6

This very curious and instructive work, with the title:

The richt way to the Kingdome of hevine is techit here in the x comandis of God. And in the Creid, and Pater noster. In the quhilk al chrissine mẽ sal find al thing yat is neidful and requirit to onderstand to the saluation of the saul,' was printed at Malmoe, in Sweden, in 15331. The writer, of whom little is known but his name, was probably a native of Perth, an alumnus of St. Andrews University, and afterwards an exile for his faith. After strongly condemning the lesingis and fablis and dremis' of books such as the Paradisus Animae and Hortulus Animae, with their 'mony orisons to diversis patronis and sanctis' preserves and recommends the daily use of the Ave Maria, which he gives thus: 'Hail, Maria, ful of grace, the lord is with the, Thow art blissit amangis al vemen, and blissit is the frwit of thy weyme Jesus Christ, Amen.' Gau points out, indeed, that the words contain no prayer but only praise, and that the praise for all the good in her is given to God alone; and continues, 'Schw is blissit amangis al wemen noth alanerlie for causz schw bwir hir sone withowt ony payne or corrupcione of hir parsone, bot specialie for causz schw wesz frwitful be the operacione of ye halie spreit without ye seid of man ... thairfor lat wsz al sing with hir togider, mi saul lowis the lord,' etc.2

It will be seen that neither Gau nor Hamilton knew anything of the second part of the 'Hail Mary,' as now recited in the Roman Church. As Dr. Rock remarks (in 'The Church of our Fathers,' vol. iii. p. 315), 'perhaps few are aware that the last part, beginning "Holy Mary," etc., was

Of this book a single copy only is known to exist (now in the library of Mr. Christie Miller at Britwell), from which Dr. D. Laing published extracts in vol. iii. of the Bannatyne Miscellany.

2 With the language of Gau may be compared that of one of the songs preserved in the Gude and Godlie Ballates' (Laing's ed. p. 122):-

Nixt him, to lufe his Mother fair,

With steidfast hart for ever mair,
Scho bure the byrth, fred us from cair
Christ hes my hart ay.

unknown to, and therefore never said by our countrymen while England was Catholic;' and the same may be said of Scotland. In Hamilton's Catechism the Salutation consists exclusively of the words used by the Angel Gabriel and Elizabeth. The termination 'Jesus Christ, Amen,' as in Gau's book, was added by Urban IV, 1261-6.

In the early part of the sixteenth century, however, various additions were gradually creeping into use, and they are thus noticed in the Mirroure of our Ladye (1531). Some saye at the begynnyng of this salutacyon Aue benigne Iesu, and some saye after, Maria mater dei, wyth other addycyons at the ende also. And suche thynges may be sayde when folke saye theyr Aues of theyr owne deuocyon. But in the seruice of the chyrche I trowe yt be moste sewer and most medefull to obey to the comon vse of saynge as the chyrche hathe set without all suche addicions.' The Sarum Breviary, printed at Paris, 1531, contains the longer form now in use, which was first sanctioned by Pius V (1568), but the once famous Catechism compiled by Laurence Vaux, the ejected Warden of the collegiate church of Manchester, for the use of Roman Catholics in the reign of Elizabeth, shows how long the shorter form, as given in Hamilton's book, lingered in England 2.

If, then, a tendency to modify the expression of Roman Catholic doctrine is not to be found in every part of the book, it is undeniable that, in large measure, it betrays the influence of the new learning. This influence, however, can only have been brought to bear upon the Scottish hierarchy at the last moment, perhaps not until after the death of Cardinal Beaton, and the Catechism is historically the chief, if not the only witness to the fact. A comparison of the Processes in trials for heresy, during the primacy of Beaton, or at an earlier period, with Hamilton's book will make it evident

The Mirroure of our Ladye, edited by J. H. Blunt, Early English Text Society, p. 79; compare note, p. 346, and the Lay Folks' Mass Book, p. 184.

2 Vaux (edition of 1583) puts the question 'Why is the Ave Maria used so often to be said for a prayer seinge there is no petition in it ?'

that meanwhile a marked change had come about in the theological position of the heads of the Church.

In 1540, in the presence not only of Beaton, but of Hamilton, and even Wynram and Major, Sir John Borthwick was condemned and burnt in effigy for heresies, which, to say the least, find neither refutation nor contradiction in the Catechism. The most heretical assertions of Borthwick, according to the Acts of Process 1, were that the Pope, as Christ's Vicar, hath no greater authority than any other bishop, that Indulgences granted by the Pope are of no force; and that the Heresies of England or at least the greater or most part of them,' are good and just; and he prayed that the Scottish Church might be brought to the same point and state. He was accused also of being in possession of an English Testament.

