocate In the beginning of the next year there happened diverse unhappy quarrels betwixt the Scots and English at Court which was like to have produced very bad effects and nothing worse taken then the slaughter of an English Fencer by the Lord Sanqhars instigation who for an injury alledged did hire one called Carleill to kill the Fencer this fact committed in the City of London and so near to the Kings Court caused such a heart-burning among the people as it was not farre from breaking forth into a generall commotion But his Majesty preventing the danger made Sanqhar to be arrested and brought to his triall where being convicted he was hanged publickly at the Palace-gate of Westminster This act of justice gave the English a great content nor was the death of the Nobleman much regrated by his own Countrey people for he had lived all his time dissolutely and falling in familiarity with a base Curtesan at Paris had by her a son to whom he entailed his lands intending to defraud the heir But the King taking the matter into his own cognition did by compromise adjudge the succession to the just inheritour appointing a little portion to the base son who in a short time made away the same prodigally Not long before his Majesty being informed of a course kept by the Church in excommunicating persons that were fugitives for capitall crimes sent to the Bishops and Clergy a Letter of this tenor The Ecclesiasticall Censure of Excommunication which should be inflicted upon such as having committed any scandalous offence are contemners of the admonitions of the Church is as we have been enformed so farre absued against the first institution that we cannot sufficiently mervail of the proceeding said to be commonly used among you namely that persons fugitive for capitall crimes being cited before Ecclesiastical Iudicatories although it be known that they dare not compeir for fear of their life are sentenced as persons contumacious whereas the fear they stand in ought in reason to excuse their absence since they cannot be judged contemners of the Church who upon just terrors are kept back from giving their personall appearance In a late Treatise the Venetian Padre Paulo did learnedly confute the sentence pronounced by the present Pope against him for his not appearing to answer in the cause of heresie only upon the just fear be pretended and had his appeal justified by all indifferent men from the Popes sentence as abusive your proceedings for the manner is no other and by the learnedst Divines in these parts resembled to the Moscovites form who if he be offended with any person commandeth him to send his head unto him just so your citations are in the foresaid case which is to will the offenders come in and be hanged which were they never so penitent is not to be thought they will doe for they will rather fall under your censure then hazard themselves in the hands of the justice This being the ready way to bring the Censures of the Church in contempt Our pleasure is that hereafter there be no such form of proceeding used among you Notwithstanding if it shall happen such offenders to obtain our pardon and that the fear they stand in of their life be removed we mean not but that they should be called before the Church and Censures used against such of those that are impenitent Hereof perswading our selves that you will have care and not give way to the abuse in time coming We bid you farewell Upon the receipt of this Letter the Bishops convening with certain of the Clergie to advise what course was fittest to be held in these cases a long reasoning was kept some maintaining That the form practised by the Church was not to be changed they having tried the good thereof
with the crown before his death But ere he returned the King was dead and his brother Kinnatellus crowned King This accident troubled Columba and made him doubtful what to do For if he should send Aidanus back he knew not how Kinnatellus would takeit and to go on not knowing how the King stood affected towards Aidanus he held it dangerous After a little debating with himselfe he resolved to hold forward and taking Aidanus in company did present him to the King who against the expectation of most men accepted him most lovingly bidding him be of good heart for he should in a short time inherit his fathers Crown mean while because of his own age and infirmity he committed to him the administration of affairs and designed him his successor After a few dayes Kinnatellus dying Aidanus was crowned King Columba performing the ceremonies at which time he is said to have made a most pithy and eloquent speech exhorting the King to the love of Iustice the Nobles to the observance of Peace the people to obedience and them all to constancy in the Christian profession wherewith the whole Assembly was so much affected as by holding up their hands they did solemnly swear to continue loyal subjects to the King and to be obedient to him as their spiritual Pastor The Coronation ended Columba retired to the Isle Iona for he loved to remain in that place and Aidanus applying himself to order the Estate went through the countries of Gallaway Cathnes and Loqhaber holding Justice-Courts in all these parts and reforming what he found amisse But as no prosperity is lasting it happened in a sport of hunting that some Noble-men falling at discord there was a great slaughter committed the Authours whereof fearing the severity of Law fled to Breudeus King of the Picts and being remanded according to the conditions of the league were after some delayes directly refused Aidanus taking this to heart whilest he sought to recover them by force had his son Arthur Buchannan calleth him Griffin a Prince of great hopes and Brenden his Nephew with divers of his Nobles killed Columba grieved with this accident came to the King and rebuked him bitterly for making warre with his neighbour upon so light an occasion wherewith he is said to be no lesse moved then with the losse he had received for Columba striving to be gone he caught him by the hand and confessing he had been too hasty entreated his best advice and counsel how to repair things But he replying that no advice could redresse the harm that was done the King burst forth into tears Columba fell also a weeping and after a little space said that he would counsell him to make peace which he was content to do at his sight The matter moved to Brudeus he likewise agreed to remit all to Columba who shortly after brought them to be friends But the heart-burning between the two people ceased not which Ethelfrid King of Northumberland a wicked and avaritious man craftily entertained stirring the Picts to make fresh incursions upon the Scots so as Aidanus was compelled to take Arms Columba being advertised of the necessity the King was put to gave order that private supplications should be made for his safety and the overthrow of his enemies which falling out according to their wishes was generally ascribed to Columba his devotion For as the report went in the same hour wherein the enemies were defeated he did call his Collegues together and willed them to turn their prayers into thanskgiving for that the King had obtained the victory yet was the place of the conflict distant from Iona where Columba lived 200. miles at least The year following which was the year of our Lord 603. Columba died being of a good age neither did the King Aidanus long survive him The Irish contend that Columba died in the City of Down and was buried in St. Patricks Tomb and for verifying the same alledge an old Distick which was they say engraven upon the Tomb and defaced only in the dayes of King Henry the eighth Hi tres in Duno tumulo tumulantur in uno Brigida Patricius atque Columba pius But it carrieth no likelihood that Columba being so farre in years would make a journey into Ireland or that Aidanus who loved him so dearly would suffer him to depart whilest he lived It may be that upon some occasion his bones were translated thither yet the pilgrimages made in superstitious times to the Isle Iona for visiting his grave do shew what the received opinion was of his death and burial Kentigern commonly called St. Mungo was famous also at this time and one most familiar with Columba he was the son of Thametes daughter to Loth King of Picts begotten as was supposed by Eugenius the third King of Scots his father not being certainly known posterity not being willing that his birth whom they so greatly esteemed should be in any sort stained gave out that he was born of a Virgin which was believed of simple and credulous people But the reproach which lay upon him that way he overcame by his singular vertues in his yonger yeares being trusted to the education of Servanus Bishop of Orkney he gave tokens of his rare piety for he was in prayer more frequent then yong ones are usually seen to be of a spare diet and so compassionate of the poor as all that came in his hands he distributed among them Servanus his Master loving him beyond others was ordinarily wont to call him Mongah which in the Norish tongue signifieth a deare friend and this way came he to be called Mungo After Servanus death he went to the countrey of Wales in England where living a solitary life he founded a Monastery betwixt the Rivers of Elwid and Edwy They write that in his Monastery there were daily entertained six hundred threescore and three persons of which number three hundred were kept at some manual work within the Monastery other three hundred did labour in the fields and practise husbandry and the rest being appointed for divine service had the day and night divided among them so as one company succeeding to another there were some alwayes in the Church praying and praising Almighty God Having stayed there a few years he resigned his place to Asaph a godly and vertuous man and returning to Scotland he made his abode at Glasgow where he layed the foundation of a stately Church and was therein at his death interred It is affirmed that after he came to years of understanding he did never eat flesh nor taste wine or any strong drink and when he went to rest slept on the cold ground having a stone for his pillow and that notwithstanding he lived thus hardly he did attain to the age of ninescore and five years Many lying miracles have been ascribed unto him but certainly he was a man of rare
reprehensions It was also thought that the interview of the two Kings at Gloucester did further their dislike as hath been often observed to fall out in the meetings of Princes For Malcolme departed from him in displeasure Rufus by some secret practice got the Castle of Anwick whereupon arose the warre in which King Malcolme and Prince Edward his son did both perish A little before the beginning of this warre Bishop Gregorius died and in his place one called Edmundus was elected who deceased before his consecration 12. After him Turgot Prior of Duresme was chosen Bishop he wrote the history of King Malcolme and Queen Margaret who some few dayes after the death of the King her husband departed this life in the Castle of Edinburgh and was buried in the Church of Dunfermlin whither also the bodies of Malcolme and Edward his son were afterwards translated for at first they were buried in Tinmouth Abbey Never was more lamentation made for the death of two Princes then was for this Queen and her husband Malcolme To speak of his piety justice and magnanimity he outwent in all these the Princes of his time and for courage he gave a noble proofe of it in the first entry of his reign when upon a conspiracy detected against his life riding one day in the fields he called the chief conspiratour and taking him aside from the rest of the company unto a secret place he did challenge him as a Traytor willing him if he had any valour to shew the same and rather take his life in an honest manner then treacherously The man confounded with the boldnesse of the King fell upon his knees and intreated pardon which the King granted retaining him still in his service as before The magnificence of his Court whilest he lived was great and in the State to distinguish the degrees of Honour he introduced the titles of Earl Baron and Knight in the place of Thane and Abthane which were the titles before in use His Queen Margaret was in her place no lesse famous in all the vertues that became women devout towards God charitable to the poor and exceeding liberal in the advancing of publick works The Church of Carlile she built upon her own charges and was esteemed not to be the least cause of all that the King her husband bestowed that way By her the King had a fair issue six sons and two daughters the first called Edward died with his father at Anwick the second called Edmond did render himself religious Etheldred the third deceased young the other three Edgar Alexander and David reigned successively one after another continuing all of them in the same course of goodnesse The names of the two daughters were MAUD and MARY MAUD entring into the Cloister wherein Agatha her Grandmother and Christian her Aunt lived retired was with much difficulty wonne to descend into the world and to be joyned in marriage with Henry the first King of England a Lady of incomparable vertues and of so good a disposition as she was commonly termed MAUD the good Queen Having lived 17. years with her husband in great love she deceased at Westminster the first of May 1118. and was buried on the right hand of Edward the Confessor his Tombe with this Epitaph affixed Prospera non laetam fecere nec aspera tristem Aspera risus ei prospera terror erant Non decor effecit fragilem non sceptra superbam Sola potens humilis sola pudica decens Maii prima dies nostrorum nocte dierum Raptam perpetuum fecit inire diem The other sister MARY was married to