GEORGE WISHART.
It was about this time that a new evangelist arrived in the country,
singularly fitted to impress on the hearts of men the lessons of the
Holy Book to which they had now access in their native tongue. This was
George Wishart, a younger son or nephew of Sir James Wishart, laird of
Pittarrow in the Mearns. He appears to have been born about 1512-13, and
to have received his university training in King's College, Aberdeen,
then presided over by a distinguished humanist skilled both in Latin and
Greek. He acquired a knowledge of Greek--at that time a very rare
accomplishment in Scotland--either from the Principal of King's College,
or from a Frenchman teaching languages in Montrose. From his early years
he seems to have been intimate with John Erskine, laird of Dun, and at
that time also provost of the neighbouring burgh of Montrose. The
earliest notice we have of him is as attesting a charter granted in
favour of Erskine.[57] This lends confirmation to the tradition which
Petrie, himself a native of the town, says he had heard from ancient men
(who in their youth had seen and known the reformer) that then, or soon
after, he was employed as assistant or successor of Marsillier, the
Frenchman Erskine had brought from France to teach the languages, and
that, like him, he read the Greek New Testament with some of his pupils.
John Hepburn, then Bishop of Brechin, would not naturally have been
quick-scented to detect heresy in one who stood so high with his good
friend Erskine of Dun; but David Betoun, Abbot of Arbroath, often
resided at the mansion-house of Ethie, half-way between Arbroath and
Montrose, and he was both more lynx-eyed and more anxious to stamp out
any approach to heresy, and he urged the bishop on.
[Sidenote: Summoned for Heresy.]
Wishart in consequence was summoned by Hepburn, but instead of appearing
in answer to the summons, he, like many others in that year of grievous
persecution, sought safety in England, and it is said that he was
forthwith excommunicated and outlawed. He found shelter under Bishop
Latimer, whose diocese comprehended Gloucester and Bristol, as well as
Worcester; but in the following year he fell into fresh trouble at
Bristol--not, as was at one time supposed, by denying the merits of the
Virgin Mary, but by denying the merits of Christ Himself. For this he
was duly convented before Archbishop Cranmer, and, after conference with
him, was persuaded to recant and bear his faggot. Soon after the
enactment of the bloody statute of the six articles, he, like most of
the Scottish refugees, left England and sought shelter among the
reformed churches on the Continent, especially those of Zürich, Basle,
and Strassburg, and brought home with him, and ultimately translated
into English, the First Helvetic Confession,[58] composed and agreed on
by the chief theologians of these churches.
[Sidenote: His Appearance and Habits.]
He returned to England about the close of 1542, and soon after entered
into residence in Corpus Christi or Benet College, Cambridge, with the
view of studying and teaching there. In one of the windows of the
common-room in that college, above the arms of archbishops and nobles,
distinguished _alumni_ of the college, stands the name of George
Wishart, with the martyr's crown over it; and it is to Emery Tilney,
his pupil during the year he was in residence there, that we are
indebted for our fullest description of his appearance and habits. He
was, he tells us, "a man of tall stature, polled-headed, and on the same
a round French cap of the best; judged to be of melancholy complexion by
his physiognomy; black haired, long bearded, comely of personage, well
spoken after his country of Scotland, courteous, lowly, lovely, glad to
teach, desirous to learn, and was well travelled; having on him for his
habit or clothing never but a mantle or frieze gown to the shoes, a
black Millian [_i.e._ Milan] fustian doublet, and plain black hosen,
coarse new canvas for his shirts, and white falling bands and cuffs at
his hands,--all the which apparel he gave to the poor, some weekly, some
monthly, some quarterly, as he liked, saving his French cap, which he
kept the whole year of my being with him.... His charity had never end,
night, noon, nor day, ... infinitely studying how to do good unto all,
and hurt to none."[59]
Such, according to his pupil, was the evangelist who--in 1543 according
to some, in 1544 according to others--returned to his native land, and
for two years testified of the gospel of the grace of God throughout
Angus and Mearns, Ayrshire and the Lothians, but whose favourite fields
of labour were to be central Angus and Mearns, the towns of Montrose
and Dundee. A portrait of him, as well as one of his great opponent, has
been preserved in the Roman Catholic College of Blairs, and the
expression of the face harmonises well with the description his pupil
gives of him. Another portrait, deemed by Dr Laing not unworthy of
Holbein, is in possession of a descendant of the Wisharts.[60]
[Sidenote: A Protestant Pasquil.]
