THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 hook is DUP '"i the 1a 
 
 BRANCH, 
 
 UNIVEKSITY OF CALIFORNIA, 
 
 LIBRARY, 
 
 i>S ANGELES, CAHF.
 
 GEORGE BUCHANAN
 
 GEORGE BUCHANAN. 
 ( I' mm Boissa rd, )
 
 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 A BIOGRAPHY 
 
 BY 
 
 D. MACMILLAN, M.A., D.D. 
 
 MINISTER OF KELVINHAUGH PARISH, GLASGOW 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 "JOHN KNOX, A BIOGRAPHY" 
 
 SECOND IMPRESSION 
 
 EDINBURGH 
 
 GEORGE A. MORTON, 42 GEORGE STREET 
 
 LONDON : SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO. LTD. 
 
 1906 
 
 53502
 
 IDA 
 
 ROBERT FLINT 
 
 D.D., LL.D., F.R.S.E. 
 
 EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH 
 
 CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE AND 
 
 HONORARY MEMBER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF PALERMO 
 
 REPRESENTATIVE 
 IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AS 
 
 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 WAS IN THE SIXTEENTH OF 
 
 SCOTTISH LEARNING AND 
 
 SCHOLARSHIP
 
 PREFACE 
 
 ^ T TAD Mr. Robert Wallace, M.P. for East 
 
 A A Edinburgh, lived to finish his biography of 
 
 George Buchanan, this work would probably have 
 
 never been written. But all that he left was a frag- 
 
 '^ ment in the form of "characteristics," rich and 
 suggestive so far as it goes ; the life proper 
 abruptly stops in its opening chapter. Apart from 
 that there is no other biography of Buchanan 
 which attempts to give, within a brief compass, 
 the story of his chequered and remarkable career. 
 It accordingly occurred to me that as the country- 
 men of Buchanan had resolved to commemorate the 
 quater-century of his birth, which falls this year, 
 they would not take it amiss if I attempted to write 
 his Life after the same manner as I did that of his
 
 viii PREFACE 
 
 great contemporary, John Knox, last year. The 
 generous reception given to that work inspired me 
 with a hope that the same favour might be extended 
 to a companion volume. There are, of course, two 
 well-known biographies of Buchanan in existence 
 the one by Dr. David Irving and the other by Dr. P. 
 Hume Brown. But they are written on a large scale 
 and give what may be termed a scientific, full, and 
 exhaustive representation of their subject. Everyone 
 who is desirous of learning all that can be known of 
 Buchanan must turn to them, especially to Dr. Hume 
 Brown's, to which I owe much, and my effort 
 will not have been in vain if it should direct the 
 attention of readers to its informative and interesting 
 pages. I am further indebted to its author for 
 permission to publish his translations of certain of 
 Buchanan's verses. It would be impossible, as it 
 may be unnecessary, to refer in detail to my other 
 sources of obligation. The literature on the period, 
 if not on the subject, is almost inexhaustible. 
 
 I have again to express my thanks to Mr. William 
 Wallace, LL.D., for valuable suggestions made
 
 PREFACE ix 
 
 while the work was passing through the press ; to the 
 Rev. George Drummond, B.D., for kindly revising 
 the proofs ; and to the Rev. R. S. V. Logic, M. A., for 
 preparing the Index. I am also under very special 
 obligation to the Librarian of Glasgow University 
 and his assistants for putting the resources of their 
 
 Library so generously at my service. 
 
 D. M. 
 
 March 1906.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PACE 
 
 I. THE SCHOLAR ..... I 
 
 II. THE STUDENT . . . . .II 
 
 IIU THE SOLDIER . . . . 2J 
 
 IV. THE REGENT . . . . .38 
 
 V. THE SATIRIST . . . . $6 
 
 VI. THE DRAMATIST . . . . -73 
 
 VIL THE WANDERER . . . . .88 
 
 VIII. THE POET . . . . . .107 
 
 IX. THE COURTIER . . . . .127 
 
 X. THE CHURCHMAN . . . . .150 
 
 XI. THE EDUCATIONIST . . . .164 
 
 XII. THE POLEMIC . . . . . l8l 
 
 XIII. THE TUTOR ..... 204 
 
 XIV. THE POLITICIAN . . . . .221 
 XV. THE HISTORIAN ... . . . 236 
 
 XVI. THE FRIEND ..... 255 
 
 XVII. THE END ...... 270 
 
 INDEX . . . . . .287
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 GEORGE BUCHANAN .... Frontispiece 
 
 (From Boissard.) 
 
 ST. LEONARD'S COLLEGE . . Facing page 166 
 
 (From an old Print in St. Andrews University Lib 
 
 QUEEN MARY AND JAMES VI. . . Facing page 208 
 
 (From Lesley's History.)
 
 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE SCHOLAR 
 
 / T"" S HERE is not the same uncertainty regarding 
 *- the early years of George Buchanan as there 
 is about those of his great fellow-countryman and 
 contemporary, John Knox. The reformer's History 
 of the Reformation of Religion in Scotland gives full 
 and graphic details of the writer's life during its 
 latest period, but about its opening years it maintains 
 a singular silence. Buchanan in his old age, in 
 response, it is believed, to the entreaties of his 
 friends, wrote a brief record of his life, and his nar- 
 rative has formed the basis of every biography of 
 him that has since appeared. It stops short at 
 
 his final arrival in Scotland in 1561, but his career 
 I
 
 2 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 from that date till his death can be traced from 
 other sources, and thus a full sketch of his life is 
 possible. Nor is there any doubt as to the date of 
 his birth. He himself tells us that he was born 
 about the beginning of February 1506. 
 
 The village of Killearn, in Stirlingshire, claims 
 the honour of being Buchanan's birthplace, but it 
 was two miles beyond it, near the river Blane, on 
 the lands of Moss or Mid-Leowen, that he was 
 born. Nothing now remains of the house ; but a 
 table and a chair, made from one of the oaken 
 rafters, are still shown in the more modern structure 
 which has taken its place. The question of heredity, 
 which plays so important a part in modern bio- 
 graphical writing, is of special significance in relation 
 to the life and character of Buchanan. He is 
 recognised on all hands to have been a typical 
 Scot, and to have, more than most, possessed the 
 prcefervidum ingenmm Scotorum, which he himself 
 was the first to declare to be characteristic of his 
 countrymen. He was of mixed descent. His father 
 was a Celt and his mother was a Teuton. This 
 combination, in its purity, of the two chief elements 
 which compose the Scottish nation, accounts in the
 
 THE SCHOLAR 3 
 
 eyes of some for the rare genius of Buchanan. In 
 any case, it merits attention, even although no 
 large generalisation can be drawn from it. 
 
 The Buchanans from whom he was descended 
 trace their origin from the eleventh century. Their 
 genealogical tree in its earliest branches is probably 
 mythical. The clan claims as its ancestor one 
 Anselan Okyan, a fugitive from Ireland, who sought 
 safety in Scotland from the vengeance that pursued 
 him on account of the part which he had taken in 
 a general slaughter of the Danes. Landing on the 
 west coast, he settled in Lennox, and his family, by 
 royal favour and prudent marriages, became con- 
 siderable landowners in the district, and possessors 
 of Buchanan. After a time they assumed the 
 territorial name, but their original designation is 
 held to be still found in the Macauslans and Mac- 
 millans, who are equally entitled to the benefactions 
 and Scholarships of the clan, of which they are 
 branches. Critics of Buchanan's life have not 
 failed to point to the fact of his connection with 
 the house of Lennox. Through the Drumikill 
 branch of the family to which he belonged, he was 
 directly descended from Murdach, Duke of Albany,
 
 4 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 and Isobel, heiress of Lennox. His blood connection 
 with Darnley, the husband of Queen Mary, thus 
 accounts to some for the side that he took in 
 the rebellion that banished Mary to England, and 
 set her son on the throne. We can hardly conceive, 
 however, that a man of Buchanan's culture and 
 power of detachment would be thus prejudiced in 
 judging of so great a cause. But even Knox was 
 not impervious to that feudal relationship which 
 was of so great influence during the long period 
 of the Middle Ages, and from which the country 
 was only emerging. His comparatively gentle treat- 
 ment of Bothwell is thus explained, for Knox 
 himself tells the earl that his ancestors had served 
 his lordship's family in battle. But of one thing 
 there can be no doubt : Buchanan's sympathy for 
 the Celtic element in the Scottish nation reveals 
 itself in his writings, particularly in his " History." 
 Gaelic was his mother-tongue. His father was a 
 Highlander, and in recounting the valour of the 
 Scottish nation, it was the race from which he was 
 descended that he had in mind. However much of 
 the lowland Scot can be seen in his temperament, his 
 love for and admiration of the race from which he
 
 THE SCHOLAR 5 
 
 sprang, unconsciously coloured his Rerum Scoticarum 
 Hutoria, his longest and most ambitious work. 
 
 His mother was a native of East Lothian. Her 
 name was Agnes Heriot, and her family had for 
 many generations been possessors of the lands of 
 Trabroun, near Lauder. George Heriot, the founder 
 of Heriofs Hospital, claimed connection with the 
 same family. He also, like his more distinguished 
 relative, had intimate dealings with King James the 
 Sixth, and the monarch no doubt would find them 
 more agreeable than those he had with Buchanan. 
 A prince like James would be sure to appreciate the 
 liberality of his banker more than the strictness of 
 his tutor. Circumstances soon arose which tested to 
 the utmost the character of Agnes Heriot. Her 
 husband died before he had reached middle life, and 
 left her to struggle as best she could with a young 
 family of five sons and three daughters. The 
 grandfather, Robert Buchanan, was still alive, but 
 he was practically insolvent, and the mother was 
 compelled to leave the paternal home and find the 
 means of supporting her children elsewhere. In 
 1513, when George was seven years old, the lease of 
 certain lands near Cardross, Menteith, was granted
 
 6 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 to her, and to her sons, Patrick, Alexander, and 
 George. As this lease was renewed in 1531, it would 
 seem that she passed the remainder of her days in 
 the district. In any case, she was able by her thrift 
 and good management to rear her family, all of whom 
 reached maturity, and if one can judge from the 
 future careers of two of her sons, Patrick and George, 
 she was also able to give them a good education. 
 Patrick, like his more distinguished brother, became 
 a scholar, and accompanied him in his scholastic 
 adventure to Portugal ; but he died early. 
 
 No authentic record remains of the school or 
 schools in which Buchanan received his education. 
 He himself says in his autobiography that he was 
 educated in the " schools of his native country," and 
 it has been inferred that Killearn or Dumbarton, 
 or both, must be referred to. There were good 
 schools in both places, particularly at Dumbarton, 
 and it has been concluded, from the familiar 
 manner in which he writes in his " History " 
 about its castle, that he was educated there. 
 Elementary and Secondary education in Scotland 
 were much more widely spread and advanced before 
 the Reformation than is generally supposed. The
 
 THE SCHOLAR 7 
 
 Reformers are credited with being the founders 
 of Scottish education. This is not the case : it was 
 the Roman Church that established the schools and 
 Universities of Scotland, and it was only after it 
 found that the intellectual weapons which it furnished 
 were being turned against itself, that it endeavoured 
 to stem the tide of learning. The Reformers certainly 
 battled against this spirit of reaction, and, valuing 
 at its true price what enlightenment had done for 
 religion, strove to place the education of the country, 
 from its lowest to its highest stage, on a sound basis. 
 Indeed, generations before Buchanan was born, 
 schools, singularly well equipped, were to be found 
 in many parts of Scotland. They were originally 
 attached to the cathedrals, abbeys, and collegiate 
 churches ; but Grammar Schools soon sprang up in 
 the more important towns and burghs, and town 
 councils began to vie with the ecclesiastical authori- 
 ties in their interest in education. The control of 
 these schools, to begin with, was in the hands of 
 the Church, but its right of management, in certain 
 cases, was contested ; the burghs maintaining 
 that it was in their hands the appointment of the 
 master should rest. Such disputes, which were not
 
 8 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 infrequent, show the lively concern that was taken 
 in education by the citizens, and account, among 
 other things, for the remarkable part which the 
 people, as a whole, took in the Reformation of 
 Religion which soon followed: the schools which 
 were founded for the purpose of training young 
 lads for the priesthood having grown into seminaries 
 for the education of Scottish youth. The character 
 of the instruction given will surprise those who, 
 ignorant of our history, imagine that it is in our 
 own time only the country has risen to its true 
 needs in education. 
 
 To take one instance among many. From the 
 statutes of the Grammar School of Aberdeen, which 
 are dated prior to the Reformation, and refer to a 
 period earlier still, in all probability to the begin- 
 ning of the sixteenth century, the very time when 
 Buchanan would be at school, we learn that the 
 boys had to acquire a moderate knowledge of 
 arithmetic, and that the "master prelected on 
 Terence, Virgil, or Cicero, and that the boys were 
 strictly forbidden to speak in the vulgar tongue, 
 but only in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, and 
 Gaelic. 11 Granting that this course did not prevail
 
 THE SCHOLAR 9 
 
 in all the other schools in the country, it at any rate 
 gives a fair indication of the kind of instruction 
 imparted to certain of the Scottish youth before 
 the Reformation. In the light of it, the famous 
 Act of 1496, which ordains that "all burghesses and 
 freeholders of substance shall send their eldest sons 
 and heirs to school, from they be eight or nine 
 years of age; and to remain there until they be 
 competently grounded and have perfect Latin," 
 was evidently no dead letter. Even though the 
 instruction given was not of so thorough a character 
 as could be desired, no boy of ordinary intelligence 
 could have passed through such a course of study 
 without receiving a very considerable amount of 
 culture. 
 
 Of one thing we may be certain : young Buchanan 
 would take full advantage of every opportunity 
 for mental training which the schools of his native 
 country afforded him. Indeed, this is put beyond 
 doubt by the fact that his uncle, his mother's 
 brother, James Heriot, struck by the ability and 
 industry of the boy, determined to send him to 
 the University of Paris. This famous seat of 
 learning had during the Middle Ages stepped into
 
 io GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 the first place, and was, at the opening of the 
 sixteenth century, the centre around which the learn- 
 ing and culture of Europe gathered. Buchanan 
 could of course have gone to one or other of the 
 Scottish Universities, three of which, St. Andrews, 
 Glasgow, and Aberdeen, had by this time been 
 founded; but they were meagrely endowed and 
 poorly equipped, and any youth who was looking 
 forward to the career of a scholar was bound to 
 regard the University of Paris as the Alma Mater 
 that would nurture him into position and fame. 
 Buchanan was only fourteen years of age when he 
 left his native land, and began that wandering life 
 which was to be his fate until he had almost 
 approached old age. Whether his early environ- 
 ment influenced him much or not, we cannot tell, 
 but there was no district in Scotland that could be 
 more favourable to the muse than the "varied 
 realms of fair Menteith." But the scenery which 
 inspired his great successor, Sir Walter Scott, would 
 seem to have made no impression on him. Three 
 centuries had to elapse before the Lady of the Lake 
 could be written, and the Trossachs receive that 
 meed of praise which was their due.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE STUDENT 
 
 TT must have been a strange experience for a 
 * young Scotch lad of fourteen, to find himself 
 suddenly transported from the wild moors of his 
 native country to the seething population and 
 complex civilisation of a cosmopolitan city like 
 Paris. The journey, even, must have been a trying 
 and dangerous ordeal, for the seas were infested 
 with pirates, and the small craft which in those 
 days were the means of communication with the 
 Continent, stood in no little danger of shipwreck. 
 It is more than likely that Buchanan had as com- 
 panions on the journey fellow-students who also 
 looked to Paris for that mental equipment which 
 they could not find in their own country. Indeed, 
 ever since the founding of the Scots College in 1325, 
 
 the University of Paris was regarded by the Scottish 
 
 11
 
 12 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 youth as an intellectual shrine, towards which they 
 repaired in ever-growing numbers. Recent research 
 makes it almost certain that at the time of 
 Buchanan's first visit to Paris there would at least be 
 two hundred Scotch lads studying at its University. 
 The young student's loneliness would accordingly 
 not be so pronounced as might at first sight appear. 
 Besides, there had been for many centuries the closest 
 relations between the two countries, and a Scottish 
 youth on landing at a French seaport would feel 
 himself to be no stranger. 
 
 The mediaeval Universities, especially the large 
 ones like that of Paris, gathered round them aspiring 
 youths from every country on the continent of 
 Europe. Among the ten thousand students who 
 attended the fifty colleges that formed this famous 
 University, there would be found a spirit of cosmo- 
 politanism which would at once put a stranger at 
 his ease, and unconsciously produce that very culture 
 which it is the aim of the highest education to 
 promote. In this lies the significance of a Uni- 
 versity which has for its first object the removal 
 of prejudices, national as well as personal, and the 
 development in the breasts of the students of a
 
 THE STUDENT 13 
 
 reverence for that humanity which is common to 
 all. 
 
 The University of Paris was beginning at this 
 time to lose the high position which it had held 
 for centuries. Its history, from its earliest begin- 
 nings in the Middle Ages, had been one of steady 
 growth and of brilliant achievements. For many 
 centuries it was the centre of light and leading 
 for the whole of Europe, and the greatest scholars 
 of every Christian nation either studied or taught 
 in it ; but at the time of Buchanan's arrival it was 
 brought face to face with the two great movements 
 which have revolutionised modern Europe : the New 
 Learning and the New Religion. Unfortunately for 
 itself the University of Paris opposed both move- 
 ments, and the loss of its ancient position and 
 prestige was only a matter of time. 
 
 It may be useful to trace, in a word, the course 
 of learning in Europe from the fall of the Roman 
 Empire to the Reformation. With the breaking 
 up of the power of the Caesars, there was 
 a wild rush of the barbaric hordes over Italy, 
 quickly followed by the corruption of the Latin 
 language and the destruction of the Classical
 
 14 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 literature and learning. The Church, however, 
 found it necessary, for its own salvation, to pre- 
 serve at least a semblance of knowledge, for it 
 could not exist without its liturgies, manuals, 
 canon law, and the Scriptures. The preservation 
 of Latin within the Church was thus a necessity, 
 but it became greatly corrupted, and even in its 
 debased form could only be read by the better 
 educated of the clergy. Classical Latin very 
 soon was altogether unknown. The Church also 
 established schools, colleges, and universities for 
 the education of its priesthood, but their purpose 
 being thus confined, education, in the highest 
 sense of the word, could be but very rarely 
 attained. 
 
 The philosophy which sprang up was naturally 
 influenced by the spirit of the times, which again 
 was but the expression of the policy of the Church. 
 During the long course of centuries a great body 
 of doctrine had been put together, and the questions 
 which began to trouble men's minds were : Is this 
 doctrine true ? Does it approve itself to reason ? 
 Has it a basis in fact, and does it correspond to 
 what is actual and real in the world and in the
 
 THE STUDENT 15 
 
 life of man ? To answer these questions was the 
 great task of the Scholastic philosophy. The most 
 acute minds of the Middle Ages got to be absorbed 
 in them, and the Church felt that its very exist- 
 ence depended on their being answered in the 
 affirmative. This philosophy, at its inception, was 
 a genuine product of the age, and for many 
 centuries it afforded scope for the exercise of the 
 finest talent, but after a time it became unreal; 
 its foundations were shaken, men's minds had out- 
 grown it, and the endless quibbles and inanities 
 into which it had degenerated in the hands of 
 the later Schoolmen, brought it into universal 
 contempt. 
 
 From the dying embers of the old philosophy 
 a new flame of light was beginning to shine. The 
 very men who might be expected to hand on the 
 torch of Scholasticism were soon to find more con- 
 genial exercise for their talent in the literature 
 of Greece and Rome, which had again been dis- 
 covered, and was being brought into the full light 
 of day. The breaking up of the Byzantine Empire 
 drove into Italy a number of learned Greeks, who 
 brought with them the literary treasures of their
 
 1 6 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 own country. The new learning, as it was called, 
 speedily found many admirers : a fresh world was 
 opened up, and scholarly minds turned away with 
 something like contempt from the old and fruitless 
 studies to a perusal of the immortal literary pro- 
 ductions of the Ancient world. In them they 
 discovered those eternal truths which are common 
 to humanity, expressed in the most perfect form 
 and clothed in the choicest language. A revolu- 
 tion took place in men's mental outlook, and a 
 general discarding of Scholasticism could only be 
 a matter of time. 
 
 Following quickly upon this intellectual move- 
 ment came the religious. The failure of the 
 Scholastic philosophy to prove the reality of the 
 doctrines of the Roman Church ended in a 
 scepticism which, if not altogether hostile to 
 religion, welcomed secular studies, which seemed to 
 embody the emancipation of the human spirit ; and 
 it only required the vigorous onslaught of Luther 
 on the old Faith, to usher in the Reformation. 
 The attention of the world began at the same 
 time to be directed to the corruptions and abuses 
 of the Church. The immoral lives of the clergy
 
 THE STUDENT 17 
 
 were a scandal which the consciences of men found 
 it harder every day to tolerate. Their ignorance, 
 too, was colossal, and a combination of circumstances 
 thus arose which called for a speedy and radical 
 reformation of religion. 
 
 It might be thought that a lead to these two 
 movements would be given by the Universities, 
 and particularly by the greatest and most famous 
 of them aU, that of Paris. But ancient institutions 
 do not readily yield to reform, much less lead it. 
 They have vested interests which they jealously 
 guard; and changes in their constitution usually 
 come from without, and seldom from within their 
 walls. The University of Paris steadily and 
 bitterly opposed these two movements, and the 
 battle was reaching its height at the time when 
 Buchanan arrived in France. The conflict which 
 was being waged must have startled his youthful 
 spirit. His own country, when he left it, was to 
 all appearances enveloped in the clouds and mists 
 of the Middle Ages. Patrick Hamilton had not 
 yet returned from the Continent to preach the 
 doctrines of Luther. Some years had still to elapse 
 before the smoke from the protomartyr's funeral
 
 1 8 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 pyre would infect as many as it blew upon. 
 Neither had Sir David Lyndsay written any of his 
 satires against the Church and clergy. The schools 
 and Universities of the country were still in the 
 bonds of Scholasticism. The breath of the new 
 learning had, except perhaps by Gavin Douglas, 
 who translated the JEneid into the vernacular, 
 been inhaled by no one. 
 
 Young Buchanan, so far, must have been a genuine 
 product of the Middle Ages, and the two years 
 passed by him in the University of Paris would 
 be full of spiritual and mental excitement. 
 Without a minute's warning he was thrown from 
 an old world into a new. We shall see how he 
 profited by this experience. He faced the problems 
 of his new environment and age with an open and 
 candid mind, frankly accepted the new learning, 
 and, after careful and patient investigation, the 
 doctrines of the new religion as well. In a truer 
 sense than either Erasmus or Luther, he was both 
 Humanist and Reformer. Erasmus never left the 
 Roman Church, and Luther always made literature 
 subservient to religion ; but Buchanan, who in his 
 early days, and during the greater part of his life,
 
 THE STUDENT 19 
 
 was a votary of Humanism, nevertheless signalised 
 his advent as a poet by satirising the clergy, and 
 ended his career as a member and Moderator of 
 the Reformed Church of Scotland. 
 
 The University of Paris missed its chance. As 
 the advocates of classical studies were, as a rule, 
 the men who called for a reform of religion, those 
 in authority looked upon the two movements as 
 one, and endeavoured to their very utmost to put 
 both down. They succeeded, possibly beyond their 
 expectations, and certainly above their deserts. 
 For a time, under the patronage of Francis the 
 First and his famous sister Margaret of Navarre, 
 the two movements made considerable progress; 
 but the theologians, feeling convinced that if they 
 yielded, their old position and influence would be 
 gone, took advantage of the captivity of the king 
 in 1525, to drive from the country Lefevre 
 d'Etaples, the most liberal minded and advanced 
 man in the University, and the leader of the 
 Humanistic movement. Again in 1534, when the 
 followers of Luther, by a rash movement, put 
 themselves in the wrong, Francis, believing that 
 his interests lay with the old party, withdrew his
 
 20 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 countenance from the advocates of reform. The 
 University feeling its position thus strengthened 
 and backed up by the Parliament and king, practi- 
 cally sealed its fate as the centre of European 
 culture. Its decay was gradual, however, and 
 during the time of Buchanan's connection with it 
 as a Student and Regent, it held its place, but 
 with steadily diminishing prestige and glory. 
 
 There is some difficulty in describing the studies 
 which were pursued by students attending the 
 Universities of the Middle Ages, for the course 
 followed at one period was not the same as at 
 another. Generally speaking, the student who was 
 looking forward to the degree of Bachelor was 
 supposed to apply himself to Logic, but we learn 
 from Buchanan that the composition of Latin 
 verse was his chief occupation during his first two 
 years residence in Paris. " Partly of his own 
 choice," he says, "and partly of compulsion, the 
 writing of Latin verse, then the one subject pre- 
 scribed for boys, made the chief part of his literary 
 studies." For the degree of Bachelor, which could 
 not be taken before the age of fourteen, two years 
 of study were necessary, after which the student
 
 THE STUDENT 21 
 
 took up the subjects for the degree of Master, which 
 might be conferred on him at twenty-one. He 
 was at liberty then to make choice of Law, Medicine, 
 or Theology, and if successful he received the degree 
 of Doctor at thirty-five. Students of all ages were 
 to be found at the University of Paris, for it em- 
 braced the whole sphere of education. It was a 
 school as well as a college. Boys were taught the 
 rudiments of Latin, and even reading and writing. 
 They then might pass on through the different 
 stages to the highest subjects taught. 
 
 Most of the students attending the University 
 resided in lodgings, and only a very limited number 
 boarded in the colleges or in the Pedagogia attached 
 to them. Buchanan gives us no information as 
 to where or how he lived, but as he was not a 
 Bursar, and his means were very limited, it is more 
 than likely that he lodged in the town. The life of 
 many of the students, when not engaged at their 
 respective colleges, would seem to have been of an 
 easy, if not of a rough and boisterous nature. They 
 had many privileges, of which they took full ad- 
 vantage, and seized others to which they had no 
 right. At times, especially on the occasion of some
 
 22 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 great fete, they acted with violence, and became 
 a terror and a danger to the citizens. It can 
 readily be conceived what lawless power could be 
 exercised by the thousands of young men who 
 attended the University when they combined for 
 any particular purpose. They maltreated, robbed, 
 and even assassinated the lieges, and the civil 
 authorities felt compelled to pass laws for the 
 purpose of restraining their conduct and punishing 
 them. But they continued to defy all authority, 
 and to break out periodically into violence. Other 
 times other manners, still the spirit of youth, as 
 seen in the modern student, is not very dissimilar 
 from that displayed in earlier ages. It may 
 express itself in ways less reprehensible, but it 
 seems to be incapable of repression. 
 
 Buchanan took full advantage of his opportunities 
 at Paris. He then laid the foundation of his 
 great scholarship, and became an adept in writing 
 Latin verse, an accomplishment which was the 
 great ambition of most scholars at the time. He 
 might have gained more advantage from his 
 dexterity in this art if he had applied his knowledge 
 of easy and correct expression to writing his native
 
 THE STUDENT 23 
 
 tongue. But his choice was inspired by the custom 
 of his age, which found in Latin the only language 
 common to learned men, and by the belief that in 
 it the literature of the future would be written. 
 Had Buchanan known that in another hundred 
 years Latin would be practically discarded, and that 
 the nations of Western Europe would vie with 
 each other in bringing to perfection their mother- 
 tongue, he might have paid less attention to it 
 and more to the language which Knox was about 
 to handle with striking effect, and which was soon 
 to be the vehicle for a literature that the world 
 will not readily let die. Buchanan was a poet, 
 and a master of style in prose and verse, and the 
 Revolution that his country was about to pass 
 through would have given the inspiration. If he 
 had but written in the vernacular, and expended 
 the same pains on his compositions as on his Latin 
 works, he would have left not only a great name 
 behind him, but productions which would have 
 influenced the literary history of the nation, and 
 been a source of pleasure to his countrymen even 
 still. 
 
 Two events happened at this time which put an
 
 24 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 end to Buchanan's studies at the University of 
 Paris : the death of his uncle and his own illness. 
 Poverty and disease are bad enough separately, but 
 they form a combination to which even the strongest 
 must yield. They were seldom absent from 
 Buchanan's life. He was in truth a poor scholar 
 to the end, and his straitened circumstances must 
 have affected his health, which was never very strong. 
 He was often in want and often at the point of 
 death. Nothing, accordingly, remained for him at 
 this time but to return to Scotland.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE SOLDIER 
 
 A YEAR'S rest at his home in Cardross, Menteith, 
 * * would seem to have restored Buchanan to 
 health, at all events he felt himself strong enough to 
 join in a warlike expedition against England. His 
 native country was at this time under a regency, King 
 James the Fifth being a minor. After the death of 
 James the Fourth, on the fatal field of Flodden, the 
 Government fell into the hands of the Queen-Mother, 
 who was a sister of Henry the Eighth. On her mar- 
 riage with the Earl of Angus, the nobles, jealous of the 
 power thus placed in the hands of one of their own 
 order, recalled the Duke of Albany, High Admiral of 
 France and cousin of the late King, to his native 
 country, and made him Regent. This kindled afresh 
 the fears of Henry the Eighth, who saw in the 
 appointment a menace on the part of France, and
 
 26 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 in order to weaken, or if possible to break up the 
 alliance between the two countries, always regarded 
 as the enemies of England, he sent a force across 
 the border. Albany met this force, and came to an 
 understanding with its leaders. He then returned 
 to France ; but, on hearing that a large English army 
 had again invaded Scotland, he returned with a band 
 of auxiliaries in the autumn of 1523, and after 
 resting at Glasgow marched to the Boroughmuir, 
 near Edinburgh, where he was joined by a large 
 body of Scottish nobles and men-at-arms. 
 
 On the first blush it may seem strange that a 
 young man like Buchanan, now in his eighteenth 
 year, of delicate constitution and scholarly habits, 
 should venture on so dangerous and trying an 
 expedition. But the love of battle was in his 
 blood. He had inherited it from his ancestors. 
 The passages in his " History " which relate to warlike 
 encounters, are written in the style of one who knew 
 and sympathised with the soldier's calling. Indeed, 
 he seemed to share Carlyle^s belief, that the great 
 man is capable of any work or enterprise, and that 
 his occupation is pretty much a matter of accident. 
 In any case, he saw nothing incongruous in the
 
 THE SOLDIER 27 
 
 professional man of letters acting the soldier. In 
 the dedication of his Jephthes to the Marechal de 
 Brissac, he says : " There is no discord, as is 
 commonly but erroneously supposed, between the 
 study of the art of war and of letters, but rather 
 the greatest concord, and a certain secret and natural 
 congruity. For all great commanders, in all ages, 
 who have performed illustrious actions, have either 
 been themselves very learned men, or have cherished, 
 with the greatest affection, men distinguished for 
 learning. " Buchanan's ambition, we know, was to 
 be a great scholar, he may have been desirous of 
 becoming a great soldier as well ; at all events, he 
 tells us that his object in joining the expedition 
 was to learn the military art. He never had 
 occasion afterwards to practise it as a soldier, but 
 it must have stood him in good stead in describing 
 the battles with which his " History " abounds. 
 
 Albany marched south as far as Melrose, intend- 
 ing to cross to the English side by a bridge which 
 spanned the Tweed there ; but the Scots, who saw 
 in the expedition an attempt on the part of France 
 to checkmate England, quite as much as an honest 
 endeavour to protect Scotland, declined to cross
 
 28 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 the border. Indeed, it was suspected that if 
 Scotland would drop the French alliance, English 
 invasions would be few and far between. Albany 
 then marched south until he came opposite to 
 Wark Castle, which he determined to take. This 
 he found a task beyond his power. The French 
 auxiliaries besieged it with very barren results. The 
 Regent determined to retreat, and in his march, 
 near Lauder, his army was overtaken by a severe 
 snowstorm, which impeded his progress and lost him 
 many men. The English also disbanded their forces 
 and returned home. Buchanan survived the expedi- 
 tion, but returned in shattered health to Cardross, 
 where he was bedfast for the rest of the winter. 
 
 Buchanan did not remain long enough at the 
 University of Paris to entitle him to the degree of 
 Bachelor. Accordingly, in the following spring he 
 matriculated, along with his eldest brother Patrick, 
 at the University of St. Andrews. As he was 
 granted his certificate the following year, the period 
 during which he studied at Paris must have counted. 
 This was according to the regulations which governed 
 the mediaeval Universities. All of them being under 
 the Church, they were affiliated to each other, and
 
 THE SOLDIER 29 
 
 recognised each other's degrees. A distinction, after 
 a time, was made by the University of Paris, which 
 naturally had some hesitation in recognising the hall- 
 mark of some of the younger and small schools of 
 learning. This brotherhood was of great service in 
 spreading culture, for a graduate of one University 
 could go to another, and begin teaching at once as 
 Regent. This to a certain extent explains the 
 frequent and close intercommunion that existed 
 between the Universities of mediaeval Europe. The 
 travelling scholar was as much a sign of the learned 
 life of those days, as the resident professor or tutor 
 is of ours. 
 
 The University of St. Andrews had on its teaching 
 staff at this time one man of marked distinction, 
 the renowned schoolman, John Major. He had 
 studied at Cambridge and Oxford, had received his 
 doctorate from Paris, and was then and afterwards 
 held in the highest regard as the leading exponent 
 of Scholasticism. Major, who was a man of un- 
 doubted talents and of great learning, was unfortun- 
 ate in the hour of his birth. He stood at the 
 meeting of the waters. The old and the new in 
 literature and religion were beginning to come into
 
 30 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 collision at the very time when he entered on his 
 life's work. He cannot be said to have been the 
 offspring of both movements. His mind was 
 moulded by the Scholastic philosophy, and in spite 
 of certain ideas which he held regarding the 
 relations between a prince and his subjects, he was 
 a strenuous upholder of use and wont in Church 
 and State. A native of North Berwick, he is 
 believed by some to have received his early educa- 
 tion at the Grammar School of Haddington, which 
 Knox must have also attended, but, like the other 
 scholars of the time, he found his way to Paris, and 
 became identified with the College Montaigu, the 
 most reactionary in the University. He acquired, 
 while teaching there, a great reputation as an 
 exponent, after the accepted method, of the 
 Aristotelian logic, but he is now chiefly remembered 
 for his History of Britain, which is full of interesting 
 details, passed over by a writer like Buchanan, who 
 took a broad view of his subject. His style has 
 been severely criticised for its lack of literary grace 
 and finish, but the book gives proof of a strong 
 talent, which accounts in some measure for the high 
 position awarded to its author by his contemporaries.
 
 THE SOLDIER 31 
 
 Major returned to his native country in 1518, and 
 for the next seven years he acted as Regent in the 
 Universities of Glasgow and St. Andrews. He must 
 have found a vast difference between his new sur- 
 roundings and those to which he had been accus- 
 tomed in Paris. Even the oldest and richest of 
 the Scottish Universities, that of St. Andrews, 
 was miserably poor in buildings, endowments, and 
 teaching equipment. The fame and ability of 
 Major would no doubt put some heart and life into 
 them ; but even half a century later, the University 
 of Glasgow was in so disorganised and hopeless a 
 condition, that it was only saved from threatened 
 extinction by the genius and labours of Andrew 
 Melville. The higher education in Scotland has 
 had to struggle against the dire odds of poverty, 
 yet it is one of the chief glories of the nation, that 
 in spite of every difficulty it has held its own as 
 one of the best-educated countries in the world. 
 
 Major, it has been remarked, on his return to 
 Scotland, acted for some time as one of the Regents 
 in St. Andrews University. This was a post 
 common to all the mediaeval Universities, and as 
 reference to it frequently occurs in the life of
 
 32 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 Buchanan, it may be necessary to define both it and 
 the other terms applied to the various offices and 
 duties of the staff in pre-Reformation Universities. 
 These terms still linger on, although they have lost 
 their original meaning. 
 
 The Scottish Universities were founded on the 
 model of those of the Continent, particularly on two, 
 the Universities of Bologna and Paris. Each had 
 at its head a Chancellor, who represented the 
 authority of the Church, and guarded the rights of 
 the University as an ecclesiastical rather than a 
 civil institution. It also had its Rector, who was 
 elected by the students, and who protected their 
 privileges against the encroachments of both Church 
 and State. His electors were the four Nations into 
 which the University was divided, and this custom 
 still holds good in the Universities of Glasgow and 
 Aberdeen. This division into Nations was geo- 
 graphical, and served a double purpose. Students 
 found on their arrival at any centre of learning an 
 incorporation, akin to them by blood and traditions, 
 which gave them a ready welcome, and the home 
 students were at the same time prevented from 
 having the sole management in University life and
 
 THE SOLDIER 33 
 
 affairs. The men who managed the election of the 
 Rector were the Procurators, who acted as the heads 
 of the nations. The Censor was the officer who 
 kept a watchful eye on the conduct of the students, 
 both in the college and in the streets. The brains of 
 the University were the Regents, who composed the 
 teaching staff. On their ability and learning, the 
 success of the Institution mainly depended. The 
 power to lecture was not then in the hands of a 
 close corporation. Every student on graduating 
 was entitled to teach in any University, and from 
 among them a body were selected, termed Regents, 
 to whom certain powers of government were en- 
 trusted. The Doyen has his modern representative 
 in the Deacon or Dean who is the head of his 
 faculty, whether it be that of Divinity, Medicine, or 
 Law. The Bursarius is perhaps the most living of 
 all, for, owing to the multiplication of endowments, 
 chiefly in the form of scholarships, the bursar is much 
 in evidence among the students of the Scottish 
 Universities. 
 
 Major, while at St. Andrews, lectured on logic, and 
 apparently to the dissatisfaction of Buchanan. The 
 subject in itself is sufficiently interesting, and very
 
 34 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 helpful for mental training. But in the hands of 
 the Schoolmen it had become worse than useless, for 
 their endless hairsplitting and learned trifling filled 
 the youthful and ingenuous mind with a feeling of 
 contempt and disgust. Buchanan has left on record 
 his opinion of Major's teaching: "It was the art of 
 Sophistry rather than dialectics " ; in other words, it 
 was so much wind. A mind like Buchanan's longed 
 for realities ; all that Major could offer was inanities. 
 The learned doctor of the Sorbonne came afterwards 
 under the lash of Melanchthon and Rabelais. A new 
 spirit had dawned which he could not comprehend. 
 This was his misfortune rather than his fault. 
 
 Buchanan finished his course on the 3rd of 
 October 1525, when he took the degree of Bachelor. 
 He availed himself of his circumstances to escape the 
 fees for the degree. This was a common custom at 
 all the Universities, and the term pauper applied to 
 such did not convey the idea of unmerited reproach 
 which it now bears. It simply meant that the 
 student's condition entitled him to a certain ex- 
 emption, of which he could take advantage without 
 any dishonour. 
 
 Buchanan had by this time made choice of his
 
 THE SOLDIER 35 
 
 future career : he determined to be a scholar ; and, 
 as a degree from the University of Paris would be 
 of the greatest service to him, he was fortunate in 
 receiving a nomination as Bursar in the Scots College 
 there. It is supposed by some that he owed this 
 favour to his old teacher, John Major. This opinion 
 is grounded on a sentence in Buchanan's autobio- 
 graphy, in which he states that he followed Major to 
 Paris. But there was evidently very little sympathy 
 between the two men, and Buchanan, having taken 
 only a second class for the degree of Bachelor, could 
 have had no claim on Major's generosity. It is as 
 well to make this clear, for the manner in which 
 Buchanan afterwards spoke of his old teacher is a 
 proof to some of that spirit of ingratitude, vindic- 
 tiveness, and badness of heart with which he is 
 charged. Buchanan, from his connection with the 
 Lennox family, could not have been without 
 sufficient influence to gain him entrance as Bursar 
 into the Scots College. The fact of his following 
 Major at the interval of half a year is surely very 
 slender ground for the assertion that it was to the 
 old doctor of the Sorbonne he owed this favour. 
 Major has come down to posterity pilloried by
 
 36 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 Buchanan in an epigram which is as severe and 
 stinging as anything he ever wrote. It must be 
 confessed that, if the writer had been indebted to 
 the subject of his satire, his verse would be quite 
 unpardonable. Major, playing on his own name, 
 and secure in the position which he occupied in the 
 learned world, had spoken of himself as Joannes solo 
 cognomine Major (Major by name and not by 
 nature). Taking this as his text, Buchanan wrote 
 the following merciless epigram : 
 
 "'Major by name,' thou sayst, 'and not by nature,' 
 
 The greatest liars sometimes speak the truth, 
 And in thy endless stream of idle chatter 
 What wonder if thou once hast spoken sooth." 
 
