Which hath been hid from us long time God wait,
Untill this time: But after my conceit,

Had Sainct HIEROME been borne into ARGYLE,
In IRISH tongue his Books had done compyle.

Prudent Saint PAUL doth make narration,
Touching the diverse Leedes of every Land,
Saying there have been more edification
In five words, that folk do understand,
Then to pronounce of words ten thousand,
In strange language, and knows not what it means;
I think such pratling is not worth two preans.

Unlearned people on the holy day,
Solemnedly they hear the Evangell sung,
Not knowing what the priest doth sing or say,
But as a Bell when that they hear it rung,
Yet would the Priests in their mother tongue,
Passe to the Pulpet and that doctrine declare,
To Laicke people, it were more necessare.

I would that Prelates and Doctors of the Law,
With Laicke people were not discontent,
Though we into our vulgar tongue did knaw,
Of Christ Jesus the Law and Testament.
And how that we should keep commandement,
But in our language let us pray and read,
Our PATER NOSTER, AVE, and our CREED.

I would some Prince of great discretion,
In vulgar language plainly causde translate
The needful Lawes of this Region:

Then would there not be halfe so great debate
Among us people of the low estate.

If every man the verity did knaw,

We needed not to treat these men of Law:

To do our neighbour wrong, we would beware,
If we did fear the Lawes punishment:
There would not be such brawling at the Bar,
Nor men of Law clime to such Royal rent,
To keep the Law: if all men were content,
And each man do, as he would be done to,
The Judges would get little thing adoe.

The Prophet DAVID King of Israel,
Compylde the pleasant Psalmes of the Psalter,
In his own proper tongue, as I here tell :
And SOLOMON which was his Son and Haire,
Did make his Book into his tongue vulgar:
Why should not their sayings be to us shown
In our language, I would the cause were known.

Let Doctors write their curious questions,
And arguments sown full of sophistrie :
Their Logick, and their high opinions,
Their dark judgements of Astronomie,
Their Medicine, and their Philosophie,
Let Poets shew their glorious engine,
As ever they please, in Greek or in Latine.

But let us have the books necessare,
To Common-wealth, and our Salvation :
Justly translated in our tongue vulgare,
And eke I make you supplication,

O gentle Reader, have none indignation,
Thinking to meddle with so high matter,
Now to my purpose forward will I fare." 56

Some attempts were likewise made to introduce among the clergy and the higher ranks of the laity, the study of the Original Languages of the Scriptures. In 1534, John Erskine, of Dun, brought a learned man from France, and employed him to teach Greek, in Montrose; and upon his removal, liberally encouraged others to come from France and succeed to his place. From this private seminary, many Greek scholars proceeded, and the knowledge of the language was gradually diffused over the kingdom. At this school, George Wishart probably obtained his acquaintance with that language; and was employed as one of the teachers. But William Chisholm, bishop of Brechin, hearing that Wishart taught the Greek New Testament, summoned him to appear before him, on a charge of heresy, upon which he fled the kingdom, in 1538, and remained abroad till 1544; when he returned to Scotland, but very soon fell a prey to the snares of Cardinal Beaton, and suffered death as a martyr, at St. Andrews. The celebrated reformer, John Knox, is supposed to have studied Greek under him.

(56) Lindsay's Monarchie, B. i. The copy from which I have extracted the above is a small octavo, printed in the Gothic letter. It is not paged; and having lost the title-page, I cannot ascertain the place where printed, nor the date; but it appears to have been printed in England, both from the form of the type, and the anglicised orthography.

The Hebrew language was not taught in Scotland till many years afterwards, when it was introduced by Mr. John Row, minister of Perth, who being a native of Scotland, was invested with the character of nuncio, or legate, by Pope Paul IV. and sent, in 1558, to oppose the progress of the Reformation; but having detected a pretended miracle, was induced to examine the Scriptures, and subsequently to embrace the protestant sentiments. His son, who was afterwards minister of Charnock, was taught the Hebrew alphabet at four or five years of age, before he knew the letters of his native tongue; and his grandson, who was Principal of King's College, Old Aberdeen, published in 1634, the first Hebrew grammar in the English tongue; and a second edition, with a Hebrew vocabulary, in 1644. All three bore the name of John.57