It is supposed that for a short time after his return to Scotland he
lived quietly at Pittarrow, in the parish of Fordoun, where the shrine
of St Palladius was preserved; and being an accomplished artist,
occupied himself with adorning the ancestral mansion with several
beautiful fresco paintings, which, after being long covered over by the
wainscot, were again brought to light in the present century, but
unfortunately were destroyed before their value was perceived. Dr Leslie
of Fordoun, who saw them, has thus described the most remarkable of
them: "Above the largest fireplace in the great hall was a painting of
the city of Rome, and a grand procession going to St Peter's.... The
Pope, adorned with the tiara, and mounted on horseback, was attended by
a large company of cardinals on foot, richly dressed, but all uncovered.
At a little distance, directly in front of the procession, stood a
beautiful white palfrey, finely caparisoned, held by some persons who
were well dressed, but uncovered. Beyond them was the Cathedral of St
Peter, the doors of which appeared to be open. Below the picture were
written the following lines:--
"IN PAPAM.
"Laus tua, non tua fraus, virtus non gloria rerum
Scandere te fecit hoc decus eximium;
Pauperibus dat sua gratis nec munera curat
Curia Papalis, quod more percipimus.
Haec carmina potius legenda, cancros imitando."[61]
Wishart began his work as a preacher in Montrose, the scene of his early
scholastic labours, expounding the rudiments of the Christian faith and
practice as set forth in the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and
the Apostles' Creed. At that time Montrose was frequented by many of the
landed gentry in the surrounding districts who were favourable to the
Reformation and the English alliance, and their hearts could not fail to
be cheered and their courage raised by the exhortations of the
evangelist. Dundee, however, was the chief and favourite scene of his
ministrations; and it was from the great success attending them that it
gained the name of the Scottish Geneva. It was even more decidedly
attached to the new opinions and the English alliance than Montrose;
and a reformation, as it was called--including the sacking of the
monasteries in the town and neighbourhood--had taken place in the autumn
of 1543. The governor confessed, when put to penance, that this had been
done with his permission.[62] The martyr cannot with any certainty be
connected with it, much less made to bear the blame of it; though
another George Wishart, a citizen and bailie of Dundee, with whom the
martyr has been recklessly confounded, was afterwards put on his trial
for having taken a leading part in it.[63] If the martyr could, his
enemies would hardly have failed to have brought it against him at his
trial.
[Sidenote: Preaches at Dundee.]
He preached for a time in Dundee with great acceptance, expounding
systematically that Epistle to the Romans, the full significance of
which the recently published Commentary of Calvin had deeply impressed
on the minds of his co-religionists in various lands where Wishart had
been. At length he was charged by one of the magistrates in the queen's
name and the governor's to desist from preaching, to depart from the
town, and trouble it no more. This was intimated to him when he was in
the pulpit, surrounded by a great congregation, and with a significant
reminder that he had already been put to the horn, and that there was
no intention to relax the law in his favour. Thereupon he called God to
witness that he intended not their trouble but their comfort, and felt
sure that to reject the Word of God, and drive away His messenger, was
not the way to save themselves from trouble; adding, "God shall send
unto yow messengeris who will not be effrayed of hornyng nor yitt for
banishment."[64] He left the town forthwith, and with all "possible
expeditioun passed to the west-land."[65] There he pursued his labours
in the same kindly spirit, refusing to allow his followers to dispute
possession of the churches by force of arms with the authorities, and
choosing rather to preach in the open air wherever he found a convenient
place and audience fit to listen to him.
[Sidenote: Succours the Plague-stricken.]
Soon after he left Dundee, the plague, which that year was raging in
several of the towns of Scotland, extended its ravages to that place.
