The History Of Scotland - Volume 4: From Mary Stuart To The Two Murders E-Book

Andrew Lang

• Herausgeber: Jazzybee Verlag
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Seitenzahl: 310

Beschreibung

This is volume 4, covering the time from Mary Stuart to the Two Murders. In many volumes of several thousand combined pages the series "The History of Scotland" deals with something less than two millenniums of Scottish history. Every single volume covers a certain period in an attempt to examine the elements and forces which were imperative to the making of the Scottish people, and to record the more important events of that time.

Leseprobe

The History Of Scotland – Volume 4

From Mary Stuart To The Two Murders

Andrew Lang

Contents:

The Regency. The Marriage Of Mary Stuart. (1554 – 1559)

The Wars Of The Congregation.

The Reformation Consummated. (1560 - 1561)

Mary In Scotland (1561 - 1563)

Mary's Marriage (1563 – 1565)

The Two Murders (1565 – 1567)

THE HISTORY OF SCOTLAND – VOLUME 4, Andrew Lang

Jazzybee Verlag Jürgen Beck

86450 Altenmünster, Loschberg 9

Germany

ISBN: 9783849604646

www.jazzybee-verlag.de

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THE REGENCY. THE MARRIAGE OF MARY STUART.(1554 – 1559)

TILL the moment when Mary of Guise assumed the Regency, the national sentiment of Scotland, on the whole, must have preferred the French alliance to any union or compact with England. This would not, of course, be the opinion of men honestly convinced of the merits of the Reformation. In "their auld enemies of England" these Protestants, like Sir John Mason, recognised " Christian men "; in the French they saw " idolaters." Even before the change of religion, persons like Major had found the best hope for Scotland in union with England. Later, all who sincerely held the principles of Knox and Rough were of the same mind. The nobles, as has been shown, though they might speak the language of the godly, were alternately false to both parties; while all who had suffered in the ferocious wars of Somerset had a cruel hatred of the English, and little love for the French. A curious manifesto of a Unionist, James Henderson, is 'The Godly and Golden Book,' addressed to Thynne and Cecil (July 9, 1549). Henderson desires "the union and matrimony of the northern and southern parts of this isle of Great Britain." All are "of one tongue and nature, bred in one isle, compassed of the sea." Henderson, like Knox and Major, and indeed like Mary of Guise, pities " the poor labourers of the ground, ... in more servitude than were the children of Israel in Egypt." He proposes that whereas, according to Mary of Guise, the peasants kept their holdings but for five years, they now should have long leases at the same rents, and the tithes so far as not "set to the landlords." Now, just as persecution was at the moment as cruel in Protestant England as in Catholic Scotland, so the greed of landlords was as great. The insurrections of 1549 in England were mainly due to the recent inclosures of commons by landlords, who " frequently let their lands at an advanced rent to ' leasemongers "' (like the larger Highland tacksmen) " or middle-men, who on their part oppressed the farmer and cottager that they might indemnify and benefit themselves." But Henderson, like Knox and Latimer, was sanguine enough to hope for a more tolerable social condition as a result of a purer Christian doctrine. But while it was easy to be godly as regards dogmas and ceremonies, and not impossible to punish sexual vices, the Reformers did not succeed in softening the hearts and subduing the avarice of men. Henderson hoped that the poor might live "as substantial commoners, not miserable cottars, charged daily to war and to slay their neighbours at their own expense." So far the union of the crowns was destined to fulfil his dream: Border raids were diminished and ceased. He also desired the restoration of the old almshouses and hospitals, decayed under the greedy cadets of noble houses, who for long had almost monopolised the best benefices. Many parish churches were " rent or falling down ": the most ignorant and cheapest clergy held the cures. The wealth of the benefices ought to be expended on rebuilding the churches and securing adequate ministers, while bishops ought to maintain free schools in the chief towns. 

