2011 Issue 4 - I Pray Thee Keep in Memory - Counsel of Chalcedon

“I pray thee keepin memory

by ina manly painter

On the seafront in St Andrews, Scotland, bordering the Old Course just behind the luxuri-

ous McDonald Hotel, stands a monu-ment with the names of four Protestant martyrs: Patrick Hamilton, Henry For-est, George Wishart and Walter Mill. These men were burned at the stake, the first in 1528 and the last in 1558. This photo was taken when Harrison and I visited St Andrews in 2005.

“Their deliverance was in the resur-rection of the dead, not in a rescue”1

It was March 1, 1528, in St An-drews. The wicked executioners fetched more wood and gunpowder from the castle because the drizzling rain kept putting the fire out. The winds blew. The slow-burning fire smoldered six

1. Rousas John Rushdoony, Hebrews, James and Jude (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 2001),120.

long, torturious hours before Patrick Hamilton’s body was finally reduced to ashes. When he was first brought to the stake, he took off his outer clothes and gave them to a man standing near him. “These will not profit me in the fire, but they will profit you. Hereafter thou canst have no profit from me ex-cept the example of my death, which I pray thee keep in memory. For, though bitter to the flesh and fearful before man, it is the door of eternal life, being a release from this life into the presence of Christ, which none will attain who denies Christ Jesus before this ungodly generation.”2

In the bitter, six-hour agony, Pat-rick Hamilton, who was related to the royal house of Stuart through both his parents, manifested true heroism and unshaken faith. “During this short time, as he paid the ultimate sacrifice, he preached, prayed, exhorted and re-

2. www.1timothy4-13.com/files/chr

Counsel of Chalcedon • Issue 4 • 201134

“I Pray Thee Keep in Memory”

buked while friars and monks reviled him and called upon him to recant and worship Mary.”3

“After being prevented from fur-ther speech by the violence of the smoke, and the rapidity of the flames, he resigned up his soul into the hands of Him who gave it.”4 “‘How long, O Lord, shall darkness overwhelm this nation? How long wilt thou suffer this tyranny of man? Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ It was Patrick Hamilton’s last prayer.”5 “In the bloom of early manhood, Scot-land’s first Reformation martyr was put to death; however, his death was not in vain. A Romanist afterwards said, ‘The smoke of Patrick Hamilton infected all it blew upon.’ His mouth was closed, but the story of his death was repeated by a thousand tongues. It inspired oth-ers to seek a martyr’s crown, encourag-ing them to defend the truths for which he died.”6

3.www.Pentecostalpioneer.org/patrickhamilton.html

4. William B. Forbush, Fox’s Book of Martyrs, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan,1974),198.

5. www.Penetecostalpioneer.org6. www.ITimothy 4-13.com/files/chr_vik/dying.

html

Those agonizing while Patrick Hamilton burned were his newly wed-ded wife, pregnant with Isabel, their only child, his widowed mother, Catherine Stewart Hamilton; his sister Katherine; and Sir James, his brother. All were Pat-rick’s first converts to true Christianity.

WHAT HAD PATRICK HAMIL-TON DONE TO WARRANT SUCH

A HORRIBLE DEATH?

Nothing. He had committed no crime. He was among the most godly, learned men of his day. Having been in-fluenced by Martin Luther while a stu-dent in Paris, he returned home to Scot-land to preach the gospel doctrines he had learned to love. He was not afraid to rebuke the wicked and corrupt Roman-ist Catholic Church, filled with supersti-tious traditions and papal power. Patrick was given a choice. If he renounced his biblical beliefs and bowed to the wicked-ness of popery, he would be allowed to live. If he did not, he would be handed over to the civil authorities and burned at the stake. To ease their own wicked consciences, Archbishop Beaton and the bishops and clergy associated with him convened a special commission to examine Patrick’s writings and preach-ings. It was a mock trial of sorts. Patrick defended the doctrines of Scripture. His judges could not endure the truths spo-ken by their prisoner. Even though many people realized what was taking place, they thought the Archbishop would al-low the young man to go free. Not so! The judges quickly condemned him and the stake was prepared so as to exclude any possibility of his rescue by family and friends.7

7. Ibid.

patrick hamilton

35Counsel of Chalcedon • Issue 4 • 2011


Even as the twenty-four-year-old Patrick Hamilton was dying, the church mocked him, calling upon him to recant and cry out to the Virgin Mary to save him. Only hours after Patrick’s death, Archbishop Beaton hosted an elaborate party to celebrate what he thought was a great victory over heresy.

