Note 41 — PREFACE

The erroneous date of 1500 occurs in the MS. and in all the subsequent copies; it is also repeated by Spotiswood. The actual time of his decease is thus recorded,—"Obitus Roberti Blacader primi Archiepiscopi Glasguensis, vigesimo octavo die Julij a.d. 1508."—(Regist. Episcop. Glasg., vol. ii. p. 616.) The place where Blackader died is not ascertained; but Bishop Lesley confirms Knox's statement, that he had set out on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. "Scotia discedit, paucis post diebus, Episcopus Glasgoensis, Robertus Blacaderus pio studio illa loca (quæ Christi vestigiis trita, aliisque humilitatis, virtutisque monumentis illustrata erant) invisendi flagrans Hierosolymitana profectione suscepta; sed mortis impetu præclusa, ad coelites in itinere migravit."—(De Rebus Gestis, &c., p. 349, Romæ, 1578, 4to.) In his English History, Lesley mentions this more briefly, "About this time, [5th of July 1508,] the Bishop of Glasgow, quha wes passit to Jerusalem, or he com to the end of his journay, deceissit the xxix [28th] day of July. He was ane noble, wyse, and godlie man."—(Hist. p. 78, Edinb. 1830, 4to.)