Presented to the
LIBRARY of the
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
IN MEMORY OF
MAY V. LABRIE
A SCOTTISH KNIGHT-ERRANT
YEN. JOHN OGILVIK, S.J,
/•><>/// a fliifior in the GY.wV at A'o
.
A SCOTTISH
KNIGHT- ERR ANT
A SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND TIMES
OF JOHN OGILVIE, JESUIT
BY
F. A. FORBES AND M. CAHILL
LONDON
BURNS GATES & WASHBOURNE LTD.
28 ORCHARD STREET, 8-10 PATERNOSTER ROW,
W.i E.C, 4
AND AT MANCHESTER, BIRMINGHAM, AND GLASGOW
" But I ride over the moors, for the dusk still hides
and waits,
That hrims my soul with the glow of the rose that
ends the Quest."
JOHN MASKFIELP.
Preface
UP till very recent times ordinary readers
derived their whole knowledge of the history
of the Catholic Church in Scotland from the
writings of Knox, Buchanan, Spottiswoode, Calder-
wood, and others of the same school, and from their
modern disciples, imitators, and borrowers. In
these works, written from a notoriously Protestant
standpoint, the Catholic religion and everything
and everybody connected with it were, naturally,
painted in the blackest colours. It is little wonder,
therefore, that the Scottish people in general, knowing
of the Catholic Church, its clergy and its defenders,
before and after the Reformation, only from such
sources, should have devoutly thanked God that
they had been delivered from Popery and all its
works and pomps.
More recently, however, through the painstaking
labours of independent and fair-minded Protestant
scholars, as well as by the very useful work done by
Catholic writers, this perversion of history is being
exposed, and people — at least those who think and
read — are seeing things in a new light. They are
beginning to view the religion of their forefathers,
and its work and influence upon the nation, with
more favourable eyes; the more they read about it
in reliable authorities, the more good they will see
in it, and the more they will realize that they have
been deceived into a rash and erroneous judgment.
Preface
A modest but effective contribution towards this
enlightening process is found in the present volume,
which we trust will come into the hands of many
non-Catholics in Scotland. They will read in it a
charming account of the heroic life and sufferings of
a fellow-countryman of their own who refused to
render to Caesar the things that were God's, and died
for his refusal. Not many, so far as we can learn,
were actually put to death in Scotland for the Faith;
but John Ogilvie, S.J., was certainly one of them.
That he was hanged for no other cause came out so
clearly at his trial that the attempts of his judges
to represent him as suffering for the civil crime of
treason appear singularly fatuous. He stands
worthily alongside the Martyrs in England, where the
same methods were employed to secure condemnation
and death.
May the prayers of the venerable servant of God
avail, in sweet revenge, to obtain for his countrymen
the knowledge of the truth and a share of his courage
to embrace the Faith for which he died.
• HENRY G. GRAHAM.
VI
Contents
PART I
THE BATTLE-GROUND
CHAPTER PAGE
I. SCOTLAND'S SORROWS ... 3
II. THE PARLIAMENT OF 1560 . . . ,17
III. KING, KIRK, AND BISHOPS .... 30
PART II
THE CONFLICT
I. THE BOYHOOD OF JOHN OGILVIE . . 45
II. ON THE MISSION . .63
III. THE ARREST ... . . 74
IV. THE FIRST EXAMINATION . . . 87
V. EDINBURGH — THE TORTURK . . . .97
VI. THE RETURN TO GLASGOW . . . .109
VII. THE TRIAL . . . . . .123
VIII. THE LAST SCENE . 135
vii
CHAPTER I : Scotland's
Sorrows
IT was the fate of Scotland, during the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries, to drink to the dregs of
that cup of woe allotted by the prophet to the
nation " whose king is a child." Every one of her
Sovereigns, from the First James to the Sixth,
ascended the throne a minor, and for a century and
a half the country groaned under Regent after Regent.
As time went on the ruling power passed more and
more into the hands of the nobles, who were neither
slow to seek it nor scrupulous as to the means em
ployed to secure it. There was continual strife
between the great families for the possession of the
person of the young monarch, in which, as they well
knew, lay their best title to supremacy. King after
King, as he came of age, entered on the weary struggle
to regain possession of the power lost during his
minority. The nobles, though at continual feud with
each other, and mutually mistrustful, united as one
man when an attack on any of their number seemed
to threaten the power of all. Scotland was torn
asunder, now by the faction fights of contending
barons, now by the desperate struggle between nobles
and King. " In that mournful procession of the five
Jameses there is no break. The last of them is engaged
in the old task, and failing as his forbears failed. It
is picturesque; sometimes it is heroic; often it is
pathetic, but it is never modern. Modern history
3
A Scottish Knight-Errant
sees it as a funeral procession and is silent while it
passes."1
But that sad procession of Stuart Kings must be
closely studied if the trend of the Reformation in
Scotland is to be understood. During these long
minorities the nobles made of Scotland one great
battlefield, only forgetting their deadly feuds to unite
against their Sovereign when, snatching his sceptre
from the hands of those who would have still kept him
in tutelage, he began his uneasy reign. Well did he
know from experience how little trust he could place
in the men ^vho surrounded his throne. There
was one body alone which could be relied upon
if the balance of power was to be preserved, and
that was the Church. To the Church therefore
he turned to find the support, the advice, and
the able friends he needed. What wonder if in
gratitude for loyal service rendered, King after
King should endow the Church with rich gifts and
royal patronage !
Now, whereas the Church lands were free from
taxation and her retainers exempt from military
duty, while the estates of the nobles were continually
burnt and harried by their enemies, or left unculti
vated during the frequent faction fights, it is not
surprising that the broad acres of the Church, care
fully tended by the unpaid labour of the monks,
prospered accordingly.
But as the Church grew in wealth, prosperity, and
influence, a seed of evil within her, incidental to the
times and to the conditions of the country, began to
manifest itself. Unnoticed at first and unchecked,
1 " Cambridge Modern History."
4
Scotland's Sorrows
the evil grew until the whole body was infected with
its poison.
Circumstances had tended to make the Church in
Scotland monastic rather than parochial. Of the
1,000 parishes — perhaps more — into which Scotland
was divided at the time of the Reformation, about
700 were held by the monasteries. The Abbey
of Arbroath alone drew the revenues of 33 parishes,
Paisley of 29, Dumfermline of 37. The Abbot,
however, was bound to keep the parish church
in repair, to look after the spiritual welfare of the
people, or to send one of his monks to undertake
these duties. Much, therefore, depended on the
Abbots; as long as the great abbeys were governed
by men whose sole aim and object was the religious
well-being of the people, all went well, while, given
Churchmen of lower ideals, the way was open for
great abuses.
The secular power, as we have seen, was generally in
the hands of the nobles, who, becoming aware of the
wealth of the Church, determined to use it for their
own ends. Kings and barons, seeking a secure
income for younger or illegitimate sons, were not
slow to 'see the advantage of preferring them to a
rich benefice, and it became a common thing to find
mere boys, wholly unlettered and incapable, ful
filling the office of primates, or men who had not even
received Holy Orders bringing shame on the body
to which they professed to belong. These intruders,
prelates in name only, too frequently discharged
no prelatical function save that of drawing the
revenues they had coveted. When James IV. fell
on Flodden Field, his illegitimate son, a mere boy,
5
A Scottish Knight- Err ant
although already Archbishop of St. Andrews,
fought beside him. His other natural sons had also
been appointed to vacant abbacies. In certain of
the dioceses a kind of family claim seems even to have
been staked out, one member after another succeeding
to the see.1 There was no thought of the responsi
bility of such a position, no trouble as to fitness
for the office, no question as to holiness of life.
Money had to be secured, and this was an easy way
of securing it. It is hardly surprising that clerics
such as these thought chiefly of their own ease and
comfort and the wealth necessary to secure both.
If the vicar of one of the parishes in their charge died,
so much the better — the stipend he earned passed
into the pocket of the prelate; if the churches needed
repair, they might wait for it. The results were just
what might have been expected: churches fell into
ruin, children were uninstructed, the Sacraments
were not administered. A generation of people
grew up in almost absolute ignorance of their Faith;
ready to receive any kind of spiritual teaching, they
listened eagerly to the Lollards and Lutherans, who
were already promoting their doctrines in Scotland.
The monasteries suffered also, for if it is hard for a
fervent community, ruled by a wise and holy superior,
to uphold the high ideals of the religious life, what
was to be expected when the Abbot was a courtier
or a man of worldly mind whose only thought was
his own enjoyment ?
It is not surprising that in these neglected parishes
and monasteries the new doctrines began very soon
1 Thus we find a succession of Stuarts in St. Andrews, of Hcpburns
in Elgin, and of Gordons in Aberdeen.
6
Scotland's Sorrows
to gain ground. Many of the followers of Wycliffe,
who had been driven from England, made their way
to Scotland, where they found a fruitful field in
which to plant the seed of Protestantism. The people,
hungry for any kind of religious teaching, accepted
what was presented to them as the truth, and the
Church, through the turpitude of her ministers, lost
the flock that these faithless shepherds had failed to
feed. The work went on slowly and in silence.
Early in the sixteenth century, in certain districts
in the west, and in Dundee and the surrounding
country, where an English garrison occupied Broughty
Castle, numbers of people were slowly but steadily
adopting the doctrines that Luther and Calvin were
propagating so zealously in other lands.
A section of the clergy, however, who had the
interests of the Church at heart, becoming aware
of the danger, " voiced their opinion outspokenly,"
as we are told by the anonymous priest-author of the
" Complaynt of Scotland." " No statutes of banish
ing or burning," he affirms, " will bring the schism
to an end till the clergy remove their abuses."
Ninian Winzet, a brave and zealous priest, as
learned as he was gentle, " expellit and shott out
of his kindly town " for refusing to adopt the new
doctrines, speaks in like manner. " All may laugh,"
he declares, " at the godly and circumspect distri
bution of benefices to your babes, ignorant men
. . . that being the special ground of all impiety and
division within ye, O Scotland. . . . Were not
the Sacraments of Christ Jesus profaned by ignorant
and wicked persons, neither able to persuade to
godliness by their learning nor their living ?"
7
A Scottish Knight- Err ant
1 The abbeys came to secular abuses," says another
writer of the time, "the Abbots and priors being
from the court, who lived court-like, secularly and
voluptuously. . . . Thus the seculars, temporal
men, being slandered with their evil example, fell
from all devotion and godliness."1
Quintin Kennedy, Abbot of Crossraguel, in his plea
for reform, is still more outspoken. " If a benefice
is vacant the great men of the realm will have it for
temporal reward," he says, " and when they have
got the benefice, if they have a brother or a son,
nourished in vice all his days ... he shall at once
be mounted on a mule, with a side-gown and a round
bonnet, and then it is question whether he or his
mule knows best how to do his office. . . . What
wonder is it when such personages are chosen to have
Christ's flock in guiding that the simple people be
wicked. . . . Thou mayst daily see a bairn or a
babe, to whom scarcely wouldst thou give a fair
apple to keep, get perchance 5,000 souls to guide;
and all for avarice, that their parents may get the
profits of the benefice. . . . The poor, kindly people,
so dearly bought by the blood and death of Jesus
Christ, perish, the Church is slandered, God is dis
honoured, all heresies, wickedness, and vice reign."2
Thus the Churchmen of the day, or at least the faith
ful few who remained true to the ideals and the teach
ing of the Church.
But Kennedy goes on to point out that it is to
the rulers of the Church alone, even if they be vicious,
1 Leslie, Bishop of Ross, " History of Scotland."
2 Compendious Tractive, " Wodrow's Miscellany," vol. i., pp. 89-
8
Scotland's Sorrows
that supreme authority belongs, for, like the scribes
and Pharisees, " they have sitten in the seat of
Moses." It is they who must begin the much-
needed reforms; it is not for everyone on his own
account to be " correctors of the same abuses."1
Although approbation from Rome was still sought
for appointments to benefices and bishoprics, Rome
was far distant and the difficulties of communication
great. If the candidate proposed was reported to
possess all the desirable qualifications for the office
in question, there would seem to be no reason for
doubting the fact. When the news at last reached
Rome of the true condition of affairs, a Legate was
at once sent to inquire into the matter, but it was
then too late. The superintendence of morals, of doc
trine, and of the election of prelates, had been almost
altogether neglected, and this at the moment when
the supervision of religious discipline was particularly
necessary, owing to the continual wars, and still more
to the increasing desire for comfort and luxury, and
the growing spirit of criticism due to the Renaissance.
" It has been made known to us that for certain
years back ecclesiastical discipline has been very
much relaxed in Scotland," wrote the Pope some
years before the Reformation. " Ecclesiastical
prelates alienate church property ... to the
Church's loss and in favour of men of power . . .
also that they neglect the fabric of the said churches,
allowing them to fall into ruin and decay . . . that
divers abuses are introduced, and that very many
crimes, iniquities, and scandalous enormities are
committed by various persons of either sex, which
1 Compendious Tractive," Wodrow's Miscellany," vol. i., pp. 89-174.
9
A Scottish Knight- Err ant
give offence to the Divine Majesty, bring shame on the
Christian religion, and cause loss of souls and scandals
to the faithful."1
From every quarter, therefore, from Rome, as
fiom Scotland herself, came the warning against
laxity and the prevailing abuses— abuses that existed
to a certain extent in every part of the civilized
world. It was a time of transition. The outpouring
of the new intellectual life, outcome of the Renais
sance, was full of possibilities for both good and evil.
Men's minds were restless and dissatisfied; traditional
and time-honoured opinions had been attacked by
daring hypotheses, wonderful discoveries had opened
up new vistas never dreamt of before. Intellectual
life pulsed strong, with a new sense of power, albeit
a little dazzled with the brilliance of a new light which
seemed to throw the past into utter darkness. Into
this ferment of energy, of restlessness, of unsatisfied
desire, had come the gradual rediscovery of the
beautiful pagan literature, which, admits a Protestant
writer, the Church had done so well to banish. The
craving for a fuller expression of life here found
a dangerous pasture. " Why preach asceticism ?
Why not follow a gayer philosophy ? Why not
seize on all the joys that life has to offer ?" was the
universal cry. This present life is real and tangible;
all outside of it is but a shadow. But between the
world and this new gospel, with its promise of an
earthly Paradise, stood the austere and authoritative
figure of the traditional Church, pointing to the path
of renunciation and self-denial. " Who has appointed
her judge over us ?" was the next question. " So
1 " Papal Negotiations," Pollen, S.J.
10
Scotland's Sorrows
many things have proved false — why not this too ?"
Athirst for beauty and for joy, men caught wildly
at all the world had to offer; Christian ideals were
forgotten, and the seeds of the pagan corruption
that lay hidden beneath the beauty of the pagan
literature began to bear bitter fruit. The canker,
widespread among the laity, crept slowly into
the Church; worldliness and love of pleasure
fought with and in many cases overcame the
high ideals that she has always upheld before
the world, although no one knows better than she
that " we have this treasure in earthen vessels."
The need for reform was evident. No one saw
it more clearly than those who were Churchmen
in the best sense of the word. Again and again from
wise and holy men in every country came the cry:
" Jerusalem, Jerusalem, return unto the Lord thy
God." The tide of true reform — reform within the
Church herself — which was to culminate in the great
Council of Trent, was already rising. That there
were abuses, and great abuses, must be frankly
acknowledged, yet, says Cardinal Newman, " we
do not feel as a difficulty, on the contrary, we teach
as a doctrine, that there are scandals in the Church.
Though deplorable in themselves, they avail nothing
as an argument against the Church herself, for they
are the outcome of the weakness of the human element
in her members, and in nowise the result of her
teaching and dogmas. The greater the scandals, the
more overwhelming they appear, the more do we
see that only a Church divinely appointed and
guided could have lived through and beyond them."
14 Were I Pope," says Sir Thomas More, writing at
ii
A Scottish Knight- Err ant
the very time of the Reformation, " I could not well
devise better provisions than by the laws of the
Church are provided already, if they were as well kept
as they are well made."
The state of affairs in Scotland was recognized as
early as 1541, when an Act was passed calling on
" every kirkman in his awn degree to reform their-
selves," stringent laws against heresy being passed
at the same time. During the following years we
find the Parliament imposing penalties on all who
neglected Sunday Mass, who played or behaved
irreverently in church, or who ate meat on Fridays
or on fast-days in Lent. Provincial Councils of the
clergy met comparatively frequently; the state of
many of the kirkmen was openly deplored and the
neglect of preaching condemned, though it was
frankly recognized that not a few of the clergy
were incapable of preaching even the simplest
sermon. To meet this difficulty it was decided to
issue a little book, famous later as Archbishop
Hamilton's Catechism. It contained a full exposition
of religious doctrine, and was to be read to the people
for half an hour every Sunday, " until God of His
goodness provide a sufficient number of Catholic and
able preachers, which shall be within a few years, as
we trust in God." Laws which tended to internal
reform were also passed and energetic measures
taken. Even then, if the Church could only have acted
independently and unhampered by political intrigue,
Scotland might have been saved to the old Faith, but
the earnest efforts of the clerics who remained true
to the teaching and the spirit of the Catholic Church
were nullified by those bent on her destruction.
12
Scotland's Sorrows
Of one fact there can be no doubt. The Church
was cordially hated by many of the most powerful
families of Scotland, for during the continual struggle
for supremacy between the King and the nobles
she had steadily sided with the King; she had
enemies, therefore, who both feared her power
and coveted her wealth.
During the minority of James V. the kingdom
had been, to all intents and purposes, ruled by the
Douglas family, at which time, according to a Pro
testant historian, " murder, spoliations, and crimes
of various enormity were committed with impunity.
The arm of the law, paralyzed by the power of an
unprincipled faction, did not dare to arrest the
guilty; the sources of justice were corrupted, and
ecclesiastical dignities of high and sacred character
became the prey of daring intruders, or were openly
sold to the highest bidders."1 In 1528, aided by
Archbishop Beaton, the King at last threw off the
yoke. The Douglases, outlawed and banished, fled
to England, where they met with a warm welcome
and found the nobility enriching themselves with the
spoils of that very Church whose chief representative
in Scotland had been the means of bringing about
their downfall. These men, whose fathers had fallen
at Flodden, fighting for the honour of their King,
now became the paid hirelings of his enemy. They
adopted, moreover, the extreme Protestant opinions,
hardly caring what tenets they embraced, so long as
they might find in them a means to endanger the
power which had brought about their ruin. Animated
by this desire, they returned later to scheme and
1 Fraser Tytler, " History of Scotland."
13
A Scottish Knight-Errant
labour in Scotland for this end alone. Had the
Church been strong and her ministers faithful,
they might have schemed in vain, but this was not
the case.
At the death of James V., who left a week-old
infant as heir to the throne, the nobles made a fresh
attempt to get the power into their hands. In this
endeavour Henry VIII. was deeply interested, for if
it were to succeed, these paid men of his could be
depended upon to secure for him, what he of all things
desired, the marriage of his son Edward to the infant
Queen. The plan failed for two reasons: The
" English Lords " were comparatively few in number,
and France desired the baby Princess as a wife for
the Dauphin. Scotland at large, while wholly
distrustful of the " southerner," was on more or
less cordial terms with France. " The whole body
of this realm," writes Sadler, " is inclined to
France, for they do consider and say that France
requireth nothing of them but friendship . . .
whereas, on the other hand, England, they say,
seeketh nothing but to bring them into subjection."1
A decided refusal, therefore, was made to the
demand of Henry, who, furious as usual when his
will was crossed, determined to take by force what
he could not obtain by stratagem. " Burn Edin
burgh," he ordered, " sack and deface it; sack
Holyrood House; burn as many towns and villages
as you conveniently can . . . sack Leith, putting
men, women, and children to fire and sword; turn
the Cardinal's town of St. Andrews upside
down, leaving no creature alive within the same."
i Sadler, State Papers, i. 820.
14
Scotland's Sorrows
Truly, as the Scots themselves said, " a strange
and boisterous wooing." The little Mary was sent
to France for safety, and Henry by his own action
defeated the plans of his pensioners, whose treachery
might have succeeded where his violence failed.
The Queen-Regent, Mary of Guise, was a strong
woman and brave; but, French by birth, her
sympathies were naturally with France, and she
never rightly understood her Scottish subjects.
She was bent on strengthening the alliance between
the two countries by the marriage of her baby
daughter to the young Dauphin. The methods taken
by Henry of England to get the little Princess into
his power had deepened the Scottish hatred of
England and strengthened friendly feelings toward
France, but this state of affairs was completely
reversed by the policy of Mary of Guise and her
brothers. She neglected almost all the Scottish nobles,
sought French advice, and peopled the Scottish towns
with French garrisons, of whose excesses she herself
had often to complain.1 Resentment grew strong
among the people; an interloper is an interloper, be
he French or English, was the thought in many hearts.
' We would die, every mother's son of us, rather than
be subject to England," said a Scots Ambassador,
adding significantly: "Even the like shall you find
us to keep with France." The Regent, however,
failed to see that she was alienating the people;
1 Yet, when the Reformers denounced as ruinous the introduction
of French soldiers and the fortifying of Leith by the Regent, she
could reply with perfect truth that she had not brought in French
men till the Congregation dealt with England, and had seized and
fortified Broughty Castle.
15
A Scottish Knight-Errant
her mind was set on one thing, the marriage of her
daughter with the Dauphin. By this she hoped to
unite the crowns of Scotland, France, and England;
but before the marriage could come about it was
necessary to obtain the consent of the " English
Lords," and to this end Mary of Guise, faithful daughter
of the Church as she considered herself, afl'ected
not to notice their secession from the Faith of their
fathers, and by so doing unwittingly played into
their hands.
The Scots, who would not have been ill-pleased to
see their little Queen Sovereign of England and
France as well as of Scotland, but were by no means
ready to let their country be used as a pawn in French
policy, looked with an ever-deepening mistrust on
the proceedings of the Regent. The national feeling
in Scotland was veering round, especially amongst
the Commons, where the spirit of enmity to France
was daily growing stronger, and in proportion as
their hatred of England diminished, the doctrines
of the English Reformers found a ready hearing.
The " English Lords," moreover, by their description
of what was going on in England and how the lands
and wealth of the Church were falling into the hands
of those who had the strength or the cunning to
secure them, aroused a like spirit of covetousness
in their fellow-peers.1 Thus various currents, weak
as yet in themselves, yet all tending in the same
direction, were flowing rapidly towards the union
which makes for strength.
i In 15-43 the Regent Arran confessed to Sadler that so many
great men were Papists that, unless the sin of covetousness made
them Reformers, he saw no other way in which the Reformation
could be effected (Sadler, State Papers, vol. i.)
16
CHAPTER II: The Parliament
of 1560
IN 1557 the "English Lords," backed up by all
of their fellow-peers whom they could induce to
follow them, united under themselves the various
factions and openly took the lead. In December
of the same year a memorable meeting of the party
resulted in the publication of the first " Covenant,"
by which the " Congregation of Christ," as they
elected to call themselves,1 formally renouncing the
Catholic Church and assuming full power over
ecclesiastical affairs in Scotland, ordered the English
Prayer Book to be used in all parishes and the
Sacraments to be administered in the vulgar tongue.