WHAT TRUTHS DID PATRICK HAMILTON PREACH?

Patrick Hamilton, greatly influenced by the reforming teachings of Martin Luther, Philip Melancton and Erasmus, also preached against the Romish reli-gion. He “publicly disapproved of pil-grimages, purgatory, prayers to saints and for the dead, etc.”8 Patrick preached justification by faith alone, through Christ alone, by grace alone; that all men should be allowed to read God’s Word for themselves; that masses held for the dead were not only useless but wicked and blasphemous; that the Pope had no power to forgive sins; that none were saved without being predestinated by God, and no unregenerate man had a free will that enabled him to choose Christ without the Holy Spirit first re-

8. Forbush, Fox’s Book of Martyrs,197.

generating his heart.9 Patrick’s exposure of Rome’s errors, along with his teaching the clear and freeing truths of Scripture, threatened the priesthood’s chief source of revenue. The Church leaders were en-raged. They could not allow their years of thievery to be exposed, much less to be cut off completely. They feared that if the common people read God’s word they would likely reject the church dog-mas that kept them blinded and enslaved to the Roman Catholic system. That alone would undermine the Church’s existence. The Romish Church could not let this happen.

The totality of Patrick Hamilton’s preaching was biblical doctrine, “that system of belief taught by Christ and His apostles.”10 It is the same biblical doc-trine that many preachers and teachers today brag about hating. Because they too despise the genuine truths of God’s word, their minds have also become darkened and enslaved. Is it any wonder that in spite of the Reformations and the deaths of so many martyrs, Catho-lic and even Protestant churches today are filled with doctrine-haters who un-ashamedly prefer their own arrogant reasonings to the truths of Scripture? As deceived as they are, doctrine-haters happily embrace easy-believism, mysti-cism, extra-revelation, psychology and all sorts of heathen philosophies. Some of the same sins that prevailed in the Romish Church back then still prevail among many churches, teachers, and writers today.

9.www.thereformation.info/patrickhamilton.html10. Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the

English Language, 1828 (San Francisco,CA: Foundation for American Christian Educa-tion, 2004).

cardinal david beaton



HOW WAS IT HUMANLY POS-SIBLE FOR THE CHRISTIAN MARTYRS TO SUFFER SUCH

PAINFUL DEATHS?

1. Pure and simple, the Martyrs were able to glorify God not in their own strength but by God’s unmerited grace that gave them the power and de-sire both to will and to do God’s good pleasure (Philippians 2:13).

2. They were willing to stand against false doctrine, as well as against those who blasphemed God, not partaking in their sins (Revelation 18:4).

3. They were willing to follow Christ at the expense of forsaking their own fa-ther and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and even their own lives (Luke 14:26).

4. While they expected tribula-tions, trials and distresses, they were certain that Christ had already deprived the world of its power, having already conquered it for them (John 16:33).

5. Although they recognized that their suffering was inflicted by the en-emies of God, they knew that ultimately those sufferings, even their deaths, was the will of God. “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things (Romans 11:36).

6. God enabled them to withstand whatever temptation Satan presented as a way of escape from death, assuring them that the Holy Spirit’s living pres-ence in them was stronger than Satan’s presence in the world (I John 4:4).

7. They did not fear what they were about to suffer because they knew that Jesus Christ, their Mediator and High Priest, would give to them a crown of life (Revelation 2:10; 3:10,11).

8. They remembered God’s grace in previous distresses, being comforted by Him as fire consumed their bodies (Psalms 70:1).

9. God’s presence and power assured them that their dependence upon Him was sufficient to enable them to overcome all, persevering to the end (Jeremiah 32:40; I Peter 1:5; Matthew 24:13).

10. They were sure that He who be-gan a good work in them would never forsake the workmanship of His own hands, but would continue His loving purpose until He brought them to their full salvation - the termination of their life’s course (Philippians 1:6).

11. “And they overcame him be-cause of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death” (Revelation 12:11). 12. The martyrs looked with cer-tainty beyond their dying day toward the promise of resurrection (Hebrews 11:35). and the guarantee of an eternal inheritance in Christ ( 1 Peter 1:4). “7. “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death” (Revelation 12:11). He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son” (Revelation 21:7).

The martyrs had a choice. They could have renounced their faith and stood in the audience of accusers and onlookers; however, they chose to suffer rather than to recant. And because of their choice they were “delivered through the fire from the infinite greater danger of apostasy.”11

11. Charles Bridges, A Commentary on Prov-erbs, (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, reprinted 1974), 96.



