After the burning of the five Reformation martyrs on Castle Hill in Edinburgh, Cardinal Beaton was keen to find other victims to make a public example of any who would dare expose the corruption of the church hierarchy. Two young men were found in the diocese of Glasgow in 1539: Jerome Russell, an erudite Franciscan friar, and Alexander Kennedy, an 18-year-old poet, who were both outspoken for the gospel. Facing the pressure of the church council in Glasgow ‘Kennedy at the first was faint, and gladly would have recanted. But… the Spirit of God, which is the Spirit of all comfort, began to work in him, yea, the inward comfort began to burst forth, as well in visage as in tongue and word.’ The teenager fell to his knees in front of the council and began to praise and thank God. He celebrated Jesus Christ as his only Lord and Saviour before his startled accusers, and resolutely declared ‘Now I defy death. Do what you please! I praise my God I am ready!’
John Knox, in his History of the Reformation in Scotland, continues this account next with the trial of Friar Russell. ‘The godly and learned Jerome, railed upon by these godless tyrants, answered: ‘This is your hour and the power of darkness. Now you sit as judges; and we stand wrongfully accused, and more wrongfully to be condemned. But the day shall come when our innocency shall appear, and you shall see your own blindness, to your everlasting confusion. Go forward and fulfil the measure of your iniquity!’
A dispute arose between Gavin Dunbar, the Archbishop of Glasgow, who began to defend them and request their release, and the rest of the church council who threatened to report him for showing himself as an ‘enemy to the Kirk [church]’ and them. Under pressure the archbishop submitted to the council of the cruel.
On the day of their death the two young men were taken to the execution place. Seeing Kennedy looking downcast, Friar Russell encouraged him with the words: ‘Brother, have no fear. He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. The pain that we are to suffer will pass and it will not be so terrible. But our rejoicing and consolation will never come to an end… Liven up then, as we enter Paradise by the same narrow road that he himself walked before us. Death has no power over us, for it was defeated by him for whom we now suffer.’
After they had both knelt down and prayed, they were tied to the stake and burned in the fire, probably near Glasgow Cathedral. But the more the council of the cruel persecuted the godly, the more a spiritual fire of God’s truth was spreading throughout Scotland.
‘“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ (1 Corinthians 15:55-57)
Image: Glasgow Cathedral, The Library of Congress, Wikimedia Commons