Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

thing called heresy might be of which he was
accused. Unable himself to read, he made his
nephew open the New Testament and read it to
him. He felt his sin; "he was changed," says Knox,
"as if by miracle," and began that course of life
which soon drew upon him the eyes of the
hierarchy. Norman Gourlay, the other person who
now fell under the displeasure of the priesthood,
had been a student at St. Andrews, and was in
priest's orders. The trial of the two took place in
Holyrood House, in presence of King James V,
"clothed all in red;" and James Hay, Bishop of
Ross, acting as commissioner for Archbishop
Beaten. They were condemned, and in the
afternoon of the same day they were taken to the
Rood of Greenside, and there burned. This was a
high ground between Edinburgh and Leith, and the
execution took place there "that the inhabitants of
Fife, seeing the fire, might be stricken with terror."
To the martyrs themselves the fire had no terror,
because to them death had no sting.[2]
Four years elapsed after the death of Straiten
and Gourlay till another pile was raised in
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