D Hay Fleming
Until the spring of 1559, the Church in Scotland, as viewed outwardly, was a powerful institution, covering the whole land with an organised network. It was bound together by an elaborate gradation of offices, endowed with enormous wealth and wielding almost unlimited power. Through the long centuries it had grown in influence, wealth and might, until its top seemed almost to reach to heaven; but it was rotten within and doomed to collapse ignominiously before the approaching storm. The decay had been gradual, and its symptoms had been manifested in the immorality, ignorance, irreverence, profanity, credulity, imposture, and greed of the clergy. This corruption had been helped, not hindered, by the inordinate wealth of the Church; and the hope of sharing in this wealth may have made some needy nobles decide on their part in the final struggle.
That struggle might have come sooner, save for the awe with which the people regarded an institution they believed to be divine, and save for those who kept their garments clean amid surrounding corruption, and save for the memory of the good derived in earlier generations from the Church – the influences which had made for peace, civilisation and culture. The crisis might have been delayed much longer had it not been for the books and pamphlets, the preaching and teaching which opened the eyes of the people to the enormities of the system under which they were groaning.
When disgusted and repelled by the corruption, ignorance and greed of the clergy, the Scots might have lapsed into religious apathy, infidelity, or heathenism had it not been for counteracting agencies which were at work. There was a deeply-rooted, steadily-growing opposition to the medieval corruption of doctrine, as well as to the moral impurity of the Church. The teaching and influence of the Lollards, though long hidden, had never ceased to operate. Though many of them may have been illiterate, they were not all so. Those who cherished the little manuscript books of Wycliff must have had some learning; and Murdoch Nisbet2 must have had more learning than many of the clergy, otherwise he would not have been able to make his copy of the New Testament.
Light came from the Continent in unexpected ways. During one of the
1An edited extract from Fleming’s The Reformation in Scotland. Fleming (1849-1931) wrote extensively on the subject, believing that it was a work of God.
2Nisbet was a native of Hardhill in Ayrshire; about 1520 he made a copy for himself of Wycliff’s translation of the New Testament. A Covenanting descendant, John Nisbet, was hanged at the Grassmarket in Edinburgh in 1685. The Lollards were followers of Wycliff.
Duke of Albany’s visits to Scotland, among his men-at-arms was Monsieur de la Tour, whom the French Parliament afterwards committed to the flames, in the pork market near Paris, for having Lutheran errors in Scotland. Before being burned, he saw his servant scourged and deprived of his tongue. The servant, who also had been a Lutheran but had recanted, died of his punishment. La Tour’s martyrdom took place on September 26, probably in 1527. One would like to know more about this steadfast man-at-arms who, even before Patrick Hamilton, suffered a cruel death for doing what he could to spread the truth in Scotland.
It is quite likely that there were more Lutherans among Albany’s men-at-arms and their servants, and no one can now tell how much they did, by precept, example and the circulation of pamphlets, to help the cause which had been kept alive in Scotland by the Lollards of Kyle.3 That cause was quietly but greatly reinforced at the close of the first quarter of the sixteenth century by the importing of Lutheran books and Lutheran heresies, and still more by Tyndale’s translation of the New Testament.
Even in those days, when so few were educated, those in authority feared the power of the press. Hence the Act of Parliament in 1525 forbidding the importing of Lutheran books. The Act, for the King’s “zeal and love” to “the Christian faith and the holy kirk”, was re-enacted in 1535 with this addition, that none of his subjects should have, use, keep, or conceal any heretical books, but deliver them up to their bishops, within 40 days, under pain of imprisonment and forfeiture of their goods. That such Acts did not prevent the publication of books and ballads concerning religion and the clergy is admitted in the preamble of an Act Parliament of 1 February 1552 which states that there are “divers printers in this realm that daily and continually print books concerning the faith, ballads, songs, blasphemous rhymes” not seen by the superiors. It was therefore ordained that in future no printer presume “to print any books . . . either in Latin or English tongue” until they were examined by some wise and discreet persons appointed by the bishops.
This legislation was not intended to be a series of mere threats and warnings. The Act of 1525 was passed on July 17, and on August 7 the king wrote to the Sheriff of Aberdeen and his deputies, informing them that the Bishop of Aberdeen, Gavin Dunbar, had complained to him that there were strangers and others within his diocese who had “books of that heretic Luther” and favoured his errors and false opinions. The sheriffs were charged to publish the recent Act of Parliament, to make inquisition for such persons and to confiscate their goods for the use of the king. It was probably for a breach of the stringent Act of 2 June 1543 that John Scrymgeour, Constable and
3A district in Ayrshire.