 Buchanan, by the time he had written this, had 
 openly identified himself with the Humanistic move- 
 ment, and had also become affected by the spirit 
 of the Reformation, for he remarks that after his 
 arrival in France at this time he " became tinged 
 with the flame of Lutheranism spreading every- 
 where.' 1 On the two grounds, then, of the new 
 religion and the new learning, he was in deadly 
 opposition to Major and the Schoolmen, and felt 
 warranted, as Erasmus also did, in hurling the
 
 THE SOLDIER 3; 
 
 shafts of his satire against them. Opponents spoke 
 and wrote of each other in those days in a way 
 which makes the modern man look aghast. It was 
 the manner of the times, and does not seem to have 
 given inordinate offence. Otherwise, we can hardly 
 conceive how Buchanan himself escaped the retribu- 
 tion which he undoubtedly provoked, but men of 
 genius have in an age of enlightenment and progress 
 always manifested keen resentment towards dullards 
 and obscurantists. Major was probably neither the 
 one nor the other, but he had been brought up in 
 the old ways, and had now arrived at a time of life 
 when it was not easy to leave them. Buchanan, in 
 satirising the individual, was in fact destroying the 
 cause which he championed, and thus proving himself 
 to be a leader of that movement which was revolu- 
 tionising thought and heralding in a new age.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE EEGENT 
 
 r I A HE Scots College which Buchanan now entered 
 * had been founded in 1326 by the then Bishop 
 of Moray. It was small and poor compared with some 
 of the other Colleges, but it was a welcome haven 
 for Scotsmen, especially prior to the founding of 
 their own University of St. Andrews. Buchanan 
 was now Bachelor, and it was his aim to secure the 
 degree of Master at the earliest possible moment, 
 for he would then be entitled to act as Regent in 
 one of the Colleges, and so be able to support 
 himself. His position as Bursar procured him his 
 board and education, but that was all, and how he was 
 able to provide himself with the other necessaries of 
 life it is impossible now to say. These, in Buchanan's 
 case, as in those of the other poor students of the 
 University, would be few in number, but there is no
 
 THE REGENT 39 
 
 record that he was compelled to beg for them, as was 
 not uncommon. We can well believe him, however, 
 when he declares that during these two years he had 
 a " hard struggle with untoward fortune.' 1 We are 
 familiar with the hardships of student life in German, 
 and particularly in Scotch, Universities. These, 
 owing to the generosity of multi-millionaires, will 
 probably be things of the past ; but the most affect- 
 ing picture that has been drawn of them must pale 
 before the trials of cold and hunger and severe dis- 
 cipline which were the lot of Buchanan and many of 
 the students of his time. 
 
 Two meals a day, for instance, were supposed to be 
 sufficient for the mediaeval student : breakfast at ten 
 and supper at five. Only lads of tender years and 
 constitution had extra collations. The staple fare 
 was bread and porridge, with meat and wine on 
 Sundays and holidays. From six in the morning 
 till breakfast, was the chief time for lectures and 
 study. The afternoon was occupied much in the 
 same way, but the evening was generally free for 
 amusements and pleasure. A student's pastime in 
 those days would seem to have been strolling the 
 streets, drinking in taverns, or engaging in those
 
 40 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 party fights which often resulted in serious trouble 
 and bloodshed. The spirit of feudalism still sur- 
 vived, and jousts, tournaments, and the practice of 
 the military art were regarded as the main forms of 
 recreation. Participation in these was necessarily 
 confined to the wealthy. Poorer students had to 
 seek for less expensive if also less ennobling pleasures. 
 The hardship of the student's lot, especiaUy during 
 the winter season, must have been severe in the 
 extreme. There was no fire in their Colleges or in 
 their rooms, they had no benches on which to sit, 
 and they were compelled to lie or recline on the 
 floor, which was littered with straw. The sanitary 
 arrangements were of a very primitive order. 
 Flogging, especially in the Grammar Schools, and 
 during the first or preparatory years of University 
 education, was freely indulged in. Only the robust 
 student could come through such terrible experiences 
 unscathed. Buchanan was of a delicate constitution, 
 and we can well believe him when he characterises 
 his student life in Paris as years of untoward 
 hardship. 
 
 There was a pressing necessity that Buchanan 
 should take his degree at the earliest moment.
 
 THE REGENT 41 
 
 He accordingly graduated as Master in March 1528, 
 and was thus eligible for the position of Regent in 
 the University. He would not seem to have gone 
 long without an appointment, for we find him the 
 following year on the teaching staff of Ste. Barbe, 
 one of the most enlightened and advanced Colleges 
 in the University. Ste. Barbe was of recent origin, 
 but during the some sixty years of its existence it 
 had outstripped all the others in reputation and 
 fame. Its birth was prophetic of its future emin- 
 ence, for it was the product of a struggle between 
 the popularity of its original founders and the 
 obscurantists, who would restrain their progressive 
 and reforming zeal. Its creators were Geotfroi 
 and Jean Lenormant of the College de Navarre. 
 Their popularity and success drew so many students 
 around them that the dullards objected to their 
 sluggish peace being disturbed by the crowds of 
 eager youths who were attracted by the teaching 
 of the two brothers. Geoffroi the elder solved the 
 difficulty by taking the bold step of founding a 
 College of his own, and in 1460 Ste. Barbe was 
 started. Its success was immediate, and it speedily 
 took its place as the leading centre of the rising life
 
 42 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 and thought of Paris. This, to begin with, was 
 undoubtedly due to the enlightenment of its founders, 
 but not a little of the credit must be placed to the 
 distinguished band of teachers whom they gathered 
 round them. They were the most promising if not 
 the ripest scholars in the University, and were filled 
 with an enthusiasm for the new learning and liberal 
 thought which the University, through the Sorbonne, 
 was doing its very best to repress. 
 
 Buchanan's appointment as Regent in this College 
 proves two things : it testifies to his scholarship, and 
 shows the side which he had already taken in the 
 great controversy of the age. The young Scotsman 
 who a few years before had left his native glens in 
 search of learning, had already proved himself a 
 master of his art, and at the age of twenty-three 
 had secured a position which opened out to him 
 future eminence in his profession. He had also 
 shown an open and candid mind, and that he 
 preferred truth to emoluments, the progress of 
 knowledge to personal comfort and material 
 reward. 
 
 Ste. Barbe had, to begin with, no especial clientble, 
 it drew its students from every class and nationality ;
 
 THE REGENT 43 
 
 but it soon attracted a number of Portuguese, who 
 repaired to Paris in increasing numbers, owing to the 
 demands which the new possessions of Portugal were 
 making for priests who should minister in its Colonial 
 charges. There was a special reason why the 
 Portuguese should have favoured Ste. Barbe, for 
 there was in connection with it at this time one of 
 their countrymen, a distinguished educationalist, 
 Jacques de Gouvea, who had afterwards close 
 relations with Buchanan and considerable influence 
 over his fortunes. 
 
 De Gouva desired to purchase the College for 
 the king of Portugal, but he had to remain content 
 with renting it. Under him, as Principal, it continued 
 to flourish, and in so liberal an atmosphere Buchanan 
 found encouragement and scope for the exercise of 
 his great talent and rare scholarship. He was also 
 now placed above the fear of want. His emolu- 
 ments certainly will seem beggarly in comparison to 
 the lordly salaries that have since been showered on 
 his successors in the teaching of the Humanities, 
 even in our own Universities. But his wants were 
 few, and his love of knowledge would enable him to 
 bear up under the trials and hardships of his lot.
 
 44 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 As Regent, he was entitled to board and lodging; 
 any additional salary would largely depend on the 
 position which his College held and on his own 
 reputation, for the Regent was entitled to charge 
 fees, and the greater the number of students attend- 
 ing his prelections the larger would be his income. 
 We can accordingly understand the rivalry that would 
 exist between the forty or fifty Colleges that about 
 this time composed the University of Paris, and also 
 between the Regents who were on their teaching 
 staff. The students could choose their own Colleges 
 and their own Regents, and in this way the most 
 capable men and the best teachers were brought to 
 the front. In Scotland this system, except in St. 
 Andrews at one time, has never really had a fair 
 trial ; it still flourishes in England, and, under a 
 different system, it also prevails in Germany. 
 Competition in teaching, like competition in trade 
 and commerce, is bound to have a healthy influence. 
 Protection in this sphere, at least, spells stagnation 
 and death. 
 
 Though thus working under the most liberal- 
 minded of Principals, and surrounded by colleagues 
 who held the most advanced views in theology,
 
 THE REGENT 45 
 
 science, and art, Buchanan's life was sufficiently 
 difficult and trying. The hardships of the Regent 
 would not seem to be much behind those of the 
 student, and in one of his earliest poems he thus 
 describes them. 
 
 After a day of exacting labour the poor teacher 
 finds himself at liberty to retire to rest. "No 
 sooner,' 1 he remarks, "has he stretched his limbs 
 than the watchman announces that it is already the 
 fourth hour. The din of the shrill alarm chases 
 away dreams and reminds him that his rest is at an 
 end. Hardly are things again quiet when five o'clock 
 sounds, and the porter rings his bell calling the 
 scholars to their task. Then in all the majesty of 
 cap and gown forth issues the master, the terror of 
 his charge, in his right hand the scourge, in his left 
 perchance the works of the great Virgil. He seats 
 himself, and shouts his orders till he is red in the 
 face. And now he brings forth the harvest of his 
 toil. He smoothes away difficulties, he corrects, he 
 expunges, he changes the text, he brings to light 
 the spoils he has won by ceaseless study. Mean- 
 while his scholars, some of them, are sound asleep, 
 others thinking of everything but their Virgil. One
 
 46 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 is absent, but has bribed his neighbour to answer to 
 his name at roll-call. Another has lost his stockings. 
 Another cannot keep his eye off a large hole in his 
 shoe. One shams illness, another is writing letters 
 to his parents. Hence the rod is never idle, sobs 
 never cease, cheeks are never dry. Then the duties 
 of religion make their call on us, then lessons once 
 more, and once more the rod. Hardly an hour is 
 spared for our meal. No sooner is it over than 
 lessons again, and then a hasty supper. Supper past, 
 we continue our labours into the night as if the 
 day's tasks, forsooth, had not been sufficient. Why 
 should I speak of our thousand humiliations ? Here, 
 for example, comes the swarm of loafers from the 
 city, till the street echoes with the noise of their 
 pattens. In they scramble to listen as intelligently 
 as so many asses. They grumble that no placards 
 announcing the scheme of lessons have been stuck 
 on the street corners, they are indignant that the 
 doctrinal of Alexander is scornfully ignored by the 
 master, and off they run to Montaigu or some other 
 school more to their taste. Parents also grumble 
 that the days pass by, that their sons learn nothing, 
 and meanwhile the fees must be paid."
 
 THE REGENT 47 
 
 Buchanan's whole energies, however, were not 
 absorbed in the trying and not unpainful duties of 
 which he has given so graphic a description. He 
 had a soul above the mere drudgery of his work, and 
 introduced certain reforms in the teaching of Latin 
 which made their mark on the educational methods 
 of the times. In 1533 he published a Latin trans- 
 lation of Linacres Grammar, a thing which in itself 
 might not at first appear to be of any special 
 significance, but it was in keeping with his general 
 attitude towards the old system, not only of teaching 
 but also of thought. 
 
 The University of Paris, as has been shown, was 
 the most conservative of institutions, and it was not 
 till 1600 that Greek was formally recognised by it 
 as a subject of study. We can accordingly imagine 
 the opposition which Buchanan would meet in 
 trying to raise its teaching, and particularly by this 
 attempt to dethrone from its time-honoured place 
 the Latin Grammar of Alexander of Villa-dei. 
 The Rudiments of the Latin Language, by this 
 celebrated author, had been recognised as the 
 standard work for the teaching of Latin Grammar 
 since the middle of the thirteenth century. Classical
 
 48 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 scholars felt that the times had outgrown a hand- 
 book written in verses " of which each word is meant 
 to suggest or recall some rule of Syntax." It had, 
 besides, during the course of centuries become over- 
 loaded with notes at the hands of various com- 
 mentators. Its text, however, was regarded as a 
 kind of Bible, and it was heresy for any one to doubt 
 its methods, and rank heresy on the part of him 
 who would venture to displace it. Buchanan took 
 this bold step, and his translation of Linacre's 
 Grammar, dedicated to the young Earl of Cassillis, 
 and printed by Robert Estienne at Paris, went 
 through seven editions before the century was 
 out. 
 
 It was at this time that Buchanan began to launch 
 those epigrams against the dull upholders of use and 
 wont in learning and religion, which made him a 
 powerful force in the movements of the times. The 
 opposition to his first literary venture was only an 
 indication of the strong currents that were then dis- 
 turbing the intellectual life of Paris. About this 
 very time two men were associated with Buchanan"^ 
 own College of Ste. Barbe, who represented these 
 cross-currents in their full force and conflict. We
 
 THE REGENT 49 
 
 mean Calvin and Loyola. Other names more 
 prominent at the time, though less distinguished 
 now, indicate the strong intellectual life that was 
 animating the University, and which, seemingly 
 triumphant for the time, was in the end doomed to 
 stagnation, if not to extinction. Such names as 
 d'^taples, Bri9onnet, and Guillaume Bude" were 
 thoroughly representative of the best scholarship 
 and the most advanced thinking on the vital subjects 
 which are of the deepest interest to the human mind 
 in all ages, and against these we have the name of 
 Noel Beda, the Syndic of the University, who was the 
 incarnation of the reactionary and obscurantist 
 spirit of the times. 
 
 Buchanan's was not yet a name to conjure with, 
 but, determined to take his part in the great con- 
 troversy that was being waged, he made use of the 
 only weapon at his command, that of epigram. In 
 his hands, as we have already seen from his onslaught 
 on poor John Major, it proved a most formidable 
 weapon. Hurled at the leaders of Scholasticism, it 
 rendered valuable service to the cause that he and 
 his friends had so much at heart. These epigrams 
 passed from hand to hand and from mouth to mouth, 
 4
 
 So GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 and while wounding his opponents they reacted on 
 the author in turn, made him many enemies, and 
 effectually stopped any probable promotion to the 
 higher posts in the University. But Buchanan was 
 no place-hunter; he had not that vulpine cunning 
 which is often the sole talent of the mediocre mind, 
 and which by chicanery and fawning flattery 
 often succeeds where outstanding ability fails. But 
 such success as mean spirits of this kind achieve, 
 is after all not worth the having. To possess the 
 integrity of one's soul, as Buchanan did, and to 
 sacrifice for the sake of truth mere place and power, 
 is one of the clearest proofs of a noble nature. 
 Buchanan in the end attained to greater celebrity 
 and wielded a higher power, but these were of the 
 mind and spirit. All true influence in the end is 
 the expression of a character that can rise above 
 " the world and the things thereof." 
 
 The merits of Buchanan received, on the 3rd of 
 June 1529, what may be regarded as the first official 
 recognition ; he was on that date elected Procurator 
 of the German Nation. This position was held for 
 a month, and he was appointed to it four successive 
 times. In the following year it fell to the Scottish
 
 THE REGENT 51 
 
 section of the German Nation to choose a member 
 who should represent them in the election of a 
 Rector. They chose Buchanan, that " able man so 
 learned in Latin and in Greek." It is not at all 
 unlikely that had he remained longer in Ste. Barbe, 
 he would have been appointed to the Rectorship 
 itself, but he left at the end of three years to become 
 tutor to the young Earl of Cassillis. 
 
 As Buchanan's official connection with the Uni- 
 versity of Paris now came to an end if we except 
 the blank of five years in his life when he is supposed 
 by some to have been on the teaching staff of the 
 College du Cardinal Lemoine it may be well to 
 glance at the character of the education given in 
 mediaeval Universities. The first thing that strikes 
 one is the extreme youth of many of the students. 
 Buchanan himself was only a lad of fourteen when 
 he entered the University of Paris. On the other 
 hand, we are equally struck by the mature and even 
 old age of some who would seem to have hung on 
 to the Universities year after year, without ever 
 taking a degree. A considerable number, accordingly, 
 would be too young to profit by the instruction, and 
 an equally large number too old to respond to that
 
 52 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 enthusiasm which should characterise the pursuit of 
 literature and learning. Nor were the teachers 
 always competent. The older members of the 
 staff were in many cases indifferent to their work 
 and disinclined to lecture. The burden fell chiefly 
 on the shoulders of the Regents, who, whatever 
 their ability, were for the most part inexperienced 
 young men. They were, besides, dependent to a 
 large extent for their livelihood on the students, 
 whose part they naturally took, and this weakened 
 that discipline which is absolutely necessary for 
 the success of any institution. 
 
 The weight also which the Schoolmen attached 
 to the name of Aristotle, and to the compilers of 
 some of their text-books, repressed the spirit of 
 inquiry, and retarded that progress which results 
 from studying facts in place of books, and a few 
 books at the most. That mental attitude towards 
 history and nature which characterises science, had 
 not yet been adopted. It is upon this that modern 
 education is based, and a perception of its method 
 at once reveals the wide gulf that separates 
 Scholasticism from Humanism and from the intel- 
 lectual life of our day. But in spite of all this it
 
 THE REGENT 53 
 
 would be unfair to withhold that meed of praise 
 which is due to the mediaeval Universities. They 
 were perhaps as faithful to the light that was in 
 them as their representatives in modern times. 
 They held aloft the torch of knowledge, and, if 
 they were not progressive, they at any rate marked 
 time, and prevented the torch being extinguished. 
 Besides, education after all is largely independent 
 of the subjects taught. We may inveigh against 
 the dog-Latin of the Schoolman and the elegant 
 classicism of the Humanist. But mental training 
 is the main thing, and it must be admitted that 
 the men in the Middle Ages who held the highest 
 positions in Church and State, and who had received 
 their education in the Universities, could easily hold 
 their own as diplomatists and ecclesiastics with their 
 modern successors. 
 
 If the description which Buchanan has given of 
 the life of a Regent be half, as we believe it to be 
 wholly, true, he must have quitted Ste. Barbe 
 without much regret. He was now in his twenty- 
 eighth year, and the only post available was that of 
 tutor and companion to a young Scottish nobleman. 
 Buchanan was not adapted by character or tempera-
 
 54 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 ment for the work of a scholastic drudge. He was 
 a poet and a Celt, and was unsuited to run in harness, 
 especially such harness as bound the mediaeval 
 teacher to his task. That he was able to submit 
 to it for so many years was a proof of his extreme 
 poverty and of his remarkable power of will. 
 He could have secured preferment if he had cared. 
 The Church was open to him, and there he might 
 have found the learned leisure for which he no 
 doubt longed. He had not as yet declared for 
 Luther, but according to himself he was affected 
 by his spirit. His hatred of and contempt for the 
 monks who used their cowl as a cover and bait for 
 their wickedness, was soon to find pointed expression. 
 The Church, accordingly, he would not enter ; so he 
 had to take the post of tutor, in which he certainly 
 would have more freedom, independence, and time 
 for self-culture than he could have secured in any 
 of the offices in the University for which he might 
 be eligible or to which he could aspire. The time 
 had gone by when the fancy picture which a recent 
 writer draws of the career and fortune of the wander- 
 ing scholars of the Middle Ages could be true. It 
 never proved true in the case of Buchanan ; quite
 
 THE REGENT 55 
 
 the opposite. Even the more fortunate Erasmus 
 never approached it. 
 
 The picture describes these scholars " wandering 
 first over Italy and then over Europe ; rising by 
 their own efforts from the position of penniless no- 
 bodies ; destitute in many, though not in all, cases 
 of birth, breeding, or wealth ; marrying beautiful, 
 rich, and well-born damsels ; allured from State to 
 State and from city to city by golden bribes ; setting 
 out in quest of the buried treasures of learning 
 like knights of adventure ; helping to despatch 
 generation after generation of neophytes, often from 
 half-barbarous nations, to spread learning and the 
 appreciation of beauty all over Europe ; honoured in 
 their deaths by stately monuments, and rewarded 
 by posterity for no few generations, not merely as 
 good workers in their day and way, but as men of 
 genius and public benefactors."" What a travesty 
 this is of the life of Buchanan ; the only word that 
 is true of him is the first he was a " wanderer. 11
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE SATIRIST 
 
 T T was while acting as tutor to the young Earl 
 * of Cassillis that Buchanan wrote a poem which 
 had a most important influence on his career and 
 fortunes. In it he threw out a challenge to 
 the Roman Church. His effort was a satire on 
 the Franciscans, one of the most powerful re- 
 ligious bodies of the time. The noble house with 
 which Buchanan was now connected had played a 
 prominent part in Scottish History. His pupil's 
 father had been assassinated in 1527, and his uncle, 
 William Kennedy, the Abbot of Crossraguel, became 
 his guardian, and took him to Paris for the comple- 
 tion of his education. On the young Earl's return 
 in 1535, Buchanan accompanied him, and it was 
 while staying with his charge in the country, as he 
 himself tells us in the dedication of his Frandscanus 
 
 60
 
 THE SATIRIST 57 
 
 to the Earl of Moray, that his first attack on this 
 famous religious Order was written. Young Cassillis 
 was afterwards one of the Commissioners who repre- 
 sented Scotland at the marriage of Queen Mary 
 to the Dauphin in 1558. This in itself is a proof 
 of the position which he occupied in the eyes of 
 the Scottish Parliament. His connection with a 
 man like Buchanan must have had a powerful influ- 
 ence on his life. What part he might have played 
 in the Revolution that was impending, we cannot 
 tell, for he never returned from France. He was 
 one of the three Commissioners who on their way 
 home died at Dieppe, poisoned, as it was believed, 
 by the Guises. 
 
 Buchanan, in thus launching his invective against 
 the religious scandals of the times, was but following 
 in the footsteps of even a greater than he, and one 
 who is regarded as his master. There is perhaps 
 little resemblance between the two great Humanists 
 of the sixteenth century, Erasmus and Buchanan, 
 except in their equal mastery of Latin and their 
 common hatred of the monastic Orders. They 
 were essentially different in character and tempera- 
 ment, but they were alike in their love of letters,
 
 58 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 their strenuous advocacy of liberal ideas, and their 
 unceasing attacks on the scandals and abuses of the 
 Roman Church. It should not be forgotten that 
 Erasmus was the precursor of Luther, and that 
 Buchanan anticipated Knox. It may be true that 
 the Humanists regarded the prevailing religious 
 corruptions from one standpoint, and the Reformers 
 from another. It was the intellectual and moral 
 sense of Erasmus and Buchanan that revolted against 
 the terrible abuses of the times ; whereas it was the 
 religious sense of Luther and Knox that was affected. 
 This at once explains the different methods by 
 which such leading spirits endeavoured to correct 
 the errors of the times, and to save the world from 
 threatened ruin. Satire became the weapon of the 
 Humanist, theology that of the Reformer. 
 
 It is significant that the men who attempted to 
 reform the Church levelled their attacks against 
 the monastic orders. These religious bodies had in 
 fact become all powerful ; they had invaded the 
 sanctity of the home, and were spreading a moral 
 plague over every country in Christendom. It was 
 against them that Erasmus directed his sharpest 
 strokes and shot his wittiest arrows. His humour
 
 THE SATIRIST 59 
 
 found its most poignant and playful expression in 
 describing their ignorance, sottishness, sensuality, 
 and hypocrisy. They made every attempt to silence 
 him by death if necessary but he managed to 
 avoid their ruthless clutch, and before his death he 
 saw in their discomfiture the triumph of the cause 
 which he had so brilliantly championed. Buchanan 
 has also the distinction of breaking fresh ground, 
 so far as Scotland is concerned. He was the first 
 to make the monks feel that an intellect of the 
 highest order saw through their sham religiosity, 
 and meant to give them no quarter. The movement 
 for reform had no doubt begun at an earlier date, 
 for Patrick Hamilton had been already burned ; 
 but Buchanan was the first to bring powers of the 
 first order, trained to their finest finish, to bear 
 upon the ecclesiastical abuses and monastic corrup- 
 tions, which up to his time had been allowed to 
 grow practically undisturbed and unexposed in 
 Scotland. 
 
 He had as his contemporary Sir David Lyndsay, 
 who wrote in the Scottish vernacular, and who in 
 his satires, particularly that of the Three Estates, 
 did full justice to his theme. He certainly did not
 
 60 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 spare the Church or Churchmen, and the low level 
 to which the religious life of the country had fallen 
 can be seen in the enjoyment with which the people, 
 from the king upon his throne to the very meanest 
 of his subjects, witnessed Lyndsay's plays, and 
 laughed uproariously at his humorous sallies at the 
 expense of cowled monk and veiled nun. What 
 surprises us, indeed, is Lyndsay's immunity from 
 punishment. How he escaped imprisonment and 
 the stake is inexplicable. The king's protection 
 must have counted for much, but that continued 
 only for a season. After the death of James the 
 Fifth he was at the mercy of Cardinal Beaton, but he 
 was permitted to die peacefully in bed at a ripe 
 age. It is instructive to contrast with this leniency 
 the Church's bitter persecution of Buchanan. He 
 tells us himself that so strong was their hatred of 
 him, that because of the poems which he wrote at 
 this time they drove him into exile, and that while 
 in exile they " persecuted him with the whole 
 violence of their authority through England, France, 
 Spain, and Italy." The fact is, they saw in Buchanan 
 a foeman worthy of their steel. His reputation and 
 his Latin verse would carry his opinions over the
 
 THE SATIRIST 61 
 
 whole of Europe. They perceived that his satire 
 was an appeal, not so much to the moral sense of 
 Scotland as to the intelligence of the civilised 
 world. 
 
 Some have doubted the sincerity of the Humanists 
 
 in their attacks on the Roman Church. They are 
 
 of the opinion that they chose such subjects because 
 
 they found in them the means for exercising their 
 
 wit and displaying their Latinity. They accordingly 
 
 discover an insincere ring in their verse, which is on 
 
 the whole characterised not so much by art as 
 
 artificiality. We do not believe that there is any 
 
 truth in this, so far as Buchanan is concerned. He 
 
 knew perfectly well the risk he was running. That 
 
 he should repeat his attack again and again after 
 
 the first significant warning, is surely sufficient proof 
 
 that his heart was in his task and that his satires 
 
 were the outcome of his deepest convictions. One 
 
 cannot give them the most cursory reading without 
 
 detecting a savage hatred in them, which, whether 
 
 it be artistic or not, is certainly intensely real. For 
 
 one of them he suffered an exile of twenty-four 
 
 years, which was the alternative to the death that 
 
 was intended for him. That a man should court
 
 62 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 such a fate because of his vanity in proving that he 
 could write pretty Latin stanzas, passes ordinary 
 belief. 
 
 If ever an age lent itself to satire it was that of 
 Erasmus and Buchanan. It found its parallel in 
 that of Lucian, when the "gods were dethroned 
 from Olympus, and no new ones had been put in 
 their place." The moral corruptions of the time 
 were the outcome of the decay of religious belief. 
 It was an age of cant and shams, so far as the 
 Church and its representatives were concerned. 
 Before bringing in the new age the old one must 
 first be ridiculed. Whenever an institution or a 
 belief can be laughed at, its doom is sealed. Wit 
 and humour, accordingly, as much as religious con- 
 victions, play their part in human progress. If they 
 do not build up, they at any rate clear the ground 
 and pave the way for a fresh reconstruction. 
 
 The poem which Buchanan wrote, and which to 
 a large extent shaped his future, was the Somnmm, 
 an elegy which he says he had composed in his 
 leisure hours. What prompted him to write this 
 satire he does not say. The two that succeeded it, 
 we know, were produced at the request of the king.
 
 THE SATIRIST 63 
 
 The opening lines of the poem, and an expression 
 that occurs in Franciscanus, would seem to hint that 
 at this time Buchanan was hesitating whether he 
 should enter the Church or not. His future, at best, 
 was very uncertain ; his engagement with the Earl 
 of Cassillis was coming to an end. Scotland had 
 very few openings for a man like him. The Church 
 still continued to be the channel for preferment and 
 promotion ; it would in any case give him that 
 learned leisure which his soul must have desired. 
 The friars, besides, would naturally wish to capture 
 so promising a recruit ; better in any case that he 
 should be on their side than against them. But 
 if Buchanan hesitated, it can only have been for a 
 moment. His worst enemies have never accused 
 him of gross worldliness, and he is the last man that 
 we can conceive sacrificing his deepest convictions 
 for mere earthly gain. The picture of Buchanan 
 as a monk is hard to imagine. 
 
 The Somnium is a frank imitation, indeed a free 
 translation into Latin, of a poem by Dunbar, entitled 
 " How Dunbar was desyrit to be ane Fryer. 1 ' The 
 poet describes himself as being visited in a dream 
 by St. Francis, the founder of the Order, who
 
 64 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 invites him to become a monk, holding out among 
 other promises that of heaven. The poet, however, 
 will have nothing to do with the Saint or his 
 " hooded crew," whom he describes in no flattering 
 terms. He has no objections, however, to be a 
 Bishop ; that, he thinks, is an office worth holding. 
 And so he winds up and dismisses the Saint as 
 follows : 
 
 "Let others traverse all the country o'er, 
 Proud of this dress and beg from door to door ; 
 The trade I like not, nor the monkish frown, 
 Give me a mitre and a purple gown." 
 
 This effusion had a twofold result; it drew on 
 Buchanan the enmity of the Franciscans, and com- 
 mended him to the attention of the King. The 
 religious Orders took themselves very seriously; 
 they must have had the suspicion that their hold 
 on the people was growing slacker, and they were 
 constantly on the outlook for any slight that 
 might affect or endanger their position. They at 
 once fastened on Buchanan's poem, and as their 
 manner was when no real charge could be made 
 against a man, they trumped up one, and the 
 most common and fatal accusation was to declare
 
 THE SATIRIST 65 
 
 him to be a heretic. It was thus they acted 
 towards Buchanan. In place of terrorising him, 
 however, it but confirmed his opinion of their 
 malice and " licentiousness, and rendered him still 
 more partial to the Lutheran views. 1 " The King, 
 too, instead of believing them or being offended 
 by Buchanan's satire, invited the author to become 
 tutor to his natural son, the Lord James Stewart. 
 
 James the Fifth was no lover of the Franciscan 
 Order; he believed that at this very time they 
 were involved in a plot which aimed at his own 
 life. He wished also to break the power of the 
 Church, which had grown fat and strong during 
 his long minority. After the battle of Flodden, 
 where his own father and the flower of the nobility 
 had been slain, the government of the country fell 
 into the hands of the Church, with the result that 
 it became a power which it was the aim of wise 
 statesmanship to diminish, if not to crush. For 
 this end he encouraged Sir David Lyndsay to 
 write those satires which ridiculed the clergy, and 
 honoured with his presence and that of his Queen 
 Madeline the representation of one of them, the 
 Satire of the Three Estates, in 1539. He accordingly 
 5
 
 66 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 saw in Buchanan a new ally, and advised him to 
 make a fresh attack on the Franciscans. The poet 
 felt that in his first effusion he had perhaps gone 
 far enough, and he determined to write a short poem 
 susceptible of an "ambiguous interpretation," but 
 he found that it satisfied neither the King nor the 
 Franciscans. James demanded something "keen 
 and biting," which should not only " prick the 
 skin, but probe the vitals"; and everything 
 appeared criminal to the Franciscans unless it 
 were written expressly in their praise. The 
 "ambiguous" poem is the Palinodia, and the 
 "keen and biting" one, the Franciscanus. 
 
 Buchanan misjudged the Franciscans if he thought 
 the two short poems which compose the Palinodia 
 would mitigate their wrath; they increased it ten- 
 fold. Nor should this surprise us, for if in the 
 Somnium he chastised them with whips, in the 
 Palinodia he belaboured them with scorpions. Its 
 satire is keen and piercing. It describes the poet as 
 carried to heaven. He suddenly finds himself in a 
 great hall filled with monks. Their representatives 
 on earth must have winced at the laughable descrip- 
 tion which he gives of the appearance of the saintly
 
 THE SATIRIST 67 
 
 friars. The tables, however, are turned, judgment 
 is passed upon the poet, and the divine anger of 
 the holy fraternity is let loose on his devoted head. 
 Stripped of his clothes, they beat him almost to 
 death, and he, to appease their fury, invokes upon 
 their heads all those blessings which their mundane 
 brethren so greatly coveted and enjoyed. " Profane 
 not your holy hands in my blood, 11 he cries. " So 
 may your seraphic Order flourish under ever more 
 glorious auspices. So may the ignorant and the 
 stupid join your tribe in flocks, and may never an 
 old woman be wanting for you to gull. May the 
 mob never discover your lies, nor see through your 
 impostures." 
 
 "Songs, psalms, and concerts, gardens gay with flowers, 
 And gorgeous palaces amuse your hours." 
 
 The full fury of Buchanan's invective, however, 
 was reserved for his Francijcanus, the longest and 
 most elaborate and finished of all his satires. A 
 draft of it was made, and the only copy was 
 submitted to the King. The poem did not 
 take final shape till after Buchanan's return to 
 Scotland in 1560, when he published it with a 
 dedication to the Earl of Moray. During these
 
 68 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 long years that it lay beside him, the poet must 
 have repeatedly revised it and given it those 
 touches which place it, so far as style, at least, is 
 concerned, high not only among his own works, 
 but among the satires of the age. A recent critic 
 is of opinion that its "force is weakened by a 
 profusion of details, which never once collects 
 itself in one of the true Juvenalian onslaughts"; 
 while another, accepting it as "a brilliant per- 
 formance, careful in construction, ingenious in 
 detail, abounding in happy sallies," admits that it 
 is not satire of the type that "rises into poetry 
 by the disinterestedness and the very intensity of 
 its denounciation of evil." "There is nothing," 
 he remarks, "in Buchanan here of the prophet's 
 or reformer's fulness of soul or their burning 
 consciousness of a divine cause." All this may be 
 granted without in any way detracting from the 
 high qualities of the poem. It simply means that 
 the writer was not Juvenal or Knox, but Buchanan, 
 and if the power of his satire is to be judged by 
 its results, the Frandscanus does not need to fear 
 comparison. It roused the anger of its victims to 
 such a pitch that the writer ever afterwards was
 
 THE SATIRIST 69 
 
 a marked man, and escaped as if by miracle the 
 dire fate they destined for him. 
 
 The poem opens with a pleasing description of 
 the Church as the haven of the storm-tossed soul, 
 and a fanciful sketch of the lives of those monks 
 who, by their profession, ought to be the holiest 
 of men. A graphic and telling description is then 
 given of the real Franciscan, startling enough to 
 turn away from the Order any silly youth who 
 believed that within monastic walls he would enjoy 
 a foretaste of the bliss of heaven. It is not pure 
 and devotional natures who join the fraternity, but 
 the lowest types : the sot, the ignorant, the ruined 
 in purse and character, the renegade from justice, 
 the sensualist, the gambler, the glutton. Whence 
 comes the success of such knaves ? wherein consists 
 their secret? How do they manage to impose on 
 the world? Low cunning, the tricks of the pro- 
 fession, and the art of imposition which have been 
 practised for years and brought to the highest 
 pitch of perfection. These the veteran teaches 
 the novice, who is informed that the most powerful 
 weapon at his command will be the Confessional. 
 Worm out the secrets of the penitent, and the
 
 70 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 deluded creature will be the friar's victim arid 
 slave ever after. Prospect your ground, choose 
 your prey the rich matron, the dull rustic. Do 
 not be afraid to speak, knowledge is not necessary ; 
 cultivate effrontery, lard your sermons with a few 
 Latin phrases, terrify your hearers with the pains 
 of hell. But a reaction is setting in, the Epistles 
 of Paul have been rediscovered, truth is beginning 
 to dawn, and the trade of the Franciscan is 
 threatened with extinction. 
 
 The modern reader who has grown accustomed to 
 the polite and vacuous literature of the times, may 
 hold up his hands in horror at what may seem to him 
 to be the coarseness of much of Buchanan's verse. 
 But the poet, as we know from the most reliable 
 authority, simply described what existed. And if 
 he had written otherwise he would have belied or 
 suppressed the truth. The Christian world was 
 rising to a consciousness of its religious and moral 
 inheritance. The Scriptures were passing from hand 
 to hand, and the dullest could not fail to observe the 
 terrible contrast between their teaching and practice 
 and the doctrines and conduct of the priesthood and 
 monastic orders. Lyndsay's satires are quite as out-
 
 THE SATIRIST 71 
 
 spoken as Buchanan's, and as he wrote in the 
 vernacular the sense of the age cannot have been 
 shocked. Every thinking man knew what was going 
 on, and all that was needed was a poet like Buchanan, 
 who would give the thoughts and feelings of the 
 times literary expression. This he did in his 
 Franciscanus, which mirrors for succeeding cen- 
 turies the monastic life of the age. 
 
 The Church felt that such men as Buchanan must 
 be silenced. About the very time when the last 
 of his series of satires was completed, it took alarm 
 at the spread of the new opinions, and reached forth 
 its hand to seize and destroy the disturbers of its 
 peace. The year 1539 in particular witnessed 
 vigorous activity on its part against heretics. " In 
 the beginning of that year," Buchanan tells us, 
 " many suspected of Lutheranism were seized ; 
 towards the end of February five were burned, nine 
 recanted, many were exiled. Among the last was 
 George Buchanan, who while his guards were asleep 
 escaped from the window of his sleeping apartment." 
 This was the work of Cardinal Beaton, and when 
 Buchanan heard that his arch-enemy had offered 
 the King a bribe for his capture, he hastened across
 
 72 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 the border, and at the hands of Sir John Rainsford 
 found shelter for a brief time from the thieves, the 
 plague, and papists, that in his flight threatened to 
 destroy him. While in this "famous knight's" 
 house, which Buchanan says was " an altar of refuge 
 to the wretched, an ark of safety to the good," he 
 wrote two short poems, one to Thomas Cromwell, 
 and another to the King himself. The tone of 
 these poems reveals the sore straits in which the 
 poet now found himself, but despairing of relief from 
 either quarter, and finding that Henry was " burning 
 Catholic and Protestant alike on the same day and 
 in the same fire, and as more intent on safeguarding 
 his prerogative than advancing pure religion," he 
 quitted England and sought a home in France, 
 directing his steps to Paris.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE DRAMATIST 
 
 T T must have been with a shock of surprise that 
 * Buchanan learned, on reaching Paris, that 
 Cardinal Beaton was there before him. The eminent 
 Scottish ecclesiastical politician, who was rapidly 
 working his way to the highest position in the public 
 life of his own country, chanced to be in France on an 
 Embassy in the very year of Buchanan's flight from 
 Scotland. Very few countries in Western Europe 
 vere at this time safe for such a man as the satirist 
 of the Franciscans. He naturally turned to France, 
 as the home of most of his friends and the scene 
 of his education and early labours. Even its scenery 
 would seem to have inspired him, and to have drawn 
 out his poetic talent more than that of his native 
 country. The love for the grand in nature was of 
 later growth. Two centuries had to pass before full
 
 74 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 poetic expression would be given to it. The moun- 
 tains of Scotland sank into insignificance before 
 the plains of France. The Garonne was more to 
 Buchanan than his own Loch Lomond. 
 
 France, too, had other attractions for him. Most 
 of the great scholars of the time had passed through 
 the University of Paris and were now acting as 
 teachers in one or other of its Colleges. The literary 
 society, which a man such as he must have found 
 most congenial, could be met with there to a greater 
 extent than elsewhere. It is true that the govern- 
 ing powers in France had begun to set their face in 
 a determined manner against both the new religion 
 and the new learning. Persecutions were taking 
 place up and down the country, but there was a 
 better chance for Buchanan to find some work and 
 to escape the fury of the Franciscans in France than 
 in his native land. 
 
