It was mainly in his last years, however, that James Betoun set himself in right earnest to complete the work which Archbishop Stewart had begun. At his solicitation Pope Paul III., on 12th February 1537, issued a bull annexing the teinds of the church of Tannadice, in Forfarshire, and of the wealthier church of Tyninghame, in East Lothian, to the old foundation, and erecting it into a privileged college under the title of the Blessed Mary of the Assumption. In this college, medicine, law, and theology, as well as arts, were henceforth to be taught, and the privilege was granted to it of conferring degrees in all lawful faculties, and of conferring them on those who had gained their knowledge elsewhere as well as on those who had studied within the college—in fact, making it almost a university within the University, and conceding to it more extensive powers than were conceded to many universities. His first work was to replace the decaying buildings of the Pædagogium by others more massive and commodious. That work was far from finished at the time of his death, and having been intermitted by his successor [the cardinal], was only completed by Archbishop Hamilton, who, with papal sanction, reconstituted the college and added to its endowments.
Early, however, in 1538, the first staff of teachers entered on their work as a college organised and equipped "ut militans Dei ecclesia indies abundet viris litterarum scientiâ præditis," and few institutions through a long and eventful history have more illustriously fulfilled this object, though in another sense than its founders meant, and handed on the torch of sacred learning from generation to generation. Bannerman, who succeeded Major, had the honour of reorganising the old institution and starting it on its new career. Archibald Hay, who came next, was the child of the Renaissance, and more in earnest about religion than many of that school; and, had his life been spared, and the cardinal given heed to his counsels, the old Church might have been able to make a better fight for privilege or for life in the struggle which ensued. John Douglas, his successor, bridged the passage from the old to the new without any violent break, probably taking part with Wynram in the composition of Archbishop Hamilton's Catechism, as he did afterwards in the preparation of the Reformed Confession of Faith and the First Book of Discipline. He was a man of the ancient academic type, content to live in single blessedness, to treat his pupils, who also lived in college, with the familiarity and affection of a father. He had the honour of training the youthful Andrew Melville, and perhaps it was with some presentiment of his future eminence that, as he held the precocious youth between his knees at the college fire, he fondly said, "My sillie fatherless and motherless chyld, it is ill to wit what God may mak of thee yit."
God watched over that weakly youth, and prospered his studies at Paris, Poictiers, and Geneva, so that with a mind stored with all the learning of his time, he returned to his native land to complete the reformation of its universities, and to delight successive generations of students by his stores of learning and wit, and by his accessibility and generosity. It was to meet his ideas of what a theological school should be that the college was set apart "allenarly" for the study of theology, and furnished with professors of the Old and the New Testament, who were to "expone" the various books of Scripture as well as to read them in the original, comparing the Hebrew of the Old Testament with the Septuagint and the Chaldee paraphrases, and the Greek of the New Testament with the old Syriac translation, while the principal was to teach the loci communes or the systematic theology of the age. The first assistants in the "wark of theology" were Mr John Robertson, who acted as professor Novi Testamenti, and his own nephew, James Melville, who taught Hebrew and the Old Testament, and to whom we owe that graphic diary which gives us several interesting glimpses of college life in those early days. To John Robertson succeeded Mr John Johnston, author of Latin poems in praise of our reformers and martyrs, and of Latin verses descriptive of the line of our Scottish kings.
Melville was by no means an illiberal theologian, and he and Johnston wrote to the Protestant churches of France urging moderation on them in controversies which were then being discussed with great bitterness. Both lived with and for their pupils, and secured in an unusual degree their reverence and affection. Both ultimately lost the favour of the king; and Melville, after being cruelly used in London, had to spend his declining years in the French Protestant University of Sedan.
APPENDIX B (p. [30]).
CITATIO PATRICII HAMILTON
e Formulari Vetere Andreano.
Citatio super suspecto de heresi ad faciendum purgationem alias ad videndum [ipsum] hereticum declarari.
