B E A 



fervict of the clniicli. At the proper age, he entered into 

 holy orders ; but, notwithitanding his clerical characler, lie 

 was employed in fevetal affairs of importance by John duke 

 of Albany, regent of Scotland, and appointed refident at the 

 court of France in 1519. In 1523 his uncle, being promoted 

 to the archbidiopric of St. Andrew'-;, refigned the rich 

 abbacy of Arbroath in his favour, and having obtained from 

 the pi'pe a difpenfation for holding it two years without 

 taking the habit, he returned to Scotland in 1525, and took 

 his feat in parliament as abbot. Having ingratiated him- 

 feif with the young king, whom he had ferved in France 

 during his minority, he was promoted in 1528 to the high 

 office of lord privy-feal. In this capacity he obtained the 

 king's confidence ; av.d in 1533 he was entriiffed with an 

 important comraifTion which required his return to France, 

 where he was eminently inftrumental in maintaining the at- 

 tachment of Jamei to the French intereit, and where he 

 was employed in negoclating feveral important concerns be- 

 tween the t'vo courts, and in dtmandinff for his maftcr, 

 Magd.ilen, the king's daughter, in marriage. During his 

 ftay at the French cau:t, he gained the efteem of king' 

 Francis I. to firch a degree, that he granted him feveral 

 fingular favours ; inverting him, in 1537, with all the privi- 

 leges of a native of France, and conferring upon him, in 

 the fame year, the valuable bilhopric of M-repoix. King 

 James having cfpoufed the princefs Magdalen at Paris in 

 1537, the abbot of Arbroath accompanied them to Scotland ; 

 and after her death, in the fame year, he was deputed to 

 negociate a fceond maniage for the king with Mary, 

 daughter of the duke of Guife, whom he condufted to Scot- 

 land in 1538, where their nuptials were celebrated at St. 

 Andrew's. In this year he was advanced by pope Paul III., 

 who widied to attach the clergy of Scotland and England 

 to the fee of Rome, to the dignity of cardinal. T^pon the 

 death of his uncle foon after, he fucceeded to the primacy, 

 and exercifed the fingular powers with which he was invefted, 

 in evincing his attachment to the religion and intereils of 

 Rome, in conducting a very fevere inquilition into heretical 

 doftrines, and in caufingprofecutions to be in.lituted againft 

 feveral perfons, of whom fome were men of family and dif- 

 tinftion. It is faid, that he had prefented to the king a 

 roll of 560 of the chief nobility and barons, as fufpetlcd of 

 herefy, and if the king's death had not prevented the exs- 

 tution of his fanguinary purpoFes, thefe, and perhaps many 

 more, muft have fallen facrifices to his perfccuting power, 

 which his majefly did not feem difpofed to controul. 

