WALTER MILNE
WALTER MILNE
Among the martyrs of Scotland, Walter Milne was pivotal, for out of his ashes sprang thousands of others holding the same opinions, which forced the Church of Scotland to debate true religion with the French and the Catholic Church.
Milne was a parish priest of Lunan who embraced the doctrines of the Reformation and was condemned in the time of Beaton. He was able to escape safely from prison and hid in the country of Scotland until the leniency of the queen dowager allowed him to resume his preaching. Forced into hiding a second time, he was captured and tried for heresy at St. Andrews at the age of eighty-two.
The following dialogue took place between Milne and Andrew Oliphant, one of the bishop’s priests, at his April 1551 trial.
“What do you think of priests marrying?” Oliphant asked Milne.
“I hold it a blessed bond; for Christ Himself maintained it, approved of it, and made it available for all men. But you don’t think it’s available for you. You abhor it while taking other men’s wives and daughters, not respecting the bond God made. You vow chastity and break it. St. Paul would rather marry than burn, which I have done, for God never forbade marriage to any man.”
“You say there are not seven sacraments.”
“Give me the Lord’s Supper and Baptism, and you can divide the rest among yourselves. If there are seven, why have you omitted one of them—marriage—and given yourself to immorality?”
“You are against the sacrament of the altar. You say the Mass is idolatry.”
“A lord or a king calls many to a dinner; then when the hall is ready, he rings a bell to summon the crowd, turns his back on his guests, eats alone, and mocks them. This is what you do, too.”
“You deny the sacrament of the altar is the actual body of Christ.”
“The scripture of God is not to be taken carnally, but spiritually, and stands in faith only. As far as the Mass, it is wrong. Christ was offered once on the cross for man’s sins and will never be offered again. He ended all sacrifice.”
“You deny the office of bishop.”
“Those you call bishops don’t do a bishop’s work as defined by Paul’s letter to Timothy. They live for sensual pleasure and don’t care for their flock. They don’t honor the Word of God but seek honor for themselves.”
“You speak against pilgrimages.”
“They are not commanded in scripture. There is no greater immorality committed in any place than at your pilgrimages.”
“You preach secretly in houses and openly in the fields.”
“Yes. And on the sea, too, in a ship.”
“Will you recant? If not, I will sentence you.”
“I am accused of my life. I know I must die once and therefore, as Christ said to Judas, what thou doest, do quickly. I will not recant the truth. I am corn, not chaff; I will not be blown away with the wind or burst by the flail. I will survive both.”
Andrew Oliphant ordered Milne given to a secular judge to be burned as a heretic, but the provost of the town, Patrick Learmont, refused to be Milne’s secular judge, as did the bishop’s chamberlain. The whole town was so offended at the sentence that they wouldn’t even sell the bishop’s servants a rope for tying Milne to the stake or a tar barrel. Finally Alexander Summer-wail, more ignorant and cruel than the rest, acted as a secular judge and sent Milne to the stake.
When Milne was brought to be executed, Oliphant ordered him to climb up to the stake. “No,” Milne replied. “You put me up there and take part in my death. I am forbidden by God’s law from killing myself. But I go up gladly.”
Oliphant put the old man up himself.
Then Milne addressed the crowd. “Dear friends, I suffer today for the defense of the faith of Jesus Christ, set forth in the Old and New Testaments. I praise God that He has called me to seal up His truth with my life, which, as I have received it from Him, I willingly offer to His glory. If you would escape eternal death, do not be seduced by the lies of priests, monks, friars, priors, abbots, bishops, and the rest of the sect of Antichrist. Depend only on Jesus Christ and His mercy to save you.”
There was great mourning and crying among the crowd as Milne died, and their hearts were so inflamed by his death that he was the last religious martyr to die in Scotland.