P R I C E S I X P E N C E N E T 

THE VENERABLE 

JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

B Y 

DANIEL CONWAY 

E D I T E D BY 

A R C H I B A L D C A M P B E L L , S.J. 

f . v S A N D S & C O . 
Glasgow: 76 Cambridge Street Edinburgh: 37 George Street 

and London 





/ ¡ e t -

THE VENERABLE JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 



Nihil obstat '« ' I , 

J. CANONICUS RITCHIE, V . G . , 

Censor Deputatus. 

I mprimatur 

* JOANNES ALOYSIUS, 

Archiepiscopus Glascuensis. 

Imprimi Potest 

JOSEPH BROWNE, S.J. , 

Praep. Prov. Angliat, S.J. 

Ddtckfifecl 







THE VENERABLE 

JOHN OGILVIE, S J. 

A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE 

BY 

DANIEL C O N W A Y 

BDITID BY 

A R C H I B A L D CAMPBELL, S.J. 

SANDS & GO. 
GLASGOW : 76 CAMBRIDGE STREET 
EDINBURGH ; 37 GEORGE STREET 





I HAVE been asked to write a few words of recom-
mendation for the new issue of the interesting 
papers written by the late Rev . Daniel Conway of 
St. John's, Port Glasgow, on the Venerable Father 
Ogilvie, S.J., now edited by Father Archibald 
Campbell, S.J. 

I have much pleasure in complying with this 
request. I think that the reissue of these papers 
at this time of national stress and danger is par-
ticularly opportune. They show us the example 
of a loyal soldier of Christ, who knew how to die 
when duty called. 

J O H N A L O Y S I U S , 
Archbishop of Glasgow. 

ii th January, 1915. 





A . M . D . G . 

F O R E W O R D 

SOMEONE has said that " t o reprint an old book is 
often a more real service to the public than to bring 
out a new one." Confiding in this principle, we 
publish the following pages written by the late 
Rev. Daniel Conway, of St. John's, Port Glasgow, 
and published in the " M o n t h " in its issues of 
January, February, and March, 1878. W e are 
convinced that nothing could better perpetuate the 
memory of the Venerable Servant of God (in whose 
case Father Conway was deeply interested) and 
bring the knowledge of his life and death within 
the reach of everyone, than this brochure* Father 
Conway was always anxious that devotion to the 
Venerable Father John Ogilvie, S.J., should in-
crease day by day until the Holy See should see 
fit to bring about his beatification. 

W e are on the eve of the tercentenary of his 
martyrdom; hence the appropriateness of the 
publication. The Venerable Father was executed 
in the High Street of Glasgow for his defence of 
the supremacy of the Holy See, on the 10th of 
March, 1615. The cause of his beatification is not 
being neglected, for we are assured by the promoter 
of the cause of the English martyrs that the case 
of Father Ogilvie is included in the next group 

7 



8 FOREWORD 

of English martyrs to be beatified. When that 
day arrives, what a great honour it will be for 
the filia specialis Romance Ecclesice—the special 
daughter of the Holy See—the See of Glasgow—to 
have the great servant of God raised to the honour 
of our altars 1 It has sometimes been questioned 
whether Father Ogilvie was a convert from Protes-
tantism. This question seems to be definitely 
settled by Father Cornelius k Lapide, S.J., in his 
great commentary on the Scriptures, when dealing 
with Isaias, Chapter L , on the words " therefore 
have I set my face as a very hard rock, and I know 
that I shall not be confounded." After describing 
the heroism of the martyrs, such as St. Ignatius of 
Antioch, St. Laurence, and St. Vincent, he goes on 
to s a y : ' ' Such a man was our Brother Ogilvie, a 
martyr recently in Scotland, formerly a convert of 
mine at Louvain (Catechumenus Mens), who, as is 
manifest from his martyrdom, amazed the Calvinists 
by his steadfastness under torture, and by the 
alertness of his replies, so that all who assailed 
him were completely put to silence." 

If there be any truth in the saying, and we 
suppose very few would care to gainsay it, that the 
blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church, may we 
not attribute, in God's providence, apart from other 
well-known natural causes, the marvellous growth 
of the Catholic Religion in Glasgow to the death 
of Father John Ogilvie. At the time of the 
Father's death there were only a handful of crushed 
Catholics, but now in our own day Catholics count 
as one in five in this vast emporium of western 
commerce. 



9 FOREWORD 

In concusion, we give this little book as it left the 
pen of Father Conway, with its notes and refer-
ences. It goes forth with the approval and bless-
ing of our Ecclesiastical authorities, and we trust 
that this will increase devotion to our Venerable 
Brother and fellow-countryman, ad majorem Dei 
gloriam. 

A R C H . C A M P B E L L , S.J. 

FEAST OF THE PURIFICATION, B . V . M . 

1915-





THE VENERABLE JOHN 

OGILVIE, S.J. 

P A R T T H E F I R S T 

THE Church in Scotland has a history, between the 
year that Father John Ogilvie was born and the 
year he won his crown (1580—1615), which has 
some points of contact with the history of those 
days when the Christians made their altars and 
excavated the graves for their dead in the Cata-
combs. Evidence in support of this statement is 
to be had, stored up in the folios of Protestant 
writers. " T h e proceedings," wrote Pitcairn,1 

" adopted against the Roman Catholics and the 
Jesuits at different periods, after the Reformation 
in Scotland, form a prominent part in the ecclesi-
astical and political history of the country. . . . 
During the reign of K i n g James, both before and 
after his accession to the English throne, seldom 
did a year pass without some rumours of fresh 
attempts of the Jesuits against his life, or against 
the religion, as by law established in England." 

Several causes contributed towards the results 

1 Criminal Trials, vol. iii. p. 350. 
I I 



12 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

stated by Pitcairn, of which the following may be 
mentioned as having been not the least influential. 
First, the number and the position of the Catholics 
in Scotland; second, the connections which they, 
as well as the Protestants, had made, the latter 
with their co-religionists in England and abroad, 
the former, especially at this period, with Spain; 
third, the conduct of James himself, who was no 
insignificant factor in the persecution, for he 
was to the Catholics arbitrary, ungrateful, and 
treacherous. " T h e accession of James indeed 
raised the hopes of the Catholics in England 
(Scotland) itself; he had intrigued for their support 
before the Queen's death, and their persecution 
was relaxed for a while after he had mounted the 
throne. But it soon began again, with even 
greater severity than of old, and six thousand 
Catholics were presented as recusants in a single 
year."8 Fourth, there is to be added to the 
number of causes which brought about the condi-
tion of the Church in Scotland at this time—a state 
of cruel persecution—the struggle between the 
Kirk and prelacy for supremacy. Neither the one 
nor the other could hope to be supreme, so long 
as the Church stood, as she did, supported by 
not a few of the nobility, and having very many 
adherents among the people. Indeed her chances 
were anything but desperate of regaining the posi-
tion she had been driven from, in 1560, by an Act 
which disestablished and proscribed her. Both the 
Kirk and prelacy, each in turn and now and then 
conjointly, laid violent hands on the Church. 

'.J.- R- Green, The Hist. People of England, p. 463. 
Edition 1876 



13 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

They showed themselves to be her enemies, not only 
by framing enactments against the Catholics, but 
also by calling into action dormant penal statutes. 

That the Church in Scotland was a power, both 
before and after James became K i n g of England, 
stands acknowledged by the forces which were put 
in motion against her. Besides, records prove it. 
" The Present State of the Nobility of Scotland in 
1583,"3 gives the number of noblemen professing 
the Catholic religion as twelve; and " The Present 
State of the Nobility of Scotland in 1592," names 
thirteen Catholics. Add to these numbers the 
circumstance that Huntly, a Catholic, was the most 
powerful and extensive landowner in the realm; and 
certainly it must be admitted that so far as the 
nobility were concerned the Catholics were influen-
tial. Evidence is at hand which makes clear the 
fact that among the people the adherents of the 
ancient faith were so numerous as to form a body 
not to be contemned. Writ ing to Laurea, the 
Cardinal Protector of Scotland, Mary Stuart stated 
in 1586, " En ce pauvre royaume . . . je vous puis 
assurer qu'il reste encore un tres bon nombre de 
bien entires Catholiques, et mesme des principaux 
de la noblesse."4 Tytler confirms what Mary 
Queen of Scots wrote : " Nor was there any reason 
why this large and powerful body of men should 
despair of success, but rather the contrary. Ample 
proof of this may be found in a remarkable paper 
in the hand of Lord Burghley, written shortly 
before James' arrival from Denmark, and drawn up 
apparently for his own guidance, which brings 

* Miscellany, Bannatyne Club, vol. i. pp. 55, 56. 
4 Labanoff, vol. vi. p. 348, 



14 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

forward in clear contrast, the comparative strength 
of the Catholic and the Protestant parties in Scot-
land From it we learn that all the northern part 
of the kingdom, including the counties of Inver-
ness, Caithness, Sutherland, and Aberdeen, with 
Moray and the sheriffdoms of Buchan, of Angus 
of Wigton, and of Nithsdale, were either whol^ 
or for the greater part in the interest of the Roman 
Catholic party, commanded mostly by noblemen 
who secretly adhered to that faith."8 

How the numbers and the influence of the 
Catholics operated against them was, we believe, 
this : that being both numerous and influential thev 
were, on that very account, hated. Their strength 
was their weakness. The sword which was once 
drawn against them must be either broken in defeat 
or nung up in victory. 

And notably it was unfortunate for the Church 
that some leading Catholics in Scotland were 
connected with Spain, or indeed with any other 
continental power, at this period. If a n anony-
mous work which is quoted often, namely Historie 
of King James the Sext, is to be trusted, it would 
appear that about 1588 and 1589 Colonel Semple 
and Lord Maxwell returned to Scotland from 

•Pain" u I n connection with this event—at any rate 
about the time it happened-there was detected 
a secret correspondence between some leading 
Catholics in Scotland and abroad. If not as a 
consequence of such a discovery, certainly at this 
very tune the kingdom was alarmed. " A solemn 
fast, wrote Calderwood, " w a s keeped about the 
end of October, 1589, which continued three Sab-

' History ,f ScetUnd, vol. ix. pp. 3 9 ) 4 0 . 



¥ I 
15 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

bath days, wherewith was joined the celebration of 
the Lord's Supper. Thanks were given to God 
for that notable delivery from invasion, attempted 
by the cruel Spaniards. Notwithstanding that the 
Lord had manifested the year preceeding by the 
overthrow of the Spanish Armada, what care He 
had of His poor Kirk in this isle, yet did the 
enemies of the truth continue still in their despight 
and malice. Sundrie trafficking Jesuits, Seminary 
priests, and other emissaries of Antichrist, creeping 
into this country, ceased not to pervert the people 
in sundrie parts, namely in the north and the south, 
whereupon dangerous effects were like to follow 
Therefore the most vigilant of the ministrie, warn-
ing and moving others, as the custom of the Kirk 
of Scotland was from the beginning, conveened at 
Edinburgh in the month of January, 1589, and gave 
into the K i n g and Councel the petitions following-

That it may please his Highness to forbear, in 
time to come to interpose his privie letters or 
discharges to the Kirk, for staying of their pro-
ceedings with their censures against Papists, when 
sothey cannot be reclaimed by lawful admonitions. 

iftat Commissioners may be directed to some 
special persons of his Highness' Councel, best 
affected and of greatest power, to search, seek and 
apprehend and persecute to justice all Jesuits and 
other privat or publick seducers of his Highness' 
lieges and that the said Commissioners be instantly 
named, and a day be appointed to report their 
diligence in that behalf."« 

The Kirk meant work. A close search was to 
be made all over^the country for both " p r i v a t " 

'History, p. 227. 

I 

* 



6 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

and " publick " " seducers," all of whom were to 
be " persecuted to justice." A t this very time a 
packet of letters was found on the person of Colonel 
Semple's man-servant, Pringle. Elizabeth sent 
those letters to James on February 17, 1589. They 
were written in cipher. One of them, it is said, 
was addressed to the K i n g of Spain, and bore the 
signatures of Huntly, Morton, alias Maxwell, and 
Claude Hamilton. Elizabeth called on James to 
apprehend "trafficking P a p i s t s " suddenly. This 
is a significant word; there is a world of meaning 
in suddenly. 

Three years afterwards, namely, in 1592, a 
vigilance committee (to use a modern phrase) was 
formed in Edinburgh. Its duty was this, to look 
sedulously after the interests of the Kirk. Calder-
wood expresses its work, shows its office in this 
sentence: " Providere in omnibus ne quid 
Ecclesia detrimenti capiat," which, turned into its 
equivalent—not in words, but in acts—implied the 
enforcing against the Catholics of all, even obsolete 
penal enactments. Yet more: a number of social 
indignities were heaped on the faithful. The his-
torian of the Kirk lets it be known what those 
indignities were. " Weapon-showings were to be 
made, and the country to be convened upon all 
occasions needful for the defence of the true 
religion."7 The reflection made by Calderwood 
on those "Weapon-shows," and the arming of 
Protestant neighbours against Catholic ones at 
the mere whim and fancy of zealots reveals how 
vexatious and exasperating such displays must have 
been. " T h e reader," he wrote, " may perceive 

' Calderwood, ad annum 1592, p. 273. 



17 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

how vigilant the ministers were, and careful to 
suppress and overthrow the plots and machinations 
of Papists seeking the overthrow of religion." 

Another batch of letters was brought to light. 
George Kerr, a Catholic gentleman, was appre-
hended December 17, 1592. He had embarked for 
Spain at Fairlie, the modern watering-place on the 
Ayrshire coast, but was overtaken at the Cumbrae 
islands. A packet of letters, afterwards called the 
"Spanish Blanks," was found in his custody. 
This discovery, taken along with the letters found 
on the person of the man Pringle, served a purpose. 
Persecution thereby was not suffered to be remiss 
in its efforts to crush the Church. And here, at 
this stage of our narrative, it may not be inappro-
priate to insert a passage written by one of the 
latest historians, bearing directly on the documents 
known by the name of the "Spanish Blanks." 
" In the same year, 1592, occurred the incident 
called the ' Spanish Blanks,' which disturbed the 
zealous Presbyterian party to an extent not easily 
realized by looking at the scanty materials by which 
it was produced. But, in fact, it was the mystery 
excited by imperfect evidence that created suspicion 
and terror. It was suspected that a man named 
Kerr who was leaving Scotland by the west coast 
had dangerous documents in his custody. The 
minister of Paisley, hearing of this, gathered some 
sturdy parishioners, who seized and searched Kerr. 
They took from him eight papers called the 
' Spanish Blanks.' Each had on it the concluding 
courtesies of a letter addressed to royalty: ' De 
vostre Majestie tres humble et tres obesant servi-
teur,' and was followed by one or more signatures. 

9 



18 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

Otherwise those slips of paper had no designa-
tion on the back, nor declaration of the causes 
for which they were sent, but blank and white 
paper on both sides, except the said subscrip-
tions. . . . Such efforts as availed to the chemistry 
of the age were made to reveal any writing with 
sympathetic ink above the subscriptions, but with 
no result. . . . Several letters of alarming import 
were found at the same time. Those documents 
have come to us in a manifesto or explanatory 
pamphlet, ' printed and published at the special 
command of the K i n g ' s Majesty.' K i n g James 
was at that time paying his addresses without much 
success to the zealous Presbyterians, and in the 
tone of those letters there is a suspicious tendency 
towards the revelation of terrible dangers escaped 
through the vigilance of the Government."8 

Both the letters found on Colonel Semple's servant 
and the "Spanish Blanks " served the purpose of 
the K i n g and the Kirk, let those documents be 
genuine or the reverse. They raised a very storm 
of unpopularity against the Catholics. 

Despite their good intentions, their intercourse 
with Spain at that time did not serve the cause 
which the leaders of the Catholic party had at 
heart. It was, however, the fashion of the age to 
look abroad for support, which was not to be 
had at home: hence the Protestants of Scotland, 
even before this period, were in communication 
with their co-religionists in England. The conse-
quences of such relation—on both the Catholic 
and Protestant sides, were adverse to the interests 
of the Church. They were adverse to the interests 

"Hil l Burton, v. 291. Edit. 1873. 



19 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

of the Church in this respect, without taking into 
account others, that thereby the Catholic cause was 
mixed up with political intrigues. Now-a-days, as 
well as then, that cause is not a national one: its 
aims are not secular. The Church is not Spanish 
or Scottish, she belongs to the nations of the earth; 
hence she is Catholic in name and in mission. Her 
name and mission are all the same, and must 
be unchanged, whether Hanoverian, Stuart, or 
Bourbon reign or fall from their estate. She lives 
under all forms of government: her lot is cast in 
with republics, monarchies, and empires, yet all 
the while she is not republican, monarchical, or 
imperial. 

