Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/682

 SCOTLAND

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SCOTLAND

primacy when only sixteen, fell with his royal father and the flower of the Scottish nobility at Flodden in 1513. Foreman, who succeeded him as archbishop, was an able and zealous prelate; but by far the most distinguished Scottish bishop at this period was the learned and holy William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen 14S3-1514, and founder of Aberdeen Uni- versity in 1494.

In 1525 the Lutheran opinions seem first to have appeared in Scotland, the parliament of that year passing an act forbidding the importation of Lu- theran books. James V was a staunch son of the Church, and wrote to Pope Clement VII in 1526, protesting his determination to resist every form of heresy. Patrick Hamilton, a commendatory abbot and connected with the royal house, was tried and condemned for teaching false doctrine, and burned at St. Andrews in 152S: but his death, which Knox claims to have been the starting-point of the Refor- mation in Scotland, certainly did not stop the spread- ing of the new opin- ions. James, whilst showing himself zeal- ous for the reform of ecclesiastical abuses in his realm, resisted all the efforts of his uncle Henry VIII of England to draw him over to the new re- ligion. He married the only daughter of the King of France in 1537, much to Henry's chagrin; but his young wife died within three months. Meanwhile his king- dom was divided into two opposing parties — one, includ- ing many nobles, the queen-mother (sister

of Henry VIII), and the religiously disaffected among his subjects, secretly supporting Henry's schemes and the advance of the new opinions; the other, compris- ing the powerful and wealthy clergy, several peers of high rank, and the great mass of his still Catho- lic and loyal subjects. Severe measures continued against the disseminators of Lutheranism, many suffer- ing death or banishment; and there were not wanting able and patriotic counsellors to stand by the king, notable among them being David Beaton, whom we find in France negotiating for the marriage of Jamea to Mary of Guise in 1537, and himself uniting the royal pair at St. Andrews. Beaton became cardinal in 1538 and Primate of Scotland a few weeks later, on the death of his uncle James Beaton, and found hims^ilf the object of Henry VIII's jealoasy and ani- mosity, as the greatest obstacle to that monarch's plans and hopes. Henry's anger culminated on the bestfjwal by the pope on th(! King of Scots of the very title of Defender of the Faith which he had him- self received from Leo X; open hostilities broke out, and shortly after the disastrous rout of the Scotch forces at Solway Moss in 1542 James V died at Falk- land, leaving a baby daughter, Mary Stuart, to in- herit his crown and the government of his distracted country.

James V's death was immediately followed by new ac- tivity on the part of the Protestant party. The Regent Arran openly favoured the new doctrines, and many of the Scotti.sh nol>les bound themselves, for a money payment from Henry VIII, to acknowledge him jih lord paramount of Scotland. Beaton was impris- oned, a step which resulted in Scotland being placed

under an interdict by the pope, whereupon the peo- ple, still in great part Catholic, insisted on the car- dinal's release. Henrj- now connived at, if he did not actually originate, a plan for the assassination of Beaton, in which George Wishart, a conspicuous Protestant preacher, was also mixed up. Wishart was tried for heresy and burned at St. Andrews in 1546, and two months later Beaton was murdered in the same city. Arran, who had meanwhile reverted to Catholicism, wrote to the pope deploring Beaton's death, and asking for a subsidy towards the war with England. The Protestants held the Castle of St. Andrews, among them being John Knox; and the fortress was only recovered by the aid of a French squadron. Disaffection and treachery were rife among the nobles, and the English Protector Somer- set, secure of their support, led an English army over the border, and defeated the Scottish forces with great loss at Pinkie in 1547.

A few months later the young queen was sent by her mother, Mary of Guise, to France, which remained her home for thirteen years. The French allianceenabled Scot- land to drive back her English invaders ; peace was declareil in 1550, and Mary of Guise was appointed regent in succession to the weak and vacillating Arran, entering on office just as a Catholic queen, Mary Tudor, was ascending the English throne. Ar- ran's half-brother, John Hamilton, suc- ScoNE Pal.\ce ceeded Beaton Jis

Archbishop of St. Andrews, James Beaton soon after being appointed to Glasgow, while the See of Orkney was held by the pious, learned, and able Robert Reid, the virtual founder of Edinburgh University. The primate convoked a provincial national council in Edinburgh in 1549, at which sixty ecclesiastics were present. A series of important canons was passed at this council, as well as at a subsequent on(> assembled in 1552, one result being the publication in the latter year of a catechism intended for the instruction of the clergy as well as of their flocks. From 1547 to 1555 John Knox was preaching Protestantism in England, Geneva, and P>ankfort, and the new doctrines made little head- way in Scotland. In 1555, however, he returned to Edinburgh, and started his crusade against the an- cient Faith, meeting with little molestation from the authorities. He went back to Geneva in the follow- ing year; but his Scottish friends and supporters, emboldened by his (^xliort.Uions, subscribed in De- cember, 1557, the Solemn League and Covenant, for the express object of the overt lirow of the old religion. Angered by the execution of Waller Myine for her(>,sy in 155S, the lords of the Congregation (as the Prot- estant party was now styled) demanded of the Queen Regent authorization for i>ublic Protestant service. Mary laid the petition before a provincial council which met in 1559, and which, whih^ declining to give way to the Protestant demands, j).isse(l many excel- lent and salutary enactments, chitifly directed against the numerous and crying abuses which had too long b(»en rampant in theScottish Church. But no con- ciliar decrees could avert th(! storm al)out to burst over the realm.

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