In tracing the History of the Reformation, we must always revert to a
much earlier period than that of Luther. The chief witnesses against the
corrupt ceremonies and discipline of the Church of Rome belonged to two
distinct sects, but entertaining nearly the same sentiments--the
Albigenses, who were chiefly settled about Toulouse and Albigeois, in
Languedoc; and the Valdenses, who inhabited the mountainous tract of
country, (known as the Cottian Alps,) in the provinces of Dauphine and
Provence, in the south of France, and in Piedmont, in the north of
Italy. Both sects may be considered as descendants of the primitive
Christians, and the long series of persecutions which they endured, may
have conduced to spread their opinions in other lands, and to keep alive
a spirit of religious inquiry and freedom.
The great English Reformer John Wykliffe, died in the year 1380. The
persecutions which arose after his death, drove many of his adherents
into exile, and brought some of them to the western parts of Scotland,
who, having settled in Ayrshire, obtained the name of the Lollards of
Kyle. Any notices respecting them that have been preserved are
unfortunately very scanty, but should not be overlooked in a work like
the present.
Andrew of Wyntoun, Prior of Lochlevin, the author of a Metrical
Chronicle, written about the year 1420, when recording the appointment
of Robert Duke of Albany as Governor of Scotland, in the year 1405,
commends him for his opposition to Lollards and Heretics:--
"He was a constant Catholike,
All Lollard he hatyt, and Hereticke."--(vol. ii. p. 419.)
It was during his administration, that the first Martyr of the Reformed
religion was committed to the flames at Perth, for alleged heresy, in
the year 1406 or 1407. This was eight or nine years previously to the
death of John Huss, that "generous and intrepid Martyr and confessor of
Christ," as Luther justly calls him.
Walter Bower, the continuator of Fordun, is probably the only original
historian who has preserved an account of Resby, of which the following
is an extract:--
"LIB. XV. CAP. XX. DE COMBUSTIONE JACOBI RESBY HÆRETICI APUD PERTH.
"Eodem anno [MCCCCVI] die combustus est JACOBUS RESBY, Presbyter
Anglicus de schola Johannis Wykliff, hæreticus condemnatus in concilio
cleri sub magistro Laurentio de Lundoris, inquisitore hæreticæ
pravitatis, solidissimo clerico et famoso theologo, vitæ sanctitate
quamplurimum collaudato. Qui quidem Jacobus, quamvis interdum
celeberrimus reputabatur simplicibus prædicatione, periculosissimas
tamen conclusiones intersperserat in sua dogmatizatione. Quarum prima
fuit, quod Papa de facto non est Christi vicarius. Secunda, Nullus est
Papa, nec Christi vicarius, nisi sit sanctus. De consimilibus, vel
pejoribus, tenuit quadraginta conclusiones. Cujus tam Scripta quam
auctorem Inquisitor confutavit, et ad ignem applicavit et incineravit.
Hujusmodi errores excerpti sunt de hæresibus dicti Johannis Wykliff
hæresiarchæ, damnati Londoniis in Anglia, anno Domini MCCCLXXX, per
primatem Angliæ, et tredecim episcopos, ae magistros in sacra theologia
triginta, ex dialogo, trialogo, et aliis suis libris. Conclusiones et
libelli istius hæretici adhuc a nonnullis Lolardis habentur in Scotia,
et curiose servantur, ex instinctu Diaboli, per tales quibus aquæ
furtivæ dulciores sunt, et panis absconditus suavior."--(Vol. i. p.
441.)
The several abbreviates of the Scotichronicon notice Resby's fate. Law's
MS. places it in 1406; but the larger "Extracta ex Cronicis Scocie,"
gives the year 1407, nor omits the circumstance "De talibus et pejoribus
xl. Conclusiuncs; _cujus liber adhuc restant curiose servantur per
Lolardos in Scocie_." Among later writers who mention Resby, Spotiswood
says, "John Wickliffe in England, John Hus and Jerome of Prague in
Bohemia, did openly preach against the tyranny of the Pope, and the
abuses introduced in the Church; and in this countrey, one called
Joannes [James] Resby an Englishman, and _de schola_ Wickliffi, as the
story speaketh, was brought in question for some points of doctrine
which he taught, and condemned to the fire. He was charged by Master
Laurence Lendores with 40 heretical opinions; whereof we have two only
mentioned; one, That the Pope was not Christ's Vicar; the other, That he
was not to be esteemed Pope, if he was a man of wicked life. For
maintaining these two points, he suffered in the year 1407."--(History
of the Church, p. 56.) This date is also given in the Breve Cronicon,
(apud Registrum Glasguense, p. 316.) "Combustio Jacobi Henrici [Resby]
apud Perth, A.D. 1407."
The prevalence of such opinions is still more evident from the oath
which Masters of Arts were required to take, in the newly founded
University of St. Andrews; it being enacted at a Congregation, held on
the 10th of June 1416, that all who commenced Masters of Arts should
swear, among other things, that they would resist all adherents of the
sect of LOLLARDS. "Item, Jurabitis quod ecclesiam defendetis contra
insultum Lollardorum, et quibuscunque eorum secte adherentibus pro posse
vestro resistetis."--(MS. Records of the University, quoted by Dr.