Provost of Dundee, was charged under pain of treason in 1547, to apprehend “John Scott, printer, and to bring and present him within the castle of Edinburgh . . . to be punished for his demerits and faults”.
The reiterated and determined attempts to suppress these publications show that their influence was being felt in the country. Some of them were printed on the Continent, some in England, and some in Scotland. John Gau’s Right Way to the Kingdom of Heaven was printed at Malmo, in Sweden, in 1533. In the same year the tracts and books of Alesius4 began to be printed in Germany. In 1536 a tract entitled, A comfortable exhortation of our most holy Christian faith and her fruits written (unto the Christian brethren in Scotland) after the pure Word of God, was printed in Paris. The author, John Johnstone, describes himself as “a humble professor of holy divinity”. Sir David Lyndsay’s Tragedy of the Cardinal, with an account of The martyrdom of Master George Wysehart issued from a press in London about the end of 1547. Wishart’s translation of The Confession of the Faith of the Swiss was printed in or about 1548. An Admonition or Warning that the faithful Christians in London . . . was the first of Knox’s writings to be printed.
Mbuma Zending Meeting 2014
Rev J R Tallach
On April 26, a warm spring day, some 2500 people from a variety of Reformed denominations in Holland gathered in ‘s Hertogenbosch for the annual Mbuma Zending meeting. Three addresses were delivered in the morning, including one by Rev M Mloyi from Zenka, and three in the afternoon, including a story for the children. I briefly passed on the greetings and good wishes of the home Church to the meeting.
A matter referred to by all the speakers was the passing away of Ds de Jong, past chairman of Mbuma Zending, who had been interred the previous Tuesday – Rev John MacLeod, Convener of the Jewish and Foreign Mission Committee, being present. Ds de Jong had shown himself over many years to be a consistent friend of our Mission and will be greatly missed.
A considerable amount of work had evidently been done in preparation for the meeting and this spoke of the zeal of many for the Lord’s cause in Africa. The collection of around €34 000 showed the same generous concern.
An interesting meeting took place in our hosts’ home that Saturday evening. The minister (Ds F van de Veen), office-bearers and some members of
4The Latinised form of Alexander Alane’s surname. He was a Scot who embraced the Reformation, spending much of his life in England and on the Continent.
the Old Reformed Congregation in Utrecht gathered with us, and spiritual questions – including some about conversion and the call to the ministry – were put to the visiting ministers.
The next day Mr Mloyi and I took the services in Utrecht for Ds van de Veen who is recovering from cardiac surgery. Our interpreter was a deacon of the congregation, Mr van Haaften. On Monday we were taken by Mr W A Barth to see Ds de Jong’s widow.
My wife and I were warmly received by all during our visit and we particularly remember the hospitality extended to us in the homes of Mr and Mrs E Barth and Mr and Mrs G Boonsaaijer. We found these few days full of interest and felt a measure of unity of spirit and of the bond of peace with our Dutch friends.
Address by Dr Tallach. Mr Chairman, I bring the warm greetings of the Jewish and Foreign Missions Committee of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland to you all at this meeting.
The death of Ds de Jong was a sad event for all of us who have the good of our Missions at heart, and his life illustrates the common faith we profess. Isaiah 35 speaks of “a highway . . . and a way . . . and it shall be called The way of holiness”. The entrance to this way is the strait gate of Matthew 7:13: “Enter ye in at the strait gate . . . because strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life” (Mt 7:13).
The entrance to this way is the strait gate of Christ alone, by faith alone in the Word of God alone. The way continues as it begins, narrow and distinctive, in relation to the wide gate and the broad road of the world. This illustrates the singular way of the believer’s progress in the world, walking by faith in the promises of God that are yea and amen in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Church only comes up out of the wilderness as she leans on her beloved. Ds de Jong was buried on Tuesday of this week and this sad last duty reminds us that the end of this way of holiness is one for all of His people:
“They shall be brought with gladness great, and mirth on every side,
Into the palace of the King, and there they shall abide” (Ps 45:15).
“The righteous hath hope in his death” (Prov 14:32).
These things unite believers one with another, wherever or whenever their way in providence is set by the Lord.
On behalf of the home Committee, I most sincerely thank all of you here concerned with our Mission in Africa, for your work, prayers and financial support for our common cause.
When the churches cease to pray for ministers, ministers will no longer be a blessing to the churches.
Gardiner Spring