The Kirk at this period, 1595, was supreme.9 

For three months its power was felt in every home-
stead in Scotland. It was empowered to " plant 
a wise pastor" in any house in the kingdom. 
Persecution had not, perhaps, ever assumed so 
vexatious a form as that of " planting wise 
pastors " in the houses of those people deemed by 
the Presbytery worthy of such attention. " Per-
haps this arrangement does not belong to the class 
of acts universally admitted to amount to perse-
cution. And yet there are tortures attributed to 
the Inquisition which some men would rather 
endure than this scheme, dooming them and their 
families to be ever haunted by a pragmatical priest 
of a hostile Church, armed with powers of exhorta-
tion, inquisition and rebuke." 10 

The Kirk had its day. 
Prelacy came to the front in 1606. Bent on 

9 Calderwood, ad annum. 
" Hill Burton, v. 303. Edit. 1873. 



20 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

securing supremacy it was as merciless as the Kirk. 
Not an hour, so to say, was lost in making this 
known. James Law, Bishop of Orkney, the very 
year prelacy came into power, laid before the K i n g 
a petition and an " Act " from " the Constant 
Moderators " against the " insolent" Papists. 
That petition bore the signature of every member 
of the assembly. The K i n g ' s answer was couched 
in these words: He would have called before the 
council, the Bishop of the diocese, the Moderator 
of the Presbytery and the minister of the parish 
being present and inquired concerning their (the 
Catholics') behaviour, and whether they did resort 
or not ordinarily to sermons, wherein they should 
be tried to have transgressed, his pleasure was that 
they should be confined within so many miles com-
pass, as are distant betwixt the houses of their 
residence and the city, wherein it was desired that 
they should be confined to the end . . . to resort 
to the city or town designed for their instruction, 
where they should be tied to stay ten days together, 
and during their stay hear sermons, admit confer-
ences, and forbear the company of Jesuits, seminary 
priests, and others of that persuasion." 1 1 The 
Catholics aimed at, provided for spiritually by the 
above royal decree, were noblemen! It is not to 
be supposed that the Catholics of lower degrees 
were neglected. They were not indeed. Two years 
after that decree had been issued, in 1608, James 
had the following proposals laid before him: 

X. That his Majesty be entreated not to permit 
any Papist, or suspected of Popery to bear charge 

11 Spottiswood, 1608, p. 502. 



21 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

in council, session, or in any burgh or ci£y; and 
where his Majesty did know any such to occupy 
those places, that order be taken for their removal. 

2. That the laws made against Papists should 
receive execution, and no favour be granted unto 
them by the officers of State, with a prohibition to 
the council to meddle in affairs ecclesiastical, or to 
discharge the processes led by ministers against 
Papists, and other contemners of Church discipline. 

3. That Papists abjuring their religion in hope 
of preferment to offices of State, should not be 
admitted thereto till they had given five years' pro-
bation at least. 

4. That the sons of noblemen professing Popery 
should be committed to the custody of their friends 
as are sound in religion. 

5. That a commission should be granted to every 
Bishop in his diocese, and to such well affected 
noblemen, barons, and gentlemen as the commis-
sioners of the assembly should nominate, for appre-
hending of Jesuits, seminary priests, excommuni-
cated Papists, and traffiquers against religion. 

6. That the searchers of ships should seize upon 
all books that are brought into the country, and 
present them to the ministers of the town where the 
ships shall happen to arrive. 

7. That excommunicated Papists be put in close 
prison and none have access to them but such as 
are known to be of sound religion.14 

In 1611 the Earl of Dunbar died. " His death," 
wrote Spottiswood, " made a great change in our 
estate." 

" Spottiswood, ad annum, 1608. 



22 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

The prospects of the Church about that period 
became brighter. There was then a revival of 
ancient customs. Eastertide and Christmas were 
observed. The so-called Lord's Supper was ad-
ministered on Easter Sunday, and the Yule L o g 
blazed in ancestral mansions. In the middle of 
the same year, three painters were employed in 
painting crucifixes in almost every house in 
Glasgow.13 

Converts were received in goodly numbers and 
apostates were frequently reconciled to the Church. 

It was about this time Father John Ogilvie came 
to the front. 

The Ogilvies distinguished themselves by 
loyalty to the Bruce and the Stuarts. Gilbert, the 
ancestor of the r< bonnie house of A i r l i e " was 
gifted by William the Lyon in 1163, with the 
Barony of Ogilvie in Forfarshire—hence, the name 
of the Clan.14 The most steadfast adherent of 

" Julii 8, 1612. Qulk doy compereit George Scott, 
painter . . . accused quhy he painted the crucifix in many 
houses of the . . . qlk is liklie to breid one corruptio and 
to turtne the heartes of the ignorant to idolatrie and to mak 
them beleve that thair houses cannot be happie or blessed 
bot yr the Crucifix is: the same George confessit and 
promiset not to do it in tymes coming and straitlie in-
hibit be ye presbyterie under the paine of ye censures of 
the Kirk. As also the said George complaimt of other two 
painters who were keepit secretlie in the houses of the 
towne who painted the same almost in everie house. The 
Presbyterie ordaines them to be sommondit befoir the 
Sessions of Glasgow to be tryitt and the names of the houses 
to be gevin upe qr in the Crucifix is, to be taine ordour wt. 
Julii 29, 1612. Qlk daye the Presbyterie gives commissune 
to Mr. P Sharpe, Mr. Thone Bell, Mr. Andro Boyde, 
Mr. Archibald Glen to go to the Provost and bailies of the 
towne of Glasgow to desire them to tak ordour wt. the two 
painters that the two painters that were secrectlie keipit in 
ye houses of Glasgow painting Crucifixes.—Extracts from 
the Record of the Presbytery of Glasgow. 

" Anderson, vol. iii. 



23 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

Robert the Bruce, in his chequered career, was 
Patrick de Ogilby, a Forfarshire Knight. The 
ancient ballad of the Battle of Harlaw, fought in 
1411 styles an Ogi lby : 

The gracious gude Lord Ogilvy. 

and sets forth his virtues in these lines— 

The best among them was 
The gracious gude Lord Ogilvy, 
The sherifF-principal of Angus, 
Renownit for truth and equity, 
For faith and magnaminity, 
He had few fellows in the field. 
Yet, fell by fatal destiny, 
For he wad nae grant to yeild. 

Not only in the ages of chivalry, but down into 
the Reformation times the name of Ogilvie 15 is 
met with in public records—is linked with noble 
deeds. The Brechin register16 shows that Alex-
ander (Protestant) Bishop of Brechin confirmed the 
grant made by Alexander Ogilvie, Easter Drum, 
to his eldest son by his wife, Agnes Edmonstone, 
in 1591. And in the same year, 1591, George 
Ogilvie, son of Alexander Drummis, was acknow-
ledged a relative of James, Lord Ogilvie.17 William 
Ogilvie had the honour of being singled out, in 
1593, M as a traffiquing Papist, an unnatural and 
rebellious subject," along with Huntly, Angus, 
Errol, and others.18 Alexander Ogilvie, a young 
Knight of great promise, was with the gallant 

15 There are three forms of the name: Ogilby, Ogilvy, 
Ogilvie. 

" Registerium Brechinense, vol. 11. 
" Pitcairn ii. Criminal Trials. 
" Calderwood, True History, ad annum. 



24 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

Montrose at Philiphaugh.19 He was taken prisoner 
on the field and executed in Glasgow in 1646. 
O'Callagahan2 0 mentions Captain Ogilvie, who 
fought with the Stuart at the Boyne. He was the 
author of the Jacobite song— 

It was a' for our rightful King 
We left fair Scotland's strand. 

It is said he was one of the hundred gentlemen 
who followed James II. into exile. He died, it is 
supposed, in battle on the banks of the Rhine.21 

Thomas Ogilvie's daughter, in 1691, received the 
veil in the English Convent, near the Scots' 
College, Paris. She was twice Abbess, and was 
called in religion Sister Mary Genevieve. The 
Queen of Great Britain took part in the service the 
day she was professed.22 

From this Clan, renowned in arms and in song, 
Father John Ogilvie, the martyr was descended. 

He was born in the north of Scotland 23 about the 
year 1580. 1580 is, presumably, the year he was 
born; for in 1614 he declared, in Glasgow, that he 
had been out of Scotland twenty-two years, and at 
his death—March 10, 1615—he was about thirty-
four years old. 

The chronology of his life, with one or two cir-
cumstances thereof is given here. W e by no means 
vouch for its accuracy; but in some particulars it 
is confirmed by Father John Ogilvie's own declara-
tion : and thus, on that account, it is more or less 
reliable. 

" Anderson iii., 1874. " Green Book, New York. 
"Anderson, iii., 1874. " G a l l e r y , F. P. Glasgow. 

" Relatio Incarcerationis, &c., Douay 1615. 



25 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

Father John Ogilvie, born . 1580. 
abroad . 1592. 
at Louvain 1596. 
a novice . 1597-
at Ratisbon 1598. 
Moravia . 1600. 
at Olmutz . 1605. 
at Gratz . 1607. 
at Rouen . 1612. 

. at Paris . 1613. 

Father John Crichton, Rector of Louvain, was 
obliged to reduce the number of students under 
his care for want of funds: hence, it is stated that 
young Ogilvie was sent to Ratisbon in 1598. It 
was at Gratz that he studied theology; and in 1613 
he was ordained priest at Paris. The martyr's 
own " Deposition " fits in with some of these par-
ticulars ; it runs thus: 

" The Priest being enquiryit quhat hes name 
wes, he nameit him self Johnne Ogilbie, sone to 
Walter Ogilbie of Drum: and that he hes bein out 
of his countraye thir twentye-twa yeirs: and that 
he studiet in ye colledgis of Olmis and Graitis: and 
remanit in Olmis twa yeirs, and in Graitis fyve 
yeirs: and he hes ressauit ye ordor of Priesthud in 
Paris." 24 

After an absence of twenty years and more, 
Father Ogilvie returned to Scotland, Martinmas 
1613, accompanied by two priests, namely, Father 
James Moffet, S.J. and Friar John Campbell, 
Capuchin. The three missionaries travelled under 
assumed names, Father Ogilvie's being Watson, 

" PitcairB, Criminal Trials, vol. iii. p. 353. 



26 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

Father Moffet's Halyburton, and Friar Campbell's 
Sinclair. The Government had spies scattered 
over the Continent, whose business it was to pick 
up in Rome, Valladolid, and other places, informa-
tion about the priests and seminarists destined for 
the home missions. The information thus obtained 
was forwarded to the searchers of ships hailing 
from foreign parts; and in consequence priests 
were, now and then, apprehended in the act of 
landing. It was not optional; it was necessary, 
under such circumstances, that the missionaries 
should, in some way, disguise themselves. The 
disguise assumed by Father Ogilvie in coming into 
the country, so far as the name went, was not an 
impenetrable one, for he was Watson—a Scottish | 

surname which means the son of Walter, and 
Walter was the martyr's father's Christian name. 
The missionaries separated on their arrival in their 
native land. Father Ogilvie went to the north;25 

Friar Campbell to Edinburgh; and Father Moffet 
moved about the Western Lowlands, and after some 
months betook himself to the Eastern Counties. 
Just about one year after his landing in Scotland 
he was apprehended in St. Andrews, on the charge 
of being a Mass priest, by Mr. Alexander Glaid-
stanes, the son of the Archbishop of that city. On 
December 10, 1614, he appeared before the Lords 
of Secret Council and was shut up a close prisoner 
in Edinburgh Castle.26 Father Ogilvie spent six 
weeks in the North.27 A little before Easter 
Sunday which that year fell on March 30, he was 

" Relatio Incarcerationis, See. Douay, 1615. 
" Calderwood, vol. vii. Woodrow Edit. 
37 Pitcairn, iii. " Sex onkis or thairty." Jesuits' Depo-

sitions. 

( 



27 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

in England on his way to London. He was two 
months at Court; and it would appear he had in 
hand some important business, the nature of which 
is not known, but probably it is in the keeping 
of the State Paper Office. On his own authority 
we are led to believe he had done the K i n g a service, 
and perhaps his residence at Court was in connec-
tion with that transaction. Anyhow James made 
him no return; and this is not to be wondered at, 
for he was not a grateful man. 

Many Scotsmen followed the Stuart into 
England. They crossed the Borders, not as of 
old, with fire and sword, but peacefully, in quest 
of fortune and distinction. They stood, of course, 
on the sunny side of the throne; yet James, now 
and then, turned against the Northerners, and 
issued an order that they were to be turned back 
when found either by land or sea on their way to 
England. Among the Scotsmen at Court there 
was one with whom Father Ogilvie had much inter-
course, he was Sir James Kneilland of Monkland, 
an estate near Glasgow. Monkland was one of the 
very few spots in the Western Lowlands where, 
even so recently as Bishop Hays' days, some of 
the faithful could trace up their relationship with 
the Catholics of the pre-Reformation era. Father 
Ogilvie and Sir James Kneilland travelled together 
on their homeward journey. 

It was in August, 1614, it is said, Father 
Ogilvie ventured into Glasgow. Such a step was 
indeed a venture fraught with peril; for Spottis-
wood was then the so-called Archbishop of that 
city—and in saying this, much is said. Although 
John Spottiswood had eminent abilities—shown by 



28 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

his History and other writings—yet withal he was 
one of the fiercest bigots in the kingdom. He was, 
besides, a sycophant and a debauchee. Indeed, 
the prelates of the Reformed Church of Scotland 
at that period did no credit to their lawn; for 
excepting one or so of them, and they were thirteen 
in number, their characters could not bear scrutiny. 
The satirists of the day held them up to public 
reprobation; and as an instance of this statement 
we insert here some verses which were scattered 
about the public places of Edinburgh. 

Vina amat Andreas, cum vino Glascua amores 
Ros castus, ludos Galva, Brichaaus opes : 

Aulam Orcas, ollum Moravus, parat Insula fraudes 
Dumblanus tricas, nomen Aberdonius, 

Fata Caledonius fraterni ruminât agri, 
Rarus avis parochos, O Catanee, tuos. 

Solus in Argadiis prsesul meritissimus ovis, 
Vera ministerii symbola solus habes." 

Spottiswood held supreme sway in Glasgow both 
as prelate and magistrate. He held his own court 
and had his own officials; and what is more, he 
divided with the Crown jurisdiction in temporals, 
his share and that of the King ' s in such concerns 
being respectively designated the Royalty and the 
Regality of the city. The prospect which opened 
at that time of a change for the better in the fortunes 
of the ancient faith would not, it is reasonable to 
suppose, render the Archiépiscopal magistrate less 
hostile towards the Catholics; on the contrary, he 
would, on that account, be the more urgent in 
working the agencies at his command against the 
progress of the Church. And this is not altogether 

" Calderwood, vol. vii. 



29 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

a surmise. He had the reputation of being most 
anxious to rise in the royal favour, and what 
speedier means could he use than by approving 
himself an earnest promoter of Prelacy ? It was, 
we repeat, a perilous adventure Father Ogilvie 
embarked in when he passed into the City of 
Glasgow—in doing so, it may be said of him, that 
he carried his life in his hand. 

It would have been foolhardy if he had not worn 
a disguise in Glasgow, and indeed everywhere that 
he had to appear. The clerical dress was out of 
the question. The dress Father Ogilvie wore, at 
any rate on two occasions, was a soldier's, one not 
out of keeping with a son of Ignatius Loyola. 
This circumstance came out in the trial of Sir James 
Kneilland, who stood charged with having received 
and given hospitality to Father Ogilvie. " Sir 
James Kneilland being accused of having received 
and entertained John Ogilvie, priest, in his house, 
said he did not know him to be a Jesuit, but he said 
to him that he was a sojer (soldier), . . . and that 
he came to him like a sojer, with Capt. Donaldson 
and ane number of sojers." 29 

W e know from his own pen an interesting par-
ticular of his life in Glasgow. It is not much in 
itself, but as we cannot have too much information 
about the heroic servants of God, and on the say-
ing that " a little chink lets in much l ight," such 
seemingly small matters as the one we give will 
help in some way to disclose the character of the 
martyr. " Before I was captured I used to say my 
breviary at night in the heretics' houses when I 
was obliged to stay the night. A certain person 

** Illustrative Notes. Bannatyne Club, 171, 



30 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

who had noticed me whispering in a low tone and 
lighting a wax candle, gives out that I was a 
magician." 30 

August and October—only a quarter of a year, 
mark off the limits of Father Ogilvie's missionary 
career in and about the city where he died a martyr's 
death. He came and went during those months, 
on mission duties, between Edinburgh and Glas-
gow. In Edinburgh it is known that he said Mass 
several times. He lodged in Robert Cruikshank's 
inn: and said Mass in Robert Wilkie's house in 
the Cannongate. His labours were markedly suc-
cessful in Glasgow—more so there than anywhere 
else. Here he found " a kinder receipt " than he 
had looked for; for there he received " sundrie 
young men " and many persons " of the better 
sorte." 31 How true this statement is, is well borne 
out by names of the persons who were, beyond 
question, among his flock. The records of the 
proceedings which were taken against him, and 
in some cases against those persons for having 
entertained him and assisted at his Masses, give 
their names. Those documents show the follow-
ing to have been in communication with him 
as a priest: Earl of Eglinton, Lady Maxwell, 
Sir James Kneilland of Monkland, David Max-
well, brother of Newark, William Maxwell of 
Cowglen, John Wallace of Corsflat, Mr. John 
Mayne,32 some members of the Forret family, 

" Imprisonment, p. 15. 
" Calderwood. 
** Mr. John Mayne, a very trusted friend to whom Father 

Ogilvie gave letters and MSS. which were published at 
Douay, July, 1615, and translated by Father Chas. J. 
Karslake, S.J. 



