I have found this by the ruins of the castle in St Andrews, Scotland (click on the image to see a larger version). Apparently times were tough during Scottish reformation. Protestant preacher George Wishart, critic of papacy, was betrayed and burnt at a stake for his heresies by a man of God cardinal Beaton.
Nice.
In revenge, the cardinal was ambushed and killed by an enthusiastic party of Wishart's friends, his body hung from the battlements for all to ridicule. Was the cardinal fat (aren't all bad cardinals fat? Are there any good cardinals?)? Was his mortal sin of gluttony painfully exposed for everyone to watch and despise? I guess it would be difficult not to kill a cardinal like that, especially if he barbecued a good friend of yours for no good reason. The bloody gold-fingered catholic bastard got what he deserved!
Nowadays discussion about religion in Scotland tend to be a bit less passionate. But then again, a Scottish gentleman told me today that in the North of Scotland religious debates in pubs tend to be avoided. Rather like a petrified remnant of the times when one could be killed because of his/her views on the theological questions. An evolutionary adaptation, one is tempted to say: only the children of those who shut up survived.
In reality, of course, it wasn't about theology at all. Cardinal Beaton was an ambassador of France in Scotland who wanted to side with the French against the English and an enemy of Henry ' womanizer' VIII. It was all political, all about power. Maybe it was even Henry VIII who conspired to get him killed to continue his policy for Scotland. The reformation in Scotland was seen by Beaton as a way of the English to set foot on the Scottish territory.
But who really knows what happened?
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