 At the infligatioa of the cardinal, Janie<= undertook 

 the invafiou of England, and at Solway Mofs the royal 

 army. was totally defeated in 1542; but this unexpefted 

 difaller proved fatal to the king, and he died foon after- 

 wards. The cardinal was the only perfon of authority who 

 was prefent with him in his laft moments ; aiid he is accufcd 

 of having forged a will, in which the king appointed him, 

 together with three other noblemen, to the regency of the 

 kingdom, during the minority of queen Mary. This faft is 

 contidered as unquellionable Uy the generaUty of m;'dern, 

 ?.;j well as the riiore early hiflorians. But the Englifh in- 

 tereft. prevailed, and the eart of Arran was declared to be 

 regent. Upon this cardinal Beaton was apprehended and 

 confined ; but in a little while, he contrived ijy his political 

 abihty and influence not only to be hberated, but to be ap- 

 pointed high-chancellor of the kingdom. The comm'fTiou 

 of legate " a latere," which he foon afterwards obtained 

 from the court of Rome, empowered him to proceed ia 

 bis favourite defign of extirpating heretics. In the execu- 

 tion of this defign, he caufed feveral perfons to be condemned 

 and executed ; and among the relt, Mr. George Wiihart, 

 the moft famous protcftaiit preacher in Scotland, who was 



B E A 



burnt at St. Andrew's in 1646 ; the cardinal himfelf, a? it 

 has been afferted on the authority of Buchanan, being 

 feated at a window as a fpeftator of the tragedy. This 

 execution produced great difcontcnt and murmur amongft 

 the adherents of the proteftant religion ; and as the forms 

 of law had not been duly regarded, they meditated a re- 

 venge. The cardinal, himfelf, however, apprehended no 

 danger ; and fo prevalent was his intrrefl at this time, that 

 the earl of Crawford was gratified by marrying his cldefl 

 fon to the cardinal's natural daughter ; for notwithftand- 

 ing his profefllon and high rank in the church, Beaton, 

 without difguife, kept a concubine, by whom he had feve- 

 ral children. In lefs than three months after the death of 

 Wifhart, the event which this good man denounced, and as 

 fome have faid, without fufficient reafons, predicted, hap- 

 pened to the cardinal. A confpiracy was formed againft 

 his life by fome perfons whom he had difobligcd ; and they, 

 accompanied by a fmall numljer of attendants, furprifed the 

 calUeof St. Andrew's, in which the cardinal lodged, ru-Tied 

 into his chamber, and difpatched him with their fword?. 

 One of the confpirators, James Melville, exprefsly imputed 

 his revenge to the cardinal's perftcution of Wifhart. This 

 event happened in the latter end of May 1646, and proved 

 fatal to the ancient religion, and to the French intereft in 

 Scotland. 



Beaton's charafter is fufficiently marked in the hiftory of 

 his life. Pofleffed of talents, which qualified him for the high 

 rank to which his ambition afpircd, and which he occu- 

 pied both in the church and the ftate, he efpoufed arid 

 promoted the intereft of Rome, as the moft effeSual me- 

 thod of fecuring his advancement. Dr. Robertfon, in- 

 deed, afcribes his fupport of the Ron.ifh fuperftition and 

 his enmity to the reformers, merely to political motives; 

 but there is reafon to hnagine, more efpecially whe:i ive 

 confidcr the period in which he lived, that a real bigotry 

 in favour of popery might blend itfelf with the principles 

 and views of ambition and policy. It is certain, however, 

 that his ambition was unbounded, that he was haughty and 

 violent in his temper, that his infolence was carried to the 

 higheft pitch, and that his charafter, upon the whole, was 

 extremely deteftable. His violence, as a perfccutor, muit 

 ever caufe his memory to be held in abhorrerice, by thofe who 

 have any feelings of humanity, or any regard tor religions 

 liberty. He appears to have had little learning, being pre- 

 vented from acquiring it by his early and continued appli- 

 cation to public bufinefs ; and his morals were unbecoming 

 his ftation. Biog. Brit. Robertfoa's Hilt, of Scotland, 

 vol. i. p. 97, S:c. 



BEATORUM, I>!sul.i, in Anc'utit Geography, a name 

 given to one of the Oafes (See Oasis) of Africa, called an 

 ijlandi becaufe it was furrounded with land, like an iiland ir. 

 the fea, and denominated " infula Eeatorum," becaufe, ac- 

 cording to Strabo, it abounded with w:.tcr, wine, and othc: 

 neceffaries of life, though encompafled by vaft fandy dcfert;-. 

 Some have fnppofcd that this Oafis was a di'.lricl of the 

 " Oafit.'e nomi," abut feven days journey well of I'litbes. 

 Others fuppofc that it was fituated in the " Regio Ammo- 

 niaca," and that it was the fite of the temple of Ammon, 

 which was amply fuppl'.ed with fountains and vegetation, 

 and afforded a very pleafant liabitation. Ulpian fa\s, that 

 it was a place of baniftiment for real or pretended criminals, 

 whence, as it was fiurounded by fand, there was no proba- 

 bility of efcape. 



BEATS, mHor^logy, are tlie audible ftrokes which a tooth 

 of tlve lalt wheel in a clock or watch movement makes 

 aguinft its pallet, to maintain the vibration of a pendulum, 

 or ofcillation of a balance. The interval between two fuc- 

 ceflive beats, in a clock or watch with au ordinary tfcape- 



mciic, 



