While ambition, idleness and licentiousness thus prevailed among the clergy, God was preparing ‘new vessels’ into which to pour the new wine which the old vessels could no longer hold. Some simple-minded men were on the point of achieving by their Christian faith and life a victory over the rich, powerful, and worldly pontiffs. Three young men, born almost with the century, were just beginning a career, the struggles and trials of which were as yet unknown to them. These men were to become the reformers of the Church of Scotland. [Sidenote: BIRTH OF ALESIUS.] On April 23, 1500, the wife of an honest citizen of Edinburgh gave birth to a son who was afterwards called by some Alane, and by others Ales, but who signed his own name Alesius, the form which we shall adopt. Alexander--that was his baptismal name--was a child remarkable for liveliness, and the anxiety of his devoted parents lest any accident should befall him led them to hang round his neck, as a safeguard against every danger, a paper on which a priest had written some verses of St. John. Alesius was fond of going, with other boys of his own age, to the heights which environ Edinburgh. The great rock on the summit of which the castle stands, the beautiful Calton Hill, and the picturesque hill called Arthur’s Seat, in turn attracted them. One day--it was in 1512--Alexander and some friends, having betaken themselves to the last-named hill, amused themselves by rolling over and over down a slope which terminated in a precipice. Suddenly the lad found himself on the brink: terror deprived him of his senses: some hand grasped him and placed him in safety, but he never knew by whom or by what he had been saved. The priests gave the credit of this escape to the paper with which they had provided him, but Alexander himself attributed it to God and his father’s prayers. ‘Ah!’ said he, many years afterwards, ‘I never recall that event without a great shudder through my whole body.’[12] Some time after he was sent to the University of St. Andrews to complete his education. Another young boy, of more illustrious birth, gave promise of an eminent manhood; he belonged to the Hamilton family which, under James III., had taken the highest position in Scotland. Born in the county of Linlithgow, westward of Edinburgh, and somewhat younger than Alesius, he was to inaugurate the Reformation. Linlithgow was at that time the Versailles of the kingdom, and could boast of a more ancient origin than the palace of Louis XIV. Its projecting porticoes, its carvings in wood, its wainscot panelings, its massive balustrades, its roofs over-hanging the street, produced the most picturesque effect. The castle was at once palace, fortress, and prison; it was the pleasure-house to which the Court used to retire for relaxation, and within its walls Mary Stuart was born. [Sidenote: PATRICK HAMILTON.]