In those parts of the country where the Lords of the
Congregation had most influence these orders were
actually carried out, neither the Regent nor the
Bishops, apparently, realizing the full import of this
unlawful assumption of ecclesiastical authority. It
seems, indeed, to have been looked upon as merely
one of those periodical outbursts of rebellion which
were so common in Scotland. Mary of Guise, wholly
intent on securing the marriage of her daughter
Mary to the Dauphin of France, and anxious to
conciliate all parties in the State, had little attention
1 ** They still call themselves the Congregation, and that also with
this singular speciality, as being the Congregation of the Lord in
opposition to those of the Church, whom they are pleased to call
4 The Congregation of Sathan ' " (Keith, " History of Church and
State in Scotland")
17 B
A Scottish Knight- Err ant
to spare for other matters. In the April of 1558
she accomplished her end; the long-desired marriage
was celebrated in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in
Paris, the young bride winning all hearts by her
charm and beauty. At the Parliament held in the
November of the same year the Scots consented to
bestow the crown matrimonial on the Dauphin.
Mary of Guise was now at leisure to pay some
attention to what was going on around her. She
saw a kingdom torn in two, and the Lords of the
Congregation, at the head of a numerous and powerful
party, preaching and practising a religion alien to
the Faith of their fathers. The Princess Elizabeth,
whose Protestant leanings were well known, had
succeeded Mary Tudor on the throne of England
and was ready to help them with men and money.
Thoroughly alarmed, the Regent resolved to act, but
it was too late.
The Church, too, had realized the danger. In the
last of the pre-Reformation Councils a commission
was appointed to enforce various much-needed
reforms, including the saying of Mass at least every
Sunday and feast-day; the visitation of monasteries
and the repair of churches. Bishops were com
manded to preach at least four times a year, and
priests likewise, if they were able. If not, they
must either learn to do so or provide a capable
substitute. The nature of the Sacraments was to be
carefully explained to the people, and in order that
this might be done efficaciously, a small leaflet was
drawn up and published, which on account of its
price became known as the " Twapenny Faith."
The Council showed a resolute determination to
18
The Parliament of 1560
get rid, at all costs, of some of the prevalent abuses,
and to enforce reform in the lives of the clergy.
It became clear to those who were unworthy of their
profession that their practices would no longer be
condoned. They must therefore amend their lives
or break with the Church, and Bishop Leslie does
not hesitate to tell us that in many cases they chose
the latter alternative. A new religion was offered
them with fewer obligations and lower ideals. They
threw in their lot with the Reformers, and, increased
by this not very desirable contingent, the Protestant
party swept on to victory.
Mary of Guise, to whom the Church naturally
looked for support, now came forward and issued a
proclamation ordering all to attend Mass regularly,
and summoning the chief Protestant preachers to
appear before a Parliament to be held at Stirling.
It was at this juncture that John Knox appeared
again in Scotland. Returning from Geneva, where
he had retired when the country became somewhat
too hot to hold him, he placed himself at the head of
the summoned preachers, and, accompanied by the
Lords of the Congregation and their followers — no
inconsiderable army — marched to Stirling. The first
halt was at Perth, where one of the leaders, Erskine
of Dun, left the main body and went on alone to
Stirling. The Regent, alarmed at the news of the
approaching army, promised, it is said, to withdraw
all proceedings against the preachers, and on the
strength of this many of the leaders dispersed,
taking their followers with them.1 Mary now de-
1 Knox, who was in Perth, says that the " whole multitude with
their preachers, stayed." Andrew Lang in his " History of Scot-
19
A Scottish Knight-Errant
nounced the preachers as rebels and outlaws. On
this, Knox, who was still in Perth with many of his
party, went to St. John's Church, where he preached
to a large congregation on the " abomination of the
Mass." The fact that as soon as he had finished a
priest came out of the sacristy and began to say
Mass illustrates the extraordinary confusion of
religious ideas at the time. The theories that Knox
had propounded still ringing in their ears, the crowd
began to put theory into practice, and the beautiful
old city of Perth witnessed such scenes as in all its
stormy history it had never known before. One
after another every church and monastery in the
town was visited and robbed. The Charterhouse,
the burial-place of Kings; the Blackfriars monastery,
where Sovereigns had delighted to hold their Court;
the chantries and chapels with their priceless treasures,
were all alike at the mercy of this " rascal multitude,"
who continued their work of destruction all that day,
the ensuing night, and well into the day which fol
lowed. Of the beautiful monasteries and churches
that were the glory of Perth, nought but the ruined
walls were left standing. So began the work of
spoliation in Scotland.
The Regent, who had hastened to Perth, was
obliged to come to terms with the rebels, while
Knox, marching to St. Andrews, where a great
assembly of the Congregation was to be held, destroyed
on his way the churches at Crail, Anstruther, and
Cupar. Arrived at St. Andrews, he preached in the
land " (ii. 49) proves rather conclusively that Mary did not promise
to withdraw ull proceedings against the preachers, but ilatly refused
to do so.
20
The Parliament of 1360
cathedral a fiery sermon on the casting out of the
buyers and sellers from the Temple which so inspired
his hearers that they proceeded on the spot to destroy
the cathedral, the Dominican and the Franciscan
monasteries, and to rifle all the churches in the town.
It was not long before Stirling, Linlithgow, and even
Holyrood shared the same fate.
France, in alarm at the strange tidings, sent troops
to Leith. This aroused the suspicions of Elizabeth,
who had already cause to believe that Mary Stuart,
Queen of Scotland and of France, was aspiring to the
crown of England. From henceforth, seeing in the
rebels her safest bulwark against the Guise ambitions,
she helped them with money and advice.
On the 19th of October the Congregation, taking
possession of Edinburgh, ordered the Regent, who
had fled to Leith, to dismiss all French soldiers from
the country. On her refusal to do so, a large body
of Reformers proceeded to the Market Cross, where
they proclaimed that " we, so many of the nobility,
barons, and provosts as are touched with care of
the common weal, suspend the commission granted
by our Sovereign to the Queen-Dowager."
The Regent was soon besieged in her fortress of
Leith, but the rebels were defeated and driven back
to Stirling. This did not suit the policy of Elizabeth,
who promptly sent an English army and fleet to
assist them. Leith, again besieged, again success
fully resisted the attacking army, but the Regent's
days were numbered, and she knew it. Sick unto
death, worn out and broken-hearted, she returned
to the Castle of Edinburgh and sent for certain of the
Protestant Lords. Having declared to them her
21
A Scottish Knight-Errant
Jove of Scotland and her longing for its peace and
prosperity, she besought them, as the only way to
secure both, to drive out both the French and
English armies, but to be faithful to the old alliance
with France. A few days later she died.
Her advice was partly followed. By the Treaty
of Leith it was agreed that both the French and
English troops should be withdrawn, and that a
Parliament should be held in the following August.
It was indeed a momentous Parliament — if Parlia
ment it was1 — that met on the 1st of August, 1560.
The House was unusually crowded. All the lesser
barons, who had only sat before by special writ,
were present; they were mostly adherents of the new
religion, and it was necessary to secure their presence
if the scale was to be turned in favour of the Congrega
tion. As no commission for the assembly of Parlia
ment had been received from the King and Queen,
many disputed the legality of the meeting, but after
a week spent in hot discussion they were overruled,
and it was decided to proceed to business.2
The Lords of the Articles, whose business it was
to prepare the measures that were to be brought before
the House, were then chosen. " The Lords spiritual
chose the temporal, and the temporal the spiritual;
the burgesses chose their own," says Randolph;
but it was found that the peers had chosen from
among the Lords spiritual only those known to be
1 " The Convention which established the new creed was abso
lutely illegal. This, however, is a matter of mere academic in
terest " (A. Lang, " History of Scotland," ii.).
2 " A parliament, illegally summoned, had changed the religion
of the country and had substituted one series of dogmas for another "
(Rait, " Scotland ").
22
The Parliament of 1560
favourable to the new doctrines. The Bishops
expostulated, but with no result.
Immediately afterwards a petition was presented
begging that the doctrines of the Catholic Church
should be abolished, particularly those of Transub-
stantiation, Purgatory, and the Invocation of Saints.
This document, drawn up with all the coarseness
and indecency of which Knox was such a master, is
pronounced by a Protestant historian to be " difficult
to read without emotions of sorrow and pity."1
The petition having been acceded to by a majority
of members, the ministers were then commanded to
draw up a short summary of their doctrines. This,
known as " the Confession of Faith," was accord
ingly put together and submitted to the House.
In its trend it was deeply Calvinistic, for Knox,
the prime mover in the affair, had spent the years of
his exile in Geneva, the headquarters of Calvin and
his disciples. The adoption of the Confession of
Faith marks the separation of the Protestantism of
Scotland from that of England. The Lutheran
tenets of the Southern Church were looked upon
with bitter scorn by Knox, who never lost a chance
of denouncing the Book of Common Prayer as
savouring of" Popish Doegs and Devil's inventions."
The " Confession " having been submitted to the
Lords of the Articles and to the Three Estates, votes
were taken, each member in turn being asked his
opinion on the matter. Five of the temporal peers had
the courage to vote against the adoption of the new
creed, declaring that they would believe as their
fathers had done before them.
i Tytler, " History of Scotland."
23
A Scottish Knight-Errant
Of the Bishops'only'six were present; three of the
thirteen sees were vacant; the Bishop of Glasgow was
in Paris, and the Bishops of Moray, Aberdeen, and
Ross did not attend. From a letter amongst the
archives of the Scots College at Paris it is evident
that the Bishops had expected a settlement of the
religious question at a properly constituted Parlia
ment, assembled by royal authority, which had been
announced for the 20th of August.1 They had
arranged to meet the royal commissioner who was
to come over with the warrant, to confer upon the
matter, but the summoning of the Parliament,
without commission, for the 1st, defeated this plan,
as it was no doubt intended to do. The Bishops of
Dunkeld and Dunblane, with the Primate, Arch
bishop Hamilton, protested against the " Confes
sion," but their protest was wholly unavailing; the
assembly voted enthusiastically in its favour, and
the victory was won.
A Parliament, illegally summoned, says Rait,a
had changed the religion of the country, and had
substituted one series of dogmas for another. Of
liberty or tolerance no one thought. . . . The
individual conscience, released from the laws of the
Pope, was henceforth to be bound by the laws of the
realm, and Papal jurisdiction was to be succeeded
by the not less formidable courts of the Reformed
Church. Those who had hitherto secretly favoured
the Reformed doctrines, says Grub in his " Ecclesias-
1 A Parliament is proclaimed, fixed for the 20th of August next,
in which the question of religion will be treated (" Papal Negotia
tions," Pollen, S.J.).
* Rait, " Scotland."
24
The Parliament of 1560
tical History of Scotland," or who did not possess
the principle or courage required in the adherents of a
fallen cause, now hastened to proclaim their adoption
of the Protestant opinions.
In December of the same year, writes Calderwrood,
the Presbyterian historian of the Reformation,
" Francis, husband to our Queen, departed suddenly,
a matter of joy to the Protestants of France and
Scotland." Mary Stuart was now a widow, and
circumstances dictated her return to her native land.
It was to be for her something more than a simple
passing from one country to another; the old peaceful,
happy life was over, and before her lay an uncertain
future, beset with trials of every kind. " The
preachers of the Word," wrote Randolph, Elizabeth's
shrewd Ambassador, to his master, Cecil, " will
make it too hot for the woman when she comes,"
The " woman," eighteen years old, young, fair, and
defenceless, was met at Leith by boisterous crowds
of her loving subjects, all eager to catch a glimpse
of their young Queen and to make her welcome.
Such enthusiastic greetings were surely incompatible
with the dark rumours which she had heard of
in France; Mary's mind was set at rest, but not
for long. On the Sunday following her arrival the
tidings went abroad that Mass was being said in the
Chapel Royal at Holyrood, and " the hearts of the
godlie began to swell." A mob raced to the spot —
the very mob that had raced but a few days before
to meet the Queen at Leith. Bursting into the
palace, they would have dragged the priest from the
altar in the very presence of their Sovereign, had not
Lord James Stuart, Mary's half-brother, barred the
25
A Scottish Knight-Errant
way. " Such a noise over one Mass !" commented
one who was present. But Knox had not hesitated
to say, " One Mass is more terrible to me than ten
thousand armed men."
The "godlie" had been prevented from carrying out
their project, but on the following day, led by the
preachers, they assembled at the Market Cross to pro
claim that " if any of her (the Queen's) servants shall
commit idolatry, especially say Mass, ( which ) is much
more abominable than slaughter or murder ... it may
be lawful to inflict upon them punishment wherever
they may be apprehended, and without favour."1
To Mary, practically a stranger in her own land,
the audacity of these proceedings was incompre
hensible. She had recourse for advice to her half-
brother, Lord James Stuart, whom she created Earl
of Moray. We find him in the forefront of that
group of apparent friends whom she trusted one
after another, and always to her sorrow. To read
of the Scottish nobles of these days is to read of men
who bent to every changing wind, who played at
loyalty with treachery in their hearts, who used
both their Sovereign and their country as pawns in
their own game, whose only religion was self-seeking,
and whose only God their own success. Amongst
them, like a lamb amongst wolves, stood the young
Queen, with no faithful servant to whom she could
turn for help and advice, save an obscure Italian.
Rizzio was both shrewd and capable, as the Lords of
1 " The persecuting tenets and assumptions which Knox de
nounced in the Church of Rome he defended and sought to carry out
for the maintenance of the Protestant cause " (Grub, " Ecclesiastical
History of Scotland," ii. 187).
26
The Parliament of 1560
the Congregation soon discovered; he was, moreover,
a Catholic and wholly devoted to Mary's interests.
It was decided that he must be removed, and we all
know the sequel.
If the nobles betrayed their Queen, the preachers
openly insulted her. She was denounced from every
pulpit; her creed, her friends, her amusements, her
very clothes, were all criticized and blamed in a spirit
of bitter enmity. " God turn her heart and send her a
short life," was the piayer for the Queen at the end
of one of these sermons. But Knox went further
still, and did not hesitate to insult his Sovereign in
the very presence of her Council. " All Papists
are the sonnes of the devil," he told her brutally.
No wonder that Mary, accustomed to the love and
reverence of the Court of France, " stood amazed for
the space of a quarter of an hour " after an interview
with the man who had declared openly in his sermons
that the murder of a Papist was acceptable to God.
The bitter realization that he was the spokesman
of a body comprising a great number of her subjects
was yet to come. She looked from nobles to preachers,
from preachers to people, and found all arrayed
against her.
Of those who were watching the progress of affairs
in Scotland none did so more anxiously than Pope
Pius V. In 1562 he sent as Legate to the Court of
Scotland Nicholas de Gouda, priest and Jesuit,
who drew up a report on the state of religion in the
country. It is valuable as the testimony of an
eye-witness.
" The monasteries are nearly all in ruins," he writes,
" some are completely destroyed; churches, altars,
27
A Scottish Knight- Err ant
sanctuaries, are overthrown ... no religious rite
is celebrated in any part of the kingdom. . . . Mass
is never said in public, save in the Queen's chapel,
and none of the Sacraments are publicly admin
istered. . . . The ministers are either apostate
monks or laymen of low rank and quite unlearned.
Their ministrations consist mainly of declamations
against the supreme Pontiff and the Holy Sacrifice of
the Mass. The Bishops see all this, and yet make no
effort . . . but in truth things have gone so far
that they can do nothing against the heretics. The
Bishops are for the most part destitute of all personal
qualifications requisite for taking the lead in such
stirring times. The only exception is the coadjutor
Bishop of Dunblane. . . . Only a few religious
are left ... of the priests but few remain ... a
large number of the people are still Catholics. . . .
All these misfortunes the best Catholics consider as
owing to the suspension of the ordinary mode of
election to the abbacies and other dignities. These
preferments are bestowed upon children and other
incapable persons. . . . The lives of the priests and
clerics are not unfrequently such as to cause grave
scandal, an evil increased by the supine indifference
and negligence of the Bishops themselves. ... It
is hardly surprising that God's flock is eaten by
wolves, when such shepherds as these have charge
of it."1
The Legate, de Gouda, had been charged by the
Pope to see the Queen. Mary was obliged to receive
him secretly and to dismiss him quickly, lest it might
be discovered that she was harbouring a Papal
1 Forbes-Leith, " Narratives of Scottish Catholics."
28
The Parliament of 1560
envoy. He tried to see the Bishops, but only a
few admitted him, and then only on condition that
he came in disguise. Rumours of his presence
in the country got abroad, and it was with no
little difficulty that he was able to return to the
Continent.
His report on the state of religion in Scotland had
at least one good result. The Pope ordered the
foundation of colleges abroad where Scottish boys
might be educated for the priesthood and for mis
sionary work in their own country.
The marriage of Mary to her cousin Darnley only
increased the enmity of the nobles, intent on getting
the power into their own hands. Plot followed
plot — the murder of Darnley, the Queen's marriage
with Both well, and the black indictment brought
against her of unnatural crime. Of the truth of that
indictment this is not the place to speak, but it is
well to remember that those who formulated it had
not only resolved on Mary's ruin, but were men
who would stick at nothing to obtain their ends.
Lochleven followed, then one short hour of freedom
with its quickly extinguished hopes, and Mary of
Scotland, with that fatal trustfulness which had
betrayed her so often before, cast herself for protection
into the arms of a woman who had neither pity nor
honour.
29
CHAPTER III: King, Kirk,
and Bishops
WITH Mary Stuart's flight from Scotland
her reign came practically to an end. Her
son being still an infant, the country was
ruled by Regent after Regent until, in 1578, in name
if not in deed, James took the power into his own
hands. In the April of 1571, Lennox, the father of
Darnley, who had succeeded Moray as Regent, cap
tured Archbishop Hamilton, member of a family
he had cause to hate, and condemned him to death.
Clad in his pontifical robes, the last of the pre-
Reformation prelates was led to the Market Cross
at Stirling and there hanged " as the bells struck
six hours to even." Several unknown priests who
had dared to say Mass were also apprehended and
sentenced to death, but, the sentence being com
muted, were " bound to the Market Cross with their
vestments and challices in derision, where the people
pelted eggs at their faces by the space of an hour, and
thereafter their vestments and challices were burnt
to ashes."1
Under the Regency of Mar a step was taken which
was to lead to much trouble in after years. The
King's party were desperately in need of money, the
last of the Catholic ecclesiastics were dying off,
and the revenues of the vacant sees were claimed
by both King and Kirk alike. Morton, greedy and
1 Diurnal of Occurrents.
30
King, Kirk) and Bishops
unscrupulous, and paramount in the Government,
was determined to have the money, and through his
influence a Convention was held at Leith, at which
were appointed pseudo-Bishops — men who, while
drawing the revenues of the ancient sees, consented
to pass on the money to those by whose influence
they had been nominated.
To the ministers of the Kirk the very name of
Bishop was anathema. So tremendous an outcry
was raised that it was eventually conceded that the
new prelates should be subject in all things to the
presbyteries and the General Assembly. This sub
jection was by no means nominal, the " Tulchan "
Bishop of Galloway being condemned to do public
penance for having dared to pray openly for
his Sovereign, Queen Mary, then a prisoner in
England.
During all these years the Catholics had remained
faithful to their Queen, and it is not improbable that
they would have prevailed against the Protestant
faction had not Elizabeth of England provided the
latter with money and troops. Until 1575 the
supporters of Mary held Edinburgh Castle, but with
its fall they seem to have lost heart.
At the death of Knox in 1572, Andrew Melville
became leader of the Presbyterian party. He dreamt
of establishing in Scotland such another theocracy
as that of Calvin in Geneva, and to this end waged
bitter war on the Regent Morton, who detested
both the preachers and their assumption of power.
Both were strong men, and their incessant quarrels
were the beginning of that long struggle between
the Episcopalians and Presbyterians which was to
A Scottish Knight- Err ant
culminate in the overthrow of Laud and the death of
Charles I.
In 1578 James began his reign. A mere boy in
years, he had already experienced the dire necessity
of trimming his sails to the changing wind. The
Assembly sent a deputation to congratulate the
young King on having taken over the direction of
affairs, and James, it is recorded, not only " gave a
very comfortable good answer," but promised to be
a protector of the Kirk. His protection, it must be
avowed, had its peculiarities. The pretensions of
the preachers were on the increase, and their view
of the relations between Church and State differed
considerably from that of their royal Master. For
many years the latter had little opportunity of
enforcing his own opinions, but, notwithstanding the
apparently amicable relations dictated by policy,
there was always an undercurrent of hostility between
Court and Kirk. A characteristic of the Presby
terian Church was the importance it attached to
preaching. Gouda, in his report to Rome, mentions
specially that " the nobility and people crowd to
the sermons." This cannot be wondered at, for
to the multitude, eager for any kind of excitement,
the sermons must have been an unalloyed delight.
It is Carlyle who sees in Knox the " constitutional
opposition party," while Andrew Lang finds in the
pre-Reformation sermons a foreshadowing of the
modern press.
The preachers claimed all along the right to say
exactly what they chose, considering it their chief
business to denounce the Court and its doings.
James may well have objected to being obliged to
32
King, Kirk) and Bishops
listen to sermons which were practically a resume*
of his own doings and those of his friends, enlivened
by the caustic comments of the minister; but that
these discourses were interesting to the people no one
will deny. Men would not have been human had
they not enjoyed such piquant addresses, more
especially so when the King himself happened to be
present. In St. Giles's Cathedral he occupied a
gallery but a few feet from the pulpit, and it was
no uncommon thing for the sermon to be interrupted
by an impromptu argument between the preacher
and his indignant Sovereign. In England, when a
like incident had taken place, the drastic treatment
meted out by Elizabeth to the offender had dis
couraged a repetition of the offence. James could
interrupt, but dared not, like his cousin of England,
dismiss the preacher.
Even the prayers were of a topical character.
" It is a shame to all religion to have the Majesty
of God so barbarously spoken unto," was James's
indignant comment when his own misdeeds, real
or imaginary, had been the subject of a long and
eloquent prayer. Small wonder that the King had
little love for the preachers and small regard for the
inspiration which they claimed to possess. The
General Assembly had a powerful weapon in the
excommunication which was dealt round impar
tially to those who opposed its decrees, and which
amounted practically to outlawry.
That James had a sneaking preference for the
episcopal form of Church government was not un
known to the leaders of the Kirk, who at the Assembly
of 1580 had attempted to checkmate any possible
33 c
A Scottish Knight-Errant
movement in that direction by abolishing the title
of Bishop. The enactment held good for four years,
when the Earl of Gowrie, having made one of the
periodical attempts to seize the King's person and
failed, fell into disgrace. As Gowrie was one of
the leaders of the Presbyterian party, his downfall
caused it to lose for a time its supremacy, and
Melville and other moving spirits were obliged to
take refuge in England. James was not slow to
take advantage of their absence. He summoned a
Parliament, and appointed Bishops, giving them
authority over both ministers and presbyteries;
but his term of power was short-lived. The exiled
nobles, returning in force to Scotland, seized Stirling
Castle, and at the good news the ministers flocked
back to Scotland. The tables were now turned, and
the King, with his newly appointed Bishops, was at the
mercy of the Kirk, whose pretensions grew with this
unexpected success. James was obliged for the
moment to content himself with occasional out
bursts of expostulation, as when he addressed a
deputation of ministers as " loons, snakes, and sedi
tious knaves," or remonstrated sharply with one of
the returned ministers on his choice of a text for
a sermon preached in St. Giles's Cathedral. The
preacher, however, having declared himself directly
inspired by God even to the choice of his text,
triumphantly resumed his discourse.
