WISEART, GEORGE, one of the early reformers of Scotland, is supposed to have been a native of Forfarshire, a son of James Wisbart of Pittarow, justice clerk in the reign of James V. The exact date of his birth is unknown. He first emerges into notice in the beginning of the 16th century. At this time he taught a grammar school at Montrose, and made himself remarkable by introducing the study of Greek. He began also to preach the doctrines of the reformation, and was obliged to flee into England. Here he is found at Bristol about 1538, preaching the same doctrines, but being seized upon and threatened with death, be publicly recanted. Later he is found at Cartledge, in the center of the Anglican reform movement, which had begun there under the influence of Bilney and Latimer. He is described at this time by a pupil of the name of Tviney as a "tall man polde-headed, of melancholy complexion, black-haired, long-bearded, comely of person age, well spoken after his country of Scotland, courteous, lowly, lovely, glad to, teach, desirous to learn, abstinent in his habits. and very charitable to the poor." His portrait, which has been preserved in the university of Glasgow, answers to the personal charac teristics here mentioned. He returned to Scotland in 1543 or 1544, with the commis sioners sent to negotiate a treaty with Henry VIII., and it was then that he entered upon his special reforming mission, terminating in his martyrdom. He appears to have pos h sessed great powers as a preacher, although it is doubtful whether he ever took orders; and he traveled from town to town, and county to county, making everywhere a great impression by his stirring words. Knox has given in his History, book i., a description of the effects of Wishart's preaching. Its effect upon himself was the most important and fruitful of all. When the preacher came to Lothian, Knox, charmed by his character and teaching, attached himself to his person, bearing a " two-handed sword" before him. This precautionary defense was rendered necessary by two attempts i supposed to have been instigated by Beaton against his life. His activity and influence were too prominent long to escape notice. Cardinal Beaton had had his eye upon him for some time, and while he rested at Ormiston, after preaching a powerful sermon at Haddington, he was made a prisoner by the earl of Bothwell. Beaton himself was in the
neighborhood with a considerable force, in case it should have been attempted to rescue him. He was conveyed to St. Andrews, and immediately put upon his trial before an ecclesiastical tribunal.• Arran, the governor, refused to give his countenance to the pro ceedings•, but the reforming preacher was nevertheless condemned to be burned at the stake; and the sentence was carried out before the castle or episcopal residence at St. Andrews on Mar. 1, 1546.
Wishart is reported to have given utterance at the stake to a prophecy of the death of the cardinal, which took place about three months after his martyrdom. "But he who from yonder high place beholdeth us with such pride shall, within a few days, be in the same as ignominiously as now he is seen proudly to rest, himself," are the words attributed to him. This has appeared to some reeentwriters to strengthen the suspicion, otherwise suggested, of Wishart having been accessory to the plot for assassinating the cardinal. The main ground of this suspicion is the discovery of a document in the state paper office, bearing that "a Seotishman called Wysshart," a friend of the laird of Brunstone, was concerned in this plot. Mr. Tytler confidently adopted the view that this friend of the laird of Brunstone and the reformer were the same person, and it Fan not be denied that there are reasons in favor of this inference, not in the mere coinci dence of the name, perhaps, but in the fact of the association of the person bearing it with the laird of Brunstone, who was a familiar friend of Wishart; and further, in the fact, that Kirkaldy of Grange and the master of Rothes, who are mentioned in the docu ment as conspiring either to " apprehend or slay the cardinal," were afterward really his murderers. At the same time, it cannot be said that there is decisive evidence to prove that the "Wyssbart" of the state document was George Wishart, the reformer and the martyr. The coincidences might be accidental, and the question will probably remain among the questioner vexatce of Scottish history.