M'Crie, Life of Melville, vol. i. p. 419.)
Knox commences his History with referring to some person whose name did
not appear in the Scrollis or Registers of Glasgow, who suffered in that
city in the year 1422. David Buchanan and Petrie have rather hastily
concluded that Resby was the person referred to, overlooking both the
difference of time and the place of his execution.
Another proof of the increase of the Lollards in Scotland, is furnished
by an Act in the Parliament of King James the First, held at Perth, on
the 12th March 1424-5, soon after his return from his long captivity in
England:--
"OF HERETICKIS AND LOLLARDIS.
"Item, Anentis Heretikis and Lollardis, that ilk Bischop sall ger inquyr
be the Inquisicione of Heresy, quhar ony sik beis fundyne, ande at thai
be punyst as Lawe of Haly Kirk requiris: Ande, gif it misteris, that
Secular power be callyt tharto in suppowale and helping of Haly
Kirk."--(Acta Parl. Scotiæ, vol. ii. p. 7.)
The prevalence of reformed opinions is also clear from the appointment
of a dignified Churchman as Heretical Inquisitor. Such an office would
obviously never have been contemplated, unless for the wide spread of
what was deemed to be heresy. Laurence of Lindores, Abbot of Scone, in
1411, was the first Professor of Law in the newly erected University of
St. Andrews, and he is described as "solidissimus clericus et famosus
theologus, vitæ sanctitate quamplurimum collaudatus." But the title of
HAERETICÆ PRAVITATIS INQUISITOR, formed his highest distinction; and he
is said to have given no peace or rest to heretics or Lollards. Whether
Laurence of Lindores resigned his situation as Abbot on obtaining other
preferment, is uncertain. In July 1432, when elected Dean of the Faculty
of Arts, at St. Andrews, he is styled Rector of Creich, Master of Arts,
Licentiate in Theology, Inquisitor for the Kingdom of Scotland, &c. This
office of Dean he held till his death, when (post mortem felicis memoriæ
Magistri Laurencii de Lundoris,) Mr. George Newton, Provost of the
Collegiate Church of Bothwell, was elected his successor, 16th September
1437.--(Registers of the University.) Lindores is said to have written
"Examen Hæreticorum Lolardorum, quos toto regno exegit."
The next Martyr was Paul Craw or Crawar, a native of Bohemia, by old
Scotish writers called Beum. As Knox seems to have had before him the
brief notice contained in the first edition of Foxe's "Actes and
Monuments," the passage from that edition may here be quoted:--
"¶ PAULE CRAWS A BOHEMIAN.
"The same yere [1431] also was Paul Craws a Bohemian taken at s. Andrews
by the Bishop Henry, and delivered over to the seculer power to be
burnt, for holdyng contrary opinions vnto the church of Rome, touching
the sacrament of the Lords supper, the worshipping of sainctes,
auriculer confessyon, with other of Wycleffes opinions."--(Foxe, p. 360,
first edit., 1564, folio.)
The earlier notices given of this Martyr by Bower the Continuator of
Fordun, and Hector Boece, may also be quoted, the latter in the words of
his translator John Bellenden, Archdean of Murray, in the reign of James
the Fifth. It will be observed that Bower mentions Laurence of Lindores
as Inquisitor, whereas Boece says it was John Fogo, his successor in
that office, who acted on this occasion, which some authorities place in
1431, others in 1432, or in the following year.
"DE COMBUSTIONE PAULI CRAWAR ARCH-HÆRETICI, ET DE LOLARDIS.
"Anno sequenti [MCCCCXXXIII] accusatus est Paulus Crawar Teutonicus,
xxiij. die mensis Julij, apud Sanctum Andream, et hæreticus obstinatus
repertus, convictus est et condemnatus, et ad ignem applicatus et
incineratus. Hic, ut dicitur, missus fuit ab hæreticis Pragensibus de
Bohemia, qui tune in maleficiis nimium prævalebant, ad inficiendum
regnum Scotorum, recommissus per ipsorum literas, tanquam præcellens
arte medicine. Hic in sacris literis et in allegatione Bibliæ promptus
et exercitatus inveniebatur; sed ad insipientiam sibi, omnes quasi illos
articulos erroneos Pragenses et Wiklivienses pertinaciter tenebat: sed
per venerabilem virum magistrum Laurentium de Londoris, inquisitorem
hæreticæ pravitatis, qui nusquam infra regnum requiem dedit hæreticis,
vel Lolardis, confutatus est."--(Scotichronicon, vol. ii. p. 495.)
Bower, after this extract, in the remainder of the chapter, and the two
following ones, has given some account of the rise and opinions of these
Heretics, and the mode of confuting them; which are too long for
quotation. Bellenden's briefer notice is as follows:--
"Nocht lang efter was tane in Sanct Androis ane man of Beum namit Paule
Craw, precheand new and vane superstitionis to the pepyl, specially
aganis the sacrament of the alter, veneration of sanctis, and confession
to be maid to Priestis. At last he was brocht afore the Theologis, and
al his opinionis condampnit. And because he perseuerit obstinatly to the
end of his pley, he was condampnit and brint. He confessit afore his
death that he was send out of Beum to preiche to Scottis the heresyis of
Hus and Wiccleif. The King commendit mekyl this punition, and gaif the
Abbacy of Melros to Johne Fogo, for he was principall convikar of this
Paule."--(Bellenden's Cronyklis of Scotland, fol. ccxlvij of orig.
edition.)
It is a mistake, however, to say that Fogo was thus rewarded for the
zeal he displayed in convicting Paul Crawar of heresy in 1432. Dr. John
Fogo was Abbot of Melrose in the year 1425, when he was sent to Rome on
an embassy from King James the First. He was the King's Confessor, and
was present at the Council of Basil in 1433.--(Morton's Monastic Annals,
pp. 236, 237.) Sir James Balfour treats him with very little
ceremony:--"This zeire 1433, (he says,) the King, at the earnist
sollicitatione of the clergey, bot especially of Henrey Wardlaw, Bishope
of St. Andrewes, bestowed the Abbey of Melrosse upone a luberdly mounke
of the Cisteauxe order, quho had wretten a blasphemous pamphlet against
Paull Crau's heresy, named Johne Fogo."--(Annals, vol. i. p. 161.)
But it was not obscure men or strangers who were occasionally subjected
to the charge of heresy. In the reign of James the Third, the case of
the Primate of Scotland is worthy of special notice. In 1466, Patrick
Graham, son of Lord Graham, and nephew of James the First, was
translated from the See of Brechin to St. Andrews. Graham proceeded to
Rome to obtain his confirmation, but the enmity of the Boyds during
their power at Court occasioned him to delay for some years his return
to Scotland. During this period, the Archbishop of York having renewed
an old contested claim as Metropolitan of the Scotish Church, Graham
succeeded in obtaining from Pope Sixtus the Fourth a sentence, whereby
it was declared "a thing unfitting that an English Prelate should be the
Primate of Scotland, by reason of the warres that might break forth
betwixt the two kingdoms."--The King, in 1470, calls him "Consanguineo
nostro carissimo;" and in the same year is styled as "Conservator
Privilegiorum Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ." He is said to have returned in the
year 1472; and both Buchanan and Spottiswood have given a minute and
interesting account of the troubles in which he was involved.
In 1471, Pope. Sixtus the Fourth erected the See of St. Andrews into an
Archbishoprick, and thus Graham became Primate, Pope's Nuncio, and
Legatus a latere. But his zeal and innovations in reforming abuses,
excited the envy and opposition both of the clergy and persons in civil
authority; and darkened the latter days of his life to such a degree,
that he was brought to trial, and by the Pope's Legate, named Huseman,
who came to Scotland for that purpose, he was degraded from his
dignities, and condemned to perpetual imprisonment, as a HERETIC,
schismatic, &c.; and was put under the custody of William Schevez,
Archdean of St. Andrews, who was appointed his coadjutor and successor.
Bishop Lesley (p. 318,) places Graham's trial in 1477, and says, he was
first imprisoned in Inchcolm, then removed to Dunfermling, and soon
after to the Castle of Lochleven, where he died in 1478. See also Sir
James Balfour's Annals, vol. i. p. 200. "This end (says Spottiswood) had
that worthy man, in virtue and learning inferior to none of his time,
oppressed by the malice and calumny of his enemies, chiefly for that
they feared reformation of their wicked abuses by his means."
* * * * *
Of the LOLLARDS mentioned by Knox as summoned for trial before James the
Fourth in 1491, no additional information has been obtained. Alexander
Alesius, in 1534, takes notice of John Campbell of Cesnock having also
been summoned and acquitted: see Rev. Chr. Anderson's Annals, vol. ii.
p. 400; John Davidson's Memoriall of Two Worthie Christians, &c., p. 10,
Edinb. 1595, 8vo; and Calderwood's History, vol. i. p. 54. In "The
Praise of Aige," a poem, written about that time by Walter Kennedy, a
younger son of Gilbert Lord Kennedy, the progenitor of the Earls of
Cassilis, we find these lines:--
"This warld is sett for to dissaive us evin,
Pryde is the nett, and cuvatece is the trane;
For na reward, except the joy of hevin,
Wald I be yung in to this warld agane.
_The Schip of Faith, tempestuous wind and rane
Dryvis in the see of Lollerdry that blawis_;
My yowth is gane, and I am glaid and fane,
Honour with aige to every vertew drawis."
The same author, in his Flyting or poetical contest with William Dunbar,
among other terms of reproach, styles his antagonist "Lamp Lollardorum;"
and also, "Judas Jow, Juglour, LOLLARD Lawreat."--(Dunbar's Poems, vol.
ii. pp. 85, 90, 440.)
No. III.