As for the Bishops, it was decided that they should
be allowed to retain the name; but all their powers
were withdrawn, and they were obliged to take
charge of a parish and consider themselves under the
supervision of the presbyteries.
34
King, Kirk, and Bishops
In 1587, when the nets were being drawn ever
closer round the ill-fated Mary Stuart, the nobles
urged the King to take some steps on her behalf.
Although historians have tried to make excuses for
James's conduct, there seems but little doubt that
he deliberately left his mother to her fate. He con
tented himself with ordering prayers for her welfare
(which most of the ministers refused to say), and at
the tragic news of her death merely " investit himself
with a dull weid of purple for certain days," going
to bed that night " without his supper." So the
simple chronicler of his life.1
Catholic missionaries had now for some time
been labouring in Scotland, and in 1586 the Assembly
suddenly awoke to the fact that people were begin
ning to fall away from the new religion. They com
plained to the King that Catholics were still allowed
to meet unmolested in Dunfermline and Dumfries
shire, declaring that the people of Ross had become
cold to " religion " since the coming of the Jesuits
amongst them. The complaints broke out a little
later with increased bitterness, the horrified preachers
having discovered that pilgrimages were still being
made to certain holy shrines, and that the feasts of
Easter, Christmas, and Ascensiontide were once more
being openly celebrated in various parts of the country.
In 1589 took place one of the first of the steps which
were to lead to the alliance of the Scottish Presby
terians with the English Puritans. The official
English Church, with its episcopacy and ritual,
had always been detested by the Scottish Reformers,
1 " Historic of King James the Sext," by an anonymous writer
of the sixteenth century.
35
A Scottish Knight-Errant
who considered as their real brethren the various
sects who formed that Puritan party which Elizabeth
despised and hated. When the rumour reached
Scotland that laws were being enacted against the
Puritans, the Scottish pulpits echoed with fervent
prayers " for our afflicted brethren," a token of
sympathy which greatly displeased Her Majesty of
England. " I pray you stop the mouths or shorten
the tongues," she wrote to James, of " such ministers
who dare make oraison in their pulpits for those
persecuted in England for the gospel," adding, with
a flash of the Tudor temper, " I will not stand such
indignity at such caterpillars' hands." James,
though fully in sympathy with her sentiments, was
wholly incapable of shortening the tongues or
stopping the mouths of any of his loyal subjects.
When, a little later in the year, he had a quarrel
with the ministers on the subject of his claim to
" sovereign judgement on all things within the
realm," the Rev. Mr. Pont informed him roundly
in the name of the Kirk that " there is a judgement
above yours, and that is God's, put in the hands of
the ministers." In the following November it was
announced from the pulpit that the King could be
excommunicated in case of contumacy and dis
obedience to the will of God. As the ministers con
sidered themselves in all cases the sole interpreters
of the will of God, this was practically a claim to
complete supremacy in the realm. It can hardly be
wondered at that James, turning with longing eyes to
the decently discreet Church " by law established "
in England, uttered what was to become the war-cry
of the future, " No Bishops, no King."
36
King, Kirk, and Bishops
In 1593 some of the Catholic nobles rebelled
against the persecution to which they were subjected
by the Kirk. The Earl of Huntly rallied his clansmen ;
an army under the Earl of Argyll was sent to meet
them, and a battle was fought at Glenlivet. The
Catholics, who had heard Mass and received Holy
Communion on the hillside in the dusk of the early
morning, charged the foe with the old Catholic cry
of " The Virgin Mary," and won a complete victory.
A solemn Te Deum was chanted on the field of battle,
but Huntly's success was short-lived. James,
alarmed at this show of his vassal's power, allied
himself for once with the preachers, and took the
field at the head of a large army. Huntly and his
followers were defeated, and James, elated by success,
decided that he was now strong enough to cope with
the Kirk. He was soon undeceived. Melville, in
an interview that has become historical, addressing
him as " God's silly vassal," remarked suggestively,
shaking him by the sleeve the while to emphasize
his words, that " there are here twa kingdoms and
twa kings. There is Christ and His kingdom the
Kirk, whose subject you, King James the Sext, are;
and not therein a King or lord, but only a member."
The Assembly insisted that the Catholic Lords
should be proclaimed and outlawed. To this James
demurred, for he looked upon all enemies of the
ministers as useful allies, but he was obliged to give
in. Amongst those denounced by name were the
Earl of Huntly; his uncle, Father James Gordon of
the Society of Jesus; Father William Ogilvie, another
Jesuit; and the Earl of Errol. Although James was
forced to issue the proclamation, his known partiality
37
A Scottish Knight- Rrr ant
for Huntly and Father Gordon had the practical
effect of rendering it null. The anger of the preachers
rose, Mr. John Ross going so far as to announce
from the pulpit that the King " was no better than
an open oppressor of the Kirk." " We have had,"
said he, " many of his fayre wordis, wherein he is
mighty enough, but few of his gude deddis. Of all
men in this nation, the King is the maist fair and
maist dissembling hypocrite."
This was more than even James could stand. He
complained formally to the Assembly, and Ross was
summoned before the Kirk, where he defended
himself in a manner so much to the liking of the
assembled brethren that he was acquitted. James,
now thoroughly roused, defied the Kirk, and by an
Order in Council Ross was banished.
The complex nature of the body known as the
General Assembly, which has been described as Board
of Trade, War Office, and national police rolled into
one, can be seen by the fact that when it met in
1594, all trafficking with Spain, necessitating as it
did constant intercourse with Papists, was forbidden.
But the people, although enthusiastic for purity of
doctrine, were not prepared to go to the length of
giving up a very profitable commerce to secure it,
and the merchants raised such an outcry that the
Assembly relented so far as to allow them to go to
Spain to receive the moneys due to them.
In 1596, a rumour being rife that the King had
omitted the reading of the Gospel at table, a Com
mission was appointed to inquire into the spiritual
state of His Majesty and his household. A deputation
of ministers set out accordingly for Holyrood, their
38
King, Kirk-, and Bishops
wives having kindly undertaken to perform the same
office with regard to the Queen and her ladies.
James, being found guilty of having neglected the
reading of the Gospel at table, was severely re
primanded and ordered to remove certain obnoxious
persons from the Court ; but Anne of Denmark, more
spirited than her royal consort, sent word to the
horror-stricken ladies that she was too busy dancing
to be bothered with them. Dancing was one of the
capital sins in the preachers' decalogue.
James's patience was now worn out, and he began
to show openly the resentment that he had until
then endeavoured more or less to conceal. It was
probably on account of this that Mr. John Walsh,
commenting to his congregation at St. Giles's on
the King's misdoings, declared that whereas the
King " had been possessed with ane devil, now the
ane driven out had been replaced by seven worse
spirits." The sermon was preached when matters
were at a crisis. The Assembly, repudiating the
King, proceeded to appoint a " Committee of Public
Safety," to which move James replied by ordering
all the preachers to leave the city. The Assembly
retorted by announcing that its members were
responsible for all their actions to God alone, and
such being the case, would remain in the city or
leave it according to their pleasure. The city
churches rang to the usual denunciatory sermons,
and rioting broke out in Edinburgh.1 James, equal
1 The tumult of the 17th of December has been excused as an
accidental outburst of popular fury ; but there were circumstances
connected with it which plainly showed a deliberate purpose of
resistance to the royal authority (Grub, " Ecclesiastical History
of Scotland," ii. 269).
39
A Scottish Knight-Errant
for once to the occasion, quelled them with such
determination that the ministers were obliged to
seek safety in flight. He then reduced the population
to order by threatening to remove the Court from
the capital, and to return to it no more. A young
Scotsman of the name of John Ogilvie, then a student
at Louvain, heard of these disturbances, and made
good use of the information in after days. The
Assembly which met at Perth a few months later was
a chastened body; the high- water mark of its power
had been reached, and the tide was already on the ebb.
By 1600 James had permanently gained the upper
hand, while the Bishops, nominated and protected
by the King, were gradually freeing themselves from
the bondage in which the Kirk had held them. In
1605, when James was at last firmly seated on the
throne of " that Blessed defunct Ladie," as he
thought fit to describe the murderer of his mother,
the General Assembly made one despei ite effort
to recover its lost power. Defying the King's
prohibition, the ministers met in Council and pro
ceeded to business, but the meeting was dispersed
and six of the leaders thrown into prison.
The power of the Bishops, on the other hand,
went on increasing. In 1610, by " menaces and
threats," James " caused the synods ... to choose
James Spottiswoode, Archbishop of Glasgow, their
moderator; which election divers of the ministers
did oppose, but were so dealt with that they gave
in." The tables were now completely turned, and
the office of Bishop, which had been " solemnly
damned " in 1550, was an established thing. But
the submission of the ministers, compelled as it
40
King, Kirk, and Bishops
was by sheer necessity, was more apparent than
real. Every act of the Bishops was narrowly
watched by the preachers, who were merely biding
their time until the fleeting years should bring them
once more the power they had lost.
Until 1610 the Scottish Bishops had been appointed
solely on the nomination of the King, there being
no pretence even at any form of consecration. To
remedy this state of affairs Spottiswoode and ten
other Bishops were summoned to London, there
to receive " such episcopal orders as their English
brethren could confer."1 " On their return," says
Row, " they did to the Archbishop of St. Andrews
as they were done withal at Lambeth, as near as
they could possibly imitate."2'
The Presbyterians, whose one aim had been to
obliterate from their country every trace of Catholic
rite and ritual, had now to look on in impotence
while the new Bishops introduced the ceremonies of the
English Protestant Church, almost as distasteful to
the Kirk as those of " Popery." Their angry protests
were all to the same end — these men could be no true
Protestants; they were but Papists in disguise, or
at least sympathizers with the Papists. In vain did
the Bishops repudiate such an idea. " Prove your
selves," was the sum of the reply; " fine words avail
nothing." In one way, and one alone, could the
1 Row, " History of Scotland," Wodrow Society.
2 The English Bishop Andrews moved that the three Scots
Bishops should " first be ordained presbyters because they had not
episcopal ordination." The Archbishop of Canterbury said that
he saw no necessity, because " ordination by a presbyter is lawful
when Bishops cannot be had, or else it might be doubted if there
were a lawful mission in the Reformed churches."
41
A Scottish Knight- Err ant
Bishops show that they were free from any tendency
to Catholicism — by the persecution of those who
were staunch to the old Faith. Clinging in despera
tion to this plank of safety, they sought for a
victim, and when their need was at its greatest,
found one close at hand in the person of John
Ogilvie, ptiest and Jesuit. The Bishops were on
their probation; the hostile Kirk, eager for their
ruin, was watching. Such was the state of affairs
in the spring of the year 1615. Two years later
John Ogilvie landed in Scotland.
42
PART II
THE CONFLICT
CHAPTER I : The Boyhood of
John Ogilvie
IN the year 1583 a certain Sir Walter Ogilvie
was owner of " all the lands and baronnies of
Ogilvie and Drumnakeith." He had married
Agnes Elphinstone, daughter of a noble Lowland
family, who died leaving one daughter. In 1583
Sir Walter married again. During the interval
which elapsed between his first and second marriage
he had improved his position from a worldly point
of view, by adopting the doctrines of the Reformed
Faith, and was consequently able to choose a wife
from one of the greatest families in Scotland. The
lady on whom his choice fell was no less a person
than the Lady Mary Douglas, daughter of the Earl
of Morton, and grand-daughter of the Lady Douglas
who had been gaoler to the unfortunate Mary Stuart
at Lochleven. By this second marriage Sir Walter
had seven children, five sons and two daughters, the
eldest, born at Drum in the year 1583, being John
Ogilvie, the future martyr.
The remains of the house of Drumnakeith are still
to be seen in the valley of the Isla. It lies in the
heart of the country inhabited at that time by the
great clan of the Gordons and ruled over by its chief,
the Earl of Huntly, whose influence and power had
won for him the proud title of " Cock of the North."
These lands had passed into. the hands of the Ogilvies
as a wedding portion when an Ogilvie of the old days
45
A Scottish Knight- Err ant
had taken a Gordon to wife. This marriage, which
might have united the two clans, seems to have had
a directly opposite effect, for a quarrel over the estates
led to a bitter feud in which many on both sides lost
their lives. Although the Ogilvies, in spite of their
powerful enemies, managed to retain the lands, ill feel
ing continued to increase, with the result that in the
frequent quarrels among the clans, the Gordons
and the Ogilvies would invariably be found on
opposite sides, eager for a chance of paying off old
scores.
A Highlander by birth, John Ogilvie spent the
early years of his life among this hardy, if somewhat
turbulent people. Differing in customs, dress, and
language, no less than in character, from the Lowland
Scots, the Highlanders were chiefly remarkable for
their courage and endurance. They were divided
into separate clans, each one of which formed a great
family, ruled over by the head or chieftain, who held
his lands by the power of the sword and by the
allegiance of his people. " Throughout the State
correspondence of the day," says Hill Burton, " there
is ever a tone of respect for the strength and capacity
of the Highland Scots, however troublesome their
presence is sometimes found. They are a valiant
nation, able to endure the miseries of war, and pleased
with any entertainment, be it ever so little." They
had their own code of honour, of which the first articles
were loyalty to their chief and observance of the laws
of hospitality. The quarrel of the chief was that
of the clansman, and to this community of interests
and the belief that revenge for an injury was the
most sacred of duties, were due most of the bloody
The Boyhood of John Ogilme
feuds which made of the Scottish Highlands a
perpetual battlefield.
In the sixteenth century the clan of the Gordons
was paramount in the North both in numbers and in
influence. When the Reformation brought a new
seed of dissension into the country, Huntly and his
followers remained true to the old Faith, while many
of the Forbeses, Ogilvies, and Leslies, owing to their
jealousy of the powerful Gordons, threw in their lot
with the Reformers. The question, like most others,
was decided by the chieftains, and the faithful clans
men often found themselves confronted with a hard
choice. Either they must renounce the Faith of their
fathers or fail in loyalty to their chief. In a certain
part of the Western Highlands Presbyterianism is
still known as "the religion of the Yellow Stick,"
owing to the tradition that a chieftain who had
himself adopted the new doctrines proceeded to cane
his followers, less firmly convinced than he of the
advisability of the change, into the Presbyterian Kirk.
But even while professing to follow the new re
ligion, the Highlanders were slow to relinquish the
Catholic customs in which they had been brought up.
They would still celebrate the old seasons of Yule
and Paschaltide, and in many cases, long after the
Faith itself was lost, they would assemble to sing
the old Catholic hymns and carols, to visit the holy
wells, or make long pilgrimages to the old shrines
of the Blessed Virgin.
" In Scotland, wherever there existed remnants
of the old apparatus of idolatry," says the historian
Hill Burton,1 " zealots would be found prowling
i " History of Scotland."
47
A Scottish K night- Rrr ant
about them in adoration. In corners of the vast ruins
of Elgin Cathedral groups of Popish worshippers
assembled secretly down to the reign of Queen Anne.
In remote places, where there were shrines, crosses,
or holy founts, the people, though nominally Pro
testant, were found practising some traditional
remnant of the old idolatry. Crosses, shrines, and
other artificial attractions to such irregularities
might be removed, but there remained the most
significant of all, the old centres of devotion, the
consecrated wells, the springs of water from which,
according to the traditions of the old Church, the
earliest missionaries made the first converts to
Christianity. The documents of the Church of
Scotland for centuries are filled with these causes of
backsliding."
Among such people as these, simple, hardy, and
brave, John Ogilvie spent the early years of his
life. Although Sir Walter Ogilvie, and presumably
his wife, had conformed to the new doctrines, the
country people about their home were Catholics,
and their children must often have heard stories
of the olden days. They would have seen — and there
would not have been wanting people to tell the thrilling
tale — the stone at Kirkmichael to which only a few
years before the faithful parish priest had been bound
and burnt to death. Nor was this an isolated in
stance of the treatment meted out to the successors
of St. Columba and St. Ninian by the men who
stigmatized the Mass as idolatry and superstition.
In the Diurnal of Occurrents, the 4th of May, 1574, we
find the following curt entry: " There was ane priest
hangit in Glasgow, callit * * * *, for saying Mass."
48
The Boyhood of John Ogilvie
Already there were missionaries abroad, ready
to face imprisonment and death if only they might
win a few souls back to the Faith. The boy John
Ogilvie must often have seen strange men passing
through the valley, and noticed the eager welcome
they received from those who knew that the pedlar
carried a more precious burden than the treasures
in his pack, and that the wandering soldier served
a greater King than James of Scotland.
Those were wild times. The fiery cross would
often flash out through the darkness of the night,
and the well-known cry, " Help a Gordon ! a Gordon !"
which summoned the great clan to their chieftain's aid,
would ring through the quiet valley. News from
the great world outside would sometimes penetrate to
the lonely house among the hills, and the return of
Sir Walter from one of his many journeys would be
eagerly looked for. For young John knew, as who
in Scotland did not, that Mary Stuart, their Queen,
lay a prisoner in England at the mercy of a jealous
woman. In the early months of 1587 came a fearful
rumour — a rumour that had the power to unite in a
common desire for action every class and clan in the
country. Scotland's Queen, it was whispered, was
to be tried for treason, condemned, and put to death.
James VI. ordered prayers for his mother's safety,
and the women prayed with all their hearts, though
the men would rather have laid hold of their weapons
in one desperate effort to tear their Queen from
Elizabeth's clutches. But James was not of heroic
mould, and even his order for public prayer was set
at defiance by the godly. The ministers of the Kirk
flatly refused to pray for Mary Stuart, and a scene
49 D
A Scottish Knight-Errant
was enacted in the capital that set half Scotland
laughing and the other half cursing; for it was
James's misfortune, if not his fault, that when he
most wished to be taken seriously he was often the
centre of a comedy. Since the ministers would not
pray for his mother, he determined to conduct the
prayer-meeting himself, and set off for St. Giles's
with an armed guard and the notorious Adamson,
Archbishop of St. Andrews, who was to take the
rebellious ministers' place. But the Kirk had been
beforehand, and the royal party arrived to find the
pulpit already occupied by one of its members, a young
minister of the name of Cowpcr. James, now rather
at a loss, ordered the preacher to pray for his mother,
to which royal mandate the minister, with the
courtesy which seems to have distinguished his kind,
replied that he " would do just as the Spirit of God
directed him." The King bade him come down
from the pulpit; then, as he showed no signs of
obeying, the captain of the guard stepped forward
to give him a helping hand, whereupon he sullenly
descended, muttering that " that day would rise up
in witness against the King on the great day of the
Lord." In the confusion that ensued, most of the
congregation followed the minister out of the church.
4 What devil ails the people," cried James in a
pet, " that they will not stay to hear a man preach ?"
But the last of the godly were already vanishing
through the open doorway, and the King and the
Archbishop were left to conduct the meeting as best
they could. News of the ridiculous scene flew through
the country, while fast on its heels came the dreadful
tidings that while James had been wasting his time
50
The Boyhood of John Ogilme
in such futile wranglings, the unfoitunate Queen
had been beheaded at Fotheringay. Horror and
indignation were rife; nobles and Catholics united in
urging the King to avenge his mother's death, but
a weak protest, promptly quenched by a handsome
gift of money from Elizabeth, was sufficient to satisfy
the filial love of Mary Stuart's son. " Thus," says
an old writer, " all memory of Queen Mary's murder
was buried. The King received their ambassador,
and by his persuasion is become their yearly pensioner.
What honesty the common weal receives thereby I
think that posterity shall better know than this time
can judge; for more just occasion of war had never
prince on the earth nor this prince had."1
To the Ogilvies the terrible news would have
caused a deeper sorrow than to many others; for the
old days at Lochleven must have been often in Lady
Ogilvie's mind, when, playing as a child with her
sisters, she would catch a glimpse of the sad face of
the beautiful Queen of Scotland, a prisoner within
the castle walls. She would tell to her children, no
doubt, the thrilling story of Mary's deliverance,
effected so cleverly by young Douglas, their own
great-uncle, and their hearts would burn within them
at the tale. Alas ! there was but one consolation
left in those sorrowful days for those of Mary Stuart's
subjects who had still remained faithful to their
Queen — her long and bitter sufferings were at last
at an end.
A year had scarcely passed when the news of the
sailing of the great Armada sent a fresh thrill through
the country, a thrill of hope to some, of fear to
1 " Historic of King James the Sext."
51
A Scottish Knight- Err ant
others. " Terrible was the fear," says James Mel
ville,1 "piercing were the preachings, earnest,
zealous, and fervent were the prayers, sounding were
the sighs and sobs, and abounding were the tears "
of the brethren.
In the Catholic North the feeling was very di ffcrent.
The Scottish Catholics, unlike their English brethren,
would have welcomed a victory that might have set
them free from a relentless persecution. They looked
to Spain as their only hope; ,.the enemies of their
Faith were more hateful to them than the enemies
of their country. i4 The Scottish Catholics," says
Andrew Lang,2 " could only hope to escape a grinding
persecution by the aid of foreign Powers." The news
of the defeat of the Armada soon reached the North,
where the want uf enthusiasm at the tidings was the
signal for a fresh outburst of persecution.
Little is knowfi of the early years of John Ogilvie's
life. In all probability, like most of the sons of the
Highland gentry in that part of the world, he was
sent to the High School at Aberdeen, where every
thing would seem strange to the young Highlander.
The Saxon tongue would have to be substituted for
the soft Gaelic of his childhood, and the doublet and
hose of the citizens would seem like the dress of
another country to eyes accustomed to the tartan.
The townsmen of Aberdeen had a wholesome fear
of their Highland neighbours, which, if the old
chronicles tell us true, was not without foundation.
The city was well walled and guarded by night and
by day; every man was required to have his javelin,
axe, and halbert handy at his side, and to use them,
i " Memoirs." * " History of Scotland."
52
The Boyhood of John Ogilme
too, when occasion called him to the defence of the
town. The rival clans, as a matter of fact, found it
a very convenient battle-ground, and many a quarrel
between citizens and Highlanders, as well as between
the different Highland factions, had been settled in
the streets of Aberdeen.
In the High School, an old Catholic foundation
which had been appropriated by the Kirk, the tradi
tions of the old Faith died hard, and the ministers
in possession found their position rather a thorny
one. The boys, mostly Highlanders, to whom
fighting came as naturally as swimming to a duck,
were as wild as their fathers. In the old Catholic
days holidays at Yuletide and at Easter had been a
matter of course, and were looked upon by each
generation of schoolboys as an unalterable privilege,
if not a right. The Kirk, however, had decreed that
the observation of the birthday of the Saviour of
the world and of His Resurrection was abominable
superstition and idolatry; the school was to be kept
open and lessons given as usual. But they had not
reckoned with schoolboy nature; and the scholars,
taking the law into their own hands, did what the
boldest of their parents feared to do, defied them
openly. The arrival of Christmastime was invariably
the signal for a riot which culminated in the boys
taking forcible possession of the school, barricading
the doors, and keeping the ministers and the city
fathers successfully at bay for close on a fortnight.