After Patrick Hamilton’s death many others suffered martyrdom in Scotland at the hands of Arch-bishop and Cardinal David Beaton. The three other men, whose names are engraved on the marker in St An-drews, also cheerfully resigned their souls for the sake of truth. Henry Forest was put to death in 1533 for speaking out against the burning of Patrick Hamilton. He had referred to Hamilton as a “good” man. Forest was first suffocated and then burnt.

George Wishart was hanged, then burned. The hangman asked Wishart to forgive him. Wishart kissed the hangman’s cheek, assur-ing him that he forgave him. Then Wishart encouraged him to do what his office demanded. In 1558, Walter Mill was the last Martyr put to death in Scotland. He was 83 years old. “As soon as he was fastened to the stake and the fagots lighted, he addressed the spectators. The cause why I suffer this day is not for any crime, (though I acknowledge myself a miserable sinner) but only for the defense of

the truth as it is in Jesus Christ; and I praise God who hath called me, by His mercy, to seal the truth with my life; which, as I received it from Him, so I willingly and joyfully offer it up to His glory. Therefore, as you would escape eternal death, be no longer seduced by the lies…depend solely on Jesus Christ, and His mer-cy, that you may be delivered from condemnation.’”12

Scotland was just one of the countries where Protestant Reform-ers were persecuted. Great perse-cutions took place in Ireland, Ger-many, France, and Persia, to name a few. In the Netherlands thousands of Martyrs sealed their testimony to Christ with their blood. During 1555 to 1558, the last four years of Queen Mary’s reign in England, no less than 288 persons were burnt. Of that number, fifty-five were women, four were children. “They were some of the holiest, purest, and best Chris-tians in England, and several of them the most learned men of their day.”13

It is said of John Rogers, the first of the martyred English Reformers persecuted during the reign of “Bloody Mary,” that he walked “steadily and unflinchingly into a fiery grave as if he was walking to his wedding.”14 He was burned to death the 4th of Febru-ary, 1555. John Hooper was known for personal holiness and diligent preaching. As he was being burned in England, the 9th of February, 1555, he was said to be as patient as a lamb, not

12. Forbush, Fox’s Book of Martyrs, 205.13. http://www.williamtyndale.com/Oreform-

ersburned.html in the article, “Why Were Our Reformers Burned” From the Book - Five English Reformers by J. C. Ryle - 1890.

14. http://www.williamtyndale.com

george wishart



moving forwards, backwards, nor to any side as the flames consumed him. “He died as quietly as a child in his bed.”15

John Bradford, known for his ex-traordinary reputation as a preacher in England, was burned to death the 1st of July, 1555. He “endured the flames as a fresh gale of wind in a hot summer day.”16John Philpot, having received word at supper that he was to be burned at the stake in Smithfield, England the next day said, “I am ready; God grant me strength and a joyful resurrec-tion.” Then he went into his bedroom and thanked God that he was counted worthy to suffer for His truth. Philpot died the 18th of December, 1555. While he was dying he recited Psalm 106, 107 and 108 to the huge crowd gathered there to watch him burn.17

DID THE MARTYRS DID BEAR THEIR OWN SINS, OR THE SINS

OF OTHERS?

15. Forbush, Fox’s Book of Martyrs, 215.16. http://www.williamtyndale.com17. Ibid.

No! Only the Lord Jesus Christ, out of His mere good pleasure from all eternity, took the sins of His elect upon Himself, satisfying divine justice. Did the martyrs’ deaths take away the guilt of their own sins? Oh no! Only the blood of Christ could forgive their sins, satisfy the curse of the law and remove their guilt. The martyrs were not washed clean in their own blood, but in the blood of the Lamb of God. Were the souls of the martyrs made perfect in holiness because of their sacrificial life and death? No! Even though their martyrdom was related to Christ’s sacrifice, the martyrs were reconciled to God only in Christ’s sac-rifice as the perfect Lamb of God, with-out blemish. The martyrs were made perfect in holiness because of Christ’s sacrificial life and death and not their own. They were not superhuman. They were flesh and blood as we are, yet they were willing to seal the truth with their own lives. Their weakness was mingled with the strength of God’s grace. They worshiped and served the one and only true God who gave them supernatural faith and strength to endure, just as He gives us supernatural faith and strength to endure our trials. Let us not think for one moment that the martyrs of the Protestant Reformation were only seek-ing to cleanse the Catholic Church and deliver it from doctrinal error. Oh, no! They were seeking “the restoration of the law of God in every sphere of life….Salvation to them was for the renewal of the whole man and the restoration of all the works of God.”18

What ever happened to the pow-erful Archbishop and Cardinal David

18. Henry R. Van Til, The Calvinistic Concept of Culture (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1959),19-20.

john hooper



Beaton who condemned Patrick Ham-ilton and others to death? As the flames engulfed the martyrs, Beaton probably felt a degree of satisfaction thinking he was putting an end to what he hated most; however, his wickedness deceived him (Proverbs 11:18). And God saw to it that his own life ultimately ended in ago-nizing torment and destruction.