Not much is known of this Henderson, who was a Scottish informant of William Cecil. But his book, which he was anxious to print, proves that Reformers of his stamp expected social as well as religious reform from Protestantism, union, and the abandonment of " the bloody league " with France. To such Scots, when sincere and disinterested, we can no longer refuse the name of patriots. The whole policy of Mary of Guise tended to increase their number and influence. Since de la Bastie's head swung by its long locks at a Borderer's saddle-bow, the Scots had ever resisted the intrusion of foreigners into places of power. Mary of Guise, nevertheless, made de Rubay chancellor under Huntly, whose place became but nominal. Huntly's history is complex and obscure. We have seen that, after being taken at Pinkie, he either escaped or broke parole to return to England after a visit to Scotland. While he was in England, de Selve thought him double-faced (December 1548). In Scotland he showed duplicity, trying to keep touch with both parties. He, with Argyll, was expected to keep down Highland disorders, to "pass upon the Clan Cameron," while Argyll " passed upon " Clan Ranald. Later, according to Lesley, he was commanded to bring the Macdonalds of Moydart into subjection. He was deserted by his Clan Chattan allies, in revenge for his execution of their captain, Mackintosh, and his expedition failed. He was then imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle, was deprived of the earldom of Murray, and was sentenced to five years of exile, though this punishment was remitted. Huntly was regarded as the champion of the old faith; but, both under the Regent and her daughter, he was untrustworthy, was constantly "put at," and finally destroyed.

Mary of Guise, as Lesley declares, " neglected almost all the Scots nobles," and admitted only de Rubay, d'Oysel, Bonot, and other Frenchmen to her counsels. The most fortunate occurrences of these years were the establishment of peace on the Borders, and the delimitation of the Debatable Land. Despite these arrangements (which were previous to the assumption of regency by Mary of Guise) many Borderers were under bands to England. Such were the Elliots, Armstrongs, Glendinnings, and Irvings. A Parliament held at Edinburgh in June 1555 throws some light on the condition of the country. Among evil deeds noted and repressed are the eating of flesh in Lent, and the revels of Robin Hood, and of Queens of the May, and "women or others about summer trees singing." The Protestants whose Lenten beef and mutton were cut off could scarcely be mollified by this repression of sports in essence older than Christianity. Vengeance was denounced on political gossips who blamed the French in Scotland. A " Revocation" by Mary of grants in her minority, made on April 25 at Fontainebleau, in the usual form, was recorded. In May 1556, after the marriage of Mary Tudor and Philip of Spain had seemed to strengthen the old faith, it was decided that an inquest into all property should be held, as the basis of new taxation. According to Lesley, the Regent was moved by the advice of her Frenchmen, who wished to reorganise the system of national defence. Some of the nobles approved, but the barons totally rejected the scheme. Three hundred of them met, and denounced a measure contrary to their ancient feudal methods of military service. They would hear of no mercenary forces, no germ of a standing army; and the Regent gave way. Many of the protesters against taxation and a standing army were probably much inclined to the English party. Hence, in part, their opposition to the only scheme which would enable Scotland to put regularly drilled musketeers into the field. In this Parliament the traitor Brunston, Balnaves, and William Kirkcaldy of Grange were pardoned, and restored to their estates. This was a measure of conciliation. Throughout de Selve's despatches, and despite a letter of Mary of Guise, speaking well of Chatelherault and the Archbishop of St. Andrews, we recognise friction and jealousy between her and the Hamiltons. She was therefore anxious to gain over the Protestant party to her cause, and thus there was a lull in persecution for heresy.