In 1590 the celebration of James's marriage with
Anne of Denmark gave rise to festivities all over the
country. The King, always in need of money, yet
anxious to make an imposing appearance on this
53
A Scottish Knight-Errant
important occasion, had recourse to all kinds of
expedients to attain his end. Quaint notes were
sent out to the nobles and Highland lords, begging
gifts of " fat beef " and " mutton on foot," and " wild
fowls and venison." From the Earl of Mar he
coaxingly begs the loan of " the pair of silk hose "
to wear at the wedding, adding pathetically, "ye
wadna that your King suld appear a scrub on sic an
occasion." From another friend he asks " the loan
of some silver spoons to grace his marriage-feast."
He implores his Council to do all that they can to
make the reception of the newly married pair as
imposing as possible. " A King of Scotland with a
newly married wyfe will not come hame every day,"
he urges. The Council seem to have risen to the oc
casion, for we read that on the arrival of the Queen
in Edinburgh " there was forty- two young men all
clade in white tafl'etie, and visors of black colour
on their faces, like Moors, all full of gold cheynes, that
dancit before her Grace all the way." The wedding-
present of James to his bride consisted of three sub
stantial gold chains made from one of great length
" borrowed " by him from Arran for the purpose.
Arran did not like to refuse, " for gin he had refused
he would have tint the King, and in delivering of it
he should tyne the chain."
Even then poor James was not at the end of his
troubles, for the Kirk decided that the coronation
ceremony was idolatrous, and told him that his bride
would have to do without it. But this time the
King was equal to the occasion. He shrewdly
remarked that if the ministers had scruples, the
Bishops would have none, and this settled the
54
The Boyhood of John Ogilme
question. The idolatrous anointing was performed
by Mr. Robert Bruce, who poured forth upon the
young Queen " a bonny quantitie of oil."
Soon after the royal wedding a fresh disturbance
broke out. The Earls of Huntly and Moray quar
relled, and the fighting that ensued reduced three
counties to a state of civil war. Huntly and his army
ventured as far south as Fife, where Moray was
murdered by the Gordons. James, angry but unable
at the time to punish Huntly, had recourse to an
old trick of the Scottish monarchs when in a similar
predicament. He urged the Mackintoshes to attack
the Gordons, a behest which they were nothing loth
to obey, for they had many an old score to pay off.
But the attempt was a failure; the Gordons com
pletely defeated their antagonists, with the result
that " sundry parts of the north countries were so
wreckit and stricken that great numbers of honest
and peaceable folks were murtherit, their homes
burnt, their goods spoilt and dispersit."] The Earl
of Argyll was despatched with a large army to reduce
Huntly to order, but without success. An action
was fought at Glenlivet, where Argyll was disastrously
defeated, leaving Huntly master of the field. James,
now thoroughly roused, determined to march against
the conqueror at the head of his royal troops, but
at this news Huntly lost heart and determined,
together with Errol and Angus, to leave the country.
Their decision was vigorously opposed by Father
James Gordon, a cousin of Huntly's, who clearly
foresaw that the Catholic cause would undoubtedly
suffer should the three most powerful of its leaders
i " Historic of King James the Sext."
55
A Scottish Knight-Errant
go abroad. The Catholic Earls, however, persisted
in their intention, and preparations were made for
their departure. On the day they were to set sail
High Mass was celebrated for the last time in Elgin
Cathedral. The great building, one of the glories
of Catholic Scotland, was filled to overflowing.
After the reading of the Gospel, Father Gordon
preached a short sermon, in the course of which
he begged the three Earls to reconsider once more
a resolution that would be so fatal to the Catholic
cause. They remained obdurate, and when the
Mass was over took horse to the sea-coast and set
sail for France. Within a few weeks of their de
parture they were, together with Father Gordon,
condemned to banishment; they had merely antici
pated the sentence.
In the same year, 1593, young John Ogilvie and
Francis Douglas, son of the Earl of Angus, went
abroad to complete their education.
The progress of affairs in Scotland was anxiously
watched by the Catholic priests who had been
driven into exile on the Continent, and who found
it hard to give up the hope that a better day
would soon dawn for their unhappy country. The
rapid growth of Calvinism, however, soon brought
home to them the sad conviction that Scotland could
no longer be looked upon as a Catholic country. The
great work of the future, they now realized, would
be the education of Catholic priests to labour on the
Mission, ready, if need be, to give their lives in the
attempt to win back their countrymen to the Faith.
Mary Stuart had been the first to realize this truth,
and from her English prison had encouraged Bishop
56
The Boyhood of John Ogilvie
Lesley to seek help at Rome for the establishment
of Scots colleges on the Continent. The Scottish
Benedictines had several foundations abroad, notably
at Vienna and Ratisbon, but by the end of the
sixteenth century most of these had been alienated
from their original owners. Ratisbon, however,
still remained in their hands, although the community
had dwindled until it consisted of two monks and
the Abbot. Thither, in the times of persecution,
went the Scottish sons of St. Benedict, exiles from
their own country, and a college was soon opened,
with the famous Ninian Winzet at its head. But one
college was insufficient for the need,, and a small
seminary was founded a little later by a Scottish
priest, Dr. James Cheyne, for the training of boys
destined for the priesthood. When John Ogilvie
went there in 1593 it had been removed to Douai,
and was in charge of the Jesuits.
To a Highland lad of those days Douai might well
seem to be the ends of the earth, though the excite
ment and novelty of the new life which was opening
before him would no doubt soften the pang of parting
from home and family.
It may be asked how young John Ogilvie, nurtured,
apparently, in the Calvinistic creed, found his way
to a Jesuit college to be trained as a Catholic priest.
The matter remains a mystery. Catholic missionaries,
it is true, were constantly passing backwards and
forwards between Scotland and the Continent, it being
the favourite route for even the English priests.
" Scotland is the common passage for English cater
pillars into foreign parts," wrote one of the Continental
spies to his English master. In 1593 Father William
57
A Scottish Knight-Errant
Ogilvie, S.J., formerly chaplain to the Earl of Angus,
and possibly a relation of the Ogilvies of Drumna-
keith, was one of these travellers. It may have been
through his influence that the boy was sent abroad.
Although the fact has been established beyond
doubt that the martyred John Ogilvie was the eldest
son and heir of Sir Walter Ogilvie of Drum, we
cannot be so certain that the Lady Mary Douglas was
his mother. If the date of his birth was, as asserted
by Father Forbes-Leith in his " Vie de Jean Ogilvie,"
somewhere between 1579 and 1580, he certainly was
not, for Sir Walter's second marriage only took place
in 1582. If, therefore, the date of his birth is cor
rectly given, he must have been the son of Agnes
Elphinstone, Sir Walter's first wife, and this may
throw some light on the circumstance of the boy's
being sent abroad to a Catholic college to be educated.
Agnes Elphinstone's brother joined the Society of
Jesus, and died a saintly death in the Jesuit novitiate
at Naples. It is quite possible that his sister may
have remained true in her heart to the old Faith,
and obtained from her husband the promise that her
children should be brought up in it. In this case
the difficulty would at once be solved. The second
wife, with four sons of her own, would not be likely
to object to a measure which would leave the inheri
tance open to her own family. As, however, neither
the date of John Ogilvie's arrival at Briinn nor that
of his birth is definitely known, the question is open
to conjecture.
In an Italian narrative, printed by Father Forbes-
Leith in the first edition of his Life of John Ogilvie,
it is stated that he went to fravel on the Continent,
58
The Boyhood of John Ogilvie
and whilst there, having entered into controversy
with some Catholic priests, proceeded to study the
Scriptures, with the result that he was converted to
the Faith. But the Italian narrative is in several
respects untrustworthy. John Ogilvie cannot have
been more than thirteen years old when he carne to
Douai, and intelligent though he undoubtedly was,
it is difficult to imagine him at that tender age the
skilled controversialist that the Italian biographer
would have us believe him. Another account says
that he went abroad in order to preserve his faith,
and this would seem to corroborate the first suggestion.
We can, however, but conjecture; all that is defi
nitely known is that in 1593 he arrived at the Scots
college at Douai, where he was entered in the college
records as having been " brought up a Calvinist."
There he remained for three years, until, in 1596,
owing to the unsettled state of affairs in France, where
several cities were still holding out against the
Huguenot Henry of Navarre, the Rector of the
college migrated with his little flock to Louvain.
There the Jesuit, Cornelius a Lapide, was lecturing
on the Holy Scriptures; the task of catechizing and
instructing the boys of the Scots college was en
trusted to the famous commentator, who wrote in
after years of his joy and pride in having had the
future martyr among his pupils.
But the difficulties of the Rector were not at an
end. Although the number of his pupils was steadily
increasing, the funds for the upkeep of the college
were as steadily diminishing, and he was at last
obliged to distribute some of his boys among the
other colleges on the Continent. As a result of this
59
A Scottish Knight-Errant
proceeding, John Ogilvie found himself in 1598 at
the Benedictine monastery at Ratisbon, where,
however, his stay was very short, for within a few
months' time he had won one of the bursaries founded
by Pope Gregory XIII. for the education of foreign
students, and had gone to the Jesuit college at
Olmiitz. By this time his vocation had taken shape,
and he had resolved to devote his life to the service
of God in the ranks of the great army founded by
Ignatius of Loyola.
With this end in view he offered himself, together
with several of his young companions, to Father
Ferdinand Alberi, Provincial of the Jesuits in Austria.
As, however, a pestilence was raging in Briinn,
where the novitiate was situated, it was suggested to
the would-be postulants that they should defer their
entry until the epidemic had abated. All were content
to wait but John Ogilvie, who, following the Pro
vincial to Vienna, obtained leave to brave the risk
of infection and enter at once. On the Christmas
Eve of 1599 he was on his way to Briinn. The new
life and the new century were to begin together.
In Briinn, the capital of Moravia, most of the
people had embraced the Lutheran doctrines. They
had, however, been won back to the Faith of their
fathers by the preaching of the famous Jesuit, Peter
Canisius, known amongst Catholics as the Apostle
of Germany. The Jesuits had founded there a
college for the boys of the country, and later a
novitiate. One of the first novices of Briinn had
been Blessed Edmund Campion, and the house was
still fragrant with memories of the gallant young
Englishman who had gone forth so joyfully to meet
60
The Boyhood of John Ogilme
a martyr's death. The cell which he had occupied
would certainly have been pointed out to the new
comer and the story told to him of how one of the
Fathers, who was reported to have communications
with the unseen world, had written over the door
on the eve of Campion's departure for England the
words: " Beatus Edmundus Campianus, Martyr."
The spot in the garden, too, would surely have been
pointed out to him where on the same day Our Lady
was said to have appeared to the young priest in a
vision, assuring him that his desire had been granted,
and that he would shortly shed his blood for Christ.
For ten years John Ogilvie remained at Briinn,
undergoing that strong formation which the Society
of Jesus gives to its members. Though few records
remain of his life at this time, his occupations can
easily be conjectured. In 1601 he went to Gratz
to study philosophy, teaching at the same time an
elementary class in the school, and here he made
his first vows on St. Stephen's Day in the same year.
From Gratz he went to Neuhaus, and from Neuhaus to
Vienna, whence, after six years of teaching, he returned
to Olmutz, there to begin his course of theology.
Those were stirring times in the Society of Jesus.
The year 1605 witnessed the beatification of St.
Aloysius Gonzaga, the saintly young scholastic
who had renounced a splendid career as the eldest
son of one of Italy's most princely houses to become
a humble Jesuit novice. Four years later it was
the great Founder of the Order, St. Ignatius Loyola,
who was raised to the Altar, while from almost every
quarter of the world came news of the heroic life and
still more heroic death of countless Jesuit martyrs.
61
A Scottish Knight-Errant
In the heart of John Ogilvie during all these
years one thought had been paramount — the desire
to do for his country what Campion and Southwell
had done for theirs, to live a life of hardship and face
a martyr's death in the hope of winning a few souls
back to the Faith. Harder even than the English
Mission — and that was hard enough, with its attendant
dangers — was the Scottish Mission for which he
longed. But the account of the difficulties, heard
from those who, more fortunate than he, had been
called to labour in that beloved country, only served
to augment John Ogilvie's desire. In the summer
of 1611 he was suddenly ordered to Prague to join
Father Elphinstone, who was on his way to Scotland,
but some change of plan seems to have been made;
the moment had not yet come. For two years longer
he was to wait, until at Paris, in the autumn of
1613, he was ordained priest. A few weeks later
he was named, together with Father Moffat, for the
Mission in Scotland, and ordered to set out at once.
He was just thirty years old.
CHAPTER II: On the Mission
THE Catholics in Scotland were in a pitiable
condition. The animosity of the Kirk against
those who still held to the Faith of their
fathers was now organized into a steady and
systematic persecution. " The permission even of
a single case of Catholic worship, however secret,"
says a Scottish historian, " the attendance of a
solitary individual at a single Mass in the remotest
district of the land, at the dread hour of night, in
the most secluded chamber, and where none could
come but such as knelt before the altar for conscience'
sake only and in all sincerity of soul: such worship
and its permission for an hour was considered an
open encouragement of Antichrist and idolatry. To
extinguish the Mass for ever, to compel its supporters
to embrace what the Kirk considered to be the
purity of Presbyterian truth, and this under the
penalties of life and limb, or. in its mildest form, of
treason, banishment, and forfeiture, was considered
not merely praiseworthy, but a point of high re
ligious duty; and the whole apparatus of the Kirk,
the whole inquisitorial machinery of detection and
persecution, was brought to bear upon the accom
plishment of these great ends."1
What the " purity of Presbyterian truth " was ex
pected to accomplish by those who had brought about
the Reformation was the raising of the moral tone
i Fraser Tytler, " History of Scotland."
63
A Scottish Knight- Err ant
throughout the country. Whether it succeeded or
not can be judged from the reports of the Kirk
itself. In 1597, nearly forty years after the estab
lishment of Presbyterianism as the State religion,
a period during which the leaven had had time to
work, the General Assembly came to the conclusion
that " the common corruption of all estates within
this land " was unpleasantJy obvious. After enu
merating a list of the prevalent vices of the day in
language which the historian Hill Burton describes
as " more descriptive than the decorous habits of
modern literature would sanction," the document
ends with the trenchant observation: "Lying is a
rife and common sin."
' The clergy of the Reformation," observes Andrew
Lang, " far unlike the old Churchmen, set admirable
examples of private conduct."1 Yet we find not
infrequently in the records of the Kirk itself, as well
as in contemporary documents, instances of the
ministers being cited for the very offences so often
brought against the Catholic clergy — and worse.
" John Kello, minister of Spott, in Haddington-
shire," says Robert Chambers in his " Domestic
Annals of Scotland," " was executed in Edinburgh
for the murder of his wife. The confession of this
wretched man shows that he was tempted to the
horrible act by a desire to marry more advantageously,
1 Under Morton (1575), says the same author, not very con
sistently, " the Kirk was being reduced to the same condition as the
Church before the Reformation. Ignorance, profligacy, secular
robbery, under a thin disguise of ecclesiastical revenues, were all
returning. Ministers sold' their livings. The Bishops had none of
the sacerdotal and mystic character which attaches to them in the
Catholic faith " (" History of Scotland," ii. 253).
64
On the Mission
his circumstances being somewhat straitened. He
deliberated on the design for forty days; tried poison,
which failed; then accomplished it by strangulation."
According to a contemporary recital,1 "he stranglit
her in her awn chamber, and therafter closit the
ordinar door that was within the house for his awn
passage, and sae finely seemit to colour that purpose
after he had done it, that immediately he passed
to the Kirk, and in the presence of the people made
sermon as if he had done nae sic thing."
" Nothing is more remarkable in the history of this
period," says the same author, " than the coincidence
of wicked or equivocal actions and pious professions
in the same person. Adam Bothwell, Bishop of
Orkney, who had joined the Reformers, and in the
basest manner taken part against Queen Mary,
who was in constant trouble with the General
Assembly on account of his shortcomings, writes
letters full of expressions of Christian piety and
resignation. Sir John Bellenden, justice-clerk, who
had a share in the murder of Signer David, and who, on
receiving a gift of Hamilton of Both well haugh's estate
of Woodhouselee from the Regent Moray, turned
Hamilton's wife out of doors, so as to cause her to
run mad — this vile man, in his will, speaks of ' my
saul, wha sail baith meet my Master with joy and
comfort, to hear that comfortable voice saying,
' Come unto Me, thou, as one of My elect.' "2
The bitter quarrel between the Kirk and the
Bishops, which had seemed to promise a breathing
space for the Catholics, had only served to augment
1 " Historic of King James the Sext."
2 " Domestic Annals of Scotland."
65 E
A Scottish Knight-Errant
their misery; for while the Presbyterians persecuted
them from hatred of their Faith, the Episcopalian
party, afraid of the taunt not infrequently brought
against them of a leaning towards Popery, persecuted
them to prove the orthodoxy of their Protestantism.
Every house in every parish was visited by the
ministers, and everyone without exception ordered
to assist at the Presbyterian services. Note was
taken of every absentee; recalcitrants were visited
a second time, and warned that if they did not mend
their ways excommunication would be the result.
This was no laughing matter, for it amounted,
practically, to boycotting, involving civil penalties
of the most drastic kind. No one might remain in
the service of a man or woman under the ban without
incurring excommunication themselves. No one
might speak to, buy from, or sell to them; no one
was allowed to attend them in sickness or bury them
when dead. Their children could be torn from
them and brought up to hate and despise the religion
of their fathers. In the sight of the law they had
no rights; they were pariahs and outcasts on the
face of the earth. It is not surprising that all but the
most valiant of the Catholics gave up their Faith
rather than face such a prospect. " The country,"
says Andrew Lang, " was drilled into almost uniform
conformity and systematic hypocrisy."1 All Catho
lics had to choose between loss of lands and goods
and native country, or loss of conscience and honour.
The only alternative open to a Catholic was to
1 " One thing was obvious to the preachers — admit toleration,
and, as Hamilton said, ' then are we all gone.' The country would
veer round to the ancient faith " (A. Lang, " History of Scotland ").
66
On the Mission
seek liberty of worship in a foreign land, but even
this was soon denied them. A law was passed
obliging every person leaving the country to bind
himself by security not to practise the Catholic
religion abroad. Another, enacted a little later,
decreed that any Scottish subject hearing Mass in a
foreign country would forfeit any property he might
hold at home.
Not even the privacy of family life was secure from
intrusion. Many of the wealthier and nobler families
who had given outward adhesion to the new form
of worship, but were suspected of adhering in heart
to their own religion, were obliged to support in their
own houses, and at their own expense, a " wise
pastor, armed with powers of exhortation, inquisi
tion, and rebuke." This " wise pastor " followed his
unhappy hosts like a shadow wherever they went,
his obtrusive and unwelcome nose being thrust
into every family matter, however intimate, and his
obnoxious doctrines being forced upon them at
every hour of the day. Even the proud Huntly
was forced to submit to this infliction. The followers
of John Knox could boast of having reduced perse
cution to a fine art; the very pettiness of its details
made it the harder to bear. " There are tortures
attributed to the Inquisition," says the historian Hill
Burton, " which some men would rather endure than
this scheme."
During his long sojourn on the Continent John
Ogilvie had followed closely the progress of events
in Scotland. Reports from missionary priests were
constantly arriving at the different colleges abroad,
supplemented by the accounts of the missionaries
67
A Scottish Knight-Errant
themselves as they passed to and fro on their various
journeys. There were the exiles, too, who would
have much to say of the intolerable conditions of the
life from which they had fled. The disadvantages
under which a priest " on the Mission " in Scotland
had to labour were well known to all. An efficient
disguise was the first necessity, for spies were on
the watch in all the Continental towns and seaports,
ready to apprise their masters in England and
Scotland of every movement of a priest.
In the autumn of 1613 a young soldier, known to all
inquirers as Captain Watson, landed at the port of
Leith in company with two other gentlemen. The
soldier was Father Ogilvie, and his companions,
Father Moffat and Father Campbell, were respec
tively a brother Jesuit and a Capuchin friar. The
three priests at once separated, Father Ogilvie going
north, Father Campbell to Edinburgh, and Father
Moffat to St. Andrews, in which city he was seized
just one year later and thrown into prison on the
charge of being a " Mass priest."
Father Ogilvie would have found many changes
in his old home since his departure twenty years ago.
The three little sisters of the old days were grown
up and married. One was now Countess of Buchan,
another Lady Forbes of Pitsligo, and the third Lady
Grant. His father and mother were still alive; they
were destined to survive their martyred son.
One can but wonder what reception they gave
him, and whether pride or fear was uppermost
in their hearts. Was it with a wistful clinging to the
old Faith, but half renounced for safety's sake, that
they welcomed the son who had come back to them as
68
On the Mission
its champion, or did they look coldly upon his enter
prise as the act of a madman, calculated to put the
whole family in jeopardy ? History remains silent;
all that we know is that a few weeks later Father
Ogilvie was at Strathbogie Castle, the seat of the
Earl of Huntly, and that there he spent Christmas.
It was the most Catholic part of the country, and
there would be work for him to do. It is notable
that on his death-bed, twenty years later, Huntly
was to remember that Christmas Communion.
His ministrations at Strathbogie at an end,
Father Ogilvie proceeded to Edinburgh; for the
Lowlands and not the Highlands were to be the
scene of his future labours, and Edinburgh his head
quarters.
In Perthshire, halfway between the two centres,
is a lonely well which still bears the name of " Father
Ogilvie's Well." Tradition says that a priest of
that name once took refuge there during the times of
persecution. If this were, as seems probable, our
Father Ogilvie, it is likely that the incident happened
on this journey, and that the sharp eyes of the
Government spies had already pierced the disguise
of Captain Watson.
Edinburgh had its advantages as a hiding-place.
The largest city in Scotland and fairly central for
work in the Lowlands, it possessed a little colony
of staunch Catholics who were always ready to help
and harbour the missionary priests. In the stream
of visitors who were constantly passing through its
streets, one more stranger would easily pass un
noticed.
