tly as if they had planned and intended it
from the first. They also assembled their armed retainers, that when the
days of truce had expired they might be able to hold their prisoner
against all attempts to rescue him. The reformer refused to flee,
affirming that he had come to the city for the very purpose of
confirming, if need be, by the sacrifice of his life, the doctrines he
had taught. He even anticipated the time fixed for his appearance, and
had one more conference with the archbishop and his doctors, who even
then had come to a formal decision that the articles charged against him
were heretical. The same evening he was seized and imprisoned in the
castle, and next day was brought out for public trial and condemnation
in the Abbey Church or cathedral of St Andrews.

[Sidenote: His Martyrdom.]

[Sidenote: Effects of his Constancy.]

Among the articles with which he was charged, and the truth of which he
admitted and maintained, the most important were: "That a man is not
justified by works, but by faith alone;" "That faith, hope, and charity
are so linked together, that he who hath one of them hath all, and he
that lacketh one lacketh all;" and "That good works make not a good man,
but that a good man doth good works."[24] On being challenged by his
accuser with having avowed other heretical opinions, he affirmed it was
not lawful to worship images or to pray to the saints; and maintained
that "it is reason and leisome to all men that have a soul to read the
Word of God, and that they may understand the same, and in special the
latter-will and testament of Christ Jesus."[25] These truths, which have
been the source of life and strength to many, were to him the cause of
condemnation and death; and on the last day of February 1527-28, the
same day the sentence was passed, it was remorselessly executed before
the gates of St Salvator's College. "Nobly," as I have said elsewhere,
"did the martyr confirm the minds of the many godly youths he had
gathered round him, by his resolute bearing, his gentleness and
patience, his steadfast adherence to the truths he had taught, and his
heroic endurance of the fiery ordeal through which he had to pass to
his rest and reward." The harrowing details of his six long hours of
torture have been preserved for us by his friend Alesius, himself a
sorrowing witness of the fearful tragedy. "He was rather roasted than
burned," he tells us. It may be that his persecutors had not
deli