PICTURE: Facsimile of part of History…
IX. By God’s law, the teinds do not appertain of necessity to the Churchmen.’
The Sub-Prior. ‘
The strangeness of these Articles, which are gathered forth of your doctrine, hath moved us to call for you to hear your own answers.’John Knox.
‘I, for my part, praise my God that I see so honorable and apparently so modest and quiet an auditory. It is long since I have heard that ye [Winram] are not ignorant of the Truth. Therefore I must crave of you in the name of God, and I appeal your conscience before that Supreme Judge, that if ye think any Article there expressed contrarious to the Truth of God, that ye oppose yourself plainly unto it, and suffer not the people to be therewith deceived. But, if in your conscience ye know the doctrine to be true, then will I crave your patronage thereto; that by your authority the people may be moved to believe the Truth, whereof many doubt by reason of our youth.’For Purgatory, Alexander Arbuckle, a Grey Friar, had no better proof but the authority of Virgil in his Sixth AEneid; and the pains thereof to him were an evil wife! How John Knox answered that and many other things, himself did witness in a Treatise8 that he wrote in the Galleys, containing
the sum of his doctrine and the confession of his faith, and sent to his familiars in Scotland.
After this, the Friars had no great heart for further disputation. They invented another shift, which seemed to proceed from godliness. It was this. Every learned man in the Abbey, and in the University, should preach in the Parish Kirk his Sunday about. The Sub-Prior began, followed by the Official called Master John Spittal, Rector of the University—
sermons penned to offend no man!—followed by all the rest in their ranks.
So John Knox smelled out the craft, and in his sermons which he made upon the week-days, he prayed to God that they should be as busy in preaching when there should be more myster (need) of it than there was then. ‘Allwise,’ said he, ‘ I praise God that Christ Jesus is preached, and that nothing is said publicly against the doctrine ye have heard. If in my absence they shall speak anything which in my presence they do not, I protest that ye suspend your judgment, till it please God ye hear me again.’
God so assisted His weak soldier and so blessed his labors, that not only all those of the Castle, but also a great number of the town of St. Andrews, openly professed, by participation of the Lord’s Table in the same purity that now it is ministered in the churches of Scotland, that same doctrine that he had taught unto them.
Among these was he that now either rules or else misrules Scotland, to wit, Sir James Balfour,9 sometimes called Master James of Pittendreich, son of Balfour of Mountquhanie, the chief and principal Protestant that then was to be found in this Realm. This we write, because we have heard that the said Master James allegeth that he was never of our religion, but that he was brought up in Martin [Luther’s] opinion of the Sacrament, and therefore he can not communicate with us! But his own conscience, and two hundred witnesses besides, know that he lies; and that he was one of the chief that would have given his life, if men might credit his words, for defense of the doctrine that John Knox taught. But, albeit those that never were of us—as none of Mountquhanie’s sons have shown themselves to be—depart from us, it is no great wonder. It is proper and natural that the children follow the father! Let the godly beware of that race and progeny;
for, if in them be either fear of God, or love of virtue, farther than the
present commodity (advantage) persuades them, men of judgment are deceived. But to return to our History.
The Priests and Bishops, enraged at these proceedings in St. Andrews, ran now upon the Governor, now upon the Queen, now upon the whole Council, and there might have been heard complaints and cries, ‘What are we doing? Shall ye suffer this whole Realm to be infected with pernicious doctrine? Fie upon you! Fie upon us! ’ The Queen and the Seigneur D’Oysel [the French Ambassador] comforted them, and willed them to be quiet, for they should see remedy ere it was long. And so was proven indeed; for upon the penult day of June, appeared in the sight of the Castle of St. Andrews one-and-twenty French galleys, with a skeife of an army (well provided army), the like whereof was never seen in that Firth before.
This treasonable means had the Governor, the Archbishop of St. Andrews, the Queen and Monsieur D’Oysel, under the Appointment10 drawn. But, to excuse their treason, eight days before, they had presented an
Absolution, as sent from Rome, containing, after the aggravation of the crime, this clause, Remiltimus Irremissibile, that is, We remit the crime that cannot be remitted. This was considered by the most of the company that was in the Castle when the Castle of St. Andrews was required to be delivered; and answer was given, ‘That the Governor and Council of the Realm had promised unto them a sufficient and assured absolution, which that appeared not to be. Therefore could they not deliver the House, neither thought they that any reasonable man would require them so to do, considering that promise was not kept unto them.’
The next day, after the galleys arrived, they summoned the Castle of St.
Andrews, which being denied, because they knew them no magistrates (not to be magistrates) in Scotland, they prepared for siege. First, they began to assault by sea, and shot two days. Thereof they neither got advantage nor honor; for they dang down the slates of houses, but neither slew man, nor did harm to any wall. And the Castle handled them so, that Sancta
Barbara, the gunners’ goddess, helped them nothing; for they lost many of their rowers, chained in the galleys, and some soldiers, both by sea and land. Farther, a galley that approached nigher than the rest, was so dung with the cannon and other ordnance, that she would have been drowned,
were it not that the rest gave her succor in time, and drew her first to the West Sands, without (beyond) the shot of the Castle, and thereafter to Dundee, where they remained, till the Governor came to them, with the rest of the French faction.