 Paris, accordingly, was no safe place for him, and 
 shortly after his arrival he fortunately received an 
 offer which secured him employment and guaranteed 
 his safety. In the year 1533 a great school had 
 been opened in Bordeaux. According to Montaigne, 
 who was one of its earliest pupils, it was " very
 
 THE DRAMATIST 75 
 
 flourishing for that time, and the best in France." 
 It was called the College de Guyenne, and had for 
 its head, Andre de Gouv^a, who was looked upon as 
 " the greatest Principal of France. 1 " This Andr 
 was the nephew of Buchanan's old friend, Jacques de 
 Gouvea, under whom he had acted as Regent in 
 Ste. Barbe. There happened to be two vacancies 
 at this time in the College. One of them Gouvea 
 offered to Buchanan, and the other to his friend Fjlie 
 Vinet. Both accepted, and immediately entered upon 
 their new duties. Here Buchanan remained for 
 three years, which, from a literary point of view, 
 were among the most fruitful of his whole life. 
 
 This great school of learning was the offspring of 
 Humanism, and was meant to give embodiment to the 
 new ideas on education that were then beginning to 
 prevail. It was a secondary school, and was intended 
 to take the place, in method at least, of the old 
 Academy or Grammar School, which was of ancient 
 foundation in Bordeaux. From the success that 
 attended, and the interest that was taken in it by 
 the civic authorities and others, we can note the new 
 life that was beginning to stir the minds of educa- 
 tionists. Whether the theories which were put into
 
 76 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 shape by Gouvea were right or wrong, he evidently 
 inspired both teachers and scholars with a genuine 
 love of learning. 
 
 The Latin language was the chief subject taught. 
 Year after year the pupil was drilled in the study of 
 the great Roman writers, until he could speak with 
 ease in the language of Cicero. Logic, philosophy, 
 Greek, and the Bible had a very secondary place, and 
 scientific and commercial subjects no place at all. 
 The old methods of scholasticism were entirely 
 discarded by Gouvea and his staff, with some gain 
 no doubt, but not without a considerable loss. The 
 youthful mind cannot live on Latin alone ; there are 
 more things in heaven and earth than classical 
 literature. But the spirit which found an outlet 
 in the College de Guyenne soon spread over Western 
 Europe, conditioned the course of study in schools 
 and Universities, and still survives. In recent years 
 it has met with strong opposition, and the growth 
 of science, with its practical and utilitarian results, 
 threatens to oust the study of classics from its time- 
 honoured place in our schools of learning. There 
 are extremists on both sides, and it is difficult 
 meanwhile to foresee the issue ; but the fact that
 
 THE DRAMATIST 77 
 
 Universities ought to aim at producing the highest 
 and widest culture, should never be lost sight of by 
 those who are responsible for education. 
 
 The literary activity of Buchanan at this time, to 
 which reference has been made, was no doubt largely 
 due to the congenial surroundings, warm friendships, 
 and social intercourse which he enjoyed. The 
 Principal and Regents would seem to have lived 
 and worked on the best terms with each other; 
 agreeable companions were to be found in the city 
 and neighbourhood, and the bright lads whom the 
 fame of the College drew to it must have made for 
 Buchanan the work of teaching more pleasant than 
 he found it to be when Regent in Ste. Barbe. 
 Among these lads was young Montaigne, who in 
 the course of centuries was to become a European 
 Classic. In one of his most famous essays, that on 
 " the Education of Children," he speaks with the 
 warmest admiration of Buchanan, who was one of 
 his teachers, and whom he characterises as " that 
 great Scotch poet." He remarks that he sub- 
 sequently met Buchanan, while the latter was acting 
 as tutor to the Count de Brissac, when his dis- 
 tinguished teacher told him that he intended to
 
 78 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 write a treatise on education for the benefit of his 
 pupil, taking Montaigne himself as his example ; but 
 when Buchanan's work did appear, it failed to satisfy 
 Montaigne's description of it. 
 
 The one man with whom he would seem to have 
 had the most pleasant intercourse during these years 
 of schoolmastering at Bordeaux, was the elder 
 Scaliger. This veritable swashbuckler of letters 
 had a varied and romantic career. He credited 
 himself with a royal descent. Born in Italy, he was 
 driven while still an infant from his native land, and 
 after a youth of trying experiences he took up the 
 role of a soldier of fortune, and distinguished himself 
 in various warlike enterprises. He thought, at one 
 time, of joining the Franciscan Order, and with that 
 intention studied for two years at the University of 
 Bologna. His eyes were opened to the folly of the 
 step he was meditating, and, after further wandering, 
 he settled at last at Agen, some sixty or seventy 
 miles from Bordeaux. He had in the interval fallen 
 in love with a young girl, Andiette de Roques 
 Loberac, of good family, but her parents objected 
 to the marriage on the ground of his uncertain 
 prospects. He studied medicine, prosecuted his
 
 THE DRAMATIST 79 
 
 suit, became physician to the Bishop of Ageii, and 
 married Andiette. During most of this time he 
 had been working hard at Latin and Greek, and 
 became a remarkable classical scholar. 
 
 Finding the society of Agen somewhat limited, 
 Scaliger became friendly with the learned men of 
 Bordeaux, and particularly with the Regents of the 
 College de Guyenne, who were in the habit of spend- 
 ing their autumn holidays at his house in Agen. 
 Buchanan and he grew intimate, interchanged poems, 
 and entertained the highest regard for each other to 
 the very end. It is interesting to find two such men 
 maintaining so close a friendship with each other, 
 for Scaliger was of a violent temperament, and 
 Buchanan's wit was severe and sharp. The Scotch- 
 man could not fail to admire Scaliger's manly 
 independence, and the Italian had the highest 
 appreciation of Buchanan's ability, scholarship, and 
 poetical gifts. Joseph Scaliger, the younger, was 
 only a boy of ten at this time, but he grew up to 
 be a much more distinguished man than his father, 
 and to entertain even a higher opinion of his father's 
 friend. In after years he paid the highest tribute 
 to Buchanan's poetry in the well-known sentence,
 
 8o GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 " Buchanan is the one poet in the whole of Europe, 
 leaving in Latin poetry all others behind. 1 " And in 
 the Elegy which he wrote on Buchanan he is equally 
 laudatory and happy. 
 
 "Raised to her zenith, poetry no more 
 Beyond thee tries on daring wing to soar, 
 Bounds to her Empire, Rome in Scotland found, 
 And Scotland too her eloquence shall bound." 
 
 Bordeaux, while Buchanan was resident there, was 
 honoured by a visit from Charles the Fifth. The 
 College de Guyenne, determining not to be behind 
 in welcoming the august visitor, presented him with 
 a Latin Ode. The man selected to write it was 
 Buchanan. The choice was a signal tribute to his 
 gifts, and he acquitted himself to the satisfaction 
 of everyone. The funds of the College being in a 
 somewhat uncertain condition, the Chancellor of the 
 kingdom was approached. He, too, had to be ad- 
 dressed in a Latin Ode. This honour again fell to 
 Buchanan. Other occasional pieces were composed 
 by him at this time, some serious, some humorous. 
 Among the latter was a satire on the brothers of 
 St. Anthony at Bordeaux, who enjoyed the privilege 
 of free trade in pigs. The sacred fraternity took
 
 THE DRAMATIST 81 
 
 full advantage of their immunity from taxation and 
 filled their monastery with swine, which of course 
 they could dispose of at a high profit. Their traffic, 
 however, becoming a nuisance and a danger to the 
 public health, the magistrates endeavoured to put 
 it down. This gave occasion to Buchanan for the 
 following epigram : 
 
 "When living, thou St. Anthony 
 As swine-herd kept thy swine, 
 Now dead, thou keep'st, St. Anthony, 
 This herd of monks of thine. 
 
 "The monks as stupid are as they, 
 
 As fond of dirt and prog ; 
 In dumbness, torpor, ugliness, 
 Each Monk is like each hog. 
 
 " So much agrees 'tween herd and herd, 
 
 One point would make all good ; 
 If, but thy monks, St. Anthony, 
 Had acorns for their food." 
 
 More serious subjects, however, engaged Buchanan's 
 leisure hours. He himself tells us that it was with 
 the distinct purpose of elevating the taste of the 
 scholars, as much as in keeping with the practice of 
 the College, that he composed four dramas, which 
 with varying degree of excellence added greatly to
 
 82 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 his reputation. The French in particular had for 
 many years been addicted to the witnessing of 
 allegories and mystery plays, which, in addition to 
 being written in the vernacular, were repellent to 
 the Humanists from their grossness of ideas and 
 barbarous language. Italian scholars had previous 
 to this time produced a number of Latin dramas, 
 and Erasmus, among others, had translated several 
 Greek plays. The College de Guyenne, which was 
 taking the lead in French secondary education, set 
 itself to reform the public taste, and Buchanan, from 
 his already proved poetical gifts and ripe scholarship, 
 was selected to take his turn in producing Latin 
 plays which should be acted by the scholars. Four 
 dramas were accordingly written by him, two of 
 which were translations from Euripides, and two 
 original. These plays have been differently criti- 
 cised. Competent writers praise them highly ; 
 others, while admiring their sonorous verse, affect 
 to disparage them, particularly the original ones, 
 because of their lack of dramatic interest. Buchanan 
 himself did not attach very great importance to 
 them. He admits that the two which he translated, 
 the Medea and Akestls of Euripides, were under-
 
 THE DRAMATIST 83 
 
 taken chiefly as an exercise in turning Greek into 
 Latin. In this way he believed he would acquire a 
 more perfect knowledge of the former language, 
 which he was teaching himself. His success with 
 the Alcestis was so great that his contemporaries 
 believed that it was the work of Ennius, who was 
 known to have translated this play. Buchanan 
 they thought had discovered it, and published it 
 in his own name. 
 
 It is of course by his two original plays, the 
 Baptistes and Jephthes, that he must stand or fall 
 as a dramatist. A recent critic finds in them an 
 imitation of Seneca rather than of Euripides, and 
 a general lack of dramatic interest and movement. 
 Others see in them allusions, such as references to 
 Greek characters and names, which are glaring 
 improprieties in works that have a purely Scriptural 
 basis. While this may be true, the credit should 
 not be denied to Buchanan of excelling his con- 
 temporaries in such compositions and of writing 
 dramas, which, notwithstanding the limitations 
 under which they were written, can still be read 
 with interest. No one can fail to see the oppor- 
 tunity which the story of Jephthah gives for
 
 84 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 dramatic handling. The conflicting emotions in 
 the breast of the father because of his rash vow, 
 the agony of the mother and the renunciation of 
 the daughter, battling with the natural love of life, 
 are intensely human and realistic. Buchanan, it 
 must be admitted, rose to the height of his theme, 
 and his Jephthes easily takes its place among pro- 
 ductions of its class. 
 
 A singular interest attaches to his other original 
 play, the Baptistes. It and the Medea were his 
 first ventures in this species of composition, and it 
 was their success that encouraged him to write the 
 other two. The interest of the Baptistes lies in 
 its subject and characters rather than in its dramatic 
 treatment. It was a parable for the times, and its 
 readers would not fail to see the significance of 
 its allusions. In it we have the first sketch of 
 Buchanan's views of government, which were after- 
 wards fully developed in his " History " and in his 
 famous tract, De Jure Regni apud Scotos. It is 
 interesting to note that at this early period of 
 his career he had formed those opinions on a 
 limited monarchy and the rights of the people 
 which afterwards distinguished him and made him
 
 THE DRAMATIST 85 
 
 a leader in constitutional reform. The selection of 
 John the Baptist for dramatic treatment lent itself 
 admirably to the embodiment of the views which 
 he then and ever afterwards cherished. So pro- 
 nounced, indeed, are these views, that his chief 
 biographer thinks that the play could not have been 
 acted at that time in Bordeaux, for the offence it 
 would have given. Buchanan himself would seem 
 to indicate differently, and one would be glad to 
 believe that Montaigne represented one of its 
 characters, as he certainly did some others of 
 Buchanan's, for he tells us that " he played the chief 
 parts in the Latin tragedies of Buchanan, Guerente, 
 and Muret, which were represented in the College 
 de Guyenne with dignity." 
 
 The theme of the Baptistes is the great one of 
 human liberty, and the poet speaks out with the 
 utmost boldness against tyranny and priestcraft. 
 Its leading characters would find their modern 
 instances : John the Baptist, say, in Luther ; Malchus 
 the high priest, in Cardinal Beaton ; Herod, in Francis 
 the First or James the Fifth of Scotland ; and 
 Herodias in Louise of Savoy, the Queen-Mother. In 
 1642 it was translated into English, and at that time,
 
 86 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 when rebellion was in the air, its readers would dis- 
 cover Charles the First in Herod ; Laud, in Malchus ; 
 and Henrietta Maria, in Herodias. In the Dedica- 
 tion to James the Sixth, with which Buchanan prefaced 
 the edition of 1576, he remarks : " It is my desire 
 that this little book may be for a testimony to 
 posterity, that if at any time, whether at the 
 instigation of evil counsellors or from the licence of 
 sovereignty overbearing a good education, you 
 should in any way misconduct yourself, the blame 
 is to be imputed not to your teachers but to your- 
 self, as having not obeyed their salutary admoni- 
 tions." James was at this time his pupil, and to make 
 clear what these admonitions, as illustrated by the 
 Baptistes, were, he in the same letter of dedication 
 observes : " But that in this little work, which more 
 particularly concerns you, is its clear exhibition of 
 the torments of tyrants and the miseries which they 
 endure, even when they seem to be most prosperous. " 
 We have no record of the reason which induced 
 Buchanan to leave Bordeaux. There is no evidence 
 that it was the fear of persecution. Cardinal Beaton, 
 it is true, had not forgotten him, for he sent a letter 
 to the Archbishop of Bordeaux desiring the poet's
 
 THE DRAMATIST 87 
 
 apprehension. The communication fortunately fell 
 into the hands of Buchanan's greatest friends, and 
 consequently failed in its object. Beaton now had 
 his hands full, for James the Fifth was dead, and 
 he was aiming at the chief power in the State. It 
 may have been the love of change that possessed 
 Buchanan, like the other wandering scholars of the 
 time, that induced him to leave Bordeaux. We 
 cannot tell, but either at the close of 1542 or early 
 in 1543 he departed from the city.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE WANDERER 
 
 IOGRAPHERS of Buchanan have experienced 
 considerable difficulty in tracing his steps 
 for the next five years. Certain of them, mis- 
 apprehending the phrase precepteurs domestiques 
 which Montaigne employs in referring to Buchanan, 
 imagine that, after leaving Bordeaux, he became 
 private tutor to that young scholar and resided 
 with him at his father's house. This was not the 
 case, for the phrase only implies that he was one of 
 Montaigne's masters while teaching in the College 
 de Guyenne. In 1544, however, we learn that he 
 was acting as Regent in the College du Cardinal 
 Lemoine in Paris. This College was one of the most 
 progressive in the University, and would naturally 
 welcome a liberal-minded man like Buchanan. He 
 had as colleagues some of the most distinguished 
 
 88
 
 THE WANDERER 89 
 
 scholars in Europe, notably Turne'be and Muret. 
 They, along with Buchanan, held at this time the 
 first place in the scholastic world, and about them, 
 as a contemporary observed, there was " nothing of 
 the pedagogue except the gown and cap." He 
 had also other associates of outstanding distinction, 
 and to two who were his fellow- workers at Bordeaux 
 he wrote an elegy which is full of biographical 
 interest. It not only informs us of the writer's 
 habitation at this time, and the condition of his 
 fortunes, but also throws light on a side of his 
 character, which is all the more attractive because 
 it is not the one that is usually regarded as typical 
 of Buchanan's life as a whole. When he wrote 
 this elegy he was clearly suffering from a painful 
 and dangerous malady, or rather a complication of 
 maladies, which threatened to have a fatal ending. 
 We can picture the lonely scholar, far from his 
 native land, with prospects uncertain, lying on a 
 sick-bed and looking forward to a speedy dissolution. 
 He had now tumed forty, and was still without a 
 permanent appointment; he was also unmarried, 
 and without those ministrations from wife and 
 children which alleviate suffering, and comfort the
 
 90 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 troubled heart. But this poem comes upon us 
 with a welcome surprise, and shows us that he was 
 far from friendless. Indeed, he would seem to have 
 been visited daily by colleagues and companions 
 whose affection he had won, and who cheered him 
 by their friendly intercourse. There must have 
 been something in Buchanan more than the grim 
 humorist and biting satirist to have drawn to him, 
 in the closest bonds of friendship, so many men 
 whose esteem was an honour. These and others, 
 whose regard he afterwards gained, ever spoke and 
 wrote of him in the highest terms as a man, a 
 scholar, and a poet. 
 
 After describing the nature of the malady from 
 which he was suffering, he continues : " Such are 
 the dire images of death and death-bringing want 
 that visit me. Nor by my side have I my Tastaeus 
 and Tevius, whose pleasant converse would make 
 the long day short. Neither is my sick heart 
 refreshed by the learning and eloquence of my other 
 friends of the Gascon school. Yet amid all my ills, 
 tried friends have not wholly deserted me. Often 
 Groscollius expounds to me the virtues of his herbs 
 and helps to cheer me by his kind counsel. Often
 
 THE WANDERER 91 
 
 the skill and experience of Carolus Stephanus brings 
 relief to my suffering. Turnebus, that pride of the 
 Muses, suffers not a day to pass without the offices 
 of friendship. And though other blessings fail me, 
 the pious care of my comrade Gelida supplies the 
 place of father and fatherland alike. While it is 
 day my lot is thus made light. With the coming 
 of night an army of cares raise their sighs around 
 me, and a thousand shapes haunt my dreams. In 
 the silence of the darkness your forms come before 
 me and make the night watches short with beguiling 
 words. Yet though vain and all too brief is this 
 delight, 'tis sweet, even thus, to know the presence 
 of those we love. Perchance also in the dreams of 
 the night I may ghostlike stand by your couch, and 
 in words mingled with sighs bewail the hardness of 
 my untoward lot. And ye dreams, sweetest pledges 
 of the night, let not grief for me touch my absent 
 friends ; alone let me bear the burden of my fate. 
 But if inexorable doom shall move me hence before 
 my day, late may the tale reach the ears of my 
 Tastaeus and Tevius. And ye of one mind and one 
 
 soul cease from tears, and grieve me not with your 
 
 / 
 
 lament when I am gone."
 
 92 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 Buchanan recovered, and in the following year, 
 1545, he left Paris. We then lose sight of him till 
 two years afterwards, when he set out for Portugal, 
 whither he had been invited by his former chief, 
 Andre de Gouvea, to assist at the establishing of a 
 great school of learning in Coimbra, whose University 
 had recently been founded by King John the Third. 
 This monarch, who in the earliest part of his reign 
 was an enlightened patron of letters, was most eager 
 to see in his own country a University that would 
 rank with the very best in Europe. He accordingly 
 invited Gouvea to return to his native land to take 
 charge of the Institution. The great Principal re- 
 sponded, and set out for Portugal accompanied by 
 Buchanan and a number of other distinguished 
 scholars, most of whom had been associated with 
 him at the College de Guyenne. It was in March 
 1547 that this notable band of Humanists sailed for 
 Coimbra, and so hopeful was Buchanan of the 
 prospects thus opened out to him, that he persuaded 
 his brother Patrick to accompany him as a member 
 of the teaching staff. Everything went well at first, 
 and the new University gave every promise of success 
 and of drawing to it the young Portuguese students
 
 THE WANDERER 93 
 
 who had formerly been accustomed to repair to 
 Paris for the education which their own country 
 could not provide. This, indeed, was one of the 
 chief objects of the King. An event, however, took 
 place which shattered all these hopes, and entailed 
 much persecution and suffering on Buchanan. In 
 1548, a year after he had gone to Portugal, the 
 great Principal died, and after his death the Jesuits, 
 who at this early date had found their way into the 
 country and acquired great influence over the King, 
 used every means to dispossess GouveVs Regents 
 and to gain the control of the University themselves. 
 The dogs of persecution were let loose on Buchanan 
 and his friends. They were charged with crimes 
 invented by their accusers for the occasion. Three 
 of them were thrown into dungeons; after a 
 lengthened imprisonment they underwent a mock 
 trial, and were again committed to prison. 
 
 The relentless bigotry of these inquisitors found 
 its chief victim in Buchanan. From the way in 
 which he refers to this part of his career it can be 
 seen that the iron had entered his soul, and that 
 this persecution made a more lasting impression 
 upon him than any other to which he was subjected
 
 94 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 during his whole life. His chief ground of offence 
 would seem to have been the poem which he wrote 
 against the Franciscans. His accusers could have 
 known of that poem only by hearsay, and he had 
 stipulated with the King, before he agreed to come 
 to Portugal, that it would not be brought up against 
 him. He was also accused of eating flesh in Lent, 
 of having spoken disparagingly of monks, of having 
 quoted St. Augustine as being in favour of the 
 Reformed doctrine of the Eucharist, and two 
 witnesses deponed that they had ground for believ- 
 ing that he was no good Catholic. "But to be 
 brief," as he himself remarks, " when the inquisition 
 had fatigued both themselves and him nearly a year 
 and a half, at last, that they might not seem wantonly 
 to have harassed to no purpose one not altogether 
 unknown to fame, they shut him up for some months 
 in a monastery to be more strictly instructed by the 
 monks, some of whom were neither altogether 
 deficient in humanity, learning, or morals, but all 
 were destitute of religion. During this confinement 
 he chiefly employed himself in versifying the Psalms 
 of David in a variety of measures." 
 
 This incident instinctively calls up to one's mind
 
 THE WANDERER 95 
 
 the editing by John Knox, while he was a slave in 
 the French galleys, of Balnave's treatise on Justifica- 
 tion. The two greatest Scotsmen of their time were 
 almost in the very same year incarcerated, the one 
 in a Portuguese dungeon, and the other in a French 
 man-of-war. And yet neither of them lost one jot 
 of hope or heart. In place of being crushed by 
 their hard fate, they wrested from it the means of 
 religious and mental liberty. "Surely it would be 
 difficult to find a more dramatic position even in that, 
 the heroic period, as it may truly be called of modern 
 literary history ! Here was a Scot from the Lennox 
 born hard by the river Blane, amidst the lochs and 
 mountains of the North imprisoned among lemon- 
 complexioned monks under the sun of Lusitania, 
 and while nominally undergoing their illiterate 
 teaching, beguiling the hours by founding a great 
 classical religious work. But there is something 
 more than dramatic in the picture of Buchanan 
 translating the Psalms in a Portuguese cell. His 
 great nature had known sorrow and was feeling it 
 now, like the Royal Psalmist himself ; and if he cried 
 to his Lord in a language which was not that he 
 had learned from his mother, the intellectual labour
 
 96 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 did not, we may feel sure, altogether deaden the 
 spiritual pain. The translation, thus viewed, had a 
 special moral interest, and the fact that such were 
 Buchanan's occupations prepares us for finding him 
 by and by one of the founders of modern Pro- 
 testant Scotland, along with the Regent Moray and 
 Knox." 
 
 Buchanan at length was set at liberty, and he 
 asked permission to return to France. " The King, 
 however, wished him to remain, and supplied him 
 with means sufficient for his daily wants. But sick 
 of delays and uncertain hopes, he embarked at 
 Lisbon in a Cretan ship and sailed for England." 
 He arrived at an unfortunate time ; the country was 
 in a most disturbed condition ; the war of religion 
 which still raged was being complicated and in- 
 tensified by a war of succession. Northumberland, 
 who divided the power with Somerset, was advocating 
 the claims of his son's wife, the Lady Jane Grey, to 
 the throne. Times had changed since the days 
 when Erasmus found a welcome asylum in England 
 during the reign of Henry the Eighth. A country dis- 
 tracted by internal feuds was no home for a quiet 
 scholar, so, after a sojourn of a few months, Buchanan,
 
 THE WANDERER 97 
 
 early in 1553, crossed the channel for his beloved 
 France and Paris. 
 
 Nor did France at first sight offer a safer home for 
 him than England. Under Henry the Second it was 
 plunged into foreign wars, and its domestic affairs 
 were disturbed by a bitter religious persecution. 
 The Protestants were burned and banished ; and it 
 might seem a bold step for so well known a man as 
 Buchanan to put himself into such imminent peril. 
 It ought, however, to be remembered that up till 
 this time he had not declared for the Reformed 
 religion. He was outwardly still a Romanist, and to 
 the world he was known as a Humanist, who enjoyed 
 the privilege of satirising the clergy and exposing 
 the abuses of the Roman Church without being sub- 
 jected to the persecution which dogged the steps of 
 the heretic. It is only on such grounds that 
 Buchanan's immunity from the fate that befell the 
 followers of Luther at this time in France can be 
 explained, but it is not at all unlikely that even 
 though he had been conscious of danger he would 
 have risked much in order to find himself in France 
 once more. It was the home of his adoption, of his 
 friends, of his early labours and first literary achieve- 
 7
 
 98 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 ments. He loved, too, its fertile plains, its vine-shaded 
 hills, its richly watered valleys and far-sweeping 
 rivers. " Happy France," he exclaims in one of the 
 best and brightest of his poems, " with thy sweet 
 country homes, thy ramparted walls, thy stately 
 castles, and thy sons adorned with all the graces of 
 life, modest, courteous, and pleasant of speech. . . . 
 France ! if while I live I love and cherish thee not, 
 as one loves and cherishes the land of his birth, 
 then may I return to the barren wastes and niggard 
 soil of Portugal. 1 ' 
 
 The poet's love for France, deep though it was, 
 found its full satisfaction in his passion for Paris. 
 Johnson's love for London has its parallel in 
 Buchanan's intense admiration of the city on the 
 Seine. The emotion which the thought of Paris 
 created in his breast found fit expression in one of 
 the very finest of his poems, Desiderium Lutetioe. In 
 this ode, written in Portugal, he pours forth his 
 regrets at his prolonged absence from the city of 
 his heart, which he invokes as "Fair Amaryllis." 
 Seven summers with their furnace heat, and seven 
 winters with their storms and clouds, have parted 
 him from her gaze.
 
 THE WANDERER 99 
 
 ' ' Thou art my theme when in the dewy morn 
 The cattle crop the herbage ; and again 
 'Neath noontide sweltering glare thou'rt still my theme ; 
 And when the nightfall lengthens out the shades, 
 E'en night which wraps creation all in gloom, 
 May by no spell thy sweet face hide from me." 
 
 His sleep is disturbed by fleeting dreams and vain 
 visions of the city that he loves, and with the 
 breaking of the day his sorrow drives him to the 
 Fields and Woods, to whom he tells his plaints. 
 
 "Full often hang I on a mountain crag 
 That looks upon the sea the billowy sea : 
 And, wild with frenzy, call the dark blue waves 
 And gales that will not hear me woe is me ! 
 O ocean, and ye nymphs that cleave the waves 
 Ye Nereid nymphs that cleave the glassy waves 
 Be kind, and waft me to the port I love." 
 
 He invokes the gales that blow to the south-west 
 to bring him tidings of his Love, and calls upon 
 the east wind to be the messenger of his hopes and 
 fears. 
 
 " How oft when Eurus, light, came skimming by 
 I've called to him, ' Say hast thou seen my Love. 
 O happy Gale ! say does she think of me ? 
 Say is her passion deep as mine for her? 
 Say can'st thou mark in her the ancient flame?' 
 He blusters past, and soughing, passes by 
 Like to an angry man, and leaves me dumb."
 
 ioo GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 Spain and Portugal under the forms of Lycisca and 
 Melaenis, two maidens, try to woo him from his 
 ancient Love, but in vain. 
 
 "Oft pale Melsenis in the mirror lake 
 Hath taught her beauteous form to look its best : 
 Painted her eyes and trick'd her raven locks, 
 And yearn'd in vain to merit beauty's meed. 
 Oft she has cried, ' Poor Daphnis, silly boy, 
 Why pine for love of one who's far away ? 
 My land can give thee all thy soul can wish. 
 The grapes are purple : cull them ere they fall ! ' 
 Oft, too, Lycisca when some festal train 
 Swept by her windows (I among the rest), 
 Would turn her head and would not see me pass ; 
 She then would stamp and clash the cymbals loud, 
 And sing of Nemesis who bides her time 
 Sing of revenge for unrequited love." 
 
 They warn the poet that in despising them, he may 
 lose both them and his fair Amaryllis as well, but 
 ever to their strains he closed his ears, and thus 
 concludes : 
 
 "But dogs with wolves shall mate and bulls with bears, 
 The hare shall court the fox, the lion the roe, 
 Before Lycisca with her cymbals clang, 
 Or yet Melsenis with her winning ways 
 May steal my passion from my ancient love. 
 She who with love has known to fire my heart, 
 Shall know my heart's on fire until I die."
 
 THE WANDERER 101 
 
 Buchanan arrived in France in the beginning of 
 1553, about the time the siege of Metz was raised, 
 and was constrained by his friends to write a poem 
 on the occasion, which he did with reluctance, being 
 unwilling to enter into competition with a number 
 of his acquaintances, particularly Melin de St. 
 Gelais, whose learned and elegant eulogy was at 
 that time in circulation. For the next two years 
 he resided in Paris, and acted for a time as Regent 
 in the College Boncourt. At the end of this period 
 he entered upon what would seem to have been the 
 happiest and most fruitful engagement in his life. 
 He had many friends in the highest ranks of society 
 who admired his talents and afforded him protec- 
 tion, but with none had he more pleasant relations 
 than with the eminent soldier, Charles du Cosse, 
 Comte de Brissac, one of the marshals of France, 
 in whose family he was to be an honoured in- 
 mate for the next five years. Buchanan seems to 
 have known de Brissac prior to this period, and 
 to have received some recognition at his hands ; 
 at all events he addressed to the Marshal a 
 very fine ode on his capture of Vercelli. This 
 was in 1553, and on the 27th of July of the
 
 IO2 
 
 following year, he dedicated to the Count his 
 Jephthes. 
 
 In his preface to that work, Buchanan has some 
 very handsome things to say of his distinguished 
 patron, and from all that we know of the Marshal's 
 character, he thoroughly deserved them. De Brissac 
 was one of the great men of his time; there was 
 something noble and generous in his nature, and his 
 humanising influence on the methods of warfare 
 then in vogue stamp him as a man far in advance 
 of his age. His noble nature appealed to the poet, 
 and drew out of him all that was best. There must 
 have been something equally remarkable in the 
 character of Buchanan to have induced de Brissac 
 to select him from all the scholars of France to be 
 tutor to his son. This was the post to which the 
 poet was now appointed, and he discharged its 
 duties not only with his usual distinction, but with 
 a whole - heartedness which showed that he was 
 amid congenial surroundings, and in love with his 
 task. 
 
 We have already had occasion to refer to 
 Buchanan's love of the soldier's calling, and quoted 
 this same preface to his Jephthes in illustration of it.
 
 THE WANDERER 103 
 
 He looked upon the great military hero as the 
 performer of those noble deeds which fired the 
 poet's muse and supplied the material for his art. 
 The great man, according to Buchanan, is a 
 specialist only by accident, his sympathies go out to 
 greatness wherever it is to be found. He has a 
 natural kinship to scholarship as to everything else 
 that is worthy, and, calling to mind the most famous 
 soldiers of ancient times, he remarks: "All the 
 Generals of every age who have done famous deeds, 
 have been either themselves most learned men or 
 have bestowed the deepest affection upon such as 
 were distinguished for their learning." Such a hero 
 he would seem to have found in de Brissac, especially 
 in his relations to himself. "For," continues the 
 poet, "before you had even seen me, and when I 
 was altogether unknown to you, save by repute, as 
 a scholar, you have so cherished me with all the 
 offices of kindness and generosity, that should my 
 genius yield any fruit, should there be vouchsafed 
 any offspring, as it were, to my vigils, then with 
 justice it should redound to you.' 1 
 
 There is a story told of Buchanan's connection 
 with de Brissac which illustrates the other side of
 
 104 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 the poet's thesis, that war and poetry are kin. " The 
 Marshal," so runs the tale, "was in the habit of 
 admitting George Buchanan, the tutor of his son, 
 to his councils of war. He was led to do this from 
 the following incident. On a certain occasion 
 Buchanan had come down from his bedroom to 
 the dining-room to give some order to a domestic. 
 As it happened, de Brissac, with his staff, was 
 deliberating in an adjoining hall on matters of 
 the gravest importance. Buchanan, overhearing 
 what was said, muttered some words of disapproval. 
 De Brissac noticing a smile on the face of one of 
 his officers, and the reason being given, Buchanan 
 was called in and asked for his opinion. This he 
 did with such sagacity that all present agreed that 
 his suggestions should be adopted. As it happened, 
 the result confirmed the wisdom of Buchanan's 
 counsel.' 1 
 
 The tutor had much credit with his young pupil, 
 Timoleon du Cosse. He was only twelve years of 
 age when he came under Buchanan's charge, and 
 he grew up to be a distinguished member of the 
 French nobility, and gave every promise of a 
 successful career. He was unfortunately slain in
 
 THE WANDERER 105 
 
 early manhood. When only twenty-six years of 
 age, he was killed by a musket ball at the siege 
 of Mucidan. It was as a memorial to him that 
 Buchanan undertook the most ambitious of all 
 his poems, De Sphcera, upon which he believed 
 his fame would rest, but which was never completed. 
 This was his chief literary venture during his 
 engagement with de Brissac. The soldier was 
 continually on the move between France and 
 Italy. Buchanan accompanied him, and the un- 
 settled life may not have been conducive to 
 literary activity. But it is clear that his mind 
 was beginning to run in another channel. 
 
 Up till now his interests were chiefly Humanistic. 
 While perfectly conscious of the defects and abuses 
 of the Roman Church, he had not separated himself 
 from its communion. He now, however, began to 
 give himself to a serious consideration of the grounds 
 on which the Reformed religion was based, and to 
 satisfy himself as to their truth. He had reached 
 the turning-point in his life, and his future career 
 was to be conditioned by the result of his reflection. 
 "A great part of this time," 1 ' he himself says, "he 
 devoted to the study of the Holy Scriptures, that
 
 106 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 he might be able to judge correctly respecting 
 those controversies which occupied the greater part 
 of the world, and then began to be set at rest in 
 his own country, now liberated from the tyranny 
 of the Guises. Having returned thither he joined 
 the Scottish Church. 1 '
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE POET 
 
 TT may not be inopportune at this stage to 
 "* consider the poetry of Buchanan. It is quite 
 true that he had not up till now published much 
 verse in a formal manner. What he had written 
 had found its way to the public in detached 
 fragments. These, as they appeared, had passed 
 from hand to hand, and were certainly well enough 
 known to his learned contemporaries, but with one 
 or two exceptions he had not gathered his pieces 
 together and appealed to the world. After his 
 return to Scotland, however, with a more assured 
 position and greater leisure, he set himself, in 
 response chiefly to the entreaties of friends, to 
 coUect his poetical effusions. His work as a poet 
 was by this time practically over. The latter 
 part of his life was devoted to public affairs and 
 
 107
 
 io8 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 to his prose writings. He occasionally threw off 
 short pieces, and he may have worked intermittently 
 at De Sphcera, the longest and most ambitious of 
 all his poems, but apart from that no verse of 
 much importance or significance came from his pen. 
 It was undoubtedly as a poet that Buchanan 
 was chiefly known to his contemporaries, and on his 
 supreme distinction in this sphere his great fame 
 rested. It may not be easy, at this time of day, 
 to fully appreciate his unique position among the 
 Humanists of the sixteenth century, indeed it is 
 difficult for many to appraise Humanism itself 
 at its true value. The modern poets who wrote 
 in Latin have suffered a twofold fate : they are 
 neglected by those who love the ancient Classics, 
 and also by those who admire the literature of 
 the vernacular. They rode on the wave of a 
 movement which gave hopes of being permanent 
 and universal ; its spirit has survived, but the 
 form in which it was clothed has all but vanished. 
 The intellectual freedom which it so nobly vindicated 
 has gone on increasing, but the Latin tongue in which 
 it was so eloquently sung is, for all literary purposes, 
 as silent as the grave.
 
 THE POET 109 
 
 Buchanan's friends and contemporaries spoke and 
 wrote of his poetry in the highest and warmest 
 manner. The greatest scholars and critics placed 
 him first in the first rank. Thus Henri Estienne, 
 the most learned printer of his own and perhaps 
 of any age, and a critic of no mean power, said 
 that he was easily the first poet of his time 
 " poetarum nostri saeculi facile princeps." The two 
 Scaligers, father and son, were equally enthusiastic. 
 They were both severe critics, especially the father, 
 who saw little to his taste even in Erasmus, but 
 they were sincere in their admiration of Buchanan. 
 Joseph the son, who held the first place as a critic 
 among all the scholars of his time, declared " that 
 in Latin poetry Buchanan stood alone in Europe, 
 and left everybody else behind." His epitaph 
 on Buchanan is equally emphatic, and in its 
 concluding lines 
 
 " Imperil fuerat Romani Scotia limes ; 
 Romani eloquii Scotia finis erit ? " 
 
 he indicates that in his opinion Buchanan "had 
 brought Latin poetry to a pitch of perfection 
 beyond which it could not go ; and that as Scotland 
 had in the past been the last line of expansion
 
 no GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 for the Roman Empire, so in the future it would 
 in the person of Buchanan be found to have given 
 the highest note of Roman eloquence." Down 
 even to the time of Dr. Johnson this view was 
 the one generally entertained by European scholars. 
 Indeed, the great dictator himself was almost as 
 enthusiastic in his admiration of Buchanan as 
 Estienne and Scaliger. He declares that our 
 poet was "the only man of genius his country 
 ever produced," and that he was " not only a very 
 fine poet, but a great poetical genius." We need 
 not be surprised that praise of this kind should 
 have created a certain opposition, and set critics 
 to discover flaws in the poetry of Buchanan. 
 Shortly after his death his pre-eminence began to 
 be disputed, and, strange to say, his rival was a 
 fellow-countryman, Arthur Johnson. It was in- 
 evitable that a reaction should set in ; this is the 
 fate of even the very greatest. 
 
 Hallam, who voiced this reaction, in a moderate 
 and hesitating way, while he admits Buchanan's 
 distinction, refuses to accept the unqualified terms 
 in which Joseph Scaliger and other critics have 
 spoken of him. Even his translation of the Psalms
 
 THE POET ill 
 
 he thinks is overpraised. This note has been 
 struck in a higher key by the latest of Buchanan's 
 critics, Professor Saintsbury, who evidently belongs 
 to the school of Mariolaters, that sees the poetry 
 of Buchanan in the distorted light of their false 
 worship. Because Buchanan formed his own 
 opinion of Queen Mary's conduct, and was decided 
 in his action against her, his poetry, forsooth, is 
 poisoned at its very source ! Hence Mr. Saintsbury's 
 judgment. "Taking Buchanan's prose and verse 
 together, it may even be doubted whether he had 
 very much literary faculty beyond vigour and the 
 knack of copying the ancients. In other words, 
 both the heaviest curses of the rhetorician are on 
 him ; for if he had some skill in making the worse 
 appear the better reason, he was still more often 
 occupied in giving an appearance of existence 
 and even of beauty to what had no reason to exist 
 and no right to be beautiful. 11 Against this may 
 be set the opinion of James Hannay, who in this 
 particular field must be held to be quite as 
 trustworthy a guide as Professor Saintsbury. " As 
 a scholar merely," remarks Mr. Hannay, " Buchanan 
 was a match for any man ; but the greatness of
 
 112 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 many scholars ended where his had still a new 
 world before him. He was not only a critic, 
 philologer, or Latin stylist, but a man of genius, 
 using the accomplishments which these titles imply 
 as the tools of a fine intellect. The orations of 
 Muretus, for instance, are still worth reading by 
 anybody who cares to see with what easy grace 
 a dead language may be used by a man of parts 
 and scholarship. But that exhausts their praise, 
 for there is no mind at bottom worth the skill 
 employed in the superficial expression. The 
 classicism of Muretus is a Roman mask, but a 
 mask only. The classicism of Buchanan is a Roman 
 face with a strong living brain behind it." 
 
