Note 149 — Chapter II
Reading edition
Lindsay of Pitscottie (Chronicles, vol. ii. p. 383) says, that they ‘devysed to put ane discord and variance betwixt the lordis and gentlmen with thair prince; for they delaited, and gave vp to the king in writt, to the number of thrittie scoir of earles, lordis, and barrones, gentlmen and craftismen, that is, as thei alledgit, wer all heretickis, and leived not after the Pope's lawis, and ordinance of the hollie kirk; quhilk his grace sould esteme as ane capitall cryme, to ony man that did the same’ … ‘all thair landis, rentes, guidis, and geir apperteanis propperlie to your grace, for thair contempt of our hollie father the Pope, and his lawis, and high contempt of your grace's authoritie.’ This document was found among the king's papers after his death, when it appeared that, of the six hundred names on the list, more than three hundred belonged to the principal nobility: ‘Eum timorem auxerunt codicilli post regis interitum reperti, e quibus supra trecentorum è prima nobilitate nomina continebantur.’ Buchanan, Rerum Scoticarum Historia, lib. xv. p. 424. Compare Sadler's State Papers, 1809, vol. i. p. 94; and Watson's Historicall Collections of Ecclesiastick Affairs in Scotland, 1657, p. 22. According to Watson, it ‘was called the bloudy scroll.’