Eustathe Earl of Boloign who went to the recovery of the Holy-land with that noble Prince GODFREY his brother she bare to him one only daughter named MAUD who was afterward matched to Stephen King of England and departed this life at London three years before her sister having her corps interred at Bermondsey Abbey in Southâ—ark with this inscription Nobilis hic tumulata jacet comitissa Maria Artibus hac nituit larga benigna fuit Regum sanguis erat morum probitate vigebat Compatiens inibi vivat in arce poli Thus much we owed to the memory of those good and glorious Princes and now return Turgot after he had governed the See of St. Andrewes with good commendation some 25 or 26. years died in the year of our Lord 1117. his corps according to his appointment was honourably conveyed to Duresme and there interred In his time lived Veremudus Archdeacon of St. Andrewes a Spaniard by nation and well learned according to those times he wrote the history of Scotland from the beginning of the kingdom unto the reign of Malcolme the third and is greatly commended for his diligence and fidelity in that work but by the injury of time the same is lost In Germany much about the same time lived Marlanus Paternus Ammichadus Sigebertus and Helias all of them Scotch men and well respected This last had the government of two Monasteries in Coleyn called S. Pantale and S. Martin The severity and rigour that he used toward his Monks brought him in dislike with Pilgrinus Archbishop of the City who upon some false informations determined to expulse him and all the Scottish Monks that were in the City after his return from the Emperours Court where he was for the time This being reported to Helias he is said to have uttered these words Si Christus in nobis peregrinus est nunquam viuas Coloniam veniet Piligrinus which falling out according to his prediction purchased to him the reputation of a Prophet After that he lived many years in peace and died at Coleyn in the year 1042. Sigeberius having governed the Monastery of Fulden some years was preferred to the Archibishopricks of Mentz and being urged by Gregory the seventh called Hildebrand to depose the married Priests that would not separate from their wives was in danger to be detruded by his Clergy and had much adoe to cause that Law of single life to be embraced by them Ammichadus a man nobly born and greatly affected to the solitary life lived a Recluse in the Abbey of Fulden spending his time in the meditations of morality and died in the year 1043. Paternus was a Monk in the City of Potelbrum which in the year 1058. was consumed with fire Ambiens Martyrium saith Marianus in a foolish affection of Martyrdome refusing to come forth of the Monastery was therein burnt alive Marianus he was first a Monk in the Monastery of St. Martin at Colyn founded by Ebergerus the Archbishop of that City for a Seminary of Scottish students in the year 676. and having continued there two years went to the Abbey of Fulden where he lived ten years After that he went to Mentz upon the Archbishops visitation and stayed there some 15. years All this time he imployed in the study of letters especially of Story and
University of Paris and from thence went to Colein where he died of the Apoplexy They write that after he was laid in grave his spirits did return and that striving to get forth he was there smothered whereupon an Italian did write this Epigram Quaecunque humani fuerant jurÃsque sacrati In dubium veniunt cunct a vocante Scoto Quid quòd in dubium illius sit vita vocata Morte illum simili ludificante strophâ Quum non antè virum vitâ jugulârit ademptâ Quà m vivus tumulo conditus ille foret The English Writers contend that this Scotus was born in England in Dunstane Village within the Parish of Emilden in the Country of Northumberland and confirm it by the Manuscripts reserved in the Library of Merton College in one whereof are written these words Explicit lectura subtilis Doctor is in Universitate Oxoniensi super libros Sententiarum Doctor is Joannis Duns nati in Villa de Emilden vocata Dunstan contract a Duns in Comitatu Northumbriae pertinens ad domum scolasticorum de Merton Hall in Oxonio quondam dict ae a domus socii Thus ends the Lecture of the subtile Doctor in the University of Oxford upon the book of sentences Doctor Iohn Duns born in a Village of Emilden callen Dunstan or by abbreviation Duns in the County of Northumberland pertaining to the house of Scholars of Merton Hall in Oxford and sometimes one of the Fellows of the said House But this is no sufficient proof for it may be probably supposed that he living at Oxford in England when the warres were so hot betwixt the two Kingdomes did dissemble his Countrey and pretend himself to be an English born to eschew the hatred of the Students In Colein where he might without danger shew of what Countrey he was he did professe himself a Scot and the Minorites of which Order he was did therefore upon his Tomb erected in their Church at the end of the Quire nigh unto the high Altar set this Inscription which is there yet to be seen Scotia me genuit Anglia suscepit Gallia edocuit Germania tenet What a fine subtile wit he had the Monuments left by him to posterity do witness He died young in the year 1308. 27. The Chapter after Lambertons death meeting for the election of a new Bishop went into factions the one half giving their voices to Sir Iames Bane Archdeacon of S. Andrews the other half to Sir Alexander Kinnimmouth Archdeacon of Lothian but Bane being then in the Court of Rome and advertised of the Bishops death obtained the Bishoprick of the Pope who in those times disposed all Church livings as he thought good having no regard to Canonicall elections This Bishop lived four years onely after his Consecration and died at Bruges in Flanders for upon breach of the Peace with England and the Coronation of Edward Baliol when David with his Queen went into France he withdrew himself to the Low-Countreys He was buried in the Monastery of the Regular Chanons within Bruges 28. How soon Bane his death was made known the Convent meeting elected William Bell Dean of Dunkeld The Pope refusing to confirm the election the See remained void for the space of nine years and more At last William Landells Provost of Kinkell upon the recommendation of the Kings of France and Scotland was preferred and consecrated by Pope Benedict the tenth at Avignion in the year 1341. This Prelate was nobly born and the heir of great possessions in Scotland of a generous minde and given to all goodnesse he lived Bishop 44. years and in that time saw many alterations King David Bruce peaceably repossessed in the Kingdome taken captive in the Battell of Duresme where he himself was made Prisonerâ— set again at liberty for the payment of one hundred thousand Marks sterling to the help whereof he procured from the Churchmen with the consent of Pope Innocent the sixth the tenth of all Ecclesiasticall livings within the Kingdome for the space of three years and after King David his death his son Robert Stewart called Robert the second crowned King to the fifteenth year of whose reign he attained and then died in the Abbey of S. Andrews his body was buried in the Cathedrall Church at the â—hancery door It was a custome before these times that when any Bishop deceased all his moveable goods were seised on by the Kings Officers as belonging to the King this he got discharged and liberty granted to all the Prelates to dispose their goods by Testament to whom they pleased or if they should happen to die intestate it was made lawfull to their nearest kinsmen to call and pursue for the same The benefit of this privilege he himself first enjoyed 29. In his place the Prior of S. Andrews called Stephen a man of great experience and wisdome was chosen Bishop who going towards Rome for Confirmation was taken Prisoner at Sea by the English and died at Anwick of sicknesse in the year 1385. 30. Walter Traill was then attending Pope Clement at Avignion a man singularly learned and well expert both in the Civill and Chanon Law So great an opinion the Pope had of his worth as at his preferment he did say to those that stood by him This man deserveth better to be Pope then Bishop the place is better provided then the person Which proved true in effect for when he came to govern the See he administred all affairs most wisely Nor had he the charge onely of the Church but the whole affairs of the Kingdome being cast upon him he governed the same in such sort as the Realme was never remembred to have been better and more peaceably ruled Writers describe him to have been a man of courteous behaviour affable pitiful and compassionate of those that were in any sort distressed a hater of vice and of most sincere conversation He lived unto a great age in much esteem and died in the Castle of S. Andrews built by himselfe in the year 1401. his body was interred with great solemnity amongst his predecessors with this inscription ingraven upon his monument Hic fuit Ecclesiae columna fenestra lucida Thuribulum aureum Campana sonora 31. After him was Thomas Stewart son to King Robert the second being then Archdeacon of S. Andrews elected Bishop but he affecting the retired life refused to accept the place which thereupon remained void the space of three yeares for the Chapter would not in his life time proceed to a new election the rents were in the mean time assigned by King Robert the third with the Convents permission to Walter Danzelston in recompence of the Castle of Dumbriton which he enjoyed by an hereditary title and did at that time resign unto the King 32. Thomas Stewart deceasing Gilbert Grinlaw Bishop of Aberdene and Chancellour of the kingdome was postulated Bishop but Henry Wardlaw presentor
good words praying them to use no violence and saying that she meant no ill to their Preachers that she would hear the controversie betwixt the Bishops and them and that the present Diet with the Proclamation given out should be discharged so the force ceased and all was quiet for that time Not long after there arrived a messenger from the French King with letters to the Nobility desiring that the marriage should be consummated betwixt the young Queen and the Daulphin his son and that certain Commissioners should be sent to assist the solemnity A convention of Estates being called to this purpose in December following choice was made of eight persons to go in that journey for the spiritual Estate were named Iames Beaton Archbishop of Glasgow and Iames Stewart Prior of S. Andrews base brother to the young Queen For the Nobility Gilbert Kennedy Earl of Cassils George Lesley Earle of Rothes and Iames Lord Fleming For the Burrowes George Lord Seaton Provost of Edinburgh and Iohn Areskin of Dun Provost of Montrosse The great dysasters that happened both in their going and returning brought many to think the marriage would not prove happy and prosperous For having shipped at Leith in the moneth of February they were dispersed by a mighty tempest and one of their vessels that carried their horses cast away at S. Ebbes head before they left the Scottish shore another wherein the Earl of Rothes and Bishop of Orkney sailed with all the furniture for the marriage which was very rich and costly perished upon the coast of France nigh unto Bulloign the Earl and Bishop hardly escaping by the shipboat which carried them to land Neither had they any better fortune in their return homewards for at Deep divers of the chief persons fell sick and died The Bishop of Orkney a man of singular wisdome and experience who in his time had performed many honourable ambassages to the credit and benefit of his countrey ended there his life the 14. of September 1558. the Earl of Rothes died two-dayes after him and the Earl of Cassils Thesaurer of the Realm a vertuous Nobleman went the same way The Lord Fleming a brave young Nobleman returned to Paris suspecting some contagion and deceased in December following These deaths falling out so suddainly together bred a suspicion in many that they were made away by poison which was the rather believed because the French King was known to be displeased for their refuse of the matrimonial Crown to his son however it was the apprehension taken therefore begate a great hatred of the French amongst the people of this Realme In the moneth of April Walter Mill an old decrepit Priest having ceased from saying of Masse became suspected and was upon the same apprehended in Dysert by Sir George Strachen and Sir Hugh Torry two of the Archbishops of S. Andews Priests he was kept in the Castle and earnestly laboured to recant and acknowledge his errors but continuing firm and constant in his opinions his trial at last made and he accused in presence of the Bishops of S. Andrews Murray Brichen Cathnes and Athens the Abbots of Dunfermlin Lundors Balmerinoth and Couper Dean Iohn Winrame Sub-prior Iohn Grison a black Frier Mr. William Cranston Provost of the old Colledge and divers other Doctors of the University When he came into the Church and was led to the place where they had appointed him to stand he looked so feeble partly by age and travel partly by ill entertainment as it was feared none should hear what he answered Yet how soon he began to speak he delivered his mind with such quicknesse and courage as amazed his very enemies Sir Andrew Oliphant one of the Archbishops Priests commanded him to arise for he was upon his knees and answer to the Articles said Sir Walter Mill get up and answer for you keep my Lord here too long he notthelesse continued in his devotion and that done he arose and said he ought to obey God more then man I serve a mightier Lord then your Lord is And where you call me Sir Walter they call me Walter and not Sir Walter I have been too long one