The days of Brunston, Angus, and Sir George Douglas were nearly ended. New hands, Cecil and Lethington, were weaving the tangled web of faith and policy. Among these the most vigorous was Knox, whose biography for this period must be summarised. He had gone to England, as we saw, when released from the galleys in 1549. Under Henry VIII. he had regarded the English Church as little better than the Roman. Under Somerset and Edward VI. there was more of root-and-branch work. Fiery " licensed preachers " were needed by the Government, so Knox was licensed. He " was left to his own devices, and was permitted to introduce into an English town" (Berwick) "a form of religious service after the model of the most advanced Swiss reformers." In Berwick he became the director of a spiritual hypochondriac, wife of Richard Bowes, an English gentleman of good family. His visits to her " gave rise to public gossip "; but the older Knox grew, the younger did he like his wives to be, and probably the eyes of Mrs. Bowes' daughter Marjory were as attractive to him as the godly perplexities of her mother. At all events he later wedded the daughter, Marjory, when he was verging on fifty. In 1551 he went to Newcastle and took part in the editing of the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI. He had already, at Newcastle, preached to a distinguished audience against the mass. As Mr. Hume Brown says, " his method of procedure was arbitrary in the highest degree, and by a similar handling of texts any fanatic could make good his wildest visions." But underlying the logic based on detached texts was his fundamental idea, " that rites and ceremonies were but so many barriers between the soul of man and God." This notion may be true in certain ages, and of certain men. Of other men and other ages it is not true; and even Knox admitted the rites .of baptism and of the Holy Communion. Meanwhile he already displayed his unparalleled candour and energy in political harangues from the pulpit. The reforming Somerset fell beneath the axe guided by Warwick (Northumberland), as the reforming Warwick (actually a Catholic) was more deservedly to fall in his turn. Knox even denounced, whether privately or in public seems uncertain, the execution of Somerset. In 1551 he became a royal chaplain: his stipend was but 40 per annum. Northumberland, perhaps to bridle Knox, offered him the bishopric of Rochester. "What moved me to refuse?" he asked Mrs. Bowes a year or two later, and answered, " Assuredly the foresight of evils to come." Whether he alluded to his gift of prophecy, or only to an obvious inference from what would follow on the death of Edward VI., a sickly boy, may have been left to the decision of Mrs. Bowes. " At a later period," remarks Mr. Hume Brown, " he set down this refusal to his disapproval of bishops."

Meanwhile his energies were directed against the custom of kneeling at the celebration of the eucharist. He appears to have had a hand in the preparation of the "Black Rubric, >r and, that once inserted, he had "a good opinion" of the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI. That good opinion later changed into contempt. In February 1553 he was offered, and declined, the vicarage of All Hallows, in Bread Street. Presently came the conspiracy of Northumberland to secure the throne, on Edward's death, for his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey. The hearts of the people of England were with Mary Tudor, her cause prevailed, and Knox found that his " foresight of troubles to come " was justified. He had denounced Northumberland, from the pulpit, before Edward VI. as Achitophel, Paulet as Shebna, and somebody unidentified as Judas. Mr. Hume Brown suggests that Northumberland tolerated these harangues because he had no party except in the extreme Protestant body. Tolerated Knox was, and so he was confirmed in the habit of using the pulpit as the platform. This habit he carried into Scotland, and it practically meant that preachers, in a kind of inspired way, and with the sanction of their own and their flock's belief in their inspiration, were to guide the foreign and domestic policy of the State. These pretensions are incompatible with political freedom. Through the reigns of Mary, James VI., Charles I., and Charles II. they were persisted in, till the Stewarts and the Hierocrats broke each other, and were broken, and the pulpiteers slowly became content to know their place.

Under Mary Tudor, Knox did not hold his post and accept martyrdom. He went abroad in January 1554, and at Geneva and Zurich consulted Calvin and Bullinger on certain cases of conscience. Is obedience to be rendered to a magistrate who enforces idolatry and condemns true religion? This is a handsome example of Knox's method. After 1560 a Scot who thought that the old faith was " true religion " was to be compelled by severe penal laws to "obey the magistrate" the Presbyterian magistrate. Our beliefs as to what is " trew " are subjective and uncontrollable. But Knox believed, with a faith that moved political mountains, that his religion was the only true religion. Much of his power lay in faith so absolute, so devoid of shadow of turning. He asked other questions, but this of godly resistance to the idolatrous magistrate was the most important. Calvin and Bullinger put the questions by; for Calvin they had not yet risen into the sphere of political politics. For the moment Knox bade the faithful, whom he had left to the tender mercies of Mary Tudor, "not to be revengers of their own cause," "not to hate with any carnal hatred these blind, cruel, and malicious tyrants." In "a spiritual hatred" they might freely indulge. Knox's hatred of Riccio, Mary, Mary of Guise, and his other opponents was, doubtless, not " carnal " but spiritual. The worldly eye does not easily detect any essential distinction in the two forms of deadly detestation. Returning to Dieppe, he sent a mission to " the professors of God's truth in England." In this tract Knox, after lashing Mary Tudor with Biblical parallels, exclaims, " God, for his great mercy's sake, stir up some Phineas, Elias, or Jehu, that the blood of abominable idolaters may pacify God's wrath, that it consume not the whole multitude." Jehu murdered Jezebel, and Knox's prayer is a provocation to murder. Did Knox forget Hosea 1. 4? " The Lord said, ... for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel " (the scene of the deed) " upon the house of Jehu." As his most recent biographer says, " In casting such a pamphlet into England, at the time he did, he indulged his indignation, in itself so natural under the circumstances, at no personal risk, while he seriously compromised those who had the strongest claims on his most generous consideration." The fires of Smithfield soon after blazed out. It was easy, and perhaps natural, for opponents to say that Knox had lighted them. He had described the Queen of England as " an open traitress," had spoken of what would have occurred if she " had been sent to hell before these days," had called for a Jehu, and certainly had compromised the flock which he had abandoned. In uttering provocatives to, and applauses of, political murders, Knox of course spoke as a man of his age. Greece had applauded Harmodius and Aristogiton, murderers of a tyrant. Elijah had impelled Jehu, the murderer of an idolater. Catholics and Protestants at this period believed that they had Biblical and classical warrant for the dagger. But there was a certain shamefacedness, as a rule, in clerical abettors of murder. Knox, for his part, is frank enough. That Christ came to abolish such deeds of blood is no part of the reformed Christianity of Knox.

