W M Hetherington
By 1543 Cardinal Beaton of St Andrews, had recovered his ascendancy in the government of Scotland. He renewed his efforts to suppress the Reformation, by means of the most merciless and exterminating persecution. He began his barbarous career at Perth, where five men and one woman were brought to him, accused of heresy. They were tried, condemned and had the sentence of death passed on them – the men to be hanged, the woman to be drowned.
The case of the poor woman, named Helen Stark, deserves to be more particularly recorded. She was the wife of one of the men also condemned to death and had recently given birth to a child. During the anguish of the birth, she had been urged by her female assistant to pray to the Virgin Mary and had answered that she would pray only to God, in the name of Jesus Christ. For this she was accused of heresy and condemned to die.
On the day of execution she earnestly requested that she might die along with her husband. Her appeal was harshly refused; but she accompanied him to the fatal spot, bearing her infant in her arms, and exhorting her husband to patience and constancy in the cause of Christ. He was murdered before her eyes; and as soon as life had left his quivering frame, she was dragged to a nearby pool of water, with her baby still clinging to her bosom. When she had taken her precious infant from its last enjoyment of nature’s nourishment and consigned it to the charge of a pitying neighbour and to the care of Him who is the orphan’s stay, she felt that for her the bitterness of death was past. She was cast into the waters and died without a struggle, full of the steady fortitude and the heavenly comfort of a Christian martyr.
Not satisfied with these victims, the Cardinal pursued his circuit through Angus, inflicting fines on some, imprisonment on others, and persecuting others to the death. He was soon to stain his soul with the blood of a more distinguished victim. This was the celebrated George Wishart, brother of the Laird of Pittarow. He had been banished at the instigation of the Bishop of Brechin, for teaching the Greek language in Montrose, and had resided for some years at the University of Cambridge. In 1544, he returned to his native country. Immediately after his arrival in Scotland, he began to preach the doctrines of evangelical truth with such warm and persuasive eloquence as at once to attract, soften and convince the crowding audiences, who wept and glowed and trembled as he preached.
Hetherington (1803-65) was latterly a professor in the Free Church College in Glasgow. This is an edited extract from his History of the Church of Scotland, vol 1.
In the accounts transmitted by contemporary writers of this eminent Christian martyr, we seem to trace the features of a character of surpassing loveliness, bearing a close resemblance to the beloved Apostle John – so mild, gentle, patient and unresisting, his lips touched with a live coal from off the altar, and his heart overflowing with holy love to God and compassionate affection to mankind. The citizens of Montrose, and especially of Dundee, felt and owned the power of his heavenly eloquence; and much of his time and labours were spent in the latter city.
The Cardinal was soon informed of Wishart’s preaching and of the deep impression it was producing in Dundee. Instigated by Beaton, Robert Mill, a man of great authority in the town, openly commanded him to leave the place and trouble them no more with his sermons. Expressing his pity and regret that they were thus refusing to listen to the message of salvation, he departed to Ayrshire, along with some of his friends. There his preaching was attended with equal success and, of course, excited equal hostility in the breasts of the bishops and clergy. The Archbishop of Glasgow hastened to Ayr to prevent Wishart from preaching in the church, and the sheriff of the county prevented him from preaching in the church of Mauchline. But this was a small hindrance to the zealous martyr. He could preach in the market place, in the fields, or on the hillside with equal readiness, and with equal success in convincing his hearers.
Hearing that the plague had visited Dundee, he hastened to return, that he might bring the hopes and consolations of the gospel to perishing men in their hour of extreme need. There he braved the horrors of the plague, ministering comfort to the miserable sufferers, both speaking peace to their souls and supplying their temporal necessities. Even when engaged in this work of mercy, an attempt was made on his life by a priest; and he narrowly escaped from a plot laid to get him into the power of the Cardinal. Soon afterwards he proceeded to Edinburgh, and from there to Haddington, beset by enemies, yet for a time he was delivered from their snares. During his abode in that neighbourhood he was very constantly attended by John Knox, who was at that time residing as tutor in the family of Douglas of Longniddry. Knox had no scruples about wearing a sword for the defence of his beloved friend, the gentle and unresisting Wishart.
But the time of his martyrdom was at hand. After preaching at Haddington, he went to Ormiston, accompanied by the proprietor. John Knox wished to have accompanied him also, but Wishart refused to permit him, saying, “Go back to your pupils; one is sufficient for one sacrifice”. During the night, the house was beset by armed horsemen, headed by the Earl of Bothwell; while the Regent and the Cardinal were but a short distance away with a larger force, so that it was vain to resist. Ormiston, however, refused to yield up Wishart, till Bothwell pledged his honour to protect his life from the Cardinal’s hatred; or, if he should find that to be impracticable, to restore him again to the protection of his friends. But the Cardinal and the Queen-dowager persuaded Bothwell to violate his pledge, and Wishart was carried to St Andrews and left there a prisoner in the power of his deadly foe.
