Patrick Hamilton (martyr)

Patrick Hamilton ( * 1504 near Linlithgow, Scotland, † February 29, 1528 in St Andrews ) was a Scottish Protestant theologian and martyr.

Life

Born in the Scottish royal house close family he was fitted with 13 years with a church benefice ( Abbey Fearne ) and sent to Paris to study. He learned there from 1517 and early humanist reformatory ideas know and returned to their homeland. In 1523 he enrolled at the University of St Andrews as " Mag Parisiensis ". He came with his views in conflict with the authorities and further testing with two companions escaped by a trip to Germany. His goal was to Wittenberg, but he broke the journey in 1527 in Marburg / Lahn off because he had heard that Martin Luther was appointed to there.

His teacher was the former Franciscan Observant Francis Lambert of Avignon, who had made ​​1526 the Homberg church order paved the way for the Reformation in Hesse. This led him to establish academic theses and defend on the relationship of faith and good works.

At the end of the year, Patrick returned alone to Scotland, the way his cousin John loses himself in the dark, Gilbert WinRAM remained in Marburg. John Frith, with William Tyndale tireless promoter of evangelical teaching, got the theses that had been translated into English and the Dutch language in the hands, let them as an appendix to his book "A Disputation of Purgatory" print, and named it " Patrick's Places ". This only literary testimony of Patrick Hamilton has often been reprinted and adopted in the English and Scottish Church a position similar to Germany in Luther's Small Catechism.

Patrick Hamilton returned to St. Andrews, who was accused of heresy and summoned for questioning. In a short trial, he was sentenced to death and immediately burned in public, even before the royal cousin would have appealed to his brother or to an intervention could have been asked. On February 29, 1528 One of those who him on the " right path " had to return it, then fled short even on the continent and later became a professor in Frankfurt ( Oder) and Leipzig: Alexander Alane ( called Alesius ).

Remembrance

February 27 in the Protestant calendar name.

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