He later moved to Frankfort, and took a vigorous part in the quarrels of the English Protestant refugees as to their Church service. A congregation, who sat under Cox, insisted on uttering the responses, or " mummuling " as Knox called it; and now he discovered even in the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI. " things superstitious, impure, unclean, and imperfect." In the end some of Cox's party denounced Knox to the Frankfort magistrates for the treason to the Kaiser, Philip, and Mary contained in his 'Godly Admonition ' to the faithful in England. He had drawn a trenchant historical parallel between the Kaiser and the Emperor Nero. Knox had to leave Frankfort. He arrived in Geneva in April 1555. There he found Calvin wielding the full powers of a theocracy. Outlanders had been enfranchised: the native vote was swamped; the ministers could excommunicate, with all the civil consequences of a State "boycott," "virtually implying banishment." Such, or very similar, was the condition to which Knox and his successors endeavoured to reduce Scotland. And now, after harvest in 1555, to Scotland Knox returned, at the request of Mrs. Bowes. He probably did not know himself how safe was this venture into the native country where, nine years ago, his peril had been extreme. Despite the execution of Wallace, various causes had contributed to keep down persecution. It was not the policy of Archbishop Hamilton. The ambitions of his House, disappointed for the time by the deposition of Chatelherault from the regency, would not be forwarded by the unpopularity that cruelties must arouse. Mary of Guise, for her part, was trying to conciliate the Protestants.

In 1549, and in 1552, the Church had been taking shame to herself for the evil lives of clerics: a Reformation from within was being attempted. The Catechism of Archbishop Hamilton was issued early in 1552, after the Provincial Council in January of that year. It is "a fine piece of composition, full of a spirit of gentleness and charity," says Mr. Hill Burton. The tolerance of tone, and the preference for a Christian life as more essential than disputes on Christian mysteries, are worthy of Ninian Winzet. In these years, then, the Reformers, such as Harlaw (originally an Edinburgh tailor) and Willock (an Ayrshire man) ventured back into Scotland and held forth in private. "And last came John Knox, in the end of harvest." Lodging at Edinburgh with John Syme, " that notable man of God," Knox exhorted secretly. In a Mrs. Barren Knox found another Mrs. Bowes, "she had a troubled conscience." Like Edward Irving, and other popular preachers, Knox had enormous influence over women. He seems to have been unwearied in listening to the long and complex chapter of their spiritual sorrows, to which the Catholic confessors probably lent an accustomed and uninterested hearing. At this juncture even masculine consciences were "affrayed" as to the propriety of bowing down in the house of Rimmon, and going to mass.