This naturally led the citizens to bethink themselves of the treatment
they had allowed the evangelist, who had laboured so devotedly among
them, to suffer at the hands of his enemies, as the news of what they
were suffering led him to think compassionately of his friends who were
now in trouble, and stood in need of comfort. He returned to the
afflicted town, and its inhabitants received him with joy. He announced
without delay that he would preach to them; but it was impossible he
could do so in a church. Numbers were sick of the plague; others in
attendance on them were regarded as infected, and must not be brought
into contact with those who were free from infection. The sick were
crowded in and about the lazar-houses near St Roque's Chapel, outside
the East or Cowgate Port of the town. Wishart chose as his pulpit the
top of that port, which, in memory of the martyr-preacher, has been, it
is said, carefully preserved, though--like Temple Bar, so long tolerated
in London--it is now in the heart of the town, and an obstruction to its
traffic.[66] The sick and suspected were assembled outside the port, and
the healthy inside. The preacher took for the text of his first sermon
the words of Psalm cvii. 20: "He sent His word and healed them;" and,
starting on the key-note that it was neither herb nor plaster, but God's
Word which healeth all, "He maist comfortablie did intreat [_i.e._ treat
of] the dignitie and utilitie of Goddis Woord; the punishment that cumis
for the contempt of the same; the promptitude of Goddis mercy to such as
trewlye turne to Him; yea, the great happynes of thame whome God tackis
from this miserie evin in His awin gentill visitatioun, which the malice
of man cane neyther eak nor paire."[67] By this sermon, Knox tells us,
he so raised up the hearts of all who heard him, that they regarded not
death, but judged those more happy that should depart than those that
should remain behind, considering that they knew not whether they should
have such a comforter with them at all times.
No doubt John Wedderburn, as well as the others who had been suspected
of heresy and had fled from the town in the persecution of 1539, had
before this time returned, and were co-operating with Wishart in his
work; and then, in all probability, was prepared that beautiful funeral
hymn which passed from the Bohemians to the Germans, and from the
Germans to the Scotch; and which, in addition to the original stanzas,
contains in the Scottish version certain new verses having unmistakable
reference to the circumstances in which they originated--in a
plague-stricken town which had just before been occupied by the soldiers
of the cardinal and the regent, and might well dread a similar
visitation for its determined adherence to the new evangelist.
"Thocht _pest or sword_ wald vs preuene,
Befoir our hour, to slay vs clene,
Thay can nocht pluk ane lytill hair
Furth of our heid, nor do vs deir.
Quhen fra this warld to Christ we wend,
Our wratchit schort lyfe man haif end
Changeit fra paine, and miserie,
To lestand gloir Eternallie.
End sall our dayis schort, and vaine,
And sin, quhilk we culd nocht refraine,
Endit salbe our pilgremage,
And brocht hame to our heritage."[68]
[Sidenote: His Fearless Devotedness.]
Wishart concerned himself not only about the souls but also about the
bodies of his hearers in that sad time, fearlessly, like Luther on a
similar occasion, exposing himself to the risk of infection, that he
might minister to the diseased and the dying, and taking care that the
public funds for the relief of the destitute should be properly
administered. He forgot himself only too much, and the terrible risks to
which, as an excommunicated and outlawed man, he was exposed in so near
proximity to the cardinal, who was so eager to get him out of the way.
One day as the people were departing from the sermon, utterly
unconscious of the peril menacing their favourite preacher, Knox tells
us that a priest, bribed by the cardinal, stood waiting--with his
whinger drawn in his hand under his gown--at the foot of the steps by
which the preacher was descending from the top of the port. Wishart,
most sharp of eye and swift of judgment, at once noticed him, and, as he
came near, said, "My friend, what wald ye do?" and at the same moment
seized the hand in which he held the dagger, and took it from him. The
priest fell down at his feet and confessed the whole truth. Immediately
the rumour spread that a priest had attempted to assassinate their
favourite preacher, the sick outside burst open the gate, crying,
"Deliver the tratour to us, or ellis we will tack him by forse." But the
preacher put his arms around his would-be assassin, exclaiming,
"Whosoevir trubles him shall truble me, for he has hurte me in nothing,
bot ... hes lattin us understand what we may feare in tymes to come";
and so, says Knox, he saved the life of him that sought his.[69]
[Sidenote: His Innocence.]