Eighteen years after Cardinal Bea-ton gave the order to have Patrick Ham-ilton burned at the stake, Beaton was asassinated in his own bed. It was the last day of May 1546. He was 52 years old. “And so, like a butcher he lived, and like a butcher he died.”19

Cardinal Beaton and a number of other Catholic churchmen, who mur-dered the reformers were immoral men who fathered many children out of wedlock. While they lay with harlots at night, they persecuted those who loved biblical doctrine and defended God’s word during the day. “Cardinal Beaton …had no qualms about using the great wealth of the church as if it were his own. By a steady stream of mistresses

19. William B. Forbush, Fox’s Book of Martyrs, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan,1974), 204

he had fathered some 20 illegitimate children, many of whom he had later appointed to well paid positions in the Church. Beaton came to personify everything that was corrupt and in need of change in the Church.”20 After Beaton was mutilated and stabbed to death, his corpse was displayed on the same balcony where he stood taking pleasure in watching the 33-year-old George Wishart being hanged and then burned. (Beaton had personally instigated Wishart’s death.) Then Bea-ton’s body was left to lie in one of the dungeon cells of the Sea Tower, the same cells where the englishmen John Rogers and other martyrs had previ-ously waited for the Cardinal’s orders before they were tied to the stake and burned to death. Beaton’s body lay there unburied for weeks, perhaps for as long as nine months. Finally it was buried in a heap of animal manure somewhere in St. Andrews.21

20.www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usbiography/b/cardinalbeaton.html

21. Ibid.

cardinal david beaton

john rogers



Truly “the wicked is driven away in his wickedness: but the righteous hath hope in his death” (Proverbs 14:32 KJV). The wicked are “dragged out of life, like a criminal to execution; torn away from his only heaven here, with no joyous heaven beyond….His few moments of peace are only the respite from hopeless, never-ending torments. His wickedness was his element in life. It will cleave to him still, the sting of the undying worm, the fuel of un-quenchable fire.”22 On the other hand, the death of the righteous is filled with loveliness, sunshine and hope. Our dy-ing moments will draw us closer and closer in affection for the things above. We will happily embrace our promo-tion, knowing it is far better to be with Him than to experience anything this life has to offer. This the wicked know nothing about.

David Beaton was the last Scottish Cardinal before the success of the Scot-tish Reformation. His death was cer-tainly “a significant point in the eventual triumph of Protestantism in Scotland.”23

DID GOD BLESS THE CAUSE OF MARTYRDOM?

Absolutely! While the wicked ac-cusers aimed at snuffing out the truth they hated most, the blaze their deeds produced was a significant point in the eventual triumph of Protestantism in Scotland. The doctrine of the Reforma-tion, preached by Patrick Hamilton and others, finally came to fruition with the overthrow of popery and the Church of Rome in 1560.24 The message the mar-

22. Bridges, A Commentary on Proverbs, 192.23. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David 20_Beaton24. www.thereformation.info/patrickhamilton.

html

tyrs spread throughout Scotland fulfilled the promise that “the righteous will be remembered forever” (Psalm 112:6). In 1543, just fifteen years after Patrick Hamilton was burned at the stake, “Par-liament legalized the reading of the Bible in English. Moreover, a great amount of Protestant doctrinal literature was com-ing into the country. Actually the Refor-mation was successful among all classes of the population. Many of the nobility supported it. The common people flocked by thousands to the cause. Of special im-portance in winning them were the plays, ballads, and pamphlets that blanketed the country. Lyrics on sacred themes taught doctrine, cast ridicule on the papacy, and provided a hymnody for the masses….The rising middle class was heavily involved. Students were constantly moving to and from centers of learning on the Conti-nent, where they came in contact with the writings and ideas of Hus, Luther, Calvin, and others. John Knox himself said in his History that ‘merchants and mariners’ had a prominent role in bring-ing religious books and ideas from the mainland. Amazingly, all this Reforma-tion development was going on when there were hardly any Protestant preach-ers in Scotland and not even a semblance of a church organization.”25