While the Cardinal was summoning together his prelatic council, that he might with the utmost pomp proceed to the destruction of his victim, David Hamilton of Preston endeavoured to persuade the Regent not to consent to the death of so distinguished a servant of God. The Regent yielded so far as to write to the Cardinal not to precipitate the trial of Wishart till he should himself come to St Andrews. The Cardinal haughtily returned this answer: “He wrote not to the governor as though he depended in any measure upon his authority, but out of a desire he had that the heretic’s condemnation might proceed with a show of public consent, which since he could not obtain, he would himself do that which he held most fitting”.
He proceeded accordingly to give orders that Wishart should be summoned to trial and marched in state to the Abbey Church, accompanied by the Archbishop of Glasgow and a great number of bishops, abbots and other clerical dignitaries, and attended by a large body of retainers in military array. The sub-prior, John Winram, by the Cardinal’s command, preached a sermon on the nature of heresy, but expressed in such guarded terms that it gave no countenance to the ruthless deed about to be perpetrated. Then John Lauder, a priest, rose up and, entering fully into the spirit of the Cardinal, began, in a strain of the coarsest and most ferocious invective, to list 18 articles of accusation against Wishart. He answered them all calmly and mildly, but with great strength of reasoning, giving full proof of all his opinions from the Scriptures. He was, nevertheless, condemned by the unanimous voice of the assembled Popish prelates and clergy. He was sentenced to be burned to death as a heretic on the following day.
Wishart passed the night in the room of the captain of the castle, occupying the greater part of it in prayer. Early next morning, 2 March 1546, after refusing to speak with two friars who had been sent to hear his confession, he requested to converse with Winram, the sub-prior. Winram came immediately and, after some private conversation, returned to the Cardinal to request that the sacrament might be given to the prisoner. This was refused; but being invited by the captain to breakfast with him, Wishart prayed, exhorted and distributed bread and wine to those who were present – thus commemorating, as fully as circumstances would permit, the dying love of Him for whose sake he was himself so soon to die. He then retired to his private apartment, and remained in prayer till they came who were appointed to take him to the place of execution. They took off his usual attire, clothed him with a loose garment of black linen and fastened bags of gunpowder to various parts of his body. He was then conducted to an outer room near the gate of the castle, to wait there till the rest of the hideous preparations should be completed.
In the meantime, the Cardinal had commanded a stake to be fixed in the ground and combustible materials to be piled around it, in front of one of the castle gates, near the priory. And lest Wishart’s friends should attempt a rescue, he had also given directions that all the cannons and other ordnance of the castle should be pointed at the place of execution. The battlements and windows of a tower of the castle were hung with tapestry and spread with rich cushions, that the Cardinal and the prelates might, in state and at their ease, feast their eyes on the torments of the martyred servant of the Lord.
All things being now prepared, Wishart was led to the stake, with his hands bound behind his back, a rope round his neck, and an iron chain about his waist. When he reached the spot, he kneeled down and prayed aloud, saying thrice, “O Thou Saviour of the world, have mercy on me! Father of heaven, I commend my spirit into Thy holy hands!” He then rose and addressed the people, exhorting them not to be offended with the Word of God, notwithstanding the torments which they saw prepared for him. He entreated them to accept, believe and obey the Word of God and expressed entire forgiveness of his enemies and persecutors. Then the executioner, casting himself upon his knees before the martyr, begged to be forgiven for the deed he was unwillingly about to do. Wishart desired him to come near him and kissed his cheek, saying, “Lo, here is a token that I forgive thee; my heart, do thine office!”
The sounding of a trumpet gave the signal; the martyr was tied to the stake, and the fire was kindled around him, exploding the gunpowder but not putting an end to his sufferings. The captain perceiving him still alive, drew near the pile, and bade him be of good courage. Wishart replied with an unfaltering voice, “This fire torments my body, but no way abates my spirit”. Then looking towards the Cardinal, he said, “He who in such state from that high place feedeth his eyes with my torments, within [a] few days shall be hanged out at the same window, to be seen with as much ignominy as he now leaneth here in pride”. As he ended these words, the executioner tightened the rope that was about his neck; and the fire now blazing fiercely, he was speedily consumed to ashes. Thus died George Wishart, one of the most amiable, eloquent and truly pious men that ever endured the tortures of Christian martyrdom and obtained its crown.