The Sentence

Hamilton was found guilty of heresy and the following sentence pronounced:

“Christi Nomine invocato– We, James, by the mercy of God, Archbishop of St. Andrews, Primate of Scotland, with the counsel, decree, and authority of the most reverend fathers in God, and lords, abbots, doctors of theology, professors of the Holy Scriptures, and masters of the university assisting us for the time, sitting in judgment within our metropolitan church of St. Andrews… [have found]… Patrick many ways infamed with heresy, disputing, holding, and maintaining divers heresies of Martin Luther and his followers, repugnant to our faith, and which are already condemned by general councils and most famous universities… We, having God and the integrity of our faith before our eyes, and following the counsel and advice of the professors of the Holy Scriptures, men of law, and others assisting us for the time, do pronounce, determine, and declare the said Magister Patrick Hamilton… to be an heretic, and to have an evil opinion of the faith, and therefore to be condemned and punished; like as we condemn and define him to be punished, by this our sentence definitive, depriving him, and sentencing him to be deprived of all dignities, honours, orders, offices, and benefices of the Church; and therefore do judge and pronounce him to be delivered over to the secular power to be punished, and his goods to be confiscate.”

The punishment was death, although the Church itself could not carry out the death penalty. He was instead handed over to the secular authorities, who would carry out the sentence.

Further Reading

Rev. Peter Lorimer, Patrick Hamilton: The First Preacher and Martyr of the Scottish Reformation, (London, 1857), pp. 145-149.