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John Erskine of Dun: A Theological Reassessment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

F. Bardgett
F. Bardgett
Affiliation:
The Manse Strathy Sutherland
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Extract

John Erskine of Dun has recently been pigeon-holed as a ‘Lutheran’; his patterns of thought sharply distinguished from those of his colleague, John Knox. The aim of this paper is to re-examine the theological contexts of this neglected yet crucial Scots reformer and laird. His was a career of particular interest, combining the spheres of lairdly politics and leadership in the reformed Kirk. Besides, an active lifespan of sixty and more years was not given to many in the sixteenth century. John Erskine, laird of the barony of Dun in Angus (between Brechin and Montrose), in addition to enjoying an unusually long life, (born c. 1509: died 1589/90) is also distinguished by his capacity for political survival. One who was never to be so closely connected with the various political factions as to fall with them in their turn, he was rarely so far from the centre of power as to be endangered by any lack of influential friends. To this intricate personal balancing-act was added the further complication of a genuine search for God that brought him to a protestant faith at a date when such beliefs were both heretical and criminal, and later to a belief in the independent jurisdiction of the church at a time when successive governments of Scotland were attempting to assert their authority in ecclesiastical matters.

Type
Research Article
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , February 1990 , pp. 59 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1990

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References

1 M. Lynch sees Erskine, John as ‘Lutheran’ even after 1560: International Calvinism ed. Prestwich, M. (Oxford 1985) p. 242Google Scholar. He follows McEwen, J. S. in Fathers of the Kirk ed. Selby-Wright, J. (Oxford 1960) pp. 17–27.Google Scholar

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35 Bardgett, F. D., ‘Faith, families and factions’ pp. 153–155Google Scholar. Dun remained at court, attempting to win over the regent until it became clear she would arrest him — this personal crisis came very early in the developing Reformation conflict.

36 Spald. Misc. iv p. 88–92. Although John Erskine's signature is appended to this document's printed edition, the editor of the Spalding Club Miscellany noted that it was added in a separate hand from the rest of the manuscript, which itself was apparently a transcript of the original. (Both transcript and original are lost.) Yet the tract was included at an early date in a collection of Erskine's own material: besides the near contemporary attribution to the superintendent, its content is similar in approach to later writings known to be by Erskine. Further, the relationship suggested in the tract between the author(s) and Mary of Guise seems parallel to that between Erskine of Dun and the queen-regent. The author(s) offer the Regent, should she withdraw — Spald. Misc. iv p. 92: maist humblie in all obedience detfull to your maiestie, in peace, in weyre, in bodye, in guidnes and landis, we submit ws, sa that nathing sall want on our pairt that pertenis to your grace, quhairof ye haif had experience in tymes past, 111

37 Spald. Misc. iv p. 89.

38 The Second Book of Discipline ed. Kirk, J. (Edinburgh 1980) p. 59Google Scholar; Williamson, A. H., Scottish National Consciousness p. 17Google Scholar; Lynch, M., in International Calvinism p. 242Google Scholar. For England, Jones, N., Faith by Statute (London 1982) pp. 130–133.Google Scholar

39 Spald. Misc. iv p. 88.

40 Spald. Misc. iv p. 89.

41 The position of the 1559 letter is not, therefore, incompatible with at least some views of the English royal supremacy. Avis, P. D. L., The Church in the Theology of the Reformers (London 1981) pp. 158Google Scholar, 163; Collinson, P., The Religion of Protestants (Oxford 1982) p. 3Google Scholar; Cross, C.Church and Society in England (London 1977) pp. 24–32.Google Scholar

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52 Connections between Oecolampadius and Knox are suggested by Greaves, R. L., Theology and Revolution (Washington 1980) p. 123Google Scholar. There may also be echoes of Bucer's De Regno Christi in ‘Ane letter’. Bucer's tract, completed 1550 and published Basel 1557, contained similar emphases on the Kirk as Christ's Kingdom, the status of Christ's preachers and the duty of kings to rule as under God: see Melanchthon and Bucer ed. Pauck, W. (London 1969).Google Scholar

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59 BUK i pp. 39, 256.

60 Spald. Misc. iv pp. 88–112: ‘Appendix to the Dun Papers’.

61 Spald. Misc. iv pp. 93–101.

62 Spald. Misc. iv p. 93 emphasises that salvation flows from the acts of God: ‘This kirk he hes purifeit in the bluid of his deir sone… This kirk he hes redemit fra all seruitud… To this kirk he hes giffin the giftis of his Holie Spreit, and to this kirk hes he giffin the ministratioun of the hewinlie mistereis, be the quhilk ministry he quickins the dede, regeneratis his elect, and nwrisis his faythfull.’

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65 Detailed argument to support this paragraph can be found in Bardgett, F. D., ‘Faith, families and factions’ i pp. 310–312.Google Scholar

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67 The provenance of these parts is noted by the editor of Wodrow Misc. i p. 293, 4: also Lynch, M. in International Calvinism p. 233.Google Scholar

68 First Book p. 200.

69 Spald. Misc. iv pp. 111–2.

70 The Two Books of Common Prayer … of the reign of King Edward the Sixth (Oxford 1838) pp. 301–302Google Scholar; Donaldson, G. in Studies in the history of worship in Scotland ed. Forrester, D. and Murray, D. (Edinburgh 1984) p. 35.Google Scholar

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72 Spald. Misc. iv pp. 93, 108; Calderwood, , History iii p. 162.Google Scholar

73 Spald. Misc. iv p. 97: ‘bot quhen we compair the tymes past with this age, a greit defectione apperis at this present, for the maist part of men, specialie the gretest of the nobility … ceasis nocht … to spoilye and draw to thame selfis the possessiones of the kirk;’ also, ibid. p. 99: ‘Bot miserable is the estait of this tyme, quhairin men contemning all godlie counsall. …’ Compare with Knox's History ii pp. 3–6.

