Patrick Scot (

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1620) was a Scottish official, tutor and author.

Life

He followed

James VI of Scotland James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...

to England on his accession in 1603. In June 1618 he was engaged in the work of raising voluntary gifts for the supply of the king's exchequer by threatening persons with prosecutions for

usury Usury () is the practice of making loans that are seen as unfairly enriching the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is charged in e ...

. Six years later (August 1624) King James I wrote a letter of recommendation on his behalf. Scot apparently acted as occasional tutor to

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

. In 1623 and 1625 he was in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, and observed the

separatist Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, regional, governmental, or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seekin ...

churches there.

Works

Scot's position resembled those of Joseph Hall and Thomas Tymme, with emphasis on unity of doctrine. He attacked

alchemy Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

, in particular, as example of curiosity, leading to

skepticism Skepticism ( US) or scepticism ( UK) is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the p ...

, leading to a large-scale questioning of orthodoxy. His writings include: * ''Omnibus et singulis affording matter profitable for all men, necessarie for every man, alluding to a father's advice or last will to his sonne'', London, 1619; (dedicated to King James and Prince Charles). At the end are some verses, "ad serenissimam Magnæ Britanniæ Annam reginam defunctam". The work was rearranged and revised as ''A Father's Advice or Last Will to his Son'', London, 1620. * ''Calderwood's Recantation, or a Tripartite Discourse directed to such of the Ministrie and others in Scotland that refuse Conformitie to the Ordinances of the Church'', &c., London, 1622 (epistle to the reader dated from Amsterdam, 29 November 1622). * ''The Tillage of Light, or a True Discoverie of the Philosophical Elixir commonly called the philosopher's stone'', London, 1623. Dedicated to

James Hamilton, 2nd Marquess of Hamilton James Hamilton, 2nd Marquess of Hamilton and 4th Earl of Arran (1589 – 2 March 1625), styled Lord Aven from 1599 to 1604, was a Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish politician. He was the son of John Hamilton, 1st Marquess of Hamilton and Margaret Ly ...

. It is a hermetic and ethical work, denying alchemical transmutation. * ''Vox Vera, or observations from Amsterdam examining the late insolencies of some pseudo-puritans separatists from the church of Great Britaine'', London, 1625.

References

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Scot, Patrick 17th-century Scottish writers 17th-century Scottish male writers