Father Ogilvie took up his abode in the house of
A Scottish K night- Rr rant
one William Sinclair, an advocate. Here he found
Father Moffat, and here the two priests remained
during the first months of 1614. Easter fell early
that year, on the 30th of March, and towards the
end of Lent Father Ogilvie crossed via London to
Paris, where he spent the last days of Holy Week
and Eastertide. Whatever may have been the cause
of this journey, and it was evidently a matter of
business, Father Gordon, S.J., uncle of the Earl of
Huntly and Father Ogilvie's superior, seems to have
considered it an unwise proceeding, and Father
Ogilvie returned at once to London. He was still
" Captain Watson," and in this disguise made
the acquaintance of a certain Sir James Kneilland
of Monkland, a needy Scottish gentleman, who,
like so many others of his countrymen, had followed
James I. to England in the hope of bettering his
fortunes. In June the soldier and the knight
travelled northwards in company, thus cementing
a friendship which seems to have become fairly
intimate, for later in the same year Kneilland was
denounced as a Catholic and a penitent of the
priest's. Part of the long journey northwards was
spent by Father Ogilvie in the perusal of a little
book which had been given to him in London, and
which contained an account of the trial and imprison
ment of Father Garnett, the English Jesuit, accused
of complicity in the Gunpowder Plot. The reading
of the little narrative was turned to good account by
Father Ogilvie later on, when he himself came to
stand his trial.
Using Sinclair's house as headquarters, the mis
sionary now proceeded to travel about the Lowlands,
70
On the Mission
reconciling apostates to the Church, instructing
converts, and working untiringly for the salvation
of souls. Near Sinclair's house there lived a Catholic
named Cruickshank, who had stables in the Canongate.
It was natural enough that a soldier should frequent
these stables, more especially as he was employed
in travelling about the country buying likely horses
for his friend. Thus it was that Father Ogilvie could
say Mass in peace in the stables, his mission as horse-
dealer covering the greater mission of a seeker of
souls.
In Glasgow there was also a small colony of
Catholics, and through one of these, a certain Robert
Heygait, who had met Father Ogilvie in Edinburgh,
the presence of the priest was made known in the
western city. Unlike most of the other missionaries,
who observed the greatest secrecy as to their move
ments, Father Ogilvie made no attempt to hide
himself, and, trusting to boldness as his best disguise,
went about his business quite openly. While in
Glasgow he lodged at a public inn, spending his
days, as any other soldier might be supposed to do,
in walking about with his friends. Who was to kno^
that the friend was being instructed the while, or
that during the short visits paid by Captain Watson
to certain of the townspeople appointments were
being made for longer visits under the cover of night ?
Long excursions into the country in quest of prom
ising horses for his friend Mr. Cruickshank aroused
no suspicions, and for a time all went well. Mass
was said every morning at the house of Marion
Walker, a zealous Catholic, who kept open house
for her co-religionists, full of joy at the chance of
A Scottish Knight-Errant
receiving once more the Sacraments of their Church.
Marion Walker was one of the first to be seized after
Father Ogilvie himself, and died, after great hard
ships, a confessor of the Faith, in the prison at
Dumbarton Castle.
During the time of Father Ogilvie's stay in Glasgow,
Robert Heygait had been busying himself bringing
faint-hearted and timid Catholics to the priest;
his zeal, indeed, was greater than his prudence,
and led ultimately to the capture of all. A man
named Boyd, of good family and of some standing in
the city, grew suspicious and began to frequent
Heygait's shop, pretending that he was interested
in the Catholic Faith, and wished to be received into
the Church. The unsuspicious Heygait welcomed
the stranger with open arms, telling him that there
happened at that, very moment to be a priest in the
city to whom he could go for instruction. This was
just what Boyd wanted. He went with Heygait
to see Father Ogilvie, and kept up the pretence
of being a zealous neophyte until he had ferreted
out the fact that Captain Watson's horse-dealing
expeditions covered visits to all the Catholic strong
holds in the neighbourhood, and had discovered
the names of all the people who frequented Marion
Walker's house for Mass. Then, and then only,
did he reveal himself as the traitor he was by de
nouncing to their enemies the men who had trusted
him, for the sake of his soul's welfare, with a secret
that might cost them their lives. It was a common
enough tale in seventeenth-century Scotland.
To John Spottiswoode, Protestant Archbishop of
Glasgow, Boyd's information was as welcome as rain
72
On the Mission
in summer. He and his Episcopalian brethren were in
bad odour with the Kirk, which persisted in associating
the name of Bishop with everything that savoured
of " Popery," averring that Episcopalianism was
nothing but " Satan divided against himself." Here
was a chance to vindicate himself completely from
such an aspersion, and to prove that a Bishop could
be as enthusiastic as any member of the Kirk when
it was a question of suppressing a Papist. The
traitor and the Archbishop put their heads together,
and had soon evolved a plan. In a few days' time
the election of a baillie or city magistrate was to take
place in Glasgow; during the excitement with which
such a proceeding was usually attended the capture
of the priest could be easily effected. The arrange
ments concluded, the two men parted — Boyd to keep
up his farce of going to Father Ogilvie for instruction,
and the Archbishop to give orders for the arrest.
73
CHAPTER III: The Arrest
SINCE Archbishop Spottiswoode is one of the
chief characters in the drama which ended
in the martyrdom of Father Ogilvie, it may
be interesting to see what manner of man he was
and how he had come to hold his present position.
Born in 1565, and the son of one who is described as
" a pillar of the Reformation," he became at the age
of twenty-one minister of the parish of Calder in
Midlothian. We hear of him next in the retinue of
the King. When, in order to limit the power of the
Kirk, James, by a coup d'etat, forced upon it the
Episcopalian system, and several of the ministers,
who a few weeks before had been denouncing Bishops
as " limbs of the devil," promptly accepted a see
with its accompanying emoluments, Spottiswoode
was among their number. The canny monarch, it
is true, had gilded the pill of Episcopacy, thus sud
denly thrust upon the reluctant Assembly, by
pointing out the urgent necessity of ferreting out
and punishing Jesuits and Papists, in which delightful
occupation, he assured them, they would find the
Bishops of the greatest assistance. But though
forced to accept the Bishops, the Kirk never ceased
to dislike them, looking upon them as turncoats
and apostates, whose sudden conversion had been
brought about by the desire to enjoy big revenues.
" Ambitious of preferment," says Cunningham,
" Spottiswoode early devoted himself to the King
74
The Arrest
and the Episcopalian party, and got the reward of
his services by being made Archbishop of Glasgow,
and later of St. Andrews. It cannot be denied
that he was willing to sacrifice his country's Faith
to his own ambition." When in 1637 the Assembly
declared war against " Popery and Prelacy," and
proceeded to excommunicate the Bishops, Spottis-
woode was proved guilty of " carding and dicing
during the time of Divine service; of tippling in
taverns till midnight," together with unnameable
crimes which go to make a blacker indictment than
any brought against the pre-Reformation Bishops
by the bitterest of their enemies.
That the Kirk was given to unlimited abuse of
those who opposed its power, no one who has read the
documents of the period can deny, nor is it fair to
judge a man solely on the evidence of his enemies.
The Episcopalians allude to Spottiswoode as a
" pious and wise man, grave, sage, and peaceable."
A certain George Martine, who wrote an account of the
See of St. Andrews, speaks of his " holy simplicitie
and primitive disposition," a testimony which is a
little leavened by Bishop Burnet's description of him
as " a mild and prudent man, of no great decency in his
course of life." Cunningham allows that " he did not
devote Sunday to gloom, but loved a game at cards or
at dice," and that he could be " joyous over a glass
of wine."
From these conflicting accounts it may be gathered
that Spottiswoode was a shrewd, intelligent man,
whose religious convictions came second to his
ambition, and whose private life gave cause for
scandal. Genial and kindly when it suited him to
75
A Scottish Knight- Err ant
be so, he could, as we shall see, be cruel and vindictive
when crossed. But here we are chiefly concerned
with his veracity as an historian, for besides his
" History of the Church in Scotland " and several
other works, he wrote what he describes as a " True
Relation of the Proceedings against John Ogilvie,
a Jesuit."
Now, the title " a True Relation " implies the fact
that there were other accounts of the proceedings
going about, as there undoubtedly were, which
Spottiswoode wished to contradict, since in them
he played but a poor part. If he had known, which
he did not, that Father Ogilvie had written while in
prison the whole history of his arrest and imprison
ment, completed by several eye-witnesses of his
execution, and testified to under oath, he would perhaps
have been more careful about some of the state
ments which he describes as true. But Father
Ogilvie's MS. was conveyed secretly out of the country
lest it should fall into the hands of his enemies, and
has remained in the archives of the Society of Jesus
ever since. The trial and the execution had created
a strong impression in favour of the martyr, and this
it behoved the Archbishop, if possible, to destroy.
His method of procedure can be seen at a glance from
a single instance in his " History of the Church of
Scotland."
In the Parliament of August, 1560, when the
Confession of Faith was passed and the old religion
swept away, Spottiswoode declares that the Catholic
Bishops remained silent. Now, this implies, as
Spottiswoode undoubtedly meant it to imply, that
the Catholic Bishops were pitiful cravens who cared
The Arrest
but little for their religion. As a matter of fact,
only six Catholic Bishops were present at the Parlia
ment, which many people looked upon as illegal.
Of these six, two had never been consecrated, and
three protested. This fact is attested by State docu
ments which are still extant, but of which Spottis-
woode probably knew nothing.1 Yet men were still
alive, when he wrote, who had been present at the
Parliament, and it seems impossible to conceive that
the misstatement was a mere slip of the pen. The
Parliament of August, 1560, is the pivot on which
the history of the Reformation in Scotland turns, and
on such an important event as this the historian
had every facility for making sure of his facts.
The events of that fateful 14th of October, which
saw the arrest of Father Ogilvie, have come down to
us in the martyr's own words. Towards the end of
his long imprisonment, through the instrumentality of
the Archbishop's wife, who showed him some little
kindness, he was allowed the use of pens and paper.
He had to use them in secret, he tells us, taking
advantage of the moments when the vigilance of his
gaoler was somewhat relaxed, but he succeeded in
writing in Latin a lull account of his arrest and
imprisonment. Six days before his trial he delivered
the MS., together with two letters, to Mr. Mayne,
a Catholic, who had been seized ofi the same day
as himself, and who had been sentenced to banish
ment for life. Mayne concealed the paper, which
i State Papers (Scotland), Eliz., vol. v., No. 10. Maitland to
Cecil, August 18th. " The Parliament swallowed the whole Confes
sion, only some five laymen and Ihree Bishops dissenting " (Andrew
Lang, " History of Scotland," ii.).
77
A Scottish Knight-Errant
was afterwards completed by those who had been
eye-witnesses of the martyr's trial and execution,
and deposited it in the hands of the Rector of the
Jesuit college at Bordeaux. It was printed at
Douai in July, 1615, and later by the Maitland Club
in the volume of their publications entitled " Illus
trations of the Reigns of Queen Mary and James VI."
An English translation by Father Kar slake, S.J.,
has been published in Glasgow.
On the morning of his arrest Father Ogilvie said
Mass at Marion Walker's house. It was destined to
be his last on earth. " I was betrayed," he says,
" by one of those I was to have reconciled with the
Church. The traitor was of a noble family . . .
and had been recommended to me as a Catholic
and as one who had been waiting for a long time for
some opportunity of being reconciled."
We gather from the narrative that Father Ogilvie
had only returned that morning to Glasgow, after
one of his many absences. He had made an appoint
ment with Boyd, who was to go to him for in
struction in the afternoon. About four o'clock he
went out for a walk in the streets of the city with
a friend, when the traitor, evidently on the watch,
gave the signal agreed upon, and one of the retainers
of the Archbishop, accosting the priest, ordered him
to go at once to " His Lordship." Father Ogilvie,
imagining that by " His Lordship " was meant the
Sheriff, whom he knew to be the grandson of the
would-be convert, turned back at once, but his friend,
loth to let him out of sight, insisted that he should go
with him to his house. This proposal was vehemently
opposed by the Archbishop's man, and a heated
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The Arrest
argument ensued. " Whilst, however, I am amicably
arranging the dispute between the two," says Father
Ogilvie in the narrative, " a crowd of town officers
and citizens collect about us. They seize rny sword
and begin pushing and pulling me about. I ask
an explanation of their conduct, inquire what harm
I am doing, and whether they are in their right
senses. I told them that it was the other two who
were quarrelling, and that I had nothing whatever
to do with it. No need for a long story. I was
lifted up from the ground by the united rush of the
c^owd, and almost borne away on their shoulders
to the magistrate's house. They snatched away my
cloak, but I said that I would not stir a step until
it was given back to me. Then someone offered
me his, but I said I wanted my own, and at last I
got it away from them. I protested against the
outrageous behaviour of the angry mob, and prom
ised them that I should let everyone know how
they had treated a visitor to their city, who was
doing no harm to anyone, and that without any
lawful warrant or accusation brought against me.
In the meantime the Archbishop, who was in another
part of the city, was informed that the men he had
sent to apprehend me had been killed, that a general
massacre was taking place, and that the city was in
arms." This alarming message seems to have been
carefully prepared beforehand, that the prelate
might have a plausible reason for assembling the
barons and apprehending the priest.
In 1609 the King had instituted two Courts of
High Commission, one in each archdiocese, each
Court consisting of the Archbishop himself together
79
A Scottish Knight- Err ant
with his suffragan Bishops and a certain number
of the nobility. They could call before them anyone
whom they considered to be scandalous in life or
erroneous in opinions, and could impose whatever
fines they chose or imprison for any length of time.
They could excommunicate any subject of the realm
and see to it that the penalties of excommunication
were carried out. They were bound by no law
but their own discretion; they were subject to no
appeal, and their sentence was final. Thus it had
come about that the Archbishop had almost un
limited power in Glasgow in matters civic as well
as religious — " a power," says Cunningham, " which
associated with the name of Bishop everything that
was odious in despotism."
" The Bishop," continues the narrative, " as
sembled the barons, who happened to be in the city,
and they came in a body to the street. He saw
that all was quiet there, and asked where I was.
They replied that I was in the house of the
magistrate who had been elected that day, and
thither he hasted with all his company. I was
sitting between the table and the wall; he called me
out and struck me across the face. ' You are an
over-insolent fellow to say your Masses in a Re
formed city,' he said."
Spottiswoode, in his account of the proceedings,
carefully omits the mention of this dastardly blow,
but his contemporary, Calderwood, had no reason
to be so reticent. " The Bishop buffeted him," he
frankly states.
" Your action is rather that of the executioner
than of the Bishop," was Father Ogilvie's quiet reply;
80
The Arrest
but Spottiswoode had given the lead, and those
under him took the cue from their master. " They
showered blows upon me from every side," continues
the narrative, " plucked the hair from my beard,
and tore my face with their nails, until Count
Fleming restrained them by his authority and by
main force. Then, while I was still half stunned
from the effect of so many blows upon the head, orders
were given that I should be stripped. Some men
there began immediately to obey the command,
untying the strings and undoing the buttons of my
clothes, until, when they were on the point of re
moving my shirt, very shame restored my senses,
and I cried out to know what such wanton insolence
was for."
It was so late by this time that it was judged well
to remove Father Ogilvie to the prison, but even there
he had no peace.
'' They threatened that they would soon proceed
to extremities," he says, " but I laughed at their
threats, their angry faces, and their words. They
threatened me with the ' boots ' : I told them to
bring them, but they replied that they were too
kind to use them. ' But lying is not kindness,' I
said; ' why promise what you do not perform ?' The
keeper of the gaol then remarked that I was a queer
kind of fellow, for prisoners, as a rule, did not beg
to be punished, but desired to be let off. ' That is
all right for those who are ashamed of their actions,
or dread their punishment,' I replied, c but I glory
in my cause and triumph in its penalty.'
4 Take care,' said he, ' what you are doing, and
remember to whom you are speaking.'
81 F
A Scottish Knight-Errant
4 I know all about that,' replied Father Ogilvie;
* be sure to shut up your prison properly, and go to
sleep until to-morrow.' '
But for the prisoner himself there was little sleep;
he was tormented with anxiety lest those to whom
he had ministered should suffer on his account.
His fears were not without cause. The traitor,
having made sure of his first victim, had led a band
of searchers to the houses of the Catholics whose
names he had succeeded in discovering. At the inn
where Father Ogilvie had lodged they found his
luggage, containing a breviary, some Papal decrees
concerning the conditions under which holders of
ecclesiastical property might be reconciled to the
Church, relics of St. Ignatius, St. Margaret, and
St. Catherine, an altar-stone, chalice, and vestments,
together with other " rags of Popery." These
articles, though highly compromising to the priest
himself, put no one else in danger; it was far other
wise with his private papers, carefully deposited
in what he had believed to be a safe hiding-place,
but which was betrayed to the authorities by " a
certain Frenchman." " They were in a very safe
place," says the narrative, " had men only been
honourable and silent."
The discovery of two of these papers might prove
disastrous to his fellow-Catholics, one of them being
a list of Catholic houses where travelling priests
might safely apply for shelter, while the other,
drawn up by Father Anderson, a Jesuit priest who
had left Scotland but a short time before, gave a full
account of all the property belonging to the Fathers
in the country, with detailed information as to where
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The Arrest
it was to be found. This property seems to have
consisted of altar-stones, chalices, and other things
needful for the Divine service, which had been left
in different parts of Scotland for the convenience of
travelling priests.
To Father Ogilvie the loss of his own life mattered
little; he had counted the cost before setting out
on his hazardous enterprise. But the thought that
the lives and property of many good Catholics, whose
only crime was that of having harboured and suc
coured their priests, should be in danger on his
account was a cause of sore trouble to him.
The first to be seized were Heygait and Marion
Walker, who, with fourteen others, were " all
empreasonit in the Castell of Dumbarton, ther to
remayne upon thair awin expenses and therefter
relaxit and confynit for a pecuniall soume for con
travening the Act of Parliament, and fand cautionn
under great soumes of money not to commit the like
fault or cryme again."
As it was into Spottiswoode's pocket, presumably,
that both the " pecuniall soume " as well as " the
great soumes of money " found their way, his interest
in Papist-hunting is easily explained. On the 7th
of December this little band of Catholics, who were
tried apart from Father Ogilvie, were found guilty and
condemned to death. The sentence, however, was
not carried out, the great " soumes of money " and
a public humiliation being considered on the whole
more advantageous to the common weal. Marion
Walker died in prison of the hardships there endured;
the others, the fines having been duly paid, were
released. But though the law was satisfied, the
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A Scottish K nig kt-Rr rant
Kirk was not, as the following extracts from the
book of the Kirk Session of Glasgow bear witness :
" On the 25th of January, 1615, James Forret,
Archibald Scheillts, and John Wallace (went to) the
presbytery humbly confessing their heinous offence
in being present with John Ogilvie, priest, at idol
service, and hearing Mass to the great dishonour of the
Kirk. . . . (They) ofi'ered full satisfaction. Also
James Stewart, Archibald Muir, Andrew Sumner gave
in their supplication, humbly confessing their offence
in receiving and entertaining the foresaid priest . . .
protesting to embrace the (religion) presently pro
fessed in this kingdom of Scotland for ever . . . and
with their blood will defend it to their life's end."
One can imagine the feelings with which these un
fortunate creatures, goaded by the fear of death, or
excommunication with all its horrors, uttered the
words in which they were forced to denounce their
religion as idolatrous, and to profess their belief in
doctrines which denied all that they held most dear.
On the 1st of February Sir James Kneilland was
summoned before the presbytery, and admitted that
he had received the priest twice, " thinking that he
was a soldier, as he came with Captain Donaldson
and many other soldiers." Kneilland declared that
he was a " good Protestant," and had communicated
according to the rite of the Reformed Church in
England, while his wife had done the same in
Glasgow. The truth of Sir James's statement seems
to have been doubted, for he was ordered to procure
a testimony from the minister of the church in
England at which he said he had communicated,
and produce it at a later meeting of the presbytery.
The Arrest
He does not seem to have been further molested,
so must have succeeded in convincing the Kirk that
he was a good Protestant.
On the 8th of March Sir Archibald Muir was
summoned before the presbytery and charged with
the crime of having entertained Father Ogilvie at his
house. He was ordered to attend the sermons
regularly, while the ministers debated as to the
penance they would require of him.
On the 10th of April, a month after the martyrdom
of Father Ogilvie, all his companions were summoned
before the presbytery. The heroic death of the
priest had produced a strong impression in his
favour, which both Spottiswoode and the Kirk
were doing their best to counteract. The following
sentence was therefore pronounced on the little
group of Catholics who had been associated with
him in Glasgow: " That on Sunday " they should stand
" at the High Kirk door from the first ringing of the
bell to (end) of the sermon in linen clothes and bare
headed, and there crave the prayers of the people
as they enter, and this being done, the first Sabbath
in the forenoon, ye shall go to the New Kirk in the
afternoon in the manner aforesaid. Next that ye
enter to the public place of penance within the High
Kirk on the two Sabbaths immediately following,
all others being discharged for the time from the
said place, and after sermon descend to the pillar
and give token of repentance before the congregation
for this abominable act . . . and absolution is
deferred to the synodal assembly at Ayr on the
10th of April."
Heygait, like Marion Walker, was of stauncher
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A Scottish Knight-Errant
stuff. He remained firm and was banished for life
from his country.
Of Father Ogilvie's Edinburgh friends, three were
seized and brought to trial a few months after his
martyrdom. They were all sentenced to death, but
were reprieved at the place of execution, heavily
fined, and one of them at least, the Advocate Sinclair,
driven into exile. He gave evidence at the pre
liminary process of Father Ogilvie's beatification,
published by Father Forbes-Leith in his " Vie de
Jean Ogilvie."
86
CHAPTER IV: The First
Examination
IN the morning of the 15th of October, after a
sleepless night in prison, Father Ogilvie was
led to the Palace of the Archbishop, where he
found assembled a board of examiners, consisting of
the Archbishop himself, the Bishop of Argyll, five
barons, and the Provost of the city. " I was ill
from the harsh usage of the previous day," he says,
" and trembling with weakness." This was hardly
surprising, since he had had no food for over twenty-
four hours.
He was straightway challenged on the subject
of mental reservation, a long and weary argument
ensuing, which only came to an end when the judges
discovered, to their cost, that the prisoner was more
than equal to them at every point. They then
proceeded to direct questions, and asked him if he
were of gentle birth.
" I am," he replied, " and so were my parents
before me."
" Have you ever said Mass in the King's
dominions ?" was the next question.
"If to say Mass is a crime," he answered, " you
cannot expect me to answer that question. It lies
with you to produce the witnesses."
"We have proof of it," they continued, "in the
testimony of those who saw you."
" If your witnesses have satisfied you on that
A Scottish Knight-Errant
point, all right. I shall neither weaken their testi
mony by my denial nor strengthen it by my confes
sion until I see fit to do so."
" Then you are a priest ?" they questioned.
4 You said just now that you could prove that
I had said Mass. If that is so, you are surely able
to prove also that I am a priest."
It was a case of check again.
" What is your name ?" was the next inquiry.
" Why do you ask ?" replied Father Ogilvie. " If
you suspect me, bring forward my crime and prove
it by witnesses. You have not deserved so well
of me that I should oblige you with gratuitous in
formation. What I am bound by law to say, I will
say, but nothing more."
;' Do you acknowledge the King?" they asked.
" James is de facto King of Scotland," was the
reply.
" At this question," says Father Ogilvie, " I was
a little afraid, but the stupid fellows, not under
standing law terms, did not know how to follow up
the point." He knew enough of the recent pro
ceedings in England to be aware that the authorities
were using every pretext to try to condemn the
priests on the ground of treason rather than religion.
