Patrick Hamilton

The Scotland of today was at one time the poorest and most backward nation of Europe, bullied and bantered over by France and England. No one could appreciate the changes in Scotland, spiritually or otherwise without recognizing the Protestant Reformation in Scotland under John Knox, and no one can appreciate that Reformation without recognizing the Christian martyrs who prepared the way such as Patrick Hamilton (1499-1527).

The general public has always been fascinated by royal culprits such as Catharine de Medici, Henry VIII and Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, but they pass by the true heroes. Still from time to time God has raised up a truly noble character, who has captured the popular imagination. Patrick Hamilton was one. The timing and circumstances of his early death have fixed him in the annals of Church history. His life was like a rosebud about to unfold itself.

He was the great-grandson of King James II on both his father’s and mother’s side, and a cousin of King James IV of Scotland. So he enjoyed the privilege of education and travel. Around the year 1517, he left Scotland to be schooled on the continent. His Master of Arts degree from the University of Paris meant that he learned some Greek, and could study the Greek New Testament.

In 1523, he returned to St. Andrews University and spoke freely about the corruptions of the Church. The clergy of Scotland had a low tolerance level for his youthful critiques, and so Patrick again left Scotland, this time in order to visit Germany where he sat under the teaching of Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, and Francis Lambert. It seemed that this young man possessed the intelligence, position, and leadership abilities that could move a whole nation.

On his return to Scotland he hoped to proclaim the gospel of Christ, but he may not have imagined the kind of opposition Archbishop James Beaton was capable of. As the virtual ruler of both church and state, Beaton encouraged the Scottish Parliament in 1525 to pass an anti-Luther law designed to keep Scotland “clean of all such filth and vice.”

Hamilton may have assumed that his family connections would protect him from being burned at the stake like the despised Lollards had been, and so, on his return to Scotland he openly declared that he had found the long buried truth of God. At the family mansion in Kincavil, near Linlithgow, he won over a number of his high- born relatives to the Gospel. Beaton knew that the results of Hamilton’s preaching could have revolutionary effects in the kingdom and heĀ  was in no mood for a protracted discussion on the nuances of Paul’s arguments in Romans chapter 5.

Only a few weeks after Hamilton’s marriage, Beaton invited the newlywed to St. Andrews to stay and discuss his concerns. For days these discussions went on politely. But Archbishop Beaton had stationed some five hundred troops around the castle. Inside the gate Hamilton found himself under a kind of house arrest. During this time it became obvious to Beaton that Hamilton would not capitulate, and that Beaton might not be able to survive politically even if he had Hamilton killed.

Hamilton was imprisoned, tried, and condemned to be burned in front of the old college of St. Andrews. To show how unjust the proceedings were, as the sentence was being read, the soldiers were setting up the stake and the piles of wood.

It all happened so fast that many observers thought that Beaton was just trying to give young Hamilton a scare. Not so.

It was the last day of February, 1527. Before they chained him to the stake, he gave his gown, coat, and hat to his servant, saying, “These will not profit in the fire; they will profit thee. After this, thou canst receive no commodity from me, except the example of my death. That, I pray thee, bear in mind; for, albeit be bitter to the flesh and fearful before men, it is the entrance unto eternal life, which none shall possess who deny Christ Jesus before this wicked generation.”

It was an ignoble end to that promising twenty-eight-year-old’s life. The wood was green or wet. They ran a trail of gun powder to the pile, to ignite it, but it only flashed, scorching Hamilton’s left hand and one side of his face. Eventually they got the fire going, but it smoldered. In a clear voice, the spectators heard Hamilton say, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! How long shall darkness overwhelm this realm? And how long wilt Thou suffer this tyranny of men?”

Hamilton’s suffering went on for hours. His accusers taunted him, “Convert, heretic; call upon our Lady: say Salve Regina,” etc. Hamilton answered, “Depart and trouble me not, ye messengers of Satan.”

Among the hecklers was a black friar named Alexander Campbell who had earlier confided to Hamilton that he agreed with him. Campbell was an educated man, unlike so many of his associates. But secret vices had a stranglehold on the miserable man, and there he was, shouting absurdities alongside Beaton’s henchmen, so much so that Campbell looked like their cheerleader. Hamilton eyed Campbell and said, “Wicked man, thou knowest the contrary, and the contrary to me thou hast confessed: I appeal thee before the tribunal seat of Jesus Christ!”

The story goes that wretched Campbell was so tormented by his betrayal that he became insane and died not long after.
By sundown, Hamilton’s body was burned to ashes. An eyewitness said, “The martyr never gave one sign of impatience or anger, never called to heaven for vengeance on his persecutors: so great was his faith, so strong his confidence in God.”

Beaton was satisfied that the Protestant golden boy was up in smoke. To his eyes it seemed that the Reformation had made a flamboyant flop in Scotland.

Still the curious asked, “Wherefore was Master Patrick Hamilton burnt?” The State Church had silenced one critic, but it had done nothing to rectify its abuses. Certain grey and black friars spoke out against the luxury and idleness of the bishops. In a few years a New Testament wielding Benedictine monk named Henry Forrest spoke out that “Hamilton was a martyr, and no heretic.”

Beaton said, “He is as bad as Master Patrick; we must burn him.” One of Beaton’s associates named James Lindsay had the wit to say, “My Lord, let him be burned in a hollow; for the reek of Patrick Hamilton’s fire has infected every one it blew upon.”

Beaton failed to appreciate the force of Lindsay’s satire. He erected the stake that Forrest was burned at on the highest spot in the neighborhood.

Still the fumes of the martyrs lingered over the land. Hamilton’s smoke stung men’s eyes until theirĀ  eyes were opened by it.

Materials for this article taken from:
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James W. Baird, Thunder Over Scotland, The Life of George Wishart, Green Leaf Press, 1982.
John Knox, History of the Reformation of Religion in Scotland. Presently available through Moody Press, Chicago.
John Foxe, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, first published in 1559 as Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Days. Presently available through several publishers, and in various stages of abridgement and alteration.
Andrew Miller, Miller’s Church History, Zondervan.