To a strong dislike of the writings of the sophists Hamilton joined a great love for those of the true philosophers. But presently a light more pure than that of Plato and Aristotle shone in his eyes. As early as 1520 the writings of Luther were read with eager interest by the students of the schools of Paris; some of whom took part with, others against the Reformation. Hamilton was listening to these disputations and reading the books which came from Germany, when suddenly he learnt the tragical death of Sir Patrick. He was profoundly affected by the tidings, and began to seek God with yet more ardor than before. He was one more example of the well-known fact, that at the very moment when all the sorrows of the earthly life overwhelm the soul, God gives to it the heavenly life. Two great events--the death of Sir Patrick, and the beginning of the Reformation in Paris--occurring simultaneously--occasioned in the soul of the young Scotchman a collision by which a divine spark was struck out. The fire once kindled in his heart, nothing could thenceforth extinguish it. Hamilton took the degree of Master of Arts about the close of 1520, as still appears in the registers of the University. He may possibly have visited Louvain, where Erasmus then dwelt; he returned to Scotland probably in 1522. CHAPTER II. THE MOVEMENT OF REFORM BEGINS. (1522 TO APRIL 1527.) The Reformation seems to have begun in Scotland with the profession of those principles, Catholic but antipapal, which had been maintained a century earlier at the Council of Constance. There were doctors present there who set out from the thought that from the age of the Apostles there always had been, and that there always will be, a church one and universal, capable of remedying by its own action all abuses in its forms of worship, dissensions among its members, the hypocrisy of its priests, and the despotic assumptions of the first of its pontiffs. John Mayor had been recently called to Glasgow University. Among his audience there John Knox distinguished himself by his passion for study; and not far from him was another young Scotchman, of a less serious turn, Buchanan. ‘The church universal,’--so were they taught by the disciple of d’Ailly and of Gerson--‘when assembled in council, is above the pope, and may rebuke, judge, and even depose him. The Roman excommunications have no force at all if they are not conformed to justice. The ambition, the avarice, the worldly luxury of the Roman court and of the bishops are to be sharply censured.’ On another occasion, the professor, passing from theology to politics, avowed doctrines far in advance of his age. He taught that a people, in its entirety, is above the monarch; that the power of the king is derived from the people, and that if a prince acts in opposition to the interests of his subjects, the latter have the right to dethrone him.