Like Drs Laing, Lorimer, and Weir, I cannot persuade myself that the man
who spoke and acted thus is the same as "a Scottish man called
Wysshert," who is mentioned in a letter of the Earl of Hertford in April
1544, as privy to a conspiracy to apprehend or assassinate Cardinal
Betoun, and as employed to carry letters between the conspirators and
the English court.[70] There were other Wisharts in Scotland. Yea, as Dr
Laing has shown, another George Wishart in Dundee, who was a zealous
friend of the English alliance--not only after the conspirators got
possession of St Andrews castle, but from the earlier date when the
monasteries in Dundee were destroyed and sacked.[71] There was probably
another about St Andrews who, while the martyr was yet a boy, was called
in to attest a charter by the notorious friar Campbell in 1526. I will
not venture to affirm that, with all his gentleness, Wishart might not
have been tempted to maintain that violence and murderous intent--such
as Betoun had twice shown to get rid of him privately--might be lawfully
met and restrained by force, though even that is hardly in keeping with
all we know of his gentle ways; but we may be sure that had such
thoughts been cherished by him, he, like Knox, would have said this
openly, and not have engaged in any secret reprisals. As an outlawed man
he came down to Scotland under protection, and never seems to have
travelled in it save under protection; and so he was one of the last men
likely to be chosen for a secret mission to England. If anything more
than the able essay of the late Professor Weir in the 'North British
Review' for 1868 were needed to prove that the "pure lustre of the
martyr's fame is still unsullied," it seems to me to be supplied by
himself in his affecting address at the stake. "I beseech Thee, Father
of heaven! to forgive them that have of any ignorance, or else have of
any evil mind, _forged any lies_ upon me. I forgive them with all my
heart."[72] The cardinal was not ignorant of the volcano on which he was
sitting or of the plots that had been hatched against him; and he may
have suspected Wishart of being in the conspiracy. That may have been
the reason why he sent two friars to him to get his last confession,
and, when they failed to do so, allowed Wynram to go, as the reformer
had requested. Wynram, after hearing it, returned to the cardinal and
his abettors, and assured them that Wishart was innocent. This can only
refer to such a suspicion of conspiracy, not to the charge of heresy
which was confessed and acknowledged; and Mr Andrew Lang has failed as
completely as the cardinal in his laboured attempt to produce a tittle
of evidence against him.
[Sidenote: His Constancy.]
From the time of Wighton's attempt the reformer had a clearer view of
the perils which beset him, and a mournful conviction of the issue which
awaited him if he would not flinch or flee. By his success in Dundee the
rage of his adversaries was lashed into a fury which appalled his
friends in various districts; but none of these things moved him that he
might finish his course with joy, and make full proof of his ministry.
As soon as the plague abated in the city, heedless of the new proofs he
then had of the cardinal's relentless determination to capture or trepan
him, and the earnest warnings of his northern friends that they could
not be answerable for his safety, he took his last farewell of his kirks
in Montrose and Dundee. At all hazards he was determined to fulfil his
engagement to meet his western friends in Edinburgh, to prosecute his
work there under their promised protection, and to seek a public
disputation with some of the popish clergy who about that time were to
meet in Synod in the capital. Disappointed of the presence and
protection of the western men, he laboured for a brief season in Leith,
Inveresk, and East Lothian without much success. At last, forsaken by
many of those who should have stood by him, he was seized at Ormiston,
under cover of night and promise of safe keeping, by the Earl of
Bothwell, Sheriff Principal of the county. The Earl pledged his honour
not to give him up to his enemies, but was soon persuaded to deliver him
to the governor, as was the governor to hand him over to the cardinal,
though he finally protested against his being tried or condemned by the
churchmen in his own absence. A full account of his labours during these
days of despondency has been given by Knox, who got from him, it is
said, the first rudiments of Greek, and who--having rendered his first
service to the cause of the Reformation by bearing the two-handed sword
for his protection--was dismissed on the night of his betrayal with the
significant words, "One is sufficient for one sacrifice," showing what
fate he now anticipated for himself.