To discuss this question of conformity, Knox dined with Erskine of Dun, Willock, and William Maitland, younger of Lethington. Here we first meet this captivating and extraordinary man, a modern of the moderns, cool, witty, ironical, subtle, and unconvinced; a man of to-day, moving among fanatics and assassins, and using both, without relish as without scruple. Knox decided that it was not lawful for a Christian man to present himself to that idol, the mass. It was argued, perhaps by Lethington, that the thing had New Testament warrant. The probatory text was Acts xxi. 18-27. On St. Paul's arrival at Jerusalem, after a missionary expedition among the Gentiles, St. James pointed out to him that many Jews professed Christian principles, but remained " zealous for the law." Paul was accused of wishing them to " forsake Moses " and disuse circumcision. Would Paul give a practical proof that he had not broken with the old Law? Paul therefore ritually " purified " himself with four shaven men under a vow. With them he entered the temple "until that an offering should be offered for every one of them." Apparently the argument was that the sacrifice of the mass answered to this offering of " the shaven sort " of Hebrew votaries. As a matter of fact, Paul was mobbed by the Jews. Knox, evading the " offerings " (the essence of the parallel), replied that " to pay vows . . . was never idolatry," but the mass was idolatry. " Secondly," said he, " I greatly doubt whether either James's commandment or Paul's obedience proceeded from the Holy Ghost." For, in fact, Paul was mobbed, which showed "that God approved not that means of reconciliation, but rather that he plainly declared that evil should not be done that good might come of it." Lethington had an obvious reply. First, by Knox's own showing, evil, in this case, was not done. Next, Stephen was worse handled than Paul; did such results prove God's displeasure? Lastly, by what right did Knox determine when the apostles were, and when they were not, inspired? However, Maitland is not reported to have pressed these answers, and conformity began to be disused by the godly. Knox now visited some country houses. He stayed with Erskine of Dun, and with old Sir James Sandilands at Calder House. Here he met Lord Erskine (later sixth Earl of Mar), Lord Lome, who became fifth Earl of Argyll in 1558, and the Bastard of Scotland, Lord James Stewart, Prior of St. Andrews and Macon, later Earl of Murray, and at this time a man of twenty-three or twenty-four years of age. Till Christmas, Knox lectured in Edinburgh, then in Kyle, Ayr, at the house of Glencairn, Finlayston, and elsewhere about the country, ministering the Sacrament in the Geneva way. Consequently he was summoned to appear for trial in the Dominicans' church in Edinburgh on May 15, 1556. But "that diet held not." Erskine of Dun, with divers other gentlemen, convened at Edinburgh, and the bishops, as Knox says, either " perceived informality in their own proceedings, or feared danger to ensue upon their extremity, it was unknown to us." The latter alternative is the more probable. After successful sermons, Knox sent a letter to the Regent, who showed it to the Cardinal's nephew, James Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow, saying, in mockage, " Please you, my Lord, to read a pasquil." The letter had been conciliatory, for Knox, who, irritated by the Regent's scorn, published it anew, with truculent additions. Nothing galled him like a gibe. Knox now sent Mrs. Bowes, " and his wife Marjory," abroad; visited the Earl of Argyll of the 1000 crowns; then crossed to Dieppe in July 1556, and so proceeded to Geneva, to resume his care of the English congregation. Here we may glance at the process of evolution by which Protestantism was increasing its hold upon Scotland. Between the release of Knox from the galleys and his visit to his native country in 1555-1556, the new movement had advanced rapidly. Progress was due in part to the arrival of preaching refugees from England, and of Knox; in part to the toleration forced on the Government, or congenial to Mary of Guise; in part to the death or decline of the old intriguers like Glencairn and Argyll, with the advent of a younger generation.

Among the middle and lower classes, too, the leaven of reform was working busily. Mr. Carlyle has eloquently complained that no clear view of this travail is given by historians. When he desires to see and hear the spiritual ferment of a grave, ardent, and deeply moved people; to watch the tokens of hearts convinced of sin; and the stir of indignation against a secular imposture, the new joy of men between whose hearts and God the barrier of ceremony is broken, he is told a tale of scandal in high life. He is put off with the amours and hates of Darnley, Riccio, Mary, and Bothwell.