31 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

Marion Walker 33 and servant, Robert Heygate,3* 
merchant, Andrew Symmer, James Stewart, 
William Monteith, Matthew Adam, William Sin-
clair, advocate, and Robert Ury , writer, Paisley.35 

Treachery was at work. On Tuesday the 14th 
of October (4th O.S.), a little after four o'clock in 
the afternoon, Father Ogilvie was seized by one of 
the Archbishop's men in the place of public resort.36 

W h o was the traitor? That there was one is 
certain: the martyr's own description of his appre-
hension makes it evident. He wrote, that on a 
sign being given by the traitor, he was seized. 
And it would appear from the Archbishop's letter 
addressed to the K i n g that a reward had been 
promised to the man who should make a prisoner 
of the Jesuit. 

W h o was that man ? Suspicion rests on one of 
the Forrets.37 

• " T h i s lady, ten years previous to Father Ogilvie's arrival 
ln- Glasgow, was summoned before the Presbytery charged 
w t h having a crucifix painted on a board in her house 
(Mtscellany, Maitland Club). It was in her house Father 
Ogilvie said Mass (Pitcairn iii. Depositions of Jesuit and 
Papists). 

" Robert Heygate, merchant, a zealous Catholic. He 
used to serve Father Ogilvie's Mass. 

5 Paisley, after the Reformation, was called " a nest of 
Papists. A note in Hill Burton's The History of Scot-
land, states that the faithful of that town made their 
confessions " in graveyards, lime-kilns, and midden-
steads ! 

" " Circa horam quartam pomeridianam cum Prsetoris 
primogenito m Foro ambulo: accurrit interim Archiepiscopi 
famulus signo a proditore dato, vir familia nobilis, et 
viribus fortis, qui me jubet ad Milordum i r e " (Relatio 
Incarcerationis, p. 7). 

" James Forret, on his examination, craved God's for-
giveness for having abjured Protestantism, and Thomas 
Forret declared that the sight of the Mass made him 
despise the Catholic religion (Pitcairn, iii. Depositions of 
Papists and Jesuits). The motive of the traitor, whoever 
he was, was like himself a base one: all traitors are base 



32 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

Not any description of what befell the martyr 
immediately after his seizure can excel his own one. 
" At a s ign," he wrote, " given by my betrayer,38 

there runs up to me a servant of the Archbishop, 

The motive in this instance was a mean one—it was the 
poet's cursed hunger of gold. This comes out in the 
following letter, the words of which are modernized—" Mr. 
John Murray, of Lochmaben, of his Majesty s Bed 
Chamber. From the Privy Council. . . . Right Assured 
Friend,—In the letter we have sent to his Majesty we 
referred two particulars to be made for apprehending some 
Jesuits and massing priests, and presenting them to the 
Council. The offer was made of four, but now one of 
them is dead. took sick in the Laird of Gichts 
house, and was carried forth to one of his tenants and 
buried secretly. The rest live in the country, and were 
never more busy than at this present. The gentleman is 
ready to undertake their apprehension, upon security of 
reward. But without this, will not hazard for any promise 
(that) can be given him. The Archbishop of Glasgow told 
us from his Majesty that the man should be surely re-
warded, according as his service would be found worthy. 
But to indent for every man upon one particular sum 
beforehand could not be expedient, and might turn to the 
prejudice of him that served, seeing he might fall upon 
one that is worth ten thousand pounds, yet this moves him 
not. We have asked, we mean such of us as he travels 
with in this affair, what the men are, alleging they might 
be so vile bodies as it might fall his Majesty would not 
count them worth. His answer is that they are men of all 
good account as any of that sort, and says that when he has 
apprehended them he will furnish probation of their receipt 
(resset) and entertainment in noblemen and gentlemen s 
houses, who by the law will be punishable, and will be glad 
to (compone) compromise for their remission to a far 
greater sum than he craves for, which—that so good an 
occasion be not lost, whereof we do not understand what 
may be the event, and that his Majesty be not put to 
greater charges than is needful—we have thought that it 
shall be good his Majesty command the Treasurer-Deputy 
to confer with the gentleman and give him security of that 
which he craves, the service being done, and he making 
good the receipt (resset) which he offers to qualify. For 
this way the penalties of their entertaining will resound 
much (more?) than is c r a v e d " (No. 9, MS. Advocates 

Library, A2, 53>- . „ . , „ 
" An Authentic Account, &c. translated by Father 

Charles J. Karslake, S.J. 



33 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

a man of good family and stalwart withal, and 
orders me off to his lordship. Imagining that I 
was called to the sheriff, the grandson of the traitor 
(as we had arranged), I said that I would willingly 
go, and accordingly turned back for the purpose. 
But the son of the magistrate was unwilling to part 
with me " (the son of the magistrate was the gentle-
man he was out walking with), " a n d insisted on 
my first going to his house, although the other 
man opposed it. Whilst, however, I am amicably 
arranging the dispute between the two, there is a 
concourse of town officers and citizens. They seize 
my sword, and begin pushing me and pulling me 
about. I inquire what harm I was doing, and 
whether they were quite in their right senses? I 
said that the others were quarrelling amongst 
themselves, and that I had nothing to do with it. 
No need for a long story. I am lifted up by the 
united rush of the gathering crowd, and almost 
borne away on their shoulders to the house of the 
magistrate. They snatch away my cloak; I said 
that I would not stir a step without my cloak, and 
thereupon somebody promised me his; but I wanted 
my own, and at last got it away from them. I 
protested against the barbarity of the angry crowd, 
and promised them that every one should one day 
know how barbarously they had treated me when I 
was doing no harm to any one, and that without 
any form of law taken out, or any cause assigned. 
Whilst this was going on, the Bishop, who was in 
another part of the city, is told that those whom 
he had sent to me had been killed, that a general 
slaughter was taking place, and that the city was 
in arms. A s soon as he heard this statement, he 



34 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

assembled the88 lairds and barons who happened 
to be at that time in the city, and came with them 
in a body into the street. He saw that everything 
was quiet there, and inquired where I was. It 
was night by this time. They told him that I was 
in the house of the magistrate, that day elected. 
Thither he hastened with his whole company, and 
called me out as I was sitting between the table 
and the wall. I obey, and he strikes me a blow,40 

and says, ' Y o u were an over insolent fellow to say 
your Masses in a reformed city.' I reply: ' Y o u 
do not act like a bishop, but like an executioner in 
striking me.' Then, as though the signal had been 
thus given them, they shower their blows from all 
sides upon me, the hair is plucked from my beard, 
my face is torn with their nails, until Count 
Fleming restrains those who were striking me by 
his authority, and by main force. Then, whilst 
my senses had barely returned from the stunning 
effect of so many blows on my head, I am com-
manded to be stript. Some men there immediately 
obeyed the order, untying the strings and un-
buttoning the buttons of my clothes; but when they 
are on the point of pulling off my shirt, very shame 
brought me back to my senses, and I cried out to 
know what such wanton insolence was for ." 41 

Father Ogilvie was cast into prison that night. 
Meantime Spottiswood doubtless prepared the 
following letter, which was sent off to the K i n g the 

" See Archbishop's letter to the King, infra. 
*' " And said Masse in sindrie places within the towne. 

When the bishope challenged him for his hardines, he 
answered, that he hoped to have more friedome ere it were 
long; wherupon the bishoj> buffeted him" ('Calderwood's 
Historie, vol. vii. p. 193. Woodrow Edit.). 

" A note in the margin of the Relatio Incarcerationis. 



35 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

day after the seizure. W e have modernized the 
spelling. 

Most sacred and gracious Sovereign,—It has 
pleased God to cast into my hands a Jesuit that 
calls himself Ogilvie. He came to this city and 
said some Masses, at which we have tried eight of 
our burgesses to being present. He was busy in 
perverting some others that went too far with him, 
for some of them presumed to resist my servants 
in his apprehension. Himself will answer nothing 
that serves for discovering his traffic in the country, 
that appears to be great. My Lord Kilsyth was 
here by good chance at his examination and the 
rest of his partakers, and has helped much in their 
confessions. The copy of them I have sent to the 
Secretary, who I trust shall send it up in the 
packet.*3 In his budget (portmanteau) we have 
found his vestments and other furniture for the 
Mass, with some books and relics of St. Ignatius, 
St. Margaret, St. Catharine, and other saints. Also 
some writings, amongst which the principal is a 
catalogue of things left by Father Anderson, a 
Jesuit, in Scotland, who seems to be out of the 
country. Thereby your Majesty will perceive the 
furniture of books and vestments they have in store, 
and some of their friends with whom the same is 
reserved. I will not trouble your Majesty with 
circumstance of his apprehension and names of his 
partakers here, anent whom I have written to your 
Highness's servant, John Murray, more particu-
larly. Only, I will crave your Majesty's pardon 

** The original depositions are still preserved among the 
Denmyln® MSS., Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. 



36 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

to deliver my advice for the punishment of these 
transgressors, the trial of the Jesuit, and finding 
out such things as are contained in the catalogue. 
Because exemplary punishment is necessary in this 
case, and by the laws their lives, lands, and whole 
estate are in your Majesty's hands; and the con-
dition of the persons offending is not equal, your 
Majesty would be pleased to refer the determina-
tion thereof to my Lord Treasurer, my Lord Kil-
syth, my Lord Advocate, and myself, as having 
here jurisdiction under your Majesty. 

Commissioners would be given for this effect, 
and the Council commanded to depute one to the 
fore-named persons for putting the transgressors 
to trial and convicting them according to the law. 

Being tried guilty and put in your Majesty's will, 
they would be fined according to their quality and 
estate, only Robert Haiggate,43 that has been the 
seducer of the rest, would be banished out of 
your Majesty's kingdom during your Highness's 
pleasure. 

The fine your Majesty will be graciously pleased 
to command the Treasurer divide with me, both in 
respect that all are burgesses44 of the city, and 
by the privilege your Majesty's most noble prede-
cessors have granted to this see, the escheats and 
forfeitures of all malefactors fall to the bishop, and 
that I may have wherewith to recompense the dis-
coverer and others that have served in the business, 
to whom I have particularly obliged myself. 

Their trial would be at Glasgow, and the Com-
missioners commanded by your Majesty's letter to 

" All concerned declared that he, Robert Haiggate, was 
the person who introduced them to Father Ogilvie. 

44 Qâi arr all burgessis. 



37 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

convene for that effect at the first convenient time 
they can choose. 

For the Jesuit, your Majesty may be pleased to 
command him to be brought to Edinburgh and 
examined by such of the Council as your Majesty 
shall please nominate; of that number, the Secre-
tary, Treasurer, my Lord Kilsyth, my Lord Advo-
cate, and myself, because I have the writings 
(•mrittis) would seem fittest. 

They would be commanded to use his examina-
tion with great secrecy, and, if he will not answer 
nor confess ingenuously, to give him the BOOTS or 
the torture. 

For getting the books and vestments contained 
in the catalogue, it will be the safest means to 
charge the keepers of the same, and, where the 
ladies are named, to charge their husbands and 
commit them till the same be delivered. But for 
this and the better compassing of it the credit would 
be referred to my Lord Secretary, to move and 
follow it in Council by our advice and when we see 
it to be time. 

Sire, these things I humbly present to your 
Majesty to be corrected at your Highness's good 
pleasure. The knowledge I have of our state here, 
and the considerations of everything that may best 
serve to the repressing of this great evil, and assur-
ing that obedience which is due to God and your 
Majesty, makes me bold to deliver my opinion in 
this sort. 

I beseech Almighty God to preserve your Majesty 
and to disappoint the practices of the wicked, and 
increase your Highness's blessings in despite of 
all God's and your enemies. 



38 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

Your Majesty's most humble and obedient 
servant, 

GLASGOW. 

Glasgow (5th O.S.), October 15, 1614. 
To His Most Sacred Majesty.4* 

It is evident that the capture of Father Ogilvie 
was an important one, and that he would be merci-
lessly treated by Spottiswood, who, as it has been 
seen, is for using the barbarous " boots " and 
" torture." Of this anon. 

" Archbishop of Glasgow to the King. MSS. affairs of 
the Church of Scotland, Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, 
n. 66, A2, 51. 



P A R T T H E S E C O N D 

A CLOSE search was made all over the city. The 
magistrates, here and there, lighted on traces of 
Father Ogilvie which led to the apprehension of 
several persons—some say fourteen, others twenty, 
who had been in treaty with him about religion, or 
who had heard his Masses, or made him welcome 
in their homes. The inn where he had lodged was 
found out, his horse was taken away, and vest-
ments and some papers of no secondary importance 
were also discovered. " Had men," wrote Father 
Ogilvie, " been only honourable and silent," those 
papers, etc., would not have been discovered. A 
Frenchman broke confidence—gave up the secret 
to the magistrates, and thus important evidence 
against the prisoner was secured. 

On the 15th of October, 1614, Father Ogilvie had 
passed his first night in prison.1 

1 Tolbooth at the City Cross. " By the Session Records 
in 1600 it appears that there had been another Tolbooth at 
the Cross before the one that was built in 1636 " (Glasgow, 
Past and Present. Senex. Glasgow, 1856). The old one 
[in which Father Ogilvie was imprisoned] had a clock, for 
in 1610 we find George Smyth mentioned as jewler of the 
Tolbooth hnockt. The lower part of the building had 
booths, or shops, in it when taken down in 1626" (Ibid.). 
" F e b . 11, 1626. The said day it is concludit that the 
Provost and Bailies deal with John Boyd and Patrick 
Colquhoun anent the down-taking of the Tolbeuth to see 
quhat can be gottin down of three hundrith marks, as thai 

39 



40 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

W e have an official account, as well as the 
martyr's own, concerning the discovery which the 
magistrates had made—the one sets off and con-
firms the other. 

" On the following d a y , " wrote Father Ogilvie, 
" t h e y take my horse from the inn, together with 
my other property there, and they discover the 
church furniture together with Father Patrick's 
(Anderson) letter for finding our property in Scot-
land, with a catalogue of names of Father Mur-
doch." 2 " H i s budget being found," says the 

have alreddie offerit to tak down the saime for the said 
soume: and also to deal with John Nefll, knock maker, to 
make ane new knock, and to try to these prices, and also 
to deal with the tenants of the buithies under the Tolbeuth 
that thai may remove. May is , 1626. The said day the 
grund stane of the Tolbeuthe of Glasgow was laid " ("Coun-
cil Records). None of the Glasgow historians have given 
any description, nor is there any sketch of the old Tolbooth 
extant. 

