Patrick Adamson

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Patrick Adamson (1537 - 1592), Scottish divine, archbishop of St Andrews, was born at Perth, Scotland. He studied philosophy, and took the degree of M.A. at the University of St Andrews.

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[edit] Residence in France

After being minister of Ceres in Fife for three years, in 1566 he set out for Paris as tutor to the eldest son of Sir James Macgill, the clerk-general. In June of the same year he wrote a Latin poem on the birth of the young prince James to King consort Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and Queen regnant Mary I of Scotland. He described James as serenissimus princeps of France and England. The French court under Charles IX of France was offended, and he was confined for six months.

He was released only through the intercession of Mary I and some of the principal nobility, and retired with his pupil to Bourges. He was in this city at the time of St. Bartholomew's Day massacre at Paris, and lived concealed for seven months in a public-house, the aged master of which in reward for his charity to a heretic, was thrown from the roof. While in this ``Sepulchre', he wrote his Latin poetical version of the Book of Job, and his tragedy of Herod the Great in the same language.

[edit] Return to Scotland

In 1572/1573 he returned to the Kingdom of Scotland, and became minister of Paisley. In 1575, he was appointed by the General Assembly one of the commissioners to settle the jurisdiction and policy of the church; and the following year he was named, with David Lyndsay, to report their proceedings to James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, then Regent of Scotland.

In 1576, his appointment as archbishop of St Andrews gave rise to a protracted conflict with the Presbyterian party in the Assembly. He had previously published a catechism in Latin verse dedicated to James VI, a work highly approved even by his opponents, and also a Latin translation of the Scots Confession of Faith.

In 1578 he submitted himself to the General Assembly, which procured him peace for a little time, but next year fresh accusations were brought against him. He took refuge in St Andrews Castle, where "a wise woman" Alison Pearson, who was ultimately burned for witchcraft, cured him of a serious illness.

[edit] Excommunication

In 1583 he went as James's ambassador to the court of Elizabeth I of England, and is said to have behaved rather badly. On his return he took strong parliamentary measures against Presbyterians, and consequently, at a provincial synod held at St Andrews in April 1586, he was accused of heresy and excommunicated, but at the next General Assembly the sentence was remitted as illegal.

In 1587 and 1588, however, fresh accusations were brought against him, and he was again excommunicated, though afterwards on the inducement of his old opponent, Andrew Melville, the sentence was again remitted. Meanwhile he had published the Book of Lamentations, and the Book of Revelation in Latin verse, which he dedicated to the king, complaining of his hard usage. But James was unmoved by his application, and granted the revenue of his see to Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox. For the rest of his life Adamson was supported by charity; he died in 1592.

[edit] Legacy

His recantation of Episcopacy (1590) is probably spurious. Adamson was a man of many gifts, learned and eloquent, but with grave defects of character. His collected works, prefaced by a fulsome panegyric, in the course of which it is said that ``he was a miracle of nature, and rather seemed to be the immediate production of God Almighty than born of a woman, were produced by his son-in-law, Thomas Wilson, in 1619.


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[edit] References

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