The Martyrdom of Walter Milne

Walter Milne (also recorded as Myln or Mill) was martyred in April 1558 – tragically, just two years before the Scottish Reformation succeeded in changing the country from Catholicism to Presbyterianism. In fact, he was the last Protestant martyr to be burned in Scotland. His place in history may be little more than a bookmark, but sufficient details of his story remain, as does the X that marks the place of his death.

Milne was a priest at Lunan in Angus before the Archbishop of St Andrews – James Beaton –  accused him of heresy in 1538. He fled the country to Germany, where he married, and in subsequent years returned to Scotland, where he secretly preached the Protestant faith for a few years before discovery. He was seized and imprisoned in the St Andrews castle, where attempts were made by priests to encourage him to recant.

When these attempts failed he was finally brought for trial in the cathedral before an assembly of bishops and like members on the 20th of April 1558. At the time he was over 80-years-old and lame, and there were fears that in his frailty, his voice would not be heard from the pulpit. When the time came, however, he surprised the gathering. John Foxe notes in his 1583 Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, ‘when he began to speak he made the church to ring and sound again with so great courage and softness that the Christians which were present were no less rejoiced than the adversaries were confounded and ashamed.’

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Sir Andrew Oliphant was the priest who served as the official accuser, and listed the charges laid against Milne. Milne did nothing to deny the charges either, denouncing the particular errors he saw in the Romish church, and was quickly condemned to be burnt as a heretic on the 28th of April 1558. In response to the sentence, Milne replied is recorded to have replied, ‘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.’

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Of further interest is the fact that Milne was one of a number of martyrs subject to illegal action by the priests accusing him. Following his sentence, the authority to execute him had to be secured from the Provost – Patrick Learmonth. Learmonth, however, refused to provide this, and left town. In addition to this, the local population opposed his execution, further delaying the priests’ now illegal proceedings in their refusal to supply ropes and materials for the fire, and going so far as to shut their shops to effect this.

Not to be halted, however, the prelates were resourceful, using the ropes from the Archbishop’s pavilion to bind Milne to the stake – the place of execution being what now forms the drive of Deans Court. When Milne was brought to the spot he refused to step up to the stake, having to be led by Oliphant, who, after securing him, refused his right to speak a last time. Boys in the crowed foiled Oliphant’s cruelty, however, demanding Milne speak, and he delivered the following words standing on his pyre:

‘Dear friends, the cause why I suffer this day is not for any crime laid to my charge, though I acknowledge myself a miserable sinner before God; but only for the defence of the truth of Jesus Christ set forth in the Old and New Testaments. I praise God that he hath called me, among the rest of his servants, to seal his truth with my life; as I have received it of him; so I willingly offer it up for his glory; therefore as yet would escape eternal death, be no longer seduced by the lies of bishops, abbots, friars, monks and the rest of that sect of anti-christ, but depend on Jesus Christ and his mercy, that so ye may be delivered from condemnation.’

The crowd is said to have been much moved by Milne’s conduct throughout, and afterwards heaped stones upon the place of his execution, as a memorial to his courage. However, these memorial stones were later removed by the clergy during the night. It is therefore, perhaps, fitting that the current X has been laid in stones permanently set into the drive.

Although there is no signification to indicate the X was the place where Milne was burned near that spot, his martyrdom remains recorded in his name on Martyr’s Monument on the Scores, overlooking the North Sea and West Sands beach. He shares that space with Patrick Hamilton, Henry Forrest, and George Wishart. To this day, many various tales still abound amongst residents of Deans Court regarding the identity and circumstances of the man burned to death on the drive, one such being that it was the oldest man in St Andrews, burned for being suspiciously old and therefore thought to be a witch. Although ridiculous, the reasoning seems no less justified than the very reasons for which the actual man was burned on that spot for his beliefs.