It is instructive that within a dozen years from this date, a Catechism should be published by the highest ecclesiastical authority in the country without a word either of the Pope or of Indulgences, and containing thoughts and language borrowed from the formularies of Henry VIII. It should be remembered also that the Scottish prelates, when they had the power and opportunity to do so, never attempted to obtain a repeal of the Act of Parliament which, in 1543, had allowed the reading of the Bible in the vulgar tongue, nor is there anything in the Catechism to discourage the faithful from the practice.

These evidences of the influence of the Reformation upon the position of the Catechism, by no means exhaust its doctrinal interest. The explanation of the Ten Commandments will attract attention from its fulness, its earnestness, and for the many incidental allusions to national habits, faults, and superstitions, for its plain speaking on the sins of bishops and priests, and for the use of many ecclesiastical terms now antiquated, such as 'cursing' for excommunication, 'the buird of God,' and the 'buird of Christ' for the Communion. In respect of its moral tone and devotional feeling, the book

1 Printed in the Bannatyne Miscellany, vol. i. See also Lawson's edition of Keith's History, vol. i. p. 335.

well deserves all the praise which it has received from Protestant and Catholic alike.

Of the original edition of the Catechism, which issued from the press of John Scott and which is said, with probability, to have been the first book printed at St. Andrews, there are scarcely a dozen copies known to exist. There is one in the British Museum, in the Advocates', the University, and the Signet Libraries at Edinburgh, in St. Andrews University Library, the College at Blairs, and the Benedictine Monastery at Fort Augustus. There is a copy in the possession of the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, and at least another known to be in private hands. The general character of the book, its black-letter type, its initial letters and woodcuts, are well reproduced in Mr. Paterson's reprint.

In the present edition, intended mainly for the student of Church history and of doctrine, the spelling of the original has been faithfully preserved, but peculiarities, which may be regarded as merely typographical, have been, in the interests of the general reader, avoided. All abbreviations have been extended. The letters u, v, i, j, are printed according to modern usage, and u has been substituted for w in the single case of the word ws, which occurs only in the Lord's Prayer and in fol. clxxvi. The initial y where it represents the th, for which in its original form it was simply a contraction, is printed as it was sounded, th. For a similar reason, to avoid the risk of perpetuating a popular mispronunciation, for the letter z, used by some early British printers for the Saxon 3 (9 or gh), is substituted its more modern representative and its nearest equivalent in sound, y. That there should be no doubt however as to what words of the original text have been so treated, a complete list is here added. With the initial z: za, zaickiny, zaird, ze (for both ye and yea), zeid, zeir, zettis and zettit, zis, zit, zoik, zongar, zou and zow, zoung, zour, zouthede. With a medial z: assoilzie, balzeis, chenzeis, failze, falzeit, fenzetnes, forzet (still very commonly pronounced foryet), forzetful, loinzeis, spoilze, spulze, spulzeis, tailzeour, unfenzetlie, winezard.

The table of Errata has been preserved, although the errors there noted and some few other obvious misprints have been corrected in the present text. In addition to these: lauchfully, p. 113, 1. 12, should undoubtedly be corrected to unlauchfully, and a comma should be placed after the word intyst, p. 74, 1. 18. Also barrat, p. 277, 1. 31, is probably a printer's error for barran. The folios of the original are indicated in the margin of the reprint, and where they had been erroneously numbered, the correct figures are added in square brackets. The marginal references to Scripture, which were also frequently incorrect, have been verified throughout.

It has not been thought necessary to include in the Glossary every deviation in spelling from modern English, or every occurrence of such regular forms as the termination of the present participle in -and of the preterite in it for -ed, or of the 3rd pers. sing. and plural of the present tense of verbs and of the plurals of substantives in -is, etc. The Glossary has however been intentionally made more full than was necessary for a mere explanation of obsolete words. It will be seen that, although Dr. Jamieson in his Dictionary of the Scottish Language has treated Hamilton as a primary authority and has made very numerous references to the Catechism, he has passed by several forms or shades of meaning, as, e. g. a fischit, intyst, keching, plycht ankir, tyritues, and others which deserved notice. Also, he was misled into treating auld as a substantive, on the authority of p. 109, 1. 1, 'fra the tyme of thair youthede to the tyme of thair auld,' overlooking the Errata where the reader is reminded to 'eftir this word auld, eik aige.'

The editor has to acknowledge his indebtedness to the Rev. W. Gregor of Pitsligo, and to the Rev. W. W. Skeat, Professor of Anglo-Saxon, Cambridge, for the correct interpretation of some of the words referred to above. He has also to thank Mr. Archibald Constable of Edinburgh for much valuable help.