Flight to Germany

Hamilton’s support of Lutheran theology brought him unwelcome attention. In 1527 the Archbishop of St Andrews and Chancellor of the University, James Beaton, ordered an inquiry into his activities.

Hamilton evaded the inquiry by travelling to Germany. He initially headed to Wittenburg, where Martin Luther was in residence, but an outbreak of plague diverted him to Marburg, where he joined the town’s newly established Protestant university.

It was at Marburg that he composed a set of theological theses which came to be known as ‘Patrick’s Places’.