Another human voice was now demanded; but where shall one be found? Campbell, the prior of the order of St. Dominic, or the Black Friars, had betrayed this heroic young man, and who so proper to speak next, as a brother of the same fraternity? The Friar who had been appointed to preach throughout Lent, in the Cathedral itself, it might seem far too much to expect, but in truth it was no other! He was the first to sound again the trumpet of truth, and that almost immediately after the Martyr had gone to receive his crown. Opening his lips, they found he was no other than what they denominated a heretic! Standing on the very spot where the murderers had sat in judgment, this, as the prophet once expressed it, was as if "the stone had cried out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber had answered it." Nor was the preacher himself, from his official character, less remarkable. The Archbishop, as well as all under his authority, were afraid to touch him, he being actually the Father Confessor of the King himself that King whom Beaton had not consulted, and who had therefore not consented to the counsel or deed of these bloody men. This was Friar ALEXANDER SETON, brother of Ninian Seton, or Seytoun of Touch.

In discharging his duty, and following the example of his deeply lamented predecessor, Seton now saw that in the truth itself, there was enough to convict all its enemies, and produce dismay; and that no wise man will ever commence his labours by merely attacking superstition, or pulling at prejudices, as he would at a cart-rope; an egregious mistake, into which many have since fallen. Taking for his subject the law of God itself, Seton insisted much on the following points

"That the Law of God is the only rule of righteousness; that if God's Law be not violated, no sin is committed; that it is not in man's power to satisfy for sin; that the forgiveness of sin is no otherwise obtained than by unfeigned repentance and true faith, apprehending the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. Of purgatory, pilgrimage, prayer to saints, of merits and miracles, the usual subjects of the friar's sermons, not a word he spake." 10

It is remarkable that he should have been permitted to repeat his sentiments; but having been appointed to preach during Lent, this, together with his official character, may have been his safeguard, until he had given his auditory line

10 Spottiswood, fourth edit., p. 64.

upon line, and proof after proof. About the end of that season, however, having occasion to go northward to Dundee, he was there informed that a friar of his own order had been set up to refute his doctrine. He then returned to St. Andrews, and the King's Confessor, not to be resisted, confirmed his former positions, adding, from Scripture, the qualifications required for a good and faithful bishop.

This last subject could not be passed over, and soon brought him before the Archbishop; but he, knowing Seton to be of a bold spirit, dissembled his anger. Upon another martyrdom he dared not venture so soon, a negative testimony to the power of Hamilton's death; nor could the Primate resolve upon trying any expedient, except that of first undermining Seton's character in the estimation of the young King. This was easily effected, and very soon after. Poor young prince! His natural powers were of no inferior order, but these men, whether nobility or clergy, had allowed him to grow up in a state of comparative ignorance, and of self-indulgence, even to licentiousness the nobility, that they might rule him as a puppet, which his high spirit could not endure; the clergy, that he might one day fall into their hands, and move only in subservience to their designs. Now, at this very period a crisis had arrived, of the King's emancipation from the one party, and his falling under bondage to the other. His Highness had groaned from day to day under the iron yoke of the Earl of Angus, who, supported by the influence of England, was the absolute governor of the nation still, though James had been crowned in 1525. Next year the King had applied to some of his nobles to relieve him from bondage, and hence the battle of Linlithgow in 1526. On the watch ever after, at last, on the 22d or 23d of May 1528, he himself dexterously succeeded, by his escape from Falkland to the castle of Stirling; soon after which Angus and the Douglas party were overcome and banished." In part indebted for his escape to Archbishop Beaton, at this moment the young monarch must have been ready to listen to whatever he said, and hence it was no difficult task to destroy all respect for Seton; while this was rendered still more easy, not only from his having been the Confessor of his Highness in the wearisome days of his thral

11 Gov. State Papers, vol. iv. Tytler. Pitcairn's Criminal Trials.

dom, but because Seton, much to his credit, had warned him respecting his licentiousness.

From what had happened in February, and observing the confidence or respect of the monarch to be on the decline, Seton well knew what must ultimately await him, and seeing no safety on the spot, he fled to Berwick. From thence, however, he wrote to his royal master, a faithful letter, warning him of the men under whose influence he had now fallen. He here explained that the authority of the Bishops, and by no means that of his Highness, was what he dreaded.

They behaved, he said, as kings, and would not allow any man of whatever state or degree, if once they pronounced him to be an heretic, to speak in his own defence. Nevertheless, if he might but have audience before the king, he now offered to return and justify his cause. Like a faithful adviser, he then informed James, that in duty he ought to see that every subject accused of his life, should be allowed to use his lawful defences; since the Prelates held that such matters did not fall under the cognizance of the Prince, and if only once heard, he would demonstrate the contrary by their own laws. He then besought his Highness not to be led any longer by their informations, but to use the authority committed to him by God, and not to suffer these tyrants to proceed against him, till brought to his answer. This he would not refuse to give, if once assured of the safety of his life.12

At Berwick he waited for some reply, but waited in vain. Before this time Angus had been banished, and his estates forfeited; Dunbar, Archbishop of Glasgow, had been appointed Chancellor in August, as his successor, and Beaton, though not yet in power, had been recalled to the Council by the end of November.13 Seton, therefore, retired into England, where he became chaplain to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. As if to show how equally balanced the two countries, England and Scotland were, with regard to their progress in Divine truth; about thirteen years after, or in 1541, Seton was called before Stephen Gardiner, and examined, but denied not any point which he had formerly taught. He even continued to preach the truths with which he had been charged, and died, it has been said, next year, or 1542.

