[MR] BBC/Wikipedia: Scotland's First Protestant Martyr

Garth Groff via Atlantia atlantia at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org
Thu May 5 02:09:11 PDT 2016


Noble Friends, Especially Fellow Scots:

On May 6, a re-enactment and discussion of Master Patrick Hamilton's 
heresy trial will be held in St. Andrews, Scotland. Hamilton is accorded 
the dubious honor of being Scotland's first Protestant martyr. He was 
tried and burned at the stake at St. Andrews University on 29 February 
1528 for holding views similar to those of Luther. His death was said to 
have caused many others to turn against the Church. You can read about 
Hamilton and see a number of images at 
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-36037253 . Here is a bit more about 
his betrayal and martyrdom: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Hamilton_(martyr) .

Patrick Hamilton's chief accuser and betrayer was James Beaton, 
Archbishop of St. Andrews. Beaton was warned that Hamilton's death would 
haunt Scotland, but he lived on until 1539 and died of natural causes. 
His nephew and successor, David Beaton, was not so lucky and died in the 
fury of the Scottish Protestant reformation. In 1546 he caused another 
Protestant preacher, George Wishart, to be strangled and his body 
burned. A few weeks later David Beaton was assassinated in his castle at 
St. Andrews, no doubt daggered repeatedly in the approved Scottish 
fashion, and his mutilated body was displayed dangling from a window. 
David Beaton was the last Catholic Archbishop of St. Andrews until 1878: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Beaton .

Politics and religion, pretty much the same thing, were very messy in 
Scotland.

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, That Crazy Scot




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