HAMILTON, PATRICK (1504-1528), Scottish proto martyr of the Reformation, second son of Sir Patrick Hamilton, and of Catherine Stewart, daughter of Alexander, duke of Albany, second son of James II. of Scotland. In 1517 he was appointed titular abbot of Ferne, Ross-shire. He graduated in Paris in 1520, and then went to Louvain, attracted probably by the fame of Erasmus.
On returning to Scotland he became a member of the University of St. Andrews where he conducted as precentor, a musical mass of his own composition in the cathedral. Early in 1527 the atten tion of James Beaton, archbishop of St. Andrews, was directed to the heretical preaching of the young priest. Hamilton fled to Ger many, first visiting Luther at Wittenberg, and afterwards enrolling as a student in the new university of Marburg. He returned to Scotland, bold in the conviction of the truth of his Protestant principles. He accepted Beaton's invitation to a conference at St. Andrews, and for nearly a month was permitted to preach and dispute. At length he was summoned before a council of bishops and clergy presided over by the archbishop; there were 13 charges, seven of which were based on the doctrines affirmed in his Loci communes. The council convicted him, after a sham disputation with Friar Campbell, and handed him over to the secular power. The sentence of burning at the stake was carried out on the same day (Feb. 29, 1528) lest he should be rescued by his friends. His courageous bearing greatly helped to spread the Reformation in Scotland. The "reek of Patrick Hamilton infected all it blew on." He represented in Scotland the Lutheran stage of the Reforma tion. The Loci communes, known as "Patrick's Places," set forth the doctrine of justification by faith and the contrast between the gospel and the law in a series of clear-cut propositions. It was translated into English by John Frith (1528), and is to be found in Fox's Acts and Monuments.