One day as I was addressing a tour group outside St Giles’ in Edinburgh, a tall man joined at the back. After giving my usual information about the Scottish Reformation and John Knox, we moved on. The tall man sidled up to me as we left and said, ‘It’s a pity you did not speak about George Buchanan, rather than John Knox; he’s a much more interesting fellow!’ Although John Knox is far more famous, George Buchanan is one of those forgotten lights of the Scottish Reformation, and so this short article is about him.
At one time George Buchanan was lauded as one of Europe’s greatest scholars, but he could so easily have been executed for his faith in 1540. Knox, in his Reformation in Scotland, tells us that ‘the King caused [to] put hands on that notable man, Master George Balquhannan [Buchanan]’ who was known for his ‘singular erudition and honest behaviour’, but he managed to escape ‘to the great honour of his nation, and to the comfort of them that delight in letters and virtue’. Buchanan fled to London, then to Paris. When his opponent, Cardinal David Beaton, came there from Scotland, he fled again, this time to Bordeaux, where he was appointed as professor of Latin at the newly established College of Guienne. His translation of various classical works, like Erasmus, launched him as a leading light in Europe. The French Protestant, Joseph Scaliger, admired his scholarship so much that he wrote the following epigram: ‘Just as Scotland was at the apex of the Roman Empire, so Scotland shall be at the apex of Roman eloquence.’ It was probably in 1553, whilst he was in France, that Buchanan sided fully with the reformers.
On his return to Scotland in 1560, Buchanan found himself in the throes of the Reformation which had overturned Romanism. The Protestants celebrated his return, appointing him two years later as the tutor to the 18-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots. In a letter of Sir Thomas Randolph, the English ambassador, to his friend Sir William Cecil, Queen Elizabeth’s Chief Secretary of State, we read that ‘The Queen readeth daily after her dinner, instructed by a learned man, Master George Buchanan.’ Buchanan, likewise, was appointed as private tutor to Queen Mary’s son, Prince James, who went on to become King James VI, of Bible fame. Although James did not like the strict discipline of Buchanan, he readily appreciated his scholarly nurturing, and publicly extolled this talent. Later, as King, he said: ‘All the world knows that my master, George Buchanan, was a great master in Latin learning.’ But Buchanan was more than a Latin scholar; he was a deep thinker. In his treatise, De Jure Regni apud Scotos (1579), he wrote about the rights of the ruling monarch in Scotland. This was followed by his History of Scotland. In both works he challenged the view of the Divine Right of monarchs to absolute rule, and proposed the right of the people to depose such tyrants, by force, if necessary. In doing this, he was regarded as an authority for the upheaval that would ensue later in the 17th century at the time of the Covenanters, which would eventually lead to a more just and democratic political system.
‘… gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king’s palace…’ (Daniel 1:4, NKJV)
Image: George Buchanan, in the Presbytery Hall, Paul James-Griffiths