In fact, while human beings are of concern to human beings, that tragedy will be the subject of interest and dispute. There are here terrible and sorrowful facts, facts in great numbers, if not precisely recorded. But, as to the weightier matter, the development of national character, no man was minutely watching and recording the veering breezes of public " feeling " on the eve of the Reformation. Knox himself was abroad, though his letters contain valuable evidence. Two relics of the scanty popular literature born in that age of strife lend themselves to our inquiry. The first is ' The Complaynt of Scotland' (1549), a treatise of which only some four copies have survived a proof, perhaps, of its popularity. The authorship is uncertain; much of the work, indeed, is borrowed from the French of Alain Chartier. The political reflections, however, are original and interest us. With a great parade of learning the author laments the evils of the times. The English, though successful, are merely sent to punish Scotland's sins: they are the hangmen of Providence. The " neutrals " and the " assured Scots " are equally condemned. The clergy are advised to take up arms in defence of their country; their slaughter at Pinkie was, however, discouraging. Though the writer is not one of "the godly," and does not desire to break with the Church, he prophesies that "schism shall never cease, for no statutes, laws, punishments, banishing, burning, nor torment, . . . till the clergy reform their own abuses." As for the nobles, the author declares that, whatever plan may be decided on in Privy Council, is known at Berwick within twenty hours, and at London in three days later. Probably most men guessed that Sir George Douglas, or some other traitor, gave the most secret intelligence to Ormistoun or Brunston. In their hands, we know, it reached Berwick instantly. The rest was easy.

The sorrows and oppressions of the labourers of the ground are reckoned to the charge of the nobles, but the labourers themselves are unworthy of liberty. They frequent noisy public meetings; all shout at once; only the noisiest is heard and followed. The author (who has an odd interlude of valuable notes on popular songs and tales) is a patriot first, a deadly foe of England, a preacher of the duty of imitating Bruce. Only in the second place does he care for the religious question, and then merely as it is concerned with a good life, not with dogma and metaphysics. To free Scotland first of all, and then to care for religious and social reforms, is his desire. " You are so divided among yourselves," he cries, " that not one trusts another." He might almost have added, that not one deserved to be trusted. We shall see how lack of confidence affected the action of Knox himself.

While the ' Complaynt' utters the ideas of a patriot of culture, the ' Gude and Godlie Ballads ' reflect the emotions and aspirations of the ardent middle -class reformers. These poems, in great part hymns translated from the German; for the rest, religious parodies of popular songs, with a few satirical ballads on the Churchmen, are attributed to the Wedderburns of Dundee. Probably the clergy reckoned the book (of which no copy in the original edition is known) among the slanderous ballads prohibited by Arran. The earliest date of the ballatis (in broadsheets, perhaps) may be between 1542 and 1546. Others are obviously later. But Scottish Protestantism had not yet come to regard with distrust and disapproval such a phrase as " Jesus, Son of Mary." On the other hand, we read,

" Next Him to lufe his Mother fair,

With steidfast hart, for ever mair,

Scho bure the byrth, freed us from cair."

But prayer to saints was denounced.

" To pray to Peter, James, or Johne,

Our saulis to saif, power haif they none,

For that belangis to Christ allone,

He deit thairfoir, he deit thairfoir."

In these times, the struggle was between Animism and Theism. Perhaps from almost the beginning of religion this conflict has existed. Deity seems abstract and remote; the souls of the ancestral or saintly dead are familiar, kindly, and near at hand. Hence saint-worship, which the Reformers were forsaking for God, revealed and incarnated in Christ. The animistic theory of Purgatory, with prayers for the dead, and the extortions practised in that cause, was also a stumbling-block.

"Of the fals fyre of Purgatorie,

Is nocht left in ane sponk:

Thairfoir sayis Gedde, ' woe is me,

Gone is Preist, Freir and Monk.

The reik [smoke] sa wounder deir thay solde,

For money, gold and landis:

Quhill half the ryches on the molde

Is seasit in thair handis.' "

These lines, written after 1560, express the practical grievance: the wealth of the clergy, based on the payments for masses for the dead. " Works," too, were condemned.

"Thair is na dedis that can save me,

Thocht thay be never sa greit plentie."

Not that a good life is indifferent.

" Fyre without heit can not be,

Faith will have warkis of suretie,

Als fast as may convenientlie

Be done, but moir."

So far we have spiritual songs, and a satisfying new theology, grounded in justification by faith, with faith itself as the spontaneous and inevitable source of righteous conduct. But the " rascal multitude," as apart from the minority of the earnestly godly, was reached and inflamed by parodies of such popular songs as

"Johne, come kis me now, The Lord thy God I am,

Johne, come kis me now, That Johne dois the" call,

Johne, come kis me by and by, Johne representit man

And mak no moir adow. Be grace celestiall."