[Sidenote: His Martyrdom.]
I cannot enlarge on these things, nor on the sad scenes which took place
at St Andrews on the last day of February and 1st of March 1545-46, when
the cardinal, regardless of the remonstrances of the regent and the
murmurs of the people, but with the assent of the Council which he had
adjourned from Edinburgh to St Andrews, condemned him to the stake.
Throughout all these trying scenes he comported himself as nobly as
Patrick Hamilton had done; and not less plentifully did his blood prove
the seed of the church, verifying his words, that few would suffer after
him before the glory of God evidently appeared. No doubt his cruel
martyrdom hastened the removal of that tyrant who set himself above all
restraint of civil law, and breathed forth threatenings against the
saints of God,--though that removal had not been plotted by him, nor
would have been approved by him. The words attributed to him at the
stake by Buchanan and Lindsay of Pitscottie, foreshadowing his
persecutor's approaching fate, are not generally regarded as authentic.
Knox says nothing of them, nor Foxe, nor Spottiswoode; nor does Sir
David Lindsay, in his 'Tragedy of the Cardinal,' make any reference to
them. It seems better authenticated that he made the following general
statement: "I beseech you, brethren and sisters, to exhort your prelates
to the learning of the Word of God, that they at the last may be ashamed
to do evil and learn to do good, and if they will not convert themselves
from their wicked error, there shall hastily come upon them the wrath of
God, which they shall not eschew."[73] It is easy to see--especially
after the events which so speedily occurred--how a statement which
referred to the prelates generally should come to be applied
specifically to their imperious chief, just as the example of Eli had,
in a well-known ballad, been similarly used for warning by the
Reformation poet to the aged James Betoun for his weak indulgence to his
nephew and the younger Prior Hepburn, notwithstanding their scandalous
excesses.[74]
Such was the end of the life and ministry of George Wishart, one of the
most zealous and winning evangelists, and one of the most heroic and
steadfast confessors, that our country has ever produced. The
remembrance of him was fondly cherished, especially in that district
where he chiefly laboured, and where he wrought a work not less
memorable than that which M'Cheyne and Burns were honoured to do in our
own day. His influence was but deepened by his cruel fate, and he "lived
again," as Dr Lorimer has eloquently said, "in John Knox.... The zealous
disciple, who had counted it an honour to be allowed to carry a sword
before his master, stood forth immediately to wield the spiritual sword
which had fallen from the master's grasp, and to wield it with a vigour
and trenchant execution superior even to his."[75]
[Sidenote: Church Organisation.]
It may not be inappropriate to state how far the organisation of the
Reformed Church had by this time advanced in Scotland. Patrick Hamilton
seems to me to have laboured to the last for the revival of Scriptural
teaching and Christian living within the old church rather than apart
from her. Alesius, and some others of his disciples, were for a time
reluctant to separate from her, if her rulers could have been persuaded
seriously to set about repairing acknowledged evils and defects. But
Wishart, and those who came under his influence, seem to have abandoned
this struggle, and to have striven for the formation of a new
organisation apart from the old one. He formed kirks or
congregations--at least in Montrose and Dundee; the former consisting
probably mainly of the lesser gentry in the adjacent districts of Angus
and Mearns, and the latter chiefly of the substantial burghers of the
town of Dundee. I suppose that some forms of discipline began to be put
in practice in the Dundee congregation, and that it was on that account,
as well as from the remarkable revival which had taken place under his
ministrations, that the town came to be spoken of as "the Scottish
Geneva." The New Testament of Tyndale's translation had been introduced
both there and in Montrose as early as 1526; and by this time the
subsequent editions had been largely imported, and since 1543 might be
openly read.[76] John Wedderburn was then in his native city, and I
suppose by that date had published, in its most rudimentary form, his
'Psalms and Spiritual Songs,' largely translated from the German. John
Scott, the printer, was also there, and under suspicion of the
authorities in Edinburgh. Of the psalms and hymns, one, as I have
already mentioned, bears unmistakable reference to the _pest_ then
infesting the town of Dundee; another was sung by Wishart that evening
on which he was apprehended in East Lothian; a third is certainly
referred to in the 'Complaynt of Scotland,' which, being published as
early as 1549, is a guarantee for the earlier existence of the hymn.[77]
This rudimentary collection of 'Psalms and Spiritual Songs' was the book
of praise in family and social gatherings of the reformed until the
'Genevan Psalter' came into use.[78] The earliest editions of it have
perished. A nearly complete copy of the edition of 1567 has, however,
been preserved, and now at last reprinted.[79]
[Sidenote: Helvetic Confession and Communion Office.]
