It had become illegal AFter the Scottish Reformation in 1560 to preach, proselytize for, or otherwise endorse Catholicism.

John Ogilvie, the son of a wealthy laird, had been born into a respected Calvinist family near Keith in Banffshire, Scotland and had ben educated in mainland Europe where he attended a number of Catholic educational establishments, under the Benedictines at Regensburg in Germany and with the Jesuits at Olomouc and Brno in the present day Czech Republic.

In the midst of the religious controversies and turmoil that have engulfed the Europe of this age, he had decided to become a Catholic.

He had been received, aged seventeen, into the church at Leuven, Belgium in 1596.

He had joined the Society of Jesus in 1608 and had been ordained a priest in Paris in 1610.

After ordination, he had made repeated entreaties to be sent back to Scotland to minister to the few remaining Catholics in the Glasgow area.

He had returned to Scotland in November 1613 disguised as a soldier, and began to preach in secret, celebrating mass clandestinely in private homes.

However, his ministry was to last less than a year.

He had been betrayed in 1614 and arrested in Glasgow and taken to jail in Paisley.

He has suffered terrible tortures, including being kept awake for eight days and nine nights, in an attempt to make him divulge the identities of other Catholics.

Nonetheless, Ogilvie had not relented; consequently, after a biased trial, he is convicted of high treason for refusing to accept the King's spiritual jurisdiction.

Ogilvie, now thirty-six, is on March 10, 1615, paraded through the streets of Glasgow and hanged at Glasgow Cross.