They were determined to be rid of them at any cost,
but were resolved that they should figure as traitors
and not as martyrs. Again and again in Father
Ogilvie's trial we find the judges harking back to the
subject of the Papal Supremacy, " that two-edged
sword," as Blessed Thomas More had named it.
Those were days of transition, when a startled world
saw new theories advanced and new methods boldly
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The First Examination
advocated. Theologians had grown so accustomed
to seeing the spiritual and temporal power living, so
to speak, under the same roof, that the spectacle
of nations cutting themselves adrift from the
spiritual authority of the Pope was almost unin
telligible to them. They were inclined to treat it
as a passing phase and to advocate the use of the old
weapons, such as decrees of deposition and ex
communications. They did not see, time alone could
show them, that the old state of things had passed
for ever, and that new ways and means must be
devised to meet the new needs and dangers. Father
Ogilvie took one standpoint and held to it firmly
throughout. Whenever any question of faith was
involved, he avowed his belief and gloried in it; when
it was a doubtful matter involving some point not
yet defined as of faith, he refused to commit himself.
" In replying to such questions," he would answer, t
" I should be acknowledging you as judges in religious
controversies, which you are not." To the Pope
or his deputies, the sole legitimate judges in such
matters, he told them, alone an answer was due.
" James is de facto King of Scotland," he had
said.
" Swear to it," replied the judges.
" Why should I swear ?"
" So that all may know whether or not you have
reasonably conspired against the King."
" You well know," was the answer, " that to swear
needlessly is to contravene the Divine command,
which says : ' Thou shalt not take the Name of the
Lord thy God in vain.' And it seems to me that I
should be swearing uselessly, were I to swear to
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A Scottish Knight-Errant
my own evidence, since, according to the law, an
oath in my own favour would avail nothing."
It was a reversal of the usual proceedings for the
prisoner to point out to the judges that the law
prohibits such oaths, for the reason that many of the
worst kind of criminals would be only too ready
to perjure themselves if in so doing there were a
chance for them of escape from punishment.
'' Bring forward your witnesses," said Father
Ogilvie, " to prove your charges against me, and if
you cannot do so, why, then, do you persecute an
innocent man ?"
"We ask you in the King's name to take the
oath."
" Tell me first, then, what you require me to
swear to."
' That you will answer all questions put to you
without equivocation or mental reservation."
'' 1 am not bound to do so," was the reply, " but
I will take my oath that I shall truly answer all the
questions which I think right to answer; in all other
cases I shall say that I do not wish to answer."
"And what are those things that you will not
speak to ?" they inquired.
'' I shall say nothing that would tend to my own
detriment or to the prejudice of any other innocent
person."
" And what are your reasons for refusing to answer
such questions ?"
" My reasons are two. In the first place it would
be sinful to say anything that would compromise
or injure an innocent person, and I shall not do so.
Secondly, since the foundation of all laws is the law
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The First Examination
of nature, which aims not at man's destruction, but
his preservation, I shall say nothing which might
lead to my own injury and so to the contravention
of that Divine law."
Eventually Father Ogilvie took the oath on the
express understanding that he should be free to
refuse an answer to questions which he considered
unjust. This done, he gave them full particulars as
to his name, family, and birthplace. The official
account of this part of his trial is as follows:
:' The priest being asked what his name was, he
called himself John Ogilvie, son of Walter Ogilvie of
Drum; and that he had been out of this country
twenty-two years, and that he studied in the colleges
of Olmlitz and Gratz, and remained in Olmlitz two
years and in Gratz five years; and that he received
the order of priesthood in Paris; and that he came
home to Scotland before now, and remained six
weeks or thereby. And that he came home (i.e.,
from London) about May last or thereby; and con
fessed that the bag produced before him on the table
wTas his own. And that he was one of the ordinary
Jesuits. And being asked whether the Pope's
jurisdiction extended over the King's dominions in
spiritual matters, affirmed constantly the same,
and would die for it." " Johannes Ogilbceus,
Societatis Jesu," is the signature appended to the
document.
The examination proceeded.
" I was again asked whether I had said Mass
in the King's dominions, and replied that since the
King's edicts and Acts of Parliament have made it
a crime to say Mass, I could not answer that question.
A Scottish Knight- Err ant
In any case, I said, my judges were there to inquire
into crime, not acts of religious worship, such as the
celebrating of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The
King, I told them, was supreme judge in cases of
murder, treason, and robbery, but not of the ad
ministration of the Sacraments.
" 4 But,' they said, ' the King is not a layman.'
" ' He is certainly not a priest nor has he received
even minor orders.'
" They next wanted to know why I had come to
Scotland.
" ' To convert my countrymen from heresy and
to save souls.'
" ' Whence have you authority to minister to the
people, since neither the King nor the Bishops have
given it to you ?'
" Laughingly I answered that their Bishops, like
their King, were mere laymen, and had not a particle
of jurisdiction to give, since Christ committed the
sheep to the care of Peter, and whosoever wishes
to feed those sheep must first have authority to do
so from the Holy See, the representative of St. Peter.
4 It is from that See,' I told them, 4 that I have my
jurisdiction, and that jurisdiction I am able to trace
back to Our Lord Himself through an unbroken line of
Pontiffs.'
" ' But it is treason to assert, as you do, that the
Pope has any spiritual jurisdiction in the King's
dominions.'
" ' He has such jurisdiction. It is an article of faith.'
" ' Would you dare to sign a paper to that effect ?'
" ' Yes, and if need be I would sign it with my
blood.'
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The First Examination
" Straightway I signed it. Then they asked:
" ' Can the Pope depose a King ?'
44 ' He cannot depose a lawful King who is an
obedient son of the Church.'
" ' But supposing that the King is a heretic ?'
" ' Many theologians hold that the Pope can depose
an heretical Sovereign.'
" ' What do you yourself hold ?'
" ' When it shall be denned as an article of faith
that the Pope can depose an heretical King I shall
give my life-blood to defend it, and when I receive
power to judge both Pope and King I shall tell the
one what he may do, and the other what he deserves.
As for what I now hold, there is no necessity for
me to say until I am called upon to express my
opinion by the one who is judge in these matters—
the Pope or one of his delegates.' '
Questioned on the subject of the Gunpowder
Plot, Father Ogilvie told his judges that he detested
parricides and held them in horror. One of the
judges argued that Jesuits taught that it was lawful
to kill heretical Sovereigns.
" If you want the truth of that matter," said the
prisoner, " read the decrees of the Council of Con
stance, and you will see that it is the heretics who
teach and the Church that condemns such doctrines.
Wi cliff e taught that subjects might lawfully kill
their rulers if the latter were at fault, and that by
sin, rulers forfeit their authority. These theses the
Church condemned." He then declared that the
Gunpowder Plot was the deed of a few misguided
Catholics, and proceeded to turn the tables on his
opponents by instancing the disgraceful attacks
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A Scottish Knight-Errant
made on the King by the Presbyterians, notably
during the riots of 1596, and again when a band of
ministers under the Rev. Robert Bruce wrote asking
the Marquis of Hamilton to seize the throne. These
proceedings, now conveniently forgotten, he com
pared with the Gunpowder Plot, brought up on
every occasion against the Catholics. The latter, he
pointed out, was a mad project devised by a few
courtiers, whereas the former were open rebellions,
led by the preachers themselves.
" Against the Jesuits," he concluded, " you can
bring forth naught but lying suspicions, worthy
fruit of the hatred you bear us, but these riots I speak
of were facts of which eye-witnesses still remain,
in the person of the King and others."
From the Gunpowder Plot it was an easy step to
Father Garnett and his alleged complicity therein,
and Father Ogilvie was questioned about the
martyred Provincial.
" c He was innocent,' I said, 4 and not for the whole
world should he have revealed anything heard under
the seal of the Confessional.' '
" If anyone should confess to me," declared the
Archbishop, " anything against the life of the King,
I should denounce him, even though I had heard it
under the seal of the Confessional."
44 One would be unwise, then, to choose you as his
confessor," replied the priest.
They then declared that the Pope had canonized
Father Garnett.
" Who says that ?"
44 Why, at Rome he is painted amongst the martyrs
of your Society."
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The First Examination
" It is a poor argument that is taken from painters
and poets, and one which proves nothing. I myself
do hold him a martyr if he died for the secrecy of the
Confessional, and, moreover, if the Pope has de
clared him a martyr I would willingly die in defence
of the fact."
The Archbishop meanwhile was getting annoyed
at the way in which the wary priest was escaping all
the pitfalls they had so carefully prepared to catch him.
" Have done," he cried, " with all these supposi
tions of yours. We want to know what you your
self think."
" I think this," was the reply. " Whilst journeying
through England I read a little book which contained
a statement written by Father Garnett himself when
he was in prison. This statement two Ambassadors
and many other gentlemen declare to be true, and
from reading it I say that I believe Father Garnett
died a holy death and was innocent of the plot."
They produced the public acts containing the
account of Father Garnett 's trial.
" ' Those,' I said, ' were compiled by his enemies,
and so inspire but little confidence. But these
things do not concern me. I came to Scotland to
preach Christ and not Garnett. I have to answer
for my own acts, as he already has answered to God
for his. Each for himself, and God for us all.' '
At this stage, Father Ogilvie tells us, he was over
come by faintness, the result of his long fast. He
was in a fever, and shivering from head to foot. The
examiners noticed this, and, with the first touch of
humanity they had shown, ordered him to go to the
fire; thus his first examination came to an end.
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A Scottish Knight-Errant
Even then, weak and ill as he obviously was,
lie was not left in peace. A Highlander amongst the
crowd declared that the prisoner was no true Ogilvie,
but a perjurer who had adopted that honest name
as a cloak for his misdeeds. He ended his angry
accusation by the threat that he would throw the
priest into the fire.
Father Ogilvie, unmoved by this tirade, lost neither
his temper nor his ready wit. " You could not
throw me into the fire at a more opportune moment,"
he remarked good-humouredly, " for I am shivering
with cold. But do it carefully, or you will scatter
the ashes and have the trouble of picking them up."
Even the Highlander joined in the general laugh that
followed this sally, and they parted on good terms.
It was now the turn of the Provost, who declared
that the prisoner was no Ogilvie, but a townsman
of his own, whose mother still lived in the city and
whose brother was a preacher. Several among the
citizens backed him up in this statement, recounting
escapades in which Father Ogilvie had figured as a
boy.
' I denied the whole story," he writes, " so they
brought my so-called mother to identify me as her
son. She refused to own me, because she said my
fingers were not deformed, nor was I mentally deficient,
as was her son. I was, she said, too sharp."
The judges had come to the same conclusion.
They announced that the examination for that day
was at an end; the people, favourably impressed
by Father Ogilvie's patience and sense of humour,
were dispersed, and the priest returned to his
prison.
CHAPTER V: Edinburgh—
The Torture
THE preliminary examination over, Spottis-
woode wrote a lengthy report of the pro
ceedings to the King. The document is still
in existence, and parts of it make interesting reading.
"Most Sacred and Gracious Majesty," he begins,
" it has pleased God to cast into my hands a Jesuit
that calls himself Ogilvie. He came to this city and
said some Masses, for (assisting at) which we have
tried eight of our burgesses. He himself will answer
nothing that serves for discovering his traffic in this
country, which appears to be great. ... I crave
Your Majesty's pardon to deliver my advice for the
punishment of these transgressors and the trial of
the priest . . . exemplary punishment is necessary
in this case, and by the law their lives, lands, and
whole estate are in Your Majesty's hands. . . .
Being (found) guilty and put in Your Majesty's will
they would be fined according to their quality and
estate; only Robert Hey gait, that has been the
seducer of the rest, should be banished out of Your
Majesty's dominions during Your Highness's pleasure.
. . . The fines Your Majesty will be graciously pleased
to command the treasurer to divide with me, (be
cause) all are burgesses of this city, and by the
privileges Your Majesty's predecessors have granted
to this see these (fines) of all malefactors fall to the
Bishop."
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A Scottish Knight-Errant
It is obvious that the Archbishop had an eye to his
own interests. He needed the money, he said, to
recompense the traitor Boyd and others "who have
served me in this business, and to whom I have par
ticularly obliged myself. . . . For the Jesuit, Your
Majesty may be pleased to command him to be brought
to Edinburgh and examined by such of the Council
as Your Majesty may be pleased to nominate. . . .
They should be commanded to use his examination
with great secrecy, and if he give not answer nor
confess ingenuously, then to give him the boots
or the torture. . . . The knowledge I have of the
state here . . . makes me bold to deliver my opinion
in this sort."
Whilst awaiting the answer to this missive, the
Archbishop gave orders that the priest should be kept
a close captive. " Here," says Father Ogilvie in his
narrative, " I am fastened with two rings to a lump
of iron of about two hundred pounds weight, shaped
like a pole, so that I can only sit up or lie on my
back, but can do nothing else save stand up for a
short space."
' There was nothing lacking in his prison that was
requisite for one of his quality," says Spottiswoode.
The winter of 1614-1615 is described in contemporary
records as having been the coldest within the memory
of man. All communications between the different
parts of the country were cut off by continual snow
storms, while many travellers and quantities of cattle
died of exposure. What Father Ogilvie must have
suffered, chained to one spot in his unwarmed stone
cell in the Archbishop's prison, can be better imagined
than described.
98
Rdinbiirgh — The Torture
The answer to Spottiswoode's letter was not long
in coming. The King ordered that the priest be
closely examined and the other prisoners brought to
trial.
The trial took place in Glasgow on the 7th of
December, and the Catholics, who were found guilty
of having heard Mass and entertained Father Ogilvie,
were condemned. On the following day word was
brought that the priest was to be removed to Edin
burgh, there to undergo a fresh examination before
a committee of the Privy Council. A great crowd
had gathered outside the prison, among them being
the wives and children of the condemned Catholics,
who had been told that, in order to save himself,
the priest had given the names of all those who had
visited him during his stay in the city. Father
Ogilvie's appearance was the signal for an outburst
of cursing and vituperation; stones, snow, and dirt
were caught up from the roadside and hurled at him
by the furious townspeople, who believed that he
had betrayed his friends to save his own skin. The
servants of the Archbishop made some endeavours
to restrain the violence of the mob, but the ministers,
notes Father Ogilvie, looked on in silence without
attempting to help them.
" I rode on quite gaily," he says, "as if I cared
naught for it, and the people were surprised at my
coolness." He had a merry word even for those who
pelted him with snow and dirt. " A curse upon your
ugly face," screamed a woman in the crowd. " The
blessing of Christ on your bonny one," was the cheery
reply. The woman's tone suddenly changed, and in a
few moments she was as loud in her championship
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A Scottish Knight-Errant
of the priest as she had been in her denunciations.
Before long the whole company, won over by his
serene good-humour, was laughing heartily at his
merry jests.
At Edinburgh another crowd was waiting to receive
him, and although, desiring to avoid a repetition of
the scene in Glasgow, he had wrapped himself in a
heavy riding-cloak, he was recognized almost at
once.
It seemed at first as though he were to be treated
with unwonted leniency. He was taken to the town
house of the Archbishop — the old pre- Reformation
residence of the Archbishops of Glasgow, situated at
the south-east corner of Blackfriars Wynd or Street,
and used by the prelates when Parliament was in
session. He was comfortably lodged, and all who
desired to speak with him were admitted to his room.
Before leaving the house they were closely questioned
as to how they had come to know him, and where,
when, and with whom they had seen him. By this
device Spottiswoode was able to discover the names
of many Catholics who had lodged or in any way
helped Father Ogilvie, and then proceeded, as he
had done before in Glasgow, to circulate deliberately
the report that the priest had betrayed his friends.
Sundry of the Privy Councillors came also to visit the
prisoner, and spent themselves in vain efforts to
make him disclose some facts which might be used
against him or his fellow-Catholics. Angry at last
at the failure of their endeavours, they threateningly
showed him the boots, or " bootikins," horrible
instruments of torture which were clamped round
the legs and tightened until the bones were broken
100
Edinburgh — The Torture
and crushed. Finding that this made little impres
sion on the priest, they changed their tone and
promised him wealth, a grand marriage, and the
Provostship of Mofl'at, if only he would give up his
religion.
" I replied that they ought to offer that to Father
Moffat (who had also been arrested), as the names
fitted in so well," writes Father Ogilvie. " They
replied that he was too silly."
" Oh, he is much sharper than I am, and if he does
not suit you I shall never do."
On the 12th of December the prisoner appeared
for the first time before the Privy Council. Certain
of his papers, notably those drawn up by Father
Anderson and Father Murdoch, were produced, and
acknowledged by Father Ogilvie as his property.
" Who gave you hospitality when first you came
to this city ?" was the opening inquiry.
" I am not bound to tell you, and so I shall not
do so."
" The King has a right to know in what houses
you have been as a guest, so that he may know
whether you and others have been plotting against
his State."
" If I answered that question the King would use
the information for a religious end — namely, the
persecution of the Catholics. I shall not answer."
As they still persisted, Father Ogilvie explained his
position at some length.
" The King," he said, " asks that question because
he wishes to discover and punish more Catholics, as
he treated the Glasgow prisoners and the other
Catholic gentlemen whom you have since arrested.
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A Scottish KnigJit-Rrrant
Now, if I say where I have been received as a guest,
you would force my hosts to tell the names of all
those who visited me, so should I be a cause of evil
to them, for they in their turn would cither be
imprisoned or deny their faith. I shall not give
you the information you desire, because by so doing
I should risk the loss of my own soul, offend God, and
ruin my neighbour."
' You refuse, then, to obey the King ?"
>c I shall render to His Majesty all things due to
him."
4 The King forbids Masses, and yet you say them."
' Whether Christ or the King is to be obeyed,
judge ye. The King forbids it, but Christ in
Luke xxii. has ordained it and commanded Masses
to be said as I shall prove to you if you like. Now
if the King condemns what Christ commands, what
is he but a persecutor ?"
' Yet the King of France expels Protestants and
the King of Spain burns them."
6 They act, then, not against religion, but against
heresy, and heresy is not religion, but rebellion.'*
The subject was changed.
' You have no right to be in this country against
the King's will."
' I am just as much a Scotsman as is the King
himself, and he cannot forbid me my country without
legitimate cause."
;< He has very good cause. He fears for himself
and his State, because of the plotting of you Jesuits."
;' Let him act as did his mother and all the
Sovereigns of Scotland before him, and he shall
have no more reason to fear the Jesuits than the
102
Edinburgh — The Torture
King of Spain has. Do we owe him any more than
our ancestors owed to his ? If he has his right to
reign from his ancestors, why does he lay claim to
greater powers than they bequeathed to him ?
They neither had nor claimed any spiritual juris
diction; they held no faith but that of the holy
Roman Catholic Church."
This very practical reply aroused the anger of the
Councillors. One of them exclaimed wrathfully that
they were not there for the purpose of holding a
disputation.
" And I do not dispute," replied Father Ogilvie;
" I am only trying to prove to you that I cannot law
fully be denied the right to live in my native country,
for to refuse to acknowledge this new claim of the
King's to spiritual authority is no crime. If you can
prove that I have ever broken the laws of the country,
bring forward your witnesses and show your proofs."
It occurred to one of the Council that by a more
conciliatory manner they might be more likely to
gain their ends. " Will you not tell us frankly," he
agreeably suggested, " all you have done in Scotland
and with whom you have had intercourse ? . . .
Truly it is only your refusal to give us any information
that makes us suspect that you fear to name others,
lest they should betray you."
" I thank you, sir," was the answer; " your advice
I shall accept when it seems good to me. At present
it is not to my liking, for either through fear of you
or through hope of reward, some might be found to
feign knowledge of a conspiracy, and so you would
obtain what I know you are seeking, a plausible
excuse for taking away my life."
103
A Scottish K nig Jit- Err ant
4 The King takes no man's life on account of
religion."
4 Why, then, were the Glasgow prisoners con
demned to death for hearing Mass ? No other crime
was ever laid to their charge."
4 You will have us to put you to the torture."
" I will tell you nothing more."
The subject was changed once again. " Do you
defend the doctrines of Suarez ?" they asked him.
14 1 have not read Suarez' book; if he has therein
anything that is not of Faith, let him who teaches it
defend it. I am no satellite of Suarez, and if you
yourselves want to refute it — well, write a better
book on the same subject."
The examination was hurriedly concluded, the
priest being dismissed with an order to consider
whether he would obey the King or 44 endure the
worst."
44 My mind is already made up on that subject,"
was the quiet answer; 4' you have already heard my
decision."
Father Ogilvie was led away, this time apparently
to a dungeon in the castle, and the Council deliberated.
They were determined to use every possible means
to extract the information they wanted, and to this
end decided to use the torture known as the depriva
tion of sleep.
From the evening of the 12th of October to the
morning of the 21st — eight days and nine nights —
Father Ogilvie was surrounded by men whose sole
business was to see that he did not get one moment's
rest. They began by keeping him constantly in
motion, but he was soon so overpowered with weari-
104
Edinburgh — The Torture
ness that they were obliged to have recourse to stylets,
pins, and other instruments, with which they stabbed
unceasingly the most sensitive parts of his body,
driving needles in under his nails. During all this
time the questions continued almost without respite,
the Privy Councillors succeeding each other with
persistent demands as to where he had stayed, to
whom he had administered the Sacraments, and
where he had said Mass. But not even this inhuman
torture, calculated to drive any man mad, could
induce him to reveal one word of what they sought
to discover. Steadfast strength of will, sustained
by prayer, prevailed over bodily weakness, and not
one of those to whom he had ministered had reason
to regret that they had helped him in time of need
or received at his hands the consolations of religion.
Spottiswoode, more and more desperate as the days
went on and the tortured priest remained silent,
declared at last openly that he was sorry that he had
ever had anything to do with the matter.
One of the Council, furious at the failure of his
attempts to make the prisoner give the desired in
formation, told him that the torture would continue
until he spoke or died. This roused Father Ogilvie's
indignation.
" You are a pack of bloodthirsty monsters !" he
cried. " I can and will cheerfully suffer more in this
cause than you and all your friends can inflict. Such
things do not frighten me. I laugh at your threats
as I would at the cackling of so many geese."
Another, perhaps moved by a sudden impulse of
pity, asked the tortured man whether he needed
anything.
105
A Scottish Knight- Err ant
;c Nothing," was the reply, " save that which you
will not allow me — sleep."
During the night of the 20th of December he
became so weak that they sent for a doctor, who
declared that he had but an hour or two to live.
Unwilling to have him die on their hands, they allowed
him to sleep for a few hours. On the morning of the
21st they roused him and led him before the Council.
' I was so weak and feeble," he writes, " that I
scarce knew what I did or where I was. I did not
even know in what city I was."
Surely in this condition, thought his enemies,
they would have him at their mercy. They began
by praising their own kindness in having inflicted
on him the torture of sleeplessness instead of that
of the boots.
c If you had examined me with the boots," replied
Father Ogilvie, " I might still have been able to earn
my bread, for I could have been carried to the schools
or the Confessional. But you have injured my
brain by these watchings; it is my brain that you have
tortured, and by nothing could you have harmed
me more, for my vocation is to serve Christ our Lord
by my brain and not by my shins, . . . You have
tried to make an idiot out of a sane man, and a fool
out of a Jesuit. Good-bye to the preferments which
you offer if they are to be gained by that kind of a
conversion."
