The History of the Reformation of Religion in Scotland

1422-1558.

In the Records of Glasgow, mention is found of one that, in the year of God 1422, was burnt for heresy. His name is not given, and of his opinions or of the order upon which he was condemned there is no evidence left. But our Chronicles make mention that, in the days of King James the First, about the year of God 1431, there was apprehended in the University of St. Andrews one named Paul Craw, a Bohemian, who was accused of heresy before such as then were called Doctors of Theology. The principal accusation against him was that, in his opinion of the Sacrament, he followed John Huss and Wycliffe, who denied that the substance of bread and wine were changed by virtue of any words, or that confession should be made to priests, or prayers made to saints departed.

God gave unto the said Paul Craw grace to resist his persecutors, and not to consent to their impiety, and he was committed to the secular judge (for our bishops follow Pilate, who both did condemn, and also washed his hands) who condemned him to the fire. Therein he was consumed at St. Andrews, about the time mentioned. To declare themselves to be of the generation of Satan, who from the beginning hath been enemy to the truth and desireth the same to be hid from the knowledge of men, they put a ball of brass in his mouth, to the end that he should not give confession of his faith to the people, nor yet that they should understand the defence which he had against his unjust accusation and condemnation.