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This article intends to bring to light the life of Patrick Hamilton, the first preacher and martyr of the Reformation in Scotland early in the the sixteenth century. According to John Knox, his martyrdom marked the beginning of the Scottish Reformation. Hamilton, who initially became an Erasmian in France, came into contact with Martin Luther's writings on justification by faith alone, which revolutionized his theology, turning him into the most powerful Lutheran Scotland has ever known up to this very day. Hamilton was tried and executed at the stake on the same day, when he was only 24 years-old. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]