Neither the place nor the date of his birth has been recorded, but he was probably born at the house of Pitarrow, in the Mearns, about the year 1513. The family of the Wisharts of Pitarrow was ancient and honourable, and had produced several eminent men for the service of the church and the state. Sir James Wishart, the father of the reformer, was a man of ability and learning, and held for ten years—between 1513 and 1524 —the high judicial office of Lord Justice Clerk. The house of Pitarrow stood at no great distance from the ancient church of St Palladius, in the beautiful Glen of Fordoun, and George Wishart must have been early familiar with the popular superstitions connected with the shrine and the holy well of that long-honoured saint So recently as the days of Archbishop Shevez, the relics of St. Paldy, as he was popularly called, had been deposited in a silver shrine by that prelate upon occasion of his making a pilgrimage to the sacred spot—a proof that the worship of the saint was still flourishing in the reign of James the Third.

The place of Wishart's education is not certainly known, but may be conjectured with great probability to have been King's College, Aberdeen. It is known that he had acquired early in life a knowledge of the Greek tongue, and King's College was the only university in Scotland at that time, where such an accomplishment could be obtained. He was early associated in these humanising studies with John Erskine of Dun, who had the honour of being one of the first promoters of Greek learning in Scotland. The two families of Dun and Pitarrow were near neighbours, and were allied by intermarriage. Young Erskine and Wishart grew up together from childhood; a connexion which was afterwards closely cemented by the intellectual and religious congeniality of their riper years.

Wishart was an instance of what was then no uncommon occurrence in Europe, viz. for noblemen, and the sons of noblemen, to devote themselves to the task of classical instruction. Erskine had resolved, as Provost of Montrose, to introduce the teaching of Greek into the grammar school of that ancient burgh, and he found an able and zealous teacher in his friend and fellow-student Wishart was engaged for some years in that useful office; and it is a curious fact that even after he had reached the more exalted honours of a great preacher, and a venerated martyr, he still continued to be spoken of, at least in that district of the country, as "the Schoolmaster of Montrose."

Unfortunately for the first Greek grammar school in Scotland, it was then considered a heresy by the bishops to teach Greek, and particularly the Greek Testament, which was Wish-art's text book. In 1538, the schoolmaster was summoned by John Hepburn, Bishop of Brechin, to answer to such a charge. David Beaton, as we have seen, was then Chief Inquisitor of the kingdom, and took care that all the bishops of his province should imitate his own example of unrelenting bigotry. But Wishart, though a zealous Grecian, did not think it his duty to suffer martyrdom for the teaching of Greek, and wisely consulted his safety by withdrawing into England.

But this account of Wishart's conduct at Bristol is very different from the version of it which has hitherto been current It has long been supposed that what Wishart preached against there, was the mediatory merit of the Virgin Mary, and that what he publicly recanted twice over was the Protestant doctrine upon that subject, a doctrine which he no doubt believed to be true and scriptural at the very time he was supposed to have ignominiously recanted it The difficulty of accounting for Cranmer's condemnatory sentence, was, upon this supposition, insuperable; and equally so was the difficulty of vindicating the conduct of the Reformer in publicly declaring to be false, what he could not but know to be the truth of God. Still, the record in "The Mayor's Calendar" was thought to be decisive upon the point But it is now ascertained that this reading of the Calendar was an entire mistake; and curiously enough, a serious misunderstanding of history, which has now been current for nearly half a century, is found to have arisen from the misreading of a single word, nay, of a single letter of the original chronicle.

The incident, thus cleared of misapprehension, leaves the character of the Reformer for sincerity and fortitude without a stain. It reveals indeed the unripeness of his views of Gospel truth at that early period of his life; he had fallen into a serious error of judgment, and he had incurred just censure for rashly proclaiming so dangerous an error to the uninstructed multitude. But he now stands acquitted of all imputation upon his firmness and integrity. When Cranmer and his other judges condemned him to abjure his error at their bar, he honestly abjured it When he publicly recanted it at Bristol, his recantation was sincere. It was an error which he recanted, not a truth. Instead of diminishing our admiration ot his heroism as a confessor of the faith, the incident enhances it; for it shows that he was as ready to brave the ignominy of a public recantation in the interest of truth, as he afterwards showed himself prepared to suffer the disgrace and the horror of a heretic's death, in the same service.

If Wisharfs views of divine truth were still somewhat unsettled upon some important points, and he had not yet learned to draw accurately the lines of distinction between Scripture truths and Rome's corruptions of them, it was a happy arrangement of Providence which led him, on leaving England, in 1540, to visit the Reformed Churches of Switzerland These Churches were now far advanced in Christian knowledge and life. When prematurely bereaved of Zwingle and CEcolampadius, they had found a worthy successor to these great and good men in Henry Bullinger; and Bullinger, building upon the foundations which his predecessors had laid, in the same spirit as the founders, had raised up a goodly fabric of Church discipline and order, which was the admiration of evangelical visitors from all the Reformed countries of Europe.

