The History of the Reformation of the Church of Scotland

for if thou firmly believedst that God were in the heaven, thou shouldest not make thy self check-mate to the King,¹ and altogether forget the charge that Jesus Christ the Son of God gave to his Apostles, which was, To Preach his Gospel, and not to play the proud Prelates, as all the rabble of you do this day: And now, Sir, said he to the King, judge ye, whether the Bishop or I believe best that God is in heaven. While the Bishop and his band could not well revenge themselves, and while many taunts were given them in their teeth.² The King willing to put an end to further reasoning, said to the said Adam Read; Wilt thou burn thy bill? He answered; Sir, the Bishop and ye will. With these and the like scoffs, the Bishop and his band were so dashed out of countenance, that the greatest part of accusation was turned to laughter. After that Diet, we find almost no question for matters of Religion, the space near of thirty years; for not long after, to wit, in the year of God 1500. the said Bishop Blaktar departed this life,³ going in his superstitious devotion to Jerusalem: Unto whom succeeded Master James Betone, son to the Laird of Balfor in Fife, who was more careful of the world, then he was to Preach Christ, or yet to advance any Religion, but for the fashion only, and as he sought the world it fled him not: For it was well known that at once he was Archbishop of Saint Andrews, Abbot of Dunfermline, Aberbrothe, Kylwinning, and Chancellor of Scotland: For after the unhappy field of Flowdonne, ⁴in the which perished King James the fourth, with the greatest part of the Nobility of the Realm, the said Betonne with the rest of the Prelates, had the whole Regiment of the Realm. And by reason thereof held and travelled to hold the truth of God in thraldom and bondage, till that it pleased God of his great mercy in the year of God 1527. to raise up his servant Master Patrick Hamilton, ⁵at whom our History doth begin:⁶ Of whose progeny, life, and erudition, because men of fame and renown have in divers works written; we omit all curious repetition, sending such as would know further of him then we write to Francis Lambert, John Frith, and to that notable work lately set forth by John Fox, English man, of the lives and deaths of Martyrs within this Isle in this our age.