The siege by land was confirmed the nineteenth day of July. The trenches were cast; and ordnance was planted on the Abbey Kirk, and on St.
Salvator’s College, which so annoyed the Castle, that neither could they keep their Block-houses, the Sea-Tower, nor the West Wall; for in all these places were men slain by great ordnance. Yea, they mounted the ordnance high upon the Abbey Kirk, that they might discover the ground of the Court of the Castle in diverse places. Moreover, within the Castle was the pest, and diverse therein died, which more affrayed some that were
therein, than did the external force. John Knox was of another judgment, for he ever said, ‘That their corrupt life could not escape punishment of God’; and that was his continual advertisement, from the time that he was called to preach. When they triumphed—the first twenty days they had many prosperous chances—he lamented, and ever said, ‘They saw not what he saw.’ When they bragged of the force and thickness of their walls, he said, ‘They shall be but egg-shells.’ When they vaunted, ‘England will rescue us,’ he said, ‘Ye shall not see them; but ye shall be delivered into your enemy’s hands, and shall be carried to a strange country.’
Upon the penult of July, at night, was the ordnance planted for the battery; fourteen cannons, whereof four were Cannons Royal, called Double Cannons, besides other pieces. The battery began at four hours in the morning; and before ten hours of the day, the whole south quarter, betwixt the Fore Tower and the East Block-house, was made assaultable.
The lower transe (passage) was condemned, diverse slain in it, and the East Block-house was shut off from the rest of the place, betwixt ten hours and eleven. There fell a shower of rain, that continued near an hour, the like whereof had seldom been seen. It was so vehement that no man might alfide without the house; and the cannons were left alone. Some within the Castle were of judgment, that men should have ished (gone out), and put all in the hands of God. But because William Kirkcaldy was
communing with Leo Strozzi, the Prior of Capua [the French Admiral], who had the Commission of that journey from the King of France, nothing
was enterprised. And so was appointment (terms) made, and the Castle rendered upon Saturday, the last of July [1547].
The Heads of the Appointment were: ‘That the lives of all within the Castle should be saved, as well English as Scottish; that they should be safely transported to France; and in case, on the conditions to be offered them by the King of France, they could not be content to remain in service and freedom there, they should, upon the expenses of the King of France, be safely conveyed to what country they would require, other than Scotland.’ With the Governor they would have nothing to do, neither yet with any Scotsman; for they had all traitorously betrayed them. ‘Which,’
said the Laird of Grange a man simple and of most stout courage ‘I am assured God will revenge, ere it be long.’
The galleys, well furnished with the spoil of the Castle, after certain days returned to France. Escaping a great danger—for upon the back of the sands they all chapped (struck) they arrived first at Fecamp, and
thereafter passed up the Water of Sequane (Seine), and lay before Rouen;
where the principal gentlemen, who looked for freedom, were dispersed and put in sundry prisons. The rest were left in the galleys and there miserable entreated.11 These things were done at Rouen against promises;
but Princes have no fidelity farther than for their own advantage. Then the galleys departed to Nantes, in Bartainzie (Brittany), where, upon the water of Loire, they lay the whole winter.
Among those in the galleys were the aforesaid Master James Balfour and his two brethren, David and Gilbert, men without God. Which we write, because we hear that Master James denies that he had anything to do with the Castle of St. Andrews, or that ever he was in the French galleys. Then was the joy of the Papists both of Scotland and of France in full
perfection; for this was their song of triumph—
‘Priests content you now! Priests content you now!
For Norman12 and his company has filled the galleys fow.’
The Pope wrote letters to the King of France and to the Governor of Scotland, thanking them heartily for taking pains to revenge the death of his kind creature, David Beaton, the Cardinal of Scotland; desiring them to continue in their begun severity, that such things thereafter should not be attempted. All these that were deprehended in the Castle were damned to
perpetual prison; and so the ungodly judged, that after this Christ Jesus should never triumph in Scotland.
One thing we cannot pass by. From Scotland was sent a famous clerk—
laugh not, reader! Master John Hamilton of Milburn, with credit to the King of France, and to the Cardinal of Lorraine. Yet he had neith French nor Latin, and some say his Scottish tongue was not very good! The sum of his negotiation was, That those of the Castle should be sharply handled.
In which suit he was l eard with favor, and was dispatched from the Court of France with letters, and great credit, which that famous clerk forgot by the way; for, passing up to the Craig of Dumbarton, before his letters were delivered, he broke his neck; and so God took away a proud, ignorant enemy.
In Scotland that summer was nothing but mirth; for all yead (went) with the priests even at their own pleasure. The Castle of St. Andrews was raised to the ground, the Block-houses thereof east down, and the walls round about demolished. Whether this was to fulfill their law, which commands places where Cardinals are slain so to be used, or else for fear that England should have taken it, as after they did Broughty Craig, we remit to the judgment of such as were of council.