Jacobus etc., Decano Christianitatis nostre de L[audonia] Universisque et singulis aliis Dominis rectoribus, vicariis perpetuis, capellanis curatis et non curatis per provinciam nostram S[ti Andree] ubilibet constitutis, Illique vel illis ad quem vel ad quos presentes litere pervenerint, Salutem cum benedictione divina: Quia per fidelem inquisitionem aliter de mandato nostro legitime receptam compertum extitit quendam Magistrum P[atricium] H[amilton] de heresi multiplici suspectum, quem citandum et desuper accusandum antea decrevimus, sed medio tempore relictâ patriâ ad alia et extera se transtulit loca, nuper autem vagante fama ad aures nostras clamorosa insinuatione pervenit Ipsum nuperrime in patriam reversum et quod primo statim adventu non debite missus nec prerogativis aut privilegiis debitis munitus, sed propriâ auctoritate et temerariâ presumptione, predicationis officium de heresi ei designata acceptare ausus est, et suas hereticas pravitates et perversas Martini Lutheri heretici alias ab ecclesia damnati et suorum fautorum ac sequacium opiniones promulgare, docens seminansve et pertinaciter affirmans, ac populum Christianum de eisdem instruere non erubescit, indeque simplices et illiteratos hujus regni Christi fideles qui in se et progenitoribus per tanta temporis curricula, spatio viz. mille et trecentorum annorum et ultra in ecclesiâ Dei constantissime militaverunt, a verâ nostrâ orthodoxâ fide et catholica ecclesia seducere, et quantum in eo est pervertere nititur et proponit, dicendo predicando et temerario ausu inter alia palam et publice affirmando:—
Legibus, canonibus, patrum sanctionibus et decretis, humanis quoque constitutionibus non esse obtemperandum; Claves et censuras ecclesie contempnendas, nec sacramentis ejusdem fidendum, Templa non esse frequentanda, nec ymagines adorandas, pro defunctorum animabus non esse exorandum; nec decimas Deo et ecclesie solvendas; pro bonis operibus nullum fore salutis premium nec pro malis cruciatum; Nostros progenitores in ecclesia Dei et ejusdem sacramentis fidentes in malâ et iniquâ fide esse mortuos et in inferno sepultos:—
Aliaque dictu et recitatu saltem inter Christianos et fideles horrenda et nephanda predicat docet et affirmat in Dei viventis claviumque ecclesie ac nostre fidei orthodoxe contemptum, regni et reipublice ejusdem damnum scandalum et, digna Dei ultione, si premissis favere incipiat, sperandam ruinam, animabusque perpetrantium gravissimum periculum nisi remedio succurratur oportuno: In quibus omnibus et singulis idem Magister P. communi voce et famâ ex publicâ et notoria ejusdem predicatione orta de heresi suspectus reputatur, habetur et divulgatur. Consilio igitur desuper recepto ipsum citandum et de premissis experiendum decrevimus: Quare vobis et vestrum cuilibet nos precipimus et mandamus, quatenus citetis legitime dictum Magistrum P. H. primo, secundo, tertio et peremptorie etc. quod compareat personaliter coram [nobis] nostrisque consulibus Dn̄is Episcopis, Abbatibus, Prioribus, sacrarum literarum Professoribus, et Religiosis, aliisque nobis pro tempore assistentibus, in ecclesiâ nostrâ Metropolitanâ S[ti Andree] regni Scotie primatiali, die N mensis N proxime futuris, horâ decimâ antemeridiana vel eo circa, ad respondendum nobis ex officio de et super suis pertinaciter dictis, affirmatis, predicatis, divulgatis, tentis et disputatis contra nostram orthodoxam fidem et sanctam ecclesiam catholicam; et propterea ad videndum et audiendum ipsum hereticum declarari, et penâ condignâ a canonibus propterea latâ et imperatâ puniendum fore et puniri debere; superque adherentiâ et favoribus prestitis peregrinis opinionibus et pravitatibus dicti Martini Lutheri, heretici ab ecclesiâ damnati, et suorum sequacium; ac aliis interrogandis similiter reddendis, et tanquam heretice pravitatis fautorem et male de fide sentientem accusandum fore et accusari ac condempnari debere. Testimonia quoque et probationes, si necesse fuerit, desuper recipi, jurari, et admitti; ac in premissis omnibus et singulis summarie et de plano sine strepitu et figurâ judicii prout juris fuerit procedendum fore et procedi debere; Vel ad allegandum causam rationabilem quare premissa fieri non deberent; Cum intimatione debita, ut moris est, intimamus eidem quod sive dictis die et loco comparere curaverit sive non comparuerit Nos nihilominus in premissis omnibus et singulis procedere volumus et intendimus justitiâ mediante; Imprimis absentiâ seu contumaciâ in aliquo non obstante; et ne periculum sit in mora, et ut interim hujus hereses in hoc regno hucusque ab omni tali labe et hereticâ peste per tanta temporis spatia sano, et post Christi Salvatoris susceptam fidem inviolabiliter preservato, non oriantur nec per Christi fideles audiantur, vobis omnibus et singulis supradictis, modo et forma premissis precipimus et mandamus, quatenus auctoritate nostra inhibentes omnibus et singulis Christi fidelibus cujuscunque dignitatis, status, gradus, ordinis aut conditionis existant, ne dicto Magistro P. sic ut premittitur, de heresi suspecto, favorem, assistentiam, societatem, colloquium seu gratam audientiam praebeant; nec in suis temerariis et insolentibus predicationibus disputationibus seu conventiclis publice vel occulte quovis quesito colore vel ingenio conveniant seu presentiam exhibeant; sed sibi et suis saltem de premissis fautoribus resistere studeant, resistentiamque faciant et procurent; ab illo quoque edendo, bibendo aut communicando in premissis abstineant, donec de heresi et infamia desuper ortâ purgetur, et eundem vitent sub penâ excommunicationis majoris; Quam contrarium facientes incurrere volumus et decernimus ipso facto. Et quos vos, etc. Datum, etc.