By 1559, thirty-one years after Patrick Hamilton’s death, John Knox returned to Scotland. He set about to organize a Reformation that had already become a reality. The blood that had been shed by the uncompromising mar-tyrs had greatly weakened the languish-ing Roman church, that by that time had almost ceased to function. By 1560 the Scottish Reformation came to fruition

25. Howard F. Vos, Exploring Church History (Nashville,TN: Thomas Nelson,1994), 99-100).



with the overthrow of popery and the Church of Rome. At last Scotland had become Presbyterian Protestant.26 Be-fore John Knox died in 1572, forty-four years after the death of Patrick Ham-ilton, Calvanistic Protestantism was firmly established in Scotland.27

The martyrs saw beyond their dy-ing day, catching the sunbeams of God’s eternal glory revealed in “Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy1 :10). There was no question. They were certain that the riches of sovereign grace was eternal life—perpetual immortality—and in its pathway there was no real death, no decay or separation from their Savior (Proverbs 12:28). They willingly ac-cepted their torture, “refusing to accept release [offered on the terms of denying

26. www.thereformation.info/patrickhamilton.html

27. Vos, Exploring Church History, 100.

their faith], that they might be resur-rected to a better life” (Hebrews 11:35 amp). As R.J. Rushdoony said, and I quoted earlier, the martyrs’ deliverance truly was in their resurrection from the dead, and not in their rescue.

What use shall we make of the example of Patrick Hamilton’s death, which he prayed we would keep in memory? Patrick Hamilton, and other martyrs like him, have taught us what it really means to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. They have shown us by their example what it means to persevere without wavering, what i truly means to lay down our life for faith in God’s word and a confession of that faith. And their example not only exhibits their courage and obedi-ence, but also the sovereignty of our God, whose ways are higher than our ways. The martyrs were “slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained” (Revelation 6:9). The best use we can make of their example, in light of the fact that God promises that “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecutions” (2 Timothy 3:13), is to recognize that “God may allow us intervals of ease, in consideration of our weakness, but would always have us ex-posed to calamities of various kinds?”28 “Although God causes us now and then to drink from a bitter cup and gives us reason to sigh and lament, yet we must not fall to grumbling and complaining, but assure ourselves that God has given us good comfort in that he has called us to be partakers of his kingdom, and has so put forth his power already in us that we ought, as it were, to lift ourselves

28. John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentary VI, on Psalms 94:12 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, reprinted 1979), 20.

john knox



above all earthly things, and to look down at them as at our feet.”29 “Doubt-less our condition in this world is con-nected with many hardships; but as it is the will of God that Christ’s kingdom should be encompassed with many en-emies, and that too with the design of keeping us in a state of constant war-fare, it becomes us to exercise patience and meekness; and assures us of God’s aid, boldly to set at nought the rage of the whole world.”30

We should rejoice that the church is the object of God’s special care, knowing there has never been a time when He was not preserving her. He has preserved her throughout history, burdening her with grievous afflictions, keeping her in a low and despised con-dition, calling upon her to endure the cross, and at the same time illuminat-ing her with His precious word. And why is God doing this? That He may be glorified and that we may partake in His celestial glory. God desires that His church fear and glorify Him by humble dependence upon Him at all times.

What a comfort it is to know that truth will never be destroyed. Even if the professor of truth is burned, sawn in two, stoned or nailed to a cross. Truth never changes. It prevails forever. “His truth endures to all generations” (Psalms 100:5). And the evil which God permits us to endure, works for our good as our loving God supports us in it, and sanctifies us by it.

Patrick Hamilton was correct. We have no profit from the martyrs except the example of their deaths, which humbles and strengthens us as we keep them in memory. Truly, “The righteous

29. Calvin, Sermons on Ephesians, 105-106.30. John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentary VI, on

Psalm 110:2, 301.

shall be in everlasting remembrance” (Psalm 112:6)

Ina Manly Painter has a BS & MS in Psychology/Counseling from the Univer-sity of TN, Knoxville, where she and her husband Harrison reside. Ina is the author of Finding Hope in God’s Everlasting, Intimate Friendship, available at www.InaManlyPainter.com and at a Christian bookstore near you. Finding Hope is also available as an Ebook at www.smash-words.com/books/view/73732. Ina can be reached at 865-924-9620 and [email protected].

ina manly painter

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2011 Issue 4 - I Pray Thee Keep in Memory - Counsel of Chalcedon