 These two opinions may, according to the views 
 of different readers, appear somewhat extreme. The 
 candid mind is apt to revolt against too high praise 
 or too great depreciation. There can be no ques- 
 tion, however, of Buchanan's strong mental force, 
 rising to genius even, of his exact and wide scholar- 
 ship, of his poetic gifts and apt literary expression. 
 There can be no doubt that had he found his native 
 tongue a fit vehicle for his thoughts and emotions, 
 he would still be largely read by his fellow-country-
 
 THE POET 113 
 
 men, and very probably have attained to the position 
 of a modern English classic. It was his fate to 
 have to make use of the Latin tongue, and even 
 his most hostile critics have to admit that he did 
 so with a power and mastery which place him above 
 all his contemporaries, and give him a rank almost 
 equal to some of the Romans themselves. 
 
 One is equally surprised at the wide range of 
 Buchanan's interest, and the excellence which he 
 attained in every form of poetic effort attempted 
 by him. We have already seen the signal success 
 which he achieved by his satires and dramas. An 
 ordinary writer might have rested content with the 
 laurels which he thus gained. But these only form 
 a fraction of his writings in verse. From his student 
 days in Paris until his old age he was in the habit 
 of throwing off epigrams and epitaphs, most of them 
 pointed and stinging, and others breathing the 
 spirit of friendship and charity. He thus in a 
 couplet characterised Pope Pius : 
 
 "Heaven he sold for money; earth he leaves in death as well: 
 What remains to Pontiff Pius? nothing that I see but hell." 
 
 Our next quotation, the well-known distich on 
 8
 
 ii4 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 Zoilus, while equally characteristic, is not quite so 
 grim in its humour. 
 
 " I praise thee Zoilus in vain, 
 
 In vain you rail at me always ; 
 Because the world don't care a grain, 
 What either of the couple says." 
 
 The poems, however, which have given rise to most 
 discussion and have provoked the severest criticism, 
 not because of their manner but their subject, are 
 his erotic verses. There could be no harm in the 
 poet pouring forth his soul in amatory stanzas, but 
 those he addressed to Leonora are in the eyes of 
 some so objectionable as to condemn him abso- 
 lutely. It must frankly be admitted that the 
 character of Leonora as depicted by the poet is 
 sufficiently revolting, and his abuse of her is certainly 
 wholehearted. The friends of Buchanan have not 
 been slow in defending him, and justifying these 
 productions. One broad historical fact should, in 
 handling this question, be kept clearly in view. The 
 poet in writing such verses was only following the 
 custom of the times. Every writer who was ambi- 
 tious of success strove, during the period of the 
 Renaissance, to imitate the great writers of antiquity
 
 THE POET 115 
 
 at every point, and as their further aim was to 
 attain perfection as Latin stylists, the turning of 
 love ditties, after the most approved manner of the 
 ancients, was a task which they were eager to face 
 and in which they were anxious to excel. Their 
 great masters in this art were Horace, in certain 
 moods, Catullus, and Tibullus. Readers of the 
 Classics need not be told of the objectionable features, 
 from the moral point of view, which appear in the 
 amatory verses of these great poets. And the 
 Humanists, while in all likelihood as fully conscious 
 of their defects as we can be, felt themselves under 
 the literary necessity of imitating and copying them. 
 It is now generally believed that Phyllis, Amaryl- 
 lis, Leonora, Neaera, Candida, and the other fair 
 amorosas on whom Buchanan, like the other poets 
 of the Renaissance, wrote erotic verses, were purely 
 imaginary characters. They were the creation 
 of the poet^ brain, and supplied him with themes 
 on which he might pour forth his scorn or love, as 
 the case might be ; at any rate, they gave him the 
 chance of showing his powers as a master of wit 
 and phrases. Most of these poems were simply 
 exercises in Latin verse, and were intended to show
 
 ii6 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 off the special gifts of the poet. While this on the 
 whole may be true, these amatory poems reveal the 
 wide gulf that now yawned between the old world 
 and the new. We cannot conceive the great poets 
 of the Middle Ages Dante, Petrarch, or even the 
 Troubadours writing in the style of Buchanan and 
 his contemporaries, of those fair beings, real or 
 imaginary, who might provoke their muse. That 
 idealisation of woman fostered by the Church and 
 glorified by the romantic spirit and poetry of 
 Mediaevalism, had given place to a realism which, 
 frank and even brutal, faced the world as it is, and 
 was not ashamed to look at and depict its depravity 
 and grossness. It is needless to debate whether 
 human culture has gained or lost by this movement. 
 The literature of modern Europe is a sufficient answer. 
 Many of Buchanan's friends are at great pains 
 to prove that the licence which he allowed himself 
 in these poems is no evidence of a laxity in his life. 
 Apart altogether from the fact that no charge, or 
 whisper even, of easy morals was ever made against 
 him, the point of view from which, as we have just 
 indicated, the Humanists regarded such verses should 
 be a sufficient reply. Beza, who in his early youth
 
 THE POET 117 
 
 wrote and published a volume of amatory poems, 
 which he dedicated to Melchior Wolmar, a grave 
 and learned man, deliberately declares that though 
 his Muse was loose, his life was chaste. The same 
 can surely be said of Buchanan. But a recent writer 
 goes farther, and justifies the poet in publishing 
 these erotic verses, and tries to show that they are 
 in spirit quite of a piece with his other writings 
 and character. " As far as honesty and consistency 
 go," says Mr. Robert Wallace, "there is no reason 
 why an honest and consistent man should not have 
 written every word of these ' Lena ' sketches. Even 
 from an artistic point of view they will stand inspec- 
 tion. The subject, of course, is a revolting one, and 
 so is Dame Quickly, but would any man of average 
 robustness of mind wish Dame Quickly unwritten ? 
 Many people seem to forget that while the real 
 itself may be unpleasant, the artistic image of the 
 real may be a delight. We should shrink from 
 Caliban in the flesh, but Shakespeare throws a charm 
 over him ; Pandemonium, I believe, is not a sweet 
 scene, but Milton's account of it is sublime ; Falstaff 
 was disreputable, but he makes an admirable stage 
 figure; a corpse is an unlovely object, but
 
 n8 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 Rembrandt's ' Dissectors ' has a fascination." This is 
 well said, and not a few will agree with the same 
 writer when he remarks : "I demur to any sugges- 
 tion that these or any of Buchanan's so-called 
 ' amorous ' poetry are corrupting, or intended to be, 
 or that they exhibit any gloating over the degrading 
 or the degraded on the part of the writer. From 
 references in them I believe they were satires, written 
 for the warning of college youth, and resembled 
 certain passages in the Book of Proverbs and else- 
 where in the Bible, where certain counsels highly 
 necessary and practical are conveyed in language 
 not deficient either in directness or detail." 
 
 Buchanan's verses of this class are not all of the 
 same savage texture. Some of them, especially 
 those addressed to Neaera, are light and bright and 
 playful. The best known are the famous lines of 
 which Menage used to say, that "he would have 
 given his best benefice to have written them," and 
 Menage, it is added, held some fat ones. 
 
 "Nesera is harsh at our every greeting, 
 
 Whene'er I am absent, she wants me again } 
 "Tis not that she loves me or cares for our meeting, 
 She misses the pleasure of seeing my pain."
 
 THE POET 119 
 
 One of Buchanan's finest poems is the Ode which 
 he wrote on the marriage of the Dauphin with 
 Queen Mary in 1558. He approved of this 
 marriage, because it bound closer the union 
 between his native country and his beloved France. 
 Great as his admiration was for the land of his 
 adoption, he was a true patriot, and declared that 
 the Dauphin through this marriage was even a 
 greater gainer than the Queen of Scots. There 
 are many passages in the poem worth quoting. 
 We shall give the encomium on his native country, 
 which has become classical : 
 
 " The glory of the quivered Scots 
 Is the bold breast and hardy frame 
 That fear nor want nor toil can tame ; 
 Whose joy is in their native woods 
 To chase and strike the various game, 
 And fearless breast their mountain floods ; 
 Whose good right hands their soil can keep, 
 Nor need high walls nor fosses deep ; 
 Who count all gone if honour's gone ; 
 Whose faith can ne'er be bought nor sold ; 
 Who deem a friend heaven's dearest boon ; 
 Who barter not their soul for gold. 
 So was it when of old, each land 
 A prey to every spoiler's hand, 
 Its ancient laws and rulers lost, 
 The Scot alone could freedom boast !
 
 120 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 The Goth, the Saxon, and the Dane, 
 
 Poured on the Scot their powers in vain ; 
 
 And the proud Norman met a foe 
 
 Who gave him equal blow for blow. 
 
 And I might tell, were not twice-told 
 
 The tale, how Rome, whose might controlled 
 
 The world beside, was taught to know 
 
 That bounds there were she might not pass, 
 
 Though never yet had been the foe, 
 
 Or man, or nature's direst force, 
 
 That e'er had stayed her onward course." 
 
 Another of his poems which received the warm 
 approval of no less a master of verse than 
 Wordsworth, is his charming Calendce Maiae the 
 First of May. Referring to this poem, James 
 Hannay thinks it was written at Bordeaux, for the 
 poet speaks of the grape which grows on the sandy 
 soil of Gascony. " The poem," he continues, " is full 
 of the images of love and joy and southern merry- 
 making ; and like many a quaint passage in Knox's 
 ' History,' and many a brilliant hit in Beza's epigrams, 
 is instructive, as giving us the genial side of those 
 great sixteenth-century Reformers whom wretched 
 modern sentimentalists scarcely ever name without 
 a shudder. Buchanan had heard the chimes at 
 midnight, and the laugh of Neaera in the corner ;
 
 THE POET 121 
 
 and knew well the flavour of Gascon wine, and 
 talked well over it. He was earnest and laborious 
 and proud ; but also hilarious and humane. 11 
 Wordsworth, writing to his nephew, says : " I think 
 Buchanan^ Calender Maice equal in sentiment, if 
 not in elegance, to anything in Horace, 1 ' and Dr. 
 Hume Brown, whose very fine translation we give, 
 thinks that "Wordsworth's praise might well have 
 been more emphatic, and that Buchanan's Ode, by 
 its true poetic quality, is worthy of Horace when 
 he transcends himself." 
 
 " Hail ! sweetest day, 
 Day of all pure delight ; 
 Whose gracious hours invite 
 To mirth and song and dance, 
 And wine, and love's soft glance. 
 Welcome ! with all thy bright hours bring 
 Of quickened life and beauty's dower 
 The certain heritage of Spring. 
 In thee each year doth hoary Time 
 Renew the glories of his prime ! 
 
 When, still rejoicing in her birth, 
 Spring brightened all the new-made earth, 
 And in that happy golden age 
 Men knew no lawless passion's rage, 
 Thy train of joys embraced the year ; 
 Soft breezes wooed the untilled field, 
 Its blessings all unforced to yield.
 
 122 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 Even in such mildest atmosphere 
 Forever bask those happy Isles, 
 Those blessed plains that never know 
 Life's slow decay or poisoned flow. 
 
 Thus 'mid the still abodes of death 
 Should steal the soft air's softest breath, 
 And gently stir the solemn wood 
 That glooms o'er Lethe's dreamless flood. 
 
 And, haply when made pure of stain 
 By cleansing fire, the earth renewed 
 Shall know her ancient joys again, 
 Even such mild air shall o'er her brood ! 
 
 Thou crown of the world's failing age, 
 Of life's sad book one happy page. 
 Hail ! sweetest day memorial bright 
 Of early innocent delight, 
 And sure pledge of the coming day 
 When it shall be eternal May." 
 
 The two chief poetical efforts of Buchanan were 
 undoubtedly his De Sphaera and his version of the 
 Psalms. Indeed it is upon the latter that his fame 
 as a poet mainly rests. It would seem, however, 
 that he himself believed that it would be by his 
 De Sphcera he would attain immortality. Like 
 many others who are the mistaken judges of their 
 own work, he was in this to be disappointed. He 
 began the poem when he was acting as tutor to 
 the young de Brissac, and had evidently written
 
 THE POET 123 
 
 the most of it before his arrival in Scotland. It 
 consists of five books, but the last two were never 
 completed. Buchanan believed that he would 
 secure permanence for his work, both by its subject 
 and the language in which it was written. The 
 system of the heavens, or the mediaeval cosmogony 
 of which it treats, provided a theme which to his 
 mind seemed unchangeable, and the Latin language 
 in which he sang its praises, he believed would be 
 the language of literary expression for all time 
 coming. He was disappointed in both hopes ; 
 indeed, several years before he began his poem, 
 Copernicus had exploded the Ptolemaic theory of 
 the heavens on which the De Sphasra was based, 
 and the rise of the vernacular as the organ of 
 literature in the different countries of Europe had 
 already sounded the death-knell of the Latin tongue. 
 Buchanan's poem was elaborated with great care, 
 and there are in it passages equal to anything he 
 ever wrote ; but the subject lacks interest, and of 
 all his productions it was the one which laid the 
 least hold even on the cultured mind. All the 
 same, Hallam holds it to be the best of his poems, 
 but in this opinion he stands almost alone. The
 
 124 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 work which undoubtedly secured for Buchanan his 
 chief distinction during his own lifetime, and 
 which since then has maintained his fame, was his 
 Paraphrase of the Psalms. This, as we have seen, 
 was undertaken during his confinement in the 
 monastery in Portugal, although it was not 
 published till a much later date. Specimens of 
 his translation into Latin verse of the Sacred 
 Anthology had found their way into the hands of 
 Henri Estienne and others, who were so much 
 struck by them that they called for the speedy 
 publication of the whole work. Buchanan, in 
 putting his hand to this undertaking, was simply 
 acting in the spirit of the times. Versions of the 
 Psalms into Latin verse had been done by Italian 
 Humanists, and German and French scholars had 
 also tried their hand at the same task. Several 
 of these translations were held to be excellent, but 
 Buchanan's outstripped them all, and by it he 
 earned the title of the greatest poet of his age. 
 
 Hallam quotes the tributes which were paid to 
 Buchanan's version by his contemporaries and by 
 the scholars of subsequent centuries, and he him- 
 self is not prepared to question Le Clerc when he
 
 THE POET 125 
 
 calls his translation of the Psalms incomparable, and 
 prefers it much to that by Beza. Even Mr. 
 Saintsbury admits that Buchanan's Paraphrase is 
 sufficiently elegant Latin, but carps at the poet's 
 inability to make a Roman of King David, or, what 
 most will regard as equally impossible, to divest 
 classical words and phrases of their time-honoured 
 associations and make them the unpolluted channels 
 of Hebrew thought and expression. In two instances, 
 at least, Buchanan's work is universally admitted to 
 rise above all criticism ; these are his rendering of 
 the hundred and fourth, and the hundred and thirty- 
 seventh Psalms. It may be quite true that his 
 version is free, that he employs a variety of metre 
 altogether unknown to Hebrew Hymnists, and that 
 he makes a completed whole of what in many cases 
 are but broken lyrical breathings, but he displays a 
 keen appreciation of the spirit of his subject and an 
 easy mastery of expression, which produce a pleasing 
 and finished whole. His work formed during the 
 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a text-book in 
 many of the best schools in Scotland. In summing 
 up his discussion of this portion of Buchanan's 
 literary labours, James Hannay says : " The result is
 
 126 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 a work unequal in parts, too closely recalling some- 
 times its classical models, but grave, chaste, noble, 
 skilful, and occasionally of a beauty which defies all 
 rivalry ; which has the Syrian depth of feeling with 
 the European charm of form, and in which you seem 
 to hear the old sad Hebrew soul breathing itself 
 through the strings of an Italian lute." The first 
 complete edition of his Paraphrase of the Psalms 
 was brought out in 1566, and he dedicated it to Queen 
 Mary in the renowned epigram, " which," remarks the 
 same writer, " every Scotsman ought to have by heart." 
 
 "O daughter of a hundred kings 
 
 That holdest 'neath thy happy sway 
 
 This ancient realm of Caledon ; 
 Whose worth outstrips thy destiny ; 
 
 Whose mind thy sex ; whose grace thy peers ; 
 
 Whose virtues leave behind thy years 
 
 Behold in Roman garb I bring 
 
 The work of Israel's prophet- King. 
 
 Rude is my song as born afar 
 
 From the Muse-haunted founts of Greece, 
 
 Under the frigid Northern star ; 
 
 And but that aught that pleases thee 
 
 Must ne'er displeasing seem to me ; 
 
 It had not looked on eyes save mine ; 
 
 Yet such a virtue flows from thine, 
 
 Perchance my sorry child may own 
 
 Some graces that are thine alone ! "
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE COURTIER 
 
 A TR. HILL BURTON remarks that when 
 ** Queen Mary, after the death of her husband, 
 had to relinquish the throne of France and to con- 
 tent herself with that of Scotland, it was like leaving 
 a palace for a cottage. The unbiassed reader, not 
 to speak of the perfervid Scot, may detect a note of 
 exaggeration in this statement, but, viewing it as a 
 figurative speech rather than as a sober historical 
 reflection, Buchanan's experience on landing in his 
 native country after an absence of twenty-five years, 
 mostly spent in sunny France, cannot have been 
 very dissimilar to that of his Queen ; for France was 
 the land of thought and literature, and the contrast 
 between the two countries in this respect was quite 
 as great as between their climate and social condition. 
 France was the home of that Humanism of which 
 
 127
 
 128 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 Buchanan was now the head, and of all the countries 
 of Western Europe, Scotland was perhaps the least 
 affected by that great wave of literature and learning 
 which was sweeping away mediaeval thought and 
 bringing in a new era of culture. 
 
 Various causes accounted for this. The Uni- 
 versities of Scotland, comparatively recent in their 
 origin, were still very poor and ill-equipped. The 
 aspiring scholar had as a consequence to seek his 
 erudition elsewhere, and he as a rule migrated to 
 Paris, which, on account of the " ancient league, 1 ' 
 offered him a cordial welcome. As a rule he re- 
 mained there, or found his way to one or other of 
 the continental Universities, where he would find 
 congenial society, and where also his learning could 
 be put to profitable use. Scotland then, as now, 
 offered few prizes to the diligent student ; the only 
 promotion possible for him, and that at best was 
 very uncertain, lay through the Church. The 
 country, besides, was in a very unsettled condition ; 
 its constant struggle against England was not 
 conducive to that calm which fosters the philosophic 
 mind. The long minority of the young Queen, 
 besides, gave occasion for incessant conflicts on the
 
 THE COURTIER 129 
 
 part of rival factions in Church and State ; but the 
 chief cause of the lack of concern in those Humanistic 
 studies, which were prosecuted with so much zeal in 
 neighbouring countries, was the interest in the reform 
 of religion, which, in Scotland, absorbed for the 
 time and for several generations afterwards, every 
 other question. The religious and not the Humanistic 
 movement was the one which dominated the minds 
 of Scotsmen during the greater part of the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 It ought not, of course, to be imagined that there is 
 any real antagonism between the heart and the head, 
 between religion and culture. They are but two sides 
 of the same shield, and conjointly form the highest 
 type of manhood. It is only a narrow and onesided 
 view of human life which would dissociate them, or 
 place the one above the other. They are meant to 
 go hand in hand, to act as mutual checks, and to be 
 fellow-workers in the training and development of 
 man's mind and spirit. It was fortunate for several 
 of the countries of Western Europe, which have 
 played a ruling part in modern progress, that the 
 Humanistic movement preceded the religious. 
 The ground was thus prepared for the sane hand- 
 9
 
 130 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 ling of the new doctrines which Luther and the 
 other great Reformers launched upon the world. 
 It was fortunate also for England that the two 
 movements went hand in hand. This resulted in 
 a balance of power in Church, in State, and in 
 national life, which has characterised that country 
 ever since. In Scotland, on the other hand, the 
 Reformation preceded the Renaissance ; indeed, 
 it may be questioned if the latter movement ever 
 took a real hold on the country, for with the ex- 
 ception of Drummond of Hawthornden, no writer of 
 distinction breathes the spirit of Humanism. 
 
 There are those, of course, who may see in this no 
 real loss, but a distinct gain ; to them religion is 
 everything. We cannot agree with them. Religion 
 itself requires to be tempered by thought and 
 culture, or it may run into fanaticism. Besides, man 
 cannot live on religion alone, any more than he 
 can live on bread alone. He has other interests 
 which are perfectly lawful, and which in the name 
 of religion itself he is called upon to prosecute. 
 His reason, his imagination, and his fancy are 
 divine endowments which he dare not stultify or 
 starve. History calls for its narrator and inter-
 
 THE COURTIER 131 
 
 preter, nature invites, nay demands, its investigator. 
 The management of human affairs, national and 
 civic, in their political and social relations, summons 
 for its guidance the man of affairs. The work 
 of the world has to be done, the life of man and of 
 the universe has to be sung. These and a thousand 
 other interests are as native to man and as divinely 
 appointed as the worship of the sanctuary ; and 
 true religion, in place of denying their divine right, 
 recognises it and comes in to direct their course, to 
 sanctify their labours, and to purify and bless their 
 efforts. 
 
 We do not think that it is a mistake, or even 
 an overstraining of historical facts, to state that 
 the absorption of Scotland at this time in the 
 religious movement to the exclusion of the other, 
 accounts to a very large extent for the one-sided 
 development which characterised the national life 
 in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. During 
 that long period the muse of poetry, which in 
 the preceding century had sung its sweetest " with 
 full-throated ease,"" was all but silent, and while 
 England was rich in writers of the greatest genius, 
 Scotland can hardly boast of one. We are of
 
 132 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 course quite ready to admit the moral grit of 
 character which was rooted in the nation by its 
 wholehearted interest in religion ; and that in after 
 generations, when, through the larger life and 
 opportunity of self-development which came through 
 union with England, the energies of Scotland found 
 fitting outlet, its earlier passion burst forth in 
 those activities and enterprises which have made it 
 great. 
 
 Buchanan, when he reached Scotland, some 
 time in 1561, while he would naturally miss 
 the cultured society to which he had been for 
 so many years accustomed, had developed new 
 interests which would make his loss more easily to 
 be borne. He had for some years been satisfying 
 himself, by careful study, as to the truth of those 
 questions which the Reformers had raised. If the 
 first period of his life be that of the Humanist, the 
 second is that of the Reformer, but of the Reformer 
 toned down and moderated by the culture which 
 he had gained by a careful and constant perusal of 
 the great masterpieces of antiquity. But his native 
 land was not, after all, so destitute of enlightenment 
 as might at first sight appear. In Church and
 
 THE COURTIER 133 
 
 State there were men of learning, and of one of 
 these Buchanan himself gives a very pleasing account. 
 During his visit to Scotland, while acting as 
 tutor to the young Earl of Cassillis, he was on one 
 occasion the guest of Gavin Dunbar, Archbishop of 
 Glasgow, and, in a poem written to celebrate the 
 event, he presents us with what Dr. Hume Brown 
 very appropriately terms an " interior " in Scottish 
 ecclesiastical society of that day, "such as the 
 historians have not led us to expect." The table 
 was generously but daintily furnished; there was 
 no vulgar or vain display ; the conversation was 
 serious, but seasoned with Attic wit. The host 
 led the discourse, and the guests, equal in number 
 to the Muses, joined in with noble feeling and 
 sympathy. The subject of conversation was the 
 greatness and condescension of the Deity, and it 
 was handled with sufficient knowledge and becoming 
 reverence. This picture recalls the scene at Oxford, 
 when Erasmus was the guest of Richard Charnock, 
 Prior of St. Mary's College. The story of that 
 famous symposium, which was taken part in by Colet 
 and other distinguished English scholars, reveals 
 the height of culture to which the learned men of
 
 134 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 that day had attained. Placed side by side with 
 Buchanan's sketch of Gavin Dunbar's entertainment, 
 it gives us an idea of the educated society which 
 was to be found in the sixteenth century in both 
 the Northern and the Southern Kingdom. 
 
 But the person in whose society Buchanan, on 
 his return to Scotland, would seem to have found 
 the greatest pleasure, was the Queen herself. She, 
 from all accounts, had one of the brightest and 
 most highly cultured intellects of the time. With 
 the exception of Maitland of Lethington, the 
 nobles who formed the Court were, for the most 
 part, strong and hardy characters, who found their 
 chief delight in battle, rather than in the playful 
 interchange of wit which one associates with the 
 society of the refined. Mary accordingly would 
 welcome Buchanan. He was the representative 
 not only of Scottish but of European learning. He 
 was a king among men of letters, and his presence 
 would add lustre to her Court. Nor was he a dull 
 pedant immersed in his wealth of knowledge; he 
 carried his learning lightly as a flower, and freely 
 used it as the instrument of his strong thought 
 and rich humour. He had on the Continent come
 
 THE COURTIER 135 
 
 into close and friendly contact with the noble and 
 powerful, and his own gentle descent and acquired 
 breeding, apart altogether from his great scholar- 
 ship, would make him a fit companion for the 
 highest in the land. His sharp tongue would give 
 an edge to his intercourse with Mary, for she 
 was noted for her hardy speech, and her severe 
 and incisive estimate of her mother-in-law, Catherine 
 of Medici, which did not smooth her future course, 
 may be taken as an illustration of that sarcastic vein 
 which characterised her. 
 
 The picture which Randolph, the English Resident, 
 gives of the fair young Queen and the rough old 
 scholar reading together after dinner in the ancient 
 Palace of Holyrood "somewhat of Lyvie," is of 
 another "ulterior,' 1 outstripping in interest that 
 which Buchanan himself gives of Gavin Duubar's 
 entertainment in Glasgow. This was in the year 
 of the Queen's arrival in Scotland, and until the 
 murder of Darnley she and Buchanan lived on the 
 most friendly footing. Mary's ambition was un- 
 bounded, and she would be nothing loath to 
 have near her one of Buchanan's reputation, who 
 could turn a Latin verse better than any man in
 
 136 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 Europe, and celebrate the chief incidents in her 
 life and the main events in her reign in such a way 
 as to gain the attention and respect of surrounding 
 nations. The man who stood at the head of the 
 new movement which was revolutionising the world, 
 was a powerful factor in the affairs of the nation 
 in which for the time being he found his home. 
 Erasmus was a force that had to be reckoned with 
 by popes and kings and emperors, and the fact of 
 Buchanan being recognised, employed, and even 
 courted by Queen Mary and her nobles, is no matter 
 of surprise, but must be accepted as a natural result 
 of the conditions that then prevailed. 
 
 Buchanan, we know, during these years performed 
 certain duties imposed upon him by State and 
 Church, and in particular he seems to have discharged 
 the functions of Court poet, or, as in our day we 
 should say, of poet-laureate. He wrote Latin 
 masques for the Court, on the return of Mary from 
 France, on her marriage with Darnley, and on the 
 baptism of her son James. He addressed epigrams 
 to Mary herself, to the Regent Moray, and to two at 
 least of the Queen's Maries, Mary Fleming and Mary 
 Beaton. All these are light and playful in thought
 
 THE COURTIER 137 
 
 and expression. It is thus, for example, that he 
 addresses Mary Fleming : 
 
 " Receive what fruits the year affords in prime, 
 O Fleming, flow'r and beauty of thy time ; 
 Not to adom thy head these gifts I send, 
 No outward thing thy beauty can commend ; 
 Only believe the Spring in best array 
 Compared with thee is nothing but decay." 
 
 This epigram was evidently accompanied by a 
 gift of flowers ; and in similar though less fortunate 
 circumstances he addresses Mary Beaton : 
 
 " Cold winter, flowers and fields oppress ; nowhere 
 Can I find a nosegay for my lady rare, 
 My muse, once fruitful garden, now by years 
 Defaced is, and barren winter bears. 
 Did comely Beaton's breath but once me touch, 
 Spring, in her blossoms all, were nothing such." 
 
 While Buchanan was thus attending on the Court 
 and serving it in the only way he could, he was still 
 without any settled position or assured means of 
 support. The greatest scholar of his country, he was 
 still without any fixed appointment. Very few 
 openings, perhaps, could present themselves, but the 
 labourer is worthy of his hire, and such services as 
 he could render, not to speak of the distinction 
 which his presence gave, merited some fair if
 
 138 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 not very substantial recognition. The flunkey who 
 opens the door and ushers the guests into the presence 
 of a monarch receives his board and lodgings, silk 
 stockings, buckled shoes, powdered wig, and a 
 glorious suit of plush with gilt buttons and knee 
 breeches ; and is the scholar, who carries in his head 
 the learning of the world, to wait patiently at the 
 said monarch's gate with hat in hand and receive 
 nothing ? Is mere ignorant brute force with sword 
 uplifted to be rewarded with countless acres and a 
 peerage, and intellect sharpened to the finest edge 
 by thought and study to be spurned aside as 
 useless? It is to her credit that Queen Mary did 
 not think so, for early in her reign she settled a 
 pension of Q5Q Scots on Buchanan, and though 
 this was a mere pittance it showed her good in- 
 tention. The poet's hardy upbringing and modest 
 wants would enable him to make the most of it. 
 
 Two years afterwards Buchanan's pension was 
 increased, and made apparently more secure and 
 permanent. Under a gift of Privy Seal he was 
 made the recipient of a pension of .500 
 Scots from the lands of the Abbey of Crossraguel 
 in Ayrshire, together with the whole temper-
 
 THE COURTIER 139 
 
 alities of the Abbey as well as the monastic build- 
 ings. This may seem a sufficient recognition of 
 Buchanan's services as poet-laureate, but it was in 
 reality a pittance compared with the rich spoils with 
 which the greedy nobles loaded themselves from the 
 possessions of the disestablished Church. Besides, 
 Buchanan was discharging other public duties which 
 certainly merited payment in cash. For in the 
 Register of the Privy Council, dated 6th February 
 1562-3, we read that he, along with another, had 
 been appointed to " interpret the writs produced in 
 process, written in the Spanish language forth of the 
 same, in French, Latin, or English, that the Queen's 
 grace and council might thereafter understand the 
 same." 
 
 To have a scholar like Buchanan within easy 
 reach for such and similar purposes was assuredly of 
 some importance and value, and his services were not 
 over-rated by the pension conferred on him. The 
 pension itself, however, turned out in the end to be 
 more a form than a reality. The Earl of Cassillis, 
 who believed that he had hereditary right to the 
 Abbey, was loath to relinquish his claim, and the 
 poor scholar had to appeal to the Lords of Council
 
 140 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 to have his rights of possession vindicated. Other 
 persons, making four in all, had vested interests in 
 the Abbey lands, and Buchanan, finding his share to 
 be a very doubtful asset, disposed of it on different 
 occasions for annual payments that were merely 
 nominal, and even these he had considerable 
 difficulty in procuring. 
 
 Such facts, seemingly unimportant, become 
 significant when viewed in relation to the charges 
 that are made against Buchanan of ingratitude to 
 the Queen, and of demeaning himself by sending to 
 her and to certain of the nobility begging poems, 
 which, neat and epigrammatic though they be, fail to 
 do him credit. It is argued by those who see in 
 Buchanan a monster of ingratitude and vindictiveness, 
 that his pension ought to have shut his mouth ever 
 after, and that in taking sides against the Queen he 
 was guilty of a baseness that is altogether inex- 
 cusable. Reasoning of this kind is beside the mark. 
 Was his tongue to be for ever tied because he re- 
 ceived payment for work done ? Was he to remain 
 for ever loyal to a quondam friend and patron, though 
 his reason and conscience called upon him to be 
 loyal to truth ? Was he to sacrifice his independence
 
 THE COURTIER 141 
 
 of speech and action, and to refrain from vindicating 
 national right and justice because at one time he 
 was in favour with the Court, read Livy with his 
 Queen, and was rewarded for that and other State 
 services with the salary of a superior groom or 
 flunkey ? To argue thus would be to stultify the 
 manhood not only of Buchanan, but of all who place 
 their duty to God and country above mere personal 
 feeling or friendly sympathy. 
 
 The same perverted view is taken by such as 
 see in Buchanan's begging epigrams a proof of moral 
 degeneracy. It is not, as it has been remarked, 
 rating their value too highly to say that a.] leading 
 publisher would in these days be only too glad to 
 give a hundred times more for such productions, if 
 written by a man of equal position, than what 
 Buchanan was likely to get for them from the persons 
 to whom they were addressed. Take this one, for 
 instance ; the translation is excellent, but the original 
 is better. It is addressed to the Queen : 
 
 "I give you what I have, I wish you what you lack; 
 And weightier were my gift were fortune at my back. 
 Perchance you think I jest ? A like jest then I crave : 
 Wish for me what I lack, and give me what you have."
 
 142 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 Here is another to the Earl of Moray : 
 
 " My gifts are late and slender, unto thee : 
 In this, if any fault you think can be ; 
 My fault not imitate, but soon amend, 
 And lib'ral gifts unto your servant send." 
 
 These epigrams were evidently accompanied by a 
 copy of verses, which, considering the writer, were of 
 undoubted value. Buchanan had not at his disposal 
 the modern conveniences for the profitable sale of his 
 literary wares. The man of letters in the present day 
 has at his elbow a publisher who is prepared to give 
 him, should the author be a man of the first rank, 
 as Buchanan was, a handsome sum down for his 
 effusions, and afterwards a substantial royalty on 
 every new edition. The publisher advertises the 
 book, puts it upon the market, and, as a rule, makes 
 a fair gain for himself as well as for the writer. No 
 one ever dreams of abusing either the one or the 
 other for their methods ; they are declared to be 
 acting on sound business instincts and are commended 
 for their enterprise. No system of this kind was in 
 vogue in Buchanan's day ; even Erasmus, who was 
 the popular author of his time, and whose works 
 passed through innumerable editions, was in a chronic
 
 THE COURTIER 143 
 
 state of impecuniosity. His begging letters form not 
 an inconsiderable portion of his writings, and yet no 
 one is too severe upon him on that account. These 
 letters are among the most interesting that he ever 
 wrote, they throw a considerable light on his 
 character, and have taken their place as a part of the 
 literature of the world. 
 
 The truth is, that such men, if they were to do the 
 work which the world demanded of them, had to be 
 supported by the generosity of the great. There 
 were no openings for them such as exist in our day, 
 in which they could enjoy a learned leisure. Their 
 views debarred them from entering the Church, the 
 only institution in which they could find protection 
 and support; and even Buchanan's worst enemy 
 could not wish that at the time of life which he had 
 now reached, he should have continued the laborious 
 task of regenting young lads in a Parisian College or 
 wandering over the Continent as tutor to the son of 
 a French Marshal. He was surely worthy of some- 
 thing better than that, and the post which he now 
 filled in connection with the Scottish Court seems on 
 every ground to have been a not unfitting one. 
 
 It ought, besides, to be remembered that the Crown
 
 144 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 and nobility had in those days the almost entire 
 possession of, and full control over, the wealth of the 
 country. The Church, which a few years previously 
 had shared the power, was now disestablished, and its 
 endowments were grabbed by the greedy and grasp- 
 ing aristocracy. Whither, then, could a man like 
 Buchanan turn even for the modest income which 
 was necessary for his support ? He had been rough- 
 ing it all his life, and no self-respecting nation could 
 allow a man of his rare talents, unique position, and 
 sterling character to starve. He belonged to Europe 
 as well as to Scotland, and for his native country to 
 have denied him an honourable sustenance would 
 have been a lasting disgrace. His only resources, 
 meanwhile, were the Queen, the Earl of Moray, and 
 the other leading personages in the land, who had 
 a duty to perform to him and his like which they 
 could not shirk without dishonour. The old feudal 
 relations still held good. If the vassal fought the 
 battles of his chief, the chief recognised his obliga- 
 tion to support and defend the vassal. If Buchanan 
 by his pen brought glory to his country, his country 
 was bound to maintain him and to make provision 
 for his wants. Mary understood this quite well, and
 
 THE COURTIER 145 
 
 the pity of it is that the poet was driven to the 
 necessity of reminding her and others of their duty. 
 
 " He had done a good work," as Mr. Robert 
 Wallace well remarks, " on the High Street of the 
 World. He had sung a song or played a melody 
 such as it would hear nowhere else. Was he not 
 entitled to send round his hat among the listeners ? 
 Is it not what is done, inter alia, by every Parlia- 
 mentary lawyer who goes into the House of Commons 
 to grind his axe, when the fitting occasion arises, and 
 he says to his party leader, I have fought two general 
 elections for you ; I have spoken for you un- 
 numbered times in the House and on the platform ; 
 I have voted for you up hill and down dale, through 
 thick and thin, right or wrong, and now I will 
 trouble you for that Chancellorship or that Chief- 
 Justiceship, or that Attorney-Generalship, or that 
 Puisne or County Court Judgeship that has just 
 fallen vacant ? Except that Buchanan and his 
 work were not shams but realities, the cases are 
 the same. ' Contemptts opibus despising wealth,' 
 is how Joseph Scaliger describes Buchanan. All 
 that he wanted was enough to maintain his in- 
 dependence and to do his work." 
 10
 
 146 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 One of the best and, viewed in the light of 
 subsequent events, not the least significant of all the 
 poems written by Buchanan at this time, was his Ode 
 on the birth of James the Sixth. It shows, for one 
 thing, that his relations with the Court up to this 
 time were of the most friendly order, but according 
 to his chief biographer it gives an indication of the 
 breach that was impending, and of the strong 
 attitude which the writer was shortly to take up 
 against the Queen. 
 
 Buchanan was not unfavourable to the Darnley 
 marriage ; he was not so keen a religious partisan as 
 Knox, who saw in Mary's choice, because he was a 
 Roman Catholic, the probable undoing of all that 
 he and his fellow - reformers had accomplished. 
 Darnley, besides, was the eldest son of the Duke of 
 Lennox, and Buchanan, just like Knox himself in the 
 case of Both well, may have been partial to the young 
 nobleman because of old feudal relations. In any 
 case, he was always friendly disposed to Darnley, 
 wrote poems to him of a highly laudatory character, 
 of which some critics make too much, forgetting 
 the nature of the sentiment, often merely polite and 
 artificial, which not infrequently characterised such
 
 THE COURTIER 147 
 
 effusions. If in the birthday ode which the poet 
 addressed to " Henry King of Scots " he says, " On 
 thee the kingdom's safety lies, 11 he really means that 
 on true government, of which the monarch is the 
 head, the peace and prosperity of the country 
 depends. Adulation, in these circumstances, is but 
 the holding up of an ideal, which it ought to be the 
 aim and duty of the King to realise. 
 
 In this birthday ode the poet looks into the 
 future, and sees in vision the fulfilment of those 
 dreams of national concord and progress which had 
 for years been filling the minds and hearts of all 
 true patriots. The chief result would be the union 
 of the two crowns of Scotland and England. 
 
 . . . " And thou Britannia, beat 
 So oft by foreign tempests, and so oft 
 By thine own weapons almost quite destroy'd, 
 Lift gladden'd now thy head, thy hopes confirm'd ; 
 With boughs of peaceful olive bind thy hair, 
 Repair thy dwellings, blackened with flames, 
 And trim, foul with neglect, the dwellers fled : 
 Dismiss thy boding fears, thy troublous cares, 
 The stars now promise thee eternal peace." 
 
 He then addresses the parents, and counsels them as 
 to the upbringing of the Prince. Upon their
 
 148 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 example and instruction his future and that of his 
 country will depend. 
 
 . . . "So on the King 
 The people fix their eyes, and him alone 
 Admire, love, imitate, and by this glass 
 Endeavour, as it were, to form themselves 
 And all their manners." 
 
 It is not by harsh measures, but by love, that a 
 monarch gains true sovereignty. If he desires his 
 subjects to be pure and simple in their habits, loyal 
 and devoted in their work, he himself must set the 
 example. Then the poet turns round and utters the 
 threat or warning, which according to some gives an 
 indication of his doubts regarding Mary and of his 
 own future conduct. If the King should prove 
 unfaithful to his high trust, demean himself, or be by 
 others dishonoured, his subjects are called upon to 
 take speedy vengeance. 
 
