John Hamilton (Archbishop)

John Hamilton (* 1511 ; † April 6, 1571 in Stirling ) was a bishop and important Catholic church politician in Scotland . He was a natural son of James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Arran and a half-brother of James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran , the 1543 to 1554 as Regent reigned in Scotland. He was Archbishop of St Andrews from 1547 until his death and Treasurer of Scotland from 1546 to 1555. As Archbishop, he was a supporter of Queen Maria Stuart .

Education and career

John Hamilton was destined for a spiritual career as an illegitimate son. During his childhood and youth he received the appropriate training from the Benedictines in Kilwenning . Despite not being ordained a priest , the hopeful offspring of the 1st Earl of Arran was given the title of Abbot of Paisley at the age of 14 . Presumably he went to Germany in 1527 with Patrick Hamilton and Gilbert Winram , studied in Marburg and returned to Scotland without drawing any consequences for the Reformation . Hamilton went to France only at the age of 29 , studied there from 1540 to 1543 and was ordained a priest. Together with Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox , Hamilton returned to Scotland in early 1543.

Thanks to the support of Cardinal David Beaton , Hamilton obtained the office of Lord Seal Keeper in 1542 . In 1545 he was appointed Bishop of Dunkeld . After the murder of David Beaton on May 29, 1546 Hamilton was in 1547 his successor as Archbishop of St Andrews and in 1546 as treasurer ( Lord High Treasurer ) of Scotland.

Counter-Reformation fighters

On the eve of the Reformation in Scotland, the public turned against the Catholic Church . The Catholic Church had an annual income of £ 300,000. That was almost half of Scotland's annual income. The royal estates, on the other hand, could only generate £ 17,500 a year. In the face of these riches, many clergymen lost all responsibility and interest in their actual tasks. The prevailing public opinion was that the clergy were idling and helping "the blind, the crippled, the bedridden, widows, orphans, and all those others who are haunted by the hand of God to be unable to work" was neglected . Many parish churches in Scotland did not have priests and the Catholic Church did not fulfill its pastoral mission.

Since 1543 there has been an influx of brochures and books promoting a Reformed Church in Scotland. Many people were drawn to the new church because of their ingrained piety and dislike of the Catholic clergy.

John Hamilton began the Scottish Counter-Reformation in 1549, although the reformed Kirk had not yet established itself in Scotland. Under his direction, the Provincial Council passed laws that made cohabitation with the priesthood and the favoring and endowment of illegitimate children a crime. In 1552, John Hamilton's Catechism was published, a vernacular that interpreted the fundamental doctrines of the Catholic faith. Two years later, Hamilton held its own reform council in St Andrews . At the same time, Hamilton increased the pressure on Scottish nobles who led Protestant preachers in their household . To deter the Protestants, the former Catholic priest Walter Myln was burned on April 28, 1558 . John Knox therefore feared that the Catholic Church in Scotland would emulate the example of England ( Bloody Mary ).

However, following the death of Mary the Catholic , Queen of England on November 17, 1558 and the enthronement of Elizabeth on the same day, the Protestants in England came back to power. In May 1559 John Knox returned to Scotland. The successful uprising of the pro-English and Protestant " Lords of the Congregations " under the leadership of Lord James Stewart , later Earl of Moray, and the death of the regent Marie de Guise , who had ruled since 1554 , mother of Queen Mary Scots , on June 11, 1560 ended the " Auld Alliance ". On July 6, 1560, England and Scotland signed the Treaty of Edinburgh . The Protestants received religious freedom. John Knox began building the Presbyterian Church in Scotland.

Partisans of the Queen

Since arriving in Scotland in August 1561, John Hamilton supported Mary Queen of Scots. Under an agreement that Hamilton, as Archbishop of St. Andrews, made with the Bishops of Dunkelnd, Ross, and Moray, the Queen was offered a quarter of ecclesiastical church taxes, provided that the Catholic Church was reinstated in its benefits and privileges . In February 1562, Hamilton and Mary Queen of Scots signed an agreement in which it was decided that two thirds of church taxes would remain with the Catholic Church, while the remaining third would be given to the Queen. The new church should be financed with this money. However, John Knox insinuated that Mary Queen of Scots was using a large portion of these funds for herself.

Shortly after Mary Queen of Scots expressed her wish to marry the Spanish heir to the throne Don Carlos , Hamilton publicly celebrated mass in Edinburgh . He was arrested for this, but released a little later due to Maria Stuart's personal commitment. Hamilton continued to serve his queen faithfully. He baptized their son Jacob in December 1566 and annulled the marriage of the Earl of Bothwell to Jane Gordon in 1567, in order to perform the marriage between Mary Stuart and James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell on May 15, 1567 .

After the deposition of Maria Stuart on July 24, 1567, Hamilton concluded a treaty with two bishops and two Protestant earls ( Huntly , Argyll ) with the aim of freeing Mary Stuart from her captivity and reinstating her as queen.

John Hamilton probably commissioned the assassination of the regent James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray . Moray was shot on January 23, 1570 by James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh . Hamilton was privy to the planned deed and tolerated its execution. In the ensuing civil war between the party of Queen Maria Stuart and the party of her son, King James VI. Hamilton fought for the Queen's party. Hamilton holed up in Dumbarton Castle . After it was taken by the king's supporters, John Hamilton was hanged in public in Stirling on April 6, 1571, dressed in his pontifical robes .

literature

• Jenny Wormald: Maria Stuart . Verlag Ploetz, Freyburg / Würzburg 1992, ISBN 3-87640-500-9 .
• Ilan Rachum: Encyclopedia of the Renaissance . Atlantis Verlag, Zurich 1988, ISBN 3-7611-0725-0 .
• John E. Neale: Elizabeth I - Queen of England . Eugen Diederichs Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-424-01226-2 .
• Antonia Fraser : Maria Stuart - Queen of the Scots . Manfred Pawlak Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Herrsching 1989, ISBN 3-88199-636-2 .

predecessor	Office	successor
David Beaton	Keeper of the Lord Seal of Scotland 1542–1547	William Ruthven, 2nd Lord Ruthven
James Kirkcaldy of Grange	Treasurer of Scotland 1546–1555	Gilbert Kennedy, 3rd Earl of Cassilis
David Beaton	Archbishop of St Andrews 1547–1571	Gavin Hamilton
George Crichton	Bishop of Dunkeld 1544–1549	Robert Crichton
Robert Shaw	Abbot of Paisley 1525–1553	Claud Hamilton, 1st Lord Paisley
David Beaton	Chancellor of St Andrews University 1547–1571	Gavin Hamilton