Martyrs
of the Scottish Reformation.

There were
relatively few martyrs in Scotland in the early days of
the Reformation – as it happened far more were burnt for
witchcraft. Those that were burnt at the stake for
religion were sometimes prominent persons eg Hamilton and
Wishart, but all died as an example to others – to
demonstrate the power of Rome and Popery. What appears
surprising is that the prelates persisted in making the
events so prominent “in terroram”, because it only excited
public opinion to ask why these men had been burned. The
people were familiar with the ways of the clergy and of
buying absolution and like dissolute practices, but
executing by fire men who were eminently virtuous raised
doubts in their minds. There was very little public
preaching as such, yet the interest created an ever
increasing demand for the Bible to learn more of the
arguments and declarations that had been made at trial and
on the scaffold. Thus the evangelical opinions gathered
strength by the day to the consternation of the Prelates.

Apart from
Cardinal David Beaton whose claim to
martyrdom ( for faith) is questionable, there is evidence of three Roman
Catholic priests / monks who died for their faith.  The proto martyr
was a Father Frank a monk, who was stabbed to death in the sacking of the
Trinity Friars monastery in Aberdeen , on 4 December 1559. Next was
another monk, a Father Robson about whom there is very little known, who
was hanged for saying mass in Glasgow. The third was John Ogilvie , a
Jesuit missionary who was badly treated, assaulted and eventually
entrapped in an arguement about the Pope having power to depose kings. He
was convicted of treason and hanged in Glasgow on  28 February 1615.
He, too, had been guilty of saying mass. No laymen or women are known to
have been executed  for the Catholic faith during the Scottish
Reformation.