 " Nought better surely Nature hath conferr'd 
 Upon the human race, nor greater will, 
 Than a devout and temperate Prince, in whom 
 The true and living image of God shines. 
 That whether he himself by shameless vice 
 Contaminate, or others violate 
 By sword or treachery, God will exact 
 Severest punishment in his wicked blood, 
 Nor leave his spurned likeness unavenged."
 
 THE COURTIER 149 
 
 This prophecy was to receive, sooner than Buchanan 
 anticipated, a terrible and tragic fulfilment, and 
 Queen Mary's court, like King Arthur's before it, 
 was to be broken up and laid in ruins by the moral 
 failure of her who was its head.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE CHURCHMAN 
 
 TT is customary when speaking of Buchanan to 
 * claim him as a Reformer as well as a Humanist. 
 On looking closely into the matter, however, it will 
 be found that his zeal for the Protestant religion 
 does not entitle him to rank with those who were 
 the prime movers in remodelling the doctrine and 
 constitution of the Church. It is quite true, as he 
 himself tells us, that when he returned to Scotland, 
 he gave in his adhesion to the Scottish Church, and 
 continued for the remainder of his life to be 'one of 
 its most staunch and loyal members ; but his relation 
 towards it was that of a silent supporter and'' quiet 
 worker rather than a militant leader. He was 
 evidently quite ready to undertake those duties for 
 which he was specially suited .and into which he 
 could put his heart, and wisely refrained from taking 
 
 150
 
 THE CHURCHMAN 151 
 
 up a position for which he had no real enthusiasm. 
 We are accordingly not surprised to find him silent 
 with regard to the great doctrinal and other con- 
 troversies which divided the nation, while taking his 
 share of the more practical activities of the Church, 
 for which by nature and training he was so well 
 adapted. 
 
 We first find him a member of the Assembly 
 which met on the 25th December 1563, and he 
 would seem to have acted in the same capacity 
 during subsequent years, until 1567, when he was 
 appointed Moderator. It may strike some as 
 strange that a layman like Buchanan should have 
 been elevated to the highest position in the Church ; 
 but the Scottish Reformers did not regard the order 
 of ordination as essential even for the ministry of 
 the Word, much less for a position such as that of 
 Moderator of the Assembly, which simply demanded 
 the ruling of debate and the guiding of business. 
 John Erskine of Dun, another layman, was Superin- 
 tendent of Angus ; and Queen Mary, when pressed 
 to hear one of the Protestant preachers, expressed a 
 preference for him because of his gentle and peace- 
 able disposition.
 
 152 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 It showed the confidence which the Church had 
 in Buchanan, that in its early struggles, when 
 endeavouring to get its constitution into working 
 order, it put him on most of the important 
 Committees that had to deal with the new questions 
 and unlooked-for complications which the circum- 
 stances naturally called forth. We have the record 
 of the work of these Committees, and the results of 
 their deliberations, and there can be no doubt that 
 Buchanan's knowledge and common sense were of 
 great help in finding a solution of the difficult and 
 delicate questions with which they had, from time 
 to time, to deal. The compliment which the 
 Mare'chal de Brissac and his officers paid Buchanan, 
 in calling him in to advise as to the high 
 military problems upon which they were deliberat- 
 ing, was repeated in very different circumstances, 
 when Knox and his colleagues invited him to their 
 counsels and asked him to take his part in settling 
 those practical difficulties which the Scottish Church, 
 in its first days, had to face. 
 
 It is easy, of course, to accuse Buchanan of luke- 
 warmness. Highfliers will see in him only a Moderate, 
 whose head may have been convinced without his
 
 THE CHURCHMAN 153 
 
 heart being touched; or perchance at best an 
 ecclesiastic whose soul delighted in Committees, and 
 the petty work and secret wirepulling of which they 
 are popularly believed to be guilty. It is not at 
 all unlikely that a process of degeneration in this 
 respect has been going on since Reformation times, 
 and it would accordingly be utterly wrong to judge 
 of the doings of Buchanan in the light of what 
 takes place in our day. Nor should it be forgotten 
 that he had reached his fifty-fifth year before he 
 threw in his lot with the Reformers. That, assuredly, 
 is not an age at which a man is expected to display 
 the enthusiasm of youth. Besides, his conversion to 
 the new faith was a long and gradual process. 
 
 The first indication of his interest in the Protestant 
 Religion was in 1526, when he was a student in 
 Paris, where he informs us he fell into the spreading 
 flame of the Lutheran sect. Again, when he was in 
 Scotland in 1535, he made his first serious attack, in 
 his Franciscanus, on monkery and all its ways. 
 This satire, to his astonishment, subjected him to so 
 bitter a persecution that he had to flee the country. 
 This, he further tells us, made him "more keenly 
 hostile to the licentiousness of the clergy, and less
 
 154 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 indisposed to the Lutheran cause than before." 
 But it was not until the last five years of his 
 residence on the Continent that he gave himself to 
 a critical study of the Scriptures, and to a serious 
 consideration of the " controversies that were agitat- 
 ing the majority of men." It was at that time, and 
 after this long process of thought and reflection, that 
 he finally formed definite opinions for himself, and 
 was fully persuaded in his own mind of the claims 
 of the Protestant Religion. 
 
 One cannot blame Buchanan for holding, silently, 
 perhaps, that they did not " know everything down 
 in Judee." His culture was not one-sided, like that 
 of the majority of the Reformers. The greater 
 part of his life had been devoted to a study of 
 the masterpieces of classical antiquity. He was 
 thoroughly familiar with the world of thought and 
 life which they opened up ; indeed, he was so imbued 
 with their spirit that he reproduced in his own 
 works the very body of past times. He was thus 
 necessarily devoid of that religious and theological 
 fervour which governed such men as Luther and 
 Knox. Constitutionally, perhaps, he was not inclined 
 to doctrinal discussions ; at any rate, he preferred to
 
 THE CHURCHMAN 155 
 
 follow the more secular calling of the scholar, and 
 to take a place in the Protestant Church suited to 
 his disposition, and much less lofty than that 
 occupied by the Reformers. 
 
 Buchanan was the offspring of that Humanism 
 which welcomed the Reformation as an ally in 
 emancipating the spirit of man from the thraldom 
 of an external authority. The world which the 
 Renaissance opened up to the human mind was a 
 new world. The natural man was seen for the first 
 time for a thousand years, living and moving and 
 having his being. He was presented to the aston- 
 ished and enraptured gaze of the Humanists, aspiring 
 after, worshipping, and even creating forms of beauty 
 and ideals of life which to them were a revelation. 
 The free spirit, which is every one's birthright, 
 leapt from the pages of the Greek and Roman 
 writers and speedily found entrance into the minds 
 of the wondering scholars and filled them with a 
 new life. Hence Buchanan views the Reformation 
 in the light of Liberty. He sees in it an instrument 
 for the crushing of the ecclesiastical authority which 
 had for centuries bound the free spirit of man. He 
 welcomed it as an awakening of the human intellect
 
 156 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 and as a reassertion of private judgment and 
 individual right. 
 
 The Reformers, from their very position, had to 
 assume a different attitude towards that spirit which 
 they had called up from the depths of the past. 
 They had to seize it and put it again into chains. 
 Having disowned the authority of the Pope and the 
 power of the Roman Church, they felt under the 
 necessity of putting in their place some other force 
 for the governance and the regulation of man's 
 moral and spiritual life. Men like Buchanan may 
 have thought that the divine ideal again discovered 
 might have been sufficient, without forging any 
 external bonds ; and that the tyranny of the Roman 
 Church would have been a warning against any 
 attempt to perpetuate its evils, though in a new 
 form. Such a position was a quite justifiable one for a 
 man like Buchanan to take up. He probably did 
 not require any sanction for his beliefs or any guide 
 for his conduct, other than the Spirit of God as 
 revealed in nature, history, Scripture, and his own 
 conscience and heart ; but he was the exception, and 
 for the majority of the members of the Church an 
 external authority was necessary.
 
 THE CHURCHMAN 157 
 
 Scripture, in the first instance, was the new 
 authority which the Reformers set up. They made 
 it the touchstone of doctrine, of worship, and of 
 government. It took the place of the decrees and 
 councils of the old Church, and dethroned the Pope 
 from his time-honoured position as the head of the 
 Christian world. The individual, ostensibly at least, 
 was granted the right of private judgment ; he was 
 invited to read the Bible for himself, and to learn 
 its saving truths. The Word of God, on which the 
 Church itself rested, was surely the only source from 
 which religious light could shine. All this sounds 
 very well, but apart from the fact that other 
 fountains of truth, such as nature and reason, should 
 be taken account of in the building up of one's 
 faith, the Reformers had but a narrow, and, in the 
 light of present-day knowledge, an uncritical view of 
 Scripture; their conception of its inspiration, for 
 example, and its historical growth, cannot stand 
 modern inquiry and research. In their hands the 
 Bible threatened to become as great a tyrant as 
 the Pope himself. 
 
 After Scripture came the Confessions. They sprang 
 up in every Church with a rapidity that must have
 
 158 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 surprised even their framers. They were prepared, 
 on the ground that the young Church must have 
 definite authority on which it could take its stand. 
 The necessity of this was perfectly clear. Outward 
 symbols had to be devised, doctrinal statements had 
 to be drawn up, rules and regulations for worship 
 and government had to be laid down. No Church, 
 as an organisation, could exist without them. 
 Scripture with regard to such matters was too vague ; 
 in any case, its instructions were too detached ; they 
 must be gathered together, tabulated, and put into 
 a logical and compact form. Thus did Confessions 
 arise, and in the end they took away the right of 
 private judgment, and that individual interpretation 
 of Scripture which were the early boast of the 
 Protestant Church. 
 
 It will not, therefore, be difficult for anyone to 
 understand why it was that Buchanan did not feel 
 inclined to become a minister of the Reformed 
 Church, or to take a leading part in framing its 
 doctrinal belief. He could at any time, during the 
 first period of his life, have taken orders in the 
 Church of Rome, and probably risen to a high 
 position. At any rate, he could have saved himself
 
 THE CHURCHMAN 159 
 
 from persecution, received sufficient for his temporal 
 wants, and found that seclusion and leisure which 
 would have enabled him to prosecute his favourite 
 studies in peace. But he would not sacrifice his 
 mental and spiritual independence; he would not 
 place himself under an authority that would take 
 away his liberty. He certainly did attack the 
 licentiousness of the monks and ridiculed the doctrine 
 of transubstantiation, but there is no evidence to 
 show that up to his final breach with Rome he 
 denied the main tenets of the Catholic Church. 
 Humanism was a cry for liberty, so Buchanan 
 determined not to put his spirit in chains. It must 
 have been for the same reason that he declined to 
 take any ministerial office in the Reformed Church. 
 Like Erasmus, he refused to identify himself too 
 closely with the doctrinal positions of either Church. 
 Like some men in our own day, of wide culture and 
 deep religious spirit, he looked beyond all the 
 Churches, and saw a " new heaven and a new earth 
 wherein dwelt righteousness." 
 
 It is easy, of course, to blame Buchanan for not 
 joining the ranks of the stalwarts. Erasmus was 
 much attacked by both sides for following a middle
 
 160 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 course of his own. What he desired was to see the 
 old Church reformed of its errors in creed and 
 government, and, failing this, he declined to defend 
 it. For the same reason no power could induce 
 him to enter the Lutheran fold; he had no love 
 for the brand-new Church which the great German 
 set up. He kept himself free, as far as he could, of 
 any external authority in matters of faith. That 
 autonomy of the spirit which he believed was every 
 man's birthright he determined, as far as possible, 
 to keep inviolate. Buchanan was evidently of the 
 same way of thinking. Truth he loved, but truth 
 he believed ceased to be inspiring when it had to 
 be accepted, so to speak, at the point of the bayonet. 
 The only authority in religious matters which he 
 was prepared to obey was the Divine voice speaking 
 to him through his conscience and his heart. Knox 
 was evidently quite prepared to work with Buchanan 
 under the conditions which the latter tacitly laid 
 down. For as late as 1556 he wrote of them thus : 
 " That noteable man, Mr. George Buchanan, remains 
 to this day, in the year of God 1556 years, to the 
 great glory of God, to the great honour of the 
 nation, and to the comfort of those that delight in
 
 THE CHURCHMAN 161 
 
 letters and virtue." Knox's characterisation of him 
 is significant. He holds him up to admiration as a 
 unique and glorious type of the Christian scholar. 
 This, indeed, is all that Buchanan pretended to be, 
 and it says much for the Reformer that he had the 
 good sense to see and appreciate in his friend 
 qualities which the zealots of the new faith were 
 strongly tempted to ignore, if not to despise. 
 It was this doctrinal aloofness that enabled him 
 also to live on friendly terms with the Queen. 
 In his inward soul he belonged to no party ; what 
 he aspired after was religious and civil liberty. 
 
 Sir James Melville of Halhill confirms, in his 
 garrulous Memoirs, this impression of Buchanan's 
 religious faith. " He was," says Sir James, " of gud 
 religion for a poet." This, at first sight, sounds very 
 faint praise. Poets, however, it may be remembered, 
 have in the main been heretics ; their religion has 
 seldom squared with the ecclesiastical beliefs of their 
 time. Indeed, as a rule they discounted these beliefs, 
 and contented themselves with forms of faith which 
 were not often accepted by the common people. This 
 does not prove that their religion was defective, 
 probably it was nearer to absolute truth than what 
 
 ii
 
 162 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 was popularly held to be divine. Sir James's esti- 
 mate, accordingly, signifies that Buchanan conformed 
 in his religion to the accepted standards, more than 
 most poets, but that he did not rise to the full 
 height of the enthusiastic Calvinists who accepted 
 the doctrines of the Church without demur. There 
 is not among all his writings any that may be 
 regarded as formally theological. The nearest 
 approach to a confession of his faith is his dirge 
 on the death of Calvin ; but it is poetry, and it 
 attempts to blend the old heathen mythology with 
 the Protestant faith. Like all such attempts it 
 cannot be regarded as successful. The theological 
 views which it contains would have astonished no 
 one more than Calvin himself. 
 
 The truth is, Buchanan was essentially a poet, and 
 no surprise should be felt at the marked absence in 
 his writings of any allusion to, or direct statement 
 of, the leading doctrines of the Reformed faith. He 
 is silent regarding predestination, justification, 
 election, atonement, and the resurrection. He was 
 a critic and a humorist, and not a theologian. His 
 convictions, accordingly, however sincere and well 
 grounded, were not fired by that enthusiasm which
 
 THE CHURCHMAN 163 
 
 compelled Luther and Knox to do and to dare. 
 Every man must be taken in his order, and judged 
 accordingly ; Buchanan's order was not that of the 
 Reformer and Theologian, but of the Scholar and 
 Humanist.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE EDUCATIONIST 
 
 73 ELIGION was not the only interest of the 
 -*- ^- new times which had dawned on Scotland. 
 Education, which, as we have already seen, was of 
 deep concern to the leaders of public life, now 
 began to be of more importance than ever. It was 
 found to be the chief enemy of superstition, and to 
 be the best means for developing the life of the 
 nation and for preparing the citizen for the various 
 duties demanded of him by the Commonwealth. 
 Experts in this department may not have been 
 so numerous or so weU equipped as they are in our 
 day ; but, after all, the organisation of education 
 depends for its success, not so much on the one-sided 
 views of specialists as on the broad-minded con- 
 ception of enlightened and patriotic statesmen. 
 The age of the Reformation was singularly fortunate 
 
 164
 
 THE EDUCATIONIST 165 
 
 in the latter respect, and the educational future of 
 Scotland could not have been placed in safer hands 
 that those of John Knox. The scheme which he 
 and his colleagues drew up for the reform of the 
 schools and Universities of their native country is 
 still, in its main features, the dream of present-day 
 educationists, and an ideal which has received the 
 approval of successive generations of Scotsmen, but 
 which, alas, is still unrealised. 
 
 It was inevitable that those who were responsible 
 for laying down the lines which should guide the 
 future of Scottish education should call to their 
 counsels a man of such varied knowledge and 
 experience as Buchanan. He was the most dis- 
 tinguished scholar in the country, and he had been 
 engaged nearly all his life in the instruction of 
 youth. He had taught in some of the greatest 
 schools and colleges on the Continent, and had 
 gained a reputation which placed him as an educa- 
 tionist in the first rank. There is no evidence 
 that he had any share in drawing up the Book of 
 Discipline, in which Knox^s scheme is adumbrated. 
 Indeed, he was not in the country at the time ; but 
 hi every subsequent attempt that was made, up
 
 166 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 till his death, to place the seminaries of learning on 
 a proper footing and to regulate the nature of the 
 instruction to be given, he took a leading part. 
 His proposals met the same fate as those of Knox 
 and Melville. They were never carried out, but that 
 was not his fault ; the reason was the same as that 
 which has stultified the efforts of more recent times. 
 The lack of funds, which cramps present-day move- 
 ments in the direction of educational expansion, 
 rendered his scheme and those of his able coadjutors 
 nugatory ; the only difference being, that while the 
 modern millionaire refuses to give, the ancient 
 nobleman took, that which in the national interest 
 ought to be freely bestowed on the instruction of 
 youth and the furtherance of the intellectual life of 
 the people. 
 
 It was in 1566 that Buchanan received his first 
 appointment, and for it he was indebted to the 
 Earl of Moray. In that year he was made Principal 
 of St. Leonard's College in the University of St. 
 Andrews. The power of election to this post lay 
 in the hands of the prior of St. Andrews, and as 
 Moray happened to hold this office at the time, he 
 fixed on Buchanan, with whom he was on friendly
 
 THE EDUCATIONIST 167 
 
 relations. The University of St. Andrews consisted 
 of three Colleges St. Salvator's, St. Leonard's, and 
 St. Mary's. The first was founded by Bishop 
 Kennedy in 1450, the second by John Hepburn, 
 Prior of the Abbey, in 1512, and the third, which 
 was begun by Archbishop Beaton in 1532, was 
 completed by Archbishop Hamilton in 1552. St. 
 Leonard's, with which Buchanan was to be closely 
 connected for the next four years, was originally 
 founded for the accommodation of Pilgrims who came 
 to witness the miracles wrought by the bones of 
 Scotland's patron Saint. It was a monkish institu- 
 tion, and was intended to foster superstition; and 
 even when it was transformed into a College by 
 Prior Hepburn, its object remained practically the 
 same. The intention of the pious founders was 
 soon, however, to be thwarted. It was the first of 
 the three Colleges to welcome the Reformation ; 
 and to "drink of St. Leonard's well," became a 
 synonym for a belief in the Protestant faith. In 
 another respect also its fortunes changed ; it began 
 as the poorest of the three Colleges, but it soon 
 became the wealthiest. At its start it was known 
 as the College of poor clerks, but the wise manage-
 
 1 68 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 ment of its affairs by its governors, and the energy 
 and ability of its teachers, raised its position 
 financially and educationally, and drew to it a 
 greater proportion of the nobility and gentry than 
 repaired to its two rivals. This transformation in 
 its fortunes would not, we presume, be so strongly 
 resented by its pious founders as the other. 
 
 As the University of St. Andrews, like that of 
 Glasgow, was modelled on those of Paris and 
 Bologna, it is unnecessary to deal with its con- 
 stitution or curriculum in detail, for in speaking of 
 Buchanan^ life as a Student and Regent in the 
 University of Paris, we said on this subject all that 
 may be deemed sufficient. The Universities of 
 mediaeval Europe, however similar they might be 
 in their origin and scope, differed of course from 
 each other in various ways ; the nature and extent 
 of the instruction given were to a large extent 
 conditioned by their endowments, and as the Uni- 
 versity of St. Andrews, although the wealthiest in 
 Scotland, was still very poor, its educational equipment 
 was necessarily meagre. It suffered also from the 
 fame of its continental rivals, particularly the 
 University of Paris, which drew to it a large number
 
 THE EDUCATIONIST 169 
 
 of young Scots, who then as now were animated by 
 a wandering spirit ; but the cause which reduced it, 
 by the middle of the sixteenth century, to an almost 
 helpless position, was the religious and civil troubles 
 of the time. It was practically untouched by the 
 Humanism which leavened the life of even the 
 University of Paris, and found a home in the great 
 schools of Oxford and Cambridge. The time was 
 clearly ripe for the reform of national education as 
 well as national religion, and the men who heralded 
 in the new age set themselves to this task also with 
 their wonted energy. 
 
 Three different schemes were drawn up during 
 Buchanan's own lifetime for the reform of Scottish 
 Universities. The first, as has already been indicated, 
 was the well-known plan of Knox incorporated in the 
 Book of Discipline. It formed a part of the general 
 proposal of the Reformers for dealing with national 
 education. Elementary schools were to be planted 
 in every parish, secondary schools in the chief towns, 
 and the course of study in the three Universities was 
 to be so ordered that the best results possible might 
 be attained. Knox in this, as in other matters, made 
 use of the knowledge which he had gained on the
 
 1 70 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 Continent. The proposals of the Book of Discipline 
 with regard to the University of St. Andrews were 
 as follows : The three Colleges of which it was 
 composed were to remain distinct, so far as the 
 subjects taught in each were concerned ; but the 
 course of study was to be so arranged that the one 
 should lead up to the other. The first College was 
 to be devoted to the subjects which might be ranged 
 under the general title of Philosophy, the second 
 was to concern itself with Law, and the third with 
 Divinity. It may be noticed that in this arrange- 
 ment no place is given to Classics, as the secondary 
 schools were supposed to give sufficient instruction 
 in the ancient Languages. It may also be noted 
 that the University as thus determined would really 
 be a seminary for the higher education ; it would 
 differentiate itself from the mediaeval Universities 
 not only by its exclusion of the Classics, but also by 
 its insistence on the students being thoroughly 
 grounded before matriculating. We see in this 
 something both to commend and to regret. The 
 exclusion of the Classics indicated that the culture 
 of the Renaissance had found little or no recognition 
 in Scotland, and the one-sided development of the
 
 THE EDUCATIONIST 171 
 
 national life which the Reformers favoured was 
 having results that would in the end prove detri- 
 mental to the symmetrical development of the people. 
 Approval, however, must be given to the attempt, 
 which is only now being realised, to make the 
 Universities seats of learning in the highest sense, 
 and not mere secondary schools. But the scheme 
 feU through. The rapacity of the nobles who 
 seized the property of the Church robbed the 
 Reformers of the means by which they hoped to 
 carry through those plans, which now remain as a 
 lasting monument of the enlightened and patriotic 
 views of their compilers. 
 
 The second scheme is the one with which 
 Buchanan's name is more closely associated. In 
 1563 a Parliamentary Commission was appointed 
 to revise the finances and to reconstitute the teach- 
 ing of the Universities, particularly that of St. 
 Andrews. Moray, Maitland, and Buchanan were 
 the most important members of this Commission. 
 There is no record of the report which was handed 
 in, but the plan which was drawn up to meet the 
 wants of St. Andrews University has been preserved, 
 and it is generally supposed that it was mainly the
 
 i;2 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 work of Buchanan. In the very first proposal there 
 is a confession of the failure of Knox's scheme, for 
 one of the Colleges is to be confined entirely to the 
 discharge of the functions of a secondary school, 
 and thus to serve as preparatory to the other two. 
 The second College was to give instruction in 
 Philosophy and Medicine, and the third was to be 
 devoted to Divinity. If the meagre equipment pro- 
 vided for the instruction of the last subject be any 
 indication of Buchanan's interest in Theology, that 
 interest must have been extremely weak, for the 
 staff was to consist of a single individual, who was 
 to be Principal and Professor all in one, and he was 
 to divide his time equally between Theology and 
 Law. The Classics, on the other hand, were to 
 receive full justice : they were to be taught through 
 six successive classes, and in the three highest in- 
 struction in Greek was to be given. No doubt 
 Buchanan was governed by the circumstances of the 
 hour. We cannot imagine that this was his ideal 
 of what a University should be. He had to make 
 the most of the situation, which was anything but 
 favourable to the higher education. That situation 
 has indeed taken a very long time to improve, for
 
 THE EDUCATIONIST 173 
 
 University Reformers would seem to be as sorely 
 bestead by hostile fortune now as then. 
 
 Some sixteen years afterwards another Commission 
 was appointed, of which Buchanan and Andrew 
 Melville were members. The new body was 
 authorised to consider the Foundations in the 
 University, and not only "to remove superstition 
 and displace unqualified persons, but also to change 
 the form of study and the number of Professors ; to 
 join or divide the faculties ; to annex each faculty to 
 such College as they thought most proper for it ; and 
 in general to establish such order in the University 
 as should tend most to the glory of God, profit of 
 the Commonwealth, and the good upbringing of the 
 youth in science needful for the continuance of the 
 true religion. 1 ' That this Commission was necessary 
 may be seen from the remarks of James Melville, 
 who declares that "after the zeal of the Re- 
 formation, regents and scholars cared nothing for 
 divinity and for languages, arts, and philosophy. 
 They had nothing at all but a few books of 
 Aristotle, which they learned pertinaciously to 
 battle and fight upon, without right understanding 
 or use there-of." This Commission reported in
 
 174 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 1579, the same year in which it was appointed, and 
 the scheme which it prepared and which was ratified 
 by Parliament, was the work chiefly, it is supposed, 
 of Andrew Melville. 
 
 The recommendations of the Commission are such 
 as we might expect ; they bear evident testimony to 
 the forceful and ardent spirit of Melville ; they also 
 reflect his special interests. The two Colleges of 
 St. Leonard's and St. Salvator's were to be devoted 
 to those subjects which at that time were included 
 in the Arts curriculum, while St. Mary's was to be 
 reserved for the teaching of Theology. It would 
 seem that the whole strength of the University was 
 to be concentrated on this subject, as St. Mary's 
 was to have five professors, and the course was to 
 extend over a period of four years. The study of 
 Hebrew and cognate languages was to be prosecuted 
 with energy. The Septuagint and other ancient 
 versions were to be diligently studied, and the 
 critical apparatus thus acquired was to be applied 
 to the text and contents of the Scriptures. The 
 whole time of four out of the five professors was 
 to be devoted to this work, while the fifth was 
 to give lectures on Systematic Divinity. Long
 
 THE EDUCATIONIST 175 
 
 vacations were to cease ; time was precious ; and it 
 was ordained that for the future the students 
 should have only one month's holiday in the year, 
 that of September. 
 
 We have in this scheme a forecast of our own 
 time, in one respect at least. The higher criticism 
 is foreshadowed in the thorough knowledge that 
 was demanded of the students of the original 
 languages of Scripture, and in the stringent way 
 in which this knowledge was to be applied to the 
 elucidation of its meaning. That only one professor 
 should have been set aside for the teaching of 
 Systematic Theology, shows that there was not that 
 supreme importance attached to dogma with which 
 we credit that age. There is one glaring omission 
 in the course : Church History has no place in it. 
 It may have been thought that ignorance of the 
 long story of the Roman Catholic Church would be 
 a virtue ; in fact, the Reformers did not regard it as 
 a true Church at all. The History of the Apostolic 
 Age would be fully dealt with by one of the four 
 professors, whose subject would include the Acts of 
 the Apostles ; and the Professor of Divinity would 
 no doubt be bound to lecture on the Lutheran and
 
 1 76 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 Reformed Churches : so that the omission is not so 
 marked after all. In any case, the course in Divinity, 
 compared with anything that went before or has 
 come after it, was to be thorough. It was to extend 
 over eleven months out of the twelve, and the staff 
 was to consist of five professors. At the present day 
 the course extends to only five months out of the 
 twelve, and there are but four professors. No science 
 has within the last century progressed at a more 
 rapid pace than Theology, and yet the Scottish 
 Churches and Universities have done less than 
 nothing to meet the wants of the new time ; indeed, 
 so far as theological equipment is concerned, they 
 have, compared with the scheme of Melville, gone 
 back in place of going forward. 
 
 Dr. M'Crie and Dr. Hume Brown differ in their 
 estimate of the two schemes of Melville and 
 Buchanan. They naturally champion the proposals 
 of the man whose biography they have written. It 
 may be sufficient, however, to point out that the 
 special features of each scheme are such as we would 
 naturally expect. Buchanan emphasised the Classi- 
 cal, and Melville the Theological side of the Uni- 
 versity course. Each followed his own predilection ;
 
 THE EDUCATIONIST 177 
 
 but compared with Knox's scheme they must be 
 regarded as inferior and defective. The proposals 
 of the Book of Discipline were broad-minded and 
 progressive. The special parts relating to the 
 Universities were the crown of the educational 
 scheme that was to apply to the country as a whole. 
 Knox, and those associated with him, dealt with the 
 subject in a more detached manner than either 
 Buchanan or Melville, and their policy, even in 
 relation to the Universities themselves, was so 
 ordered that every branch of knowledge and science, 
 as then known, received its due share of consider- 
 ation. It is not at all unlikely that in the near 
 future another Parliamentary Commission may be 
 appointed to deal with the educational institutions 
 of the country ; and if one can judge, from the signs 
 of the times, the proposals of Knox will in their 
 fundamental aspects afford a guide in the framing 
 of any scheme that will be drawn up. Many new 
 features will undoubtedly have to be added, but the 
 co-ordination of elementary, secondary, and the 
 higher education will, if we are not much mistaken, 
 be one result ; and the reorganisation of the various 
 Colleges in the country, with their respective faculties, 
 
 12
 
 1 78 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 and the relation of the whole to the Universities, 
 must form an integral part of the scheme. 
 
 We have very little information about 
 Buchanan's life while he acted as Principal of St. 
 Leonard's. We know from the records of the 
 University what his duties must have been. He 
 would "superintend the domestic economy of the 
 College, attend to the religious exercises of its 
 members, and on Wednesdays and Fridays he 
 would instruct the Presbyters, Regents, and all 
 others who chose to attend, in sacred and specula- 
 tive theology." On entering upon his duties he 
 found his College very poorly attended, but within 
 a year the numbers began to increase, and before 
 he left it was the most popular of all the three 
 Colleges, containing more students than the other 
 two put together. His great name would un- 
 doubtedly be the attraction. His personal qualities, 
 in addition to his fame and scholarship, must have 
 added to his popularity as a teacher. He would 
 seem to have always maintained the most cordial 
 relations with his pupils, and to have gained not 
 only their respect but affection. 
 
 One who studied under him bears this testimony
 
 THE EDUCATIONIST 179 
 
 to his power of interesting and attracting youth. 
 " Buchanan," he says, " was of such flexibility of 
 mind that with boys he became a boy ; he had 
 alike the faculty and the will to adapt himself to 
 every time of life, yet always in such a way as 
 never to forfeit the respect due to himself." Nor 
 did he lose sight of his pupils ; he encouraged 
 them, and by personal effort he endeavoured to 
 push their fortunes. An interesting letter of his 
 remains, in which he urges his friend Beza to 
 assist Jerome Groslot, a young student whose 
 father had shown him great kindness when he was 
 in France, and for the same youth he pens a 
 testimonial, a model of its kind, which, coming 
 from such a man as Buchanan, was sufficient to 
 have secured preferment for any promising lad. 
 Another, Alexander Cockburn, one of the " bairns " 
 who had been under Knox's tutorial care, and who 
 passed away in early manhood before his scholar- 
 ship had time to ripen, forms the subject of two 
 poems by Buchanan, in which he expresses admira- 
 tion for his talents, and regret at his untimely 
 death. 
 
 He also took upon himself, along with two others,
 
 i8o GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 the humble task of preparing a Latin Grammar for 
 the education of Scottish youth, and manifested his 
 interest in the intellectual welfare of his native 
 West by presenting a number of Classical Works 
 to the University of Glasgow. That clannishness, 
 which is alleged to be a trait in the Scottish 
 character, no doubt possessed Buchanan notwith- 
 standing his wide culture. He never forgot that 
 he was a Lennox man; and though he had never 
 been a student at the University of Glasgow, he 
 would feel that it had local claims upon him which 
 he could not resist. It is accordingly generally 
 believed that the favour which Queen Mary showed 
 to this University was due to him, and what is 
 known as the erectio regia, which is associated 
 with the Regency of Morton, was due to the 
 influence of " our dear Privy Councellor George 
 Buchanan, Pensioner of Crossraguel, and Keeper 
 of the Privy Seal. 1 ' It is thus that his name is 
 appended to the deed of gift.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE POLEMIC 
 
 T T T E now enter upon a new phase of Buchanan's 
 * * life. Shortly after his appointment by the 
 Earl of Moray to the Principalship of St. Leonard's 
 College, St. Andrews, events took place which 
 plunged the country into civil war. On the 9th 
 of February 1567, Darnley was murdered, and on 
 the 15th of the following May the Queen was 
 married to the Earl of Bothwell. The great 
 controversy which these sudden and startling 
 incidents gave rise to, has continued with almost 
 unabated and uninterrupted interest to the present 
 day. Every year sees a fresh contribution to the 
 discussion, and finality on the subject would seem to 
 be as far off as ever. The cause of this undying 
 concern, in what everyone admits to have been a 
 foul murder and a very questionable marriage, is 
 
 181
 
 1 82 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 undoubtedly Queen Mary herself. Had she, as 
 someone has remarked, been ugly, or even plain, 
 men would have ceased troubling themselves over 
 much about her long ago; but she is reputed to 
 have been beautiful, and is known to have been 
 fascinating. She was young, clever, and charming ; 
 every man felt the power of her spell, and all, with 
 the exception of Knox, seem to have fallen under 
 it ; even Buchanan himself, with the susceptibilities 
 of a poet, had a genuine admiration, during the 
 early days of their friendship, for his Royal mistress. 
 The charm still continues, and sober historians, when 
 discussing the tragic events of those far-off days, 
 have a feeling of tenderness for the fair fiend, or 
 victim, as the case may be, and hold a flirtation 
 with her across the space of three centuries. Had 
 Mary, with all her ability, beauty, and grace, 
 passed her years in peace, and gone down into 
 the grave at a good and honoured old age, that 
 sentimental interest in her and her doings which 
 still continues would very probably have never 
 existed. But it is just the aberration in her moral 
 conduct which is involved in her marriage to 
 Bothwell, and the murder of Darnley, that keeps
 
 THE POLEMIC 183 
 
 her memory so fresh. Supreme wickedness, if it be 
 the result of an affair of the heart, appeals by a 
 strange perversity to human nature, much more 
 strongly than supreme goodness; at all events, it 
 displays the war of passions, and gives material for 
 those reflections on man's complex nature which, 
 however trite, never seem to pall. 
 
 The country was naturally divided over the 
 question which these startling events raised. 
 There was no doubt in the public mind as to who 
 was the real murderer of Darnley. Every sign 
 pointed to Bothwell, and the Queen's delay in 
 giving facilities for bringing him to trial, the 
 mockery of the trial itself when it did take place, 
 and her indecent haste in marrying the murderer 
 of her husband, confirmed the suspicion that she 
 herself had a hand in the dastardly deed, and 
 roused the resentment of the nation against her. 
 The change in the public feeling towards Mary 
 was as strong as it was sudden. There can be no 
 denying her popularity, up to her marriage with 
 Darnley. Her people were proud of her, and, 
 under the guiding hand of Moray, public affairs 
 were managed on the whole with prudence and
 
 1 84 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 skill. Her hasty union with Darnley was her first 
 great mistake ; he turned out to be a young fool, 
 and growing disgusted with him she fell into the 
 hands of the unscrupulous adventurer who would 
 not seem to have cared much for her, but was 
 willing enough to use her for the realisation of 
 his own vaulting ambition. Mary was evidently 
 possessed by a passion for Bothwell which blinded 
 her to every consequence. She even declared, in 
 her wild frenzy, that she would rather go through 
 the world in a white petticoat with him, than 
 without him reign over Scotland and England 
 and some other countries besides. Even after her 
 final separation from him at Carberry Hill, she 
 declared to Lethington that her one wish was to 
 sail with Bothwell away from these shores; and 
 the wily secretary dryly remarked that he thought 
 she could not do better. 
 
 Plain people who have never felt the grand 
 passion, or who are ignorant of human, and 
 especially woman's, nature, seem to think such 
 extravagance of emotion absurd and impossible. 
 But all one has to do is to look out on contem- 
 porary life, or to read the public prints, to find
 
 THE POLEMIC 185 
 
 almost daily examples of what we are now con- 
 sidering. Mary was a Stuart and a Tudor and a 
 Guise all in one. With such an ancestry as she 
 had, and such an upbringing in the Court of 
 France, her life and fate, while they may shock, 
 should not altogether surprise us. The facts of 
 human nature give sufficient warrant for the facts 
 of Mary's career, and, however much we may pity 
 the tragic ending of a life and reign that began 
 with so fair a promise, we must bow before truth 
 and believe the unfolding tale of History. 
 
 From what we already know of Buchanan it 
 would be easy to forecast the course which he 
 would take; he declared against Mary. We do 
 not, so far, find any trace in his life of com- 
 promising with what he believed to be falsehood 
 or error in doctrine or in conduct, and it was not 
 at all likely that, if he believed Mary to be guilty, 
 he would hide his convictions and act towards her 
 as if nothing had happened. The Queen, unfortun- 
 ately, had become impossible. If she had, even 
 at the last moment, agreed to repudiate Bothwell 
 and to govern constitutionally, all might have 
 been well, but she struck out at the nobility who
 
 1 86 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 had separated her from her husband, threatened 
 them with death whenever she regained her liberty, 
 and made it clear that her own will, or passion 
 rather, would be the sole guide of her public and 
 private conduct. Her deposition thus became, in 
 the interests of the nation, a necessity. Additional 
 proof was soon forthcoming of her complicity in 
 Darnley's murder. The Casket Letters, which have 
 played so important a part in this strange history, 
 were about to make their appearance. Those who 
 believed in their genuineness, and among them was 
 Buchanan, had now no doubt of her guilt. He, at 
 any rate, was convinced. He believed that she was 
 an adulteress and a murderess ; and the action 
 which he subsequently took, in proving this to the 
 civilised world, has earned for him the undying 
 hatred of all the defenders of Mary from his own 
 day till ours. 
 
 The Detectio, the work in which Buchanan 
 arraigned Mary before the bar of Europe, is, of all 
 his writings, the one which has been the most 
 severely attacked, and by it, according to some, 
 he must stand or fall. As a piece of rhetoric, in 
 which every sentence adds to the weight of the
 
 THE POLEMIC 187 
 
 argument and hurries on the passion of invective 
 to its inevitable climax, it has been compared to 
 similar classic masterpieces of antiquity. It is 
 possible that Buchanan may have had such examples 
 in his mind. He felt that he was the champion 
 of a great cause. The world had been startled by 
 the tragic events which convulsed Scotland, and the 
 friends of constitutional government had some 
 doubt of the legality and righteousness of the 
 Scottish nation in dealing thus with their Queen. 
 Buchanan stood forth as the vindicator of his 
 country, and in his philippic he determined to 
 prove that Mary was impossible as Queen of Scots, 
 and that the only course which any patriot could 
 pursue was that which had been followed in de- 
 posing her. 
 
 The work was written in Latin, and being the 
 production of a scholar of European reputation, it 
 at once commanded the attention of the civilised 
 world. It was soon thereafter translated into 
 French, English, and Scotch, and being written in 
 a popular style it was widely read by the common 
 people. There can be no doubt that Buchanan's 
 Detectio not only influenced the Courts of France
 
 1 88 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 and England against Mary, but to a large extent 
 also inflamed the passion of the Scottish people 
 against their Queen. A great responsibility rested 
 on him. This he must have known ; and it is hard 
 to believe that he could have written as he did, 
 without being persuaded in his own mind that he 
 was recording fact. 
 
