Exile

Abstract

Using the numerous entries in his album amicorum, this chapter describes Strachan’s peregrinations around the universities and courts of Europe in search of a patron. His meeting with Bishop William Chisholm of Vaison succeeded in his gaining employment as an intelligencer and courier between the bishop, James VI and the Jesuit missionaries who were resident in Scotland. In turn these contacts led Claudio Aquaviva, general of the Society of Jesus, to use Strachan for a similar purpose in 1602. On contacting his family, he was arrested by the Kirk authorities and arraigned before the Privy Council on charges of espionage and treason. The account of his trial gives insight into the tensions within the Calvinist Church as well as its attitude to Catholics. Strachan was cleared of the capital charges but permanently exiled by the king for his refusal to renounce Catholicism.