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

1545-G.J OF CHURCH AND STATE IN SCOTLAND. 105
some would expect I should not omit ; and that is, the pro-
phetical warning which he is said to have declared against the
Cardinal at the time of his death. The matter was thus :
The Cardinal, as is reported, was viewing the execution from
a window overlaid with tapestry ; and after the fire had be-
gun to burn about Mr Wishart, he is said to have expressed
himself in these or the like words: — "This flame hath scorched
my body, yet it hath not daunted my spirit ; but he, who
from yonder high place beholdeth us with such pride, shall
within few days lie in the same as ignominiously, as now he
is seen proudly to rest himself." I confess I give but small
credit to this, and to some other things related concerning
some of those persons that suffered for religion in our
country, and which upon that account I have all along omit-
ted to narrate. I own I think them ridiculous enough, and
seemingly contrived, at least magnified, on purpose to render
the judges and clergymen of that time odious and despicable
in the eyes of men. And as to this passage concerning Mr
Wishart, it may be noticed that there is not one word of
it to be met with in the first edition of Mr Knox's History ;
and if the thing had been true in fact, I cannot see how Mr
Baron in the confidence of his friends. After the disappearance of the
epidemic at Dundee he returned to Montrose, where he occasionally
preached, but Knox asserts that his time was chiefly devoted to " private
meditation." Towards the end of the year 1545, Wishart revisited Dundee,
and then proceeded by Perth and through Fife to Edinburgh, to meet
the Earls of Glencairn and Cassillis, and some gentlemen from Ayrshire,
according to an arrangement he had made when in that country. This
meeting was to be attended by Norman Leslie, Douglas of Longniddry,
Crichton of Brunstane, Cockburn of Onniston, and others, all in the pay
of Henry VIII., and notorious conspirators against the Cardinal. They had
maintained a close correspondence with Wishart during his residence at
Montrose and Dundee. lie went to Leith, the seaport of Pklinburgh, but
to his disappointment, Glencairn and Cassillis with their followers did not
arrive, and Crichton of Brunstane and his associates could not act without
them. Being informed that the Cardinal and the Regent were to be soon
in Edinburgh, Wishart betook himself into Haddingtonshire, preaching
by the way at Inveresk, still the parish church of Musselburgh, at Trail ent,
and in the town of Haddington. From the latter town he walked to
Onniston, accompanied by Cockburn, Crichton, and Sandilands of Calder,
and by John Knox, who was then upwards of forty years of age, and was
preceptor to the sons of Douglas of Longniddry. Knox was anxious to
accompany Wishart on this occasion, but he was dissuaded by him, and
returned to Longniddry with his employer. This was the eve of the night
on which Wishart was apprehended by the Earl of Bothwell, and delivered
to the Cardinal at Elphinstone Tower. — E.]