of the Popes Knights now say what you have to say Oliphant then began with this question What thinkest thou of Priests marriage He answered I esteem it a blessed bond ordained by God approved by Christ and made free to all sorts of men but you abhorre it and in the mean time take other mens wives and daughters you vow chastity and keep it not Oliphant proceeding said Thou sayest that there is not seven Sacraments He answered Give me the Lords Supper and Baptisme and take you the rest and part them amongst you Oliphant Thou sayest that the Masse is idolatry He answered A Lord sendeth and calleth many to his dinner and when it is ready ringeth the Bell and they come into the Hall but he turning his back upon the guests eateth all himself giving them no part and so do you Oliph Thou deniest the Sacrament of the Altar to be the body of Christ really in flesh and blood He answered The Scripture is not be taken carnally but spiritually and your Masse is wrong for Christ was once offered on the Crosse for mans sin and will never be offered again for then he put end to all sacrifices Oliph Thou deniest the office of the Bishop He answered I affirm they whom you call Bishops do not Bishops works nor use the Offices of Bishops but live after their own sensual pleasures taking no care for the flock nor yet regarding the word of God Oliph Thou speakest against pilgrimage and callest it a pilgrimage to whoredome He answered I say that pilgrimage is not commanded in the Scripture and that there is no greater whoredome in any place then at your pilgrimages except it be in the common brothels Oliph Thou preachest privately in houses and sometimes in the fields He answered Yea man and upon the sea too when I am sailing Oliph If thou wilt not recant thy opinions I will pronounce sentence against thee He answered I know I must die once therefore as Christ said to Judas Quod facis fac citò you shall know that I will not recant the truth for I am corn and no chaffe I will neither be blowne away with the wind nor burst with the flaile but will abide both These answers he gave with a great boldnesse to the admiration of all that were present Then did Oliphant pronounce sentence ordaining him to be delivered to the temporal Judge and burnt as an heretick but because no man could be found to supply the place of a Judge for Patrick Lermond Bailiffe of the Regalty did absolutely refuse nor in the whole City so much as a cord to be had for money to tye him after he should be condemned his life for one day was prolonged The next morning one of the Archbishops domesticks called Alexander Somervaile a wicked and
letter directed to the E. of Northumberland that we may know the wisdome and piety of the King who had sent him advertisement of the Queens weaknesse and advised him to make sure his title by apprehending possession in time he said That man can neither be religious nor just that dealeth worse with his neighbour then he would be dealt withall and in a man of quality it can be no wisdome to leap hedge and ditch and adventure the breaking of his neck for gathering forbidden fruit before it be ripe when as by attending the due time he may be sure to finde all the gates of the orchard open and with free scope enter take and tast at liberty Sure it were a great weakness and unworthiness in me to come in as an Usurper with offence and scandall to the laws and present estate of government when I may in the right time claim the Crown as nearest Heir to the Prince deceased and possesse with equity should I out of untimely ambition fall to break the long continued and faithfully preserved amity that by the proof of many kinde offices hath taken root among us it were an error inexcusable And howbeit I doe acknowledge your kinde affection in the offers you make of assistance I must tell you freely that no Prince can presume of any subjects loyalty to himself that hath been unsound and unfaithfull to his own Soveraign nor would I ever look to be secure in a Kingdome so trayterously disposed In end he advised the Earl to forbear such writing and when he wrote which he wished him to doe rarely and not but upon great occasions to beware of any thing that might justly offend the Queen lest by interception or other misadventure he might be disabled to serve him another day This was the Kings resolution which God so blessed as it brought him within a short time after against the opinions and desires of many to the quiet and peaceable possession of his right and inheritance for in the Spring the Queens disease encreasing which was judged to be a melancholy incorrigible and by some conceived to proceed from a sorrow for Essex others ascribed it to the accepting of the Rebell Tyrone to peace and all apprehending it to be deadly the hearts of people did so incline to the King as a great many in that State did write unto him That all England was grown to be Scotish The Queen her self continuing constant in her affection when she was askt a little before her death by the Lord Keeper and Secretary who were directed by the Councell to understand her will touching her Successor answered None but my Cousen the King of Scots After which words she spake not much only being desired by the Archbishop of Canterbury whom she would not suffer to go from her all that time to fix her thoughts upon God she said So I doe neither doth my minde wander from him and then commending her soul to God in devout manner died most patiently and willingly A Queen imcomparable for wisdome and fidelity of government she departed this life the 24th of March in the 70 year of her age and 44 of her Reign The same day in the forenoon the King of Scots was proclaimed King first at the Palace of whitehall next at the Crosse in Cheapside within the City of London with an infinite applause of all sorts of people The end of the sixth Book THE HISTORY of the CHURCH OF SCOTLAND THE SEVENTH BOOK The Contents The proceedings after his Majesties going into England unto his death THE news of the Queens death were brought the third day after by Sir Robert Cary a son of the Lord Hunsdon after whom Sir Charles Percy brother to the Earl of Northumberland and Thomas Somerset sonne to the Earl of Worcester were directed from the Councell of England with the Letter following RIght High Right Excellent and mighty Prince and our dread Soveraign Lord as we cannot but confess unto your Majesty that the grief we have conceived by the loss of our late Soveraign Lady whose soul in your palace of Richmond passed from her earthly body to the joyes of heaven betwixt two and three of the clock this morning was nothing less then our loyalty and love to her whilest she lived being a Princesse adorned with vertues meet for Government prosperous in the success of her affairs and under whose obedience we have lived in greater tranquillity these many years then commonly happeneth to Princes so we must acknowledge that our sorrow is extingushed by the impression we have of those heroicall vertues of wisdome piety and magnanimity which we know to be in your Majesties person to whose right the lineall and lawfull succession of all our late Soveraigns dominions doth justly and onely appertain wherein we presume to profess this much as well for the honour which will thereby remain to our posterity as for your Majesties security of a peaceable possession of your kingdomes that we have never found either of those of the Nobility or of any other of the Estates of this realm any divided humour about the receiving and acknowledging your Majesty to be the onely head that must give life to the present maimed body of this kingdome which is so happy as with an universall consent to have received one sole uniform and constant impression of bright blood as next of kin to our Soveraign deceased and consequently by the Laws of this realm true and next heir to her kingdomes and dominions whereof we have made outward demonstration by publick Proclamation this very day a fore noon first in the City of Westminster at your Majesties palace gate at White-Hall and next at the Cross of Cheap-side within your Majesties City of London with an infinite applause of your people and with such solemnity as the shortness of time would permit Of all which we have thought it our duty immediately to advertise your Majesty by these two Gentlemen Sir Charles Percy brother to the Earl of Northumberland and Thomas Somerset Esq son to the Earl of Worcester of whom we have made choice to be the bearers of our Letters humbly beseeching your Highness to accept the same as the first fruits and offering of our tender and loyall affections towards you our gracious Soveraign and to rest assured that the same shall be ever hereafter seconded with all faith obedience and humble service which shall be in our power to perform for maintaining that which we have begun with the sacrifice of our lives lands and goods which we with all our other means do here humbly present at your Majesties feet craving of your Highness that seeing hereby you may perceive in what estate we remain as body without a head or rather without that spirit here amongst us which from the head might give vigor to every member to exercise the duty to it belonging thereby to keep the whole body from confusion you will be pleased to enter
part and that the Treaty was only entertained till the King of Spain had reduced Germany in his power resolved to be gone and declaring the necessity he had to return did leave a Proxie in the hands of the Earl of Bristoll the Ambassadour legier for espousing the Infanta how soon the Articles returned from Rome So the King of Spain having conveyed the Prince a little way towards the sea they parted in most loving tearms and in hope the Match should take effect But the Prince being after that informed of a conclusion laid That if the Match should be further pressed the Infanta to eschew the same should presently enter into the house of los Discalceatos a Monastery of bare-footed Nunnes after he was parted sent and commanded Bristoll not to make use of the proxie till he should advertise The Prince having for his convoy home eleven of the Kings ships and some Merchants arrived at Portsmouth the 5 of October with his whole retinue and went the next day to Royston where the King lay The joy was exceeding great of all sorts of people and publick thanks given to God throughout all the Churches of both the Kingdoms for his safe return Soon after when the King perceived by the report that neither was the Match truly meant nor the Palatinate like to be restored he directed the Earl of Bristoll to insist for the restitution and if he was put off with delaies to take his leave and come home which also he did Thus was the marriage which had been long treated of quite dissolved the King saying That he would never marry his Son with a Portion of his only Sistes tears The year following the Ministers of Edinburgh were greatly vexed by a sort of mutinous people who separating themselves from the publick Assemblies kept private Conventicles and went so far as to oppose publickly the order established for receiving the holy Communion The leader of those was William Rigge elected one of the Bailiffs for that year This man puffed up with a conceit of his own abilities did dream of no lesse then the overturning of the Church orders and reforming of the Ministery in such things as he held to be amisse hereupon in a meeting ordinarily kept before the celebration of the holy Sacrament he did publickly challenge Doctor William Forbes who was afterwards preferred to the Bishoprick of Edinburgh for divers points of doctrine delivered by him in his Sermons and when as he refused to be judged by him and the Laicks that assisted the said Baliffe did openly threaten them all that unlesse they returned to the old form of ministring the holy Communion the whole people should forsake them Herein he was assisteed by Iohn Hamilton an Apothecary Iohn Dickson William Thomson Iohn Meene and some other base companions who being called before the Councell were charged to leave the Town and the Bailiffe William Rigge deprived of his Bailiwick and declared incapable of any publick office in time comming This trouble gave occasion of setling the state of that Church in a better case then in former times the Ministers being ordained to reside in their own Parishes and have allowed to them a sufficient maintenance the popular election of Ministers when as places by any occasion fell void discharged and the presentation appointed to be made by the Provost Bayliffs and Councell the Sessions to be choosed yearly by the Magistrates and Ministers for the particular Parishes who should convene every year some ten daies after the election of the Magistrates for that business the meeting before the Communion wherein the Ministers were accustomed to be censured by the people simply prohibited with divers other particulars serving to the orderly ministration of all things in the Church The 16 of February Lodovick Duke of Richmond and Lâ—nnox deceased to the great regrate of all that knew him a Nobleman of excellent parts whose very aspect and countenance did promise much good He was thrice married first to a Sister of the Earl of Gowry by whom he had no children his second Wife was a Sister of the Lord London by whom he had a daughter and son that died both young In his third and last marriage with the Countesse of Hartford he found more content then in both the other but lived with her only some few years being taken away in the 48 year of his age His brother a noble Gentleman succeeded but did not survive him long for he died the next year leaving a hopefull succession of children behinde him The next year in the moneth of March Iames Marquis of Hamilton deceased also a Nobleman of