The King of England was in no lack of motives for intervention in Scotland. James V. had just concluded an alliance for a hundred years with Charles V., the mortal enemy of Henry VIII., and had even asked for the hand of the emperor’s sister, the ex-queen of Hungary. This princess had rejected the match, and the emperor had proposed to James his niece Dorothea, daughter of the King of Denmark.
Bothwell was able even to tell Northumberland, in this night-conference, of matters graver still. A secret ambassador from Charles V., said he, Peter von Rosenberg, has recently been at Edinburgh and, in a long conversation which he had with the king in his private apartments, has promised him that the emperor would put him in a position, before Easter, to assume the title of prince of England and duke of York.[163] The Roman party, despairing of Henry VIII., were willing to transmit the crown to his nephew, the King of Scotland. Bothwell added that James, as he left the conference, met the chancellor of the kingdom and several nobles, and made haste to communicate to them the magnificent promise of Charles V. The chancellor contented himself with saying, ‘Pray God I may live to see the day on which the Pope will confirm it.’ The king replied, ‘Only let the emperor act; he will labor strenuously for us.’ It was not James V., but his grandson, who was to ascend the throne of the Tudors.
The project formed by the Scottish nobles of placing Scotland under the sceptre of England was not so easy to carry out as they imagined. The priests, who supposed that they had surmounted the dangers proceeding from reform, undertook to remove in like manner those with which they were threatened by the nobility. But they were mistaken when they believed that the fire kindled by the Word of God was extinguished. Flames shot up suddenly even in places where it was least of all expected to see them.
ALEXANDER SEATON.
A monk of the Dominican order, the order so devoted to the Inquisition, Alexander Seaton, confessor to the king—a man of lofty stature, downright, ready-witted and bold even to audacity[164]—was held in great esteem at the court. The state of the Church profoundly grieved him, and therefore, having been appointed to preach in Lent (1532) in the cathedral of St. Andrews, he resolved courageously to avow in that Scottish Rome the heavenly doctrine which was making exiles and martyrs. Preaching before a large congregation, he said—‘Jesus Christ is the end of the law, and no one is able by his works to satisfy divine justice. A living faith which lays hold of the mercy of God in Christ, can alone obtain for the sinner the remission of sins. But for how many years has God’s law, instead of being faithfully taught, been darkened by the tradition of men?’ People were astonished at this discourse: some wondered why he did not say a word about pilgrimages and other meritorious works; but the priests themselves were afraid to lay a complaint against him. ‘He is confessor to the king,’ they said, ‘and enjoys the favor both of prince and people.’[165]
In the absence of Seaton, after Lent, the archbishop and the clergy took courage, condemned the doctrine which he had preached, and appointed another Dominican to refute him. Seaton immediately returned from Dundee, whither he had gone, had the cathedral bells rung, and, ascending the pulpit, repeated with more energy and clearness still what he had previously said. Then, recalling to mind all that a bishop ought to be according to St. Paul, he asked, where are such bishops to be found in Scotland? The primate, when informed of this discourse, summoned him before him, and rebuked him for having asserted that the bishops were only dumb dogs. Seaton replied that it was an unfounded accusation. ‘Your answer pleases me well,’ exclaimed Beatoun. But the witnesses confirmed their deposition. ‘These are liars,’ said again the king’s confessor to the archbishop; ‘consider what ears these asses have, who cannot decern Paul, Isaiah, Zechariah and Malachi, and friar Alexander Seaton. In very deed, my lord, I said that Paul says it behoves a bishop to be a teacher. Isaiah said that they that fed not the flock are dumb dogs. And Zechariah says, they are idle pastors. I of my own head affirmed nothing, but declared what the Spirit of God before had pronounced.’
SEATON’S FLIGHT.
Beatoun did not hesitate: this bold preacher was evidently putting to his mouth the trumpet of Hamilton and Alesius. The primate undertook to obtain authority from the king to proceed against his confessor, and it was an easier task than he imagined. Seaton, like John the Baptist, had no dread of incurring the king’s displeasure, and had rebuked him for his licentiousness. James had said nothing at the time, thinking that the confessor was only doing his duty. But when he saw the archbishop denouncing Seaton, ‘Ah,’ said this young prince, who was given up to a loose life,[166] ‘I know more than you do of his audacity;’ and from that time he showed great coolness towards Seaton. The latter perceiving what fate awaited him, quitted the kingdom, and took refuge at Berwick. It was about two years after the Lent sermon preached by him in 1532.
He did not remain idle. He had a last duty to discharge to his master the king. ‘The bishops of your kingdom,’ he wrote to him, ‘oppose our teaching the Gospel of Christ. I offer to present myself before your majesty, and to convince the priests of error.’[167] As the king made him no answer, Seaton went to London, where he became chaplain to the duke of Suffolk, brother-in-law of Henry VIII., and preached eloquently to large audiences.