The initials 'PH' woven into the stone work outside St Salvator's Chapel, St Andrews, marking the spot where Patrick Hamilton was burnt at the stake
In 1525 the Scottish Parliament forbade books containing the teachings of Martin Luther, but they were freely available in all the ports of the east coast, Aberdeen, Dundee, Saint Andrews and Leith.
Three years later Patrick Hamilton was burned as a teacher of Luther's doctrines - the first martyr of the Reformation. As a boy he had become abbot of Fearne in Ross-shire, and had then studied in Paris and Louvain before enrolling at Saint Andrews University. He was precentor of the Cathedral Choir and a priest. In 1527 his Lutheran leanings were such that he went into exile and at Wittenburg met Luther and wrote a book 'Commonplaces', which sought to explain the doctrine of justification by faith, and which was influential in the development of Scottish Protestant theology.
In 1528 he returned to Scotland and was immediately seized and condemned as a heretic by Archbishop Beaton of Saint Andrews. It was the beginning of a persecution of those who held different ideas that, in the end, led to entrenchment rather than discussion and culminated in the Reformation.
Religious Ferment
The King, James V (1513-42) was aware of the need for a reform of the Church but in essence did nothing. He encouraged George Buchanan and David Lindsay in their critical writing and threatened the Bishops that unless they put right their own lives and those of their Clergy he would send them to be dealt with by his uncle, King Henry VIII of England. But he also ensured that five of his illegitimate children were abbots or priors. The King's early death left his newly-born daughter, Mary, as Queen of Scots amid a political vacuum and a religious ferment.
In England Henry VIII's ecclesiastical changes were in progress and those who favoured reform in Scotland began to look more kindly on the 'auld enemy', while those of a more conservative disposition looked to France for aid. In 1548 the six year old Queen Mary travelled there for marriage to the Dauphin.
Events were moving swiftly as Cardinal David Beaton, Archbishop of Saint Andrews, was murdered in his castle by the shore at Saint Andrews and the forces of reform gathered. There were actually two distinct groups of reformers - the extreme Protestant party, whose chief spokesman was to be John Knox, and a more moderate group who, though well aware of the need for change, wanted to keep as much as was good in the old Church.
The efforts made by the moderate reformers can be traced through the proceedings of the Provincial Councils, and at the final Council in Edinburgh in 1559 requests were made by them for the nobility and gentry in each diocese to have a part in the election of the bishop and for the parishioners to have a voice in the choice of parish priest. These requests were ignored and the Council adjourned to meet the following year, but it never did. A few days after the close of the Council, John Knox, summoned from Geneva by the reforming nobles, arrived in Scotland.
Detail from a 16th century map of Perth showing the old St John's Kirk (far left), where Knox preached a sermon that incited riots throughout Perth, including Scone Abbey (top right) (Source: National Library of Scotland)
John Knox was a cleric of the pre-Reformation Church and he joined those holding Saint Andrews Castle after Cardinal Beaton's assassination. When the Castle was taken with French assistance, he became a prisoner and a galley slave in France. On his release he went to England where he became Chaplain to King Edward VI and Vicar of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Berwick-Tweed. He was offered, but declined, the Bishopric of Rochester. On the death of Edward VI, John Knox went first to France and then to Switzerland, where he worked under John Calvin, and wrote pamphlets urging forward the Reformation.
On his return to Scotland in 1559 there was conflict with the Regent, Mary of Guise, and the government. A few weeks after Knox's arrival a proclamation banned anyone from preaching or administering the sacrament without a Bishop's authority. The extreme reformers ignored this and soon afterwards Knox preached in Saint John's, Perth.
After the sermon a priest prepared to say Mass. It was a normal action although, in the circumstances, a provocative one and a fight broke out among the congregation. Much of the interior of the church was destroyed as were, over the next two days, three monasteries in Perth. The destruction spread throughout Scotland, despite an attempt by Knox to prevent it, while many of the nobles took the opportunity of appropriating church land and possessions.
The Civil War Ends
In France the Dauphin, Mary's husband, had become king and military aid was sent to Scotland. The reformers had to turn to the 'auld enemy and the English army and fleet enabled the them to wage war on the Regent and her Scottish and French forces.
Mary of Guise, however, died in Edinburgh, and the civil war was ended by the Treaty of Edinburgh in July 1560. At a meeting of the Parliament the Pope's authority in Scotland was removed, the Mass forbidden and the administration of the Sacraments restricted to those admitted as preachers. The triumph of the extreme reformers was complete, as was the failure of the moderates.