rare gifts and fitted for the greatest affairs which he shewed at his deputation to the Parliament 1621 and at other divers occasions his death was the more grievously taken that it was thought it was procured by poyson whereof the monstrous swellings in his face and body afore his death gave great appearance his corps brought to Scotland by sea was interred at Hamilton with his predecessours These two deaths affected the King exceedingly and when it was told him that the Marquis was dead he said If the branches be thus cut down the stock cannot continue long which saying proved too true for shortly after he fell into the feaver that the Physitians call Hemitritaeam a dangerous feaver to those that are grown in years and thereof died at Theobalds the 27 of March being Sunday about twelve of the clock in the forenoon The Thursday preceding his death he desired the blessed Sacrament to be ministred unto him which he received with great devotion professing to the Prince his son and those that stood by that he had received a singular comfort thereby wishing all men to doe the like when they were visited in that sort From that time to the hour of his death he was still almost praying and some one sentence or other of piety ever in his mouth As he drew neer to his end the prayer usually said at the hour of death being ended having repeated once or twice these words Veni Domine Iesu he gave up the ghost without any pangs as are commonly seen in persons that are dying He was the Salomon of this age admired for his wise government and for his knowledge of all manner of learning for his wisdome moderation love of justice for his patience and piety which shined above all his other virtues and is witnessed in the learned works he left to posterity his name shall never be forgotten but remain in honour so long as the world indureth We that have had the honour and happiness many times to hear him discourse of the most weighty matters as well of Policy as Divinity now that he is gone must comfort our selves with the remembrance of these excellencies and reckon it not the least part of our happinesse to have lived in his daies Many dolefull Epitaphs in all Languages were composed to expresse the sorrow
The Scottish Preachers that lived in the Province of York chose rather to forsake their Benefices then admit the rites of Rome 18 Reformation the first proposals made 119 First artempted at Perth 121 The death of Lodowick Duke of Richmond 546 S SCotland converted before Pope Victor 2 Patrick a Scot converted Ireland 8 The Universities of Pavia and Paris founded by Scottish men 22 Scotus the Schoolman Claudius Clemens Rabanus Maurus Flaccus Albinus al. Alcuinus born in Scotland 22 Invaded and subdued by Edward I. of England 49 The King of Scotland refuseth to stand to the Popes arbitration concerning his incursions upon England and the title that the King of England had to Scotland 52 Edward III of England promiseth by Charter to release the Scots from all duties of subjection and homage 53 Divers prodigies in Scotland 94 The Articles of contract between England and Scotland 142 English Ambassadors sent to mediate a peace in Scotland 146 A Scottish prisoner rescued out of the Castle of Carlisle by a strange attempt 414 The Archbishop of Canterbury in a Letter acknowledgeth the independent Jurisdiction of the Church of Scotland 527 The King of Northumberland obtaineth of the King of Scots the assistance of some learned Bishops 13 Scottish Bishops preach the Christian faith and convert many in England 15 Pope Sixtus IV. giveth sentence in favour of the Church of Scotland that the Scots should have a Primate of their own 58 Celius Sedulius proved that he was a native of Scotland and not of Ireland 8 Iohn D. Scotus proved that he was born in Scotland and not in England 55 Subjects rebellion of the Subjects if it succeed not advance the Soveraignty 432 The history of the Spanish Armada 370 Schisme in the Presbytery of S. Andrewes 386 A great one in the See of Rome 56 Mary Stewart sent into France 90 Returneth into Scotland 178 Queen Elizabeth acknowledgeth her to be next heir to the crown of England 180 But refuseth to declare it openly 181 She marrieth Henry son to the Earl of Lennox 191 Discontents arise between them 193 She putteth her husbands name after her own ibid. Married to Bothwell after the manner of the reformed Church 203 Surrendereth her self to the Lords and is received and kept as a Prisoner 207 The Scots cannot resolve to arraigne her 214 She escapeth out of prison 215 Her army overcome at Glasgow 216 She seeketh refuge in England 217 Loseth her expectation ibid. Consultations in England about putting her to death 350 The Queen of England signeth a warrant for her execution 355 The circumstances of her death 356 King Iames her son interposeth for her exemption from tryall 351 He offereth pledges of the chief of his nobility to be given for his mothers faithfulness toward the Queen of England 352 The King commandeth the Ministers to make publick intercession in their Prayers for his Mother and they refuse 354 The Queen of England taketh cognisance by her Commissioners of the dealing of the Regent of Scotland toward the Queen-mother of Scotland 219 Queen Elizabeth in her Patent to the Commissioners is so much a friend to the right and cause of Mary that she giveth not the title of Regent to the Earl of Murray 219 T TEmplars The dissolution of them 51 They were condemned and suffered unjust torments partly for their great riches partly for their freedome of taxing the vices of the Court of Rome ibid. U UNion The Articles of Union between both Kingdomes of England and Scotland 481 They are not passed in the English Parliament 505 Objections made against the Ceremony of Vnction in the solemnity of Coronation answered 381 W WItches Agnes Sampson a Witch apprehended 383 Her familiar Spirit had no power to kill the King ibid. Y YEar The account thereof changed from March to Ianuary in Scotland 456 THE KINGS Of SCOTLAND From the first Plantation of Christian Religion there mentioned in this History DOnald I. Converted and Baptized Page 2 Ethodius 3 Cratilinth ibid. Fincormachus 4 Eugenius ibid. Hergustus ibid. Ethodius alià s Echadius 5 Erthus ibid. Fergus ibid. Eugenius II. Greem Regent 6 Congallus II. 9 Kinnatellus ibid. Aidanus 10 Eugenius IV. 14 Donald IV ibid. Ferqhard 18 Eugenius VI. ibid. Eugenius VII ibid. Achaius An. D. 800. 23 Alpin ibid. Kenneth 24 Constantine II. 25 Gregory the Great 26 Constantine III. ibid. Kenneth III. 27 Malcolm II. 28 Duncan I. ibid. Mackbeth an Usuper ibid. Malcolm III. 29 Edgar 31 32 Alexander the Fierce ibid. David ibid. 36 Malcolm IV. 36 William 37 Alexander II. 42 Alexander III. 44 Iohn Baliol 48 Robert Bruce 52 David Bruce 55 Edward Baliol ibid. Robert Stewart ibid. Iames I. 57 Iames II. ibid. Iames III. 58 Iames IV. 61 Duke of Albany Regent of Scotland 62 Iames V. 70 Earl of Arran Governour during the minority of Mary Stewart 71 He resigneth the Regency to the Queen-mother 92 Mary Stewart Queen taketh into her hands the Government 178 She resigneth the Government 211 Iames VI. Crowned ibid. Earl of Murray Regent 212 Earl of Lennox Grandfather to the young King chosen Regent 241 Iohn Earl of Marre Regent 258 Earl of Moreton Regent 267 The King himself accepteth of the Government 280 Bishops that lived in Scotland or the adjacent Isles before the distribution of the Kingdome into DIOCESES AMphibalus Bishop in the Isle of Man 4 Regulus 5 Ninian 6 Palladius 7 Hildebert 8 Columba 9 Servanus 11 Colman 15 Adamannus or Adamnamus 18 19 Wiro and Plechelmus consecratâ—d at Rome by Pope Honorius 19 Bonifacius an Italian 20 Mocharius Glacianus and Gervadius 23 Archbishops and Bishops of the See of S. Andrews 1 Adrian 25 2 Kellach 26 3 Malisius ibid. 4 Kellach II 26 5 Malmore 26 6 Malisius II 26 7 Alwinus 26 8 Muldwin 26 9 Tuthaldus 26 10 Fothadus 27 11 Gregorius 28 12 Turgot 30 13 Godricus 32 14 Eâ—dmerus a Monk of Canterbury 33 15 Robert Prior of Scone 34 16 Arnold Abbot of Kelso 36 17 Richard ibid. 18 Hugo by the Kings mandate 39 Iohn Scot by the Pope in opposition to the King ibid. 19 Roger son to the Earl of Leicester succeedeth Hugo 41 20 William Malvoisin a Frenchman ibid. 21 David Benham 43 22 Abel 44 23 Gamelinus 45 24 William Wishart 46 25 William Fraser 47 26 William Lamberton 51 27 Iames Bane 55 The See vacant nine years ib. 28 William Landells 55 29 Stephen ibid. 30 Walter Traill ibid. 31 Thomas Steward son of Robert II chosen but refuseth it The See vacant during his life 56 32 Henry Wardlaw ibid. 33 Iames Kennedy ibid. 34 Patrick Graham first Archbishop of S. Andrews 58 35 William Shevez 59 36 Iames Stewart 61 37 Alexander Steward ibid. 38 Andrew Forman 62 39 Iames Beaton ibid. 40 Beaton Nephew of the former Archbishop and Cardinall 67 69 41 The base brother of the Earl of Arran Governor of Scotland made Archbishop 84 42 Iohn Dowglas 261 43 Patrick Adamson 276 44 George Gladstaves
Earl of Kinnoul being Chancellour dying a Person of singular Prudence and Integrity his Majesty knew not where to fill the place with a Successor with whom he might more securely trust his Conscience then with this aged Prelate near to God by his Function and by his age being then arrived to Davids great Climacterick so neer to his end as might well put him in remembrance that the account which he was to give of his Stewardship could not be far off And this honour he enjoyed to his death with the approbation of all only such excepted whose evil eye at the Clergy and their own particular ambition wrapt into such a fancy as made them think every honour to be misplac'd that was not setled on their own shoulders He had not fully measured out four years in the discharge of the duties of this place which did not so entangle him but that the danger of the Church which then was drawing on filled him full of thoughts which way he might divert it when that unhappy design which had been so long hatching under the wings and warmth of a mal-content and seditious party began to be ready to fly abroad And what could be called for as a fitter Midwife to this birth then something that at least might look like Religion For the rule was given long ago before ever Macchiavel lived to vent it and is likely to hold to the end of the World Quoties vis fallere Plebem Finge Deum And from hence rose that storm which with so much violence fell on this Reverend good man that he was forced by it for safety of his life to retire into England where age and grief with a sad soul in a crazy body had so distempered him that he was driven to take harbour in New-castle till by some rest and the care of his Physicians he had recovered so much strength as brought him to London But this proved but a short reprieve for being come thither he fell into a relapse and the sentence of death being to be executed on him he took his bed some nine dayes before waiting for that blessed hour when being freed from any farther heart-breakings for those evils he could not prevent he might be admitted into his Masters joyes where future calamities could not reach him In this time of his sickness and preparation for his end he was visited by the Archbishop of Canterbuâ—y and some other Bishops with whom with great devotion he received that blessed Viaticum the Bread that came from Heaven in the strength of which he was to pass unto Eternity After which though his desire was rather to compose himself for privacy and silence then to admit of any company he could not prevent the visits of many honorable Persons Among whom the visit of the Marquiss Hamilton being looked upon by the eye of the World as disaffected to the whole Order deserves more particularly to be remembred and the circumstances of it you shall have in those tearms as they are related The Marquiss coming neer to his bed-side was pleased to say My Lord I am come to kiss your Lordships hands and humbly to ask your blessing To which the Archbishop with a soft voice answered My Lord you shall have my blessing but give me leave to speak these few words to you My Lord I visibly foresee that the Church and King are both in danger to be lost and I am verily perswaded that there is none under God so able to prevent it as your Lordship And therefore I speak to you as dying Prelat in the words of Mordecai to Esther If you do it not Salvation in the end shall come where else but you and your house shall perish To whom the Marquiss made this worthy reply That what he foresaw was his grief and he wished from his heart he were able to do that which was expected from him though it were to be done with the sacrificing of his Life and Fortunes After which upon his knees he received the Archbishops blessing and departed I shall make no Commentary upon it for the best interpreters of words are actions As he lived so he died in peace with a stilness so much more then ordinary that they who were about him could not by any outward agony perceive when that peaceable Soul of his departed But before that last minute sad to his friends but to him infinitely joyful had closed up those eyes which had so long been watchful for the Church he govern'd his Intellectuals and best Faculties being clear and undisturbed and desiring to leave the world a copy of the faith he died in he premised it to his last Will and Testament in this form following First for that I esteem it the duty of every Christian especially of those whose service it hath pleased God to make use of in his Church to make some open declaration of his Faith wherein he lives and dies I profess that I believe all the Articles of that ancient Christian Creed commonly called The Apostles Creed the sum whereof is That God is One-in Three Persons the Father Creator of all things the Son made Man in fulness of time who by his bitter Possion and Death having redeemed Mankinde rose from death and ascended to Heaven from whence he will come to judge all flesh and the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son the Sanctifier of all that believe That this God hath chosen to himself a Church the Members whereof living in Communion though never so dispersed shall by his infinite mercy receive remission of all their sins and being raised again in their Bodies at the last day shall enjoy everlasting life This is the sum of my faith Other Additaments which Ignorance and Corruption have super-induced into Christianity I simply refuse beseeching God to purge his Church from the Errors and Superstition that hath crept into the same and at last to make us all that are called Christians the Sheep of one Fold For matters of Rites and Government my judgement is and hath been That the most simple decent and humble Rites should be chosen such as the bowing of the knee in the receiving the holy Sacrament with others of the like kinde Profaneness being as dangerous to Religion as Superstition As touching the Government of the Church I am verily perswaded that the Government Episcopal is the onely Right and Apostolick Form Parity among Ministers being the breeder of all Confusion as experience might have taught us And for those Ruling-Elders as they are a meer humane Device so they will prove when the way is more open to them the Ruine of both Church and State In the simplicity of this Faith he lived and in this he died like one of the Bishops of those Primitive Times when the modern names of-Faction were not known and whosoever agreed to these Fundamentals the Church was not so nice a Mother as to cast them out And though in the passages of his life
