No. II.
The Lollards in Scotland During the Fifteenth Century
In tracing the History of the Reformation, we must always revert to a much earlier period than that of Luther. The chief witnesses against the corrupt ceremonies and discipline of the Church of Rome belonged to two distinct sects, but entertaining nearly the same sentiments—the Albigenses, who were chiefly settled about Toulouse and Albigeois, in Languedoc; and the Valdenses, who inhabited the mountainous tract of country, (known as the Cottian Alps,) in the provinces of Dauphine and Provence, in the south of France, and in Piedmont, in the north of Italy. Both sects may be considered as descendants of the primitive Christians, and the long series of persecutions which they endured, may have conduced to spread their opinions in other lands, and to keep alive a spirit of religious inquiry and freedom.
The great English Reformer John Wykliffe, died in the year 1380. The persecutions which arose after his death, drove many of his adherents into exile, and brought some of them to the western parts of Scotland, who, having settled in Ayrshire, obtained the name of the Lollards of Kyle. Any notices respecting them that have been preserved are unfortunately very scanty, but should not be overlooked in a work like the present.
Andrew of Wyntoun, Prior of Lochlevin, the author of a Metrical Chronicle, written about the year 1420, when recording the appointment of Robert Duke of Albany as Governor of Scotland, in the year 1405, commends him for his opposition to Lollards and Heretics:—
It was during his administration, that the first Martyr of the Reformed religion was committed to the flames at Perth, for alleged heresy, in the year 1406 or 1407. This was eight or nine years previously to the death of John Huss, that “generous and intrepid Martyr and confessor of Christ,” as Luther justly calls him.
Walter Bower, the continuator of Fordun, is probably the only original historian who has preserved an account of Resby, of which the following is an extract:—
“Lib. xv. Cap. xx. De Combustione Jacobi Resby hæretici apud Perth.
“Eodem anno [mccccvi] die combustus est Jacobus Resby, Presbyter Anglicus de schola Johannis Wykliff, hæreticus condemnatus in concilio cleri sub magistro Laurentio de Lundoris, inquisitore hæreticæ pravitatis, solidissimo clerico et famoso theologo, vitæ sanctitate quamplurimum collaudato. Qui quidem Jacobus, quamvis interdum celeberrimus reputabatur simplicibus prædicatione, periculosissimas tamen conclusiones intersperserat in sua dogmatizatione. Quarum prima fuit, quod Papa de facto non est Christi vicarius. Secunda, Nullus est Papa, nec Christi vicarius, nisi sit sanctus. De consimilibus, vel pejoribus, tenuit quadraginta conclusiones. Cujus tam Scripta quam auctorem Inquisitor confutavit, et ad ignem applicavit et incineravit. Hujusmodi errores excerpti sunt de hæresibus dicti Johannis Wykliff hæresiarchæ, damnati Londoniis in Anglia, anno Domini mccclxxx, per primatem Angliæ, et tredecim episcopos, ae magistros in sacra theologia triginta, ex dialogo, trialogo, et aliis suis libris. Conclusiones et libelli istius hæretici adhuc a nonnullis Lolardis habentur in Scotia, et curiose servantur, ex instinctu Diaboli, per tales quibus aquæ furtivæ dulciores sunt, et panis absconditus suavior.”—(Vol. i. p. 441.)
The several abbreviates of the Scotichronicon notice Resby’s fate. Law’s MS. places it in 1406; but the larger “Extracta ex Cronicis Scocie,” gives the year 1407, nor omits the circumstance “De talibus et pejoribus xl. Conclusiuncs; cujus liber adhuc restant curiose servantur per Lolardos in Scocie .” Among later writers who mention Resby, Spotiswood says, “John Wickliffe in England, John Hus and Jerome of Prague in Bohemia, did openly preach against the tyranny of the Pope, and the abuses introduced in the Church; and in this countrey, one called Joannes [James] Resby an Englishman, and de schola Wickliffi, as the story speaketh, was brought in question for some points of doctrine which he taught, and condemned to the fire. He was charged by Master Laurence Lendores with 40 heretical opinions; whereof we have two only mentioned; one, That the Pope was not Christ’s Vicar; the other, That he was not to be esteemed Pope, if he was a man of wicked life. For maintaining these two points, he suffered in the year 1407.”—(History of the Church, p. 56.) This date is also given in the Breve Cronicon, (apud Registrum Glasguense, p. 316.) “Combustio Jacobi Henrici [Resby] apud Perth, a.d. 1407.”