DAVID (CARDINAL BEATON), archbishop of St Andrews, an eminent Scottish statesman and ecclesiastic, born in 1494. He was made a cardinal by Pope Paul III. in December 1538; and having been employed by James V. in negotiating his marriage at the court of France, he was there consecrated bishop of Mirepoix. Soon after his instalment as archbishop of St Andrews, he promoted a furious persecution of the reformers in Scotland; but the king's death put a stop for a time to his arbitrary proceedings. He was excluded from the management of public affairs, and thrown into confinement; but he soon raised so strong a party that, upon the coronation of the young Queen Mary, he was admitted of the council, made chancellor, and procured a legatine commission from the court of Rome. He now began to renew his persecution of heretics; and, amongst others, the famous Protestant preacher George Wishart suffered death at the stake in front of the cardinal's residence at St Andrews. It is alleged that Wishart, in the midst of the flames, foretold that Beaton would die a violent death; a prediction which probably proved the cause of its own fulfilment, as the persecutor was assassinated in his chamber, May 29, 1547. See SCOTLAND.