" There are even worse things to come," they
threatened, " if you do not satisfy the King."
" Even if I had ever intended giving you the
information you seek," was the answer, " I should
not do so now, lest you should imagine that I gave
106
Edinburgh — The Torture
it through fear, like a beast moved and led by its
senses, and not by reason like a man. Try your
boots, and with God's help I will show you that in
this cause I care no more for my legs than you do
for your leggings. ... I consider myself born for
greater things than to be overcome by sense. ... I
trust not in myself, but in the grace of Cod. . . .
I sue to you for nothing. One thing only I ask : What
ever you are going to do, do quickly."
" You speak from passion," said Spottiswoode,
" for no sane man wishes to die if he can save his
life, as you can do if you will satisfy the King."
" I am not speaking from passion, but deliberately
and with reason. I will preserve my life provided
I am not compelled to lose my God in saving it.
But since I cannot do both — serve God and keep
my life — I do willingly give up that which is of the
lesser value for that which is of greater."
And so the examination came to a close. Father
Ogilvie was taken back to his prison, and allowed
to sleep in peace.
" The report of my watchings," says the narrative,
" had spread throughout Scotland." So had the
report of his constancy. Calderwood pretends that
during those awful days and nights " secretes were
drewene out of him," but Spottiswoode, much as
he desired to get the information that would lead to
the capture of the Catholics to whom the priest had
ministered, while declaring that " the Commissioners,
offended at his obstinacy, and meaning to extort
a confession from him, advised to keep him some
nights from sleep; and this indeed wrought somewhat
with him, so as he begun to discover certain parti-
107
A Scottish Knight-Errant
culars," was obliged to admit that "how soon lie
was permitted to take any rest, he denied all, and
was as obstinate in denying as at first."
On the following day more visitors came to the
prison. Some, perhaps out of sympathy, urged
him to satisfy the King. A " certain gentleman,"
who had presided over the proceedings which pre
vented him from sleeping, informed him that his
head would decorate one of the spikes of the city
gates. One of the Glasgow sheriffs wound up a tirade
of abuse by declaring: " If / were the King I should
boil you in wax !"
' If God had intended you for King," promptly
replied the prisoner, " he would have made you a
wiser man."
' The Sheriff was anything but appeased by this
sally," remarks Father Ogilvie, " and by the
laughter that greeted it. I wanted to drink his
health across the table, but he would not accept my
challenge, so I took him off in jest to get him out
of his bad temper and make the others laugh. The
Archbishop and the others thoroughly enjoyed it,
saying that I imitated him as well as if I had known
him all my life." At last the Sheriff himself could
not help joining in the general merriment at his own
expense, and on the following day, when the prisoner
was on his way back to Glasgow, gave him a genial
invitation to visit his gardens and house, and treated
him with marked kindness while there.
108
CHAPTER VI: The Return to
Glasgow
ONE of the first acts of the Scottish Reformers
had been to forbid the celebration of all
feasts of the Church; any attempt to keep
Easter, Christmas, or any other of the great Christian
festivals, being visited with the severest punishments.
Although this spirit was still rife among the Presby
terians, the Bishops, who for the moment had the
upper hand, were trying their utmost to reintroduce
the celebration of the greater feasts (stigmatized by
themselves a short time before as idolatry), and to
force the unwilling ministers to follow their lead in
the matter.
The Christmas of 1614 was close at hand, and
Spottiswoode, determined to be present in Glasgow
to see that the services of Christmas Day were carried
out in the cathedral according to his own views, and
equally determined not to let the charge of Father
Ogilvie pass out of his hands, decided to take him
with him. The Privy Council did not see the matter
in quite the same light, and it was only after a good
deal of wrangling that the Archbishop got his way.
On the 24th of December, the anniversary of Father
Ogilvie's reception into the Society of Jesus fifteen
years before, they set out on the return journey. Once
more the priest found himself in his old cell in the
Archbishop's prison, and it was there that he spent
the feast of Christmas, destined to be his last on earth.
While the Scottish Reformers were congratulating
109
A Scottish Knight- Err ant
themselves on having abolished such " superstitious
practices " as the celebration of Masses, the sign of
the cross, kneeling at prayer, and veneration of the
Saints, the dark belief in witchcraft and sorcery was
becoming daily more widespread. Even the King,
who had himself written a book on demonology,
in which he set forth the most gross and absurd super
stitions as indubitable facts, was not averse to a
bout of witch-hunting as an agreeable and diverting
pastime. A woman called Amies Simpson and a
certain Dr. Fian, accused of having, by means
of sorcery, raised a storm against His Majesty of
Scotland when on his way home from Denmark, were
horribly tortured in his presence, Fian's nails being
torn from his fingers, his finger-bones splintered in
the thumbscrews, and his legs crushed to pieces in the
boots. Both declared under the torture that they
had been present at a witch meeting, and the woman
described one of the diabolical orgies she had at
tended in the church of Berwick, where the Devil,
clad in a black gown and with a black hat on his
head, preached from the pulpit to a number of
witches ! She was condemned, together with Fian
and thirty others, whom they certified to have been
also present, and they were all burned alive on the same
day. To bring an accusation of witchcraft against
an enemy was well known to be one of the easiest
ways of getting rid of him; the most idle tales were
eagerly listened to, and many innocent people,
who under the agony of the torture would have
admitted anything that was suggested to them, were
executed. The greater part of the winter of 1625, says
Spottiswoode, was spent in the hearing of these cases.
no
The Return to Glasgow
Under these circumstances it is hardly surprising
to find that during the first weeks of the New Year
an individual was found ready to swear that he had
seen Father Ogilvie whispering during the night over
a great black book by the dim light of a single candle.
As every priest is required to say the Divine Office
daily, and as breviaries are usually black and were
in those days not infrequently large, there was nothing
very damning about this statement. But the imagina
tion of the informer was able to supply more sinister
details. A company of little black demons, he
declared, were gambolling round the priest, evidently
called up from the nether regions by his muttered
incantations. They had brought with them, very
obligingly, some choice refreshments, of which they
and the Jesuit partook in company. This accusation,
however, was too insufficiently supported to be taken
seriously, even in the seventeenth century, and,
anxious as the Archbishop was to find some incrimina
ting evidence against his prisoner, it was allowed to
drop. " I burst out laughing," says Father Ogilvie,
" when the ministers related these things to me, and
used no other argument to refute the calumny than
by admitting that I used my breviary. Before an
Assembly the preachers said that they did not even
yet know what I might be; and the Archbishop re
marked that if they had not found my letters and
bundle he could not have discovered anything about
me. ' Is not this an intolerable thing,' he complained,
' that you will let out nothing, when so many people
are tiring themselves out without getting a step
forward in the matter ? '
There is something incredibly naive about the
in
A Scottish Knight-Errant
complaint that the priest will not give evidence
against himself or his friends and so provide an
excuse for his and their condemnation. It is,
moreover, of great value, for it effectually disproves
a subsequent statement of Spottiswoode's that under
the torture Father Ogilvie had revealed the names of
all the Catholics who had given him hospitality.
Andrew Knox, Bishop of the Isles, believing that
he might succeed where so many others had failed,
then undertook to examine the prisoner. He had
been one of those ministers who had so bitterly
opposed the re-establishment of the Bishops by
James, and had preached a most violent sermon
against the King for this most " ungodly act."
Scarcely a week had elapsed since this outburst
of zeal, when he accepted with alacrity one of the
new sees offered to him by the canny monarch, who
presumably knew his man. The story was well
known in Scotland, and did not add greatly to the
credit of the new prelate, who consoled himself
by accepting a second see, that of Raphoc in Ireland,
where he went about trying and condemning to death
all the Irish Catholics on whom he could lay hands. He
had just returned from this pastoral visitation when
he came to visit Father Ogilvie in his prison at Glasgow.
" I can say Mass as well as you," was his opening
salutation.
" You are a priest, then ?" asked Father Ogilvie.
11 No."
" Then you can neither say Mass, nor are you a
Bishop."
This retort Knox chose to ignore, for he had a
suggestion to make.
112
The Return to Glasgow
" Come, now," he urged, " be sensible. If you
will forsake these human inventions and follow the
religion preached and professed by the Apostles, you
will be well provided for, for you are a high-spirited
fellow and very wide awake."
" Your religion that of the Apostles !" said Father
Ogilvie. " Why, your religion is not yet ten years
old. When I was a boy you held as an article of
faith that there was not any head of the Church,
and that no one ought to be called so but Christ,
and now you swear that the King is the head of the
Church in his own dominions. You taught one
thing then, and now the exact opposite. This is not
apostolic doctrine, for St. Paul says: ' If I should
destroy again the things which I have built up, I
make myself a prevaricator.' Now you preached at
Paisley against the re-establishment of the Episcopate,
and said in your sermon that you would openly declare
to be a devil any man who accepted a bishopric.
You even said that such a person would deserve
that the people should spit in his face. And within
a fortnight you yourself became a Bishop. Moreover,
not contented with the episcopate of the Isles, you
took another fatter one in Ireland. Look at Cooper,
too, who wrote a book denouncing the Bishops, and
is now Bishop of Galloway. All of you preachers,
in the General Assembly only a few years ago, swore
and subscribed your declaration that the name and
office of a Bishop is to be abominated, and not per
missible in the Church, and now you teach the
contrary."
"Not at all," replied the Bishop; "truth makes
itself known. We see more clearly than formerly."
113 H
A Scottish Knight-Errant
" Quite so," was the reply. " You see thousands
in the revenues of a Bishop, while as preachers you
scarcely knew where to find a hundred. But tell me
this: If the Articles denouncing Bishops were God's
truth sixteen years ago, how does it happen that they
are now false ? What are these doctrines of yours,
building up and destroying the same thing ? You
said then that they were the Word of God, and now
you say that what you at present hold is the Word
of God. Wliat lying Word is this, and who is this
changeable God whose Word you preach ? If we
were bound to believe you then, how can we be
bound to believe your contrary doctrines now ?
For then as now you brought forward Holy Scripture
to prove your words. Unless I am greatly mistaken,
your doctrine is ' wickedness lying to itself.' '
" Mr. Ogilvic," replied His Lordship, in nowise
disconcerted by this plain speaking, " you are a right
spirited fellow ! I only wish I had a few of your sort
to follow me. I would make good use of them."
" I would sooner follow the hangman to the
gallows," was the reply, " for you arc going straight
to the Devil."
" Is that the way you speak to me ?" demanded the
prelate.
" You must excuse me, my Lord," said Father
Ogilvic; " I have not learnt court phraseology, and we
Jesuits speak as we think. I may not flatter you.
I honour you for your civil dignity and respect your
grey hairs, but your religion and Episcopate I count
as nothing. You are a layman, nothing more, and
have no more spiritual authority than your walking-
stick. If you do not wish me to say what I think
114
The Return to Glasgow
about these things you had better bid me hold my
peace, arid I will be silent. But if you wish me to
speak, I shall say what I think, and not what pleases
you."
" It is a great pity," said the Bishop, with an air
of compassion, " that poverty should have made
you a Papist."
" You measure me by your own standard, my Lord,
who abjured ten Articles of faith for two bishoprics,"
was the well-deserved retort. " I was in no poverty.
As my father's eldest son, I could have enjoyed the
position and the patrimony of a gentleman, even if
I had not been educated. And if I chose now,
like you, to change my religion, I could have a good
income, together with the favour of the King."
Foiled at every point and smarting under the
home truths so incisively presented, the Bishop
took himself off " in a great rage," and troubled the
priest no more.
Early in January the Archbishop received a
royal mandate, ordering that Father Ogilvie should
be examined by a Commission consisting of Spottis-
woode himself, the Bishop of Argyll, Lord Fleming,
Sir George Elphinstone, and James Hamilton, Provost
of the city, and that certain questions should be put
to him.
On the 18th of January the prisoner was brought
before the Commissioners, and the following questions
propounded :
" Whether the Pope is judge and has power in
spiritualibus over His Majesty; and whether that
power be held also in temporalibus, if it be in ordinc ad
spiritualia, as Bellarmine holds."
A Scottish Knight-Errant
To this question Father Ogilvie replied that he
thought that the Pope was judge of His Majesty and
had power over him in spiritualibus, if the King
were a Christian.
" And do you hold that the power extends to matters
in temporalibus if it be in or dine ad spiritualia ?"
This Father Ogilvie refused to answer, on the
grounds that no decision had been given by the Church.
" Can the Pope depose an heretical King ?" was the
next question.
4 That he can do so is the opinion of many theo
logians," was the reply. " When it shall be defined
as an article of faith I shall lay down my life for it.
Under present circumstances I am not bound to say
what I myself think, save to the Pope or his lawfully
appointed delegate."
44 May a King who has been excommunicated by the
Pope be lawfully killed ?"
;4 That question I refuse to answer, on the sole
grounds that, were I to do so, I should be admitting
your claim to a spiritual jurisdiction which you do
not possess. If you consulted me for the sake of
instruction I would tell you, but since you interrogate
me in your official capacity as judges, I cannot with
a safe conscience answer you. I have condemned
both the oaths submitted to the Catholics of England
— those of Supremacy and Allegiance."
44 Has the Pope jurisdiction over the King ?"
44 He has, if the King be a baptized Christian."
" Can the Pope excommunicate the King ?"
44 He can."
44 How can he excommunicate a man who does not
belong to his Church ?"
xx6
The Return to Glasgow
Considering the fact that the Kirk had been
engaged during the last fifty years in excommunicating
everyone who professed the Catholic religion, this
question seems a little strange. Father Ogilvie
explained to his judges that the Pope, as Head of the
Church, acquired power over every man at baptism,
for the reason that, when baptized, he enters the
Church, and becomes a member of Christ's Mystical
Body and a sheep of Christ's flock, of which the Pope
is the Shepherd.
The questions and the answers given by the
priest, together with a statement of his refusal to
give an answer on certain other points, were then
drawn up and signed. Father Ogilvie was dismissed
to his prison, and the document sent off post haste
to London. As the answer could not be expected
for some little time to come, Spottiswoode seized the
opportunity to pay a visit to the capital. Deter
mined, however, that his prisoner should be wrell
guarded during his absence, he removed the gaoler
of the prison, replacing him by his own steward, a
rough and hard man, who treated Father Ogilvie
very ill. Not trusting to the bolts with which the
heavy feet-chains were fastened together, this man
caused pieces of iron, like wedges turned back on
either side, to be inserted in the joinings of the rings,
lest the prisoner should escape. Extra men, chosen
from among the townsmen of Glasgow, were put on to
watch him during the night, although Father Ogilvie
laughed at all their precautions, telling them that
he would not break his chains were they of wax, nor
go out of the dungeon if all the doors were left open.
It was during this time that the Archbishop's wife,
117
A Scottish Knight- Err ant
who seems to have had a kinder heart than her
husband, although the priest's fellow-prisoners have
asserted that her amiability was most noticeable
when she was in the cheery dispositions induced by
what is known in the vernacular as a dram,"
allowed him the use of pens and paper. It was in this
way that Father Ogilvie, during the early days of
February, was able to draw up the narrative of his
arrest and imprisonment. But sharp eyes were
watching, and wrord was sent to Spottiswoode that
certain privileges were being allowed to the prisoner
which he himself would be the last to sanction. The
lady was ordered to let the priest alone, and to show
him no more pity. Hearing this, Father Ogilvie
left the narrative unfinished and hastened to write
two letters, one to the General of the Society, and
the other to Father Ferdinand Albcri, who had
received him into its ranks.
The former, addressed to Father Acquaviva — for
Father Ogilvie was ignorant of the fact that he had
died a few months before — was an appeal for prayers
to strengthen him during the ordeal which lay before
him.
" VERY REVEREND FATHER IN CHRIST " (he
wrote), " Pax Christi.
" Most beloved Father . . . my punishments are
terrible and my tortures have been sharp; your
paternal charity will make you pray for me^that I
may endure all with generous courage for Jesus,
Who triumphed over all things for us. And may
He long preserve you as the leader of His soldiers
and a bulwark of Holy Church.
118
The Return to Glasgow
" To your very Reverend Paternity from your
little servant in Christ and most unworthy son,
" JOHN OGILVIE."
Before the letter had reached Rome, Father Ogilvie
had gone to join his chief in Heaven.
The second letter to Father Alberi runs as
follows:
" REVEREND FATHER IN CHRIST, — Pax Christi.
" In what state I am your Reverence will easily
learn from the bearer of this letter, Mr. John Mayne.
It is a capital offence to be caught writing, so I must
hurry before my gaoler returns. Your Reverence,
as Provincial of Austria, first leceived me into the
Society, and on that account I confidently recom
mend my spiritual children to you. Should, there
fore, Mr. John Mayne require your assistance, I
beg that he may find in my dear Father Ferdinand
some share of the kindness with which he treated me.
... I have written some account of what I have
suffered, and have given it to the bearer of this
letter. ... I earnestly recommend myself to your
charitable prayers. I write from the prison of
Glasgow, where I lie bound with two hundred pounds
weight of iron, awaiting death as my fate, unless I
accept the King's offer of a rich benefice and another
faith. Once I was tortured by being kept without
sleep for eight days and nine nights. Now I expect
the other forms of torture and then death. The
guard will be coming.
ci Your Reverence's servant in. Christ,
" JOHN OGILVIE, S.J."
119
A Scottish Knight- Err ant
These two letters, together with the narrative,
Father Ogilvie managed to eonvey to John Mayne,
who carried them with him when he went abroad,
and delivered them into the hands of the General of
the Society. An eye-witness, in all probability
Mayne himself, completed the unfinished story by
an account of the events that took place between
the 22nd and 28th of February, including a full
report of the trial and death of the martyr.
It has been asserted by several of Father Ogilvie's
biographers that one of the " other forms of torture "
of which he speaks, that of the redoubtable boots,
was inflicted on him after the letter to Father Alberi
was written. As the effect of the boots was to crush
the muscles, and sometimes the bones of the legs,
and the martyr's execution took place within six
days from the writing of the letter, this seems,
on the face of it, impossible. For we know from the
contemporary records that Father Ogilvie walked
to the place where the scaffold had been erected, and
climbed the ladder to the gallows, a thing he could
not have done had he suffered this particular form
of torture within the week. It is quite possible,
however, that the boots were used on an earlier
occasion. We know that Father Ogilvie was con
tinually threatened with them while in prison.
On the 24th of February came the announcement
that the trial was to be on the following Tuesday,
the 28th. The orders of the King were to the effect
that the prisoner was to be judged solely on the
answers that he had either given or refused to give
to the five questions put to him a month before.
During the few days that remained Spottiswoode
I2O
The Return to Glasgow
and his wife left him no peace, visiting him con
stantly, with promises of honours and riches if he
would only do what was necessary to please the
King; while Father Ogilvie, although he thanked
them courteously for their goodwill in the matter,
refused steadily to withdraw a word of what he had
said.
Nor were there wanting other visitors, amongst
them the Earl of Lothian, who did their utmost,
though with no better success, to persuade him to
renounce his Faith. The ministers of Glasgow came
in a body to give him what they described as " counsel
and comfort," but Father Ogilvie replied to them
that he had no need of counsel, since he had resolved
what he would do, and that when he stood in need
of comfort he would let them know it.
On the eve of the trial some Catholic friends
contrived to gain admittance to his cell. Father
Ogilvie washed their feet, and spoke happily to them
of his approaching " nuptials." One of these gentle
men, a Mr. Browne, had come to tell the priest of a
means of escape which he and some other friends had
succeeded in devising. " The Father," he wrote,
" smiled affectionately, and, embracing me, ex
pressed his great gratitude for our kindness, but
answered me that death for so glorious a cause was
more acceptable to him than life. He looked forward
to that death, he said, with so fervent a desire that
he feared nothing so much as that, by some accident,
it might be snatched from him."
It is asserted that, although persisting in his
refusal to accept the opportunity for escape, Father
Ogilvie availed himself of it in so far as to slip out
121
A Scottish Knight- Rr rant
of his prison and make his way to the gallows,
already erected in preparation for his execution on
the morrow. There he remained for a few moments
in prayer, a woman of the town, not herself a Catholic,
giving testimony and certifying on oath that she had
seen him kneeling there at dead of night, and had
heard him repeat the words:
" Maria, Mater Gratia?,
Mater misericordise,
Tu nos ab hoste protege,
Et hora mortis suscipe."
We know that these very words were on his lips
when he stood next day on the scaffold, and the
possibility of his having been able to evade the
vigilance of his gaolers would be explained by the
fact that they spent this last night of the martyr's
life on earth in drinking and merrymaking with their
boon companions. The incessant noise wearied the
priest, who was seeking help from God for the ordeal
that lay before him on the morrow. Towards the
small hours of the morning there was quiet, and
Father Ogilvie spent the last hours of his captivity
in uninterrupted prayer.
122
CHAPTER VII: The Trial
SHORTLY before eleven o'clock on the morn
ing of Tuesday, the 28th of February, a
magistrate in command of an armed force
arrived at the prison, and inquired of Father Ogilvie
whether he were ready to proceed to his trial. The
priest replied that he had long been ready and had
eagerly awaited that day. His cloak had disappeared,
the gaoler having already seized on it as his per
quisite, but a ragged old garment was found, wrapped
in which Father Ogilvie walked from his prison to the
Town House, where his judges were awaiting him.
The news of the trial had got abroad, and the streets
were packed with people. A very difi'erent spirit
prevailed among them from that of three months
before. Then they had hooted at him and abused
him as a betrayer of his friends; now they knew the
truth, and how that, after days and nights of cruel
torture, sharp questioning, and enticing offers of
freedom and wealth, no word concerning those who
had helped him in his ministry or had shown him
hospitality had crossed his lips. There were many
Catholics in the crowd who openly invoked blessings
on his head, while the others cried, " God speed you !"
or looked on in silent sympathy.
Arrived at the Town House, Father Ogilvie was
placed in the dock and confronted by his judges,
consisting of the Provost and three magistrates of the
city, " assisted by the honourable lords the Arch
bishop of Glasgow, the Marquis of Hamilton, the Earl
123
A Scottish Knight- Err ant
of Lothian, Lord Sanquhar, Lord Fleming, Lord
JBoyd, and Sir William Stewart." It was a strange
kind of trial, for the prisoner was already condemned
and the scaffold erected for his execution — a trial
which all knew could have but one ending.
As soon as all were assembled, Mr. Hay, the deputy
of the Attorney- General, arose to read the indictment.
This document, crowded with lengthy legal terms
and ambiguous statements, charged the prisoner
with " having repaired to this country, and by your
conferences, intisements, auricular confessions, Masse
sayings, and other crafty means, indevoured yourself
not only to corrupt many of His Majesty's leiges in
religion, but also to pervert them from their duetifull
obedience to His Majesty. ... And especially you
being demanded to answer some particular inter
rogatories, you answered treasonably that you would
not declare your mind except to him that is judge
in the controversies of religion, whom you declared
to be the Pope or one having authority of him. . . .
