1
Mar 1546. George Wishart, Church of
Scotland, Protestant martyr, burned at the stake.
H/t to PCA History for the
following at: http://www.thisday.pcahistory.org/2014/03/march-1/
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One is Sufficient for a
Sacrifice
It was at a Scot-Irish day
of games in Central Pennsylvania that this author found a booth selling items
from “across the pond.” I had gone there to get some Scot items which reflected
my ancestry. But at the first booth, there was displayed a claymore. For
our readers who may not be familiar with this term, it is a sharp
two-edged sword which was the perfect weapon for close fighting in earlier
days. Even though I thought I was of sufficient strength of arm (after
all, I have moved theology books from shelves to shelves all my years!), I
couldn’t even hold steady this sword. Then I remembered it was the weapon of
choice for John Knox as he cleared the way through hostile crowds for George
Wishart, our subject for this post.
It is true that George Wishart was an early Protestant
reformer in Scotland, and not a Presbyterian. Yet he was instrumental in
preparing the way for John Knox, who was the father of Scotland’s
Presbyterians. Wishart was younger than Knox by a full eight years, if the
reader takes the early date of the birth of John Knox. The former was
born around 1513 in Pitarrow, Scotland. Studying at Kings College in
Aberdeen, Scotland, Wishart became one of the best Greek scholars in the realm,
teaching both adults as well as children in that biblical language. He also
began to preach Protestant theology to the citizens of Scotland and England,
and soon found it necessary to travel to Switzerland. He would be influenced by
the Swiss Reformation instead of the German Reformation. Returning to the
British Isles, he became a popular preacher of Reformation truths in Dundee,
Scotland. Even when a plague hit the city, he remained steadfast, giving gospel
comfort and consolation to sick people everywhere.
By this time, the
authorities became aware of his gospel preaching, and death threats started rolling
in. That is when John Knox began to carry the claymore for Wishart’s safety.
Facing arrest, Knox wanted to accompany him to his eventual trial, but George
Wishart wouldn’t let him, saying the words of our title, “return to your bairns
(pupils). God bless you. One is sufficient for a sacrifice.” They would not see
one another on this earth.
Arrested and charged with
eighteen offenses, George Wishart was sentenced to death. His execution was
carried out on this day, March 1,
1546, at St. Andrews Castle. It was a brutal death in that not
only was he to be burned to death at the stake, but bags of gun powder were
placed about his body. Still, he witnessed to the crowds attending the
martyrdom with the precious words of Jesus Christ, forgiving even the executioner
who was lighting the pile.
On one of the cobblestones
outside St. Andrews castle today, can be found the initials GW, indicating the
site where George Wishart was killed for the Word of God and the
testimony of Jesus Christ.
From Wiki:
George Wishart (c. 1513 – 1 March 1546) was a Scottish religious reformer and Protestant martyr.
A woodcut portraying the
martrydom of Wishart
There is a house at Saint Kentigern College in Auckland, New Zealand named after him.
He belonged to a younger branch of the Wisharts of Pitarrow near Fordoun. He may have graduated M.A., probably at King's College, Aberdeen, and was certainly a student at the University of Leuven, from which he graduated in 1531. He taught the New Testament in Greek as schoolmaster at Montrose, until investigated for heresy by the Bishop of Brechin in 1538. He fled to England, where a similar charge was brought against him at Bristol in the following year by Thomas Cromwell. Under examination by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer he recanted some utterances. In 1539 or 1540 he may have visited Germany and Switzerland, but by 1542 he had entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he studied and taught.[1]
In 1543 he returned to Scotland, in the train of a Scottish embassy which had come to London to consider the treaty of marriage between Prince Edward (later Edward VI of England) and the infant Mary, Queen of Scots. He returned to Montrose, where again he taught Scripture.
He may have been the "Scottish man called "Wishart" acting as a messenger to England for Alexander Crichton of Brunstane in a 1544 plot against Cardinal David Beaton. Some historians such as Alphons Bellesheim and Richard Watson Dixon have accepted this identification; others are sceptical. Other possibilities include a George Wishart, Baillie of Dundee, who allied himself with Beaton's murderers; and Sir John Wishart (d. 1576), afterwards a Scottish judge.
His career as an itinerant preacher began in 1544, from when he traveled Scotland from east to west. The story has been told by his disciple John Knox. He went from place to place, in danger of his life, denouncing the errors of the Papacy and the abuses in the church at Montrose, Dundee (where he escaped an attempt on his life), Ayr, in Kyle, at Perth, Edinburgh, Leith, Haddington (where Knox accompanied him) and elsewhere.
At Ormiston in East Lothian, in January 1546, he was seized by the Earl of Bothwell on the orders of Cardinal Beaton, taken to Elphinstone Castle, and transferred by order of the privy council to Edinburgh castle on 19 January 1546. Thence he was handed over to Beaton, who had a "show trial", with John Lauder prosecuting Wishart. Execution by burning at the stake followed at St Andrews on 1 March 1546. Foxe and Knox attribute to him a prophecy of the death of the Cardinal, who was assassinated on 29 May following, partly in revenge for Wishart's death.
Wishart's preaching in 1544–45 helped popularize the teachings of Calvin and Zwingli in Scotland. He translated into English the first Helvetic Confession of Faith in 1536. At his trial he refused to accept that confession was a sacrament, denied free will, recognized the priesthood of all believing Christians, and rejected the notion that the infinite God could be "comprehended in one place" between "the priest's hands". He proclaimed that the true Church was where the Word of God was faithfully preached and the two dominical sacraments rightly administered.
The Martyrs Memorial at St Andrews was erected to the honour of George Wishart, Patrick Hamilton, and other martyrs of the Reformation era.
References
Wishart's initials at the
site of his execution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in
the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica
(11th ed.). Cambridge University Press- Foxe, Acts and Monuments.
- Hay Fleming, Martyrs and Confessors of St Andrews; Cramond's Truth about Wishart (1898).
Lee,
Sidney, ed. (1900). "Wishart, George
(1513?-1546)". Dictionary of National Biography
62. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 248–251, 253–254..- Cameron M, et al. (eds), Dictionary of Scottish Church History and Theology (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1993).
- Ryrie, Alec, The Origins of the Scottish Reformation (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006)
External links
- Stirnet Genealogy: 'Wishart1' (George is listed as son of Sir James Wyschart of Pittarrow and Elizabeth Learmont)
- A description of Wishart's execution
- George Wishart Quincentennial
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