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5 Catholic clergy; in place of subduing the hostile dlootrines which were abroad, and regaining the confidence of mankind, which their immorality and knavery had forfeited, listened the dissemination of the one, and the total annihilation of the other.

Amongst the first who introduced the reformed doctrines, or, as they were then called, heresies, into Scotland, was Patrick Hamilton, abbot of Fern, near Brechin; and he was also the first in that country who fell a martyr to the cause of the reformed religion. Hamilton, who was only twenty-three years of age at the time of his death, was connected with the first families in the kingdom; he was nephew to the Earl of Arran by his father, and to the duke of Albany by his mother. This amiable young man, for he was of a mild and inoffensive disposition, having returned from Germany, whether he had gone for improvement, and where he had imbibed the doctrines of Luther, was summoned before a council, held at St. Andrew's; by Archbishop Beaton, and accused of heresy by bishops, abbots, friars, black and grey, who had all assembled to sit in judgment on one whose doctrines struck at the root of their power and of their worldly comforts. Hamilton's principal accuser, on this occasion, was an infamous knave, a friar of the name of Campbell, who had been appointed to associate with the unsuspecting abbot in order to discern the nature and extent of his heretical tenets. This he accomplished by affecting to coincide with the opinions of his victim; whom, by this treachery, he led on to a full disclosure of his sentiments on the subject of religion, and the then state of the church. When Hamilton was brought before the council, Campbell steps forward as his accuser, and read the articles of his impeachment.