1 Authentic Account of Imprisonment, &c. By Father 
C. Karslake. Patrick Anderson, a native of Morayshire 
(Elgin, or its neighbourhood, was his birthplace), and nep-
hew of the celebrated Bishop Lesly, had risen by learning 
and talent to be head of the Scots' College at Rome. This 
position he left in order to add his exertions to those which 
a number of his co-religionists were making, at hazard of 
their lives, for the recovery of Scotland from the Calvin-
istic heresy. Dempster speaks of him as " moribus 
innocens ac fide integer," and tells us he had no superior 
in mathematics and theology. Such as he was, he threw 
himself into this mission with a zeal and gallantry which 
no generous opponent could now dispute, but which was 
regarded in the Scotland of his own day as only a fiendish 
activity in leading souls to death and perdition. Father 
Patrick had not laboured long when he was apprehended 
with his vestments, books and papers, and committed to 
prison as a trafficking Romish priest. He owned to the fact 
of his having said Mass sundry times, but would not tell in 
whose house. In the ensuing October a brother-missionary, 
an Irishman named Edmund Cana, was apprehended along 
with a younger brother, " who carried," says Calderwood, 
" his mass clothes, a portable altar, a flagon of wine, and 
other requisites necessary for the Mass. Possibly King 



41 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

Official Report, " in the house where he kept at 
night was conveyed out of the way by one of his 
familiars, and presented the next day, after search 
being made by the magistrates of the city : there-
in were found his Mass garments, chalice, altar 
(stone ?), and the rest of that stuff, with letters not 
fit, at this time, to be divulged. Amongst others, 
a warrant to dispense with those who possessed 
Church livings, after this tenor—Quoad dispensa-
tionem de bonis ecclesiasticis poteris dispensa-re ut 
retineant qua possident, dummodo in pios usus 
aliquid impendant pro judicio Confessarii dispen-
santis." 3 

Not any article found on his own person, or in 
his bag, was valued by him so highly as a relic of 
St. Ignatius. This we know, not from any infor-
James had heard of the merits of Father Anderson as a 
man of learning, and felt some sympathy for him; perhaps 
the French Ambassador made friendly intercession in his 
behalf. However it was, after the Father had suffered nine 
months' imprisonment the King came to the resolution to 
show him some mercy. At his command, the Privy Council 
liberated the Father from prison, with a suit of good clothes, 
and some money in his pocket, on condition that he should 
leave Scotland, and return no more; otherwise he would 
be liable to capital punishment. It was enjoined upon the 
Provost and bailies of Edinburgh that they should " try and 
speir out some ship bown from the port of Leith towards 
France or Flanders; and when the ship is ready to lowse, 
that they tak the said Patrick Anderson furth of their 
Tolbooth, carry him to the ship, and deliver him to the 
skipper, and see him put aboard of the ship; and that they 
give a strait command and direction to the skipper that the 
said Anderson be not sufferit to come ashore again till 
their arrival at their port in France or Flanders, where they 
shall put him a- land" (Privy Council Records, MS. in 
General Register House, Edinburgh; Domestic Annals of 
Scotland, vol. i. pp. 514. 515- Second Edition). He was 
betrayed by Alexander Boyd on March 17, 1620. Boyd's 
reward was £75. Father Anderson wrote one or ' two 
polemical works, and compiled the Lives of the Saints of 
Scotland (Scotochronicon, part Hi.). 

3 True Relation. 



42 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

mation afforded by the martyr's pen, but from two 
documents written by his enemies. The inventory, 
drawn up by himself, of what he had on his person, 
at his seizure, does not make any distinct mention, 
or indeed any mention at all, of that relic. " They 
find my Breviary and take possession of it, together 
with a Compendium of all the Controverted, Ques-
tions of Religion; they seize the gold which I had 
in one purse, and the silver which I had in another, 
and a silver reliquary and the powder of the stone 
of Bezoar, and a ring, and also the seal with which 
I used to seal my letters."* 

" He had," says the True Relation,* " in the 
same bag divers relics, pieces of wood, bones, and 
a tuft of Ignatius' hair, the founder of the Jesuit 
Order, which, I think, was his chief est jewel." 

Spottiswood, who probably stood by when the 
martyr was rifled, wrote in his history that " h e 
had a tuft of Ignatius' hair, the founder of their 
Order, which he seemed to have in great regard." 6 

How came it to pass that Father Ogilvie made no 
special mention in his inventory of his " greatest 
jewel " ? and how happened it to be known to his 
captors that he prized that relic above everything 
he had. Did he plead hard to be allowed to keep 
it ? A s he saw it in the hands of his enemies—did 
he look as a child would on the destruction of the 
last memento of a parent lost on earth for ever? 
He was taken out of the Tolbooth and led up to the 
Episcopal Palace7 on the 15th of October. He was 

* Authentic Account. 
' Pit cairn, iii. 
' History, lib. vii. p. 521. 
' The Episcopal Palace, or Castle, stood on the vacant 



43 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

faint and wearied. " On the next day, I am led 
out of prison to the Episcopal Palace where there 
was a great concourse of preachers and barons, and 
whither two had been summoned from the Royal 
Parliament. I am brought up accordingly, ill as 
I am still from the blows of the previous day, and 
with an unusual trembling upon me." 1 

Along with Father Ogilvie stood at the bar of the 
Archiepiscopal Court, charged with the crime of 
having practised the Catholic religion, nine per-
sons, whose depositions we shall lay presently 
before the reader. The Bench was a full one, there 
being on i t : 

John Spottiswood, Archbishop of Glasgow. 
Earl of Argyle. 
Lord Kilsyth. 
Lord Fleming. 
Lord Boyd. 
Laird of Minto. 
Sir George Elphingstone. 
Provost James Hamilton; and 
Bailies Bell, Braidwood, and Colin Campbell. 

The first man put forward—going upon the 
Official Report of the proceedings in Court—was 
Robert Heygate, a Glasgow shopkeeper. He well 
merited such an honour; for he stood the foremost 
Catholic, along with Marion Walker, in those days 
of confessorship. The document subjoined is an 
official one. It lets it be known under some 

space in front of the present Infirmary, immediately south-
west of the Cathedral. The Great Tower, which formed 
the principal portion of the building, was erected by Bishop 
Cameron in 1430. The entire structure was built of hewn 
stone, and inclosed with an embattled wall fifteen feet high. 

' Authentic Account. 



44 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

aspects what manner of man Father Ogilvie was. 
It shows how heartily he flung himself into his 
work. W e need not, we trust, make any apology 
for weaving such a document into our narrative. 

Robert Heygate being asked how long he has 
been acquainted with this priest? Answered, that 
he never saw him or spoke to him but within the 
last two months or thereby : and that he came down 
to him to his own booth (shop), and got some 
paper from him : and thereafter went with him to 
Mr. William Stewart's house, to get a choppin of 
wine, that he called himself a horse cowper (dealer), 
and was going to Kintyre to buy horses, and 
employed him to buy a horse. And thereafter he 
called himself a priest. But of his name he is 
ignorant, and never asked what it was. And being 
inquired if he entered with him in religion ? He 
did so; and brought him to Marion Walker's 
house : and saw his books : and believed he spoke 
to him : and that he received from him the Sacra-
ment of the Body of Christ, and that he is a 
Catholic. And being inquired if he wanted him 
to say Mass, he said he did, and heard Mass at the 
same time; and that there were with him Marion 
Walker, William Monteith, Matthew Adam, 
Thomas Forret, James Forret. And being asked 
if the priest had gone to Sir James Cleland's 
(Kneelland's) house or not? Heard William 
Monteith say that he had gone there. And being 
asked if the Lady Maxwell was at any Mass here 
lately, or at any Mass? Denied he had ever seen 
her. But knows that the priest spoke with her the 
last time she was here; and that the said priest told 



45 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

him that he was one of the Society of Jesus. And 
being asked how that the friendship and acquain-
tance of the said priest was made with James 
Stewart? Confessed that he was the bringer of 
them together to confer : and that the said James 
stands still in his former religion : and that the said 
James was desirous to speak with the said priest, 
and that he was anxious to have the said James 
of his religion, but he would not give his nartie 
thereto. And also confessed, that there was a Mass 
said in the aforesaid Marion Walker's house by the 
said priest within two days afterwards : and that 
there were present the said William Monteith, 
Marion Walker, David Maxwell, brother to 
Newark; and that there was a priest who, in 
passing to the Eastwards, stayed one day in the 
town. Knew not the name of this priest, but he 
called himself Ogilvie. And being asked if Mass 
had been said by this priest in his own house or 
not ? Confessed that there was one said there; and 
that he himself was clerk to the most of the Masses : 
and that his wife knew not thereof, but suspected 
the same. And at that time, when he should have 
gone to have bought the horse, he rode to Sir 
James Cleland's house. And this he declared by 
his solemn oath. 

R O B E R T HEIGATE. 

Andrew Symmer, declared, that he drank with 
the priest in James Stewart's company, who 
solicited him to join his religion; but he would not 
give in to him. And that they reasoned on religion 
together. 

A N D R E W SYMMER. 



46 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

The priest being asked what his name was, he 
called himself John Ogilvie, son of Walter Ogilvie 
of Drum ; and that he has been out of this country 
twenty-two years; and that he studied in the Col-
leges of Olmutz and Gratz; and remained in 
Olmutz two years and in Gratz five years; and that 
he received the order of priesthood in Paris; and 
that he came home to Scotland before now, and 
remained six weeks or thereby. And that he now 
came home about May last, or thereby; and con-
fessed that the bag produced on the table before him 
was his own. And that he was one of the ordinary 
Jesuits. And being asked whether the Pope's 
jurisdiction extended over the K i n g ' s dominions in 
spiritual matters? Affirmed constantly the same 
and would die for it. 

JOHANNES OGILB^EUS, Societatis Jesu. 

James Forret confesses, by his solemn oath, that 
he knew not this priest all the time that the Earl of 
Eglinton was here. And was sent for by him by 
. . . the servant woman of Marion Walker who 
dealt with him to come and hear Mass. And for 
that purpose the morning; at what time he said it 
(keipit); and the Mass was said by this priest, there 
being present Robert Heygate, Matthew Adam, 
William Monteith, Marion Walker, Thomas 
Forret, his brother. And declared he was never at 
any Mass before or after. And that there was a 
man called Dawnie, who seduced him to that 
religion, whereunto he can in no manner agree. 
And supposes that the said Dawnie had directed 
this priest to him, to draw him further on; who 
persuaded him to leave the kirk—which he did 



47 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

since; for which he craves God's forgiveness. And 
confesses, that before he was at the Mass that 
morning he made confession to the said priest who 
gave him absolution, and he took the sacrament. 

J . FORRET. 

James Stewart, being asked when he knew this 
priest; by his great oath declared that he knew him 
twenty days or thereby; and that Robert Heygate 
made him acquainted with the said priest. And 
after drinking a choppin of wine, he went with the 
said priest to the yard (garden ?) of Marion Walker, 
where he conferred with him on religion, and would 
nowise give in to him. But he had hopes of him, 
and told him that he would say Mass; but he would 
not go to it. A s for his name he did not know it. 

J . STEWART. 

William Monteith, being asked if he knew this 
priest or not, answered that he saw him in this town 
a month ago, or thereby; and that he was in his 
company in the house of Marion Walker, and heard 
this priest say one Mass; and denied having heard 
any more than one Mass. And thereafter being con-
fronted with Robert Heygate, confessed that he 
had heard three Masses, two of them in Marion 
Walker's house, and one in Robert Heygate's 
house; and that he got the sacrament. And being 
asked how he became a Catholic, he answered that 
he was first instructed in that religion, being a ser-
vant to the Laird of Kers, younger, by the Lady 
Angus, and Archibald Douglas, in Monkton, near 
A y r , ten or twelve years ago. And declared that 
Thomas Forret told him of this priest; and that 
Robert Heygate informed him that the said Thomas 



48 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

Forret was a Catholic. And also declared that he 
saw John Wallace of Corsflat at Mass in Robert 
Heygate's house, said by the aforesaid priest. 

W I L L I A M MONTEITH. 

Thomas Forret, being asked where he had first 
made acquaintance with this priest; declared that 
he first saw him in Marion Walker's house, being 
led to him by Robert Heygate, and after some 
conversation with him about religion, he requested 
him to come to Mass, which he did; and before-
hand he made his confession and got absolution 
and received the sacrament. And that there were 
present at that Mass, Mr. John Mayne, Marion 
Walker, Matthew Adam, Robert Heygate, James 
Forret, William Monteith; and was at no Mass 
since that one, the sight of which made him despise 
that religion. And that those present likewise 
received the sacrament. 

T H O M A S FORRET. 

Matthew Adam, being asked how long he had 
embraced the Popish religion; declared that he had 
done so about five years ago in Danskin, and has 
since received the sacrament. And that he had 
made the acquaintance of the priest four weeks 
ago, or thereby, by means of Robert Heygate. 
And was formerly made acquainted with a priest, 
Dawnie by name, in Marion Walker's house; and 
that he was at three Masses; that this priest said 
one in Robert Heygate's house, and two of them 
in Marion Walker's house. And being asked what 
was his religion now. Answered that his religion 
was that acknowledged by the laws of the land. 

MATTHEW A D A M , 



49 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

Mr. John Mayne, being asked if he knew this 
priest; declared on oath that he knew him in Marion 
Walker's house, to which he was brought by 
Robert Heygate; where he confessed himself to 
the priest, got absolution before he heard Mass 
and received the sacrament. And that there was 
present Marion Walker, James Forret, Thomas 
Forret, Robert Heygate, Matthew Adam, William 
Monteith. And that, as yet, he professes that 
religion and will do so. 

M R . J . MAYNE. 

John Wallace, of Corsflat, being asked if he was 
at Mass said by this priest, or not, in Robert 
Heygate's house, confessed that he was present 
thereat, and had been brought to it by the said 
Robert Heygate. 

JOHN WALLACE.® 

The above document is a meagre one, so far as it 
records the questions put to and answered by Father 
Ogilvie, nor does it manifest how ably he defended 
the faith. The notes taken by Father Ogilvie on 
that occasion are very useful here—illustrating, as 
they do, several important points which are not 
even alluded to in the Official Report. 

They asked if I had said Mass in the royal 
dominions ? 

R. If this is a crime it ought to be investigated, 
not by my oath, but by witnesses. 

W e have proved it, they say, by the testimony 
of those who saw you. 

R. If the witnesses satisfy you on the point, all 
r ight: their testimony shall neither be awakened 

* Depositions of Jesuits and Papists. 
D 



50 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

by my denial nor strengthened by my confession 
until I see fit. 

Then you are a priest, they say. 
R . If you have proved to demonstration that I 

have said Masses, by the same witnesses you will 
be convinced that I am a priest. 

They ask, do you acknowledge the K i n g ? 

[Here, we take leave to observe, comes the 
question of questions, even in these days; that is to 
say : Is Caesar above Peter ?] 

R. James is de facto K i n g of Scotland. 
Here I was a little afraid; but the stupid fellows, 

not understanding law terms, did not know how to 
examine further. 

Then I was asked if I had said any Masses in the 
K i n g ' s dominions? 

R . This, by reason of the King ' s edicts and the 
Acts of Parliament, would prejudice me and my 
neighbour, and does not pertain to the K i n g ' s 
forum, and therefore I am not bound to say, 
because I am not bound by any law to ruin myself 
and other innocent persons. If they were judges, 
I say, it was their duty to inquire after crimes, not 
after sacrifices. And I add that thefts, treasons, 
homicides, poisonings belonged to the K i n g ' s 
forum, not the sacraments of religion. 

Then they asked me, what I had come to 
Scotland for? 

R. To unteach heresy. 
They inquire who had given me jurisdiction, 

since neither the K i n g nor any bishop had given it. 
R. I smiled, and said that the latter were all 

laymen along with the K i n g , and had no jurisdic-



51 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

tion any more than he; that the sheep of Christ had 
been committed to Peter, and that whoever might 
wish to feed them in any part of the world must 
ask permission from the Apostolic See, where, 
according to the promises of Christ, there is 
preserved, through the infallible assistance of the 
Holy Spirit in a continual succession of persons to 
the end of the world, the authority and power first 
given to the Prince of the Apostles, whereby 
Simon, the son of John, was hardened into the 
Rock of the Church, that so he might be Cephas 
and be called Peter. From that Apostle, I con-
tinued, is my jurisdiction and that jurisdiction by 
an ordinary route, counting backwards through all 
the Pontiffs, I am able to trace back to Christ. 

It is the crime of treason, they say, to assert that 
the Pope has spiritual jurisdiction in the K i n g ' s 
dominions. 

R . It is of faith that he has. 
They say, do you dare put your signature to that ? 
R. Even with my blood, if need be; and forth-

with I subscribed my name.10 

The examination went on. At every stage of it 
Father Ogilvie showed an acute mind and disclosed 
how loyal-hearted he was to Rome. He stood 
on truth; whereas the Archbishop and the other 
occupants of the Bench were swayed by prejudice. 

An attempt was made to prove that he was an 
impostor—no Ogilvie; but it failed. He was of 
gentle birth,11 and so were his parents. W e know 
this independently of his own declaration in Court. 

10 Authentic Account. 
1 1 " Father John Ogilvie was a brother of William 



52 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

Twenty-six hours had elapsed since the martyr 
fell into the hands of the Archbishop, and all that 
while he had tasted nothing! For all that, and 
although shivering with cold, he held his own 
against all comers. The only kindness shown him 
was his being ordered off to the fire. It is on 
record that seldom had there been so severe a winter 
as that of 1614-15. It was long remembered in 
Scotland; and so keen was the cold that the song 
birds next spring were missed. The snow fell to 
such a depth and lay so long on the ground, that, 
according to Sir Robert Gordon, the greater part 
of the cattle perished in the North.12 

The Catholics convicted for having heard Mass 
were sentenced to the gallows, and some to the 
wheel. The royal clemency saved them from the 
last rigour of the law.13 

Fourteen of such criminals, according to Father 
Ogilvie's statement, were in the Tolbooth of Glas-
gow. The Historie of King James the Sext says 
that some of them were sent to Dumbarton Castle. 

