In the years after his death, Father John Ogilvie was revered as a martyr throughout Europe, wherever his story was told. The Scripture scholar Cornelius a Lapide, whohad known Ogilvie at Jesuit College, wrote: "It is clear from the account of his martyrdom that he astonished the Calvinists, for although unconquered by torture and still bold and ready in debate, he opened not his mouth against his tormentors." In a testimony in 1629 to Catholic Church authorities who were considering whether John Ogilvie had died a martyr, William Sinclair, an Edinburgh lawyer who had been banished, wrote of what he had heard from fellow prisoners and others who had witnessed the execution: “I know for certain that he persevered in his Catholic faith up to the last moment of his life, in a devout, pious and steadfast manner. On the night before his death, he devoted all the time that he possibly could to prayer and spiritual meditation, and they further add that he did the same before ascending the steps themselves, calling both God and his fellow men to witness that he died in the Roman Catholic faith. His piety and also his constancy were proved by his readiness to forgive all those who had trespassed against him just as he prayed God to forgive him, and by embracing and kissing the scaffold and finally bidding the hangman to be of good heart and by pardoning him also. It is impossible that he did not die as a martyr..........” Following the Reformation, the Catholic Church had almost died out – but it stayed alive in corners of Scotland, not least in parts of the North-East and especially in John Ogilvie’s homeland of Banffshire. At Scalan, in Glenlivet, a seminary operated from 1716-32, producing priests who headed out to all parts of the country to minister in secret. These brave men were following in the footsteps of the likes of Ogilvie. Scalan had been attacked and burned by government troops, but the staff and students returned from hiding to rebuild and prepare to set out to keep our faith alive. In the latter half of the 1700s, the Penal Laws were relaxed and in 1793 they were largely abolished, allowing Catholics once again to practise their religion openly and free of fear.