berately planned thus horribly to protract his sufferings--though
such cruelty was not unknown in France, either then or in much later
times. They were as yet but novices at such revolting work, and all
things seemed to conspire against them. The execution had been hurried
on before a sufficiency of dry wood had been provided for the fire. The
fury of the storm, which had prevented the martyr's brother from
crossing the Forth with troops to rescue him, was not yet spent. With a
fierce wind from the east sweeping up North Street, it would be a
difficult matter in such a spot to kindle the pile and keep it burning,
or to prevent the flames, when fierce, from being so blown aside as to
be almost as dangerous to the surrounding crowd as to the tortured
victim. They did so endanger his accuser, the traitor Campbell, and "set
fire to his cowl, and put him in such a fray, that he never came to his
right mind." But, through all his excruciating sufferings, the martyr
held fast his confidence in God and in his Saviour, and the faith of
many in the truths he taught was only the more confirmed by witnessing
their mighty power on him.[26]
FOOTNOTES:
[14] See Appendix A.
[15] [The entry in the Register of the University occurs at the bottom
of a page, and is preceded and followed by entries of 1521, as if it had
been inserted there to save space. The entries of 1521 are distinct and
easily read, but in this of 1523 the ink is very faint, and the surface
of the vellum has a rubbed appearance. It runs thus: "Die nono mensis
Junii anno Domini I^{m} V^{c} xxiij incorporatus erat venerabilis vir
Magister noster Magister Johannes Major doctor theologus in Parisiensis
et thesaurarius capelle regis. Eodem die incorporati sunt Magister
Patricius Hamilton et Magister Robertus Laudar in nostra Universite"
(_sic_).]
[16] Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, ii. 295.
[17] [The Act as thus extended was ratified on the 12th of June 1535
(Ibid., ii. 342).]
[18] Pitscottie's History, 1778, p. 216; Lesley's History, p. 136.
[19] Soliciting legatine powers over the whole of Scotland, instead of
over his own province of the archdiocese, so as to render nugatory the
exemption granted to the king's old tutor and favourite prelate the
Archbishop of Glasgow.
[20] D'Aubigne's Reformation in the Time of Calvin, vi. 42, 43.
[21] [The only passage, so far as I know, in which Lesley speaks of the
king in connection with the martyr is the fol
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