The Court rose : Father Ogilvie was led down 
the High Street to the Tolbooth, and thus ended 
that day's proceedings. 

On October the 18th he was shut up in a cell. 
" I am led back to prison October 15th and two 
days afterwards to my cell; after a little while I am 
fastened with two rings to a lump of iron of about 
two hundred pound in weight, shaped like a pole, 
Ogilvie, a gentleman who has a considerable fortune in 
land near Keith, and now is styled laird " (Fathejr George 
Johnston's letter, March 3, 1673, to Father William Lewis 
Leslie, Rome). Father Ogilvie, being the eldest son, would 
have been laird (Preshome MSS.). 

" Domestic Annals of Scotland, vol. 1. 
" Authentic Account. 



53 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

so that I could only sit and lie on my back, but 
could do nothing else whatever, unless stand for a 
little while." 14 Scott's truthful pen reveals some 
details passed over by Father Ogilvie in describ-
ing what he calls in his narrative " m y cell ." 
Waverley was so exact, even in very minute 
particulars, in his pen and ink sketches of scenery 
and places, that his pages are not unfrequently as 
faithful as photographs. The description which 
he gives of a cell in a Scottish prison may be 
assumed to represent that cell, the door of which 
was barred upon Father Ogilvie on the 18th of 
October. 

" T h e gaol at the county town . . . was one 
of those old-fashioned dungeons which disgraced 
Scotland until of late years. . . . A round bar of 
iron, about the thickness of a man's arm above 
the elbow, crossed the apartment horizontally at the 
height of about six inches from the floor, and its 
extremities were strongly built into the wall at 
either end. . . . The ankles were secured within 
shackles, which were connected by a chain at the 
distance of about four feet, with a large iron ring, 
which travelled upon the bar which we have 
described. Thus a prisoner might shuffle along 
the length of bar from one side of the room to 
another, but could not retreat farther from it in any 
other direction than the brief length of the chain 
admitted. . . . A pallet bed was placed close to 
the bar of iron, so that the shackled prisoner might 
lie down at pleasure, still fastened to the iron bar 
in the manner described." 15 

The Archbishop's letter, dated Glasgow, October 

M Authentic Account; # Guy Mannering, CH. JVII. 



54 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

(5th O.S.) 15, 1614, which we have already perused, 
was duly answered. The K i n g gave the Arch-
bishop the instructions he had asked; and it will 
be remembered, we doubt not, that Spottiswood 
encouraged James to order Father Ogilvie to be 
subjected to the torture of the boots. The hint was 
not lost upon the K i n g . " Meanwhile," wrote the 
martyr, " a letter comes back from London. I am 
ordered to be examined with the leg torture of the 
boots, that I may betray the places and the persons 
of the Catholics." 16 Before he is subjected to the 
boots, let the reader examine them by means of 
descriptions written by those who had actually seen 
them. 

The boots were instruments of judicial torture, 
formerly used in Scotland to force confessions from 
persons accused of crimes, or answers from unwill-
ing or suspected witnesses. Bishop Burnet in the 
History of his own times, and Sir Walter Scott in 
his Old Mortality, speak of the boot as made of 
iron; but the Rev . Thomas Morer in his Short 
Account of Scotland, written from personal obser-
vation of the country at a time when the boot was 
still in use, describes it as " made of four pieces 
of narrow boards nailed together, of a competent 
length for the leg, not unlike those short cases we 
use to guard young trees from the rabbits. One 
or both legs of the person to be tortured having 
been placed in this case, wedges were inserted 
between the limb and the sides of the case, and 
these wedges were driven down by the executioner 
with a mall or hammer, questions being at inter-
vals put to the sufferer, until either he give the 

" Authentic Account. 



55 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

required information, or fainted away, or showed 
such endurance as satisfied the judges that no 
answers could be extorted from h i m . " 1 7 The 
wedges were commonly placed against the calf of 
the leg, but Bishop Burnet says he had heard that 
they were sometimes placed against the shin bone. 

Not a word passed Father Ogilvie's lips; no 
secret was extorted. No person who had knelt at 
his extemporized altars in " sundrie places " in the 
city, had reason to regret—so far as Father Ogilvie 
was concerned—that he had practised the religion 
which was the established one in Scotland for a 
decade of centuries. 

Orders had come that he should be sent to 
Edinburgh for further examination. There was a 
crowd about the gates of the Tolbooth the day he 
left Glasgow for the capital—a crowd in which 
were the wives and friends of the Catholics who 
were in gaol. He had anything but a welcome from 
them. They greeted him, he tells us, with curses 
and mud. Every indignity was heaped upon him 
as he passed through the city on horseback. A 
woman cursed his ugly face; " Heaven bless your 
bonnie one 1 " was his reply. The crowd was en-
couraged to pelt him with snowballs. He took all 
patiently, even cheerfully. " I ride on gaily through 
the streets, as if I cared naught for it, so that they 
are surprised at my coolness. I said in a loud voice, 
according to the Scotch proverb, ' It's past joking 
when the head's aff.' The heretics took notice that 
I gave back blessings for curses, and was good-
humoured with those who were angry ." 18 

17 Chambers' Encyclopedia, vol. ii. 1861. 
18 Authentic Account. 



56 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

A long road lay before him—forty miles, on a 
wintry day—yet he went forward with brave heart. 
It was on the 8th of December that he rode out of 
Glasgow. On reaching Edinburgh he made an 
attempt at disguising himself; it was but a poor 
effort, and consisted only in exchanging his cloak 
for his riding-coat. Nor was this disguise of any 
avail, for the people identified him at once. He 
was lodged, on his arrival in the capital, at the 
Bishop's house, and was soon after conducted to 
the Castle. An authority—Historie of King James 
the Sext—states that he was kept in " strait ward," 
and that a guard was placed over him, so that the 
Castle, and not the Bishop's house, appears to have 
been the place of his imprisonment. Besides, it was 
in the Castle that the instruments of torture were 
kept, and it was there, also, most probably, that 
the Commissioners met, three days after his arrival. 
The three days which elapsed from his arrival till 
the meeting of the Commissioners were not days of 
rest for Father Ogilvie, but very much the reverse. 
Again and again that instrument of torture—the 
boots—was brought forth and shown to him, and 
he was threatened repeatedly with them, unless he 
delivered up the names of the persons who had been 
in correspondence with him. When threats failed, 
rewards were offered him. He was promised a 
capital living—the Provostship of Moffat—and a 
grand marriage, the bride, as we shall see further 
on, being Miss Spottiswood, the Archbishop's 
daughter. He was above such offers—being a 
priest who knew the joys found in the draining of 
the chalice. " T h e boots," he wrote, " f o r tortur-
ing the legs were brought forth." He despised 



57 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

and jested over them, saying he could earn a living 
even after his legs had been broken into pieces. 
A s for the Provostship of Moffat, he laughed at the 
offer, and said it was unfair to Father Moffat, who 
had more right to it than himself, if only for the 
sake of his name. " Moffat should go to Moffat." 
At this time the confessor, Father James Moffat, 
was a close prisoner in Edinburgh Castle—Decem-
ber 10, 1614. 

The Lords Commissioners met, in virtue of 
James' missive, on December 12. The Royal 
Commissioners were— 

Lord Binning, 
Lord Kilsyth, 
Sir Gideon Murray, Treasurer, 
Sir William Oliphant, Attorney-General. 

His Grace, Archbishop Spottiswood, sat along 
with them.19 

Father Ogilvie having been put forward, was 
asked if the packet of papers lying on the table was 
his? He said it was. Thereupon began a series 
of questions not unlike those which had been put to 
and answered, on the 15th of October, by Father 
Ogilvie. One by one these questions led up to 
the climax : 

" A r e you willing to obey the K i n g ? " 
He replied, " Yes, in all things which are due to 

the K i n g . " 
They said, " The K i n g forbids Masses, and you 

say them." 
" W h e t h e r Christ or the K i n g , " answered 

Father Ogilvie, " is rather to be obeyed, judge ye. 

" Calderwood. vol. vii. 



58 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

The K i n g forbids it, but Christ, in St. Luke xxii.~, 
has ordained it, and commanded Masses to be 
celebrated, as I will prove to you if you wish it. 
And if the K i n g condemns what Christ instituted, 
how will he escape being called a persecutor? " 

They said, " The K i n g of France has forbidden 
his country to the Protestants, and Spain burns for 
religion." 

" Neither Francis has forbidden France, nor does 
Philip burn for religion," replied Father Ogilvie, 
" but for heresy, which is not religion, but 
rebellion." 

This arrow was well chosen and well aimed. It 
pierced James. The martyr knew it, for in his 
notes he wrote, " Lord Kilsyth nodded to the 
Archbishop and laughed; the latter gave a sign 
with his head, but said nothing." Neither Francis 
nor Philip made pretensions equal to those which 
James put forth. Mary Stuart's son owned no 
superior in his realms. He was, in his own esteem, 
a Pope-King. Even the trimmings on the episco-
pal robes did not lie beyond his study. The 
Church was under him, not he under the Church. 
He was a Bishop-maker; hence he would not brook 
opposition or rivalry in the ecclesiastical order. 
His right to rule the Church in his dominions was 
to be held undisputed : hence he was a persecutor. 

" Y o u ought not to have come into this king-
dom," they said. 

Catholics, it is frequently asserted, are not 
patriots. This is false. Patriotism is not a senti-
ment, but a duty with a Catholic. It is not always 
so with others. How patriotic Father Ogilvie was 
we learn from his Deposition and from his replies 



59 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

given before the Commissioners. In his Deposi-
tion he called Scotland twice or thrice " h o m e . " 
Scotland and home were with him exchangeable 
terms. When asked— 

" W h y did you come into Scotland against the 
Royal will? " 

" The K i n g cannot," he replied, " forbid me my 
own country without a legitimate cause, since I 
am just as much a natural subject as the K i n g 
himself! " 

One of the Commissioners interposed: " W e 
are not here for a disputation!" 

Father Ogilvie said : " I am not here either for 
a disputation : nor am I to be countryless. If I 
have done aught against the K i n g or country, 
prove it by witnesses. But this you cannot do. 
W h y , then, do you annoy m e ? " 

" Y o u r silence," said one of them, "deepens 
our suspicions that you fear lest your accomplices 
should betray y o u . " This was a keen remark. It 
was designed so to wound the pride of the martyr 
as to make him on the impulse of the moment— 
conscious of his innocence—disclose what even 
torture could not force from him, the names of the 
faithful who had harboured him. Father Ogilvie 
read its purpose. " You ask me to give up the 
names of those who heard Mass—who were in 
communication with me. That I cannot and will 
never do. First, because by offending God as a 
traitor who ruins his neighbour I should kill my 
own soul. Secondly, nor would it do any good, 
but only harm, for the terror of you and the K i n g ' s 
rewards might make some inconstant person feign 
that there was a conspiracy, to gain your favour 



60 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

and the King 's , and thus you might have some 
cloak for your cruelty in taking my life whom now 
for fear of infamy you do not punish as you would 
wish to d o . " 

" The K i n g , " they said, " takes no one's life on 
account of religion." 

" W h y then," he replied, " h a v e the Glasgow 
prisoners been condemned to the wheel and the 
gibbet? " 

This interchange of words ended in a threat. 
" Pray do not force us to torture you according to 
the K i n g ' s command." 

It being late the Commissioners rose: and 
Father Ogilvie was led back to his cell. The very 
next day he was tortured. The Commissioners 
had decided, during the night, that he should be 
deprived of sleep. 

"Accordingly for eight days and nine whole 
nights they forced me to keep awake with styles, 
pins, needles, and pinchings, threatening me mean-
while with extraordinary tortures and promising 
me great rewards." 

Before Father Ogilvie had passed his ninth night 
of forced sleeplessness, we shall make an extract 
from an authority descriptive of the torture of 
" sleeplessness " : " This barbarous mode of extort-
ing confession had been prevalent in cases of 
witchcraft, where the criminals were supposed to 
be under the direct dominion of Satan. Human 
nature could not long stand so exquisite a torture. 
The suspected parties were often driven into a 
state of delirium; and in many instances they must 
have been glad to confess anything which may 
have been proposed by their examinators, to escape 



61 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

from a life held by such miserable torture."2 0 

Such was Father Ogilvie's torture eight days and 
nine whole nights ! " The Jesuit was kept in strait 
ward, and a guard of men, for the space of eight 
days, with small sustenance, and compelled, and 
withholden perforce from sleep to the great pertur-
bation of his brain; and to compel him ad 
delirium." 21 

" H e was not suffered," wrote Calderwood,22 

" t o take sleepe some nights and dayes together. 
His brains being lightsome secretes were drewene 
out of him, but came not to the knowledge of the 
people." This we deny; we deny that secrets 
were wrung from him—else why were they not 
divulged? Not any thing was ever published 
that he had disclosed. And on this point, who is 
so good a witness as Archbishop Spottiswood? 
" Upon advertisement being made to his Majesty, 
a Commission was sent to the Secretary the Lord 
Kilsyth, the Treasurer Deputy, and Advocate for 
his [Father Ogilvie's] examination and trial. 
Being presented before them and inquired . . . 
where he had resorted? He denied to give any 
answer at all, saying that he would not utter 
anything that might work prejudice to others : nor 
could he be induced either by persuasion or 
threatening to detect the persons with whom he had 
resorted. The Commissioners, offended at his 
obstinacy, and meaning to extort a confession from 
him, advised to keep him some nights from sleep; 
and this indeed wrought somewhat with him, so as 
he begun to discover certain particulars, but how 

" Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, notes, vol. iii. p. 332. 
" The Historie of King James the Sext. 
'Historie, vol. vii. p. 193. Woodrow Edition. 



62 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

soon he was permitted to take any rest, he denied 
all, and was as obstinate in denying as at first."23 

No man who stood near the martyr had the same 
interest in getting information from him as his 
Grace of Glasgow; and yet he owns that all those 
sleepless nights and days nothing escaped the 
martyr's lips which could be relied on. In short, 
no secret was wrung from him. The country was 
full of the report of the tortures he endured. " The 
report of̂  my watchings was spread through all 
Scotland." 24 And no wonder. Barons and lords, 
perhaps out of sympathy, perhaps the reverse, 
urged him to satisfy the K i n g . It was no use. 
The Archbishop grew desperate, so constant was 
Father Ogilvie in endurance, and so chivalrous in 
sheltering those whom the Crown sought to dis-
cover. The Archbishop regretted that he had put 
a finger on him. One who had his turn along 
with others in seeing that the martyr got no sleep 
went so far as to tell him that his head would yet 
find a spike on the western gate of the capital. 
Father Ogilvie seemed to wake up at this unfeel-
ing threat. " Bloodthirsty monster that you are, I 
make no account of you all in this cause; act 
according to your heretical malice. What care I 
for death! Go and talk to faint-hearted women. 
I laugh at your tortures; I despise them, and your 
threats are only the cackling of geese." 

The nine nights of watching had run out. The 
Commissioners summoned Father Ogilvie before 
them. Alternately were threats uttered and re-

lib" v i T p . T ^ ' The HÍSt0ry °f the Chmch °f Scotland, 
" Authentic Account. 



63 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

wards promised. He was quite exhausted. " I 
was weak, for the watching so weakened me that I 
scarce knew what I said and what I did, or in what 
place I was, and very often I knew not in what city 
I was." 

He was reminded of what had been said before. 
" Unless you satisfy the K i n g there are more 
horrible things coming." " Try your worst," said 
he. " On with your boots; with God as my guide, 
I will show you that in this cause I care no more for 
my legs than you for your leggings. I consider 
myself born for greater things than to be overcome 
by sense." 

The Royal Commission failed. 
Christmas was nigh, and Archbishop Spottis-

wood had to repair to Glasgow for its celebration. 
Such festivals as Easter and Christmas were being 
revived at that period in Scotland, and it was 
requisite that he should be in the cathedral on 
that day. 

On Christmas Eve Father Ogilvie was led back 
to Glasgow, Spottiswood being unwilling to leave 
his prisoner in Edinburgh. " I came to Glasgow," 
wrote the martyr, " o n the vigil of our Lord's 
Nativity, and was then fastened by both feet to my 
iron pole; but now I am only fastened by one foot, 
with a bolt and two iron chains binding the iron, 
lest I should contract disease from always lyino' on 
my back ." 2 5 s 

He lay a prisoner in Glasgow until his death. 

36 Authentic Account. 



P A R T T H E T H I R D 

FATHER JAMES GORDON wrote from Par is , Apr i l 21, 
1615, that the martyr was removed to Glasgow by 
the express order of the K i n g . James, in this 
particular, as well as in others, as for instance 
the torturing of Father Ogilvie with the " boots," 
acted on the suggestion of Archbishop Spottiswood. 
His Grace betrayed a most extraordinary solicitude 
about the safe custody of his prisoner. The castle, 
his own residence, was his prison, and not the 
Tolbooth. The services of the ordinary goaler 
were dispensed with. His own steward was made 
the Jesuit's turnkey. This circumstance did not 
escape the notice of his fellow-prisoners. 

