THE cruel Archbishop of St. Andrews, James Beaton, died and went to his account in 1539. He was succeeded by his nephew, the more infamous David Beaton, who had been made a cardinal by Pope Paul III in the previous year, and who had been not only one of the cruellest of men, but was notorious also for his immoralities. On the 28th of February 1546, Cardinal Beaton brought before him on trial a notable man of God, found him guilty of heresy, and condemned him to be burned to death next day. That man was George Wishart.
Let us look at this striking figure. It was he who had taught John Knox the way of life more perfectly. The description given of him by Emery Tylney, one of his devoted pupils at Cambridge, shows that he was a man greatly beloved.
“There was in the University of Cambridge,” says Tylney, “one Master George Wishart, of Benet’s College, who was a man of tall stature, polled head, and on the same a round French cap of the best, judged to be of melancholy complexion by his physiognomy, black haired, long bearded, comely of personage, well spoken after his country of Scotland, courteous, lowly, lovely, glad to teach, desirous to learn, and well-travelled… He was a man modest, temperate, fearing God, hating covetousness, for his charity had never end, night, noon, nor day… Oh! that the Lord had left him to me, his poor boy, that he might have finished that he had begun.”
George Wishart, son of John Wishart, Laird of Pittarrow, was born about 1516. After he graduated as Master of Arts at King’s College, Aberdeen, he opened a school at Montrose about 1538, but had to flee to England because he was accused of heresy for teaching the Greek New Testament. Although he had discovered the errors of Popery his knowledge of the truth was yet immature, but he obtained a fuller knowledge of divine truth in Switzerland in 1540. When he returned to England he studied and taught at Cambridge. In 1543 he returned to Scotland and his career as a hunted preacher of the gospel began.
We take a glimpse at the work he did. He gave public lectures on the Epistle to the Romans at Dundee; then “begane to offerr Goddis Woord” in the southwest of Scotland. When he was preaching in Ayr with great freedom, the Bishop of Glasgow came to arrest him but, failing to do so, took possession of the church instead. Wishart proceeded to the Market Cross and preached there, for, said he, “Christ Jesus is as powerful in the fields as in the Kirk, and I find that He Himself oftener preached at the seaside and other such places than that He did in the temple of Jerusalem.” Then at Mauchline, with the people round im, he preached for three hours, and a widespread awakening ensued.
Hearing that the plague had broken out in Dundee, he went there. He chose ne East Port as his pulpit, and, with the healthy on the inside and the sick on the outside, preached good tidings. His first text there was, “He sent His Word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.” The people, much comforted by his discourse, pressed him to remain with them.
On one occasion while he was there, a priest named Sir John Wightman, having been bribed by Cardinal Beaton, waited at the foot of the stairs until the sermon was done, with a dagger drawn under his gown. Wishart detected him, and seizing his hand took the weapon from him. The people, enraged, called for vengeance on the would-be assassin, but Wishart protected and saved him.
Although the cardinal did not succeed on this occasion, Wishart believed that he would yet succeed. “I know that I shall end my life by the hands of that wicked man,” he predicted. One night, in the house of a friend, James Watson, he was observed after midnight to go out into the garden. He fell on his knees, sobbing and groaning, and prayed for nearly an hour. On being pressed afterwards to say what was the cause of his great sorrow he said eventually, “I will tell you: I know assuredly that my travail is near an end; therefore pray to God for me that I may not shrink when the battle waxeth most hot.”
His last sermon was preached at Haddington, and in it he solemnly warned the people of their sin and danger in despising and neglecting God’s Word. At midnight he was arrested by the Earl of Bothwell and carried off to Edinburgh. John Knox, who attended him in those days, wished to accompany him but Wishart said, “Nay, return to your bairns and God bless you. One is sufficient for a sacrifice at this time.” And so the two great men parted on earth.
The cardinal called the bishops to St. Andrews, and Wishart was brought before them. His accuser, John Lauder, read a list of charges against him, and demanded, “What answerest thou to these sayings, thou runnagate! traitor!” Wishart was accused of denying the mass, purgatory, praying to the saints, and other Romish inventions, and was charged with asserting that Christ is the only Mediator, that priests might marry, and that without Scripture we should affirm nothing. His “godly answers and true reasons”, given from the Scriptures and “with great solidity of judgement”, were disregarded and scorned by his judges. They condemned him to be burned to death as a heretic.
Next morning, Wishart was led out to the stake in front of the Castle. Cushions were provided for the cardinal at the Castle window that he might comfortably view the awful spectacle. The martyr declared to the people that he felt much joy in offering up his life for the name of Christ, and entreated them to love the word of God and suffer patiently for it. He also told them, “Behold and consider my visage; ye shall not see me change my colour.” He prayed with loud voice, “O Saviour of the world, have mercy upon me. Father of Heaven, commend my spirit into thy holy hands!”. The Lord answered his prayer and gave him courage to suffer unto death in the fierce flames. And so, on that first day of March, 1546, he passed into glory to behold the King in His beauty.
The people now began to speak openly of the detestable cruelties done in the name of religion. Wishart’s fearless death, following his noble and godly life, did much to turn men’s thoughts to the truth of God, and bring about the happy deliverance of Scotland from the tyranny of an apostate Church.
Adapted from Martyrs of St. Andrews by G. Goodman