upon

The endeavours of the Scottish reformers to disseminate the truth, and render the Scriptures more generally known and understood, met with the most determined opposition; and persecution exercised its fatal cruelties the reformers themselves. Patrick Hamilton, an amiable youth of royal descent, and considerable learning and eloquence, was the first who fell a sacrifice in Scotland. He was burnt at the stake, at Glasgow, with circumstances of peculiar barbarity, A. D. 1527. In 1530, Henry Forrest, another young man of learning, suffered at St. Andrews, for possessing a copy of the New Testament, and affirming that Patrick Hamilton was a true martyr. And beside many others, Sir John Borthwick was accused of entertaining and propagating heretical opinions, and dispersing heretical books, among which, the New Testament in English was enumerated first. Having escaped to England, he was declared an obsti

(57) M'Crie's Life of Knox, I. p. 6; notes pp. 342-345.

Scott's Lives of the Protestant Reformers in Scotland, pp. 3, 158. 195, 196.

nate heretic, and sentenced to be burnt, as soon as he could be apprehended: all persons were prohibited to entertain him, under the pain of excommunication; and all goods and estates confiscated; and his effigy to be burnt at the market cross. This was in 1540.59

The death of James V. in December, 1542, proved a fortunate event to the cause of religion. The Earl of Arran, who was appointed regent, had been favourable to the doctrines of the Reformation, and was soon surrounded with counsellors who were of the same principles. He chose for his chaplains, preachers who had embraced the protestant opinions; one of whom, whose name was Thomas Guillaume, or Williams, was the honoured instrument of first enlightening, by his sermons, the mind of the great Scottish reformer, John Knox, and "is said to have translated the New Testament into the vulgar language." These auspicious circumstances were rendered still more favourable, by a proposal of marriage from Henry VIII. who eagerly pressed an union between his son Edward and the young queen of Scots. The Scottish parliament agreed to the match; commissioners were sent into England to settle the terms; and the contract of marriage was drawn out, subscribed, and ratified by all parties. But these fair appearances were soon blasted, through the intrigues of Cardinal Beaton and the Queen-mother, the fickleness and timidity of the Regent, and the violence of the English monarch. The treaty of marriage was broken off; the regent renounced connection with England, and publicly abjured the reformed religion in the church of Stirling; and the young queen was soon after betrothed to the dauphin of France, and sent into that kingdom.

The Reformation had, however, made considerable progress during the short time that it had been patronised

(58) Henry's Hist. of Great Britain, B. vi. pp. 119, 120. 125, 126. Fox, II. p. 613.

M'Crie's Life of Knox, I. pp. 28, 29; notes p. 353:

by the regent. In the month of March, 1543, an act of parliament had been made and published, declaring it lawful for every person to read the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue. This act, which was opposed by the bishops, who protested against it, was signally serviceable to the cause of religion. Formerly it had been reckoned a crime to look on the sacred books; now to read them was safe, and even the way to honour. "Then," says Knox, "might have been seen the Bible lying on almost every gentleman's table. The New Testament was borne about in many men's hands. The knowledge of God did wonderfully increase, and he gave his Holy Spirit to simple men in great abundance." Such had been the zeal even of the regent, that he had been induced by it to apply to Sir Ralph Sadler, the English ambassador, "to write into England for some Bibles, in English.""

After the abjuration of the Earl of Arran, the regent, and the re-advancement of Cardinal Beaton to power, the spread of the principles of the Reformation was for several years considerably checked, till, by the intrepidity of the celebrated John Knox, and other undaunted advocates of Gospel liberty and truth, the sentiments of the Reformers were publicly avowed, and the reformed church of Scotland obtained the sanction of the government. Suspending, therefore, for the present, our enquiries into the state of Biblical knowledge in Scotland, our views are directed to FRANCE, a country at that period intimately connected with it.

The French translations of this period were of two classes; the first of them consisting of revised editions of Guiars des Moulins's version of Comestor's Historia Scholastica; the other, of translations from either the Latin Vulgate, or the original texts. Of the former, Le Long

(59) M'Crie's Life of Knox, I. pp. 39, 40.

Scott's Lives of the Reformers, pp. 22, 23. 96.
Beloe's Anecdotes of Literature, II. p. 328.