" The Archbishop removed from his place the 
gaoler of the prison, a man in other ways kind 
towards the prisoner, and substituted for him his 
own steward, a rough-mannered and hard-hearted 
man, who used to leave him in continual solitude, 
loaded with iron as above mentioned. Not trust-
ing to the bolts with which the heavy feet-chains 
were fastened together, this man caused pieces of 
iron, like wedges turned back on either side, to be 
inserted in the joinings of the rings, so afraid was 
he lest his prisoner should escape, although the 
martyr used to say that he would not break even 
chains of wax, nor go out if the doors were 

6 4 



65 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

opened. . . . They added, moreover, extraordinary 
watchings, the citizens succeeding by turns in the 
night watches." 1 

Although the Commission had broken down, 
and the Jesuits had triumphed, yet the K i n g clung 
desperately to the hope that he would see him either 
overthrown in argument, or proving himself a 
recreant to Rome. He reckoned without his host. 
" O n c e again," wrote Father Ogilvie, " a letter 
came back from London." W e know more about 
that letter than the martyr did. It contained a list 
of questions on which he was to be tested, and 
the Archbishop was instructed to write down the 
answers given and forward them to his Royal 
Master. His Grace of Glasgow did not fail in 
duty to James; he did as he was ordered. Accor-
dingly January 28 (18th O.S.) , 1615, there 
assembled in the Archbishop's Court, for " t r y i n g 
of the Jesuit " : 

His Grace, John Spottiswood, 
The Lord Bishop of Argyle, 
Lord Fleming, 
Sir George Elphingstone, 
James Hamilton, Provost of Glasgow, 
Mr. Robert Boyd, Principal of the University, and 
Mr. Robert Scott, one of the city ministers. 

The Archbishop read over one by one the follow-
ing questions: 

" 1. Whether the Pope be judge, and hath power 
in spiritualibus over his Majesty; and whether 
that power will reach over his Majesty in tem-

1 A continuation of the history, &c., of the aforesaid 
Father by his fellow-prisoners. 

E 



66 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

poralibus if it be in orcLine ad spiritualia? as 
Bellarmine affirmeth. 

" 2 . Whether the Pope hath power to excom-
municate Kings (especially such as are not of his 
Church) as his Majesty ? 

" 3 - Whether the Pope hath power to depose 
Kings by him excommunicated, and in particular, 
whether he hath power to depose the Kind's 
Majesty ? 5 

" 4. Whether it be no murder to slay his 
Majesty being so excommunicated and deposed bv 
the Pope ? r j 

" 5 - Whether the Pope, hath power to assoilzie 
subjects from the oath of their born and native 
allegiance to his M a j e s t y ? " 2 

Father Ogilvie subscribed his name to the docu-
ment whereon Spottiswood had written his answers. 
These answers are thrown into a note taken from 
the Archbishop's own work, The History of the 
Church of Scotland.3 

The martyr's own notes of this conference are 
embodied in this narrative, thus affording an ample 
report of the proceedings. 

• » Te ?ASt0r\ Af the Church of Scotland, lib. vii. 522 
He J ."-knowledge the Pope of Rome to be Judge unto 
his Majesty and to have power over him in spiritualists 
and over all Christian Kings. But where it is asked 

T 1 1 , reach over him in temporalibus, 
¡ r Z ' •0bTg^ed t 0 d e c l a r e m y ° P i n i ° n thereon, except to 

him that is Judge in controversies of Religion, to wit the 
° P V ? r h ? v l n g a u thority from him. For t L second 

point: ! think that the Pope hath power to excommunicate 
the King ; and when it £ said that the S ~ 
the Pope's Church, I answer that all who' are bapdzedare 
under the Pope's power. To the third where it is asked 
if the Pope hath power to depose, the King being excom 
mumca ed I sav that I am not tied to declare L ^ind 
except to 'him that is Judge in controversies of Rel% ?n 
To the fourth and fifth I answer ut supra » (lib vfi 5 2 2 ) ' 



LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 67 

They ask: " C a n the Pope depose an heretical 
K i n g ? " 

" T h i s , " answered Father Ogilvie, " i s the 
opinion of many Doctors, and a very probable 
doctrine, that he can: and when it shall have been 
defined as of faith I will lay down my life in 
defence of it; meanwhile, I am not bound to say 
what I think until I shall be juridically interrogated 
by the Judge of religious controversies, that is to 
say, by the Pope, or by one who has authority 
from him." 

Secondly, they ask "whether a K i n g excom-
municated by the command of the Pope mav be 
k i l l e d ? " J 

" You have no spiritual jurisdiction, and there-
fore lest I might seem to acknowledge that the 
K i n g has spiritual jurisdiction, I do not wish to 
reply to a question of spiritual doctrine. If you 
were to consult me for the sake of instruction I 
would speak, but since you interrogate me as 
judges I cannot, with a safe conscience, say what 
I think. I have condemned both the oaths pro-
posed to the English, of supremacy and allegiance." 

They ask, " Has the Pope jurisdiction above the 
K i n g ? " 

" He has, if the latter be a baptized Christian." 
" Can the Pope excommunicate the Kins' ? " 
" H e can." S ' 
" How can he excommunicate a man who is not 

in his Church? " 

" A heretic," was Father Ogilvie's reply to this 
searching query, " is in the Church as regards the 
possibility of punishment, not as regards the com-
munion of the gifts and graces of salvation, for just 



68 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

as the K i n g can capture and punish banditti and 
robbers, so the Pope has power and ought to 
chastise rebellious heretics and those who fly from 
Mother Church, for the Pope acquires a right over 
a man when he is baptized, because then he enters 
the Church, and becomes a member of the Mystical 
Body and a sheep of Christ's flock, of which the 
Pope is the shepherd." 4 

" Being reasoned with," wrote Spottiswood,8 

" a long time, and the danger exponed, wherein 
he did cast himself by maintaining such treason-
able opinions, he answered, ' that he would not 
change his mind for any danger that could befall 
him;' and speaking of the Oath of Allegiance, said, 
that ' it was a damnable oath, and treason against 
God to swear it.' Some days being allowed him 
to bethink himself better of these points, when as 
no advice could prevail, answers were sent to his 
Majesty subscribed by himself, and therewith a 
testification of such as were present at the trivinc 
thereof." b * 

How fared the martyr during the interchange of 
letters between Spottiswood and K i n g James? The 
document introduced here will tell. It was written 
by Father Ogilvie only sixteen days before he 
grasped the martyr's palm. 

Reverend Father in Christ,— 
Pax Christi. 

Your reverence will easily judge of my 
present condition from the bearer of this. It is a 

* Authentic Account, of the Imprisonment and Martyr-
dom of rather Ogilvie. wrvyr 

'History of the Church of Scotland. Lib. vii. 53a, 



69 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

capital offence to be caught writing, so that before 
the return of the turnkey I must needs hurry. 

Your Reverence, when Provincial of Austria, 
first received me into the Society ;8 on that account 
I may recommend my children with the greater 
confidence to your Reverence as to their grand-
father. Should, therefore, Mr. John Mayne 
require your services, I beg that he may find in my 
dearest Ferdinand, the Father of genuine charity, 
some share of the kindness which I have experi-
enced. 

I have written to the bearer of this. Your 
Reverence may ask, if you please, what he has 
done with the particulars that may serve for our 
Annals. 

I earnestly recommend myself to your Rever-
ence's prayers. Dated from my prison at Glasgow, 
where I lie under a load of two hundred weight of 
irons, looking for death, unless I accept the prof-
fered favour of the King, that is, a rich preferment 
and another religion. Once I have sustained the 
torture of being kept without sleep for nine nights 
and eight days. Now I expect two other tortures, 
and then death. 

I am still awake this 22nd February, 1615. 
Your Reverence's servant in Christ, 

JOANNES OGILB^EUS, S o c . J e s u . 7 

This letter was addressed to Father Ferdinand 
Alberi. 

' " 1506. Joannes Ogilvy, ex Calvinismo, ut exoner-
aretur Seminarium, missus est 27 Junii, 1538, ad monas-
terium Scotorm. Katisbonense." (Register of Students at 
Douay.) Preshotne MSS. 

' There is a very slight discrepancy between this trans-
lation and the Latin copy at Stonyhurst. 



74 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

The two weeks and two days which elapsed from 
the hour Father Ogilvie wrote that letter to the day 
of his trial and death (for he was tried, condemned, 
and hanged on the same day) must have been for 
him a weary time. Archbishop Spottiswood and 
his wife, the ministers Scott, Struthers, and Boyd, 
and the Earl of Lothian, invaded his cell, bent, if 
possible, upon winning the martyr from Rome by 
base and paltry lures such as " a rich preferment " 
and " a grand marriage." Some theological free 
lances did not hesitate to try the temper of their 
arms in encounters with the Jesuit borne down to 
the flagstones of his prison by the weight of his 
fetters. In vain did the Archbishop flatter him 
calling him a mettlesome fellow. In vain did he 
make him the offer of his daughter in marriage. 
In vain did the Archbishop's wife show fondness 
for him. Their efforts were futile. Tortures were 
twice tried and twice failed. The Jesuit was im-
moveable. Blandishments could not win him 
sufferings could not shake him. His faith never 
wavered. It was determined at last he should be 
put to death; but, although this resolve was taken, 
the forms of law had to be observed. An interest-
ing document, the original of which is given in a 
note,8 reveals to us not only how jealous the Arch-

trissima0 v f r ^ l ™ ^ ^ ^ S 6 r m < ? m i h i e s s e t c u m Illus-trissima Virgine Domma Margarita Hamilton sorore 
Il ustnssim, Comit,s Abercorni*, de Martyr o 'generosi 
i ^ f i s f t Martyr« Joannis Oglibaei, dixit: " Nocte prace 
dente ilhus. martynum luna turn splendente mulierem 
quamdam civem Glasgu*, dum e fenestra q u i e S 
patibuli erecn erat, vidisse se hominem nitidissimu£ 
Iintea veste. cmctum, e palatio Episcopi (ubiturn Martvr 
xnclusus detmebatur) junctis et erect» manibus pe? plate"m 
descendisse, et ante tabulatum, ubi emineb« patlbulur^ 



LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. ft 

bishop was of the custody of his prisoner in as far 
as he had not committed him to the Tolbooth at the 
Cross, the city prison, but confined him in his own 
palace, and had erected, before sentence of death 
was passed, even the scaffold on which he died. 
W e give a translation of the document which 
appears in the note: " In the year 1663, I was in 
conversation, at Edinburgh, with the illustrious 
Lady Margaret Hamilton (who was unmarried), 
sister of the noble Marquis of Abercorn. She spoke 
to me of the heroic martyr, John Ogilvie. ' The 
night before his martyrdom,' she said, ' there being 
moonlight, while a woman living at Glasgow was 
looking out of a window which was opposite the 
scaffold, she saw a man of remarkable aspect clad 
in a white garment, leave the Bishop's castle 
(wherein the martyr was kept prisoner), and with 
hands raised heavenwards, glide down the street, 
kneel for some time in prayer, in front of the 
scaffold, from which rose the gibbet, and in a dis-
tinct voice say, " Mary, Mother of Grace, Mother 

flexis genibus aliquamdiu orasse, et lisec clara voce 
dixisse— 

Maria, Mater Gratise, Mater Misericordiae, 
T u nos ab hoste protege, et hora mortis suscipe. 

" Rem miram," inquam ego, " mihi narras et pergratam 
sane, si de veritate mihi constaret." _ " E g o , " inquit ilia, 
" non minus sollicita eram, cum mihi primum narraretur, 
de rei veritate indaganda. Proinde Pasleto Glasguam 
profecta sum, ut ab ipsa muliere illam expiscarer: quae, 
professione _ licet acatholica, et literature linguseque 
Latinae omnino ignara, iisdem tamen verbis et circum-
stantiis retulit, et jurejurando affirmavit." Haec, inquam, 
habui ab ipsa virgine, pietate prudentia et judicio 
omnibus notissima; ut hie refero, ni fallar, relationem 
hanc pluribus abhinc annis, inter annuas Romam scripsi. 
Duaci Feb. xxiii. 1672. T H O M A S R O B J E U S , e Soc. Jesu, 
Sacerdos, manu propria (Preshome MSS.). 



72 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

of Mercy, defend me from the enemy, and receive 
me in the hour of death." ' ' This is glad news 
indeed,' said I, ' for which I am very thankful, but 
how am I to credit it? ' ' I myself,' said she, ' was 
no less anxious than you are to have it verified. 
So I left Paisley and went to Glasgow to find the 
woman who saw this vision; who though not a 
Catholic, and quite ignorant of Latin, repeated the 
very words, and detailed the circumstances men-
tioned, and swore to the truth of her statement.' 

" This did I hear from that lady, a woman well 
known for her piety, prudence, and judgment; and 
this statement I wrote down a good number of years 
ago while in Rome, in testimony of which I here-
with subscribe my name, with my own hand, at 
Douay, 23rd February, 1672.—THOMAS ROBE,9 

S.J., Priest." 
The Catholics had planned the martyr's escape; 

preparations were made for his leaving the Arch-
bishop's castle in perfect safety the night before his 
death. But he would not stir a foot beyond the 
threshold of his cell. " On the night which pre-
ceded the martyrdom of the Venerable 10 Father 

' He was employed on the Scotch Mission in 1636; three 
years later he had retired to London. In his letter from 
thence, October 31, 1639, he recommends his mother, who 
had died on the 4th of that month, to the prayers of the 
Father General Vetelleschi. From London he removed to 
Douay, where, for a considerable time, he was Rector of 
the Scotch College. He was still living there in August, 
1676 (Oliver's Collectanea). 

' Nocte, quae Martyrium Venerabilis Patris Joannis 
Ogilbaei proxime prascessit, perillustris, Dominus Joannes 
Browne de Log-hill, pater R. P. Jacobi Browne Societatis 
Jesu, ipsum ex pietate in carcere invisens, certam jacenti 
viam et ad vitam conservandam, et ad libertatem eadem 
nocte recuperandam aperturum se promisit. Arridens human-
issime Pater, nobilemque Dominum amicissime complexus, 
summas pro oblato beneficio gratias illi retulit, sancte 



LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 73 

John Ogilvie, Mr. John Browne of Loghill, father 
of the Rev. James Browne, S.J., whilst making a 
visit of charity to the Father in prison, promised he 
would that night open to him a way of escape, of 
saving his life, and recovering his liberty. The 
Father smiled affectionately, and embracing the 
distinguished gentleman with great marks of friend-
ship, expressed his extreme gratitude for the 
proffered kindness, but assured him that death for 
so grand a cause was more acceptable than any life, 
and that he looked forward to it with so sincere a 
desire as to fear nothing so much as that by any 
accident he should be snatched from it ." 1 1 The 
two rushed into one another's arms, and the gener-
ous martyr begged Mr. Browne not to leave the city 
until God had completed what he had begun in him. 
This Mr. Browne promised he would faithfully 
observe, and undertook to keep as close to the 
Father's side as he could.12 

testatus mortem pro tarn illustri causa, quavis vita, 
gratiorem sibi futuram; seque tarn sincero in illam affectu 
ferri, nihil ut magis metueret quam ne quo ab ilia casu 
eriperetur. Qui animus cum nobilem tunc setate juniorem 
vebementeri et recrearet, et ad ea quae pro Fide passus est 
subeunda potentissime animaret, in mutuos cum lacrymis 
amplexus ruerunt, rogante generose Xti. martyre ne 
civitate ante egrederetur quam quo in se Deus inchoa-
verat perficeret: quod ipse se constanter facturum polli-
citus statuit Patris latus quam proxime posset stipare. 
Document written and signed by Fr. James Browne, S.J., 
Rector of Douay College in 1668 and 1673 (Preshome 
MSS.). 

n Appendix of Authentic Account, &c. Father Karslake. 
" Over two hundred years ago a Scottish nobleman, 

being warmly interested in Father Ogilvie, spent ¿200 in 
promoting his cause at Rome. After the usual process had 
been gone through, Father Ogilvie was styled Venerable. 
He is, we believe, the only one of the British martyrs who 
died for the faith since the so-called Reformation, who bears 
that title (Note from Rev. John Morris, S.J.). 



74 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

Evidently Father Ogilvie had set his life upon the 
cast, and would, God helping, stand the hazard of 
the die. 

" Either he must withdraw his statements in 
favour of Papal Supremacy or die," such was the 
substance of the King ' s letter to Spottiswood, a 
day or so before the martyr was hanged. The last 
night he passed in the Castle—the last one of the 
twenty-two weeks he lay the Archbishop's prisoner 
—was a wearisome one for him. He could not 
pray, the uproar of the gaolers and others was so 
great. " To-morrow," he said to those about him, 
" is my wedding day! " And so it was. It was 
only with the dawn there came quiet, and then he 
could speak as he desired, to Him Whom he was to 
see face to face ere sun-down. 

