Henry Balmyes, a Scotch Protestant reformer, born at Kirkcaldy, Fifeshire, in 1520, died in Edinburgh in 1579. He studied in Scotland and Germany. His open profession in 1542 of the Protestant faith caused his dismissal from the office of secretary of state, after which he joined the English and was imprisoned in Blackness castle till 1544. He was implicated in the conspiracy resulting in the murder of Cardinal Beaton, declared a traitor, and excommunicated. At the siege of the castle of St. Andrews he was captured, and confined with Knox and others in the castle of Rouen, France, where he wrote a treatise on justification, which was annotated by Knox and published in Edinburgh in 1584, under the title of "Confession of Faith." On his release in 1559, he participated in the contest against Mary, became one of the negotiators of the treaty of Berwick, was reappointed to the bench in 1563, and one of the commissioners for the revision of the Book of Discipline. Subsequently he, Buchanan, and others were counsellors of Murray in the case of Mary Stuart.