PREFACE.
This Illustrated Book is offered as a contribution to
the celebration of the Tricentenary of the Scottish Reformation, which
falls in the present year.
The Author congratulates himself on having been able
to secure the co-operation of his gifted friend, Mr. Birket Foster, and
it is hoped that the many charming products of his pencil which the
volume contains, may not only prove highly acceptable to Scottish
readers but .may also induce many of the artist's English countrymen,
with whom he is a great favourite, to peruse with attention a-portion of
Scottish history which in many of its parts, as well as in its general
tendency and effects, had an important English as well as Scottish
interest
The reader will not expect in an outline the fulness
of detail which is proper to an extended history. But the author has
aimed to make this outline as comprehensive as possible ; and the work,
though confined to moderate limits, will be found to contain a good many
new facts and features. Several blanks in our common histories have been
filled up; literary history is interwoven with the
narrative of events; and particular attention has been given to the
numerous Protestant exiles who were early driven out of Scotland, and
settled in England, Germany, and Denmark. Many of these exiles were men
of learning and ability; they were living links of connexion between the
Scottish Reformation and the other Protestant churches of Europe; and
the important services by which they repaid the hospitality they
received, bring out to view the influence which the Reformers of
Scotland exerted upon the Reformation of other lands.
Among the new facts contained in the work the author
may be allowed to direct particular attention to the rectification which
he has been able to give of the common account of George Wishart's
recantation at Bristol in 1539; from which it appears that, instead of
ignominiously recanting, on that occasion, an essential doctrine of
Protestant truth, it was no truth at all which the Reformer recanted,
but a serious error into which he had fallen while still groping his way
out of Popish darkness into the light of the Gospel.
Presbyterian College, London, May 26, 1860.
Contents
Chapter I.The Hamilton Period, a. d.
15151543
Section 1. Commencement of the Reformation
Section 2. Patrick Hamilton. 15151528
Section 3. Sir David Lindsay of the Mount 15281531
Section 4. Alexander Alesius, Alexander Seyton, and Henry Forrest
15291531
Section 5. Struggle for the use of the Vernacular Scriptures 15321534
Section 6. Persecutions and Martyrdoms. 15341539
Section 7. Scottish Reformers in England. 15341540
Section 8. Sir David Lindsay, and the Satire of the Three Estates.
15391540
Section 9. Sir John Borthwick and the Scottish Nobility and Gentry.
15401541
Section 10. Death of James V., and the First
Reforming Parliament. 15421543
Chapter II.The Wishart Period, a. d.
15431554
Section 1. Life of George Wishart to 1543
Section 2. Apostasy of the Regent, and Commencement of Wishart's
Ministry. 15431544
Section 3. Renewal of PersecutionAppeal to the Nation by Alexander Alesius. 15431544
Section 4. Wishart's Preaching in Dundee and Ayrshire. 15441545
Section 5. Wishart's Last Labours. 15451546
Section 6. Wishart's Apprehension, Trial, and Martyrdom. 1546
Section 7. Assassination of Beaton, and siege of the Castle of St
Andrews. 15461547
Section 8. English Invasion. Renewal of Persecution. The
Reformation-Poets. 15471554
Chapter III.The Knox Period, a. d. 15551560
Section 1. Visit of Knox to Scotland. 15551556
Section 2. The First Protestant "Band." 15561558
Section 3. First Petition of the Protestants to the Regent and their
Protestation before Parliament 1558
Section 4. Popular Tumults. The Reformation in Arms. 1559
Section 5. Civil War. Treaty with England. Siege of Leith. 15591560
Section 6. The Parliament of 1560
Section 7. The Organization of the Reformed Church of Scotland
