 | This article includes alist of references,related reading, orexternal links,but its sources remain unclear because it lacksinline citations. Please helpimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(August 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
James Beaton | |
|---|---|
| Archbishop of Glasgow | |
%2c_Chancellor_of_the_University_of_Glasgow_-_GLAHA-44141_-_Hunterian_Museum_and_Art_Gallery.jpg) | |
| Church | Roman Catholic Church |
| Archdiocese | Glasgow |
| Appointed | 4 September 1551 |
| In office | 1551–1571 1598–1603 |
| Predecessor | Alexander Gordon |
| Successor | John Porterfield |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 17 July 1552 (deacon) 20 July 1552 (priest) by Borso Merli (priest) |
| Consecration | 28 August 1552 by Giovanni Giacomo Barba |
| Personal details | |
| Born | c. 1517 |
| Died | 24/25 April 1603 (aged 86) |
| Parents | James Beaton ofBalfarg |
| Motto | Latin:Ferendum ut vincas |
James Beaton (c. 1517 – 24/25 April 1603) was a 16th-centuryarchbishop of Glasgow. He served both before and after the Reformation when his title was reinstated byKing James VI in 1598.
He was the son of James Beaton of Auchmuty andBalfarg (a younger son of John Beaton ofBalfour) and nephew toCardinal David Beaton. James Beaton was educated at theUniversity of Paris, which he entered in the 1530s at the age of 14.
On the resignation of the archbishop-electAlexander Gordon, the archbishopric of Glasgow became vacant. Despite not being yet in priests' orders, on 4 September 1551, at the request ofMarie de Guise,Pope Julius III provided Beaton to the archbishopric ofGlasgow. He was consecrated on Sunday 28 August 1552 at Rome by the bishops ofAbruzzo,Nevers andFondi. For eight troublous years he administered the affairs of his diocese and stood faithfully by the queen-regent, Marie de Guise, in her dealings with the disaffected Protestant nobles. In March, 1559, he was at the provincial council at Edinburgh summoned by the primate,Archbishop Hamilton — the last assembly of the kind which was to meet in Scotland for three hundred and twenty-six years. The events of 1560, the treaty of alliance withEngland againstFrance, the commencement of the work of destruction ofcathedrals and monasteries, and, finally, the death of the queen-regent, no doubt actuated Beaton in his resolve to quit the distracted kingdom. He repaired toParis, where he took a number of the muniments and registers of his diocese, and much church plate and other treasures, which he deposited in theScots College there.
Mary, Queen of Scots, immediately appointed him her ambassador at the French Court, and he remained both until her forcedabdication in 1567. He was her most faithful friend and adviser during the rest of her life. He did not hesitate, after the murder ofDarnley, to inform her frankly of the dark suspicions attaching to her, and the necessity of the assassins being punished. On the 15 February 1574, Beaton's name appears at the head of the list of the Roman prelates and clergy declared outlaws and rebels by theScottish Privy Council; but he nevertheless continued to enjoy in his exile the favour of the young king (James VI) who, about 1586, appointed him, as the late sovereign had done, ambassador at Paris. Beaton held several benefices in France, including the income of the Abbey De la Sie, inPoitou, and the treasurership of St. Hilary ofPoitiers. His intimate association with theHouse of Guise had naturally led him to join with the League againstHenry IV, and on its dissolution he was threatened with banishment; but by the intervention of Cardinals Bourbon and Sully and of the king himself, he was allowed to remain in France. Perhaps the most remarkable testimony to the respect felt for his character in Scotland is to be found in the fact that in 1598, nearly forty years after the overthrow of the ancient Church, the archbishop was formally restored, by an act of the Scottish Parliament, to all his "heritages, honours, dignities, and benefices, notwithstanding that he has never acknowledged the religion professed within the realm". He survived to witness, a month before his death, the union of the English and Scottish crowns under King James. On either the 24 or 25 April 1603, when James was actually on his way to London to take possession of his new kingdom, the archbishop died in Paris, on the eighty-sixth year of his age, and half a century after his episcopal consecration.
Beaton had lived in Paris for forty-three years, and had been Scottish ambassador to five successivekings of France. He was buried in the church of St. John Lateran at Paris, his funeral being attended by a great gathering of prelates, nobles, and common people. The poetical inscription on his tomb eulogizes him, in the exaggerated language of the times, as the greatest bishop and preacher of his age in the whole world. A sounder estimate of his worth is that of his Protestant successor in theSee of Glasgow,Spottiswoode, who describes him as "a man honourably disposed, faithful to his queen while she lived and to the king her son; a lover of his country, and liberal to all his countrymen". No breath of scandal, in a scandalous age, ever attached to the honour of his name or the purity of his private life. Beaton left his property, including the archives of the Diocese of Glasgow, and a great mass of important correspondence, to theScots College in Paris. Some of these documents had already been deposited by him in theCarthusian monastery in the same city. In the stress of theFrench Revolution many of these valuable manuscripts were packed in barrels and sent to St. Omers. These have unfortunately disappeared, but the papers left in the college were afterwards brought safely to Scotland, and are now preserved at the Scottish Catholic Archives, Columba House, Edinburgh.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "James Beaton (2)".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.| Religious titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Archbishop of Glasgow 1551/1552–1571* *He was restored as nominal bishop in 1598 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
