"Holy Willie's Prayer" is a poem by Robert Burns. It was written in 1785 and first printed anonymously in an eight-page pamphlet in 1789. It is considered the greatest of all Burns' satirical poems, one of the finest satires by any poet, and a withering attack on religious hypocrisy. It is written in the Scots language, but is accessible to most modern English readers.
Analysis
The poem is an attack on the bigotry and hypocrisy of some members of the Kirk, or Church of Scotland, as told by the self-justifying prayer of a kirk elder, Willie Fisher. In his prayer, Holy Willie piously asks God's forgiveness for his own transgressions and moments later demanding that God condemn his enemies who commit the same sins to eternal hellfire. Burns used Holy Willie to argue that the Calvinist theology of the Kirk encouraged hypocrisy. Burns believed that John Calvin's doctrine of predestination, whether to salvation or damnation, made people morally reckless. This was because their salvation was believed to rest, not on their own actions but on being assigned to the "elect" by an inscrutable God. He observed that belief in predestination had the additional tendency to make people insufferably self-righteous. It is this last tendency in particular, and the more general theological and moral sterility embodied in much of the teachings of the Kirk, that he lampoons very effectively in this work. Holy Willie's self-righteousness and judgmentalism are skillfully alternated with tales of his own womanising, boozing, and other moral transgressions. The characters are drawn from real life, with no names being changed.
The real Holy Willie
Willie Fisher was an elder of the kirk in Mauchline. Fisher conceived a dislike for Gavin Hamilton, a local lawyer, landlord and the collector of stent, administering the collection of poor relief within the parish, who also happened to be a close friend of Burns'. Hamilton was suspected of financial impropriety when inconsistencies in the accounts were discovered. It may be that the deficit was the result of Hamilton's kindly acts in forgiving the debts of those who were unable to pay their tithes to the kirk. Fisher spied on Hamilton and added the charges of:
Fisher's complaint against Hamilton was heard and adjudicated by the Presbytery of Ayr, as is stated in Burn's own commentary on the poem. Hamilton won the case. Hence, Holy Willie complains bitterly to God not only against Hamilton himself but also against the Presbytery: Willie Fisher never recovered from the ignominy of this public defeat, and, legend has it, was found dead in a ditch with a bottle of whisky. Burns' commentary appears in an early manuscript of the poem and is often printed with the poem in modern editions:
