Spottiswoode Society > History of the affairs of the Church and State of Scotland from the beginning of the reformation to the year 1568 > Volume 1

94 THE HISTORY OF THE AFFAIRS [1543.
minds absorbed beforehand the whole revenues thereof,
whether it was right or wrong, sacrilege or not sacrilege.
The King of England, whether being requested so to do
or not I cannot tell, sent down to Scotland, in the beginning
of July, one Sir Robert Richardson, a Priest, 1 who was
Difference of Meats ; 48. Of certain other Rites or Ceremonies of the Church ;
49. Of Ecclesiastical Rites upon working Days ; 50. Of Peculiar Days of
Procession ; 51. Of Litany ; 52. Of Common Alms ; 53. Of Schools for
Children ; 54. Of Schools of Divinity ; 55. Of Disputation ; 56. By what
Means a Christian Reformation of Holy Ministry and Cure of Souls may
be begun and practised in Parishes ; 57. Of Reforming of Canonical Col-
Leges ; 58. Of the Reformation of Monasteries both of Men and Women ;
59. Of Free and not Monastical Colleges of Virgins ; 60. Of the Order of
Cell Brethren and Lay Brethren.
In the article concerning the reformation of monasteries and nunneries
this judicious Prelate saith thus : — " As for us, we must follow the Lord's
word, and not to go before it ; which word not only enjoineth not to man
wifeless, i. e. unmarried life, neither by necessity of commandment, nor
by commendation, or exaction of a vow, or by the occasion of any kind of
life, or ministry ; but also it bindeth and moderateth the praise of wifeless
life, and not of every wifeless life, but of that which may cause a man
cleave to God and godly actions more fastly, and with greater continuance.
It moderateth the jiraise thereof, I say, so studiously and with so singular
a promise, that as oft as it bringeth forth any thing in the commendation
of this wifeless life, and of the manner of serving God without marriage,
it addeth forthwith somewhat whereby it admonisheth, that it is not given
to every body to serve God out of wedlock ; and that every man ought
to consider what gift he has received of the Lord, lest, labouring to higher
things, he be not able to stand in the lower ; and lest, while he followeth
the higher virtue, he lose the lower, and lay a snare for himself. Thus
the Lord's mouth and the Holy Ghost taught of wifeless life, Matt, xix ;
1 Cor. vii; 1 Tim. v. Seeing, then, that the Lord himself and Master of re-
ligion commendeth wifeless life after this sort, and with this wariness
both by himself and by his Apostles, it cannot surely be lawful to us his
disciples to lay a snare to men commended to our charge, that we should
keep them in the grace of God, either by any renewing of commandments,
i. e. making new commandments, or exaction of vows whereby they perish,
and to thrust them from that, that might be to them a better and a surer
way." Then he goes on to advise all virgins, &c. not to act indiscreetly
in marrying, but to pray to God for the proper virtues when meet
husbands to whom they might be married fall not in their way ; and
afterwards he proceeds to regulate the differences that may happen to
arise in families concerning inheritance, when any man or woman shall
chance to leave their monastery, and enter into a married state.
1 i. e. A person in priest's orders ; and not what we now commonly call
a priest, by which appellation we mean one that is a presbyter of the
Church of Rome. He had the title of Sir from the Pope, who dubbed
knights like other princes ; hut he has been one of those clergymen who
afterwards renounced the Pope's jurisdiction, and entered into the King's
new measures.