The translation of the First Helvetic Confession, which Wishart made,
was no doubt meant as the Confession of the churches he formed, though
it may only have been extant then in manuscript, and not published till
1548. That fragment of the Communion Office which was used by Knox in
the administration of the Lord's Supper at Berwick in 1550, and perhaps
had been used by him at St Andrews in 1547--and which was recently
brought to light again by Dr Lorimer from among the MSS. in Dr Williams'
library in London[80]--was almost certainly derived from Wishart, for
part of it is translated from the Office of the Church of Zürich, with
which he could not fail to have become acquainted during his residence
there, and part from other German Offices, which were more likely to
have fallen in his way (who had been a traveller on the Continent) than
in Knox's. It may even have been used by Wishart in 1545, when he
dispensed the communion in both kinds at Dun. The same may be said of
that interesting burial-service which purports to have been used in the
kirk at Montrose, and has been reprinted in the Miscellany of the Wodrow
Society;[81] though probably this, as we now have it, may not be the
original form, but a recension of it, made later, under the auspices of
Erskine of Dun, superintendent of Angus and Mearns. The foundations of
the superstructure that was to be were thus laid by Wishart. It was
reserved to his successor to raise it, as the martyr had predicted it
would be raised, even to the copestone.
FOOTNOTES:
[57] [The charter is dated at Montrose on the 20th of March 1534-35. The
Martyr's signature, as "M. Geo. Wischert," proves that he had already
taken his degree (Register of Great Seal, iii., No. 1462).]
[58] [His translation is reprinted in the Wodrow Miscellany, pp. 7-23.]
[59] Cattley's Foxe, v. 626.
[60] [This is now in the National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.]
[61] [Cook's History of the Reformation, 1811, i. 272, 273; 1819, i.
273. Dr Cook says that Dr Leslie, minister of Fordoun, "got a short view
of them," and favoured him with the account which he wrote. In a very
similar notice of the paintings by Dr Leslie, it is stated that they
were discovered when the old house of Pittarrow was being pulled down in
1802 ('New Statistical Account of Kincardineshire,' p. 81).] As Dr Cook
long ago surmised, the lines of covert sarcasm on the pope are not
original. One evening as I returned to Guildford Street after a long day
in the British Museum, I had occasion to pass through Red Lion Square
and the alley to the east of it, where I saw exposed in a pawnbroker's
window a little antique volume, in a very dilapidated state, opened at
the page which contained these lines almost _verbatim_. I at once
purchased it, and on further examination I found it had been published
at Basle in 1537--_i.e._, a few years before Wishart was there. [The
little collection which Dr Mitchell thus refers to bears the title:
"Pasqvilli de Concilio Mantuano Iudicium. Qverimonia Papistarum ad
Legatum Pontificium in comicijs Schmalcaldianis. Mantua uæ miseris
nimium uicina Papistis. MDXXXVII."
The colophon runs thus: "Impressum Romae in porta Angelorum.
M.D.XXXVII."
Wishart evidently found his lines in the following:--
"Lavs Romani Pontificis. Scripta ad placitum Romanae curiae per
uenerabilem dominum Doctorem Ioannem Cochleum, Theutonicae Doctor
Rotzloffel, et Georgium VVicelium cognomento, Meister Lugenmaul, Romanae
Ecclesiae propugnatores egregios.