Apostle St. Andrew stood by him and assured him of the victory which vision being related to the Army did much encourage them The History addeth that in the joyning of the battel there appeared in the aire a Crosse in form of the letter X which so terrified the enemies as presently they gave back King Athelstane was himself there killed whereupon the Village took the name which at this day it enjoyeth of Athelstan Foord Hungus to expresse his thankfulnesse for the victory gave to the Church of Regulus now called St. Andrews divers rich gifts as Chalices Basons the Image of Christ in gold and of his twelve Apostles in silver He gave likewise a case of beaten gold for preserving the Reliques of S. Andrew and restored to the Spirituality the tithes of all cornes cattel and herbage within the Realm exempting them from answering before any temporal Judge Further he did appoint the Crosse of St. Andrew to be the badge and cognisance of the Picts both in their warres and otherwise which as long as that Kingdom stood was observed as is by the Scots as yet retained But all this was spoiled as we said by Feredeth the third in succession from Hungus after which time nothing prospered either with him or with that people For the line masculine of their Kings failing Alpin the son of Achaius did claim the Crown as next in blood by vertue of an old Covenant betwixt the Scots and Picts the Picts refusing to accept him being a stranger made choice of this Feredeth whom we named and thereupon warre was denounced The first encounter was at Restennoth in Angus where in a cruel fight which continued from the morning untill night Feredeth was killed his son Brudeus who succeeded was made away by the Picts themselves in the first year of his reign and Kenneth his brother that succeeded to him came to the like unfortunate end After Kenneth another called Brudeus was elected King and he in a battel fought not farre from Dundy took King Alpin and many of his Nobles prisoners which victory he used most foully putting all the Nobles to death killing the King and causing his head to be set upon a pole in Abernethy or as others write in the city of Camelon The Picts upon this victory supposing that they had utterly broken the courage of the Scots did purpose nothing lesse then their extermination which after the death of Brudeus his brother Drusken that succeeded went earnestly about But Kenneth the second the son of Alpin a Prince of a brave and heroick spirit pursued so hotly the revenge of his fathers death as having defeated the Picts in divers battels he drave them all in the end forth of the Kingdom and united that Crown to his own of Scotland This Kenneth was a most wise and valiant King and so circumspect in his businesse that from that time forth none of the Picts were ever heard to resume the title of a King The countreys which they inhabited he divided amongst the Nobles and others whose labours in these warres had merited a recompence He established good and wholesome Lawes To the Church he gave another face and a greater outward splendour then the former ages had seen translating the Episcopal See which whilest the Pictish Kingdom stood was setled in Abernethy to the Church of St. Reul and ordaining it from thenceforth to be called The Church of S. Andrews and the Bishop thereof Maximus Scotorum Episcopus The principal Bishop of Scotland Churches Chappels and Oratories with their Priests and all sorts of religious men he caused to be held in great reverence and in a word did so nobly perform all actions both a Warre and Peace as he may rightly be placed amongst the best Kings and reckoned the third Founder of the Scottish Monarchy THE HISTORY of the CHURCH OF SCOTLAND THE SECOND BOOK The Contents The Succession of Bishops in the several Sees of this Kingdome especially in the See of Saint ANDREVVS with other principal things that happened in their times HAving made a collection of such things as I found dispersed in stories and warranted in any sort for the first six hundred years of our Church and being now come to the time wherein this Church by enlarging of the Kingdom received a further extention in bounds and therewith an addition of more wealth and state I will as beginning with a new accompt follow the story therof by the succession of Bishops especially in the See of Saint Andrewes upon which the rest did depend The first Bishop who fate in this See was Adrian killed by the Danes in the Isle of May in the year 872. with Stolbrandus a Bishop Monanus an Archdeacon Glodianus a Presbyter and a number of other Churchmen who fled thither for their safety Whilest this Bishop lived Constantine the second the son of Kenneth did keep a convention in Scone for reforming the disorders which the loose and dissolute government of his predecessour Donald the first had caused In that convention beginning was made at the Clergy and concerning them it was ordained That they should reside upon their charges and have no medling with secular businesse That they should instruct the people diligently and be good ensamples in their conversation That they should not keep Hawks Hounds or Horses for pleasure That they should carry no weapons nor be pleaders of civil causes but live contented with their own provisions And if they were tried to transgresse in any of these points that for the first fault they should be fined in a pecuniary mulct and for the second deprived from their office and living Thus was it not held in that time a diminution of Ecclesiastical authority for Princes to give Lawes to the Clergy and to punish them if they were found guilty of any offence or crime Divers other statutes for redressing abuses crept into the Realme were then also concluded as That drunkennesse should be punished with death that none should eat above one meal a day nor accustome themselves to lye softly or use any recreations but such as might inure them to sufferance and labour Whereby that good King did banish all riot and luxury and in a short time brought the Kingdom again to a flourishing estate But the Danes as we said invaded the countrey and practising many cruelties whilest he did pursue them who had entrenched themselves not farre from the Town of Carrail he was unfortunately with all his Army overthrowne and being taken prisoner the day following beheaded at the mouth of a little cave which in detestation of that fact is to this day called The Devils Cave 2. Unto Bishop Adrian succeeded Kellach how long he lived I finde not 3. After him Malisius governed the See by the space of eight years This Bishop had the happinesse to live under Gregory called the Great a King indued with all the vertues that can be wished for or
desired in a King The priviledges and immunities granted by him to the Church do witnesse his piety for in a convention held at Forfare by an unanime consent of his Estates he ordained That all Priests should from thenceforth be exempted from paying tribute keeping watch and going in warfare That they should not be drawne before temporal Judges for any civil cause but that all matters concerning them should be decided by their Bishops the judgement of Matrimonial causes right of Tithes Testaments Legislatory actions and all things depending upon simple faith and promise should be committed to the Bishops with power to them to make Canons and constitutions Ecclesiastical to try hereticks blasphemers perjured persons and Magicians and censure such as they did finde delinquent in that kind And that all Kings succeeding should at the time of their coronation take oath for maintaining the Church in their liberties These favours had the Clergy in the following ages used with that moderation and equity which they ought we should not have seen nor felt the interruptions that have been made upon Church liberties with the incroachments which in our time have been justly complained of In this time lived that famous Scholar Ioannes Scotus called Aerigena from the place of his birth which was the town of Aire in the West parts of Scotland This man being very young went to Athens and followed his studies there some years attained to great perfection in the Greek Chaldaick and Arabick languages Returning afterward to France at the request of Carolus Calvus he translated in Laetine the work of Dionysius de coelesti Hierarchia at which Pope Nicolaus took exception and wrote to King Charles on this manner Relatum est Apostolatui nostro quòd opus Dionysii Arepagitae quod de divinis nominibus vel coelestibus ordinibus Graeco descripit eloquio quidam vir Joannes genere Scotus in Latinum transtulit quod juxta morem nobis mitti nostro debuit judicio approbari praesertim cùm idem Joannes licèt multae scientiae esse praedicetur olim non sanus in quibusdam frequenti rumore dicatur We have been informed that one called Iohn of the Scottish nation hath translated the work which Dionysius the Areopagite did write of the names of God or of the heavenly Orders into the Latine tongue which book ought according to the custome have been sent to us and approved by our judgement especially since the said Iohn albeit he be esteemed of good learning hath been of long time held to be unsound in certain points of doctrine Now the point which the Pope did chiefly quarrel was his opinion of the Sacrament for he had published a Treatise De corpore sanguine Domini wherein he maintained Bertram his doctrine of that point Scotus having knowledge of this and thinking he could not be safe in those parts because of the Popes dislike came into Britain and was welcomed by King Alfred a great favourer of learned men by whom he was employed to teach the languages at Malmsbury Abbey and by some Scholars who could not indure the severity of discipline was stabbed to death in the year 884. and buried in the same Abbey 4. Bishop Malisius dying Kellach the second the son of one Ferlegus succeeded in his place he was the first Bishop of this Kingdom that went to Rome to seek confirmation and lived to a great age for he sate Bishop 35. years In his time Constantine the third King of that name wearied with the troubles of a publick life renounced his temporal dignity and betook himself to solitude among the Culdees in St. Andrews with whom he spent his last five years and there died After this Killach these successively were Bishops 5. Malmore 6. Malisius the second 7. Alwinus who fate three years only 8. Maldwin the son of Gillander and 9. Tuthaldus In this time the coelibate of the Clergy was violently urged and married Priests thrust from their livings which raised great stirres in the Church but the particulars are not recorded nor the broyles which thereupon insued I read in the Antiquities of the Britannick Church that in the year 977. a Councel was gathered at Calne in Wiltshire for that businesse to which Beornellus a Bishop of Scotland was called by Alfrithe the widow of King Edgar who favoured the cause of married Priests This Bishop a man of great learning and eloquence is said to have defended the conjugal life of Priests by solid reasons taken out of Scripture and to have put all the opposites to silence But Dunstane the Archbishop who presided in that Councel when he saw that reason could not bear out the earand fell a threatning and said that notwithstanding all their arguments they should not carry away the victory which he had no sooner spoken then the beames of the house wherein they sate at Councel bursting asunder all were overturned and fell headlong to the ground many were bruised and some killed with the fall Dunstan himself only escaped without harm the beam whereon he stood remaining whole and entire Such as favoured the cause of Monks did interpret this accident to be a sentence given by God on their side others said that Dunstan had wrought this mischief by sorcery for many supposed him to be a Magician However it was the married Priests though repining were forced indeed to yield and submit themselves What became of Beornellus I read not nor whether he returned to his countrey The names of some other Bishops we have who were in good accompt at that time such as Blaanus Englatius Colmocus and Moveanus Confessor to King Kenneth the third a wise and valiant King and one who might have been reckoned amongst the best Princes if about his latter end he had not stained his fame with the murther of Malcolm his Nephew whom he made away by poyson but the ambitious desire he had to settle the succession in his own posterity let him to work this villany which he carried in so covert a manner as no man did once suspect him thereof the opinion of his integrity being universally great but as wicked facts can never be assured though possible they may be concealed his mind was never after that time quiet the conscience of the crime vexing him day and night with continual fears In end whether it was so in effect or if his perplexed minde did form the self such an imagination whilest he lay asleep he heard a voyce speaking to him in this sort Doest thou think that the death of Malcolm that innocent Prince treacherously murthered by thee is hidden from me or that thou shalt passe any longer unpunished No there is a plot laid for thy life which thou shalt not escape and whereas thou didst think to transmit the Crown firm and stable to thy posterity thou shalt leave the Kingdom broken distracted and full of trouble The King awaked with the voyce was
