Series 1 > Miscellany of the Scottish History Society (First volume)

Memoranda following ‘ Criton’s Apologie.’1
State Papers, Scotland. Eliz. Vol. Ixvii. No. 78.
And the consequence 2 of no necessitie, unlesse yt be a suffi¬
cient proofe to say that (ipse dixit) Mr. Cecill hath sayd yt,
and theref1 it is true. And in deede yt seemeth that he is
1 These Memoranda, already referred to (page 15 and note), consist of certain
additions and alterations made by Creighton in later copies, or for a Latin
translation, of the Apologie, together with some explanatory notes by John Petit
and other intelligencers from Flanders. Petit wrote to Phelippes from Liege,
in the letter previously quoted (June 4, 1598): ‘ I have now what additions and
subtractions put to or taken out of the Apologie made in defence of the King of
Scotland against Cecil, a priest, which I will send you by the next, by which
time I shall set them in order, so as you may know where they fall in their just
places.’ Ten days later he wrote from Antwerp, ‘ I have been assuredly in¬
formed that the Apology I sent you a copy of, is delivered in Latin to the
Cardinal but corrected. I cannot yet get a copy of it. If it come to my claws
you shall be partaker. I will use diligence to get itand at last, on the 29th
June, he succeeds in sending to his correspondent ‘ some additions put to the
Apology,’ remarking that ‘ also there divers things are left out.’ The memoranda,
with the exception of the last note, are from the pen of the ‘ principall scribant
of Liege,’ to whom, as has been said, we owe the most correct of the three
copies of the Apologie now in the Record Office. But unfortunately Petit did not
keep his promise of setting the paragraphs in order, ‘ so as you may know where
they falland when he forwarded the memoranda, he added to them the final
note, ‘ I can hardlie lay down in writing the places where these things should be
put in or out. ’ His difficulty in some cases will be shared by the reader. The
marks prefixed to some of the sections of the memoranda have no corresponding
signs in the copies of the Apologie. The paragraphs are, however, here printed
as they stand in the copy transmitted by Petit. It may be added that the father
of this John Petit was an Englishman, and his mother a Fleming of Antwerp.
He had recently resided at Venice and Florence, and was in Rome in 1596,
sending to England information regarding the movements there of Ogilvy and
Cecil.
2 And the consequence, etc. This long argument in proof that the king is not
an obstinate heretic is apparently intended for insertion at p. 43, where we
read, ‘ A brave demonstration when both the antecedent is false secundum quid,
and the consequent had no necessitie.’