"Pauperibus sua dat gratis nec munera curat
Curia Papalis quod modo percipimus
Laus tua non tua fraus, Virtus non copia rerum
Scandere te fecit, hoc Decus eximium
Conditio tua sit stabilis nec tempore paruo
Viuere te faciat hic Deus omnipotens.
"Quos uersiculos pessimus quidam haereticus, Lutheranus, iuuenilis
fortasis Poeta VVittembergensis, ita de uerbo ad uerbum inuertit.
"Percipimus modo quod Papalis curia curat
Munera, nec gratis dat sua pauperibus
Eximium decus hoc fecit te scandere rerum
Copia, non uirtus, fraus tua, non tua laus.
Omnipotens Deus hic faciat te uiuere paruo
Tempore, nec stabilis sit tua conditio."]
[62] Hamilton Papers, ii. 38.
[63] Maxwell's Old Dundee prior to the Reformation, 1891, pp. 92, 395.
[64] Laing's Knox, i. 126. [Calderwood (i. 186) and Spottiswoode (i.
150) have _burning_ for _hornyng_.]
[65] Laing's Knox, i. 126.
[66] [Knox calls it "the East Porte of the Toune" (Laing's Knox, i.
129). Maxwell says that the Port which stood in the Seagate would alone
correspond to that described by Knox; and he adds: "The Port yet
standing in the Cowgate--which, because of its association with the
honoured name of George Wishart, only was left when some of the others
were demolished--really cannot be identified as his preaching-place, and
should not carry the inscription which has been recently put over its
archway" ('History of Old Dundee,' 1884, pp. 220-222).]
[67] Laing's Knox, i. 130.
[68] Gude and Godlie Ballatis, 1897, p. 165.
[69] Laing's Knox, i. 130, 131. The name of this priest is given as Sir
_John_ Wightone, or Weighton, by Knox, Calderwood, and Spottiswoode.
Maxwell cannot find a priest of this name among those ministering in
Dundee in 1550 ('Old Dundee prior to the Reformation,' 1891, p. 87, n.)
The _James_ Wichtand who was reader at Inchture and Kinnaird in 1574
(Wodrow Miscellany, p. 353) is said to have held a chaplaincy in Dundee
before the Reformation. But Dr Laing holds that there was a Sir _John_
Wighton, a chaplain in Dundee, who obtained the vicarage pensionary in
the parish church of Ballumby in 1538, and who appears to have been
incarcerated in St Andrews Castle in the cardinal's absence in 1543
(Laing's Knox, vi. 670).
[70] Lemon's State Papers, v. 377.
[71] Laing's Knox, i. 536. [Maxwell gives a detailed account of this
other George Wishart in his 'Old Dundee prior to the Reformation,' 1891,
pp. 91-95.]
[72] Cattley's Foxe, v. 635.
[73] Cattley's Foxe, v. 635. [Foxe is here quoting the account in the
black-letter tract printed in or about 1547, which Knox deemed important
enough to copy from Foxe into his own pages.]
[74] Gude and Godlie Ballatis, 1897, p. 180.
[75] Lorimer's Scottish Reformation, 1860, pp. 153, 154.
[76] Wedderburn and Wishart seem also to have been acquainted with
Coverdale's Bible of 1535.
[77] See my Introduction to 'The Gude and Godlie Ballatis,' 1897, p.
xxxviii, n.
[78] No doubt the initial Catechism was in use also. It has been
conjectured that the Catechism may even have been printed separately,
and that the first part of the following entry may refer to it: "The
catechisme in two partes; the first in Scotch poetry, having a kalender
before it. The second part in Latin and Scotis prose, entituled
Catechismus ecclesiae Geneuensis.... Edinburgh: Imprinted by John Ross
for Henrie Charteris, 1574" (Dickson and Edmond's Annals of Scottish
Printing, 1890, p. 334).
[79] [Reprinted under the editorial care of Dr Mitchell in 1897 for the
Scottish Text Society.]
[80] Lorimer's Knox and the Church of England, 1875, pp. 290-292.
[81] Wodrow Miscellany, pp. 295-300.