was celebrated for the purity of his morals, and for his extensive
learning; but these praises cannot be much depended on; because we know
that, among the reformers, severity of manners supplied the place of
many virtues; and the age was in general so ignorant, that most of the
priests in Scotland imagined the New Testament to be a composition of
Luther's, and asserted that the Old alone was the Word of God.[*] [19]
But however the case may have stood with regard to those estimable
qualities ascribed to Wishart, he was strongly possessed with the desire
of innovation; and he enjoyed those talents which qualified him
for becoming a popular preacher, and for seizing the attention and
affections of the multitude. The magistrates of Dundee, where he
exercised his mission, were alarmed with his progress; and being unable
or unwilling to treat him with rigor, they contented themselves with
denying him the liberty of preaching, and with dismissing him the bounds
of their jurisdiction. Wishart, moved with indignation that they had
dared to reject him, together with the word of God, menaced them, in
imitation of the ancient prophets, with some imminent calamity; and he
withdrew to the west country, where he daily increased the number of his
proselytes.

* See note S, at the end of the volume.

Meanwhile, a plague broke out in Dundee; and all men exclaimed, that
the town had drawn down the vengeance of Heaven by banishing the pious
preacher, and that the pestilence would never cease, till they bed made
him atonement for their offence against him. No sooner did Wishart hear
of this change in their disposition, than he returned to them, and
made them a new tender of his doctrine: but lest he should spread the
contagion by bringing them together, he erected his pulpit on the top of
a gate; the infected stood within, the others without. And the preacher
failed not, in such a situation, to take advantage of the immediate
terrors of the people, and to enforce his evangelical mission.[*]

The assiduity and success of Wishart became an object of attention to
Cardinal Beatoun; and he resolved, by the punishment of so celebrated a
preacher, to strike a terror into all other innovators. He engaged
the earl of Bothwell to arrest him, and to deliver him into his hands,
contrary to a promise given by Bothwell to that unhappy man; and being
possessed of his prey, he conducted him to St. Andrews, where, after a
trial, he condemned him to