Skara Brae, one of Scotland’s earliest settlements
OScotland! Thee a double darkness mocks: Thy name is Skotia and thy teacher (k)nox! I doubt a modern ‘troll’ could match such erudite abuse.
This is the only one of several such Contemporary epigrams quoted without attribution by Geddes McGregor in his 1960 article ‘John Knox: The Thundering Scot’. It is otherwise Google-resistant. That great author ‘Anonymous’ looks the best bet, although a number of Scottish poets of the 16th and 17th century, notably John Leech, specialised in epigrams attacking churchmen. Several in English and Latin are quoted by Thomas McCrie in his The Life of John Knox (1831), who rather mysteriously says that ‘Batavian Youth’ were fond of scribbling such verses.