A magistrate with a band of armed citizens led 
him out of the Castle and down the High Street. 
The people on the sides of the thoroughfare hailed 
him with " God speed y o u , " instead of the yells 
which assailed him on leaving the Tolbooth for 
Edinburgh, December 8, 1614 : his chivalry having 
won the admiration of almost every one. He was 
dressed in a ragged overcoat. 

The Town Hall, where the trial took place, was 
within the Tolbooth at the City Cross. The bench 
was very full, there being on it: 

Provost James Hamilton, 
Bailie James Bell,13 

,, Colin Campbell, 
„ James Braidwood. 

" T h e Bells and Campbells were Provosts, Bailies, and 
Deans ot Guild in Glasgow from 1614 till 1687. 



LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 75 

These magistrates were appointed by commission 
from the Lords of Privy Council. Along with 
them sat: 

Archbishop Spottiswood, 
James Marquis of Hamilton, 
Robert Earl of Lothian,14 

William Lord Sanquahar, 
John Lord Fleming, 
Robert Lord Boyd, and 
Sir Walter Stewart, Assessor. 

Father Ogilvie, in coming into court, was con-
ducted to the place where criminals sat. He wore 
his hat; but was ordered to take it off. 

The proceedings began shortly after eleven 
o'clock forenoon, Tuesday, March 10, 1615. Mr. 
William Hay of Baro,18 specially deputed by Sir 
William Elphingstone of Newton, his Majesty's 
Attorney-General, rose up and laid before the Bench 
the indictment against the prisoner. He also pro-
duced the citation used in calling the jury, and 
the roll of their names bearing his own signature, 
according to the customary form. Thereupon he 
read the indictment, a long, wordy composition, 
which we will not inflict upon our patient readers. 
Then he spoke as follows: 

Although the indictment is in itself clear enough, 
and represents sufficiently io my Lords Justices and 

" " The Earl of Lowthian, trusting by conference to 
bring him to a better mind, went unto him at divers times 
using many persuasions to draw him from his obstinate 
course; but nothing could prevail with him " (The True 
Relation of the Proceedings against John Ogilvie, a 
Jesuit. Edinburgh: Printed by Andrew Hart, anno 1615). 

¿supposed to be an estate lying on the east of Glasgow, 
now called Barrowfield, 



76 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

your Honourable Lordships here assisting, and 
even to you yourself, John Ogilvie, standing here, 
the gravity of the crime you have committed, yet I 
shall sum it up to you in a very few words, that 
your answers may be the more distinct and unmis-
takable. 

You are not accused of saying Mass, nor of seduc-
ing his Majesty's subjects to a contrary religion, 
nor of any point touching you in conscience, 
properly; but for declining his Majesty's authority 
against the laws and statutes of the land, and for 
maintaining treasonable opinions, such as we of 
this realm have not heard by any person avowed. 
The statutes, mentioned in your indictment, make 
it treason not to answer the King 's Majesty or his 
Council in any matter which shall be demanded. 
You, being examined by my Lord Archbishop of 
Glasgow, and other honourable persons adjoined to 
him, by his Majesty's special commission, refused 
to answer unto divers interrogatories proposed to 
you by their lordships, and at the same time pro-
fessedly avouched the Pope of Rome's jurisdiction, 
which, by the laws of the country, is many years 
since plainly discharged; therefore have you in-
curred the penalty contained in the statutes, and 
the famine ought and should be executed upon 
you. 

It is further laid unto your charge, that you being 
demanded in the particulars, namely, Whether the 
Pope hath power to dispose the King ' s Majesty, 
being deposed by the Pope ? Thirdly, whether the 
Pope hath power to assoilzie his Majesty's subjects 
from their natural allegiance or not? You denied 
to give any answer touching any of these points 



LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 77 

except you were inquired thereof by the Pope, or 
others having authority from him, and so not 
acknowledging that his Majesty's crown and 
authority is held immediately and sovereignly from 
God, the Author of all government; that it is detest-
able once to think that his sacred Majesty may be 
lawfully killed, and that no man hath power to 
assoilzie his Majesty's subjects from their natural 
allegiance to his Highness. You have in these 
points, and every one of them, committed most 
heinous treason, for the which what you say in your 
own defence I see not. And yet, further, that it 
may be seen how desperate your resolution is in all 
these points, although you were not required con-
cerning the oaths of supremacy and allegiance given 
to his Majesty by his subjects, you freely, and out 
of your own motives, condemned these oaths as 
impious and unlawful. Thereby hath it appeared 
what a wicked and treasonable mind you foster 
against his Majesty our sovereign. If you should 
deny it, here are your answers, subscribed with your 
own hand, which you cannot but acknowledge; 
them I desire to be read, as likewise the several 
statutes of Parliament which you are alleged to have 
transgressed; and thereafter, since his Majesty is 
pleased that the ordinary course of trial be kept 
unto you, you shall have liberty to say for yourself, 
either against the relevancy of the indictment or 
verification produced, what you think best. 

" T h e n were read the statutes of Parliament 
mentioned in the indictment, and the said John 
Ogilvie's answers to the demands proposed unto 
him, which he acknowledged for his own and the 



78 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

subscription thereto subjoined; after which, having 
licence of the court to say what he could for him-
self, he spoke to this effect: ' First, under protesta-
tion that I do no way acknowledge this judgment 
nor receive you, that have that commission there 
produced, for my judges, I deny any point laid 
against me to be treason: for if it were treason, it 
would be treason in all places and in all kingdoms-
but that,' saith he, ' is known not to be so. A s 
for your Acts of Parliament, they are made by a 
number of partial men, the best of the land not 
agreeing with them, and of matters not subject to 
their forum or jurisdiction, for which I will not give 
a rotten f ig ! ° 

' W , h e r e I am thought an enemy to the King ' s 
Majesty s authority, I know none other authority 
he hath, but that which he received from his pre-
decessors, who acknowledged the Pope of Rome's 
jurisdiction. If the King , ' saith he, ' will be to 
me as his predecessors were to mine, I will obey and 
acknowledge him for my K i n g ; but if he do other-
wise and play the runagate from God, as he and 

a l d ° > J,™11 n o t acknowledge him, more than 
this old hat 1 16 

" H e r e the Archbishop of Glasgow interrupted 
his speech, desiring him to deliver his mind in a 
greater calm, and with more reverent speeches of 
his Majesty; he remembered him that he was 
accused upon his» life, before judges that were 
authorized by his Majesty's commission : to decline 
the judgment, or rail against his Majesty's author-
ity, was bootless, and in a man of his profession, 

c*rj '?e!re u , p 0 n , hf Jwirted his hat in the air" (The 
SntUsh Journal of Tfografhy, vo}. i. p. 379) ( H 



LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 79 

being an ecclesiastic, very scandalous. He should 
rather take another course to amend what he had 
offended in, and recall his former answers, if they 
had not proceeded from a deliberate purpose • and 
if he were resolute to maintain them, to do it with 
reason and in a moderate sort: that this were his 
best, either for justifying himself, and the opinions 
he held, or for moving the judges, and their lord-
ships that were assisting, to commiserate his case: 
he advertised him withal to be more temperate in 
his speeches concerning his Majesty, otherwise he 
would not be licensed thus to offend. 

" T o this, Ogilvie made some little answer: 
' That he would take the advertisement and speak 
more coldly.' Howbeit, he would never acknow-
ledge the judgment, nor think they had power to 
sit on his life, but said: ' And for the reverence I 
do you, by standing bareheaded before you, I let 
you know I do so, ad redemptionem vexationis, et 
non ad agnitionem judicii.' 

" The advocate here insisted, that seeing all his 
answers tended to decline the judgment, and that 
he brought no reason why the indictment should 
not go to a trial, that the jury should be chosen 
and sworn at the Bar according to custom : 

" The names of the jury. • 
" Sir Geo. Elphingstone of Blysthwood, 

Sir Thomas Boyd of Boneshaw, 
Sir J. Edmonstone of Duntraith, elder, 
James Murehead of Lachope, 
James Roberton of Ernock, 
Hew Crawfurd of Jordane-hill, 
John Carschore of that Ilk, 



84 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

Hew Kennedy, provost of Ayr , 
William Makarrel of Hill-house, 
James Blair, bailie of Ayr , 
Joh n Dunlop of Powmilne 
John Stewart, burgess of A y r , 
Joh n Dumbar, burgess there, 
James Johnston, burgess there, 
John Cunningham of Rawes. 

" It was allowed the prisoner to challenge any 
of the forenamed persons, and to oppose unto their 
admission; who said: ' He had but one exception 
for them all : they were either enemies to his cause 
or friends: if enemies, they could not be admitted 
upon his trial, and if they were his friends, they 
should stand prisoners at the Bar with him." 

" The jury being known to be all discreet and 
substantial persons, were instantly sworn and 
admitted. 

" T h e n was the indictment read again in the 
hearing of the jury, and the evidences showed them 
for verification thereof, which before were produced. 
And the prisoner, being of new remembered to say 
what he would for himself, for the better informa-
tion of the jury, spake these things following: 

" ' I wish these gentlemen to consider well what 
they do. I cannot be tried nor judged by them • 
and whatsoever I suffer here, it is by way of injury' 
and not of judgment. Injuria est, non judicium. 
I am accused of treason, but I have done no offence 
neither will I beg mercy.' 

" ' This is strange,' saith the Archbishop, ' you 
have done no offence, and yet you are come in his 
Majesty s kingdom, and have laboured to pervert 



LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 81 

his Highness's subjects; both of these are against 
the law: In this have ye not offended ? ' 

" ' N o t , ' he answereth; ' I came by command-
ment, and if I were even now forth of the kingdom, 
I should return: neither do I repent anything, but 
that I have not been so busy as I should in that 
which ye call perverting. I hope to come to 
Glasgow again, and to do more good in it. If all 
the hairs of mine head were priests they should 
all come into the kingdom.' 

And do you not,' said the Archbishop, 
' esteem it a fault to go against the King ' s com-
mandment, especially on this point of discharging 
you his kingdom. If a king have any power within 
his kingdom, it seems he may rid himself and his 
country of those with whom he is offended: and it 
savours of great rebellion to say otherwise.' 

i To this Ogilvie replied: ' I am a subject as free 
as the K i n g is a K i n g ; he cannot discharge me if I 
be not an offender, which I am not.' And being 
asked for what offences he might be discharged by 
the K i n g , answered: ' In the cases of theft and 
murder.' 

" ' All this while,' said the Archbishop, ' you 
came not to answer anything to the points of your 
indictment. W h y did you decline his Majesty's 
authority, and refuse to show your opinion anent 
the Pope's power in deposing Kings and loosing 
subjects from their oath of allegiance ? And when 
it was asked you if it were lawful to slay the King , 
being deposed and excommunicated by the Pope, 
which any loyal-hearted subject will abhor to think 
of, why did you not simply condemn it as unlawful ? 

For in that you do not condemn it, you show your-
p 



82 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

self of the opinion of the rest of your sect, who in 
their books maintain that it is both lawful and 
commendable to slay Kings, if the Pope's commis-
sion go forth once for it.' 

" ' For the declining of the King ' s authority,' 
saith he, ' I will do it still in matters of religion, 
for with such matters he hath nothing to do; neither 
have I done any other thing but that which the 
ministers did at Dundee; they would not acknow-
ledge his Majesty's authority in spiritual matters 
more than I, and the best ministers of the land are 
still of that mind, and if they be wise, will continue 
so.' 

" The Archbishop replied ' that he was mistaken 
both in the place and matter; for it was not at 
Dundee, but Aberdeen, where eight ministers 
meeting to a general assembly, contended not 
against the King ' s authority, but that the assembly 
called to that place and time, could not be dis-
charged by his Majesty's Commissioner: neither 
should the fact of a few taken at the worst be 
esteemed the deed of the whole. These have been 
punished for their oifences, and some of them have 
confessed their error, and been graciously pardoned 
by his Majesty. All good ministers profess other-
wise, and our religion teacheth us to acknowledge 
his Majesty, our only supreme judge in all causes. 
The K i n g is keeper of both Tables, and his place 
bears him not only to the ruling of his subjects in 
justice and preserving equity amongst them; but 
even to maintain religion and God's pure worship, 
of which he should have principal care. Your lord, 
the Pope, hath not only denied this authority to 
kings, which God giveth them, but usurping to 



LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 83 

himself a power of deposing and killing when he 
is displeased; and it were the less to be regarded 
if this his usurpation had gone no further than your 
pains: but you have entered by this pretended right 
the throats of the greatest kings, as you practised 
upon the last Henries of France bear witness. You 
are not able to lay such imputation upon us nor 
our profession, which teaches that next unto God 
Almighty, all men are bound to fear, serve, and 
honour their kings. But what answer you touch-
ing these demands? Hath the Pope power to 
depose the K i n g ? Or is it not murder to kill him, 
being deposed by the Pope ? ' 

" ' I refused before,' said he, ' to answer such 
questions, because in answering I should acknow-
ledge you judges in controversies of religion, which 
I do not. I will not cast holy things to dogs.' 

" ' And is it,' said the Archbishop, ' a point of 
faith that the Pope may depose his Majesty ? Or 
do you think it a controversy in religion, whether 
his Majesty (whom God save) may be lawfully 
killed or not ? ' 

" T o this Ogilvie replied: ' I t is a question 
amongst the Doctors of the Church, and many hold 
the affirmative, not improbably. A Council hath 
not yet determined the point; and if it shall be con-
cluded by the Church, that the Pope hath such 
power, I will give my life in defence of it; and if 
I had a thousand lives I would bestow them that 
way if they will make an article of faith of it? ' 
Being urged to declare his own opinion, especially 
on that point, whether it were murder to kill his 
Majesty, being deposed by the Pope, he answered: 
' that he would not say it were unlawful though he 



84 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

should save his life by it.' Then going on with a 
long speech on the Pope's power, affirmed the K i n g 
to be subject to him, by the virtue of Christ saying 
to Peter: ' Pasce oves meas.' That if the K i n g 
offended against the Catholic Church, the Pope 
might punish him as well as a shepherd or the 
poorest fellow in the country. That in abrogating 
the Pope's authority, the estates of parliament had 
gone beyond their limits, and that the K i n g in 
usurping the Pope's right had lost his own. ' Nam 
qui rapit jus alienum,' said he, | perd.it jus ad 
suum.' 

" Being asked touching the oath of allegiance, 
why he did condemn it, and the same being read 
unto him, said : ' It was a damnable oath, against 
God and His truth and that it was treason to swear 
it because it brought the King ' s person and state 
in danger; since this kingdom,' said he, ' w a s 
Christian the Pope's supreme power was always 
acknowledged; this being cast off (as we see in the 
Act of your Parliament), against all reason and 
conscience, and subjects forced to swear to a matter 
so unlawful, what marvel that attempts and danger-
ous courses be taken against him ? Justissima lex 
est, ut quae agit aliquis, talia patiatur. But would 
the K i n g leave off his usurping upon the Pope he 
might live without fear, as well as the K i n g of 
Spain or any other Christian prince.' And with 
this he intermixed some speeches of his own service 
and the service of other Jesuits done to his Majesty, 
whereof he said: ' neither bishop nor minister, nor 
all the bishops and ministers in his Majesty's 
kingdoms, had done or could do the like.' 

" The further he proceeded in speaking, his 



LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 85 

speeches still grew to be the more intolerable; 
therefore, the Archbishop of Glasgow, willing him 
to make an end, did close all with some words to 
the jury to this effect. ' Gentlemen, and others 
who are named upon this assize, though I minded 
to have said nothing, but sitting here a witness of 
the proceeding, I have been forced, by his proud 
and impudent speeches, somewhat to reply; and 
must, with your patience, say a little more. It is 
this same day two-and-twenty weeks past that this 
prisoner fell into mine hands; since that time he 
hath leisure to think enough what course was fittest 
for himself to take for satisfying his Majesty, whom 
he had offended: neither hath he lacked counsel 
and advice, the best that we could give him. Be-
sides, he hath found on our part nothing but 
courteous dealing and better entertainment than 
(I must now say it) he hath deserved. Mine own 
hopes were that he would have followed another 
course than I see he hath taken, and not stand to 
the answers which he made to those demands, which 
were moved unto him by his Majesty's Commis-
sioners, as you have seen; but if his answers at the 
first were treasonable, they are now so little bettered, 
as in all your hearings he hath uttered speeches 
most detestable, made a commentary worse than 
the text was, and showed himself to carry the mind 
of an arrant and desperate traitor. You perceive 
he obscures not his affection towards the K i n g ' s 
Majesty, our Sovereign, in all his speeches; pre-
ferring the Pope to his Majesty, and which is more 
intolerable, affirmeth the K i n g ' s Majesty to have 
lost the right of his kingdom by usurping upon the 
Pope. He will not say it is unlawful to kill his 



86 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

Majesty; he says it is treason for subjects to swear 
the oath of allegiance, and meaneth so much in his 
last words as the King ' s Majesty's life and estate 
cannot be assured, except he render himself the 
Pope's vassal.' 