thereunto These accusations he not appearing nor any in his behalfe were taken as confessed and he denounced an heretick yea an heresiarch for so the sentence beareth his goods ordained to be confiscat himself burnt in effigie if he could not otherwise be apprehended and all manner of persons inhibited to relieve or entertain him under the pain of cursing or forfeiture This sentence was given against him the 28 of May Anno 1540. and the same day was his picture burnt in the open Market place of S. Andrews as likewise in Edinburgh some two dayes after Sir Iohn Borthwick hearing how they had proceeded against him fled into England where he was kindly received by Henry the eighth then reigning and by him imployed in a Commission to the Protestant Princes in Germany for a confederation betwixt him and them in defence of their common profession King Henry had some years before sent into Scotland the Bishop of S. Davids to present the King his Nephew with some English books containing an Exposition of the principal heads of Christian Religion thinking to induce him to make the like reformation which he had made in England And at that time came Lord William Howard to desire the King to meet his Uncle King Henry at York upon some occasions tending to the common good of both Kingdomes The King consenting a Diet was appointed and all things prepared for the journey But the Cardinal and Clergy fearing the effects of that conference laboured with the Courtiers to divert him and before the King himselfe they laid divers terrours as That he would be detained prisoner in England as King Iames the first had beenâ— That he should make himself suspected to the Emperour and to his old confederate the French King And which he was most to regard incurre the Popes displeasure by treating too familiarly with him that was lying under the highest censure of the Church Yet stood the King resolute for the journey foreseeing as also it happened that if he should break the Diet the same might breed the English Kings dislike and be an occasion of warre on which he would not hazard unlesse he knew of means to entertain the same The Clergy hereupon besides the representation of some moneys in hand made offer of an annuity of fifty thousand Crownes if warre should fall out declaring withall that by confiscating the goods of hereticks he might gain an hundred thousand more And with such vain hopes they brought him to send a fair excuse to King Henry by Sir Iames Learmouth his domestick After this the King being ruled wholly by the Cardinal followed in all things the appetite of the Clergy giving commission to Sir Iames Hamilton his Theasurer to call and convene all persons suspected of heresie and inflict the punishments which after trial they should be found to merit The King was also heard say That none of that sort should expect any favour at his hands nay not his own sonnes if they should prove guilty which put many in fear But this continued not long for Sir Iames Hamilton becoming suspected and accused of a practice against the King his life was shortly after executed and warre breaking out with England he found the Nobility averse from the incursions he intended to make which did greatly discontent him These thoughts with some fearful visions he had by night that much terrified him withdrew his mind wholly from the extremities on which the Clergy had set him for at Linlithgow on a night as he slept it seemed to him that Thomas Scot Justice Clerk came unto him with a company of devils crying Woe worth the day that ever I knew thee or thy service serving thee against God and against his servants I am adjudged to hell torments Hereupon awaking he called for lights and causing his servants to arise told what he had heard and seen The next morrow by the light of day advertisement was brought him of the Justice Clerk his death which fell out just at the time that the King found himself so troubled and in the same manner almost for he died in great unquietnesse iterating often these words Iusto Dei judicio condemnatus sum by the righteous judgement of God I am condemned The form of his death answering the dream so justly made it the more terrible Another vision he had in the same place not many nights after which did more affright him whilest he lay a sleeping he imagined that Sir Iames Hamilton whom he caused to be executed came unto him with a sword drawn in his hand and therewith cut off both his Armes threatening within a short time to return and deprive him of his life With this he awaked and as he lay musing what the dream could import news were brought him of the death of his two sonnes Iames and Arthur who died at S. Andrews and Striveling at one and the very same hour The next year which was the year of our Lord 1542. being overwhelmed with grief and passion for the losse of his Army received at Solway he departed this life at Falkland in the 32. year of his age Some few dayes before he died he had advertisement that his Queen was delivered of a daughter at Linlithgow at which time it is said he burst forth in passion saying It came with a lasse meaning the Crown and will go with a lasse fie upon it after which he was not heard to utter many words The Cardinal hearing that the King was deceased did suborn a Priest called Henry Balfour to form his last Will whereby it was declared that he had committed to the Cardinal the Earls of Huntley Argyle and Murray the government of the Realm during his daughters minority This Will he caused publish in Edinburgh on the Monday after the Kings death but the Nobles giving it no credit and esteeming it a meer forgery did choose the Earle of Arran Regent and Governour of the Realme Never was any Governour received with greater love and opinion of all sorts for besides the favour carried to himselfe every one was glad to be freed of the Cardinals Government and by his first beginnings a strong hope was conceived that all things should be reformed which were amisse both in Church and Kingdome But this hope soon vanished in the manner that ye shall hear King Henry of England hearing that his Nephew the King of Scots was dead and that he had left one only daughter of seven dayes old began to think of uniting the two Kingdomes and reducing the whole Isle under one Government by the marriage of Edward his son a Prince of five years old to the young Queen of Scots Hereupon he sent for the Earls of Cassils and Glancarne the Lords of Fleming Maxwell and Gray who were taken prisoners at Solway and detained in England to Hampton Court where he then lay and at their coming proponed the businesse
Viterbium in the year 1274. Then succeed these in order 6. Thomas Dundie 7. Roger. 8. Alexander 9. Thomas Urwhart 10. Alexander Kilbuines 11. VVilliam Bullock 12. Thomas Tullich 13. Henry Cokborne 14. Iames Woodman 15. Thomas Hay 16. Iohn Guthrye 17. Iohn Fraser 18. Robert Cokburn 19. William Elphinstone who was afterwards Bishop of Aberdene 20. Iames Hay 21. Robert Carncrosse Abbot of Halirudhouse a man of great wealth and preferred by King Iames the fifth to this See about the 1534. year and lived ten years Bishop 22. David Panter Secretary to the Governour was after his death elected in the year 1544. and immediately after imployed in a legation to France where he remained seven years At his return he was solemnly consecrated the Governour and many of the Nobility being present He was a man learned and of great experience in publick affaires and died about the year 1550. 23. To him succeeded Henry Sinclar Dean of Glasgow and Vice-president in the Colledge of Justice a man of singular wisdom and learning especially in the lawes which place he discharged with good credit By his advice many things were bettered in the form of Justice and divers abuses in the formes of processe amended his death fell out shortly after the Reformation and in his place Mr. Iohn Lesley of whom we shall have often occasion to speak was preferred The Bishops of CATHNES 1. This Bishoprick was founded by Malcolme the third about the yeare 1066. who preferred thereto one Darrus whom he favoured greatly This man lived long and in a good reputation and after his death was honoured for a Saint 2. There succeeded to him one Andrew of whom Roger Hoveden makes mention saying that he came into England with VVilliam King of Scots in the year 1176. and shortly after his return home departed this life 3. To him succeeded Iohn the Bishop that Harold the Earl of Orkney and Cathnes used most cruelly cutting forth his tongue and pulling out his eyes which King VVilliam in whose reign it happened punished exemplarly for he caused the Earl his eyes first to be pulled out then made him to be executed by the hands of the hangman and all his male children to be gelded to extinguish their succession 4. Adam another Bishop whether his immediate successour or not I cannot say was no lesse barbarously used for in the year 1222. or much thereabout some wicked people suborned by the Earl of Cathnes assailed him being private at home and killing his chamber boy with a Monk of Melross that did ordinarily attend him for he had been Abbot of that Monastery drew him by force into his kitchen and when they had scourged him with rods set the kitchen on fire and burnt him therein King Alexander the second was at that time upon his journey towards England and upon notice of this cruel fact turned back and went in haste to Cathnes where he put the offenders and their partakers to trial 400. by publick sentence were executed and all their male children gelded that no succession should spring from so wicked a seed The place where their stones were cast in a heap together is to this day known by the name of the Stony hill The Earl for withholding his help and because he did not rescue the Bishop was forfeited And howbeit after some little time he found means to be restored yet did he not escape the judgement of God being murthered by some of his own servants who conspired to kill him and to conceal the fact set the house on fire and burnt his body therein so was he paid home in the same measure he had used the Bishop 5. To this Adam succeeded Gilbert the Chanon surnamed Murray and sonne to the Lord of Duffus who was in great esteem for the bold and couragious answer he made to the Popes Legate at Northampton he built the Cathedral Church of Cathnes upon his own charges and lived to see the same finished and shortly after the dedication died at Scravister in the year 1245. the posteri gave him the reputation of a Saint 6. VVilliam who succeeded followed his steps and did much good in his time he died in the year 1261. 7. Then VValter Doctor in the Canon law who lived ten years and ended his dayes in the year 1271. 8. Archibald a man much commended for his meek and tractable disposition succeeding died in the year 1288. 9. Andrew a man skilled in the lawes was preferred after his death and lived Bishop 13. years 10. Ferquhard succeeded to him this Bishop was a strong defender of the liberties of the Church and died in the year 1328. 11. David that followed lived 20. years Bishop and departed this life an 1348. 12. Thomas Fingask was next Bishop he died in the Chanonry of Elgin anno 1360. and lieth buried in S. Maries Isle in a Tombe erected by VVilliam Earl of Sutherland whom he left his Executor 13. To him succeeded Bishop Alexander who lived many years in that See and died in the year 1409. Then these in order 14. Malcolm a zealous and devout man who died anno 1421. 15. Robert Strackbock died anno 1440. 16. Iohn Innes Dean of Rosse in the year 1448. 17. VVilliam Mudie died anno 1460. 18. After whom one Prosper was elected but he resigned the place in favours of Iohn Sinclar sonne to the Earle of Cathnes who was never consecrated and so the See remained void the space of 24. years during which time Mr. Adam Gordon governed the affaires of that See After Sinclars death succeeded Andrew Stewart Commendatory of Kelso and Ferne he died in the year 1517. and was buried in the Cathedral Church of Cathnes Andrew Stewart son to the Earl of Athol was preferred after him and died in the year 1542. Then Robert Stewart brother to Matthew Earl of Lenox was made Bishop he was afterwards made Prior of S. Andrews and created Earl of March upon his resignation of the Earldome of Lenox to Duke Esme a man of noble disposition but much addicted to his servants whom he rewarded with dilapidation of the Church rents whereto he was provided he died at S. Andrews very old in the year 1586. The Bishops of ORKNEY The Islands of Orkney lying over against Cathnes have alwayes since they were made Christians been governed by Bishops but being possessed by the ... whilest that Kingdome stood and for a long time in the hands of the Norvegians from whom Alexander the third King of Scots recovered the same by composition The first Bishops and their successours are utterly unknown of the latter I have no intelligence nor in the records that remain is there any mention of them onely I read of four or five that sate in this See before the Reformation 1. One VVilliam that lived in the time of King Robert the third 2. VVilliam Tullock who was translated to Murray in the reign of King Iames the third 3. To whom succeeded one Andrew 4. After Andrew