 It is not at all surprising that the defenders of 
 Mary should have singled out this work of 
 Buchanan^ for attack. It has been their aim to 
 discount and to discredit it. They have denied 
 its facts without, however, rejecting its conclusions. 
 Nor has the author himself escaped ; indeed, he 
 has on account of this work been the subject of 
 scathing and countless epithets. Both he and his 
 pamphlet have been held up to obloquy. One or 
 two specimens of the way in which some critics 
 speak both of him and it, may not be unwelcome. 
 They will show, at any rate, that the power of 
 invective is not all on one side. " Buchanan," says 
 a modern Mariolater, " was without doubt the most 
 venal and unscrupulous of men." " The Latin poet," 
 says another, "the Latin Historian who sang of 
 and libelled his Queen, his pupil." " He was old,"
 
 THE POLEMIC 189 
 
 continues the same writer, " a Lennox man, and an 
 advanced Liberal." " The luckless nymph to whom 
 his Psalms were dedicated, he was afterwards to 
 assail with all the ferocity of senile spite and all 
 the weapons of unscrupulous calumny." The Detectio 
 itself is characterised as " Buchanan's famous libel " ; 
 " atrocious libel " ; as " grossly inaccurate and amus- 
 ingly inconsistent " ; " the highly coloured narrative 
 of Buchanan." Both the writer and his book are 
 summed up as " grotesque adventures, invented, 
 or at least adapted, by Buchanan, whose viru- 
 lent animosities were utterly unscrupulous, and 
 whose clumsy invective was as bitter as it was 
 pedantic." 
 
 Our readers will not take it amiss if we refuse 
 to be tempted, even by such strong and bitter 
 statements, to enter upon a defence of Buchanan 
 which would drag us through the length and breadth, 
 the height and depth, of the great Marian contro- 
 versy. Books innumerable deal with the subject, 
 many of them more defaced by passion than adorned 
 by argument. Those who believe in the guilt of 
 Mary, manifest no joy in proving their conclusions ; 
 they come, as a rule, to them with reluctance, and
 
 190 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 manifest a noble pity for the brave and brilliant 
 creature who sacrificed her fame and fortune, as many 
 of her sex before and after her have done, for one 
 altogether unworthy. It may be regretted that 
 they who, believing in her innocence, defend her, 
 are not able to speak of her accusers in language 
 equally temperate, but ruin their cause with vitupera- 
 tion and spleen. But the remarkable fact stands 
 out, that even the most recent champions of Mary, 
 while they condemn Buchanan's Detectio for its 
 bitterness, and reject many of its details, practically 
 admit its conclusions, and hold the Queen to be 
 guilty of the very crimes for which he, on behalf 
 of the nation, charged her before the world. Even 
 the Casket Letters^ the most damning evidence of 
 Mary's guilt, have, after the most searching criticism 
 on the part of native and continental scholars, been 
 practically accepted as genuine. It was these letters 
 that brought conviction to the minds of those who 
 were responsible for the conduct of affairs, and which 
 led up to the deposition of Mary. They had 
 evidently great weight with Buchanan ; and, firmly 
 believing that they were written by the Queen, he 
 felt justified in undertaking and discharging the
 
 THE POLEMIC 191 
 
 task which was imposed upon him, of vindicating 
 the national honour in the eyes of the world. 
 
 The worst that can be said against Buchanan's 
 Detectio is, that it does not display that calm and 
 judicious spirit in the selection of evidence and in 
 tone of expression which should characterise such 
 a work. But the point is : What was the object 
 of Buchanan's brochure ? It was not intended as a 
 judicial statement of the case, which should be put 
 before a court of law; it was written with the 
 express purpose of appealing to the intelligence of 
 the people, both of his own and neighbouring 
 countries. The nobility, who made themselves re- 
 sponsible for the new government, prepared in their 
 " Book of Articles " such a statement against Mary 
 as the legal mind could appreciate. Buchanan's task 
 was different, and for the object in view it must be 
 admitted that he achieved a brilliant success. The 
 narrative is direct and spirited. The incriminating 
 evidence is historically and briefly stated, and every 
 fresh proof of guilt against the Queen leads up to 
 the final catastrophe. It is possible that Buchanan 
 did not sufficiently sift his evidence; he may have 
 lent too ready an ear to the gossip of Court and
 
 192 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 street. He thus gave a handle to his critics which 
 they have not failed to seize ; but the special 
 pleading which they have to resort to, in order to 
 disprove his main contention, reveals the weakness 
 of their case. Grant that its spirit is bitter, but 
 how, it may be asked, could it be otherwise ? What 
 a disappointment and shame had their young Queen 
 proved to herself and to the nation ? What a scandal 
 had she brought upon her people, who were noted 
 for their national pride ? What a shock must her 
 conduct have been to men whose conscience had 
 been quickened by the preaching of the Reformed 
 faith? Individual and national righteousness had 
 been outraged ; and the man who in his youth had 
 in his Franciscanus scathingly satirised the Roman 
 priesthood, now in his advancing old age felt com- 
 pelled, in his Detectio, to vindicate the nation in 
 its condemnation of the Queen. 
 
 One of the gravest charges which the critics of 
 Buchanan bring against him is that of ingratitude. 
 They declare that he spurned the hand that fed 
 him, and cursed the generous soul that blessed 
 him. This, we must admit, is a new light in which 
 to regard Buchanan. If his conduct up to this
 
 THE POLEMIC 193 
 
 point, even in the eyes of his severest censors, be 
 practically without reproach, it is passing strange 
 that he should all of a sudden, and at a time of 
 life when his character ought to have been formed, 
 have displayed such moral turpitude. But how 
 stands the matter ? He received, it is true, as has 
 been already noticed, an annual pension of 500 
 Scots, or 25 sterling, from the Queen that and 
 nothing more; and this pension, derived from the 
 temporalities of the Abbey of Crossraguel, was 
 very irregularly paid. Was this royal bounty 
 a mere pittance to what was showered on that 
 " vile knave Da vie " to shut the mouth of the 
 moralist and satirist for ever? Did it imply that 
 he had sold his conscience and his honour ? Those 
 who censure Buchanan in such unmeasured terms 
 should face these and like questions, and answer 
 them not in the light of sentiment, but of reason 
 and truth. 
 
 The poet, it ought to be remembered, more 
 than earned what he received, and the independent 
 attitude which he maintained towards Mary, even 
 in the days of their most friendly intercourse, 
 showed that he had not bartered his soul for 
 13
 
 194 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 courtly favour or sunk his individuality in sycophancy 
 to the Queen. He, for instance, made no secret of 
 his adherence to the Reformed faith. He was a 
 regular member of the General Assembly, the one 
 institution in the country that Mary chiefly de- 
 tested, and he was Moderator in 1567, the very 
 year when the Assembly gravely debated the ques- 
 tion of her guilt. Buchanan, it is clear, preserved, 
 even hi relation to Mary, that autonomy of spirit 
 which characterised him all through, and he would 
 feel under no obligation to remain silent or inactive 
 when the time came for striking a blow in defence 
 of his country's honour. The Detectio may be 
 very unpleasant reading for Mary's defenders, but 
 it is only perverted criticism which can accuse 
 Buchanan of ingratitude for writing it. 
 
 Nor should we overlook, in dealing with this 
 subject, the poet's numerous and unbroken friend- 
 ships. Some of these have already been enumerated, 
 others will be subsequently mentioned. No Scots- 
 man of his time had a wider circle of friends. The 
 greatest scholars in Europe were among them. 
 Many of these friendships he formed in early 
 years, and they remained unbroken while life lasted.
 
 THE POLEMIC 195 
 
 There is no record of his ever having been a party 
 to any of those quarrels of authors which were not 
 uncommon even in his time. He never gave indica- 
 tions of mean jealousy, nor was he himself an object 
 of envy ; if he had rivals, he disarmed their hostility 
 by his generous praise. So unaffected was he by 
 his literary success that he never manifested any 
 signs of arrogance, or had occasion to resent dis- 
 loyalty on the part of a friend. His conduct 
 towards Mary must then, on the showing of his 
 critics, be regarded as the great exception, which, 
 it must be admitted, they have not a little difficulty 
 in accounting for. It is much easier, we contend, 
 to regard it in the light of Buchanan's character 
 as a whole, and to see in it not a proof of ingrati- 
 tude, but the action of one who, in obedience to 
 his conscience and in the interests of righteous- 
 ness and truth, preferred the good name and honour 
 of his country to any past admiration he may have 
 had for his Queen. 
 
 Another charge is brought against Buchanan. 
 He is accused of having been a toady and 
 self-seeker. The early poems which he wrote to 
 Mary are brought forward in proof. Here, again,
 
 196 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 we are met with a great exception. Contemptis 
 opibtw despising wealth is, as we have seen, the 
 way in which Joseph Scaliger describes him, and 
 the poet's career all through showed that he 
 despised not only wealth, but also place and power. 
 Even fame, so dear to the rhyming tribe, would 
 seem to have had little attraction for him. He 
 was a " Stoic philosopher," says Sir James Melville, 
 and if Stoicism consists in indifference to riches, to 
 honours, and to applause, the description is accurate 
 enough. At no period in his career did he possess, 
 or even strive desperately to obtain, those temporal 
 blessings which the vast majority of men would 
 seem to regard as the very essence of life. He was 
 the frugal scholar to the very last. It is unnecessary 
 to labour this point. The man who for over fifty 
 years had made learning and not money his chief 
 aim, and who had made many sacrifices and 
 endured much hardship to maintain his independ- 
 ence, was not likely to turn sycophant and a time- 
 server all at once. It is surely all the more impos- 
 sible to believe this when the only proof adduced 
 is that he wrote pretty and complimentary verses 
 to his young and beautiful Queen. We have no
 
 THE POLEMIC 197 
 
 doubt that his critics have attempted something of 
 the same kind themselves; if not to the Queen of 
 the realm, then to the queen of their heart ; their 
 only regret being, that they failed where Buchanan 
 succeeded. Buchanan, indeed, would have been 
 singularly remiss in his duty if, as the poet of his 
 age, he had not written complimentary and even 
 flattering verses in honour of Mary. It was the 
 fashion of the times, besides. Kings, queens, and 
 great personages were addressed in terms which 
 indicated not so much what the writer believed 
 them to be, as what he hoped they might be. An 
 ideal was set before them which they were asked 
 to aspire to. It is in this light Buchanan's verses 
 should be regarded; and thus judged, their writer, 
 so far as this phase of his relations to Mary is 
 concerned, has very little to fear. 
 
 It is in the light of his age also that his Detectio 
 itself should be judged. It was an age in which 
 nothing was done by halves. In war as in love, 
 men were bold and fierce, and in controversy they 
 seldom veiled their feelings, but spoke out in a 
 manner which might be intolerable in the times in 
 which we live. The very title of the Detectio, as
 
 198 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 given in the Scots translation, is sufficiently startling. 
 "Ane Detectioun of the Duinges of Marie, Quene 
 of Scottes, touchand the murder of hir husband, 
 and hir conspiracie, adulterie, and pretensed mariage 
 with the Erie Bothwell; and ane Defence of the 
 trew Lordis mainteineris of the Kingis gracis, 
 actioun, and authentic." 
 
 Dr. Hume Brown, in referring to this point, says : 
 "It would be utterly uncritical to judge this per- 
 formance by present canons of taste and good 
 feeling. The Detectio, like all Buchanan's literary 
 work, must be judged by the standard it is necessary 
 to apply to all the productions of Humanism," and 
 he gives a quotation from Mr. R. C. Christie's 
 life of Etienne Dolet to mark the traditions of 
 Humanism in its mode of conducting controversy. 
 " It is impossible," remarks Mr. Christie, " to defend, 
 and difficult to excuse, the scurrility with which 
 Dolet speaks of the greatest scholar and the fore- 
 most man of letters of his age (Erasmus). All 
 that can be said in extenuation is that scurrility 
 of this kind was a common practice of the literary 
 men of the day in writing of their opponents ; that 
 we find it in men distinguished for their learning,
 
 THE POLEMIC 199 
 
 ability, and virtue ; and that, violent as the language 
 of Dolet appears, it is far less violent, far less 
 scurrilous, and far less unseemly than that which 
 Julius Csesar Scaliger used of the same great man, 
 or that which Luther applied to Henry vm. and 
 his other opponents, while it is absolutely moderate 
 in comparison with the language of Filelfo, of 
 Poggio, and of Valla." 
 
 But we need not after all go back to the Middle 
 Ages for specimens of invective that far outweigh 
 in violence anything ever penned by Buchanan : all 
 that we have to do is to refresh our memory with 
 the epithets which modern critics fling at him. 
 Some of these we have quoted ; but of one thing 
 we may be certain, that if he were alive, most, if 
 not all, of the choice expressions in which his enemies 
 characterise him and his work, would never have 
 been written. In their case, at any rate, the old 
 proverb, with a slight variation, is undoubtedly 
 true : " A living dog is more to be feared than a 
 dead lion." 
 
 Buchanan was one of the Commissioners who in 
 1568 accompanied the Earl of Moray to York, and 
 afterwards to London, for the purpose of placing the
 
 200 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 indictment against Mary before Elizabeth. The 
 writing of the Detectio was his share of the work. 
 While in London he would seem to have had 
 pleasant social intercourse with Elizabeth's great 
 Minister, Cecil, and his wife, to both of whom he 
 wrote verses. He had friendly relations also with 
 Roger Ascham, Elizabeth's classical tutor, and, 
 according to the habits of the times, they exchanged 
 complimentary verses. 
 
 On returning to Scotland, in the beginning of 
 1569, Buchanan resumed his duties as Principal of 
 St. Leonard's. The country, however, was in a very 
 unsettled state, and his work must have been con- 
 siderably interrupted by the conflict of parties. 
 The two factions that were for some years to plunge 
 the nation into civil war were gathering strength, 
 and the strife between them was, if short, to be 
 sharp and bitter. The King's party and the Queen's 
 party divided the country, and Buchanan, who had 
 committed himself to that side which championed 
 the cause of national freedom and constitutional 
 government, worked in the interests of the young 
 King, and employed his pen in his service. He 
 accordingly wrote two political pamphlets, "The
 
 THE POLEMIC 201 
 
 Admonitioun to the trew Lordis" and the "Cha- 
 maeleon," the only works that were written by him 
 in the vernacular. 
 
 The first was really an attack on the Hamiltons, 
 who thought that they saw in the present crisis a 
 chance of securing the throne for the head of their 
 house. They were playing fast and loose with 
 both parties, and were ready to take advantage of 
 any turn in the game that might be favourable to 
 their own cause. It was one of their number who 
 had killed the Earl of Moray, and they were the 
 hereditary foes of the house of Lennox, the head 
 of Buchanan's own clan. Buchanan, accordingly, 
 warns the Protestant Lords to beware of the 
 Hamiltons, whose history as political firebrands he 
 traces. The two parties of the King and Queen 
 might be regarded as patriotic, but the Hamiltons 
 were self-seekers, to whom the good of the nation 
 was as nothing compared to their own. 
 
 The second piece was an attack on Maitland of 
 Lethington. Its title, the " Chamaeleon," suggests 
 the changeable nature of the Secretary's character 
 and policy. He was a turncoat without moral 
 backbone. In those times of dead earnestness
 
 202 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 he was a light mocker who played the game 
 more for mischief than from any set purpose. 
 He had perhaps the cleverest brain of his day, in 
 Scotland at least ; but no one could depend upon him, 
 and at the moment when Buchanan wrote his satire 
 he was stealthily but steadily plotting for the Queen. 
 The writer sketches the ever-changing career of 
 Lethington, and holds him up to ridicule as an 
 unreliable statesman of whom any party might well 
 be quit. The Secretary heard of this production, 
 and, knowing how a satire by Buchanan would 
 expose him to the scorn of Europe, he made 
 every effort, even to raiding the printer's premises, 
 to prevent its publication. His efforts were not 
 without success ; the " Chamaeleon " was not printed 
 till 1710, although copies of it were in circulation 
 shortly after it was written. 
 
 Critics differ in their estimate of these two pieces. 
 As they are Buchanan's sole venture as a writer of 
 the Scots dialect, they are of value. They show 
 the stage which the vernacular had reached as an 
 instrument of literary expression, and Buchanan's 
 own power of handling it. What first strikes one 
 is the manner in which he forms his sentences. He
 
 THE POLEMIC 203 
 
 was evidently framing his style on classical models, 
 and while this helped him towards clearness it pre- 
 vented him from managing the language in that 
 independent and masterful way which characterises 
 the writings of Knox. Buchanan had not only 
 done all his writing in Latin, but most of his 
 thinking as well, and when he came to write in the 
 vernacular his work was more a translation than an 
 original production. All the same, that power of 
 thought and command over his ideas, which in the 
 end condition style, enabled him to write the ver- 
 nacular with clearness and force.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE TUTOR 
 
 T T was no fault of Buchanan's that James the Sixth 
 -* turned out to be the wisest fool in Christendom. 
 Whatever wisdom he had may justly, in part at 
 least, be attributed to Buchanan, while his folly was 
 all his own. It is as tutor to the young King 
 that Buchanan is chiefly associated in the minds of 
 his countrymen. He was appointed to this post 
 by the Privy Council in 1570 when James was only 
 four years of age, and he continued to act as the 
 young monarch's master and mentor for the next 
 eight years. Queen Mary was now a prisoner in 
 England and the Regent Moray was assassinated. 
 The loss of such a man was a serious blow to the 
 Government and a great grief to Buchanan. But 
 those in whose hands was the management of public 
 affairs were determined to resist to the death the 
 
 204
 
 THE TUTOR 205 
 
 return of the Queen, and to carry on the government, 
 in the name of the young King, in a constitutional 
 manner. 
 
 It was accordingly of the highest importance that 
 James should not only be well educated, but be care- 
 fully and wisely trained for his future position and 
 duties. These promised to be of the loftiest nature, 
 for he would in all probability be king not only 
 of Scotland, but of England and Ireland as well. 
 He was to be the greatest King, so far as the extent 
 of his dominions were concerned, that these Isles 
 had ever seen. It says much for the governors of 
 the nation that they saw and realised their responsi- 
 bilities. James was given into the safe keeping of 
 the Earl of Mar at Stirling Castle, and a number 
 of capable men, of whom Buchanan was the chief, 
 were appointed to train him. Four young nobles 
 were selected as companions for the King and to 
 receive instruction with him. Buchanan gave up 
 his Principalship of St. Leonard's and entered upon 
 his new duties with a deep sense of their importance. 
 His selection reflects credit on the Privy Council, 
 for he was not only a great scholar but an enlight- 
 ened publicist, who had ideas on the relations of a
 
 206 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 king to his people which were far in advance of 
 the times. It was these very ideas that the Scottish 
 people were trying to enforce by means of the 
 Revolution through which they were passing. They 
 only partially succeeded; another and a greater 
 Revolution had to take place before Buchanan's 
 ideas were to be fully realised. 
 
 The Privy Council were well aware of Buchanan's 
 opinions, and they probably hoped that along with 
 the Latin and Greek which he would be sure to 
 teach James, he would also implant in his mind true 
 conceptions of government. Their hopes were to be 
 disappointed. Buchanan discharged his trust and 
 taught the young monarch the way in which he 
 ought to govern a free people ; but James was a 
 Stuart, and a blind believer in that divine right of 
 kings which first brought his mother, and then his 
 son, to the scaffold. Buchanan was assisted in his 
 tutorial work by Peter Young, who steadily kept an 
 eye on his future. This placeman carefully avoided 
 offending the King, and he received in consequence, 
 and in due time, a Knighthood and a pension. 
 Buchanan was of a different spirit. So far as his 
 own advantage was concerned, he looked neither
 
 THE TUTOR 207 
 
 before nor after, and he discharged his duties in so 
 strict and unbending a way as to kindle the after 
 resentment of his pupil, who, while proud of having 
 had such an instructor, condemned his works and 
 would have destroyed his person. Sir James 
 Melville gives the following account of Buchanan's 
 relation to his pupil, throwing at the same time a 
 side light on Mr. Peter Young's attitude. "My 
 Lady Mar was wise and sharp, and held the King in 
 great awe, and so did Mr. George Buchanan. Mr. 
 Peter Young was more gentle, and was loath to 
 offend the King at any time, carrying himself warily 
 as a man who had a mind to his own weal by keeping 
 of his Majesty's favour, but Mr. George was a Stoick 
 philosopher who looked not far before him. A man 
 of notable endowments for his learning and know- 
 ledge of Latin poesie, much honoured in other 
 countries, pleasant in conversation, rehearsing at all 
 occasions moralities short and instructive, whereof 
 he had abundance, inventing where he wanted." 
 
 It is interesting to learn the extent and character 
 of the studies to which the young King had to apply 
 himself. Mr. Peter Young, whatever other good 
 thing he may have done in the world, has left a
 
 208 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 record of the tasks which were prescribed for his 
 royal pupil. After morning prayers he read Greek, 
 the New Testament, Isocrates, or Plutarch ; he was 
 also exercised in the rules of Grammar. After 
 breakfast he read Cicero, Livy, Justin, or modern 
 history ; in the afternoon he applied himself to com- 
 position, and, when time permitted, to arithmetic or 
 cosmography, which included geography or logic 
 and rhetoric. This, it must be admitted, was a 
 pretty extensive and thorough scheme of study for 
 a scholar of eight or ten. The method of cramming 
 which we associate with our own day was evidently 
 not unknown in the times of which we are speaking. 
 It ought to be noted, however, that those physical 
 exercises which are held to be so necessary for the 
 development of the modern youth were not neglected, 
 for two relatives of the Earl of Mar, David and 
 Adam Erskine, Commendators of Dryburgh and 
 Cambuskenneth, were appointed to superintend his 
 training in bodily exercises and accomplishments. 
 James's education was meant to be all-round and 
 thorough. Never did a royal youth get a better 
 chance, and it says much for the nation that what- 
 ever notions the King himself may have afterwards
 
 QUEEN MARY AND JAMES VI. 
 (From Lesley's History.}
 
 THE TUTOR 209 
 
 entertained, it at least had lofty conceptions of 
 what a Monarch ought to be in mind, body, and 
 character. 
 
 Buchanan has always received full credit for the 
 remarkable scholarship which James displayed, but 
 even he did not regard mere book-learning as the 
 highest accomplishment for a monarch. Like all 
 wise men, he laid the chief stress on right ideas and 
 character. In a poem addressed to Randolph, the 
 English Resident, he states his ideal of a prince. 
 " You often urge me to paint for you what manner 
 of King I should wish, were God to grant one 
 according to my prayer. Here, then, is the portrait 
 you want. In chief I would have him a lover of 
 true piety, deeming himself the veritable image of 
 highest God. He must love peace, yet be ever 
 ready for war. To the vanquished he must be 
 merciful, and when he lays down his arms he must 
 lay aside his hate. I should wish him to be neither 
 a niggard nor a spendthrift, for each I must think 
 works equal harm to his people. He must believe 
 that the King exists for his country and not for 
 himself, and that he is in truth the common father 
 of the State. When expediency demands that he
 
 210 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 shall punish with a stern hand, let it appear that he 
 has no pleasure in his own severity. He will ever be 
 lenient if it is consistent with the welfare of his 
 people. His life must be the pattern for every 
 citizen, his countenance the terror of evil-doers, the 
 delight of those that do well. His mind he must 
 cultivate with sedulous care, his body as reason 
 demands. Good sense and good taste must keep in 
 check luxurious excess." 
 
 This was no empty ideal that Buchanan cherished ; 
 he did his best to have it realised in the character 
 of his pupil. We have sufficient proof of this in the 
 remarkable Prefaces in which he dedicated to the 
 King three of his works, his Baptistes, his De Jure 
 Regni, and his " History." In these productions we 
 have Buchanan's views on government. In the first he 
 strikes a blow for liberty, in the second he lays down 
 the doctrine that a king exists for the people, and 
 in the third he illustrates his opinions by examples 
 taken from the history of his own nation. Nor did 
 he think that he had done his duty by writing these 
 works merely, he drives home their lessons in 
 Prefaces which the King, young as he was, could 
 not but understand. That James should in after
 
 THE TUTOR 211 
 
 years have failed to profit by the teaching of his 
 master was his own fault, or the fault of those who 
 swelled his vanity by making him believe in his 
 divine right. Buchanan may have had a presenti- 
 ment of the manner in which the King, when he 
 became his own master, might regard the views 
 which he was endeavouring to enforce. That James 
 did afterwards resent them, and did his best through 
 Parliament and otherwise to have them condemned, 
 we know ; indeed, it was only Buchanan's own death 
 that saved him from being tried at the instance of 
 his old pupil for sedition. It accordingly says all 
 the more for Buchanan that he neither " feared nor 
 flattered any flesh" however royal, but spoke the 
 truth, and strove to save the King and country from 
 that conflict which he saw was certain unless his own 
 views of a free and just government were endorsed 
 and practised. Buchanan's conduct as the King's 
 tutor is the best argument that can be used against 
 those who charge him with having been in his 
 relations towards Queen Mary a sycophant and 
 self-seeker. He could, if he had been of the same 
 moral build as " Mester Peter Young," have so in- 
 gratiated himself into the good favour of James as
 
 212 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 to have secured emoluments and promotion that 
 would have made his old age easy and comfortable. 
 'His reverence for truth, however, and his concern 
 for his King and country compelled him to make 
 every personal sacrifice. He had the reward which 
 usually falls to those who live and work for the 
 larger hope. He earned the ingratitude and resent- 
 ment of him for whom he toiled, but Time, the true 
 arbiter, has amply justified his conduct. 
 
 Anecdotes describing the relation between 
 Buchanan and his pupil have been handed down 
 to us. Even though they were not duly vouched 
 for, they are so characteristic that one is inclined 
 to accept them. 
 
 A quarrel sprang up one day in the class-room 
 between two of Buchanan^ pupils, the young King 
 and the Master of Mar. The dispute was about a 
 sparrow. The little bird belonged to Mar, and 
 James coveted it. The owner declined to give up 
 his property, and a scuffle ensued in which the poor 
 little bird was killed. The affair was reported to 
 Buchanan, who gave the young King a box on the 
 ear, and told him that " he himself was a true bird 
 of the bloody nest to which he belonged.""
 
 THE TUTOR 213 
 
 A study in composition was one day set to the 
 royal pupil. The theme was the conspiracy of the 
 Earl of Angus at Lauder Bridge during the reign of 
 James the Third. This was the occasion on which 
 the Earl gained for himself the nickname of Bell- 
 the-Cat. After dinner, when the King and young 
 Mar were amusing themselves, they made so great a 
 noise as to disturb Buchanan at his studies. He 
 requested the King to desist, but no attention was 
 paid to his command. He then declared that unless 
 he were obeyed he would enforce his orders with 
 something more telling than words. On this the 
 young Prince called out, But who will bell the cat ? 
 His master thereupon threw aside his book and so 
 severely chastised him that his wailing attracted the 
 Countess of Mar, who hastened to the scene of dis- 
 grace. She instantly demanded of Buchanan how 
 he dared to lay his hand upon the Lord's anointed ? 
 Buchanan's reply is recorded, but being more ex- 
 pressive than polite we shall leave it to the reader's 
 imagination. 
 
 One other anecdote may be mentioned. It is 
 given on the authority of Buchanan's nephew. 
 James in his early youth was much addicted to
 
 214 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 favouritism ; indeed, all through life he was a victim 
 to this weakness. His master determined if possible 
 to correct his pupil's conduct, and adopted the 
 following expedient. "He presented the young 
 King with two papers, which he requested him to 
 sign, and James, after having slightly interrogated 
 him respecting their contents, readily affixed his 
 signature to each, without the precaution of even 
 a cursory perusal. One of them was a formal 
 transfer of the regal authority for the space of 
 fifteen days. Having quitted the royal presence, 
 one of the courtiers accosted him with his usual 
 salutation, but he announced himself in the new 
 character of a sovereign, and with that humour 
 for which he was distinguished began to assume 
 the demeanour of royalty. He afterwards pre- 
 served the same deportment towards the King him- 
 self, and when James expressed his amazement at 
 such extraordinary conduct, Buchanan reminded 
 him of his having resigned the crown. This reply 
 did not tend to lessen the monarch's surprise, and 
 he began to suspect his preceptor of derangement. 
 Buchanan then produced the instrument by which 
 he was formally invested, and with the authority
 
 THE TUTOR 215 
 
 of a tutor proceeded to remind him of the absurdity 
 of assenting to petitions in so rash a manner." 
 
 James was a precocious youth, and very quickly 
 assimilated the instruction that was imparted to 
 him. His early acquirements are borne witness 
 to by two such capable observers as Killigrew, 
 Elizabeth's Representative in Scotland, and by 
 James Melville, Andrew's nephew. Killigrew visited 
 the King at Stirling, and his tutors, with the 
 laudable purpose of showing off their pupil's accom- 
 plishments and of duly impressing the mind of the 
 English Resident, called upon James to make " pretty 
 speeches " and to " translate a chapter of the Bible 
 from Latin into French, and from French into 
 English."" This he did, much to the satisfaction of 
 Killigrew. The young Prince was then asked to 
 dance before the visitor ; this he also did, " with a 
 very good grace." James Melville, who accom- 
 panied his uncle to Stirling when the latter wished 
 to consult Buchanan on some University matters, 
 was evidently more impressed than Killigrew by 
 James's ability and acquirements. The royal 
 scholar, at the bidding of his tutors, made a display 
 of his accomplishments similar to that which he
 
 216 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 gave before Killigrew. Melville's opinion is on 
 record: "It was the sweetest sight," he says, "in 
 Europe that day, for strange and extraordinary gifts 
 of ingine, judgment, memory, and language." " I 
 heard him discourse," he adds, "walking up and 
 down in the auld Lady Mar's land, of knowledge 
 and ignorance to my great marvell and astonish- 
 ment." Making every allowance for the fact that 
 this "sweetest sight" and infant prodigy was the 
 heir to the Scottish and English thrones, there 
 can be no doubt of James's remarkable facility in 
 acquiring knowledge. We are not surprised at the 
 great hopes which Buchanan entertained of his 
 future; but facility in acquiring knowledge is one 
 thing, character and judgment are another, without 
 which all the knowledge in the world is as nothing. 
 
 There can be no doubt that James's very re- 
 markable acquirements made an impression on his 
 countrymen, to begin with at least, and in particular 
 on his English Courtiers. A careful critic like 
 Mark Pattison admits that he " was the only 
 English Prince who carried to the throne knowledge 
 derived from reading or any considerable amount of 
 literature," and this opinion is confirmed by later
 
 THE TUTOR 217 
 
 investigations. But, notwithstanding this admis- 
 sion, James's knowledge was superficial, and it only 
 tended to make him a pedant instead of a wise man. 
 His Scottish subjects had very little respect for him, 
 and he was tolerated in England not on his own 
 account, but chiefly because through him the country 
 had escaped from the iron rule of the Tudors. 
 
 On certain occasions when it suited his purpose 
 James spoke well of Buchanan, but his general 
 attitude towards his preceptor's memory was hostile 
 in the extreme. When at the Scholastic Conference, 
 which was held before his Majesty at Stirling, an 
 English Doctor who chanced to be present expressed 
 his admiration at the King's command of the Latin 
 tongue. "All the world," replied James, "knows 
 that my master George Buchanan was a great 
 master in the faculty. I follow his pronunciation 
 both of the Latin and Greek, and am sorry that my 
 people of England do not the like, for certainly 
 their pronunciation utterly spoils the grace of these 
 two learned languages. But you see all the Uni- 
 versity and learned men of Scotland express the true 
 and native pronunciation of both." 
 
 The King's unfavourable opinion of Buchanan
 
 2i 8 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 was no doubt chiefly due to his master's views on 
 civil government and his opinion of Queen Mary, 
 the King's mother. The severe discipline to which 
 Buchanan subjected James, while not originating 
 would very probably add to his quondam pupil's 
 inimical feelings towards him, for of a certain 
 personage James in after years was wont to say that 
 he " ever trembled at his approach, it minded him 
 so of his pedagogue." This inclination to belittle 
 Buchanan, and to destroy if possible his reputation, 
 was encouraged by his Courtiers, who wished to gain 
 his favour by feeding his vanity and condemning 
 those whom he disliked. " I cannot fail to present 
 to your Majesty," said no less a person than Lord 
 Bacon, " the unworthiness of the History of England 
 in the main continuance thereof, and the partiality 
 and obliquity of that of Scotland in the latest and 
 largest author that I have seen." Buchanan's 
 reputation has survived the animosity of his royal 
 pupil, and shines much brighter in the annals of 
 History than that of James himself. 
 
 Buchanan has been charged with creating that 
 character, in James which his own and after ages 
 have so severely condemned. It is suggested that if
 
 THE TUTOR 219 
 
 his master had been more patient and sympathetic 
 with him, he might have fostered in the soul of his 
 pupil those high ideals which he himself entertained. 
 To this it may be answered that Buchanan had a 
 very poor nature to deal with. Greatness of soul 
 can be guided and developed, but not created by 
 even the most painstaking and sympathetic of 
 masters. Buchanan, we have seen, was popular with 
 the young, and in one instance at least he had 
 great credit with an old pupil ; we refer to the son 
 of the Marechal de Brissac. In the Prefaces in which 
 he dedicates several of his writings to the King we 
 have evidence of the careful and even anxious 
 manner in which he tried to inspire the mind of 
 James with high ideals ; and while his utterances are 
 frank and pointed he regards his pupil in a kindly 
 spirit, and even with admiration and hope. The 
 truth is, James was not cast in a great mould ; he was 
 little by nature, and like all small-minded men he 
 turned round in the end upon him who strove to 
 impress upon him a high conception of his duties. 
 
 Buchanan held his post as tutor to the King until 
 his death in 1582. For a number of years, however, 
 he must have delegated his duties to Peter Young
 
 220 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 and others. Indeed in 1578, after the fall of Morton, 
 James emerged from the stage of tutelage and 
 shook himself free not only of his tutors but for a 
 time of the Regent as well. Buchanan was appointed 
 to other posts. The Regent Lennox made him 
 Director of Chancery and afterwards Keeper of the 
 Privy Seal. This office, which he held till 1578, 
 gave him a seat in Parliament. He was also one of 
 a Commission appointed to codify the civil and 
 municipal laws. These various offices, while they 
 did not make exorbitant demands on his time, 
 invested him with considerable influence, and bore 
 evidence of the respect and confidence of his 
 countrymen.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE POLITICIAN 
 
 TDUCHANAN was essentially a man of letters, 
 *-^ and it was more by circumstances than by 
 temperament that he was drawn into the vortex of 
 religious reform and politics. He acquitted himself 
 with credit in the two last spheres of activity, as he 
 did with distinction in the first, but his mental 
 bent and early training pointed to his life's work as 
 a scholar. We have seen the part he played as a 
 Churchman, and we have now to consider his position 
 and conduct as a politician. 
 
 Knox, and at a later date Andrew Melville, were 
 both great public characters. They bulked in the 
 eyes of the nation not only as churchmen but as 
 politicians of the first rank. In other words, their 
 influence upon the nation affected its secular as well 
 as its religious interests, and they endeavoured to 
 
 221
 
 222 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 guide its general policy towards a definite end. 
 Buchanan in his own sphere was greater than either 
 of them, and it is as a man of letters that he stands 
 or falls ; but it says not a little for him that in the 
 public duties which he undertook he displayed both 
 talent and energy, and accomplished work of 
 permanent value. 
 
 There can be no doubt that his position as tutor 
 to the young King made him a man of importance 
 in the eyes both of his own country and of foreign 
 nations as well. His influence in forming the 
 religious and political beliefs of James was felt to be 
 very considerable, and he was approached by the 
 lovers of the new faith and by the upholders of 
 constitutional government to bring up the young 
 prince as a Protestant and the representative of a 
 limited monarchy. He endeavoured, as we have 
 seen, to discharge his duty in both respects, and 
 James's failure to respond to his teaching was not his 
 fault. As tutor to the King and as one of a council 
 of twelve for the direction of the Prince's conduct, he 
 resisted the policy of Morton, who as Regent made 
 every effort to gain possession of the person of the 
 King. He also impressed the emissaries of Queen
 
 THE POLITICIAN 223 
 
 Elizabeth as one of the eminent Scotsmen whose 
 favour was worth securing. They classified him 
 among the Biencontents of the third class, that is, 
 persons who " were not commended by the Regent, 
 yet by others thought meet to be entertained."" 
 We can well understand why Morton should not 
 have recommended Buchanan to Cecil as one of 
 those who might be useful in fostering friendly 
 relations with England. Morton and he did not 
 see eye to eye on various subjects, such as the 
 policy that should be pursued with regard to 
 the Church and the independence of the young 
 King in relation to the Regent ; but the opinion of 
 those who were supposed to know, set some store on 
 Buchanan's influence ; and his services, if he were 
 willing to render them, were valued at a pension of a 
 hundred pounds by the English Court if he cared to 
 accept of it. Whether he or any of the others to 
 whom larger or smaller pensions were assigned, 
 after the fashion of the times, ever received them, 
 we cannot tell. 
 
 It is, however, not so much as an active politician 
 as by his views on government that Buchanan takes 
 a place among those who have influenced national
 
 224 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 affairs on a large scale. It is as an author that 
 he, in this sphere, as in every other, comes promin- 
 ently into view. In 1579 he published a work 
 on civil government which caused a very consider- 
 able stir in his own day and for a century after- 
 wards. Indeed, it gave rise to as keen and wide- 
 spread a controversy as the Detectio itself. 
 Buchanan, probably without intending it, turned 
 the political world of his own day upside down, 
 and the echo of the strife which his book produced 
 is still heard in the air. The work we refer to is 
 his well-known dialogue on the Rights of the Crown 
 in Scotland, De Jure Regni apud Scotos. 
 
 From the Preface, in which he dedicates the 
 book to King James, we learn the occasion on which 
 it was written. He says that it was composed " at 
 a time when the affairs of the nation were in a 
 most turbulent condition," and that his intention 
 in writing it was " to explain the reciprocal rights 
 and privileges of Kings and their subjects.' 1 This 
 must have been about the year 1570, or perhaps 
 somewhat earlier, when Moray with his fellow- 
 Commissioners returned from England. The policy 
 which had been followed by those who took upon
 
 THE POLITICIAN 225 
 
 themselves the responsibility of government after 
 the murder of Darnley, had been subjected to 
 hostile criticism both at home and abroad, and 
 just as in his Detectio Buchanan defended the action 
 of the Protestant Lords in their treatment of Mary, 
 so now in his De Jure he challenges the criticism 
 of the whole world regarding their conduct in 
 relation to those questions of constitutional govern- 
 ment which had been raised. The book, he tells 
 the King, had lain almost forgotten among his 
 papers. He was wishful at the time to repress 
 its publication on the ground of public concord, 
 but having recently lighted on it he deemed its 
 publication expedient, in the hope that it might 
 contain "many precepts necessary to his tender 
 age, and at the same time testify to his own zeal 
 to his service, and admonish him of his duty to the 
 community." 
 
 In his work Buchanan follows the Socratic 
 method. He discusses the subject in the form of 
 an imaginary dialogue between himself and Thomas 
 Maitland of Lethington, the younger brother of 
 Secretary Lethington, whom he satirised in the 
 " Chamaeleon." Young Maitland is represented as
 
 226 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 newly arrived from France, and Buchanan is anxious 
 to hear news from the land which had been his 
 home for so many years, particularly the opinion 
 generally entertained of recent transactions either 
 by the French or by such strangers as he had met 
 in France. " For I was sufficiently aware," he con- 
 tinues, " that the novelty of the events, as is usually 
 the case, must have furnished occasion and materials 
 for universal discussion." Maitland replies that the 
 conduct of the Scots in the murder of Darnley and 
 in the subsequent treatment of Mary was freely 
 criticised and condemned. To this comes the reply 
 that murder must be punished, and if Mary was 
 found guilty of her husband's death, she, even 
 though a Queen, must be tried by the same laws 
 as would condemn the meanest of her subjects. 
 
 The argument of the dialogue may be briefly 
 stated. Buchanan holds that man is by nature a 
 social animal, and that the diseases of the body 
 politic require a physician, who is the King, and 
 whose duty it is to preserve the health of the State 
 or to restore it. But how does a King come into 
 existence ? He is chosen by the people, is subject to 
 their will, and a body of laws is framed for his guid-
 
 THE POLITICIAN 227 
 
 ance. He is placed in his exalted position to admin- 
 ister the laws and to mete out equal justice. It is 
 not the King who makes the laws, but the people. 
 He simply acts as interpreter. Tyrants are kings 
 who hold the power in defiance of the people, and 
 place themselves above the law. The Scottish kings 
 have always been subject to the will of the people, 
 who in several instances dethroned or banished 
 them. On being crowned, the Scottish kings swear 
 to preserve the laws of their country, by which their 
 authority is limited. When St. Paul enjoins obedi- 
 ence to the higher powers, he means the principle 
 of authority, and not individual rulers. A king, if 
 he transgresses the law, should be judged by it, 
 even though the penalty be death ; if he defies the 
 law, he has broken his compact with the people, 
 who are within their right in slaying him. 
 
