Of the Early State of Grecian Literature in Scotland.—In this note I shall throw together such facts as I have met with relating to the introduction of the Greek language into Scotland, and the progress which it made during the sixteenth century. They are scanty; but I trust they will not be altogether unacceptable to those who take an interest in the subject.
In the year 1522, Boece mentions George Dundas as a good Greek scholar. He was master of the Knights of St John in Scotland, and had, most probably, acquired the knowledge of the language on the Continent. “Georgius Dundas grecas atq; latinas literas apprime doctus, equitum Hierosolymitanorum intra Scotorum regnum magistratum multo sudore (superatis emulis) postea adeptus.” Boetii Vitæ Episcop. Murth. et Aberdon. fol. xxvii. b. It is reasonable to suppose that some other individuals in the nation acquired it in the same way; but Boece makes no mention of Greek among the branches taught at the universities in his time, although he is minute in his details. Nor do I find any other reference to the subject previous to the year 1534, when Erskine of Dun brought a learned man from France, and employed him to teach Greek in Montrose, as mentioned in that part of the Life to which this note refers. At his school, George Wishart, the martyr, must have obtained the knowledge of the language, and he seems to have been assistant or successor to his master. The bishop of Brechin (William Chisholm), hearing that Wishart taught the Greek New Testament in Montrose, summoned him to appear before him on a charge of heresy, upon which he fled the kingdom. This was in 1538. Petrie, part ii. p. 182. It is likely that Knox was taught Greek by Wishart after the return of the latter from England. Buchanan seems to have acquired the language during his residence on the Continent. Epist. p. 25. Oper. edit. Rudd.
Lesley says, that James V., during his progress through the kingdom in 1540, came to Aberdeen, and among other entertainmentswhich were given him, the students of the university “recited orations in the Greek and Latin tongue, composed with the greatest skill”—“Orationes in Greca Latinaque lingua, summo artificio instructæ.” Leslæus de rebus gestis Scotorum, lib. ix. p. 430. edit. 1675. When we consider the state of learning at that period in Scotland, there is reason for suspecting that the bishop’s description is highly coloured, yet as he entered that university a few years after, we may conclude from it that some attention was at that time paid to the study of Greek in Aberdeen. It might have been introduced by Hector Boece, the learned principal of that university. If the king was entertained with the great learning of the students of Aberdeen, the English ambassador was no less diverted, in the very same year, with the ignorance which our bishops discovered of the Greek tongue. The ambassador, who was a scholar as well as a statesman, had caused his men to wear on their sleeves the following Greek motto, ΜΟΝΩ ΑΝΑΚΤΙ ΔΟΥΛΕΥΩ, “I serve the king only.” This the Scottish bishops, whose knowledge did not extend beyond Latin, read Monachulus, “a little monk,” and thereupon circulated the report that the ambassador’s servants were monks, who had been taken out of the monasteries lately suppressed in England. To counteract this report, Sadler was obliged to furnish a translation of the inscription. “It appeareth (says he) they are no good Grecians. And now the effect of my words is known, and they be well laughed at for their learned interpretation.” Sadler’s Letters, i. 48, 49. Edinburgh, 1809. In a debate which occurred in the Parliament which met in 1543, individuals among the nobility and other lay members discovered more knowledge of Greek than all the ecclesiastical bench. Knox, Historie, 34.
Foreign writers have been amused with the information, that many of the Scottish clergy affirmed, “that Martin Luther had lately composed a wicked book called the New Testament; but that they, for their part, would adhere to the Old Testament.” Perizonii Hist. Seculi xvi. p. 233. Gerdesii Histor. Reform. tom. iv. p. 314. Buchanani Oper. i. 291. Ignorant, however, as our clergy were, they were not more illiterate than many on the Continent. A foreign monk, declaiming one day in the pulpit against Lutherans andZuinglians, said to his audience: “A new language was invented some time ago, called Greek, which has been the mother of all these heresies. A book is printed in this language, called the New Testament, which contains many dangerous things. Another language is now forming, the Hebrew; whoever learns it immediately becomes a Jew.” No wonder, after this, that the commissioners of the senate of Lucern should have confiscated the works of Aristotle, Plato, and some of the Greek poets, which they found in the library of a friend of Zuinglius, concluding, that every book printed in that language must be infected with Lutheranism. J. von Mullers Schw. Gesch. Hess, Life of Ulrich Zuingle, p. 213.
