Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/34

478  , an author of some note, was born on the banks of the Lossie, near Elgin, about the year 1500. He is commonly known by his Latinized name of Florentius Volusenus, which has been usually translated Wilson, though it is doubted whether his name was not Wolsey, Willison, Williamson, or Voluzene. He studied at Aberdeen, and afterwards repaired to England, where cardinal Wolsey appointed him preceptor to his nephew. Accompanied by the latter he went to Paris, where, after the death of Wolsey and the consequent loss of his pupil, he found another patron in cardinal du Bellai, archbishop of Paris. Along with this prelate he intended to visit Rome, but was prevented bv illness, and was left behind at Avignon. Here he recommended himself by his scholarship to cardinal Sadolet, who procured for him the appointment of teacher of Latin and Greek in the public school of Carpentras. He is best known by his dialogue "De Animi Tranquillitate," which was published at Lyons in 1543, and reprinted at Edinburgh in 1571, 1707, and 1751. Wilson died at Vienne, in Dauphiny, in 1547, when returning to his native land. Several other works have been ascribed to him besides the well known dialogue, but the works themselves are not extant. His death was celebrated by Buchanan in the following epigram:—

"Hic Musis, Volusene, jaces carissime, ripam Ad Rhodani, terra quam procul a patria! Hoc meruit virtus tua, tellus quae foret altrix Virtutum, ut cineres conderet illa tuos."  , superintendent of Fife and Stratherne, was descended of the Fifeshire family of the Winrams of Ratho. He is supposed to have entered the university of St Andrews (St Leonard's college) in 1513, and in 1515 he took the degree of B. A., on which occasion he is designated a pauper; that is, one who paid the lowest rate of fees. From that period till 1532, no trace has been discovered of him, but at the last mentioned date he is noticed under the title of "Canonicum ac baccalarium in Theologia" as one of the rector's assessors, and in a deed dated the same year he is called a canon regular of the monastery of St Andrews. Two years afterwards he is mentionedas third prior, and in 1536, as subprior, in which situation he continued till the Reformation.

The first occasion on which we have found Mr John Winram making a public appearance was the trial of George Wishart, the martyr. On that occasion he was appointed to open the proceedings by a sermon, and he accordingly preached on the parable of the wheat and tares: he mentioned that the word of God is "the only and undoubted foundation of trying heresy without any superadded traditions," but held that heretics should be put down,—a position strangely inconsistent with the command to let the tares and wheat grow together till harvest. About the same period, archbishop Hamilton ordered the subprior to call a convention of Black and Grey friars for the discussion of certain articles of heretical doctrine. At this meeting, John Knox demanded from Winram a public acknowledgment of his opinion, whether these heretical articles were consistent or inconsistent with God's word; but this the wary subprior avoided. "I came not here as a judge," he replied, "but familiarly to talk, and therefore I will neither allow nor disallow, but if ye list, I will reason;" and accordingly he did reason, till Knox drove him from all his positions, and he then laid the burden upon Arbuckle, one of the friars. Winram attended the provincial councils of the Scottish clergy, held in 1549 and 1559, and, on the first of these occasions at least, took an active part in the proceedings. Thus, up to the very period of the establishment of the Reformation, he