A chant of triumph runs thus,

" Ye schaw us the held of Sanct Johne,

With the arm of Sanct Geill [Giles];

To rottin banis ye gart us kneill,

And sanit us from neck to heill.

The nycht is neir gone."

Such were the ideas of the middle-class reformers, lyrically expressed, and such were their allurements to the multitude, who were indignant at the long imposture, as they deemed it, and had all the joy of the rabble in destroying to-day what yesterday they had adored. Such hymns may have been sung in private conventicles, as at the house of Knox's friend Syme. Meanwhile, the pious wives and mothers were already choosing directors, putting cases of conscience, and adoring preachers who claimed gifts of prophetic inspiration. The middle classes and the populace being thus prepared, the godly nobles, as we saw, had been attending the ministrations of Knox.

It would appear that they already contemplated making a push for their ideas by force. At Stirling, on March 10, 1557, a letter was written and despatched to Knox at Geneva. It was signed by Glencairn, by Lome, Erskine (not of Dun, but Lord Erskine, keeper of Edinburgh Castle), and Lord James Stewart. Knox was informed that the faithful not only desired his presence, but " will be ready to jeopardy lives and goods in the forward setting of the glory of God "; persecution, they said, was slack. The bearers, Knox's friends Syme and Barren, would say more. The letter clearly indicates that Glencairn, Argyll, Erskine (later the Regent Mar), and the Lord James were designing a political movement, and were ready to take all consequences if Knox would join them. Calvin and the rest urged him to go. He promised to come " with reasonable expedition," but did not reach Dieppe till October 24. Though Morton declared that Knox "never feared the face of man," his long delay showed no zest for his enterprise. By the end of October things in Scotland were no longer as they had been in March. There were wars and rumours of war. Knox carefully records certain portents: one of them is of the kind noted by Livy and the heathen augurs. There were a comet, lightning, and a two-headed calf, which was presented to the Regent by one of the godly house of Ormistoun. But Mary of Guise, with horrid levity, " scripped " (sneered), and said, " It is but a common thing." And Knox goes on: " The war began in the end of harvest." He had, two pages before, denounced the English congregation at Frankfort as " superstitious."

Lesley mentions the other portents, but not the calf. When safely out of Scotland, in 1556, Knox had been summoned again, and burned in effigy at Edinburgh Cross. That also was a " warning."

The war that had been plainly indicated by a comet and a two-headed calf ran its feeble course in the autumn of 1557. In a strife between France and Philip of Spain, England had aided Philip by sending troops to the Low Countries. Philip and Mary Tudor, doubtless to neutralise Scotland, arranged meetings of Scots and English Commissioners for the peace of the Border. They met on the Stark water in June 1557, and the English perceived that the Scots dreaded being drawn into the war as allies of France. Westmoreland hinted this danger to Cassilis, who said, " By the mass, I am no more French than you are a Spaniard. I told you once, in my lord your father's house, in King Henry VIII. his time, that we would die, every mother's son of us, rather than be subjects unto England. Even the like shall you find us to keep with France." The Bishop of Orkney, and Carnegie, were equally anxious for peace between Scotland and England, and Carnegie said that, " as far as we know," the Regent was of the same mind. But before July 2 English Borderers, such as the Grahams, had broken the peace, an ordinary event. The Bishop of Orkney was still full of peaceful words on July 13: on July 16 the commissioners proclaimed peace at Carlisle Cross, and prorogued their meetings till September 15. However, the Scots made Border raids, perhaps in reprisals for that of the Grahams of Netherby, before July 29. Home was, in revenge, defeated at Blackbreye. Before that event d'Oysel had fortified Eyemouth, as a counterpoise to Berwick, from which he expected to be attacked. This act was in the teeth of the last treaty with England. War was now declared, but at Kelso, Chatelherault, Huntly, Cassilis, Argyll, and the rest declined to cross Tweed. They had heard of Flodden. Knox, Leslie, and Arran himself agree in making this refusal the cause of hatred between the Regent and her nobles. Lesley declares that they now began to make the reformed religion a stalking-horse for their sedition: Knox avers that " the Evangel of Jesus Christ began wondrously to flourish." Henry II. now tried to tighten the bonds between France and Scotland, by marrying the Dauphin to Mary Stuart, and events in Edinburgh illustrate the progress made by the Evangel.