of the Church not onely Townes may be assigned for the chiefest workemen to remaine in but also Provinces that by their faithfull labours Churches may be erected and order established where none is at the present For Readers To the Church that cannot presently be furnished with Ministers men must be appointed that can distinctly read the Common-Prayers and Scriptures for the exercise both of themselves of the Church untill they grow untill a greater perfection Because he who is now a Reader may in process of time attain to a further degree and be admitted to the holy Ministery Some we know that of long time have professed Christ Iesus whose honest conversation deserveth praise of all good men and whose knowledge might greatly help the simple and ignorant people notthelesse the same persons content themselves with reading These must be animated and encouraged to take upon them the function of the Ministery But if in no measure they be qualified for preaching they must abstain from administration of the Sacraments till they attain unto further knowledge and such as take upon then the office of Preachers who shall not be found qualified therefore by the Superintendent are by him to be placed Readers The fift head concerning the provision of Ministers and distribution of the rents and Possessions justly pertaining to the Church SCripture and Reason do both teach that the labourer is worthy of his hire and that the mouth of the Oxe that treadeth forth the corne ought not to be musled Therefore of necessity it is that honest provision be made for Ministers which we require to be such that they neither have occasion of solicitude nor yet of insolency and wantonnesse And this provision must be made not only for their own sustentation during their lives but also for their wives and children after them for it is against godliness reason and equity that the widow and children of him who did faithfully serve the Church of God in his life and for that cause was not careful in providing for his family should after his death be left comfortlesse It is difficil to appoint the several stipends of every Minister because the charges of necessity of all will not be alike for some will be resident in one place some will be compelled to travel and change their dwelling especially if they have charge of divers Churches Some will be burthened with wife and children and one with moe then another some perchance will live a single life and if equal stipends should be appointed to all these who are in charge so unequal one would suffer penury and another have superfluity Therefore we judge that every Minister should have sufficient wherewith to keep an house and be sustained honestly in all things necessary forth of the rents of the Church which he serveth conform to his quality and the necessity of time wherein it is thought that every Minister shall have forty bols meal and twenty bolls malt with money to buy other provision to his house and serve his other necessities the modification whereof is to be referred to the judgement of the Church which shall be made every year at the choosing of the Elders and Deacons providing alwayes that there be advanced to every Minister provision for a quarter of a year before-hand of all things To the Superintendents who travel from place to place for establishing of the Church a further consideration must be given therefore we think that to each of them should be appointed six Chalders beer nine Chalders meal and three Chalders oats for provand to his horse with 500. Marks of money which may be augmented and diminished at the discretion of the Prince and Councel of the Realm The children of the Ministers must be freemen of the Cities next adjacent where their Fathers laboured faithfully they must also have the priviledges of Schooles and Bursaries in Colledges freely granted unto them if they be found apt for learning or failing thereof they must be put to some handicraft and virtuous industry whereby they may be profitable instruments in the commonwealth Their daughters likewise would be vertuously brought up and honestly educated when they come to maturity of years at the discretion of the Church And this we require not so much for our selves or any that pertaineth to us as for the increase of vertue and learning and for the profit of the posterity to come For it is not to be supposed that a man will dedicate his children to serve in a calling where no wordly commodity is expected and naturally men are provoked to follow vertue where they see honour and profit attending the same as by the contrary many despise vertue when they see vertuous and godly men live unrespected and we should be sorty to know any to be discouraged from following the studies of learning whereby they may be made able to profit the Church of Christ. Of the stipend of the Readers we have spoken nothing because if they can do nothing but read they cannot be esteemed true Ministers and regard must be had of their labours but so as they may be spurred forward to vertue therefore to a Reader that is lately entered we think forty Marks more or lesse as the Parishioners can agree sufficient providing that he teach the children of the Parish which he must do besides the reading of the Common Prayer and the books of Old and New Testament If from reading he proceed to exhort and explaine the Scriptures then ought his stipend to be augmented till he come to the degree of a Minister But if after two years service he be found unable to edify the Church by preaching he must be removed from that office and discharged of all stipend that another may be put in place who to the Church may be more profitable No childe nor person within the age of one and twenty years may be admitted to the office of a Reader but such must be chosen and admitted by the Superintendent as for their gravity and discretion may grace the function that they are called unto These Readers who have some gift of exhortation and have long continued in the course of godlinesse we think may have 100. Marks or more at the discretion of the Church appointed for them yet a difference must alwayes be kept betwixt them and the Ministers that labour in word and ministration of the Sacraments Rests two sorts of people who must be provided for of that which is called the Patrimony of the Church to wit the poor and the Teachers of the youth The poor must be provided for in every Parish for it is a shameful thing that they should be so universally contemned and despised Not that we are Patrons to stubborne and idle beggers who running from place to place make a craft of begging for those we think must be compelled to work or then punished by the Civil Magistrate But the poor widows the fatherlesse the impotent maimed persons the aged and every one
when she came in publick and divers that had set their hands and seals to the marriage fell now openly to condemn it as that which ministred too just a suspicion that she was consenting to the death of the King her husband The Earl of Athol immediately after the murther of the King had forsaken the Court and lived at home waiting some occasion to be revenged of the doers and now esteeming it fit to shew himself he came to Striveling where in a meeting of Noblemen that were desired to come thither upon his motion a bond was made for the preservation of the young Prince lest Bothwell getting him in custody should make him away as no man doubted he would as well to advance his own succession as to cut off the innocent childe who in all probability would one day revenge his fathers death The principals of this combination were the Earls of Argile Atholl Morton Marre and Glencarne with the Lords Lindesay and Boyd But Argile out of a facility which was naturall unto him detected all their counsells to the Queen and the Lord Boyd with great promises was won to the adverse party Bothwell suspecting some insurrection advised the Queen for saving her reputation in forain parts to acquaint the French King and her kinsmen of the house of Guise with her marriage and the reasons thereof desiring them sith that which was done could not be again undone to favour her husband no less then they did her self And to this effect the Bishop of Dumblane was sent into France with letters to all her friends Neither did he admit to do at home what he thought might serve to fortifie himself for divers Noblemen and Barons were invited to Court and at their coming solicited to enter into bond for the defence of the Queen and Bothwell who should on the other part be obliged to protect them in all their affairs Some of these being wrought to the purpose did set their hands willingly to the bond the rest though they would gladly have shunned it yet because they held it dangerous to refuse subscribed in like sort Onely the Earl of Murray of all that were called denied to enter in any bond with the Queen it being neither lawfull for him as he said nor honourable for her whom in all things it was his duty to obey Concerning Bothwell he said that he was reconciled unto him by the Queens mediation and would faithfully keep all that he had promised but to enter in bond with him or any other he did not think it the part of a good subject Shortly after this he obtained leave howbeit not without some difficulty to go into France for he saw troubles breeding in which he loved not to have an hand How soon he was gone choice was made of a new Councell and the Archbishop of St. Andrewes with the Lords Oliphant and Beyd received into the number for their better and more easie attendance they had their times of waiting particularly assigned The Earls of Crawford Arroll and Cassils with the Bishop of Ross and the Lord Oliphant were appointed to begin and attend from the 1. of Iune to the 16. of Iuly The Earls of Morton and Rothes with the Bishop of Calloway and the Lord Fleming were to succeed and remain from the 16. of Iuly to the penult of August After them the Archbishop of St. Andrews the Earls of Argile and Cathnes with the Lord Hereis to the 15. of October And from that day to the 1. of December the Earl of Huntley who was then created Chancellour the Earls of Atholl Marshall and Lord Boyd were appointed to wait at which time Crawford and Arroll were again to begin and the rest to follow in their order for the same space So as during the whole year the Counsellours should be tied to the attendance of 3 moneths onely It was alwayes provided that so many of the forenamed persons as happened to be at Court should during their abode notwithstanding of their severall assignments be present with the others And that it should be lawfull for the Queen to adjoyn at any time such as she thought worthy of that honour The same day a Proclamation was given out Declaring all writings purchased from the Queen for permitting Papists to use the exercise of their Religion to make no faith her Majesty being no way minded to violate the Act made at her first arrivall and often since that time renued in favours of the true Religion But this did not repress the murmurs of the people for which it was specially intended Wherefore some few dayes after the Queen by Bothwels perswasion taking purpose to visit the borders and having charged the subjects to accompany her thither with a provision for 15. dayes according to the custome it was publickly rumored that these forces were gathering for some other business and that the intention was to have the Prince her son in her own custody and taken out of the Earl of Marre his hands So as a new Declaration came forth To certify the people of her good affection and that she never meaned to make any novations in the Kingdom by altering the lawes thereof nor do any thing in the publick affairs but by the advice of the Noblemen of her Councel And for her sonne as she had trusted him to such a Governour as other Princes in former times were custome to have so her motherly care for his safety and good education should be made apparent to all But no regard was had to these Declarations and the Noblemen who had combined themselves at Striveling taking Armes and being assisted by the Lord Home environed on the suddain the Castle of Borthwick wherein the Queen and Bothwel were then remaining yet their companies not sufficing to inclose the house for Athol did not keep the Diet Bothwel first escaped and after him the Queen disguised in mans apparel fled to Dumbar The Lords upon their escape retired to Edinburgh where they expected the rest of their forces would meet There lay in the Town at that by the Queens direction the Earl of Huntley the Archbishop of S. Andrews the Bishop of Ross the Abbot of Kilwining and the Lord Boyd How soon they heard of the Lords coming they went to the street offering themselves to conduct the people and to assist them in the defence of the Town but they found few or none willing to joyn with them and the peoples affections wholly inclining to the Lords The Magistrates gave order to shut the gates but no further resistance was made so as the Lords entering by the gate called S. Maryport which was easily brokeup they made themselves Master of the Town Huntley and the rest taking their refuge to the Castle were received by the Keeper Sir Iames Balfour a man much trusted by Bothwel though at the same time he was treating with the Lords for delivering the Castle into their hands The
