Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/216

 tended for the office in the missal which begins 'Benedicant Dominum omnes angeli ejus,' and superintended its execution in the cathedral as precentor of the choir.

In 1525 the Scottish parliament forbade the importation of books containing the damnable heresies of Luther on pain of imprisonment. In the following year Hamilton began publicly to show his sympathy with the proscribed doctrines. The suspicion of Beaton was roused, and an inquisition or theological commission of inquiry was issued in Lent 1527, whose report confirmed it. Hamilton, to avoid further proceedings, went abroad early in spring. He was accompanied by Gilbert Wynram of Lothian, John Hamilton of Linlithgow, and one servant, and went at once to Wittenberg, where he made the personal acquaintance of Luther and Melanchthon. The foundation of Marburg, the first protestant university, by Philip, landgrave of Hesse, induced him to pass to the new university on the Lahn, where on 30 May he and his two friends enrolled their names among its first students. At Marburg he had the opportunity of profiting by the society of Lambert, the head of the theological faculty, Herman von dem Busche, one of the leading humanists, a contributor to the 'Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum,' Tyndale, the translator of the Bible into English, and his disciple, John Frith. At the instance of Lambert, Hamilton himself took part in spreading the principles of the Reformation by the composition of his short and only work entitled 'Loci Communes,' or 'Common Places,' in which the doctrine of justification by faith and the contrast between the gospel and the law were set forth in a series of clear and pithy propositions. 'Patrick's Pleas,' as they were familiarly called, were framed almost literally in the words of the New Testament. They were inserted in the 'History of the Reformation' by Knox, and in the 'Acts and Monuments' of Foxe, and so became a corner-stone of protestant theology both in Scotland and England.

After remaining only six months in Germany Hamilton returned home in the autumn of 1527, leaving his two companions at Marburg. It is reasonably conjectured that he went first to his brother's house at Kincavel, and preached his new creed there and at other places in the neighbourhood of Linlithgow. His brother already favoured the Reformation, for which he afterwards suffered exile. His sister Catherine was tried, and narrowly escaped condemnation as a heretic in 1534. About this time Patrick married 'a young lady of noble rank,' according to Alesius, but her name has not been preserved. A daughter was born after her father's death. He had refused to become a monk, and the office of abbot or pensionary of Feme was no impediment to marriage. He probably had been ordained a priest, but of this there is no record. It was natural that he should follow the example of Luther, and give a practical protest against celibacy. Beaton induced Hamilton to come to St. Andrews for a conference in January 1528. He was not blind to the probable consequences. 'While yet with his relations in Linlithgowshire,' says Alesius, 'he predicted that he had not long to live,' and when he entered St. Andrews 'he said he had come to confirm the pious in the true doctrine by his death.' After several meetings with Beaton and the theological doctors, who, according to Knox, admitted the need for reform, Hamilton was dismissed, and allowed without hindrance to teach in the university of St. Andrews.

He used his liberty by disputing openly on all the points on which he conceived a reformation to be necessary. He also argued privately with Alexander Campbell, a Dominican friar, who, professing so far to agree with him, became afterwards one of his most vehement accusers, and with Alexander Alesius, who, striving to convince him of his errors, was himself convinced, and became a leading reformer. It is uncertain whether Hamilton's freedom, which continued for a month, was intended to provide clear materials for his accusation, or to give him another opportunity of leaving the country, which Beaton is said to have privately advised him to do. Summoned to appear before the archbishop and his council for heresy, he appeared before the appointed day to answer the charges, thirteen in number, of which the first seven contained substantially the doctrine he had asserted in his 'Common Places,' the cardinal one being 'that a man is not justified by works, but by faith only.' The remaining six were pointed at special articles of the Roman creed, such as penance, auricular confession, and purgatory. The boldest was the declaration that the pope was anti-christ, and not superior to any other priest. When interrogated he said he held the first seven undoubtedly true ; for the rest he ad- mitted they were disputable, but he would not condemn them until he heard better reason for doing so. The articles were then remitted to the council, who declared the whole thirteen heretical, and appointed judgment to be given on the last day of February 1528.

The captain of the castle surrounded his lodgings with troops, and although his friends offered to fight rather than deliver him up, he surrendered, it is said, on an assurance