74 Williamson, A., Scottish National Consciousness p. 20.Google Scholar

75 Spald. Misc. iv p. 105.

76 Spald. Misc. iv p. 93 and Calderwood, , History iii p. 162Google Scholar: he cited Exodus 35, 2 Chronicles 31 and Acts 4 as equal evidence of proper care by the faithful of the ministry, ibid. pp. 96–7.

77 Spald. Misc. iv p. 101: also p. 100: ‘Bot the Lord seis maist cleirlie, and opins the eine of his serwandis to se that greit corruptione, and to admoniss sic men to amend in tyme, befoir the terribill day of the Lordis wisitatione cum.’

78 Williamson, , Scottish National Consciousness pp. 154–155 n. 66.Google Scholar

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80 Spald. Misc. iv p. 100. For his use of the language of antichrist: ‘The messingeris and ministeris of God seand the wraith of God kendlit for our synnes and the cruell threatnyngis of the Antichrist and his memberis aganis the kirk of God, as thai haif concludit in thair bludie counsall of Trent …’ (ibid. p. 108). See also ‘Ane letter … to the queinis grace’ ibid. p. 88.

81 Calderwood, , History iii p. 161Google Scholar. Erskine's part in witch-trials is consistent with this. He was joint-commissioner in April 1568 to hold a trial at Arbroath of forty persons accused of witchcraft: SRO, Airlie mss., GD 16.25.4. On 13 Feb. 1587/8 he had a commission to try suspected witches at Montrose: MTH, Montrose mss. M/W1/15.

82 Calderwood, , History iii p. 158.Google Scholar

83 Second Book pp. 18–23 for J. Kirk's discussion of the background and events of the Leith settlement.

84 Spald. Misc. iv pp. 92–101. For the passage cited here, p. 92.

85 Spald. Misc. iv p. 93.

86 Kyle, R., ‘The Nature of the Church in the thought of John Knox’ SJT xxxvii (1985) p. 486Google Scholar: ‘the very essence of Knox's church was its invisible form’. Where Knox was concerned with the ‘marks’ of a true church, Erskine sought for the ‘marks’ by which true and false individual believers might be identified. His answer combined the basic Pauline and Johannine themes: those of faith and love: Spald. Misc. iv p. 95. ‘The trew memberis jonit to Christ be faithe, are jonit togither amange thame selfis be luff.’

87 Spald. Misc. iv p. 94: ‘This holie ministerie is placed in the kirk as a mother to bring furth and to newris childring wnto God, of quhois fructfull wombe are borne, and be hir breistis newrisit all the trew memberis of Christis kirk.’ Compare with — Calvin, Institutes 4.1.1: (ed. J. T. McNeill 1961). Also Bullinger, Decades 5.2: (ed. T. Harding for Parker Soc. 1852).

88 Spald. Misc. iv p. 93. In the English liturgies of the reign of Edward VI, the phrase ‘holy mysteries’ was used of the Lord's Supper Erskine's ‘hewinlie mistereis’ may reflect this. The Two Books of Common Prayer (Oxford 1838) p. 274Google Scholar and passim.

89 Spald. Misc. iv p. 93.

90 Wishart's translation of the Helvetic Confession, in Rogers, C., Life of George Wishart, p. 68.Google Scholar

91 Knox's History ii pp. 82–4, 98, 147. Lamb, author of Ane Resonyng, was active around Montrose during the formative years of Erskine's life: see ed. R. J. Lyall (Aberdeen 1985) pp. x–xvii.

92 Erskine refused to produce a draft for the section of the Discipline assigned to him, on the grounds that it was ‘obscure and mystick’. The Assembly nevertheless appointed him with others to confer with regent Morton to secure his assent to the completed Discipline: BUK i 384, 398.

93 Mullan, D. G., Episcopacy in Scotland pp. 56–64Google Scholar; Second Book pp. 142–5; Lynch, , Edinburgh p. 157.Google Scholar

94 He subscribed the Articles of July described as ‘treasonable’ by the earl of Arran: T. Crockett, ‘Life of John Erskine of Dun’ p. 248. The Ruthven Raiders sent an appeal to him, summoning him to support them in arms. NLS ms. 2208 f5r.

95 Spald. Misc. iv p. 70: letter from Adamson to Erskine, 22 Jan. 1584/5. On 18 Nov. 1584, Montrose wrote to Erskine that the king ‘hess alss gud oppynioun off you at this present, ass he hess off any subiect in Scotland’. Spald. Misc. iv p. 70.

96 Petrie, A, A Compendium History of the Catholic Church (The Hague 1662) century xvi pt 3, p. 448.Google Scholar

97 Crockett, T., ‘Life of John Erskine of Dun’ pp. 257–258.Google Scholar

98 Spald. Misc. iv p. 70.

99 David Hume wrote to James Carmichael on 15 Mar. 1584/5 and 9 April 1585 that ‘the laird of Dun is a pest to [the northern ministers]’ and that he ‘had corrupted them all’. Melville, James wrote that the concessions obtained to enable the north to subscribe had proved ‘a Dun humble kow’. Wodrow Soc. Misc. pp. 432, 436, 438Google Scholar; cited Crockett, T., ‘Life of John Erskine of Dun’ p. 263Google Scholar. For the subscription of the ‘brethren of the exercise of Montrose, Brechin and the Mearns’ on Erskine's advice, see their letter to him of 29 Jan. 1584/5: Spald. Misc. iv pp. 71–2.