¶ In this Epistle of the Louaniane Doctours, I shall not neede (gentle Reader) to note vnto thee, what a pernitious thyng in a common wealth, is blynd ignoraunce, when it falleth into cruell hartes. Which may well be compared to a sword put in the handes of one, that is both blynd and mad. For as the blynd man, hauyng no sense to see and iudge knoweth not whom he striketh: so the madde man, beyng cruell and furious, hath no compassion in sparyng any. Wherupon it happeneth many tymes with these men, as it dyd with the blynd furious Phariseis, that as they hauyng the sword of authoritie in their handes, in stede of malefactours and false Prophetes, slue the true Prophetes of God, and at last crucified the kyng of glory: so these Catholicke Louanians and folowers of their Messias of Rome, take in their handes the sworde of iurisdiction, who neither seyng what to spare, nor caryng whom they smite, vnder the stile and pretense of heretiques, murther and blaspheme without mercy, the true preachers of the Gospell, and the holy annoynted of the Lord.
"But to returne to the matter agayne of M. Hamelton, here is moreouer to be observed, as a note worthy of memory, that in the yeare of the Lord 1564, in the which yeare this present history was collected in Scotland, there were certaine faythfull men of credite then alyue, who beyng present the same tyme, when M. Patrike Hamelton was in the fire, heard him to cite and appeale the blacke Frier called Campbel, that accused him, to appeare before the hygh God, as generall iudge of all men, to aunswere to the innocency of his death, and whether his accusation was iust or not, betwene that and a certaine day of the next moneth, which he there named. Moreouer by the same witnes it is testified, that the sayd Frier dyed immediatly before the sayd day came, without remorse of conscience, that he had persecuted the Innocent. By the example wherof diuers of the people the same tyme, much mused, and firmely beleued the doctrine of the foresayd M. Hamelton, to be good and iust.
"Hereunto I thought good to adioyne a certaine godly and profitable Treatise of the sayd M. Patrike Hamelton, written first by him in Latine, and afterward translated by John Frith into English, which he names Patrikes Places; not vnprofitable in my mynde, to be sene and read of all men, for the pure and comfortable doctrine conteined in the same, as not onely by the treatise it selfe may appeare, but also by the preface of the sayd John Frith, prefixed before; which also I thought not inconuenient to insert with the same, as here foloweth."
The "brief Treatise," translated by John Fryth, which immediately follows the above extracts from Foxe, has already been included in the present volume: [see pages 19 to 35].
It appears from some payments in the Treasurer's Accounts, in 1543, that Patrick Hamilton had left an illegitimate daughter named Isobell. Some readers perchance may think that such a fact should have remained unnoticed, as casting a blemish on his hitherto pure and immaculate character; but a regard to what may be called historical justice, will not allow such a circumstance to be concealed, while the habitual licentious conduct of the highest dignitaries of the Church at that time are, in the course of the present work, so frequently alluded to.
"Item, the x day of Aprile deliuerit to be ane gowne to Issobell Hammiltoun, dochter to umquhill Patrik Abbot of Fern, four elnis Frenche blak, price of the eln xxxiiij s.... Summa, vj lib. xvj s.
"Item, deliuerit to be hir are kirtill, thre elnis Frenehe brown, price of the eln xxx s.... Summa, iiij lib. x s.
"Item, deliuerit to hir to walt the samin, and to be hir pertlettis, ane eln blak veluet, price thairof, ... lvj s."