 These views, familiar as they are to us, descended 
 as a thunderbolt on the heads of absolute rulers 
 and the defenders of divine right in Buchanan's day. 
 They cannot be said to be new, for they find free 
 expression in the writings of classical antiquity, and 
 the Greek and Roman States frequently put them 
 into practice. But immediately previous to the
 
 228 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 Reformation there would seem to have been an 
 emulation among crowned heads as to which would 
 rule most autocratically, and it was in the interest of 
 this species of absolute government that Machiavelli 
 wrote The Prince. This production, which called 
 forth numerous rejoinders, simply raised the very 
 question which it tried to settle. The principles 
 which lay at the root of Humanism and the Re- 
 formation struck at civil right as well as mental 
 and spiritual freedom. They brought up for dis- 
 cussion and settlement the citizen's relation to the 
 State as well as man's relation to thought and to God. 
 But the questions which in the sixteenth century 
 called for practical settlement had their antecedents 
 far back in the past. Just as Luther and his fellow- 
 Reformers had their precursors in Hus, Jerome of 
 Prague, Wycliffe, and others, so Buchanan and those 
 who along with him discussed the rights of the 
 people in relation to their sovereigns, gave expres- 
 sion to ideas which had been subject to a long 
 process of development. Professor Flint, in his 
 masterly work on the History of the Philosophy of 
 History, gives a full and luminous sketch of the 
 evolution of the ideas of progress and of freedom,
 
 THE POLITICIAN 229 
 
 from the earliest times until they began to be 
 embodied in those scientific works on history 
 with which the main body of his book deals. The 
 student of Buchanan, although he had no other 
 aid to guide him, could, from a reading of Dr. 
 Flint's work, trace the links in the chain which 
 connect the De Jure with the earliest reflections on 
 human life and liberty. Dr. Hume Brown, as one 
 would expect, takes up the same theme, especially 
 in its bearing on Buchanan's work, and gives a very 
 helpful sketch of the different writers who paved 
 the way for the civil Revolution of the sixteenth 
 century. Full justice is done to the Humanists 
 who, inspired by their classical models, contended 
 for those rights for which the best spirits of the 
 ancient world fought and died. The Christian 
 Church had also its share in the defence of human 
 right against absolutism, for it arrogated to itself 
 the right of excommunicating any ruler who defied 
 the authority, which it maintained was inherent in 
 it as God's vicegerent. It thus placed the kingdom 
 of heaven, as represented by itself, above any 
 earthly empire, and preached the doctrine that 
 kings must govern in accordance with the will of
 
 230 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 God. During the Middle Ages many voices, such 
 as those of Gregory of Tours, Isidore of Seville, 
 John of Salisbury, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, 
 and others, gave clear utterance to the same ideas, 
 insisting on the freedom of the citizen, the subjec- 
 tion of the ruler to the will of the people, and the 
 right of a nation to depose a tyrant and, if needs 
 be, cause him to be slain. 
 
 It was not, however, till the Reformation that 
 any serious attempt was made to have these ideas 
 put into force. In Germany, owing to the States 
 that were chiefly affected by the new doctrine sup- 
 porting Luther, there was no real conflict between 
 the people and the reigning prince. In France it 
 was different, and Calvin had to draw up with 
 extreme care that part of his Institutes which deals 
 with the relation of the Christian citizen to the 
 government of the country. Protestantism as de- 
 fined by him, and accepted by the mass of its 
 adherents, was a law-abiding religion ; but in certain 
 circumstances representative authorities were ad- 
 mitted to be entitled to defend, even at the risk 
 of civil war, the rights of the people against a 
 tyrannical prince.
 
 THE POLITICIAN 231 
 
 It was in Scotland that these principles found 
 their first practical illustration, and to it is due the 
 credit of striking the first blow for that liberty 
 which heralded in the new age. The position of 
 Knox is familiar to most readers ; the political 
 pamphlets which he wrote, immediately before his 
 final return to his own country, clearly reveal his 
 views on this important subject. Indeed, at an 
 earlier period, he had formed definite opinions on 
 the rights of the members of the Commonwealth, 
 and these were so far advanced that Calvin hesitated 
 to accept them. In his famous interview with 
 Queen Mary, when this very question was raised, 
 he boldly stated that if a Prince should overstep 
 the limits of his authority he should be forcibly 
 seized and kept under restraint until his mad frenzy 
 had left him ; and further, should discipline fail to 
 bring him to a right state of mind, the nation would 
 be quite within its rights in depriving him of his 
 power. 
 
 Knox would no doubt be influenced by the spirit 
 of the age and by the special significance which the 
 Reformed Faith attached to human personality. 
 He must also have been brought into touch with
 
 232 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 continental thinkers whose views on individual right 
 and liberty were beginning to take definite shape. 
 But there can be no question that the writer who 
 directly influenced him was his old master John Major, 
 whom Professor Masson characterises as the "first 
 Scottish Radical, 1 ' and who in his "History" laid 
 it down that " as it was the people who first made 
 kings, so the people can dethrone them when they 
 misuse their privileges " ; and again, " as it is for the 
 benefit of the whole body that an unhealthy member 
 is removed, so is it for the welfare of a State that 
 a tyrant should be cut off/' Major as a theologian 
 was a Schoolman. He was practically uninfluenced 
 by the Humanism which inspired Buchanan, but as 
 a political thinker he evidently held views which 
 anticipated and paved the way for the bolder 
 doctrines of his successors. Buchanan's De Jure 
 was not after all so startlingly fresh as might at 
 first be imagined ; the stir which it caused arose 
 from the fact that what had previously been pro- 
 mulgated as a theory was now taking practical 
 shape. It was no rose-water revolution that it 
 advocated, but one of fire and blood. 
 
 That it did cause considerable commotion, almost
 
 THE POLITICIAN 233 
 
 immediately after his publication, is seen from the 
 eagerness with which it was welcomed by some, and 
 the drastic measures for its suppression that were 
 taken by others. One of his correspondents on the 
 Continent, writes him to the effect, that so keen was 
 the desire to see his book on the part of such men 
 as Sturm, Hotman, and others, that it was borrowed 
 the very moment of its arrival, and that he had 
 since been unable to procure a reading of it. The 
 attitude of the ruling powers in Buchanan's own 
 country was very different. In 1584, two years 
 after the author's death, the De Jure and the 
 " History " were condemned by an Act of Parliament, 
 and all copies were confiscated. Eighty years later, 
 in 1664, and again in 1688, when the storm that 
 had been brewing for a century was coming to a 
 height, the Privy Council issued a proclamation 
 prohibiting the circulation of manuscript transla- 
 tions of the De Jure, and in 1688 the University 
 of Oxford did Buchanan the honour of publicly 
 burning his political writings along with those of 
 Milton and others. Dr. Irving gives a detailed 
 and interesting sketch of the controversy that con- 
 tinued to be waged over Buchanan's famous dialogue.
 
 234 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 The political commotion which it occasioned convulsed 
 the country for two centuries. If it has now ceased 
 to interest, it is because the positions for which it 
 contended have become part and parcel of the 
 constitution of the country. 
 
 There are different opinions regarding the in- 
 trinsic merits of Buchanan's work. Dr. Hume 
 Brown, for instance, does not rank it very high as 
 a scientific discussion of the important subject with 
 which it deals. He places it in this respect on a 
 much lower level than Bodin's Republic and even 
 than the Franco-Gallia of Francis Hotman. These 
 two works were in a sense epoch-making, and Pro- 
 fessor Flint speaks of them with the warmest praise. 
 But it ought to be remembered that Buchanan's 
 tract was written for a special purpose. Its object 
 was to justify the nation's conduct towards Mary, 
 and to prove that the action which had been taken 
 was in accordance with the constitution of the 
 realm. He resented the criticism of foreign nations, 
 and it is with a defiant note that the work begins 
 and ends. Buchanan was not a philosopher nor a 
 jurist in the scientific acceptation of the term, he 
 was primarily a man of letters, and all his writings
 
 THE POLITICIAN 235 
 
 bear the impress of his bright and lucid mind. He 
 did not discuss first causes, but was content to treat 
 any subject which he handled as the cultured scholar 
 and thinker. This tract is no exception, and its 
 almost perfect form and style had not a little to do 
 with its immediate and continued success. It was 
 enough for Buchanan that he proved his thesis; 
 and his Dialogue found its justification in inspiring 
 Milton's famous Defence of the People of England, 
 and in the subsequent fulfilment at every point of 
 the political doctrines which it taught.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE HISTORIAN 
 
 T) UCHANAN departed in one respect from the 
 -*-* example of his classical models. He took 
 upon himself the role of the historian as well as the 
 poet. The great writers of the ancient world confined 
 themselves, as a rule, either to prose or to poetry ; 
 indeed this is true of the most distinguished authors 
 of all times, and it seems on the first blush a some- 
 what bold and hazardous undertaking for Buchanan 
 to challenge the opinion of the world on his merits 
 as a writer of prose as well as of verse. It cannot 
 be said that he had already done so by his Detectio 
 or his De Jure, for the first was a popular brochure, 
 written for an immediate purpose, and the second had 
 been cast aside and had lain all but forgotten among 
 his papers. His Rerum Scoticarum Historia was de- 
 liberately conceived and elaborately worked out, 
 
 236
 
 THE HISTORIAN 237 
 
 and upon it, more perhaps than even on his De 
 Sphcera, he believed that his fame would rest. 
 His position as a poet was now an assured one, and 
 it says much for his courage and confidence that he 
 was prepared to risk his great literary reputation 
 by the production of a historical work on a large 
 scale. 
 
 It is evident that the first thought of the work 
 did not originate with himself. In the Preface, in 
 which he dedicates the book to the King, he gives 
 an account of the manner in which the task was sug- 
 gested to him. He says : " When, after a peregrina- 
 tion of twenty-four years I had at length returned 
 to my native country, the first object of my care 
 was to collect my papers dispersed by the malignity 
 of former times and in many respects exposed to 
 improper treatment. For partly by the undue 
 partiality of my friends, by whom they were pre- 
 maturely published, partly by the immoderate licence 
 which printers, assuming the character of censors, 
 exercise with respect to other men's works, I find 
 many passages changed, chiefly according to their 
 respective fancies, and some vilely corrupted. 
 
 " While I was attempting to remedy these incon-
 
 238 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 veniences, the sudden entreaties of my friends 
 disordered all my plans. For all of them, as if they 
 had conspired with each other, exhorted me to re- 
 linquish those performances of a more trivial nature 
 which rather soothe the ear than inform the mind, 
 and to occupy myself in writing the history of our 
 own nation. This occupation, they urged, was worthy 
 of my age, and of the expectations concerning me 
 which my countrymen had formed ; and no other 
 subject presented stronger incentives of praise, or 
 promised to confer a more lasting reputation. 1 " He 
 further justifies the undertaking on the ground of 
 the importance of the subject, and by the fact that 
 no one had hitherto done it full justice. He sees 
 in it also what should be of inestimable value to 
 James himself, for he considers it a shame that 
 while the King was familiar with the history of 
 other countries he should remain ignorant of that 
 of his own. Besides, the great historical personages 
 with whom he would have to deal would, from their 
 respective conduct and character, afford the young 
 monarch guidance in the conduct of public affairs ; 
 and, in fine, the work would somewhat atone for 
 his own inability, owing chiefly to infirm health, to
 
 THE HISTORIAN 239 
 
 discharge his duties as tutor to the young Prince 
 with the faithfulness that he had desired. 
 
 The last twenty years of his life were chiefly 
 devoted to this work. He discharged many other 
 duties, as we have seen, of both a personal and 
 public nature, and not a little of his time would be 
 taken up in the revision and publication of his 
 collected works. In letters written during this 
 period to Randolph and other friends, he bemoans 
 his infirm health, and expresses a fear that he might 
 not after all be able to finish the task which he had 
 set himself. An unfortunate delay also took place, 
 from some documents either not being available or 
 having gone amissing, but with that indomitable 
 perseverance which characterised him, he struggled 
 on, and brought down his history to the death of 
 the Regent Lennox in the year 1571. Sir James 
 Melville finds in Buchanan's silence as to the 
 Regency of the Earl of Morton an additional proof 
 of the historian's hatred of the Earl. This, we 
 contend, is very slight evidence from which to draw 
 so definite a conclusion. Morton was not, even on 
 Melville's own showing, the most pure minded and 
 unworldly of men ; on the contrary, he was admit-
 
 240 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 tedly avaricious and cruel. Indeed, it is possible 
 that he imputes his own opinion to Buchanan, for 
 the latter speaks of Morton without asperity, and 
 discusses his actions in the most judicious manner. 
 The truth probably is, that Buchanan's " History " 
 ends with the Regency of Lennox, because the 
 writer had neither time nor strength to continue it 
 any farther. He was busy with the proof-sheets on 
 his deathbed. In his case his work and his life 
 ended together. 
 
 Buchanan was not the first who attempted to 
 write the History of Scotland. He had precursors 
 in Fordun, Boece, and Major, but he felt that full 
 justice had not been done to the subject. This 
 opinion was evidently shared by many others, and 
 the thought that upon him rested the burden of 
 putting a true face on Scottish affairs, from the 
 earliest times to his own, would prove an incentive 
 to produce a work that would show him at his best. 
 Whatever opinion may be held of his " History, 11 no 
 one has hazarded the remark that in it Buchanan 
 has fallen below himself. From beginning to end 
 it is written with a vigour, a clearness, and a terse- 
 ness that would be difficult to surpass. It is well
 
 THE HISTORIAN 241 
 
 proportioned, and graced by a diction which 
 makes the narrative singularly attractive. It is 
 written in Latin, and while this is unfortunate, in 
 view of the present ignorance on the part of his 
 countrymen of that language, it was fortunate at 
 the time, for it made the whole of Europe familiar 
 with Scottish history. Indeed, up till the beginning 
 of the eighteenth century, it was widely read, but 
 since then, owing to the decline in the knowledge 
 of Latin, and to fresh Histories of a more scientific 
 nature having appeared, it has been superseded. 
 Of few books of a similar character can it be said 
 that they have held the field for nearly two centuries. 
 Those who disparage Buchanan's work might do 
 well to bear this in mind. 
 
 It is rather singular that the first of the twenty 
 books of which his " History " is composed, is the one 
 which has been received with the warmest com- 
 mendation. At all events, his latest formal bio- 
 grapher, regarding Buchanan's production in the 
 light of the modern scientific conception of history, 
 says that " this chapter is in some respects the most 
 valuable of his whole work." It anticipates, though 
 
 unconsciously on the writer's part, the idea of 
 16
 
 242 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 climatic influence on the inhabitants of a nation. 
 He describes in detail, and from the careful observa- 
 tion of an eye-witness, the physical condition and 
 social habits of the people, especially those of the 
 western islands. The question of the origin of the 
 different races that compose the Scottish nation is 
 then taken up. He passes by as fiction many of 
 the legends which " Scottish vanity " had induced 
 some of his predecessors to accept as truth, and 
 gives copious and on the whole not inapt quotations 
 from ancient writers in support of his belief that 
 at the dawn of history the original inhabitants of 
 the whole island were Britons, Picts, and Scots. 
 Following Boece with a too confiding trust, he briefly 
 sketches the history of those legendary kings whose 
 existence had really no place except in the brain of 
 Scottish romancers. It is true that he prunes down 
 Boece's list somewhat, but he gives enough of it to 
 provoke the attack of Bishop Lloyd, who says, 
 not without humour, "Boece put these monks 1 
 tales into the form of a History, and pieced them 
 out with a very good invention, that part in which 
 he chiefly excelled. Buchanan put them into ex- 
 cellent Latin ; he could have put them into as good
 
 THE HISTORIAN 243 
 
 verse if he had pleased ; and that had perhaps been 
 better, for then they would have looked more like a 
 poem." 
 
 Buchanan shows his superiority over his predeces- 
 sors in his more critical account of the Roman 
 occupation, and differs from them with regard 
 to his estimate of the early religious history of 
 Scotland. Reformer as he was, he could not but 
 view with dislike the intention and teaching of St. 
 Augustine, who introduced into the simple and 
 Apostolic practices of the Church of St. Columba, 
 the ritual of Rome. He brushes aside as a specimen 
 of the " English lies," which it was one of the aims 
 of his work to controvert, the supposition that 
 Athelstane was king of the whole of Britain, thus 
 holding Scotland in suzerainty. He fails to see 
 the significance of the reign of Malcolm, and of 
 the influence upon the Church and country which 
 resulted from that monarch's marriage with Margaret, 
 who had been brought up at the court of her great- 
 uncle, Edward the Confessor, and who was followed 
 into Scotland by many English emigrants. He has 
 nothing but praise for David, and, while dating from 
 his reign the dawn of Scottish literature, he agrees
 
 244 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 with Major in regretting his impoverishment of the 
 Crown for the sake of the Church. His patriotism 
 rises to its full height in his account of the heroic 
 deeds and wise statesmanship of Wallace and Bruce. 
 The death of James the Second, with the dispute 
 that arose over the Regency, gives him an occasion 
 for stating his views regarding female rule. The 
 Queen-Mother was desirous of acting as Regent 
 during the minority of her son James the Third. 
 Buchanan puts into the mouth of Archbishop 
 Kennedy his views on this subject, which agreed 
 with those of Knox ; and as this oration of Ken- 
 nedy's is held to be the finest bit of writing in his 
 whole work, we shall give an extract from it. It 
 is too long to be quoted in full, but the exordium 
 will give an idea of its quality as a whole. 
 
 "Illustrious nobles, I earnestly desire that all 
 who intend to speak on the affairs of the Common- 
 wealth, may be allowed to deliver their sentiments 
 freely and without offence; because, were observa- 
 tions meant for the public advantage, to be viewed 
 in the light of personalities, in our present circum- 
 stances, it would be difficult to utter a sentence, 
 amid such different aims and conflicting sentiments,
 
 THE HISTORIAN 245 
 
 which would not incur the displeasure of some of 
 the parties. As for myself, in delivering my senti- 
 ments, I shall, as far as I can, give no one cause 
 to complain unless he be guilty. But while I 
 shall use the liberty I claim as my birthright, 
 moderately, so as not willingly to offend, at the 
 same time I shall not, through fear to displease or 
 a wish to flatter, pass any argument which can bear 
 upon the present question. 
 
 " I perceive there are two opinions which prevent 
 our concord. The one is held by those who think 
 that what belongs to the advantage of all, ought 
 to be left to the choice of all, and as all are met 
 to give their suffrages respecting an office which 
 embraces the safety of the whole kingdom, it is 
 unjust to exclude any one from the hope of attain- 
 ing that station, who attempts it by fair and 
 honourable means. The other is supported by 
 those who think injustice would be done to the 
 Queen, an illustrious princess and most accom- 
 plished lady, unless she should be preferred before 
 every other, to watch over the safety of her son, 
 and exercise the administration of the kingdom. 
 The sentiments of the first, which I decidedly
 
 246 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 prefer, I shall notice last. The opinion of the 
 others I approve so far. 
 
 " They think it derogatory to the dignity of the 
 Queen, that anyone should come in competition 
 with her for this honour, lest her rank, which 
 ought to be esteemed, as it is in fact, most sacred, 
 might seem to be degraded by contending with 
 inferiors, and if this were a dispute about honour 
 alone, and not about the safety of the kingdom, I 
 should willingly and entirely accede to their senti- 
 ments ; but when we are to determine a question 
 to-day, which involves the life and fortune of every 
 private individual, and the general preservation of 
 the whole nation, I think all private interests should 
 yield to this grand consideration, and therefore I 
 earnestly request those who thus think, so to 
 remember the dignity of the Queen, that they do 
 not meanwhile forget the laws, the venerable in- 
 stitutions, and the general welfare of the country. 
 If they can show that the laws allow, and public 
 expedience admits of the tutelage of the King, and 
 the Regency of the kingdom being vested in the 
 Queen, they shall have my support ; but if what 
 they claim be pernicious to the public, destructive
 
 THE HISTORIAN 247 
 
 to the laws, and disgraceful to the Queen, I hope 
 her highness first, and all loyal subjects will pardon 
 me, if while I would protect and hold sacred the 
 rank and dignity of the Queen, so far as the laws 
 and customs of our ancestors permit I do not 
 conceal what I think, or rather I speak freely, what 
 I cannot suppress without a crime." 
 
 Buchanan was only six years of age when James the 
 Fourth died, but he repeatedly assures us that for many 
 of the facts stated in his account of that monarch's 
 reign he had the testimony of eye-witnesses. His 
 narrative, accordingly, from this period onwards may 
 be regarded as practically that of a contemporary. 
 Its value for that reason can never be discounted ; 
 the worst that can be said of it is, that the writer 
 looked at the events which he records and the 
 motives which he discovers through prejudiced eyes. 
 He certainly had his likes and dislikes, and took a 
 strong position against a person or a party when 
 he was convinced that they were wrong. His 
 record is of additional value from the fact that he 
 was on intimate terms with many of the prime 
 movers in the stirring events which he narrates, 
 and that his knowledge and experience enabled him
 
 248 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 to understand better than most the matters which 
 he helped to settle and which he afterwards 
 described. 
 
 Every allowance should be made for the bitter- 
 ness with which he writes of Cardinal Beaton, for 
 that ecclesiastical dignitary was Buchanan's arch- 
 enemy, and to him more than anyone else were 
 due the hardship and misery of the poet's earlier 
 life. The Cardinal made his native land impossible 
 for Buchanan, and his malice pursued him through 
 England and France to Portugal. The personal 
 equation ought, perhaps, to have no place in 
 history, but the writer's estimate of Beaton does 
 not stand alone, it is supported by documentary 
 evidence and by historians whose judgment is 
 unbiassed. The house of Hamilton was equally 
 detested by Buchanan ; the reason is found by 
 some in the long-standing feud which existed 
 between the Earl of Lennox, Buchanan's own 
 chief, and the Hamiltons. Allowance must of 
 course be made for the old clan feeling and the 
 feudal relation which in those days unconsciously 
 coloured a man's view of movements and events. 
 But making every concession on this point, the
 
 THE HISTORIAN 249 
 
 Hamiltons played a somewhat ignoble part during 
 this period of Scottish history. They had always 
 an eye on the throne, and the shifting policy which 
 they pursued was dictated by personal ambition 
 and interest. 71 The events which followed the 
 arrival of Queen Mary from France, especially the 
 Revolution after the murder of Darnley, are 
 recorded by Buchanan from the standpoint 
 which he had already adopted in his Detectio 
 and De Jure, and call for no further comment. 
 His sense of fairness, even with regard to the chief 
 actors in these great affairs, is admitted by his 
 opponents. His estimate of the character of Mary 
 of Guise is just and even sympathetic, and all that 
 could possibly be said in defence of the Queen of 
 Scots own conduct is narrated by him in the message 
 which he credits Mary with having despatched to 
 the Court of France. 
 
 Judged by modern standards, Buchanan's "History" 
 may appear in many respects defective, but he is 
 not to be blamed for failing to be in advance of 
 his own times. His conception of History was 
 that of the Humanists, who took the masterpieces 
 of the ancient world as their models. Viewed in
 
 250 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 relation to them, the work of the great Scotsman 
 was worthy of the unstinted applause with which 
 it was at first received. The scientific or philosophic 
 conception of History, with which we are familiar, 
 was unknown to the ancients. They believed that 
 all that was required of them was a clear narrative 
 of events. They were for the most part uncon- 
 scious of the demand which is made upon the 
 Historian to probe causes, to discover motives, to 
 unravel the tangled web of national life, and to 
 show how there is a progress and a development 
 which again find their explanation in a higher 
 unity. It may be true that about the very time 
 when Buchanan was writing his " History," a school 
 of thinkers, with Bodin as its leader, was springing 
 up in France which was to originate this deeper 
 and modern conception of History. Buchanan was 
 no doubt too old to adopt it ; his mental training 
 and habits were against it. He was a poet and a 
 man of letters, who in later life was drawn into 
 the vortex of political contention. His work, 
 accordingly, must be judged in the light of his 
 ideals, his character, and his preparation for his 
 task. If he failed to see the full significance of
 
 THE HISTORIAN 251 
 
 what he recorded, or was blind to the full bearings 
 of the great movements of his own day, if, to judge 
 from the few and brief references that are made to 
 Knox, he did not foresee the ampler estimate that 
 future generations would pass upon him, the ex- 
 planation is to be found in those conditions 
 which limited the writer's insight and outlook 
 more than in any real defects in Buchanan 
 himself. 
 
 Much has been said in various quarters of the 
 inaccuracies of Buchanan's " History." Recent in- 
 vestigation has shown that they are not so numerous 
 as was at one time supposed. True, he was not a 
 critical, any more than he was a scientific or 
 philosophic historian ; possibly he did not test the 
 value of documents as we are accustomed to do, 
 but it would be a mistake to forget that he had 
 access to sources of information which are not now 
 available. He had too strong convictions and too 
 deep feelings to treat History in a purely objective 
 manner, but he was too honest a man to wilfully 
 misrepresent facts, and too sane a thinker to 
 believe that truth could be vindicated or the 
 course of events diverted by a mis-statement of
 
 252 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 them. Indeed, one of the chief aims of his History, 
 as we have seen, was to controvert " English lies " 
 and to prick the bladder of " Scottish vanity " ; 
 that he did not entirely succeed is simply to say 
 that he was human. His work, however, made it 
 easier for his successors to carry out his intention 
 more fully ; so that even from this point of view it 
 was not in vain. 
 
 He is also accused of prejudice. This is true, 
 if to be prejudiced is to be the champion of what 
 one believes to be right, and the condemner of 
 what one holds to be wrong. A man's moral 
 sense may of course be blunted or perverted by 
 partisanship, passion, or personal pique. Very few 
 are entirely free of some subjective quality which 
 more or less impairs their power of seeing the 
 truth as it really is. Buchanan was no exception. 
 He felt perhaps more keenly than most, and did 
 not hesitate to express his convictions. His 
 judgment of Queen Mary is held up as his great 
 offence in this matter, but his view of the rights 
 of the Crown and his belief in Mary's guilt inevit- 
 ably led him to the conclusions which he had 
 formed. If he expressed his opinions too strongly,
 
 THE HISTORIAN 253 
 
 let that be regarded as a failure in manners and 
 not in morals. 
 
 Buchanan in a letter to Randolph says: "As 
 for the present, I am occupied in writing of our 
 history, being assured to content few and to dis- 
 please many thereby." This forecast of the recep- 
 tion which was likely to be accorded to his work 
 was only partially verified. It was cordially 
 welcomed on its appearance, and passed rapidly 
 through several editions. Many of the best spirits 
 of the time welcomed it on its own account and 
 for the sake of its author. Hallam, at a later 
 date, praises its purity of language. "It is 
 written," he says, "with strength, perspicuity, and 
 neatness." "Few modern histories," he further 
 remarks, "are more redolent of an antique air." 
 The writer's anticipation of the unfavourable recep- 
 tion it would obtain on the part of a certain section 
 of the public was not, however, altogether un- 
 warranted. The political views which it advocated 
 were very distasteful to those who believed in the 
 divine right of kings, and James himself was 
 indignant at the theories which it promulgated, 
 and at its frank criticism of the conduct of his
 
 254 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 own mother. One result of this opposition was, 
 as we have seen, its condemnation by Parliament 
 in 1584; but it survived the storm and leavened 
 the thought of the nation. It undoubtedly played 
 its part in enlightening the public mind on those 
 constitutional questions which are at the root of 
 all civil government. Its importance in this respect 
 cannot be overrated. This, along with the writer's 
 narrative of the events of his own time, which was 
 that of a contemporary, and in not a few instances 
 of a witness, will always, apart from the intrinsic 
 merits of the work itself, cause Buchanan's "History " 
 to be taken account of by every author who attempts 
 to tell the story of the Scottish nation.
 
 THE FRIEND 
 
 r I S HE biographer of Buchanan is under the dis- 
 -*- advantage of not possessing those materials 
 of a personal and Ultimate nature which throw more 
 light on the character of a man than any formal 
 document, however reliable. Familiar memoirs and 
 letters in which special reference is made to him on 
 the part of contemporaries are not very numerous, 
 and he himself was characterised by a native reserve 
 which interfered with that free communication of 
 thought and emotion that reveal the true inwardness 
 of a man. Samuel Johnson would never have been 
 the figure that he is in English literature had it 
 not been for Boswell, who minutely recorded the 
 conversations of the dictator, and drew a portrait 
 of him not only as the great writer, but as the man 
 
 of moods, and whims, and fancies. The age of 
 
 H
 
 256 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 Memoirs had just begun. Had Buchanan lived 
 even half a century later, fuller knowledge of a 
 personal nature regarding him would no doubt be 
 in our hands ; but fortunately in the two gossiping 
 Memorials of the times that we possess, those of 
 Sir James Melville of Halhill and of James Melville, 
 Andrew's nephew, traits of character are recorded 
 which bring Buchanan before us as a living reality, 
 and not as a mere shadowy simulacrum. Sir 
 James's sketch has already been given ; it is to be 
 accepted with reservation. The other, Melville's 
 interview with Buchanan, will find a place in our 
 concluding chapter. 
 
 From these and other testimonies, we find in 
 Buchanan that simplicity and honesty of character 
 which lie at the root of all true friendship. If our 
 study of his life and work has been sound and just, 
 we must see in him those qualities which, if they 
 did not on the first blush attract men and win their 
 confidence, would in the end attach to him kindred 
 and worthy natures whose trust he would never 
 betray. Indeed, this is what we do find. 
 
 His life must have been lonely in many respects, 
 but very few men of his own day had so many and
 
 THE FRIEND 257 
 
 so distinguished friends. Nor do we hear of any of 
 them falling away or turning against him, with the 
 exception of those whom he necessarily estranged 
 by the side which he took in the popular crusade 
 against Queen Mary, and even they must have been 
 few in number. The friends of his youth and 
 manhood remained constant to the very end, and 
 addressed him in terms of respect and admiration 
 such as are accorded only to those who have proved 
 worthy. We have seen how Knox spoke of him, 
 and his regard, in turn, for the great Reformer was 
 equally sincere. Andrew Melville revered him as 
 his master, and the Earl of Moray treated him as a 
 personal friend. We have also seen how at the very 
 beginning of his career he drew to him some of the 
 finest spirits and greatest scholars in the University 
 of Paris ; and as his fame spread the number of 
 admirers increased, and their admiration soon passed 
 into a close and loyal friendship. A glance at his 
 poems is sufficient to show the warm response he 
 made to their devotion. He paid back in golden 
 coin their loyal homage. 
 
 The chief editor of Buchanan's works publishes 
 forty-one letters that passed between him and his 
 1 7
 
 258 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 friends. Only fourteen of these are by Buchanan. 
 The correspondence shows the wide circle of his 
 friendship and the high position in the world of 
 letters which his friends occupied. Their names 
 have already occurred in the course of this narra- 
 tive, and it may be unnecessary to repeat them 
 again, but when we find among them such men 
 as Beza, Gouvea, Turnebe, Tycho Brahe, Scaliger, 
 Sturm, Randolph, Ascham, Languet, and others, the 
 list of European celebrities of the time in the field 
 of scholarship is pretty well exhausted. All of 
 them write to Buchanan in terms of affection and 
 reverence, and he replies with a simplicity and 
 directness which show his letters to be no studied 
 or formal productions, but the intimate correspon- 
 dence of a friend. Indeed, as Dr. Hume Brown 
 points out, that is a very marked feature of 
 Buchanan's letters. They were not written for 
 effect, as was the habit then and for a good time 
 afterwards; they were the respectful and kindly 
 communications of one who had something to say, 
 and said it in the simplest and most direct manner 
 possible. He was not a correspondent of the type 
 of Erasmus, He did not go raging or wailing over
 
 THE FRIEND 259 
 
 Europe taking the whole world into his confidence. 
 His Scottish reserve would not allow him to carry 
 his heart on his sleeve. This, of course, prevents 
 his letters from being so informative or interesting 
 as those of Erasmus. The world is so much the 
 poorer on that account, but it is doubtful if 
 Buchanan's character or reputation has suffered 
 thereby. We would not, all the same, wish 
 Buchanan or Erasmus to be other than he was. 
 
 One of the most pleasing features in these letters 
 is the deep interest which Buchanan had in the 
 young Scottish scholars who were pursuing their 
 studies on the Continent. He writes to his friends 
 who were on the teaching staff of the Institutions 
 where these lads were studying, soliciting their 
 interest on their behalf, and when he himself is 
 asked to render similar service to any foreigner 
 visiting Scotland, the request was evidently not 
 made in vain. 
 
 It may serve our purpose best to give, instead of 
 going through the correspondence as a whole, two 
 letters from the collection, one addressed to him 
 by Hubert Languet, and another by Buchanan him- 
 self to his old friend and former colleague, Elias
 
 26o GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 Vinet. They will afford an indication of the relation 
 that existed between Buchanan and his friends, and 
 the manner in which they addressed each other. 
 
 Languet was a man after Buchanan's own heart, 
 at once Humanist and Reformer, with a sagacity and 
 judgment which gave him considerable influence 
 with the Elector of Saxony and the Prince of 
 Orange. He was a Frenchman, but his religious 
 opinions compelled him to seek refuge in Germany. 
 He travelled much, and latterly made Holland his 
 home. He died at Antwerp in September 1581. 
 The letter is somewhat long, but well worth quoting 
 almost in full. 
 
 "By your virtue, and by the various and noble 
 monuments of your genius, you have rendered your- 
 self so conspicuous in the Christian world, that 
 hardly a single lover of science and literature can be 
 found who does not regard you with the utmost 
 reverence and admiration. I consider it as an 
 instance of no common felicity, that about twenty 
 years ago it was my lot not only to see you at 
 Paris, and to enjoy your most pleasant and most 
 learned conversation, but also to entertain you as 
 my guest, together with those distinguished men,
 
 THE FRIEND 261 
 
 Turnebe, Dorat, and some others. We then heard 
 you discuss various subjects in a manner which 
 tended very much to our edification and delight. 
 To these circumstances I now allude, for the purpose 
 of trying whether I can suggest to your recollection 
 who I am : but whoever I am, assure yourself of 
 my being a wann admirer of your virtue. For 
 several years I lived with Philip Melanchthon, and 
 I then seemed to myself to live happily. 
 
 " Having after his decease been exposed to various 
 chances, I have at length betaken myself to these 
 regions, as to a haven more secure than any other 
 that I could find, notwithstanding their having been 
 agitated for many years by the storms of civil war. 
 Even amidst these warlike tumults, the light of the 
 gospel shines forth ; to us is announced the doctrine 
 which points out the true path of salvation ; and 
 while the Spaniards threaten destruction, the super- 
 stition which infects their minds is expelled from 
 the churches. It was the Prince of Orange, the 
 great ornament of our age, who commanded me to 
 accompany him to this place. Supported by the 
 vigour and acuteness of his mind, he has hitherto 
 maintained such a contest with the formidable power
 
 262 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 of the Spaniards, as has procured him immortal 
 glory. After having under his auspices severed 
 their tyrannical empire, these provinces have happily 
 constituted various republics and churches, which, 
 being closely leagued together, have hitherto resisted 
 the attacks of the enemy. The King of Spain 
 having for several years endeavoured without success 
 to overwhelm him by force, has at length resorted 
 to weapons which do not seem altogether worthy of 
 so great a monarch ; he has issued an edict in which 
 he pronounces sentence of prescription, and en- 
 deavours, by proposing rewards, to impel assassins 
 to accomplish his murder. Since many falsehoods 
 are there alleged against him, he has been advised 
 by his friends to publish an apology, for the purpose 
 of vindicating his innocence against the calumnies 
 of the Spaniards. This apology I transmit to 
 you. 
 
 " During the winter, I have lived in these puddles 
 of the Dutch, which nature seems rather to have 
 intended for the habitation of frogs and eels than 
 of men. This town is, however, very handsome ; 
 and at the distance of three hours 1 journey stands 
 Ley den, or Lugilunum Batavorum, as they now
 
 THE FRIEND 263 
 
 speak, the residence of Justus Lipsius, Janus Dousa 
 the poet, and Donellus the French jurisconsult, men 
 of learning and celebrity. From the vicinity of 
 this town we have a prospect of Rotterdam ; a 
 prospect which not only recalls to my memory the 
 great Erasmus, in whom it glories as a citizen, but 
 also you: for I cannot sufficiently express my 
 astonishment, that such horrid places should produce 
 men to whose talents neither our own age, nor that 
 of our fathers or grandfathers, has exhibited a 
 parallel. Erasmus was invited to instruct the youth 
 of Ferdinand, brother to the Emperor Charles, but 
 he declined this employment. I account you more 
 fortunate and virtuous in not having refused to aid 
 your country, when it called you to imbue the 
 King's tender mind with those precepts which, being 
 observed in his riper years, will secure the happiness 
 and prosperity of himself, and of all those to whom 
 his dominion extends. I am very anxious to learn, 
 provided it should not be disagreeable to you, when 
 you shall publish your "Scottish History." From 
 Melville, an excellent man, you may know the state 
 of my affairs. Farewell."" 
 
 Viuet, to whom Buchanan addresses the following
 
 264 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 letter, was his colleague at the College de Guyenne, 
 Bordeaux, and subsequently at Coirabra in Portugal. 
 They had been friends in youth, and after nearly 
 half a century of toil and trouble they were friends 
 still. It was the last letter but one of which we 
 have any record that Buchanan wrote, and de 
 Thou, to whom Vinet showed it, says "it was 
 written in a trembling hand but magnanimous 
 spirit." 
 
 " Upon receiving accounts of you by the mer- 
 chants who returned from your coasts, I am filled 
 with delight, and seem to enjoy a kind of second 
 youth ; for I am apprised that a remnant still sur- 
 vives of our notable Portuguese expedition. As 
 I have now attained to the seventy-fifth year of 
 my age, I sometimes call to remembrance through 
 what cares and toils I have sailed past all those 
 ports which men commonly regard as pleasing, and 
 have at length struck upon that rock beyond which 
 (as the ninetieth Psalm very truly avers) nothing 
 remains but labour and sorrow. The only consola- 
 tion which now awaits me, is to pause with delight 
 on the recollection of my friends, of whom you are 
 almost the only one who still survives. Although
 
 THE FRIEND 265 
 
 you are not, as I presume, younger than me in 
 years, you are yet capable of benefiting your country 
 by your exertion and counsel, and even of prolonging, 
 by your learned compositions, your life to a future 
 age. But I have long bade adieu to letters. It is 
 now the only object of my solicitude that I may 
 remove, with as little noise as possible, from a 
 generation with which I am no longer in sympathy ; 
 that I, as one dead, may leave the haunts of the 
 living. 
 
 " In the meantime, I transmit to you the youngest 
 of my literary offspring, in order that when you 
 discover it to be the drivelling child of age, you 
 may be less anxious about its brothers. I under- 
 stand that Henry Wardlaw, a young man of our 
 nation, and the descendant of a good family, is 
 prosecuting his studies in your seminary with no 
 inconsiderable application. Although I am aware 
 of your habitual politeness, and you are not ignorant 
 that foreigners are peculiarly entitled to your atten- 
 tion, yet I am desirous he should find that our 
 ancient friendship recommends him to your favour." 1 
 
 The one man, so far as any evidence remains, with 
 whom Buchanan during the latter part of his life
 
 266 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 was on the most friendly footing, was Sir Thomas 
 Randolph, the English resident at the Scottish 
 Court. They knew each other on the Continent, 
 and their friendship was renewed after Buchanan's 
 return to his native land. It was largely owing to 
 pressure on the part of Randolph that Buchanan 
 wrote the Latin Sketch of his Life, and in the few 
 letters that remain of their correspondence we get 
 some glimpses, brief but luminous, of Buchanan 
 when, in friendly undress, so to speak, he indulged 
 in those witty and humorous sallies for which he 
 was noted. No better specimen of this vein in his 
 genius has been preserved than a letter from him 
 to Randolph, first printed by Dr. M'Crie in the 
 Appendix to his Life of 'Andrew Melville. 
 
