WISHART, wish'iirt, GEORGE (c.1513-40). A Scottish reformer and martyr. Ile was prob ably born in 1513 at Pittarrow, and is thought to have studied Greek at Montrose, He is known to have taught the New Testament in Greek at the same place. In 153S he fled from Scotland to escape persecution for heresy and was absent for about six years. From 1539 or 1540 to about 1543, he was in Germany and Switzerland, and on his return translated the Confession of Faith of the Church and. Congregation of Switzer land. In 1543 he was teaching in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, with Latimer and other re formers. In the same year or the following, he returned to Scotland. It has been generally as sumed that he is the `Scottishman called Wys shart' who was involved in the plot with Henry VIII. to murder Cardinal Beaton (q.v.), Arch bishop of Saint Andrews, but the identity has not been proved. We do not know that Wishart left Scotland at the time, and the incident accords ill with what we know of his character. The last
two years of his life were spent in preaching in various parts of Scotland. in Dundee, :Mont rose, Ayrshire. and East Lothian. He hastened back to Dundee when he learned that (lie plague was raging there. When driven from the churches he preached in the fields. His most important convert and disciple was .John Knox. who has left a detailed account of these two years of his life. Wishart was burnt for heresy by Cardinal Beaton, March 1, 1546, at Saint An drews. Three months later Beaton was mur dered, principally in revenge for Wishart's death. Consult : John Knox, History of the Reforma tion, in Works, ed. by David Laing (Edinburgh, 1846-64) ; Rogers, Life of George Wishart the Scottish Martyr (Edinburgh, 1876).