You declined treasonably His Highness' jurisdiction
and authority royal in refusing to answer . . . and
you freely and unrequiredly did adde to your forsadc
answers the damnable conclusion that you con
demned the oath of supremacie and allegiance given
to His Majesty by his subjects in these dominions."
The reading of the indictment ended, one of the
judges observed to the prisoner that he was not
accused of saying Mass nor of seducing His Majesty's
subjects to a contrary religion, but of declining His
Majesty's authority.
" So said Mr. Hay," replied the priest, " yet
he has himself just read the indictment in which
124
The Trial
the charge was distinctly put as ' Masse saying,
etc.' '
" The statutes mentioned in the indictment,"
interrupted Mr. Hay, " make it treason not to answer
the King's Majesty in any matter which shall be
demanded."
Yet the case against the prisoner, as set forth in
the indictment, was that he had said Mass, ad
ministered the Sacraments, and refused to answer
certain questions. Arnott, the Protestant lawyer,
who cannot be suspected of any bias in the priest's
favour, in his notes on the trial puts the matter as
follows:
" He, Father Ogilvie, was indicted on three statutes.
. . . The first of these was declamatory, not penal ;
neither could have served to condemn the prisoner.
The third statute, broad as it was, could not have
affected the prisoner's life had not a false construction
been put upon it. ... If the Act does bear the
construction put upon it, then to oblige a person
to answer, under pain of death, an interrogatory
which may affect his life, is perhaps the greatest
pitch of tyranny and iniquity that any legislative
body ever attained."
The three Acts of Parliament on which the in
dictment was based were then read in Court, as well
as the paper signed by Father Ogilvie a few weeks
before. He was asked if he could urge any reason
why the trial should not proceed, and according to
Spottiswoode's account answered as follows:
" First, under protestation that I in no way receive
you as my judges or acknowledge your judgment, I
deny any point led against me to be treason. . . .
125
A Scottish Knight- Err ant
As for your Acts of Parliament, they were made by
a number of partial men, the best in the land not
agreeing with them. . . . You think me an enemy
of the King's authority. I know no other authority
of his save that which he received from his prede
cessors, who acknowledged the Pope of Rome his
jurisdiction. If the King will be to me as his ancestors
were to mine, I will obey and acknowledge him for
my King; but if he play the renegade from God,
as he and you all do, I will not acknowledge him
any more than this old hat."
It is open to question if the priest really did reply
as Spottiswoode asserts him to have done. In the
Archbishop's " True Relation " there are several
statements which are indubitably false, and much
that is true is deliberately distorted and misrepre
sented.
The jury were then chosen, Father Ogilvie being
told that he was free to challenge any of the jurors.
He had one exception to them all, he replied: they
were either enemies to his cause or friends. If
enemies, they could not be admitted to try him; and if
friends, they should be standing with him, prisoners
at the bar.
" Your judges, then, should come from Rome,"
was the sarcastic comment; " or we had better choose
from amongst those who used to attend your Masses."
" Those poor people," replied the prisoner, " know
better how to take care of themselves and their
families than to judge in such cases."
" Poor people indeed !" sneered Spottiswoode.
" You made them poor."
The Archbishop seems, for the moment, to have
126
The Trial
forgotten the ready wit that had so often beaten him
in controversy, or he would not have laid himself
open to the obvious retort that it was he himself who
had impoverished the Catholics by the heavy fines
he had forced them to pay.
" That is a lie !" he angrily declared.
" Give your definition of a lie," was the quiet
answer. " I say what I think, and what I know
to be true."
Father Ogilvie now objected to one of the men
chosen as juror, knowing him to be a Catholic,
and fearing that he might incur some danger. The
jurors being then sworn in, he addressed them in a
few solemn words.
J" I wish these gentlemen," he said, " to consider
well what they do. I cannot be judged or tried by
them, and whatsoever I suffer here is by way of injury
and not of judgment. ... I am accused, yet have
done no offence, neither will I beg for mercy."
j" That is strange," remarked Spottiswoode. " You
say you have done no offence, and yet you have come
to this kingdom and have laboured to pervert His
Highness's subjects. Both of these are against the
law. In this have you done no offence ?"
" No," replied the prisoner; " I came under
obedience, and even if I were now let out of the
kingdom I should return. Neither do I repent any
thing but that I have not been so busy as I should in
that which you call perverting. If all the hairs on
my head were priests, they should all come into the
kingdom."
" And do you not," argued the Archbishop, " esteem
it a fault to go against the King's commands, especially
127
A Scottish, Knight-Errant
in this point of his forbidding you the kingdom ?
Surely, if a King have any power at all, it seems he
may rid himself and his country of those with whom
he is offended, and it savours of great rebellion to say
otherwise."
:' I am as free a subject," replied Father Ogilvie,
" as he is a King; he cannot discharge (me from the
country) if I be not an offender, and that I am
not."
These interruptions ended, the Court harked back
once more to the priest's refusal to answer the King's
questions.
" I decline the King's authority in all matters of
religion," answered the prisoner, "for with such
things he has nothing to do. Neither have I done
anything save what the ministers did at Dundee.
They refused to acknowledge His Majesty's supremacy
in spiritual matters; the best ministers of the land
are still of that mind, and if they be wise will con
tinue so."
It was not calculated to appease the Archbishop's
anger that the priest should approve the standpoint
of the ministers, opponents as they were of the
Episcopacy of which Spottiswoode himself was the
head, and it must have considerably astonished the
ministers present to hear a Jesuit speaking up for
their policy.
The subject of the Papal supremacy was then
broached. At first Father Ogilvie flatly refused to
discuss the matter, but, wearied out at last by their
persistent demands, he made a lengthy and detailed
statement.
" It is a question amongst the Doctors of the
128
The Trial
Church," he said, " and many hold not improbably the
affirmative, that a Pope can depose an heretical
King. A Council hath not yet determined the point.
If it shall be concluded by the Church that the Pope
hath such power, I will give my life in defence of it,
and had I a thousand lives they should all go the
same way. If the King offended against the Catholic
Church [be it remembered that James VI., the King
in question, was born of Catholic parents and baptized
a Catholic], then the Pope might punish him, just
as he would punish a shepherd or the poorest fellow
in the country. In abrogating the Pope's authority,
the estate of Parliament went beyond their limit;
the King, in usurping the Pope's power, lost his own.
In all things in which I ought to obey the King I will
show myself most observant; if anyone should invade
his temporal estates I would spend the last drop of
my blood in fighting for him; but in those things which
the King has usurped to himself — that is to say, in
the matter of spiritual jurisdiction — I neither may
nor can render him obedience."
Here again he insisted that he spoke thus only
because he was commanded to give an answer, but
that his judges had no right to demand to know his
thoughts on spiritual matters. Were his opinion
asked, he said, by anyone who needed his advice, he
would unhesitatingly give it.
" I consult you, then, about these difficulties,"
glibly put in one of the jurors, who no doubt thought
himself a very clever fellow; " what do you advise
me to think ?"
" It is rather ridiculous," replied the priest, " that
you who are to be my judge should ask counsel of me,
129 I
A Scottish Knight-Errant
the prisoner. . . . You are all trying to entrap me
in my words, and to discover a pretext which will
satisfy your cruel desire to put me to death. You are
like a swarm of flies crowding round a juicy dish,
or fishermen circling round a pond to catch one poor
little fish."
" The method of procedure was the same that is so
frequently condemned by Protestants in the Holy
Court of the Inquisition," says Hill Burton. " It
dealt not merely with the sayings and actions that
had been proved against the man, but endeavoured
with subtle and cruel labour to extract the secrets
of his heart."
The judges, determined to convict him of treason,
continued to put the same old questions set by the
King in every conceivable form and manner, until
Father Ogilvie declined to speak at all on the subject.
He was then told that his silence would be taken as an
admission of guilt.
" You may judge," he replied, " of my words and
deeds. As for my thoughts, leave those to God,
Who alone can see and judge them."
At one period of the trial — the different accounts
are rather confused, and it is difficult to discover
the sequence of the various points touched upon — he
was questioned on the subject of regicide. Spottis-
woode, in his " True Relation," gives a very different
account of the priest's answer from the Catholic
narrative. From the former we are led to believe
that Father Ogilvie expressed his approval of
regicides, while his companion who wrote the Catholic
narrative asserts that he expressed his detestation
of them and called them murderers. As Father
130
The Trial
Ogilvie was a theological student in Austria when the
General of the Jesuits, Father Acquaviva, denounced
de Mariana's notorious book " De Rege et Regis
Institutione," which deals with this very subject,
forbidding any member of the Society to hold or
teach the theories therein contained, it would seem
that here again Spottiswoode was deliberately giving
a false impression. Other words, moreover, of the
martyr's which are recorded by the Archbishop
himself, maintaining that he would gladly die for
the King were his temporal estates in danger, are
directly in contradiction to such a statement. But
the aim of Spottiswoode was, first, to justify his own
action in putting the Jesuit to death, and secondly
to prove that cc there is no means left to bee a Catholic
and the King's loyall subject"**- The trial and the
heroic death of the martyr had wrought a very
favourable effect on the people, and it was in order to
do away with this that the " True Relation " was
written. Whenever the words of the priest would
not fit in with this design, Spottiswoode deliberately
altered them. The events recorded in the Catholic
narrative are attested by the oaths of eye-witnesses,
but of this document the Archbishop knew
nothing.
Before the jury retired to consider their verdict,
Father Ogilvie addressed them in a few solemn words,
bidding them consider well what they were about
to do, and to remember the great and final judgment
1 The whole proceedings connected with the trial were disgraceful
to all concerned, especially to Archbishop Spottiswoode, who took
so active a part in them (Grub, " Ecclesiastical History of Scotland,"
ii. 302).
A Scottish Knight-Errant
when they themselves would stand at the tribunal
of God.
Mr. Hay, the Advocate, then demanded an assize
of wilful error, should the jury acquit the prisoner of
any point in the indictment. This meant nothing
more nor less than that the jury would themselves
be punished if they failed to pronounce him guilty.
With this double warning ringing in their ears, the
jurors withdrew. It was a question whether the fear
of God or the fear of man would prevail.
Whilst awaiting their return, the Archbishop,
approaching Father Ogilvie, asked him whether, if
his life were spared, he would remain out of the
country.
" If," was the intrepid answer, " I were exiled for
any crime, I should indeed not return; but if I were
banished for the good cause I should not fail to come
back. I would that each hair of my head were a
priest, to convert thousands to the true Faith, and
you, my Lord Archbishop, first of all."
The jury had been absent but a few minutes when
they returned. They were unanimous in their
verdict, and found the prisoner guilty.
The judgment was then pronounced: "That the
said John Ogilvie, for the treasons by him committed,
should be hanged and quartered."
" Have you anything else to say ?" asked the
Archbishop.
" No, my Lord," answered Father Ogilvie; " but
I give your lordship thanks for your kindness, and
will desire your hand."
" If you shall acknowledge your fault done to
His Majesty," replied Spottiswoode, " and crave
132
The Trial
God's and His Highness' s pardon, I will give you
both hand and heart, for I wish you to die a good
Christian."
Father Ogilvie then asked whether he would be
permitted to speak to the people.
" If you will declare openly that you suffer ac
cording to the law, justly for your offence, and ask
His Majesty's pardon for all your treasonable speeches,
you shall be licensed to say what you please; other
wise not," was the reply.
Father Ogilvie's only answer to this was that he
forgave them all from his heart, as he desired that
God would forgive him his own sins. He then asked
for the prayers of any Catholics who were present in
the crowded Court-house.
The Court was then cleared, for the trial, a mere
mockery of justice, was over. Forbes, the Protestant
Bishop of Brechin, described it later as a judicial
murder, and deeply deplored the fact that the Arch
bishop had been mixed up in it. What Arnott, the
Protestant lawyer, thought of it we have already
seen.
It was a matter of expediency that Father Ogilvie
should be put to death. The long-drawn-out struggle
between the Bishops and the Kirk was in an acute
stage, and one of the chief accusations brought
against the Episcopal party by their enemies was
a leaning towards Popery. Pitcairn allows that the
Bishops felt the necessity for some great coup, in
order that the Presbyterians might be assured that
they had no sympathy with Papists. Father Ogilvie
was but a pawn in the game: his life was nothing to
the Bishops, while his death might give them a
133
A Scottish Knight-Errant
temporary advantage in the struggle for supremacy.
Some semblance of a trial was necessary, and that
trial had been held. The scaffold, already erected
in the town before the sentence was passed, bore
silent witness to the fact that the sentence was a
foregone conclusion.
134
CHAPTER VIII: The Last
Scene
AT about one o'clock, the trial being now over,
the judges and various officials, having
informed the prisoner that he had " leisure
given him of the space of some three hours to prepare
himself for death," left the Court. Those three hours
Father Ogilvie spent in the Court-room, kneeling with
his face to the wall.
Shortly before four o'clock the Sheriff came to fetch
him, accompanied by the executioner. Father
Ogilvie greeted them calmly, and having thanked
the latter for the office he was about to perform,
embraced him and assured him of his forgiveness. The
priest's hands were then tightly bound behind him,
and he was led forth to the place of execution. He
had neither eaten nor drunk since the day before.
A great throng of people, amongst whom were
many strangers, were gathered round the scaffold.
The story of those terrible eight days and nine nights
of torture had got abroad, as well as that of the
priest's unflinching endurance. They watched him
in a tense silence as he drew near to the gallows,
kissed it, and knelt down at the foot of the ladder.
Two ministers came forward, and, according to
Spottiswoode's account, very " gravely and Christianly
exhorted him," but he prayed on, unheedful of the
interruption. Piqued, perhaps, by this lack of
response to their overtures, one of the ministeis,
135
A Scottish Knight-Errant
turning to the crowd, assured all present that the
prisoner was being punished for treason alone, and
in no wise for his religion. At this Father
Ogilvie shook his head. "He does me wrong," he
said.
A friend of his, one John Abercrombie, in all
probability a Catholic priest, had managed to keep
close to the martyr, and stood beside him on the
scaffold. " No matter, John/' he said, " the more
wrongs the better." The saying has passed into a
proverb in Scotland: " The mair wrangs ye dree, the
better ye be, as Abercrombie tauld the priest."
Shortly afterwards Abercrombie was overheard
asking Father Ogilvie to make him some sign just
before he died, probably with the intention of giving
him a last Absolution. " For this and other business
he had with the priest," says Spottiswoode, "he
was put off the scaffold." The Archbishop does not
mention, as does the writer of the Catholic narrative,
that he was thrown off head-first with such violence
that, had he not fallen on the heads of the closely
packed crowd, he would have been like to break his
neck. " Why should one traitor patronize another ?"
cried the Archbishop's servants, as they hurled him
down.
" I am astonished at your methods," said Father
Ogilvie to his enemies. " You forbid me to speak
on my own behalf, and meanwhile you misrepresent
me to the people. You act unjustly when you say
I have said or done anything to the King's prejudice.
You have written falsely about me to His Majesty.
I and another Scotsman, Father Crichton, have done
more amongst foreign nations in the service of the
136
The Last Scene
King than all the ministers in Scotland could do,
and for him I am prepared to peril my life."
Standing near him was Mr. Browne, the Catholic
friend who had devised the means of escape of which
the priest had refused to avail himself.
He heard distinctly, and testified later on oath,
that the following conversation took place between
the condemned man and one of the ministers who
had accompanied him to the scaffold:
" What a grievous thing it is, my dear Ogilvie,"
said the minister, " that you wilfully and knowingly
throw away your life."
" Wilfully !" was the reply. " You speak as if
my life hung on rny own free-will. WTas I not
convicted of treason, and for that condemned to
death ?"
" Have done with that !" continued the minister.
"Give up the Pope and Popery, and all will be
forgiven."
" You mock me," said the prisoner.
" Not at all," replied the minister; " I speak in all
seriousness and with good authority. The Arch
bishop commissioned me to offer you his daughter
in marriage and the richest prebend in the diocese
if you will change from your religion to ours."
Father Ogilvie saw his chance and took it.
" I would willingly live, if I could do so with
honour," he said.
" I have already told you," answered the minister,
" that you will be loaded with honours."
" Will you say that so that all the people can hear ? "
asked the priest.
" By all means," was the reply.
137
A Scottish Knight-Errant
" Listen !" cried Father Ogilvie to the bystanders;
" the minister has something to say."
Delighted with the result of his intervention, the
minister turned to the people. " I promise Mr.
Ogilvie," he announced, " life, the Archbishop's
daughter, and a rich prebend, if he comes over to
our side."
" Do you hear ?" asked the priest. " Will you bear
witness to the promise ?"
" We hear !" cried the sympathetic crowd. " Come
down, Mr. Ogilvie, come down !"
The Catholics who were watching held their
breath. WTas he going to apostatize at the last
moment, with the martyr's palm almost within his
grasp — after so long and weary a battle, so bravely
fought for Christ ?
" Will there be no danger ?" asked Father Ogilvie,
" that I shall be punished for treason afterwards ?"
" No, no !" shouted the crowd.
" Well, then," he insisted, " I stand here on account
of my religion alone ?"
" Of that alone."
"Then," cried Father Ogilvie, "that is enough.
On the ground of my religion alone I am condemned,
and for that I would joyfully give a hundred lives
if I had them. Take away from me quickly the one
I have; my religion you shall never take away."
" Are you not afraid of death ?" asked another of
the ministers. The first one had probably retired in
discomfiture.
" No more in so good a cause," said the priest,
" than you fear the dishes when you go to take your
supper."
138
The Last Scene
The executioner approached him to bind his hands,
which had evidently been untied on his arrival at
the scaffold, or perhaps at the minister's promise of
freedom. In one of them was his rosary, which he had
been holding all the time. As the hangman ap
proached him with the rope, Father Ogilvie raised
that hand and flung the beads with all his strength
straight out into the crowd below. A young Hun
garian of noble birth, Baron Johann von Eckersdorff,
who had reason to remember the scene, gives
the following account of this incident and its
sequel :
" I was travelling through England and Scotland,
being at the time a youth and not of the Faith. I
happened to be in Glasgow on the day that Father
Ogilvie was led to the scaffold, and I cannot fitly
describe his noble bearing as he went to meet his
death. Just before he ascended the gallows he bade
farewell to the Catholics present by throwing his rosary
into their midst. That rosary, thrown haphazard,
struck me on the breast, and I could easily have
caught it in my hands, but there was such a rush
of all the Catholics to obtain possession of it that
I had to cast it from me for fear of being crushed
to death. Religion was the last thing I concerned
myself about at the time; I never thought of it at all;
yet from that moment it never ceased to trouble me.
That rosary left a wound in my soul; no matter
where I went, I had no peace of mind. At last
conscience triumphed, and I became a Catholic."
Father Ogilvie's hands having been tied behind
him, and so tightly that his fingers were seen to
tremble and quiver with pain, he was told to go up
139
A Scottish Knight-Errant
the ladder. Spottiswoode asserts that he stumbled
as he did so, and cried out that he would fall. The
Archbishop insinuates that this was caused by the
fear of death — a strange accusation to bring against
one who had just refused the offer of life. Spottis
woode' s aim, of course, was to prove to the people
who had not been present that the martyr's death
had not been so heroic as rumour had reported. It
was after four o'clock in the afternoon, and, as we
have said, Father Ogilvie had been given no food
since the day before. It is not surprising that,
having to climb a steep ladder with both hands tied
tightly behind him, he should have faltered as he
did so.
The noose was already round the martyr's neck.
He reached the top of the ladder and stood for a
moment praying aloud. " Maria, Mater Gratise,"
he said, with other prayers, and invocations from the
Litany of the ' Saints. Then, in a voice that all
could hear, he declared that he founded his hope of
Heaven in the mercy of God and the jnerits of the
Precious Blood of Christ.
There was a moment's silence, the ladder was
withdrawn, and the long and weary battle was at
an end.
Scarcely was the deed accomplished, when a wild
tumult broke out below in the crowd. Men, and women
alike cried out for vengeance on those who were
responsible for the shedding of innocent blood, and
prayed aloud that it might fall on the guilty alone
and not upon those who abhorred and detested the
crime that had been committed. The sympathy
was evidently widespread and outspoken, for we
140
The Last Scene
know that for several weeks afterwards the ministers
bitterly upbraided the people in their sermons for the
compassion shown to a criminal and a Papist. It
was probably due to the threatening temper of the
crowd that the remainder of the sentence, the
quartering, was not carried out. The body of the
martyr was hastily cut down and buried, " in a place
outside the city destined for the interment of
criminals."
The exact site of this place is doubtful. Some
think that it is part of the graveyard which surrounds
the cathedral, a spot to the right on the north side of
the building being pointed out as the old-time burial-
ground of malefactors. But even if this were the
place of burial, it is exceedingly doubtful if the body
of the martyr remained there. The Catholic narrative
asserts that during the following night, which was a
wild one, about forty horsemen were seen gathered
about the grave. Without doubt they were Catholics,
and it is quite possible that they may have been there
for the purpose of removing the body. The fact of
their presence in the graveyard was reported to the
magistrates, who came next morning " with a great
company to that place." The ground had evidently
been disturbed, and the magistrates ordered that
search was to be made if the body were still there
by prodding the ground with iron rods. On meeting
with some resistance, the men concluded that the
coffin had not been disturbed, and were forbidden
to search further.
It would seem that James had certain qualms of
conscience with regard to his share in Father Ogilvie's
execution.
A Scottish Knight-Errant
" How did they take the death of the Jesuit ?"
he asked of Huntly later.
" It made a very unfavourable impression," was
the reply.
" It was not my fault," declared the King; " Spot-
tiswoode was in such a hurry. I did not desire it.
I do not want to see bloody heads round my death
bed. Have you not heard how Elizabeth died ?"
he added, as Huntly did not seem to understand the
allusion.
If the enemies of the Catholic Church had enter
tained a hope that the missionary priests would be
discouraged by the execution of Father Ogilvie, and
give up the hazardous enterprise of bringing the
consolations of religion to their fellow-Catholics,
the result must have been a disappointment. : ' Scot
land was never so infested by prowling Jesuits and
traffickers as now," we read in the correspondence of
the years that follow immediately on that event.
" There were in the old Church," says a Protestant
historian.1 " many ardent spirits seeking martyrdom;
and the rumour had gone forth that Scotland was a
country in which that could be found."
Then, as now, " it was the Mass that mattered " —
the Mass that John Knox and his followers had
stigmatized as " detestable superstition " and
" abominable idolatry." Three hundred years have
gone by since Father Ogilvie shed his blood in defence
of the Mass, and times have changed in their passing.
" Nobody nowadays," says a Protestant writer of our
own days, " save a handful of vulgar fanatics, speaks
irreverently of the Mass. If the Incarnation be
1 Andrew Lang.
142
The Last Scene
indeed the one Divine event to which the whole
creation moves, the miracle of the Altar may well
seem to cast its restful shadow over a dry and thirsty
land for the help of man, who is apt to be discouraged
if perpetually told that everything really important
and interesting happened once for all long ago, in a
chill historic past."3
1 Augustine Birrell.
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