BEATON

David, Archbishop of St. Andrews, and cardinal, was bom in 1494. Pope Paul III. raised him to the rank of cardinal in December, 1538; and, be ng employed by James V. in negotiating his marriage at the court of France, he was there consecrated Bishop of Mirepoix. Soon after his instalment as archbishop, he promoted a furious persecution of the reformers in Scotland; but the king's death put a stop for a time to his arbitrary proceedings, he Ijcing then excluded from affairs of government, and confined. He raised, however, so strong a party, that, upon the coronation of the young queen Mary, he was admitted into the cmmcil, made chancellor, and received a commi ion as legate a latere from Rome. He now began to renew his persecution of heretics, and among the rest, of the famous Protestant preacher Greorge Wishart, whose sufferings at the stake he viewed from his window with apparent e3cult at i on. At length a conspiracy was formed against him, and he was a a inated at his own ca/ttle of St. Andrews, on the 29th May, 1546. He united with great talents equally great vices, and left several children, the fruit of open concubinage.