 The English resident who had risked matrimony 
 for the second time, had evidently been urging his 
 old friend to renounce bachelorhood, and, partic- 
 ularly in view of his growing infirmities, to take 
 a wife. To this, and to other matters, Buchanan 
 replies in the following letter, which in addition to 
 its value as a bit of self-revelation, shows us how he 
 could write in the original Scots :
 
 THE FRIEND 267 
 
 To HIS SINGULAR FREYND M. RANDOLPH M AISTER OF 
 POSTES TO THE QUEINES G. OF INGLAND. IN 
 LONDON. 
 
 "I resauit twa pair of lettres of you sens ray 
 latter wryting to you. wyth the fyrst I ressauit 
 Marianus Scotus, of quhylk I thank you greatly, 
 and specialy that your ingles men are fund liars in 
 their cronicles allegying on hym sic thyngs as he 
 never said. I haif beyne vexit wyth seikness al the 
 tyme sens, and geif I had decessit ye suld haif losit 
 both thankis and recompens, now I most neid thank 
 you bot geif wear brekks vp of thys foly laitly done 
 on the border, than I wyl hald the recompense as 
 Inglis geir. bot gif peace followis and nother ye 
 die seik of mariage or of the twa symptomes follow- 
 ing on mariage quhylks ar jalozie [and] cuccaldry, 
 and the gut carry not me away, I most other find sum 
 way to pay or ceis kyndnes or ellis geifing vp kynd- 
 ness pay zou w* evil wordis, and geif thys fasson of 
 dealing pleasit me I haif reddy occasion to be angry 
 wyth you that haif wissit me to be ane kentys man, 
 quylk in a manner in ane centaur, half man half 
 beast, and yit for ane certaine consideration I
 
 268 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 wyl pas over that iniury, imputyng it erar to your 
 new foly than to aid wisdome, for geif ye had beine 
 in your ryt wyt ye being anis escapit the tempestuous 
 stormes and naufrage of mariage had never enterit 
 agane in the samyng dangeris. for I can not take 
 you for ane Stoik philosopher having ane head 
 inexpugnable w* the frenetyk tormetis of Jalozie, 
 or ane cairless [margin, skeptik] hart that taks 
 cuccaldris as thyng indifferent. In this caise I most 
 neidis praefer the rude Scottis wyt of capitaine 
 cockburne to your inglis solomonical sapience, 
 quhylk wery of ane wyfe deliuerit hir to the queyne 
 againe, bot you deliuerit of ane wyfe castis your self 
 in the samyn nette, et ferre potes dominam saluis 
 tot restibus ullam. and so capitaine cockburne is in 
 better case than you for his seiknes is in the feitte 
 and youris in the heid. I pray you geif I be out of 
 purpose thynk not that I suld be maryit. bot 
 rather consider your awyn dangerous estait of the 
 quhylk the spoking has thus troublit my braine and 
 put me so far out of the way. As to my occupation at 
 the present tyme, I am besy w* our story of Scotland 
 to purge it of sum Inglis lyis and Scottis vanite ; as 
 to maister knoks his historic is in hys friendis hands,
 
 THE FRIEND 269 
 
 and thai ar in ctisultation to mitigat sum part the 
 acerbite of certaine wordis and sum taintis quhair in 
 he has followit to much su of your inglis writairs as 
 M. hal et suppilatorem eius Graftone, &c. As to M. 
 beza I fear y* eild quhylk has put me from verses 
 making sal deliure him sone a Scabie poetica, 
 quhylk war ane great pitye for he is ane of the most 
 singular poetes that has beine thys lang tyme. as 
 to your great prasyng gevin to me in your Ire geif 
 ye scorne not I thank you of luif and kyndnes 
 towart me, bot I am sorie of your corrupt iugement. 
 heir I wald say mony iniuries to you war not yat 
 my gut comandis me to cesse and I wyl als spair 
 mater to my nixt writings. Fairweall and god 
 keip you. At Sterling the Sext of august. 
 " Be youris at al power, 
 
 " G. BUCHANAN."
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE END 
 
 IN the letter quoted in the last Chapter which 
 Buchanan wrote to his friend and former col- 
 league Vinet, he speaks of himself as an old man whose 
 interest in life was rapidly passing away. He was 
 then in his seventy-fifth year, having, as he forcibly 
 puts it, " in my voyage of life at length struck on that 
 rock beyond which, as it is most truly said in the 
 ninetieth Psalm, nothing remains but labour and 
 sorrow." Indeed, he had only one year more to live ; 
 and this letter was most probably written in the 
 last house occupied by him, and the one in which 
 he died. This was in Kennedy's Close, the second 
 close off the High Street of Edinburgh above the 
 Tron Church. His lodging, according to George 
 Paton the antiquary, was in the first court in the 
 close on the left hand, " first house in the turnpike 
 
 870
 
 THE END 271 
 
 above the tavern there." This lodging, remarks 
 Sheriff Campbell Smith, " occupied some few cubic 
 feet of space, probably about twelve feet above the 
 existing causeway blocks of Hunter Square, an 
 entirely vanished pile of tall, substantial, over-popu- 
 lated masonry, part of the crest of the High Street, 
 once standing within a quarter of a mile of the 
 vanished garden in which Darnley was found dead 
 in his shirt without mark of violence, still nearer 
 to the site of the vanished house in which Walter 
 Scott was born, and to the vacant air space once 
 filled by Johnny Dowie's vanished tavern, in which 
 during his Edinburgh sojourn Robert Burns was 
 wont to make merry with select friends." Here 
 Buchanan busied himself with seeing his " History " 
 through the press, and here he received a visit in 
 September of 1581, a year before his death, from 
 Andrew and James Melville and Buchanan's own 
 cousin, Thomas Buchanan, who "crossed from St. 
 Andrews to Edinburgh with the express purpose 
 of visiting the old scholar." James Melville has 
 given in his Diary an account of the interview, 
 which in the opinion of Dr. Hume Brown "is 
 not only a vivid page of biography, but has in
 
 272 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 it a strain that reminds us of Plutarch at his 
 best." 
 
 "That September in tyme of vacans, my uncle 
 Mr. Andro, Mr. Thomas Buchanan, and I, heiring 
 that Mr. George Buchanan was weak and his Historic 
 under the pres, past ower to Edinburche annes 
 errand, to visit him and sie the wark. When we 
 cam to his chalmer we fand him sitting in his chaire, 
 teatching his young man that servit him in his 
 chalmer to spell a, b, ab ; e, b, eb, etc. Efter 
 salutation, Mr. Andro sayes, ' I sie, sir, yie are nocht 
 ydle. 1 
 
 " ' Better this,' quoth he, ' nor stelling sheipe, or 
 sitting ydle, quhilk is als ill. 1 
 
 "Therefter he schew us the Epistle Dedicatorie 
 to the King, the quhilk, when Mr. Andro had read, 
 he tauld him that it was obscure in sum places, and 
 wanted certean words to perfyt the sentence. 
 
 "Sayes he, 'I may do na mair for thinking on 
 another mater. 1 
 
 " ' What is that ? ' sayes Mr. Andro. 
 
 " * To die ! ' quoth he ; * bot I leave that and manie 
 ma things for you to helpe. 1 
 
 " We went from him to the printar's work house,
 
 THE END 273 
 
 whom we fand at the end of the 17 bulk of his 
 Cronicle at a place quhilk we thought verie hard 
 for the tyme, quhilk might be an occasion of stey- 
 ing the haill wark, anent the buriall of Davie [Rizzio]. 
 Therfor, steying the printer from proceiding, we 
 cam to Mr. George again, and fund him bedfast 
 by [contrary to] his custome, and asking him whow 
 he did, ' Even going the way of weilfare,' sayes he. 
 Mr. Thomas, his cusing, schawes him of the hardness 
 of that part of his Storie, that the King wald be 
 offendit with it, and it might stey all the wark. 
 
 " ' Tell me, man,' sayes he, < giff I have tauld the 
 treuthe ? ' 
 
 " ' Yis,' sayes Mr. Thomas ; ' sir, I think sa. 1 
 " ' I will byd his fead and all his Kins, then,' quoth 
 he : ' Pray, pray to God for me, and let him direct 
 all. 1 
 
 "Sa, be the printing of his Cronicle was endit, 
 that maist lerned, wyse, and godlie man, endit this 
 his mortall lyff." 
 
 A little later, when the end was drawing near, 
 another interview took place, this time between 
 Buchanan and his own servant, which is quite as 
 
 characteristic of the old scholar as the one just 
 18
 
 274 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 recorded, and which bears out Sir James Melville's 
 description of him as "a Stoick philosopher, who 
 looked not far before him. 11 
 
 " When Buchanan was dying, 11 so runs the story 
 as told by Mackenzie in his Lives of Scots Worthies, 
 " he called Mr. Young, his servant, and asked him 
 how much money he had of his ; and finding that it 
 was not sufficient for defraying the charges of his 
 burial, he commanded him to distribute it among 
 the poor. Upon which Mr. Young, asking who then 
 would be at the charges of burying him, he answered 
 that he was very indifferent about that, for if he 
 was once dead, if they would not bury him, they 
 might let him lie where he was, or throw his corpse 
 where they pleased ; and that accordingly the city of 
 Edinburgh was obliged to bury him at their own 
 expenses. 11 
 
 Other stories have gathered round Buchanan's 
 deathbed, two of them credibly vouched for, and 
 they are so characteristic of the man that little 
 doubt has been entertained of their truth. That 
 persecution of his memory which in after years 
 exhibited itself in the condemnation of his opinions 
 and the burning of his books, almost overtook him
 
 THE END 275 
 
 before he died. The authorities had even gone the 
 length of summoning him to answer for something 
 objectionable in his writings, but he was unmoved. 
 " Tell the people who sent you," was his reply to the 
 macer of the Court of Session who came on the 
 errand, "that I am summoned to a higher 
 Tribunal." A Presbyterian minister, one John 
 Davidson, visited him for the purpose of strength- 
 ening his faith, should it be drooping, and confirm- 
 ing him in the doctrines of the Reformed religion. 
 He gave the necessary assurance, and gratified the 
 good Presbyter's soul with a humorous sally at the 
 expense of the Romish doctrine of the Mass. 
 
 The end came on the 28th of September 1582. 
 The Town Council of Edinburgh manifested no 
 unseemly delay in burying their distinguished 
 citixen. The funeral took place on the following 
 day, which was a Saturday, and it was "attended 
 by a great company of the faithful." Buchanan 
 judged right in predicting a public funeral, so far at 
 least as the expenses were concerned. He left nothing 
 but his pension, and that, as was not unfrequent, had 
 not been paid. He was buried in the grounds of 
 Greyfriars, which had recently been opened up as a
 
 276 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 cemetery, and he was the first " person of celebrity " 
 to find a resting-place there. A stone without an 
 inscription would seem to have been the only monu- 
 ment that was erected to mark his grave. After a 
 time it disappeared, and on being discovered was 
 made use of as a tombstone for a gravedigger. A 
 humble blacksmith erected a tablet, at his own 
 expense, where Buchanan is supposed to be buried. 
 More recently a monument, in the shape of a large 
 pedestal, with a life-sized bust, was erected in another 
 part of the churchyard. This, with a memorial 
 window in old Greyfriars Church, an obelisk in 
 Killearn, and a bust in the Wallace Monument at 
 Stirling, is all that Scotland has done to show its 
 appreciation of its greatest scholar, and one of its 
 most outstanding personalities. 
 
 Many portraits exist of Buchanan, and several 
 descriptions of his appearance have been handed 
 down to us. He had the head of a scholar, dome- 
 shaped ; and his features, especially the mouth and 
 chin, betoken strength and character. He is said to 
 have been " austere in face and rustic in his looks, but 
 most polished in style and speech, and continually, 
 even in serious conversation, jesting most wittily."
 
 THE END 277 
 
 " Rough hewn," says Peacham in his Compleat 
 Gentleman, speaking of him as he appeared in his 
 old age, "in his person, behaviour, and fashion, 
 seldom caring for a better outside than a rugge- 
 gown girt close about him ; yet his inside and 
 conceit in poesy was most rich, and his sweetness and 
 facilities in verse most excellent." " He was," says 
 Sir James Melville, "pleasant in conversation, 
 rehearsing at all occasion moralities, short and 
 instructive, whereof he had abundance, inventing 
 where he wanted." According to Daniel Heinsius, 
 " he was one who seemed not only born for a 
 court, but born to amend it. He brought to his 
 Queen that at which she could not wonder 
 enough. For by affecting a certain liberty in 
 censuring morals, he avoided all offence under the 
 cloak of simplicity." 
 
 These passages give us not only a description 
 of Buchanan's appearance, but some idea of the 
 esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries. 
 Reference has already been made to the high opinion 
 that was formed of his abilities and character by 
 some of the leading scholars of his day, and that 
 opinion was reiterated by not a few of their distin-
 
 278 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 guished successors, such as Roger Ascham and Sir 
 Philip Sidney in the sixteenth century, and by Milton 
 and Cowley in the seventeenth. Dryden, at a later 
 date, declared that as a " historian he was compar- 
 able to any of the moderns, and excelled by few of the 
 ancients." Warton characterised him as " a popular 
 modern classic. 11 " What would you have said, 1 ' 
 inquired a certain Scotsman once of Dr. Johnson, 
 " had Buchanan been an Englishman ? " " Why, Sir, 11 
 replied the great dictator, " I should not have said, 
 had he been an Englishman, what I will say of him 
 as a Scotchman, that he was the only man of genius 
 whom his country ever produced. 11 Johnson^ opinion 
 was probably not far wrong, if we take into account 
 the time at which it was given. Hume, Adam 
 Smith, Burns, Scott, and Carlyle had not as yet taken 
 their place among the Dii majores of literature, and 
 Buchanan was certainly at the time the chief repre- 
 sentative of the Scottish nation in the world of 
 letters. " The Scottish genius," remarks Mr. James 
 Hannay, " had brairded before his day, but had never 
 ripened into grain to be eaten as bread. It was he 
 who made us famous, from the Vistula to the Tagus, 
 and gave us a national name in literature by his pen,
 
 THE END 279 
 
 as Bruce had given us a national name in the politics 
 by his sword." 
 
 It was certainly by his genius that Buchanan 
 accomplished all this. The popular idea of him as 
 a great Latin scholar, who could equal the Romans 
 themselves in his mastery over their tongue, could 
 never of itself have gained for him the position 
 which he held, and still holds, in the world of letters. 
 Nor was he a mere philologist, like Scaliger or 
 Casaubon, who expended all their force in the 
 critical elucidation of classical authors. He was a 
 thinker as well as a scholar, and his wealth of ideas 
 and power of observation saved him from being a 
 mere pedant. He made use of the Latin language 
 as a means for expressing in literary form his 
 reflections on men and things. We agree with Dr. 
 Hume Brown's estimate of him as a man of letters, 
 who was more concerned in criticising, expounding, 
 and influencing the thought of his time than in 
 presenting to his contemporaries a corrected and 
 pure text of the writers of classical antiquity. His 
 knowledge of the ancient writers and of the language 
 in which they wrote was, to say the least, equal 
 to that of the first scholars of his time, but he
 
 280 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 found a higher use for that knowledge. Just as the 
 greatest poets, who are masters of the language in 
 which they write, make use of it for the purpose of 
 conveying their highest thought, and not as the 
 ground for writing dictionaries or works on syntax 
 or prosody, so Buchanan was content to leave the 
 useful though humbler task of the enlightened 
 grammarian to others, preferring to devote himself 
 to the higher work of interpreting to the age in 
 which he lived its own ideals and destiny. 
 
 Buchanan, besides, differentiated himself from the 
 majority of his literary contemporaries by being a 
 man of affairs. He took a practical interest in the 
 movements of the times, and played his part in 
 carrying to a successful issue the questions in which 
 he was interested. This is particularly true of the 
 last part of his career. He associated himself with 
 Knox and his fellow-Reformers in putting the 
 affairs of the Church on a business footing, and 
 with Moray and the other progressive politicians in 
 carrying through the Revolution which followed on 
 the deposition of Mary. His interest in education 
 was wholehearted and continuous. Indeed, it may 
 be said that the training of youth was the serious
 
 THE END 281 
 
 business of his life. He began his active career as 
 Regent in Ste. Barbe, and he ended it as tutor to 
 King James. The fact of him being thus a man of 
 the world, in the best sense of the word, gave a 
 reality to his writings which they might not other- 
 wise have possessed. It may be true that many of 
 the subjects on which he wrote were artificial and 
 ephemeral ; they were topics of the hour, or chosen 
 at the promptings of that Humanism which, to a 
 large extent, found its themes in the past. But in 
 Buchanan's handling of them there is a touch of 
 common sense which gives them an air of reality 
 even still. It is, however, when he deals with ques- 
 tions which were of vital and practical concern, or 
 which were true to the intellect and imagination, 
 that we find him at his best, and on the rare 
 occasions on which his genius spreads its wings we 
 find it soaring to heights that can only be reached 
 by the greatest. 
 
 It may be difficult to say in what particular form 
 of writing he chiefly excelled. As a matter of fact 
 he shone in everything he attempted. This is 
 saying a great deal, for in poetry alone he wrote 
 on every kind of theme, and attempted every variety
 
 282 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 of metre. In the opinion of some he excelled as a 
 satirist; but his satire was not of that light vein 
 which we associate with Aristophanes and Horace, 
 but of the strong and serious sort represented by 
 such writers as Juvenal and Swift. His masculine 
 intellect, sardonic humour, and intense earnestness 
 lent themselves to a production like Franciscanus, 
 his chief example in this form of writing. But, as 
 we have seen, he could, on occasion, be as playful 
 and light and witty as Horace, and he was able, as 
 in his Ode on the " First of May," to give rein to 
 imaginative powers that give him a title to take a 
 place in the higher ranks of poetry. As a writer 
 of prose he aimed at clearness and force, seldom in- 
 dulged in rhetorical flourishes, and if in his " History " 
 there be purple patches they are spontaneous and 
 not manufactured. 
 
 Buchanan found himself at the meeting of the 
 waters of the old world and the new. It must stand 
 to his lasting credit that in the collision which took 
 place between tradition and enlightenment he in- 
 variably took the side which made for liberty. 
 He was from the very first an advocate of that 
 Humanism which was to free the mind of his
 
 THE END 283 
 
 age from the thraldom of the Scholastic philo- 
 sophy and learning, and to start it on a course 
 of ever - increasing progress. He advocated the 
 rights of the nation in opposition to that absol- 
 utism which was one of the signs of the times; 
 but while putting a limit to the rights of the 
 Crown he was no friend of mob rule, and no believer 
 in giving to the ignorant majority unlimited power. 
 He would apply to government by the people those 
 constitutional restrictions in the observance of which 
 the rights of the whole nation can alone be conserved 
 and defended. He had also made his choice between 
 the Roman and Protestant views of the Christian 
 religion and Church. His sympathies were from 
 the very first undoubtedly on the side of the Reform- 
 ers, but it was only after careful study and consider- 
 ation that he came into the open and publicly 
 identified himself with the movement which they 
 championed. But he was no fanatic; his religion 
 was that of a thoughtful and cultured man who 
 believed that absolute truth was not to be found in 
 any Church or creed, and that the reverent soul 
 might be unable to put in dogmatic form the sum 
 and substance of its faith. All the same, he found
 
 284 GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 
 in the Protestant religion a truer interpretation of 
 the mind and spirit of Christ than in Roman 
 Catholicism, which had in his day degenerated 
 into what appeared to every serious-minded man, 
 an almost hopeless condition. Salvation for the 
 individual and the nation could never, at any rate, 
 be found in it. Man's spiritual needs demanded 
 the new form of the Christian Faith represented by 
 Protestantism. 
 
 The influence of Buchanan upon his own age can 
 hardly be exaggerated. He was a European cele- 
 brity, and his name was one to conjure with for 
 many years after he died. If he has suffered eclipse, 
 it is chiefly, we think, because of the language in 
 which he wrote and the themes which circumstances 
 suggested to him. As a political force, however, he 
 still lives far beyond the shores of his native country. 
 The spirit of liberty which breathes through his De 
 Jure and his " History " can never die, but will, so 
 long as man exists, find expression in the assertion 
 of those rights which inherently belong to him. 
 With regard, however, to his own country, it is 
 different. Buchanan is still, and will, we believe, 
 always continue to be, one of Scotland's dominant
 
 THE END 285 
 
 personalities. He was for many generations the 
 inspirer of Scottish youth, and presented to them an 
 ideal in the world of literature and learning which 
 it was their aim to realise. With Buchanan as their 
 compatriot they as Scotsmen could hold up their 
 heads in face of the most learned nations of the 
 world. His genius, his accomplishments, his works 
 were their glory and their pride. But greater than 
 all these is the character of Buchanan, which 
 in its simplicity, honesty, and noble ideals is a 
 possession of incomparable worth. He despised 
 wealth, he never courted fame ; all he desired was 
 liberty to do his work. That work was of the 
 highest order ; and the fact that he accomplished it 
 in spite of hardship, persecution, and poverty, before 
 which the most indomitable courage might have 
 broken down, inspires us with a deep sense of the 
 greatness of the man and the iron resolution which 
 enabled him to prevail, and in the end to conquer. 
 In these times of uncertain aims and imperfect fulfil- 
 ment, the spirit of George Buchanan calls Scottish 
 youth to the realisation of a truer manhood and a 
 nobler life.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Admonitioun to the Trew 
 
 Lordis, 200. 
 Agen, 78, 79. 
 Albany, Duke of, 25, 27. 
 
 Murdoch, Duke of, 3. 
 
 Alcestis, The, 82. 
 
 Anecdotes of Buchanan and 
 
 James vi., 212. 
 Aristophanes, 282. 
 Ascham, Roger, 200, 258, 278. 
 Athelstane, 243. 
 Authority no religion, 160. 
 Autobiography, Buchanan's, I. 
 
 Bacon, Lord, 218. 
 
 ^&\na\^ Justification, 95. 
 
 Baptistes, The recent criti- 
 cisms, 83 ; a parable for the 
 times, 84 ; its special interest, 
 
 84 ; its theme, human liberty, 
 
 85 ; its dedication and pre- 
 face, 86, 210. 
 
 Beaton, Archbishop, 167. 
 
 Cardinal, 71, 73, 85, 86, 
 
 248. 
 
 Beda, Noel, 49. 
 Beza, 116, 117, 179, 269. 
 Birthplace, Buchanan's, 2. 
 Bodin, his Republic, 234, 250. 
 Boece, 240, 242. 
 Bologna University, 78. 
 Boncourt, College, 101. 
 
 287 
 
 Bordeaux, 74, 87. 
 
 Boswell, 255. 
 
 Bothwell, 4, 181, 184. 
 
 Briconnet, 49. 
 
 Brissac, Count de, 101, 102. 
 
 Brown, Dr. Hume, 121, 133, 
 176, 198, 229, 234, 258, 271, 
 279. 
 
 Buchanan, Alexander, 6. 
 
 George epitome of his 
 
 life born 1 506, 2 ; goes to 
 Paris at age of fourteen, II ; 
 illness and return to Scotland, 
 24; matriculates at St. An- 
 drews, 28 ; as soldier, 25 ; 
 takes degree at St. Andrews, 
 34 ; Bursar at Scots College, 
 Paris, 35, 38 ; his opinion of 
 John Major, 34, 35 ; identi- 
 fied with Reformation move- 
 ment, 36; graduates as master 
 at Paris, 1528, 41 ; Regent 
 in College of Ste. Barbe, 42 ; 
 writer of Epigrams, 49 ; 
 elected Procurator of the 
 German Nation, 1529, 50 ; 
 becomes tutor of Earl of 
 Cassillis, 51 '> nmt f his 
 intention to enter the Church, 
 63 ; returns to Paris, 72 ; 
 goes to College de Guyenne, 
 Bordeaux, 1533, 74 ; leaves
 
 288 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Bordeaux, 1542, 87 ; sails for 
 Coimbra, Portugal, 1547, 92 ; 
 imprisoned by Jesuits, 93 ; 
 returns to France, 1553, 
 97, IOI ; Regent in College 
 Boncourt, 101 ; Tutor in 
 family of the Count de Bris- 
 sac, 1 02 ; final return to 
 Scotland, I, 67, 132 ; receives 
 pension from Queen Mary, 
 138 ; Moderator of Assembly, 
 1567, 151 ; Principal of St. 
 Leonard's College, St. An- 
 drews, 1 66 ; writes the De- 
 tectio, 1567, 198; Tutor to 
 King James, 1570, 204; his 
 death, 1582, 275 ; his genius, 
 277 ; his influence on his own 
 age, 284 ; his character, 90, 
 279, 280, 285. 
 
 Buchanan, Patrick, 6, 92. 
 
 Thomas, 271, 272. 
 
 Burns, Robert, 271, 278. 
 
 Burton, Mr. Hill, 127. 
 
 Caletidie Maia, 1 20. 
 
 Calvin, 49, 230. 
 
 Cambridge University, 169. 
 
 Carberry Hill, 184. 
 
 Cardross, 5, 25. 
 
 Carlyle, 26, 278. 
 
 Casaubon, 279. 
 
 Casket Letters, The, 1 86, 190. 
 
 Cassillis, Earl of, 51, 57, 139- 
 
 Cecil, 200, 223. 
 
 Censors, University, 33. 
 
 Chamaleon, The, 201, an attack 
 
 on Maitland of Lethington. 
 Chancellors of Universities, 32. 
 Charles v. , 80. 
 Christie, Mr. R. C., 198. 
 Cockburn, Alexander, 179. 
 Coimbra, 92. 
 Colet, 133. 
 College, Boncourt, 101. 
 
 1 College de Guyenne, 82, 264. 
 
 j College Montaigu, Paris, 30, 
 
 46. 
 
 Commission, University, Buch- 
 anan member of, 171. 
 
 j Confessional, The, 69. 
 
 \ Confessions, 157. 
 
 i Cosse, Timoleon du, son of 
 Count de Brissac, 77, 101, 104. 
 
 | Court Poet, Buchanan as, 136. 
 
 i Cromwell, Thomas, 72. 
 
 | Crossraguel, Abbey, 138, 193. 
 
 I Abbot of, 56. 
 
 Dante compared with Buch- 
 anan, 1 1 6. 
 
 Darnley, 4, 146, 181, 226, 271. 
 
 Dauphin of France, The, 119. 
 
 Davidson, John, 275. 
 
 d'Etaples, Lefevre, 19, 49. 
 
 De Jure Regni apud Scotos, 84 ; 
 dedicated to James vi., 210 ; 
 its occasion and object, 224 ; 
 Socratic method in, 225 ; the 
 argument, 226; advocates a 
 strenuous revolution, 232 ; 
 condemned by Act of Parlia- 
 ment, 233 ; not undertaken 
 as historical writing, 236 ; and 
 liberty, 284. 
 
 | De Sphara. In its author's 
 mind to be his greatest work, 
 but uncompleted, 105, 108, 
 122, 237. 
 
 De Thou, 264. 
 ! Desiderium Lutetia:, 98. 
 | Detectio, The, its object, 186, 
 191 ; its influence in France 
 and England, 1 88; gives rise 
 to adverse criticism of Buch- 
 anan, 1 88; and to contro- 
 versy, 224 ; to be judged in 
 the light of the times, 197,236. 
 
 Dialect, Buchanan's writings in 
 Scots, 202.
 
 INDEX 
 
 289 
 
 Dirge on death of Calvin, 162. 
 
 Discipline, Book of, 165, 169. 
 
 Dolet, Etienne, 198. 
 
 Donellus, 263. 
 
 Dorat, 261. 
 
 Douglas, Gavin, 18. 
 
 Dousa, Janus, 263. 
 
 Doyen, The, of a University, 
 
 33- 
 
 Dramas, Buchanan's, 8 1. 
 Drumikill, 3. 
 Drummond of Hawthornden, 
 
 130. 
 
 Dun, John Erskine of, 151. 
 Dunbar and the Somniitm, 63. 
 Gavin, Archbishop of 
 
 Glasgow, 133. 
 Duns Scotus, 230. 
 
 East Lothian, 5. 
 
 Ecclesiastical Society of the 
 
 times, 133. 
 
 Education in Scotland, 6, 7, 8. 
 Edward the Confessor, 243. 
 Epigrams, 36, 8l, 113, 114, 
 
 141, 142. 
 
 Erasmus, 18, 96, 109, 133, 136, 
 
 142, 159, 160, 198, 258, 263. 
 Erskine, Adam, 208. 
 
 of Dun, John, 151. 
 
 David, 208. 
 
 Estienne, Henri, 109, 124. 
 Ennius, 83. 
 
 Extract from Buchanan's " His- 
 tory," 244. 
 
 Fervour, religious, not marked 
 
 in Buchanan, 162. 
 Flint, Professor Robert, his 
 
 History of the Philosophy of 
 
 History, 228, 234. 
 Fordun, 240. 
 France the home of Humanism, 
 
 127. 
 Francis I., 19, 85. 
 
 19 
 
 Franciscanus, occasion of author 
 ship, 56 ; the most finished 
 satire, 67 ; modern criticisms, 
 68 ; description, 69 ; a mirror 
 of the monastic life, 71 ; pro- 
 vokes persecution of its author, 
 94, 153 ; an exposure of the 
 Roman priesthood, 192, 282. 
 
 Friends of Buchanan, 90, 258. 
 
 Gelais, Melin de St., 101. 
 
 Glasgow University saved by 
 Andrew Melville, 31 ; Buch- 
 anan's regard for, 180. 
 
 Gouvea, Andre de, 75, 76, 92. 
 
 Jacques de, 43, 75. 
 
 Gregory of Tours, 230. 
 
 Greyfriars Churchyard, Edin- 
 burgh, 275. 
 
 Groslot, Jerome, 179. 
 
 Gurente, 85. 
 
 Guyenne, College de, 75, 82, 
 264. 
 
 Haddington Grammar School 
 the school of John Major, 
 30 ; and of John Knox, 30. 
 
 Hallam, no, 123, 253. 
 
 Hamilton, Archbishop, 167. 
 
 House of, 201, 248. 
 
 Patrick, 17. 
 
 Hannay, James, in, 120, 125, 
 278. 
 
 Henrietta Maria, 86. 
 
 Henry vin., 25, 26. 
 
 II. of France, 97. 
 
 Heinsius, Daniel, 277. 
 
 Hepburn, John, 167. 
 
 Heriot, Agnes, 5. 
 
 George, 5. 
 
 James, 9. 
 
 Hill Burton, Mr., 127. 
 
 History, Buchanan's, dedicated 
 to James vi., 210; con- 
 demned, 1584, 233 ; de-
 
 INDEX 
 
 scribed, 236, 282 ; negative 
 effect of being written in 
 Latin, 241 ; extract from, 244. 
 
 History of the Philosophy of 
 History ', Professor Flint's re- 
 ferred to, 228. 
 
 Hotman, 233, 234. 
 
 Humanism in Buchanan, 19, 
 282; and religion, 129; a 
 moral and intellectual in- 
 fluence, 58. 
 
 Hume, David, 278. 
 
 Humour, an instrument in 
 Reformation, 62. 
 
 Hunter Square, Edinburgh, 271. 
 
 Ideal of a King, Buchanan's, 209. 
 Illness of Buchanan, 24. 
 Influence of Buchanan on his 
 
 times, 284. 
 Ingratitude to the Queen, the 
 
 charge of, 140. 
 Isidore of Seville, 230. 
 Isobel of Lennox, 4. 
 
 James v. and the Franciscans, 
 65, 85. 
 
 vi., "The wisest fool in 
 
 Christendom, "204; his studies 
 described, 208 ; addicted to 
 favouritism, 213 ; a precocious 
 youth, 215; his acquirements, 
 216 ; his later attitude to 
 Buchanan, 217. 
 
 JephtheS) dedication of, 27, 102 ; 
 criticisms, 85. 
 
 Jesuits, The, 93. 
 
 John of Salisbury, 230. 
 
 Johnson, Dr., no, 255, 278. 
 
 Juvenal, 282. 
 
 Kennedy, Bishop, of St. Salva- 
 tor's, St. Andrews, 167. 
 
 William, Abbot of Cross- 
 
 raguel, 56. 
 
 ' Kennedy's Close, Edinburgh, 
 
 270. 
 
 1 Killearn, 2, 6, 276. 
 } Killigrew, 215. 
 I Knox, John, i, 4, 30, 95, 146, 
 
 160, 165, 169, 222, 231, 268, 
 
 280. 
 
 1 Lady Jane Grey, 96. 
 j Languages, study of, in Uni- 
 versity, scheme of, 1579, 175. 
 i Languet, Hubert, 260. 
 | Latin grammar of Villa-dei, 47. 
 
 i language, 76, 284 ; modern 
 
 poets writing in, 108 ; verse, 
 Buchanan's proficiency in, 22 ; 
 odes, 80. 
 Laud, 86. 
 Le Clerc, 124. 
 Lemoine, College du Cardinal, 
 
 Si- 
 Lennox, Duke of, 146, 220, 
 
 239, 248. 
 Lethington, Maitland of, 134, 
 
 171, 201. 
 
 Thomas Maitland of, 
 
 225. 
 
 Letter, Buchanan's, to Sir 
 Thos. Randolph, 267. 
 
 Leyden, 262. 
 
 Life of students described, 5 1 . 
 
 Littaere's Grammar, 47. 
 
 Lipsius, 263. 
 
 Lives of Scots Worthies , Mac- 
 kenzie's, 274. 
 
 Lloyd, Bishop, 242. 
 
 Loberac, Andriette de Roques, 
 78. 
 
 Louise of Savoy, 85. 
 
 Love verses, 114, 115. 
 
 Loyola and College of Ste. 
 Barbe, 49. 
 
 Lucian, 62. 
 
 Luther, 16, 228. 
 
 Lyndsay, Sir David, 1 8, 65.
 
 INDEX 
 
 291 
 
 Macauslans, 3. 
 
 M'Crie, Dr., 176, 266. 
 
 Machiavelli, The Prince, 228. 
 
 Macmillans, 3. 
 
 Maitland of Lethington, 134, 
 
 171, 201. 
 Thomas, of Lethington, 
 
 225. 
 Major, John, 29, 30, 232, 240, 
 
 244. 
 
 Malcolm, 243. 
 Mar, Earl of, 205. 
 
 The Master of, 212. 
 
 Margaret of Navarre, 19. 
 
 Queen of Malcolm I., 243. 
 
 Marriage, Buchanan's views of, 
 
 267. 
 Mary, Queen of Scots, 134, 182, 
 
 183, 204, 226. 
 Masson, Professor, 232. 
 Medea of Euripides, 82. 
 Melanchthon, 34, 261. 
 Melville, Andrew, 31, 173, 222, 
 
 257, 271, 272. 
 James, 173, 215, 256, 271, 
 
 272. 
 Sir James of Halhill, 161, 
 
 196, 207, 239, 256, 274, 277. 
 Memorials, public, of Buchanan, 
 
 276. 
 
 Milton, 235, 278. 
 Moderator of Assembly, 
 
 Buchanan a, 151. 
 Montaigne, 77, 85. 
 Moray, Bishop of, 38. 
 
 Earl of, 67, 142, 144. 
 
 Morton, Earl of, 220, 222, 223. 
 Mucidan, siege of, 105. 
 Muret, 85, 89, 112. 
 
 North Berwick, birthplace of 
 
 John Major, 30. 
 Northumberland, 96. 
 Note in Register of Privy 
 
 Council, 1562, 139. 
 
 Ode on the Marriage of Queen 
 
 Mary, 119. 
 
 on birth of James vi., 146. 
 
 Opinions on Buchanan's poetry, 
 
 109. 
 
 Montaigne's, ' ' that great 
 
 Scotch poet," 77. 
 
 on Buchanan, Sir J. 
 
 Melville's, 196, 274. 
 
 Joseph Scaliger's, 80, 109. 
 
 Dr. Johnson^, no. 
 
 Wordsworth's, 121. 
 
 Orange, Prince of, 261. 
 Oxford University, 169. 
 
 Palinodia, 66. 
 
 Parentage of Buchanan, 2, 4, 5. 
 
 Paris, II. 
 
 University, 9, 13. 
 
 Paton, George, 270. 
 Pattison, Mark, 216. 
 Peacham's Compleat Gentleman^ 
 
 277. 
 Pension settled on Buchanan, 
 
 138, 193- 
 
 Persecution of Buchanan by the 
 Church, 60, 93, 94. 
 
 Petrarch, 116. 
 
 Poets and religion, 161. 
 
 Political situation on Buchanan's 
 first return from Paris, 25. 
 
 Portraits of Buchanan, 276. 
 
 Portugal, II. 
 
 Portuguese students at Ste. 
 Barbe, 43. 
 
 Principal of St. Andrews, 
 Buchanan appointed, 166. 
 
 Protestantism, 283, 284. 
 
 Psalms, The, Buchanan's Ver- 
 sion, 94, 122. 
 
 Queen - Mother, the sister of 
 Henry vin., 25. 
 
 Rabelais, 34.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Randolph, the English Resident, 
 135, 209, 253, 258, 266. 
 
 Rectors of Universities, 32. 
 
 Reformation, 36, 129, 130, 283. 
 
 Reformer, Buchanan as, 150, 
 283. 
 
 Regent of a Scottish University, 
 
 3L 32, 45- 
 
 Renaissance, The, 13, 155. 
 Rerum Scoticarum Historia* 5, 
 
 210, 233, 236, 241, 244, 282. 
 Rotterdam, 263. 
 
 Saintsbury, Professor, in, 125. 
 Satire, the weapon of the 
 
 Humanists, 58. 
 
 on the Monastic orders, 57. 
 
 Satire of the Three Estates, 
 
 Lyndsay's, 65. 
 Scaliger the Elder, 78, 79, 258. 
 
 Joseph, 79, 80, 109, 145. 
 
 Scholasticism, 15, 22. 
 Scotland in Buchanan's day, 128. 
 Scots College, Paris, n, 39. 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 168, 271, 278. 
 Scottish Universities, 32. 
 Sidney, Sir Philip, 278. 
 Smith, Adam, 278. 
 
 Sheriff Campbell, 271. 
 
 Social character of Buchanan , 90. 
 Socratic method in the De Jure, 
 
 225. 
 
 Somerset, 96. 
 Somnium, The, a poem which 
 
 influenced Buchanan's future 
 
 greatly, 62. 
 a frank imitation of 
 
 Dunbar, 63. 
 
 Spiritual independence, 159. 
 "Stoick Philosopher," Buch- 
 anan the, 274. 
 
 St. Andrews University, 28. 
 
 St. Augustine, 243. 
 
 St. Leonard's College, St. 
 
 Andrews, 166, 167, 174. 
 St. Salvator's College, St. 
 
 Andrews, 174. 
 Ste. Barbe, College of, Paris, 41, 
 
 42, 43, 49, 280, 281. 
 Students in Buchanan's day, 20, 
 
 39- 
 
 Studies of James VI., 208. 
 Sturm, 233. 
 Swift, 282. 
 
 Theology in University scheme, 
 
 1579, 175- 
 Trabroun, 5. 
 Turnebe, 258, 261. 
 
 University of Paris, 9, 13, 17, 
 19, 47, 20, 21. 
 
 Scots College of, 1 1 , 
 
 3.8, 3?. 
 Universities, mediaeval, 20, 51. 
 
 office-bearers of, 32. 
 
 of Scotland, 7, 10, 32, 128. 
 
 Buchanan's scheme oi 
 
 reform of, 169. 
 
 Vercelli, ode on capture of, 101. 
 Villa-dei, Alexander of, 47. 
 Vinet, 75, 259, 263, 264. 
 
 Wallace, Mr. Robert, 117, 145. 
 Wardlaw, Henry, 265. 
 Wordsworth, 120. 
 
 Young, Mr. Peter, 206, 207. 
 Youth of students, 51. 
 
 Zoilus, 114. 
 
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