To return to the seminary at Montrose: it was kept up, by the public spirit of its patron, until the establishment of the Reformation. Some years before that event, the celebrated linguist, Andrew Melville, received his education at this school, under Pierre de Marsiliers, a Frenchman. And he had made such proficiency in Greek, when he entered the university of St Andrews, about the year 1559, that he was able to read Aristotle in the original language, “which even his masters themselves understood not.” Life of Andrew Melville, p. 2, in Wodrow’s MSS. Bibl. Coll. Glas. vol. i. and James Melville’s Diary, p. 32. For, although the logics, ethics, &c. of Aristotle, were then read in the colleges, it was in a Latin translation. “The regent of St Leonard’s,” says James Melville, “tauld me of my uncle Mr Andro Melvill, whom he knew, in the tyme of his cours in the new collag, to use the Greik logicks of Aristotle, quhilk was a wonder to them, he was so fyne a scholar, and of sic expectation.” MS. Diary, p. 25.
By the First Book of Discipline, it was provided, that there should “be a reader of Greek” in one of the colleges of each university, who “shall compleat the grammar thereof in three months,” and “shall interpret some book of Plato, together with some places of the New Testament, and shall compleat his course the same year.” Dunlop’s Confessions, ii. 553. The small number of learned men, the deficiency of funds, and the confusions in which the country was afterwards involved, prevented, in a great degree, the execution of this wise measure. Owing to the last of these circumstances, some learned Scotsmen devoted their talents to the service of foreignseminaries, instead of returning to their native country. Buchanani Epist. p. 7, 9, 10, 33. One of these was Henry Scrimger, celebrated for his Grecian literature. Some particulars respecting him may be seen in Senebier, Hist. Litter. de Geneve, tom. i. art. Scrimger. See also Teissier, Eloges. tom. iii. 383–385. Leide, 1715. On account of the scarcity of preachers, it was also found necessary to settle several of the learned men in towns which were not the seat of a university. Some of these undertook the instruction of youth, along with the pastoral inspection of their parishes. John Row taught the Greek tongue in Perth. See vol. ii. [Note C]. The venerable teacher, Andrew Simson, (see p. [5],) does not appear to have been capable of this task; but he was careful that his son Patrick should not labour under the same defect. He was sent to the university of Cambridge, in which he made great proficiency; and after his return to Scotland, taught Greek at Spot, a village in East Lothian, where he was minister for some time. Row’s MS. p. 96 of a copy in the Divinity Lib. Edin. It is reasonable to suppose, that this branch of study would not be neglected at St Andrews during the time that Buchanan was principal of St Leonard’s college, from 1565 to 1570. Patrick Adamson, to whom he demitted this office, and whom he recommended for his “literature and sufficiency,” (Buch. Op. i. 10,) was not then in the kingdom; and the state of education languished for some time in that university. James Melville, who entered it in 1570, gives the following account. “Our regent begoud, and teacheth us the a, b, c, of the Greik, and the simple declinationis, but went no farder.” MS. Diary, p. 26. Græcum est, non legitur, was at this time an adage, even with persons who had received a university education. Row’s MS. ut supra.
The return of Andrew Melville in 1574, gave a new impulse to literature in Scotland. That celebrated scholar had perfected himself in the knowledge of the languages during the nine years which he spent on the Continent, and had astonished the learned at Geneva by the fluency with which he read and spoke Greek. MS. Diary, ut sup. p. 33. He was first made Principal of the university of Glasgow, and afterwards removed to the university of St Andrews. Such was his celebrity, that he attracted students from England and foreign countries, whereas formerly it had been thecustom for the Scottish youth to go abroad for their education. Spotswood, with whom he was no favourite, and Calderwood, equally bear testimony to his profound knowledge of this language. Soon after Melville, Thomas Smeton, another Greek scholar, returned to Scotland, and was made Principal of the university of Glasgow.—I may mention here, although it belongs to the subject of typography, that there appear to have been neither Greek nor Hebrew types in this country in 1579, when Smeton’s Answer to Archibald Hamilton was printed; for blanks are left for all the phrases and quotations in these languages, which the author intended to introduce. In my copy of the book, a number of the blanks have been filled up with a pen by the author’s own hand.
Of Major’s Political Sentiments.—The following are some of the passages from which the account of these, given in the text, has been drawn. Similar sentiments occur in his History of Scotland; but as it has been insinuated that he, in that work, merely copied Boece, I shall quote from his other writings, which are more rarely consulted.