Series 1 > Papal negotiations with Mary Queen of Scots during her reign in Scotland, 1561-1567

MM PAPAL NEGOTIATIONS WITH MARY
polliceri, nulla unquam in re pontificem reginae in tam pio
proposito defuturum, et si opus foret, pecuniam ad belli sub-
sidia quantam posset maximam collaturum. Interea ante
viginti quinque millia aureorum una cum ipso episcopo
miserat, quam reginae cum primum ipsam in Scotia con-
venisset suo nomine afFerret.
De his certior facta regina pluribus apud proceres, turn per
se turn per episcopum Rossensem et alios nonnullos egit, ut
liber episcopo, Pontificis Maximi legato, aditus in Scotiam
pateret; quod licet percuperent nobiles catholici, contrariae
tamen factionis sectarii et imprimis Moravius, ut hoc illi per-
mitteretur nulla ratione adduci poterant. Quare regina misso
in Galliam Joanne Betonio nobili catholico, recepta pecuniae
parte, se apud legatum excusat.
In the corresponding passage in the Paralipomena (Forbes-Leith,
Narratives, p. 114), Leslie rightly adds that this mission had been peti¬
tioned for by the Bishop of Dunblane and Stephen Wolcar [Wilson], but
erroneously alters the sum which Bishop Laureo took with him from
20,000 to 100,000 scudi.
II. GEORGE THOMSON
In the tract. Quo tempore Scotia Religionem Christianam susceperit ac
quibus gradibus in hceresim sit delapsa: deque praesente illius statu in Us
quae ad religionem spectant brevissima narratio, an account of Laureo’s
mission is found, which must have been composed before the death of
Bishop Chisholm in June 1593.
(a) Authorship.—This tract has been attributed to Father James
Tyrie, S. J., but no valid reason has been given for the ascription, while
another tract, De Antiquitate Christianae Religionis apud Scotos, which seems
to have been the preface to the composition under our consideration, was
twice published under the name George Thomson (Rome (4to) and Douai
(12mo) 1594). The discussion of this subject is given in detail by Dr. T.
G. Law, Note on some writings attributed to Father James Tyrie, S.J.,
1594-5, a paper read before the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society,
December 1897. Father Stevenson (Stevenson-Nau, pp. 105-144) published
an English translation of the tract, giving it the [?descriptive] title,
Report upon the state of Scotland during the reign of Queen Mary, written
in A.D. 1594, and sent to Pope Clement the Eighth by the Jesuit Priests in
Scotland.
(b) Sources.—To establish the text I have collated a transcript
(kindly given me by Father W. Forbes-Leith) of the copy at Blairs’
College, Aberdeen, with the copy at the Barberini Library, Rome, xxxii.
vol. 210, fol. 222. In these paragraphs the readings of both were found