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

110 THE HISTORY OF THE AFFAIRS [1540.
Thus died Cardinal David Beaton, 1 the last of that dig-
nity in Scotland, He was born in the year 1494, and was
a son of the family of Balfour in the shire of Fife. The be-
ginning of his promotion has very probably risen from his
uncle the preceding Archbishop of St Andrews. In the
year 1519 he was sent to reside at the Court of France,
and his uncle bestowed upon him the Rectory of Campsie ;
and about the 1524 he gave him the Abbacy of Aber-
brothwick, reserving to himself the half of the rents. He
returned into Scotland in 1525, and in 1528 was made Lord
Privy Seal. In 1533 Abbot Beaton was again sent into
France, together with Sir Thomas Erskine of Brechin, the
Secretary, to confirm the leagues subsisting betwixt the two
kingdoms, and to negociate a marriage for our King James
V. with Magdalene, the French King's daughter ; but that
the execution of the same, in case they should be pursued afterwards by
any other enemies." Nota — This might be Wishart of Pitarrow.
[There is now no doubt that the Mr Wishart mentioned in the above
document was George Wishart the " Martyr." Mr Tytler cites the famous
letter, the existence of which was long denied, completely proving that
he was a most active conspirator against the Cardinal. The original
letter is in the archives of the Dukes of Hamilton. The Cardinal was to a
certain extent aware of the plot against his life, and, viewing with suspicion
Wishart, not only as a disseminator of forbidden doctrines, but as the inti-
mate associate of his mortal enemies, it is natural that he would be anxious
for his apprehension. " Beaton," observes Mr Tytler, " had either received
secret information of the project for his destruction, or the design was for
the present [1543] interrupted by some unforeseen occurrence. Succeed-
ing events, however, demonstrated that it was delayed only, not abandon-
ed ; and that the same unscrupulous agents who now intrigued with the
English monarch, were at last induced by Henry to accomplish their
atrocious purpose." In the opinion of George Chalmers, Wishart " deserv-
ed to die a thousand deaths, but not for heresy." A passage from the
original letter, in the archives of the Duke of Hamilton, is quoted in a pre-
vious note, p. 104. That letter, written by the Earl of Hertford, which
was carried by Wishart himself to Henry VIII., contained another pro-
posal by Crichton and the other conspirators, exclusive of the one to kill
or apprehend the Cardinal, as he passed through Fife to St Andrews.
" In caceyour Maj.," says Hertford to the King, " wolde grant unto them
a convenient enterteynment for to kepe 15 or 16 men in wages for a
moneth or two, they, joyning with power of the Erll Marchall, the said
Erl of Rothes, the Larde of Calder, and others of the Lord Gray's friends,
will tak upon them, at such tyme as your Maj. armey shall be in Scotlande,
to destroye the Abbey and town of Arbroyth, being the CardinalPs, and
all the other Bishops' and Abbots' houses and countreys on that side of
the water." — E.]
1 They now write their name Bethune, but in the time that the Cardinal
lived I find it written in the Records Bet on or Betoun.