Note 282 — PREFACE (continued 2)

It is surprising that Sir David Lyndesay, among the various persons who were accused of heresy, should have escaped all persecution. For a time, the personal attachment of James the Fifth may explain this exemption, having been in his service since the King's infancy; but the effects of Lyndesay's satirical writings must have rendered him peculiarly obnoxious to the clergy. Yet we find him officially employed in foreign missions, as Lyon-King at Arms, till within a short time of his death, which took place about the year 1555.