A Scottish Archbishop;
b. c. 1473; d. at St. Andrews, 1539, was the sixth and youngest son
of John Beaton of Balfour, in Fife. He graduated as Master of Arts
at St. Andrews University in 1493, four years later was Precentor of
Dornoch Cathedral (Diocese of Caithness), and in 1503 Provost of the
Collegiate Church of Bothwell.
Next year he became Prior of
Whithorn and Abbot of Dunfermline, and in 1505 was made Treasurer of
the Kingdom. In 1508 he as elected to the See of Galloway, in
succession to George Vaus, but before his consecration he was chosen
to succeed Robert Blackader (who had died, whilst on a pilgrimage to
the Holy Land, in July, 1508) as Archbishop of Glasgow, and was
consecrated at Stirling, 15 April, 1509. With the archbishopric he
held the commendatory Abbeys of Arbroath and Kilwinning, and in 1515
he became Chancellor of Scotland.
King James V, whose father had
fallen at Flodden in 1513, was at this time a child of three, and
Beaton, as one of the Council of Regency, without whose consent the
queen-mother could not act, was one of the most important personages
in the realm during the minority of the young king. The country was
at this time distracted by the feuds between two of the regents,
Angus and Arran, and Beaton, who was connected with the latter (for
Arran had married as his third wife a daughter of Sir James Beaton
of Creich), naturally espoused his kinsman's side.
A well-known story tells
how Bishop Gavin Douglas of Dunkeld came to Glasgow to urge the
Archbishop to allay the strife within the council, and how Beaton,
striking his breast as he declared upon his conscience that he was
powerless in the matter, caused the coat of mail which he wore under
his ecclesiastical habit to rattle. "Alas, my Lord", said
his brother bishop at this strange sound, "I fear your
conscience clatters!"
In 1522 Beaton was translated
to St. Andrews, vacant by the death of Archbishop Foreman. As
primate he threw all his powerful influence into the scale against
the intrigues of Henry VIII to obtain predominance in Scotland; and
it was greatly owing to his statesmanship that the old league with
France was maintained, and that the young king chose for his bride
Magdalen of France instead of Mary of England. Albany's jealousy had
deprived Beaton of the chancellorship some years previously, and he
was never reappointed, though he enjoyed the full favour of the
king. A few months after the second marriage of James (to Mary of
Guise) the primate got his nephew, David Cardinal Beaton, appointed
his coadjutor with right of succession and he died in the autumn of
1539 in his castle at St. Andrews.
The stormy period in which
Beaton's public life was cast, with France and England both
intriguing for the alliance of Scotland, and the independence of the
kingdom trembling in the balance, has made him, perhaps inevitably,
appear to posterity more prominent as a statesman (in which quality
there is no room for doubt as to his ability or his patriotism) than
as a churchman and a prelate.
There is, however, evidence
that during both his thirteen years' tenure of the See of Glasgow
and the seventeen years during which he held the primacy, he
concerned himself closely with both the material and spiritual
interests of the two dioceses, and in particular with the
advancement of learning. In Glasgow he added and endowed altars in
his cathedral, made additions also to the episcopal palace, which he
encircled with a wall, and he erected stone bridges in various parts
of the diocese. He was, moreover, as sedulous as his predecessors
had been in safeguarding the ancient privileges of the
archiepiscopal see. On his translation to St.
Andrews he proved himself a constant benefactor to the university of
that city, and he founded there a new college (St. Mary's) for the
study of divinity, civil and canon law, medicine, and other
subjects. The new college was confirmed by Pope Paul III in
February, 1538, and was extended and completed by Beaton's
successor, Archbishop Hamilton, sixteen years later. It still exists
as the divinity college of the university.
Finally,
Beaton showed himself ever zealous for the preservation of the unity
of the Faith in Scotland. Under the direct orders of the pope
(Clement VII) and unhesitatingly supported by the king, he caused
many of those engaged in propagating the new doctrines to be
arrested, prosecuted, and in some cases put to death. Modern
humanity condemns the cruel manner of their execution; but such
severities were the result of the spirit of the age, for which
Archbishop Beaton cannot be held responsible. There is no reason to
doubt that his motive in sanctioning the capital punishment of
notorious heretics were simply to avert the miseries which religious
schism could not but entail on a hitherto united people.