Patrick Hamilton was a young professor at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Related to Scottish royalty through both parents, he studied in Paris where he read Erasmus and Luther and was convinced of the need to reform the Church of corruption and restore its proper focus on the Gospel. As professor, Hamilton attacked the ongoing moral abuses of many of the clergy, as well as false doctrine and abusive ecclesiastical practices. He came to the attention of Archbishop Beaton at the Cathedral who determined to arrest Hamilton for heresy. Upon the advice of friends, Patrick escaped to the continent where he travelled immediately to Wittenberg to hear Luther in person.
Upon returning to St. Andrews, Hamilton was (strangely, and perhaps underhandedly) invited to preach. He proclaimed salvation by faith alone, exerting great influence among the students, monks, priests, and professors of St. Andrews. Although warned by his friends, Patrick refused to flee and was quickly arrested and hauled before a council of monks, priests, and other clerics under the influence of Beaton. Patrick stood solidly on the Word of God and refused to back down on seven major charges that were central tenets of the Reformation’s evangelical catholic theology. He also denied the existence of Purgatory and affirmed the pope as an antichrist. He denounced relics as having any merit, in a town with a cathedral that boasted relics of great merit for pilgrims to pay to see, under the altar.
When offered his life for a recantation Patrick Hamilton replied: “As to my confession, I will not deny it for the fear of your fire, for my confession and belief is in Christ Jesus. Therefore I will not deny it. I will rather be content that my body burn in this fire for the confession of my faith in Christ, than my soul should burn in the fire of hell for denying the same.”
On the 29th of February, the twenty-four-year-old college professor was burned at the stake at the portico to the University while his students stood in shock, and the Franciscan friar teased him to call on the Virgin Mary to help him out. Upon his death, many others took up the cause of the martyr and spread the Gospel across Scotland. (Adapted from The Martyrdom of Patrick Hamilton, 1528, by Bill Potter)
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