Hift. p. 39.

queft of the convocation in 1534, the King had LETTER XXXI. caufed to be printed and difperfed, and for a copy ofuch ftatutes and injunctions as had been lately made in England for the reformation of religion, and fuppreffing the Pope's authority. According. Keith's ly the books came, and at the fame time, or foon after, Henry sent down one Richardson a Priest, whom the governor heard preach, and promised him a living and entertainment in the country. This man went to St. Andrews, and talked with the Cardinal, but on what business or to what effect, we are not told.

All this looked well in fo far, and great expectations were formed of what would follow. But thefe flattering profpects came to nothing, at least for fome time, tho' a beginning was now made, which might in end have accomplished a good work, if the governor had kept steady to his first profeffions. It is true he had difficulties to encounter, which would have required more natural refolution to furmount than he was poffeffed of. The correspondence with England met with much oppofition from different quarters. The propofed marriage, tho' once formally agreed to, and hoftages given for the performance, was not univerfally relished. The clergy set themselves violently against it, from a juft fear of the dangerous confequences of it to their religious fyftem: And a great body of the nobility, fuch as the Earls of Huntly, Argyle, Montrofe, Bothwell, Monteith, the Lord Fleming, with many more of all ranks, out of a national diflike to the English, entered into a folemn bond to refift the match with all their might, and did what they could to engage the governor to break off the treaty, by offering to bring about a match between the infant Queen

and

LETTER and his eldest fon the Lord Hamilton. At the XXXI. fame time his natural brother John Hamilton, Ab

bot of Paifley, being newly returned from France, to which he was much devoted, and being put upon it by the Cardinal, began to reprefent to the governor the impropriety of the meafures he was purfuing, as the legitimacy of his birth, he faid, because of an antecedent divorce of his father from a wife prior to his mother, with all his prefent titles and future hopes depended upon the Pope's authority and the laws of the church as then eftablished. All these confiderations fo wrought on the timorous, unstable man, that in a few days he made a public renunciation of his former belief, and was folemnly reconciled to the church by receiving abfolution from the hands of the Cardinal, in the church of the Francifcans at Stirling, fometime in September 1543.

This unexpected step foon altered the face of affairs. Richardson the English Priest, with others of his countrymen, made homewards as fast as they could: The governor's two chaplains were difmifed: Friar Guillam, fearing to be called in question for his doctrine, which the Abbot of Paifley had been always finding fault with, withdrew into England, and died there. His colleague Rough ftaid fome time in this country, and we fhall hear more of him by and by. Nor was the governor fatisfied with thus abandoning his former friends; but to testify his new zeal the more, he made a publick speech in the parliament of December the fame year, against the fpreading of Hereticks and fowing damnable opinions, "exhorting therefore "all Prelates and ordinaries, ilkane within his "own dioces and jurifdiction, to enquire upon all "manner of fuch perfons, and proceed against

"them

"them according to the laws of halie Kirk: And LETTER

my Lord Governor fhall be ready at all times XXXI. "to do therein what accords him of his office."

Upon this the Cardinal, who fince the King's death had been pretty quiet, took courage again, and appeared once more in his own colours. For being now fortified with the Regent's authority, he was always travelling thro' the country with a splendid retinue, either making friends or deftroying enemies. The Pope had fent a legate into Scotland to diffuade the nation from the English mar riage, propofed for their Queen. He was nobly entertained; but without acting in any public sphere went off again in March 1544. And foon after the Cardinal was invested with this character, which added nothing to his power, whatever it did to his dignity. In 1545 he made a visitation of his diocefs, attended by the Governor, and a number of the nobility and gentry; and being come to Perth, he convened beforehimanumber of fufpected perfons who, besides other frivolous points of accufation, were indicted particularly for contravening that clause in the act of the Governor's firft Parliament, whereby the lieges, tho' in general allowed to read the fcripture, were prohibited from difputing about the interpretation of it. The pannels being found guilty, as was to be looked for before fuch a court and upon fuch a captious indictment, were condemned to different degrees of punishment: Some were imprifoned, fome banished, and five men, and a woman named Helen Stirk, who was then nurfing a child of her own, were for example's fake fentenced to death, which was immediately executed, the men being as ufual burnt at a ftake, and the woman drowned in a pool. From thence the Cardinal marched, on Vol. II.

G

the

LETTER the fame errand, to Angus, where he called many XXXI. in queftion for reading the new teftament in Engwlish, notwithstanding of the liberty once given,

which was now accounted a heinous crime And it is faid, fuch was the ignorance or prejudice of these times, that even many of the very Priests gave out that the new teftament was written by Luther, and that the old was the only fcripture to be read. From Angus the proceffion went thro the Mearns, and then returned to St. Andrews, where the Cardinal spent the Christmass holidays, and afterwards proceeded to Edinburgh

Here perceiving that after all his feverities, many were still inclining to the new opinions, and that they were encouraged in these inclinations by the immoral lives of too many of the clergy, he affembled a provincial council in January 1546, in order to confult about proper methods to ftop the growing herefy, and to reftrain the licentioufnefs of churchmen, which was fo fcandalous and gave the people fuch a handle to defert them. But how far they proceeded in that plaufible defign, which had fo often been pretended, remains uncertain. Perhaps they were diverted from it, or interrupted in it, by the agreeable information they then received, that the famous new preacher Mr. George Wifhart, whom the Cardinal had been long in fearch of, was just then at the house of Ormiston in Eaft Lothian. The Cardinal went immediately to the governor, and got him to fend a party to apprehend the heretick. But the Laird of Ormiston refufing to deliver him up, as hoping to have wrought his efcape, the Earl of Bothwel, who was high fheriff of the county, came to the houfe, and upon pledging his honour for Mr. Wifhart's fafety had him put into his hands, who that very

+

night carried him to the house of Elphinston, LETTER where the Cardinal was waiting him. From thence XXXI. he was conveyed to the caftle of Edinburgh, and in a few days removed to the Cardinal's own caftle of St. Andrews. Thither the other prelates were immediately fummoned, and accordingly convened on the twenty feventh of February, in order to the trial and condemnation of this fuppofed Archheretick. The Archbishop of Glasgow advised the Cardinal to get a commiffion from the Governor to fome man of quality to execute juftice, lest all the burden fhould lie upon the clergy if they fhould finish the procefs in, their own names. To this the Cardinal confented, in confidence that the Spotf.p. 79 Governor would not hesitate in the matter, as for fome time past he had found him very obfequious to all his purposes. Bur the Governor, either out of pity to the fufferer, or by the importunity of other friends, warned the Cardinal not to precipitate the trial, till he fhould come in perfon and fee the cause maturely examined, and if otherwise, he protested that the man's blood should be required at his hand. This anfwer grieved the Cardinal not a little, who feared the danger of delay in an affair he had fo much at heart, and therefore refolved to go on with it by his own authority, as he fhould fee most fitting. So the convention was held on the day appointed, and after the ufual formalities of citation and accufation Mr. Wifhart was fentenced to be burnt on the first of March, which was put in execution accordingly: And that day the Cardinal made proclamation thro' St. Andrews, that no perfon fhould pray for thecheretick under pain of ecclefiaftical cenfures.

This Mr. Wifhart was of the family of Pitarro in the Merns. In his younger years he had been mafter of the grammar fchool of Montrofe, and C 2

had