he did see them fall a wrestling he excused himself by a sudden fear that overtook him in the time and indeed he lookt ever after that time as one half distracted It was much marvelled that in so high an attempt the Earl should have made choice of such a one but the man was of a servile spirit and apt enough to doe mischief and many have conjectured that if the treason had taken effect it was in the Earls purpose to have made away both his brother and him that he might not be supposed to have had any knowledge thereof I remember my self that meeting with Mr. William Cowper then Minister at Perth the third day after in Falkland he shewed me that not many daies before that accident visiting by occasion the Earl at his own house he found him reading a book entituled De conjurationibus adversus Principes and having asked him what a book it was he answered That it was a Collection of the Conspiracies made against Princes which he said was foolishly contrived all of them and faulty either in one point or other for he that goeth about such a business should not said he put any man on his counsell And he not liking such discourses desired him to lay away such books and read others of a better subject I verily think he was then studying how to go beyond all Conspirators recorded in any History but it pleased God who giveth salvation to Kings as the Psalme speaketh to infatuate his counsels and by his ensample to admonish all disloyall and trayterous subjects to beware of attempting against their Soveraigns Advertisement sent the next day to the Councel which then remained at Edinburgh the Ministers of the Town were called and desired to convene their people and give thanks unto God for his Majesties deliverance They excusing themselves as not being acquainted with the particulars nor how those things had fallen out it was answered that they were only to signifie how the King had escaped a great danger and to stirre up the people to thanksgiving They replied That nothing ought to be delivered in pulpit but that whereof the truth was known and that all which is uttered in that place should be spoken in faith When by no perswasion they could be moved to perform that duty it was resolved that the Councell should go together to the Market-crosse and that the Bishop of Rosse should after a narration of the Kings danger and deliverance conceive a publick Thanksgiving which was done the multitude applauding and expressing a great joy The Munday following the King came to Edinburgh accompanied with divers Noblemen and Barons and heard a Sermon preached at the Crosse by Mr. Patrick Galloway who choosed the 124 Psalme for his Theme did take occasion to discourse of all the particulars of that Conspiracy and gave the people great satisfaction for many doubted that there had been any such Conspiracy the condition of Princes beeing as the Emperor Domitian said herein miserable that even when Conspiracies made against their persons are discovered yet they are not credited unlesse they be slain The next day the King in a solemn Councell kept at Halirudhouse to testifie his thankfulness for his deliverance and to perpetuate the memory thereof did mortifie for the entertainment of some poor men the rent of 1000 pounds yearly to be taken of the readiest fruits of the Abbacy of Scone and ordained an honourable reward to be given to the three Gentlemen that had been the instruments of his preservation and the cause of the reward to be specified in their Patents After this order was taken for a publick and solemn Thanksgiving to be made in all the Churches of the Kingdome and the last Tuesday of September with the Sunday following appointed for that exercise The Ministers of Edinburgh who gave the refuse were commanded to remove themselves out of the Town within 48 hours and inhibited to preach within his Majesties Dominions under pain of death Mr. Walter Balcanquell Mr. William Watson and Mr. Iohn Hall three of that number compeiring at Striveling the 10 of September and declaring That they were throughly resolved of the truth of Gowries Conspiracy and willing to amend their former fault were pardoned upon condition that before their return to Edinburgh they should in the Churches appointed to them publickly preach and declare their perswasion of the truth of that treason craving God and his Majesty forgiveness for the question they made thereof and rebuking all such as continued in that doubtfulness The Churches designed to them were Tranent Mussilburgh and Dalkeith for Mr. VValter Balcanquell Dunbar and Dunf for Mr. VVilliam VVatson and for Mr. Iohn Hall Dunfermlin S. Andrews and Perth Mr. Iames Balfour the day following upon the like confession was remitted and ordained to publish his resolution in the Churches of Dundie Montrosse Aberbrothock and Brichen But Mr. Robert Bruce taking a course by himself and saying He would reverence his Majesties reports of that accident but could not say he was perswaded of the truth of it was banished the Kings Dominions and went unto France The 15 of November a Parliament was held at Edinburgh wherein sentence of forfeiture was pronounced against Gowrie and Mr. Alexander his Brother their posterity disinherited and in detestation of the paricide attempted the whole surname of Ruthven abolished But this last was afterwards dispensed with and such of that name as were known to be innocent tolerated by the Kings clemency to enjoy their surnames and titles as in former times The bodies of the two brothers being brought to the Parliament house were after sentence given hanged upon a gibbet in the publick street and then dismembred their heads cut off and affixed upon the top of the prison house This done the Estates in acknowledgment of the favours and grace they all had received of God by the miraculous and extraordinary preservation of his Majesty from that treasonable attempt did ordain That in all times and ages to come the fifth of August should be solemnly kept with prayers preachings and thanksgiving for that benefit discharging all work labour and other occupations upon the said day which might distract the people in any sort from those pious exercises Divers other good and profitable Acts as well for the Church as Kingdome were concluded in this Parliament as the Act decerning all Marriages contracted betwixt persons divorced for adultery to be null and the children begotten by such unlawfull conjunction incapable of succession to their parents inheritance As also the Act made for removing and extinguishing of deadly feuds which the King had ever striven to abolish was in that time confirmed by the whole Estates Upon the close of the Parliament the King went to Dunfermlin to visit the Queen who was brought to bed of a Son The Christening was hastned because of the weakness of the Childe and that
his death was much feared He was named Charles and contrary to the expectation of most men grew unto years and strength and survived Prince Henry his elder brother reignes happily this day over these Kingdomes which that he may long doe is the desire and wish of all good subjects In the end of the year Mr. Iohn Craig that had been Minister to the King but through age was compelled to quit the Charge departed this life This man whilest he lived was held in great esteem a great Divine and excellent Preacher of a grave behaviour sincere inclining to no faction and which increased his reputation living honestly without oftentation or desire of outward glory many tossings and troubles he endured in his time for being left young and his Father killed at Flowdon after that he had got an entrance in Letters and passed his course in Philosophy in S. Andrews he went to England and waited as Pedagogue on the Lord Dacres his children the space of two years Warres then arising betwixt the two Kingdomes he returned home and became one of the Dominican Order but had not lived long among them when upon suspicion of heresie he was put in prison Being cleared of that imputation he went back again into England and thinking by the Lord Dacres means to have got a place in Cambridge because that failed he went to France and from thence to Rome There he won such favour with Cardinall Pole as by his recommendation he was received among the Dominicans of Bononia and by them first appointed to instruct the Novices of the Cloyster afterwards when they perceived his diligence and dexterity in businesses he was employed in all their affairs throughout Italy and sent in Commission to Chios an Isle situated in the Ionick sea to redresse things that were amisse amongst those of their Order Therein he discharged himself so well that at his return he was made Rector of the School and thereby had accesse to the Libraries especially to that of the Inquisition where falling on the Institutions of Iohn Calvin he was taken with a great liking thereof and one day conferring with a reverend old man of the Monastery was by him confirmed in the opinion he had taken but withall warned in any case not to utter himself or make his minde known because the times were perilous yet he neglecting the counsell of the aged man and venting his opinions too freely was delated of heresie and being sent to Rome after examination imprisoned nine moneths he lay there in great misery at the end whereof being brought before the Judge of the Inquisition and giving a cleer Confession of his Faith he was condemned to be burnt the next day which was the 19 of August It happened the same night Pope Paul the fourth to depart this life upon the noise of whose death the people came in a tumult to the place where his statue in marble had been erected and pulling it down did for the space of three daies drag the same through the streets and in the end threw it in the River of Tiber. During the tumult all the prisons were broke open the Prisoners set free and among those Mr. Craig had his liberty as he sought to escape for he held it not safe to stay in the City two things happened unto him not unworthy of relation first in the Suburbs as he was passing he did meet a sort of loose men whom they called Banditi one of the company taking him aside demanded if he had been at any time in Bononia He answered that he had been some time there Doe ye not then remember said he that walking on a time in the fields with some young Noblemen there came unto you a poor maimed Souldier entreating some relief Mr. Craig replying that he did not well remember But I doe said he and I am the man to whom ye shewed kindness at that time be not afraid of us ye shall incurre no danger and so conveying him through the Suburbs and shewing what was his safest course he gave him so much money as might make his charge to Bononia for he intended to go thither trusting to finde some kindness with those of his acquaintance yet at his coming he found them look strange and fearing to be of new trapped he slipped away secretly taking his course to Millain By the way another accident befell him which I should scarce relate so incredible it seemeth if to many of good place he himself had not often repeated it as a singular testimony of Gods care of him And this it was when he had travelled some days declining the highways out of fear he came into a forrest a wild and desert place and being sore wearied lay down among some bushes on the side of a little brook to refresh himself lying there pensive and full of thoughts for neither knew he in what part he was nor had he any means to bear him out the way a dog cometh fawning with a purse in his teeth and lays it down before him he stricken with a fear riseth up and construing the same to proceed from Gods favourable providence towards him followed his way till he came to a little village where he met with some that were travelling to Vienne in Austria and changing his intended course went in their company thither Being there and professing himself to be one of the Dominican order he was brought to preach before Maximilian the second who liking the man and his manner of teaching would have retained him if by letters from Pope Pius the third he had not been required to send him back to Rome as one that was condemned for heresie The Emperour not liking to deliver him and on the other part not willing to fall out with the Pope did quietly dimit him with letters of safe conduct So travelling through Germany he came to England and being there informed of the reformation begun at home he returned into Scotland and made offer of his service to the Church but his long dissuetude of the Countrey language which was not to be mervailed considering that he had lived abroad the space of 24 years made him unusefull at first now and then to the learned sort he preached in Latine in the Magdalens Chappell at Edinburgh and in the year 1561 after he had recovered the language was appointed Minister at Halirudhouse The next year he was taken to Edinburgh and served as Collegue with Mr. Knox the space of nine years then by the ordinance of the assembly he was translated to Montross where he continued two years and upon the death of Adam Heriot was removed to Aberdene having the inspection of the Churches of Marre and Buchan committed to his care in the year 1579 he was called to be the Kings Minister and served in that charge till born down with the weight of years he was forced to retire himself after which time forbearing all publick exercises he lived