" ' Thus hath he left you little to do, except that 
his Majesty's pleasure is, the ordinary form be kept 
with him, you should never need once to remove; 
all his speeches have been so stuffed with treason 
that I am sure the patience of the noblemen and 
others here present hath been much provoked. 

" ' In all that he hath said I can mark but two 
things alleged by him for the Pope's authority over 
kings, the words of our Saviour to St. Peter, Pasce 
oves meas—" Feed my sheep," and the subjection 
of kings, especially of our kings, since the kingdom 
became Christian, to the Pope. For the words of 
our Saviour, how little they serve his purpose, I 
have no need to tell you. To feed the sheep of 
Christ is not, I hope, to depose kings from their 
estates, nor to inflame the hearts of subjects against 
princes, much less to kill and despatch them. W e 
are better taught than to be deceived with such 
glosses. St. Peter made never that sense of those 
words, and teacheth us a far other doctrine in his 
first Epistle, fifth chapter, and second and third 
verse. 

" ' I will not spend time with such purpose, only 
this I must say, that whatsoever was St. Peter's 
prerogative, the Pope of Rome hath nothing to do 
with it, for he cannot be St. Peter's successor that 
hath forsaken his doctrine, and gone against his 
practice directly, both in that and other points of 
Christian faith. And for the antiquity of his 



LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 87 

usurped power I may justly say that Master Ogilvie 
is not well seen in antiquity, or then speaketh 
against his knowledge, when he saith that this 
power of the Pope was ever acknowledged by 
Christian kings. The Bishops of Rome for many 
years made no such claims, neither did emperors 
or kings ever dream of subjection. Long it was 
ere the Pope of Rome came to the height of com-
manding kings, and not till he had oppressed the 
Church under the pretext of St. Peter's Keys bear-
ing down all the Bishops within Christendom; 
which having done, then he made his invasion upon 
princes, and that by degrees. The histories of all 
ages make this plain, and the resisting he found 
by kings in their kingdoms testifieth that they never 
acknowledged his superiority. Of our own, howbeit 
as we lie far from his seat, so had we less business 
and fewer occasions of contradiction, yet can I make 
it seen, in divers particulars, when any question fell 
out anent the provision of Bishops and Archbishops 
to their places, the Bulls of Rome were so little 
respected, as the K i n g ' s predecessors have always 
preferred and borne out their own choice, and the 
interdictions made upon the realm by these occa-
sions, not without some imputation of weakness to 
the See Apostolic, have been recalled. The super-
stitions of Rome were amongst us last embraced, 
and with the first, by the mercies of God, shaken 
off. Whatsoever you brag of your antiquity, it is 
false, both in this and all the points of your pro-
fession else, which I could clear if this time or place 
were fitting. But to you of this jury I have this 
only more to say, you are to inquire upon the verity 
of indictment, whether such and such things as are 



88 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

alleged to be committed by him have been so or 
not. Y o u have his subscription, which he acknow-
l e d g e d ; you hear himself, and how he hath most 
treasonably disavowed his Majesty's authority. It 
concerns you only to pronounce as you shall find 
verified by the speeches that you have heard, and 
the testimonies produced. For the rest, the Justices 
know sufficiently what to do, and will serve God 
and his Majesty according to the commission given 
them.' 

" Master William Hay, Advocate for his Majesty, 
asked instruments upon the prisoner's treasonable 
speeches uttered in the hearing of the jury, and 
his ratification of the former answers ma"de to his 
Majesty's Commissioners. Likewise, for the fur-
ther clearing of the indictment, repeated the Acts 
of Parliament mentioned in the said indictment, 
with the Act of Privy Council made anent his 
Majesty's supremacy, and the oath of allegiance; 
and desired the jury deeply to weigh and consider 
the perverse and devilish disposition of the party 
accused, to the effect they might without scruple 
proceed in his conviction. And according to his 
place protested for wilful error if they should acquit 
him of any point contained in the said indictment. 

" T h e persons named upon the jury removed to 
the higher house, which was prepared for them; 
and having elected Sir George Elphingstone Chan-
cellor, all in one voice found the prisoner GUILTY 
of the whole treasonable crimes contained in the 
indictment. Which being reported by the said Sir 
George Elphingstone, and confirmed by the whole 
jury, then returned into the Court, judgment was 
given by direction of the Justices, That the said 



LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 89 

John Ogilvie, for the treasons by him committed, 
s h o u l d b e HANGED a n d QUARTERED. 

' The Archbishop of Glasgow demanded if 
Ogilvie would say anything else ? Ogilvie an-
swered, ' No, my lord; but I give your lordship 
thanks for your kindness, and will desire your 
hand.' 

" The Archbishop said, ' If you shall acknowl-
edge your fault done to his Majesty, and crave God 
and his Highness's pardon, I will give you both 
hand and heart, for I wish you to die a good 
Christian.' 

" T h e n Ogilvie asked, ' If he should be licensed 
to speak to the people ? ' 

' ' The Archbishop answered, * If you will declare 
that you suffer according to the law, justly for your 
offence, and crave his Majesty's pardon for your 
treasonable speeches, you shall be licensed to say 
what you please; otherwise you ought not to be 
permitted.' 

" T h e n said he, ' G o d have mercy upon me I ' 
And cried aloud, ' If there be here any hidden 
Catholics, let them pray for me; but the prayers of 
heretics I will not have.' And so the Court arose." 

W e have given the trial of Father Ogilvie from 
the official records almost word for word; though 
perhaps throwing ourselves open to the accusation 
of having wearied the reader. But it is satisfactory 
to have the worst that had been charged against 
the martyr put unabridgedly and in the very words 
of his persecutors. W e have in such a record the 
whole unvarnished statement of his offence. If 
aught else could have been set down against him, 
would it have been omitted ? Even on the show-



94 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

ing of the indictment, which formed the ground of 
the proceedings at his trial, he died a martyr for 
the Papal Supremacy. Doubtless each form was 
observed that custom demanded in the course of 
such a case in those days; and although those forms 
are not detailed, nor even alluded to in the report, 
yet we have no reason for stating that they were 
passed over. On the contrary, they were used if 
for no other purpose but to give the colour of 
justice to proceedings which were most unjust. 
This trial was anything but a righteous one. The 
foreman of the jury (chancellor he was styled in 
those days) had been twice, on this very case, 
commissioned Judge, namely, October 15th, and 
about the middle of December, 1614! There 
served also on that jury the descendant of the man 
who had no second role given him in the tragedy 
of the murder of the (Catholic) Archbishop of St. 
Andrew's, that man was Hugh Crawford of Jordan 
Hill. Good notes are not attached to the names 
of Provost Kennedy and John Stewart, burgess of 
Ayr . 1 1 The foreman gave in the verdict in writing 
to the court; the sentence was written out by the 
clerk; and the dempster18 was summoned to read 
the doom—sentence of death. A wax taper was 
lighted and quenched, emblematical of the extinc-
tion of the prisoner's life on the scaffold.19 

Father Ogilvie did not leave the Town Hall ; he 
merely turned his face to the wall and knelt and 
prayed. Only three hours passed between the 

" Livingstone's Memorable Characteristics, 336, 337. 
" " In one of Sir Walter Scott's novels there is an 

account of a trial where the Dempster pronounces the 
sentence. . . . You may safely trust to Sir Walter's accu-
racy."—Letter from William F . Skene, February 8, 1878. 

" Heart of Mid-Lrthian, ch. xxiv. Note T . 



LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 91 

reading of his doom and his death. The trial 
lasted two hours. When the martyr was brought 
forth from the prison on the road to the scaffold, 
he was met by the heretical minister and gaol 
officials. Mr. Browne, and other Catholic gentle-
men were also close at hand. The minister ad-
dressed the Father, and expressed the extremely 
kind feeling he had for him. " Oh, how much I 
grieve for you, my dear Ogilvie," he said, " w h o 
are knowingly and wilfully casting yourself into the 
jaws of an infamous death." Then the Father, 
feigning fear, said, " J u s t as if my life hung on 
my own free will. I am accounted guilty of high 
treason, and for that I am condemned." " Have 
done," said the minister, " w i t h that crime of 
yours. Give up the Pope and Papistry, and you 
shall be forgiven that crime, and I will reward you 
with g i f ts ." " You mock me," said the Father. 
" I speak seriously and with certain authority," 
subjoined the minister. " My Lord Archbishop 
gave commission to me to promise you his daugh-
ter in marriage, and the richest prebend of the 
diocese as her dowry, provided I found you willing 
to step over from your religion to ours." Whilst 
these things were being said they reached the 
scaffold. The minister urged the Father to be 
willing to live. The Father replied that he was 
willing, but not with disgrace. " I have said, and 
repeat," urged the minister, " t h a t you may live 
with honour." " W o u l d you be willing to say 
that, so that the people could hear ? " " By all 
means," he replied. "Lis ten all present," cried 
Father Ogilvie, " to what the minister is going to 
say to us . " Then the minister gave out: " I 



m 

92 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

promise to Mr. Ogilvie life, the Lord Archbishop's 
daughter, and a very rich prebend, provided he be 
willing to come over to our side." " Do you hear 
this ? " said the Father; " and will you confirm it as 
witnesses when it shall be needed?" " W e have 
heard," cried the people, " a n d we will confirm it. 
Go down, Mr. Ogilvie, go down ! " Upon this the 
Catholics began to tremble, and the heretics to 
triumph. " There is no fear then that I shall be 
held hereafter as guilty of high treason?" " By 
no means ! " all the people from the street cried out 
together. " I stand here, therefore, a criminal on 
the head of religion a l o n e ? " " O f that a l o n e ! " 
they cry out. " V e r y w e l l ! " triumphantly ex-
claimed the Father. " T h a t is plenty. On the 
head of religion alone I am condemned, and for 
that I would willingly and joyfully pour forth even 
a hundred lives. Snatch away that one which I 
have from me, and make no delay about it, but my 
religion you will never snatch away from me! " 
At this the Catholics raised their heads in triumph, 
whilst the heretics who had been thus taken in were 
in a fury, and above all the minister, who harshly 
received the Father as he was preparing to say-
more, and commanded him to be led away to the 
scaffold as quickly as possible.20 

The Sheriff, the Archbishop's officers, and two 
of the city ministers, Struthers and Scott, not 
forgetting Father Abercrombie, accompanied the 
martyr from the Town Hall to the scaffold.21 * 

20 Attestation of Father. James Browne, S.J. Signed at 
DouAy, Feb. 23, 1672 (Original MSS. at Preshome) 

We have made inquiries through Dr. Arthur Mitchell 
a well-known antiquarian, and the letters he received to his 
questions concerting the structure of the scaffold in 1615 



LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 93 

The hangman, on being introduced, made an 
apology; but Father Ogilvie told him not to mind 
making excuses, and received the fellow cordially. 
Along the corridors of the Tolbooth and into the 
open air, even in the very thick of the crowd 
gathered to witness the execution, one of the 
ministers ceased not to tempt the Father to forgo 
his crown by accepting the bribes he had been 
empowered to offer. Even at the foot of the ladder 
leading up to the scaffold, his life was promised 
him in exchange for his faith. Nor gold, nor 
bribe, nor life itself, all which were within his 
reach, made him for a moment stay his step on the 
road to death. His strength was broken down— 
how else could it have been ? and so feeble was he 
that he crawled up the ladder. On getting upon 
the platform he kissed the gibbet. Father Aber-
crombie stood near him. A minister was also 
there. The minister cried out, " Ogilvie is to die 
for treason ! " The martyr, hearing this, shook 
his head, showing the minister lied. He would 
have spoken, but was not allowed. " Don't mind 
their lies, John; the more wrongs the better," said 
Father Abercrombie. Someone shouted, " Off with 
that other traitor ! " No sooner said than done : an 

in Scotland, from Messrs. W. F. Skene, iEneas Mackay, 
and Joseph Andei'son of the Society of Antiquaries of 
Scotland, do not afford precise information. It is our 
opinion there were two ladders, one springing from the 
street to the platform, and another from the platform, 
leaning against the gibbet. On the latter the martyr 
stood, having the rope about his neck, and when ready 
the executioner withdrew the ladder. Sir Walter Scott 
quotes a rhyme of the Edinburgh street-boys which 
somewhat illustrates this description— 

Up the lang ladder, 
And down the little tow. 



94 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

officer cast Father Abercrombie headforemost into 
the crowd. " Are you not," said the minister, 
"afraid to d i e ? " " I fear death," answered 
Father Ogilvie, " as much as you do your dinner." 

It was, very probably, just before his hands were 
bound that he flung his Rosary beads (his farewell 
gift to the Catholics present) into the crowd about 
the scaffold—an incident forming an episode in this 
history. 

His Rosary struck the breast of a young noble-
man who was on his travels in these kingdoms. 
He was a foreigner and a heretic—his name, Baron 
John ab Eckersdorff. " I was on my travels 
through England and Scotland—as it is the custom 
of our nobility—being a mere stripling, and not 
having the faith. I happened to be in Glasgow the 
day Father Ogilvie was led forth to the gallows, 
and it is impossible for me to describe his lofty 
bearing in meeting death. His farewell to the 
Catholics was his casting into their midst, from the 
scaffold, his rosary beads just before he met his 
fate. That rosary, thrown haphazard, struck me 
on the breast in such wise that I could have caught 
it in the palm of my hand; but there was such a 
rush and crush of the Catholics to get hold of it, 
that unless I wished to run the risk of being trodden 
down, I had to cast it from me. Religion was the 
last thing I was then thinking about: it was not in 
my mind at all; yet from that moment I had no 
rest. Those rosary beads had left a wound in my 
soul; go where I would I had no peace of mind. 
Conscience was disturbed, and the thought would 
haunt me : why did the martyr's rosary strike me, 
and not another? For years I asked myself this 



LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 95 

question—it followed me about everywhere. At 
last conscience won the day. I became a Catholic; 
I abandoned Calvinism; and this happy change I 
attribute to the martyr's beads, and to no other 
cause—those beads which, if I had them now, gold 
could not tempt me to part with; and if gold could 
purchase them, I should not spare i t ." 22 

The martyr prayed in these words : 

Maria, Mater gratia:, ora pro me! 
Omnes Angeli, orate pro me! 
Omnes Sancti, Sanctaeque, orate pilo me! 

He was turned off the ladder, his left foot resting 
slightly on one of the bars for an instant, and hung 
till dead. Father Abercrombie, standing in the 
crowd, gave him absolution. This, it would seem, 
had been arranged between them. " There was a 
man (Father Abercrombie) seen to attend him 
carefully, and was ever heard asking Ogilvie some 
token before his death; for which and other 
business he made with him, he was put off the 
scaffold.23 The execution took place at the Cross,2* 
Tuesday, at four o'clock, afternoon, March 10, 
1615. The rope was cut and the body fell with a 
thud on the planks beneath. The hangman and 
some officials, all heretics, put the body into the 
coffin. It was borne up the High Street and 
lowered into the grave made for it in the ground 
where malefactors were buried." 

" See Attestation of Father Boleslaus Balbinus, S.J., 
Preshome MSS. 

as Pitcairn, vol. iii. (Father Ogilvie's execution). 
" " xxiix. Febii. Glascuae beati Joannis Ogilbii Societatis 

Jesu presbyteri, qui celebrato sacro captus multarum noc-
tium dierumque in somnio tortus, in fono publice vitam 
laqueo finivit, aut verius mutavit: extant Romse acta a 
seipso in custodia conscripta" (Menelogium Seotornm. 
Thos. Dempstereus. Bononiae. M. DC. XXII.). 



96 LIFE OF JOHN OGILVIE, S.J. 

The malefactors' ground lies on the north side of 
the Cathedral, about twenty yards from the western 
door. The pilgrim can easily find it out. It is a 
square patch close by the Cathedral wall, and 
bounded on the north by the footpath running 
down the centre of that portion of the " High Kirk 
Yard." 2 5 It is a grass-grown spot, no stones 
marking the graves of those who sleep the sleep of 
Death with him who sealed in blood his faith in the 
Supremacy of the Fisherman. 

" St. Ninian, the Apostle of Galloway, consecrated the 
cemetery which lies around the Cathedral of Glasgow. 

L . D . S . 

T H E N O R T H U M B E R L A N D PRESS, T H O R N T O N S T R E E T , N E W C A S T L B - U P O * - T Y N B