ADAMSON, PATRICK, archbishop of St Andrew's, a famous Latin poet, was born at Perth in the year 1536. His parents do not appear to have been in very flourish ing circumstances ; but he received a sufficiently liberal education, first at the grammar-school of his native town, and afterwards in the university of St Andrew's. Having taken the degree of master of arts, he was in duced, by Macgill of kankeilor, to undertake the tuition of his eldest son. They resided two years at Paris, and afterwards visited the universities of Poictiers and Pa dua where Adamson applied himself with great assiduity to the study of the civil and canon laws. On their re turn from Italy, they visited Geneva ; and here, in his familiar intercourse with Beza, lie eagerly imbibed the Calvinistic doctrines of theology. Seven years after their arrival on the continent, they revisited Paris. This was about the period of the massacre of St Bartholomew, which Dr Smollett has very justly characterized as the most perfidious, cruel, and infamous massacre, that ever disgraced the annals of any nation. Adamson, who had distinguished himself by his literature, and was well known as a zealous protestant, found means to escape from the capital, and to obtain a place of refuge at Bourges. During his concealment, he composed his po etical paraphrase of the book of Job, and, a tragedy on the story of Herod, who was smitten by the angel. This tragedy, so far as we are able to learn, was never print ed ; but the other production may be found in the col lection of the author's Pocinata Sacra (Load. 1619, 4to.) which was edited by his son-in-law, Thomas 'Wilson, art advocate. Having concealed himself at Bourges for the space of seven months, he at longth withdrew during the night ; and he had scarcely removed seven miles from the city, when the person who had harboured him, an old man of seventy, was tried, in a summary manner, and condemned to be thrown from the top of his own house. The profession which Adamson had origi nally chosen seems to have been that of an advocate ; and before his return to Scotland he is said to have taken the degree of doctor ()flaws. Soon after his arrival, however, he entered into holy orders, and became minister of Pais ley. In 1575, the general assembly appointed him one of its commissioners for settling the jurisdiction and polity of the church ; and, in the course of the following year, he was nominated, with David Lindsay, to report their proceedings to the regent Morton. About this period, the earl constituted him one of his chaplains ; and, on the death of archbishop Douglas, promoted him to the see of St Andrew's. This high preferment was the origin of all his misfortunes. The power of the pres byterians was now become extremely formidable ; and indeed the archbishop himself had formerly contributed to its advancement, by publicly preaching against the hierarchy. From the period of his instalment, he enzazed in almost perpetual altercation. In 1578, submitted to the julisdiction of the general assembly; but this expedient did not long secure his tranquillity ; for, in the course of the ensuing year, nett accusations were preferred against hint. 1,1 1582 he was attacked with a grievous distemper, in which the physicians could AMA him no rebel; and, under the anxiety of mind incident to such a condition, he had recourse to a ahnple remedy administered by an old woman, named Alison Pearson. As her medicine was found to be effi cacious, she was committed to prison under a charge of trite hcraft ; and although she was so lortunate as to make her escape on this occasion, yet, after an interval of about four years, she was again apprehended ; and was most inhumanly condemned to the stake. "When king James visited St Andrew's in 1585, the archbishop preached and disputed before Into IN ith great approba tion and applause. His antagonist in the disputation
was the celebrated Andrew Melt il, principal of St Ma rv's college, who has very keenly satirized the learned prelate in several of his compositions. The eloquence and learning which Adamson displayed on this occasion, recommended him to the favour of the king, who sent him as his ambassador to the court of England. During his residence in London, he kept two principal objects in view ; he endeavoured to recommend his sovereign to the nobility and gentry of England ; and to procure some support to the tottering cause of episcopacy in ficotland. Ilia eloquent sermons drew such numerous auditories, and excited such a high idea of the young king, that queen Elizabeth prohibited him from mount ing the pulpit during his stay in her dominions. He was recalled in 158-1-, and sat in the parliament held in the month of August. His enemies, the presbyterial's, still viewed hint with implacable hatred ; and, in the year 1536, the provincial synod of Fife summoned him to appear, and to answer for his contempt of the decrees of former assemblies, in presuming to exercise the functions of a bishop. Though he refused to acknow ledge the jurisdiction of the court, and appealed from it to the king, a sentence of excommunication, equally indecent and irregular, was pronounced against, him. Adamson, with no less indecency, thundered his archie piscopal e \communication against \lelvil, and some of his other opponents. The unfortunate primate had once stood so high in the royal favour, that James had con descended to compose a sonnet in commendation of his Paraphrac of the book of Job : but the favour of princes is generally held by a very precarious tenure. Having Fallen under the king's displeasure, having been de prived of the revenues of his see, in consequence of the act of annexation, and being overwhelmed with poverty and disease, he, in the year 1591, made the meanest submission to the clergy, and delivered to the assembly a fol mel recantation of all his opinions concerning church-governmcm, which had been the cause of offence the presbyterians. Such a confession from the most h•a•ned person of the episcopal order, was considered -as a testimony which the force of truth had extorted from an adversary; but, without entering into the merits of the case, we may venture to assert, that a complica tion of miseries had at least as great a share as the force of truth, in extorting so humiliating a recantation. The R, cantation Patrick ?1damsone, which cannot read without pity and indignation, was officiously pub lished, as a pamphlet, in the year 1598. Having Ian •niished out his latter clays in extreme poverty, he died st St Andrew's about the 15th of March, •1.592 His character, though certainly not free from blemilles, was ha from being despicable. Ile was a man of very considerable erudition ; and he acquired great reputa tion as a popular preacher. 11 is conduct as a church man exhibited material errors: though his mind seems to have received lasting impressions of piety, yet he rendered himself too subservient to the views of a weak and arbitrary monarch. 11 is unworthy compliance:a were sufficiently punished by his disgrace and sufferings ; but his literary works reinain no contemptible monument of his genius and learning. Severa. of his poems may be found in the De I:ci‘e Portarum turn. i. and in the Poetarum Muss .S'acrre, tom. ii. A very loose and erroneous account of Adamson occurs in Dr Ahteke nz.e's Liv•s Scots Writers, vol. iii. 364: but a more satisfactory vieW of his personal and literary history may be expected from Mr Irving's Lives Scot Writtrs, c.;:ho flourished during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. (e)