14

In the meanwhile, or before the close of 1528, it is pleasing

12 See the letter in Keith's History, Appendix, which has been expressly affirmed to be dated in 1528. Several historians may have led their readers astray by saying, that all this occurred in the Lent following. No doubt, the greater part of Lent followed, as Hamilton died on the third day after its commencement. Keith has accurately marked the time by saying "Divers of the religious themselves did from that time forward declaim-and particularly in that Lentone Seton, brother of Ninian Seton."

13 Gov. State Papers, iv., pp. 476, 540.

14 Foxc.

to find any information whatever, bearing on the Scriptures, and their continued importation. The friars now were more busy everywhere than they had ever been, since friars were in fashion. The reader may recollect of one, under our history as to England, Friar John West. Earnestly charged, by Wolsey, with dispatches to Counsellor Herman Rincke of Cologne; their united efforts were to be employed in the apprehension of Tyndale himself, and of William Roye, once his amanuensis; or, at all events, their books. With regard to the men they entirely failed, but a number of what Rincke calls" their books," he had found out and secured. These must have included copies of the New Testament, as well as Roye's celebrated Satyre on the Cardinal, a personal affair, which the latter so deeply resented. One short passage in Rincke's reply to Wolsey, dated the 4th of October 1528, and sent by West, deserves to be repeated here—

"But these books, unless I had found them out and interposed, must have been pressed together with parchment, and concealed; and enclosed in packages, artfully covered over with flax, they would in time, without any suspicion, have been transmitted by sea, into Scotland and England, as to the same place; and would have been sold as merely clean paper; but as yet, few or none of those, carried away and sold, have been found."

Here then we have distinct mention of a continued traffic going on, and of one of the asserted methods of transit, for there must have been various; nor is it less worthy of repetition, that the Jews are to be supposed as having had some concern in these importations, whether "to Scotland or England, as to the same place.”15

SECTION III.

FROM 1529 TO 1534-ALL-IMPORTANT PERIOD, HITHERTO UNNOTICEDALEXANDER ALES-CRUELLY PERSECUTED BY HEPBURN, THE PRIOR OF ST. ANDREWS-AT LAST ESCAPES BY SEA, FROM DUNDEE, FIRST TO FRANCE, AND THEN TO GERMANY-HIS EPISTLE ADDRESSED TO JAMES V.; OR THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE FIRST REGULAR CONTROVERSY IN

15 Cotton MS. Vitellius, B. xxi., fol. 43. Thus Scotland is once more mentioned to Wolsey; but the entire letter is well worthy of perusal, and specially on account of some connexion which the Jews had with these importations. See the letter, for this and other particulars, in our English history, anno 1528, vol. i., pp. 203-204.

BRITAIN RESPECTING THE SCRIPTURES PRINTED IN THE VULGAR TONGUE -THE ABUSIVE PUBLICATION OF COCHLEUS PROFESSEDLY IN REPLYTHE REPRESENTATIONS OF ALES CONFIRMED BY THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY, AND THE SECOND MARTYRDOM-ANSWER OF ALES TO THE CALUMNIES OF COCHLEUS-ALES PLEADS, MOST EARNESTLY, FOR THE NEW TESTAMENT TO BE READ-BUT ESPECIALLY IN FAMILIES-EXTOLS DIVINE REVELATION, AND AS TO BE FOUND IN THE ENGLISH VERSION NOW IMPORTING COCHLEUS, QUITE ENRAGED, ADDRESSES JAMES V.AND IS REWARDED-HAD MENDACIOUSLY AVERRED THAT THE WRITINGS OF ALES PROCEEDED FROM MELANCTHON-THE PERSECUTIONS AND MARTYRDOMS OF 1534 AGAIN CONFIRM THE STATEMENTS OF ALES-WHO IS NOW STANDING BY HIMSELF ALONE IN DEFENCE OF THE TRUTH.

E are now arrived at a very memorable period in the history of Scotland. It involves a space of five years, from the year 1529 to 1534 inclusive, and yet it has been treated by all our historians as a sort of chasm, or calm in the annals of persecution. No author has informed us that there was, at such a time, one fragment of distinct information in existence, respecting the Sacred Volume; its importation into the country; its being bought, or sold, and read by the people; or that such reading was being so bitterly opposed. This is the more surprising, since, upon this subject, it forms one of the most interesting periods in the early history of the entire Island. Commencing seven years before Henry the Eighth had decidedly broken off from Rome, and while both the South and North were still under the dominant power of "the old learning;" yet was it the season of the first regular controversy in Britain, though carried on with Scotland, respecting the Sacred Volume in our native language; as well as the undoubted right of every one "both low and high, rich and poor together," to read the Scriptures for themselves.

This topic has formed the frequent or fruitful source of eulogy long since, and down to the present hour, as one of the highest arguments which can occupy the pen or tongue of man, for a greater has never engaged the attention of mankind; and yet, strange to say, the first individual who argued the point, and so ably led the van, has been as much overlooked, as Tyndale himself, the original translator, and even more so. How it has happened that, above all other men, he has been overshadowed, who first contended with his own mo