This same year, 1547, in the beginning of September, entered Scotland an army of ten thousand men from England, by land, and some ships with ordnance came by sea. The Governor and the Archbishop of St. Andrews, hereof advertised, gathered together the forces of Scotland, and assembled at Edinburgh. The Protector of England the Duke of Somerset, with the Earl of Warwick, and their army, remained at Preston [eight miles from Edinburgh] and about Prestonpans, for they had certain offers to propone to the Nobility of Scotland, concerning the promise before made by them;
unto which King Harry before his death gently required them to stand fast, promising if they so would do, of him nor of his Realm they should have no trouble, but the help and the comfort that he could make them in all things lawful. Hereupon was there a letter direct to the Governor and Council, which coming to the hands of the Bishop of St. Andrews, he thought it could not be for his advantage that it should be divulgate, and therefore by his craft it was suppressed.
Upon Friday, the 9th of September 1547, the English army marched towards Leith, and the Scottish army marched from Edinburgh to Enresk (Inveresk). The whole Scottish army was not assembled, and yet the skirmishing began, for nothing was concluded (expected) but victory without stroke. The Protector, the Earl of Warwick, the Lord Grey, and all the English Captains, were playing at the dice. No men were stouter than the Priests and Canons, with their shaven crowns and black jacks. The Earl of Warwick and the Lord Grey de Wilton, who had the chief charge of the horsemen, perceiving the host to be molested with the Scottish priekers (light horsemen), and knowing that the multitude were neither under order nor obedience—for they were divided from the great army—sent forth certain troops of horsemen, and some of their Borderers, either to fight them, or else to put them out of their sight, so that they might not annoy the host. The skirmish grew hot, and at length the Scotsmen gave back and fled, without again turning. The chase continued far, both towards the East and towards the West; in which many were slain, and he that now is Lord Home was taken, which was the occasion that the Castle of Home was rendered to the Englishmen. The loss of these men neither moved the Governor nor yet the Archbishop, his bastard brother, bragging: ‘They should revenge the matter well enough upon the morn! They had hands enough’ no word of God!—’ The English heretics had no faces. They would not abide.’
Upon Saturday, the armies of both sides passed to array. The English army takes the mid part of Falside Hill, in the parish of Inveresk, having their ordnance planted before them, and having their ships and two galleys brought as near the land as water would serve. The Scottish army stood first in a reasonable strength and good order, having betwixt them and the English army the Water of Esk, otherwise called Musselburgh Water. At length a charge was given in the Governor’s behalf, with sound of trumpet, that all men should march forward, and go over the Water. Some say, that this was procured by George Durie, the Abbot of Dunfermline, and Master Hugh Rigg,13 for preservation of Carberry. Men of judgment liked not the journey; for they thought it no wisdom to leave their strength. But commandment upon commandment, and charge upon charge, was given, which urged them so, that unwillingly they obeyed. The Earl of Angus being in the vanguard, had in his company the Gentlemen of Fife, Angus,
Mearns, and the West Land, with many others that of love resorted to him, and especially those that were professors of the Evangel; for they supposed that England would not have made great pursuit of him. He passed first through the Water, and arrayed his host direct before the enemies. The Earl of Hunfly followed with his North Land men. Last came the Duke14 having in his company the Earl of Argyle with his own friends, and the Body of the Realm.
The Englishmen perceiving the danger, and how that the Scottishmen intended to have taken the top of the hill, made haste to prevent the peril.
The Lord Grey was commanded to give the charge with his men of arms, which he did, albeit the hazard was very unlikely; for the Earl of Angus’
host stood even as a wall, and received the first assaulters upon the points of their spears which were longer than those of the Englishmen—so rudely, that fifty horse and men of the first rank lay dead at once, without any hurt done to the Scottish army, except that the spears of the two front ranks were broken. This discomfiture received, the rest of the English horsemen fled; yea, some passed beyond Falside Hill. The Lord Grey himself was hurt in the mouth, and plainly denied to charge again; for he said, ‘It was alike as to run against a wall!’ The galleys and the ships, and so did the ordnance planted upon the mid hill, shot terribly; and the ordnance of the galleys, shooting along the Scottish army, affrayed them wondrously. And while every man labored to draw from the north, whence the danger appeared, they began to reel, and with that were the English footmen marching forward, albeit that some of their horsemen were upon the flight. The Earl of Angus’ army stood still, looking that either the Earl of Huntly or the Duke should have rencountered the next battle. But they had decreed that the favorers of England, and the Heretics,
—as the Priests called them-and the Englishmen, should part it betwixt them for that day.
The fear riseth, and in an instant they who before were victors, and were not yet assaulted with any force, except with ordnance, cast from them their spears and fled. God’s power was so evidently seen, that in one moment, yea, at an instant of time, both the armies were fleeing! The shout came from the hill, from those that hoped no victory upon the English part; the shout rises, ‘They flee they flee’; but at first it could not be believed, till at last it was dearly seen that all had given back; and then