The First Helvetic Confession became the subject of Wish-art's careful study, during his sojourn in the Cantons; and he gave an unmistakeable proof of his approbation of its teaching, by executing a translation of it into his mother-tongue* Nor is it difficult to trace the influence of that Confession in his subsequent public teaching. The great prominence which he was wont to give on all occasions to the Word of God, as the only legitimate source and standard of Christian truth, corresponded exactly with the spirit of the Swiss Confession; and no less so did the distinctness and decision of his doctrine on the subject of the Sacraments. In a word, the effect of his visit to Switzerland seems to have been to give to his theological views the characteristics of the Helvetic type of doctrine, as distinguished from the German or Lutheran type; and this fact had an important influence in the long run, upon the Confessional characteristics of the Reformed Scottish Church.

It was during his sojourn on the Continent that an incident occurred, which he afterwards referred to, shortly before his martyrdom. "I once chanced," said he, "to meet with a Jew when I was sailing upon the waters of Rhine. I inquired of him what was the cause of his pertinacie, that he did not believe that the true Messiah was come, considering that they had seen all the prophecies which were spoken of him, to be fulfilled ; moreover, the prophecies taken away and the sceptre of Judah. By many other testimonies of the Scripture I vanquished him, and approved that Messiah was come—-the same which they called Jesus of Nazareth. The Jew answered again unto me, 'When Messiah cometh, He shall restore all things, and He shall not abrogate the Law which was given to our fathers, as ye do. For why? We see the poor almost perish through hunger among you, yet you are not moved with pity towards them; but among us Jews, though we be poor, there are no beggars found Secondarily, it is forbidden by the Law to faine any kind of nagery of things in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the sea under the earth, but one God only to honour; but your sanctuaries and churches are full of idols. Thirdly, a piece of bread baken upon the ashes ye adore and worship, and say that it is your god/ " These Jewish censures upon the practice of Christendom, appear to have made a deep impression upon Wishart. He never forgot them. He used to refer to them in his preaching, as a proof of the bad impression which was made upon the minds of unbelievers, by the use of images in Christian worship, and by the Popish doctrine of the Real Presence ; and it is not improbable that words which he quoted so often as a lesson to others, may have made some salutary impression, when he first heard them, upon himself. It is certain that Wishart became, in his own person, an eminent instance of that humane concern for the poor, with the want of which the Jew reproached the Christian world at large; and no less so of that zeal against religious ^{u imagery" and bread-worship, of which the latter had set him so fervent an example.}

Having returned to England, probably late in 1541, Wishart repaired to Cambridge, and took up his residence in Corpus Christi, or Bene't College. It was no time to think of returning to Scotland, for the Cardinal was still at the pinnacle of his despotic power. But there were many devout students of the Word of God in the colleges of Cambridge; and there, amidst studious shades, and in the enjoyment of the society of men of congenial spirit, he could wait for the arrival of better times for his persecuted country.

He went to Cambridge, however, not only to study, but to teach; and among his pupils there was one Emery Tylney, who conceived for him the deepest veneration and love. To this affectionate scholar we are indebted for an account of his person, character, and habits of life, which, for its minuteness of detail, and graphic truth of description, is of great biographical value. It was contributed by Tylney, many years afterwards, to Fox's Book of Martyrs, and it was well worthy of a place in that great gallery of Christian worthies.

"About the year of our Lord one thousand five hundred forty and three, there was in the university of Cambridge one Maister George Wishart, commonly called Maister George of Bennet's College, who was a man of tall stature, polled-headed, and on the same a round French cap of the best. Judged 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, frieze gown to the shoes, a black Milan fustian doublet, and plain black hosen, coarse new canvas for his shirts, and white falling bands and cuffs at the 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. He was a man modest, temperate, fearing God, hating covetousness, for his charity had never end, night, noon, nor day; he forbore one meal in three, one day in four for the most part, except something to comfort nature; he lay hard upon a puff of straw, coarse new canvas sheets, which, when he changed, he gave away. He loved me tenderly, and I him for my age, as effectually. He taught with great modesty and gravity, so that some of his people thought him severe, and would have slain him, but the Lord was his defence. And he, after due correction for their malice, by good exhortation amended them, and he went his way. O that the Lord had left him to me his poor boy, that he might have finished that he had begun! For in his religion he was, as you see here, in the rest of his life, when he went into Scotland with divers of the nobility that came for a treaty to King Henry VIII. His learning was no less sufficient than his desire; always prest and ready to do good in that he was able, both in the house privately and in the schools publicly, professing and reading divers authors. If I should declare his love to me and all men, his charity to the poor in giving, relieving, caring, helping, providing, yea, infinitely studying how to do good unto all and hurt to none, I should sooner want words than just cause to commend him. All this I testify with my whole heart and truth, of this godly man."